Viva Mexico!

So as promised, after Istanbul we went home to Zurich for a total of about 48 hours before getting on a plane and heading to Cancun, Mexico for the wedding of our two close friends Louis and Keelin.  Almost as exciting as the wedding was the fact that most of our close friends from home would also be in attendance and a perfect opportunity to get caught up with everyone while relaxing at the pool or beach with the added convenience of an all inclusive (read: all-you-can-drink-and-eat) resort.

The trip did not start out as planned however.

Now I have logged somewhere shy of "a lot" of miles over the past 10 years and traveling that much means you run into a few situations where the trip takes a bit of a detour.  Like the time I got stuck in NYC with no place to stay and could only find a room for $600 at the hotel next to the other airport on the other side of town.  That was fun.  This time we figured hey, we have a 5 hour layover in Philadelphia, we'll be able to get some good "taste of home" food there, and be in Cancun by 10 pm that night.  

Unfortunately a Swiss pigeon had other plans.  As our plane arrived in Zurich, apparently a pigeon thought it a good idea to see what all the noise was about, got a little too close to the jet intake and we'll never see that pigeon again.  This also caused a dent in the jet which would need repair - and time - before taking off again.  And I give you the reason a 5 hour layover was not enough.  We finally get to Philly 6 hours late and as expected miss our connection to Cancun.  While definitely a bummer, the next flight in the morning left at 7:30 am, they put us up at the airport hotel across the street and we ultimately arrived at the hotel in Cancun by about 11:00 am the next morning.  Not ideal, but certainly could have been worse.

This will lead to degenerate behavior!

Welcome then to a bit of paradise.  Got ourselves checked in and after a little mishap with the bell hop who felt no urgency to get our bags to the room, got changed into the swim trunks and off to the pool where we find our first group of friends, drinks already in hand.  Really not much more detail beyond that is necessary.  We ate at the pool, drank at the pool, and waited for the sun to go down.  That first night consisted of a lovely dinner with everyone in town for the wedding in attendance and then some karaoke at one of the bars on site.  To recap the day we ate, drank, and were merry.  "Married" would come the following day.

Mr. and Mrs. LPM!

Friday morning, day of the wedding, and we pretty much did a rinse and repeat of the previous day's events.  Ate, drank, water, sun, lobsterizing, blah, blah, blah, I could live like this forever.  Then came time to go get ready for the main event.  Very simple and very beautiful setting on the beach for the ceremony.  Flip flops and linen pants were the required dress and I think as personal a ceremony as I have been to in a while.  It was such a nice wedding, very sweet, and congratulations again Louis and Keelin!

Following a nice cocktail reception, dinner, then the typical wedding debauchery would begin.  This time including a photo booth, some modified battle of rappers (don't ask) and bad dancing done by people who enjoy it all too much.  I would tell you more but the memories escape me a bit.  Probably a good thing.

On the boat enjoying the ride

Last day in Mexico and the parents of the groom had arranged for a 5 hour cruise for everyone on a catamaran out on the ocean.  Aside from the wedding this turned out to be the other highlight of the trip.  We all load up, roughly 60 people maybe on this big sail boat and head out.  Along the way we stopped for some snorkeling, cruised by the Isla Mujeres, and just sailed around enjoying the water, the sun and total relaxation.  This was a great last day event, enabled everyone to relax and chat, they kept filling our beers, there was a neon sling shot "Borat" style swim suit brought out which Mexican law prohibits posting pictures of, and we all had an incredible time out on the water all afternoon.  By the evening, I think we were all pretty wiped out and as much as we tried to rally, by about 11:00 pm it was bed time for most.

Sad to see it end after only 3 short days, but wouldn't have missed it for the world and so nice to see everyone and thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing few days.  Off to the airport, all went according to plan on the way home and even got a huge Philly cheese steak at the airport before getting on our flight back to Zurich. We made it back to Zurich Monday morning right on schedule, how very Swiss of us to be on time!

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

Sitting now at 34000 feet somewhere over the North Atlantic heading home after what has been a very busy, many miles traveled, activity filled 10 days.  

Starting with Easter weekend where in most European countries you get both Good Friday and the Monday after Easter off as holidays.  It feels a lot like Thanksgiving does at home where many take the whole week off and if not the whole week, then by Wednesday half the office is gone and things are quiet work wise.  Taking advantage of this 4 day weekend we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to visit Istanbul, Turkey which has been on our list for some time.  It’s about a 3 hour flight from Zurich so a bit long for just a weekend trip, not to mention it is a massive sized city with lots to see so 4 days was going to be a good start.  Istanbul did not disappoint!  

Traveling with our now defacto “travel buddies” Alex and Stacey we arrived late on Thursday night, late enough that by the time we got to the hotel it was bed time and let's get ready for an early start Friday morning.

Entrance to the Palace

First up Friday morning was the Topkapi Palace which sits up on a hill in the old part of town.  Really a giant complex of buildings and has served as a fortress and residence of the Ottoman empire.  Apparently the Sultans who lived there also felt they could gouge you for an extra $10 to see the Harem part of the complex which was one of the more interesting parts of the tour.  One tip for you as you plan your own little adventure someday to the Topkapi Palace, do not pay for the audio tour because you will basically be paying for a broken walkman from the early 90’s that requires you to push buttons in order to tell it where you are and it will then respond with 36 seconds of useless information.

That took up most of the morning before we left to find something to eat and 

Looking down a random street

then spent the afternoon more or less wandering around the streets, 
looking at the markets and exploring.  Always enjoy just walking the streets and seeing whatever you stumble upon which included narrow streets, shops and lots of places serving Doners, which we'll get to later.  

Eventually we wandered our way back near the hotel to the next main attraction called the “Blue Mosque”  also built during the Ottoman Empire which is quite picturesque from the outside and fairly impressive on the inside too.  One of those things where you walk in, take a few pictures, say you were there and head out.  This is when we went on to find one of the really cool things they have tons of in Istanbul – the rooftop terrace bar.  

About every 3^rd building has a rooftop bar where you can sit, have a drink, look out over the water, and given the very pleasant weather we had this really made for an enjoyable experience.  Grabbed dinner at this great restaurant then went out to one of the lively parts of town for nightlife called Nevizade street.  LOTS of people out, live music everywhere, really great fun atmosphere which we took in for a few hours before finally calling it a day.

Inside the Hagia Sophia

Up the next morning, powered up with a Doner for lunch, then off for some more sightseeing including the Hagia Sophia which according to Wikipedia is really old and originally a Christian Byzantine empire church before becoming a mosque during the Islamic Ottoman empire.  It was also really crowded which initially looked like a problem save for the random tour guide who asked us if we wanted to join his tour.  Extra cost = $10.  Never mind that with the added cost we got an actual tour AND we got to bypass the whole line and walk right in.  Great investment.  From the outside, not quite as impressive to look at as the Blue Mosque but from the inside it was really something to see.  A huge building with tile artwork from the building's history as both a Christian and Muslim church, a must do sight for sure.

The beginning of Doner Quest

Did some more wandering around after that and also began “Doner” quest 2012 to see how many Durum Doners we could eat since there are as mentioned stands everywhere selling them and had our second of the day.  (So good, would love to have one on this flight right now as I think about it.  Much better than that random chicken thing they just rolled down the aisle)  More walking, wandering, went to the Grand Bazaar which is basically a huge mall, and killed our day that way.  

Dinner that night was up the Bosphorus which is the waterway that runs from the Mediterranean sea up to the Black sea.  It is also about an hour taxi ride from where we were staying despite the distance of about 20 KM because traffic in this city is insane.  Bright side was that at least we got to see some other parts of the town during the trip and even got a short boat ride out to the actual restaurant.  We ate and by this point were pretty much wiped out and called it a night after a short and largely unsuccesful search for a night cap.

Our last day in town consisted of finding more Doners, and having a man exfoliate me with a wire scrub brush mit before dumping massive amounts of soap on me while I lay on a marble slab.  This was the famous “Hammam” or Turkish bath.  A strange experience, nothing like a relaxing spa especially when you consider other strangers are watching you undergo your “bath” like you're an animal at the circus.  It’s weird.  But it's also a worthwhile experience though not one I need to do again.  Then got another Doner.  The other unexpected experience I had was the Turkish barber which Alex had heard about and which we both checked out.  No special place, just found the barber shop down the street from the hotel and walked in for a haircut and shave.  A very thorough process which included a shoulder massage, having all the little hairs you get all over the place washed off, and also a lighter.  This is definitely something I would do again.  And oh by the way - half the price of a haircut in Zurich.

Last real sightseeing thing we did was a boat tour of the Bosphorus which took about an hour and a half round trip and just cruised along the water while we looked at various sights on the shore and enjoyed the sunshine.  Excellent dinner that night, found a local place near the hotel for a few drinks and traditional Hookah, and wrapped up 3 full days in Istanbul.  

Looking up the Bosphorus

All in all a wonderful, different, interesting, and lively city.  It’s truly a huge city with so much we didn’t get to see so I’d have to say a return trip is something I would love to do in the future.  We’ll see, so many places to see, so little time!  

Now stayed blogged in for what the other 6 days I mentioned were all about.....

Tasting champagne IN Champagne

One of the things I wanted to do when I found out we were moving to Europe was go to Champagne France and taste champagne. And that’s just what I did last weekend. My friend Lee from my old team in SF was in London and Paris for meetings so I met up with her in Champagne for a girls weekend. We stayed in Reims, which is the main city in this region. Lee had arranged for us to have a private tour guide, Rachel, to take us around Saturday and Sunday. Saturday started off with a first stop at a champagne house in Epernay recommended by a friend of Lee’s. This champagne house also doubled as a champagne museum so we decided to take the offered tour. This tour was in French (Rachel translated for us) and it took almost 2 hours. It was kind of interesting in the beginning but then it just got weird and went on for way too long. There were many different rooms all underneath the champagne house filled with multiples of things. For example, there was one room that had all shears displayed on the wall. Then another room had a bunch of axes and then one with cork, one with presses and on and on. Anyways, we finally got to tasting the champagne….3 types and they were yummy! We were then off to lunch and after took a walk down Avenue de Champagne where many champagne houses are located. For example Moet and Chandon is there. We did more tasting at a little champagne bar in Epernay and then our day with Rachel was over.

Sunday was a bit more like what I imagined Champagne to be. We went out to this small champagne house (Wafflart-Briet) in a village of 360 people called Sacy. It was super cute and in such a beautiful setting with grape vines and cute little village roads and houses. Here we tasted more champagne, learned about the champagne making process and had a lovely little lunch that Rachel prepared for us. The plan was to go to Pommery after for a tour but we were just thoroughly enjoying ourselves at Wafflart-Briet and we would have been rushed to make our train if we went to Pommery so we decided to stay. We had a nice tour of their small operation, more champagne and then before we knew it, we were off to catch our train.

It was a weekend filled with lots of good champagne and I even managed to bring three bottles home with me (it’s amazing how heavy three bottles of champagne can make your suitcase!).

Overall it was a lovely weekend and I would definitely go back. OH and I almost forgot to mention the BEST chocolate croissant I have ever had in my entire life. Lee and I went for a run on Sunday morning (because when traveling with Lee, exercise is always a must) and at the end of our run we found a cute little Patisserie in Reims. Here is where I got the most delicious, fresh, warm from the oven chocolate croissant of my life. I will be returning to this exact Patisserie at some point…it's a must!