Another great week in Istanbul

Last week I was in Istanbul to finalize some transition details of my assignment, for a team meeting on a sea island, and to meet with the VP of Europe to discuss my assignment and update him on our regional activities and new product launches.

Getting to Istanbul from Belgrade is always a pain.  There are two flights per day from Belgrade.  One leaves at 14:25 and one leaves at 14:40.  Go figure that one out!  I worked from home on Monday morning, and headed to the airport around 12:45.  The Belgrade airport is so small and easy to maneuver.  Therefore even a long wait isn't ever too long.  Saying that, last Monday was the busiest that I have ever seen the BG airport, and it took about 20-30 minutes to get checked in for the flight.

We took off about 30 minutes late (which is typical). I was travelling with my Serbian coworker, and as we got off the plane in Istanbul and got up to the customs area, we noticed it was ridiculous crowded.  After our 1h45m flight, we waited 1h30min to go through passport control.  After finally getting out to our car, it was almost 7pm.  We then began the long drive to the Anatolian side of Istanbul.  This drive took about 1h30min.  The driver took us to the wrong hotel.  Finally, around 8:30pm, we got to the hotel.  We were tired and starving.  It was a long day of travel, especially considering that Istanbul is only 500miles away from Belgrade and it was a direct flight.  Total travel time was 7h30min.

The next day we spent in the office, but the best day was Wednesday.  Wednesday was the day of our Q2 Team Offsite.  It was planned for one of the Princess Islands in the Marmara Sea.  We met around 7:15am, and headed to the Sea Taxi.

View of Island from the Mainland

Our Taxi

We took the taxi for about 20 minutes, and disembarked.  The island was very quiet and beautiful.  Cars are not permitted (for the most part), so the pace of life is much slower.  We had our meeting at an old hotel.

Amazing View from the top where we had coffee prior to starting the meeting.  Not a bad way to start the day.

Lunch time!  What a view.

The morning and early afternoon was filled with meetings.  I got to give a short presentation about my experience, and I think that people really liked my pictures and info.

The second part of the afternoon was a team building activity.  We had been warned to wear "active" clothes, and many of us were curious and/or nervous about this activity.  As you can see from the above pictures, it was very nice weather.  The activity was orienteering/corporate adventure race.  We were divided up into teams and given maps and a compass and told we had 2 hours to collect stamps from different locations around the island and to complete activities.  We were bushwhacking and hiking around the island.  It was very hot and we were all sweating.

Umm, I think we should go that way.

An old house that was a Bonus Question.  We had to figure out what was the Arabic number on the front.  We didn't know, so we just took a photo.

At the end of the race, we were running behind, so we ended up asking the local children for help.

We were running late, so we had to take a carriage.  Notice the cool hats and bibs.  We attracted a lot of attention on the island.

Our team didn't win, but it was a lot of fun anyway.  Afterwards, we walked around the island and then took the sea ferry back to Istanbul for a seaside dinner.

Our team after the event.  We were all quite hot and tired, but everyone had fun.

View of Island.  Apparently, all of Istanbul looked like this 60 years ago.  Too bad the city is so crowded now.

Our Taxi awaits

The next day was supposed to be our presentation with the VP, but his trip was postponed.  So it was just more meetings in the office.  But the nice thing was that my friend S and I won an award for some of the work that we have been doing.  I've been working here for 4 1/2 years and have never gotten an award.  It was pretty cool.

Thursday night we went out in the Old City and took some nice photos.

Aya Sofia

Fountains at Sultanahmet

Blue Mosque

We ended the evening having dinner on the Galata Bridge.  There were just a few of us, and one of my friends made everyone say how they would miss me after I left.  It was very sweet and made me feel great about this trip, the friends I have made, and it really makes me want to come back soon!

It was a good fish restaurant.  However, at the end of the meal, it looked like it was raining, but it wasn't.  We realized that they were sweeping the top of the bridge off and people spend all day fishing, so it was raining fish scales.  On top of our dessert plates. YUCK.

GROSS!

It was a great send-off for me from my team.  I have really enjoyed working with this group, and I will miss them a lot when I move back.  Serefe!

A drop of Latin...

After a long day in the factory on last Friday, I took off for Timisoara, Romania.  As I drove east, I hoped that I wouldn't have any trouble at the border.  I crossed with no issues, and entered my thirteenth country in the past 6 1/2 months.  I have mentioned before that the area where our factory is located reminds me of NE IN.  It is flat, fertile farmland.  This extends into Romania and Hungary, so there wasn't a lot of interesting scenery on the drive there.  I arrived in Timisoara late on Friday, and just went to sleep.  I was staying at this hotel near the city center, and I made a real connection with the older guy working the desk and he let me park my car behind the hotel in a locked lot.  

I awoke on Saturday and went out to explore the city.  The weather was warm and it was a perfect day to explore.  I walked around the city center.

I walked all around the city, and one observation is that Romanians really like to paint their homes bright colors.  Here are some examples.

I even got to see a Romanian prison (from the outside, luckily!)

I stopped back in the square for some lunch, and then walked around for a few more hours.  


I wasn't in the Transylvania area of Romania, but I did see something truly frightening:

It was a cross of a crow and a pigeon.  Pure Evil.  

I then decided that I wasn't ready to go back to Belgrade, so I started driving south.  I wanted to see some mountains.  I drove towards Caransebes, which is at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.  This is a very rural part of Romania.  I drove through many villages in which people were just sitting on their front steps watching the cars drive by.  There were lots of old women selling fruit, vegetables, and some yellowish liquid in used plastic bottles, which I have to assume was either gasoline or homemade wine (or both!).  The roads were not good; there were a lot of potholes and some parts of the road were only gravel or one lane.

Here is what I encountered at one point:

But as I drove south, the mountains were beautiful.  It reminded me of where North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee come together.  The mountains were green and lush, and there were farms dotting the landscape with cows, horses, sheep, and goats.

Finally, I got to the Danube.  It was like when you are driving to the sea, and you get your first glimpse.  I had this sense of excitement and wonderment about the water.  I have seen the Danube in Belgrade, in Novi Sad, and in Budapest.  But this was farther downstream, and wasn't spread out on the Vojvodina Plain, but was carving itself through the mountains.  It was so beautiful.  At this point, it was nearly dark, so I decided to try to find a hotel.  I found one that was right on the river.  I checked in and snapped a few shots from my balcony.

The Danube here is the border between Serbia and Romania.  I was thinking about when Romania was behind the Iron Curtain.  I asked the hotel manager if people tried to escape to Yugoslavia.  He said that they did and many people drowned.  But now Romania is part of the European Union, so the river represents a different kind of border.  The manager said that now people are coming from Serbia into Romania.  It is interesting to think about the changes in this region within the last 20 years.

I went down and ate at the hotel restaurant.  There were not many people staying here.  It was very remote and not in a town.  I had river fish that was caught from the Danube.  It was a nice meal.  

On Sunday morning, I got up early, because I had a long drive back to Belgrade, and wanted to make sure I would be back in time for the Hash at 16:00.  I went down to the restaurant to pay for my room and I was told that they couldn't accept my card because it wasn't issued from a Romania bank.  I only had about 1/4 enough cash in local currency, and apparently the nearest bank was 30km away, and the roads are so bad that it would have taken me 45-60 min to get to the bank and then 45-60 min to get back.  I also had 20 Euros and some dinars.  So the friendly hotel manager let me pay my bill in all three currencies.  I was very nervous and my hands were shaking, but I didn't know what else to do.  Thankfully, everything worked out ok.

I started driving along the river, snapping photos and enjoying the scenery.  The roads here were very bad, and I had to drive so slowly.  I had my GPS, but I was a little nervous about getting fuel, since there were no gas stations, and I had no local currency.  I was driving through these small villages and everyone was starting at me.  Finally, I got to a point in which the road just ended.  The GPS and my map disagreed, but it was clear that the road was a dead end.  I randomly took another road, and this road was not on my GPS.  As I was driving along this road, there was a roadblock by the police.  I stopped and they asked to see my documents.  I gave my US passport to them, and they talked to each other for about 5 minutes.  Then the guy just comes back and says something in Romanian and lets me drive away.  At this point, I was very nervous that this road would end, and I would have to go back the way I came, which was about 5 hours to Timisoara and then another 3 hours to Belgrade.  I would run out of fuel, I would miss the hash and I was lost in very rural Romania.  My phone wasn't working because I was so far in the sticks.

Then, magically, the GPS found the road I was on and I was very near the Serbian border crossing.  Whew!  Once I was back in Serbia, I knew that I could get home easily.  Plus I had Serbia money and I know many people in Serbia that I can call if I have a problem.  This border crossing was very small.  It was a place called Naidas.  As I tried to leave the EU in my Serbian car that is covered with Marbo stickers, they did not want me to leave.  The border guards didn't believe that this was my car.  Never mind the fact that it is a Serbian car and I was trying to drive into Serbia.  So they took my documents and I waited for about 20 minutes.  As I was waiting in my car, about 10 guys came outside to look at me.  They were just standing there smoking cigarettes and looking at me in my car.  It was wholly annoying and unnerving.  Finally, a woman comes over and says "you are ok, have a safe trip.".  As I crossed the no-man's land between the EU and Serbia, I was both angry and relieved.  As I went to Serbia, the guard was friendly and didn't ask me anything.  Just a satisfying stamp and I was free to go.  

I passed by some interesting churches on the way home.

I made it back to Belgrade by 13:00, so I had time to clean my apartment a little and do some laundry before it was time for the Hash.  The Hash was a lot of fun, as usual, and I was glad to be back in my apartment and my bed.

They say that Romania is a drop of Latin in an ocean of Slavs.  I only saw a small part of Romania, but it is a very beautiful country.  I had both good and bad luck, but the people were very friendly.  I would like to take more time to travel along the Danube all the way to the Black Sea.  This was the first solo car trip I have taken.  I was thinking of the adage "if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound".  If I see all of these cool things but don't have anyone to share the experience, does it diminish the experience?  I guess that is why I have this blog. 

My First American

A few times on this trip, I have been someone's "First American".  Everyone knows about the US, but some people have never met an American until they meet me.  Being someone's First American is weird because I'm not a Hollywood stereotype and I'm not an overweight Republican. which are the two extremes that tend to be broadcast about the US.  I'm just a regular person, and hopefully I can make a good impression on people.

This First American stuff got me thinking about my First American.  I guess I "met" her sometime in the summer/fall of 1977 when I was her parasite.  I got to meet her face-to-face a few months later.  My mom is not a stereotype either.  She is unbelievably giving and unselfish.  She has a strong sense of family and a good sense of humor.  She sacrificed a great deal to raise my brother and me.  If I ever have the chance to be a mother, I hope I can do it half as well as she does.

I also want to mention my step mom.  While she wasn't my First American, she is no less amazing.  She went back to school later in life.  She didn't let anything get in the way of her goals.  She is an incredibly strong woman.  

Here are the lessons from today's post:
1. If you are someone's first American, follow my motto and don't be a jerk.
2. Happy Mother's Day!  Moms and Stepmoms rarely get the thanks from their kids (even grown kids) that they deserve.  So thank them today and tell your moms how much you love them.

Hurry Up!

These days, I'm living on adrenaline and caffeine.  I feel the pressure that my time in Europe is ending, and I feel like I haven't experienced enough.  My two fears going into this assignment were 1) I would make a bad name for myself within the Global PepsiCo R&D community and 2) that I would squander this opportunity because I was too afraid to take chances.

I can say that I think I have made a good name for myself here in the South East Europe Region, and next week I get to present to the Europe VP.  Hopefully that will go well.  

As far as not wasting this opportunity, I'm a little unsure.  There were some days when I spent too much time alone.  I slept a lot on weekends instead of going out and exploring.  I didn't go out and find friends and connections as much as I should have.  I didn't see very much of Serbia. But I did manage to travel a lot.  I have been to 12 countries since I got here, and have been to some more than once, including going to Turkey 5 times, and Spain 2 times.  I have plans to go to 4 more countries before I go back to the US.  I have made a few friends.  I proved that I could be alone, really alone, for an extended period of time. I have experienced things that I never would have imagined I would have the opportunity to see such as tulip fields in Holland, roasting a goat for Orthodox Easter, hiking in the Alps, sea kayaking in the Gulf of Thailand, and having a work meeting in the former palace of a Sultan.  It has been really amazing.

I guess the thing that really scares me is that I will go back to Texas and be boring.  That this experience is the peak of my life, and now I will go back to being like everyone else.  That I will settle back into my life, and never leave.  I'm afraid I will lose my restlessness.  I lived that life before and it was safe and comfortable, but wholly unsatisfying.

So now, I'm pushing and rushing and planning to make the most out of the last few weeks I have here so that I can minimize regrets about this experience. What I have learned is that we can't change who we fundamentally are, but we can adapt how we respond to situations and that we all need to be open-minded enough to recognize opportunities when they appear to us.

That's it for now; I have to start planning my next trip!

Koninginnedag and other indulgences

I'm freshly back from what I'm dubbing "self indulgence weekend 2010".  Though I really like Serbia, I have to say that Northwestern Europe specializes in many things that are to my taste, such as delicious Belgian beers, chocolates, and aged Goudas from Holland.


My travel buddy (D) lives in Amsterdam, and after many trips together around Eastern and Southern Europe, I decided to go up to Holland for a long weekend.  30 April is a big Dutch holiday called Queen's Day (Koninginnedag in Dutch).  It is a cross between July 4th and President's Day.  The goal for the weekend was to celebrate Queen's Day, to taste as much aged cheese and Belgian beers as possible, to head to Belgium, and to sightsee around A'dam and Holland.


I arrived on Thursday and spent the day working in the Holland office. After work on Thursday, D and I met up with a girl that I went to high school with in Indiana.  She is living in a suburb of Amsterdam with her husband and son.  It was great to see her and catch-up.  Given that we hadn't seen each other in 15 years, it was strange that the first time we saw each other was in A'dam.  I guess that girls from Noble County can get out sometimes!


Many of you know that I really like beer and cheese.  Holland and Belgium are centers for these fermented delights.  There are 7 Trappist breweries in the world and 6 of these are in Belgium and one is Dutch.  Several of these are readily available (though not cheaply or freshly) in the US.  I'm sure that many of you have tried Leffe and Chimay.  However, the rarest trappist is from a monastery called Westvlerteren.  They do not make beer for commercial distribution.  You have to call the beer hotline to get some and drive up at your allotted time to pick it up.  And you can only get 24 0.33L bottles at a time.  So you can't really find this in bars or other shops.  But D knew of one pub in Amsterdam that had the Westvleteren.  I tried the Westvleteren 8 (like a dubbel) and it was incredible.  It definitely makes my top-5 beer list.  After trying that beer, all of the other delicious dubbels and trippels that we sampled over the weekend were good, but just not as good as the Westvleteren. I also got to try Croquettes and fried potatoes (frites) on Thursday; so the eating began.


Friday morning, we were up early to begin the Koninginnedag celebration.  The entire town participates in a free market in which you can buy or sell nearly anything from old Barbie dolls to a chance to smash a tomato as it rolls down an opaque tube to the chance to throw eggs at peoples heads.  It was pretty unreal.  We bought some bright orange cowboy hats to wear around.  Everyone was wearing orange.  In the morning, things were pretty tame.  We had a melted cheese sandwich (imagine a grilled cheese made with delicious cheese) that we bought on the street.  We got takeaway beer from a local microbrew, DePrael.  Takeaway microbrew?  I love this place!  At first, it wasn't too crowded. 

As the day went on, we continued to walk around town, seeing the festivities.  The canals had some party boats on it too.

Canal at noon.

Canal at 2pm

Canal at 6pm

The streets and canals were jammed by 8pm and after seeing too many drunken people, we decided to head back to D's place.  We picked up some Indonesian food.  I can't really get much international/ethnic food in Belgrade, so this was a real treat too.

On Saturday, we got up early and drove out to the Tulip fields.  The weather was bad; it was pouring and quite cold.  But it was really amazing to see these stripes of color that are the tulips.

The closer rows of green are the harvested tulips

Another not-in-Kansas moment

We then continued driving to Belgium. We wanted to see the Westmalle monastery/brewery. This is one of the 7 Trappist breweries.  You can't actually go inside, as it is a working monastery.  However, we did drive up to it and the grounds were quite beautiful.  We parked and went on a nice walk around the area.

The brewery side

The monastery

The picturesque grounds.  I love when the trees make a canopy over the road.

As I mentioned, you can't actually go in the monastery/brewery, but across the street there is a restaurant where you can try their beer and cheese.  It was very cool to be eating the cheese and sipping the beer while seeing the cows and brewery. 

After our snack, we continued on to Brugge.  Brugge is considered to be the most well preserved medieval city in Europe.  It certainly was pretty.

We walked around for a few hours, eating frites again (apparently a specialty in Belgium) and I had a real Belgian waffle.  The waffle dough is very thick, almost like cookie dough, and I got my waffle with chocolate and whipped cream.  Hey - I said it was self-indulgence weekend!  It was really good and took me about 20 minutes to eat it because it was so rich.  

We were tired and approaching hyperglycermia, and it was time for a break.  We went to this very quaint pub called 't Brugs Beertje which means "the Little Bear".  They had many different Belgian beers and we got to sample a few.  We also had some more cheese.

Amazing little pub

We also went shopping and bought some gifts for people and I got some hard-to-find Belgian beers to take back to with me to share with friends in Belgrade.

This time of year in Northern Europe, the sun is out until about 9:30pm.  So as dusk approached, we sat down on a sidewalk restaurant and had mussels and frites.  So I think that I did all of the stereotypical food and drink things - frites, walffes, mussels, trappist beers, and cheese.  It was a  wonderful day.

Brugge is a really beautiful city

On Sunday, we went out for Pancakes (yes, a proper noun).  My pancake was about 10 inches round, and I got onions, bacon, cheese, and mushrooms in it.  It almost tasted like a hashbrown.  It was amazing.

After breakfast, we went to a few different cheese shops, and sampled some cheeses and bought some for dinner and for me to take back with me to Belgrade.  I tried this incredible aged goat cheese that tasted like a Gouda and even had calcium lactate crystals!  We spent entirely too much money on cheese, and then walked all around Amsterdam.  The weather was very cold (45F) and raining, but it was nice to be outside.  The city had recovered from the debauchery of Friday, and the trash and port-a-potties were mostly removed.  In the afternoon, we went to Ij brewery that is in an old windmill.  It is very no frills, and we tried their beers and some soft cheese that is made with their spent grains and some uncured/uncooked sausage (ossenworst). It was so good.

't Ij brewery in Amsterdam

We took the tram back to D's and relaxed some.  We then ate a feast of cheese, meat, pate, and some bread with olive oil from his family's grove in Greece.  It was delicious.

I highly recommend that everyone takes a weekend like this at least once per year to enjoy the things in life that you really enjoy.