Trieste, Italy

When we look back, we tend to forget the difficulties of travel and only remember the good parts.  Last week we had a long day as we traveled from Paris to Trieste.  The trip involved a shuttle to the airport, a flight to Venice, a bus ride to the train station, a train ride to Trieste, and finally another packed bus ride to the apartment we were staying.  Part of what made this so difficult was that our bags are very heavy since we didn't know when our household goods would arrive from Taiwan.  Though we had to lift those bags up four flights of stairs, we we're glad when we finally arrived at our destination.

It felt really good to be back in Italy.  On our first full day there we took a bus down to a nearby fishing village for a wonderful seafood lunch.  After walking around town for a while we were able to catch the ferry back to Trieste.  We then took a bus out to Castella Miramare passing by the throngs of Italian sun bathers.

For our next day we took in the surrounding countryside with it's distinctive karst rock formations.  On a hike along a road Napoleon had started we got wonderful views of the city and the sea.  After lunch we made our way to the world's largest tourist cave.  Called the Grotta Gigante it was so large and the temperature stayed so stable that they have place large pendulums to measure the movement of the Earth's crust.  That night we walked around town seeing the outside of the city's Roman castle and ruins, churches, and many twisting little streets.

On our last day in Trieste we went for drinks at the same cafe visited many times by James Joyce.  It was sad that we were going.  Partly because it meant we had to carry our heavy suitcases around again!  We had covered a lot of ground in and around Trieste, but I feel like we just scratched the surface.  Our schedule didn't provide us time to take a sailing course or eat locally-grown food at a family-run osmizza in the countryside.  We'll just have to save those for next time we're there.  We were on our way to Slovenia.

Taipei to Paris

I've come to accept over the years that travel and life away from home requires flexibility.  For instance, we had planned to stay an extra week in Kaohsiung to make sure we had plenty of time to pack, see friends, and relax.  Unfortunately, after much back and forth, the shipping company informed us that we had to have our boxes mostly packed by Monday and ready to be picked up on Wednesday.  That left us until Saturday when we left without our household goods.  An unusually wet week in Taiwan also meant that we spent much of that time inside.  At least we got to have a few more outings with friends.

It was great to finally get on the train and go to Taipei to start our trip.  On Sunday, with the rain finally letting up, we went out to Guandu to see a magnificent temple built on the side of a cliff.  It gave some great views of the city.  Even though the sun made it much hotter we went for a bike ride along the river as well.  We finished the day with a dinner of soup dumplings at Ding Tai Fung.  On Monday we made our way out to airport where we again had to be flexible.  Our bags were overweight at the counter so we had to move some stuff into our carry-on bags to meet the requirements.  Cramped in an airline seat for 12 hours required a different kind of flexibility.


Finally in Paris things started going smoothly again.  Arriving at 6:30 in the morning we were able to find the shuttle bus to our hotel and they let us check in without a problem.  After a delicious (though expensive) breakfast and a little nap we were ready to see Paris.  Having both been to Paris before we decided to get lunch at a cafe for some people watching and then take a walk along the river.  It was much cooler out than we were used to, and the diversity of people was fun to see.  After walking around for several hours and drinks at a bar for more people watching we decided to get some food at the store for dinner and breakfast the next day.  It was a long ride on the train back to our hotel as our fatigue caught up to us.  We waited in the wrong place for our shuttle bus forcing us to wait longer.  Then back at our hotel we had to deal with an urgent matter with our household goods shipment and also extra charges for our luggage on the next leg of our trip.


Tomorrow: Paris to Trieste - The difficulties of travel

End of School Year

It has been a very busy past month as we've come to the end of the school year at KAS.  Erin has been doing a lot of grading and I have been preparing the IT office for next year's coordinator.  There have also been several heart-felt goodbyes and last moments.  These have included a birthday party at a place that specialized in shrimp, a strange commemoration for a teacher who has been teaching at KAS for 20 years, and breakfast and bowling today. 

It's certainly sad saying goodbye to many people.  We have worked with some exceptional people over the past two years and we will miss them.  At the same time we hope that we will see some of them again in the future.

For the next week we'll be packing and preparing to leave.  Moving is rarely fun, but we're going to try to experience a bit more of Taiwan this week as well.  We'll then spend two weeks in Europe before heading back to Colorado.  Expect to see more here soon.

Wii, Hot Spring, and Monkey Tattoo

This past weekend Erin and I had a fun getaway to Taipei. Riding the high speed rail on Saturday was a good way to start to unwind after a stressful week of job interviews over Skype. When we got in, the first thing we did was get some lunch at Sumi Sushi which has delicious rolls. Though it was raining, we then went to find a tattoo parlor that had been recommended. Fortunately the girl there spoke English so I was able to show her the monkey design I had made and discuss where it would go. We made an appointment for the following day and went to find our hotel.

For this trip we were staying in Beitou, north of Taipei. We had been to Beitou before and had found a place where we could have our own hot spring bath in our room. We were also excited that we could check out a Wii for our stay. With a variety of games to play we were thoroughly entertained for the rest of the afternoon. That night we went out to a great Mexican food place called the Mayan for dinner. While they forgot our dessert order it was still a good meal.

On Sunday we got up and took a walk around Beitou. The thermal valley was especially interesting as the open spring was sending plumes of steam into the air. Nicknamed "Hell Valley" it had a stench of sulfer and we could feel the heat from the water. After a soak in our hot tub we checked out and headed back downtown. After lunch at a grilled cheese place we headed over to get my tattoo.

It was just as painful as always, but I'm happy with the results. I chose a monkey to symbolize our time in Taiwan and also due to my love of climbing. Though I didn't get to climb as much in Taiwan as I had hoped we did get to see lots of monkeys during our stay here. While we've had our ups and downs here I'm glad we came to Taiwan and I'm sure we'll miss it when we leave.

Venturing into Cloud Development

Over the past few months I've taken up development on Amazon's Web Services (AWS) platform.  Looking at the integration of development and IT operations in devops my foray has started with the AWS Cloudformation service which allows the programmatic creation of other web services such as computing (EC2) and storage (S3).  I like the ability to upload a JSON template, specify some parameters, and soon have a brand new system up and running.  What's more, using Canonical's cloud-init scripts I'm able to use the Cloudformation template as a base to further service configuration with Puppet.

Puppet is a configuration management tool that provides the ability to define the packages, users, and services (among other things) that a particular server should be running.  It allows me to get away from manually setting up a server each time it comes online.  Instead I simply have the Cloudformation template download my puppet modules from GitHub and apply them using the cloud-init script.

My plan for this infrastructure is the ability to quickly and easily create an environment for Java development.  While there are currently other services that provide similar environments, rolling my own on AWS has given me an opportunity to customize it to my liking and learn to use some of these new tools.  This means that I can install the latest development tools such as Gitolite for private Git repositories, Eclipse Orion for online code editing, Gradle for builds, Sonar for testing, Jenkins for continuous integration, and Artifactory to store the completed products.

Check out some of the resources that enable my setup on my GitHub page: https://github.com/myrontuttle

Spring Break, Part 2 (Ticks and Taiwanese Motels)

Waking up in Taroko Gorge Wednesday morning was a treat as we exited our cabin and saw the verdant sides of the gorge surrounding us. After breakfast we set off for a variety of small hikes in the gorge. After a variety of hikes through the beautiful scenery we went back to Hualien for lunch.



It was then that I noticed a tick embedded in my leg. We tried several ways that Erin and I had thought were right (burnt out match and hot metal on the tick) and visited a pharmacy for their recommendation (some cream that I was instructed to leave on for 24 hours). After driving up the beautiful North-East Coast of Taiwan we finally got to our motel on the outskirts of Taipei which had an Internet connection.  It was only then when we were corrected of our misconception as the widely-held advice was to gently remove the tick with tweezers; the one thing we thought you absolutely shouldn't do!

Internet: +1, Old Wives' Tales: 0, Taiwan Pharmacies: 0.

Before I go on, I feel I should explain taiwanese motels. With big families and limited space, homes can often be very crowded; sometimes containing three or even four generations of a family. Recognizing that this makes privacy for couples difficult, taiwanese motels provide private, secluded, romantic rooms with hourly rates.  Understanding this, we were intrigued by a colleague's recommendation for a motel on the outskirts of Taipei and reserved three nights at their nightly rate.



The first thing we notice on arrival is that there is no lobby. Instead there's a drive-up booth and a gate. After finding our reservation and getting payment, they waved us through to our garage.  The only way to access the room is through the one-car garage (which also happens to have a small vending machine filled with things you would find in a sex shop). Going through the door in the back of the garage to our room and putting in the key card activated the soft, multicolored lights and smooth music.  Playing with one of the three remote controllers that controlled everything we were able to get regular lighting and change the music. Most of the room seemed relatively clean and after we got over the overt sexual tones (e.g. complimentary condom by the bed) we were able to settle in.


The next day it was raining in Taipei and we were a little tired from all of the travel, so we decided to head into the city.  We had lunch at a wonderful sushi place called Sumi Sushi then we found a Starbucks to have a drink and relax at. As the afternoon wore on we made our way to the Museum of Contemporary Art which had some very innovative and interesting pieces. We finished the night with dinner at The Mayan: the best Mexican Restaurant we've been to in Taiwan.



Friday was our last day in Taipei, and even though it was still a bit wet out we decided to got to Pingxi for the day.  Driving from the Taipei Zoo on route 106 for about 45 minutes took us to Jingtong station. The last station on an old coal-mining railroad that has been renovated for tourism. We grabbed some prime seats at the front of the train giving us a wonderful view as we rode out to Sandiaoling.  Following the directions of our Lonely Planet guidebook we got off for a hike up to some beautiful waterfalls.

Seeing how beautiful the falls were and having the afternoon free we decided to take the authors advice and continue on the trail walking back to the previous train station.Though there were some warnings in the book we were not fully prepared for how harrowing the hike became. There were many times when local dogs were barking and snarling at us. We climbed down old trails with trees covering the way and slick wet stones.  There was even a long tunnel we had to pass through without a flashlight.  Even so, it turned out to be an exciting adventure.  We finished the day at Pingxi where we got more paper lanterns that our families had enjoyed so much over Christmas.


Saturday was the last day of our trip so we spent most of it driving back down to Kaohsiung.  On our way we stopped at a nice ceramics museum and a temple with an outdoor market nearby.  By the time we got back to Kaohsiung we were pretty tired though.  It had been a great trip and we were glad we went. It was very nice to see a little more of Taiwan before we leave this summer.

Spring Break, Part 1

Last Saturday morning was the start of Spring Break for Erin and me. We had decided to rent a car and drive around Taiwan. Having gone out to see "Hunger Games" in the theater the night before and trying to decide what to do with newly found mold on our stuff we had a late start.  But then, after picking up the car and making a stop at Costco for supplies we were on our way.

First stop was the Taitung Sea Art Hostel near Dulan. The couple there has created a beautiful home in the woods. While somewhat difficult to find it turned out to be a very peaceful stay. They had recommended a good Vietnamese place nearby for dinner. Before heading back to bed we stopped by the Dulan Sugar Factory which has been transformed into an artistic community.


The next day we started at a local attraction where the water appeared to be flowing upward. We then found a trail that the hostel owners had recommended. It was a very technical trail with many slippery rocks and need for ropes, but the views were beautiful. We then drove to our next stop, The Wisdom Garden Guest House at Yuli. The owners were very nice and offered to take us and several of the other guests out to dinner. We were very fortunate to taste the local food with the host and guests from Germany, France, and New Zealand.



The next day we left out early with one of the other guests to hike the nearby Walami trail. Part of a Japanese-era cross-island trail it featured several suspension bridges and beautiful views. Our new friend helped push us a bit further than we would have normally gone so after the 10 mile hike we were exhausted. It ended up being an early night back at the guest house.

On Tuesday we drove up the Eastern Rift Valley of Taiwan. It is very pretty countryside. We stopped at the Hualien Sugar Factory for some ice cream and then at Liyu Lake for a bike ride. In Hualien we found a nice brunch place serving Western food for lunch. We then made our way to Taroko Gorge. After battling the traffic on the narrow winding roads we stopped for a short hike. Finally we made our way to the Leader Village where we had a cabin room for the night. After a delicious dinner of grilled meats and vegetables we were ready for bed, looking forward to the hikes we would do the next day.