Finally! After far too long, I get to travel again. This time I'll be headed down to New Zealand, partly to see a new part of the world, and partly to visit my brother and sister-in-law. More details will follow as we get closer to the departure date, but I'll be down there from roughly May 17th to June 3... stupid travel time is cutting a couple days out. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for teleporters.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Final Post
Which is actually just more about the journal; it's fully typed out now, and available here. Next time you get bored, check it out. There's a bit of swearing, but otherwise I think it should be appropriate for pretty much any reading environment.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Journal
As promised/threatened, I've been typing up my actual journal from the trip; it seemed like a semi-productive way to take a break from labeling pictures. Start with the Intro, then work your way up from the bottom. And check back fairly regularly, because I'll be trying to get more up at least every couple of days. Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Home, Sweet Home
After a very long day of travel on October 15th--flying out of Rhodes at 07:00 EEST, being stuck in the airport at Athens for nine hours, and finally landing in London at 07:20 BST/GMT--and the better part of the 16th spent flying from London to Vancouver, and then Seattle, I finally made it back to the good old United States of America. I was really hoping to make it all the way back on the 15th, but couldn't get my flights lined up... stupid Olympic Air. I had attempted to buy a ticket out of Rhodes that lined up better with my other flights, but they didn't like my credit card. Or my debit card. Or my parents' credit cards. And then I found out that they won an award from the European Regional Airline Association as Regional Airline of the Year. The extra day in transit did have one bright side though: I was able to meet Robert Carlyle, who plays Dr. Nicholas Rush on Stargate Universe. He was on the same flight back to Vancouver, so I was able to shake his hand and chat with him for a bit before getting ready to board.
You can actually clear American customs in Vancouver--I guess to save time on the other end?--and it actually ended up being more of a pain to get there than it was to get through. I had to show my boarding pass to about 8 different people (just in case you somehow managed to make it through the previous seven people without showing it) and go through Canadian security (where my bag got searched... apparently the Guinness candle I got for mom freaked the scanner out). When I actually got to customs the guy asked me where I was heading, if I had a job, then talked politics with me for awhile when I told him I had just resigned my council position, before stamping my immigration card and waving me through.
My old college roommate David met me at Sea-Tac, and we hopped some light rail and a bus back to his place. I spent a couple nights there recuperating, which was great... I really didn't feel like hopping the train home right away, after all the traveling I had done in the last couple days. I got to spend some time with other friends as well, and had a great time playing Dominion and drinking (and then going out for another drink; the cajun tots at McMenamins are really good). On the afternoon of the 18th I got on a bus (it was supposed to be a train, but there was a derailment holding it up) back to Wenatchee, got picked up by dad, and got to sleep in my own bed for the first time in over a month.
Total time away from home: 37 days
Total time out of the US: 34 days
Total miles walked: A LOT... I actually lost 5-10 pounds while over there
Right now I'm going through all of my pictures, trying to get as many as possible labeled before I start forgetting what things are. I'll be putting more of them up with the others at that point, but even after repeats there are over 1200 of them, and there's no way I'm posting them all. I do also still plan on typing out my journal from the trip on another blog... I'll throw up a link when the first part of that is ready to go.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Rhodes!
I love this island, but I should have booked one less day here. Either that or won the lottery before coming, so I could explore the whole thing. Got in Tuesday afternoon just a couple hours too late to do the wall walk (and the next one isn't until Saturday), so I ended up doing the northwest section of the old dry moat instead. It's hard to tell what's original and what's not (more on that later), but the walls are almost completely intact, as is the retaining wall for the glacis. There are a bunch of old stone cannonballs (I'm assuming from the 1522 siege) laying around down there, and those were really cool to see. After that I wandered out to the Fortress of Saint Nickolas, which guards one side of the harbor where the Colossus stood. From there I wandered/got lost in the Old Town on the way back to my room, and ended up walking up the road where some of the different "langues" (the Knights were divided by language) kept their inns.
Today was, I guess, the big day. I slept in a bit, had some almonds for breakfast, then walked up to the Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Saint John. It was amazing to be there, and the architecture was cool, but it was actually a fairly disappointing visit. A lot of it was closed off to the public, and most of the exhibits were similar to the things I had seen at the Byzantine Museum in Athens a few days ago. Still, it was somewhere I couldn't not go. From there I walked around the city and did the rest of the dry moat, then returned to the hostel to rehydrate and cool off. It's been pretty humid all day, and with the weather in the high 70s and low 80s, that makes for a very sweaty Daniel. Luckily the room is air conditioned, so I worked on my postcards before grabbing a gyro (bit more expensive here, but comes with fries) for lunch/dinner, then spent the rest of the rest of the evening reading before coming down here for a beer and some blogging. I've got no USB access though, so no pictures and probably no more posts until I get back to the States. For those who are interested, I'll probably be setting up a separate blog and typing up my journal as well, which should fill in some gaps. It's a bit more... raw? I'm not sure if that's the right word, but the blog was designed for general audiences, and I definitely swear in my journal. I'll keep you posted on that.
For now, a quick check of the blogs, then reading, then bed. Try not to break the country (or let the Democrats break it) before I get home.
Today was, I guess, the big day. I slept in a bit, had some almonds for breakfast, then walked up to the Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Saint John. It was amazing to be there, and the architecture was cool, but it was actually a fairly disappointing visit. A lot of it was closed off to the public, and most of the exhibits were similar to the things I had seen at the Byzantine Museum in Athens a few days ago. Still, it was somewhere I couldn't not go. From there I walked around the city and did the rest of the dry moat, then returned to the hostel to rehydrate and cool off. It's been pretty humid all day, and with the weather in the high 70s and low 80s, that makes for a very sweaty Daniel. Luckily the room is air conditioned, so I worked on my postcards before grabbing a gyro (bit more expensive here, but comes with fries) for lunch/dinner, then spent the rest of the rest of the evening reading before coming down here for a beer and some blogging. I've got no USB access though, so no pictures and probably no more posts until I get back to the States. For those who are interested, I'll probably be setting up a separate blog and typing up my journal as well, which should fill in some gaps. It's a bit more... raw? I'm not sure if that's the right word, but the blog was designed for general audiences, and I definitely swear in my journal. I'll keep you posted on that.
For now, a quick check of the blogs, then reading, then bed. Try not to break the country (or let the Democrats break it) before I get home.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Belated Venice
So, I was going through my posts to check for comments (which you lazy bums haven't been providing), and just realized I never had a post for Venice. Without further ado, here it is.
Thank goodness for inattentive conductors. My ticket was for Venice Mestre back on the mainland, but the directions to my hostel were from Venice Santa Lucia out on the island... so I definitely stayed on for an extra stop. Assuming I even could have figured out the right bus to take, getting off at Mestre probably would have cost me an extra 20-30 minutes worth of bus ride and who knows how many euro. From the main station out on the island there it was only about a five minute walk to my hostel reception; apparently they rent out properties around the island, but I got lucky and ended up above the main office with a view of the Grand Canal. My room had a slope to it, but I figured since the building hadn't collapsed yet I was probably okay.
Just did a bit of exploring that evening; even with a map, Venice is a maze. Next morning I got up and had a breakfast of "toast" (more like a couple of packaged crackers) with jam, then set out for Saint Mark's. I ended up taking the scenic route (again with the maze thing) and made it there just in time for high tide to start flooding the square. It wasn't so bad when I first got there, but after an hour or so there was just a small area in the middle that was dry, with the rest of the square being 3-6" under water. I had been warned about the smell in Venice, but it wasn't actually bad until that point. Travel tip: if you're in Venice, make sure to avoid high tide.
I stood in line for a bit to get into the church and found out it was closed til noon for "religious purposes," so I made my way over to the Campanile and paid 8 euro to go to the top of that. It was a ripoff, but at least it provided some nice views. Still had some time to burn when I got back down, so I snagged lunch (pizza and a hot dog) from some cafe down one of the zillions of tiny streets and made my way back to St. Mark's to eat it. They've got platforms set up in some places so you can avoid the flood, but I would have had to walk several blocks around to get back to them as well as wading through crowds of people who didn't seem to know what they were doing, so I decided to cut through the giant puddle. It might have been okay if it were a short walk, but I probably had to go about 50 or 60 yards before I got back to dry land; it was at this point that I discovered my shoes were more water resistant than water proof. I'm not sure if they were always that way and I was overestimating them, or if they're just old and beat up enough that the water got through. Either way, not a pleasant experience... I'm not sure my poor shoes will ever smell the same.
After lunch I got back in line for the church and stood there for about half an hour before finding out that they won't let you in with a backpack. Not just "We're going to check your backpack to make sure you don't have anything dangerous," but "You can't come in." I didn't really feel like walking across the island to my hostel to drop it off, then back to St. Mark's, then back again after, so I said "screw it" and moved on. I was also hoping to visit the Doge's palace but there was an entry fee for that, so I contented myself with a few pictures of the outside. Back to the hostel to work on postcards, out to some cafe for dinner (spaghetti carbonara)--I swear I must have the worst luck when it comes to picking Italian places, because I prefer Olive Garden to pretty much anything I got over here--and then reading before bed.
Thank goodness for inattentive conductors. My ticket was for Venice Mestre back on the mainland, but the directions to my hostel were from Venice Santa Lucia out on the island... so I definitely stayed on for an extra stop. Assuming I even could have figured out the right bus to take, getting off at Mestre probably would have cost me an extra 20-30 minutes worth of bus ride and who knows how many euro. From the main station out on the island there it was only about a five minute walk to my hostel reception; apparently they rent out properties around the island, but I got lucky and ended up above the main office with a view of the Grand Canal. My room had a slope to it, but I figured since the building hadn't collapsed yet I was probably okay.
Just did a bit of exploring that evening; even with a map, Venice is a maze. Next morning I got up and had a breakfast of "toast" (more like a couple of packaged crackers) with jam, then set out for Saint Mark's. I ended up taking the scenic route (again with the maze thing) and made it there just in time for high tide to start flooding the square. It wasn't so bad when I first got there, but after an hour or so there was just a small area in the middle that was dry, with the rest of the square being 3-6" under water. I had been warned about the smell in Venice, but it wasn't actually bad until that point. Travel tip: if you're in Venice, make sure to avoid high tide.
I stood in line for a bit to get into the church and found out it was closed til noon for "religious purposes," so I made my way over to the Campanile and paid 8 euro to go to the top of that. It was a ripoff, but at least it provided some nice views. Still had some time to burn when I got back down, so I snagged lunch (pizza and a hot dog) from some cafe down one of the zillions of tiny streets and made my way back to St. Mark's to eat it. They've got platforms set up in some places so you can avoid the flood, but I would have had to walk several blocks around to get back to them as well as wading through crowds of people who didn't seem to know what they were doing, so I decided to cut through the giant puddle. It might have been okay if it were a short walk, but I probably had to go about 50 or 60 yards before I got back to dry land; it was at this point that I discovered my shoes were more water resistant than water proof. I'm not sure if they were always that way and I was overestimating them, or if they're just old and beat up enough that the water got through. Either way, not a pleasant experience... I'm not sure my poor shoes will ever smell the same.
After lunch I got back in line for the church and stood there for about half an hour before finding out that they won't let you in with a backpack. Not just "We're going to check your backpack to make sure you don't have anything dangerous," but "You can't come in." I didn't really feel like walking across the island to my hostel to drop it off, then back to St. Mark's, then back again after, so I said "screw it" and moved on. I was also hoping to visit the Doge's palace but there was an entry fee for that, so I contented myself with a few pictures of the outside. Back to the hostel to work on postcards, out to some cafe for dinner (spaghetti carbonara)--I swear I must have the worst luck when it comes to picking Italian places, because I prefer Olive Garden to pretty much anything I got over here--and then reading before bed.
Ugh
If you ever feel the need for a good workout, climb up Lycabettus Hill. It's about 900 feet high, which makes it about 400 feet taller than the Acropolis... it was kind of weird looking down on it. It was also a good half hour walk from my hostel, and probably half of that was uphill. I may ask the hostel receptionist if there's anything (free) left worth seeing later, but I think most of today will be spent in rest.
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