FrecklesFly's Vital Èlan

shrieks

2009-03-07T00:13:00.004-05:00

*shrieks* Finally I got my own, brand new laptop, first time in my life! My first was PC desktop which did managed to serve me well from 2000 but start blinking off in 2006 and I left it into its deep hibernating ever since (it still works, yes).

After all of moving around, the desktop was BULKY so laptop was a dream. Lately, I have been freeloading Michael's hard earned Mac that's 4 yrs old now and still running excellent. As I slowly come to learn how Canadian's system works on their support of college students such as me, yes, I am back to school for those that do not know. After some of grapevines information, I finally looked into it and realized that I can get my own at last so here I am with my own Mac AT LAST :)

Rarity

2009-02-05T13:08:00.009-05:00

There is two meaning to "rarity":

First, that's one of my rare post in looooooong time!
Second, what is about to be post is definitely one of rare, unique thing :)

While nosing around on Ebay, I came across most strange item ever to be sold.

*drum rolling, bass clanging, bell rings, ok, enough of this*

Human Tooth Ring!!!!

Heres is the link...help your self to goggling at it while it is still there for sale:
Human Tooth Ring

2008-04-23T19:05:00.001-05:00

A Vocab That Came in Impromptu way :)

2007-12-17T01:11:00.001-05:00

Impromptu Imperious

Lawns

2007-05-04T16:58:00.000-05:00

On another day, I was driving, familiarize myself with the city of London and on errand. I idly stared at acres and acres of green lawns freshly mowed. Back of my head start to whirring and clicking, an question, "Why were those people even taking their time out of their busy life schedule to simply mow the lawns that no one really use, much less to lay down on or traipse on or picnicking, so forth?"

What was wrong with letting grass go tall? Especially a sprawling land of Hospital or retirement home or park even, where people did not really use those acres of cutted grasses. Yes, people went to park, yet, where do you see them? Mostly in BBQ area and around it, otherwise most remain on or near trails. I was sure children won't mind tall grasses in their backyards if they grew up with it that way and did not know the difference, only if they did play in it as it was diminishing leisure among youngsters of this generation .

In Europe, there were many parks and people actually flood it, using most of grasses for their lunchtimes, sun-napping time, etc. What even more, not all of it were mowed and people still sit in the tall grasses.

With all those "Global Warming" screaming at us and the gas prices soaring up, look at those lawns! Forget cars for a minute, start ditching gas-chugging mowers and let grass grow wild!! :)

Tech Support - Eeek!

2007-04-19T15:04:00.000-05:00

SUPPORT: " Hello, technical support how can I help you"

LADY: My computer was rattling!!!!

SUPPORT: OK Lady, PLEASE describe what it does? Is it turning on? Can you get online?

LADY: NO....last night my computer started making a lot of hissing noises at me so I shut it down. This morning when I turned it on the computer started hissing and cracking, then started smoking and a bad smell, then nothing.

SUPPORT: I will have a technician come over, just leave the computer just like it is so they can find the problem and fix it or change it out with another computer. Give me your address, phone number and the technician will be there just as soon as they can.

When the technician got there, the lady showed the technician where the computer was, said what happened to it, this is what the technician found wrong. Take a look at the pictures... you won't believe your eyes!!!

Guess what problem was, eh?

It must have been after mouse :P

New York to Paris, France

2007-04-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

Got this thru email from my Dada from someone:

Follow these steps [in order of course]

1. go to www.maps.google.com

2. Click on Get Directions

3. type in "new york" to "paris, france", then click on Search

4. scroll down in the directions to number 22 & 23

5. Enjoy your good laugh....

Google sense of humor doesn't it, heh :)

Isn't that Grand? :D

2007-03-02T02:14:00.000-05:00

:P~DROOLS:P~

Shaker

2007-02-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

On one night of recent weekends, when leaving our friends' place in London, 195 and I were hungry for late night snack. So we stopped at popular pizza place that open late into night for those people who's coming out of bars/clubs that's closing up for the night. I never really looked at the name of this pizza place but the pizzas were so good and cheap.

We each got two delicious, mouth-watering slices, then went straight to shakers to add on more flavors. I picked up a shaker with white stuffs in it and put on a generous amount of it as parmesan was sometimes hard to get out of shaker. Soon as I put it down to get to hot peppers flakes shaker, 195 asked what previous shaker was. Parmesan, I mouthed, and he look kind of mystified and double looked at it. He commented that it was actually salt.

I could not believe him as there was only two shakers there and in every places I know, they were always consist of parmesan and hot peppers. I looked and just had to taste a dash it to believe my eyes and it was SALT! Nevertheless, I still ate my piece, little salty but I was not about to waste it :P

Beware of shakers, look then shake :D

I'm no Hero, I'm just doing this for me....

2007-01-29T10:04:00.000-05:00

Guess what I am? Opposite to 195's inner feminine hero...I am:

You scored as Maximus. After his family was murdered by the evil emperor Commodus, the great Roman general Maximus went into hiding to avoid Commodus's assassins. He became a gladiator, hoping to dominate the colosseum in order to one day get the chance of killing Commodus. Maximus is valiant, courageous, and dedicated. He wants nothing more than the chance to avenge his family, but his temper often gets the better of him.

Maximus

71%

William Wallace

58%

Captain Jack Sparrow

54%

Indiana Jones

50%

Lara Croft

46%

El Zorro

42%

The Amazing Spider-Man

42%

James Bond, Agent 007

38%

Batman, the Dark Knight

33%

The Terminator

21%

Neo, the "One"

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

JUMP! Yes, you jump!

2007-01-25T16:19:00.000-05:00

Just got to share that fun idea...a friend of Michael, Connie, of whom it is her friend that is doing this project for a coffee-table BOOK consist of all pix of pep jumping...she is asking for the help from us to submit a pix from us for for the book... look like fun and a great idea... check her site out for more informations:

http://www.xanga.com/sky2dream

Now go and do a JUMP pix! :)

Post-Block

2007-01-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

Seem like lately I have nearly nothing to post or simply forgot of something I want to share or its simply already taken of those in same environment as me :P Guess I got to put thought down on notepad or do it right away or scramble to post news first ;)

Wishing you all a.....

2006-12-24T15:40:00.000-05:00

...hence, Happy Holidays!
& may new year bring more posts :)

CANUCK!

2006-11-07T23:54:00.000-05:00

Its meaning? I wonder...so I looked, and hmmmmmm............ :)

Its:

-slang for Canadians in general and French Canadians in particular
-small or medium-sized hardy horse, common in Canada
-seemly originates in 19th century, possibilities of term used

kanata "village"
Canada + -uc (alognquian)
Canada + -inuk (inuit for "man")
Connaught, slag given for Irish-French-Canadians.
Cann-uck, a small yellow French-Canadian bird

Yea CANUCK! :)

So Simple, Impossible to Miss

2006-10-18T17:22:00.000-05:00

Saw this in the room in a small motel at campground in VA where I went on recent weekend, had a good laugh at this (but didn't get chance to take pix of it so drew a duplicate) :)

Toothy

2006-10-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

Whilst in Canada on weekend of Oct 9., Canada Thanksgiving...I was happy to run wildly out of school and screech my tires on Thurs toward Canada with a big grin...Perhaps I grinned too much that weekend...Hence...on Fri. nite, we were visiting Kyle, Maggie, and MACanadian in London. While clomping toward MACanadian's home where we were going to sleep over to save the trip as 195 want to go to auto place to get new tires for the front. I saw a mouse and start running, screaming with 195 running after me to calm me down. Actually no, I was being a kid at heart that I start galloping and racing with 195...Somewhere along the way on grass by sidewalk, it decided to push me back into sidewalk...While I was propelling toward sidewalk at toothbreaking speed, 195, being knightly he's, grabbed my arm. Unfortunately, it didn't save me and I ended up smacking face first, missed to brace with my hands and knees. I was in daze and got a big gash of scrape on side of my face. Whew, nothing was broken...wait, wait, my front tooth feel funny, yes, it was broke in half!

No use to try to get a view of my hockey face when you see me because on the next day, 195's mother sent me to his gentlemanly dentist. He was suppose to go for early bird Thanksgiving dinner but came in to see me for emergency and got it fixed in nick of time, no, no, not nick of tooth, time!

Heh!

2006-10-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

Finally a post after a quite extent of blog vacation :)
Saw this story on news, found it hilarious...enjoy!

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=32970&siteSection=1

O'Beautiful Mountains!

2006-08-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

Here's my lil bro and lil sista...beautiful background, eh?

(lil bro was born there, all of my family're born in diff. place, heh)

Lovely,lovely, isnt it? Doesn't it kind of look like Switzerland?

Little Quiz!

Which one of pixs just above is Washington & which is Switzerland :D

Boy, I missed that place alot, the NorthWest of USA....Washington State!

First half of Calif Days

2006-07-20T03:13:00.000-05:00

Leaving NYC (LGA airport) on misfortune ATA airline

What was it? (thats in NYC aft take-off)

First sight of California

More sights...

Sheila's dog, Ava

Sheila's room, my space was on the right...

There it was :), my little space

Pool!

i'm a happy girl :)

On one evening, we were walking dog before going to car..a car went by us and insantly I felt something sting on my arm, saw this tiny ball bouncing on road as it was thrown up when tire went over it.. damn that tiny thing sure can hurts :P

Eating out at California Pizza Kitchen for Sheila's Grandma's B-Day...she's funny&sweet deaf woman

Ava liked to climb and lay around shoulders while riding the car

Ava napping contently :)

So true of Urban California

Shores of San Diego county

Vistors from East (Fla&NJ) Jeri, Sheila, Vanessa &Moi

Sunset of West :)

Ranch near Santa Magarita Camp

July 1st, Canada's Day!!

C.C.D (Central Coast Deafies) gang of Santa Maria

Their logo

Got Deafies?

Nipomo's HUGE Sand Dunes Beach & HUGE pick-up trucks everywhere...

thats where all atvs, dirt bikes, lifted pick-up trucks, and more roamed on its sand dunes...
(wishing my dirt bike was with me to try those dunes out!)

July 4th @ Huntington Beach

A bunch of us to gawk at fireworks (Daniel, his gf Tessie, &their friends)

Coolies, eh? :)

View of Loma Linda, one of top medical school, researchs on vegetarian lifestyle, &manufactor of vegetarian meats (sorry, couldnt make pix bigger)

La Sierra

Old Point Loma Lighthouse of SD bay

Inside&top of lighthouse

Lighthouse stairway

Lighthouse's view of San Diego

Carlsbad

Visiting Leigh, while she visited her bf in Carlsbad :)

my uncle's home in Pacific Beach
(went to visit him also to see my deaf canadian gradparents, they had b-day celebration for grandma whos turning 80)

From his house, thres fireworks everynites at 10pm over at Sea World can be seen

Moi, Uncle Brian, & Grandparents

Sheila&Moi aft Little Rock bar, Tarzana :)

Her bro Darrick's b-day & her father

Sheila, her mother, Darrick, & Darcy

Some hearing Pirate-themed party near U.C.S

Sheila & Dave, one of guys who took us there

Moi & one of guys, Jeff, of the group

Malibu Beach

More of Malibu.. Nearly lost my favorite braclet from Italy for good on that very beach in pix..luckily Lifeguard had it!

Ava, the dog, secretly paw-print-branded her mitress :D

Dog beach...theres lost collars hanging on rail of lifeguard station :) Lotta of dogs roaming happily in water there...

Huntington Beach

Will (Zak's roomie) & Zak...(where we re staying for abit as Sheila moved out her place so we re homeless for now , heh) Will injuried his shoulder, dislocated, in ultimate firsbee game, egh...we re having night out @bar in Long Beach

Being silly in Long Beach bar, that kinda smell like bathroom :P

To be continued................. :)

anagram

2006-07-20T00:58:00.000-05:00

"Anarchically hell-like gem."

Anagram of 195 & Frecklesfly's names :)

Wanna try it out? Have fun! :D

--> http://www.anagramgenius.com/server.html

clock

2006-07-19T17:09:00.000-05:00

a Countdown Clock for 195 who couldnt wait for senior discount ;)

Countdown To Senior Discounts Age
.

Wild West Toilette

2006-07-08T22:30:00.000-05:00

Long time ago, young Frecklesfly grew up out in the Wild West. Whenever her family were in public places and one of us need to paid toilette a visit. Young Frecklesfly would go in big silver stall, latching the door, looking thur silt to make sure no one would try to open it. Then turn around, reaching up to the box on the wall, nabbing the toilette seat papercover and putting it on the seat. Next was to whump down on it and let go at content, when done with wiping and pulling up, she would flush and watch the whole thing went down alongside the papercover, leaving the toilette shiny clean.

One day, her parents told her that her family would be moving out to the East. When they finally arrived, young Frecklesfly's eyes open with wonder at the totally different environment. When they stopped for a meal, young Frecklesfly went into toilette and went into same process before sitting down, her hands reach out and stopped, puzzled. There was no box on the wall with the papercover to take out. She soon learned that almost none of public toilette in the East had them. Frecklesfly learnt to adjust and memory of ways in the West faded.

Few weeks ago, Frecklesfly went out to West once again to live for the summer, alas! How she had forgotten the sanitary of West and happily using it once again.

Silly thing to observe, eh? :)

Long Journey to California

2006-06-24T14:16:00.000-05:00

beware of ATA airlines, best services not provided. (my first time to use ATA airline)

Long trip, in short story...

Tuesday - 20 June, 2006

4pm- Kissed 195 good bye before entering the gates area at LGA airport

4:10pm- boarding time but delayed as other plane for Houston, TX was still there

4:35pm- original scheduled take off time but none of us were boarded yet

4:45pm- finally boarded

5:10pm- took off

7:45pm- landed at O'Hara (supposed to land at Midway but flap brakes malfunction so had to land at O'hara as they have long runway w/firetrucks and ambulances waiting) (my next flight from Midway to LAX was to be at 7:40 on southwest airline, arriving in LAX by 10:05pm)

Ard 1 hr span- we were being detained in plane

9pm- finally let off the plane and pick up our baggage, then waited for arranged bus (it was one limo and one limobus) to take us to Midway

10pm- argued at ticketing desk (a gal who s heading to LAX, too, did all of talking for her & me) ATA kept refer us to Southwest and they refer us back to them. There was no more flights out to LAX and Southwest said we would have to be on standby but finally they had us confirmed a seat on plane at 6:25am, instead of standby. ATA finally gave us an apology coupons (consist $10 phone card, $10 food, & $50 off on next booking) but no place to sleep for the nite.

10:25pm-rushed to get some food because food court closed at 10:30 but too late as security wont let us though because our permission slip (must have airline ticket to get in gates area) wasn't authorized yet so had to drag an ATA representative down to get them to let us in. Luckily there's one 24 hours food stand.

12am- Midway airport gave us cots in hallway with airplane blanket and pillow.

4:30am- airport workers woke us up and kicked us out of cots, went to my departing gate to wait and snooze abit

6am-informed stewardess that I'm deaf and was ushered first in line to board (southwest didn't have assigned seats) & had them to let hearing girl who helped me to go in first with me in way of thanking her.

6:35am- took off without any more delays, whew.

8:45am- touched down in LAX at last on Wednesday - 21 June, 2006

Here I am in state of sunshine & in city of smog for next 2 months, eh :)

Grimes of NYC

2006-06-23T02:14:00.000-05:00

I stayed at 195's halfway house (two gals offered their apt. for him to stay temp. during his co-op) in NYC for a week & so before flying out to California for 2 months (little escape from Rochy before the schooling this fall, unf, that take me faraway from 195 :( )
Since I was staying with 195 for an quite length & was only one home during the day, I was "live in maid" in fairness for generous period of visitation & one of things to do. Sure gave apartment a deep cleaning, which meant sweeping almost every inch, dusting, wiping window sills several times, scrubbing walls, floor, countertops, stove, bathroom, and mopping. No matter how many time I swept prior to mopping or wipe sills, there's more dirt. The residents of this apartment did clean regularly, unfortunately, NYC's grime was unbelievable and nearly impossible to get rid of completely.

Least I knew I left this place 95% cleaner for them, here's pix of a beauty of living in NYC :)

Shucks!

2006-06-23T02:05:00.000-05:00

Yep, I 'm late in posting my part about this Stanley Cup......

What a disappointment!

Little highlight beside this disappointing game.. USA is out of World Cup! *cackles*

Too close for comfort

2006-06-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

Updates on Hockey if some of ya haven't had the chance to follow up or just simply forgot about it :D

Edmonton 2 - Carolina 3

Lets see what Game 6 would bring, will Edmonton continuing to Game 7 or will Carolinas claim the Cup???

Whoo hoo!

2006-06-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

Got a better quiz for u guys and here's my result :D

as of "how american are you?" i'm 25% american,
it'll always be part of me due to being born here :)

How Canadian Are You?

YOU, my friend, are 100% Canadian! You are what Canadians are all about! (and that's about. not a boot.) You, my friend, are AWESOME!
Take this quiz!

Showing

2006-06-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

Just checked upon whether Stanley Cup final will be shown on local channel...
Yep, it will start showing after Game 2, so you will be able to see Game 3 up to Game 6 on NBC (thats far as I can go on the tv listing) if you got cable, you are lucky to see Game 1 & 2

Edmonton 4 - Carolina 5 (Game 1), hmphspatz

VIA

2006-06-03T09:45:00.000-05:00

Tell me what is the first thing that pop in your mind when u see "via"?

For no apparent reason, yesterday in one of my debating with my conscience's random thoughts while walking to home. The word "via" popped up, when using in sentence, you know what it mean but what do it really mean by means of dictionary?

via:
to?
by?
thro?
canada railway?
virtual interface architecture?

Thought it would be fun to look up.....

via:
by way of
by means of
its also a Latin word for "way" & "path"

Hm! Simplified way to say your message rather than pick one of "to", "by", "thro" and etc from English list of words :)

Tearing its way into Final

2006-06-01T22:57:00.000-05:00

Hurricanes are in the Stanley Cup Final!
[in a way I wish it was Sabres, nevertheless, its Canadian vs. American :) ]

Some games will be shown on NBC and WHEC (10) channel(only see Game 3 & 4 on schedule but will follow up).

~Game schedule~

Monday, June 5
Edmonton at Carolina, 8 p.m.

Wednesday, June 7
Edmonton at Carolina, 8 p.m.

Saturday, June 10
Carolina at Edmonton, 8 p.m.

Monday, June 12
Carolina at Edmonton, 8 p.m.

Wednesday, June 14
*Edmonton at Carolina, 8 p.m.

Saturday, June 17
*Carolina at Edmonton, 8 p.m.

Monday, June 19
*Edmonton at Carolina, 8 p.m.

Moonlight Run

2006-05-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

Two days ago, I went out to run at 10 am from intersection of E. River rd & Bailey rd, all way up to lights at intersection of John rd and Bailey rd. Instantly I was hit with heavy heat and humid in scorching sun as it was an open road with no shades thrown on it. My body feel laden and screaming for water as eyes were starting to see black spots. I stopped to duck into shade way off road about 3/4 of Bailey rd before John rd.
I gave in to nature .
Tonight at 9 pm, bit late, yes, I went out to run (never ever went for run at night beside walking, rollerblading, and biking) in much cool air with just enough light to last. This time nature and I was able to cooperate :) I managed to run all way from start to lights of John rd and back to the start with no stopping. At end, it feel like you weren't connected to your body as it sort of float on, knees bending and foot placing front of each other. Good long run!
Highlight of night, lots of fireflies in meadows on the side of road!

Dead-Locked

2006-05-31T21:01:00.000-05:00

Boy, boy, Sabres and Hurricanes are in dead-lock with 3 wins each..
lets see which one with all of clawing, punching, jostling, slamming, hitting, banging, scrambling, ok, enough with adjectives, is going to grab the final position into Stanley Cup Final after the Game 7 :D

Oil'em Furryhoofers!

2006-05-28T23:18:00.000-05:00

Edmonton Oilers -> Stanley Cup Final

Buffalo Sabres 2 - Carolina Hurricanes 3

~oooOOOhoooOOOoooOOOh~ One once said,"Important part was to see that none of Canadian team make it to the final" Well well, they are there.....

Lets see which the un-um-fortunate American team to make it there :D

Energy-Saving Firefly

2006-05-05T11:04:00.000-05:00

Looking for some cool t-shirts? Look no more!... www.threadless.com ...I came across this cool site, while looking for a birthday gift for my childhood friend; we practically grew up together since age 1.
Designs printed on t-shirts were submitted by anyone all over the world and the viewer give score on those they liked best. At end of each 7 days, designs with highest score will be printed and sold from this site (winners get money for their design as well) While looking, I saw one design which was funny so gotta share this with you!

FrecklesFly

Firestone or should I say FlagitiousShop

2006-04-28T10:48:00.000-05:00

While taking my car in for inspection in Dec., they said I needed 4 new tires before they could pass me (they were nice enough not to charge me for two inspections) Even through I knew one of my tires was replaced not long before! Nevertheless, I went ahead and get four new tires and save good one in my trunk. Guess where I went for tires? Yes, Firestone as they offered lower price than the most.

However, later in this month I took car in at Firestone for tire rotation as its part of warranty. I asked them for their opinion if the calipers need replacing (they're device that push brakes) as it seem to be wearing out that cause stopping not to go smoothly. At that time, front brakes were already replaced on the day before at home. When I picked the car up and get the invoice, I couldn't believe my eyes as they recommend new front brakes (remember they were practically new, just placed in the day before). Plus other labors such as brake system flush, clean, adjustment, etc and they did agree that calipers need replacing. The total was $827.41, no worries it was going to be done at home. How could they lied about brakes when its obviously new, eh?

That's not all...When I took the car to home for my dada to do the calipers as they were tough to do. He's far experienced than I am, I was still learning. He had a such hard time to get lugs off the tire to get the tire off to do the calipers inside... As of result two lugs were worn out and no longer able to be screwed back on. I had never saw it happened like this before as I usually was able to get it off myself so if my dada had hard time then they sure overdid their screwing.

So, here I went again back to Firestone to have those lugs replaced, at no charge. When I explained the situation, the guy smirked and seem not believe that it was their fault. He also said lug was not a big factor and it was probably stud that was damaged. If stud have to be replaced, it would cost me. I just stood firm and told them to replace the lugs as I knew its just lugs for the studs were fine (already checked). Finally the guy took it in and at the end, he did replace not just two but all five lugs on one tire. Later, he handed me the invoice and said, its possible that lugs was damaged while unscrewing the tire for caliper replacement "by hand!" as he wrote.

Hmph, suppose I got a flat tire in middle of highway, shouldn't I be able to get the tire off? Yeah, then they were not doing their job right!

I would be sticking to Dunn's Tires or Pep Boys in the future as I didn't have problem with them in the past, just the price was bit more.

1984

2006-04-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

1984? Yea, that's a year after my sister was born and just before 1985, when we moved from California up to Washington State. There's nothing specific in this period of year, why?....Oh that "1984"? What do you have to say about that "1984" book, I would like to see your perspectives of it, I was sure there were some points I didn't see.

My overall opinion of this book was that it was bit dry and extremely depressing as humans were dehumanized. That make me shudder and would freak if I lose my free will. As one point out, this book may be good for putting a perspective of future could possibly be so that we could be prepared for the worst and keep it from happening or so forth. However, I feared it might promote the idea and some of it could happen just because that author brought the idea up. Just as Marx, his idea was for good cause but other took it up and use it in totally different twist. Anyway, that's just my side of view.. what's yours? :)

On to the next, "Oryx and Crake"......wonder what was its vision of future, will be reading it soon as 195 bring it for me to borrow :)

Life's Surprise

2006-04-10T22:59:00.000-05:00

Does life sometimes surprise you? What surprise, you say? Ok, back then in my good ol'days of high school where kids run freely with no hint of worries that real world burden us... ok, ok I am getting to the point, heh...in 1998, a group of deaf students from school in Stockholm, Swede came to visit our school and stay with students' families for a week. A girl named Susanne Andersson, who happend to be from a deaf family, stayed with us. Later in 1999, during my senior year, group of us went to Europe for three weeks (three countries). Swede was one of them, I stayed with Susanne's family for a week as well (visiting her school and another city, Oreboro). We had exchanged emails afterward but lost touch and address so long ago that she was no more than a memory in picture.
Out of blue recently, she managed to track me down as she remembered that my dad worked at my school so she contacted my school and my dad forwarded her email to me. She's currently living 10 min out of Oreboro, Swede. I have been wondering about her and I was thrilled to be in touch once again :) Also more pep in Europe to visit *winks*

Coding

2006-03-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

Anyone got MySpace? What do you think of it? Some of my friends had one, almost all of them who had it didnt have Blogger. Nevertheless, I signed up for it so that I could keep in touch with some of my faraway friends.
At first, I was confused at how am I to personalize it as theres no selections and options in account setting except to use coding method. I was abit baffled at how some of my friends, who knew nothing about coding, did it. So I had to goggle up the tips and guideline of how to do it, at end, I managed to code it the way I like after the trails and errors. Needless to say, I later discover that there were several sites that do coding for you, thats how others did it. But I wasn't complaining as I learned some about web coding in process.
In overall, I truly prefer Blogger to MySpace as it got too much of layouts, ads, and so forth. Blogger kept things more simple and enjoyable so MySpace was hardly used by me but as drawingboard for coding ;)

"Jolt" Gum

2006-02-24T15:26:00.000-05:00

At the last minute, my sister decided to fly out to D.C. and asked me if I could drive her to Buffy airport. She got a seat on 10:45 plane, thankfully not 8:50 because it would mean I had to leave Rochy around 6am. It was a such sunny morning and I felt fine all way to Buffy airport and dropped my sister off.

On the way back, I started to feel sleepy and I was driving my parents' Buick. The kind that was comfy and smooth ride, not ideal for early morning driving. While thinking twice about falling asleep at the wheel and careen off the road, I did some nosing around in the side compact and spotted "Jolt" gum (caffeine gum). I popped one in and start to chewing, it tasted bit too sweet. What I discovered next was unbelievable, the horrible taste start to fill my mouth and stayed for good several minutes. I never had tasted something so vile and I would rather to chomp down on shrimp than that! I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't the caffeine that's suppose to keep you wake. They just simply put in ingredients that would snap your eyes wide open in disbelief, thus "Jolt".

I think I would stick to music and sunflower seeds in their shells snack (truckers tend to eat them for awakeness, beside daily dose of coffees' caffeine).

Can you believe it?

2006-02-19T17:05:00.000-05:00

Remember the "Thanksgiving Dinner Soda" that Buzzair was broadcasting about? Apparently their products still attracted buyers as they sold those kind of soda again. Except this time, it was for Valentine's Day and the drink's name was "Love Potion" with red color liquid, egh. I didn't get the chance to look at what poisons they put in there as there was no way I was going to brave my bucks on those kind of billshut :)

Tricked or Technology Smart?

2006-02-12T16:37:00.000-05:00

Came across this site when looking for Foto site... Try it out to see if technology had gotten so good that you were tricked or it still was getting there :D

http://www.alias.com/eng/etc/fakeorfoto/quiz.html

I got 7 out of 10 (hint: don't stare at pix too long, more likely a victim of self-doubt, heh)

Pix

2006-02-08T19:28:00.000-05:00

this pix was took at Adirondacks Mt, while snowshoes hiking....it was posted in order for me to obtain url of this pix to use on other site :) in the case you were wondering whats point of this post

Suspended

2006-02-07T00:24:00.000-05:00

Didn't you ever get the feeling where you wanted to be somewhere else or do something else, but couldn't or didn't know where to start? That's where I was now.....Between now until the fall (when I would be schooling) I just knew I wanted to be somewhere for at least 6 months or so, taking break from Rochester. Alas, where? Job? Enough time? Where to start? Argh, I hope I would eventually figured out :) Meanwhile, just enjoy the moments, things would eventually fall in place, grins....

Typing(speaking) of that...195 showed me a biggest snowflake ever to be caught and recorded; it was 38cm wide.. I thought he was billshutting me but nope...(again, never mind those darn ads around it) http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53605

*~*~*~*its snowingggggggggggggggggggggggg*~*~*~Anyone up for snowboarding? :D

New Hobby

2006-01-31T00:24:00.000-05:00

Nothing better to do OR already used them up?
Here's some...umm...interesting way to spend unused time....

(never mind the overzealous ads around it)
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/111897.html

Fun, fun, eh? or What the heck? :)

Black Void or 50% Grey?

2006-01-20T00:18:00.000-05:00

What a snail day at work...Its a high probability that you would bust me in staring-into-nothing, gone-into-black-void-in my-mind moment...That reminded me of one animation that I saw on www.shockwave.com about a year ago. To my luck its still there, I liked its unique perspective (I better not say more or hint more) So see for yourself :) Happy viewing........

-> http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/fifty_grey <-

Childhood times

2005-12-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

Remember how we used to take a piece of paper and make different cuts, turning it into snowflakes and stick it on windows? It have gone technical..You could make one right on the website (http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/)
Here's mine :)

Winter & North Pole

2005-12-16T00:32:00.000-05:00

Nearing to end of my work shift, it was snowing outside (grinning). On my break, TV news and weather said it would be mix snow&rain between 6-9pm, stopped at 9-10pm, then possibly snow at 10-12pm. Sure enough when I got out, my car was covered not with snow any longer, but ice.
Later in evening, gone to Ingle aud. @ SAU @ RIT to watch "Polar Express" (pretty much first animated movie imitating humans beside cartoon characters) Its impressive movie , almost realistic (fluid movement and clear expressions) and it took 2&1/2 years to make. Sure can imagine that long with lot of work and details. It took me 6 hours to make 1-3 minutes flash for website class. This moive was worth to see if you like animation works and children story :)

When driving home, it started raining hails (not snow like news mentioned) and lot of flights were delayed. 195, TallWolf & JewWhoLovesGerman (as TallWolf called him) were lucky to missed it when flying out early this morning. I wished I had digital camera to take their lovely vehicles, which's being left at my apt to babysat, totally encased in ice. (Unf, camera's in other country with 195 :( )

whistles

2005-12-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

Throw out the idea of retiring on cruise or prison or at lest add it to the options....Lets retire on this Hotel POSEIDON, its entirely underwater at 20 meters depth!.. It will be opened on December 2006 in the Bahamas (plenty time for trials and flaws) .

Yet, we probably wont be able to afford it unless we were rich.. It cost $1250 a night (gulps)... that's much I could figure out of french post from the french guy's blog.

New Fad "Nursing Home"

2005-12-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Look at that! What do you think? I would do it :)

About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western
Mediterranean aboard a Princess liner. At dinner we noticed an elderly
lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main
dining room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters,
busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady.

I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told that she owned
the line,but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the
last four cruises, back to back.

As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to
say hello. We chatted and I said, "I understand you've been on this ship
for the last four cruises".

She replied, "Yes, that's true."

I stated, "I don't understand" and she replied, without a pause, "It's
cheaper than a nursing home".

So, there will be no nursing home in my future. When I get old and
feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost
for a nursing home is $200 per day. I have checked on reservations at
Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of
$135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:

1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.

2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the
restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast
in bed every day of the week).

3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free
washers and dryers, and shows every night.

4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.

5 They ! will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5
worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.

6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days.

7. T.V. broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress
replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your
inconvenience.

8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don't even have to ask for
them.

9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare;
if you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you
to a suite for the rest of your life.

Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama
Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to
go?

Princess will have a ship ready to go. So don't look for me in a nursing
home, just call shore to ship.

PS And don't forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side at
no charge.

Teeth of Lesser Wisdom

2005-12-02T01:19:00.000-05:00

29 Nov., Tuesday of 2005 was sad day indeed. Its the day when my jaws, root canal, teeth, etc were mutilated. I was having my wisdom teeth, all four of them, removed. As three were positioned sideways and refused to grow except for one innocent tooth that did but got removed as well. First two on right side went out willingly, didn't dare to rebel against pliers and all torture tools that dentist have within the reach. Unfortunately on left side, they decided to risk the revolution. One lost but another one on the bottom gave the dentist a hell of time that it had to be killed, sawed in half, and finally wretched out piece by piece. As of result, I looked like chipmunk but in few hours the swelling went down fast in other areas. However, in fourth area, where it was hardest, remained swollen up to today, going down very slowly. Now I look like half-mutating chipmunk...*chitters*

Black Friday

2005-11-27T03:27:00.000-05:00

Raise you hands (or "blog commet hand") if you have experience or seen Black Friday first-hand (its the huge sales in limited amount of hours on the Friday, the day right after Thanksgiving) I have heard of it but never seen or experienced. Alas, I was scheduled to work on that ill-fated day at Target, forced out of bed at 5:45 AM! There was a long line of people already waiting outside Target, there was even a food stand truck provided. Once the doors opened, yep, many customers rushed in. All of them either walk very fast or jog abit, taking lot of short cuts, mainly toward electronics or toys area. It was funny to watch how they all act from my register station. I was glad that I was not among them with all grabbing and arguing, so forth. There was even bunch of people being shoved to floor at entrance of store in Missouri. My mom went shopping that day (not one of those people that stand waiting but a hour or so later when its easier to go in) with my brother. She saw a knives stand at real good deal and it was last one. There was a woman with her arms full of stuff near her, protested that she saw it first. Yeah, maybe she saw but she don't have her hands on it but my mom was too nice and just let her have it rather than argue about it. She eventually got same one in Webster where they have more. Interesting day, interesting people, interesting capitalism country, huh? :)

Secret Places

2005-11-20T13:14:00.000-05:00

Rochester certainly know how to keep its secrets so well that you might kept on finding surprises non-stop. Two weekends ago or so, Leigh and I were heading out to Spot, the coffee house as many know, on East Ave. We happened to take different turn that took us on S. Clinton to lower part of Alexander St. away from Rochester. We spotted different coffee house on the corner of these two streets, called Boulder Coffee Co. So we thought why not checking it out so we went in. Its actually cool little old high beams ceiling, funky style among couches, small-large tables, board games to borrow and even computer provided. Only thing that was missing of that place were the mountains outside, heh. They have many more kinds of chai and other drinks which were quite good. Check it out on http://bouldercoffeeco.com/ We went there again yesterday and when we left, we turned on South Ave. aka. we found more cool places. There was a amazing old house store that sells all old house parts like door knobs, hinges, ceiling lights, doors, and many more. Its called Historic Houseparts, the interior of house reminded me somewhat of where my grandparents used to live in D.C. On that street also have neat hair salon called R Salon that cost around $19 for cut, my sister went there twice and were very satisfied with their style. Also there's cool artisc bar called LUX that I haven't gotten chance to check yet but based on Leigh and Lore's comments, it must be good place to hang out. There's still more places on South Ave., its certainly one of places beside East Ave, Park Ave, and Alexander St that you got to check out :) Want to know good restaurants spots in Rochester? Ask TallWolf :)

Coats, eh?

2005-11-12T17:26:00.000-05:00

While working at Target, theres lot of interesting things you can see of what customers are buying these days. One of things being brought are coats for dogs. Yes, a thick coat with puffy collar and all the works that you usually see on humans in wintertime. Why would dogs need coats, beside the cute outfits for them on Halloween? They already have fur, lots of them that some of us actually envy them comparing to our hairless, freezing skin. Wonder whats next? Shoes? Already got them at Target.... Pierced ears? Possibly!

Meek News

2005-11-09T14:46:00.000-05:00

Went Canada last weekend, partly for Ontario Deaf Volleyball Tourney. Some said, " Still coming to Canada, eh?". Yep, every chance, might eventually live there at some point, I was sure :) such as BC for summer, maybe.
It sure annoyed Jesse when I signed their signs, it was out of habit. Heck, you were on their soil. Suppose you were in Germany and you signed ASL, they would move off fast, hence, we got to adjust to its culture to get across to each other, wasn't that right?
Volleyball Tourney was short for 195's team,as they lose out. Only got to see much of game, only 3/4 of last one, didn't get to see much of old faces either. The location was terrible and barely enough room for fans. Unlike old time when it usually took place in Milton at ECD school, certainly one of best times.
Spent most of the time in Toronto, disappointingly, we forgot to stop by best Cheese store on Kensington Ave. Definitely would make a stop there when going up to Toronto during last week of Nov. to get my SIN (Social Insurance Numbers), its same as SSN (Social Security Numbers) in USA.
Until then......

Been There & Not Been There,yet...

2005-11-02T20:07:00.000-05:00

Saw that link (http://www.world66.com/myworld66/login?redirecturl=/community)
thru 195....For fun, to see how much I've covered :)

EUROPE:

USA:

CANADA:

Hmphspatz, not enough of Canada...Now I'm thinking of travel most of it this summer, hehe and more of countries in near future, hopefully. Guess I have itchy feet :)

Ain't Big Blogger, eh?

2005-10-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

After taking time to looked at some friends' blogs in a quite while, and realized they were more blogger than I was (last post was a while ago,eh?). Time to make some post that came once in while, just way I was :)

Lately, its mainly going to sweatshop everydays and waiting to see if I was able to get in school in the wintertime for second degree. Other than that, the Rochy either saw me somewhere in downtown or Borders or out of the town on the weekends. The weekend before last weekend, 195 and I went to his family home for Canadian Thanksgiving. Always will be happy to be in Canada and met his siblings at last. Sure liked his family, good humour people not some mean, overprotective people that eyed and sized me up, figuring whats best way to get rid of me :) TOFURKEY actually was good, it wont bite you to try literally! :)

Last weekend, went for camping (originally backpacking but short wknd so...) at Keuka Lake State Park. Its small park where its very quiet and peaceful, far from metal animals that zoomed down roads, emitting toxic smoke, occasically swerve to hit and bulk boxy things that never moved, where lot of people were saw going in with pocket full of money and came out empty-pockets, armful of things that would probably visit landfill by end of the year.
Ok, you got the picture so its good to get away from those from time to time, rite? Take look at this lovely place...... Cant wait for the wintertime (I know some of you groaned, heh) Maybe some winter camp? Snowshoe hiking? Countrycrossing? Oh yes, snowboarding! And more :) Any of you that would like to join for some camping or snowboarding, lemme know! ~the more, aka. more merry~

Feminists

2005-09-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

On Friday nite, Leigh and I opened our place as half way house to those gals, who suddenly found themselves outside, flat on their butts...as half of us, their guys decided to have a guys only poker night (their cover up to have a gossip time, they'll never admit to it) and another half of us just came for heck of mocking at their machoism with us (they didn't know of it ;-) ) Hehe
As promised, the pix was posted for u gals to copy and keep :)

Killing Time

2005-09-24T14:18:00.000-05:00

Out of boredom and fear of mind deteriorating due to the boredom, came across this questionnaire site :) wanna see my result, eh?

You Are 80% Boyish and 20% Girlish

You have a tough exterior - and usually a tough interior to match it.You're no nonsense, logical, and very assertive.Sometimes you can't understand women at all, even if you're a woman yourself.You see things rationally, and don't like to let your emotions get the best of you.

How'>http://www.blogthings.com/howboyishorgirlishareyouquiz/">How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Movin'&Workin'

2005-09-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

Finally moved in the new apartment on Thrusday but couldnt bring rest of big things such as bed, desk, and etc because parents' caravan was long gone in Maine for its vacation so Leigh, my roommate, and I had to wait until Monday to finish it up. Wished had the whole wknd to settle in but at lease we were able to settle in 1/2 decent way with other 1/2 of boxes. In case if any of you weren't sure of where I was located in, its still same ol'Rochy and Leigh was going for MSSE. So she was perfect person to roommate with and for me to get out of parents house. I love my independence and own space too much, 9 months there was long enough. Fair trade through to save up for the Europe trip this summer (definitely worth it!!!!!!!!!!! Wished dearly that could stayed there longer)
Today was the first day back to the work, not thrilled but gotta earn money as usual and working in different postion this time (cashier/salesfloor). Better than saying good bye to daylights for long to work on same postion which had moved to overnights shift.
Off to my sweet home apartment to rest my feet abit and finished up the unpacking.
CHANGES MADE ON THIS BLOG:
way of posting comments were bit different now as the word vertification was set up due to some spam being posted in comments...you guys still can post your comments without having to be a member..just be sure to enter the word vertfication at bottom of page to get it posted :)

Still busy

2005-08-25T13:13:00.000-05:00

After Aug 10
Even the trip of Europe was over, we still got some more of travelling.. first to Buffalo for a weekend at Jesse's cabin, saw Keith, Kevin, Tiffany, Jess, Matt and his gf... then up to Canada...stop by to see Leigh whos would be my roommate this year :) and stayed at Matt Brownell's neat trailer near the lake for two nights, finally to 195's parents to see them and get some of his things. We could only stay there for one night as the next day was first day of 195's RA training (his job of year while schooling) and I was shacked with a darling girl that I was to babysit for a week...next week would be time to pack up for moving to apt on Sept 1 then going back to my work on Sept 5...no time to real laid off,eh?

Hope to start posting pictures soon, right now we were having bit trouble to download memory card into computer :P

Dublin->London

2005-08-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Aug 10
The reality finally caught up, time for us to leave the summer of Europe behind. Was not looking forward it and it probably contributed to some of crankies btw 195 and I when trying to get on right tube and reaching to the gate which was 15 minutes walk inside the airport and got there in time to board. The catering for British Airways were on the strike so we wouldnt have any meals but was given a sandwich and water in "lunch bags". When boarded, it was pretty hot inside and got worse as the plane remained grounded past 8pm, the time it was supposed to take off. When asked the stewardess, turned out the starter of airplane was broken and had to be replaced. Finally after one hour, we took off toward New York City. We arrived there late at 11pm and missed our bus at 1am as the subway ride was long. The next bus was at 5:40am so we were stuck at bus station in a room full of other people and one guy seem to stink real bad. 195 couldnt stand it bu it didnt bother me that bad because my nose was bit blocked up and i was more irrated that we had to wait for several hours. Finally time came for us to wait in line for bus, what was more that the bus broke down so we had to wait for other one which arrived around 6pm! The busdriver went different way on backroads but got to Rochester in 7hours flat, no longer. We got into Rochester at 1pm so we offically finally arrived back after string of bad lucks as if North America didnt want us back. Frankly, we would be more than happy to stay back in London :)

Aug 9
Went out to Greenwich town, upitty part of London and home of 0 degree of logitude in the park of Greenwich. It was near water that bring perfect weather to the sunny day (its already cool in London). After stopping at a small cafe to grab some lunch for the park so that we could enjoy the outdoors. As we observed the people while eating, 195 pointed out a couple that was carrying a pinic basket waling down the sidewalk and mentioned that they were a true European. I had to add that the true America would be carrying a big pinic icebox filled with beers and big hunk of mean, then they would drive in car up to the spot they want to eat rather than to walk.
After our lunch, went up to top of hill, visiting the Greenwich museum and stand on 0 degree logitude. Afterward, spent most of aftertoon in park, lying on grass and reading our books. Finally went back into London, to "home" for the evening and grabbed last dinner from Indian place again :D

Aug 8
Nothing exciting and went to Camden Town (a down to earth, punky,hippie kind of part of London) They have lot of neat things at cheaper cost and foreign food courts. Got few things, not alot because its real cheap for London people but still a double cost for us (7pounds equals 14 dollars). Around dinner time we got some food from Indian place around the corner, they have real good foods there for good price!

Aug 7
All of us who went to rave slept in late except for poor Himel, he slept only for 3hours as he had to go to a wedding. 195 had little headache but Adam got a bad case that last him whole day into tomorrow when he finally feel better. I got little headache but it goes away fast when Stephen offer me a drink with solutable pill that worked real well (thinking of buying one but forgot to). A day of relaxing.

Aug 6
Slept in at last and did some laundry as theres not much left for us to wear! Chatted with Stephen, Adam and Himel bit of how our trip went and they fill us in of the bombings in London. They still got the newspapers of it, glad that none of them were in those places at time of bombings.
Most of day, boys were watching the cricket finals (very popular game in London, as well as Australia) I learned an quite about it and watched some of it with one eye reading the book that I was almost finsihed with.
Finally at 18:30 we got ready for the Deaf Rave (which was taking place at some church, weird isnt it?). Went with Adam out to meet up with Himel and his friends at a bar for few hours before going to the Rave. When we got there, it was pretty packed on every floors (three of it) and pretty dark. We lost eachother easily but managed to stick with one or two of us most of night. However toward late of night, we lost eachother almost for good. 195 couldnt find me or anyone else so he finally decided to head back to "home" and bumped into Adam at bus stop. He also had trouble finding anyone so hes going home and ran into 195. Now 195 would be able to get in home because hes planning on waiting on the step! As for me, I sure enjoyed Rave alot and saw few familar faces and met some new people...later I realized I didnt see my crowd or 195 so I started looking. One guy I was chatting with was looking for his friend too so we went looking together for his friend and me for 195. We didnt have much luck but I found Himel and stuck with him for the remaining hour and that guy's friend eventually found him. We got out at 7am when the rave ended. I was bit surprised that I was actually there all night toward early morning! I was sure that 195 was at "home" but still was relieved to find him there, sleeping :)

Aug 5
Last day of Dublin and of visiting new countries for we were heading back to the start of our trip, London, England! 195 wanted to check out Jameson Distillery, product of Ireland. Apparently they dont gave any discount for deaf people and they got phamlet explaining the parts of tour so we felt its sufficent that we didnt take a tour afterall. After checking out their store, didnt find anything to buy, went over to busy street of O'Connel, where lot of stores were located to get some things for the family. 195 didnt find anything of Ireland for its mostly sourvieor that he found to be cheesy,had to agree with that. Only thing I bought was a thimble for mom and nice shirt for brother. Went back to hostel, mulling over whether we should make our late lunch or wait til the airport. At that point 195 noticed that its 18:30 as we thought it was 17:30, were planning on taking bus at 18:00 to airport. So we rushed to the bus stop, unfortunately it seem to be the busy time of day for there were many people and we all had to crammed in with only one enter and exit on the bus. We arrived at airport in time and have enough time left to sit and wait for our plane, that was a close call. Certainly enjoyed Ireland but wanted to visit again to visit the rest of Ireland as they got several very intruging places to see such as Gaint Cuaseway that we didnt have time to see.
Landed in London within a hour (short ride, eh?) and found out that we were way outside in the outskirt of London and we had to take train toward center of London (more money going out of our pockets) and took tube to the Elephant Castle stop. When we arrived at the Elephant Castle,we wanted the bus toward Old Kent/east st where friend, Himel and his roommates lived at...so we were looking around for right bus stop as there were several on the same street. One guy asked if he could help so I wrote the number of bus (#63 or 168 toward Old Kent st/east st) we want to take, he didnt know. So we went our way and starting to remember one location that bus stop at but the guy stopped us and said he know and kept gesture us to follow him. He was very insisting so we followed but turned out he thought the number was the number of house..finally he got that we wanted the number of that certain bus, he felt awful and paid for our bus fare, sending us in right direction at last. It was nice of him to help, in a way we could have arrived friend's house earlier if it was not for misunderstandings but least we got a story to tell, heh. Our friend, Himel, was glad that we got there as he was wondering if we were arriving that night and almost ready to go to sleep when we arrived. I told him that we would arrive around 11pm but with all that long train ride into city and confusion with the guy, we arrived his home at 1am. Very beat out and light out shortly as we hit our head on temp beds (the couches, hehe). It kind of feel like we were returning to home already, we sure liked London alot and wouldnt mind to live there.

Dublin

2005-08-23T23:57:00.000-05:00

Aug 4
Decided we wanted to (more on my side) visit outside Dublin to nearby towns so that we could see more of Ireland itself. The tickets for train wasn't that cheap and the ticket was stamped at the gate (based on experience, conductor often didn't check the tickets when already boarded so it was bit waste of money) That led to the decision to buy roundtrip ticket to Howth (one of two towns we want to stop at) as it was closest than Drogheda. We went to Drogheda first, not much to see except for its old fort and one remaining gateway for it was a fortress in its old time. Several battles had took the place there and the rally, calling for peace between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland not too long ago took place there as well. After peek in one or two shops to see if could find Ireland wool sweater, no luck, we hopped back on train toward Howth. It started to rain when arrived there so we popped in a restaurant for a lunch and it was still raining when we were done eating. We took a quick walk around, along the shore and up the hills to take some pictures of true Ireland harbor town. Then decided its not worth to stay any long so we took train back to Dublin and stopped at food store yet again for our dinner (stayed at another hostel that was reserved for other two nights due to cheaper $$). Got a Guinness made for foreign market that had higher percentage, it taste strong and ok as the Ireland's way Guinness taste better.

Aug 3
Bright and shine, with some breakfast in our stomach, we took to route we saw in book with some of our add ons. Stopped at O'Mallory's pub that some famous people like JFK had went there. Got a draft of good ole' Guinness of Ireland there, the barman said to let it settle first then he would fill the remaining to proper level once it settle . Its quite different to another drafts. It was only 11 in morning and pubs were already opened early. Stopped at Trinity College, one of oldest and well known college where the grass were green because people were not allowed to walk on it but it look bit threadbare to me (wondered if there was school of students sneaking quiet stampede on it during darkest of the night).
Went through one small park where life-like with life-like color statue of Oscar Wilde (famous poetry?)on a rock and a big park, many people lounged out on the clean cut grasses on their lunch breaks and business men taking a stroll along its several ponds.
After small detours we reached to the vegetarian cafe where there was a long line of people waiting to order (quite surprising for it wouldn't be seen in east of north America for sure), enjoyed a good meal. Went to Guinness factory to take a tour of it, didn't get much of discount and had to agree with 195 that the Heineken Experience tour in Amsterdam was more worthy.
Hence to say, we saw most of Dublin and head back to hostel for the evening of unsuccessful attempt at cooking the vegetarian burger mix that we bought in Hungary for its in Hungarian language so we tried our best to guess. No luck as it crumbled and we had to ate it that way and tasted pretty bland too.

Aug 2
Gathered up our things and slung it over our shoulders once more and head out... No, not to train this time but to the airport of Brussels. However, it was half true because we still had to take a train to Charleroi (45 min out of Brussels) where airport was. The first train we hopped on said its heading to Charleroi but only to stop at next station and all people got off. We were puzzled why and tried to catch another one and missed. Still to our luck the another train going this direction was coming shortly afterward and arrived the destination before the another one we just missed. Also we left early so there was nothing to panic about missing the plane. We eventually got to the airport, checked in our bags, to our dismay they had a weight limit on bags and any that was over the limit was charged 7 Euro per 1kg. Mine was just barely at the limit (15.9), while 195 was 23kg. We took out some things but not to much of success and ended up paying 55 Euros.
Arrived at Dublin in nick of time and took the bus into the city (30minutes away) and got off on O' Connell Street as our hostel was nearby. After walk up and down the street several times, still couldn't find it so we stopped at an internet cafe (its everywhere! on every street!) and found out that it was Talbot Place not Talbot St (both intersect eachother thro). One thing to know about Ireland's streets were that their street name change on every block so one stretch of road will not have one but 5 different street names if it got 5 blocks on it. It sure make it easy to find a place for there was little chance of missing it but it sure confused hell out of new faces in the city.
Found the hostel and signed in, while 195 was at internet cafe, using up remaining minutes. Once I signed in I walked back to internet real fast that guy practically ran and was relieved to find me. He apologized for forgetting to have me sign the receipt and was friendly that on way back to hostel, he asked what I think of Dublin so far. Told him that its interest place but hard to say yet for it was only first day being there and after signing receipt, couldn't resist the temption to joke by asking the guy if there was no other thing that he might forget, he laughed and said, "Yes, that was it." 195 and I zoomed to the food store just down the street after make ourselves at home in the hostel, to buy some food for the dinner and the next day. Walked down the street abit before calling it the night.

The Rest

2005-08-19T15:02:00.000-05:00

Time to finish up the rest of last part of Europe!!! 195 sure managed to do most of his... ah, at least the lull give you some time to catch up on reading them all :)

Aug 1
Last day in Brussels, grabbed that day to explored the east side of the city. Went over to see the Atom that were often seen in books or postcard of Brussels. Turned out it was closed for repairs, another one where you just stand outside and snap the picture with all construction obscures. Walked over to the Japanese park nearby, eyed beautiful Japanese building which wasn't not open on that day. It got me thinking about traveling Asia next. Made a brief stop at internet cafe to check on process with finding an apartment for the fall back in the Rochester. 195 got some beers which was quite strong and bit too much. The end to long day of walking of Brussels.

Back to July 31
Took advantage of the LAST day of our Eurail Pass by taking trip to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (smallest country in Europe, slightly smaller than Rhode Island, USA) Beside Vatican or Monaco or Andorra.
Only three hours ride from Brussels to Luxembourg City(almost center of country), small, eh?. It was an old city with old walls still standing around most of city. It got one of really peaceful and nicest park set up in the valley outside the wall (looked it might once was a river or creek but long ago blocked off) It got excellent trail to run or walk. There were several little rail tracks for children to ride in small train, playground and great section of hill for sledding. It even got a pond, wouldn't be surprised if it was even used for ice skating in wintertime,and quiet little creek alongside trail. When we wandered into city (tips suggested to just wander through the city as we would came upon most of major sights), we stumbled into a medieval festival going on with everyone dressed up in medieval time except for the visitors. Bought ourselves a medieval lunch, a wrap with spread of onion and herbs..Another is with potatoes, quite good! But it left us a strong onion breath and burps! We took a walk on the route where there was brass triangle on ground point us the way to best parts of city.. Wandered along most of it and nearly lost 195's water bottle but someone was kind enough to put it on the side of trail, whew!
Finished the city to our satisfaction within approx. 4 hrs and headed back to Brussels early than we anticipated. On half-way back, a shy girl across us on the train finally worked up her courage to talk to us. Turns out she was a hearing girl from Luxembourg City on way to Brussels for her university year and she learned some sign language through a deaf girl who was in her class that introduced her to other deaf people. She signed in France Sign Language so we mainly communicated by writing for she know English as well. She got her deaf friend who lived in Brussels to meet up with us so that he could tell us more about Brussels better than she could. The guy, Reno, was nice guy and give us lot insights of what Brussels were like and how was it for the deaf people. There were still some oppression there but they were fighting back, unlike in North America where there were lot more rights.
They drop us off at the hostel after the bar place where we sat down to chat for while for it was already late in the night and bars were only ones that were open that hours. Nice end to the day of two countries visit despite Brussels' constant rainy days.

Day of Brussels

2005-08-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

July 30
The day of walking enroute lair of Brussels, 195 and I chose the one that seem to be in the middle/lower class part of city, other was in business district and another was in rich part. Started out with the eagerness to wear out the soles of our shoes after a stomach-filling breakfast provided by hostel, quite filling mark my words...went past one of old church, walked through shopping centre with glass roof covering walkway between two buildings, got our hands on Beligan waffle (too sweet and it got syurp that reminded me of sugar cane syurp that my roommate loved for she was from near the New Orleans, where most people use sugar cane syurp rather than maple or else)...went thru Grand Place, an open square of the most oldest and most well preserved buildings around the edge of square of Europe. Flower fesival was held there annually where they made a design with flowers covering the whole square, too bad that day was long gone by the time we were there.
Ah ah time agoinggggggg, sorry got to leave you hanging

2005-08-08T20:40:00.000-05:00

July 29
Forgot to add one thing of previous day.. we visited the Sex museum (hey, is that gasping and tsking come to the mind from some of you, eh?) Afterall, it was mentioned by some friends and a cousin who went there and practically Asterdam was the one that had it so I was wondering what it was all about. Basically it was all ah, better save the details for the sake (for those that didnt want to know and for those who do, better let them see for themselves)
Now back to day of July 29, uneventful day as we travelled straightaway to Brussels, Beligum after signing out the hostel. Brussels was only three hours away so no need for overnight trip or to waste the day in Netherlands when we could see Brussels on the same day. After dumping and taking claim of bed at hostel, we went out to explore Brussels alittle as it was late in afternoon. Stopped at food store across street to stock up for the dinner and getting some Beligum beer, naturally. Beligum was known for its wide varitiety of beers with higher percentage than rest of europe (most). 195 got a free map that have three suggested walking routine hightlighted on the map, it look interesting and pass most of the major sights and insights of city as well so we marked it in our mind to do on the next day. Until the next...

2005-08-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

July 28
Nothing much left to see for all its famous tulips were long gone in may-June, they even have farms of it which reminded me of the tulip farm back in west that I saw when I was young. It sure fascinated me to see an "endless" colorful field of flowers back then. I also didn't see any windmills but we sure did see lot of modern windmills which were use to make electricity in Germany and Netherlands. Stopped at small greenhouse which supposely to have world largest water lily but it was actually second largest water lily for the other kind of lily that was largest cant survive in Netherlands' climate.
Stopped at library where they provided 30minutes of free internet, did the usual things but with limiting time so we went to an internet cafe aft it to work on our travel plan after Brussels, Belgium. Through all those bickering and mind-blogging, 195 and I figured out best way was to fly from Brussels on budget-saving airline, RyanAir, direct to Dublin, Ireland (in my delight that we had time to least visit it) Wanted to have 3 days tour around Ireland but time and money wasn't abundant so Dublin would do for time's beginning.

Amsterdam

2005-08-05T16:40:00.000-05:00

July 27
After short breakfast, headed to our reserved hostel to check in and dump our packs then nabbed a free map of city. Started out looking for well-known statue of penis in front of Casa Roma, in which, I was not familar with until 195 point it out alongside recommended places to see on the map. No such luck of locating it, since it was not most desired so we didnt try hardest to find it and headed to the Heineken Brewery for a tour. Interesting to learn how it was made and I am sure some of you were drooling at thought of it. Afterwards, tried to find a park that had a human-size chess, no such luck. Then tried to find vegetarian cafe, same thing again.. so finally we stopped at a coffeshop for a snack of brownie and cups of coffee so that we could use their toilets. Amsterdam's streets were pretty confusing sometimes and some places that said to be there didnt exist at all.
We looked up and found another vegetarian restaurant that we eventually found but meals was bit expensive that we went to yet another coffeeshop for dessert. We had cholocate cake and hot cholocate drink (amsterdam must love cholocates for they were plentiful and most of desserts were them!) Headed back to hostel for the night but got bit turned around and went in circle for bit before finally finding it. Stayed in for rest of evening, not in mood to get lost in their streets at evening where things looked different.

July 26
Time to leave Berlin to the next stange land but alas not before we stopped at the post office first. To send a postcard and for 195 and me to shed some extra pounds of unneeded stuffs, surprisingly mostly his :D Ah yes, I did have some things that I would love dearly to dump but backpack still got room for it so why not enured it and keep myself in shape ;)
Jumped on the train toward Hamburg, Germany, when arrived, we realized that it was city with little significant to see even thro it said to be most bomb riddled city out of others in Germany. Most or almost all of it was long ago repaired and rebuilt so not much to see of its damages. In end we decided to turn our tails and board back on train, heading straightaway to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hoping the hostel we reserved for the next night had an availibity for us that night.
Arrived at late evening but plenty of people out on street with interesting smell smoke coming out from coffeshops and plenty of red-lighted windows with women standing in them. A whole different environment, not exactly my atmoshpere but we got see much as we could of Europe, eh?
The hostel as not surprising was full and they referred us to an office that help people to find a room, apparently, it happened everydays :) We managed to get a room at 30€ per person (60€ in total) which was not baf for it was 5€ more than the hostel we reserved for the next two nights. This room we stayed was right on the corner of the building, with excellent view of busy street down below. Lights out.

Hence the Berlin

2005-08-02T23:45:00.000-05:00

July 25
Another typical day of sighting, one plus side I got my wish to see at least one building that showed the evidence of its war scars. It was a bombed-out church that partily of it was kept standing and its surrounding buildings were completely destroyed; new buildings now stand in it old spots and there even was a new modern looking church built beside the bombed church. It was intriguing to look at all old photos of the church and its surroundings in its former state and afterward. Then went on our way, peeked at Reichstag (Parliment) building that had torando shaped mirrors all way up to roof of its dome with long line of people way out into the building's lawn so we skipped going inside. Kept going to Soviet Soldiers memorial park, Terror wall where the SS headquarter used to be, and famous Charlie's checkpoint (they had huge picture of some soldier on the post front of check point station, didnt get to find out what it was all about of this soldier), and saw some of remains of Berlin walls scattered around the city as most of the wall were long gone (probably taken by some low budget construction company who saw the chance at free materials). Went in circles, almost in the vain, to find the square where books burning took place. Eventually did found it, thanks to our stubborn heads.... not much to see through except for glass window on the floor showing a bright white room with empty shelves and some cries from burning book can still be heard. The heavy rain broke out just as we were heading to subway for our hostel after a fast glance and snaps of the Red Town Hall, used to be Soviet's.

Bearlin (yes, Berlin but mascot of Germany was Bear, heh)

2005-08-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

July 24
Another fretful sleep on the train, arrived in Berlin, Germany around 5am, literally hoped that we would get the beds right away. After a short ride on bus to the All Time Hostel (almost same name as the one in Krakow, Poland thats called Any Time but werent even open early in morning) This hostel actually lived up to its name for we got our wish, the naptime :) The staff was friendly and helpful that he even change the sheets on bed that one occupant unrightfully slept in it. The place was also most clean of all hostels we had been to. Rested up most of day, planned out of what we wanted to see of Berlin for the next day..did bit of wandering in the area of the hostel.

July 23
Correction to my little error, on July 22 ("yesterday"), we spent our whole day at those castles and hit internet cafe (no, not to rob them) when we got back in Munich to reserve the hostel for Berlin before calling it a night. So as of today as you already got the preview, we went to Rothenburg. No need to make any more addtions to it to bore you out for we basically wandered around, gawking and gaping at how it managed to remained standing throughout many centuries (also was once the largest city in Germany but now an ant-size in comparision to Munich or Berlin), plus snapping pixs like every other tourists. Now on to the next day....

2005-07-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

Hey there.... 195 and I were in Brussels, Belgium! :) The internet were more expensive in Euro countries so we barely got time to do the internetcafe hunt for a good deal.. hope to do blogs before going to IRELAND! Yay! :)

--
~Rachy

Slowly, but surely

2005-07-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

I was slowly trying to catch up on blog train! I was still forever hanging on the rail out in the back at the end of train to in effort to keep up with the blogs!

July 22
Got up with castles on our minds, caught a train trip down to FÜSSEN, the charming little town admist greenish meadows and farms with blue/green lake, where Neuschwanstein castle perched atop its rocky spot up in the mountain...sounding very unrealstic and something out of storybook, eh? It actually does look that way, it was no wonder why King Ludwig II had it built there :)
We planned on seeing those famous fairy tale castles built by King Ludwig II and then, visit some medival towns among "Romantic Road". This term actually meant those fairy tale castles and towns that were left in its medival period, hence considered romantic to most of the visitors. We took two hours train up to Neuschwanstein castle and its neighbor castle for couples of hour and walked on its bridge high up across the gorge of appealing waterfalls where you can dip in its ponds at end of falling water (wish I gotten the chance and time to do that!) Then took another train trip toward Rothenburg, the medival town.. truly medival town except for its 1/4 of recreation in which it was destroyed in WWII bombing. Finally, took the overnight train from Wurzburg which was also one of Romantic Road spots but it was nighttime already so we headed on to Berlin, Germany.

July 21
Enjoyed the most of Munich, making reservation for hostel in the next city, Berlin and set the plan for the next day to see the castels among the Romantic Road (series of city between Munich to Frankurt. One of highlights of interesting Munich that its park had interesting parts to it for one part of its creek had an unique wave where you can actually surf there. It also had a nudist meadow where there were actually naked people there instead just being mentioned in the tour phamlet but no where to be seen, of course, we walk pretty quickly thru it to get to another side of park :P

München-Berlin, Germany

2005-07-26T01:35:00.000-05:00

July 20

195 and I arrived at the Jager's Hostel in München, bleary eyed near 7am in which the guy at reception exclaimed taht we were early! In the turn, the rooms were still full from the last night and we had to wait untip 2pm to take the claim on our precious bed spots. It left us to leaving our backpacks in lockers provided by hostel and ate all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet from 7am to 10am. We certainly took our time with the breakfast, helping ourselves much as we could and checking the spots, circling them, on the map of what to see until 2pm. Around 10am, we proceed to explore the München, checking out St. Michael church where King Ludwig II and his brother Otto were buried at. King Ludwig II was very well known for his fairy tale castles, one of them was Neuschwanstein castle that was frequently seen in tourist phamlet, caledar, 3-d puzzles and more all over the world. Then zoomed back to the Marzienplatz where the Glockenspiel clock was built at townhall in the celebration/gift for the wedding of Hofbräuhaus at 11am to watch the statues play and go around...the travel book warned that pickpockets practically had a field-day picking tourists' pockets while they gazed upward to the Glockenspiel clock (it didnt happen to us as we had almost nothing on us except the paper map that was worthless to them, grinz)

Ah! Time already ran out for me.... sigh... to be paused until then :(

2005-07-26T01:10:00.000-05:00

For those who took time to send/post comments on blog... Thanks! It sure ensured that the homeland was still there and you guys were still existing :) Keep up, would love to hear a tid bit peep from you guys, smiles.

2005-07-23T01:10:00.000-05:00

July 18-19

After the tumble, we stopped at places we wanted for some stuffs then made a headway to hostel, grabbing our backpacks while zooming over to the train station to head down and left of this country which was Ceskey Krumlov, Czech Republic. It was a charming medival town that got stuck in its time. It used to be a hometown of large generation of noble families but they later lose the interest and moved off to more attractive city...later the industry period came but this town lacks of natural resources or any major railway. Hence, it got left behind in its medival period without any modernization. 195 and I stayed there for one night and viewed the luxury castle and walk through the medival town and found yet another vegetarian restaurant with some bavarian menu choices. Then got down to the train for Munich, Germany but found out that they accepted only cash and we didnt have much left so 195 had to run all way back to center of medival town for atm machine (whilse it would made more sense if the medival town didnt have it but the outside part of it would!!!) Anyway, we finally got the ticket and made our way up to Munch, Germany on another overnight trip on train.

***currently in Munich, soon to be heading to Berlin tomorrow (23 July)***

Now in Munich (München), Germany, adding parts on Prague,Czech

2005-07-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

July 18

After packing up and leaving our backpacks in the luggage room at the hostel so that we could go up the Perin Tower and stop at two stores that we wanted to check out for our stuffs for it was closed on the day before. After climbing up the trail to the top of hill where the Perin Tower stood. It was a simple tower that in somewhat looked like the Effiel Tower in Paris, France or the Spaceneedle in Seattle, Washington state. It did have elevator (very small, only for one handicapped person to fit in) while rest of us who were healthy climbed the spiral staircase that go around the evelator tube. The view was indeeded worthwhile and we could see in the all direction of Prague and the land itself was a relaxing rolling hills, almost flat. There was a house of mirriors nearby so we went into it for heck of it and laughed at some ridculaous reflections of ourselves. Took a short cut through the park down on little dirt and grassy part of park where people vetured off the paths. It was bit steep and I went down bit too fast as I didnt want to walk down tenatively.. but in the turn, my body went too fast for my legs to keep up and I knew the turnout would be worse so I took a roll/tumble and stratched up my left leg and ankle, it sure hurt alot but I was allright with all of my limbs still attached! :)

As of July 17

Had a late breakfast for they served it an hour later on sundays...went out to enjoy the last day in Prague after pack up our backpacks and left it the luggage room of the hostel. 195 and I wanted to check out two or three places to buy some things of the Czech. We stopped at Jagr's restaurant for a drink and light snack for the place was owned by very well-known hockey player, Jaromiar Jágr, which was unkownst to me beside the Domik Hasek who was also from Czech and was best hockey goalie (his name was forever etched in my memory files for my high school classmate, Ryan, was crazy about him and would talk alot about him, heh...at which, I was sure he would be green with envy that I got to see the place that his favorite hockey goalie was from)
Afterward, we stopped at internet cafe (got to made the best use of the countries', which was not part of Euro, cheap prices) , updated much of our blogs and other small errands, got in touch with some people, then left to check one restaurant out that supposely to have some good vegetarian selection. When we arrived there, it didnt look like they have much for us to choose so we decided to head to next street where there was also another restaurant that have good selections as well. The restaurant was called BarBar, very laid back and artsy atmosphere with local artists' works being displayed on the walls. They sure did have resonably selection of vegetarian which was really good even through their prices was bit higher than the one we went to on other two nights. After the dinner, we mulled over whether we want to go to palace that have city view or walk up the park that had Perin Tower that gave you excellent view of city but at that time of evening, it was already closed. It was decided that Perin Tower would be climbed on the next day so we went for a stroll back to our hostel.

Missed part of July 16

I forgot to added that after leaving the Miss Deaf World, we stopped at one local bar called U Sudu that had series of catacomb rooms, where you go down the stairs toward basement, you would enter one room tables and bar..but there was yet another enterance into another room..hence when you enter that one.. you would see another one off in the corner or so. The barman was friendly and quite animated, it was entertaining time.. we stayed there for a simple drinks them headed back to hostel for the night.

Remaining part

2005-07-17T21:05:00.000-05:00

July 16
195's birthday was TODAY, 25----->26 (no longer considered a youth adult by Europeans standard for discounts) sorry, honey. We slept in bit late on courtesy of 195's b-day and headed out to the internet cafe the first thing of the day to find out what was the plan with Magda for the evening as she said there were a deaf event in which we didn't know exactly what it was yet. After a good amount of time to do our stuffs on the internet, went out on a stroll toward more outer part of Prague to check out the market. It was ugly and pretty much poor part of Prague with some bums' homes scattered on bank of the river, the market was already closed in the early afternoon. Ah well, time to head back over to grand side of Prague and settled on eating at same restaurant instead of stopping at our hostel for the time was running out before the meeting time with Magda at the metro. We got to the stop of the metro that Magda told us to meet at bit late, thankfully, Magda was a patient gal. We met some other deaf people and got on bus (grinning at spite of ourselves for the bus was full of them with some isolated hearing person) We arrived at a hotel, in which, we finally discovered that the event was actually a Miss Deaf World pageant. Sadly, the whole program was run by hearing people down to every bit parts of it excluding the deaf contests (I hadn't seen them signed either!) Magda explained that her organization that was formed 5 years ago to fight for more of deaf rights had tried to get them to change some things such as TV screen to show big picture of interpreter and hearing spokeperson in small box instead the other way around that they had always done in the past. None of her organization's requests had been taken into action by those hearing people but Magda still hope that one day some differences would finally got through.

July 15
Ah Prague, Czech Republic! Yes, 7:30am was early but plentiful of people were already up as well. With our bleary eyes and backpacks as usual, 195 and I went to find a cafe and internet to have some breakfast and check on the email to see if 195 got anything from a gal, Magda that lived there, on where and time would we be meeting up. Flabbergasted, there were none cafe opened but McDonalds was! So we ate there but outside under one of tables w/umbrella (hoping no one would bust us eating at McDonalds) with much of grumbling but our stomachs were happy to have something to fill up. The internet cafe nearby opened at 9am, after even bit longer of sitting at McDonalds, 195 was able to check the email in which we now know that we would be meeting Magda in the afternoon in the same area that we were in. After looking up the hostels, we found one that was located right on an island in middle of Prague's river, Vltava. So we zoomed over there, hoping that it was not already filled up (no, not water but the travelers like us) and to our luck, there were a room for us in the dorm which actually was in a gym, interesting place (Travellers Hostel)! The day was still at beginning so 195 and I lounged out on one of benches scattered around the park around the hostel for an hour and went back into city, meeting up with Magda. She in the turn took us on a tour, went into Old Town first, saw its square and a church that had a beautiful clock in which the poor maker had his eyes took out just because the city leaders didn't want him to make any more for other places (very selfish of them). Alongside the way, we went over the Charles bridge, very old and was one of King Charles' projects. On the other side of river, we saw the Kings Garden and the Prague castle where before leaving its gate, we get to watch the change of guards, which was quite young between 16 to 20, I would say. One of them barely suppressed a smirk. We parted with Magda and went a down to earth restaurant and hit the sacks shortly after the dinner.

Remaining part of July 14
In our vain to find the way to Auschwitz Holocaust camp, the another local pointed us the exactly same direction that the woman at train station did. So we headed down with our backpacks on our back, enjoying the sweat creating creeks down our back. After a good distance, we didn't see any sight of bus or anything that show Auschwitz was in that direction, so we stopped while 195 went into convenice store to find out. The cashier pointed us back to the train station and putted down the bus numbers that we could take to that place. We were puzzled and wondered if the other locals were having a heck of time by telling us wrong directions. Finally we arrived at the Auschwitz and started our tour after deposited our packs at the luggage room (sure was glad that there were one). The Auschwitz was free and got various museums set up throughtout the buildings where the Jews, POWs, and some others were held at. It was around 5pm by the time we were done with looking, reading, and pointing...dued to the time and diminishing daylight, we decided not to visit another camp, Auschwitz II, which were even bigger and had lot more massacre done there. 195 and I headed back to train station area of Oswiecim and ate at the local restaurant which had surprising good selection of vegetarian plates. We helped ourselves to pretty local plates which was pedrogies (cabbage and onions), borsch soup w/boiled egg (beet soup), and cheese pancakes (crepes with ricotta cheese and powder sugar spiked all over it). Good and cheap! We later relaxed at the bar next door, also owned by the restaurant, enjoying cool drinks and watching the locals. At last, it was time to get on our train that was stopping in Oswiecim at midnight, arriving in Prague around 7:30 am.

Prague, Czech Republic

2005-07-16T08:58:00.000-05:00

Ignore the first post on Prague for this computer I am using refuse to allow me to type anything in the box except for the title box so I had to resort to sending the blog via email.....

July 14
195 and I had simple breakfast provided by hostel, which was coffee with bread, lettuce, tomato, cumber, cheese, and HAM! Of course, we excluded the ham whilse putting together a sandwich to chow down on. We was thinking of another visit to this vegetarian restaurant, Greenway, that we liked so much but didn't want to waste the day so we headed to train station to take a train to Auschwitz where the holocaust occurred. Soon as we arrived there, we purchased yet another bone-rattling overnight sleep on the train to Prague, Czech. Back to Auschwitz.. We weren't sure where to find right bus that would take us to there so we asked the woman at ticket booth.. She made a walking gesture with her fingers and pointed to the street going down away from front of the station. We still wasn't sure if we understood her so 195 asked another local that was waiting at the bus stop.

Krakow (Cracow), Poland!

2005-07-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

July 13
Here 195 and I, in the Krakow, Poland (I was not kidding that they actually spell it Cracow in their language) That left me wondering why heck did the Europe spell their "K"s with "C"s and "C"s with "K"s, ie. Canada -> Kanada, Krakow -> Cracow... Ah, soon as we stopped at a train station just before our final destination, the hostels representatives (they were all young adults) got on and start going from seat to seat, asking us if we want to book a room (we already booked a room a day before due to high season) Not one but several of them came by, forcing us to shake our heads more than the usual. Once we arrived at Krakow (keep in the mind, we arrived there around 5:30 AM in the morning) and there were even more of them, the aggressive hostel representatives! Soon as we escape the hoarding reps..We headed straight to our hostel, Any Time Hostel (keep that name in mind)...It was not that far and we were already used to all walking :) (I believe 195 had lost some weight)
When arrived, the door into hallway was open but there was no reception or any staff around.. After wandering around abit, trying to find someone.. I peeked at the note tacked on the front door for someone that was supposely to arrive there at 5am and discovered that they didn't have staffs 24 hours and would be opening at 8am. Now you see why I said to keep the name of the hostel in the mind..."All Time", eh? .... It was 6am by then so we wandered even more around the district, enjoying quiet roads (sparsely filled with cars but plentiful of trams, seemly their main transportation) And stopped at cafe for some pastry and two coffee each of us to kill the time. Finally, we got in and viewed the room, pointing out to the staff that it got no pillows or blanket (apparently someone decide to be pig and help themselves more of pillows for the staff looked surprised)
At last, 195 and I took nap for we couldn't really sleep at ease on the vinyl seat with some draft from the train window. Slept for good two hours (actually two for 195 but one for me.. Couldn't sleep for a while), once refreshed, we ate our lunch out in the porch (hostel supposely to have a kitchen for us to use but there was none, hm!) Afterward, we headed out to visit the old town...looked at Wawel Hill castle that had been there for over 500 years and buried 45 monarchies there, then wandering out in the streets, looking at random stores and spotted this internet cafe to keep in the mind. Lot of stores sell amber stones things such as little statues, jewelry, and more at cheap price for Poland was known for its amber stones (plentiful of it). We stopped at a sourvier store, looking for a certain thing, near St. Mary's Basilica and we stepped out just in the time to see a man in tower playing the trumpet for it became a tradition in the honor when the guard, having spotted Tartars army on the horizon, started playing his trumpet to alert Krakow's citizens and was killed by one of the invaders' arrows in the neck. It was well into the afternoon, so we started to head back to the hostel to shower and get ready for the dinner out at a vegetarian restaurant that we spotted in the book. On the way, we stopped at the train station to find out the time and prices for the train to the town called Oswiecim, where Auschwitz was located outside of. We would be going there tomorrow before heading out to Prague, Czech on yet another overnight train.
After struggling with the water temp in the shower, I finally managed to get cleaned, faring 195 a good luck with it when it was his turn. Yes, soon as we were ready.. We headed out with food on our mind and arrived at Greenway, the name of this vegetarian restaurant (forgetting the thought of "should I bring umbrella?" for it did rained abit earlier) This restaurant turned out to be one of best vegetarian restaurant we ever been to and the prices was filthy cheap! I strongly recommend this place to anyone that happen to visit Krakow, Poland whether they were a vegetarian or not! :) With stomach full and a smile on our faces, we huddled against the rain (regretting for not bringing the umbrella) toward the internet cafe.......You know the rest :) (it sure was strange to be doing the blog of the day on the same day of this day..) Until then........!

Budapest, Hungary

2005-07-12T16:27:00.000-05:00

July 12
195 and I enjoyed sure enjoyed the time at Zoltan and Erika Wahl's place but we had to continue our trip out to Krakow, Poland. After a good breakfast and more chatting with picture-showing of their friends and enage party. The hunsband wasnt present as he had to get up at 4 30 am everydays for his work. We also took the picture with the family, minus the hunsband :( , in which we will post later on when we were back in our country. We headed out to the mall to do more blog updating for you guys, smiles! We were going to see some more places such as labryinth of the Castle Hill and statue park, citadel & liberation monument, and great synagogue today before catching the overnight train to Krakow, Poland.

July 11
The day was bit cool and gloomy as we head out by noon toward the city park (Városliget) where they got a park, palace, zoo, and amusement park. It was deaf day where all deaf parents, grandparents even that were not working that day brought their children to amusement park at discounted price. 195 and I parted our way at there to view the city and the spots. It was rainy and I failed to bring my umbrella so we only got to see St. Stephens church where they got a mummified hand of King Stephens but we could hardly see it in its glass case. We went to an Indian restaurant for a simple lunch then headed to the mall to use the internet at the book store and bought some food from Spar. We finally arrived back at our host's place around 9pm even through we said we should be back by 8pm, they said, "oh, dont worry as you got to see much as you want for its once in the lifetime" The wife, Erika, had the dinner ready for us (195 had told them that we didnt eat any meats that shocked them and after I explained that I was raised that way and 195 liked it so he followed as well without my part in telling him to be a vegetarian) Erika managed just fine, cooking up quite great and stomach filling dinner consisted of hard-boiled eggs in spicy sauce and oil alongside with a potatos and cheese soup (I am not sure what else was in it) but 195 and I both loved it. One thing we noticed that they tend to give us lot to eat and kept telling us to have second helpings while themselves only had one helping. We incidated to them to have more too but they just said they were already full, very generous host and hostess!

July 10
The train that arrived on evening of July 9's couches was manily of couchettes, only two couches were sleeperettes but 3/4 of it had to be reserved so the non reserve part was pretty full. We finally found a seat in one sleeperette where two other couple offer to share their space for most of people seem to be pretty selfish of their space so taht they could have more room to stretch out to sleep. Ah well but we managed to sleep most of night and woke up pretty early on the morning of July 10, out of Croatia, in Slovenia and into Hungary. When we pulled into Budapest, Hungary (they had three train stations), 195 and I mulled over which one of those should we get off at as we want to go to internet cafe to see if 195 got reply from his friend who was born in Hungary but moved to Canada at age 10 and still got a friend back there. We decided to wait until the second stop at more big train station, Keleti, in more inter part of city. At the turn out, we were glad that we got off at there instead for as we walked toward the exit of station, 195 spotted a guy standing with name sign, saying his name. I wasnt pay attention and almost went past that couple with the sign it was lucky that 195 spotted his name and realized that they were looking for us. Hence, we were lucky to catch eachother at right time and place. After a discussion of what to do next, look for a hostel with the deaf couple's help, their name were Zoltan and Erika Wahl. The wife, Erika, suggested that we stay at their place for we were going to stay only for two nights. We were grateful for it and it certainly nice to have a local deaf guide to show us around. They lived at edge of Pest part (Budapest was actually made up of two parts of cities, which were Buda and Pest) in a cozy small apartment with three small rooms, dining room, and kitchen along with half bathroom and shower/laundry room. They had two boys, one was 10 years old named Zsolt, and two 1/2 years old named Dániel. Both boys were hearing but signed real well. We dumped our backpacks in the playroom where we would be sleeping in and ate a light dinner then the husband, Zoltan, took us back to the center of Budapest to see some spots. We went to see the Chain Bridge (Széchenyl Lánchid) with its lights on at evening, they closed off the bridge at evening so that people could walk over it enjoying bands that were scattered throughtout it alongside the food stands. 195 and I were already drooling over a stand that cook vegetables on big round iron bowl so we got some; it was very delicious. Then with our guide, Zoltan, we head up the stairs toward tne Castle Hill (Várhegy) to get the city view and of the bridge. After it, we walked down to Matthias Church, its extior was covered with fanicful scluptures and carves with colorful mosaics on its rooftop. At last, we headed back to Zoltan's home around 10pm with him reminding us of the routine to take toward his place for the tomorrow as we had to transfer metro or tram then to bus then to metro, last bus to his place for the part of metro was under the construction.

Continued to be Continue...

2005-07-09T14:04:00.000-05:00

July 9
Here I am, at internet cafe to bring the blog up to the date and killing the time as our train depart at 10pm to Budapest, Hungary..long day, long wait until then......

July 8
We again relaxed for the day at beach, reading book.. later 195 went to Omis by bus this time to send email to a friend for a place to stay in Budapest, Hungary if we were lucky. Then we read some more, the most mistfortunate happed for the side of bed where Michael was lying on snapped and the bottom fell from the frame to floor. We summitted the woman and fixed it best as we could, keeping the room door closed for the woman didnt want her mother to see what happened to the bed for it was a new one, through not the strong kind. The next day was the day we were going to take overnight train toward Budapest, Hungary. I couldnt believe that it had been three days already as I felt that we hardly getting started our relaxing period in our 2 and half hetic months of travel.

July 7
I went out to a small market down the street while 195 was still sleeping to buy some food for a good breakfast. We cooked the onions, garlic, tomatos, and cheese with some oregano that we put in the bread alongside with chocoloate with wheats mixed with hot milk, it sure was good breakfast in a while. We then treated ourselves a day at beach, reading book, and basically relaxing blissfully.

July 6
195 and I decided to walk to the nearby town for some internet and to look around for Croatia was mostly the place for us to relax after all of moving and sighting. We walk and walk, hoping one of bend would brought us into the sight of town that we passed on the way to our location on the night before. We finally arrived there after approx. two hours of walking. The guy at tourist office was nice enough to walk us to the location of internet cafe in which we found that it will reopen at 4pm. It was 3pm so we ate at pizza restaurant nearby for we were starving. I first thought we would order one but 195 thought we should have one each (pizza in europe was usually thin and one whole pizza was enough for one person to eat it all) We didnt think with all of travelling and eating alittle habits that would leave our stomach small so as result we stuffed ourselves too much. I ended up feeling not too well and got headache. Nevertheless, we went up to an abandoned watch tower or fort that become an attraction to walk off some food then went to the internet cafe for a hour. I wanted to take bus back to our place while 195 thought we should walk to save money but I wasnt up to it with nausea and tired feet. At the end he won because four or more buses went by us without stopping so we walked afterall. Back at place, we looked at the map and found out that we actually made it all way to town called Omis that was 8km away.

July 5
It was 9am, 195 and I finally hopped on the train and napped for bit in sleeprettes but have to change the trains in Maribor, Slovenia toward Zagreb, Croatia. In Zagreb, we waited two hours before got on a train to Split, Croatia. It was brand new and functioned like an airplane for it had stewardresses and a lunch provided but unfortunately, it didnt have sleeprettes so we had t nap best as we could. We arrived at Split late at the evening, around 9pm and asked at bus station which bus going out to Lokva Rogoznica, where we would be staying at. We were told there were no more bus going there until the next morning which puzzled us for the woman at the place that we would be staying at sent us a schedule of bus times and instruction of what bus to take if we arrive after 8pm. We kind of stood around trying to figure out.. (that train station had lot of agressive women advertisting their home rooms for rent).. one woman was following us and looking at us.. so I showed her paper that I printed from my email of the intsructions. She saw Lokva Rogoznica and enthausically wrote that her grandmother was from there (she look about 60 years old but she sure wrote english very well) She beckoned for us to follow her back into station where she proceeded to speak to the woman behind desk of our desition. In end, there was a bus going that way afterall (hmphspatz!).. thankfully for her help, we made it to our place. The storm broke out on the way but luckily the place was just right across the bus stop, bit up on the hill. The room was nice with closet and shelves, plus balconey with table and chairs. They got a kitchen down below for anyone to use, as well as a tub in bathroom. We were directly across the ocean. We hit the sacks for the night with beach on our minds.

July 4
Here was where our day got interesting....in morning we stopped at the train station to buy the tickets and leave our backpacks in the locker before visiting the church. We arrived there and went straight for catacombs.. at first, they showed us the coffins of dead priests then another room with in-wall tombs that was covered with marble wall with inscriptions of dead person that was buried in each boxes.. naturally I was bit disappointed for I wanted to see the creepy part..(I was too impatient) for in next minutes we actually headed deeper into the basement down to realistic creepy part.. dark hallway made of old brick and stones, the floor was just a dirt.. the guide led us to a room with window-size opening with metal bars over it. Inside it held bones of people with some of clothes still clinging to its bones. I wonder why they need bars for that as I dont think those bones could get up and walk away, leaving people puzzled with the empty room. The guide then led us to more rooms that held even more bones piling up everywhere. I was truly satisfied to finally seen a catacomb but secretly wishing that some of my friends were there with me for I would love very dearly to spook them! (yup, you knew me well, grinning devilishly) We headed to train for our train but soon as we got our backpacks and looked at the tickets, it was when 195 pointed out that it seem to show the train was leaving from another train station. So we double checked and realized that it was true and we got only 10 minutes left to get from one side to another side of city.. we ran and walk fast to U Bahn but we failed and missed it by measly 2 minutes!.. There was no another train going out to Croatia until 5am on the next day. I wasnt too happy and didnt want to be stuck in Wien for a night so we looked at the schedule and hopped on a train to the next city that would take us close to the border as possible. We finally arrived at the border town, Spiegfeild..however there was no trains going out to Croatia's capital city, Zagreb where we could take train toward our destination, Split. Hence, we ended up got stuck at the train station in Spiegfeild for 9 hours from midnight to 9am where the first train going to Croatia will stop there. We had to slept on the benches.. not exactly comfortable night but an experience to remember, grins.

July 3
After looking over the map of the city, 195 and I agreed that we can see most of it within one day unless it was closed or otherwise. We went out on the U Bahn and stopped at a Scohn Palace with an excessive backyard that was open to public to enjoy. It got nice arrangement of flowers on the lawns, making some kind of design.. it also got bush mazes, small marble ponds with statues, and a sunhouse. It even got a public pool and spa for people to use at a fee. There were lot of people milling around and some of people use it for execrise, mainly running and biking. After it, we hopped back on train toward another palace that was converted into museum of different categories such as expensive arts, armours, music intrusments, and more. We planned on seeing the section on armours but got detoured to the museum of modern arts. It was ok-ok for we find most of art very weird and almost pointless ( I kind of wished we went to another museum across it with possibly more interesting arts but I went for that one as I thought it might contained modern scultures, architecuture, furnitures not the art) We finally went to the Palace museum in the opposite direction and found out that it was only half hour left before it close so we decide to drop it and headed out to the church, St. Stephens, that got catacombs that held many bones of victims of plaque. However, it was already closed and the church was getting ready for the mass so we hold it off for the next day morning before we take overnight train to Croatia.

July 2
Here we were, in the Vienna (Wien), Austria. 195 and I went straight to the internet cafe to look up for hostel for we didn't have the chance to reserve one beforehand. The internet cafe was quite nearby from the subway which was called U Bahn in Germany regions. We found one at good price as usual for we will always go for cheapest one and they were usually clean places with good services so why go for fancier ones when you can get the same for the less? The one we got seemly to be in former hospital building for it was near the hospital but nevertheless its quiet and nice place that includes breakfast! Yep, we do try to look for ones that includes food, smiles. We zoomed downhill to a food store, Spar, nearby to buy some food for snacks and something to drink. Later in the evening, we went out to an Asian restaurant that have good selection of vegetarian meals (we originally wanted to go to real vegetarian restaurant in the city that we found in the book but decided to hold it off until the next day) That day was Saturday evening in which we later regretted in a way that we should have went into city for that restaurant as we later found out that pretty much of stores and restaurants close on Sundays. (guess still spoiled with our countries' plentiful opening hours but in other way.. the people there were luckily to have a guaranteed day off)

July 1
Happy Canadian's Day! (it was same as USA's July 4th) The staffs at Interlaken hostel, Switzerland were in the Canadian spirit and there was plenty of Canadian travelers around wishing eachother the great holiday. 195 and I wished we could stay there for one more night to celebrate it but we already stayed there for four nights (fourth night was free, one of specials and for the canadian's day). We headed down to train and took a train out to Brig where we took the train called Glacier Express. The man at train station was friendly and showed us two routine that we can take.. one was to go around that would cost us nothing due to our Eurail pass and another one was the Glacier Express which would cost us some money but the view was worth it as it go through up and down the mountains. Ironically of this.. both routes had about same amounts of travel time. So we opted for scenic route, in which, the man smiled and said it will be worth it and the view was fanastic! In the end, the trip actually was worth it.. it went through lot of small towns, rolling of green fields, sheep munching peacefully, rugged mountains and it actually was very cool up there with bit of snow drizzle (we both were clad in t shirts and shorts). We arrived in the unattractive industrial town whereas the name escape us but it was still in Switzerland, we then took the overnight train toward Vienna (Wien), Austria.

June 30
Good ol' Zurich, which was not very big city as I thought for a capital city would be. The travel book said Zurich was very clean city that it was almost impossible to find any cigarette butt anywhere. I did found some! But otherwise, it was sure very clean.. not single litterbug. 195 and I spent most of day walking down popular street and a shopping zone, called Bahngifstrasse (it was long name to remember) that have bear statues everywhere with different pictures or styles or looks painted or put on it. We also took a peek at modern house built by Corbusier-Haus for modern was unusual and new during this period of time (in 1950s) on the edge of city park that was laid out by the harbor with great view of water and sailboats. We then headed back up into the mountains to our "homebase" Interlaken to enjoy the evening before departing on the next day toward Vienna, Austria.

Days sure escape you

2005-07-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

The last blog was June 25! I sure thought it was not long ago but no, it was 12 days already...oomp. Well when you was busy lugging along with a towering backpack on your back..searching and stumbling around for the location of hostel 195 and I were to stay at. When it was found, the sun miracously disappeared..left us misified of where did the day go.

June 30
We headed out to the Switzerlands capital town, Zurich for a day.... to be continued

June 29
We wanted to go up to the Top of Europe which was actually called Jungfrau.. we took train from Interlaken toward to town called Grindelwald. At the train station told us that it cost 259 euros to go up there, it sure made us pop out our eyes at the price so we dismissed it for the day was not at clearest and it simply was too costly for a poor backpackers like us. We wandered around Grindelwald for bit and got stuck in one pastry cafe when the storm broke out that last short time. Finally we went back to our town, stopping by a food store to get some food to try out a Switzerland recipe which consist of small potatoes, ralcette cheese, pickled pickles and onions. We cooked back at the hostel and it actually was great food and call it a night.

June 28
We decided not to wear our eyes and necks out with the sights so we took bus back to train station then walk from there toward one of beautiful blue-green lakes, this one was called Lake Brienz. We walked along its edge for quite while into noon until we came upon small rocky strip with few other people there what we were content to relax there *there were no beaches there* The water was cold but clear.. we swam abit and did most sunbathing and reading the newspapers at the same time. We then head back toward the town, showered, then look for food stores but most were already closed so we went to one restaurant for our dinner and enjoy the evening breeze walk back to the hostel. Pretty much laid back day, eh

June 27
195 and I left for Interlaken, Switzerland after prodding over which one we want to make our home base.. out of all Interlaken offer reasonably prices for their hostels. We departed early in the morning to the train station, I was smiling as I just showered before leaving and it sure feel good for I was sweaty and sticky. It was bit humid at Lake Como, Italy. But when we arrived at the train station, I was already bit sticky.. boy! We spent most of our day on the train toward Switzerland... once we entered the mountains I sure was happy to see those for I am definitely a mountains girl, at sight of those cheered me up. It was rugged, green and beautiful with some snow tops and blue-green lakes. We pulled in at the Interlaken, Switzerland in late afternoon and found our hostel without much of trouble and saw lot of flyers around that they plan to celebrate the Canadian Day *July 1st* We relaxed for the remaining of day.. checked out the town and enjoying the clean, crispy air. The water fountain was everywhere for us to drink and fill our bottles. The water came directly from the spring, quite clean.

June 26
Then on the next day.. 195 and I got up, nearly banging our head on the ceiling, scrambling down the ladders.. almost crashing into each other when 195 exited his boys dorm at the same time I exited girls dorm..*wondering at odd coincide that we both exited same time*..zooming, pushing aside people toward cafe for our precious piece of bread and a cup of juice or coffee..before we could sigh with a satisfaction, we were up and walking briskly toward the town. At there we sized up the tram that take people to top of the hill-mountain to see if we could hitched a ride on its rooftop but no, we brought our tickets like everyone else. At the top, we took a trail, trudged and crawled all way to the lighthouse where we get to see a breath-taking, almost needed a CPR in the process, view. We snapped some pictures like every other tourists of the Lake Como and took picture of our hostel at bird-eye view. At last , we head down back to town where we walked, wandered, gawked, and more on way back to our hostel for the night.*yes, I was exaggerated abit up above on june 26, hehe)

Addition!!!

2005-06-25T22:45:00.000-05:00

Here is some bonus for your guys.. our friend, Bezaire, who had to cut his trip short and head back to Canada due to his mono.. now he s able to upload some pictures of the trip.. if you are curious enough.. check them out at www.buzzair.blogspot.com ! Smiles....

More to update...

2005-06-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

June 25:
Today was the day we depart from Venice, Italy toward Lake Como, Italy.. recommended by our friend, Lore. We spent most of our morning and some of afternoon on the train toward Lake Como.. we left at 9:52 am and arrived at 2:05pm (14:05pm).. we headed down to grab the room at hostel.. but found it was closed until 4pm and the storm broke out just as we arrived at its location so we retreated to the underground walkway that goes under the road without us worrying about drivers hitting us. We stayed until the rain lifted up and managed to catch a guy inside yard of the hostel.. he took our cards to ensure we got a spots there. We then retreated across the street at the local bar to wait until 4pm, enjoying the local s cheap drinks... We eventually got a beds at this hostel and the people there were quite friendly as they explained everything to us such as curfew, breakfast time, sign out... and the possible sights we want to see when we asked about it. They even provided us a local newspaper that was in English.. whereas we discovered that George Clooney who part-take in Ocean 11 and Ocean 12 movies ( as well as many others) but especifically some of the shootings in Ocean 12 was taken in the area of Como where he bought a villa for his summer home. He bought it last year, as in the result , risen the prices around Como but we were luckily to come this year for it would be popular with tourists even more and price will rise more within few years as another actor. Richard Gere (this name was lost on me.. i am no good with celebrities) was to be said to rent a villa for this summer and Brad Pitt was rumored to be looking at some villas to purchase.. its just one of many rumors but it showed that Lake Como was getting popular......lastly we finally dumped our things, discussed on what we wanted to do tomorrow and headed out to this cafe where it provided free Internet as well to update you all until then :)

June 24:
195 and I did out best to get up early as we could and went into Venice again to see some famous landmarks.. pretty much, we loitered in some stores and had an quite hard time finding places for the map was not detailed enough and the Venice itself was not very clear on its directions on its signs that pointed the way to its famous sites.. one sign might point north while another would point northwest.. overall, it was confusing but we managed to saw two worthwhile places, one well known San Marco Piazza where lots of pigeons gather for some freebies grains from us. I convinced 195 to go for it.. so we brought some seed and fed to the pigeons.. it was an interesting experience for me.. it feel ticklish for me and funny to watch how birds try to clamber over each other for the treat. After it, we went to see the Bridge Rialto that my little brother, Josiah, recommend me to see.. it had stores atop it.. the only bridge in whole city that had stores built on it. 195 finally found the glass calligraphy pen that he was satisfied with enough to buy it, in which he did... his cursive sure were lot better than mine! Definitely a compliment for a guy due to the fact that girls tend to be better at it (whereas, I was not) Lastly, we retreat back to our home base for the evening.

June 23:
We relaxed until the half of day was almost over, mainly at nice poolside the campground had.. to avoid the heat and our feet needed some break.. we finally headed back into Venice to use one of their cafe that provided free Internet with a purchase from them... its called Cafe Blue, we brought a local drinks called Spritz from them at really good price.. therefore that's where we spend some hours using the Internet to our advantage and met some people.. one guy was from London, England and another was from Australia who came with his wife.. in early 30 s.. the guy mentioned that it was good thing that we all weren't American as he found out that we were Canadians ( of course, he didn't know that I am a half USA as well) for he found USA to be bigots based on how they talked and act as they seemed to act they were a priority in everything.. too bad we cant hear nor to compare.. nevertheless after the cafe.. we wander pointless around the Venice, experience it much as we could without taking well worn tourist s paths. We stopped at Asian restaurant that had quite good courses but unfortunately, the amount of food was small for its cost.. it cost a small plate at 2.50 euros to 3.50 euros while we usually got a big pile of it back in our country.. in a way, it was no wonder why the obese was a problem in our countries. Afterward, we headed back to the campground to call it a night.

June 22:
Today was the day when Bezaire was flying out back to his home in Canada.. while 195 and I headed out toward to our next destination, Venice, Italy. We all parted and wish each other the best of wishes. 195 and I arrived right in Venice s train station, St. Lucias. We took the bus back to the mainland where the another campground was at under same chain of ownership in the Roma, Italy. We pretty much relaxed the evening away for we arrived there approx. 6pm

June 21:
195 and I got up early as we could as lately we have been sleeping in until 9 am or 11 am.. nevertheless with an important thing to do for the day.. we got up at 8am and headed down to the train station that would take us out to Pompeii.. well known for it ruins that was covered during the volcano erupted that surprised many of residents unexpectedly and resulted in encasing many of them that we had the luxury of viewing today to see how they acted and positioned in the time of terror. We overestimated that we would reach to Pompeii approx. 1 and half hour but we didn't double check as it turned out it was a 3 hours ride to there...we still enjoyed gawking at the buildings that were left intact by volcano but we were disappointed to seen only two casts of people for we wanted to see more as it were very interesting and engrossing. It pretty much took all of the day for one place worth of gawking.. we headed back to Roma.. We arrived back bit late and discovered that the line of metro that we usually took was closed in which left us bit confused and lost.. after lot of wandering and asking, we finally found there was a bus provided for the same routine that the metro took as the metro was under construction for renovation during the nights. We finally made it back to the campground. I forgot to mentioned that our friend, Bezaire, stayed again at the campground as he didn't have much of energy to venture out even through he did on the another day.. on this day, he had to go back to the hospital for the testing result as on the other day.. he showed 195 that he got a black spot on side of this throat that cause his difficulties of eating and drinking. Based on what he told us on this evening when we finally got back, that it was common with those people that had mono.. however the people at hospital weren't clear and straightforward with him of what should be done and etc so he got fed up, he feel that it would be wise to fly back to his home in Canada for better service and come back to Europe in other year whereas he could enjoy it better. It was saddening to have him leaving in middle of trip as the more , the merrier... but we sure hope things will go better for his condition back at home. (sadly, I can no longer depend on his accuracy and details of the events of day by day from his pager which was more reliable than my own memories)

Roma, Italy

2005-06-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

June 20:
195 and I headed out to Roma to see most of the Roman s ruins...there were lot of them littering throughout the city , more than I remember when I first visited there in 1999 when I was barely 18 years old. I presume at my young age, I didnt not pay attention fully as I should have but nevertheless, I enjoyed visiting there both of the time but this time was bit of efforting to find places during the hot day unlike in my young days where everything was taken care of and the trip was during late sprintime where it was cooler. We managed to see Colosseum but didnt went inside it as they didnt accept credit card and we didnt see any ATM nearby so we went on to next ruins that was right next to Colosseum, it also require admission in cash only so we venture around the outside ruins that were free to the public. We took lot of pictures but at one certain point where I saw a bench with a wall behind it that had some of roman colums ruins sitting atop the wall.. poir it, I saw lot of ruins on the ground without any fencing or roping around it and lot of people sat on it for pictures.. so I did the same but some of people start to looking at me funny.. soon afterward there was a guy who worked on the site come up.. I would said hes older guy in his senior year, flaming mad and gestured at me to get down.. I gestured to him that I am deaf and didnt know.. he incidating to his whistle and clearly showed that he was whistling at me in the warning to get off it... it was no wonder that those people were looking at me funny because I was being whistled at but I didnt react to it.. therefore, it was bit embarassing and the guy showed no remorse toward the fact that I am deaf and was not aware of it.. he continued to make a spectacle of me ... nevertheless, I feel bit insulted but luckily for 195 was there to smooth my seething feelings. We continued on to see other places in the city of Roma. We stopped at Pantheon, one of works by Michelangelo, it had a hole in the ceiling that let in the sunrays in order for it to shine on a wall at certain location to show the timing of the day, pretty brillant architecture work. We then tried to find a place that have a crypt underground for we never saw a one but we have no such luck so we went over to see infamous Spanish steps.. we didnt see why it was so famous as it showed up alot on the television.. another thing to research on..finally we headed back to home homebase at the campground.

Florence Day

2005-06-23T20:05:00.000-05:00

June 19:
195 and I slept in most of the morning and took camping private bus to Vatican City to see St. Peter and Sistine Chapel in the late afternoon. We went through the basement of St. Peter where many of popes were buried then toured around the St. Peter itself but we failed to find Sistine Chapel so we headed back to campground for the rest of evening...

On the next day June 18:
195 and I toured around Florence, Italy before heading to Roma, Italy. We had to walk around with our backpacks on our backs as the train station was out of the way from where we stayed at. All of the places we wanted to see was on the way to the train station so we walked to them with the backpacks, it was hot that day! We went to place thats on top of hill first of all, it was Plazza Michelangelo .. more stairs to climb up, afterward, we went to one of building, Ponte Veccnio which was a bridge with lot of stores atop it.. all jewerly stores. Then toward Piazza Della Signoria, they got lots of statues of Greek myth people such as Zeus. We then went past Piazza Del Duomo, nothing so overally interesting about that building and went on to Piazza Aldobbandini, it was small building, so we just snapped some pictures and zoom over to the train station for the Roma, Italy. When we arrived there, we went straight to our sleeping destination which was Camping Roma that was at resonably cheap price for four nights. We met up with Bezaire there as we told him of this place so we could stay at same place and save him from other expensive night at hotel.

Sorry, I have to cut the blog updating short due to some people waiting for it after all it was free internet with a purchase of a drink in a cafe....Later then , smiles.

Firenze aka. Florence

2005-06-18T13:40:00.000-05:00

June 17:
195 and I arrived in Florence, Italy yesterday, June 17, after visiting Pisa, Italy. Bezaire decided to go straight to Roma. We stopped at a hostel and it was full so we looked back and forth on the same street, no such luck. There were two guys who sat at a cafe watching the whole thing so one guy waved to us and gave us a business card of another hostel in other location. So we went to the train station at the hotel customer service and asked the woman if she would kindly to call the other hostels for us to see if there were any available. The card that guys gave to us was also full but the woman at the hostel who seemily to live with her roommate had a guest room so they offered it to us at 35€, again not so cheap for a night but we were glad to get a room. Later we found out that it was worst for Bezaire in Roma as he looked for 4 hours, no luck and ended up paying 50€ for a room. Today, we are going to see around Florence then head down to Roma (this time we got on internet last nite to reserve a good deal place in Roma to stay at, a campground for approx $12 ea of us per night).. be updating later on.

Pisa, Pista, Pasta....

2005-06-17T18:05:00.000-05:00

June 17:
Here we were in the Italy, to see infamous leaning tower called Pisa.. it was just as what I thought it would be except that I kind of expect it to be standing in big field but it got some old buildings nearby around it. Oops, can't always assume until you see for yourself or do the research, grins.. It cost 15 € to go up the tower.. that would be about $18 just to climb up, covered in the sweat, all just to be on the top of Pisa that might topple over any minute, surprising the over-assured tourists (yes I was overly exeggarated.. I hadn't yet to go up for the next tour was at 4:40 so here I was at an internet cafe, killing some time to update you guys :) ) Lets see how it turned out...

June 16:
Bezaire, 195, and I spent the day hiking on the trail that connect between all five towns (Monterosso, Vernazza , Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore). The trail from Monterosso to Vernazza was steep and energy-draining but the view was worth it. We finally reached Vernazza after a hour and half of hiking, Bezaire decided to stay in Vernazza and catch the train to Corniglia to meet us. 195 and I continue on to Corniglia that was on top of cliff, we started to get very tired and hot.. finally we arrived there and decide to have a lunch first before meeting Bezaire at the beach for we got headaches. We ate and hiked down 341 steps down to the train station toward the beach.. We saw nothing that might be beach except for the one that had a tunnel toward naturist (other word for nudist) beach, it cost 5€ to go through the tunne to this beach even through you can leave the swimsuit on. It was not worth the money so we headed on to visit last two towns, Manarola and Riomaggiore, via train. Both were very small and not much to see except for handful of stores. 195 and I bought some food there, the cost of food was considerably cheap. Finally, we headed back to our home town, Monterosso, to relax at the beach and have our dinner before call it a day. We would be heading to see Pisa then toward Florence or Roma tomorrow (June 17).

June 15:
In the morning, 195 and I were refreshed and wanted to find an internet cafe so that we could contact Bezzaire to let him know that we were in the town and see where he was staying at. We wandered around in the town, looking for the cafe, we turned around and Bezzaire was right there at fruits and vegetables stands.. luckily for us! He showed his room where he was staying at and it turned out that he also paid 30€ for his room as well. It certainly make me feel better because it was lot to pay when I would like to save..cant alway exèpect that thro. Bezzaire offer to share his room with us to save more money so we did, dumped our backpacks there. Then head out to the beach, 195 and I took a detour on the way into the wine and herbs store, sampled their local wine as they were well known for their wines. We also sampled several home made spreads for crackers or bread such as pesto, pepper pesto, etc. It was a mouth-watering :) Finally arrived at the beach, it was bit rocky but nice enough and the water wasnt that cold (certainly not for 195 and I but it was for Bezaire as he loved hot, hot weather, warm water, etc) 195 and I went to swam out toward the rocks wavebreaker, before we started to stand on the rocks in water in order to climb up on the rocks out of water. 195 was already standing but I had the tendency to look down to see whats down there and saw that there were sea urchins. Naturally I become more careful and couldnt get out of water into jutting rocks for good few minutes. I finally did but banged and stratched my knees in the process. Guess it did me no good. Later it started to rain so we all headed to the hotel to shower and go to Vernazza for a dinner. We ate at a pizza restaurant in which was found cheaper than the rest and looked appealing. The guy waitress was very friendly and he gave me a free shirt when it start to get dark and cool (actually I got bit by an italian mosique that send me stratching crazily, making me look like I was cold). Afterward, we stopped at a bar to have a drinks while we waited for the next train back to Monterosso.

June 14:

195 and I got up 6:30 am to pack up and have our breakfast then we catch a train at 11:30 out to Ventigmilia then on another train to Cinque Terre (actually we had to transfer to local train in La Spezia, Italy) We tried to catch earlier train at 8:30am but missed it by one minute and the next one was full so we were stuck with the one at 11:30am. One thing that I definitely dislike of Italy was their trains as they went real slow and made frequent stops, some of the stops didnt even for picking up the people (grring). We finally arrived in Monterosso, the largest town of the five in Cinque Terre (the others were Vernazza , Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore (the smallest of all) ) around 11pm. Only thing that were open were the restaurants/bars.. we asked around for beds, one of locals guided us to the hotel but it was already closed and seemily to be full after the local man made the call to the number posed on the door so he guided us toward other location. He took us through real narrow alley through garden and some dirt trail, it was dark as well as he used his lighter to show us any of steps. 195 and I were uncomfy about it as we wondered if he plan to have some of other locals to come up behind us and rob us. It didn't happen as we finally arrived to the place which seem to be owned by him. The room got kitchen, dining table, washer, full bed and twin bed.. so in all it was real nice but it cost us 60€ (30€ each of us) It was little high to our standard budget but we just accepted it as we were really tired....Lights out.

What day is it?

2005-06-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

On the next day, 13 June:
195 and I went into the town to see some sites. We went up to the old chuch, Notre Dame de la Garde, that`s on top of hill with great view of the city..we climbed 345 steps of the stairs! Got to keep our shape and legs strong for our backpacks (winks) It was far better than riding in one of those tacky tour bus where you can see all goggling tourists that rarely touched the ground, much less to wander around city, exploring it even more :) After that church, we clambered down hill and wander through streets until we reached Fort Saint Nicolas and Fort Saint Jean, both were located across each other across the bay filled with many sailboats and quite little of speed boats. Unfortunately, ut seem to be unacessiable to people so We went on to the internet cafe to update you guys and see where our friend, Bezaire planned on going to next to ensure we will meet up with him in Cinque Terre, Italy. He said via the email that he was now in Nice, couple hours from Marseille. We hadn`t decided on which town we would like to stop for a day before heading to Cinque Terre to meet up with Bezaire and stay there for few days. Guess you guys will find out on the next blog :)
We are off for a dinner and another night in Marseille. Bon voyage!

12 June:
Apparently I lost the count of days I have been in Europe so I choose to no longer say Day 16, Day 17 but to put the date instead..thus making things simplier :) I am sure that some of you who read my recent blog noticed that there was lot of spelling errors. Actually it was not because France`s keyboard`s ABCs were in different places so words came out differently. No worries, I corrected those mess today so you guys can read them with n ease :)
As for our friend, Bezaire, we went to meet him at the hospital on the next day. It turns out that he got mono, so no more letting him or us sampling eachother food and drinks. He decided to stay behind in Nimes for one more day while we went ahead to Marseille, France, the third largest city in France (not so big to me, maybe about the same as Buffalo, NY) 195 and I just relaxed for the evening at the hostel after a walk to beach and around some blocks, stopping at fruit and legumes (vegetables). It was like a small conventional store but aith good section of fresh fruits and vegetables. We got some food and drinks for the evening and tomorrow.

*NOTE: Feel free to post your comments or questions or suggestions on this blog :) *

Brief pôst for between Day 12 to 16

2005-06-12T01:40:00.000-05:00

In days of 12 to 15, we arrived in the Barcelona, very lively city with lot of old buildings and alleys that contained shops, restaurants, and bars. We got to see some old part of city but we mainly saw the architecture works by Gaudi..they were unique and interesting as he managed to combined the rational that tend to be cold and stuctural:: with organic (from nature) that was colorful and curvy, into his building. I sure enjoyed veiwing his building works. We left on the morning of 15th day, even thro I would like to stay bit longer in Barcelona for they got many cool places to shop or wander around. We have to keep the schedule and headed back into France, stopped at Nimes and stayed there for two nights. They got some of Roman ruins. Not much to see but people at the hostel were very helpful and friendly for 195 lost his fake wallet but he happened to leave his important cards in there (ITYC and Hihostel) Plus Bezaire gotten real sick so he went to hospîtal, in which the hostal staff was willing to call to see what was his status ...seemily it was not serious.. lets see on the next update (got to accept the fact that I have a time limitions..groans)

DAY 15

2005-06-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

Yup it is a big jump from Day 8 to Day 16, eep! Let me catch you guys up on what I did after London...( I had been in paris, madrid, lisbon, salema, seville, and barcelona)

Day Eight:
Ah, we were in Madrid.. we made a reserve for the next trip toward Lisbon, Spain right away after our first lesson.. it was cheaper, 195 and I decided to go with seats instead of couchette at 6 euros to save the money.. we then got on metro toward the hostel without too much of trouble for the people were courteous even the drivers on the road.. the city itself was lot clean for the people took their cleaning seriously that they even clean every corner, I was impressed.. We stayed at Barbier Hostel while Bezaire stayed at another for ours were full...Since we arrived quite early in the day so we grab this opportunity to go sightseeing.. we managed to see much as we could...

Day Seven:
We went down to Eurail station to get the tickets and discovered that it was full to reserve an overnight trip.. we could get the one on the next day morning.. we were pretty much discouraged and it was costly to reserve. Heckless to say we were more than ready to get out of Paris.. we went ahead and reserve for the next day anyways then later after a thought and discussion, we went back to try again with different possiblities... we managed to get a trip on the same day only that the train leave late in the evening at higher price (that left us wondering about what was the point of buying a railpass, ah guess time changes) After the reserving.. we went to see Notre Dame then split up.. Bezaire went to Louvre while 195 and I went to see Versille but we ended up taking wrong train, even thro we knew which one to take but didnt double check, therefore we went south of Paris instead of north.. endless to said, we didnt get to see Versille as time ran out and we had to get back to meet up with Bezaire to head down to eurail for our trip to Madrid, Spain.

Day Six:
We went to see Bastille where French Revolution took place.. it was pretty much just a big road intersection with many cars and motorcyles going around.. what was there was a moument of this event. We then pass throught Louvre Museum (it´s closed on tuesdays and it happen to be tuesday) toward Arche de Triompe.. snapped couples of pictures then went up on the top through a long, spiral staircase that left 195 bit breathless..hehe.. we went to Effiel Tower afterward and went all way up to the top.. I have been to France twice so it was pretty much same thing fo me.. I dont know what the guys think of it but far as I know that they sure dislike Paris as its dirtier, darker, and the people were not as friendly except for a few. We went back to the hotel.. then we, 195 and I, went out for a dinner at not bad restaurant, while Bezaire stayed at hotel to enjoy his blissful nap.

Day Five:
We, 195, Bezaire, and I, spent the day relaxing and went to internet cafe. We finally left London on Eurostar, in late afternoon or early evening as yoy may say, toward Paris, France.. it was short trip , about 3 hours..when arrived we used the metro to get to our hotel. We managed to find our hotel after a bit of walking as we realized that we could have got off 2 stops earlier but of course there was no way of knowing.. everything was new.. took bit of time to figure our way with all of french lanuages, unlike London, Great Britain, where we were spoiled to shoes with all english language. We got room just fine even through the dates was changed, got enough beds for all three of us. We stayed in for the night as its already dark.

*sadly time is up.... if you want more details.. check www.oneninefive.blogspot.com (michael´s) or www.buzzair.blogspot.com (matt´s)*

Details

2005-06-03T18:12:00.000-05:00

Here are the details of what I have seen so far from day one in Èurope.

Day Four:
Went to the modern and artsy museum called Tate Museum, I sure liked it as it was more creative and unique. Sadly for Bezaire, it bore him right out of mind but luckily for me, 195 dont mind looking around and especially liked the scultures :) We pretty much saw most of London so we venture out more, visited punky part of London that´s called Camden Town, certainly loved their styles (made a note to myself to go to there when I come back in the August to get some cool stuffs!) At the evening, we meet up with Himel again at yet another pub as we want to go to an old, old pub but still ended up going to youth style bar and met other deafies (Melly, Amhed, Tom, and the Absinthe guy) that lived in that area.

Day Three:
We kind of slept in and in afternoon, we went to Imperial War Museum, it showed lot of history of war of countries that British controlled and the World War one and two. We went into London and ate at Japanese restaurant which was good but not so cheap (nothing in London was cheap for their pounds beat our US & CDN, as well as Euros money). Aferward, we meet up with Himel at a bar in uppity area to meet some more deafies that Himel had them to meet up at there. We sure enjoyed chatting with them (Umsed (sorry if I misspell it), Sam, Angelia, Richard and his girlfriend) and trying understand much of their BSL when they were talking toward eachother. Met a guy, Richard, who worked in USA in the past for 4 years so that make it two beside Himel who can sign ASL quite well. We oughta polish up on our BSL, I did learn the BSL fingerspelling before flying out to Europe but it was still awkard when coming down to spell something.

Day Two:
We were much refreshed on the next day, went to see Madam Tussaud's wax museum which was interesting and cool as some were realistic enough that left us bit unsure until one of us (especially me) poked at it. We stroll through an quite nice park and saw Buckingham Palace then we pretty much wandered around the London and ended up in Oxford street where lot of stores were. I didn´t buy anything for it was pretty expensive in London and didn´t want to add weight to my backpack until it was really worth it to have. At the evening, we relaxed at Himel´s home and chatted with housemates until 5am. We managed to communicate between BSL and ASL, picked up on some of their signs even thro we do got it wrong from time to time. One big mistake of the night was when I accidently deleted entire of Bezaire´s pictures on his camera! We were taking a group picture with our camera and his camera except that he couldnt figure how to find or set the timer on his. Hence, I tried to figure it out for him but oops! It certainly became a story for other deafies we met, they already heard or were told of this story!

Day One:
We, 195 (Michael) and I, arrived at the Heathrow airport in London and breezed through the immigration line as the British Airway stewardress discovered that it was us who were deaf so they guide us through. It sure save lot of time standing in lines. We went over to another terminal to meet up our friend who was going to Europe as well, as mentioned earlier. We were luckly enough that he, Bezaire, just arrived for we arrived around 9am when I thought we were to arrive at 7:30am. We left our backpacks at one of hotel that provided a locker at a price, we just paid between 2,50 to 3 pounds then went to tour rest of city of London. Before we start taking in the London, we were starving so we decided to eat first. The boys went straightaway to the first thing they know which was a pizza place that had a buffet, hmph! :) In one day, we managed to see Trafalger Square, Big Ben, London Bridge, and pretty much of the city for it seem not that huge as it would be in the NYC. Later before 5, we went on subway which was called tube in England to meet up with a guy that I have met a while ago in Wasga Beach, Ontairo, Canada, where we would be staying at. His name was Himel, a cool and informational guy! We meet his housemates as well who were deafies too, Stephen, Adam (who was from Australia), and Andrew (who we almost never saw of). Finally we were able to get our sleep as I didn´t sleep much on the bus from Rochester to NYC then airplane from NYC to London which was about 18 hours straightaway. 195 managed to sleep more than I did.

Day 8 in Europe

2005-06-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

It had been a week in europe already! :) As you may guess, I didn´t succeed in doing my blog while I was in Paris for I am now in Madrid, Spain. So far, I certainly liked Madrid far better than Paris, France. It was more clean and updated, as well as stylish, in Madrid than it was in Paris. The people were also more friendly. Out of all cities (NYC, London, Paris, Madrid) I liked London and Madrid.. be updating later on, who knows when that would be :)

Where am I?

2005-05-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

Hello hello again!

Fianlly I got my hands on a computer for sufficent amount of time to do some updating :) Imagine that as I am typing this blog, it's around 8am over there while its 1pm here.
I got to London, England tired and excited. London was a busy city but more interesting to look at as the buildings were lot nice than NYC and the people were quite stylish. Bezaire, 195 and I left our backpacks at a hotel and tour most of the city, then meet up with a friend, Himel who live in London. We spent most of days sightseeing famous places and our evening chatting with deafies of London. We were supposed to leave on sunday morning but turned out that Eurostar was full due to people going out of country for Bank holiday (same as memorial weekend back at home) this weekend so we managed to get the one on monday evening, which was today. So in other word we ended up staying in London for 5 days! I wish I could tell more details of what we do in London but the time was limiting. I'll try to do more in when I arrive in next country/city, which is Paris, France.

~FrecklesFly

Trip Itinerary

2005-05-21T19:27:00.000-05:00

Boy boy this is my first time to use blog ever! I never own a livejournal or blog like many of my friends do. Lets see how I fare at this :D Heh, have some patience with my trails & errors. So here is our, 195 (Michael) and FrecklesFly (me->Rachy), trip itinerary of Europe this summer:

->Arrive in London, Great Britain on May 26, staying there approx 3 days)
->Depart from London to Paris on May 29
->Paris May 29- 31
***May 31, starting our 60 days Eurail Pass***

Spain and Portugal (Madrid, Lisbon, Salema/Algarve, Seville, Barcelona) June 1- june 11
South France ( Arles/Random town, Nice) June 12-14
Northern Italy (Cinque Terre, Florence, Sienna) June 15-19
Southern Italy (Roma, Naples) June 20-23
Venice, Italy June 24-25 or 26
Switzerland (Zermatt, Interlaken) June 28-30
Prague, Czech July 1-4
Krakow, Poland July 5-6
Budapest, Hungary July7-8
Dubrovnik,Croatia July 9-10
Vienna, Austria July 11-12
Germany (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg) July 13-21
Amsterdam, Netherlands July 22-24

***4 days left unfilled in case if we want extra days or happen to miss the train!***

->We will arrive in Brussels, Belgium either July 28 or 29

->Return to Great Britain, hope to visit Ireland if time and money permits

->Lastly, flying back home on Aug 10

***dates and places are subject to change ***

Bon Voyage!~FrecklesFly