GRAPPPAAAAAAA

Italy did not disappoint in the food department and Sunday was probably the best day by far. Sunday was grappa day as we headed toward Bassano del Grappa and an infamous bruschetta restaurant that Jen went to with some of her friends in December while Scott was down range. 

Sunday morning it rained harder than all of Saturday, but was beautiful by the time we got there. The previous days rain had washed everything clean, however my allergies were back and with a vengeance. My eyes were bloodshot all day, but it didn't matter because BDG was amazing overall and the bruschetta restaurant was as good as Jen had advertised, better, really. 

It was too great for words, so here are pictures instead.

On top of amazing food and a beautiful view of everything, Bassano del Grappa is also a big city in WWII history. That huge beautiful bridge was bombed multiple times, lastly by the Nazis and you can see some wreckage throughout the city that was built around. The row of trees in the picture was rather humbling. Its called the Viale dei Martiri and it is were 33 partisans were hung from the trees by the Nazis as a statement to show the remaining partisans in the area their power. Each tree has a name with a cross or a picture on it with each person's name.

quite a wonderful city with lots of history. this is the link to the city's wikipedia and the goitaly site. if you get the chance, go here and you wont be disappointed. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassano_del_Grappa

http://goitaly.about.com/od/bassanodelgrappa/a/bassano-del-grappa.htm

we went to Marostica on the way back to Vicenza and stopped at a grappa store that Scott loves to get some of the goods. I bought chocolate cherry grappa and I can't wait to see ow that tastes over some ice cream. We walked around a bit and looked at the castle from the bottom of the mountain.. It's pretty cool, the city hosts a human chess game ever year, which is basically Harry Potter come to life. 

rain, rain, what the hell!?

saturday it rained. and by rained, i mean POURED. mostly the pouring scary rain was in themorning before we left, but we got to see it again for a bit on the way home... I was super excited for saturday because we were going to Parma!!! home of tasty tasty Parma ham and Parmesan cheese!!!! YES, why wouldn't i be incredibly excited for such a magical food bearing place! 

we got up and got on the road rather early so that we could spend most of the day there after the two hour drive down. Scott is a fantastic driver, and i didn't have any crazy anxiety with cars and trucks on the freeway my entire time in Italy!!! BEST WEEK EVER. Italy driving is crazy, the turnarounds and the lack of signals didn't make sense at first, it felt like complete chaos, however after being in it for a while  there, and then in spain too, it makes a lot of sense and traffic is rather fluid. anyway, we got on the highway and headed to Parma... 

Scott made sure that we stopped to get snacks at an Autogrill, which is basically the best thing ever associated with a road trip. In Europe, you have to pay to use the highway, so you don't want to get off the road prematurely... so they added little stops here and there.. these places are basically like a 7-11, but super nice with gourmet candies and snacks, the deli section of a supermarket with meats and cheeses and then a small take out restaurant all put together. You can get a kit kat dark or some kinder chocolates (that i'm really mad i can't bring back home with me) and some freshly cooked pasta and a cappuccino and get back on the road. We ended up buying better tasting cheeto-esque things, chocolate galore and sodas and whatnot before heading back out on the road. 

The rain cleared up for a while, but as we got closer to Parma, the heavier it became. We found parking on the outskirts of the city and grabbed our umbrellas and jackets and headed in. The city was gorgeous and I would like to go back when it's not 55 degrees and raining on and off while not being entirely prepared for it. The churches were great. We decided to go into one that was free and were pleasantly surprised by the frescas and the open layout of it. 

From there we walked around the city and found different monuments and things on the map we had.. the coolest buildings (i think) we saw were this one in a huge park, and another in one of the larger piazzas that had three different sun dials on it, date, time and location. It's too bad it wasn't sunny and "working" while we were there. We had pizza for lunch and roamed around the city some more. We had planned to stay for dinner and whatnot, but it got far too cold for Jen and I so we decided to start the trek home but not before getting caught up in a crazy traffic jam because the police closed of about 10 different streets and main access points while looking for a place to buy some sort of hammy product. We finally found a store on the way to the highway and we were greeted by the lovely dingy smell of aged meats and cheeses. I bought a hunk of speck that ended up being fantastic! Hopefully Jen and Scott are enjoying the rest of it. 

It went from rain to sun and back again on the trip home, but it was fun nonetheless. Always an adventure with crazy weather. We got back to the house, and putzed around for the rest of the night and getting ready for Sunday

Italy!!

wow. what a week. i'll try to break italy into a couple posts, but whow knows.. i might just go on forever.

needless to say, all the people that told me that i wouldn't want to come home were right, the ones that said that venice was going to be my favorite were wrong and the idea that i would love the food was completely spot on. the only bad thing about the entire week were my allergies. The part of Italy I was in is incredibly agricultural and therefore sneezy and crazy for me. oh... and the rain. so much rain, thunderstorms, lightening, everything. I was lucky that it didn't flood. When I was flying in from Madrid, we passed over a storm, and I saw the lightening but didn't think it would end up affecting much of my trip. Luckily it didnt. It ended up pouring friday and part of saturday but overall, rain is just water and it dries eventually

I landed on Wednesday night after an insane day and a half of traveling and flight connections. luckily all my luggage made it and we ended up landing 10 minutes early in venice..Thursday was spent getting registered on the army post, running errands and making sure that i had everything that i needed and getting food for the week. Part of my payment to Jen and Scott was that i had to make mexican food at some point, which happened. We went to dinner at a place called La Vecchia Fattoria that night. I had oricchette pasta with cherry tomatoes and broccoli. it was a great first meal and the food of Vicenza spoiled me, almost for the whole week! We also went to the fresh wine store and got three liters of wine from the tap. I had heard of this, but I'm still pretty sure it's magic. It was delicious wine and fairly cheap too. It was just over 5 euro for all the wine. Bring your own bottles, they fill and seal it for you, amazing.

Friday was spent resting and sleeping and then sleeping some more. My allergies had me incredibly congested and subsequently exhausted because of the inability to breath and sleep or just be comfortable in general. The different pollen was attacking my eyes and for 4 of the 7 days in Italy, i wanted to rip out my eyes. I fought through it though, no way i was going to miss out on such an amazing place. Friday night we went to dinner at a place a little further out of town. i don't remember the name, but I remember the food. I had the Bigoli pasta with duck ragu and had to take a moment while i had the first bite. It was heavenly. So good. Scott had penne with a pistachio sauce, and sliced chicken with mushrooms as his second course which was delicous and Jen had truffled fettuchini. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our food and I could have eaten that same meal the entire week and been happy. I am so grateful we didn't have a strict agenda and were able to move around plans so that i was able to get acclimated. The wine there was great too, I'll miss good house wines and the quality of the fresh wine available all over.

I never thought I would be so excited to not be in a plane for a week. Once I landed in Venice, this whole trip finally became real. All the work, the internet scouring for ticket prices, the stress and budgeting, everything was finally real and more than worth it. Seeing my friends was even better and knowing that they would get to show me the cool places they had found over the past couple years was ever exciting. After friday, I was almost back to normal, the swelling in my feet from the hours of traveling was about gone, the blisters were getting better and my allergies were calming down. I had scheduled a skype date with my family for Sunday afternoon (early morning back home) and was looking forward to the rest of my time in the Veneto area.

tuesdayyyyyy

well, tuesday morning was fun. I walked around SoHo a little more, and into the Bowery area. Got a new pair of Warby Parker sunglasses and a new pair of toms because my other shoes were eating my feet and giving me blisters everywhere.. from there, I went to eat at The Meatball Shop on Stanton. best decision of my day. After having their sandwich at Googa Mooga, I wanted to go and eat their stuff fresh. BEST. EVERRRRRR. 

The special of the day was a Chile Verde meatballs with salsa verde, the risotto was chives and scallions and everything looked and smelled delicious coming out of the kitchen. I sat at the bar, and the bartender was super nice and talkative. He gave me a copy of the Meatball Shop cookbook to browse through while I waited for my food and asked about where I was from and going and whatnot. I talked to the guy next to me a bit, who told me that he came in because he was craving their meatballs. To me, that says something. 

I ordered a slider of the chile verde goodness, the risotto and then a meatball sandwich with the spicy pork meatballs, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. I said I was going to take it with me to the airport, but that ended up being a total lie because I didn't realize how hungry I was. Apparently that happens when you don't eat the whole day. 

Here's how it looked:

From there, I went and picked up my luggage that I had stored, and headed to the airport. It was a beautiful day and i was sad to leave the house that morning, and sad to leave the city, but Italy and my friends were waiting. 

Check in and everything went well, and the flight on AirBerlin was great. BUT, I barely slept. the people behind me kept getting up and using my chair as their push off point, waking me up every 20 minutes or so. I was real mad. real real real mad. the food was good, there were free movies, tv, games and magazines on the little tv screens and it would have been even better if i had gotten sleep on an overnight trip. 

The Berlin terminal, where i had my 6 hour layover however, was crap. I'm just mad that I even had to be there. The chairs were awful, there were no plugs to charge anything and the food choices were yuck. The terminal itself was small, smaller than Long Beach Airport, but luckily the majority of people were really nice. The ride to Barcelona was okay, a little turbulent, but not too bad. My luggage made it everywhere safely, and the Barcelona airport was really nice. The flight to Madrid from BCN was sure to be the death of me, it was crazy turbulent and it felt like the pilot was doing things crazy on purpose, but really just ended up being a lot like the up and down of the flight to Oakland from LA. Madrid to Venice was really nice, I got to sleep on the last three flights, which was really nice, and seeing Jen and  Scott and knowing that I wasn't going to be on a plane for 7 whole days. 

More on Italy over the next few days, so far, the food is beyond words and i love everything other than the rain and the amount of nature that is causing my allergies to go insane. Oh well, dont care, its freaking great.

bah bah, bah bah bah bah

That morning, Kathi, Katharina and I headed downstairs to have breakfast, and talk about the day. We decided to go to Central Park, so they could ride in the boats on the lake, Shake Shake for lunch and then Greenwich Village and SoHo after. We debated on going sunset sailing, but that cost more than we all wanted to spend, so we chose finding a rooftop bar somewhere to see the sunset and the city lights once it was dark. 

We got ready and headed out... it was not even close to raining, more like, 80 degrees and humid as heck. After complaining for a bit on the walk to the bus, we sucked it up and went on with the day. We got to Central Park and walked around, finding lakes and bridges and fountains galore. Parks in New York are an interesting experience. In both Central Park and Prospect Park (in Brooklyn where Googa Mooga was), you are completely able to leave the city behind. It's kind of odd, but I really liked it. For such a fast paced, loud city, it's nice to have this place to escape to. 

I'm going to work on a way to stream the pictures from my Photo Stream in the sidebar or something so that you can see more than just the few that I post here and there :) 

In the park, we encountered geese, turtles and other wildlife we either hadn't seen, or hadn't seen that much of. The girls couldn't get over the squirrels and there were birds flying around that none of us had seen before. YAY WILDLIFE. We walked in along 72nd into the Strawberry Field area of the park. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of the Imagine circle, but there were about 50 people there trying to do the same thing, so i decided against it this time. We walked further into the park, toward the lakes and the boathouse (which is rather famous in its own right) so that  the girls could go boating and I could go explore. On the way, we found the Bethesda fountain and plaza. Under the driving bridge, there was a walkway that was tiled and had lots of arches. There was a quintet of performers singing and playing instruments under there and they sounded beautiful. We stopped to listen for a while before taking pictures at the fountain. We made it to the boathouse, the girls went on their adventure while I went on mine. I found more tunnels, saw more birds and things, sneezed a lot (my allergies started up since there was a ton of grass and foliage), found a walkway lined with benches, trees and busts of different composures. There was a small open air stage that looked somewhat like the Jefferson monument in DC and new grads everywhere since NYU had some of their ceremonies that day. 

I walked back to the boathouse after about an hour and met the girls so that we could head out of the park. We walked around the park, found the Belvedere Castle and then found our way out of the park. We ate lunch at Shake Shack, which was recommended to me by a friend. it was a great decision, see?

From there, we headed to Greenwich Village to walk around and see the area. We stopped for coffee, phone charging and rest. Once we had been at this super weird, kinda douchy coffee place for enough time, we decided to start walking toward the James Hotel where we decided to enjoy cocktails and the sunset overlooking the city and eventually, the city lights. While leaving GV, there was all of a sudden an abundance of cops and helicopters. We asked a few different cops, all of which were super nice, and apparently there was a demonstration because of a shooting that is a reported to be a hate crime. We decided that it was probably a good idea to head to SoHo and to the bar. 

We stopped at a starbucks and changed into dresses and headed a couple more blocks to the hotel. It was a total fancy schmancy hotel and had a pretty cool ambience. They had a wall made of old computer keyboards in the lobby and a neat rooftop bar. When we got up top, the bar was neat, the outdoor patio had a tiny little pool and the whole top floor was either the outdoor patio or had wall to ceiling windows. The drinks were normal, expensive cocktails but so well made by an incredibly nice and personable bartender. I had a mint julep in a gold cup and all i needed was a derby hat. it was incredibly humid and hot so it suited the day perfectly. As a whole, it was a great way to spend my last day, and night, in New York. 

That night, when we got back, I skyped home with my family and then stayed up til 4 packing and repacking my stuff. such organized chaos. 

sunday sunday

New York was absolutely fantastic, and I loved every part of being there. I wish it could have been for a longer amount of time, but it just gives me more reasons to go back. I'm going to break up Sunday, Monday and Tuesday into different posts, as a lot of things happened and if I don't, it'll go on forever. 

On Sunday, Kristin and I did a whole lot of nothing. it was actually rather fun. It was raining out and neither of us really wanted to deal with it. We were tired, sore and frustrated that it was raining steadily all day. I said in my last post that we were going to head to Hoboken for Cuban food... well, that didn't happen. at all. we decided to stay in Union City and hang out with each other at the house. At one point, we walked a few blocks down to eat before coming back. Maria, one of the owners, suggested that we go to Noches, a Columbian restaurant that was relatively new in the area, but that was really good and always busy. Away we went!

We got the umbrellas, jackets and whatever else we could find and headed down the street. When we got to Noches, we were seated right away and the waitress asked if we knew what we wanted to eat. By this point, around 5pm, we were starving because we had barely eaten - a HUGE change from Googa Mooga. She suggested their empanadas and brought us two. They were wonderfully light and not too filling, but hearty and delectable at the same time. Instead of being made with a pie crust, they were more cornmeal based with a light crunch. The filling was shredded beef and beans, it kind of tasted like Ramona's by El Camino which was fine by me. The empanadas came with slices of lime and their housemade hot sauce - pretty much salsa verde, but it was made really well and I wish I could have shipped home a gallon. Kristin ordered their Arroz con Pollo and I had the Huevos Rancheros. Holy freaking crap, so much food. Kristin's dish was basically a huge serving of saffron chicken fried rice, without the fry. It looked and tasted amazing. My food was just as good. The beans were mixed with rice, scallions and seasoned great, and the egg scramble had onion, tomato and tasted exceptional. Kristin's came with a salad, two pieces of fried sweet plantains, a third (!!!) of an avocado, an incredibly bland, dense arepa and a few plantain "fritters" that reminded me of latkes with far less flavor. Mine came with a third of an avocado and the dense arepa. The food was great, we ate about a third of it, and took the rest home. Both of us wanted a million empanadas to take with us as well. 

Kristin went home to Lancaster, PA that night, rushing to meet her train, which ended up having crazy engine issues the whole way back, but nevertheless, she made it. It was great to see her and we're already planning when we can get together again. I realized that I didn't post a picture of us from Googa Mooga, or at all... so here it is! 

I came back to the house and ended up meeting the other two girls that were staying there. They were German, both named Katharina, and we had a great conversation about our trips and everything. We all kept talking and made it downstairs where we had dinner, around 10/11pm but whatever. We talked and they found out that I cooked a lot and we started joking about making cakes and cookies.. and then I realized that the house had just about everything we were going to need to make something. We settled on chocolate peanut butter cookies with chocolate chunks. Someone had gotten Dean & Deluca cocoa powder that was mind blowing so we made sure to use that. The cookies came out great and all three of us did something, from measuring things, to chopping chocolate, to mixing and putting them in the oven. We had a great time and talked about everything until the first batch of cookies were done. We stayed up until 1 talking and making plans for Monday, as they invited me to see the city with them. 

No Sleep Til Brooklynnnnnn

yesterday was amazing. in all ways! 

Kristin got here around 1145 and we got ready, hung out at the house and got to meet the ther owner of the house. Jay and Maria are so amazing and nice and put so much work and love into their properties. We found out they live in each of their properties before they start renting them out and make sure that all the little nuances are there and that it feels like a home. They just bought another building about 5 blocks from the place i'm staying and they're going to spend the next year or so fixing it up and getting it ready to rent.. after they do that, they're most likely going to move back into the house that i'm staying in, since this was their first home after moving out of their apartment in Harlem. it has been so nice getting to know them, and it makes staying here even better. i will for sure be staying at their different properties whenever i come to the New York area and i will be sure to recommend them to anyone who wants to stay in the area. 

 (that's the view coming down the stairs of the house, no big deal)

we left the house and headed over to brooklyn and to googa mooga. it was drizzly and kinda windy, but we toughed it out. it was COMPLETELY WORTH IT. we got there, and got Crack Pie and a sweet and salty brownie from Baked to start off our day. from there, kristin went and got a cheeseburger from The Burger Joint and I got The Meatball Shop's Meatball BLT. absolutely fantastic. From there I went and got a half loaf of Gwynett St Whiskey bread with fresh cultured butter and their fresh strawberry rhubarb jam. i don't even like strawberry jam and i could have eaten a gallon of that stuff. Warm fresh baked bread with fresh butter and jam?! duh. perfect. after a while, i went and ordered a slice of pizza from South Brooklyn Pizza and the guy gave me an extra slice for free. yay! haha pizza was good, but i need more before i head out of the city. we milled around for a bit, kristin got a sweet and savory pizza with a chewy crust, ricotta, honey and salt and pepper. we ended up having a few beers and some wine, and then i got a chocolate filled syringe. WONDERFUL. just standing around, shooting chocolate into my mouth hanging out. hahaha it was awesome. The only thing that could have made googa mooga better was if things were sold in smaller portions. the sandwiches and stuff were full sized, and i think that put a limit on what you could eat. there were tons of things that i wanted to try, but my stomach and my pocket book are only so big. so yeah, next year, smaller portions of each thing, and i will buy them all. :) 

After we left GM around 730, Roy, my teammate and friend from college met up with us after a crazy long train ride, thanks to construction and weekend scheduling, and then a ridiculous cab ride where the cabby got pulled over for speeding and then a half a mile walk because he was fed up with transportation. Seeing him was one of the best things. I haven't seen him since 2006, but we've kept in touch via facebook and instagram. he's one of my most favorite people and when he walked up to meet us, i got the best 2 minute hug that i've ever received. Roy and Kristin got along great and we had a blast. Roy treated us for drinks at this corner bar that had the Knicks game on. First whiskey of the trip! haha after hanging out at the bar for a while, laughing at everything, we decided to head home. We left the bar and came upon a place called Dub Pie Shop and they had little savory hand pies and they were wonderful!! I got a New York Shepard's Pie. oh my god. so so so good!!! Roy lives in Jersey, we spent the majority of the trip home, and the crazy long subway waits together which was super fun. I love Brooklyn, and I can't wait to come back and see more of this part of New York. It's great, and artsy and reminds me a lot of Silver Lake. Prospect Park is gorgeous and woodsy, there were horses all over and so far, most people i've met have been great. 

We're heading to Hoboken soon for lunch and to take a picture or two of the Cake Boss bakery, and explore a little, even though it's raining. The rain is supposed to stop tonight, so hopefully i'll be able to adventure around the city tomorrow. I want to see a little of Central Park, hit of ?uestlove's new food stand in Chelsea Market, maybe check out a few more places on my list :) and eat more delicious food. I love being able to walk around and see such different parts of the same area. so much walking! i wish more things were this at home. 

Good news! Kristin brought some stain remover and yay! said tomato gravy splattering on my yellow scarf is gone!!! fannnntastic!