29.5.09

The cyclone.

Another little note about our Brooklyn day in New York, one of my favourite days can you tell? After sufficiently exploring the Brooklyn area we continued on the train down to Coney Island. There we rode the rollercoaster of death, an absolute must do if you are in the area. The cyclone is one of the oldest rollercoasters in the world, built in 1927, and believe me it looks like it hasn't had any work on it since then.

I was (and I'm not exaggerating) frightened for my life on that ride, and I swear the coaster got air at certain points on the track, but it was exhilarating and I'm proud to now be able to say 'I survived the Coney Island Cyclone'.






A visit to Etsy.

The same day we venture to Brooklyn to the flea we stopped by the Etsy headquarters. Just a small little building with Etsy curtains in the top windows.


My own little pilgrimage.

27.5.09

Brooklyn Flea.

While we were in New York, we set aside a whole day to spend across the bridge in Brooklyn and it's surrounding areas. We spent most of the day at the Brooklyn Flea!

It takes place every weekend in two locations, every Saturday in Fort Greene (10am-5pm), and every Sunday in DUMBO (11am-6pm). It was a Saturday so we headed off to the flea at Fort Greene. The day was absolutely scorching and the flea was everything I had always thought it was, there was a mix of vintage stalls, retro, art, craft, jewellery and incredible food. A definate must see for anyone with a heart for such goodness like my own.

I was happy to score an old Diane von Furstenburg dress for a bargain, a silver terradactyl ring and drank countless bottles of limonata (it was so ridiculously hot) to keep us going. Two hours of so later we ventured out to discover the rest of what the other side of the bridge has to off. A lot.


The flea.

Rosie browsing the stalls.

My limonata with it's can cap on.




The dress, with grey dress underneath, it was a windy day!

12.5.09

The teletubbies do science.

When we were visiting San Francisco, I took a trip one morning to the California Academy of Sciences. I only had a hurried 45 minutes in the Academy unfortunately but I could have spent hours there. Everything in this place was so interesting, even the way the building was made is mind blowing (the walls are insulated with recycled denim products!) and I particulary loved my trip up the elevator to the roof top. Their real live living roof looks like something out of the teletubbies.
Here are a few of my pictures from the morning.

The roof from way below.

The roof from above.

A boy named Lucas.

A friend of ours, Lucas, seems to have a dab hand at photographing bugs. Look at that bug flying through the air! It's caught in a spiders web but it took me a long time to figure that out, perhaps I'm just a bit slow, but I thought it was water spraying upwards from his mighty leap.

We met Lucas while staying with one of his friends, Jean, in Brasil. He is a biology student from Rio de Janeiro and I really think he should somehow mix his photography & his biology in someway in the future, Lucas for National Geographic perhaps. Check his flickr account out if you think so too.

We love your pictures Lucas!





It's worth the look even just to see some of the incredible bugs they have lurking around their country, they give the weta a run for it's money! He also has some really great pictures of Brasilian landscapes rolling around on there too.

Hope all are well! x

11.5.09

The best tour on a budget.

Something I forgot to mention about Buenos Aires. If your travelling to or are in Buenos Aires I really recommend this wee walking tour. The tours are run by a group of young Buenos Aires lovers who grew up in the city.

One of our friends recommended the tour to us so we dragged ourselves out of bed our first day and did it. It's a free tour, (they do several, we did the morning city tour) the guys work from tips so however you felt about the tour or whatever you can afford that's what you pay. Our guide, Gaston, was brilliant, and we managed to chat to him about other things we might be interested in the city, he recommended an great bar that we went to that night.

The tour took about 2 and half hours and we learnt so much about the city, plus it gave us our bearings for the rest of our time there. We were both a little hesistant about how good a 'free' tour could be and it definitely exceeded our expectations in everyway.

Good luck with the future guys, from two very happy customers.



Our tour group.

6.5.09

Melissa shoes.

Ever since my good friend, Ginny, from Swonderful, introduced me to her delightfully smelling Melissa shoes I have been hooked on the brand. Not only are the shoes completely vegan, they are completely great too.

Melissa is a Brasilian brand of plastic shoes and I was lucky enough to visit the Melissa Gallery in Sao Paulo while we were there. We were about 3 shops away when I started to smell them, oh that sweet smell! The Gallery is definitely worth a look if your into shoes and are travelling to Sao Paulo. It's right on Oscar Freire St, a really good shopping strip with a huge Havaianas store and a Osklen one too.

Here are the wee beauties I picked up before fleeing the country! They are a Vivienne Westwood and Melissa colaboration (Westwood's been on the brain of late).





And I just noticed this great pair on the sites blog. Melissa rules.



If anyone saw two scruffy girls some where in London a few days ago huffing some Melissa's on display, Rosie and I apologise. They just smell so so good!

5.5.09

Rosie and her Westwood.

I managed to convince Rosie to sport her new jacket to show y'all. Here is the beauty! (Rosie and the jacket!)

2.5.09

Bottled bills and Vivienne Westwood.

Getting behind again on these posts but really would like to do them in order. So, back in Rio (we are a long way from there now) we spent a day exploring some really nice parts of the city. We went to Parque Lage, also feature in the Snoop Dogg 'Beautiful' video. It's been a public park since the 60's and it is absolutely beautiful.




There is a little cafe there and we stopped in for a drink, something you need to do regularly in the summer in Brasil, and admired the view with Christ looking down on us from his hill just behind the park. Parque Lage is also now host to an art school and you can see the students below sitting around on the cushion seats pool side with their work in the background. The cafe served delicious food and drink (freshly squeezed juices as cheap as chips) but the best part about the cafe was how the bill came. Rolled like a message in a bottle!




That same day we took the tram ride over the Lapa arches, hanging off the side all the way, up into the neighbour hood of Santa Teresa. Vintage clothing and junk shops come view and far between in Brasil it seems so if your in Rio, head to Santa Teresa, that is where most of them hang out. Rosie scored a vintage Vivienne Westwood woolen blazer for only $50R! And it fit her like a glove (dammit!) We both couldn't believe it!
 
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