berliner.

spent a weekend (a few weekends ago now) frolicking around berlin with my friend from google emily who moved to berlin recently. awesome city. definitely already looking forward to going back. especially on a weekend where it's not a million degrees, because for each of the three days i was there the lowest day time temperature was 93 degrees.

i took an early morning flight on friday to berlin and arrived at emily's place around 11:00am or so. it was already pretty warm out at that point. we walked around her neighborhood - really cute, like a noe valley in san francisco - and stopped to grab lunch at a cafe. delish. all the while we stopped to take pictures of awesome street art which is everywhere in berlin. emily likes to say the city is a museum which is totally true.

thought my dad would like this one:

after lunch we walked around a few of the near by neighborhoods just exploring and taking pictures. it was a great walking city - really flat and all the neighborhoods flow into one another pretty easily. everything seems like a combination of old and new. makes sense considering the city's history is still evolving with the wall having just come down 20 years ago.

we stopped for gelato which was delish before heading inside for a nap to avoid the hottest part of the day tucked safely indoors. we enjoyed some dinner at a near by corner cafe before watching the sunset and enjoying some wine and AMAZING honey goat cheese on emily's balcony.

saturday we continued our explorations stopping at random cafes when we were too hot to continue (it was the hottest on saturday) and heading to local galleries to check out the 'real' art. i bought a cool print that i need to get framed. but mostly we just tried to stay out of the heat which kept us away from lots of touristy things. we ate dinner at this really good vietnamese place while watching germany compete for the third place spot in the world cup. it was cool to be there during the game - all the bars/restaurants had moved their tv's out onto the street because it was too hot to be inside anywhere so on nearly every street corner there were people watching tv outside. when they would score you could hear the whole neighborhood erupt in cheers. we met up with some of emily's friends that night and danced the night away at a one of the coolest bars/nightspots i have ever been to which was literally right on the river - like you could jump in from the deck if you wanted to.

on the last day i definitely wanted to see the wall before i left so we braved the heat one last time to a nearby neighborhood where a big piece of the wall still exists. on our walk we stumbled across a local fire department who were doing their part to keep berliners cool in the heat wave:

i wouldn't go in, but emily took the leap on the walk back.

we ended up at the wall in the scorching heat but it was still so interesting to see. it's only a portion that is left at this point as it was all knocked down 20 years ago. crazy to think that one day you lived in a country and the next day there was a wall dividing you which is pretty much how quickly the whole thing went up - overnight.

there is so much history here and so much still to be made considering most of the people still living in berlin were alive to remember when the wall went up and came down.

i really want to go back soon and see more of the touristy stuff that i missed due to the insane heat wave. all in all, it was a good trip to see a good friend, and despite the heat a good time was had.

beaching it. (and behind - i know.)

sorry for the lengthy update time. i'm actually a few posts behind but luckily have booked in nothing this weekend which means hopefully between saturday and sunday i can finally catch up.

a few weekends ago - wait - nearly a MONTH ago i took off to the coast of southern england as it was going to be a scorcher in the city (about 85-90ish degrees) which yes, i know, compared to the sweltering summers of the central valley might be considered a nice break, but when you in the middle of a humid cement covered city and not surrounded by delta breezes, it's a vastly different story.

after much research (which needed to be done because the only visit i did to a beach while studying abroad was brighton beach which is covered in rocks) i finally came across an area about two hours outside of central london by train called bournemouth which was apparently lush with golden sands. after some further research i came across a b&b which was half way between bournemouth and another coastal area known as poole. i was sold based on the fact the b&b was listed as five stars and mentioned being a short three minute walk from the beach.

let me tell you - i was not disappointed. after an easy, albeit crowded, train ride over i caught a ten minute cab ride to the hotel. i was greeted the friendly owners who told me my room wasn't ready but they could store my bag so i could head down to the ocean. that's one of the things i love about traveling here - all the hotels are so small and owned by actual people - not companies - most of the time. after my as promised three minute walk to the beach i arrived to perfect weather and golden sands just like i wanted.

i spent the remainder of the day beaching and napping and generally enjoying being able to wear a bikini while living in the uk - something i didn't think i would ever be able to do.

i headed back to the hotel a few hours later to change and explore the boardwalk which connected the actual town of bournemouth to where i was staying. got some cool shots along the way before grabbing dinner and heading back to my room to catch the usa soccer game.

this last one is taken on the little cliff you walk over to get down to the beach from my hotel. there really aren't many sunsets to catch here in the uk so i take what i can get with these.

the next day was more of the same in terms of beaching and sunning. the weather was amazing the whole time i was there so definitely had to take advantage of it as soft sand and sunny days don't come around all that often here.

the beach cliffs are pretty cool here. caught a good one of the blue skies against the white cliffs.

all in all it was great weekend and i would go back in heart beat. you can take the girl out of california, but you can't take the love of the beach out of the girl.

full album here:

Bournemouth and Poole

kew gardens.

a few weekends ago i decided to explore in london which lead me on a smallish journey to a place called kew gardens. it's at the end of the district line - the green one if you are looking at a tube map - and is basically just a botanical garden. with the weather starting to get nice for spring/summer though i figure might as well spend as much time outside as possible before it becomes impossible to do so.

you get off the tube and you are in a tiny little suburb of london. there is literally one pub, one bookstore, a small cafe, and a small grocery store right near the station. you walk down a tree lined street with amazing houses and end up at the entrance to the gardens.

the place is huge - i was probably there for about 5 hours including lunch and don't think i saw everything. it's a great place to take some food and just sit and relax for the afternoon, except for the fact that it's right in heathrow's flight path so there are a lot of planes going over head.

a few of my favorite shots from the day -

the poor peacock was being chased by children who had clearly never seen a peacock. i think it was turning to me for help.

there is a cool tree top walkway they built that let's you walk around and see the gardens from above.

there were multiple green houses with different "themes". these were taken at the water lilly house.

taken inside another one of the greenhouses. you can climb up the stairs and walk around the top of them, but boy was it hot in there. heat certainly does rise.

stateside.

back in jolly old england after a glorious three week adventure home in california. the time was really packed full of good friends, delicious food, and some fun adventures stateside to remind me of all the cool things there are to do outside of places where pounds and euros are accepted.

i had to come home for a work conference during which i accomplished two major things - 1.) showing all the londoners what real mexican food tastes like and 2.) proving that it is NOT always sunny in california like everyone here seems to think. the conference was in monterrey, where is was nothing but grey and cold during the entire three days.

thankfully i had plans to skedaddle to warmer climates, heading down to las vegas and the grand canyon. four of us jetted down to the vegas strip for three days, and then rachael and i stayed on for the long journey to the canyon from there. we spent the entire last day in vegas in the lap of luxury at the four seasons pool (will always be grateful for rach's four seasons connections!). they brought us frozen fruit to munch on, spritzed our faces with evian water, and cleaned off our sunglasses. the absolute definition of vacation.

on monday we headed out through the hoover dam and into the arizona deserts, but not before stopping to take in the sites. taken on the hoover dam:

we continued on, dining at a diner on route 66 on the way. finally, after about 5 hours in the desert we arrived at the sleepy little town of carefree, arizona. yes - that's the real name of the town. the speed limit is 5 mph everywhere, and according to the bellhop at the hotel, you get looked at sideways for anything over 10 mph. it seemed to be a place where people go to retire or have a vacation home or something.

we spent the next day at the near by outlet malls scooping up some deals, before driving north to sedona, arizona about 2 hours away. let me say, that it was my fault we were so far away from anything of interest. i saw the good deal on the hotel and thought arizona is pretty small - nothing can be THAT far away. wrong. we wanted to go to sedona and the canyon while we were there which were 2 hours and 3.5 hours away respectively.

if we had it to do again, i would have just stayed in sedona. it was beautiful. not only gorgeous, but a great little sleepy vacation town, with plenty of nice resorts (which i think is one of the best things about arizona - the resorts). full of amazing vistas and delicious food, sedona was my kind of town.

this was taken on the drive into the actual town of arizona. there are all these little vista points you can turn off onto. really just gorgeous. we walked around the town a bit and then iphoned like mad looking for a dinner spot at the previously selected choice was closed on the day we were there. we ended up selecting a highly well reviewed albeit pricey place in the woods. it was AMAZING. again, really expensive but totally worth it. who knew arizona was foody heaven?

the next day we woke up early as i could manage and headed out for the canyon with some to go pancakes for the drive. it took about 3.5 hours but the drive was nice. up through arizona deserts into the flagstaff area which is somewhat mountainous and more like colorado then deserts. and then the canyon is about 45 minutes from flagstaff. we had booked a tour on the way since we were only there for a day and wanted to see as much as possible. with our tour we got a free ticket to the grand canyon imax experience, though both rach and i dozed off after the early start. oppsies. shortly after we met our guide and headed into the canyon.

two words - holy crap. this was the FIRST picture i snapped right after i saw the thing -

the thing just takes your breath away. our guide was saying how most people say "it doesn't look real" when they see it. he then went on to explain that it's because your brain has no point of reference to compare it to - there is nothing in our memory we have previously seen that can compare to it's size and depth. pretty nuts. here's a picture of our guide. he was such a misplaced california hippy, though he was saying flagstaff is pretty liberal. hard to believe based on current laws passed there.

we went around to a few different viewing points, all the while snapping pictures that just looked like rocks and really didn't do it justice at all. here's one from the watch tower where you can see the colorado river.

the canyon was fantastically amazing. well worth the 3.5 hour drive and all. there really aren't any words to describe it or anything to compare it to - it's just awesome. and big. really big.

we drove back to vegas the next day before catching a (three hour delayed) flight home. safe to say the vegas airport bar never saw better customers. :) friday i hung out in the city with friends still having the time off, and then went out to dinner at farmer brown before seeing 'in the heights' (which was awesome - definitely see it if you can. i downloaded the album after, which is a sign i REALLY loved a musical.) saturday i went to the a's game with lauren and sabine, before meeting up with marie for dinner in burlingame. and then sunday brunch was held at the tipsy pig in my old stomping grounds - the marina. highly recommend strawberry fields there - perhaps my favorite cocktail of all time. spent the next few days seeing as many friends as possible and enjoying more delicious dinners at range and flour + water - really liked flour + water - definitely go for the pasta if you go, and range was delicious too. yum.

after my dining adventures in the city, i headed home-home to courtland to celebrate the high school graduation of the infamous jacob harris, followed by some fun time on the waters of the california delta before boarding an overnight flight back to my new home. there will always only be one home-home though.

my first spring.

i am headed back to sunnier climates (or at least what i hope will be sunnier as it was quite cold here today), but before i hopefully board a plane to california, barring any further ash-pocolypse, i wanted to share some photos of my first spring.

the parks in london are impeccable. daffodils and tulips spring right out of the ground, and regent's park is designed like the queen's garden, i'm guessing because it probably actually was the queen's garden at some point, but it's just gorgeous. the thing about the weather here is while everyone says it's drab and gloomy (and don't get me wrong - it can be), when the sun comes out the whole city glows. the skies are bluer, the sun yellower, the trees greener, and you just appreciate it all so much more.

a few photos i snapped -

park near where i work. took this on my walk to the bus.

regent's park tulips.

if anyone ever considers coming to visit, i highly recommend spring. it's just amazing.

see everyone on another continent!

the oregon coast of europe.

just returned from my three day adventure to cascais, portugal. a few weeks ago i had realized, a bit late in the game, that we got a four day weekend here for easter (friday through monday off). now mind you, i had realized this much sooner in the year when i was calendaring all my new and unusual holidays, but had forgotten about it until 2 weeks beforehand. and apparently everyone goes away for the 4 day weekend here leaving to scramble to find a reasonably priced holiday option. i immediately visited my two favorite travel websites. luxurylink.com and travelzoo.co.uk (both work in the US if anyone is looking to book in a vacation. luxurylink is actually US based and travelzoo has travelzoo.com). travelzoo came through in the clutch with a fantastic deal for the grand real villa italia in cascais. i had never been to portugal and it was definitely on my list of places to hit and after scouring flight sites for a deal (please note, none were found so i had to pay a bit more than i wanted for the flights - the curses of 4 day weekend travel booked 2 weeks before) i was set and ready to head of to portugal hoping for warm temperatures and poolside days.

well, the weather was warmer, but not warm enough for poolside days. it hovered somewhere between 64 and 70 while i was there. i left early friday morning and luckily due to the expensive flight i bought, was kindly admitted to the british airways lounge where i enjoyed breakfast and was shielded from the extremely over crowded airport. it was nuts in there. after breakfast, i boarded my flight where i had a classy little lunch of fine portuguese meats, cheeses and fruits. i really need to stop flying at levels above my pay grade. it gives me illusions that i can afford flying like that all the time.

i landed in lisbon and took the airport shuttle to the main train station that would then take me to cascais. after some negotiating and translating of portuguese into spanish at that was the nearest language i could conger up at the time, i managed to secure a ticket and was on a train headed up the coastline. if you ever go to cascais i would recommend taking the train. it winds up the coastline, is cheap, and only takes about 30 minutes from lisbon. trains run pretty much every 20 minutes during the day and overall it was a really easy public transport experience once i figured out the ticket thing. and what was i greeted by along the coastline but a mini-golden gate bridge!!

we actually flew over it on the way into lisbon so i was excited when the train went right by it and i could snap a picture. about 30 minutes later i had arrived in cascais and after pulling up the hotel in my gphone (google phone) with google maps (don't know how i traveled before smart phones) and it was about a 20 minute walk away. being as it was sunny out and i had spent most of my budget on the flights for this trip, i hoofed it. i quickly came to realize 1.) cascais was a small town and 2.) pretty easy to navigate. i knew the hotel was near the water so i just walked along the coast until i found it. one thing that is tough about walking anywhere in europe though is the cobble stoned streets. really does havoc on a wheely suitcase.

arrived at the hotel unscathed, but can't say the same for my suitcase. i was amazingly surprised that travelzoo did me a solid - the hotel was amazing!! i couldn't have asked for better. and again, i need to stop getting myself in situations where i think this is how i can afford to travel regularly. here's the view of the atlantic from my room.

after soaking up the fact that i had a giant king bed, sitting area, balcony, soaking tub, steam shower and view of the atlantic all to myself i decided to head out and explore the town. i realized i had actually seen most of it on my walk in but wandered in and out of some of the little streets and through some of the shops. i walked down to the lighthouse and around town some more.

i ended up dining at a cute little restaurant that overlooked the lighthouse too. had grilled sardines that were delcious. also, have to send a special shout to out to friends like diana and rachael who have both made me eat sardines (or at least try them) on seperate occasions. i never would have ordered them otherwise and they were amazing. once you get over the image of the greasy things come out of a can, actual real ocean sardines are great.

saturday morning i woke up to grey skies. i wanted to rent a bike later in the day so walked in cascais again wandering through more alleyways and hidden streets. i also got to try the most famous gelato in all of cascais. i had walked by this place the day before but the line was literally at least 30 people long so i passed it up. i happened to be walking by the next day just as they were opening and snuck in before the crowds. it definitely lived up the lines.

the grey skies didn't deter me from renting a bike and heading up the coast. cascais actually has free bike rentals at multiple locations to encourage people to bike instead of drive alone the coast. there are also nice roads and trails. and to be honest, it reminded me LOTS of the oregon coast. the bike guy actually told me when i turned the bike back in or at least that he gets told a lot that its like oregon and california. proof below. in the end it was raining too much to make much of a day of it and i gave up after about 2 hours of biking. i headed back to the hotel, changed, and of course as the sun had come out by this time, i decided to head into lisbon and check things out there as i was now without bike.

lisbon was great as well. lots of cool streets and amazing sidewalks. i think it's a thing in all of portugal, but the sidewalks are paved in these amazing patterns and are different on almost every street. this was probably one of my favorite things about portugal. it just seemed so unique and beautiful.

i spent a few hours wandering, had dinner, and then trained back over to cascais just in time to catch a few night shots of the city.

this one might be my favorite from the trip, but it's hard to say.

sunday was fairly low key. as a part of my travel zoo i had free access to spa facilities so spent most of sunday morning in the steam room (i know - my life is hard) and then down by the pool reading my book before having a small lunch at the hotel and walking back to the train station to begin the journey home. of course the saddest part was walking to the train station during the sunniest/warmest time of the whole trip. i then had the saddest sandwich ever on the economy flight back - a cruel reminder of the flight status i can afford. :(

all in all it was a great trip. i really loved portugal. would definitely go back, but also think if anyone there is jealous - just take a bike ride down the oregon coast like my dad did. :)

full album here.

parisian celebration.

i celebrated my 26th birthday in france last weekend. a special thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes and all my fun treats. here are the flowers sabine sent over. :)

celebrated the actual birthday at the pub with a few co-workers. followed it up the next night by treating myself to 'dirty dancing' the musical which was amazing. it was basically like watching the film happen live. they say all the same lines and of course have all the same songs/dances etc. thursday was a co-workers going away party so continued the celebrations and then friday i was off to paris to meet up with diana.

i was greeted by beautiful (albeit) cold weather. there was no cloud cover which meant it was super sunny but super cold as well. i had some lunch (a crepe of course) and headed to the musee de orsay which was amazing. one of the favorite museums i been to - just the space is beautiful. it's an old rail station so the ceiling is made of glass and there is lots of light. i also meandered around notre dame since it was so near our hotel then took a nap. although the nap was bad because it made me miss the eiffle tower at sunset but i did manage to get there just in time to catch the of the sparkle and a few night shots.

diana got in about at about 11:00pm and we just walked around the neighborhood a bit debating whether or not to get crepes.

the next day we got up and headed to a delicious little bakery and ate delicious little pastries for breakfast. when picked up some macaroons and proceeded to walk through the jardin luxemborg towards the rodin museum which again was really cool. it was an old mansion they turned into a museum with an outdoor sculpture garden. it's a smaller museum so it feels really manageable and not overwhelming at all. we walked there through some really cute side streets popping into shops every once in a while to get out of the cold. there was a really cool shop that made ballet slippers that was just adorable. good thing i didn't go in to that one because those suckers (i later learned) are expensive.

after the museum we got lunch at a delicious little asian restaurant diana knew of and then wandered through the jewish quarter and over to the most amazing little tea salon. who knew the french loved tea as much as the brits? definitely have tea in a tea salon if you go to paris. the one we went to was called mariage but there are a few others that we passed up such as la duree. after our superb tea we headed back to the champs de lysses and checked out the fancy shops and then walked home through the concorde area where i caught this night shot thanks to my nearly dead camera battery.

we walked all the way back to the hotel from there but were nearly half frozen. we took a nice break then grabbed a late dinner at a delicious little restaurant near our hotel diana hear was good. i had an amazing steak. just melt in your mouth buttery delicious. yum. we conked out early after our super packed day. after all, i am old now. :)

sunday diana had an earlier flight then me so we just got up, grabbed breakfast, and grabbed some macaroons for her trip home from la duree. from left to right - lemon, orange blossom, passion fruit chocolate, coffee, raspberry, and green apple. i definitely think the orange blossom was my favorite. so light and fluffy with the perfect amount of stickiness.

after diana left i went to the louvre. it was freezing cold that day. literally - it was -1c below outside. the louvre was amazing but pretty overwhelming. it's just so big and there is so much to see. i should have gone in with a game plan, but i'm sure there will be more trips in the future where i can fully stake it out. if you go, definitely take a couple days and have a plan of everything you want to see - because there's a lot. i really only caught the highlights because there were just so many people and i didn't feel like laying out a plan right then and there. look how big some of the hallways are! but it was really amazing. saw the mona lisa and the venus de milo which even on their own were cool. plus it was the first sunday of the month which meant it was free to get in. which is probably also why it was pretty crowded.

after the louvre i walked through the nearby park over to the concorde area again and then back over to st. germain where our hotel was. i was nervous about getting back to the hotel after my last trip to paris circa 2003 ended in such a disaster trying to get home so i wanted lots of time to get back to the airport. good thing two considering the two minor disasters. first - i bought a train ticket to the airport and was putting it in the turnstyle while trying to maneuver my luggage under the turny thing when someone who was in a much greater rush then me shoved her ticket in the machine and grabbed mine instead of hers as she ran past. this left me with a regular ticket and her somewhere with my train ticket. i tried to explain to the train people what had happened but my french didn't come across so well apparently so i had to buy another train ticket with 30 seconds of buying my first one. argh.

oh well. not such a big deal. i board the train and head off to the airport or so i thought. i ended up in a small town outside paris realizing i had taken the train in the right direction but on the wrong track. i had to pay for another ticket back to paris and then finally caught the right train to the airport. thank goodness i left myself plenty of time! i was no where near late but still, given my previous luck leaving paris i wasn't putting anything out of the question. good thing i stopped for a baguette on my way out of town so i at least at something to eat on this journey because the food at the paris airport when i finally arrived sucked. they have the most delicious bread/cheese/wine in the world and can't get their airport food right - go figure.

and then after all that when i finally got back to london the tube was being worked on meaning i had to take a bus to another tube before i finally got home. phew. a pretty eventful ending to an otherwise relaxing and easy trip. diana is great to travel with - she has everything planned and lots of options for things to do but is flexible enough that when things don't go as planned she doesn't sweat it. that's kind of the way you have to be when you travel. and i like it.

more on other london happenings and this most recent weekend later. i'm all blogged out.