Lausanne Half Marathon and Budapest

Lausanne Half Marathon - October 30th

While still in running shape, but losing my marathon form I ran the Lausanne half marathon on October 30th.  I've ran this race in the prior year and it's is likely one of the prettiest races that I've ever run; PwC also sponsors any employee in the canton that would like to run so the registration is free so why not run!

After running two marathons in 2016, I've really relaxed my weekly running routine so I took this race as an opportunity to sightsee and appreciate the scenery; even stopping for pictures where I was asked if anything was wrong.

The course runs along Lake Geneva with mountains in the background and through the Lavaeux vineyards, it was quite a scenic run!

Following the run, the PwC runners grabbed dinner and drinks before I made my way back to Geneva on the train.

Budapest - November 5th

With work requiring me to be in Brno, Czech Republic the following week, I took advantage of the flight in the region and spent the weekend in Budapest.

I arrived late on Friday and spent Saturday on a walking tour to see the cities' sites.  Budapest fest very similar to visiting Prague although I did not anticipate how cold it would be while there and was quite underdressed.  

After shivering through the walking tour, I grabbed lunch with someone from the walking tour.  Fun fact from lunch would be Hungarian goulash is more so a soup rather than stew; although apparently American goulash is thought to have originated from Hungary (only similarities are there's meat, paprika, and red sauce).

To warm up from being outside in the elements, I went to a Hungarian bath house.  There are several throughout the city as the entire country has many thermal springs.  The baths are Turkish baths with large pools and hot tubs.

After warming up, I grabbed drinks at a local wine bar with some fellow Americans in town for a medical conference, grabbed dinner, and went to a ruin bar (szimpla).  The ruin bars are a theme of Budapest of buildings from the communist regime that were vacant following the fall of communism and are now very popular bars within the city.

The following day, I relaxed and did a wine tasting in the city and prepared for the upcoming work week.  Hungarian famous wines are Bull's Blood, which is a blend of reds and also sweet white wines (similar to mead).  It was all quite good, and a good contrast compared to my visits to Bordeaux and Burgundy the prior summer.

Very fun trip and would love to get back again soon to tour outside of the city.

Jordan - Nov. 19

This weekend I planned a 4 day trip to Jordan as I've always wanted to see Petra after seeing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Friday

I worked while traveling and didn't realize until midway through flights that it's roughly a 5 hour flight from London; luckily, I planned to spend a few days here to take advantage.  

Upon arriving at the airport, getting my visa, and then through customs, I encountered my first challenge.  Given the language barrier and I was staying at a smaller hotel, I had to call the hotel and then hand my phone to the taxi manager so that they could discuss where to drive me.  Needless to say I made it, but then learned that someone had smoked earlier that day in the hotel and triggered all of the sprinklers so all reservations for the night were cancelled.  Luckily, the affiliate I was transferred was across the street (note this was all taking place at midnight to 1am).

Saturday

My driver picked me up at 7am to drive to 2.5 hours to Petra.  Within Petra, I had a guide for the first 2 hours who described each of the sights and walked me through the Siq and main walking path.  After the tour, I hiked to the Monastery (1 hour), grabbed lunch (30 minutes), and then did a looped hike to the sacrificial obelisk on top of the mountain (2.5 hours).  Hiking was very pretty with the ancient carvings and temples from 200BC-200AD with the colorful rocks from the varying minerals adding to the effect.

Treasury

Monastery

View from inside a tomb

Hiking path

At the end of the day, I started a hike that appeared to reconnect to the main path leading to the gate from looking at a map; however, it ended with an elevated view of the Treasury, thus at a dead end >100 meters above the path that I needed.  It's also important to note that I had started this hike at dusk planning to reach the end at sunset.  Luckily, there was a group of us and by the time I had retraced the path and reached the entry gate, it was dark.  

Dead end of my hike

The hotel that night was great!  Probably one of the nicer hotels I've stayed while traveling outside of work.

Sunday

My driver picked me at 10am and we drove 1.5 hours to Wadi Rum to meet my guide for the day.  We toured Wadi Run for 5 hours by jeep, touring different rock formations, having tea with the Bedouins, and doing small hikes.  The tea here is probably the best I've had while traveling; black, mint, sweet tea with cardamom.  Wadi Rum is the Jordanian Grand Canyon.

Following the tour, my guide dropped me off at the Bedouin camp for the night for dinner and camping with a larger group.  It was myself, 2 Aussies taking a year of travel, the cook, and a German that was volunteering at camp for the month while also taking a year of travel.  The Bedouin food is traditionally cooked in an underground over of coals buried with the food in the sand.  We had essentially chicken with vegetables and a variety of sides; it was all quite good!  Our campsites were less campsites and more so small huts with beds and power.  This was a stark contrast from my last camping trip at Kilimanjaro!

Lounging at the campsite

Monday

We awoke and had breakfast at our camp before heading to town for each tourist group to depart ways for the next leg of their journey.  My original driver picked me up and we drove to the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea is the lowest point in earth and is 8x saltier than the ocean; so salty that you float with no effort.  The muds are famous for their healing/spa qualities so I partook and had someone coat me for 3 JD (4 USD), let it dry, and then went in the water.  Washing my face was 'interesting' as the water was so salty it burned your nose and I had to run to the beach to my chair to rinse my face with a bottle of water so that I could then open my eyes.  After the Dead Sea, I returned to Amman for the evening to fly out the following morning.  Note that this was my original hotel that I was supposed to stay at on my first night in Amman, but no issues this time.

Vantage point along the road trip

Dead Sea

Mudded Up!

Jordan was a blast and I would highly recommend going!  The country is quite safe; the tour experience is very interesting as everyone knows each other and it's quite a network.  See below for an example:

Day 1

I had a single driver take me from Amman to Petra, to a separate guide, to then another driver (friend of my original driver) who led me to my Petra hotel.

Day 2

My original driver drove me from Petra to Wadi Rum with directions that someone will pick me up the following morning at the same location at 8:30am (note I'm in the desert with no reception), to a separate jeep guide, to a then separate campsite.

Day 3

Rode from the camp with another group's jeep driver to town and arrived at the location.  That driver then called someone to pick me up and it was my original driver.