Name the Place

If this rings any bells, please let me know where it is...

Warmish in January/February
Easy weekend trip from Munich (by air)
Photogenic city or scenery
Walkable upon arrival (i.e. no rental car needed)
Good wine aplenty
Suitable night life for 30-something year old single women
Tall, dark and handsome men*

*Nice to have

Yes, I volunteered to plan a girls weekend getaway and am looking for ideas!

First thoughts were Spain - Malaga, Alicante, Valencia or something like that. Italy or Portugal may be nice too but open to exploring any suggestions on or off the beaten path.

Posted from Cuernavaca

Looking Forward

I am back in Mexico once again.

This time it's a shorter trip. I arrived Monday night and will leave on Thursday December 3.

Unfortunately it has gotten a bit more unpleasant this time as the stress levels of many are increasing and the tempers are flaring. Frequent outbursts and shouting matches are becoming more common.

So, as I do during these times to keep my own cool, I take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Context and perspective are everything or you become one of the madmen yourself.

Fortunately for me I am looking ahead to a nice long holiday period to cap off the completion of another project. From December 4 to January 4 I am hanging the 'Gone Fishin' sign on my door, turning off the mobile and the laptop (for work related purposes) and taking a time out.

As much as I like my job, it's been a stressful year and with more and more frequency I have been getting ill and finding it harder to shake it off and recover. That means it's time to decompress from the hyperintensive demands of my job.

So what am I doing with this time off? Quite simply, spending it with friends and family. No exotic trips. No adventures. Just time with loved ones.

*Champagne Brunch and Secret Santa with my SATC Girls*
*Christmas Market Carousing with my Sis and her BF in Munich*
*Roly Poly Fat Cat Randy Reunion*
*Spa Silliness with Mom*
*Christmas in Connecticut*
*A Very Bavarian New Year's Eve*
*A Little German Style Birthday Gathering*
*And...Some Time with My Boyfriend*

Yeah, that's right. I said boyfriend.

Posted from Cuernavaca

Exploring Germany

It is always a little bit shocking that after four years in Germany I have still not been to Berlin or Hamburg. They are both an easy weekend's trip away but for one reason or another, despite several loosely laid plans to go, the trips never materialized. Therefore when a last minute offer came up to go to Hamburg this weekend, I jumped on the chance. It was only 15,000 air miles for the RT flight, hotel booked on points and 31 Euros for a Hamburg card for three days for 2. Cheap!

I was in for a surprise with the city as well. M. used to work there for about a year and had never liked the city at all so I had a negative perception of what it would be like under his influence. In fact, I thought it was a great city for a weekend getaway. I can't speak to liveability as that is always different than spending a weekend for a visit but I would go back anytime for a visit.



Guide books in tow we visited some of the main tourist attractions - harbor tour, walk through the city, gawking at the Reeperbahn, church tower climbing, a spice museum visit, shopping and dining and even the infamous Fischmarkt for a 7 AM breakfast with the crowds arriving alternately from the bars after a long night out and their beds after a good night's sleep.

Friday night we met up with a very fun and easy going bunch of expats who adopted us for an evening of tapas and great chat. Hopefully some of them find themselves in Munich for a visit sometime soon. It would have been nice to meet up with the Hamburger bloggers but I was beyond organizing anything as it was so last minute. However, I would fully support a WEBMU up that way anytime to come visit again!

I had forgotten how much fun an evening in an Irish pub could be and really enjoyed Murphy's Irish pub for some pints of Guinness and a sing along with the live music. In fact during the weekend we checked out four Irish pubs - there seems to be no shortage of them in Hamburg.



Ironically, we also had a good dose of Bavaria in Hamburg. We could not resist the pull of the oompah music issuing out onto the street in the Reeperbahn and headed into a large bar where the atmosphere could only be described as Oktoberfest-like. I don't recall the name of that one but heard many of the Oktoberfest favorites.

The harbour tour was fascinating to me. The flow of boats and goods through the Hamburg Harbour is really a rather impressive logistics operation. Unfortunately we got a bit soaked on the tour and the photos are not the best. It decided to start raining just after we left the dock and came to a stop only once we returned. Typical. Hamburg hair is a bit of a nightmare.



Posted from Cuernavaca

Away We Go

I rarely write about movies, which is kind of odd given how much I love the movies. Well, I love the idea of the movies. There is only the rare film though that touches me in one way or another, whether it be a good laugh, a good cry, a good scare or leaves me with something to think about more than five minutes after the movie ends. If a movie leaves that kind of impression on me, I usually buy it to add to my collection and enjoy watching it again from time to time. I don't own very many movies though.

Last weekend when I was sick I watched Away We Go directed by Sam Mendes and starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as Burt and Verona, an unmarried couple expecting their first child and searching for their own place to call home. I can't quite figure out what worked for me in this movie but work it did. I think it was just the right combination of sweet and funny and sad.

The music was perfect too, featuring Alexi Murdoch, who I had never heard of before but I ended up buying the soundtrack I enjoyed it so much.

I made it back to Munich from Mexico last night and am trying to get my bearings. I am jet-lagged, confused about the seasons and the weather and still facing a nearly empty apartment that seems hopeless to ever get set up and furnished. I had planned to do some furniture shopping today but didn't fall asleep last night until about 4.30 and then ended up sleeping until almost 2. Eventually I got on my bike, went down to Marienplatz to run a few errands and then came home to do some cooking. Homemade soup for dinner and banana-chocolate-chip muffins for breakfast tomorrow.

I'm up early for a bike tour tomorrow so hope I get some sleep tonight!

And it's back to Mexico in a week.

Posted from Munich

Heavenly...

I did something naughty.

I bought a Heavenly Bed.

I am not alone.

Hopefully only a few weeks until the first running dive into the bed...poooooooooooooofffffffffffffffff!

Posted from Cuernavaca, Mexico

San Miguel de Allende

Last Saturday, a colleague and I headed to San Miguel de Allende for some sight seeing. This town was really a joy to photograph. I felt the urge to posess the whole town through my lens. When I am in a place and I really want to see and experience it, I need my camera with me. It provides a connection and I find myself dwelling on the smallest details one moment and the next trying to figure out how to sum up all the parts into one special photo. Fortunately my colleague was indulgent and let me potter around at my own pace. Normally I can only do the kind of exploring I like alone; most don't have the patience to wait for me.

There were so many inviting courtyards. From the street you felt only like you were in a city but through the doors you could see the oasis waiting inside. This was a hotel we passed by and it took a lot of self control not to wander in. I wonder how they know how to put it together like this?

We happened to be in town for a special weekend of festivities. As part of that, around late afternoon on Saturday October 31, a number of mariachi bands started to arrive and soon enough they started playing their beautiful music, first one band in one corner of the park, then the next, round and round. The people laughed and danced. For even though the following days were for remembering the dead, they were also for remembering the happiness of the lives they lived.

These colorful displays of papers were hanging everywhere. If I understood correctly the different colors represent different months of the year. Mexico is already very colorful but these papers fluttering in the wind over the whole city took it up another notch and created a beautiful effect.

We came upon this lovely shop as we strolled around town. This mobile of glass humingbirds had me tempted as it looked so gorgeous against the sunlit courtyard behind it. The store was also full of tin star and glass lanterns, some so huge they could only belong hanging from a high ceiling in a dramatic entranceway.

The main cathedral in San Miguel. There were many to visit in town and we saw a number of them but this one was magnificent in the setting sun. The stones radiated a rosy warm pink as the sun dipped low and down below the people sat in the shade of the lemon trees listening to the mariachi bands.

Posted from Cuernavaca Mexico

Mexico Misery

I love Mexico. Since the first time I came to Cabo San Lucas for a week long girls get away to the trips to magical Tulum with M., I always enjoy the time I spend here. Over the years I have been to Cancun, Cozumel, Tulum, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas and now Querétero and Cuernavaca. They are all special in their own way.

There is always one downside. It seems inevitable that Montezuma joins the trip at some point. Not that you wanted to know that but there it is. The first time I didn't know whether to laugh or cry as all four of us on the girls get away were struck on the same day while sharing a very small hotel room (2 double beds, 1 small bathroom, no soundproofing). In the end I opted for laughing as each one dashed into the bathroom as soon as the previous could vacate. That trip marked the end of the college student cost cutting approach to vacations. We all have to grow up sometime. I want my own bathroom in countries prone to making travelers sick.

Then there was the time in Cancun when a hurricane was bearing down on us, we needed to try to evacuate a day early but didn't dare to leave ourselves in a situation where we could be more than 1.5 seconds from the nearest toilet. We made it on the last plane to leave the airport. Very Casablanca.

It was also great fun after being out of all contact with the rest of the world for a week when M. and I landed in the chaos of the first day of the new liquids ban in Philadelphia airport from Mexico and the wait at the checkpoints was hours long. Neither of us was up to that at the moment but had to soldier on to Boston.

We will leave out the 'surprise' business trip to India right after returning to Europe from Mexico on that occasion.

This time I am here for work but no exception to the rule. One and a half weeks into the trip and after enjoying mexican food, limonatas galore and maybe some fruit that was not officially on the safe list it was game over. I spent a crampy, miserable long weekend (thankfully alone) in my hotel room two hours south of Mexico City wondering whether I hoped I would or would not just die already.

As my mother said, why didn't you go to the doctor? Actually it was more like, WHY DIDN'T YOU GO TO THE DOCTOR! Simple. Do you want to have an error in translation resulting in a treatment that makes you worse than you started when in Mexico? Me neither. I am sensitive enough to drugs and rarely even take aspirin if I can avoid it. Today, I finally caved in and went to the doctor.

I asked him politely to please not kill me, flashing him my friendliest smile. Not sure he got that. Or maybe I had the expression of a crocodile. Anyhow, he doled out the drugs and let's hope I am on the road to recovery. It is a 21 hour trip door to door on Thursday night to get home. Crossing fingers for no new world crises, screening procedures at the airport, long waits in traffic, and trips to other countries with their own set of special critters in the food and water.

I am more than ready to get home. But would I come back? Yeah.

Posted from Cuernavaca, Mexico