TravelStream™ news feed for member leahj86 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/leahj86 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:01:41 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220543700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220543700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220543700/tpod.html Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:01:41 -0400 American Trip Part Four - The Final Stretch

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New York City, New York, United States

So this is it, my last blog.....wow what a summer! From camp to the west coast back to New York again it has truly been an amazing trip. Jess and I have spent our last few days doing the Central Park zoo and walking around New York taking in the sites and the atmosphere and last night we capped it all off with going to see the Little Mermaid on Broadway. The show was fantastic and the songs are now stuck in my head but it was a great way to end our trip. I also got my Camp counselor's zip up jacket from my supervisor yesterday which was exciting and it was great seeing her again. I am looking forward to getting home and seeing my friends and family as well as sleeping in my own bed! England here I come!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220403840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220403840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220403840/tpod.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:19:06 -0400 American Trip Part Four - The Final Stretch

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New York City, New York, United States

So the past few days Jess and I have shopped to our hearts content! Having decided that we had done enough culture we hit the shops and the labour day sales! I also managed to fit in a helicopter ride which gave me some amazing views of the Manhatten island - I had picked a perfect day with no clouds in the sky. I got some amazing photos of the island and of the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Today we met up with one of my friends from Camp for Lunch which was fun as I told her about my trip and all the people I had met. Jess and I then went downtown to the World trade Centre site and a department store opposite. The WTC is now a huge construction site and stands out as a huge open space surrounded by tall skyscrapers. We then headed to Battery Park and the bottom of the island for a view across to the statue. We then headed out of the sun and into a Starbucks for a break before going to dinner in a american diner where we had sweet potato chips which yummy! Tomorrow we are going to Central Park Zoo and then to Grand Central Station and I will meet up with some more people from Camp.
I can't believe I am going home on Thursday but also excited to meet up with friends again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220210700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220210700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220210700/tpod.html Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:44:57 -0400 American Trip Part Four - The Final Stretch

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New York City, New York, United States

So..where was I? The days feel so long here that I forget what we did this morning! Anyway...Friday night Jess and I went to this great synagogue called BJs. It was a great service, very much like home, but we did some dancing as well - which was fun (actually I danced, Jess did not!). At the time commented on that I did not seem to know anyone, but it turns out that there was someone there but she was too far away to reach us before we left. To put it into perspective there were about 500 people there that night, on two floors but mixed seating which gave the service a lot of energy. We then found a indian restaurant to eat at, where the service was poor but the food was good. We called it a night and managed to come back to the hotel in time to see 'The Daily Show' which is a 5 nights a week satire show which I have been watching during my time here - it is great to see the news put into a less serious light especially since it is 'Convention time' here and the Presidential candidates are all over the TV!
Saturday we walked around Times Square and went into the M&M World before making our way to my (great) aunt and uncle for a fantastic lunch (another thing that I have learnt here is that no food is better than homemade food) which kept us going pretty much for the rest of the day. We then came back into town to do the NBC (a tv channel) studio tour at Rockafeller Centre which was interesting although would have been better if we had known some of the shows mentioned. I volunteered to do the pretend weather forecast which was funny especially since I had to work my way round the US map, I think I did ok though. We then headed to an improv comedy show on the west side of town which turned out to pretty funny. On the way we grabbed a slice of Pizza on the go which turned out to pretty decent food. After the show we walked through the crowds of Times Square and went to Hersey's World which was smaller and not as fun as the M&M equivalent.
Today we headed to the Guggenheim to look at the amazing building, which I was not surprised to hear has been falling apart ever since its opening, and then through the Park to the American Museum of Natural History which was really interesting and the dinosaur exhibition was truly amazing just in terms of how many fossils there are! For lunch we headed to Zabars and had a look round the store before grabbing something from the deli counter. The food was good and we convinced ourselves to grab some dessert from the bakery which was like a little bit of heaven! We are now going to start the shopping part of our trip and will hit the sales properly tomorrow morning!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220041980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220041980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1220041980/tpod.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:46:49 -0400 American Trip Part Four - The Final Stretch

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New York City, New York, United States

So here we are New York city - and just because it wouldn't be a holiday without some more drama we added some last night in the form of finding Jess a new hotel. The room that she had been given was tiny and had no natural light so we went to a local internet store and found a new one - which is much better and right near Times Square and all the tourist sites. I knew when we had chosen a good place when we ran into an old school friend who hadn't seen for 6 years coming out of the subway - so we are seeing him over the weekend which will be great. So we settled Jess into her new hotel and went on the hunt for a restaurant (it was about 8) and found a lovely italian restaurant. Today we headed to the Met which is amazing, even though I have been to New York before I had not ventured into the huge building. We saw a real egyptian temple and tomb and the famous Monet art which was cool. We then had lunch in a tiny cafe on Maddison Ave - which was very New Yorkian and walked down to Central Park. I had never seen the park in the heat of summer and it is really very beautiful - we saw the statue of Hans Christian Anderson and the lake. We then saw a show from two men calling themselves Afrobats. They combined jumping and dancing with humour which was enjoyed by about 150 people. We then headed south through the park to 5th Avenue and the apple store. Tonight, we are going to synagogue at BJs which is a famous synagogue known for its music and then tomorrow we will go to see my Aunt and Uncle for Lunch. We have come to New York at a very busy time as it is Labor day weekend but that also means we get the sales which we hit on Monday. I am also hoping to see some of my friends from camp while I am here too. I can't believe I will be home in a week!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1219903620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1219903620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1219903620/tpod.html Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:27:47 -0400 American Trip Part Four - The Final Stretch

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Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States

Another wonderful day in the lovely city of Washington DC. Today Jess and I went to some slightly more fun museums. Our first of the day was the International Spy Museum included in our ticket was an interactive tour of the city of Kanar, which is a made up city that is currently undergoing civil war, and our group of spies (there were 4 of us) had to go under cover to find a nuclear detonator taken by a military group. It was good fun, although our group did not make many good decisions although our guide or 'senior officer' gave us lots of useful hints. The game took us about an hour to complete and then we went into the museum which exhibits many different spy stories and equipment There were actual stories of ex-spies on the gulf which was really interesting. Once we had completed the museum we then grabbed some lunch and headed to the new Newseum.
The Newseum is a museum about the media and gives a rather idealisd view of how amazing the media is and how important it is in the world. The museum is very well laid out and had exhibitions on the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11 and the history of the news. Throughout these exhibitions there many hands on games and buttons to push which kept us entertained. The museum also provides an amazing view of the Capitol building down Pennsylvania Avenue. Amusingly in the toilets there were funny quotes and errors that had been made in the written media. There was electronic copies of the days front pages from all fifty states and some international newspaper (including, rather amusingly, the Southend newspaper).
For dinner we had decided to meet up with my cousin, Sandra, for dinner in an area of DC called Georgetown. This is a beautiful part of town where most of the buildings are designed in the Victorian style which made it feel very like home. Jess and I walked down the main streets, which were full of shops and then met Sandra for dinner and a walk down to the waterfront. We ended up in a Pizza restaurant and then 3 ice creams stores for dessert...Jess and Sandra had frozen yogurt from the first store, and I went to Ben and Jerry's and Haagan Das for some small tasters including Haagan Daas coffee ice cream in memory of my father who would have loved to have had some! We then walked back to Jess's hotel and the apartment. On the way, we passed by a Chagall mural - that he done as a gift to the family he was staying with during the wall - unfortunately we could not see it as it was dark but I am sure it was beautiful. Tomorrow is New York which is my last city - I can't believe that I am nearly at the end the time as flown by!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1219804980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1219804980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/4/1219804980/tpod.html Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:30:23 -0400 American Trip Part Four - The Final Stretch

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Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States

So Jess and I have now been in DC for 2 days and what a jammed packed 2 days they have been!
Day 1 - We had decided to meet up at the local starbucks - a now must in my schedule - and walked to the metro from there. We headed straight to the White House- which is indeed white and very far away from where you can stand....still to say that we have been is kind of cool! We then walked up through the national mall - taking plenty of rest stops and intaking a lot of water as it was very humid (a bit of a shock to both of us) - and through to Lincoln's Memorial which is a huge as you think it will be and gives an amazing view down the Mall through to the Capitol building. We then headed through the many memorials in the park, including the Korean War Memorial (which is a interesting piece of art) and the World War II memorial. We also walked over Kutz Bridge and finally to the Holocaust Museum. Having only been to the Holocaust museum in Israel this was interesting to see it done in a different way. It was a fascinating exhibition showing the timeline of the Nazi Period. It was especially interesting for me having just said goodbye to my new German friend and my memory of the discussions we had really enhanced my time in the Museum. Once we had finished at the Museum we moved on to the famous Air and Space Museum which was good fun - there was a hands on exhibition which brought back my time in A-level Physics and the actual plane that the Wright Brothers created. We then headed back to respective rooms (Jess to her hotel, me to see my cousin Sandra) before meeting up with my friend from Toronto, who now works in DC, for dinner. We had a great time with her and ate a good meal nearby where we were staying. And that was the end of our first day or so we thought....unfortunately Jess had 3 friendly cockroaches waiting for her in her bedroom so after a few words with the night manager we moved her back to the apartment I was staying in, and thus ends Day 1.
Day 2 - So we had breakfast at my cousin's apartment (two floors up) before heading to Jess's hotel to sort out the issue. To give the manager some credit he dealt with two angry ladies well. He gave her money back for the previous night and moved her to a 4* hotel in the chain. We then headed into town feeling empowered by our success and surprised at how easy it was....although I think he was scared that she was going to sue. We then headed to the Capitol building for a tour. Our timing was perfect as we only had to wait 10 minutes for our tour. It turned out to be very interesting. The building itself is interesting, about 130 years old and split into many sections, each built in different periods. There is a lot of great art and statues. We also saw the old senate chamber and the old state house. After the tour we grabbed lunch at the American African Museum - which someone had recommend just for the food - and left without seeing the museum. We then walked down the mall to the International Gallery to see the Jim Henson exhibit. This was perfect for me - apart from the fact you could not take any photos. Within in the exhibit original sketches by Henson, videos of the muppets, and some of the actual muppets themselves (including Kermit, Ernie and Bert). We then tried to go to the Spy Museum but there was no space on the interactive tour so we went to the Post Office tour (which we almost walked past) that gives a great view of Pennsylvania Avenue down to the Capitol and the rest of the city. We then headed back to the apartment where I was staying for a rest and Sandra made dinner for us. It was lovely to have homemade meals again (which I hadn't had since Seattle with her sister Susan) and it was delicious, even the sprouts which she had roasted (yum yum). She then took us around DC for an insiders tour including Foggy Bottom Metro Station, Albert Einstein's memorial and a general look at the city at night. So far DC has been better than I thought it would be and is certainly more beautiful than I had imagined. We have one more day and then we head to New York, New York!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219641300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219641300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219641300/tpod.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:40:37 -0400 American Trip Part Three - The West Coast

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Los Angeles, California, United States

Ok - so I have a few days to catch up on! Thursday I spent by myself doing the other Disney park - California Adventures which was pretty cool - met some really cool people like a bunch of American Shakespearean actors who were rehearsing As you like it in the line for one of the rides, I also saw the Muppets in 3D which is good fun. I ended the day with Ali - my ex-tour manager - and we shared a Boudin Sour dough bread that I had bought in the San Fransisco area of the park. I can explain how amazing this bread is! It tastes so good, soft on the inside with a crunchy crust - yum!
Friday - Ali decided to join a group of us in Universal Studios for the day. Ali and I made our way from Anaheim (Disneyland) which took about 3 hours and three taxis which was the easiest way although not totally stress free. If Disneyland made me feel 5 years old then Universal Studios made me feel 15! The six of us had a great day, doing the tour of the studios and doing lots of fun things. Ali had an all you could eat pass and the rest of us made full use of it, meaning Ali had to order six of everything which amused us all. We ended the day in the Coca-Cola water park which involved us having great water fights using the water guns in the park and watching the sun set over LA. We then headed back to the hotel and walked straight onto a TV set! They were filming a night traffic shot for a kids TV programme and I ended up talking to the director which was very cool! As we were sitting in the hotel having drinks I, Ali and another boy - Markus - were thinking how sad it was that Friday would be our last day together and so decided to rent a car and go to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.
Saturday - So we ended up renting a convertible VW beetle - Red - which would have been totally cool if could the roof to work! But we did not let that ruin our spirits. We spent 5 hours in the library and gardens which were just stunning. We ended up having lunch in the Chinese Gardens and ate overlooking the lake and pavilions. It was so peaceful compared the three previous days of theme parks! The library was truly amazing. It owns a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio which was amazing to look at and a Gutenberg Bible - also breathtaking! We then headed to the Highway 1 and ended up having dinner in a diner in Ventura - it was a very stereotypical restaurant, and although and I don't think I will ever go back to it, I am glad that the other managed to convince me to go in. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got to the beach on Highway 1 but we still managed to stand in the water and have a laugh (or two!). We then headed back to LA, slightly delayed by a two hour stop in Oxnard where we ended up having a long conversation about Politics, Religion and TV in a car park! It was on of the greatest days ever and the memories created will stay with me for many years.
Today! This was stressful! I know I have taken many flights in the past two and a bit months, but something went wrong today. My group taxi took forever to get to the airport and it left we with 1 hour and 20 minutes to check in and get to the gate, of course the queues where very long and I started to panic. Thank goodness a woman befriended me and pushed me to the front of the line with a family and I checked in on time. Then I headed to security where two older ladies allowed me to push in line with them. I managed to get to the gate with ten minutes to spare and even bought a bottle of water! I landed in DC at around nine and met up with my friend from London an hour later. So there you go...now I am up to date and ready to go to bed!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219290120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219290120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219290120/tpod.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:39:36 -0400 American Trip Part Three - The West Coast

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Anaheim, California, United States

Last night was the end of my tour which was really sad it was an amazing week and the people who I was with which was fantastic. There were a few of us that ended the tour in Anaheim (Disneyland) and we had dinner together and sat by the pool and relaxed. It was great to speak to some people one on one and I had some amazing dissucssions with one of the German boys. We got on the topic of the Holocaust - both of us were really cautious but it was really interesting - for him it was the first time he had spoken to a Jewish girl about that time. For me So Disneyland, in one day - what an experience! It turned out that one of the guys from the tour was staying on so we ended up going together. We walked from our hotel to the park and went into the queue for tickets. Once that was organised we went straight into the park and the first character we saw was goofy and we ran to get our photo with him. It is amazing - we walked into the park and immeaditly we became small children, in fact worse! We then walked down main street and saw the magic castle which was a bit dissappointing, a lot smaller than the one in Paris. Main street itself is so stereotypical american and the detail they put into the buildings is amazing. We then headed into Fantasyland and did a small rollercoaster and then headed to Toontown which is where Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy 'live' They also have a 'townhall' and a piggy'bank'. In this area we met loads of chacters - everytime we had to line up with small kids which was interesting especially since my friend is 6 foot 4.
The park itself is actually very small and we managed to cover the whole park in the one day - even though did 8 rides including the afternoon parade. The parade is basically a disney show on wheels. It is also very cheesy - but a spectacular show! It lasted 40 minutes and we saw a lot of the major disney charactors. The music was very catchy and the songs were in our heads for the rest of the day. By the end of the day we were very tired and the last ride we did was a rollercoaster for babies - we were the only people in the queue who did not have children with them - in the end it was a great ride which went round a miniture world. Tomorrow I am going back to Disney by myself to meet Winnie the Pooh as we missed him today and I will also go to the other disney park called California adventures. It was an amazing day but very intense as all of your senses are used for the whole day. The whole experience is very practised - there are people everywhere making sure you are having a good time and cleaners everywhere making sure not rubbish was left on the floor, I was totally blown away by the whole day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219127880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219127880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1219127880/tpod.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:55:56 -0400 American Trip Part Three - The West Coast

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Carpinteria, California, United States

So yesterday was our last day in San Fran (as the locals call it) and what a day! After finishing my blog I went to try and get on a cable car - the first line was so long that I walked up a bit to Union Square but still had to wait 45 minutes to get on and even then I begged the conductor - using my thickest English accent! It actually not a bad 45 minutes I met a couple from West Virginia who were on holiday to LA and had decided to come to San Francisco for the weekend. They were really friendly and were amazed to hear about my travels! When I managed to get on a cable car I ran into two boys from the tour and ended up spending the day with them. We started at the Sea Lion Cafe where we could see into the bay and watch the sea lions, which was fun. We then went to the Ghiradelli Chocolate shop which is some of the best chocolate outside of Europe. While we were walking we saw a couple of street artists perform including a man hiding behind a fake bush and jumping out in front of people and an one man band performance. Once we had had our chocolate (which we ate on a patch of grass watching the bay) we trekked up one of the many hills of the city until we gave up and got on another cable car, this time we stood on the outside (the best place to stand) and had a great roller coaster ride which so much fun. We stopped off at the top of Lombard street the windiest street in the world which is quite the view. We then decided to go to the cable car museum where the whole system is run from and the cars repaired. It was very interesting and gave us a great insight into one of the city's treasures. We then decided to go to one of the posher areas of San Fransisco called nob hill - another great hill and stumbled upon a rally for Senator Obama which was an amazing experience. It was like waiting for a popstar to arrive. We never actually saw him but they had a poster of him so we had our photo taken there. From there we headed back to the hotel for dinner with the rest of the group in the Castro district - which the gay area of the city - our tour guide recommend we try the chocolate brownies from 'Hot Cookie' and she was right - they were amazing! We then had dinner, which was not so good. After dinner a friend and I went to the bottom of Lombard street which was great fun, again we went on the outside of the cable car - an interesting experience at night - and got an beautiful view of the city at night.
This morning we left for Santa Barbara (a smaller version of Santa Monica apparently) and I finally put my feet in the Pacific Ocean which was so exciting! This was one of the experiences that I had been looking forward to since I booked this holiday and was so cool - to think that on the other side of the ocean is New Zealand, Australia and Japan is mind boggling especially if you think how far away they are.
Tomorrow we head to LA and it is my last day on tour. I can't believe this week has gone so quickly, it has been so much better than I had expected and the people have been a lot nicer than I thought they would be. My next stop is Disneyland which will be another experience all together!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1218992460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1218992460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leahj86/3/1218992460/tpod.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:20:09 -0400 American Trip Part Three - The West Coast

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San Francisco, California, United States

I love San Francisco! It was great to come back to a real city after Yosemite and Las Vegas. It is a beautiful city. We were dropped at Pier 39 by our bus and told to get some lunch. So a couple of us went to the famous Boudin restaurant. I managed to get a pizza and it was one of the best pizzas I had ever had so I can only imagine that their seafood is even better. We then headed to their bakery (they are famous for their sourdough) and while my friend was trying their tea the server asked whether my kutz t-shirt that I was wearing was the 'Camp Kutz' - turned out that his son had been there a few years ago! After that we went to see the burly batchlers of San Francisco - these are a group of sea lions that sit on the pier but do not let any female sea lions join them! This time of year there was about 100 of them and the smell was intense (typical males!) That night we went on a sunset cruise on the bay to see the Golden Gate Bridge - but it was so foggy that we could not see anything until we got so close and even then we couldn't see the top! It was really good fun and a great bonding experience. We then all went to the Italian part of the city to a restaurant called 'The stinking rose' famous for their garlic reciepes. After that we went to a bar adn managed to catch the end of a swimming race where a British women won and I went crazy much to the amusment of my fellow travellers. I called it a night at about 11 and got a cab to the hotel with one of the german boys and the tour guide. I then managed to leave my camera in the cab. To help me recover from this we decided to get me some milk and cookies and them some bear, another german boy joined us and we walked around the city for about 45 minutes looking for a shop selling all those items. We came back to the hotel and ended up talking for another hour and half. The conversation got very funny with me and the tour guide not being able to understand the german accent and thinking they were talking about a space dog called lexx when in fact they were talking about a lexx dark zone (still don't quite understand what happened there!). Saturday I woke to find that the cab had rung me (I had written my cell number on my camera bag) to say that they had my camera (lucky lucky me). But before I went to pick it up we went on the tour of the local ball park which is really cool and by the water. They have a children's area including a giant coca-cola bottle with slides running through them! I then collected my camera and went for a walk around the hippy area. Again meeting really friendly people - one guy (n his name was Morgan) had a sticker on his laptop saying 'The bard simpson' with a picture of Bart Simpson looking like Shakespeare which was funny. Saturday we went to the China Town which was interesting but the vegetarian food was not very good. Amusingly there was a kosher restuaurant in China town selling israeli food - strange! I called it an early night and manage to see Michael Phelps win his eighth gold and a repeat of the 100m running sprint which ended a good day!
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