The Harrison-Helins: September 2010

Thursday, September 30

Euro trip photos: Amsterdam by night (Not-so-PG)

Euro trip photos: Amsterdam by day (PG)

Euro trip photos: Off we go!

Euro trip 2010 – 2nd leg 100% completed!

3rd stop: Paris

The Paris-leg of the trip did not get off to a great start. When we got off the train late at night and had trekked through some of the shadier neighborhoods of downtown Paris, we were not too thrilled to find out from the hotel front desk-guy that the hotel was temporarily (read: 2-3 days!) without hot water, that the only available room was a smoking room, that there was no fridge in the hotel room for Ethan’s milk, that there were no ironing boards available in the whole hotel, that we’d have to pay a €20 deposit just to borrow an iron and finally, that all other hotels in the area were currently fully booked and that we would not be offered a discount or compensation as he had just told us about the hot water and given us the option to go elsewhere! Phew!

We decided to suck it up for the night and accept the poor conditions, paid the deposit for the iron and checked in. The guy kindly gave us someone else’s room (someone who had not yet showed up to check in) for the night so we did not have to stay in the smoking room. In all fairness; he did his best and he tried to be helpful, as helpful as he could be under the circumstances.

The morning after I took a taxi to work, which in itself is an accomplishment, as I soon realized that getting a taxi in Paris is near enough impossible if you have not pre-ordered or have very sharp elbows and a knack for cutting lines. Research-queen Shaena and her protégé on the other hand took to the streets to find us a new hotel to stay at due to the above and after canvassing 7 different hotels, they found a Best Western that had one room available. “Sold!” they said and began lugging and tugging our stuff from the crappy hotel to the less crappy hotel. After that and a lunch and a nap they got on the hop-on hop-off to see the sights of Paris.

Besides all of the above, when you are in the nicer areas of Paris, it really is a beautiful city! The landmarks of Paris are truly amazing and you really have to experience them for yourself to really understand, and this is going to sound cheesy, the magic that surrounds the Louvre and the Eiffel tower or just walking alongside the Seine river watching the river boats go by. Fortunately we did have a chance to go out all three of us and walk around and check out some of the sights a bit closer but before we knew it, it was time to board the Eurostar to London…

…well, at least after Ethan bailed us out by flirting and winking with the Eurostar-people after we managed to miss the first train because we did not consider the fact that the Eurostar actually travels across country borders and therefore, going through immigrations and passport controls both for France and the UK is required before boarding the train. Silly us!

4th and last stop: London

London was a whistle stop to say the least! We arrived early in the morning to St Pancras train station slightly delayed after our Eurostar-debacle and a very pleasant train ride under the English channel. We made our way to our hotel as quickly as we possibly could as I needed to get changed and rush to the office to deliver my presentation.

Shaena and Ethan relaxed for a little bit in the hotel and then headed out to check out the ‘Ripley’s Museum’. You may have seen the ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ TV show at one point or another? Well, this museum is the real-life experience where Mr. Ripley’s whole collection of weird and wonderful items is on display. They came back with some really cool photos so I think we need to pay this one another visit next time we are in London.

As we had our very early flight to Menorca the morning after, we tried to get as much rest as possible so we had a nice dinner at good old Pizza Express and then headed back to the hotel for some R&R.

…and that was it for the work-part of our whistle stop tour of Europe! All in all my presentations went really well and some very constructive conversations were had but business travel sure is tiring! Therefore; my conclusion after a week’s worth of country hopping and business meetings is that all business travels should be matched by the company with an equivalent length all-inclusive holiday. Wonder what my manager will say when I present my idea?

Wednesday, September 22

Trains Rule, Planes Drool!

We have decided that any future travels will involve trains as much as possible. If you list all the bonuses of trains you may agree with us.

1. The fare is the fare! No extra baggage fees, 10% charge for Ethan, overweight charges, baggage limits, etc.

2. You can pack pretty much what ever you want!

3. We can roll our stroller on board so Ethan can sleep in it! No holding him in our laps.

4. Duration is possibly less than flying time. If you think about it, you have to show up at the airport at least 90 min before departure, go through security, passport control, board the aircraft, wait for the aircraft to depart, land, go through passport control, wait for baggage, change planes or try and get to your final destination. With the train, you show up at least 30 min before, board the train, put your luggage with you, hopefully find the “family compartment”, enjoy a movie/dinner, then arrive at your destination which is most likely across from your hotel (if you plan it like I do!)

5. The journey is smooth sailing. No turbulence, just a bit of rocking, which keeps Ethan asleep!

6. If Ethan is awake, he can move about freely. No kicking the back of seats.

7. Better views!

8. We can both use our computers and charge them too.

9. If you are a super planner like I am, you can get amazing deals! Our journey from Frankfurt to Paris only cost us £39.50!!

10. You arrive ON TIME!

All in all, trains are the preferred mode of transportation in the Harrison-Helin household! Now…how about that journey through Canada for our honeymoon!

Tuesday, September 21

Euro trip 2010 – 2nd leg 50% completed!

1st stop: Amsterdam

We locked the door back home in Edinburgh last Thursday to make our way out to our first mode of transportation; an Easyjet flight to Amsterdam. When we got to Schipol airport outside Amsterdam we got on the train to Amsterdam Central and switched to research mode to find the way to our hotel, only to find that our hotel was right across the street from the station! We checked in to the ‘Victoria Park Plaza’, dropped our luggage and then headed out to find a bite to eat. We found a traditional Dutch pancake house around the corner from the hotel and got our teeth stuck into some delicious strawberry and bacon pancakes. After our meal we took a walk around town, tried to find Anne Frank’s house, and just took it all in. The rain was pouring down so we didn’t quite make it all the way to Ms. Frank’s house but we were amazed by how beautiful Amsterdam is with all its crooked old quirky buildings by the canals and all the barges and boats parallel parked like cars in the water.

On Friday I made my way to my company’s Amsterdam office, which is located close to Haarlem about 20 minutes outside the city, where I delivered my first presentation and I hope and believe that it was well received by my Dutch colleagues. Shaena and Ethan on the other hand relaxed in the hotel room for a bit before they hit the town for some sightseeing. In the evening we had dinner in an Argentinean restaurant and then walked over to the infamous Red Light District. After all, we had to see for ourselves what all the fuss was all about!

All I can say is: “Lordi-lord-lord!” The Red Light District was all that we thought it would be and more! Street after street filled with smut and adult pleasures as far as the eye could see. We were amazed to see all these girls standing in their small shop windows, offering their services with only a windowed door and a curtain separating themselves and their bedroom from the street. In between all these girls’ windows, people lined up to go see live sex shows and outside these shows; very explicit photos were posted to sell the show to people passing by. As if this wasn’t enough, people were smoking pot in the middle of the street and small ‘normal’ corner stores were selling magic mushrooms and all the paraphernalia you’d ever need to get stoned off your face! …and it’s all legal!

Speaking of the lord, by the way; Ethan has now also learned how to worship, believe it or not. When you least expect it he’ll stick his arms up in the air and shout “GOD!” Wonder who taught him that…

On Saturday we had organized to meet up with another old friend from the Dublin-years; the fun-loving Nathalie! Nathalie has just moved to the Netherlands for work and it just so happened that she had the Saturday off and could come up to Amsterdam to hang out with us! It was so great to catch up with her again and talk about old memories and goss about all the peeps we used to hang out with and what they are doing now, as you do. As many of our friends and family know, we are always up for a good science exhibition and Shaena had (as always) done her research and found this ‘Nemo Science Experience’ that looked really cool, so we went. And it was. Really cool. Nemo had 5 stories with buttons to push (which is Ethan’s latest passion), screens to look at and very cool interactive installations that kept us busy for most of the afternoon.

In the early evening we said “bye bye!” to Nathalie and made our way back to the train station to board our train to Frankfurt. On the train we travelled in luxury as we managed to finagle our way into a ‘family compartment’ complete with a small L-couch, a table and thee more seats. For most of the trip, it was all ours and Ethan could sleep undisturbed and we could watch movies, relax and have a snack which made the 4 hour train ride fly by. That’s the way to travel!

2nd stop: Frankfurt

When we got to Frankfurt our friend Denis was kind enough to pick us up from the train station and took us back to his and Jessica’s place where we were staying the first night as we wanted to catch up with them and let Ethan hang out with their wee Ben who is pretty much the same age as him. When we got to their flat, Jessica’s brother and girlfriend were there visiting as well and everyone was in full form testing whiskies and drinking wine so we figured “what the heck!” and joined them at the table. We had a great time and the morning after, Denis had promised to cook up a traditional ‘Oktober Fest breakfast’ consisting of boiled (creepy looking) white German wursts, a special sweet mustard, wheat beer(!), pretzels and eggs. Probably sounds a bit weird but it was really good!

Later in the day Jessica took us to the Frankfurt Zoo and we of course snapped loads of photos and Ethan got to pet a goat and eat his first ever Bratwurst. There is a first for everything!

In the evening, Denis and Jessica had kindly organized a dinner with another few people at a restaurant in Frankfurt called “Wagner”, well known for its apple wine and for serving a very yummy wiener schnitzel with a green herb sauce, which is traditional Frankfurt speciality. We had a good time but at this point we were all exhausted after a long day so after dinner we headed back to the hotel and zonked out!

On Monday I spent the day working in our Frankfurt office, delivering my presentation and hosting meetings. All in all it was a pretty intense day, but then again, it usually is when I am out travelling for work as my normal work back home needs to be done as well. On Monday night we wanted to just have a relaxed night at home but it ended up being a ‘working evening’ instead. I was catching up on work after Ethan had gone to bed and Shaena was catching up on her ‘work’; rescuing cats and dogs for money online.

Today Tuesday had more work in store for me and later in the day we boarded another train; this time bound for Paris on which we are sitting right now. We figured we couldn’t travel in any less style on this leg of our journey so with a bit more finagling we managed to get the super-sweet family compartment again! “Oh-la-la, Paris here we come!” …actually, we just arrived! Trains rock!

Monday, September 20

And away we go!

Just a quick note to say - we're alive! Haven't had a chance to blog yet. We are in Frankfurt right now and just about to head out for some touristing while Peter is working (he he he) Updates to follow!

Sunday, September 12

Euro trip 2010 – 1st leg completed!

…and we are back! We are back in the Burgh after a great whistle-stop weekend in Stockholm. Late Thursday morning we boarded our flight bound for Stockholm with 2 other CareerBuilder peeps and their better halves and after a quick stop at the Stockholm-office, we checked in to our snazzy hotel in Hammarby Sjöstad. Only the best is good enough… when you are not paying for it yourself! ;)

We didn’t know this when we planned this trip but our good friends over here in Edinburgh “Maeghan and Regan” had planned a trip of their own to Stockholm and it worked out so well that our paths intersected on Thursday night and we were able to meet up and go out for dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. What a small world, eh! Eh! Kindhearted people as we are, we also allowed our backpacking friends to crash on our hotel room floor for the night and as payment for this, they offered to babysit for a few hours so we could head down to the hotel bar for a G&T and a few rounds of ‘Liar Dice’, which supposedly is a pirate game, which Antonia in our company kindly taught us.

Friday was the opening day of ‘Career Days 2010’, a massive career fair that our company has organized in the ‘Stockholm Globe Arena’, so lots of nerves all around! We showed up to the fair early in the morning to help out with getting everything ready for the exhibiting companies before the fair opened for the public. The fair itself was completely sold out, the response from the visitors was overwhelmingly positive and the feedback from the companies was fantastic which of course was a great relief, as this was the first time a career fair this big was organized by our company, and in Sweden for that matter.

Shaena and Ethan on the other hand spent the day doing Stockholm on a hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus with Sara and Andrew, significant others of Linus and Antonia in my team and Ethan also got his first harmonica when the guys went shopping at NK. Oh joy! ;)

On Friday night we were invited over for dinner to our old friend Olle, who Shaena and I both know from the Dublin years, his girlfriend Linda and baby Jack. Ethan is a little bit older than Jack but the two got along great with exception for the occasional face slapping…as you do. Olle and Linda had prepared a fabulous dinner for us (and we think we also have a crush on their apartment!) It was great catching up with Olle again as we haven’t seen him in a few years and we had a fab time talking about old memoires and how we all have grown up since Dublin!

Saturday was an equally busy day at the fair and in the afternoon, Shaena, Ethan and Erin came by to visit and rake in on all the freebies that were laid out in all the different booths… and did they ever rake in! For a notorious shoplifter like Ethan, this was just too easy! When the fair closed in the afternoon, we got picked up by brother John as he and his girlfriend Mikaela had invited us to dinner in the evening. John and Mikaela treated us to a delicious steak dinner with… well steak… and oven roasted potatoes and béarnaise and Café De Paris sauce! Yum-my! Ethan had an absolute blast at their place as well as Mikaela’s son Elias had a room full of really cool toys to play with! Unfortunately Elias was not at home that evening but all the more reason for them to come visit us in Edinburgh instead!

We've said it before and will say it again: Good times! We had a really good time in Stockholm and it really does help that Ethan is such a good traveller and is not fazed by any if the usual hassle in the airport, or flying for that matter. Now for a few days of working and repacking and then off for the next leg!