Having A Gay Old Time in Sitges!

Ahhh. Spain! What a magnificent place!  For my 30th birthday (yep, i said it, I'm 30), Travers took me to Spain!  What a great birthday present.  We spent 2 days in a beach town called Sitges, and then 3.5 days in Barcelona.  It was such a great vacation, we didn't want to leave.

Arriving at the Barcelona airport, we took the MonBus that would take us to Sitges, a beautiful beach town about 30 minutes south-west of Barcelona.  Once in Sitges, we walked through town and immediately stopped for some tapas at Bar Panchito. After our energy was replenished, we kept heading through town to the San Sebastian Playa Hotel. It was right on the beach and we wasted no time checking in and getting into our bathing suits to soak up the last few hours of sun for the day. We then had a couple mojitos at a nearby bar before heading to the hotel to get ready for the night.

For our first night in Sitges, we found a restaurant called La Cantina Del Pintxo. It was a bit run down looking, sticky tables, and plastic menus, but the food was delicious, the staff friendly, and the sangria tasty!  We ordered some jambon croquettes (one of my favorites), steamed mussels, chicken and seafood paella, and a pitcher of sangria (yumm). We ate it all and drank it all. It hit the spot for sure!

 We spent the rest of the night on one of the main walking streets lined with bars, clubs, and restaurants. We had a few more drinks and people watched. I should probably mention at this point that Sitges is a predominately gay community. So a lot of our people watching consisted of groups or couples of men, tourists walking with their ice cream cones, and the occasional drag queen thrown in for fun. We enjoyed ourselves, but were waiting to see when the clubs and dancing would really start. By 2am, it was still crowded on the streets, but no one was in the clubs dancing. We decided to call it a night and try again the next night.

We spent the majority of the next day on lounge chairs under an umbrella on the beach. It was the longest we have ever spent on a beach ever. The umbrella was key as it kept us somewhat cool under the hot hot sun. Not to fear though, we still managed to get great tans...even Travers! We took turns going in the water (there is a lot of theft in Spain). And I managed to finish the book I was reading.  We had a prime people watching spot, and while I occasionally looked at the men in their speedos, Travers managed to spot the majority of topless women, most of who should not have been topless. But the spanish people have no shame or embarrassment of their bodies, sometimes laying spreadeagle in order to get tan in every spot possible.  We grabbed an afternoon beer and tapas at a local sports bar, then headed home to rest and get ready for the evening.

We had a nice night, eating at an Argentinian steak restaurant called Buenos Aires Grill. We each got steaks and baked potatoes and shared a bottle of Rioja. Again the food was so tasty. And even better, affordable! I think this is what I miss most about Spain, the delicious food at a reasonable cost. What more can you ask for?

The next day we got up early and got a few hours of beach time in before packing up our thing, saying Adios Sitges, and Hola Barcelona!!

We Survived the Fete de Geneve!

 Every year there is the Fete de Geneve, which is a festival that takes over the Rade de Geneve (the lakeside).  Before we went to London, there was the pre-fete which was just one small area in the Jardin Anglais that had a stage, restaurant booths, and bar booths all set up. Then after we got back from London, it was like the Fete exploded! The Jardin Anglais section doubled in the number of restaurants and bars, and other vendors and the "country of honor" India had their displays out and ready (every year the fete honors a different country). And as you walked along either side of the lake, Rive Gauche or Rive Droit, you came upon roller coasters, bumper car rides, cotton candy shops, more food vendors, and tons of other rides and things.  It was basically like a carnival. It brought in a lot of people and lots of kids to the area. And they held concerts almost every night at one of the many stages throughout the fete.

 
We went to the official Fete kickoff day. Our friend Michelle came with us and we started at our usual location in the Jardin Anglais.  By the time I got there around 6:30pm, it was packed with people and I barely was able to find Travers and Michelle. Once we were all together, we finished the drinks we were having and set out to find some delicious food.  The food vendors were a mixture of Thai, Indian, Persian, Swiss, Italian, Mexican, etc....It was amazing. We don't typically get a lot of variety here in Geneva, so this was heaven to us. To be able to get Pad Thai and Eggrolls was such a treat. We also got an Arancini which was a fried rice ball basically. It was so delicious that we went back another day and got the same thing.  We didn't try it, but saw something called Travers Du Porc. I think its essentially a pork spare rib of some sort, but it was fun to see cause its called a Travers. haha.  We then saw the fireworks show around 10pm and we watched in awe as they lit up the sky. We then decided, for a weeknight, it was time to head home.

Our next run in with the fete was the next week on Wednesday. We heard that a band called The Black Eyed Peaz (a cover band for the real Black Eyed Peas) was going to be doing a show that night. So we got a group together and headed to the area called Funkytown where they had several restaurant/bar vendors set up ready for the show. There were a few opening acts and the band didn't start till after we had been there several hours, but it was worth the wait. The Black Eyed Peaz were so good, they sounded exactly like the real band. We danced and sang along to the music. The crowd had gotten so large that you could barely move, but it was so much fun regardless.  There was also some debate as to whether 'Fergie' was a man or a woman, but I'm pretty sure its a woman based on their website. We ended the night around midnight and all of our throats were soar the next day from speaking over the noise and singing along to the music.

Two days later, we celebrated one of the last nights of the Fete by having a cocktail party at our house, then heading out to a bar/club called The Gold & Platinum Club (Click on this link, they play a great song on their website!). The permanent club is across the river, but they set up this temporary one just down the street from us for the fete. Our friends Shelly (Michelle) and Mike, and our new friend Mich (Michelle) (thanks Jen!) all came over and we got the night off to a good start. 

We then headed down to the club where some of Mich's friends had a table reserved. We mentioned this to the door guy, and he let us in, no questions.  The people before us were not so lucky. They should have just told the bouncer that they had a table reserved. He wasn't checking at all!  Anyway, when we got inside, it was unbelievably crowded, but it added to the ambiance and we all had a fun time sipping wine, dancing, and listening to the dj. We celebrated the final night of the fete in the best way possible, surrounded by friends and good music.

Needless to say, none of us were feeling great the next day, but some managed to rally and head out around 10pm to see the final fireworks show. It lasted about an hour and you could see the smoke everywhere (they had to take a break in between to let the smoke subside) and hear the blasts of the fireworks everywhere you were. It was definitely something to see and quite an end to the Fete De Geneve.

Londres C'est Fantastiques!

The rest of our time in London was just as amazing as my first two days, but it was better because I was able to share the experience with Travers.

We woke up Saturday morning, had a nice leisurely breakfast with Uncle Bill and Vincent, then Travers and I headed out on our own to go exploring for the day.  We took the tube to Islington, which Travers had heard was a nice area and wanted to check it out. It was a cute area with some beautiful homes and parks, and a busy main drag where we found a pub and got a couple beers while we watched a cricket match on the tele.
We also saw the soccer stadium that the Arsenal Team plays at and there happened to be a game on that afternoon. Much to Travers' dismay though, the game wasn't on for several hours, and I was not going to let us sit in Islington all day long when there was plenty of London to see.

We were getting hungry so we hopped back on the tube and went to Borough, where every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Borough Market opens up with tons of food and drink stands that puts the San Francisco Ferry Building to shame.  We walked through the market, got a mini glass of prosecco each to tide us over, and tried to find the best food to have for lunch.  

If I could have, I would have gotten something from every single place in this market. It looked that good.  Instead, we settled on a delicious duck sub, and a tasty bison sausage, which we shared so we could each try them.  We had a mini cone of mozzarella cheese, and saw some gigantic meringues, but resisted the urge to buy one.  We took our food and sat in a stone courtyard of a church, watched all the people doing the same thing, and chatted with a couple of australian girls who had moved to London within the last year.

After finishing lunch, we strolled down the south bank, checking out the restaurants and people. We passed by the Globe Theater, and the Tate Modern. We walked across the Waterloo Bridge and back on the tube to Chiswick where we enjoyed a delicious dinner at a restaurant called High Road House, where I got tasty fish and chips and Travers got a delicious steak. Yumm!

The next day, the four of us got in the car and Vincent gave us a tour of the city.  We saw The Ghurkin Building., the Monument for The Great Fire of London, The Tower Bridge, The London Bridge, and so much more. We even got to drive over the Tower Bridge which was fun to see it from that angle.

We also went to an event called The Vintage Village. This event was all about anything vintage. People were dressed up in anything they considered vintage, which was both fun and a bit scary at times. And Vincent's sister-in-law had a double decker bus parked there that she had painted pink and filled with anything vintage. Every surface on the inside of this bus was covered in vintage records, vintage toys, vintage clothes. It was amazing to see!

We then headed back to Chiswick to get ready for the evening. We had tickets to go to the BBC Proms, which is a Classical Music Festival held at the Royal Albert Hall.  Our show was 5 pieces by Rachmaninov, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.  I'm not a classical music expert, but this was wonderful to listen to and both Travers and I really enjoyed the show. 

It was a fantastic way to end the day and our trip in London.                                                                                             Until next time.....  

London - Day 2

Waking up Friday morning in London, I was refreshed and ready to go see the sites again.  Travers and I walked the mile or so from the hotel to his office near Covent Garden. We got to see a lot of the city that way, walking mainly up Picadilly, passing by Green Park, Picadilly Circus, and parts of China Town. After dropping him at his office, I proceeded down to the river Thames in the direction of the Tate Modern Museum.

I walked along the north bank of the river from Waterloo Bridge to Millenium Bridge, stopping to take lots of photos along the way. I saw St. Paul's Cathedral before crossing Millenium Bridge on my way to the Tate Modern museum.
I think at this point I had walked a little over 2 miles and I was already feeling achiness in my feet and back. But I had to push on and see as much as I could see.

The Tate Modern is one of 4 Tate museums and houses international modern artwork. It was built in an old power station and the architecture of the building itself was something to see as well as all the artwork inside. It has 5 floors of art. Some sculptures, some paintings, some photos. Some of it was really interesting work, and some I wasn't quite sure how it was considered to be art. After spending an hour and a half there, it was time to go and get some lunch and head back towards the Buckingham Palace, where I was planning to meet Travers' Uncle Bill and his partner Vincent.

So I left the Tate Modern and glanced quickly at my map to make sure I was headed in the right direction, then walked through the south bank back towards Westminster.  I had a little extra time and thought I would grab lunch, swing by Harrods, then head to Buckingham Palace. But I think there must have been something wrong with my eyesight because I clearly underestimated the distance I had to cover and the right way to get there.  And unfortunately, the south bank of London has very few tube stops too, so once I reached a certain point on my walk, it was pointless to try to walk to a tube stop to save me. I mapped my walk a few days later and realized I walked about 3 miles from Tate Modern to Buckingham Palace!! And needless to say, I didn't get to Harrods. I did, however, get a delicious rice bowl from a japanese chain restaurant called Itsu. It was delicious and helped me make the rest of my walk in one piece.

Finally making it to Buckingham Palace, I met Uncle Bill and Vincent because we were able to get tickets to actually go inside the palace, get a tour of the state rooms, and a Fabergé exhibit. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos inside the palace, but it was unbelievably amazing! Each room we went into was lavishly decorated.  My favorite is the white room. It was all white and gold and ornate. It had a secret door and beautiful views of the garden. We finished our tour in the palace gardens with some real english tea. Yum.

After we left the palace, we went back to the hotel to gather our bags, met Travers, and took a taxi to Uncle Bill and Vincent's in Chiswick.  They had recently moved in themselves, but made our stay quite comfortable and welcoming.  We got settled in, had a delicious dinner at their house, a few after dinner drinks and called it a night.

We still had two and a half more days in London, and way too much to see, but we were going to head out again in the morning and do as much touring as possible!

To be continued again...

The London Bridge Is Not The Tower Bridge

I arrived in London on Wednesday night.  I was a bit nervous travelling by myself as I haven't travelled without Travers in a long time. Thankfully, it was an easy flight from Geneva and I was now in an English speaking country. Yay!  So I was able to easily navigate through the tube and made it to the Intercontinental Hotel where Travers had been staying for the past 3 days for work.  After getting settled in, I had a nice nights sleep and woke up well rested on Thursday morning to go exploring!

I think I walked more than any person should walk in a 3 day span. My feet ached. My back ached. I felt like an old woman and it reminded me that my 30th birthday is coming up. Ugh. Anyway, I left the hotel and walked through Green Park, which, to my amazement, was extremely green. I'm not kidding actually. It was a very green park. You could tell the grass was well taken care of and the trees nicely trimmed.  I wish I could have stayed longer there, but the Buckingham Palace and St. James's Park were calling my name.

I had about an hour before the changing of the guards, so I walked through St. James's Park, which has more ducks, geese, swans, and squirrels than I have ever seen.  I took a path along the large pond and took way too many photos of all the animals, but they were all so pretty and peaceful looking. My favorite is the goose. We have a few here in Geneva, but there in St. James's Park there must have been hundreds!

Back at the Buckingham Palace, thousands of people waited at the gates and around the fountain. The Palace itself is not an extremely pretty building, but the gates are beautiful, and the fountain out front of it is beautiful. I walked around the fountain and along the gates and found a spot right along the main gate with only one person standing between me and the gates. It was a prime spot for viewing the guards!  Little did I know that I would be standing there for about an hour and half!  I'm not sure how those guards do it. I had to shift and fidget and move in my spot. How do they stand so still for such long periods of time?  But they do it, and I guess every day they get to move around and perform the changing of the guards. It was so fun to see them walk and move and switch places. My favorite part are the black furry hats they wear.

The show ended around lunchtime, so I decided to take the tube out towards Portobello Road near Kensington and find something to eat. Portobello is known for its antique shops and on Saturdays it turns into a street market where booths line the streets and hundreds of people go there to shop.  I got a bite to eat and strolled the several blocks long of Portobello Road for the next couple hours.

After resting at the hotel for an hour, I met Travers in Covent Garden. We had a couple of pints at a bar called The Nag's Head and got dinner at a mexican restaurant called Cantina Laredo. Yumm! 

Then we took a long walk through Trafalgar Square, and down towards the river Thames. We strolled along the north bank down to Westminster Bridge to see Big Ben, The House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We then strolled past St. James's Park and Green Park to end up back at the hotel.

I was exhausted from the day of walking and site seeing, but knew I was going to do it all again the next day and I couldn't wait!

To be continued...

The rest of Katy's Visit

Not to squish 2 weeks time into one post, but I think it would take me a long time and probably bore a lot of you if I went into detail as to what the rest of Katy's visit here was like. I will give you the main highlights however.

After the Lake Parade weekend, we had a couple quiet days seeing some of the local museums and enjoying the life of a local. We walked through 2 musuesms,  Le Musée d'Art et d'Histoire as well as Le Maison Tavel located here in Old Town, and both were free admission! They showed wonderful pieces of art from around the geneva region as well as an old large model of the town of Geneva from way back, when most of the city wasn't even built yet.  Then we spent a day at the Bain des Paquis laying out in the sun, people watching and swimming in the lake. 

We took a train up to Vevey one day and boarded the Train des Vignes, which is a little train that takes you up into the vineyards of Vevey.  It drops you in a town called Chexbres where there are some local wineries you can stop in at before you start your walk through the actual vineyards of Vevey.

We walked around the town, and couldn't find too many wineries that were open but stumbled upon a really cute one that served local wines from St. Saphorin. We tried three of their Chasseles, which are delicious white wines
and one rosé of the region. 
After finishing our wine, we started our walk through the vineyards. We saw spectacular views of the lake, the vineyards and the mountains. The pictures don't do it justice, but the colors of the blue lake, the green vines, the brown mountains and blue sky just popped out at us. It was beautiful.

We spent a day in Lausanne, going to the Olympic Museum, which if you're into the Olympics or not, is a great museum. It gave a great history of the Olympics, not just the about the athletes, but about the organization behind the event and how it has been affected throughout history and how it has affected historty. It was really something to see.

We also spent a day going to Yvoire to eat crepes. Travers and I had been there before and got savory crepes at this little restaurant there. They are the best crepes we have had to date.  The Swiss don't make them as good as the French apparently, because no matter where else we try them, they just don't compare to the ones in Yvoire. I will definitely go back to Yvoire just for the crepes. Yumm.

For Katy's 2nd weekend with us,Travers and I took her on a train to Zermatt, which if you don't know, is where the Matterhorn is.  We left early Saturday morning and arrived about mid-day in Zermatt.  We got off the train and walked into a very cute picturesque town. We checked into our hotel and immediately got on our hiking gear to start our hike up the mountain.  Unforutately, most times, the actual top of the Matterhorn is not visible due to fog/clouds that tend to sit right on top of it. We got a few small glimpses as we continued on our hike, but nothing completely clear. Something to strive for next time.  But we had a great time and got some good exercising in.  We topped it off with a night out on the town with some friends of ours that happened to be there the same weekend.   Oh and yes, there were goats there too.

We made it back to Geneva and the rest of the week, Katy and I hung out, braved the rain (yes it was raining again in mid-July), and just relaxed and caught up on all the things we've missed back in San Francisco.  One of her last night's in Geneva was, of course, spent eating fondue, which is a must when coming to visit.  We tried a new place this time called Restaurant des Antiquaires up in Old Town. The fondue was delicious and the service was great.  A perfect ending to a fabulous visit.  


Oh and I almost forgot, we did go out the night before Katy left to the pre-Fêtes de Genève. This is a month long festival all along the lakefront of Geneva. Local restaurants set up booths for food and drinks, there are stages set up at various locations where live music is played all night long, and just today, I saw lots of rides, rollercoasters, and carnival-type games set up along the Rive Gauche near Travers' office. I'm sure I'll have more stories of this festival as the month goes on.


For now, Au Revoir Katy!  Tu me manques (I miss you). xoxo