Category Archives: Travel

Maine in Fall (An Orchard Photo Shoot)

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I try to get back to New England at least once in the fall and soak in the golden light, crisp air, carpet of leaves, trees all done up in color, and of course, fresh apples. My mom captured me in pursuit of the perfect Cortland.

The bounty high in the tree

Handy tool for reaching high up apples

Apple Scouting

Coat by Brooklyn Industries, Shirt by Petite Bateau, Apples by Maine

The bounty from just 15 minutes in the orchard

Orchard Idyll

After spending time in a sun drenched apple orchard after living 9 years in New York City it’s not hard to start seeing Maine as some kind of enchanted landscape.

Appalachian Trail Metro North Stop

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Thanks to SMH and other friends the weekends have been full of adventure that is accessible via public transit. We finally explored the section of the Appalachian trail accessible via Metro North (though we had to take a bus from South East due to weekend track work) and it was lovely. I am always so surprised at the idyllic landscapes accessible to NYC. I am beginning to understand the Hudson River school painters and their obsession with the landscape upstate. We had a lovely temperate day, got started down by a herd of cattle and had the Pawling Nature Reserve to ourselves! As a child I hiked the AT frequently during the summers in Maine and New Hampshire and it was pretty amazing to see another segment of it and imagine that I could keep going to Maine… or Georgia.

Leaving Berlin Ostbahnhof 2006

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I am feeling quite nostalgic today for Berlin and thinking about the fall of the Berlin wall 20 years ago (when I was a mere wee thing). In honor of that I finally re-made and posted a short video clip I took in 2006 as my night train pulled out of Berlin Ostbahnhof bound for Paris (a very slow ride to Paris, I might add). The trip goes through central Berlin, past many important landmarks, and would not have been possible when the city was divided.

Central Europe Spring 2009!

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LJ and I had been talking about a trip to Central Europe since 2003 or thereabouts. Half of her family is from Hungary and we were interested to explore that country and since we were over there, why not the countries around it? Our list expanded and shrank as we planned, but when we finally decided to go for real we settled on visiting Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Berlin.

We just got back last week and it was a truly life changing trip. Not in any grant way, but spending 2 weeks wandering cities filled with so much history and architecture just put me in a completely different mental state. It made me feel more like who I am. I feel more positive and better able to see the bigger picture in the world. While travel is eye opening, it’s also very internal. It meant I got to indulge in my favorite things: walking around looking at cities, riding public transit, drinking coffee, observing, and having adventures big and small, and I got to do it all with some of my favorite people in this world. You can see the adventures (and read the descriptions) on flickr here and look at the photos as a set to see them more artfully arranged.

A summer week in provence

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Roussillon Arch
Originally uploaded by killerfemme

We met my family in Avignon and spent a week exploring Provence. I knew this area has been totally hyped, but I completely understood why. It is stunning- limestone hills, scraggly bushes, vineyards and olive trees everywhere you look. We ate local goat cheese and the famed melons de cavaillion, which were perfectly juicy and sweet. When I saw the quality of the light and the sunsets, as well as the perfect, sunbaked old stones, I could see why plein aire painters went ga ga for this region. My mom and I want to go back and plan a bike trip on back road to lunch in small towns. It’s seriously the good life. You can see way more pictures on my flickr stream.

Paris first, before the rest…

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Belleville
Originally uploaded by killerfemme

In July my family went on a huge trip to the South of France, where I had never been. Before joining them, I flew to Paris and spent a jetlagged day and evening there before getting on the TGV with Gael to go to Avignon. Of course our city wanderings took us to Belleville, a neighborhood that has excited and intrigued me since I first set foot in it. To me it seems more “real,” more gritty, less perfect (shall we say, because it’s more working class) than the sparkling neighborhoods of central and western Paris. I’m not the only one who thinks this though, as Belleville is gentrifying rapidly, especially the street in this picture.

My Bloody Valentine Reviews and more…

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Since coming home from my whirlwind trip to London, Glasgow and Edinburgh I’ve been writing up a storm. The trip to Glasgow originally involved from buying tickets to see My Bloody Valentine there and then planning everything else. The UK was fantastic, but so fantastically expensive we could barely afford to eat beans and rice. Thankfully, the band was great and you can read the review I wrote for Venus here. Shortly after arriving back at home I went to see the Watson Twins at Music Hall of Williamsburg and wrote another review here. Whew! See more images on my flickr stream.

Flat White, Soho, London

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Fueling my need for coffee, this was my first stop in London. The staff were super nice and they were even playing My Bloody Valentine when I walked in. Keight had recommended it and I was thankful for a good, independent coffee shop to visit in Starbucks land (I think there’s even more Starbucks in London than in NYC!). In case you were wondering what a Flat White is, Keight looked it up:

“i had to look it up…

a flat white and a latte is almost exactly the same thing, generally same 1/3 espresso to 2/3 milk ratio, but a flat white doesn’t include much of the foamy milk at the top (either it’s held back or mixed in with the rest of the milk, descriptions conflict on this detail). hence the “flat.”

as some dude stated on the coffeesnob forum:

“So if a flat white is a latte without 10mm of ‘more aerated’ textured milk in it, what it a long black with a dash of milk?

Lets face it, most cafes would not produce a discernably different product if you asked for both, other that being served in a glass and a cup.

… it’s a subtle distinction.”
Thanks Keight!

Paris, Again

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Afternoon, Pere Lachaise
Originally uploaded by killerfemme

I don’t need anything special in Paris. I could be completely happy doing nothing more than walking around, drinking coffee, and reading the newspaper. I don’t mind the perpetually grey skies. They enhance the atmosphere created by the narrow cobblestone streets, the tin roofs and red chimneys of the Haussman era apartment buildings, corner cafes with their sidewalk seating and the murky, contained mirrored waters of the Canal St. Martin. There’s more photos on flickr.

Mmmm! Yeggie Tagine

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Mmmm! Yeggie Tagine
Originally uploaded by killerfemme

I want to give a huge shout out to the restaurant Le Berber, located at 62 Rue Crozatier in the 12eme arrondissement. It can be surprisingly challenging to find North African restaurants with vegetarian options and sometimes those that have them are often really expensive and not very good. Not so with this one! Not only are they reasonably priced, but they made us vegetarian tagine, even though it was not on the menu and the mixture of piping hot vegetables, dried fruits and spices in the tagine let me know that it was as fresh as could be.