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

IT'S OFFFICIAL!

3 days until I move.

I'm very excited as I'm officially ready to enter the UK as a work permit and Visa holder. I picked up my Visa today (it's stamped inside my passport) and that means I have 60 months (5 years to do the math for you) to live and work in the UK until I need to renew it! WOOHOO!

Work permit - tick
Visa - tick
Packed up - tick
Ready for a new adventure - tick
Cannot wait any longer? - tick

I'm ready to gooooooo!

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. :-)

Adventure in the Rain

We're back after a long walk out in the rain. I have a kitty laying on my chest and batting at my pen while i write. I think she likes the shadows that my pen makes against the backlight. Owwww! she just clawed my finger and caught on to my skin. Blimey, that hurts!




So on to the evening. We decided to take a walk in the rain down to Santa Elena tonight. we walked on the very edge of the road as cars passed us by. The rain was off and on and more like a thick, constant mist. Muddy puddles were forming on the dirt roads to the side.

We had a few incidents with the cajero (ATM or Cash Point) mostly due to our complete stupidity. we tried our luck at the first ATM but our transactions kept on getting canceled and we couldn't figure out why!
We kept on walking down the steep rainy roads and found another ATM alongside the road. This time we were able to withdraw 25,000 colones which we somehow thought was $300 at the time.

We kept on going and finally arrived in Santa Elena, a small little town with lots of touristy shops and cafes. We walked around a bit and decided to pick up from fruit and other bits and bobs at the Mercado. We walked in and found mangos and bananasin the back. We had finished off my dark chocolate toblerone bar a bit earlier so I was on the hunt for some tasty chocolate. I searched the aisles and found bags and bags of dark chocolate covered sweets: banana bits, passion fruit, guava, coffee beans and more! Bingo!! We made our way to the front and checked out but something was off. We spent 10,000 colones at the market which to us at the time was over $100. No way! Something was wrong. Either they severely overcharged us and took advantage of the turistas or our math was wrong. It turned out to be the latter.
We stood outside scratching our heads and tried to settle this difficult money matter which turned out to just be a matter of multiplication, whoops! It turns out all along $1 = 495 colones so 10,000 would be just about $20. MUCH better! Wow, we were WAY off thinking it was $100! After correcting our currency calculation issue, we figure out 150,000 colones would hold us for awhile.

We stopped at the Jimenez Bakery on our way out of town and purchased a guava stroodle, pineapple stroodle and cinnamon twist as well as two cups of hot chocolate that were hardly chocolately at all! All of the chocolate was resting on the bottom so we were basically sipping warm waters with a hint of chocolate flavouring.

The rain really started to come down after that and right as we were heading back up the steep hills to Montverde too, in the dark mind you! We stopped off at the ATM to withdraw that sum of cash we came up with earlier and settled on climbing back up the rest of the way. We didn’t really have much of a choice, did we?

On the way back, we stopped at a small cafe and ordered two platos tipicos which were essentially casado (which is what we had for lunch) but just a tad different. It was white rice, black beans, salad, chicken with seasoning.

While waiting for our food, two small dogs came into the open outside area to investigate the gringos. My parents had doggy treats in their pockets from when they walk Callie in the morning so the dogs were quite attached by the end of the second treat. Friends for life now! One of the even hopped up on my mom’s lap and stared out at all of us. We just shook our heads at it’s pathetic little sad face. Very cute!

After our meal, the perritos (little dogs) followed us back to our lodge and are currently waiting outside our door. Our new feline companion is curled up on my lap and we just feel such an amazing animal presence right now! :-)

Traveling to Monteverde

22-December 2007 : Monteverde, Costa Rica
We left bright and early from San Jose this morning after a mere four hours of sleep. We had breakfast downstairs and then met our CRT (Costa Rica Temptations) travel guide and off to went to Monteverde along with a Spaniard from Madrid who spoke very little English.

The first half of the trip was mostly city driving with some hills and slopes and the van remained quite quiet. We passed vendors selling fruit and sunglasses in the middle of the highway during a traffic jam and hand painted signs along the side of the road mostly for "Repuestos" which we later found out means "parts."

We stopped two hours into our four and a half hour drive for a short break. The humidity was intense at this little shack/soda and the air felt very warm, close to 80 or 85 degrees i'd estimate. We continued on through lush greenery and every so often would catch a glimpse of the mountains ahead. This was where we were going but we didn't quite realize that yet.

We drove up into the hills and then down steep descents which lead us to our first view of the bast pacific: Punta Arenas. We merely had time to look out into the sea of blue until we were right back on a road headed into the hills. With a sharp right hand turn, we headed away from the ocean and up and up the mountain.

A short ways into the "new" road, the cement stopped and the rugged terrain began. Deep rooted dirt roads carved out by the wet season were ahead of us with daunting pot holes and ruts to navigate through. Brutal bobbing and juggling around in the van was had by all of us as we felt like bits of popcorn in a metal box. The driver swerved and swayed across the road looking for the safest path to take over this tumultuously road. Miraculously, we were actually passing other cars on the road although very safely compared to other drives were saw maneuvering on our journey.

As we climbed into the mountains, my sister started to chat away with the Spaniard in what seemed like fluent Spanish. He was very excited to chat and my mom added a few sentences and words here and there as she's been recently trying to learn the language.

The roads, while completely miserable, lead us up into gorgeous mountains. Higher and higher we went with vistas emerging off to the side. I pulled out my camera for my first photo opportunity of the trip. The lush green mountains, pillowing clouds and mist settling among the peaks distracted us from the rugged terrain. My camera held up quite well with all the bumpiness and shaking and i think i took a few nice shots.






At certain times, around particular corners, vista open up to the west and sparkling blue water could be seen far in the distance down through the valley's of verde.

After about an hour of extremely, bumpy, rough, popcorny travel, the road smoothed out and we were greeted by Monteverde, "Bienvenidos a Monteverde!"

We arrived at our lodge, the Mannakin Lodge, and spoke with a young, teenage girl there helping out her parents with translating English and taking care of the rooms and arrangements. We were shown t our room, only one of about 12 or so, and were treated with a rustic, quaint cabin on the second floor with two connected rooms. The walls smelled of fresh wood which reminded me of our cabin in Julian when we had it and I absolutely love it!


As i am writing, the rain is dribbling down off the rood, tip tapping above me and steadily streaming down out of the sky. We have been greeted by an absolutely adorable kitty that has snuggled with all od us and is currently laying on my mom's chest. So cute!

We ate lunch at a spot called Flora de Vida and each of us ordered our first plate of Casado - a traditional white rice and black bean costa rican dish. We also had fried plantains, a savoury chicken alongside the rice and a cinnamon, pineapple, coconut and ginger flavoured smoothie! yum! it was absolutely delicious!

It's the middle of the afternoon and we are deciding what to do this evening. We've heard that monkey's come up to the balcony looking for banana's and i am really hoping the rain doesn't keep them away!

Arriving in San Jose

22-December 2007 : San Jose, Costa Rica
After a long day of travel, many delays and lots of waiting, we're finally here at the Courtyard Marriott in San Jose. I am dreary eyed and irritable and didn't say a word on the taxi ride over here. Everyone else seemed to be doing okay or at least not showing that they weren't feeling crappy. After a two hour delay on the ground in Miami, it wasn't a fun flight especially since we landed around midnight.

Now the grouchiness is coming out, haha! We just had a bit of a conflict over whether to have the AC on or not. My sister was vouching for the later to save the environment and my dad said "oh, that's just ridiculous!" I think it's going to be a challenge to stay off each other's nerves at times especially tomorrow as we are looking to get up early and lack of sleep will surely bring out the grouchies.

So far, San Jose is very very humid and i could feel that the moment I stepped off the plane. The airport was sticky and so was the cab ride over. Nothing in particular stuck out about San Jose except that the streets didn't have center dividing lines which was a bit odd. Cars just know to stay to the right and mind the other drivers passing by.

I'm in for a short nights sleep so I'd better be off to make the best of it! Hasta luego!

Costa Rica Trip: JFK to Miami

21-December 2007 : New York/Miami
The traveling was fairly easy today, so far. I left really early this morning in case there were lines out the door but everything went smoothly. I took the LIRR to Jamaica then took the Airtrain to Terminal 8. The terminal was specifically for AA flights which made it a bit less busy and quite convenient. the ticketing counter was all self-service so I simply went up to a kioak, scanned my print out, scanned my passport and then checked my bag.

There was a really obnoxious lady in the queue next to me. she was talking on her mobile while the porter was trying to tell her what to do. It took her three times and loads of "what??" to finally figure out what to do. she went and stood ON LINE somewhere else afterwards but someone chased her down and told her exactly where to do. seriously thought, just hang up the bloody phone!!

After finding some entertainment while at the airport for a few hours I finally boarded. I asked if my AAirpass would qualify me for an upgrade but the flight was completely sold out but at least asked. I walked onto the plane and found my seat but it was occupied. There was a woman sitting in it, 13J and she looked up at my befuddled face and said "I know, this is YOUR seat! Can you sit over there so I can sit withe my family?" in a very thick Long Island accent. Well, I didn't have much of a choice now did I? She was already sitting there and didn't even ask if I could trade, she just assumed that I would be kind enough to do it. A bit annoying the way she went about it but at least I had a laugh about it afterwards. People annoy me when they take advantage of other's kindness or just assume it will be alright but I wasn't about to be that asshole who doesn't let someone sit with their family.

I'm quite excited about this trip as it really gives me time to get away from everything, clear my mind and think about all the big things that are coming up. There is a lot on my mind and a nice, lengthy two-week break sounds pefect for reflecting on all these thoughts and feelings. The one major downside is that I will be completely out of range of internet and blackberry which means no outside communication for two weeks. It's like quitting cold turkey and I must admit that I am far beyond an addict!

We're flying over Miami right now and the water is a very pretty turquoisey blue which is very tropical and pretty.

Well I definitely jinxed myself on that flight by saying how smooth it was going. Ooops! When we landed and moved to our gate, they weren't ready for us so we had to wait while they brought the jet bridge out. They had electrical problems so we sat feet away from de-boarding for a good 45 minutes. The seat stealer and her mother were getting pretty irritated and kept letting their little kid push the flight attendant call button in protest. After many "let us out!!" and "commmmme on!!" they finally started pressing it themselves which made one lady behind us completely furious! She yelled out about how immature they were acting and said "we're all in the same position as you are!" the older woman that was pushing the call button started yapping back at her and an argument erupted. it was quite a scene and it all happened about two feet from me! haha, what a crazy flight that turned out to be.

Off to Costa Rica

I'm sat here with that feeling that I'm forgetting something. It's the night before I leave and I'm looked over my list at least twice but there still feels like I am missing something. What is it? I KNOW there is something out there, hopefully it's not too critical. I have my passport and camera, two most important things. I can live without clothes...at least until the angry mob catches up to me but I'll have my passport and camera to prove I'm an American and then take a picture. Haha.

Right. So I've noticed the title of my blog contains "and Beyond" which is really showing itself to be true. I am an adventurer and made the trek to New York. Where else will I end up? Well the next stop is a two week trip to Costa Rica. I am very excited and it's really just hit me that I'm actually going. It feels a bit odd because I haven't done my usual preparation and research about Costa Rica. In other places I've explored, I've looked up loads of information about what to do, what to see and what to expect. I haven't done that this time around so I suppose I'll just be winging it. There are really only five items on my list though, anything else will be spontaneous:
1. Ziplining through the tree's
2. Natural hot springs
3. Relax
4. Take loads of photos
5. Surf

Other than that, I have no expectations for this trip nor do I know what I am going to be doing the majority of the time if I am not doing one of the above. I suppose lots of hiking and exploring are in order but we'll have to see what else Costa Rica has in store for me.

A LOT has happened recently both at work and outside of work which is really stirring a lot of thoughts in my head. But more on than when I figure those things out for myself.

Next stop, Costa Rica (well JFK then Miami THEN Costa Rica).

Chicago Trip and NY Cold Weather

I'm back in NYC after being in Chicago for almost a week! I had a brilliant time with Michael last weekend and the conference and working from the Chicago GS office was a great experience as well.

I departed last Friday afternoon, Nov. 2nd and spent Friday and Saturday with Michael. We ate dinner and had a few pints at The Red Lion which is an English pub in Lincoln Park. I absolutely loved it! It was so homely and quaint and they had BOTH Boddington's and Speckled Hen. Oh yeah! And to make it that much more of a British evening, I ordered bangers and mash for dinner. Quite good, I'd say. I'm a fan!


On Saturday, we toured around Chicago and took in the city, the brisk air and oranges and reds all around (no, this doesn't include me!). Naturally, I took a gazillion photos and Michael was very patient about it. Thanks, old chap!

Well more to come later, I'm off to the Chocolate Show! Yep, you heard me, an entire show devoted to chocolate which pretty much equals my heaven! :-)

Ok, back to Chicago.

Restaurants I visited:
Giordano's pizza
Great deep dish pizza but I like Gino's East better.
Chicago Chop House
Absolutely magnificent steak dinner! I had a great time here with Michael and it is the best steak I've had so far. SO GOOD!
The Red Lion
Loved this British pub and wish we had something like this in NYC
Jimmy John's
Good sandwich shop for quite cheap (relative to new york prices)
Adobo Grill
Excellent Mexican food. They definitely have a different way of preparing it and I was skeptical at first but the food turned out really really well. They also made guacamole tableside which was TOWTALLY AWESOME!


I've only listed a FEW of the pictures from Chicago, take a look at the rest here. There are at least 30 more than this! Feel free to leave a comment on flickr if you like a particular photo. I always love feedback!












On to the next topic which is the chilly weather we've been having! For the past 4 or 5 days, it's been hovering in the 40's with overnight lows of mid-30's!! Man, compared to last year this is quite a surprising drop in temperature. Then again, last year what quite an anomaly with temperatures not getting really low until January. Maybe this a proper weather for this time of year? The 10-day forecast shows temperatures staying roughly the same with a few higher temps that what we've seen in the last couple of days. I'm stoked!! I love the cold! Bring on the snow, duuuuuuude!

Perfect Autumn Weather for Apple Picking and The Zoo

This weekend was simply gorgeous, 62 degrees during the day with mostly sunny, blue skies. We took advantage of the weather while it lasts by going apple picking at Wright's Apple farm on Saturday and a trip to the Bronx Zoo today. Let's start with apple picking.


The drive out there was easy in our zipcar companion, Mowanda, who was a Toyota Matrix. Unlike the Mazda 3, this car was a lot easier to drive and way more comfortable for me even though the size wasn't much different. If possible, I will try to get a Matrix every time. The only annoyance was the seatbelt alarm which does not stop ringing until both passenger's have their seat belts fastened. I suppose that's good though...

It was an 80 mile trip up to Gardener, NY where wright's apple farm was located. The foliage is starting to turn but it's not quite there yet. However, there were still plenty of oranges and reds to look at. We arrived and could immediately smell the apples in the air. There were plenty of pies, cider and donuts to go around. Mmmm, I love that smell and mixed with the bright orange of pumpkins and cool crisp feel of the fall air makes me tingle inside.




We drove up to the vast grove of apples and although they didn't have as much variety as Soon's orchard, this one was much bigger. I liked it a lot better because it was HUGE and it really felt like we were out in the country stealing apples from the neighborhood lot. We paid $8 for each bag which turned out to be loads of apples, one of which I'm crunching on right now. Mmmm, golden delicious is...delicious!



Jumping for an apple


Just getting out into the countryside was worth every penny of the zipcar. The apples were just an extra perk in my view. I felt so relieved and stress-free when out of the city. Ahhh, so nice! One of my favorite shots of the day was of this wide open plain, with apples crates and streaming clouds in the sky (click on it to go to flickr and few a larger size):


One cool thing we saw was sky divers floating down through the clouds. At first there were just a few but then more and more emerged from the thick clouds of above. It was a very cool sight!

A short recap of today (Sunday): we spent the afternoon at the Bronx Zoo for corporate weekend. There are a few weekends out of the year that are free to GS (and other company) employees and it just so happens that I came across this last week. It was very nice not to pay the $14 admission fee for each of us! Here are some shots of the day (the Tiger enclosure was SOO cool. We timed it perfectly with 4:30pm play time)











I tried something new with this batch of photos. I went into photoshop and just applied the most basic of filters. It really cleaned up the colors and makes them look a lot better!

Well I'm off to bed now, better get into my jim jams (just learned that one from the Brits).