Category: Travel

Sorry this one took a little while to come through… I have been in training all this week and never got a chance to tell you about the end of my trip!

So I stayed behind on Friday while everybody else took off for home. I woke up early to have breakfast with a coworker, and then came back to bed to catch up on some sleep. By noon I had gotten my sleepy butt out of bed and out the door to explore the town of Kristiansand.

The hotel was located right in the center of the action, so I just had to step out and start walking.

It was REALLY intimidating to walk around and go into stores where people are speaking a language you don’t understand. It was particularly embarrassing to stop at every clothes rack and pull out my cellphone to calculate the currency conversion. You have no idea how long it took me to finally figure out that I had to divide NOKs by 6 to get USDs. The next step was figuring out how to do div by 6 math in my head quickly! Turns out I couldn’t do it, so I just remembered that 100 NOK were 16 USD, so I just used 16 as my point of reference.

At first I couldn’t, for the life of me, find a store that had reasonable prices. Every store I went into had clothes I could have bought at Old Navy for a crazy $60 or more! I was very discouraged, until I found the wonders of VERA MODA. AWESOME clothes for AWESOME prices, even for USD conversion standards. See the store on the left of the picture above with the purple signs.

After my clothes shopping was done with, I refocused on finding souvenirs. Well, Kristiansand is not known for its touristic attractions, so I had to go into bookstores to find THE shelf that had the souvenirs. I did end up getting a few cool things, including an oversized pen that was SO much fun but I couldn’t think of anybody who would appreciate it as much as I did… so I got it for myself 🙂

Here’s a bit of Norway trivia for you: apparently there are folk stories that involve these freakin’ ugly dwarfs or elves or gnomes or something. They are the ugliest things you’ll ever see. How would you feel if someone brought you an ugly little gnome to put on your fridge from a wonderfully exotic place as Norway? They are just awful looking little dudes.

During my search for the perfect souvenirs, I walked around and found the center of town (see the church and fountain) and learned about the the historic Kristiansand fort (known as Fort Christiansholm – see picture). I also found out that some kind of volleyball championship was going on. I didn’t stick around to see it… but it was good to know it was going on.

Now, this is the craziest part of my lone stroll in Kristiansand. As I was taking some cool pictures (of myself), I saw a couple of Norwegians bathing in the freezing canal water and some tourists taking pictures of them. I thought they were funny and wanted to take their picture, but they were out of the water by the time I got my camera ready, so I went back to taking pix of myself.

As I was doing that, the 2 Norwegian dudes tried to bomb one of my pictures by jumping in a funny way behind me. The picture didn’t capture it, so I called them over and asked them to do that again. This time, we counted 1, 2 and 3! And this is what I got:

They were good sports. I showed them the picture afterward and they were very proud of themselves for such a funny outcome. I told them I would call this picture “Crazy Norwegians.” Now, that’s what I call a great travel story 🙂

On my walk back to the hotel I saw an exhibit of sand castles (or figures). They were AMAZING and very very large! Check these out:

I’ll close out the Norway trip with one last anecdote. I decided to have Mexican food for lunch. After all, Norwegian Mexican food HAD to be tried! So I found a little place called “Amigos” and ventured in. I had the chicken burrito. I was surprised that it came with a salad (you don’t see that very often). I was even more surprised when the check came. My burrito cost $37!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it wasn’t a fancy place, either!!!

I found out that taxes in Norway are CRAZY. That is the reason why they don’t tend to tip waiters or taxi drivers: they are already paying out the wazoo! Income tax is 50% and everything else gets also heavily taxed. It’s just crazy. No wonder I couldn’t find a store with reasonable prices. It almost makes me wonder if VERA MODA is making any money at all!

I’ll leave you with one last thing: a high fashion ad I saw through a store window. I just thought it was funny 🙂

ina

Last working day in Lindesnes. This afternoon we’ll all head out to Kristiansand, Norway, in preparation for everybody’s early morning flight out of Kristiansand Airport. I’ll be staying in town for an extra day to get some shopping done and fly out on Saturday.

We spent most of the day in meetings and presentations. It’s not all bad, though, the conference room where we are gathered is a cabin-looking building located by the canal. Look at the picture of the view from outside the conference room’s door!

The meetings were not terribly relevant to me personally, so I was falling sleep. It went by fast, but it certainly gave me a long time to observe. As I looked around the room to a group of people who have been working together for more than 10 years, I felt a sense of fear. Fear that I would never feel comfortable leading a team that big and tight knit. I guess I just feel like you can never really be friends with your subordinates, no matter how open and friendly you are (as I pride myself to be). If I had organized the meeting, I would have not had as much fun as I did being a part of it. I would have been too stressed out faced with the realization that I do not belong in that peer-to-peer relationship they all have. I would be the one they could do without. The butt of the jokes. The one that is not liked, but put up with. It supported my long-time made decision that I would not be happy in a leadership position. It’s just too lonely at the top.

After the meetings we got in a taxi and headed straight for Kristiansand. It was a fun ride there, listening to stories and jokes from my coworkers. We even got into a discussion on some cultures’ traditions of having multiple wives, and how it is or is not the same as a woman having multiple husbands. It went something like this:

A man – It’s ok for a man to have multiple wives, but a woman with multiple husbands? That’s wrong
Me – Now, there’s a double standard
Man – It’s not a double standard! Think about it. If you got pregnant, and it’s the other man’s baby, why would I pitch in?
Me [for the sake of the argument] – Because you already agreed to a committed threesome relationship, and everything is everybody else’s
Man – No, it’s messed up
Another woman – I guess what I have a problem with is the fact that the woman has no choice in the matter in that marriage, and in such a culture her desires are not taken into account
Man [sincerely] – What desires???
Me [taking off my shoe and threatening to beat this man over the head] – WHAT DESIRES???? WHAT DESIRES???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Everybody was laughing, and we couldn’t believe our ears!!! It made for a very entertaining exchange.

The hotel is right downtown, so I was pleased that I wouldn’t have to take a taxi anywhere. I could just walk out and do my shopping tomorrow. I was so excited for the next day to come!

At dinner time we joked some more, but we were tired for the most part. We went to this restaurant, which ended up being the BEST restaurant I have EVER been to!!!

Not only was the food great and the staff friendly, but when the night got cold, they had BLANKETS laying around for guests! It was a good blanket too! I was so warm and cozy, I didn’t want to leave!!! Best restaurant EVER!

The chocolate fondant dessert was to die for. It was a mini molten cake with ice cream. DELICIOUS.

Anyways, by the end of the night I was beat.

As I post this, it is midnight (GMT +1). I have to get up early to have breakfast with one of my coworkers before she leaves for home. I’m considering having breakfast and going back to bed… but maybe what I could do is get up at 7:25, and just brush my teeth and go downstairs. I can shower once she’s gone and then I’ll go out and explore.

Time for bed. Good night all!

ina

I woke up to a massive headache, which had not let up since yesterday. I’m starting to think the fresh paint in the hotel room was the culprit. On top of it, my slightly leaking shower problem turned into a major flooding one. I had to shower in a different room. Not a great way to start the day, but they had a casual day of activities planned for the day, so something had to give.

We ended up at Vikingland, a fun little place where I got to dress as a Viking (willingly – see picture) and got to fight a real life Viking! I lost, of course. They also had archery and an obstacle course. I was particularly impressed at my wall climbing skills! At the place we had a great fish soup and birthday cake for one of our coworkers.

Afterwards we went on a lovely boat ride to the Lindesnes Lighthouse, the southernmost point of all of Norway. Despite feeling a bit queasy at times, I loved being out in the sea and had a wonderful time getting to know my peers better. I even found out that the General Manager of the Lindesnes plant is a descendant of real life Vikings! Incredible.

Then we went to a little restaurant walking distance from the hotel:

The restaurant used to be a barn and it was turned into a Belgian restaurant. I had the steak, but some had the reindeer. I tried a little, and it wasn’t bad, but I just couldn’t get past the idea that I was eating Rudolf.

Had the Belgian Waffles for dessert, of course, even though they weren’t on the dessert menu. The waiter couldn’t believe his ears.

Ended the night with a lovely walk under the stars across a rural/residential area of Lindesnes. I wish my husband had been there with me. It was quite romantic.

ina

I am in Lindesnes, Norway. As I type this up on my phone, I’m sitting on a rocky deck watching the sun go down over a gorgeous lake right outside my hotel. I sit here all alone because I prefer it over being in there doing nothing. The rocks looked so inviting from my window that I had to seize the moment and take them up on it.

I came here to think and write about nothing in particular.

The wind is blowing my way and each gust is colder than the one before. Good thing I brought a thick windbreaker on the trip, even when the weather forecast called for temperatures in the 60s and rain. Fortunately there has been none of the latter.

A seagull just screamed behind me. Is that what seagulls do? They are no chirpers or tweeters for sure.

The air just feels pure. It smells like ocean.

I can see shadows moving in the lobby of the hotel across the lake. It could be the others gathering around for dinner. I guess I should go join them. I wouldn’t want to be left out.

To summarize my experience so far: I feel good about my jet lag: I’ve adjusted stupendously. The coworkers I have interacted with so far hate the fact that they have been dragged away from their busy lives to come to a senseless meeting in the middle of nowhere, and they can’t wait to be on the first flight out as soon as the meetings are over. Their Debbie Downer attitude bugs me to no end, as I have gone out of my way to stay an additional day and mingle with the rural Norwegian folk. The hotel WILL be a great place once it officially opens: it’s still under construction! There are no hangers, irons, blow dryers, internet or more than 1 TV channels. I feel like I am in an oversized concrete cabin in the countryside of paradise. No country music, though 😉

ina

I just spent a great week in Wisconsin getting to know my work team. I loved staying at the Hampton Inn — I had the best night sleep EVER. All I wanted to do was sleep. On a couple of nights, I went to bed at 8pm. It was glorious. I should get light-proof shades for my room at home. I’d sleep all day and all night. Nice.

Here are a couple pix from the trip. Enjoy!

ina

I’d like to remind you that you can click on any picture to enlarge it!

Last Monday my mother took me downtown to run some errands. I firmly believe she was intentionally trying to deceive me! She said she had to go run one errand, and it turned into a BILLION of them! We got home close to 3pm. My poor husband was at home starving to death wondering where the heck we were!

The first problem was that I was in PAIN. The night before I had hit my foot against the love seat SO hard I ended up limping. Sorry for the lack of pedicure, but I don’t think you’d understand the pain I was in until you see this in a more graphic way:

So, as you can see, a billion errands was not in my plans!

Anyways, we drove out to Altamira, where my mother used to work, and parked in her usual parking garage. She gave up her keys, and admitted being unsure about parking there at first. The main reason was that it’s not really a full valet service: the customers pick out their keys from the keys box on their own, and go searching for their car when they are ready to leave. She asked her then-boss whether it was safe (anybody could come in and pick out any keys and drive off). Her boss responded “yes, that could happen… but mostly people just take their own cars.” Oh well, I guess it’s all a game of convenience versus security trade-offs.

From Altamira we took the subway to Bellas Artes.

Our first stop was Parque Central (translation: “Central Park”). It’s not really a park, it’s just what we call Caracas’s version of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. They stand tall in the center of Caracas, and unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it (only video — which will come later), so I took this picture off the internet:

On our way into the building, my mother pointed out an organic garden that President Chávez had had put in so that foreigners staying in nearby hotels would think that we plant vegetables everywhere in the city, regardless of urbanism in the area. Pff. It thought it was funny, and took a picture of it:

We went to the office on the first floor where my mother was to run her errand. The little office had quite the line. It seems like you can’t get anything done online, or over the phone, or even in advance. Public services are the most annoying thing about living here. My mother, who now lives in the US, has been here for almost 3 weeks, and every day she has had to stand in line to get something done. This is what it looked like:

Oh, and yes, you are looking at it right: this is not the inside of an office, this is the hallway in the building.

While I waited around (yes, like those people on the left) for my mother to go through the requirement checking, waiting, entering and exiting the mysterious door, I took a couple of pictures of my surroundings. I thought you would appreciate a look for what it looked like outside the building from the inside.

Let me know if that gif animation is too fast for you. I could post the pictures separately.

Anyways, afterwards we took the subway to the Teatros station for yet another government paperwork errand.

I do have to say that the subway was not bad. My mother says that when she was here in October, the subway had no air conditioning, and it took 15 min to depart each station. It was not worth it to hop on it. It seems to be functioning fine now.

My mother had to go check if a letter was ready for her to pick up. We got there at 11:03am. They said they were not servicing that type of requests for the day (as of 11am), and we should come back tomorrow at 8:30am. My mother really tried to get them to make an exception (it was 11:03am!!!) but they wouldn’t budge. She’d have to come back.

This is where my mother had to go pick up her papers. As you can see for the line forming outside, Venezuelan agencies do not seem to be big fans of indoor offices…

We did get some good shots of Plaza Caracas. The bust you see is Simon Bolívar, liberator of 5 Latin American countries from the control of Spain (Venezuela, Bolivia, Equator, Panama and Colombia), and the country’s pride and joy. Our currency is even named after him (The Bolívar, code VEB).

Right there, just beyond the bust, you can see the headquarters of the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE – National Electoral Council). That’s the institution that organizes elections, counts and verifies all votes.

We went back on the subway, this time headed for Parque Carabobo station.

As soon as we got out of the station, we passed something like 5 people who were saying “selling/buying gold, dollars, euros” repeatedly.

After running my mother’s errand, she asked me if I wanted to see Plaza Bolívar and Congress. I said sure — would be nice to get some pix to bring to my loyal readers 😉 (see? I’m thinking of YOU ;)). So we went.

I tried my hardest to be as inconspicuous as possible. I didn’t want to draw much attention to myself, so I kept my videos and picture-taking to the minimum. I thought you would appreciate this one, though. It’s a Wendy’s that was put into a colonial-style building. I thought it was a funny mix of styles:

Here are some shots we took of the area. I did take a 360-degree video of Plaza Bolívar. Stay tuned for that. Sorry I can’t name all the buildings below. My mother probably could.

Now, here’s the interesting bit about this trip to Plaza Bolívar: the day before, President Chávez had expropriated all the buildings surrounding the plaza. He did it in the most unbelievable way: he stood outside during his radio/TV address and started pointing at buildings asking “what’s in that building?” and someone would answer “that’s some businesses,” and the President would say “Expropriate that. What is in that other building?” “it’s a jewelry store” “Expropriate that one too. What’s over there?” and so on. You can read the full story here, and see the video of this here. The order was made effective immediately, and the documents were drafted 2 hours later.

Two things are of note. Number one, there is a constitutional process through which the government could expropriate private property. The conditions are very explicit: there must be a trial where the government must demonstrate the need for the land for public service, and they must reach a settlement agreement with the owner. Once the owner has been paid, the government may take over the property. President Chávez has completely ignored the law and simply decided to take possession of property that does not belong to him without due process.

Number two, as it turns out, some of those buildings are currently owned by state universities. This means that the buildings are ALREADY owned by the State, and it is legally and technically impossible for the government to try to expropriate itself. However, it appears as though Chávez is more interested in evicting businesses off the premises than he is in any kind of premeditated research and analysis of his actions, let alone measurement of consequences.

My mother and I had totally forgotten that this had happened just the day before, and we found ourselves in the most undesirable part of town on a very important day. People had started to gather around Building La Francia, one of the expropriated buildings, out of curiosity, out of support or out of protest. La Francia is a LANDMARK of Caracas. It holds the best jewelry stores all in one building. My parents always go us our milestone items from there (baby bracelet, baptism chain and cross, and our sweet fifteen ring). It really hurts to see the President leave a trail of devastation of our democracy in his path.

There was a government-supported post right outside the building, where there seemed to be a heated argument going on. My mother, who loves to hear what people on the street are saying, walked TOWARDS the noise to eavesdrop. This is what we heard someone telling other people (who appeared to be tourists): “You see, this building used to be owned by the State, then the rich people came and took it over!” We took our pictures and video and got the hell out of there!

We made it home and lived to tell that we were there the day after the historic and nonsensical expropriations happened. Just don’t tell my father… he’d kill us both! 🙂

Again, stay tuned for videos. I’ll be posting them after I have a chance to work on them next week when I get back home. Have a good weekend everyone!

ina

PS: Oh, and my little toe held up just fine even after all that walking. I ended up limping at the end of the day, but it’s feeling much better today 🙂 Thanks for your concern 🙂

I’m going to level with you: living in Caracas is a huge safety risk. There is really no sugarcoating it. I knew this before I got here, but I can honestly say I have never been so frightened of going outside, or even being in a car outside, in my life — and I grew up here.

The first thing that hit me was Monday’s weekend violent deaths report. This is not a new thing, I remember this report coming out in the paper and being covered on the news every week, what was incredible about it was the actual statistics and the killings that were singled out. Over the weekend, 44 deaths due to gunshot wounds occurred in Caracas alone. In 2009, 48 people on average died of gunshot wound EVERY DAY in the country.

Two people were killed while watching the circus. Yes, you heard that right. They were sitting watching a show, and they were shot to death. One was an 18 year old sitting between her mother and her sister. Her mother reported that the girl simply collapsed on the floor. They thought she had fainted. Then they saw blood, and they thought she had simply hit her head when she fell. They took her outside to recover, and realized she had received a gunshot to the head.

Another news story reported the most terrifying thing I have ever heard: three armed men boarded a full bus at 6pm while it was stopped in traffic. They held the driver at gunpoint and instructed everyone to get off the bus, except for 3 girls, whom they proceeded to rape right there. This happened on Monday.

My cousin, whom we’ll call Lara Croft (because she’s gorgeous and a total badass), filled me in on the day-to-day fears. She said she couldn’t even go out dancing with her friends in her usual places: shootings had occurred in every single one of them. The only safe thing to do nowadays was to stay home and hang out with friends over a pizza.

She was also telling me how awful traffic was in the mornings (not new), and how she couldn’t even use her blackberry (to email, text, ping, or talk on the phone) because any action that may give outsiders the indication that she has a phone may attract bikers who rob cars in traffic. She mimicked a biker simply knocking on the car window, and just asking people to hand over the phones, and you HAVE to do it.

Lara’s friend’s ex-boyfriend was robbed while he was in his car. He gave them everything: the phone, he iPod, and got out of the car to hand over his truck, all to save his life. The robbers’ response was “oh, you must be a daddy’s boy and money just doesn’t hurt, huh?” right before shooting him dead.

Driving on the highway is now a billion times more dangerous with the motorcycles being allowed on the road. It used to be that motorcycles were outlawed from riding on the highway, but President Chávez got rid of that by stating that the roads belonged to all who wanted to use them. Consequence: more crime.

In the past couple of days, several motorcyclists blocked off the highway and proceeded to rob 15 cars before riding off. This same traffic jam created another opportunity farther down the highway for other motorcyclists to seize the day and rob more cars.

This is probably an obvious one, but just thought I’d let you know that stopping at stop signs or red lights at night is a total risk to your safety, so you should not stop. Just proceed with caution.

One of my friends, whom we’ll call Tori Amos (because she’s an awesome musician and she loves Tori Amos), has family in the countryside of Venezuela. She emailed me to let me know that her uncle had been kidnapped over the weekend, had a heart attack shortly after, and was left on the side of the road. I was so sorry to hear about her uncle, and so appreciative of her concern.

My grandmother has become quite depressed at the crime levels. They have never been this ludicrous.

I usually tell my friends that if they ever wanted to visit Venezuela, the best time is RIGHT NOW, because things are just getting worse down here. Traveling to touristy areas with tourist groups or agencies should be fine — they know where to go and where not to go. Trips to Canaima, La Gran Sabana, and other places in the Amazon rainforest are amazing. My cousins go there for vacation and I’m dying to go with them. Those are safe as long as you go with people who know.

The beaches in Venezuela are among the most beautiful in the world. The best place to appreciate them is in Margarita Island. Make sure to sign up with a reputable resort or travel agency and take the tours around the different areas. Tons of shopping and pristine beaches.

As for trips to the Capital City, Caracas, go with a native, or don’t at all. Even booking a hotel might be tricky: it’s not like New York City where you just find the most stars and just walk around. This place is insanely dangerous, and you should get help from someone who knows.

While I ran my errands to get my Venezuelan ID, and to accompany my mother to get government papers done, guess where my husband Brian was: safe in my grandmother’s apartment. I would never risk his life just so he could see downtown Caracas. There is WAY too much animosity towards foreigners, and the President has made sure to create as much polarization as possible. It is just simply NOT a good idea for foreigners to venture out to the city and rogue it out as if they were in Vancouver, Canada.

This is very scary and again, there is just no sugarcoating it. I wish I could tell you that I might be blowing it out of proportion and it’s really not that bad, but I’m afraid that saying this might mislead you to think that I might be exaggerating. I am not.

Having said all that, Brian and I have had a wonderful time with my family, and I have been recording a lot of video so I can show you a little bit of what Caracas is all about. Stay tuned for those!

Here’s a little taste. Sunday was a beautiful day in the city, and we caught a majestic clear view of Mount El Avila. It was absolutely breathtaking. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

ina