Here's to the South - May their skills in the kitchen keep us coming back for more!

A couple of weeks ago - just after my weekend in NYC, I went down to Charleston for work. Luckily, it wasn't all work and no play since as many of you know, Charleston is one of my favorite cities in the US! Instead, it was work all day and go out in the evening for some delicious food and delightful conversation with my Marms and Jordyn who met up with me there for a girls week! I'm such a food tourist and tend to spend a lot of time trying out delicious food while exploring a new place. This visit to Charleston was no exception - here's some of my favorite pictures along with new restaurant recommendations:

Dinner the first night was at The Library: The decor in The Library reminded me of a charming English garden with soft pastel colors, stripes, portraiture's, and chandeliers...interestingly, I did not find one book in this restaurant. I suppose that it would be a bit cliche to actually have an assortment of books in a restaurant called the Library? I highly recommend having dessert there - I can't remember the name of what we chose and the website has unfortunately, not updated their online menu which makes it tough to do research. We chose a delightful dessert (to which my Marms can attest) a small stack of cocoa crepes filled with banana creme and soft, sweet dollop of whipping creme.

The next evening the ladies took me to have the best fried chicken I have ever tasted. No really, I'm not even exaggerating. AMAZING! If you ever visit Charleston, you must have dinner at a restaurant called Magnolias. Also noteworthy, Magnolia's is one of two restaurants from Charleston that are featured in the popular book, 1000 Places To See Before You Die. Here's the story with the chicken dinner - they serve it with corn, mashed potatoes, collard greens, biscuits and gravy. Even though you might be tempted to order a side of macaroni and cheese - resist the temptation! I ate so much, I made myself sick - I went straight to bed afterward and didn't even have room for chocolate cake, which coincidentally, was the best cake my travel buddies had ever had. Sigh.

Before and After shot

I can't neglect to mention a cute cafe that we visited daily called The East Bay Meeting House - just a block from Magnolias. It was the first stop in our evenings of food tourism - with a lovely happy hour special that we couldn't resist - $4 glass of champagne. Great deal, right?! We went there so often that the owner said, "see you tomorrow" to my Marms on our last day. She didn't have the heart to break the news to him.

On our last full day in Charleston I was able to wrap up work a bit early and we decided to drive down to Savannah. Jordyn had never been before and it's only about an hour and forty-five minutes to drive there. Savannah and Charleston couldn't be more different in my opinion. They are both absolutely lovely - and I think I mentioned this in my last blog post...maybe not...but Charleston is very grand, while Savannah feels more authentic and whimsical. Jordyn likeend Charleston to the Disneyland of the South. I think you feel like a little kid in a candy store as you walk down the streets, exploring the grandeur. While in Savannah, I'm surrounded by large trees with Spanish moss, parks and squares everywhere, an artistic vibrancy, both grand and rustic homes...

Anyhow, ever since my first trip to Savannah I've been reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book is an exciting non-fiction novel about the people of Savannah and a particular event that happened there. You can't help but feel drawn to the mysteries and curious nature of the city after reading the book. Because I am a big cheese, I required that my travel buddies stop by Bonaventure Cemetery - a place that I had read a lot about both in the novel and online. I'm actually considering buying a burial plot after our visit - I can't believe how lovely and peaceful a cemetery can be:

Is that not the loveliest cemetery you have ever seen? After wandering around Bonaventure, we decided to wander over to the Mercer-Williams house for a tour - this is where the murder in the book took place, followed by fried food (fried green tomatoes, fried macaroni, and fried something else...and of course, some She Crab soup!) at the Olde Pink House restaurant, followed more wandering, some more delicious chocolate cake and eventually, rolling into our car for the drive back to Charleston.

The Davenport House - handsomest example of Georgian architecture in Savannah.

The birthplace of Juliet Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of America

Another beautiful, historical home surrounded by great trees and azaleas.

I'd like to thank both my Marms and Jordyn for meeting me in Charleston and making my ordinary work trip, extraordinary. And especially for scouting out these fabulous dining spots ahead of time and establishing a game plan for us in the evenings when my brain was shot - you two took such great care of me, I felt spoiled! With that said, Here's to the South: May we travel to Charleston together for many more girls trips!

A Quick, New York City Weekend

Some of you might be wondering, what happened to that tri-city hockey arrangement you set up with Adam and his friends from college, the Arnetts and Cahills? Well, due to a few schedule conflicts in our original plans (i.e., Superbowl, and other big events) we had to do some reconfiguring with the schedule and ended up not being able to watch hockey games in both NYC and Washington DC. So, for this past weekend, we came up with another plan which included, but was not limited to: a 4.5 hour bus ride via DC2NY, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, two massive slices of pizza upon arrival, missing keys, a breakfast sandwich and coffee to match - both the size of my face, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park while enjoying a Missile Pop and some break dancing/roller skate dancing for viewing entertainment, Jamba Juice, followed by the purchase of an extra layer for warmth, a Bellini followed by dinner and wine at Serafina and a sighting of House Whip (R), Eric Cantor (boo), then a Broadway show "Promises, Promises" featuring Kristin Chenoweth "Cheno", and Sean Hayes , with dessert to follow from somewhere that was not Serendipity! Sunday was definitely a little more chillaxed...late wake up time, bloody mary and brunch, the purchase of a delicious cupcake from a local cupcakerie (always a must), a Nintendo Wii fit tutorial (I enjoyed the skiing bit), lots of begging and then finally a yes from me to go play touch football out in Brooklyn, a new pair of shoes as my reward, a car ride out to Brooklyn, a couple of touchdowns by Charlie-Nana - our superstar friend who came from DC with us, farewells, NY2DC bus ride, Up in the Air, and a couple of burgers from 5 guys to welcome us home... and all of the above activities accomplished in a New York minute. What a great city. *note...I tried to add links to nearly everything in this post...just for fun.

Here are some pics from my iPhone:

van Gogh self portrait

loved the lighting and mixture of sculptures, lighting, and stained glass - in this room

eyes closed...sigh. anyway, here I am in the famous 'when harry met sally' room.


Charlie-Nana (Jake), Adam, and David Arnett


Promises, Promises - Broadway @ 53rd


A beautiful afternoon in Central Park - no one wanted to go out in a row boat with me :(

Our Honeymoon ~ From London to Spain IV

Stop No. 4 ~ Athens, Greece

From the map you can see that it was a long trek between Debrovnik and Athens - so we spent our first day at sea which consisted of waking up late, happy to have a day to relax and not rush off to see the sites. Celebrity Summit is a pretty nice cruise - we felt spoiled the entire time and thought that they had a really nice layout with tons of high quality, delicious food and drinks everywhere you looked. So our day consisted of laying by the pool, reading, drinking, playing poker, eating, sleeping, etc. That night they had what was called a "White Night" party. Adam and I didn't know what that was but we did know there would be food and dessert - so when 11:00pm came around, I made Adam go up to the top deck to check it out and bring me back some delicious chocolate. He came back to report that I must go up there to check out how awesome the DJ was. I went up to the pool deck and there everyone was dancing and having a good ol' time and they were all dressed in white - thus the name of the event. But better than everything else was DJ Hollywood - mid 40's, tall, Caucasian male, who definitely thinks he was born to dance...he was busting a move, and let me tell you, those high-kicks were a little frightening but extremely entertaining to watch. Even better, was his one liners in between songs and his attempts to charm all of the older ladies. I guess a cruise line would be the perfect place for him to display his talents - good for him!

I had already heard from my friend Joni that Athens was kind of lame. Maybe it was the negative outlook that I already had, or maybe it's just because we only had time to wander around a bit and see the Acropolis, thus missing perhaps the more picturesque areas of Athens - but Athens was my least favorite stop on the cruise. Because of that fact - I will probably keep this blog post short.

We arrived in the port city of Piraeus and had already decided to walk about a mile from where we docked to their subway station to get into the city of Athens. Piraeus is a really dirty, dingy area and we were definitely the only ones walking around at 9:00 on a Saturday morning. We spent about an hour trying to find the subway station, only to learn that the Piraeus station was closed on Saturday. We then decided to hop in a taxi and prayed that it didn't cost more than the Euros we had on hand. Luckily, it only cost 15 Euro and we had still had that. Both Italy and Greece use the Euro - In Croatia we had to take out some Kuna to pay for things.

When the taxi dropped us off I was immediately surprised. The area surrounding the Acropolis is poorly maintained, dirty, with old, abandoned dogs moseying around. As most of you know, the Acropolis stands on top of a hill overlooking Athens, so its a bit steep but definitely not a hard walk from where the buses and taxi's drop you off. The reason we opted to go into Athens on our own instead of with the cruise tours is that we wanted to feel like we were experiencing the cities on our own terms and not via the eyes of the professional guide. Plus, whenever you bump into the big tour groups, you kind of feel bad for them - they have to where badges, head sets, and stay bunched up with a large group of strangers. We wanted to be more adventurous. However, during this leg it might've made more sense to take the tour. We wanted to get a little background/history book from the visitor station and even though there were ladies sitting in there, they told us they were closed and to go away. Strange, right?

To get up to the Parthenon, you first walk through the Athena Nike Temple. You only know that it is the Athena Nike Temple because of this sign, pictured below on the right - which speaks more to the renovation plans as opposed to the actual history of the building.

I guess that would be one of my biggest complaints about the Acropolis - for being one of the oldest historical sites in existence - one that is rich with stories and culture, you would hope that there would be more story boards and interactive media to help the average tourist understand the significance of the buildings. But that doesn't exist and the ladies in the visitor center might not hook you up with a book - so make sure you bring one along.

Moving along to the main attraction, the Parthenon:

I am sad to say that this was the best picture I could get of the most famous of all the buildings in the Acropolis. Heavy scaffolding throughout the structure made it nearly impossible to capture it. Also, see all of the construction materials below - I guess they have some big plans - so maybe by the time any of you visit it will be in better shape! However, they just stored all of this out in the open, directly to the left of the Parthenon which kind of distracted me from the richness I was hoping to experience at this site.
On a positive note, the views of the city from the Acropolis are spectacular and spent the majority of my time enjoying those. However, as you look out across the city of Athens, you still thousands of white washed, rectangle shaped, buildings that all look pretty much the same. Small windows, very little color, government issued/approved living...Adam speculated that the city was built under a communist regime and that's why you have so little distinction between the houses. So far I've been very hard on Athens and I think it's important to point out that the city is very poor and has been for a long time now. If you are going to Athens, prepare expectations accordingly and I'm sure you will enjoy it for what it is. Definitely 100% different than any of the Greek Isles.

One thing I really enjoyed while touring the Acropolis was the interesting shapes that you could capture with the camera, set against the bright blue backdrop of the sky.

This is the second time we asked someone to take a picture of us on the trip. As mentioned in an earlier post, we both get a little scared about asking strangers to stop looking at stuff to take our picture. This guy asked us first to take his picture so we did that and so, by the way...can you take a picture for us? Nice, right? Here we are on standing on the backside, lest congested side of the Parthenon.

On our way out I saw this poster - I thought it looked way better than any of the pictures I was able to get so I snagged a picture of it instead.
We had a delicious lunch - Greek food is amazing and very fresh. Then we decided to check out the subway to see how close to Piraeus we could get. Hands down - Athens has the most beautiful subway facilities that I have ever seen! They have LCD screens displaying the local news stations, its very clean - one of the only non-graffiti spots in the entire city, they have art on display, it's very open and spacious - not claustrophobic like NYC. Two thumbs up for traveling via subway (if it's open) when you are in Athens!

Just a side note, I have heard that the brand new Acropolis museum is one of the best museums in the world. Adam and I waited in line for a half hour to get in and still weren't anywhere near the front door. I wish we would've gone in because I've heard that it is amazing. So, if you are planning a trip to Greece with a stop in Athens, make sure you see the museum and include some other stops besides beyond the Acropolis - you might have a better experience. All in all, I think you'd only want two days (max) in Athens. Let me know if you have been before and if you had a good time/any recommendations!

Our Honeymoon - From London to Spain III

Stop No. 2 ~ Debrovnik, Croatia

A friend of mine who has traveled all over the world as an airlines employee, once told me that out of all the places he had ever visited, Croatia was by far the most incredible. Based on his feelings towards Croatia, I was very much looking forward to this leg of the cruise. If after visiting Venice I thought that there was no where in the world as beautiful and enchanted, I would've been proven wrong the moment I stepped into the coastal town of Debrovnik.

The wonderful thing about a cruise is you go to sleep in one country and wake up in the next, feeling perfectly rested and excited to see new sites. And all of this happens under the direction of someone other than yourself - which makes those who understand how difficult logistics can be when you are hopping from country to country and trying to translate a German GPS - it makes those people extremely pleasant to be around the entire vacation! Now, don't misunderstand me here, Adam and I weren't spoiled the entire trip - we made an effort to tackle public transportation in each of the cities we visited - which is pretty confusing and hectic at times, so you see, we didn't take it completely easy!

After a few rounds of poker that night and one of the corniest shows I've ever seen, Adam and I called it a evening. We splurged on a room with a balcony and that is the spot where we started and ended each day of our cruise. Whether enjoying our coffee in the morning or a glass of champagne or wine in the evening, I highly recommend upgrading to the balcony rooms and enjoying the warm breeze, the view of nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see, and a little privacy from the rest of the travelers.

Now, back to Debrovnik. We wake up, step out onto our balcony and notice that we have arrived at our destination. The ports aren't all that excited, so your first glance of the city typically just looks like a port anywhere else in the world. Except in Santorini, where you don't really port - instead you anchor the boat out in the bay and taxi in, which makes the first views upon arrival a little more exciting. Our strategy on this trip was more of a combo - see stuff in the morning and in the afternoon, go swim at the beach somewhere. We were very successful at accomplishing this strategy in Debrovnik. We spent the entire morning walking around the walls of the old city, sweating a bit because it was one of the hotter days, snagging lots of good photos and enjoying the views:

~Climbing up the stairs to walk the city walls~

~I adore the rich coppers, oranges, and crisp white blends found all throughout the city~

~a lovely old church complete with bells, a statue of St. Paul, and his unexpected friend~

~The picture doesn't even begin to capture the beauty of the old, weathered stone walls contrasted by the fresh, lime green hues of the hydrangea and other plants cheerfully sitting in front of the walls ~

After hours of exploring the city we were hungry and hot and from a distance, we could sort of make out a few beach locations. We decided to wander down towards the marina to see if boats were taking passengers out to the beaches for a swim. We found a ride and made our way across the bay to a small stretch of beach, nestled in beneath the cliff side. Luckily there was a small cafe there were we safely ordered some sort of chicken swarma/sandwhich deal, cokes, and fries :) I'm really happy that you can pretty much find french fries where ever they go...it may come by a different name, but a fried potato, by any name, is a friend of mine!

The water in Croatia is extremely clear with rocky bottoms. At first glance you may think that it's going to be really warm water but it actually is a nice cool temperature that I found to be perfect and absolutely refreshing! We laid out on the lawn chairs that we found there until some guy tried to collect $20 per chair and then we walked along the cliff side and found a more secluded spot to jump off the rocks and swim.

~The view of the old city from our beach~

I will definitely return to Croatia - it was just gorgeous and the nice thing was that it was a little more affordable than our Italian legs of the trip. I only saw one spot in Croatia, but I've heard that many of the cities in Croatia along the Dalmatian Coast are just as incredible.