Dubai

We returned to Novorossiysk Sunday after spending about a week in Dubai.  Ryan's main reason for travel was to attend a training session.  My main reason for travel was to attend tanning sessions.  We both successfully completed our sessions.

Dubai was simply wonderful.  I enjoyed the sun, the people, the city, the weather, my list could go on for quite some time.

To highlight the major points of our trip:

Burj Kahlifa: World's Tallest Building.  We went to the "top" 127th floor, but the guide said there was about 32 more floors above.  The view was impressive, as was the elevator, it took about a minute to reach the 127th floor.  Considering the speed of elevators in Russia, we were in awe (Russia needs to take notes).

Dubai Mall:  It wasn't just the fact that it was a mall, but the fact that it contained so much more than just stores.  Inside the mall was entrance to Burj Kahlifa, a spectacular waterfall fountain was located in one of the atriums, outside was the Dubai fountain which was choreographed to music, the Dubai Aquarium was also inside.  My main love in the aquarium were the penguins, gosh, it never fails, I just love penguins.  But rest assured, I did a fair share of shopping.

Ferrari World:  Located in Abu Dhabi, Ryan rented a car and drove us the hour to get there.  Very nice theme park.  I especially enjoyed the fact is what indoors and it was not incredibly busy, the crowds started to arrive as we were finishing up.  Ryan enjoyed all the cars, I enjoyed (Ryan too) the roller coasters.  We went on the World's Faster Coaster.  The picture of my hair says it all.

The Beach: Let me preface with, I dislike sand, I do not like when it sticks to me.  I dealt with the sand and enjoyed some time on the beach.  It is very relaxing to hear the waves.  The beach was a nice change from the pool.  But, the beach was missing something that the pool had, a bar.  The Sofitel had a pool bar that you could swim up to.  Dubai is very non-Russian when it comes to alcohol.  You can only purchase alcohol in hotels, and Ryan and I found out, you cannot purchase alcohol from 4 pm-6pm (religious reasons).  No worries, when it was only 4:15, we lounged in the pool and were first to order at 6 pm :).

The Weather: One thing was guaranteed everyday, sunshine and warmth, two of my greatest loves (other than Ryan...awwwww). :)  Warmth is down playing the weather, it was HOT!  I do not get hot very often, but when the thermostat is showing 100+ degrees and not a cloud in the sky, it can get a bit toasty.  It was not hot enough to keep me inside, the door men at the hotel always shook their heads when I declined a taxi and chose to walk and explore.

The Metro:  I love public transportation.  It's all so new to me!  The city bus in Istanbul was fantastic and the metro in Dubai was fabulous.  I have decided that I would like to settle in a location with large public transportation systems.  I greatly enjoyed catching the train to various locations.

I am sure there are things that I have forgotten and I will encourage Ryan to make a post including anything he would like to add.  I am so thankful I joined Ryan on this trip and was sad to see the trip come to an end.  I know coming from Russia made me appreciate Dubai more, but even if I had traveled directly from the states, I would still have been impressed.  It is a very well managed, clean, polite, interesting, and smooth running city.

Please enjoy the pictures...I got a new camera, so I had fun taking pictures. :)  I spent a lot of time adding in captions to better explain the pictures, etc.

Dubai Pictures

This is a completely different topic, but I have to tell everyone what happened during the typing of this post.  I was sitting at the computer, and was at the point about explaining the weather.  I looked over and I saw Macy on the "hunt."  I figured she was just hunting flies again, she has recently taken on this task. Anywho, I notice she had "caught" something.  She was pawing at the bottom of one of our stereo speakers.   I saw a black thing crawl out and she pounced, putting her left paw on it.  This definitely caught my attention, so I had to investigate.  She probably stood for about 30 seconds, not moving, and not picking up her paw.  I figured this was a good time to grab a piece of paper in case I was needed for back up killing (I didn't know what she had, if anything under her paw).  She picked up her paw, and underneath was this awful looking black and white spotted bug.  Ugh, I am so thankful I had the paper.  I killed the nasty thing, disposed of him in the trash, and proceeded to praise Macy and give her treats.  I don't think I have ever been more proud of her.  Our dog is a bug hunter, saving me from awful critters!!!

*Too bad there wasn't a video of this event, I would have sent it to animal planet. 

St. Petersburg

No need to worry, we are still alive.

This past week has been incredibly busy.  Ryan left for business on Tuesday.  I flew to St. Petersburg to visit him Thursday.  We spent Friday-Sunday in St. Petersburg with another Chevron couple.  I flew back to Novorossiysk Sunday and Ryan flew to Moscow.  I accepted our sea shipment Monday.  Wait, let me repeat, OUR SEA SHIPMENT ARRIVED!!!!!  I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning unpacking, sorting, organizing, and cleaning.  Everything is finally in order and I am now sitting to write a blog post.

Ryan is still in Moscow, he is flying home tomorrow (Thursday).  We leave for Dubai on Friday.  Ok, wait again, let me repeat, WE ARE GOING TO DUBAI!!!!!  Can you tell I am excited?  Bring on the warm weather and sun.  I am in desperate need of a tan, I am in close competition with Casper and would like to return more on the level of bronzed goddess.

I realize I titled this post St. Petersburg and that is the main reason for this post.  As I mentioned previously, Ryan and I, along with Tim and Li (Chevron couple in Novorossiysk) spent Friday-Sunday in St. Petersburg.  Ryan and Tim were outside of St. Petersburg for business and decided to fly the wives up for the weekend.  It was a very nice trip.  We were able to see two major areas, Peter the Great Summer Palace and The Hermitage, also known as Winter Palace.  The man had some excellent taste in buildings.

Personally, I enjoy more artifacts and architecture as opposed to paintings.  So I enjoyed the Summer Palace more.  Ryan enjoyed both, he was excited to see the Van Gogh and Rembrandt paintings.

If I had to choose, I would say I enjoyed St. Petersburg more than Moscow.  I felt like it was a more cheerful and airy atmosphere.

And, highlight of the trip.  Ryan scheduled to have a driver pick Li and me up from the airport.  Very nice man, holding a sign with my name on it, fooled us at first with his awesome English.  He gave us a very interesting ride to the hotel, filled with pointing out major historical buildings along the way, and I was able to practice my Russian a bit.  Best part of the entire ride was the last 60 seconds.  Traffic was horrible, so our lovely driver decided to take the Audi up on the sidewalk and drive.  We stopped at the corner, returned to the street and came to a stop in front of our hotel.
The conversation during the event went something like this:
Driver: "Excuse me ladies." As he drives up onto the sidewalk.  Li and I are cheering in the backseat.
Me: "Well, nothing like front door service at our hotel."
Driver: "It's a Russian thing" Referring to driving on the sidewalk.
Don't take it the wrong way.  He was an excellent driver and made for a very fun trip through St. Petersburg traffic.

Enjoy the photos!!!

St. Petersburg

   

My Apologies....

Sorry friends, I realized that I only made Istanbul Day 1 public for viewing.  I have corrected the settings and now all albums are available for viewing.

Since I am already posting, I will share with you a challenge I am facing.  I have the biggest challenge walking Macy.  I miss Kim, my walking buddy.  She has raised dogs her entire life and is incredible with not only Macy, but me.  Novorossiysk has many stray dogs, or just dogs that their owners do not keep on a leash.  Macy is not the best with other dogs, she is a chicken.  I am also a chicken when it comes to other dogs.  I never know how they are going to react.

The reason this is so fresh in my mind is because I just returned from walking Miss Macy.  Overall, we did fairly well.  We encountered our first stray about 5 minutes into the walk.  The dog barked and followed us for a bit, but as usual, a few NOs and SHOOs made it go away.  Our next encounter was just a few short minutes later.  This one actually made me giggle, a huge, drenched (must have been swimming in the sea) black lab came up to Macy.  I think he may have been more scared of Macy.  He was such a sweet fella.

As you can see, I do not have any concrete reasons for fearing the other dogs, and I just need to get over it.  It may also be the lack of language to communicate to other dog owners that Macy is not bad, she is just skittish, or if something were to happen, how would I communicate that I need help.    I guess I am writing this so in the future, when I look back at my previous posts, I will laugh at myself for such a silly fear.

Ok that is all, again, sorry if you couldn't see the pictures. :)

Trip to Istanbul

As you may have read in the previous post, Ryan and I spent a long weekend in Istanbul, May 4-9.  It is a trip I absolutely loved and am so thankful we decided to go.  Istanbul is a city filled with elaborate architecture, rich in history, intricate mosques, pleasant people, beautiful water, this list could go on forever.  The first couple days were not the greatest weather, but that did not stop us from enjoying the sights and taking in all the history Istanbul had to offer.  We took a plethora of pictures and I decided to separate the albums based on the day.

It took a large amount of time to upload photos and create albums, so I will not apologize for not typing a caption for each photo.  Hopefully the organization and few comments help to guide you  through the albums.  The pictures do no justice for what it was like to be inside such amazing buildings and to hear the history and stories behind each place.

Day 1:  We arrived in Istanbul early afternoon and decided to walk along the water to stretch our legs after a very long travel.  We later took the shuttle to downtown Istanbul, Taxim square.

Istanbul Day 1

Day 2:  We had an awesome tour guide and ended up having a private tour.  Places on the agenda were Hagia Sophia Museum, The Basilica Cistern, and Grand Bazaar.  Pictures go in order.  After the tour, we stopped in Old Istanbul for dinner at a restaurant, Metropolis.  Delicious food, fabulous wine. 

Istanbul Day 2

Day 3: The weather was cold and rainy but we did not let that stop us.  First on the tour was the Blue Mosque, third largest in the world.  The name is given for all the blue tiles.  Remarkably, everyone had (and did) take off their shoes before entering.  From the Blue Mosque, we pass through the Hippodrome on our way to the Topkapi Palace Museum and Harem.  

After the tour we grabbed lunch in one of the malls, warmed our toes and returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  We had a dinner cruise on the Bosporus Canal. 

Istanbul Day 3

Day 4: Ryan booked a day long cruise along the Bosporus.  We woke to sunny skies and the weather could not have been more perfect.  We had various stops along the way.  Most interesting was the Fortress.  Again, the pictures go in order from start to finish of the cruise.  

Istanbul Day 4

Day 5: Final day in Istanbul.  Ryan saw the Dolmabahce Palace during our cruise and decided we should check it out.  Again, the intricacy of the building and articles inside are remarkable.  Not too many pictures from this day, pictures were forbidden inside.  Yes, they do not use the words "not allowed" but rather find it more demanding to use the word "forbidden."

Istanbul Day 5

Well friends, now you have seen the much anticipated photos from our trip. Well, I don't know if they were much anticipated, but I am sure there are a few people out there that are excited to see them. :)  

Luckily for everyone, I was not able to procrastinate with posting.  Ryan already left for St. Petersburg today, I will be joining him on Thursday for another weekend away.  Thursday - Sunday in St. Petersburg Russia.  Are you excited for more pictures on the blog?!?!  

If Istanbul is on your list of places to see in the world, keep it on the list, move it to the top, it is definitely worth a trip.  

This post took much longer than anticipated, good night everyone! :)

Currently in Istanbul...

Ryan and I safely arrived in Istanbul.  It was a long travel.  Vitaley picked us up at our apartment at 2:30 a.m. we arrived at Krasnodar airport at 5:00 a.m. We flew from Krasnodar to Moscow, Moscow to Istanbul and arrived in Istanbul at 12:00 local time. 

We took the shuttle our hotel provides to downtown Istanbul and spent a few hours exploring the city.  I decided I wanted to go "local" for dinner and we chose a small shop that offered sandwich wraps.  They carved the meat for the sandwich off a large piece hanging near the front window.  There were numerous shops that offered similar items, but we decided on the place that had the meat hanging inside rather than outside.  The sandwich was delicious.  We also stopped at a street vendor and purchased some sort of roasted food.  Ryan thought they were brains, but I thought they were chestnuts, "chestnuts roasted on an open fire!"  I google imaged chestnuts and I was correct.  It is a good thing we walked so much because we also stopped to taste "Turkish Delights" they are tiny little gel candy squares.

The weather started decently, but as the night progressed it became chilly and drizzly.  Ryan bought me a pretty scarf at a local shop.  I took a good amount of pictures today, during our walk along the water, and during our adventures downtown.  We have a tour schedule for Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.  Friday night we have a Bosphorus River dinner cruise scheduled.  I will be sure to take lots of pictures and will post once we return to Novorossiysk Monday.

Oh, I forgot to mention this!!!  I took my first city bus, and it was in Istanbul!!!  Pretty cool?!?!  We took a city bus from downtown, back to our hotel.  I think I may have had a bit too much fun on the ride, but it was something new and I was excited. 

A First of Many...

Yesterday was my first and ultimately successful adventure of haircut and highlights.  I went to the salon that does my nails and a lovely lady, Anna, highlighted and cut my hair.  I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, Ryan and I decided that if it turned out horribly it would give us a good laugh.  :)  Fears aside, my hair turned out well.

On a completely separate note, I would like to wish a very special person, a very happy birthday.

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!!!!!

Love you lots!!!!!

Finally, I bring up the slack....

Hello Everyone! I know you have all been anxiously awaiting a post from me! ha, actually I am sure most of you were quite content reading what Virginia had to say...she is pretty awesome huh?!

Virginia and I just got back from dinner, ice cream, and walking the promenade. It was a beautiful day here in Novorossiysk, sunny with low winds (beginning to think that wasn't possible). It's interesting to think less than two years ago we were in Indianapolis either attending university or having just finished up. And now we are living in Russia, just goofy and very exciting. Here is a little update on what I have been up to this year....

After our pre-assignment trip, which Virginia filled you in on, I went to Abu Dhabi for a week with a short jaunt over to Dubai. Here are a couple pics from that trip...

 Single Point Mooring Buoy. This is the reason Ed (my colleague to the right) and I went to the UAE We were attending the fabrication kick-off meetings with the Buoy Contractor and CPC.  

The Sail Hotel, Dubai. 

Ed and I had to conduct some trickery to get this close. We were able to piggy back a group of vehicles going through the security gate. I tried to get him to valet our rental so  we could go into the hotel, but Ed decided a Nissan Sunny (rental, similar to GEO Metro) didn't really fit next to the Rolls Royce's and Italian supercars parked out front. 

I have a week training at the end of May in Dubai, so Virginia and I will be going back there at the end of this month. She is looking forward to the sun and beaches. I am looking forward to amazing Indian food, I know random, but it is amazing there. 

And we can't forget the amazing cake we had for my mom's birthday!  Happy birthday again! 

I have also made a trip to Aberdeen, Scotland this year but didn't take any pictures. I really enjoyed this trip b/c the training was very effective and I could read all the signs and restaurant menus! What a luxury being able to read the menus at a restaurant, hard to understand until you live somewhere you have no idea what it is your ordered day in and day out. 

Last week I was in Moscow where I was able to see the Russian military practice for the May Day (May 9th). May Day is the most significant Russian holiday as it is celebrating World War II ("The Great Patriotic War" in Russia). 

Russian Missile Launcher (Picture taken on the main boulevard in Moscow)

When I returned from Moscow, I came home to a dog slightly confused as to what species she actually belongs..."am I a cat or dog?" 

Last but not least, I saw quite an interesting site on my ride home from the airport in Krasnodar. I saw this out of the corner of my eye and it absolutely blew me away....look at the water faucet

Driving by this you don't register what's happening at first glance.

Well that's about all for me now. Virginia needs to order another book for our trip to Istanbul this week. She is starting her globe trotting this week and will continue with St. Petersburg, Dubai, Scotland, and London all in the next 6 weeks. 

Ryan