Hoping to start off the next trip on a better note, we had arrived at the RDU airport (not a university as someone on the airplane asking me confusingly) not even 48 hours from the flight back in from San Fran. Our flight path would be to first depart Raleigh to Dulles to Frankfurt then into Basel. Frankfurt was a freaking huge airport, we had to get bused both arriving at the airport and debarking the airport. When we left during our long  journey along the airport tarmac, an old man leaned over to me and stated that they might as well just drive down to Basel seeming how long its taking us to just get to the airplane.

Flying Lufthansa was very nice and clean although the small child in front of me was not feeling well. His mom placed a open barf bag next to him in the event he did, Jen at this point left me know too that she would do the same if he barfed…super. When we got to the Basel airport it was nice to know that things looked familiar. We walked outside the airport being careful once again not to walk out into the wrong country. Not a minute went by until we saw this frantic women running to us. It was Gina come to greet us into her hometown! I was again comforted by family in a foreign place but on the bigger picture this was Jen’s first time out of the country. Staying with the Colleluori’s would be the best break-in for her to get familiar with an foreign country.

Ironically as it sounds, with 5 days left until the release of the new 3G iPhone, my taped up “bobo” Verizon Wireless Razer phone is on its last leg. Friday it decided to only allow me to answer phone calls and hit the power on/off button. That’s it!! No volume control, no text messaging no calling someone’s phone number. I now only rely on people calling me…which may not be a bad thing. We’ll see how this coming Friday goes with the release of Apple’s phone and if I decide on buying it. I’m not a big person for last minute commitments on expensive things right when they come out.

Another odd thing that happened, just as we were returning back from the beach. I was filling up the gas tank at the famous I-95 Hess/DQ truck stop, when low and behold my car milage reads 99999. I was shocked, I forgot how close my car was to 100k. After Jen returned from finding out the women’s rest-a-room was out-of-order, we got in the car, rode to the back end of the gas station where a parking lot full of truck parking spaces all stood vacant. We proceded to drive in donuts until this baby hit 100,000 on the dot. Fleeing from two trucks driving through the parking lot, victory was mine in a few minutes after doing countless circles. Jen and I were cracking up hysterically, I kept saying this should have been video recorded on my camera but it was fun enough remembering the thought. For me a car hitting 100,000 miles is a big deal. I can remember the exact spot I hit 100,000 in my old Integra. It’s when you know your car is just broken in, at least for my Acura. If you treat them right they’ll last forever…I look forward to the next 100,000 miles….

Yesterday we did the 5 hour trip from Elon heading straight north with only a few stops to dilly dally. We arrived at Jen’s home home around 11:30pm but we knew sleep was well needed because tomorrow we would be walking all over the nations capitol.

After a bowl of cheerios and a yogurt snack (don’t you love the details) we headed to the Shady Grove Metro station to board the subway which would be taking us into the District of Columbia. That day was calling for another scorcher, with temperatures crawling into the upper 90’s it wasn’t spring anymore. The day consisted of walking around the Air and Space museum, which was a riot hearing everybody’s comments complaining about the hot weather, then walking around to the monuments. We almost made it Abe but with the time needed for dinner in China Town we had to cut it short so we’d help our pounding headaches and dry throats. After having a tasty meal in China Town which are always on par, we headed back home with full tummies and sore feet. You thought today was a long day, tomorrow would be an early bird catches the worm day….try getting up at 4:30am!!!

Okey, so getting up at 4:30 wasn’t so bad. First you get to appreciate what you miss every morning which was a beautiful sunrise with painted pink clouds, secondly you got to be the first to launch the boat into the water. We headed to the Potomac River that had a railroad tracks running parallel to it with the occasional traversing bridge which was a cool site of metal beams strechting across the river. Today was a fishing venture, something not visited since my childhood. I can remember the good ole days of fishing with my aunt Tia off the pier in Atlantic Beach, NC.

We were first to arrive at the marina (imagine that) so we got great spots along the bank. After a quick 5 minute lesson in casting, I was a pro…. I thought. In the first hour of our peaceful fishing trip I was able to tangle my line into a tree branch and also get my luer stuck under a rock. Anyway you could think of getting a line stuck I did it, but after my string of bad luck things started to look up. There’s a whole technique of fishing were you cast the line, let it set, reel the slack in, pull the rod up, reel the slack in and repeat. After this monotinous task is done over and over you start to notice nibbles here and there. Before I new it I caught one!! A little fish but nonetheless a fish. I was ecstatic. There…may day was done. Ohhhh no, not yet. Many hours later I caught a pretty good size fish, so big it actually gave me a little run around the back side of the boat. I learned a good fish catch is one where you have to get the net out. Wahoo. Now I was impressed and done with my fishing saga. I couldn’t push my luck anymore. =)

I would say this was a great day for the first time spending a long weekend in the state of Maryland. So far nothing has been too weird. I actually kinda feel the hospitality of my state minus the fact that we don’t have 7-11’s around every corner or Jimmy Cones either. I’ve enjoyed my stay so far but it’s only halfway through. I must say, I will definitely we coming back in the near future.

Yesterday’s list of events weren’t too exciting, we got up late knowing we had a late dinner planned at Tujagues where they had special Christmas dinners made for set prices. Thanks Uncle Bill for the Filet Mignon, it was great!! Our first venture was to go across town back to our infamous Cuban restaurant to recover my aunts Alice’s credit card that she notoriously lost. Then there was the Voodoo museum where the guy took our money so that we can tour his bottom floor house of voodoo history and artifacts. After hearing his stories naming all the animals that have free roam in his upstairs house, I’d give him money just to go up there and see those exotic pets.

To complete our Christmas Eve celebrations we attended a Catholic Mass. Not too bad, just as I remembered, a lot of quoting from the book plus standing up and sitting down. After the long winded mass we headed to our Christmas Eve dinner reservation for 5. What a night.

Today was just a lot of chilling around the town house. My sister and I got out for a while so I could scout the area for some more last minute pictures. We walked all the way over to a cemetery but after staying there for a short while we quickly retreated back into our “safe zone.” One because my sister had to find the bathroom and two it was kinda close to the scary parts of town. Retreating back, I wanted to grab a quick bite at the 24/7 place off Bourbon St called Clover Grill. This place was amazing, a smoke filled small little corner grill large enough to hold 15 people. The people were in great spirits (“happy too”), the cook was even singing the Rudolf the Reindeer song. As we were waiting for our food we got to witness an influenced by alcohol customer. After fainting twice there on the floor then people keeping him still on the floor while the ambulance arrived, people on the outside peered in like looking at a freak show at a zoo. He eventually was assisted by two other men and walked down the street to his house. Phew that was crazy…nonetheless the hamburger topped with chili and cheese complete with thin fries was a blissful snack before dinner. It was a great last out on the town meal of the trip.

Yesterday my family plus my aunt from the Maple Syrup State of Vermont all flew into the Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport. Getting a shuttle into the city, we drove across interwinding highways that divided cemeteries from one side of the road to the other. Passing the superdome, it was hard to imagine this place was once a refugee place for all the people who were displaced because of the flood. Every other building below us, I could see there was some type of repair going on, most yards were trashed with debris from repairs.

Getting to our townhouse where we’d spend the next five days, George made sure he diligently explained all the in’s and out’s of the place. He’s lived in N.A. for 15 years and I think from him staying here that long he has fulfilled being a house host and a travel guide. I think a few times we had to get him back on track so that we (“I”) could haul all the luggage up the spiraling 19th century staircase up to the third floor. Ughhh…..

Today was the site-seeing day, we walked down to bourbon street and laughed at the side stores that advertised Voodoo products, some places that gave old authentic Jazz performances and plenty of bars where you can find some nearby drunk on the side of the street holding a beer. We enjoyed some Cafe Au Lait and powdered beignets from the Cafe du Monde. It was packed with people by noon but we fought for a small circle table to claim as ours. The robotic like lines of workers held trays of drinks and donuts snacks, one by one, they would take the next order out to the waiting customers. This went on the whole time we were there.

Our day came to an end after we crossed the whole french quarter to have a surprise cuban meal, something we must always do on every trip, for mom. The meal was great although after narrowing down the ethnicity of the workers in the cuban restaurant, we found out the cooks were at least cubans. The clipper, as a news weather man back home terms it, came right smack through New Orleans that night and made our day come to a quick end. Making it two blocks in the torrential downpour, we called a taxi. Our indian friend took us in no time to a haven place of The Courtyards.

Overall so far, I think New Orleans is great and the people here are very friendly and courteous. I’m not sure if it’s so much as New Orleans dying for tourism but everywhere you look some smiling face is waiting to welcome you into their restaurant.

Our carrier going from the Holland to Switzerland was the Netherlands orange carrier called EasyJet. They had a simple process to getting a seat on the flight. They basically offered fares at low prices by using a system of first to check-in gets dibs on the seats. To best take advantage of this system we arrived at the airport at the optimum time. When the flight marquee displayed that our flight was boarding, we dashed to the mile long line at the security check then headed downstairs. Once our ticket was ripped we where directed to one of the five lines in order of who gets to go first. We were second to the people who had the “preferred tickets”… probably overpriced tickets. When our line was released to go, it was like black Friday right before Christmas seeing people make a mad dash to the plane. Looking back, the other three lines were left looking through the glass doors like sad kids watching us go play for recess. I almost wanted to stick my tongue out and put my heads by my head to spite them but I knew they probably wouldn’t like that.

One hour later I couldn’t believe it but we landed in Switzerland at a little airport called Basel. This airport rested on the border line of France and Switzerland so depending on how you left the airport you could be in a totally different country. Entering Switzerland was almost too easy, just a nod by the Immigration officer and I was through. No stamp on the passport or a search through my bag. This was very much different than passing the border in South America. My cousins Joe and Gina were there in smiling faces to greet us. I think meeting family is the best thing when getting off a plane. Of course that is if your mom doesn’t say to you “where’s the coffee?” when you first see her.

Getting into a gunmetal grey Audi A6 Quattro Wagon, those are everywhere in Switzerland, Fifi directed us back to their house. Fifi by the way is their GPS system in the car, another great invention to man. No more maps…too easy.Today was our first whole day in Basel and for some reason we must have brought the rain with us. It rained cats and dogs off and on all day so it made the walk around town pretty nasty. Crossing the Rhine River we learned that the river divided Basel into two different regions. On one side was “Big Basel” and the other was “Small Basel.” On the big side, the building facing the bridge were two face statues, one was sticking his tongue toward the small basel and the other was a scary statue of a face with eyes that would wonder back and forth.From conversing with a friend of my cousin Gina, she explained to me what makes Switzerland Switzerland. Getting a bank account doesn’t require someone to prove any type of identity what so ever. That’s what makes is so desirable for “dealers.” Back in WWII days Switzerland prospered from many different ways. One was through the U.S. housing spies in Switzerland, on the flip side Russia was keeping ex-spies here also. So it was a win win situation. Many chemical factories based here supplied Hitler for his “experimentations.” Even though I hear they don’t admit to any of it. They love the fact that they are very organically safe about their vegetables and meats rather than the hormone altered meat that we have here. Out of all this, I have found that Switzerland has a unique personality. They love doing their own thing, they know they make good things and they have large amounts of financial power. Don’t mess with them and they wont mess with you.

Our first meal started out with a English breakfast in this dark lit restaurant right off the street with odd 80’s music faintly playing in the background. After this we headed over to see the house of Anne Frank not realizing before the trip that Amsterdam was the city she fled to. Following that we dragged ourselves over to see the Museum of Rembrandt. This was another attraction filled with famous art that was accessible from climbing tightly spiralled stairs from floor to floor. Pretty interesting history seeming that this guy went completely bankrupt.At this hour of the day my mind was about to go and I was short of just finding a corner to crash along the street but as many people would have seen me, they probably would have figured its just another tourist who smoked too much than what he could handle. haha At this point I have been up for about 26 hours so finding the homebase of my friend Irene in Leiden was my main mission. My sister and I made it back to the tram station in Leiden but finding Irene proved to be a little difficult since it was past five and everybody was getting off work. After doing a few rounds looking for her, I just started to pull out my iPod to look Irene’s number up but there she appeared across the terminal pointing at me. My savior for sleep has finally found me! We had a nice reunion but I was ready to get some dinner then off for a good nights sleep.For the next day we went again to Amsterdam, just Katie and I. We woke up a little late from getting the much needed sleep but we found out that starting your day at noon then getting all the way into town takes a good hour on the trains. So we only had time to see the Van Gogh museum and eat a complete danish lunch.

Irene made some great plans for later that night to meet up with a bunch of her salsa dancing school friends for dinner. This would be a night with a bizarre group of people coming together for a dinner. Some were from Spain, Mexico, Nigeria, England (just shy of Scotland) and lastly us from the bush nation. We had a blast eating and talking trying to talk about little things that were different among us. Some about what was going on in the U.S, some about the news of Tony Blair stepping down and what that means to England, to discussing the all too common phrase “mi casa es su casa.” My sister was even nicknamed Katie from California by the Nigerian guys just for the fact that she was from the states. Before it was too late we walked in the all too common rain down to the salsa studio. What a fun night!!

Today, we again woke up late from a long night but it was worth it. Irene’s boyfriend, Pascal needed to purchase a present for his mother so I took up the venture of heading down to the nearby market to help out. The neat thing of where Irene lives in Irislaan (just outside of Leiden) is that everything you need is right outside of the apartment building. There is no need to drive in a middle eastern gas eating american made SUV made for 6 down to a huge supermarket aka Wolly World. Here everyone values the time of socializing and going out so the stores mostly all close after 6pm. Clever idea huh? After doing some errands with him we met up with Irene and my sister. Today’s trip was going to be downtown Leiden which was home to Rembrandt and to one of the Netherlands oldest university. Here old cathedrals reached for the sky and old cobble stone streets wrapped around every old building. We had a chance to go up unto a swaying windmill which my trip wasn’t complete until this was done!

Unfortunately the reason I hadn’t mentioned anything about tulips is because just last month they had to cut them all since it was time so I missed out on the tulips!! Aye Anyways, dinner tonight was going to be made by the three of us and I once again prepared my favorite Cuban appetizer, Tostones which I actually found plantains…these things were huge!!!

Now I’m here writing this blog knowing tomorrow is going to be my last day in the Netherlands. Here I realized that life is much more slowed down. People stay very active and are fit because everybody rides bikes everywhere. Weekly plans usually consist of working 8-5 during the week and on the weekends times with friends at outdoor restaurants eating soups with lovely bread, much like our Italian bread but much better, is very common. You can get anywhere by taking public transportation or by renting bikes. I actually got a chance to ride a bike tonight while Irene was hanging on to her dear life on the back carriage. I had to relearn my balance since I haven’t rode a bike in some time but with someone on the back was even more challenging. My front wheel kept wobbling back and forth but I just knew …keep pedaling harder!! Fortunately I got Irene to her location safely and my sister enjoyed relearning the art of riding a bike too….but of all places Amsterdam!!I know you can always take a trip to a country that you’ve never visited but it’s a whole other experience staying with locals and actually doing local things. Plus not getting stuck into the typical tourist traps. The plans tomorrow are to head to a small town outside of Leiden for more windmills and some cheese markets. After that we head to Switzerland. Jaa. I can’t wait!!

The next morning, we took the first train from the airport into town. The ride was pretty eye opening seeing backyard after backyard of peoples house, mostly with broken cars, tires, trash…I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. On the contrary, I noticed the brilliant and artistic graffiti around the underpasses and the concrete walls. I soon caught on to a repeating name graffiti-ed on the wall of someone called Moose. Next to it would be a cartoon character that would have been associated with the name, it almost looked as if it would have been a character from the Gorillaz band.Once we arrived in downtown Philly we headed straight for the Independence National Historical Park. I don’t think you can go to this city and not see where our nation started. So much history everywhere you turn. From old Quaker Meeting houses to museum’s of the actual rooms that the constitution was signed to the Liberty Bell. Its was all there, after you actually see the Liberty Bell in person then you start to fathom how much that symbolic bell means to this country and to the world. After our walk around the district our tummies where screaming for food. Now, on this trip the plan was to eat a true philly cheesesteak sandwich. Not one from Arby’s or some imitator in North Carolina. Our destination was Jim’s Steaks, operating for over 60 years this place attracts the typical tourist to sink his or her teeth into a yummy sandwich of whiz cheese and sliced western steak meat. We knew we spotted the right place because Jim’s Steak was notorious for having a line wrapped around the corner from the entrance. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, I finally made it from around the corner, into the restaurant, through 3 zigzagging lines and up to the cook. This is where you yell out what you want, cheese whiz or no cheese whiz, meat then your choice of toppings… onions (my favorite), mushrooms or peppers. There’s a eating record that was broke this year for someone eating 11 sandwiches in 1 1/2 hours. No thanks…I don’t want to bust a gut. I just hope after that person broke the record they didn’t have to pay for the sandwiches.

After lunch we jumped on a bus to head to the North West side of Philly to visit the Eastern State Penitentiary. Once used back as early as 1829, this was the first true penitentiary in that every inmate lived in complete solitude. Inspired by the Quakers, they believed being in total solitude would make an inmake more apt to change his/her life spiritually rather than feeling punished. This place looked as if it was a castle dating back to the medieval times. All excited about all this, we made it to the entrance only to find out it is open from April to November, just one week too early. Nice…..From there headed back into town and had dinner at an incredible Cuban restaurant called Cuba Libre. Go there if you ever visit Philly! Afterwards we had to say goodbye to our cousin Ashley at the train station before we headed back to our hotel.

Meanwhile the Snow Patrol concert had already started….but we had some time to spare since there where two bands opening. Driving through the chaotic intertwining roads of Jersey we finally made it to the show. We had time just to buy some concert shirts just as they went up on stage. For the rest of the night, being entertained by these 5 irish guys in Camden New Jersy by far was the coolest thing. By the way, the lead singer made an interesting fact about Camden and their original hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. They are both crime capitols of their countries. HAH! It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a loud crowded concert event. Forgetting ear plugs was something not smart but hey, whats losing some more hairs in your ear….right?

We drove home the next day back to homebase but I by far had a great golden year birthday. This weekend consisted of spending Q.T. with the sis, seeing my cousin and an old friend from college…but also seeing a cool band that I love to hear…Snow Patrol, not to be confused with Snow Plow as someone mistakenly thought their name was. =)Thanks SIS!