“Make sure you eat at a bouchon” was the number one recommendation I got when I asked people what to do in Lyon. I knew dining was definitely going to be a heavy part of the Lyon itinerary, as Lyon is known as the gastronomical capital of France, but what the hell was a bouchon? How is it different from the typical French cafe? And how would I know whether a place was a bouchon or just a normal restaurant??…
Travel plans for 2016 revealed!
Happy Travel Tuesday! I’m so excited to be co-hosting it with Bonnie Rose for the next couples of months! For the new visitors (hello!), I thought I’d start with a brief introduction so we can get to know each other. :) About two years ago, I quit my job as a civil engineer to travel the world with my boyfriend (D on the blog) for an indefinite amount of time. As I now find myself navigating life as a full-time…
August 2015 travel re-cap: postcards from Italy
I pride myself on writing about only what is true to me. However, August’s recap will be a little different… because for the first time ever on this blog, it contains pictures not taken by me and places not visited by me. As most of you know already, I flew back to Los Angeles in early August on family emergency. Meanwhile, D stayed on and continued with our travel plans through Italy. This was a slightly cruel twist of fate…
An introduction to Lyon, France (in photos!)
Last summer, on our whirlwind Europe tour, we stopped in Paris for a few days, and I left mostly disappointed. I’m not sure what I expected, but it’s probably safe to say that I had imagined dinners in cozy brasseries, strolls along narrow cobbled streets, and other such romantic scenes. Instead, I found an aloof, sprawling city that stank of pee and offered mostly sub-par food. I couldn’t help feeling that Paris, despite it being the French capital, was a poor representation of…
Breakfast around the world, Vol. 1
I have a confession: I’ve never been a huge fan of breakfast. Breakfast is usually cereal hastily gulped down before rushing to school, toast being nibbled at a work desk while reading emails, or in most cases, just a cup of tea slowly getting cold as the demands of the day take priority. But on weekends, breakfast is an activity to be enjoyed slowly. And then breakfast becomes a spread of my mom’s homecooked traditional Chinese items, a leisurely brunch with…
Travel plans for summer 2015 revealed!
Some of you may remember that I entered a blogging competition a few months ago, where the first place prize was a trip to Europe. When I entered, I had no thoughts of winning because you still would have to purchase your own flights into Europe, and Europe is still really expensive. But then I was listed as a finalist and all of a sudden, I really wanted to go!! We decided that if I did win, we would purchase our…
12 Lessons from 3 months in Europe
Europe was my first experience with fast paced travel, and what a different experience it was from our South American trip! In short, our summer Euro trip can be condensed into 11 countries, 7 flights, 16 trains & buses, 13 apartments, and 1 mansion. 80 days and 80 Instagram posts. And several lifetimes worth of memories and experiences. I can vividly recall the day I flew into London as a wide-eyed wanderer, and how I ooh‘ed and aah‘ed at everything. As the…
The best of Europe in meals
As I look back on my Europe posts, I feel bad for having slacked on my Foodie Fridays. And it’s really not fair as we did eat a lot of good food. So here, I continue my recap of Europe with the absolute best meal we ate in each city/country. Some are budget and some are more expensive, but each is representative of the local cuisine and worth seeking out. London: English breakfast and tea Ah, the full English breakfast. It’s…
The Best of Europe: Churches (Vol. I)
My first Europe trip is over and I realize that I haven’t written much about it at all. The thousands of pictures I’ve taken lay jumbled in a series of digital folders, unsorted and unedited. It makes me feel a little bad because I saw so many incredible things and now those memories are slowly slipping away. So here goes a series of Europe recaps, mainly for myself so I can always remember. First up: places of worship!
Istanbul: an assault on the senses
On one of our first few days in Istanbul, on one hot afternoon, we made our way through a very tightly packed street market. We bumped and shoved through narrow streets lined with endless vendor stalls. The ground was wet and dirty. I just wanted to make it out and have some space again. Being crammed into a large body of people feels suffocating. At one point, D turned around and said “Can you smell that Turkish coffee?” It’s become such…