New York, New York What didn’t we see in New York? Well a celebrity, so that was my only disappointment. But we did see a guy who could have been...OMG he was my highlight, so funny! (see the pics!) We stayed in a great location and our hotel room was better than we were expecting. We stayed at Hotel Pennsylvania, mainly because it was across the road from Penn train station, and we were lucky enough to be given a corner room with two windows. However the views were only what could be expected of a concrete jungle city. New York [View Full Entry]

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Our second week in The States - New England We left Wilmington, Pennsylvania, on a Shinkansen-like fast train and arrived about 5 hours later at Providence, Rhode Island. We were greeted by Mario's friend, John, who was once studying for a few weeks at Taishoen bonsai nursery in Japan quite a few years ago. The next day we went to New England Bonsai Garden in Massachusetts and Mario was back to work again! Next up, NYC... [View Full Entry]

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Lucky the weather held out for us when we visited Longwood Gardens, however almost half our time there we spent indoors in the conservatories as they were so massive. We were also fortunate to be able to visit the gardens in spring as the gardens were just filled with colour, especially from the tens of thousands of tulips! I know gardens may not be so beautiful in photos, but try to imagine! Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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Mario and I took a direct flight from Madrid to Philadelphia and didn't have too much fuss getting into the country. In fact we had more trouble even before check in at Madrid as they didn't realise that Mario had already received his American visa which was in his passport. We were cheerfully greeted by Roy, our driver and were shocked when he rolled up in a massive white limousine! He took us to lunch at our request - an American hamburger restaurant. It was called Ruby's Diner and was themed from the 1940s. Food was good and our drinks were [View Full Entry]

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Braving the Cold - My Walk Mario was sick for about 5 days, so we stayed in a lot, that was fine by me as the heating was great, outside was mostly dull and it was totally dark by 4:30pm. However, one of those days was beautiful and clear, so I went for a walk outside, took my camera and... (have a look) Snowflakes - Miracles of Beauty I have experienced a bit of snow in Victoria, Australia when I was very young and a bit in Norway and Japan. But that was nothing compared to what I saw in Poland. [View Full Entry]

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Mario and I somehow spent almost 24 hours getting to Poland even though our actual flight was only 2 and a half hours! Three busses, one plane and one car ride later, we arrived at Mario's parents house! The main Christmas celebration in Poland is on Christmas eve and usually involves a feast of 12 dishes. Even though I think the drinks were included in the 12 dishes, I was full halfway through!! Maybe I should have followed in Mariusz's (Mario's brother-in-law) footsteps and starved myself from 6am! He just kept eating and eating! Haha! At the beginning we each had [View Full Entry]

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01/01/2009 Oscypki and the Broken Shoe We had a quiet new years eve so we could be up early on New Year’s Day to drive to Zakopane in the Polish Tatra mountain area. *Note to self - if you want to drive anywhere without traffic, do it on the morning of the first day of the year! Barely a sole on the road made our drive very easy on the way up, coming back was a different story… The closer we got to Zakopane, the more snow on the side of the road. As we were driving we saw a 22° [View Full Entry]

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Ensalada mixta in Spain is a mixed salad, usually consisting of lettuce, tomato, tuna, sweetcorn, egg, olives, grated carrot and white asparagus (just in case you wanted to know)! Anyway this blog is just some mixed photos from November and December in Spain...and an ensalada mixta! [View Full Entry]

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A short flight from Alicante to London, and I was in freezing London being greeted by Josie and a delicious dinner cooked by Matt! I spent just over a week there, checking out all the Christmas lights, walking around the city and spending time with my cousins! I had a great time and enjoyed being understood by everyone...except for one funny event haha ↓ As Mario's and my Spanish is still very basic, communication in Spain is sometimes difficult and even if the people understand English, Mario still has to translate my native accent to his English so people can understand [View Full Entry]

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In October Mario and I drove to Madrid for the Alcobendas Bonsai Exhibition. One week a month Mario works here at the Alcobendas bonsai museum. We were also lucky enough to catch Danielle and Josh during their Eurotrip! [View Full Entry]

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