Category Archives: Places

business trip.

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sorry for the crickets on the blog lately… i realized today that it has been almost a week since the last post.  sure doesn’t feel like it!  time has been flying far too quickly for me to keep up.  anyway, i’ve been meaning to post some pictures from a business trip i took to houston a couple weeks.  we stayed at the lovely hotel icon, which i found to be quite charming and luxurious.  all the photos are of the hotel or the surrounding area of the city within walking distance of the hotel.  oh, and try not to laugh too hard at the random ones – i’m a detail person, remember?  so this place pretty much stole my heart…

Hello, Houston!

{hello, houston!}

Hotel Icon

{the most delicious iced tea infused with blackberry, orange, and rosemary welcomed me at the front desk.}

Room with a View

{a room with a view}

Lunch at Line & Lariat

{lunch at the hotel restaurant was surprisingly good.  i had chile relleno – very tasty!}

Decor

{that heavenly bed was mine for an evening!}

Details

{details}

Bathroom Details

{bathroom details}

More Bathroom Details

{the huge bathtub was perfection after getting home at midnight from a chilly tour through a distribution center.}

Decor

{i wish i had pictures, but because the building used to be an old bank, you can see the vault, which is pretty cool.  they also built an octagonal bar right in the middle of the lobby area.}

Goodbye, Houston

{exploring the neighborhood}

it was a quick trip, but a great one nonetheless.  until next time, houston…

xo

to market, to market

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if there’s one thing that fascinates me about all other cultures [or at least almost all of them] besides the american culture is the abundance of local markets, and the availability of and demand for the freshest ingredients to use on a regular basis.

in america, we shop at supermarkets and pile our shopping carts with as much food as we can, hoping it will get us through at least the week, and the majority of that food is processed and filled with preservatives to allow us to do just that.

however, in pretty much every other country i’ve ever been to, people seem to buy their groceries for the day, and maybe the next morning’s breakfast, not for the entire week.  it is even this way in germany, where the culture is very similar to that of the united states in a lot of ways.  there are grocery stores [much smaller than the ones we have in the u.s.], but it is very common to shop at the local market to get fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads, and whatever other items are available.

one of these markets happened to be on the same street as gianina’s apartment every tuesday, thursday, and saturday, and this was where we got our bread for breakfast on saturday morning.  i brought my camera and had fun looking at everything and snapping photos of what i saw.  flowers, pastries, sheepskin blankets, christmas greenery – you could find it all.  it was crowded and made for awesome people-watching.  some people were on a mission to get specific items, while others perused the stands, choosing whatever looked tasty or was priced low.

i kept thinking of everything i could make and eat if i lived where gianina lives, with a market that’s so convenient and such a large assortment of different foods, fresh as they can be.  the culinary wheels in my head were turning away!  it was much more inspiring than the aisles of kroger, to say the least.

Market

Olive Oils

Produce

Pomegranates

Flowers

Eggs

Eggs

Coffee House

Nuts

Flowers

Italian Meats & Cheeses

Produce

Market

someday i’ll live somewhere where i can walk to a market to get groceries for the day.  that’s the plan, at least.

xo

liebes bisschen, the cutest cupcake shop ever.

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 knowing my love for cupcakes, gianina insisted that we go to a little cupcake shop called “liebes bisschen,” which translates literally to “dear little.”  she told me it was the cutest cupcake shop she had ever been to, and when i saw it, i knew it would top the charts for me as well.  tucked into a little basement in the schanze, you have to go down some steps from the street level to reach the door, and inside is the most lovely, cozy, tiny little cafe you will ever see.

we met gianina’s younger sister and her friend charlotte there, and it was love at first sight for me.  it was the little details of this place that got me.  the mint-colored walls, the shabby-chic furniture, the vintage-looking sofa and coffeetable at which we sat.  little vases on every table with a single pink rose in each one, mugs with red hearts, cupcake art on the walls.  each cupcake was served on a plate trimmed with a paper doily.  it was like a dream!

and the cupcakes.  they were fresh and delicious and were piled high with the most wonderful icing i’ve ever tasted.  not sugary like american icing, where you find yourself scraping it off, but real tasting, light and smooth, and not too sweet.  i had a chocolate cupcake with real raspberries baked inside and raspberry frosting that was perfectly tart with a hint of sweetness, the way raspberry frosting should taste.  i truly thought i had died and gone to heaven.

 

i happened to find this brighter, better quality photo of the little cafe here.

there is an article about how this place has the best cupcakes in the city, and gives information about its location and hours.  it’s apparently the oldest cupcake shop in hamburg.  their coffee is also wonderful – i had a latte, which complemented my cupcake perfectly.  because it’s somewhat hidden, it attracts more locals than tourists, but i highly recommend stopping by if you’re ever in the hamburg area.  it’s an excellent place for a girl date, but guys frequent the cafe too, because the cupcakes are just too good.

hope you’re having a wonderful sunday afternoon!

winter trip to germany, part 2

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the second wave of instagrams from hamburg…

{foggy day at the harbor}

{store windows that were too cute for words}

{we went to this gummy store with every shape and flavor of gummy you can imagine… note the gummy beer and gummy pizza!  they also had gluhwein-flavored gummies – remember gluhwein from my last germany post?  the people working there were big on samples, and by the time we had left we’d tried almost every gummy in the store!}

{this is what dinner on a german subway looks like.  oh, and the streets of hamburg.}

{rooftop bar that overlooked hamburg and the harbor}

{drinks and a view}

{i don’t know what this was, but it was prettyyyy tasty}

{the streets of hamburg decorated for christmas!}

{christmas market at the rathaus… the most popular christmas market in hamburg}

{my fave – crepes with nutella!}

{this christmas market was breathtaking}

{the canal that gianina’s apartment overlooks…AND…it’s a hella happy day when you have holunder syrup from hamburg to make hugos at home.  my alliteration for the day! :)  the holunder [elderberry] syrup in the middle came back with me to texas!}

{friends forever, getting ready for a lovely dinner for two.  celebrating friendship!}

xoxo

winter trip to germany, part 1

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so i’m back from my little thanksgiving getaway to germany, and despite my suitcase’s very tardy arrival [it came 3 1/2 days after i arrived... i had one full day left...] and the inevitable joys of flying stand-by, changing planes, 9+ hour flights, etc., i had a fantastic time!

my friend gianina and i are soulmates in the way that we met in high school and our personalities just clicked and we somehow started this thing where we take turns visiting each other, and it is AWESOME.  literally, life-changing experiences.  we will be friends forever and ever, as will our children.

i was fortunate to see many of her friends and family that i had met last time i was there – they are so kind and so fun, and it was so wonderful to feel like i had so many friends and family in another place halfway across the world, because that’s exactly how they made me feel.  it makes me happy to say that i will probably see them again, and also hopefully some of those who i wasn’t able to see during this short trip, next time i come.  because i know there will be a next time. :)

thanks to gianina, every day that i spent in hamburg was packed with a number of fun adventures for me [and just the kind of adventures i love - food adventures, culture adventures, people adventures, and adventures of experiencing a part of the world's beauty], which of course leads to photos, in my case.  here are a few of them, courtesy of my iphone, with a little preface at the london heathrow airport.

{what was going on at LHR?  christmas at harrod’s and pippa middleton’s cute new book!}

{finally in hamburg!}

{starbucks was where gianina and i decided to meet… i got a latte and sandwich while i waited for her to get out of the lab}

{reunited at last!  and the view from her apartment}

{i loved this building… it had “merry christmas” lit up in all different languages}

{my first night in hamburg.  tried the new popular drink in hamburg, called a hugo, and fell in love!}

{german breakfast!}

{christmas shopping}

{innenalster is a lovely place to shop}

{st. peter’s church and seagulls at innenalster}

{we stopped at a cafe for a latte/hot chocolate break… i had no idea that the lattes come in soup bowls!!}

{we watched the christmas market getting set up in front of the rathaus}

{my first christmas market was on the reeperbahn, the red light district of hamburg.  as gianina put it, it was “a special sort of christmas market!”}

{i tried gluhwein for the first time – it’s a hot mulled wine that reminded me of apple cider.  so tasty and great for a cold night!}

{the dom}

{those little decorated gingerbread hearts are so german and so cute!}

…to be continued…

germany 2008.

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a little over four years ago, i went to germany to visit my friend gianina.  i experienced so much more during that visit than i ever thought i would – everything from getting to watch gianina skydive to being there when she started dating julian.  [they're still together now.]  i saw the north sea and the baltic sea, the city of hamburg and the little town of buchholz where gianina lived.  i got to know her family and friends.  i lived like a local instead of a tourist.  it was one of the best experiences of my life.

 now, here we are, four years later.  gianina lives in an apartment in hamburg and is halfway through medical school.  I’m all grown up too, it seems.  it will be so fun to see where we’ve come since those days when we were just getting ready for college.

here’s to round two, gianina! <3

my first business trip.

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have you ever been to greenville, south carolina?

{image source}

i visited for the first time on sunday for business.

we flew into the airport in town, retrieved our luggage, drove to the hotel, checked in, and looked up a restaurant to eat dinner at.  it was going to work out great – the place we decided on was only about 5 minutes away, and it was on the main street.

{image source}

as we drove through that little stretch of greenville, i saw tons of fun shops that i would have loved to stop in.  peering into the windows, many of them decked out for halloween, i thought to myself, it’s too bad they’re all closed – if it was a little earlier, we might be able to stop in.  it was dark out, but the trees were wrapped in white lights, and i could see that the buildings were pretty and artsy and many were historic-looking.  a beautiful suspension bridge stretched over a small river, and lots of interesting restaurants lined the street.

walking into the restaurant we had chosen, it struck me that there was something a little odd about the town, but i couldn’t put my finger on it.  i had already decided that it was a little gem of a main street though.

inside, there were only a few people at the tables, and no one was at the hostess station.  we looked around for someone to seat us, and just then, a man walked over.  ”uh, I’m sorry, but we’re closed.  we close at nine on sundays,”  he told us.  we looked at our watches, surprised.  I hadn’t thought about the fact that it was a sunday.

but no big deal – there were lots of restaurants within walking distance, so some of them had to be still open.  right?

the minute we stepped outside, though, it immediately occurred to me why the place felt so strange.

it. was. quiet.

like crickets chirping, the faint hum of a highway off in the distance somewhere kind of quiet.  where were the young people sitting at all the lovely little outdoor patios for dinner or drinks?  or the older couples taking a stroll along the river?  where were the cars trying to score a perfect parking spot?  that’s when i realized, we aren’t in kansas anymore.

maybe i’m just used to big cities and college towns, but it was 5 after 9 on a sunday night and this place was dead.

upon discovering that three more restaurants in the area had just closed for the night, we desperately approached a host at one of them and asked him if there was any places nearby that were still open.  and he laughed a bit and responded with, “you two are definitely not from around here, are you?”  apparently, everyone goes to bed at 8 in greenville.

luckily, the man was very nice and directed us over to his favorite bar which also had an extensive dinner menu and some decent food, and not to mention, beer.  so we were happy campers and that was that.

the next morning, we left before the sun to do what we came for and then went to the airport and headed home.  so, much to my disappointment, that quest for a restaurant was the only greenville experience that i was able to have this time.  i guess i’ll just have to add this sleepy little town to my bucket list of places to visit!  just remind me not to go on a sunday night…

my favorite spot.

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see that little platform on the edge of that green cliff on the far right side of this photo?

that was quite possibly my favorite spot at the falls.

standing on that platform, with the water thundering down from high above and the spray soaking your body, fresh and cool and constant, you feel like you are in it.  in the most glorious way possible.  you get this burst of energy and want to run through the mist.  my parents and brother felt it too – we were all giggling and going right up to the rail to be next to the roaring water.  when you’re there, side by side with an enormous waterfall, you feel like a kid again.

here’s a picture of my parents at the edge of the rail:

what a natural wonder, those falls are.