OK, the blog is fixed. No worries. Still trying to decide if it’s going to stay up, though. It’s just one of those “Well, I guess this is growing up” things I’ve been mulling over.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Laura and Liz flew out to London for a bit of R&R. Laura stayed in my humble Bankside abode, and Liz stayed at her friend’s incredible flat in Bethnal Green. Someday I am going to have a flat like that and all of you can come visit (and you won’t have to sleep on the 10 quid air mattress from Argos, either!)

Anyways, we crammed a lot of sightseeing/activities into the few days that Laura was here. Saw the usual tourist stuff: Imperial War Museum, Parliament Square, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. Jame’s Palace (where you stand next to the guards with the big furry hats, and feel like an idiot doing it), Harrod’s, etc. We also saw the Salvador Dali exhibit (what an odd man he was) and the HMS Belfast (WWII cruiser docked on the Thames). The HMS Belfast was awesome – if any of you Londoners haven’t been yet, be sure to check it out. I have been on a lot of navy ships, and I must say that the Belfast is one of my favorites, particularly due to the fact that so much of the ship is available to tour. They even let you wander down to the engine and boiler rooms, which is kind of scary because you are standing on catwalks made of thin sheets of metal welded together.

As for eating, well, we did plenty of that…took Liz and Laura down to Borough Market so they could try the falafel that I’ve been raving about…went up to Notting Hill to have a pint at Churchill’s Arms with my RPSS program friends…ate at some other restaurants (I’ve always said that as much as I dislike British food, London has some of the best ethnic restaurants I’ve ever dined in). We also had afternoon tea at the Orangery, another thing in Lindsay’s “Things you MUST do while in London” list. All in all, a very good week.
I have a few more destinations for spring break…going to Brussels from March 28-30, and Luxor, Egypt (the REAL Luxor, not that ridiculous hotel in Las Vegas) from April 11-18. Hmmm 84 degrees in Luxor today…sure beats the snow showers in London!

I was doing a bit of maintenance and now my Movable Type software is acting quite odd. Eh, not much time to fix this anyways. I think I may just delete my entire blog, anyways, and turn this into a more “professional” site (aka, here is my resume) and also include my photo gallery, with an occasional blog entry from England or anywhere exciting I might be traveling.

I finally saw Ocean’s 12…I liked it, but then again, how can you not enjoy a movie with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon?

Still trying to figure out where to go for spring break…currently obsessing over Egypt, which I would really like to see (hey, you never know…the pyramids might randomly collapse someday, and damn that would suck). Found a deal online…279 quid for airfare AND 7 nights hotel in Luxor…then I could take an overnight train to Cairo for rather cheap. Thinking of going to Italy for a bit: Rome – Florence – Venice…and probably Brussels, for beer and chocolate. There are so many places I want to go…and thanks to Ryan Air and EasyJet, flying around Europe is amazingly cheap. Can I live in London forever???? Please?

Got some visitors coming out to merry old England…Laura from February 17-22, Liz from February 17-24, my aunt and cousin from February 17-22, and Matt from February 26-March 4. Going to have some fun, yes we are…

Guess that means I need to do some hardcore work this weekend!

Oh, and I finally uploaded all my Paris photos here. It only took me a month…maybe someday I’ll upload the London photos.

My spring break is coming up…March 18 – April 25 (yeah, I know, an incredibly long spring break). I’m trying to figure out where I want to travel. For those of you not at the LSE, the running joke is that it actually stands for “Let’s See Europe” and not the London School of Economics.

To give you an idea of where I haven’t been, check out this map:

See all that gray? That’s where I haven’t been…we need to change this. So, I need some suggestions on which countries to visit. I know many of you have done that “backpacking through Europe” thing, so tell me which cities/countries are “must see”, and any places you hated.

I’ve already got one trip planned…I’m going to Budapest, Hungary from March 19-24. That should be awesome.

I’m seriously considering a week in Egypt…or maybe Morocco.

Anyways, give me some suggestions.