Close the book on it

 Almost done with 2016. Granted, it’s been a rough year for pop and music icons, but I feel pretty blessed. After all, I started in Guangzhou, then got to go to America for awhile before wrapping up the year in Istanbul. Tough to complain about.

Technically, though, I’m not wrapping it up in Istanbul. Given the OK to travel again, I promptly bought several plane tickets and am currently sitting in a room in Guesthouse Ciru in Sarajevo. Last week, I spent Christmas with a friend in Kiev, and I’ve made plans for MLK and Presidents’ weekends plus have asked off a week in February. I’ve also signed up for two different 10ks – one in Antalya in March and the other in Dublin in August. All flights for the above have been booked, and I’ve also penciled in weekend away in March. I’ve got plans for that but nothing inked.

The laptop made this trip with me because my Slingbox talks to it and lets me watch FSU football, even though I tend to have the most awful connections. Still, it’s the best I could do from Bosnia and Herzegovina, so I embraced it.

Despite a nasty wintry mix in Istanbul, I made it to the airport in plenty of time and my flight went off flawlessly, even if I was pretty much famished. I’d spent the workday at someone else’s desk until lunchtime, when I grabbed my PD sandwich and ate it over the course of doing an inventory that took three hours. When I finished that, I grabbed a bag of Cheetoes and went back to the other office to finish work and then grab a cab to the airport.

The flight was only an hour and a half. Since Istanbul isn’t on daylight savings time (or whatever it is), we’re an added time zone away from wherever it is we’re going. In this case, Sarajevo is normally one time zone away but now it’s two. So my flight, which left at 7:35 p.m., was scheduled to land at 7:30 p.m. I just love that. And I got to watch “Hoot” again.

I did not book a car from the airport, figuring I’d either take a cab and insist on using the meter (there are bad stories of people getting ripped off) or take the bus. So I changed some Euros I had to whatever “KM” stands for, then went to take out more money from my bank account – and completely blanked on the PIN. I have three bank accounts and two have the same PIN. This was the other one, and I totally, absolutely blanked. I could remember one number for sure and I thought I had another. I tried 2-3 combinations and then stopped, not wanting my card to get swallowed in a foreign country.

Since I’d planned on paying cash for the hotel (even though I carry both a Visa and AmEx), I was a little concerned about cash flow, so I opted for the bus. It was pretty easy; I was the only one getting on at the airport and I showed the driver the guesthouse address so he’d let me know where to get off. So that was no problem, but once I got off, I was completely backwards. I had the GPS and knew I was 600 meters from the place, but trying to figure out which left turn the stupid thing meant drove me crazy.

I wound up taking about half an hour to make a “9 minute” trek, the last part of which was incredibly dicey. I’d taken the “1 minute longer” route, mostly because I could find it, and it turned out to be uphill. Normally, this is not a problem, but it’s cold in Bosnia and Herzegovina and it snows. There wasn’t any coming down, but the roads were covered in snow, and then re-freezing for the night. So I was trying to climb an icy road in the dark, cell phone in one hand and struggling to remain balanced due to the duffel bag slung across the other arm.

All I could think about was slipping and snapping my leg in two, but God is kind to morons who take the “1 minute longer” road and I got to the place frozen, but just fine. I took a hot shower and crashed, but only for about three hours because I had to wake up and watch the game.

THAT was terrifying. Holy cow. I had bad feelings about the game beforehand and my stomach was in knots the whole time. Thank God the Noles won!

And about five minutes after FSU won 33-32, my alarm went off. I shushed it (it’s barking dogs) and went to bed, pulling myself out around 9:30 or so. At that point and really well before, I was pretty famished and I hit the town for food and sightseeing. I turned the other way out of the guesthouse and it’s much easier. Still a hill but not one that made me feel like I needed crampons and an ice pick.

Food had to wait, though, because I am easily distracted by shiny things, and they had a ton. Most of it was copper, I think. I went to the downtown area, which is full of little shops of handmade stuff. (Most swear it’s done locally, but I have my doubts on some of it.) Lots of jewelry, crocheted stuff, the copper tea things and such – just all kinds of stuff to wander through, booth after booth.

Then I hit upon a Christmas market-ish kind of thing and went for hot chocolate. What I did not remember from last week’s Kiev trip is that there are two kinds of “hot chocolate.” When we say hot chocolate, we really mean hot cocoa – powdered or liquid chocolate flavored something mixed with milk or water. But it can also mean melted chocolate, which, although I am a chocolate lover, what I want when I see a sign proclaiming “hot chocolate” and my hands are freezing. I got a Dixie cup’s worth of this thick chocolate that required a spoon to drink. It was good, but not what I wanted.

So I went for doner, schwarma, whatever you want to call it. Slices off the hunk of meat that sits on a spindle and gets shaved off as you order. Oh, it was fabulous, but not a Sarajevo meal. It’s Turkish. And I love it. So much, in fact, that I also had it for dinner later in the day. Chicken for brunch and beef for dinner. Maybe I’ll eat Sarajevo food tomorrow. I’d like to; I’ve heard about the meat/cheese pies, but I can’t read the menus!

Dinner was kind of brutal, not because of the food. I sort of got waved into this place. Although I wasn’t that hungry, I really was done for the day and figured why not. They sat me at what must have been the misfit table, right next to some guy who was eating soup. Well, he decided to strike up a conversation, and I just did not want that tonight.

I never want to answer the “where are you from?” questions and I REALLY don’t want to go with “where do you work?” I also don’t like being rude, so I try to be nice about it. Unfortunately, this guy just … geez, I don’t even know. He asked both of the above, then wanted me to go over visa information with him (I need to lie, but I’m a terrible liar.) He even wanted to show me the stamps in his passport. (I think he’d been denied a visa and he wanted me to tell him why.) I tried to be polite and ask reciprocating questions to show that I didn’t hate him or anything but I just wanted to eat.

He asked if I was married. (I said “Not now.” I have no idea why.) He asked how old I was, and when I said, “Older than you,” he said no, then tried to guess. I had to give him hints until he got it. Then he wanted me to guess how old he was and I refused. He told me – 31. I really wanted to stab my ears out. He said multiple times that he was “all alone” and “lonely” in Sarajevo and that he’d been there multiple times. I was just wolfing down my food. He gave me his card and then asked for mine, which I could honestly tell him that not only did I not have one but I’d never had a job that required one.

Dude was just annoying and I wanted to smack him. Oh, he was also a smoker, and that’s allowed indoors, so he was smoking as I was scarfing down my beef. He wanted to know where I was staying, because he was staying around there. I said not around there. He asked if I’d taken a cab. I tried to calculate the odds that he was staying in the exact same guesthouse I was, not 500 meters from the restaurant and gambled and said yes, I’d taken a cab. As I was getting up, he asked for my number. I was like, I’m on vacation and I don’t even have a phone. I have no idea if he believed me, but I am a terrible liar and as I was sprinting off, I realized I had tried to check my phone before my food had come. Oh well. I am not interested in some horny, lonely Bengali 31-year-old.

Maybe I’ll run into him tomorrow. That’d be my luck. There are a bunch more tourists here than I would have thought. I mean, I am cold! My plan tomorrow is to go to breakfast – I saw a place on my way back this evening – and then see if I can find the right pair or crocheted slippers for me. They are pretty cool and I want some.  Maybe I’ll wise up before tomorrow, but I did get my pin number verified and have taken out money, so I can spend it.

Meanwhile, the party is starting here in Sarajevo. Luckily, I can hear it from my room and I don’t need to go out. I’m going to ring 2017 old people-style: with a hot shower and a book.

Happy New Year! Happy Orange Bowl victory!

Kid in a candy store

Yesterday, I got tapped to do the monthly store run to Ankara, which has a commissary. Oh, man, it was fabulous.

We have a little association that runs a store of American foods, like mint Oreos, Tabasco sauce, Hidden Valley salad dressing and so on. There’s cereal, bacon, wine and stuff, too. Honestly, I don’t go into it because for the most part, I’m fine with the local economy. I can get Oreos (though not mint) I brought Tabasco with me and I am a naked salad person anyway. The prices in our little store in Istanbul are incredibly marked up, too, so to me, an Oreo is an Oreo. I can go local. (Actually, I haven’t bought Oreos here because here exists this fabulous Turkish cookie that is basically a round Twix bar, which is the bomb. But I digress.)

Once a month, our little store restocks from the commissary that’s on the military base in Ankara. As an employee in Mission Turkey, I have the right to go down there at any time, but it’s five hours away. That’s a long way to go for a few items if you’re just you. If you’re shopping for the store, though, it’s a great time to do your own.

I had no idea what it was like, but it was basically your regular American grocery store. Our store manager put in the bulk order before, so it was already crated but I have a few orders for other people I needed to track down, so I got to do my own shopping while I was at it.

In Istanbul, I don’t buy many groceries at the store. I basically get chips, cookies, milk (in a box) and juice, then, when I need to reload on rice, pasta, sugar or flour, that. But the veggies come from the street market and I have a ton of spices already. Essentially, I don’t dwell in the grocery stores.

But I dwelled in this one. They had stuff I can’t get in Istanbul, like Breyer’s mint chocolate chip ice cream. That is the absolute best ice cream ever and I was so happy for it. I got a half-gallon, or liter, or whatever it is they come in. I got root beer, something that is truly American. I’ve had A&W in Jakarta and that’s the real thing, but something I had called “root beer” in Jerusalem was awful. American root beer is the real deal and I got a 12-pack of it, plus a single one for the road home.

Someone gifted me a cake mix awhile ago and I was going to make it for the Marines, so I bought some Betty Crocker icing. (I love my Marines, but I’m not using my powdered sugar for their icing!) Also got some Nestle Quik, which I realize now I can get locally but whatever, and some hot chocolate mix. And Cheetoes, which are fabulous. There are also Cheetoes in Istanbul, but there were also Cheetoes in Guangzhou and those were not only not the same but were awful, therefore I have been scared to try the Istanbul ones. And WintOGreen Lifesavers and Whoppers! (Both those were kind of stale, but an awesome kind of stale.)

They also had some good-to-know stuff: alfredo sauce, moon pies, grits. I don’t need any of that now, but knowing I can get some in the future is good.

And there will be a future. I now on the board of the association that runs the store, and I’m the one in charge of the monthly runs. I don’t necessarily have to go, but I have to find someone to do it. The runner and the driver get $150 each for the day, so it’s not bad, really. It is a 12-hour day, though. We left at 5 a.m., a crime in itself, and it was wet and snowy. Quite a long day, but when you’re throwing back Barq’s root beer and eating WintOgreen LifeSavers on the ride home, it’s not bad. 

Because Leanne asked what a Christmas market was ...

This week, I’ve been taking a class in Frankfurt. It’s cold in Frankfurt, although according to Weather.com, not really much colder than Istanbul. The difference is my walk to work has escalated from 15 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. It seems colder because I’m in it more.

Dana would love his place.

Yeah, I know, that’s my option – Frankfurt has a bunch of public transport options, but I decided since I spend two hours in the gym anyway, I might as well spend that two hours walking to and from work. And oh, my, when you leave at 6:50 a.m.  and walk back starting at 5 p.m., it’s dark. And with darkness comes cold!

So here’s a hint, my Florida friends: always bring gloves! I brought my hat and a scarf but deliberately looked at the gloves and thought, nah. Well, I didn’t realize the Marriott I’d selected was so far from the building. For some reason, I was thinking it was maybe a 20-minute walk. That was wrong. I am cold.

I’m still happy with the Marriott, but if I had another opportunity to take another class, I’d opt for the much-closer Best Western. Or heavier gloves and more clothes.

Store of beeswax Christmas stuff.

The class was cool. It was HR-oriented, which is something that I’ve found that fascinates me. I also like learning, so it was up my alley. And it’s been a nice break from being in Istanbul. I love the city and my job, but this status we’re on is definitely grinding. Of course, even though I was away, I was still monitoring emails and trying to make small dents in the stuff I’ll have to do when I get back.

That starts tomorrow, too. It’ll be the sixth consecutive weekend I’ve worked since this status started. It’s kind of too bad I’m pretty low-maintenance as far as “stuff” goes, because I’m racking in the OT right now. It’s nice overall, but at some point, I’d just like a nap.

Frankfurt itself has been nice to visit. Despite working, I have gotten out and about, if just during the daily walks. I also saw a movie, and by my count, Germany is country N0. 10 or 11 in which I’ve seen a movie. I can’t remember if I ever saw one in Malaysia – I do know I tried.

Cute little standalone, temporary stores.

The thing to do in Frankfurt about now is hit the Christmas market, and I saved that for the final evening in town. By sheer coincidence, a friend who was posted here before came this weekend and we overlapped for a day and picked the same hotel to stay in, so she took me to the Christmas market.

Having spent two years in China, my definition of “market” is an area that’s blocks long crammed full of different people selling versions of the same thing. I envision lots of storefronts, one after another brimming with fun junk, whether it be tea, glasses frames, flowers or whatever.

Christmas!

And although I lived in Michigan for 11 years and had access to the Frankenmuth Christmas market thing, I never went, so I didn’t have anything other than China on which to base my expectations.

Frankfurt Christmas markets –and maybe all Christmas markets – are way different than I expected.  First, it’s not just people selling stuff. It’s more food, and A LOT more food. Well, more drink than food, but essentially, China markets have a restaurant-ish place here and there, but in this particular Christmas market, food and drink – mostly drink – were the things to do, and shopping came after that. There was a lot of shopping, but there was way more eating and drinking, and apparently, all German Christmas markets have their own mugs every year. Collecting is a thing. I saw lots of that, including from my traveling companion. (There are also several versions every year. She didn’t like her first one and traded for another, then traded back for the original again. So many options!)

I was imagining this left and right. 

Since we’d just eaten some massive schnitzel, I wasn’t hungry at all. (I hadn’t held back at dinner; the two people I was with knew what was coming so I think they paced themselves accordingly.) I was, however, deeply chilled because, although warmer than some days in the week, it’d been that damp overcasty type day – the kind I hate because it gets to my bones. But I soldiered on as much as possible because it was so cool.

There were crowds, but not Hong Kong-like crowds. Some of the crowdedness was what you can’t get from SE Asia – people walking like penguins because they’re wearing so many clothes! Fewer people, more clothes, I guess.

Sunset in Frankfurt

The area was a normal shopping area with temporary booths set up. Kind of like if you put Mule Day downtown, except the booths were pretty much free-standing buildings that had been brought in, with walls, roofs and all. They did have a few aisles of booths like Mule Day, but they were still walled and covered, though those were window-shopping ones – you didn’t walk into them.

Lots of decorations everywhere, from the design of the little freestanding shops to the trees and such. There was a life-size (but not live) Nativity scene, but it was up a little and behind sort of a picket fence; I couldn’t get a picture of the whole thing, just the holy parents’ and shepherds’ heads.

I bought a little wooden nativity set that is kind of a nesting one. It starts from baby Jesus, a tiny little piece, and the pieces stack together until they’re all in the stable-like setting, the largest piece, but then there is a star on top.

My newest nativity set.

And even though I know the stable scene is basically a pop culture myth – it was a cave, people! – I really like it. They had all sizes but I went with the little one. I’m a sucker for nativity sets and I’ve bought two since I arrived in Istanbul, plus I am pretty sure I already have 2-3 others.

I think that’s all I bought there, but I had already bought a Christmas ornament at the mall near my hotel. I was getting close to caving and going for hot chocolate, but I held out for that at the hotel. I’d paid for the executive lounge and wanted my money’s worth of tea and hot chocolate.

What I was really hoping to find was a tree topper – either a star or an angel – but I didn’t see anything that passed my test. I did see a snowflake that I liked, but it was a giant ornament and I’ve have to tie it to the top somehow. Figured I’d keep looking.

Reindeer in the vortex

So now I head on back. I’m currently sitting in the airport – but will post this when I get home; no fee wifi – and hope that I’m home before 10 p.m. tonight. I went ahead and checked my bag, which I rarely do but did since I had my huge class binder with me. I’m still planning on taking the metro but we’ll see how long it takes to get my bag. I cabbed it on the way in because the traffic was lighter and it was amazingly quick. I’m going to have to think about that, because I really would love to be home as early as possible. I’m working tomorrow so any down time will be welcome.

My next out-of-town trip is scheduled for Christmas weekend – no time off. I really am due for some time off, but I haven’t decided where and when. There are just way too many options.