Distractions from the 30th floor window

September 9th, 2009 (posted late)

So I'm working from home today, which means I'm sitting in my friends' apartment, who were kind enough to let me house-sit while they went trekking in Nepal and Tibet. The thing is, I get distracted by stupid things while I'm proofreading some dry reports for work. Exhibit A: the round-about outside the apartment.




Even for a lifelong connoisseur of ways to zone oneself out, this thing is RIVETING. It's like staring into a fire. You just look out, see the cars going around, the people that occasionally wander out in the way, and BAM you're totally zoned out. It's the worst during the morning rush hour, but it goes on all day.

Next is the window cleaners who came by and cleaned the 30th floor windows, also providing a convenient distraction from my job, as well as making me suddenly grateful that I was doing such dry work. I think this is going to be the first part of an ongoing series called "Jobs I'm Glad I Don't Do."

Jobs I'm Glad I Don't Do, Part I: Window Washing on 30+ Story Buildings

Please note the cable in the background which looks like it's not quite taut. That's cuz it wasn't quite taut. For some reason the cord had gotten tangled, so when the man in the picture finished fixing whatever was going on (about 5 seconds after taking this picture) the entire side of the applepicking/windowwashing machine just dropped like six inches before the cord caught. I felt my own heart leap into my throat, and also nearly browned my shorts, and I wasn't even in the thing. I can't imagine how the man in blue and his unpictured companion must have felt. All I can say is "THIS guy is glad he's not THAT guy."

Dubai!!!!

After a long hiatus due to the general un-blog-worthiness of my life in Washington DC, I feel like it's time to revive the CBennyC Journal of Discourses so that any of you out there who might feel inclined to stay in touch has a little window onto my life. Just to fast-forward from the last post, we successfully finished our tour of the world last summer, visiting 15 countries in 6 weeks, including Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Hong Kong, and Japan. It was nothing short of epic. I then hung out in the SLC for a couple of months, spent the rest of the year in Washington DC, and am now back in the Middle East.

So where do I start with Dubai? My first impression was the tremendous heat. The day I left I checked out weather.com which told me that the high for that day in Dubai would be 104. Not bad. Except that underneath it was the little note: feels like 129... And it does. The humidity is killer. I ran a marathon in Death Valley when the temperatures soared above 130. And Dubai in summer is worse. My glasses fog up every time I go outside. It is nasty.

The second thing about Dubai is the construction. Everywhere. The entire city feels like a giant construction zone. The view out my friend's window where I'm staying is of a place called "Business Bay" which in a few years will be kind of like the Manhattan of Dubai, a financial center of high-rises centered around a lake:

Note the Swiss-cheese looking building in the middle. That is for real. I actually googled "Swiss cheese building Dubai" and the following article was the first to come up: http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3134358.

Also, the malls are awesome. I hate malls except in Dubai where I think they're cool. Especially Dubai Mall, which opened 10 months ago. It is the largest mall in the world, even bigger than Mall of the Emirates down the road which has a ski resort in it. Dubai Mall has a skating rink, a theme park sponsored by Sega, and once all the spots open up, over 1200 stores. My favorite parts about it are the shark aquarium,:

and the awesome fountain shows which go on at night:

After a frenetic week of apartment hunting, getting settled in at my new job, and general stress at moving and adjusting to a new place, I'm finally getting around to enjoying the place. And what better way to enjoy a place with nothing but luxury options than a trip to the pool? Note the picture on the right, where my camera lens, like my glasses, had fogged up due to the humidity. And also note the building in the background, the Burj Dubai, the tallest in the world.

Macedonia and Kosovo

With a population of around 2 million, and not much to offer besides the huge Lake Ohhhhhhhhhhhrid, Macedonia was nonetheless a very fun visit. From there we rented a car (more smoothly than in Greece incidentally, and for much much cheaper) and used it as a base camp from which to run up and visit newly born Kosovo (though with the way Serbia is behaving it's sort of a half-birth thus far).

Unfortunately the computer here in Moscow (we're about 3 weeks behind on pictures) won't let me upload any more pictures, so this is all for now.

Dubrovnikking and Greece Pictures

So we have successfully been to Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, and are currently in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we are spending 2 days in a kind of break from our constant car trip. Needless to say the 5 previously mentioned countries have absolutely stunning countryside. The road trip across Albania was one of the most incredible mountainsides I have ever ascended, and the narrowness of the roads and the igloo shaped bunkers all over the place only added to the adrenaline rush of feeling like you were on top of the world.

Dubrovnik is absolutely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to.

However, the picture updates are behind the actual trip, so I'm backtracking to recount Greece.

First, we arrived in Athens at 6 AM on the morning of June 8. We were unable to check into our hostel until noon, so we spent the morning completely exhausted and therefore slaphappy wandering around the Parthenon:

After which, we went and took a nap and awaited the arrival of our cousin Cole, who showed up for an evening exploring the ancient ruins.

The next morning we took our newly rented car (a tiny little deal, we had to stack 2 of our bags in between Heber & Ryan in the back, and Ryan kept hitting his head. It was one of those times I'm glad to be shorter than average. Also glad that I was navigator, which meant permanent shotgun status.

We drove up through the beautiful Grecian countryside to a little town called Kalambaka, in the shadows of some monasteries built into very sheer cliffs. The whole area is called Meteora. The morning of the 10th was spent exploring the monasteries and hiking around, then we got a guide to take us rock climbing. Not a bad place for Heber & I to do our first rock climbing.

After which we headed north to Thessaloniki, which was kind of unimpressive.

On the evening of the 11th we jumped on the train up to Macedonia.....

And as usual, the obligatory celebration of the artwork which is Heber's hair.

Leg 1 Pictures: Egypt

So here are some of the pictures from Leg 1 of the Cannonballz World Tour 2008. It started with Heber going to Abu Simbel with Mike Christensen. (I had to remain in Cairo to take care of th Russian visa).

I then flew down and met them for this sweet overnight sailing trip on the Nile:
















After which we visited Karnak Temple. I wasn't quite so reverent.




Followed by some lounge time and snorkeling on the Red Sea.







And then the Pyramids and Cairo.








And then we shaved Heber & I's head. For Heber we left this gorgeous rat tail. The razor gave out about 80% of the way through my haircut, which meant at the Pyramids I had random tufts of hair sticking out, but then I went to my barber and got it fixed.

Just to update everyone, we made it safely through Greece after seeing some amazing stuff. Highlights included Athens, rock climbing in Meteora, and some amazing drives through the Parnassos national park and the mountains around it. Yesterday we took a train from Thessaloniki and have now officially begun the road trip portion of the trip. We got to Skopje, Macedonia last night, and will be running up to Kosovo this morning, after which we will return to Macedonia and spend the night on Lake Ohrid, and then off to Albania and then Montenegro on Friday.

Stories & pics to come!!!

Curtis

So the Cannonballzzz World Tour 2008 is officially underway. Heber arrived in Cairo a little over a week ago, after which we did a quick tour of Egypt. First we went to Aswan, followed by an overnight sailing on the Nile on a felucca. We then continued downstream to Luxor where we visited the temples and the Valley of the Kings. After which we flew to Sharm el-Sheikh and spent 3 days lounging on the beach and snorkeling amongst the fishies.

We then did 2 days in Cairo, and I finally visited the Pyramids. I had successfully avoided that circus for an entire year and 3 days. However, my last day in Cairo we went.

Now we are in Athens. After a flight that left Cairo at 3:45 AM and landed in Athens at 5:45 AM, we came to our hostel (The Easy Hostel) and dropped our bags off. They wouldn't let us check in so Ryan, Heber, and I wandered about in a daze and went to the Parthenon and the Acropolis. We then went back and took naps while waiting for cousin Cole to show up. Now the 4 of us are ready to rock Greece. Tomorrow we will be heading north and doing some rock climbing at Meteora, after which we will be heading to Thessalonika.

Pictures coming soon....