Birthday Plans for a Weekend in Milan, Italy

Woke up with a great yoga sesh this morning at Yoga Shala.  Yoga is an amazing way to start the day, and it totally kicked my ass. I went for a run yesterday morning, and I was totally feeling the back-to-back work outs.  But I wanted to get some workouts in before my BIG birthday weekend for my 30th in Milan, Italy!

We've been planning our trip for about a month now, and thankfully we started that far in advance since it was hard to find a flat to rent (we always use www.airbnb.com).  For us, planning a vacation/trip is like therapy.  You get to research, decide and plan exactly what you want to do and where you want to go.  Since this is our second trip to Milano we had a better idea of where we wanted to stay, and what we wanted to do.

Here's a run down of our plans:

Thursday we take the train from Monte Carlo, Monaco to Ventimiglia, Italy and then a second train straight into Milano Centrale.  The total train time is about 4 hours, putting us there just after lunch!  We will get the keys to our flat and then we plan to head to the Triennale Design Museum. David's a Creative Director, so he thrives off of Museum outing and gets some awesome inspiration.  I'm also into design (albeit more the fashion type)...but I can definitely appreciate the interior and architectural aspects and get some inspo for our apartment in Miami!

Our dinner reservations are at Ristorante Guerrini, which was rated highly on TripAdvisor for both good food and romanticism. It's my official birthday on Thursday, so I hope to enjoy an amazing meal and some special wine!

Friday is a shopping day!  Whohoooo, we will start at the outlets ( Il Salvagente ) just outside of the city center, and then make our way back towards the middle.  Stopping for lunch at Nobu Armani. And then hitting up the shops nearby, and a late afternoon Aperitivo.  Dinner reservations are at Don Carlos...which again was highly rated on TripAdvisor as well as the Michelin Guide. This restaurant is a bit more fancy...I can not wait! 

Saturday is another day of shopping and exploring. We plan on checking out the San Marco church and lunching at La Latteria (which was recommended by the New York Times). We don't have dinner plans for Saturday, and plan on asking the gentleman we rent the flat from...since it's always good to take a locals suggestion.

And finally, for Sunday we will check out the renowned brunch at the Bulgari Hotel before catching our train at 3pm to head back to Monaco.

I'm looking forward to an amazing trip with my hubby and explore more of Milan.  Hopefully we have made some good selections for a weekend trip to Milan and will give an update and details when we get back next week! Happy early birthday to me...cheers!

Post Berlin Blues

Went to Berlin this weekend with a group of 6 people!  It was an amazing trip filled with underground night clubs, amazing South Korean food (best thing since gangnam style for sure), good shopping, superb sight-seeing, and many many laughs and good times!

We checked into the Michelberger hotel in East Berlin around Noon on Saturday, and we loved the hotel lobby so much we proceeded to have a few beers here just chilling and looking at maps to plan our next move.  We decided to go for traditional German food for lunch, and got some half-assed directions from the lady at reception and off we went into the FREEZING COLD!

30 min later we found the place, which really should have taken us about 10 min...but hey we got lost. Poor Marion, who was dying for Shnitzel was brutally rebuffed and told that the restaurant only had the buffet and it was open for just 1 hour more.  We quickly indulged in this amazing buffet, filled with slow cooked beef, amazing veggie stew, roasted potatoes, some sort of delicious Camembert cheese mix and many, many other things.  After eating our hearty meal, satisfied with our 20€ per person including drinks we headed off to do some shopping.  We jumped on the underground and got off at weinemeister, where there was great shopping.  Hello Hugo Boss, Sandro, All Saints and more amazing places...but with our budgets we were relegated to Zara, Mango and H&M.  Found some great deals, and we were all set for our outfits for the night!

After a quick trip back to the hotel to clean up and get ready, we were off again to an underground restaurant in a warehouse....still not sure what the name was. Sadly when we arrived after 10pm, they were out of the mussels and out of the fish.  Which was devastating for a couple of friends, but for me...I opted for the Beef and blood sausage ravioli soup.  Um, I was not disappointed.  After dinner we walked over to the bar since it was still too early to venture downstairs to the nightclub.  We sipped on Tempranillo and Prosecco until around 1am when we made our move downstairs. The downstairs was like an Alice in Wonderland, drug den surrounded by people completely out of their minds on drugs.  After aimlessly dancing to shitty trance music we called it a night around 4am.
PS. This was the latest I've been out in YEARS, seriously years

The problem with staying out late, is sleeping in the next day.  I wouldn't let a little thing like lack of sleep keep me away from exploring the city of Berlin.  Around 11am, off we went to fetch some breakfast in order to make it for the 12:30pm meet up for the "Alternative Berlin" tour which left from our hotel lobby.  Finding a small cafe just down the street, we ate and felt human again.
Back to the hotel to catch the tour, and somehow we missed it.  "No worries, there's another meet up point at the Alexanderplatz Starbucks at 1pm" said the receptionist.  Ok, great....off we went into the underground. Somehow we fouled up again, and missed the timing.  At this point we decided to take things into our own hands. Getting off at the old trusty, weinmeister strause (or whatever)....we ventured north (I think). Towards the Jewish temple, and towards the Bode Museum.  We visited the museum...it was stunning, take your breath away, amazing!  Sorry, but Byzantine christian art from 12th century? I mean, it's nearly 1000 years old, there's nothing like beholding a piece of art that existed that long ago.  Just think of all the people who enjoy this very thing. Ok, I'll stop because I'm getting a little excited.
Post museum we found some nosh at a random place we walked by which was completely over priced...but hey we were hungry. Then we made our way back to the hotel to freshen up.
We were undecided for dinner so I ventured down to the reception to pick her brain....what do you suggest for a cool ambiance with a cheap price? Definitely Kimchi Princess....South Korean food.  Ok, great...and do you have a strip club you could recommend? She blushed....apparently this isn't a fun past time for most people to visit the strip club. Must be an American thing.  ANywhoo, she asked around and the bar tender told her of one up the street. Great....and off we went.
Kimchi Princess was an 11 out of 10.  The food was outstanding, the drinks were phenomenal and the service was impeccable. The waitress was even sweet when we picked her brain ab strip clubs after about 5 beers in. Finally we had the name of a great place and off we went.
Strip club was great, so great that we AGAIN got home at 4am...which was a complete nightmare for our 11am flight.  But by some act of God we made it without me vomiting or the hubs fainting.
Mission accomplished, Berlin, I love you! And now that I'm back at work....I have the post Berlin blues, missing that amazing city.  I will be back, I will....