travelling

On Monday we left on a road trip. We spent two days in DC, and this afternoon we'll leave for New Jersey to visit Jonathan and Irena.

Monday afternoon we spent in the Air and Space Museum, a wonderful place. It was very interesting for our Bulgarian guests. Yesterday they toured the Capitol and we went to the Bulgarian Embassy for some paperwork for Sasha.

Now on our way to the Library of Congress.

Tonight is the start of our vacation! Sasha is presenting one of her papers at an economics conference in Paris next week, and we're making a nice holiday out of it. Sunday evening we'll leave from Charlotte, NC to Paris and we'll stay for about a week in the City of Light.

We're really looking forward to it. We've been in Paris once, in 2004, when Sasha was already in the States and I took a high-speed train from Amsterdam when she came back from Cameroon.

About seven months ago I started studying French, and this will be a fun opportunity to practice my new skills.

Monday we traveled back from Denver. A snow storm was approaching North Carolina and I was afraid our flight would have been canceled, but we arrived at RDU just fine. A bumpy landing in the storm. Many other flights were canceled, so we felt lucky to have made it.

Hernan joined us on the way home from the airport; it was slow driving because of ice, but we made it home safely around midnight.

Yesterday I worked from home, given the road conditions; it is nice to be back at work. I'm recruiting for three open positions.

Today we traveled to Denver, Colorado, where Sasha will be at a conference.

It was a short night. Somehow we are always packing until late, and we left the house at 7.00 am. The flight went smoothly. It was the first time we flew with Southwest airlines, and it was a great experience. Very friendly service.

Denver has a nice downtown area; we're staying in a big hotel in the center. I scheduled a meeting with a customer on Thursday.

Downtown Denver at night.

Today I'm hoping to go to Somerset. It snowed here overnight, and while there's not a lot of snow on the ground it might mean a lot of delays. Let's hope our 9.00 am flight is still going!

Sasha arrived in Trenton from DC last night and we had a late home-made dinner.

This is our last weekend in Somerset; Wednesday I'm driving back to North Carolina with a car full of stuff.

There are two major soccer games to watch this weekend -- today at 2.30 pm the U.S. will play Ghana; tomorrow morning at 10.00 am we'll see Germany-England over breakfast. Today we'll visit the Zanes; it is great that we've been so close to them in the last six months.

I'm on my way back to Newark airport in New Jersey, where I parked our car on Tuesday. I took the train from Union Station in DC two hours ago, and we've just left the station in Delaware.

It's been a while since I took a train. When we lived in Arlington I'd travel to Philadelphia for work occasionally but I haven't taken a train in the USA in years. It's pretty good experience. I'm in a quiet car, so no cell phones or loud talking allowed. There is power for my laptop.

We're wrapping up a great weekend in Georgetown with hot weather and a lot of World Cup games.

It will be nice to be back in our apartment in Somerset, after a lot of travel in the last two weeks. We'll have one more weekend in Somerset, and then we'll move back to Durham again.

We drove to the train station in Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, which is about 45 minutes away.

Sasha took the train at 7.00 pm and she'll arrive in DC around 10.00 pm. Ready for a new week after a great 3-day weekend.

On Friday I drove from North Carolina to Washington DC where I'd pick up Sasha in the evening. I saw Sasha's office at the IMF (nice) and we both realized that it would be another 5 hours driving to New Jersey (not so nice).

Since Sasha would have to return to DC on Sunday anyway we decided last-minute to stay the weekend in DC. We returned to The Quincy, a hotel downtown which is unaffordable during the week but has great rates on Friday and Saturday night, and free parking on the street in the weekend.

We went for a long walk on Saturday around the monuments and downtown. We had dinner in Cafe Belga -- an outstanding meal. Sunday we visited the National Gallery of Art and saw the Hendrick Avercamp exhibition. On Sunday night I drove back to Somerset, New Jersey.

I traveled from Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina (RDU) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR) early this morning. It's the third or fourth time in the six weeks that I make this trip but I still enjoy the experience of traveling very much.

And today of course is my birthday! Thank you all very much for all the e-mails, Facebook & Twitter messages, calls and comments on my site! While I was traveling I checked Facebook every now and then and the messages kept coming in, a very nice feeling. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure that it's the first time that I flew on my birthday. It's exactly 5 years ago that I started work at my first job in the United States.

I'm in Somerset for two weeks. This time I'm not staying in a hotel but in a furnished apartment, not far from our office. It's so much nicer to stay in an apartment -- you can leave stuff behind and most importantly I can cook my own meals now. Much healthier (and often more delicious) than eating out.

I had to do some serious grocery shopping tonight. The apartment comes with pots, pans and other kitchen gear, but I needed to buy many "basic" things. Things you don't think of at home, such as pepper and salt, cooking oil and cleaning supplies. I'm all set now and cooked my first meal here (pasta with my favorite avocado salad).