Euro Trip 2013! 

My passport had expired Sept 11, 2012, and naturally, I waited until March to renew it when I had planned on going to Europe in May. Typically it takes 4-6 weeks for the new passport to arrive so I was really taking a gamble on not expediting it. 

Well lo and behold, I received it 2 weeks after they got my application! Lucky!! I was getting a little nervous since I had signed up for status updates on my application and the one alert I got was that they started processing it March 24. Anyway, for any of you travelers out there; apply for a passport at least 3 months in advance (or suck it up and pay the extra fee ($60) to get it expedited)

Our itinerary is set: 
2 May - We leave to Berlin. T and I have never been to Germany and all I've been hearing for the past few years is how Berlin is the hip new place. We arrive the next morning (3 May) and will hopefully be rested enough to spend the day sightseeing. We reserved a time slot for that afternoon to see the Reichstag building to check out the dope views in the dome. 

On the 5th, we head to Amsterdam! Now, I've had an interesting solo experience in Amsterdam back in 2006. It will be nice to be back with someone this time. 

After two days there, we take a train to Paris. We've both been to Paris, but I've requested a day trip to EuroDisney since I was cheated out of it back in 1992 when I got very sick the day before my mom was supposed to take me. 

We are also planning on doing a day trip to Versailles. On Friday, we'll probably spend time in the Louvre; I would like to see the catacombs and of course the Eiffel Tower but we'll see! 

After Paris, we take a train to Bruges where we will live out a fairytale for a night before visiting his friend in Gent. Our last stop is Brussels before heading back to the states... I am sad already!

Chicago 2012

What's better than $100 RT airfare tickets? Try $43 RT airfare tickets. Spirit Airlines were having this crazy sale for tix from NYC to Chicago for only $5.05 EACH WAY!! With taxes, it was still less than $50/person which, in my opinion, is a steal and I had never been to Chicago so this was a great excuse to do a weekend getaway. 

It was in February, which is a little risky, but we actually lucked out the first day. It was gorgeous out. A cool mid-60s, we took a long walk up to Lincoln Park and visited a very nice/large comic book store,  the aquarium and the Threadless store. I fell in love with Chicago right away. 

We met up with Mark S. and ate at the Publican. Easily 1 of the top 10 meals of my life. Coincidentally, our reservations overlapped with a friend who was visiting her parents so I got to see Kristen for a few minutes, which is funny because we live about a mile away from each other in Brooklyn and never saw each other.

We tried to go to Hot Doug, which Anthony Bourdain visited on an episode of No Reservations. We took a train to the bus an hr just to get to this place... only to find out they were closed the exact dates we were there. So we went back, very sad and defeated. I then felt super sick to my stomach. I unfortunately caught a stomach bug the last day and was sick for about 48hrs. Ugh We had to skip our reservation at Blackbird :( I did manage to try Giordano's Deep Dish pizza, but promptly threw all of that up that night. It was miserable. 

Kind of a terrible ending to what would've been a great vacation. I'll be back.

The Loop

Train Station at night

We got treated to a 4.5 hr dinner at Moto. Once in a lifetime experience. These were "cigars' that you ate.

My #1 reason for wanting to visit Chicago was to take pictures at the Bean.

Tom and Me

Summary of Peru 2009

Well I forgot to write about my 2 week trip to Peru back in May 2009...

It was nothing short of amazing. Flew to Lima (smoggy), stayed a couple of days in a super cute hostel with lots of flowers. Then flew to Cuzco, got the giggles probably from a mix of the coca leaves and the lack of oxygen as we were so high up on a mountain.

We did a 3.5 day Lares trek which was so so cool; I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants to hike and camp out to Machu Picchu (and didn't get a booking on the Inca Trail). We had sherpas carry our sleeping bags and ovens... set up all of our tents (incl. the bathroom tent!) and made us 3 course meals every day!
Machu Picchu is definitely an experience you should have at least once in your life. The history behind it is so rich and interesting. The climb up Wayna pichu (which was the larger mountain next to machu  pichu) was an experience in of itself. Tom and I went the "long way"... which meant we were lost and stuck on this damn mountain for nearly 3 hrs. Mind you, the pathways are not for the feint of heart. think super steep stairs/ladders, no barriers to catch your fall, and me being the idiot and carrying a totebag which made things so much harder. I think this was where Tom and I had our first fight, and we had only been dating 3 months at that point.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was great. We ate like royalty because the exchange rate was in our favor.