domicile

Italian in Mexico

The night before we left for Mexico I made burritos. "Mexican? Seriously? Before we go to Mexico?" Was Martin's first comment when he entered the kitchen. And ya, when he put it that way it did seem a little ridiculous, but I was just trying to find a way to use up ingredients in the fridge. As it turns out, we ate very little Mexican food in Mexico. Unless you count margaritas. Which I don't. While Puerto Vallarta is a very easy town to vacation in (which is exactly what we were looking for), and while the food there is really quite wonderful overall, very little of what is authentic is vegetarian. Or even close. I knew this going down, but I hadn't really absorbed the reality of it. And so, because I can not bring myself to eat at overly cheesy (in all possible senses of that word) tex-mex style tourista locales (which were the only places offering Mexican with anything resembling a veggie option) we ate a lot of Italian. Quite a lot actually. And it was really pretty good. Turns out there's a heck of a lot of Italian food in Puerto Vallarta, some of it made by expat Italians who have capitalized on the availability of awesome fresh local staples like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants (most of which are grown for export up here in the winter months) to make some really decent Italian food, including homemade pasta and gnocchi that was nearly as good as dishes I've had in Italy. It all made me feel a bit mixed up and did nothing to help my bad habit of confusing Spanish and Italian vocabulary -- for some reason I have the most trouble with numbers and again found myself in the back of a cab trying to give an address with a "5" in it as cinque instead of cinco, this has happened before but in a French version -- but still the eating was good. This isn't to say we abandoned Mexican food altogether. We partook in some awesome street corn (much like this kind Heidi Swanson includes in her cookbook), had some beautiful veggie enchilladas made specially in one restaurant, and in the kitchen in our room we partook in gorgeous avocados, tomatillos, fresh juicy limes and delicate corn tortillas.

Overall, the trip was a success. Which is to say, we did very little, and other than the overabundance of pasta/pizza I have very little to report. It was easy. I read two books from front to back. We did the NY Times crossword. We napped in chairs perched in front of the ocean. And, just to round out the Mexican experience we had one day, now known as Tequilla Wednesday, where we overdid it just a bit.
It's lovely to be home though. Spring is all over the place in my garden, with daffodils even blooming in sunny corner! Now I need to set about getting the house in order for the week, and planning some groceries to ensure that we don't eat a spec of pasta for the next week or so.

Off My Beatten Track

In less than three weeks Martin and I will be taking a trip. A trip that takes us out of our usual travel norm into some new territory. We're headed to an all inclusive condo-type vacation in Mexico. For reals. Normally, when I crave a whole whack of sunshine, I'm fortunate enough to have family with property in Costa Rica. And that particular slice of the warm Pacific Ocean can pretty nearly not be beat. But, getting there takes a good two days from Vancouver and with my current work commitments, the coming book tour/book marketing stuff that will begin soon and take us through the summer and some current unexpected tax bills for Martin, we're short on time. I'm normally the kind of gal who will forgo fancy gadgets and expensive things to save for a few weeks of walking along cobble stone streets in a foreign town, and I have to say it was a bit of a hard choice to take some savings to go to a touristy mecca, but damn do we need a holiday. So, soon we'll be off. For a week in Puerto Vallarta. If, per chance, you've ever done the same and have tips for things to see that do not involve co-eds or tequila shooters, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, we'll be packing up our swimsuits and a few good books and escaping the rain and computers for a week, and trying to see what kind of adventures we can get up to when we're not too busy just doing a whole lotta nothing.

domicile in Texas

Finally a stolen Sunday to sit down, breath, drink a coffee and collect my thoughts. My thoughts, however, are not being collected in their usual west coast location but in the much more humid environment of SXSW. Lauren and I came down  here to do a panel, which happened yesterday evening. The panel was a tonne of fun for us as panelists and moderator, if I may speak for us all. Hopefully the many awesome questions and pieces of feedback we got afterwards from audience members indicate a success for participants as well.

We are staying in a stellar hotel, of which photos and a review for all those planning to make it to Austin one day, will follow when we return. Most of all our trip so far has been fulled to the minute with meeting and connecting with truly amazing folks down here. Alex's hospitality has gone far and beyond the call of world's greatest BFF and host, and we have been able to spend some fabulous time getting to know Jenny Hart and Vickie Howell, who together with Alex completed our panel line up. If these three are any indication then Austin is teeming with business gals so smart they'll knock your boots off. All that to say nothing of the fiesty good looks. Plus, who knew I'd find myself spending an evening in a candle lit courtyard, a champagne cocktail in hand at a table nearly half filled with vegetarians. In Texas! Awesome.

Anyway, with our session out of the way it's time to cram in a few sessions ourselves, check out more of the local scene and try not to drain my bank account at Anthropologie... Pretty things indeed.

The Internet is My Copilot

As I mentioned in my last post about Helback Scherning, a sizeable portion of our travel itineraries were derived from pre-trip web surfing. In fact, this was one of the first trips I've taken where nearly all my research and planning was done online ahead of time, and almost all of that research proved to be both reliable and right on target for our interests. Ok, so saying this was my first time doing travel research that may not be totally true as often before heading down to Seattle Lauren and I will scour the web for new things to watch out for and to generate our own personal shoe store maps, but I already know Seattle so that's more for filling in details than it is a de facto city guide.

I got most of my references and must-sees from blog reading in fact, as I mentioned Allisyn Copenhagen was a big one for Denmark, and for Amsterdam (because it had been nearly a decade since I'd last been there) I got a lot of references from Alex's lovely site A Girl's Guide to City Life (the Amsterdam edition of course). I also got a very kind email from a Domicile reader with pages of annotated Dutch recommendations for everything from cafes to galleries and that was such an invaluable resource.

So why does this matter? Well, maybe it doesn't. But, as I took a blessed two week holiday from all things internet-related (I consider less than 10 minutes on email/web a day a holiday), I found it interesting to note just how much the web was playing virtual tour guide and really enhancing our very offline adventures. In the past, I've had the great pleasure of doing most of my traveling in places where I've known a native as it were. Be that Rome, Venice, London, Portland or the beaches of Costa Rica, as such I've managed to not just avoid getting stuck in tourist ruts, but also discover many of the more hidden charms of the places I've visited. We had also packed along a couple of borrowed Lonely Planets for each destination and aside from providing useful maps, info about train stations and opening hours for the larger galleries they ended up as more of a liability than an aid for us. Restaurants we went to from the books were in each case passable, but really not great and decidely pricier than places we found by simple checking out the menus of cafes near the lovely savonnerie written up at Girl's Guide to City Life for example.

Non of this is really rocket science. I know I'm not a "visit the main drag" kind of traveller, but I guess I was really very impressed by how our travels as currated by a myriad of blog clippings and emails were really just one hit after another. I should really give back and write up a summary of some of our favourites when I've got some time. In the meantime, I will say that if you've got a hankering for melt-in-your-mouth potato-pumpkin gnocchi while you're in Amsterdam, do head to Frenzi, they wash down so beautifully with the 3 Euro glasses of organic french house red that you'll find yourself coming back the next night for more (at least we did).

Rolling Out the Danish Treasures

Many of the destinations I wanted to visit while we were in Copenhagen came from months of scattered bookmarking in my web travels. Sites like Allisyn Copenhagen and LilleHus were primary sources, but from there I wandered and found clothing, textiles, pottery, galleries and general loveliness galore all of which I kept a running log of so that we could seek some treasures out on our trip. Funnily enough we ended up finding many of the stops on my little list rather by accident our first day as we wantered around Vesterbro. That first day in Vesterbro was wonderful. We found food, drinks and plenty of gorgeous little shops that suited us both to a T. We really felt like we had found our niche.

On subsequent days I would check my little list in the mornings and if we were planning on being near a neighbourhood with one of the stops on it, I would be sure to mark it on our map. I'm glad I had these reference points, for while we did find many places naturally, one of my favorites, the Helbak-Scherning shop, I surely never would have found tucked away as it is down a side street off the Stroget. Helbak-Scherning is the shop and studio of two ceramacists: Mette Scherning (who makes the brooch you see on the left below) and Malene Helbak (who makes the little jug you see up on the right there).

I went back to their shop a few times agonizing over just how much of their beautiful work I could safely bring home in an unbroken state. We ended up buying a jug much like the one pictured here (I left my camera in Victoria recently and so am sadly relying on web photos here) and a matching dish for the house. I treated myself to a brooch that is nearly the twin of the one you see here. And I brought some Scherning earings back for my darling Lauren.

Both women's work is so right up my alley that I could have easily bought one of everything, and will definitely be back there on subsequent trips to my new favourite storybook town.

Like riding a bike

  our dutch bikes
  Originally uploaded by emira.

The best 50 Euros we spent in Amsterdam (aside from our lovely B & B) were definitely dedicated to our bike rental. By the afternoon of our first day, after watching a constant stream of clunky old bikes glide down every street/canal we were itching for our own set of wheels. Our rented bicycles weren't much to behold: basic Gazelle's with back pedal brakes, no speeds, front baskets and two locks each. Both navy blue. Both prone to making random clanking/squeeking/rattle noises. They fit right in.

Neither Martin or I count ourselves as hard core cyclists here in Vancouver. Though here that often looks like someone who wears a lot of very serious bike gear on their state of the art road/mountain or hybrid city bike. But, we do like to ride our bikes. All things considered equal, when given the transportation choices of driving, taking the bus or cycling, cycling usually wins out for at least 6 months of the year (we'll admit to having been pretty fair weather about our cycle devotion in the past). All this to say, we weren't really looking for a "cycling holiday" but the idea of riding these trusty bikes around such a damn fine city in uncharacteristically balmy weather with nothing much to do but pedal from one gallery/shop/park to another stopping for plenty of coffee/beer/wine in between was shear bliss. And how could it not be?  In a city where bikes seem to far out-number cars, where cars actually yield to bikes (no really), and where even pedestrians who get in the way of the city's 400 km of bike paths aren't let off the hook, there is no finer vantage point for taking in the city than on two clunky old wheels.

The only danger of the hypnotic bliss of Amsterdam cycling in the false sense of security and ease it gives you. I say security because as I mentioned the cars, they stop. For bikes. For real. Sure some drivers aren't so considerate, but easily 9 out of 10 times cars back off so you can pass. Back here in Vancouver or even in Copenhagen: not so much. And then of course there's the ease. The ease seems almost unreal when you first set out on your built-like-a-tank "Gazelle" granny bike, but  before you know it, your gliding along, wind in  your hair, effortless and  no where close to breaking out in a sweat. This of course has *everything* to do with the topography of the city (which is also true of Copenhagen and in fact pretty much the entire country of Denmark) which is in a word flat. Really, actually quite flat. And so, even cobblestones do not slow you down as you glide from one end of town to the other in style. This of course is the reason why you don't see anyone decked out in high-tech bike gear, but rather in only the chicest of attire, high heels and all, cel phone in one hand, cigarette in the other. Minus that last bit it was sheer bliss.

Martin has some awesome photos of the bike parkade at the Central Train Station (four storeys of bikes, bikes, bikes), which you almost have to see to believe. I'm going to try to finish uploading both my own and some of his photos this weekend, so I'll link that then.

The Baby Boom

  Lovely pram in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

We're back, my  head is clearing and we're very blessed that the sun is shining here in Vancouver making settling into work and waking up far too early every morning thanks to jetlag much more pleasant. We had a fabulous trip which I'm still mentally unpacking (though all physical unpacking and laundry has been done). I'll be sharing many of our stories and adventures here in little bits and pieces as well as getting back to the business of documenting our wee home.

To start with I thought I would share our experience of what seems to surely be a baby boom in Copenhagen. Now we could be wrong, this may be very normal and certainly Martin's cousins didn't seem to think there was anything notable about it, but I swear to you outside of the tourist areas easily more than half of the women my age (30ish) were either pregnant, pushing a pram or toting along a toddler in big bike basket. After sitting outside a cafe in Vesterbro for a half an hour or so on our first real day in Copenhagen we began to worry that perhaps there was some kind of strange sci-fi breeding experiment going on. But, all jokes from Martin about me not drinking the water aside it was quite wonderful to witness.

At first I was of course very charmed by the ubiquity of modern-day old fashioned prams like the one pictured here. My mom used an old British pram with both my sister and I, but you really don't see them on the streets of Vancouver much. The women here used them in much the same way as my mom always did, to tote around both their infants and a good stash of daily groceries: a loaf of bread neslted at the foot of the pram, a bag of apples below, these sorts of things. A formidable walker, and neighbourhood green grocer shopper when we were young, my mom swore by her big pram for both the comfy ride it aforded us and the grocery storage space it gave her. My mom, you  must understand is a woman who judges the utility of a situation or vehicle by whether or not she can cart along a large box of laundry soap and in that regard an upright stroller was useless to her. But back to Copenhagen. The second thing I noticed, after the sheer commonality of these prams and the new/soon-to-be mommies nearly shocked me out of my skin: women left their prams outside of stores *with the baby inside* while they went in to pick things up/get a coffee/etc. Typically, I noticed they only did this if their child was asleep, but leaving your baby on the street in a major urban centre is totally unthinkable here in Vancouver, and as the reality of all this sunk in -- afterall it makes all kinds of sense as just how do you get one of these luxury prams inside a small Copenhagen bakery -- I grew very sad. Not for these Danish mother but for us at home here in Vancouver, as the idea of being able to leave your child just a few feet away while you pick up a loaf of bread is so very outside of what we think of as acceptable society here that I was finding the whole thing, well remarkable.

In the end, in addition to its oh-so-storybook like streets, it was the sense of a shared collective responsibility for society in Denmark that really made an impression on me. Sure it comes with a 25% standard tax on all goods and a much higher income tax for all residents, but the overall standard of living in this country is outstanding. And not just in the way that we tend to measure it on paper, namely what is the cost of housing, food etc. but the sense of safety, trust and community that is built up in a society that really does a much better job of caring for its less fortunate making the gap between those at the top and the bottom much less glaring. As a result, while it would be naive to say there is no crime in Copenhagen, simple things like leaving your baby outside a shop, only putting one simple lock on your bike (very different from Amsterdam which I'll tell you about another time), or not fearing for items left in plain sight in your car is so very different from what has become normal for us here in Vancouver and I would venture to say most big cities in this country. Coming back here, I can help but be quite sad at the loss of innocence here and frankly increasinly disgusted with how very poorly we treat so much of our society. I know I've gone a bit off the baby boom on a tangent here, so sorry, but  these thoughts are in fact keeping me up at night, wondering what I can do to help get my own country's innocence back.