NaBloPoMo Day 14--Back to Work

Today I start a new rotation, in-patient at the VA hospital. This is perhaps my least favorite hospital to work at. I love the patients, they are some of the most grateful, happy, compliant, and just nicest people. But the bureaucracy of the government... well, it all makes my job a little more difficult at times.

I'm on call tonight, and thanks to the government installed firewall on all VA computers, I do not think I'll be able to blog from there. So, this is it for today. I will leave you with a fun fact though. According to my "who's here" widget, the most common way for people who don't know me to end up reading my blog is through a google search for "quitting residency" which leads them to this. Unfortunately for them, I don't really think that is the information they are looking for. But if any of them make it to this page, hi! I know residency sucks. But it ends eventually, and then you can get a real job, and hopefully that won't suck!

See you guys tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo Day 13--Nothing

It's my birthday so I'm declaring it a day off from blogging. But by blogging about not blogging, I'm still NaBloPoMo'ing. Tricky, isn't it?

NaBloPoMo Day 12--UNESCO

As I was writing about the Slovenian caves yesterday I wondered, how many UNESCO world heritage sites are there anyway? Is it really that big of a deal? (there are 878 and yes, I think so). And then, similar to the Tylee battle of who will be the first to visit all 50 states, I began to wonder, how many UNESCO world heritage sites have I been to? The answer...

1. Salzburg, on my first visit to Austria
2. the palace and gardens of Schoenbrunn, during my adventure in Vienna
3. historic center of Vienna, of which I saw more than most tourists (see above)
4. Watertown Glacier National Park (see NaBloPoMo Day 9)
5. Luebeck, in northern Germany. I lived here for a month during a high school exchange program.
6. the palaces of Potsdam, which I visited during above mentioned summer exchange.
7. historic center of Rome. Ah, Rome. I did love that city.
8. Vatican City. Did you know they have a statue in the Vatican City Museum that looks just like Bill Clinton? Seriously. I wish I had taken a picture.
9. the Maya site of Copan in Honduras, with it's lovely ruins and such a nice little town
10. historic center of Florence, which I did not enjoy so much
11. the city of Cuzco, in Peru
12. Machu Picchu!
13. the Skocjan caves in Slovenia, of course
14. Yellowstone National Park
15. Olympic National Park, site of Adam and my first date
16. Redwoods National Park, home of the Paul Bunyon and Babe of my childhood

Only 862 to go!

NaBloPoMo Day 11--Slovenia

I don't remember why we decided to go to Slovenia. My friend and I were planning a post-medical school graduation trip to visit my mom in Austria. I imagine we looked at a map of where my mom lived, picked the country we knew least about and decided to go there. And such a good decision it was.

A few fun facts about Slovenia:
-- It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria on the north, Croatia on the south and Hungary to the east
-- They declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991
-- Slovenia became a member of the EU in 2004 and introduced the Euro in 2007
-- There is one inch of sea coast for every inhabitant (I don't think you actually get to own your one inch of sea coast though)

I encourage anyone planning a trip to that part of the world to spend a few days in Slovenia (a few days is all you need). And to make your trip even easier, I shall provide you with 10 things to do when you visit Slovenia:
1. Visit Bled, a beautiful lake resort town.

2. Eat kremna rezina (cream cake). A Slovenia speciality and so yummy.

3. Walk to the Vintgar Gorge. It's about an hour long walk, but through beautiful countryside.

4. Rent a car. It's really the only way to see all there is to see in Slovenia as the trains are not going to get you to many places. And the roads are great.
5. Drive through the Julian Alps. This is where Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" was based.

6. Stay on a farm and make some Slovenian friends, like these guys who shared their beer and prosciutto with us.

7. Visit the Predjama castle, near Postonja. You can visit the torture chamber and re-create scenes where you put your friends on the stretcher.

8. The caves! The most amazing place I have ever been. Think Goonies, but without the pirate ship. There are two big cave systems: the Postonja caves, which repordedly have moving sidewalks and trams, and the Skocjan caves, which are a UNESCO world heritage site, and the ones we went to.

9. Eat seafood in Piran

10. Spend a day in Ljubljana, the capital. But skip the castle. Worst castle in all of Slovenia.

NaBloPoMo Day 10--My Favorite Place in the World

Now this was not a terribly competitive contest, as I have not traveled extensively outside the U.S., but this was one of the most beautiful, enjoyable, funnest trips I've been on. Today, just the pictures. Tomorrow, I will tell you the high points, so you too can visit this beautiful place.

NaBloPoMo Day 9--Glacier

My last stay in WWAMI-land was 6 weeks in Great Falls, MT. When it came time to head back to Seattle, it would have been easy to head south to I-90 and cruise along that all the way home, but no. After discovering my love of the road trip, I could not bring myself to take the direct route. Besides, the road through Glacier National Park had opened up a few weeks ago and this was my chance to check it out. So I drove north, and took a very leisurely drive through the park. Nothing much else to say about Glacier really, I didn't get out of the car and hike at all, just drove from viewpoint to viewpoint. It was all quite beautiful, like so much of the west is. Here are some photographic highlights to encourage you all to get out and explore the west.

NaBloPoMo Day 8--Road Trip to Julian

Since the honeymoon, Adam and I started a new blog to post about our joint adventures. It seemed silly for both of us to write about the same thing, and post the same pictures on seperate blogs (is this what marriage means these days? you combine blogs?)

Thus, our short adventure in Julian is on that blog. I think I will eventually migrate my personal blog over there as well, I just have to figure out how best to do that.

Tomorrow, there will be something else here. Glacier if I get around to blogging early enough. Something less time consuming if I don't get around to it until late.