Only Rachel would come up with that description for a purple cactus which was shaped like an artichoke. So here i am in Sydney, after 36 hours of travel. I got through it of course and it was totally worth it! The trip started off well, with an improptu discussion about the hideousness of the american job market and the problems of standardized testing when i checked in at Newark airport. Lets put it this way, i had 4 very liberal conversations enroute to Sydney, 2 with americans, 2 with Aussies. These 4 conversations, the empty seat next to me from [View Full Entry]

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… is 1/3 of a Ford Focus. That is what Sam drove the two of us 830 miles in 4 days in. Destination: Blair Atholl Scotland. What is in Blair Atholl? A large castle, and some of Sam’s cousins who live in a rather posh house How we got to Blair Atholl: we rented the Ka and drove all the way to Crainlarich in one day. Because of two navigational errors it took 9hours. (it is not my fault that the entrances to the Motorways do not specify north or south, just the names of some random villages. We got a [View Full Entry]

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The Welsh roads make even Kitchawan (for those of you not familiar with roller coaster road, it is narrow and curvy) wide. Add that to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road here... Anyways, i ended up spending Sat night in chester, which i quite liked. Everyone i met in chester was unbeleivably nice. When i asked the man selling train tickets how to take a bus where i needed to go, he paid for me to take a taxi. i stopped and loooked at my map when i went to eat and another man stopped [View Full Entry]

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Spent not enough time in Bern, as i was there enroute to Wales. From what i saw Bern is BEAUTIFUL. Fantastic architecture and clocks on every tower. Ate a traditional german swiss meal: bacon, beef, egg, shredded potato, cheese onions and pickels all cooked in one cast iron skillet. Quite good, but really greasy. Saw 3 street performers playing with fire, and ate a great apricot studdel. I slept in a nice clean hostel, woke up early to take the train to geneva, then a TGV to Paris Gare de Lyon, then an RER to another RER (its like the PATH [View Full Entry]

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There is something wild about standing on a sheet of ice in a tank top and being hot. No, this isnt a indoor skating rink, but the top of Steinglacier. It was quite warm, even in the mountians the day in went ice climbing. After being outfitted with special boots, and packing a borrowed backpack full of fleeces, crampons (spikes for the bottoms of the boots) ice hammers, larger ice axes, harnesses, ropes and carabeeners, the guide and us 9 advertures headed out to Steinglacier. After an hour of fast mountain driving, the glacier was in view. Our guide, whos name [View Full Entry]

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That was todays matra from hiking. Wasnt i supposed to be hanging off a glacier? yes, but due to circumstances beyond my control, i will have to wait until tomorow. After that i walked to the train station one past interlaken to take the train up to Lennerbrennan, the hub for mountian expolring, just to find that it "wasnt running". It wasnt running because it is a single track just past that point, and the down hill driver ran a red signal, and slowed down, but the other driver, could slow down in time and they crashed (i found all this [View Full Entry]

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So here i am in Interlaken. Interlaken is, as the name describes, between two lakes. It reminds me of the South Island of New Zealand. Combining the beauty here with the an intense (since 8th grade= desire to Hangglide, finally caused me to pay, and go. WOW: I am so glad i went the take off rocked. I ran alongside the instructor and all of the sudden the ground was gone. Neil was amazed at how calm i was, its not like jumping out of an airplane, so he cirlcled us near a cliff, and lots of other huge swoops. At [View Full Entry]

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Got to Geneva today. its too hot to hike for now, it was over 34 C today. thats not normal here, at all. I spent the day checking out the festival and trying to avoid the heat. The festival is pretty cool. more later [View Full Entry]

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I left the south on friday to head back to Paris, this time to see and stay with my dads cousin Ruth and her husband Christian. They were so great to be with.We ate Crepes for dinner the first night, that were SO good. I learned a lot about my dads family, which was really cool, since i only ever learn about moms family. Saturday we went to versilles. Woah. Talk about an extravagant building. Hall of mirrors is huge, like the whole thing. I cant get over the size and decadance of the whole thing. After seing the "house" the [View Full Entry]

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Tanai and i made dinner for 7. Her ravioli in a tomato, cream, onion, and chantarelles sause was absolutelz awsome. My date with cooking destiny was 1.2 kilos of cod... cooked caren style, with shallots, zucchinis, zucchini blossoms, and lots of wine. It was good. The cake for Michelles birthday was an awesome chocolate and white chocolate mousee... yummmm Wed beach. thn tanias mom took us for an amazing meal of stuffed veggies, shimp (w heads to remove), a huge salad with prwns and a chocolate cake with a molten center. mmmm After Tania left on thursday, all loaded down with [View Full Entry]

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