Cheerio!

Hard to believe it, but there are 9 days left in what has been one loooooonnnnnnnnng year.  For us, this means not only enjoying all the events of the 'festive season' here in England, but also marking the end of our 2 1/2 years in London.   So in addition to everyone's favourite Christmastime tradition, the Unilever "fancy dress" Christmas party...

(This year's theme was 'Chicago')

... we also had our very own 'leaving do'...

(The theme was: Drink as much beer as possible with no food)

... and of course, birthday drinks, friends' Christmas parties, final book club of the year, not to mention the ridiculous night of karaoke with my advertising agency.  Thankfully, no pictures of that one (that I have been made aware of). 

But, all good things must come to an end, and so today 3 gents came along and packed up our stuff and hauled it away.  Mom & Dad, here's what you can expect arriving in a few weeks' time: 

Not too bad, eh?

And so, I'm sitting here in an apartment which is empty of all except the landlord's furniture, one turkey pot pie, oh, and a room full of 'don't pack it, we'll take care of it later' stuff ... some to be lugged to Colchester (Jason's mum's) tomorrow, and the rest of which to be lugged around the world!

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Possibly one or 2 more updates to come before we take off on 2 January, but we hope to be actively blogging as we circumnavigate. Fingers crossed that we don't get another inch of snow that cripples the airport, and we'll be off a week from Sunday!  As they say, watch this space.

Merry Christmas to all!  

-Jess & Jason

Longing for a Return to Summer and Traveling

While summer has long past, if it ever really arrived in London, the talk of snow later this week made it seem like a good time to revisit our summer holiday to Slovenia. For a second straight year we spent our primary summer break in the former Yugoslavia. While Slovenia has more of a western European feel than many of its Balkan neighbors, it retains the charms of a country still largely undiscovered by the average holiday maker. Add to this a geography that is often, and rightfully so in our opinion, described as Europe in miniature. What makes it even more impressive is that such diverse landscape and culture is packed into a country roughly the size of New Jersey with a population barely breaking two million.

Our eight days/seven nights consisted of stays at two tourist farms separated by all of a 2 1/2 hours but in completely different settings. Our first four nights were spent on a farm in Triglav National Park, which is nestled within the Julian Alps in the northwest of the country. From this base we visited Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj, hiked to several waterfalls and walked along the amazing Vintgar Gorge just outside Bled.

Vintgar Gorge

Lake Bohinj

Our final three nights were in the Karst region in the southwest staying on a farm/vineyard. We spent a day exploring the Primorska wine region, including an excellent tour/tasting at Simcic, another day relaxing along the Adriatic in picturesque Piran and our final day at the Skocjan caves. On top of all this we found the time to meet a number of really friendly people, eat excessively and drink plenty of wine. Hopefully the pictures can do the trip and this fantastic little country some justice.

Piran

While it isn't possible to pick favorites between the huge variety of place we've visited over the past 2+ years, Slovenia is definitely somewhere we hope to return to one day and is definitely near the top of the list of our favorite trips.

- Jason

ISO Sunshine

I mentioned earlier that a few of our trips over the last few months have been in search of some sun.  Unfortunately, this was the worst summer in England yet.  In fact, in England, they don't actually call summer "summer" flat-out, they call it "English summer".  As-in, "Enjoying the English summer?" No, not really, thanks. 

When the temperature hits 70F for more than 2 days, they start making announcements on the Underground: "During this time of extreme heat, it is advisable to carry bottled water with you.  If you feel unwell, please do not get on board train."

Anyway, in early July as days went from grey and tepid to moderately spring-like and occasionally blue-ish, and I watched half of my wardrobe go unused again, we looked at the calendar and realised we had 5 free weekends upcoming, and so we booked a flight back to Lisbon.  We've been to Lisbon a few times, so I won't dwell on it other than to say Jason nearly cried tears of joy when he had the opportunity to get into his swimsuit and get in the Atlantic: 

Look at all that blue-ness!

Swimsuit pictures are sometimes unappreciated

Then in October, in search of a real beach vacation, we booked a bargain-basement priced end-of-season flight & lodging to Corfu, a northern Greek island situated west of Albania.  Well, we knew at booking that there was a risk was that we would be approaching the beginning of the rainy season.  Out of our 5 days, we managed to get 2 decent ones, 1 great one, and 2 wash-outs.  Still, nice to sit & read, with absolutely nothing to do.  

Corfu is not one of the more glamourous of the Greek islands, yet (perhaps owing to this?) it is a favourite of the English.  Fortunately given the season the crowds were thinner, so while we were surrounded by Brits or others, they didn't press in from all sides and we were alone most of the time - dining, hiking, boating, etc.  We spent a relaxing few days in solitude, eating lots of Feta cheese, drinking loads of wine, and getting away from it all!

Really getting away from it all

Concentrating on the Classics

So, a moderately-climated beach vacation, which was still a big improvement over the local weather. But the English summer is certainly finished here.  So at least they're not making ridiculous Tube announcements.  Well... that's a lie.  There is, after all, a good service on all London Underground lines. (Except when there's a strike, planned engineering works, signal failure, and/or an individual under a train.)

Full album links are at the right!

4 Weddings - Part 3 & 4 (Belgium & PA)

Continuing on from the last post...

Julien & Laetitia: 18 Sept, near Brussels
Who? Julien is Jason's second cousin once removed - if I understand these things correctly!  He is the son of Jason's mom's cousin Nigel.  We had Laetitia and a friend of hers as a houseguest for about a week when we lived in NYC; she was studying medicine in Canada.

Where? As it says, near Brussels!  Actually about an hour outside of town, in the town of Court-St-Etienne.  The ceremony was at an unassuming church, but the reception was at a beautiful chateau that held one of the most magnificent reception rooms I've seen in all my wedding-going days.  Brick pillars supported a high wooden ceiling, and the room was accented down its lenght by chandeliers hanging with dozens of votive candles.  A very elegant effect.

What was unique? Well, the ceremony was easily the longest wedding ceremony I've been to - but that's because it was a 2-in-1 ceremony!  First came the Orthodox Greek ceremony (the bride's family is Greek), followed by the Catholic ceremony.  I suppose if you can't pick one, combine!  The 2 officiants did not conduct the ceremonies together, but rather they came & went for their turn.  So - combine 2 1-hour ceremonies and you get... 1 2-hour ceremony in Greek & French, except for the reading done by an English relative in the last 10 minutes of the event.  The mix of cultures and languages made for some very touching moments during the speeches at dinner, as various members of the family aimed to reach out to the other in their native tongue.  And - the traditional Greek dancing during the reception was a sight to behold, for sure, with all generations really getting into the fun!

Word. The word of this night was family.  We met many relatives of Jason's who I certainly didn't know, and whom he had met only once or twice before, and not since he was at least a teenager! 

What else? As usual, we took a little extra advantage of being somewhere different.  Jason and his mum took the Eurostar to Belgium on Thurdsay and spent a night & day up in Antwerp (pictures in the album) before coming back to Brussels where I met them on Friday.  And before we left on Sunday, we met for brunch with our friends Willem & Matthias, who we know from London (Willem works for Unilever), but who returned to their native Belgium earlier this year. Always nice to see familiar faces in a foreign country!

From the Greek part of the ceremony (note the symbolic headgear)

Carole & Jason enjoying the cocktail hour

Setting off Chinese lanterns (we are not sure if this is a Belgian tradition!?)

Hayle & Monica: 16 October, Skytop PA
Who? Hayle and Monica are both friends of ours - I met them both in my first week at NYU Stern (business school) as they were in my block.  I have traveled with them around the world - Brazil, Croatia, and Korea to name a few of the places I've been with one or both of them.  Hayle is also one of my fellow Curlers, from back when I did that sort of thing :)

Where? Skytop Lodge in the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania.  Hayle grew up in nearby East Stroudsburg, and the setting was resplendent with autumn foliage.  Luckily the weather cooperated at the last minute, after threatening not to up to about an hour before the ceremony (the skies turned from the past 48hrs grey into bright blue, and the whipping chilly wind died down mercifully for the outdoor ceremony).

What was unique? Hayle and Monica had a Korean ceremony at their rehearsal dinner on Friday night - complete with the piggy back riding and date throwing to predict offspring which we remembered fondly from Jed & Jenny's wedding Seoul a few years back.  This was followed by BBQ - both Korean & American style... I have to say I stuck with the Korean food, which is always a treat!  What else?  Well other than capping the night with several hours worth of karaoke (a favourite amongst both Koreans AND the NYU crowd), during Hayle and Monica's traditional ceremony we were introduced to the concept of the 'truce bell'.  Evidently an Irish tradition, they were both asked to ring the bell several times during the ceremony, and to keep it in their home.  If an argument arises, one of them is supposed to ring the bell and they should recall their wedding vows.  What a nice tradition!  Someone suggested that Hayle may be well off just wearing it around his neck tho...

Word. If the last one was family, then this one should definitely be friends.  Of all the weddings this year, this was the only one in which we were a part of the (very) vocal majority - one of the big party contingencies present!  We had a blast catching up - and partying - with many old friends & classmates. (Although notably missed were Hal and his wife Lisa, with Lisa having just given birth to their first baby 2 days before the wedding!)

What else? We were graciously hosted in New Jersey, driven to / from the Poconos and to/from Newark airport, and joined as roommate by our good friend Jill - who has just decided to move to Chicago!  I'm so sad Jill won't be in NYC anymore when we get back, but it was awesome to spend so much time with her before she left.  Thanks Jill - see you in Chi-town sometime soon!

Beautiful setting

Veronica, me, and Jill

The Kind and Queen, being serenaded by their court