Category: Travel

Guides to my favorite places in the world

Travel

24 hours in Portland

Post author By nina
Post date July 8, 2010

Whilst on holiday in Seattle, via San Francisco, I felt inspired to go on a 1940s style American adventure. Manifest Destiny, Oregon Trail. Monday night I booked a morning Coast Starlight ride along the coast to Portland. I made friends in the lounge car and marveled at what is my country.

I started posting notes on Facebook before I travel to guide my explorations. I find that my friends have a better sense of my interests than any tour book. I also always seem to discover I know more people where I’m going than I thought. It’s a great archive I can share with my friends in the future and helps all my friends know what has already been recommended to me. The other benefit is that usually when I return from somewhere, people say something like “I lived in Portland for 3 years, why didn’t you tell me you were going?”

This land is your land, this land is my land.

The Coast Starlight ride from Seattle to Portland was absolutely beautiful. I felt like i was in a 1940’s American adventure. I booked my trip the night before and took off with what only fit in my purse.

I was given a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Tour of Chris Johnson. He and I are dear friends from my Indy Star days. We met at the epic Powell Bookstore and walked throughout the Northwest neighborhood. We had lunch at The New Old Lompoc, a great backyard-like pub. Late into our walk throughout the city we headed back downtown for amazing cocktails at The Portland City Grille that boasted the most unbelievable view of the city and mountains. I highly recommend any mojito including the blood orange beverage.

My highschool turnabout dance date (fun fact) Justin came to pick us up and we enjoyed an evening on the patio at the Rontoms lounge. My roommate, Sravi, from San Francisco just moved to Portland. We gave him and some new friends a healthy hipster dosage he had been missing. The evening carried onto a late Cajun Creole dinner at Le Bistro Montage. Delicious faire that’s always open late. Here I was with zero plan, living completely free, from whim to whim with so many parts of my life coming together at once. All of us had a nightcap at a great little dive, The Bonfire Lounge.

Justin, my blast from the past (and true gentleman!)

Early morning, I did the most cliche thing possible and ate granola in Portland. We visited the Waffle Window for a fruit, yogurt, granola breakfast.

Fruit, Yogurt and Granola from the Waffle Window

Chris took me around some vintage shops on Hawthorne where we bought sweet water guns and a mood ring for me to know when I feel purpley. We meant to meet Chris’ friends at Prost! a German Pub, to watch the World Cup match against Spain on the up and coming Mississippi Avenue. It was overly crowded so we strolled down the road for a cooler spot to hide from the hot hot heat.

The trip wound down with the best tacos of my entire life from ?Por Que No? that are also incredibly inexpensive. Absolutely amazing.

I wrapped up my trip downtown, got some Voodoo Doughnuts for the road and jumped on the Cascade for a snooze and ride back to Portland.

Not bad for just one day. I can’t wait to visit again.

Travel

bald eagles

Post author By nina
Post date May 18, 2007

I’m back in Suburbia.

The thing about driving in my car everywhere (aside from it being as expensive as riding the Tube) is that when I walk from the parking lot to the store, it seems odd to be booking it. No rush, no long distances to walk, and driving on pretty much the same 6 roads.

I spent two days hangin around in the Chicago loop. For a flash second I forgot about sky scrapers. When asking people for directions or help, I get a funny look when I give an extra long pause and very polite excuse me. Turns out we speak the same language, have the same accent and I’m on home turf.

When ordering my Taco Bell I can lean all over the counter, think for a while, and if I felt so compelled I couldsay “kaaaay, gimmeee two tacos supreme and grande diet pepsi, and oh yah I need some of those cinnamon twists.” I don’t. I COULD though.

I’ve got about a zillion gigs of photos and minimal energy to upload them. But I will! It’s good to be back though. You miss things (places and people) you become attached to. So hopefully whenever you are leaving somewhere, you have a nice place to move on to.

Since I’ve started university at IU, it’s gotten harder and harder to live in large spaces. I think I’m well suited for something tighter, for the time being. Lucky for me those places are usually cheaper too. As for living out of a backpack… 2 weeks was enough.

Travel

My Whole Life in One Backpack

Post author By nina
Post date May 7, 2007

Greetings from Roma. I’m about halfway through my European backpacking adventure.

India was fantastic. I was a bride’s maid in my cousin wedding. I had so much fun with all my family and Ina (the bridey) was so beautiful! Even though we were in the desert, the dry heat was actually really refreshing. Everyone here keeps asking about the Mendhi on my hands.

From India mom and I met with my cousin Kavita who is studying in Warsaw. From there we went to Krakow. The train ride was unbelievably gorgeous! I just want to drink Polish Spring water. I kept thinking of Kasia when I had the delicious pirogies.

We went onto Prague where mom departed. Kav and I went on an excellent bike tour and saw almost all of the city and learn a lot in 3 hours. I hope I can do another ride before I leave Europe. There is so much new art since post-communism era. It’s strange to compare it to here where.. I see ancient ruins around the city like it’s no big deal.

Tonight Annamarie is making her famous meat sauce. LUCKY ME!!! I have an unreasonable amount of photos, but I can’t upload till I get home! Hope all is well, see you on Mother’s Day!

Ciao!

London

Incredible !ndia

Post author By nina
Post date April 19, 2007

Enjoying family, weddings, foods and bearing the heat in India for a few weeks. Then travels around Europa!

London

Playing Ketchup

Post author By nina
Post date April 14, 2007

Let me explain: I’ve been doing everything. Let me walk you through it.

We slaved away on our million word papers (7,263 to be exact). It was kind of like a war zone in the common room. Note the Tim Harrower book:

I slaved away throughout the weekend but Shilpa took me on a study break. We dropped some heavy clams for Mexican cuisine. Less like a war zone:

Sunday (Easter) I saw Shilpa again and we went to the the Eucharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was packed, kind of like a War Zone with Jesus undertones:

The Redcliffe Gang organized a dinner thing. It was the best we’ve eaten in a very long time. Power eating before final pushes on our paper. I wasn’t sure what I should contribute, so I brought samosas. I mean, it’s London, come on!

Sadly, I had my last day of work. Since my blog is being funny, here’s the YouTube link. The funniest part is that when I started working there it would have been WAY too dark to even get out a camera. Now it’s happy sunshiney.

Dad would have loved this. I made it to my Hyde Park Corner just by sunset.

I also attended a service at Westminster Abbey and saw the rest of the Design Museum. Here’s a nice shot from my walk through Trafalgar Square:

Shilpa and I tried to go to Ministry of Sound. We tried so hard to get there but.. it was closed. Here’s the failed attempt documented:

Today, I detoxed and it was the best. I woke up to the beautiful sun. Got down to the convenience store to break some notes to get change for Laundry. I bought myself a Guardian and did my laundry. While waiting for the tumble I made Chicken and pesto pasta and a side of greens, cucumber, and strawberry salad. All made by mis manos (hands). I pieced through the paper then folded my warm clothes. The sad part was packing my suitcase. I think I’m going to get it all to fit. Hopefully. I napped, blogged, and here I am. Tonight is the last time I’ll get to go to The Fest. Friendliest Pub in London:

Tea at The Savoy was delightful and delectable:

London Travel

Finals

Post author By nina
Post date April 8, 2007

The weekend started off great though. Because of the bank holiday and Parliament being in recess, work is a bit slow. I had a leisurely lunch with the boss and some of my coworkers. Baking in the sun happily reminded me much of Chicago heat, however there was a bit of squirm coming from the Londoners’ direction. They like their fog I guess!

Because of the bank holiday again, we were encouraged to head off from work a half hour early and grab a few pints on the river. There was a cute little yacht, and by yacht I mean crumbly boat just across the street from the office on the water. So we had a few drinks and started off a great weekend.

A bit tipsy, I talked myself into some KFC (I know I know) and went off to our usual Thursday Pub where they really know our name and expect us there. Also, for students, a pint is one pound. The owner, Paul, jokingly yelled at us when we were late one week! He said we should have called. Gotta love The Aussies.

We go to The Fest, on Fulham. Do it. It’s a German Pub and Cassie got dressed up in one of the embarassing and amazing deustch outfits. She had to put down a 20 quid depost. I’ve got one more visit to the Fest under my belt, HOW SAD.

These are the regulars minus Jason who was in Dublin. Pretty fun crowd!

But since then I’ve more or less been trapped in the flat this weekend. I need 7,500 words on the design of newspapers in London by Wednesday. The only (and most important) thing getting me through this is that I could write much more than that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll go over the limit and have to chop down. Also, Hey Guardian… why are you so beautiful?

Shilpa helped me take a break and we put down some heavy clams for Mexican food. I can’t explain how long it’s been since my lips have touched a Quesadilla. Or have chips (and I don’t mean potato wedges) come before the meal with Salsa. Know why Christopher Columbus went to India… spices. This I now understand.

We are going to hit up some of the glorious churches of London tomorrow for Easter. I make no promises, but I’ve got £10 riding on Jesus’ return, his divinity is a different wager.

I feel like I should mention that I’m no longer homeless for this summer in Indy. I’ve actually scored a pretty sweet pad and the tenant and I have a mutual friend (by chance).
This is unrelated, but I found a photoshopped pic of London flooded. Pretty creepy to say the least. My office is about an inch off the photo an surely half under water.

London Music Travel

Bloomington does London

Post author By nina
Post date April 2, 2007

This was the last weekend of visitors. Alec arrived Thursday and we enjoyed the perfect concert at the Koko. It was a conglomorate of his and my music taste with the largest disc ball I’ve ever seen. We arrived as James Holden was doing his first of two sets. I liked this first better, it was more chill. Then Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) & Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) was the meat of Holden’s sandwich set followed by an insane jam session with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and Steve Reid! We met up with Annamarie that night to continue the perfect weekend.

Early that morning I took them to my favourite classic place for visitors, The Troubador. Then we slopped through some rain and I took them to Buckingham Palace and Westminster. We sought salvation in the National Gallery and saw the Manet to Picasso exhbit. Annamarie went to see Marry Poppins with her Roma roomies and Alec and I toured Soho. Some how we made it out to Zoobar, a classic London day.

On Saturday, graced by the sun we split our ways and Alec got to see the South Kensington Museums. I took Amar around to all the shops she’s been missing at High Street Kensington. Poor little girl in Roma has not seen in H&M in forever. I got a super cute cheap bag from Top Shop with a huge discoball on it, it reminds me of the Koko! They got a taste of my favourite takeout, by favourite I mean cheapest, and it became a Snappy Pizza evening. That night, tired from Londoning we spent the night in and made it to Kings Kebob at a good solid 2am.

We woke up, dropped Alec off at the Tube and proceeded onto Notting Hill Gate where it was not crowded, touristy, or annoying. In fact, I got the perfect pair of shoes I was looking for, for 3 pounds. Pink athletic pumps! We did our thing, and got McDonald’s and then I took her to meet her roomies and we said by.

I came with the intention of napping only to pleasantly find an email from Matt telling me him and Jonathan are back in London till tomorrow. We met up for some drinks and I got a peek at some upcoming goodies for the paper at The Savoy.

I also met some really fun Londoners on my Tube ride home! What a great weekend I have no idea how I made it to class this morning.

London

Passing Through

Post author By nina
Post date March 28, 2007

Newspapers, Dim Sum, and London itself were reasons enough to get together. A group of world travelers coming from every direction found themselves here and hungry. Robb Montgomery and I brought along some family to meet up with Matt Mansfield and Jonathan Berlin who are on their way to Malofeij!

We made our way around the Goodge Street area graced by the best weather I’ve seen in London, yet. By chance we stumbled upon a delicious Dim Sum restaurant and got our chop stick on. Parties then split and the newspaper nerds carried on for a few more drinks and some idea exchange. But really, would it be any other way?

Photo swiped Matt’s SNDBlog Entry:

Another reason why it’s pretty tough to be lonely in londin.

London Travel

Writers on Coulour

Post author By nina
Post date March 26, 2007

When visiting somewhere new, you hit all the attractions based on a hierarchy. You make sure to visit all the places you ‘have to’ then all the places you ‘want to’ and if you’re lucky all the places you hadn’t thought about.

I took myself to the Barbican Arts Center today and checked out an architecture exhibit by Alvar Aalto and also Tomas Saraceno’s The Curve. I really enjoyed both.
But honestly, my favourite part was sitting outside at the Lakeside Terrace. The sun finally came out, the kind Barcelona had. Where my eyes had to squint, myface and back got warm, but the wind was still pretty cool. Anyway, I bought a set of 9 cards with poems about colors on the backs of each. They’re really lovely, and I read them by the fountains outside. I cannot wait to set them up… when I live somewhere.

Poem Shown: Take a Brush (Green)
By Michael Rosen

Take a brush:
the sky is green
the grass is blue
you are purple
the house is silver
the sun is black
the river is gold
the world has changed.
Did you do that?

from Writers on Colour, Barbican New Poetry Commission

Design London

Peter!!!

Post author By nina
Post date March 26, 2007

Peter came this weekend to finish off his 2 week backpacking abenture. We had so much fun, I got to take him to the Pub where everyone knows our name, The Fest. We had “Pound-a-Pints” for student night! We woke up bright and early to enjoy the Changing of the Guards… kind of a long spectacle. We then saw Churhills Cabinet War rooms. After fatigue we half tried to see Westminster Abbey and Parliament, but backtracked to get some food. Milkshakes were watery. ickh.

From there we bought shady tickets for Avenue Q out of a hut. The show was really funny and we both enjoyed it a lot. Peter and I saw Theatre in London, what?!

Then, we squeezed in breakfast at The Troubador before the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern the next morning before he took off. I also had to make Peter wait as I took lots of pictures of the Financial Times building. There’s so much city to see, and I think Peter got a good peek. Sad to see him go, but it was perfection to have him!

Just hours after he left, Chris Courtney was kind enough to take me out for some drinks as he was meeting with someone who helped set off the design for The London Paper, lucky me. I really do love newspapers.