Istanbul: European, Asian...something else?

I have heard many people say and read reports of Istanbul being the intersection of Europe and Asia. All of this creates a bit of confusion: what shall I expect? What to pack? What interactions await? And then, after arriving, I was no closer to consensus—so I started keeping track.

When I landed at the airport I had expected a swarm of taxi drivers peddling their services to harried travelers. Instead I found a taxi queue with waiting cabbies—who had…fare meters—one for Europe.

Driving from the airport to the hotel made me acutely aware that traffic laws, or lack thereof, silly things like lane markers, yellow lights and other drivers should largely be ignored—Asia.

It should not have surprised me then, that as a pedestrian in a city largely without crosswalks or pedestrian designations, my lower limbs were continually at risk—Asia.

Presence of Street Sweepers: Europe.

After a day I was beginning to be lulled into travelers security. I used the tap water to brush my teeth AND ate a salad. Then Ashleigh pointed out, the hotel in-room material says the water is only “semi safe.” Rookie Asian traveler mistake. I lost a day to the confines of the hotel for that one. Parasites in the water: Asia.

Being awoken at 5am each morning for prayer time blaring from loudspeakers atop a nearby mosque: Neither.

Haggling with venders over the price of knock off goods at the market: Asia.

Locals swimming in the crystal clear shipping and industrial waterway between the European and Asian sides: Europe

Istanbul has the same street cars as Geneva; the air conditioning inside alone is worth the price of admission. Timeliness of public transportation: Europe

Persistence of shop keepers to get you to visit their store: Asia

Our friends who acquired a dog in Switzerland told us the only thing more difficult than securing an apartment is getting a pet. Not so in Istanbul. You could walk one block in any direction and have your choice of stray dogs or cats: Asia.

Total: Asia, 6 Europe, 4 It is squarely some of both, but I’m leaning more Asian than European.

Weekend #6 of European Living: Girls' Weekend in PARIS!

Weekend Adventures: Paris, France

(July 16-18, 2010)

During the work day Friday I had three more apartment searches. As I write this blog entry, I am thrilled to report one of the three I saw that day is now our apartment/new home in Switzerland!! Obviously the weekend was off to a great start.

I left on the 4:17pm train direct to Paris to see Susanne and have a girls' weekend in Paris. Since I left work a bit early I decided to book the Geneva - Paris part of the trip in the First Class cabin (plus Preston wasn't there to tell me no!). I thought I'd be able to get work done with wifi, power outlets, etc. NOPE. Apparently the electricity for the outlets in the first class cabin wasn't working and there is no wifi. What a rip-off.


Regardless, it was an incredibly easy trip on the train, three and a half hours direct to Paris. Ahhh Paris. I hadn't been there since 2001 and I've missed it. My most memorable trip to Paris was actually in 1999 with my Mom when we toured the city, the Loire Valley and we got my graduation present, a Cartier watch from the store at Place de Vendome. Needless to say, I love Parisienne girls' trips!
So when  arrived at the train station I tried to take a page from Susanne's "super traveler" book (have I mentioned her packing skills?!) and take the metro to the hotel instead of a taxi cab (I might have also been feeling guilty for the not-so-worth-it First Class ticket!). 

Gare de Lyon, Paris' train station

I got to the correct stop really easily and was so proud of myself. Then came actually trying to find the hotel! After getting really frustrated and jumping in a cab afterall (who took me, being generous, 350 feet around the corner) I made it to the hotel and to my pal who was waiting outside for me soaking in a lovely French evening.


We ventured off to dinner, and along the way as I walked past a store front I thought to myself, "I know that guy ..." Letting it register for two seconds, I realized, sure enough, there was our friend Tyler who we had just gone to Brussels to cheer on in the Tour de France gracing an entire window of a local shop!

We settled on Au Pied du Chochon for dinner, a restaurant about which Susanne had read a great review. Turns out the restaurant, open 24 hours, has not once closed it's doors since opening in 1947! Amazing. I had the French onion soup and a salad. Really amazing!

After dinner we had a drink at a cafe close to our hotel and caught up about Susanne's adventures throughout France the last few days.


Saturday morning we woke up with shopping on the brain! We decided to venture through the Louvre first as our hotel was located only about three blocks away. We started in the back of the Louvre Palace, close to our hotel, and worked our way to the front. 

We shopped the day away along the right back and walked across the Seine on the Pont Alexander Bridge (my new favorite!).

We took a lot of touristy pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower. I sent Preston one from my blackberry and said "From Paris with love." I received one back from him "From Vail with love" as he was fishing the morning away with John Weaver, just hours before John's wedding!

   

We then hopped on the metro to the Arc de Triumph and Avenue des Champs-Elysees. 

Self portrait in front of the Arc de Triomphe

We walked back to the hotel (more shopping along the way!) and Susanne bought a gorgeous serving dish to remember the weekend. Along the way we saw this metro stop -- cool, right?

We took a power nap then had another delicious dinner by the hotel. It was great being back in a big city again, we didn't have a problem finding a restuarant to serve us at 10:45pm. Not the case in Geneva!


Sunday was filled with more shopping. Turns out the shops along Avenue des Champs-Elysees are really the only ones open on Sunday. Just out of luck we saved that for Sunday. I bought myself a fabulous purple Louis Vuitton ring that I love. When Preston returned from Colorado the day after I got home from Paris he said, "I think it looks like something you'd get for free in a candy box." Ugh. Boys!

The nice gentleman gave me a Louis Vuitton bag that could fit a family in it to carry all of the clothes I bought that weekend (not at Louis!) home to Geneva. I was going to send this photo to Preston without indicating my only purchase was a ring but at the last second I thought better of it!

We had a great girls' weekend and I had some great retail finds (two dresses, a sweater and two tops!). Thanks for being my first friend to visit, Susanne.

Au revoir mon amie, a bientot!

Weekend #5 of European Living: "M" cities in "S" countries

Weekend Adventures: Montreux/Geneva, Switzerland and Madrid, Spain

(July 9-14, 2010)

Truth be told, this is not really a weekend post; instead, a document of a Swiss weekend (if you count Thursdays as the start of the weekend a la college days!) and an amazingly-timed work trip.

As you may have read from the last post about the Montreux Jazz Festival, we had a great night. Preston flew home to Seattle (and San Francisco to meet Annie's new baby, Camden AND Vail for a Colgate friend's wedding) but my pal, Susanne, came to take a much-deserved vacation.

Friday night before Susanne arrived, two sets of Expedia friends were having cocktail parties. I first had champagne and "nibbles" (between my boss, Matthew, my friend Jo and Preston's new bestie, Ian, all being from the U.K., I hope to trade in some Americanisms for Britisms) at Jo's amazing apartment in Carouge with the GSO team (Jaime, Tina, Angie and Dave) then went "home" to our college dorm-like setting (our temporary corporate housing l lovingly refer to as "The Expedia Village") and had cocktails with the Supply Stategy & Analysis team (Aleks, Gracelda and Chariti). Look, friends in Switzerland!:

Saturday I went for a jog and went food shopping for my first weekend day in Geneva (I must've been channeling Preston because those are two of his everyday Geneva activities!) and took the bus to the airport to meet my first visitor!

Susanne arrived from New York via Zurich and powered through the day to enjoy a sunny summer afternoon in Geneva. We dropped her bags (she is a master packer; 11 days in Europe with at least two -- two different -- outfits per day in a carry-on!) at The Expedia Village and ventured around town.

Since I haven't lived in Geneva very long (and aside from our two pre-move visits, I had never been to Geneva on a weekend), I was a little nervous to play tour guide. But I at least know the Jet D'Eau (and Christian Louboutin!) so how bad could it be?

I showed Susanne Jet D'Eau, the fountain in Lake Geneva (aka "Lac Lemon" for the French speakers), we stopped by the Garden Anglais to see the Geneva Flower Clock and went for a glass of champagne and rose at Le Lagoste, the restaurant where Lake Geneva meets the River Rhone (not a bad way to start a girls' vacation!). We then boarded one of the yellow lake boats that took us under the Mont Blanc bridge and stopped at the right bank. Here's Susanne as we passed under the bridge:

After our little lake excursion we stopped to watch the craziest parade either of us have ever seen (and we've lived through a lot of NYC parades, if that says anything!). Quiet Geneva turned into Techno Dance Party Parade-central as "floats" (which were really trucks with open sides) with techno music and dancers passed by. Techno Parade is described as an event where each float is "a rave on wheels complete with costumed dancers and pumping beats." Okay...

After we had enough techno dance party, we went back to The Expedia Village to relax for a bit and get ready for dinner in Old Town. We chose "Au pied du Chochon" for dinner and it didn't disappoint; it's a good little Old Town spot for good food and people watching.

After dinner we caught the last part of the "fete" around the lake. There were more intoxicated teens than I could have ever imagined but I think my favorite was a boy with a Louis Vuitton "murse" who asked us for three francs to get home (he was on his bike!). I was half-temped to ask HIM for money considering he was carrying a bag that put my little Longchamp to shame! AND he had wheels!

Sunday we got a late start and just spent the day at one of Preston's favorite spots, Geneve Plage. We had a fun day of sun tanning and catching up on the U.S. magazines Susanne brought me. We finished the day watching the Spain/Netherlands World Cup finale. Which brings me to "Weekend #5 of European Living: "M" cities in "S" countries" part deux ...

Susanne and I bid adieu ('till friday in Paris!) early Monday morning. She was heading off to France via train for a few days of touring and I was going to the airport to Madrid to see the Western European Directors that were all meeting there. That's right, Madrid ... the day after the World Cup win!

After a few travel delays, I arrived at the Expedia Spain office and our meetings lasted until 7:30 when we cut short the last presenter to go watch the World Cup parade!

We decided to watch from our hotel, The Vincci Capitol, which proved to be the PERFECT venue.

Here I am on the roof with the crowds below:

And here's the World Cup on the lower left ... and the team!:

We had dinner after the parade and two more days of great meetings. This trip to Madrid was definitely one for the books ... or blogs!

 

*******

Weekend In Geneva and Work Trip to Madrid

Dates:

Friday – Wednesday, June 9-14, 2010

Where I stayed:

- "The Expedia Village", aka the Walls' corporate housing in Geneva
- Vincci Capitol Hotel, Madrid

The Walls' Review:

1. Staying in Geneva for a weekend isn't so bad!
2. I really do love our Expedia preferred hotel in Spain, The Vincci Capital. It's in the Swepps building, couldn't be in a better location, is across he square from the Expedia office. It has a great roof top lounge area and a spa and workout facility. It's a boutique hotel with big hotel ammenities.

Montreux Jazz Festival

Montreux Jazz Festival

7 July 2010

Montreux, Switzerland

My Expedia pal, Joanne, also part of the relocated team, recently moved from the London office. About three months ago she called and asked if Preston and I would like to go to the Montreux Jazz Festival when we were all Geneva residents. We jumped at the chance.

We visited Montreux during our first trip to Geneva in February and fell in love with it. The village is located about 100km east of Geneva (about 80 minutes by train), also on the lake, and reminds me of the French Riviera. There are beautiful parks, lovely cafes everywhere and miles of walking paths from the village center to Chateau de Chillon (we visited in February and loved that too). Here are some pictures of Montreux from our time there in February.

Chateau de Chillon:

Not only do we love Montreux but the 16-day annual Jazz Festival is even listed in the book "1,000 places to see before you die." To quote the book entry, "...Since the 19th century, artists, writers and musicians have been attracted to this resort city [Montreux] with its French accent and worldly atmosphere, ambitiously compared to that of Cannes. You'll understand why Lake Geneva is called the Swiss Riviera when you see the palms, cypresses and magnolias that flourish there ... and the cafes that line the marvelous lake-side walks. Cannes can only convet the Chateau de Chillon, Switzerland's most important and most pohotographed castle..."

Of course, of allll the days, Expedia scheduled the "Geneve Opening" party that same night; it's as if we were back in Seattle with friends and things to do! So we stopped by the amazing party at Société Nautique de Genève, the yacht club on the lake that housed the America's Cup from 2003 through 2007, to at lease celebrate a little bit! We mingled for a bit and drank a lot of champagne in a short amount of time and bid adieu for Montreux.

Jo rented a car and we picked up her friend Sophie who had taken the train to Geneva from her home in Chamonix (no, she wasn't the lady drinking wine out of the bottle on the corner). When we arrived in Montreux we walked around for a bit to get our bearings (Jo even commented that the shopping at the festival is better than that in Geneva!) and got our wristbands for the Ben Harper show.

We really enjoyed the show and all four of us were especially entertained by the 14-yr old we stood behind who was dancing and carrying on like Ben was to be worshiped!
We walked around Montreux some more and ate dinner outside before heading back to Geneva. We arrived home just after 2 am and Preston left for the airport around 4:45 that same morning to go home for 10 days. I'm glad we were able to squeeze in one more adventure before the first visit home!

Weekend #4 of European Living: Brussels, Belgium

Weekend Adventures: Brussels

(July 2-4, 2010)

As you know from our last weekend post, our great pal, Juan Jose Perez, planned a European adventure around a week-long Microsoft training program. Since Juan was flying into Zurich and flying out of Brussels, and we had such a great time in Brienz, why not see him two weekends in a row?!
 
Preston flew to meet Juan Thursday afternoon. Let's just say Preston looked like he had finally recovered from Thursday around 5pm on Sunday ...
 
After work Friday I flew in from Geneva and the weekend fun (at least for me!) really began. I took the *bus* to the airport (first time venturing with public transport to an airport and it was easy-breezy from the Expedia office - the #10 straight to the airport) and had a lovely flight via Brussels Air. The airline even offered free wine and a meal on the hour-long flight. Amazing.


Even more amazing? I just walked across the terminal to the hotel. Juan was in training near the airport and he decided to stay at the Sheraton there; so we booked at the same spot to be close to our pal (it worked out really well). 


When I arrived the boys (looking terrible from Thursday night) were in the hotel lobby bar with Juan's new friend from training, Micael. Micael is from Stockholm and I think he's recruited Preston to go fast car driving with him throughout Europe. He also gave me good pointers for holding Expedia meetings, "If they are unsure about you, the American marketing girl, and they give you grief just say, 'Hold on one moment ...' and come back with a bottle of Veuve ... Everyone's happy." Needless to say, we all love Micael.


We left the hotel bar at halftime of the Uruguay/Ghanna World Cup match and headed in to town. We went to a square packed with outdoor tables and people cheering on the match via a cab with incredible technology. Through the gps system the driver was streaming live tv. Wow.


We hung out at a bar called Coco and watched the momumental game (Juan's parents are from Uruguay which made it even more awesome). The best player on the Uruguay team got a red card for preventing a goal via his hands at the end of the game and it went to a shoot out. When Uruguay pulled off the win, we were all speechless.

We had a late dinner at Zywieg's and sat outside. We shared a table with three guys that live in Brussels and a South American character ("my son-in-law has the unfortunate disability of being an Argentinian") that lives in Washington, D.C. He does business in Geneva so we got talking about the city and all its rules ("children are brought up to learn 'no' before all else", the "no flush" after 10pm rule, etc.). The guys from Brussels were saying Geneva is the Singapore of Europe (and while they were at it, the French are the Argentinians of Europe!).


We slept in Saturday (Preston needed it from Thursday!) and took a ridiculously old train for $13 (one way!) to the center of town. Let's just say Brussels is my new favorite European city despite its old train system. We walked around the gorgeous Grand Place, had a Belgian waffle at Aroma Cafe, shopped in cute boutiques and hid underneath the table umbrellas with espresso as the rain showers passed.

We bought more tourist umbrellas (a regular occurrence since moving to Europe) and when the rain got really bad, ran into a French bistro for a glass of wine. Love Brussels!


Our day of being tourists continued and we visited the famous Manneken Pis (little boy peeing). How cute is he?!

Next we hit Brussels' third most famous landmark, the Atonium. The Atonium was built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair and is 102 meters tall. Like the Eiffel Tower, it wasn't supposed to be a permanent structure; but today Atonium it is a symbol of both modern architecture and Brussels. 


On the grounds there we also visited Mini Europe and saw the top EU landmarks 1:25 scale. Preston commented the monuments in Mini Europe are looking a bit tired these days though!

Saturday night we ventured back to the same square we were in Friday and had a great dinner at Coco (which, obviously, began with a bottle of Veuve).

After dinner we wandered into the Belgian EU Presidency celebration, aka the "I heart EU" concert. It was a free show with singers, dancers and acrobats. We even got a pre-Fourth of July fireworks show courtesy of the event.

We started Sunday with some moules frites in Grand Place and even found the "Jeanneke Pis" the little girl counterpoint to Mannekin Pis (although she's super hidden within the city) ... 

As if Brussels could get any better, Sunday's real activity was venturing back to Atonium to watch the TOUR DE FRANCE!!  We spent the day with our friend Stephanie, who's boyfriend is Washington's own Tyler Farrar. This tour is Tyler's second with Team Garmin and we were so excited to watch our friend be favored to win the stage (after finishing seventh in the prologue Saturday!).

Unfortunately another cyclist got caught up in Tyler's bike in the waning meters of the stage and Tyler didn't win. But we'll obviously be rooting for him throughout the rest of the tour (and it makes bike racing a lot more fun when you know a major contender!). 


Preston and I ran back to the airport where Juan met us with Starbucks and promised he'd be back soon to visit with Krystal. Thanks for two awesome European weekend adventures, Juan!

Complete photo album here: Two European weekends with Juan Jose 


*******
Weekend Trip to Brussels, Belgium
Dates:
Friday – Sunday, July 2-4, 2010

Excursions:

• Saturday: Walk around Grand Place, visit to the Mannekin Pis, shopping in Brussels, visit to the Atonium, walk through Mini Europe, dinner at Coco on Place du Luxembourg and Belgian EU President celebration on the Esplanade in front of the European Parliament
• Sunday: Back to Grand Place, visit to Jeanneke Pis, tour through the inside of the Atonium, Tour de France Stage 1 with Stephanie, bye to Juan at the Brussels airport

Where we stayed:

Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel

The Walls' Review:

Hotel review: The hotel really couldn't have been more conveniently located in proximity to the airport (I didn't even walk in an uncovered spot from the terminal to check-in). The hotel was very clean and the hotel bar makes a great martini! The one thing we would recommend when staying in an airport hotel is ask for a room as far from the elevator as possible. While we were staying relatively near the end of the hallway, we still heard all of the early morning travelers trying to rush out to catch their flights. Stay further away from the elevator for a restful night's sleep. 

Other comments: I heart Brussels. Oh, and I would love to return for the flower carpet (it only happens every two years in August) in Grand Place.