The Road to June Madness

June 6^th 2013

So here we are. Day 1, well really day 0, of what I am calling #Junemadness (hastag it!). So far so good.

I went into work today, while time and again I’ve learned that face-time does not matter at work, I still think about it and wanted to make it in the office one last day. In the car on the way to EWR I fell asleep. It was a pretty awesome nap and things were going well until I was stopped by the baggage police because my bag didn’t fit in the old shitty bag measurer. Many of you are as fond of my pink roll-aboard as me and I know that it fits overhead. I do this enough. It fits! Checking my I’ll spare you the details but I got through with it (checking it with a stop in Paris could be disastrous).

So I was feeling lucky and decided to walk into the Delta SkyClub like I owned the place. I learned that move from Liz Scott Gera and it works more than it should. The club is pretty crappy but this wing of EWR is even crappier so I decided to stay put. In 329 minutes my 1 hour episode will download from iTunes onto my iPad (I tried to do it last night but I ran out of memory because I have too much Music on it. I learned that one from Regi Altema). I’m in that vacation purgatory that I love to exploit – I’m working via my phone if things needs to get done, if not I’m on vacation – so I figured it was time to start drinking.  I went for the Pinot Grigio despite my French destination and the nice man asked for my credit card. Amateur! @aroumm explained to me that I ordered top shelf wine instead of the basic wine. Eh, what are you going to do?

Once Roumm stopped making fun of me, he suggested I get to writing. Good idea Roumm, and thanks for the confidence booster.

Ok, I’m off to Marbella via Paris. Wish me more luck!

XOXO

June 9^th – Day 1

Paris, sweet Paris! Even though it is only for 2 hours and in the airport, I still love it. As I wait for my flight to Malaga, I am compelled to make a list of things that I love about CDG:

• -          The greenery inside the airport
• -          The free fashion mags and newspapers. Maybe America would be little smarter is we gave out free newspapers in airport terminals.
• -          The Laudree stand that was just waiting for me as I turned the corner into my terminal (2F)
• -          The architecture. Just beautiful
•       The people watching. Yes, people watching is great in most airports but I love the number of men who are wearing slim jeans and scarves

Ok back to my flight. I would describe it as very easy, pretty close to perfect. My rowmate was a cutie furniture designer from Charleston on her way to India to be inspired and check out her factories, textiles, etc. I still would have preferred @jlieberman to be next to me but Anne was a good consolation prize. Dinner was a salad with grilled chicken (my fav) and then I watched Silver Linings Playbook, took half an Ambien and woke up when we were crossing the English Channel. The green countryside was beautiful as we came in to land and it made me want to explore France more. I always want to explore more.

Back to Silver Lining Playbook for a minute… It is a really good movie, but it got me thinking about what message it sends to people with mental health issues. Bradley Cooper’s character is bipolar but tries to get his life by replacing his meds with exercise and positive thinking. Don’t get me wrong, those things are great but I’m not sure it is a real substitute for medication. For those in the field (Ariel, Jenn Bloom, etc) feel free to comment. Oh, and Jennifer Lawrence is hot. I may be late to this realization but I’m on board now.

And I’m also on-board my next flight to Malaga (how about that for a transition!). I was greeted with a “Buenos Dias” which was fantastic! Spanish! I know you! I can understand what people are saying to me! Yay! It just makes life so much easier.

Getting Wierd in Austin

This past weekend, I headed down to Austin for Missy & Rob's wedding. Missy was my roommate in NYC for a few years and Rob is her marathon running, Minnesota lovin' now hubbie.


It was my first time in Austin and it was pretty much love at first site. With 90 degree weather, BBQ food trucks, live music, and it's hard to go wrong. I know I'll be back, hopefully just sooner than later.

Queso on the lake

The happy couple

Food Truck Heaven

The W Austin

Weekend Review

It was another great weekend in the city. The super moon, start of spring, mild weather, and Duke win put everyone in a good mood. New Yorkers seemed to lose their edge for a few days and all was right in the world.

Drink

Friday night we hit up the Ace Hotel Lobby Bar a great bar in midtown with a cool hipster vibe. The shamncy cocktails weren't the best I've had, but they did serve Abita Lights and I started getting jazzed about my upcoming trip to New Orleans. But I also pondered the contraction of a bar like this in a hotel in midtown Manhattan. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but is a histper a hispster if they are on 28th and Broadway?

Detox
The main part of the detox efforts this weekend was an hour and 45 min long yoga class on Saturday. On the weekends, Yogamaya hosts master classes that are D.J.ed live; this weekend DJ Hyfi was on the turntables. It was pretty rad and there were some kick ass yogis there.


Drink
Saturday night after some sushi and some basketball, I met up with my cousin at the Macao Trading Company. I'm pretty sure it looks nothing like Macao, but more of a disney-fied version of a generic Asian resto/bar/lounge; it kind of reminded me of an Asian version of an old school TGI Fridays. But, what the decor lacked the mixologists made up for. There were the obligatory homemade bitters and fancy facial hair, but my gin fizz was frothy, not creamy, and there was no trace of an eggy smell.


Caffeine

On Sunday Alison introduced me to Birch, a coffee shop in the Gershwin Hotel. It was more than a coffee shop, with 2 beer taps, a decent wine list and a full(ish) menu. I'm all for sustainable growing, organic ingredients, and hipster baristas but I'm not down with this trend of banning laptops in coffee shops. Why the hate on computers? If these independent shops think that people are going to converse and meet each other, they are forgetting they are in New York.

Nicest day of 2011 (so far)

It's an insanely beautiful day I escaped work in just enough time to enjoy the sunshine and replenish some of the vitamin D that I am lacking. I headed straight to the roof, with my stolen Food & Wine magazine in hand, listened to some Bibio (listen to lover's carvings) and drifted off. My roof is quite nice and I started brainstorming all the different brunches and dinners and hangouts that I can and should have up there this spring/summer. At the top of the list are mimosas and mini bagel sandwiches, Malbec and empanadas, and of course mojitos and guac. You all are invited.

Last night was more mellow than expected. A sign that we are growing old? Instead of drunken debauchery, a plan to detox for all of April was discussed (we will see if it happens). And, I was inspired by the wrong country when I got dressed and ended up in a Canadian Tuxedo. Some pics of the bars and the epic outfit...

 

The Maddness of March

As a Duke alumnus, I am required to at least be aware of NCAA basketball and March Maddness. Although I have no skin in the game or dinero on the line, I made a bracket in efforts to make watching this much basketball bearable/bording on fun (cheerleading is a favorite pastime of mine). I peppered in my commentary and why I chose the team. Clearly I have Duke winning but this is only because BC didn't make the tourney. Just a few justifications:

• My brother gets mad when Clemson loses. I don't want him to get mad but they kind of suck to Sweet 16 it is
• While I don't like the Gators per se, I like my friends who went there.

Coming Out of Hibernation

It has been a while, I know. I've taken a long hiatus after my travels and moving and starting my job and moving again and surviving the winter from hell. But I think it's time to start this blogging thing again. There are no crazy trips scheduled, just some long weekends, so the posts will feature things and events in my daily life in NYC. And this time I want comments. Please :)

So this week has been pretty tame but there are few ridiculous things I want to share. Tuesday, I mastered the side crow in yoga class. My arms are ripped and I often think of Madonna and how she uses yoga to stay in shape. I once wore a Kabbalah bracelet for 2 years and I'm trying to improve my singing by singing along to American Idol. Madonna and I are kindred spirits. I'm ridiculous. *Image is neither of me or Madonna but it is the side crow.

Yesterday I bought a table for my living room and so for the first time in NYC, I have a table to eat dinner at. Thank you to Adam Roumm for carrying it back to my apartment twice (I will spare you the details). Yay for dinner parties. It only really fits two people but it's in my nature to be ambitious. First person to comment on this post gets dinner cooked by me at my new table!

Tonight should be a good time so I hope I have some ridiculousness to report tomorrow.

Istanbul: where awesome meets swank

For today's blog posting, I would like to share an email that Tori and I crafted to Liz over dinner. Characters: Tori will be playing a Canadian posing as a New Yorker and I will be playing a non-Jew. Setting: we are using our points to stay at the W (the first in Europe, BTW) and so we think we are big time. Background: Although we did see some major sights today including the something something palace and the blue mosque, we failed to mention it. If this doesn't make sense, talk to the lychee martinis that are inside my belly. And scene...


Hi Liz! Hope you are having a fabulous time at the Barcelona Fuqua reunion. Hope the hotel is fab, the tapas are tasty, and the pool involves late night swimming.

Istanbul is such a treat. Since you left us in Santorini, we have managed to find: 2 swanky dinner restaurants (so far), hummus, scallops, sushi, a Turkish version of grits for desert, earrings for 2 lira (1.30$), blue eyeliner for 1.5 lira (.90 lira), Starbucks frappucinos, a ridiculous room with a private garden that doubles as a drying rack, and a private tour of harem quarters with an 80 year old man.

"Sweat" gym was really and we found ourselves playing a familiar game: gay or European?

Full day planed for tomorrow. We are planning to go to Asia for lunch and then back to Europe for shopping at the grand bazaar. All on public transport btdubs. We are tram experts, although it is sheer luck that we were able to get tokens out of the machine that only had instructions in Turkish.

Our concierge sent us to a swank place tonight. Tors had a passion fruit caipiroska that blows Ivan's specialty out of the water. Having a personal, typed letter under our door with our meal reservations is pretty sweet. Thanks Alparslan. Sadly we are not allowed to roam the streets of Istanbul at night as it's too dangerous so we are heading home to blog.

Love you!
T&C

Day something- something: Santorini

No lie, Santorini was an afterthought. We needed a place to go and after talking to a lot of people, we planned a trek to Santorini despite its reputation as a honeymoon hot spot. We had one day and we made it count. We rented a car and drove all around the island. Thank you to Dave and Anne Scott who taught Liz how to drive a stick. She is the [wo]man and chauffeured us around all day. 1^st stop was the black sand beach of Perissa. Black sand = really hot feet, but also really warm water. They way the mountain of rock stopped just in time to make a beach was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And the sea bed was rock, not sand. After trying to tan the translucents like a local, we headed to Santo wines for wine tasting. In short, the wine was gross. Amazing view, but gross wine.

We made it to Oia just in time for sunset. It was immediately obvious that we should have stayed in the town instead of Fira, but hey whatcha gonna do? I think that pictures will do better justice than my words…

Day 17& 18: Myyyyyyykonos

Mykonos, oh Mykonos. We loved you for so many reasons. Beyond being a gorgeous town of white walls and colorful shutters, you introduced us to many wonderful things:

• Taziki- I still maintain that the ultimate spa treatment would be a bath in a vat of Taziki. It's gotta be good for your skin, or at least I tell myself that. We managed to order it at every meal and it was heavenly every time
• Shaping our asses- Our hotel was at the top of a hill and the town was at the bottom. We wanted to complain every time we had to walk back up, but we knew that it was good for us and that it helped to justify the amount of Taziki we ate
• Pink pelican(s)- I’m still not sure if there was more than one, but it was huge and georgous. I wonder if it could get into Harvard law with its pink hue like Elle Woods did
• Shopping at 5am- No joke. Some say that Greece is this economic predicament because Greeks don’t work. Not so in Mykonos. Stores were open at 5am in order to prey on drunk girls who like jewelry. I narrowly escaped the trap but only because I met a MD/MBA. Liz and Tors made friends with the owner of this one store and her daughter was so beautiful that she had suitors lining up to marry her (at the age of 18)
• Crepes- I couldn’t even keep the nutella and banana crepe in my hand. I was overwhelmed by emotion and sensation that I couldn’t speak or think. Unreal
• Super Paradise Beach- 2 euro for a beach chair and a view of super paradise. Beach, nude sunbathing, cocktails, world cup, dance music, and gogo dancers created the perfect storm that is Super Paradise beach. The logo for the beach is a serpent; the perfect illusion to the temptation that pushed Adam and Eve beyond the comfort of Eden*

*Biblical or historical references are probably completely wrong.

Day 16: Athens to Mykonos

Last night we stayed in the Hilton because Tori is a baller. We were in an executive suite on the top floor with a shower with hot water & a drain, towels that cover our bodies, TV with Sex in the City in English, 2 balconies, 2 couches, 2 insanely big closets, and 2 of my best friends. Breakfast was also on the executive floor and I dined this morning next to the president of Panama. True story. It is going to be really hard to go back to staying in shitholes.

After an amazing workout, Liz and I made good use of the 3 hours we had in Athens. We toured the Acropolis and Parthenon. The spiritual moment I was hoping to have evaded me but it was still an incredible sight. I’ve seen any ancient ruins in my ridiculous life (Rome, Sicily, Pompeii, Scotland, Israel, England, etc…) but I’ve never seen them juxtaposed again such a large and modern city.

With the cultural part checked off, we headed to the shopping streets and did a little bit of damage. The jewelry was so beautiful and it is a good thing that I still feel like I am on a student’s budget or I’d be bringing home lots of new fun. I compensated for the expenditures by getting a gyro for lunch that only cost €1.80, which was more than my Coke Light. We made it back in time to get a quick swim in before the ferry to Mykonos. I thought that Athens was great and I wish I had more time there.

We had a good first pass at a night out in Mykonos. We didn’t know where to go and were perpetually lost but Tori drank her shooter and we met some characters. It is quite difficult to know who is gay and who is European in this town but everyone is here to party and the debauchery is taken to another level, just like the lifting schedules of most of the men.

Some other things:

• The traffic is insane and the cab drivers get angry. A woman almost veered into us and the cabbie yelled and made hand-gestures that indicated he was placing a curse on the lady’s life

• The people were super nice. After dealing with the meanies in Croatia, this was a huge relief
• Greek food is insane.
  

Day 15: Split to Athens

Split is a cool place. The old town used to be Diolectian’s (a Roman Emperor) Palace and then the people build other buildings within the palace walls. I know that this doesn’t make much sense but I’m too lazy to really explain it. The other cool thing about Split is that it has more shoes stores per capita than any other city; and the shoes are nice.

To get to Athens, we flew Lufthansa through Munich. This was my first time on Lufthansa and my first time in Germany, and I was disappointed. I had expectations of efficiency and order but I experienced the opposite. Just was we were about to land in Munich, landing gear down and all, the plane aborted the landing and pulled back up into the air. The captain explained that there was another plane blocking the runway. What? How does that happen, especially in Germany? Then, when we unloaded off the bus, they made us go though security again, before we went through customs. I appreciate safety standards but this was just an unnecessary step that led to missed connections (as in flights, not the craig’s list kind), shouting (in German, which is particularly scary), and pushing (by Europeans who do not believe in deodorant). The upside of Gemany is that they love beer.

Most of the people on my flights were business men, all with a sense of arrogance and air of importance. Where are the women? Why aren’t they flying around Europe in Hugo Boss suits presumably making deals and meeting with partners? I suppose we still have a long way to go.

Speaking of men, I found the June edition of GQ in the hotel in Split and read it cover to cover during the trip. What a great magazine. I’m thinking about adding it to the rotation once I start my commute. I read articles about the military and divorce, a serial killer in Rocky Mount, NC, how to last longer (apparently the trick is to picture Mike Huckabee playing the bass), Indian wedding crashing, a transgender sports writer, and Silvio Burlusconi. This last article reminded of a conversation I had the other day with Rob about Europeans and nudity. Why are they more comfortable with nudity and being nude but are arguably more prude? He joked that it may be our purtian heritage, and clearly it has to do with what we see and are exposed to when we grow-up. Imagine a young Italian girl who sees ½ naked women on game shows or hears about the Prime Minister’s naked pool parties and orgies with girls 50 years younger. Of course she is going to hit the beaches of Capri Hvar naked. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t because the minister of education because of her “friendship” with some old balding dude. Good rant, huh?


Misc:

• Dudes should read GQ and then dress like the models in the magazine. I think that mankind would be happier if that happened

• Coke Zero’s demand is greater than its supply in Croatia, and the bottles are black. CZ reminds me of Scotty

• A shout-out to all of the Europeans who studied hard and learned English. You have made my travels much more pleasurable

Day 14: Hvar to Split to Trogir

Yesterday we said good-bye to Hvar. I got in a few more hours at the pool in the morning , and then we made our way by ferry back to Split. We then jumped on a bus to Trogir for a few hours in the afternoon. It was a cute town but at this point, everything is a cute town. One thing did change though; we ordered a bottle of Rose instead of white.

On the bus ride back, we noticed that everyone on the bus was a young woman in her 20s. Not sure what to make of it, but it was interesting. Also, Croatia seems to have a large middle class. We’ve covered a lot of the country and it all looks nice and relatively well-off.

Days 8-13: Hvar

Our trip from Dubrovnik to Hvar was a long one. We took a bus that went through various towns along the coast and it took about 4.5 hours. The ride was beautiful but I slept and listened to music (Grizly Bear, Peter Bjorn & Jon, Dirty Projectors, the XX, Yesayer, TV on the Radio, and Spoon) for most of the time. About 1.5 hours in, we crossed the border into Bosnia and had to show out documents to the big burly police dude. If I rode a bus through the country, does it count toward my list of countries I’ve visited?

We arrived in Split at 2:55pm, just enough time to miss the 3pm ferry. The women in Croatia do not like us and the one at the ferry ticket counter sent us to a terminal 10 minutes away, just so we could learn that we couldn’t buy tickets there. It was at that point that I really started to regret how much I packed, even though I will be living out of that suitcase until mid August.

Hvar was Amazing. The Riva (Croatian for waterfront promenade) was so beautiful and anywhere you went, you had a stunning view of the ocean and the perfect stone town. We met up with Zeller, Bechdol, Justin Daniel, Landy, Joe and Landy & Joe’s friend Tucker who had chartered a sailboat for a week. I was a jealous of their boat until we saw how cramped the living quarters were. We made the right decision regarding hotels, even though the Palace Hotel was reminiscent of a 70’s psychiatric ward.

We had some great nights out on the town and met some characters. Highlights include:

• Meeting my new gay Austrailan best friend and a hot-mess chick from DC (Vanessa!) who were there for a wedding

• JD drinking Pina Colada-esque drinks called orgasmos

• A Zoolander inspired walk-off between me and Tucker. He won even though I brought out the busdriver…

• Fishbowl drinks with sparklers (see pics)

• A game of would you rather that involved Tom Brady, a menorah, denim balls, and a pool of scotch

• Liz trying to explain Where’s Waldo to a guy named Will; Where’s Waldo, Where’s Will, same thing

Hvar on the water

We also were out on the water for 2 full days. The first time, the four of us rented a boat and drove around the islands near Hvar. Our favorite was Palmizana (pronounced paremesan) where there was a great bar and a mixologist from Bosnia. The drinks were really good. He spends the other half of the year in London and when we asked is he tends bar there as well, he replied, “I do other things there”. Not sketchy at all sir.

The second time was with Adam and Rob, two friends we made at the pool, and Stepek, our skipper. We went to Vis for the day to check out the blue cave and the town. The best part of the day was a game of asshole at lunch with wine that the restaurant made in their backyard. We were offered a place to stay in the Hamptons for the summer, but we’ll see if that actually happens.