Finland, Germany, and Onwards
One day to go before leaving for Ecuador. I spent a very relaxing couple of weeks in Finland with Eero and Jenni. We took a weekend boat trip to Stockholm a week ago. One night on a cruise there, a day in Stockholm, and one night back. It's a beautiful city, much more picturesque than I had imagined. There's an old section, on an island in the river that runs through the city, that has narrow streets and buildings that look like Italy. The rest of the city had beautiful stone buildings and shopping streets. I only saw a small part of it but it struck me as very nice place to live.
I arrived in Germany a few days ago to meet up with Anne. We're currently in Heidelberg (another gorgeous city - I think I need a job that shifts me to a new city every year, so many great places to live!) visiting André and his girlfriend Katrin. Tomorrow morning we catch flights to Quito. Original plan was to go to language school in Quito but we got lots of recommendations to go to Cuenca instead. We now are booked into a hostel for our first days in Quito, and have enrolled in a language school for four weeks in Cuenca beginning on the 4th of October. The bus ride from Quito to Cuenca is about 10 hours, which I imagine will be tiring but will let us see lots of the countryside. We'll need a couple days to acclimatise to Quito's ~3000 meter elevation, then we'll see what the area has to offer. Will probaby take the bus to Cuenca a couple days before beginning the course.
It's strange to be sitting in familiar surroundings, knowing that a day from now I'll be in a completely new place far from here. I've had the idea of this trip for so long that it's odd to think tomorrow it actually begins.
2 comments:
Nigel, just a couple of thoughts. In Quito visit the Joyeria Goyesco which is owned by my cousins. They just moved to another hotel whose name I can't remember. Look them up in the phone book and ask for Ivan or Berta Merchan. They speak perfect English. I just spoke with them recently; so they are expecting a call. They have grandchildren the age of you and Anna. Besides the hot night spots, they might direct you to other cool things. Visit the old part of town, visit the gold exhibit at the Banco Nacional Museum, and maybe visit the house/museum of Guayasimin (spelling?). Also definitely go up to the new amusement park up on Pichincha. Then, and I don't know if it can be arranged, but consider climbing Cotopaxi, the volcano if you two are super-conditioned. It's about an hour south of Quito on the road to Cuenca; but it may not be possible to get off a bus and then back on another a couple of days later. Charlie
Hey Nigel, you should know: The cops came around askin about that guy that I "accidently" threw off the boat on the way to stockholm after he made a move on you. Apparently they found his liver and some hairs and its all pointing at us. But I think theyre bluffing so if anybody calls, just say you didnt see anything. -Eppu
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