A run through Paris

Yes, please! Elliot and his friend from business school signed up for a race through the streets of Paris, sponsored by Nike. What a great excuse to visit friends in Paris and spend the weekend in the city of love. Arnaud and Eloise, and their 2 gorgeous kids, live just outside Paris and were kind enough to host us for the long weekend. Turned out to be a great race!

Berlin: poor but sexy

First off, what a cool city. Too cool, actually. I headed to Berlin with about 40 other Dutch urban planners, architects, and entrepreneurs on a study trip. My company (read: I) planned the trip and we spent about 3 days examining their strategies around temporary use, among other topics, ie,  bottom-up initiatives, user-driven transformation, organic urban planning, vacancy, co-working, urban agriculture, innovation, participation, the civic economy. 

We also really wanted to explore Berlin's unofficial motto: Poor but sexy. Why? How? 

We'd arranged guided walking/cycling tours and discussions with Berlin leaders pertaining to the specific theme. Of course our goal was to learn and see, first-hand, what makes Berlin a special place in terms of the themes of our trip. We intended to discuss challenges, opportunities, unexpected results, and the history of temporary use, development, and public participation in Berlin. We hoped each site visit and conversation revealed a concrete lesson that we might be able to apply to our own challenges in Rotterdam. You can read more about this trip and the conclusions here and here. The highlights were: walking through Neukolln, the Klunkerkranich rooftop bar and Farbfelder garden project, the city model at the urban planning department, and of course cycling through the city to the old Templehof Airport, now used as a giant park and kite-flying hotspot. Yep, cool.

Czech please!

We were lucky to have dear friend Gadiel come visit us before he headed to Switzerland for the rest of the summer. I always love having friends come visit, not only to show them a part of our life in Amsterdam but also to sit and laugh about good times back home--and get my dose of California gossip.

For a long weekend, we headed to Prague together. None of us had been before and we found super cheap flights and a hostel near the old city center. Perfect for 2.5 days.

Overall, we had a great time. I was surprised and enlightened by the delicious Czech white wines, the difficulty of the language, and vast amount of history and hardship that the Czech have endured. What struck us all, however, was how quiet the city was. Yes, there were tourists, but where were the locals? Already on the coast perhaps? For some reason, the city was hard to connect with. The activities seemed to focus inward, or indoors--literally, doors we couldn't seem to find. Nevertheless, a lovely city and a great time. Here are the highlights, in pictures.

⥥ Coffee and breakfast with a view (Cafe Bella Vida)

⥥ Walking around district 5 and near Újezd
⥥ Hiking up to Letna Park, for the view and the beer garden
⥥ Reading all the notes on the John Lennon wall

⥥ Crossing a 700+ year-old bridge with spooky statues and lots of other tourists

⥥ Climbing to the castle grounds

⥥ Eating lots of meat and potatoes, with delicious Czech beer or wine

⥥ After the Museum of Communism, a view of Wenceslas square, where it all happened...

⥥ Wandering through the Old Town streets

Vitamin D on the coast of Turkey

After some rainy weather in Istanbul, we were ready for sun. Thanks to my loving parents, they offered to give us some of their hotel points so we could stay in the super fancy Sheraton on Cesme, a small beach town near Izmir. We had a spectacular room overlooking the still waters and coastline. Plus, there was a huge grocery store just down the street, so every day we stocked up on mezzes and wine and ate lunch and dinner on our balcony.



One of the highlights of the region is a day-trip to Ephesus, an ancient city dating back to 6000BC. During the Roman ages (1st c BC), the city's population was about 250,000--one of the largest in the world. It was complete with plazas, schools, baths, debate center, library, gymnasium, shops, and of course the impressive Great Theater, which held 25,000 people. The city had an elaborate system of underground pipes and sewer system.

There is still so much to learn about this ancient city. Amazing enough: the remains we see today is only about 20% of the entire city. Keep working hard archeology grad students!

  

In ancient times, this promenade lead to the water...now it leads to silt and marsh.

We really enjoyed the fresh Efes and pide! Especially after the long day of touring. 




After two full days of sunning and swimming, we hopped back in our rental car and checked out a small neighboring Greek village, called Alicati. Super adorable town with a whole lot of charm.



I was sad to leave the sun and holiday vibes of Turkey, but I was certainly looking forward to one thing: rolling out that carpet! Luckily, when we unpacked it, we both still totally loved the carpet. Happy one year anniversary to each other!