Tube Rudeness

I haven't posted for a while, partially because I have had some symptoms of RSI in my arm and am trying not to do so much computer work. However, I saw something gross today and had to share it.

This morning on the northern line I saw a woman clipping her fingernails. And no, it was not like she had a hanging nail and had to quickly address it, she was full on giving her nails a trim right there on the tube.

It was a funny moment actually, when I heard that tell-tale clicking, I looked up from my book in horror to see the guy sitting next to her look up from his book in horror at the same time, and we exchanged grossed-out glances. This is actually quite an unusual event on the tube as everyone usually pretends others don't exist. Maybe that was the woman's excuse.

A weekend in Oslo

I just returned late last night from a whirlwind trip to Oslo, Norway. I have a personal goal to try to see the major Scandanavian cities before the end of the year - not sure if I will make it before it gets too cold and dark, but we shall see.

I was not sure what I expected out of Oslo, but I have to say I was quite pleased overall. It is a very clean, well planned and vibrant city. They especially seem to be into art, literature and coffee, all which score high with me. The seafood, even at the airport, was fantastic. The only drawback is the high standard of living - good for norwegians but not for tourists. A simple dinner at a restaurant on the waterfront set me back the equivalent about 42 pounds, or approximately 81 dollars - without coffee and dessert! Pretty much everything is expensive - I find it hard to believe that Oslo is not higher up on the most expensive cities list - but perhaps they make more money there.

I got to see lots of cool artwork - in a day and a half I hit four different art museums. A favorite son of Oslo and a favorite of mine is Edvard Munch, so I went to both the Munch museum and the National Gallery, which has some of his most famous works. My timing couldn't have been better - both The Scream and Madonna have recently been recovered and put back on display at the National Gallery, under what looks like bullet proof glass, less than two weeks ago. The security was really tight at the Munch museum, with metal detectors, bag screeners and a very conspicous camera over their rough version of the scream.

I have to say, Mr Munch had some serious issues. The Scream is probably one of the least disturbing of his paintings (well, except for the landscapes). There were some pretty grim looking murder scenes and some haunting self portraits, but all in all it is pretty original and certainly thought provoking.

I also hit the modern art museum and the Astrup Fearnley museum, where i saw a cow and calf sliced in half and preserved. Mmmm.

Norwegians are also obviously big seafarers. There were a couple really cool museums in Bygdøy, which is a 10 minute ferry ride across the Oslo Fjord. The Viking museum has two big ships from the 900s, well preserved because some important vikings were buried in them. The nearby Kon Tiki museum has some more modern (in time) but more ancient boats built and sailed under the vision of Thor Heyerdahl. He wanted to prove that the ancient civilisations of South American and Africa could have sailed on balsa and reed rafts, so he built a few and went on these crazy voyages. He and his crew sailed the balsa Kon Tiki from Peru across the Pacific for 101 days, with only a radio. I guess the documentary won an oscar in the early 50s.

I also wandered around the open-air Norwegian Folk Museum - where they have collected dozens of original Norwegian buildings and assembled them in different areas to show what life would have been like, including folks in the appropriate outfits.

Finally, I saw the Nobel Peace Prize museum, the newest in town, which has lots of neat exhibits on world peace and nobel prize winners. The award is presented in Oslo every December.

My favorite site by far was the Vigeland Sculpture Park, with more than 200 sculptures by Oslo sculptor Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures were all amazing - from the bronze models on the bridge to the stone ones at the other end - I could have taken thousands of pictures there. The monolith in the center is a huge obelisk like sculpture made up entirely of human figures in various stages of life.

All the photos from the weekend, including one of a particularly good latte, are posted here.

Andorra

After we left the Dali triangle, we drove up into the Pyrennees, through France and a big tunnel into Andorra, one of the most intriguing places we visited.

Before we decided to go on this trip, I had never even heard of Andorra. It is a small principality nestled in the mountains, in between Spain and France. One of our friends here recommended it to us because it has a reputation for being a tax haven and shopping mecca. It is an odd place, I guess it was closed off to the outside world really until the 50s, and recently it has started undergoing a tourist boom. You can see why, the mountains are gorgeous, prices are cheap and it is still relatively undiscovered. People speak mostly Catalan Spanish, which makes sense since Spaniards outnumber native Andorrans, and they use the Euro for currency, even though they are not really in the EU. Another odd stat (thanks wikipedia!) is that they have the highest average life expectancy of 83.51 years. Must be all the clean mountain air and exercise.

We arrived fresh out of the tunnel at Soldeu, and we were stunned by a bunch of large, and very nice looking hotels. I was exhausted after a long stressful drive and determined not to go any further, so we stayed at the first place we stopped to rest. That hotel was okay, but a bit too crowded with children and questionable food, so we moved to a different spot the next night, the Sport Hotel Village, which was amazing. It had a three story spa, amazing food, and a great location right in front of the mountains. I bet it is a great place to visit in the winter to ski. We would have stayed another night if they hadn't been full - which we thought was odd given it was off-season and pretty quiet in town - but there were still tons of families as well as a bunch of mountain bikers around so I guess it makes sense. We did get to do a bit of hiking, even though it was cold, and the views were spectacular all around. Photos from Andorra are here - towards the end of the set.

After we left Soldeu we headed across tiny Andorra and through Andorra La Vella, where we thought we would have lunch and maybe do a bit of shopping. Yuck! What a mistake. This is the kind of place that makes me shudder - tacky shops all over, totally unplanned, horrible traffic, and trashy people swarming all over trying to get a good deal. Kind of like a low-rent outlet mall in the US, the ones in San Ysidro near the border with Mexico come to mind. In sort of an ironic protest, we ate at McDonalds...where M got beer with his value meal.

Catalonia and the Dali Triangle

We began our Pyrenees trip by flying into Barcelona and spending two nights at the Mas Pau, in Catalonia, near Figueres. Once we found the hotel it was quite beautiful and pleasant, a nice restoration of a historic farmhouse. The restaurant there was fantastic and I had possibly one of the best meals I have had in my life, in a beautiful setting, half inside and half out, looking over the gardens.

What I didn't really realize until we got there was that this area is in the heart of the Dali Triangle, where Salvador Dali was born, returned to live with his wife and eventually died. Figueres is the home to an amazing Dali museum, that he designed himself and is also his final resting place in the basement. We tried to visit it during the day, but the queue was so long we decided to come back for the late night opening at 10. It was still crowded then, but it was worth it - the experience of seeing it at night was so unique and almost magical at times. I did not take nearly enough pictures there, mostly because it was dark. We were not able to make it to Cadaques, where Dali and his wife Gala lived and where their old home is now also a museum. I guess it is so small you have to book far in advance and we would have had to stay at least two more days for us to get in for a tour. The third part of the triangle is Gala's Castle in Pubol, which we did not see either. I did get a nice book though at the Dalicatessan and I am pleased I did get to visit the home of one of my favorite artists, a nice surprise.

Another very memorable part of Catalonia for me were the Caganers, a very odd Catholic tradition in the region. You have to read the link to believe it - I didn't believe it when I read it in the guidebook - but we did see some of these for sale in Figueres, in many different incarnations - George Bush, Saddam Hussein, Jesus, you name it. I wanted to buy one or two, but the ones we saw were very expensive, and I couldn't see myself paying 50 or 100 euro for a tiny squatting statue. I guess another thing I should have taken a picture of...

I guess this region and the nearby beaches on the Costa Brava were some of the first in Spain to be overrun with British tourists, and you can tell by the city of Roses (which doesn't smell so good, incidently) that we drove to one evening. It might have been beautiful once, the ocean still is anyway, but the town itself was an overcrowded dump with a number of shops and restaurants that rival my nearby Holloway Road.

Holiday in the Pyrenees

It has been a couple of weeks since I returned from my holiday in the Pyrenees and I still haven't gotten around to writing about it. Unfortunately I came down with a nasty cold/sinus infection that is just starting to subside in the last few days, and I haven't really had energy for much since then.

Anyway, we did spend the last two weeks of August in the Pyrenees, a beautiful stretch of mountains straddling Spain and France, with a funny little country called Andorra in the middle. It was quite an adventure - we flew into Barcelona and picked up our rental car with just two nights booked in a hotel and almost two weeks to fill. There are quite a few places to mention, so I will do them in separate entries.

A few overarching comments though - Spain is booming! Almost every little town we passed through in Spain had cranes building more and more hotels, vacation homes, etc. It was a bit strange, but considering the number of tourists, I guess not surprising. I did get a sinking feeling that maybe they are going a bit too fast too soon, but hopefully not. I was pretty impressed with the construction too - they are building a lot of neat stone covered buildings that kind of blend into the older stuff, and it looks like really good quality - not like those slapped up condos that seem to be so prevalent in the US. France, well not so much. The smaller towns we drove through in France seemed to be more desolate and sparse of restaurants and accomodations - and driving through France one evening was the only time we had difficulty finding a place to stay.

Also, we saw almost no Americans on this trip and hardly any English speakers, until we got to Bilbao. We did meet a Scottish couple in Andorra who seemed to be doing a similar trip to ours, but for the most part the tourists were Spanish or French families. There were many times where it was almost impossible to communicate - in the nicest hotels they spoke good English, but for the most part I had to stumble out my few words of Spanish or French. Even though I studied French in high school, I think I did much better speaking Spanish - I was getting fairly confident towards the end of the trip. But it was quite different from most of my recent travels, when you can usually get by with English (or at least pointing). In Spain you can't even get food at McDonalds in English. Although it was challenging, I did enjoy the vacation from Americans and English. It made for a very different experience.

Funny though, even with the lack of Americans, American culture certainly pervades even these areas. From American shops to pop songs to Nike shirts and trainers- it is everywhere. Even at the festival in Bilbao, a very Basque event, there was American music blaring all the time.

Another challenge was food. Dining was certainly a challenge for us during the entire trip. Most of the time we had breakfast included with our rooms, so at least that was one meal taken care of, but it was really hard to adjust to eating other than that. Not only was there a communication barrier, there were the odd eating times. Restaurants don't really open for lunch until after 1 or 2 p.m. or so, and people don't eat dinner, especially in Spain, til 9 p.m. or later. Once we got to the Basque country, it was just hard to find restaurants in general, and when we found them, they were closed or full. There were these places where you could go and get snacks and sandwiches, which were fine in the early evening before they got too crowded, but later they were full of people smoking with their cigarretes hanging over the food - which tends to not make it so appetizing. I have always enjoyed Basque food and culture, especially growing up in Nevada with all the Basque restuarants, so I was disappointed. Embarassingly we ate at McDonalds a few times - though I have to say, McDonalds did taste much better there - not sure if it was because we were desperate or their quality was better - maybe a bit of both. Bilbao in particular is known for its fine restaurants, so I hope I get to go back there someday without 100,000 people in town for a festival, so we would have a chance at getting in to try some local dining. We did have a few excellent meals though and we certainly didn't starve.

And then, there was the driving. Lots of it and at times quite scary. One time in particular, going around a tight curve with a big truck coming at us, I thought we were dead for sure. I had to pull closer to the mountain on the tiny shoulder to avoid it. There was one point in the trip where my right arm and shoulder just gave up and demanded to be rested. It could have been much worse though - one thing they have done is build a number of different tunnels, one 7 miles or so long, that cut through the mountains and spit you out on the other side. Without that and what definitely looked like brand new roads in a few places, it might have been a much more grueling trip. Because of insurance, I was the only one who could drive the car - ironically when we turned it in it turned out they had put it on the wrong credit card - so thankfully I did not get hit by the truck or anything else during the trip.

All the pictures are here, and I will continue blogging on about some of the more interesting places we saw during our trip.

Film Four is Free

That is what the adverts say. I had never watched film four before it was free, so I don't know if I ever paid for it.

Anyway, I digress. I was just watching Four Weddings and a Funeral on Film Four, which was much better than I remember, even if I do not like Andie McDowell.

Irritatingly, there were commercials on during the programming - I guess that is why it is now free. They have to pay for those fancy commercials with Ewan McGregor, Judy Dench and Willem Dafoe after all. Those of you who do not live in the UK (which is likely all of you who read my blog) are probably very confused by now, so I will try to get to the point.

Many of the advertisements were promoting the next feature, A Clockwork Orange, which they billed as another in their series of films to see before you die. I thought to myself, well, not sure I fully agree with that, but I would like to see a list of other movies I should see before I kick it.

Unfortunately, no such list exists. But I did find this site instead. It is really interesting to see what Brits fancy versus Americans. If you look at the list of comedies, the AFI list doesn't have any Monty Python in their top 20; yet the British one has two in the top ten. And only the English would have Shaun of the Dead make such a list. Ok, it is very funny - but number 3 of all time? The list of the ultimate film is particularly puzzling to me. The first four are relatively expected, but Spring in Park Lane? Has anyone outside of Britain heard of that?

It's definitely amusing - though the 100 sexiest moments is a bit disappointing. I think it needs visuals.

Ye Old Cambridge

I lived in Cambridge, near Boston, for a summer a few years ago, and while I was there and afterward, I always had people getting it confused with Cambridge in the UK.

For instance I would say something like, I really like Cambridge, it is the perfect college town, and people would say, yes, it is a beautiful English town. And I would say, oh no, I mean Cambridge, outside of Boston...and they would say, oh, huh. Which always struck me as weird, in the US anyway. Of course I expect it living in London.

So we finally went there to check it out. It is certainly much older than the Massachusetts version. Some of the colleges date back to the 1200s or earlier. It was tough to really see a lot of the different campuses as they were closed off for the summer. I guess probably at all times of the year they don't especially like looky-loo tourists wandering about when people are trying to go to class. We did follow an open door though and walk around the interior of Queen's College, which was really beautiful. It must be distracting to try to study somewhere that is so amazingly old (I also wonder how comfortable it is - with the low ceilings and probably lack of proper air conditioning/heat).

We also went for a lovely punt on the River Cam. It looks pretty big in all the pictures, and you get this romantic image of gliding along a la Venice with your own private punter, but it is not really all that. For one thing, the river is full of punters - both literally and figuratively - many of them amateurs with a case of beer or bottles of champagne in tow, you can hardly go a few yards without one of them running into you. It is also rumored that if you fall in, you can get Cam Fever, a flu-like illness that can only be diagnosed and treated by local doctors. Luckily, we opted for a chauffered punt ride vs getting our own.

We shared our punt with another couple and a group from Taiwan. Luckily we were right under the guide so we could hear what he was saying. He got a bit frustrated over the din of the chatty Taiwanese and a few times asked them if they were planning to listen. I don't think they heard. The river is not really that long either. But the cruise gives you a great view of the Backs - like it sounds, the backs of all the old colleges - something you cannot see at all on foot. We also saw some of the most modern and ugly buildings on the river, brought to us by the inventors of Velcro.

We also climbed to the top of St Mary's, saw and heard the Bells, and got a spectacular view of the entire town.

The rest of the town was a bit diappointing - probably made worse by the throngs of tourists. We went looking for a nice place to eat, but all we found was a mall with a bunch of chain shops including a Subway.

All and all, I have to say I like the Boston version of Cambridge better - not as old, but a nicer town and certainly with better restaurants. And, of course, better proximity to the Red Sox.

All the photos are posted here.

Home of GMT

As usual, I haven't blogged in a while so I have a few pent-up posts from some new places I have seen recently. I'll start chronologically with the one closest to home, Greenwich.

Greenwich is pretty much the home of time. Greenwich Mean Time, to be exact. Running right through the town is the Prime Meridian, where every new day starts first, with the stroke of midnight GMT. There are lots of photo opportunities with clocks and standing on the line itself (you can find the requisite photos here.)

But other than the clocks, there is also a really interesting museum and exhibit at the original Royal Observatory, which eventually had to move further away from London because of the brightness of the city lights. And like most museums in London, it's free.

Oswiecim

I wanted to keep this post separate from my trip to Krakow, because I do not necessarily want to mingle my emotions in that way. Poland does not deserve to be treated this way.

Anyway, on the Saturday of my weekend in Poland, I went on an organized tour to Oswiecim, a small town about an hour outside of Krakow, and better known to the rest of the world by its German name, Auschwitz.

I joined a bus load of folks from my hotel early in the morning and we did the usual tour thing - picking up other folks along the way then grouping together at a major hotel to split up. Some were going to the salt mines, others on a city tour, but by far the most people were on their way to see Auschwitz. On the bus I sat next to a nice Irish guy and together we watched a depressing hour long documentary about what we were about to see. While that was grim in itself, I am not sure anything will compare to the rest of the day.

We started by walking through the gate, which in German says, Work will Set you Free. What an ironic way to enter such a place. The main part of Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz I, is a a lot of original brick buildings that have been set up as a museum to educate folks on certain aspects of the experience. There were basically two distinct kinds of experiences at the camp - the prisoners, who were brought there to work, and the Jews, who were brought there to be exterminated, and we learned about both.

I guess at the beginning the first residents were mostly Polish political prisoners, after Germany invaded and occupied Poland. Once the first prisoners were there, they built up the camp - chasing away the nearby neighbors, destroying their homes, and using the materials to build parts of the camp. By moving out the surrounding townspeople they were able to create a buffer around the area, effectively isolating it from the rest of Poland and protecting it from outsiders. Remarkably, of the700-odd Poles who originally came to the camp, about 200 survived the entire 4 years it was in operation, I guess because they got the most cushy jobs and became indispensible to their captors.

Soon the other prisoners came in - basically anyone who was different, artists, gays, Jews, gypsies, etc. At first they were photographed and well documented, even though the average lifespan after arriving was about 3 months. We saw many photos of these folks on the wall of the museum. Then, because photos were so expensive, they started tattooing the people instead. In addition they had to wear little symbols identifying them - such as the pink triangle for homosexuals.

A lot of these prisoners were further tortured and/or executed, and we saw the building where they were put in starvation cells, made to stand all night long, or simply shot in the yard for their supposed crimes.

After Hitler ordered the final solution, Auschwitz became the main center of the mass extermination of the Jews. At Auschwitz I, we visited the first of their experimental gas chambers, where about 70,000 people were summarily executed. It was a really creepy feeling to go in together and see the gas outlets on the roof, and the furnaces where people were stuffed in and cremated afterward. Of all the gas chambers, this is the only one that still exists. The Nazis realized they had to hide the evidence, so they blew the others up before the Russians liberated the camp.

Once the mass extermination started, the Nazis were less careful about documenting who arrived and who stayed. They tried to keep as little record as possible about who came in to Auschwitz for this purpose.

And came in they did, from all over Europe - as far away as Greece - more than a days train journey, without food, water or sanitary facilities. One of the most horrifying things to me is that some of these folks actually bought tickets for the journey - thinking they were moving somewhere to start a new life. They were allowed to bring 25kg with them - so they brought only their most valuable and precious things they needed to live, photos, jewelry, kitchen equipment, etc. I couldn't help thinking of my own journey on Ryan Air and my baggage limits.

The main part of the camp where the exterminations took place was at nearby Birkenau, or Auschwitz II. There were 300 barracks there and the remains of two large crematoria, as well as the original railway tracks where the victims arrived. We walked the same path as the condemmed did. Basically when they got off the train, a Nazi doctor evaluated those who could work vs the many who couldn't. One line walked to the gas chambers, while the other entered the main part of the camp. We walked the gas chamber side and saw the blown up remains of one of the main extermination points.

One of the creepiest things was the weather. When we got to the ruins of the gas chamber/crematorium, we started to hear rumbles of thunder. Then when we entered one of the original brick barracks, there was more ominous thunder and it started to pour. It was almost like someone was making as statement.

Our tour guide was a young Polish girl whose sad eyes expressed the horror of everything she described to us. I can't imagine how she can do that every day.

I did not take many pictures - you were not supposed to take pictures inside, though most people did. I tried to be respectful.

Almost a week on, it is still difficult for me to get much of this visit out of my mind. When I imagine what it must have been like to live in that time, I can't help thinking that if I was in Poland at the time, probably a lot of my friends would be sent to a place like Auschwitz. After all, most of my friends fall into these categories: artists, intellectuals, political dissidents, homosexuals, Jews. I have always gravitated towards the fringe without really going to far into it myself. But because I am really more conservative - what would have happend to me? Would I have been sent too? Would I have had the courage to fight back and to fight for my friends? It is all very disturbing to think about. Luckily my ancestors left Poland and Hitler was defeated.

Polish Weekend

I am trying to be slightly more timely with my posts - it is tough to write much about a trip when it was a month ago. This weekend I went to Krakow for my first solo weekend break. I figured since I have been here a year, it is about time I went to Poland. I am Polish after all.

One of my customers has an apartment in Warsaw and an old farm in the countryside and he spends most of the summer working from there, going to the office during the week and spending weekends on the farm with the family. I had heard him talk about it a couple of times now, including a couple of weeks ago, so I decided it was time to go check out Poland. So last week, I booked a package on lastminute.com and away I went.

This was my first cheap airline experience here in Europe. I had heard some horror stories about flying the budget airlines, but for the most part my experience was fine. I flew Ryan Air from London Stansted. They have very tight luggage restrictions - 10kg for hand baggage, 25kg for checked baggage - and basically if you check a bag, you pay a handling fee. I bought a cute little bag especially designed for the tight restrictions, and even weighed it downstairs at the gym before I left. It was perfect - 7.4kg and it fit in that funny little cage they have at the check in counter. It was funny - I did not see much fuss checking in at Stansted, but when I came home yesterday they were really hassling folks at the airport in Krakow. I got the tag of approval though.

The only annoying part of my flight (both legs) were the drunken (or soon to be drunk) groups of Brits going for their stag weekends. I guess it is a very popular place for cheap drinking vacations. And not surprisingly, when one beer is the equivalent of 70p. And its mighty good beer as well. I had several Zwieckes - though I cannot pronounce them I could drink them without a problem. There were many parties of these guys in my hotel too. I think I heard retching on Sunday morning. Yum.

When I first arrived Friday night - I have to say I was less than impressed. I took a taxi from the airport and mid-way noticed that he hadn't put on the meter. I had read in Time Out that a cab ride should cost between 30 and 60 zlotys based on the integrity of the driver. Well mine charged me 65, and then only gave me 30 zloty back from my hundred in change - assuming i meant to tip him extra on top of his rip off fare. I just let it go, because it is really only about 10 pounds, less than I would pay for most taxi rides around here. But I was disappointed to be immediately ripped off by one of my own brethren. Luckily, that did not continue and everyone else was on the up and up for the rest of the trip. Then, my hotel, the Chopin, was kind of a ways out of the town center, about a good 15-20 minutes walk rather than the 'steps' away as it was advertised, so after walking around for a while in the dark Friday night, I gave up on having a decent dinner, so I just had a drink in the hotel bar and went to bed.

The next day in the daylight I ventured out into the nice part of the town, and it was much, much better. The main market square is a combination of historic buildings, churches, modern shops, restaurants and bars, and is crawling with people at all hours of the day. The buildings surrounding the market in the old town are beautiful and colorful, reminiscent of Prague but nicer I thought. The nicest part of the city, I thought, was the lovely green belt that runs from the Wawel Castle to the train station, with a quaint shaded path and clear directional signs to all the major sites in the area. Very tourist friendly, especially in the stifling heat when I needed a cool path to walk. It seems locals and tourists alike spend a lot of time downtown.

Most everyone speaks English, but I did try to do a bit of Polish. It wasn't so bad. After all I do know that a W is pronounced like a V. Particularly amazing to me was a waitress who effortlessly switched from Polish to Engligh to German based on the customers in our little area, without any trace of accent.

Besides the yummy beer, I practically ate my weight in pierrogies. Mmm...spinach, cabbage and mushroom, and ruskie style - potato, cheese and grilled onions. Luckily I cannot get them all the time in London or I would eat them every day here as well.

Pictures from Krakow are posted here.

One year ago - 7/7/05

The London transport bombings were exactly one year ago today. Since I did not start this blog until later last summer, I thought today is as good a day as any to remember it from my perspective.

Basically, my own laziness is what saved me that day. One of the best things about living in Europe is that no one in their right mind schedules a meeting before 9 a.m., and if it is just an internal meeting, it's usually more like 10 or 11 o'clock. One year ago, I was scheduled to meet up with a colleague at Paddington station sometime around 10:30 a.m. He was coming in from the burbs on a commuter train, and I was to leave my local tube station at Holloway Road, which is on the Picadilly Line.

I rarely watch the news in the morning (though I must admit I do now) so I was blissfully unaware of any trouble before I left the house. M was flying somewhere that day so I had just been talking to him on the phone at some ungodly hour his time, like 6 a.m. or something, when he was at the airport. So around 10 or so, I walked down to the tube station to go to my meeting.

It is only a ten minute walk, if that, but that day seemed so much longer. When I got there, the station was closed with policeman at the gate. When I asked what happened, they said, oh, just a terrorist attack in central london. When I asked how I was to get to paddington, they just calmly said, oh, I don't think you are going to go there today, miss.

So I turned around and started back home. I don't think I started to panic until I started trying to call my colleague to see where he was, and my mobile wouldn't work. Then I started trying to call M back, and got that frightening signal that basically means mobile phones are dead.

Of course when M arrived at the airport, he saw the bombings on the news and was freaking out, especially since he couldn't reach me on my phone either and the last he knew, I was walking to the tube station.

In reality, I was about an hour and a half behind the actual bombings. But it was my tube line, the Picadilly, that suffered the worst damage. It exploded around 8:45 or so, between Kings Cross and Russell Square, and 27 people died.

I spent the rest of the day first frantically calling and emailing people I knew to make sure they were okay, especially my colleague I was going to meet. It took me a good 45 minutes or so to finally get him on the phone. Then the rest of the day and into the next, I got frantic calls and emails from everyone else who knew I was here. It was a very long day. Finally, at the end of the day, after talking to my sister, I went out to a pub to have a beer and some dinner and try to relax. Of course I picked the dumpiest possible pub in my area, the Lord Nelson. Yuck! Dingy bar, creaky, dirty floors, and they didn't even serve food.

The Picadilly line was closed for a bit more than a month while they fixed it. I was amazed actually that they were able to repair it so quickly. I rode it the day it came back online, and a reporter joined the train from Kings Cross to Russel Square and interviewed people riding it (not me). It was a very creepy feeling.

All in all, I was very lucky that day. But it sure brought the whole terrorism thing much closer to home for me and made me realize that I am now living in a completely different world than Portland, Oregon.

Gaudi Barcelona

Another trip I made in June was to Barcelona, again for work. Most definitely a place I have to return to. I did not get to see enough of the city or drink enough wine.

If nothing else, I would love to go back and see more of Antoni Gaudi's architecture. The designs are bright, wild and almost disturbing at times. We had an amazing party at the Parc Guell, unfortunately we got there just as the park was closing so I couldn't take enough photos before it got too dark. I guess the lizard is a popular shot.

Note to self - do not travel to three continents in three weeks for work. It may sound fun, but it isn't! If I have to do it again, I hope it is with an entourage of people pampering me along the way. Not bloody likely!

Chelsea Flower Show

Probably my mom's favorite part of her trip was our visit to the Chelsea Flower Show. This garden show put on by the Royal Horticultural Society is sort of like the unofficial opening of the summer season in London.

We got really lucky with the day we picked, since I had to reserve tickets online. I was a bit panicked to find out earlier in the week that most of the show was actually outside. I pictured it in a big convention center or tent. It had rained earlier that day, but our tickets were not valid until 3:30 p.m. and by that time, the rain had virtually stopped and while it certainly was not warm, it was bearable with a jacket.

Anyway, it is a paradise for amateur and professional gardeners. You can buy all sorts of glamorous garden gear, such as hot pink garden clogs with matching gloves, or steel sculptures of farm animals, or seeds to plant and see what comes up. And of course there are thousands of flowers on display - mostly inside.

Plants usually curl up and die whenever I approach, but I didn't notice any damage that day. And despite my misgivings, I enjoyed myself.

This photo was also captured by a photographer for the Independent, a London newspaper, though I do not know if it was ever published. Since he thought it was a good idea, I took one too. More photos, including my mom from the front, are posted here.

One week in Bangkok

I spent a week at the beginning of June in Bangkok, Thailand, for work. I will let you decide if that is a good or bad thing. The work part, that is.

I was pretty busy while I was there, but I did get a day to go around and see a few things, mainly, the golden palace, a combination temple and kingly residence. I didn't take pictures, but we also went to the Jim Thompson house in Bangok, which was fascinating. I guess Mr Thompson was an American who lived in Thailand in the fifties and sixties, and helped to revitalize the silk trade. He became very wealthy and built a stunning 'traditional' Thai house in the middle of town where he lived. I put it in quotes because it is more like six houses attached together. Then suddenly he disappeared without a trace during a trip to Malaysia in 1967. He had no children, but I guess his nephew kept his business going. I think the mystery probably adds to its appeal.

By far the best part about Thailand for me was the people. I have never met such warm, genuine, friendly folks in my life. From the staff at the hotel to the restaurants to the employees I visited with - all were fantastic. Well, the cab drivers were not the best - but London certainly wins in that aspect. And of course the food is fabulous.

I managed to escape back to London on the morning of June 9, while a million Thais gathered in Bangkok to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ascension of the king to the throne. Just about every Thai was wearing yellow that day in honor of the King. I wish I had taken some photos of the huge murals and photographs hanging all over town in his honor, it was amazing. Hard to imagine the same kind of reverance for GW or Tony Blair.

Some pictures, mostly of the beautiful temple and the uh, beautiful river, are posted here. I have to go back in October, and am hoping this time to spend a week of vacation afterwards and see more of the countryside.

Mrs Dolores comes to London

It has been a while, but I will start back in May. My mom finally came to visit London!

We had a great time - my mom slept in, I worked in the mornings, then we had lots of great meals and saw many interesting things, including two exhausting trips to Harrods. I have been there four times now, and I have not nearly seen everything, though not sure I really ever need to...

We saw a lot of the regular London stuff - not nearly enough really, but there is always next time. One great thing we did was spend the weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon, home of Will. We stayed at a quaint inn and saw a Royal Shakespeare Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. We saw where Shakespeare was born as well as couple of other famous houses, and got really wet from all the rain. Photos from that trip as well as a few other random ones are posted here.

The Devil in the Barbican

It was raining today so I decided it would be a good time to see an afternoon movie. So I headed over to the Barbican to see the Devil and Daniel Johnston.

This was my first time at the Barbican, and I am not sure what was stranger - the venue or the movie. It is a major arts/film/music venue in the heart of the City of London and I have always wanted to go, just hadn't gotten around to it. Since it was Saturday, the area around the place was really deserted - people just do not hang around in the City after business hours. I took the bus and it let me off right near the tube station, and I walked the well marked yellow line to the centre.

The Barbican is surrounded by very modern looking apartment-like places, literally hundreds and hundreds of small flats. It was hard for me to tell if they were college dormitories, council estates, or regular housing, but with all the flats there we hardly any people about. The buildings all had house names, such as 'Thomas More House,' which made me think they might be dorms for the nearby City University. I guess that would explain why they would be so empty. The architecture of the whole area is pretty ugly really, sort of 70s brick meets communist era housing, although there was a lovely pond with fountains in the middle. Of course I have noticed that a lot of these places in London always look worse in bad weather, so maybe that made it more drab than normal.

Once I got into the Barbican Centre itself, I was surprised to see that it was also very empty. It is a huge facility, with six floors, two theatre/performance areas, three restaurants, three movie theatres, and a bookstore. But there were probably about 10 people in there total when I arrived just before five. I had a nice vegasauras meal in the small cafe and had a good time peoplewatching. There was a guy who looked like an aging overtanned movie star with really bad hair, a guy that was wearing a scarf as a woman would, and a very diverse looking family with a white grandpa looking guy, two small black girls and two scruffy gay guys. All very bizarre, I wish I had a camera to capture them all.

The movie theatre was small but very well appointed with comfortable seats and a nice sound system. They served wine, beer, cookies and gourmet ice cream (no popcorn, thank goodness) and I bought myself a reserved seat.

The movie was a documentary about Daniel Johnston, a singer/songwriter who has been in and out of mental institutions but has had his music covered by David Bowie, Wilco, and Flaming Lips to name just a few. It was a great story and I will have to check out some of his music, even though I am not sure I could bear listening to it on my iPod. His lyrics are brillant, though.

All in all, an interesting afternoon. I look forward to going to the Barbican for movies more often - it was quite civilized.

A Long Way Down

I meant to write about this earlier - I bought this book during my nightmare day getting to Rome, finished it there and accidentally left it at the B&B when I meant to bring it home.

I read a lot of Nick Hornby before I came here, About a Boy, How to be Good, High Fidelity, etc, and of course I have seen the movies. Turns out that he lives pretty close to me, in Highbury, North London. Of course I have absolutely no idea what he looks like. For all I know we shop at the same Waitrose. He is a big Arsenal supporter, which makes sense, I can see the new stadium they are building from my flat, just across Holloway Road.

Strange aside by the way - I have now seen both the UK and the American versions of Hornby's Fever Pitch, which is really about a guy who loves Arsenal, not the Red Sox. Here the Red Sox version was called 'A Perfect Catch,' and came out at least six months later. I bought the English version, which wasn't quite as good, but did star Colin Firth, which makes up for its shortcomings as a film. Even though I can never really see myself getting that into football, I have to have a soft spot for Arsenal just because of where I live.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this book, especially if anyone is interested in references to where I live. I do not think there is a real 'Toppers House,' or if there is I am not aware of it, but all the characters sort of live in and around Islington. In fact the polaroid on the web site is of my local tube stop, Holloway Road.

Mysterious Stonehenge

I did manage to drive all the way to Stonehenge, which is really the whole reason I wanted to rent a car in the first place.

It is strange to drive up to it, because it is really in the middle of nowhere. You go past a roundabout and then all of a sudden there is a left turn for Stonehenge. Once you turn the corner then there are tons of people and it becomes quite chaotic. Big bus tours and lots of cars in the lot. But the tourist turnover is fairly high, since you pretty much walk around the rock and thats it. M said it was really impressive to see on the drive in, but of course, I was white knuckling the steering wheel and trying not to run off the road, so I didn't notice.

They charge you 2 pounds to park your car, but then they give it back when you buy a ticket. I thought that was weird until I saw all the people who just walked around the fence to get a peek in. Real admission is 5 pounds each, which is okay considering they give you a free audio tour to listen to.

I have to say, while I love those audio tours in general, the ones in England are a tad bit too wordy. I often find myself getting bored waiting for the people to finish talking. The Stonehenge audio tour was like that - I felt they were trying to over-dramatize the whole thing to keep people engaged and walking slowly around without piling on at certain places. I guess the traffic control did work to an extent.

I must say, even with all the hype and the tourists, Stonehenge is pretty impressive. While it is ancient and there are all these mysteries about its origin in use, it seems pretty obvious to me that it was constructed as a big calendar. Why the calendar had to be so large, who knows. But with the sun's position at the solstices it seems to be that must have been its purpose. There are also evidently a lot of kings and other noteworthy types buried in the mounds surrounding the place, as well as a lot of sheep now grazing over them.

Bella Roma

A few weeks ago, we went to Rome for a long weekend, Friday afternoon through Tuesday morning.

The trip certainly didn't begin well. The combination of a cheap ticket and american express travel put M and I on too different flights from Heathrow, through Germany, to Rome. I went through Frankfurt and he went through Munich, and we were both severely delayed. I made it in time for my flight, but it was cancelled, and Mark missed his altogether. I spent about seven hours in the airport in Frankfurt, which is not really a bad airport, except for the smoking in all the bars. I read an entire book and most of another one and was bored out of my mind. M at least had a better time with a group of pals in Bologna. I finally arrived around 1 a.m., only to wait almost an hour longer for my bag. When I finally escaped the baggage claim, the train had stopped running and there were no taxis to be found anywhere. Finally a sort of shady taxi guy took us and a couple of guys from my flight into Rome for 50 Euro, and we made it to our B&B shortly before 3.

Luckily it got much better from there...

The place we stayed was wonderful. I had been panicking about finding a decent place - Rome is not a cheap city and all the reasonable accomodations had been gone. Somehow I found this Domus Mazinni on the web and it looked nice and had gotten great reviews. It was in a very nice residential district, not far from the Vatican, and had really great metro and bus links into the city (once we found the bus, that is). M was happy because it was around the corner from a fantatastic pastry shop. I must say, the cannolis there were to die for. The owner of the B&B was so nice and went out of his way to please us. He even hung around on Saturday morning (ahem, afternoon) for us to drag ourselves out of bed so we could have breakfast.

I expected Rome to be just like Athens, and in a way, it is, but I think the feel is much nicer. The colliseum and the forum kind of has the same feel as the Acropolis and the surrounding area and you get that same sense of wonder (as well as wondering what is real and what is fake or restored). And I don't know what it is about Italians and Italy but for some reason I am just really into the whole country, its culture and its products at the moment. Italian coffee, design, whatever, it all seems so glamourous to me.

We took a really interesting bus trip out to Villa Adriana, quite a ways out of the city and also a beautiful place. I guess it was a big palace for Hadrian, and it is in remarkable shape. Plus, for some reason the day we went it was free.

The Vatican of course was very impressive, although the Sistine Chapel is smaller than I imagined. I was very surprised by their collection of modern religious art, and since that was right before the Sistine Chapel, we had it all to ourselves. The rest of the Vatican was shoulder to shoulder. And unfortunately St. Peter's was closed, there was a big pope shindig going on later in the day so they had it cleared out for security. The weekend we picked was of course the one year anniversary of JPII's passing. You can still tell that he is far more popular than the new guy.

At the recommendation of one of our friends, we also went to this creepy bones church. You're not supposed to take pictures in there, but this guy did. It was really cold and clammy in the place, and the whole concept is just yuck. But it was definitely an interesting experience.

On the political front, we had very close sighting of the (now former it looks like) prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. While we were standing around waiting for the bus, he pulled up to a nearby building in his car. A bunch of people came by chanting and mobbing him, and we just stood there wondering what was going on. If that was GW, there is no way we would have been anywhere that close. We were about two weeks before the election, so there was a lot going on. There was also some kind of rally/protest (though I think that was football related somehow), over in our neighborhood and lots of election signs everywhere.

I guess the one disappointment was the food. Not that it was particularly bad, it just wasn't great, and it was all expensive. I guess we have to try harder to find good restaurants next time.

Photos from the trip are posted here.

Driving on the Left

I have several back-logged blogs to post, but this will be the first. Yes, that is me in that picture, behind the wheel of a Ford Focus, driving on the left!

It is unbelievable to me that self-respecting car rental companies here in the UK will rent a car to any yahoo who gets off the plane at Gatwick or Heathrow. We can't have guns in the UK, but they will rent two or three ton vehicles to people who have spent their entire lives driving on the right side of the road (and on the other side of the car).

On Friday, we hired a car at Gatwick, with the intention of doing a loop around the south-east part of the country, from Dover to Stonehenge, then back to London. The first part wasn't too bad, apart from the 45 minute traffic jam on the M25, because when you are on the motorway, it is just like an American freeway, just on the other side.

However, the little towns were an absolute nightmare. Roundabouts, cars parked on the left side of the road to avoid, fog, it just kept getting worse. Finally I found an oasis at the Yew and Ewe, a lovely little pub/inn in Kent. I was desperate for a place to eat and saw the sign at the first roundabout, then the second, and figured it was an omen. Otherwise I think we would still be driving on the coastal route to Hastings.

So we aborted the southern coastal route and the next day drove back up to the M25 to cut over to stonehenge. It was a much better plan.

The good news is that we found not just one, but two amazing little country pubs to visit. The Yew and Ewe served excellent food and drink, and we were the only ones there for the night Friday, so we had a fantastic breakfast all to ourselves the next day. Unfortunately, the inn will change owners at the end of the month and become the Royal Oak, which was the original name. I wonder if the sheep across the way will have anything to say about it?

See all the photos from this and from Stonehenge here.

London and WWII

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum, over by the Parliament and the Treasury building. It struck me how much that World War II is a part of the culture here, and how different it is from the US.

The War Rooms were just amazing - a whole network of little rooms underground, with a big steel plate protecting them, where pretty much the whole war was mapped, tracked and plotted for years. There was an extensive map room, secret communication rooms with secure green phones, and sleeping and eating areas for the Churchill's and their staff. It all looks like some kind of contrived diorama with the fake soldiers and all, but it was all well used. In fact, after the war ended, the guys in the map room just tidied up, left and locked the door behind them, so when the rooms were discovered later it was almost all intact.

The Churchill Museum is new, opened last year, and it was very complete and interesting as well. It uses some really unique technology, such as an electronic interactive table map where you can explore key dates in Churchill's life, all 90 years of it. Plus they had some of his clothes, a trademark hat, and even one of his paintings. I don't feel like they make world leaders like that any more. It seems that there are statues of winston everywhere in London, in the oddest places. I can't imagine Tony Blair or Maggie Thatcher being so honored after they have passed on, or god forbid, GW.

Then Saturday we went to dinner at a restaurant called Frontline that is part of a club for war journalists and they had a really cool black and white photo of the the blitz, with a huge black cloud almost covering up St Paul's cathedral. I suppose World War II in the US was probably equally life changing for many, with lots of families losing their sons and husbands overseas and everyone having to ration their food and pitch in. But I can't imagine the sheer horror of the Londoners living through the constant every day bombing and the war dragging on for so many years. I was shocked to learn that Churchill actually lost the election while he was over negotiating the German surrender at Potsdam. I guess the Brits had enough war at that point.

Golfing and Salt Beef

I have finally succumbed to learning to golf. I have been avoiding it most of my life, to me, golf always seemed like a boring game for old men in short pants. I remember when I was younger I was told that I would have to learn to play golf or tennis so I would have something to do when I was older. I went for tennis. But now that I am 'older' or at least a somewhat serious businessperson - no one seems to have tennis days with customers or casually say to a colleague - hey, how about a game of tennis this afternoon?

Since golf was invented here, after all, when I moved here in June I thought golfing would be a good idea, but I never found the right place or the time to try it. Luckily Mark is resourceful so he found a course I could get to on the tube, and got me a set of starter clubs and lessons for Christmas. Thus the last three sundays I have spent at Trent Park, a course near Oakwood, just off the Picadilly Line. It is about a 30 minute tube ride and the park is just across from the station, making it pretty easy to get to. My golf bag has backpack straps and is probably not as heavy as my laptop bag, so all in all the trip is not bad.

Surprisingly I seem to be doing pretty well with Allison, my instructor. I don't know if I am ready to light the course on fire, but I am okay and rarely miss the ball. And today I did what is always my favorite thing to do with any sport - I bought some gear...some kind of ugly dark golf shoes, and a very nice blue waterproof jacket. I think I am up to five coats/jackets acquired since I have been in London. Obviously I have a problem!

The best part today was lunch - I went to a really nice little deli just across from the course, the Oakwood Deli. It is a true Jewish deli with latkas and at least six kinds of matzo crackers, as well as bar mitzvah cards and fresh bagels. Anyway, I had a really nice salt beef sandwich (corned beef to Americans) and a latte and the proprieters of the deli were lovely. It is obvious they have been there a long time and have a steady stream of Sunday regulars. I have been to another Jewish deli in the West End before, which was okay, but very overpriced. So I am pleased to have discovered the Oakwood Deli today.

Pancake Day

Last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday, the day before the start of Lent. In England (and Ireland, Australia and Canada evidently as well), it is better known as Pancake Day.

Evidently the tradition comes from long ago when folks didn't eat eggs and milk during lent either, and made pancakes to use them all up before the start of the season. I went to lunch with a couple of customers that day, and both were planning pancakes with golden syrup for dinner (or dessert).

Another interesting tradition is pancake races - people of all ages running around with a frying pan, flipping the pancake as they go along.

Unfortunately I did not partake of any pancakes, which I guess is fine since I have never really been a pancake fan anyway.

Where I've been

Where I have been

My first Bolllywood Flick

This evening I saw my first Bollywood film, Bride and Prejudice. It was actually pretty good, even with all of the cheesy musical dance numbers.

I think it was especially fun for me to watch since I finally read the real Pride and Prejudice a couple of months ago for the first time. I had managed to go most of my life without reading a single Jane Austen book - but it was for sale on the 3 for 2 rack at the bookstore so I picked it up for my trip to Greece. It was a suprisingly good book - I can see why so many contemporary filmmakers re-do Austen, because it is one of those timeless gossip pieces that everyone can relate to easily.

Anyway, the reason I mentioned the movie was that it also had many references to London that I picked up and recognized quickly. The evil Mr. Wickham lives on a houseboat in the canals, he takes the innocent sister on the London Eye, and they go see a Bollywood movie at the National Theatre. However, I must point out that the chances of running into someone you know at Heathrow are probably slim to none.

BBQ and Basketball

I was very pleased to discover that there is a place in town to watch college basketball.

Bodeans is a Kansas City-style BBQ joint in Soho that for some reason, plays US sports. I found it from the UK Boston Red Sox supporters site and when I looked at the calendar earlier this week, I was very surprised to find out that they were showing Michigan State vs. Illinois, the big ten opener for the Spartans, on TV Friday night. And at a decent time even, 7 p.m. GMT.

I went with a friend on her way to Italy for her sabbatical - she was a good enough sport to do something this American on her first evening of her European trip. The place was not bad - the chicken and ribs dinner was pretty decent. They had a selection of nasty North American beers (Miller Lite, Sol, Dos Equis) - but also a pretty good Czech beer.

Even though my Spartans lost, I look forward to seeing more games here. I may get to live March Madness after all.