This past weekend, we kept quite busy. The EU embassies had open houses to share their culture and promote tourism to their country. We heard that 50,000 people attended last year and I’m not surprised. We had to wait 45 minutes to get through the door at the Greek embassy. The line at the Irish embassy was even longer so (sorry to admit it) we didn’t wait. We also didn’t make our way past the UK embassy but I’m sure they were quite busy. The Polish embassy, however, was by far the best host They had sausages, pierogi, and Zywiec beer that they were serving as well as providing impressive tourism informational magazines. We found many things we haven’t yet seen in Poland and look forward to seeing more sites in the future.

We also met up with Kieran and Johanna, friends of ours from Dublin who are now in the area. It was wonderful to see them! We enjoyed a Thai dinner and drinks at a swanky bar.

We spent some time visiting Arlington National Cemetery as well as traveling a few hours to explore Jamestown, Yorktown and  Wilmington, VA. Briefly, Jamestown is the first permanent settlement in the US (in 1607). Yorktown was the site of a battle in the Revolutionary War, and Wilmington was the capital of Virginia.

This coming week, Heather’s sister is coming to visit for a few days and we’re SO excited to have her company!

Sunday morning we were off and running again, this time without any wheels. Our apartment is only a short walk to the Mall and Capitol Hill, and we were able to see all the major monuments and memorials in the area as well as the White House (from outside). We also checked out the visitor’s center for the White House and Smithsonian museums.  By the way, did you know that Mr. James Smithson (who left his bequest to the U.S. to create the Smithsonian Institution) was a British scientist and never visited to the US?

Last night we found our way (with much difficulty despite having a GPS) to Thai Basil. This is a restaurant we saw on the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay. The owner makes a wonderful Pad Thai that we both enjoyed, and it was fun to see the pictures from the filming that were posted throughout the restaurant.

Today, we took the time after work to visit the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum before it closed for the day and then we did some more wandering around the city.

I am so happy to have finally made it here and I’m excited to see more of the area and get the feel of the city while we’re staying here. Plus, my sister is going to visit for a weekend, which will be wonderful! I’m really looking forward to this month

P.S. Pictures are here.

We took another roadtrip again this weekend…. yep, we can’t get enough of our car!  Heather’s aunt and uncle were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in Phoenix, Arizona (congratulations!) and we were so happy to be this close and able to join them in their celebration.  And even better, Heather’s father’s brothers were able to be together for the first time in years.  We posted pictures of the roadtrip and also of the party. 

The roadtrip went well and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing what Heather calls “movie” cacti on the hills near and around Phoenix. It was an 8-hour trip one-way so we are pretty tired, but we’re already planning the next weekend…. Radek is thinking Colorado or “somewhere out there,” but we’ll see how that goes.

* Verify exact internet speed and connection - can they support two computers? Silly question, but definitely should have been asked for last months destination.

* Ask about the set-up for two work stations

* Make sure apartment is not on a busy/loud street and believe the people if they say “they drive a little noisy here”

* Is the apartment near public transportation, or is a 20 minute walk to the nearest subway okay?

* When abroad, can the owner communicate with us - questions, help, etc. - or are we prepared to contact internet providers on the phone in the native tongue

* Bring our own sharp knives, two backpacks, wine bottle opener, spices, granola bars, and PEANUT BUTTER!!! (when going abroad)

This was drafted while we were there:

Wow… we’ve been here almost 4 weeks already. We’re still enjoying the weather, ice cream, empanadas, fresh fruits and the city in general.  Over the last 2 weekends we had a chance to venture a bit outside of Buenos Aires. Two weeks ago we spent the Saturday at a gaucho (the Argentine equivalent of a cowboy) ranch and Sunday we followed the crowds of locals to Tigre: a town 20-some miles north of Buenos on the delta of Parana river.

The day at the gaucho ranch was nice and relaxing: a bus picked us in BA and drove us 100-some miles to the ranch where we were fed and entertained (dancing, singing, horse racing, etc) all day long and we got dropped off back to our apartment later in the evening.  The next day, however, was a bit more demanding as we decided to go for a 4-hour long kayaking trip on the Parana river in Tigre.

Last weekend we flew up north to see the mighty Iguazu falls (the alternative 17 hour bus trip didn’t sound too appealing). Since the waterfall is located on the Brazilian and Argentinian border we spent one day on each side. The waterfall (or rather the waterfalls) is absolutely beautiful and words can’t describe it so we’re not even going to try. We do have to say that if you’re looking for steam bath spa treatment this is a place to be. It certainly made up for the lack of summer weather we’ve had for a year and a half.

This is now:

Iguazu Falls can’t even be described through photographs - it has to be experienced in person to get the full sensory effect of the rushing water, flying steam, pounding sun, and those incredible views. I can’t remember the smell, per se, but maybe because the body had to knock out a sensory organ to make room for the mind to take it all in.

In brief, we really did enjoy our time in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area. We also took a ferry trip to Uruguay and spent a relaxing weekend in Colonia and Montevideo. Our Spanish lessons went well - Heather re-located her Spanish vocabulary and misplaced her ability to speak Polish; Radek really improved his spoken Spanish in every way, particularly in shopping for their delicious fruits and ordering ice cream.  We learned some difficult lessons for the next time, including questioning the quality of internet (so we can be sure to work without problems), believing the previous tenant when they say the apartment is located on a loud street, and bringing two backpacks so one person isn’t stuck lugging around everything for a weekend trip.

And “the next time” has already arrived - we are currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico - “Land of Enchantment” or in our opinion, land of chili peppers, pink dirt, native history, and beautiful scenery.   More later….. hopefully not in another month……

* We departed the green, lush valleys (read: wet and cold) of Ireland

* We are both able to telecommute for our respective employers (thank you, employers!)

* We bummed off Heather’s parents for a month, braving frigid cold arctic temperatures and mounds of snow

* We are currently staying in the warm and sunny (read: 85 F/30 C temperatures and high level humidity) city of Buenos Aires, Argentina (read: “workation” as in work + vacation. Please note employers, this is focused on the “work” prior to the “vacation” as is implied in the word “WORKation” versus “vacatiork”)  

We are very much enjoying wearing shorts, squinting in the sun and letting the sweat drip down our backs as this is the first time we’ve been in such weather since August of 2007. Yes, we have been counting

We do have to admit that we were a bit concerned (Heather, quite a bit more than a bit) that the apartment wouldn’t exist, that our internet connection wouldn’t exist and that our jobs would soon not exist as a result. However, we emerged from the plane after a 12-hour flight from Chicago safe and sound with all of our luggage and the landlord waiting to welcome us to our apartment when we arrived. Hopefully everything continues as smoothly.

We are also taking Spanish lessons as a survival technique. Today was our first class and we are very happy with our instructor (Alejandra at Into Words), not to mention pleasantly surprised with our retention of the Spanish language, likely thanks to our mini-trips to Spain.

Yesterday, we celebrated our anniversary and enjoyed a fabulous meal of Vietmanese cuisine at the Green Bamboo while sitting on pillows on the floor.  Our teacher told us this was the best restaurant in the city for Asian food and are not surprised because it was delicious.

Now however, we must sign off as it is time to do the work part of workation.

Anyway, in the last month we’ve made it to Strasbourg, France and Poland. Both Strasbourg and Poland welcomed us with a very nice weather and, coming to think of it, the weather in Dublin wasn’t that bad, either. I guess early fall is just the time to visit Europe.

In Strasbourg we visited Radek’s cousin, Kasia, who currently lives there. It was nice not to have to lug our guide books along and be able to rely on a “local” guide to show us the city. You can see some of the pictures we took here.

Poland was a good, week-long, review of Heather’s Polish language skills as she was thrown onto “deep waters” and had to sell chrysanthemum plants for All Saint’s Day. She did very well the first couple of days… then either a mosquito or chrysanthemum pollen got her and she got an allergic reaction making her left eye swell to the point she couldn’t open it. Because of that she spent the last day of sales at home.

This last weekend we tried to conquer one of the local landmarks we haven’t been to, yet — the hill with the antenas (it’s really visible from just about anywhere in Dublin). Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very cooperative and the lack of any marked trails made us wander in the sun/mist/sun/fog/sun/rain/more rain for some time around the hills without getting to the top of the hill. We did meet some interesting… donkeys, though (pictures here).

Well . . . here we are:The Aimless Wanderer (that would be me)

The Aimless Wanderer’s greatest strength is her ability to become distracted at the speed of light. She may pretend like she knows where she’s going but in reality, she only wanders along behind her companion, Fearless Traveler, with her trusty camera at the ready. Aimless Wanderer would be unable to not find her destination without:

* a camera, first and foremost, which must be with her at all times as to forget it would be her greatest loss of aimless power;

* a big flowing cape which blows her in a different direction just when she thinks she cannot be distracted;

* a knife at her side just in case there are any bears that might sneak-up from behind to distract her from her mission of wandering;

* the binoculars, but I’m not sure why; and

* a nice, big smile, to thwart all correct directions.

The Fearless Traveler (obviously, Radek)

The Fearless Traveler will never say no to traveling or dreaming of his next destination.  He can sleep anywhere, whether it be in scary cockroach infested hostel rooms or 4-star luxury resorts. As long as there is something new to see, he will be there. Fearless Traveler comes fully equipped with the following weapons:

* a trusty guidebook, most likely of the Lonely Planet variety;

* a fancy backpack with all the necessities, including a sleeping bag for the scary hotel rooms;

* a solar-powered watch with desirable additions such as compass, altimeter, and GPS - not at all necessary for the Fearless Traveler, but fun to have none-the-less;

* a rope, because you just never know; and

* his life-force, the beer (as you can see, it’s currently a Guinness).

So there you have it.  Can you tell I have a lot of free time? If you’re interested in making your own hero, I used: http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine2/heroMachine2.asp

And thanks again, Becky, for the wonderful idea

Open “Full Entry” and click here for a video of: Oktoberfest 2008

As you can see, this was quite a busy place…. let us back up, though….

First, Radek is able to check-in online with good ol’ RyanAir but Heather is discriminated against because she’s not an EU Citizen and must check-in at the airport (and pay a 5 Euro fee, which is supposed to be reimburseable). As luck would have it, our bus to the airport was stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and, as you can imagine, Heather missed the check-in time for the airplane. So, off Radek went towards Munich, and Heather got re-scheduled for a plane to Frankfurt. Through the beauty of cell phones, we were able to communicate enough to coordinate a meeting in Heidelberg, which about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from our hotel. It was a very late night, and an even earlier morning, to catch our train to Munich.

We arrived in Munich at 10:30 Saturday morning and were pleased to find our home for the evening in the beautiful and clean Hotel Beer. We were only a couple minutes walk from the subway system and made it to Munich without any further difficulties.

The Oktoberfest grounds are quite amazing…. it is huge! The first thing we walked into was the amusement park with a ton of rides - no beer tent in sight, which we found impressive. When we thought of Oktoberfest, we thought only of beer, but there was quite a bit more to it than that. They had a wonderful selection of food, and that’s coming from the vegetarians (although we’re glad that we eat fish, or we may have been in a bit of trouble.) Radek just can’t get over the variety of fish being served, the best of which was the baked mackerel in our beer-garden. They had sandwiches made from salmon, cod, herring, etc. Plus, they had all kinds of sweets and goodness - form pretzels to cotton candy to roasted-sugary nuts.

We were not fortunate enough to have tickets for seats in any of the 12 large beer tents (and you must have a seat in a tent in order to be served beer or food in that tent). After wandering around for quite awhile, we found our way to the Hippodrome beer tent, but because there were a few people waiting to enter, we decided to go  elsewhere. We chose the fish tent (for obvious reasons) and decided to wait out the line to get through the door. After four hours of watching the security guards let in their friends and no one else, we gave up - especially when we saw people with reservations showing their tickets and being refused entry. So, we went to the nearby bier-garten to find a seat, which came quite quickly.

There, we met some great people and had a ton of laughs, as you can see in some of our pictures here. They were kind enough to speak English to us, if they could. Radek especially made the rounds meeting new people from all over - whether they could understand each other or not. You may notice a few superheros in our photos - yes, Spiderman, Superman, the Hulk and others were in our tent! And I think they came all the way from the UK

Although we were literally exhausted and fell in to bed when we got back to Dublin, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed our weekend there. Our number one recommendation, though - make sure you get reservations to the beer tent. We would have enjoyed seeing the dancing and hearing more traditional music, which we didn’t really get in the beer-garden (although we could see it through the glass windows, beyond the mean security guards, so better than nothing) but we did meet some great people and had some wonderful fish sandwiches!

We were also able to see Radek’s cousin, Piotrek, who currently lives in London and had the opportunity to meet his lovely girlfriend, Shyma. (We hope we got the spelling correct - sorry if we didn’t!)

On Sunday, we took in the sunshine and wandered around the city streets and parks. We found our way to the National Gallery and enjoyed the beauty of Monet and Van Gogh. We also enjoyed quite a bit of the cuisine - from good ol’ fish and chips and a “spicy” Cornish pasty to Korean & Filipino fare.

 So, cheers, London! We had a great weekend!

P.S. Pictures are here.