Journey Juju

#best09 - Best Advertisement

In Paris in February, I saw a poster ad for Ray Ban. Of course there was a hottie in shades, with the slogan:

Never Hide.

I like that. It jives with my efforts to live an authentic life and to share it with others. But I have a confession to make.

I use my sunglasses to hide. Living in sunny Colorado, I've gotten used to wearing sunglasses all the time. But there are overcast days in Paris and Amsterdam and elsewhere where one doesn't need sunglasses.

And I still wear them.

So I thought this would be a good time to thank my shades. I've been through five pair in the last two years. Here they are, and no, none of them are Ray Bans.

Lisbon May 08 > Berlin June 08 > Panama December 08 > Hvar, Croatia September 09 > Vernazza, Italy October 09

Thank you, shades!

P.S. Which are your favorites?

Berlin City Shrines

Berlin was a special city to me, and reflecting its layers and depth, I made two Berlin City Shrines. This first one is a favorite of mine, and I believe one of the more successful City Shrines.

I’ve harbored a longtime fascination with World War II and Europe. It’s no mistake I have a degree in West European studies nor that my novel is set on the brink of the war in Paris, 1937.

So going to Berlin was a historical mission, and while I didn’t delve deeply into the history of the city, I did visit one site that was oddly heartwarming.

My couchsurfing host Suk han took me to Otto Weidt’s brush making factory in the heart of the city. Otto employed only blind people in his small factory and when the Nazis took over, hid Jews in the back room. The museum was in the factory and I walked over the squeaky wooden floors, trying to imagine it 70 years ago.

The leather photo wallet I found at a Berlin flea market became the perfect holder for a Holocaust Memorial Shrine. On the right is a photo from the museum brochure. It's of the blind factory workers, and if you take a close look, you see that everyone's looking in a different direction.

On the left, I’ve glued a scrap of a map of Berlin, and the image of a hand writing. I’ve also included a Berlin u-bahn ticket and an official looking stamp I got from a pouch of tobacco.

The cover of the shrine has a simple image of an Italian soldier from WW II. In my mind, this shrine is for a writer who suffered at the hands of the Nazis in WW II.

Berlin Shrine II

The other Berlin shrine is in a giant matchbox I also got at a small neighborhood flea market in Berlin. I got the box and a set of giant wooden matchboxes from the ‘60s for only one euro. This shrine embodies the modern Berlin, desperately trying to rise from her sad history.

On the cover I’ve glued a image of a sculpted goddess from the Sandsation Sand Sculpture contest we saw in Berlin. She looks over the city’s cathedral, sadly tolerating the giant skyscraper that was built next to it in the 60s.

I was going for a graffiti-style look for this shrine, because as my travel pal Denise said, “If it’s not graffiti’d, it’s not Berlin.”

I walked along the Berlin wall a couple of times, the last time alone at 4:00 am. Denise wanted to go clubbing, so I dropped her and our friends off and walked home. It was a surreal experience and I hope I’ve captured some of Berlin’s bizarre essence in this City Shrine.

Capture your one-of-a-kind memories with the help of your Muse. Bring her and a copy of the Creative Travel Toolkit with you when you travel. This and my other products are 20% off during the month of June, 2009 to celebrate ten years in business. Pick up yours today and make your Muse happy.

You eat with caloric impunity. This and other Journey Blessings on sale in June!

City Shrine series

 When I set out on my journey last year, I invoked a lot of juju to make sure that my travels would be smooth, safe, and tons of fun. I brought this juju upon myself with a project: make 100 travel shrines and sell them.

Remaining travel shrines. NFS

I made 100 travel shrines, sold about 80, financing my plane ticket with the sales. 20% of the proceeds were loaned to Dorothy Siaw, an entrepreneur I connected with through Kiva.org.

While traveling, I made City Shrines as a way to remember these cities as I and my Muse experienced them. These are portable talismans that represent the essence of a place as experienced on that trip. It's an artistic expression that makes travel more meaningful and fun. The first City Shrine was created in honor of Lisbon. After that came Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and London.

I gathered ephemera from the each city – museum ticket stubs, postcards, receipts, cards, the detritus that one collects while traveling. I sought out the perfect containers for the shrine. They had to be from the city, lightweight and cheap.

I made several City Shrines leaving the city by train. The speed and rhythm of the train, my little tray table open and overflowing with supplies...such a beautiful way to honor a place.

It's more than just a fun way to gather the ephemera from a trip into a container. My City Shrines evoke memories of the people I met, the adventures I had, and the magic that made my journey truly one of great juju.

Shrines are just one of the creative travel tools I share in my e-book, The Creative Travel Toolkit. It's on sale with my other products for a creative life during the month of June 2009 to celebrate my ten-year anniversary of Original Impulse.

I’ll be sharing my City Shrines with you on Mondays as a weekly feature on the Journey Juju blogazine. I only have a handful so it will be a short series. Hopefully they will inspire you to make your own City Shrines. You don’t have to travel to do it. You could make a shrine for your own city.

Your journey is sacred. This and other Journey Blessings on sale in June!

Summer Art School Report

Summer art school has officially started with my first plein air watercolor class.

Everyone talks about how hard watercolor, and plein air (outside) painting is. I refuse to believe it until that’s my own experience. I had this same attitude in Portugal when I tried to learn Portuguese. It was difficult, but I don’t think beginning with a focus on how hard it is is useful to anyone.

Many of us take classes in order to have a structure and a focus to do our creative work. But I don’t think a class is enough. It’s true, it gives you space and time and pals to work alongside, but often we wait until the night before class to do our homework. We’re not really developing a sustainable relationship with our Muse. We become passive in our pursuit of our art.

I like to take an active role in my learning. My teacher? I let my curiosity guide my studies. Whatever I’m interested in, I explore. And, necessity.

You'll notice right away that I'm a beginner at all of this, especially scanning and posting my art online. I'm a newbie, but I've done the right thing by asking for help from my 17-year-old housemate, Kat. She's head scanner and book project developer at the Magic Treetop Studio, so my skills should improve soon. I've already learned that scanning takes some time, so I've been applying Burt's Bee's Cuticle Cream and filing my nails. Scanning is good for the manicured hand.

Multi-Project Syllabus

I’ve got several projects I’m working on this summer. I chose these projects to help me focus on things I want to learn. I’m doing an illuminated alphabet book to study calligraphy. I love the alphabet and am having fun with this project. Here’s A. 

 
   

To practice drawing, I keep an illustrated journal. I did this in May and filled one of my softcover Moleskine notebooks. (Customized with my favorite bubble stickers by Rare Orchid.) I’m working on the June one now.

I don't know why the scanner cut my notebook in half.

I absolutely love the process of recording my days in the notebook. I meet weekly with my sketching buddy Lokken and we hang out and draw. Last week we sat in my front garden and I sketched the plants. 

 

As I delve into the watercolor class I’ll give myself a project for that. I’m also working on a few of my previous projects – scanning my accordion notebook, making my blog into a book, and scanning my illustrated book of my creative travel tools. Watch for those on the blog.

You can see with my A entry what I need to do to earn my A in summer art school. Mostly I want to be engaged with art and to learn while enjoying myself. Lots of play time in my Magic Treetop Studio. And since video is one of the media I want to play with, you'll be seeing more of the MTS.

Disclaimer: Any music heard on these videos is part of the soundscape at the Magic Treetop Studio. I haven't been granted permission by Radiohead nor from the birds outside to be included.

Cynthia's Magic Treetop Studio from Cynthia Morris on Vimeo.

Why Travel? Twelve Reasons We Hit the Road

All my life I’ve yearned to travel. An avid reader as a child, books allowed a certain kind of travel - escaping what I considered a boring life in Ohio for lands more exotic and interesting.

 Now that distant lands are accessible to me first-hand, I find myself questioning this urge to travel. Now, as an adult, I’m not bored but still love to travel. I’ve had the fortune to travel regularly. I have a life goal of seeing as many places as possible. I know that travel stimulates the creative process in powerful ways, and moving through the world mimics some of the characteristics of the creative process.

On my recent trips to Italy, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and in Portugal, I found myself asking again and again: why do I travel? People travel for work, education and for humanitarian purposes. The kind of travel I am talking about is tourism, an incredible luxury that we may not have for much longer. With the increase in the environmental and financial costs of travel, I fear that in the future our travel will be limited. Travel seems at once more precious and more mundane. Why go?

This inquiry was my companion on a recent trip to Italy, so I spent some time writing down my ideas on why we travel. Some motives are more pure than others.

To explore. The unknown is exotic. Dwelling in and engaging in the unknown is one of the most important factors in the creative process. Being able to occupy a place of not knowing is essential to creating, and travel is rife with opportunities to be a dummy.

But be careful when you travel – you may wind up a cog on a well-worn path if you don’t step off the track to explore on your own. I prefer to avoid the ‘sights’ and crawl the neighborhoods instead. Exploring areas where no one is carrying a guide book is more satisfying to me than being among the hordes throwing coins into the Trevi fountain. Walking down via Giulia with no one around, stopping to see a church devoted to death, imagining the essence of grief that is contained in that church is so much more valuable to me than checking sights off a list. It’s amazing to me what stillness and depth can be found just steps away from the crowd.

Try this: in any heavily touristed area, wander away a few streets and relish the quiet of the place. See what you discover as an explorer rather than a tourist.

To be inspired. I can’t travel without wanting to be a better person. What I see, feel and experience gives me insights into myself and my personal and creative process. I always keep a list in my notebook of things I will do or change when I get home.

To create. I like to engage with the voyage through my own creativity. Using my Creative Travel Tools helps me deepen my experience and fend off touristic overwhelm. Pausing to sketch something gives me a much deeper experience than if I were just snapping a photo.

To eat. Traveling for me is a lot about the food. I anticipate, seek and enjoy the food of a place more than almost anything. The food of a place is such a huge expression of it’s culture. Having the ‘gout de terroir’ – the taste of the land – on your tongue and in your belly is a way to literally take that place inside you.

To be uncomfortable. Let’s face it, travel is physically, emotionally and psychologically difficult. Hauling luggage, schlepping around a city by foot, dealing with the unknown at every turn, all challenge us on every level. Why bother? Being uncomfortable is required for creating anything. When you write a story, paint a painting, develop a business, you are rubbing against the edges of your comfort zone. Travel allows you to befriend discomfort, and bringing that back to your creative process strengthens your ability to stay with what’s uncomfortable.

To be transformed. Only by leaving our comfort zone can we be transformed. The aforementioned challenges cause us to reflect on who we are and how we live in the world. Being out in the world can offer a giant mirror to your faults and strengths, if you are willing to use the outside to look inside. On recent trips I have learned that I am not the excellent communicator I thought I was and that I have incredible reserves of energy. I can endure and enjoy extreme circumstances, (staying up all night, wandering the streets of Milan, sleeping outside in a festival grounds in Portugal, eating only pizza and pasta for a week) but when I am ‘done’ I am done.

To connect. Meeting new people while traveling gives us a real opportunity to experience a place. João is always talking to people, even about the smallest things. Everyone in Italy asked him where he was from, and was surprised when he said Portugal. They were even more surprised when I said I was American. Actually, it was a real conversation stopper; you should have seen the looks on people’s faces. I couldn’t interpret the expression. We didn’t know if it was from surprise or distaste for the American government. So we started saying I was from France. Still, we got surprise – perhaps surprise that a Portuguese and a French person were together. I can’t say I felt good lying and saying I was French, but it was a fun experiment. I don’t advocate lying as a way to connect authentically. 

To gain status. Telling people we’re going somewhere makes us look cool. Oddly, the inverse isn’t true – telling people you’ve been somewhere just bores people. You can see their eyes glaze over when you start to tell them about your trip.

To take good pictures. The proliferation of good, cheap cameras and cameras on phones has turned all of into amateur photographers. But often people are so glued to their camera that they are having only a virtual experience of the place. We’re so used to seeing the world through a screen that we can’t take the lens off long enough to see it first-hand. We’re more concerned with capturing an impression for later than with having one now, really seeing the light bounce off a Roman wall, really feeling the breeze that has blown over an ancient wall for centuries….

My absolute biggest peeve that drives me NUTS is seeing people in museums taking photos of everything with their cell phones. How stupid is that? You pay to get in to see world-class art and spend all your time taking bad photos? If you want a photo, just buy a book or a frickin’ postcard! Which leads me to…

To buy stuff. I sense this may be a particularly American trait, that when we travel we want to buy stuff. We want to bring home a piece of place to remember our trip, we want to exercise our American right to buy, buy, buy. We want to own a piece of the world. I am guilty of this and feel that museum gift shops have altered my experience of the art. I always have a little thought in the back of my mind when I am blown away by a work of art – Can I buy the postcard in the gift shop? I’m also disturbed by this: almost every American I overhear while traveling is commenting on how much things cost and/or how they got ripped off. No kidding.

To overturn common conceptions. I was told how dirty Naples was. In the words of a friend who has family there – “Naples is a fucking mess.” I was also warned about how dangerous, how really terribly dangerous Naples is. Like, don’t bring your camera or wallet or money or…gosh, just stay home it’s so nasty.

Well guess what? I loved Naples. I loved the gritty honesty of it. The trash piled up everywhere was shocking. The city was alive with zooming motorcycles, funky and perverse graffiti, and rampant and delicious opportunities to eat well. The best part? The people of Naples were amazing. Everyone we encountered was incredibly kind and interested in chatting.

If I had listened to the common conceptions of Naples, I might not have gone. Instead I heard them and then set them aside, deciding to have my own experience.

To see things. The internet has brought the world into your home, but there’s still nothing like seeing something in person. But there’s a difference between ‘seeing’ and ‘doing. In Lisbon I see people carrying books of Top Ten Lisbon. This idea of checking off the sites of a place seems incredibly limited. I dislike the notion that there are only a handful of things to see and that we can ‘do’ them. I ‘did’ the Coliseum in Rome. I ‘did’ the Pantheon. We go to these megaliths or must-sees and then what? We’re told how important they are and now that we’ve ‘done’ them, what’s different? Were we able to have an experience that went beyond the shoulds?

I have a hard time at these sights because I get so distracted by the crowds. I tend to watch them interact with each other and the sight and am unable to focus on the beauty of the Pantheon, the depth of the history in the Coliseum.

That said, I have had amazing experiences seeing things despite the overwhelming crowds. Rounding a corner and coming upon the Trevi Fountain took my breath away. Seeing my first Van Gogh painting (Starry Night, Musée d’Orsay) in person stunned me. I have to work on filtering out the crowds and focus.

Did you recognize your own reasons for travel here? I bet you have other motives. I’d love to know why you travel and what travel does for you. Leave your thoughts in a comment below.

Denise's Art

I mentioned that Denise was a blocked artist and that the trip to Europe really helped her connect with her creativity. But that’s not the whole story. While Denise may not have been creating a lot of fine art, as a graphic designer she has created a lot of other art.

Like my new banner for the Journey Juju blog. Denise put that together with photos from our trip. Is it amazing or what?

Denise and I met ten years ago when she moved into an apartment I was leaving. Since then, she did my original Original Impulse web site, my business card that I still use after eight years, the cover for Create Your Writer’s Life and my Journey Juju logo.

I think we can all agree that Denise has the eye. And the execution. And we’re looking forward to seeing what else she creates!

My Berlin

I was afraid of Berlin before I went there, I'll admit it. I'm not sure why but there was a lurking apprehension. Denise and I had plans to go to Florence when I read an article about the thriving art scene in Berlin. It took one minute for us to ditch our Italy plans and head to Berlin instead. I'm so glad we did. I'm no longer afraid of Berlin - I love it.

Berlin is a complex city. Street art, tree-lined streets, U-bahn, Turkish neighborhood cafés and groceries, glistening filo dough pastries jeweled with green flecks of pistachio, tiny glasses of tea. Okay, this was my Berlin, when I stayed for five days in Kreuzberg, a ‘hood with a large Turkish population.

While there, the Euro Cup was happening and Turkey was playing Croatia. The café below our apartment set up a giant screen TV on the street and people gathered in chairs to watch the game. When Turkey won, my CS hosts shook their heads. “It will be crazy all night,” they groaned. And sure enough, honking, bullhorns, fireworks, shouting, crazy party making went on all night. 

Other than the football mania, this is the mellowest European city I’ve ever been in. Is it just my neighborhood, Kreuzberg, or is it the whole city? Seems to be everywhere, the mellow vibe. It felt like a really cool American city, like San Francisco mixed with Seattle.

Talking to Berliners, I learn that it’s because there’s not a lot of money in the city. With an unemployment rate of 15%, and these people being supported by the government, there’s no need to rush or work or bust it out like in, say, London or New York. That’s shocking to me that a capitol city could be so poor.

It’s also summer and the sun and breeze relax people. In Kreuzberg, the streets are dotted with shops and café, trestle tables lining the sidewalks, potted plants and swing seats making for the perfect setting to relax, drink beer and smoke cigarettes. Everyone is smoking cigarettes, everywhere.

Our Couchsurfing hosts became our friends immediately. Artists and designers, Corinna works as a motion designer but is also a very talented painter and photographer. Suk-han is a freelance consultant and works with an organization on social design. I’d never heard of social design, so she pointed me to the web site, which you can find here.

On our first day here, Denise and I set out to explore the neighborhood. We walked along the Spree until we crossed over to where the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall stretches along the Spree river. It’s covered with paintings and grafitti, or street art and is known as the East Side Gallery. The whole city is covered with this art. Denise said, “If it’s not painted, it’s not in Berlin.”

I am interested in Berlin’s history – a city divided by a wall, a city destroyed by a war, a city rebuilding itself in the last 60 years, a city given over to recreation and creativity. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to any museums except the Otto Weidt's brush factory. Otto owned this business and employed blind people. He worked hard to keep people safe from the Nazis and campaigned on behalf of those employees that were apprehended by them anyway. The museum is in the factory and it was chilling to see a tiny room where a family hid for weeks only to be discovered and taken away.

The museum was down a wee alley that opened onto a courtyard. Suk-han pointed out a giant iron sculpture of a monster. A box invited us to put a coin in and see the machine move, maybe. I decided to save my euros and later was rewarded with the sound of the machine creaking and squeaking to life. Someone else had put cash in and a small crowd gathered to watch it move and shake.

Also in this courtyard was a cooperative art shop and gallery where locals could sell their work. Chapbooks, graphic novels, cards, buttons, paintings, books… you get the idea. I loved that there was a venue for upcoming artists to sell their work.

Later we met Denise and took a boat ride along the Spree. I like to do this when I travel despite the high tourist factor of doing so. It’s always a great way to see a city from a different perspective. I also enjoy sitting back and not having to navigate the streets. Something about being on a boat is very lulling. Alas, I did not make it on an Amsterdam canal boat despite my best intentions.

Denise was on a mission to go clubbing in Berlin. I’m not so interested in paying a lot of money to stay up late in a dank, crowded club with blaring electronica. But some of the clubs in Berlin have beaches along the Spree. Yes, beaches. Who would have thought there’d be beaches in Berlin? Not me. But one of the highlights of this visit was Sandsation.

Sandsation is an international sand sculpture contest, and it was taking place while I was in Berlin. Suk-han, Denise and I went and were blown away by the amazing sculptures made from sand and water. They use a foundation upon which to build the sculptures.

My favorite was the horses grappling. The winner was by a man from India and represented global warming.

We relaxed on the sand, taking in the sculptures, the sun, and our last day in Berlin.

Also in Berlin: great shopping (I bought a pair of pants and Denise went shoe crazy, plus got a sexy dress.), coffee with lots of milk, and people biking everywhere. Food in Berlin was abundant and seductive.

I left Berlin feeling like I saw only a sliver of the city. Traveling with someone else means that your own agenda can be compromised. I’m used to covering a lot of territory when I travel alone and hated feeling like I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do. But maybe that’s the tradeoff for having company while traveling. I’d go back to Berlin on a more historical trek.

Oh, and before I forget, Berlin has the most stylish McDonald's I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot on this trip.

Making Art in Europe

This trip around Europe, while it might seem like a joyfest, was actually a research and development trip for my Creative Travel Tools. I am working on expanding the tools for use beyond my tours and I needed to practice them myself.

A few of the tools I used: blogging, free writing, the alphabet game and more. But I really got into collage. I did a lot of folding and making accordion pleats in the journal.

I collected ‘schwag’: post cards, business cards, labels, transportation tickets, stickers, etc. You get it. I never had a great envelope to collect them but they managed to get into my book anyway.

I did several pages for Berlin and Amsterdam, one for Milano, and sadly, none for Cologne, where we made a one-night stopover to visit Denise’s friend Frank. You’ve seen the Paris pages.

My Moleskine sketchbook is bulging from all the collage, and the stitching was really strained in the middle. I still have about ten pages to fill, and I will use them to learn Portuguese and capture my time in Portugal.

My traveling companion Denise and I decided to travel by train and use the time en route to make art. It was the perfect interlude for creating. Using the little tray tables, our glue sticks and watercolor pencils, we spent hours lulled by the rhythm of the train and the tunes on our iPods. Most of the trips were about four hours long, the perfect amount of time to whip out the supplies and capture the inspiration.

Denise’s Transformation

Denise is what’s known as a blocked artist. She’s a very talented painter and portrait artist, and before we came on our trip, she showed me her journal from when she was a teen runaway. It was stunning: filled with beautiful drawings of people and places, collage, design, color and style. I was blown away and encouraged her to bring her art supplies. We agreed that this would be an art tour for us. We’d wend our way through Europe filling our journals.

Denise turned out to be the perfect guinea pig for my Creative Travel Tools. She confessed to me that when she was packing her art supplies she thought “Oh, why bring these, I won’t use them. I haven’t done art in fifteen years and taking these will just be….”

This was Denise’s first trip to Europe and it completely blew the lid off of her head. That’s the only way to describe it – when someone has her head completely taken off and filled with new stimulus. You’ve had this feeling at some point, right? It can be overwhelming, especially with the non-stop pace we had – four countries in 19 days. Denise kept saying, “I can’t take it, I can’t take anymore!” She’s already pretty hyper and trying to calm her down was easy with my secret weapon:

The Creative Travel Tools saved Denise’s creativity and made her trip much, more than a romp around the Continent.

We’d be waiting for something and Denise would shout, “I gotta write this down! I gotta blog!” I encouraged her to whip out her notebook and do it there. She’d get it out, scribble some words or capture a quick sketch. Afterwards I’d ask if she felt better (calmer, more grounded) and she always did.

Denise’s journal is amazing and inspiring. I learned some new techniques from her and she let me use her watercolor pencils (now I want a set!).

Denise also got completely inspired by the fashion in Europe and scored some great finds: a hot dress in Berlin, two pair of awesome shoes in Berlin, a pair of boots, a belt and a leather jacket in Amsterdam. And a scarf, too, completing her new European look.

I have a secret desire to see Denise become a fashion designer instead of a graphic designer but I musn’t implant my dreams on someone else’s path!

But the best thing is that now Denise knows that she is no longer a blocked artist and has returned to Denver to use the inspiration in her life and art.

 City Shrines

My friend Lena helped me brainstorm the idea for my City Shrines before I left. I went to the flea market in each city (well, Paris, and Berlin) and got a container for a City Shrine. In Paris I got a cool old stainless steel box that we think was used for dental pics. In Berlin I found a giant matchbox that even had matches packs from the sixties inside. I also got a small leather photograph folder in Berlin, so Berlin got two shrines.

In Amsterdam I found a cool tin with typical Dutch images on it at a thrift store. For Milan, I’m using a small pastilles box. You already saw the Lisbon City Shrine.

On the train, I’d get out my schwag, my journal and the soon-to-be Shrine box. Without thinking, I’d fold, pleat, tear and glue. I loved the process of intuitively placing things. When I look at the journal, I feel the critical eye wanting it to be different, but the City Shrines I just love. I want to make more.

I highly recommend this way of making art – no thinking, just do it. Just go.


More Art to Come

My creative plan for the summer is to switch to watercolor and fill my Moleskine watercolor notebook with pen and ink and watercolor paintings. The beach really inspired me with all the umbrellas and people lounging around. I need to practice drawing the human form – what better place than the beach?

While I love the collage, I really crave color and want to work with color more. So, on to painting!

I also really enjoyed making photos on this trip and think I am developing a good eye. I will continue to make photos and play with that art form.

It's All About the Food

I'm hopelessly behind on blogging. I confess I am spending my creative energy on my illustrated journal and my City Shrines, both of which are very fun and I am loving. I'll share more about that later, but for now, here's an update on the most important part of travel: the food.

Okay, not all of it, but I’d say eighty percent of the appeal of travel is about the food. I have to taste the local offerings. I have to sacrifice dietary and caloric concerns and feast.

Eating Paris

The culinary high point of France are the pastries, just narrowly beating out cheese and wine.

Pain au chocolat, croissant aux amondes, chasson aux pommes, and those adorable fruit tarts. I swoon at the window displays at pastry shops in Paris. They’re beyond beautiful. I took Denise to the local patisserie as soon as she got off the plane for her first taste of pain au chocolat.

I often complain about French food. As a vegetarian, I don’t partake of 80% of their diet: charcuterie, roasted chicken, beef any way you can slice it, paté….

But I do manage to eat well in Paris. I’ve raved before about shopping at the market, and I still think that’s the best way to taste Paris. I made my salade composée, with: chickpeas, tomatoes, carrots, boiled egg, olives, cheese, cucumbers and fresh parsley. With bread and wine, of course.

And I always have to go to Les Philosophes for their tomato tarte tatin. I wanted to try the Café de l’Industrie, and while the service was terrible and the food mediocre, I love the atmosphere. Denise and I had better luck there one afternoon for coffee and tarte aux fraises.

Eating Italy

When we got off the train in rainy Milan, we were tired and cranky, likely because of the picnic on the train down from Paris. We wanted pizza for dinner, and were on a mission to get some. Carlo, our CS host, was happy to take us to his favorite place, which had a wood oven and named Brickoven. One word.

The pizzas were incredible, thin crusts with fresh arugula, roasted veggies and a little bit of cheese, just how I liked it.

It’s not a trip to Italy without apertivo. Jacopo laid out an great spread for us on our first night in Milan (this was before the pizza). He sliced speck, some kind of cured ham. I don’t eat meat, but I love traveling with people who do. When they order meat, I get to see it close up and get their word on how good it is. Speck, a soft cheese, olives, crostini with a bottle of wine in the decanter.

I think I did something bad in a past life because I left Paris with a bit of a cold. I had about 45% of my taste buds available. What kind of curse is that – to live Italy half-tasted? But I persevered.

Other significant food in Milan: gelato: coconut, café, and…pistachio maybe. We’re doing a cross-cultural gelato comparison. It’s rumored that the best gelato in the world is found at Santini in Cascais, Portugal. Of course I lost my gelato virginity in Paris at Amorino, so I’m partial to them. The verdict so far: the flavor at Santini’s is best, the texture at Amorino is best and the Milan gelato… not our favorite. We forced it down anyway, in the name of research.

Carlo tipped us off to Luini, where we could Panzerotto. We had no idea what this was, but we followed his excellent directions (he showed us on a Google satellite map) to the line snaking across the street. Fried or baked mini pastries, kind of like a small calzone but better. We ordered a couple of those and some fried things – potato and cheese. MMMMMMM. We snarfed it in the street outside.

Eating Berlin

In Berlin we stayed in Kreuzberg, a ‘hood with a large Turkish population. It’s the same here in our Amsterdam home. It’s my food heaven: falafel shops and bakeries with trays and trays and trays of baklava-like pastries. It’s become a daily ritual to get a selection of them and devour them slowly from the box on the table.

Also on the menu: Thai curry, tofu burger at Burger Meister, falafel of course. Lots of cheese and bread everywhere. We cooked at home in Berlin a couple of times, which is a sure guarantee to get some vegetables in.

You Must Picnic in the Summer

You have to picnic in Europe, or anywhere for that matter. Have you had a picnic yet this summer? What are you waiting for? Basic fare: bread, cheese, olives, wine and perhaps some fruit or chocolate. And water. I swear this is as good as food gets, anywhere, for any cost.

The Best Food So Far

I have to say that it’s not always easy to find good food, and a bad meal is a real bummer. I’ve had pretty good meals the last two months in:

Paris, Milan, Lisbon, Odeceixe, Lagos, Berlin, and Amsterdam. I’ve tried to draw some comparisons, some conclusions about culinary differences but I’ve only drawn one conclusion:

I’ve had the best food with Joao.

Eating with Joao

On our first date (after the Sintra picnic, see picnic recommendations above) we happened upon a vegetarian restaurant, Jardim dos Sentidos – Garden of the Senses. It was a full-on sensual treat. Joao cooked dinner for me twice: Thai coconut curry soup, and pasta with veggies. The pizza we made together was divine and we can’t wait to perfect our dough.

The Arroz Mariscos in Odeciexe was fantastique, as were the shrimp and clam dishes in Lagos. I can’t wait to get back to Portugal and eat more seafood.

In Paris we ate Ethiopian food. I loved eating injera in Paris – a spongy bread that’s used to eat the vegetables, beans and salad. Washed down with the six euro Ethiopian beer, it was DELICOUS>

So, it’s clear to me that Joao and I have good food juju.

 

Eating Amsterdam

The sign Hot Waffle, Soft Ice Cream lured me in to the stall outside the Rijksmuseum. Of course we had to have it with cherries, too. Hot from the waffle iron, sprinkled with powdered sugar, outdoors in Amsterdam: the perfect lunch.

Thank god Denise is here to split things with me, so it’s not as bad as it seems. But all my future photos will be head shots because of the sudden shift of gravity toward my belly. Well, at least I fit in with the art.

Another day, lunch at Meneer Pannenkoek. They didn’t open until noon, so we had to stave off hunger pangs by shopping at nearby magic mushroom and vintage clothing shops. I got a Dutch tin for my Amsterdam City Shrine. Denise got the coolest pair of boots, a belt and an adorable scarf. She’s European now.

But on to the pannenkoeken. Apple, cinnamon and whipped cream. Yes, I devoured this. The syrup was awesome, with the flavor of molasses.

I’m still eating Amsterdam, so I’ll fill you in if things change and this becomes my culinary favorite.

 

Berlin

OY! I'm so behind on the story. Cologne, Berlin, now Amsterdam...I'll get it all down soon.

To not leave you in too much suspense, enjoy my photo essay instead of a word essay.