While Coby is in Europe I ask him to eat things on my behalf. The last trip he did just that.
After years of overseas traveling Coby finally made it to FIRST CLASS!
He is now a "gold" member & will be a "platinum" member in October ... which is the highest. I am so happy for him ... he totally deserves to be flying first class! He was in Europe last week for 5 days & was upgraded to 1st class by Delta. He leaves for 2 weeks again (then he is done for the year) next week & will be sleeping in style the entire way.
note: this photo is from Singapore Airlines & yes it is for real!
Tip: go there in the evening and enjoy the illuminated alleys and houses. Yes, fairy-tales do exist. One of them is called Gamla Stan. {words from a Sweden travel guide}
Thinking back to our trip to Europe last year I realized some of my favorite moments included the moments just after this photo was taken when we walked down the streets of Old Town in Stockholm in the rain eating ICE CREAM ... it really was lovely. I plan to do it again. Just sitting here remembering how much I loved Sweden, how much I wanted to stay there & never go home, how sad I was to leave ... I feel so blessed to be going again.
Honestly, the morning we left Stockholm last year I told Coby I would find a way to get back there. A trip paid for by others & I get to share it with friends. Amazing how things happen.
I am SO excited for this ... I hope you are too Jen & Chris ... we are going to be dead tired but we HAVE to live it up!!!
Coby's trip to Europe was full of new places to see. Of course his time is limited for sightseeing since he travels for work, but he & his boss made time to see a few important places in Russia. Since the sun doesn't set until around 3:00 am they went on a midnight tour after work! They were beat the next day.
These shots are from Peter The Greats Palace - Coby said the grounds alone took all their time so they didn't even make it inside. The fountains are all fueled by gravity & flow down to the Baltic Sea {photo of the 3 guys is at the bottom of the backyard in front of the sea}. Coby did great with photos this trip, although judging by the Michael Jackson pose I think he wishes I wouldn't send the camera with him. I especially was impressed with the first photo ... Coby getting artistic & I love it.
Today I am very thankful for skype & webcams. Coby & I can talk for free while he is in Europe plus we get to see eachother. He loves to see Lucy & she just stares at the webcam so it looks like she is looking right at him ... cute.
Rarely can I get Coby to take photos with him actually in them ~ so this time he did it. Funny thing is he looks like a statue in all of them, still cute though. It was cold, can you tell?
Coby is getting ready for another trip to Europe {for his job as a European Sales Manager} today & leaves Tuesday morning. I have only asked him twice when he is going to pack his bag ... he reminds me that not everyone is like me & plans ahead. He will pack late tonight I am sure & I will try hide my stress. I will miss him but I am excited for him to go to 2 new countries ... Russia & Ukraine.
TRIP SCHEDULE {for my benefit}
Tuesday ~ Saturday: Helsinki, Finland
Saturday: Riga, Latvia
Sunday: Tallinn, Estonia
Monday ~ Wednesday: Kiev, Ukraine
Thursday ~ Saturday: Moscow, Russia
He comes home February 2nd
Coby is off to Australia today until Halloween night (I made him promise to dress up & get over jet lag when he returns). The day after (Nov 1st) we find out the sex of the baby & then 3 days later he is off again to Europe for a week. This is his busy time of year, so I am prepared, and I plan to accomplish much while he is gone.
ORGANIZE OUR HOUSE!
Coby leaves tomorrow for Estonia & Poland & hasn't packed or finished his big presentation for the convention. He is stressed & I am stressed. His trips always turn out great, but this one has bad timing with everything happening in our lives.
The house is getting close & looking good, but I am getting to the point where I would be happy selling it to someone else. I am so excited to move in, but I am back to where I started in this process of building ... asking .... "what were we thinking!?"
I wake up at 3:00 AM worried about work, Coby's trip, the house & finding time to sign the closing papers. This is what happens when I can't sleep & I am tired. I vent.
I came across these photos from the couch bar we went to in Estonia while we were on our trip to Europe. The outside of the bar looked nothing like the inside as you can see in the photo with Coby. We were told all the little stores & restaurants try to get as modern as possible inside since Old Town Estonia is sooo old. I love old mixed with new! 
At the request of Heather ...
My favorite stop was Stockholm, Sweden for its beauty. I loved Norway & Finland too...it is really a close call. I can't make up my mind, but Scandinavia was all around my favorite.
What I will miss ...
European yogurt
European bread
Beautiful architecture
New friends
All the bike riders
All the walking on cobblestone streets
What I would do different ...
Pack a duffel bag in my suitcase (we had to buy one over there)
Plan on wearing crocs 90% of the time & only take 1 other pair of nice shoes
Take only 1 skirt but 2 pairs of jeans
Take a scarf (Emily said to but I didn't)
Leave blow dryer at home (I blew it up with the 210 power)
Plan on letting my hair go curly, it was just easier that way
THANKS FOR THE TRIP COBY ~ LOVED EVERY MINUTE!
We made it home after 25 straight hours of flying & layovers. The last few hours we were pretty delirious! We had tried to stay awake most of the time to get rid of the jet lag & that made for some tiring moments. I had tears well up in my eyes when our luggage didn't arrive in St. George after we had checked it at every layover to make sure it was coming. We went home & went to bed happy to have our own bed. We got our luggage this morning on my way to work, so no problemo after all.
This morning Coby thanked me for going along & not complaining about all the traveling we did ... I seriously couldn't believe he would think I wouldn't enjoy it! It was better than I had expected & ended up being the best trip ever! I have never vacationed that long & I don't know if I will do again for many years, but it was heavenly. Do it if you have the chance, I know I would have regretted it if I hadn't!
Oh ... the last 2 days of our trip we were reminded that back at home we were building a house! Our builder called to let us know the roof trusses were going up & that all was well. So just before I went to work we stopped by to see the house. I wanted to throw up when I saw it ... we are really building a house - for real! OH my goodness ... it is crazy. It shouldn't make me so sick, but for some reason it totally does. It looks great though & we are so excited about it. It went up so fast - we left & there wasn't anything on the lot - just a spray painted outline. WAHOO
Oslo turned out to be the cherry on the top! We had such a good time in Norway & a lot of the fun came from Jan's entertaining us. He took us to see 2 Olympic venues - the biggest auditorium inside a cave & the ski jump just above the city. They both were awesome. It rained a lot throughout the day so our nice drive up in the mountains didn't show us too much of Oslo - we will just have to go back I guess. The town is pretty & right on the water. The cafes we so cozy along the boardwalk, in fact this cute cafe we ate at had outside seating with fur seat covers & blankets - loved it!
Jan's apartment complex is right downtown by the water ... shown in the photos below. It was really convenient & a pretty area.
Our final dinner was my favorite. We went to this great Spanish restaurant that had the BEST bread I have ever had. I wish I could have brought it home with me. Actually I wish I could have brought the restaurant home with me (someone please open one in St. George). It is called San Leandro & you must go if you are ever in Oslo. The style is Tapas (a wide variety of appetizers) which I have found is my new favorite way to dine. It is totally my style since I can eat a variety of foods & not be stuck with one meal. We ate for 4 hours! We were with a big group of people who were also celebrating a birthday & they drank & drank while we kept drinking our lemon water. It was quite the joke, it was fun. They asked me not to repeat the evening to anyone so that Norwegians would be remembered as great people...but even when they were drunk they were great people!
Again, I could live in Norway & love it. The scenery was beautiful!
Yesterday was a crazy day...we left Lithuania early & had a connecting flight in Copenhagen to Oslo. Coby didn't have a paper ticket like me so they told him he would have to check back in when we got to Copenhagen. Little did we know it was much easier than the route we took. Coby ended up missing our flight & I flew to Norway alone. He got a new flight an hour later & we met up again safe & sound. The language barrier hasn't been a problem thus far except for that little incident. But we arrived & are happy & well. 
We had the great opportunity to go to Jan's home in Gjovik, a cute little town we fell in love with. Jan & Anne were great hosts & showed us around their cute town & prepared an amazing meal. Jan wanted us to try all these traditional Norwegian meals so we had a buffet of foods & desserts. We tried brown cheese, which tasted almost like carmel! Coby ate rotten trout that he really liked & some delicious potatoes and beef. Again we were shown how to be a host, they were wonderful. We talked & laughed for hours & ate so much last night that we skipped breakfast today.
Jan's home in Gjorvik has a great view of the city pool which is seriously a small lake, the ski hill that costs $10 a day & the green hills. When we flew into Norway it reminded me of a miniature city, it looks perfect with all the green farm land & trees. The homes are brightly colored & all seem to share a great view. The style here is more cottage looking with a few modern homes. I really love it! 
Jan has a flat in Oslo as well, so we drove to Oslo this morning for meetings & shopping for me. I could live in Norway. This is on my top 3 places we have been on this trip for sure. 
Vilnius was a beautiful city which we were able to spend a good portion of our day visiting. We took a crazy taxi from the airport which was too similar to the video game! We stayed near Old Town & after a short nap after arriving we walked down to see the city. It was one of the most relaxing days thus far. We walked with no plan to see anything, nothing to shop for & just enjoyed the scenery. They were re-doing the cobblestone streets & I thought about taking a little block of it for my desk at home since Coby's brother brought me back a piece of granite from a street in France but I didn't dare. Oh well...I got a picture same thing right?
We ate at a great little pizza place in Old Town that had 75 different styles to choose from. We shared their #1 pizza, the margherita. It was delicious with goat cheese & feta. For dessert we had a great pastry with curd & berries. The food was very inexpensive. We ate in the basement in a neat bricked room & soft lighting. Coby has fallen in love with the old bricked walls here, as I did long ago. He keeps asking where we could do a brick wall in our home & although I am all for it & would love it ... it is not in our budget. So maybe the next house.
After the meeting that evening we went to dinner with some of the leaders at a nice restaurant overlooking Old Town & the river. It was very beautiful & fun to watch the park below stay busy until 11 pm because the sun was still up. Everyone at the table had scorpion fish while I choose to eat something I knew I would love...swedish pancakes. They were filled with curd & sour cream with raspberries. One of the best yet...Coby was totally jealous.
One of the leaders from Vilnius wanted to show us her city after dinner, which was midnight. We agreed, but told her we had to wake up at 4:45 am for our flight so we had to move it. She understood & drove like a mad woman around the city showing us her beautiful town. It was cute to see how each place we go the people are so proud to show us what they are famous for & why they love where they live. I love that we all take pride in our home town or where we reside. I ended up getting super carsick & was ready to loose my dinner when we arrived at the hotel. I quickly fell asleep.
One thing I noticed as well as Anne is that the girls in the Baltic States, more so in Lithuania, dress pretty scandalous. It was kind of weird to see these short skirts with stockings & high heels walking down the cobblestone streets. Anne was wearing these cute flats with her skirt & some girls were laughing at them, like they couldn't believe she wasn't wearing heels. Kind of funny.
The photo with yellow wall inside a building is their airport, isn't it pretty!
Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of Riga in our day there. It was the shortest visit yet. We had an awesome view from our hotel room on the 23rd floor...so at least we got to see the beauty of the city from above! The city was pretty, much like Tallinn. When Coby visited in January he fell in love with the city, so maybe one day we will come back & spend some decent time there so I can fall in love with it too.
We had lunch at a cafe in Old Town; the salad Coby had was smaller than a side salad in the US & it cost $15. The prices in Riga were very high. As we waited for our food for lunch we were entertained with an old lady dancing for money. It was pretty funny since she was doing some traditional dance to American pop music. We gave her some money afterwards.
Anne & I went along with the guys to the meeting which turned into 4 hours! Coby does an awesome job, the people love him & it is no surprise why. We had a nice dinner afterwards with about 20 people & spent the evening laughing it up. Jan (pronounced Yon) is someone I could listen to all day, I laugh constantly when he is around. He is the European Consultant for the company Coby works for. We will be staying with him at his home near Oslo, Norway. Jan & Anne are in the photo below...they are so cute.
