Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas!
We are spending a quiet christmas in London this year - and so far its been a fantastic christmas! I was up at 5am for some unknown reason (all those years waiting for santa...) but managed to finally get up at a reasonable time. We plan on spending the whole day at home,
with lots of good food and drinks (nothing starts the day like an irish coffee!). Everything in London is closed for Christmas and most stores are closed for Boxing Day as well (including all public transportation!) - so we will be hanging around Islington for the weekend. We had some snow at the beginning of the week but its melted now...maybe well have a christmas snow miracle :)
A big shout out to our parents and family - we wish we could be at home celebrating with you!
We wish you and yours a very merry christmas and happy holidays!
Love,
Tracy and Brian
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Random London
Like this...
And these guys...
Cant wait to see what else we run in to!
Tis the season...
Friends of ours hosted a fantastic, home cooked Thanksgiving dinner on that day. They cooked for about 12 people, mostly Americans, and we all had a great time! Brittany even smuggled in some traditional canned cranberry sauce on her last trip to the US - nothing like cranberry sauce with the can lines on it!
Next up was a big pub dinner the Friday after. We had about 20 Americans, plus a few little ones running around, get together at one of our favorite local pubs. The pub cooked us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner - a 2okg turkey, sweet potatos, mashed potatos, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing...the works!! And it was SO delicious - they really did an amazing job! We were fat and happy after two great days of celebrating!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The other red meat...
Yup.
You read it right.
Ostrich.
Yum?
Turns out - YUM is right! We cooked that bad boy up tonight on the grill (in our GARDEN!!! Yes, still super excited about the garden) - along with a rack of lamb (have I died and gone to heaven?). We cooked the Ostrich steak the same way you would a regular beef steak, and it tasted pretty much the same as regular red meat! Its healthier than regular red meat as well...this could become a staple bbq item this summer!
I managed to pitch in a little today - I baked some chocolate chip cookies for dessert...still having major issues getting my cookies to look right (hmm I guess it WASNT our old oven then...). So after the first batch of regular CCC, I stuck the rest in a pan an made blondies. What a dee-liscious end to the weekend!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
When life gives you lemons...
*make lemonade!*
I just found out that my job at Gap won't be permanent. I was initially signed on for a 4 month contract with an option to extend it. Sadly, that option was just taken away. They just announced a big reorganization of the company, which majorly impacted our London office and parts of the NY office, and my position will be moved to NYC as of May 2010. Oh the irony.
Back on the interview train I go...I wallowed in self pity last night ("no fair - I JUST found a job that I really like, in an industry that I love, doing what I do best!!" - yes, as a grown adult I whined "no fair") but I am trying to take on a sunny approach to the situation this morning. Hey - at least I have a great project to put on my CV (in London no less, for a global company!) and maybe this final push from the fashion world will give me the guts to try something new! All I know is, I won't be back in that bloody hair salon any time soon.
Another blessing is that I'm employed at least until the end of January, possibly until May. So don't worry my friends...you'll still all get your Christmas presents this year :)
"When life gives you lemons...make lemonade"
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Ain't these perrty?
**some be-yooo-tiful zinnias that I bought at our local farmers market a few weeks ago**
We are all moved into our new place and 95% unpacked! Most of our giant american sized furniture fits (hooray!), save for a few jumbo occasional tables, and we had very little problems moving in. Much to my shock our internet and phone were hooked up the same night we moved into the new flat, although yesterday we did have to wait over 10 hours for Sky to come and hook up our cable tv (not to mention that when they finally came they only brought the cable box and not the chip card that actually accesses the cable...so now we have another useless cable box sitting in our living room). However, 1 out of 2 aint bad!
Pics of the apt are coming soon - I promise! Hope you had a nice weekend!
Pics of the apt are coming soon - I promise! Hope you had a nice weekend!
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Pack it up, Pack it in
Brian is so sick of hearing that. What? It's not annoying to sing the same two lines from a rap song over and over and over every time I start packing up a new box. It's not - I swear! That's right folks, we're moving! Much to our dismay, we have to pack up our stuff and move out of our lovely apartment at the end of this week. The bad news - packing is a pain in the ass. The good news - our new flat is AWESOME. Right now I only have a few pictures of the new apartment with all of the previous tenants stuff in it, which would be weird to post on this blog. So once we get all settled in I'll be sending pics of our new home!
Our internet is supposed to be installed the same day that we move into the new place - but lets be real, the odds of that happening are about the same as me getting through this move with less than a dozen new bruises. But I'll cross my fingers anyway, and hope that all goes well! If you want our new address send me a note and I'll update you. I figured posting our mailing address on the internet was not the best of ideas. Go me for thinking ahead. I think that deserves a cupcake.
Happy (belated) Halloween
I know. This post is about, mmm 3 days late. Oops. I'm going to blame it on the fact that Halloween isn't a huge holiday over here. In the weeks leading up to the actual day there were more Christmas decorations and candy in the stores than there were for Halloween!
However, there was a little bit of spooky activity in these parts - we had a pumpkin carving competition at work! Its an annual even, and gets very competitive. Working in a creative environment certainly results in some creative carvings!
My team decided to scale back on the "carving" and focus on the "decorating aspect of the event. I present to you - Pumpkin Gaga
It was actually pretty rubbish (direct quote from my coworker - not me!) but we had a great time dressing her up. Sadly, we didn't place in the top three...we probably came in dead last to be honest. But still, it was fun.
And now we have a looonnngggg two month wait until the next big Holiday here in London, Christmas. The Christmas songs have already started on the radio and the lights are already up in all the streets. I'm sure I'll be sick of it all by Dec 20, but for now I'm kind of loving it!
Hope you had a great Halloween!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Happy Anniversary!
ONE YEAR.
My, how time flies when you're having fun.
To all of our friends and family who have come to visit - thank you so much, you have made our time here so much more enjoyable.
To our friends and family who haven't - get your ass over here stat! :)
We have another big year coming up (something about a wedding...?) and I'm sure it will be filled with even more fun and crazy adventures as last year. So keep checking back here regularly - cuz we ain't goin nowhere!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Ljubljana - Slovenia Day 1
I already posted from Ljubljana while we were there (see that post here) so this post will be pretty short. We decided to start our vacation in the countries capital. It was a small but cute city, with the Old Town being the best part of it. We stayed right in the city center and enjoyed wandering around all of the side streets during the afternoon. There was a castle on top of the hill that overlooked the city, but I never made it up there (Brian did however, and said it was great!).
We had a fantastic dinner of thin crust pizza - our first of MANY that is (good things come from being Italy's neighbor) and enjoyed sitting in the town square watching a live soccer match on the screen that they had set up for the public. All in all a great start to the vacation!
Check out our pictures here
Saturday, October 10, 2009
technical difficulties
In addition to this being a very busy week (what's up new job??) I am having some technical difficulties updating the blog. It seems that we have reached our photo capacity and it wont let me upload anymore photos into picasaweb and/or the blog. So until I get that fixed the recaps will be put on hold. Sad, I know. But stick around - I hope to have it up and running soon!
Monday, October 05, 2009
Ireland with Danielle and Ed
The sun gods looked down upon us for those three days because we had some GREAT weather. A little cloudy and cool here and there, but it was mostly sunny fantastic weather. Brian and I took Danielle and Ed to a few of our favorite places - including spending the afternoon in Galway, having lunch at the Quays pub and spending some time in the near-by town of Clifton. We dragged them on a hike (as we needed to practice for climbing Mt Triglav the next week!). And though I think we were way more excited about it than they were, they were great sports about it.
On the third and last day in Ireland we decided to drive to the Cliffs of Moher. They are about an hour away from Shannon (where we were flying out of) and were so worth the side trip! The cliffs are absolutely amazing. It is stunning to see their size and the way the sea pounds away at the rocks to carve out these beautiful cliffs. All together the cliffs are some 8k long (I think...you might want to wiki that) and if you venture out far enough they take down the railings...and you can step as close to the edge as you dare. We weren't nearly that gutsy though, and stuck mostly to wide open spaces far from the edge. The weather was amazing, in fact the sun was so bright at times that we had a hard time taking pictures because the sun was washing them out. But hey, if that's all I have to complain about - Ill take it!
Here is the link for all of our Ireland pictures...enjoy!
A big THANK YOU goes out to Danielle and Ed for coming to visit us. We loved every minute of having you guys stay with us, and hope that you had a good time too!
Next up - we have 5 hours to unpack, repack, sleep and get our butts back to the airport for our Slovenia trip!
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Vacation Wrap Up
We had an AMAZING time in Ireland and in Slovenia and we have TONS of stories (and pictures - 1000 pictures to be exact!) to share with you. I'm going to try and post everything as quickly as I can because I am so excited to tell everyone about it, but there is a lot so it might take a while.
I have decided to post everything in sort of daily recaps - it makes it easier for me to recap each day, and easier for you to only too at 100 pics at a time, instead of all 1000 all at once! Ill be starting with recaps from Ireland, moving on to Slovenia and finally ending with Venice.
Until I can get the recaps and photos ready to post - here is a quick recap of everything we did on vacation (including a few New York and London related updates!) :
- Drove\flew in 4 countries in less than 14 hours (Ireland - England - Italy - Slovenia...our flight schedule was a bit nuts)
- Visited the Cliffs of Moher with some kids from Po-town (we love visitors!)
- Got a new job (a real job this time!!)
- Climbed a 10,000 ft mountain (and lived to tell about it)
- Bought a wedding dress (don't worry I didn't find it in Slovenia) and booked a wedding venue (finally!)
- Went from the highest peaks to the deepest caves in Slovenia (2 of them to be exact)
- Signed a lease on an apt that we had only seen in pictures on the internet (thankfully its amazing!)
- Marveled at waters so blue and clear we swore they were taken from the Caribbean and put into the Julian Alps (too bad it wasn't as warm!)
- Got lost in the streets and canals of Venice (on purpose, and with gelato in hand!)
- Realised that no matter how fun vacation is...it always feels great to come home (looking at all the laundry we have to do does not feel as great)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Bled - Day 1
We left Ljubljana fairly early this morning and made our way to Bled. We didn't realize how close it was and made it here in less than an hour. We spent the morning discussing our Triglav trip details with the tour company and finding a room for the next three nights. We are going to use Bled as a base for the Bled area and neighboring Lake Bohinj.
We rowed out to the little island in Lake Bled, which houses a small church and restaurant. The weather has been great - warm and sunny, though today was a bit hazy. We walked around the whole lake (6 km) and even trekked up to the castle that over looks this picturesque town. We are staying in a pension and have an apt to ourselves, which will make a great base over the next few days.
If the weather is nice tomorrow we are going to head over to Lake Bohinj and do a medium hike there. Wed will be a rest day since we need to prepare for our big hike! Pray for nice weather on Thurs and Fri!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Quick Hello - Slovenia Day 1
I was hoping to send a recap of our Ireland trip before we left for Slovenia, but we miss calculated how much time we had in between flights. Turns out our flight from Ireland didnt arrive in London until nearly 11pm on Saturday, and our flight to Slovenia left at 730am on Sunday. Factor in travel time between our flat and the airport both ways....you can do the math. That left us with a nap in between trips, and no time to share our Ireland vacation with you!
So here we are in Ljubljana, Slovenia. We flew into Venice and picked up our rental car. Brian had a fun time switching from driving a manual car in Ireland on the wrong side of the road, to driving a manual car in Italy/Slovenia on the right side of the road. And you can imagine how well I did trying to figure out the round-abouts in both countries. Oy vei. But we made it here in one piece, and we think the car survived as well.
We had a fantastic time with Danielle and Ed last week when they were staying with us. We had amazing weather in Ireland as well - all three days ended up being sunny! They (and we) lucked out big time! I even think it was warmer there in September then it was when we were there in July! One new place that we went on this trip to Ireland was the Cliffs of Mohar.
They. Are. Amazing.
I cannot wait to share the pictures with you guys! Unfortunately that will have to wait for a couple of weeks.
We leave Ljubljana tomorrow morning and make our way towards Bled and Lake Bohinj. Our two day hike up Mt Triglav is on Thursday and Friday. I hope to have regular updates for you guys on this trip! Hope you had a great weekend!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Pause
We had a great time at Scott and Annes wedding in Newport, RI. It was my first time to Newport and I loved it! We had a great hotel on the beach, did the cliff walk, saw The Breakers and many of the other mansions there, had some fantastic lobster and enjoyed a beautiful and super fun wedding.
Then I flew up to Syracuse for a few days. It was my first time home in a year, and man it felt good to be back! I saw tons of my family, caught up with old friends and went shopping for a wedding dress! I could have used a few more days upstate but I'm glad I was able to have at least a little time up there at all.
Then it was back to NYC and later CT for Maura and Liams wedding. It was so awesome being reunited with my S3 Marist girls (and Frank and Ed), and we had a blast partying it up CT style. The wedding was amazing - Maura looked so beautiful (I'm running out of adjectives to use in this post!) and was glowing from head to toe. The reception was super fun, the wedding toasts were some of the best I have ever heard, and we danced the night away.
It all ended too quickly - and much of it was a blur...thank god I had my camera :)
Now I'm back in London (with a couple of guests!). Its time to unpack and re-pack, because in two days we are off again! We are spending a few days in Ireland with our friends Danielle and Ed, and then we are off to Slovenia for two weeks! Its going to be super busy and a bit frenzied, but I'm sure it will be a great time. Keep an eye out for updates!
Thursday, September 03, 2009
And we're off!
We leave today for New York and couldn't be more excited! Brian will be in town just for the weekend, but I will be home for a full week.Our schedule is jam-packed, as usual, but its all fun stuff! We will be doing a little wedding research ourselves, along with attending two of our friends wedding, hanging out in NYC/LI, and I get to go home to Skaneateles for the first time in a year!
This trip starts off our hectic September of traveling - but don't worry, I've got an extra large cup of coffee in front of me to help me prepare!
Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone - I hope you had a great summer!
Monday, August 31, 2009
What I Did on My Bank Holiday by Tracy Miller
Fast forward to today. Finally time to go zorbing!
The directions seemed easy enough...take a train 35 mins outside of London, take a quick right out of the train station and walk for 10 mins...begin zorbing!
In reality, it was a bit...weirder...
They neglected to tell us that the "10 min walk" was actually up a really steep hill, in the middle of the forest, with no sidewalks...
And then we had to follow a dirt path, through the woods, in the middle of a paintball park...
And then we came upon a tent where we were greeted by a young girl with release forms for us to sign. I have to say, it didn't look that official, and it looked a wee bit sketchy. There were two other guys there at the same time as us, and we were able to watch them do a Hydro-run (where they throw water inside the zorb before you enter it) while we got ready (read: took off our shoes).
And then, our time had come...I'm not going to lie I started to feel VERY claustrophobic when I got inside the hamster ball...the inner space was much smaller than I had thought. I stepped back out of the zorb to collect myself and dove back in to get this thing over with. Literally, I had to dive in face first. Very elegantly I might add...
Once we were strapped in - we had feet and body harnesses - we were ready to go. A few deep breathes, a worried look to Brian and we were off!! And man did I scream my head off. An kept my eyes shut for 95% of it. And was completely mashed up the side of the ball while we were rolling/bouncing down the track. And then - it was over! All that for a measly 25 seconds of fun.
Brian and I looked at each other and just laughed. What a bizarre experience! We made our way back up the hill and prepared ourselves for our second trip down. I have to say, it went much smoother. We had a different hamster ball which was more comfortable and roomier inside - and I even managed to keep my screams to a minimum and my eyes open for 80% of it!! Victory!
Our zorbing package only included two trips down the hill, but we were perfectly ok with that. We watched a couple other people that had arrived after us and made our way through the sketchy woods back to the country road to head back to the train station.
The jury is still out on how we felt about zorbing...are we glad we did it? Sure, yes ok. Would we do it again? Hmm, I don't think so. Perhaps we had a spare one in our backyard, but I don't think its something we would travel outside of London to do again. But hey - variety is the spice of life...right?
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Bank Holiday
What are we going to be doing on our extra day off?
A little thing called Zorbing.
Beyond excited.
Here's hoping I dont break a bone.
Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Kayaking - Day 2
Not too shabby.However, the last thing I wanted to do was put on my soaking wet wetsuit and kayak 12km. Alas, that was the only way back. So we packed up the campsite and were on our way. We stopped mid-trip to take a detour to see the largest waterfall in the fjord that we were on (largest waterfall by volume, that is). We hiked pretty close to it - I felt like I was on the Maid of the Mist! After a quick break for lunch, we had a one-track mind - getting to the end. Brian and I paddled our hearts out and we so happy to step back on land with our wobbly legs at the finishing point! It was an amazing experience, but we were happy to be done paddling.
After we got the boats packed up we made our way back to Voss for our last night in Norway. We were originally supposed to be camping our last night, but upon our return to the Nordic Ventures office (which is conveniently located next to a hotel) we took one look at the hotel and ran as fast as we could for a real bed.
We took the train the next day from Voss all the way east to Oslo where our flight was later that night. We decided to take the longgg train ride (6 hours to be exact) because we heard the scenery was amazing. It certainly was amazing, but after 5 days in the country to be honest all we wanted to do was get home. A very long 14 hours after we started our journey home, we made it back to London. We were exhausted but it was worth it!
Kayaking - Day 1
After we packed up the van, our guide drove us to the starting point of our trip. We packed up our kayaks with 2 days worth of food, tents, gear, clothes and wine (woohoo!), had a brief tutorial on kayaking and we were off! It took a few mins to get used to kayaking (for me anyway) but we quickly caught on. It had rained a little in the morning but the clouds were starting to break as we began our trip. We were to kayak 25km over two days, with the longer day being Day 1. We kayaked a couple of km and then took a break for lunch. It was amazing to see the sheer size of the fjords - the water was as deep as the mountains were tall. The sea was so calm, usually it was like glass, and if we stopped paddling it went silent. In one word - it was amazing.
Our guide told us to keep a look out for seals, otters and dolphins (keep in mind, this was sea water we were paddling in!) - and low and behold we actually saw some dolphins! Thankfully we were in 3 double kayaks, so Brian shared the paddling with me (ok ok - so he did most of the paddling, who am I kidding). Even though the journey was long, we did it at a slow and leisurely pace, so we could really enjoy our surroundings and appreciate the beauty that was all around us. It really was a once in a lifetime experience.
We finally made it to our base for the night, quickly set up camp and had a delicious grilled dinner. A few drinks around the fire and everyone forgot about their sore arms - and the remaining 12km we had left! Life was good.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Voss
We arrived in Voss and were...underwhelmed. After coming from Bergen, a smallish bustling beautiful city, Voss was a wee bit different. A bit older, MUCH smaller, and generally much quieter. We got to our campground (and decided to get a cabin for the night since the forecast for the weekend was rain) and decided to take a hike to the top of the mountain in Voss. We got muddled directions from the tourist information office on how to reach the trail but once we found it we were good to go. Oh, and I should mention that we were racing against time. We decided that we wanted to hike to the top and take the cable car down. But the cable car (and most other things in Voss) stopped running at 5pm. It was 330pm when we set off from town. One person told us the hike would take 4 hours, another said 1 hour is we went "very fast". So very fast we went.
And I should mention that this hiking path was more like a dried up river bed that people used as a guide to the top. And it got VERY muddy since it had been raining all week. That made for some interesting hiking. But we got some amazing views of the town and of the forest. As usual, the view from the top was worth all the blood, sweat and tears it took to get up there. I hate it when Brian is right :)
Bergen
It was too early to check into our hotel so we headed straight into town. The harbor in Bergen is so pretty and picturesque - the leaning wooden houses from generations ago, the harbor filled with yachts and fishing boats, and the fish market that takes place every day in the center of the harbor. We decided to take a train tour of the town. And by train I mean a Chou Chou train - it had tourist trap written all over it but it was suggested by one of our guidebooks and we only had one day in Bergen, so we figured why not?
Big mistake. We both hate to do touristy things like that, and we were reminded why. The tour was mostly older (MUCH older) people, and we had to listen to a pre-recorded tour of the town, but when we got caught in traffic the tape didn't pause. We almost jumped off the train mid-tour. So, to punish ourselves for making a stupid decision like that (and wasting a lot of money, Norway ain't cheap yo!) we decided to hike to the top of the mountain that overlooks Bergen. There is a funicular railway that you can take to the top - but we decided to hike it instead.
As usual I complained all the way to the top...and as usual the view was breathtaking once we got there. The sun came out and the weather was amazing!! Ill let the pictures speak for themselves...
We enjoyed a great seafood dinner in the harbor that night and toasted to a great day!
Next up - Voss
Oh - here is the link to the pictures. I'm warning you now - there are a lot...like 300 a lot...have fun :)
Oslo
We started our trip in Oslo. Brian had work to do all day so I was on my own for sightseeing. The weather was ok - mostly overcast and a little chilly - but there wasn't any rain, so that was a plus. I didn't really know anything about Oslo but I knew I only had an afternoon to explore. I admit - I did some poor planning.
My plan for the day was to wander around central Oslo, see the harbor, the palace, etc. Which I did. And it was OK. Oslo isn't the prettiest or most exciting city that I've been to. So while I had a great time seeing the Fortress and all the shops down by the harbor, and even the Royal Palace and a very organized children's bike race - there are many other cooler sights I could have seen (such as the sculpture park or the Viking museum).
Ah well - c'est la vie
What I did see I like and I got to do a lot of window shopping since I was on my own, which I thoroughly enjoyed as well! But I couldn't help wanting to get out of Oslo, and onto our next part of the trip....Bergen and the kayaking trip!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Cross your fingers....
That's right...rain is predicted for every single day we are there. The British meteorologists are usually wrong in their weather forecasts (how they can screw up a 50/50 chance of rain I have no idea), so I'm hoping the same is true for this forecast! We will be back next Monday - have a great rest of the week and weekend!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
mmmmm.....
As much as a love a crepe (especially the ones filled with nutella) - good old american pancakes are still the best. Especially enjoyable when slightly hung over. Oops...too many Pimms last night. Best breakfast ever.
Copenhagen recap - Day 3
We spent most of Saturday wandering around Malmo. Not that there is a lot to do there...although its Swedens 3rd largest city, we managed to cover most of it in a couple of hours. We went to the two largest parks in Malmo, the weather was still gorgeous so we had to take advantage of it. A quick tour of the city center and then we headed back down to the Western Harbor, hoping to take in another beautiful sunset.
We wandered around the apartment complexes and around the Twisted Torso for a few hours and marvelled at the architecture. Each block had its own unique look...very different from the row apartments in London and huge apartment complexes in NYC.
We ended the day back in the Little square with a pint of Pilsner Urquell (of course Brian managed to find the only Czech bar in Malmo) and some more delicious seafood. We were headed back to London the next day, so we tried to enjoy it all in the little time we had left.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Copenhagen recap - Day 2
We had checked out of our hotel that morning, with plans to take the train over the Oresund Bridge to spend a couple of days in Malmo, Sweden. After the boat cruise, we walked over to Christiania (the tracy-friendly part of it!) and had a nice relaxing lunch. With happy, full bellies we made our way to Sweden! The train ride from Copenhagen - Malmo is only about 30 mins long. The bridge consists of 4km underground tunnel and 8km bridge. Unfortunately we were on the underside of the bridge (the top is cars-only) so we couldn't see the amazing architecture of the bridge, but we could still the the water and all of the wind farms.
Once we arrived in Malmo and got settled in our hotel we decided to go for dinner in the "little square". Right off of the "big square" (these are technical terms people, go with me), the "little square" is famous for its social atmosphere - filled with bars, restaurants and cafes, it is the center of Malmo nightlife. We had a great sushi dinner (Malmo is famous for its super fresh fish, especially salmon!) and then wandered over to the Western Harbor.
We managed to go to the Western Harbor right at sunset! It was amazing to see the Twisted Torso and the Western Harbor at sunset. Unfortunately our camera battery died during the canal cruise earlier that day, so we were only able to get a couple of pictures. After a llloonngg journey back to the hotel (we may or may not have gotten lost once or twice) - we called it a day!
I forgot to add this in my Day 1 post - here is the picasa link to all of the pictures!
Copenhagen recap - Day 1
We arrived in Copenhagen in Thursday morning. After getting settled in our hotel we made our way to the Nyhavn Canal - the infamous, picturesque canal in downtown Copenhagen - for lunch. There is a very large pedestrian shopping area that spans almost 3/4 the length of the city, and we had to walk through it to get to lunch. It was really cool seeing all of the Scandinavian stores and fashion (well, I thought it was cool). They are very edgy and fashion forward over there - so jealous! We had a great lunch by the canal and then we had to split up - Brian had work to do (the original reason we went on the trip!) and I had some major site seeing to do!
Our hotel was basically on one edge of town, and most of the sites were in the middle and on the opposite side. This girl walked her butt off. For being a "small" city, I seriously must have walked a million miles. I wanted to see the famous Little Mermaid statue (once a symbol of Copenhagen and major tourist trap) - and of course she was located at the furthest opposite side of the city. Luckily, the weather was AMAZING (read: HOT), so not only did I get to explore a cool city, I got a great tan as well! Be sure to check out the pics, I must have seen every major site in Copenhagen on my first afternoon!
In the evening I took a bus over to Christiania, a separate island and more "alternative" area in Copenhagen. Known for its alternative lifestyle (aka rock and roll punks and laid back attitude towards drugs) it is a very eclectic neighborhood. I basically took 5 steps into that area, looked around and noticed that I stood out like crazy. What, danish punks don't wear J Crew?? I high tailed it out of there stat - at least I checked it off my list! There is another area of Christiania that is much more my speed - along the canal! It basically looks like the main canal in Copenhagen, but on a smaller cuter scale. Lots of cute bars and restaurants, and more cool houses.
I went back to the city center for dinner, a glass of wine and to put my feet up. What a great first day!
Monday, August 10, 2009
And the verdict is...
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for Copenhagen and Malmo. As I mentioned last week, we really hadn't done any planning for this trip (much like our very successful trip to Ireland...I'm seeing a theme here) and we were so happy with this trip. We had AMAZING weather the entire trip and found Copenhagen to be an amazing city - fantastic architecture both old and new, friendly people and lots to see and do. Malmo was also a great addition to the trip - a small city on the coast of Sweden with some amazing architectural achievements in the last few years (more details and pics to come!)
We struggled a bit with the language though...and found things like this highly amusing...
'Rea' means 'Sale' in Swedish....he he he...A full recap and link to pictures will be posted shortly - hope you guys had a great weekend!
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Next Stop - Copenhagen!
We leave for Copenhagen tomorrow morning! We will be splitting our time between Copenhagen and Malmo, Sweden (just across the bridge from Copenhagen). Can't wait to check out these Scandinavian cities! You can bet I'll be checking out these in Copenhagen....
mmm...i love me a danish!
This trip has kind of been shoved to the back of our minds because we have been doing a lot of planning for our Norway trip in a few weeks, and our trip to Slovenia in September. Poor Copenhagen, its kind of like the step-child trip this month. So, that being said, we haven't really done any research into what there is to see and do - but I'm sure we'll find something! Cross your fingers for sun :) Have a great weekend!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Summer Plans
- Copenhagen - Another "tag along" work trip for me. Brian has to go for work and I decided to stow away in his carry on for the weekend. We will be splitting our time between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden (two more countries down!)
- Oslo and Bergen, Norway - This will be a work\leisure trip. Work for Brian in Oslo, leisure for me in Oslo, and leisure for both of us in Bergen. We will be joining some friends in Bergen for a kayaking trip down the fjords. Speaking of which, I should probably attempt to get some arm muscles before this trip...
- New York\Rhode Island\Connecticut - we have TWO dear friends getting married in September! First its off to RI for wedding #1, I will be staying the week after to visit friends and family all over the state of New York, and back to CT for wedding #2.
- Ireland - AGAIN!! We loved it so much we just had to go back. And our friends that are visiting us from NY in Sept requested it as a side trip. Twist my arm, ok ok I'll go back to Ireland!
- Slovenia - This time its pure leisure (but not all relaxation!) as we head to Slovenia for two weeks in Sept and Oct. At first we were going to split our time between Slovenia and Croatia, but there are so many AMAZING things to see in Slovenia, we will probably end up spending most of our time there - hiking, kayaking, cycling, CAMPING (people who know me, you can faint now) - and enjoying some amazing scenery along the way. Check this out -
Julian Alps - here we come!Speaking of which (again) - I should try to get some leg muscles, those peaks look pretty high...
So make sure to check back every couple of weeks, theres bound to be a new travel update!
I hope you guys are having a GREAT summer so far - let us know your plans for the summer!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Malta - Day 4
The original reason we decided to go to Malta was because Brian had to go down there for work. So, on Monday we split up - he went to work and I went off to Valletta for the day. And by go to work I mean he left before dawn to visit a ship docked off the coast of Valletta. Not a bad days work if you ask me.
I took the bus to the capital and wandered through it in a couple of hours. Its not very big but is very old and has a ton of history. And a ton of churches. Very religious people, the Maltese. By lunch time I was hot and tired and had enough of site-seeing for the day. I headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a little lunch and pool time before Brian returned for the day.
Unfortunately I was heading back to London that night, but Brian was able to enjoy one more day in Malta - "working" of course! We had a great time visiting this tiny little country - and would def recommend it if you are in the area!
Malta - Day 3
After all of the divers took off for their first dive, I jumped in with all of my scuba gear and immediately lost all of it. One of my flippers and my mask popped off when I hit the water and immediately sank. Who knew...plastic flippers and masks sink. Now I do. Snorkeling - so far not working for me. Once to divers came back, one of the instructors was kind enough to dive to the bottom to retrieve my gear - but not before he was alerted that the "American girl lost her gear!". Which I was thankful for because this meant I wasn't going to have to hose off diving gear for the next two weeks to pay them back.
We headed over to the Blue Lagoon for lunch - an amazing sandy beach area which is wildly popular with locals and tour boats. We grabbed some lunch, saw some amazing scenery and enjoyed an ice cream (or two) before heading out to the second dive spot. My second attempt at snorkeling was much more successful - I left the flippers on the boat and put my mask on after I slowly lowered myself into the water. Much better.
We were pretty exhausted from our busy day, so we headed back to the bay for dinner. We had some pizza and enjoyed people watching from our terraced view. All in all a great day!
Malta - Day 1 and 2
We woke up early Saturday morning and made our way to the private beach that our hotel has across the road, and camped out all morning on the beach. Best. Thing. Ever. I love hot weather, blue skies and clear water. By the afternoon we were getting restless and decided to check out some other parts of the island. We took a bus over to Sliema (check out the retro buses Malta uses for public transport) -
which had some amazing views of the capital, Valetta, and some great shopping. We decided it would be fun to WALK along the coast back to St Julians, in the blazing heat, which was a good 3-4 miles. At least we worked up an appetite for dinner. We decided to make it an early night because we had booked a scuba/snorkeling trip for Sunday!
Here is the link for all of our pictures - enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)