Travel: Cairo, Egypt March 2013

I was invited to a wedding reception of one of my dear friends from University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign.   We were both in the Management Information Systems program and took a wide variety of classes together.  She was also the one that taught me a bit about wine, led me to actually liking cheese (and thinking that it's more than just Kraft singles), and was a big sister to me.  The wedding reception/dinner was in Cairo - of all places - as her fiancé (at the time) is Egyptian and his family lived near Cairo.    Done deal!  Not only will I get to see my friend get wed, I've also never been to Egypt before and it was close enough for me to not have to take too many days off of work during a busy period.

Cairo is a 3.5 hr flight from London.  Not bad if you think about it.  In March when I went it was about 11 degrees Celsius (50ish degrees F) in London - and it was around 40 degrees Celsius (close to 100 F) in Cairo.   A complete and welcomed change.

Plans:
I got in to Cairo on a Friday at 5am.  The plan was to rest, spend some time going to Mosques and a large market in Cairo with the tour guide, my friend, her fiancé, and her family, then have a reception dinner in the evening.  Saturday, her family and I were to go to the Egyptian Museum while my friend went on her honeymoon.  Sunday when her family flew out - I was to go to see the pyramids and go on a camel ride before I had to fly out Sunday afternoon.  Tight timeline but it was amazingly wonderful!

Onto the pictures!

Travel: Athens, Greece April 2013

With my big birthday in April, I had to decide where to go celebrate that I've never been before.  Because I rather like architecture and old artifacts, I ended up choosing to go to Athens, Greece.  I still think that was a great decision and all my friends had fun on the trip!

Accommodation:
We rented a 3 bed 2 bath apartment for the 6-8 of us rotating in and out of Greece at Greek Vacation Homes (http://greekvacationrentals.com).  The area is more local than touristy, walking distance to a myriad of restaurants, clubs, as well as sights like the Acropolis.  It's also a lot easier to experience the joys of being in a different city like walking to the grocery store, making breakfast at home, and feeling a bit more like a local than if we all had gotten a hotel.  The apartment even had a rooftop terrace with Acropolis views and a giant grill to have a BBQ!

Plans:
In terms of itinerary - our loose plans were to visit the Acropolis, Zeus's temple, Archeological museum, and take a day trip to a close by island, and do a wee pic of shopping.  We were only there for about 5 days.

Onto the pictures!

Play: Ice Bar - London

Why would anyone pay money to go and freeze their butts off - you may wonder?  Well - it is a cool experience during the summer when you need a bit of refreshment and the drinks and restaurant there aren't half bad!  At temperatures around 23 Fahrenheit or -5 Celsius, it is not somewhere you want to stay for a long time and get drunk with your buddies - and that's not a problem because you can only go in at set times for up to 45 minutes.  Otherwise, I assume that the ice that makes up the bar, the glasses, and the sculptures will start to melt with the body heat!

I went as part of a larger group for a hen night (UK term for Bachelorette party).  The 3 course dinner and Icebar and dinner deal starts at 29.50 GBP, which is not bad.

They throw a large cape on you with attached gloves so you can pick up your delicious drinks in cups made of ice.

Onto the pictures!

Travel/Eat: Cologne, Germany - Christmas Markets

I happened to have go to Amsterdam back in early December for work.  Like any fun minded traveller, I made sure to book my flights to include a free weekend in order to explore the city some more.  I ended up staying and meeting with a Chicago friend of mine, Stacy, in Amsterdam.  Coincidentally another friend and colleague of ours, Dane, was in flying into town from working in Berlin for the weekend as well.  With such a fun group - what would we do?  Exactly! Christmas markets!

There is not one, not two, not three, but four old Christmas markets in Cologne, Germany. These are located at the Rudolfplatz, Alter Markt, Neumarkt, and the largest/most impressive one by the Cologne Cathedral. It took about a 3.5 hr drive (with some snack and comfort stops) from Amsterdam to Cologne on the highway.  

After a spin around to look for parking we ended up right by the Cathedral (PS: Ladies have special designated parking - it's in places close to get to and well lit for safety).

Travel: A day and a half in Barcelona

Barcelona is a gorgeous city.  Having lived in London before for 2 years and having been living in London for a month and a half already for my second go-round - I can say that Barcelona is a lot more chill, warmer, and friendlier feeling than London is.   The last time I was here was about 6 years ago it was at the tail end of my long European trip - so all I really did was lay on the beach, tan, eat tapas and drink sangria.  It was the epitome of laziness.

So this time when I had the chance to go to Barcelona for a few days, I forced myself to not over plan (which if you know me, is very difficult for me).  The high level plan was to relax, see some major sites, have some sangria and paella, visit the beach, and go out one night. We didn't hit ALL of these, unfortunately, which I'll get into a bit later.  

Day 1 - We missed the entire day as we missed our flight (tip: All EasyJet flights close about 30 min before the flight leaves...so don't dawdle and have a leisurely breakfast and try to get on the flight 15 min before it takes off because it will already be gone) WHOOPS!  Thankfully, we got a flight leaving at 5:10pm which put us at the Hostel around 9:30pm.  Just enough time to grab some food and sleep but we lost the entire day. 

For dinner we went to Apolo Diner which is located next to one of the best clubs in the city (did we make it at all? no...) http://www.apolodiner.com/en/home/  The menu has typical American diner food like hamburgers, nachos, etc., which is now big in Europe.  However they also have traditional Spanish Tapas.  I can attest that all the food was delicious and I definitely recommend it especially for lining your stomach before you go clubbing at the Apolo Theatre club. 

Day 2 - The itinerary for the day included Sagrada Familia and Paella - both of which were achieved!  The Basilica de Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church that was originally started by the architect and artist Gaudi in 1882/1883.  Unfortunately, only a quarter of the church was finished by the time of his accidental death in 1926.  At present, there is still construction being done on the church.  By the time the church is done, there will be 18 towers.  You can see the influences of nature and Gaudi's style all throughout the church.  It is truly breathtaking inside.  (pics and day 3 below the cut)

Location: Sagrada Famila Metro Stop (L2)

Eat: London - Borough Market - (aka Eat all the Things)

One of my favorite Saturday morning events is to go to the gym early to earn my breakfast because Saturdays is the BEST day to go to Borough Market in London.

The old food market is probably one of my favorite food and veggie markets in London just because it is massive, has all kinds of fruit and veggies as well as: (examples)

- milky hot chai (from Scratch)

- Best Coffee Ever: Monmouth Coffee

- Fresh oysters that are shucked for you and that you can eat at the stall

- Garlic Prawn wraps

- Pork roasts

- Thai food

- Beautiful veggies and fruits

- German Food

- exotic burgers (ostrich, buffalo, wild boar, venison, etc.)

- Spanish chorizo sandwiches

- Butchers

- Farm Fresh eggs

- Vegetarian Food

- Best Cheese Raclette sandwich 

- 100s of varieties of cheese

- 100s of varieties of chocolate and pastries

- British meat pies

My favorites are the garlic prawn wraps, the chorizo sandwiches, and the pork roast sandwich with cracklin.  The raclette sandwich is so good - but so rich that you can really only have it twice a year. 

I could go on - but I mean, if you are in London you just HAVE to go to Borough Market.  A lot of the stalls take credit cards as well as cash, but it's better to have cash on hand just in case.  You can get really great deals on fruit and veggies there if you know where to look.  Once you are done eating and shopping, you can take a stroll towards the river as Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and the Shakespeare Globe theatre are all close by.  Also - the Bombay Sapphire room at Vinopolis http://brilliant-london.com/tag/bombay-sapphire/ is pretty amazing if you like gin and a great event space. 

I'll leave you with some pictures - 

Back in London - My heart goes pitter-patter

Since moving back to the US in 2010 after living in London for 2 years, life has been a heck of a roller coaster ride.  I have experienced shock, hurt, euphoria, heartbreak, extreme stress, gut-wrenching pain, depression, happiness, adrenaline highs, sloppy drunken lows, lust, numbness and pretty much everything on the emotional spectrum not to mention 2 moves.

What I have learned is, you live, you learn, you love, you smile through pain, you laugh at the sheer joy of being able to feel the sun, rain, or snow on your face and you move on.  There is no place in my life for bile, hatred, and jealousy - life is too short to curse the world for things that don't happen or bad things that happen to you. Bad things can happen to good people and good things can happen to bad people and vice versa.  Did you know that the average life expectancy of an average person is around 65/66 years? There are about 526,176 minutes in a year - that is 34,790,757 minutes in an average lifetime.  I would prefer to spend 98% of those minutes focusing on positive things and helping other people.  The other 2%...well I have my moments, obviously.  I am human after all. *shakes fist

Since moving  back to the US, I haven't done too much traveling with the exception of visiting a few cities Ohio for work and some holidays, San Francisco to see some friends and their adorable baby, Singapore/Malaysia for a wedding, and Amsterdam and Madrid for another wedding.  Okay, okay, so that may seem a lot to most people and there is a lot of the world's smallest violin playing going on, but trust me, when you have lived in Europe before, traveling about 4 times in 2 years is really nothing...

It brings me back to this exciting announcement!  I have moved back to London for the forseeable future!  I don't like using terms like forever and never because those get me into trouble when my mind is made up (I am stubborn - what?) But I plan on being here until I don't want to anymore.  That is probably the most accurate and most truthful way I can put things down on paper.

I flew into Heathrow airport yesterday, 18th September, 2012 and landed around 10am.  It only hit me about 10 minutes ago that I am actually moved here rather than here for another visit with my friends like I did back in late April.  It felt like a ball of charge electricity - excited, happy, sad, and scared at the same time!  I think it'll take a while for the feelings to sort themselves out.

London really is the city of my heart. There is just something so warm and satisfying about being here that I struggle to describe.  Being here is like a warm bowl of soup and a delicious grilled cheese sandwich on a cold cold day - but for my soul.  There is just so much to do, eat, travel to, and explore.  I really cannot describe it without getting all teary.  What I do wish was that there was some sort of teleportation device so that I could get my loved ones in the States here in an instant whenever they or I want them to be here.  Alas...maybe one day.

I have a fully furnished corporate flat until I move into the house share this weekend or early next week with my awesome housemates. But boy, is this place gorgeous!  I keep trying to pace myself and the speed at which I see and do things around London because I will pretty much have all the time in the world to do, eat, and explore.

As I am back - I have started to look for trips to Greece, Budapest, Malta, etc etc., so I am sure I will be a lot more active on this blog than before.  Plus - I will also add restaurant reviews (London has so much good stuff!!!) and possibly some random video blogs if I can be convinced to show my face.

I will leave you with some pictures of the flat, the views around Canary Wharf where I am staying during the day and night, and some pics from wandering around earlier today (Camden and Chinatown)