The Old Recipe Comes Through...

Old School Chocolate Cake for the Puffin
My grandma W had a famous chocolate cake recipe - thankfully my mom got a copy of it a while back. Now that I am dating a chocoholic, things like this come in handy. I'd never made it - I gave it a shot yesterday. Rather than using the 8-inch square pan recommended, I used two mini-loaf pans. I snagged a butter frosting recipe off the internet, swapped out half the semi-sweet for unsweetened and we were off to the races. I must say, this is a good recipe - the cake is so tender and moist. We pretty much gobbled up one mini-loaf last night. The remaining one is for tonight.

The Puffin Has Landed

It's About Time....
After my "me" time with her was sadly interrupted in Paris by her annoying job's demands (fly to Shanghai, fly to Mumbai), the Puffin is here in Brooklyn. First up, bialys at our favorite breakfast spot. Then, lunch at special place - to celebrate her birthday, which was two days ago.

Love is Loco!

Modern Day Van Gogh
Ok, I didn't cut off my ear, but I did get some green paint, hung upside down and painted out a shout-out to you, Puffin! I did it big enough for you to see from your plane ride in, so get a window seat and pay attention!

Jumping Back into the BK, Deeply So

Q Train to Russia, on the Way to Turkey
I love Brooklyn for its variety of neighborhoods. Whatever you're looking for, we've got it and most of it's easily accessible with just a metrocard. Early this morning I walked over to Park Slope to catch the Q train south. I was looking for a Turkish cafe in Midwood but couldn't remember which stop it was near. I was sure it would come to me once on the train and it did - King's Highway.

King's Highway is like another world. You know it as soon as you get off the train and see the Russian pizza-slash-caviar shop. Not sure if they put the caviar on the pizza or you get both separately. It was closed or I would've tried to find out.

Just a block away, a lady of Eastern European extraction was smoking a cigarette and sunning herself despite the mid-40's chill (that's Farhenheit, folks.) She eyed me warily as soon as I took my camera out and I had to pretend to take some shots of a nearby building before I could snap one of her without her noticing. I was pretty sure I could outrun her, but not that sure.

I was closing in on my Turkish cafe when I noticed a new restaurant on Coney Island Ave. It was called Slavyanskiy Bazar and it specialized in something I like....

Russian style ravioli..... Now I have another reason to jump on the Q train.

More Jetlag Evidence

The Subway Seat Illusion
I was riding the R train this morning, reading the paper, sipping on my dollar-cart coffee, feeling pretty groggy. The seats in front of me were empty, as usual - the R train is one of the slowest and thus usually one of the emptiest.

I peeked over to the left and something didn't quite seem right. I had to stare for a while before I noticed the powder blue seats. I know I was imagining it - I've never seen powder blue seats on the subway.

Jetlagged in the BK

What Time is It?
Back in Brooklyn, wide awake at 4am, confused, looking out the window, expecting to see sunshine but seeing pitch-darkness. To make it more discombobulating, it was recently daylight savings time, I think. My electronic clocks made the adjustment, my Tivo didn't.... man, I am confused.

Ain't as bad as Puffin's world though, don't know how she does it. Check out her recent schedule:
Singapore to Paris.
4 days later, Paris to Thailand.
1 day later, back to Paris from Thailand.
Immediate flight to Venice for the weekend, then back to Paris.
1 day later, Paris to Shanghai.
4 days later, she'll go from Shanghai to Singapore.
1 week later, Singapore to Mumbai for one day.

Venice - Final Day

Walking and Walking....

We spent our final day in Venice on our feet, walking around. How did we know where to go? We didn't - we just walked until we saw a sign like the one below. This is about the only way to get around - look for signs that point you to major landmarks. This one, Al Vaporetto, points you to the nearest water taxi.

We climbed over the Ponte dell'Accademia again heading towards the quieter side of Venice, a district called Dorsoduro.

Just as we got to the top of the bridge, we heard wailing sirens and noticed a boat speeding down the grand canal. Puffin got a shot of the boat as it sped by us. Turns out it was the firemen racing towards a fire.

Dorsoduro indeed is much quieter than San Marco. It seems like the side of Venice that is least touristy. We walked along many of the canals there and took photos.

Everyone else had the same idea - seemed like the whole district was out for a stroll, soaking up the sun.

Again, very few folks taking gondola rides. I saw many parked, waiting for clients.

The other thing you see in Dorsoduro that you don't see elsewhere is the laundry hanging out to dry. It made it feel much more like a normal neighborhood.

I like this bridge - it's built across a small canal to a restaurant.

The street art in Dorsoduro was good too.

An artist was obviously obsessed with animals.

We walked slowly around all day, stopping for lunch, gelato, coffee, snacks.... But just as slowly, time ran out on our vacation.

We made our way back to San Marco and I took a shot of Venice's own leaning tower.

We hopped onto the Vaporetto and inched our way up the grand canal towards our bus to the airport.

Marco Polo airport is like any other with one small exception - I've never seen huge lingerie ads bookending the departure information. Viva Italia!

Finally, a thanks to my benefactor. He paid for the whole trip, making it all the sweeter. I sent a postcard to thank him....

Venice, Day Two

A Strollers Paradise
This town is built for walking. We headed off in no direction in particular this morning and bumped into some gondoliers taking a break. Perhaps the global downturn has finally trickled down to the gondola trade?

The photos simply don't convey the maze of narrow alleys that make up this city. You can get lost within a minute without a map - and even with one. We dead-ended ourselves in blind alleys and small canals alike.

The canals carry a sluggish green water around the maze - throwing bright reflections high up the building walls.

As you can see, some of the canals are barely wide enough for a slim gondola to get through.

From the top of the Ponte del'Accademia we got a nice view east towards the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.

Closer to the bridge is the Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, which is now used as a university. We took a walk across the bridge into Dorsoduro and had lunch at a small restaurant.

A few hundred meters past the restaurant was an exhibit of Leonardo DaVinci's inventions, which was really interesting. It included many of the weapons he invented but most recognizable was the fixed wing that he hoped would allow man to fly.

Just outside was a much simpler invention, the elevated walkway. You may recall that Venice was flooded just a few months back and I guess these remain for the next one. They are close to two feet tall.

Here is a shot across the grand canal from the front door of our hotel.

Campo Angelo is a large square about a five minute walk from the hotel. We had coffee at a cafe here in the morning. In the evening, we returned to the church in the distance for a concert.

The concert was given by a group called Interpreti Veneziani who played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Bach's concerto number 2. We bought the tickets earlier in the day while visiting a museum dedicated to baroque instruments. I learned that Vivaldi was born and raised in Venice, so what better way to spend an evening?

Venetian Weekend

Helping the World Economy Out

Puffin and I jumped a short flight to Venice for a three day weekend. We took a bus to the Piazzale Roma and then hopped onto a water taxi up the Grand Canal towards our hotel. The views from the water taxi were breathtaking.

About 9 stops on the water taxi, we got off at Sant'Angelo - our hotel is right next to the water taxi stop. We got a room facing the canal, with a balcony - you can see it just above the front door.

This is a view of the hotel from the rear. It has a nice garden to sit in, but it was a bit cool for that - around 55 degrees.

The view from the balcony is a nice one. In the distance is the Rialto bridge.

Here is a better shot of the Rialto Bridge zooming in with the camera. Later at night we took a stroll across the bridge and got a drink at a bar near the foot of it.

This is the view from our balcony the other way.

One of the first things I noticed is that everyone is dressed to the nines. Even the gondoliers wear fancy sunglasses as did our water taxi captain.

First thing we did was take a short walk to Piazza San Marco, the most visited site in Venice, I would imagine. It was late in the day, around 4pm, so the shadows were long.

We walked all around the piazza, had some coffee and dessert at a cafe and took photos.

Here is a shot of Basilica San Marco bathed in sunlight.

Details of Palazzo Ducale.

A shot of the moon above one of the churches that lined our walk back to the hotel.

The Bug Mystery - Solved?

One Artist's Obsession with Space Invaders
I was strolling through a bookstore in the 3rd this afternoon and discovered a book about my beloved bug, the one that I keep finding all around the city. Turns out, a Parisian artist obsessed with the classic video game Space Invaders has singlehandedly created the bugs. Further "research" (does Googling something really count as research?) turned up a Wiki article as well as a website devoted to the invaders. Hey, I did start with a book and THEN did research on the web, old-school style. Enjoy.