LONDON, ENGLAND

Sunday, June 28th– Day 17 (DUBLIN – CANADA? - LONDON)

The morning started off well. Bags were packed, had breakfast with Dave, Joan, Barbara, Don and Adam for one final day. Got on the bus to go to the airport at 9:00 with quite a few of the others – Richard, Ron, the fantastic 4, Dorothy and Maurice and Alabama (Betty). We were the last ones on the bus so Anna said we had to buy everyone drinks at the pub. Everyone laughed but no one called us on it. Humdallah.

Arrived at the airport and said our good byes to Anna and Eamonn. Anna loved us! She asked Lexi if she was interested in either Adam or little Daniel. Lexi said no. Anna made sure to tell her not to marry at Kuwaiti. Haha. Ritchie will be thanking her for that. We gave both Anna and Eamonn a tip. Eamonn had a fondness for Lexi…if only he wasn’t old enough to be her father!

Said our good byes to more people and made our way to our gate. Lexi slept for the entire flight. Krista rested her eyes. The flight landed safely and then our troubles began. We were no longer in Ireland and thus had lost the luck of the Irish.:(

We had to take a train to get to the KLM terminal..the walk to the train took a bit and then we had to wait 15 minutes for the train to arrive. The train ride itself was a good 10-15 minutes. We went to the self check ins. It didn’t work. So we went to a check in counter. They sent us to the ticket office. The guy took his sweet ass time checking and reported there was no problems with our tickets. Back to the self check ins only to find another error message. Again we went to the check in counter but were stopped by customs and questions. Finally we get to the counter only to be told that our check in closed TWO minutes ago and that we therefore have missed our flight. NOT HAPPY. The earliest flight out was not until tomorrow at 11:45 flying out of England –Amsterdam – Minneapolis – Winnipeg. Krista texted Patrick to tell him that we had missed our flight home and to call Lexi’s parents too. Patrick did not believe Krista but after awhile realized that she was serious. After multiples tears from both Krista and Lexi we were off to get their bags which had been pulled off the plane. Then we went to the hotel counter to find a place to stay for the night. We decided on one in Central London close to Buckingham Palace – The grade Lanham Court Hotel. It was a fairy nice place. No AC and all feather down filled blankets and pillows. It sure sucks to be Lexi because she is allergic to feathers.

After a couple of phone calls home to arrange things we set off for some dinner. We stopped a nearby restaurant for some traditional English Fish and Chips. They were pretty good.

Next we were off for our whirlwind tour of London. First stop: Buckingham Palace. Krista said she “had waited her whole life for this picture and looked like crap.” Haha. For a shitty situation we tried to make the most of it. We took many pictures along the way. We saw the Red Old English Telephones Booths, Big Ben, Parliament Buildings, Trafulgar Square, Hays Gallery, and the The London Eye. How could we forget the Prime Ministers House! “Excuse me, What is it that everyone is looking at? Which building is it?” Haha Of course this was a photo opt. Everyone was taking pictures of the street that would eventually lead to the prime ministers house which was to the right and nobody could see.

We also took pictures of a war memorial and a memorial for the women in WWII. There was a man in uniform outside of a military museum that we got pictures with and an old castle. We met a man outside of the bus stop that told us where to get off the bus to see the London Bridge, and Tower Bridge (Lexi’s favorite). Everyone was very helpful and nice. We picked a good day to miss a flight as it wasn’t too busy in London.


Monday, June 29th– Day 18 (LONDON - CANADA)

We took the underground train to the airport. Except we might have made an expensive mistake on one of the transfers and got on the Express train instead of the underground. There goes another 20 euro each! Ouch. We got on all the rest of our flights in Amsterdam, Minneapolis and arrived safetly in Winnipeg. Lexi’s parents and grandma greeted us with flowers. We went for supper at Boston Pizza. Lexi’s Parents drove Krista home as her parents were not able to be at the airport because Krista’s mom worked and then had graduation supper. At Shoal Lake Krista called home and told Patrick to meet her at Solsgirth Corner. Apparently there are 2 corners. Ritchie drove Krista to the farm thinking we might meet them along the way. Infact the Flynn’s were at Solsgirth waiting for Krista. All in all it is nice to be home.

IRELAND

Thursday, June 18th – Day 7 (AMSTERDAM – DUBLIN)

Lexi woke up and laughed at Krista who was still in her clothes from the night before. Krista also began laughing because it was the second time that they both said they needed a short nap and ended up in a deep sleep and missing out on the night life of the city.

We packed our bags and headed to McDonalds. We both had 2 bacon and egg McMuffins at McDonalds with a Tropicana Orange Juice to begin the day. Gotta have our vitamin C.

We left for the airport via taxi. It was 45 euro. We thought it would be cheaper to take a taxi instead of the central train with the two of us and especially worth it because we had all of our bags with us!

When we went to the self check in at the airport all was going smoothly until we went to check our luggage. Apparently we were only allowed 20 kilos each…it was going to cost us 300 euro each to take our extra bag with us. After a few tears and multiple discussions we opted to send our 2 bags as cargo to Winnipeg for 247.60 euro together. Naser our tour agent is NOT our favorite person.

We went back to check our remaining back pack to find we had 2 minutes to get checked in. Luckily we made it just under the wire! The flight was a little rough as it was quite windy out, but we made it to Dublin safely.

Then we took an airport bus from the airport to our hotel Ballsbridge Towers for 8 euro each. The room is much nicer than Hotel Ben! Only downfall for Lexi was the feather pillows. She is allergic.

Went for dinner in the hotel restaurant and both of us had fish and chips and an MGD beer for a total of 40 euro.

Then we went for a walk to buy a converter for our camera, laptop and cell phones. Next we both went for a back massage. It was 45 euro for 30 minutes but it was well worth the money because our necks were full of knots!

We called Bill, Krista’s dad and explained to him our luggage story and asked him to check and see who could pick up our bags in Winnipeg before we got home. We got that all sorted out and e-mailed Naser demanding that we be refunded when we return to Kuwait. It was his error not telling us that he booked us a cheaper flight on Aer Lingus and we would only be able to take 20 kilos with us. There is a more expensive ticket that would allow us more kilos but he did not opt for this option.

Bed time and tried not to worry about our bags and money. We were going to enjoy our trip and not let it ruin it.


Friday, June 19th – Day 8 Ireland (CLIFFS of MOHER)

We woke up at 5:30, left the hotel at 6:30 to go to the Paddywagon Tour Company. We took a taki to the office which cost 10 euro.

We are going to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. The tour is scheduled to leave at 7am but turns out it didn’t leave until after 8am because some people on the tour were given the incorrect meeting time. Our driver was not happy he continued to tell us how “pissed off” he was.

FACT: 50-20,000euro per acre of farm land. That interesting fact is for you Billy Flynn.

We had a brief tour of Dublin as we were leaving the city. We got pulled over by the police. The luck of the Irish is not with our driver today.

We stopped for a pee/coffee break..No toilet seat for Lexi…good thing she has mastered the hovering method. Krista was lucky. She had a toilet seat and then she found some Flynn meat and took multiple pictures. If she lived in Ireland she would only buy Flynn Meat. We have been driving through the province of Linster.

Barrack O Bama’s ancestors came from Ireland…we took a picture of the family home which has now been turned into a money making place o course. They even had a OBama café.

Lots of flags were flying in the towns as we drove through. Green represents Catholics, Orange represents Protestants, White represents unity / peace between the two.

National sport is Hurling. 1 point above the bars, 3 points under the bars (goal).

The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland. It flows into Limerick. Angela’s Ashes was written in / based on Limerick.

Cocky Krista took a picture of the Munster Rugby team flag that was blowing in the air. She obviously got a perfect picture with her fancy camera.

The press labeled Limerick the “Stab City” for all the stabbings that happened in Limerick.

There are few remains of the walls of Limerick.

We saw King Johns Castle.
922 the Vikings were the first settlers. We stopped at the treaty stone and castle for some photos.

We have driven through 7 counties after leaving Limerick. We entered county Clare which is in the Province of Munster. We drove past Bunratty Castle which is a large town house in country clare.

We passed by a golf course that Tiger Woods has practiced on. All hills. Lexi thinks she could get a good golf score on the hilly course because she is almost at the pro level.
Krista is definitely not going to challenge Lexi to a game of golf this summer because she is scared to lose.

Next stop the Cliffs of Moher. It was beautiful! Cold, very very cold and windy. Flynniganni couldn’t keep her eyes open it was so bright and windy out. We walked along the cliffs and to a castle there.

Bought some bookmarks and shamrock and wild flower seeds. Insha’allah Carolyn’s green thumb can grow the flowers in her garden.

We drove for 10 minutes to Doolin for lunch. We had mushroom soup, roast beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and 2 cokes all for 24.50 euro.

Next stop, the Burren. Walls going any direction built by Irish people who wanted soup from the soup kitchen. They didn’t want to give them soup for free so they made them build these meaningless walls in order to get food. They made them work for it!

Galway Bay is right beside the Burren. The Burren is pretty much just rock with very little vegetation. It has been compared to the surface of the moon. Don’t know if we agree with that completely.

The land in this area isn’t great for crops. Farming is not their main source of income in this area. In winter they leave the cows outside because the limestone rock collects (absorbs) the heat in the summer and gives the heat off in the winter so the cows are quite comfortable.

We are lucky we went today on this day trip because the Burren is closed tomorrow!

Lisdoonvarna – Match Making Festival that is 4 weeks long. It is the biggest match making festival for singles in Europe. Willy Daily is the matchmaker. If Krista and Lexi are single at the age of 35 they will definitely be attending this Festival.

In Ireland they use the word “Craic” pronounced Crack. This does not mean what you think it means. It means fun!

Kilshanny Church of Shanny. “Cill” means Church of.

Before we got off the paddywagon a guy on the bus asked us if we wanted to join them for supper and then go to a few pubs. We thought about it but they were going to their hotel first and meet later. We decided to do our own thing because we were too far from our hotel and we were already hungry.

We went to the Centre area of Dublin and looked in a few shops thinking about where we wanted to eat. We decided we wanted TGI Fridays …we were craving an appetizer that we always have in Kuwait. To our disappointment they didn’t have it. Our meals were not that great either. We were sad.


Saturday, June 20th – Day 9 (DUBLIN)

We woke up and took a taxi to the center of Dublin. We looked for the landmark Spire. Also known as the Needle, Stiffy, Stilleto in the Ghetto.Ask we walked we saw a Tim Hortons sign. We thought it was only in Canada. We went inside and realized they only had the machine. We ordered some food and a coffee and ate it. Lexi did not like her sandwich but Krista liked her Bagel.

We went to Clarks so Lexi could buy a pair of sandals to wear. She bought a very nice black pair that was on sale!

We really wanted Ireland hoodies so we went into the popular store called Carolls. There are 4 in the center area. We looked in every store before making our purchase because if you spend 100euro you got a free Irish CD worth 15 euro. Lexi and I put our purchases together and spent 100 euro.

We went to the information book and asked where the closest movie theatre was. She wasn’t sure but thought just around the corner that we were in. So we walked but only found a mall. We shopped and Lexi bought a few items.

As we walked back to the Info booth we realized that there was a movie theatre right next to the info book! Silly lady. We looked at what was playing and decided to watch the movie Hangover. It was absolutely hilarious. Definitely recommend seeing it.

We went back to the hotel and watched the last few episodes of Smallville on Lexi’s computer. We were getting hungry so we went down to the D4 Pizza place in our hotel and had a pizza and pint of beer. Mmm mmm good.


Sunday, June 21st – Day 10 (DUBLIN)

Today our tour of Ireland actually started! We checked out of our Ballsbridge Tower Hotel and hopped in to a cab to go to Camden Court Hotel, which was much more centrally located, and the first hotel we would be staying on for the tour. We arrived at the hotel to find we could not check in yet (which we weren’t surprised about). As we were storing our luggage, Lexi looked over and saw Rachel and Susan. We went over and decided that the 4 of us would go for breakfast down the street at “Yum Yums”. Rachel and Susan had eaten breakfast there for 3 days in a row.. they really liked it. The food was pretty delicious. Both of us had French toast, bacon, and coffee. Lexi finds the bacon very salty.

After breakfast we hopped in a taxi and went to Maryan Street where there was a street performer competition taking place. We stopped at the first one, Alex from Australia. He was ridiculously flexible and put his body through a squash racket, tennis racket, and a toilet seat. He also juggled 3 knives while he swung a large blade on top of his head and stood on a pole held up by 6 volunteers. We watched Alex for 30 minutes. He was pretty funny!

We continued walking down the street and came across a giant blow-up pig that little kids could stick their heads in the side of. The kids were all wearing little piggie tails… too cute! We had to meet our tour so we stopped to take some pictures of the colored doors and started walking back to our hotel. The taxi drivers wouldn’t give us a ride because it was only a “5 minute walk” to the hotel. We think he just wanted to continue visiting because it was really a 20 minute walk and we made it just under the wire.

Our hotel room door wouldn’t open after 3 tries we gave up and left our bags at reception until our tour of Dublin was over.

We met our group to go on the City tour of Dublin. First stop was Trinity College where we saw the Book of Kells. When we were getting off the bus Eamoon our driver told us we were trouble makers because we were sitting in the back. Soon the younger folks on the tour joined us at the back. We saw many more attractions. Welcome drink back at hotel. We met Big Daniel, his son Daniel, Ron and Richard who are cousins. Adam worked in the Military in Iraq and has been to Kuwait. Alabama.

We met Susan and Rachel (teachers from Kuwait) at Penny Bridge. Ate supper at a Mexico to Rome. Pasta, Garlic Bread and Beer. This all was in the Temple Bar area. We met Brian a friend of Rachels and went to a pub for drinks. We listened to traditional Irish music and drank locally made beer. Lexi drank a Brain Booster Beer and it was NOT tasty! Got back to the hotel at 2am.


Monday, June 22nd– Day 11 (DUBLIN – BELFAST)

Started off our day with a pretty good Irish breakfast. It consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, mushrooms, coffee and juice. Probably worth the 15 euro!

First stop was the old Jameson Distillery. The tour started off with a video of the history of John Jameson. He founded the company in 1780. We volunteered to be in the whiskey tasting competition! Of course we did.

Next we toured around the distillery learning the stages of how the Jameson Whiskey is made. There are 8 stages! Grainstore, Malting, Milling, Mashing, Fermentation, Distillation, Maturation and last marrying and vatting.

After the tour came our whiskey tasting competition. There were 3 whiskeys; Johnny Walker Label, Jack Daniels and Jameson. (Scottish, American, Irish.) The participants all picked Jameson Whiskey as their favorite. It was very smooth. 8/8 was the score. Whoop Whoop! After we received a certificate and another drink…3 shots and a giant whiskey with the mix of our choice. It was 9:30 am what a great start to the day!

The Priest (Father John) didn’t follow instructions and took his Jameson shot right away then wanted a refill.

We took a picture of the new pedestrian bridge being erected in Dublin. We are on the road again and on our journey to Belfast.

Stopped at Warrenpoint for lunch. Anna and the bus driver both didn’t have any suggestions for places to eat so Lexi popped into the Pharmacy to ask a local for suggestions. She suggested Diamonds Restaurant.

After a stop at an Ulster Bank Machine to get Irish Pounds (that is what is used in Northern Ireland rather than the Euro) We headed to Diamonds for lunch with our new friends, Ron and Richard. They remind us of our fathers and refer to us as “kiddos”. We ordered vegetable soup and a hot chicken baguette. (We shared the baguette) It was delicious! Cost 17 pounds together which is about $34.00.

On Route to Warrenpoint Flynniganni took some pics of houses, beautiful gardens, hills, cemetery, and police station sign in Warrenpoint.

Apparently there used to be a wall surrounding (barricading) the area around the police station. Anna said the policeman was one you wouldn’t kick out of bed. haha! They had to wait until the wall closed before they could take off to the rescue. The barricade only came down May 2007.

Irish Sea and rolling hills pictures.

Major general Ross Monument (obelisk) dined with US president while his troops burned the white house during the war of 1812.

We drove through the Mountains of Morn. They are Granite Mountains.

Anna put in a CD by Daniel O’Donnel. We listened to the song “Way up in the mountains of Morn.” Flynn loved the song so much she asked Lexi to sing it at her wedding. Percy French composed the song. Flynn will name her first born after him.

We drove through hilltown which is a small village with 8 pubs. Poteen (Moonshine) was made in the mountains of morn and then they smuggled it into the hilltown to sell. This is where the 8 pubs originated from.

The 6 counties in the North are still under British Rule. To remember them we can use the acronym FATLAD.
1. Fermanagh
2. Antrim
3. Tyrone
4. Londonderry
5. Armagh
6. Down

We arrived in Belfast and had a couple of hours between the tour and supper to venture out on our own. We walked to City Hall, The Crowne Hotel (which is the oldest bar in Belfast). We took pictures of the Opera House and the Europa Hotel (The US president Clinton has stayed in the Europa Hotel)

Our tour supper was very tasty but due to no AC it was quite warm in the restaurant of the hotel. We had delicious tomato soup, roast beef, potatoes and an apple crisp.
Supper was hilarious. We sat beside Barbara, Don, Dave and Joan. The laughs never stopped. Dave drank the milk from the creamer right out of the metal jar. We nearly peed from laughing so hard! He loves his milk!

After supper we went for a walk to help Dave find highlighters to use on his map. The stores were all closed. Then a group of tourists told us that there was a man on the Ferris Wheel by City Hall protesting. So both Daniels, Adam, Lexi and Krista decided to go and check it out and get some pics of this man.

By the time we got to the Ferris Wheel the fireman and police men already had the man off the Ferris Wheel and gone to the station. We read in the paper that it took 3 hours to get him down and that people were on the Ferris wheel and could not get off. We were disappointed that we missed all the action!


Tuesday, June 23rd– Day 12 (BELFAST – LONDONDERRY / DERRY)

After our Irish Breakfast we went on a city tour of Belfast. We went mast the Memorial Garden that had 10 young men who were hunger strikers trying to get a united Ireland.
We saw the Christian and Protestant murals.

We saw all the sites on this tour. Queen Victoria statue in the hospital grounds and the twin spires of St. Stephens Cathedral. We learned a lot on this tour too. There are 2 countries on island of Ireland but we see it as one. Each represents different beliefs Protestant or Catholics. We drove by two blue plaques on a brick building done by McAdam – who introduced the Irish language and Lord Kelvin who introduced the Kevlin scale.

The City Hall in Belfast is 103 years old. The Ferris Wheel is a distraction because city hall is closed or repairs. Once open again the Wheel will be taken down. Queen Victoria Statue is in front of city hall.

Farcett River under the city gave Belfast its name. We drove by the Clock Tower which has a statue of Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert. The tower leans 3 meters because of the river underneath it. (Sorta like the leaning tower of Pisa)

There was a statue of a salmon fish. The water was cleaned so now they can catch salmon fish. The Lagon was the main river in Belfast. Harp is the Northern Ireland beer.

We saw the H & W cranes in the shipyard where the titanic and 13 sisters were built for the white star line. The cranes were named Samson and Goliath.

We drove by Victoria Park. The unemployment rate currently in Belfast is 5%. The Cave Hills are the dominate hills in Belfast. They are called this because they have small caves near the top of it. They also have holywood hills however they do not have the Hollywood sign on it. haha. Our next stop was Storemount Parliament Building. It has beautiful gardens and is 1 mile to the gate of the parliament building. It has lampposts all the way down the lane that were donated by Canada. Each one of them has 2 moose heads on the bottom of the lamp light. There is a statue of a man named Carson in front of the parliament building who was a prosecutor in a gay rights case.

In 1921, the country split into 2 regions. The north and the south. C.S Lewis is from Belfast and there is a statue having a man, chair and wardrobe placed in the city in honour of him. Lexi was tickled pink to see this statue because she read the story “The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S Lewis. It was a must to take a picture of this statue because she wants to show her students next year.

There is a Thanksgiving statue also known as the “Thing with the Ring”. 25 years ago there was a clean air act implemented and people here are not allowed to burn coil in their fireplaces even though every home has a fireplace.

We had a photo stop at Queens University of Belfast. The day we were here the professors and students were on strike trying to keep their German courses. We had a 30 minute break after the tour. We opted to go for a coffee and pee break. Krista stopped and read the newspaper in the store to find out more about the man on the Ferris Wheel.

Ireland has 4 canonized saints. St. Patrick was not one of them. We drove by a vanishing lake which takes 1 hour to fill up and 1 hour to disappear and is found in a marshy area. We can see Scotland in the distance and is only 13 miles away!!

Next stop was the hidden treasury rope bridge. We took pictures but were not allowed to walk across the bridge. This might have been a good thing because you get the Hibby Geebies. You are not allowed to cross the bridge between Oct. and April because of bad weather.
Fact: There are 6.5 million sheep in Ireland.
The roads are very narrow and windy. Eeks!

The highlight of the day: The Giants Causeway. The Giants Causeway was formed 60 million years ago when lava cooled and formed 40,000 shapes which were mostly 6 sided. This is a World UNESCO Heritage Site. It is called the Giants Causeway because legend says that a Giant built it to walk across to go and find his lady giant friend and bring her back. The Causeway was amazing…thousands of rocks! It looked like lego blocks stacked and collected. Amazing that these are natural structures! It was about a 15 minute walk down and up the hill each way. Krista was speed walking; Lexi was having an asthma attack….Not so much fun but the view was worth the trek. Went for lunch near the Causeway it was good but way too much food. Lexi said it was a beef stew but Krista thought it was a lamb stew…Lexi thinks she is right because she would never eat lamb…but Krista still is not convinced. The meal cost 10.54 pounds.


Wednesday, June 24th– Day 13 (LONDONDERRY / DERRY – INISHEQAN PENINSULA)

We started off the morning with another Irish breakfast. Scrambled eggs, sausage, yogurt and fruit. It was pretty good but the coffee was very weak. Our relief bus driver didn’t show up so we had to wake up Eamonn who had the day off. He was going to see his daughter and granddaughter. We started out a little late but no worries Trafulgar gave us another glass of wine with our meal!!

We picked up Roland Macknamara our very own Chinese Irish guide. He was absolutely fantastic. We walked along the city wall that has withstood all of the battles over time which is amazing! Roland talked a lot about the history between the Catholics and Protestants. We drove by the murals in Londonderry/Derry. There was a picture of a young girl, one was the 1st child to be killed in the war. Butcher Gate and Sarpaquar Gate are two out of the 4 gates to enter the walled city. The church of the protestants has paint stains on it because during the orange parade (July 12th) the protestants would walk along and throw coins over the wall at the Catholics, so the Catholics would be ready and throw stuff such as paint back at them. The city hall in Derry looks like a church. It has beautiful stained glass windows and a statue of Queen Victoria. She has only 1 hand. It is the only thing that made it through the bombings. We walked to the city center to get a picture of the statute there and to the hand statue called____.

On the road again to Gianan of Aileach which means the Place of the sun. Here we got a view of all 6 counties. St. Patrick came here to bless one f the sons of a high king. The road here is so narrow. We met a car and it had to back up until we were at the road where we could turn.

Guaman of Aileach was used as a watch tower because you could see all 6 counties from the top. Great advantage point.

Inisheqan Peninsula is referred to as the miniature Ireland.

Agnes Jones grave is next in command after Florence Nightengale.
As we drove through the bog land we learned that it is NOT good for farming. Duh!
Carndonagh chapel here there were Celtic crosses and standing stones of Carndonagh.
We made a quick stop at the Carndonagh shopping center and bought a bottle of Baileys to drink later in our room along with a hot carmel Sunday!. mmm good ice cream. Poke means ice cream in Irish.

Malin Head is the most northern point in Ireland. We got off the bus first and ran to get the best pictures. It was a gorgeous view.

Aberdean Angus cattle make the best beef. They are common in this area. You can identify them because they often have bad hair days.

The Loyds Tower was built after the Loyds of London. We passed by a Red Thatch Cabin which is a traditional home in Ireland. Beautiful purple flowers grew along side the road called Bootlegg.

Kathleen and Michael who lived in Ireland were a wealthy couple that used their own land and money to build cottages on for people who were old and sick to come to as a getaway before they died. There is a very old bridge that we crossed that is about 200 years old. Our guide said she hoped it wouldn’t break as we crossed! hehe

At Quiglies point you are looking across at the northern side of Ireland but you are driving on the southern side.

Our guide told us a story about when she was young going to school her mother would give her a handkerchief soaked in vinegar to cover her mouth with so she would not inhale the CS gas.

For supper we went to the restaurant called Spice. We had asparagus soup, pork in a whiskey sauce and for desert Lexi had sponge cake with berries and Krista had merange with ice cream and hot toffee sauce.

We had 2 glasses of wine. We were only supposed to have 1 but because our relief driver didn’t show this morning, Trafalgar gave us another complimentary glass. Eamonn, our driver sang us “Danny Boy”. He used to be in a band.

After the 2 glasses of wine, Lexi got up and showed everyone how to do the Irish Reel Dance. The whole tour group loved it. Dave and Don were hooting hollering. Lexi loved the attention so much she decided to sing and dance to another Irish song. Eamonn joined her and everyone started clapping. What a wonderful evening it was!

After dinner Krista invited us over to Dave and Joan’s room for drinks. Along with the drinks came the cards. Little Daniel had one deck of cards and we had 1 deck of cards in true Irish form (Guiness and Shamrocks). Dave and Joan taught Krista, Lexi and Little D and Adam how to play Yuker. Big Daniel sat and watched to make sure that Little Daniel didn’t drink anymore (He’s only 18 and in the States drinking age is 21 don’t you know!) Things got a little rowdy and we had a noise complaint..3 actually. Haha. Krista and Dave started as partners but Dave doesn’t like to Lose so he switched partners and Krista and Barb kicked their butts. Joan and Lexi took on Don and Adam. The ladies were again triumphant! After the hotel guy came shaking in his boots to tell us to be quiet. Joan shut the party down. Back to our room and to bed. Who knew we would have so much fun with old people. Haha.


Thursday, June 25th– Day 14 (LONDONDERRY/DERRY – SLIGO)

We started the day off listening to a lovely rendition of a song about Derry. We passed corn fields with plastic on the soil. The plastic on the ground is to keep the warmth in the soil. The corn is not for human consumption it is only used for animals. No corn is grown in Ireland it doesn’t get enough warm weather.

There is a lot of new statue / art work along the sides of the highway because it was a condition that 1% of the cost of building / repairing the roads must go to the roadside art work. Ex) the metal sculptures of the land.

First stop was the Ulster American Folk Park. It included a museum of information that we walked through and read a bit about the history of the Irish immigrants to America. Next we went to the outdoors display where you could see the model / replica homes/buildings. You start in Old Ireland and go on to the ship that they would have taken over to America. 4 people to a bed, one pail per bed for a toilet. The trip lasted about 14 weeks.

Oman – August 1998 bombing by the IRA killed 29 people and injured 200. The IRA called the police to warn them about the bomb place but it was a lie and they actually bombed the place where the police evacuated the people to. No one prosecuted. They know who did it but don’t have proof.

We stopped at Enniskillen for lunch. We had tomato basil soup and shared nachos. Krista really wanted to eat at Patrick’s Pub but took a picture instead.

We past the school entrance that Oscar While, Samuel Becket went to.

Next stop, Belleek Fine Parian China in the town of Beleek in County Formanagh. Went on a tour of the factory. The tour started with mould making, where the products are designed. The next area was basket making and floral designs. They make baskets by placing piece after piece in diagonal stripes both ways. They also make small flowers and shamrocks. The time and detail needed for each small piece was ridiculous. Next department was firing. The pottery is fired once, glazed, then fired again at 1000 degrees Celsius. After it has been glazed and fired it goes to be inspected before being decorated. IF there are any imperfections, the piece is broken and thrown out. After it is decorated it is fired one last time at 700 degrees Celsius. The color becomes darker and permanent. 50% of Belleek Products are sold in Canada and the US.

We have now left Northern Ireland and are back in the Republic of Ireland. Passed by Lake Melvin which is popular for fishing in (Starsky and Hutch movie)

Photo stop at the Glen Car Lake. Usually there is a waterfall but the lack of rain lately has dried it up.

Dinner in the hotel tonight. We stat with Dave, Joan, Don and Barb again. More good times had at dinner. The server dropped a potato on Dave…couldn’t have happened to a better person. We decided to leave it under the table to see if it would still be there in the morning. Ron ordered a glass of wine and got a bottle. Most expensive glass of wine he has ever had! Haha. Dinner was good. Krista had fish and Lexi had turkey/ham.

After dinner we went to the pool area. Lexi and Krista both sat in the Jacuzzi with Ron, Richard, Dave. If you went in the pool you had to wear bath caps. An Irish boy named Simon joined us in the hot tub. Dave made friends with him. Every new person that came into the Jacuzzi from then on Dave referred to them as Simon. Oh Dave!



Friday, June 26th– Day 15 (SLIGO - DONEGAL)

FACT: No AC in hotel rooms and we drive on the left hand side of the road which is opposite to Canada.

It is a cooler, rainier day today but Insha’allah it will turn nice. Had breakfast with the crew again. Checked for the potato and thought it was cleaned up but then we found a piece that had broken off. Don wrap[ped it up and personally delivered it to Dave in his room. His reaction..”didn’t bring me any butter or ketchup?”

Got on the bus to find Krista’s stat had been taken by Big Daniel. Not cool. He could have asked but no he chose to be rude. Too bad for him that it is a rainy day so he is only going to get shitty pics out the front window today.

We took a picture of a Catholic Church on our way towards the Daughtry Mountains. Ben Bulen Mountain because it is flat on top.
The high cross and Celtic Cross are 2 types of crosses in Ireland. The Celtic Cross was introduced by St. Patrick. It has a circle through the shaft. Symbolizes sun and eternity

W.E Yeats definitely wasn’t a charmer. He was turned down 3 times before anyone accepted his marriage proposal. The woman that finally did accept was named George. Yeats wanted to be buried at the head of Ben Bulen Mountain. He originally wasn’t but they exhumed his body and moved him here.

Drumcliffe Round Tower – Monastic settlement founded by St. Column Kil. He took a book and wouldn’t give it back which resulted in a battle where many people died. He ended up having to leave Ireland.

Monks used the round tower to hid and for protection. They took their treasures and themselves and hid in the tower where they could see out in all directions. (N.E.S.W)

Celts – Christianty - Vickings – Normans - English - Irish.

Classiebawn Castle – It is currently lived in. It was the home of Lord Montlafton (1979) he went out fishing with his family and they were blown up by the IRA.

Ballyshannon (town) is said to be the oldest inhabitant place in Ireland until 30 years ago. County Donegal is the 2nd largest county in Ireland.

The Irish famine should never have happened because they were a wealthy country. It was a Cromwellian leadership. Cromwell gave the men in the military that they could just take the land from the Irish. He told the Irish to “go to hell or Connacht.” All people east of the Rifver Shannon were evicted to the West. The cromwellian soliders took over vast acres of land. 2240 yrds = 1 miles Irish measurements.
Cromwellian soliders couldn’t work all the land that they had taken. So they brought back Irish people to be tenants and work the land. The peasants ate potatoes and butter milk. In 1945 the stalks of the potatoes had turned black. The potatoes were so rotten that the pigs wouldn’t eat them. Until 1849 this happened before they figured out what was wrong. A fungus had come through the air from North America and attacked the potato crops all over Europe but Ireland was the only place dependant on these crops. People started to die from Starvation. First deaths were in Cork. If people died on side of the road, they were buried on the stop. If died in homes, they were cremated inside their homes. Others were buried in mass graves dug in the shapes of an Irish Coffin. They ate flowers, grass, rats, dogs and eventually each other. A lot of cannibalism occurred during the famine. Some immigrated to U.S.

The town Killebags- means the little churches because there were 7 little churches here.

Wool from sheep here is predominately used to make carpets and some mattresses.

Sea Cliffs are the highest cliffs in Europe found in Donegal.

The town Ardara – Center of tweed making industry. We stopped at the Triona Design shop where we learned how to weave tweed material. Krista tried on a cute jacket but it was too big which was unfortunate. Lexi bought a pair of shamrock earrings. Had a free cup of coffee and we shared a scone. We are stilled pissed off at Big Daniel as he sleeps in the front and has closed the curtains and we now can’t see out the window.

Bog Land – Turf that is harvested and then burned. Formed by the ice age pushing decayed vegetation into the group combined with sparghum moss makes the bog land. Turf 60 yards of bog will be enough to get you though the winter. It takes 5-6 weeks to dry. Once it is dry it won’t allow moisture back in so you don’t need a special place to store it. Used to burn in the fireplace.

We went through a glaciated valley in the shape of a U which is called Finn Valley. We stopped at Lockfinn for a photo because a girl went to help her brother but got into trouble herself and drowned so they named it after her. Frina – (Sheep and Lambs)

Traveling people originated at the time of Cromweel. In 1652 was the start of emigration out of Ireland. Some people were sold into slavery, others took to the road. The traveling people are the descendants of the people who took to the road. They used to be referred to as the Tinkers because they would take tin and make things with what they hand. There are about 22000 families who are travelers. They are Ireland’s biggest social problem.

Black Irish – the people who married native people. The slaves from these people are black Irish issues. St. Patrick is Patron St. of Monshrat where the Black Irish people are.

We stopped in Donegal for lunch. Took pictures of the obliesk in the diamond, the church of Ireland and the castle. We ate at a pub with Dave, Joan, Don, Barbara, Maurice and Dorothy. (The Canadians on the trip). The pub was called The Old Castle Bar. Krista had wild venison pie. It was soo good and the meat was very tender! Lexi had Hadoock and chips with mushed peas. The mushed peas were discusting! Maruice ate Lexi’s peas. He quite enjoed them.

The drive back to the hotel was much quicker this time. Perhaps had something to do with the fact that we sat together on the way back so we had someone to talk to. ON the way to Donegal Lexi moved to the back of the bus to take pictures on the right hand side of the road and Krista sat in the front to get the left hand side pictures.

When we arrived back at the hotel Lexi and Krista ran across the street to the convenience store to buy a bottle of Baileys. We walked back to the hotel and still beat the Father (Priest) into the hotel.

We went upstairs to call Krista’s parents talked for 45 minutes about how much she sinks! Haha. Decided to be social so we walked about to find some friends. Stopped to chat with Gill and Eileesh and then Ron, Richard, Adam and the Daniels.

We went and played Yuker with Dave and Joan and then Adam came to join us. We are becoming pretty fantastic Yuker players!



Saturday, June 27th– Day 16 (SLIGO to DUBLIN)

FACT: A good book to read is Woodbrook by David Thompson.

There are very few old Catholic Churches left in Ireland. They were built of mud and thatch before the Penal Laws. Most Catholic Churches in Ireland are quite new.

Today is a cooler day out. Good thing because we both had jeans out to wear. Our Ireland sweaters have been very useful on this trip. We ate breakfast with Ron and Richard this morning. Both of our stomachs are not doing great the last couple of days. We were early for the bus to reclaim our seats. Everyone is happy except Big Daniel.

Many traditions are passed down orally. Only in the past 50 years have these traditions been written down.

Boyle Abbye – Martyr was introduced into being used a s a medium building houses. Henry the 8th built it and Cromwell destroyed it. Cromwell ordered his men to cut off hands in prayer of statues. Romanesque windows are very unusual.

Carrick – on – Shannon this little town was very small until MBNA built a call center here and employed 900 people as a bunch of businesses were developed.

There was an optional River Cruise which Lexi and Krista did not go on. Instead we went for coffee and a donut. Wondered around the town looking in the shops. Lexi bought some teacher resource books on Ireland.

We arrived in Dublin and the tour bus dropped us off to shop, or eat..etc. We decided to eat and then go into the tourist shops for some more souvenirs. Krista bought lots of FLYNN paraphernalia!!

We dropped our bags off at the hotel. Our AC didn’t work and Dave’s Toilet didn’t work so we had to change rooms. We moved to the first floor with a window door that opened to the gardens. It was time to go for our farewell supper at a restaurant called Nancy Hands. We had delicious Potato Leek Soup for an appetizer. Krista got the biggest bowl because they ran out of medium size bowls. Lucky for her she LOVED the soup. Then we had beef stew with vegetables and a baileys cheese cake for desert. Wonderful meal!!!
Dave and Joan brought over a bottle of wine after supper to our room and we sat and chatted. Adam joined us later.

AMSTERDAM

Tuesday, June 16th – Day 5 (BRUSSELS – AMSTERDAM)

We checked out of Hotel Brussels. They called Le Taxi Bleu to take us to the Midi Train Station. He charged us while we were paying for our hotel room. Unbelievable.

At the midi Station the info guy told us we couldn’t go ton the 7:52 train because it was the fast train and you needed a special ticket for it. Our train let at 8:16. So we went for a hot chocolate and a muffin.

We went up to the platform 19 and watched for the train. Then a train person came and told us there was a switch of platforms and that the train going to Amsterdam was leaving from platform 20 now. Just as he said that the platform train that we needed to catch drove up. We had to run to catch the train or wait for the next train which was who knows when. So we rain down the stair dragging all our bags and then lifting with all our might up the stairs. We didn’t think we were going to make it. The lady outside of the train started blowing her whistle which meant the doors were going to close. Lexi jumped in the train first. Krista was second but there was a pile up of people ahead of Lexi so she couldn’t move. Krista wasn’t in so she had to push Lexi a bit so that her bag could get inside and the train door could close. We made it. The best part is the seats at the front were still available and a large area that we could keep our bags. Thank god.

Krista sat beside a man who was going to Antwerp. After he got off a lady took his spot who was from Ghent and was going to Rotterdam.

The train conductor said they were having power troubles and we were going to have to get off at a different station in Amsterdam not the one that we all needed.

We were about an hour away from Amsterdam. The Dean of Rotterdam University sat beside Krista. He was going to Helsinki and then to Russia on a study. His job is awesome. He gets to travel all over the world on a regular basis for school studies.

The trains power continued to short out but we made it to Amsterdam.

A long story short while we were waiting on Platform 3 to go to the Amsterdam Central Station a train guy came and told us that there was another change and we needed to go to platform 1 to go to the central station. Just as he said that the platform 1 train that we needed arrived. Here we go again…but this time we didn’t make it because we didn’t have stairs to drag our bags down they were escalators. So we had to wait 20 minutes for the next train. We were not happy and we were very very hungry.

The train arrived and we made it to the central station. The Taxi to our hotel was going to be 15 euro or walk because you could almost see our hotel from the station. We chose to get the taxi to take us there because of all our bags and we were exhausted and hungry and with our luck we probably would have gotten lost.

Hotel Ben was a total of 120 euro for 2 nights. The stairs to our room were straight up. No elevator. This was going to be fun with our bags!! It took Lexi and Krista together to get their suitcases up the stairs.

After 3 trips up the stairs our bags were in the room. We dropped our bags off and went around the corer to eat at Wok to Walk. Krista had a noodle and vegetable sweet and sour chicken dish. Lexi had the same but with a peanut sauce.

Then we went to C & A where Krista bought jeans pants and a jean skirt. It is her favorite store since Prague.

Afterwards we stopped at the info booth to get directions to Anne Franks House.

We found it very easily and stood in a short line to get in. It was 8.50 euro and you could not take pictures. The Anne Frank House was amazing. They had short videos playing in different rooms of the house. It is hard to describe how we felt inside the house. Her story is amazing and our hearts sank as we looked at her pictures. We read the quotes on the walls. The Quote that really hit us was when Otto Frank said “Parent’s don’t really know who there children are”. He is right. You think you know who someone is but really you don’t.

We left the museum and went for a steak and mushroom sauce supper. Mmmmm delicious. It came with fries and a salad. We drank Heineken beer of course. 25 euro each! Just as we finished we looked out the window and there was a guy who looked familiar. In came Aaron Delane. (He used to teach at ACA and then moved to AIS in Kuwait). He was very excited to see us because he had been alone for 2 days.

We moved to another café and had a beer and waited for Mike another teacher at AIS. He was with Corey and Stephanie also teachers from AIS. We walked towards Remprandtplein to find that group and drink with them.

We found them at a pub called Escape. We had more beers. We were all hungry so we got fries. Lexi and Krista decided to share but Krista was hogging all the fries from Lexi. Hehe

We walked through the red light district. There were girls in the windows posed in glow in the dark undies. Street by street we walked past these windows. If the curtain was closed it meant they were already busy. If open with a girls she was ready for business.

As we walked we lost Mike and Corey so we looked for them a bit. Then we sat down and had a drink at a pub close to where we lost them. Stephanie went into a few pubs around the area as we drank our beers and found the boys. They stopped because they were tired of walking.

It was getting late and Aaron needed to catch his flight in the morning so we decided to call it a night.

Still hungry Lexi and Krista bought a bag of chips before heading back to Ben Hotel. We would like to note that our hotel was right on the edge of the red light district. There was a few rules we had to follow at this hotel. 1) If smoking open a window. 2) No drugs. 3) No bringing home guests.


Wednesday, June 17th – Day 6 (AMSTERDAM)

We woke up to a jack hammer outside our window. Both of us had a nice headache. The shower at Ben’s Hotel is not the best. It is hot, then cold and trickles out. No pressure.

Our tummies were rumbling as usual on this trip. Especially Krista all she thinks about is food, food food. We knew exactly what we wanted for breakfast. MCDONALDS!! Bacon and Egg McMuffins. The disappointing part was they did not have hash browns…only croissants. Grrr.

We walked past the dam and wax museum and looked inside the window. The Royal Palace. We walked all the way to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum.

The art exhibit at the Van Gogh Museum was very nice. It was interesting to see how has art changed as he met other painters. Fact: Vincent did not sell a single painting during his lifetime and ended his life by suicide.

For lunch we went to the Hard Rock Café. We shared nachos and a BBQ Cheese Burger with onion rings. Krista had a frozen strawberry dacari. Lexi had a frozen berry drink.

We walked and shopped and decided to go on the canal boat cruise. It was a very clam ride that made us both very sleepy.

Afterwards we walked to China town looking for a massage because our backs hurt. We found nothing. It is near the Red Light District and believe it or not some women were out in their windows starting to work.

Back at the hotel we listened to music. We took pictures on photo booth on Lexi’s laptop. We took some pretty funny pictures!! Time for a nap…turned into a BIG Sleep and woke up in the morning! Oops

BELGIUM

Thursday, June 11th – (KUWAIT, AMSTERDAM)

11:00am – We had an amazing year end luncheon for the elementary girls. The food was delicious. A family whose daughter was in Erin’s class catered the lunch. Normally the meal would cost 15KD per plate and they did it for us 2.5KD per plate. This girl must really like Erin!!

1:00pm – We had early dismissal from school and I went home to pack my bags. 1 bag was only for items that I would need traveling and the other bag was for souvenirs that I would pick up along the way. Had a few drinks while packing and said good bye to people as they stopped by 5th floor.

5:30 – The school sent 2 buses to pick up the teachers that were leaving on the flight to Amsterdam. (There was a lot of us!) At the airport everyone sat and ate McDonalds together until it was time to board our plane. During this time Lexi and I booked our hotel for Belgium. Nothing like last minute booking!! We had an hour and a half stop in Bahrain but we didn’t have to get off the plane. Lexi and I slept the entire flight to Amsterdam, even when we were in Bahrain. Jon put a bunch of pillows on Lexi and we sorta woke up but then went right back to sleep. haha

Friday, June 12th - DAY 1 (AMSTERDAM - BRUSSELS)

4.55 am - All our bags arrived in Amsterdam. Lexi and I said good bye to the others. We went directly to where you can buy train tickets and found out that the first train to Brussels left at 6:10a.m. Perfect timing! Lexi grabbed a muffin and coffee at startbucks and we went down and waited for our train at the platform. We were both a bit nervous because as we watched other people get on the train we wondered how they knew they were on the right train. A nice couple told us which side our train would come and how the boards worked. The board would say the time and where that train would be going.

The train to Brussels was 2 hours and 45 minutes long. The lady sitting beside Lexi told her that we could get off at the Brussels Central Station because it was close to the street our hotel was on.

We had so many bags we had to take a taxi to the Hotel Brussels. It was 17 euro! Our room was not ready at the hotel because we were there early so we stored our bags in the meeting room.

The hotel attendant showed us a pamphlet of recommended tours for us to go on. The first one was at 9:30am for a tour around Brussels. Ekks 9:30 was in 15 minutes. Lexi and I had to quickly make up our mind. We decided to go on the tour of Brussels because our room was not ready and it would be after the tour was completed. We also decided to book a tour to Bruges, Ghent, Luxembourg and Antwerp for 150 euros each.

The tour bus came and picked us up at 9:30 and took us to the meeting spot. We walked to the Grand Place and saw a flower market. The Grand Place is an old square and the architecture is beautiful.

On the tour bus we saw many attractions. The St. Michaels Cathedral, Brussels Canal Port, Notre Dam de Laken (The Chuch of our lady Larken), Church of St. Anne. We stopped at the Atonmium (Molecule of Iron) to take some photos. We saw the statue of Adolphe Max, the trade mart which was near the centenaire. In the Royal Gardens we saw the Fountain of Neptue, Chinesee Pavillion, Japanese tower. The Royal Palace was built in the 18th century. The flag was out on the building so we knew that the King was in the building. We saw the statue of Leopald.

1:00 p.m – The bus took us back to our hotel. We went for supper at a restaurant around the corner. Lexi and I both had a pasta dish and a glass of Rose Wine. I had Penne Asparagus. Back to the hotel and slept until the morning. Oops I guess we were exhausted from a busy week at school packing and going out.


Saturday, June 13th – Day 2 (GHENT & BRUGES)

Today we went and saw Ghent and Bruges. As we left Brussels we saw the basilica which represents the 9 colonies of Belgium and the 1 congo.

Our first stop was Ghent. We stopped at St. James Church. We went inside the St. Bavos Cathedral. In the St. Bavos Church is where the mystic lamb paintings are. We had time on our own to wonder Ghent.

Back on the bus we headed to Bruges. When we entered Bruges we saw the flags of the European Union.

We walked on the bridge over the Lake of Love and the Beguine. We stopped for lunch and Lexi and I shared the traditional flounders Beef Stew with beer sauce. It came with fried cheese balls that were breaded, small salad and French fries. For desert we had chocolate mousse. We had 2 big beers and it was 36.50euros!

On the local walking tour we saw Our Lady Church with the statute Madonna and child by Michelangelo. The market square with belfry and holy Chapel.

Then we went on the boat canals for 5.50 euro. It was 30 minutes long for a beautiful ride and seeing the city from a different view.

Afterwards we grabbed an ice cream and looked at the items at the local market. We decided to stop at a café for a beer and our first Belgium waffle with strawberries for 15euros. Ekks!

We learned to be on time when traveling on a tour bus because an elderly couple was not on the bus and we left them behind. Not cool. Both Lexi and I wondered what we would do if that had happened to us or better yet if it happened to our parents one day.

The bus dropped us off at our hotel and we checked our e-ails and then went for a walk looking for a place to eat. We couldn’t find anything so we went to another Italian restaurant. I had spaghetti carbonara. It was not that great and it was 29.50 euro for a disappointing meal.


Sunday, June 14th – Day 3 (LUXEMBOURG)

We woke up and got on the tour bus going to Luxembourg. After 1.5 hours we stopped in Dinant. We went up the teleferic to the citadel for euro. You could walk the steep stairs but we didn’t have enough time. The view at the top was beautiful. After we walked around the citadel for awhile we took the teleferic down and walked around the small town. Then we decided to sit at a café and have a beer and enjoy the warm weather. The people in Dinant spoke French. It was interesting trying to order off the menu when it was only in French. Good thing Lexi and I could recognize a few key words and phrases still from our high school days.
In Dinant is where the house that Sax used to live. The man who invented the saxophone. There is a monument of a saxophone too.

We drove through the Ardennes Mountains. In Ardennes the locals in these small towns like their beer, cheese and sausage.

A little later down the road we stopped at the Little Castle Lavaux Sainte-Anne. The gardens around the castle were very beautiful. Everything was so green! The homes in this town are made of brick because of the harsh weather that they have. Lexi and I sat and enjoyed a beer in the gardens of the castle. It was a lovely day.

We finally made it to Luxembourg City. Our first stop was for lunch. We opted to have the chicken and pork dishes to share. Krista loved the chicken dish because it was very much like a chicken pot pie. It came with potatoes, beans and carrots. Lexi preferred the pork. The meal came with all you can drink wine and beer. We polished off a bottle of white wine and had a shot of schnapps (a local drink that they make from apples and beer). Dessert was fruit salad with ice-cream. All for a whopping 22 euro each Well worth the money! We met two very nice couples from Quebec who ate with us.

After lunch we walked to the war memorial with the golden lady. Then to the grade Ducal Palace and city hall.

We had 1.5 hours on our own so we went to check out the casemates (underground tunnels) They were alright. As we were walking back we encountered a group of traditional dancers and singers. We stopped for a photo op and took a couple of videos.

We walked back to our meeting spot were we met 2 American teachers who taught in Luxembourg.

Back to the bus for our long journey back to Brussels. At the hotel we took a taxi to the Grand Place to find Dilirium Pub. In the alleys looking for this pub there were many restaurants. Lexi and Krista were stopped and given many proposals to eat at their restaurant. Lexi was given hugs and tight squeezes and a few kisses on the cheek. One guy told told me that I was hot, very hot. Krista replied in a hot pink shirt!

Delirium Pub is down a very small side street. We had 2 flavored fruit beers that cost 3 euro each.

Then we went and had Belgium French friends with mayonnaise, ketchup, and fried onions for 4 euro. They like their French fries in Belgium.

We looked in some Belgium chocolate stores. We stopped at a place to have Belgium Waffles and chocolate. We had a Premus Beer and a Raspberry beer. 18 Euro. Europe is not a cheap country!!

It was after midnight so we decided to call it a night.



Monday, June 15th – Day 4 (ANTWERP)

We woke up and grabbed a taxi to McDonalds. He didn’t know where to go! Agh for 6.90 euro we were not getting happy. He stopped the meter and was very apologetic and we were going to go back to the hotel and try again. We turned the corner and to all our surprise there was McDonalds. We both had an egg mcmuffin and a hash brown. Ketchup was 0.60 euro extra!

Afterwards we stopped in a few shops and bought a couple of items in H&M.

We then took a taxing to the peeing boy statue. As we walked we took a picture of the Van Gogh Statue. We noticed a chocolate store that had Belgium chocolates with the peeing boy picture on them and decided that is what we wanted. It was cheaper to buy 5 boxes for 15 euro.

Then we took a picture of the peeing boy statue. Next to it was a Beligum Waffle Place so we bought a strawberry and banana icing sugar waffle for 4 euro. Mmm was it good. We shopped some more and then took a taxi back to the hotel.

Got on the tour but at 1:000 and headed to Antwerp which was about an hour outside of Brussels. It was rainy and cold outside. We were frigid!

First stop, Diamond Land. We learned about how diamonds are made for sale. Krista had to be escorted out of the building for truing to steal. Lexi had to use her stunning good looks to get her out of trouble! haha just kidding. True Fact: 70% of diamonds are produced in Antwerp.

Went to see the statue in the Grand Place. It represented the city of Antwerp. An means hand twerp means to throw so it has a statue of a man throwing the hand of an evil man that lived in a palace and taxed the citizens of Antwerp.

City Hall had about 86 flags to represent the countries with Embassies in Belgium.

Next stop De Katehdral “Cathedral of Our Lady”. It is the largest Catholic Church in the low countries. $100 000 Euro dress is kept here that was worn by “Our Lady” We also looked at the art display in honor of Peter Paul Rubens that was done by a student of his named Quinten Metsjs.

Rubens was a creep and married a 17 year old when he was 54. On a happy note his paintings became much less gloomy because he was getting some. haha

We stopped at a local pizza place called Da Giavanni and ordered 2 pizzas and 2 beer. We were hungry. The food was good. Krista looked so good she walked out of the restaurant with a free umbrella. Lexi was left to carry the pizza. True story.

Back to the bus for the ride back to Brussels. We got some beer at shop n’ go and drank in our hotel.

My First Dentist Experience in Kuwait

My First Dentist Experience in Kuwait

On, Sunday May 31st I went to the dentist at the International Clinic in Kuwait. I wait patiently until Dr. Fadi was ready to see me. A dental assistant came and got me and led me to Dr. Fadi’s office. He greeted me as I entered and asked me what I came for. Hmmm I wonder. I told him I wanted a checkup and cleaning. I also made sure to state that my mom was a dental assistant and that I go to the dentist once a year for a checkup. I layed down in the dentist chair and the assistants put not one but two bibs on me. Then they put a shower cap on my head! They handed me my glasses and I layed back in the chair. I watched the computer monitor while he checked out my teeth for cavities. He said I had none, but if I wanted to be sure he would take x-rays. I responded Oh, yes I definitely want the x-rays so that I can tell my mom that I for sure have no cavities. But before he did the x-rays he used the ultra-sonic to scale my teeth. I DO NOT LIKE THIS. Water squirts everywhere and sometimes the water hits a sensitive spot and it hurts. Finally, he finished. He kept asking me to swish the water in my mouth from the cup. On the side of my chair was a cup with pink water in it. I asked what it was and he said water with a mouth wash..and I spit the water into a little plastic bowl that acted like a sink. It was pretty cool. He flossed my teeth with mint floss. I hate when dentists floss your teeth because it hurts…but I have to say this Dr. Fadi is a good flosser it didn’t hurt at all! Then, he said it was time for the cleaning. He took the mint paste and put it all over my top and bottom teeth with his finger and polished them. (In Canada they only put the paste a little bit at a time). Then he asked me again to rinse with the pink water solution. This time it tasted horrible and he said “Oh I asked the assistant to put more hydrogen peroxide (I think that’s what he said..its been a long day at school, tutoring and then the dentist) I thought to myself gross! Then he took the x-ray. I am proud to say mom I have NO CAVITIES. A bit of gingivitis..but that’s normal for me.

Dr. Fadi recommened the following:
1) Tell your dentist to give you a Fissure Sealant. (He was going to do it for me right then, but I told him that I would ask my mom and dentist in Canada first and if I decided to do it then I would come back.
2) Change toothpastes. He recommends Parodontax to help my gums because they are sensitive.

Oh and the exciting thing is that he gave me my x-rays to give to my mom (the dental assistant) so that she can double check it. Hehe I can definitely tell you that I got the thorough treatment because he knew I was going to tell my mother exactly what he did. He was absolutely correct.

Vienna and Prague

VIENNA

DAY 1: Friday, April 10th
6 girls (Lexi, Erin, Shawna, Rhonda, Amanda and myself) arrived at the airport in Vienna and hired a mini bus to take us to our hotel called Hotel Alla Lenz.
We decided to use the Metro in Vienna and sightsee ourselves (personally I would’ve preferred the hop on hop off tour bus). We wanted to find the train station first to book our seats to Prague. On our journey to the train station we somehow missed the stopped and ended up at Schonbrunn Palace. We didn’t have time to stay because the Palace is huge and the train seat was more important and we would go to the Palace the following day.

We finally arrived at the train station and booked our ticket to Prague.
Our tummies were rumbling so we ate at a café nearby. I had pizza and beer and pulled out the itinerary to plan our next two days In Prague.
Our next stop was to find the Opera house to see if they had seats available for a night show. No luck they were all sold out for the cheaper seats and only had very very expensive ones left. So instead Lexi, Rhonda, Amanda and I bought tickets to go to the Vienna Boys Choir Mass on Sunday.

We took pictures of the Opera House and the Albertina Museum.
Most places closed at 5:00-6:00 so we decided to try and find Sigmund Freud’s Museum. After lots of walking and asking many people for directions we finally saw a huge sign that said Freud…however we were too late. It was closed.
We took the metro back to our hotel which was very easy to find because they had signs everywhere with arrows pointing which direction to go. We planned on going to the wine district but we fell asleep and woke up to the alarm the next morning!!

Day 2: Saturday, April 11th
The continental breakfast at our hotel was good. Tasty bread, jam, coffee or tea, and a variety of meats and cheese. Because it was Easter they had dyed the hard boiled eggs different colors!
8am we left for the metro to go to Schonbrunn Palace. It was 12.90 Euro per person which included a free audio guide. It was very nice inside. We saw the state rooms and living areas of the Hapsburgs family.

We walked through the beautiful gardens. In the corner was the Zoo!!!
At 1:00 we went to Nashmarkt. Naschmarkt is located in the museum quarter and we had passed through here when we were on our way to Freud’s museum. At Nashmarkt there were little stalls of restaurants, vegetables, fruits, clothes, scarves. It was crowded so we left looking for the Hotel Sacher where we wanted to eat.
We couldn’t find Hotel Sacher so we took the metro to St. Stephan’s Cathedral area. We sat down at a café outside but I was not happy with the menu or the service at this place. We walked down the cobble stone road and decided to go for Chinese! I love Chinese food and here I ate sweet and sour chic ken with fried rice and of course a large beer!!! After the meal they served a warm Chinese rose wine. I liked it a lot!

Afterwards we went to the St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Here we had 2 options. 1) Walk 343steps to the south tower for a panoramic view of the city or 2) take the elevator for 4.50 euro. Guess which option we decided on…yup the elevator!!! The view was very nice and the bell tower was cool too.

Next we took the metro to Belvedere Palace. We took pictures of the upper and Lower part of the palace. There was beautiful gardens and great view of the city centre from here too. Inside the palace was an art gallery.

Then it was off to the Amusement Park to go for a ride on the Giant Ferris Wheel. The Ferris wheel was 8.50 euro. Before we got on the Ferris wheel we had our group photo taken. After the ride we had some ice cream. Definitely was the most expensive ice c ream I have ever purchased..but it did have liquor inside it which was strong! Then some of the girls went on a few rides. Finally it was time for me to eat a typical Viennese hot sausage with sweet mustard. It was very good. I liked it a lot.

I thought my stomach was full but with 6 people someone is always hungry so we decided to go to a famous restaurant inside the amusement park called Schweizerhaus. Amanda and I shared the Stelze (roast leg of pork) and of course a beer! The other girls had pork schnitzel which was also tasty.
It was getting late but we still tried to go to a wine tavern. After taking the metro as far as we could and after standing and waiting for the bus to arrive we decided that because the metro stopped at midnight running that we might have trouble getting back to our hotel…so we decided to go back to the hotel instead of the wine tavern.

Day 3: Sunday, April 12th
We woke up and had breakfast. Lexi, Amanda, Rhonda and myself got dressed up for Easter Sunday Mass. We took the tram and walked to the Imperial Palace. Inside was the Church for mass. Mass started at 9:15. Beautiful hymns and opera like songs were sung. They took offering and communion. The Vienna Boys Choir sang one song which was very good. I wish they would have sang more to make it worth our money that we had paid for the tickets. Mass ended at 11:15 and we had to get on the metro and head to St. Stephen’s Cathedral area in order to find the Anker Clock. At 12 noon this clock has life-size figures that move. We found a café that had a table open and right in front of the clock. We ordered lunch and white wine. The clock itself wasn’t as spectacular as we thought it would be. Erin and Shawna joined us and we all agreed the clock was a disappointment. There were no more tickets for the Mass that I went to so Erin and Shawna went to the treasury and Mass at St. Stephen’s Cathedral instead.

Lexi, Rhonda, Amanda and I walked to Hotel Sacher next which is located right behind the Opera House. This café is famous for its chocolate cake.
Next we went to the Opera House for the English tour. The Opera house was gorgeous. It had a huge grand staircase, and marble foyer. My favorite part was sitting and watching the workers set up for that nights opera performance. Lots of work goes into the set up each day because every night is a different performance and that is why it is sold out almost every night!

Finally we took the metro back to the Imperial Palace area. We wanted to see the Treasury where we were able to see the sparkling crown jewels.
Afterwards we sat at a café and had a Vienna apple straddle and beer. It was delicious!!

We took the bus back to the hotel and to get our bags. Then we took the tram to catch our train to Prague.
On the train we had munchies and had beer and clam. Good times.

Day 4: Monday, April 13th
(I got busy with school and forgot to write about Prague. I will try and finish this section before I leave on June 11th for Amsterdam. Belgium and Ireland. I am home June 28th!! I cannot wait to see you all. I have missed you all very much. I am really excited to see all the kids and how much they have changed. Mom has been trying to forward me the pictures that have been sent but sometimes she forgets.

My Apartment

As most of you know I moved in December into a new apartment in Kuwait. It is the a bit closer to the school. The reason for the move is that our school built an apartment that they would own instead of renting. This would allow them to save more money..hehe obviously!!

Ridiculous Romania!

Sorry for the lack of posts..I seem to apologize slot on this but I get really busy with socializing and teaching and traveling that I forget about posting it all for you to read. So here you go...3 trips to read about. Enjoy! :)

This trip was a hard decision for me to make..my travel buddy Amanda was meeting her family in Thailand..and my other friends were going to Cambodia..both places I had been...I had to find someone to travel with. Kirk and Mike were those people. (for those of you that don't know...Kirk is from Birtle...and he is good at planning so all I had to do was go along with the plans)

SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ. ROMANIA WAS RIDICULOUS. We came up with acronyms for our trip.

•Boobs, Booties, Blondes, Brunettes, and Booze in Bucharest = quote from the boys to sum up the capital city.
•Mindless Mike = He lost his bank card, almost forgot his hair goo in the hotel and thought he lost his camera cap.
•Pam is Poor = She brought Chinese money with her and nobody would exchange it.
•Snag if Snagoff = The water was frozen so we couldn't take a boat to see Vlads Tomb.
•Car Confusion = We stopped the car at the ski resort to discuss plans and switch drivers. When Mike tried to start the car it wouldn't. Kirk had to give it a push start to get it going again.
•Rude Romanians = The hotel receptionists were not friendly or helpful.
•Snowless Skiing = We planned a day to go skiing in Romania..no snow. We asked and this is not common for this time of year.
•Castle Closed = Dracula's castled was closed on Monday so we had to change our plans to try and get back to it on the way home.
•Cows Crossing = we had to watch out for animals crossing the road.
•Clock Tower Closed = another attraction that we weren't able to see.
•Dropped in at Dracula's Birth Place = by accident we had beers here..until we were reading the Romania Guide book did we realize that we had seen this attraction!
•Drink with Dracula = We had beers at his birth place.
•Paid off, pist off, police officer (AKA PO3) = we got stopped 2 times by the police...only the 2nd time did we have to pay a ticket.


Friday, January 23th - DAY 1

We arrived in Bucharest, Romania and was picked up at the airport by our hotel 20 euros divided by 3. We stayed at Rainbow Apartments. It had a double bed, futon, TV, Internet and kitchen and it was a great price only 30 euros each per night.

Today we decided to explore the city and see what was within walking distance from our hotel. Kirk forgot the Eastern Europe Lonely Planet Book so we found a book store and bought the Romanian Guide book which is not nearly as good as the Lonely Planet but it did the trick.

For supper we ate at a restaurant called Pals. I had a Penne Pasta in Romanian it was called Proscuito Funghi) It was delicious. But I love penne pasta and cream sauce.mmm It only cost me 24RON. The rate was 1.00 CAD = 2.71757 RON
In Romania the best beer is Ursus Beer ...and when we couldn't get that we had Tuborg Beer which was also tasty!

After supper we needed a nap...the boys are almost 30...that was their excuse!
Next we went to the Bucharest Mall to get a converter for our electronics. We also needed towels because there was only 2 towels and soon to be 4 of us once Pam arrived. (Pam used to teach in Kuwait but left to teach in China last year. She is really good friends with Mike)

Saturday, January 24th - DAY 2

When we woke up the streets in Bucharest were very busy and so we googled what event could possibly be occurring. Turns out it was their Anniversary= Century and a half of being a modern state.

We had brunch at caru' cu bere. This restaurant was beautiful inside. I had chicken cordon bleu and potatoes with bacon. Tasted delicious but because it was a tourist attraction it was a bit expensive.

First site was The Palace of Parliament. It is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building (The Pentagon is the largest overall), most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building. It cost us 15Ron plus extra if you wanted to take pictures. We were cheap so Mike was the only one who took out his camera and snapped pictures when the guide wasn't looking! I also learned from the guide that when Michael Jackson was in Bucharest and at the Parliament Building he yelled out into the crowd of people "I LOVE YOU BUDAPEST" haha oops he was in BUCHAREST!



*Mike loses his bankcard next...we aren't sure how...he thinks he might have left it in the machine? hmmm

We all wanted to go to the Count Dracula Club for supper. It wasn't open until 4pm so we stopped at McDonalds for a drink and then walked back to the apartment.

We decided to rent a car for 6 days for 75 euros each and see Romania. From there we walked to Count Dracula Club for supper. The furniture, the food, the waiters are all themed. We ordered BLOOD (red wine) and I had venison in wild berry sauce. I wanted the pheasant but they were all out. We also ordered a cold platter of meat to share which included BEAR, WILD BOAR, Venison. It was all very good. We got a tour of the restaurant and I got to stand in a coffin..ohhh scary! I took a picture of the venison from Romania that I was going to eat just for you to see dad!







Back at the apartments I fell asleep waiting for Pam to arrive..or as the boys would say I "passed out" from drinking too much blood. It is New Years in China that is why Pam was able to have a week vacation to join us. She brought us New Years gifts. Mine was 2 Chinese piggy banks.

Sunday, January 25th - DAY 3

* Pam is poor. She brought Chinese money with her and nobody in Romania would change it in...there are no ties with China in Romania. Her bank cards wouldn't work from China either.

We jumped in our car and as we were leaving Bucharest we stopped at Carrfeour to pick up mitts, skiipants, toques, and eat. I had Quiznos...which is different from Canada. It was really good I have to say..and of course had bacon in it. Come to think of it almost everything I ate on the trip had pork with it) I found skii pants for 77RON. Steal of a deal again..I didn't want to spend a lot of money on pants that I plan on leaving in Kuwait when I am finished with them.

Our first stop was Snagov. Snagov village was built around the Snagov monastery. Vlad Tepes is believed to be killed here by the Janissaries during a battle between Wallachian & Ottoman forces. It is also said that Vlad the Impaler is buried at the Snagov Monastery. Unfortunately for us we hit a snag in snagov...in order to see the tomb of Dracula you need to take a rowboat...cough but the water was ICE so we couldn't see it.

Next we drove through Rasnof (here we saw the fortress) and then off to Poiana Brasov. It is Romania's premier ski resort. Cough but when we got there...there was no snow to ski on. We stopped to decide what our next option was and once we decided Kirk and Mike decided to switch spots in the car and Mike was going to drive with Kirk as navigator. But car wouldn't start. Kirk pushed it and off it went. pfff close one. We stopped at a few hotels and Pam refused to stay at any hotel that had RUDE ROMANIANS...which most of them were...finally we all agreed on staying at Paiana Hotels for 375 Ron divided by 2. Kirk and Mike shared a room and when they opened it it had peoples bags in it just to add another ridiculous moment in our adventure. The lady at the front desk was friendly and smiling. Lots of the hotels were closed in Poiana Brasov...I would assume because they couldn't afford to stay open with the lack of snow / people.

For supper I had a pork fillet with mushroom sauce and vegetable salad. It was very yummy and white wine for 60Ron.

Monday, January 26th - DAY 4

We woke up and it was SNOWING!! Breakfast was included and you could pick anything off the breakfast menu that you wanted. I had coffee, mushroom omlette, orange juice and toast with jam.

Our first stop was going to Bran Castle also known as Dracula's castle. I was really really excited. When we got there we soon discovered that the castle was closed ONLY ON MONDAYS...aghhh just our luck. So we got back into the car and off we went. We stopped at every bank for Pam to see if she could exchange her Chinese money...nope she couldn't. We had a hard time getting out of Bransov. Mike drove on the same street 3 times before we got out of the city. It was beginning to get very frustrating.

We drove through the Transolvania alps and plateaux until we reached our destination Sighisoara. We decided to stay inside the walls of the citadel. First we didn't know how to get in except to walk so we walked up the stairs to find ourselves a hotel. We couldn't decide so we agreed to have a beer at the place where a wooden Dracula was placed outside. We found out after that this was Vlad's birthplace. We stumbled upon this place accidentally. We hoped this would turn around our bad luck that we were having.



For supper we ate at Pizza Jo. It was the best pizza I have ever had and the beers were just as good too.

Tuesday, January 27th - DAY 5

Again for breakfast we got to select off the menu. I had a coffee and an omelet with ham, mushrooms and cheese..not as good as the previous hotel.
First on the agenda was the Clock Tower which ended up being CLOSED for interior renovations. We were not happy..so we went to the Saxon Church. To get there we had to climb the wooden staircase (the Scholars' Stairs) consisting of 175 steps and 29 landings. At the top on the hill there is a school. We saw the Saxon Cemetery too.

Back on the road again we filled up with gas..133Ron total. The small towns had very colorful homes. The police stopped us and couldn't speak any English. He pointed to our lights and we think he was trying to tell us we need them on. So we turned them on and off we went again. We drove to Bucovina and stayed at the Best Western. Pam didn't want to stay here because it was a bit more money than we had been paying (130Ron each)..but the boys liked the girls at the counter and were stubborn. We checked out another hotel but she was out numbered because I liked that they had breakfast included and the other hotel didn't. At the Best Western hotel for supper I had...if you guessed Pork with Mushroom sauce you would be correct and a Brushetta which was like a pizza bun. I had to stop with the pork and mushroom sauce but it was sooo good. We also found out we couldn't sleep in a monastery that it was a myth in the lonely planet..sigh. What next was going to happen on this trip.

Wednesday, January 28th - DAY 6

We woke up and for breakfast had yogurt, omelet, cheese, different types of meat and bread. It was selected for you...this was the downside of the breakfast at this hotel but it was included so no complaining from me.

The first Monastery we visited was Voroneţ which is located in the town of Gura Humorului, Moldavia. It is one of the famous painted monasteries. Monasteries were built after they won battles. The exterior walls included a representation of the Last Judgment on the west wall it was painted in 1547.







The second Monastery we saw was Humor. It is located about 5 km north of the town of Gura Humorului, Romania. It is a monastery for nuns dedicated to the Dormition of Virgin Mary. Humor was one of the first of Bucovina's painted monasteries to be frescoed and, along with Voroneţ, is probably the best preserved.



We debated on whether or not to go to the Sucevita Monastery because it was going to be a long drive and we planned on going all the way back to Brasov to see Bran Castle again *if you can recall it was closed when we originally wanted to go...so we had to change plans and drive a long day to fit it in) We all agreed we drove all this way we had to see the 3rd.

Suceviţa Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox convent situated in the North-Eastern part of Romania. It is situated near the Suceviţa River, in the village Suceviţa. Both interior and exterior walls are covered by mural paintings, which are of great artistic value and depict biblical episodes from the Old and New Testament. The paintings date from around 1601, which makes Suceviţa one of the last monasteries to be decorated in the famous Moldavian style of exterior paintings. When we entered the Monastery we saw the Ladder of Virtue covering the northern wall. I really liked this monastery. Interesting Fact: The monasterties were usually sited at the head of a valley to form a defensive bottleneck against the Turks. The exact spot was decided by shooting arrows from a nearby hill top; where the first one landed, a water source was dug and henceforth deemed holy; the second arrow determined the location of the altar, the third the belfy. After the monastery was finished, crosses were raised on the hill from where the arrows had been fired.





In the town Sucevita we stopped at McDonalds for something quick to eat and get back on the road.

While Kirk was driving we ran into FOG, RAIN, SNOW all on the curvy roads on the mountain. Kirk was getting tired so Mike took over. Same weather but more light flurries.

Then it happened we were going around a corner. After that we saw none was coming so we passed a large truck and boom the police sirens went off. (didn't see that one behind us). They started speaking in Romanian over the speaker...we stopped and they continued to yell over the speaker and passed us and continued speaking...We continued and at the bottom of the hill was a gas station and the police pulled us over. They took Mikes license and registration and unfortunately for us the guy spoke english and said IT IS FORBIDDEN in ROMANIA to PASS when it is SNOWING. Oops..who knew. He said he was going to take Mikes license for 13 days and he couldn't drive plus a ticket. After awhile the police man came to the window and checked out Pam and my passports to make sure we weren't hitch hiking and were from romania...He asked Mike to put on his coat and come to the vehcile. A few minutes late Mike returns saying "Count your pennies Guys". If we give them 360 Ron he will give me my license back and we are off the hook. So we we did it. Mike said the policeman was bipolar. He was nice asking questions to him and then would yell at him don't you see this weather it is snowing. WHy are you here in Romania. Then he would smile and ask all about Canada.

After a long drive we finally reached our destination. Brasov. We looked forever for a hotel and finally saw one that was a good price called Olivers Hotel. I had a few beers and went to sleep.

Thursday, January 29th - DAY 7

We got up and had breakfast and headed off for Bran Castle. The entrace fee was 22 Ron including the photo fee. Fact: Commonly known as "Dracula's Castle", it is marketed as the home of the titular character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is, however, no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle. Furthermore, there are persistent myths that it was once the home of Vlad Ţepeş, ruler of Wallachia. This is not true. The historical person Vlad III never resided here. We were able to walk through the castle now called a museum and take pictures and see the view.







Afterwards we walked through the market and bought a few tacky souvenirs. Our next plan of action was to go to the real dracula castle we got on the road but it was soo bad that we wouldn't reach the castle until dark and still had to climb up the hill so we had to turn around and go to Bucharest. On our way home we passed many police cars...but luckily none stopped us. Again we stopped at Carrefour for a bite to eat.

The traffic in Bucharest was very busy. We finally found a hotel that was reasonably priced called the Carpati. Kirk and I returned the rental car and took a taxi to the train station to buy our tickets for Bulgaria. My luck was changing because under the age of 26 got a discount. Whoop whoop. The lady said we had to take the 2nd class sleeper. We asked about 1st class but her English wasn't good and she kept saying 2nd class so we hoped that it was going to be ok.

Friday, January 30th - DAY 8

We had breakfast at the hotel and I went on the internet for awhile hoping that the rain would stop. It was a light drizzle by the time we all decided to leave the hotel. Mike was taking Pam to the Palace Parliment. Kirk was going to the bookstore and then a pub and I was going to the Market to find some local souvenirs. At the market there wasn't anything that I wanted but I bought 2 small dolls to make into Christmas Tree ornaments. Then I walked around the area which ended up at a small mall called Victoria Mall and then the Centrul Civic Mall. Then decided to join Kirk at the pub and have a beer and salad. Their chicken cesar salad was good. The dressing tasted similar to mayonaise which a light spice.

Pam and Mike joined in shortly after and we headed to the The Romanian Athenaeum building which you can guess was closed. But we found out later you can only go inside when a performance is on.



For supper we took Pam to Caru' cu bere. I had homemade vegetable soup, trout and mushrooms. Yummy. Then we had to leave for the train station to go to Bulgaria.