{aka. How Doug spent his summer...}
I've decided to be irresponsible and take the summer off to nourish my soul and my stomach. I'm off to Europe! If you came here for my old home page click here. I don't have an itinerary but I'll update the map on the right to let you'all know what I'm up to.
First it's to Paris to watch Lance bring back the Maillott Jaune, then London, Edinburgh and then Ireland.
I'll Keep you updated.
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I'm currently in: Dublin
After that I did Chartres (like the drink) and Versailles (gave me some new ideas for my back yard), and now I'm London. Weird but I feel more foreign here than in Paris. I have an easier time communicating with the French than with the Brits sometimes.
Pictures soon!
August 2 - London update:
8/2/02 - Geeeez, this uploading of pictures is going to be a little more difficult than I thought. But I will prevail and am going to spend my day tomorrow getting this working or else. Did the road trip to Stonehenge and Bath today (Christina is that your old hood?). Bath was a place that the rich folk went to "Socialize" for the summer. Imagine, spending time in a place just to schmooze. Good deal.
At first I'm thinking that Stonehenge was a pile of rocks (which it is). But if you think lugging 50 ton rocks over 125 miles w/o wheels isn't too difficult, well you're a better man than me. Trust me it's all in the pics.
August 4th - I've finally got the pictures up! Check them out (at the links on the right side of the page) and I'll keep them updated. When I get more time I'll see if I can put together a little better navigation. I'll be heading to York today for a few nights then to Edingburgh where I hope to get a little golf in on the links. Cheers.
August 7th - Edinburgh is nuts right now and I only have a few minutes before I catch a show. The Fringe festival is going on right now and there are over 1000 shows happening in the city. They say the population doubles over here this time of year and it's not even the main festival yet, that starts next week. It's beautiful country and the train ride from York was spectacular. I even got a free ride because the train was delayed and they let us submit some type of complaint form to get our money back. So proper these Brits.
One funny note before I have to run. London has this huge ad campaign going on right now trying to get people to throw their trash in bins rather than on the street. (I guess they still haven't learned from the Plagues.) Seems there is quite a rat problem in the city right now so they've created all these print ads using famous people on billboards, magazine and bus stands; imagine "Got Milk" but instead of milk, replace with rats. Well I have to words of recommendations: TRASH CANS. Being the respectful tourist, I'm always trying to put my trash in the proper receptacle, but in London and the rest of Britain THERE AREN'T ANY TRASH CANS. So while at first I thought the citizens needed to get some manners, it turns out it's just not practical finding a trash can. I mean I've probably spent just as much time looking for a trash can as I have uploading my digital pictures. Oh well, I guess the London leadership did some research in San Francisco and realized that having trash cans on the street doesn't necessarily mean that people will use them. By the way, I uploaded some movies of the tour yesterday, they are BIG but give you an idea of how it was. I'll upload more pictures ASAP. See ya.
August 8th - Edinburgh - I want to say thanks to everyone for keeping in touch. It's great to hear from you'all. I admit that I don't miss the states that much yet but last night, well, ummmm, eehhh, I kind of went to McDona.... and sTaRbU.... I guess I'm not as wordly as I thought. But, but, I had a McChicken and NOT a burger so give me some credit. Today's kind of a maintenance day (washing clothes, uploading pics) because I'm tired. I saw two shows last night, one artsy Dali flick and another that was kind of like Cirque de Soleil with fire and power tools. Very Entertaining. I'll have the pics up by tonight and then I'm off to find Bono in Dublin. Good news is that I finally figured out how to get pictures up from almost any computer which should make uploads more timely. Luckily easyInternet has a 24 hour Internet pass for like $4.50 which is about how long it took me to figure it all out! My Computer Science degree is finally paying off.
August 9th - I made it to Dublin, well actually Dun Loagharie which is a beach down about 7 miles out. I flew an airline called Ryan Air...very budget, the comedian I saw last night said it's the safest airline in the world because no terrorist would ever get on it. The only scary thing I saw was a plane full of drunk dudes singing in the back. Oh well. I'm safe and I just posted some new pics! Check 'em out.
August 12th - Dublin-Wow it's already the 12th, time flies. I spent the 10th and the 11th in Dublin and there are a few things you need to be to really appreciate the town: Literate, Thirsty for Guiness and Irish. Since the British pubs filled me with Guiness I wasn't qualified for any of the three so I did the tourist sights. Today I went to Belfast. I guess I was expecting carnage, but my first impression of the town was, "Hey this is like Austin, TX with a different accent." Lots of building, growth, tech. Then I walked and did a tour through some of the areas of "The Troubles." Very surreal and really makes you think and appreciate the freedom we have. I'll post pic's when I get back to the continent tomorrow.
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