Travel

Wow, it’s been a long time again, huh? Since we’ve written last, we did Immersion III and two workshops in Istanbul, went to Bodrum and Fethiye for a week-long vacation, taught workshops and teachers practices in Lausanne and Geneva, and just flew in to Montréal yesterday for a couple of days off before heading to Toronto for a couple of days and then Vancouver for TT1. Phew, I got tired writing about it. 🙂

I don’t have my computer with me (as some of you know I only travel withe the iPad now; which I need to start asking for a commission from Apple one of these days), but I’ll figure out another way to get some photos up. Stay tuned…

As we ride the train from Paris’ city center out to the airport, it only takes a handful of stops before the epic architecture that Paris is known for is traded in for newer industrial complexes that are typical in the outskirts of most cities. As the heart rides high from a week’s worth of cafes, wine, and coffee, you can almost feel the warmth start to dissipate… that is of course, until a gentleman steps onto the train for the next two stops to remind all, why Paris is Paris until the very end – click on the link below to listen and enjoy!

Paris train

Q: So how do you guys like traveling like this?
A: We like it so far. It has its challenges like trying to pack for different seasons, finding good hairdressers, doctors, etc. in different cities, packing so frequently, but we chose this, and we are happy so far.

Q: Where is your “base” base?
A: We don’t have a “base” base right now, but Istanbul is the closest thing to it. I basically have my extra shoes there. 🙂

Q: Where have you been since we saw you last?
A: Probably Istanbul, Paris, Vancouver and/or Zurich. Or maybe Hong Kong, Ankara or Bali.

Q: Where are you going next?
A: Probably Istanbul, Paris, Vancouver and/or Zurich. Or maybe Hong Kong, Ankara or Bali.

Q: It must be a really cool life?
A: Yeah, it is pretty cool.

Q: Do you miss LA?
A: Sometimes, some things about it. We miss our friends, the food, markets, etc. We are happy we did what we did though.

Q: How long have you been doing this for?
A: For about a year now.

Q: How long are you going to do this for?
A: We don’t have an end date yet.

Q: Where are you going to settle when you are done traveling?
A: No idea. We’ll see where this takes us to.

Yes, I thought that would get your attention.

After spending many years in Istanbul, it occurred to me the other day that I have, in addition to learning a fair bit of Turkish, learned to speak “horn,” and here’s where this blog entry has potential to digress in a totally different direction!

What I mean when I say that people are horny, is that if you have ever lived in a city of 15 million people (give or take 5 million), you will agree that people use horns to communicate in all sorts of ways…based on my experience and observations while in an overcrowded city, I have put together a brief “Horn to English” dictionary… Enjoy!

Each category of vehicle has it’s own language so I shall separate them by class of transport. I will describe the action being emitted from the vehicle and follow it with what it is trying to communicate.

Taxis looking for customers:
Half a honk – hey! I’m a taxi!
One short honk – I see you walking and I could drive you where you want to go
Two short honks – really, I see you and I’m available
Two short followed by a double flash of the headlights – seriously, I know there are a thousand other taxis out here and you are still walking, so I can only assume that you haven’t found the right one… I’m your guy!
Three short but rapid honks – I’m fast, jump in and I will get you there in record time!

Taxis with customers:
Half a honk – watch out, I’m on a run, I can’t stop once I’ve started
One full honk – I’m a taxi and you’re a human crossing the road, you’re like a pigeon to me, either you get out of the way or I will run your a*s over… I’m not stopping!
One full honk at an intersection – I’m moving faster than you and if you can see the lack of concern in my eyes you will know…. I’m not going to stop, yield, or slow down!
One long honk – I was here first!
Two long honks, holding on the second – are you fuc**n’ kidding me!? Who parallel parks on a busy street at 6pm on a weeknight?!!!
One long honk AND HOLD – I don’t know what you 150 cars in front of me are stopped for… But if you can hear this, you will obviously take note of my urgent request and MOVE IT!!!!!
Two long honks AND HOLD – obviously you didn’t hear the first one…. Here’s another!!!!!!!

Regular cars (just average people driving around)
One short honk – hey!
One short honk followed by responding short honk – hey! hey back!
Two quick honks – hey you look good! Any chance that you would be attracted to a man that speeds past and acknowledges your beauty with the toot of a horn?

Well, these are just few of my horny experiences in a city of 18 million… I hope this entry has been informative and has satisfied you in some way:))

By the way, while writing this blog I have counted close to 40, wait… 41 honks!!!

Love!

After passing through Toronto multiple times, this was my first time actually leaving the Toronto airport… With an 8 hour layover and nothing to do, I decided to take the city by storm… or shall I say by stroll:)

With no idea of where to go, I thought a good way to start would be to google “Organic Restaurants.” (When in doubt, let your stomach lead the way!)

I decided to take the subway in since the volunteer at the information booth convinced me that all modes of transportation would take equal time… and he seemed to be a subway man himself, since he grimaced each time I questioned if a taxi or the express bus would be easier… When you only have a few hours, you don’t want to spend them underground looking at all the different subway stops, of which I counted 20! (yes, I took a taxi on the way back:)

Arriving downtown, I exited the subway station and consulted my trusty iPhone and since it does not discriminate between north and south, I confidently walked in the wrong direction multiple times.

Ok… Right here I need to insert massive frustration!!!!! I had finished this entry and then lost it ALL from this point on…. It’s so frustrating when all of your wit and intelligent phrases for the past two hours goes to waste!!!

Perhaps I was not meant to share my 8 hours of wild and crazy Toronto experiences with you?!

So, let’s change it up a bit… Here is a list of words that, like spices in a dish, are the after-taste of my Toronto experience (in no particular order and for no particular reason):
UNICEF volunteers, burgers, Whole Foods, hand made chocolate, very short skirts, more Whole Foods, Save the Children volunteers (across the street from the Unicef volunteers), Italian coffee, outdoor patios, manicure & pedicure (nice hands and feet are part of the job description), high heels – really short skirts (yes, I know I already mentioned it) – and small dogs, a cigar cafe?!, Stella x 2, taxis, a slight breeze, public squares (as apposed to a square public:), more Italian coffee, Lululemon (of course), french fries with a tomato and avocado salad (very eclectic I know, but I didn’t think I was hungry:)

Well, that is my verbal-Toronto-aftertaste:)) I had a great eight hours in Toronto, looking forward to our next visit – soon!

Chris

Well, we made it to Paris…
We are in the middle of an Immersion here right now. I just sneaked out of the room to do some scheduling work and I can hear and feel the joy coming through the door. It sounds like they are having fun in there…
When I left my technology job a year ago, I didn’t think I would actually be working this much. I thought I would be working a little, traveling, and picking up a language or two along the way… Not so. Although I did learn to ask for “coffee to go please” in a few languages. Useful stuff.
We have a back up of stories, but I’ll start with the latest: Getting from Istanbul to Paris. A simple sounding affair on a normal day.
We were in Ankara last weekend doing some workshops when the airports all over Europe starting shutting down due to the volcano in Iceland (I think with that name it will forever be known as the “volcano in Iceland.” How do you even pronounce it?). I was keeping an eye on the flights all weekend, but didn’t think it could possibly last so long. It surely would clear up by the time we fly on Tuesday.
Again, not so.

We got back to Istanbul on Sunday night, and things were getting worse. More flights getting cancelled, more stranded people, and no end in sight.

On Sunday night, I started looking into some alternatives just in case. South of Italy was still open, and so was Spain. I started looking into flights to Madrid; sold out. Rome; sold out. Barcelona; sold out. It was getting really late and we thought we’ll give it another day and see what happens on Monday. We still had a couple of days until the training in Paris would start on Wednesday morning.
Monday morning we woke up to a worse situation. I found a flight to Rome for Tuesday evening, but then we would miss the train from Rome to Paris since it was due to leave earlier and would get to Paris on Wednesday morning.

Oh, and did I tell you it was actually impossible to find train tickets anyway? All sold out.

Finally on Monday night there is a little glimmer of hope. Airlines are getting antsy and the test flights seem promising. It seems our scheduled 3pm flight on Tuesday might actually take off. We find an alternative flight anyway just in case. It goes Tuesday morning from Istanbul to Algiers, then from Algiers to Marseille. Then we can find a train ticket from Marseille to Paris. Good plan, though a very expensive one. We go to bed thinking we’ll check the situation in the morning and if looks like our flight won’t take off Chris will take the Algiers flight.
We woke up Tuesday morning at 6 am and start making phone calls and checking websites right away. At about 8 o’clock we decided to take the risk and cancelled the Algiers ticket.

At 11:30 we left the house to head out to the airport, still not 100% sure that our flight will actually take off. Needless to say the airport was quite crazy, full of people whose flights had been cancelled, who are trying to get on the first available flight leaving.

The rest of the story is less eventful. We took off with a 30 minute delay, and the plane took a longer route than usual (I think we were traveling pretty far south), but we landed safely at Charles de Gaulle just about 2 hours behind schedule. No big deal.

The point is though, I’m REALLY busy all the time now!

Here is what the air looked like as we were coming down:

And the airport was completely empty:

Last week I had spent one entire afternoon writing a witty commentary to Ozlem’s last post… and between previewing and saving… an entire afternoon’s work was gone!! Needless to say, I was all blogged-out and frustrated (and my coffee had started to lose its effects) …. and only just today am I feeling blog-ready!!

So, I have taken a seat at the back of the cafe…. I have my coffee on my right, I have Ozlem across the table (ready for spelling and grammar checks, she is hesitantly-ready to answer questions that are not immediately found on the screen right in front of me), a big screen TV on my far right (the Olympics are on and they are showing anything Lindsey Vonn – all day long!) , an unopened bottle of Pellegrino (next to my coffee), and some smooth Latin style elevator jazz music soothing the sounds of rattling coffee cups and tea spoons …. hey, that’s what inspires the blogger in me!

Yes… snow!!! We have seen all the snow that we missed while living in LA…

So there have been some amazing moments to write about…. Ozlem has covered most of them… one that she left out and that I wanted to write about was my shopping experience in Zurich….

Since we don’t own or carry much anymore… when it comes time to renew something like a pair of boots, it becomes an event that should not be wasted by just walking into a store and buying the first pair that you see! As Ozlem or anyone that knows me will tell you… that was never my style even before we gave up everything:))

I like to take my time, view all the options (often times in multiple cities); I like to build a relationship with the sales person; I like to know a little about the company that has made the boots…. then I try them on, take them off…. walk around… put them back on, walk around (sometimes outside), take them back off… go for lunch… discuss the pros and cons for the rest of the day…. go back the next day, if they are not gone… I try them on once more…. and depending on the vibe I get from the sales person… I either buy them or I wait until next time!!! Yes, I know… it’s crazy… but boots stay with you for a long time…they get scanned with me at the airport…. it’s an intimate thing! You want to be sure!!!

Finally… I found my store!!! Bruno e’ Moritz!!!!

It was recommended as a hip men’s clothing store that “may have boots”… it was close to the hotel so we decided to check it out before my afternoon nap (yes, I nap:)

As we approached the front of the store, I saw a few pairs of funky shoes and not much else…. the main part of the store was hidden behind the shelves that set the backdrop for the window display.

Once we walked in, I knew I was home (in the fashionable sense:) Bruno, a tall half-Italian guy with bad posture and a warm grin, walked over and said, “hey… you want to have an espresso… come in, sit down, where are you from?” He was AWESOME! While I browsed for boots and wool hats, several guys (all fashionably hip) popped in for coffees or just to say hello…. it was a mix between a neighborhood cafe and fashion central! It was great!

For everything I tried on he would say,”AH! That’s a really funny piece!!!” It took me awhile to understand that what he meant was, “that’s a great piece!” At first I was thinking… why would I buy anything that looks funny?? Especially if it looks REALLY funny!?

For each pair of shoes that I tried on, Bruno could tell me about the designer, how many people worked at the company, and how they were made – amazing!

After two hours and many espressos later, I walked out with my new boots!!!

We promised to return the next day for a coffee, which we did, and then we promised to return the day before we were leaving, which we also did!

On our last visit, we were met at the door by Bruno and his business partner Moritz… beers in hand and hugs’a’plenty!! It was GREAT! Bruno immediately asked, “can I get you a beer?!” I glanced at Ozlem for a brief second (it was early on a Saturday afternoon… it seemed early to me) and Bruno quickly turned me around so that I couldn’t see Ozlem’s expression and he asked again, laughing hysterically… “I’m asking you! Do you want a beer?!”He quickly ran to the back and brought out a cold one for me!

There was cool music playing, lots of guys (all fashionably rockin’) hanging out sipping on Swiss suds (although I think the beer was Belgian)…. it was an unbelievable scene!

As an American, the first thought that went through my mind was… “this can’t be legal!”:))

Here’s a photo of Bruno e’ Moritz in action, beers in hand and having a blast!!! It was great to be treated as a friend and not just a customer… they have something really special there…they obviously love what they do and they love connecting with people… and it shows!

As we left, we had to promise to return on our next visit; they followed us all the way to the street, waving goodbye and multiple hugs were exchanged before we hit the road, heading for the hotel!

It was a “really funny” experience!!!:))