I am back from the BIG Summer Travel Adventure – It was…absolutely AMAZING!
Miss me? I’ve just returned from twenty-nine adventure-filled days in Europe. Here’s how it went!
I traveled to six countries – Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary
Eight total flights: Los Angeles to London to Rome, Florence to Barcelona to Palma to Berlin, Prague to Budapest to London to Washington DC to Los Angeles
Hey fellow adventurers! I wanted to check in to let you know that we are embarking on a BIG Summer Travel Adventure!
Craig and I will be traveling with our family to see The Palio in Siena, Italy with a quick couple of days in Rome! Next, we say goodbye to the family and fly to the gorgeous island of Majorca, Spain. We visited last summer and it was so spectacular that we just had to go back! And there’s more…
Happy Friday! If you missed it…You can find this week’s post about == > How to Stay Fit When You Travel ===> HERE My Friday Roundup: Links to Awesome Stories You Have Probably Not Seen. Don’t you love it when someone else does the work? OMGee 20 Books everyone ill be talking about this Summer! …
How to Eat Everything and Still Stay Fit When You Travel
Well, first of all this is a TALL order. Second of all, it takes some work. Third of all, nobody’s perfect, especially me.
I think there is a misunderstanding that when someone sees a post of an amazing restaurant dish or fabulous handcrafted cocktail, they assume that we eat this way all the time. No, not true at all. By the same token when we post happy things on Facebook all the time it implies that our lives are perfect! Nope, not true either! Read on my friend…
How did I find a New York City Restaurant Recommendation from Instagram?
It seems that lately since the whole Facebook privacy scandal, social media has become more of a negative than a positive. There are certainly a great number of attributes I do not like about it, but there are plenty of things social media does well.
Using Instagram as a referral system is definitely a popular activity and many people (like me) use it as an important food and travel resource. Prior to traveling to a new city, I peruse the hashtags and check out the restaurant accounts and often find some pretty yummy things. Receiving a New York City restaurant recommendation from a reliable source and not just from YELP is a much better scenario. At least for us, it is. I do trust those sites, but when the Editor in Chief of Bon Apetít Magazine recommends a local, smallish, out-of-the-way little restaurant and says “It is some of the best food I have had in a while”, I listened!
More food info today – I just can’t help myself. I have been introduced to so many delicious dishes recently that my inner foodie is doing cartwheels!
A delicious Japanese dish you and I have never heard of!
While in Japan we ate some ridiculously amazing food that I could really write about for days. I am spreading it out so as not to make you hungry every freaking time you come to the blog!
Che Fico is a new restaurant in San Francisco that is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s and the photo above made it famous!
Mushroom, Sausage, Mozzarella with Calabrian Chili – They split the pizza in half so I could eat it with out the chili.
Fun Back Story ~
My traveling foodie friend Angela is currently enjoying a fantastic three-week trip to Portugal. She sent me a kind of cryptic message via Facebook that said “Do you know about this?” There was no link and just the photo of the pizza with no other references. It turns out that Anderson Cooper (Yes, that one from CNN) posted this enticing pizza photo on Instagram and raved about his friend’s new restaurant in San Francisco.
Part of the fun of travel is to immerse yourself in the local culture. To visit the farmer’s markets, fish markets and fruit stands to see what is fresh and in season is always at the top of our list of adventures. Our trip to Japan with Collette Travel was no exception, we were treated to some fantastically prepared meals, visited charming local markets and ate like kings and queens.
Cheers to Trudee and Tony! We enjoyed an icy cold Kirin occasionally too!
Travel with a large group – Fun or too challenging?
Typically, I travel with Craig or by myself. What would it be like traveling with a group of friends? Would I get enough time alone? What do I do about the travel blogging part of the trip? Will they be annoyed by my taking photos of our food and drinks? They were not annoyed in the slightest, they even helped out!
One of my biggest dilemmas of travel blogging is finding a balance between being in the moment of a travel adventure and making sure I capture just the right details. I do take notes, but just pausing and writing down some of my immediate reactions and emotions is paramount to authenticity. I wrote the bulk of this post while on vacation, everyone else was relaxing or talking or playing games in between activities.
Although you may have read about some of these experiences here individually, seeing them gathered together in one large travel menu is a fun exercise. I have had the opportunity to reflect upon additional details and nuances of each experience or meal, plus you can compare and contrast!
The Future of Culinary Travel ~
At the table in Hama Hama, WA
Culinary travel is BIG and also a perfect way to get closer, to mingle with the locals and even learn something! I believe that this type of foodie discovery is here to stay and will only get more focused for future opportunities.
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