New Places & New Progress...
The process is moving along. I know I'm going places when I disembark the ship. The trains I buy at the stations, but the flights are now prepaid. I know that on certain days I'm flying to Rome then Venice, London, and Brussels. Whether or not I'm going to have a place to stay (other than London) in those places right now is questionable. I'm optimistic I WILL find a place. Just whether or not it will be cheap is the question. Part 2 is done. I will have a phone and travel. Now I just need the accommodation and the trip will be underway. I have yet to coordinate leaving my luggage on board for a little free storage until I meet the ship again in Amsterdam on Sept 8. This will facilitate the cost of storing my huge suitcases and it will facilitate the inconvenience of carrying them around with me everywhere I go. Especially now that my flights are booked with Ryan Air and they have the worst restrictions on luggage. I managed to buy a flight for £0.50!! Yes!! Can you believe it? A mere $1.00 U.S.!! Ha Ha!! They get you with taxes which amount to about £12.00. The luggage fee for checking a bag also adds on and if I'm overweight in upwards of 30lbs, there will be additional fees as well. The deception of the cheap flight. It's all good. That $1.00 (or so they say $1.00) is my cheapest flight so far from London to Amsterdam. This will be an adventure from what I'm told. Right now I'm looking at cheap accommodations in Paris in a dorm room of 6 for about $25/night. Dorm rooms. Six strangers. Should be quite the learning experience. 
In my new job on board or lack of I've been used here and there. Mostly it's a vacay. I was out in Riga, Latvia the other day. A new port AND an expensive one. I was slightly deceived going out in port that day. The program said the exchange was $1.00 would get you 2 of their dollars. Au contraire. It's the other way around and as strong as the Pound Sterling. We sadly learned this at an exchange place when we turned in 15 Euros expecting to get about 40 of their dollars only to receive 8 of their dollars.
After a lot of confusion and miscommunication, we figured the program was wrong and we were headed into quite the expensive day. Oh well. We took bikes off that day and rode into town. We only had 2 hours since we were leaving just after noon that day. It was also an early day. Whoa. From what our program says as well is that Michail Baryshnikov was born here. How interesting. The place was cute. 
Personally I like Estonia better and wish we went there again. Riga looks like it would have a very bustling nightlife judging from the local rags you find in the coffee shops. These magazines that provide events for the month or week are also very provocative. Practically naked women on the inside posing for fashion ads. You'd almost expect to pay for such a magazine it was so graphic. Also you can see that these people are still busting out of communism just by what they wear on the street. Revealing clothing and the women wear the high and thin heels on the uneven cobblestone streets. Can someone say sprained ankle. Yikes! Riga upon first look and the express viewing we had of it looks like a mixture of Russia and Estonia. The castle like structures and churches are very much like the old town in Estonia. 
The squares, parks, and open spaces are much what you'd find in Russia. There's such a mix of culture here. I loved just biking through the old town, but wish we did have more than just 2 hours in this cute town. Not to spend money, but just to sit, relax, and take it all in. Tonight is Russia again. I plan to have stroganoff and borsht in the St. Petersburg hotel with some friends before meeting up with everyone later to go out on the town. Should be fun. We'll see. I'm trying not to overdo it with the Indonesian Independence party coming up as well.
In my new job on board or lack of I've been used here and there. Mostly it's a vacay. I was out in Riga, Latvia the other day. A new port AND an expensive one. I was slightly deceived going out in port that day. The program said the exchange was $1.00 would get you 2 of their dollars. Au contraire. It's the other way around and as strong as the Pound Sterling. We sadly learned this at an exchange place when we turned in 15 Euros expecting to get about 40 of their dollars only to receive 8 of their dollars.
After a lot of confusion and miscommunication, we figured the program was wrong and we were headed into quite the expensive day. Oh well. We took bikes off that day and rode into town. We only had 2 hours since we were leaving just after noon that day. It was also an early day. Whoa. From what our program says as well is that Michail Baryshnikov was born here. How interesting. The place was cute. 
Personally I like Estonia better and wish we went there again. Riga looks like it would have a very bustling nightlife judging from the local rags you find in the coffee shops. These magazines that provide events for the month or week are also very provocative. Practically naked women on the inside posing for fashion ads. You'd almost expect to pay for such a magazine it was so graphic. Also you can see that these people are still busting out of communism just by what they wear on the street. Revealing clothing and the women wear the high and thin heels on the uneven cobblestone streets. Can someone say sprained ankle. Yikes! Riga upon first look and the express viewing we had of it looks like a mixture of Russia and Estonia. The castle like structures and churches are very much like the old town in Estonia. 
The squares, parks, and open spaces are much what you'd find in Russia. There's such a mix of culture here. I loved just biking through the old town, but wish we did have more than just 2 hours in this cute town. Not to spend money, but just to sit, relax, and take it all in. Tonight is Russia again. I plan to have stroganoff and borsht in the St. Petersburg hotel with some friends before meeting up with everyone later to go out on the town. Should be fun. We'll see. I'm trying not to overdo it with the Indonesian Independence party coming up as well.
posted by Chris | 7:21 AM
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