Friday, May 13

Pero the Dog, on the imploding cardboard den we made for him on our back porch. He's the coolest of our neighborhood strays. But I've discovered he's got refined tastes. No bread or crackers or even dog treats for him. What does he want? Salami! And lots of it. Just mad for it. Good thing it's so cheap.

The camera is a-chargin! We are headed to the most enchanted place on earth for the weekend—Prague! See you soon with pictures.
 

Wednesday, May 11
 

An HK Kinda Day

Cat Street in Hong Kong, care of Big White Guy.

I miss you HK! Even though I bitched and complained about your sweltering smoggy weather every waking moment. I miss the South Side of the island, the junks, the massive container ships floating out in the distance on the South China Sea, the endless markets and back alley apartments lined with fakes, the birds in the birdcages singing their songs, the posh expat grocery stores, the clickety clack of Cantonese, authentic Thai, authentic Vietnamese, the Star Ferry to Kowloon, inexplicable light shows and fireworks, the view from the Peak at night, the way people say "waaayyy" when they answer their ever-present mobile phones, shiny red taxi cabs and Andy Williams-singing drivers, 100-year old grandmas sitting out on the steps by the escalator in their polyester uniforms, the plush red chairs at Pacific Coffee Company, my smiling doorman, and most of all gorgeous, spa-like, hassle-free Chep Lap Kok airport, which gets you to places like Bali and Thailand in a mere matter of hours. Aiyaaaaah...I could go on.

By the way, my favorite HK photoblogger, Madame Shutterfly, is ending her Asia sojourn and leaving Hong Kong. I'm going to miss her poetic, candid images of Asia and hope she cooks up something good in her next destination, New York. Check out her site, it's excellent.

And lastly: Confucius say, "Listen to your Fortune Cookie." 110 people won the Powerball Lottery by playing cookie-advised Lucky Numbers.

"Our first winner came in and said it was a fortune cookie," said Rebecca Paul, chief executive of the Tennessee Lottery. "The second winner came in and said it was a fortune cookie. The third winner came in and said it was a fortune cookie."

Investigators visited dozens of Chinese restaurants, takeouts and buffets. Then they called fortune cookie distributors and learned that many different brands of fortune cookies come from the same Long Island City factory, which is owned by Wonton Food and churns out four million a day."

Tuesday, May 10
 

The Sheepman Cometh

Hey big fella...We took a ride out to the country a few weeks back and came across the sheepman. A shepherd (I'm assuming) who dresses the part. He was digging the camera. I flipped it over to show him his picture on the screen and he was just AMAZED and DELIGHTED! I don't think he'd ever seen one before. A really sweet guy.

Awe, look at the little lamb. Think of this next time you come across a lambskin purse. Baby sheep murder!

Check out the cape. There are definitely parts of Romania that feel biblical and untouched by time. Especially when you get out of the cities.

We might be moving by the way, to this little town called Oradea. It's actually more picturesque than Cluj. It's two and a half hours north of where we are now and sits right on the Hungarian border. Easy access to Budapest! And the Tesco (British supermarket) in Debrecen. That is if we don't wrap up things in Romania permanently. Only time will tell. I've got a backup plan just in case, my dream maisonette in Prague! A good place to spend the summer, no?

Oh yeah, I popped home for a spell. But spent most of my time in Ohio. All I've got to show of New York is this lame shot of Union Square from the brand spanking new WholeFoods. How ideal is that new picnic area upstairs!? No more eating Ed's Tantalizing Tofu on the run!

PS: This is very clevah...
 

Saturday, April 16

Emo Elmo

Wow, long time no see. Euromania has been plagued these past weeks with so many technical difficulties, it was hard to post. If it wasn't the internet going down, it was the power to the whole dang house. And now I'm on my way home again for another visit. Yay! At least the lack of distractions afforded me the time to finish Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a book I highly recommend, and further delve into my curiosities of all-things Japan. Is it not just the most fascinating place on earth? Oh how I dream of going back to Tokyo.

Here's a little tidbit about how Elmo has gone all emo in Japan. Apparently, Japanese children do not need to be encouraged to learn the alphabet since the literacy rate is 100 percent, so Elmo instead helps children understand their feelings. "In one show, Elmo stumbles during a track race and struggles with feelings of defeat, but gets up to make it to the finish line. In another, he dreams about becoming a baseball player, a superhero and a dancer, but in the end decides his true love is dance." Awe...

Maybe they should send Emo Elmo to China as a goodwill ambassador to help heal the wounds there, since it is not looking good. It's really shocking to see so many Chinese (who, based on my experience, tend to be exceedingly polite and mild mannered) taking to the streets so violently against Japan. Though they do have cause for resentment. When we lived in China, Bruce and I were surprised by the raw vitriol people expressed when speaking of Japan. Totally schizo since everyone was concurrently nutty for Sony cameras and Sony Ericsson phones. Aiyah.

Well there's my geopolitical commentary for the day, I gotta get packin! We get in Tuesday, and will be bouncing around the states a bit. But I hope to see you soon!
 

Friday, April 1

Segue in New York

I almost forgot! Prior to Lisa's amazing visit, there was a little trip home, where I got to catch a glimpse of The Gates (from the back of a cab, at least), stock up on coffee beans, and see the people, including a Very Special Person who flew in all the way from Hong Kong!

Amy n' Anna with daisy in Little Italy, or as it's more poshly called these days, "NoLita." Yep, and Hell's Kitchen is now a fair shire called "Clinton," and Koreatown goes by the more gentrified "North Chelsea." Thank you Corcoran brokers!

The requisite look of longing one assumes at Otto Tootsie Ploughhound when encountering shoes one loves, loves, LOVES, but tragically cannot afford. But wait, who is this girl?

Our singular Very Special Person Davide! Who bypassed several time zones just to see ME. Ok, there was a wedding he had to attend too. Here he is looking swank in Soho, where he attracted all kinds of attention from the pretty children. You might remember him from Hong Kong, looking more like this...

Note the bling in the left ear...fabulous.

Brooklyn, yo.

When you've been away from home for a while, especially when you're living in a country with a developing economy, where you have to scavenge peasant fruit stalls search a bit at local produce outlets for vegetables that don't look like they fell off an ox cart, Fairway Market can just seem like sheer Abundance, Providence, Heaven!

Mamma mia Patti with Mark and Pat.

And Massimo, the cutest little tot in Philly, with dancin' Elmo.
 

Saturday, March 26

More Travels with Lisa: Transylvania & Budapest!

Istanbul has its mosques and mystics, but Transylvania casts a spell all its own. With untouched castles, fortresses and medieval villages, its stories are preserved in amber. You quickly step back in time and discover why so many myths surround the place. We used the town of Brasov as a base to explore the region. Here we are in Rasnov, amid the ruins of a 13th century hilltop fortress, famous for never being vanquished by the invading Ottoman Turks. Now it's just vanquished by people like us. But first, who is Lisa?
Read all about Transylvania and Budapest here...

Monday, March 21

Mystical Istanbul

Istanbul came about midway through Lisa's whirlwind trip, but we're going to start there because it was so gorgeously exotic and exciting (and included our NYC friends Anna and Holger). Spanning the crux of where the European and Asian continents meet, separated only by a thin slice of waterway, Istanbul (nee Constantinople and before that New Rome) has stirred the desires of many an empire. It's an axis point of history itself, the place where Christendom becomes Islam, the spiritual home of the Eastern Orthodox Church but now firmly a Muslim capital as cosmopolitan and secular as you are likely to see.

It's a place where you can lull quietly sipping Turkish apple tea in the shadow of the great mosques, spellbound by the sound of the call to prayer, or haggle till your heart's content in the bustling bazaars (though you might walk away with only your knickers, the Turks are hardcore merchants), or feast on the endless variations of meze, or get ripped off by a Taxi driver's sleight of hand or taken to the cleaners buying rugs (see Bruce's adventure's with Husayin the Magnificent Rug Merchant below). It's a good thing we had Anna (a.k.a. "the mean Greek") on hand to help us navigate the terrain, afterall the Greeks were here first. Read all about Istanbul here...