Filling up

Wow! I filled up yesterday for the first time in two months. I guess, when you travel around the world you don't get to use your car a lot.

Driving in Zagreb is tiring as the roads are really not designed for the amount of cars that try to operate around here. Another issue here is parking. We have a parking pass so that we can park anywhere around our building and surrounding area, but that just helps us avoid plugging the parking meter. We still have to hunt down a parking spot. There were times when we had to drive around for 45 minutes to find a spot. Not fun at all!

The price of gas two months ago was around 9 kuna, while now it is down to 6.39 kuna. It is weird that price of gas in Croatia has dropped not even 30%, while elsewhere in the world, the price of gasoline is down over 60%. Suspicious, suspicious...

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish Merry Christmas to all readers of this blog.

Carla and I just finished calling around to wish people a Merry Christmas. We're wiped and have to take a break. I think we'll watch a movie.

Last night we watched "Swing Vote" and loved it. Kevin Costner and the little girl did amazingly in their roles. A sweet movie.

Merry Christmas from Carla and Ivan!

Back from Budapest

I was going to do a write up about our trip to Budapest, but then I saw that Carla had emailed a great description of our trip to her colleagues/friends, which I am going to paste in here. :-) And I would like to add my favourite picture from the trip. Me and "Falkie the Falcon" (that's my nickname for him).
"So… trip to Budapest was really good. Actually, it was a lot better than I thought it would be, in so many ways. I was a bit nervous about going on a "bus tour". The tour was made up of everyone from parents and kids (say 8-10 year old kids), to university students/friends, to a few married 40ish couples. So, a good mix – that's for sure.

The bus left the bus station at 7am (on the dot) Friday am. We stopped a few times on the way… for the smokers to have a break and for people to go to the bathroom/grab something to eat. We arrived in Budapest sometime around 2:30pm. Budapest isn't all that far from Zagreb, but by the time you add stopping at the border (them checking every passport) and then the few stops – it did take a bit. The good thing though is that you could just relax, listen to your ipod, sleep, or do whatever.

When we got there they took us to quite a few sights: the Citadel (and lookout over the whole city – BEAUTIFUL!), went downtown and walked along Vaci street (the main street) in the old town. Great shops. We were hungry and not feeling adventurous… so actually ate at McDonalds. I know, I know… I am always one of those people saying – when in Rome do as the Romans, but you know what? Maybe I am getting older, but boy it is nice to have/know what you are getting : ))) Really, it seems the only time we ever eat at McDonalds is when we are on vacation : )))
Well, and one other neat things – is that trying the McDonald's in each country you get to try out their "localized" menu. E.g. Ivan had a "McRoyal" burger. We hadn't seen those before… and we had just been to a McDonald's not that long ago in Hong Kong and Beijing. hahaha.

After a quick stop at the hotel to check in… Ivan and I broke away from the group, took the subway and went to a mall. Always interesting to see malls in different countries – as this is where the regular people go. Budapest had FABULOUS malls. The choice/selection of stores was incredible. Also WAY better than anything I have seen in Ottawa – maybe closer to the Eaton's Centre in TO – but still way different. E.g. they had a JLo store (Jennifer Lopez store selling fashion shoes/boots). That night I again was very excited… ate at TGI Fridays… boy it was nice to have Western food : )))

Sat. the bus took us to various stops/sites: Fisherman's Bastion, Parliament, Heroes Park, various Castles/Museums… The architecture was just amazing. A LOT was built in 1896 for their centennial – and boy they poured $$$ into a lot of these things. You'll see when we send out some of our pics. Sat. night we went to a different mall – again very interesting. Ivan and I are really good at navigating around cities using subways. Budapest has a great subway. It is really easy to use and very efficient. You can get from one area to another in mins.

Should say that our hotel was ok. Nothing to write home about but a good clean 3 star… and came with free buffet breakfast. But man, for the price we paid (approx. $150 Cdn each – bus, tour, hotel/breakfast for 2 nights) the whole trip was an AMAZING deal (perhaps because of
the time of year as well).

Sunday, the bus took us past a couple more places and Ivan and I jumped off to go to a traditional Hungarian hot spring. Budapest is located on natural hot springs – so there are hot springs all over the city. The one we went to looked like a humongous fortress. You go in – pay
your $15 Cdn and have access to all of their indoor and outdoor pools, steam rooms, saunas, etc. The pools range in temp. from 20 degrees to 38 degrees. They had a couple of HUGE pools outside – yes you actually had to venture out of the main building in just your bathing suit in 4 degree weather – running to the pool. When you got in it was heaven – about 38 degrees with steam rising out of it. What is also very interesting is that in various places throughout the outdoor pools you will have old men gathered around chess boards playing chess – in the water!!! Very much like how you swim up to a bar for a drink at all-inclusive hotels. Chess is Very big in Hungary – you can find hand carved chess sets everywhere! Anyway, we didn't stay all that long at the hot springs – as the bus was leaving at 1pm. So off we went – took a subway back downtown and met up with the group for the bus ride home.

All in all it was a great trip! Poor Ivan did have to translate everything bit of info. the tour guide was explaining, but thankfully his English/Croatian is so amazing I don't feel I missed anything – with all the various stories/history, etc.

We arrived home to Zagreb about 8:30pm – and given that we live so close to the bus stain (couple of tram stops away) think we were in our door by 8:45pm."

I highly recommend visiting Budapest to all, as this city has amazing sights for all age groups and likes (history, museums, castles, opera, new malls and excellent shopping).

Updating goals

As you've read from one of my past blogs, I set a goal of doing 10,000 push-ups by June 1st, 2009. After 1,000 push-ups in 21 days, I believe that I have develop an RPS (repetitive push-up syndrome). If this condition ever gets an official name, it will be called Ivan tunnel syndrome (as opposed to a Carpal tunnel syndrome). :-)

My wrist would hurt every time I did push-ups. That was the first sign that this may be an ambitious goal and that I should stop. The second sign that I should stop pursuing this goal was that my pecs were feeling really tight. In fact, they felt so tight that I could feel individual strands of muscles going to different parts of my back and shoulders. Scary!

The good thing about my push-up binge is that:
1. The size of my pecs has increased considerably.
2. I did 120 push-ups in one day, six sessions of 20 push-ups.
3. I realized that I can grow my muscles only by going past the comfort zone.

All in all, this was a good exercise even though I did not reach my goal. It is ok to set lofty goals. Just give yourself the permission to change your goals if you realize that they are killing you. Changing is not failure. Killing yourself in pursuit of a goal, is.

MaxTV is here

We ordered the local MaxTV 'cable service' since there is a promotion going on for a free three-month trial period. MaxTV is actually provided over our DSL internet connection, but other than that it is just like any other cable TV service.

MaxTV gives us 75 channels in its basic package, another 10 in its Plus package, while the Premium package adds HBO and HBO Comedy. The basic package carries all available local Croatian channels, music, sports, nature (Discovery, National Geigraphic), History Channel, BBC, CNN Europe, CNBC Europe, Bloomberg. Not a bad selection at all.

I still don't think that we will keep MaxTV after the end of trial period. I realized one thing after having MaxTV for a couple of days - We just don't watch TV! We get all our shows and news from the Internet. I cannot conform anymore to the old setup of sitting and watching the show when someone else wants me to (ie. watching the show in its usual time slot).

We need to have our shows available when and where we want them. If that time is 9 am or 9 pm I want to watch what I want to watch. Why do I have to wait for a certain time and day of the week to watch the show that I like. And, if you are unable to be present in front of your TV at the proscribed time, you've missed it, never to see it again (or maybe years later during a re-run).

I know, VCRs and PVRs do help with this problem of fixed time-slot, but VCRs and PVRs won't help you record past episodes of a show that you've just discovered. It is amazing that pretty much ANY TV show aired in the last five years can be found on the internet and watched. And all this is done for free by a bunch of volunteers, but TV studios and networks would like to make us think that this is impossible. Hogwash!

Back to the gym

Carla and I have finally started going to the gym again. Woohoo! It's been a while for Carla, and even longer for me. I have worked out for only two weeks in the last three months. Partly due to my foot injury, partly due to traveling, Carla being sick, etc.

Going to the gym on a regular basis has a great effect on our mood and confidence. You feel strong, powerful and more motivated. Exactly the kind of feelings that I need as I start looking for a job.

The push-up counter is increasing rapidly. On Monday, I did 120 push-ups, not all in one shot, but throughout the day, and I can see a big difference in my physique. It has been only two weeks, but my efforts are paying off. I have also found out that after you do 120 push-ups in one day, you should take the next day off. :-) Helps the recovery and prevents a repetitive-strain injury.

Visit to Beijing - part II

Beijing was pretty hard to get around if you don't speak Mandarin. So yes, it was pretty difficult for us. :-) It's a good thing that I am good with maps (unfortunately, my GPS did not have any maps for Beijing) so we did not waste any time getting lost in the city. Most of the time, we would take the subway. Their subway system is really good. It cost only 2 yuan per person to go between any two stations in the city, regardless of the distance. Much cheaper than cabs, which were not very expensive, but definitely cost more than 4 yuan for a round-trip.

We enjoyed Beijing food, dumplings being our favourites. Some of the other food that we saw but definitely avoided were skewers of non-traditional 'animals': scorpions, sea horses, cockroaches, and all kinds of other insects. For some reason, I did not feel vary adventurous in the food area on this trip. I was really trying to not get a food borne disease, and I succeeded. That is, until I got back home, and then I was out for a week. Well, better to be sick at home than while traveling.
Shopping was pretty good in Beijing, if you know how to drive a good bargain. Silk Market and Pearl Market are two popular places where you can find anything counterfeit. Last year, when I was in Shanghai, I definitely bought more than I did on this trip. But I realize now how much I overpaid last year as I did not know the unwritten rules of these markets. In Shanghai, I was always happy if I got an item for 1/3 of the initial quoted price. Now, if they did not go down to 1/6 of the initial price, I would not buy. The amazing thing is that they would still sell items even at 1/6 of the price.

For example, we tried to buy a watch for Carla and the lady started off at 250 yuan. Well, she would only go down to 150 yuan. Using a patented technique of pretend-that-you-are-disinterested-and-start-looking-at-the-neighboring-stall I offered 35 yuan. She first pretended to be insulted, but as I started walking away she yelled "Give me money" which I took as "We have a deal." :-)

All in all, the trip was a great success. We saw a different culture, had a great time, ate great food and would definitely like to go back again for a visit.

Visit to Beijing - part I

Our trip to Beijing was very different from our trip to Hong Kong. The first difference that we experienced as we arrived in Beijing was that it was cold! Somewhere around 10 C or even less in the morning and evening. This was a big change from the perfect temperature range (23 to 29 C) that we've experienced in Hong Kong.

Another big difference was to see how big and spread out Beijing is. It is huge!!! Streets are super-wide, buildings are spread out, and the subway has at least different 10 lines, if not more. That is what happens when a city has over 16 million residents.

The first sites we went to see were the Olympic Stadium (Bird's Nest) and the Acquatic Centre (The Cube). Absolutely amazing structures! All olympic buildings in this area look like they are really close to each other, but they just look that way because they are so big. It took a while to walk from one building to another. The inside of the Olympic Stadium is huge, and both Carla and I could feel the positive energy in the stadium. Almost as if all the goodwill from the games had accumulated and stayed there.
We also saw the Forbidden City. Pack your good shoes because this place is BIG. You walk and walk, and then you walk some more! The emperors sure knew how to build walls and palaces. The place looked pretty spacious inside. I actually used Google Maps satellite view to check out the Forbidden City before going there, but not even that had prepared me for how grandiose this place is. Something to see, for sure.
Our first three days in Beijing were so cloudy and smoggy, that the visibility could not have been more than 500-1000 meters. We also found the air really polluted, since whenever we blew our noses, the napkins would be full of black stuff. I don't think that was supposed to happen. :-)

The Tienanmen Square in front of the Forbidden City was Chinese-big. Here is my gradation of big; there is big, then there is USA-big, and then there is Chinese-big (which is the biggest big in my dictionary). :-) The Square was surrounded on four sides by the Forbidden City, Museum of Peoples' something, Mao Zedong's Mausoleum, and Hall of the Peoples' something.
On our last day we caught a bus to the Great Wall of China, and according to my definition of big, it was Chinese-big. The wall went on for miles and miles. The surprising thing was that you could see people walking the wall all the way. The wall was pretty crowded so we kept bumping into people all over the place. Then, we took a wrong turn (I know, you're probably thinking how can you take a wrong turn on a wall) and ended our walk of the wall prematurely. Oh well, this is why I take pictures early, because it was not easy to get back on the wall.
More to come...