The Last Word

The flight home was great. We got lucky and had an international plane, which means better entertainment systems, better food, better everything. We got delayed a little in LAX, but I fell asleep in a cafe and Kristen caught up on journaling. So all in all, it was a great trip home.

So here's the last word on my favorites and least favorites of everything. I figured this would be a good way to end the story of my trip around the world in 60 days.

Favorite Flight: Korean Airlines, Tokyo->Honolulu

Worst Flight: Delta Airlines, Beijing->Tokyo

Comment: Just don't destroy my bags Delta. That's all I ask. And Korean, you had first class service the whole way to Honolulu. Fantastic job.

Favorite Hostel: K's Hostel, Tokyo

Worst Hostel: Legends Hostel, Rome

Comment: K's was cheap, great location, and had fantastic staff. Legends was expensive, had a terrible location, and lied to me about A/C.

Favorite Hotel: White House Hotel, Istanbul

Worst Hotel: Windsor Palace, Alexandria

Comment: It really wasn't the staff's fault. They just need to knock down the Windsor Palace and build something that isn't so terrible.

Favorite Country: Japan

Worst Country: Egypt

Comment: Greece was unfortunately disqualified. Kristen being there gave it a HUGE advantage. And while Egypt was amazing and I can't wait to go back, it was an easy decision to make it worst. I had money extorted from me. It's hard to overcome that.

Favorite Attraction: The Great Wall of China, Beijing

Worst Attraction: The Vatican Museum, Rome

Comment: Everyone should see the Great Wall before they die. It is amazing.

Favorite Food: Kristen's Mushroom Tortellini, Greece

Worst Food: Coffee, Vietnam

Comment: I don't think I had a single meal I hated the whole trip. It was all amazingly good. But Greece knocked the pants off every place else for food. Meanwhile, Vietnam does great tea but their coffee is just awful.

Thing I Missed Most: Personal Space

Comment: Obviously this doesn't include friends and family. England, Ireland, Japan, and the US are the ONLY countries I have visited that have personal space. And China doesn't even understand the concept.

Thing I Will Miss the Most: Making Friends

Comment: My favorite part of the whole trip, was making friends in the hostels, on the trains, and the boats. Sharing stories, food, and eventually friendship.

So now I have been all the way around the world, and I have just one last thing to say. I love America, I love New York City and New Jersey and Little Silver, and it is so good to be home again, in the best place in the whole world!

Turtles in a Half Shell, Hobo Power!

Last day in Maui. But our flight wasn't until 9pm. So we packed up all our stuff into the car, and became hobo's for a day. The day started with a snorkeling trip. But not just to some beach, we took a boat out to a sunken volcano crater! The crater acted as protection against the ocean, and created a reef with all kinds of fish swimming around. Kristen got some great pictures and we had a great time swimming around.

There were a LOT of people who clearly do not live near the ocean or own a pool. They were renting wet suits to people for $10 extra claiming the water was a whole 20 degrees colder than your body temperature!!!... which is 78 degrees. Which anyone who owns a pool will tell you is a fantastic temperature to swim in. You don't need a wet suit! They also had little green floaty tubes you could prop yourself up on... which kind of defeats the purpose of snorkeling. I swear, at least 60% of the people used them. At one point they all managed to make a wall of people who could barely swim, just floating around. I just swam under them when they got in the way.

The company we took the tour with, Pacific Whale Foundation, was fantastic. They got us out there early, before all the crowds hit, and the guides gave us great tips on how to get the best pictures and find the most fish, and everything else. At our second stop, we got to swim with Sea Turtles!! Kristen and I both got pictures with them. If you do this, you really have to be the first person out of the boat. Some of the turtles are pretty shy, and will go into hiding when the rest of your boat empties. If you are lucky, some of them will swim right up to you! One swam right into the middle of our tour group like he was our best buddy. He was also a ninja, because we took our eyes off him for one second and he was gone the next. They don't move very fast, so I don't know how the turtle pulled it off.

The rest of the day was spent getting burnt on a beach. At this point we were living out of our car, but it was a lot of fun. We took our last swims in the pacific, and took a few good naps on a beach. Kristen took her last few shots of palm trees. That was her favorite thing to photograph. It was palm trees and cinder cones. A lot of the public beaches have showers, so we used those to clean off some of the salt, and got into our airplane clothes. On the way back, we satisfied a craving and got ourselves some Pizza the Hutt. Dropped off the car, and then it was finally time to head home...

Frozen at 10,000 Feet

Now I knew we were going to see a sunrise on top of a volcano. But the one volcano I have climbed, was not very high. And it is difficult to make out how tall the volcanoes are on Maui, and I was driving in pitch black, and let's face it, it was 3 AM in the MORNING! So I don't think I was properly prepared for what I saw. It was BREATHTAKING. This is a must do, if you visit Maui. You get to see the sunrise over the volcano crater, which is surrounded by clouds, because you are 10,023 feet above sea level. It is awesome!... but bring a sweater, because it is really really cold. I ended up using my hotel towel as a makeshift hood.

We took tons of pictures, got to see plants in bloom that only bloom once in their 50 year lifespan, and got to take a hike down into the first part of the crater. We couldn't go any further because some idiot forgot to bring his shoes and wore sandals instead. It's really hard to hike uphill in sand in sandals. It was also cool to see the observatory, the fourth highest in the world. You can't go inside because I guess it's run by the DoD, but it's still cool to see. My favorite part was getting to see planes flying lower than us.

When we got back down, Gerg was Zombie Gerg. So we did some shopping and hung out at our resort for a little while to recover. This is when I got my real Hawaiian shirt! The rest of the night was uneventful, mostly Gerg trying not to fall asleep on his feet.

Weren't we supposed to rest?

So when Kristen and I first talked about Maui, the assumption was that I was going to be delirious from travel, and need to rest. It wasn't entirely that way. I was extremely tired, probably more than I knew at the time. But from 2 months of straight travel, I was used to operating on this exhaustion. And there was SO much to do on Maui!

The first day was a little more relaxing. We decided to check out the beaches on the South-Western side of the East half of the island. Unbeknownst to us, these beaches were actually mostly made from former lava fields. They made for some really cool rocks, cliffs, and blow holes. (Holes made by waves, the result being waves that shoot up 10 feet in the air through them.) The waves that day were particularly heavy, and the lifeguards were warning tourists not to go into the water because of it. Mostly we hiked and took pictures, followed by some much needed sleeping on a beach. That night we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp. It felt very American. I felt like I was home.

The next day was the road to Hana, a trip we were really looking forward to. We had to wake up really early for this one to beat the crowds. Hana is the only town on the far Eastern side of the island, and it is tiny. The reason for this is probably because the road to get there is even smaller. It twists and winds against the cliffs of the volcano, passing by waterfall after beautiful waterfall. We must have stopped 20 times on the way to Hana, but each time it was worth it.

At one point we decided we wanted to get up close to a waterfall no one else was going to. So we climbed up a cliff, over a shack (which may or may not have been there to prevent this sort of thing, up a river bed, and through the jungle... but we still couldn't make it. We came to a cliff we couldn't climb. I still jumped in a pool though, which was absolutely freezing. After that we stopped at a park with black sand beaches, and old lava tube caves. We went swimming in the caves, in some of the cleanest water I've ever seen. You could swim down and under to even deeper caves really easily. It was so cool.

Finally we came to the "end" of the road to Hana, at the 7 Sacred Pools. It's a National Park where waterfalls create 7 pools all of which can be swam in. We swam in one a little higher than the crowds and basically had the place to ourselves, minus the suicidal people who were jumped from the 30-50 foot falls and bridges. They survived, but they are still insane.

At this point, the crowds started to show up, so we started heading back the other way down the road to Hana. It's about 3 hours one way if you're ahead of the crowds, not including stops for banana bread (we got it fresh out of the oven and couldn't stop ourselves from shoveling down a whole loaf between us). That night we took it easy, and had dinner at a local place. Because the next morning we had to wake up at 3AM to go see the sunrise at the National Park.... worth it!

Smelly Capsules and Hacking on the Plane

Hey guys. Sorry the last few posts have been slow coming. I came home and hit the ground running on the job search. Here will follow the posts for my visit to Maui with Kristen, and my final words on my favorite and least favorite... everything. So lets start with Maui!

Scratch that! Let's start with the Capsule Hotel! GROSS! This was a mistake. I guess it all worked out in the end, because it helped me sleep on the flights from Tokyo to Maui, but it is not ideal. The Capsule hotel was in the red light district of Tokyo. Now I've said before that Tokyo is the cleanest city I've ever visited. The red light district is no different. Very clean, and I felt pretty safe there. But still, they can pack a lot of casinos and strip clubs into a square block. About a block away was my capsule hotel. The Capsule part was cool. Had a TV and was pretty big so you could sit up and spread out on the bed. You have a little wooden blind covering your feet, so I didn't really feel claustrophobic. The bigger problem was that every place besides the capsules was smoking. I mean EVERYPLACE, restaurant, spa, sitting area. I reeked by the time I left. And all the girls offering massages gets a little creepy. Especially since I was the only guest there under 35. Anyway, I've had the experience. Never again.

The flights over were great. Korean Airlines. My path was Tokyo->Seol->Honolulu->Maui. We had awesome entertainment systems. It seemed set up like a full computer, complete with a USB port on the side. I'm betting if you can force a full reboot you could plug in a bootable USB drive and have your own computer for the flight. I tried to at least do the reboot (had no bootable drive), but I couldn't do it. I managed to force a crash on the system, but it seems like it had another layer to prevent the system from doing a full reboot. Maybe the entertainment software is sitting on top of the OS, in which case you'd have to crash the OS. Anyway enough nerd talk. Brian, Wes, Tommy, Funk, or Jeff. If any of you are listening, this is your hacker mission, should you choose to accept it.

I slept through half the Seol to Honolulu, and all of Honolulu to Maui. Finally back on US SOIL!! I grabbed my rental car, drove about 35-40 minutes to my hotel, and crashed! Pillow. Face. Sleep. For one hour, then I had to go back and pickup a very pretty lady at the airport who was coming from the other direction. Then it was hotel, pillow, face, sleep again. More on Maui after the break!

Total Mileage

(*Drum roll*)....

44,185.31^ rounded down by several hundred miles.

^ Information given by Wayfaring Map service.

Nerd Mecca and Joypolis

Yesterday, I had a full list of temples and the palace. But before this was Akihabara, a district in Tokyo dedicated to computer parts, video games, dvd's, anime, manga, and general nerd paraphernalia. This was another aspect of Tokyo I was not aware of before coming here. I had heard about this from some friends who were decidedly not nerds. So my expectations were low.

Akihabara is nerd mecca. It is a pilgrimage every nerd should make once in their life. I spent three hours walking up and down a giant store dedicated exclusively to all the old toys I used to play with as a kid. Transformers, Power Rangers, Gundam, NES, SNES, Sega, you name it, it was there. It was amazing. Then I left that building, and found a square mile of shops dedicated mostly to the same thing. It was amazing. I found so many amazing things that I could not buy. Mostly cause they cost a fortune now that they are collectors items. I ended up spending the whole day there. It was awesome.

That night two friends and I went to a cool sushi restaurant. The ones where the plates go round a conveyor belt. I stuck to the cheap plates. It was still delicious. As we were walking back, a building with a big Bandai sign caught our eye. Bandai made most of the toys I mentioned in the paragraph before. They, along with Nintendo and a few other companies, are directly responsible for my nerdiness. After a little investigation, we found out that that was indeed Bandai HQ, nestled in the strangest part of Taito, Tokyo. My friends and I started flipping out.

Today we went back there and took pictures. They had a museum of their most succesful toys, which we shamelessly drooled over. Tokyo has been one giant nerd and nostalgia trip. It's been awesome. After this, we decided to take a hike to the harbor district in Tokyo. We had heard about two cool parks. Muscle Park, an offshoot of Ninja Warrior, and Joypolis, and indoor amusement park by Sega. Muscle Park was a huge letdown. I was expecting obstacle courses. Instead I got a little kids playground. Complete with a ball pit. It was sad really.

Joypolis on the other hand was awesome. All the latest video games, but on steroids. My friend, Lloyd and I spent the whole day there going on every ride and video game imaginable. My favorite was the giant oversized Tetris game. It wasn't too complicated either, and would be fairly simple to build. But I think I have enough nerd projects that I haven't finished.

Anyway, tomorrow I change hotels to a Capsule hotel! This is where your bed is literally a hole in the wall. It's a strange Japanese custom, but I'm interested to see how it works. After that, it's off to Honolulu! Back to USA. Now that I have been to a dozen countries all over the world, I can safely say that there is no place like home. Internet there might be expensive, so my next few posts may very well come from good old NJ. If I don't get to post til then, it's been fun everyone, and I'll see you all soon back home!

Real Life Giant Robots... and Baseball

Hello TOKYO! First let me start by saying, Lost in Translation was just terrible. That movie was one of the worst films I've ever seen. It also did not portray Tokyo correctly at all. At least not the side I'm getting to see. The movie portrayed Tokyo as dreary and strange. While I kind of get the strange bit, I don't get the dreary thing at all. I love this city. It's clean. Everyone is friendly. The food is delicious. And there is a ton to do, especially for a nerd like me. I will admit though that everything is really expensive and the subway system makes no sense at all. None. They showed me a map of the subways and trains. It looks like those drawings where a 6 year old just grabs two fists full of crayons and starts drawing.

Anyway, my first few days in Tokyo. The first day I woke up late and chose to do one of my nerd exhibits first. Now if some of you haven't seen my nerdier side, let me explain it. I love video games, giant robots, and giant spaceships. If you have 1 or more of those things, I'm sold. One of my favorite tv series in the giant robots arena is Gundam. It's an old giant robot series from 70's and 80's originating in Japan. I got very lucky on this trip, because the 30th annual Tokyo Gundam Expo was this weekend. I did not plan that at all, I just lucked out. So yesterday I went. They had toys, robot model kits, vintage everything from when the series started in the 80's, promotions for newer Gundam series, and of course Gundam video games. I don't mean like Xbox games, I mean the giant arcade games where you have a giant console full of buttons and get to drive one of the giant robots! I was in nerd heaven. Consequently... I'm a terrible robot driver. These two 6 year old Japanese kids schooled me. But it was still awesome!

That took pretty much all day, so by around 3 I went back to the hostel. Two friends I had made, Sebastian and Heinrick, decided they wanted to go to a Japanese baseball game at the Tokyo Dome and invited me. It sounded cool, and was pretty cheap so we went. They had never been to a baseball game, so I explained all the rules. It was a lot of fun! The Japanese don't really get as rowdy as American fans. Instead they have specific chants for parts of the game or certain players. They chant through the whole game. It's interesting to say the least. It was also the longest game I've ever attended. Seriously, we were there for 4 hours and it was only the bottom of the 6th. We just gave up and left. It was still fun though.

Today I woke up late again. (I'm starting to run low on gas. I'm sleeping a lot more lately.) Today was the day where I went to the big Gundam statue! So according to the tv show, a Gundam robot is around 60 feet tall. A few years back to commemorate the anniversary of Gundam, they built a 1:1 size statue of the robot in Tokyo! Unfortunately they took it down... BUT they recently rebuilt it in a town 3 hours outside of Tokyo by train! Again, I didn't know this until a few weeks before I got here, so I did not plan this at all. So today I took the long train ride out. It was awesome! How often do you get to see one of your favorite tv shows come to life in a big way. (Pun intended) I spent a good two hours walking around taking pictures, and again looking at merchandise and exhibits around the statue. The thing didn't move much, just the head every 30 minutes or so. But it was still awesome!

I finished off the day today going to Subiya, the part of Tokyo with the giant crowds crossing the busy streets and all the shops. It's like 5 square blocks of Time Square like areas, all with nice shops. After that I went to the Pokemon Center!... which was kind of a let down. It's a tiny shop with some Pokemon stuff. Not even a lot of stuff. I took some pictures, but it looks better than it is. You'd think they'd have something better in Tokyo. Whatever. Tomorrow is the electric part of the city, Akihabara. It's a big section with electronics, video games, and general nerd stuff. Until next time!

Anti-climatic End to China and Delta Airlines FAIL

I wish there was some big story to end this on, but there isn't. The last day I packed, researched Japan, and took it easy. I tried to go to the Summer Palace. Even took some pictures and walked around. But it was a rainy day, and I didn't like my pictures very much. Didn't even bother posting them.

I did try to go the Wangfujing street markets. These are the ones where they sell all the cool and gross foods right there on the street. I thought they served fried scorpion and seahorse. I was even excited to try them, and maybe a little scared. I took a few steps into the market, walking toward a vendor with scorpions on a stick. I was ready to go.... and then one of the scorpions moved. NOPE. DONE. I don't have many rules, but one of them is that my food must be dead. D-E-A-D. DEAD. Thanks for playing. See ya next time. After that I went to a Pizza Hut, followed by a Cold Stone Creamery.

Today I woke up at 4am for a flight to Japan. This was by far the worst transit experience I have had so far. Delta Airlines and Beijing Airport, you fail in so many different ways. To start the day off, they confiscated my airline bottles of alcohol. Now it was just two of the little bottles, but they would have helped me sleep through the flight. They made it through 3 seperate inspections. At the gate, two Chinese guards confiscated them saying they weren't allowed on. When I asked why, their English all of a sudden got bad. Really? You're scamming people out of little liquor bottles? Whatever.

The flight was a disaster. I have never had turbulence that bad. At one point we dropped so sharply and suddenly, a woman who wasn't wearing her seat belt actually lifted almost a foot or two out of her seat right in front of me. It just got scary at some point. I buried my head in my book and did my best not to think about it. So now I am in Narita in Tokyo, tired, hungry, and very angry. And my checked bag looks like it went through a meat grinder. It's disgustingly dirty, one strap is completely missing, and my padlock is gone. Not the one closing my baggage, the one I had carefully placed on the outside of my bag. It made it all the way around the world that way, but apparently Delta didn't like the look of it and had broken it off. It wasn't even closing any openings! So in my last bit of complaining here, I'll just say this. DELTA AIRLINES YOU FAIL!

BUT after that experience, I am now a strong proponent of a cure to bad travel. One hot shower, and one hot Big Mac. (Big Mac can be replaced by any unhealthy and warm meal.) This is all it takes to make you feel better. It won't fix any problems, simply bring you the comfort you need and clear your head. But a lot of times that's all you need. Anyway, Tokyo is awesome! There's technology all over the place. My toilet has a computer! More details on the land of the rising sun to come soon. Expect all of them to be nerdy in nature.

The > Wall of Some Big Asian Country

Finally on the third day the weather was clear! I was going to go to the Great Wall of China! This was an easy 2nd for the top tourist sites I wanted to see on this trip, just behind the Pyramids. There are a bunch of different sites you can go see near Beijing, and originally I wanted to do this big hike between the Simatai section and another one. But in July they started more work on the Simatai section, so it won't be open for a while. Lame. BUT... I was also running low on money, so I went to the only part of the wall accessible by public bus alone, Badaling!

Of course this is the closest section, and so the most crowded. But I knew a few tricks for avoiding that. For starters, when you get off the bus (I was the only non-Chinese person on that bus FYI) they will try to lure you onto the chair lift. THIS IS A MISTAKE! At the top of that lift is a river of people all the way back to the main entrance. Don't do it! Instead walk to the main entrance and take a left, away from the river of people. You will immediately be met by several sections of wall that feel like a straight vertical climb... because they pretty much are. But keep going! Because after your 3rd heart attack, is a part of the wall with only 12 to 24 people. And it's big, and flat, and there are guard towers where cool breezes move through the stone and cool you off quickly. But the best part is the view. You can see the wall snake around for miles in either direction. You cannot see this view from any other part of the Badaling wall. It is worth every bit of the horrible pain you will go through to attain it.

If Badaling, the most overcrowded and touristy part of the wall, was that amazing, I can't even imagine how the other parts are. If I had hated the rest of my trip to China (which wasn't even close to true), the Great Wall alone would pull me back. I'm gonna have to come back at some point, I just have to. It was that much fun. Anyway, I put up lots of pictures on facebook. Sorry I haven't been able to put them on the blog. If I had known Blogger's pictures upload was this bad from abroad, I would have done something else. But it's too late now. Oh well, on to the last days in China!

Rainy Day in Beijing

Day two was a full on let down. It was raining so I couldn't get to the Great Wall just yet. So I tried to go to the Military Museum, but it and most other museums in Beijing are closed on Mondays. Fantastic. So I spent most of the day hiking to the CCTV and Olympics buildings to take some pretty awful pictures. I also went to the Silk and Pearl markets, but more on them in a second. First I want to give you guys my impressions on China and the Chinese, which I was pretty surprised by.

Most of them are pretty obvious and expected. There are a lot of people. They are all shorter than me, and thus walk slower than me. The one thing I didn't expect is the level of commercialism. Not globalism, commercialism. In the sense that China has brought commercialization to it's own population. Instead of stores like GAP or Burger King, you have Chinese companies and stores doing the same thing. You will see the same clothing store chains, all Chinese. That's not to say their parent or partner corporations are not the same as the GAP, but it seems more like China is moving into that phase of a economic super power. The one where it begins to create it's own monsters of the commercial world, the same as the US and Europe has done. That was just my impression anyway.

Back to the markets, which still retain some of that haggling and deal finding spirit that China is so famous for. I went in looking for sunglasses, and came out with every but. Actually I came out with sunglasses. Fake Oakleys, that I haggled the guy down to $15 from $25. I still got ripped off though, because 24 hours later they broke. And not even when I was wearing them! I put them down in one piece on the desk, woke up from a nap, and there were 3 big cracks in the plastic. Meh, what was I really expecting? Anyway, I also got a 4gb flash drive for about $12 down from $40! I don't know who this girl thought she was selling to, cause I was never paying $40 for a flash drive. I can't imagine she knew I was a CS major, but still.

The markets are fun, but you gotta be careful, and can't be afraid to be firm with the vendors. One girl selling purses grabbed my wrist at one point and started to scream and pull me into their booth. In the middle of a big crowd of people, none of whom thought it was out of the ordinary. They also didn't think it was strange when I ripped my hand away and not so politely told the girl to get lost. In the end it was all fun, and you can find some pretty crazy stuff there.

Forbidden Palace, City, and Starbucks

Wow, two weeks with restricted internet access make Greg go... something.. something. Not to say that China and Vietnam weren't fun to travel in, but censorship gets to me. Especially on that large a scale. Anyway, I'm back in a country that promotes a more liberal freedom of speech, and also has a ridiculously fast internet connection. So here come the stories and pictures!

First up was the Forbidden City. It is actually called a bunch of things, Forbidden City, Imperial City, Forbidden Palace, and Imperial Palace. There's even a Starbucks (Forbidden or Imperial, whichever you prefer) inside somewhere. I couldn't find it though. The place was PACKED when I was there. It was impressive. The actual Palace was gorgeous. You go through like 6 gates before you get to it though, in fact a lot of people walk right past it thinking it's another gate. (Like one very clueless Jersey kid.) There were museums, but they are the kind I hate. The buildings that were designed for something else, but they still pack as many people as they can in there to see the exhibits. I hate that. Instead I just enjoyed walking amongst the streets and gates. It's a breathtaking structure.

Next came the Temple of Heaven. This is what I wish every tourist attraction was like. It is a giant park, with plenty of space for everything. It just happens to have a series of gorgeous temples in the middle of it. You pay to get close to them, but not much, and even then there is plenty of room to walk, view, and take pictures without wanting to kill every person walking around with a parasol in their hands. (Doesn't matter who is holding it, man, woman, child, the parasol thing is annoying. Just wear a hat!) What was really cool were all the people in the park. All of the retired Chinese pretty much just hang out here all day. They play mahjong, practice singing, dancing, yoga, martial arts, and every other park activity you can imagine. There was one old guy whose face showed his age, but he was ripped. He looked like someone had taken an older man's head and placed it on a marine's body. At this point, I was absolutely beat. I went back to the hotel and crashed hard.

Motorbikes and National Parks

So once I got back, I had two more days to kill in Hanoi. I had to plan it that way, to leave myself room to grab the Ha Long bay trip at the right time. Little did I know that Hanoi Backpackers hostel just shuttles people to and from the island. You'd think this would be lame, but they really do a great job. It's cheap, it's fun, and if you are young it is exactly the right crowd. Doing it with other agencies, you often get put with families, etc. Which is fine, but you won't meet as many people your age, which I find to be the most fun in these trips.

Anyway, Andy and I decided we wanted to do a day trip to Cuc Phuong National Park. There are some cool old caves, old trees, and wildlife preserves there, and according to google it was a quick 2 hours away. So we thought we'd rent a bike, and motor on down there. We got a reccomendatino from the hostel as to who to rent from, and thank god we did. The bikes don't go as fast as the cars do, and even with the shortcuts our guide took us down, it was an easy 3 hours to the park. The bikes when pushed can just barely hit 60 mph. You can get the higher cc bikes, but we didn't have the cash. Thankfully one of the guides at the place realized all this, and offered his services at a fairly cheap price. I guess he wasn't going out that day anyway, and this was just a bonus that we came in and needed someone. At first I didn't think we did. Andy seemed pretty confident on the bike, and I figured I could learn when we got out of the city.

I didn't realize that while the city is one kind of madness, the highway is another. Neither is truly safe for bikes. Simply because there are a lot of bikes in Vietnam, does not mean that it is easier for bikes to get around than any other country. It is tough. The trucks own the road, and will not hesitate to run you off it. In the end we got two bikes, one for Andy and one for me and the guide. He asked a few times if I wanted to drive, but by then I was good and scared and didn't want to slow us down. So I just had him drive me around all day. I did, however, get some great videos of Andy braving the roads. For a first timer, he took to it pretty well. We felt every minute of those 6 hours on the road though. The back seat of a scooter is not really the place for a long journey like that. My legs and butt are still in pain.

Anyway, the park! The park was gorgeous. There must be billions of butterflies in that thing. We saw huge swarms of them. Unforuntately each time I tried to get a picture, my camera just turned them into a blur. I think I need a high quality one to really capture them. I took some video of them at one point I think. We also saw caves that had human graves, carbon dated to around 5500 BC. They were huge caves, that went way back into the mountain side. We couldn't see the trees because they were a 2-3 hour hike, and we would have gotten back after the office was closed. But we did get to go see both the monkey and turtle preserves and rehabilitation centers. The monkeys were the coolest because we got to see whole families playing and swinging. The turtles were cuter though. Despite being endangered, locals will still hunt them both for food.

When we got back to Hanoi, we were covered in soot and sand from the roads. And unfortunately our hostel had no power. Fantastic. One very very cold shower later, I went to ask the staff about the power. At first they blew me off, saying 1 hour. But then I heard one of the head staff screaming at the power guys. Apparently they had said 3 hours at 2pm, and it was now 7pm. So they were clearly working until it was fixed. We headed out to a restaurant that was recommended by Lonely Planet, but it had lost power as well. On the way we saw a bustling local place, and decided to do as the locals did. They immediately served us two beers and peanuts. We also became the night's entertainment as we attempted to read the all Vietnamese menu. Finally a nice group of guys next to us told us in broken english two local dishes that were good, and chicken wings. When we got them, we were underwhelmed by one, but the other was amazing. When we got back we learned that it was bitter melon with dried shrimps. It was delicious. The chicken wings were amazing too. The meat tasted so good and healthy. It was all amazing. We had a feast for a little under $10.

Today I am taking it easy, reading up on Beijing, updating blogs, pictures, etc. And skyping with my girlfriend who I miss so much. For the next few days I will be in country with very different computer laws than America. So I may refrain from blogging until I reach Japan, and may even be out of email contact. If anyone needs to reach me, please contact my parents (or little brother) who have my phone info which will still work fine.

Wakeboarding, Hangovers, and Traveler's Sickness

They woke us up at 7:30 like some cruel joke. With only 4 hours of sleep, I was moving a little slowly. The two boats split up, taking the 2 day people back to harbor, and taking us 3 day people to the hostel's private island deep in the mountainous islands of Ha Long bay. The ride there was mostly hungover people sleeping wherever they could. It was lightly raining, so a bunch of us stowed our stuff below decks and fell asleep on the top deck, letting the rain cool us off. There isn't very much wind in the bay, besides that caused by the boat moving.

Finally we arrived on the hostel's private island. It was actually very nice. Showers, working toilets, a nice kitchen and bar. We stayed under thatch roof, wall-less huts. Each had 5-6 mattresses with mosquito nets above them. Considering how hot it got, this was a very good setup. Once we got there the rain stopped, and I found a shady tree with a hammock and took a nap. Once I woke up, we had lunch and started the volleyball games. The whole time groups were going out for wakeboarding, which I had never tried but was excited to do. After 2 wins and a loss, my turn for the wakeboarding was up.

According to the guides, getting up is the hardest part. In fact, about 50% of the people trying the first time that day, didn't get up. Another 25% only got up once. I got up on the second try. And then had no trouble getting up after that. I think it was because I waited and watched both experienced and first timers, trying to gather as much tips as possible and learn from their mistakes. Also, the position you get yourself in as you get up, is very similar to one you use in rock climbing. Once I figured that out, it became a breeze. It was SOOO much fun! I think I have found a new hobby. And it's a big workout. Muscles I didn't know I had were hurting for days afterward. Abs, arms, back, and legs all felt the burn.

That night they served us a feast, which was good, cause I needed it. And of course, everyone went back to drinking heavily, as if they had no memory of the hangover this morning. I took part as well, trying to live up my youth. But one of my friends, Andy, didn't feel like drinking as heavily as everyone else. About 5 of us all felt the same way, and escaped to another part of the beach to drink, talk, and watch the stars. You can tell that on a clear night, you could probably see clear to the other side of the galaxy. I really tried to stay awake, but after the 5th time of my head dipping while talking to someone, I decided I was being rude and should just crash.

So I did, but it wasn't a restful sleep. The beds were fine, but at around 2pm, a british man started calling my phone. After the 5th call, I picked it up and in a not so polite way, told him that he was calling a phone in Vietnam, and it was costing him a fortune. He stopped after that. The next time I woke up, it was because a monsoon was coming down outside, and some thunder literally shook my hut. After that, a leak started right above my face. I used my windbreaker to cover it above the mosquito net, which worked fine. After that I only slept til 7. Couldn't get back to sleep. Meh.

The ride back was uneventful, with one exception. The lunch that day. I don't know what it was, because I was very careful in choosing my food. Only well cooked meats, breads, and fried foods. But something got me sick. Just travelers diahrea. It didn't hit me until that night. I went to dinner with Andy and another friend Leo. We got back and were joking around, and planning a day trip the next day. All of a sudden it hit me, I said goodnight, and spent the rest of the night in my room. Thank god for medicine. It took about 3-4 hours to work, but the perscription stuff WORKS. I haven't had even a rumble since I started the stuff. Meh, I watched Finding Nemo on my computer then fell asleep.

Hanoi and Day 1 of Ha Long Bay

Sorry guys, the internet I was stealing got taken down, so I had to wait a day to continue posting. I have had some jet lag before. But man this one kicked me square in the face. I got to Hanoi, and was thoroughly unimpressed by the airport. That's ok, because the people were very friendly, but not the pushy friendly I was used to from Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. Just polite and friendly. To avoid the taxi scams, I approached the official airport tourist desk and requested an organized taxi to the hostel, and also reserved one to the airport for my travel to Beijing on Saturday.

I got to my hostel no problems. It was down what we would call an alley, although in Vietnam it's a full street. A big street in Vietnam is one that can fit cars, not just bikes. It's a big hostel too, with three buildings and a ton of people. Good hostel though, with airconditioning in all rooms, extra fans everywhere to help even more, and resonably hot showers. Althought it has the feeling of a really well run frat house. Almost everyone (including a lot of the staff) seem perpetually drunk or hungover.

I immediately reserved a slot on the 3 day, 2 night tour to Ha Long bay, which was the real desination for this leg of the trip. Ha Long bay is a beautiful bay in the northeastern section of Vietnam, bordering Chinese waters. It's a World Heritage site and definately the coolest part of the Top Gear Vietnam tour. We left early Monday morning, took a 3 hour bus ride to Ha Long bay, and then jumped on our Junk, a vietnamese cruise vessel. Because they over booked us, we ended up with nicer rooms than expected, complete with air conditioning. The boat took us out into the islands, which look like little mountains sticking out of the water. Then the two boats (one for 2 day-ers, one for us 3 day-ers) stopped and let us swim for a while. The boats were 3-4 stories out of the water, so we all jumped from the tops of the boats. One of the boats had an extra high roof we weren't supposed to be on, but a bunch of us, including me, jumped off it anyway before they yelled at us to stop. If any of you know about my fear of falling, you know how big a step that was for me. Totally worth it though. Tons of fun.

Afterward we did some kayaking, hiking up some of the islands, and then ended at a little floating fishing village. These little villages (essentially bamboo houses floating on the water) are everywhere in Ha Long Bay. Supposedly there are some villagers who will live a full life having never touched land, although that could just be an old legend. Some of the houses were just extra large row boats, one of which had a flat panel tv, which was wierd. Anyway, that night the boat exploded with a giant party. Most of the backpackers on this trip were 20-26, and clearly the boats are used to this, cause they had packed plenty of alcohol to go around. I tried to stay awake for as much of it as I could, made some friends with a few of the British and Irish. Finally jet lag caught up with me and I crashed hard.

Goodbye Europe, Hello Asia!

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much. It's been a very busy few days. Last we left off in Istanbul. The last day in Istanbul we stopped by the Military Museum which was really cool. They had weapons all the way back from the days of the huns. My favorite was the gun swords and daggers. Mom wanted the gun dagger. There were also gun canes which were pretty cool. After that we took a little walk down some shopping streets. Mom and I "climbed" a tower and got a cool view of the city. It wasn't much of a climb, there was a stupid elevator. Then we just kind of took it easy the rest of the day. We had dinner at our favorite Turkish restaurant. It was the same place we ate the first night. We couldn't resist, the food was just too good.

The next day we headed to the airport. We checked in the parents, I said goodbye and they went through security. They are heading for Budapest where they meet up with my Uncle Mitchell and Aunt Vicki for a cruise along the Danube. It sounds like a blast. I saw the boat online, it's kinda funny lookin. Anyway, I had to wait another hour or so, then I checked in to my flight. I flew from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi. All via Malaysian airlines, which by the way is an awesome airline. The plane was the nicest I have seen the whole time, had on demand movies, big comfy seats, and cologne in the bathroom, which was wierd in a good way. This was just in economy. I was just about to fall asleep when one of the kids behind me got sick. I got up and tried to help the parents and stewardesses. The father was kind of a jerk, he barely did anything to help. The mom practically lept over the seats to get to her kid when it happened. Anyway, that pretty much ensured I wasn't sleeping. So instead I watched Toy Story 1 and both Iron Man movies, all on the Malaysian Airlines video thing. The Kuala Lumpur airport was pretty nice too. Not a bad place to be stuck for 5 hours. Got some breakfast and watched Bottle Shock on some Samsung thing. Got some sleep on the flight to Hanoi. Which we will hear more about in the next post....

Istanbul is Constantinople

That was the song Mrs. Brendel used to sing to us in 6th grade. And now I'm HERE! With my parents! Who must've thought I was a hobo when they first arrived. Egypt did not afford me very good shower facilities and had a lot of sand and soot to cover me in. Not to mention no easily accesible laundry places near my hostel. Anyway, Istanbul is great! My parents were zombies when they got off the plane. But they rallied a little that night and we had a very nice dinner right next to our wonderful hotel, the White House Hotel. It really is fantastic, staff, wifi, shower, A/C. This traveling has made it very clear to me what is important to me in a hotel. I'm a little ashamed to put free wifi on that list. Anyway, we also took a stroll between the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque that night, as well as through our first bazaar. It was too late to see many people there though.

The next day we met our tour guide, Numan. He started us off at the Basilica Cistern. I don't like being crowded by people, and that gets quadrupled when I'm stuck underground with them. But we caught the Cistern just as it opened with no one there. It was really cool. Dad tried to toss mom into the water. I have photo evidence. Haha. Next was the Blue Mosque. It was very cool, I had never seen the inside of a Mosque before. I was too shy to ask to go into any in Egypt, although I understand they are very nice about letting in visitors. I would guess they are proud of the architecture and beauty, and they should be. They are all breathtaking. After this we took a walk to the palace. I didn't like this as much. Toooooo many people. Mostly tour groups. I hate tour groups. I love tour guides. I hate tour groups. Too many people in too small a space. The palace was never built to be a museum, and it shows. We got to see lots of treasury pieces though. Mom (Sultan Mandy) wanted the 86 karrot diamond in the treasury. We also got to see a Turkish military band play which was REALLY cool. Apparently it is hard to catch them play, because the time changes each day.

By this point we were exhausted. The palace really did most of the tiring out. We ate some sheesh kebab and turkish meatballs at a famous place right next to the Hagia Sophia. It was outstanding. This gave us some energy back, but we were still pretty tired. So Numan brought us to a Turkish carpet store to see how the handmade carpets are made. They were very hospitable and this little break gave us the last bit of energy we needed to do the Hagia Sophia. Oh we also got some Turkish Ice cream. The stuff is very stretchy, and the guy serving it tossed the stuff around like a frisbee. He also used my dad as a human ice cream cone. It was pretty cool. The Hagia Sophia was definately my favorite. Originally the largest church in the world for several hundred years, it was later turned into a mosque. But rather than damage the images of Jesus and the angels, the Muslims simply white washed them. The result was they were preserved perfectly! It was very cool to see that compromise level. It was also cool to hear the story of how it turned from mosque to museum. Apparently Catholics wanted to turn it back to a church when it had been a mosque for hundreds of years. The two sides were getting heated, so the leader of Turkey decided to turn it into a museum. It probably wasn't his most popular decision, but at least they hated him and not each other. I thought that story was really cool.

For dinner, we went to a famous draw bridge out near the Golden Horn and had some delicious Turkish sea food. Numan joined us, and even helped us find which parts of Turkey were worth seeing and how to get to them. He was a fantastic guide, everything we could have asked for. The food was delicious but was way too much. I made myself sick on some of the most delicious fish I've ever had. But that's ok, cause whatever calories I gained, I burned off today. Today we took a day trip to the Prince's Islands, an island chain right off the shores of Istanbul, to the south. It is also technically Asia, which means I've officially been to 4 continents! There we rented bikes from a very bad company, Trek Bicycles. The island was awesome. Beautiful scenery. Very cool church at the top of the highest point. Definately worth the day trip. Unfortunately it was way too crowded in the main town itself, and the horse carriages are poorly controlled. So try to avoid those and you'll have a great time. Oh also, don't rent from Trek. Their bikes broke more than a dozen times on us. It just became a hike at one point because the stupid thing couldn't keep the chain on the gears. Anyway, it was a hike, but it was really cool. Oh and if you go up to the restaurant next to the church, get the meatballs. They're really really good.

Tonight we are gonna do... something. Not sure what. Dinner probably. Then tomorrow we are gonna try to see the Mini Turk (small models of famous places in the world and Turkey), the Military Musuesm (always fun to see stuff that blows stuff up), and the Harem (a house for the Turkish Sultan's concubines). Until next time!

Police Scams and Internet Jams

Ok first a disclaimer. The scam I fell into today happens everywhere from the US to Egypt and the actions of one crooked police officer should not be the only reflection on the Egyptian Police forces. I was well aware of this scam and let my guard down for a moment by accident.

Having said that here's what happened. I am really trying to enjoy Alexandria, but everything seems to be getting in my way. Today I decided to go see the Qaitbay Fort and the new Alexandria Library. Both are along the water in opposite directions from my hotel. So I started with the fort because it opens earlier. The fort was really cool, with lots of dungeons and towers and all the cool stuff from the 1800's style fortifications.

As I was walking out of one dungeon section, some police were seated at the entrance. You see them everywhere in Egypt so I didn't pay it anymind. One mentioned that I had missed the prison section, which I thought would be cool. He guided me there, which I should not have let him do. Once I did, he began giving me a tour of parts of the fort I had already seen, and I did not known how to get back out of the dungeon sections. At the time he acted like he didn't speak English well. This seemingly free tour is actually a lead in for a tip. You tip for everything in Egypt, but in a situation like this it is less of an option and more of a requirement, especially coming from a cop. Once we reached an outdoor section (with people) I said I can find my own way, and offered him a 5 pound tip, which should have been plenty for the 2 minute tour he had given me. All at once his English cleared up, his voice dropped, and he demanded 20 pounds for himself and 20 for his friend. There was no other cop ever in the tour, so this was just a way for him to get more money. Unfortunately he is a police officer so refusing him would have been a big mistake. I handed him the money, and swiftly walked out of the fort.

I'm sure there are situations where this could have been a hard working police officer who was just giving a friendly tour in exchange for a few extra bucks. But once he began demanding more money than I was willing to offer it became a scam at best and extortion at worst. This scam is purported everywhere, New York to Beijing, by everyone from legitimate police to security guards. The best way to avoid it is to politely answer any questions they ask and keep moving. Do not allow them to lead you anywhere accept their headquarters or guard station. In essence don't take the tour. I let my guard down for a second and it cost me.

Anyway, after the fort I walked to the new Alexandria Library. It was very impressive, with millions of books and petabytes of data, not to mention a small Sun "Supercomputer" facility and a planetarium. It was pretty cool, I just wish more of the exhibits were historical and less art. The few historical ones were really cool, but the art stuff outnumbers it and as we know that stuff flys right over my head.

After getting back and taking a nice shower, I sit down to the now working wifi... and find that Google apparently does not exist according to the Windsor Palace's ISP. It took me a second longer than it should have to realize the ISP had cleared it's routing tables and somehow lost the directions to the Google servers. Egyptian ISP's you fail. Not to worry, a quick ping and traceroute forced the issue through your trash routers and now Alexandria can see Google again. That pretty much closes it for Alexandria. At least the Windsor Hotel redeemed itself. They really did fix everything but the A/C and were very helpful. So the staff gets exemplary marks. The building gets a big fat C. Meh. Back to Cairo tomorrow and then Istanbul Tuesday. See you guys then!

Egyptian Museum and Problems at the Windsor Palace

Yesterday I got to enjoy the Egyptian Museum. It is pretty cool how much stuff they have to see. Thanks to the Ancient Egyptian preoccupation with the after life, there is just a ton of stuff from this period of history. All in great condition. And of course the sci-fi nerd in me was comparing all of it to the props, etc from Stargate. I know I'm a loser. Because of how much there was, it took me all day to do that and get my train ticket to Alexandria. Speaking of which, I was not aware that the "waiting in line" concept is altogether Western. Egyptians do not follow this concept and simply elbow their way to the front of the ticket window. So again, when in Rome. It wasn't too hard to get my ticket.

Today I took the train to Alexandria. It was pretty cool to see the Nile Delta region of Egypt from the train. Everyone in Alexandria is very helpful and friendly. Thank god my Cairo hostel let me keep my big backpack there while I am here. I'm staying with them again before my flight to Istanbul, so that should work out perfect. Unfortunately, the 4 star hotel I'm staying at in Alexandria is actually worse than my hostel in Cairo. It's incredible. First the chair in my room collapses out from under me. Next the toilet starts leaking everywhere. My A/C isn't doing anything, the room is sweltering. And to add a cherry to it all, the "free" wifi, doesn't reach my room. Fantastic. So EVERY reason I stayed at this hotel has gone to hell. My hostel in Cairo was LITERALLY better than this hotel. I feel bad saying this too, because the staff has done everything in their power to help me. It isn't a fault of theirs, it's the hotel which is clearly in need of renovation. It's beautiful on the surface, but underneath it is falling apart. Sad really. Anway, enough ranting, I'm off to shower and plug in my fan. Thank you parents for sending that! And thank you Kristen for bringing it to me. Without you guys I would die of heat exhaustion tonight.

Day One Cairo

Wow. Going from a largely globalized Europe, which has shared much of it's culture with the US, Cairo was very different. Made up of roughly 20 million people in the larger metro area, it is the largest African city, and the largest Arab city in the world. I say Arab since Arabic is it's primary language and over 90% of Cairo's population is Muslim. It is an entirely different world. I have known for a long time that true Arabic culture was slow to come to the US. Not until I came here did I fully understand this.

Having said all that, I have had nothing but good experiences with every person I meet here. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. Sometimes that help is in the hope you will buy something from them, but even if you don't they are still happy to help you. You must simply be firm in this explanation. Knowing a few key phrases doesn't hurt either like hello, pardon me, and no thank you. My hostel, American House is fantastic. Very reasonably priced, they gave me exactly what I asked for in the room. Plenty of water and toilet paper available upon request. They do try to push tours on you, but to be honest these are sometimes worth it. Which we'll hear of soon.

So when I got their they said I could hire a driver for tomorrow for 200 Egyptian Pounds (40 USD, 60-80 with tips). So I went with it, having promised Kristen and my parents I would go with tours to be safer. Khaled was my driver, and he was the nicest man. He very easily could have been the Arabic version of any of my friend's fathers. He said he would do whatever I wanted, which was to see three different pyramid sites, and maybe do some shopping. While in Athens airport, I picked up a Cairo guidebook for 10 euros, so I knew somewhat of what I wanted to see. Khaled though made sure I understood, I didn't have to accept the camel ride around the pyramids (even thought I wanted to) and I didn't have to pay anyone extra to see anything. Haggling with the camel ride guys at Giza was actually kind of fun. I'm sure I still got ripped off, but I got a private guide, who spoke perfect english and who honestly loved his job. We rode for about half an hour to an hour at a nice easy pace. Cost about 400-500 pounds with tips. (80-100 USD) We also approached the pyramids from a much higher location, getting better, less people crowded pictures. The cliff had a lot more wind too thank god. I really have to reccommend it, I know it's cliche, but it was fun.

I saw the Sphinx too of course, which was the most touristy part, with lots of people saying I needed to pay extra to take pictures. DON'T BELIEVE THIS. They will also offer to take your picture and then ask for 20 pounds. They are sneaky. Look for a fat guy white guy in a Giants hat instead to take your picture. (Read any tourist.) He'll do it for free. I didn't go inside the Giza pyramids. Apparently it's wall to wall people the whole way down, I would have had a heart attack. Instead we moved on to Sakarra and Dahshur. Both were far less crowded. At Dahshur I walked inside the Red pyramid. Once you walk up to the entrance and then down into the thing, you really get a sense for just how large these things are. They are MASSIVE. And this one is smaller than the Giza one's, by a lot. It was so cool. The tombs are long since cleared out, so they just look like big empty rooms, but the scale is still impressive.

After all that I was exhausted. I meant to get lunch when we got back, but instead I passed out in my room. That night I made some friends while sitting around blogging, and we went out for some food. Some good shwarma and ice cream. Wasn't sure about the ice cream, but Rafeal and Edwardo didn't seem to take notice and they had been here much longer. When in Rome... or Cairo. Anyway, tomorrow is the Egyptian museum and the Citadel, followed by some rest. And the day after is Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city and one of the most famous ports in the whole world. Until next time! Oh and pictures of the pyramids should be up tonight. Greece will have to wait. Sad face.

Last Days in Greece

Ok back to blogging. So we slept in after the long ferry ride from Santorini. The next day we looked up some bus times, and decided to take the bus to one of our favorite beaches we'd already visited (not Tsigrado, Paleochori) and one we hadn't, Provotas. This time we spent a good couple hours at each beach. Provotas had lots of shallow waters, so we waded around a rock outcropping to a more secluded beach. It was also very... European shall we say. Kristen and I didn't join in, but it was an interesting experience. The shallow water made for a very fun beach to swim around in. Paleochori was a beach we had visited the second day on Milos with the car. It's also the place where I broke my camera, again on the second day. But despite that, it really was a great beach. Lot's of volcanic rock, complete with green sulfur deposits (at least I think that's what they were, that's what they were on Vulcano in Sicily). Again we climbed some rocks and found a beach with less people, but more nudity, which again we didn't join in. But it was nice to have less people around. We also had lunch here at a restaurant that cooks food in the volcanic rock. Very cool, and very delicious. That night we had one last dinner in Adamas. This time at a nice little family restaurant in the boats area. You could one of the older ladies in the family cooking all the meals in the back, and one of the younger kids (12-14) was serving us. Very greek, family, traditional, etc. This time we had fried squid, which was different from calamari in that it wasn't chopped up and was fried less. That was appetizer, for the main course I had a delicious spicy meatballs dish and Kristen had a speghetti with minced meat. So good.

The next day we grudgingly got back on the boat to Athens. This time we stayed at a five star hotel. Not that the Ledra Marriott wasn't nice, but this one definately earned that fifth star. The Intercontinental Athens. It had a pillow menu. We didn't use it, cause the pillows they gave us were great, but still pretty cool. All these high star hotels need to stop charging for internet though. It's just greedy. If a hostel or a McDonalds can do it, why can't you. It doesn't have to be Wifi. Cable works just as good. Anyway, other than that, this place was first class. The view from the terrace at the top overlooked the Acropolis and most of the city. The pool was heated to the perfect temperatures. The concierge helped us find a really good electronics store where I could buy a cheap digital camera. It was awesome. For our last dinner together we braved the tourist trap restaurant one more time, for the chance to dine on a rooftop in Plaka looking up at the Acropolis. We both had a delicious pasta, meat, and cheese lasgana type dish that was amazing. After walking our favorite Athens streets one more time, we headed back to the hotel. It was only the next morning that we learned that someone had sliced Kristens purse! Because it was double layered they didn't get anything, but they came close. Kristen fixed it with some thread so it could make it back to the states. I thought I might have seen the culprit lurking at the bus stop the night before. But I can't be sure. Thank god we didn't lose that camera. Unfortunately Kristen is not quadruple jointed and so could not fit in my backpack. So I had to let her head back to the states. And a few hours later I boarded a flight to Cairo. Olympic Airlines was nice. Meal and everything, roomy seats. They were actually a little better than my Virgin Atlantic flight. Anyway, first day in Cairo is next.

Ia and Fira in Santorini

We took an early ferry to Santorini the next day. Milos was flat land moving up to hills and mountains with cliffs sometimes on the shore. Santorini was one massive cliff face on the west that slopes down to beaches in the east. The port is at the bottom of the cliff and we took a bus to Fira, then another to Ia. Ia was just like it looks in post cards and puzzles. When we got in, we grabbed a gyro, not thinking much of it. It was the best gyro in all of Greece. It was fantastic. It's the place right after you get off the bus in Ia. Amazing. We started walking back the way the bus came along the major road in Ia, so we could see all of Ia. As we walked we came across a little old lady climbing down some stairs. Kristen asked me if we should help her and before I could answer, the old lady asked for help. Kristen and I (mostly Kristen) helped her get across the street and to her apartment. She was the sweetest old Greek lady who spoke only 4 words of english. She was so happy just to be helped, she almost broke into tears. After that we had a Ia photo shoot with both Kristen and I. Oh! I forgot to mention. My camera got toasted during the first day in Milos. I tried to go for a swim with it. So no pictures from Greece from me, but Kristen promised to pass me some pictures to post. I also got a very nice replacement camera in Athens, so there will be pictures from here on.

Once the sun started to set, the tourists started to swarm. We elbowed our way out of Ia, and went and had dinner in Fira as the sun setted. A delicious beef dish to start, then a vegetable dish for Kristen (which I don't think was her favorite) and a tasty meatball dish for me. All on a rooftop overlooking the city and the east side of the island as the sun set. After we took a walk and watched the cruise ships and volcano island to the west before heading for the bus. Our ferry back to Milos was a little late, so we didn't get back to Milos until 4am. We were exhausted! But it was so much fun. Next post is our last day in Milos and last day in Athens. After I will post about my first day in Cairo and then hopefully upload some Pyramid pictures. But not for a little while, because I need to get some food in me.

Milos Beachs

Finally got setup with internet in Cairo. So let me continue where I left off before I go on to Egypt. Milos was PERFECT. People throw that word around too much, but it really was everything we wanted. We got to see island life. There weren't too many tourists at all (and when there were they were European tourists). And there was enough tourism that we didn't feel out of place. The absolute perfect balance. The day we got there we found our hotel, a nice little set of hotel rooms and apartments right outside the main port city. The main port city, Adamas, is a quaint little shore town with tons of food, bars, and bakeries. Our hotel was a 2 minute walk from the center of town (and almost out of town by then). We visited our first beach right in town, relaxed, and got breakfast for the rest of the week on the way back. Cereal and fresh fruit. That night we had dinner on the water, mostly seafood. Sepia (squid) in a wine sauce, muscles, and another shot at Souvlaki that wasn't as good.

The next day we rented a little compact car, and explored the island. In total we saw 10 beaches in total. The northern beaches were a little dirty to be honest. We don't know why, they tended to catch garbage in their caves and such. The southern beaches though, were something out of a movie. None of them compared to our favorite beach Tsigrado. It was a little beach cut into cliffs of the island. To get down to it, we had to scramble down a little crevice, not much wider than a person. There were two wooden ladders and a rope, but it was a steep drop. At the end, there is a leap of faith moment almost to get to the last steps. The climb down alone was fun. Then once down there the beach is all caves and clear blue water. You can swim in and out of caves and snorkel around the rocks to your hearts content. It was amazing. Kristen forgot her sandals at the end, and I jumped at the chance just to climb down and back up again. At the end of the day, we still had the car so we went to the northern shore town of Pollonia. This was our favorite meal by far, it was at a new restaurant (10 days old) called Medusa. We got fried calamari to start, Kristen got a mushroom tortellini that was made by a genius chef, and I got a grilled beef dish that almost melted in your mouth. It was amazing. At the end of the meal, after we had paid, they started feeding us a homemade island liquor made with honey and cinammon. Normally I don't like liquor but this stuff was amazing. If I hadn't been driving, I would have just kept drinking till I fell asleep. The next day was Santorini, which will come in the next post...

Athens and Acropolis

Wow, a lot has happened in the past week or so. I'm going to try to divide this into two to three posts. Bear with me if I jump around a lot. So Kristen flew into Athens airport on the 14th, the last day I blogged. She got in fine, mostly because the strikes got moved to the 15th. She was a trooper too, despite a long flight, she still had lots of energy. So we got to our hotel, which was a good mile hike down a busy Athens highway from the nearest metro station. The Ledra Marriott. Very nice, but lacking free internet and in a strange location. The city was a little grimy on the surface, but the people are all very nice. We both took quick showers before heading into Plaka (the nice part of Athens). We wandered around Plaka till we got hungry and then stopped into a nice little tourist trap of a restaurant. We had some Souvlaki to start (I'll be giving lots of detail on the food, possibly my favorite part of Greece) our trip which was a nice transition.

The next day we headed out early for the Acropolis. We saw the Dionysis Theatre, whole Acropolis, Temple of Saturn, and Temple of Zeus before 2pm. It really is easy to do since they're all right next to eachother. The hike up the Acropolis is the only tough part. The Temple of Saturn (I think) was impressive too because it was largely intact. After we headed back and took a dip in the pool on top of the hotel, overlooking the Acropolis and most of the city. That night for dinner we headed back to Plaka and went to a nice little family restaurant. They brought us a choice of 18 of their best dishes (all very greek) and we got to chose 5. We got Mousaka, fried zuccini, meatballs, sausage, and pork, none of which I am describing correctly, but all of which were delicious. Greek hospitality is amazing, you can't get this much or this quality of food for the same price in America. For 30 euro they stuff you with appetizer, two dinners, bread, water, wine, dessert, and dessert liquor. It's amazing. Anyway, stuffed and happy we went to bed early. The next morning we hopped a cab to Piraeus (Athen's port) and got the 7am ferry to Milos! Which will be the subject of my next post. I only have 45 minutes of free internet here in Athens airport though, so more posts might have to wait till Cairo. We will see.

Downtime in Bari and Ferry to Greece

Hey everyone, sorry the blog posts have been slower. Not much to say since I left Rome. I stayed in Bari for three nights at the same hostel as Kristen did, Bari Belle Camere. Really nice hostel, got my own room for cheap. Bari was a really nice, very Italian city. Lots of shopping and a cool medieval section. Unfortunately timing (and laziness) didn't let me go on any day trips from there. Mostly I think I needed a few days to recharge. I have been going non-stop since Dublin, and it was beginning to wear on me.

Yesterday I took an overnight ferry to Greece, Supfast Ferries. Bari to Patras. The ferry was nice, and the food actually wasn't too expensive. It was pretty good and there was a selection. The airline seats were worth the extra price, but you really have to stake your territory. I didn't head down to sleep until 11, and by then my seat had been taken. Normally I would have asked for it back, but it was a family and it was a little girl in my seat cuddled up with her mom. I couldn't do it, that would be like punching bambi. A lot of people without seats will also steal them or spread out on the ground. I slept on the ground for the first 4 hours, only to wakup and find my water stolen. Little sketchy. After we docked at the first stop, I went back down and found the family gone. I laid out across some seats and got some real sleep (with my backpack in my stomache, wasn't taking any chances after the water). One person (who did not have a seat) claimed they were sleeping there, at which point I pulled out my ticket and told him to get lost. Nice ferry, but some of the people on it were nasty.

The coolest part of the ride were the friends I made. Met a very cool couple from Newfoundland and two other couples from Portugal. I hung out with them for most of the ride, which made it a lot more fun. 15 hours on a boat doesn't feel long at all when you're making friends. Now I'm in a hostel in Athens, waiting for laundry to finish before I head to the airport to pickup a beautiful young woman who will be touring the Cyclades with me! Less than 4 hours until shes here!!! While we're in the Cyclades I won't have much internet, so expect the next post sometime next week. With pictures of course.

Vatican, Basilica, and Florence

So I had to do these on two separate days. On the day I went to the Vatican Museum, the Basilica was closing up at around 1. So by the time I was out of the Museum, it was too late. Apparently there was some event going on in the Basilica that day.

So.... I'm not an art guy. Not that I can't appreciate the difficulty, the history, and the religious or cultural significance of a piece. I just.... don't care. I'm sorry I don't. I know I should, and that this is an intellectual fault or missing piece for me. But I just don't care. As far as art museums go, the Vatican Museum is probably second only to the Louvre in Europe (and by far the most religious pieces). It really is a very large, intricate, and historic collection. But to me, it was an overcrowded building (it was clearly never built for the level of volume it gets) with lots of stuff I didn't really care to see. Oh and some nice little asian girl hit me in the face with a parasol and then got made at me about it. I did however enjoy the Sistine Chapel. Mostly because the police officers in there make sure no one can speak a word. It is DEAD silent. Which I liked, it was very respectful both to the religious and historical significance of the place.

Florence came the next day. I hopped a train to see my Uncle Mark and cousins. Had a very nice walk through most of Florence. Not on purpose actually, first we got gelatto, then we went to two different English book stores, followed by dinner. Everything except dinner wasn't planned, but it was a lot of fun. I've always loved Florence. Something about the city combines my favorite parts of Italy. Dinner was fantastic, I shoveled down a big pizza before everyone else got their food. It was that good. I've said it a lot, but I'll say it again. If Italy had no history or monuments or anything, I would still come for the food. After staying up late talking with my Uncle about pretty much everything, I got to crash in a very comfortable room that was NOT a sweat box (thank you thank you thank you Uncle Mark). And then back to Rome in the morning with Lucia. (Actually she got off a few stops prior to Rome, but it was the same train)

When I got back, I rushed over to try again with the Basilica. I have to say, the whole Vatican is much nicer in the afternoon. I'm not sure if that is because the most touristy tourists all go in the morning, but the Basilica was quite pleasant. It is a very very very large structure, which I got to go up. I thought about taking all 552 stairs... but then remembered my feet have to get me all the way round the world. So instead I took the elevator option, which still required 300 and change. The view from the top is awesome of course. You can see the whole city for miles around. Took some great pictures. They even let you walk around the lower roof part as well, which is kind of cool. Got some great shots from there too. (On facebook soon) Also in the afternoon, the sun comes into the interior of the Basilica just right, so you get some beautiful and somehow very religious pictures inside. I really enjoyed the Basilica. Sorry Vatican Museum.

Stay at Ciak Hostel NOT Legends!

Hey guys, sorry I haven't blogged in a while, so let me catch you up with a few posts. First and foremost, if you are staying in a hostel in Rome, stay at Ciak Hostel NOT Legends. Both are very good hostels, with one key difference. Ciak didn't lie to me. Legends did. I requested an air conditioned room. Both agreed to it. Legends did not deliver. When Rome is facing a heat wave, this little lie, makes a BIG difference. Not to mention that when Ciak says free wifi, they mean FREE. Sorry had to get that stuff off my chest. Ciak was cheaper and didn't lie to me. Plain and simple. Other than that Legends was a fine hostel.

Colosseum, Ancient City, and America's Birthday

Rome is exactly what I expected. I love it. Great food. Good people. Big city. Lot's of old stuff. Went to the Colosseum, the forums, and the rest of the ancient city on Sunday. The line for the Colosseum was only about an hour. Once you're in there it's a spectacle. The thing burned down in 217 AD, and for most of the time between then and Napolean, it just deteriorated. Some of the material was reappropriated for various building projects. Took a ton of pictures. It was 95 and sunny all day. By the time I got down I was completely dead. I'm actually hoping for some rain at this point. It's been so hot everywhere I go. We need some rain. At night I met up with some friends and we went out to celebrate 4th of July. Needless to say, this morning has been pretty rough. Had to change hostels too so that made it harder. Had to spend most of the day in restaurants and book stores just to keep cool. Today was a nice lazy day compared to Sunday. Tomorrow I do the Vatican, and then Wednesday I go up to visit Uncle Mark! I'll try to get some pictures up on facebook soon.

Legoland, Wilhelma, and Dodging Milan

So I'm safe and sound in Rome now. But before I get into the trip down, I should tell you guys about Legoland. It was awesome! Pretty much a full theme park, with little areas where you could play with Legos. If I had been in a group of people I probably could have actually gone on a ride or messed around in the construction areas. Unfortunately it was just me, so to avoid looking like a creeper, I made sure to keep moving at all times. Took lots of pictures though. Legoland for me was more about the spectacle. They had Lego versions of Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Venice, famous castles, an airport and a stadium. Pictures of most of these are on facebook.

The next day I went to the Wilhelma, a big zoo in Stuttgart built on the land from some famous garden. Don't know about the garden part, but the animals were pretty cool. They had a really big selection too, and most of the animals had babies recently, which increased the cuteness factor by a lot. Again pictures are on facebook. After Wilhelma, I ran back to webchat with a special birthday girl, who I miss a TON.

Today I took the day long train ride from Stuttgart to Rome. Three trains. Stuttgart -> Zurich. Zurich -> Milan. Milan -> Rome. Unfortunately, the Zurich -> Milan train was delayed. When it got in, I had to bolt for the Rome train, crossing 10 tracks in under 2 minutes. The train pulled away less than a minute after I jumped on. Sorry Milan. You were so close to messing up another one of my trips. All worked out in the end, and the train ride from Zurich -> Milan was gorgeous. We went through the heart of the swiss alps in one of the most beautiful train rides of my life.

Just about time for a "pasta party" here at my hostel, so I should jump off. Tomorrow is the Anicent City here in Rome. Lots to do and see here!

Castle Eberbach, Porsche, and Mercedes Museums

The Eurail solution worked. I have a ticket to Rome. I'm going to try to do a day trip to Pompeii when I'm there. The downside is the train ride is almost 3-1/2 hours long. Leaving me only a few hours to actually enjoy the ruins, even if I leave really early. But I did it with Cork, so I should be able to do it with Pompeii.

Anyway the last two days have been pretty exhausting. Yesterday I went to the Mercedes-Benz museum here in Stuttgart. It was really cool, lots of historic pieces. Engine parts and models from way back before there were cars, when it was all theoretical. It was kinda cool to see a 5hp engine from the 1800's. The Porsche museum was more of a showroom. Most of the cars in there were racing winners, and classic favorites. There was also a replica of the original 356 No. 1, which was pretty cool. As well as a Porsche brand tractor. Pictures will be up on Facebook eventually.

Today I went on a day trip to Eberbach. Frommer's recommended it as a cool ruined castle up on a small mountain just outside Heidleberg. The town was really cool and small, with a beautiful church. It took me a while to find the path up to the castle. It probably would have helped to lookup the German word for castle BEFORE leaving. The hike wasn't too tough, a little steep. When I got up there were some beautiful ruins. I couldn't go to the watchtower in the back though, due to reconstruction efforts. Apparently the castle was destroyed by some spoiled noble in the 1400's to prevent anyone else from stealing it. The guy had "too many castles" and it was a "money sink". Tough life, what terrible problems he had. Anyway, it gave a great view of the town and valley. Again pictures will be on Facebook. Tomorrow... LEGOLAND!

Stuttgart and the Eurail Solution

Pictures are finally up on facebook. And I'm finally at a hostel with an internet connection faster than a 28.8 modem. Actually I have to give this hostel props. It's Inter-hostel in Stuttgart and it is really nice. Very clean, really nice people. Really nice bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry. Great wifi. All around great hostel. Stuttgart is really nice so far too. Had to suck up a 100 euro train ticket to get here, but it was worth it. Tomorrow I plan to go to the Wilhelma "Zoo" althought it's more than that. You'll see in the pictures.

Yesterday I went in to talk to the Eurail office in Paris Gare-de-Lyon. In my documentation it had them open from 10am to 2pm on Sundays. Not only were they not open, it didn't look like they had ever been open. They had a sign, in front of one of the regular ticket offices. The sign claimed this was the office, but it was blocking the window, and it had collected quite a bit of dust.

So I went to talk to the regular ticket office. Once again I got a disgruntled employee who did not want to help me. I explained I had a flexible schedule and could stay overnight in any city. I just needed to eventually go to Stuttgart. He basically told me off and said it was 100 euros to go to Stuttgart. (And he spoke perfect, advanced English with the man before me, but all of a sudden had trouble with me....) I asked if I could do standing seating, an option which in my documentation was allowed by Eurail. This should allow me to go on any train, regardless of reservation, I just won't have a guaranteed seat. He said Paris no longer allowed this due to previous problems with Eurail pass members. (Can't verify if this is true or not. Just repeating what I heard)

So enough about my problems. Here are my solutions! I used Rail Europe to lookup what trains are available with my pass. I double checked that my pass was locked out of trains I knew I already could not get (ie the Paris-Stuttgart trains). This was true, so now I knew that the website was showing me what was actually available to me. I have written down 3 seperate itineraries from Stuttgart to Rome on July 3rd. I intend to go into the Stuttgart train station tomorrow, and ask the man politely to reserve these trains for me. Hopefully, my advanced notice, advanced planning, and my research into polite German phrases will pay off. I'll keep you all posted tomorrow.

Pics Part 1

So here are some of the pictures I'm sure you've all been waiting for. I'm about two seconds from falling asleep at the keyboard, so these are just a few of the quick highlights. A lot more will be posted on facebook later, and more highlights posts much later on. EDIT: Sorry but Blogger's photo upload doesn't seem to like me in Europe. I'll have to limit the pictures on the blog. Check facebook for better ones.

Lost in Spain/France Thanks to Eurail

So now we get to today. Today was both very adventurous, and a nightmare. So apparently, Eurail works great for INSIDE countries. But anytime you want to cross the border, it becomes something of a pain. All the trains that cross the border must be reserved, and most are reserved well in advance. This was not made very clear in the literature for Eurail. Not that it isn't in there, it is. But they didn't make it clear just how quickly these spots fill up. See the trains only allow a certain number of Eurail passengers per train. (The part they don't publish very well.) That number, I'm guessing, is very very low. So you do the math.

So that was problem one. Problem two was that I didn't learn this until 7am today, when I arrived in Barcelona asking to organize a trip to Paris and the attendant stared at me with a blank face. She looked through todays trains and said I could go to Cerbere and catch a train. So I do just that I catch the 8:45 (not the 10:45 like SHE told me). A very nice beautiful scenery local train to Cerbere, just inside the French border. The smallest train station on the planet! With only one North outbound train every 2 hours! Which I promptly ran for as fast as I could to ANYWHERE else. It seems the Spainish train operater just wanted to get rid of me and pointed me in the direction of France.

While on this new train, I quickly looked at a map for the biggest city on the local route I was on. There I found a nice French ticket person who didn't just blow me off, and helped me get to Paris. He really did some research too cause he was looking for like 30 minutes. Even got me bumped to first class somehow. Really nice guy. I got my fluently French speaking mom to call my hotel (cause I couldn't for some strange reason) and tell them I'd be a little late. The train ride was goregous and relaxing. Just what I needed.

So now I'm in Gare-de-Lyon, and I go to the booth to try and see if I can reserve a ticket to Stuttgart for sometime in the near future, doesn't have to be soon... and I get blown off again. I think it's just the major cities maybe? All their ticket operators are either disgruntled or just plain stupid or both. I'm not saying I shouldn't have made a reservation, but their job is to help me. I don't know the language well enough to be impolite here. I say merci and gracias like they were commas.

Anyway, new plan. Gonna stay a second night in Paris, gonna go to the Eurail help office, gonna plan out every international crossing from here to Greece with the Eurail official. Thankfully my trip is very flexible, so I should be able to make some crazy connections, and get where I want to go... which is kind of what I like about all this. What I don't like is disgruntled ticket operators and bad Eurail documentation. So let's cut those two out and get back to the awesome train rides, and crazy adventures that don't get me stranded in the south of France with no place to sleep.

Madrid and Barcelona

I haven't updated in a while, so you guys are about to get several posts. First let me update you on travels from Ireland to Spain. Small delay in Dublin, which they tried to make up for in flight... by shooting us down like rocket into Madrid. My hostel in Madrid, Cat Hostel, was very... hostel-y. It was built into an old palace which from the architecture looked Middle Eastern in nature. It was really nice. Stayed in a dorm. Smelly rooms, cold showers. A hostel. Had dinner with some guy from Florida I met named Hugo, nice guy. He just finished his trip to Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid.

Next was Barcelona. It was supposed to give me a better jumping off point to get into France. More on that later. The train ride to Barcelona was gorgeous. Sunbaked plains, always w/ mountains in the distance. Very Spanish. Brand new high speed trains too. My hostel in Barcelona, Agora BCN, was a dorm from a university that was changed into a hotel/hostel for the summer. It was really, really nice for the price. It was on the mountains overlooking the city. Had laundry so I got some detergent, shampoo, and soap and finally gave myself and clothes some proper cleaning. I went down to Barceloneta, the famous beach in Barcelona. I forgot that it was the weekend, and boy was it packed. Definitely worth the spectacle of it all. Not sure I would want to join in though.

Guiness, and Jameson, and Blarney Stones

The first few days of the trip have been pretty awesome. The first day I wandered around still jet lagged from the flights over here. I can't believe I survived that day. I was SO tired. I wandered around Trinity college for a few hours. Temple Bar district for a few hours. Then finally crashed at my hostel once they let me in.

Today I took a day trip all the way out to Cork and Blarney. Unfortunately, it is a long journey, and so I wasn't able to give Cork even 1/50th the time it needs. It really was a beautiful city, and I would love to see the Heineken and REAL Jameson factories there. Not to mention the school where my favorite girl in the world attended. Oh well, I'll just have to take her back there eventually. Oh darn. I did however kiss the Blarney stone. The Blarney castle was pretty impressive too. Beautiful grounds and a lot of the original structure has been rebuilt / restored. Definitely worth the trip.

The people I've met so far might be my favorite attraction of this whole trip. The unfortunate part is I can only get to know them for so long before I or they have to move on. I met one guy who's an Irish paparazzi, and was out at all hours of the day getting shots of Green Day and the like. Another girl was the hiring person for Extreme Home Makeover, helping to find the families who get their house rebuilt. This other guy has been traveling and living off his graduate stipend while he finished up his thesis. Not a bad way to study. He'd been at it for a year I guess. And lots more. I'll try to update you guys with the most interesting ones.

Now I should try and find a hostel for Madrid so I have someplace to sleep when I get there. I'll try to add some pictures tomorrow night.

It has BEGUN!

Here I am everyone! First stop is Dublin. It took me all of 20 seconds to get lost after I found my hostel. Beautiful city. It's a nice cool and sunny day. I'm sitting in an internet cafe right outside of Trinity College. I've slept for only 5 hours but I'm having a blast!

For the record my dad was correct about everything so far. Yes the phone was a lot more necessary than I thought. Yes the hotel in Heathrow was a good idea. Although it cost me an arm and a leg. 175 pounds for one night! Although there were cheaper ones. The problem was that my flight to Dublin was at 6:45 so I had to pick an airport hotel whose shuttle had a short route. It limited my options. Still the sleep wasn't just nice, it was NECESSARY. I thought I would sleep on the plane, but this 7 foot tall overweight gentleman decided to sit behind me in a seat far to small for him. There were empty economy seats with more leg room, but they cost an extra $20. Apparently that was too much for him. Instead he threw a temper tantrum at the stewardess for bumping into him, the woman next to him for taking part of the arm rest, and me for trying to recline my seat. Meh, I should have guessed something like that would happen.

So far the 40 year old toddler has been the only hiccup. Everything else has been a blast! Just being back amongst English-ish culture makes me feel like I'm back in Brighton. Mix that with all the new sights and stuff to see in Dublin. I'm exhausted and excited and loving every minute of it! And I'm also rambling. So I'll finally get to the part you all probably care about. Activities.

I have a few hours before I can really crash in the hostel. So I'm gonna go get lost in Trinity College area, maybe part of the Temple Bar district. Then I'll go back, shower and get some much needed sleep. Tomorrow is the Guiness and Jameson tours, plus some more random wandering of Temple bar area. The following day I activate my train pass. I think I'm going to just spend the day riding the best of the nearby Irish rails. Then I'll come back to the hostel for some web chatting and flight arangements!

That's enough babbling for one day. I'll be sure to post again around Wednesday or Thursday. Thanks for all the well wishes everyone! OH and I'll try to post my calendar on the facebook group so that anyone who wants to join me will have an easier time. Remember FLYERTALK. It's a forum and a little hard to look through, but you cannot find better flight deals ANYWHERE.

You Always Forget to Pack Something

And I forget to pack everything. No matter how much planning ahead. Yesterday it was a padlock and plug adapters. Today it was bathing suit and benadryl. But for the 231st time... I am all packed and ready to go!

I also finished packing today for my buddy Eric's wedding which is tonight. Kristen and I are driving down in a few hours. Very very excited. Tomorrow is a full out family reunion. My grandma, Uncle Mark, and I believe Uncle Chris are all coming to visit with their families.

My plan is to stay up all night tomorrow so that I pass out on the plane ride to England on Sunday. I have an 8am flight to Heathrow, I get in at 7pm and then I have a 7am flight to Dublin. So I'd rather be asleep on planes and awake in airports than vice versa. It's going to be an exhausting couple of days. I can't WAIT! Expect more rambling tomorrow about how excited I am.

Itinerary

I just realized I haven't really posted this yet. So here it is for everyone.

- Ireland (Dublin mostly)

- Europe (I have a 21 day train pass)

- Greece (Athens and Milos with Kristen)

- Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria)

- Istanbul (with the parents)

- Vietnam (Hanoi and Ha Long Bay)

- China (Beijing mostly)

- Japan (Tokyo mostly)

- Maui (with Kristen again!)

T-minus 9 Days

I have been just awful at posting updates. That's mostly because I am working non-stop on this trip and on the new house my family purchased. You see, the weekend I leave for this trip, I also have a wedding to go to in Maryland and a large family gathering. The wedding is for my buddy Eric from Elon. And the family gathering is my grandparents and my uncle and cousins are flying in from Italy. Not to mention my sister down from NYC. So there is a lot to do.

When I go to sleep after Eric's wedding, the night of the 18th, I will be staying up until I get on the plane at 8am sunday morning. I'm sleeping on the plane because I have to stay overnight in Heathrow to wait for my flight to Dublin. It's gonna be a rough couple of days. But very very exciting.

I'm starting to make a list of all the places in Europe I want to see with my 21 days. There isn't enough time, not by a long shot. It would take me a lifetime to see everything. One place I know I want to see is Stuttgart. Two or three expensive car companies, Legoland, and a short train ride from Bavaria and a dozen ancient castles. It's gonna be awesome!

Ha Long Bay Kayaking

So I think I finally found the right tour agency. Handspan was recommended both by Lonely Planet and by a friend of mine who actually went on their trip. Still have to get a response back, but it is looking good.

I figured out the money situation. I'll be using my ATM card for most countries, using it to take money out once I land. I'll have a backup of a few hundred dollars in traveler's checks, and a small stash of US dollars, both for emergencies.

For phone, I got a GSM phone, pay for what you use, just for emergencies. My first plan was to buy a sim card in each country, but this will actually end up being cheaper.

That's all for now. More info to follow.

Chinese Visa

This one was a little tougher than the Vietnam visa. China actually wants you to come into their consulate to get the visa. You can have a travel agency do it for you, but unless you're booking a package with them, you're looking at a pretty hefty markup, not to mention the original cost of $130 for the visa itself. Thankfully I live a short train ride from NYC, and was able to go to the consulate myself. I left the application, photo copy of passport, and the passport itself there for a week, and one week later got my travel visa for my trip to Beijing! As for what to do if you don't live near a consulate..... no idea. They seem pretty strict about not doing mail visas. I would just suck it up and pay a travel agent. The prices I saw were $200-$260 for the agent to do it. Not cheap, but I am really looking forward to seeing China, so definitely worth it!

Final Relaxed and Home

Sorry I haven't updated in a month guys. Graduation and everything else was absolute insanity. But I'm back and I only have 23 DAYS TIL THE TRIP!!! I'm freaking out a little bit. Anyway this is gonna be a big post, so I'll cut into three. I thought I would update you guys on my gear, visas, and hotels. First the gear.

I managed to get a $200 backpack for only $100 thanks to eBags. High Sierra TR102 Railpass. Main Pack is 3050 cubic inches. Day Pack is 976 inches. Adjustable shoulder straps. And metal zippers, for better locking. Heres a pic:

Your trusty computer nerd is also bringing a nice little solid state, linux netbook so he can stay in touch with everyone. Dell is the only one who provides this kind of netbook, which is weird cause I feel like theres a market for this. And of course he is jailbreaking his iPhone so he can

twitter his GPS coordinates as often as possible. This way I can make a map of my whole trip at the end. Here's a picture of the netbook.

Finally I also found a $150 digital camera for $70. 10.1 Megapixels 3x zoom and takes AA batteries. The batteries are much better than charged in an emergency. Here's a pic of that as well.

Coming up after the break, visas and hotels.