The renovated bathroom.

The crystal staircase at Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul.

An old wooden house on a street scene in Sultanhamet, Istanbul.

A plaza not far from the Spice Bazar.

Pictures from Turkey

Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul.

Almost There

The bathroom renovation is almost complete. It sure is much brighter than it was. The contractor has two 100 watt bare light bulbs in the ceiling which make it stark. Once the bathroom lights go in and the counter, sink etc. it will be complete and clean.

The weather lately around here has been depressing. Lots of clouds, rain and cool temps.

I am going to booking my vacation time for next year on Monday morning. I hope that I get my first selections but I have backup weeks just in case.

That's all for now but I will post some pictures of the completed renovation soon.

Chaos

Once again the house will be in total chaos. This time the bathroom will be renovated and updated. I just cleaned out some of the stuff that has accumulated over the years. Sheesh.

In the end, it will all be worthwhile, However, since the house hasn't been painted in side for a number of years, I guess I have my work cut out for me.

This damn truck

I'll never buy another Dodge.

Three months ago I had to replace the universal joint, that wasn't bad, but it had damaged the transmission.

Now, once again, I am going to hand over $600 for a set of ball joints. Sheesh.

Ah Montreal

This trip was the best. We took in The Montreal Botanical Gardens and I was totally blown away. The feature for the next month is in the Chinese garden and it will feature the Lights Festival. And what a sight to behold. These aren't your ordinary garden Chinese lanterns, with some very large and look like a scene such as a fishing boat or row boat with a rowing crew. I'd definitely go back to the garden for other festivals. The Japanese garden is worth seeing too.

One of the areas of Montreal that I found fascinating was Outremont. Some of the streets are very pleasant for walking with a neighbourhood park on every other street. Very charming, although a bit pricey for living in.

I'm looking forward to another return to Montreal in the not too distant future.

This is a first

I have never done this before, but, what the heck, why not? Joe and I are going to Montreal for a second time this year. I have one more week vacation this year and decided to take in Montreal once more. We plan on visiting the neighborhood markets and the botanical gardens. We'll also just hang out on some of the streets of St. Denis and St. Laurent.

Again this time, we will take the Via Rail train. It is so comfortable and relaxing to let the train do all of the driving. We arrived relaxed and ready for a day on the city. We'll take the early train this time to maximize our stay. The best site for information on Montreal is Tourism Montreal.

I will not say if this is the last trip this year to Montreal. I always wanted to see Montreal in the winter.

Off to Montreal

In one week's time, we will be off to Montreal. This will make 5 years in a row that we have gone to this fun city.

This year we are taking in part of the 'Just for Laughs' festival. We have a live mike format with the 'best of the fest' performing at Comedyworks. Another venue is the 'Twins Weekend.' We haven't entered the contest yet but may once we arrive.

Some other events that we may take in are:

• International Fireworks Competition
• Sinatra sings Sinatra - Caberet du Casino de Montreal
• The Gay Body - contemporary art

We'll do things different this time though. We will nap in the daytime and then party at night.

Looking forward to it.

It's been 3 weeks

It's been three weeks since we returned for Europe. My, how time flies. I have posted many of the photos from our trip to Europe on Flickr.com. I am a bit disappointed with some of the results from the photo lab. I don't know exactly what happened. It could be bad chemical mix or the film got damaged going or coming from Europe. But they turned out a bit on the dark side and have a purple tinge.
Here is the link to my photos on Flickr.

We're Back

It's been a week since we arrived back home. I have been catching up on some my daily routines. The trip was exceptional and very adventurous. We spent a week in Istanbul and I was completely blown away by it's charm and beauty. We met some very friendly Turks in our hotel and spent some evening talking and smoking a water pipe with them. At first, I was taken back by the number of people on the streets but soon got used to the hustle and bustle of this city.

We then spent two weeks in Hungary visiting places like Gyor, Vesprem and Debrecen. Our hosts in Budapest were very helpful and accommodating.

I am anxiously awaiting the development of the 17 roles of slide film and will be posting several of my favourites here in the next week or so.

Even after this adventure, it is still nice to come home to the routine.

Countdown

It is now 3 weeks today that we arrive in Istanbul. Joe is drawing up an itinerary for our complete three week stay in Europe. We have a tourist book complete with all the sites of Istanbul. It includes a few walking tours that we are likely to do as well as several must see sites. Those sites include:
Blue Mosque
Basilica Cistern
Spice Bazaar
Topkapi Palace
Istanbul Museum (Archaeolgical)
The Bosphorus
Princes' Islands
Istiklal Caddesi and more

We hope to take them all in as well as others.

Istanbul Hotel

We have picked and reserved our hotel in Istanbul. It's called the Petrol Hotel Palace and is located very close to Sultanhamet Mosque. We plan to stay all 7 days and 7 nights at this hotel. The location is great because most of the tourist sites are within easy walking distance. It is also located close to a tram system.

We are anxiously waiting for our trip to begin. It's only 4 weeks today today that we have arrived and spending our first day in Istanbul.

The Waiting Game

It's down to the wire. We have our airline tickets and accommodation in both Turkey and Hungary arranged.

We are now looking over some of the guide books and making some final details as to where we want to go and what we want to see.

Some interesting sights for travel are:

• Turkey welcome you
  
• Budapest
• Istanbul
• Trip advisor

I have decided to use my Minolta for this trip. So I will scan some pictures and post here for your enjoyment.

Istanbul and Budapest, here we come

Well we've pretty well decided to take in Istanbul despite the recent unrest over the images of Mohammed. We think that by the time we arrive it will have died down. We're planning on getting all of our hotels and airline tickets on line for the first time.

Digital vs. analog:

I really think it is time to change the format for taking photographs on this trip. I still have a very good SLR camera but even that make (Minolta) is getting out of the camera business totally. The camera I have my eye on is the Nikon D70s. It is a digital SLR camera which still gives me the benefit of adjusting aperture and speed.

Reflections

In the next 14 months, I will have to publish and hope that it remains on the site, information and photos that I have accumulated over the last 10 years. I want to put as much on line as possible.

I just received a few pictures of transit staff from 1959. These are invaluable for telling a story with a picture. The last one I received shows bus operators from the late 50's in their uniform of the day. They were very much in keeping with the military style that was popular in that era. Our uniforms today are much more casual.

If you're interested, here is the link: CAW Local 4304
Then go to the photos page.

On second thought

We are now looking at the situation in Turkey very closely due to 3 deaths because of H5N1 strain. It is too soon to cancel the trip entirely but we may have to take a few weeks to see what happens. I hope it is just a blip on the map of this virus but time will tell.

I went to see Brokeback Mountain yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed this same sex love story. The theatre had a mix of gay and heterosexual couples and groups. The two main actors were very good with their protrayals of two men who fall for each other during a sheep herding stint.