Lessons from Pittsburgh

A month or so ago Megabus was having this awesome promotion of giving away free tickets. So on another spontaneous trip decision (I like these), Sally and I got ourselves tickets to Pittsburgh for MLK weekend -- ended up not being free, but close enough.


Poor Sally. She was in Oklahoma City for work during the week and was going to fly into Cincy on Friday in time to catch our bus to the 'burgh. After many many delayed flights, and finally convincing the airlines to get her a ticket straight to Pittsburgh (b/c she'd be too late for the bus), she ended up coming in at 10pm. She spent the whole day at airports. Awesome.

So anywho. I had made it, another awesome couchsurfer had picked me up, and then we got Sally. Adam was a savior. Not only did he respond to our last minute request, he MADE Pittsburgh the awesomeness that it is for us. Here's what we learned while we were there:

• The correct way of saying Carnegie. It's CarnEgie, bitchez.
• That the Science Center is the funnest place no matter what age you are
• 16 degrees is cold. And windchills don't help. And thank god for someone willing to drive us around
• There's 3 rivers, but really it's TWO rivers... and they become the Ohio River. And they're different colors.
• Batman sometimes lives there
• Pittsburgh is like Cincy, but bigger
• You can be crazy and own a farm and make 60 types of jams. And be missing the top of your middle finger
• Said crazy person can also know everything about the crow migration
• It will take you an average of 30 min to shop for the perfect winter hat in the Strip District
• Not all Cathedrals are for praying. Some are for Learning. And have crazy culture rooms.
• Beer is popular here. And everyone knows their beer.
• Scientific proof that Sally and I are in fact Yellow.
• There are many variations of Holly, like Skydiver Holly, Rafting Holly, Safari Holly, and Asian Holly
• It's cool and fun to mix random ingredients into your waffles and ice cream (Oh Yeah!)
• Apparently there's no steel business left in Pittsburgh
• Lightning Reaction is both the funnest and scariest game ever
• No matter how many times I try, I can't do coffee

Ok, so maybe this seems random and doesn't make sense to you guys, but in time, you will understand if you visit Pittsburgh. or if you ask me why. Fun fun times. Fun fun people.

I'ma visit you when it's warm some time...

Good bye, camera #3...

I should never be allowed to own a camera anymore. I just can't keep a long lasting relationship with one. #1 was stolen in Brazil. #2 was stolen in New Orleans. #3... well, it was either stolen in Paris or I lost it. I want to claim it being stolen because that fits nicely with the theme. So alas, this post might be a harder read since there are no pictures to distract you with ;)


So 2.5 weeks in Europe. An excellent mix of family, friends, shenanigans, and culture. Let me begin...


12/22-12/28 Den Haag
Fam time! Saw my mom, got to see my sister and brother and nieces, the whole caboodle. My almost-10 year old niece left me a note at the computer that said: "Dear aunt nadia, i miss you a lot now already. until whenever. xxx Aline." That's right. My heart melted.
This was also Stuff-your-face-with-Dutch-and-Indonesian-food time! I ate. so much. Pannekoeken, loempia, bapao, rendang, the list goes on.


12/26+12/28 Utrecht
My friend Bas lives in Utrecht. Coincidentally, Jennifer was in Holland the same time and invited me to an 80s party in Utrecht on the 26th, so we all went. Thing I learned that night? I do not know my 80's dutch songs. Danced the night away anyway. The 3 of us were taking the bus to Paris on the 29th from Utrecht, so night in before with help from the Beer Ambulance (that's right... amazing concept... they come deliver alcohol TO YOU!) 


12/29-01/02 Paris
With all the cliches, I thought it was going to be too hyped up. WRONG. I still freakin' fell in love with this city! First time in Paris and it was everything people had told me it would be (except I didn't get the run in with American-hating Parisians). First thing we did: drank some beers in the gardens of the Louvre watching the African street vendors selling mini replicas of Eiffel towers being chased by police on rollerblades.


We stayed with an awesome couchsurfer right smack in the 1e arrondissement. 5 of us stayed in this adorable studio with a loft and kept cozy. Again, I ate a lot. Pretty much stopped at every crepes stand I passed. 


We did all (well almost all) things touristy: the Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Grand Palais, Eiffel tower, walked around...everywhere. We walked a lot. I think I also sat for like half an hour in the Louvre b/c I was tired of walking. All spectacular. Sadly did not go to the Catacombes because they closed early the day we went.


OH! I failed to mention of all the wonderful people who were also coincidentally there. First off, my 3-week roommie Kim was visiting her boyfriend, and my friend Mohamed was there with his friends as well! With a lot of coordination skillz, we all got to hang out a good bit :) For New Year's Eve, we headed to the Champs Elysees. While we heard that there'd be no fireworks and no alcohol past 8pm, we made sure to stock up on bottles at the grocery store before hand. That's the night my camera disappeared... No comment.


01/02-01/05 Vienna
Bas and Jennifer left the night before and went back to Holland and I met up with Emilie in Vienna. When I got there, I discovered that Venetians do not like Germans. or lost backpackers asking for directions. interesting.


I was exhausted from planning the daily activities, so I gave Emilie the go-ahead in planning and said I would just follow her wherever she went. We saw a lot of museums, a lot of neat architecture, and a lot of fancy coffee shops :) Definitely a culture trip. Even saw an orchestra performance in a church and an operette in the Opera. Look who's got class :P Also met up with my stepbrother who joined us in a day of wandering around the city.


01/05-01/07 Prague
Ah Prague... its architecture is just as beautiful as Vienna, but it's almost more... common and less uppity. Confused citizens were eager to help us with directions even if they didn't know the way. While they definitely come off more stoic, they are quick to open up.

More walking in this city (surprised?). Neat cobblestone ways and more good food (reoccuring theme?). We spend a day perusing Old Town and a day at the Palace and surrounding areas. See some awesome street musicians (NO idea what they were singing, but great nonetheless).


01/07-01/08 Amsterdam
Flew back for my last night in Amsterdam before flying back to the US the next day. My awesome friend Nic delayed his flight a couple of days to hang out with me and also met up with Koen who I hadn't seen since Brazil :) Hit up a couple of bars at the Leidseplein and finally called it a night...

01/09 Back at work in Cincy
Time for some exciting changes, 2012! :D

Next weekend was MLK weekend in Pittsburgh... but that's another post.

Good afternoon, Bermuda

Soooo... that fateful wonderful night that Lynn and I decided to buy tickets to Bermuda because they were the cheapest we could find, had some repercussions. Cheap getting there... yes. But apparently Bermuda has the highest standard of living in the Western Hemisphere. What does that mean? A loaf of bread is $6, for example.


Haha, this is what we get for making intoxicated unplanned decisions. But still totally the best drunken decision ever. Because we're thrifty travelers, we make this work.

1. We stayed with a fantastic couchsurfer not far from Hamilton, with easy access to public transportation.
2. Bermudians are friendly. Very friendly. They buy you drinks and stuff.
3. Lynn uses Amex points to get us an incredible deal at a resort to "splurge" on the last 2 nights.


So now the timeline...

We get in and the first thing I notice is that the passport control guy sounds American. Not British... or some Caribbean accent that I had imagined. If you listen well, you can catch British twangs in there :) I guess that's what they get for being so close to the US. (Said guy also fails to stamp my new US passport with what would be its first awesome international stamp!)


Everyone greets each other because everyone knows each other. Bermuda is about 60,000 ppl small (smaller than the greater Cincy area!) and so, literally, EVERYONE knows each other's business. The fact that they didn't recognize us, means we're of course tourists. I think Bermudians may be the friendliest people I've met so far. Besides the greetings, they're always willing to help you and want to hear your story (and share their *personal* stories as well).

We wander around, talk to some friendly Bermudians, before we meet up with our CS host, Kamanda. He's an accountant from Kenya and suuuper duuper nice. We find out that Bermuda is a major hub for insurance companies, hence why the standard of living is so high also. We go out for some seafood wit Kamanda and his friend, Joel. The two of them are great friendships made who really make sure we have a fantastic time in Bermuda.



The plan next day is to go to the pink coral beaches. On our way, our plan changes. Downpour. Hello bipolar weather. So we take the bus and get recommended to go to the Naval Dockyard instead and check out some artisan shops and ruins. Theen a ferry ride (common mode of transportation!) to Hamilton City. We discover the Swizzle (or "Shizzle", as Lynn referred to it as) and the Dark & Stormy (our go-to drinks). Head back towards Kamanda's to do some Thanksgiving groceries b/c we're making him and Joel a proper American feast meal ;) The grocer was really confused when I asked him for a big slab of turkey breast.

Alright, take 2 on pink coral beaches. This time it works. Breaaathhtaaaking! I just want to hug it all. Lynn and I are ecstatic. And go snap happy. 

We then wander to some botanical gardens before making it back to our resort (thank you American Express). Fancy schmancy. It's got its own grotto. We decide to live it up for a night and splurge on a hotel dinner (yum prawns and tenderloin tips) before making our way to the Swizzle Inn, where we get treated to some Swizzles on the house. (Funny back story: Chris, the manager of Swizzle Inn who gave us our free drinks and convinced us to go out to Hamilton City for the night, ended up being one of the CS hosts I had contacted to ask to stay with!)  



So Lynn and I are out on the town that night. And we make friends. Fantastic people and so much fun. We dance, we drink, we laugh, we steal cabs. On the ride home, I heavily concentrated on my conversation with the cab driver so that I wouldn't get motion sick (me + alcohol + motion = bad mix). Turns out the cab driver knew of the friends we had made (EVERYONE knows each other) and also tells us his life story (duh). 



The next day is a pretty late start (oops), but we eventually make our way to St. George's. Picturesque, sure. But there's absolutely nothing to do there. Maybe b/c it's Saturday?... Take some obligatory tourist pictures, then head back for another night in Hamilton City with Kamanda and friends. Another night of getting our groove on (and more shizzles and dark&stormies).




So. The final day has come. Our flight's not til 4, so we head out to more caves (and Lynn repetitively hits her head on the 10000 age old stalactites). Very very cool. We end our last couple of hours with laying out at the resort beach. Love life.

So I'm a little late in recounting this trip... which means I forgot half the note-worthy things. Alas, such is the reason why I'm supposed to be keeping this blog. So some key things I remember (that may not make sense out of context):
1. Bermuda is expensive
2. There's no poverty (well, lies. we saw ONE homeless man.)
3. There's no racism
4. Shizzles are the shit
5. But I also like my tall, dark, and stormies
6. You can't have a private life there
7. If you don't say "good afternoon", you're rude
8. The only rude person on the island was American.
9. If you're looking for rich British men, go no further
10. You better not break those ancient cave creations


So,that's all for now. Merry Christmas Eve. I'm now in Holland with momz and family getting fed like woah. Will be meeting up with some friends after Xmas then heading to Paris with them for New Year's!!! Theeeen meeting Emilie in Vienna and going to Prague! :D :D I'll try to remember the important stuff this time around :)

Winter plans

Bought my ticket to Holland for Xmas yesterday -- Dec 21-Jan 8. While I'm on that side of the world... I'm thinking New Year's in Paris. Sounds cliche, I know, but I've never been! Crazy! Anyone want to meet up with me? :)

~Nadia

Smart drunken decisions

uhhhh... I haven't traveled since August? That's pretty sad. It's almost November!
Well, there's an easy fix to that. Last Tuesday, after wine tasting and an additional bottle of wine, Lynn and I found ourselves looking at plane tickets... 

We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving in Bermuda this year.

:D 


(oh wait, I lie. Austin in September for recruiting. barely counts though!)

Loui Loo'ville, oh baby, said we gotta go (yeah yeah yeah yeah ya)

So I've started to work a "compressed work week" schedule -- 9 hrs M-Th and 4 hrs on Friday. Benefit? Uhhh, weekend starts earlier, duh! (However, waking up even just half an hour earlier is a lot frickin' harder than I thought. I value my sleep way too much.) Anyhoo, last Friday headed out to Louisville around noon to start my weekend. Ironman is on Sunday and Pete and Jackie were going to head down too to come hang out. 

Jeremy and his roommates let us crash at their place -- a sweet short ride to Louisville center. After we got in, we explored Germantown and the Highlands area (where KFC Colonel is buried...). Loved the vibe of these places... it was like an eclectic mini-Austin-like feel in an unexpected state. Hit up Lynn's Paradise Cafe and it's quirkiness, wandered past many a Irish bar, and got a drink at Nachbar that had German beer ON TAP ("no way!" "way!") before getting scrumptious world foods at Ramsi's Cafe. I got a vegan Egyptian dish that was... the best vegan dish I've ever had.

The next day Jeremy had told me about this fossil park which the nerd dork side of me was dying to go to. First we hit up downtown Louisville and went to the 21c museum/hotel. Way cool concept -- it's a museum... AND a hotel, duh. OH AND Cincinnati's building one too by the way :D. So anyhoo, this museum/hotel had many a fun art to oggle and play with. 

Went further along the main street to see some other tourist attractions, like the Louisville Slugger, Whiskey Row, and the multi-mirror in front of the kids' science museum (b/c we're too cheap to actually go inside). THEN! Fossil park! Right on the banks of the Ohio river on the Indiana side, lots o' fossils. Next, we hit up an authentic Mexican restaurant for dinner. Are we sure it's authentic? Yes. If the servers address you in Spanish and everyone, their families, and their neighbors who are there are as brown as you are, yes. Jeremy might have stood out a little. Chimichangas and horchata (and a lot of leftovers) for me. Yum.

So our mission was to stay out til 4 am (b/c bars close at 4 in Louisville! How awesome is that?) so that we could just take Jonathon to the Ironman competition straight after that. Went to the winery that Jeremy works at, sampling of 6 wines and chocolate lava cake, then off to bar #1 where I had my first BBC, and ended up back at Nachbar to meet up with another Louisville couchsurfer. Only lasted til 2 am... I could barely talk b/c of how tired I was. Good attempt, Nadia. I think Cincinnati has made me old. So I got my, like, 1.5 hrs of sleep, drove Jonathon to the Ironman start, and went back to sleep til 7ish.

So Sunday was Ironman/hang-out/sight-see-Louisville-in-between-spectator-opportunities day. Peter and Jackie headed over at 10 and we went to La Grange, where the Ironman bike portion looped twice. Caught Jonathon just in time (p.s. I'm a terrible "capture the moment" photo taker). We were going to go to a quarry nearby, but decided to laze in the park where they were holding a mini fair instead and contemplated the business model of expensive fair foods and souvenirs. La Grange is quite quaint, with a train running right through the middle of it. Caught the 2nd loop of bikers, then headed back into town.

Went to this funtastic ice cream "parlor" that's actually a house (that's for sale... for $799,900) with an awesome view of the city (that's quotably worth "a million dollars", so really, you're saving $200,100). Got myself double chocolate chip and cookie dough cone and we plopped ourselves down on the grass to enjoy this great view. Next we headed to the bike finish/marathon start, where near it there's a little water "park" with jumping fountains and a pool that strictly states "danger! high levels of hydrogen! do not swim!", but of course people ignore the signs and we're swimming and wading in it. I'm sorry, but you canNOT expect me to resist jumping fountains. Reminds of the time we took Maya to the jumping fountains in Austin and it was my excuse to be able to  play in them too.

After observing that our pre-ironman was still well and alive, more wandering around downtown and made our way to the BBC parlor. Got yelled at because we didn't realize we were walking in the runner's path on the way there. Then we plopped ourselves down and watched the runners go by. Noticed that around the same timing, didn't see as many familiar faces anymore, which means they had somewhere quit along the way... kinda sad. Went home, got dinner, the non-dd's got their buzz on, all ready for the finale of the race. The sight was pretty epic: lit up 4th st, crowds cheering, people pounding on the railguards to the beat, the adrenaline was felt through the air as runners became ironmen. And of course he made it.

Worked from Louisville on Monday because of the late-nightness. Got back home around 6pm. Oh, and discovered that while KY is the home of bourbon loving, I am not a lover of it, but Louisville still has a solid two-thumbs up despite it.

25 hrs of driving... and worth it.

If you are a friend that I've talked to within the past 4 months or a coworker, you'll know that I've been whining about needing a beach vacation. The last time I was on sand and got to see those beautiful waves break upon the shore was in Jamaica in January. Nonono... that's been too long for moi, you don't understand.

Kyle's in Nags Head, NC right now. Great excuse :) Electronica festival near DC -- on the way. Let's make it a roadtrip.

Left the Cincy on Thursday at 5am. Yes, you read that right. Projected 8 hr drive to DC to pick up Reese who's all into that funky music too. Drive wasn't all too bad, we switched off -- I got to sleep for almost all of the first half. Tried to listen to an audio book. Gave up after disc 3. My mind's too spastic to stay focused on that, talking, and paying attention to signs. Got to DC around 1pm and 1.5 tanks of gas (woopwoop). Picked up Reese and went straight to Bristow, VA for Identity Fest.

Mind you, I'm a complete amateur when it comes to electronica music. I know nothing about the artists, the different styles, or what makes one DJ a genius vs novice. All I care about is if I can dance my booty off to it. Which I did. I'm no smoker, but Camel was doing some promotion at the entrance so we stocked up on menthol cigarettes, mix that with about 7 Rockstar Energy drinks they were handing out for free at the tent, and you've got yourself a "clean" buzz going (well that and the thermos of rum we shot in the parking lot). A crazy storm was a brewing in the not-so-far distance, but we just got some light refreshing drizzle and found cover in time. Dancing my heart out ensued until 11pm. 

I've never been to DC before and while I had no intention of getting it all in on this trip, Reese drove me past all the main monuments and buildings on our way back. It seemed unreal. I think because I've always seen these places only in movies and tv, and with them being cast with spotlights in the night, made me believe this was all a movie set and that Tom Hanks or Nicolas Cage must be running around somewhere with a film crew following them. They were overly impressive and I definitely need a dedicated trip to DC some time to fully absorb them.

Got to sleep in the next morning until we made our way to meet up for lunch. Had yummy make-your-own bibimbap before heading out to Nags Head at 1pm. Aaaand hello DC traffic. We hit 3 ridiculous traffic jams. I really don't understand traffic and why it happens... I think that 95% of the time it's caused by one stupid driver feeling the need to slow down for no real good reason and then causing a giant domino effect. We got into Nags Head around 8pm. Grabbed dinner and drinks with Kyle then crashed.

Ahhhhhh beaaacchhh dayyyyy has finally arrived! Another lazy morning, ate at a local breakfast joint (yum grits... definitely back in the South, also conveyed by our waitress's accent), got some beach food at Kroger (hummus?), and found ourselves a spot where we'd bake for the next 5 hours. Water was at a perfect temperature and I made the water-bake-water-bake ritual several times. Read, talked, people-watched, and just enjoyed the rays. I swear, next place I live, better be in close proximity to a life like this. Also, fastforward a few days later, I experienced a "white person problem" for the first time... I was peeling. weeeiiird. After beach? Pool of course. Then got some excellent (free! thanks Kyle's friend) sushi and sake then called it a night.

Sunday morning Jonathon got up at 5 (ew) to train for ironman cycling, while I slept in til 11. Theeen we made the long drive back to Cincinnasti (some more stupid traffic jams) and got in at 11:30pm. Had an interesting pit stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere with hick telling us to watch out for bears in Washington (state) and carry guns. I think I'm done with driving for a while. Thank god for cruise control. Next time, let's fly.