One of the best ways to meet people here in Qatar is to get to know the people you work. Sure, you can find community groups of people from your own country, but work is the best way to expand your horizons. I am happy to say that I have friends found at work from the US, England, Australia, Netherlands, South Africa, Egypt, Croatia, Wales, New Zealand, Lebanon, Jordan, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Nepal, etc... Desert Camping This past weekend, a group of us work friends decided to do one of those desert camping adventures. It was 360 riyals per person (around $100) where they would take us to a desert camp and provide us with dinner and breakfast, a pool, and a tent. Thirteen of us opted to go for Friday the 13th. We met at ... read more

Jamie talked me into going to Dubai this weekend; it has been four months since I've been, so I "made the right decision" and hurriedly booked a ticket, packed my bags and left after a long day of work. I got in super later after the usual holding pattern at midnight - definitely every time now. Also, of course, our plane was parked at a stall, meaning a bus. Ugh. Customs took a while (I miss my e-gate!), and finally I got home about 1:30am. It was all worth it. I was able to sleep in until about 9 before we slowly woke up and caught up. I took a nice long shower and tried to find something decent to wear for brunch - we were going to a fancy place and usually the girls we ... read more

I was looking forward to today, especially since I saw that we were supposed to get snow. What better way to see King Ludwig II's fairy tale castle in Bavaria during Christmas time??? I knew today would be magical. Sure enough, I woke up and threw open my curtains to see a smattering of snow. I figured the hills would have more snow, but I was later surprised at just how much more they got! I took a quick shower and scurried to the train station to get there early enough that if they were running some scam or if there "weren't enough people" I could take the train myself; I learned my lesson from Prague. Fortunately, the office for Radius Tours was situated well and open right on time. I purchased my ticket and realized ... read more

Christmas Eve in Munich…. aaah…. It was a lovely day, colder than I was led to believe though! I walked from my hotel back to the main square for the last day of the Christmas Market to find some more gifts and enjoy the atmosphere. I seriously love these things. Most of you know that I'm not really a huge fan of crowds. They make me cranky. And this place was crowded. I got there early enough though so that I was able to get my food and drink easily. I got a punsch from one of the first vendors, who put some cut up fruit in as well as the alcohol. By far the best I've had. I next bought two sandwiches of thinly sliced pancetta on rye bread for my meals later from a ... read more

Chisco, Lordes and Luna gave me a ride to the Esch train station this morning, so I made my way back to Luxembourg City in good time and waited for my train to Aachen. I actually had two stops - Liege and Welkenraedt. The ride to Liege was more than two hours and pretty relaxing. Not the nicest of trains, but empty and had a couple of super hot young conductors! I arrived in Liege and was happy to see the things I'd read about its train station had not been exaggerated: it was mind-blowing! Absolutely incredible! Pictures do not do it justice and I bet in non-winter months, it is even more amazing. Unfortunately, my next train was 11 minutes late and I really worried I would miss my connection to Aachen. But it was ... read more