Disneyland : the happiest place on earth????

Impressions of Disneyland: the happiest place on earth? I don’t think so – just ask the millions of cranky, tired families we saw and heard after spending another long day in the massive queues, dodging double strollers (prams) and enduring the hot sun. Well, that’s not entirely fair. The happiest thing I saw was little girls and boys, brimming over with excitement, sporting Mickey Mouse ears, Disneyland T-shirts and wearing multitudes of pins. The little girls wearing princess dresses and sparkles, taking in the whole Disney experience. People watching (a personal favorite of mine) was at its peak in the Disneyland Park. Hilarious to see ‘cool’ teenage boys with tattoos and baggy pants, wearing Mickey Mouse ears! The most remarkable sight was a group of 3 adults, a man and two women. They wore matching tie-dyed T-shirts, adorned with colourful lanyards filled with souvenir pins. Okay, not so remarkable – we saw many families wearing matching clothing (I supposed to make identification easier in crowds). The wonderful part was the man – a tattooed ‘biker’ looking guy. He was wearing….a skirt! Yes, a skirt!

As for the rides, I can report that Space Mountain (rollercoaster in the dark) is still the number one best ride I have ever been on. Even after 10+ years. Other standouts included Soarin’ over California (Mark’s favorite), California Screamin’ (rollercoaster), and Tower of Terror. Of course, the 1-hour waits for a ride took some of the shine off, we were able to score Fast Passes to a few rides but otherwise the massive crowds were a huge turnoff. We had one early pass (enter the park at 7am) and were amazed to see the huge crowds forming just around daybreak, chanting the countdown to the gates opening. We were foreseeing a stampede…but we ended up getting two whole rides on Space Mountain in just an hour!

As I am somewhat familiar already with American culture, having visited the US many times, it was interesting to hear Mark’s take (his first trip to the northern hemisphere). Here’s what he said: BIG. Everything is big. The cars are big. The people are BIG, women speaking loudly, huge meals and portions. He finds the restaurants hilarious: ‘Good evening, folks! I’m Dwayne, I’ll be your waiter this evening. Can I get you a drink, some water, some appetizers?’ (spoken at a million miles an hour), so many choices, what kind of bread, what kind of dressing, did you want any sides with that? Any extras? Dessert? We have laughed so hard while eating out at Denny’s, IHOP, and other chains. Mark’s dinner tonight at Denny’s was a simple sounding meal, steak and eggs. The meal came out on 3 plates – one for the steak, one for eggs and potatoes, and one for toast. We have only been eating twice a day. Today I bought the most delicious red apple in the hotel shop, it was about 4 times bigger than what we can get at home. (it took me an hour to eat it all!). Breakfast this morning was another giant meal. Mark had eggs and pancakes: 2 eggs, bacon, FOUR huge pancakes…I had a giant breakfast burrito and didn’t even get through half. What a waste! The meals are fairly cheap but way way too much.

We are weary and ready to leave for Las Vegas in the morning. Bring it on!

Old stuff in the desert of Dubai

Pics of Dubai

OMAN and Dubai

Crossed over into Oman yesterday, went to the Hatta Mountains, which i think are made of iron, so hardly any vegetation. the temp was 44deg and it's nice to be in the aircon! The wadis (riverbeds) are dry as a bone, but it doesn't take much rain to cause flash floods).

Last night had a dinner cruise on a dhow boat on the Dubai Creek, tons of other boats around, good Indian dinner and even...a BEER!!! (The choice last night was Heinkenen, Heineken, or Heineken, different from dinner the other night where the choice was Fosters, Fosters or Fosters!! - i came all the way from Australia to Dubai to drink an Australian beer that Aussies don't even drink !!)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news....but petrol here is about 25cents per LITRE!!!! the heat is so intense that people don't walk anywhere, they drive. And if that's all they pay for petrol, no wonder!

The border crossing into Oman was quite funny...lots of gates, barriers and guard huts, but only 3 guards working (\friday is their weekend). It was apparently too hot for them to leave their air conditioned hut and check our passports so they just waved us through!

Today i planned to do a chopper flight and see the gold souk. unfortunately not much is open due to it being a weekend (??) and the heat is a little too intense for helicopters....so i went (along with the other billion residents of Dubai) to one of the few open air conditioned shopping malls and bought some gold!

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

I arrived at midnight to 35degC, steamy, sultry, hazy, humid, HOT!!!!! Yesterday I did a city tour and saw air conditioned bus shelters plus not many people on the street during the day...most shops close between 2-4 for siesta (only they don't call it that here...they just close). During the day the temp was in the mid 40s, it's hard to be motivated when you just feel limp and the heat just sucks the life out of you.
I shopped for bottled water and my fave travel snack (Pringles) at the local supermarket Spinney's. They have a 'Pork Shop for non-Muslims' next to the regular supermarket. A lot of brands are the same, and even written in English, as well as Arabic.
There is plenty of construction going on in Dubai....apparently 40% of the world's cranes are being used in Dubai right now (!!). Plenty of Indian and Pakistani people here, in fact, i have not met a Dubai 'local' yet. To work here you can get a 3yr visa but are not able to become a national, so workers just get their visas renewed every 3 years.
A massive train system is under construction and when it's done it will be fantastic.

I expected Dubai to be like Las Vegas, bright, gaudy, and tacky. It is not like that at all. The new buildings and hotels are all kind of sandy coloured rendered construction, they fit in perfectly with the beach colours. They have whole neighbourhoods of same things, for instance, the Knowledge Village - universities, colleges and schools, all in one area. I have had a look at Ski Dubai, it's attached to a huge shopping centre. Not sure if I will in fact have time to ski there, i'm too busy seeing the rest of Dubai. Last night I went out to the desert in a Chevy Tahoe, in a convoy of about 30 cars, we went to a camp and sat on woven cushions, ate an awesome dinner and watched belly dancing. i got a henna tattoo on my hand, it will last about 10-12 days apparently. I am impressed with the belly dancer, who, after sweating her ass off and dancing for about 20mins, would have chewed up a billion calories!

I am meeting a few Aussies and Kiwis, either returning home, or going on to take cruises in Europe. Everyone here speaks English, some a bit dodgy but understandable nevertheless! My hotel is a non-drinking one, as a lot are. The main larger hotels have bars, but mine does not, and i haven't worked out where to buy any, it's not like Poland where beer etc is readily available at the corner shop or supermarket. The guys at the front desk of my hotel are all doing deals with their mates for tours..it seems a little dodgy...but you get that!

Today i'm going out to the desert and mountains, then on a dhow dinner cruise. It's hard to do stuff on your own as it's way too hot to be wandering around by yourself, although the crime rate is virtually nil - i guess people are too busy working, and too hot to be causing trouble! Unemployment is almost nil here. Dubai is awesome, i wish i was here for a longer time. I plan to go to the gold souk (market) tomorrow and check out jewellery. Apparently the good price to pay is between 18-20 Durhams (about 4-5 Aussie dollars) per gram. i have no idea how that compares to anywhere else...but I'll check it out! I'm also hoping to get a helicopter flight tomorrow, but you have to fill the whole helicopter, and so far i have been unsuccessful......stay tuned! will write more tomorrow, unless i melt away!

River rafting on the border of Poland and Slovakia

Crazy People (aka: my family)

Polish food

I am loving Polish food..it reminds me of when i was growing up!

-barsczcz=beetroot soup
-pierogi=dumplings filled with cheese, meat or potato
-bread with LARD , yes, LARD instead of butter, it has tiny bits of bacon in it ...interesting....
-sausages, sausages and more sausages, breakfast, lunch and dinner yay!
-the BEST mushrooms and mushroom soup i have ever tasted
-bigos=kind of like hot sauerkraut (cabbage) with chunks of meat, or sausage
-smoked dried cheese sold on the street

Poster on a Krakow cafe wall

My niece (4) Forest's feet in Krakow

Krakow town square

Polish beer!

Modern art in Krakow town square

Zakopane and Polish culture

I'm in Zakopane, a ski resort town (think: Whistler) at the Tatra Mountains. So far we have rafted down a river with guides who have been doing this for hundreds of years (well, not the ACTUAL guides we had (!) but the job has been passed down thru the generations), visited a lake and mountain accessible by horse drawn carriages, and taken a gondola ride up the top of a mountain. The crowds here are massive, it's summertime, and it's much busier here even then in Krakow. Lots of Polish tourists, which is different than a couple of years ago, apparently, when the tourists were mostly foreign.

Since joining the EU, Poland has become more accessible, but also more expensive. People here have more money to see their own country, and shopping is increasingly expensive.

My sister-in-law Molly has been learning Polish words, and we have been laughing our asses off ever since. The word for 'pee' is similar to the word (to her, anyway!) for my brother Chris's name in Polish. Today, i wanted to ask for a receipt for my taxi fare, and the word is similar to the word for 'flower' and 'kitten' so i had some fun! we are all learning easy words, and trying to order meals in Polish. Something we are getting used to is paying to use public toilets: it costs about one zloty, so I have nicknamed it 'one zee for a pee' LOL. One zloty is about 50 cents Australian. A big glass of beer is about 8 zloty, and the beer is delicious! We have shortened 'zloty' to 'zee' which makes things easier to discuss.

I have to laugh at the hotel rules here: smoking is allowed in rooms, even pets, but ironing? it's a no-no: fire hazard!! Here in Zakopane the people are friendlier than in Krakow, i make it my mission to smile and say 'Dzien dobry' (good morning/hello) to everyone i see, this kind of freaks them out coz i don't think they're used to it.

I am learning all about my family history. My grandmother used to be a ski bunny here in Zakopane, she was quite the social butterfly. is it any wonder i was named after her? the really funny thing is that my name is quite common here, so i am constantly hearing it being called out by mums to their kids, and i turn around thinking they're calling me! they, of course, pronounce it the right way, 'Vanda', which i love.

If i had known beforehand about this internet stuff, i would have brought my laptop. in the Krakow hotel, they had one internet computer for public use, tucked into a small hot cupboard underneath the stairs. In this hotel, there's no computers....and in this internet cafe, the whole operating system is of course in Polish, which makes it really really hard to know what i'm doing...thus no pictures uploaded yet, sorry!!

Impressions of Krakow

We are leaving Krakow this morning for Zakopane, a resort town in the Tatra Mountains.
Krakow has been fantastic: i love the old buildings, they are being restored but my favorite are the old crumbly rundown ones, the cobblestone streets and the clip-clop of the horses pulling carriages, the trumpet player in the top of the church, every hour on the hour.........tons of restaurants and outdoor cafes, bars and shops, street vendors selling pretzels, amazing Polish chocolate. On the downside, the service industry is pretty blase and somewhat unfriendly. Apparently tourism numbers have fallen way down as things are getting more and more expensive. We see large groups of Irish and British buck's party groups, drunk and obnoxious on the streets at night.
Last night we toured the Jewish part of town: amazingly, there are only around 200 Jews living in the area, but the Polish people keep their traditions alive with festivals and restaurants. We ate at one of the restaurants last night, the food was wonderful, and we listened to a live classical/jazz trio amidst the flickering of candles and the cool breeze blowing lace curtains in through the windows. Our tour leader, Yolanta, grew up here and her passion and love for the city comes through at every opportunity. She wants us to put the word out that Poland is not just Auschwitz, but rich in culture and tradition. And she's right: everyone should visit Poland!

Auschwitz and Birkenau

Today was a tough day. We visited the concentration/death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, where 1.5 million people were tortured, starved, hanged, gassed, and burned. It makes it even more real to see where it happened, and learn about the lives of the people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. I can't say anymore, except that sometimes learning new things is not enjoyable, but necessary nonetheless. If we don't bother to learn about history, we cannot change the future.

3 August 2008

There are 50 churches in Krakow. I think we have seen MOST OF THEM now! Fascinating history in each one, and beautiful ornamental touches and stained glass windows and ...crypts...graves...church stuff, you know. I am eating an awful lot. Today i ate uszki, bigos, pierogi, barszcz and drank some more Polish beer. I have tried beer with raspberry juice, quite refreshing in this heat actually. I am starting a beer glass collection (don't ask!) and this is going to be difficult since my suitcase will weigh too much for the plane!

My brother Chris is annoying as all hell, but our antics are amusing the rest of the family, so I'm glad we can offer some comic relief to the church visiting...

We are discovering all kinds of things about Krakow, like the service industry. They are not very friendly. Sometimes downright SURLY....now that we have worked out the 'money tray' issue we are getting along just fine. What is the money tray, you ask? In grocery stores, the cashier does not want to touch your hand when taking your money, so this involves placing your money on a small tray...and then the cashier places your change on said tray. No hand touching allowed. Now that this issue has been resolved we feel confident in buying things such as bottled water, yummy chocolate, and strange forms of snack food/chips (ketchup flavour??). Also, unfortunately, some Euros have fallen into my wallet and it's hard to tell the difference between Euros and Zloty (Polish currency) - we are calling them Zs. I get nasty looks when trying to pay with Euros...they don't like those here.

Although i have been doing a bit of running, I'm not game to be skipping outside....yet... Early in the morning is apparently late night for some, (wow, was I really like that in my younger years?)....so i get a lot of strange looks from the wasted Irish and British buck's party groups stumbling around the cobblestone streets at 5.30am. There seems to be a lot of those.

I am practicing my Polish again..not with a lot of success...but at least i am saying Please and Thank You and Good Morning happily...when i get blank looks i realise i'm speaking Spanish and not Polish!

I am one step closer to uploading some pics on here. The hotel internet computer is 1) a Linux operating system and 2) ALL IN POLISH!!! so i have no idea what the commands are, or how to implement anything. Luckily Karon (sis-in-law) brought her laptop so if we can get some wireless action, i can do my pics tomorrow.

Tomorrow: the Salt Mines and a little bit of shopping. I bought myself a new pair of Docs (sandals) but i am going to spend some more money...after all, what are holidays for?

Krakow, Poland

I am in Krakow, a gorgeous city surrounded by a 4km circuit park, and a huge town square in the centre. Yesterday (1 August) was the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, and so there was a memorial 1-minute of silence in the town square, a parade and lots of singing. Mum found it a bit emotional. Later on the town square was a hub of activity, tourists, locals, young and old. There are heaps of outdoor cafes all over, and a stage had been set up for some live doof music for the young crowd. We ate in an outdoor cafe with the sounds of classical piano and violin playing next to us, enjoying a Polish beer.

Facebook friends???

I am now on www.facebook.com so I hope to see you there!

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

Abandoned cottage - Arrowtown

Arrowtown is about half an hour from Queenstown. It dates back to the 1860's when gold was discovered in the Arrow River. Along the river with tall thick forest, it is a ghostly feeling, a bit creepy. The town itself has retained most of the old cottages, and has arty shops all over.

Frost on bushes

On the way to Queenstown, we finally saw snow! not much, but enough to coat bushes and trees.

Old man on roadside in Christchurch

Lake Tekapo 'church on the lake'

Lake Tekapo is on the way to Queenstown, a picturesque 6 hour drive with mountain ranges, lots and lots of sheep, lots of country settings. We stopped at Lake Tekapo and had a look at this rather famous Church of the Good Shepherd (one of the top 10 places to get married!) with fabulous views over the turquoise glacier lake.

Okay, I really liked this alley! The colours were amazing. It was nice to wander around Christchurch - it reminded me of Vancouver (but maybe the drizzly grey weather had more to do with it than anything else....)

Christchurch, New Zealand

Arrived in Christchurch after a 3.5 hour flight from Brisbane: a 10 day ski holiday with Nat and Sarah. Christchurch was drizzly and just a few degrees above zero. I found a great alleyway which needed a photo taken.

Baxter Creek waterfall

Went for a short hike on Sunday, in the Blackall Ranges, west of the Sunshine Coast. This one was about half an hour down a steep hill with switchbacks, over a small suspension bridge, another 100m to a waterfall. If you look really carefully, you can see Shane in the picture! It was a very enjoyable walk, except the water at the bottom was very murky and brown, I certainly wouldn't recommend drinking it!

Inline skating at Lake Kawana

We just discovered that a new area on the Sunshine Coast, Lake Kawana, (it used to be swampland and now is a big lake where rowing regattas are held,) has some wonderful wide tracks along the water: perfect for inline skating. It's great to be on skates again!

Swimming pool on a beach?

Went for a run this morning at the beach, in a swimming pool. This is the new pool right on Kings Beach, it is saltwater and fantastic - the beach is in the background.

As my introduction to running 7 weeks ago resulted in agonising, long-lasting painful shin splints, I am now running in the pool. Much more gentle.

Mitchell in play mode !

Mitchell's favorite pose on the beach.... ready for anything.

Climbing Mount Beerwah

Picture a beautiful sunny day. Imagine very high humidity and around 30C+ degrees. 7 of us decided to hike up Mount Beerwah, a 556m high member of the Glass House Mountains on the Sunshine Coast. Shane and I, Lee (our personal trainer), his girlfriend Laurie, Sal (fellow bootcamp participant) and her husband Cam, and Nat (fellow bootcamp-ee and upcoming NZ ski trip buddy for me!) embarked on this very scary journey. Well, very scary for the girls, the guys enjoyed it mostly.

We began around 7am, bushwalking up a stone step track for about 700m and coming to quite a sheer rock face, which we had to climb. Nat clambered up with no problem, followed by Shane and Lee. Then, me, Laurie and Sal. It was a struggle, hanging on by my bare fingertips, cramps in my calves....couldn't come back down, had to keep perservering up. It was terrifying - I slipped - and almost knocked Laurie down. I was wearing clunky hiking boots (sneakers would have served me better) and couldn't find any toe holds or feel the rock with my toes. There was nowhere to have a break. I was stuck! Lee and Shane couldn't help, as they had no place to secure themselves and give me hand up. My adrenaline was really kicking in - and fear.

Along came a friendly stranger, Dennis, a guy in his 50's, he instilled calm and confidence in me and helped me up a bit. (he does this track 3-4 times a week). He was like a mountain goat, and he saved me! Everyone said, this was the hardest part. Guess what, it wasn't. It continued for another 200 metres. The crevices were slippery and moist from recent rain, unfortunately they were also the best places to climb up! Looking back now, I know that had I kept my momentum going, it would have been heaps easier. As it was I got about 3/4 way up and was so fatigued I had to stop there. All I could think about was, I have to come down at some point!! I found a spot of shade and jammed my feet into some rocks and just hung out there for about an hour - I sent the others on, they perservered and got to the summit.

The way down was MUCH easier but still quite difficult, especially near the very end, we really had a team effort to help us get down. The exposed rocks were on fire -burning hot, almost blistering my palms. It was almost 12noon. A quick visit to the pub in Beerwah for a drink (me: water, Shane: beer, Lee: soft drink - does that tell you something??) and off home to lick my wounds - cuts and scrapes on my hands, bruises and cuts on my knees and legs. At least I wasn't sunburnt - next weekend let's go somewhere a bit tamer.

And after all that, I barely took any photos....Next time.

Dubs by the Pub 2007

We spent all morning at the Ettamogah Pub, looking at Kombis and Bugs at 'Dubs by the Pub 2007', it was fantastic. Such a huge crowd despite the rainy weather, and such fabulous Kombis including our favorite, Splitties (split windows). Spoke to a re-spray guy from the Gold Coast and it looks like Daisy can go in and get sandblasted, a total re-spray with new seals, removing all the rust spots and painted a fabulous metallic bright red......it will take a month in total so we will probably wait until winter, in August maybe, when beach weather isn't so great, and put her in then........but how we will live without her even for just a month??????????

Puppies at Shelly Beach

My favorite 7-year old puppies in the whole wide world, enjoying an afternoon romp at Shelly Beach. Mitchell 'Deep Sea Diver' (can hold his breath for many minutes when concentrating on something like a big rock - too big to pick up but can be rolled underwater) and Kimberley 'Supermodel' (gazing off into the horizon), pondering life.

Kombi Dogs

Finally managed to get a photo of Kimberley in the Kombi, she hates being in there. I am going to start putting peppermint oil on her collar, this seems to help a bit. Mitchell, however, is the true 'Kombi Dog', he loves being up front with his dad, looking out the front windscreen, sometimes even resting his chin on the dashboard. We all went swimming this morning, council regulations on this beach mean that we have to keep the dogs on the lead right until we hit the water, after that, we let them off.

Daily beach run

Went out this morning for our daily drive around the beaches: Bulcock Beach, Happy Valley, Kings Beach, Shelly Beach, Moffat Beach. The ocean was churned up today, it looked a bit angry. Happy Valley is great for surfing on a calmer day. (We call it 'Nappy Valley' as the area is a popular picnic spot for families.) Daisy is fantastic, the dogs quite enjoy the fact that they can walk up to the front between the seats and be reeeeaaaaaaally close to us!

My apologies for having such crappy quality photos - it's me taking the photos now, on my Canon Ixus 400 camera. No skill, no talent, no photoshop. I may have to get Shane to do some nice ones on the beach on a good day....so stay tuned!

Outdoor area...

Our generous neighbours, Chris and Tash, did most of the work on our front yard. The dodgy concrete patchy driveway was ripped out (plenty of junk underneath: bits of wire, chunks of concrete, broken steel rods....). Railway sleeper were used to box around the poinciana trees and paths were put together. Decomposed granite was used for the driveway surface as well as the paths and outdoor area next to the house. We dug the birds nest ferns out from all over the place, and really made a showpiece, and added Liriope and Zanzibar plants to liven the area up. The big rock bowl we dug out of another part of the garden as well, Chris and Shane hoiked it all the way over, it weighed a ton! We still have work to do, put a concrete pad under the BBQ area and fill in the beds near the fence with happy trees.