Happy Birthday, Cheyenne!

Cheyenne celebrated her 6th birthday on Thanksgiving! What a precious furbaby she is! I wish I had pictures of her as a puppy to post, but they are all back in Denver. When we moved to England we knew we could not leave her behind and so now she is an international pup!

Day Out With A New Friend

Angela and I met through an Americans in London meetup group. We only actually communicated online in the beginning, as she was still in the US but preparing to move to England. She married an Englishman last year and moved over this October. While neither of us actually live in the city of London, we are just short train rides away. Shortly after she arrived and got settled in we were able to get together for some retail therapy and recently met up for a day out in London. It is great to be able to share all of the experiences (and emotions) with another American living abroad. Of course, I am like the mentor now that I've been here a year and a half. I have a lot of observations and such to share. I also love being a tour guide and was happy to show her around London. We covered a lot of ground, but there is still so much more to see!

HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge

We met in Trafalgar Square to attend the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. After viewing the exhibit we walked through Leicester Square to Soho and Chinatown. We had lunch at one of the many chinese restaurants, but unfortunately the food left much to be desired. From there we walked to Whitehall and the City of Westminster. Of course, I pointed out the major attractions as we passed. We walked along the river all the way down to the Tower Hill area. I'm sure you wouldn't quite understand the distance if you've never been, but there were so many things to see along the way - the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, HMS Belfast, the Golden Hinde, Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We decided to stay in town for dinner and wait for the after-work rush to pass (4pm-7pm). We dined at a great Italian restaurant in a little harbor near the Tower Bridge. We had a wonderful day out and I can't wait for another one! (Thanks, Angela!)

Tower Bridge

Our view while sipping on Chai Tea Lattes from Starbucks

Return to Dublin

Guess I better update this blog, especially since we are going away this weekend for my birthday and I'm sure I'll have lots to tell when we return. Well, I returned to Dublin back in early October to continue my family research. It has been such a special thing for me to undertake. Both sets of grandparents died when I was young and so did my father. So, the more I can find out about any branch of my family tree the better. I am tracing my maternal grandfather's family, whose parents immigrated to Pennsylvania from Ireland sometime between 1902-1910. I have been fortunate to find birth records, one showing that I share a birthday with a great-great uncle (November 24). On this recent trip, I also found land records pertaining to the land my family occupied at the time of my earliest records. It appears that the land on which they lived from the mid-1800s is still in the family today! I even have a land map showing the plots. My dream would be to go to the townland of Fahy, in the parish of Clifden in Galway County, and walk the ground that my ancestors did. I'm sure I share dreams of many family researchers when I imagine going to the "homeland" and meeting people that share the same family ties.

Irish Life Center

Unfortunately, I only allowed myself one day longer than the last trip. I'm sure I can make a couple weeks or more out of it, though. One place and record leads you to another place and then back to somewhere you've already been before, and around it goes. Even though I was on my own, I did not have to spend the evenings holed up in my hotel room. Matt's company has an office in Dublin and I've previously met some of his colleagues from the city. The first night I met up with Vanessa, who is from Denver like ourselves. The second night I met up with Marta, who is from Poland. She and I went to a Cajun-Creole restaurant near the Temple Bar area, for something new and different. On my last evening, Vanessa invited me to her home in Booterstown to dine with her family. Booterstown is basically a suburb of Dublin and just a short tram ride away. I had a lovely time all around and hope it isn't the last time I see them or visit Dublin.

Yummm. Buttermilk pancakes and bacon! (No I didn't eat all of that bacon.)

View from my hotel room - Tanta Zoe's (Cajun-Creole Restaurant)

Arriving in Booterstown

Stratford-Upon-Avon

On Saturday, September 20th we found ourselves on the road again. We had cabin fever and decided to drive to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's Birthplace, for the afternoon. I don't know why we do this, but we end up sitting around all morning debating what to do then finally decide after lunch, which inevitably includes a drive of more than an hour. From there we scramble to shower and such and then jump in the car. Our drive to Stratford-upon-Avon, not to be confused with Stratford, was about a two-hour drive one way. Once we got there we parked near the town centre and strolled through the high street, stopping at Shakespeare's birth home, and continuing to the riverfront.

At the riverfront we decided to hire (a.k.a. rent) a boat for a while. Our options were a row boat or a motorized boat. Feeling adventurous, and wanting to save a bit of money, we chose the row boat for an hour. Our plan was that Matt would row for the first half hour and I would for the second half. Well, it definitely looks easier than it is. Matt did a great job getting us around but when I took over we were still in practically the same spot after five minutes and heading towards moored canal boats. Oops! So, Matt graciously rowed us back to the dock. Unfortunately we only managed to use about 35 minutes of our time, but we had great fun doing it. When stepping out of the boat Matt told the guy "that he ran out of gas"! Haha! Cheyenne enjoyed the ride as she watched all of the swans floating about. Given the chance, she would have jumped out of the boat and swam after them! So, now we can say we rowed the River Avon! You know, it doesn't take much to entertain me and I am a sucker for any boat ride or carriage ride. Whatever new city we go to I always try to talk Matt into one or the other or both. Usually he just responds with " if you've seen/done one, you've seen/done them all". I would disagree, of course.

A Home away from Home away from Home

You read that right, Matt now has a flat in Gdansk. He has taken on a new role within the company and will be in Gdansk even more often now. Actually, this started back in August/September, but I am just now getting around to posting about it. On our August trip we went flat-hunting and in early September we moved into the flat. I say 'we' only because I was there for the first week (Sept 6-12) and the housewarming party, but it really is Matt's place and I have not been there since. This is a company flat and I believe that they may keep it on even after Matt's departure. It is within walking distance from the office and Matt says that from the time he gets on the elevator at work to the time he is entering the flat building it is 6 minutes.

So, not only do we have a home in England away from our home in Colorado, we now have a home in Poland. (Our heart still lies with the one in Colorado.) It definitely makes those weekly travels easier on Matt because he has his own place to go back to after a long day at work, rather than any given hotel for the week. Plus, it is a pretty nice place overall and is a new build. In fact, the complex is a gated community and is still in development.

Matt has really fallen for Poland. Well, all we've seen really is the Tri-City area, but the people are friendly and happy, the food is wonderful, and he has a great relationship with his colleagues. I think it will be hard for him to leave next year. Hopefully we'll always have friends in the area and can return for a visit.

Okay, it is too early to get emotional about leaving, so I'll talk about our housewarming party. Apparently this is quite a tradition and some of his colleagues were disappointed that he did not have a party scheduled. So, with just a day notice we invited everyone over on a Saturday evening. There are about 100 people in his office, so we had no idea how many people would actually show up. Our flat is very tiny, as you would expect, so that was the only thing we were nervouse about. In the end, I think there were 30 or so people there. It just so happened, though, that it was the warmest night in a while and it was quite warm in the place even with windows and doors open. At about 1:30am when most of the guest were gone, the few stragglers invited us out to continue the party in Sopot. We hailed taxis and went to a bar/club in Sopot. It wasn't what I was expecting, but we ended up dancing and drinking until about 3:30am. Matt and I finally said our goodbyes and went home to sleep. We left all of the cleaning up for the morning!

I flew in that Saturday morning and we had just enough time to do a bit of grocery shopping (quite interesting), tidy up the flat, and prepare the bits of food we purchased. Of course we served Polish Kielbasa! We knew our guests would probably bring lots of vodka and wine, so we didn't purchase much of that. There is still beer, wine, and vodka left in the flat. We'll need to throw another party just to get rid of it! Unfortunately we can't bring it all back with us.

Vacation in France & Germany (+Austria)

Hello all,

Since Amber has been slacking off lately with the blog, I decided to write something about our trip in August to France, Germany and Austria.

Just to start off, I have to say that I didn't turn my blackberry on the entire time, so I was able to thoroughly enjoy the trip!!!

Train at Ebbsfleet

We started off taking the train from London to Paris; it was an early departure at 6:30am, but meant we had a full day in Paris. The Eurostar travels at about 185 MPH between the two cities, but so smooth that I slept the whole way for the 2 hour journey. After checking into our quaint hotel (with a 'view' of the Eiffel tower.....if you hang out the window far enough), we started by checking out one of the most visited attractions in Paris. We decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator up to the 1st and 2nd levels to avoid the long lines, but the walk wasn't so bad. From the 2nd level, you can oversee much of Paris and really get a good panoramic view of Paris. We had lunch on the 2nd level before descending back for a bus tour of Paris and to head back for a nap before our bike tour that evening. I also stopped by the local grocery store to buy some food for dinner and forgot to weigh the bananas before getting to the checkout. It was one of those embarrasing moments where the clerk was trying to tell me in French that I needed to weigh the bananas while lots of people were behind me in line, but I had no clue what he was saying. Luckily, I figured out the fruit weighing machine and made my way on. That evening, we decided to do a 'Fat Tire' bike tour. It is run by American students and mainly contains only American tourists and they take you all over Paris on beach cruiser bikes. It was 4 hours long, but included stops along the way to look at various sites, a ride on a river boat cruise along the Seine, and also a stop for ice cream at a famous Paris parlor. The distance wasn't very long for me as an avid bicyclist, but needless to say, Amber wasn't able to walk very well the next day due to the stair climb and the bike ride. It was really fun, though, and I would recommend it as a way to see new cities.

View from our Hotel

Eiffel Tower at Night

One of the other main highlights of our trip to Paris was a day trip to the Palace of Versailles. It included the castle of King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette and also on the grounds was the chateau of Marie and several other homes and a large garden area and ponds. We had lunch sitting by the pond and watching tourists paddling boats around the pond. The gardens were quite large and for the horticulturists out there, I image it is a splendid site to visit.

Palace and Gardens in Versaille

Other stops in Paris included the Louvre (former palace now an art gallery), Champs-Elysées (the famous street mall), Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, and many other sites we saw on the bike and bus tours, and river cruise.

At the Louvre

The next part of our adventure took us off to Berlin. We decided that we enjoyed training so much in Italy that we would train as much as possible on this trip as well, so we took the overnight train from Paris to Berlin. We left Paris at about 8pm and ended up in Berlin the next morning at 8am. We had our own private room with 2 bunkbeds and to be honest, it was really relaxing and enjoyable. I had my doubts about it and it was a little pricey, but I would definitely do it again.

In the train sleeper car

Once in Berlin, we were able to start using some of the German we had learned. Amber and I took lessons for about 8 months and I spent about 8 months travelling to Germany for work, so we know some of the language. Berlin is full of historical sites and quite a unique city. You can also still notice the differences between east and west Berlin. Our visits included the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag/Bundestag (government building), Checkpoint Charlie (one of the entry points controlled by the US), and the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. We also did a bus tour and quite a bit of walking around the city. While there, I intoduced Amber to one of the favorite German restuarants, Vapiano. It is really Italian food, but they are based in Germany. While spending my time in Frankfurt, the team I was with enjoyed visiting the restaurant as the food is really good and the atmosphere as well. It is a mix between upscale fast food and casual dining with a custom made pizza, pasta, and salad bar where they make your food to order. Their website says 100 are coming to the US, so I am looking forward to going there when we move back.

Night view of the Brandenburg Gate

After Berlin, we made our way to Munich. This was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most. Munich is known for their weissbeer (white beer). In a tight race with Belgium beers, weissbeer is one of my favorite beers. They also serve it in 1 liter mugs and so Amber insisted I try at least 1 liter per day, but may days, the 1st wasn't good enough, so I got a 2nd. Munich has the largest beergarden (Hofbrauhaus) in the world and of course we had to visit it. We only had a mug of beer and a pretzel while there, but it was a site nonetheless to see. We also tried German meatloaf, which is really a huge slab of Bologna, which was a disappointment for us considering we were looking forward to 'American' meatloaf.

Litre of beer at the Hofbrauhaus

While in Munich, we visited the memorial site setup at Dachau which was the first concentration camp during WWII. It was a somber experience, but really brought the history we learned into perspective. Definitely something you have to see before you truly have a sense for what happened during the times. The memorial is setup really well and tells the history of what happened through the camps timeperiod, but also some of the buildings are still there on the actual site, and you can go through them.

Entry to Dachau Memorial Site

Also from Munich, we took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria, again by train. Amber wanted to do the Sound of Music tour, so we made our way to famous Salzburg to check out the sites. We took a guided tour of the sites made famous by the movies. We used the Bob's Special Tours and they use 8 passenger vans instead of the big buses, so the experience was very personable. I didn't know this, but the Sound of Music is the 3rd best selling movie of all time domestically (behind Gone with the Wind and Star Wars -- adjusted for inflation), but many Austrians have never seen or heard of it and don't really know what all the hoopla in their town is all about (according to our guide). I like Austria (have visited Vienna several times for work) and have seen the movie, so it was actually interesting for me as well. Oh and by the way, there was weissbeer along the way, so that is all I needed to be happy. The tour not only took us around the town of Salzburg, but also up into the mountains surrounding Salzburg and into the Lake District for some wonderful views of the lakes. We saw the HQ of Red Bull which sits in the middle of a pond on concrete pods overlooking the lakes, what an inspiring view.

Lake District near Salzburg

Other attractions in Munich included visits to the Olympic village from 1972, the BMW manufacturing site, the Chinese Pagoda (with really good bratwurst curry and more beer), the English gardens, and the Museum of Transportation.

Meal at the Chinese Pagoda

Finally at the end of the Munich trip, we had to head back to London to collect our daughter and begin work again. It was a really enjoyable trip with lots of memorable destinations. Our next trip will be for Amber's 30th birthday in November and we are going to............not so fast, it's a surprise, so you'll have to wait and see in November. Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures in the photo books.

View of the Castle in Salzburg

Matt

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR COMPLETE PHOTO ALBUMS FROM THE TRIP! Link to Picasa Web Albums on the left hand side of the page.

Shakespeare Festival

Matt and I returned to Gdansk the week of August 4th-8th. He was there for work, of course, but I was looking forward to the Shakespeare Festival and Saint Dominic's Fair as well as sites that I did not see during my trip in the spring. We were staying in Gdansk this time, as opposed to Sopot in March. This was a great base for exploring the city and getting around, especially since our hotel was so close to the main train station and main shopping street.

Dominican Fair

Living Statues

This one is for the ADPIs!

On my list of things to see this time were The Roads to Freedom exhibit and the Westerplatte (where WWII began), mentioned in more detail below. I strolled through the Dominican Fair one day on my way to the waterfront. Old town was packed with street stalls, buskers, entertainers, and of course loads of tourists/bargain hunters. At the waterfront, I purchased a return ticket on one of the touristy pirate ships that takes visitors to the Westerplatte. The ride to the Westerplatte was about 30 minutes long and took us along the coast while the captain pointed out the Gdansk shipyard and many other interesting sites. I spent an hour on the Westerplatte before returning.

Entry to The Roads to Freedom exhibit

The pirate ship to Westerplatte

Gdansk Shipyard

Bunker on Westerplatte

One evening I made plans with my polish friend, Elzbieta, to see one of the Shakespeare Performances. We chose Romeo & Juliet being performed by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. We chose an English performance since that was the only language I would be able to understand, although I was never quite sure how old English could translate to other languages. Also, the performance was set outside in a park in Gdynia. It wasn't your traditional stage performance, which made the production even more interesting. After the play, we strolled along the sea to Gdynia pier and then found our way to a Thai? restaurant for dinner. (My memory fails me now and can't remember if it was Thai or Indian or something.) We took the train back toward Gdansk and parted ways for the evening.

Romeo & Juliet stage

Gdynia Beach

Me and Elzbieta "Ela"

It is always a pleasure joining Matt in Poland as I generally get to see his colleagues in the Gdansk office. I have formed a friendship with a couple of them, since they were on the original UK team and training here in Basildon last year. (The Shared Service Center in Gdansk is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month!) Ela is one of those special friends and I hope we can will remain in touch even after I return to the States.

To know more about items mentioned above, please continue reading. Excerpts taken from Gdansk In Your Pocket.

Roads to Freedom exhibit. Charting the course of events that began with the sacrifice of Poland to the Soviets at the end of WWII and leading through to the formation of the 3rd Polish Republic in 1989, this subterranean exhibition does a very good job of explaining the events that influenced and shaped the people of Poland and which resulted in the incredible movement that was Solidarity.

Westerplatte. A large protective arm smothering Gdanks's Nowy Port to its south, the peninsula of Westerplatte first sprang to fame as a popular health resort in the middle of the 19th century, although it's as a military zone and the place where the opening shots of WWII were fired that Westerplatte is more notoriously rememberd. Shortly before five o'clock in the morning on September 1, 1939, the gErman warship Schleiswig-Holstein, supposedly visiting Gdansk on a good-will mission, opened fire on Westerplatte, and the rest as they say is history.

Shakespeare Festival. August sees the annual Shakespeare Festival which has developed quite a tradition and reputation both in Poland and abroad. It begins on the first Saturday of August and is a tribute to England's great bard. In this 12th edition of the festival, artists from different cultures and continents from the UK to Japan, USA, France, spain, Romania, Armenia, Ukraine, Zambia and Poland met in Gdansk. The main events took place in Gdansk, including workshops, lectures and meetings, and as the nights wore on there were further meetings and concerts around the Tri-city.

Saint Dominic's Fair. The Dominican Fair is the largest outdoor trade fair in Oland, and drawing some 150,000 visitors daily it's also one of the most popular in Europe. The event dates from 1260 when Pope Alexander IV granted the Dominican Order the power to absolve the sins of whoever made donations to the church of the poor. This annual event soon became a religious hoiday for the people of Gdansk, and a trade fair soon built up around it.

Woburn Safari Park

I almost forgot to mention our day out at the Woburn Safari Park! We are always looking for something new and entertaining to do on the weekends and have been considering a safari park. Woburn is about 1.5 hours from our house so we decided to drive there one Saturday in June. The concept is that you can drive your own vehicle through an African Safari (4 miles). Most of the animals are allowed to roam freely and others are only separated by cables. You are prohibited from getting out of your cars and are asked to keep your windows closed at all times. There is an area at the end of the drive - Australian Walkabout - where you can park your car and have a picnic, but more importantly/interestingly walk around and "interact" with some of the smaller animals.

I was very psyched about this little trip but it takes more to impress Matt. He was a little skeptical about it, especially since we heard that when you enter the monkey area that they jump on your car and mess with your antenna and stuff. (You have the option of bypassing that area.) Also, I think he was hoping for more of an authentic safari where you can ride in a jeep among the animals - you know, reach out and touch them. (This is the guy who was upset that we didn't encounter any black bears while camping in Yellowstone.) But, I prefer to stay safe and sound in my car and not rub noses with the bears, lions, tigers, etc. However, it has to be said that you can pay extra to ride in a jeep with one of the rangers and get in closer contact with some of the animals.

Overall, I enjoyed our outing. It was cool to see some of the animals walking right next to the car. My pictures aren't necessarily that great because I had to take them through the window, but I hope it gives you an idea of the park. We happened to catch a lot of the animals during their afternoon nap so there wasn't a lot of action. You have the ability to drive through the trail as many times as you like but we only opted for once. The trail is one-way and there is enough room for two cars - most people got the concept that one side is used for stopping and viewing while the other lane is used for passing. Well, that all worked pretty well until we got into the monkey enclosure. There were two lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. The problem was that the monkeys seemed to be the only ones who weren't down for a nap and were out for a lot of games. They were jumping from car to car. So, basically people were either stopped b/c there was a monkey on their car and they thought it was cute or stopped b/c they were trying to take pictures of one on another car. We just wanted to keep slowly moving through. We were in a rental afterall and didn't think it would be "cute" if a monkey broke an antenna or windshield wiper. So, we are watching all of this happening and were in the lane that was slowly moving and it was pretty much inevitable that we'd have one of the jovial creatures on our car. It leapt from the car in front of us directly onto our windshield! It was staring me in the face! It made it's way across the roof of the car and who knows what it was doing. Matt was having none of this so started honking the car horn for the person in front of us to move out of the way so we could get out. I reminded him that the only time we should honk our horn was in case of an emergency - so I have to say that I was a bit embarassed. Haha! It was rather frustrating how you were "trapped" and at the mercy of the car(s) in front of you. Between that and the "lack of activity" of the other animals, Matt was done after the first drive through. We did both agree that it would probably be a lot more fun with children, though. It was all quite an experience!

PITTSBURGH

I recently returned from a two-week trip to see my family in Pittsburgh. I haven't spent two weeks with them since I was in college. Matt was not able to join me on this trip due to work commitments and I probably would have stayed longer had we not had Cheyenne back in the UK to pick up from the carers. My family told me the visit went by too quickly and that I should stay for a week longer! Who knows the next time I'll get to stay that long. Most of our visits are 4-6 days long, once every 1 - 1.5 years. My cousin promises to bring her boys out to Denver next summer, if we've returned to the States by then.

with my Mom

with Aunt Rosanne (a.k.a. RoRo)

So, during my stay I spent plenty of quality time (although there never is enough) with my Mom, Aunt, and my cousin and her family. I was hoping to spend a bit of time each day in the pool, but everyone said I brought the rain with me so the weather was quite a bit cooler than it had been prior to my arrival. I hear it is back up in the 90s again.

The DiPippas - Tino, Zach, Chaily, Justin, Adrian

We did quite a bit of shopping, although for me it was window shopping for the most part. We had a big family day out at Kennywood Amusement Park, which I haven't been to since I worked there the summer of 2000 during college. When I was little we used to go there every summer and it will always be my favorite. I have such fond memories of being there with my grandmother and still get a little teary-eyed on the Whip, which was one of her favorite rides. Sappy, I know. Anyway, I took the boys to a pottery painting place for some bonding time. I got to see the two youngest play tee ball and several of us went to a Pirates baseball game.

The Skycoaster! Amber, Donna, and Tino

The family (minus my Mom) at the end of a long day at Kennywood

My cousin, Chaily, hosted a family reunion on the 4th of July. She and her husband, Adrian, have worked very hard on their house over the years. Last year she started home schooling the boys, for a number of reasons, and so they converted their basement from a Steelers-themed game room to a classroom. Also, the week before the party they started building a deck out back. Adrian had all but one quarter of it completed and it suited us well for a group our size. They have been such gracious hosts over the years now, inviting family members over for holiday functions throughout the year. I only wish Matt and I could be there more often to share in the festivities. It was quite a tearful goodbye with everyone as I never really know when I'll see them next. I'm very close to my family and it saddens me to think about all the things that I miss out on, but I have to look on the brighter side of life and hope that they remain in good health and spirits until my next visit.

All of the cousins! It wasn't the best picture, but that was almost inevitable with that many kids.


Many more pictures at

http://picasaweb.google.com/amber.biviano/PittsburghSummer2008