Saving the Best for Last

Last week, my last spring break vacation ever, flew by me.  One second I was in California leaving for Cabo, and the next I was getting off the plane in Austin.  While I am sad that last week is now nothing but memories, I will cherish those memories for the rest of my life!

Where to begin...

Last Friday my friends and I made our way to San Diego, where we stayed at a gorgeous condo on Coronado Island. We started our vacation with a delicious meal (shocker) at Prepkitchen, and polished it off with acai bowls from Juice Kaboose.  For anyone who has not tried an acai bowl, go try one (or make one) NOW.  This set the tone for the rest of our weekend in California, as it revolved around trying fun new restaurants, exploring the city and cruising around on a gorgeous boat. After devouring meals at Hash House a go go, Point Loma Seafood, Herringbone and True Food Kitchen, I think it is safe to say we ate our way through San Diego, which was perfect for our spring break diet...right?

Monday morning we left for Cabo San Lucas. I have to say, I am not the most joyful and relaxing person to travel with.  If I am not anxious about getting on a plane, I am anxious about our reservations or the mere thought of traveling out of the country. As fate would have it, I had every reason to be so high strung.  We arrived at the hotel, along with 350 other college students, to find that our hotel was overbooked.  And not just overbooked, but they had the audacity to TRIPLE book each room. Perfect.

After dealing with this nonsense for hours, we finally found ourselves relocated up into the mountains at the stunning Montecristo Estates, which are a part of the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach.  All I have to say is WOW.  While the location was not on the beach as we had planned, we were each put up in our own private villa. Each villa was not only a two story, three bedroom, stunning home, but each villa also had it's own private pool and hot tub.  Needless to say, I was in heaven.  Maybe our little overbooking mishap wouldn't be so bad after all!

Our entire week was spent on the beach. The resort was able to transport us back and forth to our original hotel everyday so that we were with all of our other friends. Being a guest at Montecristo meant that we even had our own private section on the beach with tents, chairs and unlimited food and drinks at our service.  I had the best time seeing friends from different schools, walking up and down the beach, sipping margaritas as if they were water, jet skiing in the icy blue waters and laying out in the sun.

As I sit here on my couch in Austin, drinking my morning coffee, and cannot help but think back on the memories and express how lucky I am- how thankful I am.  So, cheers to my last spring break ever, and cheers to the many more amazing traveling experiences to come.

Time to be Tourists

Due to this past week being our last full week in Paris, Cara and I finally decided to check a few touristy sites off of our list. After four weeks, it was finally time to use our museum passes and see the history behind the beautiful city of Paris.

Monday night we had yet another phenomenal dinner with more Memphis families that were kind enough to take us out during their trips to Paris.  We had reservations at Georges, which is a funky, modern restaurant on the top of the Pompidou Center. The restaurant is not only known for their food, but for their amazing 300 degree view of the city through their glass walls. We watched the sun set on the city while we ate a delicious meal with friends- what could be better?

Unfortunately, while in Paris, we have had to attend a little thing called class.  Tuesday morning we had presentations in class and after class we had a scheduled visit at the European Commission, which was very intriguing.  Later that night, one of our professors took our entire class to the famous L'As du Fallafel in the Marais to pick up dinner.  We all took our dinner to the Seine to eat, drink wine and watch the sunset by the river.

Wednesday's class period flew by because we all knew we had a five day weekend ahead of us!  We got out of class and decided to treat ourselves to the best vegetable tart and seafood salad at bread & roses.  Once again, another restaurant that I highly recommend (we have yet to eat at a bad restaurant).  After lunch and wondering into a few nearby shops, we went to visit our friends Mona and Nike at the Luvre.  We figured it would be less crowded on a random Wednesday afternoon, but boy were we wrong.  Mona was a lot smaller than I expected... in fact, she's tiny.  Walking through crowds of tourists for hours made us hungry again, so for dinner we found ourselves back in the Marais for some fondue.  I think I ate six loafs of bread and 3 lbs. of cheese...

After eating so much fondue, we decided to wake up Thursday morning and walk a few miles to the Bastille Marche, the outdoor market at Place de Bastille.  We found lots of goodies- butter and sugar crepes, cherries and English peas!  Cara's parents arrived a few hours later so we met them at their hotel and set out for a day full of activities.  Dinner was at Le Square Gardette and was phenomenal, yet again.  When we arrived to the empty restaurant for our 8:00 reservations, we were concerned about our restaurant choice.  Apparently eating at 8:00 in France is equivalent to the 5:30 crowd in the U.S.  By 9:30, as we were getting our second course, the place was full of people.  The vibe of the restaurant and food was eclectic and funky, but made us feel like we were at home in Texas.  It was a great ending to a great day!

Weekend Getaway: Bordeaux

Sometimes you just need a little vacation from your vacation, right?

When we decided to spend our weekends traveling, we knew we wanted to take some time to visit the south of France.  Many places were too far south to travel to for just 48 hours, but then we discovered Bordeaux.  Bordeaux is only a few hours away by train and just so happens to be famous for their wines. Jackpot.  Cara's parents were coming into Paris for a few days, so we thought, why not take a little vacation with them? They arrived on Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning we got on the train and headed to get our wine on.

We arrived in Bordeaux starving, and in need of some good food, per usual, so we got maps from the hotel and walked until we found the city center. On our walk we found cute gardens, tons of cafés, and rows of wonderful shops. With Cara being the foodie that she is, we read about 10 different menus before finally settled on Le Brasserie Bordelaise, an amazing wine bar and restaurant. Luckily, Cara's dad had done some research before the trip and had list of the top sites to see in the city. With the help of our map and talking to some very nice locals, we got to see The Place de la Bourse, the Notre-Dame church, and The Grand Theatre.

After a long day of exploring the city of Bordeaux, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and enjoy a glass of Israeli wine for "Shabbat" with Rabbi Greenstein. Dinner, of course, was one of the few things we actually had planned before coming on the trip. We ate at L' Oiseau Bleu, a fancy little boutique restaurant that presented us with works of art rather than food. Each course was so gorgeous and so delicious, and we would have never guessed what ingredients were in each dish if we hasn't known before hand.

Saturday morning we had some some girl time to drink coffee at a cafe and shop. These massive French sales are really killing us. If you are unfamiliar with these sales, they happen every year at the end of June and go on for a month. Every store has a sale (including all the designers) and most things go from 30% to 70% off. I promise I did not know about these sales when I chose to spend my summer in Paris! Needless to say we each left with a little "souvenir" from Bordeaux. For lunch we grabbed a cheese plate and cold gazpacho from Le Brasserie Bordelaise (yes, it was that good), and made our way to the tourism office for our wine tour!

We spent the rest of our day in the wine country in Saint-Emilion, tasting wines, visiting chateaus, and learning about Bordeaux wines. Rough life, I know. We all surprisingly learned a lot, and it's now safe to say that Cara and I are pretty much wine connoisseurs. We got to see two very different types of chateaus, a small family run vineyard and a large corporate vineyard. Chateau Mauvezin is winery that has been in the family for 400 years. We got to taste their three different blends of red wines, which is what the region specializes in. Chateau Soutard is a large, gorgeous chateau where we tried three more red wines. To our surprise, the wine tour also included a quick tour of the city of Saint-Emilion. We got to visit the largest underground church in Europe, which was carved out of a single stone, and is located underneath part of the city center. Our guide also taught us about Saint Emilion himself and showed us his place of meditation and the catacombs in which he was buried. The whole city is truly amazing because it is built on so much history, and has so much more to offer than just their wine.

Thanks to our food research that we did before the trip, we found the best little brunch spot in the city. We enjoyed our Sunday brunch at Plume Small Kitchen.  This place has such great reviews for a reason. It was a set price for a set meal, so we had a gorgeous feast before our train ride back to Paris. Our plate included yogurt with granola and fruit, a scone, cheese slices, strawberry jam, a lemon poppyseed muffin, a vegetarian scrambled egg sandwich, beans, and more. For anyone traveling to Bordeaux, this little place is very highly recommended, but make sure you have a very empty stomach!

Judging by the food, the wine, and the historical sites, Bordeaux was a huge success!

Weekend Getaway: Florence

Our weekend getaways the past few weeks have made me realize that, if all else fails, I could be a travel agent.  But just don’t ask me to book the hotel, because I will probably book the wrong one in the wrong city, like I did this weekend.

I would usually write about the highlights of a trip, but this entire trip to Florence was a highlight, with our hotel being the only “lowlight.”  Florence is absolutely amazing, and I am so glad that we chose to spend one of our few weekends in Europe there.  It was worth every penny and every pound gained (as my pictures will show).

When we landed in Florence on Thursday night, we were excited to stay at the Together FLORENCE Inn (note that ‘Florence’ is in the name of the hotel) located .3 miles from the city center.  To our surprise, the hotel was located .3 miles from the city center of Bagno a Ripoli… outside of Florence.  Oops.

So we made the trek out to the hotel and tried to convince ourselves that our hotel didn’t matter because we would not be spending a lot of time there.  We threw our stuff down, freshened up, and headed out to explore the city, but first we had to take a 20-minute ride on the public bus to even get to Florence.  Needless to say, by the end of the weekend we had mastered yet another European public transportation system.  When we got into Florence we stayed on one the "local" side of the river where we ate at a packed little restaurant called Gusta Pizza.  The pizza not only tasted amazing, but also came out in a heart shape.  We then followed the tradition and used our receipt to write a little message to stick under the glass table.  We sat at a table with a man from Florence and his lady friend and ended up talking to them for an hour.  He gave us the names and locations of the best restaurants and gelato places in town.  We finished the night with gelato (duh) and roamed around “the square” where all the locals all sit and drink on the steps of an old building.

Friday morning we woke up to a little surprise- no water.  Yes, you read correctly, the hotel did not have running water.  This meant no showering, not brushing our teeth, and no going to the bathroom.  Great.  Luckily we were ok with not showering because we were about to spend the next six hours horseback riding through Tuscany.  We got on the city bus, which we thought was the wrong one, so we got off and ended up running through the city in order to make it to our tour on time.  What a lovely start to the day.

We made it to our Horseback and Vineyards Tour and left in the van that drove us to the Chianti region in Tuscany, where many world famous wines are produced.  The next few hours were some of the most amazing in my life.  We rode horses through the hills and vineyards in the hot Tuscan sun for a few hours.  The views were unreal and unlike anything I have ever laid eyes on before.  We rode to the Principe Corsini private estate and ate a traditional Italian lunch, did a wine tasting of the Principo Corsini wines, and toured the wine cellars and estate.  Everything was perfect!

By the time we got back to the hotel we were so exhausted and decided to lay by the pool for an hour.  In the mean time, the water came back on and we were all ready to shower- but oh wait, our shower didn’t work.  The next hour we had to deal with the hotel staff and the maintenance guy, and ended up having to switch to a different room.  Strike two.

Friday night’s dinner was at Tameró, a local pasta shop that came recommended from the man we met the night before (who we ended up running into there).  We really enjoyed the “grungy chic” décor, wine, fruit and cheese tray, and our homemade pastas.  We finished the night with wine and dessert at Golden View Open Bar that over looked the river.  Our night was spent eating, drinking, and reminiscing on how amazing that day was.

Saturday morning we woke up and made our way to a Florence foodie tour with Florence Food Tour.  This tour was far better than any museum tour because we got to experience the history and culture of the city through the eyes of a Florentine.  In a few hours we hit a coffee shop, truffle shop, meat and cheese shop, the San Lorenzo Market, and a gelato shop.  We got to try every type of traditional Italian food and wine that you could possibly imagine.  The tour far exceeded our expectations, and if I ever return to Florence, I would book this tour again and again.  To read more about our day, check out my Florence Foodie blog post [COMING SOON].

From the food tour we went to explore the San Lorenzo Market, which has tons of leather goods, clothes and jewelry.  Each of us left with a little something as a souvenir from Italy. We decided we should probably do a few touristy things, so we explored the Duomo and later made the hike up to the Boboli Gardens.  Our next stop was Piazzale Michelangelo, so we stopped and got a bottle of wine from a little wine shop to drink at the top while we overlooked the entire city.  The view was absolutely amazing, and we found a cozy little bench in the rose garden where we sat and had our own little happy hour before dinner.  Of course we had to cheers to yet another amazing day!

Thanks to Trip Advisor (the most brilliant website ever invented), we had the best Italian dinner at an adorable family owned restaurant called La Cucina del Garga.  This was by far the best food of the weekend, and they treated their customers like royalty.  We started with an amazing sautéed calamari and avocado dish, each had different seafood pastas (mine was the best pasta I have ever had), and finished with cheese cake and chocolate cake.  They even brought us Prosecco, tomato focaccia bread, and a slice of lemon cake all on the house.  We were so stuffed we pretty much floated home.

And guess what happened when we got back to the hotel?  No water... again.  This hotel made me seriously doubt my trip planning skills.

Luckily our flights left Sunday afternoon, so we had the morning to check a few more things off of our list.  Our first stop was the Accademia Gallery to see the one and only, State of David.  We had all of our bags with us, so afterward we schlepped to a small cafe and bakery to have our morning coffee and do yet another recap of our amazing weekend.  We walked around a little more, ate lunch at a cute little restaurant that looked out to the Duomo, and then enjoyed one last baby cannoli in the Republic Square before we had to head back to Paris.

Now we are back in our dorm rooms, missing the many highlights of our weekend getaway in Florence, Italy.