Confessions of a Sherlock Holmes Junkie

I am a Sherlock Holmes nerd. I admit it. I'm a sucker for any kind of mystery story, but especially one including a fantastic detective named Sherlock. I've read all the stories multiple times and own the entire collection. It won't be too shocking to learn that when in London I had to stop at the infamous 221B Baker Street.

In case you weren't aware, there is a Sherlock Holmes Museum and souvenir shop complete with workers dressing up from that particular time period. Of course I was in heaven. Now this is a throwback to the actual stories, not the numerous TV shows. I was giddy walking through Sherlock's London "flat" (aka the museum) and seeing all the little bits and pieces from his many detective cases that I've read so many times. Totally worth waiting in line! And I might have done it twice . . . in 24 hours.

Plus I had to get a picture with a man in uniform from Scotland Yard. And he had an English accent. I'm a succor for those. There's no shame in admitting to this kind of nerdy-ness, especially since I know I'm not the only one out there. After traipsing through the flat and taking many pictures I obviously had to buy a souvenir from the ridiculously expensive shop next door. All I could afford was the 4 pound refrigerator magnet. At least it's something.

Now that you know I'm hooked on the books, I've also become hooked on a few of the film adaptations. Movie wise I love the Guy Richie films starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. They are a fantastic duo that bring alive the characters in a very well written storyline true to the books. I'm itching for them to make a 3rd movie.

Then there is the BBC series entitled Sherlock, starring Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. I can't get enough. It sucked me in from the first episode and I've re-watched the entire series so many times it's embarrassing. What can I say? I have a problem.

African Safari - My Big Dream

I have wanted to go on an African Safari for a long time now. I have planned it a few times - to go for a milestone year in my life. Sadly it just hasn't seemed to work out yet because of finances. But it's still a giant item to check off on my bucket list.

There's something appealing about seeing these incredible animals out in the wild in their own habitat. Plus seeing them wandering around with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background has to be a life changing experience. At least I would hope so.

My current timeline for accomplishing this ultimate trip is in 2017. That will be a significant birthday marker for me, and it gives me three years to save up. If possible, I also want to ride an elephant while in Africa.

As I've mentioned this big dream of mine to people, many have had the same response for me.

 

 And it really ticks me off.

 

"Just go to the zoo. The animals are all there and you'll save yourself a lot of money."

 

 

I'm not riding an elephant at the zoo. It's NOT the same thing. Just like seeing these animals in the zoo is NOT the same thing as seeing them in the wild. Riding in a windowless jeep through the plains while watching these animals grazing and running all around you doesn't compare to seeing them cramped in cages. Are you really going to tell me that's the same thing? If so, you're an idiot in my book and we can't be friends.

 

In looking at different places, that are tourist friendly, I came across this Big 5 marathon package deal. You spend a few days traveling out through this animal reserve doing the safari thing and bush walks, and then one of those days you run a marathon.

Running through this wild animal reserve.

 

There are no barriers between you and the animals. It's all wide open spaces. It does look like they have a few patrols spaced out through the course with heavy duty ammo to keep you from getting eaten. If these live animals are not a good motivation to run then what is?

In the end you just have to run faster than the person behind you. Survival of the fittest.

 I know it's kind of a sick, weird, insane type of extreme event that has a ridiculous appeal to me, but I'm sure I'm not alone. The idea of running with (not from) these exotic animals in their natural African setting sounds kind of amazing.

When in Doubt, Eat a Pastry

Pastries.

You really can't go wrong with those. If ever lost in a foreign country, feeling homesick, or not getting along with your travel companion, eat a pastry. Even if you are having the best time of your life, stop and smell the roses while eating a pastry.

If you have a big decision to make, are happy to be alive, or just in the vicinity of some freshly baked goods, eat a pastry. But make sure it's a good quality one. Don't waste the calories on the prepackaged junk at the grocery store. Splurge for the fresh out of the oven, homemade delicacy that melts in your mouth.

My brother's family currently lives in a tiny town outside Naples Italy. The pastry shop is less than a mile from their front door. I know - I walked there. We stopped there 3 times in the 5 days I was there visiting. The other days, and a few overlapping, we had to stop in at the gelateria that was only a kilometer from their front door. I have my priorities straight.


They were amazing. They even had a little pastry shell with Nutella filling in the center, along with the same shell filled with white chocolate. They were so fantastic I didn't even have time to snap a picture before popping them into my mouth. Anytime I'm in a foreign country high on the list of things to do is stop at a pastry shop for the amazing fresh goodness. It just goes without saying.

Whether your fancy is a chocolate croissant, the classic cream filled donut style, Laduree macarons (one of my favorites!), churros, cream puffs, or fruity tarts (love those!), and everything in between. It doesn't matter. Life is too short. Eat a pastry.

My Latest Foodie Addiction - India

I love food. Let me clarify: I love good food. Chain style restaurants for the most part are no longer places I want to eat at as I can taste all the preservatives. Yuck. When it comes to ethnic I can be picky, depending on if I've actually been to that particular country and tasted the real stuff. For example, I'm a TOTAL pasta snob now having been lucky enough to get to Italy 3 times. By the way, thanks a lot for that snobbery Janine. As a result most Italian restaurants are completely ruined for me.

The last few weeks I've been craving Indian food. I've never been to India, though that has been on my bucket list for a long while now. So in all honesty I probably wouldn't be able to differentiate between authentic and Americanized cuisine. Nevertheless, that's all I seem to want to eat.

Being on a budget means I can't go out to eat every night to satiate that particular craving. So I did the next bets thing. I jumped onto Allrecipes.com and searched for an Indian recipe I could cook myself. I discovered this Indian Chicken Curry and decided it was time to experiment outside my realm of typical foods.

It took me a few days and 3 different stores to find all the spices I needed before I could make the attempt. How does it fare on the authentic scale? You will have to tell me. But I've made it once a week for the last 3 weeks, and each batch gives me 4 meals.

I think I may have a problem.
If you know of any other good recipes please send them my way.

The Great Wall of China . . . Marathon?

One of the destinations on my bucket list is China. I know - it's a large country and a whole lot of places and culture to see. Ideally I would love to spend a month or more there just to get a teasing glimpse of everything.

One particular destination I'd like to see is the Great Wall. According to Wikipedia, "the Great Wall line stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia." While that doesn't really mean much to me, since I know nothing about China and its geographical lay out, it sounds pretty intense. So I read a little further. Because many ancient dynasties contributed to building the wall, you can divide it up into sections. The Ming Dynasty walls are estimated to be 5,500 miles long. To give that a little more perspective I can understand, driving from Panama to Alberta Canada is about 5,200 miles. Wow. The entire length of the wall including all of its branches measures over 13,100miles.

Incredible. You could spend a month alone just at the wall.

So then I did a little more digging and found there is a Great Wall of China Marathon. It includes over 4,000 steps. Because a marathon isn't hard enough, let's make it going up and down steps on a mountain. This has to be the hardest marathon on the planet.

The really sick part? There's a part of me that actually wants to do this insane event. How amazing to run a marathon on such an iconic world monument! I'm fairly certain this would be the death of me IF I even made it to the finish line. But I bet the t-shirt is fantastic, along with the unprecedented scenery and life changing experience. Fortunately or unfortunately, I haven't los my mind enough yet to go for it. But given the right incentive I might be crazy enough to attempt. For now I'm content sleeping in and eating gelato and European chocolates. Would you do this marathon if given the opportunity?

Staying in an Italian Convent

Once upon a time I took my first trip to Italy. As part of that I stayed in an itty bitty, teeny tiny town called Bagnacavallo in the province of Ravenna. My travel friend was doing a college project on a theater festival happening in the neighboring town which was 3 kilometers away.

We got a few strange looks as we entered this little town - obviously we didn't fit in, and it was strange for tourists to be in this quiet part of the world. That just made it more fun for us.

Of course we were poor and backpacking through Europe so a Hostel was the logical choice of accommodations. And there was only one choice in hostels in this little corner of Italy. The Antico Convento di San Francesco. It was . . . . incredible.

The halls echoed as we walked through the stone halls to our own private room. It had a set of two bunk beds, a bathroom and shower included in the room, and an old wooden door with our very own key. For a hostel that's a fairly luxurious room to stay in. We stayed there for 2 nights and it was amazing.

The convent became a hostel during the Jubilee in 2000, and underwent careful restoration during the process. It is also used for exhibitions, conferences, and meetings. It was built in the 13th century and is considered to be the most ancient convent of Ravenna Province. The structure was reshaped and partly reconstructed a few times during that century. In 1766 a new refectory on the north side of the convent was completed.

It's definitely one of the coolest places I've stayed in while traveling.

Gelato World Tour = Pure Bliss for Me

This weekend in Austin is the Gelato World Tour. Austin is apparently the only stop in North America this year so I felt it was an obligation that I attend. These 16 gelato making experts are competing for the World's Best Gelato title. The top 3 flavors will represent North America at the Grand Finale in Rimini, Italy in the next few months.

My beautiful friend Katie and I went to taste some of the real stuff while we can. Together we ended up tasting 8 out of 16 flavors. We just didn't have stomach room or money to taste them all (tragic I know!), and since she has a nut allergy we didn't want her to die in this experience.

While the festival was free, you did have to pay to taste the gelato - which is the sole purpose of going. For 10 dollars you get a ticket. With each ticket you are allotted 3 small cone tastes and 2 small scoop tastes. It doesn't seem like much, but we filled up pretty quickly. Those flavors were intense! Here are the flavors we did taste:

This one was Goat Cheese Cashew Caramel, from the Black Dog Gelato in Chicago, Illinois. It was interesting to taste that goat cheese right off, but wow. It was tasty! The distinguishing flavors in this were milk, cream, sugars, egg yolk, kosher salt, goat cheese, cashews.


Katie took a stab at La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), from Carpe Diem Gelato-Espresso Bar in Lafayette, Louisiana. The distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, fresh avocados, fresh basil, Mediterranean Sea Salt. She loved the hint of avocado and was tempted to get it a second time.

This flavor was Raspberry Beet, from the Bent Spoon in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The distinguishing flavors in this were milk, cream, sugars, fresh raspberries, heirloom beets. It sounds like an odd combination and it is. But it totally works. Very good, though so far I like the goat cheese better.


 The next flavor to taste was Turtle, from The Turtle Gelateria in Brownwood, Texas. The distinguishing flavors were milk, chocolate, organic caramel, salted and toasted Pecans and chocolate. If you like the turtle treats that come in a box you'll love it in the gelato form. Fantastic! And it moved into my first place standing so far. That's saying something because I DON'T like chocolate ice cream.

 The next tasting was Chocolate Orange Liqueur, from the Tazzina di Gelato in Tucson, Arizona. The distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, cacao rouge, 65% cacao Sur del Lago, orange juice, orange liqueur. The orange flavor was very strong, and while it was over all tasty, it was just a little too much for the both of us.

This one was Chocolate Stout Beer with Caramel Crunch, from Glato di Babbo in Lititz, Pennsylvania. The distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, Irish Stout Beer, Dulce De Leche, Dark Chocolate, Pretzels. Wow. This was amazing. So good in fact that Katie got 2 tasting of this one.
 This was Salted Pecan with Montmorency Tart Cherries and Tahitian Vanilla, from Bella Gelateria in Vancouver BC Canada. The distinguishing flavors were milk, pecan puree, Tahitian vanilla bean, Montmorency tart cherry sauce, Maldan sea salt, organic sugar cane. This one moved into my first place standing the minute it hit my tongue. Need I say more?

Our last and final tasting was Rich Chocolate, Dark Rum, and Wild Cherries, from Stella Luna Gelato Cafe in Ontario, Canada. This one became hands down our vote for number one. Neither of us really care for chocolate ice cream or cherries, but this was divine.

 So ended our trip to the competition. It was amazing, it was really hot, and we were really full of gelato. Worth every bite too. The remaining flavors we did not taste were the following:

Fior di Bronte pure Sicilian Pistachio, from Cafe Dolce Gelato in Houston Texas. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, pistachios.

Maple Brown Butter Pecan, from Carmen's Gelato in Anchorage, Alaska. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, pecans, maple extract, brown butter, Alaskan sea salt.

Bananas Foster, from Devine Gelateria & Cafe in Sacramento, California. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, rum liquor, banana liquor, pecans, bananas, butter, brown sugar.

Sweet G's Candied Bacon Gelato, from Sweet Ginger's Gelato in Fort Myers, Florida. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, candied bacon, cinnamon, nutmeg.

Carmastachio, from Nucci's Gelato in Franklin, Tennessee. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, mascarpone, caramel, salted pistachios.

Texas Kulfi, from Sweet Cup Artisan Gelato & Espresso in Houston, Texas. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, toasted pecans, Bourbon-Whiskey, praline, cardamom spice.

Nuts, from Caffe Tea in Austin, Texas. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, chocolate hazelnut, peanut butter.

Profumi di Sicilia, from Versace Gelateria Italiana & Gourmet in Miami, Florida. Distinguishing flavors were milk, cream, sugars, nougat, ricotta, pistachio, caramel, chocolate chips, fresh oranges.

Update.  The three finalists representing North America are:

Salted Pecan with Montmorency Tart Cherries and Tahitian Vanilla

Profumi di Sicilia

Nuts

The Infamous Hostel Incident

I've seen a lot of hostels in multiple countries in my travels. They're usually all the same - room full of bunk beds, communal bathrooms, and usually no real place to store your luggage. You meet nice people traveling on a budget, you can't beat the cheap price, and you can find them in every country.

While hostels are not for everyone, especially anyone who could be categorized as high maintenance, they are fantastic for someone on a budget. Not to mention there are some pretty cool hostels to stay in - like an old Monastery turned into youth hostel. Besides, you really just need a bed and a place to sleep as you spend the bulk of your time sightseeing.

That being said, after 3 separate trips to Europe I'd never had a bad experience. Maybe I was just lucky. In the end the inevitable had to happen and I had an unforgettable, non-ideal experience.

This particular trip had started out rough to begin with. We'd missed our flight overseas, the first day finally in Ireland we got in a car accident, and this was the first night of an already disastrous trip. We checked into out hostel and crashed for the night - the usual routine after a very long day. It took some convincing to assure the third member of our group that hostels were safe and we'd never had an incident.

That was probably a stupid comment to make, even though it was true.

About 4am we woke up to a room full of screaming. Talk about a rude awakening. Someone turned the lights on and we watched horrified as a very drunk guy urinated on a girl sleeping in the bunk across from me.

To say we were stunned is an understatement. What do you do now?

Things got a little chaotic, and there was a lot of running in and out of different people into our room. Essentially, this intoxicated man tried to run away from the hostel but was cornered in the parking lot by the police and arrested (after he had crashed his car into a parked car). The poor hostel worker on duty did everything he could to make amends and calm everyone.

In the midst of this abrupt awakening the three of us quickly conferred. It was unanimous that no one would be going back to sleep. We grabbed our stuff, hit the showers and checked out around 6am ready to move on to our next destination.

What else would you do in that situation?

While it was not the ideal beginning to a two week European trip, the upside was that at 6am on a Sunday morning in Ireland there aren't many people awake. Having the little town to ourselves for a while and watching the sun come up was fantastic and a much needed positive note to such a rocky beginning.

The moral I took away from this little escapade is this: Always sleep on the top bunk in a hostel.

That Pemberly Moment

Any girl (or guy) who has seen Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth knows exactly what I mean when I say "the Pemberly moment." This is that moment when Elizabeth Bennett is traveling with her Aunt and Uncle to visit the magnificent estate while Mr. Darcy is away. The carriage is creeping closer and closer to this rich man's lifestyle when at last they trot through a clump of trees and there it is - the most perfect mansion sitting on a beautiful grassy hill overlooking a lake. Elizabeth Bennett has to catch her breath at the sight of it while the rest of us swoon in envy at this fictional character.

Sigh. If only. Am I right?

I admit to being a complete Jane Austen nerd. But really, any type of sappy romantic literature from the Regency area sucks me in.

While visiting Caserta Palace in southern Italy and touring the grounds I noticed quite a few horse drawn carriages offering rides along the estate. I let out a sigh and continued walking by as I made the trek through the grounds not thinking much more about it.

I confess again I got a little wistful watching others take advantage of the carriage. My tour guide (aka sister in law) noticed my watching and mentioned that they had done it a few months earlier. She claimed it was great and she had a grin that just wouldn't go away as she wallowed in that Jane Austen moment.

So I stewed on that for about 10 minutes. What girl doesn't want that fantasy - even if just for a moment? I'd never been in a horse drawn carriage and here was my chance to do it. Not only was it a horse drawn carriage ride, but it was at a PALACE. I never really had a choice. We paid the fee and off we went.

I grinned like a fool the entire time and I'm not ashamed. People documented me in the carriage as I was too busy wallowing in my Jane Austen/ Regency era experience.

After tramping through some side paths our driver led us back towards the main area. And then it happened - the Pemberly moment. We trotted through the shaded trees into the sun, and there appeared the amazing palace coming into view. All that was missing was the lake.

And Colin Firth of course.

Best. Decision. Ever.

And now I'm completely tainted for life. Would you have done it?