home for the holidays!

since our blog started for our travels around the world, we kind of forgot that it might be helpful to update from home.

so to everyone who doesn't know...we did make it home safely! we got back to San Diego on December 9th and promptly began celebrating the holidays in a non tropical zone. we ate Mexican food (the one type of food that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, that tastes good anyway). we bought a Christmas tree. we tried to unpack and organize.

thanks for following us on our trip. it was really fun to hear people say "oh I've been reading your blog!" because it made us feel like we weren't writing to ourselves. we might post more, so check back if you'd like to. currently we're sorting through 9,000 trip photos...so expect to see some of those...eventually.

Merry Christmas from the Callahans!

quick update from Australia!

we're almost all the way around the world! we've been having a lovely time in Australia. the weather hasn't been as lovely, but we still like it here. tomorrow we head to Fiji for a few final days of rest and beach before returning to the States.

we can hardly believe this trip is almost over. if we get a chance we'll recap Australia and Fiji. and we'll finally show some real pictures when we get home and have time to sort through the thousands on our portable hard drive. there are some treasures in there, I'm sure.

Sydney was a fantastic city, made all the better by gracious hosts. we got to stay with friends of a friend (we love it when strangers welcome you!). it was so fun to be in a home, with a proper kitchen and bathroom. plus we got to see their side of the city...including a house concert and Sunday church.

we took a mini road trip up the coast, where Jared did an impressive job of driving on the left side of the road. Sophie got pretty skilled at spotting kangaroos from the passenger seat! and reading maps of Oz.

after an adventurous 2 days, we made it to some family near Byron Bay. it's been so wonderful to reconnect with Sophie's cousin and her husband and kids, since she hasn't seen them since they relocated across the world 8 years ago! They've had fun telling embarrassing childhood stories of Sophie. we've seen a lot of rain and surf lifesaving competitions, but luckily the rain held off today for a bout of town walking.

tomorrow we make our second to last flight. we've passed the 80 day mark...only 3 left to go.

talk to you from the States!

Days 61-??: Thailand

we've totally lost track of the days, but we've got about two weeks remaning on this adventure!

Thailand is the greatest. we highly recommend visiting here.

when we arrived in Bangkok, the Johnson family (who hosted Jared's brother Matt, and friends, earlier) welcomed us with warm southern hospitality. their house was a wonderful refuge, as we slept the strangest hours and watched a lot of Glee as we recovered from some jet lag. we did manage to make it out one afternoon for a visit to the Jim Thompson house, a traditional Thai architecture place made by a guy who got super rich on Thai silk and then disappeared.

because Southern Thailand was suffering from floods, we headed North first, hoping the rains would subside. after a long busride with Thai karaoke videos blasting through the night, we made it to Thailand's "second city" Chiang Mai. we dove into Thai culture...thai food, thai massages, thai animals, thai markets. true to our nature, we went to food first and took a full day Thai cooking class, learning to make 7 dishes each. they all tasted amazing! (although we had a lot of help with the preparation). still, we were very proud of our own pad thai, spring rolls, coconut milk soup, and lots of other delicious food.  we have the cookbook, and hope to recreate some dishes when we get home. (hey family, we want a wok for Christmas! thanks!)

since Chiang Mai is famous for its night bazaar, we wandered street after street of vendors. we got hassled for a lot of knock off goods, tank tops, silk pillowcases, grilled street food, jewelry, and the croaking wooden frogs. by the end of the week we had gotten really good at bargaining, and stuffed our bags with some Christmas presents : ) (don't expect much, our bags are small!)

we also got the chance to ride, feed, and bathe elephants! this was a true highlight. because the tour was full, we basically got a private tour with the owner and his favorite elephant. he really cared about his animals, and it was fantastic to be with them up close. he also took a TON of photos of us, so we were happy. our elephant was super sweet, and pregnant too!

as recommended by the Johnson family, we took traditional Thai portraits. it's pretty much the Thai version of Glamour Shots. they dress you up and airbrush, airbrush, airbrush. Sophie has fake hair and Jared has no freckles. they are hilarious.

we decided to trust a travel agent, despite the gloomy online forecast, and head to the South. we are SO glad we did. the South was absolutely beautiful. it's full of the white sand and blue water you imagine. we stayed on the island of Koh Lanta, relaxing, which we really needed. we rode a scooter around the island for a day and visited the different beaches. unfortunately, the next day Jared came down with dengue fever...a nasty bug transmitted by mosquitos :( we watched a lot of music videos, European soccer, and any English movie we could find on TV. luckily this happened at the one point in the trip where we had planned to stay in the same place for a while, doing nothing. so we still enjoyed the beach, massages, and smoothies offered all around us. we celebrated Loy Kathrong, one of their major festivals. after a few days we moved to Ko Phi Phi Don, another island in the area. we only got one day there but it was beautiful. pretty much our entire time in Thailand we've been plotting ways to come back. we could island hop for weeks here! anyone want to join?

we came back for one day to Bangkok to repack and see Harry Potter 7. It's technically Thanksgiving here, but it's hard to tell. we hope everyone stateside is having a wonderful holiday. we're grateful for this trip!

we're headed to Sydney, Australia tonight. we hope to post at least one more time before we get back to San Diego.

Happy Thanksgiving!

the callahans.

day 60: update from Thailand

THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!
that's pretty much the most important thing we could share with you. we (and by we I mean Jared, except for the last inning, which really was we) watched the final game from a hotel in Vienna. we cheered excitedly and quietly, as it was 4 am. this was one time we really wish we could have been back home to celebrate. fingers crossed it will happen again some day?

anyway...we're out of Europe and into a totally different world. leaving Europe by going East, and then showing up in a hot humid Asian city really made this feel like an around the world trip.

we spent the last week in Europe going through Vienna and Hallstatt in Austria, followed by a few days in Prague. here's a tiny recap:
Vienna surprised us in the best of ways. we walked up from the metro expecting a quiet street and found ourselves in what felt like New York City. the city was full of life and culture. we dove into some history by visiting palaces and museums of the Hapsburgs. who knew Austria had so much power? Who knew Austrian royalty had so much china and silverware? we sipped hot chocolate in cafes and wandered the streets. for a night adventure we went to the opera! neither of us are opera people exactly, but this was the best place to see it. the performers and musicians were clearly incredibly talented, even when we couldn't follow what was happening.
Hallstatt is a tiny town on a lake. google it...it is beautiful. Jared had been here 7 years ago, and was determined to return. it was definitely worth a return trip, and I think we'd both return again if given the chance. pretty much the entire town was shut down for winter, so we ate at one of the two open restaurants. the next morning we hiked to a waterfall, ate some amazing pastries, and jumped on the train to Prague.
Prague...our travel there consisted of 7 tranfers, including a boat and a bus amid the trains. we stayed with a great newly married couple we met through CouchSurfing. they hosted us in their new apartment and helped us navigate the city. Prague was fantastic, the weather was terrible. it started raining during our walking tour and didn't stop for the rest of the day. nonetheless, we loved it. most cities have an "old town" part full of old architecture and cobbled streets, while the rest of the city feels totally standard. but in Prague the entire place felt like an old town. we visited the palace, walked the Charles Bridge, and ate multiple times in the market in the Old Town Square. the chicken shish kebab was one of the best things we've eaten on this trip, which is a big compliment considering we eat more than anything other activity.

unfortunately, on our way out of Europe a visa issue prevented us from going to India. our "no fixed plans" quote really came into being, as we couldn't arrive where we intended. we spent a lot of time trying to fix and rearrange things, and now we here are in Thailand. we really hope we get the opportunity to go to India. for now, we're excited to be here, as everyone has responded so positively when we say we're going to Thailand. we're off to Chiang Mai in the northern part, before (hopefully, based on how the floods clear up!) heading south.

thanks to all of you who are following our adventures. it's so fun to hear from some of you that you're enjoying our blog. we truly are having an amazing time.

with love and pad thai,
sophie & jared

Days 43 - 50: Croatia

Shifting our very tentative to begin with schedule around, we decided to go to Croatia and come back to Austria and Czech Republic. so we hopped on a flight down to Dubrovnik. we're including a map, since most people (ourselves included) aren't too familiar with Croatia and the surrounding area.

The area has an interesting history of wars and ethnic differences. The countries in this area have changed rulers and names frequently and recently. We only tapped the surface of the history while we were here.

So we started in Dubrovnik, wayyyyy down at the bottom. see it? trains don't even run here! the city is famous for its Old Town, a beautiful area surrounded by the historic city walls. We rented a room from a super cute lady named Magdalena. She lived right in the center of Old Town, and insisted that we sit down right away to cheers with her homemade juice when she realized it was our honeymoon. Telling her it was our honeymoon was a fantastic decision, as she seemed even more eager to host us. She showed us her favorite restaurant, and insisted we get the fish. Neither of us are particularly big fish eaters, but we went for it! Luckily it was delicious. We also had access to free internet at her house, and borrowed her laptop in the middle of the night to catch some of the Giants games and to watch Harry Potter 6 (in prep for the seventh movie!!)!

We wandered the city and walked the walls, overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The next day it was sunnier, and we took a boat ride to 3 islands. The Dalmatian coast is dotted with islands all over the place. It's a really popular summer destination, but we were catching it in autumn. The boat captains really liked us and pulled Jared over to steer the boat for the first leg. We made it safely. The lunch served was fish again, and again it was pretty delicious. (and we could throw the extras to the seagulls following us).

Thanks to a friend's connection, we met up with a group of girls who are traveling Europe. They had been in Dubrovnik for almost 2 weeks. We met them for some tasty pizza and had a fabulous time. It turns out that a few of them were heading our same direction up the coast. So the next morning we met up with Katie and Mindy to ride to Split. And the adventure began!

Their other friends Kelsey and Tayla met us later in the afternoon. Split was a coastal town centered in Diocletians Palace. The Roman Emperor built a palace and now it houses a ton of apartments, shops, and restaurants. We wandered the town and daydreamed about which sailboats and yachts we wanted to ride on. On the afternoon of the next day we stumbled into a large group of people in a plaza. We noticed many of them had scarves for a football team, and discovered that the local Split team was playing that night. So we followed the crowd and ended up at the stadium! We bought tickets and went in to watch the game. It was absolutely nuts. The section next to us started cheering (as in choreographed chants) 15 minutes before kickoff and didn't stop for the entire game. It turns out it was the 60th anniversary of the team, so in the 60th minute they went nuts. Things were exploding, people were chanting SO loud, and they all threw paper onto the field. The smoke from the flares was so bad they stopped the game! If we hadn't been in the stadium we would have thought bombs were going off nearby. These fans are dedicated.

We left the girls (miss you! come to San Diego!) and went further north to the capital of Zagreb. (we celebrated Halloween with some candy by ourselves. it's not a big holiday here we discovered.) we're heading to Vienna today and have one week left in Europe.

ciao!
Sophie and Jared

photo time.

we finally got a chance to upload some photos, taking advantage of our host's computer here in Dubrovnik. our cards have been filled and dumped about 7 times, so there were way too many to choose from. unforunately we don't even feel these are the absolute best, but a couple of them are favorites. these were selected to give you a tiny taste of what we've been doing and the places we've been in the past few weeks.

trust me, when we get home we'll have tons and tons and tons to show you!



the sun setting over the coast of San Sebastian, Spain



paris at night! enjoying the Eiffel Tower  light show at 1 am.



the glorious fall colors as we rode the classic Golden Pass railroad across Switzerland




detour through the woods, riding bikes around Bern, Switzerland






the view from Gimmelwald, Switzerland! 17.10.10




the view from Gimmelwald, Switzerland! 18.17.10




taking advantage of the sunny day.




buying chocolate in Switzerland! (we got 6 bars)




the gate to Dachau, a concentration camp outside Munich. it reads: Work Brings Freedom.




actual photo, not a postcard! Neuschwanstein Castle, southern Germany.




is it too early to celebrate Christmas? it feels like December here! so we enjoyed the beautiful Christmas ornaments crafted in Salzburg, Austria.




Salzburg at night. Home to Mozart, and full of lederhosen.




the view of Dubrovnik, Croatia from the city walls.




windy day in Croatia!








looking down the wall, over the coast.





hope that was fun! we'll post more when we can.

Days 28-42: Paris, L´Abri, Swiss Alps, Munich, Salzburg

there´s no way we can summarize all of these days. but, we´ll do our best to give you an update on our travel lately! it´s been an amazing time, and blogging has been hindered by expensive internet and the inability to load photos on internet cafe computers. but here we go!

*we updated the settings so you can comment without needing a blogger account. sorry, we didn´t know it was set up like that! please comment!!

okay...Paris.
everyone seriously walks around holding baguettes. and lots of them have little dogs.
Sophie ate three crepes in two days. (and Jared helped)
Petite Ecolier are the best cookies we´ve found so far.
our priciest purchase was macarons from the original bakery on the Champs Elysees.
we ate at a restaurant where they filmed Inglorious Basterds. they don´t advertise this, it was just recommended to us by a local for the food. and it was delicious.
Aunt Debby saved us by hooking us up with her friends apartment as a place to stay. in conversation later we voted Debby a hero of the trip. (tied with Marte Samuelstuen for upcoming Prague and India connections!)
we ate picnics at the Eiffel Tower...twice. and then we went back to watch the lightshow at 1 am. beautiful.
Sophie got a haircut. she failed at using very good French at the salon, but luckily it still came out great.

Switzerland.
the keyboards switch the Y and Z in German speaking places, aka Swityerland, Munich, and Salyburg for us.
we stayed at L´Abri for 3 nights. we loved it. check out the place here: http://www.labri.org/swiss/index.html
the view was incredible...but it was covered by clouds, so we have to trust what people say. but it was still an incredible location nonetheless.
We worked half the day and studied half the day, with formal discussions over lunch and hangouts at night. Super welcoming people and best food ever. We would go back if given the chance!

Let´s play Switzerland word association: chocolate, cheese, cheese smell, EXPENSIVE, cows on road, green fields, base jumpers, Swiss flags, wood piles, garden gnomes, cows on hills, snow on Alps, Asian tourists, puppet theatre, bears.

the Lauterbrunnen Valley felt like Yosemite valley surrounded by rock cliffs and too many water falls to count. (Actually, Rick Steves said there are 72 -Sophie)
We ate fondue and other cheese foods, rode cable cars up to tiny villages, and wandered the area. It was a great relaxing stop.

Germany.
let´s start with the word association...beer, beer halls, bratwurst, and people wearing lederhosen. It´s everywhere. Bavaria (the southern province of Germany where we were) started brewing beer in the 1300s. Munich means 'monk' because the monks founded the city and invented beer for the purpose of sustaining through long fasts. the city is very proud of their culture and their food/drink products.
we´ve had some amazing pork products and some of the best pretzels in the world. Sophie even enjoyed the meat.
Munich is full of Nazi history. we saw the hall where the Nazi party got a big start and Hitler gained power, then we walked the route of an important march.
Couchsurfing. we had our first surfing experience with a very proud Bavarian named Michael. he was full of helpful information for making the best of our stay in Munich. it was a crazy experience. we´re excited to tell stories when we get home.
for a day trip we went to Neuschwanstein castle, the castle Disney modeled his Sleeping Beauty castle after. we were surprised by the snow there, but it mixed beautifully with fall colors. and we ate fried dough balls with sugar...might be better than State Fair mini donuts! it was a wonderful day trip with great photos.

Salzburg.
we came here planning to spend one night, and now we´re here for a couple! it turned into a relaxing weekend.
Mozart was born here and they are VERY proud of it. we went to church today where he was baptized and was later the organist.
we found the best chocolate shop we´ve ever seen.
we followed a Rick Steves walking tour to see the Old Town, and stumbled into a few places playing  jazz for the weekend jazz festival.
it feels like Christmas is around the corner with chilly weather and Christmas decor stores.
in an attempt to see a dance performance in a dance festival, we attended what turned out to be an installation with some speeches and readings, all in German. maybe being able to read the festival program in German would have prevented us from being 2 of the 5 audience members, watching a 6 person performance. hahaha.

after lots of research and internet catch up, we´ve figured out some route details. We head to Croatia next! we´re excited to see some of Eastern Europe. we´ll be making our way back up to some other countries in Europe before heading to India. we have 2 weeks left of European adventure.

we love you. keep praying for us. Go Giants.
Jared and Sophie Callahan