new post new post new post new post.
it is raining (storming) at the moment. i have the front door open, and the breeze blowing in feels absolutely delicious on my skin. it's been so warm the past few days around 34°C (93°F) and it has been awful. so, the fresh cool air is just wonderful.
i'm still walking to and from work. which has been great for listening to music! i have an hour every day devoted just to me and my ipod. i'm rediscovering music i haven't heard in months (and sometimes years!) it has also been super for the less frequent fill ups of benzine! saving money is always a plus! AND, i'm not pumping nearly as much CO2 into the atmosphere. (even though my car is a certified LEV, but i digress)
i am currently planning a second trip to deutschland! it will be far shorter than my last excursion, only 8/9 days including travel. i will also be going in late november, so weather will not be nearly as fantastic as it was in march. and i will be going solo. so that will be interesting.
while i'm there, i want to take a day trip into Ghent (Melle) Belgium, so i can take a tour of my favorite brewery. the Huyghe brewery, which makes Delirium tremens, and delirium nocturnum. such wonderful beer (if you haven't tried it before, DO yourself a favor and pick up a bottle!)
okay, that's all he wrote. for now.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
the long road home.
So! our flight.
Well, we got through everything ok, got our bags checked in, went through security, and passport control just fine.
we got to the gate over 1h20min early, too! so, we waited to be called, and eventually got onto the airplane and found our seats. then the plane started moving, and this weird smell started coming into the cabin. pilot said we'd wait it out a little, and then said we were first in line to take off. yay!
then, as we were getting ready to take off, he announced that since the smell was getting worse, we were going to pull aside, and have mechanics look at the engine. 15min later, made announcement- no new info. 30min later, he had us get off the plane, and a bus took us to a ground level terminal.
in this terminal we waited for several hours. got vouchers to have lunch, and i panicked because i had no way to get a hold of anyone to let them know we were going to miss our connecting flight in ATL. i kept trying to log on to the internet, and was willing to pay the 4€ to get online, but the instructions were completely in german, and that high level german was too hrd for me to figure out.
so, i wandered around, and found someone to ask where i could find phone cards. she directed me to a bank, so i paid 5€ for a 20min phone card LOL. found a pay phone, called Dad, Mom, Jennifer (left messages with all). then later called Julie and Pat, tried dad again. then about an hour later, finally got a hold of my dad.
by now, it was like 15.00, and still no new info on the plane. then, around 16.00 they said we could finally fly, and would board in ~40mins. then, 17:15 rolled arund, and nothing. this german lady asked what was going on, and we had to wait 'cos some jackass decided to rebook for another day, and they had to go in and get his luggage. (they weren't letting people rebook yet, but this guy was screaming and cussing and making a HUGE stink)
finally, at 18.00 we were on the plane, and taking off! flight was long (10h) and i felt REALLY sick 'cos my throat hurt so much! flight attendants were awesome, though, and brought us a lot of food LOL.
finally landed in ATL at around 23.15 (04.15 in DE)! and the customs people/passport control people stayed late, which was awesome of them. so, that took a lot of time, we were finally through it all around 00.15, and went to the delta counter to rebook for KC. they offered to let us stay in a htel, but our flight was at 07.25 ATL time, and we'd ave to be there at 05.25 to get rescreened for the flight. at that point, with the shuttle to the hotel, we'd get maybe 3 hours at the hotel. so, we decided to stay the night in the airport. had to go back through security, but since it was in the middle of the night, we didn't have to wait too long.
went to find out our gate for the next morning, B-24. took the little subway thing from international concourse (T) 5o concourse B 'cos i was sick of walking with all that luggage LOL. got to concourse B, and found out all the bathrooms were being worked on/cleaned all night. (except for one little family bathroom). THEN, it was COLD in concourse B, too. so, we maybe got 30m-45m of sleep all night. then, around 03.15, i decided to walk around a bit to warm up. i noticed the gate number had changed for our flight! (i'm so glad i walked around) 'cos we needed to be in A-30!
got our stuff, and made it over to concourse A. here, it was warm and toasty! and, all the bathroom were nice and warm! used our food vouchers for breakfast ~05.00, and then noticed the woman sitting in front of us from DUS -> ATL was going to be on our flight from ATL -> MCI! we figured we'd be the only ones! so, we bonded, and talked for a few hours until it came time to board for the flight home!
flight took two hours, and was blissfully uneventful! landed in MCI ~08.30 KS time (09.30 ATL time, 14.30 DE time) and got off the plane. then we waited and waited for my luggage. Scott's came up right away, and mine never came. then, i went to ask the Delta lady, and as soon as we walked over there, whoops, there it was!
my dad picked us up, and we got home around 10.00! took a shower, and then a 45min nap. never went to bed until ~22.45 KS time (04.45 DE time) so, we were up for nearly 48 hours straight. (minus the few naps we had here and there)
i'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, but my right tonsil is still really swollen. i'll have to go have the doctor look at it. *sigh* but, at least i'm not in the airport anymore LOL
Well, we got through everything ok, got our bags checked in, went through security, and passport control just fine.
we got to the gate over 1h20min early, too! so, we waited to be called, and eventually got onto the airplane and found our seats. then the plane started moving, and this weird smell started coming into the cabin. pilot said we'd wait it out a little, and then said we were first in line to take off. yay!
then, as we were getting ready to take off, he announced that since the smell was getting worse, we were going to pull aside, and have mechanics look at the engine. 15min later, made announcement- no new info. 30min later, he had us get off the plane, and a bus took us to a ground level terminal.
in this terminal we waited for several hours. got vouchers to have lunch, and i panicked because i had no way to get a hold of anyone to let them know we were going to miss our connecting flight in ATL. i kept trying to log on to the internet, and was willing to pay the 4€ to get online, but the instructions were completely in german, and that high level german was too hrd for me to figure out.
so, i wandered around, and found someone to ask where i could find phone cards. she directed me to a bank, so i paid 5€ for a 20min phone card LOL. found a pay phone, called Dad, Mom, Jennifer (left messages with all). then later called Julie and Pat, tried dad again. then about an hour later, finally got a hold of my dad.
by now, it was like 15.00, and still no new info on the plane. then, around 16.00 they said we could finally fly, and would board in ~40mins. then, 17:15 rolled arund, and nothing. this german lady asked what was going on, and we had to wait 'cos some jackass decided to rebook for another day, and they had to go in and get his luggage. (they weren't letting people rebook yet, but this guy was screaming and cussing and making a HUGE stink)
finally, at 18.00 we were on the plane, and taking off! flight was long (10h) and i felt REALLY sick 'cos my throat hurt so much! flight attendants were awesome, though, and brought us a lot of food LOL.
finally landed in ATL at around 23.15 (04.15 in DE)! and the customs people/passport control people stayed late, which was awesome of them. so, that took a lot of time, we were finally through it all around 00.15, and went to the delta counter to rebook for KC. they offered to let us stay in a htel, but our flight was at 07.25 ATL time, and we'd ave to be there at 05.25 to get rescreened for the flight. at that point, with the shuttle to the hotel, we'd get maybe 3 hours at the hotel. so, we decided to stay the night in the airport. had to go back through security, but since it was in the middle of the night, we didn't have to wait too long.
went to find out our gate for the next morning, B-24. took the little subway thing from international concourse (T) 5o concourse B 'cos i was sick of walking with all that luggage LOL. got to concourse B, and found out all the bathrooms were being worked on/cleaned all night. (except for one little family bathroom). THEN, it was COLD in concourse B, too. so, we maybe got 30m-45m of sleep all night. then, around 03.15, i decided to walk around a bit to warm up. i noticed the gate number had changed for our flight! (i'm so glad i walked around) 'cos we needed to be in A-30!
got our stuff, and made it over to concourse A. here, it was warm and toasty! and, all the bathroom were nice and warm! used our food vouchers for breakfast ~05.00, and then noticed the woman sitting in front of us from DUS -> ATL was going to be on our flight from ATL -> MCI! we figured we'd be the only ones! so, we bonded, and talked for a few hours until it came time to board for the flight home!
flight took two hours, and was blissfully uneventful! landed in MCI ~08.30 KS time (09.30 ATL time, 14.30 DE time) and got off the plane. then we waited and waited for my luggage. Scott's came up right away, and mine never came. then, i went to ask the Delta lady, and as soon as we walked over there, whoops, there it was!
my dad picked us up, and we got home around 10.00! took a shower, and then a 45min nap. never went to bed until ~22.45 KS time (04.45 DE time) so, we were up for nearly 48 hours straight. (minus the few naps we had here and there)
i'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, but my right tonsil is still really swollen. i'll have to go have the doctor look at it. *sigh* but, at least i'm not in the airport anymore LOL
Monday, March 14, 2011
nederland, a few days late.
oy, what an exhausting trip it was to amsterdam! **warning, super long post ahead. enter at your own risk**
for starters, i was sick the entire weekend (and still have a bit of a sore throat) which made it much less exciting.
the trip on the ICE train from Köln to Amsterdam Centraal was nice. though, surprise! i was "randomly" chosen to have my passport screened. nobody else in the entire wagon, but me. i'm starting to see a pattern here.
got to Centraal (which i will here on forth refer to as AC) and had to figure out their train system in about five minutes. (this didn't pose too much of a problem, because it was very clearly marked, unlike the DE-Bahn...) so I figure out which platform i need, and go to the ticket kiosk. it differs a bit from the debahn, in that you choose your destination, and, well.. it's rather hard to explain. it felt more user friendly. SO, i go to make a payment, and wouldn't you know it, but the paying with notes (bills) section is X'd out. they only took EC cards, Visa/MC, and coin. as i only had about 4€ in coin, and the trip for both of us from AC to Zaandam was 9,2€ i had to pay with my visa. which they then proceeded to charge a 1€ transaction fee. whatever, i was tired and my throat hurt, i wasn't going to try to find another kiosk, wait, and then risk missing my train which was to arrive in 4minutes.
we rush to our platform, and the train was already there. so, two stops, about twelve minutes, and we're in Zaandam. hooray! even better, we could see the hotel from the train station! big hooray! however, they are completely redesinging the area, so we had to figure out how to get INTO our hotel. LOL it took going in and out and up and down, and we finally found it. checked in, the receptionist's english was impeccable, which always makes me feel very guilty, and i took a nice warm shower to shake off some of the "sore throat funk."
that evening we spent slumming around Zaandam, which is a pretty cool little town. the thing that surprised me, though, was how early everything closed. generally, if it was past 20.00, things were closed. which is fine, because i was exhausted, and feel asleep shortly after 21.00 anyhow. (i know, i'm ridiculous) plus, i wanted to feel better for my trek around amsterdam the next day.
so, saturday, we wake up early so we can take Amsterdam head on! we head to the station, find our train we need, and go with excitement in our eyes!
we had intentions of seeing four museums. 1) the torture museum 2) the sex museum 3) the erotica museum 4) the tea and coffee museum
museum 1 was *fairly* far south on the list, so we decided to hit that one first. plus, it was the one that sounded the most fascinating to me. and it definitely was. seeing the devices used in the middle ages to torture, and humiliate people, was awful. however, it made me start thinking about some of the things we do to people now. (Elisabeth and i had a conversation about this last night, too) we really aren't *that* much better than back when they made people sit on spikes to rid the devil. i think the only change is that we don't do it for witchcraft or heresy now. and now we have electricity.
after museum 1, we were getting kind of worn out. and the city was CRAMMED with people. it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without molesting some perfect stranger. so, we spent a few more hours taking in the sights, stopping in an awesome Nepalese market, conversing with the very nice nepalese owner of the market, and decided to make our way back to Zaandam w/o seeing 2, 3, or 4.
when we got back to Zaandam, i was a bit disheartened. i had all of these very romantic ideas of Amsterdam (rather, of the Nord-Holland area) and they had very much faded. but, i remembered seeing something about an open air museum north of the city, so i did a bit o' research and found the name of the place. found a train that would take us there, and we headed off!
HERE was where i fell in love. i am, sometimes, SUCH a midwesterner. i got to see all sorts of brightly coloured houses, bridges, and then, the windmills. oh, the windmills of fairy tales. the windmills one pictures, when one pictures the netherlands. it was, obviously, much less crowded here, so i could act as much like a tourist as i felt. and i did. i very nearly skipped along the pathway while taking in the sights. okay, it wasn't that bad...
anyhow. after i nerded out for several hours in Zaanstadt, we headed back to Zaandam, and wandered around the town some more.
sunday (yesterday) we gave Amsterdam another shot before our train left. it was much less crowded because it was colder than saturday. so, we wandered around, and made our way to museum 2, the Sex museum. very cool. a little cheesy at times, but totally worth 4€ if ever your in the city. there were some very very old sexually related artworks, and some more modern as well.
last thing for today- we were on the ICE back from AC->Köln, and guess who was "randomly" chosen to present his passport this time? Yours truly. LOL. the ride back was much nicer, though, we were in a separate car with a chatty woman from Moscow, and a sleeping dutch woman. (oh, aside- every time i've traveled so far, i have been asked to help someone with his or her luggage. it appeased the inner boyscout. LOL)
kudos, if you read this in its entirety. especially if you made it without falling asleep. LOL
for starters, i was sick the entire weekend (and still have a bit of a sore throat) which made it much less exciting.
the trip on the ICE train from Köln to Amsterdam Centraal was nice. though, surprise! i was "randomly" chosen to have my passport screened. nobody else in the entire wagon, but me. i'm starting to see a pattern here.
got to Centraal (which i will here on forth refer to as AC) and had to figure out their train system in about five minutes. (this didn't pose too much of a problem, because it was very clearly marked, unlike the DE-Bahn...) so I figure out which platform i need, and go to the ticket kiosk. it differs a bit from the debahn, in that you choose your destination, and, well.. it's rather hard to explain. it felt more user friendly. SO, i go to make a payment, and wouldn't you know it, but the paying with notes (bills) section is X'd out. they only took EC cards, Visa/MC, and coin. as i only had about 4€ in coin, and the trip for both of us from AC to Zaandam was 9,2€ i had to pay with my visa. which they then proceeded to charge a 1€ transaction fee. whatever, i was tired and my throat hurt, i wasn't going to try to find another kiosk, wait, and then risk missing my train which was to arrive in 4minutes.
we rush to our platform, and the train was already there. so, two stops, about twelve minutes, and we're in Zaandam. hooray! even better, we could see the hotel from the train station! big hooray! however, they are completely redesinging the area, so we had to figure out how to get INTO our hotel. LOL it took going in and out and up and down, and we finally found it. checked in, the receptionist's english was impeccable, which always makes me feel very guilty, and i took a nice warm shower to shake off some of the "sore throat funk."
that evening we spent slumming around Zaandam, which is a pretty cool little town. the thing that surprised me, though, was how early everything closed. generally, if it was past 20.00, things were closed. which is fine, because i was exhausted, and feel asleep shortly after 21.00 anyhow. (i know, i'm ridiculous) plus, i wanted to feel better for my trek around amsterdam the next day.
so, saturday, we wake up early so we can take Amsterdam head on! we head to the station, find our train we need, and go with excitement in our eyes!
we had intentions of seeing four museums. 1) the torture museum 2) the sex museum 3) the erotica museum 4) the tea and coffee museum
museum 1 was *fairly* far south on the list, so we decided to hit that one first. plus, it was the one that sounded the most fascinating to me. and it definitely was. seeing the devices used in the middle ages to torture, and humiliate people, was awful. however, it made me start thinking about some of the things we do to people now. (Elisabeth and i had a conversation about this last night, too) we really aren't *that* much better than back when they made people sit on spikes to rid the devil. i think the only change is that we don't do it for witchcraft or heresy now. and now we have electricity.
after museum 1, we were getting kind of worn out. and the city was CRAMMED with people. it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without molesting some perfect stranger. so, we spent a few more hours taking in the sights, stopping in an awesome Nepalese market, conversing with the very nice nepalese owner of the market, and decided to make our way back to Zaandam w/o seeing 2, 3, or 4.
when we got back to Zaandam, i was a bit disheartened. i had all of these very romantic ideas of Amsterdam (rather, of the Nord-Holland area) and they had very much faded. but, i remembered seeing something about an open air museum north of the city, so i did a bit o' research and found the name of the place. found a train that would take us there, and we headed off!
HERE was where i fell in love. i am, sometimes, SUCH a midwesterner. i got to see all sorts of brightly coloured houses, bridges, and then, the windmills. oh, the windmills of fairy tales. the windmills one pictures, when one pictures the netherlands. it was, obviously, much less crowded here, so i could act as much like a tourist as i felt. and i did. i very nearly skipped along the pathway while taking in the sights. okay, it wasn't that bad...
anyhow. after i nerded out for several hours in Zaanstadt, we headed back to Zaandam, and wandered around the town some more.
sunday (yesterday) we gave Amsterdam another shot before our train left. it was much less crowded because it was colder than saturday. so, we wandered around, and made our way to museum 2, the Sex museum. very cool. a little cheesy at times, but totally worth 4€ if ever your in the city. there were some very very old sexually related artworks, and some more modern as well.
last thing for today- we were on the ICE back from AC->Köln, and guess who was "randomly" chosen to present his passport this time? Yours truly. LOL. the ride back was much nicer, though, we were in a separate car with a chatty woman from Moscow, and a sleeping dutch woman. (oh, aside- every time i've traveled so far, i have been asked to help someone with his or her luggage. it appeased the inner boyscout. LOL)
kudos, if you read this in its entirety. especially if you made it without falling asleep. LOL
Thursday, March 3, 2011
so far.
we landed in DE about 9am local time. as i'd never traveled oversea, i wasn't entirely sure what to expect. it was far easier than i had imagined. the bundeswehr polizei looked at my passport, and sent me on my way. that's it.
when we got to the exit, after waiting for our bags, we were greeted by Miriam and her mother Elisabeth. ran out to their car, and made our way from düsseldorf to leverkusen. along the way, we stopped at a bakery with amazing smells, and beautiful sights! i'd never seen so much delicious bread!
when we got to their house, we made sure to stay awake, so we had a huge breakfast of breads, jams, cheeses, and spreads. i had the most delicious gouda, and a "butter cheese" as well. we spent much more time socializing with one another, and then met Miriam's older brother Samuel. he built a foosball table with a friend of his. it's brilliant! he's even made it record the speed of the ball!
then we took a tour of altenberg dom. this place is magnificent! it was a cistercian order of monks that built it, so it is considered quite "plain" - i assure you, this is only in comparison to the churches we went to today! we walked around altenberg, and had a nice time.
after that, we had dinner, made by samuel and Elisabeth. but, we were exhausted from not sleeping ~30 hours so we went to bed early.
today (thursday) we took a trip up to Münster, a gorgeous city! right now is the fasching, so it is full of people in costume and just plain joyous occasion. (btw, we went on autobahn, obviously, it was so fast!)
we spent much of the time looking at churches, the most impressive being the st. paulus dom. it has this gigantic astronomical clock inside, absolutely gorgeous! it is so loud, and it plays at noon with a glockenspiel and bells and a horn. then the three kings come out of these doors and bow before madonna and child. it also marks all of the easters from ~1350 to 2071, and includes all the days, too!
we got to experience a german deprtment store, very nifty, and i got my first euros. i was incredibly embarrassed because we had coffee at a place in münster. which did not take credit card.. now i have my euro and that will not happen again!
we went to a german pharmacist, because scott is still feeling bad. Elisabeth spoke with the pharmacist, and they got some medicine to help him feel better. now, my friends, i think i am going to sleep. it's around 11pm, and i'm awfully tired still (especially with so much walking!)
ps, since i am being inundated by it, i am starting to pick up on some deutsch! sehr gut!
guten abed mienen freunden
when we got to the exit, after waiting for our bags, we were greeted by Miriam and her mother Elisabeth. ran out to their car, and made our way from düsseldorf to leverkusen. along the way, we stopped at a bakery with amazing smells, and beautiful sights! i'd never seen so much delicious bread!
when we got to their house, we made sure to stay awake, so we had a huge breakfast of breads, jams, cheeses, and spreads. i had the most delicious gouda, and a "butter cheese" as well. we spent much more time socializing with one another, and then met Miriam's older brother Samuel. he built a foosball table with a friend of his. it's brilliant! he's even made it record the speed of the ball!
then we took a tour of altenberg dom. this place is magnificent! it was a cistercian order of monks that built it, so it is considered quite "plain" - i assure you, this is only in comparison to the churches we went to today! we walked around altenberg, and had a nice time.
after that, we had dinner, made by samuel and Elisabeth. but, we were exhausted from not sleeping ~30 hours so we went to bed early.
today (thursday) we took a trip up to Münster, a gorgeous city! right now is the fasching, so it is full of people in costume and just plain joyous occasion. (btw, we went on autobahn, obviously, it was so fast!)
we spent much of the time looking at churches, the most impressive being the st. paulus dom. it has this gigantic astronomical clock inside, absolutely gorgeous! it is so loud, and it plays at noon with a glockenspiel and bells and a horn. then the three kings come out of these doors and bow before madonna and child. it also marks all of the easters from ~1350 to 2071, and includes all the days, too!
we got to experience a german deprtment store, very nifty, and i got my first euros. i was incredibly embarrassed because we had coffee at a place in münster. which did not take credit card.. now i have my euro and that will not happen again!
we went to a german pharmacist, because scott is still feeling bad. Elisabeth spoke with the pharmacist, and they got some medicine to help him feel better. now, my friends, i think i am going to sleep. it's around 11pm, and i'm awfully tired still (especially with so much walking!)
ps, since i am being inundated by it, i am starting to pick up on some deutsch! sehr gut!
guten abed mienen freunden
Sunday, January 4, 2009
kitchen remodeling. bwahahahaha!
i've changed my initial plans for roadtrip '09 quite a bit. but, i'll still be taking one. length, and location are going to change for sure, but, i need to do what i can afford right?
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S09847462
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70059657
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00085042
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10124081
hmm... anyhow, on to the meat and potatoes of the blog entry.
i am trying to do a lot to make this house look a bit better. par example. i am going to put up some frame pictures of the SF trip, and a rasterbation picture in the living room. i'm going to paint those ugly-ass shelves in the kitchen a shade of greyish blue. i'm going to put up a new bookshelf (somewhere?). i am going to paint the ugly bathroom vanity a nice shade of chocolate brown (it's waterstained "oak"-color right now). i'm going to paint the little hallway between bathroom/kitchen a shade of pale pink. and i'm going to see how much work it'd be to rip up the NASTY linoleum tile in the kitchen.
my MASTERPIECE though... is the kitchen counters. and sink. and faucet.
i am going to (perhaps) take out the countertops (they are WARPED beyond repair, because they were installed incorrectly, and water has seeped into them. the sink is an abomination, and grosses me out so much, we do the dishes on top of plastic containers. and the faucet... LOL.
these are the projected plans.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70059657
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00085042
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10124081
yeah, i know, it will cost money. duh. but, i figure we have another 3-4 years (at the very least) in here, and i'd like to enjoy what i live in, ya know?
eventually, i'm going to try and rearrange the set up in the house too, and get a new dining table, and use my current table as a desk. (it's really hard to have more than two people sit at this table, considering it's made for two people LOL) but, that's all future-war stuff.
anyhow, i think i shall take a nice shower now. toodle-oo.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
where i am.
i'm sitting in perry, oklahoma. it's halfway between lawrence and frisco (texas). why am i here? because they are anticipating ice/snow around wichita, and i don't want to be stuck in ice. yuck. i think that's worse than spending last night in oklahoma.
besides, it broke the drive up quite nicely. two 4 hour trips instead of one 8 hour trip. yay! i'm going to eat lunch here i a little bit (yeah, early lunch, i know) and then head back on the road. i don't want to get caught in any snow here.
xmas was nice, i'll probably fill you in, dear journal, on that later.
and also, thanks to mavis for taking care of ruby-moobie hilly-billie for the time i'll be gone! that's so great, and ruby will have such a fun time :)
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