I'm here!

As I was flying business class I got to check out Doha's new 'premium terminal' for business and first class only. Yah. They built an entire terminal JUST for the elite traveler. It was very lush. A bell hop takes your things from the car, then you sit in big leather seats until it's your turn to check-in, in which you get to sit in another big leather seat. Then you can enjoy the lounge. I got a buffet breakfast with a latte. The bathrooms were crazy fancy and set up like a spa. They even had showers. Sadly, the more I travel this way the more difficult it becomes to cram my ass in coach for a long flight. Of course, now it takes a flight to be over 6 hours for me to even consider it to be getting 'long'. Amazing how perspective changes when you start doing these 2/3 day marathon flights.

Anyway, when I landed in DC I was supposed to have a 3.5 hour layover. This turned into 8.5 hours. My flight was delayed because of all the storms. Well, everyone's flights. There were tons of cancellations and delays. By 11pm I was confident I'd be spending the night in the airport. I could hardly keep my eyes open to stay updated since I'd been awake for some 30 hours at that point (I don't really sleep on planes). But in the end, the Buffalo flight crew really wanted to get home so we flew out at 1:20am and got into Buffalo at 2:30am. My poor parents had to pick me up, I felt bad. I would have just rented a car but I could barely walk let alone safely drive a car for 1 hour.

So here I am, trying to acclimate to the time. No way would I ever be up at 5am! Except that my body thinks it's 12 noon. So dear peeps...looks like my weekend is probably committed to familial events, but I'd like to see ya'll during the week. Perhaps a little dinner? Lunch? Playing frisbee? Has Shakespeare in the Park started yet? Give me a shout, sooner than later. Time flies and I only have a few days :)
Ciao, LC

Tomorrow morning I'll be heading west, traversing the continents, hopping the pond stateside. It's a 15 hour flight from Doha to D.C. but Business class makes it humane, even enjoyable.

I have 9 days to play before I head down to Orlando. If you would like to see me, get in touch.

Ciao, LC

These are SOME of my pics from Plivitcka Jezera.




















this little old japanese lady gave us origami cranes and lips, it was too cute

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!