PurpleNed

Rich people are a riot! Well not really; but they do make for interesting people watching. I've always been a low key traveler; mud floors, hostels, train station benches are not beyond me. So when I joined Trafalgar I had to adjust my thinking somewhat and be welcomed to the high life. I'm staying at the Hilton Prague, which we use for our guests as do other operators, including 2 river cruise companies. Let me preface this by saying all the Trafalgar clients I've met are honest, down to earth, fun people who have saved and worked hard for their vacation with us, and in general are great! But it appears the "other" type of people also stay here; rich, arrogant, snobby this hotel better revolve around my every whim people. Annoying as hell but fun ... read more

While I realize this is out of order, I will catch up and just wanted to post this before bed. There's a title to start off with:-) today has been my best day here in Prague, not only because of the sights but what I accomplished and how happy I feel, sipping on a Czech beer or 2, as per my boss's suggestion. I'm really struggling with jet lag for some reason and was up most of last night in the wee hours between 12-5. Despite being exhausted, I still wolfed down some breakfast and raced to the Prague Castle, probably the most important historical site in the city. My Lonely Planet warned to get here early, while I still made it by 09:30, the crowds were multiplying in droves. Regardless, I had the pleasure of ... read more

Day three Ned travel tip number ??: if you want to find something in Prague, leave the map in your pocket. Sleep was a bit out of whack, but today was my first full day in Prague and I was looking forward to it. Quickly got ready and went down for breakfast. Remember those 500 odd guests checking in I mentioned yesterday? Well apparently they wanted bkft too, the hotel had even set up a secondary buffet and eating area to accommodate us all. Wow! Food was amazing and I stuffed myself realizing I'd not really eaten much yesterday. Then, horror of horrors; I saw them, sitting innocently whispering sweet nothing's in my direction....... Fresh true, buttery, light, European croissants! Damn diet!...... It lost and I happily ate one of those buttery, fresh little pieces of ... read more

Day One and Two A relatively easy journey: YEG-YYZ-FRA-PRG, with perfect connection times, just long enough to stretch your legs and not panic about missed connections if flight is slightly delayed. Random Ned Travel Tip:A great way to ensure not making friends with your airplane seat neighbor is to pull out your hand wipes and obsessively wash your tray table with crazed enthusiasm! It worked, he started leaning away from me when I fervently wiped the tray table, on both sides:-) I got to travel business class to Toronto, Frankfurt flight was economy but at least I was the aisle on the 2 seater side. I realized I'd never flown Lufthansa before, good German staff, bad movie and TV choices but what do you do? FRA airport is, shall we say, a very efficient airport. Other ... read more

It's off to Europe I go!... read more

A wee photo montage of Jill's journey through Chile and Argentina. She is always the best travel companion; packs light, never complains and is always the ice breaker at parties!... read more

Easter Island. Hanga Roa. Rapa Nui. Isla de Pascua. Call it what you will, but I do like "Belly Button of the Earth". It's appropriate and you do get that feeling when you are so, so isolated from anything. Today was our last full day on the Island, we had plans to go to the beach, do some shopping, relax, enjoy and just chill. It had been 17 days of a full adventure on our vacation, and the thought of doing mostly nothing sounded appealing, and Easter Island felt like the perfect place to do so. To get to Anakena beach, you can hire a taxi to take you round trip and you just schedule a pick up time, cost is about $25US. We had our taxi pick us up around 10 and had plans to ... read more

Happy New Years Everyone! Today was not only New Years Eve, but also our full day tour of the Island with Freida. He picked us up at 09:30 and we quickly discovered that pretty much all the tour companies do the same tour at the same time. For such a small island there sure seemed to be a lot of tourists! (who us? never!) But with our vehicle only having the 3 of us we were quickly in and out of sites (when we wanted to be) and generally managed to stay away from the crowds (which in a big city would have seemed small). We visited all the main sights on the island, including Vaihu where the statues fell face forward; Akahanga where the Moai are well preserved and this is where the first king ... read more