Positano and the Amalfi Coast, it’s an amazing place.  Carved out of the mountain side these houses look over the most beautiful waters in Europe.  On your next visit to Italy, stop over

I was in Barcelona for 4 days and finally am back at the mothership in Paris. If you thought SF was pretty crazy about food, Barcelona kicks everyone’s butt when it comes to food (even NY). The people here love to eat and it shows. There are restaurants that are named ‘White’, places that have fresh seafood and you pick what you want and how you want to cook them, places that open at 5am serving Tapas, chocolate bars that puts anything I’ve seen to shame.

The one that beats them all is this place called Foodball (check their website, it’s pretty funky)

1) menu is all ‘balls’ of rice wrapped with different surprises inside
2) you seat on mats on top of concrete steps
3) they let people post little ads on the walls and it’s all for yoga, health foods, spiritual stuff
4) The utensils are biodegradable

The healthy menu

The combination

The seating

The really healthy one

I’ve been late getting on the Battlestar Galactica bandwagen. Awsome shows btw, downloaded via iTunes.

I’ve come to accept the fact that humans make mistakes and it has helped me several times during this trip in Europe.

1) I wanted a ticket from Paris to Nice and this man said they are fully booked. I went to the electronic ticket machine (where I can’t use non-france visa) and verified that they indee had available seats. Got in line again and booked a ticket with another agent.

2) In Naples, we wanted to take the ferry from Naples to Positano, the friendly lady at the information booth said there was no afternoon ferry, but I remember they had it and pointed it out to her on her own schedule of the ferry.

Lesson learned, everyone makes mistakes, sometimes due diligence pays off. Especially those positions where humans are doing repetitive tasks like the tourist information office, doctors who are expected to do diagnosis in a few minutes, airline security..

Taking a 2 week trip in Tuscany this week, a few ramblings.

1) Cappuccino is first in the world here in Italy, sweet necter of espresso with the right amount of milk makes a smooth drink that none can rival.  There is no pretentious baristas, they just plain know to do it right.

2) Straight shots of espresso  are second only to Bluebottle coffee in SF.  I have not had a good shot here yet.  I suspect it’s the robusta beans they add here.

3) Having 5 shots of espresso everyday does not affect my body for now, so I bettet enjoy it while it lasts

4) Not every place makes good pasta, but when you find one that makes it by hand, order paparedelle, super wide with shaved truffles

5) Italians are very warm people, who enjoy conversations.  Flirting a little bit is fun.  They just seem to know how to have fun.  Yeah, Italian men are pretty damn hot looking.   They got the chiesel body, dark skin, unshaven look that most women swoon over. Women in Tuscany are average.

6) Learn to wait for restaurant service, don’t demand it.  They will get to you when they are ready.  Sit tight and enjoy the company you are with.  Eat the plain bread with olive oil and basalmic vinegar.

7) Stop and soak up the moment.   Certain unforgettable moments should be seared into your brain.  Take the time to absorb the it, remember the visual, remember the sounds, remember your thoughts, the air and breath in the smell and the movement of the air around you.  I had one moment while visiting a fortress when a lady was singing Tuscany folk songs and I had to sit under a small tree, close my eyes and burn everything on my brain.

8) Most of all, learn to relax and be flexible with the itinerary.  Roll with the punches. Missing a train ride is not a big deal.  Waiting in line is another time to take self portraits.

Mission accomplished:
1) kate and I survived Paris and she was happy and content to have been
with me for 2 1/2 weeks. Her mom said she has been very sweet. For all
dads out there, leaving your 5 year old for 2 months, leaves them missing
you a lot.

2) My house in Castro Valley was sold while I was in paris, my sister had
power of attorney and dealt with all the paper work for me while I was
eating crepes.

3) I found an apartment right across from SBC park and signed the deal
today. 1 block from Caltrain.

Now I’m in SFO heading to Paris and Italy for a 3 week vacation. Thank you
mystery forces out there for a wonderful summer. Iife is full of changes,
I’m looking forward to every step.

This weekend I was planning to head over to Barcelona for some bike riding and tapas, but of course the train was fill.  Then I asked the ticket person Madid? No. Lisbon?  No.  uhh, Denmark?  where? What’s the capital of Denmark?  Copenhagen?  OK, I’m going to Copenhagen then.

So, my Brompton and I are on a 15 hour train ride from Paris to København. I have this romantic notion of saving money and not get a sleeper train and just ride on a regular chair.   2 hours before I catch the train, I book a hotel room online.  30 minutes before the train leaves I bike over to Gard Nord and hop on the train.

While not being able to get more than 1 hour of continuous sleep, the insomnia is making me have dreams. I don’t remember having a dream for the last 8 years.   That was really cool!

Most memorable moments.  Sticking my head out on a 160 mph train, drinking non-alcoholic beer in the bike train sleeping on the floor with other student backpackers

I’ve been eating really late (like 11:30pm) here and I sometimes like to just step outside and pick up some take out from this Chinese place right downstairs.

A few days ago, the owner of the place was speaking Madarin then I also starting speaking to them in Mandarin.  The husband and wife both came to Paris to live when they were around 8 years old, just like me coming to the states.   And ever since then, I would sit there and drink some Sing Tao beer and wait until they close the shop until 12am, 12:30am and we just shoot the breeze.

Some funny perspectives from them

• They are sick of Paris and doesn’t think there’s much to see in Europe, I said I can’t imagine that, but I could see that happening if I lived in NY for 15 years.
• They have no inclination to visit the US.  “There  is no history there, it’s only a 200 year old country, what’s there to see?”
• The have noticed a dramatic drop in U.S. tourists mainly because of the strong Euro
• A lot less Korean, a lot less Japanese.. More mainland Chinese, Spanish, Geman, Russian tourists
• Even to them earning Euros, things in Paris are expensive
• Don’t believe what you read in the papers about the riots in paris last year, it’s all hyped up by the papers

My own perspectives

• I envy them, a simple life managing this food place and just living right upstairs
• They get to be together and see each other every day (good and bad)
• It’s still a pretty good life, interacting with lots of new people. Being in a busy street of Rue Lepic, lots of tourist and pretty much guranteed revenue
• It’s a hard life of course because they work from 11:00am to 12:00am, closing the store often at 1:30am
• I envy them mostly because they are happy, content, respect each other and they are building a good life here.

Will the 3 of us still be friends a year from now?  Let me write this down and maybe it’ll come true

林錦亮, 張盈盈, 譚立志 will still remain friends a year from June 27, 2006

Tony

I love the cosmopolitain cities like Paris, SF, NY, Tokyo, HK, Taiwan and whenever I can, I buy this series of books call the StyleCity guides.  These books recommend places to live, eat and shop but with a focus on style and chic.

Today I used the guide StyleCity Paris

First Pierre Hermé, apparently, he is famous, but I never heard of him.  This small little pastry shop is filled with little gems of pastries and the line is always out the door.  I bought 3 of each type of little macaroons and took it on my Brompton bike to eat at the Tuileries garden with a cup of cafe creme.

Then this wonderful and chic boulangerie: be boulangépicier.  I love this place because it has a chic seating area (rare for a boulangerie), they also serve coffee (another rare attribute).  I sat down with my Bompton and throughly enjoyed myself planning for my next exporation.  Style, modern, chic!

I think au num de la rose is a franchise store, but their presentation is really unique. With rose petals all over the front of the store and every store painted this nice mellow green.  I just can’t help myself taking photos with the woman inside looking at my kinda funny

Last day of this Paris trip and I wanted to hunt down some really dark, high concentrated cocoa beans dark chocolates.  This was the shop I visited Denis Acabo/A L’etoile D’or

This shop has all the high end chocolates from all over France.  I just had to try and speak a lilttle bit of French and let my love of chocolates flow through..  “Chocolat Noir, please”, “Do you speak English?”, “I love Chocolates” and I ended with about 5 lbs of dark chocolate bars of every flavor.

Well, in the photo was Karen from http://chezkarine.com/ who was a friend of George who also prepared a wonderful holiday dessert menu for me 3 weeks ago .  Karen was in the shop in 2003, I was just there this evening, and met the shop owner in pigtails :-)  We had as much conversation as possible with my less than 20 French word vocabulary but I was expressive enough with my hands to let her know I love love chocolates.

Man!  Talk about 360 degrees of separation