Vacation Highlight: Pasta in Pisa

Our second day in Florence was spent traveling to Pisa to see some tower.

The Tower is cool - though it would be cooler if the mystery was still surrounding it.

I was adamantly avoiding tourist-trap food. We got screwed with it in Rome at the Vatican, and I was determined to find something few tourists would get to. Thanks to Frommer's we ventured to the Pisa market and found the best pasta yet.

Amazing. 

For €5.50 we were served the tastiest, freshest meal we'd had yet. Ma's was the best risotto I have ever tasted. Mine was gnochetti with sundried tomatoes, olives, rosemary in a tomato sauce. They didn't have a menu, relying on daily specials to keep their customers satisfied. And satisfied we were!

After lunch, we left the restaurant stuffed and wandered towards the train station. As we're going I pause to let everyone else catch-up. (I'm a fast walker, I've tried, but I can't help it.) Then SPLAT! something falls on my forehead, and drips onto my jacket when I realize

I've just been shit on!

But even this horrifying experience couldn't take away from what may very well be the best pasta meal of my life.

And can we talk about how lovely Pisa is? Is every Tuscan town like this!? Beautiful! And way larger than I was expecting.

I'm ready to go back, if only for the pasta.

Have I mentioned how fat I've become?

Vacation Highlight: Irish Car Bombs with Bobby

I get my party-loving ways from my dad. No one in my family would argue that fact. So when we got to Florence and he wanted to go out, I agreed and off we went.

The taxi driver dropped us off in the nightlife centre of Florence, but just like in Paris, for some reason, the first bar we stopped in to was a karaoke bar. Oye.

We were stone-cold sober, so I figured, what the hell, let's do shots!

So I ordered two Irish Car Bombs.

My pa had no idea what the hell was put in front of him. As he dropped in his shooter glass, he abandoned the drink, so I had to do both of them. Fun!

We had a couple of beers there, watched American students sing Katy Perry & songs from Grease and then continued our stroll. Stopped in another lounge, which went from packed to empty in five minutes. I blame Bobby. Finally we ended in a full-on nightclub on reggae night. I pounded my drink and got us out of there. Awkward.

Iris / Bobby time happens very rarely, so even among the drunken students, this was totally a vacation highlight.

Vacation Highlight: Living Like a Local

For this vaycay we rented apartments in each city rather than staying at hotels. I did this in Paris and found my experience to be so much better because of it. Though the five flights of stairs is something I will never get used to.

Rome we had a lovely apartment in the Testaccio area. According to Fodor's this area isn't really explored by tourists. YAY! We ate mainly within a few block radius of the apartment, and often had difficulties finding anyone that spoke English. AMAZING!

Florence was again, in a lovely area, on top of an amazing bakery and across the street from a delightful deli. Milan was right off the tram line and so accessible. Venice was cool, but three flights made for some difficulties for my parents. (Don't get me wrong, I hate stairs too. They are in fact, one of my biggest fears. Stupid right?)

The thing all of these places had in common was that there wasn't another tourist in site when we left our room. For a few days in each city, we got to kinda see what life is like in each city. What living in Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice would be like.

Lovely.

So thanks VRBO.com and homeaway.com - you have totally changed the way I travel.

Bonus - each apartment was close to half the price of a hotel.

Wrap-Up Report: Italy

My vacation highlights are coming, but I'm a seriously jet-lagged little girl with some stuff to say.

With that, forgive me for the sentimentality of this post.

The trip had its highs and its lows. An amazing birthday was followed by some intense family stuff. By the end of the two weeks, almost everything my parents said and did grated on my nerves to some extent, but today, I am so grateful to have had that time with them. So grateful to see my ma get excited about something, see my dad get a little bit sappy, and to just remember what they are like as people.

For all of our familial quirks and difficulties, this little group of three is all the family I think I could ever want or need. The life my parents have given me blows me away on an almost daily basis. And though each of us has our faults, I am so blessed to have two people that love me in such an unconditional, big way.

So the overall impression of this trip: I am one lucky chick. In so many ways.

Before I forget

The first week of December was spent in Houston with my family. All the kids, my cousins & their husbands, aunt and ma. As an added treat I also got to hang with Roberto, one of my Paris-vacation highlights - how fun is that? Thanks internet!

Anyways, I have to say the highlight of this trip was, not surprisingly, the kidlettes. These kids are pretty awesome, and they still think I'm pretty cool, so that's fun.

I took my nephew skating for the first time - he was a super trooper and did really well with a couple of decent falls, was willing to let go of my hand to try and skate on his own, and just had a lot of fun with it.

I got to watch my niece during her swimming and ballet lessons, and then had the most incredible experience.

My second last night there I was helping my niece with her homework - the usual reading & writing. I've never helped a child with homework before. I've never had the chance to see a young mind learning something totally new. Reading, to my niece, is totally new. Words like 'why' and 'pox' were unknown, but by the end of our study date, she knew stuff.

I've probably done a poor job articulating how amazing it was to witness this. How incredible it is to see her now, at age 7, when I first saw her as a newborn.

Amazing.

I also went to have lunch with my niece, and had to explain to my nephew that he's my only boyfriend, when he was getting jealous I was meeting up with Roberto.

After explaining to my niece how Justin Timberlake is my talented boyfriend and showing her a video from a concert, she says to me "Aunty Iris, if he's your boyfriend, why is he dancing with another girl?"

Because Aunty Iris doesn't do jealousy.

And then there was my two-year-old niece who watched attentively as I did my make-up one night.

So cute.

But at the end of right now, they aren't cute enough to want. I was exhausted for a good chunk of the vacation, because there is no rest with kids. I wanted to talk like an adult and not worry I was corrupting a young mind.

So now I'm going to sit on my couch, finish watching an R-rated movie, maybe curse during a phone call, and sleep in tomorrow, because I'm an aunt and the kids aren't mine.

That doesn't make them less awesome though.

Priority: High

I went to Hawaii this weekend. Yes, it is extravagant for a weekend trip, but the flight prices were cheap, and because it was a family vaycay, I didn't have to pay for anything else.

This weekend has been all kinds of ups and downs.

Up because I got to see all of my immediate family and a good chunk of my extended family.

Up because my nieces and nephews (two of each) are the most awesome kidlettes ever. The kidlettes and I were Team Awesome all weekend. My 1 year old niece was trying to scream my name for the last two days. My 4 year old nephew said I was his girlfriend and tried to stay up all night so he wouldn't miss a minute with me. My 6 year old niece wore her Canada sweater with pride and was fucking awesome-sauce.

Down because it was so short.

Down because Monday was spent in front of a computer working. As these nieces and nephews of mine were on the beach, yelling for me I was forced to deal with a 'client issue'.

Normally, I don't mind working from home, but this was not home. This was a house on Oahu's North Shore. This was time that I was supposed to have with my family that I don't get to hang with much.

This was MY time.

My family understands the reality of mortality and this weekend made me realize: at any point, any one of these people might not be here. And should they stop being here I would be left with nothing but regrets for not spending Monday frolicking on the beach with the cutest half-breed kids in the world.

So, this weekend left me with one nagging question: where the fuck are my priorities?

Why Can This Family Not Take ONE Normal Picture

We did a lot of touristy stuff today. Top of the Rock, NBC Studio Tour, both VERY touristy. So you think when you do this stuff, you might get a couple of good photos right?

WRONG! At least not when you are a part of the Dias family. Dad apparently hates to look at the camera, mom seemingly doesn't like to smile when the camera is on here, and then there is me. I look like a toothy retard in almost every pic.

So what does that leave us with?

Here they are:







The last one is my favorite. Dad totally didn't get this whole concept of the self-picture (one of my personal favs). He was sooo confused!

The Top of the Rock was really quite cool. We got to see basically the whole city. NBC Tour was also really great. Saw the SNL Studios, the Dateline studios and a bunch of other NBC stuff. I was hoping to run into Peter Petrelli, but he wasn't around.

I then went to the airport to pick up Jarod and Steve. A seperate post is necessary to fully describe the Jarod, Steve and Iris portion of this trip.

I need sleep.


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Merry Effing Christmas

Have I ever mentioned that I hate Christmas? I hate most celebrated holidays, you know Easter, Valentines' Halloween. Hate'em!

This year was no different. Sure we were spending it in NYC, but this doesn't make this time of year any more exciting to me. Bah Hum Bug is my general disposition, and I am ok with this.

The one thing I was actually excited for was the Giants game yesterday. It was VERY cool to see how Americans celebrate this sport. Tailgating galore. There were at least 8,000 ppl in the parking lot drinking and pre-gaming for the game. Can you imagine?

The game itself sucked. The Giants were blown out, but let me tellya, Reggie Bush is one bad ass mother. He was pure football entertainment. Eli was a joke, and Shockey embarrassed himself. Meh, I didn't really care what happened, b/c no matter what, the Raiders weren't making it into the playoffs. (But #1 draft pick here we come!! YEAH BABY!!!)

That was the end of yesterday, ordered some cheap Chinese food in and just hung out.

Today was relaxing. Mom and Dad went to church, and understanding the fact that I neither believer in the Catholicism or religion in general, they didn't push. They came back, we hung out for a while and then went for dinner.

Because of poor planning skills, we didn't really have any idea where we were going. We had made resos at the Boathouse in Central Park, but we weren't really feeling it. So we went to the Meatpacking District. Initially, I thought we would walk around the West Village and find a cool restaurant, but it was raining and we ended up at Markt, AGAIN.

The food was great, as per usual, and dad liked it, which is rare, and he didn't complain about prices, which is UNHEARD OF!

All in all it was a good Christmas. I am thinking of converting to Constanzaism so, next year will be Festivus for me. Or at the very least Kwanza. I need a random holiday to validate my already random existence.


Now for the airing of grievances ... how is that different than any other day of the year??



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National Dias' New York Vacation

The majority of this trip is going to be spent with my family. Don't get me wrong, I adore my parents. They are good people with many quirks - which is probably where I get it from. Today was day one of the vacation. My father hasn't been to NYC since the 70's and doesn't really understand why I want to be here so badly. My mother gets it, as she was here earlier this summer.

Today began fairly normally. My family taking far too long to get ready and me being VERY hungover. We FINALLY go on our ways. We take the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge to see the WTC site, the NY Stock Exchange and Lower Manhattan. This is them in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is just so them. Mom trying to tell dad how to stand and to smile. Hahaha, they are ACTUALLY crazy.

We then made it down to Wall Street etc. Our trek to Battery Park we see the most random thing in the world, a turkey. A TURKEY! Wandering around Battery Park just hanging out.

After running into the turkey, we make our way up to Times Square. I HATE Times Square. It is crowded with tourists who move WAY too slow and don't realize they are in NY and that walking that slow is pissing people (me) off. But dad wanted to see it, so I sucked it up. We saw where we wanted to be for New Years and all of that. We then went to 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center. The tree is even prettier at night. Still a gross amount of consumerism, but what the hell right, it's all for Jesus' birthday.

I also got to see the displays at Bergdorf Goodman's. These displays are legendary, and they totally lived up to the expectations. Interesting displays that are intricate and perfect. The details are incredible.

Other than that, we had a nice day. I needed a break, and thank god for Brandy Chorney because she called at the perfect moment for me to take a break from my family.

I am pooped now and need to sleep. I got dad the best Christmas gift ever! We are going to the Giants-Saints game tomorrow. He is the one that introduced me to football and neither of us have ever been to an NFL game. His response to the tickets "Iris, there are serious playoff ramifications associated with this game" I love it. I really do think I might be the coolest daughter in the HISTORY of daughters. Haha, ok, probably not, but this is going to be killer fun. Tailgating, drinking in the middle day and watching some killer football.

I will post again tomorrow. Amazing how life becomes more interesting when on vacation.


Red 45, Red 45.


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