Sleeper Train to Warsaw

Friday 11/12.
I was very excited and a little nervous to be taking the 15 hour overnight train from Amsterdam to Warsaw to see my parents for the weekend. It turned out to be on the better decisions of the trip and a great experience.
I made my way out of the hotel close to 4 to head to Amsterdam Central station for my 7:00 train. It is really easy to get around in Europe, they have efficient, cheap, and frequent buses to train stations, and then you can take the train anywhere. I wish we had that kind of travel infrastructure here in the US. I hopped on the 300 express bus to Haarlem Station for 2 Euros and then bought a one way ticket into Amsterdam for less than 5.
I arrived in Amsterdam Central before 5, which was way to earlier and gave me too much time to freak out over little things...
I found my platform but my train wasn't listed. There was a big crowed so I figured I was in the right place. I overheard people saying that this was the train to Copenhagen, which really got my thinking that I was in the wrong place. Finally, about 20 minutes before the train arrived they put up the information.
It turns out that the sleeper train goes to a number of different places depending on which cabin you get in. I thought that was really interesting. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you would end up in Copenhagen. Luckily, I found the Warsaw train but was confused when I found 3 seats in my cabin instead of 2 beds. The conductor, who didn't speak English, then came in and folded the seats down and the beds popped out of the wall. It was a pretty neat set up. Then he took ticket AND return ticket for overnight keeping, which really freaked me out. I usually don't worry about stuff like this. There was also no dining car, which I found really strange on such a long journey!
I was all alone in my cabin for 3-4 hours until the trained pulled into Stuttgart close to midnight. There, a German dentist became my bunk mate, but we held off on the conversation until the morning.
Sleeping on the train was a breeze. I got about 10 hours and it was really nice to recharge after working two countries. I woke up close to 8 and eventually started chatting with the man who got on last night.
There was a language barrier, but we managed to talk in broken English for a few hours. We talked about all sorts of weird things: how China will be the next super power, pre WWI Europe, and a brief history of Poland and the kings on their currency. He was a fascinating guy. He also insisted that I eat at the U Iducharzy restaurant in the Hotel Europejski as he gave me a history about that as well.
The conductor came in when we were about 2 hours from Warsaw with my return ticket and complimentary chocolate filled croissants. I found it strange that I wasn't that hungry, but hadn't eaten in close to 15 or 16 hours.
The only downside to the whole experience was that it was a night train and I didn't get a chance to see the German country side as we rolled through. It was light enough by the time we crossed into Poland to see though. The countryside is very quaint, dotted with brightly colored houses amid hills and dead woods.
We arrived in Warsaw about an hour later than scheduled, but I was completely refreshed and ready to cram as many sights as possible into my brief stay (the Graham family way!). I am very glad I opted for the train instead of the much faster flight.

Netherlands Day 1-3

Wed-Friday 11/10-12
I'm lumping most of the days together because I really didn't get a chance to do much until the weekend.
The team caught a late flight out of Norway and arrived in the Netherlands late to find that the rest of the team that had arrived earlier had done a lot of the setup work. Still, it was well past midnight by the time we had everything good to go for the start of the next day.
I had something called "traditional Dutch meat" for dinner. I couldn't put my finger on what kind or cut of meat it was, but it was really tasty. I topped off dinner with a 4 chocolate dessert dish featuring chocolate mousse, a chocolate covered cream puff, chocolate ice cream, and a brownie. It was the start of eating a ton of chocolate on this trip. I had a Belgian beer named Palm as well that was pretty good.
I am amazed at the lack of clocks so far. Both hotel rooms didn't have one, not even an alarm clock, and there was only 1 that I saw in the entire Oslo hotel. Very strange. The hotel in Haarlem, about a 20 min train ride from Amsterdam, appears to only have 1 clock as well.
Dinner the second night with the HP Dutch team was really fun. It took a little longer to get there because of some road work and one way roads, and we drove through the same intersection 3 or 4 times trying to find the way, but once we parked we got a chance to wander the streets of Haarlem, which is architecturally very close to Amsterdam.
Dinner was a 3 course fixed menu called the Chef's Table. For starters, I had an appetizer platter of tuna tartar, scallops on a bed a beets, and shrimp on a mixture of mashed potatoes and carrots. The main course was a venison steak on spouts and mashed potatoes. They must really like potatoes here...Dessert was chocolate mousse with a touch of coffee this time (I prefer it without), a piece of cake I wasn't too fond of that I ended up trading for more mousse, and some homemade ice cream. Pretty good meal, but I liked the traditional dutch meat the best.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and a few of us had drinks at the bar. I was introduced to jenever, which sounds like "your neighbor". It tasted a lot like akvavit but was easier to drink and had less of an alcohol content. I made a mental note to look for it in the Duty Free later.
The event itself was quite the contrast to the Norway one. In Norway, nobody will interrupt you even if you stop a presentation to ask questions, it's just the way the culture is. They will wait for you to finish and then approach you one on one rather than stop your flow and ask a question in the middle. The Dutch, on the other hand, are very interactive.

Oslo Days 2&3

Im lumping the last two days in Oslo together because they were mainly event focused and I did not have any time to get out and explore the city.
11/9 and 11/10
The event itself went rather well, with just a few technical snags here and there.
The hotel food was excellent for being hotel food. Usually we are stuck with terrible sandwiches and soggy potato chips, but this time we were treated to a buffet of an assortment of sausages and salami, including mutton, salmon, and lamb chops. I skipped the herring though and could not find any reindeer. I was unimpressed with the end of event dinner.
The airport is a breeze to navigated, and designed in a cool way. Security went by in a snap. I noticed some akvavit in the Duty Free, and made a mental note to look for it in Sweden at the end of the two week trip. The flight to Amsterdam was on KLM, and I was not impressed. The food was especially terrible, even for airlines, with a half mayo/cheese sandwich and half chicken curry/egg salad sandwich packaged together.

Not really much to say about Oslo. It snowed, the hotel food was good, and the brief bit of the city I saw was fun. I would like to come back sometime in the Summer and explore some more.

Oslo Day 1

Day 1 Monday 11/8
Today marks the first day of an Oslo-Amsterdam-Stockholm two week customer event with a personal 15 hour train trip to Warsaw in between Amsterdam and Stockholm.
The flight was the best international flight I've ever been on, and it was probably better than some domestic ones. We had about an hour delay out of Houston, but only landed a half hour behind schedule in Amsterdam. I was fortunate enough to have the window seat next to an empty one, so I had the full row to stretch out in. The chicken and rice meal was above average as well! I slept for about 6 hours of the 9 hour flight, and another 1.5 of the 2 hour flight from Amsterdam to Oslo. I was fully rested and ready to go! We landed in Norway and cleared baggage at before 2PM, and then found the Norway HP guys to take us to the hotel.
After having an early dinner/late lunch at the hotel restaurant, we hitched a ride back to the airport to pick up the last few people coming in on another flight and take a train from the airport into downtown Oslo.
We were only there for a few hours, but I found a stein to match my Danish one and picked up a Christmas gift or two. The Karl Johans pedestrian street we wandered was a lot like Kongingsgaard (I know I butchered that one) from Copenhagen, but in my opinion not as good. After a brief separation and aimless wandering, we all managed to meet back at the train station and head back to the outskirts to do final event preparation. No port-a-potties were found. :(
This is the second time I've worked an event in a hotel, the first had a lot of behind the scenes issues but the Norwegian staff here seems incredibly helpful. I have high hopes! Speaking of the hotel, the architecture is just neat. Very sleek and clean looking, and the furniture is so light! I wish all furniture was Scandinavian, it would make last minute room set up scrambling so much easier. My room has two single beds and weird lights, but it has a certain amount of charm to it. It's also the first hotel room I've ever been in that does not have a pen in it.
And what trip wouldn't be complete without some idiotic screw up by yours truly. This time I managed to pack the 220V power cord for my laptop so it will work with the plugs here, but forgot to actually pack the power brick that connects the cord to the PC. Sigh. Luckily I'll have a spare when we get to Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Spruce Beer

Saturday 5/22:
Armed with newfound knowledge thanks to Google, I left the hotel and walked 30 minutes to a small meat market that had spruce beer. I had hoped to find some breakfast on the way, but the route took me in a direction I hadn't been yet, and it was mostly residential. Luckily, the meat market also sold sandwiches, so I had another smoked meat sandwich and cleared out their supply of 4 bottles. I walked back on a more interesting street just as the hustle and bustle was starting.
I went back to the hotel, drank 1 bottle, then headed out to St Catherine to pick up some last minute gifts. Halfway there, I changed plans on walked down to Centre-Ville and Vieux-Monreal, stopping at Notre Dame again and snapping some pictures. I had thoughts of paying the entry fee this time, but there was a wedding taking place. After buying some gifts in Old Montreal, I meandered without a plan for a bit, thinking of going to a sports bar to watch the Canadiens game with the locals. (Since they won the game I went to, tickets skyrocketed to $300). In hindsight I wish I had stayed out and caught the game in a crowd, but I ended up going back to the hotel and took a nap while watching them lose.
I woke up refreshed but still burned out a little. I wasn't in a touristy mood, so I went out to dinner instead. I found Frite Alors! close to the hotel, and had my first taste of horse. It was good, very chewy, similar to bison. The french fries were very good. Maybe that's a Montreal thing, good french fries...
After refueling I walked in a familiar pattern. St Denis-St Catherine-St Laurent-and Sherbrook back to St Denis where my hotel is.
I found the metro station that has the airport shuttle, and explored around inside to make sure I knew the way tomorrow.
Final thoughts on Montreal:
People are nice but impatient, especially the drivers. I probably heard or saw an emergency vehicle once every 2 hours, sometimes more frequent. Both Toronto and Montreal are pretty clean cities, and the people are friendly. They are stereotypically Canadian. Catching the playoff game was the highlight for this year, that was such an experience.
I have found another market 40 minutes away in a new direction that also carries spruce beer, so I hope to stock up in the morning before catching my afternoon flight.
I'm down to two bottles now, one started to fizz as I was figuring out how to pack it, so I drank it instead of risking an explosion.

Geographically Challenged

Friday 5/21: Today was pretty uneventful. I checked out of the Holiday Inn and lugged everything uphill to Castel St. Denis, the same little 2 star hotel I stayed at last year. It was a bit of a hike, but I arrived without incident. The room is slanted and the Internet only works when you lying on the ground close to the door, and it's still spotty, but you get what you pay for and it's a good location. I unloaded my stuff and quickly went back out on a mission to find the Portuguese place Dan found last year. I had a pretty good idea of where I was going, but it still took an hour wandering around when it should have taken 20 minutes tops. Oh well, I got reacquainted with that part of the city. I tried to get a hold of a few people to give me directions, but then I stumbled upon it. (For future reference, Geoff, it's on St. Laurent). I had thought it was on a side street, but it turned out it was on one of the main Montreal roads. I had the sausage again and it did not disappoint. After lunch, I decided to go on another mission, this time to find spruce beer. Last year, we found some in a cheese shop in the Italian District, and I remembered the general direction I should be headed. (see a theme here) My search came up empty, I never found the Italian district, and at one point I managed to actually leave Montreal city limits. Still, it was a nice but tiring 2.5 hour tour of a more residential side of Montreal. I came back to the hotel to regroup and rest for a bit before striking out for dinner. I headed back to St. Laurent and stopped at Schwartz Deli, famous for its smoked meat. Smoked meat is a pretty big thing in Montreal, and the sandwich was awesome. After dinner I walked towards St. Catherine, another big Montreal street, but I think I was about an hour too early to see the beginnings of the nightlife crowd come to life. I considered sticking around, but by this point I was felt dead on my feet from all the walking, so I headed back to the hotel. I don't think I would have had as much fun by myself this time around as I did with Dan and James last year anyway.

Go Habs Go!

Thursday 5/20:
The Toronto event went much smoother, but Montreal was still good and far from disaster. Lots of things went wrong, but in the end we pulled it off. There was a wealth management event going on as well, so it was very crowded. I stuck with Kurt and Gene again, and had a few fascinating discussions and a few stinkers.
At one point during a break, one of the engineers showed us his Montreal Canadiens playoff ticket for tonight. He bought it off a scalper for $225. I was jealous, but there was no way I was paying that much. Luckily, Dean later showed up and said he found tickets for 100 each on Stub Hub. They were kind of in a nosebleed section, but I leapt at the chance. How often am I going to be in a city with playoff hockey and be able to go to a game?!
I finished all my duties, helped pack up, then raced back to my hotel to quickly change and grab my camera for the game. I met back up with Dean at the Fairmont Queen E,and we were off. It was just a short few blocks down the road.
When we picked up our tickets, we were offered a free upgrade to the $190 seats for no reason. How cool!
The center is neat. Outside the main entrance it has statues of all the great Montreal players throughout the years.

I don't even know how to describe the game. It was such an incredible experience from start to finish. Both national anthems were played by a small group from the Montreal Symphony, without any singer. It quickly became apparent why no singer was needed. The entire stadium erupted into O' Canada. I've never seen anything like it, it was extremely powerful. The closest thing I've ever seen resemble the experience of the crowd was the Ohio St vs Penn St game at Penn St I went to a few years ago, but it didn't really come close. The promo was a towel, and most of the game you could look out into the stands and just see a blanket of white with the Canadiens logo twirling around. It didn't take long for us to join into the cheering.
I had an overprice hotdog, split the cost of 4 beers each with Dean, shared his popcorn, and bought 2 donuts randomly on a bathroom break.
I'm so glad the Canadiens won 5-1. It was such a fantastic feeling to experience the home team winning a playoff game. This was also my first NHL game. It's going to be hard to top that! I'm officially a Canadiens fan now.
I texted Gregg a few times during the game to rub it in. It's too bad the Bruins blew the series against Philly or else I would have had a chance to see them play.
I looked into prices for game 4 on Saturday, but since they won and the series is now 2-1 Philly, the tickets jumped in price to $300, so sadly I will not be experiencing the incredible crowd again.
Walking back to my hotel after the game was also fun. Lots of horn honking and cheering, the whole city was just loud! What an atmosphere! My voice is sore from all the cheering

Montreal Day 1

Wednesday 5/19:
The airport was busier than I thought for such an early flight. Highlights include trying to check my bag onto a Hong Kong flight, not taking off belts and shoes for security, and the flight itself was pretty entertaining thanks to the flight attendants. It was the Canadian equivalent of Southwest Airlines, so the flight staff was fun and told jokes, and didn't have any of that fake courtesy you find on most flights. There was a small mechanical problem with the terminal tunnel when we landed, but for the most part the flight was good. I had a middle seat and still had plenty of room. I always find it strange that the flight from Toronto to Montreal uses a big plane but from Houston to Toronto you are on sardine can.
We checked into the Holiday Inn Express close to noon before heading down to Vieux-Monreal to walk around. This hotel is so much better than the Best Western. I have a suite and the location is only a pleasant 20 min walk to the waterfront and the event hotel, which we couldn't set up until 5. That left plenty of time to wander.
The group walked close to the waterfront, where I had meandered about last year, and ate at a terraced restaurant named Jardin Nelson. I had some Montreal red beer and a 4 cheese pizza, one of which was goat cheese. Nothing comparable to the two previous meals, but still tasty. A little pricey too, but it was a really nice atmosphere with live music. The also had a "Tex-Mex" chicken, red beens, and sour cream pizza...
After lunch we made our way to Notre Dame, but didn't feel like paying the entry fee, so we just looked at the outside. As luck would have it, there was a port-a-potty outside, but due to construction I couldn't get the cathedral in the background, only a cool looking clock tower. I got a really strange look from the team when I requested the picture, but we laughed about it.
We walked down towards the water on the same side-street past the Christmas shop that Dan, James, and I found last year. I ducked into a small church that had 9 model ships hanging from the ceiling, just like in Copenhagen. We then made our way to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel where we were running the event to coordinate set up.
It sucked, the event staff was terrible, didn't listen to what we wanted, and undid a lot of the things we set up ourselves. They had logistic problems with our keal cases too. I hope we never have to rely on using a big fancy hotel again, it was much better before the Montreal office closed.
We showed up late to the big team dinner with the Montreal team from setup again. I had snails in a garlic-basil sauce as an appetizer, and venison sausage with a side of french fries cooked in duck fat for the main course. The duck fat didn't really affect that taste, but made the fries really crispy, which was good. I washed everything down with another Montreal red beer before topping the night off with a chocolate marquis in caramel sauce. The conversation at this dinner was good, but not as good as Toronto. Since we arrived late, we sat together, so I didn't get a good chance to mingle with the Montreal team until late. I got back later than I would have liked and really could have used some extra sleep, but it was a fun night.

Event day

Tuesday 5/18:
For the most part, the event went smoothly. There were naturally some snags here and there like always, but it was good overall. I ended up working all of Kurt's and Gene's sessions, which are really fascinating and make me feel dumb sometimes.
After we finished with all the cleanup and everything, I somehow managed to get car duty. We had two cars, but had to make several trips to get everyone back to the hotel. I took the first wave back in 1 car and Don took another group back in the other.
I ended up making 3 trips, the third being the most entertaining as the window got absolutely destroyed by Canadian goose droppings. Yup, bunch of mature folks working at HP!
After freshening up at the hotel, the team and a few presenters headed out to a Korean bbq place, which turned out to be the biggest bbq joint in the Greater Toronto Area. I ended up driving again, and this time it cost us.
I made a wrong turn even though I had the GPS, so we ended up taking a scenic tour of Mississauga. I found it ironic that the Hertz Neverlost was on a Magellan GPS. What is it with me and directions?!
Dinner was incredible. We split into two tables and my table of 5 decided to split the family meal that feeds 5-6. That thing could have easily fed 8 of us! Fish cakes and bean sprouts were good, bul-go-gee was incredible, spare ribs were awesome, and even the spicy pork and spicy chicken were outrageously good, and I don't even like spicy all that much. The food just kept coming, and I couldn't get past more than 1 piece of Octopus when the seafood platter arrived.
I made it back to the hotel without incident and fell into a food induced sleep.

Last free day in Toronto

Monday 5/17:
I woke up and decided to take it easy. I had thought about cramming in a last minute sight, or walk around the Eaton Centre again, but I just decided to find breakfast somewhere on the street instead.
I headed in the vague direction that I remembered seeing Timothy's World Coffee, willing to give it a try mostly as a joke because "it's on the map!". It ended up being the last leg of the square I walked around my hotel, naturally.
It was very much like a Star Bucks. The cheese croissant was above average, the pain au chocolate was good, and the hot chocolate was excellent.
Afterwards, I checked out of the room and retraced my steps on the public transit system back to the airport. I thought it would be easier and cheaper to get back to the airport, then call Best Western for a shuttle than to take a $50 cab ride. It took 2.5 hours to get from the airport to downtown, but only 1.5 to get back. And this time I figured out how to pay for the subway, maybe it was just free on weekends. I waited about 30 minutes at the airport for the shuttle, and another hour and a half for my room to be made ready at Toronto.
The rest of the team trickled in an hour or so after I was set in, and then we headed to the office to set up the event. A few things went wrong/missing/etc. as always, and by the time we tracked things down and finished setting up what we could we were an hour late to the HP dinner with the Toronto team.
We went to Milestones, the same good restaurant that they had taken us to the two previous years. It took awhile to get a menu and order, since we had come late and the wait staff was busy with the rest of the party, but it was nice to sit down and enjoy a Molson or two.
For dinner, I had the lamb, which was the same dish I had last year. I felt a little bad not branching out, but that feeling quickly left as soon as the food arrived.
I got to know Dean and Kurt, two of the presenters, really well during dinner, which is a big reason why we have big team dinners.
After dinner I collapsed in my hotel room, knowing I would have to wake up earlier than I would like the following morning.
The Best Western was pretty horrible. Only 1 elevator worked and it was extremely noisy, and the room was blah. I wouldn't stay there again.

Sports filled Sunday

I ended last night by watching some standup by a pretty funny Canadian named Dean Jenkinson. It was strange comedy though, he was really polite and his jokes and stories were funny, but more pleasant than any other comedian I've heard. Most be a Canadian thing, but I really enjoyed the program. I also realized that I didn't pay at all for the Toronto subway system yesterday, which seemed a little strange to me.
Today started a little earlier than it needed to because I have a terrible sense of how distance relates to time. I ended up arriving at the Hockey Hall of Fame 40 minutes before it opened because I thought it was much farther away than it was. So, I stopped for a chocolate and honey crepe at La Marche, which was actually recommended by a coworker, then I explored some more outside and wandered down various side streets.
The Hall was pretty cool, I saw a Stanley Cup (there are 3, I didn't know that), along with all the individual trophies presented to players for the season and playoffs. They also had Olympic medals from 1920-2008, which was pretty neat to see. I really like hockey but have had a hard time following it in recent years, seeing the Hall has renewed my interest. Since the Hall was much closer to the hotel than I originally thought, I had time to drop off the souvenirs I bought before heading back out to Rogers Center to catch the Blue Jays vs Rangers game. I took a different route to the stadium just to see more of the city.
The played both US and Canadian national anthems, and the difference in excitement level by the singer was pretty intense. I wonder if American teams do that when the Blue Jays are in America, they probably do. Rogers Center is a very nice and clean stadium, but it was missing a few things that I took for granted at Minute Maid Park, like the mph and pitch tracker.
The Jays ended up winning 5-2, which was cool. I'm pretty indifferent towards the Rangers, but I've always supported MLB outside of the USA so I've been a Toronto and Montreal fan (when they had a team) for awhile. I was lucky enough to see David Murphy, a former Klein Bearkat, and Justin Smoak, a former USC Gamecock on the Rangers though.
After the game I meandered towards China Town. The section I found was more Vietnamese than anything, so I had some tripe and tendon pho that cleared up my sinuses better than any pho I've had in Houston.After some tapioca, I wandered some more in the direction of my hotel, but it was pretty lackluster. After a brief stop at the hotel, I decided to check out the World's Biggest Bookstore and then head back to China Town to do some proper wandering. I took a different hotel exit and came out right next to a pretty cool looking church. I peeked in and was satisfied. It kind of bugs me that most American searches are just monstrosities, I think the older architecture is really important.
The bookstore was gigantic, which was impressive, but I wasn't sure what to expect. It was just a bookstore really (go figure).
China Town take 2 was much more exciting. I wandered past numerous shoe, vegetable, and dvd outdoor markets, plenty of acupuncture and herbalists, and trinket shops. I did see a sign for the Royal Ontario Museum, so I followed it but never found the place. I did find what I think was the Ontario Legislature building though, which had some cool architecture. After looping around it, I headed back into China Town before heading down a sidestreet on a whim.
What an abrupt change! I quickly found myself in hipsterville. The Chinese influence seemed to just vanish. I wandered around a bit in hopes of finding some spruce beer, because that seemed like just the type of thing to find in a hipster place, but just like the Royal Ontario Museum search, this one too came up empty.
I slowly made my way back through China Town on my way to the hotel, and decided to check out the square I found with the live music last night to see if anything was going down. Nothing was, but I decided to pop into the Hard Rock Cafe on the corner. I already have a Toronto shirt, but I am a sucker for mugs, and they had a really cool Toronto one.
Back at the hotel now, watching the Canadiens get blown away by the Flyers in game 1 of the new playoff series.
Might be done for the night, but I did have the pho fairly early and might pop out later for something small to eat.

If I knew what I was doing, life would be boring

This is my third trip to Toronto for work, but this time I decided to spend the weekend downtown before working the event in Mississagua. Things got off to a good start: my flight was pretty uneventful with just a few minor delays, and I successfully navigated the Toronto bus and subway system to get to the Eaton Center, which is basically a huge mall right next to my hotel.
The subway opens into Sears, so I plowed through and into the mall area, looking for an exit. I ended up going the full length of the mall with all my luggage before finding an exit. It turned out to be a few blocks.
At this point I'm lost, which is par for the course, frankly I'm surprised I managed to get to the Eaton Center using mass transit without incident. Funny that I get lost in the mall and not on the subway system. I call a few people back home for some guidance, and Becca is the first one to answer. She laughs at my misfortune, and it was pretty funny, and then finally manages to get me directions from her super slow computer. Basically, I walked right back the way I came, only outside the center, passing a port-a-potty in front of Old City Hall (perhaps it was fortuitous that I got lost!)and arriving at the Marriott. The front desk told me that the entrance from the hotel to Eaton Center was on the second floor. And here's the kicker... after dropping my stuff off I went through the walkway and ended up in Sears...

The Eaton Center was just big. I didn't see anything really special about it, just a big mall. I had a roast beef sandwich at the food court, which was really good for mall food, and then just wandered about. I drifted into Y'alls Canada Store and bought a few nick-knacks while on the phone from a surprise call from Sheila.
I wandered back towards Sears, but decided to take a different exit and emerged outside next to a big square. On the corner there was a street musician band next to one guy shouting about Jesus and another one shouting about Muhammad.
I went back to my room, dropped off the new stuff, and then decided to go back to the port-a-potty to get a picture for my calendar. I need a partner in crime, way to hard to get a good pose while I'm also holding the camera.
After several tries I called it quits and decided to wander the streets around the center.
I stumbled upon a free outdoor concert, which turned out to be a concert of teen bands raising awareness for teen homelessness in Canada. An odd cause, but I donated some change. The first band was all chicks, and as I walked up they started playing Zep! She played a very impression Jimmy Page solo too. I stayed through two of their original songs, which sounded amazing except for the lyrics. A second band came on, but they sounded like a terrible Allman Brothers Band knock off, so I wandered a few more blocks to see if I could find anything interesting. I didn't so I slowly meandered back to the stage in time for a 3rd band. They were really young and had great voices, but the music was nothing special, so I listened for a song and a half before calling it quits. By this time my feet were starting to hurt so I just wanted to get to my room and rest for a bit.
The room itself looks nice, the Internet is a bit spotty and some of the TV channels are a bit fuzzy, but that shouldn't matter as I hope to be out and about more than in.
Tomorrow I have tickets to an afternoon Blue Jays game, but the morning is still up in the air. I'll do a bit of research tonight or maybe just play it by ear in the morning. I am close to China Town and a pedestrian walking center, so that could be pretty fun.

Mardi Gras!

This year Mardi Gras weekend happened to coincide with President's Day, so when Chris talked me into heading down to New Orleans to party and see family and friends, there was no reason to say no.
We left Houston a little later than planned, and sat through 2 accidents on I-10 before arriving at Zea's on St. Charles St in downtown New Orleans to meet up with Brooke and Doc, two friends fro South Carolina. Brooke goes to grad school at UNO. It was nice to touch base, I've done a horrible job staying in touch with them.
We pulled into Zea around 7 while Hermes was rolling, but were too busy enjoying the all you can eat ribs to partake in the festivities. We did manage to catch the other 3 parades that rolled by though. Zeas turned out to be an excellent bargain. For a little over 40 bucks we got free parking, all you can eat food, and in and out access to the parade route. The parades stopped rolling after 11, but by the time we got the car out of valet it was past midnight. We still managed to beat Doc and Brooke back to their apartment though!
Saturday morning was pretty uneventful, but the 4 of us headed out to Mr. Ed's, "a New Orleans institution" for lunch. I tried a BBQ sandwich that was just roast beef with a weird BBQ sauce. Not that good. I was able to pick up a Barq's bottled root beer for the collection though.
After lunch we went back to the apartment and Chris and I beat Mario on the Wii while waiting for my aunt and uncle to get home.
We headed over to Mona's and Rick's about 3:30 and chilled there until about 5, then Rick drove us downtown so we could explore Bourbon St....and that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that.
Chris and I each bought a HUGE ASS BEER on Bourbon St, and saw part of the Saint's owner's parade on Canal St.I was able to add a port-a-potty picture with the parade in the background! Then we headed over to Harrah's. I lost 40 bucks quickly on slots and called it a night, bought a turkey burger from Fuddrucker's to get some food in me, and then watched Olympic Short Track while Chris lost money playing poker and craps.
Afterwards we stopped at Cafe du Monde and split some beignets. Rick was nice enough to come back and pick us up, it was only about midnight, but we didn't want to stay out longer and have to take a cab back.
Sunday morning the 4 of us left for Rex's about 9:30 to see another set of parades. Brooke met us there and I saw my other uncle and maw-maw, which was very nice.
Brooke, Chris, and I headed up street to watch 2 parades roll, Okeanas and Mid City, before heading back to Rex's to see Thoth roll right in front of us. It was really fun.
After Thoth we ate some of Rex's jambolya and headed back up street to Napoleon St to catch Bacchus in the evening. We had about an hour or so to kill, so we people watched in the park and had a lot of fun watching the drunks play frisbee with an awesome dog.
Bacchus rolled about 5:30, and I was fortunate enough to get another port-a-potty picture! Drew Brees was the celebrity king, and he rolled by about 10 to 6. I was too busy taking a picture of him to realize he had thrown a toy football that bounced off both Brook and myself before some random dude picked it up. Bummer, my one chance to catch a Drew Brees pass...
Chris took a position close to the action while Brooke and I hung back and hoped to get long throws. It was a poor strategy as a family with small kids brought ladders and all the long throws went to them. We muscled through the crowd to the front and were able to pick up a few cups and coins though, so it was a pretty successful roll.
Brooke drove us back to Mona's and then in the morning we were heading home to Houston, with a brief stop at Cajun Charlies for lunch. Excellent alligator there.

Getting Home

More Airport madness!
We left for the airport at 4am and check in fine. There was a 45 min delay leaving Florence, which means we might miss our connection home. We have to run to the self connection kiosk in Amsterdam, which tells us its too late to check in for our connection flight to Houston through the machine, and have to check in at the flight gate. Check the big board, it's literally at the other end of the airport. Amsterdam is by far the biggest airport I've been in, bigger than D.C's (at least it feels like) also, there's no terminal train system. We run there, I'm nearly dead, check in, and....it's the wrong Houston flight....yup, there are 2 flights to Houston leaving within 10 mins of each other and we just ran 25 mins to the wrong gate. She called our gate and told them to wait and we made it, thanks to the extra security going on, we arrived just as the last people were getting padded down.
We land in Houston, 13 hours later, and our bags our still in Amsterdam.
Hopefully they will be delivered tomorrow evening...
Moral of the story: Italy was great, but try not get there without flying...

Day 12: Rome and New Year's Eve

12/31: Happy New Year's Eve! Today we had good weather and were able to get down to Rome for the day. It ended up being disappointing, but I was happy to be there. After all, Rome wasn't toured in a day, as they say.
After some tricky navigation, we drove past the Vatican City walls, which were pretty cool to see. We had thoughts of going in...until we saw the line. It had to have been a 5 hour line at least. Instead, we looked for parking close to Saint Peter's Basilica. The street parking was outrageous. People would literally just park wherever they wanted, 3-4 cars deep on a small two lane street. It was incredible and ridiculous. We luckily found garage parking and headed out to Saint Peter's.
It was also incredible, but in a much better way than the parking situation. We almost joined a last minute tour that would jump all the lines and take us on a 2.5 hour tour of the basilica, including the Sistine Chapel, but Emily vetoed the idea saying she didn't want to spend that long in the basilica. It was 1 of the 3 things I wanted to see the most in Rome. After spending some time admiring the outside and the square, we headed towards Bernini's Bridge of Angels that Mom wanted us to see. It's the bridge in Angels and Demons. Now that I've been to Rome, I should rent that movie. I had a so-so pizza for lunch.
The bridge was pretty neat, lots of beautiful angel sculptures leading up to what used to be Hadrian tomb's but is now Castel d' Angelo, which was closed. Closed attractions turned out to be the theme of the day...Next stop was the Pantheon, the 2nd attraction I was really interested in seeing, but first, we went fountain hunting.
The fountains in Rome are gorgeous, especially Bernini's work. There was another open Christmas market surrounding a square with 3 fountains, so we spend a little time there as well. I bought a witch-like figure, which is supposed to bring good luck in the Italian customs, similar to the Nissers of Scandinavia. I really liked the fountain representing the 4 major known rivers at the time. The Nile is depicted with a cloth over his head because the source of the river was unknown. Another cool fountain was Neptune killing an octopus!
The Pantheon is really incredible. It is studied by architects as the perfect dome, and it's hard to believe it was constructed 2000 years ago. Raphael's is buried in the Pantheon, so I was able to see 2 of the 4 resting places of the Ninja Turtles! (Michelagnelo is actually in Florence, but we missed that church, and Leonardo is in France). Vittorio Emanuel is also buried there.
We slowly made our way to the Coliseum, ducking in and out of small churches along the way, including one that housed Michelangelo's famous and controversial sculpture of Christ bearing the Cross in the nude, but a bronze leaf was added a century or two later. Another church we briefly stopped in was dedicated to the angels who saved Mary's house by lifting it up and taking it to France. Dad and the rest of us had a good laugh at that miracle. Along the way to the Coliseum, we also saw Michelangelo's Steps from a distance, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and a massive structure, jokingly referred to by many as the "Wedding Cake" and described as "architecture on steroids" by our guide book. It was a monumnet to Vittorio Emanuel, the first president of Italy, and really just silly in grandeur and scale.
We also saw other ruins on our way to the Coliseum. I used to be really interested in anthropology and the study of ancient cultures through ruins, but when I saw them this time around I didn't have that same spark of interest. They were still really cool to see.
We finally arrived at the Coliseum, the 3rd attraction I really wanted to explore...5 minutes after it closed! Since it was New Year's everything closed at 3:30 instead of the usual 5 or 6. We walked around the outskirts, peering in, but it was kind of a let down. I did find a port-a-potty for my picture collection, so that was a bright spot. An arch similar to the Arc to Triumph is right next to the Coliseum. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum too, it was also closed! We were able to walk up a hill and get a less than decent birds eye view of the place.
After the Coliseum excursion, we trekked back and came across perhaps the most famous of Bernini's fountains, the Fountain of Trevi. Em, Kyle, and I each threw a coin in, so legend has it we will return to Rome one day. Everywhere we went, Mom said the crowds were double the size of the crowds during their first trip to Rome in June. If I do come back, it will not be during the Christmas holiday again.
For dinner, we stopped at an outdoor covered restaurant, which was good since it started pouring. Swordfish pasta was my first course, and it was good. Nothing great, but it was worth trying. For my second course, I ordered a mixed meat plate, with sausage, beef, lamb, and chicken. The sausage and lamb were good, the beef was alright, and the chicken was horrible. The meal ended up being our most expensive meal, and one of our worst. The dinner in Civitella was the best meal, and definitely worth the high price. I was disappointed in general with Rome's food.
We had an exciting adventure trying to find our covered parking before 9PM, or else we would have to park overnight. We trekked all over in the rain, but luckily found it with about 10 minutes to spare.
We got back to the Villa a little after 11, and turned on the TV to see if we could find an Italian celebration. Well, we did, and I wish we didn't, because it was just a horrible and miserable concert. Closer to midnight, we started hearing fireworks outside, so we went upstairs to the balcony to see what was going on....
What a great view! We could see for miles, even in the fog, and could see fireworks shooting up from all the small nearby towns and Arezzo. It was really something else.

That just about wraps up my Italian vacation. Our last day will be spent cleaning, packing, and chilling, so not much going on there. Happy New Year and stay tuned when I travel again! :-)

Day 11: Arezzo

12/30: Weather in Rome was a no go, so we slept in a little and trekked off to nearby Arezzo for a proper tour of the town. Arezzo is the closest "major" town to the villa, and was only 20 min away or so.
We wandered in and out of a few churches, including Sant Francesco, full of frescoes and neat architecture.
We stopped for lunch in a nice family owned, or "trattoria" restaurant overlooking the town's major square. We had a complimentary soup, served in a flask like mason jar that was neat, but actually hard to get the spoon into. For the main course, I ordered veal cutlets served in a bone marrow sauce. It was quite delicious.
After lunch we wandered the square a bit and just walked the street, popping in and out of small stores on our way to Arezzo's duomo.
This duomo was different than all the other duomos we had seen because it was actually completed in 1919! It overlooked a nice fountain that had been defaced by graffiti on one side, which was a shame. The view of the valleys covered in vinyards was also neat. There was even the body of Pope Gregory X on display in a glass coffin. He was gilded too, it was spooky looking.
By this time it was getting dark, so we trekked back to the city center and stopped for snacks at a cafe across from the first church we investigated. It turned out to be the famous cafe seen in the award winning 1997 movie Life is Beautiful. I tried to order a cannoli, but got some other type of pastry filled with cream. It was good, but I was looking forward to the cannoli.
After our brief rest, we headed down into the major pedestrian shopping district. I really like small streets lined with shops and small crowds going to and fro. After walking the streets, we ended up in a more open Christmas market. I considered buying a cannoli, but thought better of it. I also considered buying a knockoff Arezzo Hard Rock Cafe sweatshirt (there isn't a Hard Rock in Arezzo). If it was a tshirt I would have bought it, but I left it hanging in the stall. A weird theme I've been seeing all over these Italian markets Simpson merchandise. The characters, probably knockoffs, are on everything, including leaning tower of Pisa shirts, Duff beer sweatshirts, and a shirt of Homer as the Vitruvian man. It's just strange.
After shopping we headed back home to the villa. I liked Arezzo, it was a neat city.