Reunited and it feels so good...!

The month of July 2010 will be one to remember!

Happy to be back home and with Luna! ya!

Thanks for following my blog! It was fun :)

Je t'aime Paris!

Here are some pictures from Paris. It was great spending my birthday at the Eiffel tower and arround the city, also a little surreal. The icing on the cake was being able to watch the end of the Tour De France on Sunday.

Notre-Dame

Looking down from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower - I like the shadow


Sunday July 25: Tour De France Final Laps - the guy in the yellow Jersey won

From the first floor of the Eiffel Tower - one of the lines to go all the way up to the top - I liked the formation - lots of people

The rest of the pack

Arche Triomphe

View of Paris from the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower

Modern skyline behind Palais de Chaillot

There she is - view from Parc du Champ de Mars

Breakfast of Champions - Patisseries - Yes, I ate this for breakfast every morning - yum!

Great sunset looking down Av De Champs-Elysees

L'Hotel de Ville - Friday concert

Cour Napoleon - check out the cloud formations - loved the Parisian skies on these days

Musee du Louvre

Pont Alexander III - around 10p - check out the full moon

Rewind....Amsterdam wrap up ~ July 19-22, 2010

Or Amsterdizzle as I nick named it!

I did not say much about Amsterdam for lack of time and also because I really wanted to take the time to figure out my overall impression. During my first night and day it was easy to walk around the wide eyed in amazement and curiosity. The smaller than human crooked row homes, all the bikes, the mix of locals and tourists, all the canals and their cute arched stone bridges spanning for their entire lengths and, of course, the famous working girls and coffee-shops - each offering their wide arrangements of booty and marijuana products (Sold separately).

My hotel was centrally located in the city center. In Amsterdam, this means the red-light district. Exciting, I thought. I laughed at the irony of my hotel being across a canal from a church which was next to a row of glass doors with working girls strutting their bodies in nothing more than a lingerie invitingly opening and closing their doors at passer bys. Oh and then the tapping on the glass with their ringed finger: Tap tap tap! These went on all night, this I know because my room window faced this mess.


When I checked into my hotel, Dennis, the receptionist, greeted me with a hazed look, shirtless, a smile and a swollen ankle resulting from a fall on the hotel stairs that lead up to the rooms. This guy was friendly - for those who knew my old roommate Antwan, he had that type of personality ~ warm, funny, lively, but something kept you from fully taking the guy as truly genuine. Its hard to explain. Whatever, it worked for the the moment and I was happy to be around it. Dennis cracked open a beer for me before we even got started on the reservation ~ "would you like a smoke" he offered. Of course I did ~ it's after all what I came to do in Amsterdam! This is going to be fun!!!!

Buzz kill: The room ~ blah. I'll spare the details, but is was tiny and didn't go hand in hand with the boutique chic lobby of the hotel. It wasn't anything up to par with the hotel in Budapest, which, besides the Residence for Andrea's wedding, was the best hotel of my stay. I really didn't want to be in there long so I went out for a long walk through the "red-light district." I was still in disbelief that I was in Amsterdam and with my camera in hand took as many pictures as I could. I parked myself near the glass doors of the working girls and as soon as they saw my camera they disappeared. This was really silly of me to do ~ I was lucky. You are not supposed to take their picture as I later found out during my stay. I found this out, when a middle aged woman took their picture and out runs one of the girls with a bucket full of water and dumps it on her as the other girls screamed "no pictures!" Ouch!

It was a party town but different than I was expecting ~ nothing like Berlin...but then again, I don't think they are comparable. There were a lot of people out in the streets abusing the lawlessness of it all. I saw way too many people sick on the side of the street throwing up. I also saw a very sweaty man that had to be carried to an ambulance as his eyes kept rolling in the back of his head. That just took the fun away from it for me. I became very aware of all the trash in the streets and the canals and it took away from the beauty of the city too. I later discovered that you have to go out into the city and away from the center to really see the charm of Amsterdam. I don't know, maybe it would have been different if I was there with a group of friends partaking in the partying, maybe I would had not been as aware of it all...hard to say.

I did meet to very different people that I will consider new friends. There was Dennis of course. The guy is cool and was nice enough to take me out one night to hang out with his friends and bar hop. This was great because I go to go and do what the Dutch do: drink and smoke ~ just not at the tourist locations! ja! Dennis is Dutch and is my age but looked older I thought. He is a partier and has been moving all over Europe chasing hte party while working in the hospitality industry. He spent two years in Ibiza and had some crazy stories about all the drugs, parties, and trouble he got into! He's no working/living at this hotel and sleeps in whatever room didn't get booked for that night. I think he's only possession was his mountain bike and his toiletries ~ he had the same clothes the 3 days I was there from what I can tell. (antwan?)

Then there was Jim. Jim is a 65-yr old retired US army sergeant from South Carolina. Jim was married and has two adult sons but came out of the closet at 38. Now he works with autistic kids and is a self taught artist. A very good artist I might add since he showed me his art on facebook. He was great to talk to, so many stories - damn, what a life. He was there with two other friends who were not as friendly or active so I think Jim really appreciated having me to talk to and walk around with...probably as much as I did.

If it wasn't for these two guys, I think Amsterdam would had been a bust for me. Maybe it was just bad timing. Here are more pictures from my stay there. The sun never came out and the temperatures were a lot cooler than Eastern Europe. This added to the dreariness of it all.

I did rent a bike the first day I was there. Everyone get around Amsterdam in bikes which I think is great but when the streets are so narrow and you add all the other cyclist, public transport, and a string of people on foot constantly moving in every direction, it makes it very hard to navigate. I found this out the bad way. I went to a coffee shop then got on the bike, started riding when all of the sudden this car cuts me off out of no where, when I dodge it I almost ran into another cyclist. It scared the shit out of me. I got off the fucking bike and walked it right back to where I rented it and returned it. I decided to be on foot for the rest of my trip (literally) in Amsterdam!

Amsterdam Gutter - the XXX is part of their flag (fitting huh?)

Dennis
Crooked Row Homes at City Center

Anther corner store

cute alley with flowers

Store front

Condom Art

Young Forever baby....!!!!

Best.Birthday.Ever

Red Light Special

Some pictures of the Amsterdam City Center around dusk....added another pic to my engineering post. Check it out! This is my last day in Amsterdam then i'm off to Paris tomorrow!

Happy dogs playing fetch in a fountain in an Amsterdam Park on a hot day - I particularly took a liking to these two black ones! so cute!

Coffee Shop

The Red Light Windows - the girls saw my camera and they went into hiding



Hotel

Corner Business

Bridge, water, bikes, and louging

Amsterdam!

Having a great time in Amsterdam!

City Center

Amsterdam Cafe

One of the many canals through the city

Store front souvenir

Did you hear the one about California's newest Professional Engineer?!?!?

Jup! C'est moi!

I passed the last of the exams - results came yesterday!

I am now a licensed Professional Enginerd!!!!

oh yeah!

now for my celebratory baked Danish good ;-)

July 16-19: Budapest, Hungary

This city has been a great Eastern Europe treat. Way less people than those seen in Prague which made it easier to spot see the locals out and about and also gave it a little more layed back feel.

Something I learned on this trip is that this used to be two cities on opposite sides of the Danube River. The one side on a hill on the west side was called Buda and the other side, more flat, was called Pest. Sometime ago the cities became one and hence the name. My hotel was on the Pest side of the city. Its been a great weekend, I've had to work around some very sore feet which developed some nasty blisters and made it very difficult to walk. I went on a 6mile run on Saturday morning and that was the final straw. This pretty much set out how my weekend was going to be spent.

Water fountain in Margit-Sziget (Margarit Island) - this island sits in the middle of the river between the two sides of the city. It is a park with a hotel and also a water park - made for some great views of the city on either side. I ran from my hotel through the length of the island and back.

After my run, my feet were screaming at me so I decided to take it easy and visit one of the many Turkish Spas found in the city. I've read that you have not been to Budapest unless you visit one of these famous theraputic spas. This one is called Szechenyi Bath, it was constructed in 1881 and had over 20+ pools amongst other services. Great spot to relax and scape the heat.

Szechenyi Spa

UNICUM - this is Hungary's version of Aguardiente or Tequila. I went to a cafe/bar called smile. I was there way early 9p so I had chance to meet and talk to the owners, Istvan and Lazlo, who filled me in on what and where to go for nightlife. To my dismay things did not start happening until past midnight - I really wanted to be in early.

I ended up going dancing later (ignoring my sore feet....hell i'm only here once!) I met a couple of Americans, Lance and Chris, who I ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night - turns out they are from LA - small world eh? It was nice to have someone to talk English with and compare travel notes - they too are on a month long trip through Europe.

Rented a bike on Sunday to give my feet more of a break - this is in front of the St. Stephen's Basilica, the start of my self guided bike tour of Budapest.

After the Basilica I crossed the Szechenyi Bridge (suspension bridge) over to the Buda side.

On the Buda side, view of the Parliment Building on the Pest side on the other side of the Danube.

I rode the bike up a hell of a hill to the Buda Castle - this is a view of the Parliment building from the top of the hill.

Part of the Buda Castle - I cant believe I actually got a shot without anyone in the way.

Roof top of the Castle - great tile work.

Ate lunch along the Danube on the Pest side at a farmers market. The sausage taste just like the Colombian Chorizo - i loved it - was just missing the rice! Saproni - Hungarian Beer.

Up close the Parliment Building - what an amazing structure!

Dome of the Opera House - great detailed art work!

Heroes Square - this was the front of another city park - I had a great ride through the park; there were soccer games, music, dancing, and lots of children playing! It was finally a cooler day in Eastern Europe.

Right side of the square.

Vajdahunyad Castle - within the park where the Heroe's Square was at.

Fine Arts Museum

Adios Hungary - Kissuem for an awesome visit!

An out of focused proud Hungarian doggie! Most dogs walk along by their owners - no leashes - I was very impressed!

I'm on the road again tomorrow - Monday - off to Amsterdam!