New York

January 06, 2018 by Reagan Fleming in travels

Over this Christmas break, I was able to visit my sister in New York; we went to hot yoga classes, restaurants, a movie theater (I, Tonya is a great movie, by the way), bookstores, shops, and many many coffee shops. (We are coffee people.) The trip lasted for a little less than a week, and then we flew home on Christmas day. While in New York, we stayed in Brooklyn most of the time, but we also went to Soho, Herald Square, Flatiron, etc. And for any of you 30 Rock fans out there (I know there aren't many): we saw Jenna Maroney (aka Jane Krakowski) hailing a taxi, a mere feet from us! Weirdly enough, I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would; I got caught up just sightseeing and exploring that I forgot to take more pictures than I knew what to do with. Thankfully, I took enough to make a blog post out of it - I hope you enjoy.

First, let's all marvel at the fact that the Brooklyn Public Library looks like this - my camera didn't alter the swoop of the roof... Heck, let's just marvel at both the BPL and New York Public Library.

With the NYPL in particular, I was amazed at the solid marble floors, the walkway leading up to the inside, the walls, and the intricate ceilings.

The inside of the New York Public Library

Any bookstore that has a spiral staircase wins me over. (Housing Works Bookstore Café)

One day, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Was there a designated bike path for bikers and another for people walking? Yes. Did the walkers still walk in the bike lane and get yelled at by said bikers? Yes. Other than jumping out of my skin every time a biker whizzed past us, yelling at rule-breaking pedestrians, the walk across the bridge was chilly and beautiful - the sky even looked like velvet.

While Taylor was working one morning, I took to exploring the city by myself. It was raining pretty heavily at the start of my day, so I took a book with me, wore a beanie, grabbed an umbrella, and set off. I found refuge in a little shop called Goods for the Study and browsed. Then, I went to Stumptown Coffee Roasters and got a nice, hot latte while I read my current read at the time, Big Little Lies. We met up a few hours later and shopped, then saw I, Tonya at a dine-in theatre.

(Perfect rainy day activities)

To say we walked a lot is an understatement. We walked miles upon miles, and I was smart and decided to break in my Doc Martens on one of these days (please sense my sarcasm - it was brutal). We took the subway, sure, but my family really loves to walk wherever we go and take the more scenic route when we can. So, at the beginning of one of our mornings to prepare us for a lot of walking, we bought donuts from Dough Donuts and enjoyed them with coffee at Bedford Hill Coffee Bar. Apparently during really busy hours, they prohibit the use of laptops, urging customers to talk to one another - props to you, café. When my mom visited my sister in NY a year or so ago, she tried a latte at this cute café and loved it; she's very picky with her lattes, so I had to try it to see if it lived up to all the hype - it did.

In the picture below, I'm pretty sure I was contemplating how I was going to go about eating the ginormous dulce de leche donut sitting in its box, on my lap.

This spot in DUMBO is supposedly one of the most photographed places for weddings, engagement photos, and just photos in general, so I thought, "What the hey?" Yet, I wish I got the memo to do a fun pose like the girl to the left of the picture. She gets it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the hustle and bustle that is life in New York. I was only there for a short period of time, but immediately after getting off the plane in Queens, I could tell that everything was different in NY. So, thanks, Taylor for the perfect post-fall semester trip.

As Michael Scott once said, "New York, New York. The city so nice, they named it twice. Manhattan is the other name."

Reagan Fleming

Venice, Italy

October 21, 2016 by Reagan Fleming in travels

After a few days in Berlin, we took a plane to Italy. We had a connecting flight in Belgium which I loved, because I could actually understand a portion of what people were saying: In Belgium, they speak a mixture of Dutch, German, and French. In high school, I took Spanish for 3 years, but my first two years in college, I decided to take French and I absolutely loved it. Although I am not fluent, I was able to keep a conversation going with a few of the flight attendants. No, the conversation never exceeded the proper: "Hi, how are you?" question that I understood as they greeted me on the plane, and my response of: "I am well, thank you," but I was happy to be practicing my French.

On the left: my view as we were leaving Belgium. On the right: my view en route to Venice, Italy.

After we arrived in Venice, Italy, we were absolutely exhausted. So after an extremely long nap, we finally got to explore Italy. Venice, also known as the "City of Water," is obviously, surrounded by water. In order to get around, we had to walk across bridges, like the one that I was standing on while I took the picture below.

The Biennale

My sister loves architecture and interior design (the latter is what she got her degree in), so we obviously had to go to the Biennale while we were in Venice. Every year, the Biennale switches between showing art and architecture, and we just so happened to be in Venice when architecture was being displayed.

Every country exhibits their own work, which is separated into their respective buildings.

In this part of the exhibition (I forget which country this belonged to), everything was blue - blue walls, blue floors, blue ceilings. So, #nofilterneeded. — In this part of the exhibition (I forget which country this belonged to), everything was blue - blue walls, blue floors, blue ceilings. So, #nofilterneeded.

France's exhibit. Like I said, I love speaking French as well as learning about their culture, so this was one of my favorite stops.

All in all, walking in and through The Biennale in Venice was beautiful. It brought together many countries for one purpose, and that was to display art.

Reagan Fleming

Days 1 + 2 + 3: Berlin

September 11, 2016 by Reagan Fleming in travels

For those of you who don't know, I have been in Europe for the past 2 weeks.

My mom and sister surprised me with this trip of a lifetime just a mere week and a half before we left. Here is the story as to how they did it: they placed my plane ticket confirmation paper on my face while I was sleeping, and then played a German children's song called "Schnappi" a little too loud to actually wake me up from a deep and glorious sleep. (If you feel so inclined, here is the link for the song, it's quite cute.) It was an awesome surprise, but I honestly didn't understand what was happening at first; I was extremely confused and knew that the song they were playing was in German, but what the heck was this piece of paper? As I began getting more and more awake, I slowly realized that it was the confirmation email that they got for buying an airplane ticket, but my destination said TXL. Where is TXL? Am I going to Texas? I kept staring at the paper, and my mom and sister were just sitting there, waiting for it to click in my brain. They lost patience, so they had to tell me, "You're going to Germany, Reagan."

Hey, apparently TXL is the airport code for the Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany. We're all supposed to learn something new each and every day, so I fulfilled my quota pretty early on in the morning.

As you may have guessed, I brought books:

Thanks to my sister and her miraculous packing skills, I managed to only bring a light backpack and a small suitcase. Organization, am I right? She told me to limit my books, so I brought... 3. In my defense, one was a mass-market paperback. Just like she thought, I partly read only 2 of them. But in my defense, you never know what kind of mood you'll be in, and which books you'll actually want to read. I brought: Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), Blue Shoe (Lamott), and Between the Lines (Piccoult). Needless to say, I was not bored on the plane.

Day 1

It rained during our first day in Berlin. It rained hard. I'm one of those people that like to write and read when it's all gloomy outside, but when you need to actually be outside to get from point a to point b... I'm not as big of a fan of the rain anymore. We visited the Reichstag building + dome (pictured below), but like I said, it was raining quite profusely. Thankfully, it only rained on the latter half of our outing, so we were only partially soaked on the walk back to the place we were staying.

The first picture is of the Reichstag building. We went inside, to the dome (picture 2), and received a little cassette-player-sized device with headphones. We each put in our headphones, listened to the audio tour, and walked up the ramp at our own pace. It was really interesting to hear the history behind this building and the other significant buildings neighboring this one.

Day 2

We had the pleasure of walking past this scene (pictured above) many times during our trip. Guys, Berlin is beautiful.

This is a picture of the coffee beverages and pie that my mom, sister, and I got at a coffee shop we stumbled upon. The café was called La Tazza (thank you for reminding me, cup), and we all ordered Americanos. (Americans ordering Americanos. Ironic, I know.) The drinks were served with these tiny biscotti bites, and we also got what we thought was a piece of fig pie, but turned out to be a surprisingly delicious plum pie. I highly recommend it.

Day 3

Reader, before I show you this next picture and you worry about my health and how much caffeine I consume on a daily basis, let me share this with you: I have tried weaning myself off of coffee before. But, I simply discovered that it's not the caffeine that I enjoy, it's the taste and the experience you get when you drink a cup of coffee. Also, the migraines that I got from being coffee-less were excruciating. So, here we are! I am also currently at Starbucks, sipping a latte, and writing about coffee. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Sunday before church, we went to this coffee shop called Bonanza Coffee. You may remember my picture (below) that I posted on Instagram. It was taken inside this very coffee shop... I really love her haircut.

Never have I ever had a better iced flat white before in my life. There were moments where I almost lost all the contents in my cup (due to the lack of lids present in that establishment), but every sip was worth the risk.

After our 3rd day in Berlin, we went to Venice, Rome, then Florence. My next post will be about those adventures.

Till next time,

Reagan Fleming.