Arrival In Quito

Our journey began with a familiar hiccup – another delayed flight. A storm within our flight path forced our plane to fly around it, delaying us an hour. Fortunately, we made the connection and arrived in Quito by afternoon. And another hiccup, our cruise package included an airport transfer, but no one from the cruise company showed up. After learning that Uber was technically not legal in Ecuador but still commonly used, we summoned a ride. Our driver wasn’t concerned, and the ride went off without issue, and we arrived at the hotel.

Brazilian Steakhouse

Dinner that night was at the hotel’s Brazilian steakhouse, Fogo de Chão. It operated on a simple system: green side up on your card meant “more meat, please”, and red meant “stop”. Servers rotated through the tables offering cuts like filet mignon, sirloin, pork ribs, and leg of lamb. Though the selection was impressive, the sheer volume of meat was overwhelming. We left the table stuffed to the brim and almost regretted that extra slice of steak. Afterward, we walked it off by exploring the hotel. Near the pool, hotel staff gave us food for the koi pond. The koi swam up in anticipation, mouths already open, having clearly learned the drill.

Touring Quito’s Historic Centre

The next morning, after a buffet breakfast featuring fresh passion fruit, guava, and plantains – fruits native to Ecuador – we joined our tour group for a full-day city excursion. Our first stop was Plaza San Francisco, located in Quito’s historic centre. On the top of a nearby hill, we noticed a statue with wings – known as the Virgin of Quito, is unique to the region and symbolizes the Immaculate Conception through Andean artistic traditions.

The adjacent church and convent, officially known as the Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco, is among the oldest religious sites in South America, constructed in the 16th century atop an Inca temple. Much of the interior and cloisters were constructed using locally sourced volcanic stone and alabaster. Its central courtyard was tranquil, framed by arches and dotted with trees bearing what looked like lemons and olives – some people even picked and tasted them right off the branches.

The city sits at an altitude of roughly 2,850 metres (9,350 feet) in the Andes, and the effects of high elevation quickly became apparent. Climbing stairs at the convent’s bell tower left me short of breath, apparently a common experience for visitors not yet acclimatized.

Indemini Báez Chocolate

Unlike bulk cacao used in mass-market chocolate, fine-flavour cacao is prized for its complex taste notes—often described as floral, fruity, or nutty—and is grown under specific conditions with greater attention to fermentation and drying. Ecuador is known especially for its Arriba Nacional variety, which has earned a reputation among artisanal and high-end chocolate producers worldwide.

Plaza Grande

Plaza Grande, also known as Independence Square, is surrounded by some of the most important civic buildings in the country, including the Carondelet Palace, which serves as the presidential residence and the seat of government. We also learned about the Ecuadorian political system and the country’s recent presidential transition. Our guide mentioned that voting is mandatory in Ecuador, a measure intended to increase civic engagement.

The guide also mentioned that if we hadn’t already noticed, Ecuador’s official currency is the US Dollar. They adopted it as its official currency in 2000 after a severe economic crisis. We’d brought some U.S. dollars, assuming they’d come in handy for currency exchange, without knowing the official currency prior.

Church of Gold

We also visited La Compañía de Jesús, a Jesuit church famed for its Baroque architecture and lavish gold-covered interior. Built in the 1600s, the church’s ornate design reflects both Spanish influence and local craftsmanship. The interior is said to be covered with more than 50 kilograms of gold leaf, adorning everything from the altars to the intricate ceiling mouldings.

The sheer amount of gold gives the sanctuary a warm, glowing appearance, especially when lit by candlelight. Despite the obvious value, theft isn’t a concern – access is tightly controlled, security is present during opening hours, and the gold is bonded to surfaces in a way that makes removal extremely difficult without causing noticeable damage.

Crater of Life

For lunch, we dined at a restaurant overlooking the Pululahua crater – the lunch was simple, but the view was the real draw. The owner also kept a few llamas on the property – one of them even spat out its grass at me.

Unlike most volcanic craters, this one is inhabited. Pululahua’s fertile soil and sheltered microclimate allow a small community to farm and live within the crater’s walls, shrouded much of the time by drifting clouds.

The City at the Centre of the World

The final stop was Ciudad Mitad del Mundo. This monument was built in the 18th century based on French geodesic measurements to mark the equatorial line. However, later GPS data revealed the true equator lay about 240 metres north.

Still, the site remains symbolic of Ecuador’s connection to the equator – “Ecuador” literally means “equator” in Spanish. When the country gained independence in the 19th century, it chose the name Ecuador to reflect its location on the equatorial line.

That evening, we returned to the hotel for a final dinner in Quito before we left for the Galápagos. The meal was delicious, but it didn’t quite compare to the indulgent buffet from our first night. This brief stop in Quito, nestled high in the Andes and steeped in colonial and Indigenous history, offered a nice intro to Ecuador.

See more of Quito here

There’s a bit of nostalgia in returning to Munich, a place that I’d visited a few times before a long time ago when I did my internship in Germany. I eagerly anticipated revisiting some of my favourite spots while venturing into new experiences.

Seeing the Neues Rathaus on Marienplatz reminded me of my previous visits, from a time where I had visited few foreign countries, seeing the world with young, fresh eyes.

I got to experience again the outdoor beer gardens – a fundamental part of beer culture. I eagerly sought out the ambiance of these social hubs, rediscovering the familiar taste of German sausages and beer. Unfortunately, since it was winter, most of the beer garden was closed.

Nearby the beer garden was the Eisbach, Munich’s famous river wave in the English Garden. Standing on the riverbank, I marveled at the skill and courage of the surfers who rode the powerful current with grace and determination. They made it look easy.

I stumbled upon a Ukraine War protest during my visit, and it reminded me that the war is a lot closer to Germany than it is for us living in North America. This unexpected encounter allowed me to witness firsthand the power of peaceful activism and the unity of Munich’s community. It happened to occur on the same day as the Munich Security Conference, where world leaders met to continue discussions regarding the Ukraine War.

Walking through the opulent halls of the Munich Residenz was like revisiting a bygone era, and it was a place I’d never been before. The grandeur of its rooms, adorned with ornate decorations and priceless artwork, transported me to a time of royalty and elegance.

The Munich Residenz is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach family that once ruled Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty originated in the 11th century and ruled Bavaria for nearly 750 years until the end of the monarchy in 1918 after Germany’s defeat in World War I.

As usual, I had to eat a pork knuckle, and I think I’ve now found the best pork knuckle in town at the Augustiner brewery. I saw that they had many locations, but the one I went to is the one right outside the Frauenkirche. They had perfected the crispy crackling skin with tender meat underneath. I still think about this meal. I used to go to the Hofbräuhaus, but I couldn’t help but notice how it had degraded over time. While it still retained its lively atmosphere and historical significance, it had become somewhat commercialized, geared more towards tourists, and most importantly, the food was worse (or maybe my taste buds back then were less sophisticated). Nevertheless, I found solace in knowing that Munich’s culinary experiences could still be found in other traditional establishments.

Another highlight is that I finally was able to book a spot on the BMW factory tour. I had tried in the past, but never early enough to secure a spot. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures. The tour goes through different parts of the car manufacturing process, e.g., the metal stamping, painting, and assembly. The process also shows how seamlessly robots and humans work together. It’s really cool to see robot arms putting a car together.

A friend of mine introduced to me the Schalznudeln, a pastry I’d never tried before. It’s essentially airy like a donut, and almost tastes like a beaver tail.

We just so happen to arrive on the last day of the Karneval. People were in the street drinking and dancing, local breweries set up shop in the main shopping street to sell beer, and people performed on stage. I’d always though the Karneval was a Cologne thing but clearly they celebrate it here too. It reminded me of the time I’d gone in 2011. It’s related to the Brazilian carnival and the American Mardi Gras – they’re all celebrating the same thing, just in their own way. The spectacle is cool, but the dark side of it is that people end up leaving lots of trash in the street. Luckily, by morning, the mess is cleaned up.

Returning to Munich was a bittersweet experience, as I rediscovered old favourites and uncovered new adventures. More photos of Munich here.

The Dead Sea

It’s known as the Dead Sea because there isn’t any macroscopic aquatic life in the lake due to the high levels of salt in the water. The high levels of salt make it super easy to float in the water – it’s literally impossible to sink. It was kind of tough to hang out in the water though – February is not a good time of year for lounging in the water.

The Dead Sea is located between Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. Theoretically, one could swim from one side to the other without worrying about drowning, but it is a lengthy 15km swim. Not something I’d try, and besides, there’s probably patrols that would stop people from doing that.

The mud here supposedly has health benefits because it has an abundance of certain minerals. We saw people spread the mud all over themselves to reap the benefits of the mud. I tried a little bit on my hands and arms, but the mud just dried out my skin a lot – yeah not doing that again…

Tel Aviv

From the Dead Sea our tour took us to Tel Aviv. What took me by surprise was how much of a beach city it was!

We spent our day in Tel Aviv on the “Shabbat”, the Jewish day of rest, so a lot of places were closed. But we did find some nice meals though!

This is shakshouka, dish of eggs poached in tomato sauce, olive oil and spices. It tastes really similar to tomato sauce, but the poached egg makes everything so much better!

This is a beef tagine, a dish originating from North Africa, but it’s also common in Israel. The name tagine is cooked using a special pot of the same name. Tagines come in many varieties, but they are often savoury stews served with couscous and other vegetables.

And of course, there’s hummus! It’s savoury dish made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with other aromatics. The place we went to advertised itself as “the second best hummus in Tel Aviv”. So… what’s the first best hummus in Tel Aviv? I still don’t know the answer, but maybe it’s the one that’s homemade in a local’s home? This is literally the best hummus I’ve ever had, and I’ll compare all the hummus I eat in the future to this one.

That’s pretty much it for Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea – and our two-week trip! We headed to the airport three hours early (Ben Gurion Airport is notorious for having really strict security). There were multiple checkpoints and at one point, a member of the airport security staff asked us to follow him and as we walked he asked us some questions and let us go. The staff checked every nook and cranny of our bags and all of the electronics we had on us before letting us go. From there, we began our journey home.

Photos: Tel Aviv, and the Dead Sea

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is in the historic region of Alsace-Lorraine. The unique thing about Alsace-Lorraine is that in the span of 100 years it has flipped back and forth multiple times between France and Germany as a result of three wars (the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, and World War II). As a result, the city shares cultures from both countries. This is super evident in a part of town called Petite France, most notably the timber framing around each building. The local dialect Alsatian, also has Germanic origins.

It’s also the home of the European Parliament. This is where over 700 democratically elected Members of European Parliament pass legislation.

Thus far, in France, I had been speaking my very limited French here and there whenever I needed it. As we waited for the tour, a Middle Eastern fellow struck up a conversation with me in French, kind of just asking us where we were from etc. It was kind of weird, but we went along with it anyway – it didn’t seem like he was a pickpocket or anything. I managed to get pretty far in the conversation in French actually, which surprised me quite a bit. He told me that he had moved to France from Afghanistan after working there as part of the local security forces, and even showed me his old Afghan ID, and a bomb scar he had.

The conversation got super weird when he started asking about our yearly salary, and it seemed like he was asking us for money (but it’s possible some of that was lost in translation). At that point, we totally understood why he started the conversation in the first place. We basically told him that we’re not that well off either and he tried to give ME money, and I still don’t understand what was going on there. When the tour started, it seemed like he was still staying within our general vicinity, which made it even weirder. Eventually he picked up on that and left us alone. We even checked if he followed us back to our car (just in case).

Strasbourg appears pretty proud of their cuisine – even their postcards have pictures of recipes of different Alsatian dishes. One that we had was called Flammekueche (in German it’s Flammkuchen, so it’s easy to see the German influence in the language here, at least in this word). I think the closest analogue that English speakers would know would be a flatbread pizza, but with more French style ingredients like fromage blanc, and uses crème fraîche as a base as opposed to tomatoes.

From Strasbourg, we began our journey to Switzerland. At the border, we bought our vignette (it’s a required sticker on the car for driving in the country). I spoke to the lady in German and I got a nice feeling speaking and listening to a language that I understood again.

Habsburg Castle

Our first destination in Switzerland was the Habsburg Castle. This is where the House of Habsburg began. This is THE Habsburgs that wielded enourmous power in Europe for centuries, most notably the Holy Roman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The castle looks quite modest compared to other European castles like Neuschwanstein, but this is because it was originally constructed almost 1000 years ago.

Zürich

As we drove through Switzerland, we expected mountain passes full of snow, but there were actually very few mountains along that route! We probaly would have seen some in Zürich itself, but too bad it was nighttime.

We arrived in Zürich just in time for a fondue and raclette dinner, because that’s what the stereotypes say. Of all places we found though, we found the most touristy one. I’m pretty sure everybody in there was a tourist.

As we were chatting while eating, I was trolling my friend, saying he comes from China even though he’s actually from Taiwan, since Taiwanese people stereotypically like to assert that Taiwan is not the same as China. A lady at our neighbouring table heard us and actually confronted us about it. She seemed so pissed off! She seemed fine once we told her we were just messing around, and that I’m from Hong Kong (people from there generally side with Taiwan). But imagine travelling all the way to Switzerland and hearing someone trashtalking your country!

This concludes our fourth day. Stay tuned for day five!

• Strasbourg
• Habsburg Castle
• Zürich

This post is about deploying an instance of Seafile using Docker on a non-standard port (i.e. not 80 and 443). The reason to deploy the app on a non-standard port is usually because there is already another webserver running on that port (in my case Apache 2). In such scenarios, it is necessary to set up a reverse proxy so the Seafile port can be exposed by Apache on ports 80/443. Under typical circumstances, deploying Seafile on a standard port would mean that the app would host itself without the need for Apache 2 at all. This post also assumes Ubuntu 16.04 as the operating system, but in theory should apply to other Linux OS’s.

The process can be split into multiple parts:

1. Setup Docker
2. Deploy Seafile
3. Configure Apache 2
4. Setup systemd
5. Setup e-mail (optional)
6. Backing up the image
7. Troubleshooting

Setup Docker

This guide won’t go into depth on how to setup Docker, but rather the setup guide and more information about what Docker is can be found here: https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

Deploy Seafile

The key page in the Seafile documentation for deploying Seafile within Docker can be found here: https://github.com/haiwen/seafile-docker. The command I used is as follows:

docker run -d --name seafile \
  -e SEAFILE_SERVER_HOSTNAME=seafile.example.com \
  -e SEAFILE_ADMIN_EMAIL=me@example.com \
  -e SEAFILE_ADMIN_PASSWORD=a_very_secret_password \
  -v /opt/seafile-data:/shared \
  -p 8000:80 \
  seafileltd/seafile:latest

I recommend setting up Seafile with an actual secret password because it’s not easy to change once it’s set up.

Note that the port argument shows 8000:80. It means that Docker will use the host port 8000 and the container will use port 80 – meaning that using Docker will interpret requests from my host OS on port 8000 as requests on port 80 in the container. 8000 was used on my setup because port 80 was already used.

Once the command is executed, the necessary files will be downloaded and the container will start and will be accessible on port 8000.

There is also an option to setup Seafile with an SSL cert from Let’s Encrypt, but I didn’t do this because I already had a cert that I wanted to reuse.

Once the server is up, navigate to https://seafile.example.com/sys/settings/ and change SERVICE_URL and FILE_SERVER_URL to match your domain name.

Configure Apache 2

Adding a reverse proxy on Apache 2 will allow Apache 2 to route requests to port 8000, which will go to port 80 in the container. The main reference for this section is this: https://manual.seafile.com/deploy/deploy_with_apache/. This is done by adding a new site to Apache 2. The following configuration assumes that a LetsEncrypt SSL certificate is used.

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
sudo nano seafile.conf

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName seafile.example.com
    ServerAdmin me@example.com

    RewriteEngine On

    # ModSecurity does not process requests.  There is a hard limit of 1 GB
    # with ModSecurity.
    SecRuleEngine Off

    # Whitelist internal IPs for mod_evasive
    DOSWhitelist 192.168.1.*

    <Location /media>
        Require all granted
    </Location>

    # Stuff for seafile server
    ProxyPass /seafhttp http://127.0.0.1:8082
    ProxyPassReverse /seafhttp http://127.0.0.1:8082
    RewriteRule ^/seafhttp - [QSA,L]

    # Stuff for seahub
    SetEnvIf Authorization "(.*)" HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$1
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8000/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8000/

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/seafile_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/seafile_access.log combined

    Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf

    SSLCertificateFile /path/to/cert/file.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/cert/key/file.pem
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

I’ve added my local domain to the whitelist so that mod_evasive doesn’t think my local host is a threat.

There are two sets of ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse lines. The reason for this is that Seafile is split up into Seahub and Seafile, where one uses port 8082 (by default), while the other uses 8000. These two lines are essentially what allows Apache to read requests from port 443 and pass them on to the container.

Once the file is saved, execute the following

sudo a2ensite seafile.conf
sudo service apache2 reload

Navigating to the site at the Apache 2 defined port should now load Seafile without having to go to port 8000.

Setup systemd

systemd allows the Docker container to be started up on boot, and be controlled like this:

sudo service seafile start/stop/restart

The configuration is as follows:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/seafile.service

[Unit]
Description=Seafile Server
After=network.target mysql.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker container start seafile
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker container stop seafile
ExecReload=/usr/bin/docker container restart seafile
RemainAfterExit=yes
User=root
Group=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once the configuration is saved, shut off the existing running instance of Seafile and then let systemd start it up for you.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo service seafile start

At this point, Seafile should start automatically on boot, with Apache 2 doing a reverse proxy to the true Seafile port.

Setup e-mail (optional)

Optionally, Seafile can be configured to send e-mails. The reference is here: https://manual.seafile.com/config/sending_email/. The config file should be under:

/opt/seafile-data/seafile/conf/seahub_settings.py

I happen to be using Gmail SMTP, so at the end of the file I’ve added

EMAIL_USE_TLS = True
EMAIL_HOST = 'smtp.gmail.com'
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'me@example.com'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'password'
EMAIL_PORT = 587
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = EMAIL_HOST_USER
SERVER_EMAIL = EMAIL_HOST_USER

Backing up the image

After setting everything up, you’ll probably want to backup the Docker image. First, print out the list of running containers

sudo docker ps

Then take a snapshot of the current running state:

docker commit -p <container ID> <whatever you want to call this snapshot>

Running this command lists all the images and should show this newly saved image:

sudo docker images

I don’t have a private docker repository, so I saved the image to the disk and backed up the file by doing the below. Just make sure to actually move the image to an actual backup location.

sudo docker save -o <whatever path you want>/<filename>.tar <the name used earlier>

The image should be backed up now. To restore the image, it’s a matter of running this:

sudo docker load -i <path to the backup file>

Listing the images as above should show that the image was successfully loaded. Running this starts it back up again.

sudo docker run <container name>

Troubleshooting

Seafile logs can be helpful if it doesn’t start up correctly. These can be found at:

/opt/seafile-data/logs/seafile

There may be a need to ssh into the Docker container. The command for that is:

sudo docker exec -it seafile /bin/bash

“Korea DMZ” by Rishabh Tatiraju is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Joint Security Area at Panmunjom

The most worthwhile part of the trip was to be able to visit the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom or the so-called “Truce Village”. This is the part of the DMZ where people from the North and South can see each other face-to-face. Travelling here allowed me to see a piece of history that I was already interested in.

Before going in everyone had to sign an agreement, where one passage says, “The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.” Luckily, the US soldier informed us that it was “highly unlikely for anything to happen”. We were also told to not make any gestures toward the North Korean guards or any tourists on the other side.

The blue buildings are conference buildings where meetings with both sides take place. They are placed such that half of the building lies on each side of the border. The gray/white building is the Panmungak, a North Korean building. On the first door on the left, a North Korean soldier stands on guard. Concrete slabs show the separation between the two sides. I guess this means I’ve technically been to North Korea – at least for a few minutes.

Third Infiltration Tunnel

Another destination we went to was the Third Infiltration Tunnel, which had the potential of being used to attack the South and its location was revealed by North Korean defector. This was known because there were clear signs of holes drilled in the rock for the next blast, and the holes were aimed toward the South side.

To prevent injury, everyone had to wear hard hats – which was a really, really, really good idea since there was a low ceiling and I hit my head at least a dozen times. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photographs underground.

“Third Tunnel of Aggression” by Josh Berglund is licensed under CC-BY-2.0

Dora Observatory Post

This is a place where one can look toward North Korea from afar – but photos are not allowed past the yellow line for fear of being mistaken for sniper scopes. It’s pretty barren on that side. If only my camera could take a shot like the image I found on Wikipedia!

“The view of North Korea from Dora Observatory” by Josh Berglund is licensed under CC-BY-2.0

Dorasan Station

Dorasan Station is one of the few places one can actually go to Pyeongyang, at least before 2008. Our tour guide happened to be named Dora, so when we got to Dora Mountain she said, in her accented English, something like, “Look! This is my mountain!”

Lunch!

Lunch was a delicious mushroom and beef hotpot with kimchi, salad, and other delicious goodies on the side (if only I knew what I was eating)!

Outdoor Military Vehicle Display in Imginjak

Nothing much to say here – just a showcase of various military vehicles.

Back to Seoul

The tour lasted the full day. It began in Imginjak and ended at the Joint Security Area. We had dinner (more on that very “special” dinner in another post) in Myeongdong and spent the rest of the night walking around there.

Link to more photos: here

At Frankfurt Airport, when Edward and I lined up to check in, we were the only two Chinese people in line.  We seemed very out of place.  Some of the people gave us these stares that seemed to ask “why are you flying to Kiev?” We wanted to visit Chernobyl and shoot AK-47’s.

Our experience on the plane was dreadful.  Four crying babies/toddlers plus jet lag plus one hour delay was not a good combination. No sleep for me I guess.  Worst flight ever.

Awkward Car Ride

The hostel arranged transportation for us and so when we arrived, I looked for someone holding a sign with my name on it (first time ever!).  The driver was not happy at how we were late (not that we could do anything about it).

Probably since he was late, he drove like a maniac.  He drove way faster than the posted limits and passed every car on the highway.  The expected 45 min ride was reduced to almost 20 minutes.  The driver didn’t speak English.  No one said a word during the entire ride.  Awkward.

I had read before that people sometimes get driven to random places by taxi drivers before they get mugged.  By getting the hostel transportation, we minimized that risk.  Despite that, I was at peak alertness the whole time, making sure he was going the right general direction (I vaguely remembered the directions from the airport to the hostel).

Dream House Hostel

This is by far one of the hostels I’ve ever stayed at.  The staff were extremely helpful.  We asked them like a thousand questions and they happily answered them every time.  They treated security very seriously.  Kiev might not be safe, but I felt safe leaving my passport and cash in the locker in the room.

Security Measures

During our trip planning, we had read about the potential dangers in going to Kiev from the Canadian travel report about Ukraine.

The report tells travelers to “exercise a high degree of caution”.  It warns of dangers such as pickpockets, passport scams, armed robbery, racially motivated violence, muggings, etc.

Seeing how the hostel’s security was pretty good, we left our valuables in the room.  We each carried a decoy wallet with nothing in it except a scan of our passports and the cash we needed for the day.  No credit cards, no real ID, no cards at all.

If anybody steals a wallet, no big.  Better to lose $30 than all our money.  Nobody can scam us for our passports if we aren’t carrying it.  I didn’t even put on a hidden money belt.  The less I brought the better.  We felt pretty prepared, and luckily nothing happened.

Language

People in Kiev generally speak Ukranian or Russian.  I know neither.  I also don’t know the Cryllic writing system.  Even if I wanted to ask in English how to get somewhere, I can’t even pronounce the name of the place.  When I went to Greece, I could at least pick out the greek alphabet (side effect of studying math and physics), but in Kiev, I can’t even read anything.  Too bad.

Food

The first night we arrived in Kiev, we had no idea what kind of food was around here.  We couldn’t even read the menus anyway.  Picking a restaurant was a matter of randomly walking into a restaurant.  To our surprise, our random pick turned out to be Japanese food.  Interesting.  No pictures needed.  Vancouver has an abundance of Japanese restaurants.  Beer is worth taking a picture of though.  I can’t even read the label.

One of the hostel staff had recommended to us the Golden Dukat Coffee House.  I wish I took more pictures here, but I found someone else’s travel blog with good pictures of it!  Good coffee, good dessert.  And they have an English menu!

We were told that Borscht is one of the traditional soups in Ukraine.  When I tried it, its taste was so familiar and I had to think about where I had tried it before.  It tasted a lot like the vegetable soup that people can get at Hong Kong style cafes (羅宋湯).  I Googled it later, and apparently the Hong Kong recipe (while a little bit different) is a derivative of it.  What a coincidence.

Independence Square

By far the largest city square I have been to.  For me this was the place to see in Kiev.  The pictures here don’t do justice to how epic it was.

At the square, there would always be these people carrying pigeons around.  They kept coming up to me with me and I had no idea what they wanted.  Later I found out that apparently they’re trying to get tourists to take a picture with them holding a bird.  Not sure why that’s cool but okay.

There were also people dressed up like Mickey Mouse or Shrek trying to get little kids to take pictures with them for money.  They did this even when the temperature was above 30 degrees Celsius.

St. Andrew’s Church

Nearby our hostel, there was a nice church.  It’s architecture was quite different from anything I’d seen before.

Friendship Arch

This arch was built to commemorate the unification of Ukraine and Russia when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union.

Street Market

On the way from our hostel to Independence Square, we walked along a long stretch of road with many street vendors selling souvenirs, trinkets and other random stuff.  People there even sold gas masks, replica German WWII medals, and fake guns.

Trip Ideas for Next Time

After we came back to Vancouver, we found out that the hostel started offering tours to abandoned missile silos, helicopter rides, and Yak plane acrobatics!  If only the hostel were offering those tours.  We would have totally gone to those.  There’s always next time.

Links to photo albums:

• Kiev
• Kiev (Edward’s Photos)

Changing of the Guard

The guards marched from the National Defense Headquarters to Parliament Hill (about 1.2 km).  The guards marched wearing their uniforms in some 30 degree Celsius weather.  Up close, sweat on their face could be seen dripping down.  They marched in playing their instruments.  The soldiers went in formation and each soldier’s attire was inspected to ensure that they were each fit to stand guard.  This process took about 30-45 minutes.  It was cool seeing these guards dressed up in this kind of uniform.  I didn’t even know Canada had these.

Peace Tower

After the show, we went up to the Peace Tower, the clock tower in front of the building.  At the top, we could see pretty much all of the Ottawa-Gatineau area.  Ottawa has a quite even balance of trees, buildings, and water.  I don’t really know how to define it, but the view just seems more interesting that just seeing endless buildings.  I suppose having some green and blue makes the picture more appealing to the eye.  Bridges across the river adds a nice touch.  There also aren’t a lot of tall builds either, which definitely helps in keeping the view clear.

Originally, we wouldn’t have been able to go up the Peace Tower and come back in time for the tour, but my cousin said that when the tour group comes in, they would have to pass through security.  We had already done that to go up the Peace Tower, and so after we came down the tower, we stayed in the secured area and met up with the tour group once they came in through security.

The Memorial Chamber

Just below the Peace Tower was the Memorial Chamber.  In this chamber, there is a war memorial.  The significance of this one is that there is a book that has the list of names 66 655 Canadians who lost their lives during the First World War.  A second book was also added for the Second World War.  Every day at 11am, coinciding with the time that the First World War ended, a page is turned.  This allows for each page in the book to appear at least once during the whole year.

Inscribed on the walls in this chamber is the famous poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae along with the locations where battles occurred such as Ypres, Passchendaele, Cambrai, Somme, among others.

The House of Commons

The House of Commons is where the elected Members of Parliament go whenever there is a meeting.  This is where major government legislation is introduced.  Whenever there is a meeting, this is the chance for all the elected members representing their political parties get the chance to debate topics such as how government money should be spent.  At the top of the room, there are additional seats for any spectators for whenever parliament is in session.

Library of Parliament

In terms of old libraries, this one is probably as old as it gets in Canada.  This is a key information source for the Canadian Parliament.  Occasionally, MP’s will come here to do research on various subjects.  In 1916, there was a fire that burned down the parliament except this room.  Therefore, this is the oldest part of the entire building (constructed in 1876).  Naturally, architectural style used in this building is a lot different that the newer part of the building.

The Senate

The Senate meet in a separate location within the parliament.  Here, senators examine bills proposed by the Government.   When the senate is in session, senators debate the bills and bills must pass the senate in order to become a law.  A special thing to note about this room is that because reconstruction of the parliament building began in 1916, the general mood of the population was that they were sick of war.  Therefore, much of the artwork in the room revolves around this.  Paintings of the war hang above the seats in the senate.  They are a constant reminder of the horrors of war.

Next Destination…Thousand Islands!

After the tour, we had lunch and then we made our way to a place called Thousand Islands for a boat tour.  I heard that there was an actual castle on one of those islands.  I didn’t even know Canada had actual castles.  I always though castles were a European thing.

More photos here

Flying to Mexico City

When we got to Dallas Airport, we had a stopover of few hours, so we decided to have some Texan steak – or at least as Texan as we tried to get without leaving the airport.  We ended up at TGI Fridays.  It was the first steak that I’ve had in a long time, and I definitely could use another one.  The steak even came with “Jack Daniel’s Sauce”, which made it that much better.

After eating, we met up with two others on the team who had flown from San Jose and Toronto.  After a four hour flight to Dallas, and other few hours of stopover there, we had to fly for another two and a half hours to get to Mexico City.

As my friend said, “it’s like China happened”.  The Benito Juárez International Airport was probably the most disorganized airport I’ve ever seen.  It’s as if every single flight landed at the same time.  The lineup to grow through customs took at least forty-five minutes.  During this whole time, everyone was tired and wanted get their sleep.  A lot of the people on the team hadn’t slept the night before (rather than sleep 2 or 3 hours to wake up early for the flight right?).  While in this lineup, we saw a couple of other RoboCup teams landing as well (Skuba, MRL, among others).  After finally getting through customs and a security check, we got a ride to our hostel via transportation that we organized with the hostel prior to our departure.

Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral

The hostel we stayed had very nice staff that really cared about making its guests feel safe there.  It’s a common feeling among travelers to think that Mexico City is definitely not one of the safer places to travel to.  To combat that, the hostel had its own security guards, security cameras, and they even called legitimate taxi’s for its guests.  They even told us which direction to walk when leaving the hostel to avoid going to the shadier parts of town.  Furthermore, it was situated in the historic center of Mexico City, within walking distance of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City and the Plaza de la Constitución.  From some of the rooms at the hostel, there was a nice view of the cathedral.

Work Day

We spent the next day working on the robots to make sure none of the mechanical parts had been affected during the flight from Vancouver.  We had packed all the robots in a regular suitcase with packing foam all around it to protect it.  Looking over the mechanical parts, everything was in order.  The main things we had to fix were tightening screws, adjusting the wiring etc.  The software team had very little to do because they’ve written all the code they could, and just needed robots to test with.  The electrical team on the other hand, toiled tirelessly to troubleshoot all the boards and make sure they were all functioning properly.

RoboCup Begins!

We arrived at the competition venue, the World Trade Center at 8 AM to find a slew of other teams patiently waiting to register.  After probably an hour long wait, we all finally moved in and set up our work places.  When we looked at the field the robots would be playing on, we noticed that the organizers hadn’t yet set up the cameras yet (required for the robots to “see” where they’re going).  This meant that no teams could test.  Teams that were ready could only wait until the organizers got those set up.  Because of this delay, the games had to be delayed as well.  This gave us more time to get the robots ready.  For the next little while, we were the first team to arrive and the last team to leave everyday.  The electrical team needed all the time they could get to finish everything.

Because we had already finished most our maintenance work the day before, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do.  The electrical team had to continue working on their stuff to get as many robots ready as possible.  For the next day and a half, we let the electrical team do their work and we’d help them along the way by replacing parts that were broken (encoders and such).  Otherwise, there wasn’t much we could help with.

Food for the next Week

When we got hungry during the competition, we did a little bit of exploration to find food.  Eventually, all the teams wound up at the same shopping mall for food.  There was a supermarket downstairs to buy water and a food court upstairs with a variety of foods.  We went to this mall pretty much everyday for as long as we were at the World Trade Center.  One day we’d try Mexican food, other days we’d try plain-old hamburgers and other days we’d try even Chinese food (at least the white person’s interpretation of it).  It wasn’t really healthy for us, but we figured it was only for a week.

For dinner, most teams ended up ordering pizza from the nearby Domino’s.  We ate it so much that everybody got sick of having pizza.  Sometimes, we’d have dinner with other teams at our hostel restaurant so we could get to know them a little bit better.  After all, the competition is more about mutual learning and robotics advancement rather than about winning.

Let the Games Begin

Because our team wasn’t that ready to begin with, we had to forfeit our first game against the Immortals from Iran.  By the time we got three robots up and running, we played against the RoboJackets from Georgia Tech.  They only fielded five robots out of the total six.  For most of the game, both teams played pretty evenly, despite their two-robot advantage.  All was going well until one of the opponent’s robots chipped the ball that hit the top of one of our robots, bounced off and rolled into the goal.  In that particular situation, the referee had called an “indirect free kick”, meaning the shot, even if it went in the net, would not count.  But unfortunately, that rule was not applicable because it hit off of another robot.  It was an unlucky goal for us, and we definitely could not score a goal to tie up the game.  We ended up losing one-nil.  For the next few days, we kept complaining about that goal.

In our third game, we played against RoboFEI from Brazil.  There were so many good scoring chances in this game from both our teams that made this game so intense.  Even though we were only watching machines play, everybody cheered them on.  We had four robots on the field this game and they all worked like a charm.  The mechanical system, electrical system, and the artificial intelligence worked so well together.  It was a great feeling for everyone on our team – to see our design work.  After almost a year of hard work, this was it.  We saw our robots move, intercept balls, shoot on the goal, etc.  A lot of the robot shortcomings from the North American Open were also dealt with, such as the problem of the break beam sensors not working, and the robot not moving accurately on the field.  When we scored, we cheered so loud that every single person in the room could hear us (there were probably about 1000 people in that room).  We all got an immense feeling of satisfaction in seeing our working robots score their first goal.  A few minutes later, the other team scored a goal.  It didn’t matter to us, we were still high in the clouds in terms of our mood.  The game ended 1-1.  Despite the tie game, everyone on the team was so happy in seeing our robots work, it didn’t matter what the result was.

This was a great morale boost for the team because for our forth and last game, we played against BRocks from Turkey.  This time, we had our full fleet of robots.  We played our first six on six game.  Yet again, we saw our robots work.  Nothing broke down during the game and everything just worked.  It was quite rare for us to just put our robots on the field and have nothing go wrong.  At one point, our robot shot the ball into the opposing robot and a piece fell off of it.  We knew our design worked when stuff like this happens.  This game was less intense for us than our previous game, but we did end up winning.  That put our record at 1 win, 1 tie, and 2 losses – a total of 4 points.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough for us to advance to the next round of the competition and as a result we finished 13th out of 20 teams in the league.  Not so bad for having zero working robots when we got to Mexico.

After the official games, we played a couple friendly games with other teams.  The first game we played was against the Mannheim Tigers.  The game was going well, until we found problems where some of the screws on the robot weren’t tightened sufficiently.  As a result, things well off the robot when we played.  It was quite embarrassing to see.  At least it was only  something minor like putting in a screw, and not something major like a design problem.  In our second friendly game, this time against ER-Force from Erlangen, we found some electrical parts frying randomly on the board, which wasn’t good either.  Out of six working robots, we now had three – still a net gain I guess.

After we were done playing, we watched the other teams play for first place.  From watching their games, it was clear that they played on a way higher level than we did.  Everything that their robots did were way better than ours.  Shooting was faster, chipping went further, robots moved faster, kicks were more accurate, etc.  Everything about their robots was just better.  There is definitely a lot we could learn from these teams.  The final winner of this year’s competition ended up being Skuba from Thailand, who beat ZJUNLict from China.  Both teams analyzed each others strategies for days, but only one team could come out on top.  And now for the fourth year in a row, Skuba remains the undefeated winner of the competition.

Other Leagues in RoboCup

During our idle time, we walked around the other rooms to see how the other teams were working.  RoboCup has many different competitions under its name, while our Small Size League competition is only one small part of it.  Leagues range from soccer robots, rescue, simulation, to even home care robotics.  In the home care robotics league, the competition involved a robotic navigating through a mock house to perform certain chores such as picking up objects to hand to people, speaking and hearing instructions, etc.  It was an admittedly difficult task to do for these robots, but many teams were quite successful at it.

Accidents Happen

Just like in the North American Open, there was yet again another accident involving batteries.  Except this time, nobody noticed and the whole battery lit up in flames.  Somebody just yelled “fire, fire!” and started trying to pat it down with something.  Knowing that I was too far away to do anything, I just took out my camera and snapped a picture of the whole thing.  Eventually, someone just poured lots of water over it to put our the fire.  In retrospect, that might not have been a good idea since water in an electrical fire is not really a good thing.  Nobody got hurt though, which is good.  Afterward, the organizers didn’t let us charge batteries nearby our work space anymore.

Some Design Shortcomings

Knowing that our ball kicker would be able to withstand impacts of the ball, what we had forgotten to analyze was how well the kicker would hold up if it hit a object fixed to the ground.  We found out the hard way at the competition after a few games when we discovered that our robot kicker head was bent out of shape.  We also had a lot of turf buildup inside the robot that was enough to slow down the wheel during the game.  This turf had to be cleaned out after every match.

For the kicking mechanism, the robot uses a solenoid/plunger mechanism.  Activating the coil would cause the plunger inside the core to move quickly to hit the ball.  A rubber band secured to the end of it would allow the plunger to return to its initial position.  The problem with this setup was that the rubber band would easily break and had to be replaced after every game.  When we took out the rubber band, we could always see cut marks along it.  In another instance, a chipper solenoid on a robot almost popped out.  It’s not really clear why this happened at all, but it could have been a screw that was not very tight to begin with.

RoboCup Closing

To close the competition, there was a soccer game where humans played against the middle size league robots.  It was pretty funny to see the robots struggle to take the ball away from people who could handle the ball way better.  At the same time, the humans were really scared of the robots since if a human ever got hit by the kicker head from the robot, it would break bones.  The robot goalie however, proved quite competent in blocking shots – better than the human goal from what I saw.  Or maybe the human goalie wasn’t trying very hard.  I’m not sure who won the game since I didn’t watch the whole thing, but it was still really interesting to see.

Afterward, all the teams packed up their things and waited for the closing banquet.  At the closing banquet, they served a standard meal for everyone.  It was a really good chance for teams to celebrate their achievements and finally relax a little bit after the competition.  Everyone deserved a rest after all of that.

First Real Tour of Mexico – Teotihuacan

After the competitions ended, most teams stayed an extra day or two to see the sights in Mexico City.  The organizers of the Small Size League were nice enough to organize a tour for everyone the day after the competition ended.  Most of the SSL teams went with us to the Aztec pyramids in Teotihuacan.  The tour first showed us how their predecessors used different plants and minerals to make tools such as knives and sewing thread.  That part was interesting at first, but I think what a lot of us really wanted to see were the pyramids.  Afterward, the tour guide led us to the gift shop.  For some reason, most of the people were so interested there, it took about an hour for everyone to finish so that we could move on with the tour.  After the gift shop, we finally made it to the pyramids.

After walking up and down the pyramids, we had lunch and went back to Mexico City to see the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This was one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.  But because I had already visited so many churchs and cathedrals from my tour around Europe, this part of the tour was less interesting for me.

Historic City Center

The team would fly back to Vancouver on the day after visiting the pyramids.  But before leaving, we made sure to visit the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City and the Plaza de la Constitución.  In the plaza, hung a giant flag of Mexico.  This is where the city center used to be, at least during the 19th century.

Going Home

After 10 days in Mexico, we all longed to go home.  It had been a long week – full of stress, adrenaline pumping excitement and overall a good experience.  But after all that, we were ready to go.  We flew out in the afternoon from Mexico City.  Apparently, at around the same time that we were at the airport in Mexico City, three cops had been shot to death.  While we were there though, we didn’t hear anything of it.  We safely arrived in Dallas for a brief stopover and arrived back in Vancouver at about 8:30 PM, just in time to go home, wash up and go to bed.

More photos here

Flight to Barcelona

I woke up at around 3:30am to get ready for the flight to Barcelona.  I had slept at around 10:30pm the night before in order to not feel absolutely terrible in the morning.  We took the first train out to the airport at 4:40am and got there about an hour before our departure at 6:45am.  While going through security, I forgot to take of my belt and because of that, the security personnel checked me with the metal detector wand all over the place.  For some reason, he seemed to also have a huge suspicion that I was hiding something in my pants.  Once he let me go, we were on our way.  On the plane ride there, I tried by my best to take a nap, but this little kid cried for the whole duration.

Sagrada Familia

After dropping off our stuff at the hostel, w went to the Sagrada Familia, an unfinished church that began construction in 1882.  When I saw it, I thought it was really weird that the construction crew used modern cranes to build architecture of the old style.  We tried to go inside, but there was a huge line up.

After wandering around town a little bit, we came across this market that sold all sorts of things.  Apart from pretty normal items like clothing, vendors there sold N64’s, used power tools and even military regalia.  A lot of that stuff was probably stolen.  We walked around some more and then headed down to the beach.

Barceloneta

The area we were in, the Barceloneta, was a stretch of beach coastline looking into the Mediterranean Sea.  It had the nicest beach water and sand – even better than what I saw in Volos.  Looking around the beach, I learned that it was legal for women to sunbathe topless. It was actually quite prominent.  The weather was really hot too – perfect beach weather I suppose. 

I lay down under an umbrella on a beach towel while the others went for a swim.  I ended up falling asleep.  I suppose that made up for not having a good sleep on the plane.  After spending about an hour and a half at the beach, we went on a walking tour.

The Walking Tour

The first destination in the tour was in the Gothic Quarter.  We reached the memorial for Eulalia of Barcelona, a 13 year old girl that was brutally subjected to torture from the Romans for refusing to give up Christianity.  She died from the 13th and final torture that involved her being put inside a barrel with blades shoved inside it and then having that barrel rolled down in incline.  It is said that a dove flew out of her dead body as she ascended to Heaven.

The next destination was the oldest synagogue in Europe (as opposed to the one in Prague, which is the oldest active synagogue).  From the outside, it doesn’t look anything like a synagogue.  It just blends in perfectly with the buildings around it and the building itself doesn’t have any valuable looking ornaments or decorations either.  The only things that separate it from the other buildings is sign in Hebrew on the doorway and some signs for tourists to know that it’s there.  In this Jewish district, the tour guide mentioned the expulsion of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.  I thought it was kind of amusing when I was caught by surprise at the mention of it – kind of like that quote from Monty Python.

Afterward, we went to Plaza de Sant Felip Neri.  The significance of this place was that the plaza was the site of a air attack from Italian bombers during the Spanish Civil War.  Shrapnel damage from the bombs still scar the walls of the plaza.  On another side of the plaza, the bomb damaged was repaired but one can still see the slight difference in colour between the bricks which shows how much of the wall had been destroyed.

One thing about the streets in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona is that a lot of them are really narrow – probably only about 10 feet wide.  We walked through these streets for most of the tour.  In one of those streets, we came across a mosaic of Space Invaders.  Apparently, there is an artist who goes all over the world putting them up.

The next destination was the Placa Nova, which used to be the location of the city gates back when the Romans lived in Barcelona.  The remnants of the gate and the aqueduct still exists.  Across from the gate is the City Architecture School, which has a joke drawing by Picasso splattered over it.

After walking some more we saw the Barcelona Cathedral which housed the tomb of Eulalia of Barcelona and also the Placa del Rei, the historical location where Christopher Columbus reported his discovery of the Americas to the Spanish royalty.  We also saw some Roman ruins after climbing a mountain with a height of 16.9 meters (that’s what a plaque actually said) as well as the Placa de San Jaume, the political center of Cataluña (the area of Spain that Barcelona belongs to).

The tour guide also talked about the origins of the flag of Catalonia (Cataluña is the name in Catalan).  It is said that a great warrior Wilfred the Hairy, after being wounded in battle, drew stripes along a copper shield with his blood-stained fingers, hence the four prominent red stripes on the Catalan flag.

We also walked along La Rambla, a popular tourist street in the city.  The tour guide also showed us a city square that featured some of buildings designed by an architect named Gaudi.  Apparently, his designs are all over the city.

Next was the Placa George Orwell.  As a memorial to him (he was involved during the Spanish Civil War), the city named a city square after him.  Ironically enough, this plaza used to be under 24 hour surveillance kind of like Big Brother in his book “1984”.

We finished the tour at a bar and socialized with other people in the tour group for a little bit and drank Sangria.  I got to talk to these people who used to work at the same hostel we stayed at in Hamburg.  It was such a coincidence.

Barcelona’s Skateboarding Fame

After that, we walked around the city to look for the skateboarding spots that Barcelona was so famous for among skateboarders.  I’m not a fan, so I could not recognize the place from skateboarding videos, but it was cool to see a lot of skateboarders in one place showing off their tricks.

Tapas

For dinner, we tried Tapas, a Spanish delicacy.  Tapas are basically a small appetizer dish, but patrons generally order a few of them for a full meal.  Along with Tapas, Paellas are another Spanish delicacy that’s also really delicious.

Sangria is Evil

That night, we spent a little bit of time at the hostel bar.  We all drank Sangria and the thing about that drink is that it tastes a lot like juice, which means it is really easy to drink too much.  And that’s what I did.  I puked a bunch and got a pretty bad hangover the next morning.  I never intended to drink that much in the first place.

While we were drinking, we talked with this black dude and he always had racist jokes to say.  He went on about how white people could never get away with saying racist comments, which was so true. 

Park Güell

I spent the next morning puking too which sucked a lot.  We went to the beach again that morning, but I felt so bad at that time that I decided to go back to the hostel to rest up a bit before doing anything.  I felt a lot better in the evening and so we all continued sightseeing and went to Park Güell.

Park Güell was basically a park that featured a lot of Gaudi’s architectural exploits.  Since he hated the use of right angles in his work, much of the design had curvy edges.  Spanish architecture here was so different from the architecture I’d seen everywhere else.  It was really distinct and unique.

A Less Intense Night (at Least for Me)

After visiting the park, we went to the hostel bar like the night before.  Except this time, I didn’t do any crazy drinking.  We met the same black dude from the night before again and this time he went on about how much he loved eating fried chicken, which just made me crack up so hard.  He perpetuated that stereotype.  Once the hostel bar quieted down, my friends went out for clubbing while I stayed at the hostel and went to sleep.

Mini-Sandwiches

I found out later that they returned at around 6 am.  Two of them were really high on weed apparently when they came back too (weed is legal in Barcelona so long as one possesses less than 50g).  They missed the hostel breakfast that morning and slept in until 12pm.  Once we all got ready, we went out for lunch at a mini-sandwich restaurant. 

The place had so many varieties of mini sandwiches and they all looked and tasted delicious.  I wanted to try all of them, but I was pretty certain that I couldn’t eat that much since I wasn’t hungry for lunch yet.

Montjuïc

After eating, we went up to Montjuïc.  The mountain had a lot of really nice architecture, just like a lot of places in the city.  Also on the mountain was the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.  We walked around the Olympic stadium and got a really good view of the city.

We walked further up the mountain and reached the fortress at the top.  At the time, we didn’t know there was a gondola that took us up there, so we walked the whole way, which was super tiring in the intense heat that day.  Fortunately, seeing the fortress was worth it.  From there, we got a really good view of the entire city, all the way around. 

After walking around so much, we all got really hungry and took the gondola back down and looked for a place to eat.

Paellas

After trying Tapas on the first day, we decided to try Paellas this time around.  Paellas are basically a rice dish and consists of either vegetables, seafood, or different varieties of meat depending on the type.  We ordered one with seafood and chicken in it. 

Being able to pick meat off bones and peeling the shell off of shrimp was so satisfying.  It was totally unlike the German dishes that involve none of that peeling whatsoever.

Writing at the Beach

We spent the rest of the night at the beach to get one last look at it before leaving the next morning.  When we got there, the sun was already setting so it was quite comfortable at the beach without the sun constantly cooking us. 

As the sun set, it actually got really cold.  While sitting at the beach, I started writing bits of this blog entry in my notebook.  Writing on the beach was really satisfying.

My Joint-Rolling Experience

When we got back to the hostel, two of the people I went with wanted to use up the rest of the weed that they bought.  I refused to do any weed when they offered it to me – even if it was legal here, but I did want to try rolling a joint.  They passed me some of the weed and rolling paper and then taught me how to do it.  In the end, I rolled a better joint than both of them and it was only my first try too.  They called me a “stoner prodigy” and said how I’d be a really good stoner if I ever did weed.  No way I’m going to smoke it for real though even if rolling a joint was an interesting experience.  When the others started smoking the rest of the weed, I returned to the hostel and went to bed.

Flying Back

The next morning we all woke up at 6 am to get to the airport for our flight back to Stuttgart.  For pretty much the entire trip home, our whole group barely talked.  We all had this zombie look on our faces from waking up way too early and not sleeping enough.  It took a few hours for us to return back to our normal state.  We all felt it was a good trip – except for the part where I had too much Sangria.

More photos here