Quick Post
I think our firewall permissions just changed, so I'm going to bang out an entry while I have the chance. We just went on R&R, which was a phenomenal vacation and a much needed break from the war. The vacation really reinforced how lucky I got in finding Lizz, and then again in convincing Lizz to overlook my shortcomings and tricking her into marrying me. : ) It was absolutely wonderful to see her again...words really can't describe how much you can miss someone after being away for eleven months at the war. True, I miss her after I'm away for like eight hours at work, but it takes on a whole other dimension over here.
So we stayed home for the first four days or so (she caught me drinking a beer on the couch at ten forty-five in the morning the first day I was home, but understood what I was going through after not having had one for a year.) We played a lot of Wii and went out to eat and cooked and watched movies and relaxed. It was weird to be home after so long...it seemed like I hadn't been gone at all, and everything was very familiar, despite the passage of time. We then went to London for about five days, which was the perfect amount of time to spend...we got to see everything we wanted to: Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, Hyde Park Corner, the Tower, Hever Castle (where I rowed us around on the lake in a hired rowboat 'cause I'm awesome) Trafalgar and Leicester Squares, Scotland Yard, the interiors of at least twenty bars and the bottom of sixty pints or so, 30 St. Mary Axe (Google it, it's an amazing building), Harrod's department store, and lots of other things. High on our list of amusing London sights included a sign declaring "NO BUSKING" at a penalty of 200 pounds (it means playing an instrument for money, apparently) and also a sign warning us of "Changed Priorities Ahead" which we found to be somewhat ominous and disconcerting.
We then took the Eurostar to Paris, under the Channel, where we relaxed, ate Chinese food, walked around, took in the Lourve (HUGE and only in French, sacre bleu!) and Versailles (HUGE and with a lake to row in, sacre bleu!). Saw the Eiffel Tower again although didn't go up this time, and also saw the mini-Statue of Liberty they keep on a little island in the Seine. Lizz assures me that it's featured prominently in National Treasure 2, but I can neither confirm nor deny that. We also ate French food for the first time in our two visits to Paris, which was phenomenal. I had an incredible steak, Lizz had lamb chops, and I managed to put away two liters of Kronenbourg on top of everything, so it was quite a good night. We walked back to the hotel and watched the tower light up behind us.
We spend the last six or so days in Italy, relaxing once again. I'm glad we did it that way, it would have sucked to come right off of all the travel back into Afghanistan without time to cool down. All in all, a much needed break. I have a few more months here until I can come home for good, and then it'll be time to look at my plans for leaving the Army for good and making my way in the civilian world. I'd better post this now, before the firewall comes back up.....
So we stayed home for the first four days or so (she caught me drinking a beer on the couch at ten forty-five in the morning the first day I was home, but understood what I was going through after not having had one for a year.) We played a lot of Wii and went out to eat and cooked and watched movies and relaxed. It was weird to be home after so long...it seemed like I hadn't been gone at all, and everything was very familiar, despite the passage of time. We then went to London for about five days, which was the perfect amount of time to spend...we got to see everything we wanted to: Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, Hyde Park Corner, the Tower, Hever Castle (where I rowed us around on the lake in a hired rowboat 'cause I'm awesome) Trafalgar and Leicester Squares, Scotland Yard, the interiors of at least twenty bars and the bottom of sixty pints or so, 30 St. Mary Axe (Google it, it's an amazing building), Harrod's department store, and lots of other things. High on our list of amusing London sights included a sign declaring "NO BUSKING" at a penalty of 200 pounds (it means playing an instrument for money, apparently) and also a sign warning us of "Changed Priorities Ahead" which we found to be somewhat ominous and disconcerting.
We then took the Eurostar to Paris, under the Channel, where we relaxed, ate Chinese food, walked around, took in the Lourve (HUGE and only in French, sacre bleu!) and Versailles (HUGE and with a lake to row in, sacre bleu!). Saw the Eiffel Tower again although didn't go up this time, and also saw the mini-Statue of Liberty they keep on a little island in the Seine. Lizz assures me that it's featured prominently in National Treasure 2, but I can neither confirm nor deny that. We also ate French food for the first time in our two visits to Paris, which was phenomenal. I had an incredible steak, Lizz had lamb chops, and I managed to put away two liters of Kronenbourg on top of everything, so it was quite a good night. We walked back to the hotel and watched the tower light up behind us.
We spend the last six or so days in Italy, relaxing once again. I'm glad we did it that way, it would have sucked to come right off of all the travel back into Afghanistan without time to cool down. All in all, a much needed break. I have a few more months here until I can come home for good, and then it'll be time to look at my plans for leaving the Army for good and making my way in the civilian world. I'd better post this now, before the firewall comes back up.....