Germantown

Brice and I have arrived in Germany. That means that we have passed through Latvia (where I enjoyed a delicious pickle in Riga), Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic. Poland was amazing. We stayed with our friend Vitek and his family. We were treated like royalty. We got to stay at the Stefaniak family summer home in southern Poland (where I enjoyed the best pickles I have ever eaten, made by Vitek's Grandma). We were so close to Czech that we just walked across the border, had a beer, sent a postcard to the fam and went back to Poland in about a half an hour. Brice and I are about to hitchhike to Bremen in the north of Germany. We'll see how it goes. Wish us luck.

Gobi Final Countdown

These are the last photos of the Gobi that I'll put up for now as I only have two minutes left on the Internet. Brice and I are in Moscow right now and it's surprisingly beautiful and grandiose. When I get a chance I'll try to put up some photos of the Trans-siberian train experience and Moscow. For now, enjoy Brice's photo of St. Basil's.

Do the Camel!

We only rode camels for about an hour because it was freezing cold and windy. But I liked the photos so here you go.

Sunset Blvd.

Lots of beautiful sunsets out in the desert. Here are a couple.

Ger life

I heard that you can buy a Ger for about 300 US dollars and if that's really the case I think I might buy one. They're cozy, warm and spacious and very eco-friendly. Some of them have wind power and solar power. They all have little wood stoves that don't require much fuel because the insulation is really good (camel wool). They're Ger-ate!

Bones-a-plenty

There were bones and carcasses and skulls and animal feet and horns all over the place.

Ama is a stud!

This is our driver Ama. He saved our lives many times. He was so manly and cool that I was sure he was older than us but he was just 25. Mongolians grow up faster I think. He beat us all at wrestling, which is really popular in Mongolia.

Go Go Gobi!

This is the view from our van of the other van that we traveled with through the Gobi. Their van was filled with fine lads and lasses from Ireland and England. Ours was filled with two 'mericans and a frenchman. The vans were these unstoppable machines made in Russia for the purpose of taming all of Earth's rough spots. We went over some crazy terrain, got stuck in some deep sand, ploughed through some big desert brush and never felt like we weren't gonna see UB again (that's Ulaan Bataar for all you squares).

The Gobi's Flat

This was the view from the train we took to Ulan Bator from Beijing. Beautiful, beige and big. Gobi.

Haircut in Beijing!

Brice wanted to get his hair cut since before we left Japan so when we saw this lady cutting hair on the side of the street with her razor plugged into a car battery we jumped at the chance. It only cost him a dollar and she did a really good job, considering she was under pressure from all the on-lookers that gathered to watch the whitey get shaved.

The Real Great Wall (maybe)

This is a picture of the Great Wall at Huang Hua Cheng (I don't know what that means). This is the second time I've been there and they have already started renovating it. These broken-down sections might become quite rare as China tries to capitalize on tourism by making the wall safe and tour friendly. This part was actually pretty dangerous.

Brice on Bike in Beijing!

Here are some photos that I selected, pretty randomly. They are in a loose order beginning with China and finishing in Mongolia.

Here Brice is getting the full Beijing experience by riding his bike on the open road in front of the Forbidden City.

Back from the desert!

Brice and I have returned from our trip to the Gobi desert. It was beautiful, cold, windy, sandy dirty and fun. The Gobi is full of sand, rocks short shrub-like plants, short horses, small deer-like animals, camels, goats, sheep, herdsmen and their beautiful children, gers (the traditional mongolian house) and animal bones. Our van was this really cool russian 4WD thing that caught on fire before we even left Ulaan Bataar. Our studly driver, Ama somehow replaced the entire carburetor in a half an hour and we were on our way. We drove about six hours a day and saw alot. The Gobi is an amazing place and its even more amazing that people live out there. I was going to try and upload some photos but that's proving extremely difficult at these east asian internet cafes. Brice and I are heading to Moscow tomorrow afternoon and that trip will take about five days. Once we get to Europe it will be easier to do all this techno stuff, bear with me for now and think good thoughts about our trip!

Too long no write

So Brice and I are on our second and last day in Beijing, which means we have already taken the ferry from Osaka, Japan to Shanghai, China, goofed around in Shanghai, taken a night train to Beijng, ridden bikes around Beijing, eaten tons of awesome food, been to the great wall and back and here I sit writing about it. Time for writing this and for uploading photos has been scarce. It'll probably be that way until we get to Europe. Please be patient because we promise to have photos and more stories up as soon as possible. P