From Russia, with Love

Санкт-Петербург

This year, I spent the first week of December in Saint Petersburg, Russia visiting one of the offshore teams I work with.  As a business trip, one week was simply too short to accomplish everything I'd hoped to accomplish.  Despite that, however, I got to poke about a bit in my off hours and I really found myself taken by the beauty of SPb.

My arrival provided a primer of Russian bureaucracy: my luggage got left behind somewhere in Germany and I had to fill out paperwork (by hand) in quadruplicate.  In the end, I got my ~1.5days later, so it wasn't terrible - just inconvenient.

I stayed in a lovely hotel in downtown SPb and  really went "off label" in terms of not eating as a vegetarian during my stay.  We went to an Uzbeki restaurant, where I ordered what amounted to a small chicken / whole cornish game hen; I had to pull it apart and eat it by hand, and was totally mortified, but I did it.  At a Ukranian restaurant, I discovered that I genuinely love borscht (particularly when paired with vodka shots).  Who knew?  At one of the Russian places we tried, I ordered a Georgian specialty which turned out to be "raw chicken, fried on the edges" and just couldn't bring myself to eat it.  At the office cafeteria, the offest thing I tried turned out to be something made of lard, bone marrow and mit bits.  Very "special" - wouldn't try it again.

In addition to vodkas and various beers, I also had some absinthe and discovered that they served it differently than I've ever seen/experienced...  Rather than having an absinthe spoon and sugar cube, they served it in a snifter glass lined with sugar on the inside of the glass; they then fired the snifter glass, poured it into a shot glass, and turned the snifter upside down on a paper "seal" with a straw to suck the rest out of.  Interesting and fun; I was definitely an instigator w/my coworkers!

Aside from brief general sightseeing on our first day there (Peter and Paul fortress where the Romanov's are buried, the Church on Spilled Blood, and St. Issac's Cathedral), I did some pre-trip research and found out that the famous Mariinsky Theater was having a ballet (Raymonda) one of the nights we were there; so, we all bought "prime" ballet tickets and had a seriously fantastic time -- gorgeous theater, great orchestra acoustics, phenomenal ballet.  (Um, hello, Russian ballet?  Yes, please!)  I kept remembering that theater as one of the venues Baryshnikov performed at, and it was sooo much fun (because I literally adored him as a little girl stuffed into ballet lessons...).

Other than that, the only thing I really got to do was ditch my coworkers on my last night and head off by myself to attend Friday night service at Kazan, before taking the subway back to the hotel.  Before attending that service, I'd never really understood Eastern Orthodox traditions, and I really think I walked away with a deeper, richer appreciation; it was lovely - but not easy on the feet!

In short, I recommend Russia if you have the opportunity.  SPb is a beautiful city.  I had no idea what to expect and, as a SoCal gal who hasn't seen snow in many years, I was nervous about going to Russia in December.  Was it cold, yes; was there snow, yes; were the rivers frozen, yes.  And, yet, I really believe that was the best way to really try to see Russia for the first time; it's cold and beautiful, and fires/heat rage indoors and you're never really cold for too long.  It all just "works" and that's intriguing and special.  I look forward to my next trip - whether for business or pleasure.

 

 

Christmas Day Roadtrip: Salvation Mountain!

I took a little roadtrip out to the desert for Christmas Day with a coworker. I drove and, man, I forgot how 8hrs+ behind the wheel can jack with my back. I'm totally knackered and sore!

His goal: Salton Sea - meh, not as cool as we'd hoped
My goal: Salvation Mountain - exceeded my expectations (he'd never heard of it)

I've traveled the world photographing religious sites, "lived religion" and "found altars"; this is seriously one of the coolest places I've been. You could truly "feel" the love Leonard, the creator of this site, had imbued in the structure and in the earth while creating it. Absolutely fantastic - and I'm not even Christian :) Unfortunately, Leonard was moved into a care facility in San Diego two weeks ago, so I did not get to meet him; he's 80yo, and was living in the desert with no running water, etc for years and years.



Full Photo Set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelfish/sets/72157628576816837/

Cappadocia is Calling

I'll write about my time in Istanbul later, but for now I'll just say that I adore Cappadocia. What was intended to be a 2nt stay has turned into 5nts - w/MUCH solo hiking through beautiful terrain using back country trails and, of course, visiting cave churches with old frescos. It's a really special place, here - and I can rather understand why the early Christians chose to make their cities and churches throughout the area.

At the moment it's peaceful, the weather is great (including some periodic electrical storms) and the people are friendly. After the barrage of people in Istanbul, it's a welcome respite - and a nice way to wrap up my holiday.

That said, I took one day tour yesterday...and reminded myself that I'm not a tour person AT ALL. ;)

Getting "back on the horse"...

After absolutely zero travel happening in 2010 (due to buying my first house and dealing with related expenses), I've finally got another trip planned. I'm heading to Turkey for two weeks next month - and I'm seriously excited.

The plan of the moment is to spend ~1wk in Istanbul, and also visit Cappadocia and somewhere on the Aegean/Med coast. We'll see what unfolds, though... All I really know is that I've got a bed booked in Istanbul for when I arrive... :)

Depart: April 23 (for Istanbul)
Return: May 8

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

It's been a year with no travel - and, frankly, I'm going a bit stir crazy. That said, it's also been a year full of change I never expected; my life is very different than it was just a year ago - and I'm phenomenally happier.

In late January, I changed jobs - turning down a management promotion at one of the most well-known companies in the world to follow my heart and return to a small medical device company that laid me off in 2008 when I came back from Morocco. (The layoff was due to the economic craziness of the era and ~25% of the company downsized at that time.) Then, in early February, I closed on my first house. While I certainly won't voluntarily enter escrow in the middle of changing jobs ever again (really - not recommended!), I've got to say that I adore my new home; it's more than I ever expected to be able to afford in a first house, and I'm extremely blessed. I hope to be here for a long time. To top it all off, I've now got ~5min commute to work - and, yes, I'm still in Southern California. It's ridiculously awesome!

Anyway, I'm brainstorming a 2wk trip for Feb 2011, but my ideas thus far haven't panned out. Who knows where the future will ultimately take me...

Belfast and N.I.

I slowly bussed my way from Galway to Belfast, by way of the Dublin airport. It was the cheapest and quickest route I could easily figure out. I honestly don't know what I expected to find in Belfast; what I found, though, was altogether different. The bus from the airport dropped me off in downtown Belfast and I had to walk a mile or two toward Queen's University and my hostel. Other than the fact of being conveniently located, having a decent attached cafe, and featuring some cool dorm-mates, the hostel wasn't great; it was "just a hostel" and had some semi-creepy African refugees that were leering at all the young women traveling alone.

It turns out that my mother's people are actually from Belfast... However, I didn't learn that until I got home. All I knew while on the trip was that Belfast "spoke" to me in a way no other part of Ireland did during the trip. Go figure...

Farewell, Sky Europe

Wow. I'm saddened to learn that European budget airline Sky Europe has filed for bankruptcy and ceased operation. Bummer, man. These guys weren't perfect, but they were pretty decent - and very useful for the budget traveler. If I'd spent more time in Europe recently, I would've certainly flown them again.

(...and, yeah, I know I haven't really done my Ireland trip justice. I've been busy w/work. Maybe I'll get to it one day...)

"Galway Girl"

My flights to Ireland were largely uneventful - particularly the Atlanta-to-Dublin leg during which the "in flight entertainment" monitor at my seat was mysteriously broken while everyone else's worked fine. (D'oh!) At least I was able to catch up on some sleep, though, given that I'd been working so hard before I left...

As I flew into Dublin, I fell in love with the Emerald Isle from the air; my first sight of her was almost magical - green and beautiful, rising peacefully from the choppy gray ocean. I knew right then that I was going to enjoy myself on this trip; it was just "a feeling". Once the plane landed, I had some time to kill in the airport before catching a CityLink bus to Galway; strangely, my flight landed an hour early - which, as any air traveler can attest, never happens. I ATM'd some Euros (and said a silent "hurrah!" when the ATM did not eat my card like the one in Marrakech did last year), found some decent food, and managed to doze quietly with my leg wrapped through my backpack straps as it leaned against my chair.

I spent the next 3-4hrs bussing it to Galway, wherein I sat next to an old woman who was shocked at the idea that I was traveling alone; she warned me to be careful..."because you think it's just Ireland, but it's not as safe as it seems". Given where I was raised and where I've traveled previously, I just smiled by best appreciative smile at her and commented wryly that I figured Ireland was probably about as safe as home - which means that pretty much anything could happen. My seatmate also inspired me, upon returning home, to inquire regarding the surname of my maternal Irish relations; she claimed that you could tell which counties families came from just from their names, so maybe there's hope of tracking down the part of Ireland we were originally from...

Galway served a nice "college town" entry point to Ireland. I explored so much that I wound up with crazy blisters on my feet, but it was worth it. One Irish guy I roomed with was an incoming university student looking for housing; to my amazement, he mentioned never having been to a city as big as Galway - and Galway's not all that big. Fortunately, though, Galway did have decent stores such that I could buy a waterproof windbreaker thing. (I mysteriously didn't pack anything waterproof - not sure what I was thinking!)

From Galway, I arranged day trips to visit Connemara (i.e. the picturesque Gaeltacht / Gaelic speaking region), and the Cliff of Moher. I'm glad I went on both trips, but they mostly just served to reinforce the fact that I'm not the kind of person who enjoys organized bus tours; they kind of rip the soul out of an experience. I hate suffering through obnoxious people with different motives for traveling - and especially other obnoxious Americans who don't know how to "not be in America", for lack of a better explanation. I also really don't enjoy being party to someone else's schedules. That said, with as exhausted as work had made me, I just plain didn't have the energy to figure it out on my own as I'd usually be wont to do. C'est la vie.