Day 7 - Snorkeling

Today we took a van for about an hour drive to the other side of Bali to go snorkeling. We ended up at Bloo Lagoon beach which may sound corny but was wonderful. We hired two small boats to take us for about a five minute dried and then snorkeled for about three hours... I wish I could have taken pictures of the beautiful sea life and corals... It makes me want to fire up my aquarium again. We then had lunch of some calamari, barracuda, marlin, and prawns as well as the surprisingly nice Bintang beer.

On our way out...

Prawns afterwards...

Bintang!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 5-6 - Bali Sightseeing

On Monday we did some local sightseeing while we waited for Amy and Arif to arrive. It was a rainy day but we went up and down the beach and through some of the side streets and did some shopping. We got Liam and Owen their traditional local soccer jersey from where we go.



On Tuesday we hired a car for the day and went into central Bali for a little different flavor. We did some shopping in the market and had lunch at a local place. The food was excellent. Roasted pork, pork skin, fried intestine, and blood sausage.

Shopping... and an angry lady afterwards.

Babi Guli (pig)

The world isn't made for me to sit on the ground.

We did some sightseeing of inner Bali which was nice also...



We Then finished off the day with a sunset meal of fresh snapper, prawns, and crab.

I was not expecting the water.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 4 - The Wedding

The main reason we came to Indonesia was for Amy and Arif's wedding. Not much detail to report as I am a guy and all of the intimate details probably escaped me. It was a very nice affair with may be about 75 or so people at the ceremony but may be 400 at the reception. Cathy and my reading part went off without a hitch. I've got a few pictures below.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Days 2-3 - Bogar, Indonesia

We arrived in Jakarta via Singapore at about 11:30 AM on Thursday night. After taking a few hours in the visa line and trying to be ripped off by all the local porters in the baggage claim area we got out and Amy and Arif were there waiting for us. It was about an hour and a half to the resort where we were staying. Of course, we couldn't fall asleep. After finding the in room mini bar we went to bed at about 2:30 AM.

The resort is very nice. (Picture is out our window)



We had breakfast and then got a little tour of Bogar from Amy and Arif. We visited the Botanical Gardens and drove past the summer Presidential Palace. The president has a pension for deer so there are thousands of tame deer on his lawn. It was really interesting. We went and found some Betik shirts for the wedding for the guys and then ate at a local restaurant.

Presidential Summer Palace

We came back and hit the ice cold pool. Brrrr. We then went to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding rehearsal where Cathy and I have a reading to do. The wedding is at 9 AM tomorrow. We then went to bed and tried to get our body clocks on track. More pictures and things hopeful,y tomorrow. The Internet is a little sketchy in our room.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 1 - Helsinki, Finland

Well, we are off! I am writing this on the iPad as we sit in the Helsinki airport after a day of sightseeing here. We left Milwaukee at about 11 AM on Tuesday and took off from O'Hare at about 3:30 PM. Our plane was pretty nice but ahh, the smell of international travel.

We landed in Helsinki at 8:30 AM local time (which was 12:30 AM CST). We set off on a bus for the short drive to the city center. It was a very nice day in Helsinki and was about 60-65 degrees and sunny.

Pretty Building

We went down to the Oceanside market and visited the Upsalanskin Cathedral, the largest Orthodox cathedral in western Europe. Ironically, we lived blocks from Aleksandr Nevski Cathedral is Sofia, which was the largest Orthodox cathedral in Eastern Europe. I guess we can check big orthodox cathedrals off of our list.

Orthodox Cathedral

We spent some time in the market and had lunch. We had a traditional Finnish summer dish of fried fish (sardine-like sized), potatoes, and salad. Of course I had to get a Fanta because they are better in Europe (trust me, it's a different recipe.). Cathy bought a funky hand knitted stocking hat too. There were lots of fruits like blueberries, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and root or bulb vegetables of all kinds. The cold weather has to make everything ultra-sweet.

Seaside Market

Lunch

We then went to the largest Lutheran cathedral in the world. It was quite The contrast from the gaudy orthodox one.

Largest Lutheran Church in the world.

Have to have an organ.

Marty

We spent some more time walking around and looking at some of the must see sights but seeing as we were kind of running on no sleep we were starting to feel it. We headed back to the airport where we are currently waiting for our flight to Singapore. We get in there at about 4 PM local time on Thursday which will be like 4 AM I think. We en catch a pretty quick flight to Jakarta. At least we get in late Thursday night so we can go to bed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad