Just arrived in Barcelona...already love it! It seems a bit crazy, which I like. Fariba, who I am staying with here, has been delayed in New York, so will be arriving in the morning. For those of you who know Barcelona, I´m in the Barri Gotic, near Placa George Orwell. And if anyone wants to call me, my number here is (00 34) 933.027.495. This is the apartment number, so if I´m not there I obviously won´t answer...but give me a try! Would love to hear from you.
Today´s treat: Beverly Hills 90210 reruns dubbed in Spanish.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Dia numero dos en Madrid
Today is just as hot, but I like the idea of taking a nap when the hottest part of the day hits...mornings are lovely and cool. The Prado was amazing yesterday, and I was suprised at seeing the amazing paintings of Bosch (El Bosco en Espana) including the Garden of Delights--insane! I learned a lot about Goya, Velazquez, and El Greco, too, of course.
Today was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which houses Picasso´s Guernica. It was much bigger than I expected, and the sketches that Picasso did to prepare for the painting were really illuminating. What an amazing work. Cool museum, too.
I´ve had enough art for at least a week, though. Feel a bit on overload.
Lunch at a vegetarian place in a great neighborhood, Malasaña. Also overloaded on jamon, both from España and Italia. Time now for siesta and then dinner...Barcelona mañana.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
en Madrid
Hola, mis amigos! It has been too long, I know, since I have written. After Milano, my parents and I went up to the Italian Lakes to stay on Lake Como in Menaggio.
It was very beautiful, but a little loud. We ventured over to Lugano in Switzerland, which was expensive and a bit snooty--a contrast to the friendly, loud Italians.
On Friday 15 June we headed to Bellagio across the lake which was very cute and had some delicious local pasta in the cutest cafe.
After Bellagio and a crazy thunderstorm while on the ferry back to Menaggio (!) we headed to Como so that I could catch the shuttle to Malpensa Airport in Milan to pick up Xander. A somewhat disasterous evening after hours of delays and my parents abandoning me in Milan, but Xander eventually arrived and we got a last-minute hotel room in Milan at a bizarre place near the church housing the Last Supper. It was wonderful to see his smiling face again, and we had a lovely evening anyway.
The next day we jump on the train back to Malpensa airport after I had my brand-new iPod stolen (sniff, sniff, but who needs material goods?), and meet Katie at the train station. My parents are waiting at Malpensa to pick us up and head down to Tuscany where our villa awaits. The folks and Xander meet, and of course it´s a bit awkward, but we all jump into the car and we´re off.
After about 4 and a half hours (we thought it would be two!!) of extremely windy and harrowing roads, we arrive at Rustico Lamola, which leaves me speechless it is so beautiful.
And those of you who know me know that it is hard to shut me up. We head down to Castelnuovo de Garfagnana, the largest town nearby (10 mins or so), to pick up supplies and eat, and then promptly get lost on the sickeningly windy (not WIND-y, WYND-y) roads for an hour and a half.
The next day, we´re off to Pisa to see the leaning tower and drop off Xander at the airport, but not after Xander puts the finishing touches on my folks´ adoration for him (and makes me love him more) by cooking us the most delicious farmer´s omelet EVER for breakfast. That guy. Pisa is hot and full of plastic leaning towers, and I hate to see X go. But I must. I´ll see him again in three weeks.
The following week we spend between lazing around by the pool, cooking up bowls of pasta, exploring beautiful Garfagnana, going to BLOODY hot Firenze and sweating in the non-airconditioned train back, and going to very very cute Lucca.
My aunts and uncles arrive in the middle of the week, and we have lots of fun with them, too.
Katie and my parents leave early saturday morning to head home, and I head to my aunts and uncles villa for a couple of days before heading to Spain on Monday 25. And here I am in Madrid.
It feels good to be alone again, or felt good anyway...but now I´m ready to have some companions. In a city which begins its nightlife at 10 PM and continues it early into the next moring, it would be fun to have someone to pal around with! But I´m enjoying it anyway, and Madrid seems familiar--like NYC but in Spanish, with more meat and better, cheaper wine.
Saw the Prado today, it was overwhelming but I revived myself with some gazpacho and a glass of vino tinto. Nap time, then a little shopping to energize me. Tonight, some tapas and then maybe a little churros y chocolate?
More soon...
It was very beautiful, but a little loud. We ventured over to Lugano in Switzerland, which was expensive and a bit snooty--a contrast to the friendly, loud Italians.
On Friday 15 June we headed to Bellagio across the lake which was very cute and had some delicious local pasta in the cutest cafe.
After Bellagio and a crazy thunderstorm while on the ferry back to Menaggio (!) we headed to Como so that I could catch the shuttle to Malpensa Airport in Milan to pick up Xander. A somewhat disasterous evening after hours of delays and my parents abandoning me in Milan, but Xander eventually arrived and we got a last-minute hotel room in Milan at a bizarre place near the church housing the Last Supper. It was wonderful to see his smiling face again, and we had a lovely evening anyway.
The next day we jump on the train back to Malpensa airport after I had my brand-new iPod stolen (sniff, sniff, but who needs material goods?), and meet Katie at the train station. My parents are waiting at Malpensa to pick us up and head down to Tuscany where our villa awaits. The folks and Xander meet, and of course it´s a bit awkward, but we all jump into the car and we´re off.
After about 4 and a half hours (we thought it would be two!!) of extremely windy and harrowing roads, we arrive at Rustico Lamola, which leaves me speechless it is so beautiful.
And those of you who know me know that it is hard to shut me up. We head down to Castelnuovo de Garfagnana, the largest town nearby (10 mins or so), to pick up supplies and eat, and then promptly get lost on the sickeningly windy (not WIND-y, WYND-y) roads for an hour and a half.
The next day, we´re off to Pisa to see the leaning tower and drop off Xander at the airport, but not after Xander puts the finishing touches on my folks´ adoration for him (and makes me love him more) by cooking us the most delicious farmer´s omelet EVER for breakfast. That guy. Pisa is hot and full of plastic leaning towers, and I hate to see X go. But I must. I´ll see him again in three weeks.
The following week we spend between lazing around by the pool, cooking up bowls of pasta, exploring beautiful Garfagnana, going to BLOODY hot Firenze and sweating in the non-airconditioned train back, and going to very very cute Lucca.
My aunts and uncles arrive in the middle of the week, and we have lots of fun with them, too.
Katie and my parents leave early saturday morning to head home, and I head to my aunts and uncles villa for a couple of days before heading to Spain on Monday 25. And here I am in Madrid.
It feels good to be alone again, or felt good anyway...but now I´m ready to have some companions. In a city which begins its nightlife at 10 PM and continues it early into the next moring, it would be fun to have someone to pal around with! But I´m enjoying it anyway, and Madrid seems familiar--like NYC but in Spanish, with more meat and better, cheaper wine.
Saw the Prado today, it was overwhelming but I revived myself with some gazpacho and a glass of vino tinto. Nap time, then a little shopping to energize me. Tonight, some tapas and then maybe a little churros y chocolate?
More soon...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Milano
After being upgraded for the first time ever on a transatlantic flight, I arrived in Milan today completely exhausted and sweaty (nice)...and really wishing I wasn't in, basically, NYC, but this time I couldn't speak the language and the Metro was dingier than the subway (yes, this is possible).
...after lugging my luggage onto the Malpensa Express and through the metro, I arrive at my hotel and succumb to a nap.
So I hit the sack once I got to the hotel, which was nice, and took a shower, and felt like new again. Once I put the ol' iPod earbuds in the ears and hit the pavement, i fit right in. I still am a bit in awe that I am here after all this planning--isn't it strange that we always talk about trying to live in the moment, but so often the "moment" is surreal and you don't really understand or even experience it until much later?
So, I went to the Duomo, which is a-mazing and very spiritually influential (is that weird to say?) and then treated myself to some gelato after climbing the stairs to the roof of the Duomo.
only fair, I say. Nothing puts the world to rights like a good cone of gelato. What the heck do they put in those cones? and the gelato? Jesus.
And I'm glad to know that Milan has the crazy folk, too. There was a dude (for those of you who know my musician neighbor from 107 Christopher, he sort of looked like him gone very wrong) singing about letting a woman go, how much he loved her, at the top of his lungs for a good 10 minutes. I felt quite at home. Milan is very much like New York, the fashions very similar on the ladies, but the men of course have their huge tie knots and thick black curly hair. They all walk around like they have somewhere VERY important to be like the New Yorkers, and even with tennis shoes and pants on, I had dirty ankles from walking around the city, just like at home.
It's a cool place, but I'm ready for something different...Lake Como tomorrow, and well-anticipated...
xo
...after lugging my luggage onto the Malpensa Express and through the metro, I arrive at my hotel and succumb to a nap.
So I hit the sack once I got to the hotel, which was nice, and took a shower, and felt like new again. Once I put the ol' iPod earbuds in the ears and hit the pavement, i fit right in. I still am a bit in awe that I am here after all this planning--isn't it strange that we always talk about trying to live in the moment, but so often the "moment" is surreal and you don't really understand or even experience it until much later?
So, I went to the Duomo, which is a-mazing and very spiritually influential (is that weird to say?) and then treated myself to some gelato after climbing the stairs to the roof of the Duomo.
only fair, I say. Nothing puts the world to rights like a good cone of gelato. What the heck do they put in those cones? and the gelato? Jesus.
And I'm glad to know that Milan has the crazy folk, too. There was a dude (for those of you who know my musician neighbor from 107 Christopher, he sort of looked like him gone very wrong) singing about letting a woman go, how much he loved her, at the top of his lungs for a good 10 minutes. I felt quite at home. Milan is very much like New York, the fashions very similar on the ladies, but the men of course have their huge tie knots and thick black curly hair. They all walk around like they have somewhere VERY important to be like the New Yorkers, and even with tennis shoes and pants on, I had dirty ankles from walking around the city, just like at home.
It's a cool place, but I'm ready for something different...Lake Como tomorrow, and well-anticipated...
xo
Sunday, June 10, 2007
...and here is my life, or at least my stuff, in storage in Hoboken.
So, as I said, I put my things in storage. Many years of toiling away in publishing, at it all fits into a 10' x 10' space in New Jersey.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
I Heart New York
I'll miss my friends very, very much, of course...and the culture, like the Met and the MoMA, and theatre, and just the everyday conversations you have with strangers, and the architecture, and spring, when everything is in bloom, and the yoga community at Laughing Lotus.
On the other hand, I won't miss the filth, the constant barrage of your senses, the keeping up with the lifestyle that you can't help but engage in. I also won't miss the constant stream of money out of my bank account. But I will always love NYC. It's the best city in the world.
Here is a picture of Xander for those of you who have been asking for one...
Xander and I met at WXOU, a local bar we frequented in the West Village that was within stumbling distance of 107 Christopher, when he and his family were visiting from Holland. So, after months of dating (very) long-distance and a couple of trans-Atlantic trips, I'm headed to Spijkenisse in July. Herrings, Heineken, and Gouda here I come!
My apartment...and my life.
So here are my bedroom and my roofeck in my ex-apartment in the West Village, NYC. It was a great apartment, in a great neighborhood. It was "nice", and really represented the "success" that I found in my career...but I still wasn't happy. I knew that I needed to leave the publishing industry, at least temporarily, and leave New York. I felt stifled by everthing that I had, everything I worked so hard for. It was almost like these things were suffocating me. So, I decided to leave, to quit my job, to put my things in storage, and get on a plane for Europe until I figured some things out.
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