La Ville-lumière: The City of Lights

We arrived at Le Bourget in the evening, a little bit past sunset. In Paris this time of year, the sun sets a bit after 4:30pm and doesn’t rise again until almost 8am. It was my first time staying in the city, and I was just as excited to see the sights, as I was to eat crepes, chocolate croissants and enjoy a glass of Beaujolais. I had traveled a bit of Europe, but because of many misconceptions, Paris wasn’t on the top of my list of cities to check out.

We checked into our hotel, the Concorde La Fayette, and found that I had a room on the 15th floor with a great view of the city and the Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart). It was beautifully lit on a hillside in the distance. I could also see from my window, glistening Christmas lights that lined the streets below. Earlier that day we flew up from the Bordeaux area, and by 9pm, we were all starving. We decided to go to the little French restaurant down the street which looked warm and cozy on a rainy and cold evening.
We ordered filets, wine and French fries, of course. I also tried escargot for the first time. I have to admit that I actually liked it – it was flavored with a lot of garlic and pesto, and the texture didn’t bother me at all. I also had a bowl of French Onion soup, which was everything I thought it would be. YUM! We finished dinner around 1am and were completely exhausted. We headed back to the hotel and promised we wouldn't wake eachother up before Noon.

The next day, we decided to see some of the most important, not to be missed sights in Paris. First, we took a taxi to the Sacre-Coeur, which was beautiful but unfortunately no photos were allowed. Below is a photo of me on the steps looking back towards the city. From there, we then headed over to Notre Dame where they had just finished putting up a large Christmas tree outside. It was pretty spectacular walking into the church - burning candles lined the walkways, the chants from the choir echoed throughout the stone walls. The catherdral was absolutely massive. They think the construction started around 1150, which was hard to wrap my mind around because of its size and lack of tools and machinery during that time. The details of the architecture were extremely intricate and I spent quite some time marveling at everything from the floors to the ceilings, including the 47 foot long stained glass windows on the walls of the church. One of the best surprises of Notre Dame was being able to climb the 386 spiral stairs to the top (to the wooden belltower) and discovering the spectacular views of the city and seeing the Gargoyles!! Each one had a different expression and one was even feasting on a cat!



After our visit to Notre Dame, we planned to head over to the Eiffel Tower. It begain to rain and we decided it would be a perfect time to stop in the brassiere for a cup of hot chocolate and to warm up a bit. From the windows we could see Notre Dame and the Lourve lit up at night, as well as the River Seine. It was then that I realized why Paris was nicknamed The City of Lights. The city was transformed and no matter how hard I tried, my photos could not do justice.


When we finished our beverages, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We walked down the street next to the Seine and watched the river boats that were all lit up with Christmas lights, gliding down the canal. We could see some views of the tower during our walk there, but I had no idea just how ENORMOUS it was until I stood underneath it. I knew I wouldn't go to the top without Eric, but just standing near the tower was an experience of its own. I cannot wait to go back!

By this time it was getting late and it began to rain. We headed over to a restaurant that one of the pilots used to frequent. It was a small French Bar-Restaurant with only a few tables. Inside, we sat next to the window and the area reminded me of the upper East Side near Central Park in New York City. We had had a really busy day, so it felt great to sit down and enjoy a glass of Bordeaux and a good meal.

On Friday, I woke up and headed straight over to the boulangerie! There were so many great looking creations that I couldn't decide what I wanted to buy, so I bought a few things. I ordered a ham quiche, chocolate croissants and other pasteries that were delicious, but unfortunately I couldn't pronounce. The woman behind the counter was very helpful and allowed me to take a photo inside. The sun hadn't risen yet, and there were already tons of Parisians stopping in for baguets, pasteries and quiches. I decided that I would spend the day shopping, particularly looking for some special wines and chocolates to bring home. I was definitely planning on taking advantage of being on a private jet, not having to worry about checking luggage or having bottles of liquid with me! I headed over to Champs Elysees, just to check out one of the most famous shopping streets in the world. There were lots of expensive shops and the streets were lined with white Christmas lights. I also walked around the Arc de Triomphe, which was quite impressive.

There was a lot more I wanted to do in Paris during my few days there but it was too hard to fit it all in. I had a great experience, but just not enough time. Like Venice, there were too many good photos to choose just a few to post on this blog, so copy and paste the URL below into your browser to view them all on Snapfish.

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=176601594/a=25333817_25333817/t_=25333817

Sushi, Bagels, & Rabat

We arrived in the capital city in the early afternoon, landing at the small airport outside of town. Things went surprisingly well as our handler came aboard to welcome us to Morocco and let us know that our car was waiting to take us to our hotel. I still had to order catering for our flight out of Rabat and I was worried that our passenger had ordered fresh sushi of all things. Not only that, he wanted everything organic, including his coffee. I didn’t even know if this would be possible to get in Morocco. I tried explaining to our handler what I needed for our next flight out, but unfortunately he couldn’t understand what I meant by sushi, even when I proceeded to draw my best outline of a fish and a California roll on a piece of paper. Thankfully, the chef was brought on board to speak with me and he told me that the sushi was possible, but he wasn’t so sure what the seventh item down the list was. I then tried to draw the seventh item - my best illustration of a bagel, but could only come up with a large circle with a smaller circle in the center and not to mention, lots of perplexed looks. I continued to draw lots of circles within circles, saying bagels over and over again. Then I had a flashback of my last game of Pictionary where my teammate would start drawing the same image over and over again, only then, I was able to actually say what I was drawing but nobody seemed to understand. Finally, I gave up hope that there would be bagels on our next flight out of Rabat to New York City (Oh and with whipped cream cheese of course, not regular). Between the sushi and bagels, I was glad we had an extra stash of fresh bread and peanut butter on board if all else failed!


We departed the plane, and walked out to the van that was taking us to our hotel. The environment was much different than any country I had been to in the past. It wasn’t like Tokyo, or Hong Kong, but seemed much more remote, even though it is the capital city of Morocco. We arrived at our hotel – the Hilton Rabat. The lobby was beautiful, which ironically made me feel more like I was in Morocco than driving along the city streets. We asked the front desk if we could get a taxi into town and the concierge asked if we would prefer a tour of the city. We figured we had enough time so we booked a 3-hour tour, which cost us a total of about $30! Unfortunately, or driver didn’t speak any English, so he would stop at random places around the city always saying, “YOU GO HERE.” He spoke French, but apparently that was the only English phrase he knew. At the time, we knew we were touring some very important and old landmarks, but had absolutely no idea what we were looking at. A few days later, I did a little Google research and found that our first stop was of the Royal Palace. I honestly wasn't too impressed by the palace, but maybe that was because we only were able to view it from the outside. The next stop were some medieval ruins known as Chellah (which dates back to the third century BC).
Chellah holds the remains of a Roman town called Sala Colonia. Other than the enormous bird nests on top of the old pillars, we noticed an abnormal amount of cats within the Chellah walls. We realized the cats were not only here, but all over the city of Rabat.


Other photos below are of Hassan Tower, which is the minaret of what was supposed to be the worlds largest mosque until the construction ceased when the sultan passed away. In the same vicinity, we also saw the Mausoleum of Mohammed V which contains the tombs of the king and his two sons, King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah.




The building was beautiful and surrounded by royal guards. When we walked inside, we saw the tomb and listened to the chant of the Koran reader who sat in the corner.

I also think we walked through the Kasbah des Oudaias or the 'village within the city.' There were lots of tiny streets with blue paintings along the walls. There was smells in the streets of fresh sweet bread and what looked like peanut brittle covered in honey although I didn't dare to buy any. We did buy a coconut Macaroon from a vendor who seemed to be serving huge trays of desserts to tourists, which I was quite satisfied with! It was getting late and we decided to call it a night. I wished I was able to do a little shopping in the local markets while there, but maybe next time.

When the time came to board the plane for our trip back to the States, I miracuously saw tiny little bagels sitting in a nice wicker basket. Who would have known that I could credit all of those nights honing my Pictionary skills to one day saving my job!! He was actually a very polite and interesting passenger who was going to his new movie premier in New York City. He also gave me the inside scoop about some new movies that he was currently directing that are coming out next year. His newest though, we saw tonight in the theater and it was quite good! In the end, it still amazes me that in this profession, I can spend days getting to a certain country and to a certain city, via many other certain countries and certain cities and I do this all for one 7.5 hour flight to New York City with one passenger.

Slainte!

Today is a very special day because it is the first birthday of my nephew, Max! I can't believe it's been one year already, he's walking now, saying a few words and has the most adorable personality. Below is a photo of him with his new race car. Happy Birthday Maximos!



Sooooo, our most recent trip was great because Eric and I were able to spend the entire trip with together! We received a phone call on Monday morning saying that we were flying to Palma de Mallorca! I've always wanted to go to Palma, but the best news was that we were getting a 7 hour layover! I'm not crazy for saying I was actually happy about getting such a long layover, I was estatic because our layover was in Dublin! I was SUPER excited and called my friends from college whom I hadn't seen in about five years! We finally arrived in Dublin around 11am on Tuesday and took a cab into the city centre. We ate at Lemon, a crepe restaurant that I used to frequent during my 6 month stay in Ireland. After breakfast, we headed straight to the pub for a pint of Guinness! It was just as good as I had remembered it. While at the pub, my friends Johnny and Brian stopped by to meet us in the Auld Dubliner! It was so nice to see them again. After some catching up, Johnny took us to see his new home, and also drove by the apartment I used to live in. I was happy that Eric was able to see my old stomping grounds and the college that I went to. On the way back to the airport, we stopped to see my friend Gillian at work. Although the trip was very fast, it was so wonderful to be able to see friends that I hadn't seen in years and to also go back to a place where I had so many wonderful memories.
When I boarded the plane to Palma, I promised myself that I wouldn't wait another five years to get back to Eire for another visit.

We arrived in Palma around 9pm and the handler drove us to our hotel. The hotel was BEAUTIFUL! It was deifnitely one of the nicest hotels I'd ever stayed in. Most of the bathroom was plated with gold, and it had heated towel racks. Even the curtains were powere by a push button and our balcony had a beautiful view of the harbor.













The next morning, we went downstairs for breakfast and the dining room had so many tables filled with amazing pasteries and hot foods that you could basically spend the day eating your way through it. Obviously I didn't have time for that. Eric and I were seated at a table next to some windows overlooking the water. That morning was extremely stormy and there was some very intense thunder and lightening (later on we found out our plane had been hit by lightening, though we didnt know it at the time). Breakfast was cozy, sipping our coffee, eating chocolate croissants and listening to the rain and thunder outside. That afternoon, we were on the plane heading to Rabat, Morocco...

Lisboa: Baixa & Bairro Alto

Last week, I was lucky enough to meet and take care of whom I believe to be one of the most influential persons in the last few decades of American history. I was scheduled for a trip that lasted one week, flying to various destinations around Europe. Unfortunately, the stopover at our first destination was much quicker than I thought it would be. I decided sleep was more imortant than seeing the sights of Amsterdam - plus our accomodations were closer to the airport and I couldn't bring myself to venture out of my hotel room in the rain.








After Amsterdam, we spent a few days in England in both Leeds and Luton, but the BEST part of the trip was ending up in Portugal! The city had amazing culture, interesting history and a beautiful language. We left our hotel for lunch, where we sat at the side of river, with a view of a bridge that looked very similar to the Golden Gate. There was also a view of the Cristo Rei monument (Christ the King) with his arms open, overlooking the city which also looked a lot like the monument in Brazil. We enjoyed some sangria, and a variety of tapas including cheese and crackers and garlic olives. After lunch, we decided to check out the Baixa (downtown) which is full of both older and modern restaurants and shops, built sometime in the 1700's. My favorite part of the city was the Bairro Alto, which is probably the most popular for tourists. It is in a central area of Lisbon and one of the oldest districts in the city. It is particularly known for its Fados, which are traditional Portuguese singing bars. There were also many trendy shops, restaurants, art galleries and clubs. We stopped into a bar called Lgare Cafe , where we tried some traditional Portuguese port wine.


















It was delicious! We were the only people in the bar, and pretty close to the only people walking around the streets. We discovered that the Portuguese don't come out to dinner and drinks until after 10pm! The streets were deserted and it seemed like we were the only ones around. Portugal is definitely a place I would like to go back to spend more time.

A mini vacation to "The Faraway Land"

A few days ago, Eric and I ended up in Nantucket, the little Island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachussetts. Most of the summer residents had left the island, so it seemed deserted, which was fine with us! We arrived at our hotel - an adorable Cape Cod style building with pine shingles and a beachy, New England feel. That night we decided to go get some lobster at The Lobster Trap in town. We had seared scallops with Ginger, lobster, muscles and clams. yum! It was cozy inside the restaurant where we sat at the bar and enjoyed our seafood and drinks.

Later on, we checked out an old bar called the Club Car. The bar part of the restaurant is actually a train car that was part of the old Nantucket railroad. The town was quaint with cobblestone streets and street lamps glowing in the fog.

The next day, we spent the day in town, grabbed some lunch at the Atlantic Cafe and headed to the beach. Although it wasn't exactly beach weather, we enjoyed hanging out on the sand with a hot cup of coffee. It was a fun relaxing couple of days on the little island. Now, I'm off to Amsterdam and Portugal!

That was some wicked good maple syrup!

It had been a long time since I'd been in Upstate New York during the Fall. Although the leaves hadn't changed yet, I could start to feel the chill in the air at night. We had a few 90 degree days and some nights went below 40 degrees. It was a perfect time to go home to visit family and friends. Eric and I had the chance to see our nieces and nephews who are all getting so big and have hilarious personalities! It's crazy to see how much they change in a years time. While at home, we spent a lot of our time going out to our favorite Italian restaurants, and of course our moms were constantly cooking. Every morning we had a feast - homemade pancakes with fresh picked blueberries and maple syrup, or NY style bagels or french toast. We pretty much ate our way through New York and Vermont during our two week stay.

One of the last days in our hometown, Eric and I drove with our parents to the NY wine country (and of course we had to hit up an airplane museum). The photos below are of one of the many roadside stands in Amish country where you can buy fresh fruits and veggies, pumpkins, honeycombs and apple cider. One of my favorite photos is one my dad took of the Amish family getting into their buggy. That's not something you see everyday!

One day wasn't enough to explore wine country though - that is a definite must-do for our next trip home.

We also had a chance to go visit Sarah and Jarad in Vermont. Their place is adorable, nestled in the mountains near Stratton. It was so much different than our busy lives in California (we didn't have cell phone reception at their house and it was great!). We cooked out, had a bonfire in the backyard (they've actually seen moose back there!) and the next morning, we woke up to Jarad's homemade waffles and maple sugar lattes! Or second stop was to see our very good friends Ann and Travis in Plattsburgh! We got a chance to see their new house (finally!), hung out with Molly and Bailey
and even went cliff jumping of a 20ft cliff! It was pretty cold out the day we went but it didn't stop us. During our stay, we also visited a tiny little winery near the Canadian border. The winemaker had us taste some of his creations and walked with us around the vineyards, letting us taste the different grapes. It was especially cool because we were the only people there that day. We learned some interesting facts about making wine, but mostly we were excited to go home and drink the bottles that we purchased! Below is a photo of Ann standing next to the huge bags of grapes that were about to be pressed. It was great to be back in Plattsburgh where Eric and I used to spend so much time. We spent our last night in Lake Placid at one of our favorite restaurants and it was a perfect ending to a great couple weeks.

The search for lost luggage...

It was inevitable. All of these years of traveling and I had never lost a bag. I've heard horror stories of people going on vacation and to finally arrive at their destination with no underwear, toothpaste or bathing suit for the beach! Usually though when this happens, the passenger isn't in a position to literally go search for their lost luggage on foot. Here is how it went...

On Friday morning we left California bound for Venice, Italy. I was ecstatic because Italy is one of my favorite countries and I was going to visit one of the few larger Italian cities I hadn't explored yet. We were taking a famous female actress to the Film Festival and I was hoping that while we were there, I might get to see the likes of George Clooney or Brad Pitt. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was about to tour such an extraordinary city filled with old buildings and gondoliers rowing through the tiny canals.

When our passengers departed the plane, all I could think about was the proscuitto sandwich I was going to have for lunch and maybe even a nice glass of red wine to wind down my day. As our car pulled up to the plane to pick us up, I was noticing that everyone seemed to have a lot of luggage...everyone except me! I couldn't find my black rolling bag ANYWHERE and we realized that my luggage had gone with the passengers! At first, I didn't panic. It was quite funny thinking that this famous/rich actress would think that my shoddy Kenneth Cole REACTION suitcase would actually be part of their entourage. It really just didn't fit in with the Louis Vuitton baggage. One of the pilots called the broker to let him know what had happened so surely within a few hours I would have my luggage back in my hands (I was leaving for Spain early the next morning). I had no idea that my only day in Venice would be filled with stalking a movie star to get my luggage back! After a few hours, nobody knew where the passengers were staying. We didn't know the name of the hotel and the personal assistant was not answering her Italian phone. I knew that they were in press meetings and movie premiers all day, but I was getting extremely nervous. After about 5 hours of making phone calls, I finally found out what hotel they were staying at. We still couldn't reach any of the passengers on the phone to let them know we needed the luggage back, so we decided to head to their hotel! Of course, finding the hotel in Venice was not easy but we finally made it to the reception area. The captain and I tried explaining that one of their guests had my luggage, but when we told the concierge who had my luggage, he raised his eyebrow. Certainly he was thinking I was just part of the paparazzi or some crazy stalker that was trying to get close to the movie star. When he had told me he would "try" to see what he could do, I almost broke down in tears. AND THEN the amazing happened. Out of the elevator right in front of me was her makeup artist and hair stylist!!!! I was so excited to see them and said, "Oh my god I was hoping I would see you!!!!" and their reaction was, "Ohhhh Hi!!!!!! Are you staying at this hotel too????!?!"
When I explained what happened to my bag the makeup guy said that he had the bag in his room and was wondering whose it was. We went to his room and waiting patiently next to the door was my trusty black rolling bag with its little yellow ribbon tied to the handle.

Over a yummy Italian dinner, my crew laughed at the interesting day they had spent looking for my lost luggage. If we hadn't been at the right place at the right time, I'm certain that I wouldn't have gotten my bag back and what's a girl to do without a bathing suit in Ibiza?!

Aside from everything that happened that day, being in Venice made up for it all. Venice was by far one of the most magnificent cities I have ever seen. Every single corner we turned was so picturesque that it really seemed like I was walking through a movie set. I did take many photos, but there is no way to capture the the smell of the pizza shops at dinner time, or the clanking of wine glasses, or the conversations in Italian that echoed through the narrow alleyways and down the canals throughout the town.


I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

For more photos of Venice, click below the last photo.

Flying on Empty...

No, I have not been lazing in the sun around Laguna Beach. I have actually been very busy at work the last week or so! Unfortunately, the memory card on my camera has failed me, but thanks to the trusty camera phone, not a moment of my travels have gone undocument. I can't say much for the quality of some of the photos from Zurich, but they will have to do...

The last few weeks I've been in Alaska, Malaga, Zurich and New York City. I've had quite a time and have really learned to function well under little or no sleep. I believe my record for this rotation was close to 48 hours... I lost track when I left Alaska on Wednesday and didn't sleep until Friday (You'll notice me in the photo below relaxing on the way to Zurich after a 20 hour day with a much needed mimosa!). Also below in one of the images is a photo of Mont Blanc in the Alps! Who knew they named a mountain after a pen?!?!

Flying into Juneau was incredible. The visibility wasn't very good, but it just added to the ominious feeling as the sun was setting behind the mountains. As we flew in, we could see little log cabins sitting on the side of cliffs, beautiful green grass, evergreen trees and white glaciers. It was everything I thought Alaska would look like. One thing that struck me was just how much space people are afforded there compared to San Francisco, NY or LA! My hotel room must have been 1000 square feet, and included a full kitchen, living room, bedroom and full bathroom. Oh and it was Salmon season, so all of the tourists who were at our hotel were there to catch all of the Salmon that are jumping by the thousands out of the streams practically into your hands!

We had a fairly short stay in Zurich, but it was such a beautiful city! This was about the time that my camera broke, but I still managed to get a few photos of downtown before it got dark. We had dinner at on the sidewalk of a little Italian restaurant. The pizza was amazing - I still can't figure out why they can't make it like that in California.

We also traveled back to NYC for the day. I took my crew to the Dinosaur BBQ restaurant in Harlem. The food (as usual) is amazing, the live band was fun and I even met someone I knew there from back home. We spent the rest of the day exploring Central Park and the Upper East Side. Below is a photo of the cute little French restaurant where we had some lunch. (Pssst thanks Andy for showing us around!)





Anyway, enjoy some of the photos below of Juneau, Malaga, Zurich and New York City. You'll have to figure out which photo is of which particular city, until I can figure out how to add captions! Until then, I'm heading off to Italy with a new memory card!