Hello there again.

I’m on my way home now with Eurostar from Paris (of course) to London (of course). It’s dusk right now and I think that it’s the last one as well. I’m sitting in a cabin that’s mostly full but not completely full in the last car. It’s nice and we’re going fast again. I can’t wait to get back to London and relax tomorrow after unpacking, doing laundry, changing currency, cleaning, and buying groceries... We’ll see how well that goes, the relaxing that is. Wish me luck. I’m hoping that all goes quickly.

I’m already thinking about where I can go for my next holiday and when I can take another holiday instead of going to work. It’s more fun to go to Paris than it is to go to work. Who would of thought?

I’m off to watch some video of some sort (probably Diggnation).

Chris

Well, I’m in Paris again at the same Cafe’ using their free wifi. I started off today at 6am in Hannover and have since taken 2 trains and am now waiting on my third. It’s been a long day / morning.



My first train was pretty full, and I got to ride backwards to Koln in an isle seat. My ride from Koln to Paris was at least facing the right direction but I had the luxury of sitting in the isle seat again... next to a mother with her young and restless child on her lap. Yeah, he didn’t have a ticket and got to sit on mommy’s lap next to me for 4 hours.



I’m going to rant a little here and say that I hate isle seats. I was constantly hit with baby carrages / prams, peoples bags, and people that are to wide to circum-navigate a straight line between two seats with out wanting to make a turn in either direction. I know you’re probably thinking that hey, the train moves right? Yes, it does but it also happened a lot while we were stopped. So between getting hit with people’s bags, or baby carrages, while getting kicked or hit by the baby to my right (who’s mother spoke no English or German), I’m glad to be off of the train. Two down, one more to go. Wish me luck.



I want to be home in my bed.

Chris

Well, I’ve safely made it to Hannover and I spent yesterday with my Grandfather for the first time in well over a decade. We had a great time and caught up over lunch and later, dinner. We have a lot in common and my German is slowly getting better and faster than it was a few days ago. As I’ve said before it has been way too long since I was last here to see him. I’ve just realized how close I was when I went to CeBit this year and two years ago. Basically, the place where CeBit is held every year is a mater of blocks away from where he now lives. It’s sad that I could not see him the last time I came as I didn’t know but it’s great that I get to see him now.



Today is also my Birthday. I’m 24. It’s been a great day. I spent the morning having breakfast with my Grandfather, lunch with my Grandfather and his girlfriend. After lunch my Grandfather and I went for a walk in a nice nearby park (Park der Sinne). Once back at the ‘hotel’ where I am staying, my cousin Rebecca and others came to take me out for the rest of the day. We went to an aquarium for about an hour and then we all drove to the downtown area (and got a little lost). We walked around, ate, went to the lake, walked around some more and generally had a lot of fun.



Thursday I’m going to visit them and have a nice lunch and meet the rest of my ‘long lost family.’ I’m really looking forward to it. Tomorrow I’m going into town to check out the main city center and visit Saturn, an electronics shop. Go figure huh? I want to see if they have something that I can’t get in London. Well, it’s about 9:40 here so I’m going to go to get ready for a bit of sleep. I’m going to try to relax and tomorrow before I go into the city, my Grandfather and I are going to have some breakfast.

Well, right now I’m in Germany on an ICE (Inter-city Express) Train to Hannover to see my Grandfather for the first time in to long. I’m due to arrive in Hannover sometime after 10 this morning. I’m slowly getting used to the constant German again but it really can take some getting used to. Yesterday I watched Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country in German on my laptop and recorded an episode of Futurama in German. It’s pretty fun. I’ve been trying to keep up with the Olympics and world news (I.E. the whole Russia Georgia thing). The U.S. is doing decently in the Olympics but Germany seems to be off to a slow start with only one medal at the time of this writing.



I’m hoping that I’ll be able to take some more pictures in coming days but I’m unsure of how well that will work out. Wish me luck.

Chris

P.S. Hello Linda! (Linda, my aunt, always reads my blog to see what I’ve been up to)

Well, I made it to Paris on time this morning. I arrived at 9:50am local time (+1 from London). I paid €7.00 for a locker for my big bag and then wandered the streats outside of the train station for about 30 minutes before going to a Subway. Yes, my first meal of the day was Subway in France. My French was as good as the associates English but we managed to exchage food for Euro’s with out problem. After wandering out of Subway I found myself waiting to see which tour bus company arrived first.



They would get my business. It was the L’Open Tour company. I paid my €29.00 for the daily ticket so that I could see Paris. They had 4 different routs including one Main route (I.E. Eiffel Tower, NotreDame, Etc.). I wasn’t on the main one. I found that out about halfway through. I found a stop that I could transfer on and at last I was on my grand ‘one-day adventure’ in Paris. I saw a lot of things and realized exactly how much I hate (HATE!!!) using my phone as a camera. Sure the picture quality is up to 5 megapixels but the lag on the shutter is up to 10 full seconds (lame) and the refresh from a picture can nearly be that. I’ve just proven that if I want to see Europe (and I do) I need to get at least another decent point and shoot camera.



I’m drueling over the recently announced Nikon P6000 which is 13.x megapixels, supports RAW, and even does Geotagging which would be nice especially while traveling. For those of you who don’t know what Geotagging is, it basically assigns a lattitude and longitude using GPS to each picture you take. I.E. it knows where you took the picture and your pictures can be organized by location or even assigned to a map. Google Maps is using some of this technology already. I saw a ton of places and learned a lot really. I hope that some of my pictures turned out alright as I want to try to show them off on here sometime later.



Right now I’m at a place I’ve seen all over Paris. No it’s not Starbucks but it’s really close, McDonalds. I know, I know, I’m in Paris and I’ve gone to a McDonalds. I didn’t come here (where I am now actually) for the food. I came praying for a Wifi Hotspot and a place to ‘plug-in’ to a power connection for my laptop and my misc. gadgets to follow. Well, I found the power after a lot of akward looking and waiting for a guy to get up but the Wifi here shows up but will not for the life of me connect. I’m hoping I’ll just find a place later to upload this to. I’m not a great tourist.



I’ve seen the main sights (in one day mind you) and I’m unsure of what to do now. I know you’re probably thinking that I should go to the Lourve which I would love to but It would be about another 2-4 hours bus driving and I don’t want to miss my train along with the fact that I would love to spend at least half of a day there and it’s a great reason to come back. Now if only I can find one of my friends who speaks French to come with me to make me look less stupid. . . well. . . at least a little.

I’m singning off for now.

Chris

Well, I’m sitting at St Pancras International train station in London and it’s 5:30 in the morning. I arrived about 30 minutes ago as my cab/taxi driver was... well lets just say after arriving I was glad to be alive. I made it safe and sound and my train for Paris leaves at 6:30 so I have about 40 minutes before I can board the Eurostar train.



I’m off to Paris for the day and later in the evening I’m taking a night train to Hamburg to see some family followed by another train journey to Hannover to see my grandfater whom I’ve not seen in 13 years. It has beeen far to long. I hope that all of you reading this are well and having a great day. With any luck a day in Paris should be fun and I’ll have some pictures for you all to see provided I take them and then upload them. Hrm, that may be a lot to ask for. lol. We shall see...


Note: Griswold (if you don’t already know)

Well, I’ve almost let my blog get away from me again. it’s now the third of August and it’s been about two weeks since I updated my blog. Yesterday I spent some time down by the Thames river watching the Red Bull Air Race (from something of a distance, however a free distance...).

Next week I’m only working on Monday and Tuesday thankfully followed by the start to my holiday. I’m going to take one day to clean up, organize, and sort things out and then go to Paris by train followed by Germany to visit family. It should be a fun and exciting week. Here’s to my next post...