Today it's 3 days left for me in Brussels. I'm really very sad to be leaving, but I'm going to enjoy these last few days! I've had so much fun while I've been here. It's been such an experience, although I am ready to have some good old American Food. :)
It's been quiet since we've been back from Turkey. Not much going on, except I've been fighting some headache and throat issues. Not really a cold, but just annoyances. Too much fun in Turkey, I think, gave me some trouble.
The trip home from Istanbul was great. Lufthansa is now my favorite airline because they serve you food even on short inter-Europe flights! Better than SAS, Swiss, or Brussels Airlines. I'm hoping to get a big blog about our trip written up on my flight home. I leave around noon here, and get back to Seattle about 9pm. I'm gonna try to stay awake the whole time, so I'll need stuff to keep me entertained since the movie options on US Airways are never very good.
In the mean time, I've loaded up some pictures and have posted a new slide show below, so check those out. Be sure to click on the slide show or the link below it to go to the actual picture site so that you can see all my captions.
This weekend will be the big farewell to Brussels. I have to buy my chocolate tomorrow to bring home since the shop isn't open on Sunday. I've been worried about buying it sooner because our apartment is not air-conditioned and it's been really warm. I've heard it's supposed to be around 100 degrees in good ol' G-view, so that's going to be a shocker when I get back!
Lastly, I'll leave you with a video of the Whirling Dervishes that we saw in Istanbul. The boyfriend of the girl we were staying with sets up these shows so we got in free! It was about an hour long show, but what you see here, pretty much sums up the whole hour.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Here I am baby!
Hey all and Hello from the land of Turkey! Our flight went fantastic and we made it with just a little drama to our friend's place. We're on our way out to eat dinner, but I just wanted to let you all know that we are having a great time and everything is going just swimmingly. :)
Much much more to come!
Much much more to come!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
On our way!
Merhaba! (Turkish for Hello!)
I'm finishing getting packed and at 3:30pm we head on our way to the airport! Today I get new stamps in my passport! Woo hoo!!!! For those of you who were wanting some more information on Istanbul, you can read this article on Wikipedia, or go to this Turkish embassy site. In case you are interested in random trivia, one of Istanbul's sister cities is Dallas, Texas. :)
Our first big adventure will be trying to get to our friend's place. She won't be able to meet us at the airport, so we are going to try to take a bus. This is gonna be fun!
So signing off for now! I'll be back soon with lots of stories and pictures for your viewing pleasures. :)
I'm finishing getting packed and at 3:30pm we head on our way to the airport! Today I get new stamps in my passport! Woo hoo!!!! For those of you who were wanting some more information on Istanbul, you can read this article on Wikipedia, or go to this Turkish embassy site. In case you are interested in random trivia, one of Istanbul's sister cities is Dallas, Texas. :)
Our first big adventure will be trying to get to our friend's place. She won't be able to meet us at the airport, so we are going to try to take a bus. This is gonna be fun!
So signing off for now! I'll be back soon with lots of stories and pictures for your viewing pleasures. :)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Great article
I read this article on the CNN politics website (of all places) and was really impressed by it. I know Bishop T.D. Jakes from his visits to my church in Seattle and he is an incredible orator. His words are powerful, but chosen with great care, and show what I believe to be the right spirit with which to approach these times and issues. His views on the current political and spiritual situation in our country very much reflect my own, so I wanted to share.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sunshine makes me happy
It's GORGEOUS today!! It's 70 degrees outside and bright and sunny, and what am I doing? Writing a blog. :P
Because its so nice, I'm going to try to keep this short so I can go wander around in the sunshine...maybe go have a waffle. :)
K made it home safe and sound from Stockholm (no missed flights), and we spent a wonderful night out Saturday at a nice belgian restaurant and then a jazz club. The restaurant had fantastic traditional belgian food, and the group playing at the club was really good. They were a trio (drums, bass, and tenor/soprano sax) with a guest piano player. The interesting thing was they were all pretty young (like mid 20s), but VERY good. They played their own songs for the set that we saw. I think the sax player was Irish, but I wasn't sure. He had a light accent and spoke only in English, but from the little he spoke, it was hard to tell where he was from.
Yesterday was also a gorgeous day, so we went out and had a huge all you can eat brunch at a swanky little restaurant. It was a little spendy, but the food was absolutely worth it, especially all you can eat! We wandered around afterwards and ended up in the big park next to the royal palace to read. I had a headache so Les Miserable was not exactly keeping my attention. Instead, I people watched, and thoroughly enjoyed watching this dad trying to teach his two little girls in summer dresses how to do cartwheels and headstands. The one must have been about 5-6, the other was probably 2. So cute!
That evening we headed out of the park and decided to go see a movie. We saw There Will Be Blood, which is about this oil tycoon and his very messed up life. We had no idea what it was about, but it was in English and had won a bunch of awards, so we thought we'd give it a try. Not the highlight of the day, we'll just leave it at that. I don't recommend it. Afterwards we headed home and I made twice-baked potatoes for dinner. Yum!
So now I have to start getting into travel mode again. Wednesday we leave for Istanbul! We bought a guide book to help give us an idea of what exactly we are getting ourselves into, since neither of us know much about Turkey and are totally unfamiliar with the language. This will probably be one of the most exotic places I've been...so exciting! I'm hoping it will be warm there. So much to plan though in the meantime. It kind of snuck up on us, and we have a lot of questions for our friend we'll be staying with. Like what should we bring to wear, what are the things we should bring that we may not think to bring? Baklava and Turkish Delight, here I come!
I'm not sure that I'll be able to write any blogs while I'm gone. I'm not planning on bringing my computer, so it will probably just be an update when I get back, as per usual.
Between the spring weather and traveling to far off countries, I'm just giddy!!!
Because its so nice, I'm going to try to keep this short so I can go wander around in the sunshine...maybe go have a waffle. :)
K made it home safe and sound from Stockholm (no missed flights), and we spent a wonderful night out Saturday at a nice belgian restaurant and then a jazz club. The restaurant had fantastic traditional belgian food, and the group playing at the club was really good. They were a trio (drums, bass, and tenor/soprano sax) with a guest piano player. The interesting thing was they were all pretty young (like mid 20s), but VERY good. They played their own songs for the set that we saw. I think the sax player was Irish, but I wasn't sure. He had a light accent and spoke only in English, but from the little he spoke, it was hard to tell where he was from.
Yesterday was also a gorgeous day, so we went out and had a huge all you can eat brunch at a swanky little restaurant. It was a little spendy, but the food was absolutely worth it, especially all you can eat! We wandered around afterwards and ended up in the big park next to the royal palace to read. I had a headache so Les Miserable was not exactly keeping my attention. Instead, I people watched, and thoroughly enjoyed watching this dad trying to teach his two little girls in summer dresses how to do cartwheels and headstands. The one must have been about 5-6, the other was probably 2. So cute!
That evening we headed out of the park and decided to go see a movie. We saw There Will Be Blood, which is about this oil tycoon and his very messed up life. We had no idea what it was about, but it was in English and had won a bunch of awards, so we thought we'd give it a try. Not the highlight of the day, we'll just leave it at that. I don't recommend it. Afterwards we headed home and I made twice-baked potatoes for dinner. Yum!
So now I have to start getting into travel mode again. Wednesday we leave for Istanbul! We bought a guide book to help give us an idea of what exactly we are getting ourselves into, since neither of us know much about Turkey and are totally unfamiliar with the language. This will probably be one of the most exotic places I've been...so exciting! I'm hoping it will be warm there. So much to plan though in the meantime. It kind of snuck up on us, and we have a lot of questions for our friend we'll be staying with. Like what should we bring to wear, what are the things we should bring that we may not think to bring? Baklava and Turkish Delight, here I come!
I'm not sure that I'll be able to write any blogs while I'm gone. I'm not planning on bringing my computer, so it will probably just be an update when I get back, as per usual.
Between the spring weather and traveling to far off countries, I'm just giddy!!!
Friday, May 2, 2008
I have a new respect for outlet malls...
Today was a shopping adventure...really, a failed shopping adventure...
I had the idea that today was the day! I was going to go out and do some Shopping, with a capital S! I wanted to get some stuff for the people back home, and maybe find some clothes or fun stuff for myself. So I headed out.
As I was walking down the street towards the shopping district, I realized that there were a lot of stores that were closed...on a Friday...that's weird. Now granted, most everything is closed on Sundays and most stores close early compared to American standards, but usually things are open on Fridays. Then it dawns on me. Yesterday was labor day for Europe. And unlike in the US, labor day is not a consumer focused holiday. In other words, I'm guessing that many stores closed on May 1st and intended to stay closed for the weekend. Strike one.
But I figured, I'm on my way, I'm sure some stores will be open. And yes, some were. Many were not. I checked out every clothes store that was open.
Next was the size issue. I had forgotten/spaced/not realized that they size totally different in Europe. So when looking at dresses and pants, was I a 24? 38? 42? Strike two. I eventually found a store that had these fantastic tags that told what size the clothes were in something like 10 different countries! Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, UK, Australia (?!?), and the US (!) as well as some others. I figured out I was about a 38-40. Ok!
So now that I know what size I am, I start seriously looking for clothes. I eventually come to the realization that if its not in a teeny-bopper store, shirts start at around 25 Euro, pants and skirts at about 35 Euro, and I didn't see any dress under 60. Now those prices look reasonable if they were in dollars! But with the all mighty dollar running about $1.55 to 1 Euro, the word I'm looking for is "ouch!" Strike three.
Keep in mind that I haven't been seriously shopping for myself in a long time, so I was kinda flustered with the whole sizing thing in the first place. Add in the sticker shock and I was pretty much done. I spent about an hour and a half walking around to different stores and didn't find anything that I could bring myself to buy.
Now I know by this point my mom is probably either laughing at me or frustrated that I didn't buy anything, or both, but fear not! I haven't totally given up. I'm going to bring in the big guns next time. If there is anyone who knows how to spend money on clothes, it's Kristoffer. So the strategy next time? Bring the man.
And as a last note: Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thinking of you today!
I had the idea that today was the day! I was going to go out and do some Shopping, with a capital S! I wanted to get some stuff for the people back home, and maybe find some clothes or fun stuff for myself. So I headed out.
As I was walking down the street towards the shopping district, I realized that there were a lot of stores that were closed...on a Friday...that's weird. Now granted, most everything is closed on Sundays and most stores close early compared to American standards, but usually things are open on Fridays. Then it dawns on me. Yesterday was labor day for Europe. And unlike in the US, labor day is not a consumer focused holiday. In other words, I'm guessing that many stores closed on May 1st and intended to stay closed for the weekend. Strike one.
But I figured, I'm on my way, I'm sure some stores will be open. And yes, some were. Many were not. I checked out every clothes store that was open.
Next was the size issue. I had forgotten/spaced/not realized that they size totally different in Europe. So when looking at dresses and pants, was I a 24? 38? 42? Strike two. I eventually found a store that had these fantastic tags that told what size the clothes were in something like 10 different countries! Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, UK, Australia (?!?), and the US (!) as well as some others. I figured out I was about a 38-40. Ok!
So now that I know what size I am, I start seriously looking for clothes. I eventually come to the realization that if its not in a teeny-bopper store, shirts start at around 25 Euro, pants and skirts at about 35 Euro, and I didn't see any dress under 60. Now those prices look reasonable if they were in dollars! But with the all mighty dollar running about $1.55 to 1 Euro, the word I'm looking for is "ouch!" Strike three.
Keep in mind that I haven't been seriously shopping for myself in a long time, so I was kinda flustered with the whole sizing thing in the first place. Add in the sticker shock and I was pretty much done. I spent about an hour and a half walking around to different stores and didn't find anything that I could bring myself to buy.
Now I know by this point my mom is probably either laughing at me or frustrated that I didn't buy anything, or both, but fear not! I haven't totally given up. I'm going to bring in the big guns next time. If there is anyone who knows how to spend money on clothes, it's Kristoffer. So the strategy next time? Bring the man.
And as a last note: Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thinking of you today!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
1st of May
Today is May day. It's special for many reasons.
Today is labor day for many countries. People go out and march for the rights of workers. They chant their songs and hold their banners and support their cause.
Today is also a celebration of spring. Some cultures dance around a may pole in celebration of this beautiful time of year.
But, today is, most importantly, my parents 26th wedding anniversary. And while I don't know what their plans are to celebrate this year, I hope that they have a wonderful day and enjoy some time with each other.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Today is labor day for many countries. People go out and march for the rights of workers. They chant their songs and hold their banners and support their cause.
Today is also a celebration of spring. Some cultures dance around a may pole in celebration of this beautiful time of year.
But, today is, most importantly, my parents 26th wedding anniversary. And while I don't know what their plans are to celebrate this year, I hope that they have a wonderful day and enjoy some time with each other.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
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