Playing Catch-Up, Part 1

WELL, I just spent a fabulous 3 weeks in the U.S. on my final R&R for (from) Algeria, and during the 12 days I spent in SC, I got several comments about how I had slacked off on the blog (you know who you are). They were polite comments, but nevertheless. I get it; I’m not the best at sticking to this whole blog thing. BUT in an endeavor to make up for lost time, I will try to fill in the blanks in a couple of posts covering the last 7-8 months of radio silence. Here goes…

As I was perusing my previous posts to remind myself of what I had posted about most recently, I realized I completely skipped over my January/February R&R in NYC and Istanbul! Well, let me tell you, it was a pretty great trip (or couple trips, really).

Mom and Dad spent the 2014 spring semester in NYC while Mom taught at Columbia. Which was extremely convenient for this former New York girl, who got to see family and friends all in one trip! That never happens!

I was in NY for Super Bowl weekend (unintentionally – no one should ever be in any city that’s hosting the Super Bowl unless they are going to the game), but I fought my way through Times Square (worst I’ve ever seen it) to check out the puppy bowl with a couple of friends, which is much more my speed:

Dad and I went to the Natural History Museum:

Dad and T-Rex

And I caught up with the old Ed Show crowd at Channel 4, our go-to bar:

Oh, also it snowed like hell:

Snow in NY is much prettier when one is on vacation

AND we tried this weird Russian-ish string cheese called Chechil.

It is not good.

After about 10 days in NY, I hopped a plane to Istanbul to meet up with some of my favorite friends from A-100, my Foreign Service orientation class. They are currently in Tirana, Albania; Riyadh Saudi Arabia; and Muscat, Oman. We convened in Turkey for a fabulous long weekend, where we stayed in a great Airbnb apartment!

Kicking things off with a cup of Turkish coffee

We visited the Blue Mosque and the cistern:

And had a super fancy tasting menu at an amazing restaurant overlooking the city:

We even caught a whirling dervish act when we took a break for coffee!

Now I’ll jump forward a few months to the end of May, when a group of us from Algeria journeyed to Edinburgh to run a half marathon! Training in Algiers is tricky (no sidewalks, narrow roads, few running options), BUT we figured it out (one trail run and lots and lots of treadmill time) and made it to Scotland for a VERY rainy and chilly race. Far from my best effort (see: rainy, chilly, difficulty training), however, it was a fantastic trip, especially because I got to stay with a long lost friend from my English schoolgirl days who is a doctor now, living in Edinburgh!

We also took advantage of being in the land of Scotch to take a very touristy (but very fun) tour of the Scotch Whiskey Experience (thats zillions of bottles of Scotch behind us):

After cold and rainy Edinburgh, an EasyJet flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia was just the ticket. A friend and I spent an amazing few days in an amazing hotel with an amazing view:

Dubrovnik was, as predicted, quite touristy, but for a couple of days it didn’t matter. The old town was beautiful! Here’s one from our walk around the top of the old town walls:

We also had some great Bosnian food (think really really good meat and potatoes):

And we visited this cove on a kayak trip around the area:

Not too shabby! I then transited back to Algiers through London, where I spent an afternoon wandering the city (yay freedom to wander) and hit up the Leicester Square half price booth for tickets to Wicked!

Then it was back to work and time to go into overdrive, as I was responsible for planning the Embassy’s official July 4th event. Lots of stress ensued, but it turned out great! We held it outdoors at the Ambassador’s residence, the weather was perfect, and the view even better. Happy Birthday America!

So that takes us halfway through 2014. Stay tuned for a run-through of the 2nd half soon!