Blog entries for cybershaz

Air Travel with Furry Friends

cybershaz — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:05:27 GMT

For many of us, pets are an integral part of our lives. I have 2 cats, and they (in theory) have more frequent flier miles than many people I know. Here’s a quick review with the ups, downs and learning curve of pet air travel.

The first time the cats flew, was in 2004 when we moved from Toronto to Milwaukee. I was terrified something would happen to them and spent lots of time talking to my vet and the airline. The regulations to bring a pet into the USA are pretty straightforward, especially from Canada, so I just recommend doing some good research to ensure papers are in order. We flew the quick 1 hour flight on Air Canada and the cats traveled as cargo. For this trip we had discussed, at length, the pros and cons of giving them tranquilizers and decided to do it. Learning number one...I won’t do that again. Not that it harmed them in anyway, but I think it was scarier for them, because not only was their environment strange, but they didn’t feel like themselves either. We had fantastic ground crew in both Toronto and Milwaukee; in Toronto the crew even came into the terminal just before we boarded and told us the cats were safely on the plane. That was a nice touch.

The next trip for the cats was to Brussels, Belgium. We booked onto Continental Airlines from Chicago O’Hare to Newark to Brussels. Continental has an in-depth pet transport program that inspires a lot of confidence, but it is quite pricey. Again, they traveled in cargo but this time we did not tranquilize. Going to Brussels required much more paperwork than coming to the USA, but it was not impossible. Again, the research upfront is key. The service by Continental again was great, however we did encounter problems. Our flight from Chicago to Newark had to emergency land in Cleveland due to a fire in the cockpit! It was really scary to land and have fire trucks chasing us down the runway. However, the gate agents in Cleveland were patient with me as I worried about the cats. She assured me they’d be re-routed with us. Because of the emergency landing, we missed our connection to Brussels in Newark. It was a bit chaotic there, and as a rule I never fly through that airport anymore. We were routed onto a flight to Brussels via Lisbon that night, however were told that the animals had to go straight to Brussels, so they would go on a flight the next evening. They were kenneled in New Jersey. This was very scary for us, but when we landed in Lisbon we called the kennel and spoke with a wonderful lady who was taking care of them.

The next day we went back to Brussels airport to pick them up and it was a red-tape nightmare because they were arriving separate from us. This was another lesson; if you have delays or mis-connects, always try to stay on the same flights as your pets.

Then next trip was from Brussels back to Toronto and we decided to do this via Amsterdam on Northwest Airlines. Knowing we would be taking them through another European Union country, we were proactive and in addition to the papers needed for Canada, we got them EU pet passports. It’s so cute! They actually have their own passports now. We took the Thalys train from Brussels to Amsterdam and this was so simple with the cats. The train stops right at Schiphol airport, where we caught our NWA flight to Toronto. This was the best flight for our furry friends; they arrived in good spirits, without any bladder accidents. We must be getting good at this.

The final trip (so far) for them has been coming back to Milwaukee from Canada. We were experts at the paperwork and decided we’d try traveling with them in-cabin. We lived in a smaller town outside Toronto so we flew from Kitchener to Detroit and then Detroit to Milwaukee on NWA. The cats traveled in carry-on soft-sided bags, that fit under the seats. They didn’t utter a sound and seemed in good spirits the whole time. On our Detroit to Milwaukee flight the flight attendants didn’t even realize they were on board until we mentioned it! They were so well behaved and didn’t seem traumatized at all.

What’s next in their travels around the world? There’s a possibility we’ll be moving to Asia at the end of this year, so that will pose another challenging but necessary trip for the felines. We couldn’t imagine leaving them behind, as they’re such a part of our lives. Kudos to all the vets, airline employees and customs agents that make traveling with a pet possible.

Culinary Delights of Barcelona

cybershaz — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:44:47 GMT

I absolutely love Barcelona. I’ve had the fortune of visiting about 5 times, and it’s become a home away from home when in Europe. On one of my first visits, I took a total shot in the dark from internet searches, and signed up for a culinary tour of the old city, Barri Gotic. The tour started off at about 5pm, when my husband and I met up with our guide, Nadia in a square in Barri Gotic. This was no ordinary tour, as there was no microphone and mini-speaker, no guide holding a flag high as hordes follow and no embarrassing touristy stops. It was a simple private walking tour; just us and our guide. This however, did not come cheap. It cost 97 Euros per person (in the current economy, that’s about $150/person).

The plan was to visit 5 local restaurants / bars, sample their fare, and learn a bit about the city while getting there. Right away we loved Nadia; she was from London but had lived in Barcelona for 10 years. She was also a writer for Time Out, which is a great travel resource in many cities. We started off from the square, walking the cobblestone streets of the Barri Gotic, and winding our way through tiny alleys that had no names. Our first stop was a Galician bar called Bar Celta. Galicia is a region of Spain that’s located in the northwest, on the ocean and bordering Portugal. This is a fiercely proud region (as with many in Spain), and have true love of football (soccer, here in the US), even the walls of the bar were painted in Galician soccer colors. The restaurant was laid out like a lunch counter, with covered display cases spanning across all counters. The specialty here was pulpo (octopus) that is steamed for a day and then sliced and served with sea salt and paprika. While in Bar Celta we sampled the phenomenal pulpo (Yes! Octopus is so good), pimentos (non-spicy peppers that are fried and salted – one in every 20 or so IS very spicy), and Ribiero style white wine. Every time I go back to Barcelona I spend at least one evening at Bar Celta.

Next we walked only a few short blocks down the street to a little corner bar called La Plata. This place was maybe the size of a small living room, and there were locals wall to wall and spilling out onto the street. The specialty here was sardines. There were only a few choices at La Plata and we tried them all; deep fried sardines (head and all) – they tasted like french fries, ‘salad’ which was tomato and onion, and wine, served from a keg in the corner, costing a whopping 25 cents per glass. This is rumored to be one of the oldest bars in Barcelona.

We continued down what I now know is Carrer de la Merce and came upon a place specializing in chorizo and sidra (cider) called El Corval. The preparation of the chorizo consisted of the sausage being put in an earthenware dish, and then adding alcohol to flambé. I have a great picture of my husband stirring the chorizo while it’s on fire. We ate our chorizo with crusty bread and blue cheese. Fantastic. As far as beverage, we had traditional sidre, which is similar to what we know as fermented apple cider (such as Magners or Strongbow). Sidra is a Basque specialty (I’ll talk more about the Basque region momentarily) and is served in a large bottle. The bartender put the glass on the table in front of me, turned his back and then poured the sidra into my glass from over his shoulder. This is the traditional way to pour sidra.

Feeling fully and satisfied, we continued on to our last 2 stops. Continuing in the Basque vein, we headed to Euskal Etxea, the Basque cultural center in Barcelona. Basque is a region in northern Spain, bordering France and the Atlantic Ocean. The Basque region is very nationalist and has seen separatist fighting and violence over many years. Underneath the turmoil of this region, the people are resilient and believe in food and friends. This region is often credited with Tapas; small plates of food shared with friends over time. In many Basque restaurants, as it was in the cultural center we visited, the bar is covered with plates of various foods, served on toothpicks or small spoons. Eating is a bit of a sport, squeezing through people at the bar to get the tasty treats. The food was delicious, and what I found interesting, is that the cost of the tapas was based on how many and what type of toothpicks we had accumulated. Fancy plastic toothpicks were 2 Euros each, wooden toothpicks were 1 Euro each, and things is spoons were more. It was a full honor system, where at the end of our stay we handed them to the bartender for him to add up.

Next we meandered to the final stop of the evening; a cava and anchovy bar called El Xampanyet. By this time it was about 9pm so the place was quite crowded with happy locals. We ordered up our plates of filleted anchovies in oil, and glasses of cava. France is known for champagne, and only ‘sparkling wine’ made in the Champagne region of France can be called as such. In Spain, they have cava. It’s often made in the traditional way of ‘methode champenoise’, which is a natural way to create the bubbles. As a side note, this traditional method will usually give you much nicer, smaller and longer-lasting bubbles, versus other methods. The cava was fantastic and we had many glasses. For the first time of the evening I was not sold on the food; they were very fishy-tasting and a bit to slimy for me.

Thus ended our culinary night in Barcelona and we left the cava bar with a bottle of wine we had purchased, so we could enjoy our great night. The following night we were in line for a classic and famous tapas bar in the Born district, called Cal Pep and ran into some folks from North Carolina. We told them about our tour the night before and they immediately called Nadia and set one up. We heard that they enjoyed it as much as us!

Every time I return to ‘Barca’ I take some time to visit these haunts and try to find some new ones. The investment in this tour was well worth it and I know that Barcelona is a city in which I will never go hungry or thirsty.

Geocaching in Curacao: A Vacation off the Beaten Track

cybershaz — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:37:06 GMT

I’m not sure how many readers out there are familiar with geocaching; here’s a quick 101 from Wikipedia to fill you in:

"Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 650,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the pastime. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.”

Really, it’s a fun treasure hunt and I’ve found in my short few years as a casual geocacher, it’s helped me to see places I would never have found otherwise, both in my backyard and on vacation. One of the most fun geocaching vacations I had, was in Curacao. The island of Curacao is just north of Venezuela, in the southern part of the Caribbean and is part of the Netherlands Antilles. Last year we went to Curacao for what I call a ‘Lobotomy Vacation’. Usually, when I travel I go to see culture, historical sites, and pretty much spend my time on the go, non-stop. For a lobotomy vacation, I plan to go to an all-inclusive resort, drink beer and read books. These are few and far between, but always good for recharging the batteries.

Because I don’t take many of these low-key vacations, I do tend to get bored easily, as I did while in Curacao. So, to remedy that, I rented a car and my husband and I took a trip around the island. Since it’s only 171 square miles, this is easy to do in a day. Before heading to Curacao we had looked up geocache coordinates on a geocaching website and programmed them into the GPS.

Our first cache took us up a very large hill, not too far from our resort, where at the top we found a cacti jungle. Now, I’ll note that when getting geocache information online there are often clues such as. ‘wear long sleeves and pants for this’, however we had only programmed coordinates and not written down clue information (doh!) We decided to make the best of it and spent the next half hour trekking through cacti and jumping out of our skin as large iguanas raced around our feet on the ground. I have to say with certainty I would not have done this if not seeking a cache. Next we went to the north of the island near Westpunt and following the coordinates, found ourselves in a beautiful natural reserve with volcanic rock and blowholes by the sea. This was a multi-cache, where the set of coordinates take you to a location, and instead of finding the treasure right away, you need to do something (i.e. count the steps and add them to the coordinates) to find the next set of coordinates. This adventure took us all over the park and to a very tranquil picnic area in a forest. Finally, we headed back toward our resort for the last cache, which brought us into a very interesting marina area and up a large hill to an abandoned house. It was quite secluded but we felt relieved when we saw another couple there taking pictures. My memory is a bit fuzzy but I believe it was an abandoned psychiatric home. On the other side of the house (toward the cache) was a breathtaking view of a bay and crystal clear waters.

Through all these adventures in Curacao we found places we would not have had any other reason to go to, and that’s why I love geocaching. People place caches in spots that hold importance to them, so it’s like looking at a location through the eyes of someone else. My father-in-law has embraced geocaching wholeheartedly and had places some caches in wonderful locations in Ontario; if you’re ever been near Gravenhurst, ON you know the natural beauty of the Canadian shield and it’s precambrian rock. So next time you go on holidays, either locally in Wisconsin to a place you’ve been many times, or to a new destination, consider finding some geocaching coordinated (don't forget to print out the clues) and taking your GPS along. You never know where the trail may take you!

Do you geocache? I’d love readers to use the talkback feature to post about their favorite geocaching locales.

Tales in Translation

cybershaz — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:43:42 GMT

Although this blog isn’t about travel, per se, I had to post it as throughout my travels I’ve encountered some interesting misunderstandings in language. As a rule, I always try to learn at least a handful of words in the local language, however sometimes situations warrant more than a few words, and other times, a local person wants to practice their English. Here are my top 5 language foibles:

Tokyo, Japan – The Best Rejection
I was shopping in the Harajuku district of Tokyo in a clothing store, however I am not the small stature of most Japanese women (thus realizing not much would fit me). I did find a shirt that I really liked and while holding it up a salesgirl came over to me asking if I needed help. I told her that I was trying to figure out if it would fit me and her reply was “No, you are much too glamorous for that shirt”. Now that’s the kind of rejection that suits me just fine.

Brussels, Belgium – Shrinking Clothes
My husband and I had the opportunity to live in Brussels on a 9-month work assignment, and were living in a very French area of the city, in an apartment with a French landlord who did not speak English. Growing up in Canada, our French skills are passable, but certainly not fluent. One day our clothing dryer broke, so my husband had to call the landlord. He told the landlord that the ‘dessicateur des vetements’ was broken. The landlord chuckled and promptly arrived to complete repairs. A few weeks later over dinner we were talking and a lightbulb went off ... the correct word for clothes dryer is ‘secheuse’; he had told the landlord that our ‘clothing dehydrator’ was broken.

Paris, France – Undead at an ATM
Continuing with French, I was in Paris with friends and needed to use and ATM. A group of us were standing in the vestibule although I was the only one in need of the machine. As I was finishing up, a lady came in and stood behind everyone, lining up. As I completed my transaction I said ‘Nous sommes fini’, intending to mean 'We are finished’ so she would know it wasn’t a big line. She looked at us very strangely as it dawned on me that I had told her we were all dead. ‘Nous avons’ is the correct way to say ‘We have’, instead of ‘Nous sommes’ which means ‘We are’; a colloquial meaning for someone being dead.

Tripoli, Libya – Time Puzzles
We have the fortune of visiting Tripoli for a day, and as a tangent to the language story, I will note that it was a fantastic visit. With it not being a very tourist focused location, we decided the best way to see the city in a limited amount of time would be to hire a taxi to drive us around. We quickly found the taxi stand, although found that no one spoke English, and our Arabic is almost non existent. After some miming and writing on the dust of the car window, we were on the same page as far as needing a taxi. The driver then asked us ‘How many o’clock?’ Puzzled we looked at our watches, and it was around 10am. Noticing we didn’t understand he continued on asking ‘You want 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock?’ until we finally realized, it was his way of asking how many hours we wanted the taxi for. To this day we still joke about o’clock being hours.

Krakow, Poland – Not So Cheery
I have been to Poland a few times on business, and find Krakow to be a lovely city. The English language skills of many people are quite good, but I’ve still tried to learn a bit of Polish. One of the staples (of any language, in my view) is how to toast at dinner; of course for us it’s Cheers! I felt that I had my Polish ‘cheers’ down and one night at dinner with a group of people, I kicked off the toast with a big hearty ‘Nasdarovia!’ However, silence followed with the table looking at me strangely and I soon found out that I had mispronounced the toast. I should have said ‘Nasdrovia’ (minus the second ‘a’), since adding the second ‘a’ turned it into a Russian toast, which is not taken well in Poland.

Johannesburg's Beauty and Sadness

cybershaz — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:06:40 GMT

I’m continuing my week of blogging for a few reasons; firstly having a contest to win a vacation is never a deterrent, and secondly, I feel like I’ve been to some interesting places, and this is a great venue in which to share those adventures. I have to say thanks to OMC for putting this incentive out there, as I will continue to blog even after the contest closes.

I thought I’d share my thoughts on a trip I took to South Africa on business, as it’s probably where I’ve felt the most joy and pain at the same time. It’s an absolutely stunning country of natural resources and wildlife, scarred by human sadness. I spent a week in and around the area of Johannesburg, lucky enough to have a local colleague taking me around.

The weekend started off with a visit to Pilanesberg Game Reserve, where I came face-to-face with many animals including giraffe, spring boks (the national animal and name of their famous rugby team), elephants and hippos. It was a breathtaking experience in nature. There’s nothing like stopping at a café in the middle of the wilderness for some tea, with a giraffe standing behind you! Following the park, we spent a few hours relaxing in Sun City, which is a waterpark and resort type area not far away.

Sunday I treated myself to a day at a spa in Johannesburg where tranquility was in abundance. Never before have I experienced a facial and pedicure at the same time, and I think I caught myself drifting off (and snoring) at least a few times! The excellent treatments were followed by a light lunch on a beautiful sun deck.

So far I’m sure my experiences sound wonderful, however during all of this time I talked at great length with my hostess, as well as others I encountered. All had stories of car-jackings, robberies and other unpleasant experiences. While we were stopped at a traffic light (or ‘robot’ as she calls them) a guy came in front of the car and was pointing at her headlight as if it was out. I asked if she should check her headlight and she advised he was just trying to get us to roll down the window. Later we checked and there was nothing wrong with the car. At one point I asked my colleague if she would stop for the police at night, should they try to pull her over. Her answer was ‘no way’. Ironically, when I saw her a few months later, she told me that exact situation had happened to her, and she did not pull over. They followed her and once she was in a public place she stopped. She asked why they were pulling her over and they had no response and drove away. Also while I was there, another colleague had his entire house robbed. As you drive around the city it’s evident that most homes have a wall or wires around them to stop intruders, however even with this, a gun through the gate if someone rings, is very effective. A truck pulled up to his house while his maid was tied up, and for 2 hours they cleaned out his house, down to his socks. Although these things happen, everyone I talked to loves this country so much; they accept it as a part of everyday life.

Near the end of my visit I had the opportunity to visit Soweto; the famous township of revolution and human spirit. Throughout my stay I had a driver to take me to and from work, as public taxis are not necessarily safe. He was from Soweto and showed me around. Out of my whole time in South Africa, this visit had to have been the most powerful. Talking to the people of the township and seeing the differences in living conditions (from shacks with no electricity to beautiful houses) was amazing. The pinnacle was visiting the house where Nelson Mandela grew up. I don’t know what it was, but as soon as I set foot inside I could not stop crying. He was always a hero to me growing up as a child, but I didn’t expect this visceral reaction. Since my visit I have done research and there are now many quaint bed and breakfast locations in Soweto, and should I return I will without a doubt stay there.

As I journeyed home after a week in this beautiful land, and could see why so many people stay. Through the scars of human battle, the true spirit of survivors and believers can still be seen.

A Romantic Weekend in the Windy City

cybershaz — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:03:44 GMT

This past weekend marked my 8th wedding anniversary, and we thought long and hard how to celebrate. In the past we've always tried obvious romatic spots (Bermuda, Sundara Spa, etc.) however this year because of limited time to getaway, we opted for a trip to Chicago.

A getaway to Chicago may be obvious to some, however as transplants to Milwaukee (from Toronto), we probably haven't been there as much as most locals. Thus, we were excited for this trip!

We started out by taking the train, to save the headaches of driving and parking. As it was a weekend (Sat - Sun) trip, we knew that the train is not catered and they allow food / beverages to be brought on board. I have to admit, it was a great romantic start to the day, as our beverages were mimosas for the ride down.

Upon arriving in Chicago we checked in at the Conrad Hilton, which is on Rush Street, attached to Nordstrom. What a great spot on the Magnificent Mile. I have to say the hotel had impressive service; especially since I was there on my Hilton Hhonors reward points and not paying anything! It didn't matter to them, and when checking in the whole front desk and concierge greeted us with 'Happy Anniversary'. Later that night they left fruit, sparkling water and a nice note in our room.

Saturday afternoon was spent wandering around the Magnificent Mile, and admiring the tulips in full bloom. There are very interesting art displays among them as well. For dinner, we had reservations at Blackbird restaurant, the culinary genius of Chef Paul Kahan.

Upon arriving at Blackbird, we were seating right at the full length window, and I was happily surprised as they swtiched our white linens to black, since our clothing would show white fibers. The entire staff was pleasant and the restaurant felt alive with a healthy buzz. Dinner started with an amuse bouche of garlic soup, with salmon belly and puffed rice - delicious! I wish it was a regular on the menu.

Following that I tried their fennel bisque with razor clams, candied black olives, marcona almonds and pickled ramps. The soup was rich, and a bit large, but the flavors were delightful. I was a bit disappointed that the razor clams were pureed into the bisque as I would have loved to eat one from the shell. As a main I tried the grilled wagyu flatiron steak, with ramp kimchi, buttermilk spaetzle, chicory and green grapes. It was a divine dish for meat lovers, but I would have loved more seasoning on the steak. The quality was there as it was perfectly tender at medium-rare.

For dessert I was torn among the offerings and our waitress recommended the kalamata olive cake with rhubarb, toffee and buttermilk ice cream. I was hesitant (sure, I love olives, but in a cake!?) but decided to give it a go. It was my favorite part of the whole meal! Spongy light cake that almost tasted like blueberries, along with beautifully carmelized rhubarb. I didn't really eat the ice cream as it was to rich.

All-in-all it was a wonderful night, and to make it even more special, the couple sitting next to us were also celebrating an anniversary and were from Toronto!

The next morning we were booked into Nordstrom Spa for a couples massage which was the perfect end to the weekend. The experience started with footbaths and warm neck pillows. Next we were whisked off to a massage room and enjoyed 60 minutes of relaxation. A great ending touch after the massage was the bottle of water for our trip home - a great bonus to stay hydrated.

So, ended our trip back to Milwaukee on the Amtrak and I was blissfully relaxed, satisfied and pleasantly surprised with Chicago for our romantic weekend.

Window into the Middle East

cybershaz — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:57:40 GMT

I feel like I'm a somewhat seasoned traveller, however a glaringly missed destination from my list has been the Middle East. We hear lots of bad stories and stereotypes about this part of the world, so I thought I'd put it to the test. This past March my husband and I spent a week exploring the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain.

We started our adventure with the long trip to Dubai (U.A.E.), flying Northwest/KLM from Milwaukee to Detroit to Amsterdam to Dubai. All told with airport waits, about a 24 hour trip in coach class. I could talk in length about the virtues of each of these places, but to make life easy here's the short of our highlights / must sees.

In Dubai we visited the Burj Al Arab; the world's only 7 star hotel. It's about $2000/night and up for a room, and you can't get into the hotel without a room or meal reservation, so we opted for afternoon tea ($100/person) and truly enjoyed feeling papmered. We also spent some time at the beach, which is wonderfully kept, and has crystal clear waters. A lot of our time was spent exploring Dubai, as it is easy, safe and affordable. We explored a touristy souk (shopping area) as well as a more traditional/local one. Both were fun, however the local souk was a great place to test our hand at barganing for a great price. This is a world-class city with every cuisine one can imagine. We opted for a lot of local / middle-eastern cuisine and enjoyed the hookahs available at most places to try to wonderful flavors of shisha.

Using Dubai as our centrepoint, we also did day trips to Oman and Bahrain flying on a low-budget carrier called Air Arabia. We found Bahrain to be very similar to Dubai from a modern-city perspective. As with Dubai, we felt very safe and found all people to be extremely friendly.

For our trip to Oman, we hired a day-guide from Desert Thunder Oman, and planned a day of visiting the mountains and desert. This truly exceeded our expectations. This is a country I'm dying to go back to because of the warmness of the people and the gorgeous surroundings. The mountains were jagged and awesome, with dry riverbeds (wadis) throughout that we off-roaded on. The desert was breathtaking and we also did some heart-stopping dune-bashing that couldn't last long enough. Since we had the luxury of a local bedouin guide, we ensured that the food we ate was local (and cheap), which gave us the true flavors of the country.

I could literally write paragraphs on this trip, however I'm sure most OMC readers aren't looking for an essay. In short, I found all stereotypes of the middle east smashed in one swift trip. Never have I experienced such warmness from locals, openness to other cultures and true pride in what they've accomplished as countries. As with any country we visit, we made sure to learn a few polite words in Arabic and tried to be respectful of cultural norms (I didn't cover my head, but didn't show lots of upper leg and shoulders to be respecful, as a woman).

Flying home after our trip I was so happy to have found a place that I will definitely visit again, but also sad that so few people know how wonderful it is.