Monday, 17 October 2011
't MAS
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Valencia
A long weekend in Valencia with the girls.
Tapas at Tasca del Belga, where we accidentally ended up while running from the rain. 
After the rain, comes Agua de Valencia.
The fountain in front of our hotel.
Breakfast at Horchatería Santa Catalina.
Horchata, like milk, but nuttier.
The Mercado Central, a large covered market place.


The Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas.
On top of the Miguelet tower, overlooking Plaza de la Reina and the tower of Santa Catalina.
Grafitti in el Carmen, the medieval neighborhood.
The botanical garden.
It sure is an adventurous place.
Lunch at a hip restaurant called Lolitas.
La Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava.
The Gulliver playground.
The view from the breakfast room in the Astoria hotel.
On the train zooming through the orange orchards.
The most gender correct stoplight I have ever seen (it switches between a male and female icon).
The small mountain village of Xátiva, baking in the sun at 37°C.
The beach.
The last dinner in a restaurant we nicknamed 'The Cave'.
Saturday, 9 July 2011
The end of the road
Aight... this is Thursday, June 9th, and we've just woken up to a crisp clear day at the Buckhorn Inn in Gatlinburg. Srsly... I don't think I've ever had breakfast with a more stunning view.

Though the breakfast itself was also a thing of beauty... sigh.
We took the Newfound Gap road, which crosses the Smoky Mountains national park from the Tennessee side to the North Carolina side.



Once we had crossed the park, we drove through North Carolina, South Carolina, and eventually reached Savannah, Georgia, almost at the Atlantic coast. Savannah is still a major seaport, and used to be a center of cotton export. It's full of beautiful pre-civil war houses and squares shaded by old trees.

Spanish moss hangs from the trees, giving the whole city an eerie, mysterious feel. No wonder so many people think Savannah is haunted.
Despite the immense heat and humidity, people sit outside in Forsyth park, drumming the day away or participating in a knitting circle, like the ladies in the background.
This is Mercer house, the house where the murder happened on which John Berendt based his book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Savannah is full of these beautiful, lavish 19th century houses.
Though from time to time, something seems to be missing...




This was our room at Peacock house, a beautiful one-bedroom bed and breakfast run by Anthony and Mais, one of the most welcoming and authentic couples we've ever met.
In the afternoon, we stopped briefly at Bonaventure cemetery, one of Savannah's best-known attractions. What else would you expect from a self-proclaimed ghost town? But seriously, even in the broad daylight, the place feels eerie... after a quick walk, the heat and discomfortable feeling drove us back to our our-conditionad car and back on the road to Atlanta.


On Kobe's last day in Atlanta, we took a stroll in Piedmont park, my preferred spot for running in Atlanta.
We admired the size of the southern magnolias.
And the Central Park-esque view.
We had a refreshing lunch at Jason's deli... and then I took Kobe back to the airport.
On my last day in Atlanta, I decided to get my geek on and do a segway tour. Yes, it looks absolutely ridiculous... but it's fun! Ok, and it feels totally weird in the beginning to steer a machine using nothing but your balance.
One of the last stops of the tour was the Varsity, one of the very first drive-through restaurants in America. We had a few minutes to get a snack but it didn't take long to discover that the offer for vegetarians is, well... limited, if not nonexistent.
That night, Team Awesome played trivia at The Vortex, a bar where the first page of the menu is a set of all their rules, which can basically be summarized to "just because you are a customer, doesn't mean we'll be taking bullshit from you". Gulp. But we showed them Vortex people by getting a perfect score at trivia. Ha!
Boy, I'll miss Team Awesome, and Atlanta. Hope to be back soon!








