Girly fun in the sun with Krista

I do not tend to go to the same place more than once (primarily because there are too many places left to see), but I just had to make an exception for Krista, whom I came to visit in Dubai earlier in December for a perfect girly long weekend getaway in the sun! I first came to Dubai with Steve, Anna and Mark 10 months ago on a VDay trip, getting a full touristy experience of the city. This trip was rather different, experiencing Dubai from a local point of view thanks to my lovely hostess/'insider'.

Our objective for the weekend: make it as girly as possible, enjoy the sun, and soak in the culture! I came at a great time for soaking in the culture, as the United Arab Emirates were celebrating their 40th birthday, and the country was VERY patriotic about it. The whole place was decorated in the flag colours: from every car, to every building. In fact, I've never seen to much black, white, red and green in my life! It was a lot of fun to be surrounded by it, as the first time I came to Dubai I found myself thinking that it does not have very much culture, and I must admit I was wrong.

We started the weekend with the most popular local activity - going to the mall! There are a ton of malls in the UAE, and this is where majority of the population spends majority of their time. This is also the reason why you can find anything your heart desires in the mall, from ski hills to aquariums. After the mall it was time for the evening activities - a rooftop dinner surrounded by Dubai's night skyline, followed by a beach concert by Bob Sinclair and friends. The great thing about Dubai is that it's well known enough to attract top performers, but small enough to put on an intimate show experience -- I don't think it's easy to get that experience anywhere in North America or Europe.

Day two was all about the sun! I can't express how awesome it was to lounge for 5 hours on the beach. I visited in the winter, so it was a mere 28 degrees on the beach (yes, I say it sarcastically!). I didn't get to experience the Jumeirah beach the first time I came over, but it was very lovely: white sand, crystal blue water, great view of the Atlantis, and a sweet boardwalk! The boardwalk was set up to host a whole bunch of cultural activities: singing, dancing, food stalls, a flea market, so it made for a great after beach activity. Highlight of the boardwalk - Krista introducing me to z'atars - a middle eastern snack of bread with herbs and olive oil, and my fave culinary find of the trip :) Yum! Our great day trend continued into the evening. We had a de-li-cious dinner at Zuma (that I've been dying to go to since July, by the way), and a spectacular/hilarious/experience of a lifetime night at the Cavalli Room lounge.

Dubai is not that big and you can do it all in a couple of days, so we decided to take off to Abu Dhabi for my last day there. Abu Dhabi is the capital of UAE and also the second largest city. It's about 140 km drive from Dubai...140 drive through a desert highway that's lined with Tim Hortons billboard advertising every 100 m for kilometers at a time...it was freaky! Krista later enlightened me that Tim Hortons is actually one of the most popular coffee joints in Dubai. Go Canada! Come to think of it, I think the Billboards worked, because we ended up getting Timmies coffee and snacks for our movie night later in the evening...Arriving in Abu Dhabi, we parked in the Souks. The Souks traditionally would be an outdoor market for spices and anything miscellaneous, but Abu Dhabi had its own version - a luxurious air conditioned mall designed to imitate the souk look. Abu Dhabi, although bigger, is not a business and finance hub like Dubai, and hence is more residential and traditional. It does have an extensive beach, as the beach is divided into sections: one for men, one for women, one for families, and one for Westerners (not officially, but that's what we gathered, as it pretty much meant anyone can go there and you can wear a bikini). Each segment of the beach is bordered by tall black fences, so you don't get a nice long beach feel that you do in Dubai. There are a ton of malls as well (of course), and the main Marina Mall takes up a whole island. We attempted to go there for dinner to enjoy the sunset views, quickly discovering that views are not a popular thing in the UAE, and opted for a resto on the bridge instead. Along with the sunset, we also get to watch a crazy celebratory procession that took place on the bridge: painted cars with giant flags, floats, people hanging out of the windows and shooting silly string, megaphones, music and a whole bunch of other traffic blocking antics to celebrate the 40th. 

My short but sweet trip was finished off with a lovely experience the following day. We ate yummy Thai food overlooking the biggest fountain with the biggest fountain show located in the biggest mall next to the tallest building in the world, and that's Dubai for ya! :D

Here's a slide show of our girly fun in the sun weekend: 

Dinner @ the Hilton and our lovely beach views

...and skyline views

Partying with Bob Sinclair

Jumeirah beach

Beach views

Celebrations

This is what I'm talking about when I say they paint their cars...their very very expensive cars

Partying in the Cavalli Room

Our romantic photo in Abu Dhabi

Lovely

The parade

Sunset sky line

...and after the sunset sky line

Burj Al Arab (I'm still amazed I captured the whole thing)

The biggest fountain/the biggest mall/the tallest building in one package

Lovely parting lunch 

East Coast Reunions

End of October marked 3 months since Steve and Anna have left London…It seemed like a pretty fair timeframe to give them time to settle in so that we can visit and crash the party (or join their Halloween party, to be more exact J )

This trip was a power 3 day weekend of jetsetting, catching up with amazing friends, discovering a new city, and re-discovering another. It all started at 9 pm Thursday night, when Mark and I arrived to Philly. By 9:45 we were at Steve’s and Anna’s new (an sweet) apartment, in our firefighter and beer boy Halloween costume, having welcome/catch-up shots at the request of the hostess.  The rest of the night was a whirlwind of meeting and partying with Wharton peeps, and our faves: fellow firefighter girl and the green crayon. I must say, the Wharton partying lived up to its reputation and Steve’s stories, and a food fight at 3 am at McDonald’s was a nice finishing touch hehe.

It was nice and early when Mark came to wake everybody up (classic Mark) for a day of exploring Philly. I have to say, that Philly pleasantly surprised me, as it is a lovely city. We made our way to the Wharton for ‘the best food truck’ Philly cheese steak sandwiches, followed by a tour of the Wharton and Penn U campuses, which I was very impressed with…plus we got some wicked cookies from one of the cafes there, which impressed me even more. The walk back took us over a bridge to a pretty river and a very cute shopping street, where Anna and I obliged to spend a couple of hours before hopping on our bus to NYC. Sadly we didn’t spend enough time in Philly to try the infamous Philly restos, but I guess we would have to save it for the next trip. I could petty much tell the food would be good by the quality of those cookies anyways!

I will skip over the painful bus ride from Philly to NYC, but I guess it’s all part of the experience :D We arrived to Manhattan just in time to get pretty and ready for our Peter Luger resos – the coveted steak place, a visit to which has been on our radar for years.  It is a classic American family resto in Brooklyn, with massive portions of steak and delicious greasy sides. I will admit that perhaps we have set our expectations unrealistically high, and didn’t walk out blown away, but nonetheless it was a tasty dinner.

The next day was the first day of snow AND the first snowstorm in NYC. Good timing there! It was also the day of our reunion with Mr Jay Shek and NYC Halloween party. Being weather conditioned Canadians, no snow could stop us at that point. Armed with an umbrella, Anna and I started our awesome day by going to the top rated raman place in NYC, Ippudo. I must admit, not being a fan of soups, I was quite skeptical about this place at first, but their pork buns quickly won me over. The place is so popular that it does not take resos, and it’s first come first serve. Anna and I have probably broke all their records by being the first ones to get seated 2 consecutive days in a row, which required getting up extra early and lining up in the cold. Now that's dedication to food. Also, Anna, we are so fat haha.

Part 2 of the day was all about shopping in Soho. Not a bad activity when slush is falling from the sky. NYC shopping was fab for me, having already gotten used to prices in pounds. ‘How can everything be the same price but in dollars?!’ I thought hehe. Our food destination #2 for the day was another Japanese place – Sushi Yasuda. The same sushi Yasuda where S&A ate next to Martha Stuart, and same Sushi Yasuda that I’ve been dying to go to ever since. Well, the sushi was delicious, and we didn’t see any celebs, but we had a funny ‘small world’ incident – we ended up running into the same group of girls who took a pic of me and Anna earlier in the day at Ippudo. They must be fellow Japanese food fans!

It was then time for Halloween party #2. More importantly, it was time for a reunion with Jay Shek, which was UBER awesome! It’s so great to see and catch up with old friends! This time around Mark and I went as a theme: German beer boy and girl (pretty much taking advantage of our unused Oktoberfest costumes that we dared not wear in Munich, on account of how everybody else was dressed in the traditional ones, and ours were from Ebay…) Steve joined the theme and Anna was ½ of the Hello Kitty crew. We spent the night Halloween partying in a local NYC scene, which was a ton of fun. The highlights included Mark/Anna battle for the glowing necklaces (Anna won), managing to take a pic with pretty much every single dressed up person there, open bar, and late night Korean (not so much for Mark).

I was secretly hoping that the bad weather would persist allowing us to stay in NYC for a couple of days longer, but the skies cleared up completely on Sunday to give us a sunny, cloudless day. Boo.  But I guess I can’t be greedy, as we had an amazing 3 days with S&A, which gave us our fix until we see them next in Hawaii (3 days from now!)

Here’s a photo album to capture our reunion:

The firefighter squad

Best costumes ever

Manna <3 !!!

Mark and Maria <3

Mark and Steve <3

Feasting at Peter Luger's

Feasting at Ippudo

The pork bun that won me over

Feasting at Sushi Yasuda

Halloweening: part 2

New York, New York

Oktoberfest!

It wouldn’t be a proper October in Europe without partaking in some sort of Oktoberfest activities. We decided to go all out and go into the center of all the action – Munich, Germany! The crew: 14 individuals with no regard for their livers: me, Mark, Vi, Van, Rachel, Andy, Nat, Cuong, Chi, Bela, Tori, Abby, Ceira and John. The setting: 2.5 days at the Munich beer tents. The outcome: one great party!

Mark and I were latecomers to the party, arriving on a Friday evening. Since everybody was spent from 10 hours of non-stop drinking, we decided to find our own party, and didn’t have to go far.  All the Oktoberfest action in Munich is concentrated around an area of (massive) drinking tents, surrounded by seasonal fair grounds. We were very pleasantly surprised to discover that all the glorified Oktoberfest stereotypes you see on TV are true: sea of people all dressed in traditional lederhosen and beer maid costumes, German drinking songs, 1 liter steins, pretzels, bratwurst and gingerbread hearts…the only stereotype that was not true is the das boot stein…it does not exist in Oktoberfest, or maybe we just weren’t cool enough to see it.

We managed to sneak into one tent (the name of which I would never be able to remember in a million years as German is just not my forte) and were instantly blown away by the atmosphere! These Germans have clearly been drinking for the last 10-12 hours, and half the tent was already dancing on the tables to a German band set up in the middle of the tent to play classic German and American songs, and of course, German drinking songs. We downed a couple of steins and took it to the streets to enjoy the fair…which was pretty much like The Ex, minus the children, as nobody was in a state to look after anyone there hehe. We enjoyed a couple of tipsy rides (best way to do rides, really), and some delicious German snacks before calling it a night, as the next day was the big day.

It’s a good thing that our friends have done Oktoberfest before, as they were able to teach us some good rules that kept us out of trouble. Rule number one: have a big breakfast, as you need a good base for a day of drinking beer. Rule number two: get up early to get in. Just because everybody was drunk the night before, doesn’t mean that the tents won’t be full by 9 am. We didn’t have wristbands that gave us admission into the tent, so we had to rely on a bit of luck and street smarts to get in. We managed to make our way into the Augusteiner tent after being selected by our server and lead in (the servers are occasionally known to pop outside and grab groups of people to place in their sections…I guess they are banking on big drinkers). That server was wicked – she even had some beers with us. Still don’t know how she can do that and manage to carry 8 liters of beer at a time all day long. What a talent!

Day 2 went something like this: start drinking at 9:30, make friends with people at your table, lose new friends because they had to leave due to being too drunk, make new friends with new people at your table, get joined by late comer friends: Tori, Abby, Ceira and John, get latecomers drunk quickly, have some pork knuckle, cheese and pretzel for lunch, walk around and get gingerbread hearts, drink some more, dance on the tables, watch people have chugging contests, have your last stein at 4 and exit the tent to join the fair, get more tasty German food, go on rides (not a good idea for some people, as some lost their lunch while others their phone…), aaaaand go home to get your beauty rest J All in all, a pretty amazing time!

Day 3 was pretty well a replication of day 2, but in a different tent, and we had to leave at 3 to catch our plane back to London. It’s also when I learned rule number 3: don’t fly intoxicated, it’s not fun. See you next year, Oktoberfest! Here’s a recap of our Oktoberfesting in pix:

Tipsy rides

Day 1: The tent. 9:30 am

First toast of the day

First stein of the day (still before 10 am)

Pork knuckle lunch...uber yum!

 After lunch steins

Our awesome server

Day 2: The Augustiner Brau tent

10:30 am...

The crew at work

Anniversary in Normandy

This post actually marks a milestone of a kind - the very first post in this blog was about our anniversary in the Amalfi coast, and this post means that it has been a year for me in London. It has been a year on October 4 to be exact. Lots to reflect on, but that's another post all together :)

We strategically chose France for our anniversary as it offer the best of all worlds: proximity, food, great wine, sights and atmosphere. We also wanted to do something different from a typical city break, and landed on the idea of a road trip from Paris to and through Normandy with an overnight stay in a chateau. The trip turned out beyond lovely.

We kicked it off Friday night with a quick 2 hour Eurostar commute to Paris. I have to admit I love the fact that we live near King's Cross station. It literally took us 3 hours door to door from central London to central Paris. It still boggles my mind how we can go from one world capital to another so easily - one of the wonderful perks of living in London. It was a nice night in Paris consisting of dining in a classic French bistro and walking around L'Opera strolling past Moulin Rouge. 

Day 2 was the official start of our 4 hour road trip through Normandy. I must say that I'm quite proud of us-the only time we ever got lost on this trip is when we had to find how to get to Hertz from inside the train station hehe. Having energized on pain au chocolat, pain suisse and croissant almond, we set off en route to Normandy where stop number 1 was the Caen Memorial - the biggest World War 2 museum in France. Normandy of course is the site of the battle of Normandy that lead to liberalization of France in World War 2, and the site of the infamous D Day beaches. Caen is the biggest city closest to the D Day sites, hence the location for the memorial. I must admit I was 50:50 about visiting D Day sites while on an anniversary trip, as Normandy has a variety of other attraction including Monet's gardens in Giverny, various sites of William the Conqueror such as castles and fortresses, and a myriad of medieval villages, however, visiting these sites was a very worthwhile experience. It is one thing reading about the World War 2, and it's another thing seeing the magnitude of the damage via displays and movies shown in the museum, and it truly makes you appreciate the peaceful living that we get to enjoy in Canada and the UK. The next site that we visited was Juno beach, where the Canadian troops landed for the battle of Normandy. It was quite impactful standing on this vast and bare beach, still littered with the remains of bunkers and barricades with a Canadian flag and a memorial to all the soldiers who lost their lives in the middle. The final D Day stop was the beach of Arromaches aka Gold beach that was used for landing by the British troops, which was quite spectacular in terms of the views if it wasn't for its somber history.

Our afternoon itinerary was more cheerful, and consisted of visiting Bayeux, an ancient Roman city that is now known for its beautiful Medieval look and feel and tapestries. This is where we took some time to have a late lunch of crepes and croque monsieur, buy some incredible and very cheap wine and champagne (i.e. going on a wine shopping spree bringing back 4 bottles and drinking 3), and checking out the cathedral. The next and final stop for the evening was our rest pit - a chateau in the middle of L'Isle Marie woods. I have to say that I loved driving through the French countryside (or loved being the passenger I should say, as Mark did all the driving except for the 2 hours that I did on our way back). You end up driving through dozens of small towns and medieval villages (each one of which is conveniently called out with signs depicting the major attraction), beautiful countryside pastures and forests. 

Our chateau happened to fit perfectly in the local landscape. Tucked away a couple of hundreds of meters into the woods and connected to the main road with a beautiful alley driveway framed with ancient oak trees, the property consisted of 3 storey 1000 year old chateau, a bigger 30 room guest house, an ex chapel, a dining hall and a horse pasture. I thought it looked like something out of a fairy tale before I even walked in, but seeing it on the inside and hearing about its history has impressed me even more. The chateau itself is family owned and is around 1000 years old, dating back from the times of the vikings. It has survived viking wars, middle ages wars with Britain and World War 2. In fact, it was used by the Gestapo as headquarters with Hitler staying in the neighbourhood chateau, hence the 'ex' chapel as it was bombed by the Germans. The house itself looked like it belongs in the Versailles Palace, with furniture from the 1600's hundreds and family portrait from 1600's onwards decorating the walls. Speaking of Versailles, the destroyed chapel was actually designed by the Versailles architect who used the chateau as his family summer house. Being a big fan of history, I couldn't help but think that this place was the best place I've ever stayed in...not as luxurious as the W in Barcelona, but the history more than make up for it hehe. Our room was actually a suite completed with a 4 post bed, a fireplace, a divan and a reading chair by the window overlooking the woods. The bathroom was probably the size of my living room designed in the cutest French white and blue country style and overlooking the grounds in the back of the house. We spend the evening in the company of 4 couples who were the other guests, being entertained by the hostess of the chateau who described its history, fed us wine, and organized a private dinner in the dining hall. All in all, I felt a little bit like a princess for the night. 

The next day we had our breakfast in a dining room that looked like it belonged in the Ritz hotel, at which point it was time to set off to our next destination - Mont Saint Michel. Mont Saint Michel is a small medieval town (population 41) and an abbey built on a rocky island situated in a very unique geographic position on the coast. The entrance to the island actually gets flooded every night with the tides and becomes clear every morning as the tides recede. The abbey was built in the 8th century and has been an important strategic fortification and a place of pilgrimage ever since. There are only 2 other similar structures in the world - one across the Channel on the English side in Cornwall, which is considered Mont Saint Michel's sister and is called Saint Michael Mount (how creative haha), and another one in Japan. This place is pretty cool as you have to drive through a whole bunch of 'in the middle of nowhere' to get to it. 

The weather was not on our side and it was nothing but wind and rain when we got there. But, thanks to our travel jackets we were able to brave both and actually make it onto the island. It was just as cool on the inside as it was on the outside (minus all the tourists that cram up the place) - narrow winding staircases leading to the abbey lined by cafes and shops to keep all the tourists happy, the abbey itself with its many halls, a church where we watched a sermon, and a pretty impressive observation platform on the top floor where one can see the ocean and the swampy tidal area around the island. What was also cool (but messy) is that the wind was so strong, that it was redirecting the rain water flowing from the roof upwards, creating little geisers of water with every gust. We got lucky that day as the weather gods decided to get on our side and the sky got clear for about half an hour, allowing us to see te place in the sun and actually take some pictures. 

It was then time to head back to Paris for our nice French dinner at Cendrillon in Paris (where Mark ended up having 'the best dessert ever'). The drive was eventful for me as I got to drive a car n Europe for the first time, and it was a manual car and I had to drive it on a French highway as well, so I was pretty proud of myself :) Eventful aspect number two is that we ended up driving on an empty tank through the city as we wanted to make the best use of our pre-paid tank of gas. The thought of being stuck in the middle of a main street in Paris surely gets the adrenaline pumping hehe. 

This is what our anniversary trip looked like in pictures:

Mont Saint Michel in all its glory

Chateau driveway

...and at the end of the driveway

Breakfast setting

Dinner setting

My pretend reading chair

The chambre

Exploring the grounds

Aromanches beach

Juno beach