Friday, July 11, 2008
We’re in Kyoto and it’s great. We rented bikes for 5 bucks each per day and have just taken the city on by bicycle. Kyoto is cool because for years and years it was the capital of Japan but 150 years ago, the capital and the emperor moved to Tokyo. We went to the Emperors Castle but everything other than the gardens was closed to visitors. We were a bit bummed by that. After that we took the bikes up to Takaragaike Gardens. It was beautiful up there. Kyoto is surrounded by “mountains,” Appalachian style mountains, not Rocky style mountains and this park was in the northern hills of the city. After that we tried to go see some temples but everything in Japan shuts down at 5:00. No shops, no temples, no nothing. So we found a burger place for more American style food. Tonight we are trying trying trying to find some sort of asian food. We tried a Chinese place a couple nights ago but they told us there were no seats available. We think it’s because we weren’t dressed nice enough for the place. So we might try it again tonight. The food looked great. I’ve let my hair do its own thing while we have been in Japan because the humidity is so bad that I have no control. You should see it, it’s amazingly curly. Zane loves it. Crazy kid.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Well the last entry ended a bit abruptly. Sorry. I am on the plane now back to London. Today will be the longest day of my life… literally! I left Tokyo at 11:30 this morning and am arriving in London at 3 local time, after a 12 hour flight. How much sense does that make? J So today is going to be 30 hours long. It will be even worse for Zane, that is if he was able to get on the plane after the laundry disaster! He left Tokyo at 4 on Thursday the 17th, and is crossing the international date line and arriving in Denver at 2:00 on Thursday the 17th! So his calendar is pretty much as if he didn’t even fly! Except for the 12 hour flight that he has to endure. His July 17th is going to be 16 hours in Tokyo plus 12 hours on the plane plus 10 hours left of the day in America equaling 38 hours long!!! Anyways, I ended in Kyoto. We got to go to the Chinese restaurant that night and really liked it. I think Zane was left hungry but the food was good. We were the only diners in the restaurant for our entire meal and to be honest, we were awfully grateful for it. We looked so funny trying to figure out what everything was, the little cups next to the chopsticks, the different meals. It’s funny out here because they bring the food out when it is ready, not when the whole tables food is ready. So when we got my meal, we thought it was the rice we ordered, just thinking maybe the rice was hidden underneath the meat and noodles, so we started sharing it. Then after a few minutes they brought out Zane’s dish, and we realized he was eating my dinner! Because then finally after another 5 minutes or so, the rice was brought out, and sure enough, it was regular old familiar rice! It was pretty funny, I’m sure the waitresses got a kick out of watching us.
For the rest of Kyoto, so kept the bikes and saw the Kyoto Meiji Castle and this beautiful Temple painted in gold leaf. We also got to see Gion, the Geisha district, which you would recognized if you’ve ever read Memoirs of a Geisha. It’s one of my favorite books, so I was really excited to visit there. Apparently there was some festival going on in Gion around the days we were there… but not the day we went. The day we went it just looked like a carnival was closing up or something, and we didn’t know why, but later learned of the festival after leaving Kyoto unfortunately.
After Kyoto we went to Osaka. It’s a smaller sized Tokyo just 20 minutes from Kyoto. We had a nice hotel there right on the main shopping street. We kept it pretty low key in Osaka because this was something like our 26th day of travel, and we were a bit tired. We saw the Osaka Castle and all of the shopping around the hotel, but that’s about it. They had something called America Village right by us that advertised as American shopping, where you can buy all the vintage 1960s looking clothes as you want and apparently they sell thousands and thousands of dollars worth of Levis. It was sort of American looking to us. I guess a lot of slogan t-shirt shops.
So after Osaka we had reservations at a hotel at the base of Mount Fuji, planning to see the mountain, maybe climb it, just sorta playing it by ear. Well because of the language barrier we were sold tickets on the bullet train that has loads of stops, so after like 11 stops, we finally got to ours after 3 hours. We were mad because Fuji is between Osaka and Tokyo and it took us longer to get to Mt Fuji than it took us to get to the Osaka Kyoto area from Tokyo! But a long train ride was welcomed I think, after our exhausting trip. Well then they told us to take a bus to the hotel from the train station, a 2 hour long bus ride! We had to take 2 separate buses through the cities around the base of the mountain. It was rainy and foggy so we couldn’t really even see anything from the bus. So we just sat there getting motion sickness for 2 more hours. Finally we got to the hotel and Zane says as we are checking in “Alright, lets get our stuff and go climb the mountain!” With all the rain, I sort of assumed we weren’t climbing the thing, but of course I had to show him pictures of the beautiful sunrise that everyone climbs Fuji for, so he had his heart set. I was a bit upset about it because we didn’t have climbing gear (I was wearing Sketcher tennis shoes and he was wearing K-Swiss), it was rainy and we couldn’t even see the mountain from the base, and if it was going to rain for the whole climb, I was going to freeze at the summit in soaked jeans. So I may have thrown a fit about it, but Zane stood his ground and we did it. His point was that everything we read said that the sunrise is amazing, no matter what the weather at the bottom is, because you climb above the clouds, and at that point the rain had stopped. He said it will probably be miserable, but it will be worth it at the end. So being our 2nd to last day together, I wasn’t about to stay in the hotel while he went to climb a mountain alone at night. So I went. It took Blood, Sweat and Tears (lots of tears early), but we did it. We took the 915 bus up to the 5th station, where most people start the climb, got there about 10 and were off. We wore jeans, our street tennis shoes, tshirts, sweatshirts and jackets and I think we did alright. They say that it take 5 to 7 hours to get to the summit from the 5th station, and leaving at 10, if we go on the slower side, it puts us at the top around 4 for a 4:40 sunrise. Well, we got to the 8th station at about midnight, where there is a sign that says 3 hours to go. So we were making pretty good time. Well there are multiple station 8 huts from there to the summit, and we got to the last hut, which is an hour away at like 1. So apparently we were bookin’ it! By that hut, it was cold cold cold, so we went into the hut and had a cup of noodles each and 3 hot chocolates over an hour and a half. About 2:45 we went back out to make it to the top. The wind was whistling on the side of the hut and when we went out it was dense dense fog. We each had headlamps but mine was more of a flashlight, whereas Zane’s was an LED light with a wide angle giving him a pretty good sight. Mine was horrible, all I could see in the fog was the beam of light. The climb was rough in parts, especially between the last hut and the summit. None if the trail was smooth. A lot of it was climbing on hands and knees through mazes of huge rocks trying to find the smoothest path. I was a little scared that we would get lost, but the path was very well tied off with rope. They say 300,000 people climb it each years, so it is made to keep people safe. So we finally get to the summit at around 3:45 I think. There was a lot of traffic in that last part because everyone was trying to make it up for the sunrise.
So we finally got up there and the summit huts were closed until 4, so we had to wait outside in the cold wind. It was still foggy at the summit and we got a bit worried. They opened the huts and we waited. Zane took his big backpack to carry water and food for us, so he was exhausted after essentially running up a mountain. Anyways, we sat around and chatted with the other climbers until 4:30 when we realized the fog wasn’t going to burn off before sunrise. The sun came up and we saw nothing. We were so heartbroken. We were so excited to see it. Google Image Mount Fuji sunrise sometime, and you will see pictures of what we were supposed to see. Poor Zane was so excited for it and all for nothing. The point of staying up all night is to see this majestic sunrise, and as it turns out, all we get out of it is saying we did it. I think it’s still pretty impressive though. The base is at 3,700 meters and we climbed from 2,300 meters. It isn’t Mt Everest, hell I bet the mountains in the snowy’s peak higher than that, but it was the roughest terrain I’ve ever hiked. So I think it is a pretty good accomplishment. AND after the fit I threw when Zane wanted to go, I actually enjoyed the hike and took it as a competition almost, and the whole time we were in the front of our busload. Zane had this way of being right ALL THE TIME and once again, he was right. We had a good time. When we realized we weren’t going to see anything we went ahead and started the descent. We wanted to see in the crater of the volcano and the views from the other angles of the mountain, but we couldn’t see anything, so we gave up. The descent Is a lot different from the ascent. It is steep switchbacks the whole way down and its loose dirt. It would have been much easier to climb up that path, but boring. But anyways, the view from the descent was great after about 20 minutes. We were above the clouds but below the fog at the summit. We didn’t get to see the colors of the sunrise but we got to see the world from above the clouds. I have some pretty good pictures from this part.
After the hike we went off to Narita Airport – Tokyo’s international airport – and stayed the night at a hotel there. This morning we got up and Zane rode with me to the airport. My flight was at 11 and his wasn’t until 4 so we had to say goodbye at the security point. It was one of the hardest goodbye’s I’ve ever had. My two breakups have basically been because of a move, but leaving was so much harder this time because everything is going great. We have had an amazing month travelling together and it’s so hard to separate when we are so happy together. But we’re going to keep in touch and we’ll see what happens. I’m really anxious to hear how his flight went. His passport was washed in our laundry disaster, and was a bit worn. It didn’t look in very good condition. We took it to the embassy in Tokyo last week and the man at the passport office said he can’t guarantee that the immigration officers will let him out of Tokyo or into the US. He said the passport was on the bad side of OK condition and that he could get an emergency passport just in case, but Zane decided against it. All of his information readable and none of his stamps smeared. The officer said he may be denied entry onto his plane. That the officer in the states will most likely let him through, but the Japanese officers are the question. I couldn’t even wait to find out. So he may still be in Tokyo for tonight until he can get an emergency passport. I really hope not!!
So I’m moving into the hostel in London tonight. I’m really looking forward to not having an agenda. There are really only a few things on my list. I need to get a bank account and apply for some jobs, and I also want to get a book on professional photography. Zane and I have decided that I need a professional camera. I have all of these great pictures, but they could be so much more. With the amount of travel I want to do in my life, I think a really good camera will be worth it. Oh and also, I need to watch the last several episodes of the Bachelorette and see what happened! I haven’t gotten to see them since before I left! Gosh I love you abc.com! Anyways, I’ll write again when I do something interesting :)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Efficient Trains? Ha.
Back to the first night in Tokyo. I got into the city and checked into our hotel and started to head back out to the airport. They wouldn’t let me order tickets for the express train that I was on earlier in the day because of the accident on the line and told me to take the subway out there. They said it should take under an hour and a half. So I got on the first subway line and rode it for about 15 minutes and had to change, then I got on another that should have taken me to the airport but after about an hour long journey it just stopped. Out of nowhere. So I just started asking people and following people and somehow wound up on another train that said it was going to Narita airport. By the time I got on the 3rd super packed subway train, it was around 8:15 and Zane’s plane was landing at 9:15. I felt pretty good, not having any clue how far away I still was. After about 45 minutes this train just stopped again. I was in the city of Narita, not Narita airport. So I still have another 10 minute train journey to go because arriving at the airport. Well I had to change trains, got to the platform and the sign said Narita Airport 9:30. I was so bummed out because we had a plan set, where to meet and when and I knew I wasn’t going to be there when he got there. We had no cell phones and didn’t know the language. I hadn’t gotten any Japenese Yen yet so I couldn’t take a taxi to the airport. So I decided to just suck it up and wait, and I figured Zane would figure out what happened and just wait for me. Well I sat there until 9:30 and no train. Japan is known for their trains. Everyone I spoke to said the one thing to know about the trains is that they are the most efficient in the world. They are fast and always on time. Well, it was 9:35 and no train. There was a lot of chatter overhead on the microphones so I went to ask the policemen what they said. They spoke very little english but enough to say that it would be arriving at 10:00. Still, there was nothing I could do but wait. So I went and sat down to wait but a few minutes later there was more chatter over the intercoms. I went back up to the police to ask what it said and they said it was now delayed until 10:10. I burst into tears right infront of them. They gave me a sympathetic look and I went and sat down. A couple minutes later a young Japanese woman around my age came and kneeled next to me to ask what was wrong. I told her what was going on and that Zane was stuck at the airport with no clue where I was and that I had no way to get in touch with him. She listened to the story and went over to the police and told them why I was so upset. They came over and the girl and the police translated enough that the police got in touch with the airport police and after what seemed like forever they found him and got him on the phone to talk to me. It was pretty funny what I was describing him for the police. All they needed was tall blonde man and their search was over. He was the only blonde guy in the building. Ha. Zane said he was terrified when two police officers came up to him. He thought he was doing something wrong and he was going to some Japanese prison! But I got in touch with him and told him I was on my way. After I got off the phone with him the girls that were helping me said that the train was now delayed until 10:40 but that some taxi’s accept credit cards. So that’s what we did. It cost me 40 bucks to take a taxi the distance of a 10 minute train ride. But at that point I had to do it. I finally got to him at like 10:30 and there was one more train back into the city from the airport that night. So we took it but it took 2 hours for us to get back and then we had to take a taxi for the last short leg of the journey because it was too late to change to a different train. WHAT A MESS!!
So much for the ultra efficient train system. It is nice because with our Japan Rail Pass, all we do is flash it to the security guy and we walk through. We never have to wait in line, or spend money on tickets. It’s so quick and easy that it has totally made it worth the money for our Japan Rail Passes.
But I was so impressed with the people. There was a time when I was at that last train station where there were 6 people huddled around a crying blonde American girl trying to help. Also, before this whole ordeal, when I first arrived into Tokyo, I was that tourist with the huge fold out map trying to find my hotel. This was all I needed to get all the help I could ever need. People would come up from all directions asking me if I needed any help. I was so impressed by how helpful everyone was.
Our hotel room was beautiful. New and modern looking. It had a 40 inch LCD tv, a dvd player and Bose radio, a big pillow top bed, a balcony, a washer and dryer (we’ll get into that more later… grrr) and remote control EVERYTHING. The bathroom was amazing. The toilets in Japan are all either amazing or horrible. The one in our hotel room had bidet functions, where it washes you all clean, and it has different spray strengths and angles. I think the part I’m going to miss the most though is the heated seat! Even toilets in fast food restaurants had heated seats and the spray functions. Some of them even have a button with a music note on it and when you push the button it makes the sound of a toilet flushing but the toilet doesn’t actually flush! In one of the bathrooms, just by sitting on the toilet, it turned on that sound. In my experience in life, women don’t tend to make enough noise in public bathrooms where this is a big deal. But maybe in Japan it is. I also found it easier to pee when the sound was on, so maybe it is a solution to stage fright! It was pretty funny though. An on the opposite side of the spectrum, if you don’t get a high tech toilet, you get a pot that looks like a urinal that lies flat in the floor and you have to squat to use it. I never tried one of those. They were a bit intimidating. But back to my point, our hotel room was beautiful and priced better than most of the trashy small hotels we found.
Our hotel was in Shinjuku, which is the business district. Shinjuku station is the busiest railway station in the world. They suggest in my travel books to visit Shinjuku station during rush hour just for the experience, but don’t do it until you know the train system there. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my first experience with the trains in Tokyo was Shinjuku station at rush hour. Somehow, I made it out alive. I have a lot of pictures from Shinjuku, it was very bright and busy at night.
During our days in Tokyo we saw quite a bit. We saw the Emperors Palace and the gardens. You can only go into the palace property on the Emperor’s Birthday and I think, New Years. So we just had to look from afar, but it was beautiful. Tokyo is amazing because it is the most peaceful city I’ve ever been in. Even more so than Laramie, Wyoming in the summer. You walk down the streets in downtown Tokyo and there is no noise. No cars honking, no people yelling, no loud trucks. It’s just peaceful. We loved that about Tokyo. We tried going out the first night to Roppongi, which is the part of the city for nightlife, but all we found were strip clubs and dirty men everywhere. We had our dinner at Wolfgang Puck (yum yum) and then went back to the hotel. It just wasn’t fun going out in Tokyo. We were pretty surprised by how the city just dies in the evening. The shops close early and people seem to just go to bed or someplace that we didn’t ever find. We have been waiting until Japan to buy Zane a memory card so that he can take a copy of all of my pictures home with him. We figured Tokyo would be the best place for that, since Japan is known for its electronics. Well we didn’t find much for deals. I looked at new cameras since I can’t get rid of the splotches on the lens but I didn’t really find what I was looking for. So we did quite a bit of wandering through electronics store. It was really easy because there is an area of Tokyo called Electric Town and it is just blocks and blocks and blocks of 8 story electronic stores. It was amazing how much they had. We also spent a little bit of time in the Sony Building looking through their showroom. Zane is a huge Sony fan, so I think he really liked this part of Tokyo.
So today is our 7th day in Japan and we have yet to eat Japanese food. I know, it’s horrible but nothing looks good. Zane is a down home Wyoming boy and he needs his meat! A lot of the Japanese restaurants seem to advertise mostly vegetarian food and to be honest, the pictures of the food just look horrible. We’ve eaten a lot of fast food and other international cuisine – Italian, Mexican, American, but no Japanese yet. I’ve been wanting to get sushi still, and I will, but it’s been tough because when I want it, I can never find it, but all the other time we see it everywhere! Our first meal in Japan was KFC. I think we are both really missing the food back home now that we are in our 3rd week of travel.
We’ve seen a lot of temples and shrines in Tokyo and Kamakura and gotten some pretty great pictures. There were some neat shops near the shrines, where I considered buying a silk komono, just to have. I ended up not buying it but I still think it is something that would be cool to have from here.
So finally to our Tuesday night fiasco. We spent all of Tuesday in Kamakura and came back to Tokyo that night to our hotel. It was our last night with a washing machine, so we thought we should wash our few last dirty clothes before leaving the hotel. Well I threw everything into the wash and jumped into the shower. After the laundry was done I went to turn on the dryer and felt Zane’s wallet in his shorts. I took it out and I was bummed that his stuff was all wet. Well as soon as he realized him wallet was in the wash, he realized that his passport and both of our Japan Rail Passes were in those shorts. He took off his shorts and they ended up on the pile of clothes that I threw into the wash. I picked up the pile and threw the whole thing in the wash, without even checking. ACTUALLY I checked another pair of his shorts, but stupid me, I didn’t check the ones he was wearing all day. So our JR passes are both destroyed. They were confetti after the wash. His passport is a bit heartbreaking because, it is still in okay condition, but he will need a new one when he gets back and he was really excited about the stamps he got and excited to add more later. So anyways, we got up early this morning, took the few salvaged pieces of the pass along with our receipt to the JR offices, and begged them to give us a new pass. They said it was impossible. Which drove me crazy because it’s obviously not impossible; you just have some stupid rule against it. There is a special code on the pass that they need in order to reissue a new one and it was in too many pieces to find the code. So after going to 3 different people, we finally gave up. So we had to buy our tickets to Kyoto, which is where we are going right now, for a whopping 130 dollars each. Our JR pass was 400 dollars each and would have covered this trip and all of our future train tickets. We did get one week out of our passes, but now we will probably spend another 400 each on train tickets. It’s just sickening to think of the money we wasted just out of stupidity. I guess I learned a lesson. Our morning has been a mess though. We were really looking forward to sleeping in before our train to Kyoto!
We had to also go to the American Embassy to make sure his passport would get him home. The man there said he couldn’t tell us one way or another if the Immigration people will let Zane leave with a passport that looks as badly as his does. So the man was no help. But it was cool because there were crowds of police officers on every corner in the district where the embassy was. I think it was because the G8 conference is going on here right now and leaders from all around the world were in the neighborhood where we were! It was pretty cool, but also a bit unnerving.
So we are off to Kyoto today and then Osaka in 3 nights then Mount Fuji for a night. Should be awesome, I’ll be writing more on my flight back to London I’m sure.
So much for the ultra efficient train system. It is nice because with our Japan Rail Pass, all we do is flash it to the security guy and we walk through. We never have to wait in line, or spend money on tickets. It’s so quick and easy that it has totally made it worth the money for our Japan Rail Passes.
But I was so impressed with the people. There was a time when I was at that last train station where there were 6 people huddled around a crying blonde American girl trying to help. Also, before this whole ordeal, when I first arrived into Tokyo, I was that tourist with the huge fold out map trying to find my hotel. This was all I needed to get all the help I could ever need. People would come up from all directions asking me if I needed any help. I was so impressed by how helpful everyone was.
Our hotel room was beautiful. New and modern looking. It had a 40 inch LCD tv, a dvd player and Bose radio, a big pillow top bed, a balcony, a washer and dryer (we’ll get into that more later… grrr) and remote control EVERYTHING. The bathroom was amazing. The toilets in Japan are all either amazing or horrible. The one in our hotel room had bidet functions, where it washes you all clean, and it has different spray strengths and angles. I think the part I’m going to miss the most though is the heated seat! Even toilets in fast food restaurants had heated seats and the spray functions. Some of them even have a button with a music note on it and when you push the button it makes the sound of a toilet flushing but the toilet doesn’t actually flush! In one of the bathrooms, just by sitting on the toilet, it turned on that sound. In my experience in life, women don’t tend to make enough noise in public bathrooms where this is a big deal. But maybe in Japan it is. I also found it easier to pee when the sound was on, so maybe it is a solution to stage fright! It was pretty funny though. An on the opposite side of the spectrum, if you don’t get a high tech toilet, you get a pot that looks like a urinal that lies flat in the floor and you have to squat to use it. I never tried one of those. They were a bit intimidating. But back to my point, our hotel room was beautiful and priced better than most of the trashy small hotels we found.
Our hotel was in Shinjuku, which is the business district. Shinjuku station is the busiest railway station in the world. They suggest in my travel books to visit Shinjuku station during rush hour just for the experience, but don’t do it until you know the train system there. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my first experience with the trains in Tokyo was Shinjuku station at rush hour. Somehow, I made it out alive. I have a lot of pictures from Shinjuku, it was very bright and busy at night.
During our days in Tokyo we saw quite a bit. We saw the Emperors Palace and the gardens. You can only go into the palace property on the Emperor’s Birthday and I think, New Years. So we just had to look from afar, but it was beautiful. Tokyo is amazing because it is the most peaceful city I’ve ever been in. Even more so than Laramie, Wyoming in the summer. You walk down the streets in downtown Tokyo and there is no noise. No cars honking, no people yelling, no loud trucks. It’s just peaceful. We loved that about Tokyo. We tried going out the first night to Roppongi, which is the part of the city for nightlife, but all we found were strip clubs and dirty men everywhere. We had our dinner at Wolfgang Puck (yum yum) and then went back to the hotel. It just wasn’t fun going out in Tokyo. We were pretty surprised by how the city just dies in the evening. The shops close early and people seem to just go to bed or someplace that we didn’t ever find. We have been waiting until Japan to buy Zane a memory card so that he can take a copy of all of my pictures home with him. We figured Tokyo would be the best place for that, since Japan is known for its electronics. Well we didn’t find much for deals. I looked at new cameras since I can’t get rid of the splotches on the lens but I didn’t really find what I was looking for. So we did quite a bit of wandering through electronics store. It was really easy because there is an area of Tokyo called Electric Town and it is just blocks and blocks and blocks of 8 story electronic stores. It was amazing how much they had. We also spent a little bit of time in the Sony Building looking through their showroom. Zane is a huge Sony fan, so I think he really liked this part of Tokyo.
So today is our 7th day in Japan and we have yet to eat Japanese food. I know, it’s horrible but nothing looks good. Zane is a down home Wyoming boy and he needs his meat! A lot of the Japanese restaurants seem to advertise mostly vegetarian food and to be honest, the pictures of the food just look horrible. We’ve eaten a lot of fast food and other international cuisine – Italian, Mexican, American, but no Japanese yet. I’ve been wanting to get sushi still, and I will, but it’s been tough because when I want it, I can never find it, but all the other time we see it everywhere! Our first meal in Japan was KFC. I think we are both really missing the food back home now that we are in our 3rd week of travel.
We’ve seen a lot of temples and shrines in Tokyo and Kamakura and gotten some pretty great pictures. There were some neat shops near the shrines, where I considered buying a silk komono, just to have. I ended up not buying it but I still think it is something that would be cool to have from here.
So finally to our Tuesday night fiasco. We spent all of Tuesday in Kamakura and came back to Tokyo that night to our hotel. It was our last night with a washing machine, so we thought we should wash our few last dirty clothes before leaving the hotel. Well I threw everything into the wash and jumped into the shower. After the laundry was done I went to turn on the dryer and felt Zane’s wallet in his shorts. I took it out and I was bummed that his stuff was all wet. Well as soon as he realized him wallet was in the wash, he realized that his passport and both of our Japan Rail Passes were in those shorts. He took off his shorts and they ended up on the pile of clothes that I threw into the wash. I picked up the pile and threw the whole thing in the wash, without even checking. ACTUALLY I checked another pair of his shorts, but stupid me, I didn’t check the ones he was wearing all day. So our JR passes are both destroyed. They were confetti after the wash. His passport is a bit heartbreaking because, it is still in okay condition, but he will need a new one when he gets back and he was really excited about the stamps he got and excited to add more later. So anyways, we got up early this morning, took the few salvaged pieces of the pass along with our receipt to the JR offices, and begged them to give us a new pass. They said it was impossible. Which drove me crazy because it’s obviously not impossible; you just have some stupid rule against it. There is a special code on the pass that they need in order to reissue a new one and it was in too many pieces to find the code. So after going to 3 different people, we finally gave up. So we had to buy our tickets to Kyoto, which is where we are going right now, for a whopping 130 dollars each. Our JR pass was 400 dollars each and would have covered this trip and all of our future train tickets. We did get one week out of our passes, but now we will probably spend another 400 each on train tickets. It’s just sickening to think of the money we wasted just out of stupidity. I guess I learned a lesson. Our morning has been a mess though. We were really looking forward to sleeping in before our train to Kyoto!
We had to also go to the American Embassy to make sure his passport would get him home. The man there said he couldn’t tell us one way or another if the Immigration people will let Zane leave with a passport that looks as badly as his does. So the man was no help. But it was cool because there were crowds of police officers on every corner in the district where the embassy was. I think it was because the G8 conference is going on here right now and leaders from all around the world were in the neighborhood where we were! It was pretty cool, but also a bit unnerving.
So we are off to Kyoto today and then Osaka in 3 nights then Mount Fuji for a night. Should be awesome, I’ll be writing more on my flight back to London I’m sure.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Oh Tokyo!
So we've been in Tokyo for 4 days and we're loving it! Everyone here has been so nice and the city is so peaceful! We got in on the night of the 3rd. Zane's flight arrived 6 hours after mine so I went in to the city to check into the hotel and then went back to pick up Zane from the airport. I was a little worried because he had a layover in Beijing and we were a little worried his bags would get lost or there would be a connection problem, but everything was fine. He got in on time, but it was me who was late. I took the quick train into Tokyo from the airport, it took around an hour, but then there was some sort of accident on the train line infront of me. So after I got checked into the hotel I attempted the trip back to the airport. What a disaster. I got on 4 different subway trains that took 3 and a half hours, I was almost to the airport..... i will have to finish this later. Zane is getting whiney.
Friday, July 4, 2008
The Start to my Second Big Adventure
Wednesday June 25, 2008
We’re on day 5 of the cruise through the Greek Isles. We got on in Athens on Saturday and have been to Kalymnos, Bodrum Turkey, and Kos. Today we are headed to Paros, tomorrow to Mykonos and on Friday we will be in Syros. Saturday we head back to Athens. We got to spend a night in Athens at the most incredible hotel called the Athens Gate. It was beautiful. We got in from London around 11 at night with our heavy backpacks and the bellhop grabbed them and was so very helpful. This is huge because we can’t afford a bellhop!! So we were pretty surprised that this decently priced hotel was so classy. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the Temple of Zeus. It was so amazing all lit up at night. The room was clean with new furniture and décor. The bathroom was beautiful, everything marble and glass. We got a couple of crepes for dinner, and then had a couple drinks at a bar on top of the restaurant. Which, I forgot to mention, our room looks over the temple of Zeus, but the other side of the hotel looks over the Acropolis. It was all lit up and beautiful. We had our drinks on the balcony on the Acropolis side. Well, I ordered a mojito and I think it was the best mojito I’ve ever had. The bartender went outside near where we were sitting and PICKED THE MINT for my mojito. How cool is that? The next morning we went up the Acropolis. It was so cool because it was all so old. The city was established in the 3rd century BC. Most of the ruins from the Acropolis were from about 500 BC. 2500 years old!! After the Acropolis we went down to the ------- and got our lunch. I had the first of MANY Greek Salads. Zane really liked it, I think. After that we had to head to the port to board the boat.The boat only holds like 600 people. Not very big for a cruise line. Our room is small, but we made some adjustments and made it more comfortable for us. There are 2 bars and restaurants, both of which are very nice, a pool and 3 hot tubs. There is also a salon and gym. The hot tubs are great because they are kept at around 90, so you can enjoy them in the heat. The food and drinks on the boat are quite expensive so we are just drinking water on here and trying to eat in the ports as much as possible. The food is much better on land anyways. This boat really is just a glorified hotel. We haven’t spent much time at all on it. Every day since then we have had excursions during the days. In Kalymnos we couldn’t pull the boat up to the dock because of the wind so we took these gorgeous smaller wooden boats in. The only problem there was that it only took you in every hour and a half, so if you missed one, you had to wait quite a while. We went in with our excursion group and saw an amazing monastery at the top of the mountain overlooking the city then we went to the other side of the island by bus to a beach and had lunch and some drinks at a little bar that was open to the sun and breeze. I had another Greek Salad, Zane had an chicken with pineapple sauce on it. It was one of the best meals of the trip. We swam for a while, and I do have to mention that we tried a vanilla milkshake, to test my dad’s theory that no one else makes a milkshake like America does, and he was right. It was watered down milk with a scoop of melted ice cream in it. Not very good. Sidenote- Zane and I are drinking a strawberry milkshake on the boat right now… it is delicious but cost about $8.00. (!!!)So after Kalymnos, next stop was Bodrum , Turkey. We were really looking forward to Turkey, and for the most part, we enjoyed it. The excursion we paid for was a scam here. It was meant to be 4 hours and turned into 7. We got a tour of the castle, which was great, but then we were supposed to get a boat ride out to a couple of bays to swim and snorkel. Well after the castle, the guide wanted to take us shopping. So they loaded us on a hot bus and took us 15 minutes away to this huge jewelry store. They told us this big story about how the best place in the world to buy jewelry is Turkey because they don’t have any tax on it. We walked in and they had this glass wall and on the other side were 4 or 5 stations for cleaning and fixing jewelry. There were 3 guys in there working diligently as we get this big long talk about how amazing the jewelry is there and what a deal it is and how they will give us a certificate of authenticity if we buy something, so we KNOW it’s real. Ha. So they made us stay for like a half hour and they wouldn’t let you go out the doors we walked in, they all said no exit, the only way to exit is through the GIFT SHOP. Ha. So we ignored the doors and walked through the no exit doors to find a bathroom and walked past that glass wall with the stations, and the 3 workers had left as soon as the customers went into the jewelry store and were now sitting in a back room smoking and drinking soda, waiting for the next tour group to get brought through. What a scam! AND what about the gift shop in a jewelry store? Come on. We priced some jewelry out of curiosity. ½ karat diamond for $4,000. No thanks. So we were all really mad that they took us on this extra trip and wasted all of our time. We then took the boat trip and it was amazing. The water was so clear but so blue. We got some goggles from the boat and did a little snorkeling. Not a ton of sea life but Zane did find an octopus! That was neat to see.We met another couple on the excursion that day from Australia. Chloe and Matt are there names. They just finished a 7 day sailing tour of Croatia! That is something that I’ve always wanted to do, so I got some info from them on it. But we have spent a lot of time with them since. We bought a dinner package too, which pays for 4 dinners on 4 different islands at a specific restaurant. In Turkey they took us up the mountain to this gorgeous outdoor restaurant overlooking the city and the sea. The food wasn’t that great but it was such a great location that it didn’t matter. We had dinner with Chloe and Matt and their other friends from Australia Shannon and Nick. Then after dinner we went out in Bodrum. It is Turkey’s capital for nightlife apparently. I’m not sure how much that says though. We had fun but all of our drinks tasted like juice. The city was pretty lively, right on the beach, all lit up. Before our drinks we took a walk through the markets. They were selling all kinds of fake bags and sunglasses, but they were pretty believable fakes. Too bad my backpack is full to the brim. Side note- when we left Denver my backpack was 33 pounds, when we left London, it was 42!! I have no idea how that happened, but we are only allowed 20 kilos on the plane, and it was 19 when we left London. So I can’t be buying any fake bags L Sad. Turkey was great, we loved it. Despite all the scams… drinks, diamonds, bags, it was still a pretty cool experience.After Bodrum we were to Kos, just off of Turkey. We took another excursion , this one took us to Asclepion, which was the first hospital in the world. Asclepius was the god of Health or something like that, and people would come here to see him and be healed. It was up on this hill, so they said the first treatment was psychological, you could see Asclepion from the sea, so when you were sick and arriving by boat, your mind boosts your body and changes your mood to be hopeful, helping you get better. Then there was an area for the patients to be seen, and a temple to pray in. We then went to Zias, a small town up on a hill, for their famous “Cinnamon Drink” which was just a hold glass of water with cinnamon flavoring, but it was still refreshing. Then we went down to catch a boat to a secluded beach. We had a little Greek Captain who was so cool, and once got to the beach, the crew grilled us up some meat and fish and they had 2 huge bowls of Greek Salad with tons of feta cheese. I think this was the best meal of the trip. The fish was so good and the salad was amazing. We had a couple of servings each. Then we went snorkeling, didn’t see much this time though. Lots of very small fish but that’s about it. When we were in the water, the crew was teaching the rest of the excursion group to dance to the greek music. It looked really cool, I wish we could have been a part of that. After that we had another prepaid dinner in Kos. It was so good, it overlooked the ruins of their marketplace. We didn’t get to spend very much time in Kos so I’m not sure what caused the marketplace to have fallen, but they said there were several very large earthquakes in their history. The dinner was so good. We ate with Matt, Chloe, Shannon and Nick again. We had Octopus for our appetizer! And chicken for the main course. The chicken was so good, and we had ice cream for dessert. It was another very very good meal. Afterwards we had some drinks in their bar district and back to the boat. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t have much time to roam Kos, but the excursions and dinner made up for it.We are now on our way to Paros, my battery is about to die so I’ll finish this next week!
We’re on day 5 of the cruise through the Greek Isles. We got on in Athens on Saturday and have been to Kalymnos, Bodrum Turkey, and Kos. Today we are headed to Paros, tomorrow to Mykonos and on Friday we will be in Syros. Saturday we head back to Athens. We got to spend a night in Athens at the most incredible hotel called the Athens Gate. It was beautiful. We got in from London around 11 at night with our heavy backpacks and the bellhop grabbed them and was so very helpful. This is huge because we can’t afford a bellhop!! So we were pretty surprised that this decently priced hotel was so classy. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the Temple of Zeus. It was so amazing all lit up at night. The room was clean with new furniture and décor. The bathroom was beautiful, everything marble and glass. We got a couple of crepes for dinner, and then had a couple drinks at a bar on top of the restaurant. Which, I forgot to mention, our room looks over the temple of Zeus, but the other side of the hotel looks over the Acropolis. It was all lit up and beautiful. We had our drinks on the balcony on the Acropolis side. Well, I ordered a mojito and I think it was the best mojito I’ve ever had. The bartender went outside near where we were sitting and PICKED THE MINT for my mojito. How cool is that? The next morning we went up the Acropolis. It was so cool because it was all so old. The city was established in the 3rd century BC. Most of the ruins from the Acropolis were from about 500 BC. 2500 years old!! After the Acropolis we went down to the ------- and got our lunch. I had the first of MANY Greek Salads. Zane really liked it, I think. After that we had to head to the port to board the boat.The boat only holds like 600 people. Not very big for a cruise line. Our room is small, but we made some adjustments and made it more comfortable for us. There are 2 bars and restaurants, both of which are very nice, a pool and 3 hot tubs. There is also a salon and gym. The hot tubs are great because they are kept at around 90, so you can enjoy them in the heat. The food and drinks on the boat are quite expensive so we are just drinking water on here and trying to eat in the ports as much as possible. The food is much better on land anyways. This boat really is just a glorified hotel. We haven’t spent much time at all on it. Every day since then we have had excursions during the days. In Kalymnos we couldn’t pull the boat up to the dock because of the wind so we took these gorgeous smaller wooden boats in. The only problem there was that it only took you in every hour and a half, so if you missed one, you had to wait quite a while. We went in with our excursion group and saw an amazing monastery at the top of the mountain overlooking the city then we went to the other side of the island by bus to a beach and had lunch and some drinks at a little bar that was open to the sun and breeze. I had another Greek Salad, Zane had an chicken with pineapple sauce on it. It was one of the best meals of the trip. We swam for a while, and I do have to mention that we tried a vanilla milkshake, to test my dad’s theory that no one else makes a milkshake like America does, and he was right. It was watered down milk with a scoop of melted ice cream in it. Not very good. Sidenote- Zane and I are drinking a strawberry milkshake on the boat right now… it is delicious but cost about $8.00. (!!!)So after Kalymnos, next stop was Bodrum , Turkey. We were really looking forward to Turkey, and for the most part, we enjoyed it. The excursion we paid for was a scam here. It was meant to be 4 hours and turned into 7. We got a tour of the castle, which was great, but then we were supposed to get a boat ride out to a couple of bays to swim and snorkel. Well after the castle, the guide wanted to take us shopping. So they loaded us on a hot bus and took us 15 minutes away to this huge jewelry store. They told us this big story about how the best place in the world to buy jewelry is Turkey because they don’t have any tax on it. We walked in and they had this glass wall and on the other side were 4 or 5 stations for cleaning and fixing jewelry. There were 3 guys in there working diligently as we get this big long talk about how amazing the jewelry is there and what a deal it is and how they will give us a certificate of authenticity if we buy something, so we KNOW it’s real. Ha. So they made us stay for like a half hour and they wouldn’t let you go out the doors we walked in, they all said no exit, the only way to exit is through the GIFT SHOP. Ha. So we ignored the doors and walked through the no exit doors to find a bathroom and walked past that glass wall with the stations, and the 3 workers had left as soon as the customers went into the jewelry store and were now sitting in a back room smoking and drinking soda, waiting for the next tour group to get brought through. What a scam! AND what about the gift shop in a jewelry store? Come on. We priced some jewelry out of curiosity. ½ karat diamond for $4,000. No thanks. So we were all really mad that they took us on this extra trip and wasted all of our time. We then took the boat trip and it was amazing. The water was so clear but so blue. We got some goggles from the boat and did a little snorkeling. Not a ton of sea life but Zane did find an octopus! That was neat to see.We met another couple on the excursion that day from Australia. Chloe and Matt are there names. They just finished a 7 day sailing tour of Croatia! That is something that I’ve always wanted to do, so I got some info from them on it. But we have spent a lot of time with them since. We bought a dinner package too, which pays for 4 dinners on 4 different islands at a specific restaurant. In Turkey they took us up the mountain to this gorgeous outdoor restaurant overlooking the city and the sea. The food wasn’t that great but it was such a great location that it didn’t matter. We had dinner with Chloe and Matt and their other friends from Australia Shannon and Nick. Then after dinner we went out in Bodrum. It is Turkey’s capital for nightlife apparently. I’m not sure how much that says though. We had fun but all of our drinks tasted like juice. The city was pretty lively, right on the beach, all lit up. Before our drinks we took a walk through the markets. They were selling all kinds of fake bags and sunglasses, but they were pretty believable fakes. Too bad my backpack is full to the brim. Side note- when we left Denver my backpack was 33 pounds, when we left London, it was 42!! I have no idea how that happened, but we are only allowed 20 kilos on the plane, and it was 19 when we left London. So I can’t be buying any fake bags L Sad. Turkey was great, we loved it. Despite all the scams… drinks, diamonds, bags, it was still a pretty cool experience.After Bodrum we were to Kos, just off of Turkey. We took another excursion , this one took us to Asclepion, which was the first hospital in the world. Asclepius was the god of Health or something like that, and people would come here to see him and be healed. It was up on this hill, so they said the first treatment was psychological, you could see Asclepion from the sea, so when you were sick and arriving by boat, your mind boosts your body and changes your mood to be hopeful, helping you get better. Then there was an area for the patients to be seen, and a temple to pray in. We then went to Zias, a small town up on a hill, for their famous “Cinnamon Drink” which was just a hold glass of water with cinnamon flavoring, but it was still refreshing. Then we went down to catch a boat to a secluded beach. We had a little Greek Captain who was so cool, and once got to the beach, the crew grilled us up some meat and fish and they had 2 huge bowls of Greek Salad with tons of feta cheese. I think this was the best meal of the trip. The fish was so good and the salad was amazing. We had a couple of servings each. Then we went snorkeling, didn’t see much this time though. Lots of very small fish but that’s about it. When we were in the water, the crew was teaching the rest of the excursion group to dance to the greek music. It looked really cool, I wish we could have been a part of that. After that we had another prepaid dinner in Kos. It was so good, it overlooked the ruins of their marketplace. We didn’t get to spend very much time in Kos so I’m not sure what caused the marketplace to have fallen, but they said there were several very large earthquakes in their history. The dinner was so good. We ate with Matt, Chloe, Shannon and Nick again. We had Octopus for our appetizer! And chicken for the main course. The chicken was so good, and we had ice cream for dessert. It was another very very good meal. Afterwards we had some drinks in their bar district and back to the boat. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t have much time to roam Kos, but the excursions and dinner made up for it.We are now on our way to Paros, my battery is about to die so I’ll finish this next week!
Cruise Pt 2, Paris and London!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008So I’m on my flight to Tokyo right now and a little bit nervous! So far everything has gone well. Zane is on another flight but his is a bit more of a hassle than mine. He was never planning on going with me but after my travel buddy ditched out on me, my parents arranged for Zane to come along. Anyways, his flight is on Air China, from London to Beijing, Beijing to Tokyo. We figured during his 3 hour layover, he would just hangout in his concourse until his next flight. Well it turns out that he has to collect his bag, go through customs, and then recheck his bag in that time frame, in a this incredibly foreign airport. So, I’m hoping and praying that all goes well and he arrives in Tokyo with no problems. Boy will that be a mess if his plane is missed. Anyways, my next entry will be how this turns out JAnyways, Paros was nice. It was the first day on the cruise that we didn’t do an excursion. It was kind of nice because we were really looking for a relaxing cruise and most of it had to be rushing from site to site. So we walked around the city and bought a couple of masks and snorkels and then went to the beach. We had a nice swim but when we got out Zane’s back started to get really unbearably itchy and I noticed he had a pretty bad rash all over his back, so we went off to find a pharmacy. Now of course, because this happened to Zane on a Wednesday, everything in Greece closes on Wednesday afternoons for some sort of religious break. So we took him out of the sun and went for a drink in this nice little shaded area by the beach. They had hammocks that Zane lied in, and me, Chloe and Matt sat around and hung out for a while. It was probably the nicest afternoon we had! Afterwards we went back to the cruise ship to get ready for dinner and got some calamine lotion and antihistamines from the shifts first aid room. The aid didn’t speak english very well, so the meds didn’t do much. He was just miserable. We went to a nice dinner off the tiny white greek streets. Again, I don’t think the food was spectacular but the location was wonderful. Afterwards we found out that one pharmacy must be open at all times, so we walked around until we finally found one and got some antihistamines. They don’t sell Benadryl in Greece, so they sold us Zyrtec, which did nothing. So we just went back to the boat.On Thursday we went to Mykonos. Our excursion for that day was the ancient city of Delos. It was really cool, aged between 3 and 5 thousand years old. We took a boat from Mykonos to the island and did a tour of the city. It was the ruins of a full city, right on the edge of the sea. There were 3 foot walls left of the homes and shops and thin little walkways connecting them all. They had a lot of the tools that they used and they showed us the plumbing system that was put in place around 500 BC or so. It was really cool seeing how they lived in one of the oldest cities in the world. After Delos we went back to Mykonos and just walked around the city for a while. It was another one of those cities all painted white, with the bright blue or red or green shutters. It was straight out of the pictures of Greece you see. We had our last pre-paid dinner in Mykonos. It was at a restaurant called BluBlu. It overlooked the sea and it may have been my favorite restaurant. It had an amazing view, plus all of the furniture was really cool. After dinner we just walked the city for the evening. Mykonos is the gay capital of Greece, so it has a pretty big night scene. I think the highlight was Club RamRod in the main square of the city. We didn’t go into any clubs, we just walked a bit and then went back to the boat. It was quite frustrating because the boat was docked too far from the city to walk. So we had to take taxi, or spend 5 dollars each on a bus ride organized by the boat. We were just frustrated because we already spent money on our dinners so that they would organize everything, and then they leave us to spend more money to get to the dinner. We were frustrated, but it all worked out.Friday was our last day on the cruise – we were docked on the island of Syros. This one was a little different, the buildings were all shades of light pinks and cream colors. We didn’t have anything planned for the day because the boat was headed back to Athens at 4 that afternoon. We pretty much just walked around the city then sat at a restaurant on the water and had a couple margaritas. It was a little bit boring but we welcomed it after the week of excitement. Zane’s back was still pretty itchy, but finally we found a competent pharmacist and got some stronger medications for him. That night we just sat on the top deck of the ship with Matt and Chloe and some other people and had some drinks and just watched the sunset. It was a great evening.On Saturday morning we got off the boat in Athens and had a few hours to kill in Athens before heading to the Airport. We went to Zeus’s temple and then just walked the streets. The size of Zeus’s Temple was amazing. The pillars were so huge around and so tall. There were originally 104 columns and now there are only 16 remaining. We really enjoyed it. We went for my final Greek Salad that afternoon and then we were off to Paris!Saturday night we arrived in Paris around 9. I must say that Charles De Gaulle airport was much much much better this time around. The last time I was there, there was a ton of construction and buses to take you everywhere, but the buses took forever, and my flights were all delayed. Just a horrible experience, but this time it was totally manageable. Anyways, when we got into the city we found that we had a nice hotel room, nothing special, but more spacious than the others had been. We requested a view of the Eiffel Tower and I believe with the setup of the building, we got the only room in the building with the view. It was beautiful. We walked to the tower that night and wanted to go up, but the line was like 3 hours long. We decided to come back on Sunday to do it. We took a bunch of pictures, but it was weird because a lot of them didn’t turn out like we thought they would. The flash was catching something in the air and all of the pictures have white dots all throughout. It almost looks like snow! We spoke to a lot of people and they all had the same problems. I think it was pollution in the air, or maybe dust or something from the gravel walkways. But we were bummed about that. We went up to Montmartre, my favorite place in the city from the last time I was there, but it was a huge disappointment. We wanted to go see the view from the Sacre Coeur but before we could see anything, we hear firecrackers going off. We turn the corner area infront of the Sacre Coeur and the first thing we see is crowds and crowds of teenagers partying up there. They were throwing firecrackers at eachother. We tried to walk past them to go see a view but they just kept throwing the firecrackers. I was terrified! They were just going off all around me it felt like. I guess there were only one or two, but it still upset me a bit. We moved away from the firecrackers and up another hill within the area and the stairwell up smelled so strongly of urine that I had to run of the stairs to get away from it. We decided to bare the crowds and went to find a nice view. The view was of course nice, but it was ruined by the teenagers. I was really disappointed. We went for some food after that and then back to the hotel.On Sunday morning we went for a look at the Eiffel Tower line and it was still over 2 hours long. We decided to come back at 8:30 that night and just wait in the line so that we could see the view from the top at night. We did the sites of Paris that day and then went back to the tower that night for our journey up. We were happy to find that the line was only like 45 minutes long. We bought our tickets and got up in time to see it in the late evening, then sunset and then finally at dark. It doesn’t get dark in Paris this time of year until around 11 or later. But it was so perfect up there. The last time I only went up to the 2nd deck, and I can’t believe how much better it was from the very top.On Monday we just wandered the city again and caught a train back to London that evening. We took the Eurostar through the chunnel. We stayed in the same hotel in London as we did the first time and just stayed in that night to get some sleep.Tuesday we went to lunch with Anita. It was really nice to see her again, we had a good time visiting. She went to Japan recently, so we picked her brain for some information on the country. She was very helpful and made us feel much better about going. After lunch, Zane suggested getting tickets for the Lion King! We went and checked out prices and they weren’t too bad so he bought us some. We got all dressed up and went to the show that night. It was just as good as I remembered it. The costumes are so amazing. Its hard to explain the costumes if you have never seen it, so just see it!Wednesday was the day we left for our flight. It was Wednesday when I started this entry, but it is now Thursday. Wednesday morning we got up and went to see the guards and Buckingham Palace. The last time we were in London, we saw the palace but the guards didn’t have their normal outfits. We were pretty bummed that we didn’t get to see them, so we had to go check again. We happened to walk into the Changing of the Guards. I thought it was at 10:00 every morning, but apparently it is at 11:00! This is funny because Adam and I did the same thing! The only difference this time is that Zane and I actually saw it! Adam and I just had chaos all around us and couldn’t find what we were looking for! Ha! But it was cool to see. After the guards we went to lunch at a pub and then to check out my university. From the outside it isn’t the greatest. I am not going to make any settled opinions though until I get to do a walkthrough of the university after Japan. Admissions didn’t have any information for me that I don’t already have, so I’ll settle my courses and everything later I guess. So then we hopped a plane and in 40 minutes I will be arriving in Tokyo!The flight hasn’t been bad. There was an open seat next to me for the whole trip, so I stretched out a bit. Wasn’t that comfortable, but its economy. Better than being squished in next to a fat smelly man! I think Zane is in Beijing right now. Gosh I hope it is going well!! How scary for a first time traveler! I hope it’s a good adventure and not a disaster. Anyways, off to land!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)