Restaurant – Page 3

Ciao Ciao Firenze (Italy Pt. 2)

The train ride on Eurostar from Rome to Florence took a little less than two hours – perfect for a little nap to get ready for a new city. If Sicily equates to a haven for nice local Sicilians and Rome for thousands of tourists, Florence was interestingly a mixture of both.

While we continued to encounter small and large groups of vacationers, here and there we met nice smiling faces of Italians. Once again, besides the architecture and art, FOOD definitely won my heart over yet again.

We devoured (classy, I promise) sandwiches with the freshest mozzarella, delicious gelato and fantastic lasagna. We walked around the small city, and we drank some quality wine and Italian beer. But don’t you worry, we also visited important sights and admired Michelangelo’s David.

Duomo didn’t disappoint… as you can see:

The sandwich guys… (i due fratellini) — Thanks Christina for the suggestion! Cafe Deluxee was superb as well. Why did I ever leave…

On our way to Piazza Michelangelo:

The bronze David:

The fantastic view from Piazza Michelangelo:

We also visited Dante’s house, sat on the roof of our hostel and watched sunset and enjoyed a long dinner. What a beautiful country! Italy quickly became one of my favorite countries. Even though I still don’t know much Italian – besides GRAZZIE! – exploring unfamiliar cities and subsequently discovering their best treasures made me fall in love with Sicilia, Roma and Firenze.

Till next time… Good night Italia!

Ciao Bella! (A lovely week in Italy) Pt. 1

Just a couple days after the volcanic ash ban lifted, Jack and I hopped on an afternoon flight to Palermo, Sicily. Despite the crazy couple of days filled with packing, studying and cleaning, we successfully moved out of our BU housing in South Kensington and embarked on our vacation in Italy.

We landed in Palermo at around 9 p.m. and my first impression? Gorgeous, Warm, Pretty, so many Sicilians, small, crowded. We struggled just a little to find our hostel, but we eventually made it to a small place called Ai Quattro Canti. At first, walking up to the 3rd floor in a building such as this worried me.

When we finally arrived in our room, I quickly realized Ai Quattro Canti actually is a welcoming place for travelers with a friendly owner named Giuseppe. After three days at Giuseppe’s hostel, I highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Palermo.

Thanks to Giuseppe’s suggestions, we ate to our hearts’ content, took a daytrip out to Cefalu, visited the Catacomb and simply relaxed in the sun.

One of our nights there, Giuseppe personally took us out to dinner where we enjoyed a huge plate of pasta with mixed seafood, grilled fish, swordfish, prawns, tomato/olives/mozzarella salad and most importantly, an UNLIMITED supply of wine. Honestly, my mouth still waters just thinking about it.

Then who knew… Sicilians love their karaoke machines!

During the day, walking around Palermo gave us this strange feeling that we have not experience before. We have traveled to major cities Europe, such as Berlin, Paris and Brussels, and in all those cities, English helped us survive and order the right food just fine. In Palermo, however, Jack and I were total strangers to the locals. Too bad we didn’t know ANY Italian, whatsoever!

Even when we visited a gorgeous coastal town called Cefalu – about an hour away on the train from Palermo, sandy beaches served as a relaxing home to the locals, not tourists.

Clearly tourism hasn’t invaded Sicily too terribly. Subsequently, we did receive some elongated, yet curious, gaze from dark-haired Sicilians, but nevertheless, being complete foreigners taught us Sicily’s culture, cuisine and attitude quite effectively.

Speaking of unique Sicilian cuisine… Arancine was my personal favorite. How to describe it… A fried ball of rice with sometimes curry or sometimes cheese and prosciutto? All I can say is, DELICIOUS.

After a relaxing stay in Palermo, we took an early flight up to Rome, a bigger city, extremely different than Palermo. I still giggle when I say this, but we stayed at a hostel near Roma Termini, named FUNNY PALACE. I mean… how can you not chuckle just a little? Mabri, the owner, almost as cool as Giuseppe, told us absolutely everything about Rome, and upon learning we only had 1.5 days in that fabulous city, he mapped out a nice little tour route for us.

More importantly, he said, “Free breakfast tomorrow at a Cafe around the corner, just say you’re staying with Mabri.” Then he said, “The Pizzeria on the left, say you know me, 10% discount!” And when we looked at him in amazement, he topped it off with, “The restaurant right here, 15% discount!” Oh Mabri…

So we started our tour of Rome with a bus ride to the Vatican:

Gorgeous building. But just wait till you see the chapel… Not just a chapel, but the SISTINE CHAPEL. The ceiling boasts awesome artworks just like they say in books, articles and journals.

And I may or may not have taken a picture of this… Felt a bit rebellious since the guard there gave me such a hard time about my not-so-short shorts while letting in girls in skimpy dresses without a problem. FINE. BE THAT WAY. (Still angry? Use your own judgment).

Then we moved onto Pantheon…

Then my FAVORITE, Trevi Fountain. Probably the coolest fountain I will ever see. Kind of want it for my backyard. Is that a possibility? Rome, can we negotiate something?

Afterward, a wonderful picnic dinner at Spanish Steps! While watching the gorgeous sunset, we sat on the steps with wine, cheese, bread and prosciutto. Surely people walking by gave us funny, curious, approving looks, but we regardless loved our budget-friendly romantic dinner.

Walking around Rome for about eight hours nonstop did require quite a bit of energy because when we finally got back to our hostel at around 11 p.m., I’m pretty sure I was sound asleep at about 11:05 p.m. The next day, we woke up early to go see the Colosseum, Caesar’s gate, etc.

Ancient ruins and remnants of Roman architecture attracted so many tourist groups bright and early. We walked around, absorbed the sights, ate a gelato (obviously…) and hopped on our train to Florence.

Ahh Firenze… Much to say about that beautiful city, but for now, to be continued.

Paris Je T'aime

Even the second time around, Paris successfully won me over. The city of fashion, love, art, romance, lights… You name it. I spent the last weekend of March wandering around the capital of France, basically absorbing everything that is French – baguette, cheese, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and most importantly, the crêpes! (Does that surprise you at all?)

The first time I went to Paris was about two years ago, my freshman year spring break. I had spent three days in Amsterdam and three in Paris. Indeed it was a week jam-packed with sightseeing, eating and uh, a lot of typical college spring break characteristics. But I must say, I gained a bit more out of this second visit.

Instead of doing a bus tour, we did a 3+ hour walking tour – the same company that ran free tours in Dublin. We walked around everywhere. We wandered. We bought food from street stands. All in all, I feel we sufficiently experienced everything that is French.

First things first. The market. We arrived at our hotel a bit earlier than expected, which meant about 30 minutes of waiting time before we could check into our room. The nice lady at the hotel reception suggested we go walk around the nearby market for a bit, and of course, us hungry sleep-deprived tourists took her advice and headed out to the market. Maybe she read our minds because we definitely stumbled upon one of the best street markets I have ever visited. We found baguettes, cheese and fresh strawberries. Yum!

After enjoying our impromptu, yet delicious, breakfast/lunch, we headed out for St. Michel metro stop, the meeting point for the walking tour. I found the Paris metro to be fast, efficient, but smelly. Not sure why, but Paris streets and metro stops seemed to be infected to trash and stink… More so than London, Boston or Madrid.

Anyway… Our walking tour basically highlighted all the major sights of Paris and provided a bit of history as well. Not too surprisingly the tour took more than three hours, but simply walking around the city for that long made me fall in love with Paris even more. (But don’t you worry, still in love with London… and Berlin as well – You’ll see in my later post about my Easter weekend).

After St. Michel, we walked along the river until we reached Notre Dame. From there, we could see the Shakespeare book store and the police headquarters. Currently under renovation, the police headquarters building has a big screen with pictures of all sorts of people working there. My favorite, the Rollerblade guy.

With determination and focus as intense as that of that Roller-cop, we walked toward the Louvre. On our way, we walked past the very first stone bridge in Paris constructed under the direction of Henry IV and the narcotics control building, which contains the only wounds from World War II.

(the random black indented spots on the building are bullet holes from WWII)

Next up, the Louvre. Ah, the Louvre. The biggest museum ever. After walking through the plaza with the “invisible” pyramid, we strolled around the Tuileries Garden where we followed the Axis of Paris or Axis Historique (an imaginary line that contains all the major monuments and sights of Paris) that eventually led us to Obelisk, a big monument basically stolen by Napoleon from Egypt (it’s really… NBD). From there, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and begin walking along Champs d’Elysee.

Simply, what a gorgeous walk! By the end of the tour, we had walked by or seen the Little Palace, the Big Palace, the Invalides, Joan of Arc and many more. Afterward, we spoiled ourselves even more by well, first, stopping by an Irish pub for refreshments and heading up to Sacre Coeur for this:

From there not only can you indulge in this view of Paris but also enjoy impromptu dance or music performances put on by the locals. Honestly I’m not exactly sure where in the world we conjured up energy to continue on to Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, but we did it.

I have to say the way to conclude a day in Paris is definitely going to the top of the Eiffel Tower – despite it being extremely windy due to its height and scary altogether – and walking around the Bastille area for some good Shwarma and people-watching. While the first day was filled with romantic and historic sights, the second day was rather different and unique – THE CATACOMBS. When Jack first tried to explain to me what visiting the Catacombs entailed, I couldn’t exactly get the complete picture of it. The exhibit, located about 100 steps below the ground, contains a mass grave. Hmm… a mass grave? Under Paris? Yes. You enter the exhibit near one metro stop, and you come out about 2-3 metro stops south of your original entrance.

During your journey underground, you walk through something like this:

A bit spooky. A bit cool. A bit weird. Thousands, no millions, possibly billions of skulls and bones are stacked up quite nicely on both sides of the hall away that intertwines in the darkness for about 45 minutes. Some are even arranged in heart shapes or cross!

Naturally, after the Catacombs visit, we went straight for some delicious crêpes. Yum. Then stopped by the Louvre for some Mona Lisa viewing and headed toward Gare du Nord for dinner with our friend Devon, which finally concluded our short weekend in Paris. I honestly couldn’t have asked for better company and a better city for this lovely weekend trip! Take me back soon? 😉

A Weekend in Dublin

My Goodness My Guinness! My trip to Dublin, in short, consisted of a lot of food, a lot of Guinness, a lot of walking and a lack of sleep. Now, does that count as an epic weekend?

Jack, Garrett, Christina and I somehow managed to leave at 2 a.m. to catch the night bus, N74, to catch the Easybus to Stansted Airport and finally to catch our flight to Dublin. So we started our first day in Dublin with a short nap at our hostel, Harrington House. I actually recommend this hostel to anyone who is visiting Dublin in the future. Even though it’s about 20 minutes of a walking distance from the center of the city, it is quite cozy, has en suite bathrooms and best of all, has the nicest reception lady ever. During the 20 minute walk to downtown, you’ll walk on Camden Street, which is one of main streets with many pubs and restaurants, so the walk really isn’t a big problem at all.

We started our Dublin excursion with a 3-hour walking tour of the city, led by a local Dubliner. (Thanks Garrett for finding out about this!) While 3 hours may sound daunting at first, the tour actually went by quickly, and by the end, we had walked around the entire city, seen all the major tourist attraction and learned a whole lot about the Irish history. I must say, the Irish struggle for independence was a long and gruesome one. But hooray! The Republic of Ireland stands today as an independent country – albeit a couple ongoing issues.

http://www.neweuropetours.eu/ That is the website for the tour company. They offer FREE tours for major cities in Europe. I definitely plan on going on these in Paris and Berlin.

So here are some highlights of food, places and drinks we absolutely loved:

Full Irish Breakfast at Copper Alley Bistro: It is very similar to the full English breakfast, except you get blood puddings, on top of the beans, the eggs, the sausages and the bacon. Not many people are familiar with blood puddings, and nor was I until I tried it (quite bravely) and enquired about the ingredients AFTERWARD. My conclusion on blood puddings – interesting texture, glad I tried it, probably won’t eat it daily in the future.

Dublin Castle, Trinity College, the Parliament, St. Stephen’s Green, the Ha’Penny Bridge: Those are some of the major sights we visited on our walking tour. Each place has a story about their independence movement or the Catholics vs. Protestants struggle.

Jameson Distillery: Now, who doesn’t love whiskey? A bit out of the way (so is the Guinness Storehouse), but absolutely worth the 15 minute walk. The guided tour lasts for about an hour, and it teaches you what kind of mixers go well with Jameson. Though I felt like the whole thing was a big, fat ad for John Jameson – the intro video is all about him and his fancy buckled shoes…, I enjoyed learning all about why Jameson is so special.

Fish & Chips at Leo Burdock: As you can see, it is the oldest Chipper in Dublin. For about €9, you can satisfy your hunger with the biggest cod and the thickest chips (fries). They don’t have any seating area, so during the day, you’ll see people lined up against the fence across the street, devouring their fish and chips. That’s exactly why we decided to try this place out and loved it. Also, the pub next door with an outdoor seating has a sign that says “DO NOT eat your fish and chips here.” That alone is a convincing evidence.

Temple Bar: Unfortunately, or fortunately?, there are no pictures from our pub crawl adventure. I can tell you, however, Temple Bar is a FUN area with many bars, coffee shops and so much Irish Spirit. Many pubs have live music, which makes it even more entertaining. Some we visited during our stay are Turkshead, the Purty Kitchen, Pravda and Czech Inn.

Guinness Storehouse: Man, oh man. Dublin is home to Guinness at its finest. All the pubs will serve the best Guinness you’ve ever had. One even lets you pour your own Guinness at your table! A must-see is the Guinness Storehouse, where you can easily spend three hours admiring the brewing process, the history and the Gravity Bar overlooking the city. While it is a self-guided tour, the exhibitions are very easy to follow, and the cafe on the 1st floor serves Guinness and Bailey’s cupcakes that makes a perfect mid-tour break. The tour eventually ends at the “sky” bar on the 7th floor and makes it the perfect ending to the 3 hour journey through the history of Guinness with a refreshing pint and a gorgeous view.

Clearly I absolutely enjoyed this fun weekend getaway to Ireland. Even though early morning flights doubled our exhaustion, being surrounded by loads of Irish spirit and Guinness definitely woke us up instantly. On the other hand, the steep price of EVERYTHING caught us by surprise. After all, it is considered one of the most expensive places in Europe.

But come on, how can you not love this?