“Finding beauty in negative spaces”

I’ve mentioned a few times here that I’m currently a senior in college.  Right now I’m working on my undergraduate thesis, the most epic piece of academic work I’ve ever done.  It’s the culmination of almost three years of laboratory research, and months of writing and data analysis.  Needless to say, with the due date looming 24 hours from now, it’s a stressful time.

Luckily for me, self care is one of the strengths I’ve cultivated over the last for years.  I’m very skilled at going to my “happy place,” or doing something I enjoy, when I’m feeling ridiculously stressed and overwhelmed.  Usually planning trips and buying plane tickets is a great way for me to escape a really stressful time, but obviously doing this every time I’m feeling stressed isn’t realistic.  Nevertheless, I manage to modulate my surroundings as much as possible on a student budget.

As you can see, today was a beautiful day in Cambridge, MA, so I decided to go to one of my favorite cafes, Cafe Pamplona, to put the finishing touches on my thesis.  Like planning trips, however, spending time outside isn’t always a reliable mood booster, especially living in New England.  One of my other favorite strategies is buying fresh flowers, and putting them right in front of me when I’m working.

It’s hard to feel sorry for myself when I have such beautiful flowers sitting right in front of me as I write.  Of course, reminiscing on past travels isn’t a bad way to “go to my happy place” either.

I picked up this traditional Portuguese tile (on the right) at a flea market in Belem, Portugal, and it always reminds me of my time living in Lisbon.  If you’ve been to Lisbon, you know that these tiles are everywhere in the city.   The tulips are a great mood-booster as well.

Note: the title of this post is taken from the title of an album by Seether.

Finding a home base in a new city– Libson, Portugal

During my time in Lisbon, I was lucky enough to live across the street from the Campo Pequeno shopping center, which housed the restaurant and bar, Os Torricados.  While I thought I’d just be taking advantage of my proximity to Campo Pequeno for grocery shopping, Torricados quickly became my home base in Lisbon.

My first meal at Torricados was bacalhau a bras, which is absolutely essential for anyone looking to get a taste of Portuguese cuisine.  As anyone who visits Lisbon quickly learns, bacalhau (salted codfish) is a dietary staple, and Torricados makes some of the best bacalhau a bras (salted codfish cooked with egg, rice, and vegetables) around.  Their white sangria is also some of the best I’ve ever tasted.

I’m not lying when I say I spent all of my money at this place the first couple weeks I was in Lisbon.  Luckily, after getting to know a few of the bartenders and waiters better (more on that in another post), I stopped having to pay.  One night, I even met the owner, who signed a copy of his coffee table book/cookbook for my roommate and me, and bought both of us cocktails.  Being recognized as a regular by the owner of the restaurant (a prominent restauranteur in Portugal) made me feel really important.

Aside from the amazing food and central location, Torricados is a great place to hang out.  If I didn’t have dinner here, I at least stopped by for a drink with my roommates.  The cocktails are amazing, and there are lots of leather couches where you can sit and have a drink (or several) at any time of day.  Cocktails on the couches at Torricados was definitely an integral experience to my making friends and feeling at home in Lisbon.  I bonded with my roommates, the waiters, and other customers.  Living alone in a new city, on a continent I’d never visited previously, was scary, but finding a place where the staff recognized me, greeted me, and invited me to hang out with them after work helped me feel more confident in my new home.

Finding a home base in a new city

As I mentioned in my first ever post, my parents decided to up and move to Raleigh, North Carolina while my brother and I were in college.  This may be a little immature of me, but I have to say that the idea of my parents selling my childhood home was really depressing.  And the idea of having to go home to a new house, in a new city, where I knew no one (except my parents of course) was terrifying.  Even when I’ve gone home to Maryland, I’ve tended to get really restless during breaks from school, and that’s with balancing lots of social engagements and catching up with old friends.  I had no idea how I’d survive a break with no social engagements, no friends, and no idea where anything was.

Shockingly, the 10 days I spent in Raleigh this past December turned out to be great.  I explored the city with my brother, found tons of cool bars and restaurants (my favorite way to get to know a city), and started to find my way around.

As a rule, I check the menu of every restaurant I walk by in a new city.

Downtown Raleigh is actually a pretty decent place to hang out.  From the hole-in-the-walls on Hillsborough Street closer to NC State, to the classier establishments on Fayetville Street and the quirkier places a block over on South Wilmington, there’s something for everyone.  Another huge plus for people used to other cities is that parking is free after 5PM.  Coming from Cambridge, where you’ll get a ticket if you park at 7:59 (parking is free after 8), this was really exciting.

Still, one of the biggest factors in my getting to know a city is finding a home base, a “third place,” somewhere I feel comfortable going outside of home and school or work.  In Cambridge, Grafton Street definitely became that place for me (minus the not-working there part).  In Raleigh, I was drawn to the Boylan Bridge Brewpub.  As a beer lover, I was instantly drawn to this place as a brewery.  I love restaurants that brew their own beer– I think it’s so exciting to try beers that you couldn’t have anywhere else.  The food isn’t to shabby either.  I’d recommend the burger, onion rings, veggie napoleon, or short rib sandwich.  Okay, the food is clearly not for the dieter, but if you’d rather not indulge in all things fried, it’s also a great place to sit and enjoy the view of downtown Raleigh.

As a unique bonus, the place is situated right near the train tracks that go in and out of the city.  Every table has a card that let’s you know where the train is coming from or going to based on the time of day, and what the various whistle signals mean (I didn’t know they meant anything, but apparently there’s a whole code).  It’s added details like this that make me really like the place.

Tales of travels past- Sydney, Australia

My second big travel adventure, and the one that got me addicted to travel, was a 3-week trip to Australia with People to People in 2006.  Australia is a fascinating country, and definitely merits a trip longer than three weeks.  However, as a fifteen-year-old with limited travel experience, the three-week supervised trip was perfect for me.

The trip started in Sydney, with a tour of the iconic Sydney Opera House.  I was fascinated by the photos of the Opera-House-in-progress, taken decades ago.

We also climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, from which we saw breathtaking views of the city.  Sadly, cameras weren’t allowed on the climb.  We were strapped into grey jumpsuits and connected to the bridge by harnesses.  This is definitely a great, albeit pricey, activity to do in Sydney.

Sydney Harbor Bridge from inside the Opera House

At the end of our trip, we actually paid an unexpected visit to the Sydney Aquarium.  Finding Nemo had just been released, so seeing all of the “characters” in the aquarium was exciting, even for a bunch of disinterested 10th graders.

Being six-years ago, the details of this trip escape me, but what I remember most vividly is my enchantment and excitement with being on the Other Side of the World those first days in Sydney.

Have you ever been to Sydney?  What was your first memorable travel experience?

In like a lion

Last night we got the only legitimate (in my opinion) snow in Cambridge that we’ve had all season.  Growing up in the mid-Atlantic (Maryland, to be precise) I always loved snow days.  But in Massachusetts, snow rarely incites the level of panic that it does in states south of here.  So in the last few years, snow has become a bit of a nuisance.  There are no days off of class or work, everything goes on as normal, but with the added difficulty of walking through slush and ice.  Nonetheless, it is nice to look at from inside.  Here’s a view of snow-covered Harvard from my window:

Okay, it’s not quite snow-covered at the moment, but it is March after all.  When the cold and the snow do get to be too unpleasant, buying a beautiful tropical flower always helps to cheer me up.

I absolutely love birds of paradise, but they make me especially happy on a cold, wet, dreary day like today.

What do you think about snow?  Do you get snow days, or do you have to brave the elements no matter what?

Dear Internet…

Welcome to my first ever blog post.  I’m pretty much a newbie to blogging, so please excuse any violations of blog etiquette that I may as yet be unaware of.  This blog will mainly be about my travels, but as I’m still in college at the moment (for another 2 months and 23 days, but who’s counting?) there’s not much travel going on over here.

In two weeks I’ll be going to Costa Rica to visit Arenal during my spring break.  I’m super excited for this trip, especially because I’m going with my best friend and staying at a fancy resort.  With that said, staying at fancy resorts isn’t my typical M.O. when it comes to travel, mainly because when I’m at a fancy resort, I tend to spend the entire trip there.  So, I’ll be reporting on my trip to Costa Rica, trying to incorporate as much adventure as possible, but the main objective of this trip is RELAXATION.

If travel of the more adventurous sort is what you’d like to read about, here are the trips I have planned for the next year, which you can look forward to hearing about in the future:

• exploring my parents’ new hometown of Raleigh, NC
• deep South USA road trip in June 2012
• Southeast Asia– Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia in July 2012
• Virginia Beach, VA in August 2012
• Brazil (and maybe Argentina) in August 2012

In September, I’ll be moving to Durban, South Africa for a year.  I’ll be traveling the continent and reporting on expat life in my spare time.

For now though, I’m living in Cambridge, MA, trying to make it through the homestretch of college with some semblance of sanity.