gracias/gracies/merci/danke schön/hvala

i woke up this morning in the middle of the night confused that i was alone in a room that didn't smell like cigarettes/mold/eurofunk or sound like a spanish fiesta or german heavy metal or ian snorning. i was home. phew.

so i made it back, all in one piece.

i have so many people to thank for such a fabulous trip. i saw some of the most beautiful places in the world and had the time of my life. my experience would not have been the same without you.

chris: thank you for putting up with me constantly being 1+ hours late, and for treating me so warmly in bcn. i have no doubt my experience would not have been as special without you. a huge gracias. know that you always have a place to stay in LA. but you might need to do the cooking.

david: thank you for your many gender- and race-neutral jokes, and for being my blog's #1 fan. when you come to LA i will be the first to say benvingut and take you to some real, american coffee. the kind that affords you more than 2 sips. you were extremely kind to me and i will never forget it.

krystal: thank you for so randomly/awesomely being my identical twin, for hooking up spain's and france's nicest hotels, for dealing so expertly with all the rondas, and for buying a green blow-up pool/sea bed during your 5 days in bcn. what a tres tres jolie way to shape a new friendship! i had a blast with you. skype me soon.

cheryl: thank you for being a comforting face in berlin, for taking me out to all the hot spots, and, as usual, for inspiring me to be more creative and see the art in everything. i love you and i am extremely proud of you.

eezy mcbreezyskaya: i don't think there's another person in the world who would have put up with my shenanigans for two weeks straight as well as you did. i had the best time with you. thank you for your sillyness and your sweetness and for listening and for sharing. i have learned so much from you and feel so lucky to know you. even when you are stupidly far away in london, i will think of you every time i open a pack of gummy bears. or see a pair of men's shoes in a window display.

marina, nemechek, and all my loyal readers: it meant so much to me to see you guys checking out my blog each day. even when i was traveling alone, it was hard to feel lonely when i would get daily emails from you guys supporting me and keeping me posted on all the happenings back home. i love you and feel so fortunate to have such wonderful friends.

mama, papa, and the friedland-bernstein brigade: this trip would never have been possible without you. thank you thank you thank you for wiping away my tears, virtually, when things got tough, and for worrying about me and caring about me. i love you so much.

madrid, andalucia, barcelona, costa brava, toulouse, berlin, munich, zagreb, dalmatia: you often made me choose between pork or pork, and your transportation systems sometimes screwed me, but i learned to take from you all the best and roll my eyes at the worst. i thought i would share with my friends some of your finest/most ridiculous:

city in which you're most likely to get run over by a car: barcelona.
shortest street-crossing pedestrian-blinking signs i've ever seen.

city in which you're least likely to find gelato: madrid. apparently the ham-stands take up all the allotted space.

largest collection of unsexiest underwear of all time: munich. helloo granny panties.

best donner kebab: germany.

most likely to spot a fanny pack: croatia. bringing back the 80s like it's nobody's business.

best find: fanta limon zero. barcelona.

most diversity in apparel: berlin. from grunge to bow ties.

best tv: not in the le meridien in split or in any of the confortels in barcelona or toulouse. instead, in a random apartment in a super sketchville street in zadar, croatia, providing about 10 english channels. including ones showing jackie chan flicks. holler.

worst actors: spanish. sooo overly dramatic.

largest percentage of people running -- and not for exercise purposes: munich. where i learned "shizer" is a real word.

most tourists: barcelona.

best trains: germany.

most likely to find on the floor in...
berlin: glass. from over beering?
madrid: dog poo.
munich: little elves cleaning (munich is immaculate).

so that's it. i'm sure i'll have much more to blab about when i see you. til then, PP signing off. muah!

the end.

hello loves! i cannot believe it, but after 1.5 months of frolicking all over spain, france, germany and croatia, i'm sitting in zagreb 6 hours before my flight home. the last days of my trip have been amazing. here's what ian and i have been up to:

after a full day of relaxing at the le meridien in split, we decided it was time to actually see the city. this is a picture of the old town.

the town is centered around diocletian's palace. today, this is what it looks like inside -- tchotchkeville.

after some serious browsing, we headed out to the seaside promenade...

and apparently got into a very silly mood.

the sunsets in croatia are incredible.

the next day we headed to zadar, a city 2 hours from split. it is nothing special, but it has this random outdoor discofloormania right on the water. we took advantage of it.

break it down eezy.

the next day, we got in our car and headed to plitvice lakes, croatia's most famous national park. ian refuses to drive without a pack of gummy bears at his side.

the navigator getting his bearings.

one of many amazing lakes in the park.

what happened to summer? it was cooold.

and then the camera died. we had a blast.

see you soon!

still canoodling in croatia

hello hello my pumpkins, ian and i are still alive and having a blast in croatia. shockingly, after 4 bus rides, 2 boat rides, and 1 car ride in just over a week, we have managed to keep all our limbs and not miss a single place on our itinerary. even more impressive, i have only had to beat him up once. here's an update from split, croatia's second-largest city.

after zagreb and opatija, we spent 2 nights in beautiful hvar, catching some rays and chilling out.

on sunday, we spent a quick night on another island -- korcula -- and then hopped on the 6:45am bus to dubrovnik, taking the only bus that goes there each day. no one told us people line up for this bus apparently starting from 3 in the morning. we were the last to get on and had to stand for the entire 3 hour ride.

but part of the ride was a car ferry, and since we didn't worry about anyone snatching our "seats," we headed up to check out the views and laughed at everyone else still sitting on the bus.

we got to dubrovnik in the middle of the day, and starting from this picture, could not stop taking hundreds more.

the city is so picturesque and muy romantic.


here's ian taking a moment to thank his lucky stars for the opportunity to spend every minute of a 2-week trip staring at my beautiful face. and hearing my enchanting voice.

ahh the life.

dubrovnik's main street.

how i spend my time while ian takes 400 pictures of every old building in croatia.

how i feel after the 400th picture.

today i agreed to test my rental car luck once again, and ian and i picked up our hot wheels to get from dubrovnik to split. here is ian being a very non-aggressive driver.

on the way, we stopped in a gorgeous little town and had lunch right on the sea. papa, the water was crystal clear.

ian ordered a cheeseburger and this is what he got. somehow we are consistently deceived at meal time.

and here we are now, typing away at the beautiful le meridien in split. google it.

i can't believe i will be coming home so soon -- in just 4 days! lots of love and big kisses. muah!

final stop on world tour: croatia

hiya ehrybady! sorry it has taken me a few days to update. ian and i have been busy developing content all over croatia. here's the recap:

wednesday afternoon i left the snowflakes behind in munich and flew to zagreb, for sun, sand...

and this happy camper. let's see if he still looks so happy after two weeks with me.

the first thing we learned in zagreb is that restaurants serve only 2 things: beer or ice cream. so we went to a bakery and found some pastries. here's ian's first venture into an eastern european cheese and apple-filled pastry. let's just say he will not be purchasing another.

and then we took a stroll through one of zagreb's 2 main attractions -- the botanical garden.

on the way, ian spotted our dubrovnick-to-zagreb rental car. hot.

on thursday, we arrived in opatija, a beautiful town on the water. here's a view from our hotel room. wowee.

we went for a walk through town, and ian finally got a chance to practice all his model poses.

meanwhile, i decided whether to take a diperoo in the sea. (it was coldish.)

on friday, we boarded the marko polo and sailed to hvar, an island 12 hrs from zagreb by boat. shockingly, i did not get sea sick and actually enjoyed the voyage.

at 8 in the morning, we made it to hvar, which has to be the most beautiful place in the world.

so here we are. miss you all and can't wait to see you very soon! muah.

just another munich monday

it had to be done. sorry.

hello honey bunnies! i am sitting in a coffee shop writing to you from what is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places in the world. oh i wish you were here with me. i cannot believe how gorgeous this city is.

i took the train from berlin to munich and arrived monday afternoon. the berlin-munich train is apparently pretty popular.

a berliner warned me that munich is totally different -- way more traditional and conservative. umm, i saw this the second i got out of the train station. i would say "traditional and conservative" are very appropriate ways of describing the city.

i'm not joking when i say this is everywhere.

but aside from the clothing weirdness, the city just blows me away. every street is so perfectly manicured, it's seriously like euro rodeo drive for miles and miles.

a typical street.

the main plaza -- marienplatz

it is SO ROMANTIC. which makes it all the better that i am here alone.

i was so cold i almost dropped 2000 euros on this snazzy dior number.

and then what?! i had taken the wrong street and look what i found -- dianastrasse!

i mean honestly.

PP on dianastrasse.

the next day the rain had stopped so i set out to do some shopping. all i can afford in this city are socks. so i bought 2 pairs.

munich kills me with all these pastry and chocolate cafes. i may or may not have had an apple strudel and ricotta cheesecake already...

and, for a mere 170 euros, you can get an entire chocolate shoe-clog. holler.

i stopped by the mall to defrost my toesies, and look what i found -- the perfect gift for my sister! i know, it was so hard to choose just one, i bought them all.

and then i picked up the yummiest bagel sandwich. munich wins the euro-food contest hands down. everything is so fresh and delicious and smells amazing.

so that's munich! i highly highly recommend this city. i am already checking out whether gibson has an office here. (chill out mama, just a joke. kind of.)

tomorrow afternoon i head out to catch my flight to meet eezy mcbreezy in croatia. i cannot wait.

lots and lots of love! will report back soon. muah!

okay so on a ps, there is something i haven't told you guys about that you need to know. i had the oddest/best pedicure of my life my last night in berlin.

here's the story. i needed a pedicure bad after walking 7000 miles all over europe for a month. so i had been looking and looking for a legit place. nothing looked good, or remotely reasonably priced. until i found this place near cheryl's apartment. so i made an appointment.

a few days later, i arrive for my appointment. i sit in the waiting room and shortly am approached by not a small asian woman but sven, a german man. he is going to do my pedicure. oh god.

sven takes me here. into a room all by myself. containing a gyno-chair and some electrical machine with wires coming out of it. i have a mild panic attack and wonder if they misunderstood my english. i wanted a pedicure not surgery.

hello this is the machine i was told to sit next to. sven left so i nervously took all these pictures. i swear i thought he went to go put on scrubs.

here's me un poquito terrified.

i wish i had the balls to photograph the procedure. but, after using like 8 electrical tools on me and other gadgets (not all of which i'm convinced were necessary, but anyways), my toes were literally shining. SHINING.

end result -- the loveliest pequena pies ever! sven, this was the best pedicure of my life! i'm sorry i doubted you. maybe it had something to do with your name. and that you are a man. i will refrain from discriminating in the future.