Dinner in Pordenone

Pordenone is the biggest city near where my family lives. I've been there many times but never during the holidays and never really for anything other than shopping. 

In preparing this post I learnt that Pordenone was created in the High Middle Ages as a river port on the Noncello, with the name Portus Naonis - meaning literally  'port on the Noncello River. In the 1200s it was handed over the Hapsburg family and then it was acquired by the Republic of Venice in 1514.  After the Napoleonic period, Pordenone was included in the Austrian possessions in Italy and then annexed to Italy in 1866.

Ok, enough of that - we went to eat and drink! Again, the town was all decked out for the holidays.

Town centre

The pre-dinner cocktail - why we sat outside I have no idea!

A restaurant dedicated to prosciutto, um hell yes!

And then we headed to nearby Cordenons, to stand out int he freezing cold to drink more. Apparently, Christmas markets are where people go in the evenings to hang out. Even though I'm Canadian, I was the coldest person there!

Sadly this is the only photo I have of the market

A Pre-Christmas trip to Italy

So this was a month ago but the pre-holiday and holiday season were a little chaotic. The weekend before I flew back to Canada for the holidays, I decided to head to Italy to see everyone one last time in 2015.

It was a little frigid that weekend but we still managed to take advantage of a number of outdoor activities.

Saturday I spent mostly in Palmanova and its outskirts. The day started with a trip to the pool to see one of the little one's swimming lesson and on the way back we had to stop for a photo op with a giant chair - because isn't that what everyone does?

We're hard to see but we are there!

Then it was off to lunch at the Dogana Vecchia which was the old border between Italy and Austria until the First World War.

Someone was ready for lunch

And then it was off to Palmanova itself. Palmanova was built by the Venetians in 1593 and is a star shaped fortress. Today it is a UNESCO heritage site. Of course because it was Christmas, the place was all decked out for the holidays!

Heading to the main square

Love the Palm tree/Christmas tree combo

Someone was not interested in being in this photo!

The main square

Running to grab a coffee . . .

And after this full day, it was off to dinner . . . .

A Parisian Christmas Market

'Tis the season - for Christmas markets and Paris is no exception. They have been up and running for a couple of weeks now and I have managed to make it through the one on the Champs Elysée twice already. Though with the amount of people there, I question why!

The stalls mostly sell crap but you can eat some lovely crepes, roasted chestnuts and wash them down with some vin chaud :)

A city with a different vibe

I flew back to Paris over the weekend of the horrific events that took place Nov. 13th. Thank you to everyone that sent messages checking in and sending their thoughts. I was lucky enough to not be in the city and everyone I know is ok. I've heard from many of you since asking what's it like now in Paris. While the city definitely has a different vibe to it, people are trying to live life as normally as one can under such circumstances. It also helps if you don't constantly watch the news like it seems many of you are.

I have to admit that since I've only been back a week, I haven't ventured far from where I live though I have been out every evening after work :). I also took the chance to check out the Eiffel Tower all lit up in the French flag colours - it looked amazing!

The normal view from my office

My workplace is under much higher security than normal but then we regularly look out the window and see the military hanging out because some head of state is visiting . . . so not totally out of the norm for us. On Nov 30th our week of meetings start and registration numbers are down, no doubt due to the situation. It also marks the beginning of the COP21 so the city will be an interesting place but hopefully a peaceful one.






To lighten up the post a little, and offer a little homage to the city I love, I thought I would add some pics that never make the blog because they are just random evenings out with friends.


The exclusive wine and cheese

The social association at work organizes two wine cheeses a year at work. The last one sold out in 9 minutes so most of us didn't get tickets. As such, we organized our own exclusive wine and cheese. We headed to O Chateau in the first.  

A flight of Bordeaux's with my colleague trying to not be in the picture :)

The List

We have a list of restaurants and pubs we want to try out in the city mostly to try eat food that isn't just French. We've been for dumplings, schezuan, sushi, mexican and chinese hotpot so far. This week is going to be thai. The cambodian restaurant that was attacked was on our list, we've decided to leave it as a reminder. . .

Here are some of the places we've been:

My first office mate enjoying the stench of garbage in the 2nd as we enjoy a pint at a place across the street from one our list because the other pub was full :(

The hotpot dinner that followed the pints. There were many food items lost in the hotpot that night which might be why I look concerned!

A birthday dinner at the Petit Prince in the 5th

The most unbelievable café gourmand I have seen in Paris thus far!

I wish I had more to share but it appears I need to take more pictures when we check another thing off the list!

My first work mission

A week ago I was in sunny Brazil! Myself and several other colleagues headed there for work to attend the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The IGF is an annual event that brings together thousands of people who have an interest in the development of the internet. This year it was in João Pessoa, Brazil also known as the eastern most city of all the Americas. A year ago when I was in Brazil I has visited this same coast but never made it to this city in particular. While the location was beautiful, the event was not exactly my favourite.

The view from my balcony and preferred place to work

I arrived on a Saturday and several of my colleagues were already there. As this was our only free time before an intense week of work, we headed to the beach - by far the best day of the week :) And we even squeezed in a little chat about spectrum management #nerds

Cabo Branco Beach

And then the work began. The venue was a lovely 45 minutes away on a good day, over an hour on a regular one. "I'm still on the bus :(" became one of the phrases of the week. My first introduction to the IGF was an hour wait in the blazing sun to get through security and then another hour to pick up badges, followed by horrible connectivity and realizing the adapters that we brought wouldn't fit in the plugs a the convention centre - only the hotel.

Line #1

My colleague - Homard La Crevette's - solution to standing in the blazing sun

Line #2

The rest of the week consisted of sitting on panels, organizing sessions, WhatsApping each other to figure out where people where and of course, sitting on the bus! 

My boss on a panel, some of you may recognize the Canadian with the beard :)

Me looking totally panicked because I found out at 10pm I was on this panel at 2pm the next day, three quarters of the speakers didn't show and it was on a different topic than I was told - awesome!

Session I organized on the meeting I am planning in Mexico

Part of what helped us get over the bus and twists and turns of the week were the capirinhas that were usually consumed at dinner.

Ok, so this is actually breakfast but I'm sure we were thinking about having capis :)

One of the many dinners that included capis and shrimp!

The week ended with Friday the 13th so despite the complaints, this was a much better place to be than the city I currently call home . . .

A little pop art on a Sunday

From October to February the Museum of Modern Art is hosting an Andy Warhol exhibit which I, along with hundreds of my fellow Parisians, checked out one chilly Sunday afternoon. About a month ago, the weather really dipped here and spending time outside was not really an option so museums go back on the list of things to do. Unlike the others, I followed the signs that said "no photos" so this is all you get:

The exhibit was pretty comprehensive with paintings, video installations, photos and sculpture. Some I'd seen before but others were new to me like his collection of electric chairs, the video of the empire state building (we didn't watch the entire 8hrs!), the silver clouds and the time he spent with Velvet Underground. There was even an interview on how the Canadian border charged him duty on his Brillo Boxes exhibit as they were deemed consumer goods!

So if you happen to be in Paris, I recommend checking it out!

The characters you run into in Paris . . .

Last month I get a call from a random character I know, my little cousin :) He happened to be in town for a few days and like all good little cousins, he was so organized I only found once he was here. . .despite this, I'm glad he called!

This one's for our moms :)