Lyon to visit BT

Sloane and I had planned to head down to Bourg-en-Bresse France to see BT and watch one of his team's home basketball games. Unfortunately Sloane had to send in his passport to get his visa updated so I made the trip solo.

BT was a great host and I have to say I was a little jealous of his 3 bedroom apartment and team sponsored car. I had a little time to explore when he was at practice and found the people to be very friendly...it was nice to be in a small city for a change.


I had courtside seats at the game, and BT's team J-Bourg easily beat their opponents, paving the way for a fun afterparty celebration.


It was great to catch up with a fellow European domiciled Bucknellian, even if just for a weekend.

Boys Trip to Istanbul

So I had a few weeks off in between jobs as I left Thomson Reuters for Bloomberg and got the oh-so-sweet 1 month mandatory paid leave. During my first week of pure laziness it occured to me that I should probably use my time to travel somewhere I may never get to again. I called my buddy Jorge, who was also between jobs as he is moving to Malaysia in a month, and proposed a trip to Istanbul. Totally random, yes, but a good idea nonetheless. We booked cheap flights and 2 star lodging and were on our way with visions of baaklava dancing in our heads.

We were there for a week and planned our time wisely, focusing on a few priority attractions: the bazaar, Turkish bath/massage, mosques/churches and of course the nightlife. Our first few nights we blindly made our way through town, meeting locals both friendly and shady. We tried the national liquor called Raki, which amazingly turns from clear to milky white when you add water. Unfortunately it tastes like black licorice mixed with 87 octane so I only had one. One highlight was finding a hookah bar and pretending we were locals while puffing some watermelon flavored baccy.

The mosques in Istanbul dominate the scenery and are really feats of architecture. As you can see, they are even more impressive at night.
Midweek we decided to take to the seas and take a ride on a ferry down the Bosphorus, which connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It was super windy and rough, but still cool to check out the coastline and get a different perspective of the area. Also cool was seeing the Queen Victoria cruiseship (behind me below) for the second time (see our Venice post). Seems I can't get away from her majesty, pretty cool to see again.
Our last night was definitely the highlight of the trip, as we ventured to the top of famed and ancient Galata tower for dinner and a show. It turned out to be an awesome time, with great local cuisine, great entertainment (belly dancers!) and some amazing views of Istanbul at night from high above the city.

All in all it was a great escape to an exotic locale that I had always wanted to check out. Istanbul is an amazing place, a true mix of the cosmopolitan Europe and the exotic and fervently religious Arab cultures. I recommend visiting if you ever have the chance.

Cognac France- Half Marathon

Over the summer when work was a little slow I had the fantastic idea that I'd keep myself busy and train to run a half marathon. I ran diligently for about two weeks and then work picked up and that was that. While my training may have fallen off a cliff, the half marathon idea was gaining momentum. I'd decided if I was going to torture my body for over 13 miles, what better place to numb the pain than in Cognac France (a better idea when I thought I might actually like Cognac). I wasn't the only one who liked the idea and our friends Julie, Jorge, Shaun and Stef decided to join the insanity. I even convinced Sloane to run the 10k.

The think the amount of training the six of us did was about equal to what one sane person attempting a half marathon should have done, but nonetheless we flew in to Bordeaux the day before the race in high spirits (much more excited about the wine and the food then the race).


As none of us spoke French, making our way around a city where very few people spoke English was challenging, but we managed to find a nice place to have lunch. We then set off to find the tourism office to do what any dedicated runner would do the day before a race, book a wine tasting tour...we were in Bordeaux after all.

We arrived at the Chateau Monconseil Gazin just as it was getting dark, and while we didn't get to see much of the vinyard itself, the our tour guide (the wife of the winemaker) was wonderful. After the tour she helped us make a reservation at a local restaurant (athough from the smell of what she was cooking we would have rather stayed right there). We left, several bottles of wine in tow, to get dinner before we headed north to Cognac for the night.


The Bordeaux region of France is known for it's fois gras, and we didn't have any trouble sitting down to an incredibly rich pre-race dinner of fois gras, steaks and of course more wine (carb loading is for amateurs). When we finally arrived at the hotel in Cognac it was nearly midnight and none of us were looking forward to the run the next day.

The run ended up being a lot of fun, and all parties finished in good moods (the cognac spritzers, cheeses, oysters, and wines waiting for us at the finish line may have had something to do with it). After we left the race we took a quick nap and then set out for our celebratory dinner.

The next day we took the long way back to Bordeaux and drove through a small town (I don't remember the name). We weren't the best tourists as we were so sore we could hardly walk!


We made it back to Bordeaux just in time to have one last meal in the square before we headed back to London.


I think it was about a week before any of us were walking normally again, but the weekend was worth it and I'd recommend the run to anyone (serious or casual) who wants to run a marathon/half marathon/10k.