Food Pictures - I'm Hungry.

So its time to tweak the format of this blog a little bit. It has been, for the most part, a travel blog, dedicated to pictures from the road while I've been touring the United States and Europe. It will stay that way when I'm on tour, but I have had a hard time focusing it on anything in between tours, and generally the blog just sits unused between trips. I have, however, really enjoyed posting small groups of photos with descriptions during my travels, so I was thinking of keeping that format going and just changing the topic. Rather than, "this is where I've been traveling and here are pictures of it", I would like to pick random topics and display various pictures that conform. Perhaps this presentation will lively this blog up a bit, and at the least, hold my own attention between tours. I will try to keep up some photo-less posts as well when I feel inspired to actually write about something.

I decided on the topic for the first new post while hungry, so naturally it produced itself:

FOOD

While on tour last August with fellow songwriter Jeremiah Nelson, we stopped into a little town outside of Portland, Maine for some fresher than fresh lobster. The town was called South Freeport, and the restaurant was the Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster Company. Situated right on the docks, lobster trappers (is that what you would call them?) bring the crustaceans right off their boats and up to the restaurant, and all for a reasonable price. The lobsters also came with some steamers (clams) and a cob of corn. You really can't beat that.

In October of 2008 I played my first show in Pittsburgh, PA, at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, which specializes in Polish food. Three months later I would be departing on my first trip to eastern Europe, starting in Poland, so this was a nice introduction to the food. On the plate you can see some potato pancakes, pierogies, kielbasa sausage, and some buttered noodles. Polish food is dee-lish, and I discovered after actually eating it in Poland that the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern (which also calls itself "Pittsburgh's #1 Polish Party House") was pretty darn accurate.

While walking down Petrin Hill in Prague, I treated myself to a lunch at a fancy restaurant partway down, Nebozizek, which wasn't really that expensive due to the dollar's strength i the Czech Republic. This meal features rabbit wrapped in bacon, alongside some gnocci and cherry tomatoes. Anything wrapped in bacon is bound to be pretty damned good, but I have to say that rabbit might take the cake as the best "bacon-stuffing". Amazing.

The empty beverage container with the dirty-looking word is "Cockta", Slovenia's communist answer to Coca-Cola. When Slovenia was a part of former Yugoslavia, the government did not import western products such as Coca-Cola, so this was their own version of the drink. I have to say that its not really a good substitute, as it doesn't taste much like Coke or Pepsi, it has a weird lemony flavor, but its pretty good when you think of it on its own and don't compare it. If you find yourself in Slovenia, have yourself a Cockta! (Pronounced "Coke-Ta")

Oh yea, and those tomatoes at the top? I took that picture in my very own garden, back in the summer of 2007. I decided to start the food post off with it, as I am starting a garden again this summer for the first time in a few years. My roommate and I are already harvesting kale and onion tops from it, yum!

Anyways, hope this new format keeps me on track a bit better, more photos and commentary soon!

Paris: Fin

Final pictures from Paris...

The Louvre. I did not go inside, as I basically only had one day to explore Paris. I just walked all over and tried to see as much as I possibly could.

Arc de Triomphe




Eiffel Tower... yea, the thing that got destroyed in G.I. Joe

Me up on the tower. We weren't allowed to walk all the way up that day, but this is mid-way.

This concludes all of my European travel photos. And now, for something completely different...

Paris: Deux

More from Paris...


The Montmartre at night.


The infamous Moulin Rouge, pretty gawdy.


Paris's Pantheon.


Notre Dame


Centre Pompidou, I believe?

Yet more pics on the way...

Last Two Days In Europe: Paris

The last show had been played, and the trip finally had to come to an end.  I had two last days to spend in Europe and go out with a bang, and so I left Bordeaux for Paris.  I had never been to Paris before, and had truthfully sort of avoided it on previous trips to Europe.  It always seemed over-hyped and not as interesting as destinations further east.  I was about to realize how wrong I was.  Paris really is amazing, and I hope I can go back again soon for longer than two nights.



What should have been a 3-hour train ride from Bordeaux to Paris turned into a 5-hour train ride due to weird weather conditions.  A cold fog had blown in overnight and turned everything to ice, including the powerlines above the tracks that the trains run on.  It was frustrating, as I was supposed to meet my friend Jess from Kansas City to do some sightseeing.


While the train stop did provide an interesting opportunity to walk along the tracks and take some photos, it was unfortunate that by the time I got to Paris, Jess only had time to help me find my hostel and then had to catch her train out of town.  Kind of unbelievable that the French just didn't know how to deal with this sort of weather.


On the way to the hostel, we stumbled into this "marching band", waving Haitian flags and generally making lots of noise to support the country, which had at this point been struck very recently by the earthquake.


My first bit of sightseeing that evening after checking into the hostel, which was located in the Montmartre part of town, was to hike up the hill and see the Sacre-Coeur.  What a beautiful cathedral, with an amazing view of Paris at dusk.  It was at the Sacre-Coeur while looking over the glimmering city that I finally appreciated Paris, and realized how wrong I had been to avoid it for so long.


Sacre-Coeur from the front.

More pictures to come from Paris, I couldn't possibly cover it with just one post!

Bordeaux, France

Leaving Belgium, I entered my last country of the trip: France. I only had one show left to play, in Bordeaux, though I spent my last couple of days relaxing in Paris before flying home. I made the trip to Bordeaux because a good friend of mine from Madison had moved there to teach English, and offered to host a house concert at her place. Bordeaux is in southern France, very close to the Atlantic coast, and is famous for wine. Below are some pictures I took while Caitlin showed me around town, as well as a couple I stole from her of the house concert.

Lovely Bordeaux by the river, and it was the nicest day of my trip yet.

A neat wooden bridge over the road.

This space is apparently usually a reflecting pool, filled with water, but being winter and all, it was empty.

House concert.

My hosts for the evening, Caitlin (middle) and Sai (right). On the left is a random drunk Frenchman giving a rock symbol.

The last show of the European Tour was really fun, and a fitting end to a very successful tour. I love playing shows in Europe, and plan to do this once a year as long as I can. I still have one or two more posts to make covering my last two vacation days in Paris before flying home, but this does it for the tour. Here's to EuroTour 2011!

Ghent, Belgium

I left Antwerp by train, bound for Ghent, my other gig in Belgium.  I was couchsurfing that night with Viviane, a wonderful lady who also helped me set up the show that evening at a local bar.  After picking me up at the train station, she took me downtown to show me around a little bit.



More of the narrow, old homes of the type seen earlier in Antwerp and Amsterdam.  All of these buildings date back to the 1600's.


Old buildings line one of Ghent's many canals, making this town very charming.


The tiniest, narrowest building I have ever seen.


Viviane told me that Ghent is known as the City of Towers, or something like that, anyways.  Exhibit A.


Exhibit B.

The show itself was really fun, and there was a really great showing from the local couchsurfing community.  I can't thank Viviane enough for her hospitality, and for arranging a place for me to perform.  Thanks also to everyone that came out to see me in Belgium, I hope to be back very soon!

Time To Finish Up These Europe Posts: Antwerp

Sorry, folks, I've been terrible about finishing up the Europe blog posts.  I've been home for nearly a month now, and need to post pictures and commentary from Belgium and France.  I guess reality hits when you get home from such an amazing trip and there is a gigantic pile of catch-up work waiting for you, and suddenly a blog doesn't seem so important.  Now that I'm feeling a bit more caught up, I'd like to finish the Euro-tour off, starting with Antwerp...

After my two day "vacation" in Amsterdam, I caught a train into Belgium, as I was playing the next two nights in that lovely country.  First off was Antwerp, the former diamond capital of the world, where I was playing a house concert series called "What's Cooking In Jeruzalem?", which usually takes place in Ghent.  The hosts were nice enough to move some things around for me and it was an extremely well-run and attended concert.  A wonderful listening crowd and one of my favorite gigs on the tour.

The next morning my new Belgian friends Attila and Ruben showed me around the city before it was time to move on.  Here are some of the pictures from that excursion...



Antwerp's train station, probably the most interesting and beautiful station I have been in anywhere in Europe.


A champagne bar in a shopping center in downtown Antwerp.  Notice: its shaped like a champagne glass.


A giant hand.  More specifically, a giant's hand.  More specifically, the giant was Antigone, and he was the scourge of Antwerp until someone cut off his hand.


A downtown cathedral and town square.


Really dig these old row houses that you see in Belgium.  Most seem to be from the 17th century, and I saw many more in Ghent.  Coming soon...