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Photography on the Blog - I attempt HDR
2008-05-18 04:42:00
To help keep the blog going a little better, I've decided to include my photography exploits on here. It kinda goes with the whole theme I guess, since what I've been playing around with have been my Europe pics.I have long admired the photography at Stuck in Customs - I read his HDR tutorial and watched a couple videos on Youtube and decided to try it with some of my Europe pics. Granted my camera isn't as good, the pics were recorded in JPEG, and I only have one exposure for all but a couple of them, but some of the results are interesting nonetheless. Here are a few I've done in the past couple days:Barcelona Cathedral (original and HDR)Brugge BelgiumStratford-upon-AvonCasa Battlo - Barcelona, SpainI'll keep experimenting with some of my more interesting trip pictures and hopefully after I get a new camera this summer I'll be much better-equipped to really learn this valuable art.Please visit the blog if you'd like to comment!

Planning Restaurants
2008-04-09 05:08:00
So I've been MIA for so long, no one probably even reads this anymore. But that's okay, I'm doing this more for myself than anyone anyway, because it's fun! :) A job, a long weekend to a tennis tournament, and some misplaced priorities resulted in this blog getting pushed to the back burner, but that's done now. For me, writing about travel is really cathartic, it helps me dream and plan and hope for more interesting adventures, so I will really try my best to update more regularly than I have been lately (Certainly more than once a month!!!!!).without further ado.... While I was planning my trip, something I grappled with was how far to take my planning. It was important for me to at least make rudimentary plans for what I'd be doing each day, if for no other reason than to make sure the sights I planned on a particular day made solid geographic sense and so that I wasn't planning day trips the days right before and after traveling between cities (to break up the train trips...

My Top Ways to Avoid Being an "Ugly American"
2008-03-07 04:57:00
Oh goodness, I have been very bad about updating. Having a job will do that to a person! But hopefully it means future trips will be forthcoming! Anyway without further ado, here's something I have been working on: Yes I know this is a touchy topic for a lot of people. I also know that American s are not the only "Ugly " tourists - there are Ugly Brits and Germans and Japanese and everyone in between. But anyway. I'm not talking about subjects I've discussed in earlier posts, like my traveler vs. tourist one, where my feeling there was more about how we as travelers can get better and more profound experiences from our trips. Instead, this post is literally more about how not to offend the locals. Though I know some people might include traits like this in this "ugly american" category, I don't even mean those families who wear jeans and pristine white sneakers. I'm talking about those people, when you see them, actually make you ashamed to be from the same country as they are, w...
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Re-Creating Dishes From a Trip!
2008-02-17 22:01:00
We all already know that my trip to Europe changed my life; I don't need to repeat that ad nauseum. I'm a bit of a foodie, I don't deny it. And certain things throughout my trip to Italy - some new discoveries and some old favorites - really hit me, hit me so hard that I felt the need to come back here and recreate them. Obviously, nothing can change the way these things tasted while there, made by the people who know what they're doing. But here are some of the things I've tried to recreate and how I've tried to do it.I've tried to recreate that perfect Roman pizza (see picture, click for full-size). I even bought a pizza stone to even out the crust. I buy pizza dough at Trader Joe's and also their basic canned tomato sauce - which even got my mom's stamp of approval (she makes her own from scratch). But it came out better with their imported Italian Tomato Sauce in a box. Really yummy authentic taste. Whenever we made pizza growing up, we'd put on sharp cheddar and plen...
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Are "Tourist Traps" really that bad?
2008-02-12 05:47:00
I was inspired to write this after reading a discussion on a messageboard about the semantics about what makes a tourist trap. The debate was whether something not built specifically for tourists could be a tourist trap. I think in the end it doesn't really matter. They're both tourist traps. But I think the way we travelers view them does make a difference.So ultimately, I think there are two kinds of tourist traps. Those things built or in existence solely to attract tourist dollars and those things that have become, over time, tourist traps for one reason or another. Fitting into the first group would be places like The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas or the imported crappy mask stands in Venice's Piazza San Marco. Fitting into the second group are places like Florence's Ponte Vecchio, which is lined with pricey gold shops, or the subject of the debate that inspired this post, the Tower of Pisa.I think the difference, while it might be esoteric, is an important one for us travele...
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Tips for Researching and Planning Itineraries
2008-02-09 21:35:00
So sorry I haven't posted in so long. The good news is that I got a temp legal job allowing me to make some money and hopefully put some away for future travel! The bad news is that I have much less time to blog! But anyway, here's one I've been thinking about for some time now so hopefully it helps those planning a trip somehow.Although it's rewarding, planning and researching your own trip can also be tiring and daunting. Once you've decided where to go, a difficult decision in itself, more difficult decisions await. What time of year is best? How many days to stay in each city? Accommodations? Sights? Ways to save money? It can be a serious time investment to do it well, and I personally believe it can really affect how successful a trip is.I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was in planning how long to stay in each city on my trip. After several combinations and changes of where I wanted to go, I settled on my list of 10 cities. But then all I sort of did was say "ok...
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Traveling within Europe: Fly or Train?
2008-01-30 21:02:00
This seems to be one of the biggest questions for Europe an travel: fly or train between major destinations? On my trip I did both. Here's what I learned and my opinions on the matter.Of course, the quintessential backpacker method would be the night train - you save time for sight-seeing and $$$ on a night's accommodation. This didn't work for me for several reasons: I'm a bad sleeper. Not sleeping at all on a night train would make me exhausted, grouchy, grumpy, and it'd mess me up for probably 2 days after. So for me, it wouldn't be convenient. Also for some of my longer trips I was traveling alone and thus safety was a concern.I had a rule: If a train was over 6 hours or so, I flew. For example, a train from Lisbon to Barcelona would've required at least one night train and at least one change. You're talking a whole day, if not more............... or a two-hour flight. NO BRAINER. Another one is Amsterdam to Copenhagen. They look close on a map but when you look at the t...
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The Problem with TV Travel Shows
2008-01-27 18:39:00
This post may be one big DUH of common sense. I don't know. But after watching a show on the Food Network about Rachael Ray's travels throughout Europe, to places I myself went, I cannot keep silent. Travel shows are helpful on some basic superficial level. Watching "Giada in Paradise" made me want to go to Santorini one day. And the really good people like Anthony Bourdain make an almost extreme effort to get off the beaten path.The big problems with these shows is that, for those of us who are actually always thinking about new places we want to go and see, these shows are completely unrealistic. The aforementioned Rachael Ray show that set me off was set in Lisbon, which was, as you already know, one of my favorite places of my whole European trip. Obviously, everything she did wouldn't fit into a half hour show, I get that. But she skipped major attractions and entire neighborhoods (neighborhoods that happen to have great food, no less), instead going to clearly touristy cult...
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Safety Tips and Preventing Pickpockets - It's Easy!
2008-01-23 06:31:00
A huge huge issue I see discussed a LOT regarding travel is safety. Obviously, it's an important one. The big issue is, of course, pickpocketing. Tons and tons is written about this, as well it should be, because if you are pickpocketed, it can be a real downer and headache. After all the researching I did, and now after I've come back from cities like Barcelona and Rome, which have pretty serious pickpocket problems, here's what I learned and what I think worked for me. I'm certainly no expert and I'd be silly to pretend to be, but I don't think it was a coincidence that I made it through 6+ weeks in Europe, including some of the most heavily pickpocketed cities, without a hint of trouble.I'm torn about money belts. I had one with me. Sometimes I used it, sometimes I didn't. When I didn't, I locked it in my hotel safe or suitcase. Maybe I was playing with fire. On travel days, especially going through train stations, I wore it. If I didn't feel comfortable with the hotel ...
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Why you should plan your own trip
2008-01-20 19:00:00
One of those eternal questions in traveling seems to be... to take a group tour or not? I'll preface this by saying I have a strong opinion about this. I think the vast majority of people should plan and research their own trips, and I will go on to explain why. But I realize that, for some people, they simply don't have the time - and it really does require lots of time to do it properly - to plan a trip. I understand that. But there are tours out there that allow you more free time than others. Some tours merely provide your hotels and transportation and leave most of the sight-seeing up to you. For some, maybe this or using a travel agent is the best of both worlds. But I will start with a story.On my last night in Rome, my last night in Europe after 6 and a half glorious life-changing weeks, I returned to Da Francesco's - a little trattoria/pizzeria off Piazza Navona that had come highly recommended to me by the dear people over in the Trip Advisor Rome forums. I went there my...
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Leaving Your Comfort Zone
2008-01-19 04:30:00
I'm back!Something that was important to me on my trip was leaving my comfort zone a little, trying new things. I've come to believe this is a really important aspect of traveling, and I'm not sure if it's really possible to get a truly great experience if you don't leave your comfort zone a little to really be able to immerse yourself in the places you're going. Obviously, we all have different comfort zones. If you're already someone who's open to everything and never apprehensive to try new things, I guess this doesn't apply to you. But I don't really think there are all that many people like that; by our nature, we are creatures of habit and we like what we're used to. So here's what I tried to do and some things I learned on my trip.Of course, for some people, just going to a faraway place would be leaving their comfort zone. Especially for those of us who travel alone, that in itself is a huge leap out of the comfort zone - I had certainly never eaten in a restaura...
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Sorry!
2008-01-14 00:51:00
Hi all,Sorry for no new posts in the last few days - my parents are in town visiting, which has kept me more occupied than usual. I have some ideas that I've started to write about but haven't had the time to finish them up... but I hope to soon!Thanks!Please visit the blog if you'd like to comment!

Interesting things to do with Travel Pictures
2008-01-10 00:15:00
I went to Europe for 6 weeks and came home with 3,200+ digital pictures. Somehow, I wanted to display or show off some of my favorites. I'm no photographer and I'm certainly not that creative, but here are some of the things I did or thought of doing with my pictures and some websites I think are cool.In the Danish Design Center in Copenhagen, they have a little shop which is geared towards travel and other things like that. I saw these things called Fotoclips, but didn't buy them. They're neat little plastic things that connect photos so you can make a photo wall or even a lampshade or box or pretty much anything your head can imagine. When I got home, I bought some.What I did was went through my pictures and I picked about 200 of my favorites. My 2 favorites, I blew up to 8x10. My next 15 or so favorites I got 5x7s and the rest of the ones I thought were good I got regular 4x6. I used Snapfish for my prints as they offer good deals on shipping and have great prices when you or...
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Packing light - I'm now a true believer.
2008-01-07 20:45:00
Before I went away, all I read about was the importance of packing light. But until I went and saw how big of a pain it is to travel with a suitcase that is either too big and/or too heavy, I didn't REALLY get it. But now I definitely do, and I am a believer.Let me preface this first by saying, if you're someone who flies and takes private transfers and taxis and rides first class on trains and all this stuff, or if you are the type of traveler who goes to one destination for a more extended period of time, it doesn't much matter. But if you move around a lot or take public transport or ride 2nd class in the trains, I think packing light is an absolute necessity. I managed for 6 weeks with a carry-on sized 21 inch rolling suitcase. I was lucky enough to be able to get a quality bag for free, but my bag was a little on the heavy side (about 12 pounds empty). The lighter the case you start with, the easier you can move around, even with a smaller bag. Of course, make sure you get a...
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Florence Is Not Just a City of Museums!!
2008-01-05 23:24:00
I need to get this off my chest. FLORENCE IS MORE THAN JUST MUSEUMS!!!! I realize I touched upon this in my controversial Traveler vs. Tourist post, but I feel I need to say more after seeing several questions on message boards like "do I need to go to Florence ?" "is Florence worth the time?" "what's there to do in Florence?" - you get the point.Florence is such a wonderful city. These people who take a day trip from Rome or who just sweep in and see the Uffizi and the David. I really don't get it. I don't even LIKE art, but I still loved the heartbeat of this city, the undercurrent of the Renaissance. It's everywhere. It fuels this city and makes it special. Not taking the time to experience this is doing both the city and the traveler a big disservice.There are so many wonderful things about Florence. The architecture, the food, the gelato, the shopping. There are several open-air markets every day - the Loggia near the Ponte Vecchio and the San Lorenzo market around the San L...
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Money-saving tips for shopping and sight-seeing
2008-01-04 06:18:00
As I mentioned in one of my first posts on the blog, and of course as we all know, money is a crucial aspect of traveling - both in the planning and while we are actually at our destinations. Here are some money-saving tips I discovered for sight-seeing and shopping along my European trip. With the dollar getting worse by the day, those of us who like to travel on a controlled budget need all the help we can get! Some of these are more common sense than anything else, but I'll just mention all the ones I can think of and hopefully something might help you save a little money on your next trip!Before You Go:Sometimes you can book trains in advance to get discounts. Some of the national rail companies offer discounts if you book in advance. For example, Trenitalia, the Italian rail company, offers Amica fares if you book in advance. You can save 20%! Also, ÖBB, the Austrian rail company, offers deals on tickets to other countries. I picked up my ticket from Vienna to Venice for 29 e...
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LA Sunset: Sometimes, Beauty is Right Under Our Noses
2008-01-02 19:45:00
Yesterday at about 4:55pm, I looked outside my apartment's sliding door and saw the most beautiful pinks and blues in the sky at sunset. I grabbed my camera and meager little tripod and went outside and snapped a few pictures. They're a little blurry because my tripod's crap, but I didn't alter the colors at all. About 20 minutes after I took them, the sky was black.Some of us yearn to go to places that are beautiful. Beautiful is not a word often associated with LA, but I think the sunset in these pictures is beautiful. Maybe it's a lesson to myself and all of us - we should look right under our noses for beauty, too, even in what we might think of as the most unexpected places. Maybe the bigger picture/lesson is that we shouldn't forget the places we live. For many of us, acting like a tourist in our own hometown is a great way to "get away" but not spend too much money.So, without further ado and for a little diversion from my normal posts, please enjoy these pictures; if y...
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Laptop or No Laptop - that's the question
2008-01-01 20:53:00
First off, Happy New Year to all the travelers out there! I hope 2008 brings new travel adventures and experiences to all!Something that seems to come up in travel discussions a lot is whether to take a laptop on a vacation. On my 6-week trek through Europe, I took mine. All but a couple of my hotels offered some sort of internet access.Just like every other bit of advice I've tried to give on here, the basic point is that ultimately, the decision is up to each traveler. I cannot make sweeping statements about laptops and laptop safety - that would be ludicrous. Instead, once again, I will share the experience I had and the opinions I've drawn from it.From my experience reading several travel discussion forums, the people who suggest people don't take a laptop are maybe people who don't use laptops all the time. They say it's a pain, a hassle, an extra unnecessary weight. But those of us who are used to carrying our laptops in a bag or backpack all the time instead view our lap...
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Traveling Solo: Why Not?
2007-12-31 00:50:00
A lot is written about solo travel. There are websites, books, you name it. I just want to share my own experience and why I think traveling alone is great. I feel like my experience was a relevant one because I took a 6-week trip and 3 weeks of it were with someone else and the second 3 weeks were on my own.Lots of people seem averse to traveling alone. I can completely understand why. You're going to a place that might be far away, where you don't speak the language. Lots can go wrong and if you're with no one, there's no one to help.All of this is true. I think those of us who travel alone must take some extra precautions that we might have to worry about as much if we are with others. And it does cost more - you can't split meals or hotel costs (and a single room or double for one is not half the price of a regular double or twin room) or taxis.But I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Don't get me wrong, traveling with my friend was great. We pretty much wanted to...
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Money-saving tips for eating
2007-12-29 21:20:00
As I mentioned in one of my first posts on the blog, and of course as we all know, money is a crucial aspect of traveling - both in the planning and while we are actually at our destinations. Here are some money-saving tips I discovered along my European travel. With the dollar getting worse by the day, those of us who like to travel on a controlled budget need all the help we can get! Some of these are more common sense than anything else, but I'll just mention all the ones I can think of and hopefully something might help you save a little money on your next trip when it's meal time!Eat big lunches. We found, especially in Mediterranean countries, a lot of restaurants offered multi-course lunch specials for around 10 euros or even less. The few times we did this, we were so full we could eat lighter at dinner (and avoid a late afternoon snack), when things are more expensive.Ask for tap water (in countries where it's safe, of course). In Europe, the norm is bottled water. But s...
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Deciding Where to Go
2007-12-28 03:07:00
It's a big world out there. And we are all different. That's why I think there are no rules about where to go. Some people say "HOW CAN YOU GO TO EUROPE AND NOT TO PARIS" or "HOW CAN YOU GO TO THE USA AND NOT NEW YORK"... you get the point.If there's one thing I learned in planning my own long trip, the most important you thing you can do in deciding where to go and what to do is what will make YOU happy. Guidebooks, blogs, message boards, travel websites, etc, are all important resources for planning a trip. You can get great advice, tips, and information. Without TripAdvisor and the Rick Steves graffiti wall, my trip would literally have been less good, I'm sure of that. There are things and places I learned about on these sites that made my trip truly special. On these and other forums, people offer fantastic advice, locals give their inside tips, and people share what they have learned through their own travels - both successes and mistakes. You can prepare for potential sc...

Hotels
2007-12-26 22:39:00
So to take a break from some of the city discussions of the past few posts, here's something a little different, yet equally as important to a trip - the hotel! I'm one of those people, like many many of us, who sees a hotel as not much more than a bed. After all, why travel all that way just to spend hours and hours in the hotel! But still, a great hotel can really add to my experience of a city, and a really bad hotel can really hurt it. This is not a rant like some of my previous posts, per se, but merely observations and my opinions about the phenomenon of hotels while traveling.This is vastly oversimplifying, and I realize that, so try to bear with me a little. I feel like there are essentially 2 types of people where hotels are concerned: People who want to feel like they're at home and people who want to immerse themselves into the local culture. The first type stay in Hiltons and Marriotts down to Holiday Inns and Best Westerns and Ibises (which are like Red Roof Inn etc)...
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Just to be perfectly clear...
2007-12-24 05:25:00
I received a comment tonight that was extremely hurtful, so much so that I cannot ignore it. It was a personal attack on myself, so I will not publish it (It's one thing to disagree with me or constructively criticize what I say, it's quite another to go at me personally without saying much else of substance, and I don't feel I have any obligation to publish things like that on my own blog). This blog is just a collection of my opinions and experiences and sharing things I learned in my travels in the hopes that someone else might read it and think about things before their own trip. I'm not pretending to know everything about anything - not the places I've been or the people I met along the way or really anything at all. It's just my own opinions and experiences. I thought that, this being a blog and all, these kinds of things would be quite obvious.This person told me that my commentary on tourists versus travelers made me an ignorant American. Anyone who knows me who reads ...
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How Venice Stole My Heart
2007-12-24 04:05:00
Sometimes, in life, you get so excited about things, you set such high expectations, that there's no other option but impending disappointment. It happens with movies and people and restaurants. And places. You psych yourself up to love something, and then when you see it or experience it, there's no way it can live up.Well, for me, that was not the case with Venice . I was so excited for Italy. So SO excited to go to Venice. Besides the fact that I heeded everyone's advice and pushed Italy to the end of my trip so as to avoid it in August, I kinda wanted to save the best for last. So I get off that train and step outside.... and BAM. You are instantly thrust into Venice. Tourists and locals whiz by. Boats chug chug chug along. It's a little chaotic, a little frenetic. But oh, it's beautiful. And like nothing I've ever seen or experienced. I was there. ITALY!! VENICE!!!!!!!!But would Venice disappoint me? You read in magazines and guidebooks and on message boards that Venice is...
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Underrated Brussels
2007-12-23 04:03:00
For me, including Brussels on my trip was a no-brainer. I love chocolate, I love waffles. How could I skip Brussels? Then I started reading message boards. People seemed to hate Brussels. It's dirty, there's nothing to do there, it's boring, blahblahblah. Rick Steves pushes nearby Brugge instead - Brussels isn't even in his "Best of Europe" book.Is Brussels the most exciting city in the world, or even in Europe? No of course not. But it's quaint, small and accessible, charming, and quirky. Where else can you make a lunch out of fries (look at the picture, click for a bigger one, just look at them!!!), a waffle, and chocolate samples and say it was among the better meals you can remember in a long time? I like to think of it this way. Any city that has as its symbol or 'mascot' a statue of a little peeing boy (Manneken Pis) must be a fun place. And let's not forget two of its more notable museums - the Musical Instruments museum and a museum for Comic Strips. How can people s...
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Copenhagen's Quirkiness
2007-12-21 00:24:00
I don't know about anyone else, but before I went to Copenhagen, I had a view of Denmark and Scandinavia, its people, and its culture, in my mind. Tall thin good-looking blond people who are reserved, classy, and only eat (raw?) fish. And of course the Danish, ahhhh the Danish (And you know I mean the pastry right?)!Is any of this true?Well, sort of. Lots of the people are beautiful and blond and tall and thin and there is lots of fish on menus, much of it raw or pickled. But that's really just the beginning. Copenhagen is also funny, quirky, beautiful, fascinating, and charming.In some ways, Copenhagen reminds me of London. The people have this long rich history of their monarchy and they have a love/hate/love relationship with the ruling family. They also don't take themselves too seriously - we all know Brits have among the best sense of humor around, but I found the Danes I encountered to be equally as funny and self-effacing. On my tour of the Christiansborg Palace - a funct...

To MR
2007-12-19 06:33:00
I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful comment. Hearing those things from a local means so very much to me. It reaffirms my desire to keep traveling, to keep learning, to go back to Lisbon (and the rest of Portugal!) to learn more, but most of all it lets me know that my desire to spend my days in each city soaking as much as possible is leading me to success. To hear that I "got it" from a local is really just heart-warming for me and I am so grateful that somehow, you stumbled upon my blog and gave it a read. Obrigada!Please visit the blog if you'd like to comment!