13 Months in a Year

I had big plans for a nice long blog in December to wrap everything up for the year and share my tidings of comfort and joy for a happy holiday season. As most of the 14 people who read this already know, all of that came crashing to a halt with a lengthy delay getting home for Christmas. So instead of my original plan for coming home at Christmas, signing a new apartment lease and unpacking my crock pot, I packed my bags once again and came back to the UK for one more month of British goodness and squeeze the last bit of time out of my visa.
Before the ink was dry on my passport stamp I was off to Barcelona for work last week. I started typing this while staring out the window of Barcelona airport at the shiny BA planes and city scape behind them in terminal D gate 10. Much like my other experiences many of the days were spent within the hotel and a refrigerated conference room, but a fantastic hotel in Barcelona is not a shabby place to be trapped.

I did get a chance to escape for a few hours before heading to the airport and see some of the sights. These precious hours have come to be some of my favorites for experiencing a city since you get to creatively find ways to see it all and still be back for your airport pick-up. If Rick Steves had a cliffs notes version I think he would be proud of me. After a busy work week I could not be bothered with reading a map so I caught one of those hop on/hop off buses. I have always been curious about them in every city I see them in but have never hopped on. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon as we zoomed from sight to sight. The key for me was to never actually hop off so I got to cover two hours of the city center while happily munching on a ham and cheese sandwich. I did feel a little silly wearing the bright turquoise headphones for the audio guide but felt even sillier when I kept hitting the selection box with my knee and changing the language to Chinese. After a while I gave up and listened to tour for a few stops In Mandarin and tried to guess what the pre-recorded voice was telling me about.

I spent my final days in the office and am now faced with packing up once again. I have one last day tomorrow to tick off all the things I put off doing all year. No pressure at all leaving all the fun for the last minute. As excited as I am to come back home finally and reclaim my Philadelphia routine, the pressure is on to find and meet Jamie Oliver in 24 hours.

The most exciting part of wrapping up my year in England is that I can officially say I am leaving as royalty. My wonderful colleagues purchased me a small piece of land in Scotland (think the size of a tissue) but that is enough in the UK to grant you an official official royal title. So I hope you are all excited to see me in a few days because when you do you will be speaking to Lady Heather.

Giving Thanks in the UK

It was a strange feeling to wake up today and carry out my normal work day on Thanksgiving. I survived working on the US holiday but still abandoned my desk at 3pm so I could finish my day by thinking about all of the things I am thankful for from my couch. The move-out activities have begun and the rental company is taking back my flat screen and DVD player on Saturday morning. It will leave me without a tv for 20 days and a true challenge. I haven't decided yet what I will stare at when I am drinking my wine on the couch. It is not on the top of my list for things I am thankful for.

In honor of the holiday I rounded up all of the ingredients and baked a few pumpkin pies in order to introduce the joys of Thanksgiving tradition to my UK colleagues. The act of finding canned pumpkin was a major victory and the reaction to my baked goodness was a success. I'm not sure I totally convinced them on celebrating turkey day, but I definitely introduced an appreciation for pumpkin.

Dolce far Niente

I finally had an opportunity to have some non work related jet-setting and took a mini trip to Milan to meet up with my dear friend Aimee. She was in Florence for work so it only made sense to cook up a scheme to meet in Italy for a Saturday lunch. So that is exactly what we did. We found each other around noon on Saturday and departed on Sunday at dinner. The perfect amount of time to indulge in too much food and wine, catch up and make friends with Italian bar staff.

I managed to select the perfect guide book for the last minute trip. It came with a map I could actually read and pretty much had the advice to not worry too much about site seeing and just relax and have some good food and wine. So, since we didn’t reserve our tickets a year in advance as most do to see the The Last Supper, we found a few good restaurants, drank our weight in wine and prosecco and focused on chatting and people watching.

We did squeeze in a trip to view Milan’s Duomo and admire a brilliant building that only took 430 years to complete. I stepped into the role of tour guide and did a dramatic reading of some facts from the guide book to Aimee. My favorite of which was the phrase “la fabbrica del Duomo” which is a phrase the Milanese people use to describe anything that seems to take forever to complete. I enjoy that they have a good sense of humor about their famous landmark and the ridiculous amount of time it took to finish. The builders probably read the same guide book I have and spent more time eating and drinking than on construction.

A true miracle was the fact that I managed to leave Milan having only purchased a magnet. We did visit the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle shopping arcade which houses many of the famous designer brands, but we simply admired the store fronts. While there we did take a break from window shopping to participate in a good luck tradition. A mosaic tile image on the floor by the entrance depicts a flag and bull to celebrate the king who the building was named after. According to local tradition stomping on the bull’s testicles as you walk past brings luck. Aimee and I joined the crowd and stomped away as it was our turn to pass through (photo o fmy good luck stomp is above).

The only thing that did not cooperate during our weekend break was the weather. It was cold and rainy and everything in the entire city was a dreary shade of brown or grey. This of course prompted a nasty allergy attack upon arriving. By dinner on Saturday Aimee got tired of having to say god bless you over and over again and we found an Italian pharmacy. The lovely pharmacist took one look at me and produced a box of something called Reactine. The only thing we confirmed with him was whether I could still drink wine if I took it and we received a thumb up and a smile. 12 Euros and two reactine later and I was back in action. So I guess technically I came home with a magnet and the remaining box of miracle allergy pills as souvenirs.

The highlight of our Italian adventure was meeting Marco the bartender at StraRipa bar. He kept our glasses filled with a delicious secret cocktail, protected us from smarmy dudes at the bar and even gave us his favorite recipe on how to make the perfect salmon (Aimee if you are reading this I still need you to send me that from your notebook). Marco and I promised to be pen pals and while I’m still waiting for my letter from him (and aware of the fact that he will never write me) I was certainly left with some fond memories of a fantastic evening in Milan (and the worst hangover ever the next day).

Ein Prosit

Yet another delinquent post for all 14 of my fans. Publishing this meant my big trip was over, my visitor went home and I returned to my daily life. I realized I needed to stop stalling and introduce all of you to the catchiest tune in the world and share my German adventure.

Before reading on I invite you to click on this link for the full Oktoberfest experience...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8VmCDdt5o

The song that never ends
This is a song that I still hear sometimes when I am walking down the street one month post Oktoberfest. I found myself humming it in the grocery store this evening which I took as a sign to post this blog already. It is played approximately every 15 minutes throughout the fair and the rough translation is “a toast, a toast to the coziness of it all”. There is very little encouragement needed in Munich for drinking, toasting or coziness. It all seems to happen naturally. Jessica and I are proof of this as Munich was the first city since our early twenties that got us both to dance on tables again. Famous German last words "I really don't want to fall on that giant tray of meat".

Welcome to Muenchen
Keeping on trend with my new love of guided walking tours, Jessica and I hooked up with a local to follow around and soak up some culture before we started our agenda of drinking giant beers. The walking tour in this case turned into more of a guided jog since our fearless leader had legs that started in her under arms and the group had difficulty keeping up. Despite the light sprint that was required we managed to cover a good part of the city, learn a few facts and visit some important historical sites. Looking back on my photos, I now realize I should have taken better notes as the afternoon in the beer tents that followed killed off many of the brain cells that were storing all of the important historical information.

It’s a bike and a bar – let’s get a beer
Just as we got tired of sprinting in an attempt to keep up with our leggy tour guide, we happened upon Lenny’s bike tours. Lenny built himself an eight-man bicycle with a bar in the center and a bench in the back. Being the professionals that we are, we managed to join the tour without peddling and got to sit back while the others did the work. Jessica grabbed a spot on the bench while I sat on a crate with the bartender in the center. We traveled about 50 feet in 30 minutes, drank a beer and listened to some fabricated German facts. Best part of the trip – someone lost their shoe, and it wasn’t me.

Bring it on Bavaria
I am still overwhelmed by how large the fairground was , but more so by how many people were there. I did some research when we got back and almost 7 million people visited Oktoberfest this year. It was especially impressive that everyone turned up in their traditional German fashion. Jessica and I composed a drunken plan on a napkin Friday night in the heart of our beer tent tour to wake up early the next day for dirndl shopping, but to the relief of our wallets and already over packed suitcases, that shopping extravaganza never took place.

It took us a little while to adjust to walking in and finding a place with strangers at tables, but once you stand for too long in a beer tent without a beer in your hand you learn the logistics of the operation pretty quickly. We even managed to score some free drinks from someone who told us he was a prince from Switzerland celebrating his birthday. Happy Birthday Prince Swiss my name is Sophie Hardgrove and it’s a pleasure to drink your free beer (my alias is now officially international). The most handy guide we had to navigate the crazy was the beer tent app Jessica downloaded for her iphone. I’m just not sure how people handled the festival back in 1810. Why walk to a tent if you can already know it is closed due to maximum capacity.

L is for Lebkuchenherz
One of the honored traditions of Oktoberfest is to purchase a heart shaped cookie for your lovely to wear as a necklace around the fair. Each gingerbread cookie has a clever saying written in frosting so you must choose carefully to ensure you are communicating the right message to those around you. Jessica chose a cookie for me which said “you are my little sparrow”. I selected a heartwarming slogan for Jessica which translated to “nice ass”. Those few words are not only true but came in handy for us as we were searching for empty seats in crowded tents. We should all wear gingerbread cookies around our necks displaying messages and body part compliments. The Germans know how to roll.

Hold the cheese please
Germany was certainly not short on delicious snacks and foods to keep us fueled during our tourist mission. Any place that serves giant pretzels the size of my head is an okay place in the world. The giant sausages from the street carts and schnitzel were equally delicious. The one item we could not get behind was the mysterious butter/cheese hybrid spread that our German friends like to apply in a thick layer to almost everything. It was everywhere and we could neither escape it nor figure out exactly what it was. Even Lufthansa airlines has a giant tub of it on board with the captain spreading it all over there in flight snacks. I’m still researching what this condiment is and attempting to reach out to its creator and ask them to hold off. I’m thinking of starting with a stern complaint letter to Lufthansa.

Auf Wiedersehen
We left our heart shaped cookies (took a bite and they were not tasty) in Muenchen and ended our trip with a few days in London. We did some reminiscing from our exchange program days at Drexel wandering around our old hood, visited the longest champagne bar in Europe (conveniently located in a train station) and had afternoon tea in South Kensington. We also had to drink a bottle of red wine each just so we could go back to the hotel and sleep since I managed to find the worst hotel in the UK for us to stay at. I will no longer fall for hotels.com or their promises. Luckily I took a break from my angry cheese spread e-mail to provide my feedback on finding the worst accommodation in the universe.


I hope you enjoyed the highlights of our 2010 adventure. It was something I was looking forward to all this year and a trip that I will never forget (especially since I finally got around to posting this so I have it written down :)

Yanks in the UK

I realize how delinquent I have been with any updates and keeping in touch. My lazy weekend outlook has motivated me to send an update and trick myself in feeling like I am having a chat to catch up with everyone.
The UK survived the Smalley Triple and me, Hollee and Hope had a fantastic time. I played the role of tour guide and packed a five day London itinerary into three, and while they were both sad for the trip to end, I think they were also secretly happy to depart for home and have the feeling in their feet return. We covered a mix of the typical touristy attractions and even found a few unique places. Part of our travels included a tour of Buckingham Palace since the girls were here during the brief open season and I had never been to visit either. I convinced them to abandon the headset audio tour in favor of my dramatic reading of my guide book. A small group of Asian tourists also found my tour more appealing and started to follow us since clearly my description of the various palace rooms was much better than what that dusty headset was giving out.
We took a risk on the accommodations and rented a room at the London School of Political Science and Economics. During the summer months they rent the rooms to tourists while the students are away. Definitely redefines what we would think of when you see Bed and Breakfast. Also confirms that it is a good thing there are so many years between each of us since three Smalley girls at college living together would definitely be a disaster (or a really lucrative idea for reality TV).
During this visit I also discovered a new found favorite – guided walking tours. I always knew they existed but passed over in favor of my own pace and itinerary. However, we joined one in Oxford and I now have a new found appreciation for following someone else around for 2 hours, sipping on a coffee and pausing to take a picture every now and again. I found this especially interesting since I have been living in Oxford for almost a year and had no idea about how much was surrounding me. Turns out my daily walk to the train station and back to my apartment does not contain as much rich history as some of the other parts of the town. We lucked out and had an enthusiastic (AKA manic) Austrian woman who has been living in Oxford for 50 years and during that time has developed some serious underground connections. She was sneaking us into closed university property, had us skulking down alleys and whispering. I’m convinced she was making up some of the facts, but we enjoyed every minute of it and confirms my thinking that history is a little more interesting when you exaggerate some parts.
I really enjoyed showing a new city to my sisters and pointing out history, reading stories from our guide book, or making up new tourist information (can anyone really confirm what the Queen does in all of those rooms – I think not).
Next up – Oktoberfest. Auf Wiedersehen!

And Along Came August...

As I have been enjoying the last few weeks of summer, I have not been diligent about keeping up with documenting my shenanigans. I passed my 6 month mark and the feeling seems to have shifted now to time ticking down toward the end of my UK stay. I have focused on seeing more than the inside of the office and have managed to keep myself out of trouble in the process.

I returned safely from my Belgian adventure the first weekend in August and can say that Belgium has left a much better impression than my first visit and experience many years ago. Considering my first trip in college left me and my friends camping out in a train station overnight to catch a flight from a sketchy airport due to some poor travel planning (sorry Mom and Dad but I never told you that story for a reason), I knew anything would be an improvement over that experience. After my work meeting finished up I started a few days of relaxation with a shopping trip to Longchamp in order to treat myself and celebrate a successful work meeting. Nothing says “that girl is a fabulous project manager” better than a new tote bag. With my new handbag in tow, I took the train to Bruges and spent the weekend working through my “Around Bruges in 80 beers” guidebook. I am quite proud of the ground I covered. A few of the places were no longer there, some had changed names and some required too many euros for me to enjoy, but overall I covered visiting 15 locations and sampling 8 different brews. Not bad for a day and a half effort and the fact that I have become even more of a light weight and some of the beers had a double digit %. I made sure to add a brewery tour to my itinerary so that I could add some education to my drinking and limit the beer samples in order to find my way safely back to my hotel. Between beer stops I also made a trip to the frite and chocolates museums to soak up some carbs and knowledge on the other famous Belgian specialties. Any museum that spells like french fries as you are walking through is worth a visit. I learned quite a few interesting facts about the potato. In addition to being a delicious side dish, the potato is also a natural antibiotic, can help relieve stomach aches, heartburn, gout, arthritis, diabetes and even relieve dark under eye circles. It's like science and nature want me to eat fries.

This past weekend I made the trip to Jamie Oliver’s Recipease school to flex my culinary muscles. I was torn on what to wear and finding a balance between something functional for a two hour class, and also trendy in the event that Mr. Oliver rolled through the door. Sadly, he was not on site but one can never be too prepared. My coworker Josie joined me and we succeeded in preparing a delicious pea and mint risotto. I loved the class and had a fantastic time but have to be honest and admit the biggest lesson learned from it all was the reminder that you can save the risotto for when you order out and leave all that endless stirring to a real chef – preferably Jamie Oliver.

The best update to provide is that some Smalley sisters will be arriving next week for a visit. After selling my soul and wiping out my gold status, I was able to get Hope and Hollee flights. I can’t be certain that Delta isn’t storing them with the luggage during the flight, but they will be here in a week and I am beyond thrilled to have my first visitors. I have been planning out our itineraries and will be escaping from work to lead them around and play a little bit of the tourist role myself. It will be fun see how the United Kingdom handles three Smalley girls at once.

I continue to receive updates on the hot weather back in Philly, but the summer season here his coming to an end. The short weeks of hazy heat we experienced have faded and the first signs of fall have started to show. This is always my favorite time of year and reminds me of how things can subtly change around you. For some reason this time of year always makes me evaluate life and things around me. I suppose because there is some sense that I have time to make changes or accomplish goals before the year is through. This year is different for me for obvious reasons, but I still have some of those same feelings. I hope to use the rest of this year to explore some more, spend time with my favorite people a little bit more when I have the opportunity, pause to appreciate the places and people in my life, slow down instead of rushing by and focus on keeping both of my shoes on in the process.

You Say Walking...I Say Rambling

UK Heather went on an adventure this past weekend and completed a +10 mile journey on foot between the quaint villages of Amberley and Arundel along the South Downs Way in East Sussex. My friend Brian was visiting the UK for work and encouraged me to join him, his sister and brother in law who live in London for a “walk between pubs”. Brian assured me it would be more pubs than walking and that someone not as acclimated to the outdoors like myself could keep up; however I quickly discovered once we stepped off the train and started our journey that it was a proper hike. Luckily I was smart enough to leave my heels at home and even wore a backpack to submerge myself in the outdoors spirit. We had a really great time walking along, chatting and stopping for a few ales and ciders between the towns. We reached our final destination of Arundel on Saturday afternoon and still had smiles on our faces which of course meant we needed to celebrate our rambling success with a few more pints. On Sunday, we explored Arundel castle which has a recent claim to fame for being part of the movie sets for the film The Young Victoria. It is amazing how a dash of pop culture makes history a little bit more exciting. The castle is still occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk and I can say that wandering around the home of royalty is not a bad way to waste away a Sunday afternoon. My feet are still a little tired from the weekend adventure, but I now have a brand new appreciation for exploring the English countryside and am hoping to have the chance to take a few more walking trips. Now that I know I can do it, it also gives me a reason to invest in some outdoor fashion to fully expand my experiences. Brian’s sister Monica has proved to me that a rucksack and tearaway pants can be on trend and I am looking forward to a shopping spree at the North Face store. I would say I am still not ready for camping, but now that I have entered the world of the great outdoors I could probably rationalize starting to carry around a walking stick or storing a lantern in my giant handbags.

This week I finished a really great book which I would definitely recommend. It is call "One Day" by David Nicholls. It’s a simple story about a man and woman who meet at the end of university and follows their friendship and lives. Despite it’s simplicity, it is a page turner and one of those books where you feel like the author must have gotten inside your head since the characters are clearly just like you. I felt myself wanting to read it under my desk at work to find out what happened and am now suffering a mini depressive state that I am finished with the book. For me, a story is really great if you feel like you miss the characters when you reach the last page. I hope to write a story like that one day. For now, my story writing is on hold and I am on the train to Brussels for a work assignment and then a mini break to Bruges for the weekend. My coworker lent me a guide book titled “around Bruges in 80 beers”. If I come across a pair of tearaway pants on sale, I am totally buying them. You never know when the terrain between outdoor cafes can get rough ….