uploaded

Finally got all my pics from Rome uploaded to the Flickr page.

Rome

I would've posted this a few days ago, but Explus had a bunch of work waiting for me when I got back from vacation.

We met my mom and Mike in Rome for a week. They rented an apartment that was only 4 blocks from the Colosseum, so it was right in the middle of the city and a perfect spot to walk to anywhere from. What we didn't realize when we were planning the trip is that we'd be there during the week of Easter. I think we would've gone somewhere else if we had known, but I'm glad we didn't. Certain areas were pretty crowded at times, but overall it wasn't that bad. 

We got there around noon on Good Friday, checked out the apartment (pretty nice except for the old ass framed cheetah hide on the living room wall), then started wandering around the city. We were all surprised by how much was actually there. We didn't expect to see so many ruins, and we didn't expect them all to be as massive as they were. We absolutely loved Athens, but this was so much better. There's just a ton more stuff to see right in the city than there is in Athens. I'm very glad we went there first, because I think Athens would have been kind of disappointing after seeing Rome.

As we started back to the apartment later that night we ran into the insane crowd in front of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, which is where the pope was giving mass. I can't even guess how many people were there, but you would think that they'd be a little more polite and not pushing and shoving in the presence of holiness. We didn't stick around for much of that. The next day we were wandering around more and stepped into one of the churches to take a look (not sure which one since there are approximately 47,396 within two miles). There were a bunch of people with name tags and they were setting up sound equipment for something. So we looked around real quick and then started walking out. And then I heard a familiar voice over the speakers. I turned to see who was speaking and it was Michael York, the dude that played Basil, Austin Powers boss in the movies. We stood there and watched for a couple minutes, wondering why he was there, when all of a sudden out pops Jim Caviezel. Holy crap, it's Jesus! Turns out it was a rehearsal for something they were doing on Easter sunday. So we had only been in Rome for a day and a half and we had already seen the pope and Jesus.

Sunday we took a day trip to Pompeii, which was cooler than we expected. I didn't think there would be much there, but they've uncovered about 60% of the city. What was really amazing is the fact that 90% of everything there was original, just like it was when the volcano covered it in 25' of ash back in the day.

The rest of the trip was mostly just walking around through the city. We were there for 8 days and there's still plenty we haven't seen. The Colosseum was awesome, The Forum and Palantino were huge, the Pantheon was cool, and there are 100s (if not 1,000s) of statues, sculptures and monuments all over the place. I used up all 11 gigabytes of memory in my camera and still had to go back and delete about 50 photos so I could more shots. I'll be posting the pics to flickr in batches as I go through them. The first batch is up now, but keep checking over the next couple of days for more stuff.

Fort Bema

It was sunny and 66 degrees on saturday, so we decided to wander around outside someplace we haven't been to yet. I found a few small forts on the outskirts of Warsaw through Google Earth and have been meaning to check them out for a while, I was just waiting for nice weather. I can't really tell on the computer which of the forts was the coolest, so I just picked one and headed out. Well I picked correctly, because this place was awesome! It was a lot bigger than I expected, and you could actually walk through most of it. And the best part is that it's going to be a perfect spot for light painting. There are tunnels going all over the place and it's pitch black once you get about 20 feet away from the openings. I got a bunch of cool photos of it that I'll be putting on the flickr page, along with some shots from an abandoned building that we found on the way there. The building looks like it'll be another great place for light painting. We're not sure what it is, but it looks like they stopped in the middle of construction and just left it. It's two stories tall, with a basement that stretches out across the property. It's too bad I didn't know about this area when Ed and Alan were here, it would've been cool to take them out there.

Duty Free!

Another reason why I love traveling so much: The duty free shops at the airport. Where else can you get a candy bar larger than your arm with the leftover foreign cash at the end of your trip?

Norwegian adventure

Just got back from our trip to Norway on monday and it was unbelievable. The 10 of us flew into Oslo friday afternoon, walked around for a while and got something to eat (I had shank of reindeer and it was awesome), then spent the night in a hotel. We had to catch a flight to Tromso in the morning, where our guide picked us up and drove us 90 minutes north to some place I can't spell or pronounce. We got there, put on our snowshoes, and hiked for about 3 and a half hours, mostly uphill. On the way back we got to slide about 70 or 80 feet down the side of a hill. Now that was some fun. We then arrived at our camp for the night, which consisted of 3 tipis. Two of them had stone fireplaces in the middle, which didn't really keep us as warm as we hoped in the -24 degree weather unless you stood directly in front of it. The other tipi where we slept had a big nest of twigs on the floor with reindeer skins and a tiny little "heater" in the middle. The heater didn't do shit and none of us really slept very well, but it was still a great experience.

After snowshoeing, they cooked us some reindeer stew over the open fire and we roasted some marshmallows and drank hot cocoa. Then we got in our swimsuits and ran to the sauna. After sitting in the sauna for a while, we ran barefoot through the snow (-24 degrees, mind you) down the hill into the hot tub. We stayed in there for a while, did the jump out and roll around in the snow thing, then ran back to the tent to get changed. By that time, the Northern Lights were out and in full effect. They were absolutely amazing. I had no idea how fast they changed and moved around all the time, which was really cool to see but made it a big pain in the ass to get a descent photo. I only got two shots before the coldness took it's effect and killed my camera. I had fully charged both my batteries the day before we got there, and just one of them should've lasted the entire trip, but the cold completely drained them both. And there was no place warm to store the camera, so that was all she wrote until we got to a hotel the next night and the batteries recharged themselves. 

The next day we took a dogsled tour through the fjords. Each sled had room for one driver and one passenger, with 5 dogs pulling. We were all surprised by how small the dogs were. We expected them to be big huskies, but they were all different breeds from Spain. But they were incredibly strong. I learned that first hand at the end when it took three of us to get one in his cage, who obviously was not ready to be locked up just yet. The trip was awesome. I started driving while Kim rode in the sled. We were going to switch about every half hour so the driver's fingers wouldn't get too cold, but Kim was having so much fun driving that I just let her do it for the last hour and a half. I had fun, but Kim was really having the time of her life, so I was happy to let her keep going. 

After that they cooked us some more lunch on the fire, then took us back to a hotel in Tromso. We spent a little time wandering around and I was able to get some pictures again after my camera warmed up in the room for a while. The next morning we flew back to Oslo and had about 5 hours to wander around before heading back to Warsaw.

It was a great trip and I was really excited that I finally got to see the northern lights. I've been wanting to see them for as long as I can remember and they were so much better than I had hoped. We got really lucky, too. The guide told us that this year has been the worst to see them since 1938, but that weekend was the best they've had so far. They were mostly green, but I got to see a reddish-purple streak for about 5 or 10 seconds.

Fort Piłsudskiego

There is an old fort down the street from us that was built in the 1880s. Kim and I stopped in there once to get a quick look, but I've been meaning to go check it out more thoroughly for a while now. It's kind of like a peninsula with a moat all around it and a big hill in the middle. The fortress is built into the hill and has a bunch of rooms, some connecting to others, but most of them are individual. The flat ground all around is covered with these old storage spaces. Some of them look like they're garages for working on cars because they have compartments in the floor with steps leading down them. There is trash EVERYwhere. And most of it looks pretty new, so apparently this is where people come to dump all their unwanted shit. I don't know if that's cheaper than paying for trash service or what, but it's pretty messed up and apocalyptic-looking. The number of baby strollers is somewhat disturbing.

I spent 2 hours wandering around taking pictures. It was a great place for photography and I can see myself going back later for more. Just not at night. I went in the middle of the day in the middle of the week for a reason. There are ashes, graffiti, and beer bottles everywhere, so it's obviously a place for drunks and hooligans to hang out. Luckily a couple of the fortress rooms are dark enough for me to do a little light painting during the day. I'll be putting the pics up on flickr soon.

Does anyone even read this thing?

Haven't posted anything in a while. Not because there hasn't been anything exciting happening, but I just haven't been in the bloggin' mood. I don't know if I'll keep it up or not. But in the meantime, I'll just give a quick summary of what we've been up to.

Went back home to the states for 3 weeks around the holidays. Flew into DC, rented a car, drove to OH, then to MI, then to another part of MI, then to another part of MI, then back to OH, then back to DC and flew back to Warsaw.

Had a fun little shindig at Ed's place and got to see all the people I've been missing. Thanks to everyone who showed up! Even got to do a little light painting because Ed's the shit and made me a couple neon green light wands.

Went and saw my (current) favorite band, Chimaira, at the House of Blues in Cleveland. It was awesome except for the 2 assholes that ruined my favorite song by getting into a fight right behind us. All of a sudden a group of people slammed into us and pushed us 20 feet. The one dude shouted "YOU ran into ME, motherf*cker!". They were actually fighting over who ran into who in the middle of a sold out concert. 

Rented a cabin in Zakopane with 14 people from the embassy and had an amazing time. It's a ski town in the Tatry Mountains on the Slovakian border. Spent an entire day snowboarding for the first time since I moved from MI. There were 4 of us guys, and I was the only one who had ever tried it before. We met a cool Polish chick who went to high school in PA who gave us some lessons that really helped out a lot. I'm getting much better and can make it down the hill and stop at the bottom without falling now. You probably won't peep me in the X-Games any time soon, but I'm dying to go again. I think we'll take my dad there next winter.

Spent the last 3 days on the couch, sick as hell. Probably spend all day tomorrow there, too. But hopefully I'll be better by friday. This weekend is the last chance to see the Warsaw hockey team play, and I really want to go so I better be ok by then.