Euro Christmas

So it's Christmas time. (And in Amsterdam, they actually call it Christmas - it's not Happy Holidays, no matter what religion or not religion you are, it's Merry Christmas.) Anyway, we've been partaking in holidays European style and thought we'd share a few:

• German Christmas Bizarre - Roadtrip to Aachen with friends to check one of the many farmer's market style events that take place in the town square. Good excuse to buy random crafty trinkets, taste every German desserts and drink gluhwein (warm spice wine, yum). Pics here.




• Sinterklaas - On the 5th, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas (it's for the kids they say). I debated whether or not to mention as it's such an insane tradition to grasp. It involves a Santa looking guy with a pope hat taking a boat from Madrid (right, no water there), along with 'helpers' (up for debate) called "zwarte piets", who happen to be white dutch people painted black. The overall wrongness of this is baffling but the kids go nuts. (David Sadaris tells the story best.) Anyway, for several weeks leading up to Dec. 5, kids get small treats in shoes and then a cooler present delivered on the 5th. And if you've been bad, Sinterklaas takes you back to Spain. So there you go.




• Christmas Tree - Geno surprised me with a tree ... which he hauled on his bike. I'd pay good money for some pics because that tree is heavy! Apparently even the locals stopped to see this vision of Geno. Amsterdam is full of lights and decorations, even a houseboat nearby has Santa on his sleigh with reindeer all in lights. Pics here.

Birds in Atlanta

Turkey time in Atlanta. Yep, we went back for a great Thanksgiving in what was an non-stop feast. It started with Mom and Dad taking us to a delicious Mexican restaurant (something sorely absent from Amsterdam) to help expand our stomachs in prep for Thanksgiving.

The best part of the next day wasn't what was on the table, but everyone surrounding it. My grandmother Maggie is ageless, sister Mendy and brother-in-law Rob Eskew, my aunt Melonie and her family all drove up from Jacksonville, and my niece (Stella) and nephew (Harris) were hanging off both arms. I even ran in to my buddy David Cochran and his family.

Thanksgiving night, more bird! Brother David and I went to see the lowly Falcons (a.k.a. Dirty Birds) play the Colts. We weren't sure if it was the tryptophane from the turkey of the Falcons lack of offense that put the fans to sleep in the second half. Thanks a lot Vick.

The next day was Stella's big day. A puppet show followed by a trip to another favorite, Chick-fil-A. After two sandwiches I was growing feathers and Stella was repeatedly shouting, "Willie can't stop eating!" in complete disbelief.

The fourth day we stopped by my buddy Gordon "Gramps" Wotton's house to see his wife Molly and two boys, Mac and the newest, Cole. Then, thanks to my buddy buddy Brent Allen, I witnessed my beloved GTech Yellow Jackets lose to their rivals from Athens. We capped off that night with laughs supplied by comedian in East Atlanta. We would've never found it, but with Clarke Tate leading the adventure, we couldn't say no.

It was another mad dash home, but Mom and Dad made it a great trip. Thanks y'all! Here's a link to all pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/Stefani.Willis/Atlanta

San Francisco Treat

San Francisco - not a bad landing point for my first trip back to the states. And oh, the weather was about ... hmm 78 and sunny, the entire time. The big event pulling me to SF was surprising my dad for his 40th +20 birthday. Thanks to my mom's brilliant planning, we 100% shocked him with my sister, brother-in-law (flew in that morning from LA), and me nearly attacking him as my mom and dad entered the hotel lobby. We were a human stun gun. Family time was amazing, and dad claimed it was indeed the surprise of his life.

Then of course, it was time for the Annual Nike Women's 1/2 marathon. Along with my best friend and housemate for the week, my Portland crew of friends and I joined the 20,000 other women to sprint up and down hills all morning. Aside from the run and hanging out with friends, I managed to shop like a maniac since the entire USA is on sale with the dollar being worth like 5 cents in Europe.

Meanwhile, back in Amsterdam, Geno also sprinted his way through the city in the Amsterdam 1/2 marathon. His feet were on fire and finished the race in like 20 minutes.

More pics here, click.

Scotland: Home of Golf

Gene said Edinburgh is one of his favorite cities ... now I get it. We kicked off the morning with a brutal uphill run which finally made me understand the term 'breathtaking' when we got to see the view from the top. In classic Geno style, we hit like 10 destinations before our train landed in the home of golf, Saint Andrews. And wow, what a site. Geno's friend Ken from Portland was incredibly generous and let us stay in his family home blocks away from the 18th hole on the "Old Course". (Our taxi driver almost called the police as he was convinced we had no right to be there - can't blame the guy.) Then I fell in love with golf all over after playing 18 holes and managing not to hit anyone in the head (sorry again Papa Gene). Click here for some fabulous pics.

Paris Escape

Less than 4 hours by train is this little up and coming city people like to call Paris. And it just so happens that one of my childhood best friends, Jen and her husband Jeff from Vegas let me crash their French holiday and join them for a weekend. How can you deny Paris?! While it was Jeff's first time in Europe, you wouldn't know it by the way he mastered the metro in less than 24 hours ... without him, Jen and I would've been roaming around the Eiffel Tower all day. Of course we hit some of the major landmarks, but the best part was just hanging out catching up. Click here for pics

Italia for Sun, Food, Wine and more Food

No amount of pictures can do Tuscany justice. But rather than attempt to describe our magical weekend at a villa of paradise, I'm cutting the writing short so you can experience the perfection. Our incredibly visionary Portland friends Laura and Matt (and adorable baby Julia) had the brilliant idea to rent out a Tuscan villa for 3 weeks so all their friends (and friends of friends of friends) could come and hang out. And they acted on it! So we took along our Amsterdam friends and spent a weekend in the sun, doing nothing but relaxing, eating Italian feasts and enjoying wine from local grapevines and getting to know new and old friends. Click here for shots

Dutch trifecta

(As told by Geno) Plenty of stuff going on around Amsterdam in August. We hit three of the big ones. First was "De Parade", an annual festival staging a range of musical, theatrical and comedy acts....and of course, grill your own pancakes? (Yes, we did it, and I ate a disgusting amount of them.) De Parade isn't a pile of dirt with elephants and half-sober clowns, it's a classy but welcoming setting underneath about 3 acres of trees. Here's an evening pic of one of the outdoor bars - notice the water hoses on top.


Then we got a great invitation from some friends to join them on a boat on the Prinsengracht canal to hear a free opera which takes place on a floating stage in the middle of the canal. I'm not a big opera fan, and was selfishly hoping the performance would climax with the stage dramatically sinking into the canal. No such luck. People line the streets in advance and set up little tables for the evening performance. Check out the scene to the left.




Before the weekend ended, I got a chance to go to a proper European Music Festival, you know, the ones with hundreds of thousands of people like the one you see in Guns N' Roses Paradise City video. Wasn't it Jeff Foxworthy who insists rednecks are everywhere, not just the South? I think he reached this conclusion after attending this festival. If you wonder how people are still making money selling tank tops and barb wire tattoos...I give you Lowlands. Low indeed. That said, there was strangely some crazy good asian food, some solid performances by The Shins, Kings of Leon, and Arcade Fire, not to mention some bizarre hands popping out of the water which were freaking just about everyone.

Autobahn Baby: Germany, fasten your seatbelts

We made our way to Germany driving on the Autobahn ... tip for those interested, don't rent a car with golf cart wheels. Anyway, driving (for the second time in 6 months) was insane, but the point of the trip was to check out the Rhine Valley region of Germany. Or maybe it was to bask in the 80 degree weather on a boat while admiring Princess Beauty castles, not sure. (We've been desperate for heat.) We also did a night stay in Cologne, which is the only German city that had to be 100% rebuilt after the bombings ... although the magnificent Gothic style cathedral still stands. We ate more sausage in 48 hours than we had all year round and found that my four years of German class in fact didn't come back. So check out the pics to view pretty stuff.

6 Months in Amsterdam ...

We've officially passed our 6 month living in Amsterdam mark, so thought a 'life' update would be mildly entertaining. Here's a few blogworthy mentions:

• Back to work...Yep, my lovely hiatus is over, I've joined "The Office". Really, I went corporate, you can find me along with 100,000 other folks scattered across the globe carrying an ABN AMRO badge. ABN is a ginormous Dutch Bank (no, I'm not a teller like Gene's grandma thinks) and I work in their Global Headquarters on stakeholder engagement projects that I won't even begin to explain on this blog. (Office on left) Best part is my co-workers are from places like Israel, Austria, Portugal, Ukraine and Netherlands .... I love it. Oh, other cool thing is I ride my bike to work ... probably won't be so cool in the Winter.
  

• Beach in Holland? - Bet you didn't know there's actually amazing beaches in Holland? Okay, I didn't. I secretly laughed at my Dutch friends when they bragged about how they had 'normal' beaches that could compete with California. So Gene and I set off to see first hand what this nonsense was about ... less than an hour away, there it was ... a real beach, with real winds from the North Sea, for our all to real, pale bodies.

• Geno, the European Footballer - Geno hit Prague with the "Weiden+Kenney Football Team" to compete in an 40 team tournament of European Ad Agencies. Of course I assumed it was a boondoggle trip (well, it was) but those boys came to play, and placed 8th - that's big time. Team shot below and click here to see Prague.

• Visitors - Bring on the Americans! We've had a fabulous crew of folks pass through the city over the past few months. I think we've finally got the city tour of highlights captured for everyone, so let us know if you're daring enough to stop by. Click here to see our updated Visitors Blog.

Luck of the Irish

We struck gold with the 80 degree sun filled weather in Cork. Who would've guessed? We were also lucky enough to experience Ireland as locals thanks to our friends Brian "Ireland" Healy and his wife Kate. Our Irish weekend included BBQ birthday celebration and soccer match with the family, touring castles and kissing the "Blarney Stone" (see pics to make sense of that one), lunch and fortress visit in the magnificent port town of Kinsale and morning walks around their property outside of Cork (clear sign we're getting older). Of course no visit is complete without late night guitar strumming by the boys while they belted out Irish tunes. Click here to check out a quick picture tour of sunny Ireland.

Good morning Istanbul

It's 5 AM ... we bolt out of bed to discover, it's true: In Turkey, the morning begins with prayer chants broadcast across the entire city ... the sounds bellow out via 4 megaphone style speakers that are attached to every Mosque. And then we go back to sleep. So, Turkey, here we are, in a culture unlike anything we've experiences in Europe. Five times daily the chants ring out, but what's quickly visible is that the Turkish people don't stop to go inside and pray. Society is changing, and while about half of the Muslim women we passed had their heads covered, others didn't. But, this blog entry isn't meant to dive into religion and politics ... so, onto the fun! Here's why Istanbul is now in our top 3 trips (if you're not in the mood to read, click here for pics):

• Ancient - Come on, Istanbul used to be called Constantinople - that's just old. We walked through "Harems" that were created by Sultans for their wives, concubines and kids dating back to 16th century. We covered all the famous spots, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Haghia Sophia (all in the pics).


• Bazaar baby! - Heard of the "grand bazaar"? Well, it's just that - ginormous - thousands of little shops selling lamps, bracelets, shoes, all inside a space that's existed since the 14th century. It has the Tijuana feel, a haggler's dream (Geno was in his element). And there's the Spice Bazaar with brightly colored spices and smells that only a chef can fully appreciate.


• Turkish Baths - We walk in, boys in one section, girls in the other. Naked bodies, marble slab from a million years ago, and a scrub down with a loofah pad by women who can break you in half, ensuring there isn't a speck of grim left on your body. (Or, according to Geno, the men have enough hair on their bodies to make a couple fake toupees.) Not necessarily relaxing, but gotta do it.


• Roof top decks - The city is stunning, and restaurants and bars don't hesitate to offer you views of the river, bridges and colorful buildings. Weather was a perfect 75 degrees, so we pretty much roof jumped the whole week.


• Island Trip - An hour long ferry ride along the Bosphorus Sea lands us at the largest of the Princess Islands. No cars, it's just horse and buggy (and the scent of manure). We decided we were too cool for for the buggy rides and rented mountain to cover the island instead, quickly learning that our Amsterdam flat land biking hadn't prepared us (okay me) for the mountain terrain. Finding the secret road to the beach proved a challenge but Geno wasn't shy about practices his newly discovered Turkish language (note: English is not spoken in Turkey), so we made it before sunset.

Okay, this entry is out of control long, I could keep going, but guessing you want to get to the pictures. Click here, even labeled a few so you know what you're looking at. Also, for a real live viewing of the prayer chants, click here for a perfect summary.

Gelukkige verjaardag koningin! (...as told by Geno)

April 30th used to just be an insignificant date, except that it was 11 days after my birthday, and that's usually when I give up on waiting for "late" birthday wishes. (If you missed it...avoid the holiday rush and start shopping now for next year.) In Holland however, April 30th is the biggest party of the year, "Queen's Day". Imagine Mardi Gras combined with New Year's Eve, but everyone (and that includes the additional 1.5 million people who come in to the city for the party) is wearing any article from their wardrobe that is orange. That last part is funny enough, but the Dutch also gracefully celebrate their Queen by pulling all of their "stuff" (think random coffee cups and ABBA records rather than antique gems) out in front of their apartment for an annual garage sale. Finally, there are the kids, who take advantage of their parents partying in the streets to make a few bucks. Most of these young entrepreneurs, like my bosses kids are hawking muffins and lemonade, others are more creative, like the above kid who would let you throw miniature pies at him for 50 cents.

It's not a wild brawl or anything, it's just people hanging out, listening to live bands, drinking beer, dancing on their boats in the canals, and enjoying the sun while trashing the city. The "day after" Queen's Day looks like a bomb went off, but 2 weeks later, all is well. Nothing violent about it, unless you count the part where you are elbowing your way through crowds while avoiding falling in a canal.

So, we did just like the locals. After arriving at 11 PM the night before Queen's Day...we hit the streets to explore, and then conveniently locked ourselves out of our 2nd story apartment ... but were able to get back in by 2:30 AM thanks to a local hostel with a ladder. Click here for more pics...

London Calling ....

Have you ever paid $8 dollars for a coffee? We hadn't, until London. Despite the Pound crushing the Dollar, we had a fabulous 'local' weekend experience thanks to one of Gene's best buddies Holden, his cool wife Katie and Frances (the most charming kid ever, didn't hear a cry out of her entire weekend). Aside from eating and hanging out at incredibly tasty spots, we hit the Knotting Hill market, sat in on a Parliament meeting, went for a run in Hyde Park and toured Chelsea. I decided everyone is just smarter with an English accent and driving on the left hand side of the road is truly a talent .... I'll just stick to my bike. Click here for more pics.

Spain, we love you.

Barcelona was our landing spot for Easter weekend. Gene fell in love with the city as I had deprived him of visiting it back when I was living in Spain. He's now a huge fan of Gaudi work and took (no joke), 50 pics of the Sacrada Familia. He claims we walked well over 20 miles while touring around "nookville" (code word for the endless secret little streets). We checked out my favorite fruit, etc Market off the Ramblas that my sister and I discovered like 8 years ago...good to know it's still around. Gene was "Rocky" one morning and ran all the way to the Olympic park, which has the pefect view of the city.... and had way too many stairs to climb. We went a little nuts eating tapas and jamon serano but that's our duty as tourists. Check out the pics here.

Celebrating #3!

Hard to believe 3 years ago we were standing on the beach in Mexico getting married ... and now we're about as far as you can get from hot weather and a decent taco. To celebrate 3 years of married life, we headed to Bruges, Belgium to one of the most romantic and magical cities we've ever landed in. No need to write more, just check out the pics.

Oh, the one major highlight was the Chocolate Museum, seriously ... did you know chocolate come from these crazy looking fuzzy bean nuts? It was eye opening, and mouth watering. We're now finished with Belgium travel ...off to Spain next week.

Safari Geno

Clearly it's Gene's turn for a Blog entry, however, as I'm still waiting for my work permit, and therefore needing to feel a sense of accomplishment, I'm still driving this ship. But, I did let go of a bit of control (although Gene still doesn't have the Blog password). For this entry, I decided an interview style posting would be good based on my correspondence with Gene on his last day in Cape Town, South Africa:

Stef: So, you're wrapping up a week of "work" in South Africa, seriously, was it a boondoggle? Spill it.

Gene: Some say the winter coal mines of West Virginia is tough labor. Clearly they've never been to Cape Town and been forced to eat fresh giant prawns, endure the monotony of 80 degree weather, and be forced to choke it all down with prestigious wines from local vineyards. The HUMANITY!

Stef: I'm picking up some sarcasm

Gene: Good, because I'm laying it on pretty thick.

Stef: I'd ask you to reach back to the creative side of your brain and detail the city, but you've got pics for us, right?

Gene: About 1200 of Table Mountain. I kept taking pictures of it b/c it is so beautiful, (and because my photos weren't, which obviously says more about my photography skills) but I'll filter through them to send the highlights. (See below for link...)

Stef: When you weren't "working", what adventures did you partake in? (Keep it PG for the kids)

Gene: The flight down was nearly 12 hours, so it was a movie marathon. Best picture: Babel, Worst: You, Me and Dupree. (Owen Wilson has hit rock bottom.) . But back to Africa.... we went deep sea fishing, visited the Constantine Uitsig vineyard, hiked Lion's Head, and went to a late night festival on Long Street for an annual blowout celebration for the Minstrels? I was clearly not in the know, and my attempts to dance along with the locals underscored this fact.

Stef: What, no safari? We thought you had to do that before being allowed back on the plane?

Gene: I'm saving that for a trip to Tanzania (yes, you're coming on that one) with my buddy from college, Mark Thorton, who lives in Cape Town with his lovely wife and travels there frequently to run private safaris. He guarantees you will be attacked by an elephant, hyenas, or a pack of native civilians hawking hundreds of wooden tourist trinkets.

Stef: Let's talk weather ... rumor is it's slightly nicer than say ... Amsterdam or Portland?

Gene: Actually it rained every day, except Monday - Saturday. (Did you really have to remind us both that we've been living in urban rainforests for the last few years?)

Stef: The strangest thing you saw was ....

Gene: You mean besides an email from my wife wanting to conduct an interview for our blog?The driving on the opposite sides of the roads also caused me to nearly grab the wheel from our taxi driver on multiple occasions.

Stef: Okay, so you've hit Thailand and Africa within 2 months and are now living in Europe ... are you worried a piano is going to drop on your head walking down the street? Life just seems pretty damn good. (and the piano thing really could happen since they pull furniture through windows here)

Gene: Wow, I never thought about the possibility of a piano dropping on my head, but thanks, that's a lovely thought, coming from my WIFE and all!!! Wait, is this why you wanted me to purchase the life insurance policy? Time to connect the dots.

Stef: I suppose this is a heavy blog question, but apartheid, poverty...what did you see?

Gene: Very little, although with 11 different national languages, I can imagine there is still some fragmentation of the society that I didn't see. You're right, a bit of a heavy topic. Someone has been watching Oprah in her time off.

Stef: Don't you blaspheme Oprah!

Gene: Sorry. Whatta' you say we wrap up this interview session...it's getting a bit corny, and I bet all two of the people who have read this far will greatly appreciate us bringing it to a close.

To view a select few of Gene's 1200 photos of S. Africa...click here

Home Sweet Amsterdam

We made it. Gene is hard at work, I've been exploring the city ... which is a combo of Portland and San Francisco ... except a tad bit older, people speak Dutch, and they can kill you with their bikes. While playing tourist, I've checked out the Anne Frank & Van Gogh Museums, outdoor markets and several parks. We're sort of taking Dutch lessons, but I begin a Spanish conversation class next week - yes, the logic there is a bit off. The Weiden+Kennedy family has been beyond friendly so that's a big plus. We even had our friends, Jessie & Kendra (fellow Portlanders living here) over to our fancy temporary house ... better show it off while we have it. (The above picture is our current street.) The move to our 'real' place is in mid-March.

So far, we've explored Belgium (see Antwerp post) but more recently we zipped off on our bikes (oh yes, we're like locals now) for what I thought was a 30 minute 'jaunt' to a traditional Dutch village called Zaanse Schans. Two hours later, we arrived. (I still swear the tourist office told me 30 minutes ... we took the train home.) Click here for pics of Amsterdam and this little village, which included us watching a Dutch man a turn a small tree stump into a pair of clogs (thus the wooden shoe picture that Gene couldn't resist.)

Antwerp, Belgium

... And we're officially off and touring Europe. For our first weekend together, we took the train 2 hours away to the 2nd largest city in Belgium, Antwerp. (Or as the locals call it, Antwerpen.) Cool city - we basically ate Belgium chocolate, Belgium waffles, drank Belgium beer and roamed around the cobblestone streets. Antwerp is apparently the fashion capital of Europe and also famous for diamonds (although Gene conveniently took me for a tour of area on Sunday, when everything is closed). Smart man.

Thailand Adventure

In need of sun and a place where everyone seriously can't stop smiling? Check out Thailand. We started our trip with a night in Bangkok, complete with a Thai boxing match (no they wouldn't let Gene in the ring), crazy taxi rides, $5 foot massages, and endless food. We left the next day for Southern Thailand and stayed on Phi Phi island and then to Raleigh beach. Aside from the sun worship, we took a much needed cooking class, went rock climbing (where we went uncomfortably high up), snorkeled, hiked to a lagoon, and looked around for Leonardo DeCaprio on the island where "The Beach" was filmed. Another quick highlight involved being towed on a long boat. Our little wooden boat broke down in the middle of the ocean shortly after our guide, who didn't speak English shouted something resembling, "Big Wave!" ... clearly not the two words you want to hear on an 8 hour ride.

After a week of trying to turn our Oregon skin Thai, we headed up North to Chiang Mai, which is a mini Bangkok, but far more approachable and beautiful. Day adventures included elephant rides, white water rafting, bamboo rafting (we nearly sunk), King's flower festival (seriously like a Disneyland garden .. more than 10K people checking out flowers, plants and temples), and New Year's celebration complete with fire works and Thai style karaoke.

For more pics, click here. Want to visit Thailand? For our itinerary details, check with Gene, he did it all.