After two weeks of (some) processing and uploading, here they are: http://cristianradu.smugmug.com/Vacation/Trip-to-Europe. For some reason SmugMug lists them in the reverse chronological order, so you might want to start from the bottom. Enjoy!

We left on Saturday, at noon, not without incidents. The cab company I called to send us a car somehow misplaced our reservation so we ended up hailing cabs outside on 31st street. At least we had just a few small luggage to carry around so it wasn’t that bad. At the airport we had to wait for the slowest attendant that works at AA – our self check-in kiosk timed out twice before she came to verify our papers. Alas, after an hour flight and another cab ride we were finally at our hotel.

We spent the first evening browsing the nearby streets, at least until we found a clothing store – Zara, in case you’re curious – where my girl got lost amid the sales. Until they closed the shop Afterward she felt bad and vowed not to binge-shop until the end of summer, vow that lasted about… 2 days

On Sunday we met up with two of my friends from Canada – Cristi and Otilia – and they drove us to Niagara Falls. We watched the World Cup Final while having lunch at a nearby restaurant and we took lots of pictures around the area. We even had a double rainbow!

Monday at noon we went up in CN Tower and had lunch at the rotating restaurant up top. Expensive, as you can imagine, but the view was worth it. After that we mingled with the rest of the tourists visiting the tower and snapped pictures like everyone else.

Coming down, we went to the bay and took one of the ferries to the nearby islands. Toronto has three small islands right below it, one with a small amusement park and one with a tiny airport. We strolled the park for some time and then we got back to the hotel to take advantage of the swimming pool.

Tuesday we were supposed to return to NY, but because of a delay at the embassy we had to postpone it for one day. So we spent it shopping and visiting another parts of the city – Chinatown among them. Should go without saying that I stopped at the first bubble tea place and got some.

At night we took one last stroll around the hotel area, took some night pics and had a nice romantic dinner: hot dogs from a street cart, next to a water fountain. On the following day we returned to New York.

Here are the pictures from the trip:

Trip to Toronto

The weekend started with a gift.

Cindy wanted an iPad for some time now, for both fun and work reasons – she has a lot of video lectures that she needs to watch, so she needed some portable device she can use for that. And because I like nothing more than seeing her happy – and I of all people know how happy one is when getting a cool new gadget – I got her one.

Not without some trouble, ofc, since the darn thing is completely sold out, even 3 months after its release. It’s like everybody in New York City wants one. So after trying every single Apple store in the city I ended up ordering it online. It took 2 weeks but I finally got it.

Should go without saying that my girl was extremely happy with her gift, and spent most of the time we were home playing with it. Which wasn’t that much actually, since every day we went out.

Sunday we met some of Cindy’s friends for brunch. After – since they wanted something refreshing to drink – I took them to a bubble tea place. Where we ended staying for more then 2 hours, because right when we were about to leave I met up with Linh and another friend who were craving some as well. So we switched the group of friends and had some more with them.

Later we stopped by a small “beach” on the edge of the East River for some drinks and a nice view of the sunset. The place was crowded since there aren’t many places in NYC where you can get sand, beach towels and… fake coconut trees.

On Moday afternoon Cindy had a surprise of her own reserved for me: she booked a cruise on a sail boat around the New York bay area while being served sushi from a famous chef. We were on the boat for about two hours enjoying the great view and – of course – the fish. After the sunset – which we watched by the Statue of Liberty – they took us back to the city.

Here are some pictures from that great weekend:

4th of July Weekend