laff and travel

It is great to be home in San Francisco again. Our flights were pretty uneventful except that my luggage went MIA at SFO. Apparently, they put it on the wrong plane. Anyways, about 24 hours later, it arrived at our door. whew! They said it would be quicker than that, but, I'm just glad it is back. Anyways, I went back to work immediately, and Kevin is off for a couple of days. Pictures of our adventures will be upcoming, but, seeing as we are throwing a big holiday party on Sunday...this probably won't happen for a while. If you are in town, stop by our home on Sunday (most likely, you were already invited).

We arrived in Paris two nights ago and seeing as we are in an internet cafe with a French keyboard, this entry will be short. My typing speed is way too remedial to make blogging fun. After a full sunny day yesterday of seeing wonderful art at the Orangerie, riding the Ferris wheel and touring the city on foot, we decided that this is our second favorite city. The first is SF of course. Anyways? we will be home in less than 36 hours!

While we have been in Istanbul, we have seen some fine sites including the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, but, we have also experienced the "welcoming" salesman at any sort of business, be it, a restaurant, kitschy tourist shop or carpet shop. Some salesman will go as far as to make conversation with you while following you to various sites to get you to agree to come and look at their carpets. "We are not looking for a Turkish carpet" doesn't seem to work that well. This is beginning to grate on me especially seeing as they seem to assume I am a Japanese tourist and like to greet me with "Ko nichi wa" (or however you spell that in Japanese). When I kept telling the man we were not interested, he made some side comment of me being Chinese and that Chinese were always cheap. Anyways, other than the pushy (and sometimes insulting) salesman, one shoe shiner had a new and unique technique for fooling customers into handing him some of their liras. As we were walking to find a Turkish Delight (Lokum) shop, a shoe shiner passed us by and dropped his brush. Kevin (being the gentleman that he is), picked it up and ran after the man to give it back. The man acted very gracious and convinced Kevin that he had to shine such a gentleman's shoes. Like Kevin, I thought he wanted to thank Kevin for his kind gesture. But, as the man began to tell us about his children in the hospital and other sob stories, we knew it was time to leave. Anyways, afterwards, Kevin decided to give him some change... maybe a few Lira. And, the man, said "oh noo... paper money is fine. That would mean giving him at least 5 Lira (just under 5 dollars for a two minute shoe shine). Kevin refused and began to walk away, so the guy said, "oh, 5 Lira in coins is fine." The nerve! Anyways, we walked away after giving the gentleman guy 2.5 Lira.

Luckily, today, we found out how to take the tram to our favorite part of town Beyoglu where people generally ignore us because its not tourist focused. The trams are really convenient, clean and cheap. Its a lot better than getting ripped off by some of the taxis. (I think the last one we took charged us the night rate rather than the day rate because the fee was much higher than expected). Oh well...

We also took a LOVELY tour of the Bosphorous on a warm, comfy boat with inexpensive tea. We are loving the tea here in Istanbul, by the way. We also hit the Grand Bazaar. However, both, Kevin and myself hate bargaining and aren't really in the market for anything. So, we left empty handed. We've stuffed our faces with Lokum (Turkish Delight) for the day and we'll go back for more sugar tomorrow.

Last Saturday, we took the Eurostar from the new St. Pancras station in London to Brussels. Goodbye.... London! I had it all worked out of how to get to our hotel (The Marriott) in Brussels from the train station, but, somehow, we got on the wrong tram. We were on a tram with a bunch of locals who, to our surprise, didn't speak any English. This sucked. We had luggage, I was falling over it, and it was dark outside. So, we got off, turned around and headed back to the station. Then, we took a taxi to our hotel. Little did we know that it would only cost about 7 Euros to get there. We should have taken that in the first place rather than messing with public transport that we knew nothing about. Anyways, in two nights of Brussels, we checked off everything on our list. This included: Belgian beer, fries, waffles, chocolate and more chocolate :)  We also saw the highly overrated Mannekin Pis (little statue of a boy peeing), the European Parliament, the Royal Palace and the Grand Place. Our very, very, very favorite part of this leg of our journey was the champagne, chocolates, and desserts that we had at Whittamer. Excellent!!!

We are now in Istanbul and visited the Aya Sofia (Hagia Sofia) and the Blue Mosque today. I wished I had brought a scarf to put over my head since a scarf and long skirt are preferred when you go in, but, seeing as we were tourists, no one seemed to say anything about my black hoodie. oops... oh well. Other than, the turkish salesman who continue to bombard us on the street to eat in their restaurants or buy their carpets, things seem to be nice in Turkey. We are staying at at lovely hotel and they have internet access which kevin is enjoying. And... I guess I am too. The weather is as cold as London, brrr....  One great thing is that we can see the blue mosque from the balcony in our teeny tiny room. So, I'm taking pictures of it at all times of the day to see what turns out the best. Anyways,... more updates on their way later.

Today's yummy eats included Kevin's first chicken kebab, rice pudding, and baklava. mmmm.... I also had some of their lovely tea that I am having a hankering for at this very moment.

We leave London tomorrow and I turn in my computer today to be shipped back to San Francisco. So, for my last blog entry (in London), I thought I would highlight our favorite memories here so that if you are visiting.... you might want to take some of these recommendations.

Our favorite destinations in London (and surrounding areas):
1. Hampstead Heath - We took the 24 bus that dropped us off in Hamstead, had lunch in a lovely cafe and then hiked around the lakes and observed the changing colors on the trees.
2. Borough Market - This was one of our favorite places to eat. There are so many vendors for food, drinks and desserts, you have to return multiple times to even sample a small portion of them. Try the Raclette (the best 5 pounds ever spent!
3. Climbing St. Paul's Cathedral - Some people may not think this is as cool as we did. But, we enjoyed going up the 530 steps to get to the top dome where you will see a 360 degree view of London. Go early because they close the staircases about an hour before closing the cathedral.
4. Regent's Park - In my opinion, this park is the most beautiful in London. I spent so many lunches, sitting on a bench people watching, bird watching and seeing the trees evolve through an entire season. When I came they were full of leaves, and now they don't have any!  Bring a sandwich here, or dine in the cafe. I wasn't too jazzed about the "Honest Sausage" restaurant there that had the worst veggie sausage ever. Kevin enjoyed his organic sausage though.
Most overrated in London:
1. Tea the the Orangerie: The  scenery was beautiful, but for 30 pounds, we expected the tea snacks to be phenominal. The scone was hard and  disappointing and the service was pretty  unfriendly.
2. London Eye: For the 15 pound price, there just wasn't anything particularly exciting about this. I guess we had seen St. Paul's Cathedral view for 9.50 and enjoyed that experience a lot more. Don't get me wrong, the view is great... but, I don't think this is worth the price. Luckily, (thanks to my friend from college), we went on the eye on a 2 for 1 special.
3. Tate Modern: We spent last Friday here and I just didn't like the building. It was so large and cold. It was also not that easy to navigate up and down the floors. Anyways, they had some Magritte's that I enjoyed looking at. Other than that, I wasn't impressed. Your view on art might be very different from mine and I'm sure that the exhibits vary. I enjoyed the British Museum, Albert and Victoria, National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery a lot more. I didn't visit the other museums.

Our favorite restaurants:
1. Cyprus Mangal (Turkish): This place is inexpensive and the food is good (especially for meat eaters). This was by far, Kevin's favorite place to eat. It was a very short walk from where we lived. I'm not sure the veggie dishes are as good as the meat, but, I never had many complaints about the food. Get the fried cheese! (Tube Station: Victoria)
45 Warwick Way, London, London, SW1V 1QS
2. Ping Pong Dim Sum (Chinese): Kevin and I met for lunch about once a week and ate here. There dim sum was cooked when you ordered it, so it was always fresh and the lychee tea was SOOO good. It is also pretty inexpensive.
There are multiple locations, but, we always went to the one in Oxford Circus. (Tube Station: Oxford Circus)
45 Great Marlborough Street
3. The Real Greek (Greek): Their slouvaki was sooo good.(Tube Station: Old Street)
4. Indian Restaurants: I can't select just one, but, we did enjoy going to Masala Zone (multiple locations), Diwani Bhel Poori House (on Drummond St. near the Warren St. Tube) and Ragam (Cleveland St.). I'll miss the South Indian Food.
5. Pret A Manger: You can't miss them in London. They are the standard fast and cheap sandwich, soup, salad place for take-out. Kevin loved their chocolate croissants. I enjoyed all the soups and sandwiches I had there for lunch.

Today was a normal work day here in London, but, both Kevin and myself didn't go to the office. I worked this morning, but, seeing as it was our American holiday, it didn't seem right to go to the office.  With only two days left here in London, we had our last lunch at Pret A Manger (the sandwich shop that you will see everywhere in London). I don't think I've talked about this place, but, I eat here 1-2 times a week for lunch. My favorite sandwich is a posh cheddar sandwich with red onions, and some kind of roasted tomato relish in a baguette. I love it and will definitely miss having this sandwich place so close to work.

In the evening, we had dinner reservations at an American BBQ restaurant called "Bodean's" that was serving an American Thankgiving. We've been pretty excited about this meal since I booked the reservation for five of us last week. We joined up with some new friends that we met a few weekends ago and Kevin's co-worker. I think we were all grateful to be amongst Americans on this day and have a real turkey dinner. We each had a salad to start. The salad was followed by Turkey, Ham, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, stuffing and a large helping of onion gravy. The portions weren't the "all you can eat" that we are used to, but, I think we all came away pretty happy. The meal ended with an excellent pumpkin pie. During dinner, we talked about missing cranberry sauce and the green bean casserole, but, everyone seemed to agree that the food was very good and very traditional. Ah... happy tummies. :)  It was also fun to get to know new friends. We are also going to be able to offload some of our London purchases on our new friends since they are here permanently. So, we are leaving them with our DVD player and coffee maker. I'm just glad they are going to a good home.

Happy Thankgiving everyone! We hope your meals were as tasty as ours! One more day and we'll be leaving London. This blog will most likely go silent for a while after maybe one more entry tomorrow.

Yes... I really did eat a snake today, or a sea snake that is... As many of you know, I'm terrified of snakes. That last statement is even an understatement of my fear of snakes. I have a phobia like no one can imagine where the mention of the slithery evil devils will get me to jump out of my seat. Forget pictures or even stuffed toy snakes. Anyways, you are probably wondering where I ate this sea snake... eel, of course. Kevin and I went to our much anticipated lunch at Gordon Ramsay's Claridge's. This is now one of only two Michelin starred restaurants that we have eaten at. We both had the three course lunch. The choices for appetizers were (highly paraphrazed because I don't remember most of the details:

1) Smoked Eel soup with a poached egg.
2) Fish with a horseradish creme fresh
3) Something with poultry and fois gras

Of these three, 1 and 2 fit into my chosen dietary restrictions. So, I had the choice of eating a sea snake, or taking a risk on anything flavored with horseradish, which I HATE. You now know how much I hate horseradish since I chose to take a risk on the smoked eel, than try the second appetizer which I was pretty sure I wouldn't appreciate.  Before the first course came, I have to admit, I was a little nervous that it would still look like an eel which would making eating the dish out of the question. Kevin went for appetizer #2.

All in all, my smoked eel soup was really quite lovely. I don't have super positive feelings about it though just because I know I was eating chunks of an animal that  looked  like a snake. 

Overall, we came away from the meal feeling so stuffed that someone could have popped our ballooning stomachs, but, we were happy. The atmosphere and service at Claridge's was just about perfect. I wish I had cared for the lunch choices more. My main was Cod with spinach and a side of barley risotto. It was good, but, not in the top 10 of fish dishes that I have had. After eating the risotto, I thought I had injested a stick of butter. But, we definitely had some highlights of our meal.

My highlight:  The complimentary starter which was a carrot, coriander soup which had some wild mushrooms from the South of France. I loved this. I also enjoyed the final dessert they brought which was a small ball of pistachio ice cream rolled in some kind of nutty casing. mmm....

Kevin's highlight: His dessert which was a pear and apple crumble baked to perfection.

Cool factor: They brought two choices of butter with our bread: salted butter and unsalted butter. I don't think I have ever been given a choice. That was very cool!

As we walked out of the restaurant, we noticed that people were having afternoon tea in their cocktail, sitting lounge. This looked fantastic. There was live music playing with a piano and cello that sounded fantastic. I had a new love for the cello after hearing it here.

We have a mere four days left here in London and it hasn't really stopped raining for two days! I think we'll be happy to escape the cold and rain and hope for the best weather in our other destination cities. Unfortunately, there seems to be a massive strike in France and most of the trains and buses aren't running. Even teachers and other civil servants are striking now. According to the BBC, even the airports are experiencing delays and cancellations! As many of you know, we'll be heading to Paris on November 30, so we are hoping and praying that the strike is over. Sure, its exciting to be a part of international news, but... this could really damper our plans. I was looking forward to another city of wonderful underground trains.

Before we leave town, we've got a few exciting plans to finish off. We are going to Gordon Ramsey's Claridge's Restaurant tomorrow for lunch. This is a one star Michellin restaurant, so, we are hoping for some good grub. Hopefully, the prix fixe menu won't have main dish choices of turkey, pork, chicken , rabbit or more meat :(  You never can tell.  Then, on Thursday, we've got Thanksgiving dinner plans at a restaurant called Bodean's which is your typical American BBQ restaurant. I know, I know... we should be eating non-American when we are abroad... but, its Thanksgiving!  Kevin and I are both excited about the prospect of sharing thanksgiving with a few other Americans that we met a few weekends ago and a coworker. The menu for that evening sounds like all of the traditional fixings including Turkey, Pumpkin Pie, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, etc.

While the hubby was slaving away on the iPhone activation issues, I was frolicking in Leeds to check out Leeds Castle. It was a 1.5 hour bus ride from London's Victoria station.

Leed's Castle

I walked through the castle with an interesting audio tour and then toured the Maze, the beautiful grounds, the aviary and the cafe.

Room in Leed's Castle

This is one of the more modern rooms used by the last private owner Lady Baillie who is actually an American descendant of the Whitney family.

One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing the Aviary. I didn't think seeing birds in cages would be so fun, but, when I saw these cute Toucans (they had 3 of them), I loved it! I watched these Toucans for at least 10 minutes. Their feathers seemed so soft and their coloring was so perfect... just like a cuddly stuffed animal!

A Live Toucan (from Brazil)