Monday 31 August 2015

Ljubljana day 2 - a day in a castle

Today was day 1 RapidMiner Wisdom or for the bulk of you - the conference I made my family come to Slovenia for. 

We all slept well and enjoyed our own version of Allegro Hotel breakfast, mine fruit and yogurt and luke warm scrambled eggs with a juice. Don's a full meat, cheese, pastry platter by comparison. 

Then we all walked to the Finicular to the castle where my day was spent. A short but steep ride for €4 return (the others bought one way and walked down).


While I met and schmoozed Data Scientist folks Steve, Don and Sam explored the castle. Sounds like it has been extensively renovated (vs restored) and they described it as more like a museum but enjoyed themselves. 



You can't fault the view. After 2 hours of castle I am told the family enjoyed lunch at the vegan restaurant below the castle, a river tour which had no commentary, followed by dinner by the river. 

That's me waving from my conference. Photos courtesy of Sam. 


My day was interesting. The organisers hadn't passed on my dietary requirement but the restaurant staff were fabulous and cooked me special meals - yummy and awesome. I met some fascinating people, one who had engaged in a medieval sword fight the day before at the castle when exploring. 


We had dinner and drinks outside. There were around 60 people today, 130 tomorrow apparently. I flagged after a few hours of small talk then got lost finding the Finicular before disrupting a music video shoot in a beautiful square in Ljubljana, by walking through. 

Guy stuff - I met 2 Slovenian Rossi fans at the conference. One of whom had done a 400km ride yesterday. They were both jealous of our upcoming MotoGP. 

Massive day for me tomorrow so night. 


Sunday 30 August 2015

Ljubljana day 1 - hot, tired but Don's here yay

We're here! So is Don! 


After my complaint about our not seated together we got the best seats for sleeping so Lufthansa you are forgiven (United not). Frankfurt is a functional, efficient and busy airport, though not a place you want to kill time. 
The flight to Ljubljana crossed beautiful countryside of mountains and lakes, small villages and beautiful forests. 

Our hotel is as adorable as the photos. Outside was a medieval market today which was cute. We sat in the bar opposite and had mango lassie and juices before heading out exploring. 


A few hours of wandering in the heat to orient ourselves was exhausting with extreme jet lag so we had a short nap - but as I write this we are all ready to collapse. 


Vegan food has been hard to find today but Sam has a plan now. She found some corn at a street market and yummy cake in this beautiful cafe. 


The city is chocker and lovely for walking. There are cafes everywhere and no shortage of stuff to buy. Very touristy. 
We sat ourselves at a bar by the river at dusk preparing to walk to meet Don at the station. One drink in he pulled up a chair beside me. A hot mess like ourselves after 12 hours of travel. I write this from a Japanese restaurant (vegan plus pad Thai for Don who has been missing Asian food). 

I have two conference days ahead of me now. Hoping for an excellent night sleep. 



Guy stuff - Rossi won so will be leading for Missano in 2 weeks! Yay. 

Very tired signing off from Slovenia. 

Saturday 29 August 2015

Hong Kong day 3 - thunder storm rating hoisted

My one regret about this trip is not taking photos of the English signs here in Hong Kong. Phonetically correct yes - like thunderstorm rating hoisted - but oh so funny.

Today was checkout day. We had planned two sight based locations being the walled city and the Buddha. So after another fantastic breakfast in the Holiday Inn Golden Mile club lounge we packed up, checked out and headed by MTR to the gondola and big Buddha. Sadly the weather conspired against us and it was pissing down as we emerged but (silver lining here) we did get to do one thing we were going to miss out on - outlet shopping! And eat in a massive crowded Hong Kong food court. 


Footnote, the train line to the gondola is the same one as to Disney. Who knew "let it go" was the universal anthem of every small child no matter their nationality. 
Rain passed so we joined the queue for the gondola. Hong Kong tip - prepurchase your gondola tickets. 


The view is awesome. We scrimped and didn't get a glass bottom gondola but we all stood and looked down and watched crazy hikers along a beautiful looking path following our steep steep climb. 


We emerged at the top sometime later to see the big Buddha for a few seconds before cloud engulfed it and it was gone. Sam had really been looking forward to this so she diligently walked up the steps with the hundreds of other punters to see a cloud covered Buddha. 


Steve and I meanwhile explored the disgustingly expensive tourist village below complete with Starbucks. 

Right now we are sitting in a cafe at Hong Kong airport about to fly to Frankfurt then Ljubljana. It's been a bit crap so far, we're not seated together and the lounge here is united who won't let koru members in without being gold. 

Guy stuff - our hotel carpark kept Steve  entertained today with the same named-brand cars. We also saw the new roadway to Macau a 50km link which at the moment is completely disconnected from the land and looks like a random stretch of road in the sea. 


Friday 28 August 2015

Hong Kong day 2 - queues, stairs and selfies

7:07am in the rooftop pool for a wake up dip then a leisurely breakfast and study break for Sam in the club lounge (omelettes and fruit for us non/vegans). 

Then we headed off for a day on the island. MTR followed by a tram to the Western Market a building that could be QVB or Old Bank but has been chopped up so the ceilings are only visible in the top floor restaurant. It does have an entire floor of fabric. 


The trams are pretty neat. We sat up top for the open window breeze experience and fab view. Hong Kong Island is the business district so newer buildings and flasher shops, cars and markets than Tsim Sha Tsui. 


After the market Samantha convinced us to trek up to the Museum of Medical Science. Another colonial building with immaculate city managed gardens and public toilets outside. There we learned about everything from H1N1 to the plague of 1894 that decimated the population of Hong Kong and resulted in demolition of large sections of the city to kill off the rats. These doctors amused us. 



To get here however required an upward climb a women who is overweight and recovering from influenza didn't cope very well with. The Ladder Steps were worst but on the positive side we did stumble upon a lovely uncrowded  market on our way up. 


Honestly we thought we were near the top only to find we were half way. These weren't the only steps we encountered today - there were many!

Next was the uber touristy trip up The Peak. A steep climb - the steepest funicular in the world apparently. Here we experienced queuing like never before - when we left however the queue was at least 3x longer so our hourish was minor. Yes the cable car is on its way here. 


At The Peak is an amazing structure full of expensive American restaurants like Bubba Shrimp company, and Hard Rock Cafe and expensive shops. Up top however is a viewing platform. Here you can use commentary devices and take selfies. 


With the end of the day looming we headed back down and navigated our way to one of the exciting Vegan Gluten Free restaurants Sam had selected in Hong Kong. It is called Mana, Fast Slow Food and we loved it! Yum. 

Full and tired we left a tad late to race for the Harbour Cruise ferry to see the light show. We got there just as it left! So found a spot on a deck to watch what we could before ferrying back from the island. The photos we took don't do it justice. 


Exhausted from so much walking and queuing we finally ferried back. 

Bloke section - it has been noted I forgot some details yesterday. Half way down the Flower Market is a motorbike helmet shop, no other shops that weren't selling flowers just that one. 
Today we looked at many cars driving in the City where the general feel was of affluence - Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Jaguars, a few Tesla's and many many Mercedes. 

Finally today was also filled with selfies. This scene happens often and we saw many people with selfie sticks. 



Thursday 27 August 2015

Ladies watches handbags, men's suits

Day 1 continued with maximum touristy engagement. Our NZ based Chinese travel agents not only recommended our fab hotel (Holiday Inn Golden Mile) but also advised the only things to do in Hong Kong are eat and shop. Today we walked and shopped - well looked with no buying.

First up the compulsory tourist photos of Victoria harbour. There we met teams of students on their orientation scavenger hunt - the amusing thing is 3 different teams took their "photo with a tourist" with us! Will be funny when they compare results. 


Then we needed to conquor the MTR, bought an Octopus card (what's with the naming of these cards? Snapper, oyster, octopus). It was crammed as we were warned but the trains are amazing, one massive long continuous train with no wasted carriage cuplings - you can see the whole way with no walls. 



Then we hit the markets. First up the flower market was beautiful, smelled fantastic and in 32 degree heat orchid shops had welcome air conditioning. Would love to have a market like that in my home town. Wow. 



From there we entered the disgusting, appalling, horrific Bird Market. In 32 degree heat it stank, the birds were crammed into small cages or tethered, over crowded in the sun. The animal rescue worker was sad beyond words. How different our cultures are. 


The bags of living locusts did amuse us a little. Who would have thought. Yes these bags contain locusts. 



Hot and tired - I am slowing the team down with my residual cough - we headed to the famous Ladies Market. Stall after stall of the same cheap crap for  5 city blocks. Sam had a go at bargaining  with success. 



With many more markets on offer I called it quits and insisted we all go for a swim instead. It was 5pm Hong Kong so 9pm home time when we got to the pool. So we have enjoyed a pleasant evening of swimming and more yummy food in the club lounge. I found Prosecco so very happy. 



Worth noting humidity has claimed both Sam and my hair. 

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Landed safely in Hong Kong

Tired and not hungry we survived the first leg on a very old Air NZ 777, didn't have USB charge ports or touch screens!

Holiday Inn Golden Mile is awesome. We booked a club room and arrived at the hotel about 9am where we were whisked to the club lounge for checkin and fed lots of yummy foods and where we planned out our 3 days and rehydrated before our room came free about an hour later.

Our room comes with a free phone including data and calls so we are setting off now armed with the phone and maps - yay! 

Will post Hong Kong highlights later. 



Tuesday 25 August 2015

And we're off!

A year in the planning, massive itinerary scope growth - we were planning to go everywhere - then shrinkage until it looks like this:

  • Hong Kong
  • Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Venice, Italy
  • A villa in Tuscany
  • Rimini, Italy for MotoGP Missano 
  • Rome, Italy
  • Home
Our last big holiday was in 2013 when we flew for 24 hours over to the Cayman Islands before a fabulous Caribbean cruise through the West Indies. This trip won't be a beach and snorkelling one rather a catch up with Family and Friends, drinking wine and eating yummy vegan and gluten free (and normal for most) Italian foods. 

Last trip I promised to blog but didn't post many, this time with my giant iPhone 6+ will use this to post photos as we go - some with commentary too. Yay! so excited. Vic xx