Lisbon During Holiday Season

Lisbon is a wonder in the way they decorate the city for the holidays. I cannot recall a city that has delighted the eyes more with holiday spirit. In the downtown area, each corner you turn will reveal a new area uniquely different from the others. The picture on the left and the one in the post below are examples of what I am talking about.



It is interesting to note that Lisbon has the largest Christmas tree in all of Europe. It is a 26 story work of art that is breathtaking when lit up at night.

I have a fabulous restaurant to try if you make your way to this fascinating city:
Espaco Lisboa
R. da Cozinha Economica, No 16
Phone: +351 21 361 02 12

The temperature during the stay was very nice, typically high 50s each day and a few low 60s; very nice for December. If you are looking for an enchanting holiday experience then Lisbon during December will not disappoint.

Lisbon Portugal

I was here in 2002 for a few days and have a positive memory of the city from that trip (see photo gallery for a few pics). I am happy to say that this trip has only increased my fondness for the city. So why would you want to visit Lisbon? Well for starters the city is just beautiful. Many of the homes in the old town area are tiled with colorful ceramic tiles on the outside. The city has hills and in many ways reminds you of San Francisco. They even have a smaller version of the Golden Gate Bridge made by the same company that built the one in San Francisco. One other similarity is that they have trolley cars that look similar the San Francisco cable cars.

If you are a seafood lover, then Lisbon is for you. I ordered fish and it was grilled whole with the head, skin, and tail attached. Those of you who know that I am picky with my seafood will be surprised to hear me say that it was GREAT!! So good in fact that I ordered it two nights in a row!

One thing very unique to Portugal and Lisbon that I have to share is Fado music. The music is a singer accompanied by a few guitarists. Fado means “fate” and Fado music is usually the emotional telling of a story. The stories usually describe daily life and heartbreak. For voices to be consider good they should be deep and throaty, like a wail of pain. Most Portuguese love Fados and associate them to the word “suadade”, which tries to express the idea that you miss someone or something, or yearn for it; it may be the person you love, the street where you lived, or just the good old days. “Saudade” has been defined as “the presences of absence”. Last time I was here we heard Fado street singers and had a dinner where Fado singers came to entertain while you ate. On this trip I did get to a dinner where we had Fado entertainment - we were the only foreigners in the place. I was amazed to watch the locals in the restaurant. They basically stopped all conversation and eating and paid rapt attention to the singer as she spun her tale. Fado music is definitely not tourist music!!

Holiday Shopping Season In London

Hi everyone! No this blog is not dead - I just had a well deserved break from international travel. I did get the picture gallery link fixed and put up some pictures from trips taken prior to starting this blog. Take a look if you have time.

I just spent 4 days in London and am now in Lisbon. I think I have been to London around 5 times this year!! What a great city; very walkable, great restaurants, fun history, but SO EXPENSIVE. At least the conversion rate is down a bit from the summer when it was two dollars for one pound. London prices are like New York, but when you add a two for one exchange rate things are just crazy expensive.

The picture you are looking at was taken on Oxford St. at around 5:30 pm on a Thursday. Look at the crowd!!! I was getting claustrophobic. So the lesson is, don't hit the shopping districts in London during holiday shopping season unless you have a think skin for crowds.

Greg

Photo gallery

I have cleaned up the photo gallery a bit and posted the pictures from the latest trip. Check out how beautiful Prague is! I do have a lot of other pictures to post, hopefully I will get them up soon.

G

Budapest Hungary - All good things must end

Budapest is a much larger city than any of us expected. Both Prague and Bratislava had city centers that were intimate and walkable. Budapest on the other hand feels large and expansive. There are a few walking streets, but the main attractions are spread throughout the city and require taxis or public transportation. Not to worry as the public transportation is really good! The buildings in Budapest are historical, but really show the scars of WWII and many years of communist abuse. Prague feels like Disneyland in comparison. We did not realize till the last night that all the night life action happens on Dream Island located in the middle of the Danube river. We figured we were either in the wrong areas or that the city does not really have a night life. Next time I will have to make sure to hit the island to check it out. We did go to the Terror Museum which was very interesting. It is dedicated to the impact communism had on the citizens of Hungary - not a happy story.

This trip is now over and it has taken me around the world! I started off leaving SF and crossed the Pacific ocean on my way to Seoul S. Korea. Next was Cairo Egypt by way of Dubai (just a stop over), then the vacation started in Prague. My trip home from Budapest took me to Frankfurt and then west over the Atlantic to SF. I will have to figure out how many miles I traveled in all. As much fun as it was to see all the new sights, I have to say that after three weeks I am glad to be home. My schedule slows down a bit in back half of the year, so my post will get much more sporadic.

As soon as I can get pictures process and posted I will let you know.

Cheers,

Greg

Bratislava Slovakia

What a great find. This destination was added to the trip at the last minute as a way to break up the journey from Prague to Budapest. We arrived to our hotel at about 3pm and headed out to the main city centre walking street. The streets were packed with restaurants, cafe's and bars all with outside seating - I assume the outside seating goes away in the cold months. We noticed that as the evening started, the crowds changed as all the locals came out. The crowds were thick with people out having dinner, drinks and walking about. We had a fabulous dinner in a very chic restaurant (resonably priced). After dinner we ended up hitting a few pubs. We met some locals and before we knew it the night had turned to early morning. We got back to our hotel rooms at 4am!!! What a fun night. The next morning we were up and off to Budapest, I think next time I am in the area I will give this little gem of a desitination two nights. I would have to recommend a stop in Bratislava for anyone traveling the area. Make sure you hit it on a weekend night. Also be warned, that outside of eating, drinking, light shopping and hanging with the locals, I don't think there is much else to do there.

Goodbye Prague, Hello Bratislava

Well those few days went very fast. Overall I have to recommend Prague to anyone that wants to explore a romantic old European city. The crowds I complained about in an earlier post did die down after the weekend ended. The summer days were beautiful and make putting up with some level of crowds a worthwhile trade off. So, if you come here in August just avoid the weekends. As far as timing goes, I think four nights is enough to get a good feel for the city. Day one is arrival and a bit of jet lag. Day two and three is a lot of walking and seeing city sights and by day four you have seen all the main sights and can shop or hang out. The main city centre area is small so it does not take much time to completely explore. English is very common in the main parts of Prague. The further you go outside Prague the less English you will find. However, even outside of Prague most menus are in multiple languages.

I did get some great shots of the city, so look for the photo gallery to be posted.

Things you must do:
- Take the 2 hour segway tour of the city. The Segway’s are fun to ride and you get to quickly see the city highlights and learn a bit about the history of Prague. You can then go back and explore the areas that intrigued you in detail. http://www.segway.com/segway/

- Hike up to the top of the ridge where they have a small version of the Eiffel tower. What a view of the city!!

- On the way back from the hike see the Prague Castle - the church inside is a must.

- Have a meal with outside seating and a river / bridge view at one of the many restaurants along the river near the Charles Bridge.

- Eat dinner at Bravda on Parizska street! Praizska street is like 5th ave in New York, only much smaller.

- Sit in an outside café in old town square and people watch.

We did take the train to a small city about 1 hour outside of Prague to see the ‘bone church’ – 40,000 people buried there during the plague and various wars. They have decorated the ossisiary with human bones, very macabre. Overall the church was anti-climatic and not really worth the trip. However, getting outside the city and seeing some country side was very nice.

Right now I am typing this on the train ride to Bratislava in Slovakia.

Big Brands & When not to visit Prague

I am very happy to say that for the most part big brands have not overrun Prague. The one exception to this is McDonalds. There are more McDonalds here than in San Francisco! The McDonalds here give you something that looks like mayonnaise to use with your fries. The ingredients are mustard, herbs, and who knows what. Although it looks like mayo, has the consistency of mayo, it does not taste exactly like mayo. Either way I decided that I don’t like it.

When shopping in the city center you do not see much in the way of globalized brands. I find this very refreshing. Last year while in Singapore, I woke up and went looking for my morning espresso fix. Across the street I found McDonalds, on the opposite corner there was a Borders books, next to a Starbucks – did I even leave America? When shopping in Singapore you have to ask, what’s the point? You don’t travel half way around the world to soak up local culture and end up buying soap in a Body Shop.

For those of you that know San Francisco you will appreciate this next comment. Being in the city center of Prague in August is like hanging out at Fisherman’s wharf during high season! This city is so quant, but there are WAY too many people milling about. I would rather come here in a shoulder season when the weather is a little suspect and feel like I have the city to myself. If you don’t like crowds, don’t come in August! Once I get some more pictures up you will see what I mean.

Let the fun begin & photo gallery

I am getting so anxious for everyone to arrive. I am sick of spending my days locked up in a hotel room working. Tomorrow the gang shows up and the real fun begins. Stay tuned for stories and more pics of this beautiful city!

You will notice there is a link on the right for a photo gallery. I am sorry to say that the content and format is pitiful, so please don't even visit yet. When I get home from this trip I will clean it up and post all the pics I have from outstanding trips.

- Vietnam Jan 05
- Thailand March 05 (vacation)
- Thailand Aug 05
- Cairo July & Aug 05
- Current trip Prague, Bratislava, Budapest (vacation)

I took a lot more trips this year (Hong Kong, China, Germany, London x4), but am sorry to day I did not take many pictures. Now that I have this site, it will push me to document more so I can share here.

I will make a post once the photo gallery page is updated.

Subscription service added

I couldn't sleep last night, so I found a way to cure my insomnia by adding a free subscription service to the blog. Enter your e-mail in the box on the right and click the button, that is all there is to it. You will be taken to bloglet.com for confirmation and they will send you an e-mail with instructions on how to cancel the subscription. From that point on an e-mail goes out once a day with a brief summary of new posts. If I did not make a post that day no e-mail goes out.

Cheers,

Greg

Prague: Aug 23 - 30

Ah, the buzz / high of being in a new city for the fist time and liking what you see. I arrived in Prague a little over 24 hours ago. I will be working for a few days and then have friends joining me to start a one week vacation (Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest). First impressions of Prague are fabulous. From what I hear the city center is about as old European quaint as you will find anywhere. The walkways are crowded with people milling about taking in the sights. The buildings are old and historic while you find modern art spread throughout the city center. The picture above was taken on the thoroughfare that leads to the main museum. I am told that the outer lying portions of the city are drab and grey with lots of communism era built housing that is functional but without soul.

Cairo: Impressions, people, and negotiating in the markets

Egypt is fascinating. The people in Cairo for the most part are warm and friendly. There is a strong culture of hospitality in Islam; they also realize that their livelihood relies on tourism. I had one shopkeeper tell me “other Arab countries have oil, we have tourism”. On multiple occasions after a long negotiation I had Egyptians ask “are you happy?” They would work hard to get as much money out of you as possible, but in the end they did not want you to feel cheated. After a camel ride to the pyramids, the shopkeeper made sure we were happy with the experience and then asked us to come back to Egypt with family and friends.


Negotiating in the markets is quite an experience. Egyptians love to negotiate. They start high and expect you to work them as hard as they work you. When walking by the shops / stands they try everything to start a conversation and get you to come in and shop. Typically there is not a hard sell to buy something once inside; they just want you to look around. They show you things to buy and if you have no interest, they simply show you something else. This goes on until you basically walk out the door. I think they realize that it is all about numbers, the more that look, the more that will buy. I was in the markets with a Brit named Nick who wanted one of the chessboards that have mother of pearl inlay and are hand crafted. The salesman started high and the negotiation goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Finally Nick says this is my last offer, if you can’t sell for this price then I will go elsewhere. Of course there are a few more counter offers, but when the salesman realizes he is serious they agree on a price. After all that work he looks at Nick with a big smile and says “how about a 15 Egyptian pound tip for me?” A guy sitting on a table watching chirps in and says “yea, how about a 10 for me because I like your sunglasses”. We started to laugh and left quickly before they talked us out of more money. All in all, we found you could talk them down about 50%. One of their favorite questions to ask is “how many wives do you have”? I typically would answer with 7 or so, and then complain about how they spend all my money making me poor. How could I afford such an expensive price?

Cairo: Aug 20 – 22

I managed to get one free day on a trip to Cairo. On the last visit I got to see the pyramids, so this time I visited a few mosques and did some shopping in the street markets. The picture above is the Citadel which sits on a hill in Old Islamic Cairo. There are ancient roman aqueducts that actually move water up the hill without pumps. It is amazing what the ancients could invent - I guess that what happens where there is no TV to suck all the creativity from your mind. One of the mosques I visited was over 700 years old and was simply amazing. I did manage to a get small movie clip of a man calling out to prayer from inside the mosque. The beauty of his voice with the echo of the chamber was breathtaking. I will have to find a way to post the clip for people to see and hear.

Seoul South Korea: Aug 17 - 19

I flew out to Seoul to do a presentation for work. Sad to say I did not get to see much of Seoul as I was working the entire time. Did you know that Seoul is the largest city in the world if you only count the city limits and eliminate the outer lying suburbs? 14 million people live, work and play there!!!

Thailand: July 19 - Aug 1

I managed to get to Thailand twice this year, once for holiday and once for work – Wahooo! This trip was for work, but I did manage to get in a few free days!! I took the above picture outside one of the 33,000 temples (Wats) in Thailand. They have more temples than we have Starbucks! We were there over the Buddhists Lent holiday. It is a national holiday and everyone goes out to the temples donating food to the monks to help them through the rainy season. To give donations at temple is called 'making merit', think of it like deposits in the big karma bank. What an amazing experience.

Starting a blog to share pics and travel news

I have been thinking about this for some time. In fact I have researched it a few times, but have never manged to pull the trigger. Well here it is, the offical blog to upload pics and thoughts from my travels.

Please post comments as you see fit.

(Posted from room in Prague during a break from real work)

Greg