First Few Weeks in SF

October in San Francisco has had it's bout of nice weather as it has been known to do.


Got a pumpkin last week. We drove all the way out to a place called Nicasio Farms, but got there right about when they were closing. They graciously let us pick a pumpkin anyway and I'd say we got a mighty fine one. Still deciding on what to make of it, but it's presence is comforting.


I can't help but miss my cat though(and my red dresser for that matter). Still trying to find a place to live and move into Halloween weekend that will also take in my cat...but it's proving to be an unsurprisingly difficult process. It seems like we just want simple things...decent area, good closet space, a separate living room, maybe some laundry nearby. But SF seems to be littered with outdated studios and awkward 1 bedrooms that are overly priced no matter the area. So, we're trying to remain optimistic. Things always work out some way or another...and we could always look at apartmentlessness as a good money saving strategy.

Also...looking for a job again.

Holiday Pictures

I realized I didn't really leave our holiday to a conclusion and it's been about a month since we've been back. We enjoyed our trip, but were thrown back into the real world when just a day after returning, we had to move our mom out of the townhouse we grew up in. Andrei is now in San Diego and starting his first year this week. And I will be moving up to San Fransisco next week.

Here are a few(relative) pictures from our trip. Some of my favorites. Some highlights.

Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace.

Peter Pan statue.

First (1/2) pint in London.

Harrod's and the Tube.

Tower Bridge.

Stonehenge.

Green Baths.

Bath.

Abbey Road.

Greenwich.

After the rain at the Greenwich Observatory.

Prime Meridian.

He got a kilt.

The Castle.

Highland Cow.

Loch Ness and Uruqhart Castle.

Edinburgh view on our hike.

Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

Complimentary pint at the Guinness Storehouse.

Cliffs of Moher

Today was our bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher on the West Coast of Ireland. They are not the tallest cliffs in Ireland at about 750 feet, but they are the most accessible and therefore most visited. They were beautiful, of course, if any of you have seen pictures of them before. Eroded and staggered, picturesque. The cows grazing by the cliffs were a nice touch. We were there for about an hour and a half, just walking up and down the cliffs, trying to not get blown off(as we learned some people have in the past).

The rest of the tour took us through the countryside(cows everywhere) and down the west coast. We stopped at a few photo stops including a castle, a deserted abbey, and an area on the coast covered in rocks that once used to be the ocean floor(sorry, forgot what it was called). We also discovered that surfing is popular on the west coast because the water is rather warm from the gulf stream.

It was a relaxing day. I'm glad we planned these bus tours amidst all the walking. It's nice to get away from the cities too and see the green countryside.

In Dublin

Now we are in Dublin, Ireland!

This will probably be a short entry because although the internet is free at our new hostel, it resets every so often. So, we'll see how this goes.

We arrived in Dublin yesterday afternoon. The second we got off the bus, it started pouring rain. Lovely. Checked into our hostel and found a famous fish and chips place called Burdocks. Giant portions and fresh fish. Delicious. Also managed to get a Guinness at a pub across the street from our hostel.

Today we started off the day with a tour of Trinity College. It was led by a comical Irish student and left us off at the Old Library to see the Book of Kells exhibit. It was beautiful, although there were only 2 of the 4 books on display.

Next, we just walked down Grafton Street, a pedestrian mall pretty much. Fairly famous. We followed that down to St. Stephen's Green. We found some lunch at a noodle place which was tasty.

To end our day, we walked up and down O'Connell Street and saw the various monuments, statues, and various other historical sights that line the street. We also saw O'Connell Bridge and the River Liffey which divides Dublin north and south.

Dublin is a nice city and we are going to try to take it more easy here since it is not as big as London and we are spending as much time here.

Tomorrow we will visit the Cliffs of Moher!

Last Day in Edinburgh, Scotland

I know it could be said this is a bit early to say this, but Scotland is my favorite place on this trip; too bad we are only staying here such a short time.

This is Andrei. Just for your information. I have had a rather great time here in the prideful but not arrogant great nation of Scotland. Edinburgh is a wonderful city full of history and as well the Fringe of pop culture. Get it, because the Fringe Festival is going on.

Anyways, since we last posted, Alex and I have seen the whole of the countryside, which is full of beautiful grean lush sights and vast lochs, including the famous Loch Ness. It was a pretty great experience. Anyways, that trip took all day as we basically traversed the whole country. We drove over 400 miles. Anyways, Today we climbed up to Arthurs Seat which is a relatively steep climb to a height of over 800 ft. Pretty fun trek. We picnicked up at the top with a beautiful view of the whole city of Edinburgh.

Later in the day, we went to get tickets to see a Fringe Show. We decided to see Cherylene Yi. Maybe you have heard of or seen her, she had a minor role in the movie "Knocked up". I didnt remember her, but she was very funny. Odd sense of humor but I got it. It was a nice way to wrap it up and I am going to miss it here alot. I guess I just have to look ahead to Dublin. Catching our flight around three tomorrow I believe. Goodbye Scotland!

On the Royal Mile

Hello! We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland yesterday afternoon to a lively walk to our hostel. It is festival time which means there are many people on the street performing and advertising performances for the Fringe Festival. Not 2 hours in Scotland and Andrei owns a kilt. He was very excited about this.

Next, we decided to try to get tickets for the Military Tattoo that same night-a show of military bands from all over playing right in front of the Edinburgh Castle. We were successful! The show was interesting. Bagpipes and other instruments, but mostly bagpipes.

Today, we started off the day visiting the Edinburgh Castle, which was really interesting and gives great views of the city from the castle walls. After that, we went to the Royal Museum to learn more about Scotish history. The rest of the time, we've just been wandering around, stopping to watch various street performers, and enjoying the friendly atmosphere.

Looking forward to a tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness tomorrow!

The Final Day in Good Ole London

This is Andrei. As required by the mandate of Alex, I must write in this blog at least one day per city. Alas, today is the last day and I have not written yet... until now.

I will start with our morning, as it is the time of the day which comes first, right? I am just getting the hang of this chronology. Anyways, we had a "late" morning and got up at eight. We wanted to stop by a pub or some other joint for a "full English breakfast". We went to our day's initial destination: Camden; a location littered with open air markets. Despite sleeping in, most of the shops and restaurants were not open. While searching for an English breakfast, we glanced at all the quirky stores with all their strange items.

We finally found a place which would serve our needs. Eggs, bacon, beans, toast, mushrooms, tomato, and who could forget the tea! It was delicious and delectable.

After our breakfast we hit the shops which we soon found to be the same "interesting" items over and over again.

We left this place and headed towards the British Library which held a grand assortment of old important original manuscripts and books. Some examples include the Gutenberg Bible, Alice in Wonderland, and a few written Beatles lyrics. They were all very fascinating but we cannot show what we saw as there was no photography permitted. The pictures Alex had taken were deleted by the demand of an associate who worked at the Library. Anyways, there was also a very interesting collection of old maps. These maps were both artistic as well as practical overflowing with drawings and intricately placed cities.

Alex and I were satisfied with the amount of documents we saw so headed to Soho to take a much needed break. It was there we stopped in a park, sat down, and did very much writing in journals and postcards. It was an enjoyable and relaxing break being able to see things slow down contrasting the fast pace of the rest of London.

We journeyed through Soho and I found myself a bit disturbed by the characters we encountered and the distasteful stores on Old Compton street. I guess everywhere has places like that. It was all better after Alex and I stopped at a pub for lunch and had ourselves the beef roast and pie of the day, as well as a half pint. After lunch, we headed for the Tate Modern.

Full of painting, sculptures, and "art", Tate had many interesting things to show. The modern art was a little too much for me but there were many other things I could appreciate. There was some nice Picasso as well as many others. We spent about an hour and a half until we got through all the free exhibits and proceeded home after a nice and conclusive day in London.

tour bus to stonehenge and bath

Today we took a much needed break from walking around London and took a tour bus to Stonehenge and Bath. We both slept most of the time on the ride over and back. Much needed.

First, the bus took us over to Stonehenge which was as amazing as you would imagine it to be. Unfortunately and fortunately, it is roped off, so you can't get very close to the actual stones, but of course preserves them this way. We only got to be there for about an hour, but enough time to circle to rocks and listen to the audio guide they handed us.

Next, we travelled to the city of Bath where they dropped us off at the Roman Baths- pretty much hot springs originally discovered by the Romans and later used by the elite British when rediscovered. It was "a gift from the gods" and has supposed healing powers. It was equally impressive. They essentially built a museum around the original site which you walk over, around, and under as you wander. It is still a hot spring, so you can see the bubbles rising to the surface. You aren't allowed to touch the water because they haven't cleaned it in a few hundred years or so. However, they do sell purified Bath water in the shop if you still want some of the healing powers.

With 2 more hours left before we had to meet the bus, we got some lunch at a pub. Then we walked up to the Jane Austen centre to take a picture with an aging Mr. Darcy character outside. He was a gentleman. We then walked around the circus -a roundabout with the first buildings that the architect who started making everything out of Bath stone started building.

Stonehenge and Bath were nice to see because they are significant and different from anything we have seen in London and gave us a peek at the rest of England.

First Spot of Rain

Hello! Writing again today after an accomplished and all-over-the-place day.

Started it off with a trip to Abbey Road(we had to) and it was everything we hoped for-ridiculous, cheesy, and that's about it, but exciting. The street surprised us by being smaller than anticipated. It was ridiculous because people were risking being run over by taking this one picture and there were at least 20 people at a time there doing the same thing.

Our next visit was to the British Museum. It was huge and crowded, so we only managed an hour there. We did see the highlights-the Rosetta Stone and the mummies. Oh, and Andrei ran into an friend and her family from school on the way in.

We got hungry after that, so we headed over to the fancy Harrod's, the biggest department store in the world(I just made that up). As recommended by Grandma, we checked out the food hall where each room holds a different kind of food(fruits and vegetables, chocolate and coffee, fresh meat and seafood, etc.). We ended up getting some sandwiches and a sausage and potato pie. As we were eating outside, it began to rain. And we watched everyone move under the covers where we happened to be.

As is was only 4pm, we decided to check out the Royal Observatory Greenwich. We got a little turned around when we arrived, but finally found Greenwich park and made it up the steep hill to the observatory. It started raining pretty heavily while we were there, but it just made all the buildings look more amazing. The walk was worth it because the place was interesting, especially to Andrei. We even got to see where the Prime Meridian was and stood in both hemispheres at the same time. Magic. Even more confused about time.

So we are looking forward to getting to bed a bit earlier than the past few nights because tomorrow morning we will be heading to Stonehenge and Bath!

Another Full Day

Didn't quite make it to the blogging last night because we fell asleep after another full day of wandering around London.

Andrei pinpointed the source of our exhaustion-the changing of the guards. We got there by 10 am and the ceremony starts at 11:30am. Not too crowded when we arrived, so we got a pretty good spot at the top of the Victoria memorial steps. Every time we looked up, a hundred more tourists arrived so by 11am it was packed and people were being herded by police officers on horses. This is about the time everyone stood up for no reason. The ceremony itself was interesting but puzzling because it was hard to tell who was switching with who, and again the shouting police officers on horses. There was a comical moment when an Asian tourist who apparently did not understand English was escorted out of the area by one of the horsemen by holding his hand the whole way.

So that was that and we wandered past Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens for a picnic mainly of bread, meat, and blueberries. It is a huge park with a small lake running down the middle with paddle boaters. Busy as most other places we've been to so far. Then we went on to see the main reason I wanted to go to this particular park-the Peter Pan statue!

We then hopped on the Tube with our new Oyster card to go to the other side of town over by the Monument(we decided not to climb the spiral staircase inside to the top) and London Bridge. Wandered over the London Bridge to the south side of the Thames River. Here is where we followed the cobblestone path to the replica of the Globe Theater. Unfortunately, the 7:30 pm showing of Henry VIII was sold out. So we stopped by the Southwark Cathedral where they have excavated a piece of a Roman Road and some other archaelogical treasures. Then we crossed over the Tower Bridge which is our new favorite bridge. We had plans to visit the Tower of London, but would have only had an hour by that time, so skipped it.

Our new plan-search for some fish and chips. And it was a success after a long walk down the side of the Thames. We went to a pub called "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese" which I found in my guide book as the closest one to where we were. It was definitely "olde." Dark atmosphere, small seats, benches, low ceilings, several levels. Perfect. We got our fish and chips accompanied by a half pint of lager each.

We resumed our walk down the Thames down to see the London Eye, Big Ben, the Parliament buildings, and the Westminster Abbey(lots of name dropping). Huge buildings which look more like churches than government housing.

Having walked for about 10 hours straight, we decided to return to the hostel for a nice shower and rest.

Today will probably be another full day.

London Day 1...or 2?

It's hard to keep track. We've been in London for about 10.5 hours but today feels like a long yesterday and I think we may have ended up 8 hours in the future. Time travel is exhausting. But we made it with basically no problems! In fact, we got to the airport 3 hours earlier than needed and through security in 20 minutes!

We are staying at a hostel in Victoria on a fairly quiet street where all the buildings look the same. It's got everything we need, is central to most of the sites, and our roommates seem nice. They even provide internet access and computers so I can write this for a small fee.

After such a long trip and little sleep, we still managed a bit of site seeing. We took the Tube to Picadilly Circus to visit the tourist office in search of a calling card and were directed elsewhere about 10-15 minutes away. We walked for about 30 minutes and couldn't find the said place, but it worked out because we ended up on Oxford and around Soho. Next, we went to Trafalgar Square, which I think impressed Andrei the most. It was pretty impressive-especially the giant lions, although we missed out on climbing them. We did take some cheesy timed pictures with them in the background though.

We had to call it a night after that, but we got to see a lot of London already, and tomorrow will be a full day.

It's Coming Up

In about a week and a half, Andrei and I will be landing in London! Still have a lot of information to gather, but all the important things are done...ways to get places, places to sleep, rough idea of what we want to see/do.

We have scratched York off the itinerary to allow for day trips in each city, which we are pretty excited about. From London, we will be visiting Stonehenge(how could we have missed it) and spending a few hours in Bath. In Edinburgh, we will be taking a tour bus to Loch Ness, Glencoe, and the Highlands. Also a must see and we get to see more than just a city, which is what Scotland is all about. Same goes for Ireland where we will be taking a bus tour to the Moher Cliffs and a few other destinations(as suggested by one of my friends who studied abroad in Dublin).

We are excited!

Something To Be Excited About

Well, I guess there's a lot to be excited about since my last post. Many decisions have been made after much unnecessary worry and things are happening. To name a few, my brother graduated from high school, I have decided to move to SF at the end of August, my mom is selling the home we grew up in this summer, I have told my employers my last working day, and we have made some progress with Europe!

When first trying to decide where to go in Europe, we wanted to go to about 7 countries. Finally, we narrowed it down to the Great Britain and Ireland. As of now, the plan is to fly into London, bus/train up to York for a day or so, keep heading north to Edinburgh, fly to Dublin, then head on back home from the 1st of August to the 16th.

And the something to be excited about is that we bought the tickets today! And at not too shabby a price, either. So, looks like we're going.

Banana Slugs

Went to San Francisco this weekend. Cold and wet. Two favorites. Played with the colors a bit on Picasa. Lion is at Sutro Heights Park after breakfast. Skyline is from Buena Vista, I believe.

Figuring things out. But it's nice.

New Job

So, I actually found a job right when I was about to give up. I started 2 weeks ago. It is technically two jobs in the same one.

The first job is for a set of twins-girl and boy. I pick them up from school and do homework with them, take them to afterschool classes, arrange playdates, and try to think up some fun things to do. I get to do a lot of addition and subtraction. The second job is as a caregiver for their older sister. It's Monday-Friday and I get some half-days. I'm enjoying it so far. Still adjusting, but enjoying it.