Holy Land 2010

I'm officially in vacation mode and ready to hit the holy land with my fam for two weeks. Yes, it's been a while since I blogged, but putting waypoints on a map made it seem worth it. Behold, the upcoming itinerary:


View Holy Land 2010 in a larger map

Mediterranean Cruise 2009

View Mediterranean 2009 in a larger map

Just got back from our western Mediterranean cruise that my mom took us on with my bro, sister-in-law, aunt, and cousin and it didn't disappoint. I was excited for my mom and Ryan to see one of my favorite areas: the South of France and to my delight, they loved it and got a firsthand taste of what made me fall in love with France.

I was a little worried about going back--I wasn't sure if I had overly idealized the South of France in my mind after all these years and I was certain I wouldn't have the same experience as a bona fide tourist as opposed to a student studying there, but the instant we set foot in Villefranche, I was instantly on cloud nine...I mean really happy. Plus it turns out German hasn't ruined my French--I had great interactions that were mostly seamless and even had one instance where I switched between French and German without mixing them up (when both nationalities were present). That separation never happened for my brain.

I've got to retire to the French Riviera or spend another chunk of my life there at some point. I mean, GOD, I'm in my element there. And it's cheaper than San Diego.

For the Flickr-ites

Shameless self-promotion alert: I entered a photo into the Lonely Planet Publications pool on Flickr and have made it to the final cut of voting. You can help me win a guidebook and possible publication by voting for my photo in 3 easy steps:

1. Click here to see my photo in the running (make sure you're signed in as well).
2. Copy and paste this code in the comments section at the bottom of the page:
   

   <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/lonelyplanetpublications/ "> This photo makes me want to travel and gets my vote in the Lonely Planet Publications group's Beach challenge</a>

3. Click "Post Comment" to vote.

Loads of Ireland pics coming soon...

Week 1 of Vacation

I'll try to update where I am on blogger but follow www.twitter.com/cowakazi (or the sidebar on the blog) for the fun little Cincinnati/Ireland details.

Lapa Rios

This post is more for my personal reference, but by all means dream along with me. Lapa Rios in Costa Rica pretty much looks like paradise. There will probably be more of these types of posts because it's time I started bookmarking all of these cool places that I come across.

Side note: has anyone else heard about the new phenomenon of "Babymoons"? It's news to me, but apparently the travel industry is starting to push getaways for the "parents-to-be" before the babe arrives. (Note: No, I am not pregnant.) I mean, whatever. Any excuse is a good one for a vacation to me, but my guess is that I'd rather take that vacation *after* the kid arrives when you're ready for that much needed break from sleepless nights, feedings, and poop.

Speaking of, congratulations to our friends Marcy and Graham on their second child as of this past weekend! Any interest in a post-babymoon?

Vegas Celeb Sightings

1. Pete Rose. Ryan's dad hilariously suggested we asked him for some gambling tips. Nevermind that he was signing baseballs...For Pete's sake, Pete! GET OUT OF VEGAS!

2. Joy from The View. She was at the same restaurant we ate at, which probably sounds like we were at someplace glamorous, but it was just Wolfgang Puck's...Spork? I forget the name. Spago.

I wondered aloud if Joy would be attending The Comedy Festival, which happened this past weekend and I would have killed to go to, but didn't know it was going on until we were there. And after looking at the prices...well, my attendance would have been improbable anyway.

So no Britney (I think she gets up when I go to bed anyway), but add these two to the list of random celeb sightings/meetings (sorry about your luck, Becca):

• Hulk Hogan (at a Florida boat show)
  
• Marge Schott (I used to valet her car)
• Peter Frampton (I used to serve him coffee)
• Rudi Giuliani (I ran into him at my university bookstore. His teeth are incredibly square and wooden looking)
• Ted Danson and Alex Désert (met them on the set of Becker when my friend, Marhs, worked at Paramount studios and took me on a tour). Also saw Kelsey Grammer that day.
  
• washed up comic whose name I can't recall and a couple of others I know I'm not remembering...list to be revisited when memory serves me.
  

Lomo Clouds

The sensor needs cleaning but I lomo-ed a series of pictures taken on the flight back home and find myself fascinated with these shots on the bright sides of the clouds. Like little cities, they are...and it really seems like you could just peacefully fall into one and be comfortably cradled.

Anyway. I followed a tutorial over on Kingyo Senbei.

Milking the Summer for All It's Worth

It's almost been a month since the trip to the Caribbean, but it's still fresh in my mind. Since then I've caught the beach bug and have been to the San Diego beaches every day this week (except one). The craziest part of that is that I hadn't been in the Pacific since we moved here until now...after body surfing, snorkeling, and boogie boarding this week (Thanks Lauri!) I'm addicted.

Check out the vacation photos here!

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

So what if there has only been 0.75 inches of rain in the past year at the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Maybe it meant that hardly any desert flora was blooming, but a big reason to make the day trip out here from San Diego is just for the drive.

At one point in the two hour drive when Ryan reached into a bag to find something, I said, "Look. It just changed." In that one moment he was looking in the bag, we came over a hill and it went from lush, green mountainous landscape to tall yellow grasses and vast open spaces. We saw burnt hillsides from all those southern California wildfires you hear about, enormous boulders sprinkled on green mountains, people wearing shorts, people wearing parkas, the ocean, a desert, and an oasis. Actually we've made some of this drive before...I have some blogging to catch up on (note to self: Rose Canyon, Temecula, Big Bear Mountain/Lake). But each time we've done it, I'm always struck by the changing landscape.

The very tiny slice of Anza Borrego that we explored was awesome. I can only imagine what 500 more miles of dirt road has to offer. We drove in the Borrego Springs entrance and paid $6 to enter a campsite (even though we weren't staying) to hike the Palm Canyon trail. They call this a "moderate" 1.5 mile trail. At first I was thinking that the trail was too short. We drove two hours, dammit. I wanted to HIKE. But "moderate" definitely involved some scaling of rocks and situations where I genuinely had to consider how I was going to make my next step without injuring myself. I jumped off boulders A) because I'm fun like that and B) because I didn't really know any other way to proceed. Point is, "moderate" probably isn't for your parents. Overall, I think the hike up the desert valley to the oasis and back took us over two hours. It wound up being a perfect little trip that cleared up any guilt we had over the Mexican at Ponce's we ate the night before. And the oasis was cool. I don't know why but I guess I didn't really think that oases were real. I found myself wondering if they had planted the palm trees there because when you're hiking for an hour where everything's dead, it just doesn't make sense to come up on this thriving little tree house area, complete with running water. Anyway I recommend it. Bring water. Wear shoes (so many people were wearing flip flops?)

We saw real roadrunners on the way home. Turns out they look NOTHING like the cartoon version. They're not as big as a wolf, first of all. They're tiny. And frankly I think the cartoon would have been more interesting if this tiny ass bird had always been getting the best of Wile E. Coyote. They weren't blue. They didn't "beep" nor did they hold up signs to communicate to us. And they were kind of slow.

More pictures of the Anza Borrego adventure are up on my flickr account.

Jimmy Kimmel (Really) Live

Friday night, Ryan and I hit the road to LA to see the Jimmy Kimmel show. I hated The Man Show when it was on--Adam Carolla was, quite simply, a d***--but I'd give Jimmy Kimmel a break sometimes because it seemed like he was poking fun at his supposed "manhood." His late night show is a million times better (the few times I've caught it) and since Sarah Silverman was appearing, I thought, heck, why not?

I questioned my assessment when we walked up next to the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Boulevard (where I thought Jimmy Kimmel was taped) and it turned out that the show was in the building next door--the Hollywood Masonic Temple. Holy Man Show, indeed.

Aside from feeling like I compromised a part of myself by walking into the former house of the Mason b*******, it was a good time. The studio filtered the crowd into certain seats and they put us right smack in the front row...as in it was more comfortable for us to rest our feet on the stage instead of the ground in front of us...as in the third and fourth seats from the center, next to the extended stage where Kimmel does his monologue...as in 12 feet from the guest's seat and Jimmy's desk...as in it was borderline invasion of each other's personal space. I'm still wondering what the criteria was that put us there because by "filtering" the crowd I mean that they sized us up with another couple that was clearly ten million more times gorgeous than we were--so much so that pre-show when Jimmy Kimmel came out to prime the crowd, he commented on how tan they were and how beautiful their teeth were--and said, yep, these people belong in the first row. My guess is we looked boring and harmless compared to the millions of hard core Slayer fans that showed up, which meant we wouldn't be a disruption or distraction "in the only rows that they could see when taping."

The camera really does add ten pounds. Sarah Silverman was a stick and Jimmy Kimmel isn't *that* bad.

Otherwise two American Idol rejects from Seattle were guests along with an actor from Hero? Heroes? I didn't know the guy. The American Idol guys are clearly a part of the mean-spirited portion of aspect of American Idol, and potentially lend themselves to more mean-spiritedness by appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, but I liked the way he handled it. He straddled a line of acknowledging that the larger public sees them as odd, but he treated them like people. I guess we'll really see on Monday after they spend this weekend with him at the Celebrity Golf tournament, interviewing celebs.

Now we have to get to The Price is Right before Bob Barker leaves and the Ellen Show.

The Past Two Months

Admittedly the mob(b?)logging fell flat because I started feeling very concerned about dollar signs on my upcoming cingular bill since I lack a "media package" on my plan and was sending images from Europe, no less.

For those wondering why the hell we went back to Europe after having just moved from there, it was long ago planned by my mom to take my brother, Ryan, and me on this Mediterranean cruise. If any of these three people die, I get their money. Basically I just missed a nice, clean, evidence-free opportunity to cash in. (If, on the other hand, I die, my life is worth a measley $200 to Ryan. Even then I think he can't collect until social security kicks in) Then again, if you fall/are pushed off a boat around Greece your chances of survival are probably better with 1400 islands hanging out in the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Ionian Seas. Looks like I'll have to wait until that cruise to the Easter Islands.

Pics on flickr

NYC

Pre-Venice

Venezia, Round 3

Media Tuesday! Dublin Pub Crawl

(April 25, 2006)

Forget the museums. Go for the pubs. Here's how we spent one of our best trips yet:



Of course it helps when Dublin is in full Springtime bloom and you have a friend along with you. I went to Dublin in '98 by myself and wasn't feeling like it was anything special. I suppose the Guiness tasted different there. I found it to taste different from bar to bar.

Also Dublin Pub Scene is otherwise a very comprehensive Web site and directory of the pubs in Dublin for those making a trip soon.

More fun pics at flickr.

The Great Escape

It's asinine, asinine! I tell you that it's taken six or seven visits to Strasbourg to write about it. Since our arrival, Strasbourg has been the great escape. Within the first few weeks of feeling like asses for our inability to speak German, Strasbourg was there. When we couldn't find a "German" meal of sauerkraut and wurst, Strasbourg was there. When there wasn't a decent croissant or baguette to be found (we're only an hour away!), Strasbourg was there! When we endlessly searched for shoes, Strasbourg was there!! When we didn't know what else to do with our families, Strasbourg was there!!! And Strasbourg always delivers.

For those that don't know anything about it, Strasbourg is in the Alsace-Lorraine region (where the quiche comes from) and has been passed back and forth between Germany and France. France lovers might not like Strasbourg for its being too "German" but for France lovers stranded in Germany, it's French...hence my love of it. It's not a big city with a lot to do, but the charm of the tudor-style houses and flower boxes EVERYWHERE (when in season) suck people in and drive home that feeling of, ahhhh...I'm in Europe. If you're going to do a museum, do the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. It's a brand-spanking new (opened in 1998) and cool building with an equally cool collection and not to mention great views of the city inside the river that encircles it. Of course many times the coolness will hinge on the exhibition that happens to be there, but we've been there three different times and each accompanying visitor approved.

Strasbourg's centerpiece, the cathedral, has great views as well if you're willing to tackle the endless spiral staircase. The giant astrological clock in the transept is a unique feature because nothing says religion like...astrology.

I just went back two weeks ago with my cousin and if I were to write a children's book about the trip, the story would closely resemble that of The Very Hungry Catepillar. We ate our way from Place de la Cathédrale through Place Broglie, to Place Kléber over to La Pétite France. I highly recommend this tour of Strasbourg as the general rule of thumb is: if it looks good, it is good and there's no shortage of boulangeries, pâtisseries, chocolateries, and cafés.

The Other Paris

It's the last day of March and I figure if I don't get some kind of run-down of the month's events and travels, I never will.

So Julie and Katherine's visit led us back to the Paris that isn't in the tabloids, where Katherine works as a dancer at the Lido. I had the brilliant idea to drive because I just had to see how far away it was by car. I'd taken a train, a plane, a ferry, a bus, and a pogo stick, but hadn't had the automotive experience and it went relatively smooth. But now I can say, just take the train. I parked the car at Charles de Gaulle airport and 1) it practically takes an hour to drive around that place and 2) once you park the car, you have to catch the bus that takes you to the terminal for the regional train (RER) which will take you to the métro you'll need to get to wherever you're going in Paris. At least a train from Rome or wherever will take you directly into the city. Believe it or not it's worth having to sit next to some weirdos.

Anyway I feel lucky enough to say that this was my nth time in Paris. The first time was in high school when we saw public masturbation for the first time, my friend, Mara, got pooped on by a pigeon, and another girl had left a tampon inside her for 13 days yet managed to be TSS-free. Oh and we saw some monuments. Other memories include a lonesome Christmas with "Ave Maria" on repeat, watching a guy illegally scale La Grande Arche de la Défense with my mom, seeing Wilco in Montmartre and many many more.

(click to enlarge--Kath is the flower behind the green glitter flower)

And the cool part is no many how many times you go, Paris is always a new experience and there's always one more thing you have not yet done. This time around it was seeing "Le Bonheur" at the Lido with the added bonus of Katherine being in it. Kath hooked us up with some tickets (admittedly 120 euros for dinner and a show had been a deterrent) and it was good to see something considered soOo Paris despite the fact that finding an actual French person there is your old needle in a haystack example. And it's certainly not a sex show, people. Being topless seems to be more of a consequence of your costume, which happens to lack fabric in the breast area, rather than dancers who are looking for audience members who'd like a good bruuuuumski. Anyway in my humble opinion Katherine Schwing was the highlight of the show. That's K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E S-C-H-W-I-N-G (and no, she's never in her entire life heard any references to Wayne's World) She's a star--look out for her in The Producers DVD. It's the bank scene, right Kath or Juls?

Juls at Musée d'Orsay

And while it was a short visit, Juls and I managed to get in a lot of walking to see the major monuments (Louvre, Tuilleries, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, etc.) and hit Musée d'Orsay for some of the finest 19th century fine art...and there's plenty of it...and people too. It was there it struck me that, oh yeah, Juls was in Art History AP with me in high school, where the appreciation all started. Where a group of us spent hours upon hours in her basement trading packets we had made concerning the main points and examples of any given art period. And the "main points" were a mere 100 pages for each of us. I think I got stuck with Etruscan art or something else equally boring and pottery-ish. Luckily all of us passed, me barely. The rest were in all the Honors classes, APs, Super APs, and Xtreme APs and pulling down 20.0 GPAs so I think they were used to the rigor.

After Musée d'Orsay Julie promptly got me hooked on Grey's Anatomy and closed the day down with some red wine. Thanks for the visit and memories Juls and Kath!

More pictures of Paris here.

Travel

Traveling I've done...

Austria
Lech
--Frostbitten, Twice Shy, Babe

Belgium
Antwerp
Brugges
Brussels
--Mmm...Beer

England
London

France
Arles
Avignon
Les Baux de Provence
Caen
Cannes
Carcasonne
Loire Valley
Marseille
Monaco
Montpellier
Nice
Paris
--The Other Paris
--wilco in paris
Rouen
Saint Malo
Strasbourg
--The Great Escape
Tours

Germany
Berlin
Frankfurt (see Heidelberg)
Garmisch-Partenkirchen & Neuschwanstein
--Spring is in the Air (Garmisch cont.)
Heidelberg (click to see areas around Heidelberg)
Köln/Cologne
Mannheim (see Heidelberg)
Schwetzingen
Speyer
Weinheim (see Heidelberg)
Wiesbaden
Worms
Cloud Machine

Greece
Athens
Corfu
Crete

Ireland
Dublin
--Pub Crawl

Italy
Florence
Pisa/Tirrenia/Livorno/Cinque Terre
Rome
Venice
--Venezia Round 3

Luxembourg
Luxembourg City

The Netherlands
Amsterdam

Portugal
Lisbon

Spain
Barcelona

Switzerland
Interlaken
Lucerne
Zurich

Turkey
Ephesus
Kusadasi

Things
Flat Sean
Reverse Culture Shock
Footsy? Floozy? Celebrating One Year in Deutschland

Flat Sean

Anyone else familiar with this Flat Stanley project sweeping the grade schools of America? It's great. Really cute. Clever sort of Amelie-esque idea...that is unless you're the recipient of a gazillion of these little bastards.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen & Neuschwanstein

Our first anniversary came upon us last weekend, and in keeping with the spontaneity of our marriage, we accepted a last-minute invite from our friends to join them in the German holiday hot-spot of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Located on the border of Austria and just 45 mins. south of Munich, this place has all the hiking and whatnot in the warmer seasons and all the skiing you could want in the snow season. Either way, it's a peaceful, beautiful place with an endless number of trails. We screwed up trying to meet our friends on a particular trail, but stumbled upon a gorge believed to be over 225 million years old. We woke up to the cows going out and showered to the cows coming home. More cowbell was definitely *not* needed here. The second day we hiked up and down a mountain for five or six hours. Despite the seven blisters, pulled hip, and getting caught in a steady rain, the scenery made up for it (we were there during Garmisch's prime display of autumn colors). We partook in Bavarian fare, which has convinced me that Skyline Chili's secret is either deer meat or goat meat (and check out their great wallpaper images!). God knows there are enough deer in Cincinnati to keep the business going. Anyway, check out the pictures on my Flickr page.

View from Neuschwanstein over Hohenschwangau

On our way home we also finally made it to Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney World/Land was based off of and is on virtually every German travel book out there. The actual castle itself (I do have a picture in the flickr collection though I think you can find better out there) is based on the operas of Wagner. Maybe we're jaded and have seen too many castles and cathedrals but the castle was so-so. Certainly not worth the amount you pay for the obligatory 35 minute tour that you have to take. I wanted a tour, but for as big as the castle is, for as much as you pay (9 Euros per adult), for as far as you travel to see the thing, for as long as you walk to get to it, and for as recently as it was built (1886, I think), you'd think you'd get a little more info than 35 minutes' worth. That's the warning for what you're going to get when you visit one of Germany's most popular landmarks. It's pretty, but I'd rather hike.

Amsterdam

For the love of God we finally made it here. Living in Europe almost tallies up to two years of my life (a year and two months in Germany + 7 month semester abroad stint in France = 1 year 9 months), and I was starting to think I'd never make it to the Hedonist capital of the world. Conclusion: I'd go back for their Thai food, alone. See, Germany has this tendency to "Germanify" various types of cuisines much like the States has the tendency to "Americanize" foreign fare. Germany's tactic? Pouring a dump truck load of salt on your dish. You'd think they were preparing for a blizzard about to hit your Chicken Pad Thai. Good luck washing that down with your eye dropper-sized water. Regardless of whether it was Americanized Thai, Dutchified, or the genuine thing, I partook in the wonderful sweeter Pad Thai that I remember as my favorite dish at Raan Phad Thai in Nieuwmarkt.

This is just around the Red Light District. And what, really, is there to say about the Red Light milieu that hasn't already been said? My brief take on it is: it's the only place that packs in more sensory overload than Jungle Jim's. I had this idea coming into Amsterdam that the women would be in windows a level up from the street, which some were. Most, however, stood behind doors with windows, right smack on the street level. So you'd walk along a building and be literally inches away from them, just on the other side of the glass. Some posed, some picked guys out of a crowd and lured them with various sexual gestures (these women put the pro in prostitute), and others sat idly in their windows, mindlessly chatting away on their cell phones. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors...with streets dedicated to various fetishes. I was slightly disappointed that there were no men in windows, be it for the female or gay population (and there is a gay district) as a sign that this truly was "the most open-minded" place in the world. I had never seen so many men (as varied as the women in the windows) in one place at one time. It was hard to figure out who was more interesting to watch.

The coffee shops were just as overwhelming. Enormous menus, delicious clouds, colorful people, and plain ol' disbelief. I wound up being disappointed enough in my choices that I found myself wishing even for college schwag.

The weather was so nice that we rented some bikes from Holland Bikes (the cheapest and least touristy-looking) and rode around the city and Vondelpark most of the time, only really making it to the Rijksmuseum which is 90% closed due to renovation. Probably one of Amsterdam's most overlooked landmark is the still functional Theater Tuschinski, the most beautiful cinema there ever was. Art Nouveau threw up on this place, inside and out. We caught the new Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (very funny) just to take in the atmosphere a little longer. Poor Aardman, though.

And lastly, a walk through the Jordaan neighborhood is highly recommended. With the exception of all the hub-bub around the Anne Frank house, it's a peaceful neighborhood with incredible architecture and shiny paint jobs. Whether craziness or peace, Amsterdam is truly a city of extremes. But you have to admit, the place has balance.