On Aug 4 (Monday) midday we boarded a Coral Princess cruise ship that took us eventually to Alaska. Let me make here a few notes about the ship. Coral Princess belongs to the Princess Cruises corporation and up to approximately 2000 customers can comfortably board the vessel with a staff to customer ratio approximately 1:2.5. The Princess company has been apparently around for some time and even almost one month after we have set our foot on their boat, I am still full of great memories of the great service we have received when travelling with them. All their staff are very well trained and always happy to help out whatever it was we wanted. The highlight was the food though, which was simply amazing and easily the best food I had ever been fed over the course of a week time.

Now back to the actual trip, which I had originally been trying to plan as a backpacking adventure. Well, five-star cruiseship takes the backpacking characteristic off the equation, but the sort of adventure prevails :o)) ... (certainly the one adventure where you try to roll off the dinner table after you ate 9 course meal and you can no longer breathe ...) ...

Anyway, the first two days we spent on the board of the ship that landed us at a touristy place called Ketchikan on Wednesday early morning. Trying to save some funds we decided against booking of any organized tours on the ship and stepped on the Alaskan landscape fully on our own. The tour operators were of course lined up in front of the cruise trying to sell us all things possible, but we resisted. I strongly recommend always checking with local Tourist Information offices for useful information, which we did. This time we weren't that lucky as the guy ended up being pretty vague about what to do in his small hometown. However, he set us on a trail where we got lost and my Flavia fell into a pothole of mud and screamed the hell out of the whole forrest ;o))) ... Apart from that we managed to see the main attractions, such as the creek street and the place where salmon frequently jumps above the water level.

On Thursday we landed in Juneau, the capital of Alaska (most people think it's Anchorage and so did I of course ...). We invested our money into two organized tours in Juneau and I think we made a good decision. The first one was a Guide's choice of a hike, where the local guide brought us up this fairly easy hike to a beautiful mountain glacier. And in the afternoon Flavia and I indulged ourselves with a Photo safari tour where we had a photographer advising on what and how to take photos showing us the best places to take shots. The best time came when they brought us onto an open sea to show us whales that gathered in a tiny gulf to catch fish and those couple of hours immediately became our top 5 moments in Alaska altogether I believe ...

On Friday the cruise ship landed in Skagway, which is a place where the veins of the gold rush trails started, and so we dedicated our visit to the Skagway part of the story. As we travelled around Alaska the following days, the story slowly unfolded and gaps were filled up. From Skagway we also took a train that brought us up to a Whitepass trail, which the stampeders used to get up north and where approximately 3000 horses died by maltreatment of greedy humans. The train ride was quite expensive, but it was also a must-see, as it provided for amazing views of the Skagway surroundings. In the afternoon I pushed everyone into another walk around a fairly simple trail ...

On Saturday the cruise ship entered the Glaciar Bay, which is famous for its spectacular glaciars. Around 10am we were passing by one of the main glaciars of the national park when an essential piece of ice disattached itself from the massive and slid into the ocean accompanied by this typical noise linked to glaciar movement. Our group were in breakfast when it happened, so none of us has a photo of the spectacle ;o)) ... Then later in the day the rangers came on board of the ship and gave presentations about the park, which I found amazing, especially when they produced photos of the animals that live there.

Sunday was our last day and the cruise ship arrived very close to Whittier which was our final destination. The last day was, again, dedicated to water tied glaciers and as we spent it all on the board of the ship, we can also say that we filled it up with food of all kinds. What stood out for the girls especially was the exhibit of cakes that we first photographed and then ate our little share :o))) ... What we saw outside at that point was a College Glacier and we again loved it and took many photos.

On Monday morning the disembarkation procedure took place, we paid all our debts and left the ship for a bus that took us over to Anchorage where the next chapter of our adventure began.

On April 30, Flavia and I met at Old Street in the center of London after work to commence our first 'real' trip together, this time leading us to the Czech Republic for five days. The trip had been planned well in advance, as its main purpose was to attend my sister's wedding. Lots was anticipated ;o))) ...

Our flight that night was delayed (as usual) and we arrived to the Czech Republic with some 30mins delay. Under normal circumstances it would have been cool, but not that day. As my sister was already busy preparing herself for the big day and her to-be-husband Tomas was out busy working his stag-night experience to perfection, it ended up to be his mother who volunteered to hand me and Flavia the keys from my sister's flat where we would eventually spend the night. That delay effectively signified that we wouldn't ring the bell of her door at 1am, but 1.30am ... Apart from the very issue of how to unlock the reverse shift in my sister's Toyota, we managed to transport ourselves independently to my sis' and spent the night.

The next day's schedule had been planned as if such things as tiredness could never kick in, so we slipped big time first thing and surprisingly enough our very first Prague trip lead us to a sushi all-u-can-eat place. This Czech Republic experience might have been sitting on Flavia's mind for some time already, as she could be easily proclaimed sushi-orthodox ;o))) ... Yeah, this place indeed is amazing! The quality of Sushi and the variety of it make it all pretty unique. Let aloe the price of app 12EUR that made it heaven-on-Earth for my Italian principessa ...

After we stuffed ourselves to the full capacity of our stomaches, it was time to move on and see a bit of Prague. My tourguide senses demanded that we see the path of the kings that begins with the Powder Gate and ends on the Prague's castle. I do not need to repeat here how beautiful this route is and how photogenic Prague can be given nice weather. All those factors were in place that day and our SLR's have been put through some stress-tests ;o)) ...

Probably the very single unique experience was the visit to the Old Town Square Town Hall tower. The look out provisions amazing experience and with a 70-300mm lenses fit to a body of a fair SLR, I've certainly taken some cool pics, which I will post here on my blog first thing when I get a chance!

We also crossed the Charles Bridge, walked up Neruda street to the Prague's castle where our walk ended. Tomas somehow volunteered to accompany us during the day. It was most likely better than sit at home and stress about the day coming next when he was to cease being single. At times, we might have appeared to be a bit anal when every spire of Prague was to be analyzed and subsequently photographed ;o)) ... I just don't see Tomas committing himself to sight-seeing with me and Flavia again, but maybe that's just me being skeptical ...

In the evening we left Prague heading for my parents' house where my family excitingly awaited the arrival of the upcoming husband to my sister, of my new amazing lady Flavia and of course they were happy to see me too among everything else ;o)) ... My mom prepared a great dinner, then I produced my American version of the Monopoly board game, which I eventually won, but then everyone was way too tired to pay attention to my suspicious dealing with all the trades around the board.

Friday, which was day No 2 in the Czech Rep, was the WEDDING day!!! First of all I showed Flavia my hometown - Ceska Lipa - which she seemed to like. We also happened in a cafe, where I was served a superb Latte, but which was more importantly located in an Art Nuveau town house and Flavia liked its design. Seeing her happy made me happy, so all was great.

My mom left our house earlier that morning to collect my grandma in Prague and drive her back to the wedding place that happened to be half way from my home town and Prague. My dad drove us to the castle and my sister and Tomas were driving Tomas' Subaru Impreza separately. For some reason, our car showed up almost first of all. Fortunately Tomas' parents made a decision to beat us to it, so we at least new that we entered the right venue ;o)) ... my friends made their appearance shortly after us, so many hello kisses were distributed back and forth. Flavia, in the meantime, threw here focus around wedding cakes tables and before I knew it she became an expert on every kind of those that made it to the table. She could basically tell which cake contained nuts with her eyes closed I suspected ;o)) ... I admit though that I followed suit as beating hunger with diet wasn't among my objectives that day ... neither was Flavia's, so we had a great time together, hehe ...

My grandma made it finally too and her first encounter with Flavia lead to many compliments about Flavia's curly long black hair. Well, everyone loved and normally loves it anyway, so the girl is probably used to it ;o)) ... During long wedding preparations, various members of the two families tried to lead some sensible conversation among each other. Flavia and I didn't waste time and took many pictures with our SLRs. So we tried to do during the actual ceremony. Unfortunately, mine didn't turn out well, as I've totally mismanaged my seating position for them. That's when I realized it wasn't in my stars to become a photograph. I wouldn't want to imagine how much Tomas would charge me for trying to sell him the only few out-of-focus pics I'd taken ... well, let's hope the pro photograph did better :o)) ...

After the ceremony, further waiting was scheduled and then the dinner came. Everyone was looking forward to it, which could be gathered from all faces present. And yes, the food was absolutely amazing and prepared with good sense of creativity! We all loved it!

For some reason, I've prepared music that was to be played during the dinner, but it never made it on stage during the occassion. Instead we were listening to some outburst of madness in the background. At least it was kept low in volume and we heard each other well ... my music was then used later on when the dancing sessions began!

We danced a lot, especially Flavia and I. My grandma found us to be great dancers, but our self-assessment goes in direct contradiction with what she said ;o)) ... anyway, we had fun!!!

The day 3 - Saturday - was to be dedicated to Ceska Lipa and surrounding jewels of history. First we checked out the Liblice Castle where the marriage happened on prior night. Lots of photos were taken and then we took off for a gothical castle Bezdez. The castle sits among a lake famous in the Czech Rep called Macha Lake. It's located on a hill and Flavia managed to choose the least suitable hiking suit ever. She looked beautiful, but with a long skirt it was quite a challenge to get her up there. Later on we descended and drove further to the actual Macha Lake and took more pictures. After that my father showed Flavia our family ranch, which consists of lots of stones thrown around the garden in a creative fashion somehow mandated by my dad's imagination. My girlfriend probably liked it and most of all found my father's strong drive towards unconventional architecture of what he calls Euro-Asian gardens impressive.

Day 4 - Sunday - saw us leave my hometown and head to another very popular Czech castle - Karlstejn. We left my parents' house with a delay, but at least Flavia could get a tour of my father's fish and plants. Then we drove all the way to the castle where we were set to do a bit of walking again to reach the thing. The tour was in English and Flavia loved it, which made me happy. I'm wedded to that castle too, so I was glad she wasn't bored. On Sunday evening we met my sister and Tomas in the center of Prague to have a proper Czech dinner in a restaurant. The heaviness of the food nailed my Italian tesoro to the ground and she committed herself to a diet first thing when we reach London the following day ;o)) ...

Our last day - Monday - was dedicated to Prague again. We've taken multiple pictures of the Dancing House in the center. Then we've seen the apostels at the Old town square and believe it or not, we visited the sushi place all over again and got totally stuffed. Shortly after that our time was up and we had to leave for the airport.

Our departure from my home land didn't go very well. We arrived at the airport early and Czech airlines were in need of folks who wouldn't mind taking an alternative flight through Frankfurt as the flight happened to be overbooked. The reward was appealing enough for us to consent. Unfortunately we were the last ones to opt for this option and as someone didn't show up for the flight, we ended up being thrown back on the flight with the only exception that there was no time left for us to do some souvenir shopping. But hell, maybe it just saved us money for useless stuff ....

What was less amuzing was the fact that our luggage didn't make it to Lodnon. Flavia had a meeting where she needed to look all smart and beautiful, which couldn't be reached 100% without some means hidden in her suitcase. For me the situation wasn't great either as I was bound to travel to the Netherlands next day early in the morning. Of course, CSA totally screwed up, and I saw my suitecase on Thursday evening - unbelievable!!!

All-in-all the Czech Republic trip was absolutely stunning and we've already commenced planning on our next trip, which is going to be NAPLES!!!!

The weekend in mid March started quite intensely right on Friday evening when my friend David returned to London for the weekend and organized a night out with our other buddies from work. The restaurant we picked for this occassion was nothing great - Chiquitos at Leicester Sq (very much overpriced for what the quantity and quality you get - speaking about quality, get ready for no taste and inconsistency what-so-ever ;o)) ...

I brought Flavia over with me. We expected an attendance of three ladies, but only two popped up, but still better than usual, hehe ... After Chiquitos we set out for a club. There's one just nextdoor called Ruby Blue. There we paid another £10 entry fee each. The bar wasn't bad, but I was already quite tired when we got there and didn't intend to stay too long. Unfortunately I have neither managed to chat to Dave properly, who's now travelling around the world again, so our talk will need to wait a few more months.

Flavia and I headed home around 1.30 am both pretty much knackered. The fun bit was that we had already planned a day trip to Dover for basically the same day, hoping to leave early, but that somehow didn't happen. And, in fact, it could never worked out with us going to sleep at 3am anyway ;o)) ...

Although we were leaving well after midday, we still got out of the house and headed for Dover, which we reached shortly after 3 (the Dover Castle was to close at 4!!!). That didn't give us way too much time to wander around the place. This was Flavia's and mine first trip outside of London and fortunately we found out we both really enjoy taking photos and checking out places like this, so it was really fun ... I only wish we had had more time to spend there ... I'll upload a few pics on my blog, so that you can see what we saw ;o)) ...

After Dover we left for Cantebury for a nice evening walk and possibly some food. We were quite lucky as the Cathedral ground was open and we could enter the property without paying. Last time I was in Cantebury the entry fee was around £8 that I refused to pay ... We didn't get to eat in Cantebury as plans changed last minute and we decided to hit O'Neill's that night, so we had to rush back to London to get ready ...

We made it to Soho alright, but never got to O'Neill's. The place was packed!!!! Instead then I brought Flavia over to Yates, which was a weak substitute for live rock music, but yet, we did have some fun dancing around. The day had been long though, so we left around 1am and headed back home ...