Blogs from Europe - page 10057

Bulgaria Trip Plovdiv and Bachkovo Monastery I wanted to visit Rila Monastery but Evan told us that as the President of the country was visiting the monastery on the same day, foreigners would not be allowed to visit due to security reasons. I was not exactly heart-broken. After all, when I visited Plovdiv, I would also be visiting the second largest monastery, the Bachkovo Monastery. However, my plans appeared to be jinxed because the car had been booked by another lady from the Sheraton hotel. “You can go on the tour if you are willing to share the car with another lady”. The tour-desk-manager of Sheraton said. I was more than willing. It would be nice to have the company of another lady on the long drive. Accordingly, I was waiting in our hotel lobby when ... read more

May 16, 2008 This morning I had my final for Civ. I was so happy when that was over because I was not a fan of the class, mainly because it was history, and history and I don’t get along! I was an official SENIOR! That is scary stuff! I hung out at the Center for a little bit more, and then waited for Katie to come back from the airport because her mom and grandma’s plane was stuck in Lisbon for 12 hours. We walked home and I took a record shower (3 minutes!) before lunch. Lolina made my favorite food for our last lunch altogether. Then I got ready, and walked to school to drop off my phone while Julie packed. Then I walked to Triana to meet Katie to take her stuff to ... read more

We arrived in downtown Praiano at the Hotel Margherita yesterday. Internet access has been difficult. TUSCANY Wow, what a place! So many hills, windy roads and beautiful litttle villages. The Chianti area we were in was Radda, the very heart of the Tuscan hills. From our base at Villa Visterinni, we went to places like San Gimiano, Volterra, Pisa, Siena and Florence. Each day, a diferent direction. The architecture and the sheer history is amazing. All places were probably better than expected. Weather wasn't too bad. The windy roads were a good teacher of RHS driving. I know where the Italian Grand Prix drivers practice lol. TIVOLI We drove from Toscana about 300k south and arrived in Tivoli, just outside of Rome and stayed the night there. Tivoli was where the Roman Patricians went to escape ... read more

So I'm back in Kaunas!! My fourth season playing for Kaunas Lituanica. Man I am getting old..... I arrived at the field at around 1:30 PM. I was the second to arrive, just after Gedas and Sigitas. Gedas was wearing nice street clothes, and Sigitas was dressed already in his uniform having worn it for the previous game (the younger team played earlier in the day). I immediately took out a trash bag and began picking up trash, remnants from the previous evening’s festivities. Gintaras Stadium, our stadium, has no fully-enclosed fence around it. We do not own the field. Thus the stands are a popular hangout place for teenagers looking for a place to party cheaply. Even during our game today, for example, there were three separate groups of teenagers hanging out in the bleachers ... read more

Yesterday we got up at some insane hour of the morning to catch the 655 train to Brussels. It is a 3 hour train ride and mum and I took turns sleeping for half the trip each. Very different to Amsterdam! Found ourselves a map thanks to the novotel and walked across the road for waffles... All we really came to Belgium for was waffles, chocolates and beer hehe... Whilst eating yummy waffles that weren't Vegan, sorry Vegan viewers, we worked out what we wanted to do... Found an information booth and started on a self guided walking tour which took us up to the cathedral which was really pretty... Kept on with the walking tour and it brought us to a comic museum!!!! I was in paradise surrounded by smurfs, tin tin and asterix comic ... read more