Greece - Day 4

This is sunrise, not sunset:

View from Leon's house

Greece - Day 3

Exploring and Wandering around the island on our ATV again today:

Caves on the beach:


What goes down must come up and literally had to push the ATV with Jon on it a few times to try to get up some hills.



Exploring the other side of the island:


Back in Oia:



More from Oia:



Dog Day Afternoon:




Local Transport:



View at Katikies:

Multitasking - lunch and a dip in the pool:


Leon's House in Mykonos:

Greece - Day 2

Breakfast


View from our terrace in the morning:


Jon geared up for our ATV rental:


Realizing we should probably schmear ourselves so we don't burn to a crisp:






Relaxing at JoJo's on XXX Beach:








Exploring the island:



Fira (the capital of Thira):



On our balcony in the evening:





Now we understand why this is known as the best sunset in the world:

Fisherman returning to AXXX Port with our dinner:

Dinner is just on the water!


Dinner (not for us):

Enjoying ourselves at sunset terrace which is quite literally on the water:

Greece Postings

I am publishing Greece Days 2, 3 and 4 for now without posting my thoughts, but believe me there are many stories including my agreement to rent an ATV after much cajoling by Jon and partying in Mykonos with Jon's friend Leon until the sun literally came up.

Lots, lots to write, but here are the pictures for now!

Greece - Day 1

I think some of you have been following the weather in London this summer. It absolutely, positively sucks. Jon and I literally walk around in sweatshirt and sweatpants at least a few times a week – and I have been making some serious use of the throw we bought at Home Base when we moved in!

So, it was time for a trip with sun, beach, relaxation and minimal touring. We’re off to the Greek Islands!Sorry in advance for the plethora of pictures in our Greece postings – I think we fell in love with the islands and will surely be back as soon as we possibly can.

Any morning flight cannot compare to this one – 7:20am out of Gatwick, required a 4am wakeup in order to get there in time given all the transportation. Yuck!

Anyway, it was absolutely worth it – we arrived in Mykonos and had a few hours to spare before our flight to Santorini, so we decided to visit Hora, the island’s capital city. So we got on a taxi line and waited. And waited. And waited with everyone else from our flight. Good thing I picked up the free Mykonos guide in the airport and had the sense to buy a Greek SIM card when I visited Athens in May – soon enough a taxi arrived for the guy in the red shirt and we were off!

Clearly, walking around the islands with suitcase in tow couldn’t be fun for Jon, but adding the 40°C (check here for the conversion), so gold star to Jon for zero complaints.

Our mission: find the best gyro in Hora. We were given directions to such a place, and wouldn’t you know it we hauled our stuff all the way there and found it closed (only in Greece). Good thing we aren’t easily deterred, because we found this great hole-in-the-wall and weren’t even put off by the photo menu (which usually rings crazy bells for me).

After the best €2 gyro I have ever had, we wandered around the narrow streets of the city for a while more. At one point we happened across this interesting creature surrounded by hoards of tourists (center picture). I think it is a heron, but let me know if it is not!

Our flight was scheduled for 5:30pm, so we figured if we hit the cabstand by 4pm, we would be fine. I wish Jon took a picture of how distressed I got, but believe me it was not pretty when we didn’t have a cab by 4:30. All I have to say is good thing Jon makes fast friends, because soon enough we were on our way to the airport with Philip.

We nearly melted watching some sun before our flight, but happy to be at the airport nonetheless!

On our way to magical Santorini - a small plane but not as small as to Singita!

Santorini is truly a magical island. Thousands of years ago it was shaped like most islands (roundish), when there was a huge volcanic eruption and the island split into several parts – today the main island of Thira is shaped like a half moon and we are staying in a place called Oia (pronounced ee-ya), that is on the tip of the crescent-shaped island. This area is on a cliff and presumably once upon a time was at the center of the island.

This is a picture of the volcano, which is now its own separate island:

Getting a hotel in Santorini, in Oia with such short notice literally took us an entire day. We arrived at Katikies Villas with baited breathe. There were not a lot of pictures of the property online and we originally called for the hotel, but they had no rooms available. They told us about the Villas and we searched and searched and searched for information about it but there is not a lot out there. There are only 7 units and it is literally run like you are visiting someone’s home. It actually sort of reminded me of the service at Singita. Yes, that good! We were upgraded to a suite - yipee - but I am sure that each and every unit there is amazing.

The manager’s name is Antonia and she couldn’t have been nicer. After we settled in, she came to our room with fresh fruit, a bottle of wine and two glasses of champagne. She knew how long we had on the island and gave us a great overview of how she suggested we spend our time. Then she pointed out the cell phone on the mini-bar was for us to use during our stay – to contact her whenever we had a question. I could go on and on and on about our stay at Katikies, but I’ll do that off line. Honestly, if you are ever in Santorini, don’t think about staying anywhere else. The hospitality was amazing! Here is a picture of Jon at the hotel:

After our introduction to the island, we decided to walk around Oia, which is beautiful and quiet. There were people milling about, but relatively quiet, which was later explained by the fact that it wasn’t yet the weekend – either way this town has wonderful shops filled with non-touristy trinkets and great restaurants, each with an endless view of the ocean.

I don’t think we have ever seen sky or ocean so blue as on Santorini. Today, we even picked up some local tomatoes and before you make serious fun – they are known to be the most delicious – they are grown without ever watering them so the flavor is much more intense. So the Greeks may have a one-up on tomatoes from the Italians.

Here's a picture of the beautiful town of Oia; it is built into the cliff so nearly everywhere you stay has an amazing view of endless seas.

Antonia made a booking for us a great restaurant for dinner called Ambrosia and Nectar. And since, I know you were all counting on the details of every morcel, here goes. We got the feta wrapped in filo and a traditional Fava dip for starters which were both amazing. Then we had an oven baked lamb and moussaka for mains, which might not exactly be local, but are quite Greek and delicious!

On the way to dinner, Jon spied this ridiculously tempting bakery - how is it that everywhere we go, we find ridiculously good bakeries? We decided to take out two samples (not sample sized thank goodness) and ended the evening under eating dessert under the stars on our private balcony.

Bart Simpson at Hot Stuff

So here is a picture of me in front of the famous Hot Stuff.

We enjoyed another great meal chez Raj; there was a large family there celebrating a birthday this time – and considering the restaurant probably holds twenty five people maximum, they sort of overtook the place. We all sang happy birthday as they brought out a dreamy Bart Simpson cake, which is all the rage in London these days as they prepare for the release of the movie. Lots of fun; after passing out cake to her family, the mom turns to us and asked if we want a piece. Of course we said no thank you that is so kind and can you imagine my horror as I hear Jon saying, actually yes sure I would like a piece of your son’s Bart Simpson birthday cake who I don’t even know. Hmmm – taking food from strangers, I think remember some people telling me never to do that!

Borough Market

Part of Dave's Tour of London, includes a trip to Borough Market, which he and Rachel seemed to really enjoy, so today we decided to check it out. What a great place - it is the farmer's market to end all farmer's markets, with wonderful fresh produce sold by local farmers and baked goods around every corner.

We left extraordinarily full, but no guilt – we went on a run this morning! We headed over to Jermyn Street, another stop on the Dave sightseeing tours, which has more men’s shirt stores than I have ever seen in my life. Next time Jon complains about having to go in another souvenir shop on vacation, I will have to remind him on this experience. We left no stone uncovered, literally.

Piccadilly Circus is at the end of Jermyn Street, so we made a quick stop at one of the aforementioned souvenir shops (even though we are not on vacation), to go back to the same shop we visited with Bridget and Jimmy to pick up a few knick-knacks for the kids. I guess I didn’t waste much time getting back at Jon :)

Fiddler on the Roof

There is a TKTS booth for theatre tickets in Canary Wharf, so today we decided to take advantage! Tickets open up at 10am and I went and got us tickets to Fiddler on the Roof, which neither of us had seen before.

Definitely a fun evening out - though began with a minor panic as we reached the theater less than five minutes to curtain and suddenly I could not find our tickets! All's well that ends well and after emptying my purse, I found them floating at the bottom!

Bridget and Jimmy

Yay - we love visitors! A few hours after we returned from Amsterdam, we had dinner with Bridget and Jimmy who are in town for a week of touring!

We gave them the newly published Dave's Guide to London (which I would post here, but unfortunately I'm afraid of copyright infringement issues ;) ) and went to the neighborhood pizza/pasta place that is run by an animated Italian guy.

Wonderful to see them and catch up and we even got to see them for another dinner and romp around town on Thursday. Definitely a humbling experience when the guy visiting London knows his way around town better than you. What can I say - I don't hit the Times Square of London very often :)

Amsterdam - Day 3

Not much to report on Day 3 in Amsterdam as our flight was earlier than we usually head out.

We look the public bus this time and seriously never had a quicker ride to the airport - 15 minutes tops; which was a little annoying given that we hauled out of bed early after staying out too late!

We had plenty of time to spare in Schiphol Airport and seriously not enough things to fill it with except taking many pictures of ourselves. :)

Amsterdam - Day 2

On our second day in Amsterdam, woke up early to avoid the crowds at Anne Frankhuis (Anne Frank House) – I think maybe out the door at 9am. After seeing so many people stumbling in the streets last night, we were pretty surprised to find nothing stirring in the morning. And believe me when I say that we struggled to find a shop open to grab something for breakfast.

We made our way over to the Anne Frank House, which has been converted into a museum. I don't think any of us realized how affected we would be by our visit- obviously the subject matter is so sad it is hard to wrap your arms around it, but the visit made me feel like I was transported back to the time Ann lived in the house. Throughout the house and the museum that follows, there are audio clips from the Dairy of Anne Frank and video clips of the people who hid the family, speaking about what they did to help the family and what became of each person living in the house. It was a lot to take in and quite honestly draining.

We heard there is a pancake house near Anne Frank’s House not to be missed, so we searched it out in vain; but not to worry we found another one close by and had breakfast #2.

Next, we walked through a neighbourhood called Jordaan, which is seemingly the new hip part of town; eventually, we made it over to the Rijksmuseum, which has a great collection of dutch art. It is currently under major renovations, which could deter some – but it actually turned out to be a helpful for our time constrained visit: because only one wing of the museum is open at the moment, they have loaded all the museum’s masterpieces into one section, so your visit is filled only with the highlights from the museum, instead of having to specifically search them out!

In the afternoon, we took a boat cruise on the canals, which gave us another perspective from which to enjoy the city. Strange tour company that I am sure none of us would recommend as they were not the most friendly in the world – good thing their audio guided tour was pre-recorded!

For dinner, we didn’t have a set booking, but we figured we would find something. After walking around in circles, we found a nice touristy Argentine steak house – let’s just say the company was better than the food!

Amsterdam - Day 1

Lisa and Felix have just finished an adventure in Stockholm, visiting his sister and we decided to take a long weekend and join them on the second leg of their trip to Amsterdam. As it seems to be the way we travel as of late, we had an early morning flight. But for the first time since arriving in Europe, we were delayed by a bit of rainy weather, which of course was not great given we arranged to meet Lisa and Felix at the hotel at a specified hour!

Anyway, we took the train into the Central station and then hopped on to the tram (no cost for us this time as we couldn’t quite figure out where to buy tickets and given that the doors just open for you to walk in, we figured we would make it up later).

We arrived at the hotel about 15 minutes later and met up for a lunch that really hit the spot. Jon made friends with our local waitress and asked her for a list of all the great places to visit while we were in town.

In the afternoon, we made our way to the Van Gough Museum, which was amazing – it was curated extraordinarily well; the museum shows Van Gough’s progress in style throughout his career and adds interesting details about his life, family and friends.

It was not the most beautiful weather today, but we were still able to enjoy some of the charm of this city – which has turned out to be a favourite for us. It is small and walkable which we love, and the canals and cobblestone paths are delightful.

After our obligatory afternoon nap, we headed to dinner at a place called “Kantjil & de Tijger,” which translates from Indonesian as the “Antelope and the Tiger.” There is a relatively large presence of Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam, which I learned was a carry-over from the Dutch colonial era there. Of course, by now you all know that Jon and I are relatively adventurous eaters, so given the opportunity we had to try something new. We all ate rijsttafel, which is a rice table banquet with a series of foods served in small bowls. Sort of a spicy version of Chinese food if you ask me, but a delicious start to the evening!

We capped things off with a walk through the red light district, which Lisa and I tried not to be too troubled by! So my general thoughts for the moment are that Amsterdam in the light of day is wonderful and enjoyable; by night, a lot of the behavior freaked me out!

Wimbledon 2007

The verdict: that sickie was worth any guilt incurred (besides, really I am on the US payroll and still technically get all the holidays!).

I’ve always enjoyed live tennis, but Wimbledon was a treat beyond what we anticipated it to be. Of course, we were home last night to grab our seats on-line and were minorly peeved when Ticketmaster cookied our session and gave us the first set of seats we were offered instead of the slightly better seats we got on our second try.

Also of note, we had our first (human) overnight visit to our flat in London last night – Jon’s friend Noah was flying back to NYC from Greece, had an overnight layover, so we played host. From the state of his suitcase, we figure his last few nights on Mykonos must have been pretty wild. He didn’t even bother to take his shirts of the hangers before shoving them in his suitcase ;)

Anyway, we packed a great picnic lunch for our excursion. Wimbledon doesn’t have separate day and night sessions so I figured I should arm us with lots of snacks. So to us it was logical that the tube station to exit would be, hmmm – Wimbledon? Nope – like many nonsensical things in the U.K., we followed the crowd off at Southfields and started the hike. Then we saw a bus which turned out to be a shuttle bus (which doesn’t take monthly passes of course), so we hopped on. After shelling out a quid fifty each, we realized that the bus was dawdling down the street and hopped off when the bus was forced to stop for a sick passenger. We finally got to the stadium and joined the queue, which literally seemed to go on for ages and snaked back and forth; when people started dodging to the side of the line, we hopped over as well and made our way in.

The tournament is held at a private club called the All England Lawn Tennis Club and the grounds are absolutely beautiful – flowers planted everywhere and the grounds are so small that there are no bad seats.

Here is the view of Center Court from our seats:

So, in the end we didn’t have to curse Ticketmaster for our back row seats – in fact, it was pretty lucky because when it started to drizzle everyone in our row could pull out the umbrellas, but any further down and you couldn’t because you would block people’s view! Center Court also has a peculiar section we had never seen before – the Royal Box. No Queen on site today, though.

Some of the most fun matches of the day were on the side courts, because we were so close to the players that you could touch them! Of course, it would not be a summer day in England without some rain, so we took a few breaks indoors.

As we were getting dressed, I asked Jon, do you think we need to dress up? Which he promptly dismissed. But I will say, that there were plenty of men in suits and ladies in dresses and hats – only in the U.K.! And of course, the umpires and line judges are dressed to the nines as well (though in American designer Ralph Lauren :) )

All around us, many bottles of champagne were popping and we got in on the fun with some traditional strawberries and cream (the thing to eat at Wimbledon), which were bargain basement priced at £2.25 (seriously, compared to U.S. sporting event pricing, that is cheap!).

There was a great roster of play today and indeed helped us celebrate Independence Day with some American tennis players:

Andy Roddick / Paul-Henri Mathieu
Venus Williams / Maria Sharapova
Justine Henin / Serena Williams

How to Spend July 4th in London

Lots of Brit speak in this entry - translation available in parentheticals :)

Yesterday was our 3 year engagement anniversary which we celebrate the same way each year: burgers at pop burger and a juant around the pond in a row boat in central park. There is nothing close to pop burger in London, so I figured I would make our own at home after row boating in Battersea Park. Of course, the rain started at ~5pm, so the row boats were out. And truth be told, it would have been tough to manage it given our plans for tomorrow....

Wimbeldon started last week and when I investigated getting tickets back in February, I was sad to see that the majority are given out via public ballot that ended in December. Our only hope was to get same day tickets which people stand in a queue (aka a line) overnight for next day tickets. Knowing that Jon and I are not exactly that type, we figured we'd have to go another time. But then this week, my hopes raised, after I read about a new 'scheme' (aka initiative) to get tickets on the internet for the next day's play with tickets opening up at 8:30pm. After clicking on the webpage about a thousand times, it opened up and we got our tickets to center court! Tomorrow I will be taking a sickie (aka a sick day) to celebrate US Independence Day knowing what a gloomy feeling it would be to be in the office when everyone back home is watching fireworks!

Brussels - Day 2

Today, we decided to 'sleep in' until 8:30am; sleep schedules in London are definitely not what they are like in New York. Jon works until 12 or 1am each day and I have to wake up at 6:54am to get to work. And coming from my family, I need my sleep!

Today, we opted to take things slowly- we always say our weeekend trips are to get a taste of the countries and cities we are visiting; if we enjoy ourselves, we'll return one day!

So today, we began the day with belgian waffles by a cute square and then enjoyed the Brussels Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern Art. We strolled through an antiques market and through an interesting local neighborhood, ate some frites from a stand to hold us over until lunch. This was all great until we realized that we were getting more off the beaten path than we wanted to be. Suddenly, we were in a mostly Arab and N. African neighborhood and needless to say, we picked up the pace and I was overjoyed when we found some familiar streets.

After that exhausting episode, we gathered our bags from the hotel and started to head to Gare Midi because we heard there was a nice market there on Sundays. On our way, we saw this interesting character in Grand-Place and Jon poked me so many times to take a picture that I actually did it (while exclaiming how beautiful the Grand Place was and how I could never have enough pictures of it):

So, we headed back to the train station, walked out to find most of the vendors in what turned out to be a not very nice market packing up for the day. Hot and hungry at this point, we stopped off at this Portoguese restaurant, which was the only one in sight.

It was a quick trip, but we had a great time! Back on the Eurostar to London...

Brussels - Day 1

We booked a quick weekend trip to Brussels and were very excited to try the EuroStar. Our train was the 6:06AM from Waterloo, so we planned on getting to sleep early. Of course, as usual, reality did not go as planned and we ended up joining Rachel and Dave to dinner with his parents at Wodka (a great eastern european restaurant). We got home at 11:30pm, and after packing it was 12:30am. With our 4:10am wake up looming, I must have been very nervous to sleep through the alarm because at 2:30am I shot out of bed and turned on the shower. Good thing I looked at my cell phone before I hopped in!

Checking in for the Eurostar was a breeze – we picked up our e-tickets and getting through security and passport control was quick and painless. Makes you wonder what the airports are missing! Of course, because we are so used to the hassles of air travel, we had oodles of time to spare… eventually they opened up the entrance and we made our way to our seats. It was very nice, with big seats. Nevertheless, we managed to get seated behind the only group of peope alert at this time of day and let’s just say they were not particularly quiet or considerate. Happily, the staff was able to move us to another car and the rest of our journey is a blur (familiar theme in our early morning travels).

When we got to Brussels Gare Midi, we found our way to the metro and ultimately to the hotel. We stayed at the Rocco Forte Hotel Amigo and when we walked into our room we both let our a sigh of relief. We definitely need something higher end after our experience in Florence and this fit the bill. We were so excited to see that a copy of Jon’s favourite painting, The Son of Man by René Magritte (see entries from Paris), was hanging in our room. As it turns out, Magritte is Belgian and the painting below is also by him.

The hotel is just off the Grand-Place, which is a beautiful square in the center of Brussels. The square is surrounded by impressive buildings constructed as early as the 15th century. On the picture on the left, I am touching the the bronze deathbed sculpture of Everard 't Serclaes, which people seem to think is good luck, which I'm happy to try for!

The rest of the day, we explored the city. One Belgian claim to fame: the inventors of the indoor mall.

A few common themes: a) chocolate b) waffles c) baked goods. And of course, we found a wonderful old-fashioned bakery off the Grand-Place before we even got to lunch!

Of course, another Belgian specialty are Moule Frite, so Jon did his research and has lunch at the best place in town, called Chez Leon.

After a hearty lunch, we were off, but truth be told, I was struggling - I was tired, thirsty, hot, cold. LOL - here are some pics of me powering through it like the athlete that I am ;)

In the afternoon, we went to the Musical Instruments Museum which was really neat. They give you headphones and as you walk past all different types of instruments, you hear music played by that instrument.

Here's Jon getting very grossed out by the idea of having the earphones touch his virgin ears:

But he got over it:

On our trek back to the hotel (and I was so tired that it really felt like a trek), we found the choclatier to the royal family, Choclatier Marie - and perhaps we tried one of two. We walked past one of the most famous catherdrals in Brussels and at the point we were without a doubt due for a nap. We walked by Cathedral de St Michael, which is one of the most beautiful in Brussels and a great example of the Gothic style.

But in usual form, we kept treking for a bit more and stopped off at Manneken-Pis, a statue of a little boy peeing, which people call the city's oldest citizen (dates ~1619). Legend has it that he was able to save the city from a fire with his pee. I'm skeptical.

We picked up a yummy belgian waffle, which did not come with a fork or knife, so as you see we had to improvise a bit.

For dinner, we made a booking at La Manufacture, which was (as usual) a bit off the beaten path. It was within walking distance of the hotel which was a nice treat; decor and food were both great. I got the ostrich for my main, which I haven't ordered since our honeymoon. And speaking of our honeymoon, I truly don't think we've eaten quite like this since then!

Jon's Office

Some of you might wonder how Jon is getting along in London. Here's a picture of him, hard at work in his office!

Open 24 Hours - Redefined

Jon and I are big fans of late-night food shopping. You've got the whole store to yourself and what else are you going to do at midnight on a Saturday night - ok don't answer that question. Anyway, we had the car for 24 hours, so we figured we would make the most of it and go to the Tesco in Earl's Court. It's huge and prices are great so it was almost like being back at Fairway! So we stopped off on our way home from the party to the Tesco, which has a huge sign that says "Open 24 Hours." After struggling to find the entrance to the garage, we got out, got a cart and walked to the store, which we promptly learned was closed. I could not resist snapping a shot of the sign on the door to the store. Only in London does "Open 24 Hours" mean, opened 24 hours on most days.

Sunday morning - back to work for Jon - with lei, of course ;)

Driving Around in Circles

When in New York, Jon and I always make time for a treat at Bouchon Bakery each weekend. So when we crossed the pond, we sought a similar weekend delight in Chelsea. We found an excellent bakery called Baker and Spice, but even more than our sweet treats, we love to enjoy the Saturday farmer's market in front of Partridge's. All the vendors are local farmers or restaurants who use fresh, local and often organic ingredients. At the moment, our favorite lunch is from the Pie Minister - yum!

In the afternoon, we were off to the party! Let me just say that driving in England was without question an adventure. A few points of note:

1. Being the passenger in a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side is a truly frightening experience. I got to be great friends with my seatbelt and I don't think we went a single mile without me trying my hardest not to jump out of my seat and instead uttering the words "you're in two lanes" or "too close too close" (in fairness, likely not very calmly)

2. Speaking of too close, most streets in London are not meant to be a)two ways and b)two ways with street parking on one side

3. Never, under any circumstance, use google maps if you are planning a road trip in the UK. Evidently the thing to use here is called AA.

4. England road network is connected by more roundabouts with more exits with horrible signage than I ever imagined possible. I don't know if there is a way to fix it, but if there is, there is a big government contract waiting for the person who can solve this issue.

5. Our journey was meant to take 1.5 hours and after I cannot even remember how many wrong exits off roundabouts, it only took us 2.5 hours to get home.

Aside from the journey itself, we decided to add in a vistle to Windsor Castle on the way to the party. And even though we did not enter said castle, we did walk around the cute town and shops surrounding.

The party was, how shall we say - interesting. We got there and got lei'd (in pink so of course they matched Jon's fabulous sweater). After getting a professional picture taken, we went to the back of the house and entered something on the order of a bar-mitzvah party. The whole garden (aka a backyard in America) was tented, there was a dance floor and of course a band to accompany it. And the guests were entirely enthralled by the chocolate fountain - hello, where have they been? The invitation stated this would be a pig and lamb roast and they did not disappoint - there was a full pig on a spit! I had the pleasure of meeting some people in Jon's industry which was interesting (they all speak in this strange language of acronyms), but overall this party was for friends and family so not a lot of business done!

We made our exit in time for that last train I mentioned, which I can't decide whether it would have been a better option - either way this was an adventure we will not soon forget! One last photo to show the near horror on Jon's face as he filled the half-empty tank which added up to £25 ;)

Our journey to the Holy Land...

err, I mean Hot Stuff, the indian restaurant that we have tried to go to and failed countless times - tonight we finally got a reservation and arrived to find the restaurant open! It was not without incident though, because we had to rush to the underground after our bus didn't arrive after 20 minutes. Ahh, getting to Hot Stuff is quite a journey, but as it turned out entirely worth the effort.


Hot Stuff is definitely worth it's review in the New York Times. After admitting our relatively recent conversion to the Indian persuasion, the restaurant's owner, Raj, guided us to sufficiently adventurous dishes (without scaryig Jon away). Everything was delicious and fresh and walking away spending £20 for 2 people (yes, you read that correctly) left us feeling like we should become regulars!

Party Time - Excellent

This weekend, Jon's client invited us to a party at his house, so we figured it would be a great networking opportunity. This is the non-expat party we've been invited to so it should be interesting!

Of course it couldn't entirely convenient and in Central London, but we decided to make the most of it and make a day trip somewhere, TBD. I investigated how we could get there via public transport and found a train that takes about 1.5 hours, costs £17 per person each way and the last train back was at 10:30pm. Jon's client graciuosly offered to put us up in a hotel overnight, but somehow we both decided sleeping in our comfy bed in Nell Gwynn House might be a better option. Needless to say we opted to rent a car, but not before hemming and hawing whether we could hack driving on the other side of the road. And by we, I mean Jon. Anyway, we rented an automatic for fear of stalling on the M3 for having shifted through the gear 'backwards.' More details in the next post on how we got on!

Needed: Decent Meteorology School in London

Honestly, for the past two weeks, I wake up each morning and watch a program called BBC Breakfast in order to get my morning news, weather and transit alerts (the tube certainly has more problems than the MTA, however I will give them this, they are quite good a disseminating when there are problems on different routes).

The meteorologists here just suck. Every day for the last two work weeks, they have predicted rain. They say it will downpour. And if they say it will happen during rush hour, I bring my raincoat and umbrella. I NEVER USE THEM! Everyone always sites weather as the downfall of living in London, and quite honestly I think the meteorologists have some sort of conspiracy going on - I wonder who is paying them to consistently deliver the wrong forecast?

Florence - Day 3

We decided to 'sleep in' today - i.e. wake up at 8am, instead of yesterday's crazy early start and last night's crazy dinner. After packing up, we headed to the train station to give this a try on our ride back to the airport...

Ended up back at Rivoire on Piazza Signoria and today has a very local experience by eating at the coffee bar. I’m getting used to their crazy strong coffee and it is a good thing because it keeps me going through the day.

After dawdling in Il Papiro, one of my all time favorite paper shops, we moved along to the primary goal of the day – finding Jon a nice suit or sports coat, which ended up being a successful mission even though communicating with the helpers in the shop was less than easy.

We couldn’t leave Florence with one last cone of ‘baby yogurt’ (thanks Rachel!) so we walked back to the Duomo. Before we knew it, it was almost noon (check out time at the hotel) so we hustled back to the hotel, picked up our bags, checked out and got to the train station with 12 minutes to spare.
The ride back to the airport was much more scenic on the train, so we were happy we tried it out.



Next trip: Amsterdam with Lisa and Felix, unless something pops up first!

Florence - Day 2

It’s tough to visit any place for the weekend and feel like you’ve seen it all, but it’s especially true for Florence.

We called the advance reservation line for the Uffizi earlier this week, but they didn’t have any bookings available for this weekend. We had heard about lines snaking along the building, so we decided to wake up early (again) to get in line before it opened. That meant a 6:30am wake up and in line by 7:30am. Pretty impressive if you ask me! On the way, I took the opportunity to snap a picture of Jon in front of Ghiberti's bronze doors at the Battistero:
We got to the museum with about 20 people in line ahead of us, so while Jon held our place in line, I grabbed a strong coffee from Rivoire, which was just around the corner but seemingly the only place open that early on a Saturday. The line was oddly competitive with an old French couple behind us constantly trying to cut us and me constantly trying to held our place in the line.

Finally the doors opened and we explored the museum, which contains art from the Medici family collection. The museum is very nice to navigate – it is laid out in chronological order, so for instance, we were able to compare Botticcelli’s “The Birth of Venus” with “The Spring”. OK maybe, we crashed a tour group discussing those two paintings, but it was really interesting- haha! We definitely enjoyed wandering through the museum– very interesting to see how artists’ styles change through the centuries.
We got out the museum at around 10:30 and wander toward the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence and where most of the jewellery merchants have their shops.

Given that Jon just got me some fabulous earrings for my birthday, I figured we’d skip it on this trip and moved along. Last trip to Florence, I met our friend Basim at the end of the Ponte Vecchio who sold handbags – I looked for him, but seems like perhaps he’s moved on with his career.

On the other side of the bridge, we wandered about the Oltrarno. Between popping our heads into local shops and sitting down on available benches on the sidewalks (have I mentioned that our legs are in serious pain from all this walking?), we passed the Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace), which we didn’t go into, but Jon wanted to take this picture of me in front:

Along the same road, we found an entrance to the Giardino di Boboli (Boboli Gardens) which we thought would be a nice diversion. The woman at the gate said admission was €9, so we decided to walk a bit to decide whether we would go ahead. And we just happened to notice a gate open to another garden across the street. We were just starting to enjoy it when, some Italian man came up to us and ushered us out with his hands. Uh, I guess we were wandering around some rich Florentine’s private garden. Oops!

On our way back to the other side of the Arno River, we found an artist’s workshop and bought a beautiful frame covered with marbleized paper that is famous in Florence. Of course, we had a specific reason for wandering back to the other side of town so quickly – we had to go back to Il Pizzaiuolo, the restaurant we tried to eat at for lunch yesterday. We got there just after 12:30 and there were plenty of open tables – by 1pm there was a line out the door!
The service was, how shall I say, leisurely. But the food was excellent- started with bruscetta and each had a pizza (seriously – can we got anywhere without gorging ourselves on local gastronomy?) and we were surrounded by locals, which generally makes us happy.

For the rest of the afternoon, we wandered through the streets of Florence. In putting together our itinerary for the trip, I read about Scuola del Cuoio, which sells great leather goods and also has artisans at work inside the same shop so you can see how things are made. I got a new wallet and Jon finally found the perfect credit card holder and luckily a craftsman was available to personalize it with his initials.

After a significant nap, we got ready for dinner – Jon’s dinner selection – Fuor D’Acqua. Anticipating our normal eating regime, we opted to walk to the restaurant which is in the Oltrarno (Jon’s made it a habit on this trip to pick restaurants at the farthest corners of the city, so at least we ended up burning some of the calories we ate).

The upside of the walk was that we got the pleasure of seeing a fabulous sunset over the Arno River.

Along our walk we also walked through the old city doors, or porte, the remains of which demarcate the center of Florence, or centro storico.

Anyway, we got to the restaurant and quickly realized that without a doubt we were the only non-locals in the restaurant and happily they figured out who we were very quickly. This place is known for their fish, which we were excited about after a night of gorging ourselves with pasta. We started out with a glass of prosecco (yes, first people I thought of were the newly dubbed Blix’s)… and the only waiter with decent English came to the table to explain that, yes there is a menu, but they get fresh fish each evening at 8:15pm and most people just allow them to prepare dishes with some guidance. That sounded exciting, so we went for it, specifying that we wanted the bronzino for our main. We ordered a great bottle of white wine, leaned back and held our breath hoping for the best. Mom and Dad should probably look away at this point, so you aren’t disappointed with the wide array of shellfish (which of course I didn’t touch, but keep the love for Jon strong ;) )…

Our first course came out as a platter of raw fish – tuna, yellowtail, shrimp (yes raw and scary looking) and a ceviche of something. A delicious start and we were feeling happy. Next, a dish with shrimp (cooked this time) on a bed of white beans, which yet again was exquisite. The waiter arrived with the next dish that he dubbed, ‘the last’ and it was our bronzino paired with asparagus (which Jon never ever eats because of the after affects – we all know how much he is missing out). It looked pretty pathetic in volume compared to the lobsters sitting on the tables around us. I tried not to get too discouraged, but it was pretty upsetting – we didn’t even get the pasta with seafood that we requested. Not one to get ripped off, Jon just started eating and drinking everything in site. Literally – ate all the bread in the basket. Poured himself a mighty large glass of water, etc. They took away the dish and I can only imagine the glaring looks he received from us.

But then, another dish came out as our ‘last,’ tuna prepared w/XXX. While we weren’t disappointed with the preparation, we were still struggling to understand why we were getting ripped off. Yes, we knew that we were in Italy and aren’t masters of the language, but had we missed something when we first sat down? We were resigned to the fact that this was it – no pasta, measly main dish, but on the upside, finally we could leave a Tuscan restaurant without feeling like whales.

And I am sure you can expect what happened next – our of the kitchen came a glorious plate filled with spaghetti and shrimp dressed tomato sauce, the way you can only find in a real Italian restaurant. I haven’t seen a broader smile on Jon’s face in a while – and boy did he enjoy the pasta, though at this point we were both regretting finishing off the bread and all the previous dishes because we know what is coming next – our bronzino, baked in a salt crust. Which was so tender and delicious it’s hard to find words. And weak as we are, we couldn’t even come close to finishing half.

The meal goes on for a couple more courses, but I’ll spare you the rest of the details, but just realize that I literally had to move my belt to one whole wider in order to walk out of the restaurant. This one is from a few feet from our hotel room:

Florence - Day 1

Last night, Jon has his first industry party in London, so needless to say it was not an early. Nevertheless, it was an early morning - we woke up at 4:15am to make sure we arrived at Gatwick on time for our 8am flight (OK maybe a bit of extra time, but we've never flown out of there).

As usual, we mapped out our journey to a T - taking the last late night bus to Victoria Rail Station, then saved a few quid by taking a local train instead of the Gatwick Express. We've always kvetched about Heathrow, but Gatwick feels noticeably older - sort of 70's era. Everything went smooth with check in and soon enough, we were on the plane (of course in the exit row as we've become professionals at checking in on-line exactly 24 hours + 1 hour before the flight departure). We were exhausted and the next thing I knew it, we were landing in Pisa.

It's a little over an hour ride to Florence, so this leg of the journey, we opted for a bus (can't beat €8 apiece!) and in typical Italian fashion, we didn't leave on time. We arrived at Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence and I remembered it was somewhat close to our hotel, which I've stayed in twice before. We somehow bumbled to the correct street without a street map. We checked in and got room 315.

So, I can safely report that the trend of accepting the first room as we did it Prague and Paris was just a fluke. I had a feeling that Jon might not love this hotel - but the weak air conditioning and funky smell just hit a chord with him. So he went back to the front desk to 'deal with it' which we also learned is not the best course of action as he didn't get a new room but said they could come fix the air conditioner, which as we know Italians have their special concept of getting things done quickly wasn't going to happen. After viewing 3 more rooms with similar issues, we settled on room 313, on the condition of two additional fans being brought to the room. Now, with all this you would have thought it was burning up in the room, but honestly I had to bundle up in the room, so I guess it's another instance of temperature variance between me and Jonathan.

Finally, we got out of the hotel and decided to walk through the city center on our way to lunch. Our hotel was just by the Duomo, so we passed that and walked toward Basilica di Santa Croce to search out Il Pizzaiuolo, which we are told is the best pizza joint in town (yes, we realize that pizza is not the specialty in this part of Italy and that's why this place is Neapolitan-style). After walking what seemed like forever (and admittedly in some circles), we finally arrived to find a middle-aged Italian man sitting on a chair outside the empty restaurant chatting with his neighbor.

Alas, we experienced our first European siesta during this trip, which evidently is widely subscribed to by local shops and restaurants.

We were absolutely famished, so after wandering around the streets in a few more circles with our inadequate hotel map, we finally sat down at a restaurant in Piazza della Signoria. Our waiter was a nice old man who started us off by asking what we wanted to drink, so Jon ordered two diet cokes so we could amp up our caffeine. The old man replied - would you like a large? So Jon didn't hesitate and said sure. Our drinks (below) arrived in the most massive cups that we knew for sure we'd arrived at our first European tourist trap! And if we were clear from that, the €17 spent on the two drinks clarified it all....

Jon does not take kindly to being ripped off, so he literally gulped down the whole cup - it must have been 1.5 liters; we were slightly tempted to take one of them home to give Charles, a lover of soda, but we resisted and went on our way.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring - walking through San Lorenzo Market...

We made our way to Via Tornabourno the main shopping strip in Florence...into Gucci hoping for well priced loafers like my last trip, but actually they were more expensive this time - but we did get some entertainment for a pair of 23 year old Brits buying a custom pair, exclaiming "this makes you look like a real banker now!"

We made it back to the hotel and took a not-long-enough nap before heading off to dinner at Acqua al Due, a place I went with Lisa on our trip to Italy way back when. It didn't disappoint or change much over time - and the weirdest part was that we actually got seated at the very same table as last time.

We had the Assaggio di primi (pasta tasting menu) which comes with five courses of pasta dishes - Riso al Gorgonzola e Martini, Rigatoni alle Melanzane, Maccheroni alla Vodka, Fusilli Cord agli Spinaci and Fusili Lunghi aila Contadina - of course paired with a great tuscan wine. And as if that was not enough, we decided to share the Filetto ali’Aceto Balsamiko, and again my memory of the dish didn't fail me... magnifico! And the diet starts on Monday - we finished with the Assaggio di Dolci, which comes on one plate with tastes of Tiramisu, Pannacotta, Torta di Cioccolatta and Ricotta Cheesecake.

All this talk of inadequate maps and getting lost, I should add that Jon and I are huge fans of Time Out Short List travel guides... click on the link for your next adventure!

Attack of the green buggers

The sky doesn't really get dark in London until about 10:30pm, so most nights we don't have to use the lights for very long. Anyway, late in the evening the lights get switched on.... the other day we switched on the lights in the bathroom and came back after 30 minutes. We had left the windows open and had quite a surprise waiting for us - there was a mass of maybe 50 green mosquitoes on our ceiling (this is a breed of mosquitoes that I am sure I've never seen in the US - they are relatively harmless). I wish I had taken a picture of Jon and squishing all of them, but let's just say that we don't keep our windows open after dark any more!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I've finally joined the ranks of my childhood chums - I turned 30 today! It was a great celebration - Jon and I went out to dinner and had a fabulous cake in our flat afterwards, with candles and everything!



I resisted temptation to open presents and cards and had a great time opening everything up. Thanks to everyone - I have all my cards lined up on a window sill!! And now that I have told Jon, I can share with all the horror that I found my birthday present in his backpack earlier this week. Terrible that I had to attempt to fake surprise - but he knew I knew, so that at least made it funnier for everyone :) Next time - change the box so I can't recognize it!

Back in NYC II

Well, what better reason to come back to NYC within 10 days time than a wedding?
We're back in our home town for the weekend to celebrate Ellen and Philip's wedding at the Bronx Botanical Gardens.

Things are never quiet with the Lenders, so of course we had a million (and one) things to do while we were back home. The whole Balsam crew was in New York to celebrate Chloe's sixth birthday extravangza. Friday morning, Jon and I headed back to New City to return his car, go to the DMV to return his plates and have lunch with his mom! Delicious meatballs.... In the afternoon, I hit the Theory sample sale with Lori; she was like a kid in a candy store, which makes sense for anyone who doesn't ordinarily see these prices :) In the evening, we had a fun family dinner to fete four birthdays in our family - Mom, Lori, Chloe and me!

Saturday was just as busy with both Chloe's birthday party and Ellen and Philip's wedding. Chloe's birthday party was awesome - it was a gymnastics party at Chelsea Piers. There were a lot of new faces from Chloe's class and some that we recognized from Claremont School (30 kids in all - woah!) . As usual, Chloe was a stunning birthday girl - in an adorable red dress, which stayed on all the way to Chelsea Piers and she ripped off as she entered the party room, revealing her piece de resistance - a black velvet short unitard with silver bits throughout. What a number that only a six year old could pull off ;)



We had to leave the party a couple of minutes early - sorry Chloe - in order to race home and get ready for Ellen's wedding. It was record time and I think we were out of the house in less than 45 minutes. We hopped in a cab to catch the bus to Ellen's wedding, which as it turned out was late anyways - murphy's law, I suppose! Anyway, the wedding was beautiful and in a spot called the Snuff Mill - we loved the room, nice and intimate with rustic details. And of course another added bonus was seeing some Columbia friends which is always fun!

Paris - Day 3

Finally, on our last day in Paris, we got up to the Eiffel Tower, but of course not without a story to tell. We got to the tower at about 9am and there were about 20 people in line before us. Ever the competitive pair, Jon and I schemed to find a way to the front of the line. As I recalled, there were two lines the day before and today there appeared to be just one. We risked it and went to start the trend for the second line - and it paid off! We were the second ones in on the individual line and got the pleasure of nearly being stampeded by a group of Japanese tourists. On our way up the lift, they were all oohing and ahhing so much that between stifled laughter, Jon joined in - I actually think he was the loudest in the end and I almost died of embarrassment before I realized that no one thought a thing of it.


Afterward, we made our way to the Musée du Louvre, which as you all know you could spend a week in if you had the time. I appreciated their queuing technique more than the other museums in Paris; they move you along quickly outside the pyramids and then you are pretty surprised to see you haven't waited in a line for tickets at all, just the security screening. In our usual style, we had to speed through the Louvre for lack of time but we hit the highlights, only getting lost a few times in the process. It is a really overwhelming museum, not only for the amazing art, but also just the sheer size of the building and paintings around you. The Mona Lisa is much more of a generic/touristy process than Jon and I remembered; they've moved it into a side room and have two guards posted by it barking at the crowd to move along.

After walking down several flights of stairs to leave the museum, Jon discovered that we were umbrella-less (not the best discovery for this rainy day). Here's a picture of Jon with the umbrella shortly before its disappearance:

I'm OK with making that donation to an institution like the Louvre - I hope someone enjoys our new umbrella! Good thing we both have hoods on our rain coats :)

We stopped by the Jardin des Tuileries on the way to Goyard, before making a mad dash to another fabulous Ellen suggestion: Gerard Mulot - this is a patisserie to end all patisseries - she suggested the sour cherry clafouti tart, which of course we sampled, along with um a couple other treats :)

Paris - Day 2

Today, we made our first attempt to head up the Eiffel Tower - totally unsuccessfully. We got there and the place was swarming (and I mean swarming) with tourists. There were lines for each elevator that actually crossed each other because they were so long.

Instead, today we walked through the gardens in front of the tower, walked by Hôtel des Invalides and ended up in Musée Rodin that has a nice sculpture garden as well as a museum. It started to rain while we were in the sculpture garden, but we decided to push on to Musee d'Orsay and grab a quick bite on the way.

It's quite well known that much of Paris shuts down on Sundays - well we got a taste of this after wandering around aimlessly trying to find a reasonable place for lunch (i.e. not €30 pp). It started pouring, so we compromised and ran into a bakery for a baguette and a mini quiche, which would have been a bit better if:

a) we could walk and eat sans the rain or
b)there was somewhere in the bakery to stand and eat our lunch

Given neither A nor B was a feasible option, we went on our way in the rain, crossed the Seine and Jon had the fabulous idea of eating under the bridge which worked out quite well.

Evidently everyone else had the bright idea of going to Musée d'Orsay, so we spent about one hour in the rain waiting to get into the museum, so by the time we got in Jon was in this state:

The museum is in a beautiful old train depot and despite being exhausted, we explored quite a bit.

We focused on impressionists and there was no shortage. Lots of impressive sculpture in the center and surrounding rooms focusing on French masters like Monet, Manet, Gaugin, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gough Seurat. We pretty much struggled through the rooms with pastels as they are so dimly lit, it makes you want to nap! I've always loved Degas, so that was a fun room filled with a combination of his paintings and sculptures of ballerinas.

Of course, again we totally tired ourselves out and we took a great nap before heading out for dinner. Ellen recommended a place on Ile St-Louis (the island at the center of Paris) called L'ilot Vache where we had another great dinner in a really cute neighborhood - cobblestone streets, cute shops, what you think of when you say Paris. One interesting thing about Paris is that it stays light out even longer than it does in London - the sky gets dark at about 10:15. So even though dinner was scheduled for 9pm, we got to enjoy a view of Notre Dame in day light :)

Paris - Day 1

Waking up when it is completely dark is not very easy. Because our flight was at 7:25am out of Heathrow, we decided it might be a bit tight to take the tube, so we got the name of a car service from who else but Rachel and Dave.

I dragged myself out of bed at 4:20AM and we were in the car before the appointed time (impressive, I know). We were in the airport before 6am so we had plenty of time to vegetate. And needless to say neither Jon nor myself had any trouble dozing off on the hour flight to Paris.
We've been a bit bummed all week that the weather forecast predicted a chilly and rainy weekend, but we packed for it and arrived prepared for the worst. We got to our hotel and were certainly surprised that we were greeted with beautiful, sunny skies. We're never keen on sitting and relaxing, so instead of waiting 20 minutes for our room, we opted to get a move on and walked over to Trocadéro, the plaza across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed a rollerblading competition before making our way up the stairs to enjoy the magnificent view... there was a couple taking wedding photos - pretty tough to match that background!

We walked through a local food market on our way to the Champs Elysees, and a gypsy lady walked up to Jon and asked do you speak English - let's just say I had to pull him away. After braving it through some pretty scary looking meat (identifiable animals, some with feet), we walked toward the Champs Elysees and enjoyed the view of L'Arc de Triomphe.

After a good lunch in a side-walk cafe that was clearly a tourist trap (clue: bill arrived with each coke charged at €5), we browsed through some shops, in search of shorts for Jon who was feigning signs of heat stroke and of course tracked down a Le Petit Bateau shop - because no trip to Paris would be complete without replenishing my t-shirts.

Later in the afternoon, we walked around the Le Marais district. I read that you should follow this route and we really did try:

Follow the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the perfect source for unusual gifts, and peer into the Cour d'Honneur, the astonishing main courtyard of the Archives Nationaux. Then take a detour along rue de Sévigné, where the Musée Carnavalet and some quirky fashion boutiques are located. Cross lovely place des Vosges and walk through the two courtyards of the Hôtel de Sully

We enjoyed the XXX, a beautiful neighborhood park and stumbled into the Cour d’Honneur that was indeed very special. Finding the rue de Sévigné proved to be quite an adventure - but we did find it in the end :)

By the time we stumbled back to the hotel, we were due for a nap and just made it to our 9pm dinner at La Ferrandaise, a rustic restaurant near the Luxemburg Gardens. We started a trend (which really is not so surprising) of eating, extremely well while on our trip to Paris, by ordering the 6-course tasting menu (after verifying that it didn't include the evening's special, lamb's head).

Spring Bank Holiday in Paris

Jon and I are off to Paris for the holiday weekend. We are staying at the Hotel Square... here is our tentative itinerary (more to come when we return):

Saturday May 26th
5:15am: car to Heathrow
7:25am (BST): leave London (British Airways Flight #304)
9:40pm (BST+1): arrive in Paris
11am: arrive to hotel and drop off bags
Walk around:
-16th Arrondissement(Trocadéro/Bois de Boulogne): place du Trocadéro / Jardin du Trocadéro
-The Seine’s open-top Bateaux-Mouches riverboats are a popular way to see the sights; most depart from Pont de l’Alma. Word of advice: stick to a one-hour trip and give the touristy dinner cruises a miss
-7th Arrondissement: la Tour Eiffel / Musée d'Orsay
-3rd Arrondissement (Le Marais): one of the best-loved Right Bank neighbourhoods. Old Jewish quarter (rue des Rosiers) / Musée Picasso...Follow the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the perfect source for unusual gifts, and peer into the Cour d'Honneur, the astonishing main courtyard of the Archives Nationaux. Then take a detour along rue de Sévigné, where the Musée Carnavalet and some quirky fashion boutiques are located. Cross lovely place des Vosges and walk through the two courtyards of the Hôtel de Sully
9pm: dinner at La Ferrandaise (8, rue de Vaugirard) near Luxemburg Gardens

Sunday May 27th
8am – 1pm: Versailles
-4th Arrondissement (Ile de la Cité/Ile St-Louis & Beaubourg): Ile St-Louis and its aristocratic town houses, courtyards, and antiques shops / Ile de la Cité's two Gothic churches (Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame) / Centre Pompidou
-5th Arrondissement: Quartier Latin
-Sacré-Cœur Basilica
-7th Arrondissement (Eiffel Tower): Musée Rodin
9pm: dinner at L'ilot Vache (35 rue de saint-louis-en-l'ile on ile st louis in the middle of the seine)

Monday May 28th
-1st Arrondissement: Musée du Louvre/ Jardin des Tuileries/ place Vendôme
-Pont Neuf
-6th Arrondissement (St-Germain): stroll with an unwrapped loaf of sourdough bread from Poilâne at 8 rue du Cherche-Midi. Jardin du Luxembourg
o From Ellen: Pastries--Gerard Mulot (76 rue de seine): the clafouti tart (esp sour cherry)
7:20pm: leave Paris (British Airways Flight #325)
7:45pm: arrive London

Tiger Wedding

Of course, the main reason for the trip to New York was Mike and Rachel’s wedding. After the rain on Saturday, I was a little worried about how things would turn out, but the weather cleared up perfectly and they were even able to do cocktails outside – skies opening up to the sunshine ain’t a bad way to start a marriage! We had a wonderful time – caught up with some friends from CBS ... of course, lots of dancing and catching up with Iris and Joe F.!

Congrats to Allison

We were lucky to be in town to celebrate Allison graduation from NYU’s nutrition program – her celebration at Punch & Judy left us stuffed to the brim with delicacies and yummy treats (we’d expect no less from a Schulman extravaganza!). It’s all about the smoked duck and brie with cherry compote.

I wish I could be injected with sushi

Finally got my sushi fix – have I mentioned we haven’t found a good sushi option since moving to London. We went to a great place called Sassabune with the Schulmans.

History in the Making!

We’ve been talking about this for quite some time, but today Jon took a huge step! He’s left Traffix and will be starting his own shop. Details to be shared as they before 'more public.' We celebrated with the Doumars over Chinese takeout and a lovely bottle of Dom Pérignon we’ve been saving for such an occasion. The kids even got Jon his favorite cake (strawberry shortcake) from Crumbs and sang “Happy Quitting Day” to Jon.

Back in NYC

I’m back in NYC for Rachel and Mike’s wedding – after 28 days of being Jon-less (along with of course everyone else), I’m ready to be back! I got off the plane and stood on the immigration line for about 20 minutes before I got to the point where I could see the sign that American citizens could bypass the whole process! How annoying! I got my bags and headed out to find an ATM machine when all the sudden someone grabbed my arm and pulled me in for a kiss. What a huge surprise to find Jon waiting in the airport for me!

May Bank Holiday Weekend

This weekend was a long weekend in London, so I had three days to pitter around town. Saturday morning, I got up early and went to Camden Market. I had pretty high hopes that I might find something interesting, but unfortunately I left very disappointed! There was not really much interesting around and the surroundings were, well, not the most beautiful in London. Thought I did find a little corner of London that might be mistaken for Venice?



Sunday, I walked around the neighborhood for a bit of retail therapy on the Kings Road. Today, I had a lovely brunch at Maria's house and in the afternoon, I went to Top Shop, much talked about London shop, to see the new Kate Moss collection - after trying to squeeze into a pile of clothes, I finally put together that UK sizing is different than US sizing - good to know before I try things on in the future! Anyway, the collection was interesting but there weren't a lot of sizes, so I'll have to search things out in another shop :)

Quiet Weekend

I had a very nice weekend - started out with dinner at Admiral Cordrington with Rachel, Dave and her parents. The latest discovery is that they have a retractable roof over the dining room which was great for such a beautiful night.

Saturday I woke up early to go to Portobello Market - I got fresh fruit and veggies from the local market and of course couldn't walk away without treating myself to a new necklace ;)Saturday evening, I had a potluck dinner with Mark, Maria and David - some friends from work who also live in my building. I brought Ellen's famous bean salad and my orzo dish from my greek-themed birthday picnic from years ago. Maria cooked her famous ribs with a secret family sauce that I am going to have to pry from her because it was so tasty and Mark cooked baked ziti and chicken.

Sunday I took a walk through Battersea Park, which is just over the Thames River. It's a great park with a huge variety of things to see - today, I walked through sub-tropical gardens (yes, in London) and could have imagined I was in Fairchild Gardens in Miami! Next time, I will definitely check out the Peace Pagoda...

More pictures available!

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Adult Slides

One of the most frustrating things about London - tube shut downs! The subway system has just 2 tunnels, so in order to maintain the tracks there are engineering works every now and then of entire tube lines. This weekend they closed the District and Circle lines, which threw a wrench into our plan to go to the Tate Modern. We ended up taking a bus and getting the front seats on the second story - which is a great way to see the city for a couple of pounds!

We walked from St. Paul's Cathedral over the Millenium Footbridge (first new bridge built in London in over one hundred years!) to the Tate Modern for the last day of an exhibit at the Tate Modern called the Test Site. This is a picture off their site:

Our trusty local guide Dave has taken 4 trips over so we figured that was a big enough endorsement for us to take a chance. We hopped in line 40 minutes before tickets were distributed (and no, we were not even close to first in line).

Call it what you will, but these are just grown-up versions of the slides we all enjoyed growing up. The big difference is that they are 3 and 5 stories high!















The rest of the afternoon we walked along the Thames River, across to Covent Gardens and walked all the way to Vauxhall Station - in all about 4 miles. My feet felt like they were going to fall off, but we were on a mission: recently the New York Times wrote up a piece on the best Indian restaurants in London. The first one listed (before two with Michelin stars) is called Hot Stuff. Let's just say we were happy it was still light out, neighborhood was not quite like Chelsea! We finally made it, mouths watering down the street, only to find the gate down and no sign of life. Lesson learned: like the commercials say, call first - woops :)

"Jon - Get Out of Here!!!!!!!!!!"

Yes, we have a tendancy to hold on to the keys of flats in Nell Gwynn House after we've vacated. So we went by Flat #212 last night to grab a few items we forgot and a few we brought to the new flat by accident. We got home last night and realized that we never took any pictures documenting our small hideaway. We were too lazy to head down again, so we opted to go tonight.

We knocked on the door and opened the door when no one came - the apartment was still dark and we took one step in before seeing a suitcase lying in the middle of the living room. I screamed/whispered "Jon, get out of here!!" I don't think we've ever bolted away from anywhere that fast and we even ran up a flight of stairs, just in case.

Can you believe we actually walked into someone else's flat? My eyes were bugged out for at least an hour worrying about it.

Just Say No to Cow Brains

Way back when we were looking for a gym in the neighborhood, Jon and found this great place called KX just a block away. Anyway, it was a really impressive and beautiful gym, with a member's restaurant; essentially it's a country club with no golf course, but gym facilities instead. After learning that they were offering a discounted £800 initiation (because I work at Citi) and £6800 6-month membership, we moved on.

I joined LA Fitness, which at £89 is a steal and Jon's been borrowing my friend's pass while he is in the West Indies for the World Cup. After a good morning workout, we went to Baker & Spice, which gives Bouchon Bakery a run for it's money. Treats gallore and just a couple of blocks from our flat. This place is starting to feel like home.

Rachel and Dave came over for drinks so we could show off our new digs before dinner. They have an amazing apartment just 15 minutes walk away with a garden and 1 and 1/2 bathrooms - can you imagine a separate boys bathroom; the luxury of it all! Anyway, after we visited their place a few weeks ago and heard about their singular desire for a mini-garbage can for the bathroom and I put them out of their misery and picked one up a few weeks ago. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited for a gift, ever!!! :) Hopefully they are enjoying it!

Anyway, a few weeks ago New York Magazine did a feature article on NY vs. London, which Jon clearly read. We went to the restaurant in the picture and Jon and Dave were drooling over the giant pig another table ordered and only moaned for 5 minutes we put our feet down to ordering brains - hello mad cow disease?!

I love my thinkpad

Another lively day here in London, as Jon's brand new Dell fizzled and died. He sat on tech support with them for close to 5 hours during which time they convinced him to reformat the hard drive, which of course erased all his files. So terrible. Anyway, I conferenced into the call and haven't heard Jon get that fiesty in a while. After telling numerous managers about how he could build a computer better than they do (which we all know he can't), they agreed to a full refund.

Masha to the rescue with info/access to Thinkpads - so thanks! We are ordering a new and improved laptop this weekend!

Football, London-style

Not much to report on from my end, but Jon was lucky enough to go to a championship soccer errr football match with Dave this evening. They had amazing seats for the Tottenham vs. Seville match, which evidently was a big deal? Hehe - still learning to appreciate these things.

Happy Birthday to Bridget!!

Mattress Extravagnza

So we woke up this morning and decided to take another look at Flat #914 - after thinking it over, how could we pass up this space... Jon has a much nicer and defined space to work in and everything is, well, bigger.

I went back to work today and of course so did Jon, but with his New York hours he has to work quite late, so I ended up starting us off with a lot of packing (and unpacking) after I got home. The service elevator is only available in the morning, so we moved ourselves and our seven suitcases via the central elevator, which is not terribly far from flat #212, but almost a mile from #914 (ok, not really, but a city block?).

We finished unpacking just about everything and fall onto the bed with a thud. Jon looked at me like the world just fell in and said there was no way we could sleep on this lumpy mess for 5 more months. I should have known from the look in Jon's eye what was coming next. And now begins the mattress switching extravagnza.

Of course a wrinkle in the plan - we get to the elevator after much chuckling along the way and there is someone waiting for the elevator. Who actually goes out at 1am? I guess we have changed since we got married! Anyway, we tried to shove the mattress in with absolutely no luck. So we started running with the mattress back toward our apartment and the stairwell. A normal couple would just suck it up and sleep on the stupid thing, but clearly we are a bit different from most, because we spent the next hour running down 7 flights of stairs with the 914 mattress and running up 7 flights of stairs with the 212 mattress - which thankfully was a lot lighter. All I needed was my camoflague pants and Rueben screaming "Little Lender move those little f*ing legs" and I would have been back to Pure Power Bootcamp.

Prague - Day 5

Our last day in Prague was nice and relaxing. We meandered around the city, picked up a few trinkets for the Doumar kids and of course ate a bit more.

Our flight was in the evening so we had the full day to enjoy - with beautiful weather and sunshine. We took the tube home from Heathrow and walked into Nell Gwynn House with baited breathe - the moment of truth to see our new flat #914! Another New York area code, so our hopes are high. Anyway, we went up there and though it was huge, my hopes are dashed as it is not as updated as flat #212. Ahh, nothing can be perfect! After much discussion, we decided not to take the apartment, so we don't move anything over.

Prague - Day 4

Today we spent most of the day in the Mana Strana exploring the area by Prague Castle and Petrin Hill. The weather was gorgeous so it was a perfect day to walk around. We walked through the street of the Mala Stana which are extremely hilly and lead up to Prague Castle.

We made it to the castle grounds just in time to see the changing of the guards.

Later, we hiked up Petrin Hill and then Petrin Tower (which is a 1/5 model of the Eiffel Tower in Paris - maybe we'll see that soon!)....

From the top, there are beautiful vistas of Prague in every direction. It was a clear day and we got a lot of great pictures!

Heaven forbid we stop walking around, so we decided to recharge our batteries at Square, another Kampa Group restaurant by the Charles Bridge. We walked over to the streets of Mala Strana close to the bridge and after what seemed like forever found the most hidden site in Prague (not really, just hard for us): The Lennon Wall.

If you squint, you might be able to see where Jon left his mark for us.

Later, we found the Kafka Museum with this lovely statue in the front:


We were strolling home and we happened across the Wallenstein Gardens where we finally sat to take it all in. We found two lovely peacocks and this one was nice enough to provide a show for us while we were there.


We saved a very special restaurant close to the Charles Bridge for our last dinner: V Zatisi. Seriously in need of a diet after this trip because it has been one binge after the next - it is hard to say no with cuilinary experiences like these!

Prague - Day 3

We woke up really early today for our day trip to Terezin. We stopped off at a Bohemia Bagel close to the Charles Bridge (lesson learned: sometimes you can't copy an original). I booked our trip online through a tour, which is totally the opposite of how we like to roll, but for some things you do need an organized tour. We headed toward the meeting spot the Powder Gate by the Republic Square (which truth be told we scoped our yesterday during our marathon tour of the city - better safe than sorry, right?).

We signed in and got on the bus, and of course we got there 10 minutes early and there were only a few seats left. Two singles on the side or two together on the 4-seater in the back. We opted for the latter even though there was another couple already sitting in the back row. I quickly realized this was a mistake because they almost immediately started kissing REALLY LOUDLY. Lucky for us, they booked more people for the tour so we moved onto a larger bus :)

To give a bit of background on Terezin, it was built in the late 1700's as a fortress to protect Czechoslovakia from German invasion. Then, during World War II, the Nazi's converted it into a concentration camp which they used as propoganda to 'prove' to the Red Cross and others how fairly they were treating prisoners. In fact, of the nearly 150,000 people who lived in Terezin, only 17,000 survived the war.

We must have been very tired because we slept almost the whole ride to the camp. We visited a few museums describing life at Terezin before arriving at the concentration camp. The first focused on the 15,000 children that lived in the camp - it shared their art work and poetry. Another museum replicated a barracks and details the music and art of adult prisoners. Next, we visited the crematorium that was used after they ran out of room in the cemetary at Terezin. Today, the memorial for Terezin's prisoners is located in front of this eerie place.


We walked to the camp and had a guided tour by a local resident. Above is a picture of the main entrance which reads "work shall set you free." There is not a lot I can put into sufficiently horrific words to describe walking through a concentration camp. It was eerie and all too much to believe and we both left the tour quite shaken. Each room we entered was worse and harder to imagine.

First we visited a barrocks that held 100 men - each with 24 centimeters to sleep on. No mattress, one toilet for everyone. Just by this room there was another room for men on their way to dealth camps. Up to 60 men in one room with no mattresses or bed to speak of - they had to sleep standing up.

Below is a picture of the shave room the Nazis installed while sprucing Terezin up for the Red Cross Visit. The sinks were never attached to a water source and none of the prisoners even saw the inside of the room.

After we returned to Prague, we visited all the museums and sites in the Jewish Quarter. We visited the Old-New Synagogue, an old-fashioned synagogue where services still take place today. We also visited the Maisel Synagogue and the Pincas Synagogue which both have extensive exhibits and historical documents from the Jewish Community. Below are some shots of the Jewish Cemetary which has over 12,000 graves (12 layers deep) of Jews who lived in Prague through 1600's crammed into an obviously small space.

This is a picture of the beautiful windows in the Spanish Synagogue.

After a long day, we had a packed evening planned. First we went to a performance called Black Box which was a combination of mime, dance and acting rolled into one fun evening. After, we were quite tired and considered skipping dinner but that would never happen so we made our way through the Mala Strana to a restaurant called David. It was hands-down the best meal that we've had in years from start to finish. If you are ever in Prague, it is a must visit restaurant which exquisite food and a fabolous wine list.

Prague - Day 2

Jon is clearly still adjusting to the change in time (Prague is six hours ahead of NYC) because he woke up ready to attack the day at 6:00am. In my research on Prague, I read that the Charles Bridge is a beautiful place to watch the sun rise, so we showered and made our way over. While the rest of Prague was sleeping, Jon and I had the pleasure of walking across the Bridge with just a few errant tourists (admittedly most of them were in their 80's).




The architecture here is stunning - buildings have extravagantly detailed facades, painted beautiful colors and topped with red tile roofs. They just don't build like this back home! After wandering through some of the desolate streets, I decided maybe we shouldn't be wandering around a sleepy Central European city with a big camera around my neck. So we wandered back to Mala Strada, which is the less commercial side of town where our hotel is; it is a nice quiet neighborhood with all the small winding streets you would expect to see in a classically European city.

Last week at dinner, Dave mentioned his favorite breakfast spot in Prague is Bohemia Bagel. Yes, again with the American food (I promise we'll get adapted to the local culture soon). But this place was great. All you can drink coffee which is a necessity after waking up at 6am, a hearty meal and an eccentric old man accompanies by two adorable golden retrievers.

After all this early morning activity, we were zonked, so we took a half hour schlew ;) Eventually, we got up and made our way to the famous astronomical clock - just in time for the noon 'show,' if you can call it that.

We walked around the Easter Market - a lot of booths set up with Czech souvenirs - hand painted eggs and wooden toys. Of course, no holiday market would be complete without unhealthy foods, so we tried a local specialty called T which is basically roasted dough rolled in cinnamon, sugar and nuts - so finally we are trying some of the local delicacies.

We spend the rest of the day wandering around the city - seven hours of walking in all... down Pariska Street with all the international designers, walked to Bakeshop Praha in hopes of some treats, only to be disappointed and left with nothing; the New Town including Wenceslas Square and another Easter Market. The sausage stands actually piqued our interest, but we restrained ourselves from being total pigs (no pun intended).

Instead, we returned to the Old Town Square for lunch and sat down at an outdoor cafe. After realizing that the menu noted prices outside were 60% higher outside (no, that is no a typo), we opted to eat indoors ;) And had a delicious meal - Jon had a local specialty- goulash and I had a chicken kebab... not so local but good nontheless.

We made our way back to the hotel at 6:30 and after a much deserved nap, we went to Barock for dinner. Nice trendy pan-asian restaurant. We had spring rolls and tiger prawns to start followed by red curry beef for Jon and a lamb steak easter special for me - definitely a fun spot, though not just for beautiful women as the website suggested so Jon may have been a teensy dissappointed ;)

Jon asked the waitress for the local hotspots, so after dinner we searched out one of the spots she recommended. Not sure if she misunderstood or thought we were in search of a skeevy local joint, but after sitting down at the bar for 30 seconds, we looked at each other and booked it out of there! Instead, we strolled through the Old Town Square in search of some dessert. It's customary in Prague to seat yourself, but Jon decided to ask at the dessert spot anyway and the angry Czech woman kept telling him to go next door. Hmmm, very confusing. We decided to ignore her and sat down, ordered some mediocre Strawberry Yogurt Cake and Apple Strudel (no we are not depriving ourselves this weekend). Basically, this evening, we decided that service here is similar to London; waitstaff don't expect great tips, so they don't work for them either.

Prague - Day 1

Jon arrived in London early this morning, took the tube to our place in Chelsea only to turn around to the airport an hour later. We got through security much faster than we expected given that it is a 4 day weekend here (Easter holiday). We had horrible seats on the plane - 25e and 25f - last row window and middle - plus a smelly guy next to us who kept pushing me with his elbow. I got so annoyed, I had to ask him to stop and he replied "why don't you ask for the manager?" On a plane?? Whatever.

We took a Cedaz mini-van from the airport to the Mandarin Oriental after the driver had a blast chanting "Mandarin, Mandarin, Mandarin" (pronounced Mandareeeeen) for everyone to hear where we were staying. We thought it would be a van that took everyone staying at particular hotels to their destinations, but instead we got on the van and found four other travellers in the same van off to other destinations. I was not happy, especially when the driver stopped at the second terminal to try to get more passengers, but at least in the end we were dropped off first.

We arrived at the hotel, which is a converted monestary, and got an extensive tour from a woman working the front desk - very stange and uncomfortable seeming and we later learned she was a trainee, which probably explained that.

Our room was great - yes, I said great! No complaints. I got all my special requests and the room was very spacious with a large bathroom.

Jon decided to get ready for dinner and tried to take a shower but couldn't figure out how to use the overhead shower so we called housekeeping for help and instead of explaining it over the phone, they sent someone over to help. I was in the bedroom while the man showed Jon how to work the shower and all I heard was Jon saying "Do you want a towel?" The poor man got soaking wet from showing Jon the overhead shower...

We made all our bookings for dinner from London, thanks in big part to Dave who guided us through the in's and out's of Prague (note to everyone visiting Europe: I'm trying to convince Dave Pitluck to publish Dave's Guides to Europe - he always knows where to go, so when in doubt call him :) ). Tonight we were off to Cowboy's, part of the Kampa Group of restaurants.

We were a little surprised by how many restaurant groups exist in Prague, I figured that was a more New York/London thing... Anyway, it was quite a hike up to the restaurant and thank goodness I wasn't wearing higher heels. I learned quickly that Prague is a city for flats - it is not only hilly, but cobblestone streets abound. Anyway, Cowboy's is a in a great space - all exposed brick with beautiful archways and high ceilings. It was a totally American joint, complete with cowhide seats...Jon got some great ribs and I got a rib eye steak - not the most Czech way to start out our trip, but definitely yummy. And thus starts the theme of this trip - gastonomy extravagnza, with all worries for healthy diets thrown out the door.

Kosher Kingdom

I found this place online and had such high hopes for it. I mean who could resist a name like Kosher Kingdom. I needed to find a kosher butcher for Pesach and some treats and this place came with a recommendation from a local chap.

Anyway, let's just say after two tube lines and exiting in zone 3, I quickly realized I was in London's equivalent of Brooklyn. Black coats and hats abound, and with my google map in hand, I found Kosher Kingdom. Which was a serious disappointment - there was no meat (though the man checking me out, literally, not figuratively, suggested a place down the road). There were tons of imported items from the real Brooklyn, but I actually wanted to try some local specialties.

Oh well. I went to the butcher and asked for a brisket and the guy looked at me like I had 2 heads, responding, how does Sunday sound?

Anyway, I'm quickly realizing that I must be the only Jew in the neighborhood (ok fine, Rachel and Dave you count too but are in Arizona)... there is not one shelf much less an aisle of kosher for passover foods... good thing my mother insisted on giving me chocolate covered matzohs to pack in my suitcase :) At the time, it reminded me of when she sent me kleenex my freshman year at NYU, but this is actually something you can't find in London! :)

Saying Goodbye

Jon went back to NYC today - very very sad!! I took this snapshot getting off the Heathrow Express

Good thing I didn't catch one at security because there were a lot of tears :( As my mother points out, at least we can speak on the phone as much as we want and when the internet gets installed in the flat, we'll be able to see each other on the web cam... I can only imagine how tough it was way back when the phone calls were expensive and flying over for a quick trip was out of the question!

Notting Hill

Our first weekend of relaxing in the UK so we decided to go to Notting Hill, Piccadilly Market and Covent Gardens to explore a bit.

In the evening, we met up with Dave and Rachel and some of their friends for dinner at a gastropub (pub in the front with a nice restaurant and good food in the back) a few blocks from our apartment called Admiral Codrington's and then out for drinks at a lounge.

Week One

OK, so now that we are settling into life in London, I thought I'd share a little bit about our experience thus far. Sorry this is so long!

We were off to the airport on Thursday afternoon – a mini van arrive to take us to JFK and the journey took us – almost 2 hours. Needless to say, Jon and I were pretty stressed out about missing our flight,so it was the amazing race (part II – because part one was the run to make our flight to South Africa last year) to get our baggage on the flight on us in our seats. After check 7 (yes seven suitcases), we were on our way and made it with no problem. We settled into our seats and woke up close to Ireland.

Before we left, my new group in London advised to use a certain car service from the airport. The journey was a mere £85 plus tip. As some of you know, I was quite nervous about our accommodations, so I held my breath when we arrived at our home for the next six months - Nell Gwynn House. We got our keys from the management office – Apartment 111. I asked if it was on the first floor and he quickly explained that it was not on the ground level,but I was skeptical anyway. Jon took the first batch of bags and let's just say he came back to me underwhelmed. We made it up in three trips and I checked out the new digs. We took some pictures that do the place absolutely no justice.

In fact it looks pretty great in pictures. I think that two of the London flats would fit into our New York apartment to give you an appreciation for the size.Pretty much anything I touched felt grimy and even though the windows were closed it felt like it was noisy enough for them to be wide open. It is a kitchen/living room combo with a tiny TV in the corner. The bathroom was so small that you have to close the door in order to access the sink and the bedroom had a double bed with just enough room around it to walk to each side. It was pretty horrible, but I whipped out the Wet Ones and started to unpack anyway while Jon set up our critical pieces – broadband and Vonage. We quickly realized that the broadband was not working so Jon made two trips down to the management office only to ultimately find out that the building internet speed was 2MB for the whole building. They were excited to report that on Monday the building was being upgraded to 8MB. As a point of reference, our friends live down the street and have a 2MB connection for their one bedroom apartment.

Since the internet is a necessary thing for Jon to work, I emailed my relocation contact at Citigroup and ultimately they agreed to let us move to another flat in the building. The second flat was #423, much larger bathroom, smaller living room/kitchen, smaller closet, and no space for folding clothes. We nixed that and got to flat #212. We took this as a sign – but there was a sacrifice for the 'upgrade': there is no broadband access until March 28. This of course caused a big problem to Jon so we spent the weekend trying to find a solution; won't bore you with the details, but yesterday it involved working in another FMA's flat during the day and an internet café at night.Today, he worked out of Starbucks and because all the Starbucks here close at 6:30-7 and Jon is working NY hours, that means visiting the internet café at night again.

So back to the flat- you walk into the apartment into the living room/kitchen. There is room for a small table, two chairs, a twin sofa, leather chair and a little round coffee table (maybe 12 inches across).



The kitchen is Pullman style so it is in the living room,but the good news is that it has a mini washer/dryer (in the same unit) and a mini dishwasher. There is also a mini-fridge and at the moment we can't access the tiny freezer because the only place we found to store our seven suitcases was beside the fridge so the door doesn't open far enough to get at the freezer.

The bedroom is ultra luxe because it has a small hallway of built-in closets/shelving. There are two 18 inch closets for hanging clothe sand a bit more space for folding clothes. Aside from that area (which only one person can pass through at a time), there is a double bed. The space between the bed and the wall is two and a half Sherri-sized shoes on each side. The bathroom is the most luxurious part of the apartment - it has a power shower (a key upgrade in London), but I am thinking about laying down a bath mat because the shower is really high up and I almost fall out of it every day ;) There are faux-marble tiles and a little window. The kitchen is newly renovated– with a granite top and a stove with a hood - as for counter space, I would estimate probably 14 inches of prep areas. There is a cupboard in the living room and the bottom part of there is a hatch door that links to the hallway for the trash to be taken out. Long story short,we put a bag in last night and started hearing the bag rustle - and each time Jon kicked the door, the rustling would stop. I have no words, but evidently a colleague did because I received a call from someone in NY today so who knows maybe we'll be moving soon?

Aside from the cozy apartment, things are going well. Jon and I walked all over the neighborhood this weekend - this is our local kebab place:




We even found a supermarket that has an "American" section with things like $0.89 Kraft mac n cheese for £3. Sadly, I have not yet found a distributor for Stacy's pita chips - I am told they exist in London and hope to find them soon as only have one bag left from nyc :) We live in a great neighborhood with lots of cute stores and restaurants so there is plenty to see. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant with Rachel and Dave on Sunday – Jon is now a convert! He just needed to try it ;)

Of course, we missed our Sunday night dinners with the Doumars so this week we decided to check out a restaurant in China Town near Leister Square.

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