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Traveller’s Luck

Yesterday was our final day in Istanbul, so we spent the morning doing the tourist things that we hadn’t experienced yet: the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar. We liked the spice market, but on our way to the Grand Bazaar we got a bit crowd-o-phobic so stopped for a snack and a decision. Truthfully I (dawnO) was OK with skipping the Grand Bazaar, but robO felt it was a must see. And he was right. It was quite a nice experience, especially compared to the chaos of the surrounding streets!

 

 

That evening we flew to Cappadocia, an area in Central Turkey. It was a long experience, from 2 screaming babies on the plane, to lost then found luggage, to a long ride to Goreme, where the room we had booked was no longer available; and it was after midnight.
Turns out we had traveller’s luck on our side. The hotel manager Mustafa is an amazing man. It was not his fault at all that we had no place to stay (our online booking was a bust, but no money lost). He took it upon himself to ensure we were taken care of. He set us up in a room at a friend’s hotel (which is a 5 star place I’m sure) for the night and would figure out more in the morning. This morning we were stressing a bit about our options, and Mustafa came back, arranging 2 more nights at this same amazing hotel (did I mention for the original price we were to pay??!!), recommending a great hike for our day, and by the way, he’s a hot air balloon pilot and set us up on a flight with a discount for ‘all of our trouble’. If you are ever coming here, you NEED to meet this guy because he is a caring and generous man. I can hardly wait to give him a positive review on Trip Advisor. (Not coincidently, the reason we chose the hotel that we did was because of great reviews about this guy.)
Anyway, this area is so cool. It’s kind of like Drumheller meets Bedrock from the Flintstones. Here are some pics from our day…
 

 

 

 

 

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Keblog – part I of a double blog

What a birthday! I warned RobO that if these great birthdays keep up I’m going to start expecting a trip every year at this time! (If you can’t remember last year’s Quebec City awesomeness your homework is to scroll back and read it.)

This morning started out with a walk to the painted steps. The story is that an Istanbul resident wanted to make people happy so he bought a few cans of paint and painted a staircase. The city painted it grey the next day, which caused a political revolt. The result? I guess you can see…

 

 

I met up with robO and we went to a Turkish Bath. This place was built 300 years ago and is in the ‘1000 places to see before you die’ book. Anyway, picture a big marble room filled with naked women soaping each other down. Before you get too excited, my woman was named Inge and she was exfoliating dead skin off of my body in little lint-like rolls. This was followed by a wash down and an oil massage. My skin has never felt so good! Check it off the bucket list! You can Read robO’s report for the full man experience.
Sorry… no pics of me in my birthday suit!
Next we visited the Bascilica Cistern, which is an underground water storage made with beautiful roman columns. And we got a special treat… a dress up like sultans and have a photo taken. Who could say no to that?!

The rest of our afternoon was spent eating amazing Turkish food and checking out the beautiful Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia.
 

We finished off the night with a birthday dinner and rooftop patio views of the sights. Not too shabby for the first day of my 36th year!

Looking forward to checking our the bazaars, then flying to Cappadocia tomorrow!

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Arrivederci Boston

We have really enjoyed our last few days in Boston. We highly recommend staying in the North End (Little Italy). It’s beautiful, tasty, and easy to walk/bike/metro to anywhere.

We’ll close with some pictures…

The Holocaust Memorial.  Each of the columns represents one of the concentration camps. The number of each person killed in the camp is painted on the glass.

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I kissed a girl…

Today was the running of the 118th Boston Marathon, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it. What a cool experience. The weather was perfect for me (aka a bit too hot for most people). There was a moment of silence in the athlete’s village for those who were killed or injured last year, but really the focus was on ‘Boston Strong’.

My goal for the race was to enjoy it. I was not focused on time, though of course along the way it’s hard to keep it out of my mind. As requested by my male (of course) running mentor/friend Terry, I took a picture of myself kissing a girl at Welsley College. This is a tradition, and it was serious. At least 300 girls held signs of different varieties (“kiss me I’m Italian”, kiss me I’m a first year”, etc, etc.). I chose one that said “kiss me and you’ll run faster”!
I felt really great up until the last 2-3 miles (pretty much the usual for the marathon), and finished with my second best time of 3:24:41. It was great to have a big cheering squad (robO, my parents, robO’s parents), plus all of those who were cheering while tracking online!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around, then I had a great dinner at Quincey Market, followed by a cannoli from the famous Mike’s Pastry.  We’re looking forward to checking out Harvard, then our Red Sox/Yankees game tomorrow.

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Zihua

We’ve spent the last couple of days getting our bearings around Zihuatanejo, Mexico. RobO and I rented a condo just up (“north” as the grinch would say) from Playa La Ropa. As you can see from the photos, we’ve got the million dollar view, complete with 2 infinity pools. The weather has been perfect, which means it’s hot enough that even I have swam, both in the pool and the ocean!
Yesterday we went into town for groceries, made some delicious huevos rancheros, swam/read in the afternoon, walked the beach, and had dinner at a beachside restaurant.
Today we went to the beach early and spent an hour on stand up paddle boards. For obvious reasons we couldn’t bring our camera, so I took some pictures of another couple. Just picture us in their places, looking much cooler of course. We went into town for the afternoon to soak in some culture, complete with tacos from a roadside stand. We’ve had lots of chances to practice our Spanish, with mixed results! We’re looking forward to homemade fish tacos tonight as we ring in the new year. Feliz año nuevo!

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Breakfast with Tiffany

RobO and I flew to San Francisco yesterday.  Our main purpose was to visit our friends Lyndsey and Mike, who are living just south of the city in Palo Alto for a year.  And the other little reason was that I got into the San Francisco Women’s Half Marathon (the one where you get a Tiffany’s necklace at the end, given to you by a firefighter in a tuxedo)!
We had a great day in the city yesterday.  As usual, robO helped me carbo load before the race (Thai lunch and Indian dinner), as well as pig out after the race (Ghiardelli’s chocolate).
The race course was the hilliest I’ve ever run (mostly uphill) and it was so foggy that I couldn’t see the bridge.  For the first time since receiving a GPS watch I didn’t wear it during the race – I wanted to go just on feel and try to enjoy the experience.  I felt pretty good for most of the time, up until the last kilometer when I got a big stitch.  I knew I was in the range of achieving my sub 1:40 goal, but that cramp foiled me.  I ended with a happy 1:40:30, my new Tiffany, a pic with a firefighter, and a post race celebration with my #1 fan!  That equals 14th in my age group and 187th overall out of 26,417 runners.
We’re in Palo Alto now, enjoying our first night with the Bristows.
Here are some pics…
San Francisco days
Team carboloading
Here she is: the X is for the 10th anniversary of the race
Movember’s coming early
Slurp

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La Belle Ville

The past few days we have been doing what we do best: imagining that we live here.  For the week we rented a small studio apartment right in the heart of old town.  We shop at the markets, have a drink in the neighbourhood cafes, and picnic in the parks.  Most mornings have been spent sleeping in then doing some form of exercise (me) or catching up on computer/tv time (robO).  We have filled our afternoons with a variety of activities: exploring the city, tennis, reading on the boardwalk, and people watching.  Our major decision each day revolves around where we’re going to eat dinner (and, of course, if we’re going to have gelato).  It has been the perfect blend of down time and excitement, which I’ve coined ‘relaction’!

Friday night we decided to follow the old rule of “fool me once…” and bought VIP tickets to ensure our entry into the ‘free’ Cirque de Soleil show.  It definitely helped that we also weren’t standing in the family-only line.  What a show.  I’ve seen Cirques in a few different places, but there was something really special about watching the outdoor show amongst the silhouettes of the old town.
Today is my 35th birthday, and I’ve spent the day doing all the things that make my heart smile: waking up in a Murphy bed with robO, a morning yoga practice, rollerblading on the Plains of Abraham (currently vying for my favorite activity of this lifetime), poutine, an ass-kicking tennis game (guess my husband doesn’t let me win because it’s my birthday), and dinner at a ‘bring your own wine’ Indian restaurant.  We closed out the night with live music in the park and fireworks over the St. Lawrence.  I don’t think it can get much better than this!
We’re on our way home tomorrow.  This fall we have a few trips in the queue, so stay tuned for more updates…

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It’s All Coming Back To Me Now

I love Quebec City this time just as much as I loved it 11 years ago.  Since my first visit here I have been struggling to put into words the magical feeling that this city evokes.  It’s the same feeling that I encountered when I visited Prague, London, and Edinburg.
Finally today I think I put my finger on it.  I was running on the Plains of Abraham this morning and noticed banners on all of the lamp posts.  Each post had 2 messages: one historical, and a related modern message.  The one that caught my attention had, on the left, a drawing of a cannon and the word ‘Battles’, while on the right, a depiction of the bandstand where they play live outdoor concerts with the message ‘Harmony’.
I think that the magic comes from this contrast of old and new.  This city (like the ones listed above and many others) is a canvas of centuries old architecture with a modern overlay.  It is a place where we see a McDonalds housed in a stone building, a busker stand in front of the Chateau Frontenac, and a light show broadcast on the face of an old mill.  It is not unusual to hear the tolling of church bells and the base beat from a club on the same block.  Cars patiently wait behind horse drawn carriages at stoplights hung on the archways of the old city wall.  We can feel the ghosts of where we came from as we create our futures.

Don’t let the stereotypes sway you; Quebec City is an easy place to travel.  It is a ‘walking city’, with much of the tourist draw in an area that can be manoeuvred on foot.  Moreover, the tourism industry of Quebec knows how to woo a visiter.  The old town area is packed with art galleries, artesian booths, gelato stands, street performers, benches with views, and essentially anything else one may desire. There are free events abound: outdoor concerts, Cirque de Soleil shows, and fireworks.

The language ‘barrier’ is a misnomer.  RobO and I have been speaking an awkward kind of Spanglish – too much ‘si’ in place of ‘oui’.  We’re like parents who holler out the name of every child before finding the right one.  “Hello… Hola… Bonjour”.  The people we’ve met have been accepting and accommodating, replying in whatever language we offer.

Yesterday was our first full day to explore.  We explored the oldtown around our condo (a wonderful studio suite right beside the Chateau Frontenac with (drumroll please) a Murphy bed!!), then made our way to the Plains of Abraham, rollerblades in tow.  This was the catalyst for this whole trip; I ‘bucket listed’ for Rob to experience this setting.  Under the proud and watchful eye of this old battleground, the city has laid a large track only for rollerbladers.  After working up an appetite, we headed for fresh poutine, followed by refreshing gelato.  Our evening included more city exploration and finished with an exclamation point: listening to Celine Dion’s outdoor concert from a grassy hill beside the Citadel.  (Note: the concert was not free for those in attendance, just for the thousand-odd group of us who sat one hill over!)

I’ll let RobO fill you in on today’s events in the next blog as this is getting rather long. So here’s some pictures!!

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Temples and Shrines

We’ve enjoyed the last couple of days around the Kathmandu valley. Yesterday after the Holi excitement died down we did a walking tour of Kathmandu. It is amazing to go down all of the little alleyway streets and run into so many thousand year old temples!
Today we ventured on the local bus to a neighbouring city called Bhaktapur. It is a medieval city that is filled with even more ancient stupas. What drew me to going there is a place called ‘Potter’s Square’ where they make, dry, fire, and sell pottery.
From what we have seen, the Nepalese people live simple, peaceful, and happy lives.

I’ll include lots of photos, including some of our more artsy shots from the past couple of days. Enjoy!

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Chitwan National Park – Safari x3

Over the past 2 days we have done 3 different types of safaris: by jeep, by canoe, and on elephant! There were definitely benefits to each of the methods.
By jeep we were able to go deep into the park and had the luck to see a leopard! We also saw numerous rhinos, 4 different types of deer, wild boars, peacocks, and had a brief visit to the crocodile breeding center, where we saw baby crocs! The downfall of the jeep was when it started monsoon raining and hailing and we had an hour’s drive in the open top jeep to get back. Did I mention we broke down too? If you come here (and you should), we would recommend a half day in the jeep.
This morning we went by canoe. We saw numerous crocs in the wild, as well as many different birds. We ended at the elephant breeding center, where we saw a 15 day old baby elephant and numerous other little guys. I could have stayed there watching them all day. The cutest was watching the new baby learning how to use it’s trunk – much like the first time a human baby uses pincher grasp for Cheerios.
This afternoon we did an elephant back safari. OK, I guess there weren’t really any benefits to this. It is really uncomfortable! But an experience none the less.

We have 1 more day to explore Chitwan, then on Sunday we’re headed to Kathmandu for our last few days.