On our first day in Rwanda we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It was a heavy way to start our trip, but an important stop. The museum is very well-designed. It not only honours victims and survivors, but also educates people about how something like this happened, and how it could have been prevented.
I didn’t know many details about the 1994 genocide prior to the visit. What I learned was even more tragic than I imagined. In a nutshell (and I’m over-simplying), some foreign anthropologists came into Rwanda and started classifying people according to their appearance and how many cows they had. Then some horrible politicians amplified those differences and fueled hatred. Though there were many warning signs, the international community basically ignored them/didn’t want to get involved. When the killings started, neighbours brutally murdered their former friends, raped women with the intention of giving them HIV, and many other horrible details that I will spare you. Entire families were wiped out. Millions of people were killed. To this day, Rwandans still don’t like dogs as everyone saw the abandoned pets eating the corpses in the street to survive – bodies that were certainly friends or family. Everyone in the country was affected one way or another.
As we read the translations of political propaganda and quotes from polititians at the time, it was impossible not to think of the hatred and violence Trump (and the media) is fueling. I sincerely hope the US can unite before some horrible atrocity unfolds. Though as the museum pointed out, the killings were conducted one by one… I hope we don’t look back on tragedies like the Orlando or Dallas shootings as the beginning of something worse.
We were in SF for a grand total of 9 days. In some ways, it felt like I never left, but there were also some very noticeable differences.
Let me get this one out of the way first: There are more people living on the streets in the Castro than we saw on the streets in all other countries combined. I know this isn’t an easy problem to solve, but I don’t understand how this isn’t a major priority for the city. There are so many mentally ill people wandering around, plus a large number of what I’m guessing are drug addicts camped out in various spots. And based on the amount of shattered glass we saw, it looks like the car robberies keep increasing. Its sad to see The Castro like this – it was always a bright and thriving neighbourhood, and now there are so many empty storefronts (no doubt due to exorbitant rents) and derelicts. I really hope city goverment is working aggressively on some programs to help. (And I don’t mean just pushing people to different areas like they did for the Superbowl – it needs to be a mix of education, healthcare, job coaching, and housing.) Though it always bothered me when I lived there, I think I became a bit desensitized to it since I saw it every day. Now that I’ve been gone for a bit, the contrast to other cities is shocking. It’s sad that there’s no help for these folks.
On a more personal note, I feel like we really maximized our time while we were here – every night was spent with friends (and also any days we could find folks who weren’t working). Whereas before I was too tired to go out very much, this time socializing was the priority, and we fit in mundane stuff like banking and trips to REI (for safari stuff) around everything else.
It felt fantastic to be in a familiar place and eat all my favourite things and generally get stuff accomplished without having to exert any mental effort whatsoever. I knew exactly where to go when I needed specialty safari gear, or beaty supplies, or a haircut. I ate at Tacolicious 4 times in 9 days, went to 3 Zumba classes (one of which I taught), got a manicure and even went to the movies! Exciting!
The week culminated with the incredible wedding of Nick & Taylor. Their vows left everyone in the room weepy, and it was amazing to see so much love for them in one place. It was a great night full of fun, creative people, delicious food, exceptional wine, and so much joy.
Leaving this time felt really different. In May it felt more like going on vacation, as I had the security blanket of this visit on the calendar. This time its a one-way ticket and I don’t know when we’ll be back. I spent our SF time laughing and talking and having fun with so many folks that I love – I know I’m going to be missing you all terribly! Thanks to everyone who made by SF visit so fantastic.
Now its time for the next chapter – adventure, discomfort, uncertainty, majestic beauty, and wildlife (not necessarily in that order) . Africa, here we come!
Before I start with all the dusty photos of me in safari clothing, I thought I’d give you all a glimpse of Turkish Air, which was a surprisingly fabulous flight!
I have never flown Turkish Air before, but we wanted to use our miles for the flight to Rwanda so this was basically the only option. My friend Tim said they were nice, but I wouldn’t have expected our journey to Africa to be some of the nicest flights I’ve ever had! I’d rate them second only to Singapore Air. (Though I’ve never had the chance to fly Emirates.)
So for the plane/airline-geeks out there, there’s a detailed review below. (The rest of you will probably find this boring so you should maybe stop reading now.)
We were looking at two back-to-back 13 hour flights so I used my United miles to buy us Business Class seats. It was well-worth the miles, even though the second flight turned out to be only 6 hours. (Not sure why the United app said it was longer – though a pleasant surprise to find out it was 19 hours of flying instead of 26.)
The seats on this plane are very well-designed. There are generous amounts of leg room, plus a small cubby to hold your shoes and smaller bags, the top of which becomes part of the bed when you lay down.
A terrible photo of the seats.
The seat has a lot of buttons. (I’m still not sure what MR and M+ were for.) And there was an external lombar cushion as well. The table rotates 90° in case you need to easily get out of your seat during the (fairly long) dinner service. In other words, they really thought about how to make people comfortable.
Any ideas what MR and M+ are for?
In addition to the standard amenity kit (toothbrush, socks, lotion), they also provide slippers! This is a fantastic idea – its much easier and more comfortable to wear slippers instead of jamming your swollen feet into your shoes every time you need to go to the toilet. And they also provide noise-cancelling headphones for the in-flight entertainment system.
Before takeoff, they come around with fresh juices – orange, lemon & mint, or strawberry & lime. And they really do taste fresh. The flight attendants introduce themselves to you, and sincerely welcome you aboard. The hospitality on both of our flights was really impressive – people seemed genuinely friendly and happy to help. They should give lessons to United.
You’re then presented with a ridiculously large menu – one side is for pre-ordering breakfast, while the other half is dinner. They give you a pen to indicate your breakfast options which is collected by the chef. Yes, the chef. He’s wearing a chef’s hat and jacket, and was presumably making our food.
Dinner service starts with nuts, wine, and a flickering tea light. The fake candle was a nice touch, and they had a really nice wine selection. (Tattinger Reserve was their onboard champagne – I approve.)
Next you’re presented with a plate of small appetizers. My vegetarian meal almost never makes any of my flights, but it didn’t seem to matter this time. There were 3 things on the plate: I enjoyed the spanakopita and gave the shrimp to The German. We weren’t sure what the third item was, so neither of us ate it.
What followed was a selection of more appretizers from a trolley they wheeled down the
Appetizers from the trolley, with my tea light in the corner.
aisle. There was a huge selection of things like mixed chickpea salad, baba ghanoush (which was very good), watermelon & feta, etc. This was accompanied by warm bread with a side of oil & herbs or butter.
And then, before the main course, they offered pumpkin soup. (The volume of food on this plane was ridiculous.)
Its worth noting that almost everything was served on actual plates with real glasses and decent cutlery. And the most adorable salt & pepper shakers! (Which weren’t entirely easy to use, but I still appreciated the theme.)
Adorable salt & pepper shakers! (And note Muhammad Ali in the background)
While I didn’t love my main course (gnocchi), The German had a steak that looked like it was plated in a restaurant.
Next was the dessert trolley. They had cheese, fruit, chocolate lava cake, baklava, and fresh strawberries with whipped cream.
And just when we thought they couldn’t possibly offer us anything else, they came by with a huge selection of tea (with macaroons). It was ridiculous.
Return of the trolley
Hours later, dinner is finally over and they come by to make your bed. They add a pad to the length of the lay-flat seat, and give you with a nice big pillow and a thicker blanket.
A few hours before landing they wake you for breakfast. I was particularly impressed that they don’t just flip on all the lights at once (like the harsh ending to a nightclub)but gradually raise the lights on a dimmer. And everything has a warm hue to it so you don’t feel blinded.
The in-flight entertainment system had tons of movies and tv shows. They also had the option to view the cameras outside the plane (which I love). And when we approached the end of the trip, a notification came up to let you know there was connecting gate information – so handy! (I have many criticisms of the overall UI for the system, but we had a short connection so I was thrilled for the gate info.)
The best part about it all? I wasn’t freezing! This is the only plane ride in memory where I didn’t need a blanket and a coat to stay warm!
So if you have the chance, I highly recommend Turkish Air!
We wrapped up our time in Europe with a visit to Duisburg, home of The German. His parents are super-nice, though its always a bit tough because they don’t speak English and I only know a little tourist German and he is perpetually exhausted from playing translator.
All in all it was a nice way to finish our European adventures – he got to visit his folks and collect some important mail, while I got a fix of his Mom’s excellent potato salad. Next is a stop in SF for 9 days to see all of our SF friends, eat as much Tacolicious as possible, and prep for the next phase of travel (which starts in Rwanda).
I can’t believe we’ve been on the road for 3 months already! Here are some (self-indulgent) observations about how its going:
I’m watching far less tv. I think this is mainly because I have more mental and physical energy for other things now that I’m not constantly working and commuting 3-4 hours per day. This doesn’t mean I didn’t see the full season of Game of Thrones (despite having to jump through some VPN hoops to my make HBO Now subscription work – the electronic distribution laws need a major overhaul.) And I still indulge in the odd Netflix binge when the weather is poor or I’m feeling lazy, but overall, I’m spending a lot less time watching tv.
We met fewer people than I expected… butwe saw many more friends! Sure, we would chat with the odd person while we were in line for something, but we really didn’t meet very many new people. However, we saw far more friends than I expected! Between Apple colleagues, developers we met through Apple, friends who live abroad, or friends who happened to be on vacation abroad, we never went more than a couple days without seeing someone we knew. To get quality time with all these folks that I truly enjoy was really the best part of the trip so far.
I’m far less productive than I thought I’d be. All of those things I always said I’d do if I had more time? Still haven’t done them. (I haven’t even managed to make this blog look decent – sheesh!) Some of this is excusable – daily life takes a lot longer when you’re in a strange place and don’t speak the language. Things like grocery shopping can take hours instead of minutes. And I have a lot more travel planning to do on a regular basis. However, some of this lack of productivity is due to having fewer external forces committing me to things. And I’m sleeping too much. So I’m in the process of correcting this, starting with setting an alarm each day. (8 hours of sleep is plenty.) And I’m reading a lot more.
I don’t miss work but I do miss dancing. I really thought I’d miss all the activity and importance of work, or telling people that “I work for Apple”, but thankfully it seems that work doesn’t define me as much as I thought it did. It felt weird to watch the annual developer’s conference from the outside, and I still love discussing apps with people, but I am not feeling completely lost without having a job (which I was initially concerned about). What I really miss is dancing on a regular basis. It’s much harder to motivate to do Zumba on my own when I’m not prepping to teach a class. I have actually done some spontaneous bellydancing (in our AirBnB) and worked on a few new Zumba routines, but its less satisfying when I don’t have anyone to share it with. Starting with Berlin, I’ve made dance a priority and I’m going to do my best to make it happen regularly, even with language differences…
… which leads me to the next point:
I need to take more risks. The problem with my nature of constantly planning everything and having all of this technology at our disposal means we’re very comfortable – which is both good and bad. Yes, we have probably avoided some disgusting accommodation or regularly enjoyed decent meals, but it also means I’m not pushing myself to grow enough. This isn’t supposed to be a year-long relaxing vacation – I want to come away feeling like I really lived it. So I’m going to take dance classes even though I can’t understand what the instructor is saying. And I’m going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, despite my worries about altitude sickness and the fact that it involves camping. And basically I’m going to say “yes” all the time, even if I’m not sure if I’ll like something. If nothing else, I’ll have a funny story for you all.
I can’t believe people are actually reading this blog! I expected my family would (Hi Mom!), but quite frankly, I’m surprised that so many of my friends are reading it, let alone strangers! So thanks for all the encouragement – I’ll certainly do my best to keep it going.
Now we’re headed into an action-packed 9 days in SF to see all of my SF loved-ones, attend an epic wedding for two men I adore, and eat all of the things! Then we head to Africa, where it will certainly be very different…
We spent a long weekend in Berlin. I’ve been several times before but always in winter. It’s a completely different city in the summertime… I didn’t realize there were so many different parks around, and we saw a lot more street art and many different neighbourhoods since we weren’t always rushing indoors to get out of the bitter cold.
This park had mini trampolines built into the ground!
We stayed in a great hotel for very little money. (It’s weirdly low season right now and I had a bunch of Expedia points that helped with the room rate.) It was such a nice change to be in a bright, modern hotel with daily maid service, air conditioning, and working wifi!
Some highlights were:
• A sidewalk cafe where the cost of the cheese was based on how many centimeters you ate:
• A pop-up rooftop wine bar, which was a promo for a local winery. You paid €3 for the wine glass (which you got to keep), and then they poured as much wine as you wanted. (They had 22 different varieties, and no, we didn’t manage to try them all.) At the end of your visit, there’s a barrel for you to leave some money at your discretion – it’s up to you to decide what seems fair based on how much you drank. The night we were there, there was also someone selling raclette. So basically, wine, cheese, and sunshine – what’s not to like?
A local friend showed us a car service called Drive Now. You can use your iPhone to find a car closeby, unlock it, and drive off. It charges you by the minute for the time you use – no reservations needed. Then you just find a parking spot on the street and tell the app you’re done with the car. The best part is that the company has some arrangement with the city so you don’t have to worry about paying for parking – just find any available spot on the street and leave it! He quickly demonstrated as we walked past a convertible Mini on a sunny day – such a great service!
I was holding a bouquet of wine glasses as we whizzed through Berlin
I had a very easy time finding great vegetarian food in Berlin, we had nothing but sunny skies, and I finally made it to the Bauhaus Museum (which was closed the last two times I was there). So all in all, a really great time…
… until the day we were trying to leave. Maybe it was Berlin’s way of telling us to stay longer, but we wound up with a huge mess at the train station. We had tickets for 3 different trains, which included a stop at dinnertime so Stefan could see an old friend, and ultimately getting to his hometown around 10pm.
When we got to the train station, the DB app said the first train was an hour later than we thought it was. We chalked it up to time zone confusion with Calendar, even though The German is usually pretty meticulous about things like that. (Its not as though we are inexperienced in this department.) Next up is a flurry of messages, telling his friend and parents we’d be an hour later than expected.
This is the massive entral station for Berlin, yet there were probably only 4 benches in the whole place. There were piles of luggage and groups of weary travelers everywhere… no wifi, terrible cellular connectivity, and nothing but McDonald’s and cheap coffee chains for entertainment. (First world problems, I know).
After 2 hours of boredom and a little bit of sitting on the floor, we looked at the signage in the station to see if our first train was on time and realize that we’ve somehow missed our first train. What?! As it turns out, the time listed in the official train app was wrong by one hour, and we didn’t realize it until 6 minutes after the train departed. Sigh.
So now it’s time to stand in line to (hopefully) exchange the tickets. We bought them at a huge discount so we were expecting a problem. Stefan was wise enough to show the girl the DB app and let her go through the same exercise he did. After a lot of confusion in trying to find the train status, she chalked it up to being a software bug with their app. They didn’t have any real excuse nor apology, but gave us new tickets for Train 1 and 2 without any hassle. Train 3 would hold at the original time. This means less time for dinner and another series of texts with Stefan’s father, who is certainly confused about when we are showing up.
At this point, we park ourselves at the platform to make sure we don’t miss New Train 1. Assuming all goes as planned, we have 11 minutes to change platforms for New Train 2. This seems like it should be plenty of time, but we are dragging heavy bags with us and this day isn’t going well.
So of course, New Train 1 leaves late, the platforms at the interchange are far apart, and some of the elevators aren’t working at that station. This means we have a pretty big distance to go, and have to use the dreaded stairs.
As I’m trying to heave my 45 lb bag up this huge flight of stairs, some nice German man in suit takes it from me and carries it up. (This would only happen in the US if someone was stealing it from you.) And that’s when everything turned around – the rest of the trains were uneventful, we had a great time for a few hours with Stefan’s old friend, and we made it to Duisburg just fine (albeit sweaty and tired).
We each expected some sort of trsnsit mess to happen at some point in this adventure, but we didn’t expect it to be in a place where one of us spoke the language fluently, let alone Stefan’s home country. He is very disappointed with his country. 🙂
So after failing to get to any kind of classes in Helsinki (where classes were cancelled because of the Midsummer holiday), London (where I was too busy eating & drinking with friends), or Barcelona (where even the instructors I exchanged emails with had incorrect times/locations on their websites), I was determined to make it a priority in Berlin.
As luck would have it, I found a dance studio that was a 7 minute walk from our hotel. Not only did they offer Zumba, but a lot of other interesting sounding classes like “Shimmy up” and “Burlazz!”. They were very responsive over email and even sent me a class schedule. Drop-in rates were a little pricey at €13.50, but I was really craving movement so I went to check it out. (And as it happens, you get two trial classes – one for €6 and a second for €8, so that was a nice surprise!)
Its a really nice facility. They have 4 studios and a small cafe where you can buy drinks, a lounge area, large changing rooms, and even showers. The dance studios are large with great floors, tons of mirrors, huge windows, and are obviously cleaned nightly (unlike my studio in SF, which I’m pretty sure was never cleaned). The only problem is you’re not allowed to have any windows open while music is playing, so every dance class also doubled as a sauna. It was so seriously sweaty (even with 2 fans) that someone mopped the floors after one Zumba class!
First up was Zumba with Jenny. She was supposedly one of the first instructors in Germany. Like almost every Zumba class I’ve ever been to, she came over and welcomed me as a new student, which was nice. And I didn’t have to worry about the language barrier since that was the last talking that happened. Jenny is a great dancer and I loved her routines, which were very dance-y and a lot of reggaeton. The down side was that she wasn’t much into cueing, which got pretty frustrating as a new student (and I’m a quick study when it comes to choreography).
She had 2 other men in her class, once of which was clearly studying to be an instructor and lead a song. (His cueing was actually pretty decent – you could tell he was doing an official Zumba routine and doing it exactly by the book.) He was friends with all the girls who ran over and greeted him with air kisses on the cheeks before and during class – obviously he’s the class celebrity/playboy and I loved watching him.
Despite the lack of cueing, it felt great to move again and I got a good workout (or certainly a good sweat).
The next day I went to a Dancehall class taught by the “German Dancehall Queen of 2010” (whatever that means). This class involved a lot more talking by the instructor… in German. I expected that might be the case, but given that Dancehall is pretty loose movement, I figured I’d just do my best to follow. (She came in late, so there was no chitchat or opportunity for me to tell her I didn’t speak German.)
She seems to do a new chorography each class so at least I was starting at the beginning with everyone else. A lot of it was just following along, but sometimes she’d stop us all and say some long list of instructions or crucial info about the choreography, followed by “Ok?”. Everyone would say “Ja!” and then the music would start and I’d be doing a totally different part of the routine from the rest of the class.
At one point, she had us in pairs doing some very fast arm movements that involved fist-bumping each other with our hands in the air (almost like a high five, but with fists). I just kept telling myself “Don’t punch this girl in the face. Don’t punch this girl in the face.” Thankfully, neither of us left with a black eye – success!
The class ended with a song that literally involved nothing but squats and lunges, which I figured was my punishment for not exercising enough lately.
Despite the language challenges, it was a really fun class and I’d totally go again. And there’s really no need to feel self-conscious since I’m only here for 3 days and can’t understand anything anyone is saying. It’s all very liberating – all I have to do is show up and have fun.
The final class was Zumba again, but a different instructor. She seemed to be new, at least to that studio, and wasn’t listed correctly on the schedule so I didn’t catch her name.
Her cueing was perfect so she was super-easy to follow. She tried to do the whole class as one long megamix of songs, but the studio got so hot she had to pause halfway through so we could open the windows for a couple minutes and get some air.
There was 1 older man in the class, who looked so stereotypically German I started to think of him as Grandpa Sprockets. He had white, closely cropped hair and wore black long pants, a black t-shirt, and all black workout shoes. He executed all of the movements with military precision and a kept a stern look on his face the whole time. He was right behind me, and quite the contrast to my happy expression and bouncy movements. Obviously, I loved him.
The instructor spoke in both German and English (for my benefit) and actually asked for feedback after class, which I thought was such a good idea. I wish I could have gone to more classes from her!
And speaking of stereotypes, there was a Crossfit gym on the second floor which I always passed on my way out. I couldn’t see anything but their snarling bear logo on the windows, but you could hear the loud grunts and shouts over the heavy metal music they were blasting. Heh.
So all in all, I’d say dance classes in Berlin were a success! If you find yourself in the area, check out the studio!
It was so great to finally be in warm weather! I love being able to walk around in a sun dress without bringing a jacket. (Though I did spend the first couple evenings carrying a pashmina unnecessarily, just in case… SF habits are hard to break.)
Spain feels like a bargain compared to London and the Nordics. Most restaurants don’t bother with selling wine by the glass – you either get a carafe or a bottle, which seems sensible to me! And every place has a selection of half-bottles, too, so I could have cava and The German could sample the reds, each for the price of a glass of wine in London.
Our AirBnB turned out to be a bit of a disappointment… suffice to say it was old and dingy and could have used a woman’s touch. The shower was tiny and awkwardly-shaped. (Each time one of us was showering you could hear a lot of: *thud* “ow!” as we knocked into the shower handles or this random protrusion in the wall.) There was a flock of pigeons living right outside the kitchen window – we actually found feathers on the counter one day. And the bedroom was small with no windows, so between the heat and rattling fan it was hard to sleep.
One of the highlights was that it was on the top floor of the building… with no elevator. Initially we were excited about the built-in exercise of having to climb 6 stories of stairs a couple times a day – this would surely help offset all the tapas and cava! However, each time we’d arrive at the top of the stairs huffing and puffing and needing a shower, and getting the luggage up and down was quite a feat, so not exactly the joyful workout we envisioned.
The neighbourhood (Sant Antoni) was great, though – very walkable to almost everywhere with lots of cafes and shops right outside the front door. We spent many days exploring all the Gaudi highlights and then nights eating tapas and drinking cava.
The living room ceiling in Casa Batllo
Park Guell
Even the Casa Batllo stairs are beautiful
Shortly after this Stefan got pooped on and was no longer smiling
Detail of the interior light well in Casa Batllo
That said, we didn’t have the same love affair with tapas that so many of our friends did… We went to 4 differenthighly recommended places, and were far from blown away. As a vegetarian, I was pretty much just eating patatas bravas and a plate of mushrooms and asparagus (which were sometimes good, but got old quickly). Somehow the specials of the day were mostly sold out, even though we were eating on the early side (by Spanish standards, which means 7:30 or 8.) The German had plenty of meat or seafood choices, but often wound up with things that were breaded & fried when he was hoping for otherwise. And the pan con tomate was always so bland – where was the garlic?
I did have one dish that I loved, which was a fried egg smashed into skinny fries and covered with garlic aoili and bravas sauce. (This would be the perfect hangover food – someone in SF should get on that.) And the super-thick style of hot chocolate is fantastic even when its so warm outside. So it wasn’t all bad.
From Cacao Sampaka
La Sagrada Familia was definitely one of the highlights of our visit – its impossible not to be in awe of it. (Even The German had to agree and he’s generally not impressed by the churches we’ve seen, given where he grew up.) The stained glass is absolutely magnificent and casts such rich colours onto the sloping ceilings – its stunning. And by going up into one of the towers, we got an amazing view of Barcelona as well as the ability to see some detail of the roof that you can’t see from the ground. There are so many aspects of the building that I think are gorgeous – it really is a masterpiece.
Even the doors are grogeous
This light is entirely from the stained glass
So much detail in every aspect…
A peek at some roof detail
Detail from one of the doors
Casting colours from the glass
The incredible ceiling
Before we went to Barcelona everyone kept telling us how its the best city ever… but between the humidity, our dumpy AirBnB, a frustrating failure of getting to Zumba classes (despite my best efforts) and generally not loving the food, we didn’t have that same reaction. The architecture is gorgeous and I like the pace of things, but I don’t think I could ever see myself living there.
Having recently given a couple tips to traveling friends, I thought it was worth posting what’s become most valuable to me now that I’m on the road, and often on a limited bandwidth diet/poor wifi connection.
Sidenote for app developers: I have a newfound appreciation for apps that have a great offline experience. Its amazing how many apps just silently fail instead of telling people they need to be online to function.
Google Maps: saving places for offline use has been a lifesaver! Before I arrive in a new place, I download the city to my phone and save all the places people recommend along with where we’re staying and spots I’d like to visit. I add custom labels so I know which restaurants were recommended by whom, or which little yellow star is our AirBnB. GPS works without data so I have often relied on this to help us find our accommodation when we first land, plus its nice when we are our and get hungry – I can quickly see which nearby cafes have been recommended by our friends.
Google Translate: this also works in offline mode, and has been critical at restaurants and in grocery stores. You can either type in the text you want translated, or point your phone’s camera at a menu or street sign or food packaging and it will translate for you. The night before we head to a new country I make sure I have the local map and the local language downloaded. The caveat is that some languages seem to be handled better than others – it was great for French and Spanish, but pretty terrible for Finnish.
Citymapper: This is my preferred app for navigating public transit. It will give you routes based on fastest time, the least amount of walking, the least exposure to rain, etc. It will also estimate Uber/taxi prices relative to public transit, and tell you how many calories you’ll burn based on the amount of walking. I far prefer their UI for walking directions over Google or Apple – I seem to have an easier time knowing which direction I need to go. The only issue is that its not available in all cities, but they add more all the time.
AirBnB: If we are staying someplace for a week or more, this tends to be a better option than a hotel. You get a kitchen, better wifi (usually) and access to a washing machine, plus the price works out to be cheaper than a hotel for longer stays. One of the nicest things is that you can communicate with your host via the app, so I don’t have to worry about int’l text fees or the fact that my phone number changes with every country. Also, in the case of language differences, it appears the app is helping translate.
Expedia: There is rarely a lower price for a hotel room on any other site, and the app is much easier to use than their website. Plus, booking through their app gets you extra points, which I’ve already redeemed for even more discounts on hotel rooms.
Trip Advisor: But before I actually book anything on Expedia, I check the reviews on Trip Advisor, who has more hotel room reviews than any other site. I’m certain that these reviews have saved us from some miserable accommodation, because I refuse to stay anywhere where the review mentions “bugs”, “filthy” or “poor wifi”. And I review every place that we stay in case friends are looking for recommendations/places to avoid.
Foursquare: As much as I appreciate the detail of Yelp’s content, it just isn’t used as much in Europe so Foursquare has been a great help in determining if a place is decent or awful. According to The German, anything rated 8 or above is good. I do still review all the good spots on Yelp (or the really, really bad ones) to help the other vegetarians out there.
Cuppings: Where to find hipster coffee, worldwide.
Fancy Units: It has pretty much everything in there – currency, volume, length, temperature, weight, etc. I’ve tried a lot of these kinds of app, and truthfully, I don’t love any of them but I’ve been happiest with the UI of this one. I do wish I could find one that includes clothing & shoe sizes. If you’ve used a good app for this, let me know.
Our 9 day visit was a whirlwind of eating, drinking, and hanging out with some of our favorite people:
1 high school friend
1 college friend
4 SF friends who were here on holiday
1 recent London transplant
14 Apple colleagues (plus 2 fabulous wives, 1 boyfriend who I previously thought was fictitious, 2 girlfriends, and 1 wild-haired baby)
8 app developers
1 breakfast date
2 brunch dates
6 lunch dates
8 dinner dates
4 Indian restaurants
8 coffee shops
5 pubs
2 wine bars
2 ice creams
4 pieces of Paul A Young fine chocolate
3 galleries
1 Freemason’s Grand Lodge that contained at least 10 thrones
1 Monty Python foot
150 minutes in Camden Market yielding 3 pieces of Cyberdog clothing
2 clever items from Suck UK (though I wanted to buy the whole store)
1 manicure from my favorite nail art salon in London
15 conversations about Brexit
248,240 steps
114.5 miles walked
Cyberdog mega-store in Camden
Enjoying Soho with Tejas
Brunch with Hillary! (The girl behind us was loving her food)
Lisa in her new flat!
Bubbles in Lisa’s new flat
The Monty Python Foot!
Who knew Freemason’s were so into thrones?
Paul A. Young fine chocolates -even the packaging was adorable.
With Dave C, on the express elevator to Duck & Waffle
I really, really loved Helsinki. We had a very comfortable AirBnB, great summer weather, and we got to see so many friends. The city is small and very walkable – you can basically get from one end to the other in about 30 minutes, and it really never feels too crowded. Now if they could just do something about the 8 months of winter, I’d be tempted to move there…
You can tell everything is designed for intensely cold temperatures and lots of snow. All apartments have double-paned windows, the front door is also doubled, and balconies are glassed in. All houses have boot brushes out front and heated towel racks in the bathroom. You typically take your shoes off whenever you go inside someone’s home or office, and I suspect that’s more to avoid tracking wet snow inside than to keep things from being dirty.
Heavy metal music is incredibly popular here, and as a friend said, its likely because of “The cold. The darkness. The isolation.” (Incidentally, the largest annual heavy metal festival was happening while we were in Helsinki. Its called “Tuska”, which in English means “Agony”.) While the summer nights are incredibly long, your only chance to see sun in the winter is during lunch.
There are also some unique Finnish words to express how people feel. For example, “Kalsarikänni” means “sitting by yourself in your underwear in front of a tv or laptop and getting drunk”. So that should set your expectations for what winter is like…
… which is why we came in the summer. Everyone is outside and happy and having fun – it was a really fantastic way to experience Helsinki for the first time.
I think seeing so many people we know really helped encourage my crush on Helsinki. We both know quite a number of people from our days at Apple. (Helsinki is home to a ton of mobile game development studios.) Unlike the US, where everything is very competitive, the various Finnish companies are all friendly – they freely share information with each other, are happy to help make valuable connections for one another, and often get their companies together just to socialize. The perspective seems to be that there’s room for everyone to be successful… I really wish more people shared this spirit (and not just about app development).
I’m really impressed with how passionate people are about their work, and also how much they do in their off time. There’s strong value placed on work/life balance.
One friend recently spent a couple weeks taking refugees to various national parks. Its a program designed to help them feel more comfortable in Finland and have an opprtunity to have fun and build confidence in themselves. How great is that?
We also got a quick visit in with an old Apple colleague who was over from London with his wife and new baby. His father lives outside of Helsinki and is full of non-stop stories, ponderings about life, and hilarious mottos like “ I don’t mind that I make mistakes as I learn from every one one of them… and that’s why I plan to keep on making them!” He had us laughing the entire time.
I also had a chance to see my old pal Sami. He’s originally from Helsinki, though we went to school together in England in 1990. This was my first chance to see him in his “natural habitat”, and I think I understand him a bit more now.
We wound up in some kind of heavy metal nightclub, which had impressive decor. This mural was just one of the features:
Summer holidays are a big deal in Finland. Many companies shut down for the month of July. Even if the company can’t let everyone take time off at once, people generally take turns taking a couple weeks off to go to their summer houses, be with family, and take advantage of the warm weather.
This time is sacred and project schedules are built around it. I often wished Apple provided a company-wide summer holiday along those lines. Christmas is the only holiday where the email stopped and you felt like you could really disconnect and recharge.
And new parent leave in Finland is essentially 2 years, which can be shared by both parents. (I’ll spare you more details as it will likely make my US friends who are parents cry.)
Helsinki Pride was the same weekend as the aforementioned Agony festival (who is a huge supporter of the Pride events). I was excited to see it, probably because I was hoping it would feel a little bit like SF. The “parade” felt more like a protest, but it all ended in an event space that felt very familiar – music, eating, drinking, and speeches. Not nearly as many festive outfits as you’d expect in SF, but still a good showing of people having fun and generally being supportive and joyous.
Less daning, but not entirely unlike SF Pride…
As we were heading toward the Pride epicenter, our friend’s young son wondered why people were “fighting for rights” (something he overheard from the parade), which triggered a very interesting dialogue… in Finland I believe there are equal rights regardless of sexual orientation/gender, so we talked about awareness, bullying, predjudice, etc. I loved how easy it was to have an honest conversation, and how much his father encouraged it.
A few other random thoughts on Helsinki:
Tar is both a cleaning product and a drink here. (WTF?) There’s even a saying “If vodka, tar, or sauna doesn’t cure you – its fatal.” My theory is that drinking tar would be fatal, but they assure me its not.
These are actually 2 different kinds of vodka…
Helsinki has some really great cocktail bars, including a true speakeasy where we genuinely had a tough time finding the door. (Sadly, photos were forbidden.) Gin & tonics are an art form here, so factor in some time to sample them if you’re in the area. In addition to the speakeasy, I also highly recommend A21, Liberty or Death and Steam.
Every house has this geniusly-designed dish rack built into the cupboards over the sink. Why has no one else thought of this? It’s brilliant! The water runs right into the sink and you don’t have to waste counter space with a drying rack. Everyone should steal this idea!
The amazing, secret, drying cupboard!
So all in all, I’m a big fan of Helsinki and Finland in general… I suspect this won’t be my last visit.
Rachel Hits The Road 