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.