Drinking Coffee from a Bowl

I'm sharing this because I'm not sure everyone outside of France is aware of this little tid-bit of information. I'm chalking it up under things I didn't know that I didn't know about.

In their homes, French people drink their coffee out of bowls in the AM. Like bowls most of the world would use for cereal or soup. Every morning they load up the bowl with filtered coffee and add a bit of milk and sugar and use two hands to caffeinate.

This is a morning only event, as in the afternoon, coffee is drunk out of your typical espresso sized coffee mug.

During my recent holidays in the south of France I tried this out and wondered aloud if I would get the coffee up my nose. My French friends were not as amused as I was.

 

Slurp up!

Portugese Toll Roads

I'm going to Porto, Portugal this weekend with some friends and it reminded me that I may be an outlaw in this country.

Last summer, my friend Josselyn and I road tripped across southern Portugal in a nice little rented 1.1 liter Renault Clio that struggled with the hilly terrain but got us from point A to B. We cruised around pretty successfully with an old school foldout map, going from Lisbon to the Algarve and back.

Where to next?

Beach on Atlantic

Upon arrival in Lisbon on Wednesday, the car rental company asked us if we would like to rent a toll transponder or pay for the tolls that we'd pass through in the Algarve at a any post office before leaving. They notified us of our options and this all sounded well and good, so we decided to not rent the €18 toll transponder and pay our tolls in the post office, as we would return from the Algarve to be in Lisbon, Friday- Monday, and able to pay in person on either of those days.

What the rental car agent did not tell us as we were signing the waiver saying the rental company is not responsible for our tolls, is that it takes 2+ days for the tolls to turn up in the system. Hmmm...

You see the Portuguese have built a really nice toll road in the touristy southern tip of Portugal called the Algarve, vastly improving on the local roads to get around the area. however, there is absolutely no way at all to pay for them any other way, other than the 2 options above. Transponder or Post Office. Not with cash at any check points and not online.

Algarve Toll Cameras

I went to the Post Office on Friday, upon arrival in Lisbon and they said they had no record of my tolls. This is when I learned it takes 2 days to show up in their system. Just for good measure for my guilty conscience, I went to the post office in the Lisbon airport on Monday before my flight, and still no tolls in the system.

After returning home, I read about this a bit more (foreign cars) and it sure is an inefficient and ineffective system they have going on.

Basically, the locals are not using the nice new highways the government built because they can't afford to drive on them, so the toll roads are nice and empty. Instead locals are still using the local roads, which take them twice as long to get to their destination and those old roads are deteriorating at a rapid pace. The tourists are not paying the tolls either, unless they have rented the pricey transponder. If they do attempt to pay at the Post Office, they need to stick around and not drive anywhere with a toll for 2 days, in order to pay in person and only Monday-Friday. Sometimes people even end up in arguments at the Post Office because there are unpaid tolls on the rental car's license plate number from the previous renter. Pick your car up on Monday afternoon, and you've got the tolls from the person before you who has been driving around all weekend.

From what I've read online, people in other countries are receiving massive bills with fines from the Portuguese government at their home addresses that are passed on from the rental car companies from that nice waiver you're required to sign. I haven't gotten one yet, and from what I know, they have no way of making you pay. Hopefully they let me back in the country on Thursday.

The whole system here is absolute brilliance. No wonder Portugal is broke?

The Bucket List

In honor of the 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday and 2 year England anniversary this week: The Bucket List. 

LHR Delays

On theme of my last post... my friend is at Heathrow today. She says her flight is delayed because the sun is too bright. 

I need say no more...

Shoes on the Danube

I went to Budapest in March for a long weekend and we made a stop on the Danube riverside to gaze at one of the simplest, yet most poignant Holocaust memorials I've ever seen in Europe. Empty cast iron shoes. Just shoes. Lined up on the banks of the river. From a tourist point of view, there is not much to see here, and I think that is the point.

 

 

 

 

Visit Budapest

The Shoes on the Danube is a memorial to the Budapest Jews who were shot by Arrow Cross militiamen between 1944 and 1945. The victims were lined up and shot into the Danube River. They had to take their shoes off, since shoes were valuable belongings at the time.The memorial was created by Gyula Pauer, Hungarian sculptor, and his friend Can Togay in 2005. It contains 60 pairs of iron shoes, forming a row along the Danube. Each pair of shoes was modeled after an original 1940's pair. For more of an insight read 'One of Budapest's Most Moving Memorials: Shoes on The Danube'.

 

 

I really need to brush up on German

Last weekend in Berlin, I tried to order 3 of these: 

Drei Weissbier

 

And I got this:

Drei Weißwein

 

We drank them anyway.

 

Nobody believes I'm a German girl. Sorry Dad.

Strobe Light Bathtub

In Paris on a business trip at the moment and I have just discovered the bathtub in my hotel room changes colors like a strobe light. Just in case I'd like to sit in the tub and get a headache. Only.In.France.

I'll be back

Dear loyal blog followers,

I'll be back. I haven't forgotten.

November was a crazy month of business and personal travel taking me to Stockholm, Brussels, Dublin, Paris and Madrid in about 4 weeks.

Its not as glamorous as it sounds though. Lots of airports, conference rooms, hotels, planes, trains, buses, passport control lines and early morning wake ups at ungodly hours.

During the month of craziness I did have some down time and my highschool friend Susie came to visit.  We did some London touring and headed to Dublin for the weekend. Guinness just tastes better in Ireland. Fact.

Guiness Factory, Dublin, November 2012

Don't Lose Passport

Note to self:  DO NOT LOSE YOUR PASSPORT.

I go through many moments of paranoia while travelling - obsessively checking and double checking my bag to be sure my passport is where I put it. Losing it has always been a concern of course... like the time in 2005 when a train conductor took it from me in Italy and wouldn't give it back until my friend and I got off...

That concern is only doubled when your passport contains a very valuable visa stamp indicating you have right to work in a foreign country.



Recently, an American friend living and working here was on a business trip in NYC and she misplaced her passport. After getting a new USA passport within 24 hours and getting her parents to overnight her birth certificate to her to do this, she headed to the British Embassy to replace her visa. The embassy very kindly turned her away and said sorry, go reapply.

Even though they have all her information, including her fingerprints to identify her, she had to completely reapply for the visa, a process that takes at least a week.

In order to obtain a new visa, you have to do the following:

1. Have your new USA passport on hand
2. Complete the visa application with the same information previously supplied
3. Attach a letter from your company stating you still work for them.
4. Get your fingerprints taken at an official designated location - an appointment that can take up to a week or more to make.
5. Attach a UK regulation size passport photo
6. Get a police report stating your Visa was lost.

Needless to say, this loss was all very expensive, costing around $1,000 for the expedited USA passport and UK visa replacement alone.

If you try to go back into the UK without the visa, you technically don't have the right to be working there without. Not sure what happens. I don't want to find out.

What happens if you lose your passport and you're not in the USA at the time but some other random country? I really, really, really don't want to find that out either.

Costa del Sol

For Easter, we get Good Friday as well as Monday off in the UK. So many places to go, so little time. I don't want to waste a single long weekend and so I convinced some work friends to book a last minute trip. We picked Malaga, Spain mainly because of relatively reasonable last minute price (everything was expensive as the whole country takes off) and it's very southern location. We needed to escape the drabby English spring weather.

Now, going to Spain during Easter means one thing - Holy Week Processions. Every city thoughout the country closes down streets and hosts these holy parades. I was excited to see this cultural event but we did hear that it would be crowded. And now I know....

What an experience to get to our rented flat after landing in Malaga.

To understand why this was a problem, you'll need the visual below. What was going on when we arrived into Malaga city center at 7pm:

Holy Week Processions

Location of our apartment below:


Needless to say, actually getting to our apartment meant the taxi dropped us off a mile away and we had to navigate through the parade crowds with our suitcases. At one point we got lost because we couldn't find the bridge he had directed us to cross and discovered 40 minutes later we had already crossed it we just couldn't tell because there was a million people around and all we could focus on was not running over toes with our bags. We had to line up to cross the parade route a few times and it was basically just madness.

I suppose it paid off because in the end, for the entire weekend we had front row seats for watching these processions pass by our apartment. People probably paid big bucks to sit in these grand stands in our particular plaza and we got an all inclusive deal.

Watching the Processions from our apartment

We explored Malaga all while stopping to check out these processions on occasion that would pop up through various spots in the city.

OK I know what you're thinking. Yes, these sights evoked images of the Klu Klux Klan for me too. I knew about these Easter traditions through years of studying Spanish and the culture but seeing it in action was something else. Of course, they had these ceremonial hoods first and that can't be disputed but for an American to be surrounded by it and watching hundreds of people pass in the pointed hooded garb of various colors was a little unsettling. I'm so glad I got to see this once a year cultural event and its an experience I won't forget.

100 men at a time carry these huge statues marching in unison through the streets

The children get involved in processions

 On Saturday, we took a bus to Granada for the day which is a cool city up in the mountains not far from Malaga. The Alhambra is its main attraction, but apparently they sell out the tickets on line for it up to 2 months in advance and only sell a handful of tickets the day of, starting at 8am. We didn't get to go in, but we saw it from the outside after taking some Segways around town for a while.

Segways in Granada

Alhambra in the background

Malaga from up high

  

Beautiful Malaga

Most of the Brits go to Costa del Sol to head to the resorts and sit in the sun for a week but I think they miss the culture in Malaga when they head straight to the beach - it's a beautiful city!

French Pyrenees

Last month I went on my first ski trip in Europe to the French Pyrenees. My friend Mathilde's parents have a house at Saint Lary-Soulan about 2 hours from her home town of Bordeaux. With a super cheap flight on Easy Jet and a free place to stay, this ski trip was a no brainer.

My week went something like this:

We land in Bordeaux and it is 24 degrees - Celsius (75F!). Not good for snow conditions but the mountains were hours away. We swing by Mathilde's house to pick up a car and Mathilde's mother has purchased enough food for the 6 of us for a week - meats, cheeses, wine, bread, champagne, fruits, pasta, vegetables, yogurts, chips, granola, more bread, more wine, more cheese... She even pre-made some side dishes and baked us some mini cakes and cookies. I ate like the French all week, trying duck dishes like confit-cassoulet and yogurt from sheep (which is creamy and rich and tastes like Greek yogurt).

We made the drive to the Pyrenees and arrived at night and I couldn't believe the path down to the house. Mathilde turned off the road and I had to close my eyes. The path was as wide as the car and went at pretty much a 45 degree angle. The fact that the left tire hugged the hill and on the other side of the right tire was a sloping mountain didn't seem to phase her. Yikes.

Path to the house on a snow day

View from the terrace

LOTS of wine, bread and cheese

Loading the car in the AM

Day 1 of skiing: I'm not sure if I have ever skied in hotter weather. It's roasting, the sun is shining and the snow is slushy.

Day 2 of skiing: Sun is still shining but it's a tad windier. Have lunch by a lake and lay on the grass, napping and soaking in rays

Just visiting

Day 3: Wake up with a horrible cold. Decide cannot ski, and wind up reading in the intermittent sunshine on the terrace all day long. Some new sheep friends came to join me at one point by the terrace.
Day 4: In the morning we can not see anything out the window. The fog is thick, clearing slightly, but as we head out we realize the conditions on the mountain are not good. We could literally not see 3ft in front of us while coming down.
Day 5: Snowy, cold, foggy. Thank god I bought goggles yesterday.
Day 6: Fantastic new snow. Best day of skiing of the week.

 
I learned quickly that the ski lifts in France don't slow down when they're coming around the turn. The first time I got whacked in the calves and thudded into the seat with the force of the moving chair. Welcome to France. Apparently, after you've pushed your way into the spot where you're next in line (no orderly progression here), you have to ready yourself and put your hand out and hold the seat then sit on it otherwise it will take you down without mercy. The other thing about this resort was the prevalence of the tow rope style lifts. They were everywhere and I'm not a big fan since they're uncomfortable and allow no rest for your legs in between runs. The runs were not very challenging and a lot of the black runs were closed due to lack of snow. I had fun nonetheless, but I think I'd like to try the Alps next which are higher and which allow for better snow conditions. 


It was an relaxing trip, and a very French and local one as this was not a touristy spot and practically no one spoke English although being about 5 miles from the Spanish border, I did get to use that a bit.


The Pyrenees are the perfect escape....

Snow fall the day we leave

St. Lary-Soulan

I Love Scotland

In October, that road trip up to Edinburgh was supposed to be 6 hours, but wound up taking 8 hours as we hit the lovely city of Birmingham at rush hour and didn't move for approximately 2 hours. By the time we got up to Scotland it was 11pm and we were exhausted, but eager to see the city the next day.

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh didn't disappoint, but in true Scottish fashion, the skies opened up and drizzled on us all day long and didn't let up once. This was quite frustrating for my photography ambitions as handling an SLR camera, camera bag, purse, and umbrella are quite difficult to do. I seriously think I need to find hat with an umbrella on top for my rainy photography days. I won't look that ridiculous... right?

One of the highlights was the Edinburgh Castle of course, which is nestled on a mountain top but sadly the views where obscured by the rain and fog that day. 

My favorite part of the city was the The Real Mary King's Close tour. You need to book a tour ahead of time, and I highly recommend it for any trip to Edinburgh. This tour is a deep dive into 17th century life in Edinburgh when everyone lived in "Closes" in the city which were basically alleys with homes that had rooms 5 stories high and thousands living on top of one another. The tiny alleys sloped down to the river from the streets up on top the hill to the putrid waters below. With no sewage system, the hill top city of Edinburgh threw literally everything down below. You wanted to be the rich person living at the top of the Close. The poorer you were, the lower you lived - quite literally dealt the shitty hand in life.

Amazingly, that infested river was drained and in modern day it is a pretty park with fountains and statues and flowers... see below...

We figured we had made the trip all the way up to Scotland and felt obliged that meant we needed to go on a mission to find Nessy. After road tripping up north from southern England, and wanting to cram in as much of the Scottish Highlands as we could in one day, we decided to take an all day tour that brought us to Loch Ness and other picturesque spots without having to do the driving ourselves. This meant we got up at 5am the next day, and met a tour group where we got stuck in the back seat of a mini bus sandwiched between 2 Brazilian 18 year old girls who both wanted a window seat and proceeded to talk to each other ignoring the fact that we were sitting between them. It was a long day. But the scenery was amazing.

Loch Ness

As luck would have it, during our hour long boat trip on Loch Ness... we spotted her.... Here we have it folks... NESSY!!! (Plus baby)

At Glen Coe, Scottish Highlands

Not only are the accents awesome, but the landscapes are fantastic and Edinburgh is a lively, interesting, picturesque and fun city.. I <3 Scotland. Can't wait to go back.

The Royal Britannia

In October... I went to Edinburgh, Scotland with my friend Theea.  Ok, yes this is a very delayed post but I've been meaning all along to say something about Scotland and I'll begin with the Royal Yacht Britannia.

This yacht has been in action travelling the world for 50+ years throughout Queen Elizabeth's reign and has been put to rest in a dock in Edinburgh as a tourist attraction. There have been royal honeymoons, summer holidays, state visits and foreign leaders across the globe have been aboard when the Queen docked at their shores. The last royal event happened last July when the Queen's granddaughter Zara hosted a pre-wedding reception on board and all the royals mixed and mingled on its deck and Duchess Kate apparently "recycled a dress" for the occasion. Scandalous.

Royals aboard the Britannia
 

Me standing where the Queen is!

These guys are obviously familiar with the Royal Yacht as well... Diana and Charles honeymooned on the ship and you can see the rooms where they stayed during the voyage.

Having visited palaces and castles in England such as Buckingham and Windsor over the years, I can say that its really not the same at all. In a palace, you don't get the sense of visiting someones home as you do on this yacht. There are family photos everywhere of the royals standing in the same place you're standing. The yacht was designed in a minimalist 1950s style. There is little fluff and every effort seems to have been made to make the furnishings much less pretentious than you might imagine they would be.

Aside from the fact that this is a ship that employed dozens of crew members to wait on the royal travelers and you can walk through the kitchen where a world class chef was employed, the laundry room where all the crew's uniforms are pressed to perfection...  The actual living quarters are simple and straight out of the '50s. Not much to them at all... the bedrooms consist of a dresser and a bed. There are basic nautical themed sitting rooms where Harry and William have played board games and the Queen's "office" is a simple desk. Of course, there is a more formal dining room and there have been many "posh" parties aboard. But what I liked most about seeing this ship is the teeny tiny sliver of normalcy you are able to peek in on.

Charles and Diana's Honeymoon Suite

I've read somewhere that the Queen's husband Prince Philip has never in his life put toothpaste on his own toothbrush. Apparently that task is reserved for his butler. So yes, "normal" and "royal" don't usually go together in the same sentence. But aboard the Britannia, the family photos unveil that they are just people in the end no matter how much scandal, heartache or loneliness those posed smiles are hiding.