Friday, April 28, 2006

Anniversary

It's our 5 year wedding anniversary!!! Time flies so fast when you're having fun. Both of us took the day off from work today, which is great! Woke up late, had lunch downtown and did some shopping. Now we're home for a quick nap, and then we're off to see Slava's Snow Show. I hope it's good.

Tomorrow, we're doing a one night stay at the Lafayette Park Hotel, where we got married.

It's actually 6pm right now. Five years ago, on the dot, our wedding ceremony had just begun. Sigh...

Thursday, April 27, 2006

European Vacation - Part 3 - Paris

Our third day in Paris, we started out at our favorite bakery for some yummy pastries for breakfast. A quick ride on the Metro and we arrived at the Latin Quarter. Basically, this is the 'college' area of Paris. The Sorbonne University is located here.

Our first stop was the Notre Dame. It is truly an amazing sight. We happened to walk up 'on the hour' so we were able to hear those wonderful bells chime. I couldn't believe I was actually standing in front of this church. One thing I noticed right away, they were cleaning the exterior of the church - luckily, they were done with the front facade and the main bulk of work was being done on the sides. The stones on the front were obviously 'whiter' than the rest of the building.



I wouldn't wait to get inside. Luckily with our Museum Passes, we were able to walk right in. Right away you see signs everywhere that say "No photos", but everyone else was taking pictures - so I did too. I tried to not be too obvious about it, and I did turn the flash off the camera.

Everything I've heard about the Rose Window is true. It's stunningly beautiful. It was muggy outside, so I don't think we saw the full effect of the light coming through the stained glass, but it was still an amazing sight. It's massive - and the colors, wow!



When inside the church, you basically walk in a U shaped line around the perimeter of the interior. There are many small chapels on the sides. We were lucky that we got through one section of the cathedral before they closed it off and a small procession of priests and other members of the church walked in a line towards the center of the building - where they performed a small mass for the locals. I say lucky, because we were able to walk through the entire church. A few minutes late and we wouldn't be able to get through one section.

Anyway, after walking through the whole church and then sitting to admire everything for a few minutes, we headed outside - crossed the Seine and walked along the water to look at the rest of the outside of this magnificent building. For some reason, if felt that it was smaller than what I had built it up to be in my mind. Nonetheless, it was still fabulous.





After a quick lunch in the Latin Quarter (I forgot the name of the place - something with Crepe in it) we headed over to see La Conciergerie. It was the final "holding" place of Marie Antoinette before she was executed, as well as many other of Paris' unlucky. I believe over 2000 or 3000 people who were beheaded in the city spent their last days in this building.

The main hall of La Conciergerie is amazing, but the rest was, well, like a dungeon or prison. The room in which Marie Antoinette spent her last days was converted into a small memorial for the Queen in the chapel. There is a 'recreation' of what the room may have looked like in one of the upstairs cells. Not much to show here except for the main room downstairs. They were showing a history of Paris exhibit so, the picture only shows part of the massive room - without the picture panels.




After La Conciergerie, walked a short distance to the Sainte-Chappelle. I didn't know what to expect, but everyone I've spoken to about Paris always highly recommends it - and now it's my turn. Anyone who goes to Paris MUST see this church! It doesn't look like much from the outside, or even the downstairs entry area. But walk up the narrow winding staircase on a sunny day, and it will take your breath away. WOW! The windows are 49 feet tall, 15 panes of windows. Incredible.





As if we weren't insane enough - we decided that we still had half a day left and took the Metro to the Musee D'Orsay. This building used to be a train station.




I only managed to get a few shots in before my camera ran out of batteries. Unbelievable. Yes, it's my fault. I forgot to charge it after all those hours at the Louvre the day before. I did manage to get pictures of some of my favorite paintings before it fully died. So, no Van Gogh unfortunately.




It's not so much getting a picture of the painting, but more of keeping a memory that I actually was able to see these in real life. Things that I've studied only in slides and books - I was standing in front of the real thing. Fabulous.

So, that was it for day three in Paris. Next up... part 2 of the Louvre. The sculptures.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Time to Celebrate

One of my best friends called me this Saturday. She's engaged!!! Her longtime boyfriend proposed to her earlier that same morning during a quiet rainy walk in Golden Gate Park. How romantic! To make it an extra special weekend, he had arrange for both of them to fly out for a short weekend in Seattle (neither of them have been there) where they celebrated their engagement together.

I'm so happy for them! Congratulations J and E!

They want to have the wedding by the end of the year! My goodness. They better get going on the planning!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

European Vacation - Part 2 - London and Paris

Day 5, 6 and 7, London to Paris

We arrived in London after a 3 hour flight from Belgrade. Of course, our flight was delayed, so all the things I had planned for the afternoon of our arrival didn't happen. By the time we checked into our hotel,
The Copethorne Tara, it was almost 7pm.

We ended up having dinner at a local pub called the Prince of Wales. I had the sausages and mash that I've been dreaming of, and my hubby had his ale and a meat pie.

After dinner, we just walked around the neighborhood a little. Everything was closed. Not much to see at night. Ended up back at the hotel and resting up for our early morning. 6am wake up call - we were going by EuroStar train to Paris!!!

I love the fact that you can just hop on a train and in under 3 hours, you're in Paris. It was pretty comfortable. I thought most of the time we could be under the English Channel, but that part only took about 20 minutes. The rest of the time, we were traveling by the countryside.



We arrived in Paris around noon (London is ahead by 1 hr), and after an easy trip from the Metro, we found our hotel in no time and we prepared for our first outing in the City of Lights. We stayed at the
Renaissance Paris Vendom Hotel on the Rue du Thabor. It's a beautiful hotel - newly renovated. It's also right in the heart of the city and a very short walk to the Louvre, and about a 15 minute walk to the Champs-Elysees. The Metro is half a block away. The perfect location.

We walked around the area a bit and then headed towards the Champs-Elysees. Along the way, we stopped for crepes from one of the street vendors. I had a delicious chocolate banana crepe. Yummy! The Champs-Elysees was packed!!! For a Tuesday afternoon, I was surprised that there were so many people! We walked the entire way to the Arc de Triomphe - what a sight. The structure truly is magnificent - moreso than I thought it would be. I couldn't believe the details of the scupltures. With the French flag waving in the wind under the arch - it was quite a regal image.



We walked all over the area, hitting some side streets, and we found a cute little bakery. Our first taste of pastries at its best. I forgot what my husband had, but I had a wonderful square of pizza - on a croissant. DELICIOUS! As we walked out, it started to pour. And then buckets of rain came down. We huddled with strangers under the small awning of the bakery. One big crash of thunder and it was over. It was surreal. By then it was almost 5pm already, so we made the slow walk back to the hotel.

For those who like to shop, don't forget a visit to the Avenue Montainge. Sex and the City fans will recognize the Hotel Athenee that Carrie stayed at in the series finale of the show. The area is very chic and beautifully designed - and it has most of the major designer stores. The Dior store that Carrie took a spill in, it's on this street. There's also another Louis Vuitton store, must less crowded than the 10,000 sq ft one on the Champs-Elysees. Yes, I may have indulged and purchased a little something 'pour moi'.

For dinner, we ended up at a neighborhood restaurant called The Rotunde. Don't bother. Enough said about that.

Our second day in Paris - we ventured out around 10am and found the most perfect bakery in the world. In French, we managed to get our orders in, and within a few minutes, we were eating the most delicious Quiche Lorraine and chocolate croissants you could dream of (we would end up coming back to this bakery three times in the 6 days we were in Paris). We walked to the local travel bureau and bought two
Paris Museum Passes. This is a must if you plan to visit a lot of the more popular sights in Paris. The pass covers the admission fees, plus, you get into the shorter 'group' ticket lines. No need to wait in the hour long queue.

Today, we covered the
Louvre. Looking at the map, it doesn't seem that big. But when you actually start walking around, you realized how small the scale is on the map. The Louvre is HUGE!!! So, making an executive decision right there - we would cover two floors of paintings that day. We would come back for the other two floors of sculptures. With the pressure off, we headed to the Denon wing, home of the Mona Lisa first. On the way, you must pass another well known piece of history - the Winged Victory. There is was in all its glory - sitting at the top of a grand staircase. WOW.



I'm not going to go into everything we saw that day, but it was amazing. We did see the Mona Lisa, the Venus De Milo, and so many other pieces of art that I studied in school. It's such a elating moment when something you only saw on a slide is now really in front of you. The real thing! And things you thought were huge, are really rather small. And things you thought were small, could be on canvas that takes up an entire wall. We were lucky that there was a Jean Ingres exhibition there too - he is one of my favorite painters. I wasn't able to take any pictures (you're really not supposed to take any in the entire museum). There were so many guards in that small exhibit area that I couldn't even sneak any shots. Oh well.

So, here are some random shots I did get. I took several shots of the ceiling of the Louvre. The details are incredible. Did you know the museum was originally built as a palace? I don't know how you can 'live' in something this immense.











We ended up walking over 7 hours that day in the Louvre. Our feet were pounding. I don't know how we made it back to the hotel - it was only about a 10 minutes walk from the museum, but still... We rested until around 9p and then wandered around the neighborhood in search for some dinner. We came across an Italian restaurant called
Fuxia on the Place du Marche St. Honore. We ordered two pasta dishes, and let me tell you - it was the best we've ever tasted. Unbelievable. The sauce! Oh, the wonderful sauce. It's the kind that makes you take the bread afterwards and just mop up every little smudge off your plate as to not waste any of it. The waiter was also extremely nice. He actually took the time to explain the specials to us, because it was all in French. The place was packed, which is what first drew us to this place. Go where all the locals go.



That's all for now. I'm hungry just thinking about that meal again. More later...

Saturday, April 08, 2006

European Vacation - Part 1 - Belgrade

Here is the start of our adventures in Europe... I'm going to have to break it down or it's going to become a novel.

Day 1 - Thursday, March 23

Packed until 2am (hubby worked until almost 3am). Alarm woke us up at 4:30a, and we were on our way to the airport by shuttle at 5:10a. The first leg of the trip was uneventful - 4.5 hours from SF to Chicago. Lucky, I had bought this wonderful little
Archos digital video recorder recently and downloaded a bunch of shows we had recorded but didn't get to watch yet. At the Chicago airport, I must say that Terminal 4 sucks. The food court is located before the security check points - so if you want to eat, you have to do it before you go in. Otherwise, you'll have to go through security all over again. Our plane was also delayed an hour, but British airlines gave us food vouchers for $15 each! Who does that? Totally not complaining, but that has never happened to me before, and it was greatly appreciated - especially for two tired and grumpy travelers. Bravo British Airlines!

An hour and a half later, we were on our flight from Chicago to Zurich, Switzerland. This was going to be the 8.5 hour portion of it. Good thing was that each seat had it's own monitor and game/movie controller. Bad thing is, the controller is extremely user 'unfriendly'. Very poorly designed. I ended up watching cartoons - because the movie selection sucked!!! Played "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and Blackjack most of the time. We had also recharged the Archos at the Chicago airport, so we had another set of TV shows to watch.

Here's a view from our plane as we neared Zurich. Beautiful, isn't it?



The airport in Zurich is very cold and 'modern', but wow - it's got a shopping mall! I didn't get to go into the mall because of our delayed arrival, but we passed Hermes, Bvlgari, and several other designer stores on the way to our next gate (never seen stores like that at an airport before). At this point, my hubby realized that he forgot his book on the last plane. After going back and forth between the gate and security check point three times, British Airlines managed to find the book - and all was well. Again, bravo British Airlines!

Last part of the trip, a 1.5 hour flight from Zurich to Belgrade, Serbia. By the time we arrived in Belgrade, we had been awake for almost 24 hours. My husband's cousin Anica picked us up at the airport, and we were on our way. At first, I was a bit disappointed because, as Anica explained, Belgrade is trying to renew itself and build more highrises and modern buildings (you know it's been bombed 4 times in the last 100 years? Most recently by NATO in 1999 for 78 days). There were apartment complexes everywhere. I was looking for the historical buildings! Where were they? Relief set in as I realized that all the modern buildings are on one side of the Sava River, and as we crossed the bridge, you saw right away that the history has been preserved on the other side - and we were heading into the heart of it. Yea!

We stayed at the
Palace Hotel and wouldn't you know it, there was a Caesar's Palace casino attached. Very weird!



Our hotel was within walking distance to most of Old Belgrade and it was fantastic. We walked everywhere we could. Anica's family lived just a 15 minute walk from us - so that night, after a few hours rest, Anica's husband, Bogdan, came to get us and we walk to their house and had the most wonderful homemade mussaka I've ever had.


Days 2 - 4 Wednesday, March 24 - 27

The next few days were spent sightseeing with Anica, Bogdan, and our friend Paul (who had come over with my hubby's dad). We walked all around the city saw the Belgrade Fortress, various churches and cathedrals, and dined on the most delicious foods.



These are various pictures of the city, the Belgrade Fortress and surrounding areas. The 'water' shots are of the Sava and Danube rivers.





Here are a couple of pictures of Kneza Mihaila Street - it's kind of the main street that runs through old Belgrade. It's packed with all kinds of stores (from clothing to pharmacies) and some restaurants. It is also the first named street in the city (1870). EVERYONE hangs out here. Starting from around 11am until late at night, the place is packed. I mean, packed!!! You see pictures of an average New York street filled with people - yep, it's the same here. Except people aren't going anywhere, there all just hanging out. These pictures were taken around 9:30a when we ventured out on our own for some breakfast, so it was still empty.



One thing I must point out... there are a lot of tall people there! I noticed the women specifically. I'm 5'8" and that's above average in the states. I felt so small compared to some of these women I saw walking around. I think average in Belgrade is probably 5'10". I saw many women who were easily over 6 feet.

There are two churches in particular that I must introduce you to. The first one is the church of St.Djordje, in a city called Topola - and hour's drive from Belgrade.



From the outside, it's an all white marble structure with five domes and is pretty plain looking - but on the inside...



Isn't it gorgeous? Mosaic tiles cover almost every inch of wall and ceiling (almost 3,500 meters). It's absolutely stunning. We weren't supposed to take pictures and this woman actually followed us around in the beginning because she saw I had a camera - but I managed a few shots anyway. With my new camera, there's a feature that uses the available light, no flash - and it worked perfectly.

It was literally freezing inside the church. It was about 50 degrees outside, and as soon as you walked in, you could see your breath.

This is a picture in the crypt downstairs. Again, all mosaic tiles and beautiful marble throughout. Kind of sad though - we saw several tombs for small children, from 1 year to 6 years old.



The ceiling of the crypt.



That same day, we visited the unfinished Saint Sava Memorial Cathedral. This place was MASSIVE! I mean, I can't describe how insignificant you feel when you're standing inside this place. It's construction began in 1935, stopped in 1941. Restarted in 1985, don't know when it stopped, but then it restarted in 2000 again. The outside is completed, but the inside is still an empty skeleton.

This place is made entirely of white marble, donated from Greece. Again, it was warm outside, but completely freezing inside. Can you imagine how this place will look when it's completed? Maybe my great-grand children will get to enjoy it. I don't have the specs, but I estimate this cathedral is about 4 times bigger than the church of St.Djordje.







The rest of the day, Bogdan drove us around the city of old Belgrade. It's was very interesting to see how there were some very old buildings right next to newly build modern structures. It's all meshed in together in that small part of town. We saw several buildings that were damaged by the NATO bombings in 1999. Huge structures with a gaping hole in the middle of it. The city doesn't have the money to tear them down. One building still has two live rockets in it. No one had defused them yet. Scary! It's amazing how such a small city survived being bombed four times in the last century. I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been for Anica and the family (they have three children - the oldest is 14 now).


All I can say is that Anica and Bogdan are the best hosts ever. They really showed us their city and we had a blast enjoying it together. They also fulfilled all our culinary wishes and we had the best food every day (homemade and restaurant - it was all delicious). I miss them already.

Bogdan had to work on the Monday we left, but Anica and her father came to wish us farewell at our hotel. They had arranged for the cab to take us to the airport. It was a wonderful 4 days, and it was sad to say goodbye - but I think we will go back there again some day.

Next stop, our one night in London before heading off to Paris...

Thursday, April 06, 2006

We're back!!!

Back in the U.S. and I'm so happy! I'm suffering serious jet lag. I've been wide awake since 3am. We had been up for 26 hours straight from when we got our 4am wake up call at our London hotel, until we stepped into our house at almost 8pm.

To our surprise, all the clocks were 'blinking' which told us we had a power outage. So much for some of the shows I had set the VCRs for. And unbelievable timing, I had no idea that the time change was this past Sunday - so everything I recorded from Monday to Wednesday are all an hour off. Oh well, we watch too much TV anyway.

Europe was a blast!!! I absolutely loved it. We saw so much history and took so many pictures (over 850) it will take me a while to put something abbreviated together. I kept a hand written journal of the entire trip, so I don't want to write it all over again. I'll just put on the good stuff later.

One really bad thing from trip though - my hubby, who was sick from the beginning with a cold, carried on the cough he had through the entire trip - and then to top it all off, he must have eaten something bad when we made our return trip to London, because he's been really sick ever since. Yesterday was an extremely hard day for him. I'm taking him to the doctor today.
He's sleeping now. I made a 3am trip to Walgreen's to get him some medicine. Been awake ever since. Of course, now that I see light coming through the window, I'm getting sleepy. At least I'm on vacation through the weekend!

On a personal vacation note for myself... I didn't get to buy anything!!! Well, ok, that's an exaggeration. On the first day in Paris, I bought myself a Louis Vuitton bag (which I had purposely wanted to get in Paris - saved almost $200 folks. Paris prices are cheaper than the U.S. and no tax for foreigners). Thank God I bought it that first day too, because we arrived in Paris on a Tuesday and did nothing but sightseeing and visiting museums for the next 5 days. We intended to have a nice relaxing, slow paced day on Sunday - do some shopping then.

Well folks - if you ever go to Paris, and I knew this too, most of the stores are closed on Sunday. There was a purse at Gap that I wanted (I know, Gap, but the U.S. stores don't have the pink one) - and even that was closed. The freakin shopping mall at the Lafayette Galleries was closed! Unbelievable! So, no shopping in Paris for this gal. I was very upset. I wasn't about to do any shopping in London because it's $1.8+ to 1 Pound. Basically everything I looked at, I doubled in price and it was just way too expensive. The purse at Gap was 39 Pounds - in the U.S. it's $39. Why would I want to pay over $70 for it? It's not worth it.

Anyway, I got my LV bag and that's what I really wanted - so I can't complain. Would you believe I even packed an extra fold up bag just in case I did shop a lot? Well, that thing never saw the light of day from my suitcase. Bummer.

OK - my eyes are getting heavy now. It's almost 7am - I'm all screwed up. Going to check on my hubby to see how he's doing. I'll update more later.