moscow nobu

one thing that throws me about moscow is how smoking indoors is allowed. and the smoking section of most restaurants is the more picturesque. but for a view of the city at twilight, i'll gladly put up with some second hand smoke. we'd an effable waiter who recommended the regular omakase of the most popular dishes, and the omakase one level up for nobu regulars who wanted something more seasonal and off-piste. far from regulars, we opted for the regular omakase and weren't disappointed. every course outdid the already excellent one just before it, and we rolled out wishing we could relive dinner over and over again. in fact, i still do! there was a delicious beef and enoki sukiyaki at the end, pre-dessert and dessert. by which time i (the mister?) got tired of taking photos.

bolshoi ballet

we weren't the most organised of tourists. to be fair, i didn't think the mister would be interested in ballet and tentatively broached it half-expecting him to say no. but a little part of me did think it was payback time after he sat me down for football olympics at wembley during london2012. seeing how one of our first dates was orchestra at the esplanade, you'd think it'd bode for slightly more highbrow date ideas. alas they were but free tickets and i misread the mister's so-subtle-actually-unintentional cues of, "hey i've never been to a classical music performance..." without realising that i'd be serendipitously gifted two tickets the very next week. i mean, when someone says, "oh i've not watched XYZ movie yet" isn't it date-talk for "i want to watch XYZ movie with you!" but back to the ballet. it was on our walking tour that elena helped promote a random panhalder's scalped tickets to the group. i was tempted but wary, deciding that we should try to buy tickets from an official source. no such luck and the sour-faced ticket women stuck in their little ticket booths only smiled when they said it was sold out. defo some major schadenfreude going on there! our last resort was the park hyatt concierge and the mister resigned himself to being ripped off. after all, happy wife, happy life. 

so you can imagine our sheer delight and disbelief when dimitri the miracle worker found us tickets at 6pm for the 7pm performance. better yet, these were first row, dead centre! even our olympic tickets were second row haha. was telling the mister that now i'm accustomed to not having to peer over the top of peoples heads, it's going to be increasingly difficult to find satisfactory seats ;) expected to pay a premium but when we got to the theatre and clocked the price chart, we paid the list price for our seat category. now i don't want to demystify fortuitous provision but goodness knows what goodwill dimitri was riding off to score such sweet seats :) plus points for park hyatt!

the theatre was ornate and the orchestra pit was so big we were actually an optimum distance from the stage. all these photos were taking, for once, without zoom! yay!

the ballet was 'the bright stream' about a rural farming community all abuzz with the arrival of some big city dancers, and the mistaken identities and comedy of errors that ensues. light-hearted and excellently executed. i've literally been wanting to watch the bolshoi since i was four and my ballet teacher sang their praises. promptly forgot about this long-held dream and it only hit me when we got to russia that ohmyword, i could actually catch them in the flesh! short-term memory and delayed gratification is the name of the game.

there were five curtain calls - russian determinatoin at its finest. the more enthused of the audience just made their way to the front row after the curtains closed and stood there clapping in unison until the leads made another appearance. and another, and another... the mister and i sat there transfixed, curiously taking moscow theatre-etiquette in and wondering about the demographic of the audience.

stumbled out into the dusk and took a slow walk to nobu for dinner. ironically he's not been to nobu london but seems determined to visit the nobus around the world (milan, dubai, moscow).

moscow hit the ground running

continuing on my anti-SQ rant from the last post, we are on the verge of transferring our loyalty to BA. especially when BA offers deals like tax-free ticket redemption. you know the drill. redeeming tickets on SQ isn't worth it because there's still at least £350 to pay in tax. so while the ticket is free, it's not really free. not the case with BA! we redeemed the mister's air miles on a tax waiver (?) deal and the tickets literally cost us nothing. moscow was an un-obvious choice, especially with tensions rising in crimea.  but the mister had never been to russia and it was less than 4h away. didn't hurt that we hold passports that the russian embassy is partial to and getting a visa was a doozy. yay singers! i suppose what i mean to say is that russia has a bad rep. and while i was initially against going to a country whose values i largely disagree with (don't get me started!) i was a little curious about its capital. and moscow didn't disappoint. 

the 4h flight and 3h time difference made for some awkward timing. we landed at 4am and arrived at the hotel at 5am. however, the ararat park hyatt (gotta give credit where due!) was superlative. they let us check-in right away, which gave us some much needed shut-eye before we hit the ground running. have nothing but good things to say about the ararat park hyatt. stellar service, amazing location smack in the historic centre, surrounded by lovely restaurants and bars, right next to the bolshoi theatre... i could go on and on!

the first thing we did when we woke up was to join the free walking tour. elena, our siberian guide, was effervescent and cautiously anti-establishment. cracking the odd putin joke in hushed tones while dramatically looking over her shoulder. even more dramatic was the 5 x 4 fly by just as the group gathered round the meeting point. the mister convinced me that the americans were attacking and laughed on the inside as i went into a frenzy, plotting the quickest way out of the country and wondering which diplomatic hotlines to ring. turns out it was merely russian planes rehearsing for their big victory parade on may 9th. 'the underbellies were empty, i don't see why you got so worked up.' sniggered the mister after i let rip into him for giving me a heart attack. didn't hurt that i heard my parents going, "i told you so" soon after thinking moscow was under siege. the rest of the walking tour was less fear-inducing and i would highly recommend it if you're ever in moscow. it was a great way to orientate ourselves and elena had plenty of tips for the city's hidden gems.

obligatory shot of the basilica. gruesome fact: after it was completed, the baddie who commissioned it asked the architects if they could replicate it. they said a resounding yes, and promptly went on to have their eyes gouged out. eerie parallel of the taj mahal where the maharajah had the workers' hands chopped off after its completion, so as to prevent them from ever making another bigger and better :(

"the fountain" at the most famous mall in russian. elena explained quite poignantly how for ages and ages there would not be anything for people to buy, even if they had the money to. and now, the shops are full but the tills are silent. and people would come from far and near to sit at this fountain with its plastic cherry blossoms.

changing of the guard

columns where if you flip a coin up and it remains on the ledge, you're destined to return to moscow. sort of like the trevi fountain in rome but with the added challenge of getting the coin to stay. the russians have a unique sense of humour that rewards skill while the italians seem to value participation.

there's a food court near these horses where we'd lunch on the first day. no one spoke english, all the words were in syrillic and thank goodness for picture menus and an adventurous palate. till now i don't know what it was we ate.

beautiful churches dotted across the city. it's a branch of christianity i'm unfamiliar with. women have to cover their heads upon entering and men have to expose theirs. the devotees are also a tactile bunch, touching and kissing saints' relics, queuing to whisper to and kiss their sarcophagus-es. lots of them were very emotional with tears streaking down their faces as they wrote their prayers and petitions on little sheets of paper.

lago di como

by the grace of God, the mister was soon feeling better and decided to push on with our day in como. an option was to forfeit the rental car and lakefront hotel in favour of spending the night at the milan airport hotel before our afternoon flight. so glad we didn't because wonderful and ever-reliable singapore airlines delayed our flight by six hours. i'm increasingly disenchanted with SQ because, again, paying premium for substandard service just isn't cool. thankful the mister is organised and googles all our flights on the day because we wouldn't have been aware of the delay otherwise. 

this all made for an angsty letter, to which they alleged they'd records of sending text notifications. well let's just push the blame to european telcos and telephone towers, yeah? to be fair, there are probably worse places than lake como to wait out a six hour delay, and the hotel kindly gave us late check out so we made the most of the facilities that we wouldn't have been able to enjoy had we left just after breakfast as planned.

on to happier things - we'd a funny moment over breakfast when we realised once again just how different we were. the mister was reading the papers, eager to engage in discussion on crimea while i was preoccupied by the medical evac choppers winching up and down. despite sharing the same undergrad background, our current pursuits are on such divergent paths.

waterfront living

as we made our way around the coast, the mister was conscious to choose places that were diverse to avoid comparison. our last amalfi stop was this stunning hotel that distinguished itself by being one of the few that opened right onto the sea. many of the others were built into the cliffs and the beach was a treacherous flight of stairs (or cool sub-terranean lift like at santa catarina!) away. and in line with his holiday theme of choosing a destination hotel and not leaving its grounds, this was no exception.

although quite unintentionally i managed to leave my hat in amalfi at the santa catarina. and only realised when we were literally a sea away at capri. and good as santa catarina was (the front desk was frantically trying to book my hat onto the next available ferry, and when that didn't work out, to send it by road to where we were staying back on mainland...) our scruples wouldn't let them go to all the hassle. so the mister, bless him, drove 2h each way on treacherous coastal roads in pitch dark to retrieve my hat. now i've received enough incredulous flack from family and friends to subjecting the mister to such inconvenience but it my defence, the jury is still out as to whose watch the hat was lost on. after recounting the facts to my oldest and dearest friend (hello darling fishboo!) over udon last week, however, even she attributed blame to me :( which was when i finally conceded defeat and accepted responsibility. being sentimental, this was no ordinary hat but one i haggled in pidgin french for and scored at a hefty discount for being charming (haha) when i was in honfleur on my graduation holiday. and it was this very hat that i wore all over europe that special summer when the thought of going back to medsch finally germinated and took root. in other words, it's irreplaceable and the mister knows after almost seven years together that it just wasn't worth not retrieving something of such sentimental value.

apart from being reunited with my hat, our little detour meant that we could meet friends for pizza in praiano! which was an unexpected bonus. yay for social media (they knew we were on the coast from instagram!) and real world catch ups with a friend i've known for over twenty years (yikes!) and his lovely lady.

as with all the other places we stayed, we were welcomed with some delightfully dry spumante and gorgeous sea views. the perks of visiting in low season and a potentially dubious loyalty program...

sunset over the horizon

the sea was freezing meltwater! don't know how the european guests (german, brit) managed a cheeky dip. we bemoaned our thin blood as we snuck glances at their goosebumps bigger than their biceps, then made full use of the heated pool, sauna and steam room that was virtually empty as no one wanted to be indoors on a sunny day. except me.

as a rather unfortunate footnote, after our brief night-time foray into praiano, we spent the next 36h at the hotel, eating all meals in. we'd what seemed like a nice dinner at the hotel's restaurant and soon after the mister was really unwell. on a balance, it was probably something he ate in the last 24h - AT THE HOTEL! relieved to be medical and able to manage the mister with supportive therapy and symptom relief. yay for our traveling pharmacy but you can imagine my absolute horror when we'd a 2h drive back to naples, flight to milan, and an hour drive to lake como ahead of us. did not appreciate how the hotel staff, while sympathetic, did nothing. then again, they were probably playing it smart by not being seen to accept responsibility. suppose i could have kicked up a huge fuss but we were on holiday and my priority was getting the mister better. and that's when i saw yet again how the mister is made of steel. he gritted his teeth and got on with it. i'd not felt that helpless in a long while. 1. cannot drive manual 2. never driven left-hand drive so i couldn't even volunteer to take over the driving. he did wryly joke later that him running on no sleep and plagued by nasty stomach bug still made for safer driving than me at 100%. thanks, sweetheart.

all that said and done, was unamused by a hotel that didn't do any service recovery. i expected better. as an aside, when we had our wedding lunch at the capella and two (out of 350) guests fell sick (and honestly i don't think it was capella food but for the sake of MIL/DIL harmony i wasn't about to point that out!!!) the team apologised and gave the stricken couple a voucher for a 8 course meal at the chinese restaurant when they were feeling better. now that's great service, and why they command top dollar.

lo scoglio

just the other day i was trying to think of an english equivalent of a third generation family-run restaurant serving the freshest fare from farm / fishing boat to table and i couldn't. to us, this was hands down the absolute best restaurant we'd the privilege of dining at in the south of italy. loved the kelong feel of scrubbed wooden beams perched over the beach as the tide came in. really homey and authentic, and a surprisingly well-heeled crowd for the casual setting. it's fairly priced and not surprisingly, diners come by the droves in their boats during high season. the lady running the show was the entirely delightful antonia who is palpably passionate about the food. she's beautiful, with the kindest face and warmest smile. i've not been so taken by a complete stranger in a while and she was effervescent and welcoming, sort of like a hug personified. her dear granny started the restaurant in the 60s and has since handed the reins of the kitchen to her grandson (antonia's brother) and the restaurant floor to antonia. antonia explained that her father is a farmer and the vegetables they serve were from his farm. we were hankering after the sea urchin linguine but alas the sea was too choppy that morning and her fishermen were unable to bring some back. such is their pride that they will not serve day old sea urchin. it's either caught that day or not on the menu. antonia recommended the zucchini pasta which had my normally anti-veggie husband swearing like a sailor with pleasure. that was some magic pasta!

and a deck ready with chairs to stave off the food coma. how thoughtful! throughout lunch we saw people wander on and off from the restaurant for smoke / iPad / company breaks.

we visited on easter sunday and were served the traditional easter bread with hard boiled egg (with shell!) embedded in the bread. anyone care to shed some light on why? we surmised it was something about jesus in the tomb. probably miles off!

life-changing zucchini pasta. sounds so ordinary but i'd make the mister drive 90min from sorrento in a heartbeat just to have another taste of this insane goodness. mind blown.

as we were leaving, we'd a little chat with antonia and it turned out where we were staying next was where she and her husband went for their first date. if such a capable restauranteur picked that for her first date, we knew we were on to something good :) lo scoglio also has simple rooms (she could just have been being modest!) and part of me wished we could've stayed on just to have dinner there, and lunch the next day too.

lemon grove

the mister found this charming restaurant on capri and it was our first time dining in a bona fide lemon grove, under lemon trees heavy with fruit. did wonder what would've happened if the lemons were ripe and dropped on us during dinner. sort of like how i wouldn't sit under a coconut tree for too long! but there was no drama and we were gifted two huge lemons to take with us when we left. lovingly handcarried them back for the MIL and curious as to what she'll use them for.

and the strangest thing happened over dinner. when the mister had gone to use the little boys' room, an american tourist at the next table came up to me to compliment me on my dress! had noticed the mother-daughter pair once over me when they sat down, and again when i'd left the table but didn't think anything of it. there weren't many azn tourists in the amalfi when we were there and we were used to sticking out like sore thumbs. but it was really nice to have someone say, "don't mean to intrude but my daughter and i have been admiring your dress and she's too shy but i just wanted to tell you how nice it is to see someone dress up!" i've never been approached by a total stranger and as someone who spends most days in something i pull on while half-asleep (and i don't have a mirror at home!) it was really encouraging and made my day. wish i wasn't so susceptible to flattery haha but it was nice to have someone recognise the effort. for the record it was a discounted asos dress that i wear to death but who cares :) so now i'm all about encouraging my fellow (wo)man and being less shy about saying something kind if the opportunity arises. the world would be a much nicer place if more people did that and i'm going to try.

three rocks

we took a picture of the three rocks in winter and promptly spent an hour wandering around capri trying to find the exact same vantage spot. on one of my more ill-advised ventures, i accidentally insisted that this path led there but while we got a close-up of said rocks, it was not the photo op i so desperately wanted to re-create after seven years. but it was cool in the 'forest' path and we passed some gorgeous holiday homes getting their annual facelift before their owners stopped by for the season. not a complete loss! eventually mustered up the courage to ask at a flower shop (showed them the photo we took in 2007!) and the boss lady straight away pointed us to parc augusta. phew! didn't even quibble the EUR1 entrance fee (don't remember there being an entrance fee in winter!!!) and ran to 'our spot'. asked a japanese tourist to take our photo but alas the angle was all wrong (she was petite compared to the huge tourist who'd helped us the last time) and i was too shy to insist on her stretching her hands high up to snap our picture. snooze you lose? so i didn't get the exact photo i wanted and the mister was mocking my obsessiveness. but that made me realise i need to stop living in the past, to stop reliving old memories because while the rocks might've stayed the same, we've moved on.

(can't believe the mister is carrying his EU law text in a ziplock bag. as if he even read it once!)

aurora capri

while we stayed at anacapri, there was a shuttle service to capri and marina grande. it's not often that mister curious does repeats, but aurora was one restaurant we were compelled to have both dinner and lunch at. not since lucio's in sydney have we done a repeat on holiday. and with good reason! at dinner, i'd the catch of the day carpaccio which was essentially an italian sashimi platter. freshest fish served raw with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of sea salt. divine! the waiter recommended the cod three ways but we were underwhelmed, and regretted not ordering the water pizza the restaurant is so famous for. so we went back for lunch for the pizza and more pasta (we'd the seafood pasta the night before and it was comparable with the pasta at two starred rossellini's in ravello!) 

the waiter recommended the chocolate bomb for dessert and it was a pleasantly confusing mix of textures and temperatures.

anacapri

when we first visted capri in late 2007, this what how it looked. all dreary and gloomy and totally wrong season! so you can imagine my sheer delight when we returned in 2014 to this glorious sight.

the mister played it smart by choosing a sweet little converted holiday villa in anacapri because we could not bring ourselves to pay capri prices for accommodation. there's definitely a 20-30% premium to stay on the island and we're just not at the stage where we'll fling good money after bad hotels. that said, if not for nostalgic reasons (last time we couldn't afford to stay on capri!) i would not recommend spending the night as a day trip suffices. even anacapri wasn't cheap but it was more affordable, although i didn't think the auberge was particularly good value. oh well, went in with eyes open and accepted that you pay through the nose to enjoy 24h island life.

we did have a lovely room with our biggest balcony yet and i may or may not have climbed over three balconies, trespassed the neighbours' rooms and flashed an unsuspecting gardener in the process of taking the pool photo.

we were in capri over easter weekend and caught the easter procession with a mannequin jesus and scary mary. the whole town centre was quiet and shrouded in darkness as the church peeps paraded through in their robes. there was the most sombre marching band ever and nice and atmospheric despite the creepy effigies.

santa catarina

so much for eschewing amalfi! as it turns out, the mister chose to spend a night at the grand dame on the coast and we were blown away by the incredible service and attention to detail. it's rumoured to be where brangelina first met while filming mister & mrs smith, or so the easyjet inflight mag alleged! but when we were there, we'd yet to find out this fascinating bit of trivia. lovely lovely hotel though and the staff were all top notch. they were ever so kind as to double upgrade us and very classy to comp a bottle of extra dry spumante (just as i like it!).

also, i suppose i feel a little sappy about the hotel because it's where we received some very good news. i like how the mister's so cool - could've gone to any of the many m*starred places to celebrate but that's not us. instead, he picked a hole in the wall pizza place (donna stella) in amalfi and we took a leisurely stroll to treat ourselves to some pretty darn amazing EUR10 pizza.

rain rain go away! thankful for largely good weather but boy did it rain that evening we first arrived.

all sunshine and blue skies the next morning though. phew! took some photos before breakfast on the cantilevered terrace.

can't get over what an indulgence slow breakfasts are, and we stayed out as long as we could before heading to the ferry. because, finally, after 5 days of admiring capri from a distance, we were finally going back.