first i want to mention of how incredibly cold it gets in here during the night.. i´m all bundled up and i still can´t stand around for more than 20 minutes in one spot, gotta walk around to keep warm. nuts i say.
little bit about food.. i´ve eaten at ´polleria´ which is a place where they serve grilled chicken with fries only :) then last night I had this typical andean food ´pollo saltado´ it was spicy chicken strips with vegetables and french fries, all mixed together like stir-fry and it was served with rice on the side. it was delicious, but i´ve never eaten french fries with rice before :-P now famous Peruvian food is guinea pig served in many different ways.. i have not had the courage to eat that quite yet, but i´ll get there. i also had ´roccoto relleno´ which is spicy bell pepper stuffed with ground meat, mine was served with somehow glazed potato chunks.. good stuff! i also had pancakes with caramel sauce, hot chocolate and some delicious cake which name i don´t remember :) anyhoo.. the food is very good here... and i think i will also go to ´chifa´ here which is chinese restaurant. oh i also had typical salad here, it consisted of green beans, carrots and peat which all had been boiled but were served cold and it was all topped with many slices of avocado.
fruits.. well there are the usual fruits like lime, oranges, pineapple, watermelon, bananas (mini and normal size), papaya and so on. but they are not sold at the streets very commonly, except for pineapple, they can be found from the stores though and are available at the restaurants.
drinks... i had pisco sour when i was in lima.. this is made of pisco (locally produced white-grape brandy) blended with lemon juice, ice, egg white, syrup and topped with bitters. i drank about 1/4th of it as it was incredibly strong stuff. i already mentioned the ´mate de coca´ (herbal tea of coca leaves).. it is like green tea :) and no it does not get you high at all. the famous soft drink here is Inka Kola... it is this yellow very sweet syrupy tasting soft drink.. kinda like sprite but yellow and very sweet. another famous non-alcoholic drink here is ´chicha morada´, it is made of purple corn (yeah, had no idea that purple corn even exists), it is non-carbonated drink and is very sweet and has a distinct taste... kinda like drink made of sweet berry syrup but twice as strong or concentrated as it should be.
now about my future plans :) i already wrote that i will go on the Inca Trail as planned (27-30th of June) then instead of leaving to Puno on the 1st of July I´ll postpone it till the 6th of July which is Saturday. meanwhile i have decided to take 5 days of Spanish lessons :) ... it is 4 hours a day.. taking spanish lessons is very common here... met a guy today who has been in cusco for 6 months, in the same school learning spanish :) they also provide home stay, but i decided not to do that (although it would be fun as it is kinda like small campus and lady who runs it refuses to speak english :)) one reason is that the provided home stay is 20 minutes walk from down-town and the other is that it is quite pricey - 130$ for 5 days, it does include 3 meals though, but most likely i won´t feel like walking 20 minutes 3 times a day :) .. instead i have booked 5 days in a hotel that charges 20 Sol (1 Sol = 3$) and the owner speaks no english :D
the spanish school also arranges trips around cusco... Pisac-Ollantaytambo-Chinchero and i think there was another town which i can´t remember.. so i will do that one day as well and then catch up on my lessons another day or something. oh FUN :)
i´m really enjoying it here so far :) hopefully the inca trail won´t kill me :D .. ok.. so i won´t be posting here for the next 4 days... i´ll upload some pictures of Cusco as well.. and next posting is scheduled for the 2nd of July :) take care!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Cusco, Peru - part II
it is so nice when you don´t need to know what weekday it is :) nor what date it is.. i can afford that only like 2 days in a row though.. but that is plenty for now.
this morning i went through all my shampoo/lotion/soap/water bottles and let the extra pressure out :) i´ve never been in that high altitude before.. so far i'm liking it... i have been here for 30 hours by now and i have no major problems with altitude as far as i can tell. i´m also quite happy about the fact that my stomach is all in order :) i was sure that it will get upset with the different foods and different bacteria.. but nothing so far. i´ll try to keep it that way as well.
this whole day i have spent on administrative things:
- confirmed my reservation for the inca trail which meant a short overview of how the hike will be.. during the day it is +28C and during the night the temperature drops to -5C :) we were suggested to bring gloves and a hat (which i did bring with me just in case) one lady who just returned from there suggested that we buy the plastic ponchos as they got heavy rain and hail while hiking.. and the poncho will cover the pack bag as well so all your stuff will be dry even if it rains. we will also pass through rain forest so we need to bring the insect repellent (which i bought in Minnesota already)... i also bought the purifying tablets just in case although they say that we will have plenty of water during our meal brakes... but you never know... my inca trail will start on the 27th, i will be picked up from my hotel at 5:20 in the morning :-S
- ran around the town trying to exchange money.. not that exchange places are not available but to check the commission rates and so on.. some places exchange travelers cheques some don´t.. and for some reason the banks were extremely crowded today.. no idea what the deal was
- walked to the train station to try to check on how much is the train ticket to Puno and when do the trains depart... ticket is 19$ and trains leave every Mon-Tue-Fri-Sat.
- looked up some alternative hotel options as i´m thinking about staying here a bit longer than originally planned. not sure yet. will decide tomorrow. Puno seems as a little town so perhaps there is not much interesting to do there? no idea... but spending extra 3-4 days here in cusco won´t hurt much anyways. and here seems to be plenty of things to do
besides all the above i did have time to do some sightseeing as well.. climbed a hill at the north end of the town.. it had a nice view to Cusco as well as a small dark church. church was not lit and was empty.. on the door there was one young girl (5 years perhaps) who was singing, drawing and playing with a tiny kitten.. kitten must have been only few months old. i also visited the Inka Museum and Santo Dominigo church. both were interesting and very enjoyable.
in the afternoon i also did some shopping and took pictures for Kristi.. of all their patterns and colors and fabrics. some are not very happy about me photographing.. they'd like it much more if i'd buy the shirts/bags/rugs/blankets.
few words about internet connection as well.. in most places it is quite nice and fast.. it costs 4 EEK per hour :) and i´m able to download the applications i need as well as use USB connection. that is all i need. in cusco there are internet places really on every single corner whereas in lima i did not find many at all.
i´ll try to post some more tomorrow... then on Wednesday i will be going to the mountains - inca trail... this trip is 4 days and i will be back in cusco on the 30th of June, train will arrive at 9:40pm after which i will just go back to my hotel. so i´m guessing after tomorrow´s entry the next entry will be on the 1st of July which should be Sunday.
this morning i went through all my shampoo/lotion/soap/water bottles and let the extra pressure out :) i´ve never been in that high altitude before.. so far i'm liking it... i have been here for 30 hours by now and i have no major problems with altitude as far as i can tell. i´m also quite happy about the fact that my stomach is all in order :) i was sure that it will get upset with the different foods and different bacteria.. but nothing so far. i´ll try to keep it that way as well.
this whole day i have spent on administrative things:
- confirmed my reservation for the inca trail which meant a short overview of how the hike will be.. during the day it is +28C and during the night the temperature drops to -5C :) we were suggested to bring gloves and a hat (which i did bring with me just in case) one lady who just returned from there suggested that we buy the plastic ponchos as they got heavy rain and hail while hiking.. and the poncho will cover the pack bag as well so all your stuff will be dry even if it rains. we will also pass through rain forest so we need to bring the insect repellent (which i bought in Minnesota already)... i also bought the purifying tablets just in case although they say that we will have plenty of water during our meal brakes... but you never know... my inca trail will start on the 27th, i will be picked up from my hotel at 5:20 in the morning :-S
- ran around the town trying to exchange money.. not that exchange places are not available but to check the commission rates and so on.. some places exchange travelers cheques some don´t.. and for some reason the banks were extremely crowded today.. no idea what the deal was
- walked to the train station to try to check on how much is the train ticket to Puno and when do the trains depart... ticket is 19$ and trains leave every Mon-Tue-Fri-Sat.
- looked up some alternative hotel options as i´m thinking about staying here a bit longer than originally planned. not sure yet. will decide tomorrow. Puno seems as a little town so perhaps there is not much interesting to do there? no idea... but spending extra 3-4 days here in cusco won´t hurt much anyways. and here seems to be plenty of things to do
besides all the above i did have time to do some sightseeing as well.. climbed a hill at the north end of the town.. it had a nice view to Cusco as well as a small dark church. church was not lit and was empty.. on the door there was one young girl (5 years perhaps) who was singing, drawing and playing with a tiny kitten.. kitten must have been only few months old. i also visited the Inka Museum and Santo Dominigo church. both were interesting and very enjoyable.
in the afternoon i also did some shopping and took pictures for Kristi.. of all their patterns and colors and fabrics. some are not very happy about me photographing.. they'd like it much more if i'd buy the shirts/bags/rugs/blankets.
few words about internet connection as well.. in most places it is quite nice and fast.. it costs 4 EEK per hour :) and i´m able to download the applications i need as well as use USB connection. that is all i need. in cusco there are internet places really on every single corner whereas in lima i did not find many at all.
i´ll try to post some more tomorrow... then on Wednesday i will be going to the mountains - inca trail... this trip is 4 days and i will be back in cusco on the 30th of June, train will arrive at 9:40pm after which i will just go back to my hotel. so i´m guessing after tomorrow´s entry the next entry will be on the 1st of July which should be Sunday.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Cusco, Peru - part I
my flight out of Lima was at 10:10.. it was another very bumpy ride.. i wonder if it is those mountains? i'm so very glad that i don't have to take a plane any more.. not before i leave for home. but the scenery was beautiful! took some pictures too.. i'm in progress of downloading some.. hopefully i manage to get to all of them. flight was 50 minutes.. by noon i was in the cab and 5 minutes later i arrived in my hotel and by 1pm i was in down-town eating :D
my hotel is super nice.. the room looks kinda like a big closet though, but it has everything one needs: nice and clean shower, big bed, table, closet, big mirror, toilet of course, window :), big fan and a cable TV. hotel is about 5-10 minute walk from the center square so very convenient as well.
as much as i've seen in the last 2.5 hours i'd say that cusco is an absolute paradise compared to lima. it is full of tourists which is nice... yea, i wouldn't have never ever thought i'd say that ever :) but i have seen so little yet so i will speak/write more later on.
altitude sickness - well.. the first 2 hours have been fine. i do feel a bit uneasy.. like it is difficult to just be or breathe... but nothing too bad. gotta just take it easy and slow. i have had 2 coca teas already and i'm munching on some 100% natural coca candy :D
today is the day of the festival... i have not seen any parade or anything yet.. it is 2:40pm so perhaps it will start later on.. no idea.
and i'm getting some fun ideas of how to spend my 4 weeks here in Peru :D .. i'm thinking that i will minimize my time in lima and will maximize my time in cusco and lake titicaca area. maria told me that nazca, ica and other coastal cities will be only max 1 day per city so i won't hurry over there too soon. and it seems like there is so much to do around cuzco (sometimes they write the city name like that too.. no idea which is the correct way).
but now i will get to my e-mail, pictures and perhaps will even log on to MSN for the fun of it :)
my hotel is super nice.. the room looks kinda like a big closet though, but it has everything one needs: nice and clean shower, big bed, table, closet, big mirror, toilet of course, window :), big fan and a cable TV. hotel is about 5-10 minute walk from the center square so very convenient as well.
as much as i've seen in the last 2.5 hours i'd say that cusco is an absolute paradise compared to lima. it is full of tourists which is nice... yea, i wouldn't have never ever thought i'd say that ever :) but i have seen so little yet so i will speak/write more later on.
altitude sickness - well.. the first 2 hours have been fine. i do feel a bit uneasy.. like it is difficult to just be or breathe... but nothing too bad. gotta just take it easy and slow. i have had 2 coca teas already and i'm munching on some 100% natural coca candy :D
today is the day of the festival... i have not seen any parade or anything yet.. it is 2:40pm so perhaps it will start later on.. no idea.
and i'm getting some fun ideas of how to spend my 4 weeks here in Peru :D .. i'm thinking that i will minimize my time in lima and will maximize my time in cusco and lake titicaca area. maria told me that nazca, ica and other coastal cities will be only max 1 day per city so i won't hurry over there too soon. and it seems like there is so much to do around cuzco (sometimes they write the city name like that too.. no idea which is the correct way).
but now i will get to my e-mail, pictures and perhaps will even log on to MSN for the fun of it :)
Lima, Peru - part II
little bit more about Lima.. well I gotta admit that first it kinda shocked and scared me :( ... and by the end of the first day it scared me even more :) i was constantly reminded to be careful when taking pictures (to wrap the strap around my neck) and to keep an eye on my bag. i do understand that it is for my own safety, but it made me uneasy to say the least. and here í'd like to thank Maria :) she was so helpful and spent the whole day with me and helped me with all sorts of arrangements (starting from getting to the hotel and ending with buying the cellphone)..so thank you! it is unbelievably nice to come to the other side of the world to a place you have never been to and be able to trust and relay on total strangers.
back to lima now... they have this odd city transport/bus system. there are 3 sizes of the buses: small, medium and big. each bus has some colors painted on it and there is a person hanging on the door. those buses do have numbers on them as well but those don't count :) the colors count :) and also what the person on the door is yelling. so when you need to go somewhere then you go for an example for a big bus that has yellow-blue-black stripes on it :D fun huh? and the ride is always 1 sol.
movies... movies are all in english and have spanish subtitles - nice. ticket to the movie theater is 5-6 sol.. but you can get the same movies on dvd from across the street for 3 sol :D but i can't watch dvd´s anywhere so i guess i'd go to the movie theater.
i already met some other pack-packers ...on the plane and at the streets. one guy that i met in miraflores is from san francisco, he is a teacher there and travels a lot. last year he was in Tallinn :) quite nice :) i also got a contact of one estonian who lives in lima... i called him up as well and hopefully we will meet in mid July when i will return to lima before my flight home.
weather - well it gets cooler in the evening.. perhaps to about 12-15C.. during the day it is about 18-20C so quite nice, not too hot and not too cold. for locals it is freezing of course :)
oh and spanish language.. well i manage with the computers that are all in spanish and i get around town with a taxi and i manage to get food at the restaurant ;)
back to lima now... they have this odd city transport/bus system. there are 3 sizes of the buses: small, medium and big. each bus has some colors painted on it and there is a person hanging on the door. those buses do have numbers on them as well but those don't count :) the colors count :) and also what the person on the door is yelling. so when you need to go somewhere then you go for an example for a big bus that has yellow-blue-black stripes on it :D fun huh? and the ride is always 1 sol.
movies... movies are all in english and have spanish subtitles - nice. ticket to the movie theater is 5-6 sol.. but you can get the same movies on dvd from across the street for 3 sol :D but i can't watch dvd´s anywhere so i guess i'd go to the movie theater.
i already met some other pack-packers ...on the plane and at the streets. one guy that i met in miraflores is from san francisco, he is a teacher there and travels a lot. last year he was in Tallinn :) quite nice :) i also got a contact of one estonian who lives in lima... i called him up as well and hopefully we will meet in mid July when i will return to lima before my flight home.
weather - well it gets cooler in the evening.. perhaps to about 12-15C.. during the day it is about 18-20C so quite nice, not too hot and not too cold. for locals it is freezing of course :)
oh and spanish language.. well i manage with the computers that are all in spanish and i get around town with a taxi and i manage to get food at the restaurant ;)
Lima, Peru - part I
weeeh.. I'm here :) Arrived in Lima last night (Friday the 22nd of June) at 12... plane was late for more than an hour and the plane ride was VERY bumpy. at the airport there was the usual long line for the customs+immigration and then about 20 minute wait for the luggage. at the airport maria (from cs) was nicely waiting for me... now when i think of it i'm not sure how would have i managed to get to the hotel otherwise... there are all kinds of warning signs about travelers safety and how we should only use the transportation provided by the airport. well anyways, maria's friend gave me a ride to the hotel. apparently my hotel is not in the nicest part of the town.. the streets looked a bit deserted yes :) and the room is not very modern to say the least... but, there were no bugs found at the first inspection round conducted by me so i'm fine with it.
set an alarm for myself at 10:30 in the morning.. looked out of the 11th floor window where my room is located.. well... i'll post some pictures later (hopefully) so you will see the ghetto as well :) and the air is even worse than in Bangkok.. the sun does not shine even in the morning here :( i guess some of it is because of the ocean as well, but i can feel the pollution too... not much air to breathe around here. anyhoo.. after taking a shower i walked downstairs, exchanged some money, wrote down the address of my hotel so that i can make it back here later on and took a cab to maria's place who i was meeting at 1pm. exchanged some travelers cheques and went through quite a trouble to buy a phone card... ugh it is difficult when you don't speak the language. but now i have 2 phone cards (one for only land phones and the other for land phones and for mobiles) and one mobile phone :)
my number is 933 09 115 .. i can send 500 SMS's for free and call to CLARO customers/land phones in Peru for 99 sols :) YAY i'll try to SMS to some of you (i think i only wrote down my brothers phone number though)
ok.. so i have spent the whole day with maria who has been taking me around in Lima. first we went to Miraflores where we had nice lunch and now we are in the center of Lima by the cathedral and presidents residence. my hotel is close by here as well.
tomorrow morning i will take a plane to cuzco. i'll try to post more from there... depending on how badly i suffer from altitude sickness. tomorrow is a huge festival there so i'm not sure what is open at all... and as i hear then Cameron Diaz will be in Cuzco for the festival as well :)
ok.. we will be moving on now. all the best to all of you :)!!!
set an alarm for myself at 10:30 in the morning.. looked out of the 11th floor window where my room is located.. well... i'll post some pictures later (hopefully) so you will see the ghetto as well :) and the air is even worse than in Bangkok.. the sun does not shine even in the morning here :( i guess some of it is because of the ocean as well, but i can feel the pollution too... not much air to breathe around here. anyhoo.. after taking a shower i walked downstairs, exchanged some money, wrote down the address of my hotel so that i can make it back here later on and took a cab to maria's place who i was meeting at 1pm. exchanged some travelers cheques and went through quite a trouble to buy a phone card... ugh it is difficult when you don't speak the language. but now i have 2 phone cards (one for only land phones and the other for land phones and for mobiles) and one mobile phone :)
my number is 933 09 115 .. i can send 500 SMS's for free and call to CLARO customers/land phones in Peru for 99 sols :) YAY i'll try to SMS to some of you (i think i only wrote down my brothers phone number though)
ok.. so i have spent the whole day with maria who has been taking me around in Lima. first we went to Miraflores where we had nice lunch and now we are in the center of Lima by the cathedral and presidents residence. my hotel is close by here as well.
tomorrow morning i will take a plane to cuzco. i'll try to post more from there... depending on how badly i suffer from altitude sickness. tomorrow is a huge festival there so i'm not sure what is open at all... and as i hear then Cameron Diaz will be in Cuzco for the festival as well :)
ok.. we will be moving on now. all the best to all of you :)!!!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Virginia, MN - Part II
MONDAY 18.06 - a relaxing day at the house for the most part.. went for 2 long walks in the woods with the dogs and that was about it. stayed inside on the couch, stared at the rain and sipped on some strawberry daiquiris :)
TUESDAY 19.06 - trip to Split Rock Lighthouse by Lake Superior. wow was that beautiful! weather was great and the drive up there was beautiful. on the way back we stopped at Betty's pies and had late lunch.
(i'll try to add some links to the places later on)
WEDNESDAY 20.06 - trip to the lake cabin by Ely :) chinese food with cream cheese won tons .. yum! in the evening went riding the 4-wheeler.. never done that before... and this thing is great.. up the little steep hills it goes.
the time in Minnesota has been wonderful.. best vacation one can dream of... i'm sleeping solid 10 hours every night.. having slow mornings and relaxed days.. it is great. tomorrow we will be driving to the cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul).. will stay overnight there to make it on my flight in time on Friday morning... my relaxed nice holiday time is over and the adventure starts!!
i have taken a whole bunch of pictures but I'm having trouble loading them up via dial-up connection.. so the pictures have to wait a bit.
TUESDAY 19.06 - trip to Split Rock Lighthouse by Lake Superior. wow was that beautiful! weather was great and the drive up there was beautiful. on the way back we stopped at Betty's pies and had late lunch.
(i'll try to add some links to the places later on)
WEDNESDAY 20.06 - trip to the lake cabin by Ely :) chinese food with cream cheese won tons .. yum! in the evening went riding the 4-wheeler.. never done that before... and this thing is great.. up the little steep hills it goes.
the time in Minnesota has been wonderful.. best vacation one can dream of... i'm sleeping solid 10 hours every night.. having slow mornings and relaxed days.. it is great. tomorrow we will be driving to the cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul).. will stay overnight there to make it on my flight in time on Friday morning... my relaxed nice holiday time is over and the adventure starts!!
i have taken a whole bunch of pictures but I'm having trouble loading them up via dial-up connection.. so the pictures have to wait a bit.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Virginia, MN - Part I
on sunday we went to a fair, but it was raining and cold so we did not stay there for too long... nikki showed me around in the town, we did some shopping (i got the insect repellent with DEET :).. they don't have that in estonia) and ordered pizza for lunch :)
later in the afternoon we went off to see the land they own... 40 acres. originally it was bought with the idea to build a house there, but now it is just for recreational reasons... so ryan makes sure that there are enough trees and enough food for the deer (he hunts). ok, but so the baby gets packed in.. we all get in the car (ryan, nikki, the baby, me and 2 dogs) and we head over there. it has been raining heavily the whole morning right... so there is plenty of mud and water :) after about 20 steps i look down and what do i see: 3 ticks climbing up my right leg and 2 on my left one, i look over to my back and there are more! i pointed - nikki and ryan got them :) after another 10 steps the whole thing continued.. and we were walking for 1 hour :) i've never ever seen that many and so aggressive ticks before. although after first 5 minutes i felt quite comfortable flicking them off my jeans myself, no more assistance needed :D ... nikki got a good laugh out of that and asked ironically: "and you will be going where for the next 4 weeks?" oh but my shoes were performing very well under
those conditions, that i'm proud of.
we walked for an hour, took some pictures and checked the newly
planted trees and then headed back.. stopping every couple of minutes to clean our legs from crawling ticks.. yuk :).. once at the car nikki did the first round of getting the ticks from the dogs.. another and more thorough round took place later at home. and one evil tick even got me, but i got rid of it in the early stage all by myself :)
COLTEN: he is 7.5 months old by now and is the happiest baby i've ever seen... whenever he approaches me i'm covered in saliva immediately.. which is fine. he tries to eat my shoulder when i hold him and he finds my shirt and pants otherwise very tasty... not to mention all the drool when he is close by :) but oh darn he is cute :)
I have tons of pictures that i need to upload.. but i'm not sure the network here can take it :) so that has to wait :)
later in the afternoon we went off to see the land they own... 40 acres. originally it was bought with the idea to build a house there, but now it is just for recreational reasons... so ryan makes sure that there are enough trees and enough food for the deer (he hunts). ok, but so the baby gets packed in.. we all get in the car (ryan, nikki, the baby, me and 2 dogs) and we head over there. it has been raining heavily the whole morning right... so there is plenty of mud and water :) after about 20 steps i look down and what do i see: 3 ticks climbing up my right leg and 2 on my left one, i look over to my back and there are more! i pointed - nikki and ryan got them :) after another 10 steps the whole thing continued.. and we were walking for 1 hour :) i've never ever seen that many and so aggressive ticks before. although after first 5 minutes i felt quite comfortable flicking them off my jeans myself, no more assistance needed :D ... nikki got a good laugh out of that and asked ironically: "and you will be going where for the next 4 weeks?" oh but my shoes were performing very well under
those conditions, that i'm proud of.
we walked for an hour, took some pictures and checked the newly
planted trees and then headed back.. stopping every couple of minutes to clean our legs from crawling ticks.. yuk :).. once at the car nikki did the first round of getting the ticks from the dogs.. another and more thorough round took place later at home. and one evil tick even got me, but i got rid of it in the early stage all by myself :)
COLTEN: he is 7.5 months old by now and is the happiest baby i've ever seen... whenever he approaches me i'm covered in saliva immediately.. which is fine. he tries to eat my shoulder when i hold him and he finds my shirt and pants otherwise very tasty... not to mention all the drool when he is close by :) but oh darn he is cute :)
I have tons of pictures that i need to upload.. but i'm not sure the network here can take it :) so that has to wait :)
Sunday, June 17, 2007
trip to Minnesota
(i realized that i still messed up on the posting times, but i will
have to fix that a bit later)
stayed up till 2am on friday evening talking and packing.. got almost
4 hours of sleep and then headed to the airport. got there 1.5 hours
before my flight, that should be enough right? wrong. i see the line
and i can't see the end of it.. and that is just the check-in one...
another line for the security check. madness.. i have no idea if that
was only my airline or what. i didn't even bother to go and see where
the end is.. i simply found one assistant there and said that if i
have to stay in line i will miss my flight for sure so what other
options do i have... luckily the line was mandatory just for
international travelers and i got to use the electronic check-in
(which did not work for me but i got to the front of the line for
assistance).. so that was quick.. but the security check line still
took forever... i better get to the airport 3.5 hours before my flight to Lima
anyhoo.. the flights were fine... did not have too long of a layover
and all went smoothly. on the second flight i sat next to a guy who
came from Iraq, he had been flying for 30 hours by now and was on his
last flight (he was originally from MN).. he got 2 weeks off because
his mother had passed away. we were talking the whole 1.5 hours pretty
much and he was surprisingly open when talking about the situation
there (as some of you know there is no end to my questions)... one of
the most interesting "flight talks" i've ever had.
once we arrived in twin cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul) Nikki was there
to meet me. it took us only about 15 minutes and 3 trips up to the
last floor and back down again till we found the car and then we
headed north. it was about 4h drive.. through Duluth (because we
missed an exit) and up till Virginia where they live.
have to fix that a bit later)
stayed up till 2am on friday evening talking and packing.. got almost
4 hours of sleep and then headed to the airport. got there 1.5 hours
before my flight, that should be enough right? wrong. i see the line
and i can't see the end of it.. and that is just the check-in one...
another line for the security check. madness.. i have no idea if that
was only my airline or what. i didn't even bother to go and see where
the end is.. i simply found one assistant there and said that if i
have to stay in line i will miss my flight for sure so what other
options do i have... luckily the line was mandatory just for
international travelers and i got to use the electronic check-in
(which did not work for me but i got to the front of the line for
assistance).. so that was quick.. but the security check line still
took forever... i better get to the airport 3.5 hours before my flight to Lima
anyhoo.. the flights were fine... did not have too long of a layover
and all went smoothly. on the second flight i sat next to a guy who
came from Iraq, he had been flying for 30 hours by now and was on his
last flight (he was originally from MN).. he got 2 weeks off because
his mother had passed away. we were talking the whole 1.5 hours pretty
much and he was surprisingly open when talking about the situation
there (as some of you know there is no end to my questions)... one of
the most interesting "flight talks" i've ever had.
once we arrived in twin cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul) Nikki was there
to meet me. it took us only about 15 minutes and 3 trips up to the
last floor and back down again till we found the car and then we
headed north. it was about 4h drive.. through Duluth (because we
missed an exit) and up till Virginia where they live.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Etna and the trip back
Etna is a small town in the mountains... it has 700+ people and 7 churches AND 1 nunnery and 1 monastery :) otherwise it was a nice tiny town. kinda funny, we walk on the streets and everybody who passes by or drives by you wave to and have a chat with (my friend works in the town).. typical American small town thingie. took some pictures of the place as well ... i'll post them soon.
we left the town at 11:30 in the morning and took a different route this time :) that went quick.. and we drove by a mountain that was 14168 feet - Mt. Shasta.. i've never seen that high mountain before.. i think :)
ok.. then we drove south and south.. stopped at GAP outlet mall and did some shopping and then dinner at Outback (yumm) and then back to Oakland. now we are about to go to movies. i'll fly out tomorrow morning.. to Minneapolis where Nikki will meet me :)
i don't know when i'll get to post again.. i'm going to the woods you know.. no internet ;) I'll try to post at least once before heading off to Peru.
we left the town at 11:30 in the morning and took a different route this time :) that went quick.. and we drove by a mountain that was 14168 feet - Mt. Shasta.. i've never seen that high mountain before.. i think :)
ok.. then we drove south and south.. stopped at GAP outlet mall and did some shopping and then dinner at Outback (yumm) and then back to Oakland. now we are about to go to movies. i'll fly out tomorrow morning.. to Minneapolis where Nikki will meet me :)
i don't know when i'll get to post again.. i'm going to the woods you know.. no internet ;) I'll try to post at least once before heading off to Peru.
trip to Etna - part II
one thing about rental cars.. if you plan to drive it for more than 8 hours.. count on having a flat tire... it will happen. so but to continue the story... we get up in the morning and start the phone calls. first call is to the roadside assistance number of the rental place and then to AAA. 20 minutes later they arrive to replace the tire... with a donut! and we are suppose to go and fix the broken one! no-no-no.. we don't think so.. we head straight to the rental car office (luckily they had one in Eureka as well) and we tell our sad story and that we don't have the whole day to wait for them to fix it and so on (yes it does not usually take a whole day, but we were planning on leaving the town at 10 to make it to Etna at a reasonable hour)... but what do you know.. they offer to deal with it themselves so we propose that they call us when ready and we will have breakfast meanwhile... sounds good.
we take a little detour and go to the seaside and walk around. this place looks hopeless... basically majority of the people we saw were either homeless or handicapped. strange place. we have breakfast in a nice coffee shop and we wait and wait for the phone call... we play scrabble to make the time pass by.. no call. finally we head over to the office and only then they pick up the phone and call to the service to check the status (that is 1,5h later!) and the service goes "oh the tire could not be fixed so what should we do?" D'OH!!! so they call the original car rental office to get the permission to get the new tire and then some more calls and arguing and discussions... and then the service agrees to change it... but they don't know when the car will be ready as they are short on staff. so tired of waiting around we decide to go to the movies while they change the tire. we went to see Mr. Brooks. that was a good movie :) and after the movie they start to check if our car is ready.. well.. isn't that our car at the parking lot.. she looks out of the door and goes "i don't think so" .. so after the service tells that the car was picked up.. she goes to check the license plate.. it is our car.
finally we get out of town at 4pm. grrr... but ok.. we are out of this sad place finally. we take 299 east until Weaverville and then #3 up north till Etna. both of those roads are marked on the map as scenic routes :) and oh my! i've never seen anything like that before.. it was gorgeous. the road went up-up-up-up and then all the way down... downhill ("hill") was usually for like 10km and 9% drop. yay :) and i was driving automatic :S ... but the road was so very beautiful... dangerous but beautiful. the highest peak we got to was 5400 feet :D i don't think i've ever been that high up before :) and there were tens and tens of small tiny towns along the way.. one town had population 30 :) - one big happy family. the towns were just tiny.. and seems so isolated from the rest of the world, hidden between those huuge mountains. apparently during winter time the roads are closed at times because of the snow... hmm... i'd go mad there i think. AND there is no network in most places either (and i mean phones not internet)... so that means there is no way to communicate with the outside world :)
once we got closer to Etna the road got very narrow and windy again.. we were down to 20mph again :( .. but we made it.. no more flat tires nothing... and we made it before dark.. just barely.. we were there at 8.20pm and i was sleeping at 8.30pm :)
we take a little detour and go to the seaside and walk around. this place looks hopeless... basically majority of the people we saw were either homeless or handicapped. strange place. we have breakfast in a nice coffee shop and we wait and wait for the phone call... we play scrabble to make the time pass by.. no call. finally we head over to the office and only then they pick up the phone and call to the service to check the status (that is 1,5h later!) and the service goes "oh the tire could not be fixed so what should we do?" D'OH!!! so they call the original car rental office to get the permission to get the new tire and then some more calls and arguing and discussions... and then the service agrees to change it... but they don't know when the car will be ready as they are short on staff. so tired of waiting around we decide to go to the movies while they change the tire. we went to see Mr. Brooks. that was a good movie :) and after the movie they start to check if our car is ready.. well.. isn't that our car at the parking lot.. she looks out of the door and goes "i don't think so" .. so after the service tells that the car was picked up.. she goes to check the license plate.. it is our car.
finally we get out of town at 4pm. grrr... but ok.. we are out of this sad place finally. we take 299 east until Weaverville and then #3 up north till Etna. both of those roads are marked on the map as scenic routes :) and oh my! i've never seen anything like that before.. it was gorgeous. the road went up-up-up-up and then all the way down... downhill ("hill") was usually for like 10km and 9% drop. yay :) and i was driving automatic :S ... but the road was so very beautiful... dangerous but beautiful. the highest peak we got to was 5400 feet :D i don't think i've ever been that high up before :) and there were tens and tens of small tiny towns along the way.. one town had population 30 :) - one big happy family. the towns were just tiny.. and seems so isolated from the rest of the world, hidden between those huuge mountains. apparently during winter time the roads are closed at times because of the snow... hmm... i'd go mad there i think. AND there is no network in most places either (and i mean phones not internet)... so that means there is no way to communicate with the outside world :)
once we got closer to Etna the road got very narrow and windy again.. we were down to 20mph again :( .. but we made it.. no more flat tires nothing... and we made it before dark.. just barely.. we were there at 8.20pm and i was sleeping at 8.30pm :)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
trip to Etna - part I
so the trip started on Thursday morning... with slight problems already - car rental place forgot to pick us up and they also lost our reservation :( luckily we got that figured out in less than hour. so next we had breakfast and then Jana took me to see the facilities they have on the bay area for the school.
we left the city around 1pm. we drove and drove and drove... the distances are just mad long here... and the road (#101) was not particularly interesting, after some 4 hours of driving we turned off to go to see the ocean. oh boy... first we had trouble finding the road itself.. then once we happily saw the first sign towards Honeydew we stopped by the road to take some pictures of the huuuge redwoods (no idea if that is how they really call the trees, it is called redwood forest. those things are huge.. I also don't know if sequoias are different type or not.. anyhoo they are both humongous trees and very common here).. and then the fun started.. the road was soo narrow and windy that we had to go about 20 mph, it was constantly either climbing the hill or coming down.. i bet if we would have gone any faster i would have gotten sick.. it was like never ending roller coaster :) ... and it "only" took us some 1,5 hours to get to the ocean... and then we still had to make it back to road 101.. another hour driving to the skies and back.. literally.. we drove through the clouds :) it was a nice detour.. but neither of us had imagined it takes so long. and i don't even want to know what we would have done if something happened to the car.. all we saw were some lonely cows up in the mountains.
by the time we got back on the road we figured that we won't be making it to Etna today... so we arrived in Eureka.. found out that most of the hotels are fully booked and there is nothing to see in the movie theater... so we went to have a nice dinner instead :) took the local paper and started to call some hotels.. found the last double room from one :) ... after the dinner maneuvered ourselves there through the one ways... arrived at the parking lot... turned the car around and boom.. there goes the tire... passenger side rear tire blew up.. great! it was past 10pm... but we figured to deal with it in the morning.
thank you for all your comments!
Yes, Oliver this is the correct town :)- i'll have pictures up about the trip there and the town itself soon .. and yes we were just wondering of how they have no imagination and every state has the same town names .. including famous European cities :) The pictures are taken with Canon PowerShot S3 IS that I purchased just a week before i left.. i bought a used one and it is working like a charm.. i don't know all the buttons yet (that is why many pictures are duplicated ;) )
All the others - nice to hear from you.
- oh and just a note, i'm writing the posts at a later time but will set the post date and time to when events happened.. so i don't have to keep track of the dates while writing.
we left the city around 1pm. we drove and drove and drove... the distances are just mad long here... and the road (#101) was not particularly interesting, after some 4 hours of driving we turned off to go to see the ocean. oh boy... first we had trouble finding the road itself.. then once we happily saw the first sign towards Honeydew we stopped by the road to take some pictures of the huuuge redwoods (no idea if that is how they really call the trees, it is called redwood forest. those things are huge.. I also don't know if sequoias are different type or not.. anyhoo they are both humongous trees and very common here).. and then the fun started.. the road was soo narrow and windy that we had to go about 20 mph, it was constantly either climbing the hill or coming down.. i bet if we would have gone any faster i would have gotten sick.. it was like never ending roller coaster :) ... and it "only" took us some 1,5 hours to get to the ocean... and then we still had to make it back to road 101.. another hour driving to the skies and back.. literally.. we drove through the clouds :) it was a nice detour.. but neither of us had imagined it takes so long. and i don't even want to know what we would have done if something happened to the car.. all we saw were some lonely cows up in the mountains.
by the time we got back on the road we figured that we won't be making it to Etna today... so we arrived in Eureka.. found out that most of the hotels are fully booked and there is nothing to see in the movie theater... so we went to have a nice dinner instead :) took the local paper and started to call some hotels.. found the last double room from one :) ... after the dinner maneuvered ourselves there through the one ways... arrived at the parking lot... turned the car around and boom.. there goes the tire... passenger side rear tire blew up.. great! it was past 10pm... but we figured to deal with it in the morning.
thank you for all your comments!
Yes, Oliver this is the correct town :)- i'll have pictures up about the trip there and the town itself soon .. and yes we were just wondering of how they have no imagination and every state has the same town names .. including famous European cities :) The pictures are taken with Canon PowerShot S3 IS that I purchased just a week before i left.. i bought a used one and it is working like a charm.. i don't know all the buttons yet (that is why many pictures are duplicated ;) )
All the others - nice to hear from you.
- oh and just a note, i'm writing the posts at a later time but will set the post date and time to when events happened.. so i don't have to keep track of the dates while writing.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Reporting from San Francisco
Juhuu :) After traveling for 28 hours I made it here in one piece. I don't think I will ever get used to the 8h flights... after 24hrs I'm in coma no matter what. Jana came to meet me at the airport and we made our way to the house. My current location is El Sobrante, Sherwood Forest. And of course the first thing we did was ordered Domino's pizza.. double pepperoni and cheesybread.. yum! I miss the excellent junk food delivered to your door :)
We will be renting a car in an hour and then will head up north to Etna. The route we chose goes alongside the west coast and will include picnic at the beach by Cape Mendocino. I've seen Pacific just once before (last time I was here in SF). Road will take us first to Eureka and then east via Weaverville to Etna. Right before Etna we will pass through ghost town called Callahan.. it is an old gold mining area.
But now gotta go and get ready. On the flights I managed to take a huge amount of pictures.. of clouds :) .. who is interested then go and check them out (My Photos link on the right hand side).
We will be renting a car in an hour and then will head up north to Etna. The route we chose goes alongside the west coast and will include picnic at the beach by Cape Mendocino. I've seen Pacific just once before (last time I was here in SF). Road will take us first to Eureka and then east via Weaverville to Etna. Right before Etna we will pass through ghost town called Callahan.. it is an old gold mining area.
But now gotta go and get ready. On the flights I managed to take a huge amount of pictures.. of clouds :) .. who is interested then go and check them out (My Photos link on the right hand side).
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