B Is Also For...

BUDAPEST!

As is always the way with holidays, all too soon our time here in Budapest is coming to an end and tomorrow we will be on our way back to Italy.

Friday, August 25, 2006:

Made it to Budapest safely. I almost didn't get out of Germany actually. Leave it to the Germans to fully check my passport (with a magnifying glass), examine every stamp in there, and notice that my Schengen visa had expired (Do you think they even checked when I came back into Italy??? Of course not!). I showed him my renewed Permesso di Soggiorno, and after an "Ah-ha...." everything was fine.

After finding our hostel, we went for a little walk around the area and had a bite to eat. Once back at the hostel we met Sania and Jason, a really nice couple from Long Island who are travelling around Europe for a year. We sat talking with them for a while and then headed off to bed.

Saturday, August 26, 2006:

Today Enzo and I went to the Buda side and wandered around the old fisherman's bastion. It was really lovely.

Back at the hostel we met up with Sania and Jason and decided to go check out the Budapest Parade which was supposed to be on until 10 pm. We walked along Andrassy Street, but saw no signs of the parade so we decided to head to TGI Friday's for a bite to eat.

Sunday, August 27, 2006:

Luxurious spa day, and also my birthday. All four of us went to the thermal baths after breakfast for a day of relaxing. We were there for about 15 minutes before these two 60+ year old men from England started talking to me because they heard me speaking English to Enzo. When they found out it was my first time to the Szechenyi baths, they immediately insisted on taking us on a tour of the whole place. As we were following them through the various rooms and listening to their tour-guide description of each pool, I heard Sania and Jason teasing Enzo that he had some competition, from two guys no less. All I could think was "I know I just turned a year older, but do I look THAT old already???"

After 5+ hours of lolling around in pools of varying degrees (by the way, 34 degrees C is the PERFECT temperature. It feels like laying all snug in your bed), we decided we were pruney enough to call it a day. After a little rest, Enzo and I went out for a nice dinner at a Hungarian restaurant.

Monday, August 28, 2006:

Today the four of us headed off to The Valley of the Beautiful Women in Eger, the wine-making region of Hungary. It was a two hour bus each way, and quite a cultural experience. We got to the bus station just in time, and stood in line to buy the tickets on the bus. Out of nowhere this old Hungarian lady comes up on the left of me and tries to butt in line while on the right a young Hungarian woman tries to do the same. Well I was having none of that so I put my foot on the step of the bus to simultaniously block both women from cutting in front of me. Well, the both of them tried to cut in behind me and in front of Enzo, so I turned around, grabbed his arm, and pulled him on the bus with me! We bought our tickets, and went to the back of there bus where there were two available seats.

Well I guess I pissed that old lady off because as soon as she had her ticket, she came chasing us down the aisle of the bus yelling in Hungarian that we needed to get out of the seats because she was sitting there. I was like, whatever and moved because there were other seats still available on the bus and I didn't want to make more of a scene, but Enzo was really mad about it. It was pretty funny actually.

Once we got to Eger, we tasted some wines and had a nice lunch before getting the bus back to Budapest.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006:

Today the four of us did a bit of shopping before going to the House of Terror at Just Say No's recommendation. It was a really great exhibition. Very well done and absolutely worth it!

Then it was back to the hostel for a snack and some packing before going out to dinner again.

Aaaahhhhhhh.....

Check in time: 10:46:03

Check out time: 16:08:30

Total time spent wallowing in the thermal baths: 5:22:26

4 Hours Left...

until I become another year older. *sigh* But tomorrow should be a fun day. Main goal: a luxurious visit to the Szecsenyi Baths.

B is For...

BERLIN!

Monday, August 21, 2006:
Woke up at 2:30 am to get readz (German kezboard....letters reversed again!) for the taxi to take us to the train station so we could catch our 6:30 am flight to Berlin. Everything went smoothlz and we arrived on time, but dead tired having onlz got about 2.5 hours of sleep.

We found our way to the hostel despite routing changes on the U2 u-bahn line. We were planning on having a nice little nap before going out and exploring the citz, but the room wasn (damn I cant find the apostrophe on the freakin kezboard!!!) t going to be readz until 2pm, which was 4 hours away! So we decided to grab a bite to eat and head off to the Olympic stadium where Italy played thier cup-winning game against France this summer. Of course, due to the aformentioned routing changes and us being quite tired, we actually managed to go backwards for some of the journey and had to retrace our steps. We eventually saw the stadium. It was a stadium. And the fact that it was raining off and on didnt help matters much. Then we headed back to the hostel for the long-awaited nap before getting ready to go out for dinner.

Tuesdaz, April 22, 2006:
Slept in todaz and then wandered around the hostel area. We ended up at the shopping mall since I seemed to have a lack of warmer clothes in mz suitcase. I am telling zou, I didnt pack for cloudz, rainy weather!!!

Wednesday, April 23, 2006:
Off to see downtown Berlin! What a huge citz this is! We went on half of a free walking tour, which was prettz interesting, but we bailed out on the second half due to the fact that it was raining and we had already been to the parts we were most interested in, etc.

We stayed around the Checkpoint Charlie area and visited the Topography of Terror. Enzo took at least 100 pictures of all the information signs about Checkpoint Charlie and the wall with MY CAMERA!!! Then the battery ran out, so instead of going to the Reichstag, we decided to go back to the hostel to recharge my batterz. I really have to buy a second, backup battery one of these days.

Then is started raining again so we stayed in the area of the hostel and dinner nearby.

Thursdaz, August 24, 2006:
Off to downtown Berlin again. We toured some sights of the wall, and then up to the glass cupola on top of the Reichstag to get a view of the city. After that we went to Bebelplatz to see the book-burning monument, then off to the Checkpoint Charlie museum.

Now we are back at the hostel and fixin to head out for Thai food! Yay! I have finally convinced the Italian to try Thai food! I must say that he has been doing quite well so far, as he has been adhearing to my Italian Food Ban that I follow every time I leave the country. We had Subway sandwiches for lunch. Yum!

Tomorrow it is off to Budapest, which I am really excited about since I love Budapest, and I will get to spend my birthday there!

Auf Wiedersehen!

A Is For...

AMSTERDAM!

We have spent 5 days in this lovely city, and are preparing to leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow to catch our 6:30 am flight to Berlin.

Of course our journey started off with.....you guessed it.....FLIGHT DELAYS!!! More and more flight delays. *sigh* I tell ya, it is almost enough to put me off my travel bugging around the world! Apparently there was some techincal difficulty with our plane that took longer than expected to fix, so the flight was late leaving Amsterdam, and consequently late leaving Venice with us on board. But the city more than made up for the trouble it took to get here. Amsterdam is lovely with all its canals and gabled houses.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006:
Spent an ungodly amount of time sitting in the small airport in Treviso, Italy. Arrived in Amsterdam safe and sound, and took the train into the city to find our digs.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006:
Woke up and ate a YUMMY Dutch breakfast of omlettes and pancakes! Then we wandered around the city, taking in the lovely sights. We passed by the infamous red light district. Let me tell you that at 2 in the afternoon, there is not much going on, and the hookers are UGLY!!! Then we continued wandering around back down near our place, just getting a feel for the area. Went grocery shopping and then out for Mexican dinner.

Thursday, August 17, 2006:
Divide and conquer! Today I went to the Van Gogh museum and Enzo went to the Navel museum and met up afterwards. We decided that since neither of us had an interest in each other's museums, it would be better that way. We met up around 4, had a bit to eat, and then wandered down the Singel to see some of the interesting facades that were mentioned in Enzo's guidebook. Then we headed back to the apartment. Enzo had a rest while I went out and fetched dinner to bring back.

Friday, August 18, 2006:
Today we went to a little fishing town in the North-Eastern part of Holland called Enkhuizen (pronounced Enk-how-shen). It was really a beautiful little town with lots of sailboats and fishing boats around. There were hardly any tourists there which was nice, so we really got a feel for the Dutch. We even saw a few men wearing wooden clogs! We went to a local restaruant for a fish dinner and then headed back to Amsterdam.

On the way back to our apartment, we decided to pass through the red light district again since Stacy had mentioned that the hot hookers come out at night and the ugly ones work during the days. Well, I must say there there were a lot more out in the windows, and they certainly weren't ugly! I did blush a few times as I passed by the various "live sex show" theatres and sex shops! Oh my! And I have never seen so much drug paraphanelia in my life!

Saturday, August 19, 2006:
Chill day today. We went for a pancake breakfast and then to check out some other parts of the town. I had wanted to see the flower market as well, so we passed through there. Then we got some dinner to take back to the apartment. After that, we headed to a bar at the end of the street for a few drinks.

Sunday, August 20, 2006:
Rainy day! Today we slept in and hung around waiting for the rain to stop so we could go out since neither of us smartly decided to pack an umbrella! And now the rain has let up so we are checking our mail before heading off for more pancakes and whatever other trouble we can get into during our last day here!

More to come at a later date....

The Alphabet Trip Starts Today

Off I go on my Alphabet Trip, named so because the visitation order of the cities is, unintentionally, alphabetical.

Happy travels!

Yay! Free WiFi

It seems that the neighbours are back from holidays now. Score!

Goodbye Buddy

Buddy, our cat, died yesterday from old age. *sob*

Bouncing off my head as I lay on the couch
Underfoot in the kitchen ALL THE TIME
Daring the dog to play
Dreaming as he lay stretched out on his back
Years of good memories

Goodbye Buddy. We will miss you.

Summer Update

Back in Italy once again. The flight(s) back were completely uneventful. Thank God. Otherwise I think my adrenals may have shut down on me for good!

I have now moved into a new apartment that is closer to work. It is a really nice place, and my room is starting to shape up somewhat. I have discovered that I have too much stuff! I have no idea where it all came from, but there is a lot of it. After a few more acquisitions from IKEA, I am sure I will have places to put it all.

My new roommate(s) is nice. I knew him already, as he was a friend of one of my roommates from last year. He is Italian, so hopefully I will be speaking more fluently in no time.

As for the rest of the summer, the trip to Amsterdam, Berlin, and Budapest starts on Tuesday. The best part is that I will be spending my birthday in Budapest, my new favourite city on earth! Yay me!

Until then, my internet access will be limited due to the fact that we have not got internet in my new place (yet), and the travelling factor. I will update when I can.

Happy August everyone!

**edit: Given what's happened today in London's heathrow airport, I must say that it's a good thing I flew back to Italy when I did. I had been considering changing my ticket to fly back to Italy today or tomorrow!**

Strange Happenings

This summer I have seen a lot of strange things happen right before my very eyes. First was the guy who drowned at the public pool in Abano.

Then back in Toronto walking home from the gym one day, I saw an elderly lady who was walking with her daughter trip on a piece of raised concrete in the sidewalk, fall flat on her face, and break two teeth. I know she broke two teeth because I saw them laying on the ground after she got up.

Today while we were driving to Kitchener an SUV swerved across three lanes on the highway, hit the concrete divide, and flipped over about three (or four) car-lengths away from us. In fact, we were the first ones on the scene. My step-dad jumped out of our car to help the guy inside the SUV. He got out ok, and from what we could tell was not injured.

That's three things now so I hope that's the end of it. I can only deal with so much reality in such a short period of time.

Ay! Que Calor!

It has been SO hot and humid in Toronto these last few days. It is unbearable. How did I ever live in the Dominican Republic for two years???