How Dry Am I?

How dry I am, how dry I am

It's plain to see just why I am

No alcohol in my highball

And that is why so dry I am

It has been 2 weeks into the new year, and I am having dreams about telling people I am not drinking and feeling pretty lame in my dreams. I am so dry, I wish I was a dry martini.

When I told a friend about my current year resolutions, he suggested I blog about how they went. It is t-minus 17 days until this month is over and I can drink again. Now you may be thinking, "Come on alchy, how hard is it not drink for 31 days!? AND you cheated 2 days, so really, you should be fine!"

I mean, the first few days were fine, but I was coming off of New Years Eve celebrations, went to movies which aren't necessarily drinking arenas. Generally last week was easy to say the least, I hunkered down and stayed home more. I am focusing on losing weight before my best friend's wedding, so I was at least doing a bit of a workout.

I'm in week 2 (and used up a cheat day last Saturday to taste wine - wait...if I only tasted it, did I drink??). I weighed myself last Saturday morning, no weight loss. I have felt no overall change in my energy, no decrease in any beer gut (I am not a huge beer drinker lately), nor have I saved money, I have seen no noticeable anything compared with all those other blogs claiming lots of health and mental benefits. Instead, I think my liver is bored. It has basically NOTHING to do now! I am worried it is withering away from lack of activity.

Though even if my liver isn't bored, I am. I feel very hermit-y, and while that is good for my pocketbook, I still have had other expenses (car, condo, health) that seem to be negating any savings I may be getting from alcohol, and I can't even drink my existing stash to comfort myself. It feels sinful to eat pasta without wine, to watch sports without a coldy, or to be out with friends and not imbibe. Plus, I'm having to push off or turn down invites until next month, I'm not seeing friends. And I keep having inklings to go try some new place for happy hour or sit with a mimosa on a relaxing morning.

I believe I will survive though, and maybe I'll finally feel some 'benefits'. I think I can, I think I can...

Update: Mid-way through the month, I did use my second cheat day... and after that bottle of wine and the resulting pain the day after, I was all gung-ho to make it through to the end. I can't say that I didn't think about cheating more through the end, particularly when my cousin was up. But I stuck to the mocktails and the seltzer water...and again, no weight was lost, but I DID IT :)

Restauranting - Milano

A week or so in Milano

I attempted to combine this with my main Milan post (Oh where is My Hairbrush?), but realized the food was getting excessive...or maybe I ate excessively...so I figured I would separate out the important, from the anecdotal. :)

The hardest thing to do when traveling in Europe is to pick places to eat, as Yelp users are infrequent in Europe and TripAdvisor, while more used, tends to come from tourists...and I don't really want a tourist's opinion on what is best in the city.  Although, I think I did pretty well though, and only had what I would consider a 'miss' once.

My favorite place is a bar my coworker and I popped into during the Italian/British football match...the owner was nice to get us some wine and meats while the game was on (I'm sure he cursing us tourists) - it was called Ronchi 78.  The meat and cheese plate was simple and tasty, the wine perfect (Verdicchio), and while the chicken was a little overdone, the veggies and sauces in the 'stew' was great

Meat Grill - where I had a very frothy (and tasty) Spaghetti Carbonara.  I blame my coworker for wanting to eat at a place called "Meat Grill", but walking around the Duomo, non-touristy restaurants are harder to find.

Osteria Al Coniglio Bianco - in the lovely Navigli canal district - which was my area favorite, despite the man-eating mosquitos (and subsequent swollen feet...).  I had a great melon/prosciutto appetizer, but a dry pounded/breaded veal - note to self, never pick a restaurant with English versions of the menu publicly displayed and picking a rando-restaurant in a touristy area is always risky.

Mag Cafe - Classic cocktail bar in Navigli, the night was alive with people and the football matches were projected on big blow up screens, so the atmosphere combined to make this a fun spot to stop.

Vun - A lovely Michelin starred dining experience with a Seattle friend - everything was amazing, and the sommelier picked wines like it was her job :), and I always love the 'free' chef tastes they give at these types of restaurants (I even got a 2nd taste of the chocolate/ice cream one! The collage to the right shows the 'free' food).  Our meal consisted of (1) 'Caprese...Sweet Salted', (2) 'Dumplings, smoked eggplant, flying squid, pecorino, lovage', (3) 'Lamb, courgettes 'roasted and escabeche', pine nuts, aclla cress', and (4) 'Gianduja and raspberries' for dessert (pictured in order below):

Osteria Ippodromo - near work, but a classic 2 hr Italian lunch (sliced, raw sardines and salmon; a mixed bag of seafood; an entree of fish ravioli), complete with 'piggy' marocchino coffee and a Sardinia liquor - Bresca Dorada Mirto di Sardegna.

Rebelot - where I made friends with an Italian makeup artist and a couple architects, the girl invited me to hang out at a party the next week, friend requested herself from my phone, but sadly, she never accepted.  Either way, I enjoyed a 3-course chef's choice meal (of pounded eel w/ cherries, fish with melon, and fried sweetbreads), and some shared wine, meats, and cocktails to round out the evening (and then got semi-stranded when the metro stopped running at 12, but finally was able to hail a cab while waiting in the rain, although I did debate whether I could walk home or not...mostly cuz I couldn't get any drunk guys to help me, the only suggestions they were able to make were suggestive remarks).

Cova - in the Montenapoleone shopping district, where the men in the cafe wore tuxes, I ordered a Negroni, got a side of puff pastries and a marocchino espresso to boot.  Also, had a man ask for my number, give me his, and his fb name...and then creepy text - multiple times, of his love for me.  Don't worry, he stopped when I did not respond.

Convivium - While wandering just outside the Duomo square, I came across this little gem - and had pesto/potato/gnocchi/green bean pasta (a specialty in the Cinque Terre area), with some wine, a strawberry tart dessert, a cappuccino, and a complimentary digestif.  I also escaped the rain shower :).

Cinc - Which I only had cocktails at, but made friends with the bartender who thought that #JamieBoudreau was the shit :).  There my coworker and I had some Milano/Torino aperitivis - containing: il malanese Bitter Campari ed il torinese Punt e Mes si incontrano al Cinc.  I finished my coworkers drink... hmm either he is wimpy or I'm an alchy... or both.  While we only had cocktails here and some ok pasta a block away, we were given a great suggestion for dinner the next night!

 Il Liberty - A quiet place for a Monday night, but in a new-to-us neighborhood, where you kind of had to know what you were looking for and had to ring a bell to be allowed entrance.  The food was more modern-Italian style, though don't hold me to that as a type of food :).  The menu has changed a bit since we were there, so we'll go based on my memory.  We had tartar, what appears to be a take on tomatoes and mozarella, apparently an un-picture worthy entree?, but some tasty smoked chocolate cigar dessert!

A quick trip to Lake Como

Just a couple place to visit when in Como or neighboring Bellagio.  Some of the places I visited were Antica Darsena (no photos, the wait staff were lovely, and the hotel looked high class, the food was good but apparently not memorable enough for photos), Fresco Cocktail Shop (the old fashioned at a classic cocktail a bit of a walk from the waterfront), Osteria L'Angolo Del Silenzio (the saucy dish, 2 doors down from the cocktail shop, the food was good, but maybe a little too old school style for my liking), and Aperitivo et Al (eggplant lasagna and maracchino, a sweet little wine store that I found after wandering and being quite hungry in Bellagio - I jumped on the ferry north - without food and the ferry happened to be the slow one that took 2 1/2 hours).  And all I have to say, is that I'm grateful for all the walking you have to do while in Europe, otherwise, I would be a 'piggy Natalie'.

Back to the U of K

See the clock tower is pretty in Bradford

Some of my last days being European were spent being "non-European" in the UK.  It's amazing what a big difference a little channel can make in defining a people.  The British are uniquely their own, and there are so many similarities between them and us, that I realize this really was where our foundation came from.  Of course, we've become a lot more politically correct/sensitive, generally our worldviews and style of business is more the same (especially compared to other countries in Europe).  And they are also the reason we're using a non-metric system :-).

My company's office is up north in West Yorkshire county, in a lovely town called Bradford.  Now Bradford is a unique and sad place.  It used to be a prosperous, textile city.  It has some really nice old buildings, and if the industry hadn't fallen drastically, perhaps people wouldn't be so down on it.  It's the best place to find Indian food, and is extremely multi-cultural.  That said, there are a lot of boarded up old pubs and shops, and in their place are "to let", pawn shops, or "Asian" fabric stores (I say that because that's what the British call people from India, yes I know, it's technically true - it just always throws me off a bit).  If you ever find yourself up north (about 3 hours by train north of London), try Leeds or York (which I've heard is really nice).  You won't feel so sad with the depressed run-down feel of Bradford.


Since I was going to be in the town for 2 weeks (yay?), on the weekend, I got to meet up with my bestie in Manchester.  A great young, hip town.  We happened to be there the weekend Manchester United was playing, but her risking her boyfriend over us going wasn't worth it (he's a Liverpool fan).  We did venture out that way to buy scarves for friends at least.

It was a fun weekend away.  On Friday night I had a date (remember me meeting people in Ostrava?) Yup, we made plans to go for dinner.  He took me to a really cool old bank converted to a restaurant, called Jamie's Italian - yes, more chainy than I normally like, but the atmosphere made up for it.  The next day, Hillary and I watched some football, went to Old Trafford stadium, and had a fantastic tapas dinner, at a place called La Vina.  That night, we had tickets to go to a reading, "There Has Possibly Been an Incident" - performed by 3 people at The Royal Exchange Theatre.  It was a really enjoyable, thought-provoking show.  Later we found some great local bars the Long Bar and the Oast House.

The next day, we had a lazy breakfast and walked around in a few shops before we parted ways - her south and me north.

It was a fun 2 weeks, and even better to get some bestie time in there, but it also meant my time in Europe was fast coming to an end.

A couple other places I ate which are worth mentioning:
The 3 Acres (near Huddersfield) - a great classic, upscale pub
The Alchemist (which has 2 locations in Manchester and 1 in Leeds) - a bar that has more flair than a typical speakeasy, but more inventive drinks than a normal bar.  Food was pretty good as well.
Red's True BBQ (in Leeds) - probably as close to American style BBQ that I've had in Europe, if you're jonesin' for America, it's worth a stop.  Service was ridiculously slow though - and the UK is typically better than the rest of the continent.

 

There is no Czech mix in Prague

If I left my heart in Lisbon, I left my liver in Prague.

I decided on going to Prague based on music (if you can't tell, I'm driven by 2 things when I travel - concerts and cocktails).  Damien Rice was FINALLY playing shows this summer, and I found a weekend that worked to go see him.  I was happier than a kid the night before Disneyland.  I left on a Thursday night (guess what, of course, my flight was delayed - but I did get to run into a good friend at the airport, that put a nice smile on my face - though he really should have just come with me to Prague in the first place).

I had a "Natalie schedule" for the weekend... I stayed in 4 hotels for 4 nights.  Yeah, not the best idea, but that's just the way it works sometimes.  After 1 night in Prague, I left the next morning for the Colours of Ostrava (yes, Colours is spelled that way, I'm not just trying to be annoying).  If you ever want to go to an outdoor music festival, I'd definitely recommend this one.  If I didn't want to see Prague so bad, I may have planned to stay.  But I was there for Damien alone, and booked a decent hotel close to the venue - but not close to the city centre (see there, I was trying to be annoying).  And the hotel ended up being a great choice to creepy stalk band members... no I did not camp out in front to wait for Damien to arrive/leave.

I got to the festival around 4, and I gotta say going to a music festival alone is a little weird.  I am that creepy person for sure.  But, really, if I didn't go, I would regret it.  I'd checked out a few bands I wanted to see while I waited.  There were some decent ones, and me being Natalie, of course, I'd met someone at the hotel who I'd planned to meet up with later (with the band called the Inspiral Carpets - don't let their lead picture fool you - they are old men now).  I saw 3-4 other bands, nothing super sensational, but it was a beautiful day and such a fun venue.  And of course, there was the 0.29 CZK beer...go ahead, look that up, I'll wait...I know, right?!  And imagine that my first beer I "wasted" a whole 0.89! Bah, all for a wheat.

2 pts for who can guess what song he's gonna sing...

After piddling around, chatting with my hotel friends, I headed over for prime real estate for Damien.  A few more friends were made (though I wished I hadn't, the one guy was all about singing loudly, off-key, and with the wrong lyrics...), they were still safe company to keep. The show was fantastic, I mean Damien could have played all night for all I cared.  Even though he did look a bit homeless...

Concert over, I ditched the loud singer and what proved to be a very handsy Aussie and re-found my hotel friends.  And then discovered the love of my life...Woodkid.  I still can't get over what an amazing, unreal experience that show was.  Didn't even matter that I didn't know a single song (what DID matter was that the band was residing at my hotel, and I saw them, knew they had to be a band, but not being familiar with them...I didn't get a chance to go completely nutso...poo on that).

Such a fun night, and now for the rest of the story...I had a train out of town at 6am or something to head BACK to Prague.  Guess I was in the wrong frame of mind, because I was not ready for a train beer at this hour, unlike the biker train companions...

I spent the next 2 days meandering around Prague, I gave myself the walking tour, went to the Kafka museum (WEIRD), found the Hemingway Bar (and didn't break a rule there!), wandered around the Wallenstein Palace, the Prague Castle complex, the St. Vitus Cathedral, the Jewish cemetery, and "illegally" took pictures in the Black Angel's speakeasy.

I really enjoyed this central European country/city.  It was everything I would have expected with it's Gothic architecture and industrial feel.  Some highlights of the weekend:

1. Chatting with a man on the plane, who drew me a map of the city and gave me a free train pass (and then turning him down when he offered me a ride...)
2. Of course - seeing Damien Rice play again, but finding a new favorite artist
3. Hanging out backstage with the roadies
4. The random parade of Corvettes in the midst of all the old architecture and tourists
5. Meeting an east coast Jew (who is a chef in Houston) in the Jewish Cemetery, then while looking for food, having him talk to a couple of random guys on the bench, only to get pointed towards a great, authentic Czech restaurant.
6. Being grateful my camera battery hung in there for most of the trip and taking too many pictures to reasonably fit on this blog :)