Edinburgh

As a graduation gift, my brother Dave ended up visiting for two weeks. We spent the better part of a week together in London and he also did an 8-day trip through the UK to visit a friend at Oxford, see other parts of the country and meet me for a weekend in Edinburgh.

So, last weekend, I left work a bit early on Friday and headed to Luton for the flight up to Edinburgh. I need to do another post at some point about my first (and possibly last) experience with EasyJet, but that's another post for another day...

Dave and I found a pub with a singer / guitar player after I got into town on Friday night. It's the first I've heard a guy with a synthesized backing band, where he actually had talent! Any other time I've heard someone do that, he tried to hide behind the synthesized recording and more or less failed... but this guy was good!

Saturday, we explored town, toured the castle, did the whiskey tasting experience, and ventured up to the top of Holyrood Park. A few of Dave's photos are on http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/... I never actually took my camera out with us.

Saturday night, we met up with three of my friends from London who had also traveled up to Edinburgh for the weekend. We did dinner together, then a ghost tour through town, and then found a few pubs. It seemed like every single pub had live music... and they were good!

We toured the National Gallery on Sunday morning and then did an underground tour of the old city in the afternoon, before heading off to an airport and back to reality. Definitely a great weekend and an amazing opportunity to catch up with Dave!

Now, this weekend, I'm back in London and have little planned, for the last time in a while. A friend from New York will be here the next two weekends, I'm doing a 14-mile race in Wales after that, then a week in Northern Ireland, then have two other friends from the States visiting for a weekend. The next free weekend at this point is in mid September, the weekend before going to Oktoberfest. Where's the time going?!?

Maui

For years, my family had been talking about going to Hawaii after my brothers graduated from college. Sometimes it was a serious plan, sometimes it was half-joking. Either way, though, it was something we were thinking of doing for quite a while. Last summer, when air tickets were first made available for this June, I broke down and cashed in all of my airline miles and credit card points to get a round trip ticket: Friday morning, I was to fly Heathrow to LAX, where I could spend the evening of my brother's graduation in Pasadena with the family, before continuing on to Maui the next day. After a week in Maui, the tickets were for a flight to Newark, a stopover so I could get to a friend's wedding in Pennsylvania, and then back to London the day after the wedding. This seemed a bit crazy, but it was going to give me the opportunity to see the family, be in a friend's wedding and also celebrate the brothers' graduation.

Fast forward 11 months, and it was time for the trip to happen! After the 10-hour flight to LA, I had caught up on four movies, a few hours of sleep, and was ready for the day! We took Dave in his cap and gown and, for some reason, me with a wig, up to the Observatory overlooking the Hollywood sign for a few photos, before a graduation dinner back in Pasadena.

Saturday, I went to Maui via Honolulu, while Dave and our parents were on a different flight. Unfortunately, Jeff wasn't able to join us on this trip. His new job had just started and he was out partying it up (or so we think... he hasn't confirmed this for me yet) in Worchester, Mass.

Sunday was the first of two days Dave and I attempted surfing. Well, I'll give him credit for going surfing and me for attempting to do so. I was able to catch a few good waves, but not quite consistently. Clearly, this is a sign that I just need to spend more time working at this!!!

We took a two-day trip on the road to Hana. On the way, we stopped at waterfalls, beaches, banana bread shops and the like, before pulling in to a quiet spot along the beach where we had a place booked for the night. It was absolutely amazing to get out in the open air, away from everything, with real sunshine! On the second day of this trip, we hiked up to a waterfall through the rainforest, found some pools to swim in overlooking the ocean, and drove up to the top of the main volcano!

We spent a day snorkeling, an evening at a luau, an evening out at a piano bar and magic show, and even grilled out on the beach! It was great to spend some time with the family and to totally disconnect. Even though we had wireless internet access and cell phone access, I have to admit that I just shut down... I didn't look at voicemail and tried to avoid the computer for the full week. It was such a great feeling to not know what was going on in the wider world, not particularly care for a bit, and just be completely disconnected.

I left the evening before everyone else was planning to do so, to get back to Pennsylvania for a wedding. After the drive down to Pennsylvania, I got to catch up with the groom and a few other friends that night, catch a movie, go for some sushi and reminisce on old times. The following day was the wedding -- it'd been raining for a few days previously and was forecasted to do so that day as well, but it was PERFECTLY sunny and a great day for an outdoor wedding!

As I was leaving the wedding reception that evening, I received a callfrom my project lead in London, asking if I would be willing to work the week in New York rather than in London. Now, this meant that I had to buy work clothes for the week, but it was a great chance to catch up with a few friends and to meet the other half of my project team face-to-face for a few days rather than just as voices at the other end of a conference bridge...

I'm starting to think that 9-10 hour flights are actually easier on my body than are 6-7 hour flights. Both of the long legs on this trip (LHR to LAX and HNL to EWR) didn't tire me out at all, and I was able to arrive rested, but the short leg from Newark to London at the end of the trip just left me exhausted -- even though I slept two or three hours, that just wasn't nearly enough for one night. Then again, maybe it was just jet lag catching up with me for going +11 and then -11 time zones within 10 days...

All in all, this was a great trip! Yes, it was a bit exhausting and the week after I returned to London was a bit tough on the body, but it was absolutely worth it!

A few of the photos from California and Maui are here.

Warsaw

No, I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth. Yes, I do exist, even if it's been forever since I last posted here.

As my previous post mentioned, I did a last-minute trip to Warsaw over the bank holiday weekend at the end of May. A few of the photos are online here.

I arrived midafternoon on Saturday, ventured through the streets of the Old Town section and explored a bit. That evening was spent with a few others I met at the hostel, after they decided I needed to learn the virtues of the various different Polish vodkas. Let's just say that there is quite the selection available!

Sunday morning, I went to mass, which was quite the adventure given it was all in Polish! I then ventured through a market to find a kielbasa and some pieroghi for lunch, before heading into the city to tour the war memorials and the New Town area.

Monday, I watched the city come to life from the first story window of a coffeeshop, while reading a book, before heading off to the airport.

I'm glad I took the trip and visited Warsaw, but it's not on the list of places to which I must return. It's definitely a bit of a culture shock, as the city has never fully rebuilt following the bombings from World War II. Many of the parks in the city are located where portions of the city were just never rebuilt. Likewise, those areas that were rebuilt tend to have large concrete block buildings from the Soviet era.