Perfectly planned! or is this called serendipity to be here while this is happening without planning it? ;-)

OK...yes...I am still talking about Spain even though I've been back for two weeks now ;-)ID4: 2I am catching up on some things that I wanted to blog about while I was away - namely in-flight entertainment.  Heading over to Europe is usually sleep-time on the plane, so I don't get to see a ton of movies, but coming back we're going back in time (so to speak) and that allows for some additional

Another one from MTV spain while on vacation.I liked the energy of this song and the clip itselfSpainKiss the sky by Jason Derulo

Alright...I guess it's back to work time!  Still thinking on vacation though.  Here is a parade that we caught in Barcelona on our second day there (we missed something on the first day because it took forever to get to our place from the airport).This is the parade called Cerca Villa de doc dels diavles petits, which is part of the La Merce celebrations. This is video 1 of 2.

Something from the music channel Sol Musica in Spain. I liked this song, but I am not a fan of the vocals (frayed voice?)SpainBetter than he can by  Shawn Mendez

Took some video of the Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) parade in Sagunto Spain.Here is part 4 of 4 (the longest video) to get a sense of the parade and costuming. It's a little game of thrones, but it looks fun. The festival of Moros y Cristianos represents the capturing of the cities by the Moors, and the subsequent recapturing (reconquista) by Christian armies.

It's amazing how much access to the internet is really woven into our daily lives.  For the past 2 weeks I've been away on vacation in Spain.  Before we left home I tried to be proactive, I scanned some of the book chapters that were due for my class while I was away, I got Assignment 1 done before I left, and I downloaded articles onto my Surface Pro so that I had reading material to go

This is something I happened upon on MTV spain one day when we were taking a break from visiting museums. Interesting video clip and the  music is upbeat enough for me.SpainFiesta in el infierno by Fangoria

I heard this song in Barcelona this week while having Tapas at a local restaurant. I think the song was the versione arabe, but this seems to be the regular version.RussiaNe me jugez pas by Sawt el Atlas

The Risa summer event is back on Star Trek Online!  I think that the event goes until July, at which point Agents of Yesterday drops. Risa and the Winter Wonderland are both seasonal favorites of mine :-)  As much as people look down upon playing "space barbie" (i.e. focusing on how your character and ship look instead of DPS), I am looking forward to rounding out the summer outfits for

While on my own Risian vacation (in Greece), I've been keeping tabs in Star Trek Online to see what's been happening in-game and what goodies await me when I return. Just like last summer, the Risa special event is back! Last year, while on vacation, the event was released and I missed more than half of it. I did star playing some of the special mini-games, but since I could nor get the Risian Corvette

Wind Italy account notification after callSo this is my last note on this summer's trip (at least for now).  Last time I vacationed and needed a pre-paid SIM I was in France.  This time, I ended up with one SIM card in Greece and another in Italy.  Based on the recommendations of friends I ended up getting a Wind SIM in Greece, and a Wind SIM in Italy which seemed like the better deals.

myWind IT AppBefore I go ahead and talk a bit about mobile access while abroad, I thought I would start off with the technology fails of the trip.  Some were completely avoidable, and some, not so much. I guess first I will tackle the issue of power.The last time I vacationed I only vacationed with one device: my smartphone.  It was also a non-connected phone so the battery lasted a long

Roman Era Bathtub, Museum of PatraIn the last part of the vacation wrap-up we have Greece, where we spent the most time during this vacation. I guess if I had to give an elevator (or Doogie Howser journal blurb) to this it would be "seeing old things with new eyes, and meeting new people."I guess the first thing to tackle is my Greek citizenship. After many years, and lots of back and forth about what

Romulus and RemusLast, but not least, in the Italian leg of our trip: Rome, and where we spent most of our time in Italy.  My first impression was that Rome (unlike Naples) is a place that I would gladly live in, and I would definitely would like to visit again!We stayed at a hotel called Villa Tassoni, where out hotel room had a small kitchenette. This made is possible to not eat out a lot and

Pompeii No EntryIn Italy we stayed a few days in Naples, so that we could explore the region and go visit the ancient sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villa Poppaea in Oplontis. I have to admit that I was really excited about going to Naples and visiting all the ancient sites! I guess when you're excited about something it can only let you down LOL :-)  So, where to begin?  How about

Part II of my little lookback on this year's vacation. I was wondering whether I should write about Greece first, or whether I should write about Italy. I thought that I should write about Italy first, since it was the somewhere in-between the Netherlands and Greece, rather than try to tackle Greece first (4 weeks), and then the shorter duration (13 days) in Italy.We got to Italy by way of  ship.

It's been a week or so since we came back from our vacation. Now that the jetlag has subsided and I am back to normal, I thought it would be good to have a concise overview of the highlights and lowlights of the trip.  I guess I will be starting with the Netherlands since it was both the beginning and the end of the trip.I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into when I decided to stay in the