OSEA Malibu

I had a glorious 90-minute Sea of Life facial at One Ocean Resort & Spa in Atlantic Beach, Fla., last month, and it was that experience that lead me to adopt OSEA Malibu’s skincare products into my travel routine. OSEA – Ocean, Sun, Earth and Atmosphere – products are all vegan, organic, derived from seaweed and filled with vitamins and minerals, and while I’m not usually crunchy at all, I am definitely swayed by anything that touts itself as anti-aging.

Currently in my travel bag: OSEA Ocean Cleanser, Essential Hydrating Oil and Advanced Protection Cream. I was using the pink Sea Vitamin Boost for a moisture spritz, but the whole bottle leaked into my makeup bag on a flight from Punta Cana to Samana, Dominican Republic, a few weeks ago. Ugh, I feel like that happens to me all the time!

Alas, the Ocean Cleanser is incredibly active and I’ve noticed a positive change in my skin since I started using it. And surprisingly, I’ve been experimenting with the hydrating oil instead of my usual lotion moisturizer and it works great – and doesn’t leave me oily.

For travel-sized OSEA goodness, visit OSEAMalibu.com.

Birchbox

Oh, how I love my monthly Birchbox! Birchbox touts itself as the best way to discover new grooming, beauty and lifestyle products. Every month, for just $10, you receive a box of samples with goodies from high-end brands – stuff you might not splurge for in the full size without first trying in the tiny size.

I’ve always been a bit of a sample-size hoarder, so every month, like a giddy schoolgirl, I dutifully check my mailbox for the latest arrival. In the past six months, I’ve adopted several of the products I sampled … Kerastase Elixir Ultime for hair, Miss Jessie’s Pillow Soft Curls, Lancome La Base Pro, Vasanti BrightenUp!, DDF Wrinkle Resist Plus… the list goes on and on. And everything comes in sample (read: travel) size, so it’s easy to transfer from the Birchbox to the suitcase without adding a ton of weight.

Is it necessary? Of course not. No beauty product is necessary. But I sure love the little surprise gift from myself every single month. It’s the little things in life…

AND, Birchbox makes a fun gift for a bride or mom-to-be. Check it out here: Birchbox.com.

C. Booth Coconut Fig Body Lotion

Though it’s possible (especially if you’re a guy) to fly sans-toiletries and just depend on your hotel to provide shampoo, conditioner and lotion, honestly you never know what you’re going to get. Rarely have I met a hotel conditioner that was suitable for my crazy mane, and you never quite know if the lotion will be some hideous fragrance or funky formulation that makes your skin squeak. (It happens!)

Now that I found c. Booth 4-in-1 Coconut Fig Body Lotion, I’m packing it into a 3.5 oz. jar and taking it with me on my next jaunt. It smells like summer, it moisturizes perfectly and it’s inexpensive – like, under $10 for a huge bottle that you can easily top off travel sizes with.

Check out Freeman Beauty for more c. Booth products. (I’m also using the All-Over-Body Sea Salt Scrub, but it’s not as easy to transfer to a travel size, so it’s more of a home luxury!)

***

So those are my top beauty travel picks for May! Whew! Now that we’re all moisturized and dewy, tell me, what are your favorite travel beauty goodies? What is ALWAYS in your travel bag?

Some products featured in Angie Away’s Beautiful Traveler series were provided complimentary. All opinions are Angie’s. 

The view from across Lake Bled

I was in Slovenia as part of a multi-country train whiz through Europe courtesy of Eurail.com.  Having made my way from Berlin to Prague to Vienna to Bratislava to Venice to Rome to Bologna to Lausanne, I decided to spend a couple of days in Slovenia’s near-unpronounceable capital city: Ljubljana. 

After just a few days wandering around the extremely pleasant, walkable city, I was a little bored, so I teamed up with a fella I met at Hostel Celica for the hourlong bus ride to Bled, a town in the Julian Alps.

We didn’t have a plan for what to do once we arrived, and somehow I think that was the right way to go about a day trip to Lake Bled.

The lake, the castle and the tiny town of Bled are pulled straight from the pages of a storybook… at least, the storybooks I used to read as a kid. Imposing castle on a hill; sparkly, dark, mysterious lake; church with 99 steps marooned on an island… it was all just too picture perfect. Definitely an inspired location for a Disney princess movie if ever there was one!

Like a real Disney Princess, I was googly-eyed over the dozens of ducklings kicking their way all around the lake’s edge, and the swans were curious about me, too.

I nearly broke into cheerful song.

Instead of ticking off the traditional sightseeing list – castle & church – we decided to take the 6 km path all the way around the lake in order to capture every beautiful vantage point.

There’s nothing like spending a day with a total stranger, is there? Especially one you really find interesting. We chatted for hours, stopping for ice cream and occasional photographs. None of either of us, though, as the scenery really stole the show.

Make a wish!

After weeks of non-stop travel blogging hysteria and train travel, my day at Lake Bled was a slow, welcome day of reflection, conversation and fresh air. The weather was perfect, the scenery couldn’t be beat and the company was lovely. A top travel day to remember forever.

Instead, I’ve found that my Morocco trip has influenced my personal design style more than any other place I’ve ever been.

Moroccan style inspiration

I’m sure my appreciation for Moroccan design has much to do with the fact that Morocco was the last new country I visited at the end of my 2nd year of untethered, nomadic living.  It’s no coincidence that the country happens to have an incredibly different look and feel than what I’m used to. Its geometric patterns and colors still linger in my imagination. Now when I see Moroccan design influence in a store window, I’m transported to a Marrakech riad or the tiled floors of the market stalls in Fes.

Patterns and colors from Marrakech, Casablanca and Fes

Memories of intricate patterns, bright colors and tiled mosaics have served me well in my brand new apartment – the first home base I’ve had in almost 2.5 years, and the first place I’ve ever had all to myself to decorate as I please.

My blank canvas

My new place is tiny by some standards, but huge in comparison to my Hell’s Kitchen apartment! I sold/left all my furniture back in NYC when I left to travel the world in 2010, so standing in my empty new place, all I could see was possibilities for a completely fresh start.

Funny… it’s quite the same feeling I get when I embark on a trip to a brand new place.

Moroccan style patterns in my apartment -a throw pillow, welcome mat (World Market), bed spread (curtain from Target) and shower curtain (Target)

Once I decided on a general design/color scheme (blue/green/gold/silver & globes/maps for the living room; coral/gray in the bedroom), I got to work… and by work, I mean spending heaps of money I don’t have. Whoops.

New sofa & ottoman from Rooms to Go

I purchased 3 new pieces of furniture: a bed (the first new one I’ve ever owned!), a sectional sofa and a leather ottoman that folds out into a bed. (I just love multi-use pieces.)

Homemade headboard and makeshift jewelry holder

I bought a second-hand desk and dresser at Goodwill and with a bit of digging on Pinterest, transformed them into two pieces of furniture I’m really proud of. (DIY details coming soon!)

From boring to Moroccan!

My DIY desk – I LOVE how it turned out!

With some paint, some colorful scrapbook paper and a few gallons of Mod Podge, I took what I saw in Morocco and made it work for a Floridian apartment. What do you think of my DIY efforts?

Patterns & colors – the hallmarks of Moroccan design. Welcome Mat from World Market; Tieks shoes in Cardinal Red; Shower Curtain from Target.

While my Intrepid trip to Morocco certainly enhanced and inspired my personal decorating style, I’m still not too wild with colors and patterns, as you can tell. Where Moroccan design can be cacophonous, with 100 patterns and colors all jumbled together, I prefer muted accents, quiet colors (bright coral dresser aside!) and gentle patterns.

I see this first round of decorating as an experiment in personal design growth. If nothing else, that’s what travel is all about, right?

Bits & bobs in my world traveler-inspired apartment. Globe clock from IKEA. Solar-powered Queen of England: gift from little sis

At the end of the day, or the end of an epic adventure, the bottom line is that travel is something that’s always a part of you… whether you’re a constant nomad or someone with a home base. Though I never expected it would be possible, my new place doesn’t feel like home because it happens to be located in the place where I grew up just a few miles from grandparents, siblings, parents and cousins.

It feels like home because it reminds me of where I’ve always felt at home: abroad. 

Finished DIY desk & some favorite knick-knacks

Where the magic (aka work!) happens. Moroccan lantern from Target; Globe Bar from Amazon.com; Tray from IKEA; Travelocity Roaming Gnome courtesy of Travelocity.com

I know I’m not the only one to love both traveling AND home design. What country or region most inspired your design style?

Experiencing the Dominican Republic

Highs

Country No. 42. So which lucky destination broke my grounded streak? It was the Dominican Republic, country no. 42. I just returned from an action packed week there yesterday and have so many photos to share and a new appreciation for organic chocolate, cigars and sweet Barcelo rum. And I loved colonial Santo Domingo – loved, loved, loved, and am ready to go back. The DR is a country with rich flavor, both historic and where taste buds are concerned, and they’re really doing some neat things in the realm of sustainable tourism. Watch for my first post in the next week or so, and check out Tequia Experiences if you’re planning a trip.

Apartment. I did it! I signed a lease for a whole year in a bright and shiny new apartment in Jacksonville. Settling in has been such a strange and wonderful experience. It’s crazy how much my decorating style has evolved after two years on the road. I’m much more likely to incorporate patterns and colors now (thanks to Bali, Morocco and Greece), where before I was a bit simplistic. I’ve been Instagramming my DIY furniture rehabbing projects like mad, and will be posting about them soon. Stay tuned!

My blank canvas

Florida Travel. While I haven’t flown anywhere but the DR in 2013, I’ve made the most of my brand new car and road-tripped to several nearby destinations in Florida, visiting Amelia Island, St. Augustine and Orlando in the past few weeks. There’s much to do and see in my own backyard, and I’m loving being able to experience it with the fresh eyes of a seasoned traveler. Check out my post 5 Places to Experience 500 Years of Florida if you’re planning a visit.

I also returned to One Ocean Resort in Atlantic Beach, Fla., to experience their glorious spa and an OSEA treatment, the Sea of Life Facial. You know I often find it hard to sit still for stuff like that, but I was so relaxed and soothed by the all-natural, organic OSEA products that I drifted off to sleep a few times. Sigh. Why can’t every day be a spa day?

Generation W. Early in May, I attended my first ever Generation W conference, a women’s event founded by former WNBA President and powerhouse of a woman Donna Orender. Gen W is a platform for women to be educated, inspired and connected, and I know I was during the conference on April 5. I had the great honor of live blogging two of the sessions during the event, so you can check them out here:

Play like a girl? Congratulations!

Transformational Leadership 

Family time at Ashley’s benefit concert

Friends & Family Time. While there’s not always much to do in Jacksonville, I find my calendar has been chock full with family & friend-related events. In the past two months, my mom graduated, we celebrated mom’s 50-something and my grandma’s 70^th birthday, my high school pal Audrey married her sweetheart Spencer, I’ve watched my brother perform with his band and as a guest drummer at a friend’s benefit concert, my sister and I road-tripped to Orlando for a photo shoot, singing the Disney Pandora station all the way and laughing our heads off. It seems like every weekend there’s someone’s birthday or celebration, and though that’s a complete 180 from my life of traveling solitude the past two years, I do enjoy being around for all the milestones.

Hamming it up with Audrey, the bride, and Jessica – dear, dear friends from high school

Lows

Lest I forget the downsides of travel. It’s been rather easy to gloss over the not-so-shiny parts of being a wanderer as I’ve been focusing so much on being present in my new life in Jacksonville. The worst travel experience of the last 60 days of course was the dramatic, police-involved screaming fest that was my night at the St. Augustine La Quinta Inn. I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that ridiculous evening.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be air travel without some bumps, right? On the way home from the Dominican, something was wrong with our airplane so we ended up with an 8-hour delay, causing us (me and two other writers) to wander frigid Miami airport like zombies all night as we awaited our rebooked connections. I appreciate that American Airlines put safety first – no one wants to fly on a broken plane – and their Twitter customer service was so helpful in rebooking me on a flight the next morning. The ground crew in the DR left MUCH to be desired, as did the open-air terminal filled with hungry mosquitos, but that’s travel, right? You take the good with the bad.

Delinquent clients. What is with clients who won’t pay? I’m currently owed about $7,000 from freelance PR clients who seem to think they can pay me in goodwill. What is that? I can’t eat goodwill, and I surely can’t pay my rent with it. And I’m especially annoyed with the ones who aren’t reimbursing me for expenses incurred working on their projects.

Ah well. I know God will provide, but now that I have a lease and bills it has become such a daily exercise in faith.

Lesson: don’t let perfectionism mess up DIY projects!

Lessons

Adjusting takes time. While my family and a smattering of friends reside in Jacksonville, I’ve yet to find my place here. I’m constantly reminding myself that it takes time to find a niche in a new town, even when it’s the town where you grew up. I’m slowly working on figuring out how to do this life I’ve signed up for – at least for the next year. Once my lease is up, I make no promises!

Everything (and everyone) doesn’t have to be perfect. I’ve always suffered from perfectionism – and I realize how silly that might sound. “Oh, my biggest weakness? I’m so perfect!” But that’s not what I mean. I demand perfection from myself and from those in my life, and I’m slowly learning to accept others for the things they do that make them maybe not-so-perfect, including myself.

AND, that perfectionism has spread to outfitting my apartment. I had to lay out a ton of cash upfront considering I had no furniture or bed or dishes or anything to start my new life… and I found myself wanting every last detail perfect immediately. I’m learning that everything doesn’t have to be amazing and it’s not the end of the world if I have to wait a while until I can afford bedside tables or rugs or miscellaneous household wares. I have enough to live comfortably, and at least until my clients pay me, that’ll have to do. And that’s ok.

I’ve been to Target about 1,500 times in the past 60 days

What’s Next

We can make our plans but God determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9

THE YEAR OF ANGE. Since my last Reflections from the Road update, I promised to have an apartment, a new church home, a few more destinations under my belt. And I’m getting there! Now that I have my own place and some time to myself, I’ve been able to tackle my list of resolutions with a bit more chutzpah. So where do I stand?

Lose 20 lbs. – Working on it. Stuck at about -2. It’s been tough.

Write a book. – Haven’t even started.

Volunteer locally & abroad. – Haven’t even started.

Read 24 books. – Just finished Martin Eden by Jack London and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 2 down, 22 to go.

Get an apartment. – CHECK!

Find a new church. – Have checked out two churches in Jacksonville and want to visit a few more before committing.

Summer Travel Plans. In the next 60 days, I’m scheduled to visit Ginnie Springs, Amelia Island, Orlando, possibly NYC and who knows where else? In July, I’m spending 2 weeks in Alaska and the rest of 2013 is looking to be quite busy, though nothing nearly as wild as the past two years.

Business partnerships in the works. I have some incredible projects on the horizon, though I can’t discuss any of them just yet. Before they start though, I’m available for freelance copywriting, PR or social media consulting – that is, if you pay on time! =)

As always, I couldn’t do any of this without your faithful readership, so thank you for sticking with me through the ups, downs, delays, imperfections and all! Leave me a note in the comments – I would love to hear from you!

***

Did you “like” this post? It only takes one click to tell a friend all about it via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon or Google+, and I’ve made it SO EASY with all the little buttons at the top of this post. Sharing helps me stay on the road and to continue providing interesting content, so thank you for your help in keeping Angie… away!

Shame on me for being a naive teen and thinking I could leave my wallet, school books and handmade-by-Great-Grandma baby blanket in my backpack stuffed under the front seat. It was the biggest DUH moment of my life and one of those instances when a snap decision changes everything.

Amazingly, the SFPD apprehended the thief while he was sorting through our goodies at a diner the next day, and we got almost everything back…  except the two most important things: my blanket and my social security card. 

While the immediate worst part of the whole ordeal was having my very special, very sentimental blanket stolen, that trauma was only the beginning of what I would endure thanks to our sneaky thief.

***

Two years later, I was preparing to leave on my summer study abroad trip to Paris. I applied for an emergency-only credit card – just a $500 limit – from my local bank, and was promptly and vehemently denied. Apparently, my credit report showed more than $1,300 in unpaid cell phone bills from Verizon, which was pretty nuts considering I didn’t even own a cell phone at the time. There were also dozens of attempts to open accounts in my name at other cell service providers. I pulled up a credit report as soon as I got home and found that as far as the bank was concerned, I’d been living in Oakland, Calif., since 2001 and getting up to all sorts of illegal shenanigans. In reality of course, I’d just been minding my own business in Florida oblivious to the fact that our San Francisco thief was still wreaking havoc on my life.

It took more than 6 months of admin, phone calls and mailing police reports & forms to the credit bureaus to clear up and prove that I hadn’t been opening accounts all over California. It was a miserable experience and one I never want you to have to go through! Check out the following identity theft prevention tips from TrustedID (my comments in parenthesis):

• Stay Thin: Before you take on your summer adventure, go through your wallet and remove unnecessary credit/debit cards, as well as anything displaying personal information. Make copies of important documents before you leave, such as passport, driver’s license and travel tickets, in case something happens to them. (I keep copies of the front and back of every credit card, a trick that came in very handy when I was pick-pocketed in Athens. It also helps to scan all those items and keep them filed in your email in case you don’t have a hard copy but still need access. Don’t EVER carry your social security card with you when traveling.)

• Stay Secure: Hotel computers and unsecure Wi-Fi connections are easy targets for hackers and identity thieves. If you need to check your email, always ensure that you’re using a secure network. Never access sensitive information, such as your bank account, on these networks. (I confess I pay very little attention to this.)

• Stay Safe: While you shouldn’t carry personal documents with you when you’re out and about, hotel rooms aren’t necessarily the safest option. Smartphones, tablets and laptops contain a huge amount of valuable data, so use room or hotel safes to lock these valuable items away.

• Don’t Stand-alone: Stand-alone ATMs are more likely to have skimming devices. Stick with bank ATMs whenever possible.

• Beware Pickpockets: It sounds old school, but this does still happen. Pickpockets prey on you in high traffic areas such as malls, amusement parks and sporting events. Some are only interested in cash, but others are out for your driver’s license and social security number. Keep your credit cards and ID in a secure place, like a money belt. Don’t keep all your cash in the pouch though—spread it around with some in your wallet, some in the hotel room and some even in your shoe. (I never liked using money belts, but I’m a big fan of PacSafe products.) 

• No Checkbook Checkout: Checking account fraud is one of the most difficult types of identity theft from which to recover, and being far from home will only add to your frustration. When traveling, use cash, traveler’s checks, or credit cards for purchases. (When traveling, I drain my checking account, funneling the money into harder-to-access accounts. It’s a complicated system, but worth it in the event my debit card were to fall in the wrong hands.)

• Don’t Brag: You may be traveling the world, but don’t let the world know you’re away.  When you  share your excitement and plans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., the Internet now knows that your home will be unattended. There’s no better opportunity for a thief to empty out your house. Share travel plans only with close friends! (This one doesn’t apply to the travel bloggers of the world – obviously, everyone from close friends to perfect strangers know when we’re abroad! If you DO have a house and assets, you could be a target when traveling. Ensure your privacy settings are in order before you announce your house will be unattended.)

A few other tips from me:

• Shred everything with your name and account number on it.
• Check your accounts frequently for unrecognized charges.
• Get a credit report once or twice a year to verify that everything is copacetic. I never knew what was going on because my thief was opening new accounts in my name – NOT accessing current accounts that I was paying attention to.
• If you are a victim of theft, cancel all your credit cards and then immediately contact the three credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax – to put fraud alerts in place. Believe me, it’s the biggest hassle in the world, but ultimately it’s another layer of protection between you and some jerk pretending to be you.

Identity theft may look hilarious when depicted by the fabulous Melissa McCarthy, but in real life, it’s not half as much fun. Have you ever had to deal with it while traveling?

***

Check out my story on identity theft in Seventeen. (Page 2) And forgive my ridiculous hair. We’d just left the 90s, folks! 

For better or for worse, happy 500^th birthday, Florida! 

Between Florida’s focus on tourism and its legacy of intrepid exploration, it makes perfect sense that this is the land that made me who I am. Now that I’ve returned from my travels to explore my home state – at least for the next 11 months until my lease runs out – I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon as La Florida promotes this historic year with events and parties and exhibitions.

So here are 5 of my Florida favorites to help you experience 500 years of Florida – enjoy!

St. Augustine bucket list: take old timey photos!

St. Augustine

Florida wouldn’t be Florida without historic St. Augustine, so start your Sunshine State adventure here with a dose of Spanish history. While Ponce de Leon explored the area, now known as the First Coast, upon arrival in 1513, St. Augustine is regarded as the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States because Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés officially founded a settlement here in 1565. Home to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (1672), gorgeous Flagler College (1888), the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, the USA’s Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse and Nombre de Dios, a Catholic Mission founded in 1565, there’s no shortage of interesting sites and surprising facts in this town.

In a country where just about everything is relatively new, especially in comparison with say, Europe, it’s refreshing to visit St. Augustine and experience a walk back into US history. (Just beware where you stay!)

Welcome to the Swamp! Only Gators get out alive! (And tourists… come on, guys! It’s just a football thing!)

The Everglades

Some of Florida’s most ancient residents live in South Florida, and I’m not just talking about all those Yankee retirees! Of course, I’m referring to the American Alligator, of prehistoric descent. Did you know the word alligator is an anglicized form of el lagarto, the Spanish term for “lizard,” which the Spanish settlers in Florida called the alligator? How cool is that?

While you can spot these dinosaurs all over the state, in nearly every body of water, the best place for gator peeping is the Everglades National Park, where you can take a bike ride on the Shark Valley Loop off the Tamiami Trail. If that sounds a little too Steve Erwin for your taste, you can take a tram, or book a spot on an airboat for the ride of your life.

Even as adults, we have annual family excursions to Orlando’s theme parks.

Walt Disney World & Universal Studios Florida

Folks either love or hate what’s become of Orlando, what with its plethora of larger than life theme parks and prominent bowing to tourism. I grew up in a world where a trip to Disney was as big a deal as Christmas, so I must confess, I fall staunchly in the “We’re going to a theme park today?! YAHOOOOOOOO!” category. The Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Sea World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and the new Legoland are the heavy-hitters, and you could spend quite a bit of money just checking those off your list. (Wizarding World of Harry Potter, anyone? My favorite!)

Some people *like* theme parks. Take a look at my face. I LOOOOVE them!

But don’t forget about the smaller parks, including Wet n’ Wild, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and the Holy Land Experience. If you’re coming to Florida for the first time, even just for a few days, plan a visit to one or more parks. You won’t be sorry. (Your feet might. Bring bandaids.)

Some nerds on a family trip to Key West. No idea who they are. Nerds.

Key West

Far away from the theme parks and the historic attractions of Spanish Florida, you’ll find a town with a distinctive Caribbean flavor. It’s Key West, Florida, and it’s the southernmost point of the continental USA. In fact, Key West is closer to Havana, Cuba, than it is to Miami.

At just four miles long and two miles wide, Key West won’t take too long to explore once you get there, but it doesn’t mean it’s not worth the spectacular drive on the Overseas Highway, crossing 113-mile chain of islands connected by 42-bridge, including one that’s a full seven miles long. Pastel-colored houses and cats and funky bars await at the end of the road, much like they did when Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams were residents.

Cape Canaveral

Explorers founded Florida in 1513 and since NASA’s inception in 1958, explorers have continued to search for new frontiers using the Space Coast as a base. When I was a kid, my grandparents used to bring us down from Jacksonville to watch the space shuttle launches. The shuttle program was discontinued in 2011, but space exploration continues, so you can still visit Kennedy Space Center, its many retired spacecraft and the Astronaut Hall of Fame on your next visit.

***

So, are you all jacked up like Ponce de Leon on Fountain of Youth water? No? Come on! There’s no time like the present to come check out my home sweet home. And let me know if you do… I’ve got a million more recommendations, theme park secret tips and suggestions for the best restaurants to get alligator tail. And with all this research I’m doing on Florida’s history, I’m just a little bit excited to play tour guide =)

For more inspiration on planning a Florida trip, check out my Wanderlist on AFAR.com. 

***

A historical note: there was a Native American presence in Florida long before the European influence, so I don’t want that to go unnoticed! The 500-year anniversary of course commemorates the beginning of the formation of the USA as we know it. Also interesting to note, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, Ponce de Leon was with him. Plymouth Rock and Jamestown were founded in the 1600s.

And a programming note: No, Visit Florida didn’t pay me to write this. I just love my home state and wanted everyone to know about it!

***

Background: my grandparents are involved in a local organization and every year some hodge-podge of cousins and siblings assembles to assist them with parking and hospitality for their annual weekend event in St. Augustine. For purposes of this story, let’s call the organization “The Club.” Each year, the Club reserves a block of hotel rooms at the La Quinta on Highway 16 in St. Augustine to house the helpers. Each year, they provide a list of names of the participants to the hotel, sometimes complete and sometimes not. It never seemed to matter in the past.

This year, my brother, his girlfriend Kristina, his roommate Rick, my sister and I joined our grandpa at the hotel on Saturday night. We had two rooms with 4 beds, which could’ve easily held up to 8 people. Keep that in mind later in the story.

We went to the St. Augustine Rhythm & Ribs Festival but found we were all just too worn out to enjoy it, so we returned to the hotel around 9:30 p.m. We checked the pool hours and decided since there were none posted, we would pop down to the hot tub before bed. We were the only ones there, the 5 of us, so we stayed outside chatting for about an hour before drying off and heading up to the room. Room 218.

It was about 10:45 p.m.  On the way up to our room, I stopped at the front desk to inquire if we could get a rollaway bed, since our grandpa was likely already sleeping down the hall and we’d all rather stay together and watch a movie anyhow. The Manager curtly said no, and I said, “No worries.” We could either squeeze onto one big bed or someone could have the floor. No big deal with this crew.

Apparently, that was the wrong question to ask.

We’d been in the room about 10 minutes and were changing into our PJs when the phone rang. Assuming it was grandpa calling to check on us, my sister answered. The look on her face told us it wasn’t grandpa. After a few minutes, she hung up and said, “It was the front desk. They’re towing your cars and calling the police.”

What?! Why?! We looked at each other incredulously and determined that since they didn’t know which cars were ours anyhow & didn’t provide decals to visitors, there would be no towing.

But what in the world would they call the police for?

The phone rang again minutes later, and this time my brother answered. I could tell from his tone that someone was speaking to him in the wrong way on the other end. Once he hung up and informed us that we were being kicked off the property immediately, Rick & I decided to go to the desk to straighten things out.

I knew it must all just be a big misunderstanding. Surely the management would see reason once I went down to the desk and explained the situation.

“What seems to be the problem,” I said brightly, putting 10 years of dealing with irate & irrational journalists in PR to use.

Immediately, the Manager’s voice was raised and accusing. First, he said we weren’t supposed to be there with 5 people in one room. And I countered, “We actually have two rooms. Our grandfather is down the hall in 207. There is plenty of space for everyone.” Problem solved, right?

He continued shouting that we were taking all the parking spaces and he was going to tow all our cars. I explained that we had two rooms, enough for 8 people, and thus we could’ve had 8 cars and still been within our rights as guests. And once Rick & I explained to him that we were only taking up two spots, the story changed again.

“Well, four of you aren’t supposed to be here. Your names aren’t on the list.” He waved the list provided by the Club in my face.

“I’m sorry the Club didn’t provide all the names, but it’s just a misunderstanding,” I said.  He didn’t believe a word I said, and he wouldn’t budge on his stance. He was convinced we were teenagers there to trash his hotel, apparently. Funny the only teenager in the group – my sister – was the one actually on the list.

I tried to assuage his fears. “I assure you we’re all meant to be here, working for the Club. We’re just trying to go to sleep so we can get up at 5 a.m. to go back to the event.”

“No you’re not! And you’re roughhousing! You’re disturbing everyone! You can’t do that in my hotel!” He waved his finger in my face.

WHAT?!

“First of all, you need to get your hand out of my face. I thought we were being removed from the property because we were taking up too many parking spaces? Or because our names aren’t on the list? Now we’re being too noisy? Which is it? Seems like you’ve got a whole list of ever-changing issues here,” I said, now not being my usually demure PR self. I could tell Rick was about to lose it, too. And he’s like the Hulk. You don’t want to see him angry.

The Owner stood there indignantly as I called him out, while his sniveling henchman Manager stood next to him.

“Were we loud or unruly in the hot tub? Have you received complaints about any noise from us? Have we done anything to disturb your guests?”

The Owner shook his head.

“Then I really fail to see what the issue is, and we are not leaving this hotel.” 

As Owner shook his finger about 3 inches from my face, he said, “Well I already called 911!”

I probably shouldn’t have laughed out loud. But I did. “You called 911? For what? So they’re going to come here and arrest us for trying to go to sleep before 11 p.m. on a Saturday night? For paying for two rooms and then filling them with less than the allotted amount of people? They’re going to laugh in your face.”

“You don’t know how the world works,” the Manager yelled at me, again assuming I was some naïve kid he could push around.

Oh, don’t I? I guess I’ll have to settle for my measly knowledge of TripAdvisor, Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. Darn.

“Fine,” the Owner shouted in his thick accent. “You go to your room right now and do not come out the rest of the night!”

Am I 7-years-old? “That’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do for the past 45 minutes!”

***

After being treated like a child and not as a guest, disrespected and accused of all manner of things that weren’t actually happening, Rick and I went back upstairs to relay our sentence of being locked in our room to the other three. Rachel was already in bed reading her daily Bible study and Alex & Kristina were preparing to watch Happy Feet. Finally, after we told them about the absurdity of the whole situation with the Manager and the Owner, we were ready for bed. It was 11:40 p.m.

And then there was a forceful pounding at the door. It was the police. Of course it was the police.

I answered the door with a frustrated, “What now?”

Of course, Mr. Cop naturally sided with the management and assumed we were partying it up and tearing the hotel room to bits. He demanded to speak with Rachel since she was on the list, and poor RaeRae, the only teenager in the group, in her pajamas, was summoned to the door for a lecture on good behavior. (May I point out that the lecture we received in the hallway must’ve been much more disturbing to guests than anything we actually did the entire night. Great job, La Quinta.)

“I bet you wouldn’t be too happy if I went down there and woke up your grandpa and told him about all this, would you?” Cop threatened.

“Um, I bet YOU wouldn’t be too happy if you woke him up,” I whispered, knowing my grandpa would be far less diplomatic and we probably would all end up in jail. “We are not here to have fun. We are not here to party. If we wanted to party, we wouldn’t come to the La Quinta Inn next to the Outlet Mall, now would we? We’re just trying to go to bed, and if the management would stop harassing us, we would already be asleep.”

“Oh, I’m sure with all these girls here, you’re not going to party,” Cop said to my brother.

“Dude, THEY’RE MY SISTERS!”

“That’s ok. I’m from Palatka.” Gross, Cop. Just gross.

“Sir, I’m sure on a Saturday night you have actual crimes to deal with and real fun parties to break up,” I said. Cop peeked around the room, saw that our only offenses were eating Girl Scout cookies too late at night, and left with a warning that if he had to come back, we’d all be in serious trouble. 

We stood in the room whispering, again left incredulous that we’d been harassed a 4^th time in less than 45 minutes, when all the while we were just trying to GO TO SLEEP. We were shaken and upset, and I for one didn’t sleep a wink because of the stress. I just knew Owner & Manager were glued to their security cams, hoping we’d pop out for a soda from the vending machine so they could tackle us to the ground and accuse us of more made-up nonsense. The whole ordeal was so unsettling.

***

The next day, we had to explain to our grandparents why the cops were called because you know Owner & Manager were going to tattle to the Club… and grandparents tend to automatically side with authority and presume *the kids* were up to no good. But we asked many of the folks staying on the same floor in the Club’s room block if they heard anything at the times we were in the hallway, and no one heard a peep.

Pretty interesting, isn’t it, Owner & Manager?  The only disturbances caused that night were the ones YOU caused to US. So thanks for that.

***

There are dozens of inexpensive chain hotels to choose for your travels, and while I’m not suggesting you skip all La Quinta Inns altogether, I’d wholeheartedly recommend (and practically insist) on skipping the one in St. Augustine unless you want to be screamed at, accused and threatened at all hours of the night, presumably for appearing young and fun. I stay in 4-and-5 star hotels 250 nights a year, and have never been treated with so little respect. And as I told my grandparents, I’ve certainly stayed up later and made more noise in hotels before and never, ever had an issue.

I sure won’t be giving La Quinta another chance. It’s just not worth it to feel so threatened.

***

What’s your worst hotel nightmare story? Have you ever had a run-in like this with management? Do you get treated with less respect because you look younger than you are?

***

An update/recap:

MANAGER ACCUSATION 1: There are too many people staying in one room.

ANSWER: We have two rooms, eight beds and six people. No funny business, no extra people.

MANAGER ACCUSATION 2: There are too many cars for the amount of people and you’re taking up all the parking places.

ANSWER: We only have two cars for the two rooms. The reason there are no parking spaces is because large vans and trucks are taking up multiple spaces.

MANAGER ACCUSATION 3: Your names aren’t on the list provided by the club.

ANSWER: That was an oversight on the club’s part. You could have called the club manager who was staying about 10 doors down the hall from the front desk to remedy the situation, but you wouldn’t. She would’ve confirmed we were meant to be there, but you wouldn’t do it because you didn’t want to be proven wrong, and you’d already called the police.

MANAGER ACCUSATION 4: You were roughhousing in the hallway.

ANSWER: We’ve seen the video, at 10:45 p.m., of the alleged roughhousing. It’s a joke that you’d even have the nerve to send that. The door that Alex knocked into happened to belong to a friend who was in the room at the time, and she heard nothing.

MANAGER ACCUSATION 5: You were in the hot tub after pool hours.

ANSWER: We asked at the desk what the hours were AND your staff gave us pool towels. When we asked if you’d received any complaints about noise in the hot tub, you said no.

MANAGER ACCUSATION 6: Only three people are allowed in the hot tub at one time.

ANSWER: Then why did you give us 5 towels? And why didn’t your staff come out and alert us of the rule, if it was in fact a rule?

MANAGER ACCUSATION 7: We received noise complaints from hotel guests about people beating on their doors after midnight.

ANSWER: We were in bed by 11:45 p.m. once the cop left our room, which I’m sure there is proof of on your security tapes. I would love to see the footage from 11:30 – 12:30 p.m. unless you’re afraid to share it.

MANAGER ACCUSATION 8: We patiently await your next false allegation.

 ***

OUR FINAL STATEMENT: You thought you could alleviate your parking problem by kicking out a group you thought were “unruly children” (verbiage taken from your fake review on TripAdvisor) who’d be unable to defend themselves. When we were able to refute each and every accusation you threw at us, you became irrational and escalated the the non-issue by calling the police, who subsequently laughed that you’d called them at all.

After realizing, upon reading this post, that you weren’t dealing with children at all, you demanded I stop trashing your hotel and cease blogging. While we appreciate the profuse apologies from La Quinta corporate, unfortunately it doesn’t appear the on-site owner shares the remorseful sentiment. I can only infer then that the criticism I’ve levied here is warranted and I would feel uncomfortable as a woman recommending anyone patronize this establishment. Stay at your own risk.

Next stop…. Switzerland!

Allons-y!

The train trip from Milan to Lausanne, Switzerland, was incredibly scenic, and I could only resist the touristy temptation to snap pics of the snow-covered peaks for so long as the train chugged between the mountain passes of the Alps. If you ever get the chance to take that route via train, do it!

It doesn’t take long, but it’s breathtaking.

Snow-covered peaks and pristine Lake Geneva

The go-go-go nature of the previous three weeks left me craving more than just solitude to recharge my batteries – I also just wanted to sleep and relax. And what better place to do that than a couple of spas on the shore of Lake Geneva?

My view from the Lausanne Palace & Spa

I was fortunate to find two elegant sister hotels, one in bustling Lausanne, headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, and one just a few train stops away in quiet Vevey, with everything I needed for my decompression retreat - spas, food and copious Swiss chocolate. I first stayed at the Lausanne Palace & Spa, an ornate, 5-star affair built in 1915 and perched atop an exasperating hill (take a taxi from the station – it’s farther than it looks!). As you would expect, I enjoyed all the comforts of complete quiet and ultra luxury overlooking the town and Lake Geneva.

Lake Geneva from my balcony at Lausanne Palace

Adorable, non?

A few days later, after exploring Lausanne just a bit and eating nothing but rich crepes both savory and sweet, I took the train to Vevey and made my way from the station, past cute streets and boutiques, to the Hotel des Trois Couronnes, or the Hotel of Three Crowns.

Vevey is a gorgeous, quaint little lake spot, but the claim to fame that drew me in was its status as the birthplace of milk chocolate.  Nestle, founded here in 1867, is still headquartered nearby. So much for calorie detox!

Vevey’s waterfront (and Hotel des Trois Couronnes – the blue & white building) as seen from the water taxi

Historic hotel, modern comforts at the Hotel des Trois Couronnes

Taking a walk on the lake’s edge

I didn’t spend as much time as you might think in the spas at my two historic hotels. As with just about everything in Switzerland, prices for spa treatments were more appropriate for bankers on holiday – not bloggers. So I took advantage of the free hot tubs and steam rooms, but bypassed massages and facials.

Slippers and a sweeping view of Lake Geneva & the Alps – who needs a massage?

Vevey fact: it was once home to Charlie Chaplin and is currently the site of the Alimentarium – the original site of Nestle’s administrative offices and now a food museum

When it’s time for introverted Angie to recharge and decompress, I tend to hole up in my hotel room or a café to catch up on work and when I need a break from that, I wander. For hours. And hours.

And Vevey was the perfect place for wandering, as there’s a miles-long path right on the water, complete with crepe stands, a vintage carousel and some bright spring blooms just opening up.

Lake Geneva in the springtime

Wandering in Vevey

Quirky sites in Vevey

Vevey’s waterside carousel

I appreciated being able to speak French with the locals while ordering food and asking questions of the concierge – one never quite expects the mental exhaustion that comes with being in a country where you don’t speak the language until you’ve actually been there a while – so just being able to converse comfortably was a respite in and of itself.

Swept up in clouds & peaks

Cruising around Lake Geneva

A hint of a rainbow

Though most of my time in Switzerland was spent focusing on the art of chilling out, I did manage to fit in one legitimate activity – a boat cruise around Lake Geneva. The weather was perfect for sitting on the bow and taking in every pretty lakeside town and every dramatic shift in Alpine cloud cover.

A pretty town on the French side of Lake Geneva

Cruising past historic Chateau de Chillon, built around 1100

The Chateau de Chillon is said to be Switzerland’s most visited historic monument

Snowy peaks in all directions, crisp spring air, bright sunshine and a leisurely pace made Switzerland one of the most relaxing stops on my Eurail-sponsored Tour d’Europe.

And though my retreat to Switzerland didn’t yield any wild adventures, hilarious stories, fascinating historical discoveries or even new friends – it brought me what I needed at the time. Rest. Relaxation.

And a renewed vigor for the next stop in my Eurail adventure…

Picture postcard perfect, right?

***

Special thanks to the Hotel des Trois Couronnes and the Lausanne Palace & Spa for hosting me on my Italian detox. As always, opinions are my own. 

Next stop: Bologna, Emilia-Romagna! All aboard!

Late afternoon light through the porticos

My first taste of Italy was via a cruise a few years ago. While I loved every minute, eight hours in Naples, Rome and Genoa wasn’t enough to know Italy the way Italians know it. It was really just a tiny taste of what was to come…

Fast forward a few years, and I found myself at the Blogville apartment in Bologna, the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region. I’d spent a few days jaunting around Rome, and a few more galavanting and eating my way through Umbria, and I was ready to sit still for a week and take in this new place known throughout the world for its various local specialties.

And what did I discover? (Aside from the need for elastic waist pants?)

Emilia-Romagna really is delicious.

Cured meats, amazing cheeses and (blech) olives

FOOD

Ok, maybe food isn’t the most Italian way of expressing the singular most important part of a visit to Emilia Romagna – THE EATING. Just stuffing your face with as many locally produced delights as you can get your chubby hands on is going to fill so much time that you may forget to actually see the sights… oops.

So what should you put on your eating checklist? To start…

• Tagliatelle
• Ragu alla bolognese
• Parmigiano Reggiano 
• Mortadella (real bologna, not the heinous stuff I ate every day as a 3rd grader)
• Gelato 
• Comachio Eel
• Balsamic Vinegar (From Modena. Dear Lord, it’s AMAZING.)

You may have eaten some of the aforementioned foods before, but I tell you with all the gravity I can muster — if you haven’t tasted them in Emilia-Romagna, you haven’t tasted them!

PORTICO

Founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is the oldest institution of higher learning in the world, making Bologna in effect, the first college town. It doesn’t quite compare to a Saturday afternoon at the Swamp, but its red and rose hued columns, left-leaning discourse and miles of porticos give it an edgy collegiate charm all its own.

There are 666 arches and 38 km of these gorgeous terracotta arcades leading to Santuario della Madonna di San Luca, a basilica perched above the city. Though much of the city was bombed in WWII, there are plenty of medieval sites and tilted ancient towers left to see.

PO

My Blogville companions and I set out one day for a day trip from our homebase in Bologna to neighboring Ferrara for a visit to Castle Estense, and Comachio, where we tasted famous local seafood delicacies.

After that, we rode bikes around town – it was ohsoSophiaLoren – and then went bird watching on the Po River Delta. The area is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is well worth a visit. It’s non-touristy and completely different than any other spot in Italy.

Shrimpy snacks in Comacchio

LAMBORGHINI

Aside from food, food and cibo (more food!), the Emilia-Romagna region also boasts a thriving automotive industry. Perhaps you’ve heard of Maserati, Ducati, Ferrari and Lamborghini? Some of my favorite Italians, to be sure.

If you’re into fast cars, check out this post from Two Oregonians. Ted and Bethany were invited to experience the Lamborghini Academy and it was thrilling to read about.

CIAO

I spent a whole week in Bologna and barely scratched the surface of all the beautiful medieval towers, cathedrals and art I could’ve seen… mostly I spent my time in restaurants eating, or in the kitchen cooking, and then eating.

And you know what, for once, I don’t have any travel regrets. I know I’ll be back to Emilia-Romagna because my tastebuds require it.

And the next time, I’ll see everything. Between meals. Definitely.

***

I was a guest of Emilia Romagna’s Blogville program, but as always, all opinions are my own. 

Maybe that’s a good question for the new Pope? With yesterday’s appointment of the 1st Pope from outside the original Roman Empire (I think), this ancient saying rings truer than ever.

It’s not hard to find remnants of ancient Rome

But what exactly is the Roman Road? The earliest Roman roads were built from about 500 BC and expanded and radiated out as the Empire absorbed surrounding land. Armies, officials and civilians used the 29 military highways and 372 linked roads to travel all over the Empire’s 113 provinces. The stone-paved surfaces of many of the roads survived thousands of years and some modern roads follow those original paths to this day.

All roads lead to …. the Colosseum?

During the past two years of jaunting, I found myself on the metaphorical and literal road to Rome more times than I can count. Here are some of my favorite (literal) spots!

Hadrian’s Gate in Jerash

Ready to fight?

Typical Roman architecture

In Jordan, I was mesmerized by the ruins of Jerash. Well-preserved, expansive and not even close to being fully uncovered, Jerash is a perfect place to spend the day imagining what life would’ve been like in this Decapolis city, when chariots barreled down the streets and gladiators fought in the local arena.

If you’re quiet, you can almost hear echoes of a bustling Forum…

Most of Jerash was destroyed in 749 AD by an earthquake, and some of its remaining temples were converted to fortresses during the Crusades. Excavations began in 1806 and continue to this day.

Imagine this Moroccan street filled with carts, vendors and togas

Looks like Italy, right?

The most striking aspect of Volubilis in Morocco is just how much it resembles the Italian countryside. No wonder it was chosen as a fringe military outpost!

The ruins remained almost completely intact until a devastating 18th century earthquake (hmmm, another earthquake?). Moroccan leaders subsequently ransacked the site to acquire stone to build the nearby city of Meknes.

When you visit Morocco, go with a guide and have him point out all the gorgeous floor mosaics that tell the stories of Roman gods and goddesses. They’re vivid and well-preserved, and a nice memory jog through mythology.

The Roman Baths – aka Aquae Sulis

Actors at the baths portray ancient Romans

If you’ve been reading Angie Away for any length of time, you probably know I adore the UK just as much as any place I’ve ever been. On my first overseas trip at age 16, I discovered London’s Roman history and was blown away to find remnants of the original Roman wall still preserved near the Tower of London. Years later, I made my way a few hours outside London to Aquae Sulis – the ancient Roman name for the modern town of Bath.

The incredibly well-preserved ancient Roman Baths are below the modern street level and feature the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and a museum with antiquities and relics from Roman times. There’s a free audio guide for visitors, so you can tut around at your own pace and try to imagine hordes of Romans (and later, Regency Georgian English folk) bathing, relaxing and “taking the waters” at the hot spring.

Empuries, Costa Brava, Spain

In Costa Brava, I spotted the beachside Roman ruins of Empúries from a hot air balloon. While the ruins aren’t the largest or best preserved ones I’ve seen (only 20% have been excavated so far!), you certainly can get the idea of how the network of walls, columns and houses were once laid out. And, with spectacular views of the Mediterranean, these 1st century BC are some of the prettiest I’ve ever encountered.

###

So those are some of my favorite Roman ruins that I’ve seen – whew! What are yours? And hey, while we’re on the subject, what do you think of new Pope Francis 1?

The thing is…. Vegas tends to bring out the crazy in just about anyone. Normally, I’m a very fiscally responsible person. I go to bed at a decent hour. I don’t usually wear sequins in my normal life. But take me out of Florida or my normal travel sphere and plonk me in the middle of the desert and I am ready to party ’til the break of dawn, y’all. Throwing money around like an NBA player on leave. It’s not healthy.

Surprisingly there are things to do in Vegas other than play poker... like blackjack. Craps. And the old faithful slots, which somehow never bring money my way but are usually big boons to my grandparents.

Aside from gambling though, there are world class shows, musicals and famous entertainers from yesteryear in residence at all the large resorts. Of course, there are 100000 iterations of Cirque de Soleil, none of which I’ve ever seen, that are top of the list for my return visit.

And for the traveler in me, of course I want to check out every hotel there is. On past trips, I’ve stayed at the Wynn, Luxor, Tropicana and the not-so-fabulous Circus Circus, but I’m keen to check out the Bellagio, the new Trump and the Aria on the next go. What’s your favorite place to stay in Las Vegas?

I laughed. Probably a little too maniacally. Little did he know…

Four years ago, I was in the throes of one of the most intense, life-altering experiences of my life. At least since The Apprentice shenanigans of 2006…

In January of 2009, I received an email from a friend about Tourism Queensland’s Best Job in the World campaign. The note said, “I read this and thought of you – good luck!” I skimmed the article and immediately felt like I was on the verge of something big. Who wouldn’t want to live on an island on the Great Barrier Reef and get paid $100,000 to do it? I fit all the requirements to a tee.

I was giddy with anticipation – this.could.be.it.

I went all out for my video and somehow managed to convince my sweet NYC friends to assist – even if it meant standing outside the Today Show at 6:30 a.m. to get a quick word in with Matt Lauer and making a fool of myself in Times Square while sporting scuba gear & a pink trench coat on a 27 degree night.

I bought video editing software for my brand new Mac and learned as I went… something that turned out to be infinitely more difficult and time consuming than I expected. I threw welcome parties for other visiting finalists. While planning my video, something else notable came up – the US Airways crash on the Hudson River. That shouldn’t have been a huge deal for me (other than the fact I was on that very plane 7 days before) except I learned, moments after the crash, that my company would be managing PR efforts for the incident. (That wild story is going in my book, don’t you worry.) Minor speed bump.

Finally, after the plane crashes, parties, editing and other various obstacles were in the past, I finished my Best Job in the World video… and with 34,000 other hopefuls, waited to hear if I’d made the cut.

You know what happens next…. I made it!

I found out I’d been chosen as a top 50 finalist and screamed/danced/jumped/stared with wide-eyed wonder at my computer screen. Then I got to work, spending weeks behind the scenes promoting both myself and the Tourism Queensland campaign at large. (Side note: what a brilliant campaign, TQ! They ultimately populated YouTube with 34,000 60-second commercials about Australia/Queensland/The Great Barrier Reef and then had 50 rabid finalists doing free PR around the world for them for months. For about $1 million, they generated over $200 million in publicity. Diabolical and absolutely genius! I can’t tell you how many of my past and current PR consulting clients ask about how to do the next Best Job campaign!)

I nearly died of exhaustion on my whirlwind media tour. I did interviews with newspapers and magazines, chatted up flirty radio hosts on-air, had photo shoots in Times Square and spoke to TV crews. Toward the end of the effort, I flew to California to meet some of the finalists and Tourism Queensland representatives in the hopes of proving my worth.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

As you may have already guessed, I didn’t make it past the top 50. I was disappointed of course, but my background in PR gave me perspective. Unless you’re on the inside, you really can’t know what exactly the judges were looking for. It could’ve had more to do with demographics than anything I did right or wrong, and there’s not a whole lot to be done about that.

Plus, TQ ultimately chose Ben, who has done a stellar job and continues working with Tourism Queensland today. They couldn’t have picked a person more suited for the task!

Reflecting on what the Best Job in the World experience meant to me brings back an instant rush of adrenaline. My muscle memory hasn’t forgotten what it felt like to be on pins and needles for weeks on end. It was such a harrowing time. I was so busy, so sleep deprived and so hopeful.

Here are a few lessons I learned from the process:

1. Don’t be afraid to dream big. My roommates at the time of all the BJITW madness were total jerks. As I was editing my video at the kitchen table one night after work, they asked why I would waste so much of my time trying out for something I’d never get. And I said – as I did with The Apprentice auditions in 2006 – Why not? Why not me? And I think those are the three most important words you can ask yourself when presented with a similar situation… WHY NOT ME?!

2. Anything worth having is gonna cost ya. It might cost time, it might cost money, it might cost wrinkles and gray hair and sanity. You might have to sleep in the treacherous Long Beach airport for two nights or invest money you don’t have into software and plane tickets. But if you want something badly enough, it’s worth going all out for. 

3. The world is a tiny place. The best part of this Willy Wonka-like stunt is the remarkable connections I now have all around the world. While I didn’t end up with the caretaker job, I did get to share this once-in-a-lifetime journey with several folks I now consider dear friends. If I just stop to think about how my cup overfloweth with good people, it overwhelms me.

Every time I’m in London, I meet up with Holly (check out her debut novel Geek Girl that just came out last week!) & Sara. I just had sushi with Anny & Christine in NYC. Had a long chat with Steven from Texas a few weeks ago. And have met up with other finalists around the world and stayed in touch with others in the hopes of meeting them in the future. The single best part about the entire Best Job experience was being matched up with this group of like-minded, video-making folks.

4. You can’t always get what you want. But sometimes, you get what you need.*  I may not have become an ambassador for Tourism Queensland and I may not have $100,000 extra in my pocket, but I think making the top 50 was actually more beneficial to me from a long-term perspective than winning would’ve been.

I thought that getting the Best Job in the World would be the ultimate experience for me that I could parlay into a career of fulltime traveling and doing just exactly what I wanted. Yet even without winning, I took the lessons I learned, the connections I made and the newly acquired hutzpah to take me to the next step in my plan – leaving NYC and my awesome PR job for something even bigger: a solo trip around the globe.

Now four years later, I actually, really, truly have the best job in the world. I’m beholden to no one, I make my own schedule, I write all day long — and I’m able to see all of the world as I please, not just a corner of it.

Mick Jagger named me, so I feel ok borrowing his lyrics now and then to get a point across.

Me in the New York Post

As you may have read in the news, Tourism Australia has a new campaign – a Best Job 2.0, if you will. While I probably won’t be trying out again – once was more than enough, methinks – if you have any desire at all to see Australia and work your butt off to get there, check it out. (If you make the finals, let me know and I’ll be happy to vote for you. I’m still completely awed by the friends, family and strangers who supported me during that crazy time!)

So what do you think? Are you going to try out for the latest Best Job in the World?

I had the chance to go. But I stayed.

I put on my big girl underpants and decided that since I’ve been to London half a dozen times, I couldn’t really justify the expense. An unexpected trip also would’ve set back my ultimate plans for 2013 – writing my book, getting an apartment, buying a car, and being just a smidge less nomadic.

So this is the first ever installment of Reflections from the Road wherein I have no real travel reflections to share… other than the ones I’ve gleaned from driving all over Jacksonville in my new car. (NOTE: Everyone stinks at driving except me. What is up with that?)

Without further ado, here’s the very special grounded edition of Reflections from the Road!

@TheJetSisters are quite happy with our Nissan Altima!

Highs

I bought a car! After ohsomuchresearch and hemming and hawing, I made a big-girl decision and bought a gorgeous Nissan Altima. Sheila the Shark has only been around for a month, but she’s already such an important part of our lives! Baby sister and I are learning how to share and I’m realizing that I picked an amazing time to bail on having a car back in 2006 when I moved to NYC. Gas prices are B A N A N A S. Even still, in Jacksonville, if you don’t have a car, you’re not going anywhere, so it’s great to be mobile again.

One Ocean Resort & Spa. Though I haven’t actually left town in the past 60 days, I did manage to spend one luxurious night at One Ocean Resort in Atlantic Beach, Fla. Though one night in a hotel isn’t quite enough to satiate my wanderlust, it helped just a teeny bit and for that, I’m grateful. Check out my review here. 

Adopt-a-Slum. Raising money isn’t easy, no matter how much you believe in the cause. I’ve learned that lesson over and over during the past year, but my dismay at the difficulty ended abruptly with an email from my friends in Kenya last month. The initial $1,100 we raised for slum families in Ngong Hills, Kenya, was used to build a greenhouse down the road from the slum where many of the kids I worked with live, and now their parents are able to grow vegetables to eat and sell. What a difference that small change will make in their lives! For details on what we’ve been up to with Adopt-a-Slum, click here. (And PLEASE donate – every tiny amount helps, it really does!)

Sunset on the Intracoastal Waterway in Jacksonville

Lows

I’ve got the freelance blues. With all the flexibility and amazing opportunities that come with my current career of freelance writing, public relations and social media consulting and modeling, the downside is of course the unreliability of the work. This week, a huge contract I’d been counting on as my main bread-and-butter for at least the next 6 months unexpectedly came to an end, and I’m left wondering what I’ll do next. This is all a part of learning to live this new lifestyle of self-employment, and I have to say, it’s definitely the worst part.

Hospitals abound. My aunt was finally released from the hospital (THANK GOD!), after being in a coma for Christmas and New Year’s, and after that, I was ready to be done with hospitals for the rest of my life. But, you know life just keeps throwing curveballs… and I’ve managed to be at the emergency room three times since my last update. The upside here is that I haven’t actually been to the ER for me… though I think sometimes it’s easier to be the injured one than to watch someone you care about suffering. What do you think?

Naomi’s 1st birthday – isn’t she a cutie?

Lessons

God provides.  I don’t know how many times in my life I need to re-learn this lesson, but if I’m faithful with the gifts God gives me (be it financial or otherwise), he will continue to bless me with all that I need. Knowing that is true, I don’t need to worry about how I’ll get by, but I’m so conditioned to rely on a steady paycheck (instead of God’s faithfulness!) that I freak out a little bit every time a contract or gig goes sideways. God, give me more faith! 

Home isn’t so bad. I’ll be the first to admit, Jacksonville doesn’t have a whole lot going for it when compared with my last three residences: Atlanta, NYC and THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. I’ve promised to give Jacksonville a fighting chance at keeping me around, so I’m doing my very best to get connected to new friends and contacts in town.

New headshots. What do you think?

And I’ve had so many sweet, joyful moments since my last update that I hardly have room to share them all. I’ve spent tons of time with my parents and siblings, almost had a surprise 70th birthday party for my grandma (long story), learned to skateboard and shoot (errr, not at the same time – don’t worry), celebrated my little cousin Naomi’s first birthday and even have tip-toed into the exciting worlds of… gulp … modeling/acting and dating. (Also – not at the same time.)

Another plus to being home? I love having the time to catch up on business projects and partnerships. Big things are happening behind the scenes at Angie Away, so keep an eye out for a few announcements in the coming months! 

Home on the range.

What’s Next

We can make our plans but God determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9

THE YEAR OF ANGE. So how’s it going in the Year of Ange? My extensive and well-thought out list of resolutions (lose 20 pounds *I’m -7*, write a book about my adventures, volunteer locally and abroad, read at least 24 books (I’ve read 75% of one book) and set up a more stable, permanent lifestyle for myself) is off to a slow start… but I have much more faith in the next 60 days provided I stop hesitating and commit to a darn apartment already. I am having a very strong case of commitment phobia…

Settling in, not down. At the very moment I’m about to make a big decision – like purchasing a car or signing a lease or buying a couch – little sis Rachel thinks it’s hilarious to freak me out by saying, “Wow, I never thought you would settle down!” After I hyperventilate for a bit and she stops laughing, I inform her I am not under any circumstances settling down… I’m just taking a breather. Gees.

But seriously, I’m finding it incredibly difficult to transition from drifter to responsible apartment renter/car owner/dedicated and available friend. Maybe it just takes time? Angie Away is rebelling against Angie Right Here, Right Now. It’s a struggle and it’s not getting much better. I feel like I’m succumbing, not necessarily willingly walking into this new lifestyle. What does that mean?

Peru? Peru has been on The Jet Sisters’ agenda for a long time and we are tentatively planning to go for Spring Break, but for once I am taking State Department warnings into account and reconsidering the plan. Chalk it up to being a protective big sister. Stay tuned for a more detailed post on that.

Gen W. I’m so excited to be involved with an amazing organization here in Jacksonville – Generation W. Started by former WNBA President and powerhouse of a woman Donna Orender, Gen W is a platform for women to be educated, inspired and connected. I’m now a featured blogger for Gen W and we’re gearing up for the 2nd annual conference on April 8. If you’re a woman and you live in the area, you should come! Tickets are available here. 

Business partnerships in the works. Now is an awesome time to snap me up for freelance copywriting, PR or social media consulting, as I’m in between projects and have some wiggle room in my schedule. I’ll be hosting a photography course for Florida folks in the next couple of months, and I’ve saved some room for a March or April press trip, too. So the next 60 days are going to be a roller coaster!

Sibling fun!

Ideally by the next RFTR post, I’ll have an apartment, a new church home, another trip or two under my belt and several thousand words on paper for my book. God willing!

Leave me a note in the comments – I would love to hear from you!

***

Did you “like” this post? It only takes one click to tell a friend all about it via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon or Google+, and I’ve made it SO EASY with all the little buttons at the top of this post. Sharing helps me stay on the road and to continue providing interesting content, so thank you for your help in keeping Angie… away!

The view from my balcony at One Ocean Resort

A few months ago I visited One Ocean Resort & Spa for another freelance story I was writing, but didn’t have a chance to actually stay overnight until recently. Growing up here, I never had an opportunity to explore any of the local hotels and frankly, back when I was a kid, there wasn’t much luxury to speak of on the First Coast. Now that I’m back, I’m happy to report One Ocean is an absolutely gorgeous and recently renovated hotel right on the beach.

Now when friends come to visit, I have somewhere swanky to put them!

One Ocean

The first thing you notice at One Ocean is that the service is divine — from the valet to your personal docent who looks after your every need. You don’t have to park your car and make your way to a check-in line for a credit card exchange and run-down of amenities either. Oh no.

At One Ocean, you roll up, your valet presents a room key and you’re immediately headed to your swanky room.

No lines, no waiting, no work.

The décor is soothing and calming – exactly the colors and designs I’d choose for a beachy escape. My room overlooked the pier and the very stretch of white sand I grew up on, which brought back a sense of nostalgia I don’t usually get when visiting new hotels in other places.

It was an unusual & welcome sensation.

In my personalized refreshment cabinet, aka the minibar, there was an assortment of snacks I’d selected in advance – all included in the room rate. Each of the 193 rooms and suites offers the opportunity to interact with a docent in advance of the trip, so if you have any special requests, you can assure they’re met by the time you arrive.

Upon arrival, docents will even unpack your suitcase, iron clothes and book reservations at the onsite spa and restaurant. I didn’t have time for packing or unpacking, but next time I stay I might just bring my ironing…

As the hard-hitting investigative travel journalist that I am, I just had to test my docent to see if he was really up to snuff. So, at about 1 a.m., I pressed the One Touch button on my bedside phone and asked for the wildest request I could come up with — Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Oooh, look at me! Such a diva! I’m like the Mariah Carey of the travel blogging world! What next – color-sorted Skittles?

(Honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to do worse having had to deal with such horrid journalists in my previous life as a publicist. One pitched a fit that her hotel’s lamp was too far to reach from her sleeping position in bed, another whined there wasn’t enough free stuff on her all-expense paid media trip and another had a hissy because there was no 2% milk on a tiny barrier island in The Bahamas. Having gone through all that and more, I just can’t bring myself to be a true travel diva.) 

After my late night snack of peanut butter cups, I awoke to a cloudy sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean and playful dolphins surfacing in the waves. I padded around the room in my cushy bathrobe, ate the remaining snacks in the minibar for breakfast and enjoyed the serenity that comes from waking up within earshot of crashing waves.

My fabulous leather bag I bought in Morocco – ooooh how I love it!

Pros: I was very excited to find One Ocean offers free WiFi and a magnificent hair dryer. You can’t imagine how many great hotels have piddling little low-wattage blowdryers that short out before I finish my ‘do. One Ocean’s was top-notch! I also loved the bath products – fantastic, sea-inspired creations that you can purchase in the spa.

One of the coolest features at One Ocean is the safe. There are electrical outlets inside so you can leave your computer/phone/iPad/whatever charging and under lock-and-key. More hotels should have this feature!

Cons: Downsides to One Ocean are hard to come by, but I found my bathroom & shower to be rather tiny considering how huge and well-appointed the rest of my corner suite was.

If I only had more time, I would’ve reviewed the swanky spa and the highly reputed restaurant Azurea, but unfortunately I was only in residence for one hurried night. For the first time in all my recent travels, I can actually say with confidence that I’ll be back. For once, this hotel is an easy drive and not a 15-hour flight away!

***

Thanks to One Ocean Resort & Spa for hosting me. All opinions and diva requests are my own.

It’s the dead of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and half of the US is covered in snow. Your feet are pasty, your skin is dry and you’re daydreaming about somewhere – anywhere – with pretty water, miles of beaches and tropical drinks.

A perfect day on Hanalei Bay

Deciding where to escape to is the tricky part, especially if you’re a novice traveler without much international experience, so I’ve got a suggestion I’ve been meaning to share.

How about Kauai, Hawaii’s garden island?

Wailua Falls

You’ve seen the pictures from my trip back in October/November 2012. It was my fourth visit to Kauai and I had a fantastic realization while I was beach hopping with my brother one afternoon. On Kauai, you get all the thrill of a tropical, wild, foreign destination with none of the hassle and stress that can come with a true trip abroad. Read on to see what I mean. (Apologies in advance to my international & regular trip-taking readers as these suggestions are mostly for the occasional traveler & US folks. Enjoy the pictures anyhow!) 

1. Sublimely exotic yet familiar. Visiting Kauai is like plunging yourself into a faraway land of mystical jungles, endless beaches and intense adventures – yet, it’s still a part of the US. You immediately feel both comfortable and 10 million miles from anything you’ve ever known back home.
2. Try a foreign language on for size. Hawaiian pidgin offers a glimpse into another dialect without ever having to leaf through a guidebook to figure out common phrases just to get by. You’ll easily pick up words that make you feel like you’ve been in Hawaii as long as Captain Cook.  And trust me, aloha and mahalo will be second nature by the time you leave.
3. New cultural experiences. There’s nothing quite as eye-opening as experiencing & embracing a different culture, and Hawaiian history is one of the best-preserved indigenous cultures in the US. From hula to the legend of Pele, Hawaiian history is just as fascinating and exotic as any you’ll encounter in the rest of the world.
4. Cuisine. One of the most amazing parts of traveling is trying new foods, and in Hawaii, there’s a whole new menu to taste. Poi and poke and opah and kalua pork and shave ice with ice cream and azuki beans! Nomnomnom!
5. No currency exchange. That is, for my US friends! It’s hard to imagine traveling such a long distance, landing in paradise and not having to switch currency upon arrival, but that’s the case in Hawaii. It’s just one less to-do list item to worry about, and after traveling internationally for two years and losing Lord-knows-how-much-money in currency exchange fees, it’s nice to go somewhere you don’t have to worry about it.
6. No passport. Again for my US readers! Landing on a lush tropical island, it’s just such a pleasant, relaxing feeling to step off the plane and into the jungle without going through 7 circles of hell… I mean, immigration. Aloooooooha!
7. No vaccinations. Having my arm stabbed and jabbed multiple times prior to my RTW trip, I have to say I really, really appreciate destinations that don’t warrant vaccinations.

As with any destination, there are downsides.

• Stock can be limited. On my last trip, I couldn’t find a Carmen San Diego red trench coat anywhere, so I had to be Cleopatra for Halloween instead. (#firstworldproblems) In Hawaii, you make due with what you have.
• Gas is bloody expensive. As is just about anything that has to be imported. It makes a great excuse for trying locally grown foods and purchasing homemade products from the many farmers markets… and for biking & hitchhiking!
• Not all residents are thrilled about the constant onslaught of tourists. I heard, “Like Kauai? Tell a friend about Maui” more than once.

My point here is not that you should always go to easy destinations within your comfort zone so you don’t have to experience any culture shock. Culture shock is awesome! But if you’re a little antsy about taking that first BIG trip, give Kauai a chance to ease you in. It’s the perfect place to get all the benefits of an epic escape with none of the hassle. Alooooooooooha!

Frankly I’m no authority on Italian lakes, but thanks to George Clooney I was at least mildly aware of the existence of Lake Como in the north. Up until last year though, Lake Trasimeno, in Italy’s picture perfect Umbria region, wasn’t even on my radar. Moments into my lengthy cruise of this mysterious body of water, its fascinating history began to unfold before me.

You might not guess it, but Trasimeno is no ordinary lake…

The first thing you notice when cruising around Lake Trasimeno is an abundance of dark castles peeking from behind overgrown trees on seemingly deserted isles, or casting imposing glances over the green water from a perch high above. Most of the castles are deteriorating, cracked and decrepit, but in a way it makes them more intriguing.

Who hasn’t dreamed of exploring an abandoned castle?

Exhausted as I was during my visit (I was there the day after attending a blogger conference), I managed to rouse myself long enough for a stop at Isola Maggiore, Lake Trasimeno’s 2nd largest island, for a glorious lunch and a wander through some ancient olive groves. It’s the only inhabited island on the lake, with a bustling population of 35 people.

St. Francis of neighboring Assisi himself once spent time hermitting-it-up on Isola Maggiore, back in 1211. The population has fluctuated wildly ever since as local industries of lace making, fishing and agriculture have come and gone.

These days, Isola Maggiore is the perfect place for a long Italian lunch filled with delicacies from the lake.

My favorite part of the whole excursion, and I’m not kidding, was the way our Italian guides pronounced the word *lake* in English. I’m from the South, so I’m certainly accustomed to the appearance of extra vowels in words. (If you’ve ever heard Paula Deen speak, you’ll know what I mean.) But there was something so different and pleasantly hilarious about the way they said it – I just couldn’t get enough of their explanations!

Phonetically, it sounded something like lAaauieeek, though I know mere letters could never do their beautiful prononciations justice.

Just imagine:

“There are no rivers flowing out of LAaeiueeeek Trasimeno, so the water fluctuates according to rainfall and the seasons.”

Or how about:

“As an endorheic body of water like the Dead Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Great Salt Lake, the lAaaiueeeeek receives water but has no outlet.”

Even the cold, hard facts about lAauiieeeeeek Trasimeno were beginning to interest me.

Just when I thought I knew all there was to know about rainfall and seafood and fishing villages and crumbling castles and adorable Italian accents, I heard one of Lake Trasimeno’s earliest tales and it gave me pause. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that as travelers, we’re always walking in someone else’s footsteps…

In 217 BC, Hannibal and his Carthaginians, who famously traversed the snowy mountains with elephants in tow, defeated the Romans in one of the most successful military ambushes in history right here on Trasimeno’s shores. In less than four hours, the all-powerful Roman army was obliterated and 17,000+ men were dead. Legend says the battle raged so hard no one even noticed a major earthquake that took place at the same time.

For days after the battle, it’s said the water in Lake Trasimeno ran red with blood.

There’s a small museum marking the site of the battle just a hop, skip and a jump away from the shore. It’s well worth a look for history buffs but requires a decent amount of imagination, as there isn’t much left to see from a battle that took place 2,000+ years ago.

***

Angie Away was a guest of the Umbria Regional Tourism Board but all opinions & strangely blurry photos are her own. Click here for official tourism information about Lake Trasimeno.

It’s been almost seven years since I met you in a conference room at a nondescript hotel in California. I’m sure you don’t remember me – you must have shaken a million hands since then – but when someone makes an impact on me, even inadvertently, I like to acknowledge it.

Back then, I was a recently graduated 24-year-old public relations account executive with reasonable expectations for a normal, simple life – the kind folks back home expected me to have. I took the first job I could find and settled in for the long haul. Life was fine, good even, but quite average.

Pre-Apprentice Angie. Life is good. But average.

When I auditioned for Season 6 of The Apprentice on a whim, I was astonished every time I received a callback from the producers. I’ve been told I’m smart cookie and a sparkplug, but I confess to that point I still felt like I was playing dress up.

What could a normal gal from small town Florida ever really expect other than more normalcy?

I advanced round after round after round, and a few months into the process I found myself in LA for the final selection. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only 50 had made it to that point, and I was elated. A week of intensive interviews and auditions with Mark Burnett, various casting directors and producers had me thinking bigger than I ever had before.

When you and I met, it was for the very last audition of the week, and unlike the rest, this was a group audition. I sat in the waiting area with four women I’d never met, eagerly wondering what in the world awaited us in the conference room.

What awaited was none other than you – the Donald Trump – and an interview akin to the infamous boardroom on The Apprentice. I won’t give the details away here, but I suspect at that point in my life I just wasn’t aggressive enough for TV.

I believe something inside me began to change on the flight home that night. I knew I hadn’t been selected and I was sorely disappointed. Instead of giving up and going back to my average life, I channeled every bit of that letdown feeling into formulating a new game plan.

I’d had a taste of excitement and adventure and what could be, and I was never going back to normal.

I hatched a scheme to move to New York and to search out a fulfilling dream job in travel public relations. Within a few months, I was standing on 5th Avenue pinching myself. I made it!

After five years as a Hell’s Kitchen resident and employee at the world’s largest PR firm, I’m confident the meek young lady you met in the boardroom in 2006 has been taken over by a woman who lets nothing and no one intimidate her.

I’ve since traveled around the world alone, chronicling my adventures every step of the way. I run my own business and my own website, I’m a successful independent PR & social media consultant and I’m planning to take a crack at writing a book later this year.

In the past seven years, I’ve learned that nothing is impossible and no dream is too crazy, and you don’t have to win every battle, so long as you win at life.

Post-Apprentice Angie. Bahamas, Spain, Jordan, Thailand, Morocco, New Zealand, Greece, Indonesia… NYC!

I’m not a Miss USA or an MBA, so only through the powers of the reality TV audition process did our paths cross. And I’m so glad they did. I would not be the savvy, confident woman I am today without the lessons I learned from my Apprentice experience.

Thank you for the impact you made. It’s made all the difference.

— Angie

***

Moms working to support their families in the slum

While I taught lessons & played games with the kids at Compassion Center No. 755, an organization I’ve been involved with since 2005, one of the most eye opening days of my life was my day in the slum. I went from shack to shack meeting parents who were riddled with disease, forced into a life of destitution in what amounts to little more than a trash heap. It was gut-wrenching and sad, and I left knowing that I just had to do something to help.

Some of my sweet friends from Compassion No. 755

I’m happy to say, thanks to your donations, we’ve raised $2,070 to support these families!

While we haven’t quite reached the initial Adopt-a-Slum goal of $3,000, I wanted to share an update on how the money has been used so far.

In June, I sent the first installment of $1,140 that we originally planned to provide as a seed gift for individual families to start their own businesses. However, the staff on the ground at Compassion Center No. 755 determined an even more effective way to help the community NOW.

The nearby church donated the land for the greenhouse

Voila – check out the new greenhouse!

Here, the families who live in the slum and have no arable land are able to grow produce both to feed their families and to sell. The greenhouse is huge and offers plenty of space for everyone to have a little plot. (And with the additional installment of $$ I’m sending today, they’ll be able to buy more seeds and create and even larger space!) 

Tomato seed bed being watered after planting

From the staff at Compassion Center No. 755:

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the gift you sent us, indeed it has changed the face of our project since we are moving toward helping our community come out of poverty through the income that shall be generated from the project.

We decided to start up a greenhouse to plant variety of food stuff so as to support the families in our project e.g. those in Mathare slum.

The church gave us a piece of  land to do the farming and we are grateful to God. We decided to start with tomatoes in the green house and in the outside we are still preparing the farm so as to plant potatoes and sukumawiki.

The project is so encouraged, everybody is happy about it. May the Lord bless you abundantly.”

I admit, I cried when I read the email. Your donations, big and small, went directly to these people and now they’re EATING because of YOU. That is no small wonder and I will always be so grateful to you for your help!

***

If this is your first time learning about Adopt-a-Slum, or if you’ve been putting off your donation, now would be a great time to contribute to the cause. We have less than $1,000 left to reach our goal of helping these sweet children and their parents to rise out of hunger and poverty.

 ***

I’ve done several interviews in the last few weeks and have been asked over and over why I think it’s important to help, so here’s my attempt to explain.

At the heart of the travel experience, beyond the rapture of new sights, tastes and sounds, is a world full of real people just scratching out an existence. Travel, more than anything else, has opened my eyes to my own insignificance. There’s so much more going on in the world than the series finale of my favorite show or the latest gadgets or which Kardashian is hooking up with which pro-athlete.

Visiting places like the slums in Kenya or the sewers in Bolivia remind me that my own personal fulfillment is not all that important in the grand scheme of things. And the grand scheme of things is something I always aspire to focus on, more than the piddling day-to-day.

The bottom line is – raising a few grand here and there to help out is the least I can do, after all my travels have done for me.

Thanks for reading & donating & helping to spread the word!

I should warn you though that while I might make it look easy, what with my ace apron-wearing technique and photographic appearance of knowing how to appropriately stir, I had a whole lot of assistance from the head chef. If he hadn’t been there, I might’ve ended up in a heap on the floor eating semi-burned/semi-melted chocolate with my hands. Fair warning!

What you need*

• 35g           Cream 
• 120g        Perugina white chocolate 
• 20g          Butter 
• 20g          Limoncello liqueur
• Grated lemon peel 
• Bowls full of Perugina dark chocolate

GANACHE
Boil the cream with the lemon peel. Stir in grated white chocolate. Add the butter and finally the liqueur

Cool mixture to 28 degrees Celcius.

CANDIES

Heat the dark chocolate and pour into moulds to make a hard shell. Using a pastry bag, fill with lemon white chocolate ganache and finish with a smooth flourish of dark chocolate on top.

Pop the moulds in the refrigerator for 10 minutes and voila! You are practically an Italian Willy Wonka!

The finished product. NOMNOMNOM

*Unfortunately everything’s in grams instead of ounces. I figure if I can translate the recipe from Italian, you can find a conversion chart for the measurements!  

I don’t cook much, partially because prior to departing for my RTW journey, I lived in a shoebox in NYC with a kitchen too small to turn around in. Cooking just never quite fit into my lifestyle back then, and of course my constant need to move move move mostly keeps me out of the kitchen nowadays, too.

Neglecting any desire I might’ve had to heat up my own meals left me more than a little apprehensive about visiting the Perugina Casa di Cioccolato on the outskirts of Perugia… Lean Cuisines are fine, but making my own chocolatey treats from scratch? I didn’t know if I could hack it.

As per usual during my travels, I found myself on the edge of my comfort zone, sporting an apron of all things while staring down a work station full of intimidating kitchen apparati.

In a country with so much food-related identity, it’s no wonder the Italians pride themselves on even their store-bought chocolates, especially the Perugina Baci. In Italian, baci means kiss, and these little tasty treats were created more than 100 years ago from a recipe that’s exactly the same today.

Made of dark chocolate, filled with a blend of chocolate & hazelnut cream, dotted with more hazelnut bits and topped off with a whole hazelnut, each Baci is wrapped in a tiny foil love note. It’s the very most Italian way to say I love you, or so I hear.

In Italy, where menus are thoughtfully designed with availability of fresh local ingredients in mind, even the chocolate is seasonal. During my visit to the Casa del Cioccolato in late spring, the factory wasn’t even in production. All the enthusiastic chocolatiers (but no Oompa Loompas, unfortunately) said it was much “too hot for chocolates in the summer. Summer is for gelato.”

Say what?! I was confounded.

I found it most shocking that here in Italy, the Baci and other Perugina delights are removed from the shelves during the hottest months and only come back seasonally.

It’s never too hot for chocolate!

(I have to say, as bewildered as I was about this whole seasonal chocolate thing, I appreciate the fierce Italian dedication to local, sustainable and seasonal cuisine. And after my last visit to Italy, I’ve started trying to incorporate that way of life into my diet, too!)

She stirs! She wears aprons! Is there anything Angie Away won’t do in search of adventure?!

Our chef & chocolatier extraordinaire Massimilano Guidubaldi lead us step-by-step, in his handsomely heavy Italian accent, through the process of creating a confectionary delight worthy of the Perugina brand.

We melted dark chocolate, stirred it carefully, created a tart lemon ganache — I know, I made ganache! — and put it all together in tiny moulds which we popped in the fridge to harden up. (Recipe coming later this week!)

I should stop for a moment and point out that it wasn’t exactly easy to make these chocolates. Even under Massimiliano’s expert guidance, I had several turn out a bit cracky and I didn’t always get my chocolate consistency quite right.

And my word, did I ever make a huge mess.

I’m not exaggerating when I say there was chocolate from my hair to my elbows to my shoes after my lesson at Perugina. Fortunately we were encouraged to dump our chocolate everywhere and make ourselves at home in our work stations, so I wasn’t alone in my smudgy, sugary glory.

Chef says, “Perfecto!” about my ganache filling technique. Booooyahhh!

Who knows why spills and little messes make me so stressy, but at Chocolate School, the mess was a must. Once I accepted that I was going to make an absolutely debaucherous and shameful fright of my station, I began to enjoy myself in the kitchen – something I never thought could come to pass.

When in Rome… errrr, Perugia…

The finished product! Want one?

I don’t know why I was so worried about cooking.

The day I made a huge mess in that Italian chocolate factory lives on in my mind all these months later, and not just because I managed to walk out of a kitchen with chocolate smeared in all sorts of peculiar places. I did something I thought I’d never do, and though that something was as small as a Baci, I was still pretty darn proud of myself for conquering a new frontier. Even if it was just a kitchen.

***

Angie Away was a guest of the Umbria Regional Tourism Board but all opinions, as always, remain her own.