England

We're headed back to Sheffield, England. Just waiting in Newcastle to catch the megabus. The ferry ride back was pretty uneventful. Just chilling in a park now doing some stretching.

So as long as we have a place to stay, we start our hardcore training regime tomorrow.

Amsterdam was fun. We went out for a really nice dinner and stayed at a pretty sweet hotel. We are both missing the car already though. We sure don't travel light.

My goals for the next month are to get a bunch of podcasts and cds completed and to create a book on intro to acro. I've got a huge list of training goals as well, including taking dance classes, tumbling classes, getting back into aerials and building strength.

Stephen's excited to get back to working on music.

That's all the news for today, folks.

xo Erin

PS New fb pics here

Amsterdam for 24 Hours

We're on a ship right now heading back to Amsterdam. It's a 16 hour ferry! It's a much better ship than the last one and the water is much calmer. The sunset was beautiful and we could see the almost full moon at the same time. This will be both of our first times sleeping at sea.

So we went in to Europcar in Sheffield to see if we could return our rental in England but we were told that it would cost 3000 pounds so we took this route. we'll be in Amsterdam for just over 24 hours and then we're heading back to Sheffield.

We're hoping to rent a room for a minimum of one month to do some serious training. The people that we have met so far in Sheffield are AWESOME.

If things go well, we may end up using it as a home base while we take some shorter trips around the rest of Europe.

That's all for now.
xo
Erin

Sheffield

We arrived in Sheffield two days ago and it's been a blast. A friend that we met at Southern Lights graciously said that we could stay with him and his two flatmates for a few days. The first night we just chilled and had some good conversations. Yesterday we went with a group of people to a place outside of Sheffield called Slippery Stones. It was absolutely incredible. The drive to get there was quite nice and then as we got closer, there were sheep all over the place. We went swimming and just hung out in the sun all day.
We had the perfect end to a perfect day when we were invited to a campfire in the backyard of some of the people that came with us.

Today we slept in because we stayed by the fire until the sun came up. We went downtown and stuck our feet in the water at a park and then played in the fountains (though I didn't go in). We also did some training and I got to try walking on a globe. One of the guys that we are staying with is really good, he can walk on it and juggle three balls at the same time.

Tonight Stephen's cooking up a big pot of vegan chili. It smells amazing.

We are really enjoying ourselves here and we're thinking about trying to stay for a while longer.

That's all I've got for now.

Love to you all,
Erin xo

New fb pics here.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!!
Love you Dad and Gilles.
Hope you got everything on time :)

So we are still in Edinburgh. We decided to spend two nights in a hostel because my back needed a break from the hard ground and we needed to charge our computers, get online, do laundry, etc.
It's actually right across the street from the campground and it overlooks the beach.

We may be heading in a new direction soon. Lots to think about right now. More info to come.

Miss everyone.
xo
Erin

PS Thanks so much Shannon for your donation!!!

Edinburgh, Part 2

We're still in Edinburgh and it still completely amazes me everyday. I wonder if people who live here still notice how awesome it is. Each day we discover new areas that are more incredible than the last. The beach, the architecture, the culture (mind you, I haven't been all that impressed with the food...a little on the bland side), etc.

Yesterday we spent the day at the campsite, chillin and training. It's so great to feel our acro improving and we're coming up with new things all of the time. I've been pretty inspired with hooping too since the festival, just making up stuff all over the place.

This morning we got up and went for a run on the beach. What a great way to start the day. We're still taking it easy and not pushing my body or Stephen's knees but even with the little bit that we have done, we can see improvements. Today was the first day for both of us that we didn't feel completely drained afterward.
While Stephen showered, I did a yoga practice. Savasana (relaxation pose) in the sun, so great.

We went downtown and found a new area this afternoon where we sat on a patio and people-watched then did some shopping for necessities. We are at the campground for one more night and then off to England.
I'm hoping there will be time tomorrow before we take off to go to the Surgeon's Museum, it looks really interesting.

Guess that's all for now, folks.

Beaucoup d'amour,
Erin

Scotland

I am feeling a little discouraged about blogging right now but I'm going to do it anyway because I want a record of our travels.

Edinburgh is incredibly beautiful. The architecture is amazing, I feel like I want to take pictures of everything, and at the same time it's so green. I would consider living here except that the constant on-the-verge-of-rain weather is giving me migraines. I think I am most suited to a climate where I can eat fresh mangoes, coconut and avocados :)

We made it here just in time to meet Prim yesterday for the photos and video. It was great to see a familiar face (and thanks a million, can't wait to see how they turn out)!
We stayed in a hotel again last night because we couldn't get online to find camping. This morning we trained in a park and then found a campground. There was supposed to be internet access here but it's being repaired at the moment.

So our plan has changed a bit. We are staying in the campground in Edinburgh for two nights and then heading to Sheffield for 3 days to stay with a friend that we met at Southern Lights. After that we are going back to Amsterdam and going to see about renting an apartment for a week or two then getting our new car and heading to La Boule, France for an aerial dance festival. We're planning to do two classes a day for week, flexibility and single point trapeze, on top of the usual acro and hooping (thanks for the info Zoey!). After that we are going to Berlin for a week or so and then to Hungary for more acro training with an instructor that we met at the Dutch Acro fest. Of course it could all change again but for now that's the plan.

I guess that's about all that's new for now.

Peace out,
Erin
PS. New fb pics here and video below.

Southern Lights Festival

What an awesome weekend! The location for the festival was amazing. It was in Southern England, near Wareham and we were camped on a hill with a view of the sea at the bottom. There was a hill behind us with a ton of sheep. It was really cool to wake up to the sound of sheep.
There were quite a few people from all over. The people were also awesome. There were some good workshops, awesome performances and great conversations (you rock, Russ). I would definitely like to come back next year, depending where I am.
I will post one short video now from the fire show and the rest later. Unfortunately I don't know the performers names or where they are from. Here are new fb pics.

The weather was great. It got pretty hot during the day and cold at night though. We didn't get any rain until Sunday night.

So we're off now to Edinburgh, Scotland for the photo and video shoot. We'll see what happens there. We got a lot of good busking ideas over the weekend and we're anxious to try them out. After Scotland we are heading to Sheffield, England to take some tumbling classes and check out the hoop and poi jams. After that it's back to Amsterdam to return the car and hopefully get another one. Then it's on to Germany!

xo Erin and Steph

From Bruges to England

Well yesterday was a great big ball of stress. We left Bruges in the early afternoon and headed toward Southampton, England. We drove through France to get the ferry to the UK. I asked around a bit in Bruges to see if anyone knew the price of the ferry and no one did. I figured it couldn't be that much and didn't bother researching it online. Oops. We walked into the ticket both in Calais, France and got a one way ticket and walked out 119 Euros poorer!!! Ouch. That is the most expensive ferry I've ever heard of. Apparently the chunnel is even more expensive. I don't know how we'll get back but we're definitely going to put some time into researching it.
All things considered, the ferry was pretty fun, though it took a bit of time before we found our sea legs.

Once we got to England there was the shock of driving on the other side of the road. I haven't been doing much driving at all and I am not willing to drive here. Poor Stephen had a helluva time yesterday. Not only are the roads insanely narrow and the roundabouts are ridiculous but the setting on the gps was changed and it took us off the highways. We ended up seeing incredibly beautiful countryside but we were driving on impossibly narrow unpaved roads in the middle of nowhere (see the video below...yes that little thing near the start that can hardly be considered a road is what we were driving on). It got pretty sketchy until we changed the setting and found our way back to the highway.

We stayed in a hotel again last night because it was pouring rain and cold. We're blowing through way too much money with all of the hotels but hopefully it'll stay warm soon. After we visit Scotland we'll be heading further south anyway.

So I probably won't have internet access over the weekend, we'll be at the Southern Lights festival, hooping and acroing ourselves silly, taking workshops, networking and playing (possibly with fire, heh).
I'll try to get some videos of the festival.

Have a great weekend everyone!
xo
Erin and Stephen

PS. New pics here.

More From Bruges

Happy Birthday Gilles!!! Love you. I hope you have an awesome day :)

We stayed in a much nicer hostel last night than the last two nights and got a good night's sleep. It's been pretty rainy and cold the last couple of days. This morning we got up and went for a walk/run, 1 minute on, 1 minute off. We did 20 minutes. I'm trying to take it slowly (very difficult for me) so that my body is not out of commision tomorrow.

We decided to stay one more night here and today we'll get the microphone so we can record podcasts anywhere. Tomorrow we'll drive all the way to Southampton, England and be there for Friday at noon when the festival starts! I am so looking forward to it. Yoga, hooping, poi, etc all weekend. Yay.
No Dunkerque for now but that's okay.

In busking news, we have come up with a creative plot that we both love and we're working on choreography. It will be a work in progress but we're hoping to have something to show in the next week or two. I'll tell you more about our characters soon :)

I guess it's my turn to shower now so I'll sign off. Missing everyone back home.

xo Erin

Bruges

This morning we found an awesome place to eat that had vegan food! The woman was super nice and the food was awesome (meat, veg and vegan), check her out here if you're in the area.

After that we did laundry, walked up to the top of Belfry Tower, a medieval bell tower in the middle of the city (holy stairs), and went to the Salvador Dali gallery.

This afternoon we found a park with a gazebo and set everything up to record a podcast but because of the wind it sounded awful. We did some acro training instead and had an audience of guys drinking in the park. One got the courage to approach us and he took pictures on his cell phone. I guess we are going to need to be in a controlled environment when we record. We are in a hostel tonight but I'm beat and don't think I have the energy to make a podcast.

We are going to Scotland on the 15th to meet up with Primrose Craig, a photographer who is going to do photos and a video for us. The plan is to get a bunch of podcasts done by then and then post everything on my website. Check her out here.

We are heading out tomorrow to Dunkerque, France and then back to England from there.

Signing off now.

Love Erin

PS New fb pics here.

The Hague and Bruges

So we made it to the beach yesterday to busk and we got about five minutes in when I had an embarrassing feminine issue and had to leave.
We chose to go back to the campsite and chill out for the afternoon since my spirits were down.

We put out the slackline and got out hoops, a skipping rope, the yoga mats, the TRX and my pilates ball and had a super fun workout and met our neighbours. They came over and asked if we were in the circus and said they couldn't stop watching us while they were eating diner. We offered to let them try whatever they wanted and they both wanted to try hoops. We ended up spending the night hanging out and teaching them poi, hooping and acro. They are a young couple from the Netherlands. It was great to meet some people and hang out.

Today we took down the tent, got all packed up and left the campsite. We went to the Mauritshuis, website here. The art was absolutely incredible. After that we wandered around a book and antique market in the rain. We grabbed lunch on an outdoor patio and now we're on way to Belgium, our third country so far.

In fitness/circus/yoga news, I did 2 and a half pull ups unaided yesterday and then 15 with Stephen's help. Skipping was awesome too. I did 100 jumps three times and then some crossovers and jumping once over two spins. I'm going to try to skip every other day.

That's it for now. It's raining here. We're hoping that it will stop by the time we get to Belgium so that we don't have to set up in the rain.

xo
Erin


Evening of June 6
It's hard being vegan sometimes. Or I guess frustrating is more accurate. The last few days have been especially tough and I've been living off bread, peanut butter and salad. Several servers have had no understanding of the concept of no cheese. Tonight I specifically asked for no cheese on my pizza and she made a joke about it and then brought me my pizza with cheese. When I told her that I couldn't eat it and that it would make me sick (I found that out when I was mistakenly given milk in a drink the other day), she laughed and told me that I would have to eat it because the kitchen was now closed. She eventually brought me a salad with onions, greens, olives and tomatoes and charged me 10 euros for it. Le sigh. Salads are great and all but I was STARVING.
Anyway, enough complaining. It's my choice to be vegan and I understand that a lot of people don't understand it. I also know that traveling involves sacrifices.

So we are in Bruges. We didn't really know where we were going but knew we wanted to get to either Antwerp or Bruges and this is where we ended up. It's incredibly beautiful and I can't wait to get out tomorrow to take pictures and explore. I've been here before, only for a half a day though.

It's gotten a lot colder and we are staying in a hostel tonight. It's more like a hotel but with the tiniest bathroom that I have ever seen. The shower is close to non-existent but at least we have one!

It's really late and we've got a fairly early check out so I'll say goodnight now.

Love to you all,
Erin

The Last Few Days

I'm posting these all now since I haven't had internet for a while.

June 2, 2010
We're on our way to Den Haag right now. Yay for the car!

We got a tent and sleepingbags today and tonight will be our first night camping. I'm so excited. I hope we can build a campfire.

The weather was incredible today. It was the first non rainy and warm day for a while. We spent a great deal of the day in Vondel Park practicing Acro (we accomplished some new stuff, yay!) and then we went to the park in Museumplein, near the Van Gogh museum where we hooped like mad. We are working on some really fun new stuff that I have never seen anyone do before. I'm excited to keep working on and eventually make a video for you all to see :)
We are getting back into the groove of things and with a few more training days I think we'll be back to busking. We just need to work on the asking for money part.

No solid plans from here until the Southern Lights Festival. We are both really looking forward to it. Hooping, Poi, contact juggling, double staff, Tai Chi, Yoga and more! Woot!
We have to be back in Amsterdam on June 30. We could only rent the car for 28 days. We'll re-evaluate at that time and see if we want to continue driving or what.

We're almost in The Hague now so I'll sign off and help Stephen navigate.

xo
Erin


June 3, 2010
Beach Day!
We got to our campground well after 11pm last night, set up the tent and went to sleep. It was quite comfortable and so nice waking up to the sound of birds all around us. It turns out that camping is definitely the way to go. We paid for four nights and it was less than one night at the last place we stayed. It is also such a great way for me to feel connected to nature. I felt more relaxed and happy waking up this morning than probably any day so far since we left.

We headed out for the beach fairly early this morning and had the greatest morning. I got my coffee and Stephen got his espresso at a cafe on the beach. The seating was couches with comfy pillows. After that we mostly spent the day doing acro and yoga in the sand. It was awesome! We had some really solid flows and we're ready to busk tomorrow. The only bummer is that we had to pay a fortune to use the bathroom.

For lunch, we shared some bread and peanut butter with jam in a beautiful area overlooking the beach on one side and lushcious green landscape on the other. It was so relaxing. All of the stressing at airports, rainy and cold days and less than ideal accomodations were totally worth it for today.

We're waiting for our dinner right now on an outdoor patio in the city center. We're hoping to get back and set up the tent before it gets dark.

The plan for tomorrow is to work on podcasts in the morning and then head out to busk in the afternoon. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.

I'm going to start posting progress reports on various things we are working on, especially handstands (for a certain someone so he can give us feedback...thank you!). Today I worked mostly on flexibility but I feel that I've lost a lot of strength, especially with pullups, so I did 100 pushups. The day after tomorrow I'm going to work on pull ups. I worked on them a few days ago and I was so disappointed. When I was trying to get into the protrack circus program in Vermont, I was working on them a lot and I had gotten up to 4 and a half and the other day I was only able to do 1! :(

Love to you all,
Erin

PS Dinner took over an hour to arrive so we only had to pay for half of it. Don't go to Humphrey's (a franchise), the food is awful.


June 4, 2010

Another beautiful morning, though we slept in a little too late for my liking (9:30am). The sun is shining and we're off to an internet cafe to watch a couple of videos of acrobatic street performers to get some ideas and then we're going to find a spot and spend a few hours trying to make back some of the money we've spent.

The podcast will have to wait until tonight. I was thinking that I'll try to make several and get them posted all at once. That way I can have some different levels and different types. I would like to make some short pilates practices as well. We'll see how it goes.

I'm off for a quick hooping session while Stephen finishes getting himself organized.

Ciao,
Erin

New fb pics here

Great Day!

We *may* have a car tomorrow morning! Woo hoo! There were some hoops to jump through since I've only had my G2 for a few months and they need proof that I've been driving for more than a year but with some stressing and an internet cafe, I think we got things resolved. We are supposed to pick it up at 10am. Even greater news is that it is half of the price of the online quote because of a summer sale. Very exciting.

I had a great yoga practice this morning on the roof at the hotel until I was told to get down before someone called in a suicide attempt. LOL.
We also had an awesome practice in Vondel Park today and are going to continue getting back into our routine.

My legs have been getting quite the workout too...we're on the fourth floor here and there is no elevator. Getting our gear upstairs was quite interesting.

Our current plan is to get the car in the morning, train in the park and then head to The Hague (thanks for the recommendations!).

I'll write again soon.
xo
Erin