Eptitude

Hi, I'm Quinn!

[eptitude]

A quick hello

OK, so it's been centuries since I've made the tiniest peep here. I guess that's what happens when one's life becomes excessively boring. Anyway, this comes somewhat delayed, but just thought I'd let everyone know that I've refocused my energies on my new blog, devoted to a series of imaginary ski designs! Check it out here: Thin Cover.

Thanks so much for following Eptitude! :)

xo

Quinn

[eptitude]

I'm really into dots right now! This purple shirt is definitely my favorite of the moment (purple! dots!), and I thought throwing in the necklace would be a fun way to showcase it. :) 

[eptitude]

WHOOT, first post in AGES! Check out my favorite earrings, modeled by MOOOOSHY. I'm really loving the bright color trend this spring -- it brings spots of happiness to even the gloomiest, study-heavy days!

[eptitude]

Today was an absolutely gorgeous fall day, so I took a break from studying to go pumpkin picking! Since I wasn't really happy with any of the photos I took, I decided to disguise their blahness by making a collage. And yup, I totally creeped on somebody's adorable kid. :)

[eptitude]

DUN DUN DUN --- check out my personalized tasting menu! What an awesome way to celebrate 1) my love of pork belly and 2) my birthday! Given all the ramen I've been eating lately, this was definitely the best meal (in terms of creativity, taste profile, presentation, etc. etc. etc.) I've had in a while. The sous chef came out post-dinner to tell us that the whole crew had a ton of fun whipping up this delicious progression -- apparently they'd spend weeks on it and were super giddy about serving this stuff!

I definitely didn't expect such a crazy innovative menu... The dessert seemed particularly Iron-Chef-y to me. :) There was actually a chunk of pork belly tossed into all of the icing and powdered sugar, which made me a bit hesitant about tucking in, but the combo of sweet and savory definitely worked. My favorite course was by far the "Beer Belly," largely because it featured the most gigantic and tender and seriously decadent slab of pork belly of the entire menu. The fat and meat just melted in my mouth... so... heavenly....!!!!

Although Four Square was in quite the beautiful setting (inside a Victorian mansion!), the lighting was atrocious... needless to say, I wasn't able to get any photos of these veritable masterpieces. WHY?!??!?!! Urgh, I really need to start carrying around a giant flash with me.

Ok, I want to go back to Four Square NOW.

Thank you, B. :)

[eptitude]

Introducing... the PHOTORECEPTORS!

I am so, so, sooooo pumped to finally unveil the official Photoreceptors' TUMBLR PAGE! Our first few posts are up -- GO CHECK THEM OUT HERE! Please? :) :) :)

Oh, and here's another photo just for kicks:

This is a close-up of one of the metalwork sculptures over at the Art Market @ Vega Metals, an awesome metal workshop in downtown Durham! More about the Market over on the Photoreceptors' page. :)

[eptitude]

One of the best things about Durham is its strong foodie culture -- there's amazingly fresh food to be had all over the place! So, despite being hellishly busy during the last few weeks (it's only getting worse, gah!), I've made it a priority to sample various restaurants around the city. It's a really fun way to de-stress. :)

Photos: Duck breast and mussels @ Guglhupf, organic peppers @ the Durham farmer's market.

[eptitude]

Cereal time!

No clean bowls...

What to do...?

TUPPERWARE!!!

My laziness knows no bounds. :)

BTW, stay tuned for some fresh Photoreceptors content!

[eptitude]

:)

Hi all! Just wanted to pop in (after an eternity) for a quick update. I managed to pass my first exam (!!!) and am currently working on putting together a med student photography group (we're called the PHOTORECEPTORS, hehehehe)! Will share our Tumblr and Flickr pages once they're up and running.

I can't believe how seriously precious free time has become... this makes me SO thankful that I had all of last year to travel and ski! Going from all that to studying an average of 5-6 hours a day isn't very nice though, lol.

In honor of my happier-go-luckier days, here's a photo that I took in Maine a few summers ago:

Hope it won't be too long 'til my next post! :)

[eptitude]

Beginnings and ends

Woohoo, greetings from Durham, NC! I'm getting off to a great start in med school, and I'm super excited about this new phase in my life! There are so many people I can't wait to get to know better. :)

Since I won't be traveling much for a while, I'm a little sad to be writing up this FINAL Eurotrip 2011 post... Buuut it's seriously about time I get around to it, so I'll just cut to the chase and do a quick rundown of the time that B and I spent in the SOUTH OF FRANCE!

Here I am at the gates of an incredibly exclusive hotel just outside of Cannes (5 stars!) -- given how nice the landscape was from this crappy vantage point, I can't imagine how beautiful the views would've been from within the gates! That said, it's really no wonder why the rich tend to flock to this area of France; picturesque towns dot the hilly coastline, everything is either green or multicolored, and the ocean sparkles on for miles and miles (when the sun's out, of course).

Our first stop was Mougins, a hilltop village about 15 minutes from Cannes. Mougins, once inhabited by famous artists such as Picasso, is now mostly a cluster of art galleries and fancy restaurants -- it manages to retain a pretty authentic countryside atmosphere though, so it was quite fun to wander around its narrow, sloping streets:

Since Mougins has quite the culinary reputation, B and I decided to splurge on a gourmet Michelin lunch here; naturally, that became the highlight of my day! Now for some snaps from the restaurant, starting with the menu:

Our roof-top view:

Appetizer: The perfect chicken egg, nestled on a bed of roasted pepper salad. The chef really worked some magic here, because the consistency of the egg yolk was quite a feat of physics -- the yolk was completely runny, but it never spilled out and never lost its round shape; when I speared it with my fork, it was if I was poking into a small mound of mashed potato. This was indeed the perfect chicken egg, one with a simultaneously solid and liquid yolk that totally blew my mind:

Entree: Delicately-seared bass on a fragrant polenta cake. Not as fabulous as the chicken egg, but still delicious!

Dessert: Fresh fruit with hand-whipped vanilla cream. My favorite part of this dish was the chocolate bird drawing!

B and I also spend a few days in Cannes, home of the famous Cannes International Film Festival! We'd missed the film festival by about a month (BOO), but there was still plenty to see -- e.g. the Grand Auditorium, which is where the film festival screenings occur --

Fancy yachts (that tower in the distance is the center of the city's historical district):

Tight, restaurant-packed streets:

And a giant produce market:

Finally, B and I checked out Grasse, the perfume capital of the world. There wasn't much to do there aside from visiting perfumeries and perfume museums, and we stuck with those in order to escape from the heat. Here's B getting a good whiff of one of Fragonard's (one of the biggest perfumeries in Grasse) many scents:

Annnnnd that's it! Kinda hard to believe... Overall, this trip to Europe was overwhelming fun, and I feel so lucky to have been able to go on such a crazy undertaking (with someone I'm crazy about, nonetheless)!

Now it's time for a wholly different type of adventure -- first day of classes, here I come! :)

[eptitude]

Ciao (finally)!

Hello from Maine! Yes, I've finally managed to claw myself back onto the face of the Earth! :) Being back in the States actually hasn't given me much opportunity to stay in one place for very long, what with moving down South and trying to squeeze in a bit more travel (gah I'm so greedy!). I'm pretty sure that this will be my last "roaming" post for quite a while though... I've only got a couple more days of coastal Maine breeze, fresh lobster, and scenic hiking before I head back to NC to start med school (and settle down at last)!

Anyway, my last real post was about our adventures in Slovenia, which means I'm about two posts (including this one) away from getting everyone caught up on our big eurotrip. That said, time to cover Italy!

The crisp November weather I'd experienced during my first trip to Italy was definitely a far cry from the waves of oven-style heat that oppressed and suffocated B and me as we ventured into the Tuscan countryside. Even though I'm an extreme lightweight -- about half a glass of wine is enough to do me in -- I knew it'd be too dumb to not do a wine tasting while in the Chianti region (though drinking wine in that kind of heat might've been equally as foolish). B and I ended up at an old estate called Castello del Trebbio, which was perched up in the hills and offered spectacular views:

Here I am in the basement of Castello del Trebbio, where giant barrels of wine undergo fermentation and aging:

Piles of dusty wine bottles:

Check out the vineyard (notice how the sunlight hits me in a way that obscures my wine-induced redness)!!

After a day in Tuscany, B and I made our way over to the Italian Riviera (aka Liguria) in order to hike the Cinque Terre trails. The Cinque Terre is a truly lovely progression on five small towns, each at a different elevation, along the mountainous Italian coast: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Hiking from one town to the next was pretty brutal given the heat (most of the trails were NOT in the shade) and steep ups and downs... those rises and dips were especially horrible because there'd always be a more punishing climb waiting for us after we completed a much-awaited descent. Fortunately, given all the work I put in, I felt perfectly entitled to eating two giant cones of GELATO (mmmm cinnamon) afterward!!!

En route from Riomaggiore to Manarola:

Manarola = one of my favorites:

Leaving Corniglia, which was the most above sea level (we had to drag ourselves up about 400 steps to get there):

In Vernazza, which had lots and lots of winding steps:

Vernazza might've been the town I liked most -- there was a very cool balance of wide open spaces and narrow stairways that made it endlessly interesting, at least for the hour or so we were there. And of course, being a sucker for colorful things, I couldn't stop admiring the buildings, which I thought were the brightest-looking of the five towns.

Leaving Vernazza:

And finally, in the less touristy area of Monterosso, which had more of a traditional beach town feel and was packed with people (i.e. it was my least favorite):

Bah, it took a lot of willpower to bang this one out... sorry if it's not really up to par guys!

[eptitude]

Spotted in Grasse, France: a Balalaika! This ginormous triangular guitar actually makes for really charming folk music. :)

[eptitude]

Gah! Things are really hectic right now -- I'm back in the States and scrambling to get things in order for my move to Durham, NC!

Hopefully I'll be able to get actual content up soon, but in the meantime, here's a pic from our adventures in the Tuscan countryside (which was boiling hot btw).

[eptitude]

Breathtaking

The trains into and out of Slovenia comprised the absolute worst travel experiences of our entire trip (yes, they topped the babies en route to Barcelona). To get from Budapest to Bled, B and I hopped on a train that left at 5 pm and arrived in Ljubljana (Slovenia's capital) at 2 am; during this time, we got woken up roughly 50 times (or was it 60? 70?) by stony-faced train and immigration officials who wanted to check our tickets and passports again and again and again... When B and I finally arrived in Ljubljana, pissed off and bleary-eyed, we practically had to spend the night at a seedy, 24/7 train bar (it was so cold that I piled on about four extra layers) because the first train to Bled didn't leave until 7 am!

Fortunately, Bled delivered 100%, and it even served as the turning point for our luck with the weather (read: photo attack!). :) One of the most popular spots in Bled is Bled Lake, a gorgeous stretch of seductively blue-green water; it surrounds a tiny island with a church perched on top, and it's surrounded by hills and mountains as far as the eye can see (1: there's a castle on one of the hills, 2: some of the mountains in the distance even seemed to be snow-capped):

B and I walked around the entire perimeter of the lake (6.5km/4 miles), and I seriously yelled "wow" and ogled at the view from every clearing:

We rowed to the little island in the middle (hehehe I was the better rower):

And each received a hard-earned reward once we got there:

A little later during our stay, we hiked up to the castle, shown in this obnoxious and semi-embarrassing close-up:

The views were totally awesome!

B also learned, from a feisty old monk, the ancient art of opening a champagne bottle with a saber:

Finally, one of THE most exciting things B and I did on our trip: we both went paragliding for the first time in Bled! Our instructors drove us up an incredibly frightening mountain path that looked like it wasn't built for vehicles of any kind; 40 minutes later, we stopped at a clearing that was so steep that I wanted to scream in terror. But before I knew it, I was all suited up and arbitrarily chosen to go first... Check it out!

Surprisingly, the only scary part was the takeoff, which required a fair amount of blind faith... but all it took was a couple of quick steps (into what looks very much like the abyss) to get up in the air! After that, everything was peaceful, beautiful, and smooth -- hovering thousands of feet in the air, I felt perfectly safe, like I was merely suspended in space. I did hold the camera with an iron grip though...

Here's where we landed:

Absolutely beautiful! Man, I'm so obsessed with Bled. Seems like a lot of my loves begin with the letter B, hehe.

B and I had such a blast in Bled that I really regretted having to leave. :( We headed back to Ljubljana, which despite being the biggest city in Slovenia is very tiny (pop ~270,000) and somewhat boring. Lucky for us, we arrived just in time to catch the city's celebrations for Slovenia's 20th year of statehood; during a big show in the city center, we got to see some Slovenian Olympic medalists, who all competed in more obscure events (e.g. cross-country skiing) but still came on stage to enormous applause. The fireworks show that followed sadly only lasted a minute, and there wasn't even a grand finale! Even stranger still was that the city's young people were nowhere to be seen during any of these independence festivities -- turns out they were all gathered at some weird techno pop concert in another part of town.

Wow... I promise this post is almost done, haha. Just gotta get in a quick gripe about our train out of Ljubljana (to Italy), which was scheduled to leave at 2:30 am (it was actually just the second leg of the train we took to get to Slovenia a few days earlier) but was delayed for two hours. It sure was fun to wander around that late in a city where all establishments except kebab shops close at 1 am...

[eptitude]

On the Blue Danube

For me, the journey to Vienna overshadowed the city itself. B and I were utterly exhausted when we got on the Berlin->Vienna night train and made our way to yet another six-person compartment, but luckily a fairy godmother (in the form of a non-English-speaking old man with Einstein hair and Harry Potter glasses) made sure that we got plenty of rest! This crazy-looking guy called for the conductor to fix up our bunks, traded bunks with me so I could be closer to B, closed the blinds, lights, and door (we were already fast asleep at this point), and yelled at the latecomers when they made a racket and woke me up. :) All this without saying more than a total of five words to either of us; unsurprisingly, in the morning, he left without saying goodbye. Rather mysterious, no?

Vienna was very picturesque, but the massive number of shops really detracted from the beauty of the buildings and monuments; I'm a pretty devoted shopper, but even I thought the stores were overkill. And I'm not just talking about the city center... this was the case WHEREVER we went. Every time I saw a structure of interest, there were sure to be at least five shops nearby:

B and I made our way over to the famed Giant Ferris Wheel aka Riesenrad, which appears in classic films such as The Third Man (1949); the coolest thing about the Riesenrad (aside from its long history) is that there are certain cabins set aside for romantic dining experiences:

Here's the view from the top:

And here I am fooling around in the gift shop:

Hehehe.

Moving on to Budapest (pronounced Buddha-pesht), the one place in Europe where we didn't feel like impoverished losers! 1 USD comes out to about 200 HUF (Hungarian Florints), and food was so cheap that B and I were actually able to have a full, sit-down meal; I took full advantage of this rare opportunity and tucked away a delicious leg of goose, NOM. :)

In Hungary, people are really crazy about a traditional fried dough snack called langos. Each langos is huge and can be either sweet (topped with chocolate, jam, etc.) or savory (topped with cheese, potato, sausage, etc.) -- the one I'm eating here's got cranberry sauce and powdered sugar on it:

Now for some miscellaneous snaps!

A Communist-era car. Apparently the wait for one of these beauties (which has an exterior that's about as strong and hard as cardboard) was roughly 15 years; parents would sign up for such a car upon having a baby, and the car would be theirs once the child was ready to drive:

B grabbing the balls of a famous horse statue, which is said to endow the grabber with a certain, ahem, prowess:

The funky Parliament building:

Budapest actually used to be two separate cities -- Buda and Pest, which were on opposite banks of the Danube -- until 1873. Nowadays, the Pest side is more city and business-oriented, while the Buda side (pictured below) has more of a countryside feel (and thus is more of a weekend getaway type place). Both are very pretty!

And finally, a picture in which the weather is actually nice (the big thing in the background is the royal palace):

Hope everyone had a great July 4th!

[eptitude]

European twists...

... on everyday foods!

Crust-less bread in Paris:

Sliced hot dog (with bun) in Sintra:

Baby Subway subs in Barcelona:

A giant tub of sauerkraut in Vienna:

Mummy hot dogs in Vienna:

Cheesy chicken in Budapest:

[eptitude]

Not a fan.

Berlin is one of the ugliest cities I've ever seen. As a result of its volatile history, Berlin has come to be a mix of unimaginative new buildings and hideous Communist-era behemoths in varying states of decay; you'd also be hard-pressed to find a structure that hasn't been tagged by some smart-alec street artist. Before I get into all of that though, I do have one good thing to say about this city: Berlin has by far the best and most efficient train ticketing system of all the places we've visited. For some unfathomable reason, Europe doesn't allow people to buy train tickets online, so B and I have spent enormous amounts of time trying to make seat reservations in person. 

B and I were in and out of the Berlin ticket office in a matter of minutes, whereas in most other cities (cough Barcelona), we were stuck there for hours. I can't believe I haven't mentioned this already, but the majority of train ticket personnel in Europe DO NOT HAVE INTERNET ACCESS on their computers, so if you don't have the exact time, number, and destination station of your desired train (or if the train you want is all sold out), you're SOL because these people don't have ANY of that information. In fact, the ticket people (at least those in Barcelona) can't even tell you general train routes (i.e. they have no idea if there is a way to get from point A to point B unless you look it up beforehand and tell them that there is).

When B and I abandoned our original Eurail route and tried to get to tickets to Amsterdam from Barcelona on the fly at the station, we ended up having to take the metro alll the way back to our hostel just to look up all possible train times and routes on the internet... Imagine working at a train station and not knowing a single thing (!!!) about the trains that are coming and going. We were absolutely blown away when a man in the Amsterdam ticket office knew, off the top of his head, exactly when and how much it would cost us to get to Berlin. He also wasn't grumpy about answering our train-related questions! While you'd expect this to be unsurprising at any train station, major or not, it most certainly is the most unusual thing ever in a European one. 

Anyway, enough ranting about trains! Berlin is definitely a good place for history buffs and party animals (woohoo daytime raves...?), but if you're a traveler looking to be drawn in by aesthetics and non-drinking-related things to do, I'd say skip it because there are SO MANY other cities worth going to in Europe. B and I were both really excited to get to Berlin on account of its cool and vibrant reputation, but we were sorely disappointed by what we encountered. I knew that Berlin wasn't going to the nicest of places, but I wasn't prepared for just how ugly (and boring!!!) it would be:

A "modern" hotel that didn't even bother to blot out the name of its predecessor:

Some tasteful street art:

An abandoned building that's been taken over by underground artists (I believe there are also dance parties here at night):

A shack that was built on some remains of the Berlin Wall (the guy who lives here doesn't have any running water):

Finally, the Berlin Wall is memorialized by these bricks that run through the entire city, demarcating where the Wall once stood:

Sigh. I really wanted to like Berlin, and I wish that we had had a better time there. Though I am glad to have gotten the chance to check out this city that's always had such a prominent place in my imagination. At least I know now that Berlin, I won't be seeing you again.