Croatia

As I sit on the floor, alone, in a flat in London, I am realizing the significance of the past five weeks. I traveled alone, but I was never alone. I think in backpacker traveling you have to either try pretty hard, or be an asshole if you want to be alone. I instead met wonderful people from around the world to share my experiences with. My days and nights were packed with newness and excitement, so much of it that two days ago felt like a year ago, yet I still can't believe how quickly the time has passed.

But this blog is not meant to be an insight into the psyche of a backpacker. This entry is to tell you about my time in Split, Croatia!

Emma and I traveled together from Vienna to Split. We had to take one 6 hour day train that left at 4pm, and a 6 hour night train that arrived in Split at 7:15am. God I hate night trains. We even spent 22 euros extra for a sleeper car, but I felt like I was in a coffin. I was on the top of a three story bunk with the ceiling 2 feet from my face. I suppose it is better than sitting straight up afraid your bags will be stolen during the night though.

We arrived in Split on the 4th of July. We stayed at a small little hostel, and I told everyone before leaving for the beach that day that there was going to be a 4th of July party on the roof at 8pm. Emma is so sweet, she was just as excited about throwing a party for this American holiday as I was, even though she is Swedish. That evening we cooked hamburgers, corn on the cob and ate watermelon. People asked if they should bring anything, and I told them beer, because 4th of July celebrations always have a lot of beer. Those Europeans/Aussies came through that night. I think we ended up with about 15 2 liter bottles of beer (yes, they sell beer in 2 liter bottles in Croatia). It was a tremendous success, and people at the hostel talked about the celebration for days to come. I was the only American there, and I think that is the first time that has happened to me on the trip. It was nice to be the only one, especially on America day.

The next day I went biking with two Swedish boys. I think the Swedes are my new favorite nationality. Sorry Irish.... I've met quite a few Swedes this trip, and every one of them is kind, down to Earth, friendly and just lovely. I recall being in a group of 5 or so Swedes, and instead of talking Swedish, they spoke in English purely for my sake. Anyway, we went biking through Park Forest Marjan. It is a park on a peninsula on the west side of Split. It isn't very big, but it had nice beaches and mountains. It actually reminded me a lot of Big Sur in California. Half way in the Swedes made me ride up a hill for a long time. That sucked, but I suppose it is worth is when you reach the top and see the view.

The next day Emma, two Spaniards a Canadian guy and myself all took the ferry over to the Island of Broc. Broc is known for the beach of Bol, supposedly the most beautiful beach in Croatia. So we bought tickets, were walking to the ferry, and it pulled out right as we were walking up!! Ok, so we go to the beach and kill an hour and a half waiting for the next one. We finally made it and got over to Broc. We were immediately bombarded with asshole taxi drivers trying to rip us off to drive us to the beach. We actually ended up renting our own car, which ended up being cheaper than had we taken a taxi or even rode the bus! It was even a convertible! So we drive to Bol and lay on the beach some more. I get even more sunburned...

The sun here is so hot, and bright, and burning. It doesn't matter how much sun screen I apply, I think much of my time in Croatia was spent trying to outsmart the sun. The Spaniards told me to get burned one day and then I am brown the next, but I don't think that applies to people as white as myself. That night we had a really good dinner and I somehow ended up at a really shitty club at 2am wanting to shoot myself.

The next day Emma and I spent at the beach. Then in the evening we met up with some of our hostel friends and cooked dinner. It was nice, we all did a cheers to eachother. We had Sweden, England, Spain, Canada, and America represented at that table. I don't know, it's weird, but I know that I am not the only one with this opinion. With this style of traveling, 50% of the joy comes from seeing a new and exciting country, and the other 50% comes from meeting interesting people from all over the world. I mean, it would be great to meet locals too...but it's a little bit more difficult to do that when they are in real life, not on holiday.

I caught a flight this morning from Split to London....quite a long day of travel actually. I think the public transportation to get from London Luton airport to Drew and Amy's flat took longer than the actual flight across the continent. I'm sad to have left the East side, but I know I'll be back.

The Eastern European chapter of my trip has come to a close. Now I revisit normalcy in London at Drew and Amy's for two nights, before heading over to Ireland, the last stop on my trip.

Vienna

Vienna...old world meets the new world.

As I got off the train from Budapest to Vienna, I was instantly hit by the feeling of not being in a post-soviet country anymore. There were stores, chain stores, lots of chain stores. People dress in alternative styles here and are willing to start conversations on the street. Things look newer, and not everybody is white.

As someone just traveling through, I kinda miss the feeling of being in a country of the former Soviet Union, it has a feeling of otherness to it. A different feeling from that of Latin America or Asia, something solely itś own. The former soviet union is also cheaper, much cheaper. Ex-communists havent quite figured out how to profit off of every.single.little.thing...like Austria has.

Vienna is great in itś own way though. When I talk about the stores, on the way to the old city of Vienna, you walk though a very long avenue of shops, nice shops. Capitalism is bustling in the city of Vienna. They have Forever 21, H&M, perfume shops, makeup shops, everything shops. But when you reach the end of the avenue, you reach a big black gate where you enter the old city, and when you walk inside it transports you into 18th century Vienna. Vienna wasnt badly damaged during WWII. The theory is that because Stalin went to school in Vienna, he established ties with politicians here and fell in love with the city. This kept him from allowing the soldiers to do much damage during the liberation of the city from the Nazis. Austria continued to be occupied for 10 years after the end of WWII, but never made it part of the Soviet Union, because of the political ties. This explains why Austria is so much more modern than the previous countries I have visited.

Honestly, upon my arrival in Vienna, I was beat. I was exhausted, and Vienna has been more of a place to recharge my batteries than anything else. I havent been busy every second of the day like I had been for the past month. This is not to say that I havent done anything though. I did a walking tour of the city, which was sub-par to the free walking tours that I took in the other cities. I went to the Catacomb tombs under the St. Stephens church and saw lots of bones from people who died during the black plague. I had to go inside the church to take the tour, and I am not much of a church/cathedral person, I could take it or leave it, but the inside of this one was stunning. I also visited the Albertina art museum where I saw original Monetś and Picassoś.

An amazing thing happened my second day here. I opened up the door to the dorm I was staying in, and there was Bee! I met her in Budapest and we went to the thermal baths together. I texted Emma the Swed to tell her what happened, and she decided to come down the next day! So when Emma arrived, the next day all of us, plus two new girls, Sarah from New Zealand, and Sophie from Connecticut all went to the Danube River Valley. We took a train an hour outside of town and explored the beautiful mid-evil city of Melk for a bit. We then took a bus to the town of Spitz which is known for itś wine tasting. We went to about three different wineries and tasted. All of the tastings are free, and buying a bottle is quite cheap, about 6 euros. The country side is much cheaper than Vienna. One woman had had the winery in her family since the 1700ś. She was self-conscious about her English, but I thought she did just fine.

It was great having a girls day out. Honestly, some of the men I have met traveling so far need a good punch in the mouth. For instance, there was a guy I met who was travelling from Texas. At first I was impressed that someone from Texas was outside of Texas....but then the things he started saying to the Europeans in the group!!!! He just kept being the American stereo-type talking about shooting guns and his gas gussling SUV (his words). I ended up telling somewhat jokingly, but seriously at the same time that he was giving Americanś a bad name, and he is a representative for his country! Americanś already have a bad enough reputation world wide, we dont need this douche adding to it.

But all in all Vienna has been nice. I do stick to my guns and vote Prague as the most beautiful city over Vienna and Budapest. Prague has itś own kind of beauty that I dont think these cities can match. I guess that may be why Prague is constantly over-run with Tourists.

I am catching a night train today leaving at 4pm. Emma and I are going down to Croatia, and we will be celebrating the 4th of July there! Maybe I can track down some fireworks somewhere.

Budapest

I end my stay in Budapest with a feeling of extreme exhaustion. Ive been running around for the past three weeks seeing all the sights by day and all the nightlife by night, with very little rest. My ambition as I get on the train to Vienna this afternoon is to get a good nights sleep when I get into town, which may not happen. I am the kind of the person who doesnt want to risk missing out on anything, so I end up taking part in everything.

By the way, this post will not have apostrophes because I cannot find it on the keyboard.

Anyway, lets talk about Budapest!

I arrived in town 4 nights ago. I arrived with my English teacher in Slovakia friend who was taking his parents to the airport, so I ended up hanging out with him for most of the afternoon. Mainly just walking around and having a few beers. I knew better, but he allowed us to be suckered into a scam on one of the main tourist roads. It was one of those restaurants where they harass you until you finally agree to take a seat. There was a sign that said 50% off happy hour, but of course our beer happened to not be a happy hour beer when the bill came. We also got tricked into buying a highly overpriced shot that was pretty gross. So the bill came and it was something outrageous, I was willing to eat it and go, but he started yelling at them and got the price reduced. It was all rather annoying. The price was originally like 20,000 HUF...I am guessing because this whole US dollar conversion to Hungarian money is difficult to convert. Itś something like 279 HUF to 1 USD...I round it to 250 HUF...still difficult!

That night I accompanied a housemate from the hostel to a couchsurfing.com party at some bar. For those of you who don't know, couchsurfing is this online community of travelers whom offer people places to stay and stay in other peoples houses while traveling for free. They also have forums and do parties and other things....but we went, it was a little lame, but I ended up talking with this Hungarian. I was very curious about the racism toward Gypsies in Eastern Europe, so I asked. The thing I love about European culture is that they love to talk about real issues. I said he didn't have to talk about it if he didn't want to, but they do want to. Unlike American culture where it is a faux pas to talk about anything controversial. It seems to me that every person who is from Eastern Europe hates them, and they all have their own personal story as to why, such as Gypsies stealing their bike when they were a kid, or Gypsies robbing their house. Klara, a Hungarian woman I knew a few years ago told me this once. "Gypsies are dirty, smell bad, and they don't care about anything!" Anyway, when this Hungarian was talking I did what any curious tourist should do. I listened and had no opinion, it's just interesting to know about this deep rooted racism engrained in their culture.

The next day I took one of the free walking tours around town...which I still vouch for as amazing. They took us around the Buda and the Pest sides of the city. Budapest actually used to be two cities that were united a long time ago. Budapest is a beautiful city, but I don't think I can give it the most beautiful city I have been to award, I think that still belongs to Prague. Today as I get into Vienna I will have to compare the three. Those cities are called the Golden Triangle, and are in a little bit of a competition.

I wasn't liking the hostel I was staying at and I was trying to get into another one, but most were booked. A guy checked into mine who had to leave his due to no room. I went out with that hostel that night to try to weasel my way in, and have fun.. I managed to weasel a booking out of them at 4am. Turns out it was the best hostel I have ever stayed at, The Aboriginal Hostel. It felt like home there.

We went to this horrible outdoor party, it was Cancun status of horrible. To give you an idea of how bad it was they played a techno remix version of Rebecca Blacks Friday. I went up to the bar and some Hungarian said something to me. I told him I dont speak Hungairan and he switched to English. He said, |Ÿou must have a beer to stand this music!| They did follow it up with The Cureś Friday Iḿ in love at least.

The next day Emma from Sweden, Bee from Virginia, Dan from Wales and I all went to the famous Budapest thermal baths and relaxed in the different mineral waters. There were about 15 different pools we could sit in and tryout, all different. We spent a few hours there and left feeling relaxed and amazing. I think that night was the first night I actually stayed in and watched a movie with Irish Dave, drinking some hungarian wine. You can buy a GOOD bottle of hungarian wine for less than $3!!!

Budapest is an interesting/weird place, along with the rest of the Eastern block. Itś so funny how bureaucratic everything is. When you ride the metro, you first have to buy a ticket from a ticket window. Not a machine, but a window with one person, so everyone is waiting in line. After you buy your ticket you then have to validate it in a validation machine. After you validate it, you need to show your validation to a group of four men guarding the entrance to the metro. Then on the metro the cars often have security people walking on making sure your ticket is validated. Sounds like an awesome waste of money for the city to me. I mean, four people guarding the metro entrance? Why not just one?

Iḿ getting a little lazy with the pictures. I wish I would have taken some of this stuff!

They also havent updated the metro since maybe 1960. The cars are all rusty and peeling, and all the colors are 60ś colors. Itś actually kinda cool in a soviet nostalgic kind of way.

People in Eastern Europe are also different too. I notice it now that I am in Vienna and am back to a more modern society. People in post soviet
countries arent as friendly. When they
walk down the street, they dont look up,
they dont offer to help. This is most likely due to Stalinś rein of terror where Big Brother was always watching you. People didnt want to stand out, so it is just engrained in their culture. I hear itś fading with the younger generation though.

The last day I was in Budapest I bought my train ticket, fell asleep on a lame tour bus, ate dinner and partook in a late night party which left me exhausted for the train ride to Vienna. I am now being good in Vienna. This is my second day here, and I feel like I am still recovering from the last 3 and a half weeks.

Slovokia

I've made it to Slovakia, but I definitely would not have been able to do it on my own. Three buses, no English spoken equals some confusion.

My friend Brian and I took a bus from Krakow down to the town of Zakopane, Poland. This part was problem free. Next stop we need to get a shuttle to some weird place, a very, very small village called Lysa Poliana or something like that. We must have told the bus man about 12 times the name of the place we were going, and he just shook his head and said, "Tak" (yes) Anyway, what does he do? He takes us to the wrong place... We attempt to inquire where we are, and he just begins to yell louder and say more words. It was just like an American, when they talk to someone who doesnt speak English, they just talk faster and louder, using more words. It was actually rather funny in retrospect, and he did end up pawning us off on another bus driver who drove us to our location at no cost. We then arrived in time for the last bus to the place we were staying, but it was an hour and a half away. Luckily we knew the most important word in Slovak, pivo, which of course means beer. A building was labled bar, but was really just a minimart. We bought some pivo and waited on the side of the road for the bus like some homebum drifters, which is exactly what I am right now. Actually a rather cool experience.

We made it to the hostel we were staying at, in the middle of nowhere of Northern Slovakia. I actually experienced a little bit of anxiety upon first arrival due to the ruralness of it all. I cant remember the last time I was in that much country. I saw more stars in that sky than I have ever seen. The big dipper was so bright it jumped out of the sky at you. I had an amazing time once my being out of the city anxiety ran out. I played Texas Holdem with a bunch of Europeans, and had plenty of pivo. Attempted failure to make it to watch sunrise with a new Canadian friend.

View from hostel porch

I spent my second day hiking in the Tatras Mountains on the Slovakian/Polish border. It was amazing. Rolling green mountains with creepy warewolf trees. The trees resemble the type of tree you would expect to see in a horror movie. The grand finale of the hike was a giant lake with snowcovered mountains as the backdrop.

I planned to take a train to Budapest yesterday...but instead I caught a ride with my new Canadian friends to Kosice. Matt is a Canadian English teacher teaching in Slovakia, and his parents were in visiting, so they had rented a car. They are all lovely people, and I had an excellent time spending some days with them. I ended up staying in Kosice for the night, and caught the next train to Budapest with them in the morning. Now we shall see what adventures in Budapest await.

Poland

Amazing, absolutely brilliant. There is nothing in the world I would rather be doing right now than traveling. I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Krakow sorting out my business. The plan today is to head to Slovakia. I didn't have any intention to go to Slovakia, but got convinced by an American friend I met here to give this little rural place a go, to break up the 10 hour train ride to Budapest (next destination).
I have had an absolute blast in Krakow. My mom set me up to meet with her friends, son's roommate from college (weird connection) who is a college professor at the University of Krakow. I met with him and 2 of his friends the day I arrived in town, and then my new friend Chung has been hanging out and taking me to the cool bars in town. Last night he came and met a bunch of us in the hostel and was sort of our "tour guide" for Krakow nightlife. I went out with a few Aussies, and Britts, as well as my American friend.

I think it's hilarious that I was nervous about being lonely on this trip. so far over 2 weeks into the trip, I think I have only had one day alone, and that was because I chose to go to Wegrow, the shitty town my family is from. Every other moment of the day I have had company for everything. Solo backpack traveling may be the easiest and friendliest way to meet people in the world.

Warsaw
I arrived in Warsaw about one week ago. I won't lie, Warsaw is a shithole. At first I tried to be positive about it, but after coming to Krakow, I realize that my perception of the city was accurate. It's a giant urban sprawl, where the locals say people go to just work and nobody is happy there. Everyone walks really fast and bumps into you without saying excuse me, and there is nothing very asthetically pleasing about the majority of the city. Honestly, I found the lack of beauty of the city intriguing, as it really captures vibe of the Soviet occupation. Lots of efficient, cement buildings built into the skyline. On many of the buildings there is a layer of graffiti along the first floor. It is interesting to see.

The night I arrived I ended up going with some sketchy "Jamacians" to a regaee club. It reminded me a lot of regaee night at the Dragon's Den in New Orleans, but all white people. I knew the guys were sketchy because I kept getting different answers out of them, such as where they are from, what they are doing here, and how long they had been here. I can hold my own, so I went to the club, I had a great time, but I cut out early. In Krakow I met someone who also hung out with these guys, and they told him they were from Ethopia!!! So my spidey sense wasn't completely off.

Observations of Polish, they cannot dance for shit. I never ever claimed to be able to dance myself, but Polish people make me look like a fucking professional.

There is one pictureque part of the city, Old Town. It is the more "midevil" part, but the irony is that old town isn't really old. It was rebuilt in the 50's, after WWII leveled 85% of the city. Apparently old town was rebuilt almost exactly as it was before. It's so hard to imagine that a city as big as Warsaw was almost completely reduced to rubble.

I went sight seeing on Wednesday with two friends I made from the hostel. Sarah, an American, and Clayton, a Brazillian. We hit a ton of museums, the Warsaw Uprising museum, which deals with the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw during Nazi occupation, another one that delt with the city of Warsaw leading up to the end of WWII, and the a Chopin museum, which reminded me of an episode out of Star Trek the Next Generation. Too. much. technology. It had lcd projectors projecting pictures and music onto the wall, and books with projections where you turn the page and the computer changes the image, I couldn't help wonder why they didn't just use a book. Anyway, my favorite part of Warsaw was the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It's inspirational. Even though the Jew's didn't win that round, at least they put up a fight. We walked around and found parts of where the ghetto walls used to exist. It's basically just a part of the sidewalk now.

Wegrow Old town rebuilt

(Pronounced Vengrove) Ok, so while I was here, I HAD to go to the town my dad's side of the family is from. I mean, when the hell will I ever be back in Warsaw. Never. Even if I lived in Poland, I don't think I would ever go to Warsaw again. I took a little van bus from the Palace of Culture in Warsaw to this little, tiny town about 50 miles North East. I knew going into it that there would be nothing there, and pretty much nothing to see....but I didn't realize how right I would be. I knew that they had a small monument there to the Jewish genocide that took place within the town, but I couldn't find it. I couldn't find shit. I took a picture of one of the Catholic Churches juct because I knew that during German occupation the assholes used the stones from the Jewish Temple to build a wall around the church (not sure if this is the one). I stayed for just a couple of hours because there was nothing to do. I was starving, so after wandering for hours I found a kebab shop. They lady didn't speak English, so I did the unthinkable and just pointed at something at the menu. It ended up being kinda gross, but I ate it anyway. If you like Kebabs though, I recommend Poland. There is a kebab shop on every corner.

Krakow

This city is the place I am in love with. It's beautiful...luckily Warsaw became the capital to be destroyed in WWII, because I would be so sad if Krakow looked like a Warsaw wasteland. I have never had a moment of down time, the people are so much more friendly. I even got a ride from some Polish guys from the train station to my hostel. (it's ok mom, they were nerdy lawyer types, harmless). There is a great night life, and so much history surrounding it. Within the last couple of years I have been becoming very interested in Holocaust history, and I am in no better place in the world to be learning about it. The day after arriving I went to the Salt Mines which are 200m below ground. I felt the Salt Mines were just ok...but after went with my friend Brian to a free walking tour of Krakow around the Jewish Quarter and over to the Old Jewish Ghetto. If you ever find yourself in Europe, do the free walking tour companies, they are wonderful.




Bus stop returning from salt mines

Auschwitz is really the big deal of the area, the thing that you need to do. I didn't really learn too much new stuff regarding concentration camps, but it did hit me with the vastness of the murder and torture that took place there. You walk into a room and there is an exhibit of 40,000 pairs of shoes that were taken from the prisoners (just as an example). You just see the grand scale of the murder that took place there. Auschwitz II

1,500,000 people were killed there. I didn't get emotional there like I thought I would. It actually leaves you feeling really numb. It's hard to imagine that I had ancestors in these camps.

You know what. I feel as though I can't possibly communicate everything that I have done in this blog. It's just been so eventful. Not only sights, but thoughts, feelings, and new friends as well. I wish I could write it all, but I suppose I will have some stories that people didn't read on my blog to share face to face. 10 people had to share one level of this bed


Before I wrap this up...I'll share my current thought. The professor I was introduced to in Krakow has a transatlantic masters program in social studies here. I won't lie, Original Train car that carried 80-100 Jews into the camp

am thinking about it. I could get my masters degree here while teaching English. How amazing would that be! No decisions yet though.

England

I must say that I absolutely love this country, and if I ever find a way to obtain a work visa for the UK (which is INCREDIBLY difficult for an American) I AM moving here. The public transport here is amazing, you can get ANYWHERE without waiting more than 5 minutes for a train or the tube. All of the train stations are also centralized in the heart of the city or the neighborhood that you are going to, so no need to walk through the ghetto to get to your destination (like Amtrak or Greyhound). It's accessible, it's beautiful, it's everything I could want.

I challenge anyone to find a cuter, more adorable country in the world than England. No matter what town you exit the train at, or what part of London you come out of the underground at, anywhere, the towns, cities, villages are just adorable! All the buildings are like something out of a storybook. Everything is so centralized and perfect. I could live here for aesthetic purposes alone.

My visit to England this time has been much different than my visits in the past. This time I actually have friends that I am visiting here, and it definitely gives you a different experience and perspective. The experience for me this time around is normal. I'm not getting that whole newness feeling and crazy excitement that I got the first time I came to London (which I suppose is understandable). I have been going to the pubs with friends and their friends, having dinner at people's houses, and taking the train to other places to meet old friends. The first time I arrived in London, I recall being so giddy about the small differences such as the tiny coke bottles, two level buses, and gingerbread looking buildings. This time, it's just part of London.

Hampton Court Palace

I've been staying in Wimbledon with Andrew
and Amy, and spending some time with Graham and his fiancee as well. Wimbledon is great, but I have made my way to Hampton, where you will find the Hampton Court Palace. From there I took a boat ride down the Thames river to Kingston, very calming. I explored Central London near Trafalgar Square, where I went to the British National Museum (free like most museums here). They had thousands of paintings ranging in years from 1200-1940 maybe. I saw some original Van Vough's (which
apparently us Americans have been saying wrong all of these years! it's Van Gof!!!) There were Monet's, and tons of Jesus paintings...I think Jesus and royalty is the only thing people were allowed to paint pre-1400's.

Trafalgar Square (Central London
outside the National Museum)

A few days ago I rode the train down to Bournemouth to meet Graham Hogg, someone I met in Prague 8 years ago and ran away with. It was a trip, but it was well worth it. It was great to see Graham again, even though so much has changed, and Bournemouth is a very cute place. It's also where Roald Dahl's book, The Witches took place. I really liked that town, I have liked everywhere I have been so far. I've had the opportunity to explore a lot more this time around, and am not stuck just in Central London (which I have been enjoying immensely as well).



Bournemouth with Graham Hogg

I went to Camden Market, which didn't have as much as an appeal as it did at the age of 22. Now I just see a bunch of hipster kids trying to look cool.

Sunday night I actually got caught up in a pub over by Waterloo station. A band started playing, a traditional Irish band. Live Irish music is one of my weaknesses. I love Irish music, and I just love the Irish, Ireland is another place I would love to live. Anyway, after enjoying the music for about half an hour, I got the invite to join the band at the table. Got to talking and unfortunately none of them were really Irish, but they could play Irish music quite well! They played the Lakes of Pontchartrain for me! The band stopped playing at about 10pm, but I hung out with them until quite late. I don't think I got home until about 3am...the tube and trains were all shut down, but London has night buses that take for freakin' ever, but get you to where you need to go.
Graham and Drew skipping rocks along the Thames River

Floating along down the Thames

On my last day here I took a daytrip to Greenwich, where the Eastern Hemisphere meets the Western hemisphere...and time begins! I love that part of town, I fell in love with it the first time I was here. I went to the Maritime museum and I explored Greenwich park, one of the overlooks has the most picturesque view of all of London. Here is a picture. I also took a riverboat ferry down the Thames river to get there.





I've had quite and excellent time with my wonderful London hosts, Amy and Drew. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have had such a true "London experience".

Tomorrow I catch my flight into Warsaw, Poland, and the REAL backpacking trip begins!!!
Tower of London from the Thames River

New England

I've made my way to London unscathed. I left Boston Monday evening flying glorious Virgin Atlantic. I had my doubts about the long flight, but was pleasantly surprised at the free booze served all flight! I drank white wine and watched movies, until I was finally able to sleep for about 1 hour. I had a seat partner on his way to India to see family, who taught me a great trick for us Fahrenheit users. All you have to do to get an approximate conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit is to double it and add 30. It's like a whole other world has opened up for me knowing this! No more setting the air conditioner to freezing temperatures for me.

I'm now sitting in Drew and Amy's apartment in Wimbledon gathering my bearings before I go exploring the cute little neighborhood that they live in. My goal is to stay up until a normal bedtime in an attempt to avoid jet lag. No naps allowed. I guess it's pub trivia night at their pub, and I finally get to meet Graham's fiancee.

My flight to Boston did not go as smoothly as my flight to London...I made it to Cleveland from New Orleans ok, where I was supposed to catch my connecting flight, but managed to sit at the wrong gate, chatting away on my phone for 45 minutes to Sabrina, and yes, missed my connecting flight. I ran in a panic to the continental flight desk and they said, "Oh, this sort of thing happens all the time." Where I responded with, "NOT TO ME!!!" They put me on the next flight out, but not to Boston, to Manchester, NH. Joe was so calm and kind enough to drive an hour to Manchester to pick me up, and then drive me to the Boston airport to pick up my bag. This adventure only took about 4 hours...

Joe took me on a bicycle tour of Boston. We went to the Arboredum, where we had a great view of downtown Boston. I really wanted to see the Boston Massacre site. I was quite disappointed that the site was actually an unlabeled intersection outside of a brick building. I had seen that sketch so many times of the British troops shooting the colonists, that I for some reason assumed that that image would be embedded into the ground that we walk on. Nothing. That's ok, we then hunted down the Boston Tea Party site, where the replica boat was out for construction!!! Here's a picture. Not the most exciting.



Joe also took me to the Italian part of town, the North End, full of Italian speaking Italians, one of the oldest parts of the city. The streets were cobblestone and narrow, and also the Old North Church is there from Paul Revere's ride, where the lanterns were placed to warn of the British attack. The North End also has the oldest cemetery in America.


We ended the day with beer and a hurting butt from all that bike riding, but biking is definitely the best way to see the city.

Joe and his girlfriend Ashley were wonderful hosts. They were sure to make sure we got everything in that I needed to see. Sunday we took a day trip up to Maine, but also stopping in Salem, MA to go to the Witch Museum. Salem is a super cute little New England town, which I could see myself (if I ever get rich) having a summer cottage in. I say summer because it's way too damn cold there for me to ever even attempt to deal with Winter.

Up in Maine I got to see my old friend Katie from college, that I don't think I have seen since 2005. She's now married and has two kids!!!!!! I am glad I got to see her again, even though our encounter was brief. Oh, and before I forget, here is a picture of my wonderful weekend hosts, Joe and Ashley.




Joe took the day off work Monday, so we could do a very necessary tour. The Samuel Adams brewery tour. Anything with free beer is a necessity in my book. We got to try 3 of their beers, letting it wash over our pallets for optimal flavor, until they kicked us out. I guess they don't want a bunch of lushes there drinking free beer all day, unlike the NOLA brewery tour (oh how I love the NOLA brewery tour).

And that pretty much concluded my visit of Boston, I'd
once again like to thank my gracious hosts, I had a
wonderful time. Now things start to get crazy and international.