Daniel's Bloggggg

So, yes, I haven't checked in for ages ... the last blog I posted was a long time ago, in fact after we returned from Dublin and that indeed is ages ago ...

 

The last quarter of 2008 was a hassle. Two weeks after we returned from Ireland, Flavia and I set out to discover what's happening in the capital of the north - Manchester and when in the area, we couldn't have missed out on Liverpool of course. We started with the latter, and after we spent a pleasant night in a Marriott Golf Club resort near Manchester, Liverpool was on the plan to entertain us for a day. The weather was rubbish, but that we expected anyway. The city is alright. We checked on the Albert Dock, The Beatles Museum, Titanic Museum and the Liverpool branch of the Tate gallery early in the day and we also managed to miss the Magical Mystery Tour dedicated to the Beatles legacy by a minute, as we stayed a bit extra in the souvernir shop to make my signorina Flavia happy ;o)) ... I had fun all the way though, apart maybe from the Titanic Museum and the Tate gallery, but my lack of interest at least in the gallery was compensated by the overflowing interest on my girlfriend's part, so it was all time well spent, hehe ...

 

After we have paid sufficient amount of attention to the area of Albert Docks, we moved on to the area of The Cavern. The bar where The Beatles used to play is in fact a fake, as the original property burnt down. We spent some time in, then walked around to check on some other Beatles legacy and then ended up in some kind of a Korean all you can eat where we were offered heaven for just 10 quid.

 

The night that day was the last one we spent in the Marriot chain with my remaining points, after which we headed for Manchester. That turned into an unexpected challenge, as we somehow started circling around on the ring road. When we got tired of the highway, we took one of the junctions and somehow navigated ourselves towards the tall and slim looking Hilton hotel that gives the city a landmark. We liked Manchester as there was music in the streets and crowds strolling around the shopping center. Also Oasis is from there, so Flavia loved the city without having to even set her eyes on it in the first place. Half way through our visit, we discovered John Ryland's library, which was a building half modern - half-neo-gothic style-ish. We were thrilled. On the other hand we weren't impressed by the Roman Walls, that basically don't exist. At the end of the visit, we also got to see the modern Lowry.

 

At the beginning of November, Flavietta and I moved together. We found ourselves a beautiful flat at Canary Wharf in London. The whole moving and arrangements around it made me lose some weight that I more than regained during Christmas, but that's a different story ;o))

 

At the end of November we were off to Naples. I flew in straight from Amsterdam while Flavia took a flight from London. Apart from seeing Flavia's family, we also managed to do a day trip to Pompei. Ahhh, how I loved Pompei :oP ... awwweeeesoommmeee ... I also got to taste a panuotzo (well, something of that name anyway), which is a grand panino with pizza like stuff inside. Worth trying ... We then did a leisure Sunday in the center of Napoli. We went to see the Christmas market that started early in Naples as usual. Especially the Presepe that is the Nativity Scene made out of wood with every details captured imaginable was impressive. Then I set a new personal record after I ate a quattro formaggi and and a margheritta on top of it ... Yeah, I was soo full, I couldn't breathe ... We flew back to London from where I returned to Holland on Monday morning.

 

The weekend after Flavia and I were on our way to Torino where Flavia's father lives. Torino was freezing, Flavia and I were getting a bit tired, but we still had fun. Flavia's father helped us discover the city. We saw the Royal Palace, the cathedral in the center that is half gothic, half new age architecture. We tasted lots of foods, local espresso and spotted the mountain that Paramount uses in its logo (the triangle shaped one). We did miss one biggie, which was the Mole Antonelliana, which is the city landmark with a huge alluminium spire at the top. We did freeze in front of it for half an hour and we did move some two meters closer to the entrance, but then we can always choose a better plays to freeze to death, so we gave this one up for once. The next day Flavia's father took us to his golf club, where we saw some great nature of Torino, but also ate some amazing pasta :oP ...

 

The week after we really needed to get some rest and so we did. Apart from the late Xmas shopping, we somehow did regain strength by spending some extra hours in bed. But still, it wasn't enough. The last week before Christmas I celebrated the St. Daniel day (yeah, my saint day :oP and I got presents too ...), but more importantly my nephew Petr (Czech version of Peter, so not a spelling mistake there guys!!) was born ... yo yo yo ... I was really happy.

 

Flavia and I wrapped it up in London end of the week. I left on Dec 19 and Flavia one day after me. I then spent my Christmas holiday at home. I was mostly sick in bed, but still had a great time. On Dec 30 Flavia and I returned back to London and on Dec 31 we went down to the center to watch the London's fireworks, which were awesome. I'll post the pics here in a bit ...

 

So that's what was happening the last three months of 2008 in my life. Time flew by soooo quick ... Anyway, here we are one year older, so the next post I put here will be a 2 0 0 9 one ;o))

 

 

Last weekend Flavia and I have done the actual celebration of Flavia's birthday. Although the DAY was August 31, the present in the form of a trip to Dublin for the two of us, was only scheduled to Oct 10-12, so we finally got to reap the benefits last weekend.

 

The trip started on Friday when we left London from the Luton airport later in the evening and took a Ryan Air flight straight to Dublin. For me it was the first time flying the low-cost carrier and had no clue what to expect. In fact, I couldn't complain about anything unexpected. All rules were strictly aiming at cashing more money for the compay, which was expected and understandable ... so both Flavia and I were careful not to break any of the constraints of a cheap flight and we did well ;o))) ...

 

We arrived in Dublin pretty late - around 11pm and quickly found our way to our 5-star Shelbourne Rennaissance hotel in the center - close to the Grafton street. We also learnt that our accommodation included free snacks and a breakfast - no issues there of course ;o))) ...

 

On Friday night we went out to see the Temple bar street where all the pubs and clubs are. Right there it stroke me as a totally amazing thing that there were so many busking musicians in the streets. I really enjoyed myself listening to the music.

 

We dedicated Satuday to the discovery of the city. Quite a lot of walking was involved and we got to see the Grafton Street, the Spire, the shopping district, Temple bar during daylight, St Stephen's Green park, St. Patrick's cathedral (from outside), the Guiness brewery, Dublin castle (from outside), the Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral and others ...

 

On Sunday we then spent some time strolling around the Dublin docklands and then we also found the venue where the resident Octoberfest celebrations were happening, which was great.

 

I really liked Dublin. I didn't find the city to be necessarily rich in sights, but I found it fun and much enjoyable. People were nice and during the day also well mannered (while during the night I found the locals out of control getting absolutely hammered!!!).

 

Ireland seems to be a great country and I can't wait to go and discover it a little bit more by a week-long road trip maybe ... one day ... ;o)))

On Wed, Oct 24, I flew from Amsterdam to Prague. It was my first time to try lowcost SkyEurope, as well as my first time to use my flexible fly-back corporate allowance that gives me an opportunity to choose a different destination to London every other weekend.

 

My parents were awaiting me at the airport around 10pm. I was knackered when I arrived, which had been expected. SkyEurope will likely not become my favourite airline after I paid some 180EUR for the tickets and then had to add anotehr 20EUR for a check in luggage and aft4r all those expenses wasn't served even a drop of water. Not sure where the low-cost aspect lies anymore. Maybe we should start calling these boyz rip-off Airlines ...

 

Anyway, it was great to be home. On Thu morning I had an appointment in the hospital to get my third vaccine to prevent Hepatytis A & B, which is a life-long prevention. Then I had a few more things to sort out in Ceska Lipa and later that morning I turned on my 65W Valveline Marshall amp at home. With no one there apart from my dog CJ, I could enjoy a bit of noise ;o)) ... (CJ didn't appreciate that and went away soon after I started).

 

Then on Thu afternoon I met with my grandma in Prague. She was really happy to see me, as I was to see her anyway! We went shopping, had lunch together and in the afternoon I headed off back to the center of Prague where I met Michal, my sister and Tomas. Flavia was due to arrive at the Prague Ruzyne airport around 11pm, also with SkyEurope. That didn't happen and I ended picking her up at 2am instead.

 

On Friday Flavia and I changed plans and came with an alternative and slightly more relaxing daily schedule. Apart from getting my hair-cut, we also drove up to Liberec where we performed a short hike up to the look out tower. The weather was horrible and we were also terribly late to arrive. So right after that we drove back to Ceska Lipa where my parents took us out for a very nice Italian style dinner.

 

On Saturday morning I drove Flavia to Kutna Hora, which is a very beautiful Czech town presenting quite a rich gothical legacy. The catherdral of St. Barbara, the Tyl theater and other monumental buildings and views. Flavia enjoyed the town for its great atmosphere. One strange thing that occured to us was that there were hardly any people out there, and then we came to the central plaza where a folk concert was unveiling, which sort of explained it ;o)) ... After we were done with Kutna Hora we drove back to Prague where we got to see a the performance of water fountain to the music of the world's famous musicals. The event was nice, but after 30mins things got a bit repetitive ..

 

On Sunday our plan dictated that we were to see the few places in Prague we missed the first time. First we started with the cable-car ascend to Petrin where we walked up to the famous look out tower. From there one gets an amazing view of the Vltava river and the castle and the Strahov cloister. We then went to see the inside of the property and then descended by the Prague's castle towards the Paladium where we met my parents and ate so much sushi that we almost got sick ...

 

Shortly after that Flavia and I just managed to see the metronom oposite to the Revolucni street and from there we also caught last 30mins of the Jewish Synagogue in Parizska street. Then towards the end of the day we met with our friends and our trip to the Czech Republic was over. The very next day in the morning we had to get up at 4.30am to catch our flights, which in fact gave an opening to a very tiring week ...

 

We both had lots of fun in the Czech Republic and I cannot wait to bring Flavia home again :oP

On Friday, Sep 12, Flavia and I were supposed to have a longly anticipated date in Brussels. We had prepared everything, exchange lots of messages clearly stating how much we had been looking forward to it, but then the bad luck struck and unbelievable and unplanned happened ... the Euro-tunnel between England and France went alight and as the fire was still pretty much alive on Friday, the chances of Flavia making it to Brussels on time were nothing other than none ... As a matter of a quick readjustment, we still luckily managed to book a flight with KLM from London to Amsterdam where I picked up my signorina in the evening ... And that's how we came about spending that weekend in the Netherlands instead ...

 

On Friday, we quickly assembled a weekend plan and on early Saturday morning we took a train to Zaanse Schanz, which is a small village 13km north of Amsterdam that even some of my Dutch colleagues never heard of, and the ones who did gave me a wide smile when I mentioned I visited the place. As nice as it is, it basically stands for one thing - TOURISM ;o)) ... The village has been maintained to resemble the life in the Netherlands in its very traditional way. The houses look like they supposedly did 200 years ago, and so are the wind mills. We did a tour in one of the wind mill producing colors and there were others to check out, which we eventually didn't find time for, i.e. wood cutting mill, flour mill, etc. ... One of the old-time-version of a shop I enjoyed a lot was the original Albert Heijn ... very nice ...

 

Later in the afternoon we took a train to a town - Haarlem, which is famous for its market at the town square accompanied by a cathedral. The city center is utmost beautiful and there are plenty of houses to check designed in the typical Dutch style of archtiecture. Flavia and I were sold on the food available at the market of course and apart from a great Italian bread, we also bought some cheese and given the misfortune with our trip to Belgium, we were desperately in need of some Belgium pralines :oP ...

 

On Sunday we did another early start and made it to Rotterdam, which is famous predominantly for its modern style architecture, after its town center has been wiped off the surface of the earth during the WWII by both German and then also the American army (if I got that correctly :oS) ... Many buildings were quite interesting and contrary to what I had been told by everyone I actually enjoyed what the city had to offer. We did a little bit of a disappointing tour of the harbor though, which didn't bring much new to the table apart form an endless view of containers, but well ... 9EUR badly spent, which isn't that drastic ...

 

In the afternoon we set out for the town of Delft, which was an exact opposite to what we saw in Rotterdam. The city looked very traditional full of the Dutch architecture we saw elsewhere, i.e. Amsterdam, Haarlem or even Zaanse Schanz ... We loved the center, the small shops, the pulse of the city ... it was just great, although Flavia expressed she could never live there as it was still too small for her needs, eheh ... what a party animal :o)) ...

 

On Sunday evening we took it a bit easy and landed on the beach of Scheveningen (I'm sure my spelling is wrong ... but well ...) ... It's a nice, cozy and cheese Dutch beach close to the Hague and it was a welcome relax after the weekend of sight-seeing around the country ...

 

Flavia left the Hague on Monday morning and I'm sure she had as much fun as I did, which is of course - LLLOOOOTTTSSSSS :oD ...

On Friday afternoon we arrived to Vancouver International Airport, passed the customs and easily found our way back to the hostel. This trip we did some three weeks before and it felt like we only left the place a couple of days ago ... all that time of our holiday passed by so quickly ...

 

On Friday evening we did a bit of a walk around the center of Vancouver and I finally managed to get into the Tom Lee music store to check out on the guitars. Flavia and Carol were patient enough to stay around and wait for me while I was checking out the instruments. Another must do was to buy some sushi opposite to the SameSun hostel, which is easily the best sushi I have ever had for a price that I simply do not understand - 6CAD for 12 pieces of sushi - miracle ;o)) ... Michal was also given time to conduct some of his camera shopping business, which in this time consisted of a return of a malfunctional Samsung camcorder and receiving a voucher in exchange to buy other electronics he didn't need, hehe ... Later that night we met Michal's friend from Cuba whom we both met (Michal met her more than me though ;o))) a year ago. She took us over to a club where we conversed for a while before she dropped us back in the center ...

 

On Saturday we decided to cancel our plan to visit the capital of British Columbia - Victoria. It would have been different if we were to see it at the beginning of the trip, but by then we all were too tired to travel somewhere 3-4hours and then return back spending again 3-4hrs on the bus/boat. So we all opted for some shopping. Michal bought a laptop, I bought a guitar and the girls found some cool magnets ;o))) ... We all were happy, especially Flavia, who met a good friend of hers from Australia called Darren.

 

The day after the weather turned all rainy and we didn't bother catching an early taxi to the airport where we hung around a bit longer than usual, but by then I had lots to read, the girls had some further souvenire hunting to do and Michal kind of also chilled out. The flight back to London went as expected. Thomas Cook didn't come to senses while we were in America and offered us the same level of hospitality as on the way there, so nothing to write home about ...

 

When we returned to London, Michal decided to use the first of the two flight tickets he accidentally booked and travelled home to the Czech Rep on the exact date. The girls went to Flavia's and I headed back to my apartment to kick off the unpacking and other choirs ... On Tuesday morning at 5.30am I was to wake up, dress up, pack up and leave London for my project in Holland ... The holiday was over and I was more tired than before I left, or at least I felt so, hehe ...