La Côte d'Azur For the first bank holiday weekend of the summer four girlfriends and I planned a trip to the French Riviera. I have no idea why it took me so long to get back to France (my last visit was to Paris in July 2005) but it was wonderful to be there again. The crepes, the wine, le fromage, the shopping, the sunshine, and of course the glamour and beauty of the Cote d'Azur....magnifique! Although it is still early in the season, the weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend and we spent as much time as possible on the [View Full Entry]

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I flew to Madrid last weekend to meet up with my Dad who had been traveling through Spain for the past few weeks. I convinced a few of my friends to come along as well so the weekend was a nice balance between culture and museums in Toledo and partying until the wee hours in Madrid. I spent Saturday with my Dad in Toledo. We took a bus from Madrid very early in the morning (it takes about 50 minutes by bus; we would have taken the high-speed train but it wasn't running that early) to get there in time to [View Full Entry]

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Last week I attended the destination wedding of two dear friends in lovely St. Lucia, an island in the Eastern Caribbean. We flew into the international airport in the south and took a helicopter north to the opposite end of the island where we were staying in Rodney Bay. After months of dreary London winter, the sun, sand and tropical drinks were almost too good to be true... For days on end our most difficult decision was whether to stay by the pool or walk down the street to the beach. And whether to order a pina colada, banana lady or [View Full Entry]

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Easter Weekend in Istanbul In England, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays so my friends and I happily took advantage of the four day weekend with a trip to Istanbul. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia and the site of a formerly great and powerful empire, Istanbul is a fascinating mix of east and west, old and new. As far as the cultural experiences on offer, Istanbul surpassed my expectations - the harem rooms in Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and the Whirling Dervishes were all worth the flight alone. I was a bit surprised though by the [View Full Entry]

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Snowboarding... I spent last weekend re-learning how to snowboard in the charming alpine town of Lenzerheide, two hours outside Zurich. It had been exactly six years since my last (and only previous) attempt at snowboarding so I was a bit nervous but I had a wonderful and patient instructor who taught me the basics and then shouted encouragement and advice to me as I gingerly picked my way down the mountain (thanks Peter!). There were brief moments of control (I can ride the heel edge of the board down the steeper parts pretty well) punctuated by spectacular wipe-outs (mostly in th [View Full Entry]

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Ahhh Firenze. The history, the romance, the Chianti... I spent the weekend in beautiful Florence with three of my favorite people, Peter, Allison and Arun. We have a great time every time we meet up no matter where we are (Vegas, Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Charlottesville) but a reunion weekend with Florence as our backdrop was extra special. On Friday night we met up in the hotel suite/apartment Allison had reserved in a perfect location just up the Arno from the Ponte Vecchio - a plush three room suite complete with HUGE terrace ideal for enjoying a pre-dinner glass of wi [View Full Entry]

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When my friends and I saw that Ryanair was having a special promotion - round trip flights from London to Mallorca for 1 penny (came to less than $40 with taxes and fees) - we couldn't pass it up. We took Friday off and headed to Palma de Mallorca, the largest city on Mallorca and capital of the autonomous Balearic Islands. February is definitely the off-season. It only got up to around 63 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun but that meant the restaurants, hotels and roads were relatively quiet which suited us just fine. On Saturday we went to see La [View Full Entry]

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London is a bit dull and gray in January. The antidote? A weekend in sunny and warm southern Spain. A few plates of tapas, some vino tinto and the company of a good friend who just moved to the city were just what the doctor ordered. Sevilla is a lovely two-thousand year old city which has played host over the centuries to the Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, Moors and finally the Spanish - all of whom contributed to its character. The result is a unique and beautiful layering of architectural and religious styles. The Romans left behind an amphitheatre and other ruins [View Full Entry]

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The weekend before Christmas I flew to Kigali, Rwanda, to spend a week with Hannah and Garron. They moved there about 3 months ago and both have excellent blogs about their experiences so far: http://millescollines.blogspot.com and http://interestingencounters.blogspot.com. Kigali is a fairly large city with lots of traffic, a new mall, and new office buildings going up. It is set in a valley so at night with the twinkling lights up and down the hillsides and the balmy temperatures you could easily imagine that you're in Southern California instead of sub-Saharan Africa. I don't wan [View Full Entry]

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The weekend after Prague I went to Hamburg with more friends. Our goals for the trip were simple - to visit the German Christmas markets and stock up on presents and ornaments, drink gluhwein and eat bratwurst, and have a fun weekend. Mission accomplished. My only regret is that we stayed out so late on Saturday night that we slept through the spectacle of thousands of Santas running around the lake in the middle of Hamburg on Sunday morning. Check out the photos here. http://www.laufsantalauf.de/santa_galerie.php?start_id=0025&suffix=santa_galerie_2007 Some sort of annual Sa [View Full Entry]

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