The Louvre... oops d'Orsay

We had really ambitious plans for the day. We were going to wake up early, eat breakfast and head to the Louvre as soon as it opened to avoid the massive line. Since the Louvre opens at 9:00 we decided that we needed to leave the hotel by 8:15 to pull this off. However, I woke in the morning to Colleen sitting up and straining to read the clock. "Does that say 10:00?" she asked. "Yes" I replied. Rather than immediately change plans we decided to grab breakfast, Colleen got a croissant, Lisa had toast and I decided to go for a true Parisian breakfast... Coco Crispies.

We headed to the Louvre and were pleasantly surprised not to see a line out on the street as we did yesterday. But our elatement was short lived once we entered the courtyard. We took a couple of pictures in front of the controversial pyramid before heading off to find the end of the line. We walked and walked and walked and when it seemed like we could go no further we saw the end. We determined that the Louvre was not in our cards for the day. We thought it would be much better in 2010 anyway.

Instead we headed across the river to the d'Orsay museum. The line was quite long there too (doesn't anyone work in this city) but we decided to bear it anyway. After 16 or so switchbacks we finally made it inside of the museum. After spending the last hour or more in line, we decided to skip the line for the Van Gogh exhibit which ran the length of the museum and was moving very slowly. Very quickly we discovered why thing were moving so slowly. Apparantly everyone here takes photos of all their favorite paintings. Colleen and I always thought that photos somehow was bad for the art but now I've concluded that allowing photos just takes away from the experience. I could barely glimpse some paintings behind a wall of amateur photographers. It didn't help that everyone in Paris that was not at the Louvre was here with us at the d'Orsay.

Once we got our fill of Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoire and Rodin, we returned to the west bank in search of the Fauchon market. My Fodors guide described it as a "hyper-upscale mega-delicatessen" that sells food from all over the world. I was a little thrown off by the color scheme, hot pink and black, which seemed more fitting for a cosmetics store than an upscale market but it was fun peeking at all the food.

Notre Dame

Going through customs and immigration at Charles de Gaulle airport is a breeze. The immigration officer opened my passport, glanced at the picture, flipped to the only page with stamps and stamped right next to my other stamps. This was just minutes after Colleen mentioned that I would need to fill two passport pages per year in order to fill up my passport before the expiration date. I'm really going to have to step up my efforts at this rate. Customs was even easier since apparently France doesn't care what I bring into the country. After picking up our bags we proceeded to the exit, no red/green lights, no x-rays, no drug sniffing dogs, no one.


We decided to save a few euros and take the train into Paris. We made it to the station easily enough but after a couple failed attempts to purchase tickets from the vending machine a friendly Brit took pity on me and helped me out (perhaps he was an English-speaking Frenchman, but he was awfully nice so I assumed he couldn't be French). Given that the vending machine had English instructions, I'm a little embarrassed that I needed help at all. Unfortunately he wasn't with us when we attempted to transfer to the Metro. After several unsuccessful attempts at the ticket machine, we grabbed a taxi from the train station to our hotel.


We were really looking forward to taking showers before starting off in the city but alas, our room was not available. Instead, we settled for washing our faces and brushing our teeth in the lobby bathroom. After checking our bags with the bellhops, we headed off to see the city. We crossed over the Seine to the left bank and glimpsed the Eiffel tower to the left but decided to save this for another day and made a right towards Notre Dame instead. Before we could make it all the way to the cathedral, we popped in to a cafe for a bite to eat. I decided on the French Onion Soup (the just call it onion soup) and we each had a glass of wine because that what they do in France.

We made it to Notre Dame and waited in the long, but fast moving line under the watchful eyes of the gargolyes high above. Moments later I was happy to hear that Quasimodo is still hard at work ringing the bells. We strolled through the cathedral taking in the candlelight and insense while admiring the stained glass windows and artwork. We planned next to planned to climb the steps to the towers and become more acquaited with the gargoyles but once we saw the line decided that we would sit for a coffee in the shop across the street instead. Turns out, the coffee shop had plenty of gargoyles above the tables for us to admire over cafe au laits. Despite the coffee, the jet lag was starting to catch up to us so we returned to the hotel for a mini nap and showers before dinner. This is starting off to be a very nice parisian vacation.

Preparing for Paris

Today is my grandma's 90th birthday party and I'm going to miss it. Instead of celebrating with all of my aunts, uncles, brothers, cousins, dad and others I will be packing for my trip to France. I feel bad to be missing the big 9-0 in '09 it is really my grandma's fault that I'm going in the first place. Being born on her birhday comes with a lot of pressure to keep up. On last count she has been to over 50 countries in her 90 years and I'm not even close. I'm only at 16 (20 if I include countries that I've spent less than a day) right now and have a lot of traveling to do to catch up. The good news is she has assured me that she is done traveling over oceans which means her number is finally static.

This trip to France (and Switzerland - one night counts, right?) will get me a little closer to grandma's count. And it all came about thanks to Lisa Roth's birthday. Colleen and I were sitting across the table from eachother and I indicated that it would be fun to go to some other country over New Year's to go snowboarding. Colleen suggested France and before we could second-guess the idea, she booked us a hotel in Paris and we bought airline tickets. It didn't take much convincing to talk Lisa O. into joining us (although it did take some work for her to convince her boss). We will be spending a few very chilly days in Paris before hopping on a train for Chamonix. I will do my best to keep everyone that's interested entertained while I'm gone.

Alas... Time to Go Home

It is my last day in Australia. Yesterday I finally went to the Sydney Opera House and got to the see the two sides that I could never see from the ferry. We made a full circle around the building and quickly discovered that the white shell-like roofs that make the opera house so famous are also quite reflective. Trying to look right at them at noon was like trying to stare directly at the sun. So rather than trying too hard, I just pointed my camera and hoped for a good picture.

After our walkabout the opera house, we headed to The Rocks. This is the most historical part of Sydney where the settlers (aka criminals) set up camp upon their arrival to this most remote of prisons. Many of the homes have been beautifully restored and converted into store fronts. We spent some time in one that had been converted into an art gallery. After leaving the store we learned that the gentleman that lived there was a carpenter that specialized in making coffins... I guess someone has to do it.

After completing our last walkabout in Sydney we took the ferry back to Paul's flat and relaxed for a while before taking him and Melissa out for dinner. Since we're in Australia we thought we should really have a nice traditional meal for our last night... Japanese and Spanish Tapas.

We will be heading to the airport today at midday (a.k.a. noon) for our 2:45 flight at which time we will miraculously travel back in time to San Francisco where we are scheduled to arrive at 11:00 AM. Not a bad trick for our last day. All in all, my time in Sydney has been a blast and hopefully I will be able to make a return trip one of these days to check out all of the famous Australian sites I missed on this short vacation like Ayers Rock and the Great Barrier Reef. I'll be adding photos to all of these reports once I return home.

Thanks for reading!

The Queen's Birthday at the Zoo

We went to the Taronga Zoo yesterday along with every child in Sydney under the age of 5. Turns out that the zoo is a favorite spot to celebrate the Queen's Birthday in Sydney (a federal holiday in Australia... and if it wasn't for our desire not to pay taxes we could have it off in the states as well).

I've been to many zoos in my life but this is the first one with such a spectacular view. The zoo is up on a hill just across the harbor from Sydney giving the animals a lovely view of the opera house, the harbour bridge and they Sydney skyline. I guess if you have to be caged up all your life this is where you'd want to live out your days.

I was really only interested in seeing the animals that I somehow missed during my walkabouts in the bush. Our first stop was to peer at the koalas happily sleeping in their trees. For a mere $30 I could have a picture taken with one of the cute teddies, but instead I will superimpose me in later for free. We also spent sometime in the Australian outback with kangaroos (fortunately they were unaware or just didn't care that we ate one of their friends for dinner the night before), emus (I think they would have cared but I couldn't find them on the menu anywhere) and wallabies (I hear they are used for stews but are rather chewy). It seemed that many of the animals were off for the holiday as well as we stopped by empty exhibit after empty exhibit. But we did get to see a couple of swimming platipuses (or is it platipi?) which are much smaller than they look on television as well as the lone Australian Little Penguin (that is really what they are called, Little Penguin... sounds like something that some one that would name their silver goldfish Silver and their gold goldfish Goldy would come up with...) left to entertain the hundreds of children peering through the glass. He liked to tease everyone by doing a quick swim by and then disappearing for a long period of time. Even though gorillas are not native to Australia, we could help stopping by to watch them eat lunch and play, (I guess they didn't want to pay taxes either).

After our quick tour, we moved on to more important things... shopping. We took the ferry back to Sydney and then hopped on a train to the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) for a bit of shopping. The QVB is the cities first mall... built in 1898. You can either choose to take a guided tour for $10 or tour on your own (free for me, a bit more for Angie...).

To thank Paul with putting up with me for the last week and Angie for the last two weeks, we decided to test our ability to cook in the southern hemisphere by making Paul and his girlfriend, Melissa, dinner. We had to make a lot of guestimates at the grocery store as well as in the kitchen (such as how many grams of frozen berries equals 10 ounces? how much purple garlic do we need to equal 2 normal sized garlic cloves?). We looked up the important stuff... such as what temperature to set the oven to. The good news is, it all turned out great and I think we will all be making the lemon shrimp linguine again. If you'd like to give it a try, send me an email and I'll forward the recipe your way.

Today is my last full day in Sydney and I still have to go to the opera house. I've seen it from on top of the Harbour Bridge, across the harbour at the zoo, and on multiple ferry crossings but today, I plan to actually see it up close. Hopefully it will be worth the trouble... check out my next blog to find out.

Wine, Beach, Harbor and Wine

If there was a theme to the weekend in Sydney it would have to be wine and sun.

We woke up Saturday morning to find clear skies without a cloud in sight so we decided we need to take advantage of the great weather by heading to Manly Beach. Before heading to the beach we made a quick photo stop at the North Head where the ocean meets Sydney Harbor. The North Head is a former military base to keep unwanteds out of Sydney but now is a nice national park with some spectacular views of the various bays of Sydney.

After snapping our pics, we headed back down the hill into Manly. There was quite a bit of traffic and after we parked we found out why. We happened upon the Manly Wine and Food Festival. Most impressive, it turns out Australians have solved the problem with trying to eat while holding a wine glass by devising a way to hang the glass around your neck. Brilliant, these Aussies.

The food queues (that's a line for you Americans) were quite long so after one we decided to sit down at a roof top bar for some pub food. Fortunately, the bar did not object to us bringing our own wine from the festival below (BYO is quite popular and acceptable in Australia). What better way to enjoy a rare, sunny day in Sydney in June than with glass of wine at the beach.

After another glass or two, a bit of shopping we headed to Balmoral Beach. The sun had gone down and it was getting a bit chilly so I switched from wine to hot chocolate. After a day of drinking we were too beat to do much so we went to the movies. Since we're in Australia, we decided to see an Australian flick called Sampson & Delilah. The film was sad and thought-prevoking and possibly not the based choice when tired since there is very little dialog or even sound but I would highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in the current state of affairs of the Aborigines in Australia.

Sunday started off looking overcast and cold but by the time we motivated to leave Paul's flat, the fog burned off and left us with another spectacular day. Today we decided to head to Darling Harbour to check out the Sydney Jazz & Blues Festival. As is turns out, the best way to listen to jazz is with a glass of wine so we continued where we left off Saturday.

We decided to listen to the main show over dinner at an adjacent restaurant with patio seating. I've been wanting to try Australian food since I arrived and decided that I would just get it over with and order the kangaroo. Angie ordered magyu, an Australian (and Japanese) beef and we split the two dishes. Kangaroo, while not bad, was like a chewy steak and not nearly as tasty as the magyu dish. In the future if I'm craving a steak I'll just order a steak (or ostrich) and leave the kanga to the Aussies.

Tomorrow we're off to the zoo so I can check out what my dinner looked like while it was still hopping around in the outback.

Blue Mountains

After a day and a half hanging out with Angie in Sydney, it was time to ditch her and the city for two days in the Blue Mountains. Before leaving the states I booked an Aboriginal Walkabout with an Aborigine named Evan. I almost missed it altogether since Australians are not really in to announcing what station the train is approaching and the signs on the platforms are often hard to see. I glanced at my watch and realized I must have arrived in Falconbridge based on the time and just barely squeezed out through the closing door. I had about 15 minutes to wait before the tour was scheduled to start and was a bit surprised to find out I was only 1 km away from Danville. At 10:00 another train from Katoomba arrived and I was happy to learn that I would not be alone on the tour since San (short for Alexandra) from Belgium arrived looking as lost and bewildered as me. About 15 minutes later San and I were starting to wonder if there had been a mix up but then we saw Evan waving us up the stairs and over to him to begin the tour.

Without a lot of talking we blindly followed Evan away from the train station and into the bush. After about 10 minutes of walking we stopped at a tree where Evan asked us not to judge him for being white since there are no dark skinned aborigines left in the Derrick tribe. He then asked us to keep an open mind and just do what he says. This included rolling up eucalyptus leaves and sticking them in our noses, eating various bushtacca (sounded like bush taco, food from the bush) like berries we found on the ground, mushrooms growing off trees and the leaves of various trees. We then spent the next seven hours hiking (bushwalking) up and down the wet and slippery terrain (I have a nice bruise and abrasion as a souvenir), stopping occasionally to learn about aboriginal traditions, stories and ceremonies. When we stopped for lunch, we learned to paint on rocks and Evan painted our faces. By the time we emerged from the bush and entered a nearby pub, I felt like I had been on a walkabout for about a week. All I wanted was a hot shower and a good nights sleep. Fortunately San was staying at the same backpackers where I had made a reservation for the night in Katoomba so she escorted me to my home for the night and even shared some of her shampoo with me since I forgot mine in Sydney.

After a good nights sleep, I went exploring on my own for the day. The backpackers gave me a map and suggested a hike and off I went. It rained most of the night leaving the trail wet and muddy. I really did not want to spend the day on a walkabout with wet socks so I had to call on my long ago dance and gymnastic skills to balance on the narrow dry, narrow strips and when they weren't present, leaping over the puddles. I only missed a couple of times. After about an hour of walking, I finally got my first glimpse of the three sisters rock formation (the most famous view in the entire Blue Mountains region). After a dozen or so photos, I continued my walkabout down the "Giant Stairway". The stairway is made up of about 900 steps down to a lower trail below the three sisters. I was trying to keep count so I would know when I was close to the bottom, but after 150 or so steps, the trail became too treacherous to concentrate on counting. I walked another 2.5 km along the lower trail where I needed to decide whether to take another stairway back up or I could pay $10 to take the scenic railway. I thought about climbing the stairs but how could I turn down the opportunity to take the steepest railway in the world? After another hour or so, I completed my loop of the park and decided it was time to get a bite to eat before heading back to Sydney.

I'm happy to have spent a couple of days in the bush, but I couldn't wait to take a shower and put on clean clothes. I guess I'm just a city girl at heart.

First Full Day in Sydney

The day started off pretty easy. Paul (Angie's brother) escorted us across the ferry into Sydney and then took us to the Custom's House to get a birds eye view of the City. There is a scale model of Sydney under the plexiglass floor and Paul pointed out many points of interest that we might want to check out during the next week. I took the opportunity to practice the bridge climb, but more about that later.

After a quick coffee and scone, Paul headed to work while Angie and I took a bus to Hyde Park. We stopped into Saint Mary's Cathedral for a quick tour and prayer for a safe trip in Sydney. It is supposed to really be amazing when the sun is shining through the stained glass windows, but the day is overcast and threatening rain so we didn't get to experience this.
After peaking in the church we made a few wrong turns but finally found our way to the Hyde Park Barracks. The Barracks was essentially a prison built by prisoners about 150 years ago. From the looks of the hammocks that they slept in, the early settlers in Australia were shorter than me. The barracks were later converted to an orphange of sorts for all the teenage girls imported from Ireland during the potato famine to help even out the male female ratio on the island. It served as a court house more recently before being turned in to a museum.
After a mad dash in the rain, we bought ourselves a couple of umbrellas and grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe. Of course by the time we finished eating the sun came out. Our next stop was the Royal Botanical Gardens. After about 20 minutes of searching, we finally found what we were looking for... the thousands of fruit bats that call the botanical gardens home. Since the bats are nocturnal, we found them hanging upside down from the trees sleeping. From a distance they looked like pine cones but I've never seen a palm tree with pine cones before. We did get a chance to use our new umbrellas just in case the bats decided to go to the bathroom while we walked under the trees.

I think Angie could have watched the bats for hours, but we had to head to the Rocks for our bridge climb. The walk started off pleasantly enough, but when we were about half way there it started to rain. I'm not talking a pleasant April shower sort of rain but rather a torrential downpour. Our umbrellas did a good job keeping our hair dry but by the time we arrived at the Bridge Climb office our pants looked like we just pulled them out of the rinse cycle. I've never been so glad to have to don an ugly jumper (required uniform for the climb) but it was dry while my clothes were soaked. Our guide Dan, helped us get strapped in to all of our safety gear and walked us through a practice climb on the bridge simulator before taking us out to the bridge. Fortunately during this time, the rain had moved past and we were able to enjoy, the dry, but overcast climb 150 meters above the water and traffic onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It is amazing that the city approved this type of tour, but I'm certainly glad they did. The geaky structural engineer that still lives deep down inside of me was thrilled to be climbing on the worlds heaviest truss bridge in the world with a spectalur view of the Sydney Harbor and the Opera House in the background. We got plenty of time to take in the view and see downtown Sydney light up as the sun went down (unfortunately the sunset was obstructed by the rain clouds) before heading back down the bridge. And if the day couldn't get any better, Paul had dinner ready for us when we got back. I think this is going to be a great vacation...

Sydney At Last

I left from San Francisco at 9:00 PM on Sunday and arrived in Sydney at 9:00 AM on Tuesday. June 1st did not exist for me. Did anything monumental happen while I was traveling through time?

The flight from San Francisco to Sydney is rather long during the best of conditions... but it is even longer when you have to stop over in Aukland for a few hours... and longer still when you have a very unhappy baby in the row behind you. During the first hour of the baby crying I felt bad for the baby. During the second hour, my sympathy changed to the parents, but during the third hour I just felt bad for me. I fell into a rhythm of sleeping when the baby was sleeping and then watching movies when the baby was crying. As a result, I squeezed in 3 1/2 movies (The Reader, Taken, Bride Wars, and about 1/2 of Confession of a Shopaholic) during the 13 hour flight. I even squeezed in 2 more on the 3 1/2 hour flight from Aukland to Sydney (Last Chance Harry and something else that I've already forgotten).

After 5 1/2 movies and 2 breakfasts, I could wait to start my exploration of Sydney. I met up with Angie and her family at the airport and helped Angie and her brother Paul send off their parents and sister back to the states (to make room for me). Then we headed to Paul's flat. I have to say that the first 15 minutes I could have been in any city USA with the exception of the cars driving on the wrong side of the road. But then we rounded a corner and suddenly both the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge came into view. I finally felt like I had arrived and couldn't wait to start exploring. Of course, none of that could happen until I took a must-needed shower.

After my shower and a bit of unpacking, Angie and I went on a walkabout (I've decided to refer to all walks in Australia as walkabouts because it makes me feel more Australian) in the area surrounding Paul's house in Neutral Bay. We got some great pics of the Sydney skyline before heading back inland to window shop along the main drag.

Sink then Swim

What better way to spend my last full day in Costa Rica than underwater? We started the day off with a SCUBA trip just off the coast from the hotel. I have been diving every couple of years for over a decade, but it wasn't until after watching Finding Nemo that I really came to love diving. It is amazing how I can totally hear the voices of all the different fish and trily get their personalities after watching that movie... or perhaps I was just too deep. We had an amazing dive master with an eagle eye. He pointed out sea horses camoflaged next to the rocks and moray eels poking their heads out of miniture caves not to mention the amazing school of eagle rays swimming by so gracefully.

Between dives we headed back to the beach for a little break. The sand was too hot and my shoes were in the boat so I decided to spend my time floating in ocean. Turns out, lots of jelly fish had this same idea and I've now got the jelly fish kiss to prove it. Fortunately the dive master had some jelly fish sting gel so no one had to pee on me to take the sting away. Our second dive took place at Monkey Rock... can you tell how it got its name?

After our second dive, some tacos, and a shower, I spent the remainder of the afternoon at the spa. They have hot and cold water pools on a private deck overlooking the ocean. I followed the recommended strategy of six dunks in each pool. Supposedly this was going to leave me in a state of unbelievable relaxation, but in reality it just made me tired getting in and out... I guess diving took more out of me than I expected. Next, I had an aromatherapy rainforest massage which ended far too soon but did give me the relaxation I remembered.

In the evening we attended a going away dinner. As much as I enjoy being able to go eat dinner outside without a sweater or jacket, I think I prefer that to trying to eat dinner at 9:00 in the 90 degree heat. I suppose this is why I live in San Francsisco... It was sad to say goodbye to all my new friends and prepare to head home but I really can't complain too much about a free vacation. And hopefully it won't be too long before my next trip... after all, I don't want the Costa Rica stamp in my passport to get lonely.

Beach, Pool, and Ziplining

The Beach:
Our first full day in Costa Rica was spent exploring the resort. We tested out the beach and ocean. I have to say that the sand on the beaches here is unbelievably hot. I thought it might melt the bottoms of my flipflops but they managed to resist. There is a trampoline floating in the ocean so we swan over to it and after a few bounces I realized that trampolines are just not as much fun as the used to be. I took a couple of bounces but then jumped back in to the water.

After floating for a while we decided to pick up some snorkel gear and about 8 of us headed back out in search of Nemo. We didn't find him, but we saw plenty of his friends including a mini sting ray and an eel (or something that was posing as an eel). The current was strong, pulling us further and further from the beach... not so much fun swimming back in, but we all made it.

The Pool:
After the beach, we were starving so we headed to the poolside restaurant for a bite to eat. I went with a Costa Rican local dish of saffron rice and chicken along with a Costa Rican beer, Imperial. Both were delish but I think anything would have been good after an hour of snorkeling. After everyone finished we tested out the pool for a bit. I chose to ignore the 30 minute waiting period after eating and jumped right in. Even in the shade it is hot here so I was quite warm after a poolside lunch.

There was a coctail party at a neighboring beach club in the evening followed by dinner at the restaurant of our choice. Once I saw the dinner bill, I have to say is thank god Norm's company is paying for this trip and for the meals. We tried to mingle with others after dinner but the pull of the air conditioning was too great and we headed to bed.

Ziplining:
Day 3 we were given the choice to compete in the company golf tournament or take the ziplining canopy tour. While I attempted golf lessons in high school and really enjoy napping to golf on tv, I decided the canopy tour was the better choice for me. We rushed through breakfast and jumped on a bus to the Congo canopy tour grounds. The guides harnessed us up and gave us just enough instructions to make us nervous and off we went, flying through the air. I did a similar trip last time I was in Costa Rica, but this was the first time I tried ziplining upside down. And the best part, one of the guides filmed the whole thing.

Bienvenido a Costa Rica

You may or may not be aware that I have taken a trip to Costa Rica. Norm was rewarded for all his hard work with an all expenses paid trip to the Four Season in Costa Rica for him and a guest and apparently I laughed at enough of his jokes to get the guest spot so here I am... I was very excited to break in my brand new passport but am a little nervous to get a taste of a first class vacation. Can I really go back to $5 per night hostels after 4 nights at the Four Seasons with an ocean view?

This trip started off a bit shaky. We were scheduled to take the red eye departing SFO at 12:35 AM Saturday, change planes in Houston and arrive in Liberia Costa Rica before noon. Unfortunately, it didn't work out quite that nice. We learned that the plane was running late but on the encouragement of the phone agents we went to the airport early anyways. Turns out this was good advice because before long we were on the 6:00 PM departure that was delayed until midnight. We later learned that our original flight was cancelled and I could be spending the weekend in San Francisco instead of Papagao.

Once in Houston we learn that our flight to Costa Rica is also delayed so instead of a 2 hour layover, we had 5 hours to really get to know the Houston airport. I learned that there really isn't a lot to do at the Houston airport between 6:00 and 11:00 AM.

After a few hours on the plane, an hour long drive to the resort, we finally checked in to the hotel and I've managed to test the bed (very comfy) and the shower (hot and with water pressure... something I did not have on my last Costa Rica adventure).