In the air again..but my seat had a built in massage!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Yes, in the air again and this trip is a doozy. 5 hours to the east coast and then onto an international flight to Johannesburg for 16 hrs! This might be the longest haul for me. I think the flight to asia was only 12+ hours at a time. It’s all good though. I am super excited because this is one of my bucket list trip. A photo safari in south Africa! Never thought I would get to cross this off the list since I've been talking about it for years and years. My bucket list has things that are goals (hike the grand canyon, check), stretch goals ( jumping out of a plane, check check and check), and then there are dreams that are nice to have ( climb everest, photo safari in Africa). So excited. I have to go through 3 weeks of work first before I go on the safari. I don’t mind that though because as before, it will be so interesting to learn the culture, people and ofcourse the food! We are breaking the normal routine and staying at a nice guesthouse on the outskirts of Johannesburg (JO). It’s well known that the city of JO can be dangerous especially at night. It’s not like the other places I’ve traveled to where we can stroll through town for dinner after work. There are nice big chain hotels closer to the city but it would mean a longer commute to the plant everyday due to traffic and we would not be able to step foot outside the hotel in the evening. It sounds bad but I’m hoping for the best. Actually when my nieces and I went to Rio we read that it was a very dangerous place and that people have gotten robbed in broad daylight. We had no issues because we traveled smart which mean no flashy clothes or jewelry. Our guesthouse is in a boomed-off neighborhood which means it’s a secured area. I know I’ll have to turn up my awareness level. One thing I know for sure it will be a totally different experience.

I was glad to at least be home for our anniversary yesterday. 11 years! During dinner we reminisced about our fun honeymoon in British Columbia. Gary remembers the smell of wilderness and moss and chopping up our own wood for the fireplace in our cabin. I remembered the bear we saw! It was such a cool place, I have the link to the lodge on my laptop for the past year and plan to go back there for one of our anniversary celebration.

Last night out on the town

Thurs Sept 8

Hooray! It’s over! Our final meeting lasted 5 hours but we got agreement on everything. It’s a tough one this time but we had a big team. Plus the big boss came Monday night and planned to be at the meeting for support if needed. It was fun to have him around, a big robust german. After we got back to the hotel it was another 2 hours before dinner so WE and I went for a drink at a local bar.It was local because it wasn’t in old town and no pretty decorations. Just a few long bench tables outside that you share with whomever and a pint of local beer only cost 1 euro.
A celebratory dinner tonight and the big boss had planned to take us out to the ufo restaurant. The view at the top (83 meters) was supposed to be fantastic, and you pay for it!
It was a nice stroll from our hotel through old town and across the bridge to the ufo tower. View of Bratislava at night is beautiful. The weather was nice a chilly I had to wear my little sweater, how great is that! Nice view of the castle from below. We had a great dinner, very fancy and the restaurant was all glass. Once in a while you will literally feel a little vibration as if it was swinging. I tried not to think about it. Funny moment when Sawanaka ordered cauliflower soup with potatos & lobster. When they brought out the bowl Sawa looked at it with puzzlement. The bowl did not have any liquids in it, just potatos and some lobster. AND they didn’t give him a spoon! What kind of soup doesn’t have broth? Well, a minute later the waiter came by with a small pitcher and poured cauliflower soup into the bowl over the lobster. Talk about pomp! We had waiters pouring evian water from weird looking water pitchers. The views in the restaurant was incredible, we were so high up with 360 views. Still, I knew there had to be an observation deck because people pay to go up and take pictures only. From inside the restaurants the pictures don’t come out well because of the reflection from the windows. Finally asked the waiter and sure enough you have to walk up another flight of stairs to go on a deck. No one wanted to go up into the cold except me and Sawa who wanted to go up there before he drinks too much wine and accidentally fall over, lol! The wine was flowing and we had a lot of fun. Clay once asked me if it felt weird being on a team with all guys and I said no, it’s kind of fun. We really bonded, especially being together for 4 weeks. I hope Lars and his wife come visit in phx, would love to show him the grand canyon. He was trying to make it work for xmas time, we had lots of fun bantering back and forth. I think he will get along well with G.

WE was not the typical german when it comes to sharing food, meaning they don’t share. Germans tend to be more formal and when they order their food, it’s their food. There’s no trying other people’s dishes. But WE likes to do that a lot with us. If I expressed interest in whatever he’s eating he would always cut me a piece and hand it over with his fork. And he’s usually so formal! Lars on the other hand is the typical german. He’s brought up to not even look at other people’s dishes since it’s considered rude. WE ordered antelope so ofcourse he cut me a piece to try (not so great to me). I then turned to Lars next to me to ask if he would like to try and ofcourse he said no. I insisted and put a small piece on his plate, which freaked him out. That little piece of meat sat on his plate for so long I really didn’t think he would eat it. It must have killed him for me to do that but I did it on purpose for a little fun! But yes he did finally eat it when I wasn’t looking. I tried Clay’s beef carpachio which I didn’t care for, the veal was so tender but still, it was raw!
Everyone did come up on the observation deck to check out the view and some goofing off with pictures. We were going to take a taxi back but it was such a nice night we decided to walk. Stefan and I were laughing at Clay & WE bonding and walking arm in arm. The guys decided to go for another drink but it was already midnight and I still hadn’t packed yet and we were leaving the next morning for the Vienna airport.

Great audit experience, had some fun memories and made some good friends. One week at home and it’s on to south Africa!

Last week of audit!

Sept 6

Interesting dinner tonight. We decided on something different and went to a place called Rockbar. That’s a first clue that it’s not a traditional Slovakian restaurant. I think the guys picked it because the waitresses wore short school girl dresses but they, that’s just a guess. It was a nice place, big with lots of rooms, lots of guitars hanging on the wall and ofcourse loud rock music. Of all places we had a long conversation about life, love and marriage. Clay, the only single guy in the group was so confident about never getting married and not believing in love that the rest of us set out to explain to him why he should and that you can actually be in a relationship and be happy. He didn’t believe us. Quiet Sawa from japan was telling us how his wife just knows how to get him to go a certain way and steer his thinking. But in then in the end he said he doesn’t mind and if his family is happy, he’s happy. Awww! Lars tried to tell clay that he used to think the same way and that he doesn’t need to get married, until he met his wife. Awww! Then Stefan jumps in to say that he in the 8 yrs they’ve been married and only argued a handful of times. Aww! It was a love fest but I don’t think we convinced clay.

My spa weekend in budapest :-)

View of the pool from above treatment rooms


View of the pool from the relaxation room

I did pick this hotel because of its royal spa and boy, it was worth it! Heavenly! The Royal Spa (as it was called) at the corinthian hotel was all marble and stones. The crown jewel was the 50 feet pool. Jacuzzis occupied 2 corners as well as saunas and steam rooms. Then along 2 quiet corridors were comfortable lounge chairs. The pools and saunas had infinity edges on all sides and the water is alway overflowing. The resulting sound effects while you are there is heavy cascading waterfalls. I'm not generally a jacuzzi fan but this one could not be missed. They had jets so strong I felt I had to hold on to the rim so I don't go crashing into other people! They allow kids in the spa from 11-3 so I just make sure i"m not there during those hours. It was so nice there I decided to forgo the planned night walking and boat tours and book a treatment and spend more time relaxing. Hey, I know my priorites! The next day I asked for a late checkout and spent a few more hours in the spa, it was so much more quiet and I felt I had the place to myself.

I thought phx had the best resort spas but this one really rivals it!

Taking pics with a local in Prague

A free peek into the famous jewish cemetery

Yep, 2 figures peeing

One of many interesting door knockers in the city

Unique figures on each small block used for postal purposes

Monday, Aug 29.

It's a public holiday today in slovakia so we had the day off hence my decision to stay another day, sweet!

I thought prague was a great place to sign up for a photo tour. My guide tomas was a local but has lived and worked in nyc. He took me places that were away from the main tourist sites. It's fine with me since I've already seen the touristy places the days before. I've discovered that prague has many courtyards that connects one street to another. You can criss cross your way around town without having to be on the main (and crowded) streets. It was very nice because tomas was very enthusiastic about showing me his favorite of the city.

I remember asking gary how he remembered prague when he was there years ago. He told me that it was a nice city but there was a mixture of dark with light, new and old. He was there after he finished college. When I mentioned this to Tomas he said that made sense because it was soon after the revolution. During the german and russian occupation the city was left in disrepair. The streets themselves it not have much lighting so it was dark at night. Also in the 80's their was a period of acid rain which put a soot type of coating on the buildings, making everything look old and depressing. But over the last 15+ years the city went through a transformation so that it's become one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Even my german colleagues told me this.

Tomas told me that prague, vienna, budapest, bratislava are all siblings meaning they shared a lot of history. Even bratislava and prague was part of the same country before 1990. He was proud to say that czech was the more industrial part of the country while slovakia was more dependent on agriculture. Over the years after the split, it was czech that got rich and successful while slovakia became the poorer neighbor.

One funny moment was when tomas took me to a small quiet courtyard with the 2 copper figures peeing as the top part of their body rotates. They are peeing into a small pool that was made into the shape of slovakia. How mean! What's funnier is watching people's reaction as they pass by and realize what they were looking at! Tomas insisted I took 2 pictures to prove to gary that they were moving. So I got 2 pictures of these 2 peeing, very nice!

After our tour tomas invited me for a quick lunch at his favorite "fast food" place, the Bohemian Bagel. It's a very popular place where you can get bagel sandwiches. They boil the bagels (similar to ny bagels?) and not baked. It was really good!

Tomas is a young photographer who got his start in nyc. After 4 years he realized he didn't like the fast track and decided to do weddings locally. Because of his past connections he's made a nice name for himself and only does upscale weddings. What's so great is that he only needs to work during the summer season and travels the rest of the year. He described to me some of the living conditions of the country. All is paid for you (medical care, education, etc) but your salary is very low. It's controlled by the state so even a doctor does not make that much. If you become a doctor your motivation is not money.

Budapest for the weekend

Great view of the Parliament building

St.Mattias church on top of the hill ("Budha" side)

St. Mattias

St. Mattias

St. Mattias

St. Mattias (looks like a castle!)

Parliament building on the Danube

The chain bridge over the Danube

The Chain Bridge

View of St.Mattias on top of the hill

Such a cute romantic scene!

St.Stephen's Basilica

St. Stephen's

St. Stephens

Budapest train station (I just got off this one!)

Sept 3&4

I was so happy that we finished our report friday night. It meant I have another free weekend to travel. The easiest was to take a 2.5 hour train to budapest which I did on saturday morning. I am getting braver with the public transit and am feeling quite adventurous by this time. I was like this in my youth but I think over the years I've gotten soft. I've been flying business class, staying in nice hotels and have drivers take me everywhere, in other words I havent had to really think for myself. To figure out my traveling on my own in places where they don't speak my language is really rewarding, but only if I get to where I'm supposed to go. They don't announce the stops on these trains so you really have to pay attention and not miss it. I never did figure out the reservation system and it's a trial & error for me. Twice I got kicked out of my seat because someone had reservations.

I decided to splurg and booked into a 5 star hotel for the night. They had a famous spa that's dated back to 1886. I figured if I didn't like the city I have the hotel to enjoy!

After checking in at the hotel I walked to St. Stephen's Basilica which was the meeting point for the free walking tour. It was a 20 minute walk through a quiet neighborhood. I have to admit that my first impression wasn't that great. I remember the words of my guide from the photo tour in prague, budapest is similar to them but darker and dirtier. By dirty I don't mean trash on the streets. It's more the buildings themselves. Most are stone structures that could be very nice but they seem to have a heavy layer of dirt on them.

Our tour group was a huge one (hey it's free) but they were prepared and split the group into 2. I learnt some nice history of the country. Hungary was a really big empire in its heyday. However, over the centuries it has lost more than 2/3 of its land. They were under Ottoman rule for a time during which they learned to grow peppers and now are famous for their hungarian peppers. I thought it was interesting that during the 2nd world war they actually sided with germany but hitler tricked them by inviting the hungarian leader for a visit and kept him there while german soldiers occupied hungary. They were betrayed by their own ally! The russians came to their rescue and freed hungary from the germans but then they forgot to leave! So hungary was under communist rule. The country shared the same important date in history which was the revolution in 1989 when the kicked out the russians. The current average salary in the country is 500 euros a month! Because of this corruption level is high. If you have an issue that needs to be resolved there's an incredible amount of beauracracy to go through, yes, it means bribery. I've learned in my travels to some of these eastern countries that it's normal and it's their way of making some extra money. I don't know if they are necessary bad people, it's something more like desperate times calls for desperate measures. Or it's the way of like that they know.

It was a hot and humid day and after 2 hours of walking I started to think about the nice pool at the hotel. The last part of the tour was to cross the chain bridge over the danube river to the budha side and climb up the hill to the castle. I debated ditching the tour and made the decision as we were walking over the bridge.

Walked back to the hotel and went immediately to the spa!

The next day I decided to brave the metro to the other side of the danube and walked up the hill to St.Mattias. I had 2 hours before I have to catch the metro to the train station. The day didn't feel too hot. As long as you sit still in the shade and not move a muscle. As soon as I started walking I started to sweat. Now add the hill I had to climb to get to the old town. The best thing I did was to "borrow" a hand towel from the hotel. A kleenex would have lasted me half a second. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. I had my hair tied up, had prepared mentally to be sweaty and don't have to worry about finding a bathroom since I was losing all my bodily fluids through sweating. Ofcourse I get the excuse of eating gelato in order to keep cool!

I didn't have a specific destination after going up the hill, I just knew that's where the old town is. I just happened to run smack into St.Mattias cathedral which happened to look like a castle. The view was amazing. And the breeze was so welcomed after the climb.

So glad I was able to see all these different countries during this audit. It was interesting to hear how they have each survived some hard years including the german and russian occupied during which many died. There is a sense that they truly appreciate the freedom they now have. Someone said that those born into freedom it will act different from those who were not. This is at a time when the older generation (parents and grandparents) still act a little differents and are more cautious. They would be more frugal because at any given point everything could be taken away from you, or so they think.

The famous rooftops of Prague

Sunday Aug 28

They say the you can recognize the city of Prague by the red rooftops. The best way to get a view of them is on the south tower of St.Vitus Cathedral. We made our way up the hill to the castle complex. I noticed a sign to climb some stairs to the top of tower. It was a nice sunny day so I wanted some shots of the city. When you go in they do have signs warning people that it's a hard climb up 287 steps. Well, I didn't stop to think how many steps that is. We started up this narrow stone spiral staircase. Towards the top I started getting dizzy. Not from the height, more because of the constant circling up the spiral staircase! I thought it would NEVER end! Once we got to the top I told Mike I wasn't going anywhere until I stop sweating! 287 steps is like going up 15-20 stories! Wait, I wouldn't know that because if I was in a building that tall I would be taking the elevator!!!

All whining aside, it was worth the beautiful views! It was nice and quiet with only the sounds of the breeze. You can walk all around the tower to get a 360 degree view of the city.