travel

NYC

Oct

Girl trip, FTW! We are home. We are tired. We’re not talking to each other for 2 weeks. That last part is not true. Here’s what we learned:

•• I will offer you bacon repeatedly if you are a vegetarian, and I will keep doing it because I think it’s funny long after everyone else thinks it’s funny. In fact, I will be the only one to think it’s funny •• speaking of vegetarians, some of them really like meat juice •• you can get shopping bruises (shopping bruises are real, and no laughing matter) •• rain will not stop us from consuming burgers, shakes, asia dogs, tacos, canolis, corn, or anything not nailed to the floor •• strange things about what your adult friends did in high school (hello bloody ice skating feet) •• you have to walk fast and furious in New York •• we could eat at City Bakery every day and die happy and ….. a wee bit heavy •• marshmallows are seasonal •• The Persistence of Memory (Salvador Dali) is very, very small •• It is always more fun if there is a European man in yellow shorts •• some people are very annoying about taking pictures •• some people are kind of like captain grumpypants about getting their picture taken •• Polish parades are very somber •• most boots are not made for walking •• (this was a painful one) Magnolia Bakery is just….okay •• even if a cupcake is just ‘okay,’ you can still eat it for breakfast •• Topshop is overrated. And loud •• the passenger signatures of immigrants are not on display at Ellis Island despite what I’ve learned from Hollywood •• Mrs. NYU Lawyer has mystical subway powers •• all of my NY references come from 80s movies/tv shows that mark my group seniority •• rhubarb soda is not a good idea •• caramelized french toast is a fantastic idea •• there are knockoff discounts for cuties •• HighLine park is the coolest •• liquified chocolate is a food group •• we never ever want to navigate the city with a stroller •• NYC kids dress better •• TripColor is a fairly awesome free app •• keep an eye on your onion rings ••

If I’ve learned anything from traveling this year, it’s that going with someone who knows the area is the way to do it. Not worrying about navigation and which kind of transportation saves you from lost time and from stress. And one more little piece of advice:

Travel, near or far. Make it happen.

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Itinerary II: A Neverending Travelogue.

Jun

Really, I’m going to keep going.

06-10-11/Friday: The plan is to get as much done today so we can take it easy tomorrow (maybe even do something crazy like sleep in).

1) La Tour Eiffel – slightly crowded, overcast and a bit rainy, and I consume the worst hot chocolate of my life at the snack shop. Blech. Thank goodness for the muffin with the nutella center. Hiking up the stairs proves I’m in better shape than MB. I try not to gloat, but don’t succeed. We rip off the other tourists’ ideas and start our “holding the Eiffel tower” pictures series. Much harder than we thought, even with our fancy college educations.

2) Musée d’Orsay – longish line, and hunger strikes. We wait in line at the restaurant (recommended by our guide book) and I have the BEST salmon of my life. Other-worldly experience. I meditate and praise God. The meal is also one of the most reasonably priced of the entire trip. The museum itself is gorgeous – didn’t know it was an old train station. Monet is nice in person, but I’m most impressed by Renoir. Ah, who am I kidding? I’m a sucker for all of the impressionists, pre, post, whatever. I can’t help but think of Olivia the pig when I see the Degas ballerinas. I am terrified/fascinated by William Bouguereau’s Dante and Virgil. Can’t look away, but don’t want to see anymore. Someone cover my eyes! Then I stand mesmerized by Equality before Death. The canvases are enormous – an entire wall. Unfortunately, we learn that Starry Night is on loan to Italy. Stupid Italians. Didn’t they know I was coming? We wander throughout the museum and it becomes clear that I’m obsessed with the lack of security enforcement. “everyone’s just taking pictures! Look Mb, I could just touch this, just reach out and touch it and nobody could stop me!” Perhaps I have poor impulse control. Moving on. [click to continue…]

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The Itinerary

Jun

Warning: This post is for reference for my future self. Any boredom and/or self-inflicted injury you may incur, is not my responsibility. Read at your own risk.

06-06-11/Monday: 6 pm flight Pittsburgh to Paris. Delayed. Life raft was expired by one day. They like to have current ones when they fly over the Atlantic. 3 hours waiting for it. Flight is uneventful. Ambien we scored is super lame and doesn’t drug us sufficiently.

06-07-11/Tuesday: 11:20 (late) arrival into Charles de Gaulle. Must find later train to Amsterdam. Lost for 20 minutes at Gare du Nord. Finally find the Thalys line and catch the 2:25 pm train to Amsterdam. Loud fight in French at the back of our carriage. Arrive in Amsterdam Centraal at 5:30 pm. Public transport strike means the tram is not running. We grab a taxi to Hotel Arena, drop our bags, and walk toward the city center to find food. We eat, and decide to skip the canal cruise. We return to the hotel. Before collapsing into bed (only to wake up at 2am) I post on my blog. Because that’s how much I love you. (I hate it when bloggers profess their love to readers, don’t you?)

06-08-11/Wednesday: Up and at ‘em. Hop the tram towards the Van Gogh museum. When we see quaint café we jump off and consume hot chocolate with a mountain of whip cream.

[click to continue…]

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You Can Checkout Any Time you Like, but you Can Never Leave

Jun

I’m trying to get back into the swing of things. The problem is that I have all of these photos and sweet treats to keep me in a semi-present state. Must stop looking at the stack of stroopwafels.

And as a welcome home present, Maxine got horribly sick, so I’ve been exercising extreme control over my gag reflexes. It’s so hard not to be disgusted by all of the gunk my kids produce. Did I mention that MB and I parted ways in Paris and he’s in Vienna now? I feel so bad for him, missing out on the five times I had to get up last night. It’s a party over here.

I’m fairly certain no one wants to hear more about the trip. But I’m not quite done sharing. So yeah, nobody really knew we were going. That wasn’t because I was trying to be sneaky, that was because we didn’t know we were going until 2 weeks ago. Mb had a conference in Austria that he decided to attend at the last minute, my parents had some time open before their trip to Moscow, and we had 90,000 Marriott points to burn. The cards just fell into place.

We tried to cram in some French and some research before we left, but we really just hopped on the plane with very flexible plans. We knew we wanted to hit Amsterdam. Mb is familiar with the trains and traveling through Europe, which made it much easier. There was only one moment in Gare du Nord when we were both at a complete loss of what to do. If you’re not going with someone that’s been before, you’ve definitely go to look into how to get around. Even in The Hague things had changed and we had some issues with the bus. No biggie.

Here’s the thing, I know our money should have gone into savings, or fixing up the house, or our kids’ college funds. I debated for many hours about the money issue and whether it would be wasteful. We had almost talked ourselves out of it until I talked to my mom. My parents travel frequently, mostly in Europe these days. My mom said that she enjoys it, but would have enjoyed it so much more 20 years ago when her hip didn’t hurt so much. That did it for me. MB and I decided to err on the side of sweet memories. It was a nice respite from mommy land, and so much fun to spend hours with MB doing whatever.

Fair warning: I’m probably going to write more about it. I filled an entire moleskine with notes and thoughts and ticket scraps. I thought it would be a fun thing for the kids to look at when they get older. You’ll see the black book pop up in our pictures. Speaking of, I’m adding a bunch to the gallery, so you can choose whether or not you want to look at 10 thousand of them.

But first. [click to continue…]

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Je m’appelle Angry Baker

Jun

La Tour Eiffel is sparkling outside my hotel window. Seriously. I heard somebody say that when we were walking up the stairs of the tower (“You should see it at night – it sparkles!”) and I thought they were just being effusive. But now it’s dusk and it is twinkling with lights. Nice touch Paree. If I were a better person I would get my butt outside and take a picture. You’ll have to live with my description. Oh wait, now the lights are just on – that must be the intro for the night or something.

Another day, another couple hundred Euros. How do people afford to live here? Drinks in restaurants are 5-6 dollars. That’s just soda or water, not wine or anything fancy. We’re turning into cheapskates. Which means I washed my underwear in the sink last night because I didn’t want to pay $25 for the hotel to do it. I know, classy. Nonetheless, it was an absolutely GORgeous day in Paris. Lovely of the weather to be so accommodating.

Weirdness of the day: We walked through a high end department store and noticed from the escalator that there was a cafe on the bottom floor. The walls were lined with Vitamin Water. Turns out it’s a Vitamin Water Café. Huh. Never seen (or heard) of one of those. That’s not the weirdness. The weirdness was a girl in her spandex in the middle of the cafe, in a full glass enclosure, working out on some bowflex machine. She was the live entertainment for the people eating. Again with the huh? Perhaps they should have filled up the glass enclosure with vitamin water and had her swim and do tricks. Now that’s something I would like to watch while chewing on my sandwich.

I miss my kids terribly. There, I said it. When I’m with them I dream of a vacation. Anything. Just something away. When I’m away, I think of their tiny little faces and hands. Heaven knows I hate it when they’re clingy, but I sure could use a wee hug, some silly dancing, and adoring from those twinkly eyes.

When I’ve got more energy let’s talk pants, French men, and restaurant know how.

Bonsoir Friends.

Eiffel tower update – the lights! they’re twinkling again. Where’s the button my french friends? Who gets to decide when they’re sparkly? What a great trick. I bet there’s a line of tourists that pay to push the Sparkle Power button. I would totally pay for sparkle power.

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You Can Never Go Home

Jun

You can try, but things are just not the same (as MB experienced today). 17 years is a long time. Bus routes change, houses pop up, schools expand and institute security measures, and things are just different than you want them to be. MB is being a good sport, but I know he’s a bit disappointed. We’re not going to do points this post, b/c there would be far too much of an advantage for some of you out there, but I thought you all might like to see where we were hanging out today.

[click to continue…]

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Famous People and Places

Jun

Welcome. We’re playing a game this week, so if you don’t know what’s up, just scroll down to Blogardy to see what we’re up to. There’s free stuff involved. For those of you already playing, I’ve got some total gimmees in this post.

Here’s something funny about this experience: I don’t stand out here. Not my hair, not my clothes. Locals and tourists alike approach me as if this is where I belong. I see outfits everywhere that I would wear. I didn’t know I was European. So the truth is my family history comes back this way, but I’m restraining myself from declaring, “You are my peeps!” to the bustling throngs of people. Don’t worry though, I’m making lots of lists for a European/American cultural exchange. We’ll talk later.

Time for the daily double. If you get the answer to #10 right, you get double points! You love me don’t you? You really do. I can tell.

910

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Things To Eat

Jun

My feet are crying, but my face is happy. There’s lots of walking to do these days and I’m so glad that some of you are playing along. I don’t get to check in that often, so forgive me if I’m slow to respond. I’ve decided that not only do you get points for correctness, I’m also going to arbitrarily allot points for creativity, humor, culture, and the first correct answer. Also, if you can convince me you didn’t use the other answers/comments to help, I will show you more love.

Let’s continue, shall we? I’ll take Things To Eat for 200, Alex.

3 4

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Blogardy

Jun

Like Jeopardy. Get it? Well if you do, it’s time to play. Welcome to the Where in the World? Blogardy competition. The rules are like this – I’ll post a photo or a clue and you get to leave your answer in the form of the question. You get a point for each specific. For example, if your comment says “What are the Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt?” You can get 3 points. If you just say “pyramids” you just get one point. Capiche? (I guess it’s going to be really easy to cheat off other commenters. Oh well.) You have 48 hours to leave a comment for each post. After that, it’s honor system folks – I may not have access to turn off the comments, so be good. I reserve the right to come up with an absurd algorithm to determine the winner. Did I say winner? Why yes, I did. The winner at the end of the week will get……a prize from a far away place! Hooray! We love free stuff, remember?

Let’s begin. Buzzers ready? Alright.

Clue #1

Clue #2

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The Twilight Zone

Nov

I’m bleary eyed. It feels like I’ve been staring at a computer screen all day. But no, it’s just been 20 hours in the car with my kids. We’re all tired, cranky, and sick of each other. The Swagger needs to be dipped in sanitizer.

Highlights of the trip:

Dutch eats all of the grapes and produces the world’s nastiest exploding diaper.

The DVD player in the Swagger becomes possessed and only plays randomly. It absolutely refuses to play The Incredibles.

Kolaches, beignets, and shrimp. You have not seen jumbo shrimp until you’ve been to Louisiana.

Rip Van Winkle Gardens - a cajun plantation with an inexplicable love for all things Balinese.

Watching BEB handle the piranha-like frenzy of my children for their first Build-a-Bear experience.

Hot-tubbing with MB while watching our shows.

Cruising the suburbs in the golf-cart. If it’s a small motorized vehicle, there really are no rules.

Maxine’s first pedicure.

LegoManiac’s discovery of condoms in the gas station bathroom.

Hearing the kids laugh and talk with Oma and Opa.

Travel feels like being in the twilight zone, whether it be by car, plane, or boat. You are neither here nor there and you are stripped of all routines and rituals that make up the fabric of your day. I had the feeling on our first day traveling back that we should just ditch our lives – pick a place and start something new. Being away for a while makes my daily existence dwindle in importance. It’s hard to think that everyone is back home doing the same things without you. It doesn’t seem real – does that happen to anyone else? By the 2nd day I was just angry and tired of being the immobile flight attendant. And then we pulled up to our house:

It’s like muscle-memory. We unload the car and get the kids ready for bed and all of those far away thoughts vanish and your mind is right there where you left it. I’m back. I’m doing the dishes and putting away the clothes and getting my mind focused on what needs to be done before school on Monday. It’s as if I never left.

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← Previous Entries

travel

NYC

Itinerary II: A Neverending Travelogue.

The Itinerary

You Can Checkout Any Time you Like, but you Can Never Leave

Je m’appelle Angry Baker

You Can Never Go Home

Famous People and Places

Things To Eat

Blogardy

The Twilight Zone

Find stuff

Perplexed?