Realized I left my friends and family at a cliffhanger since I never wrote whether I made it home or not. You will be happy to hear that all 20 of the amazing race participants did make it back to London safe and sound.

Team 4 parted ways in Paris with Trisha and Aline heading straight back to London Friday night while Salinda and I stayed behind and met up with Daniel, Donald and her friend jeong. Thanks to jeong I got to give Paris a second chance and while in the winter I thought it was okay Paris in the spring with a semi local as a guide is absolutely marvelous.

Friday we started our visit with a tiramisu of the moment. Which meant it had nutella in it ... They love their nutella in Paris. Then jeong treated us to the most amazing French bread from his neighborhood bakery. I didn't even need butter or anything to enjoy it! We then proceeded to do his quick and dirty tour of Paris. This included a stop at the best
crepe stand in the Latin quarter. Yum! Then we wandered along the seine enjoying the view and sites like city hall and notre dame only to end at the louvre where we enjoyed a lovely sunset. We ended our day with a scrumptious meal if steak tartar, beef bouloise, duck confit, steak frites and onion soup.

Saturday we visited my favorite part of paris by picnicing in front od sacre coure ... Which is still one of the most amazing churches in my opinion... An then wandered around Monte marte with a visit to a bakery with some of the best macrons I've had. Finally I parted ways to head back to London while they proceeded to the Eiffel tower.

After a day in London with Eugene and trying to catch up on school stuff I am on a 4:30 am gatwick express on my way to barcelona. Crossing my fingers that my bad luck with trips to Spain ends here :)

Amazing Race Day4

And the official winner is...
Borja and Diana who did Rome, Milan, Zurich, Brussels, and then London

now it's btw Shreyash and Mamello for second place

Team 4 knows we are out of the running so we decided to enjoy Rome..,
After finally figuring out our plans home the weight for team 4 finally lifted and we decided to really enjoy Rome with Shreyash

We started with Saint Peters Basillica and it was stunning. The Pieta was awe inspiring an we eavesdropped on a guide and heard it's the only sculpture Micheangelo signed. And then the girls headed for the Vatican while Shreyash and I headed to Castle Sant Angelo... The fortress and escape route of the popes. Again awesome timing to get stranded in Rome bc it was free! Then we went across berninis bridge to wander around the streets of Rome. Got yummy gelato. Visited piazza navaro and the pantheon. Befor meeting the girls fo dinner at a place behind the pantheon that Irene suggested and it was sooo good

we ended the night with meloncello and pistaciocello

goodnight Rome and them tomorrow paris

the amazing race is coming to an end and now that I'm not worried about how I'll get home. This has been one grand adventure that has allowed me to get to know a good group of dreamers better.

Amazing Race Day 4

And the winner is...

1. Team Miwa, Zeynep and Alicia... the ones who waited it out in Istanbul got a cheap flight back to London and landed today after the airports opened up... BUT... we decided they got disqualified from the Amazing Race because they didn't actually go anywhere.. sorry guys... so close

And the other teams?
2. Borja and Diane...no news yet so keep us updated
3. Mamello and Sele.. the ultimate dark horses in Tunisia are set to fly out to London tomorrow ... they just might be the winners.. but does only one other city count?? The judges still have to decide
4. Aline, Trisha, Salinda and I are in Rome and have booked our tickets to Paris for Friday and Eurostar for Friday night (well Aline and Trisha) the hubster has promised me a ticket home on Saturday and Salinda will be meeting Daniel in Paris to head off on her original trip to Barcelona and Lisbon... Safe to say I think Salinda is going to be solidly in LAST place... but the rest of us finally see the light at the end of the tunnel
5. Shreyash may just have a fighting chance to win if Mamello and Sele get disqualified for only visiting one place with his flight from Rome to London Friday morning
6. Kelvin is making the most of probably not winning and stopping in Firenze and maybe Verona or another Italian city before making his way to Milan to fly out Saturday back to London
7 Last heard Ben and Mykel will be flying out to Zurich and then Brussels and then Home from there... good luck guys ... hope you made up your money on the gambling cruise
8. Joao and Shuji already headed to Bologna and I hope they have a good trip...

Quick Highlights From Rome
Started with a walk down the the Coloseum which we decided to go into... only to find out it is Culture Week and it was FREEEEEEEEE Major Plus *Forgot to mention being an LBS student came in handy in Athens because we got in free to the Acropolis YIPPEEE

Then we skipped along with a quick view of the Arc di Constantino, Palantino, Roman Ruins ... but mostly we were looking for food because we hadn't eaten anything at all since we headed out the airport

We then made a pit stop at the gorgeous Trevi Fountain... stopped by San Crispino for some AMAZING Gelato...can't go wrong with honey and grapefruit... before meeting up and looking for dinner ...

We learned that if you see a sign that says Trattatoria and it points into a small alley...that equals good food. We first walked to the Pantheon to find the restaurant Irene suggested... closed for a wedding but looked good. Then we walked to who knows where as Shreyash was insistent on finding Ginos ... going so far as to ask directions from the bodyguards of a mafia don or a politician... we were near Parliament so it was a crap shoot... and directions from a guard. Eventually we found Ginos but it was packed so we ate Spago which was awesome... the pasta was fresh and delicious and proscuitto and melon is hard to miss

Then we ended the night with a lovely walk along the streets of Rome to the Spanish Steps and then home!

Of course this is omitting the time spent in internet cafes and on our iPhones trying to figure out our way back... shout outs to Eugene, Beto and Dan for doing some back home research to get their women home

Amazing Race... Day 3

Full day of fun in the sun in Athens and the race is on... we have to leave at 6am to catch our flight for Rome so here's a quick update of all the teams

1. Borja and Diane... think they're in Milan don't know where they have gone from there
2. Mamello and Sele... joined the Nan and Lan game plan and have flown to Tunisia to wait it out or with fingers crossed get a flight back to London on Thursday... the real dark horses of this race
3. Vishal... took the more like Nan and Lan plan and is flying to India to wait out the Volcano... enjoy!
4. Team Aline, Trisha, Salinda and me decided to go to Rome, stay a day or so and enjoy (mostly because there are no trains to Paris available earlier for what we know) and then make our way to Paris and camp outside the Gare Du Nord for an eurostar home
5. Ben and Mykel.. are mid ship on their way to Italy in Ancona, with plans for a flight to Zurich and then make their way to Brussels and Paris
6. Kelvin ... where are you? we need to track your progress
7. Shreyash is waiting in Rome for the girls... he misses his mother ;)
8. Alicia, Miwa and Zeynep's flight to Milan got cancelled so they are in an unknown future location... we suggest Rome or Paris
9. Ricardo is off to Lisbon tomorrow morning... taking himself out of the race.. unless this is a trick =)
10. Joao and Shuji are off to Bologna tomorrow morning and then make their way to Milan to plan the next step



Quick highlights from Athens
Acropolis and all its glory... AMAZING
Best street in Greece MITROPOLEOUS... we had an awesome lunch on one end and a phenomenal dinner on the other end.. cheap gyros that are AMAZING
Tram to the Tracadero (much better than the one in London) to watch the sunset... gorgeous!
We've managed to get unattractive farmers tans.. but coming from London we won't complain

Amazing Race Day 2...

So as often happens with the best laid plans... they change. Where are our LBS teams?

1. Nan and Lan are safely in China with family and their son... safe to say they are out of the race to London
2. Borja and Diana found out they were overbooked on their flight home to Madrid and so have re-entered the race with a lead having flown to Rome and are on a train to Milan
3. Miwa, Zeynep and Alicia are still hanging out in Istanbul and hoping that their well timed flight on Wednesday to Milan will quickly catch them up to the other teams or put them in the lead, all very possible
4. I, Salinda, Aline, Trisha, Kelvin, Joao and Shuji ditched the train idea and booked a flight to Athens ... Shreyash and Ricardo found out at the airport they weren't booked to Barcelona and joined team 4 in first class to Athens
- Team 4 spent a lovely morning in sunny Athens wandering around the Acropolis (since it was closed) and meanandered through Platas before heading back and finding the next step...
4a. I, Salinda, Aline, Trisha are going to hang out in Athens until our flight to Rome Wednesday morning, hopefully getting us closer to London
4b. Ricardo is pulling himself out of the race and heading back to loved ones in Lisbon
4c. Kelvin and Shreyash are taking the early flight out to Rome to scope out the land for Team 4a
4d. Joao and Shuji are going to join the girls in exploring Athens until they flight out to Bologna for an adventure up
5. Ben and Mykel arrive in Athens in time for dinner with the girls before they get up early up and do a quick tour of Athens and head out for Partas on the original trip to go on the ferry
6. We believe Mamello, Sele and Vishal are in Shengan visa limbo .. an extreme detour in this race

The race is on and team 4a is crossing their fingers that they beat out the rest.. although the way things are shaping up most of us will end up meeting up again in Milan

And how was Athens?
As has become our habit, we enjoy the beginning part of they day before tearing out our hairs trying to figure out where to go from here

Athens is actually extremely easy to get around, but noticeably more expensive than Istanbul, but no second guessing ourselves. We took the metro in and dropped our stuff at our Hotel Aristotles.. the rooms are nice but the area is quite dodgy.. good thing we have all of the boys today. The weather was incredible and helped us to forget for a moment that we were in the middle of the Amazing Race LBS to London. The Acropolis was closed but that didn't stop us from admiring it from the outside and taking lots of photos. We stopped in Platas for lunch... at a very touristy spot but at least we got to enjoy the sun before taking a leisurely walk back to the hostel to plan our next step, with a little bit of shopping on the way to supplement our depleted wardrobes. After figuring out our step 2 the girls went out with Ben and Mykel for a cheap dinner of kebaps and gyros and beer. Very nice.

LBS Amazing Race Begins..

Haven't been updated in quite awhile but things are about to get exciting...

So you might have heard that there was a little volcano in Iceland ... it just shut down most of Europe and unfortunately England which means Salinda and I are stuck in Istanbul, along with 18 of my fellow classmates and some partners.

Istanbul is great, especially with an amazing local guide in Zeynep, including a wonderful private boat cruise on the Bosphorus with a meal that left me full until 10PM tonight. But we need to get back to London and thus the amazing race begins...

We are 20 LBS students who need to find our way back to London... somehow... we have now split until a few teams.
1. People waiting it out in their home countries (Borja and Diana to Madrid, and Nan and Lan to China)
2. Flying to Athens (Mykel and Ben) or Barcelona (Ricardo, Shreyash, and Ben) depending on if Istanbul is flying or if Barcelona or Athens and then either ferry over to Italy or drive up to France
3. Eastern Europe route through Bucharest or Sofia ... although these guys (Shuji, Kelvin and Joao already threw in the towel and join the cool team...below)
4. Taking the train to Tessolomitki (in Greece) and then take a bus to Partas to catch a ferry (more like a cruise) to Ancona in Italy and then head up to Rome and Milan and then deciding whether we head to Berlin or France somewhere (Original team: Aline, me, Salinda, Trisha Joiners: Shreyash, Ricardo, Kelvin, Shuji, Joao)
5. Wait it out in Istanbul (Miwa, Alicia, Mamello, Sele, and our local hero Zeynep)

The race is on... many variables are uncertain, getting tickets (just waited in a line at the train station in Istanbul for 2 1/2 hrs to get not even half way to the ticket office manned by one man with one really old computer), the ash cloud (airports are dropping rt and left and the volcano doesn't seem to want to stop belching smoke) and who knows what else.... who will win? I'm personally crossing my fingers for team 4!!

How did we get here... well you might find it amusing to know that the day we went out to Istanbul was actually the day the Volcano first erupted... Yup we arrived at Gatwick at 5AM for our 6:40AM flight and in our infinite wisdom... or a combination of escalation of commitment and ignoring the sunk cost theory... when we found out our flight was cancelled we (well our turkish hero zeynep) booked the last flight out of london at Heathrow. At the time we felt it was such a coup...

Istanbul though was very lovely and we were blessed with a lovely guide who introduced us to the wonders of steamed stuffed mussels, kepab (or meatballs...Aline's ultimate favorite) in all it's infinite glory and raki.. not one of my favorites. The Topkapi Palace was stunning...especially the Harem and the Treasury... Hagia Sophia... OMG one of my favorites.. it is so beautiful and huge space inside with a lovely mix of a building that was once a major mosque and church and the mosaics were incredible... Blue Mosque... which was lovelier on the outside than inside.. maybe just because we had to take the shoes off and it was quite stinky... Grand Bazaar... an incredible overload for any shopaholic... and Egyptian Spice Bazaar.. more for locals and much nicer during the holy day when you can actually move around without bumping into people.

There is so much more to Istanbul but we are ready to set off now... almost anyways we can... and we did look at almost anyway.. including flying to Algeria and taking a ferry to France... and so the Amazing Race begins and wish us luck because I actually think a lot more people are also unknowingly racing us around the Ash infected Europe!