**firenze(florence)**

 seeing the duomo also felt like a celebrity sighting.

it is the "first 'octagonal' dome in history to be

built without a temporary wooden supporting frame."

this is Michelangelo's original David!

 the duomo is massive and envelops the sky when

you're standing in the narrow streets leading up to it.

 we ate a lot of gelato (almost daily). i always

got coconut or some type of dark chocolate/fudge.

renaissance artists must have watched

the sunset from this bridge.

MY NEWEST HOBBY:

i suddenly remembered the existence of my

goodreads account.

FUNFETTI FROM SCRATCH
"a party without cake is just a meeting"

-j. child

an afternoon in venezia!

once i bought a book with a painting of the

grand canal on the cover. i thought it looked too

magical of a place to be real.

i'm glad i was wrong.

 

the lighting right before sunset

was so dreamy and timeless.

Centre Pompidou!

i felt like i was seeing a celebrity for the

first time, except this was a building.

here are some pieces that appealed to me:

1. thick oil painting of a mountain with a glowing peak

2. miro's baigneuse (if you look carefully,

there is a tiny tadpole-like creature in the corner)

3. poisonous mushrooms in a box
4. girl with a mirror attached to her hip

5. rothko!
6. 3-d chart of geo-political catastrophic events
depicted with clusters of tape lumps of varying sizes
to demonstrate the enviro-human impact.

7. i could stare at this all day :)
in fact, i'm going to re-create it
in my room so i can stare at it all day.

c y c l a d e s

here i am sitting on a pumice rock on someone's roof
in oia overlooking the aegean sea ~ ~ ~

 my friend deborah worked in paris

for a year and she said i had to get

macarons from laduree's. she was right,

they are SO good, especially the mint & rose ones.

 we climbed up 387 steps of Notre Dame and joined

this gargoyle for the view. did you know that

construction of the cathedral began in 1163?!

 i love how many parks there are & how accessible
they are to the public.

people just relax and chat away for hours.
my favorite is jardin de tuileries.
they even provide COMFY lounge-like chairs.

 one day, we came across a flower wall

that i camouflaged in:

versailles being fancy might be an understatement.

just hanging out in marie a's room.

more sweetsss

~paris~

 now i can see how some people become

obsessed with france. it's as quaint and

fan~cy as all the books + movies make it seem.

the streets, bakeries, sights, smells

result in constant sensory overload

(in a good way).

 i was admiring this puff of nasturtiums, so i waved
& to my delight, the elderly man waved back!

 musee rodin! i got to see the Thinker

and Burghers of Calais in person :D

parisian markets are so much fun. i bought a mini

wheel of goat cheese from a fromagerie in the

town of versailles and ate it on the train
with a baguette (that had a "symphony of crackle")
we also ate some snails;

they oozed in butter and garlic.

this sandwich had 2 of my favorite things:

goat cheese + eggplant.

the luxembourg gardens was eerily PERFECT.

every flowerbed and hedge was trimmed to perfection.

children sail little boats here:

after watching masterchef, i've decided

to try cooking something new every day!

day #1: stuffed bell peppers

still the best and easiest cake recipe out there.
cake
+
frosting

[mkondo, noun. Current, flow, rush, passage,

run, e.g., of water in a river or poured

on the ground; of air through a door or window;

i.e., a draft; of the wake of a ship,

a track, the run of an animal.]

i read 6 books this summer; now it's
time to begin fall reads :D
and this is my reading companion:

!barcelona!

i love the narrow labyrinth-like alleyways and how

the old + new mingle in a seamlessly eclectic way.

i also became enlightened that
"catalunya is not spain" and watched solidarity
protests from our hotel window. 

la boqueria market

thanks GAUDI for such a decorated city

 the massive-ness of sagrada familia cannot be described..

dreamy view from casa batllo

you know you're jetlagged when you

sleep at 5:30pm and wake up at 3:00am

and listen to the amelie soundtrack

while eating cereal in the pitch darkness.

now i can watch the sunrise
EVERYDAY~

The Thinker at Musee Rodin!

after spending a week in Paris, i came to the
conclusion that everything is better there.

although the city reeks of smoke & urine,

it also smells like flowers, butter and poems.

~baguettes + croissants~

~ it is adventure time again ~

margaret atwood is writing a new book!

and it won't be printed for another 100 years.

it's part of this

time capsule eco-experiment for the
Future Library.

as i read Donia Bijan's "Maman's Homesick Pie",

i wanted to taste every sentence she wrote.
if you are interested in duck recipes, diaspora,
or the iranian revolution, read her book.

lentils. rice. raisins. eggplant.

saffron. rosewater. pistachio.

(in ice cream waffle sandwich form).

i will eat this every day from now on.