It was a whirlwind trip. 3 countries in 6 days: Croaita, Slovenia, Hungary. I'm still in recovery so I won't write much today. Here are a few teaser photos of the different places we explored. Enjoy!



I flew over the Austrian Alps in a twin prop plane (Munich to Zagreb).


graffiti everywhere!


and loads of cafes


we took a bus to plivitcka jezera, which literally dropped us off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere


we camped out in bungalows at Camp Korana, which we nicknamed Camp Corona or Camp Cat (explain later).


and spent hours hiking through this amazing UNSECO park! (tons more photos to come)


then we took the train into ljubljana, slovenia where we stayed in a renovated prison - the coolest hostel i've ever stayed in!


it was in an art community (more crazy photos to come)


it stormed something fierce and we got soaked climbing to the castle


yeah. soaked.

Then we took an overnight train to Budapest where we were woken every 2 hours or so for a border crossing passport stamping extravaganza. Then my camera battery died and I, being a tool, forgot my charger so I have nothing from Budapest except whats on the others' cameras. We visited this cool communist statue park on the outskirts of town where I bought a Russian military belt. (e:Jbeatty) has some really fun ones from there!

All in all I obtained 9 stamps in my passport in 7 days!!! I'm going to have to order extra pages real soon, I only have about 3 left! Enjoy kids. More to come.

So we ended up hitting this amazing park in croatia...spletiva jezera. A series of lakes that fall into one another with amazing waterfalls and this beautiful aqua blue water. Wait til you see the pics!

We took the train into Slovenia to Lbjulana. This city is WAY cool. (e:Jbeatty) and I might go to a cave today while the others trot around town. We couldn't get a room tonight so we'll prolly take an overnight train to Budapest and try to sleep on that.

Last night (e:Jbeatty) and I ate something really interesting. I'm not going to say what. I'll save it for him to share, since I really only had a bite. Which in and of itself will SHOCK you all.

I also tried squid ink for the first time yesterday (on rice). Kind of tasted like soy sauce. I have photo evidence.

On our bus ride out of the waterfall park this crazy old country man got on the bus and sat by me. He smelled like a sausage factory and was wearing a shit brown hat with no top and Sally Jessie Raphael glasses. He was so cool! I wanted my picture with him but I was sure he didn't speak English.

Some old Japanese ladies gave us origami at the park. Random but too cute.

This post is ALL over the place. Gotta go, my time's running out. Ciao peeps!

Hez kids! <so here we are in yagreb. It's an interesting town. Not nearlz as big as I anticipated a major citz to be. Reallz it's quite rural. When mz plane landed it was seriouslz in the middle of a farm. The airport was all of 1-8 of a mile long. I walked off mz twin prop plane right up to 'immigration', thez didn't aska single questions, just stamped bz passport. I walked through the doors and boom, there's the street. No customs, nothing. Crayz!

Ok, so the kezboards here are a little different. Ha!

Now we're tzring to find a bus to take us to the coast, then we're gonnna trz some island hopping. We're also thinking of hitting Italz and Lubjulana before heading back to >Budapest.

Ciao peeps!

So. Boo friggin hoo. Sarah Brightman got SICK and was not able to sing at the graduation ceremony. I was devastated. I was SOOOO looking forward to seeing her. We DID have Andrea Bocelli. He has a lovely voice, and he's much larger in person than I ever imagined. The air was warm but there was a light breeze, and it made the evening concert spectacular. However, I was reminded just how lovely Sarah is when the fill in pretty much dropped the ball on every duet. He ended with "Time to Say Goodbye" and it just wasn't the same without her. :(

I learned the Qatar National Anthem, which isn't very catchy. The first two lines are and then it kind of gets muddled and confusing. I was up close and personal with His and Her Highness. There were also a number of high security folks present. Thabo Mbeki for example, President of South Africa. It was just weird being so close to so many people of influence. I've never even come close to seeing one of my Presidents.

This is the entire ceremony. I think you can see me for a split second at one point. The nice voice that does both Arabic and English introductions is my friend Ahmed.



In addition to the campus wide graduation each institution has it's own graduation. I attended VCU because one of my staff was graduating this year. I found 2 things very surprising during this ceremony. First, the Qatar Military Band plays bagpipes. WTF? I seriously thought someone next door was having a Scottish ball (we were at the Ritz Carlton). Yah. Anyway, the second and quite shocking moment came with the band played the Qatar National Anthem followed by the US Anthem (as it is a US school). 75% of the people in the room sat down. I never felt so incredibly awkward to be standing ALONE surrounded by Qataris who were sitting while my anthem was being played. Apparently it created quite a buz among all those that DID stand. Yeah. That's probably the first time in my life I ever felt SO out of place in a room full of hundreds of people.

He put flowers on the bed for me....



....he makes me so happy