The plan was.to arrive home Sunday evening and spend the evening relaxing with our slowly expanding kitties…however our flight was delayed. After making repeated trips we were able to claim our free round trip tickets, our itinerary for today as well as upgraded seats to business class. So now its a matter of waiting. It’s been a terrific vacation however as Gramps was a very fine host and Florida has been pleasant to stay in.
Had a Greek lunch at hellas in spongetown. Yummy grouper. Before our tasty lunch we spent around an hour at the aquarium over here. Watching the locals feed the nurse sharks, enormous grouper (no relation to lunch) and various other local caught fish. Yummy!
Then after a great afternoon at the sponge docks we headed to Howard park. Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach watching restive children and standing in freezing water. It was awesome!
Finally we met up with grandpa’s friend Sue (who had made us delicious cookies earlier) and had ice cream near Hudson park. Excellent day.
Today was pretty relaxed. This morning had a late lunch at the local ihop. Spent the early afternoon at the flea market nearby. Tina bought super neato sunglasses! After that we napped then headed to Leo and Joe’s for dinner. Tina and I then decided to explore Florida a bit. Took a long drive northbound on 19. After passing up Weeki Wachee we decided to head back only stopping at our new favorite Florida bar…the pickled parrot. Tina had a Killian and I a corona wanna be (land shark). We hung out and watched the locals for a bit then headed back to gramps condo. Good day. 
We’re at gramps. Both of us tired from the flight. Found an adhesive to glue back in my temporary cap which fell out Thursday morning. Hopefully won’t swallow it tonight.
We just landed in “hotlanta” really early. So early in fact that our terminal is still occupied with the last plane. .
We are at the airport sitting in a national coney island in north terminal. No line at check-in and no line are security. Minor delay there, Tina’s hip caught various scanners. Her hip, of course, is a known felon. No worries as they waved us through.
Last day in Florida. Spent the morning packing and getting ready to leave. Looking for some blank CDs to burn some music for gramps. Gonna head to best buy later to buy him some ram, will pick up CDs there. Walked down 52 and ended up at a sports bar for lunch. Listening to a john madden sound-a-like describe his interactions with a traffic cop to two nodding friends. It’s been a good trip. Leaving at 5 to make my flight at 7pm.
I’m feeling very relaxed here. I got to drive down the perilous 19 earlier on the way back to gramps from the mall. We stopped there for an early dinner after spending time at Fred Howard park. Despite the beach being closed we were still able to find a pocket of sand next to the water to wade in. It was peaceful and windy. It was great. Heading out in a bit I see Gran Torino. Cheers!
Nick had his golf game rained out today. Heh. Gramps is at church then we’re heading to the beach this afternoon. After that mybe seeing Gran Torino and exploring a local mall. Overall relaxing. Woo!
Went to the sponge docks this morning. Had lunch at Hellas. Took some pictures of some old boats…will post later. Picked up nick after his golf game an the three of us relaxed during the afternoon. Finished a few chapters of quicksilver then off to nicos for dinner. Ha Kentucky bourbon steak…mmmmmmmmm. Topped the evening off with ice cream near Hudson beach. Good day, feeling relaxed. Going home Monday.
Great cool morning. Heading to the sponge docks today before my cousin finishes golfing. Then to the beach. Woo!
Went to the flea market. Met my gramps golfing buddy Lloyd, tall skinny man used to sell gold supplies from his garage. Market only had about 70% of it’s stores open. Really nice and cool here. Also met gramps neighboor Suzy who has a cute Boston accent. Her place is much larger than gramps.
Arrived at the Tampa airport and survived the 5 babies sitting at adjacent seats. Gramps gave me a tour of his condo. Resting at a gazebo outside. Nice weather 
Hey!
So the last 4 or 5 days have been pretty hectic, I haven’t really had time to update properly. I’m uploading the current pictures now, they can be accessed here :
http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.cojocari/Europe08Germany
It’s been a fun time so far.
Friday :
I arrived, sans luggage. Spent the afternoon and evening with Iris and Brian. Had dinner at a Chinese resteraunt by their place and just relaxed. Walked through Oldenburg in the evening then came home.
Saturday :
Luggage arrived mid-afternoon. Went to Oldenburg with Iris and Brian’s friends Robert and Mike. Spent the evening drinking there at various places. Had the biggest pretzel ever. Huge. Walked around a flea market setup late and shopped with them for a bit. One of the bars we went too was Cafe and Bar Celona. Heh.
Sunday :
Spent most of the day at Iris’ parents place. Had proper German lunch, meatloaf, potatoes, sweet tots, purplish stuff (will figure out name later) and Cola! Stayed for mid afternoon desert, Iris’ wonderful Angel Cake and Iris’ mom’s pie. Then hung out and had a proper dinner, loads of home cooked bread, meats, spreads, cheese and butter. Her dad doesn’t speak english but her mom speaks a little. They designed and built their own house. Brian and I spent some time designing/coding a D&D roller for future games. We also stopped in Bremen for a bit as well as visiting an ancient church. Iris took me around where her mother works in the docks, spent a little time at the Wisa river (spelt wrong I’m sure).
Monday :
Spent the morning being lazy a bit then bus/trained into Bremen. Walking around the old town and newer shopping areas was nice. Found a cafe near a street performer and just enjoyed sitting there for about 30 minutes having iced tea and staring at the old buildings. Got very drunk at the “slaugter” area (will ask Iris for more specification on the name, it’s german name that is). Had fun walking and seeing the city, then took the longer train back into Oldenburg, then paid for the taxi back home (didn’t want to wait for the bus).
Tuesday :
Spent the morning coding with Brian boring Iris out of her mind, then drove to Oldenburg to catch The Incredible Hulk (I had already seen it, but it was in german, neat!). Had all you can eat sushi there (will get name from Iris) and hung out at a cafe before turning in a bit early.
Tomorrow :
Heading to the North Sea to watch it decline and rebound. Gonna walk in the mud and avoid creepy sea creatures.
Hey!
So the last couple of days have been busy and kinda a blur. I’ll get into the short of it.
Tuesday I had another walk day, went all over George Street, Prince Street and Queens Street. I walked through some Posh living areas and generally just kinda enjoyed the city. At night I spent the evening here, at bar on campus just veg’ing a few hours before bedtime.
Wednesday I spent with Annabel, we walked through the city went shopping all over. Went to a bunch of music stores, I got to meet a gentleman whom she used to work for who owns a t-shirt shop near Hunter Square. We purchased some picnicy foods (sandwiches, pops). We also bought a _ton_ of chocolate which mostly we didn’t finish, some is going on the airplane ride with me tomorrow and picnic’d at the Walter Scott monument. We finally saw Kung Fu Panda and it was fun. Snogging in the theatre is more fun. Oh they have sweet popcorn as well as salted, and apparently don’t use butter. The sweet popcorn is really really good. That night we went to Whisky Binkies, The Hive (it’s a venue and we went early so we stayed a few minutes and left) and Nichol Edwards (the most haunted pub in Edinburgh, which is a very haunted city). I tried some new Scottish whisky’s and drank vodka cokes most of the night. Most of the early evening was spent at Binkies, then a break to get some chippies at Clam Shell, which were most awesome with the chippy sauce. We ate those on Hunter Square, which is an elevated outside area near all the pubs and bars out there (pubs in Scotland are like our normal bars, bars here are like our clubs with bands or dancing, etc… Bars are open later than pubs for the most part). We went back to Biskies and drank more, snogged more, then ended up heading to Nichol Edwards. Whoa, spooky bar, lots of cemented in walls, looks like a dungeon inside. After that, we ended up heading home, Bel txt’d me later that night admitting she ate all my Chocolate Buttons (she had the sweets in her purse). Hee.
Today was awesome as well, albeit more centralized, first we went to Gregg’s and bought a ton of yummy food. Fudge Donut, Vanilla Slice, French Fancy, Cheese and Macaroni Pie, Cheese and Onion Pasty. MMMMMMM good stuff. We spent the morning/afternoon at The Meadows close to the dorm and just picnic’d all day, played DS and just relaxed with each other. I’ve posted pics from all three days but haven’t realigned or labeled properly. I’ll wait until I’m in Germany to properly do this.
http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.cojocari/Europe08Edinburgh
This was the best time I’ve had, I’ve been IM’ing with bel since I got back to the uni. It’s the most awesome being with her.
im at bar called “Aspen” using their free wifi on my mobile. today im heading down queen street nd possibly to lieth to visit the port. tomorrow and thursday I get to spend with annabel.
Hey!
So I’ve been out and about all day around Edinburgh. Taking a 6+ hour long walk around the city (with a short bus ride and a small interlude at a park to read). It was enjoyable.
The pictures linked below show where I went, I’ll fill in some more specific details later maybe.
It started out around 10:30am as I woke (realizing free breakfast ended 30 minutes prior) and quickly showered gearing for a long walk. I unpacked my back of all electronic inessentials packing in my hoodie which I thought I might need for the rain (which it didn’t until I got back) and a bottle of water. I had my phone, camera and some books. I left around 12pm after having a phone conversation with Annabel. Walked down the familiar root to East Preston intending on grabbing a bus and riding out around. I ended up walking over to High Street and following the Royal Mile all the way to Edinburgh Castle, which was a nice long walk through Old Town. Lots of people down there, even on a Monday afternoon, letting me take many great pictures. Once at Edinburgh castle I decided to follow it back and see the Hollyrood Abbey. There are several streets that compose the Royal Mile, High Street, Lawnmarket, Canongate and Abbey Strand. Lawnmarket is where most of the touristy things are. I found a bunch of weird off the wall landmarks that I noted in the pictures, I enjoyed finding these. Once I reached Hollyrood I read by the Museum and walked around Hollyrood park enjoying an ice cream. From there, I kinda got lost. I ended up wandering for an hour or so before I decided to finally get on the bus. The one bus line where i was at was route Lothian 35 so I handed over the 2 and half pounds and rode it to where I hoped things would begin to look familiar again. They didn’t really. Heh. See the pictures to how I ended up actually getting off the bus much closer to the university than I thought I was which made walking back easier. From there I’ve just relaxed, had dinner at the John McIntire center and have been chit chatting with my friends on IRC, the forums and Annabel over email/IM. It’s been a great day, tomorrow I’m going to do some more bussing and exploring.
posting this from my mobile at juice bar in downtown. afterwards taking a bus further in the city to explore. ill post a proper update later.
I’ve setup the picasaweb gallery. I’ve got one picture to post, the rest are on my camera still.
http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.cojocari/Europe08Edinburgh
7/17
14:55 Paris time
Everytime I doze off and someone talks on the PA in french my brain makes subjective interpretations of the language. i.e. “One armed gleek and soccer player have gone mad”
7/18
12:20 Edinburgh
I’m sitting in Centro Bar in the John McIntire building. A block from my room at the Holland House. Yesterday, I fell asleep immediately after showering right after I got in. Later I walked into downtown and grabbed a burger at a Turkish takeout place around 10pm. Once there I called Annabel and told her I was good. She sent me like 20 txt’s afterwards. Heh. This morning I woke around 9am, got breakfast (provided by the campus for hotel dwellers) then walked into town again to get the proper adapter for their plugs (I bought a voltage converter at Radio Shack and was assured that everything would work as bought here and in Germany, they were wrong) then hung out here for the morning. My laptop, now freshly charged, is ready for blogging. Hope everyone is doing well back home. Cheers!
Hi!
I arrived in France an hour and half ago. The 7ish hour flight from Detroit wasn’t terrible, each seat in Economy had their own touch enabled video screen that not only had a small selection of movies and tv shows but would also display the camera located at the bottom and front of the airplane. Neato!
My adapter is not working on the plugs here, I’m not sure if it’s because Radio Shack sucks or because these plugs are enclaved and the adapter isn’t reaching far enough. We’ll see when I get to Edinburgh. My flight leaves in about 4 hours. My brain is slowly turning off due to lack of sleep.
I had one of those in depth dreams last night that were so involving that when I woke up I practically had to remind myself who I was and how my life is different than the one presented in the dream. This took about 20 minutes.
3 More days and I’ll be on a plane. 5 more days and I’ll be hanging out with Annabel.
Hey! So I’m going to Europe on July 17th for two weeks. I think I’ll use this blog to chronicle my trip.
