Tag: sightseeing

The High Line in NYC

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Spring has been teasing New York City lately, and it’s kind of messed up. But on those days where it’s warm and sunny, New Yorkers flock to the High Line in Chelsea.

Sixty degrees one day, and the young female office workers ditch the tights and wear short dresses that are a little too short, a little too early. Calm down, it’s March.

The fact that the next day’s high is in the forties (or lower) snaps us all back to reality, and we realize that spring just ain’t here quite yet. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time this spring and summer to strut your inappropriately-short-and-tight office attire around the city streets, twenty-something social media interns and fashion stylist interns. It’s just not that time yet.

However, we got a taste of spring today after we exited our boozy brunch at Fonda in Chelsea this early afternoon.  (Delicious brunch! – Will post a review next time.)

The elusive sun beat down on our hibiscus margarita-stained lips as my husband, our friend and I walked up 9th avenue and decided to stroll over down to the High Line and enjoy the brief respite from the sh*ttiest winter in recent memory.

One thing you’ll learn about most New Yorkers is that we avoid touristy things like the plague. Case in point: I hadn’t visited the Statue of Liberty until I was 26 years old and I went with a tourist I befriended during their visit to NY. So, it’s not surprising that I had never visited the High Line prior to today since its opening in 2009.

 

 
We entered at 23rd street and walked downtown toward the Meatpacking District and the Gansevoort Street exit.

 

 

Remember that time the sun was out? It was just a few minutes ago…

 

You can sit in these stadium-style seats and gawk at the traffic below you on Tenth Avenue. If that’s your thing.

I have to admit, it was pretty awesome. Oh, yeah… and it’s free.

I’ll be visiting again when the weather is nicer (as in, sunny and warm for more than a few hours at a time), and taking more photos then.

I love the architecture in the Meatpacking District.

After, we strolled around the Meatpacking District, wandered into AllSaints and coveted ALL THE THINGS, balking at the prices and decided we couldn’t afford ANY OF THE THINGS in good conscience, and took the Subway back home to LIC.

I want all the things.

It was a fabulous afternoon!

How do YOU like to spend a sunny day in NYC? Leave a comment and tell me!

Dreaming of Lisbon

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A bunch of articles on how great Lisbon, Portugal is have been coming out lately. However, I’ve known this for almost a decade, first-hand.

Truly one of the most magical, surprising and cool places I’ve been, my friend Stefanie and I went to Lisbon back in November 2006.

Below are just a few snaps (on a crappy-resolution point and shoot camera, sorry!) from our trip to Lisboa.  Now, if you don’t mind me, I’ll just be updating my Kayak price alerts for NYC-Lisbon flights under $800….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viña del Mar – Why You Need to Go

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Valparaiso’s colorful houses and picturesque hills are amazing, but if you go to the Chilean coastline in this area, you’d be remiss if you didn’t make it slightly north to Viña del Mar (about 10-15 minutes) and Reñaca (about 40 minutes).

Moai head, Viña del Mar
Nifty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They’re easy to reach by bus from Valparaiso (and directly from Mendoza) and a major vacation destination for the Argentines, and particularly, the Mendocinos. Everyone goes to Reñaca during the summer. It’s like what the Hamptons are for New Yorkers. Except this is the Hamptons for the slightly less well-off, where there are no impressive houses and everyone is eating empanadas. And a lot of people have rat-tails, but not in an ironic way.

Still, you must go. I will write about Viña del Mar here, and Reñaca in my next post. You can catch the city buses there that run up and down the coastal road and the ride is scary, but cheap.

Viña del Mar has at least 2 things (other than Entremasas) that you should go see while you’re there. One is Moai from Easter Island. If you take a photo just right, you can fool some fools into believing you actually paid the billion* dollars to fly to Easter Island from Santiago.

The other is the flower clock that they are so proud of. It’s not amazing, I know. But it’s pretty cool. And if you’re going to be there to see the Moai and get some sun, you might as well mosey on over and take a photo. I’m told that they change the flowers every now and then, so the colors probably vary.

Flower clock in Viña del Mar
Son las 12:37, perras.

What’s more, Viña is more like a “real city” in some respects; they have a Lider (Chilean WalMart), good shopping, a (VERY nice) Casino, a boardwalk… the whole nine.  I recommend having a drink on the patio of the Enjoy Bar, which is right across from the casino, at the end of the little street that leads to the boardwalk. They had a drink called the “Quiet Relax”… which is just a ridiculous name for a drink that was strong as hell and unidentifiable. Stick with a pisco sour. They are delicious here.

I also recommend renting one of the 4-person Surreys (bikes with an awning above it) and riding up and down the street. We went a little crazy and drove up to the doors of the casino. It was hilarious, but I think you just had to be there. You should probably do it, too, and let’s see if we can start a trend. If you do, please send me a photo. I’ll post it. I swear.

A stroll along the boardwalk should also be in your cards for the day, as well as a good wander of the shopping streets. We ate at a delicious pan-Asian restaurant that night, which by its name was highly deceiving, as it brings to mind a certain bad-mall-Chinese-food vibe; Wok & Roll.

The menu was a bit all over the place, but we all decided on curries (chicken with green curry for me) as our main dishes, with some sushi rolls to start. The curries were fantastic, especially since we were in Chile. We didn’t have much time to eat because we were catching our bus back to Mendoza in a few hours, so we probably would have stayed longer if we could have. The staff were great and called a cab for us while we were eating so that we could leave as soon as we were done.  If I went back to Viña, I’d go eat there again.

Another notable thing for Expats who are missing the flavors of home is that there’s a bagel shop in town now, run by expats called BagelMania. They had a booth at Lollapalooza Chile, and I was really impressed. Check it out. Update: I think BagelMania is closed! Wahhh!

*Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating.

Valparaiso, Chile – in November

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So, we’ve been to Valparaiso, Chile twice – once in the off-season and once during New Year’s week, which will come later. When I say “we”, I mean my boyfriend and I.

Valparaiso is a magical little seaside city with cliffs and colorful houses, stacked on hillsides with cable car elevators (funiculars, as they are called in Italy), full of character and gritty to the core. The decaying old buildings are covered in graffiti and art, but somehow remain charming and interesting, like an old friend who may drink a little too much, but is still a blast to be around every once in a while. Despite what you might have heard, Valpo is no more dangerous (or at least doesn’t feel like it) than any other tourist destination – and we stayed in what could arguably be called one of the not-so-nice areas of the city (approximately 4 blocks from the bus station – which we all know is NEVER in a nice area, no matter what city you’re in). We stayed at a little nautical-themed B&B called El Rincón del Marino.

The bus arrived at the crack of dawn one November morning, when the morning fog hadn’t yet cleared and a chill hung in the air. Coming from the desert in Mendoza, we weren’t ready for the abrupt change in temperature, and promptly layered whatever long-sleeved items we had over the tank tops and t-shirts we wore when we left 80-something-degree Mendoza.

Quick tip: $200,000 Chilean pesos is too much money to take out of the ATM at one time. It’s about US $400. You’re welcome. This was a lesson learned the hard way. Much like the time I took out about US $650 from an ATM in Iceland, by accident.

Yup – I could live here.

In a whirlwind 2-day adventure, we visited La Sebastiana, the historical home of Pablo Neruda, which was amazing. He collected a really eclectic, interesting, and beautiful menagerie of things from around the world, all on display in this incredible cliffside home. I could totally live there.

Some street art

Wandering down the hills after visiting his house, we came upon the “open air museum” that adorns the streets of the city. Very cool street art and interesting murals.

Murals…

We ate great seafood at this port-side restaurant (whose name escapes me), where the waiter assembled a Spanish dictionary tray to show us each different type of seafood by its name. He was really sweet. Later that day, we got some coffee at the cafe attached to the Museo Lukas  (on Paseo Gervasconi), which is a museum dedicated to the famous Chilean cartoonist. The mocha was pretty delicious.

Piri Piri shrimp and ceviche!

Another day was spent wandering Viña del Mar  and then returning to Valparaiso to traipse around Cerro Allegre and Cerro Concepción, peeking in the windows of art galleries, taking photos and looking for food and pisco sours.

Cerro Concepción

We ended up dining at Sabor Color Gourmet Bar and had a great cheese plate, fried seafood platter, a bottle of Tabalí Carmenere, and ridiculous brownie for dessert. Seriously – get the brownies! All of this was enjoyed with our friends while listening to the string trio play live in the other room of this converted house-turned-restaurant.

New Years? Now that’s a whole other story… check that out right here.

 

Those pesky acequias.

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I believe I have blogged before about the water irrigation ditches found on the side of nearly every Mendocino street (other than Arístedes and Colón, I’ve noticed – but there are ton more, I’m sure.). They are about 3-4 feet deep , or so. They carry running water around the city to water the plants that they planted here way back when, because we’re smack in the middle of a desert.

They built the acequias to injure people.

Not really. But, I know a lot of people who have fallen in one, drunk or sober. I’m now a lucky member of this not-so-exclusive club.

Mendoza

I don’t know how it happened, but I ate sh*t yesterday on my way home from my massage. Maybe it was the fact that I was so relaxed after a stressful day. Maybe it was the spiderweb I was mesmerized by, so much so that I took an ill-placed step and ended up waist-deep in my concrete ditch. Luckily for me, there was no water in this one on this day.  However, concrete ledges, when one scrapes one’s both legs on them, hurt like a b*tch.

Adding insult to injury, no Mendocino passerby offered to help me or ask if I was okay. I dusted off my now-dust-covered jeans and wiped my bloody, scraped palms together. Embarrassed, and used to falling in such a manner, I grinned. But I died a little bit inside.

I called my mother soon thereafter to recount the story, and her reaction? “That nevah woulda happened in New YAWK. People think we’re all rude, but I’ll tell ya – New Yawkas woulda stopped and helped ya.”

Maybe.

photo by:

The man with the bird.

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Last week, we were driving home from work in my coworker’s car and a fat man on a bicycle rode by. He was bald, and looked pretty mean. He completely enveloped the bicycle on which he sat. Then, as he passed, we kept looking, and there was a small black bird with a bright orange beak, just perched on his back. Riding along as his pet.

Fat man with a little bird.

I wish my iPhone wasn’t dead so I could have taken a photo.