Monthly Archives for May 2014
This is the future (insert space noises)
When I was growing up, my family visited Disney World fairly often. In Epcot Center — inside the giant golf ball — there’s a slow moving ride called Spaceship Earth that takes you through the history of human communication. It sounds boring, maybe, but as a kid I loved “the future” on that ride: a family communicating via video phone. It seemed crazy at the time, about as crazy as flying cars, and yet here we are, FaceTiming and Skyping like it’s no big deal (related: Everything is amazing right now and nobody’s happy).
Although I use technology approximately 100 hours a day and shouldn’t really be amazed by it anymore, I still kind of am — especially when I’m across the world from my life and still so connected.
The Efendi Hotel (aka paradise)
“This is The Best.”
Add that to the list of really intelligent phrases Y and I regularly uttered while in Akko, Israel. But we just couldn’t help it. Every time we turned a corner, something else really was The Best. Especially at our hotel, The Efendi.
I came across the Efendi on Design Sponge a few months ago (you have to go look at the post, my pictures won’t do this incredible hotel justice). Two ancient Ottoman palaces were merged and preserved to create this hotel that basically puts every other hotel I’ve stayed in to shame (and I’ve stayed at the Luxor) (Just kidding, the Luxor was gross.)
I never thought we would be able to afford to stay at a place like this, but I found a great deal on agoda.com and, well, it was The Best. Here are seven reasons why:
3. Our room (and every other room in this magical place) had beautiful hand painted ceilings. This picture was taken lying on the floor of our room between the bedroom area and the bathroom area. (yes, Y was looking at me like I was crazy.)
5. In the morning, we made our way downstairs for Israeli breakfast at a knight’s table in a “centuries old room that dates from the early Ottoman Empire.” There were tiny yogurt parfaits. Who doesn’t love tiny breakfast treats??
travel tip: put it in their mouths
This weekend, we had friends over for brunch. I was planning to make something involving lots of syrup and whipped cream, but at the last minute I decided to make an Israeli breakfast. Because, what better way to answer the question how was your trip? than to literally put your trip in their mouths. (That should be a slogan for something, right? It’s so clear I went to school for advertising.)