What Is Still My Desperately Needed Trip

 

My wife’s cancer is becoming a bit uncontrollable and my goal is to find some way to come up with enough money to take a very romantic trip to Paris before the cancer takes her away.

I am also having some health issues which are not cancer but are interfering with some of the work I am doing since not one single company is willing to hire me to do what I have massive experience in doing. I have applied for hundreds of positions that I have massive amounts of experience for and have received nothing at all in response.

I am now working in a 600000 square foot warehouse stocking the shelves so that the online orders can be pulled from the shelves and shipped. Under normal circumstances not a bad job but the pay is just so-so and I have been unable to work my full shifts which I fear will end up helping me lose my job. I went into the emergence room because of severe pain in my neck. They took x-rays which showed no problem and they sent me back to work. The next day at work I had pain that was even more severe so back to the hospital I went. A CT scan shows that the pathways that the nerves come from the spinal cord in have for some reason shrunk significantly and are causing nerve compression which is causing me severe pain within about 20 minutes of starting to lift things and stock shelves.

I do not know if this is possible but if there is anyone that has the capability of perhaps raising some money so I can take my wife on that trip it would be awesome. Based on current airfares and hotel pricing a week and a half overseas in Paris would likely require about 8-10 thousand dollars minimum which is an amount that I will never see based on my current fairly low income which currently is less than 40 hours a week since I rapidly become completely unable to continue to stock the shelves.

All I really need is a company that would hire me as their desktop support IT person which I could easily do even in my sleep but there are no companies that are willing to even interview me.

Can you say age discrimination? I need to find an attorney that can help me with that but I truly want this trip with my wife which I will write about and will give all kinds of details about everything that happens locally and give anyone knowledge of where they need to stay and walk around Paris on their trips.

Technorati Tags: amount anyone based become cancer causing company current experience give help hire job massive money nerve pain paris severe shelves shows stock trip unable week wife willing work

Very Seriously wanted Vacation to Paris

 

It has been a while since I wrote to this blog and I apologize to those that follow but I am back now. My goal at this point is to hopefully, in one way or another, get a company position that will pay me enough that I can take my wife on at least one and perhaps a few Romantic European vacations before her cancer takes her from our family.

The average nonstop flight from the East Coast od the United States to Paris is around 8-81/2 hours. I would love to be able to schedule an overnight flight so we can at least nap on the flight and arrive in Paris at around 7 or so in the morning.

The following link will show you  a flight from the east coast to Paris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9sowmSldGio

After we arrive my goal is to be able to spend a week or two wandering around Paris seeing the museums and the local artisan shops. At some point I would like to take car and spend a day or so wandering around the countryside outside of Paris and enjoying the areas we are seeing. France has been told by many over the years as the most romantic country in the world and I so much want to be able to take my wife there for a while before she loses the battle with her cancer.

She is my life and I will be completely lost without her so if there is any way for anyone to assist me in making this happen it would greatly appreciated.

If she passes in the near future I will likely spend the next several weeks so drunk that I will more than likely join her on the other side rather quickly.

If I am given the opportunity to vacation with her properly by the company I work for then I will continue to work for that company making them successful until the day I drop dead on the job.

If anyone has any ideas to help me please feel free to comment on this post.

 

Technorati Tags: Vacation,Romantic Trip

The Trip to Paris I Would Love to Take My Wife On!

 

This is something that I rate at the top of my list of things that need to be done. My wife had a stroke a number of years ago and currently has stage 4 cancer. I have been injured several times and ended up in the hospital several time for asthma problems which were all work related.

She is and always will be the love of my life and I plan to be with her for the rest of our lives. The cancer appears to be somewhat under control. My goal is for both of us to be around for many years to come but under the circumstances there is no way to know how either one of us will be going forward.

I want to be able to see the sites with her and to be able to sit and enjoy something e few times a day at some of the sidewalk cafes. Then having nice romantic dinners and walking the Champs-Élysées at night and enjoying the lights and ambience of the city. There are all the museums, the Eiffel Tower, the local artists and the fabulous historic architecture and churches. This would be a week made in heaven.

That being said this is really more a dream than anything. I can’t afford this for many years to come if ever unless I win some kind of lottery.

The trip would start of course with a flight to Paris. There are a number of non stop flights that leave from JFK. The following is a YouTube video of one of the flights posted by a user with a number of awesome travel videos.

Ideally we would have an overnight flight and land in Paris at or before 8 am. At that time we gather our luggage and head to one of the train stations in the Airport to head into town or to the car rental area. There is a subway system that covers a great deal of the city and they also have a bicycle rental program with racks all over the city so you can rent bikes and go that way if you like. It would certainly allow for a much easier time if you want to stop and look at the architecture or go into a shop or a museum. I have never been to Paris but if it is like any other large city finding a place to park your car is likely a very difficult thing to do.

Take the train into town and get off at a stop that is reasonably close to your hotel. If you land at around 8 by the time you get your luggage, get through customs and get into town it will likely be pushing 10 or so. At that time we would start just wandering the area around the subway station to see what we could have for brunch.

After brunch I would check with the hotel to see if we can check in. Sometimes you can check in early but it depends on the hotel and what options you have worked out with them. If we can not check in then we start looking at whatever is closest. If nothing else the architecture in may areas of Paris is wonderful so we could just look at that and perhaps check some of the local shops to see what they have going on.

Once it reaches check in time we will be at the hotel and get everything into the room. After that another walk around to check things out and then a moderately late dinner so we can stay up fairly late and then go back to the hotel and crash for the night. If things are done like that it can, in many cases, take care of the whole jet lag problem.

There are a lot of hotels in Paris and a number of them give you pretty clear views of the Eiffel Tower which is what I would like for my wife and I. How cool is it to wake up and look out the window and see one of the most iconic structures in the world.

Paris has a fascinating history and also is known by many as a very romantic destination. I will be unbelievably happy to be able to get around Paris and see things with the woman who is the love of my life. Perhaps a small breakfast at a corner café while watching the people as they go by or as they sit at a table as well.

Then there are so many wonderful things to see and of course I guess we would start out by touring the Louvre. There is a fascinating web site that provides virtual tours and when looking at this I can just imagine being on site with the woman that is my world.

The Louvre has such incredible displays and the history is awesome. It can take the whole day or longer to see everything. That being said it is a good thing that there are many restaurants and cafes in or around the Louvre so you don’t need to leave or go very far to eat.

Once we spend the day at the Louvre it will be time to think about the nightlife in Paris. We can then drive around a bit and see the sights at night. Check with your hotel before you do this because any large city in the world will have at least a few areas that are not particularly safe to spend any time in so you would would want to stay away from those areas.

And of course I have a video of a drive around Paris at night. YouTube is an awesome site.

After spending the day at the Louvre and seeing the city at night then I would want to just start moving around and seeing the rest of the city as best we can over the next several days.

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the firs things to see since it will not take a whole lot of time. After that I would think that Sacré-Coeur would be next since the basilica will probably take several hours to see.

After that I believe the best thing to do would be to start seeing everything you can in Montmartre. That will likely take at least a day or so.

This is a vacation that I would like to be able to spread out over about 6-8 days since it could be absolutely exhausting given everything there is to see. I would like to be able t see as much as possible but without tiring out my wife too much.

Then we come home.

Technorati Tags: Paris,France,Romantic Vacation

New Vacations

 

I am going to change the format a bit. Instead of huge dream vacations I will be focusing more on individual cities since in this economy very few people can afford the money or have the time to take long drawn out vacations.I will still do the occasional dream vacation but for the most part just individual locations.

We will start this new format out with a trip to Florence, Italy.

My trips all start from South Central Pennsylvania and there are a number of airports relatively close that I would use. Whichever one gives me the best price for travel is the one I would use. I am not locked into just one.

When checking airline flights always check more than one departure airport is there is more then one reasonably close. I have Harrisburg, Baltimore and Washington DC airports fairly close to me so I have several options when it comes to checking prices.

I am pricing this trip based on leaving the 1st Sunday in March and coming back that Saturday.

Flying out of Harrisburg the best price I found currently is $1055 per person round trip with several stops along the way.

Flying out of Dulles in Washington DC you can get the same trip, with just 1 stop on the way for a current price of $734 per person round trip so checking multiple departure points can save a bunch of money.

Since the Cheapest flight I found was Turkish Airlines I found a short video clip of a Turkish Airlines plane landing in Bologna which is where all trips to Florence seem to go from the searching I did.

One thing that I love to do when I get into a new city is to look around and get a feel for the people and culture and the best way to do that is to find some areas where the locals live and eat and try out those restaurants and shops and then hit the touristy spots to compare the 2 and see if there is a big difference or if tourists are actually treated like friends rather just visitors that are hogging up the shops and causing traffic jams and such.

Some of this is research you will need to do once you get in country unless you have some friends or relatives that are local to the area. Never be afraid to approach someone and ask questions. The best way to make people be willing to help you is to at least make an attempt to speak at least some of the language of the country you are in. If the locals see you making an effort but having problems they will be more likely to help you out by speaking English. Not everyone is a great English speaker but English is pretty well known in most countries around the world so if you have some Italian in this case and they have some English you should be able to have at least a reasonably informative conversation.

Never having been to Florence my research shows that as much of Italy there are quite a number of Museums and of course some wonderful churches. See what you can see. Go to a Mass and watch the service. And of course make sure you eat hearty. You are not going to get Italian food any more authentic then when you are in Italy.

Just be cautious and pay attention to what is going on around you. Any big city anywhere in the world will have their share of less than desirable people but if you just pay attention you should have no trouble at all and speak to and treat people the way you want to be treated. They are not your servants you are not at home so behave and you will have an awesome trip.

Technorati Tags: Vacation,Florence Italy,Europe

My Dream Trip to Romania

 

Eastern Europe is an area of the world I have always been fascinated with. I have never had the time nor the money to make a trip there but I have hopes. As always I have searched for and found a video of an Airline landing in the area I am writing about and in this case it landing in Bucharest which is where my trip will start.

Lufthansa Flight landing in Bucharest.

Once in country my trip would start with things that are nearby such as the

Snagov Monastery which is supposedly the place where Vlad Tepes is buried. For those of you not familiar with the history, Vlad Tepes (also known as Vlad the Impaler), was one of the people whose information was use by Bram Stoker in creating Dracula. Coincidentally enough Dracula was actually the family name of Vlad. His father was known as Vlad Dracul. Dracul meaning Dragon. Dracula means Son of the Dragon.

I will certainly also visit Sighisoara where Vlad was born and Poenari Fortress which is supposed to be the authentic Dracula's Castle.

There are also of course tons of things to see in Bucharest itself.

From there I will branch out to the rest of the country. Prior to my leaving I will be contacting a number of my friends from over the years to see if they have any thoughts on where to go. Tourist attractions are nice but I would like to see how the locals actually live along with seeing the shops, markets and restaurants that they eat at.

So there you have my Dream trip to Romania.

Technorati Tags: Romania,vacation,Eastern Europe,Bucharest. travel

My Dream Trip to Europe part 6

From Luxembourg we had to Belgium. I would go pretty much straight to Brussels. There are some websites that say that some of the cities are not as safe as they were in years past so it is probably best to just see the capital since of course security is always best in a capitol city.

My ideas of what to do in Belgium revolves primarily around chocolate and beer. Not necessarily in that order. Belgium lays claim to the invention of the praline in 1912. Probably the best place for various choices of chocolates is Maison des Maitres Chocolatiers on the Grand Place. There 10 separate Chocolatiers in this location and this part of the trip is probably not going to one of moderation.

The beer of course is to die for and what I look forward to are the beers made in monasteries and abbeys by monks using techniques and recipes that are centuries old and reportedly as good as anything you can get anywhere. Some of them are exported but due to the stupid laws we have in this country about beer I would not want to bet that anything I can find here in Pennsylvania will be anything even vaguely close to what it tastes like in Belgium.

Chocolate and beer are the 2 biggies for me in Belgium but there are some other things. Strangely enough for a country with a relatively small coastline the national dish is mussels which makes me very happy. Apparently they do mussels and chips just as the English do fish and chips and I am certainly looking forward to that.

Then there is the Belgian waffle. Not just a ploy made up by US marketers. Waffles are also a very important food in Belgium and can be gotten very conveniently because they are done not only in restaurants but also by street vendors and from my experiences in New York and also in Manila, I am a big fan of street vendors.

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My Dream Trip to Europe part 4

 

Since we are in France, we certainly would want to take advantage of a country that produces some of the very best wines in the world. I believe that part of this would of course be nice well apportioned hotels but I am thinking that camping in a few places would be very cool.

Think about it. You spend the day touring some wine makers and tasting some of the best wine around. You buy a few bottles and head back to the camp ground. You have dinner and then you sit in front of a lovely fire under the stars with a nice bottle of your favorite. How wonderful and romantic would it be under those circumstances stargazing with your significant other with a warm fire in the background and a bottle of Pinot Noir to share.

This is something that you would want to allow some time for. There are many wine producing areas of France although the 3 that are probably the most well known are Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. I know that I have already used up several weeks with this plan but this is my dream vacation so I can spend as much time as I want.

Please also make use of the wonderful cuisine of  the areas since I am certain that there are places that will do some wonderful food and wine pairings for you so if you you are going to go to this extent for a vacation, Make the most of it that you can.

 

Technorati Tags: European Vacation,Bordeaux,Burgundy,Champagne,France,Wine,Camping