For my last day in Ljubljana, Slovenia I was extremely busy. I went to a massive underground cave this morning called Postojna. You take a train into the inside of the cave for about 8 minutes then you walk around for an hour with a tour guide (who doesn't talk that much actually). It was very impressive, about 3km inside the earth, though only 120 meters underground. There were tons of stalagtites and stalagmites to be seen everywhere. I got the bus back to Ljubljana and met a Korean couple who were headed to Croatia to the places I just came from, so I told them some tips about the areas.

Once I got back to town I was unsure if I should take another hour-long bus ride to Bled, a lake town in the middle of the mountains. So I said if the 1:00 bus was still there (they were hourly on the hour) I would take it or if not I would probably just stay in Ljubljana. As it turns out the bus from the caves arrived early and I just made the Bled bus by 3 minutes. On the bus I met Andy, Josh, and Tracy, three New Zealanders travelling around Europe for two months. They were spending the night in Bled, but invited me to hang out with them. So we rented a rowboat in Bled and rowed out to a church on an island in the middle of the lake. It was lovely there and we went swimming in the water, which was about 24 degrees. It was really clear water - you could see fish swimming in it from far away. Some of the fish were a foot and half long, and impressive to watch. Anyway, they were really nice to me and invited me to continue travelling with them, but I have already purchased many of my train tickets to save money, so that wasn't really possible. I may see them again sometime though as I think we are going to some of the same places at similar times. I didn't get back to Ljubljana until 10:00 at night, but it was worth it as I had a blast today.

A few more videos from the Bellagio Hotel:

There were several model trains running near the lobby of the Bellagio.

This video shows the water spout fountain things in the lobby.

Well my assignments are all finished for my courses, so I have a bit more time at my disposal. I thought this might be a good opportunity to talk about New York a bit. Rather than give you a daily blow-by-blow, I thought it might be easier and more interesting to do some trip highlights (and the occasional lowlight).

We had a few problems just getting to New York. We got minorly lost on the way to the airport, then ran into a line of barely moving traffic which delayed us an extra 20 minutes or so. We had lots of time though, so it wasn't a problem in the end. The flight ended up being extremely bumpy, which was a real negative. It was so bad the lady behind us fainted and many people ahead of us were airsick. Victoria was quite drained after the flight because of all the adrenaline she used during it. Sarah had her tooth fall out during the flight too (she had chipped one a year ago and this was a false rest of the tooth), which was annoying for the start of the trip especially. The only good thing about the flight was that we had personal video units we could use to get movies and shows on demand. It was the first time I've flown in a plane with that, and it was nice being able to pause the movie when you went to the toilet, etc.

The problems didn't stop when we arrived at JFK, as immigration took forever. Victoria and Sarah ended up waiting in line over an hour to get through immigration, despite the line not being that long. On top of it all, the immigration officer was really rude to Sarah, commenting that people shouldn't come to this country if they don't want to wait in line for hours. It seems to me that we manage to have some of the rudest immigration officers in the world, which is really disappointing given that Americans are known for good customer service. Obviously they have to be serious and professional in their jobs as they have a security role, but you can be polite as well. An apology for having to wait so long would've been a more appropriate greeting to Sarah. It's not just New York either, as I've noticed it at other entry points (though maybe the New York "friendliness" didn't help). Given that now America is a really cheap place to visit since the currency is down, and we could use the help with the economy in a poor state, it seems like we are squandering the good will of our visitors for no reason.

We took a taxi to the hotel, the Waldorf Astoria. A taxi ended up being the most reasonable method for three people as it is set at $45 plus tolls. The airport bus was about $15 each and we would need to walk many blocks afterwards. The hotel room was really nice, though we kept having to tip people to get our bags to the room. That night I think I just went out and got some takeout burgers as Victoria and Sarah were exhausted. When I was walking around you could see a lot of people wearing green, and a lot of police cars everywhere as the St. Patrick's Day parade had been earlier that day (unfortunately we missed it).

We had bought hop-on hop-off bus passes for the first two whole days in New York, so we went to pick them up. There were tons of people waiting for them though and it took about an hour before we could do the uptown loop. In general I would not recommend it to anyone, as the tour guides were pretty hit and miss (we liked two, hated two). The traffic means that the bus is almost useless as a mode of transportation. It's really cheap and fast to take the subway if you need to go anywhere. Still, the tour did help us see the different parts of the city, and I doubt we would've gone to Harlem otherwise.

It only rained one day when we were in New York, which was pretty good weather we thought. There was a bit of a stinging wind at times though so it was hardly warm (except on Easter Sunday).

On Wednesday we went to Macy's and Old Navy to do a bit of shopping (all we got were pyjamas). The girls went back to the hotel for a rest and I volunteered to wait in line for TKTS discount Broadway show tickets. We made a list of all the shows we would consider going to, so I had some choice as I didn't know what would be available. Around 2 I got in line, with the tickets going on sale at 3. I was about 100th or so in line, with maybe another 400 people behind me when the tickets went on sale. I talked to a girl next to me in line for awhile (she wanted to see Stomp). When you get the front of the line it becomes pandemonium and you have to practically push up to get the tickets. We ended up with half price tickets (around $60) to Curtains, a musical comedy murder mystery (talk about genre overload!). I got a rush of adrenaline after getting the tickets (we had pretty good seats in the middle too). I even found a Latin American restaurant on the way back that we had dinner at. Turns out they had half-price margaritas that night too. The show was good and funny, but I doubt it will end up a classic as I can't remember any of the songs now. The main star was David Hyde Pierce, Niles from Frazier.

One thing I remember from New York was going around to lots of little cafes around the hotel each morning. I tended to do a breakfast run and bring back food for the lazy sleeping women. :) It was fun exploring the area and trying to find the new places. There were lots of little places with breakfast specials, and you could find some great deals despite it being New York. The best we found was pancake, sausage, tea and orange juice for about five dollars.

We went on the Sex and the City tour on Thursday. It was alright, but I didn't get as much from it as some of the bigger fans seem to. For instance, we saw many of the locations along with video clips from the show that was in that location. I've seen most of the episodes, but not all, and never more than once. So seeing a random clip that I didn't remember wasn't the most interesting thing for me. It was nice to see different parts of New York that the main tour buses wouldn't have gone to though. Once we had a break next to a tiny Japanese restaurant, which had good food at great prices, so we picked some up for the bus. We also stopped at a bakery to have cupcakes. We also played around in FAO Schwartz some that morning and it was a really interesting toy store with things like a giant Lego Darth Vader. I thought they could've done a better job of actually selling Legos though, as there were hardly any on the shelves.

Friday morning Carmen picked me up and we drove out to her house (over an hour away) which is in New Jersey. It was a cute little house and she was fixing it up in her spare time as it needed some work when she bought it. We also walked across a bridge to Pennsylvania to a town where they have the world's largest crayon. We met up with Victoria and Sarah around 5:30 and went out to dinner as a group. It was good catching up with Carmen, and she seems to be doing well.

me and the giant crayon

Saturday we took the Staten Island ferry so we could see the Statue of Liberty, as it is a free ferry which goes right past it. It has good views of the city skyline too. The line for the Statue of Liberty ferry was about a half-mile long when we walked past it, so I am glad we did not wait for that. I would've liked to go to Ellis Island again though. We also walked to the World Trade Center site, which is a massive construction zone now. There is a small church nearby which we went to that served as the volunteer center for those involved in the rescue operations after the collapse. It is also where George Washington prayed after his inauguration in New York. We also got to go to the courthouse steps where the Law and Order opening sequence is shot. We also went up to the top of the Rockefeller Center. It's not the tallest building in the city but it is one of the tallest, and has great views of Central Park and the Empire State Building. Plus you don't have to wait in line for nearly as long as the Empire State Building. I think we were in line about 20 minutes total, while some people we met on the tour bus said they waited three hours for the Empire State Building (with young kids!). Victoria and I brought some mini-Cadbury creme eggs from England and hid them around the room while Sarah was in the bathroom. So Sarah had a surprise mini-Easter egg hunt. Victoria wasn't quite so happy when Sarah and I hid them in really difficult places and she had to try to find them. I think she got all but a few in the end.

That evening we went to Smith and Wollensky's, a famous steak house that is right next to the hotel. It was not a cheap meal by any measure, but it was really good steak. It was a nice way to end our last full day in New York too. It was a bit of a belated birthday present from Victoria to Sarah.

On our last morning we walked through some of Central Park, which was perfect given the great weather. We had lunch at a New York deli with giant sandwiches, and then we went to Columbus Circle to walk around and later bask in the sun. Our flight wasn't until 9, so we took a taxi to the airport and then ate dinner there. Thankfully the flight home was fairly uneventful, though I only managed a small amount of sleep. Sarah was a trooper and drove us home despite not sleeping that much either. All in all it was a great trip and I don't think any of us were ready to come back at the end. Oh yeah, and the beds of the Waldorf Astoria are really amazing. They made us not want to leave the room.

Have been quite busy the last month, so haven't been able to write much. Here's a bit of a round-up:

Finished my first two courses in my Msc in e-learning, which involved lots of final assignment essay writing. I'll start two more next week, so I am getting mentally prepared now.

In December I also went back to the US for about 5 days for Keith and Joy's wedding. It was a very nice wedding, and it was good to see my family, including most of my aunts and uncles from California who flew in for the wedding. Keiko, Paul, and Ray flew in from Japan so it was good to meet Ray for the first time. Unfortunately they all got sick with a stomach flu that quickly made its way around the family. Didn't have much time to visit with friends though, as everything was pretty wedding focused. I got really sick on the airplane ride home which was not fun at all, but managed to avoid giving it to Victoria thankfully.

After the wedding, I flew back to England for Christmas at Victoria's parents' house. It was quite hectic there as there were about 15 people in one house. Had a lot of fun though, but unfortunately many people were sick and Victoria was unfortunate to catch this one, which has lasted until now.

It's back to work on Wednesday since I used my extra vacation on the wedding. I imagine not many people will be at work then, but we'll see.

Some of the time we just hid in cafes (behind bags) and watched people through the glass. This was particularly true when it was raining or cold.

We did a bit of shopping, but most of the stores were the same chains as the ones in the UK. On Grafton Street, a big shopping street, we found this cute indoor shopping center, which was practically made from glass.


We found this section of pet clothing in a popular store for accessories. I was amazed by just how many pet outfits there were.

We found some nice green spaces, including St. Stephen's Green (pictured here), right in the heart of the city. The university campus for Trinity College was particularly nice, and extremely large given where it is located.


St. Stephen's Green had a nice pond which had lots of leaves of different colors that had fallen off. We had a bit of a game trying to take pictures of the ducks who swam really quickly and just became a blur on the pictures.

We wandered around the city a lot the whole time we were there. This touristy pub is located on Temple Bar, the main street for nightlife (and often expensive prices).


This was part of Dublin castle, of which we could only see a very limited part.

Thought I'd put up a few pictures of Dublin on here. This is O'Connell Street's bridge that crosses the river that goes through the center of town. Of course, that is Victoria. One thing I found interesting is the giant Heineken building in the background, given that Guinness is king in Dublin. The Guinness factory/museum was a bit further out of town and we didn't make it that far.

Our trip to Dublin went really well. We had a relaxing time and the flight was onl 35 minutes, much to Victoria's pleasure. The hotel we stayed in (a Comfort Inn) was brand new, but we still got a good deal on it. We didn't do many things in Dublin, as far as touristy stuff. Mostly we walked around and saw the different parts of the city center. We did go to the Dublin Writer's Museum, which made me realise just how many famous writers Ireland has. It is a nice city to look at and easy to get around. We met up with Jo, the other teacher at Horikawa, the school I taught at in Japan. She was there for my second year, and came to Horikawa two days out of the week. She took us to a Japanese restaurant downtown that had great food. I'll try to put up some pictures soon.

We've started planning a holiday for the upcoming half-term school break that Victoria has. We found a cheap flight to Dublin from Manchester, so we are going to Ireland. Neither of us have ever been before, so it should be interesting. We are arriving Saturday and returning on Tuesday. The flight is only an hour, which shows you just how close Ireland really is to England. More details to come as we plan the trip. We might stay in a pretty nice hotel if we find a good deal. I think Victoria's earned it with all the work she's been doing (especially on top of a cold this week).

My master's course is going pretty well. One class has launched into a wiki activity for the next few weeks which I need to start participating in. The other one just got past introductions this week and has been working on some e-learning scenarios. I need to think about the assessments a bit ahead of time, as both the big ones are due a few days after Keith's wedding in December. It would be good to have at least one of them done before the wedding.

We made it back from France last Tuesday night. It was a great trip, and we had loads of fun in Paris. We stayed with my friend Nissim from high school and his girlfriend Sarah (plus their cat Natasha). They are living and working in Paris and have a nice 1 bedroom flat. We stayed in the living room on a futon.

We spent most of our time wandering around Paris on foot and eating and drinking. Unfortunately Victoria was sick with a cold during the whole trip and I caught it for the second half. But we didn't let our general grossness stop us, and kept walking around despite it. We did sleep 11-12 hours a night though, so our bodies must have been tired. I'll post some pictures and more details later.