The sweet night bus of Poland - The Buho Harry Potter Style

So, we blew into Warsaw today, via Norwegian Air from Copenhagen.

We had really great (read hot) weather in Kopenhagen. We wandered
around a bit, rented some bikes for a fortune, and had plenty of time
at the airport.

Quick segway (sic). The Kopfenhagen airport has one of those malls in
it, that all the cool airports have these days. They are so "pijo".
The duty free shop has now expanded to an entire floor, and basically
all space that is not an actual boarding area is now a selling floor.

We managed to escape their clutches but still dropped about 45 bucks
on two sandwiches, a coke, a muffin and a bag of chips.

We are glad to be out of that country. Pricey!

Well, back to Harry Potter.

Our flight was delayed, meaning (importantly) that we landed in Warsaw
after the magic 11:00 (23:00) hour. At that hour, normal buses stop
running. I tried to plan ahead, and bought some zloty's in
Køpfenhagen. I got some 20 bills (worth about 10 bucks) and was raring
to go.

So, we land, the busses are stopped, and I ask the info guy what to
do. He says "Night Bus". I say sweet, and am glad to avoid a 50 zloty
cab ride.

We head outside, and find the stop, and wait. Sweet. The bus comes in
5 minutes.

Let's talk about the bus first. Yellow, big, old. Not like a school
bus, but like one of those cars that's gotten dinged up enough, that
the owner goes to the junkyard and buys a whole new door, 'cept the
door is a different color than the rest of the car. Apply that to this
bus. It is mostly yellow, but there is some red, and probably some
brown too.

The driver. Older man, gray party hair (sticking out in cool ways).
Gruffly getting us on the door. Not pleased to see the crumpled 20
zloty bill I hand him. Shakes his head, and just waves me off. I show
him my map from www.hotels.com and hope that this guy shows me some
sign that we are going near our hotel, the Sofitel Victoria Warsaw.
Not so much. He turns the map around, fishes out his glasses, and
takes another gander.

Eventually he just ignores me, I tell Nicci to sit down, and we stuff
ourselves into the front seat.

This guy takes off. Everything is in Polish (duh). We (and actually
another dude got on, same sitch, same response, but still on the bus).

At 11:30 the streets are dead. Did you know there is a Jeff's Steak
House in Poland? On the road to the airport? In full neon (red and
green?) Hmmm.

So there are a bunch of stops, and this guys stops for a total of
about 9 seconds at each one. I didn't even notice the dinger button or
pull cord to indicate "Driver, I'd like to stop at the next stop,
please".

He just seemed to discern when to stop, or caught a clue from the
little old ladies working their way to the door.

We finally get into the central area, after about 30 minutes, and
start seeing large buildings, more neon, and city-ness.
We hope we are not in the wrong place, but relax when we see the
central train/bus/mall/casino that they have in the center of town.

A taxi queue. Yay.

So, we managed to get to Warsaw downtown for free, and had a cab
waiting for us.

Nice. I'm glad to be back on the mainland. Things have gotta be
cheaper here.

Best y'all.

Stockholm - wow

Well, so far, Stockholm is my favorite city. Norway is my favorite
country (in beauty - not in price), but Stockholm is gorgeous. It's
clean, there is water everywhere, the architecture is beautiful. It
consists of 14 islands connected with 50+ bridges. Some of the water
in the city is a big lake, other parts are the Baltic Sea. We didn't
have much time in Stockholm, but I hope to go back during the holidays
this year. It's health friendly and veggie friendly and a little
nicer on the pocket-book instead of Norway. However, it's still not
very cheap. Since we had limited time there, we did one of those city
bus tours to try to get a picture of the city and then we went to
their city hall, which is where the Nobel Prize banquets are every
year. I did not know that Alfred Nobel was Swedish, but alas he was
and that explains why the prize ceremonies and events are in Stockholm.

From what we've been able to tell, the swedish countryside is much
less varying than Norway. It is more like rolling hills and farmland
with lakes and trees sprinkled in frequently. Again, everyone speaks
English as a second language, so getting around was there was also
easy. I think we will be in trouble when we hit Poland. We've gotten
used to the English thing. Stockholm is much more touristy (or at
least has a much larger touristy section) than Oslo, but it is a
large city that has much more to offer and do. Similar to New York
having Time Square or San Francisco having Pier 39 or Fisherman's
Wharf - all touristy sections that you kind of have to go to if you've
never been, but if you care to get away from that and see the actual
city, then it's possible. As is the situation with most of these
cities we've been to or are going to, Andy and I quickly get through
the tourist sections and then move to the authentic city as soon as
possible.

Oslo in a Nutshell. We love Norway

Oslo was a really beautiful city. It's has a shore line for ships and
boats, etc. but most of it is off of the water. During our time
there, we were able to wonder around on foot quite a bit. It's
becoming a spread-out city as a lot of people are moving into the city
from the country and there is currently a building height limit in
Oslo. It's so expensive it, it's unbelievable. We had a medium
cheese pizza for $30, a smaller bag of chips for $7. The average
entree price was well into $25 (for like a salad) and then just went
up. It's not just Oslo, though. The whole country was expensive. As
we traveled to the west coast to Bergen and back, we stopped at many
small towns along the way and the prices were basically the same. The
cheapest glass of wine was $12. It's crazy.

However, aside from the expense, the country itself is really
spectacular. There was so much variation just in the parts we
traveled in, it was unbelievable. We were in farm land for parts of
it, cold mountainous areas with snow still around in other parts and
tons of waterfalls and water. There are many fjords in Norway and the
size of them is hard to comprehend. The general population looked
like an ad for REI. I think if you live there, you are raised outside
primarily. It's gorgeous.

In Oslo, we were able to walk around to various parks and go to some
museums. We enjoy walking around the cities to different places since
you can see so much more of the color of a city and get away from all
the touristy places. Oslo is touristy, but much less so than any of
the other places we've been to so far. People there are friendly and
helpful and everyone speaks English. So, getting around was pretty
easy. Although most restaurants aren't terribly veggie friendly in
dishes they offer on the menu, I had no problems what-so-ever in
eating establishments when I told the waiter/waitress I was
vegetarian. They were always more than ready to make me anything I
wanted within their ability. It was very nice. The city was very
clean. No smog, no bad car exhaust (unlike Madrid), clean sidewalks
and hardly any graffiti anywhere. There are flowers everywhere and
the buildings are very baroque in style (at least that's the style I
think they are). Overall, I would recommend visiting Norway - Oslo
itself, but also go see the countryside and the fjords - that is where
so much of the beauty and character of the country is.

Sushi Wok Chinese in Eurolandia

Wok Thai Restaurant

Wok Sushi

Sushi Thai Food

Indian Thai Wok

Hmmmr. Do any of these sound familiar? If you live in the CET, I dare
say they do. Perhaps you are not fully aware that there are different
countries over there in Oriental-land.

Mayhaps, you can't tell a Japanese Man, from a Chinese Man, and as for
Thai's, India's or Hong Kong, forget it.

In the "Good Ole, US of A" certain types of different cuisines can be
mixed. Tex-Mex is a good example of this. They fit, and they work
together. Part of the issue is that the preparation of such food does
not take an inherent, genetic disposition to doing it right. Like say,
sushi rice. If you ain't Japanese, you can't do it right.

Also, some of the countries listed above HATE EACHOTHER, or at least
they used to hate each other. Think Rape of Nanking, and how the
Chinese feel about the Japanese.

I am afraid of eating at these restaurants, and think that I will try
to avoid them.

Perhaps if I have my camera aboust me, I shall snap some photos of
said offenders of culinary propriety.

Gracias y'all.

We are in Copenhagen, Denmark, Danmark?, Dinamarka?

We are sad we have left Sweden, but are spending just 24 hours here.
We are then off to Warsaw.

If we do what we plan, we will blog more.

New pictures are up at the picasa site.

A n N

Ayy Yay, Yay Yay! I sing the song!!

P6210128.MOV (video/quicktime Object)


Another test, and it works.

Video of the Colesseum in Rome, Italy.

P5220104.MOV (video/quicktime Object)

Very Short.

This is a test.

We went from Flåm to Gudvangen by boat

Size of this preview: 800 × 479 pixels
Full resolution‎ (1,246 × 746 pixels, file size: 324 KB, MIME type: image/png)

A great view of what we just saw in Norway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ1jIcJVu_4

Check it out!!

Uf-da

Take a trip to Norway - Seriously

Norway is pretty cool. I had no idea how cool.

We are here:

http://maps.google.no/maps?q=oslo+norway&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ll=60.141505,10.744629&spn=5.045484,16.435547&t=h&z=6&iwloc=addr

I have never been farther North.

Today is Sunday the 20th of July, the SUMMER of 2008.

I recently purchased a WINTER SNOW HAT in Bergen, Norway, because I
didn't know how cool it was up here.

Now, we are from San Francisco, and have travelled the world telling
people how it is cold in SF during the summer, and how funny it is all
the sweatshirts and fleeces that people buy, showing that they didn't
pack the right clothes.

Now we are on the epic jaunt about Europe for 30 days. We have two
bags, and planned with coats, jackets and hats. An Umbrella.

Now, in my own defense, I didn't HAVE to buy a hat like this:
http://palenskepod.blogspot.com/2007/11/norwegian-snow-princess.html

It wasn't so bitter cold, that I needed it, but the only had i had was
like this:

http://www.golfgalaxy.com/galaxy/product.asp?dept_id=4524&pf_id=PAPMACILGOFJOPFH&ad_id=PriceGrab&key_id=adidas_Men's_Performance_Visor&

you'll notice my head would show through the top, and so things like
RAIN will get through.

So, we ignored the calendar and embraced the available products. Yay!!

Bergen, Norway is cool, even cooler than Oslo.

Norway is EXPENSIVE. This is helped by the dollar doldrums we are in,
and even against the Euro €, it ain't cheap.

The costs break down like this:

Norway is not on the Euro. They have the Krone (which in English,
sounds like Kroner, as they put that little lilt at the end)

Current the exchange rate is: 5 Krone to 1 dollar. 8 Krone to 1 Euro.
Easy, right?

Well, coffee here costs 22 Kroner. That's the cheapest thing we can
find. A medium cheese pizza is 150 Kroner.

The math there works liks this? Coffee is 4 bucks. Pizza is 30 bucks.
A beer costs between 40-60 kroner.
This means that free food is good, coffee is drunk a lot, and beer is
a distant memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway

Here is some more;

http://www.ssb.no/english/magazine/art-2005-02-01-03-en.html

We really like it here, and are thankful to all our friends at www.chase.com
for their help.

Panoramsterdam picture - Panoramic of Amsterdam, Holland

check it out.

http://www.panoramsterdam.com/panos/dam.html

Amsterdam has a reputation

For a variety of things. If you don't know what they are, then bully
for you.

Amsterdam is also a beautiful city. There are museums, pretty walks,
and tours on the water.

We stayed about 200m away from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam_Square

And used the tramways to get around town. The Amsterdam Centraal
Station is under total renovation, and so there is construction and
building all around.

You'll see a bunch of this in our pictures. It has rained a bit, and
so many of our pictures have clouds in them.

Our room was the worst one in a 4 star hotel. It seemed to be bolted
on to the side of the main hotel. It was like staying on a boat, with
a smaller room, up some stairs, with exposed beams and low ceilings.
(so it was like staying in a 3 star room) ((course, the star system
over here is inflated, and a 4 star here is like a 3 star in the
states.))

More soon.

Holland, First in Utrecht, then in Amsterdam

Well, we spent almost two days in Utrecht, and it was wonderful.
Utrecht was recommended to us by one of our recent friends we made in
Madrid, a native Dutch girl whose English is unbelievably excellent.
(Hi Lis) It is a small city, but it is extremely charming and a good
glimpse into what I imagine most of the Netherlands to be like. Just
as you can't say New York City is representative of the United States,
I didn't want to base my entire impression of Holland on Amsterdam.

We had a fairly leisurely time in Utrecht, climbed up a church bell
tower and walked around the city. I have been fighting a fairly nasty
cold (no doubt given to me by the little darling children I taught
before we left for our trip), so it was a good pace to start with.
Since they have fairly cool summers here (in the 60s - maybe low 70s
for highs) they commonly serve soup in most restaurants. I was able
to eat a vegetarian soup often or get veggies and we have even found
bagels. What a novelty. So, I've been eating well since we arrived.
One other thing that was nice about our time in Utrecht is that there
were no tourists. Very, very few at the most. They get so few
tourists that they have no menus in English, which is great and
astonishing - since they all speak English so well here, you would
think it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But again, it speaks of how
few tourists visit there, so Andy and I were happy with that. At
least we knew we were seeing authentic Dutch life in action instead of
a way of life forced for tourists.

On Tuesday afternoon, we took a very short train ride to Amsterdam.
Unfortunately, there is major construction going on at the Central
Station and all around it, so the memorable entrance into the city was
not really possible. It was still cool though. Within minutes of
being in Amsterdam, I had already seen more nationalities than I've
seen in my entire time in Spain so far.

We made our way to our hotel, which is located very centrally, and
then hit the streets walking. We walked here and there and tried to
get a lay of the land. It's much more touristy than Utrecht (of
course). In our attempt to avoid touristy areas, we quickly walked
through some, less pretty and all commercial areas and got to be
better parts of the city. We had very, very good apple strudel
yesterday, ate a veggie restaurant today. We went to the Anne Frank
house museum here today and the Rijksmuseum (which houses a variety of
Dutch painters works). We ate pancakes for dinner tonight. They were
the thickness of swedish pancakes/crepes but very large. It was one
huge pancake with stuff on top.

I've also seen something I never see happen in Madrid - wait staff
actually wiping down tables after people are finished eating there.
In Madrid they look at you like "what is your problem, you can't eat
off of a dirty table?" like it's an absolutely ridiculous standard.
Here, it seems to be the norm, as it should be. Amsterdam is much
cleaner than Madrid (not that that is too difficult) and the people
seem much more normal. Being a pedestrian is not a full contact sport
here - people avoid running into each other and say excuse me!!!! You
can go into a restaurant and not catch lung cancer. It's sooooo nice
to be back into civilization. Overall, our visit to the Netherlands
has been great. The people are nice, it's über-charming, there are
flowers everywhere, and it's totally veggie friendly!!!!

We have half a day left in Amsterdam tomorrow and fly to Oslo tomorrow
afternoon!!!

More soon for sure.

ps. I don't like fries with Mayonnaise.

Holland, First in Utrecht, then in Amsterdam

Well, we spent almost two days in Utrecht, and it was wonderful.
Utrecht was recommended to us by one of our recent friends we made in
Madrid, a native Dutch girl whose English is unbelievably excellent.
(Hi Lis) It is a small city, but it is extremely charming and a good
glimpse into what I imagine most of the Netherlands to be like. Just
as you can't say New York City is representative of the United States,
I didn't want to base my entire impression of Holland on Amsterdam.

We had a fairly leisurely time in Utrecht, climbed up a church bell
tower and walked around the city. I have been fighting a fairly nasty
cold (no doubt given to me by the little darling children I taught
before we left for our trip), so it was a good pace to start with.
Since they have fairly cool summers here (in the 60s - maybe low 70s
for highs) they commonly serve soup in most restaurants. I was able
to eat a vegetarian soup often or get veggies and we have even found
bagels. What a novelty. So, I've been eating well since we arrived.
One other thing that was nice about our time in Utrecht is that there
were no tourists. Very, very few at the most. They get so few
tourists that they have no menus in English, which is great and
astonishing - since they all speak English so well here, you would
think it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But again, it speaks of how
few tourists visit there, so Andy and I were happy with that. At
least we knew we were seeing authentic Dutch life in action instead of
a way of life forced for tourists.

On Tuesday afternoon, we took a very short train ride to Amsterdam.
Unfortunately, there is major construction going on at the Central
Station and all around it, so the memorable entrance into the city was
not really possible. It was still cool though. Within minutes of
being in Amsterdam, I had already seen more nationalities than I've
seen in my entire time in Spain so far.

We made our way to our hotel, which is located very centrally, and
then hit the streets walking. We walked here and there and tried to
get a lay of the land. It's much more touristy than Utrecht (of
course). In our attempt to avoid touristy areas, we quickly walked
through some, less pretty and all commercial areas and got to be
better parts of the city. We had very, very good apple strudel
yesterday, ate a veggie restaurant today. We went to the Anne Frank
house museum here today and the Rijksmuseum (which houses a variety of
Dutch painters works). We ate pancakes for dinner tonight. They were
the thickness of swedish pancakes/crepes but very large. It was one
huge pancake with stuff on top.

I've also seen something I never see happen in Madrid - wait staff
actually wiping down tables after people are finished eating there.
In Madrid they look at you like "what is your problem, you can't eat
off of a dirty table?" like it's an absolutely ridiculous standard.
Here, it seems to be the norm, as it should be. Amsterdam is much
cleaner than Madrid (not that that is too difficult) and the people
seem much more normal. Being a pedestrian is not a full contact sport
here - people avoid running into each other and say excuse me!!!! You
can go into a restaurant and not catch lung cancer. It's sooooo nice
to be back into civilization. Overall, our visit to the Netherlands
has been great. The people are nice, it's über-charming, there are
flowers everywhere, and it's totally veggie friendly!!!!

We have half a day left in Amsterdam tomorrow and fly to Oslo tomorrow
afternoon!!!

More soon for sure.

ps. I don't like fries with Mayonnaise.

Out of Madrid and into civilization - Day 1 of our summer trip

Beginning of our epic summer journey:
Well, today we left Madrid on our epic summer trip. We flew to
Eindhoven, Netherlands and then trained up to Utrecht. Aside from my
being a little sick and having tremendous pain in my ears during the
descent, the flight to Eindhoven was good.

Also, Andy seems to have, over the last couple of years, developed
this strange habit of almost missing his flights. We get to the
airport in plenty of time, but then once through security it's like
time stops and his impeccable internal clock just goes haywire. We
made it onto the plane - but barely. Anyway, shortly after we landed
in Eindhoven, I saw a St. Bernard. "Fabulous!!! I already like this
country," I thought.

Even better was how easy it was for me to find veggie friendly food
even in the train stations. We trained from Eindhoven to Utrecht.
Our journey was fairly short, but picturesque. Lots of flowers and
gardens everywhere, lots of agriculture, tons of canals and lilly
pads, everything was as green as you can imagine.

The temperature here is similar to San Francisco during the summer.
We went out for an evening walk here to get the lay of the city in
Utrecht and we both needed jackets - I had a light sweater on as
well. The city is very cute and just as you see in pictures. Dinner
time is much more 'normal' here, so we were sitting down to dinner by
7:30. It was a fairly cool, but sunny evening. We enjoyed a
leisurely dinner (again - easy to find veggie foods here) and then
strolled back to our hotel by 9:30. It's strange for us now to eat
dinner out so early, but it is nice. However, it is still fairly
sunny outside, which is a bit strange.

It reminds me of being a little girl and having to go to bed by 8:30
in the summers and it still being light out.

Salamanca is sweet

We had a great time in Salamanca a couple of weekends ago. We took
some great pictures, and it was the first week where it was actually
hot in Spain.

Nicci likes Salamanca too, which is a plus, as right now, any relief
from Madrid is a good thing.
(this post written well after the trip, but at least I just uploaded
the photos.)

Enjoy las fotos!!