Hike

Just before I went on my big business trip I went skiing and hiking... these photos were left on my camera...

Christmas Tree in Taynton

Frozen in the Ice

Skull

Moss

Log

On the Log

Weirdness

Feather

Work Trip

So, a work opportunity came up that I couldn’t miss.  I resigned from my post at Baker Hughes and began anew.  My new company works in a few different countries overseas so my first order of business was to do a bit of travel to get familiar with our business...

Plymouth, United Kingdom

The first stop was the UK.  I flew from Calgary to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Paris, and then after meeting up with my bosses we continued from Paris to Exeter.  It was a long route, but it was with our preferred carrier.  We took a taxi to Plymouth and started about our work.  Most of this trip had been filled with work, which makes a great deal of sense given that it is a work trip, but I was able to see a few sights.

Old Street

Plymouth

The office we visited in Plymouth was small, but the people there were good, and doing exciting work.  We spent the days there and the nights were spent enjoying fine meals.  We ate alone, and with the team from the UK, and enjoyed some British meals, and French.

Our hotel was near the Barbican, which was one of the only segments of Plymouth to survive the German bombings in World War II.  It is a pretty amazing area, and though my only free time was at night I did my best to grab a few photos.

Brick

New Old Buildings

Spire

On the Sea

Under

Looking Out

The Arch

The Gate

Statue

Brick Street

Plymouth Sunset

Sunset

Ships

The Bay

Vines

Flower

Over Wall

Lights

Artillery Platforms

Rooftops

West to East

Island

Along the Water

Old Inn

Barbican Waterfront

Reflections

The Calm of Night

Barbican Night

The Church

Ruins

Stone in the Night

Windowless

In Light

I had a great time with the crew in the UK, and after a few days it was time to leave.  We took the train to London (on its first day open after having major repairs due to flood damage), and then a plane to Paris, and then from Paris to Tunis.

Tunis, Tunisia

I didn’t know what to think about Tunisia before I headed over, but I knew it was in Africa which was a first for me so I was excited.  Some of my colleagues described Tunisia as a country that just isn’t quite right.  There is no way to really put your finger on it, it just isn’t quite right.  After having been there I think it was an apt description.  I was also doing a bit of research for a Grade 3 class that is studying Tunisia this year, so if you hear me mention it that's what's going on.

My first impression was landing in the rain at about midnight with the temperature being above 20.  That, and the security presence at the airport.  It wasn’t too significant but there were bomb scanner things and temporary fences to corral people away from the exit.  The hotel was new and nice, but things did seem a bit sketchy when I looked outside at the Canadian Embassy (which was right next door).  The embassy was surrounded by fences and abundant and massive coils of razor wire.  Evidently Tunisia was still in a state of emergency just weeks before my arrival, the emergency was carried over from the revolution a few years ago.  During the state of emergency the Canadian Embassy also had twenty-four hour armed guards on site.

Le Corail Hotel

Power Outlet

Don't Drink the Water

Street Outside My Hotel (feat. Canadian Embassy)

But, the people were nice enough, though I really couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying.  Something about them speaking in only French and Arabic.  No matter.  I did try breakfast at the hotel, and let me tell you... Tunisian breakfast is different than Canadian breakfast.  It is not the first time I have run into this kind of situation, but yeah, I could identify maybe 40% of the items on the buffet table.

Breakfast in Tunisia

Tunisian Breakfast

We have an office in Tunis, but our main base of operations is in Soose.  I was picked up at the hotel and then taken out to Soose.  Tunisia looks like Africa.  It is green right now, but evidently it will all be brown very soon.  Even in early April the temperature is easily in the mid twenties, and only getting hotter.  But, spring is advanced compared to back home and the flowers and everything are out.

The crew at the base in Soose were nice and they showed me our equipment etc.  We went out for lunch at a local restaurant where I had a seafood pasta with like five different kinds of seafood.  It was rather impressive.  After that some of the guys took me to a tourist market to try and pick up some souvenirs.  I didn’t find too much, but it was interesting to see, and interesting to see the tourists from Tunisia that came down for a little R&R.

Gate to Touristy Area 

Touristy Area

It turns out that political instability drives prices up and Tunisia is a prime example of this.  The exchange rate is in our favour, coming from Canada, however your purchasing power is much diminished in Tunisia.  Things definitely are not cheap, which is sucky for tourism.

On the drive back I got to see a bit more since it was a bit later in the day.  The shepherds were out with their massive herds, everywhere, as were the people lining the highways trying to get rides into Tunis.  Near Tunis there were some small mountains, and by Soose it is flat.  Still, it looks like Africa, and where we use barbed wire fences to mark our property lines, they use massive walls of cacti; like, impassible eight foot tall walls of deadly deadly cacti.  Epic.

Tunisian Countryside

Africa

Lumpy Mountain

Also epic is that Tatooine from Star Wars is a real place.  It is spelled Tataween by the locals (and something else in French) but it is just on the edge of the Saharan desert.  The Star Wars movies were filmed there and the sets are still available to see, if you are brave enough.  That also happens to be a rather dangerous section of the country, including kidnappings etc.  The desert is a bit rough right now with Algeria passing troops and drugs and weapons through the unprotected sands, and there are special rules.  There is no driving at night, and there are different coloured flags that need to be posted on vehicles so the Tunisian army can see them from the air.  The colour is changed periodically like a code to make sure that it is Tunisians using the Tunisian desert.

Back in Tunis I was hoping to see the ruins of Carthage, but I ran out of time.  I did explore a bit around the hotel, which was in one of the newest parts of Tunis.  The buildings in Tunis are under construction.  Quite literally about 40% of the buildings are mid way through construction.  Evidently they build until they run out of money, and then come back again and again until they finish the job.  So there were lots of semi-complete buildings around the hotel.  Also, there is garbage everywhere.  Education is limited, and taking care of your own country seems a bit unheard of.  Garbage everywhere.  I walked down to Tunis Lake, which is evidently a lagoon connected to the sea, and the people all seemed nice enough.  Definitely with the French speaking, but nice enough.  Down by the lake has some nice restaurants.  Evidently there was funding from the Saudi government on the condition that no alcohol could be served at any of the establishments for fifteen years.

Walking to Tunis Lake (hopefully...)

Tunis Lake at Night

Standing in the Lake (sorta...)

Lake Walkway

Lake Tunis

Tunisian Snackfood

Walking Around Tunis

Tunisian Construction

Bench

Mini Park

Graffiti

Trash

Being Built

Flowers

Wealthy Home

Seed Pods

Seeds on a Tree

Growing from Garbage

Construction

Stark

Tunis Lake at Daytime

Lake

Palms

Arabic Stop

Grandeur

In general it seems like a nice place, but the feeling is a bit off.

I visited our office in Tunis, had the pleasure of going to my boss’ house for lunch (and meeting his wife and super cute kids), and then my time was up.

Dubai Hotel

Bidet... this photo is for you Dad...

Tunis to Dubai, then a night in the Emirates wing at a local airport, then back at the Dubai airport.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai was nice, but I didn’t see much.  I do know that it was friken hot, which was nuts... my body is still in winter mode.  But yeah, it was nice, and modern, and the people there were very nice.  One thing that is amazing is the airport.  I don’t think I have ever been to an airport that big, or that well run.  Everything runs smoothly... and it is massive.  Emirates Airline evidently has 48,000 employees and is huge!  There are Airbus A380s everywhere, and the terminals are large enough that they just look like regular planes; except that the jetways happen to be two levels.

As for the inside of the terminals.  Gargantuan.  There is one level for economy, one level for business, and one level for first class.  There isn’t just a little lounge for business, but an entire floor!  And they don’t make you walk a long way around to get to the gate, there are private elevators going from first class and business directly down to each and every gate.  That is the way to travel.

Business Class Lounge... trying to be inconspicuous... terrible video, but you can hear the prayers in the background which is interesting...

Breakfast in the Lounge

We enjoyed the lounge, and then got on the plane for Emirates’ amazing service.

Dubai to Erbil.

Emirates

Village

Fortifications

Irrigation

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

I didn’t know what to think about going to Iraq, but the real thing wasn’t at all what I expected.  It turns out that Kurdistan is extremely safe.  There are military checkpoints outside of the cities, and the police genuinely want to keep people safe, say, as opposed to the police in Tunisia who are just looking for a profit.

That being said, there are checkpoints everywhere.  We were in VIP immigration but there is still a bomb check at the airport, and then at the hotel security guards use mirrors to look for bombs under the car, and then going into the hotel there is another bomb check.  The hotel was great, but definitely pricey.  You pay for comfort and security.  There were a few stores there but they were a bit out of my league... for example, we kept looking at a cell phone that cost $21,000 USD!  Some people have more money than I do, even though I was sitting on 372,000 Iraqi Dinar (like ~300 USD).

$21,000 USD!!!

Divan Hotel

Killer Chandelier

Financial Chaos

Supper

Supper

Supper

Breakfast

We went to some meetings with some people, and visited our base to be, and things were good.  We did get an afternoon off and I managed to head downtown.  Evidently Erbil is the oldest continuously inhabited place on earth, with their earliest settlement going into 6000 BC.  The centre of town is a large citadel on a man made hill, which made it rather impossible to conquer for quite a long time.  The citadel is currently being restored; as the rest of Erbil is under massive development... evidently it takes a while to get things build back up after years of war.  My driver from the hotel took me downtown and showed me the citadel.  Most of it is closed, but you can still go up and look around.  The Kurdistan Government and UNESCO are working hard to repair the citadel and it will be incredible when it is done.  We saw the main street, and when a busload of students came from another town we were on luck.  We hopped along with them and managed to get into the baths for part of a tour.  I will say I didn’t exactly fit in, with being a hairy white guy and not speaking Arabic, but they were happy to have us along and even used what English they knew to make me feel welcome.  It was a great experience.

Erbil Buildings

Streamers

Downtown Erbil

Fountains

The Citadel

Downtown Erbil

The Road Up

Erbil

Mosque

Citadel Reconstruction

Reconstruction Plan

The Map

Gates

Pride

Inside the Citadel

Mosque, Bath, and Out

Unrestored

Carvings on the Baths

Carvings Inside the Baths

Inside the Baths in the Citadel

More Baths

Leaving the Baths (feat. mystery students)

Old Erbil

The Tour Group

Through the Gate

Leaving the Citadel

Back Down

After the citadel we headed into the bazaar, which was insane.  It was not a touristic bazaar, but an actual place where actual people go to buy stuff for their real lives.  It is immense, and in the time we were there I must only have seen a small segment of it.  Yeah.  Huge.  Unfortunately I faced a similar problem as with Tunisia.  Unstable and war torn countries have high prices and aren’t the best for shopping.  Also, most everything is imported into Kurdistan which doesn’t help.

Mosaic

The Bazaar

Inside the Bazaar

Inside the Bazaar

Shoes

Modern Erbil

My driver took me to one of the many many parks in the city and showed me an exhibition of art from local artists.  It was amazing.

Park Gates

Neanderthal

Pavillion

The Park

Mosque

Old Minaret (top blown off in combat)

Kurdistan is a beautiful place.  When flying in all of Iraq was brown brown brown brown, but then, as you near the mountains there is green green green green.  That is Kurdistan.  Still, I don’t think there is a single tree in the entire country that wasn’t planted on purpose... it is rather... desolate.  Also, when flying over there are a lot of what look like makeshift fortifications.  I took a few photos and will see if they turned out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were.  There was a lot of war.

On the bright side, the people in Kurdistan are doing much better after the war and after Saddam, whereas the people in Tunisia are actually doing worse after removing their dictator and enabling democracy (they don’t understand that with rights comes responsibilities... they like the rights part... responsibilities... not so much).

Back to the hotel.  More meetings.  Etc.

Back to the airport.  More bomb checks... got frisked by some cops, and sniffed by some bomb dogs, and then at the airport.  Into the air, back with Emirates’ incredible service, and back to Dubai.

Erbil to Dubai.  Dubai to Tunis.

Dubai Hotel... Upgraded...

Trying to make the shower work...

Mecca

Dubai

Desert

Tunis, Tunisia

Flying back was interesting... the routes in and out of Africa appear to be carefully planned, with very specific avoidance of Libya.  Also, it is interesting just to fly around there.  We flew over Cairo, which was cool.  And over water.  And over Dubai with its manmade islands.  And over desert, and desert, and desert.  I haven’t been to that part of the world before, so it was fascinating.

I was only back in Tunis for a night so I took it easy.  That being said, I went to the hotel restaurant for the first time and ordered veal with fois gras.  That part was incredible, and I mean spectacular, but the appetizers were... interesting.  To be quite frank I am not sure what they were... but I tried them all, and they were interesting...

Tunisian Restaurant

Tunisian Appetizers

Tastes Like...

Tunisian Appitizers

Tunisian Supper

Tunisian Food is Awesome!

Up early and in the air.  Tunis to Paris.  Paris to Bucharest.  Picked up at Bucharest and driven to Ploiesti (Ploy-esh-tih).

Slipstream... you can just see the airflow over the wing...

Ploieshi, Romania

It was a massive moment of déjà vu when I stepped out of the Bucharest airport and was hit with a blast of Romanian air.  Oh Romania!  I love Romania.  Great people, and great country.  I was picked up at the airport and we headed north.  Ploiesti is known for being heavy in the oil industry and that is where our base is.  I was taken to a nice and new hotel and left to rest.

Albert Hotel

The Hotel

Room

I was facing some anxiety due to my upcoming martial arts testing, so in France I picked up some cigars at the duty free, and in Romania I began to smoke away the stress.  The hotel is in a very nice neighbourhood with very nice houses, but as always there are the hordes of wild, and often dangerous, dogs roaming through the city.

Walk in Ploiesti

I spent a day in the office meeting people and seeing what we do in Romania, followed by a nice long walk where I headed towards downtown.  Ploiesti is not one of the most beautiful cities in Romania, and it looks a lot like communism, but, it does have its own kind of beauty, and the churches are beautiful, as well as the many parks.  I was also marveling at some of the other scenery, and was awed at the accepted shortness for some of the skirts of the Romanian women, but then I realized that they were prostitutes and my dreams were crushed.

Mansion on Main Street

Steeples

Through the Trees

Spire

Church Reconstruction

Parkway

Heights

Blocks

Looks like Communism

Concrete Jungle

Sunset Lights

Memorial

Worn

Good Luck!

Blocks

In the Light

The Birds

Supper was schnitzel and fries with a cigar out on the patio and it was amazing... oh yeah, and there was some tiramisu mixed in there.  It is kind of a treat to be able to smoke and have a meal at the same time.  Not a treat I need often, but I guess that’s what makes it a treat.

Sunset Patio

Schnitzel

Tiramisu

Supper and a Smoke

Anyways, the next day we went into the field.  It was a five hour drive to where we were going, but it was incredible.  There were shepherds and their herds, and goat herders and theirs.  There were horse and ox drawn carts and carriages.  There were abandoned communist era structures, and beautiful old ruins.  There were a mix of old and new traditions from the classic Romanian farmers to the new up and coming generations.  There were crazy drivers as usual and crazy roads.  Most of southwestern Romania is plains, so there was also a whole lot of flat.

We had a good time.  The guys were fun, and we marveled at the hundreds of street dogs that we must have seen.  They live a free life, but a very hard life.  As do the prostitutes I imagine, as they too roam the streets wild.

We made it to the wellsite, and we were working on a well that produced more barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) than the entire area I was last managing as a production engineer.  There are something like four wells in that area and they produce 10% of Romania’s gas production.

Insane.

We ate lunch on side, which was an excellent meal of chicken schnitzel, with mashed potatoes, and dill pickles and red peppers on the side.  Oh yeah, there was also some kind of traditional meatball soup that was amazing.

Wellsite Puppy

Nap

After checking out the well, and doing our work, we visited their production facility, and then headed home.
It was a long drive, but I enjoyed the countryside as the guys made their discussions in Romanian.  Back to the hotel late, and then time for a new day.

To the office.  Talking with people.  Asking questions.  Learning.  Planning.  Trying to figure out how to do best what I have been hired to do.  Then back to the hotel.  It was raining, but the timing was good so I headed down to Kaufland, which is a grocery store here.  I haven’t been able to get many souvenirs, so it was time to get some edible ones.  Romania is stable, and developing, which means that stuff is cheap.  I got a bag full of loot for a handful of dollars, and it will be some interesting eating when I get home!

Sluggin` Along

Face from Another World

Headstrong

Another day or two of work and then it was time for my trip to come to a close.  I caught a ride to Bucharest (with a few stops in Ploiesti to see a few sights) and to the Rin Airport Hotel.  There I sat, I rested, I checked my photos, and wrote this blog, and got ready for my long trip home.

Park Island

Flowers

The Lake

The next morning I was on the plane and on my way back to Canada.

Bucharest to Paris.  Paris to Amsterdam.  Amsterdam to Calgary.  Calgary to slurpees…