american things in italia.

in the seven years i've been living in milan, it has become much easier to find a variety of "american" things. 

now there are international sections in almost every grocery store.

lots of asian things and some mexican too.

and now that there's american crunch near the duomo, you can get your reese cups and marshmallow fluff anytime you'd like!

i love to bake and some of those ingredients have been a little trickier, but here's some of what i've found.

Available at Lidl. You buy several small packets that are packaged together. 

cream of tartar

Available at SuperPolo. They also carry a dark brown sugar. This sugar is similar to American style brown sugar since it contains molasses and is somewhat sticky and moist.

Condensed milk.
Available at Pam and other grocery stores now. 

the closest thing to American style bacon I've found yet.
This Tulip bacon is around 2 euro a pack and can be found at both Esselunga and Pam. 

in addition, i've also found molasses at super polo, crisco at american crunch, and marshmallows are generally available at the regular grocery now. (they were at my pam local just this weekend!)

now this isn't for baking, but truly a handy thing to have around the house!

Esselunga carries our favorite Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! 

what other american goodies have you found in milan? share in the comments!

three days in bulgaria.

this past thanksgiving i spent my turkey day in sofia, bulgaria.

why bulgaria?

because the flights are super cheap, like 25 euro round trip cheap.

and since i knew that this school year would probably be my last at asm, i wanted to try and get to more places in europe that i had not visited yet.

so bulgaria became country #41.

bulgaria is a country that's not far from their communist days. (circa 1989).

and many of the buildings and elements of the city reflect that.

but, there are still modern elements, like starbucks.

so you know that made me happy!

i spent my first day in sofia doing a free city tour and wandering about various places.

st. nedelya, an eastern orthodox church, built in the 10th century

Banya Bashi mosque, the only functioning mosque in Sofia, built in 1566
didn't that guy know he was ruining everyone's pictures? 

I found the yellow brick road. 

It was hard to imagine what was meant to happen in this large fountain. 

sofia central mineral baths- unfortunately just a museum now

city sights.

changing of the guard

kinda loved this dysmorphic cat/lion.

4th century st. george rotunda

completely obsessed with this russian orthodox church,
church of st. nicholas. the miracle maker

the gold and green details and mosaics.

wish the picture was better, but i loved this church.

st. alexander nevsky cathedral,
one of the largest eastern orthodox cathedrals in the world.

bulgarian street art.

this was a delicious meal!

i don't remember exactly what this modern dessert was, but it was tasty!

have your own amazing dinner in sofia here.

the second day i headed off to the rila monastery, on a day trip.

we first stopped at an ancient church that was built in three stages, but construction begun in the late 10th century.

for whatever reason, i was kind of bored here.

#spoiledtraveler

i guess i've seen a lot of ancient churches.

boyana church

i do love this ceiling.

after this stop, we headed off to rila monastery, one of bulgaria's most famous cultural and historic landmarks. i did enjoy the graphic colors of the building, but, in general, there's not much happening here.

i looked in the main church and then found a glass of wine with someone from the tour.

so it is picturesque.

entrance.
where i immediately abandoned the tour group.

all the black and white = love.

the back of the main church.

i booked my tour through this company. while i didn't love the day, i am glad i went. it's a shame they don't offer an express tour- one that hauls you up to the monastery quickly, gives you 45 minutes, and then gets you back to sofia. that would be the ideal plan. alas...

i stayed at this airbnb and it was pretty good overall despite a few issues. i also had a meal here and would go back!

post cruise: 36 hours in vancouver

we survived the cruise! six people in two small rooms, i was a bit worried.

when our cruise ended in vancouver we decided to use our extra time to explore there a bit.

it is so different traveling with your family vs. caitlin or other girls that i work with.

and so much harder.

side note: we did celebrate my birthday on the cruise---

my sister decorated the door

we ate a lot of cruise ship desserts!

in vancouver, we explored the harbor area and stanley park.

we walked a long way there in hopes of using the shuttle to get around the park.

only to discover that the only shuttle is the city's hop on/off buses.

that you pay for.

drat.

it was such a gorgeous day!

so then we had to walk some more to the aquarium where we were able to call for a taxi to take us to lunch.

and after that, we were done.

it was pizza at the hotel for dinner and then the fam left at the crack of dawn the next morning for an early flight.

i was smart and booked a flight for late the following evening so that i would have an extra day in vancouver.

i walked around, tried the water ferries out and explored granville island public market.

there is so much amazing food there! i wanted to eat it all!

the area was super cute and i would highly recommend it if you're headed to vancouver.

then i took a shuttle out to capilano suspension bridge park.

this park would be cool with kids, but as an adult, i was underwhelmed.

especially for the BIG price of $43 canadian dollars- roughly $35 us dollars.

they have a suspension bridge that is 450 feet long. you basically have to stay to one side to allow tourists to continue to move both ways...and there seems to be no monitoring of people who can not walk well enough to be on the bridge. it does shake and sway, which i did not like!

but worse, coming back across, there was a woman about 50 people in front of me who could not do stairs and was trying to climb up and off the bridge, with little success. she should not have been allowed on the bridge in the first place.

end rant.

so, i would not go to this park again, but...i did try all of their raised walks and bridges!

have you been to vancouver? fave spots or recommendations? i'd love to go back!