Caffé Pedrocchi - A Unique Coffee Experience - Sundays in My City

I like coffee.  I don't NEED coffee and I don't turn into a monster if I don't have coffee.  But I do like it.  And I know how good Italian coffee is supposed to be.  But honestly (and I hope they don't kick me out of the country for saying this), I find it rather boring.  There's very little flavor complexity to the coffee here.  It's all just strong espresso.  I like my coffee to taste like more than just coffee.  I like to be able to detect chocolate or nuts or fruits the same way you're supposed to be able to detect more than just grape in your wine. 

I was headed to Padova the other day with some friends who were visiting.  We had no plan so I did a quick google search to see if there was anything special to Padova that needed to be experienced.  I found this:

Café Pedrocchi - Ernest Hemingway, Lord Byron and Stendhal are all said to have found inspiration within the walls of this 18th-century cafe. Founded by Francesco Pedrocchi of Bergamo in 1722 in response to the increasing coffee consumption of the European bourgeoisie, it has been a pillar of Paduan society for centuries. Famous for its neoclassical architecture and powerful coffees, it offers a drink known as caffé pedrocchi. This looks like a cappuccino but actually consists of cold mint froth on top of a strong espresso base; the combination of hot bitter coffee and cool mint will leave your taste buds tingling.  [Source] 

 

So, of course, we had to check it out.  It is a beautiful building both outside and inside (it was very bright out so my picture is not very good.  Here's a much better one.

[Source]

The coffee wasn't as strong or as hot as I expected.  But it was an interesting, new taste and I'll definitely take Gran here when she comes this summer. She'll love the interior and the fancy-ness of the place.  Plus, she loves coffee :)  You can check out their website here.


Again, not the best picture but this was my caffé pedrocchi.

Caffé pedrocchi.  You can see a hint of the green mint foam (which is really more of a heavy cream than a foam).

Thanks to Stephanie and Adam for the fun visit and the adventure in trying this new coffee (Steph's cup had mostly mint foam and very little coffee so she ended up eating hers with a spoon).

Cute Little Kids - Sundays in My City

Spotted this on the way to rather non-descript building downtown where I had to go take care of some rather boring logistical requirements.  It was a part of town I hadn't been in yet and I was early (because I have a fear of being late) so I was wandering a bit to kill time.

Where Have I Been?

Home...mostly. 

This blog started as a way to share my travels with friends and family back home.  It evolved a little when I made a bigger move overseas and grew to incorporate posts about the dogs, exercise, books, food, etc.  That wasn't my original intent but it's what happened.

Last year I didn't really go anywhere.  I had plans but then Tex got sick and shortly thereafter we lost him.  It was a huge emotional blow and I'm still not over it.  On the same day my car engine blew up.  Seriously!  I lived a bad country song for a little while.  In addition to the emotional trauma of it there was also a big hit to my bank account.  So my travel plans were put on hold. 

I wasn't the only one to be hit very hard by Tex's parting.  My other (much older) dog also lost her best friend and she was clearly very depressed. I felt like I had to do something or I was going to lose her, too. So after a month I brought home two foster dogs from the rescue where I volunteer.  They came to the rescue together from the same house and I didn't want to separate them.

Bella (I nicknamed her the Little Monster)- a miniature poodle who was in terrible shape when we got her. After getting her healthy and recovered from her recent abandonment and neglect she was adopted by a wonderful woman and is thriving in her new home.

Jack - a black lab/pit mix who is about the sweetest dog you'll ever meet.

I wish I could say that these dogs were the balm my old dog needed to get over her sadness but they weren't.  However, she does seem less depressed although I doubt she'll ever fully get over the loss of Tex.  She really didn't like Bella (Bella had some aggression issues even though she was a tiny little thing and at her age, Chey is just not as understanding and adaptable as she used to be).  No dog will ever replace Tex but Jack has a great sense of when something is wrong and he checks on her (and me) often (sometimes knocking her over in his haste to see if she is okay).  It's not perfect but it's better than what it was. I no longer worry that Chey is going to commit suicide while I'm at work (I'm not making light of suicide...I cried every morning when I left just because of the look on her face).

Chey and Jack the day he came to live with us. I think this might be the only picture I have where Chey is smiling.

So we've just been here, doing out thing...recovering emotionally and figuring out a new normal. 

However, I do have travel plans for this year!  And I have travels about which I have not yet posted.  So I hope to get back to this blog and tell you about some trips I've taken in the past and what my plans are for this year.  I'm excited!

Do you have travel plans for this year?  What are they?

Help-Portrait Baltimore - Sundays in My City

Volunteering with Help-Portrait in Baltimore is one of the most amazing experiences I've had!  When I first saw the opportunity posted I noticed they were looking for photographers to volunteer.  I thought, "Hey, I have a camera and can take a fairly decent picture."  Then I saw they required you to have your own portable lights, backdrop, etc. I have none of that and honestly, wondered why so much was required. They also wanted people proficient in photo editing.  I don't edit my pictures.  Ever. Don't even know how. But, once I saw the results of what this project produced, I was amazed and am glad I didn't try to pass myself off as being capable enough!  I worked on the "hospitality" crew which basically means I helped people when they needed it, took lots of "behind the scenes" pictures and sat and talked with the men. I was honored that they were willing to share their stories with me.

You can read about Help-Portrait (a world-wide, once-a-year event) and the Helping Up Mission (which is where I volunteered today).  I had never heard of the Helping Up Mission (then again, despite living 15 minutes away from Baltimore for the last year I don't really know anything about anything the city offers). Putting my opposition to religious-based...well...anything aside, I was extremely impressed with what they do at this facility.  There are between 400-500 men there at any one time participating in a year-long addiction-recovery program which includes counseling, education services, medical services, housing and a lot more and it's free (receiving no public money).

Average age of residents: 40

Average length of addiction: 23 years

Average time in jail: 30 months

This is not a typical homeless shelter and, in fact, not all of the men living there and receiving treatment are homeless. They do, however, offer what they call "overnight guest services" which include a bed, shower and meal for those who simply need a place to stay and don't want to commit to the program. On very cold days those beds will fill in just a few minutes leaving many still with no place to go.

The goal of today's project was to give these men (another team in Baltimore did the same thing at the House of Ruth shelter for women and children) a professional portrait. Simple as that.  Many of them had family members come to be in the picture with them.  It was great to see the family love and support these men are receiving while they're working towards recovery from addiction and return to productive society.  It was such a joy to see how proud they were of the work they've done so far and how excited they were with their pictures. 

Here are a few of the pictures I took (all with permission!). 

The REAL photographers setting up.

This man had a beautiful family and you could see how happy he was to have them there.

One of the photographers shows one of the men his picture.



Reviewing the pictures and picking the best one (each man got to select one picture to be printed, on the spot).

One man and his beautiful mother.

One of the men shows me his portrait.

Son and grandson there for support.

 

A young man and his mother. The young man wanted to have his official portrait done just of himself so that he could give a copy to his father for Christmas (his mother and father are not together) but he also wanted a picture with his mother.  Since only the professional pictures are made available to the men I'm going to print this one and drop it off there for him.

This man was stringing some beads that were there for the children. He said he wanted a reminder to keep from this day. When I showed him the picture he told me how his hands used to be swollen so badly they looked like grapefruits. He was amazed at how good they look now. 

I talked to him (the same man as the photo of the hands) for quite a while. He has a lot of ambition and he seems to be doing very well.

This photo was posted by Help-Portrait Baltimore on their FB page yesterday.  You heard a lot of similar stories.  "This feels good. Last photo I recall was a mug shot for DUI in 2005.  Looking good, feeling good, smiling good came of my recovery. It's a whole lot of people lovin me!"

Seriously, this was such an incredible experience.  I hope to get to do it again and I hope it gets to where it happens more than once a year.  [I think I've edited this at least 5 times now because I keep thinking of more I want to say.  I just can't capture how happy this whole thing made me!]

Travel Your Way

Travel Your Way is a photography competition. The competition is based around modes of transport and how you travel, whether by road, air, rail or sea. 

Here are my entries...

 Air, Rail, Road

This picture of the Queensferry Bridge (which carries cars) and Fourth Bridge (which carries trains) was taken from the air...3 modes of transport in one picture!

 Road, Sea

This isn't a fabulous picture but it makes me laugh. The GPS unit thought we were still in Scotland when we were really back in Germany.

Sea

A storm rolling into the harbour in Hoorn, Netherlands

Early morning Malaga, just before sunrise

 Road

My favorite way to travel by road is on a bicycle.  These figures were being unloaded in preparation for a bicycle race in Gent, Belgium.

These bicycles were seen in Amsterdam

 Rail, Road

The Ponte Luis I Bridge in Porto, Portugal carries trains on the upper deck and cars on the lower.  The blue steel was amazingly beautiful.

I'm nominating
1. Angie at Angie Eats Peace
2. Jessica at The Tangerine
3. Oneika at Oneika the Traveller
4. Megan at Girl Meets Camera
5. Vidya at Going Amusing

Really Google?

Last night I clicked on...something...in the Google account that is linked to this blog. When I started the blog, Blogger and Google were separate entities. At some point they merged (Google bought Blogger most likely) and you were required to link a Google account to your blog. But, you couldn't link an existing Google account; you had to create a new one.  Okay, whatever. So last night I was checking some settings and Google wanted me to fill in some info.  It asked me for my DOB and, never wanting to put my real info, I chose the conception date for this blog which was in 2008.

Instantly, without any warning or an, "are you sure?" I got a message saying my account and everything associated with it had been disabled because I did not meet Google's minimum age requirement.  "Oh for f*&#s sake!," closely resembles what came out of my mouth.  I had 29 days to prove my real age to Google or they would delete my account, including the blog. The blog wasn't even viewable (and if you tried to look at it you were told it had been removed). 

Google gave me 3 options to prove that I was at least 13 years old. I could give them my credit card number and they would make a charge of $0.30 in order to validate my age. I could send a copy of a government issued ID by fax or mail (then wait a week or two after they receive it for them to "process" the information). I could scan and upload a copy of a government issued ID (also waiting days or weeks for processing).  I tried about 47 times to upload a very-blacked-out copy of an ID receiving a, "Sorry, there was a problem uploading. Please try again." message every time. Finally I caved and let them charge me $0.30.  In less than a minute I had access restored. I'll be spending some time figuring out how to backup or save all these posts just in case I do something inadvertently again and incur the wrath of Google!



Note: I'm sure this was not a phishing scam but will closely monitor my credit card, of course.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

Angie over at Angie Eats Peace tagged me in a blogger award.  You might remember Angie as my Blogger Book Swap partner; although she wasn't blogging at the time. Now she has some great posts on healthy eating and living. I learned a great technique for getting the water out of tofu before cooking it allowing it to better absorb the flavors you're trying to impart and I decided to give avocado another try after reading about so many of her meals.  I tried avocado once a long time ago and while I won't say I didn't like it, I didn't really like it.  It's not that I disliked it; I just didn't feel anything about it.  I tried it again this week and whereas I'm still not in love with it I think I can find ways to make it somewhat appealing and thereby benefit from this healthy fruit.

So, back to this award. Here are the rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!

Well, honestly, I don't follow that many blogs so I won't be fully participating (I won't be tagging anyone else) but I'll play along with part of it.

11 Things About Me  

(This took a long time as I found it difficult to come up with 11 even remotely-non-boring things to tell about myself.)

1. I hate onions. Doesn't matter if they're raw or cooked. I don't want them anywhere near my food!

2. Contrary to popular belief, hating onions does not mean I hate other really strong flavors such as garlic and ginger. I love those and cook with them all the time.

3. I never liked coffee until I moved to the Netherlands a couple years ago. Now I drink it most mornings. However, I drink decaf.  And if I don't have my morning coffee it's not a big deal. But I do like the taste. As long as it's very creamy! They serve something here called a koffie verkeerd (literal translation: coffee wrong). It's a little coffee with a lot of milk. It's perfect!

4. I am not a housekeeper. Despite growing up in a very tiny house where things really needed to be kept neat and put away I'm terrible at that. I have no problem doing the laundry or dishes but I never want to put the clothes/dishes/whatever away.  I'm trying to figure out how to take my current cleaning lady (who is absolutely the best ever!) to my next station! That said, I find it rather stressful to have someone in my space and as wonderful as she is, I can't wait until she's done and gone.

5. There are balloons hanging from the light in my dining room.  My cleaning lady hung them up for my birthday a couple months ago (did I mention she's the best ever!) and I have yet to bother to take them down. They will likely stay there until it's time for me to move in a few months.

6.  I hate being cold. I'm fine living on the equator for 2+ years without electricity (so no air conditioning; which I don't use anyway) but I hate cold. And I get cold very easily. That said, I do not turn up the heat in my house. It's cold in here by most people's standards (including mine). I hate "wasting" energy more than I hate being cold. I pretty much always have a blanket on when I'm in my house.

7. I grew up in a very small town. Very small. I didn't really like growing up there.  It was a couple streets with houses surrounded by farm fields. As was every other town nearby. Now, though, it's one of my favorite places in the world. I love going back there (my parents still live in the same house).

8. I can pee standing up (and I do mean standing, not just hovering in a semi-squat). Okay, I guess anyone can pee standing up but I can do it without peeing all over my feet/legs. It's a very useful skill one learns when living in a place like Ghana where there are very few actual toilets.

9. I have a great dislike of automobiles. I don't like driving or being a passenger.  My preferred modes of transportation are a bike and the train. Although I will admit it's nice having the option of a car when I have to work 10-12 hr days because I can take the dogs with me to work (they're too big to fit in the carrier bags on my bike!).

10. I'm not the most athletic person (I don't have great coordination) but I truly enjoy exercise.

11. I love tater tots and cheese and chocolate (although not necessarily all together). There's just something so wonderful about crispy shredded fried potatoes!  Any cheese but the blue family (I don't want my cheese smelling like stinky feet). Dark chocolate. Really dark. With sea salt (not a requirement but definitely a bonus). And bread. Not chocolate with bread. Just bread. Soft crusty bread. Hard dark bread. With or without butter. The Dutch eat chocolate sandwiches for breakfast. How can you not love these people?!?!

11 Questions Angie Picked for Me

1. Where is the one place you definitely hope to travel to in your lifetime?
Antarctica. I have this goal of living on every continent.  Antarctica will obviously be the most difficult to check off the list since I can't just go stay there. I want much more than stepping off a cruise ship onto a little piece of Antarctica. This desire is at odds with my item #6 above.

2. What would your dream concert line-up (artists dead or alive)?
I'd love to see Bruce Springsteen again but in a very small venue. Maybe with Lady Gaga and Janis Joplin. 

3. What were some of your favorite TV shows to watch as a kid?
I don't remember being allowed to watch much TV as a kid and we only had 3 channels. I watched Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and 3-2-1 Contact and Reading Rainbow.

4. What would your dream career be and why?
Either a National Geographic photographer or something in the 3rd world development realm...probably involving bringing clean water and sanitation to the roughly 2.5 billion people who live without it.

5. What is one of the most important lessons you have learned in your life, thus far?
Sounds cliche, but it would be that money doesn't buy happiness.  I lived with some of the happiest people in the world in Ghana and they were literally the poorest of the poor.  No electricity. No running water. No "stuff."  Kids played with a ball made of plastic bags or pushed around a stick attached to a wheel.   They wore clothes that we wouldn't even use as cleaning rags. But they were happy and would gladly share what little they did have with you.

6. What is the current song stuck in your head?
I don't know what it is. Just a tiny snippet of whatever was playing in the grocery store when I was there earlier.

7. What do you use as a creative outlet?
Photography and cooking.  Not usually at the same time. I don't generally take pictures of the food I cook or eat.

8. Where has been your favorite place that you have travelled?
Wow, that's a tough one!  I guess Ghana is my favorite place because I was there for so long and it had such a lasting impact. Cambodia had a very haunting appeal and I feel drawn to go back.  As far as cities go, Prague was amazing. And most recently I fell in love with Scotland and really want to go back and explore it more by bike.

9. What is the grossest food you have ever eaten?
Vegemite (also known as Marmite). It's a horribly gross Australian fermented yeast paste. It's the most foul tasting substance that has ever entered my mouth!  I hope to never experience anything worse! Of course, I tend to avoid substances that I believe will taste awful. I don't like eating yucky things!

10. What are you currently reading?
I usually have at least two books going; one downstairs and one upstairs. The book Angie sent me, Over the Edge of the World is on my nightstand and I read a few pages each night before falling asleep. Downstairs I have Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Servants of the Map and Fever (about the history of malaria) on various coffee and end tables to choose from depending on my mood.

11. What is your favorite thing about the area in which you live?
So many thing! It's a great location in proximity to lots of other things. I love this little town and all it has to offer (I can walk to the supermarket and to the pedestrian market with its little shops and vegetable stalls, the fields behind the house where the dogs like to run, the Thai restaurant just down the street...) but I'm also so close to so many bigger places. I can hop a train for a day-trip to Amsterdam or Brussels or Dusseldorf, Aachen, Ghent, Rotterdam, Den Haag...and there are low-cost airports nearby... I've flown to Barcelona, Prague, Budapest, London, Edinburgh,  and will go to Porto next month all on the cheap.  From Brussels I can get the high-speed train to London and Paris.  It's a great place to live and from which to travel!

So there you have it.  Is it odd that I found this rather stressful?  I think I'm better at posting pictures than writing about myself!  Thanks to Angie for forcing me out of my comfort zone a little! Now I'm headed out on my bike to the Turkish market for feta and vegetables :)

Go to Bed

I don't have TV. I haven't had TV for a long time. And I'm good with that. But that means I get almost all my news and entertainment via the computer.  Recently I read an article on how to make resolutions you can stick to (I don't know why I was reading this article because I don't make resolutions...I must have been bored at work).  One suggestion was, rather than resolve to "get more sleep" you should be more specific.  For example, resolve to turn off the computer by 8pm.

[Source]

It's been great! I don't get stuck watching stupid youtube videos or reading articles that don't even interest me until way past bedtime.  I started spending some time stretching before bed (I workout just about every day but rarely take the time to stretch like I should so this has been particularly good). I have more time to rub the dogs' bellies and scratch their ears during our nightly pre-bed ritual and I'm fairly certain they are okay with the extra lovin. I'm reading before falling asleep; something I used to do every night.  I'm really enjoying spending less time on the computer.  I'm thinking of setting the cut-off time even earlier!

Shout-Out to Unknown Mami - Sundays in My City

I want to send out a big thank you to Claudya over at Unknown Mami.  Her Sundays in My City...thing (I don't know blog lingo so I don't know what it's called)...has caused me to pay more attention to where I live, to take notice of things and to have my camera with me much more often.  It's also given me the motivation to take new routes and check out areas of town I don't necessarily have another reason to venture into.  I love this new sense of awareness!

The first time I tried a SIMC post I had no idea what I was doing and so it didn't link up.  I emailed Claudya and she gave me instructions so now I know how to do it so that you see my posts from her page. She's so nice!

I did take pictures for a post this week but I was so busy and then, as a result, so tired that I didn't get them downloaded/processed.  I'll save them for next week :)

To see what people around the world (people less lazy than I was this week) have posted, click on the button below, select the latest post and when you're done reading it, check out all the links at the bottom.  There's some great stuff there!

Random BENL News

Age limit to buy tobacco in the Netherlands
Dutch tobacco companies have written to the health ministry
urging the new government to put up the age limit for buying
cigarettes and tobacco from 16 to 18. Ministers plan to
increase the legal age at which teenagers can buy alcohol
from 16 to 18. This could also be applied to tobacco products,
Dutch tobacco companies say.

Sheep on moped
Police in Tienen, Belgium, arrested three men who were transporting
a sheep on a moped. The police soon discovered
that the three men were staying here illegally and that the
sheep had been stolen.

[I swear I did not make this up!]

More U.S. students in Belgium
Figures from the Institute of International Education show
that 880 Belgian students registered to study at a school
of advanced learning in the United States in 2012-13. The
figure is up 8.4% in comparison with only five years ago.
The institute's report also shows that 1,374 U.S. nationals
registered for academic studies in Belgium in 2011-12. This
figure is up 10.5% on the year.

Belgian weapons
Saudi Arabia is the most important purchaser of Belgian
weapons. Saudi Arabia purchases approximately one third of
all Belgian weapons valued at 253 million Euros. All weapons
for Saudi Arabia are produced in Wallonia. Nils Duquet of the
Flemish Peace Institute states “because FN Herstal is a crucial
company for the Walloon economy, the Walloon government
delivers weapons permits without much argument, even if
it concerns sensitive clients. It seems economic interests
prevail in Wallonia.” Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has not made
it a secret that it supplies weapons to armed groups in Syria,
says Thomas Baum, the Director of the Peace Institute.

[Note: Wallonia is the French speaking region of Belgium]

Nearly every Dutch household has internet
Some 96% of Dutch households now have an internet connection,
while 42% of the population have access to mobile
internet via smart phones, according to a new research.
Around 56% say the internet has given them better access
to government and official information and two-thirds have
more contact with their family. One third say they have made
new friends online.

Book Swap Update

My book arrived!!  I'm surprised it made it so quickly as there are things I'm waiting for that were ordered up to 2 months ago.  Anyway, I'm super excited!

The book my swap partner Angie chose for me is Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen.  It came with a note saying she read this book while hiking at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  I love that this book has an attachment for her.  I have a lot of book-place associations.  Many of my memories of certain places have to do with what I was reading there and many of my memories of certain books have to do with where I was when I was reading them. 

Angie said she looked at my goodreads list for ideas.  I'll admit, goodreads is something I started years ago and very quickly abandoned (unlike Angie who has hundreds of books listed in hers).  But she said from that very meager list she deduced that I like non-fiction. Which is true. And this is a book I've never even heard of so that makes it more exciting. There's a very real chance that none of what I need to get done today will get done as it's a dreary day (shocking for here, I know) and I have a brand new book that I can't wait to start reading.  Thanks so much, Angie!!  And thanks again to Jessica for organizing the whole swap.  I can't wait for the next one (did I say that already?  Well, it's still true!).

Blogger Book Swap

Jessica over at Sweet Green Tangerine hosted a fabulous blogger book swap.

 

She paired up her readers and, after gathering as much info as you could about your partner from their blog/FB/goodreads/twitter you were supposed to pick a book and send it to them.  I was paired up with Angie who doesn't have a blog but is phenomenal about keeping her goodreads updated.  We've read a lot of the same books...A LOT. That left me fairly confident that I could pick a book she'd like.  I just hoped it wasn't a book she had either read and I missed on her list or that my pick wasn't something she hadn't already read because she didn't want to read it.

I sent her one of my most favorite books: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.  Because mail has been even slower than usual here lately (and that was before hurricane Sandy stranded all our mail service) I had the book sent to her from the US.  I would have liked to have sent her a Dutch goodie package with the book (Shhh, don't tell her I'm working on that now!) but there was a short timeline for the swap and I wanted her to get the book in time. Happily, she hasn't read it but wanted to (in fact, she thought she ordered the book and didn't realize it was from me).

I don't know what she sent me yet (that whole stranded mail situation) but I'll be sure to post about it when it finally arrives.  I'm excited to see what she picked!

Thanks to Jessica for hosting the swap.  I'm already looking forward to the next one!