food

Crossing off Paris Bucket List Items

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Walking dogs and eating baguettes. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.

Our time in Paris is coming to an end. Our five-week housesitting assignment is up on Thursday, when we’ll get back on a train and head south to Bordeaux to meet up with one of my best friends Liz and her boyfriend and drink some good wine, which I’m really excited about. Jeremy and I had been looking forward to this assignment in Paris all summer, and now it’s about to be over. We’ve spent the last week crossing off items on our list of things to do while here, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job. Here are some of our successful Paris bucket list item completions:

Run With a Running Group

This was a personal bucket list item, and I have successfully joined Let’s Run Paris for three runs so far. I did 9 miles last Saturday and then a 10k with them on Monday (which you can read about here if you’re so inclined), then this past Saturday joined them for a little over 13 miles.

How I fueled the night before.

How I fueled the night before.

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The route took us all around Paris, and into the Bois de Boulogne, which I had been wanting to check out.

Seen on my run.

Seen on my run.

Pictures from the Let’s Run Paris Facebook page:

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Post-run at the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Post-run at the Jardin du Luxembourg.

As we got into the Bois de Boulogne and passed a water fountain, I had been having a nice conversation with a woman wearing a Surf City Half Marathon shirt (which I’m pretty sure I’m running next February), and I didn’t stop to refill my handheld water bottle that was half empty. HUGE mistake. We were only about six miles into the run, and I ran out of water with a few miles left. I don’t think I’ve ever been so thirsty. There are fountains around the city and I thought for sure we would run by one. Unfortunately we never did, and I think this affected me the day after, and I felt lightheaded and dizzy all day, despite trying to replenish my fluids immediately after finishing the run and the rest of the day. I’m still feeling a bit lightheaded today and it’s raining, so I think I may skip the 10k with the group tonight. I feel like I’m in good shape training-wise for my half in a couple weeks, and I don’t want to risk doing anything weird to my body. But other than that, the thirteen miles were great, and I never really felt all that tired. I joined the 7 min/km group this time around, which was a good decision. It was an easy pace and I could have a conversation the whole time. The group leader even complimented me after saying how well I did and how much energy I had the whole time. Hooray! And I haven’t felt any soreness or anything since.

Jeremy met me after the run with pretzels, chocolate milk, and Powerade.

Jeremy met me after the run with pretzels, chocolate milk, and Powerade.

Recovering with some ice block things I found in the freezer.

Recovering with some ice block things I found in the freezer.

See the Eiffel Tower Sparkle

Jeremy and I hadn’t been to the Eiffel Tower up close at night yet, so we set out one night to do just that. We didn’t know at what time it would sparkle, but we got lucky and were at the Trocadero taking pictures right at 10pm when it happened.

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Why is that video so big?!

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Stand on Kilometre Zero

After dinner one night, we took a walk to Notre Dame, hoping to find the Kilometre Zero plaque on the ground, marking the center of Paris. Somehow we found it and it wasn’t covered by tourists or street performers.

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Notre Dame at night.

"I'm sad because I don't want to leave Paris. And my hair is crazy."

“I’m sad because I don’t want to leave Paris. And because my hair is crazy.”

Have a Date Night

Specifically, eat the cheese plate at Restaurant Astier. With all the delicious restaurant options in Paris, it was hard to choose a place for a nice date night. But after looking at David Lebovitz‘s reviews and reading about this insane cheese spread, we had to go. It was a four-course meal, with cheese being the third. They put it on your table and you take what you want (and can fit in your stomach), then remove it and bring it to a different table. We were the first ones to receive it that night, so we had the whole plate to choose from, although I’m sure they replenish the cheese when it runs low.

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C’est cheese.

All of our courses were delicious, but this cheese plate will go down in history as the most glorious thing put in front of us.

We had a second date night at a restaurant called Les Papilles, which was also an epicerie and wine shop. The four-course menu changes every night, and there are no other options than what the chef has prepared. I really love this, and wouldn’t mind if all restaurants did this.

The cute yellow Les Papilles.

The cute yellow Bistroy Les Papilles.

The star of the night: a green bean soup to be poured over peas, bacon, creme fraiche, and more.

The star of the night: a green bean soup to be poured over peas, bacon, radishes, creme fraiche, and more.

Second course: pork roast with this insane sauce/gravy and creamy polenta on the side.

Second course: pork roasted with apricots and with this insane sauce/gravy and creamy polenta on the side.

The pretty blue cheese and honey course.

The pretty blue cheese and honey course.

Dessert was panna cotta with strawberries that was delicious, but I didn’t get a good picture.

Side note, this building was across the street from the restaurant and I thought it was really cool.

Side note, this oceanography institute building was across the street from the restaurant and I thought it was really cool.

Sunset Picnic on the Seine

This one was at the top of my list for a while, and it was great. We brought a bottle of wine, got some sandwiches from Mozza and Co. food truck and had ourselves a sunset picnic. Even though it was chilly, there were tons of people out, and the police drove around in a tiny truck and handed all the picnickers trash bags with a big smile and a “Bon appétit!” Man, Parisians know how to picnic. I wish I could have gotten pictures of people’s food and wine spreads.

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Visiting Rue Crémieux 

After reading Messy Nessy Chic‘s post about it, Jeremy and I made it a point to visit this little colorful road near Gare de Lyon. It is really easy to miss. But we walked down it after having some wine and cheese at a bistro nearby, and it was really charming.

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Phew, I think that’s it for now. Could I make these posts any longer? Paris is just filled with so much cool stuff that I can’t stop taking pictures!

What We Ate in Berlin

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We spent way too much money eating out in Italy. But could you blame us? Italy is known for its food, and especially being in Bologna, it was very hard to resist. But I don’t regret it, even if my clothes were getting increasingly tighter… So, leaving Italy and returning to Germany, we knew we had to cut back on expenses, and cook more meals ourselves, or find cheap street food. We ended up doing a lot more of the latter, because the street food turned out to be delicious in Berlin.

Mauerpark Flea Market

On Sundays, there is a huge flea market in Mauerpark, which is in the northern district of Prenzlauer Berg. It is really popular with tourists, and even though it had been raining moments before we got there and there were huge puddles everywhere, it was still packed. We didn’t do any shopping, but we heard there was good street food, so we wanted to check it out. There were lots of food stands and outdoor bars, and it had a general music-festival vibe to it; I kind of felt like I was at SXSW in Austin, Texas. But it happens every Sunday in Berlin! We checked out as many food stands as we could before making our decision on what to eat.

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A magician performing for people at the amphitheater in Mauerpark. There is usually karaoke held here, but it was cancelled due to the rain (I think).

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We ended up going to this stand that had fresh pizzas come out of the oven every ten minutes. Whenever there was a fresh batch, a lined formed immediately.

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We got a white pizza with potato on top. And of course a weissbier to wash it down.

We weren’t planning on getting dessert, but we couldn’t walk past this booth selling made-to-order waffles on a stick without getting one. And they were only 2 euro. We chose white chocolate to be poured on top of it. It was VERY tasty.

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Das Gift

The night of the World Cup final game, we wanted to go to a bar and catch some of the action, but not be surrounded by hoards of people (something like 200,000 people were watching the match at Brandenburg Gate). We walked from our apartment to Kreuzberg and beyond to Neukölln and decided on Das Gift, a bar owned by Barry Burns (of post-rock band Mogwai) and his wife. The menu is primarily Scottish food, and we ordered a mini haggis plate, which was only 5 euro. We got the vegetarian version, which sounds weird since haggis is primarily meat-parts, but it was really good.

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You know a bar is going to be good if they have Dolly on the menu.

Mini haggis plate, vegetarian style (

Mini haggis plate, vegetarian style (instead of meat, it was kidney beans, lentils, root vegetables, and cereals, packed into a man-made casing and cooked, according to Das Gift’s Tumblr. It was on top of a potato and turnip mash with a sauce made from whiskey.)

The plate was a little small for the two of us, so we ordered the Scottish cheese plate after, but I didn’t get a picture. After the game was over and Germany won, there was craziness in the streets with people yelling and all cars honking, but nothing out of hand. It was pretty fun.

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Right after Germany won.

I hope this video works:

 

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Falafel

Falafel has been so easy to come by in most of the big cities we’ve visited. The Turkish population is large in Berlin, and before even arriving we were looking forward to trying some of the popular places.

The first place we tried was called Maroush, and the rave reviews online were justified. Our falafel sandwiches were only 2.50 euro.

 

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Another place we tried was called Tadim, and I got a falafel sandwich, while Jeremy got a lahmacun, a Turkish pizza with doner meat on it, rolled into a burrito.

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My falafel sandwich from Tadim.

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Jeremy’s lahmacun.

One night, we were in a long line to eat at Burgermeister in Kreuzberg. But after waiting 15 minutes or so and not getting much closer to the front of the line, we decided to walk around and find another falafel to eat (we might be addicted).

Burgermeister in Kreuzberg.

The very popular Burgermeister in Kreuzberg.

We had read so many “best cheap eats in Berlin”-type articles online that all mentioned the same places, so we wanted to venture out on our own and discover something different. We ended up finding the best falafel we had eaten in Berlin so far, and they were wrapped like burritos.

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I don’t have a picture of the inside of the burritos, but just trust me, they were delicious. And we finished them off with some baclava, which was the best I’ve ever had.

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Street Food Thursday

A couple friends from Georgia, Kyle and Antje, now live in Berlin, and we met up with them at something called Street Food Thursday, held at Markthalle Neun. The big space is filled to the brim with food stands that include all sorts of food types. We met soon after it opened so we could hopefully get seats at the communal tables, and it was already packed by the time we got there.

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IMG_8036 It was SO hard to decide what to get, but I ended up with a ramen burger with kimchi on the side, and Jeremy got an empanada and a tofu sandwich with steamed buns.

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The packed Markthalle Neun.

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Our dessert, a freshly baked peanut butter cookie with homemade ice cream on top.

After dinner, we walked around Kreuzberg a bit and enjoyed catching up with Kyle and Antje, who we hadn’t seen in years.

Oberbaum Bridge at magic hour.

Oberbaum Bridge at magic hour.

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Street Food Thursday was a big highlight of our week, and just another example of what makes Berlin such a great city.

Bologna, the Red City

After leaving Rome, Jeremy and I took a train ride to Bologna. We picked Bologna because of its central location, and from everything we read online, the food was supposed to be incredible. It did not disappoint. It’s not a huge tourist destination, which we enjoyed, especially after coming from super-crowded Rome. We have been staying a week in most destinations, because many apartments on Airbnb have weekly prices that are much better than the nightly rates. It also gives us enough time to really explore a city, and have some downtime if needed.

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Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, which is home to some pretty delicious foodstuffs (Parma Ham, aka prosciutto, and Parmesan cheese from Parma, Bolognese sauce from Bologna, etc.) and great wine. Bologna is also known for its porticos which line the streets, so you’ll always be shaded from sun or rain wandering around.

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One of Bologna’s nicknames is the “Red City,” and you can immediately tell why when entering the town center.

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All the buildings are a shade of red.

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Food

The internet wasn’t lying about the abundance of delicious food in Bologna. I was beside myself as we were walking down the small streets of the historic center. There were meat, cheese, produce and seafood markets on every corner or more, and we bought some Parmesan cheese from a store and devoured it when we got back to our apartment.

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We wanted to get some authentic Bolognese sauce (it’s called ragu there), and didn’t want to spend a bunch on it. We found a place called Osteria dell’Orsa, which had daily pasta specials for 6 euros, and we ended up eating there twice. The first was for lunch, and I got the most delicious pasta I’ve ever eaten.

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I love pesto SO MUCH and this was the best I’ve ever had.

The second time was for dinner, and Jeremy got the Bolognese sauce, and I had to get a pesto pasta again.

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We also got a drink at this really cool bar.

We also got a drink at this really cool bar.

...and drank pistachio cappuccinos. Good lord they were tasty.

…and drank pistachio cappuccinos at a coffee shop. Good lord they were tasty.

Speaking of food, the first night we arrived in Bologna was July 4, and we celebrated by making a meat and cheese platter while watching House of Cards… in bed (no dining table in this apartment).

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Outdoor Movies in Piazza Maggiore 

There was a huge movie screen set up in the main piazza in town, and the city would show a different movie every night for two months. The second night we were there, they played the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night, and Richard Lester, the director, was there to introduce it. We didn’t even know he was going to be there, and it was really cool. There were thousands of people there to watch, with people dancing along to the music.

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Earlier in the day, before the crowds came.

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They were playing Annie Hall a few nights later, and we were determined to go (it’s one of our favorite movies). It started pouring about ten minutes before the movie was supposed to start, so it was moved to a movie house across town. We ran across the piazza and jumped in a cab, and luckily made it to the theater before it began. The movie was actually cut in really weird places, sometimes cutting out whole conversations, but I guess it still made sense in the Italian subtitles.

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Climbing the Asinelli Tower

There are two towers in Bologna, both leaning slightly (the Asinelli Tower is actually taller than the tower in Pisa, and is the tallest in Italy). The towers were built in the 12th century, and it’s about 500 steps to get to the top of Asinelli. Once again, my fear of heights reared its head and I was convinced the tower would fall over while we were at the top (because that makes a lot of sense), but we still managed to admire the view for a bit.

The leaning towers of Bologna.

The leaning towers of Bologna – we climbed the one on the right.

The very narrow entrance to the tower.

The very narrow entrance to the tower.

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Starting the climb – you buy your tickets from the man down there.

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View from the top.

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We really liked Bologna, and it was a great place to spend a week. It was also pretty close to Venice, which we visited one day. I am still dreaming about all the food in Italy in general, it was all such a treat.

Aperitivo Crawling in Rome

At the end of our week in Sarzana, it was time for Jeremy and I to continue our travels, while my parents headed back to Paris and London and eventually back home. Jeremy and I decided to visit Rome, since neither of us had ever been. We chose to spend the night in Pisa, to break up the train journey. For some reason we were exhausted by the time we got to Pisa, so we just walked around town and to the tower, then made it an early night to get some rest.

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Sandwiches from a place called L’Ostellino in Pisa.

 

It's really leaning! I also tried to get some pictures of people "holding" it up. It was pretty funny to watch.

It’s really leaning! I tried to get some good pictures of people “holding” it up. It was pretty funny to watch.

 

This lady really got into it.

This lady really got into it.

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Pigneto Neighborhood in Rome

One of my favorite things about staying in Airbnbs is that you get to temporarily live in a neighborhood you may not have even visited otherwise. A lot of the places that we stay don’t even have hotels nearby, and we get to feel what it would be like to live in that city, away from the main tourist attractions. In big cities, staying in the center is also just too expensive, for the most part. This was especially true in Rome; the affordable options were pretty limited, and since neither of us had ever been, it was hard to know what the best  location would be. We also only rent places with wifi so we can work remotely, and I wanted an apartment with an air conditioner… I have enough sleeping problems as it is, and being hot at night pretty much guarantees very little sleep for me. I saw the Airbnb Neighborhood Guide for Pigneto, and found a reasonably priced apartment with A/C in walking distance of the pedestrian strip that looked interesting. It turned out to be a great decision, and we spent most of our time in Pigneto, trying different restaurants and bars and visiting the farmers market that happens every day. It reminded us of the Alberta Arts District in Portland, if anyone’s ever been. All of the bars on the main street would show the World Cup matches also, and people would crowd in the street to watch.

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It looks like I’m doing a weird sorority-girl-arm thing, but I swear I’m not.

As travelers that try not to spend too much money on going out to eat and instead cook at our accommodations (which we failed at in Italy), we had done our research on good aperitivo places since it was supposed to be pretty cheap. Aperitivo is similar to happy hour, although it happens later than in America (around 7pm), since people in Italy eat dinner at like 10pm. Some bars/restaurants will offer a buffet that you can visit with the price of a drink, or you can order off an aperitivo menu, which is always priced really well. Some just bring food to your table after you order a drink. This was basically a dream come true for us. It was a light dinner that we could eat early, and not drain our wallets. And all the food was crazy delicious. It’s actually hard for me to post these pictures because it makes me want them again so badly. Here are some of our favorites:

Our first aperitivo experience. Welcome to Rome, indeed.

Our first aperitivo experience. Welcome to Rome, indeed.

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Bar Necci, a popular place in Pigneto.

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This is from a place called Cargo, which we went to three times, I think.

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Cargo on a different night.

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A little bit of everything.

The only aperitivo we went to that had a buffet.

The only aperitivo we went to that had a buffet. We were the first to arrive, and it was past 7pm. 

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I hope everyone is sufficiently hungry now!

Palais des Popes and Goodbye Avignon

The Palais des Popes in Avignon is a main draw of the town, as it’s claimed to be the biggest Gothic palace in the world (according to its website). Thousands of people visit Avignon to tour the huge, beautiful palace, with good reason. It dates back to the 1300s, and was the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century (thank you, Wikipedia), and housed nine popes before the papacy returned to Rome in 1377. Jeremy and I didn’t pay the 11 euros each to take a tour of the inside of the palace (a little too rich for our budget traveler blood, and our hosts in Geneva said that the rooms were pretty much emptied out when the popes returned to Rome anyway), but walking around it and up to the gardens to see the view was still worth a visit.

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A closer look at the creepy guy on the left.

A closer look at the creepy guy on the left.

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Inside the first room of the palace.

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The view over the Rhone River from le Jardin des Doms.

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Le Pont d’Avignon from above.

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Reminded me of being behind the waterfall in Iceland.

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Hotel de Ville in the nearby Place d’Horloge.

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The buildings surrounding the palace are wonderful as well.

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This guy looked like he was conducting serious business on the carousel.

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Goodbye, Avignon

Since I’m wrapping up our visit to Avignon, I thought I’d add some pictures from the week that didn’t have to do with Les Halles or Palais des Papes.

If anyone ever visits Avignon, you must go to Camili Books & Tea, it’s so adorable, and all the books are in English. And the people working there are so nice. The lady brought out some freshly baked cinnamon rolls and it was painful how good they smelled. The address is 155 Rue de la Carreterie.

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Look at those cinnamon rolls…

Some more things we ate/cooked:

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Bought this at Les Halles market, it was stuffed with salmon. Holy crap it was delicious.

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Vegetable quiche, also bought at Les Halles.

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One of our meals we cooked in the apartment.

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Heaven on a plate.

It's too dark to see, but there's polenta and grilled mushrooms on those plates.

It’s too dark to see, but there’s polenta and grilled mushrooms on those plates.

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In our Airbnb – we thought the mosquito net was just decoration, but after waking up with a few bites, realized it was a very important addition to the room.

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Another perfect picnic spot.

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The stairs leading to our Airbnb.

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This day was hot and felt like summer. It was wonderful.

We are now housesitting in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, in between Carcassonne and Narbonne, and we’ve already been swimming in the indoor pool our house has, explored all seven bedrooms of the house (not including this crazy awesome stage that is constructed in the old tower portion of the house, which was built in the early 1800s), seen a rainbow, eaten paella and crepes, made friends at the wine bar next door, and had a harrowing afternoon driving a stick shift to the grocery store in the next town over after never having driven a manual car before. I’ll get into that next time…

 

New York: Part II

Hi! I finally have a few minutes to write a post! Our Airbnb in Manhattan didn’t have wifi even though I mistakenly thought it did when booking it, so I didn’t get to do a post while I was there. Not to mention Jeremy and I fit so much stuff into four days, I probably wouldn’t have had time anyway. And then our house in Iceland had limited wifi, so if we used too much (which we did immediately by accident), it would cut off and the owner of the house would have to re-up it. I feel a little overwhelmed now, since I have so many pictures from Iceland now too (we were there for a few days until Monday morning, it was the most amazing place I’ve ever been), but I want to post about our three days in Manhattan. Basically, it was filled with lots and lots of carbs and walking. We probably averaged 10 miles a day of walking, trying to see as many sights as possible. This is also how we justified eating so many bagels and falafel sandwiches. We ate bagels every day, and I couldn’t get enough. The ones we got in Brooklyn were my favorite:

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but Jeremy’s favorite was from Ess-a-bagel:

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Speaking of food, since we’re on a pretty strict budget so that we can stay traveling as long as possible, we didn’t really splurge on any nice dinners or anything. Next time we visit NYC, I hope that we can experience some of the amazing restaurants the city has to offer, but in the meantime we thoroughly enjoyed our street food and snacks. We stopped into a place on the Lower East Side to get a knish without even knowing what it was. It was basically a ball of mashed potatoes with veggies inside and dough on the outside. Needless to say, it was tasty.

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A delish knish.

A delish knish.

We wanted to go get some smoked salmon or other treats in here, but the amount of people crammed inside was a little too overwhelming.

We wanted to go get some smoked salmon or other treats in here, but the amount of people crammed inside was a little too overwhelming.

We got some pho in Chinatown one night, and it was inexpensive and delicious:

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Watching people make pasta in Eataly made me really hungry.

Watching people make pasta in Eataly made me really hungry.

Salted peanut and lemon poppyseed donuts from Donut Plant in LES.

Salted peanut and lemon poppyseed donuts from Donut Plant in LES.

 

I made sure my last meal in America was tacos with lots of guacamole (we got them from Brooklyn Tacos in the Essex Market in the LES).

I made sure my last meal in America was tacos with lots of guacamole (we got them from Brooklyn Tacos in the Essex Market in the LES). The one on the right was kale and potato.

Sightseeing 

I’ve been to NYC a good amount of times (I was born there, fun fact), but it was Jeremy’s first time, so we wanted to see some of the main attractions. Like I said, we walked a lot. We much prefer to walk six miles somewhere than take public transportation (if we have no time constraints) so that we can see everything along the way. We walked from the Lower East Side to Central Park because we wanted to see the apartment my parents lived in when they were my age. It was fun to imagine them in it in the 70s, doing all the cool stuff I know they did.

My parents' apartment building in the 70s.

My parents’ apartment building in the 70s.

Of course, we had to take a picture in Times Square (before we promptly got the hell out of there):

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Flatiron Building.

A cold Central Park.

A cold Central Park.

Jeremy had to pry my face away from this store's window.

Jeremy had to pry my face away from this store’s window.

Coolest Apple store ever.

Coolest Apple store ever.

I love Greenwich Village.

I love Greenwich Village.

Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Center.

Me with a very tiny Lady of Liberty behind.

Me with a very tiny Lady Liberty behind.

Empire State Building.

Empire State Building.

We did splurge on a show at the Comedy Cellar, where Louis CK is seen telling jokes in the opening credits of his show. All of the comedians were hilarious, and we didn’t regret spending the money at all.

We had a really good time in NYC overall, despite the freezing weather/wind (I didn’t even have a coat so I had to run into an H&M and buy a jacket), but we looked forward to getting to our cabin in the middle of nowhere in Iceland (the complete opposite of New York City). I can’t wait to share pictures from there!

A Whirlwind Week

Hello from Athens, Georgia! It has officially been a week since we left California, and what a week it has been. We left San Diego early Monday morning of last week (with four new tires after getting a flat as soon as we arrived in SD), and made it to El Paso, Texas that night for dinner.

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Not exactly what you like to see at the beginning of a big road trip.

We took off early in the morning Tuesday from El Paso and headed to New Orleans. We drove through the widest part of Texas, which I’ve done many, many times, and it always drags on for a looong time. We finally pulled into New Orleans around 1am, and went straight to sleep at my friend Liz’s apartment.

New Orleans

As soon as we got up in the morning, Liz took us down to the French Quarter to get beignets and coffee at Cafe du Mond. The lines were crazy long (as I was expecting), so instead of waiting for a table we sat and ate by the water and got powdered sugar everywhere.

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About to enjoy our beignets and chicory coffee.

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Me and Liz, one of my dearest friends.

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Beignet.

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I know for next time not to wear black pants when eating beignets.

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When we were done, we headed back to the French Quarter and walked through the market while enjoying some mimosas.

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Cocktails to go.

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Definitely felt weird drinking outside of bars.

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Liz and Jeremy enjoying some oysters.

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The most gigantic oyster I’ve ever seen.

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Walking around the French Quarter.

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Later that night, we went to dinner at a restaurant called Cochon, which is really well known and it was delicious. We ate fried alligator, more oysters, shrimp dressing, and lots more dishes.

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Oysters and fried alligator at Cochon.

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Liz and her boyfriend, Alain.

Liz works for a French folk artist, and we visited the workshop the next day. Since it was such nice weather, afterward we picked up some boiled crawfish and ate it by the levee.

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Liz at work.

Picking up fresh boiled crawfish.

Picking up fresh boiled crawfish.

We ate a crawfish pie while we waited... it was delicious.

We ate a crawfish pie while we waited… it was delicious.

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Liz teaching us the proper way to eat a crawfish. First step: break the head off.

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The levee.

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Very concentrated eating.

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My first crawfish.

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Jeremy sucking juices out of the head. I did not partake in this step.

That night, we went to a restaurant near Liz’s apartment and had some wine, some frog legs, and lots more delicious food.

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Frog leg action shot.

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It was really hard to leave after having such a good time. Liz and I met our freshman year of college at UGA, and have been really close ever since. We lived together for four years in Athens and have experienced a lot together. I hate that we live so far away from each other. But alas, we were on to Charleston the next morning.

Charleston

The drive was supposed to take 12-13 hours, but thanks to a crazy accident in Atlanta, ended up taking closer to 16. It was a really long day. When we got to Charleston, our friends had set up a bonfire in their backyard and we hung out a bit before going to sleep. The next day, we got up and our friend Matt took us to the oldest tree east of the Mississippi.

Angel Oak.

Angel Oak.

Then we rented some bicycles and rode them to Folly Beach. The weather was a little dismal and cool, but it was perfect for us. And because of it, there weren’t many people on the beach at all. We pretty much felt like a bad-ass bike gang, and we even had a stereo playing some music.

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Pretty Charleston.

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For dinner, Matt (who used to be a cook at Husk in Charleston, one of the best restaurants in the country) cooked us shrimp and grits, and it was amazing.

Shrimp and grits.

Shrimp and grits.

After dinner, we went downtown and went to this crazy awesome drag show. Who knew Charleston would have such a good one??

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Front row seats for the drag show.

IMG_3105We are having such a good time, eating delicious food, and seeing so many old friends. It has pretty much been the best week ever. We’re seeing more friends tonight in Athens, then heading to Columbus tomorrow to spend some time with Jeremy’s family.

I have been without internet I feel like forever, so I’m missing a lot in the blog world. What has everyone been up to??