Postcards from Chicago

August 30, 2012 by · 11 Comments

For years, I’ve been searching for a Chicago flag patch for Kike. The white bar in the middle, flanked by two celestial bars and four crimson stars, flies everywhere in the Windy City (so, literally). Every souvenir shop, Etsy boutiques – nowhere – has this token that he collects from the far-flung African countries he works in or the other soldiers he encounters.

So, when he asked me to find one for the fourth summer running, I tried again, hopeful that I’d get lucky. My bags are packed and his birthday gift wrapped up – it’s just not the patch he asked for. Still, Chicago’s most prominent colors are always the Cubbie Blue up in Wrigleyville, the white caps on Lake Michgan and the red of traffic lights lit up all over downtown. Here’s my attempt to get Chicago framed using those colors.

The Way to Really Fly.

The L

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Filed Under: A Few of My Favorite Things, America, Chi Town, Chicago, coming home, guiri atope, photo post, Sweet Home Chicago, travel photography · Tagged: ,

Seville Snapshots: Tourist Season

August 27, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Now that it’s August, tourist season is in full spring in all of Spain. Most professions enjoy 30 days’ vacation, most often given during the eight month of the year. Unemployment temporarily dips as resorts brace for the huge wave of tourists looking to relax, eat and spend their soon-to-be-naught bonuses, most often on the beach.

For a place like Seville that relies on tourism, the season begins well before the heavy wooden floats are pulled out from dusty churches for Holy Week processions. Lending to Seville’s climate, springtime and its festivals and orange blossoms make it a popular destination.

I took this picture while walking to meet friends of mine who were visiting from London, Dave and Melissa. The weather was already well past comfortable, so we stuck to lots of (alcoholic) fluids, avoiding the harsh summer hours and ducking between buildings in El Centro as much as we could. We were surrounded by scores of other camera-carrying tourists, and I let myself be considered part of that group as I looked for new angles in Plaza del Triunfo.

Love taking shots? Been to Seville or Spain? I’m looking for travelers with a good eye to capture beautiful Spain and contribute to my weekly Snapshots section. Send your photos to sunshineandsiestas @ gmail.com with your name and a short description of the photo and look to be featured here!

Filed Under: Andalucia, El Centro, photo post, Sevilla Center, Seville, Seville Shots, Spain, Spain Travel, Things to do in Sevilla, travel photography · Tagged: ,

Saturday in the Park: NYC’s Central Park

August 25, 2012 by · 7 Comments

It took me 27 years to get to the Center of the World.

I came close on my first trip abroad, reaching Delphi’s “Belly Button of the World” by tourist bus, and Turkey seemed pretty close, too. But after two dozen countries under my belt, New York City finally got crossed off of my list.

I got a surprising number of responses in Spain at the fact that, for all of my other travels, NYC was a place I hadn’t explored. When my mother suggested a Girls (and one boyfriend) trip before a family wedding in Boston, my idea to spend the summer in Chicago was more than booked in my head.

Upon stretching our legs in La Guardia and picking up the key to our AirBnB apartment in Murray Hill, we had one destination – Central Park. I screwed my long-distance lens on and starting snapping away…at people.

Jugglers, breakdancers, lovers locking lips and fingers. I barely saw anything else but the people in Central Park.

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Filed Under: America, coming home, NYC, photo post, tourism, Travel · Tagged: ,

Places with Encanto: Casa Hernanz Alpargateria

August 23, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Calle de Toledo stretches from Madrid’s crowning Plaza Mayor all the way down a hill past La Latina’s churches and bars to the Glorieta de Toledo, where I first spent the night a weekend in Madrid. Alvaro and I hiked up and down that weekend as he took me to his favorite places for a caña-tapa.

I’ve spent countless days around the Plaza Mayor, snacking on bocadillos de calamares, browsing souvenir shops. In the quest to spend a few hours before the Novio came to meet me in Madrid, I climbed up Calle de Toledo, on my way to Mercado San Anton in Chueca. Remembering an article about shopping in Madrid, I was delighted to stumble across a Madrid institution, Casa Hernánz.

Wedged into a small workshop space just a block of Plaza Mayor, I peered in the windows showcasing the dozens of raffia-soled shoes, a popular folk style called espadrilles or alpargatas. Standing on my toes, I found a pair of beige ankle-strap sandals with a broad pink strap across the toes.

“You should take a picture to show at the mostrador,” the black-clad woman behind me said to her daughter. “This line is so long, you won’t even remember the style you want by the time you’re attended to. My company in line were two Americans with suitcases, a Crocs-wearing priest and an endless array of older madrileñas. I sighed and pulled out my smartphone, settling in for what was sure to be as long a wait as the bank.

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Filed Under: A Few of My Favorite Things, fashion, Feria, flamenco, Madrid, Places with Encanto, shopping, Spain, typical Spanish · Tagged: , ,

My Chicago Soundtrack

August 15, 2012 by · 3 Comments

I am a Chicago girl, born and bred. I love my all-beef Kosher hot dogs, had a Chicago Bulls three-peat T-shirt, sport a Jewel-Osco card in my wallet. Leaving the Windy City was a choice that almost never came to be, with a job offer on the table and plenty of young friends convincing me that my life was not in Spain.

But I chose to board the plane and to take my Chicago roots with me to Spain, preaching the Cubbie way of life and claiming that there are lakes the look like oceans in the middle of the Midwest. As Spain became more and more like home, I became increasingly proud of where my parents, grandparents and I come from.

Now that I’m back in Chicago for the month of August, every trip to the City of Broad Shoulders has my heart pumping out the songs that bring me back to the countless summers, bitter cold winter afternoons and rides along the rails of the L. Songs that remind me of seeing punk rock shows at the Metro, of childhood shopping trips on State, of what makes this city so damn great. Wikipedia lists over 400 songs about Chicago, and while “My Kind of Town” and “Sweet Home Chicago” would be obvious choices, mine are a little unexpected (and seriously throwback to my love of punk rock days. Lucky Boys Confusion, Fall Out Boy and The Dog and Everything CDs are still in my car!)

Kanye West – Homecoming

While I can’t say Kanye, like R. Kelly, is a favorite Chicago musician, this song echoes through my brain every time I fly in over Lake Michigan and the skyline, which stretches further than my window can hold.

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Filed Under: A Few of My Favorite Things, America, Chi Town, Chicago, coming home, dance, la vida loca, music, Sweet Home Chicago · Tagged: ,

The Hardest Goodbye

August 8, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Morgan almost never became our family dog. Nancy had her heart set on a black and brown furball that kept running into the sides of the cardboard box the half a dozen shih tzu puppies had been placed in. It was a dark evening outside of Rockford, Illinois, and my sister and I had finally convinced my parents to do the unthinkable: buy us a dog.

Nancy’s heart melted when we presented the puppy who would become a fifth member of our family: a floppy runt we would call Morgan.

Nearly 17 years later, my mom is sitting on the bed, staring off into space. I popped my head into her bedroom and ask if she’s ok. “Yeah…” she replies, voice wavering. “I’m just going to miss the sound of her little paws on the linoleum.”

Three hours later, we carried Morgan’s old lady body on her death march towards the car. Our first family dog was going to the Puppy Heaven in the sky, where she could run with all of her doggie buddies on a Cheerio-filled stomach.

Grow thick anodyne flowers

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Filed Under: A Few of My Favorite Things, America, coming home, family, goodbyes, love, Sweet Home Chicago ·
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