Tr(a)p in Review: Budapest Pt. 2

Thursday morning we were up super early, as Budapest is 2 hours behind Doha and we hadn’t adjusted to the time change. When we left our hotel it was around 7:30 AM, and the city was gearing into morning rush hour.

We enjoyed Espresso Embassy so much that we decided to go there again for flat whites and pastries for breakfast.

We then went over by the river to see the poignant statue, “Shoes on the Danube Bank.”  For more information on this, click here.

After that we hopped on the M1 and took it over to Heroes Square. The statues are in chronological historical order- I liked seeing the different “looks” of the time!

 

There was a huge ice skating area close by and we thought about renting some skates or an hour, but opted for a photo opp instead. For people unaccustomed to ice skating and chilly weather(like us), I feel like it’s one of those things that’s fun for about 5 minutes and then you’re cold and done.

 

Next, we decided to take the tram over to the Central Market Hall, where I bought some paprika. The entire first floor is all food/market stalls, and the second floor is handicrafts and wares. Kinda reminded me of the souq life in Doha, haha.

 

We figured by this point it was an appropriate time to have a warm wine, so we headed over to the Christmas Market near Deak Ferenc, each got a cuppa, and sat on a park bench and people watched near the busy square.

 

Soon after, we felt hungry and each got a dish of stank porky deliciousness and warm sour cherry beer.

 

Then it was time for our next TRAP! Luckily the Medieval puzzle game was working this time- our gamemaker said this puzzle is very hard for couples to accomplish in 60 minutes. Well, challenge accepted, and we finished at 50 minutes! Part of the trap also involved putting on different items of clothing…

We were ready for a nap at this point, so we headed home and rested for a little bit before gearing up for Round 2 that evening.

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After eating fairly heavy foods for 2 days straight, my stomach needed a little break, so we headed to a restaurant I had seen 2 nights before near Szimpla- of all places, a ramen restaurant! It was a tight spot with a crowd and a line, so we took that as a good sign. Alas, we were not disappointed- the ramen, sake, and gyoza dumplings that we had were all delicious.

 

We then walked along Andrassy avenue (the Champs Elysee of Budapest) and passed by the Opera House, all decorated for the season.

 

From there, we popped into a disappointing Scottish pub, and then another ruin bar called “Instant.” It was pretty trippy inside!

We then took the metro outside the city center to a somewhat rough area to check out a massive craft beer bar called Eleszto. It was huge and crowded inside.

And the patrons were definitely of the bookish type- so what does that make us?

 

We hung out there for a bit, then headed home. In the metro we noticed all the kids just gearing up for a night out, and felt old!

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Since we only had a little soup for dinner, we popped by our neighborhood Gyro stand for a night cap.

 

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast over at the ornate “New York Café,” which was actually attached to our hotel.

Via visitbudapest.travel:

At the turn of the 20th century the New York Café (New York Kávéház) was the most beautiful and the most beloved coffee house in Budapest. It was a popular place among writers and editors, in fact, the most influential newspapers were edited here, upstairs in the gallery. After World War II, the once famous café fell into disrepair and it served as a sporting goods shop. Although the café reopened in 1954, under the name of Hungária, it wasn’t until 2006 that the New York Café was restored to its original splendor.

 

It was a breakfast buffet, and was the most expensive meal of our trip, but at 25 Euros/pp (including mimosas) it was still a lot cheaper than what you get in many other cities!

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From there we packed up, hopped on the metro, hopped on the bus, and made our way to the airport. Great trip!

 

Tr(a)p in Review: Budapest Pt. 1

Last week John and I had the opportunity to visit Budapest! It was our first time in Eastern-ish Europe, and I loved it. The food was great, the people were nice, the city was easy to manage, and overall there is a lot of character. I would recommend it, and would definitely go back to this part of the world. (Plus, at about the 1/3 of the price of what you find in most big cities in Western Europe, you get a lot more “bang” for your buck!)

Buda on the left, Pest on the right!

We left early Wednesday morning and got there around 11:30 AM. Once we landed, we had a little wait in the immigration line, then took public transportation* to our hotel- the Boscolo Residence.

*The public transportation is awesome and super cheap! For approx. $18/each we got a 3 day pass with unlimited rides on metro, tram, and bus. Better yet, we didn’t have to bother with buying individual tickets or validating them once we got onboard. We managed to navigate all of Budapest via these modes or the ol’ Two Foot Express.

We were excited when we checked in because our room got upgraded to a 2 story apartment, complete with 2 balconies!

After we dropped our stuff off and explored the apartment a little, we headed over to Szechenyi thermal baths via the M1- the oldest metro system in Europe. It was obvious from the stations and the cars.

We were hungry for lunch at this point, so just stopped in the first restaurant we saw near the baths.

 

The Szechenyi Baths are one of the most visited attractions in Budapest, and winter was a fun time to go- it’s one of the largest spa complexes in Europe, and has several large pools, small pools, saunas, etc. We hung out in the outdoor pools for a little bit and then got a massage. Given that it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit out, we were rather chilly getting in and out of the pools!

Private changing cabins

At 2:30

At 4:30!

When we left the spa it was around 4:30, and already dark. We got back on the metro* towards our hotel, and then stopped at a very convenient grocery store (right next door) to get water and snackies.

*For some reason we found the escalator in the metro very amusing.  It looked like people were leaning forward/back while they were on it.  And it goes fast! A lot faster than many other escalators.

After a bit of rest, and then appero in the kitchen, we headed out to Deak Ferenc ter to meet some of John’s colleagues for a walk and drinks.

First we checked out one of the city’s various Christmas markets (and of course had a cup of warm wine.)

Then they took us to one of Budapest’s most unique attractions- a ruin bar!

Via CNN Travel:

“It started around 2001, so the story goes, with a bunch of young men looking for cheap places to drink. From their thirst and shallow pockets have grown some of the most lively and stylish places to drink in Budapest– so-called ruin bars.

Derelict buildings and unused outdoor spaces have been transformed into friendly, pleasingly chaotic bars where you can still get a large beer for less than $2.

…classic signs of a ruin pub: willfully mismatched furniture that had seen better days a decade ago, art that some visitors have an annoying habit of taking home without asking…”

The bar we went to on that first night was Szimpla- allegedly the first ruin bar and one of the most famous. We walked around and then sat and had a Hungarian ratatouille with sausage. (John’s colleagues both ordered eggplant cream, which intrigued me- I ended up making this back in Doha when we got back.)

I was pretty sleepy at this point, so called it a night shortly after eating.

The next day, we got up and went and got coffee in the morning at “Espresso Embassy.”

Later, we participated in a SUPER FUN “room escape” game. (Think “Saw” but without the whole murder aspect.)

Via NYTimes Travel:

“There are now somewhere around 50 room-escape games scattered throughout the Hungarian capital. The quality and settings vary dramatically, but all share a premise: Lock a small group in a room or rooms filled with clues and obstacles, and see if, through deductive logic, teamwork, and a bit of luck, they can figure their way out. In other words: a live-action video game.”

The company we chose is called “T.R.A.P” or “Team Race Against Puzzles.” Since it was only the 2 of us (most companies suggest 3-5 for the activity), we didn’t want the absolute hardest activity, so went with a moderately challenging puzzle game with a Medieval theme. Unfortunately when we got there, the Medieval room was having technical difficulties, so we were offered the Egypt puzzle with a discount, so it came to about $40 total for both of us. We also got a discount card if we wanted to return which seemed like a silly idea at the time, but not silly after a few drinks later that evening…

Even though it was “moderately challenging,” we both struggled at times, but really enjoyed it! In the event that we were absolutely stumped (and we were at one point) the “game maker” who monitored us on CCTV (I know very “Hunger Games”) would come over the loud speaker and drop a little clue to get us back on track. While we didn’t finish in under an hour, I think our total time was about an hour and 10 minutes, which I still think was a success!

After our victory we went to “Elso Pesti Reteshaz” or “The First Strudel House of Pest” for strudel and a pick me up. The restaurant was pretty empty at this time so we chose a table right near the strudel maker and had an up close show. It inspired me- I want to start making strudel!

We then walked around, stopping for a shot of Palinka in the Christmas market, a quick step into St. Stephen’s Basilica, and a walk over the Chain bridge to the “Buda” side of town.

We were troopers and climbed the hill up to the Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion (mainly because the line to the funicular was long and we didn’t feel like waiting.)

Once we got to the top we saw a sign for the “De La Motte Beer Palace,” and got excited.  It turned out to be a museum though.  (and not a beer museum.  It was another trap!)

After that failure we walked over to Fisherman’s Bastion, and then made a loop back to the castle, where we stopped and tried our luck at some medieval archery.

Channeling Katniss

We then decided to culture ourselves and check out the history museum.  I didn’t take any photos here because you had to buy a separate ticket for your camera.

Feeling the pangs of hunger, we then walked back over to the Christmas market and had some grub.

A pork lover’s dream!

After that we went “home,” took a nap, then powered up for the evening.

We started at “Csak a jo sor,” which translates to “Only Good Beer.”  It was cramped, dark, and full of beer bottles from around the world.  (It was also full of dudes. A complete sausage fest.)  We sat at two little stools by the tap- John had a beer called “Hippie Terror,” and I had the “Marschall Amplify Ale,”  both brewed by “Armando Otchoa” brewery in Budapest.  They were both good, and served at a proper temperature.

From there we then went a wine bar called “Doblo” that specializes in Hungarian wines.  I never even knew that Hungary produced wine.  We each got a glass of red, and thought they were pretty decent.  We mused that in the future we could do 2 days in Budapest, and then 2 days out in the wine country.

Our next stop was a brewpub, but on the way there, we passed a ruin bar in a parking garage.

The brewpub was called “Lesotho” and it was my least favorite stop of the evening.  I thought the beer was mneh and didn’t care for the atmosphere much.

We needed a snack at this point so we chose to go to Kandallo, which was right across the street from Csak a jo sor.  We sat at the awkwardly placed bar and indulged in naughty food.

Our server there was super friendly and recommended our last stop, as well as a place we visited the next day.  When we left the restaurant we went to “Hopfanatic Brewery,” where they had Christmas ale on tap.  (It was also at Hopfanatic where we decided we needed to sign up online for another TRAP!)

After such a busy day of thinking, walking, and indulging, we called it a night so that we can do more of the same the next day!

To be continued…

 

 

 

Week(s) in Review: Turkey Time & Family Fun

After getting back from South Africa, we had some fun things to keep us busy in Doha. It always helps me to get “readjusted” if I have events to look forward to!

Tuesday night I went with some gal pals to the Souk for dinner. We got there early to walk around, and checked out the Arabian horse stables. I’m not a big “horse person” but these were beautiful animals.

Note: We also discovered the “secret” underground parking garage located close by. It has a tunnel that pops you out right by the falcons!

We ate dinner at the Shebestan Palace- Irani food in a beautiful setting. We also had a really flirty waiter, which is very uncommon here!

 

Wednesday night we had yoga, and then Thursday night we stayed in and made tacos and watched the movie “Rush.”

 

Friday morning we met up with a friend who was flying through Doha on her way to Amman, Jordan. We checked out “La Varenne” in the Tornado Tower and had a great breakfast.

 

I was also very impressed with the art collection on the display.

 

Friday night we met up with some friends for dinner at Mykonos at the Intercontinental Hotel. The food was great, and I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant!

 

Saturday we were bums. The highlight of the day was setting up our hammock (which I’m currently typing away in) in the backyard.

 

We also tried out a new takeaway place- good hummus, pickles, bread, and rotisserie chickens, and I made a “reconstructed” eggplant parmesan for dinner.

 

Monday night we went to yoga, and then Tuesday I went out with some ladies for a friend’s birthday at Hakkasan in the St. Regis.

 

Wednesday night John and I had a special “date” night yoga as we were the only 2 people in class, haha. Made it difficult to get away with any bad form!

Thursday I had a half day at work so I went with a gal pal afterwards to lunch at Jones. Beforehand though I confiscated this weaponry at work-

 

Then Thursday evening we celebrated Thanksgiving in our compound at a potluck. I made a pumpkin cheesecake.

 

Friday, we celebrated Thanksgiving again with some friends. We brought mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and gravy, but we cheated a little…

 

On the way walking to and from our hosts’ villa we got trapped in a little sand storm:

Saturday we had a “family fun day” through John’s work at the Intercontinental. It was fun, but definitely geared towards kids.

 

W did leave with some fun, slightly non-PC souvenirs though.

 

Oddly enough, another company he is associated with had their “Family Fun Day” on the same day at the Golf Club, so we doubled up. I got another fun souvenir there:

I promise it was windy, and I wasn’t pulling a “Mary”

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Craving butter chicken for dinner, I attempted to make my own, along with paratha Saturday night. Not bad for a first try, but I know there’s room for improvement.

 

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That’s all for now. Can’t believe it’s December already.

Trip in Review: South Africa 2.0 Pt. 4

Sunday was our last full day in South Africa and we spent it in Cape Town- a great city that I could visit over and over again.   We stayed at the fun GrandDaddy boutique hotel, located on Long Street- an area that has a reputation for being a bit of a party spot, but since it was a Sunday I think the vibe was pretty chill.

We booked the room by cashing in some of our AmEx points, and decided to spring for one of the “penthouses” located on the roof- spoiler alert, it was a renovated Airstream trailer!

Referred to as the “Rooftop Trailer Park,” the hotel implemented this fun idea a few years ago, and recently upgraded and redid all of the trailers in September 2014. Find more information on the website here.

We got the “Beach House, Hermanus” trailer. It was tight, but an advantage to this one is that it has a little private courtyard and separate large bathroom.

After getting our room sorted, we walked over to Greenmarket Square where I haggled for some little bracelets (went from 480 rand to 100 rand).

Then to the Beer House for beer and one of my faves- bunny chow!

Afterwards, we went back and changed into our German attire for a beerfest at Newlands Brewery.

We had a good time, but….the beer was disappointing, and everyone else was a LOT more intoxicated than us.

So we didn’t stay too long, and then went back “home” to change into normal attire, and then decided to walk over to the V&A Waterfront for Happy Hour at Nobu in the One and Only Hotel.

But first we had a little apero on the roof with our bottle of sparkling from Black Elephant!

We had a great snack (Nobu Cape Town is the cheapest Nobu in the world- our entire experience (including a bottle of nice sake) was very reasonable), and then walked a little bit around the very lovely hotel- at about $700/night for a standard room, it’s not as reasonable as the restaurant!

We had planned on getting more sushi at another restaurant located near by, but when we checked out the menu it looked like a tourist trap. So, we settled for oysters and live music at a pub, with great people watching!

From there we uber’d back to Long Street and decided we couldn’t leave South Africa without another bunny chow. So we went back to the Beer House, and each got our own!

After that we just called it a night. We’re getting old.

The next morning we got up and out to check out a coffee roaster we noticed the day before. We each got a flat white and then had breakfast back at the hotel.

We then drove to the airport, dropped off the rental car, checked in for our flight, hung out in a lounge, found out we could get into the better lounge, hung out in the better lounge, then boarded the flight and were off.

Got back into #town around 12:30 AM*, which then made for a very sleepy next day at work!

 

*It would’ve been even later had we gotten selected for the Ebola screenings.

Trip in Review: South Africa 2.0 Pt. 3

Friday morning in Stellenbosch we were up and out at 7:30, giving us time for breakfast once again at the Blue Crane and Butterfly before the 30 minute drive over to Franschhoek, where we met up with the wedding crew for a wine tasting outing.

We had a very large group, so we were split into 2 large coaches. We had 2 stops separately, then all met up at the last stop for lunch and the final tasting.

 1^st stop: Anura, where we had a wine and cheese tasting, then John and I discovered a small brewery on site, so we shared a pint there too.

 

2^nd stop: Spice Route, where we had the option of a “wine and chocolate” or a “beer and biltong” tasting.

 

3^rd stop: Boschendal, for an amazing picnic lunch and wine tasting.

 

We had a great time and enjoyed getting to know all of the other wedding guests- many who had travelled from the U.S. for the occasion!  As you can imagine, all that “activity” made us both a little sleepy…

(Thanks to Kelsy at Holmes in Motion for the candid shot!)

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After our excursion, we checked into our accommodation in Franschhoek, a small guesthouse located on a wine farm called “Auberge Clermont”- definite upgrade from the hostel in Stellenbosch!

 

We got lucky and got the “tree house” room- a very private little loft space.

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After a few hours of relaxing, we got ready and drove over to the Holden Manz estate for the rehearsal “braai,” (BBQ in Afrikaans/South African speak.) The venue was absolutely gorgeous, and the food was all amazing- I ate so much that I had trouble sleeping!

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The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the guesthouse before driving over to Terbodore Coffee for flat whites and to buy some beans to take back.

 

We had originally booked bikes to ride around town in, but the weather was not being cooperative so we cancelled them that morning. Alas after getting coffee it looked like it was clearing up, so we headed to the bike place to see if we could rent some on the spot. We did, paid, and then rode around for about 30 minutes before it started pouring again. Luckily the guys at the bike shop were super understanding, and happily refunded us the entire payment when we returned after such a short trip.

I am not enjoying myself at this moment.

With the bikes being a bust, we then just took the car and paid a visit to one of our favorite wineries from the first trip- The Black Elephant. We had a great conversation with the owner and enjoyed trying some of his new wines.

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After that, we went to lunch at another fave- Roca restaurant.

And then it was time to get ready for the wedding, held at the beautiful La Petite Dauphine estate.

I don’t think much description is necessary, and will let the pictures speak for themselves!

We were very happy to be a part of such a special occasion!

Oh, and there was a chicken at the wedding:

Next up- last installment of South Africa redux: glamping in an AirStream in Cape Town!

Trip in Review: South Africa 2.0 Pt. 2

Thursday morning we got up early so that we could make the most of our full day in Stellenbosch. We walked into town and had coffee and breakfast at a great café called the “Blue Crane and the Butterfly.” It’s located on “Dorp Street” which is considered the “Main Street” of Stellenbosch.

We enjoyed our meal so much, we returned back the next day and each got the exact same thing, (which is something we’ve started doing quite a bit on vacation- find a good spot, become a regular!)

Toast with poached egg, tomato, BACON, and arugula

 

After breakfast we popped into a boutique next door (I can’t remember the name unfortunately) that sold some cool stuff- clothing and knick knacks made by South African designers. I was good though and didn’t make any purchases.

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From there we headed over to a bike rental spot to hire some steel steeds for the day- we mapped out our route while we were at breakfast, and wanted to hit up some wineries suggested by a South African wine critic we met back in February. Her site is: http://spitorswallow.co

We told the bike renter our plans, and he very quickly changed our minds, because apparently the route we had thought up involved about a 2 ½ hour one way trip, on a main, hilly road!

He suggested a much more modest adventure, and once we got on the bikes, we were very thankful for this!

(Green route was a go, Red route would’ve probably ended up with me crying and walking my bike the entire time.)

1^st stop: Lanzerac Wine Estate, where did we a paired wine and cheese tasting:

 2^nd stop: Jonkershoek Nature preserve, where we parked our bikes and took a little hike:

 3^rd stop: Stark-Conde Wines, where we had a delicious lunch, and of course, more wine!

 

Overall the route (along with stops and hike) took about 4 ½ hours, which was perfect- got a good amount of exercise, had some wine, ate great food, and….got a sunburn because we were dumb and didn’t put sunscreen on in the morning.

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Once we dropped our bikes off, we went back to our accommodations to freshen up a little, and then took the car to our original planned route.

1^st stop: Ernie Els- our favorite and in our opinion the best wine we had in South Africa. It’s located in a beautiful location known as the “Golden Triangle” and is unique for producing great reds.  As we were arriving, we even saw Ernie jetting off in his helicopter!

We also snuck a second tasting, because the waiters were tag-teaming us and didn’t realize we had been served already! (To be fair, we didn’t realize we were drinking the exact same wine, twice!)

2^nd stop: Guardian Peak- a very small winery/restaurant that does a lot of collaborations with wineries all over. They even had a line called “Cirrus” which is a partnership with California winery “Silver Oak.”

3^rd stop: Peter Falke- a really unique tasting room and by this point our palettes were pretty shot so I can’t comment too much on the quality of the wine, haha.  He is actually German, and his wife is a French interior designer

They asked us to create some “original art” for them

Overall I would recommend this route, known as the “Annandale Road” route in Stellenbosch, as the wineries have wonderful wines, are all really close together, and the tasting rooms are each very unique. Actually, that’s something I really enjoy about wine tasting in general- every place has it’s own environment and “feel” to it.

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After a full day, we dropped our car back off at the hostel and then walked into town for dinner. We enjoyed the Ernie Els winery so much we decided to eat at his “in town” restaurant called “The Big Easy.” We didn’t have a reservation, but luckily they were able to squeeze us in.

We shared springbok carpaccio, a half dozen oysters, wild mushroom risotto and Cajun fishcakes, all washed down with some local beverages. Again the exchange rate worked in our favor- dinner at a nice restaurant with great food and wine turned out to be about….$40! (Although in typical South African style, the service was pretty slow.)

Made the 20 minute trek back this time in a light rain (no cabs to be found), and fell straight into bed after a long, fun day!

Next up- more wine tasting and the rehearsal dinner in Franschhoek!

 

 

Trip in Review: South Africa 2.0 Pt. 1

A few weeks ago we celebrated the wedding of a friend in one of our favorite travel destinations- South Africa! We flew in a couple of days early so that we could make the most of our trip, and enjoyed a few days in Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Cape Town.

First stop was Stellenbosch- a bigger wine valley of the Western Cape, and the one place we didn’t make it to on our previous trip. It’s a pretty cool spot with lots of wineries and a fairly large university in town, so it’s pretty developed. Overall, I thought the wine was better at the vineyards in Stellenbosch, but I prefer the food and overall “romance” of the smaller Franschhoek.

We flew overnight, so by the time we got in, we had most of the day at our leisure. Once we picked up the rental car, we easily navigated our way to the Solms-Delta wine farm for a picnic lunch.

They weren’t quite ready for us, so we checked out the museum on premise, which was actually pretty interesting and gave a rather brutal (but I imagine historically accurate) depiction of South Africa during it’s days of colonization and the wine farm itself.

Once we got our picnic basket, we walked down near the stream and had the whole valley to ourselves. Unfortunately it started raining, but we got some cover from a nearby tree.

The food in the basket was delish, and the bottle of white wine we got was great too!

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After lunch, we drove over to Stellenbrau Brewing Company for a brewery tour, but on the way passed “Tokara” winery, which was recommended as a great stop. Unfortunately as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, it started POURING and we didn’t have an umbrella, so we decided to opt out and just head to the Brewery.

 

The entrance to the tasting room was a little tricky to find, so we walked around aimlessly for a few minutes before someone directed us to the upstairs of the brewery itself. Once there, we hung out for about 20 minutes before one of the owners met us and explained the brewery and the beer. By this point, more people had come in, so when we were enjoying our tastings we struck up a conversation with some Australians- one had just completed a backpacking trek from “Cairo to Capetown,”- crazy! We enjoyed talking with them, and were amused that they associated us Americans with Dr. Phil- whose talk show is apparently quite popular in South Africa.

From there we went to our accommodation for the next 2 nights which was….a HOSTEL! Yup- in an effort to save some cash and relive our youth I found a hostel online about a 20 minute walk from the city center (which felt long by the end of the trip, but it’s always good to get a little extra exercise, considering how much we tend to eat on vacation!) We got one of the two private rooms with an ensuite bathroom and it was fine for 2 nights since we were hardly in it. We felt safe, it was clean, and the staff were helpful in calling for cabs and pointing us in the right direction. For about $40/night, I considered it a win.

Banghoek Place

Once we checked in, we took a nap and then woke up unfortunately to more rain, so we took a cab into the city center and checked out “Craft”- a beer and tapas bar. We sat up at the bar and noticed the same thing that we noticed at Stellenbrau- the beer is served a bit too cold. Nonetheless, we still had a fun time trying different brews and had some tasty tapas!

We were craving pizza afterwards, so we found a little restaurant after and each had pizza- mine with plenty of pork on it.

We then trekked home and got in bed at a decent hour so we could spend the next day conquering some of the vineyards.

 

To be continued!

Dhowing around

The week after Halloween was a typical week of TCB around Doha. Nothing too exciting to report but we did…

Try some new falafel

So many falafels!

Falafel

Arabic Falafel

Saj Falafel

We ordered take away from the appropriately named “Take Away” and got not one, not two, but THREE different types of falafel sandwiches.  It was about $12 for everything pictured…I liked the saj the best, pita bread with Arabic pickles and garlic sauce. Yum!

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Cook traditional Arroz con Pollo

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Make chickpea/spinach curry

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Have fancy gourmet macarons at girls’ night

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Get a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks

Tastes like fall! 

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Indulge in a nice “stay date” at al fresco

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Eat a picnic at MIA park

Salads courtesy of Monoprix!

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Take a dhow* cruise around the harbor

A “dhow” is a traditional wooden sailing boat used originally by merchants.

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Make blueberry pancakes

Surprisingly enough they actually had Driscoll’s blueberries in the little convenience store in our compound!

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Eat Turkey Central takeout

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Have a “German/Italian” international dinner at a friend’s villa

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…and then we took off for South Africa for a few days! Post to come!

Hollerween

Halloween fell on a Friday this year, so of course we felt we had to take advantage of this serendipitous occurrence and celebrate in a big way- a #town pub crawl!

To prepare for our event, John and I spent pretty much all day on Friday making decorations and perfecting our costumes.

 

 

We didn’t head out until 7:30, and it starts getting dark around 5 now, so the kids were out in full force right at sundown. We were Scrooges and did not spend $200 on candy like most of our neighbors did for trick-or-treaters, and we would’ve been fine too if John hadn’t accidentally flicked the lights on our porch. Like moths to a flame we soon had a group of 10 kiddies at our door. Luckily they were satisfied with our offering of fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Onto the pubs:

Stop 1: The Starting Line- Potato soup and Pimms Cup cocktails, hosted by 2 Sri Lankan elephants.

 

Oh I suppose I should explain my costume in case you didn’t know-

The inspiration was obviously from bleaching my hair, and while I like to say I dressed as Guy ironically….I do kinda like Triple D and some of his recipes!

Stop 2: Dugong Dungeon- scary witches fingers, champagne cocktails and la piece de la resistance- a dugong skeleton in the backyard!

Stop 3: Klingers’ Kauldron- MYO spider cocktails, popcorn balls, and a scary ferocious beast guarding the house.

Stop 4: The “Scairport”- Buffalo chicken pasta and the running of the Gauntlet

Stop 5: “Third Floor, Eh?”- Canadian techno, maple syrup drinks, Timbits, and “Yeehaw!”

Stop 6: “Flavortown” (duh)- Pumpkin spiced white Russians, BBQ pork and Italian shredded beef sliders

I promise we had people there, just too busy dancing to take pics!

…and then we all bombarded another party with a DJ set up in the backyard.

So, as you can clearly see, we all had a GREAT time, and I’m kind of concerned how much I actually look like Guy Fieri. In fact 3 of my friends that I see on a fairly regular basis actually thought I was a man.

Another Halloween in the books!

Doha Daze

Hard to believe we’ve been back in Doha almost 3 weeks now after returning from Japan! The first week was a bit rough adjusting back to the time change/work schedule/being far from friends and family/restrictions of Middle Eastern living (what?), but as usual, time has flown by and I think now we’re back in our old routine.

Looking back, most of our excitement since returning has centered around, of course, food! I made a couple of firsts, and we ate at some new, and some tried and true restaurants:

I made:

Dahl

Apple chips

 

Schnitzel 

 

Lentil Shepherd’s pie 

 

 

And we ate at:

Kebab King affiliate– set up in the backyard for a party

 

Elevation Burger– a “healthy” burger joint, but…come on.

Jones the Grocer 

Cold Stone

“Korean Garden”

Zaatar w Zeit

…and John had “KFC” in the work canteen

 

We also made the rounds with a couple of faves- getting delivery/take out from Caravan Bukhara, Mr Chippy, and Thai Corner, and enjoyed some meals with friends at their villas.

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The weather is actually a fairly reasonable temperature now, and we’re able to spend some more time outside. I took a walk around the compound and snapped some pics the other day-

We also ate outside at Elevation Burger, located at the Pearl.  I love the people watching- a good combination of expats, stroll-ers, and tourists walking around looking confused.

“…and that’s the difference between jam and jelly!”

And we ventured out to the souk, where we had shisha and played chess. We forgot our own set, but a very nice shopkeeper let us borrow one fo’ free!

While we were there, we checked out the falcon souk, where apparently it is “new falcon” season. Each shop we went into had about 12-15 falcons. Never have I ever seen so many falcons.

 

Afterwards we went to “Party Kingdom” where we were met with a typical business hours snafu.

 

I then had a repeat later in the week.

9-1
4-10

 

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend the Al Jazeera film festival held at the Ritz Carlton. I got some interesting swag…

This…is a carpet.

…saw some interesting sponsors…

…and had the opportunity to see a film that totally blasted an industry close to the Holler home.

 

And then yesterday I took a 2 1/2 hour (round) trip to the grocery store.  I hate love Doha traffic! 

 

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So that’s all the news that’s fit to blog about…gearing up now for the #town Halloween extravaganza. Here’s some hints for my costume:

Adios!