Savannah Georgia Trip

I decided to head down to Savannah Georgia to check out the Savannah College of Arts and Design after looking into their Graduate Film Program.

2/4/10

Salt Lake City to Savannah via Atlanta:

Early start today, catching the 07:05 flight to Atlanta; flying on a 757-200. Plane had to go through de-icing so we got off late from SLC. Flight down to Atlanta was smooth. I made sure to use my nifty kneesavers to keep the person in front of me putting his seat back. If you are over 6ft tall you need to get some of these if you fly coach!

Since the flight was late getting into Atlanta I got off the flight, walked down the concourse and right on to my flight to SAV. It is a very quick flight from Atlanta to Savannah, about 25 minutes. I had an emergency row seat right over the wing on the MD-88, the seat next to me was unoccupied so I was able to really stretch out.

The Savannah airport is small but very nice. Caught a cab to the hotel; I am staying in the Hilton DeSoto. Once checked in I relaxed for a bit before heading out to find some food. Walking North on Bull Street I am under a canopy of Spanish moss covered trees. As I walk through Chippewa Square I notice some very well feed squirrels running around, they look more like small dogs than squirrels. At the North end of this square is where the bus stop scene in ‘Forest Gump’ was filmed.

I made my way down to the River Walk along the Savannah River. Not many people out this evening. I guess the time of year, week and the weather is keeping them inside and away from the waterfront. Walking into River Street Sweets I am handed a fresh praline. I have not had one of these yummy treats since I was in New Orleans at the end of ’02. I had to place an order and have them shipped home and grab a few to go. As I walked back outside a huge freighter loaded down with cargo was going by. It was a ship from Saudi Arabia.

I walked around the city a little longer and checked out where the main SCAD building was relative to my hotel. It is right around the corner and can be seen from my hotel balcony.

2/5/10

Savannah Day 2:

Early Morning in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Woke up early today, well early for me since my body and mind are still on Utah time. After breakfast in the hotel restaurant, made sure to have some grits, I headed over to the SCAD orientation.

Since I had time to kill I walked down to the next square just south of SCAD. Monterey Square has some amazing houses! None more infamous than the Mercer House, now known as the Mercer-Williams House Museum. 

If you have seen or read the book ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ you will know exactly what I am talking about. After snapping several pictures of the house and surrounding houses, I went to “The Book” Gift Shop and Midnight Museum. It is quite the eclectic little store mostly dedicated to ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.’ I picked up a copy of the book (hardback) that has the author’s signature in it. 

It was time to get checked in for the days SCAD activities. Once checked in I went to go visit with my guidance counselor. WOW, she is quite the Southern Belle!

After going over things with her I headed back out to walk around the city and check out the sights. 
Stopped into the pub called The Six Pence; they have Strongbow cider on tap! So I had a pint of cider and a corned beef sandwich. 

That afternoon there was a Deans Panel with all the graduate deans talking about graduate school and answering questions. I was very glad to be inside, because outside it was raining sideways! A good rainstorm had moved in a few hours earlier and proceeded to dump! When we came out from the Deans Panel it had stopped raining but many of the streets and squares showed signs of flooding from all the rain.

Walked back down to Monterey Square and attempted to take some night shots. I forgot to pack my travel tripod so I am very limited on how I can shoot at night on this trip. I then walked to Forsyth Park and took a few pictures of the white fountain. 

Grabbed a quick bite to eat after that and called it a night.

2/6/10

Savannah Day 3:

My Own Private Savannah.

Today is my last day in Savannah, GA. I have very much enjoyed my time here in this great city and look forward to coming back some day.

Woke up this morning and was very thankful that today’s SCAD activities kicked off with a breakfast on the 15^th floor of the Hilton hotel I am staying in. Some great views of the city from up there.

I meet a prospective grad student by the name of Jude, he too is looking at the film and dramatic writing courses. He is originally from Nigeria but has moved all around, living now in Georgia. 
After breakfast all the prospective film students got in one of the SCAD buses and they took us over to tour their film & television building. The place is incredible, lots of fun toys and top of the line hardware to play with. 

After the tour I headed back out to explore more of the city while the sun was still peaking through the clouds. Tracked down a house my good buddy Dave Powell’s cousin once owned (222 E Jones Street).

 It is not far from the Mercer house. When they were filming ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ they wanted to use his garden. 

He turned them down because he did not want the notoriety. 

I stopped back in the small eclectic book store and talked to a lady there that has lived in Savannah all her life, she in fact went to SCAD back in the early 80’s. She told me about the haunted past the book stores building has. I guess the spirits of that place like to mess with her a little from time to time. 
I went back at Forsyth Park and took some more pictures of the white fountain and the rest of the park.

Back to the hotel and a quick bite to eat while I wrap up my trip. I have a very early flight in the AM; 06:30 to Atlanta. However, the nice part is that I get into SLC at 11:20. Enough time to get in a quick nap before heading over to my fathers to watch the Super Bowl (Go Saints!).

Had a great time here in Savannah, I do hope to come back one day. 

MLS Cup '09: RSL v. LA

11/21/09

Salt Lake City to Seattle:

The day is finally here! I am off to Seattle to watch my team, RSL win the MLS Cup.
It is the first time RSL has made it to the MLS championship; last year we should have been there but the ball just did not bounce our way. Many in my group are driving up and a few are flying, some are already up in Seattle getting things started.

I am flying out on Delta 1261 this morning, flying on a MD90. A snow storm was supposed to hit SLC but the weather is great today! One of my buddies from the RCB is on the same flight along with several other RSL fans.

Flight up to Seattle was smooth and went by quickly, thankfully so! I was seated next to a young lady, who did not quite fit into her chair.
I’m reading a really good book by Stephen Leather a British author, ‘Hard Landing’. I picked up one of his books in Split, Croatia in ’06 and really enjoyed his writing style.

Arriving in Seattle my buddy Greg and I caught a ride with one of his friends that lives up this way. We ended up hanging out with him at his place in Bellevue.
Some of our other RCB friends arrived in the afternoon after their long drive up.

A few of us piled into a car and headed into the city. We ended up down by Qwest Field and Safeco Stadium at a restaurant/bar that had an amazing Hotdog wrapped in bacon, deep-fried and covered in cheese. WOW that was good!!

I was dropped off at my hotel and got all checked in. Here it is only 17:00 and it feels so late and looks even later than it feels. I am staying in the Renaissance Seattle Hotel. It is a very nice upscale hotel in a large 28 story building. My room is on the 12^th floor but I overlook I-5 looking North East; I can see a little bit of the harbor.

Heading out to get some snacks and drinks from the local grocery store the Seattle rain has finally arrived. I decided to get all my rain gear on and head down to F.X. McRory’s the restaurant/bar that RSL has taken over for the weekend. The walk down is in a downpour and I was definitely not singing in the rain! F.X. is packed with RSL fans but I am able to find some of my RCB mates. 
 We eventually head out to Owl ‘N Thistle pub where we have some good Magners Cider. As a group we are singing and chanting for our team, running into Seattle and LA fans along the way; we are now SINGING IN THE RAIN!
Then it was off to Fado Irish Pub where we find Strongbow on tap.

After hanging out at Fado’s I walk back to the hotel in the rain and call it a night. Tomorrow is the big day!!

11/22/09

Seattle Day 2:

It’s FOOTBALL DAY!!!

The MLS Cup is tonight and everyone is out walking around in their RSL gear. I have seen a few in LA gear but we outnumber them 10 to 1.

I also have seen a few people walking around in Houston Dynamo gear. I did see one guy in a Colorado Rapids shirt and I had to make sure I let him know what I think of the Crapids; I’m sure he appreciated my kind words. 

I walked down to Pike Place Market for a little sightseeing/shopping and find some food. 

I was shocked how many people are out walking around in RSL gear! Found a cool used book store and picked up ‘The Bourne Legacy’ since I am almost done with my current book. I ended up eating at 'Pike Place Bar & Grill' that is up on the second floor of the Corner Market Building looking over Pike Place. Hard to believe last time I was down in this area was over 20 years ago with my dad when he was in town on business and took me to Seattle for a 2 day whirlwind tour of the city and a Seahawks game. I have been back since but not down at Pike Market. 

I’m back at the room now relaxing a little before heading down to meet everyone at F.X. McRory’s. From there we will mass together and march to the stadium.

Walked down to F.X. McRory’s and the sun was starting to come out finally!

I meet up with all my RCB mates down at the pub and we stood out on the deck singing our praises for RSL and letting any unlucky LA fan that happened by how we felt about them and their club. We had quickly gathered a large crowd of RSL fans around us that were either being amused by our antics, or joined in with us.

We eventually massed together and walked down the street to a square that was the designated meeting point for the RSL fans and Seattle Sounder fans. Drew Carrey was even supposed to be there to march with us into the stadium; this all included some stupid marching band. Well there was no way I was letting some home town supporters, Drew Carrey and some bloody marching band lead us into our championship match! A bunch of us from the RCB jumped out in front of the march and lead the way. 

Where oh where are the Galaxy supporters? This was running through all our minds. They were nowhere to be found; sure we ran across a few idiots sporting Beckham or Donovan shirts and they were quickly berated.

Once inside this massive stadium we set off to find our section, which has been relegated all the way up to the nosebleeds. After an elevator ride to the top of the stadium we found our section. Good to see all the Seattle folk have great seats for a match that doesn’t even have their club in it! Wait a sec, is that the LA supporters clear down there? Sure enough, most of the LA fans are down in the lower sections across the stadium from us. Even our stupid supporter group Barra Brava…errr…Barra Real are down in the lower sections. Guess it pays off to either be an LA fan or the puppet of the RSL front office. 

The match itself was very exciting, LA scored first but we were able to equalize which then sent the match into overtime. Throughout the match the entire upper deck of RSL fans were able to chant/sing down upon the pitch our support for our club. I was later told by a press member down on the pitch level they could hear us over the entire stadium. There seemed to be more RSL fans here than some home matches at The Riot!

With the score still at a draw with the overtime coming to an end it was looking like for the 2^nd straight match RSL was going into PK’s to decide the outcome. All of us knew we had the best keeper with Nick Rimando in net, but still could we as fans survive another tense PK session?

Rimando was a stud and saved a few shots and then Donovan booted his kick over the woodwork! Robbie Russell stepped up and put the game winner in the back of the net and a mixture of elation and jubilation erupted in the RSL supporters section. 

A rumor started circulating that we The RCB would be allowed out on the pitch with the team. So off we went on a mad mans dash down the large winding walkway from the top of the stadium all the way down to the pitch. The whole way down we are singing and yelling; 30 plus large guys mostly all dressed in black rushing towards you might look like a scary sight. No wonder why everyone was giving us a very wide berth as we ran past.

We finally made our way down to the front row which sits about 5-6 feet up off the pitch. One Seattle cop walked over and said, “Who is going to be the first to go to jail tonight?” The response was, “Not sure who that will be but we know who is going to be laying on the ground first!” Quickly backup was brought over to keep us from jumping on to the pitch. By this time my head was killing from all the yelling, screaming and hysteria that was the MLS Cup Final; I could hardly stand. We watched RSL receive the MLS Cup and the team came over to show off the cup and thank us fans. 

Outside of the stadium we stopped by F.X. McRory’s for some drinks. Again we found ourselves out on the deck celebrating the victory. Along came a drunken LA fan who felt his five other friends with him were going to back him up. His friends took one look at us and decided it was time to drag his friend away before he got them all in trouble. 

I finally made it back to my room and drank a bunch of Gatorade and took an 800mg IBP for my pounding head. After resting for an hour or so I headed off to the teams hotel to celebrate with the team. By the time I got there it was fairly mellow time down in the hotel bar. Was able to talk with most of the team and congratulate them on their victory. They were all so very gracious for us being there and supporting them all season long, through Victory & Strife.

REAL SALT LAKE, 2009 MLS CHAMPIONS!!

VAE VICTUS!!

11/23/09

Seattle to Salt Lake City:

Waking up in Seattle, the other night feels like a dream. Turning on Sports Center and seeing the highlights from last nights match.

Today I am heading back home to SLC.

I decided to take the train from downtown out to the airport. The mass transit here works great! Next month the remaining part of the ride from downtown to the airport will be complete, but for now one must exit the train and ride the bus a short distance to the airport. I am flying Delta back to SLC. Many RSL fans are on the flight this AM.

What an exciting trip this was. RSL delivered the state of Utah its only 2^nd professional sport championship title, the last being back in the 70’s from the ABA Stars.

Feels good knowing I will be able to look back and say, “I was there!”

Check out my pictures.

Euro Trip '09

3/24/09

Salt Lake City, UT:

Once again I find myself planning out yet another Euro Trip. This will
be my 6th time over and my 5th consecutive year backpacking for a month
or more in Europe.

My original plans were to leave at the end of April and come back right
before the 4th of July. Yes I know I would be missing a lot of RSL
matches, but I would be back for the peak of the season and before the
all-star match. Well like anything in life, things change. In the
process of trying to find a good deal on a flight over to Europe I came
across a deal I could not pass up on.

Flying Open Jaw; SLC to Munich and the new nonstop flight from
Paris to SLC(emergency row). All this for under $650!! I have never
flown over to Europe for this cheap.
The kick in the bollocks is that my flight leaves SLC April 2nd. Why does
that date sound familiar you may ask!?

April 2nd is the first home match for RSL! Ohhh well..it is Europe!!

My travel buddy this trip is a friend I have know for several years; this will be her first time over to Europe. My best friend Colin is going to meet up with us in Budapest and travel with us to Praha. I will also meet up with my buddy Chris from Budapest.

Here is the plan for my '09 trip:

April 2: Off to Europa: SLC to Munich via Atlanta.

3-4: Munich, Germany

5-6:Salzburg, Austria

7: Vienna, Austria

8: Bratislava, Slovakia

9-10: Budapest, Hungary

11: Sighisoara, Romania

12-13: Brasov, Romania

14-15: Bucharest, Romania

16-17: L'viv, Ukraine

18-20: Krakow, Poland

21-22: Praha, Czech Republic

23rd: Dresden, Germany

24-26: Berlin, Germany

27th: Beauvais, France

28-30: Paris, France

May 1st: Paris to SLC nonstop flight.

The following are my journal entries for Euro Trip '09.


4/2/09

Salt Lake City to Atlanta:

The big day has finally arrived. Melinda and I embark on our month long Euro Trip today. But first we must make a quick stop in Atlanta to change planes for the flight over to Munich Germany . I have flown in and out of Atlanta so many times now, but have yet to actually go to the city of Atlanta or any other part of Georgia .

We flew Delta and on a Boeing 767-400ER; for all you airliner fans out there.



4/2-3/09

Atlanta to Munich Germany:

It was a packed flight heading over to Munich and we were stuck in the two bulkhead seats on the right side of the plane just a head of the wings. No window for us and no leg room for me. Bugger! We flew over on a Boeing 767-300ER.

The flight over was plenty smooth but once again I got very little to no rest or sleep on the flight. Touching down in Munich it felt so good to be back in Europe and Deutschland!

I guided us into town from the airport and to Wombats Hostel where we will be staying for the next two nights. I stayed here for one night in ’05 and thought it was an alright hostel. Check in was not until 14:00 so we had several hours to kill. There was a free city tour ran from the hostel at 11:00 so we decided to ditch our bags and join this tour which would kill four hours.

Our tour guides name was Ozzie; a Black man from Munich who had just about a funny comment for every part of Munich and its history. The tour was good for the most part, but he really did not like people filming him or taking pictures of things while he was talking. He even got after Melinda for filming him at the beginning of the tour.

The tour itself was interesting and I did learn a little more about this great city. Around 13:00 jet-lag hit Melinda and I like sack of bratwurst. Both of us started getting loopy and so we decided to ditch out on the rest of the tour and head back to the hostel. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then I took Melinda around Munich showing her the sights I was shown in ’05 by a friend who at the time lived in Munich and the ones I discovered while hanging out with my friend Kat.

The hours started to pass by and before I knew it I was looking at 16:00 and wondering why I was not laying in bed taking a well deserved nap. Here it is the first day of our trip and I feel as if we have covered more things than most do in two full days.

We found our way to the English Garden seeking the comfort of a park bench and a good rest. On the way there we ran into our tour group but quickly hid before we were noticed. 

Munich is quite the city; all but a few structures survived WWII; even though most look several hundred years old. Most are around 60 years old.

Finally we were back at the hostel checking into our room. The rest would be short lived because soon we were heading out for some dinner and to take some night pictures after dinner.

Altes Hackerhause is located in one of the oldest buildings in Munich and is very popular with the locals. We both had a very fine meal and enjoyed the ambiance of the place.

After dinner it was time to get a few night shots and then finally call it a night. By this time both of us were about to collapse. We stopped in Marienplatz and took some very good pictures of the ‘ New Town Hall ’ and the glockenspiel.

Finally around 23:00 we were in the hostel and calling it a day/night on a VERY long two days of traveling and sightseeing. This is the first time to Europe where I did not crash for a few hours during the day to recover from the long flight over. Looking back on it I do think a few hour nap would have been wise.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip out to see Neuschwanstein Castle.

4/4/09

Munich to Fussen, Germany:

Woke up this morning feeling much better after a nights rest, though not a solid nights rest since we are staying in a hostel.

DB ICE 1, DB ICE 2 & DB ICE 3 trains all lined up at the München Hauptbahnhof

 
We meet up with our tour group at the Munich central station and jumped on a train to Fussen where we would then jump on a bus that would take us up to the base of the castle. After a few hour train ride it was time to start the tour. Our tour guide gave us the real skinny on King Ludwig and what really happened to him and the theories behind his death. The group was then off hiking up to Neuschwanstein Castle.

It was a short fairly easy walk up to the castle, but could be a problem for others. There was horse drawn carriages shuttling people up and down the road. Once to the castle we only had a few minutes to take in the views before we jumped in line and went in for the formal tour. We could not take pictures or film in the castle. Now up to this point on the trip Melinda and I have been joking around about a Saturday Night Live skit from years back about a guy name Dieter. So when our Neuschwanstein Castle tour guide said his name was Dietrich, Melinda and I just about lost it. Not only did he have the cool name, but his mannerisms and the way he talked was Nutella on a good crepe, perfect! Melinda shot some video just to get his voice; now I really wish we would have got a picture with him!

The castle is amazing; too bad it never got completed. Once outside we walked up to the bridge to get a good view of the castle. Again it was another uphill hike to get to this view. I had Melinda hold on to one of the straps on the back of my backpack and I helped tow her up the hill. 

This Euro Trip quickly became known as the "Under Renovation" trip. 

With only a few minutes to snap some pictures and take in the view we found ourselves in a race with time. The tour guide told the group to leave from the bridge no latter than 16:15 to make sure we got back for the bus at 16:30. We left promptly at 16:15 from the bridge and began our descent. My long legs were quickly 5 good paces ahead of Melinda when I looked back to see how she was doing. I slowed down to match her, there was no towing her this time. Only thing I could have done was to push her over and start rolling her down the hill…"Tuck and Roll Melinda..tuck and roll!!"

About half way down I could see there was no way we were going to make the 16:30 deadline, I began contemplating running down to make sure we were not left behind. With a few shortcuts I found we hustled back into town right in time to jump on the last bus with our group. Now that was cutting it close!

The whole way back to Munich on the train I was fighting the head bobs. Every few minutes my head would bob and wake me up. Finally back at the hostel we decided to head out for dinner. No rest for the wicked I guess.

Since this was Melinda’s first visit to Munich she had to experience the Hofbrauhaus.

We walked into a hopping super busy Hofbrauhaus with not an empty seat in sight. I began scanning the rooms for empty seats on tables that were not fully being used as we made several laps around the entire place. Taking a few minutes to go over the menu and looking at some of the cool pictures on the walls I spotted two empty seats next to a couple out in the beer garden. We jumped on them like the Germans on the French.

Now that we had seats it was time to track down a server to get us some food and drinks. The ironic thing is neither of us are a beer drinker, but the whole experience of the place was what we were there for. Not long after we were seated some football supporters started up with some cheers; I recognized a few of the standard ones, but did not know the German words for the cheers. Soon a table of proper Englishmen started up a “God save the Queen” chant and it was on. Germany v. England at the Hofbrauhaus. Who would be the winner? My money was on the Germans since the Englishmen were so outnumbered. My inner football hooligan wanted to get in on the action!

After the couple who we were sitting by left a few Germans sat down next to us and I struck up a conversation with them. We discussed football and some of the different views we have of each others countries. I was quite shocked that these Germans thought that many Americans still think Germans are Nazis or have Nazi tendencies. I guess these guys have not met too many Americans; they have never been over to the US either. All my German friends seem to be much more knowledgeable about such affairs. I set the record straight with these Krauts (I joke) and we had a good chat. I feel like after our chat they had a better representation of America and Americans.

Leaving the Hofbrauhaus we walked through the city and took in some more of the city at night. Street musicians filled the night air with their sweet sounds as we walked down the main drags towards the hostel.

Once more we find ourselves climbing into bed very late at night.

Tomorrow we are off to my favorite (smaller) city in Europe; Salzburg! I can hear the Sound of Music and Mozart Balls calling my name already.

4/5/09

Salzburg, Austria:

This is my third time to the city of Salzburg; needless to say it is one of my most favorite cities in all of Europe!

 

Rolling into Salzburg on a Sunday has some very distinct advantages. The crowds are not as bad because most all the shops are closed, thus the main walking streets are void of the throngs of window shoppers.

We are staying at the Yoho Youth Hostel that I have stayed at twice before. It is a nice hostel with a few small quirks, but most hostels are that way. Our room is shared with a very young couple from Alberta Canada. The other two beds in the room are empty so this gives us a little more room to spread out. 

After dropping our bags off I was off to show Melinda around my favorite city. We started off in Miriable Gardens where I described each scene shot here for the film ‘The Sound of Music’, which I just so happened to watch in anticipation of my return to Salzburg.

Today is a beautiful sunny day with not a cloud in the sky above, yet it is not too hot this time of the year. The trees are just starting to bud here in Salzburg, in a few more weeks things will really start to come alive. We crossed over one of the footbridges and headed into the old town. Stopping off at a small souvenir shop to pick up a Salzburg patch we meet a very nice older lady who talked with us for several minutes about Obama, the US and her city. She told us to check out a café on top of a hotel across from the old town for one of the best views of the city that most people don’t know about.

Heading into the heart of the old town now I showed Melinda all the sights; Mozart’s birthplace, the gilded Giestregasse shopping street, Salzburg Cathedral, the old horse wash, and all the many other sights that make this city so famous. A little after noon we decided to go check this café out and see about some lunch. Walking into the Hotel Stein we found the small quirky old elevator past the lobby and ascended to the roof. The view was smashing, but the selection of food was not; it is very much a café focused more on the drinks with finger food. We sat down for a few minutes to take in the view snap a few pictures than discretely slip out before we were noticed.

Walking back towards the hostel I took Melinda down a famous shopping street in the New Town. I showed her were Colin and I stayed in the Fall of ’06 for one night; we stayed in a convent that liked to ring their church bells at ALL hours of the night! We stopped in a shop to pick up some Mozart Balls, may favorite chocolate treat. Melinda had never heard or tried these before so she too had to pick up a bag.

Walking past a Kabab stand (for us Americans think Gyros) we decided to stop and grab a quick cheap bite to eat. We found a bench to sit on and watch the people go by while enjoying our meal. Melinda spotted a cool old building and started to draw it. She is an amazing artists, always blows me away how well she is able to capture things right there on the spot and so quickly, truly breathing life into the paper she draws on.

I was ready for a nap and some rest at the hostel now, the lack of sleep & rest was really starting to catch up with me. We rested for a little bit but then I noticed the time and figured we better get hiking up the side of the mountain to catch the sun setting over Salzburg.

In ’06 Colin & I found one of the best views of Salzburg from across the way and up on the mountainside. 

Melinda and I started up the very steep road that leads you past the Stations of the Cross along the way. At the top and right behind the church is where this million dollar view of Salzburg is found. My words fail me when I try to describe the beauty of the golden sun setting upon the tall green rooftops of all the churches and cathedrals in Salzburg, the white walls of the fortress above Salzburg turn orange and the Church bells begin to chime all across the city. Truly one of the most amazing sights these eyes have seen! I have been very fortunate to have shared this experience not only with my best friend Colin in ’06 but now with Melinda. Hopefully there is many more times left for me to hike up and enjoy this view.

After taking in the grandeur of Salzburg I lead Melinda on a short hike through the woods to a small statue of Mozart; where we stopped to pose for some pics with old Wolfgang.

Heading back into town I took Melinda to the restaurant Colin and I ate the first night in Slazburg; the host brought out a glass of water for me with more ice than I knew what to do with. For the first time I saw Colin with his beer in his hand jealous of my drink. In ’06 when Colin and I returned the host was still there but no such luck on the ice. Well guess what? The host is still there and I missed out on the ice again. I figure when Colin and I were there in ’05 it was towards the end of June and Salzburg was in the middle of a heat wave so that must be why the host took such good care of me with all the ice.

After dinner we strolled down to the old city, I wanted to show Melinda the city at night with no crowds. We took some night shots of the buildings and I read from my Rick Steves’ book telling Melinda about the history of the buildings and the city.

Walking past the Salzburg Cathedral out of the corner of my eye I noticed a hooded figure perched on a block of marble. This made me jump a little since I have NEVER noticed this before. I grabbed Melinda by the arm pointing this “Death” figure out and now we were both spooked. The closer we got the more it looked like one of those street performers who dress up and stand very still until you get near them. Now you must understand, I must have walked past this figure 20 odd times in the two previous visits to Salzburg and have never noticed it in the middle of the day. Even just today Melinda and I both walked within 20 feet of it and did not notice it! We inched our way forward getting ready to spring if we detected any movement. Melinda set off her camera flash as I found my flashlight for closer inspection of “Death.” Sure enough it was a statue of a hooded figure set up on a block of marble tucked back in a corner of the cathedral. It has been here for quite sometime guessing from the golden toes it had from all the people rubbing them as they pass. Someone has taken some whiteout or white paint and put two dots inside his cloak where eyes would be; it is quite spooky looking at night. We took some shots of “Death” then finished up our walk through the old town at night.

 
Again, another fun filled day of exploring & walking all over. It is so nice to be back to this lovely city, does my heart well. By the time my head hit the pillow back at the hostel I was out cold. Our Canadian friend staying in the room woke me with a rapid fire cough which continued for ten minutes. He did not sound good at all; little did I know at the time that this would come back to haunt me later in the trip.


4/6/09


Salzburg Day 2:

Woke up early and headed out for a quick bite to eat. I took Melinda over to show her the cemetery where Mozart’s father and wife are buried. We then walked back down to the old town to continue the self guided walking tour of Salzburg.

Stopping in at St. Peters Cemetery we walked around the old graves looking at the cemetery that inspired the movie set used in ‘The Sound of Music’; the scene at the end where the family is hiding in the graveyard behind the iron gates.

Back on Getreidegasse we headed towards the “Afro Café”, Melinda wanted to check out this funky place. On the way there I ran into the store of the original makers Mozart Balls; I just had to check these out! They are twice as expensive but WOW; they are so good!

After chilling at the Afro Café we walked back through the center of the old town and got us a BIG doughnut style pretzel; sat on a park bench did some people watching and enjoyed the warm sun. We have gotten so much sun on this trip; my face and arms are already very tan.

Walked over to check out a local tour company. I was hopping a tour guide that Colin and I had back in ’05 would still be working for this company in Salzburg but Bruno was no longer working there.

Next stop was the Salzburg Fortress; this year I decided to ride the funicular (which I call the ‘Funny Licker’) It is a quick ride up to the top; since we headed up right before closing we got the discounted price just to walk the castle grounds. From up here Salzburg sprawls out bellow us; we hung out up here snapping a lot of pictures. I could hardly believe I was up here looking at this sight. Salzburg is really beginning to feel like a home away from home, being this my third time here.

After hanging out until the grounds closed we headed out for a hike across Monchberg (the hill the fortress is up on). I have only hiked a little of this in the past; this time we hiked the whole thing. Melinda and I found an amazing spot to sit and enjoy the view. From this park bench I could see all the way up towards the Berchtesgaden region. I pointed out many of the places used in the sound of music; from up here one can see the building that was used for the back of the family house and the one used for the front. I will for sure be visiting this spot again in the future. From there we walked along the cliff edge of Monchberg and ended up at the elevator. I always thought it was this structure that was out on the cliff edge and was some old elevator. To our disappointment it was a modern elevator built inside the cliff. Few seconds later we were back down at the end Getreidegasse. Stopping in for a gelato before walking back down Getreidegasse one last time. We decided to just grab a Doner (gyro) and call it a night. Both of us were pretty tired from walking around all day long.

Goodnight one last time from the land of Mozart Balls & Bells.


4/7/09
Salzburg to Vienna:

Off to the train station bright and early for a ride across Austria to Vienna; it is a pretty ride across Austria. Vienna will be one of the few places we only stay one night on this trip. It is a great city but one I figured we could cover in a day and save the extra days for other places.

So far Melinda and I have made a good travel team; we both like to snap away the pictures, especially at night. Melinda loves the food over here and has made sure to take a picture of all her meals and places we eat. Thus far I don’t think there has been a meal we have not enjoyed.

We are staying in the Do Step Inn Hostel; it is new hostel that has some good character to it. The room we are in has two girls from Japan crashing there. Melinda was able to use her Japanese skills to converse with them. It was very cool to listen to Melinda chat away with them.

After dropping off our gear it was time to go hit the city and see the sights. We stopped off at a park to have a quick bite to eat and enjoy a Mozart Ball or two.

After lunch I took Melinda on the trolley that circles the city, as recommended by Rick Steves. Last time I was here I went clockwise around the city on the trolleys. This time I went counterclockwise; I should have stuck to the path I knew. We jumped off at one stop to walk through a park and enjoy the sunny day. We jumped back on the #2 trolley and resumed the rest of our circle tour, but before I knew it the trolley was taking a right turn over a bridge. “Hmmmm…this is not the path it is suppose to be taking!” We jumped off the trolley and began the walk back towards the circle. I spotted a gelato stand and we decided to make the most of our detour by getting a yummy gelato. Finally back across the river we went over to the trolley stop and waited for another #2. Jumping on we were laughing about our little detour; a block later the trolley took a sharp right back over another bridge. “Not again!!!” We jumped off the trolley and found ourselves back by the gelato stand. We thought about getting another but just ended up heading back.

Not quite sure what was the deal with these #2 trolleys, even on the map it does not show them going where they were. We came across a funky old red Ford Truck, but it was one that neither Melinda nor I have ever seen. Finally we decided to jump on a different trolley and head back around the circle. We jumped off the trolley to see few sights, and of course they were behind scaffolding. Our tour has been dubbed: “Euro Trip 09; Under Construction.”

Jumping on the Metro we made our way back down to St. Stephen’s Cathedral. What an amazing Cathedral; and this time I get to see it with the sun streaming through the colorful glass windows. We spent a good amount of time in the cathedral taking pictures and watching all the tourists.

The rest of the evening we spent walking the streets of Vienna and shopping. I wanted to track down the restaurant Colin and I ate here in ’05, but I could not remember where it was. We found an Australian Bar/Grill that looked good so we grabbed a bar stool outside on the sidewalk and had some dinner. I had an great hamburger with a StrongBow cider. That burger was amazing and I finally found some cider over here in Europe.

After dinner we headed out to take some night pictures; we took quite a few really cool night shots. Melinda has a nice SLR camera with tripod so she was able to get some really cool shots with the trolleys crossing each others paths.

By the time we got back to our hostel both of us were ready to collapse into bed.

Today I noticed my throat was starting to get a little soar. Here comes that cold that the guy in Salzburg had; nothing like sharing a room with sick people.

Tomorrow we are off to Bratislava, Slovakia.

4/8/09

Bratislava. Slovakia:

This is the first time for me into Slovakia so one new country for me so far on this trip and Melinda’s third new country. On the train ride from Vienna to Bratislava we shared our compartment with a Slovakian girl that is working in Germany and was traveling back home. She spoke very good English and we were able to have a good chat about our countries, Europe and traveling. She was impressed that we were going to travel through Romania; she thought it was full of scary people and said she would never travel there. When I hear people say such things I think that is even more reason to travel to such places. Sure we are all different in ways, but after many years of traveling all over Europe I have found that in the common ways we are all the same and really can see eye to eye when we strip away all the cultural context that governments and companies work so hard to instill in us. I gave her a Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Pin before parting ways.

The train station in Bratislava was a funky one in more than just the smell.

We worked our way out and down the street heading towards the hostel. Unlike in years past I decided to use Google Earth & Maps to scout out the cities beforehand. So a lot of it looked familiar just from satellite images, but that does not even come close to actually experiencing walking down the streets.

We checked into the hostel; our room is the Italy room with Italian Flag colors on the walls, posters, stickers of Italian auto makers and the like on the lockers. Since we are only staying here one night we quickly got ready and walked down into the old part of the city; stopping along the way to take pictures of a royal palace with two guards standing out front.

The rest of the day was spent walking the entire city taking in all the sights and seeing just about every square meter that one can possibly take in during a single day visit to Bratislava. We ended up at the castle that has a very good view of the city and the river Danube. The castle is under a major renovation so it is completely covered in scaffolding. We hung out up on the grounds to enjoy the nice warm sunny day and just relax. I found a recommended restaurant in my ‘Let’s Go’ book and so we set off to find this place. After walking right past it twice we finally figured out that….”You will never guess!”…Yuppp…UNDER CONSTRUCTION! There was a sign in the window but we could make neither heads nor tails of it so we just ducked into the café across the street and had some food. Melinda ordered up a cool chocolate drink that she had see on a travel special about this area. It looked way good, but it is a hot drink and by now my throat was dying for a cold drink.

There are some cool statues in Bratislava; we tracked them all down getting pictures with some and pictures of the rest. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping in the shopping district and enjoying some gelatos in the large public squares. I picked myself up a Slovakia country patch for my pack. I have a patch from each country I have been to on my pack along with some patches from my favorite cities in Europe.

Around 17:00 we were beat and ready to head back to the hostel for a little rest before heading out for dinner. We took a back way to the hostel and walked through a run down park that had a large central fountain that was not working. While walking through this park I had a very strange feeling of the “Communist Pride” that the city planners must have had when building this park and how grand it must have been. This feeling was countered by the larger modern building in the distance with a large banner draped over it with a large Euro coin on it. Slovakia just adopted the Euro at the beginning of this year.

Traffic here is unreal; I would not want to drive here! The evening rush was on and cars were backed up for blocks.

After a short rest at the hostel we headed back into the city to eat at the 1 Bratislava Pub. We wanted some traditional food and a good atmosphere, we found it here. The food is so cheap over here it is unreal!! We had our meal, a few drinks and desert before walking back to the hostel in the dark. By the time we made it back to the hostel we both fell into bed dead from the day. As Melinda put it…”We walked the hell out of this place!”

Dobru noc from Bratislava.

4/9/09

Budapest, Hungary:

Today we are off to Budapest, Hungary; yet another country for Melinda to add to her list (4 on this trip and counting). Colin and I visited Budapest back in the fall of ’06 and really enjoyed the city. Many call it the Paris of Eastern Europe.

The train ride was a nice one through some beautiful countryside. One can definitely tell when they are getting further away from what most Americans would call Europe. Little differences in the cities, houses and the way people take care of their yards will tip one off that they are not in Western Europe anymore.

Budapest has a few train stations which I have only seen from the outside. The one we arrived at I had never been to before. First thing we had to do was track down an ATM to get us some local money. After going over the station a few times we headed across the street to find a bank with an ATM. Melinda had a little trouble finding an ATM that liked her card; with money finally in hand we were off to find the metro that would take us to the tram we need to ride to the hostel. There is construction going on in front of the train station so neither of us could see the metro entrance. We finally decided to just walk the 3-4 blocks to the tram. Once on the tram I knew exactly how to get to the hostel.

It was very surreal walking down the street to the hostel and up into the building. The hostel is located inside a larger building that houses several floors of apartments/flats with a central courtyard and doors that face out into the courtyard. It feels just like yesterday that I was here at this hostel with Colin. The hostel is a low key one, very much not a ‘party hostel.’ Each room has a different motif; ours has a very East Indian feel to it. If anyone ever tells me they are going to Budapest I highly recommend staying in this place.

We relaxed for a little while before heading out to show Melinda around my favorite Eastern European city. Finding ourselves at a cool crepe restaurant I had to get myself a Nutella and banana crepe. I have never had that combination but it was very good!

We headed up to the Budapest Castle that is perched up on the hill on the Buda side. I have only been up here in the night hours so it was very nice to see this view in the sunlight. One of the major attractions up on this hill was under renovation so once again Melinda got to see a sight with scaffolding surrounding it. This place is a prime spot for picture taking, especially at night when the city is all lit up. We hung out and watched the sun set on the city bellow before making our descent down to Chain Bridge and across the Danube. We were both wiped out by the time we reached the hostel, we had plans to head back up to take night pictures from the Buda side but decided to just relax and I would take her down to see ‘Heroes Square’ at night.

'Heroes Square' is another stunning monument in Budapest that takes on another life at night, especially with a full moon hanging overhead. After taking a lot of night shots we jumped on the last metro and went hunting for some food. We found that most things open after 23:00 in Budapest are either really fancy restaurants or the American fast food chains. We were not dressed for the fancy places and neither of us wanted to stoop so low as to eat a meal at an American fast food joint while over in Europe; one must save that for dire times and last resorts. We jumped on a tram scouting for a local place that was still open. We finally found a local place and sat outside enjoying our late night meal.

My cold/allergies or whatever this is has started to kick in. It has been a fun day of …cough, cough..hack..spit…sniff..sniff. Never fun traveling when sick but you have to make the best of the situation. Tomorrow Colin arrives from the US and will be traveling with us until Prague. It has been since our last time in Budapest that I have traveled with my bro so I am looking forward to having him along for some of the adventure.

Jo estet (Good Night) from Budapest Hungary.

4/10/09

Budapest Day 2:

Melinda and I set off this morning to take in a “Free” walking tour of Budapest. We arrived down at the square where all the tours leave from but the one we were waiting around for never showed up. We had two options left; either jump in on a bike tour or go the hop on and hop off bus tour of the city. The thing that sold us on the bus tour was that it also came with a free 45 minute cruise on the river.

We jumped on the bus and lathered up with sunscreen; the bus had no roof and it was a warm and sunny day. These hop on and hop off bus tours are a good way to get some info on the city and be able to jump off and explore an area without worrying about missing out on the rest of the tour. About an hour into the tour we had to change buses and the one we got on now had a roof but was twice as hot. Melinda and I jumped off the bus and decided to get us some cold water and something to eat before continuing on with the tour. By the time we found a public WC we were at the local Burger King, so we grabbed a frosty while we were there; tasted damn good on this now hot and sunny day.

Joining back up with the tour we now headed over to the Buda side. I did enjoy the audio guide part of the tour, was able to learn much more about this great city. On one part of the audio track it was talking about a “not so good” part of Budapest and some problems of the city and it’s past. I started to play with the language selection at this time and found it interesting that all the languages EXCEPT Hungarian were talking about this. I guess ignorance is bliss, or so they say.

We completed the loop of the city and now were off to look for this famous statue in the big city park that I missed in ’06. I found the statue of “Anonymous” it is supposed to be the writer of the first Hungarian book. After snapping a few pictures we headed back to the metro. Along the way we passed a couple sitting down on a park bench with what looked like a scone with melted cheese on it. The new mission was to now find where they got those. We found where these yummy scone looking things were being made. They are called Langos, and wow are they good! We sat down and enjoyed a Langos before heading back to the hostel.

Colin made it to Budapest but was not in the hostel when we got there. Melinda and I hung out for a little bit to see if we could run into him. I headed down to the corner store and sure enough there was Colin walking back towards the hostel. It’s good to have my bro back over in Europe on another adventure with me! I introduced Colin to Melinda and the three of us headed down to the river to jump on the river cruise. The cruise along the river is very beautiful at night, everything is all lit up; I would highly recommend seeing the city from a boat at night. The audio tour part of the cruise was pretty much a joke and the three of us agreed that we would have rather just had silence or some calm music playing instead of the audio tour. Each time there was a break in the audio each one of us admitted to letting their eyes close. After the cruise we stopped at a nice restaurant for a good meal and caught up. Colin headed back to the hostel while Melinda and I went out for some night shots of Chain Bridge.

After getting some good shots we rushed back to catch the last metro, but missed it. We were now in a rush to catch one of the last trams before those too shut down for the night. After sprinting across the street and leaping a guard rail in one single bound we were on a tram taking us to who knows where. I knew it was going in the right direction I was just not sure when to get off it. Eventually we got off the tram and began to walk with a group of people down a spooky abandoned alley in a very industrial looking section of the city. Melinda and I looked at one another and at the same time said; “Perfect location for a zombie movie!” We started talking about how we would film the scene and how it would play out. We got so into talking film we soon found ourselves back down by the river going the opposite way of which we set off for. I got us turned back around and we began the long walk back to the hostel; and finally crawling into bed well after 01:00.

Tomorrow is a long day on the train to Sighisoara, Romania.

Watch out Dracula, here we come!

4/11/09

Sighisoara, Romania:

Early morning rise to catch a train that will take us from Budapest into Romania and drop us off at Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes the “real” Dracula. This will be the first time into Romania for all three of us. Colin and I wanted to come over here in ’06 but I did not have enough time left on my passport to enter the country. One must have over 6 months left on their passport to travel into Romania.

While purchasing the train tickets for the day we also had to purchase a compulsory reservation, in other words a “seat tax!” They should just call it what it is and not have the fancy name for it. With tickets and compulsory reservation in hand we jumped aboard our train and settled in for a long ride through the Hungarian and Romanian countryside.

Not long after crossing into Romania we had another ticket check, but this time the Romanian conductor informed us our compulsory reservation was good in Hungary but we needed one for Romania.

“WHAT!!!!” The best part is that he wanted Romanian currency; I’m sure we are the first tourists to come over the border without the local currency! I asked if we could pay in Euros or Hungarian currency. “I will have to check” was his response. Well sure enough we paid in Euros and once again we had a lovely “seat tax” err compulsory reservation for our seats. Few minutes later I took out my laptop to do some writing and the conductor stopped to say something to me. Honest to God I thought he was going to tell me there was a compulsory fee on laptop use; but he was just pointing out that there was a power source I could use.

The Romanian countryside is very beautiful away from the cities, once the train got close to the cities it became what most Romanians must view as a large garbage dump. I say this because it looks like people must drive up to the edge of a road and say, “Well this looks good enough” and dump their trash. Along with all the trash everywhere there were some massive old run down power plants that looked like they have not been used in over 50 years. Melinda and I scouted some great places to shoot some post apocalyptic films while on the train ride today.

We got off the train at the small train station in Sighisoara; some dark storm clouds loom overhead as we walked to the hostel. Along the way we watched a dog chase cars down the street. I have always heard stories about dogs chasing cars but have never seen one actually chase after cars. This one would hunker down at the sight of the car then sprint after the wheels barking his head off. The dog seemed to be keeping pace with us and chasing every car that went by. I kept expecting to hear a yelp at any moment from the dog being ran over, but the dog finally gave up and walked off.

The hostel we are staying at is an alright place, seems to be ran by a few Australians. I swear for a hostel to be official it has to have at least one Australian employed sometime during the travel season.

We dropped our gear off and headed out to see the small city of Sighisoara, check out Vlad’s birth house, get some dinner and take some pictures at night.

Vlad’s home is now a two story building; only the ground floor is original. There is now a gelato shop on the ground floor and a restaurant up on the 2nd floor, or as the Europeans would call it, the 1st floor. For dinner we decided to dine in the restaurant above Vlad’s house; it was an alright meal but a little on the bland side.

After dinner Melinda and I got in a bunch of night shots of the buildings. Colin ended up walking back to crash at the hostel. Melinda and I continued to walk the city and see all the cool old buildings. 

We eventually ended up in the cemetery perched high above the city. To get to the cemetery we had to ascend 179 stairs that are enclosed in a wooden structure built in 1642 to help children get to school. I looked at my watch and noticed it was midnight; perfect time for a lovely stroll through a Transylvanian graveyard! After climbing all the steps we stood at the foot of the 15th century church and the graveyard that was in pitch black. We walked back into the beginning of the graveyard and stopped. In the distance we could hear dogs howling and the moon was peaking through the dark clouds above. I don’t think I could have envisioned a scary situation, for a fleeting moment visions of vampires and spooky spirits danced through my head as we walked further into the darkness. I had my flashlight out and ready, but not much further Melinda wanted to stop and I was alright with that. I was now a little more worried about some locals being back in the dark cemetery or a pack of dogs back there that might see us as a midnight snack. Or were we a little afraid of what we might find back there, dead or alive? Nerves put aside I was not feeling that well anyways, my cough has gotten really bad and this cold night air is not doing it any favors. So we turned around and headed back to the hostel. As we made the descent down the covered stairs I kept casting a weary glance up the stairs expecting at any moment to see a dark cloaked figure standing at the top looking down at us.

Finally arriving back to the hostel we crawled into bed around 01:30 and I settled in for a long night of hacking my lungs out. I was up most of the night hacking away. I felt bad because I was making so much noise so I went to the kitchen down the hall and made some hot tea. Eventually I said "screw it!" and went back into the room to sleep. I have been in far too many hostel rooms where people snore, talk, cough and just make general noises throughout the night. Everyone is just going to have to put up with my coughing fits.

Another fun part of Romania that I would soon discover; my Visa ATM card does not work over here. Glad I was told this when I specifically told my card company well in advance which countries I would be traveling through. Learn from this, if you travel anywhere outside of the "normal" tourist path make sure you specifically ask if your cards will work in those locations.

Tomorrow we are off to Brasov, Romania where we will be staying for two nights.

Noapte buna (Good night) from the home town of Dracula.

4/12/09

Easter Sunday.

Brasov, Romania:

Easter Sunday and we are off to Brasov (BRAH-shohv) on another bright and early morning. Today would only be a short train ride of a few hours.

Arriving in Brasov we had to catch a bus and work our way into town to find the hostel we are staying at. The bus was really crowded, standing room only and man is that fun when you have a big pack! I looked at Melinda and she was not looking well at all, she said she was feeling bad. I had her lean against me but not long after that she had to sit down on her bag. The lack of water the crowded bus had got to her. Reminded me very much how I felt last year on a fun hot and crowded bus ride along the Amalfi Coast in Italy. I got her some water and fanned her to help her cool off. She recovered just in time to jump off the bus and walk up to the hostel.

Once again we checked in and off we went to find some food and check out the city. For lunch we had meat sandwiches with Nutella; Melinda finally had her first Judge & Colin specialty sandwich. After lunch Melinda and I jumped a bus to head out to see Bran Castle in the neighboring city of Bran . This is the castle that was the inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula castle.

Vlad Tepes never ruled from this castle, he was only imprisoned here once by the Hungarian king in 1462. The bus ride out was a VERY hot bus ride!! This time I thought I was going to be the one laying on the floor being fanned, but fortunately enough I had a seat. The bus was a local bus that locals use to get in between the cities, so it made a lot of stops. Once it got out into the countryside the driver opened up the doors and drove with them open; wow did that feel good!!!

Stepping off the bus we found ourselves in the middle of a Transylvanian swap meet. There were dozens of booths set up hocking for lack of a better word, GARBAGE. I thought for sure I would be able to pick up a Romanian, Dracula, Bran Castle, Vlad, patch out here; I was very wrong! Now if I wanted a t-shirt that had a peace symbol on it or one that said ‘No Fat Chicks’ this would have been the place to get it. Or better yet I could have picked myself up a laser toy gun on the cheap. Melinda and I both thought we should move here and open up a booth with the patches and pins we were looking for and sell Count (from Sesame Street) dolls; we would make a killing!

Now if all that tackiness was not enough there was also a small haunted house with screaming kids running all around.

Bran castle itself is a nice place to visit with some amazing views of the surrounding land. It is perched up on a small cliff ledge that looks into two valleys a few hundred feet bellow. I was shocked how windy it was at the entrance of the castle. The castle itself is well worth a walk through; many of the rooms are still decorated with furnishings from the Middle Ages up through the 20th century. The small courtyard is the best place for snapping pictures. I can see how this place in the middle of the summer could be a ZOO! Melinda and I spent several hours walking through the castle and taking a lot of pictures. We then walked the grounds after the castle was closed. Eventually we made it back to the bus stop and waited in the cold shade for what seemed a VERY long time for the local bus to take us back to Brasov. The ride back to Brasov was not nearly as hot and was much more enjoyable.

Meeting back up with Colin the three of us headed out for dinner, ending up in a candlelit wine cellar of ‘Bella Muzica.’ All three of us had the same traditional Romanian meal; very good and very filling. Our waiter was a funny Romanian that made it clear from the start that he did not speak Russian and we could tell was not very fond of Russians. 

After dinner we decided to call it a night and walk back to the hostel. Along the way Melinda and I would stop to snap a few night shots.

Tomorrow we have a private driver to take us out to Ponerri Castle/Citadel (the real castle of Vlad “Dracula”) from here Vlad Tepes ruled his lands.


4/13/09


Brasov, Romania Day 2:


Today we are setting off to tour the “Real” castle of Dracula; Poenari Castle/Citadel.
We have hired a driver to take the three of us from Brasov out to the castle for the day.
The driver spoke NO English so it would be a very quiet drive; three hour drive each direction. We ended up having one extra passenger along for the ride, an American who is living over here. He was tagging along to take pictures.

With Colin in the front seat Melinda, myself and our fellow traveler climbed into the backseat and the adventure was on. About an hour or so into the drive the American traveler (who we dubbed "Stinky McGee" because of his bad breath) was getting very car sick in the back seat so we had the driver pull over so he could trade seats with Colin up front and also go throw up. He was getting so close to losing it before we could get the driver to pull over we had to give him a plastic bag while he was in the car.

Back on the road we worked our way up windy double lane mountain passes and back down the other side. Huge lorry trucks were also on these roads; these are the only roads in this region. There is no freeway system here in Romania.
The countryside is very beautiful; in the high mountains it reminded me very much of Switzerland. We worked our way through several small communities and a few larger cities on the way to our destination; I think the driver even got lost for awhile because he pulled over and had to ask a bus driver some directions. We started following a river and I knew we were getting close; we rounded a bend in the road and high above us perched on a narrow cliff edge was the remains of Castle Poenari. Now all we had to do is climb the 1,000 plus stairs to the castle itself!

We stood bellow the castle getting our gear ready for the ascent to the top. I felt as if I was at a base camp at the foot of a mighty mountain gearing up for the climb ahead. I left all nonessential items out of my day bag and back at the hostel as did Colin. Melinda being the A/V (audio/video) person on this trip brought all her gear. So after about five minutes of stairs I was lugging her bag up to the castle. It was actually a very nice and easy walk up a lot of switchback stairs on the way up. Plus the weather was very nice, sunny but there was a slight breeze so it was not hot at all.

Arriving at the top we had to pay a person to gain accesses to the grounds, and pay to take pictures. The castle has been in ruins for hundreds of years, the original part is in white stone and the newer section is in redbrick atop the older white stone. It is from here Vlad’s wife had thrown herself to her death during a standoff with invaders. If you have seen the Bram Stoker’s Dracula film from the 90’s you will know a little about this. The valley floor bellow was once filled with 20,000 impaled Turkish prisoners; the sight of this alone turned an invading Turkish force back; thus making Vlad one of the saviors of Christianity in Europe.

Melinda and I were hoping for an overcast day to make the mood and pictures a little more ominous. However, with the cool breeze the sun felt great! There was a small group of people sitting in the remains of the courtyard when we first got there; they were talking to one another in English. I noticed a black name tag on one of them and knew right away they were Mormon missionaries. Just so I would not forget how small this planet we call Earth is, one of them was from Logan Utah ! The three of us chatted with them for a little bit, then Melinda and I set off to shoot pictures and some video of the grounds. The view from up here is amazing!! One side is the beginning of rugged mountains and on the other the beginning of flat expansive valley floor. A river runs down the valley below us, but it is damned up and there is hardly any water running down it right now. After eating some lunch Melinda and I shot a funny video using the ‘Count’ doll that she brought along on the trip; we made it like an “MTV Crib’s” episode. We had ‘The Count’ take us on a tour through his crib; we had a good laugh and fun doing it.

It was now time to head back down to the car. Walking back down all the stairs made me wish I had my downhill bike; it would have been much easier and way quicker.

Arriving at the car we were once again greeted by the stray dogs. There are so many stray dogs all over this country; it is very sad! So many of them are big beautiful dog’s too, not just mangy mutts; makes me want to move here and open some huge shelter in the countryside for them.

We climbed back into the car for our three our tour…errr…drive back to the hostel. The three of us drifted in and out of sleep the whole way back. By the time we got back to the hostel we were all dead and starving. After a quick rest we ended up at the main square for a little dinner. After dinner Melinda and I went and shot some pictures then called it a night.

Tomorrow we are off to the capital of Romania, Bucharest.

4/14/09

Brasov to Bucharest, Romania:

Today we set off for the capital of Romania, I was not quite sure what to expect from this city. It has been said that since Prague has become too touristy people have moved on to Budapest and now people are starting to go to Bucharest to get that true taste of a large Eastern Europe city that has not yet been inundated by the tourists hoards.

Stepping off the train I felt little to no difference to any other larger Eastern European city, but as soon as I stepped out of the train station and started to try to find my way on the city streets; wow did I feel as if I was very far off the tourist beaten path. It took us awhile to find our way to the hostel, even with a map of the city in my guide book.

The parking here is a nightmare, it is truly organized chaos! Would hate to try and drive & park in this city! It is hard to walk down some streets because there are cars parked every which way they can on the sidewalk, and down the side streets some just park in the middle of the road. Traffic also seemed to be at a standstill on many of the side streets. I would not want to drive a nice car in this city!!

Finally after much walking around we found our hostel (Midland Hostel), right across the street from the French Embassy. It is an alright place and the three of us have a room to ourselves. The rain clouds have been hanging over us for most of the day so we are not in a big rush to get outside and tour the city. First thing first we need some water & food.

French Embassy: View from Midland Hostel

Once again we find ourselves at a donner stand. The Romanian money is so weird; it feels as if it is printed on wax paper. Melinda and I walk around for a little while after lunch checking out the neighborhood and some shops. It is now starting to rain so we are going to crash at the hostel until dinner; plus the guards outside the French Embassy where starting to look at us quite quizzically after we had passed by there several times.

For dinner we walked over to the local grocery store and grabbed some food to make a few meat, cheese and Nutella sandwiches.

Tomorrow we will tour the city and we plan to head down to check out the Parliament building which is the 2nd largest building in the world right behind The Pentagon.

We are here in Bucharest 20 years after the revolution of 1989, I was kind of expecting something to be going on here to celebrate, or commemorate this event. Maybe they will on the actual date, but nothing is going on that we have seen.


4/15/09

Bucharest Day 2:


It was very nice to sleep in today, no early morning train to catch.

On the list of things to do today is tour Parliament building. It is a very nice day out, nice enough to break out the shorts to wear. It is a nice walk down to the Parliament building, a lot of shops and the like along the way. However, there is not a SINGLE shop that sells the tourists fare of pins & patches; Melinda and I trying to find these items. I need a Romania patch for my pack!!

We headed down to the Parliament building to take a tour of this monstrosity. So far this trip has had really good weather, not too hot and not too cold with just a little precipitation. We got to the grand boulevard that leads up to the Parliament building. The boulevard is built just a little larger than the Champs des Elysees in Paris on purpose. Looking down it we can see this massive structure. I felt like an X-Wing pilot heading towards the Death Star. 70% of the nations GDP was used to build this egotistical structure. It is no wonder Ceausescu and his wife were hunted down after they attempted to flee the country in ’89 and shot.

After getting our tour tickets we had a little time to kill so we walked over to a park and relaxed in the shade. It was nice just chilling in the park and enjoying the beautiful weather; one of the simply things in life that it seems like I never do enough of back in Salt Lake City.

We queued up for the tour; our tour guide was a very unenthusiastic lady. I could not believe the scale of this place; it is MASSIVE!! So much marble was used; there must be a ton of it in this country! It was hard to comprehend the size of some of the rooms/halls that we saw in this place. Today some of the rooms and halls can be rented out for private functions.

Towards the end of the tour we got to step out on to the balcony which looked straight down the grand boulevard; what a view!

After walking through such a crazy place we decided to go check out another novelty place; Club Dracula/Restaurant. The write up and pictures of this place online looked too good to not check it out. When we got there right at 16:00 when it was suppose to be open the doors were locked; after a half an hour of waiting around we walked to another park to relax some more.

Sitting in a restaurant right on a small pond in the park is quite fun, especially when the park rents out rowboats and paddle boats to people. We ordered up a margarita pizza and some drinks and enjoyed watching people crash into one another hoping that sooner or later someone would fall in. After eating we walked the rest of the park and just enjoyed a quiet and relaxing evening in Bucharest.

For dinner we ended up at a restaurant called La Mamma; I think it is basically a Bucharest ‘Olive Garden' chain restaurant, nothing too special. I did come to the conclusion that Americans are not the only one with bad child rearing skills as I watched a table of adults let their handful of kids run all around the place causing such a commotion.

Tomorrow we have a very early morning, we are catching a flight to Timissora, Romania then one to Lviv, Ukraine.

So one final good night from Romania, and next stop Ukraine.

4/16/09

Lviv, Ukraine:

Before even the crack of dawn we were up and in a taxi heading to the Bucharest airport.

Today we are flying from Bucharest to Timisoara, Romania. Once there we have a 7 hour layover until we fly from Timisoara to Lviv, Ukraine. We are flying on Carpatair a Romanian airline. This will be my first flight on a propeller driven airplane; a SAAB 2000. I was quite surprised how quickly the plane took off from the runway.

The flight over to Timisoara was a smooth one and a very quick one. Once in Timisoara we found some seats and plopped down for a 7 hour wait. I was not able to find a power source so my plans of watching a few movies was spoiled. I resorted to doing a lot of reading; just about finished off the book I am working on right now: 'JackDaws'. This whole ordeal will save us two very full days of train travel.

The second leg of the flight was just as quick. The big difference is once we landed in Ukraine we had soldiers out to great the plane. I noticed one of them had with him a Wirehaired Fox Terrier, I assume they use him for searching bags. This is the same breed of dog I grew up with.

Once off the plane we had to go through customs; that was quite the experience! We got in line then quickly were taken out of line to fill out some more of our papers, got back in line and then were told to get back out, then told to get back in. I got my Ukrainian entrance stamp, but Colin’s guy did not stamp his passport. Poor Colin! We gathered our bags then had to put them through a x-ray machine;"Great!" I thought when I noticed this, and began to prepare my story for the reason I am traveling with a collapsible baton. They were too busy looking for guns, drugs and the like that they paid my baton no attention.

Now through all that we walked out of the airport and began our attempt to get into town. My guide book said which buses to take, but at the bus stop there is no numbers or timetable. Colin and I walked back over to one of the guys trying to get us to pay him for a ride into town. He told us $10 for the three of us, so we jumped into his car and he drove us into town. All three of us noticed we could not read a single sign so far. They do not use the Roman alphabet here, they us a Surilic alphabet. Ukrainian is very closely related to Russian. While driving down the road the driver in his best broken English was pointing out all the sights.

We checked into our hostel in Lviv; the small little Ukrainian running it spoke at a million miles an hour. She sure could chat up a storm! After looking at two different rooms we decided to take one that had a little more room but a very funky bathroom which soon was bequeathed the "shitter shower." Imagine a toilet shoved into a small closet just big enough for a normal size person to stand in, then add a sink with a shower head and toss in a shower curtain that can cover the door and that is our "shitter shower." Colin and I joked around saying we can take care of everything at once without having to stand. We also have a little balcony that if one was not careful would find the quick way down to checkout; no guard rail.

Now we were off to check out the city and find some food; I made sure to set the internal GPS in my head because there was no way we were finding our way back here by reading street signs. We walked the town for awhile stopping to have some drinks in a square then finding a cool little cafe tucked way down a dark alley. If it was not in my guide book there is no way we would have found it. Melinda and I had the best hot chocolate I have EVER tasted!! It was basically melted chocolate that had just enough liquidity to it to actually call it a drink; yummy!! We finally tracked down a buffet style place that has traditional Ukrainian food. The food was good and the price could not be beat! I am still so shocked how cheap it is too eat over here.

Well we are calling it a night over here in Lviv.

4/17/09

Liviv Day 2:

Today we walked up to the Lychakivsky Cemetery, it is a huge old cemetery; Ivan Franko is buried here. We spent an hour or so walking through the graveyard taking pictures and just enjoying the day out. There were many graves for soldiers of both World Wars. The graveyard is very overgrown by the forest it is in, so it really made for some good pictures. Melinda and I both were thinking how cool of a backdrop this place would make for a film scene. Many of the graves have statues or busts of the person; which adds the eeriness of the place.

It has started to rain here, so we are heading back to the hostel to take a nap and just relax until the weather moves on. I decided to get in touch with an online friend I have that lives here in Lviv. He is a fellow mountain biker that I meet on Travbuddy.com while I was researching the city of Lviv.

We all meet up and he brought along his wife. They took us around their city then we all hiked up a hill for a great view of the city. It was a nice little hike up; the path spirals around the hill counterclockwise. We all talked the whole time and he told us about growing up in Ukraine and stories of his dad growing up here and how cool his dad was when he was younger especially when he was able to get some Levi jeans. It was fun listening to these stories. He says that during the days of communism people had money but they could not buy things, and these days’ people have access to items but not the money to buy these items.

They took us to a very cool restaurant that recreates the fill of an underground hideout in the forest that the Ukrainian fighters used. We learned that during WWII these fighters fought both the Germans and Russians equally. To gain access to the restaurant one must pass the door guard. We have to say the secret password then drink a drink that would kill a Russian in disguise. After we did not die from the drink we headed down the stairs to the cellar where it looks like a dug out underground hideaway. There are cool guns around that we took pictures with and the plates are old military ones many like camping plates. The food we had was alright, but the main attraction was the atmosphere and the company. All three of us decided to get some t-shirts from this place. Melinda had a hard time making up her mind which one she wanted, so she ended up with half the supply of shirts. If it was not for our new friends we would have never found this place and if we would have we would have turned around after the doorman began talking to us. He spoke NO English and we would not have been able to figure out what to do to gain access to the place.

Our friends then walked around with us after dinner showing us some cool sights at night and helping us get some last minute items at the store; specifically Nutella! We said our goodbyes and called it a night. Melinda then noticed she could not find one of the patches in her many bags filled with shirts from the restaurant. I sent a text to my buddy and we meet up again and headed back to the restaurant to either find it or buy another one. Our buddy ended up buying another patch for Melinda. We headed back to crash for the night; tomorrow we are off to Krakow, Poland. I have heard horror stories on how long it can take to get across the border into Poland from Ukraine.

Funny side note....Melinda ended up finding the patch the next day.

4/18/09

Liviv, Ukraine to Krakow, Poland:

Another early morning train ride for us; so another taxi ride to the station. My friend from Lviv is also catching a train this morning so he was going to meet up with us to help us get our tickets and make sure we are set up alright. We did not see him so we walked up to the ticket office and made the attempt to purchase our tickets. After finding out how much they cost it was off to the ATM. Being it very early in the morning Colin forgot to take his card out of the machine so it sucked it back in. I pulled out some money and got us the tickets to Poland. Turns out we are in a sleeping car on the train, even though we are on this train for just a few hours we were still given sheets and blankets. Looking around I noticed only a few others in the train car. Colin and I both looked at each other and thought this would be Hell on rails sleeping in here, they really could pack them in if they so wanted to.

The ride to the border was uneventful but once at the border the fun began. First the big burly guards in full tactical gear walked up and down the train checking everyone out, then came in the guards with the dogs, then came in the passport control guards. Two ladies from Ghana were on the train and there was some problem with their passports or visas. They spoke very good English but none of the Ukrainian guards spoke that good of English; the ladies were pulled off the train. They were eventually let back on the train, but the delay would cause us to miss our connecting train over the border to Krakow. Colin finally got a Ukrainian stamp in his passport.

Once over the border we had to take our bags and once again go through customs and put the bags through an x-ray machine. The tobacco taxes and laws are very different between Ukraine and Poland so there is a very large smuggling ring. No problems getting through customs; good thing they did not see our large thing of Nutella or else they may have confiscated it like the guys at the Bucharest airport did with our previous jar that was unopened. The ride into Krakow was very nice. I could not believe how green and flat Poland is.

In Krakow we are staying just a few minute walk outside of the main square in a nice quiet hostel. We got to the building the hostel is located in and no one was there to let us in, so we sat outside for awhile until a person walked out the door. We then found ourselves standing outside of the door to the hostel waiting to be let in there. Finally a person walked out and we were now in the hostel, but still there was no one there to check us in. We hung out in the hostel common room reading and using the hostels computer. A few people started walking in and out of the room; I turned to Colin and asked if he had his AARP card handy so we could check in here. Every person here is well over 60 years old! I was looking for a quiet hostel but I was not expecting this quiet. After hanging out for a few hours I started snooping around the desk and found which room we were in and found the keys to the room. I let us into the room where we ditched our bags then headed out to see the main square and walk around the city. As we were walking around the square I looked up and there was our friend Angelica from Norway. She is meeting up with us in Krakow and is planning on traveling with us for the rest of the trip. It was quite amazing that we happened to see one another in the main square on the first night we got there!

The four of us went out to dinner and walked around the rest of the night catching up and chatting the night away. As we walked through the main square there were a few people playing some drums so we headed over to see what was going on. The drums started to get louder and soon a few people were lighting a stick on fire and then began spinning it around and tossing it into the air. The beat of the drum got faster as the fire starters began to twirl their fire sticks faster and toss them higher and higher. There was now a large crowd gathered around watching this group of drum & fire players. Soon a drunk guy was stumbling out into the middle of all this, I was waiting to see him go up in flames. He looked like his blood alcohol level was probably high enough that he would have been turned into a human torch if the flames would have got close enough to him. It was quite the show; I am usually not much for paying street performers but this group was well worth tipping.

4/19/09

Day at Auschwitz:

Melinda and I headed out to Auschwitz for a day tour through Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2 –Birkenau. This would be our first time to a concentration camp.


On the way out in the van I was not feeling that well; I think my cold is at its peak and man what a day for it to hit me! So the entire time while walking through this place I felt awful; which I guess is a good way to see this place. It did put me in a little more of the right frame of mind to think about the suffering that took place on these grounds. As a student of WWII and history this place is very fascinating to me. Not often is one able to walk the preserved grounds where an event that shaped the world as we know it took place. It was very strange seeing a room full of hair, false limbs, and one display of eye glasses from the victims that passed through this camp. Walking down one hallway there is pictures of people all over the walls; essentially mug shots. During the first few years of operation the SS would take pictures of the people, later resorting to tattoos. I noticed dates bellow the pictures. The first one was the date they were interned; the next one was the date they died; either from starvation or from being gassed. Most of the women only lasted 3-4 months and most of the men only 6 months.

When we walked into the gas chamber it was surreal! Looking up I could see where the Zyklon B was dropped into the vents. Then we passed into the room with the ovens. After that we made a short trip over to Auschwitz-Birkenau; which was mostly destroyed by fires. I am glad I was able to get out and see these sights and would highly recommend anyone visiting Krakow to do the same.

By the time we got back to Krakow and to the hostel I was completely knackered; it was nap time for me. After my nap Melinda and I headed down to the Krakow castle and walked the grounds. We have been really good at timing our evening walks, seems like we have caught so many beautiful sunsets on this trip. It is also one of the best times for taking pictures. After the sunset we got a few night shots in the main square. I am not feeling too well tonight so I am turning in and hopefully this cold passes after a good nights rest.


4/20/09


Krakow Day 3:


I feel much better today,after a good nights rest. I am ready to walk the city and just hangout in a park and relax. Melinda and I headed down to the mall in the train station for a killer gelato desert dish. I had a kiwi one with fresh kiwi’s in it; wow was it good! After that we just walked around Krakow and once again ended up down buy the castle for the sunset, this time down on the waterfront just bellow the castle. We watched all the people bike, rollerblade, walk, and run by as the sun set off in the distance. Today was an enjoyable relaxing day; it is nice to have one of those from time to time when on a long trip like this.

Tomorrow we are off to Praha (Prague), Colin and I visited the city once before back in ’05. This time we are staying closer to the city center.

4/21/09

Krakow, Poland to Praha (Prague), Czech Republic:

“Up and at it boys and girls we have a train to catch.”

I think Colin and Melinda now believe I am an early morning train Nazi. Well I wanted to make sure we got to Prague (from now on I will be calling it Praha) with plenty of time to do some walking around since this is Colin’s last day on the trip. We meet up with Angelica at the Krakow train station bright and early and we all jumped on the train to Praha. It is quite funny looking into the eyes of three people who would much rather be in bed than standing on a train track waiting for a train. I on the other hand am up and going ready for the next adventure! I don’t think I will ever get tired of traveling like this, as long as there are new places to explore and sights to see I am so ready for the adventure!

Arriving in Praha we had a short walk to the hostel, but it was enough of a walk to work up a little bit of a sweat. Nice part of this trip is that there have not been any really hot days of lugging around a big pack on my back. The hostel we are staying at is a good one with a great location. We are in a 5 bed room but only the four of us are in it. Colin wanted to take a nap so he rested, Melinda and Angelica decided to go shopping. I knew I better tag along because if I went sightseeing I would have knocked the entire city out in the afternoon since I had seen most all of the major sights here in ’05.

We all meet back up at the hostel and decided to go out for a nice dinner since it was the last night the four of us would be together. By luck we found a really good place just a block away from where we are staying. We had the outdoor garden located in the center of the building all to ourselves. All of us had such a fine meal that night and the service was excellent; very good way to have wrapped up the time for the four travelers.

I wish I would have had more time with my bro, seems like he was over here for just a few days. Time sure goes by fast on these trips! After dinner we stopped by a bar to sit and have some drinks and chat.

After awhile the smoke got to me so Melinda and I set off for the Charles Bridge to check it out at night. You will never guess what we saw when we got there; construction! The bridge is under renovation so once again we got to see some good scaffolding and fencing around a sight. Enough of the bridge was clear that Melinda got the feel for it but it was still a disappointment that so much of it was ripped up. I showed Melinda the statue where at the base if you rub the plaque legend has it you will return to Praha. Well I did it in ’05 and I am back, so I will see if I end up here again sometime in the future.

We got back to the bar and Angelica and Colin were still in there chatting away so we joined them for awhile before calling it a night.



4/22/09



Praha Day 2:



Woke up early the next day to say goodbye to Colin; he heads back to Portland, Oregon today. Had a little bit of a sleep in, then Melinda went out to do some shopping. By the time she got back her hands were loaded with bags of goodies that she got for her family. Angelica and I both were blown away by how much she got…lol….I then was wondering how she was going to manage dragging around all the extra things. That right there is one reason why I rarely buy anything on my trips; I don’t want to drag it around for a month or even a few weeks. I will only buy things that either means a lot to me or something that I can not buy in the states that I need to have. Most of the times I just buy a country or city patch to add to my pack. Melinda was able to stuff all her items into another small duffel bag she brought along, so as long as she can mange it she will do fine. I will still be nice and help her up and down the stairs and on and off the trains with her ever increasing in weight large bag. I think she learned on this sort of trip the best bag is a backpack or a wheeled bag that can be turned into a backpack when need be. There is always a learning curve on these sorts of adventures, so hopefully next go round for her she is that much more prepared. Yeahh right!
That afternoon the three of us headed up to the Praha Castle to take in the sights up there. We walked through the church and this time the front of it was not under construction/renovation so I was able to see what it looks like, although this time some of the sides were being worked on. The tower was also closed so we could not go up for a good view of the city. I took them around the grounds and showed them some good views of the city from the gardens. We stopped at a café place for some drinks and a quick bite to eat before proceeding.

The movie Van Helsing had a lot of scenes filmed here in the city. One part is when he is suppose to be walking down some steps in Paris and in the far background you can see the Eiffel Tower being built. In ’05 I was walking down some stairs that are attached to the castle wall and noticed the view looked very much like the one in the movie. So we went back to take a look at the view and now we need to go back and watch the movie and see if this is it.

The rest of the day was spent walking around Praha looking at the sights and taking pictures. It started raining right when we headed out for dinner, I think it was a sign for the meal we were about to eat. Mine was alright since I ordered pizza and it really takes a lot to screw up a pizza. The girls meals were not good at all and Angelica would be tasting her meal once more later that night; or as she put it ‘That was a waste of money!’

Well we are calling it a night here in Praha, tomorrow we are off to Dresden Germany. It is going to be so good to be back in Deutschland!

Dobrou noc (goodnight) from Praha

4/23/09

Dresden, Germany:

Back in Germany finally! It is so good to get back to a country where I can understand the people for the most part and able to communicate with them. After our adventure through Romania and Ukraine I really appreciate Germany that much more.

This is my first time to Dresden; I wanted to go through it in ’05 but just did not have the time then. The only thing I really knew about Dresden was that it was fire bombed by the British and Americans in WWII and that Kurt Vonegut wrote about it in ‘Slaughter House Five’ which I so happen to be reading for the occasion.

Arriving in Dresden there were some storm clouds overhead and rain was on its way. We found our way to the hostels; Angelica is staying in a hostel a few blocks away from ours. The neighborhood Melinda and I are staying is a very artistic neighborhood with a lot of clubs and bars too. We are staying across the river from the old town; this part of Dresden survived the destruction of the fire bombing.

We ditched our bags and headed into town; it is a short walk from the new town to the old town. Crossing over the river the old town sprawls out in front of us. The buildings look very old but they are all around 65 years old at the oldest. They were built after the war in their original grandeur. We now were after food and most places were just starting to open for the day. As the heavens above opened up and we were starting to get dumped on we jumped into an open Australian themed restaurant. This is the 2nd one we have run into on this trip. Once again I was able to find some StrongBow Cider which I would enjoy after we had some breakfast/lunch.

We waited out the storm in the restaurant for a few hours then headed out to explore the city and see the sights. Dresden is a very pretty city; they did a great job rebuilding! There are a few things that survived the fire bombing, such as this massive mural on the side of a wall; it is longer than a football field. We saw all the major sights in a few hours, Angelica had enough walking around and headed back to the hostel. Melinda and I continued to walk the city then finally around 18:00 we headed back to the hostel to rest before heading out for some dinner.
We had to wake up Angelica at her hostel we headed back to the old town for some dinner at this themed restaurant in the basement of a hotel. We got there about an hour before it closed so we had most of the place to ourselves. The meal itself was alright, but the real fun was checking out the place; it is huge! There are two distinct rooms made up in two styles. The room we were in had a table that had swinging chairs from a carousel above the table.

After dinner we dropped off Angelica at a club and we will see here in Paris; she is staying and extra day here and then going on to Stuttgart while Melinda and I are off to Berlin. Dresden is a cool city and well worth a visit if traveling through the area. One day is plenty time to see all the main sights in Dresden.

Tomorrow we are off to Berlin.

4/24/09

Berlin, Germany:

My favorite big city in Europe; Berlin! Arguably the most important city of the last century. Melinda and I will be staying here for three days. We are staying in a hostel called ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ which is right across the street from the hostel Colin and I stayed the first time we were in Berlin in ’05. It is located in the former sector of East Berlin, which is now considered the more artistic and entertaining part of Berlin.

After getting situated in the hostel I took Melinda out to see some of the city. We walked down to Museum Island and had a good lunch at a café looking across the river at the Berliner Dom. While eating lunch we noticed a bunch of people moving film production equipment, so after eating we headed down the way they were headed.

We found where they had set up and watched them film a few takes for a scene. After watching that we headed down Unter den Linden to Humbolt University; I pointed out the square where the book burnings took place in 1933. There is a lot of police cars flying up and down Unter den Linden with sirens blaring. Not sure what is going on, but there is a large polizei presence around this area tonight. We eventually made our way down to the Brandenburg Gate arriving just in time to see the sunset behind it.

Nice way to wrap up the first night in Berlin.

4/25/09

Berlin Day 2:

The next day we went on a walking tour of Berlin. Our tour guide was a cool British chap who seemed to know a good deal about Berlin and its history. He covered most of the important events which has shaped not only present day Berlin, Germany but also the world.

The tour lasted for a few hours and it is fairly warm today so both of us are feeling the effects of being out in the sun all day long. We also made sure to get our reservation for the train ride to Paris from Berlin. At first it looked like we were not going to be able to make it on the trains we needed, but after a few stressful minutes the lady working at the DB ticket office figured it all out and took care of us. Germans are such helpful people for the most part.

We ended up at the same location the film scene we watched being filmed the other day. The actor in the scene had a shaved head so Melinda and I both thought it would be funny if I reenacted the same scene. Eventually we ended up back at the hostel and after a short rest at the hostel we headed down to check out the Reichstag in the evening. This time I made sure to keep anything that could potentially get me arrested back in the hostel; not going to make the same mistake by leaving my baton in my pack.

We stood in the queue outside waiting to go through security; seems like just last year I was doing this. After clearing security we headed to the roof and walked around taking in the view of Berlin in the early dusk hours. We made our way to the top of the dome winding our way up the large spiral walkway. The view from the top is great! Melinda was not a big fan of the walk up the walkway; my buddy Colin was not a fan of this walk in ’05 either. If you don’t like heights it can be a little nerve racking walking up and down the walkway in the glass dome. After visiting the Reichstag we walked around Berlin and made or way back to the hostel to call it a night.

4/26/09

Berlin Day 3:

The last day in Berlin was spent shopping, walking all over Western Berlin, climbing up the Victory Column, walking through Tiergarten Park, standing in the courtyard where Colonel Claus von Strauffenberg was executed and hanging out at Potsdamer Platz. I was able to see a whole lot of sights and places today in Berlin that I never got to see my two previous times here in this great city.

We have done so much walking these last two days. By the time I got back to the hostel I was so ready to just call it; but Melinda gave me a swift kick to the butt to get me going and we headed back down to Potsdamer Platz for dinner and sit under the cool dome that changes color throughout the night. Thanks for giving me the kick in the pants to get me going Melinda, glad we got out there to see this place at night!

Tomorrow we are off to Paris, so this being my last night in Deutschland I must say Gute Nacht to you and Auf Wiedersehen to Deutschland.


4/27/09


Berlin, Germany to Paris, France:

Finally heading back to Paris, France! My Buddy Colin and I passed through here twice in ’05 on the way to and from Bayeux out on the Normandy coast and each time spent over 7 hours in the train stations; so that was the extent of Paris that I had seen prior to this trip.

After seeing the very seedy side of Paris and the Parisians (imagine sitting for hours and watching thugs and lowlifes targeting their victims then going after them) I was not in a big rush to get back to this city. With the passage of time I was now ready to head back to actually see and experience this city. Plus I was able to line up the direct flight from Paris to Salt Lake City along with emergency row seats.

The two train rides from Berlin to Paris were in the nice comfort of the DB ICE first class cars. We were served a meal on the 2nd leg of the trip as well. The only thing we had to pay for was the seat reservations on the 2nd leg of the trip from Manheim, Germany to Paris.

Once in Paris we had to do the usual track down an ATM, which for some reason has become a hard thing to do in train stations when you really need one. After that it was on to the Metro to work our way over to the apartment we will be staying in the next four days. The apartment is located one street off the Champs-Elysees, so we are right in the heart of the city.

The Paris Metro system is one of the more efficient systems in Europe; once one has it figured out it is so easy to get around Paris in no time at all. Looking over the map of the Metro I plotted out the course to the stop we needed and off we dove into the underground. Unlike most metro systems in Europe, in Paris you have to slide a ticket into a slot and then pass through a gate, and sometimes you have to repeat this process with the same ticket to get out of the metro. If you have been to London you will know this process, but unlike London one must use a different ticket for each separate trip. I prefer the German honor system much more! No silly gates to fumble through like herded animals, and if you try to beat the system and get caught you face a stiff fine. Does this say the Germans are more trust worthy people than the French and British?? I leave that for you to decide.

By this point of the trip Melinda’s bags have reproduced and have become healthy large and robust beings. I swear I thought she had packed away a few small children in her bags. I have been helping her with her main bag up and down the stairs and here in Paris there are not many escalators. This is the end of the trip so a few more times won’t kill me; although my back and shoulders may beg to differ. I remember back in ’05 having much more gear in my large pack and getting wedged into these gates almost to the point of being stuck a few times. Since then I have learned and had no difficulty this trip. Melinda found out the hard way passing through the exit gates. She found herself on one side and her bags and hand on the other. There was someone not far behind her that triggered the gate to open up and she was set free.
We emerged from the Paris underground on the Champs-Elysees at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Metro station. As we worked our way back to the street where our apartment is located we ran into the landlord. I guess we stick out a little bit with our big bags; he spotted us first. We got settled into the apartment and about this time the rain storm hit and hit hard. So being that we had a long day on the trains and we were a bit tired we just hung out in the apartment.

Later that night we headed out to get some food and supplies at the grocery store that was around the corner. The rain is really coming down tonight! After shopping I finally got a text from Angelica and meet up with her at the Metro station; she will be staying with Melinda and I at the apartment for the next several days. Looks like the weather is going to be off and on rain for the next few days and the best day should be our last day here in Paris.


4/28/09


Paris Day 2:



Woke up this morning and the sky is looking clear for the most part, a little overcast and some threatening clouds off in the distance but that won’t stop us from enjoying the day.

Melinda and I headed off to walk down Champs-Elysees past the Louvre and end up at Notre Dame. What a beautiful walk that was; along the way we passed so many historical sights! Notre Dame is everything it is cracked up to be and then some. There was a good crowd outside in front of it but not too many people inside to really be able to enjoy it. We walked around inside for awhile snapping some pictures; I eventually just sat down and enjoyed the moment of being in this magnificent building.

It was lunch time and we looked at some of the restaurants across the street from Notre Dame; we found one that looked alright so we sat down and got the menu from the server. After ten minutes or so we never saw the server again and we could see no one to flag down so we took off and grabbed a Nutella and banana crepe from a place next door. Now that was so much better than what I was going to order!

Walking into the garden behind Notre Dame we sat on a park bench under a bunch of Linden Trees. Soon we noticed it was raining out but we were sheltered by the trees. The storm moved in very quickly and the rain came down harder and harder; as the temperature dropped the rain turned into hail for awhile. Around this time even the shelter under the trees was starting to become compromised. We both donned our rain jackets and got closer to the trunk of a tree for more shelter; scanning around the park there were many others doing the same thing. It started to let up a little bit and we set off in the driving rain to see some sights and maybe find another place to take shelter.
Eventually the storm passed as we were walking around so we made our way up to the Pantheon building in Paris. We purchased the two day Paris Museum pass and got a free entrance into the Pantheon. There are some amazing murals in this place and the crypt is the final resting spot for such names as: Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo), Louis Braille (Braille script), even Marie Curie can be found here. I decided to head up to the roof to get a really good view of the city. Every hour there is a guide who takes groups up to the top and out on the roof for a fantastic view of Paris. Melinda must have been still wandering around the crypt because I could not see her anywhere. Since this was the last chance to go up I jumped into the group and began the ascent.

The climb up was fairly easy, but many people were having a little bit of a difficulty with the height and the number of stairs. Once on top of the roof Paris sprawled out bellow me. The Eiffel Tower is off in the distance and when I first got out on the roof there was a rain storm passing over the tower. I could hardly see the Eiffel Tower because of the rain in the distance. I made a circle around the top of the Pantheon snapping pictures in all directions. Our group had about 15 minutes up there; a quick short rain storm passed over but we were sheltered by the building. Finally the sky cleared and there the Eiffel Tower was in all its glory; what a view from up here!

After heading back down I meet up with Melinda outside and we decided to work our way back towards the Louvre. We ran across this gelato shop that had gelato focaccina’s. I have never seen such a thing. It is basically a gelato sandwich with powdered sugar on it; or a little slice of heaven as I call it. If you ever run across one try it and you be the judge. Wow they are good!

After enjoying the focaccina we walked through Jardin Du Luxembourg Park where we found another movie being filmed. This one looked like a mid budget film and the scene had a lot of extras dressed in mid to late 20’s apparel. We watched them film a few takes, both Melinda and I found ourselves chomping at the bit wanting to jump in and do whatever we could to help out; we both really want to work in this industry!

The dark storm clouds are now moving in and it looks like we are going to get hit hard before we make it back to our apartment. Within a few minutes we were once again walking the streets of Paris in a downpour. Now I was wishing I would have packed my poncho for this kind of weather. By the time we got to the Louver it had let up but we were only in the eye of the storm, the next wave was on its way. The Louvre is closed today so there was hardly anyone around, perfect time to snap some pictures of the place. The glass pyramid entrance is very cool looking and looks much better without thousands of people standing by it. No sooner did we start heading back towards the apartment the next round of rain moved in. We stood under an arch in the Jardin Des Tuileries Park hoping the storm would pass. I think we waited out the worse part, but we could tell it was not going to stop raining anytime soon, so back into the rain we go. Using the Linden Trees for shelter we worked our way up to the Obelisque. My legs were soaked by now and enough was enough. I pulled out my map located the closest Metro and set off to ride the Metro the rest of the way. I like being out in the rain, but there comes a point when I get too wet and cold and just stop having a really good time. Now if I would have been prepared for this kind of rain I would have loved to have kept plodding along seeing the sights in the rain, which is actually one of the best time to see a city & sights.

Once back in the warmth of the apartment and after a quick change I made myself a baguette sandwich and relaxed. The rain never let up so I just decided to hang out in the apartment for the duration of the evening. Angelica had plans to head out to a club so she got ready and Melinda and I just took it easy and called it a night. Our original plan for tomorrow was to head out to Beauvais which is just a few hours North of Paris to check out a cathedral Melinda wanted to see. We both agreed that there is so much to do in Paris we probably would not have the time for this day trip. So we are off to the Louvre Museum tomorrow.



4/29/09


Paris Day 3:


Third morning in Paris; where is the time going?
Woke up and got ready to head to the Louvre. Angelica got back to the apartment around 06:00 so she is out cold. Melinda is a little slow this morning too. I wait around for Melinda, she and I are heading down to the Louvre. Since we have the museum pass we can go into a separate entrance and don’t have to do battle with all the others in the long queue at the main entrance. I knew Melinda being the artist would love this place and want to spend hours here. I wanted to see the main attractions and the Egyptian wing and the call it good.

We ended up getting split up before we even got past the ticket takers. Melinda’s bag was deemed too large and she had to go check it. I saw people in there with larger packs, but they were on bigger guys. It was just that Melinda’s bag looked so big on her. Eventually we would run into one another by Mona Lisa for a few minutes. I have a Rick Steves' audio guide for the Louvre on my MP3 player so I turned that on and walked through the place looking at the main attractions and listening to all the background on the paintings, artists and other fascinating facts about the museum.

Some of the wings were closed so I kept getting lost trying to get over to a section of the museum I wanted to see. Two and a half hours later I was done with the place. I had seen it ALL! I saw all the main pieces of art, sat and took in a few of them, walked every single hallway and room in the entire place and took it all in. Years of traveling through Europe have taught me the art of seeing it all while enjoying it at a good pace. Now from time to time I will see something in a museum that makes me stop and just take it in, but to me the true beauty is outside in the architecture and in nature. I would much rather sit up on a mountain top for hours looking at some of the most beautiful sights my eyes have ever seen than stand around with hundred of people looking at a painting.

I headed back to the apartment after my whirlwind tour of the Louvre. On the way back I ran into the landlord of the apartment almost in the same place Melinda and I ran into him when we first arrived in Paris. He wanted to know how things were going and if we were enjoying our time in Paris; he is a very friendly guy.

Angelica was up and about when I got back to the apartment; she and I sat around talking while I made some lunch. It was very nice catching up with her and having the time for just her and I to chat. Melinda showed up at the apartment after her marathon tour of the Louvre. Our plans were to go get something to eat down near the Eiffel Tower. She headed off as I was getting ready so I decided I would take in the Arc de Triomphe along the way to the Eiffel Tower.

The Arc de Triomphe is amazing!! I headed to the top to get the grand view of Champs Elysses and the rest of Paris. 284 steps later I emerge on top of the arc just as the sun is beginning to set in the distance; perfect timing! The storm clouds have cleared and Paris is looking very beautiful after its shower and in this light. Looking out across Paris it is hard to believe this city has the highest density of any city in Europe, about 20 times greater than New York City!! That is a lot of people!! Looking over the edge I watched the madness of The Etoile; 12 boulevards that radiate from the Arc. After awhile I notice that cars entering the circle are the ones with the right of way. I read that insurance companies split the fault and damages of any Arc de Triompje accident 50/50 now, because they were tired of all the disputes.

Heading down Ave D’iena I was now off to see the Eiffel Tower but my first stop would be across the river from it at Jardins Du Trocadero for some of the best views of the tower. In fact this is the same spot Hitler was photographed with architect Albert Speer in 1940. This seems to be one of the more popular spots to sit and view the tower; especially in the evening hours when the lights come on. I stayed here until the lights of the tower came on and watched the first light show.

Melinda had gone up the tower so I was now off to catch a boat cruise on the river Seine; going to save heading up the Eiffel Tower for the last night in Paris. The boat cruise departed right near the Eiffel Tower and headed down the river towards Notre Dame before turning around and heading back; lasting one hour. I got on the boat with a bunch of high school aged kids and many other tourists. There was an audio guide in English that described the sights as we cruised past. This is an incredible way to see the city of Paris; via boat! If in Paris make sure one night you spend on the river Seine, either on a tour or a dinner cruise. I would say it is a must!

Along the tour we pass under several bridges, and each time we headed under one everyone, well I should say all the kids on the boat figured it would be fun to scream and yell. If I would have had more time I would have tracked down a cruise with maybe less kids on it, but it was the last one of the night so I just jumped on it. Little over half way back on the cruise it was starting to get cold out. Being on the river and as the temperature started to drop for the night I found myself inside the heated section of the boat enjoying the warmth along with the views. I have learned that traveling this time of the year the weather and temperature changes very quickly and often. At one moment shorts and a t-shirt are fine and the next pants, jacket, gloves and a beanie are a must. Tonight I was wishing I had some warmer clothes on for sitting on a boat.

After the river cruise I headed over to the Eiffel Tower and checked out the base of it; it is MASSIVE! I then waited for Melinda to come down from the tower; which took forever! She said there was a very long queue for the elevators. The temperature has really dropped now, I can see my breath! While waiting for Melinda I watched all the black guys from Africa walk around trying to sell their cheap Chinese made trinkets. It was so funny how aggressive they got, especially with the women. Two girls from South Korea sat down next to me on a bench and right away they were harassed by a few guys. I told the girls to not take anything they try to hand to them and to tell them to bugger off in their own language. I told them it would be funny if they told these guys they are from China and that they did not fly all this way to buy cheap tourists trinkets that are made in their home country. The three of us talked for awhile before Melinda made it down to earth.

Traveling with someone can be very rewarding and quite stressful at times too. It is hard to find the perfect travel buddy! Spending a month, day in and day out together can be quite hard. Especially when one does not communicate with the other! Anyone who thinks about traveling abroad for an extended period of time needs to make sure the person they are traveling with can communicate with them.
I am an easy going happy go lucky kind of guy so I tend to just roll with things and try to make the best of the situation. I find that life and adventures are what you make of it. A true test of a friendship or any kind of relationship is a month long back packing adventure in Europe. If they are not trying to kill one another after or during, they should be good.

I took Melinda back across the river and up to the spot I was first observing the Eiffel Tower from. The crowds up there had thinned out so we took our time setting up our cameras and got some good night shots.

Neither of us has had any dinner and while walking back towards Champs Elysses both of us was starving. The time was a little after 01:00 and all the restaurants and cafés were closing down for the night. We couldn’t even find an all night crepe shop. We walked past the golden arches of McDonalds and noticed it was open until 02:00. I so did not want to eat there, but NOTHING else was open that we could see or had seen. By this time pretty much anything in my stomach sounded good. After realizing it has been well over 15 years since I have had a McDonalds hamburger I decided to keep that streak alive and ordered a chicken sandwich.

We sat down at the front of the place watching all the people still out and walking on the Champs Elysses at 01:50 in the morning. The security locked up the front door and would not let anymore people in; you should have seen the looks people gave us and our food when they realized they could not get in. After we ate we walked another 40 yards and there we found an all night crepe place. I had to get something better than what I just ate so I got a good Nutella and banana crepe, Melinda also joined me on this. We were both much more satisfied with that!

We finally made it back to the apartment around 2:40. I was going to wake up real early and find a café on the Champs Elysses, order some breakfast and watch Paris come to life. Well I think I will save that for another time. Tomorrow is the last day of the trip; always sad to see this day coming, and it always gets here way too soon.


4/30/09


Paris Day 4:


Fourth and last day in Paris; is it really almost over? That was the question I asked myself when I woke this last morning in Paris. I could not believe how quickly the last month just flew by. I was going to wake up early and spend the entire day out in Paris, but after an enjoyable night out and having fun with Melinda into the wee hours of the morning, I decided just to sleep in and relax.
After waking up and getting ready I was off to see The Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb at Les Invalides. I read that if you ever wanted to be a dictator of a united Europe come here first. Hitler did, but still went out and made the same mistakes; invading Russia.
Napoleon’s Tomb is amazing! Entering the beautiful church I was captivated by the surroundings while looking up at the dome above. Bellow the dome and one floor down from the ground floor is Napoleon’s Tomb. Inside the tomb is an oak coffin, housing two lead ones, then a mahogany, then tinplate until finally you would find Napolean himself strating up at you.

After walking around the ground floor and the basement floor I headed for the Army Museum. Being a student of WWII I skipped right through the WWI wing and headed straight for the WWII wing. I was quite impressed how extensive the WWII wing is; many good displays to checkout. After spending a good amount of time walking through the WWII wing I was now off to climb to the top of Notre Dame.

The queue at Notre Dame to climb the tower was long enough that I grabbed a crepe and a drink to enjoy while standing in the queue. There is a funny guy who walks the street in an Einstein mask and has fun with unsuspecting passerbies. I saw him the other day doing this, but today I was able to stand and really watch him have fun with people. It was so funny to watch him sneak up behind a child and mother, remove the child’s hand from the mothers and then place his hand in hers. It would take a second and then the mother would look down and jump out of her skin when she saw this guy crouched over walking hand in hand with her instead of her child. He would also put his arm around women who were walking with their husbands/boyfriends and they would just keep walking for a bit until they looked over. The best were the jumpy Asian tourists; they always produced the best reactions. Watching this guys antics greatly helped the time go by. I am feeling much better but still have a slight cough, and it is around this time that we have started to hear all about this swine flue that is now all over the news here. So while standing in this queue I had a slight cough which I would cough into my shoulder as not to cough on to people. A British couple was in front of me and the lady gave me a nasty look when I coughed. So I said, “Excuse me, I am still a little congested from that long flight from Mexico City.” Ohh you should have seen her face, it was if I just told her she is now infected with Ebola.

The ascent up Notre Dame is a fairly easy one. After the first set of stairs I emerge at the level with the gargoyles; quite a view of Paris just from here. I ducked in to check out the massive bell of Notre Dame. Inside the bell tower there is a little glass room built for the person who sits in there and monitors the throngs of tourists. The little lady in the glass room was hunched over sitting in her little chair reading a magazine; she looked so much like the hunchback of Notre Dame…haha. The next set of stairs took me up the right tower to an incredible view of Paris; one of the better elevated views of this city for sure! Well worth walking up 400 steps for this view.


Since I am in the Historic District of Paris I am heading over to see Sainte-Chapelle with its cathedral of glass that is suppose to be unrivaled. There is a longer queue here since we now have to go through security. One must access Palais De Justice Courtyard (built in 1776, home of the French Supreme Court) before entering Sainte-Chapelle. While standing in the queue I notice a sign indicating no pocketknives, or eating utensils. GREAT! Another security check and I have things in my pack that I will have to declare or leave with security. Passing my backpack through the x-ray machine and walking through the metal detector I was just waiting for someone to stop me and have me open my pack. Well it never happened so off I went with my banned camping utensils and pocketknife.

Sainte-Chapelle was much smaller than I thought it would be, but the windows were amazingly beautiful. It was built in only five years under one architect; amazing for a gothic times. Notre Dame took over 200 years to build.

After walking through Sainte-Chapelle I walked next door to the Conciergerie which was a prison and the last holding place for 2,780 victims of the guillotine. Marie-Antoinette even called this home before her trip to the guillotine. Walking through this place was also quite eerie to think of all the condemned souls who were housed in these walls. The holding cells have mannequins dressed in proper period piece clothing, little cheesy but it does give a sense of scale of the holding cells since people are not allowed to walk into them. Outside on the courtyard where the women prisoners were allowed to get fresh air there is still spikes on top of the walls guarding against any escapes.

After all that touring I headed back to the apartment and see what the girls were up to and see about dinner plans. Tonight I am heading up the Eiffel Tower and then plan to have a good last meal over here in Paris before the inevitable flight back home. Melinda and Angelica have both been taking it easy today and were both up for finding a good place to eat down by the Eiffel Tower; so off we went. Angelica and I worked our way down to the Eiffel Tower following the same path I used the other night as Melinda wanted to go check out the Arc de Triomphe.

Once again I find myself in a queue waiting to ascend another structure, but this time it will be by lift. I actually would not mind walking all the way up to the top if allowed and had more time. Squeezing into the small elevators a group of us headed up to the 2nd floor where we alighted then found our way into another queue to head up one more lift to the top of the tower. This was the slowest part of the entire wait. I could not believe that there was a couple in the queue with a baby stroller and a very young baby. They were having difficulties navigating the switchbacks and then finally someone came over and told them they could not take the stroller with them. Standing in line was a tall black man from the states, he looked familiar but I am not a big NBA fan so I could not say who he was, but he was for sure an NBA player. Finally I made it on the lift to head to the top; the view from up here is pretty amazing. I headed up to the small opened aired observation deck and made a 360 walk around it to take in the views. The sun had just set so the lights of the tower were now on and Paris was all light up bellow me. It was funny seeing all the camera flashes going off all around bellow the tower. It became quite crowded up there so after a quick text message to my mom & dad of where I was I headed down to catch the lift back to the 2nd floor.

The view from the 2nd floor in my own opinion is actually better than from the top. Things are more recognizable, and it is not nearly as crowded. I decided to work my way down to the ground via the stairs from the 2nd floor. I read that it should take 15 minutes to walk to the first floor and then another 15 to the ground. I made my way down to the ground in just a hair less than 15 minutes. It was a cool walk down, the view from the stairs was neat, and every once and awhile an elevator would go by full of people. There is netting all around the stairs to keep people from climbing out on to the tower, but there were several gaps that I spotted which would not require too much effort to get through and then out on to the tower.

Finally on the ground floor I walked through the door and OUCH…the door opened funny and took a chunk of skin off my knuckle of my index finger. It was one of those wounds were the skin is hanging off for a few moments before the blood starts flowing. How funny, I just walked very briskly down the Eiffel Tower where I could have easily slipped and fell down several flights of stairs causing all sorts of damage to myself and then at the very end the door gets me. Guess I have to leave my share of flesh & blood behind.

Joining up with Angelica and Melinda we head off to find a place to eat. Melinda found a few places that had a good view of the tower. While walking along the river I figured somewhere around here Princess Diana lost her life in the auto accident. We came across a bridge over the road near the river and there is a small replica of the torch from the Statue of Liberty. Little did we know that bellow us was also the tunnel Princess Diana died in.

The restaurant we ate at was just across the street from this bridge and the view of the tower was superb. We ate outside on the sidewalk that was sectioned off for the restaurant. Luck would have it that a heat lamp was right above us and it would keep us warm for the next several hours. That is right, our dinner lasted nearly 4 hours, well the dinner part did not, but getting the waiter to take our order, get our food, order desert and drinks, and then finally get our bill and take our money, that all lasted nearly four hours. I could not complain too much, I had the best view and had the lovely company of two great girls. For dinner I had an amazing fresh piece of salmon that melted in my mouth. For desert I ordered a crème brulee, yummy!! The three of us chatted about the trip and then Melinda and I realized that we never made it down to the Louvre at night to take pictures of it. Guess that will have to be saved for another trip to Paris. I plan to come back to this great city again, especially since there are direct flights to and from Paris from Salt Lake City.

Well that month went by entirely too fast; they always do! Tomorrow we head back to Salt Lake City on the direct flight from Paris. It will be so nice not having any layovers. I have emergency row seats lined up for this 11 hour flight.

This has been a great trip and I have had the pleasure of traveling with three great friends off and on throughout the entirety of it. Getting to experience far Eastern Europe was a great thrill and an experience I will never forget. My favorite city in Europe, Salzburg still is as enjoyable as the first time I visited. This time through Paris was a world of difference actually staying there and seeing the better parts of Paris rather than sitting in train stations for hours. Making new friends in Ukraine was one of the highlights of the trip; it is so nice to meet locals wherever I go and spend some time getting to know them, their culture and sharing a little of my culture with them. I feel so lucky to have been able to make this my 6th trip over to Europe and I look forward to many more years of traveling over here, meeting new friends, sharing my love of travel and the European culture with many others. Who knows, maybe some day I will be living over here.

It has been a pleasure sharing my month long adventure with you all, and I hope I was able to convey the exciting times I had over here. I will let you know when my pictures are posted online.

One final Goodbye, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir, La Revedere, Do Widzenia, Viszontlatasra, Nashledanou, Nasvidenje, До побачення.

5/1/09

Salt Lake City, Utah:

Woke up in Paris jumped in a taxi out on the Champs-Elysees that took us to Charles de Gaulle airport. Got checked in and then went through the security. Some of the people working security are wearing masks. Melinda and I joke around saying it would have been funny to have got some face masks and to have drawn pig snouts on them. After finally getting through security we grab a bite to eat and I use up the rest of my Euros buying some good Swiss chocolate; a tradition of mine at the end of every Euro Trip.

The flight was great with the nice leg room of the emergency row seats! I watched a few movies and tried to get a little rest. 11 hours later we were touching down in Salt Lake City Utah. It was so strange walking out into the SLC airport and to think I was just over in Paris. Knowing how nice that flight is, I will for sure try to take this one each time I go to Europe if it works out.

Always nice to be home, but never ready to be home after such a trip. I really needed one more month over there. I think the next Euro Trip I do has to be a 2 month trip minimal.

Few things I learned on this trip. Never take a rookie backpacker on such an ambitious trip, spend more time with my bro, Ukraine is a fascinating place; but can be very difficult with the language and written word barrier. Paris is a wonderful city and I look forward to visiting again!

Check out my Pictures.