Photo of the Week – Paris: Ménage à trois?

llworldtour — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:01:31 +0000

Literally translating to ‘household of three’, Ménage à trois, may happen to be some people’s favorite borrowed phrase from the French language. I snapped this shot in the St Germaine section of Paris, and it seems to capture the (ironic) essence of the French in one split second. What would your caption be?

Paris, France

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Travel Tip Tuesday: Where is Schengen and What is the Schengen Visa?

llworldtour — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:39:03 +0000

When I left to travel the globe, I’d never even heard of Schengen. I still haven’t visited the city in Luxembourg, but its main significance to travelers isn’t a cathedral to visit, but the treaty that was signed there in 1985. Ten years later it was implemented with the creation of Europe’s modern borderless “Schengen Area”, which operates much like a single country (like crossing borders of different states in the United States) with external border controls for travelers coming in and out of the entire area, but with no internal border controls. The borderless zone created currently consists of 25 European countries.

What is the Schengen visa?

The Schengen visa is a single tourist visa (the stamp you get upon arrival) that you can use to visit 25 European countries without the need of separate visas for each country. This visa allows hassle free internal travel (air, road, train, etc.) between these countries. It allows visitors (at least from the U.S. and other similar privileged countries) to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period.

In 2006, they implemented the right to move freely, meaning that passportless travel is allowed inside the entire European Union, if you have a national I.D. card from an EU country.

How does it affect my travel?

Although it’s easier to cross borders now, we, as foreigners (if, in fact, you are reading this and not a citizen of the EU), have even less time in Europe than we used to have. Intended to eliminate border checks between countries, the treaty makes it easier to move from place to place, but limits the amount of time you can spend in the region as a whole. It’s not enough to hop across a border, get a stamp and come back, you have to spend 90 days outside of a Schengen nation. Fortunately, the UK and Ireland (who have opted out), and Romania, Bulgaria (these two are on their way in), and Cyprus (who have yet to join), are not in the Schengen zone, so you can always head to those countries for the 3 month period before you can re-enter.

Okay, now follow this: The rules state that a visitor must be outside the region for 90 days for every 90 days he or she is in it. In other words, you have three consecutive months to travel around all of the EU and then you must leave for at least the next three consecutive months before you can head back in. This is a bit of a pain for the long-term traveler. Before the Schengen, each country had their own tourist visa…so I could hang around Germany for three months, then head to France for another three, and then maybe Italy for another three. Now I have just 90 days to see it all. During my ‘round the world trip, I planned to get to Europe and spend quite a bit of time there…something I learned upon arrival that I couldn’t do as planned. Bummer. Did I overstay my welcome? Yes, by about a month. In scouring the internet and talking to other travelers, I heard urban legends of lock-up, being banned for life from the EU, and other various possible punishments. I also heard a short overstay could mean nothing, which is what happened to me….absolutely nothing. But it was a gamble and I was lucky (not trying to stay there and live illegally did help). So while it cuts down on border controls, and allows citizens, to travel freely and find work in other countries, it makes traveling for a foreigner more difficult.

Photo of the Week: Food Glorious Food – Parma, Italy

llworldtour — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:29:33 +0000

Somewhere along the lines of traveling and blogging, I realized how much I write about, talk about, and just plain eat…food. It’s like the chicken or the egg sometimes: Do I love to travel because I love to eat yummy foods or do I eat great food because I love to travel? Just take a look at my food category and you can see I’ve been obsessed for quite some time.

It recently occurred to me how much my love of food has grown over the last decade, from producing restaurant and food stories in Chicago at my previous job – getting to know chefs, restaurateurs, and understanding more about what we eat, to my travels all over the world trying as many savory treats that I could fit in my mouth and stomach. I finally realized that I was more excited to check out the dining suggestions in my Lonely Planet, than the standard sightseeing stops. I was creating a tour for myself of cafes, restaurants, and fascinating supermarkets – the real key to local culture. I mean if food isn’t the great uniter, across all races, backgrounds, and ethnicities, than what is?

Here we have the real deal: some fabulously beautiful wheels of aging parmigiana reggiano cheese from a small family producer in the center of the Italian cheese universe. I was fortunate enough to get a behind the scenes tour from a local producer in Parma. Too bad I couldn’t fit one of these wheels in my suitcase.

New York Eats: My Favorite NYC Restaurants

llworldtour — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:38:11 +0000

New York City’s food scene changes as fast as the taxis whiz down 9^th Avenue. Since I’ve been traveling and somewhat removed from Manhattan, there’s no way I can keep up with the hot spot’s openings and closings. This would be a full time job (one I hope to have someday). On a recent visit, to take the pressure off myself, I just enjoyed some new random spots that were either recommended to me by friends or places that I’d been to before that have stood the test of time (a pretty big feat in NYC).

My current favorite spots

Red Cat – Great neighborhood gem holding court in Chelsea for more than a decade with Mediterranean-American flavors & a cozy white-painted wood-paneled New England charm. I’d eaten here with my grandmother (who lived just a block away for about 30 years) a few times, so besides the warm, inviting atmosphere, and especially tasty food, Red Cat holds special memories for me.

Birreria Eataly – I recently wrote about this fantastic rooftop bar and restaurant in the Flatiron District. After enjoying the gourmand’s wet dream downstairs, climb up for some great views and tasty views under a retractable roof and cozy heat lamps.

The Chelsea Market – Inevitably, I always end up here every time I am in Manhattan. I have a thing for the re-use of old buildings so you can imagine my crush on this former National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory where the Oreo was first invented. If nothing else, you should come to pay homage to this perfect cookie sandwich (do you eat it whole or twist off the top first?). It’s fitting that today it’s been re-purposed into an indoor-market of foodie finds – a fish monger, bread baker, gelateria, Italian specialty food market, several fast-casual restaurants, and, of course, home made cupcake shop. The exposed brick and duct work still help it retain its original industrial flavor with fragments of the National Biscuit heritage sprinkled all over the complex. It makes perfect sense that the offices of the Food Network are upstairs.

The Little Owl – Another neighborhood gem, oozing with cozy (read: tiny) charm, I was introduced to the Little Owl by my friend Marie Elena. Go ahead and click on their link to enjoy the sweet sounds of Frankie Valli, which to me, evokes the feeling of a warm spring evening in the Village. The Owl is little, as is the menu and the space: just 30 seats. But this is no “Chicken Little” when it comes to food, the Owl boasts unpretentious, straightforward food like their popular pork chop and one of the best burgers in the city – I savored it and have to agree with this distinction…much more flavorful than the Corner Bistro…sorry Mark.

Kashkaval – A recommendation by fellow travel blogger, Jodi, I met my step-sister here for a great after-work scene and dinner. The front is a gourmet cheese market and tucked in the back is a cozy wine and cheese bar. My mouth watered over the decadent fondue and amazing Eastern Mediterranean tapas like baba ghanoush, a lemony lentil salad, and Ajvar, a smoky red pepper spread. It’s a great date spot: dark, candle-lit, and full of foods to share.

The Park – Another Chelsea spot that I seem to keep returning to. The last two times I was there, I was invited by locals, so that’s always a good sign. The food is pretty good, but what I love the most is the gorgeous atrium and garden – a perfect spring and summer spot to dine under maple trees and chirping birds. But now I have to go back, as I can’t believe I had no idea there was a rooftop bar. My friend Michaela told me about the penthouse, that has a hot tub that allegedly gets some action on some late nights.

Trilby – I had the good fortune of eating at the Cooper Square Hotel restaurant with my friend Monica and photographing our meal for the Wall Street Journal’s lunchbox column. Since we dined there just a few months ago, the hotel has now been sold to the hipster boutique hotel chain and is henceforth known as the Standard, East Village. I guess I really did have good fortune…because the restaurant is now closed (again) for revamping. But look for it when it re-opens, the outdoor garden space is really a quiet oasis in the city filled with trees and odd pockets of quite. Serenity in NYC? Why, yes.

Katz’s Deli – Gotta give a shout out to an old time classic meat haven. This is the real deal. Pastrami piled so high on rye you can’t see over it. Get it anyway. Then take half home. I have even been known to get them to vacuum seal half the meat to freeze and make later by dropping the cryo-vacced bag in boiling water.

Union Square Café – The last time I ate here it was around 1992. But it had a strong and lasting effect on me and my interest in food and dining out. I grew up a very picky eater. In the summer and fall of 1992, I lived in New York City while I was interning at “Late Night with David Letterman.” It was then that I started to eat ‘real’ food. And it was at Union Square Café that I tried new things and started to actually ‘like’ foods that I had always despised. I was finally eating food made right and loving it. The restaurant is now legendary and routinely tops lists for NY eateries.

Isabella’s – One of my first tastes of fresh Italian food that was not the heavy baked ziti and spaghetti and meatball variety that I’d grown up with in neighboring New Jersey. I first ate here when sundried tomatoes and capers were all the rage…and brand new to me. Wow. What are these fabulous treats? It was here I was introduced to lighter stock and wine sauces or just the simplicity of a freshly made pasta with extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, garlic, and salty, 3-year aged Parmigiana Reggiano cheese. Perfection.

Places I want to Eat:

Next time I’m in town…wanna chow and imbibe with me?

DBGB Kitchen and Bar – Looks amazing and love the music on the site too.
Tia Pol
La Bottega
Luzzo’s Pizza – said to be the new ‘best pizza in Manhattan’ if there is such a thing? They had me at Coal-Oven.
Shake Shack – I’ve yet to wait in the queue for this popular spot
Per Se – Somebody take me please?
Ouest – Same. Same.
Craft – Ditto.
Crif Dog – Cream Cheese, scallions, everything bagel seasoning? Um…yum. Kind of like sushi’s ‘Philly Roll’ of dogs
Taim – Supposed to be some of the tastiest falafel around. And I love me some falafel since my first food truck in NYC in the ’90s.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Want to take your own New York tour? Try Tours4Fun.

Photo of the Week: Cordoba, Spain

llworldtour — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:48:52 +0000

Is this an M.C. Escher drawing or a real place? Oh, it is real. I visited the Mezquita or Grand Cathedral and former mosque of Cordoba a few years ago during a month-long visit to Spain.

Built in the year 600, this amazing forest of columns and marble is often regarded as one of the most accomplished examples of Islamic architecture.

The Mezquita
Cordoba, Spain

Happy Festivus!

llworldtour — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:05:18 +0000

play me:

Have a cool yule!

Season’s Greetings from LL World Tour

Photo Essay: Train Stations

llworldtour — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:37:28 +0000

Are you traveling for the holidays? Some find it a chaotic hassle, but I kind of like being in airports or train stations during the hustle and bustle – so many trying to get home to loved ones near and far. I have spent some of my favorite holidays abroad either completely alone or laughing and breaking bread with new friends and making memories that I cherish always (thinking of Sean, Craig, & Helen in Sydney, Elissa in London, Kristy in Sevilla, Adam from Philly in Krakow, Couchsurfers in Milano, Halley, Sonia, Vanessa, & my other Egypt friends).

Travel Tip Tuesday: The Alternatives to Hotels

llworldtour — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:13:54 +0000

My mantra has become traveling long term is cheaper than you think. It’s also ‘life is better with cheese’, but that’s another story. I’ve written about it here and here and here. But today I wanted to narrow in on one specific cost: lodging, aka: room & board, accommodations, or simply ‘where to lay your head.’

When traveling long term, it is, at times, odd to acknowledge the fact that you often don’t know where you will sleep each week. Although, it has always worked out for me so far and I’ve never had to sleep on a park bench (but have slept in airports), there are many times I show up in a city with no reservations and have to lug my bag to a few places until I find a bed. There was the time I arrived in Sydney just in time for Christmas. I had reservations at a hostel for a week, but didn’t think ahead to New Year’s Eve, when this huge, international city would be chock-a-block with revelers from all over Australia and all over the world. Oops. Had to go an hour south just to find somewhere with space that wasn’t prohibitively expensive. Lesson learned and as I traveled, I learned a lot more about other options besides hotels and hostels. Here are just a few:

Home Stays

Couchsurfing – I can’t say enough good things about Couchsurfing. It changed my travels and the way I look at traveling solo. Some of its many perks: You have friends everywhere & anywhere. You can get local fast. You can enjoy the warmth of a home and kitchen. You frequently can have your own room. You get to do and see things that you otherwise never would. You feel a bit more ‘taken care of’ than usual…and it’s nice. As a host you can still meet new, interesting people when not traveling. It’s FREE.

Other similar free choices:

Tripping
Hospitality Club

Airbnb – I became a host on Airbnb in Chicago before I used it as a traveler. It has a very similar feel to couchsurfing, except it’s a bit ‘more corporate.’ Read: it costs travelers money (but still much less than a hotel room), but this way it also allows homeowners to make some money. It runs the gamut – you can search for just a room or even rent a whole apartment or villa! It lacks a tad of that community spirit that Couchsurfing has spent years cultivating amongst its members. But there seem to be a lot of crossover (couchsuring-airbnb) users, so hopefully it will grow into a great community. My first guest could not have been more interesting. He owns a large herb company that supplies some major supermarkets across the US. His brother? A former progressive mayor of Bogota that started the Ciclovia bike day there and built hundreds of kilometers of bike paths and greenways and rehabbed 1,200 parks. Thanks to him, bicycling in Bogota quadrupled to 400,000 people per day. Here is a great interview he did with the NY Times. His other brother founded 8-80Cities, an organization helping make our cities more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly around the world. Oh, and their father was Colombia’s Ambassador to the United Nations. So…you never know with whom you might host or stay.

Other home stay rental sites:

Housesitting

I’ve done several house sitting and pet sitting gigs during my travels in places like Istanbul and the Hollywood Hills and Manhattan. Most were through word of mouth, but there are quite a few sites (some free and some with membership fees) out there to help you find jobs:

Rental Apartments

Perhaps you want your own space and you’d rather have it professionally managed rather than just by a homeowner. There are dozens of rental apartment sites popping up in every city. Often times this is cheaper than a hotel, plus you get your own apartment complete with kitchen, sometimes laundry, and if you’re lucky even more perks like a pool! I recently tried this out in London and Portugal. It was great to have key and my own place. Plus the apartments are often in ‘real’ neighborhoods, giving you even more of a feel of being local rather than staying amidst the rest of the tourists. Some of the big ones:

In Europe: Paris, Berlin, and Barcelona Apartments.
Roomorama
House Trip

Disclosure: In London I was a guest of Oh-London and in Portugal Roomorama hosted my stay. As usual, the views here are my own.

New York City: Eataly

llworldtour — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:33:43 +0000

Typically big-box stores (a la: Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target, etc.) and over-sized supermarkets have been an American import slowly spreading their bland conformity across Europe and beyond. But this is a switch.

I first visited the mega-sized specialty market, Eataly, in Turino, Italy, in 2009. I’d pegged it as an all-Italian ‘Whole Foods’. My mouth watered and my eyes glazed over as I roved the many, stark-white aisles filled with sexy bottles of truffle-oil, silky gelato, and an amazing array of fresh meats, pastas, cheeses, and breads.

The Slow Food organization serves as a consultant to Eataly, and the artisinal super-store has adopted its three principles. Slow Food is good, clean and fair food.

Food must taste good
Food must be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health
Food producers should receive fair compensation for their work

Like Santa bringing us gifts at Christmas, one red-faced, jolly Mario Batali, has now brought Eataly to all New Yorkers. The huge store sits just across the street from the Flatiron Building and Madison Square Park and is a mecca of Italian foodstuffs, various fancy bar ‘stations’ (more like mid-store restaurants), and boisterous espresso and wine bars.

Upstairs, on the roof, Birreria opened this past summer. The huge outdoor space is more than a beer garden, as sometimes described, even though they do brew some of their own ales as their name suggests (Birreria means brewery in Italian). For me, the food is the draw here as the menu is stuffed full with all the delightful fixin’s of an ‘Italian picnic’ – charcuterie, cheeses, mushroom dishes, and other assorted savory morsels. It’s not cheap, but the views are pretty priceless with the Empire State building looming overheard to the north and the Flatiron building just to the west, across the street, so close, you feel you can touch it.

See photo gallery here. Roll-over & click on each for larger image slideshow.

A Trip to the Beach: North Carolina’s Outer Banks

llworldtour — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:19:35 +0000

Young, scruffy-haired lifeguards cruise past us in ATV’s with the day’s warnings written on a board bolted to the back. Storms can blow through here and change as frequently with the tides, good thing they use an erasable marker. “No Swimming” flags flap in the wind as the rip currents from far-off tropical storms make swimming and splashing about a bit more of a dangerous undertaking.

We drove down the eastern coast of the United States from New Jersey to North Carolina in about six hours and then over the only bridge connecting this skinny strip of land to the mainland. If you live on the east coast of the United States, you’ve probably either vacationed in the Outer Banks or know someone who has. This narrow string of barrier islands curving alongside North Carolina in the Atlantic has long been a vacation haven for families and couples looking for an easy-going getaway. Because of the weather, it’s also a great place for a little tennis or Carolina Golf. If you are looking for the ‘woop-woop’ and fist-pumping parties of Daytona Beach or Seaside Heights, this isn’t the spot for you.

I was fortunate enough to be spending a week in Corolla Beach the first week of September this year. The perfect time if you ask me (well even if you didn’t ask me…I am the one with the blog so…). The big summer season had just ended and being that it’s a major ‘family’ vacation area, most kids were back in school so it was still warm and a bit more of an all adult-resort at the moment. Plus there was the added benefit that the ocean water was still a comfortable temperature having been warmed up all season.

The north end of the Outer Banks is less commercial than the south – making it even less of a party, spring break spot. It’s a much more residential-scene with gargantuan wood-shingled beach homes that board several families and friends who come down here to enjoy a week of family-time or alone-time like us. We are staying at, St. Nicks (most houses have names, just like you find on boats, this one happens to be named for my nephew, Nicholas!), a great house just a block from the beach in a small community called Pine Island. The Harris Teeter supermarket (henceforth dubbed “Harry Teets” by my boyfriend) is just a mile away and everything else we need is at our ‘home’ for the week – a pool, a hot tub, several decks with plenty of spots to sit and chill in the afternoon sun, and a grill (nothing says American vacation like the smell of a grill), plus tennis and basketball courts nearby.

My favorite thing to do here? Nothing. We spend a good part of the week just being and being together – lying in the sun, eating junky ‘vacation’ foods from our childhoods (ya know health foods like: Pringles, Oreos, Hot dogs, & Kraft “American” cheese on Ritz Crackers) and adhering to no schedule at all.

It was wonderful. But if you are looking for a little bit more than ‘nothing’ there are all the standard water sports – kayaking, jet-skiing, wind surfing. You can also check out the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, which, like the other lighthouses on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, still serves as an aid to navigation. The beacon comes on automatically every evening at dusk and ceases at dawn.

At the north end of the Outer Banks, Highway 12 comes to quite a cool and abrupt end without much warning. Flashing signs right at the very end let you know it has ended just as you start to feel sand under your tires. The road ends, but you can keep going driving on the 14-mile-long beach where wild horses and small ‘sand’ communities of big beach homes hide among sand dunes, as long as your vehicle has four-wheel drive. The horses are apparently descendants of wild Spanish mustangs that were shipwrecked or abandoned by European explorers in the more than 400 years ago.

I snap some shots of the horses and we drive a bit more until the sand gets a bit too soft and too high for us to not worry about getting stuck. So we turn around and head back to our home for the week and return to snacking and being lay-abouts. Perfect.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the PGA Tour on the Golf Channel. As always, all writing and opinions are my own.