Disney didn't do its research...

The next morning I was up at 5am to get ready for my walking safari. A truck picked me up at the front gate, and I chatted with the other guests and the guide on the way out to the national park. The roads were terrible, and we saw another huge truck stuck in the mud. We had a couple of close calls, but we made it to the starting point without much trouble. It was a beautiful morning, with blue sky, sunshine, and pleasant temperature. We hiked around for about 3 hours, stopping once for cookies and lemonade. Along the way we saw impala, warthogs, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, baboons, bushbuck, a hippo, and lots of birdlife. It just isnt the same as zoos, knowing that there are no fences separating you from the animals in their natural habitat. Once we returned to Fawlty Towers, I quickly grabbed my raincoat and headed for lunch in town before going to the falls. It was a 10 minute taxi ride out to the park where the falls are, but then the number of people grew exponentially. My guide led me along the paths through the rainforest and across the bridge that is directly across from the falls. Even though it was sunny, it was raining cats and dogs from the spray. You could tell it was always like that because of how lush the landscape was. We also went on a hike down the gorge where the white water rafting trips begin. It was a good trail for the first half, but then it disappeared under a stream and a patch of boulders. It was fun scrambling across the obstacles in order to get to the river. Back up at the top, we hopped back into a taxi and went to one of the local villages. My guide David introduced me to more of his friends and we walked around the village for the rest of the afternoon. My favorite stop was at the local school. I met the headmaster and some of the students, plus got to see what projects Rotary had been helping the school with. Back in town I got some dinner before going back to the hostel and packing for the trip back to Lusaka. I left early in the morning on the bus, along with a busload of locals. The road was ok, except for the 40 minute stretch along a dirt road. There are some places that buses are not meant to go. 7 hours later, Fiona met me in the downtown Lusaka bus station and we went back to the Trewby house for freshening up and tea. The next day was her birthday, so we all went out for a steak dinner at the local sports club. The food was wonderful, and it was really good to be back with close family friends. On the Friday, I went with Fiona to the driving school to do her driving test again. It was much more in depth than the American one, even though it was on a track instead of actual roads. But she passed (of course), and we were on our way to the airport. I had plenty of time before my flight, so we had a coffee and chatted more for our short catch-up time. The flight to Addis Ababa was fine, then I had a ton of time to kill in the airport there. Finally we were on our way to Bangkok. I tried to sleep, but my normal insomnia on planes returned. There was also a long time between my flights in Bangkok, plus the plane was delayed longer, so I just wandered around and did word searches for hours. Not the most productive, but it passed the time. I was on Emirates on the way to Sydney, which is one of the nicest airlines around at the moment. Not bad for student airfares. So I watched movies and listened to music from the huge selection on the private TVs for the whole flight. Colin met me at the airport, and we went back to Allan's to drop my stuff and find something for lunch. There's nothing like a family reunion on the opposite side of the world. :)

Africa....

London may be a great town, but the airports certainly are hell. Luton is a single airstrip, good only for small planes. But Heathrow is far too big and so little to do outside security. I had 7 hours to wait until my check-in counter opened, so I explored some of the small shops and cafes. Once I was on the plane, the flight went fine. We stopped in Rome for more passengers and for refueling before zooming down to Addis Ababa. We arrived soon after daybreak, so I could see the hazy mountains in the distance as I rushed to get on my next flight. It also had a quick stop, this time in Lilongwe, before arriving in Lusaka (Zambia). Richard, the father of my family friend Fiona, met me at the airport and took me back the house. After tea and freshening up, we went on a driving tour of the downtown as we searched for working ATMs. There really isn't much to see outside the government area, just a few tall buildings and small businesses and various neighborhoods. The friends' house was like a little piece of tropical Scotland, with a good baked dinner and pudding. In the morning, I hopped on another flight, this time down to Livingstone, only an hour away. I was the only passenger, so we left early and took a short detour past Victoria Falls for a good photo opportunity. Its really beautiful, and seems to stretch forever. A representative from the hostel met me at the airport, and drove me to Fawlty Towers. I quickly settled in and booked some touristy activities for my quick visit before going to explore the town. Just to get oriented, I went to the David Livingstone museum downtown for history and local information. Afterwards, I met up with a guide and he showed me some of the out of the way places, like the oldest hotel in town and a local market area. I had a river cruise around dinner time, so I could nibble and drink in peace as we floated above the falls. There was plenty of bird life, and tons of hippos. We stayed away from them. Just as we pulled back up to the docks, it started to pour rain. Given the bad weather, I stuck around the hostel for the evening, getting to know some of the other guests. There were some Canadians, a South African, and a Brit. An international melting pot, as usual. I went to bed fairly early, as I knew that I had an early morning the next day.

The World Isn't as Big As You Think

Iveta offered to drive me to another town to catch the train to Moravia, with a stop at Babicka's apartment for lunch. This was far too good of an offer to pass up, so I moved my travel plans around a little bit to leave Trutnov a day early. Babicka (Iveta's mother, my host grandmother) is a little crazy, but one really cool and really sweet adopted grandma. She was my 'baby-sitter' when Iveta didnt want to leave me at the house alone for too long. So it was great to go back and be dotted upon for a couple hours. She made lunch while I caught her up on my life and a couple neighbors dropped by to say hello. The food she makes is always amazing typical Czech dishes, but heavy and prolific. We had spinach and cheese crepes, potato dumplings with sauerkraut and pork, and cookies from one of the neighbors before Iveta rescued me and we drove to the next major town. In Pardubice, I caught the train to Olomouc and checked into my favorite hostel in the world. The Australian owners still remembered me from the other year, plus there were new Aussies there to work for a few month. We went out to a hockey game to cheer the home team to victory. The next day I killed time in the hostel and local Internet cafe before I rode the train to Frydek-Mistek, where Vendy lives. Vendy was the Czech exchange student who lived with us last year, and now one of my many adopted sisters. On the train, my fellow compartment passengers struck up a conversation, and I found out that the guy sitting across from me was going to be studying in Lusaka, Zambia, in February. Its not every day that you meet a Czech that is going to the same obscure African country as you are! Vendy met me at the station and after dinner, she and her mother gave me a tour of the town. Vendy skipped school the next day to show me the second half of town, and we had lunch at the restaurant where her boyfriend works. I then had to hop back on a train to Prague, and find my hostel for the night. I had to take care of business in a local Internet cafe again, then went to bed early for my early day of travel. I woke up at 4 in the morning and quietly pulled my stuff together to take a taxi to the airport. I got there with plenty of time to check in for my flight to London, and settled into a quiet wait. The flight went smoothly, and I found my bus from Luton to Heathrow.

Back to the Good Old Days

Iveta (My 2nd Host Mom) met me at the bus station when I arrived in Trutnov, and we immediately went out for a late lunch at the restaurant where we ate the first day I arrived at their house on exchange. It really was like I was 16 again, and no time had passed at all. It was good to catch up again, and revive my Czech again. It was a lazy evening around the house, doing laundry and catching up with mom and dad on Skype. On Monday Iveta and I met for coffee after I slept in, then I helped her run errands across town. Ivan came home from work in the afternoon, so we caught up as well before I went to Rotary for dinner. It was fantastic to see all of my guys again, especially when most weren't expecting to see me. My 1st and 3rd host dads and my councillor knew I was coming, but the other Rotarians had a place me and all had expressions of surprise. The program for the evening was Karel (my 1st host dad) showing pictures from his trip to Indonesia, plus everyone wanted to hear what I had been up to and what I was doing next. After making more social plans with my other families, I finally returned home for the night. The next morning I puttered around the house until it was time for lunch with my 3rd family back at Hotel Adam. They introduced me to the new secretary, and I heard what they were doing to expand their packaged food catering business. I had helped with English translations in the past, so I was interested in what was going on. The whole family is doing well, with both kids now in college for economics and design. After running a few errands to stock up on more travel supplies, I went back to school and met a friend for coffee. Shirin had been my first real friend at school, so I really wanted to see her. It was hard to coordinate times to see the rest of the class, so it only worked to meet my friend after school. When she had to go home, I went back to the house to get ready for dinner with my 1st family. Karel pulled his normal host routine with cooking dinner and keeping everyone up late chatting and showing pictures from the summer boat trip. The neighboors came over too, after I had run into the wife in the square earlier in the day. The two other Rotary students who are living in Trutnov this year were also there, so I could listen to their perspective and see how much more strict Rotary had become. Misa even remembered me, and we fell back into our old pattern of listening to music and playing computer games together. Karel finally called a taxi for me and the other American student, and we got back to the other side of town a bit past midnight.

Germany Back to Prague

The Castle was really beautiful, but has a bit of a strange story.  The king died before it was finished, so only a fraction of the planned rooms were actually built.  In the tour we jumped from the first floor to the third floor because the second doesn't really exist.  After the tour, some of the group was anxious to get back to Munich, so we all hopped back on the train.  Jeny had to run home, so Anders and I walked around the main part of town again, seeing the differences between the nighttime and daytime atmosphere.  On Thursday, it was a sleep-in recovery day from all the busy days before.  We met Jeny at the train station and went out to the suburb where she lives.  We met her host dad, brother, and sister at the house, and then went out to Dachau work camp. Perhaps it was because we had to rush through the exhibits, so maybe because most of the camp had been destroyed, but it didn't have the same eerie feeling like I experienced at Terezin.  It was still interesting to  walk around the grounds at dusk.  Back in Munich, we saw the Hoffbrau house, but decided it was too crowded.  Right across the street was the Augustiner house, another local beer, so we sampled the local food and drink for a couple of hours.  Friday was Jeny's birthday, but she was busy in the morning.  Anders and I finished up our tourist shopping and checked out of the hostel before strolling through some side neighborhoods and some of the nearby parks.  Jeny and her family had tickets to the circus, but we had a train to catch mid-afternoon, so the group of us met up and gave Jeny her presents before the circus started.  The train ride was much less exciting on the way back, although we had to move twice in order to get into a second class compartment going all the way to Prague.  We arrived in Prague close to midnight, found out hostel, and collapsed in bed.  The next morning we were up at a reasonable time to continue our sight seeing adventures.  First stop was St. Nicholas church in Mala Strana, then up to the castle.  The tower and the crypts were closed for repair/maintenance in the winter, but we could see the cathedral and the grounds.  Over on Petrin, we did the mirror maze and climbed the Eiffel tower, surrounded by locals who were out enjoying the fairly warm day.  Snack was back on Wenceslas square, then we went into a photo gallery of a Czech Photographer whose name escapes me now.  Dinner was more typical food in a small restaurant off the beat path, again away from the tourists.  The next day Anders flew back to Sweden, and I started my trek back up to Trutnov to re-immerse myself into my family life from two years ago.

Germany

The train to Munich seems to take forever. Plus, it changed directions about 4 times. Confusing, and not good for travel nerves. A kind Czech woman shared the compartment with us, and chatted about her family she was visiting. It was quite a mood lifter when she got a call saying that her granddaughter had been born. We arrived in Munich an hour later than expected, and Jeny met us at the station. It was the orchestra group back together again! The hostel was easy to find, and the inside was amazing. Wombat City Hostel was one of the top rated hostels in the world last year, and it certainly deserves the title. After dropping our stuff, Jeny took us to the restaurant where her host sister works. It lays claim to the largest schnitzl in Munich, and it can feed two normal people in a serving. Full of good German food and beer, we went to BMW world, where they have a free museum about current BMW engines, car system, and all other type of car stuff that looks cool and that I dont understand. There were even motorcyles that you could try out and take pictures on. The building itsself was really impressive, and it supposidly has won all sort of architecture awards. Right next door was the old olympic park, so we wandered around the grounds and went up the tower. The city was beautiful lit up at night, and the tower allowed a good orientation tool. The next day Jeny gave us the full tour of the historic part of Munich. We saw Konigplatz, Marienplatz, the Opera, the Gardens, and all the tourist places in between. The weather was cool, but sunny, so people were out in droves to enjoy the odd spring-like day. After grabbing typical bratwurst for dinner, we climbed the church tower right next to the main square to see the heart of the city at dusk. Breathtaking. Back at the hostel, our roommates were back in the room and no longer sleeping, so we spent the rest of the night chatting with 2 brazillians and 2 Australians. We all hit it off so well, we decided to take a day trip together the next day to Neuschwanstein, the real life Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Just a Taste.....

How is it possible that life is so much easier in Europe?!? I think America tries to make things difficult for us. On the Sunday, Anders and I got up early and tried to take the bus back to the train station. We had just missed it, and the schedule was limited on the weekend, so I hailed a taxi and got us there in 5 minutes instead. It was too close for comfort, time-wise, but we made it onto the train. It was a shorter trip than we thought because the rail line ended up having a stop at the Copenhagen airport. This meant that we didnt have to go into downtown and ride the metro back. It saved time, but airports dont count for new countries. I guess I'll just have to go back to Denmark another time. Check in went smoothly, and after a cafe stop, we found our gate. On the flight, I could even see Sněžka off in the distance. The main difference I could see at the Prague airport was an increase in ticket prices for the bus, but everything else seemed to be the same. It was an easy ride into the center of town, where I quickly tracked down our hostel. Unfortunately the reason for the cheap pricing was appearant. It was in the middle of the red light district. We just stuck to the sidewalks and kept out of the caberets, then dropped our stuff and immediately got to sight seeing. Even though it was dark, the views of the old town were fantastic. We climbed Old Town Hall tower and could see the whole city all lit up. Anders fell in love with the city as we continued walking across Charles Bridge and could see the castle. I found a little restaurant on a side street and we dove into Czech food. It felt good to stretch my language muscles and eat the typical food again, but i quickly remembered why I felt like I'd eaten a horse after every meal. Its heavy food. To walk it off, we climbed the steepest hill in the city, Petrin, and saw the night time views from a different angle. By that time we were both exhausted and had an early morning the next day, so we turned in early.