if you are curious about my tour last month...
ok, some of it was written right after i got back... then i ran out of steam but finally finish it today... and as of today i've been back for 3 weeks... already...
anyway... here you go...
...............................
back in new york... having a bagel at cake shop... hot and humid but not too bad...
so...
hard to believe it's been more than a month since i left... did so much in such a short period of time... been to 7 different countries, most of them i'd never been to... met many new great people and even became friends with them... had a fabulous time working on laurie's music with skuli and peter... with help from jodi, aaron, brad and dave... and their fabulous significant others who came along... was so great to be a part of music with statement that generated people's reaction...
the highlight has to be when we played in an amphitheater in acropolis looking up the parthenon in athens, greece... the parthenon was lit so beautifully and magnificently, i had to try so hard not to be distracted by it while i was playing... but it was there whenever i looked up...! i grew up reading greek mythology like some kind of bible so just being in greece itself was such a treat... then staying in a hotel that had a view of parthenon was totally outrageous... then the day after the concert, some of us went on a boat on an invitation of this architect named constantine and we just floated on the ocean for 10 hours... he even went hunting(!) some fish right in the ocean and grilled them for us... even though i was getting sea sick and claustrophobia after 6 hours or so, it was a great experience... too bad i don't know how to swim... so dumb...
had so much fun hanging out with jesse and max in budapest who turned out to have so many friends in common... and oh, one of the most memorable meals of my life... we played at this gorgeous new concert hall in bartok center and had dinner at the restaurant there for two nights... the first night was ok, not the best or worst... but considering how chic the whole place was, it was a bit disappointing... then the second night after the performance which was almost midnight, we were all so hungry and ready to eat almost anything, they brought out this plate that had a pile of rice placed in a puddle of blackberry jam along with three deep fried triangular shaped cheese balls, sparkled with toasted almond flakes... we were totally astonished by the look of it, many of us took pictures... then since we were so hungry we all started to eat it but then we couldn't stop laughing and talking about it... what a bizarre combination that was... guess it was some sort of nuevo cooking that's going on in budapest but if i see another plate like that, i'm running...
didn't have enough time in prague... walked around for a little bit outside at night time and crossed that famous charles bridge and it was magical... wish we had one more day to hang out there... we saw lots of tourists on boats while sitting on a cafe on a river bank... one even had a topless waitress...
then macedonia came... let me just say i will remember macedonia for their meat platters... the promoters from there took us to this restaurant on a mountain looking down at the entire city and it was gorgeous... and the food, mostly meat, was pretty good but maybe too much of it... think we ended up eating less than a half of what they brought out which made me feel bad... then the next day after checking out the old market, we went to lunch they arranged and again, we had pretty much the same meat platter... we were in desperate need for some fish or anything that wasn’t meat... oh, then we ran into many gypsy people which was frustrating because they were using their kids to beg for money... one night when we went out to a bar, i saw these 2 tiny kids sleeping on a tiny mat in the middle of the street...! their mother must have gone somewhere else but decided to leave them there...! was so infuriating... couldn’t believe that they were sound asleep in the middle of crowed street with loud dance music...
then rome... it was just like what i've imagined plus 10 times more tourists... thought about going to coliseum then the line looked like it was going to take at least 3 hours to wait and i gave up... went inside the pantheon and it had such a calming effect looking up the ceiling... beautiful light coming through the hole in the middle of the ceiling... illumintating all the relifs of the celing and scultures... then i went on a vintage clothing shopping with brad, the fabulous manager we were lucky to have, and we totally scored... went to these two places called pulp and god save the look and found so many fabulous things... mostly shiny glitterly stuff... heh heh heh... they went very nicely with these gold sneakers i was wearing, i though...
oh, our first gig was in udine, italy but didn't really get to check out the city since it was the very first gig and had to rehearse quite a bit... went to a very nice restaurant though... hmm, i must have the card somewhere... ask me if you need to...
then the last coutry for the tour was spain... we stopped by in madrid and the city felt great... warm dry heat and beautiful light... felt really nice being there even briefly... then went to san sebastien and stayed at the best hotel ever... rolling stone was staying at the same hotel right before we came... had the biggest bathroom ever...
(here i picked up today...)
then barcelona... oh, my god, did i love that city... at first i kept getting lost before realizing how big the whole city was... then finally i got my orientation together and was able to check out some gaudi buildings... and wow... walking down the winding path to the parc guell after climbing up all that escalators (i know, i couldn't dare to walk up... ), i couldn't stop saying "what the fuck..." it was like nothing i'd seen before... so many crazy details and ideas that were put into building that parc... and literally breathtaking view of barcelona... even in the hot sun, i couldn't stop standing and admiring the view for as long as i could take... then the next day i went to la familia sagrada and inside i was getting goose bumps all over my body... think that was the most gorgeous and inspiring building i've ever been... the ceiling was so high and magnificient without making you feel small but rather inspired... then all those scultures outside the church were unbelievably abstract yet emotional and powerful... and all those symbols he put into it... was just amazing... cannot wait to go back...
now i'm totally spoiled... still i love new york...
anyway... here you go...
...............................
back in new york... having a bagel at cake shop... hot and humid but not too bad...
so...
hard to believe it's been more than a month since i left... did so much in such a short period of time... been to 7 different countries, most of them i'd never been to... met many new great people and even became friends with them... had a fabulous time working on laurie's music with skuli and peter... with help from jodi, aaron, brad and dave... and their fabulous significant others who came along... was so great to be a part of music with statement that generated people's reaction...
the highlight has to be when we played in an amphitheater in acropolis looking up the parthenon in athens, greece... the parthenon was lit so beautifully and magnificently, i had to try so hard not to be distracted by it while i was playing... but it was there whenever i looked up...! i grew up reading greek mythology like some kind of bible so just being in greece itself was such a treat... then staying in a hotel that had a view of parthenon was totally outrageous... then the day after the concert, some of us went on a boat on an invitation of this architect named constantine and we just floated on the ocean for 10 hours... he even went hunting(!) some fish right in the ocean and grilled them for us... even though i was getting sea sick and claustrophobia after 6 hours or so, it was a great experience... too bad i don't know how to swim... so dumb...
had so much fun hanging out with jesse and max in budapest who turned out to have so many friends in common... and oh, one of the most memorable meals of my life... we played at this gorgeous new concert hall in bartok center and had dinner at the restaurant there for two nights... the first night was ok, not the best or worst... but considering how chic the whole place was, it was a bit disappointing... then the second night after the performance which was almost midnight, we were all so hungry and ready to eat almost anything, they brought out this plate that had a pile of rice placed in a puddle of blackberry jam along with three deep fried triangular shaped cheese balls, sparkled with toasted almond flakes... we were totally astonished by the look of it, many of us took pictures... then since we were so hungry we all started to eat it but then we couldn't stop laughing and talking about it... what a bizarre combination that was... guess it was some sort of nuevo cooking that's going on in budapest but if i see another plate like that, i'm running...
didn't have enough time in prague... walked around for a little bit outside at night time and crossed that famous charles bridge and it was magical... wish we had one more day to hang out there... we saw lots of tourists on boats while sitting on a cafe on a river bank... one even had a topless waitress...
then macedonia came... let me just say i will remember macedonia for their meat platters... the promoters from there took us to this restaurant on a mountain looking down at the entire city and it was gorgeous... and the food, mostly meat, was pretty good but maybe too much of it... think we ended up eating less than a half of what they brought out which made me feel bad... then the next day after checking out the old market, we went to lunch they arranged and again, we had pretty much the same meat platter... we were in desperate need for some fish or anything that wasn’t meat... oh, then we ran into many gypsy people which was frustrating because they were using their kids to beg for money... one night when we went out to a bar, i saw these 2 tiny kids sleeping on a tiny mat in the middle of the street...! their mother must have gone somewhere else but decided to leave them there...! was so infuriating... couldn’t believe that they were sound asleep in the middle of crowed street with loud dance music...
then rome... it was just like what i've imagined plus 10 times more tourists... thought about going to coliseum then the line looked like it was going to take at least 3 hours to wait and i gave up... went inside the pantheon and it had such a calming effect looking up the ceiling... beautiful light coming through the hole in the middle of the ceiling... illumintating all the relifs of the celing and scultures... then i went on a vintage clothing shopping with brad, the fabulous manager we were lucky to have, and we totally scored... went to these two places called pulp and god save the look and found so many fabulous things... mostly shiny glitterly stuff... heh heh heh... they went very nicely with these gold sneakers i was wearing, i though...
oh, our first gig was in udine, italy but didn't really get to check out the city since it was the very first gig and had to rehearse quite a bit... went to a very nice restaurant though... hmm, i must have the card somewhere... ask me if you need to...
then the last coutry for the tour was spain... we stopped by in madrid and the city felt great... warm dry heat and beautiful light... felt really nice being there even briefly... then went to san sebastien and stayed at the best hotel ever... rolling stone was staying at the same hotel right before we came... had the biggest bathroom ever...
(here i picked up today...)
then barcelona... oh, my god, did i love that city... at first i kept getting lost before realizing how big the whole city was... then finally i got my orientation together and was able to check out some gaudi buildings... and wow... walking down the winding path to the parc guell after climbing up all that escalators (i know, i couldn't dare to walk up... ), i couldn't stop saying "what the fuck..." it was like nothing i'd seen before... so many crazy details and ideas that were put into building that parc... and literally breathtaking view of barcelona... even in the hot sun, i couldn't stop standing and admiring the view for as long as i could take... then the next day i went to la familia sagrada and inside i was getting goose bumps all over my body... think that was the most gorgeous and inspiring building i've ever been... the ceiling was so high and magnificient without making you feel small but rather inspired... then all those scultures outside the church were unbelievably abstract yet emotional and powerful... and all those symbols he put into it... was just amazing... cannot wait to go back...
now i'm totally spoiled... still i love new york...
posted by okkyung at 2:43 PM
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