Jetzt mit dem Stricken!*

*Now with knitting! (according to babelfish, that is) Speaking of Stricken, both The Gambler and I have both been stricken by a cold virus. Which thus far qualifies as the worst thing that has happened this trip, so we are not doing that bad. However, if I was writing this post before Tuesday morning, I'd be saying that the worst thing that happened this trip was losing both of our cellphones!!! You see, I had thought that we would just leave our cellphones at home, as I wasn't certain they'd even work in Europe, plus roaming charges would be ginormous. However, The Gambler thought they would come in handy if we wanted to text message each other in the event we were both off doing our own thing. I called Bell Mobility (yes, GTA readers, we are idiots who use Bell Mobility as our carrier - contract expires in January, and then we will switch to Rogers), and was told that yes, our phones would work, yes, the roaming charges were insanely high in Europe (along the lines of 3$ per minute), and text messages would cost about 1$ each. So we decided we'd take the phones along, but only use them to text super important messages. Of course, while we were in Frankfurt, The Gambler checked his phone, and it couldn't find a network Our first destination from Frankfurt was Strasbourg, France; all that The Gambler knew about it was that it was the city where his brother first saw street urchins stealing purses when he was in Europe 15 years ago. So, when we were in the hotel room and preparing to go find somewhere to have dinner, and I said that I'd put my cell phone in the hotel safe, The Gambler decided (after establishing that his phone still couldn't find a network) that he would put his phone in the safe as well, and also put the laptop in the safe. The safe that was on the top shelf of the poorly lit closet. Fast forward about 4 or 5 days later when we were in Innsbruck, Austria. We had just arrived, were having dinner, and I said "You know, I can't remember where I put my cell phone". The next morning, I remembered about the phone and took a look through my backpack. And The Gambler's backpack. And my knitting bag. And essentially emptied each suitcase/bag that we had completely in order to establish that neither of our 2 cell phones could be found. Sigh. Checked the glove compartment in the rental car - no cell phones. Argh! The Gambler sent the Strasbourg hotel an email asking if the cell phones had been turned in, but I thought it was best to call the hotel right away: "Sorry, nothing was turned in".AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!! Email Bell Mobility and tell them the phones are lost, have a somewhat heated argument about exactly how fault should best be assigned, then decide to get on with our holiday. Lie awake at night wondering how quickly it would take for someone to find a network to connect to and start running up the charges (which Bell Mobility kindly told us would be our responsibility up until the time we sent them the email). But on Tuesday, a beautiful thing happened - after The Gambler sent another email to the Strasbourg hotel asking if anyone had actually LOOKED to see if the phones were still in the safe, we got another email saying that the phones had been found and where should they send them. Yay! Anyways, knitting: I have been knitting during this trip. In addition to finishing the Clapotis, I knit the first of a pair of sock liners: I altered the pattern so that they could be worn under a pair of ballerina type shoes I brought along for the trip. I also started working on my "Eiffel Tower Socks". Originally, I was going to use this stitch pattern: I knit the cuff, and was about to start knitting the calf when I realized that the pattern was written to be knit from the bottom up, which would leave me with upside down Eiffel Towers. So I frogged it, started doing toe up, and started to knit the pattern. Realized that with dark sock yarn, it really wouldn't show up. Found this stitch pattern: Frogged again, knit the cuff again, and started knitting the pattern as written. Couldn't understand why it looked upside down, and why there wasn't as much texture as the photo showed. Thought that maybe it had something to do with the tighter knit. Thumbed through the stitch guide looking for other possible patterns, and found this photo, which looked exactly like what I was I was getting: Realized that the photos had been switched, and didn't correspond to the patterns as written. Ripped back, and restarted again: Still doesn't show up great with the dark yarn, but I see Eiffel Towers there, and nobody is going to convince me otherwise. More travel photos for your enjoyment - these ones were taken by The Gambler: