note to self:

It's been like pulling teeth to even attempt to think of something witty enough to post, much less on a regular basis. The sky opened up and the sun shone on me today, when this little doozy hit my noggin.

So Summer and her bff Susannah are preparing to embark on their own Euro-adventure (just a few months too late...because God knows I tried to get them to come visit me there. Losers.) and asked my advice on Dublin, Ireland the other day. I droned on and on about what sites rocked and what airlines to avoid, places to check out and sights to skip. An unfortunate coworker nearly lost an ear by asking for tips on what to see in Prague. Elissa also made the minor mistake of making me pine for Greece, so my mind has been in full-blown travel mode. I even said to myself the other day, "Self, you should probably put this in a blog post so you can remember it for the next time you circle the globe (because oh yes, there WILL be a next time...)", so here goes:

AirNinja.com = the. sickest. site. ever. It lets you plug in your dates and cities, and it'll spit out the cheap-o airlines that fly that path, annnnd it'll load the data into Expedia, Orbitz and Kayak for you, so you don't have to type it a hundred times while you comparison shop. Yes, it sounds like it'd take three whopping seconds, but searching those sites on your own takes lots o' time. It saved me time and money...win.

I became very close friends with TripAdvisor.com on this trip. I used the site a TON, and never really disagreed with their recommendations. The site even pointed out things to go do, rather than just where to stay and what to eat. A few pics even helped us find our elusive hostels...

Hostelworld.com rocked too. Their reviews were legit, and we enjoyed most of our hostels (read: not the one in Istanbul).

Avoid RyanAir and Olympic Airlines like the swine flu. Wear a mask if you must. I whole-heartedly recommend spending an extra fifty bucks to go with an airline that doesn't suck ass. Between a 245Euro excess baggage fee to the near-riot getting through the gate (twice) to the hellacious customer service, RyanAir might be the devil in airline form. And Olympic Airlines'll delay your flight and insist that you'll be fine to make your connection, only to offer you a whopping 12Euro in food vouchers when you miss your flight.

Things I could not have lived without on this trip - in no particular order, I swear:

• Rob (my travel guru...he kept me sane and calm when all I wanted to do was lose my shit)
• my money belt (totally dorky, I know, but I didn't have to worry for one second about slimy pickpockets - if you want my stuff, you come and get it bud)
• travel adaptors (duh)
• my camera
• a laptop
  

Things I want to buy before our next trip:

• a better backpack. I'm a funky in-between size and my little kid's pack was too small, but Rob's grown-up pack was too big. Either way, I want a new one.
• this camera. Its like my big Nikon SLR and my point-and-shoot had a baby...perfection.
• other stuff, I'm sure.

This is one of those posts that'll be updated as I think of other things that I'm bound to forget...and since posts are better with pics:

on our way through the US to Europe...soooooo long ago

And yes, I am fully aware that we've been back an entire month and it appears as though I might be a bit hung up on our trip, so gimmee some slack. I was gone for four months, so it'll take me at least four to get over being back...

week in a nutshell

Since my life is faaaaar less exciting now that I'm not flitting around the globe, I've been at a loss for things to post. Do I describe a day at work? My exciting 10-minute walks around the block? Kali's latest escapade? Nah. Lame. However, in an effort to give my four readers something to do instead of work, here's my week in a nutshell:

Monday
Going to work flat-out sucks. I was SUPER bored early in the week, since my heart is certainly not there and I, until Thursday, basically had little to do and refused to willingly take on a project (yes, I know this is a terrible attitude to have, but it's fading...and thanks to a new humungo project I got later in the week, I'm busier now).

Tuesday
We'd been dying to get back into yoga. Conveniently, in our absence Summer, who previously despised and talked trash about yoga, converted and became a yoga-holic. We'd been hearing about instructors badBarb and radChuck for the whole four months we were gone, and the time had come to visit bB.

The woman yacked and yacked and yacked. About what? No clue. I do vaguely recall something about facia, the stuff between your muscles and skin and bones and stuff. She kept saying "fass-ci-al fuzz", stretching out the word over six or so sylables, and I SWEAR that I was the only one that noticed that facial (as in 'of facia') and facial (as in 'of your face') are the SAME WORD! Maybe I should be a wordsmith or an editor...

Side note: bB talked a lot yet forgot to mention how we should be breathing...um, isn't breathing a giant part of yoga?!?! Anyways. We also held poses for 0.4 seconds...but, something musta been working, because I was sore the next day.

Wednesday
By far the funnest (is that a word?) evening of the week. Since we'll soon be moving to Sunnyvale (a dangerous two blocks from Summer and a precarious four blocks from downtown), we decided to get a jump on scoping out our future haunts (a.k.a. bars 'n' pubs). After an excruciatingly long day in the office, we headed to Summer's adorable pad and walked to downtown Sunnyvale.

It might be a food mecca...that's to be determined in the verrrry near future. Name a style of food, and it's probably got a restaurant dedicated to it on Murphy Street. We unknowingly stumbled upon the Sunnyvale Summer Series, a weekly concert/street party through the summer, with live bands and food booths and people drinking on the streets. Win.

We chose an Irish pub called Murphy's Law, and quickly fell in love with the place. $3 drafts from noon to 7pm...including Sierra Nevada and Guinness (properly poured!). Yesssss. Out back, there was a huge raging barbeque with tasty pulled pork sandwiches. Let's just say that Murphy's Law will be seeing us frequently...

Thursday
Were supposed to go to yoga to experience the glory that is radChuck, but I tweaked my back at work and was too grumpy for bendiness. Somehow, the Orlando Magic managed to blow a 12-point lead and lose to the disgusting Lakers, so Thursday night was pretty much a bust.

Friday
Rob and I visited an old friend, BJ's Pizza and Brewery after work before catching up on some Ace of Cakes on TiVo. Maybe I could quit my job and help Duff & Co. make cakes...although that would entail living in Baltimore. I don't like cold, so perhaps its time to rethink that one...

Overarching theme of this post: I maybe kinda sorta want a new job, but don't know what. Maybe I could be a perma-vacationer...

if I could do it all again...

...there are a few things I'd do differently:

• give ourselves a bit more time in fewer locations
• ensure that our luggage could handle the trip beforehand (it made it, but barely)
• pack less, even though I can victoriously state that I used every single thing in my luggage (save my damn suit, which I didn't want to bring, but Thunderbird made us, so it doesn' t count)
• I'd rock a pedometer, since I'm now curious just how many steps/miles/circumferences of the Earth I walked over four months
• take my computer from the get-go
  

And there's a whole mess of things that I'd be certain I had before leaving the country again (a.k.a. stuff I bought along the way):

• a watch
• waterless anti-bacterial hand sanitizer
• lots of over-the-counter medication (advil, sudafed, the whole nine. you can't get it OTC in Europe...like at all.)
• more undies (whoops)
• my beloved pashmina, possibly the greatest purchase I could have made on the road. I heart that thing.
• more than one power adapter

All in all, I think we did a pretty damn good job of packing and planning. pat-pat-pat (that's us, patting ourselves on the back...hehehe.)

this, my dear friends, is an email that I actually sent...I am smrt.

check out the work I just spelled correctly on the FIRST shot:

paraphernalia

those spelling bee kids ain't got NOTHIN on me!

signs of our journey

Along the way, I was fascinated by some, appalled by others, and confused by the rest. Here's a collection of my favorite signs of our four month extravaganza:

Barcelona

Bratislava

Budapest


Ireland

from the Guinness Factory

Istanbul


Lisbon


London


Monterrey

Munich



Naples


Paris


Prague


Rome

Santorini



Venice


Vienna

let the no-pool-pool-parties begin...

On Memorial Day, we fulfilled two of our must-haves upon returning to the US: barbequed meat and a no-pool-pool-party. It would be the first of many to come this summer, and we kicked 'em off right.

Summer did me proud by arranging all the food and drinks, including the newly beloved beverage sangria. She kicked some serious ass. The sangria was phenomenal, particularly when paired with Psycho Donuts as an appetizer. Two versions of my famous Nic Dip, Joyce's clam dip, and the boozy fruit in the sangria further filled our tummies. Dooglass barbequed up some fabulous burgers, and we completely stuffed ourselves.

At typical no-pool-pool-parties, we play kickball and flip cup, but we were in mellow mode for this one. Flip cup ended after three quiet rounds, and kickball just never really materialized. We were whooped, and ready to head up to Casa Saratoga to see KaliLou and get some rest. Little did I know that Summer had a trick up her sleeve to celebrate all the fun things that've happened of late...birthdays and a graduation. She picked up a delicious guava cake, and we all got goodie bags (which may have been even more fun to create than to own...although my new cheerleader-dog notepad rocks). All in all, it was a perfect day and precisely what we needed. Yay for home.

flip cup team B: Jen, John, Katie and Rob

flip cup team A (aka my team): Pay, Fargo, Summer, and me

that's right, you do see a(n): slapbracelet, hamburger/hotdog/blt erasers, pushpop, rubber ducky, popper, doggie notebook, wax lips, Pez dispenser, finger monster, stick on earrings, temporary tattoo, nerds, poprocks, 'let's party' pencil with eraser top, and high school musical stickers on my goodie bag

((not pictured, but in attendance - because we keep attendance at these things: Joyce, Doug, Kellie, and Joe...woot! noteworthy noshows: Whit and Ryno...fail))

Terry & Rebecca are hitched!

On Sunday, our dear friends Terry and Rebecca tied the knot, and are currently on their honeymoon in Thailand.

We landed around 3pm on Saturday, hucked our stuff into a hotel room and booked it over to the rehearsal dinner. I won't lie, it was a rough evening. Since we were super-jetlagged, we crashed around 9pm. Unfortunately, our eyes popped open at the excruciating hour of 4am, and a nap just didn't happen that day. I'm proud to report that, even with little sleep and a screwed up sense of time, Rob and I closed the bar down at the wedding and were among the last group that the shuttle scooped up at night's end. Yes.

The ceremony was gorgeous, followed by a beautiful, sangria-fueled cocktail hour. The entire event was held at Clos La Chance winery in San Martin, near Gilroy, a fantastic setting. Dinner was terrific, and we had a blast dancing our asses off...!