Tag: vacation

Aug 15, 2001

19:15 Back @ Hotel Saga/ Ate Chinese at Aziahusid. First country. Last country. Chinese food. Saw waterfalls Gullfoss and Geysir. Thingvellir, the place of the first parliament in Western. Lots of walking. Pulsyr. Hot dogs. Sunrise @ 4:00 am. Sunset @ 10:00 pm.

The cruise may have been over, but my brother, my mom and I visited another three days in Iceland. Amazing place. The mid-Atlantic ridge peeking out of the North Atlantic. I want to go again at least in mid-summer and mid-winter, the longest and shortest days of the year.

Aug 14, 2001

02:45 Got back from the disco. Got some fun.

betsyluo@hotmail.com

caesle@hotmail.com

rallets@hotmail.com

Need to wake up after 3 hours.

06:25 Up. Morning. Not much sleep. Can’t wait to get off this ship. Purple @ 7:00 in the theatre.

08:25 Waiting in line. Dumb European airports.

12:28 Iceland time. It’s kind of cold. Better than the heat wave in the US. Asta is our guide and Bjorn is our bus driver.

Thus ends our Baltic cruise. Visited lots of interesting countries. Those three email addresses are from some of the people we had met on the cruise. Unfortunately, I have never used them. What do you say to people whom you think thought you are strange? Anyway. We still have the disco.

Aug. 13, 2001

07:30 Viking tour. Last day. Early. Last night won some lose some at the craps table. Seasick from the motion. Rough seas. Had to check the horizon. Went to be early 01:00.

07:45 Mantz is our guide and Harris is the driver.

13:25 Leaving Oslo. Short time. Very pretty, clean, and nice wouldn’t mind coming back.

16:40 Packing up. Just jam the clothers in the bag. No worry about wrinkles.

21:50 Packed and ready to go. Few things left. I’m kinda missing this place already.

Oslo. Nice town. Small by the ocean. Saw the Holmenkollen! That would be a nice thing to launch off of! Loved Oslo although it was our shortest stay.

Aug. 12, 2001

11:55 Woke up late. All day on the boat. Gloomy. Foggy. Rainy. Can’t wait for the next port. Breakfast. Lunch? Semi-formal dinner. Drunk. Will stop drinking. Up twenty in craps last night. At the bar w/cute girls.

15:55 Got out of pool and the jacuzzi. Freezing cold. Mmm. I feel good.

Was a cold rain soaked sail going to Norway from Poland. On the ship, it sucks because ther is not much to do. It became boring. We had done and seen it all.

Aug.11, 2001

10:00 Waiting on tour to begin. Lots of rushing. Maybe they should post boarding times.

10:20 Thomas is our guide and the swordsman is our bus driver. We will drive for hours.

12:05 Malbork Castle. Gothic != Medieval. Hey. You can buy weapons here. Hot dogs.

15:05 Cole slaw. Meat wrap for lunch. Where can I get Polish sausage?

This was one of the more surreal days of the vacation. We were in Poland visiting Gdansk. Our tour guide was a nice fellow. He took us to Malbork Castle home of some Teutonic Knights. It was interesting, but I not as cool as I would’ve thought. We had a lunch which it seemed that only I liked. It was a mash up of beef and pork flattened and rolled into a wrap with a side of some grain that I don’t know what it was. During lunch an elderly gentleman kept complaining about not getting a kielbasa. I wanted to tell him to just go to the snack shack in front of the castle and get yourself one. Walter could’ve continued his great Red Pulser Tour 2001 here by doing just that.

Anyway, we ended up shopping for amber in Gdansk wandering around looking for kielbasa. On the bus ride home, Thomas tells us the horrific story of his mother’s survival from the Nazi concentration camps. I think we gave him a big tip.

Aug. 11, 2001

anna_yau@hotmail.com

03:00 Met Estella, Betsy, Kyle tonight @ the disco. Fun. Threw down w/Gerry.

Um. Why’d I write Anna’s email address on this thing? (Sorry for the spam, Anna.) I think I paid the exorbitant price to use their slow ass internet connection to email her telling her what a cool, fun time this has been. Estella? Betsy? Which one was the cute one? Damn, Gerry where’s my wing man!

Aug. 10, 2001

22:00 Has been a while since I filled this out. Yesterday, the Hermitage. Why come all this way for a few Impressionist paintings? At least, we saw some Rembrandts. Last night, craps with beautiful girls. Trying desperately to meet them, but being Asian, they travel in packs. This morning went to Tallinn, Estonia. Girls just as beautiful in Russia, but seem more clean. Our guide was sexy Anna. A real woman. Lame American come-ons. Tonight more gambling. Losing in five minutes @ roulette.

Hmm. I didn’t journal too much about Tallinn, Estonia. Amazing place. Loved the fact that the Finns and Swedes go there for the cheap liquor. Anna. Sexy, Anna. How did we get this pretty girl to be our tour guide? Did I put a move on her? No. I just asked her a question. She had the funniest excuse to not vote for the inclusion into the European Union. They didn’t allow her to park in their parking lot. Amazing. Tallinn.

Aug. 9 2001

13:20 Going the the Hermitage. Tamarra. Helen. Vladimir. No flash photography. Hermitage — a place of solitude. Catherine II. 1764.

16:25 Done with the Hermitage. Saw French Impressionists? Winter Palace. Bye St. Petersburg.

The Hermitage was cool. My brother said it was filled with minor works. I think it had some good stuff. I remember Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son, which we had seen in our 10th grade art appreciation class.

More about the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia. We had visited the Palace Catherine the Great. It was huge. We had lunch in touristy restaurant. They had vodka. I sat next to an elderly lady who challenged me to keep up with her. The vodka had a funny after taste. The old lady got me drunk. The food was strange. I had fun.

Aug. 8, 2001

10:00 Waiting for St. Petersburg. Looks like the Russians won’t let us in. Looking over the passenger list. It looks like Napolean waiting to conquer St. Petersburg. Hitler trying to conquer Stalingrad. We may not be successful.

10:15 We’re cleared to have an excursion in Russia. I hope I make it back.

11:00 Anatoly and Micah as our guides.

16:00 Back in St. Petersburg from Pushkin. Drunk from vodka. Got me a bottle.

17:40 St. Isaac’s cathedral. “All roads lead to vendor.” Thad dude was right. There are the most beautiful girls here.

17:57 Strike by the sea pilot’s union kept us in bay this morning. Welcome to Western economic difficulties.

More to say later…