Luica’s Blog

I was really looking forward to seeing the former politically complex capital of Germany. Having visited Munich last year, I had a brief impression about German cities, although I was expecting something different from Berlin.

Our hotel was on the former West side, so we spent our first few hours in the West, which is similar to Munich. I was not disappointed when I finally saw the East side. It was a surreal experience to stand in front of war-torn buildings that are peppered with bullet holes while buying tacky souvenirs including bits of the former Wall. It was daunting to be at the Jewish Memorial and feeling the saddness and spookiness of the Holocaust.

Even though Checkpoint Charlie is nothing but another cheesy tourist spot now, it was interesting to see the actual place where East met West and to know more about the subject. I bought a book called ‘Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall’ from the Dokumentationszentrum Berliner Mauer and decided that it was time to catch up with my European history.

It is the time of year when my mum visits. After Paris, Edinburgh, Brussels and Bruges in previous years, we thought somewhere in Spain would be the logical choice for a short break in Europe. The first time I visited Barcelona back in 1999, I was travelling on my own. Luckily, I met some friendly travellers from the UK and Korea, and had a great time. It surprised me how much I remembered about the trip and the places I went to with my backpacker friends.

The situation was quite different this time. Even though we did not stay in a five-star hotel (quite the contrary, the hotel we were in - Hotel Peninsular - had only a one-star rating and was an ex-convent), we had a little more money to spend on food. The result was having two big meals everyday in great restaurants, including Bar Central at Mercat de la Boqueria; Set Portes, a popular choice amongst the locals; Los Caracoles, where they are known for their snails and chicken and the 4 Cats, where Picasso had his first exhibition.

Mum and Lisa had a great time shoppping from clothes and shoes to Salami and Chorizo, whilst Brad and I took advantage of the prefect weather and spent most of our time looking for good spots for photography.

In between stop-overs at the resturants and shops, we visited La Pedrera and Parc Güell. It was at night when I went up to the roof top of La Pedrera before, so it was nice to take some day shots of the interesting architecture. We also spent a relaxing afternoon at Parc Güell. I liked the fact that the Park was busy but still had plenty of space to sit down and enjoy the view.

We were wandering around Copenhagen trying to find a restaurant that did traditional Danish cuisine. Without any luck, we even failed to find any decent restaurants that are open during the Easter break.

We ended up entering this posh-looking restaurant but were convinced that it should not be too expensive as set dinner was all they had left at 9pm.

The next thing we knew was that we were given a glass of Champagne (1999 Tocai Italiaco, Schiopetto - Friuli) each even before we had a look at the set menu.

The set dinner menu turned out to be a five-course dinner with accompanying wines - we had gratinated artichoke on a ‘Taleggio’ sauce and gnocchi of ricotta rolled in a ‘Cime di rapa’ sauce, with a glass of 1998 Merlot, Braccesca - Toscana for Antipasti; breast of duck with pearl onions, savoy cabbage, orange and grappa sauce, accompany a glass of 1989 Barbaresco Ris. Montesommo, Maria di Feyles - Piemonte (which was gorgeous!); for dessert, I had ‘Spuma’ with cardamom on pineapple sauce and ‘Meringata’ with forest berries, with a glass of lovely 2004 Moscato D’Asti, Morandina - Piemonte (which could easily be my favourite dessert wine) while Brad had a selection of fine Italian cheese with a 1997 Amarone Dei Giali, Sant’ Antonio - Veneto.

We had some fantastic wines, lovely food and excellent service (and we liked the silver cutlery). In return, we paid over €300!!!

This had to be the most expensive meal we’ve ever had and will have for a long time to come.

When we decided to come to Copenhagen for Easter, we were expecting a nice and quiet break and perhaps some kitchen-ware shopping, as we both like the simple but stylish Scandavian design. However, it wasn’t until this afternoon, we realised that all the shops would be closed by 5pm and they are not going to be open on Sunday. We literally had one hour left to shop after hunting for a place for a quick bite at around 3pm. It was a bit of a rush in the end and we only managed to get a pair of espresso spoons from the George Jensen shop. I wouldn’t say it was a very successful shopping trip and it was clearly a bit stressful.

Luckily, we had a very relaxing morning at a small café called Café Alma, which offered delicious home-made chocolate cakes and nice strong lattes. We had a lazy but refreshing morning, so were both pretty relaxed by the evening.

My first Thanksgiving dinner was great fun! Queenie and I went to a supermarket on West 4th Street and picked-up some ingredients for dinner at David and Ken’s place in Brooklyn.

Queenie was in charge of the turkey while David made clam chowder and Ken was responsible for the delicious corned beef and spaghetti.  Others were also cooking and I was just a little helper.  We ended up with about 20 people and more than 12 dishes and desserts.  The turkey turned out to be really nice and juicy.

It was fun to meet some new friends from Hong Kong, especially in New York. Most of them have a degree in architecture and they went to the same university as Queenie.  We started cooking at three in the afternoon and finished dinner just before midnight.  The journey back to Manhattan was actually not bad.  I guess Brooklyn sounds further away from Mahattan than it actually is.

The weather is terrible today. It hasn’t stopped raining since I woke up at 8 this morning. I hope it will get better this afternoon.

The meal I had with Queenie at Five Ninth was great! I had Pork Belly (Both Ways) - it came as two separate dishes; normal pork belly and sliced pork belly on an egg! The Banana Pudding with dark chocolate ice-cream was the best I have ever had. Queenie had a few drinks and we decided to have an early night, so headed back at 11pm.

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. Apparently, it is a big thing in the US and everybody is so cheerful today. I bet they can’t wait until tomorrow when the long weekend starts. There is already a holiday mood everywhere. The train operator kept greeting us with Happy Thanksgiving and so did the girls at Starbucks.

We are planning to see the preparation of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tonight after mid-night. It should be good fun!

I woke up quite early this morning at 8:30am.

I walked down to 54 Street and had pancakes and Canadian bacon at the Madison Restaurant. I love the fact that they keep topping up my coffee here in NYC. It was a satisfying, big and unhealthy breakfast all for less than $10.

I was going to follow the self-guided tour in my Lonely Planet through Central Park but the weather was too dispressing to spend an estimated two and a half hours in the park. I changed my plan and took some photos at Times Square, Radio City, Public Library and Grand Central Station before heading to SoHo.

Queenie’s computer is not working so I had to come to the Apple Store to check my e-mail and write this blog. I am a bit disappointed that they haven’t had any iPod socks in yet!

Arrived New York JFK at 6:30pm and was exhausted! It was only less than eight hours’ flight but it felt much longer.

Luckily, I met Lina and Kelly (both in the fashion industry) on the plane. Lina was from Sweden and was so scared of flying that she had to keep drinking whisky. Kelly was a pretty Engilsh girl who liked to watch girlie movies.

It was very kind of them to offer me a ride into Manhattan. It was almost eight when we got out of the cab somewhere on Broadway and 77th Street. I bought a local SIM card from T-mobile (which was quite expensive!) and arranged to meet Queenie at 9:30 in a bar called Public on Elizabeth Street.

It was nice to see Queenie again and I am sure we will have fun for the next seven days!

It was my second time in Venice and surprisingly I remembered pretty much all the places I had been last year.

Lisa and I went there only for a day. It was so nice to wander around a beautiful foreign city without any restrains - I have to say Lisa makes a great travel partner as she’s a pretty easy-going and we are very similar. We visited most of the tourist spots such as Piazza San Marco and Ponte di Rialto. In fact, we walked over the famous bridge for no less than five times! I suspect Lisa did it on purpose as she didn’t get a chance to see the bridge during her last trip in Venice.

We successfully found the Generali office in Piazza San Marco and celebrated it with a nice cup of coffee in a charming tea house. I wish I could remember the name of it! It was a 19^th century tea house with live classical music. It was a perfect place for a lazy late afternoon tea, especially after a day’s wandering around and shopping!

After that I brought Lisa to a little secret snack bar for a drink, where we enjoyed the prosciutto so much that we went to buy some more Parma Ham from a supermarket before heading back to Trieste.

Even though it was only a day trip, I felt really relaxed!

After an evening at the coast of Slovenia, we continued our journey.

We could see instantly that Ljubljana was very different to Koper; it was a much busier and less laid-back city. We took Mary and Alan’s recommendation and checked into a three-star hotel called Pri Katrci, a charming hotel with a cosy bar and cafe at the front and a spacious restaurant at the back. Its owner Anika and her staff Megi and Blush were extremely helpful and made us feel very welcome.

Lisa and I were particularly impressed with the food at Pri Katrci. Breakfast became our favourite meal - scrumbled egg on toast, plate of cold meat, yogurt and a cup of fresh coffee - it made a satisfying begining to each day. At lunch, we would have a large bowl of mushroom or traditional clear beef soup to keep us warm.

Wandering around the beautiful and historic old town - Central Market, Dragon Bridge and Ljubljana Castle - normally helped digest our food and got us ready for a carefully chosen dinner venue.

Our faviourite dinner has to be the one in Pri Vitezu. A two-course extravagant meal with an excellent glass of red wine. Lisa had proscuito with melon as starter and lobster risotto as main course, while I had scampi as starter and duck-breast with orange sauce as main. I would definitely go back.