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'.

Oh, where is my Hairbrush?

While Milan was almost a full 3 months ago, the impression of it still sticks with me and it quickly has shot up to one of my favorite cities in Europe.  I would say it has all the fashion of Paris, with the hospitality of the Italians.  Perfecto.  Needless to say, I felt my time (working) in Milan was fantastic.

After almost 24hrs of travel, I was awake enough to navigate the train and the metro to make it to my home for the week.  And I did what I always do when I get in - take a nap. :) But by 3, I was on the metro headed to the center.  While on the train, we were 'serenaded' by a guy with a speaker and a microphone...putting me in the right mood to talk with a cute guy who came up to talk to me when we got to the Duomo.  I ended up walking the city with him and a couple of his friends (they were Romanians, living in Italy).  He was a bit of a spaz, but harmless.

We walked all around the center, twirled around 3 times with our heels on the bulls balls in the shopping center (see below), meandered through the castle (me in front of said castle below), looked for gelato (and finally found some), and generally had a pleasant time, but I was getting tired of them and hungry for real food.

Which led me to what I hoped was food, but instead was just a bar, so I had an aperitif (Straf Bar) and then headed for a pizza.  I ended up at that bar at least 2 more times before I left.  It was cozy, and appeared to be a place where locals would go to hang out.  And I can say that I am a big fan of spritz's.

The rest of my food and drink week was amazing, but rather than bog this down, I'll post that separately (Restauranting - Milano).  But for a 'taste'... here's a sample of what I had:

We found the old city with the last remaining canals (and I of course got eaten alive by mosquitos and ended up with cankles...) and I got to have dinner with my friend, Jon, from Seattle who just happened to be popping through during the same week.  Also, in our search for a spot to watch the British football match (we were unsuccessful, as even the British pub was only showing the Italy game), we happened into a quaint little place that was packed people watching the Italians play, we were the odd men out, but the owner showed us some great hospitality in getting food and drink while the game was on.

Church with the Last Supper

What the city used to look like

The streets of Milan

I ended up staying in Milan for the weekend, and while I wasn't able to get tickets to see the Last Supper, I did walk through the adjacent church, all around the square (was hoping to see the Duomo with a friend, but that never happened and as such, I never did make it in the big church), into the Modern Art museum, around the castle to relax and write postcards, shopped a little, ate some more, and generally just had a relaxing 2 days in the city.  My favorite church was a recommendation from my friend Jon - it's a cool optical illusion to be sure!

One of my favorite experiences was sitting down at a cafe for dinner (now sometimes I have problems picking where to eat, I over-think it, find a place on Yelp or TripAdvisor that looks good, but when I walk past it, I am not interested or don't realize I've walked past and then I get all awkward about wanting to turn around and look like I'm lost).  But after walking for quite a bit, and getting away from the largely touristy areas, I found a great wine and food bar.  Here I sat, read, and had a chef's choice 3-course meal.  Near the end of the meal, a girl who was sitting nearby struck up a conversation and invited me to join them for drinks.  Who am I to turn down making friends?  It was a fun evening with a makeup artist, an architect, and a socialite who is known for throwing fantastic parties.  While I was invited to go, and the girl added herself as a friend on Facebook, she never did accept her own request.  Alas, it was fun to hear about anyway.

The city of Como

After working in the city, I headed to the lake...of course hoping to see the famed George Clooney, but instead maybe only seeing a glimpse of where he lives.  Como was great, albeit a little stormy at the time.  It was an easily navigable town, but it is fairly quiet and the center is deserted early on.  I had 2 days in town, and spent one day wandering (in the pouring rain, refusing to buy an umbrella from the street peddlers) and popping into little places for coffee or wine.  I took the streetcar up the hill and the ferry to Bellagio (not to be confused with the Vegas monstrosity, or the sister hotel of the "Pellagio", aka the Palazzo... that joke was for any of my Vegas girls who read my blog...sometimes I make up new words!).

I popped onto the the slow ferry, so it took 2 1/2 (very hungry) hours to get to the city.  And of course once there, I popped into the first place I saw....haha, no of course not.  I wandered and checked Yelp, and wandered a bit more.  I did find a semi-hidden little wine bar where I had a wonderful eggplant cheesy lasagna (pictured above in the food preview).  It was worth the wait, but I wouldn't go until 2pm before I eat again - not advisable.

I asked my waiter for advice on a swimming spot and he recommended the tip of the town.  Off I head in search of a place to bathe...only to find a restaurant and a boat mooring spot.  I of course go into awkward mode and decide I guess I'll have a glass of wine.  After serving me wine, I asked the waiter where a place to go in the water was.  He says, oh I'm headed to swim after I leave here.  I can show you.  Me, thinking, this was part of his plan to meet up with friends agrees.  It must be close by, right?

The ferry ride and my scooter companion in Bellagio

He covers the wine and leads me to...his scooter???  Alright, I didn't realize this was part of the plan, but ok, sure, why not?  He FLIES through the little town at cringe worthy rates.  Slowing barely for people to jump out of the way, the policeman makes the "slow down" gesture at him, and I am holding on for dear life, hoping my bare skin won't be rubbed clean off by a crash.  We arrive...at a bar?  And he goes off to change (so yeah, I guess he wasn't originally planning on swimming after work), and tells me to get a drink at the bar.  I do, and wait.  He returns swim-trunks clad, and off we go again... to the other end of the town...

You might be thinking, seriously Natalie, you're an idiot!  Well, I may be, but I'm writing this so you know I'm alive, and it was such a fun, spontaneous afternoon.  And I did, in fact get to go swimming in the lake (it was F'ING COLD), laid out on the floating dock, jumped in again and again, and laughed with delight that this was where I was in my life.  We shared a couple spritz's, some vodka and lemon soda's, and he only had a couple hours before work, so I was able to get back on the ferry and head "home" to Como, Milan, and eventually Seattle.

I learned from this trip that when traveling alone, I prefer to be in big cities, as opposed to little villages (which are truly made for couples), and oh yeah, and I think I forgot to mention, I left my hairbrush at home and I was stuck with a comb for 2 weeks...  Here's to living life 'on the edge'!!

Blogs Percolating

Goodness, I'm behind as always - and even with my writing goal for this month, I've seriously been procrastinating.  I've got multiple blogs in the percolator, and better get to them before the my life hits me with more adventures.

Here's a look at what's to come (click a picture to go to the post):

I left my heart in Lisbon

If you ask me what my favorite place to visit in Europe has been so far, you’ll probably hear me say Lisbon.  Maybe that’s because it was better than I expected, or I was just really happy to be in a warm sunny location.  Walking off the plane, I was accosted by heat – warm, lovely heat.  And how much better was that when I left rain in Holland?!

I’d planned to be there from Wednesday – early Sunday morning -  yay for a long weekend in the sun!  And I’d planned ahead and booked a hostel with a pool!

Some of the food and drink I experienced.

None of my travels would be complete without getting on the wrong bus/train, heading in the wrong direction, or generally getting lost in some fashion.  And this trip was no exception, the bus ride from the airport… left me at the wrong spot, which means I had a much longer walk to my hostel (only to see a stop with the same bus number directly outside the hostel :P ).  There are worse things, right?  The river was beautiful, and the hostel had a great view (seriously, Destination Hostels was one of the best all around – great staff, pancakes for breakfast, nice relaxing areas).

I was there early enough to go explore a bit that day.  I headed out to a small restaurant – and had the best gazpacho ever (there are some foods I love more than anything soup is one of them).  I then took advantage of my bus ticket to ride the tram, but not before I did some wine tasting (free + wine tasting = Happy Me).

The tram ride was a fun, if not the long, way to see the city.  It was about an hour and a half, and by then I was feeling a little sleepy – I can see why people take siestas!  So I went back to take a dip in the pool, shower, and nap… which as we all know after the age of 27, taking a nap after 8pm is risky.  Whatever, I probably needed the sleep.

I celebrated the 4^th of July the best I could – by going to the beach at Cascais in my red, white, and blue bikini J.  The town was cute, with lots of little beach areas and it was not terribly overcrowded.  I sunned, walked around, had a good fish lunch, some sangria, and then headed back to the hostel – to relax in the pool, and well, I don’t remember what I did for dinner, but I did make it to a cute little cocktail bar that was in an a place that used to be a brothel!.  Unfortunately, my schedule was slightly off from that of the Portuguese, and the bar was empty at 9…so I called it an early night again.

Friday, I decided to brave the bike tour.  Yes, I move to Holland and don’t ride a bike until I get to Portugal.  Hi, I’m Natalie, have you met me? I do things strangely.  But the tour was fun, and being on the bike made the heat more bearable.

And guess what I did after that?? You got it – went in the pool (are you seeing a trend here?).  I also decided to take advantage of the hostel and go to their bbq – I mean 8€ for dinner/drinks is pretty good.

Well within 5 min after 8 I learned why the bbq was sold out as in walks the Marshmallow Man and his 26 torturers – oh dear, it’s a stag-do from Wales (again, re-affirming why most of continental Europe does not like people from the UK – they travel in loud, drunk packs).  But again, if you know me – HOLLA! 27 dudes and 1 Natalie? Awesomesauce!  They “graciously” adopted me, and so from then on, I had peeps to hang out with for the evening.  Let’s just say, I ended up with a lot of Steve’s.

The boys said they were going to watch the rugby match the next morning at 11am… I can’t believe they made it – by 12 when I was supposed to meet up with a girl to go to Sintra, I was barely moving!  Too old!  Luckily, she wasn’t doing much better.  We must have looked like the walking dead… we rode the train up, rode the bus, got off and realized you had to WALK in the 42’ heat over a mile uphill… oh hells no!  So back on the bus, back on the train, and back our separate ways.  I was there at least, right?

"The Elevator"

By this point, I’m realizing that I’m almost out of cash… and since I got a new debit card after the purse stealing incident, I didn’t know my pin number – so I was stuck with a depleting Dutch account (I learned later that the balance couldn’t go below 80… umm that’s a stupid number!).  I’d paid for a ticket for the pool party that night… and upon realizing I may not have enough for the cab to the airport – begged out (plus, I hadn’t quite recovered).  Can you guess what I did next?? Yup, I went in the pool!  And who shows up?  27 Welshmen.  The fact that they didn’t kicked out was a miracle – between breaking the ladder, pushing in a staff member with his iPhone, throwing bathing suits into the street, wearing man-kinis, and general drunken disorder – the manager of the hostel must have been a saint or crushin’ hard on them.

I made the wise choice to go to bed at 10, rather than have “just one drink” with the dudes… getting up at 4am did not seem all that appealing and I don’t do “staying up all night” very well.

What I loved about Lisbon:

1. The water (though the Atlantic was COLD)
2. The cheaper food and drink
3. The people speak English well (they don’t dub-over their tv)
4. The countryside is all hilly and green
5. The guys weren’t nearly as pushy as I’d feared (or the Dutch have just desensitized me)
6. The it was nice to dry out a bit