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We recently had the pleasure of a day off in old stomping grounds, New York City.  As we ambled aimlessly through the Lower East Side and Alphabet City, enjoying some snacks and adult beverages, we couldn’t help but snap some photos of some great NYC street art. Everything from stickers and wheatpaste pieces to full-building painted murals and legal walls, NYC street art runs the full spectrum. To brush up on some basic street art terminology, read this article on Mental Floss!

Where in the World to Find Great Street Art

As street art has become more mainstream, there are different methods to seeking it out. Some cities have designated street art areas, like the Wynwood Walls in Miami. Other cities, like Cartagena, Colombia, seem to have whole neighborhoods, like Getsemani, dedicated to street art. Philadelphia as a 2-mile self-guided walk of its impressive murals. It’s right downtown with explanatory info available via your cell phone. Believe it or not, it’s now as easy as a quick Google of “street art x-city” to put you on the right path to finding some major pieces. From there, the best advice is to just wander. NYC street art seems to be sprinkled liberally around in many different neighborhoods. Mulberry Street in Little Italy is home to The Lisa Project, another spot we’d like to check out soon.

NYC Street Art, Lower East Side

The lower east side was a great place to start, with a number of interesting pieces concentrated in a relatively small, very walk-able are. Just keep your eyes peeled, you never know when or where you might stumble upon some amazing NYC Street Art! For a head start on places to look, or to get some background on artists and techniques, Street Art NYC has a very informative blog on the topic!

Artist: Nina Pandolfo Location: Rivington St. between Bowey and Chrystie (across from Morgenstern’s ice cream shop!)

Enjoy this gallery and let us know which piece speaks to you!

Click on thumbnails below for a larger image.

It’s always fun and interesting to see destinations from a different perspective.  Those of you who have visited Cape Cod know all too well the hustle and bustle of summers on the Cape.  Tamara grew up here and has seen the range of all the seasons many times.  For me, sure I’ve spent more time on the Cape than most, but I’ve spent most of my time here during Cape Cod winter.  There is a truly different vibe than in “season” when the temperatures are warmer and most people are here for just a short time.  There’s the great unending debate whether to take the only “highway,” a mostly 2 lane in each direction with median road that narrows to one lane each direction as you make your way further out, or whether Route 28 will be faster at a particular time of day.  In winter you don’t have to think about these sorts of questions, you only have to decide on which road you’d prefer to drive on because there won’t be any extra traffic or some out of state car that has no idea where they are going.  I could go on for much longer but….. I won’t.

This winter we’ve been fortunate enough to have a month to spend on the Cape and we’ve taken full advantage of the serenity that provides.  We’ve done a bit of dog and cat sitting too, of course at separate times.  Walks on the beach without anyone else in sight are truly cherished moments.  There has even been a fairly decent snow storm which dropped 15 inches of snow in about 48 hours.  Snow on the beach is such a novelty for me.  I hope you enjoy these photos from our Cape Cod winter, we’ve certainly enjoyed being able to take and share them.

Food for Thought with Wanderlust Storytellers #foodie #travel #ttot #interview

After a bit of a hiatus, we’re so happy to bring back another Food for Thought interview! Throughout this series, we chat with fellow travelers to hear their perspectives on the intersection of travel, food and culture. Through eating local cuisine, we gain insight into the places we visit. Traditional dishes tell us something about a place’s history. Modern food trends show how places are…

There’s nothing like eating straight from the garden. Even if you weren’t there for the planting and subsequent care, who doesn’t rejoice in eating something you’ve picked yourself?

The end of our marketing contract this year has left us in Colorado. We are lucky enough to have family here, so we took the opportunity to visit and enjoy the late fall. If you’ve never been to Colorado this time of year, you will not be disappointed! The weather is amazing and the foliage colors are superb. Those quaking yellow aspens with babbling brooks and high-mountain backdrops are a uniquely Colorado experience. My mom’s cousin Steve and his wife, Ann have a lovely home in the Fort Collins area and have been blessed both with green thumbs and lots of great sunlight to have a garden. Their skills and the perfect climate have provided apple, peach and cherry trees, tomatoes, corn, beans, pumpkins and squash, countless herbs and a perfectly amazing grapevine. On Steve’s side of the fence, and the other side, belonging to his neighbor, a local restaurant owner, the crop of Colorado Concord grapes is an absolute marvel. They had already harvested as many as they could handle, and there are still and equal amount hanging on the vine ready to be creatively utilized.

Use Those Colorado Concord Grapes Before It’s Too Late!

We’ve been foraging and helping to make use of the plethora of fruit and vegetables since we’ve been here. We made a Colorado Concord Grape Pie (yes, you can make grape pie) and an Apple Crumble/Pandowdy. We sauteed squash and Swiss chard and green beans, and collected seeds for next year’s oregano and shallots. That time, however, is quickly coming to a close. The cold weather has started to creep in, and yesterday we made one final, huge, harvest from the garden. Cousin Steve is an expect canner and preserver, and he gave us both our first lesson in making Colorado Concord grapes into jam today!

Harvesting the Grapes

We started out by clipping 8-10 pounds of Colorado Concord grapes from his vines. They are as good as any grape I’ve ever had, and put any store bought grape to shame. After hauling the grapes inside to the utility sink we rinsed them in a water and vinegar bath for about 10 minutes to get rid of any unwanted clingers-on. After that came the most tedious process of the lesson, removing the grapes from the stems and separating the hulls from the fruit. The hulls and the fruit are reunited but later in the process. With the fruit and hulls in separate pots, both go on the stove to simmer separately. Once they were sufficiently cooked, we removed them from heat and set to remove the seeds from the fruit.

Sieve and Pestle

For this, we used a sieve and a pestle to squeeze the fruit through while leaving the seeds behind in the sieve. Once the seeds were successfully removed from the fruit, the thick juice and hull mash are reunited. Now come the measurement and calculation part of the lesson. The process resulted in 14 cups of fruit, so we needed to calculate our sweetener and thickener accordingly. Steve has found a great pectin, used as the thickener, called Pomonas Universal Pectin Fruit & Vegetable Concentrate. The pectin is all-natural, and gels with a calcium-water mix. It’s high-flavor and low-sweetener. In other words, much less sugar/brown sugar/honey, or whatever sweetener you choose is required . . . about 1/8 to 1/4 the amount of sweetener as traditional recipes. We added the calcium water to the fruit mix, then we combined our sweetener (local Colorado honey!) with the pectin powder which was also added to the fruit mix. That concluded our mixology session!

The Cook

Our Colorado Concord grape mix was then brought to boil for just a few minutes to encourage the ingredients to play nice. Next up, jarring! Using a funnel and ladle we divided the finished product into jars. Steve had to dip into some reserve jars since our batch was so huge! With the jars filled, we were careful to wipe the lip of each before putting the lids on and tightening the bands. The final step involved submerging the filled jars in boiling water to properly seal them to ensure a long shelf life. The altitude in Colorado requires some modifications while cooking. In this case, we needed to boil the jars for about 20 minutes to produce the desired effect. After the allotted time, we set the jars on the counter and waited for them to “pop,” a signal that you did your job to preserve the preserves!

I can tell you that from now on when I’m offered some homemade jam, jelly or preserves I will certainly have a greater appreciation of the effort the producer put forth to make such a tasty treat! We branded our 18-jar Colorado Concord grape jam batch as D&T’s Purple Gold, and let us tell you . . . it’s delicious!

D&T’s Purple Gold

A Day Trip from Charlotte: Crowders Mountain State Park. Hike to Pinnacle Peak for amazing views. #hike #nature #visitnc

Crowders Mountain Panorama: View from the Pinnacle Sometimes you just need a dose of nature to get yourself back on track. We’ve been on the road as part of our latest mobile marketing tour for about three months now. The current tour’s client is Dole (the fresh fruits and vegetables divisions), and they have a worthy goal: getting people to live healthier, eating more fruits and veggies. After a…

Fathom's Impact Activities: Concrete Results @fathomtravel #cruise #volunteer #dominicanrepublic #traveldeep

Sunrise over Amber Cove: Ready for a day of Impact Activities Recently we were lucky enough to cruise with Fathom Travel aboard the Adonia on their second trip to the Dominican Republic.  The basic idea is that travelers participate in “Impact Activities” to empower and give back to the local community while enjoying the beautiful surroundings and learning about the island’s culture. We’ve…

Looking to make a difference? Check out our experience with @fathomtravel Fathom Travel: Cruising for a Change #traveldeep

A Social Impact Cruise for Non-Cruisers I have to be honest. We have never been drawn to cruising. We had this unappealing image of being stuck on a boat for days on end with nothing to do but eat and drink and sit by the pool. For us, travel is about the journey, but also about the destination. We feared that a cruise meant missing out on key elements of both. The journey would be stagnant,…

Making the Most of your JR East Pass #japan #railpass #travel @Visit_Japan #train @TokyoCheapo #shinkansen

The Hayabusa Shinkansen, free to you with the JR East Pass For those who have been, or even planned to visit Japan I’m sure you’ve heard of the Japan Rail Pass. For those of you who are thinking of visiting Japan but haven’t yet heard of this cost-effective, money-saving travel tool, this post is for you. We’ve just returned from Japan, and wanted to share our experience using the new JR East…

Northern #Spain Road Trip: 2 Week Itinerary #roadtrip @spain

Northern Spain Road Trip Like many tourists, our first taste of Spain was Madrid.  We spent about two weeks there in the spring, but since we were mostly working, we were left with a desire to return.  Our first impression was lasting, so when we had free time in Europe later last year we head directly back, landing first in Barcelona.  Donny’s mother and aunt (her first international trip ever!)…

***New Post*** Genealogy Travel: Climbing the Family Tree in Alsace #travel #ancestry #france #alsace #genealogy

Four generations! Mary Rose (Dietrich) Sias as the matriarch, and the baby is me! What is Genealogy Travel? If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you probably love travel. Have you ever heard of genealogy travel? Ever thought of traveling with the goal of seeing where your ancestors were born or to learn more about your family history? We seem to have been practicing genealogy travel long…

When you think of Spanish cuisine, what comes to mind? Paella? Gazpacho? Tortilla Española? Sangria? We already had some favorites among classics like these, but our months in Spain last year opened our tastebuds to a whole new world. From Catalunya to Andalucía we ate our way through our new favorite food destination. While we leave the detailed recommendations and recipes to friends like Lauren at Spanish Sabores and the team at Devour Spain (whose Spanish food tours will give you a whole introductory education in a day), we learned a lot about Spanish food just being there and eating.

No discussion of Spanish food would be complete without talking about cured meats, in particular the famous Jamón ibérico. The Spanish are serious about their ham, and it almost seems like something is missing if you walk into a bar or restaurant and don’t see the ubiquitous leg of pork mounted on the bar, ready to be thinly sliced and enjoyed. If you want some of the best, look out for Jamón ibérico de bellota. Pigs in this category are free-range and acorn-fed. Of course, a variety platter adding salchichón and chorizo to the mix is always a good idea.

But we also learned that all that is good wine is not Rioja, becoming intimately familiar with the likes of Navarra and Ribero del Duero, Toro and Rueda.

Regional and Seasonal Specialties

Each region has its own iconic dishes. Among them it was hard to choose favorites. Who could choose from Pintxos and cider in Basque country to Cataluña’s grilled rabbit or Escalivada; or a glass of cava in Barcelona? In Córdoba, we were introduced to Salmorejo, the tasty cousin of gazpacho, thick with tomatoes and garlic. Andalucia wowed us with everything from seafood specialties to tapas and kebabs.

Salmorejo

There are also seasonal specialties. We always try to eat what has been harvested locally and what’s in season. In Spain this fall that meant wild mushrooms were frequently on the menu, and we fell in love with the simple “Setas al Ajillo,” mushrooms with garlic, oil and a bit of white wine. Along the coasts, seafood, especially shellfish and octopus, were at their peaks. Anything in that category is always high on our list, and we’ll go for a good Pulpo a la Gallega (boiled octopus sprinkled with paprika, sea salt and olive oil) any time of year. We had a great one far from Galicia at the Feria Gallega del Marisco (Seafood Festival of Galicia) in Córdoba. Of course, roasted chestnuts are not to be missed at this time of year, either! That smoky, warming smell draws you right over to sample a cone of those hot-roasted delights. Spanish Sabores’ article on fall Spanish foods gave us a good heads up on autumn Spanish food specialties while we were there.

Pulpo a la gallega

The cuisine of Andalucía is marked by Mediterranean and Arab traditions, along with Spanish and Jewish influences. The combination is hard to beat: think lots of high quality olive oil, fresh fruit, red wine,  and almonds and honey in sweets.  Here, we were usually “tapa-ing,” having small bites, which allowed us to try a little of everything. Nearby access to some of the best olives and olive oil in the country gave dishes a simple yet special touch.

Sampling room at Bodegas Ysios

In the Rioja region, a visit to the Bodegas Ysios winery taught us about wine-making in the area, and provided samples of their Reserva and Limited Editions. For eats we enjoyed patatas a la Riojana (potatoes cooked with paprika-dusted chorizo), rustic bean dishes with morcilla (blood sausage) and lots of local vegetables. Oh, and the cheese! It’s not just Manchego any more: in the north especially we ate amazing cheese: Goat’s milk Garrotxa, sheep’s milk Idiazábal (Basque) and piquant Cabrales with streaks of blue.

Some of the best croquetas we had in Spain were served in Zaragoza, but croquettes in general became a sort of benchmark when trying out new places. Olives did that for us as well! ;)

  Comfort Food

Huevos rotos became a comfort food go-to, first eating out, but then we started cooking them in our Air BnB kitchens too. These potatoes with fried eggs “broken” over them. Our favorite meal in Seville included Los Huevos de Ramon at the Antigua Abaceria de San Lorenzo. The high quality ingredients and the fact that Ramon himself “broke” the eggs and put the final touches on the dish set it a notch above all the rest.

We found another favorite in pisto, a Spanish ratatouille made with tomatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers and of course garlic and olive oil. We liked it best served with a fried egg on top. Favorite version: under an archway in the corner of Plaza de la Corredera in Córdoba on a very rainy day. And who can forget that other cordoban classic, Berenjenas Fritas con Miel de Caña (Eggpant with molasses?

Runners up in the comforting Spanish food category were all kinds of beans: Habas con jamón (Broad beans with ham) in Granada, Asturian fabadas with sausage, white beans with spinach, alubias a la riojana, a bean soup in the Alpujarras mountains. The list goes on.

Something Fishy!

Anchovies, sardines, herring, mackerel . . . I gravitate to these, and in Spain it was easy to get my fix. Marinate them in vinegar, drizzle with oil, fry ’em, grill ’em, bring them right over, please.

Our time at the beach, based in Nerja and Bolonia was highlighted by fish, fish and fish. My favorite was espetos (skewers) of grilled sardines, sprinkled simply with sea salt, cooked over an open fire, and served with a squeeze of lemon with a sea view. That smoky flavor and tender, flavorful fish will always remind me of those days at the beach. While most of the famous chinringuitos (small snack shacks by the beach) were shut down for the season, we were (okay, I was) so happy to catch the end of sardine season in October.

Grilled Sardines

Although we weren’t there to witness the 3000 year old, annual tuna fishing tradition, the almadraba, we were still able to sample red tuna (Atlantic bluefin tuna, which is known for it’s reddish meat) in Zahara de los Atunes, Barbate and along the southern coast. Another favorite was Puntillitas, battered and fried baby squid. We ordered bacalao (cod) everywhere we went, while Donny discovered a deeper love of cuttlefish in various formats in southern Spain. Also of note was a delicious merluza (hake) we had in in the northeast. They say the hake are always gorging on sardines, so that may have something to do with how much I liked the merluza!

  Please enjoying this Spanish food slideshow, and be sure to tell us what we’ve missed!

Game of Thrones Exhibition

For the past three years, HBO took the show on the road, creating an international Game of Thrones exhibition, allowing fans across the world to enter the world of Westeros themselves. The exhibition features costumes, props and interactive activities in a setting that brings the show to life. Last year, we were contracted to manage the on-the-ground logistics and operations of the 2015 tour, an amazing experience. From about a week before the show opened to the public, until a few days after, when the whole thing was packed, crated and sent on the next city, we were there to make sure things went smoothly. In the most “international” of the gigs in our mobile marketing tour history, we were able to spend most of last year in Europe and still earn a little cash on the side.

Fans getting a close look at some costumes

2015’s Games of Thrones Exhibition cities were  London, Stockholm, Tel Aviv,  Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. Between many of the shows, we stayed in Europe, taking advantage of a few days (or weeks) of downtime to explore! Road trips around south west England and from Milan to Pisa were some of our favorites! Of course, whenever it was possible we visited Game of Thrones filming locations. We’ll tell you more about that in a future post!

The Game of Thrones Exhibition set being dismantled in Paris.

Building and Unbuilding the Set

The build of the 9000 square-foot set took 15 people (including us) three full days to complete. Tearing it all down and packing it into its 75 giant crates was a bit quicker at two days. The video below is a time lapse of the Game of Thrones exhibition in Paris being torn down.  To see a time lapse of a live event click here.

  The dragon eggs were always popular.

Original Props and Costumes

During the event, which was always free, several thousand fans per day passed through the exhibit. They all registered and pledged affiliation to one of four family Houses before the event, a smart marketing move. Once inside, video displays gave fans a behind the scenes look at production of the show. Costumes displayed ranged from Margaery’s wedding dress (which took over 200 hours to make!) to the Mountain’s armor. Props like Daenerys’ dragon eggs and Joffrey’s crown were displayed under plexiglass cases. People moved through different environments reflecting areas of Westeros: from Mereen in the south through King’s Landing and on to the North, Castle Black and finally the Wall.  Below is a slideshow with some prop and costume details for you superfans!

Oculus Rift “Ascend the Wall.”

Fans being “Torched by a Dragon.”

Sitting on the “Iron Throne.”

Interactive Elements

In several interactive areas, fans could receive a video involving them being surprised by a fire-breathing dragon or being transformed into a White Walker. One of the highlights of the exhibition was a 4D Oculus Rift virtual reality experience where fans could “Ascend the Wall.”

Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne) signs autographs for fans in Amsterdam

Liam Cunningham (Davos) at the Game of Thrones Exhibition in Amsterdam

Cast Appearances

On occasion, an actor or two would drop by on our opening day for an appearance.  Obviously, fans really enjoyed and appreciated being able to interact with the cast members.  A few of the notable appearances were John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne), Ian Beattie (Meryn Trent), Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H’ghar), Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis) and Kerry Ingram (Shireen Baratheon).

Our 2015 was filled with opportunities to discover and explore new and interesting places.  We were lucky enough to spend about six months in Europe doing a bit of work, but mostly doing what we enjoy most: wandering in unknown places.  We fully indulged our passion for street art, maybe fueling it even further, seeing new styles, interpretations and perspectives. Our own ideas on what can or should be art were expanded: from the positivity vs. angst of the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall to the colorful kaleidoscope of Paseo del Rey Juan Carlos I in Seville, we kept our eyes open and our camera on the ready. In addition to our European street art survey, we also had an opportunity to sample the styles of our neighbors to the north with visits to Montreal and Quebec City over the summer.

Please enjoy our favorites from 2015.  It’s so hard for us to narrow these down, so please let us know which is your favorite.  We would love to hear about it!

England

Blue Mask Girlsby Fin DAC, London, England

Surfer, St. Agnes, England

Sweden

Stockholm Subway, Sweden (See more of the urban art in Stockholm’s subways here.)

Germany

Day of the Dead Girl, Munich, Germany

Tsunami Store, Cologne, Germany

Cologne, Germany

Sailor Girl, Cologne, Germany

Say Cheese, Cologne, Germany

Stammstraße, Cologne, Germany

Smiling Soldier, Cologne, Germany

Saintly, Cologne, Germany

Thumbs Up, Berlin, Germany

Fantasy Masks, Berlin, Germany

I

Belgium

Art Alley, Ghent, Belgium

Veggie Wall, Ghent, Belgium

Kawaii-style street art in Ghent, Belgium

Switzerland

Hear no, see no, speak no… Zurich, Switzerland

Vision, Zurich, Switzerland

Canada

Crazy Monkey, Montreal, Canada

Mural, Quebec City, Canada

House Mural, Quebec City, Canada

Storage Container, Quebec City

Different forms of power, Quebec City, Canada

United States

Greetings, Portland, Maine

France

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Spain

“Because I dream, I am not crazy.” Street art in Zaragoza, Spain

Blue Girl, Red Hair, Zaragoza, Spain

Colorful Bollards line the Carrer de Comte (Calle de los Pilones) in Old Town, Tarragona, Spain

Green girl, Tarragona, Spain

Panda Girl, Seville, Spain

Domino, Tarragona, Spain

Gandolf, Tarragona, Spain

Wooly Mammoth, Seville, Spain

Iberian Pigs, Seville, Spain

Discover the diamond inside, Seville, Spain

Doodling Child, Seville, Spain

Showering boy, Girona, Spain

Selfie Spot, Girona, Spain

Colorful Corner, Madrid, Spain

Year in Review: Top Travel Photos of 2015

Our not-so-normal flow: work intensely, save, and then take some time for extended personal travel, was disrupted in 2015 as we thoroughly combined work and downtime. This year’s work contract was structured very differently and forced allowed us to take sizeable chunks of time off. Although these times were unpaid, we were sometimes compensated with a food and lodging stipend while we waited for…

Like taking a #roadtrip? Check out "Road Trip: Milan to Pisa" #Italy #travel #Europe #wanderlust

Traveling by train is one of our favorite ways to get from place to place. Looking out the window with no responsibility to watch the road or follow directions gives us time to think and plan. We took full advantage of the outstanding European train system from Amsterdam to Belgium to Germany to Switzerland. It was in Zurich that we decided on our next step. There would be one more epic train…

Road Trip: South West England #roadtrip #England @visitdevon @ilovecornwalluk @VisitSWEngland

[mappress mapid=”34″] A Road Trip through South West England To be honest, our road trip through South West England was a bit of a whirlwind. There was so much we wanted to see and do, but less than a week to fit it all in. In retrospect, we bit off more than we could chew, and felt more rushed than we like to be. Even so, we were able to experience enough of a sampling of what South West England…

  The East Side Gallery should be on everyone’s to do list when visiting Berlin. The gallery is a section of the original Berlin Wall spanning nearly a mile on Mühlenstraße along the river Spree (the border at the time). Shortly after the Wall came down in 1989, 105 art pieces were commissioned and painted along this section. Since they were originally installed, there has been some erosion of the concrete as well as quite a bit of graffiti and random people signing the wall. While we ended up feeling like those two additions take something away from the art, the pieces are still amazing. Visiting early in the morning, or around sundown, you can avoid the big tour buses and groups crowding the most famous pieces. A walk taking in most of the pieces will take a couple of hours if you stop frequently to reflect. The Gallery is also easily explored by bike. Enjoy some of our favorites from the area.

If you like this post, please check out these other great street art cities.

  Cartagena, Colombia

Bogota, Colombia

Medellin, Colombia

Cincinnatio, Ohio

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania