A little something to make you smile

Where the Hell is Matt?
I haven't posted a video in a while and this one is a gem!

Plane Karma

What is up with me and air travel? Lately we just don't seem to mix. I'm writing from the great state of Florida, when I should be in California, and thankfully I narrowly escaped spending the night in Ohio. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, on my 8 hour flight from Geneva to Newark, I sat next to a CRAZY man. He was yelling at me, at the flight attendants, complaining about everything, and even physically crawling over me before I had a chance to move out of his way. And this was all before we took off!!! In between his yelling, he wouldn't stop talking to me. He was drilling me about who was responsible for the Cubin missile crisis, what I though of the Carter administration, and other random thoughts. He was hands-down the WORST seat-mate I have ever had on a flight.

In a desperate move to get away from him, I had to physically move a lady's coat off an adjacent empty seat (she was trying to stake out 3 seats in the row next to us) and with the sweetest smile I could muster, I said "Hi, I hope you don't mind sharing your row, but this way we can all spread out." She minded, but I wasn't going back!

My connecting flight was better, for a while. Oh, things started off well. I sat next to a pilot who lived in Munich for a while and had been working for Continental for a few years. He was very nice, good conversation (but not too much), and best of all he wasn’t yelling at me about Jimmy Carter.

We reached Ft. Lauderdale on time, but I noticed we had circled the airport an awful lot. My pilot neighbor noticed this too. Turns out that our fearless leader, George W. was in town rallying the vote and his plane was late taking off. He was SO LATE that we were running out of gas!!! We diverted to West Palm Beach airport, refueled, flew a whole 10 minutes back to Ft. Lauderdale and circled a bit more until George was safely airborne and we common folk could land. All-in-all we ended up two hours late!! My poor aunt & uncle had been waiting that whole time!

And so we come to tonight. My flight to SFO (through Cincinnati) was delayed for an hour and a half due to mechanical issues. Too bad my lay over was 45 minutes. So, for the first time in my flying life I was put on another flight, but not until tomorrow. When my aunt drove back to the airport to get me (bless her soul), she asked if I had asked for an upgrade for my inconveniences. I hadn't thought that quickly. I was just amazed that they could get me a window seat and somehow got my bag off the original plane and to me in about 20 minutes.

So, cross your fingers for me for tomorrow. With any luck, George W. won't be making any campaign stops along my route!

See y'all state-side! :)

Well my friends, I'm heading home to the good ol' U-S-of-A!

In a few hours I'm flying to Florida to visit my warm-weather relatives for a few days. I can't wait to see them! Then I'll be back in Cali late Friday night. I have a few updates, and I still have a blog to write about G's mum & Mrs. Floss (I will have to come up with better nick names for them!) who were here visiting last week.

So, first things first:
G's mum and Mrs. Floss were out visiting for a week and a half or so. We had such a good time while they were here and I still can't believe how much we did while they were in town... we visited 4 countries in 8 days!!! I picked them up in Zurich, then to Bern, Barcelona, Geneva, Vienna, Luzern, Annecy, and then back to Zurich. We really had the best time, but I don't want to give too much away before I write the official blog, complete with pics, next week.

This past week, in-between blogging and getting ready for our big trip home, I attended my Toastmasters meeting and a book club meeting. Both would have been uneventful, but somehow I ended up with big commitments for next month in both groups! My second Toastmasters speech on the 15th and I am actually hosting the next book club meeting on the 30th.

Now neither are that bad, but I have NO idea what I will be talking about for my speech and the girl who hosted the October book club meeting prepared us a Martha Stewart type dinner, complete with wheat-free dishes for the wheat allergics in the group. How the hell am I going to even compare to that?!? I cook WAY more than I used to, but don't be fooled... I'm a long way from being the next Martha Stewart. So, I hope I can put a respectable dinner together for the group, because I really do like them and don't want to drive them away with my sub-par culinary skills.

On Saturday night G & I went to our second Musical Chairs Dinner with the GenevaOnLine crowd. The way it works is you meet up with 70 other GoL people at a restaurant and everyone changes tables for each of the three courses. The idea is to meet new people and get to know folks you have met before a little better. It was a great night; we met tons of people and had a really fun time.

OH!! And the BIG news of the week (besides G's uncle driving his segway into a lake in Los Gatos) is that both G and I are proud new owners of Swiss driver’s licenses!!!! You are required to get a Swiss license within a year of moving here and my one year deadline was coming up fast. I had two issues in getting the license though. First, I renewed my CDL in March of last year, and since in California they don't write the date you started driving on your actual license, the good people at the Swiss DMV though I was a new driver (only driving since March). Second, I have a class B license (for driving fire engines) and they had no idea what a B license was. They thought it was lower than a class C, since B comes first alphabetically (I guess). But two trips later and with the help of an interpreter (my friend Mrs. Kofi), I got my license!!!!! Oh happy day!!!!! Then G waltzed in and got his no problem. :)

The hills are alive...

The main reason I wanted to visit Salzburg was to go on The Sound of Music tour, and since it was sort of on the way home from Munich and since G really didn't want to go on the tour, I headed off on my own to frolic through the hills and get a little dose of "Edelweiss". The tour wasn't so much about the real-life sights of Maria von Trapp and company, but rather we hopped from sight to sight where the movie was shot. I learned a lot about The Sound of Music, and most of what I learned is that the real story and the movie are very different. (I hope I haven't burst any bubbles out there!)

The tour was excellent. We were a small group in a little van and we drove all over Salzburg and the surrounding countryside. We saw the gazebo, the grand wedding church, the von Trapp house, the Pegasus fountain and stairs where the kids all dance and sing, and more. It was great. The whole time our little group was singing show tunes and snapping pictures of this or that. Now I have to watch the movie again!!

Since I had already gotten a pretty good overview of Salzburg from the morning SOM tour, I decided to go on an afternoon tour of the surrounding countryside as well. I thought we were en route to "The Eagles Nest", Hitler's mountain retreat just over the boarder in Germany. But I was happy to find out we got a choice as to where we wanted to go, The Eagle's Nest or on a salt mine tour. The two oldest folks in the van opted for The Eagle’s Nest. I went with a really nice expat couple (living in Germany but from Seattle, working for Boeing) and their two kids to the salt mines. We had to wear special clothes and then we hopped on an underground train that took us several miles into the mines.

The tour included these really long, steep slides made of wood. They were so long we couldn't see the end of them; they just disappeared into the darkness. We were given some safety instructions and told to get into groups of 3 or 4. Somehow I ended up with no group! I was worried I wouldn't be allowed to go, but then a really sweet German girl paired up with me after her boyfriend chickened out (I thought, Is he serious?!? It was scary, but not that scary!) We screamed the whole way down, but it was so much fun! We all wanted to go again. Soon, we got our chance with a longer, steeper slide. It was me and the German gal again... no way was her boyfriend going on the second one! It was a blast.

After the tour we picked up the Eagle's Nest couple and made our way through the countryside, stopping in a little town on the way back. After a very good, but a bit lonely, dinner I headed off to bed. The next day, after checking out the town in the morning, I decided to catch an earlier train back so I could have time to stop in the town of Innsbruck.

Innsbruck is a world-famous resort for skiers, but when the snow isn't falling (thank goodness it wasn't) it's really only worth a quick look. In two hours I got in all the sights and even visited two pretty interesting museums. But I realized the only place I really wanted to be was at home, with G. I missed him and with the long train ride, I just wanted to be back. When I rolled into Geneva at 11pm, I quietly unlocked the door to our apartment, kissed my sleeping husband, and was very happy to be home...

Although I couldn't get "Doe, a Deer" out of my head... :)


Salzburg, the town full of the tunes of Mozart and "The sound of Music"


In front of the famous "Sound of Music" gazebo


The Pegasus fountain in Mirabell Gardens. It's the site of the famous "Sound of Music" scene where the kids dance about before lining up on the stairs (just to the left of this picture)


One of the many statues in Salzburg's Dwarf Park (which also had a showing in "The Sound of Music")


Getreidegasse, Salzburg's colorful shopping street


Dome of the Salzburg Cathedral


On the salt mine tour. Me & the sweet German gal who was my partner sliding down a very long, fast slide that her boyfriend chickened out of going down!


Mozart is everywhere... even in the country


A wood "house" on the side of a country road


Innsbruck


Statue in Innsbruck

Cheers to Oktoberfest!

Last year G had a business meeting in Munich during Oktoberfest and I was in the US working away. I'm thrilled to say it was decided to have this year's meeting in the same place this time and I was able to tag along!

Oktoberfest is one of the biggest festivals in the world and the statistics are staggering... in two weeks, Munich gets over six million visitors, who spend over 950 million Euro, and drink over a million gallons of beer. There are over 100,000 seats spread out over several huge festival halls at the Oktoberfest fairgrounds, most of which are booked well in advanced. At the fairgrounds there are over 200 carnival attractions and people EVERYWHERE!

I took the train from Geneva to Munich and 7 hours later I arrived at the hotel. I had just enough time to shower and get ready for the big event. G's company had reservations at one of the many big tents that line the Oktoberfest fairgrounds at the heart of the festivities. In no time, huge plates of food and liters of beers were appearing at our table. Soon everyone was singing and carrying on and really getting into the spirit of the evening. After several hours our large group spilled out onto the fairgrounds and made our way back to the hotel. It was quite a night!

The next day G had to work so I decided to spend a somber afternoon at Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, which is about 45 minutes outside of Munich. It was a very moving experience and even though I planned on spending only a couple of hours there, I ended up visiting for almost 5 hours. That night we took it easy and had a quiet evening.

The next day we went on a Mike's Bikes tour around Munich. One guy in our group could barely stay on his bike and was all over the road, crashing into cars and almost running several pedestrians down. I'm taking a wild guess to say he has never been on a bike before, but it's just a guess. We rode through the English Garden, which was, let's just say, very interesting. No, I'm not talking about the surfers who take turns surfing the river in the park, but the folks who take advantage of the "clothing optional" rule. You see all these families with kids and then a naked guy! Then a bunch of naked guys and gals, most of which were not all that attractive. But I wasn't looking too close, so I'm not sure on that one. After a beer at the beer garden and then riding past some more naked people, our bike-challenged friend was really having quite a time staying on the path! Good times!!

After the tour we went with about 7 fellow Mike's Bikers to the Hofbrauhaus, the world's most famous beer hall. It was loud, festive, and so much fun! We sang our hearts out while eating Bavarian faire and of course partaking in a beer or two. In addition to our Mike's Bikes friends, we met a really nice expat couple living in England and a group of Air Force guys (and their wives) who were in town for the festivities. Eight hours later, we walked back to the hotel. What a great day!

Saturday we visited the fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the inspiration for the castle at Disneyland. It was amazing, I have never seen such a perfect castle, gleaming white in the Bavarian forest. We spent the day exploring the surrounding area and marveling at the beautiful scenery. We headed back to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds that night, but we were there for the rides (best without beer). The 5-looped rollercoaster was insane, but really fun!

On our last day we went to the Deutsches Museum, which is the Smithsonian Institute of Germany. It was quite an impressive museum and we could have spent much more than the four hours we did there! It has over 10 miles of exhibits of all kinds, including a US Air Force helicopter and a real mining exhibit far below ground. We didn't have time to see even half of what was there. But we both had a train to catch. G had to get to the airport and I was on a train to Salzburg. I was going to spend a day there on my way home to go on "The Sound of Music" tour.



Now that's a lot of food!


Party in the Oktoberfest tent!


The iron gate reads, "Work makes you free" at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial


Surfing the river in the middle of Munich's English Garden


Riding in the "clothing optional" English Gardens (yes, those folks are not clothed!)


On the Mike's Bikes tour... I don't think this guy had ever ridden a bike before in his life... here he is kicking a car to stay balanced!


Taking a break in the English Garden


Our new Mike's Bikes friends


Fellow expats living in England


Our new military friends


Just the girls


In front of the Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for the castle at Disneyland


Back at Oktoberfest, we braved the 5-looped rollercoaster that Rick Stevets calls "the wildest on earth"


G winning me a prize at the Oktoberfest fairgrounds


In a mine car at the Deutsches Museum


G and the mighty mitochondria (at the Deutsches Museum)

Out of Africa - part four (Nne): Kenya

After 10 days in Tanzania we were now on our own in a country we had never been to and our only contact was a nice couple I had met earlier this summer in Rome that work for the US Consulate. Due to a little mix-up we did not have visas for Kenya, so when we landed late that night, I wasn’t sure we would even be able to stay in the country! Luckily, the process was simple and $100 USD later, we had them (money talks!)

The taxi ride to our hotel was a nerve-rattling experience. We drove through the worst neighborhoods of Nairobi and the poverty and chaos were simply indescribable. Our taxi driver had told us to lock our doors, and we gladly did. There were thousands of people roaming the streets, police with AK-47's at multiple roadblocks, open fires burning, trucks speeding at us head-on and narrowly missing slamming right into us, and simply bedlam everywhere.

Needless to say, our first impressions of Kenya were not the best, but it quickly improved. The hotel was on the outskirts of town and pretty nice, but we were just happy to have a safe place to rest our heads! In the morning we had another issue we had to deal with. Turns out, our hotel reservations in Mombassa (the coastal town we were flying to in a few hours) had fallen through. Because we had had very limited internet access, we were stuck! The concierge at our Nairobi hotel made a few calls and set us up. He literally saved our trip!

Our taxi driver wanted more business from us, so we had arranged for him to pick us up. He was two hours early, which turned out to be fantastic, because on the way we visited the Giraffe Center in Nairobi, which is a run by a non-profit organization to save the endangered Rothschild Giraffe. At the center you can hand feed the giraffes, which was so amazing! They are so gentile and being that close to them was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced.

We landed in Mombassa and soon we were whisked off to the Travelers Beach Hotel. The hotel was beautiful! We finally had a couple days to relax. That evening we went on a dinner cruise on a traditional dhow boat in the Indian Ocean. The food was delicious and despite the brief rain shower (the band was playing Toto's "I felt the Rains Down in Africa") the evening was magical.

The next day we were off to Tsavo East for a day safari. This is the place of the famed man-eating lions of Tsavo (remember the 1996 movie, The Ghost and the Darkness?) and it's also known for "red" elephants, made that way because of the red soil. We left at 5am, since it's a three hour drive to the southern gate. Our driver, Kim, showed up in a converted safari mini-van (not quite the Landrover we had gotten used to). On the way we stopped at a craft shop near the Tsavo gate. We bought a couple of things, and then the shop owner showed interest in Gary's baseball cap. We ended up trading it away for a statue & a traditional mask, which may have been a scam, but we felt like we have so much, why not share?

We had a wonderful day at Tsavo, although we never did see any lions, man-eaters or not. Tsavo is huge and very arid since it sits on the edge of the Taru Desert. The dirt is very red and dusty. We actually didn’t see much of anything for the entire morning, it seems that all the animals were in hiding. After lunch we saw quite a bit more. The two animals we liked the best were the red elephants and these gazelles called gerenuks, which have very long legs and stand straight up on their back legs to eat. The highlight of the day was when we stumbled upon a secretary bird stomping on a snake and then eating it whole! It was quite a sight. The drive back to Mombassa was long and we passed through some places of unbelievable poverty. It really makes you think about all we have and how lucky we are. It’s a big reality check to see mothers scooping dirty rain water from the side of the road for the children they carry on their backs.

The next day we decided to take it easy at our hotel. We swam in the Indian Ocean, sailed in a traditional outrigger boat, relaxed by the beach, and laid out by the pool (yes, we BOTH did!) We flew back to Nairobi that evening, very relaxed and well rested. This time we stayed right downtown at the Hilton Nairobi (complete with metal detectors in the lobby). Somehow, they seemed to have misplaced our reservation! There were two huge conferences in town that week, so hotel rooms were scarce, but they scrambled and we actually ended up in an upgraded room… not too bad.

On our last full day in Africa we decided to take a day trip to Lake Nakuru National Park. They are famous for the millions of flamingoes that migrate through the park every year. The drive from Nairobi was also three hours, but this time we were traveling through the Great Rift Valley. It was a beautiful drive. We finally arrived and saw a lot of animals right away (unlike at Tsavo). The population of flamingoes was only about 25% of what it normally is (wrong time of year for them), but it still seemed like a lot to me! The lake and surrounding park was beautiful. We were lucky to see white rhinos and the endangered Rothschild giraffe (in the wild!) It was so neat.

We got back very late and we were exhausted. We had to get up early for our flight back to Amsterdam the next morning, so we stayed local for dinner and just took it easy. Our taxi driver from the first day was there to take us to the airport in the morning and soon it was time to say goodbye to Africa.

Even though we had some misadventures in Kenya, we absolutely loved the country and the people. We want to return, but next time for more than just 4 days!


At the Giraffe Center in Nairobi


On the dhow dinner boat


The Travelers Beach Hotel in Mombassa


The plains of Tsavo East


Gerenuks, gazelle-like animals that stand on their back legs to eat out of the trees


Red elephants of Tsavo


Secretary bird with snake at Tsavo East


Our guide for Tsavo East


G sunbathing


The Indian Ocean


Camels on the beach


Sailing the Indian Ocean


Our outrigger & crew


Welcome to Lake Nakuru


Flamingoes of Lake Nakuru


Our minivan safari truck


The endangered Rothschild giraffe


White rhino


With our Lake Nakuru guide


Back in Nairobi... a view of Friday rush hour from our hotel


Waiting for our flight at the Nairobi airport

Out of Africa - part three (Tatu): The Crater to Arusha

Day 8 - The lodge did not provide breakfast boxes, so we had an excuse to sleep in a little and have breakfast at the lodge. By 7:30 we were on our way to Lake Manyara National Park. Lake Manyara is a soda lake, with fresh water pools nearby. When we first arrived we were surrounded by dense forest and were delighted to see blue monkeys, another new animal for us! We spotted a giant kingfisher with a fish about the size of him in its beak. He was beating it on a log (breaking its bones) so he could swallow it whole. I could hardly believe he got it down! At the water we saw thousands of white pelicans, storks and flamingoes, as well as all kinds of other birds. We even saw four lions in the park. Lions are so rare in this area that Maiko jotted it down in a journal he keeps of rare sights. We were having all kinds of luck this trip!

In the afternoon we drove to Tarangire National Park, which is Maiko's favorite park in Tanzania. It was a long drive to the park, and our lodge was the southernmost (and furthest) from the entrance gate. We had to drive faster than usual to make it by six. We had saved the best accommodations for last, and when we pulled up to Swala Tented Lodge my jaw dropped, it was truly a 5-star place, right next to an elephant watering hole in the middle of the bush! We were greeted by the owner, while other people took our bags and gave us juice and a cool towel. We were shown around the camp, given a safety briefing (absolutely no going out of your tent after dark, unless escorted by the Maasai warrior), told about the power (which is switched to battery power after 11pm), and warned about the monkeys (you must keep your tent locked at all times, because the monkeys know how to work the zippers). How wild is that?!?

After a quick shower (our room was the nicest room I have ever stayed in!) we met the other guests by the fire for happy hour. Maiko met us for dinner, which was SO GOOD! We had great conversation, talking the night away. Soon, the Massai warrior (he carried a spear that was all business) escorted us to our tent and we settled in. I didn't want to fall asleep because the sounds were amazing, elephants, birds, and even lions (not too far away)! It was fantastic.

Day 9 - There are no fences around the lodge, it's definitely the most remote place we had stayed (besides the camping). So when Maiko told us that there were lions spotted roaming around the camp late in the night I wasn't surprised! The watering hole attracts all kinds of animals, like waterbucks, impala, elephants, and lions. On our way out of camp at 6am, we saw ANOTHER rare animal, a banded badger. They are nocturnal and Maiko said that this was the first one he had ever seen! It was about the size of a large dog and quite menacing looking. But they are shy, nocturnal creatures, so he didn't stick around (no pictures, unfortunately).

Not a mile away we came across a pride of lions that had a fresh zebra kill right next to the road. We stopped, but the lions must have thought we were too close for comfort. We watched one lioness drag the kill further into the bush. It was really neat to see them so close. Later in the morning we saw two male lions with a fresh buffalo kill. The "breakfast box" (and the lunch box, for that matter), were not the standard, packed in a cardboard box. This was prepared by the 5-star Swala lodge! We had been given a big wicker basket full of all kinds of delicious, fresh local food, complete with real silverware and a tablecloth!

We spent the afternoon along a river bed that was full of animals. We were stunned when a jackal, being chased by a female impala darted in front of our truck! We couldn't believe our eyes, but soon we realized that the impala was trying to defend its baby that the jackal was hunting. The jackal actually caught the baby twice as we watched; each time the baby got free, shook itself off, and darted away. But the jackal, and mama, were in hot pursuit. We watched until they disappeared in a cloud of dust behind some thick brush. We never did find out what happened, but I hope the baby survived. By the way, the male impala, who was there in the beginning, could not be bothered, and wandered off to find a bite to eat.

We rolled into the lodge late, at almost 7pm... that was almost 13 hours out in the bush and we were exhausted. Soon after another delicious dinner (with Maiko) I was asleep. I woke up at 3am to a really loud noise, so loud it was shaking the floor boards of our tent! At first I thought it was an elephant trumpeting. Three long, low, loud bursts followed by three shorter (but still pretty loud), almost panting-like sounds. I woke G up, and we soon realized that it wasn't elephants but a lion! This cycle repeated itself for almost two hours. The sounds had started on the watering hole side of our tent and slowly moved to the other side. It was the most incredible thing I had ever heard! I loved every second of it.

Day 10 - It was our last day on safari and we decided to have breakfast at the lodge, on a terrace overlooking the elephants at the watering hole. It was almost surreal. But soon, it was time to head out. We had a long drive to the town of Arusha where we were to catch our flight to Nairobi, Kenya. We saw quite a bit of wildlife on our three hour drive out of the park. I was sad when we finally reached the gate, I had gotten used to being surrounded by heards of zebra, gazelle and wildebeest... and being ignored by the grazing giraffe and being stared down by the buffalo. I knew I was going to miss the park, but maybe one day we will return.

Our flight wasn't until 7pm, but we had things to do in the town of Arusha before we left. First we visited the cultural center (which turned out to be more of a giant gift shop). Then, we went by the local orphanage to drop off the $250 worth of school supplies we had brought with us. The teachers were in a meeting, so we arranged to come back a little later. We still had quite a bit of time to kill, and I don't think Maiko knew quite what to do with us. So, he took us to his local bar, called "The Shade Hotel", we met another driver and all shared some drinks (non-alcoholic for the drivers). Once our school supplies were dropped off we were off to the airport.

The Kilimanjaro airport is located 60 miles outside the city of Arusha, which is located in the geographic center of Africa. The clock tower in the middle of town is supposedly situated at the midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town, and all points are measured from here. Arusha just recently got electricity, but the city is only powered 3 nights a week, 7pm to 7am. So after we said goodbye to Maiko (which was tough for me, I missed him as soon as we got into the terminal), we were sitting at our gate and all of the lights went out. We were at an international airport and sitting in pitch black darkness. No one seemed to care much and in about 5 seconds the power was back on. This happened a total of three times before we left. It seems that this is what happens when the airport goes from generator power to local power at 7pm, when it's turned on for the night. It makes you think about all the things we take for granted, like continuous power!

So, now we were in a little 50 seater plane, on our way to Nairobi. Our next adventure was about to begin, but this time with no guide to take care of everything for us. I must admit I was a little nervous, but excited to start the next part of our trip!


Lion paw print


In the Ngorongoro Crater, eating lunch at a lake full of hippos


Blue monkey


Lioness with a zebra kill


Hippo yawn


Elephants on the road


Hyena trying to catch a flamingo


Sunset


Our tent at the Swala Tented Lodge


Breakfast at Swala with a view of the water hole


Elephants


Tree right out of "The Lion King"


Common agamas, the males change colors


A superb starling


Elephant checking out a safari truck


Giraffes drinking


Mama & baby baboon


The local bar in Arusha where Maiko took us for a drink


The orphanage school where we donated our school supplies


A view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, on the way to the airport