Remaining Hotels and Hostels

As promised here are the other hotels and hostels I'll be staying at on my trip...

La Colonnina
Monterosso, Italy

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Esans Hotel
Istanbul, Turkey

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Lisbon Calling Hostel
Lisbon, Portugal

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Rising Cock Hostel
Lagos, Portugal

Photo Credit: hostels.com

Samay Hostel
Seville, Spain

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Hostal Astoria
Madrid, Spain

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Riad Massin
Marrakech, Morocco

Photo Credit: hostelworld.com

Travellers House
Lisbon, Portugal

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Melrose House Hotel
Pamukkale, Turkey

Photo Credit: booking.com

Hostal Berlin
Marbella, Spain

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

White Nest Hostel
Granada, Spain

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Rafaelhoteles by Casanova
Barcelona, Spain

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Hostal La Marina
Ibiza, Spain

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

Wombats City Hostel
Munich, Germany

Photo Credit: Accommodation Website

MEININGER Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany

Photo Credit: hostels.com

Where oh where to stay?? Europe Hostels and Hotels

So today it's all about where to stay on my trip to Europe. Just for fun I put them in order of which ones I'm most excited about rather than chronologically. I've divided them into VERY SUPER EXCITED, LOOKING FORWARD TO, and PLACES TO SLEEP.

To whet your appetite here is the VERY SUPER EXCITED group....

Local Cave House Hotel
Cappadocia, Turkey

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Website

This hotel is exactly what it sounds like - a hotel built into the side of a mountain where you sleep in caves. I love the idea curling up in the heart of a mountain almost as much as decending into the Pyramids of Giza.

La Mamounia
Marrakech, Morocco

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Website

This hotel is located on the grounds of 200-year-old gardens, which were given as a wedding present in the 18th century to Prince Moulay Mamoun by his father. The hotel, itself, was built in 1922 using traditional Moroccan design. I am completely enthralled by the decadence shown on the website and can't wait to spend one glorious night here pretending to be a Moroccan princess.

Aigialos Luxury Traditional Settlement
Santorini, Greece

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Website

This hotel or "settlement" features sixteen houses that were once the homes of Santorini's noble families. They have since been renovated into a hotel but the architecture and design still beckons back to the traditional designs of Greece. Each of the houses are named after the Aegean winds and look out over the cliffs to the sea.

Blue Palace
Crete, Greece

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Website

This hotel is pretty much heaven on the beach. We get to stay in our own villa with an infinity pool that runs into the ocean. AWESOME.

Colmberg Castle
Colmberg, Germany

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Website

Yes, I'm staying a f**king castle! Colmberg Castle's history can be traced back to the 1318 century due to a sales contract found in a book on the city of Rothenburg. It has been owned by Duke Frederic IV. of Nuremburg and the last imperial consul of Japan and was also at one point the headquarters of the kingdom of Bavaria. The castle looks out from the top of a mountain about 511 meters tall. It's gonna rock!

Hotel Grande Bretagne
Athens, Greece

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Website

At this 5 Star hotel I will be eating breakfast on the patio with a breathtaking view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. This hotel has won awards from Conde Naste, CNN, Travel & Leisure and has been the preferred hotel for the famous from Winston Churchill to LBJ and Elizabeth Taylor. I'll be livin' it up here for a couple days.

Desert Camp
Sahara Desert, Morocco
No really pictures or website for this. We are going as part of a tour to ride camels out into the Sahara Desert to spend the night like the Bedouin looking up at the stars from a desert tented camp. Bad. Ass. Too bad it will be really hot...

Check back tomorrow for the LOOKING FORWARD TO group!

Big Announcement...Three Month Summer Europe Trip!

First off I'd like to say that I'm sorry for neglecting you these past few months but it was because I was working on a big announcement that I can finally share! I have been planning a three month trip backpacking through Europe. Yup, I am officially quitting my job, dumping all my crap at the parents' place and hightailing my way around the globe. And yes, for all of you, I will be blogging about my experience all along the way! So, to whet your appetite here is the itinerary!

Photo Credit - gvbt.it

6/15/2011	Leave the US
6/16/2011	Cinque Terra, Italy
6/17/2011	Cinque Terra, Italy
6/18/2011	Cinque Terra, Italy
6/19/2011	Cinque Terra, Italy
6/20/2011	Istanbul, Turkey
6/21/2011	Istanbul, Turkey
6/22/2011	Istanbul, Turkey
6/23/2011	Istanbul, Turkey
6/24/2011	Istanbul, Turkey
6/25/2011	Cappadocia, Turkey
6/26/2011	Cappadocia, Turkey
6/27/2011	Cappadocia, Turkey
6/28/2011	Pamukkale, Turkey
6/29/2011	Pamukkale, Turkey
6/30/2011	Istanbul, Turkey

7/1/2011	Athens, Greece
7/2/2011	Athens, Greece
7/3/2011	Athens, Greece
7/4/2011	Santorini, Greece
7/5/2011	Santorini, Greece
7/6/2011	Santorini, Greece
7/7/2011	Crete, Greece
7/8/2011	Crete, Greece
7/9/2011	Crete, Greece
7/10/2011	Crete, Greece
7/11/2011	Athens, Greece

7/12/2011	Madrid, Spain
7/13/2011	Madrid, Spain
7/14/2011	Madrid, Spain
7/15/2011	Madrid, Spain

7/16/2011	Marrakech, Morocco
7/17/2011	Sahara Desert
7/18/2011	Sahara Desert
7/19/2011	Marrakech, Morocco
7/20/2011	Marrakech, Morocco
7/21/2011	Lisbon, Portugal
7/22/2011	Lagos, Portugal
7/23/2011	Lagos, Portugal
7/24/2011	Lisbon, Portugal
7/25/2011	Lisbon, Portugal
7/26/2011	Lisbon, Portugal
7/27/2011	Sevilla, Spain
7/28/2011	Marbella, Spain
7/29/2011	Marbella, Spain
7/30/2011	Sevilla, Spain
7/31/2011	Sevilla, Spain

8/1/2011	Granada, Spain
8/2/2011	Granada, Spain
8/3/2011	Barcelona, Spain
8/5/2011	Barcelona, Spain
8/6/2011	Ibiza, Spain
8/7/2011	Ibiza, Spain
8/8/2011	Ibiza, Spain
8/9/2011	Ibiza, Spain
8/10/2011	Munich, Germany
8/11/2011	Munich, Germany
8/12/2011	Munich, Germany
8/13/2011	Rothenburg, Germany
8/14/2011	Colmberg, Germany
8/15/2011	Frankfurt, Germany

And that's as far as I've gotten! I have about a week left to travel from Frankfurt to Amsterdam which is where I fly out of on 8/24. I'm extremely excited and will be sure to keep you abreast of everything going on moving forward. Please share your comments on the Facebook page if you've been to any of these places and tell me what I should do!

Look forward to hearing from me in the weeks to come.

MLK in NorCal

I spent MLK weekend up in San Francisco on yet another eating and drinking binge so I thought I'd share my adventures from the weekend.

Friday, January 14th, 2011

My flight got in extremely late so we had just enough time to drop my bag at my boyfriend's apartment before jogging over to the restaurant. He had planned a special dinner location for each night I was there and I LOVE surprises.

Tonight's restaurant was called A16 at 2355 Chestnut Street in the Marina District. It's a small little Italian restaurant named after highway that runs from Naples to Canosa, Italy. And the food mimics Southern Italy. The inside of the restaurant is very narrow. You walk past the kitchen to a bunch of small tables. From there you can go out to a patio but it was January so - no thank you. It was a little scrunched and they were out of a lot of stuff because it was so late so we settled for...

Bruschetta with cecci, neopolitan chilies, black olives and arugula

Blood orange, grapefruit, mint and fennel salad

Bianca – mozzarella, grana, green olives, basil, chiles, garlic, olive oil

Maccaronara with ragu napoletana and house-made ricotta salata

Chocolate budino tart with sea salt and extra virgin olive oil

The salad and the chocolate tart where AMAZING. The pizza we could barely finish but the leftovers later that night were just as tasty as the few bites we managed at dinner. The only truly disappointing dish was the Maccaronara with ragu. The noodles were really rubbery. It's my first time eating that pasta so I don't know if that is how it normally tastes or if it wasn't cooked properly. However, the restaurant earned an extra point in my book by leaving it off the bill since it was clear we hadn't touched it.

We also had an AMAZING wine at the restaurant. We were so full and it was so late at this point that we just went back to the apartment and crashed.

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

It felt soooo nice to sleep in today. We woke up late and wandered down to Squat and Gobble for breakfast. I had the Strawberry Nutella crepes (fresh strawberries, Nutella, brown sugar and cinnamon) which were exactly what I wanted. With a mimosa of course! My boyfriend got the special which was a tasty, salty breakfast sandwich on an English muffin.


From there we met his roommate at East Side West to watch the NFL playoffs. We were already full but I took a mental note of how delicious the House Ground Wagyu Cheeseburger with Spring Hill Jersey Organic Colby cheese, special sauce, and steak fries looked.

We then wasted the afternoon wandering around so I'll skip straight to dinner.

Tonight, we arrived at Alegrias, a Spanish tapas restaurant at 2018 Lombard St (cross street, Webster). It is a VERY homey restaurant with bright yellow walls covered in knick-knacks and lacy table coverings. We ordered a bottle of Santa Digna Cab Sav (2007 Reserve) which was quite nice and recommended by our waiter.


For dinner, we wolfed down Empanadillas de Carne that were HEAVENLY. I just recently was introduced to empanadillas and I am making up for lost time. We had the Cazuela de Queso de Cabra (oven cooked goat cheese on a bed of red sauce) and the Patatas Alioli (crisp fried potatoes tossed with a traditional alioli sauce) both of which were fine but nothing to write home about. The Conejo a la Cazuela (stewed rabbit with vegetables and wine) was also delicious! Dessert, as usual, was a chocolate torte of some sort with raspberry sauce that was a perfect topper. During the meal, the waiter was kind enough to let me try the house-made sangria and it was delightful. I highly recommend it if you like sangria.

Feeling stuffed again, we headed back to his apartment for the housewarming party that awaited us. A bunch of people had arrived by the time we got there so we got down to the business of drinking even more. The party went extremely well and then we hit the bars. I think we ended up at City Tavern? (I can never keep track of which Triangle Bar is which) There seemed to be a birthday party or bachelor party where all the members of the group were wearing orange scarves. I feel like we asked on of them but got a jumbled answer.


The bar started kicking people out but we weren't ready to head home just yet! We passed a few places but half the group couldn't agree with the other half. Hope was almost lost when I saw my favorite word blinking at me from across the night: K-A-R-A-O-K-E. Silver Clouds is a restaurant by day and sleazy karaoke bar by night. Karaoke starts at 9pm and goes until who knows when (1994 Lombard Street) - I think 2am. The girl in charge of karaoke was kind of a biatch and more or less said I needed to pay her $20 in order to move to the front of the line. So, I sidestepped her authority and just got up on stage with the next rowdy group of drunk guys.


They didn't mind at all! Awesome topper to the night and even better? Leftover pizza waiting for me at home...

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

Wow I just can't deal with hangovers like I used to! We woke up late again today and stumbled to East Side West for hangover food and more football. My two girlfriends arrived and we snuck out to Urban Outfitters down the street for some shopping and girl time. After making an absolute killing on clothes, we wandered back to find the game almost over.

The rest of the day was spent watching football on the couch so I yet again will fast forward to dinner.

The last dinner of the weekend found us at Bin 38 at 3232 Scott St (cross street Chestnut). This restaurant is hip, yet homey inside which a menu full of tasty wine and innovative, contemporary American food. They also have a tented back patio with lights and a fire-pit table. Very cool place to have a birthday dinner or drinks.


They also have wine flights which I love even though wine snobs hate them because they are "lesser" wines. My palate doesn't give a shit so I ordered the The Art Of The Blend for $16 for three glasses. Two were great; the other was not so great.

Dinner was absolutely amazing. By far the best of the three nights and ranks in my top ten restaurants in California. We had..

Butternut Squash Soup with hazelnut, marshmallow, cocoa nibs, spiced crème fraiche

From the Garden with baby lettuce, blossoms, shaved vegetables, sauvignon blanc vinaigrette

Sweet Potato & Ricotta Agnolotti with pancetta, smoked cipollini, and brussel sprouts (I asked to have it without mushrooms)

Flatbread with , sweet garlic puree, arugula, shaved parmigiano reggiano, truffle oil

Warm Chocolate Cake with dulce de leche, cinnamon-chocolate ice cream

When they served the soup they literally poured the soup over a mound of marshmallows. Yes, MARSHMALLOWS! It was thick just how I like it, though very filling. The garden salad was beautifully plated but on the light side. The pear shavings were sweet and juicy. The sweet potato agnolotti was also nicely presented and was good but didn't quite have the intense flavors that I like. The flatbread was also delicious - the prosciutto was excellent quality and they didn't overdo the arugula which I find to be the case on a lot of "salad" pizzas. And the warm chocolate cake was of course GREAT especially the cinnamon-chocolate ice cream.

I wish we could have sat there all night chatting and drinking wine but a boisterous part of six sat down next to us and eventually we moved on.

As a side note, we went to go see Tron that night at the AMC Metreon in IMAX. It was the coolest 3-D movie I have ever seen. Granted the "Grid" totally works with 3-D but I was literally bugging out watching it. The screen is also HUGE. I've been to IMAX 3-D before for Avatar but either they've improved 3-D movies since then or this screen is incredible. Hard to say.

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Today, I had to head home but before leaving we had breakfast at the Blue Front Cafe on Haight Street. I've only been gone for Egypt but I miss the food terribly (same way I felt after coming back from China). So, I got the Middle Eastern Plate with hummus, babaganoush, tomato cucumber salad, tabouleh, dolmas, falafels and pita.

It was exactly what I wanted although HUGE. A great way to end my foodie weekend.

Happy News Years from Egypt!

I just arrived back from spending Christmas and New Years in Egypt. Read all about it on the Travel Addict website!

All Hail Halloween

I have finally said my teary goodbyes to my favorite month of the year, October. The leaves turning orange (yes L.A. has leaves), the enchanting smell of pumpkin pie at Ralphs (no not the rotten fruit smell!), and getting the $H1T scared out of you! Let's take a look back at all the fun activities...

Knotts Scary Farm
In the annual tradition we went to Knotts Scary Farm. My favorite haunted maze this year was the Terror of London. The bloody midget that chases you at the end was a nice, yet terrifying, touch. The show was as stupid as it always is though they did make a crazy at Disney's World of Color which was hilarious. We also managed to scare a bunch of kids in line for the logride and survived the Xcelerator which launches you down the track getting up to 82 mph in 2.3 seconds. Overall, it continues to be a solid Halloween scare choice.

Pierce College's Halloween Harvest Festival
This is the place I told you about last year that I just happened to find. This year, believe or not, it was EVEN BETTER. Two of my girlfriends and a group of about five boys dared to venture into the festival. The boys thought it'd be hilarious to send the girls into the haunted corn maze first ensuring that they would get to watch us sprint screaming in different directions as ghostly creatures appeared in the night. A clever addition was an old shack in the middle of the maze that you HAD to walk through. An actor in a bloody scarecrow costume rocked in an old rocking chair staring at you as you enter. You are SO focused on him that the man in black that rushes at you from the side takes you completely by surprise. I bolted out of that death trap like a racehorse heading out of the starting gate.

I thought that this would be the scariest part of the night but that was clearly naive. We ventured next to the Haunted House. They told us they could only take groups of six so our group needed to split up. Of course, the boys opt to have the three girls go in alone although the operator assured us there were three more people inside that we would walk with. We enter a dark black box with a man dressed like Frankenstein. As the door begins to slide shut behind us we realize...it is just us. The gut-wrenching screaming ensued as we sprinted through the maze slamming into walls and each other and using spin-moves to jump past angry clowns and bloody zombies. It was like a fast-paced haunted version of Mario World only when you look at these ghosts - they keep moving. The maze ended with us in a sweaty heap outside the back door with a laughing clown staring at us from the entryway. I felt like I'd just survived a massive asthma attack. Only one maze to go...

The last maze was a new one this year that involved finding you way through a maze of chain link fence while zombies chased you. Not cool. The maze turned out to be pretty easy so I managed to escape without too much mental damage. This festival gets better and better every year.


Pumpkin Carving
Yes, we had a wine and drunken pumpkin carving night and, yes, I refrained from carving something inappropriate. I did want to be creative though so I went with a Pacman chasing the dots around the pumpkin. I later found out that my friend plagiarized me. Criminal.

My Pumpkin

The Copycat's Pumpkin

Hollywood Halloween at the Vanguard
Usually I avoid Hollywood like the plague when a major holiday is anywhere nearby. This year, Miike Snow was playing at the Vanguard so I was convinced to go. We planned ahead this year and made sure to be in line at the venue by 9:30pm already inebriated. Minus some bitchy girls in line who I had to man-handle it was an amazing night filled with great music, pink unicorns, and the cast of Rad Anthem complete with coke dangling from their nostrils. Someone also got the memo about how much I love ghetto street dogs because a lady with a cart was standing right outside waiting for me!


West Hollywood Carnival
It has been many years since I made it to the West Hollywood Carnival and it's a bleary memory at that. I felt it prudent that I go this year, it being on a Sunday and all. It was also my mission to photograph myself with as many other Lady Gagas as I could find. The carnival met every expectation that my faulty memory presented from a flawless reproduction of the Alice in Wonderland cast to Lady "CACA" covered in poo to Wolverine and Ariel and their MerWolf baby. Sadly, I was unable to find the beer gardens that I so vividly remember from last time...


And there you have it - the many festivities of All Hallows Eve. I hope you enjoy the ridiculous pictures.