A Few Suspicions Confirmed

All right, so I didn't leave the hotel today. That's standard for the beginnings of our trips, since we're usually busy with business. But today, it was also because I woke up with a migraine, and so I spent the afternoon and evening sleeping it off and resting. I didn't even get to the spa today as I'd hoped! So I'll have to check that out late tomorrow or on Wednesday afternoon and report back. But I did manage to confirm a few suspicions that I had. #1 - the hotel is totally incompetent, although I must say that the woman we're working with now is really nice and quite funny. Our meeting started this morning with them being late (of course). I then found out that none of the emails I had sent with the details of our events here had meant anything. i.e. they did not have note of the menus we had chosen or the number of people that we had attending. And they were planning to check the rooming list and get back to me, which didn't happen. So not a good start. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. We walked around the hotel this morning to see the various venues, and our meeting room is lovely. We also looked in at the Island Bar, where we will have our welcome cocktails, which is a very hip-looking bar, home to a wine cellar that is not in the basement and circles around a cigar bar. In the evenings, they have a jazz singer, who sells her cds to sentimental drunk patrons as the night wears on. We also visited, and later dined in, 19, Oriental Avenue, where we will have our welcome dinner. The restaurant is actually three in one - a Japanese, Chinese and Thai restaurant, each separated by unobtrusive screens and varying in their decor and costume. We ate in the Thai part of the restaurant, but you can order from any of the menus. Our hotel escort, Rachna, was dressed in a sari, but chattered much in the style of an American teenager. And shops like one too, apparently, telling us that she returned to India after four months in the US with $120 in excess baggage! She insisted that I try the sushi (vegetarian) and that's when I confirmed suspicion #2: I don't like sushi. Even though it's vegetarian, it's covered in that horrible seaweed stuff, which tasted so fishy to me it was all I could do to swallow it! I did try, and mostly like, this local papaya salad, which looked like noodles but was actually shredded papaya with a spicy sauce. Not bad. For lunch, I ordered from the Chinese menu (though I think I should have had the tom ka gai, which is a VERY spicy Thai coconut milk & chicken soup, which I loved in Bangkok) and had the crisp chicken. It was okay, but not top of my list. In an effort to avoid Delhi belly, I made sure to have some Pringles and Three Musketeers when I returned to my room. However, I realized when I woke up at nine-thirty that to keep my migraine away, I do have to eat a real meal at some point. Confirming yet an additional suspicion (#3), which is that I'm not actually that fancy, I ordered pizza, a strawberry milkshake, and a giant chocolate chip cookie. And I'm off to eat it now - let's see if it's as good as home. Man, I could kill for a real Pepsi right about now! Tomorrow, off to Agra and the Taj Mahal!

It's not Europe, but I'd never been there before...Wilmington, Delaware

Well, today I headed off to Wilmington, Delaware, for a presentation to our newest firm. We picked a heck of a day to do it too - the coldest day of the year. Yes, here in lovely Jersey it was a balmy nine degrees when I woke up this morning...without the wind chill. So I thought to put on a lined suit, and wear a sweater over my blouse and OF COURSE I wore a warm coat, gloves, and scarf. But I still was unprepared for the bitter bitter cold. At any rate, it took us about two and a half hours to get into Wilmington, which is not a bad drive all in all, and a dream trip in the car when you've spent as much time in planes as I have recently! The little bit of the city that I saw reminded me of Philadelphia, with its buildings reminiscent of a more colonial style. But I felt like it's the city that everyone forgot, because it was EMPTY. Even our lawyers joked that you can always tell a New Yorker from a native because they'll stand on the corner to hail a cab, with one hand in the air, and they still won't be able to hail either cab. It was hard to tell if the lack of people was in part due to the bitter cold, or because there is just no one there. Which is a shame, because it was a pretty city, and I wish I'd seen more of it than the inside of our firm's offices. They were extremely hospitable, and in this case, that meant saving us from frostbite and having lunch in a conference room there instead of a local restaurant. I wish I had more opinions to offer on this little city, but I'll have to go back to fill you in. The local lawyers were happy to report that it takes them approximately six minutes to get into the office from home (is that supposed to be a good thing?!?!), so apparently, it's nothing like New York with regard to the living situation. And their marketing director commutes in from Philadelphia, which she quite enjoys. It seems a nice little city, and one worth exploring further...in the summer, perhaps.

The OperaKalleren

After a frustrating afternoon of attempting to get my flight switched to this morning, only to find out after three phone calls (one of the operators hung up accidentally just as she was answering my question, resulting in me crying for five minutes out of frustration before calling back), that the flight change would cost me an additional $1400. Ah, no thanks. So I was in no mood to go to dinner. But I'm into doing the next right thing and fulfilling my obligations, so I took a short bath and then washed my hair and rushed around to get ready. I had carefully picked out an outfit at home that I thought would be warm and suitable - a white tee shirt under a light, giraffe-print cardigan, with a soft caramel colored wool skirt, dark brown patterned tights and my knee high brown boots. With the terrain being such as it is, I decided to flaunt fashion and wear my snow boots again, and I picked up my black coat (again, not matching), my new warm blue scarf from Jess, and a red hat and gloves. I didn't bother to blow dry my hair or do anything with it, because I was running short on time. I know you're wondering what this has to do with anything, but you'll soon see... I headed down to the hotel bar, where I was to meet Thomas and his two partners, Nils and Eva. It was extremely crowded, and as I looked around, I realized that there were many people dressed to the nines, and looking very chic. Feeling slightly self-conscious, I looked for my dinner companions and spotted them by the bar. When I reached them, I learned that Elle Magazine was throwing their annual fashion designer awards here at the hotel, and we were in the middle of what seemed to be the pre-dinner cocktail hour. I wanted to sink right into the floor, and the dirty looks from all the fancy women there didn't help much. Thomas introduced me to a friend of his attending the event - Kale (pronounced Kah-lay, not like the vegetable), who was very nice, and very attractive. He looked directly at me as we spoke, and his focus on me gave me a little more confidence among all of the beautiful women. Of course, he's married to a local talk show host, who had stayed home for the evening. C'est la vie. Kale wandered off to schmooze, and we departed for dinner at the OperaKalleren, which I learned is one of Stockholm's most famous restaurants. They already have one Michelin star, and are working towards a second one. Had I known how fancy this dinner would prove to be, I would have dressed up! And the snow boots would have been more easily hidden under dress pants than they were under my skirt. After handing my coat to a gorgeous man in the coat check (I should MOVE here!), we went into the restaurant and were seated. Declining an apertif (for what felt like the millionth time this week), I settled on still water, and I must say, it was some of the best still water I have ever had, here or at home. We had a little amuse bouche of a slice of sausage with a white bean paste of some sort, and it was quite good, though a little salty. So that gave me hope for the upcoming menu. Until it was handed to me. I realized that while this place was fancy, it was much fancier than anywhere I have ever been before. The prices were staggering (although, not in comparison with some of the ILN meals I have approved), and the list of items was not in my culinary repetoire. Though a good deal of it was in Swedish, with only some English translation, I quickly ascertained that we were to each choose a whole menu, but not separate courses. My heart sank. But I resigned myself to getting the vegetarian menu, which promised to have some foods I would willingly put in my mouth - especially a gnocchi dish in a pumpkin soup. So I swallowed the lump in my throat. But then, after some back and forth in Swedish with our waiter, it was decided that we would all order the first menu, which happened to be the most expensive at 980 kronor, or $150 per person. Pretty intimidating when you're already sure that you won't like most of the items on there. But I smiled wanly and agreed. Luckily, I could choose two of the courses from the selections. I chose the soup instead of the langoustines - a Norwegian lobster - and the beef instead of the fish. I know you're thinking that those are pretty standard choices, so what's the big deal? Well, here goes. Our next course was also on the house, and it was a tiny cup of mushroom soup. So as not to seem like a baby, I ate it, and it wasn't half bad (I'm not a mushroom eater either). Don't get the idea that I like mushrooms now though! My official first course came out. The soup. It had black truffles in it. Okay, not great, but manageable. Oh, and did I mention that it also had calf's tongue? Yup, that's right, baby cow. And there was squash and zucchini chopped up in there too. At this point, I was trying to tell myself that at least it wasn't the reindeer that was on one of the other menus. So I ate it. It tasted okay, but the texture was exactly as you would expect - just like biting your own tongue. I won't be eating that any time soon. Sometimes I just swallowed the pieces whole so I didn't need to chew them. Since it was so fancy, the courses were relatively small and came out at a slow pace, which I enjoy. My waiter was my hero though because he surreptitiously poured my water into my wine glass when I said no to the wine, and for that as well as for pointing out the alcohol in a later post-dessert sweet, I will forever be grateful. Very kind man, Michael. My next course was the beef, a vacuum poached fillet of beef, which came with a salty bouillon (noticing a salt theme anyone? Maybe it's a Swedish thing. Jess would like it here), baby vegetables, and two horseradish dumplings. I limited myself to the beef after trying a little of the other pieces of the meal and finding them close to forcing my gag reflex. The beef itself was delicious - maybe the best I've ever had. It was incredibly tender, and very flavorful. So I started to feel a little better. Then came the selection of cheeses, which included a brie, another soft cheese, one that seemed to be a kind of parmesan, but not as strong, and a fourth cheese, which I also understood to be Italian. They were paired with a sweet jelly of some type - brown, so maybe a fig jelly. The cheese was a little strong for my taste, including the brie, but I did eat it. Dessert was mostly delicious - a selection of various chocolates, which I ate in my order of preference, white, dark, milk. It seemed the right way to do it, especially in retrospect because it built to a lovely chocolate climax. The white chocolate was shaped as a half moon on a bit of cake, what they described as a chocolate cream (not bad), the dark was in a very soft and creamy sorbet (better), and the milk chocolate was a square of creamy/cakey goodness, somewhat like a mousse. Just lovely. Then, we had additional sweets, the "pastry delicacies," and the only one I tasted was a jelly candy of some sort that was not very sweet, and felt like skin. I was done. Kale arrived sometime before dessert, and was determined to be our tour guide around the best new clubs in Sweden for the evening. Luckily, I was able to beg off because I was so tired I didn't know if I could make it back to the hotel. The end of the meal had us listening to the band in the bar that was separated from the restaurant by only a glass wall. They were quite good - reminiscent of the Cranberries, and very soothing. We wended our way through the throng of party-goers heading into the club inside as well, and parted ways outside. Nils was kind enough to walk me to my hotel, and thus ended my last business evening! Today has been spent sleeping and watching tv on my computer - incredibly lazy, but I am in dire need of some rest! Hopefully I can continue to rest on the plane tomorrow, but I'm not looking forward to the 5am wakeup, or the nine hour flight! Nothing like 21 hours on a plane in one week. And in a couple of weeks, I'll have thirty plane hours in a week, but only two flights! The travel continues...

My last stop...Stockholm

By the time I reached Stockholm, I was feeling rather beat up - more from the lack of sleep the past few days (ah, the 5am wakeup) than hitting my head on the overhead compartment of the plane. Yesterday was either a comedy of errors, or just one disaster after another. I got on my flight with no problems, but then learned that the carry on I had shown to the check in agent was in fact too large for the overhead compartment - which i didn't figure out until after I had removed a bunch of books from it and irritated passengers embarking on the plane. At any rate, I finally settled in my seat by the window, only to realize when my travel companion sat down next to me that I had in fact left my cell phone on in the carry on I did place overhead. Once that situation was rectified, I resolved to enjoy the flight, which the headache brought on my cracking my head on the overhead prevented. I arrived in Stockholm safely though, in the tiny local airport called Bromma. Really tiny - we walked right from the plane, down a roll up staircase, and across the snow into the terminal, which consisted of one bathroom and two luggage carousels. Lovely. At least they didn't lose my luggage! I managed to find a taxi to take me to the offices of one of our two firms here. And a piece of good luck happened when I arrived - Thomas, my lawyer contact, happened to be walking up the street at the same time and saw an unfamiliar cab and yours truly struggling with her luggage. So he was able to help me upstairs to the offices and deposit my luggage into storage for the afternoon. We went directly to lunch - and I must say, I am glad to be finished today with faking an appetite, which I have done all week. We went to a little restaurant up the street from the office, and the sheet of ice hidden under the snow made me glad that I decided to wear snow boots with my suit. Not the height of fashion, but functional. It really is lovely in European countries when you go to a restaurant where the staff listens with a close ear and notices if you are English-speaking. Because they are then so polite to speak in English at the table, and subtlely hand over a menu in English. It really is such a courtesy. I didn't have anything notably Swedish at lunch - a mixed salad that looked to be more weeds than lettuce, and a rather delicious potato tart. It was a lovely lunch, albeit threaded with the strain that normally accompanies a meal with people that are only your acquaintances. I must say that the Swedes went out of their way to make me feel comfortable though, for the most part. I learned that glass breaking is a common occurrence at the restaurant - after a large crash occurred in the adjoining room, Thomas mentioned that there is a glass broken every time he eats there. And then our waiter proceeded to break another glass right next to our table. Once we had gotten our coats, we headed back to the office, but not before Thomas gave me a five minute walking tour in the center of town - so that I could see something of Stockholm while I was here! The sun was trying to show itself, and the heated sidewalks had melted some of the snow, so it was quite pleasant. My meeting also went well, but I was still ready to be finished with the week. First, however, was dinner...

Dinner at Roue D'or

I have returned from my dining experience at Roue D'or. For those that know me well enough, you know that there are a few things on my list of "Do NOT eat" - such things as vegetables (especially green ones), any type of seafood, and pretty much anything that isn't familiar. I'm just kind of a basic girl. But it's hard to be that way when traveling to such glamourous places, and with such fancy people, as our lawyers are. After I met Johan, I was delighted when he took me to a little Brasserie, called Roue D'or. According to their card, it's "The Place to be in the Heart of Brussels." It was totally empty when we arrived, so the attentive waiters helped us with our coats, and seated us at a tiny table in the back. I wasn't so sure it was the best table when we had to pull it out just to sit down, but it turned out to be great because it gave us a view of the rest of the restaurant. The decor was fascinating - it reminded me of the brasserie in Something's Gotta Give, when Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves meet Jack Nicholson at a brasserie in Paris (as a footnote, I sent some of our lawyers there for a dine around at our meeting in Paris - Le Grand Colbert). Apparently, Rene Magritte has left his impression all over Brussels, and after being there for a few minutes, I looked up to find a beautiful sky ceiling - decorated with men in dress coats who had sprouted wings and were flying away, and faces of men in bowler hats, and a hot air balloon with clowns and acrobats climbing from it. Quite unique and very entertaining - I loved it. When I wasn't paying attention, Johan ordered an appetizer of what turned out to be goose in some type of creamy pate-type mold. Apparently, we were to eat this on a brown bread toast, interspersing it with cornichons, which are tiny pickles. Apparently, "cornichon" is French for "gherkin." Yes, yes, the only thing in that list that I eat is the brown bread, but I ate all of it, and actually quite liked the cornichons - but I'll deny it if you tell anyone! One of our waiters was rather easy on the eyes, and accidentally brought us someone else's dinner - or maybe he just liked me - wishful thinking! With it, he brought some delicious looking french fries...I'm a sucker for those pommes frites! So Johan ordered them with my sirloin, which rivaled anything I've eaten at a steak house in New York! (Including Sparks) I had the sirloin with a bearnaise sauce, and it was pretty good, although the fries were the best part of course (see what I mean about my palate? At least I'm expanding!) For dessert, Johan insisted I try a local Belgian specialty, even though I was totally stuffed - an apple tart tatin. I could see it from my seat, and it did look delicious, so I relented. My eyes did not fail me, and I ate the whole thing, which I regret already. But it's apples, so it's healthy, right? At any rate the meal was delicious. Johan then wanted me to see a true Brussels cafe, so he took me to one of the oldest bars in Brussels, which had a strange name - something like Ye Olde Good Time. I'm serious. (Au Bon Vieux Temps)You reached it by ducking into this narrow (and I mean NARROW) cobbled alleyway, and heading down to a small doorway - very Sherlock Holmes follows a clue stuff. We went inside, and I felt as though we were transported to medieval times, complete with King Arthur's round table chairs around the room. However, the chain smoking old bartender and the one cross-dressing customer in there with a friend showed me that we were indeed in the 21st century. Only one glass of water later and I was already smelling of smoke, and dreading my five am wakeup tomorrow, so it was back to Hotel Amigo for me. And now to bed before my flight to Stockholm tomorrow!

City & Meeting #2 - Brussels

Ah Bruxelles! I finally broke out the bravery (and even a little Francais!) and did some sightseeing this afternoon. After a successful meeting this morning (and a delicious brie sandwich), I took a cab back to the hotel and talked with the family. Ever try a three way video chat when you don't have a video camera or voice capabilities? Hilarious. After talking with my family, it seemed ridiculous that I could see the Grand Place (pronounce it with a French accent and it sounds much fancier) but I was worried I'd get lost between there and the hotel. So I scrounged up a map and headed over there - really around one corner. It was a little bit of a let down, because my parents had spoken of it so highly, but the architecture was indeed beautiful. Still no peeing boy statues though, which supposedly are everywhere here. Since I don't know what they're actually called, I don't want to ask a native and look totally ridiculous. So I'll keep looking. And hopefully find a souvenir one at the airport to take home for Jess and Dana. What a special gift. But I digress...The Grand Place is cobbled and blocked from vehicles, so it was mostly tourists walking around. All of the Japanese people with cameras quickly unmasked it to be a tourist destination, although Johan assures me that Brussels is not a tourist town - "too small" he says. I was brave enough to venture into a little chocolate shop that looked promising - Neuhaus. I mean, could I really hold my head up if I didn't try to find some Belgian chocolate? And it was worth it, on two fronts. I bought some chocolate, including some presents for my family and some for myself and let me say, YUMMY! It was worth it. And I also found a coffee mug in there - it has a picture of a yellow lab, like my Sherlock, on it and he's wearing a bow tie and a lovely bowler hat. It says "Am I handsome?" I had to buy it! This tickled another Belgian customer, and when I told him that it looked like my dog, he said he hoped not with the hat! I even tested a bit of my French on the shopkeeper - only to say "Est-ce que vous parlez Anglais?" But I survived and now I am packing and getting ready to take a bath before my dinner with Johan!

From Lisbon to Belgium

I am in Belgium, tired and very cranky. The meeting in Lisbon this morning went well though. I never screwed up the courage to walk around alone, but I was able to see more of Lisbon when I went to lunch with Antonio along the Tagus River, at a modern, upscale restaurant called Belem Bar Cafe or "BBC." Aside from the tents that they were erecting right outside the windows for the restaurant's fifth anniversary party, the view was fabulous. The April 25th Bridge was in the background - apparently it's the pre-cursor to our Golden Gate Bridge. Antonio said it was the test bridge. The sun glittered off the water while we ate, which sounds and was beautiful, but did make me yearn to put my sunglasses on. I thought it wouldn't be very professional though, so I abstained. I had pasta, and yes, Antonio had the octopus. Blech. One long tentacle draped ceremoniously on his plate. M. Now I am in Brussels, at the Rocco Forte Hotel Amigo. I learned several things about Virgin Express today - it's extremely crowded, and not with business travelers, there is literally no leg room, if you want food, you must pay for it, and it's totally not advisable to fly this airline when you are jet lagged and cranky. Also, I think they went cheaper on their pilots too, because I wasn't so sure that ours wasn't going to smack the right wing right onto the runway as we were landing. But I survived the flight and from what I saw of Brussels driving in, it reminded me of Vienna. So I heaved a giant sigh of relief and said "Ah, a true European city." It's just how I like them. So we'll see what tomorrow brings! But no morning sightseeing - I am too darn tired!!