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The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Shines Brightly
April 24th, 2024 – TCS # 853
Off on an Adventure We go, My Readers! You Know, It is always an Adventure with Me! This Adventure deals more with Something that I do on a Daily Basis.
So, I have said this before, For Those who don’t know me well enough yet and/or getting to know who I am, This is something that explains me Very Well. As I was saying, As You may already know that based on My Routine, I stay up pretty late. Pretty Late meaning, 2 AM and My Mom goes to Bed anytime from 9 to Midnight depending on what is happening at The Moment. Well, Every Night, as Crazy as it sounds, I like to say to Good Night to her twice. Once I Tuck Her in (Everyone needs to be Tucked in) and The Second Time, to let her know that I am going to Bed as well as What I learned that, Night. You See, Everyone has some kind of Nightlife in Them, My Brother had one, and So do I. Only My Nightlife, is Being Social and Researching. Now, Okay, I do plenty of Researching during The Day, but when I get My Computer, Research I Go! Some Nights, it depends What I do. Some Nights are Boring, I only check Facebook, It’s “Push Back” Articles (Interesting Article Links on Facebook) , and Normal YouTube videos then Listen to some Music while Talking to My Friends. Of Course, On Wednesday Nights, I watch a Movie! Some Nights, I just Watch TV after being done with My Computer. Other Nights, It is Filled with Information Articles in The Categories of Travel, Romance, and World News/Politics/History. But, The Thing is, that I feel the need to Tell My Mom about them when I say Good Night to Her even though She is half-asleep or A Bonus, if She is wide awake, not that that Happens that often! But, Every Night I bring My Mom some of My Adventures that I did that night.
To Give You a Sample; One Night I watched Cruise Videos (Which I like to do now on Sundays); Watched a Train going up into The Alps from Italy to Switzerland; Then, I watched a Gondola Ride upwards from the Lovely Town of Zermatt to A Majestic Mountain called “The Matterhorn”, which was Very Interesting seeing what it would look like going up to The Top of The Mountain. and, Then I got curious about What it looks like on a Cable Car to Mount Blanc. A Mountain that sits on The French-Italian Border and It is One of The Tallest Mountains in The Alps Range. Of Course, There are Cable Cars coming from Each Side. One from The French Side from The Town of Chamonix and The Italian Side coming from A Town between
Mount Bianco (Mount Blanc in Italian) and Torino. I watched The Cable Car going from Chamonix to Mount Blanc. Eventually, Leading to a Family taking the Cable Car to Mount Blanc; The Same Family going on a Cruise to Roatan, Honduras; and, Finally, A Group of People taking a Private Tour of Roatan with Who They say is The Best Tour Guide on The Island, Shelford of Christopher Tours. One More Example is Moments when I like to Challenge Myself and At The Same Time, Teach Myself to figure things out. For Example, In Europe, They have Two Major Highways Systems, The E-Highway System and a National Highway System, Locally called (A-Highway).
For Me anyway, I prefer The E-Highways or
European Routes, as in E-40, E-50, E-60, and E-70 going East-West and E-45/E-43 and E-35 going North-South, makes sense, right?
Well, Most Countries use both The A-Highways (A means Autobahn/Route/Strada) and E-Highways on Their Highway Signs. Other Countries like Germany put only The A-Highways on Their Signs.
So, I have some of them down, but Germany like make it unique, as in A-4 (or Autobahn 4) is not always European Route 40.
Autobahn 7 is European Routes 45 and a Portion of European Route 43,
The Most Southern Part of European Route 43 towards Bregenz, Austria and St. Margarthen, Switzerland is Autobahn 96.
Of Course, There is No Google Street View in Germany (Except Major Cities) due to Local Privacy Laws, but There are Two Roadgeek Sites with Pictures with Road Signs in Germany, noted to Autobahn Number, not European Route Number, and One is in Dutch, The Other is in German. The Final Challenge reaped Some Good Rewards! You See, I have only Cybertraveled from Badajoz, Spain to Lisboa and then to The Airport (Lisbon is Portuguese). This Time I figured that I would try to see The Coast. To Get There, I would have to leave the Airport and Cyberly-Drive to a Town called Cascais. The Challenge was getting to The A-5 (Autostrada 5) or Locally called Auto-Estrada 5 from Lisboa Airport. I kept having to scan ahead to remember what road to go on, I tried My Best to follow The Signs in Portuguese, I finally made My Way on The Autostrada 5 to Cascais. When I got to Cascais, The Road ended before The Coast, so My Resourceful Self found a Way via a Narrow Road to get to The Beach. I will say that Portuguese Architecture is Amazing to look at and Driving from Lisboa to Cascais was not that long of a Drive, maybe 25 Kilometers but, As I was getting closer to The Beach, It felt like The Coast of The Middle of California. I Really Enjoyed It! It would actually be Fun to do in Real Life. Now, Imagine me telling My Mom THAT at 2 in The Morning! Anyway, To Further Explain about My 2 AM Talks with My Mom, I am going to Rerun the Newsletter that Explains It! Enjoy Your Lesson!
This Newsletter was Originally Written on April 6th of 2016 (Refer to Newsletter 491)
Happy April, My Readers! This Month is not always a Great Month for Our Family, but We do have an Event this month to look forward to and That, in itself, is Exciting! So, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, I have yet another Untold Story for You! Not another Untold Story! You might say! Well, I promise you that it is a Good One! So, As You may already know that based on My Routine, I stay up pretty late. Pretty Late meaning, 2 AM and My Mom goes to Bed anytime from 9 to Midnight depending on what is happening at The Moment. Well, Every Night, as Crazy as it sounds, I like to say to Good Night to her twice. Once to Tuck Her in (Everyone needs to be Tucked in) and The Second Time, to let her know that I am going to Bed as well as What I learned that Night. You See, Everyone has some kind of Nightlife in Them, My Brother had one, and So do I. Only My Nightlife, is Being Social and Researching. Now, Okay, I do plenty of Researching during The Day, but when I get My Computer, Research I Go! Some Nights, it depends What I do. Some Nights are Boring, I only check Facebook, It’s “Push Back” Articles (Interesting Article Links on Facebook), and Normal YouTube videos then Listen to some Music while Talking to My Friends. Other Nights, It is Filled with Information Articles in The Categories of Travel, Romance, and World News/Politics/History. But, The Thing is, that I feel the need to Tell My Mom about them when I say Good Night to Her even though She is half-asleep and I just have to save it for The Morning and Remember to Repeat Them. The Thing is though, Some Nights, I have what I call “Information Overload” which is quite a Common Problem with People in My Generation. So Much Information in The World! In The News; On Facebook; Articles I have Read; Whatever happened that Day talking with a Friend and What that Friend said; and, Of Course, The Information that is in My Head already. It is a wonder why People in My Generation are so Stressed! Because of All The Information coming at Them at One Time. So, I feel the Need to spill out The Information that I learned (both Good and Bad) to My Mom, so I can get to Sleep. Now, if I don’t, then, I go to Sleep and by the Time that My Mom gets Home from work, I feel that Yesterday’s Information that I learned went down The Toilet because I turn on The News and Hear what is going on, then I check Facebook and All of That has Information in It. So, I am sure that You are Wondering, What Kind of what I’ll call, “2 AM talks with Mom” do You have? Well, They vary. Either They are Short and I don’t do much and Make Myself Bored so that There is Less Information (Short Talks last maybe 2 or 3 Minutes). “Oh, I just listened to Music a little bit, and I talked to My PTLS Brother, Tyler; My Friend, Deb; or Monica in Sweden”. Other Nights, I go on telling her about Every Article that I read; Something Interesting I learned; Something was Trending in The News on Facebook; and, Of Course, Places that I cyber-travelled to. (Long Talks last anywhere from 15 Minutes to 30 Minutes). I try not to Keep her awake too Long with Our Talks. So, An Example of Our Talks goes like this. The Other Day, I told her that, After I checked Facebook, “Push Backs” (told her about that too), Normal Youtube Videos (and, which They were).
I cyber-traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia to See how close Bratislava is from Vienna, Austria (It is Really Close). Bratislava is The Capitol of Slovakia (which used to be, Czechoslovakia) is nearly on The Border with Austria, and The Capitol of Austria, Vienna, is not far down The Road. After That, I hopped on The Danube River and had to Learn what it was in Each Language because I was using Google Maps Sweden (It shows Place Names in Their Native Language as well as English, Unlike US Google Maps that is English Only), I followed The Danube River, upward hoping to get up closer to The Other Side of Europe (like The Netherlands or France), while trying to remember The “Blue Danube” song which I got confused with “Ode to Joy” (The Anthem of The European Union), got to The End of The Danube River and Later, Looking up The Danube River on Wikipedia. After That, I drove fastly across The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Into The UK. Then, Virtually Flew to Toronto and Driving across The Blue Water Bridge near Port Huron, Michigan (Re-Introducing Myself in The US, I wrote about that once in a Newsletter) and scanned across Detroit (My Mom’s Hometown), hopped on
US Highway 23 and, crossed into Ohio and Ending where Popi (My Mom’s Dad) was Buried and Bringing Him some Virtual Adventure. Popi was always an Adventurist and I figured that He would want some of My Adventure. So, Here is Another Example and Hang On! So, Last Night I told My Mom that I checked Facebook and All associated (Sometimes, I skip that part if there is Something that is Exciting Me). I looked up The European Schengen Museum in a Town called Schengen, Luxembourg on TripAdvisor and Adding it on My List of Trips of Things to See and Do. (I did not know about that until I saw a YouTube Video about What Schengen is). I looked it up on Google to see An Official Website about it. Schengen, by the way, is The Most Fascinating Thing called The Schengen Agreement which means Freedom of Movement in Europe without Having to Stop for Customs.
I Looked up McDonalds in Sweden and Italia (Italy) to see Differences they have on Their Menu there versus in The United States. It is actually really cool to see the differences. For Example, They have The Traditional Apple Pie or You can get a Raspberry Pie at McDonalds in Sweden. American Fast Food around The World is sometimes a Mix of Traditional American as well as Localized Meals. After That, I went to Finland, because I read an Article about how Finnish Schools are The Best in The World and Why. I ended up at The Finland/Russia Border to see The Road Signs there. After Seeing The Road Signs there, I scanned across to Helsinki and Ferried to Stockholm and saw a Few Signs there, Fly from Stockholm to London, and London to Detroit. After That, I drove with skipping down to Toledo to Visit Popi again and This Time, Bringing Him a Piece of Schengen, Seeing a bit of Finland & Stockholm, and then, Back Home. All of These Trips and Articles, My Mom gets to hear about at 2 AM! Don’t You wish that You lived at My House?! All in all, You never what You are going to Learn at 2 AM. It is just a Matter of Whether She can remember it when She gets up in The Morning, Because I will be Quizzing Her after She gets Home from Work.
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Learning can happen at Any Hour of The Day or Night.
