What happened to Summer in Frankfurt????

Summer in Germany has not been quite what I might have hoped. After spending almost a week away in two decidedly hot locations, I returned from Athens to Frankfurt to find that it was only 14 C (that would be about 57 F for you North American types) and raining. So in a matter of 4 hours I went from sitting in my bikini on the Mediterranean coast thoroughly loving being in the water to desperately wanting to stay dry and needing a scarf, jacket and umbrella to do it!

It's crazy. All of my colleagues here have insisted that last summer was perfectly gorgeous and they can't figure out why (besides the inevitable and most likely accurate statement that it's due to global warming), the summer is so miserable.

And now, someone has just mentioned to me this strange German phenomenon called the Siebentage, or seven day, which apparently is the mythical starting date of a seven week period of rain. Boy I hope that's not the case otherwise I might very well flee the country for southern climes! But as of today we've got forecasts for the next week that say it's going to stay below 70 degrees and rain every week! Yikes!

I can't tell you how much I'm missing that sticky July Chicago heat and humidity right now.

Mediterranean Tour 2007: Hot Days in Athina

The glamorous life I lead at work took me immediately from Istanbul to Athens. The last stop on my Mediterranean Tour 2007.

Although I can't say things got off to the smoothest start once I landed, due to a rather unhelpful meeting coordinator, Athens was pretty fantastic. I arrived from Turkey in the evening, hopped in a cab, made sure the materials were there for the meeting the next day and headed to the hotel, which looked out on the Mediterranean. It was beautiful. Only problem, it wasn't the resort we were supposed to be in because they hotel had been overbooked. Ah, and this was only the start of the hotel saga.

Meetings took place on Friday, no problem. Saturday I and all of my clients checked out of the temporary hotel so we could check into the main resort everyone would be staying at. Unfortunately when we got to the new resort, none of the rooms were actually ready. And wouldn't be ready until 2pm that afternoon. So we started the second day of meetings, which also went quite well, took a break at lunch to check in again. Only half the rooms were ready. So half of us checked in (not me), and came back with horror stories of the "Bungalows" they had been assigned to by the hotel. These stories included: bags of garbage sitting outside the door to the room, cockroaches, half eaten food on the terrace, and dirty floors for a start. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to seeing my little bungalow that afternoon. . . and sadly it didn't disappoint although comparatively it wasn't that bad. Sure there were bugs there (which my shoe helpfully took care of), but at least it seemed clean. The only problem was that they had misplaced my luggage and there were no towels in the room. None. But I was better off than most, and by the end of the evening I had convinced the hotel manager that I definitely needed to be moved by the next morning at the latest (which they did).

So I went swimming in the gorgeous lagoon you see here and I was happy.

The only other odd hotel moment occurred at about 1am in the morning after I had just turned the light out to get some sleep. There was this very loud knocking on the door and someone tried to open it. So being sensible I leapt out of bed (into flip flops of course because I couldn't imagine walking on the floor barefoot), and ran to the door where I shouted "Hello??" several times without receiving an answer. In the most comical way possible (although it didn't seem so at the time), I shoved a chair under the main door, ran over to the deck door to make sure it was locked and pulled all the shades closed before calling security. Which it turned out had been exactly who was banging on my door trying to get in. Apparently, the Greek guard who spoke no English had experienced a breakdown with his golf cart. Yup. This is my life. I moved into the main hotel the next morning.

The rest of the trip was pretty quiet, mostly sitting by the water and jumping in the ocean whenever it got too hot. We were in the middle of a heat wave in Athens while I was there. In fact it go so hot that they actually closed the Acropolis to visitors one day!

So I can't lie, I did absolutely no sightseeing, but I did manage to make it to one of the nearby islands with some of the clients. One, who shall remain nameless, kept us waiting for almost an hour while he waited for housekeeping to bring him a pair of flip flops (which he could have perfectly easily purchased on the island itself). A group of seven of us took the ferry over in the morning, we didn't make it to Hydra, but we did go to Aigina
and rented out scooters and rode across the island in the most amazing heat you've ever seen. It felt like we were driving through an oven, but it was amazing. And I have to admit that I lived out one of my long held European dreams: I rode around, in the hot summer sun on the back of a moped on a Greek island with a foreign man I hardly know. Now the fact the he was one of my clients is besides the point. His name is Jean Carlos and he's Italian and that's all that matters to me! :) That said, we had a fantastic time that day on the island. It actually felt like a holiday for a few hours which was nice.

I can't wait to go back and actually do some touristy stuff, but this was a pretty good work trip I have to say.

Mediterranean Tour 2007: Istanbul is Constantinople

So I made my second stop on the Mediterranean Tour 2007, Istanbul. Granted I only had about 3 hours to do any sight seeing, but from what I saw, WOW! Amazing city. The minute I got into the cab from the airport I could feel the cultures of Asia and Europe coming together. The contrast between the modern architecture and the mosques set down right in the city is incredible. On the way to the hotel, I sat and watched the freighters and cruise ships (at least that what I think they were) moving across the Bosporus. It was really pretty beautiful

Like I said only had a few hours to do any sightseeing but I did manage to make it to the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and the exterior of the Aya Sofia. The Grand Bazaar was, well, it was. I thought it was pretty cool, but nothing spectacular. It's basically a maze of enclosed stores selling every knock-off hand bag you can imagine plus a whole bunch of random local things (and things from India). There was definitely some cool stuff, but I think you'd really have to hunt to find something good there. And honestly I didn't have the time. But I did manage to have a cup of tea with my colleague Ridwan which was pretty fantastic. I mean, I like Turkish coffee and all that, but at heart I'm a tea drinker so this was pretty spectacular. They drink the tea in these tiny little glasses and dose it up with a lot of sugar. At least that's how I was drinking it. Very tasty!

After that Ridwan and I headed off to the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia. We made it inside the mosque which was really pretty. I had to wear a headscarf (bright turquoise I might add!) in order to go inside. It's funny, bare arms and shoulders were ok in the mosque but a bare head was not while in Israel at the Western Wall bare arms and shoulders were completely forbidden. Gotta love cultural/religious differences, eh?

After taking many, many pictures of the mosque Ridwan and I tried to get over to the Aya Sofia (the Catholic church that looks like a mosque from the exterior). Unfortunately it was closed, but I'm definitely going back to Turkey so next time I'll make sure to see it.

I spent the night out to dinner with an old client of mine, Gustavo, who's about to move back to Brasil now that his trainee program is over. He has been in Istanbul for the last six months now and it was fantastic to hear about his impressions and to hear him speaking the bits of Turkish he's picked up over the last few months. Plus, he took me out for the best brownie I've had in ages and it was overlooking a bridge over the Bosporus with a mosque sitting right at the river edge. So not only was it great company and good food, but it was a beautiful view too! Obrigada, Gustavo!

And that, sadly, was the extent of my time in Istanbul, the rest has been spent working, working working before I head off to Athens. But then again, that's why I'm here, right?

Mediterranean Tour 2007: The Israelis

So I have to say, on a separate note from the work stuff and the sight seeing and all that, probably the best part about this particular business trip was the people I met. All of the clients that work on the business in Israel, all of the agency folks from Tel Aviv. . . . what incredible people to meet. They welcomed me and shared their experiences with me. They let me ask all sorts of crazy questions. I learned more about Israel from them than at any other time during my stay.

The strangest thing for me about being in Israel was that I've never actually gone to a country before where they just automatically assumed that I was from there. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, who I encountered, just assumed that I was Israeli. The cab drivers, the hotel concierge, people on the streets, people in stores. It was amazing. I was just accepted as one of them. An odd moment to be sure. Coming from a country like America where everyone is both different and yet the same it was a bit strange to immediately feel a sense of belonging.

But the end of it all is that I actually feel like I left Tel Aviv with some friends to go back and visit. It doesn't really matter that they are technically "clients" because they're just fantastic people. I think this might be one of the best parts of my job, all the travel and living abroad stuff aside, it's the people I'm getting the chance to meet that make the biggest impact on me.

Mediterranean Tour 2007: Infected Mushroom and Haifa

So on my last night in Tel Aviv, we went out to the student night in Haifa. As we drove into town we drove up the main street and there was this incredible path of lights leading up the hill to a beautiful building. Turns out this was a Ba'hai temple. Just like the one that is outside of Chicago in Winnetka. It was so beautiful, I tried to take a picture but unfortunately I couldn't quite keep the camera still enough to get a good exposure.

So student night was unreal, it is a huge music festival held one night in the summer for all of the students who've just finished up with classes. My client was a sponsor so we were able to go in and check things out. The major band that night was an Israeli trance group called Infected Mushroom. They were absolutely amazing. And the crowd was unreal. So much fun to watch.

After a few bars that we checked out for work purposes (yes I know it's hard to believe, but really it was work, my client sponsors bars so we have to go and check them out to see how things look), I was raced, and I do mean raced, to the airport by a fantastic client, Yuval. Thanks to his incredible driving I stumbled into the airport at about 3am, stood in security was asked if I had packed any bombs (interesting to think someone might actually admit to this), and found my way to gate in time to make my way onto my 5am flight back to Frankfurt. All I can say is that it was a rough day in the office, but incredibly worthwhile.

Mediterranean Tour 2007: Jerusalem

Well, I don't know if I can truly, adequately express my experiences visiting Jerusalem. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am not the most religious of people, but still what an experience.

I spent the day on my own with a tour guide who was quite a character indeed (she was Jewish, a scholar of Christianity with a Masters Degree in Biblical Studies, and her cousin was Mayor of the West Bank). The first thing Ruthie told me was that she was going to drive me through the West Bank on our way to Jerusalem, right by Ramallah and through the Palestinian territories. And her first question for me was "You're not frightened are you?" To which I immediately replied, "No. Should I be?" And of course her answer was no.

But that was how the day started.

Ruthie drove me through the West Bank, where I saw the wall being constructed between the Palestinian settlements and the Israeli territories. We drove through the check points and everything. I have to say, what a sad state to see things in. I mean it's almost as if they're reconstructing the Berlin Wall right in Israel. It divides families, it creates tension between the two groups. It's terrible.

After that we made our way through the hills into the outskirts of Jerusalem and stopped on Mount of Olives to see the Garden of Gethsemane which was the garden where, according to the New Testament and Christian traditions, Jesus and his disciples retreated to pray after the Last Supper. Right next to it stands the Church of All Nations, a Catholic church that has a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before the night of his arrest. What's interesting about this church is that is clearly built in the Renaissance style and in fact was built by an Italian architect. Once you walk inside it takes a few minutes for your eyes to adjust but then you see these gorgeous purple stained glass windows. Really beautiful. I of course was surrounded by tourists from around the world with camcorders and flashing cameras so it kind of took away from the moment, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

After leaving the church and garden we stopped at an overlook on Mt. of Olives to view the city. Now, as I said, I am not a particularly religious person so looking down on Jerusalem was not a religious experience of sorts, but it was pretty awe inspiring to see this city that has been built up and torn down, conquered and revived so many times over the millennia. You can truly see the division between the bricks in the wall as the city was broken and refortified by each new civilization that took it over. From where we stood I was right above the largest, oldest Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem, where great Jewish scholars and rabbis from the 15th century on are buried. It is important for very religious Jews because it is on Mt. of Olives from which God is supposed to redeem the dead at the end of days.

After leaving Mt. of Olives, we went down to the old city of Jerusalem (less the 1 square mile in total area) and followed a group of young Israeli officer candidates into the walls of the city. I was fascinated to see these young kids, the same age as so many U.S. soldiers, in full military garb, carrying very large weapons and wearing designer sunglasses. It's just a normal part of growing up for them. I can't even imagine it.


But anyway, when we finally made it into the old city I was starving! So Ruthie treated me to a bagel (Israeli style and nothing like what you'd find in NYC) and this green herb mixture called Za'atar which has oregano, marjoram and sumac in it. So delicious. You can put this mixture on bread, meats, tomatos, pretty much anything.

If you want to try it out you can make your own with this recipe:

Za'atar:

• 1/4 cup sumac
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons marjoram
• 2 tablespoons oregano
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

Grind the sesame seeds in food processor or with mortar and pestle. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Store za'atar in a cool, dark place in a plastic zip bag or in an airtight container. It will last this way about 3-6 months if you can wait that long!

After my mid-morning snack we wandered through most of the major sites of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall (that's me in front of it), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where I managed to bash my head trying to exit Christ's tomb, (yes I'm just that talented), and I saw the Dome of the Rock but of course I couldn't go in because I am not Muslim. We wound our way through the Arab, Christian and Jewish quarters. It was incredible to see how the feel of the city would change as you moved from one quarter to another. In one street I felt like I could have been in Istanbul or Morocco (not that I've been to those markets yet), and down another there was peace and quiet. A totally different feeling every time you turned the corner.

The last stop of the day was at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum. I've been to the memorial in D.C. and it was incredibly powerful, in some ways even better done than the museum in Jerusalem. Somehow seeing the museum in Israeli made the experience even more overwhelming. Not that that I believe in violence as a means of resolution, but I understand why so many ordinary Israeli's feel so strongly about fighting for and defending their home. Possibly the most incredible part of the exhibit was the children's memorial. You walk into this very dark, softly lit space, and all around you is the voice of a woman reciting names and ages and home towns. The faces of the children who perished are floating in the walls around you. It's breathtaking and heartrending.

Ruthie told me afterwards that if you were to hear a name and you wanted to hear it again you would need to stay in the memorial 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for two years before that name would be spoken again.

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That night I went out to dinner by myself and dined down at the port. I was sitting there, just kind of people watching at this seafood restaurant I found, when all of a sudden this deaf man came up and plopped two little beanie baby type of stuffed animals on my table. I looked at him but he just moved on to the next table where the couple next to me practically forced them back on him. I of course looked at them at this point (they had been speaking English through their entire meal) and said: How exactly do I get rid of these? To which they replied don't worry he'll just come back and pick them up from the table. Well this was the entrée I needed to start up a conversation, which I did and they did and all of a sudden I was sharing their dessert and found myself with an invitation to visit Vienna from a UN political scientist.

She was fascinating by the way. Originally Hungarian she and her family had been forced to leave the country as refugees when she was in her early teens and had been stateless for a number of years. Her family ended up in Austria where they government ultimately gave her citizenship. She's been there ever since, raised her family there and now is doing analysis of micro-finance programs among Iraqi refugees. And her dinner companion was an interesting guy who had moved to Tel Aviv as a photo journalist. I tell you, the people I meet on this trip are truly unbelievable. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Oh, and before I forget, the food at this place. Unbelievable. I had a fantastic calamari and shrimp mix with this garlicky white wine, butter sauce, but the best part was all of the little nibbles they brought out beforehand as appetizers. Baba ganouj, hummus (the best I've ever had), spicy marinated cauliflower, tahini, and on and on. I could have just eaten the appetizers and salad and gone home there was so much food!

I spent the next day traipsing around the city and Dizengoff Street (one of the major shopping streets in the city and a mecca of Bauhaus style architecture! Did you know that Tel Aviv has one of the largest concentrations of Bauhaus architecture in the world? Me either). I ate the most divine falafel sandwich (which I ordered from someone that didn't speak a word of English . . . I basically just pointed at what the person had before me and said that please!).

Later I found myself back at the hotel watching the sunset and introducing myself to . . . . The GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA!!! Yep. That's right, I met Charlie Crist, the new Governor of Florida who happened to be in Tel Aviv for the 40th anniversary of the 6-day War. I, of course, had no idea who he was and thought he and his entourage were just group of consultants. But slowly I realized that if he was chatting up the King of Jordan and having publicity shots taken with him then he probably wasn't just a consultant . . . Anyhow, he was very nice, talked with me for a moment as we all watched the sunset over the Mediterranean.

I have to say that I have met some very random people so far on this trip: National Medal of Science winner, UN Political Scientist/former refugee, and the Governor of Florida. All in 48 hours! Who knows what might happen next!

Mediterranean Tour 2007: In-Transit to Tel Aviv

Well, on Saturday morning after a long week of prepping for client meetings and having what I think was a rather successful one, I hopped on a plane to Tel Aviv. My first visit to Israel, a place my darling dad has been promising to take me to since I had my Bat Mitzvah at 13. But better late than never! :)

But before I even get to the details of my first trip to Israel though, I need to share my rather random people encounters before I even landed in the country. I arrived to the airport with plenty of time to get through what I imagined would be rather intense security (which I was right about by the way, I haven't been given the full body wanding going through security at Frankfurt airport until now). After getting through the first metal detector and wanding I was standing at Passport control waiting patiently as the minutes were ticking away (they tend to hold planes for you in Europe once you've checked in and they know you're headed to the gate) when this rather frantic American woman in front of me started started asking the people ahead of her what time their flights were. . . She seemed fairly panicky, and since I was feeling pretty calm I asked her where she was flying and what time her flight was. Turns out she was also on her way to Israel so I calmed her down, told her there would be no problems and we started chatting, although way to through the second security control (and full body wanding), to the gate on the bus to board the airplane.

It turns out that she is a professor of neurobiology at MIT, but wait it gets better. Her name is Ann M. Graybiel and she was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2001 by President Bush. She does most of her research on Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's. Fascinating woman. We spent our time in line chatting about travel and studies. The challenges of being a new entry into the academic world (there are no secure jobs anymore) and what it was like for me living in Germany.

This was before I even got on the plane!

Then once I got onto the plane I sat next to a gentleman from the Foreign Service (retired) who had been in Israel in the early 1970s for about two years sweeping for mines. He was back after a career that took him to Singapore, Germany, Mexico and I think somewhere in Easter Europe before he retired to the Southeast coast. Now he was doing some consulting and freelance work to, as he put it, "Pay for the retirement home." He had great stories to tell (and he was greeted personally by a government official once we finally got to passport control in Tel Aviv).

On my other side was an Israeli guy who sounded like he was from somewhere in the Midwest, but was actually living somewhere in Canada. He had originally been from Romania but his parents decided to immigrate to Israel when he was just a child, so he had grown up outside of Tel Aviv and had the full experience (military service before college and all that fun stuff). We spent a fair portion of the 4 hour flight chatting about the fact that he would only speak in Hebrew to his kids. And even better, he quite helpfully provided lots of good places to get falafal and other Middle Eastern food delights. By the time I got off the plane he had completely reassured me that I couldn't be safer in Israel.

All this before I arrived in Tel Aviv, three fascinating people with incredibly different stories to tell. If this is the start, I can't imagine who I might meet next. . . .

Andrea Does Frankfurt

So last weekend my fantastic friend, Andrea, jetsetter that she is, flew in from Cairo for a weekend in Frankfurt before heading back to Lausanne for work.

It poured rain the entire weekend, but still we had a fantastic time. Hours of conversation over wonderful bottles of wine sitting on the balcony while the rain came down as the night turned into early morning the next day.

We even made it out to the Rheingau on Saturday to do some wine tasting with my friends John and Nicole. It was so beautiful, the sun actually came out for a while and we walked through the vineyards on our way to taste some wines. We went to this amazing overlook that had a breathtaking view of the Rhein River. I think it was a former manor or something. It was beautiful and all in yellow with a terrace for people to sit down and look out over the view.

After that we stopped in Kiedrich for dinner and they had the most beautiful rose garden along the river. This is probably one of my favorite places in the Rheingau that I've been to so far, although I still prefer the wines that Doug and I bought at the Kloster Eberbach to anything else I've tasted so far.

We spent Sunday tooling around Frankfurt, the first time I'd really had a chance to actually check out my neighborhood. Of course it was raining so we didn't walk around for too long, but we did manage to find a cute little restaurant to eat lunch in called Lokal Bahnhof. So yummy, I once again found my favorite German comfort food, kase spaetzle. Mmm German macaroni and cheese.

It was a great weekend. I can't wait to travel with Andrea again but we'll have to do it soon, we don't have too much time left before she moves back to the States in July.