Berlin by Photos

Last weekend was well spent in sunny Berlin. What a great place to walk around and soak in the city while the sun was out. I had a fantastic time!

Amplemann




Reichstag


Performers near the Reichstag


Ivy Covered Library



Nikolaviertel


Meter of Beer


Pints of Georg Brau


Gendarmarkt


My idea of a heavenly shop




Interesting place to work


Checkpoint Charlie


Sony Center


Berliner Dom at night


Tiergarten Statue


Schloss Charlottenburg Palace




Tiergarten




Amplemann at the gate


Modern Architecture


Pint of Berliner Kindl


German Car


All Berlin pictures on Flickr

Saturday in Brighton

The weekend before last was an absolutely gorgeous weekend in London, this weekend was half sunny half rainy but that's what I've been told to expect. Anyways, last weekend I made the most of the nice weather and headed down to the coast and arrived in Brighton 40 minutes later by train.

May 10th, 2008
It was a really cool town to explore which was fairly heavily impacted by visitors from around the country but it was still a nice city. It was quite diverse in what was available to explore. I walked through the small streets of really cool, unique shops which lead down to the small, old english like narrow streets called The Lanes. Little shops popped up around the corners of the lanes as I kept walking around each narrow turn. The lanes then opened up to a wider, main street which was home to the more upscale shops found in most cities.








That street lead down to the ocean where the Brighton Pier could be see off to the left and a massive beach covered completely in pebbles could be seen. The street wrapped closely around the edges of the beach and ocean and two to three story buildings lined the coast as it continued in each direction. Pubs lined the stone-filled beach and the stones certainly didn't stop anyone from lying out and soaking in the sun.






The pier was an odd bit of work but fun to explore and see. It's like a mini-carnival on a pier with lots of junk food, yummy doughnuts, amusement rides, games and a full arcade in the middle and of course fish and chips. It was a fun place to explore and just walk around looking at the different people and shops.







I think I'll definitely go back and explore the beach area a bit more, explore the shops as there were lots of neat ones I didn't get to go into. One place I did go was a little shop off to the side that sold mini guitars made of wood and painted in different colors. I had to get one, they were too cool to pass up even though they were £8. I bought a red Fender strat with the words "Sex Pistols - Never mind the bollocks." It makes me chuckle when I look at it which is exactly why I bought it, not because I'm a massive Sex Pistols fan because I'm not, haha.

After consuming a double chocolate cupcake from the butterfly bakery, an ice cream cone, a few doughnuts and a nice italian meal I was ready to head back. Definitely need to check out a milkshake place that advertised 150 different milkshakes!!

Welcome Drinks & My Day Out In London

It's been a nice weekend so far, lots of things going on some for fun, some just to distract myself. On Friday after work, I arranged to meet up a few friends from work that I met at GS training in NY. We went around the corner to a place called the Centre Page and had a pint outside and chatted a bit. It happened that the same night another guy from training was leaving the firm and sent out an invitation for drinks on Friday as well. So we merged the two events and quite a few people turned up to the pub right across from our main GS office. I now forget the name of the place but it was a cool spot and you could definitely tell that's where loads of people went after work to cool down but cooling was definitely limited. The main area was really really hot! fortunately the back room wasn't taken so we meandered our way back there and found a few bottles of wine for us to enjoy. How could we pass that up? The group that had just left didn't finished a few full bottles of wine so we happily took over where they left off. :-)

Yeah, so it was a fun night, lots of catching up and seeing faces I hadn't seen in ages. By the sounds of it, a lot of people hadn't seen each other in donkey's years (britishsm for you) so it was a great night of catching up. Some people were definitely surprised to see me there and know that i had moved over here and of course i got the question "so why have you come to London?" a gazillion times but i was expecting that and had my answer ready, haha. It was good to see everyone, lots turned out like i said before and from what i can remember i saw: tim, stew, ash, alan, ali, john, alice, melissa, darshini, chris, simon, steve, eric, vicky and i'm sure there were others but the names aren't popping into my head.

Right, so today I had a lie in and puttered around until about midday until I decided to head out and explore a bit of London. I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I looked up a few places on my list near Green Park which would be my last stops and then took the train into Blackfriar's station and started walking. It was such a beautiful day and i stupidly brought my coat with me which after about 2 minutes of walking was taken off and stuffed into my backpack. There was a cool breeze, blue sky and sun shining down on London. Lovely. I headed west through a few areas and one really cool street i found was Denmark street which is perpendicular to Charing Cross and SOHO. It was lined with guitar and music shops and I wanted to explore all of them. I'd been meaning to get new guitar strings so I headed into an acoustic guitar shop that smelled of polish. I saw the familiar elixir nanoweb's behind the counter and inquired how much they were. £12 was the answer which was crazy as that's how much they are but in dollars! I was a bit shocked so I decided not to buy strings until i really needed them (i.e. one popped off) because that price is just outrageous to me, that's about $24! I passed a pub along the way that caught my attention...see the picture below. he he.



I continued on and hit Oxford street, a very busy shopping area and lots more people were out and about. I stopped in John Lewis which is a large department store over here and picked up a few kitchen items that I've been meaning to get. I continued on, stopping at Boots (pharmacy like CVS) to get some water and a few things. The odd bit is they didn't have non-spray deodorant which is the opposite of what you'd see in the states, well at least in the past. They only had stick and that was the major stock. But here, at least in Boots, they only had spray deodorant which i thought was a bit weird but I purchased a can and continued on my way.

I kept going on Oxford street, and passed by a belgian waffle shop that looked VERY tempting. I had just eaten a snack so i wasn't too hungry but was very intrigued and starting to feel hungry after seeing a chocolate covered waffle advertised. I kept going and headed towards Hyde Park. I passed another waffle place and couldn't resist this time so a VERY tasty chocolate covered waffle was purchased and carried to the park. Along the way, passerbys stared hungrily at the chocolate mess that I was holding. I tried to stop myself from chuckling as their eyes widened once they spotted my tasty treat. I would be doing the same if someone was walking down a busy street carrying a chocolate covered waffle. That would be grounds for pinching it, me thinks. I'm a chocolate addict and in times of need, drastic measures must be taken. he he.



Right, so i arrived at the park, ate my waffle and found a nice tree to rest under for a bit. I explored a few other places, stopped in at an old fashioned shaving stored called Taylor's of Old Bond Street and bought a few items as an impulse buy. They've already been tested out and approved so it was a worthy buy even though it was a bit pricey.

All around it was a nice day out in London and I liked walking around and just getting my bearings about where things are. I now can pinpoint oxford street or at least the relative direction it's in and have a better grasp about where things are and how far apart they are. Much more exploring to come, hopefully with some company along :-)

Marble Arch


Hyde Park


Hyde Park


Relaxing in Hyde Park


Wellington Arch


Sliding down a fountain in Green Park


Buckingham Palace


Buckingham Palace

Eve of my move to London

less than 1 day until I move.

It's the final night here in New York and I'm pretty much packed. I'm going to meet Eliot at the Telephone Bar in the east village as he couldn't make it (he forgot!!) last night. Last night was jolly good (note the britishism :-)) fun and we had a good turn out at Ulysses after work. Thanks to everyone who made it out to bid me farewell, it was great to see everyone out there. It was really funny as we had a big table in the back and I was literally sat right in the middle of two tables: to my right were my work colleagues (John, Matt, John, Paras and Purvesh) and to my left were my GSEEC buddies (for life dude!) and my NAPA friends that came out to see me off. It was a fun evening, lots of chatting and laughs and just all around good fun.

Man o man, definitely feeling the butterflies today and hoping everything comes together smoothly. I think I've prepared pretty well but my mind can't help but think of all the "what ifs" it's just trained to do that and I have no control over it.

Moving day comes tomorrow, a very packed morning with meetings until 11, then Steph and Andrew want to see me before I leave which is really sweet and kind of them to do, I feel very honoured that they want to see me off on my departure day. I'm going to miss those two and all of our eating adventures as well.

Well time to pack last minute things up and head off to meet Eliot. I'm hoping a little social activity will help distract me from worrying about tomorrow...

Tomorrow brings me to London. Unbelievable.

A Long Overdue Entry And So Much to Tell

It's certainly been quite awhile since I've typed up an entry in this here blog. There are just a few small things that have kept me busy over the past few months. Additionally, I've had this uncompleted task of typing up all my CR entries from my notebook but have just closed that out by typing up the last one and leaving it as is. I'm not going to type up any others and it's tedious and time consuming and honestly not that rewarding. Next time I'll have something to write up my entries electronically.

So where do I even begin?
Well for one, I'm going to London next week! I'm going there for a week to work from office and look for a flat.
Hang on a minute... look for a flat??
Yessir, I'm moving to London on April 4th to take on a new role which I am very excited about. The whole move is something I'm ecstatic about and it goes WAY beyond switching roles. There is just so much to look forward to and it has me smiling wide with excitement. :-)

There's lot to do until then, but it had been bugging me that my blog was missing the last CR post and also an update on the changes going on with me. I'd better crack on with my list of tasks, much to do.

Oh, and by the way, IT SNOWED TODAY! WOOHOO! Beautiful, white, powerdery snow filled the streets and sidewalks, car windshields and signs. I'm headed out tomorrow to explore the park and see if there's anything fun to photograph.

Reflections on the Trip to Costa Rica

Well it's certainly a bit tardy but here is the last bit of my Costa Rica journal. I just haven't had time to write up the other detailed entries and to be completely honest i've been dreading typing those up. So they'll just stay written in pen and referenced at some later time when i plop down on the sofa and reflect on my brilliant trip to Costa Rica in Winter 07-08. Maybe one of you will be there with me to read my words.

Reflections on the trip to Costa Rica

It's quite sad to be leaving my family and heading back to NY but i've also had a wonderful, fantastic time in Costa Rica and it's about time to go home. The conclusion to our trip is bittersweet but the memories will be cherished.

This was really perfect timing for a holiday. It gave me plenty of time away from work and NY and lots of time with my family. It also gave me time to relax and think about all the decisions i needed to make, clear my mind and think of all the important things going on. If i didn't have this time to think freely and reflect on everything, it would've been a lot more stressful on me.

Some highlights of the trip
-waterfall hike and the lookout point in Monteverde
-Ziplining through the tree tops in the cloud forest
-Feeding bananas to the monkey's outside our room in Monteverde
-Our hike to Rafas's finca in the mud with amazing vistas along the way
-Watching lava roll down the side of the volcano at night
-Eco Thermales hot springs - aaaahhhhhhhhhh
-Our house in Samara and it's ocean view
-3 days at Playa Carrillo enjoying paradise on the beach and making rum smoothies with Ahna :-)

Feel free to add your own memories as a comment and I'll add them in to this entry afterwards.

Hike Through the Rain Forest

I've just woken up from a nice nap which was well needed after a big day of hiking. I'm ready to recap what we've experienced today!

We woke up this morning to a rain filled sky and muddy roads. The wind was still banging our door open and closed ALL night which with my extremely uncomfortable bed, kept me up most of the night. Tonight I'm going to stick some magazines and paper under the crack in the door to hold it shut. That should do the trick. The wind is so strong though, it comes shooting through the door behind us and the shakes the front door with a jolt of energy. It's a loud and spontaneous noise and not fun to sleep with.

We're off to find some supper so i'll continue with the day when we return...

* * *

We had an amazing dinner at a chilean run restaurant called Restaurante Lucia. We had an incredible bottle of Pinot Noir from Chil and I ordered Mexican Steak for dinner. Yummy! Before i even ordered, i scoped out the dessert menu (it would only be proper!) and my eyes grew wide when they spotted "Tres Leches" on the menu. Mmmmmmmm! The meal was very good and the Tres Leches was DIVINE! We had a really wonderful converstion that was very heartfelt and deep. I shared everything that's been going on lately in my life and my sister shared her heartbreak which lead to some warm family discussions. I love my family dearly! At one point we were speaking about things that make you smile in the morning when you wake up and things to take the ho hum out of your day and that made me reflect and think hard and smiles erupted from me. :-) What a wonderful saying and thought, it is so important to find something(s) that make you excited to start the day and even better if you can find something or someone that makes you smile each and every morning. Definitely going to store that one away for later.

On to the days adventure! >>>

We decided to skip the morning guided tour which started at 6:45am and have a more leisurely staet to our day. We ate breakfast downstairs which was absolutely delicious and homemade. It consisted of fried eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, pineapple, mango and tasty homemade corn tortilla's which were hand-ground! Incredible!

So around 10:30 we headed out for our walk at the Sanctuario Egologico which our guide book recommended for a nice 2.5 hour hike at a leisurely pace. We arrived and paid our 5,000 colones entrance fee each and then off we went into the rain forest

We arrived at a lookout point with MASSIVE panoramas of tree covered slopes and the nicoya peninsula in the horizon to the west. The sun was partly out but there was a constant mist in the air. The green hillsides were amazing and had us all oooh'ing and ahh'ing as we stared out into the vast valley below. The trees covered every inch of the hills and surrounding area, completely consumed by a dark green. It was a marvelous sight and could not be captured on camera, but of course i tried.






Speaking of my camera, I started to have difficulties with it and focusing on objects and horizons. It has has consistent issues with trying to take panorama's or pictures of the distance which have always been my favourite to capture...poo! it became quite irritating especially as i experience it more and more throughout the day. At first i thought it might be because the sun was reflecting off the mist but now i think it has more to do with the camera and maybe the humidity and wetness.

Right, on to the adventure! We decided to hike down the slopes to a waterfall below. The train down was steep, narrow and slippery but brought incredible vistas and closeups of plans and wildlife all around. Ultimately (after a 30-40min hike down) we emerged in a dense forest of wetness and greenery with a damp mist surrounding everything. The thundering waterfall and flow of the stream next to us was intoxicating and relaxing. We hiked up the slippery rocks to find a 30 foot waterfall pouring over the edges. The sound was extraordinary and the wind gusted from the impact of the water on the rocks at our feet. Mist consumed the air around us as we all stared at the massive spectacle of nature.




Naturally, I was trying desperately to get photo's of the waterfall but the issues with my camera continued. Fortunately, I took enough to where i came away with 2 or 3 clear shots that weren't completely blurry and out of focus.


Seeing that brilliant force of nature filled me with smiles and wonder. I was gleaming with happiness as we trekked back through the dense, damp greenery and back up the steep mountain to the lookout above.


We continued along the trail and saw many different types of flowers, trees and mushrooms and noises all around. One extremely funny event was my mom and dad literally got ants in their pants that were biting them on their legs and thighs. SO, on the platform overlooking the edge of the vally and vast greennes, my parents stripped off their pants (trousers, mind you!) and looked for the ants crawling around on them. HAHA! My sister and I were in stitches!

One really interesting aspect of the rainforest is all the different smells. Different areas had varying degrees of humid, sweet, foresty smells to animal stinks like skunk to fungal smells that didn't smell terrible but definitely...distinctive. It was hard to describe these sense as the whole forest was just one massive sensory overload. Mix that with fatigue, sweat and thirst and we have quite a combination of feelings.


I'm lying here with the wind still blowing strongly and a kitty sleeping under my folder legs. I can feel her tail twitching against my calf and her paws burying themselves into my feet. This kitty is so funny and crazy but wonderfully precious! She has been nicknamed the Christmas Kitty as she's been our little treasure to have around while we've been here. :-)