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Happy New Year everyone! I was thinking that since my Travel.Write.Repeat. website has been up & running for a while now it is time to let the people that so kindly follow my site to know a bit more about me, other than that I travel, write and, well–repeat. If you follow me on twitter or Facebook you are bound to learn more about me as well (i.e. I am originally from Seattle, I long to have another 1977 VW Westfalia, I have two wiener dogs and I love to Paddle Board) but here are some random facts about me that you may not know…travel related and not.

My favorite country is Mexico.

My favorite city is New York City–it cannot be matched.

My second favorite city is Amsterdam.

I didn’t travel internationally (not counting Canada) until I was 25.

Sitting at home on a Saturday night with my husband and dogs listening to music and drinking wine is my favorite way to spend an evening.

I love Neil Diamond.

I once was stalked by a Mexican Street dog over a period of days in Central Mexico. Everywhere I went–he was there too.

I have wanted to visit Guatemala since I was in the 6th grade; I have wanted to visit Bhutan since I turned 30. As of yet, I haven’t been to either place.

Vampire Diaries is my favorite tv show. And no, I am not 15.

I have an addiction to bags and work-out clothes.

Aside from travel writing and freelance journalism, my work background has mainly existed in the corporate world where I’ve negotiated purchase contracts for various multi-million dollar companies. Except for in the early ’90′s when my best friend and I started an unofficial Guatemalan Hacky Sack team while working at a small sporting goods store in Seattle, Wa.

I once had a first date where I was the co-pilot in a small plane and we did an surprise (to me) barrel role (upside down)– and I liked it (even though to this day I am afraid to go upside down–I mean even summersaults).

(ps: That first date led to a very happy marriage. )

I love the Romantic era poets, Keats, Shelly, Byron…

I need sun in my life–even if it is cold—I need to see sun at least 5 times a week.

If I could do it all over again I’d join the Peace Corp out of college.

I am a die-hard college football fan and can talk the talk with the best of them.

I actually really love New Jersey. It is a great state.

I will never again spend a penny of my own money on a cruise.

Most of my close friends from elementary and high school are still my close friends.

My nieces and nephews are some of the best people I have ever met.

I could eat sushi for every meal, unless Cinnabon was available.

I love to camp.

I also love fancy shmancy hotels with large, glorious pools.

My favorite song is Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns-n-Roses.

I put myself through college by working at an orthopedic shoe store.

I married a Canadian.

Get into the Christmas spirit Debbie Downer Style (courtesy of Saturday Night Live). I LOVE this time of year!

As we wind down on our first day and the 80-degree temps are slowly falling to a low that is still 20 degrees warmer than the high we have at home, I am reflecting on some of the things I’ve noticed initially about Auckland as we roamed the city by foot.

I will surely elaborate more on some of these things in the coming days, but here is the list I have started:

• Reminds me of one of my favorite cities, Vancouver, BC. The water, the mountains, the downtown area, the size of the buildings, the skyline, the boats (Auckland is called the City of Sails), the kiddy-corner cross walks—all very similar.
• Also reminds me of Portland, Oregon for many of the same reasons I’ve listed above.
• Super nice people. A shout out to Gary and Robert who we met at the General Store and Dan and Josh at White And One (great coffee in both places. More on the coffee here later…)
• Clean.
• Ragtop Fiats (car) are popular—and super cute.
• Retro Volkswagen buses are very popular. Awesome.
• Environmentally conscious.
• Lots of Sushi places—more than I see in NYC and Auckland is considerably smaller.
• Driving on the other side of the road is cool, but weird.
• Very walk-able city.
• The love of Rugby (side note—rugby was on TV tonight so I felt obligated to watch and WOW– those guys are hands down THE toughest athletes I’ve ever seen).
• I haven’t seen any sheep yet.
• The accents are charming. Especially on children. Words like:
Breeekfast (“I think I’ll have the free-range bacon and egg white omelet for breeekfast today”).
Heeedstart (“Run—I will give you a heeedstart”) and,
Eeeend (“The eeeend of True Grit disappointed me).
• Lots of coffee shops.

Just to elaborate on this a bit—being from Seattle one might think that I “know” coffee (insert husband rolling his eyes at this statement). Moving to the East Coast was totally different when it came to ordering (ie: never say “grande” or “venti” in a coffee shop on the E. Coast that is not Starbucks. They pretend they don’t know what you are talking about).

Here, instead of trying to pretend to know the lingo I played the tourist card and described what I normally get at home—just a drip with skim milk.

Here that translates to: a Large Trim Flat White.
And here—it’s not “drip” even after saying the above. It is still made espresso style—but no complaints here! Delicious!

Needing a bit more caffeine a little later I decided to get an iced coffee. Easy enough and I ordered it straight from the menu board. “ICED COFFEE”

My iced coffee came with ice-cream, cream, sugar and some coffee. Again, not really complaining… ☺

my large coffee

… to warm summer nights and concerts in the park!

Today’s Travel Tuesday picture was inspired by the 60 degree temps we had in NYC yesterday (I am deciding to be the bigger person and overlook the fact that it was in the low 30′s today).

This picture was taken last June during a crowded and lively Beth Orton concert in the River to River series downtown at Rockefeller Park. When I see live music on a warm summer evening with sweeping views of the Hudson River, Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, I can’t help but feel REALLY alive.
Ahhhh New York City, I love you.

Today is Groundhog Day and for some reason I always associate Groundhog Day with a Tuesday. I’m not sure why, maybe because its Feb 2 and Tuesday is the 2nd day of the work week… I don’t know. What I do know, is that since it is Groundhog Day and that crazy movie with the same name starting Bill Murray showed us that we can “relive” the prior day, I will act as though today is a re-do of yesterday so I can post a Travel Tuesday picture I should have posted yesterday. Wow. How is that for some justification?

Yesterday’s Today’s Travel Tuesday picture takes me back to Firenze, Italy (Florence). I enjoy images of clean laundry air drying on apartment verandas and those images become elegant perfection for me when seen from quiet cobblestone alleyways such as this one in Italy.

New York City is a timeless place and whether captured on film decades ago, today or today with a retro camera “app” it will always remain timeless.

This picture was taken yesterday while walking through mid-town and while the focus is a single building, to me the picture represents so much of this city.

photo courtesy of katrin hoffman (my cousin)

For those that think NYC is a concrete jungle–well, they are sort of right… but what you may not know, the city has many parks spread throughout not just Manhattan, but also through the other boroughs. When the words “park” and “New York” are mentioned, one often thinks of Central Park, but now that may change. One of the newest parks to hit the city and definitely the one getting the most press these days is the High Line Park.

The High Line is on the lower West Side of the city starting in the Meatpacking District (very trendy area full of restaurants and in general just a neat place to be) around 16th Street note: for those of you familiar with NYC but not super familiar, Madison Square Garden and the Macy’s store are around 33rd/34th so to walk, briskly, from 33rd to 16th it’d take about 40 min) This isn’t just a regular park–its an elevated walkway that allows you to traverse the West Side above the city streets with sweeping views of the Hudson river on one side and the city on the other.

heart of the Meatpacking District

Tasteful food vendors are scattered around selling Gelato and pretzels while sunbathers and those wanting to escape for a while with a book or a friend take a seat in one of the oversized teak lounge chairs that are plentiful (but get pretty full on a sunny weekend day). Currently the park is just in its first phase of completion. Once all phases are completed, the park will be a mile-and-a-half-long running through not just the Meatpacking District but also through the neighborhoods of West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen.

me enjoying the teak lounge chair with a random woman beside me

I discovered the High Line when it first opened. I was down in the Meatpacking anyway having lunch at a cute place–5 Ninth where by the way I had possibly the best Cobb Salad I have ever had. After lunch I walked the park and marveled at the views and how it felt like such an escape from the streets below.

5 Ninth

You may be wondering, as I did, how this Park was dreamt up considering the fact that its elevated and how much work that must have been to get it built and up and going with this economy and NYC’s budget issues… Well, it was actually a pre-existing structure constructed in the 1930′s to lift freight trains up off the streets of Manhattan. As you walk the park you see the beautiful landscaping planted in and around the old existing railroad tracks. Pretty neat.

Since that first visit, I have been back many times and below are some of the pictures from those visits.

the still existing railroad tracks have been used as part of the landscape

the empire state building peeking out

elevated!

a jazz band playing out of their apartment–next to the High Line

just a sampling of the gorgeous sites you will see from the High Line (billboard)

Check out the High Line in person AND on their website for hours and construction information.

ROME! During my backpacking trip through Europe I snapped this photo while touring the Coliseum.

The picture cannot do justice to the size of this building nor the feeling of disbelief I had knowing I was walking in the same area where gladiators fought for their lives with the cheers and boos of the crowd as their soundtrack.

… from the Boston Public Library.
Gorgeous building inside and out!! This Lion is so stoic, so proud. I love it.

Here is an artistic way to look at NYC neighborhood by neighborhood. There is a simple instrumental soundtrack so enjoy this little escape into words that make up the neighborhoods.

Pastiche—A Collective Composition of New York City, by Ivan Safrin & Christian Marc Schmidt from Christian Marc Schmidt on Vimeo.