HOME!!!

Well after a bus, 3 trains, 2 planes and a car ride I finally made it back home to Reno last night.  It's very good to be home.  Now I need to make plans for working the rest of the summer and figure out what I'm going to do about med school and all, lots of fun I know.  I'm sure at one point this summer I'll make it out to Utah for a visit or two.  Until then though I think this is the end of my blog.  Thanks for reading, I may start another one soon if I feel like I have something interesting to write about.  Till then cya!

The Long Ride Home

Well I've just about reached the end of my time here in Europe.  Today I took the bus and went and saw Wales for a few hours.  The Cardiff Castle was kind of neat and then I walked around the city a bit and also saw the museum.  I got back here to Bristol at about 4 PM and will start making my way to the airport tonight.  I'm flying out of the Gatwick airport at 9:50 AM tomorrow (I flew in to Heathrow) and it turns out the cheapest and easiest way to get there is by taking the train.  Only problem is that the cheap train leaves at 8:40 tonight and gets me to Gatwick at about 1 AM so I'll get to hang out all night in the airport before spending the whole next day on a plane, oh well.  I'm flying first to Philadelphia where I will have a 2.5 hour layover before catching my final flight to San Fransisco.  I'm meeting my Dad there and we're going to see the Giants play the Atlanta Braves.  After spending the day Thursday cruising around in the Bay Area we'll head back to Reno Thursday night.  All in all this has been a really fun trip and I'm glad that I did it.  Hopefully next time I come to Europe there will be someone that can come with me.  Here's some pictures:

Cardiff Castle Keep

Entrance to Cardiff Castle
The SS Great Britain, I took a tour this is the first Steam Powered ship that crossed the Atlantic, it made the world smaller and they have a jet engine from the Concode aircraft in the museum too which also made the world smaller.

A crooked church tower in Bristol

Pictures!!

Here are some pictures in no particular order form Rome, enjoy!

The Metro in Rome has some very long escalators.

The Roman skyline from the Victor Emmanuel Monument, you can see St. Peter's in the background (far dome on the right).

Looking up the hole of the Pantheon.

In front of the Four River fountain, a place featured in Angels & Demons (where one of the Cardinals is killed).

Looking over some of the Ancient ruins after my Palatine Hill tour.

The Colosseum, this was the first place I visited when I got to Rome.  To see more pictures you can always go to my Picasa page.

Jetlagged...

Sorry for the lack of posting while in Rome.  I did keep myself pretty busy there so didn't spend a lot of time on the Internet.  I have to say that Rome is probably the city I have enjoyed most while out here in Europe.  On Friday I started off by getting a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  The Vatican really is one busy place.  If you don't book a tour then you end up having to wait in very long lines to get in and see the museum.  The tour seemed a little brief considering there are about 11,000 rooms in the Vatican Museum but our guide really wanted to just show us the important things and a lot of time was spent fighting with crowds.  Apparently the crowds were nothing compared to summer crowds so make a note of that if you ever plan on visiting the Vatican.  The main attractions at the Vatican Museum are the Raphael rooms, some Roman and Greek sculptures, some tapestries including one of the Last Supper, and of course the Sistine Chapel ceiling.  One thing interesting about the Last Supper tapestry is that this is probably a better depiction of the da Vinci painting than the painting itself due to the years of poor maintenance on it.  Apparently the original painting does has been ravaged by age so badly that you can't even make out anything under the table.  The tapestry on the other hand was made using "cartoons" or sketches of small pieces of the painting which the sewers based their work on so it looks like what the original did back when it was brand new.  There are countless other things in the Vatican Museum I could talk about but really I suggest you just check it out yourself someday.  At the end of the museum you are spit out into the Sistine Chapel which is fairly amazing.  It's not quite as big as I imagined though.  From the Sistine Chapel whose ceiling focuses on the Old Testament I went over to St. Peter's Basilica which focuses on the New Testament.  St. Peter's is HUGE!  I'd imagine you could fit several Sistine Chapels inside its walls.  Unfortunately I didn't get to climb the dome because of the long line but it was impressive nonetheless.  I highly suggest taking at least a few walking tours in Rome, I think I learned a lot from my guide at the Vatican as well as at the Colosseum and Palatine Hill.

After leaving the Vatican I spent the rest of my day wandering around Rome.  I saw the Castle d'Angelo where the Pope used to hide out when Rome/Vatican City was under attack.  I also went by the Pantheon but couldn't go in because they just had a mass and weren't opening it to the public yet.  That night i was able to see Angels & Demons at a theater near my hostel.  It was really cool to see that since it all takes place in Rome and I recognized many of the sites as places I had been that day.  The movie itself was OK but I think I did like the book better.  For some reason they changed a few things in the movie that I thought they really should have left in to make it more exciting.  When Saturday came around I slept in and stayed in bed for as long as I could.  I had been feeling a bit of a sore throat coming on Thursday and things got a bit worse Saturday.  Mostly it's just been a sore throat and headache and it's gotten a lot better now.  When I finally did get going I went and saw the Pantheon from the inside this time and a few other sites that I hadn't gotten to yet and then made my way to the airport to catch my flight back to Milan.  I decided to not spend the night in the airport this time and made my way to the hostel but when I got there they had cancelled my booking because I hadn't shown up at my check-in time (I was 52 minutes late).  I was really annoyed that they would do this.  How are travellers supposed to know exactly when they will arrive at a hostel in an unfamiliar city anyways.  Fortunately or unfortunately they were able to get me a spot at another hostel in town.  First off the directions they gave me to this hostel were not as obvious as the lady made them sound and if it hadn't been for a couple of Hungarian girls who noticed that I looked lost and happened to be staying at the same hostel I might not have found it.  That night at the hostel was probably the worst night of this trip.  My headache was getting bad again and I was feeling a little more sick than before and the hostel was very noisy so I couldn't get right to sleep.  The bunk I had was one of those cheap metal ones that squeaks every time you move.  It was also incredibly hot all night in there to the point that at 4:15 I got up and wandered around a bit because I just couldn't stand lying in bed sweating anymore.  I took a shower to cool off and then tried going back to sleep and was able to get in a few hours.  I spent the rest of the morning in Milan just walking around.  I'm glad that I didn't have more time there.  I really couldn't find much interesting in that city.  I know that I could have seen the actual Last Supper painting but I had heard that generally you need reservations month es in advance for that.  Finally I made I went back to the airport and made it back here to Bristol.  I think at one point Italy was really starting to wear on me or maybe it is just this trip in general but I think I'm ready to come home now.  The plan is to leave Wednesday morning so I'll be spending all day Wednesday flying and then make it to SF that night to see the Giants game with Dad.  Don't get me wrong though I have loved the trip but I think a month is about my limit for time traveling on the road.  Oh I'll post some pictures too it's just gonna take me some time to upload them and get it all together.

When in Rome

Well I made it to Italy!  It was quite the adventure.  My plane first came into Milan last night and I was going to spend the night at a hostel there but when I got in I figured out that it would take an hour to get to the hostel and cost about 20 Euro's so I decided to just hang out at the airport since I would be coing right back there in the morning anyways.  I wasn't the only one that had that plan.  I think my flight was one of the last to come in that night but there were tons of people camping out with sleeping bags and everything for the night.  At about 3:30 AM the security gaurds made us all move to another part of the airport but otherwise it wasn't too bad.  I've had this problem with being cold in England at night, not a problem here in Italy.  It's been around 80 during the day and mid 70's at night, I think.  Anyways I got in to Rome today and found my hostel here and dropped off my bag then spent the rest of teh day touring around.  I first went to the Roman history museum which had lots of marbel Roman sculptures and a few bronze as well.  There was also some ancient Roman art there too.  The real impressive thing about all of the stuff there is that most of it is nearly 2,000 years old!  After the museum I headed over to the Colliseum or "Colloseo".  and just before going in got sucked in to a tour group which actually turned out to be pretty good.  I'm debating going on a tour tomorrow for the Vatican, it's expensive but I think it may be worth it.  Oh one thing I've noticed about Rome is that there is a lot of graffiti here.  The metro especially is just covered with it.  I'll try to get a picture while i'm here.  I learned a lot about the Colliseum from the tour, I'd reccomend it if you ever come here.  After the Colliseum I walked through the Palatine Hill with a guide there as well.  I got lots of pictures but I think I'll hold off posting them as my laptop battery has to last this whole Roman trip.  Next I headed back towards the Colliseum to get some dinner.  It's kind of fun ordering off an Italian menu with little to no English and having Italian waiters.  While eating we had an accordian player serenade us, very good Italian atmosphere.  After dinner I just headed home and am now here at my hostel.  Sleeping in a hostel is a different experience.  I'm in a room with 9 other people this time and as before it's a coed dorm.  It seems safe and clean though which is all that matters to me.  Well I think that's it for tonight.  I'm going to try to make the Vatican tomorrrow and I'll let you know all about it.  Goodnight!

Touring London

Wednesday May 20, 2009 2:47 PM GMT

Well as many of you know I went out to London on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I caught the bus early in the morning on Monday but there was a road closure so it ended up taking an extra hour to get from Bristol to London. Once I made it to London I found a place to get the classic London Fish & Chips. The place was called the Shakespeare and it was a little bit expensive and not all that impressive. Oh well, I guess there's only so much you can do with fish and chips. After lunch I started walking around. It's tough to remember exactly what order I did everything in now but I went by Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, the Tate Modern, London Eye, my hostel, and back to Victoria Station to catch Wicker. I wanted to go into Westminster Abbey but they were charging £15 so I figured maybe another time. I did go into the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square. I enjoyed the national Gallery much more. I don't think I've ever been a big art history fan before but this trip has definitely made me appreciate it more after seeing it in the Smithsonian, Met, and here. I think my favorites are the religious pieces. Maybe it's the fact that I'm tired of seeing the exact same set of Mormon religious art everywhere in Utah. I think someday I'd like to have a lot of non-Mormon religious art in my home. That Tate Modern is a museum of modern art and is pretty interesting but not worth paying to get into (thankfully it is free). I think the most interesting thing about it is the building itself. It's a giant warehouse and when you walk in it's like walking into a big hanger or something. Most of their space is empty. I didn't care much for most of the pieces in the museum. Some of it is really just out there. They had some ticketed exhibits I didn't see and maybe those are better but I don't know. From the Tate I walked down the river Thames (pronounced"Tims" by the British) to the London Eye. This thing is huge. I didn't ride it as it was expensive and I didn't want to really take the time but it would be fun some other time when I come back here (yes I do plan on coming back). After checking in at my hostel near there and grabbing something to eat at a not so good Chinese buffet I headed over towards Victoria Station to check out the theatre's I'd seen earlier. Turns out you can get a last minute nosebleed ticket to Wicked for just £15 so I did that. I really did enjoy the show. It wasn't exactly what I expected though. I'm not sure that it was the music that I enjoyed so much either. I think I just like the story and the conflicted characters in it. It was interesting too to see the differences between the musical and the book.

Tuesday morning I got up early and headed to Victoria Station again to catch my tour bus to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. One note though about the hostel I stayed in. It was nice and clean and cheap and everything but I was sleeping in a dorm with about 12 other people and I swear about 10 of them decided to come in or leave between 3 and 3:30 AM. It was a little tough for me to sleep after that but I think I did OK. The tour itself was pretty good. I wish that I could have spent the whole day at Windsor Castle though. Stonehenge is OK but I think you can get the gist of it by seeing it from the road. In fact I wouldn't pay the fee to go in if you are planning on going out that way. You can park and see it through a chain link fence. All you miss out on is a boring audio guide and some different perspectives. Next it was on to Bath which is a nice little town that is actually pretty close to Bristol. The main attraction here is the Roman Bath's built over a natural hot spring. You can try the water which is supposed to be very healthy for you but be warned, it's awful. After touring the Bath and the small museum they have there I walked around in the town for a bit and then caught a train back to Bristol instead of riding the bus back to London and then another back to Bristol. It was a really good tour though and our guide was pretty knowledgeable.

Well by the time most of you in the States read this I will either be on a plane or already in Italy. I'm flying out to Milan tonight and then Rome in the morning. Most of my time in Italy will be spent there. I'm very excited for it. I'm going to try to make some blog posts while there depending on how well my laptop battery holds out. Here's a few pictures from the past two days.

Looking up at the London Eye, really it is huge!

My view at Wicked, 2nd to last row all the way to the side.

The "Long Walk" or teh Queen's way to Windsor Castle

Back from Spain!

Saturday May 16, 2009 10:42 PM GMT

Well I made it to Spain and back and all without getting pick-pocketed.  We had a good time in Spain.  My flight went into Girona which is a small city about an hour and twenty minute train ride from Barcelona.  We spent the first day there in Girona and saw the "Temps de la Flora" which was a big flower art festival thing.  They had displays all over the city of flowers and arrangements and some really unique stuff.  It was fun just walking around in the old town seeing all of that.  We walked through a bunch of narrow alleys that wound around with little shows and alcoves here and there.

We spent our second day in Barcelona itself.  I think we hit all the big sites there.  We first walked down the "Ramblas" which is just a big tourist trap type of street.  There are lots of shops and street performers and all kinds of things going on there.  Apparently this is the place for the pickpockets too.  They love to pick on the gawking crowds.  The Ramblas goes all the way down to the harbor where there is a Columbus monument.  From there we hiked up this hill to Monjuic Castle.  This was built as a military base fairly recently to keep Barcelona under control.  It gives a good view of the city all around.  From there we walked down through the Olympic area and finally to the metro where we caught a train out to see the football (soccer) stadium.  They wanted 17 Euros to go in and tour the stadium so we skipped that and rode the train over to the Sangrid Familia which is this really ornate unfinished church.  They've been working on it for the past 80 years or so off and on and the guy that designed it is actually dead now.  The amazing thing is that it's supposed to take another 50 years to complete!  We snapped some pictures and then made our way over to the Cathedral and then back to the place we were staying in Girona.  This morning we got up about 8 and caught our flight back to Bristol and made it back sage and sound.  The weather was real nice over in Spain and coming back to Bristol was kind of a jolt back to cold weather.  Even the pilot made some comment about not being sure why we wanted to leave Girona for Bristol.  All in all it was a good trip.  Oh one funny thing was that I kind of got a lot of trouble from the customs agent coming into Bristol.  He asked me all about why I was here, what I was doing, my degree, who I was staying with, what do they do, how much money do I have, do I have a ticket back, etc.  For a minute I was afraid they weren't going to let me back in.  Anyways I'm safe and sound back here in Bristol and ready for bed.  Here are a few pictures.  You can see the rest in my Picasa album with the link from my last post.  Enjoy!

Girona from the river with a flower thing

The Girona Cathedral with some flower artwork on the stairs.  Notice the scaffolding?  I think every church we saw in Spain had scaffolding on it or in it somewhere.

In the Olympic Stadium

The famous Sangrid Familia, someday they'll finish

My Nature Walk

Wednesday May 13, 2009 7:38 PM GMT

Ok well I didn't get pictures up last night like I wanted to but here they are with a few from today as well.  Also I've put in some links to Wikipedia so you can learn more about some of these things.

This is Scott and Zsofi's flat where I am staying, we're on the 2nd level.

Here is the famous Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge over the river Avon.

Near spot I took the last picture from there is this tower.  At the top is what they call a "camera obscura" basically it has a lens that projects an image onto a pedestal in a dark room.  You can turn the lens and then get a panoramic view.

This is what the image looked like from the "camera obscura".  From the tower you can also go down to this cave that looks out from the side of the cliff at the gorge.

Notice the lookout point in the cliff side?

the view looking up the tunnel from the lookout.  I think the called this "Pirate Cave" or something.

The Avon Gorge area is home to many rare plant species.  This is the only place in the world that some are found.  I'm not sure if this is one of those rare plants but the picture is pretty.

This dog watched me it my lunch at a bench overlooking the bridge.

The entrance to Ashton Court, a large open area.  Mom remember I said I didn't think they had open space here?  I was wrong this was a pretty cool place to walk through.

A view of my walk, on the right is a golf course.

The city of Bristol as seen from Ashton Court.

I wanted to test out my camera's ability to take flower shots in foilage mode.  Not bad eh?

A mansion in Ashton Court, not sure why they chose yellow for the outside.

On the top of his head is a plaque that points out what you are looking at.

After leaving Ashton Court I walked back towards Bristol and along the riverside.  The big ship is the SS Great Britain.  They give tours but I think I was too late that day.

Back in town this is the Bristol Cathedral.  I went inside and took some shots but they didn't turn out too good.  This was begun in the 1100's!  Though those parts are small.  Much of it has been built or rebuilt since.

This is from today.  I walked out to Blaise Castle which you see below.  On the way over I ran into this church with an old graveyard around it.  Many of the graves dated back to the 17 and 1800's.  Those ones were hard to read because they were so old.  I'm pretty sure this is not the original marker for this grave but I thought it was cool that it went all the way back to 1720.

Blaise Castle which is really a folly castle.  Meaning it was built as a summer house by some rich guy in the late 1700's.  It's about the size of a house.  There was a museum on the grounds and then you walked over to the hill that this castle was on.  It is completely surrounded by trees so you can't see it until you get right into the field it's in.  I couldn't go in but I guess there really isn't anything in there anymroe, now they only open it up on Sunday's during the summer.

To see some more pictures you can look at my web album on picasa here.

Onto a New Frontier

Tuesday May 12, 2009 11:31 PM GMT

Well, it's taken me longer to get to this today than I thought.  I've spent most of my evening planning out the rest of my trip.  This morning I booked my return flight to the US.  I'll be coming home on the 27th to San Fransisco.  I'd like to spend a day or two in the Bay Area, we'll see.  If you are there and know a place I can stay that would be great.  Anyways, this week I'm flying out to Spain on Thursday and will get back on Saturday.  On Monday I'm taking the bus out to London and will spend the day out there and then the next day I'll be going on a tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath.  I'll come back to Bristol that night and then the next day I'm going to fly to Milan, Italy!  What's even better is from Milan I will go to Rome the following day!  I'm pretty excited for that part.  I've set up to stay in some Hostels along the way so we'll see how that goes.  Should be pretty interesting.  I'm not sure how much Internet access I'll have over that week so you may not see many posts from me for a bit.

Today I walked around Bristol some more, this time with my camera.  I went and saw the Suspension bridge and Ashton Court and the Bristol Cathedral.  I think I'll just post pictures and let those do the talking.  I kind of went crazy with my camera today but hopefully there are some good shots.  I haven't looked at them yet.

Did you know there are 35 Bristols in the World?

There are and most are in the US but this Bristol in England is the original all the others were named to honor it, at least that is what Wikipedia says.  So I've been in Bristol for 2 full days now.  We got here on Saturday afternoon but after all the walking we had done we felt like just staying in and resting.  Sunday I went to church here with Scott.  The ward is pretty small here and the chapel is in kind of a bad part of town.  It was a pretty good service.

So yesterday was Mother's Day and Matt got to make his last phone call home.  I got to talk to him for a few minutes here at about 1 AM but the connection wasn't very good so my parents decided to give up on the conference call thing.  Oh by the way, in England they do have Mother's Day but it is the first Sunday in March and in Hungary it is the first Sunday in May not the second like the US.  I guess all the countries just haven't been able to agree on a standard date for it.  Well today I went and saw a few museums here in town.  The first place was an old house called the Red Lodge that had some old oak siding in three rooms upstairs.  The second place was an art exhibit put on by a group that calls themselves the Bristol Savages.  I couldn't tell if they actually do have any relation to Indians (err Native Americans) or not.  The art there is stuff that I think they may be trying to sell, not sure.  The third place was the Bristol City Museum and Art gallery.  That was actually pretty cool.  They had an Egyptian exhibit downstairs that was OK but upstairs they had some really cool artwork.  After spending some time there I made my way back so I could call home since I missed out last night.

After my call home I headed out again to check out the Bristol Suspension Bridge.  This is a bridge started back in 1830 but not finished until the 1860's.  It's really quite breath taking.   i would post a picture but when I walked back out I left my camera so I will be going back there tomorrow with my camera to get some good shots.  I walked around in that area some more afterwards using a little walking guide that pointed out some interesting things about the town.  There are quite a few really old buildings here.  Many date back 200 years or more.  When I got back home Scott and I went to the store and then to the gym that he works at for a little bit.  That's pretty much my day.  I'm not quite sure yet what I'll do tomorrow but I will definitely bring my camera and get some bridge shots.  Have a goodnight!

We Walked A Lot

Saturday May 9, 2009 7:49 PM GMT

Well the last time I wrote I was with Scott in Cambridge staying at the flat of a guy named Marco.  Scott found him off of couchsurfer and he turned out to be a really good host to us.  That night we just had dinner, talked for a bit and then headed off to bed.  The next morning Scott and I got up about 5 AM so that we could make it to the bus station to go back to London.  We had my rolling suitcase with us which is quite heavy and now one of the wheels is kind of shot (we tried to ditch it in London but weren't able to).  Anyways it was quite a drag carrying that with us to the bus station but we made it in plenty of time.  Our bus ride was about two hours back to London and then we caught another bus from London to Portsmouth.  We got to Portsmouth about 2:30 (we did ditch my bag this time) and headed to the futbol (soccer) stadium that Scott wanted to see.  A security guy met us outside the stadium and showed us in for a few minutes and let us take a few pictures.  I'm not much for soccer stadiums but it was pretty cool.  After that we walked over to the megastore next door to see if they had some jerseys.  We were in luck, they had some that had been printed up for someone but not taken that were on sale for £3 which is a great deal (about $4.50 US).  So I ended up buying my first soccer jersey, I figure it's a pretty good souvenir for Europe.  After that we went and found the birthplace of Charles Dickens.  They had turned the house into a little museum that you can tour for £2.50 so we did that.  It gave a nice little history of Dickens parents and himself.  

The plaque next to my head says it is Dicken's birthplace

After visiting the Dickens's house we walked back to where the bus dropped us off and then started walking down the coastline towards the Southsea Castle.  It was quite a walk and our feet started hurting along the way but we made it.  The castle was actually kind of small, not really what you would expect when you think of a castle.  Apparently it was pretty important though for defending the coast.  They had these stone pillars out on in the sea maybe a a half mile out that they mounted antiaircraft guns on during WWII.  Another thing kind of cool in Portsmouth is the Spinnaker Tower.  You can go up it and get an aerial view for a price but we didn't do that.

Spinnaker Tower

We came back from Portsmouth that same night on the bus and got back into London about 10:30 at night.  We didn't have anywhere to stay for the night so we sat in the bus station until they kicked us out and then we walked around London for the rest of the night.  There was a restaurant that Scott wanted to go to but it was closed (it used to stay open real late I guess).  Walking around London at night was kind of a cool experience.  Aside from being tired and my feet hurting it really wasn't too bad.  We walked by St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Tower and Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and a number of other famous sites.  

Tower Bridge by night

When morning came we went into a McDonald's and I got breakfast then we went back to the bus station walking by Buckingham Palace on the way.  We caught the bus and made it back to Bristol about 4 in the afternoon.  It was nice to get back and use a shower, change clothes and just relax.  I think we'll be taking it easy the rest of the evening as at least my feet still hurt a little.  

Made it to London

Thursday May 7, 2009 9:00 PM GMT

Just wanted to write a quick note that I made it to London.  Scott met me here at the airport and we toured London and then made our way on the bus down to Cambridge where we are staying for the night.  I got some good pictures but I'll post those later.  We did attend a worship service at King's College tonight which was kind of cool.  In that chapel they have the painting Adoration of the Magi which is real famous.  Well that's all for now I don't want to use up all my battery tonight.  I think the next time I post may be Sunday.

Live From New York...

Statue of Liberty from the Ferry

Wednesday May 6, 2009 1:00 AM EDT

OK I guess I shouldn't really say live from New York since I'm in Jersey at the moment but that's where everything exciting happened today.  To start off my day on the right foot I actually caught the right bus leaving from near my motel so I didn't have to walk 6 miles.  A funny thing happened on the 2nd bus going into NYC this morning.  The windshield wipers on the bus were kind of broken and kept getting tangled with each other.  Our driver tried to fix them a few times but couldn't and couldn't see without them so we had to wait for another bus to come and pick us up.  This crazy lady sitting behind me started going off on the driver though and then she would call her husband or someone and complain very loudly about how terrible the buses are so that everyone could here her.  She had quite the mouth too.  I felt bad for the bus driver because it wasn't her fault at all but this lady was taking everything out on her.  Then she almost got in a fight with this guy on the bus that was trying to get her to cool it.  Anyways we made it to the Port Authority bus station and I headed down to the Subway to go to Central Park.  I had a nice walk through the park to start the morning and then found my way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I think I spent 2 or 3 hours in there but I easily could have spent all day.  It was amazing how much they had and I really enjoyed all of it.  Some of it took me back to my humanities class this past summer where we looked ancient cultures beginning with the Greeks in 1500 and then on up to the Renaissance.  I really liked seeing pieces similar to those we studied there in real life.  It is much more interesting to see them that way than just a picture in a textbook.  I think after a while I was beginning to get a better feel for art too and appreciate some of the finer aspects.  I'm not sure what my favorite thing was there, there's just so much to choose from that it's hard to say.  Unfortunately today I left my camera in my motel so all my pictures are on my cell phone and I can't figure out how to get them off at the moment.  One thing I liked though was the medieval era stuff.  They had a set of 4 knights on horseback set up which was really cool.  Oh another area that was really fun was the Oceania area.  They had all kinds of stuff that reminds you of Tiki men and witch doctors there.  

After the museum I headed over to the Empire State Building for a ride up.  They give you an audio tour thing to take along as you look out from the observation deck, it was really quite good.  I learned a lot about the building and New York itself from the tour.  One thing that I thought was especially amazing was that the Empire State Building was built in 14 months in 1930!  At times they were progressing faster that one story a day.  I have to say that the ESB doesn't look exceptionally tall from the bottom looking up since you get used to seeing so many other tall building around, but when you look down from the top you get a real appreciation for how high up you actually are.  From the ESB I headed over to Times Square for a quick peak around and then down to Battery Park to catch the ferry out to Liberty Island.  I got there too late to see Ellis Island as well unfortunately.  I did enjoy seeing the statue of liberty from closer up, you can't go up or in it though with out paying a little bit more.  To finish out my day I went and saw Grand Central Station and Rockefeller Center.  Both were very cool.  Whenever I come back at least now I'll be oriented better and know exactly where to go to get on the Today show in the morning.

Well that about wraps up my day.  On the way home I caught a cab in lieu of the 6 mile walk.  I must say that I'm really starting to get public transportation down.  At least the subways I'm feeling pretty confident I just wish that they had bigger print maps and more posted throughout the stations.  I must say though that the NYC subway makes DC, Atlanta, and BART light rail systems all look pretty puny.  Well that's all for me, goodnight world!

Moving on... to NYC!

Ground Zero from the World Financial Center

Monday, May 4 11:50 PM EDT

It was another long day.  I got up this morning at 6 AM so that I could catch the bus to the Metro station to get a train to the Greyhound station to take another bus for 4.5 hours to New York.  When I got to New York I spent a little while trying to get my bearing and figure out how I was going to make it to my hotel which is in Piscataway NJ.  Let me tell you, this is not a convenient place to stay when visiting NY, but despite what I've heard I couldn't beat $50 a night staying in NY.  So today was spent either on a bus, train, or walking from 6 AM to 9 PM.  I did get to see Ground Zero today, they have a nice tribute museum there that is quite moving.  Next I walked around for a while by the Hudson and looked out and saw the Statue of Liberty.  I didn't go there I think I'm gonna get a citypass tomorrow and do that as well as some of the other main attractions in the city.  My bus ride to my hotel afterwards was long and then I was too late to get teh 2nd bus that came right to my hotel so I had to walk for 2 hours (6.6 miles, I checked on nikeplus) in the rain.  It was not fun but I made it.  Tomorrow if the same thing happens I think I'll just get a cab.  When I got back I took a quick shower then went across the street to Ruby Tuesday and had a not very good steak.  Well I think that's about it for tonight.  I'll post a couple of pictures now.

Statue of Liberty

Weekend Update

Brandie and I at the Bell Tower of the National Cathedral

Sunday May 3, 2009 1:53 PM EDT
Well I've got a few days to catch up on now. I guess I'll start with the White House tour Friday morning. I got there with plenty of time to get in at my time of 7:30 AM but then found out there would be nowhere to check my camera while I'm in the tour. So I had to run back to Brandie's office and give it to her to hold. When I got back they let me right back in the line which was nice. The tour itself was actually a little disappointing, there was no guide to tell you about anything. All we did was walk through the ground floor on the East side and main floor. It kind of has a museum feel to it. The rooms on the main floor are all used for social events held at the White House. Apparently they have over 200 a year but otherwise they don't get used. I guess I expected more given how hard it is to get the tour and how strict they are about the security. Actually security in DC is not that bad. You have to walk through a metal detector about 5 times a day but usually you don't have to empty your pockets or take off shoes and belts like you do at the airport. After the White House I walked over to the National Aquarium. This was kind of nice because it was early enough that the big groups hadn't gotten there yet and you have to pay to get in so I don't think they get as many groups anyways. The aquarium itself is not that big but they did have a good representation of fish found near the Americas. There was a sea turtle in one of the tanks that was pretty cool I tried to get a picture of me and him but that didn't turn out to well.
After the aquarium I made my way to the subway and rode over to Arlington National Cemetery. I got the tour bus there that takes you to the graves of the Kennedy's and the Unknown soldier as well as General Lee's old house. At the tomb of the Unknown soldier I saw the changing of the guard and they were getting ready to put a new wreath up too. The amphitheater near there is kind of cool too. Next I left Arlington and rode the tour bus back into DC, got lunch at the Reagan building, and went to see the Air and Space Museum. I watched an imax film there called Cosmic Collisions. It was OK but probably not worth the $8.50. They had a really good Wright Brothers exhibit there that I liked. After the Air and Space museum I hopped back on the tour bus and rode to the FDR memorial and from there walked to the Lincoln Memorial. Both of those were really good and I'm glad I stopped to see them. It's really nice looking out from the Lincoln memorial to the Washington Memorial with the Capitol in the distance. To top of my Friday I caught the bus back to Brandie's house and we went together to the Washington DC Temple. I had a good session there and it was a nice way to end the day.
Well that wraps up my Friday. 

Me in front of DC Temple

I think I must have walked over 10 miles in the past few days. Saturday I got to do even more as Brandie and I headed out to the National Cathedral. It took a bus and two trains and then another mile and a half of walking to get there but after a while we made it. It really is quite a breathtaking building. It's bigger than the SLC Temple by far and built in the Gothic Cathedral style. They were having a Flower Mart there that day which is basically just an excuse to have a little festival as far as I can tell. Anyways we went on part of a tour of the inside. They have some interesting things in there like a stained glass window with a piece of moon rock in it. Another neat thing was a cross built from debris of the 9/11 Pentagon attack. Also in the front they had a frieze with Christ in the center and then 110 other figures representing all of the Christian Churches. I looked for some kind of Mormon figure but I didn't see any not to say that there isn't one though. We also rode an elevator to the 7th floor where you can get a pretty good view of the city (you can even just make out the Temple if you look in the right spot, it's just the spires peaking over the trees). We also did the Bell Tower climb. They claimed that this was over 333 steps but I only counted 300. The stairway up is a very narrow spiral staircase and then you cross over and go up a freestanding metal spiral staircase. When we reached the top they had the Washington ringing society up there and they gave us a little demonstration of playing the bells. I may post that later with some other pictures. On the way down we stopped at a couple different balconies where you could look out. The Cathedral has many unique kind of quirky things like a Darth Vader grotesque and somewhere a gargoyle holding an Oscar as well as a dentist removing a tooth from a walrus. I highly recommend visiting this if you make it out here. After the Cathedral we made our way back to the Mall area and walked into the American History Smithsonian for a few minutes before heading back.
Well congratulations if you've made it this far reading this post. I know that sometimes things like this run long and dry and I don't always finish reading them. I'll try to keep things interesting. Tomorrow morning I am heading out to New York on the bus. I'm not sure what I'll see there but Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty are definitely on my list. I'll try to post some pictures later tonight too.

Day 2

Thursday April 30, 2009 9:00 PM EDT

Well today was a lot of walking.  I went into the city this morning with Brandi.  We had to catch the bus from her apartment at 5:30 AM and then ride for about an hour before we got there.  Since my Welcome to Washington breakfast wasn't until 8:30 I spent some time getting myself oriented and walking around the National Mall (which I learned is not a normal mall but a big lawn).  I found a sculpture garden that was kind of interesting to walk around in and figured out a good way to get a picture of me 

I really had no idea what to expect at the breakfast, I wasn't even sure that the Senators would be there.  Well I went up to the Lyndon B. Johnson room where they gave me a name tag to wear and showed me to a table with pastries, OJ, and coffee.  At the beginning people just mingled.  There were a few staffers in the room and I guess I looked like a loner so they came over and started talking to me.  After a few minutes Senators Reid and Ensign arrived.  I spoke to Senator Reid for a minute and than each of them spoke for a few minutes to the whole group.  Apparently they are kind of unique for holding this breakfast every Thursday that Congress is in session.  They're also unique in how well they get along despite being from opposite parties.  I highly recommend attending this if you ever visit Washington.  After getting my picture taken with both of them it was time for the Capitol tour.  The tour was with one of Senator Reid's aids.  It was nice because it was a small group and the aid was able to get us into everything ahead of the big school groups.  After the tour I sat in the gallery for both the House and the Senate.  The Senate was debating on what to do about Guantanamo bay and then on an amendment to the bankruptcy laws.  The House debated about an amendment to a credit card protection bill.  I thought it was funny that part of the debate was about making the fine print bigger.  The other part was about making it so credit card companies can't charge customers for paying their bill online or over the phone which I had never heard of before but oh well.  It was interesting to see the government in action and I can understand why it takes so long for anything to get through now.

After the Capitol I went over and peaked in the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court building.  There wasn't too much exciting there, the Court wasn't in session.  Next I got a hot dog from a street vendor and then headed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  I think my favorite thing there was the exhibit showing the photographs of nature.  I wish there was a book on that available to buy but there wasn't.  Here's a link for a taste of it.  After that I went and met up with Brandi who was just getting off work and we went up the Old Post Office tower together and then to the National Archives.  It was a long day with a lot of walking but it was fun and I got to see a lot.  Tomorrow I'll be touring the White House in the morning and then I'm going to try and see the memorials.  Well I'm signing off now, goodnight!

Day 1

Me blogging at SLC

Wednesday April 29, 2009 8:00 AM MDT

As I am getting ready to head off on my trip to the East Coast and Europe I thought the best way to share my experience with family and everyone else would be through a blog.  Unfortunately I can’t actually start the blog as I am writing this because I learned that unlike Phoenix and Denver airports Salt Lake does not offer free Wi-Fi internet.  I am currently writing this in Microsoft Works and will post it to a new blog page as soon as I can.  If you are reading this please feel free to share the link with anyone you think might be interested.  I’ve asked my parents to forward an emmail with the link to everyone but I’m sure there may be people I have missed.

Well I guess my trip really started a couple of days ago.  Since Thursday the 23rd I have been moved out of my apartment and living on the road.  Thursday and Friday were graduaton days at BYU so my parents were out for that.  You can check out some pictures here on my facebook page.  As I am traveling I will try to post as many pictures as I can both here and on my facebook.  After graduation I spent Saturday with my parents visiting Sarah and Dayne and then later Brooks and Mike.  Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate well enough for Mike and I to get one last boat outing in before I leave.  Sunday morning my Mom and I saw Dad off with my car loaded with about all of my stuff.  Shortly after we began heading up to Shelley Idaho to see Grandma and Grandpa Hayes.  We got up there about noon and had a good visit and dinner with them.  In the evening Chris and Pauline came over as well as Abraham and we looked through old pictures and genealogy stuff together.  The next morning Abraham Came over and the two of us went and did some errands and shopping in Idaho Falls for a few last minute things for my trip.  Afterwards we went back to his house and played a few games of Settlers of Katan.  We ended up playing three games that day and I didn’t win a single one!  Tuesday morning came and I piled the remainder of my stuff into Aunt Lori’s car and went down to Salt Lake with her, Elizabeth and Brunson (sp?).  We made a couple of stops along the way including one at my friend Scott’s apartment.  He had a Europe book to give me as well as some travel advice since he had lived there for a semester on a study abroad.  It was good to him one last time and I helped him rearrange some furniture in their new apartment.  Probably about 4 we finally made it to Dan’s hosue in Eagle Mountain.  Brian and family and Sarah and family came too so we had a nice get together with barbeque sandwiches.  I think all the cousins enjoy getting together as they all seemed to have a really good time.  I spent the night there on their downstairs couch which was actually pretty comfortable.  We had to get an early start the next morning so that we could make Elizabeth’s flight at 8 AM so we all piled into the car again about 6 in the morning.  I thought that I did good job getting through security here.  I planned ahead and just wore shorts and a sweatshirt and slippers so that getting through would be easy and then brought clothes to change into in my backpack once I was across.  I guess the only mistake I made was wearing just a sweatshirt because apparently they want you to take those off when you go through so I had to get padded down instead.  I still think it was about the fastest I’ve ever made it through security.  After that I saw Elizabeth and Brunson off at their gate and that brings me to here. 

Tomorrow I have plans to have breakfast with the Nevada senators and then tour that Capitol building.  Hopefully I can get some good pictures to post and have some good stories to tell.  So long for now!