CURIOUSER NEW YORK

In El Caminito district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Click here to check out a very personal recollection of my trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina last January. It's a very detailed guide into everything you should know about the city before your trip from a very local perspective: from where to have the best Argentinian steak, pastries, and coffee to how to tango, shop, entertain and spend week days and weekends like a local. More of my travels here .

Coming back from a great trip to the South of Italy back to the reality of always busy and crazy New York City is never easy, especially with the jet-leg that keeps on 'waking me up' before East Coast sunrise...But I shouldn't be complaining after a three week long trip to Europe, which allowed me to once again fall in love with the Italian culture. Of course, Milan is the heart of the fashion in Italy, but other parts of the country also offer some very specific takes on the local street fashion. Take for example, Positano...

Ever thought you'd have someone deliver you wine and cheese to the banks of Seine? A trip to Paris just got more fabulous.  Imagine someone bringing you a bottle of frozen rosé wine and toasts with tapenade... 

Those times when I was close enough to the Hollywood sign to take a photo of it! After six years of having said goodbye to Los Angeles, tomorrow I'll be taking off to reconnect with LA I used to know and the friends I've left behind, as well as I'm looking forward to discovering the new LA! Throughout the years I've written many articles about Los Angeles - from shopping and lifestyle to art and culture. Here's the recap of what I've said once about the city of angels:

I just came back from a 3-day getaway to Miami, and no matter what they say about Miami - I always enjoy it. Here's why and how . And, of course, I couldn't stay away from checking out the street style of the locals in and around Miami Beach...

For Germans the  Spargelzeit , or the white asparagus season, is an eagerly anticipated sign of spring. Depending on the weather, the season for asparagus begins some time in April and lasts until St. John the Baptist’s feast day June 24, and during this time the country is gripped by ‘Asparagus Fever’. From seasonal asparagus dishes to the white asparagus queen award - there's quite a bit of the history that goes back as far as the Greek and Romans... "Asparagus Gratine" seasonal dish at the Knochenhauer restaurant in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony: served with the potato pancake, ham and Hollandaise sauce. Having spent quite some time in Germany during the pick of the season, I've learned a lot about the history and tradition of the white asparagus season. Read here to find out why Germans call white asparagus "white gold".

Newport, RI: A perfect getaway for all seasons I was contemplating this article for a while, but taken that I left for Germany and Argentina after I came back from a weekend retreat in Newport, Rhode Island, I've delayed the review until now. As I've said in the article, Newport is a perfect getaway for all seasons - it's great during summer as you can take advantage of many beaches the town and surrounding area offers, but it's also great during the late fall, as the town transforms into the magic of the leaves changing into very many colors - from green and yellow to red, violet and orange. I was able to capture this magic moment, and can't wait to share it with you. To see what I mean, click to continue...

Funny, how I haven't noticed the fried mushrooms at the Christmas market back in 2005, when I last visited Germany on Christmas.  Now that I've discovered it and indulged in it quite often in the last two weeks, I can't, really, call the Kartoffelpuffers  dish my favorite Weinahtsmarkt food. It is now - the Frische Champignons!  Frische Champignons mit Knoblauchsauce Interestingly enough, my parents weren't aware of it as well. When I mentioned to my mom that I've tried the fried champignons at the market in Gottingen, she was surprised and asked me: "How can you enjoy champignons, they don't even have the taste?!"

Christmas in Germany: the story and traditions of Weinahtsmarkt and Glühwein

Yesterday I tried Apfelkuchen - a delicious and relatively contemporary addition to the Christmas market 's expanding drink selection in Germany . Warmer Apfelkuchen translates to "warm apple pie". It consists of mostly Mulled Cider, which is essentially spiced and heated apple juice, a traditional and tasty seasonal drink that is usually non-alcoholic. With the addition of a liberal amount of Zubrovka bison-grass vodka (a sweet Polish vodka with a flavor similar to apple) the beverage becomes a Warmer Apfelkuchen. However, after trying hot white cocoa with Baileys, hot cocoa with Rum, Weisswein (a white wine copy of  Glühwein ) and Apfelkuchen, I still prefer a good old  Glühwein . Here's why it's so good and so popular in Germany . But there's just so much more to try!...

I'm in Germany right now to visit my family for Christmas, so most of my blogs will be about the happy holiday Christmas time in Germany - from foods I love and miss when back in USA to street fashion and German lifestyle. I'd like to start with the Christmas Market, or, as the Germans call it - Weihnachtsmarkt. It's one of the things I miss about Europe... So, the things we eat at Weihnachtsmarkt: The Kartoffelpuffers...

Think small, when traveling: Hannoversch Münden, Germany

Check out my thoughts on Discovering the Swedish minimalism !

  There's no doubt Marlene Dietrich had a soft spot for Berlin. As a matter of fact, even after she moved to Hollywood, she's never forgotten that she was ein Deutsche frau. She once said: “Ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin.”  Which means: "I still have a suitcase in Berlin".  She's never really left Germany; she flew it because she was against the Nazi regime. But she never really wanted to live in Hollywood. Well, and I can't blame her.

It's been three weeks since I came back from my trip to Germany and Sweden , and I'm snot even close to putting all the photos I took on the trip that I promised to show to my family and friends. I've never realized back when I was a teenager that with each decade new innovations would come - like photo cameras, gadgets, iPhones/iPads and such, that would result in us taking so much more photos that it would become a challenge to organize it all.  Back in the days, we'd take a few photos, then turn in the photo film at a drugstore and in a few days we'd pick up the print-outs - viola! Easy, fast, painless…But nowadays - it's a completely different picture. Now that we digitize everything, and with all the photo Apps we have - we store all our pictures on our gadgets for months and years to the point, where we loose any interest to dig that far back for the photos to put them up in the albums. That happens to me a lot -  unless I take care of my photos ...

Pinch me - is it really the end of September already? Where did the summer go? And I thought I just started to enjoy my linen dresses and wedges...ahhh Paying tribute to the last days of summer - [ which, I learned not long ago from living in USA, include three weeks of September ] - I reminisced back to the summer trip to Stockholm last August and put together a post on a minimalist look - a rather laid-back look of the Stockholm's city dwellers .

I'm not yet done with Stockholm.   Last month when I visited Stockholm, I spent all three days walking around the city, taking a boat cruise only once to reach the far islands of the city and to see the city from afar to enjoy the Old Town at the fullest. One of those days I spent walking around the Stockholm's Sodermalm district, think of it as something close to New York City's SoHo + West Village. Before I went there, I've read in the guide that this district has flourished over the years with the design shops, fashion boutiques, art galleries, furniture stores, cafes, restaurants and what-not… I made it a mission to spend enough time exploring that area so that I could get the full vibe of the district, and I did. 

I'm not yet done with Stockholm , or with Europe for that matter. Just because I've stayed in Stockholm for only three days, doesn't mean I didn't have enough time to shoot around the area and picture the local lifestyle. I have quite a few photos to share, and for those you know me relatively intimately, know that I have a very special feeling towards biking . I'm a biker myself - not one of those who do marathons or anything, but one of those who uses biking as a lifestyle - biking to work (I did it in LA, SF, and DC) and biking around the city on weekends ( doing it now in NYC )…[ Can't you guess by the name of my blog? ]

I couldn't get enough of Stockholm many bikes and super stylish Swedish design offices, galleries and shops - done in a very 'IKEA'/Nordic style. I embarked on the trip to Sweden for many reasons - to see it and to shop in it...

I swear, I haven't planned it this way, but it happened, and it happened perfectly. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. On the day of my arrival to Stockholm, I've learned that it was the first day of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Stockholm . And on August 29th, in the center of the city - or in one of the 14th districts, named Kungsholmen - the central part of Stockholm with the largest shopping district - the fashionable action was happening. Right there, on one of the central plazas of the city, there were tents set up for the fashion shows, next to the ones for the after-show parties... While I didn't go to the runaway show - [the main purpose of my trip, after all, was to see the city, duhh...] - I did go to an after-party, which was by the invitation only...