Ready, Set, Go

I have exactly 80 days left before I come back to the States. I need more time! I feel like I have so much more I want to see and do in Europe that it's overwhelming to think about it sometimes. It's really difficult balancing a hectic work schedule and wanting to visit every European city but hopefully I'll be able to find a balance for the rest of the time that I'm here.

I'm flying to Southampton tomorrow to meet up with my cousin Nicole. We're doing a day trip to Bath (a city on my must see list for England) and we're just going to have some nice cousin time. I thought that when I moved to England we'd see each other all the time, but this is going to be the first time that we see each other since I arrived in March!

My friend Elyse is coming to visit next week and then it's a whirlwind between London, Jordan, back to the States for a week, back to England, maybe back to Dublin, then back to the States again. Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it and somewhere in there I have to actually do my job. Never a dull moment.

Time Out

Ok, I'm officially the worst travel blogger ever. Sorry about the long delay between my last post and this one. I've been so wrapped up in working and traveling lately that I can't seem to sit still long enough to write a post about what I've been up to.

Well, it's officially been 3 months since I started this journey and I'm now at the half way mark. Hard to believe that 3 months ago I landed in Dublin still in awe that I was actually moving to England. I've already learned so much about myself in the short time that I've been here, but I think that it's a good time to assess what I've been able to accomplish thus far and what more I want to do.

Since I last posted, I've taken a couple of great trips to Berlin and Paris. To keep it short and sweet, here are some of the highlights in each city.

Berlin
- Seeing historical buildings that I never thought I'd actually see in person (Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall)
- Food, food, and more food (dumplings, roulade, beer - need I say more?)
- Spending Sunday morning/afternoon at Mauerpark strolling through the flea market and listening to the karaoke in the park

Paris
- The Eiffel Tower at night
- Taking in the sights and sounds of Montmarte on a Saturday
- Brunch and strolling in the Jewish Quarter on Sunday morning

So with everything that has happened in the last 3 months I've realized a few things about myself, my career, my life. In some cases, it's been a harsh realization that there are things about my life that I'm not happy with. In other instances it's looking back at goals that I've set for myself 2, 3, 4 years ago and assessing how far I've come. There's nothing like being out of your comfort zone to do some real soul searching. I'm hoping the next 3 months will give me the perspective to actually make some serious changes for the better.

So, what's up next? Well, I'm in Dublin now for my team's quarterly meeting and I'm headed back to Leeds at the end of the week. I have a couple of weeks before going to visit my cousin Nicole in the South of England. My friend Elyse is visiting after that and then I'm off to Jordan for two and a half weeks to visit my Mom's family. Time is flying so I'm thankful for this brief time out. 

God Save the Queen

I hit the jackpot to be in England in 2012. Between the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, London has never looked so good. I spent the weekend in London celebrating like a true Brit. It was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the whole city was celebrating in what seemed like a large block party.

I took the train down on Thursday and met my friend Jackie who was in town for work. On Friday, we took a day trip with the senior crowd to Stratford and Oxford. We spent a lot of time on a bus where we were the youngest by at least 20 years, but got to see the Cotswolds (think lots of sheep and farmland) as well as Stratford (home of Shakespeare) and Oxford (home of Oxford University).

In front of Shakespeare's birthplace

On Saturday we decided to shop and wait for another friend Kate to come into town. Kate is taking a major leap of faith and is on her way to Kenya to work as the PR/Communications person for a company called Sanergy which builds sanitation systems in the slums of Nairobi. Amazing work and I'm so proud of what she about to do. Kate is also one of the funniest people I know, so if you choose to follow her blog you won't be disappointed.

Sunday was the day of the big flotilla on the Thames to honor the Queen so we made our way as close to the River as possible. Before reaching the river, we had a run in with Meredith Viera. When in London I guess.

Crowds by the river waiting to see the Queen's boat pass

Kate and Will

A Sunny Yorkshire Weekend

Summer has finally arrived in England! We've been having a few days of absolutely gorgeous weather, and it really makes me realize how much I need the sun after having so many dreary days in a row. I'm not sure how long this will last, but I enjoyed every minute of it this weekend.

Because I have a lot of travel planned for the next few weeks (that's another blog post in and of itself!), I decided to stick around Leeds this weekend. On Saturday, I went to the Leeds Food Festival, which took place in Millennium Square and is about a 5 minute walk from my apartment. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of Leeds restaurants had stations there and everyone was in a great mood with the sun being out. I grabbed a Pimm's cup and took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the delicious food. I bought myself some peanut brittle from a company that is based in Leeds but gets its recipes from the owner's mother-in-law who is from Alabama.

 Millennium Square in Leeds packed on a beautiful Saturday afternoon

After walking around the food festival, I decided to walk across the street to the Leeds City Museum to see an exhibit they have going on in honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. For those of you who have not heard, this is Queen Elizabeth's 60th anniversary of being Queen of England and the whole country is getting ready to celebrate next weekend with a four day weekend and festivities throughout the country. To be honest, I haven't seen anything like it before. Everywhere you go you see signs congratulating the Queen, and in stores there is everything from commemorative plates to British flag tea towels. The Leeds City Museum has an exhibit of portraits taken of Queen Elizabeth by her official photographer.  I spent about an hour and a half looking the photos of her as a child, her coronation, and her as a mom. 

On Sunday I decided to venture out and took the train to Harrogate, a town that is about 35 minutes away and is known as Britain's "spa town". The town became really popular throughout the country in the Georgian era because of the water that was discovered in the city, which has high concentrations of iron, sulphur, and salt. The wealthy of Britain congregated in Harrogate for respite, and to this day, it's known for its spas and Turkish Baths. 

I arrived in Harrogate around 11:30 am and walked around to get my bearings. It's not that big, so it was pretty easy to get the layout of the city. The train station is in the midst of the city centre, so I was just a short walk away from shops and Betty's Tea Room, which is where I knew I wanted to stop off for a light lunch. Betty's is a Yorkshire chain of tea rooms, and the location in Harrogate is the original location. 

After lunch, I had some time to kill before my spa appointment (um, I couldn't very well go to a spa town and not spa it up), so I walked to some of the beautiful parks in Harrogate.

I made an appointment at the Turkish Baths & Health Spa in Harrogate, the official spa in town. Amazing. That is all I have to say. I had a facial and massage, and while the massage was not the best I ever had, I was so relaxed that I fell asleep during my facial! 

Next weekend I'm going to London to spend the weekend with friends for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! Can't wait!

Hope all of you in the States enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

Another Guinness Please!

After two short work days, Laurel and I flew to Dublin for a few days. The plan was to have Friday to do some site-seeing on our own before meeting up with our friends Kristen and Phil who were flying in from Houston on Saturday.

The first day our first stop was the Google offices in Dublin. After being offsite for the last couple of months, I had to get my free food, free coffee, free snack fix. I'm an addict! We had lunch at the office and checked out the different buildings. We then decided to do the hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get a sense of how the city is laid out. After the bus tour we decided to see a movie because our bus dropped us off in front of a cinema and we both wanted to see Dark Shadows. If you a Johnny Depp or Tim Burton fan, you should see it. It was entertaining!

The next day we did what every good tourist to Dublin does - the Guinness and Jameson Whiskey tours. The Guinness tour was not that great to be honest. It's one of those things that you know you should do because you are in Dublin, but I found the Jameson tour to be way more interesting and substantial. It may have something to do with the fact that the Jameson factory gave us a full sized drink after the tour and Guinness gave us a small sip!

In front of the Guinness sign at the factory

Jameson Whiskey cocktails

The next day we met up with our friends Kristen and Phil and walked around the city a bit. We ended up in the Temple Bar area and had dinner at Gallagher's Boxty House for some traditional Irish cuisine. We made it a relatively early night because the next day we were meeting to take a drive into the Irish countryside and check the Powerscourt House & Gardens in County Wicklow.

We had a lunch reservation at the Tinakilly Country House on the way to the gardens. The house is situated amongst the Wicklow mountains and the house was built for a captain of the Great Eastern ship.

We drove a little further to get to Powerscourt Gardens. The gardens are considered to be one of the best in the world takes about an hour to get through the gardens.

Powescourt House

Japanese Garden

Dolphin Fountain

Laurel and I in front of a fountain at Powerscourt

Work has been good - keeping me busy and traveling quite a bit actually. I just got back from a few days in London for a conference where I presented to small to medium size businesses looking to start with online advertising. I love spending time in London but unfortunately, this time around was mostly all business. I did stay the weekend, but slept as much as could after getting four hours of sleep a night during the week.

Next up is London again next week for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! Excited that I'll be in London for that and that I'll be seeing my girls Jackie and Kate!

I promise it won't be another month before my next post. Hope all of you are doing well.

Chocolate & Scotch

Hi again everyone! So sorry that it's been a month since my last post. This past month has flown by and I really can't believe that I've been in England for two months now. Where does the time go?

I've been a very busy bee the past month since my last post. My very good friend Laurel came to visit the second week of May. We did quite a bit of traveling and we have the British national rail system down pat! Our first adventure was to York, England which is a short 25 minute train ride away from Leeds. York is one of the oldest cities in England and is a walled city that was founded by the Romans in 71 AD. In additions to the Romans, the city was also inhabited by Vikings and became a very important city for the Viking kingdom. When we got there, we walked around the city for a few hours and then checked into our hotel. During our walk, we stopped at the chocolate museum. York is home to many famous chocolate and candy brands like Kit Kat, Smarties, Rolo and the Chocolate Orange. It was very informative (and delicious)!

In front of the wall surrounding York

Selection of Kit Kats over the years

Laurel and I in front of the wall near York Minster

One of my colleagues from work lives in York and enjoys giving tours of the city. He met Laurel and I after our chocolate tour and gave us a 2 hour walking tour of the city. Our last stop was York Minster, one of the most renowned cathedrals in the world. It's the largest cathedral north of the Alps and the construction started in 1220. We stayed for the Evening Song mass where the boys and girls choir sing the Book of Common Prayer.

Sign for the shortest street in York

Outside of York Minster

Inside of York Minster

In our planning, we decided to spend the night in York and then the next day continue on to Edinburgh for a few days. The train ride from York to Edinburgh was about two and a half hours but the views on the way are breathtaking because the train route is on the eastern coast so we could see water for a good portion of the trip.

We didn't have much planned for Scotland other than our hotel. We found a hotel on Jetsetter called the Hotel Missoni. Yes, that Missoni. Who knew that the iconic Italian brand got into the hotel business? Apparently, there are only a few Hotel Missoni's in the world. It was one of the best decorated hotels that I've seen, and typical Missoni. One of the best things about the hotel is that everything in the mini bar and all of the movies on the TV are complimentary! Laurel and I enjoyed quite a few cans of free Diet Coke.

As soon as we checked in we freshened up and took a walk around the Royal Mile, which was literally right outside our hotel. The Royal Mile is a street with shops, restaurants, and tourist traps. At the top of the Royal Mile is Edinburgh Castle. We are suckers for castles! We spend a couple of hours stolling and took in some beautiful views.

View from Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Laurel and I love castles, but we may love hop-on, hop-off bus tours more. Whenever we travel together, we always do them because it's a great way to get oriented to a city and figure out what spots you want to explore some more. We randomly stubbled upon the Scottish Parliament building on the tour, and decided to get out to see some more of it. It was designed by the Catalonian architect Enric Miralles (for those of you who know about architecture, that probably isn't a surprise looking at the building!).

Scottish Parliament building

Inside Scottish Parliament building

Edinburgh was a great experience but I won't forget how cold it was. At one point, Laurel and I were walking back to our hotel when it started to hail! In May. Despite the weather, we had a great time and now I can cross another country off the list.

We couldn't leave Scotland without having some scotch! I won't get into the detailed conversation that Laurel and I had trying to figure out exactly what scotch IS, but we knew we had to have it. Our last night in Edinburgh we had dinner at Ondine, a restaurant next to our hotel. The waitress gave a good after dinner drink recommendation, so we went with it!

After Edinburgh, we took the train back to Leeds. I worked for the next couple of days before Laurel and I went to Dublin to meet up with some other friends. Check out the next blog post for Dublin details!

Shopping is the Best Medicine

I'm finally starting to feel normal again, after over 2 weeks of being sick. My cough is still lingering, but I'll take that over feeling like I've been run over by a truck and looking like a hot mess. Even though I'm feeling better, I still wanted to take it easy this weekend to prevent a relapse.

On Saturday, I decided to treat myself to a day of pampering and got my hair cut and colored. There is an Aveda salon a short 5 minute walk from my apartment, so it's just like I'm in Ann Arbor! Two doors down from the salon is a nail place so I also treated myself to a manicure/pedicure. As I was getting my toes done, I couldn't help but over hear the woman in the chair next to me speaking to her manicurist with an American accent. We struck up a conversation and found out that she's been here for 6 months working at the University of Leeds. She gave me a lot of great tips and it was wonderful to meet a fellow American.

After my manicure/pedicure I strolled over to Victoria Quarter, what I lovingly call the Somerset Mall of Leeds. Apparently, this is where all the footballer's wives hang out. Trust me, I had no intention of buying anything. I just wanted to window shop, maybe grab a coffee, and people watch. I got sucked into the Mulberry store though. For those of you Stateside, Mulberry is a brand of handbags and accessories from England that is slowly making it's way to the US. I was eying an adorable coin purse that my friend Marilyn has and because I'm carrying around 10 pounds of coins with me I figured that it was a practical purchase.

After that splurge I really had no intention of whipping out that Capital One Venture card again that day. But then, I walked into L.K. Bennett. Big mistake. L.K. Bennett is another one of those quintessential British brands and of course, I walked straight into the shoe section. I fell in love with these black patent leather wedges. Sigh.

Before walking home, I popped into a cute little Italian restaurant for some dinner and gave my friend Angel in Michigan a call in the hospital where she was in labor with her third daughter. Baby Evelyn was born yesterday and am so elated, but am also sad that I won't get to actually hold her or meet her for another few months.

On Sunday I decided that it was about time to experience some of the cultural activities in Leeds but I just couldn't get motivated. The art gallery is a 5-7 minute walk from my apartment, so I wanted to walk over and check it out. Instead, the most energy I could muster up was to go to the grocery store to pick up some groceries for the week. So, my attempt at educating myself on all Leeds has to offer will have to wait for another weekend.

I finally was able to plan some travel now that I've come out of my haze though. My friend Laurel is coming to visit in less than 2 weeks so we had a Google+ Hangout this afternoon to plan her visit. We're planning on spending one night in York, two nights in Edinburgh, and her last weekend here in Dublin. We're also going to be able to meet up with our friends Kristen and Phil in Dublin so needless to say, I'm extremely excited for the next few weekends.

Hope all of you are doing well and stay tuned for some pictures from my travels!

A Slight Bump In The Road

Sorry if it's felt like I've been missing in action this past week. Since I got back from London, I've been extremely sick and found out that it had progressed into a sinus infection! The thing about me is that I rarely get sick. But when I do it almost ALWAYS turns into a bigger deal. One time I thought I had a cold and it turned out I had a double ear infection, respiratory infection and a sinus infection. So, needless to say, when I started to feel icky, I was hoping that it would not progress.

It was a bank holiday on Monday, which is the day I got back from London, but on Tuesday I went to work not feeling 100%. By Thursday I couldn't even get out of bed so I decided to work from home and finally decided to see a doctor. Which doctor though? I have international insurance but didn't have much energy to do the research. Lucky for me, the staff at the apartment building I'm staying in was very helpful and found a few private doctors, but they couldn't get me in that day. I made the decision to go to the National Health Service clinic. The National Health Service is their publicly funded health system and I must say, it was nice to walk in and not have anyone ask me whether or not I have insurance, just what my symptoms are. I did have to wait for an hour, but I guess that isn't that much different than in the States where you could wait for that long even if you have an appointment.

I saw the doctor and they gave me some antibiotics that I have to take for 7 days. It's Sunday now and I'm feeling better, but not 100%. I have to admit that this week has been difficult for me, not having my family or friends around. I had a couple of minor breakdowns which I'm not proud of. I'm blaming it on the meds.

I'm looking forward to getting back to 100% capacity this week and I'm hoping that I'll also stop being Debbie Downer.

London Calling: Easter Weekend

Because Easter is considered a bank holiday in the United Kingdom, I had Good Friday and Easter Monday off of work. I decided to take advantage of the four day weekend and spend it in London. London is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, city. I think one of the main reasons that I love it so much is because each neighborhood has a different feel, yet the common thread is that everywhere you turn there is something historic to see.

I took the train from Leeds early Saturday morning (at 7 am) but the good thing is that the train station is literally a 5 minute walk from my apartment. That makes it really convenient to get anywhere, but especially London which is a 2 hour train ride. The trains here are actually really good, especially by American standards where you can be stuck on an Amtrak train for 10+ hours when it should have only taken 4 hours (it's unfortunately happened a few too many times to me.)

When I arrived in London I went straight to my friend Marilyn's flat to catch up with her. It's great knowing a few people who live in London because I enjoy seeing parts of a city that I may not normally see. It also allows me to get their recommendations! We walked around Soho for a while, sneaking into a few shops here and there before our brunch reservations at the Dean Street Townhouse. We stopped in two stores that I want to make sure to mention to all of you. If you are ever in London, you must check them out. One is called COS and it's a clothing store with multiple locations around the United Kingdom. It's owned by H&M but the quality at COS is much better and is generally more my style. Sometimes H&M is a little too out there for my conservative yet classic taste.

We also stopped at a store called Liberty and I have to admit, I could get lost in that store for days and not feel bad about it. It's a collection of everything you could ever want - vintage home goods, multiple floors of clothes and shoes, kitchen wares, cosmetics, stationary...the list could go on and on. This is definitely going to be a go-to place whenever I'm in London.

Outside of Liberty London

Check out that chandelier! Amazing!

After that walking tour of Soho shopping, we made our way to the Dean Street Townhouse for brunch. Stellar eggs benedict if I do say so myself! After brunch, we stopped at the Hummingbird Bakery, a well known cupcake bakery in Soho. I can never pass up a red velvet cupcake, so we popped in for a couple to go.

Later that day, I checked into my hotel, The Hempel. It's located in West London, close to pretty much everything (Notting Hill, Kensington, Bayswater, and Hyde Park). The Hempel was designed by Anouska Hempel, a well known designer who is also responsible for the Grosvenor Hotel and Blakes London. Her style for The Hempel is very minimilist, which is not my favorite type of interior design, but I have to give her credit for this hotel. It's done really well and feels very Zen like. One of the things that helps give the hotel that Zen feel is the immaculate garden right in front of the hotel. It's like you are tucked away in a little oasis, but then you remember you are in the middle of London. Movie buffs may remember the garden from the final scene of Notting Hill (check it out on YouTube.)

The lobby of The Hempel. Great place to get in touch with your inner chi. 

The foyer of my room.

Bathtub, with Ren bath products! Yes!

The sitting area.

That night, I met up with a fellow Googler who is in London for three months. We grabbed a drink and some thin-crust pizza at Pizza East Portobello. They know pizza and I wish that I had more room in my stomach because I really wanted to devour the whole thing! We ordered the prosciutto, artichoke, and basil pizza and it was cooked to perfection in a wood burning stove. Is there really any other way?

The next morning was Easter Sunday so my cousin Bashar (who lives in London) and I decided to be the good Catholic children that we are (yeah, I'm still sticking to that story) and go to Easter Sunday mass. I've always wanted to attend a mass at Westminster Abbey, so we planned on heading there a little before the 10:30 mass. Did you know that it was founded in the year 960? That blows my mind! Lucky for us, getting in wasn't that difficult and we were able to sit down for about half of the mass. I managed to sneak in some photos before I was sternly told to stop. 

By this point, I was feeling pretty British so my cousin and I decided to partake in a typical Sunday tradition for our post-church meal; Sunday Roast! We took a brief walk to Brown's, which is a chain of restaurants around England that is known for their classic take on food, especially roasts. I learned that I'm obsessed with Yorkshire pudding.

After our lunch, my cousin and I parted ways to get some rest before meeting up later, but of course I couldn't go back to my hotel without doing some more sightseeing (aka shopping). Most stores were closed for the holiday, but I managed to find a couple that were open and finally make my first purchase in England (a beautiful black blazer perfect for upcoming work presentations I have to make.)

A few hours later, we were getting hungry which is hard to believe after the amount of Yorkshire pudding  and cheesy cauliflower I ate. We decided to stick around his neighborhood and went to an Asian restaurant that Bashar likes called the Four Seasons where they are known for their roasted duck. They prominently show a newspaper clipping that declares their duck 'the best duck in the world.' With a superlative claim like that, I didn't have much choice, so I ordered the roasted duck. It was great, but the best? I can't say. What I will say is that the service leaves something to be desired. One of the waiters literally walked away when we were talking to him!

I headed back to Leeds this afternoon, but am already looking forward to going to London soon. Luckily for me, I have to be here at least once a month for work. What a great Easter weekend! Hope you had one too!

Week 1: Check!

It's hard to believe that only one week ago I was still in Ann Arbor, finishing up some last minute packing and saying bye to friends. I feel like I've lived a lifetime in a week!

Dublin was so much fun and it was a great opportunity to spend some time with my new team and learn more specifics of my new job. I didn't get to do much site seeing this time around, but I'll be going back next month for a mini-vacation, so I'll get to see a bit more than I did this time. I did manage to get a good picture though from the patio of one of the Google buildings in Dublin.

On Friday, I flew from Dublin to Leeds so that I'd have the weekend to get settled before starting work on Monday. My apartment is in the City Centre and only a 15 minute walk from work. Check out some pictures of my apartment!

I did a "dry run" to work this morning to make sure I know how to get there tomorrow. I also wanted to spend some time getting to know the city, so I just walked. And walked. And walked. It was a beautiful sunny day in Leeds so it was nice to take everything in by foot. My first impression is that Leeds is a lot more cosmopolitan than I initially thought. I learned today that the city has the most green space and parks in its city limits of any European city other than Vienna. 

Leeds has also positioned itself as a shopper's paradise in the North, so I'll feel right at home! There are multiple arcades set within buildings that have beautiful Victorian architecture. For those of you from Ann Arbor, the arcades are like Nickel's Arcade, except they are all over the City Centre area. Here are some pictures from my walk around Leeds today.

 A square near my apartment.

 One of the many streets in Leeds that is closed off to traffic. 

Inside the Leeds Corn Exchange, one of only three in the country that operates as a retail space. There are a lot of independent boutiques and restaurants. 

I picked up a magazine called the Style Guide to Leeds which covers some of the major sites, restaurants, shops, and activities happening in Leeds. I spent a lot of time reading it and decided to make a list of the places to check out.

1. Leeds Art Gallery
2. The Millennium Fountain
3. Brasserie Blanc - owned by Raymond Blanc, a Michelin rated chef
4. Kirkgate Market - largest covered market in Europe
5. Jamie's Italian - Jamie Olivier's first restaurant in the Northern England
6. Call Lane - top 5 contender on Google Maps 'Most Hip Street' list
7. Anthony's - family run restaurant with a few locations around the city
8. Victoria Quarter - I spent some time here this past weekend, but it is the Somerset of Leeds, so I will be back
9. Carluccio's - Italian restaurant and market
10. Elland Road Stadium - home of Leeds United, the football team. I'd love to see a game, but the season is winding down
11. Kirkstall Abbey - medieval abbey just outside of the city
12. The Reliance - bar and restaurant

These are places I just learned about today so I'm sure I'll be adding more to the list soon! Wish me luck on my first day of my new role tomorrow!