Sabbatical, Final Week (13)

We’re reaching the end of this sabbatical, and it has become the best summer I can remember ever having. I’ve had a chance to travel, to hang out with with Montse (te quiero) and the people I love most, to party, to get tanned, to move homes TWICE, and to drive thousands of miles just for the joy of it… all without having to worry about work, meetings, Slack, Figma, or anything else. I’m very greateful to Automattic for this perk, because I know how rare and special it is.

This week, we kept exploring Manhattan. We had a tiny sandwich at Bar Pisellino in the West Village — kind of expensive (especially for the size), but very good, and the place is very beautiful.

We also went back to L’Industrie and Levain Bakery a couple of times, they’re just too delicious.

On Wednesday, we picked up a Chevy Malibu from a nearby Hertz and drove up to Salem, Massachusetts. We visited the Salem Witch Museum, which I found more interesting than I expected. and wandered around some of the wacky and fun stores in the city center. There isn’t really a lot to do (specially since it’s not October yet), but the Halloween and witch-centered vibe of the touristy areas is really cool.

On Thursday, we went to see (from outside) some of the houses we hadn’t had a chance to check out the previous day, and drove back to NY via New Haven to pick up a desk for our room at the local Ikea. Once we were back in Manhattan, we got stuck in a mega traffic jam, and it took us close to two hours to drive the last ten blocks to the car rental office. Lesson learned: avoid driving here in the evening at all costs.

On Friday, we went to the Angelika theatre again to see Megalopolis, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. I know it’s a huge what-the-fuck of a movie, and not good by most standard measures… but I feel like it’s one of those once-in-a-decade things that aren’t supposed to exist, and I’m really glad it does.

On Sunday, we painted the bathroom ceiling in the apartment.

And today, Monday, I’m here, writing this blog post, getting ready to go back to work tomorrow.

I know I’ll look back on this summer in a few years with nostalgia, and I’m glad I’ve documented it.

Thanks for reading. On to the next chapter!

Sabbatical, Week 12

We haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy this week, mostly doing things at home, going out to eat, and getting to know the city around us. Still, for the record, these are a few highlights:

• On Wednesday, we went to Williamsburg to check out a couple of vintage clothing stores and had a fantastic bagel at Edith’s Sandwich Counter. We saw the Subway Takes guys filming an interview in the subway on our way there — what are the chances?
• Another day, we stumbled upon a taco restaurant in the galleries under the Rockefeller Center called Puya Tacos de Puebla, that we found tasty and fairly authentic.

• We visited the public areas of The Plaza Hotel, which were kind of underwhelming. I expected something more grand, but it felt dated and less impressive than other luxury hotels I’ve seen. Maybe the guest-only areas are more interesting.
• We walked the entire perimeter of Central Park on Saturday, which is about 12 km (7.5 miles). The weather was wonderful, and it’s amazing noticing how the crowd shifts depending on where you are in the park (tourists vs. locals).

I’m loving New York.

Sabbatical, Week 11

This has been a pretty relaxed week. We focused on getting comfortable in our new home, buying a few things we needed, deep-cleaning the apartment, and just hanging out around the city.

On Tuesday, we rented a small boat on the lake in Central Park, and spent a beautiful hour rowing back and forth.

We visited San Gennaro on Thursday, which was interesting but kind of weird in a fun way (what’s going on with the deep-fried Oreos and the rasta-banana toys?), and a bit too crowded.

On Friday we went to Coney Island, had a hot dog at the original Nathan’s, and rode The Cyclone. It was surprisingly empty, but we figured that was because it’s already September.

And, on Sunday, we went to Madison Avenue to see the Mexican Independence Day parade and celebrations.

A few other places we visited these days:

• JB Prince, a kitchen supply shop located on the sixth floor of an office building. I picked up some great pans there.
• L’Industrie Pizzeria (the one in the West Village), I’d heard great things about their pizza and they were all correct.
• Fishs Eddy, a funky dishesware and glassware store that Montse likes a lot.
• C.O. Bigelow, the iconic pharmacy in Greenwich Village.
• Little Island, a very quirky park-island on the Hudson.
• Mercado Little Spain, a bit disappointing; not too big, and felt a little fake.
• Taquería Ramirez, delicious tacos in Brookyn.
• Beacon’s Closet, a huge vintage clothing store.
• Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, tasty pies out in Red Hook.
• Ernesto’s, a Basque restaurant in the Lower East Side. They were having a block party when we arrived, so we just had a sándwich mixto and a glass of wine, but the vibe was great.
• Scarr’s Pizza, the line was huge at 10pm on Saturday and it took forever to get served, but it was worth it.
• Levain Bakery, feels touristy and overpriced but the cookies are pretty incredible. We’ve been to several locations already.

Sabbatical, Week 10

Monday. We drove to Los Angeles, the final stop on our road trip. We passed by the Cabazon dinosaurs (which we had already visited in 2016, but it was fun seeing their new colors), and had lunch at Grand Central Market in Downtown LA. After that, we went to the sticker shop at the Farmers Market, and visited the newly opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, next to LACMA — an amazing place.

We ended the day with a drink at the Chateau Marmont, a drive down Sunset Blvd all the way to the ocean, and a burger at In-N-Out. We stayed at the Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel, a relatively cheap and very well-located hotel we usually stay at when we visit the city.

Tuesday. We had breakfast at a nearby Erewhon — which, I’m concerned to report, we loved — and then headed straight to Disneyland in Anaheim. It was already decorated for Halloween, and the experience was fantastic.

We loved the Haunted Mansion with its Nightmare Before Christmas theming (we had already experienced it in Tokyo ten years ago, but of course, the voiceover there was in Japanese), and visited the incredible Star Wars area. We didn’t particularly enjoy the rides, but the area itself is truly incredible.

Wednesday. We had the same breakfast at Erewhon as the day before, and stopped by a couple of shops we wanted to check before heading back to NY. We also drove around the Hollywood Hills, Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Los Feliz for a bit.

Our flight back was late, so before getting to the airport we made a quick stop in Venice. The timing was perfect, and the sunset was beautiful.

We returned our beloved Camaro Harris, and endured one of the most uncomfortable red-eye flights I’ve ever experienced.

Thursday. Back in New York, we were finally able to open a bank account. This has allowed us to continue with the rest of the process to get settled in the United States. In the evening, we went to Webster Hall to see The Dare live.

We spent the rest of the week walking around the city, getting familiar with the different grocery stores and restaurants in our new neighborhood.

On Friday night, we went to the East Village Angelika theatre to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (I liked it a lot). On Sunday, we went to DUMBO and Williamsburg to check out a couple of flea markets (not very impressive, to be honest) and took a ferry back to Manhattan.

Sabbatical, Week 9

We had an awesome week.

Monday. We drove from Austin all the way to Marfa, where we stayed a El Cosmico for the night. We ate at Marfa Burrito, visited some of the shops in the town, and drove the half-hour out to the Prada Marfa art installation. We slept in a beautifuly restored camping trailer.

Tuesday. Marfa is known for its Donald Judd properties and art foundations, three of which we visited in the morning: The Block, the Cobb House and Whyte Building, and the Judd Art Studio. They’re all incredible, particularly The Block, but they have a “no photos whatsoever” policy that sucks.

After lunch, we hit the road again and drove to White Sands National Park. From there, we continued all the way to Roswell, where we stopped for the night.

Wednesday. As soon as we woke up, we continued driving north until we reached Santa Fe. We cruised around the city for a bit, checking out some really beautiful homes from the road. Then we visited the Museum of International Folk Art (which we LOVED) and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. After that, we stopped to quickly do some laundry and then continued on to Taos.

We stayed in a very nice casita there, which had a fireplace that we didn’t hesitate to use.

Thursday. We visited the very impressive Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, Ghost Ranch, and had a burrito for lunch at Bode’s General Store. I then took Montse to the Georgia O’Keefe house. We could only get one ticket, so I waited around. I’ll go in next time!

Friday. After our second night in Taos, we had a long driving day ahead. We crossed a couple of natural parks on our way to Monument Valley, which we reached just before sunset. But we had a pretty shocking incident midway: a motorcycle rider wrecked right in front of us while taking a bend way too fast.

We pulled over to help (I stood on the road warning incoming traffic to make sure no one crashed) and the guy eventually seemed to recover, but those first couple of minutes where he was completely unresponsive were very, very scary.

Once a bunch of people had stopped and where helping out, we decided to leave so we wouldn’t cause more traffic and create a more dangerous situation. Still, the whole thing really changed the mood for a while.

After spending some time at The View in Monument Valley taking photos, we continued on to Tuba City, where we spent the night.

Saturday. This was the longest driving day of the whole trip — we went from Tuba City all the way to Palm Springs. Fortunately, it was an uneventful drive! We had dinner at a Sonic Drive-In for the first time (which I liked more than I expected).

Sunday. We stayed for two nights at The Cole motel, so we had a pretty calm day. We drove around Palm Springs checking some of the beautiful mid-century modern homes, stopped by a few shops, and had several ice creams. It was really, really hot, over 40ºC. But hey, it’s the desert.

Sabbatical, Week 8

This was the week we moved to the United States.

On Monday, we run a few final errands before our flight to NYC, including getting a haircut (unfortunately, one of the worst ones I’ve ever had, lmao. I’m NOT going back to that place.)

Tuesday was the big day: we took a direct flight from Madrid to JFK and crossed the border for the first time under our new visas. I was worried about the whole ordeal, but it was surprisingly straightforward. We didn’t have to answer any questions or go into a back room to process the paperwork, which is what I was expecting — the border officer simply checked our documents and stamped everything as needed. After 8 hours stuck in a plane, we surely appreciated the straightforwardness!

We were staying at a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn for the first couple of days, so we went to The Odeon that night to celebrate. We saw John Slattery aka Roger Sterling from Mad Men there, which was a pretty awesome first celebrity sighting in the city, tbh.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we tried to check off as many things in our to-do list as possible: we moved our stuff into the apartment where we’ll be staying moving forward, applied for our Social Security Numbers, got U.S. cell phone numbers, tried to open new bank accounts, etc. We couldn’t do the latter yet because we need a utility bill in our name, so we went to a Spectum store and signed up for internet service for the apartment right away. We’ll use that bill for the bank when it comes through.

We also visited the Judd Foundation in Soho, had lunch at Russ & Daughters, had some tacos at Los Tacos No. 1, and walked a lot around Manhattan.

On Friday, we flew to Dallas. We landed at DFW and immediately picked up the car we had booked with Hertz; we had reserved a “medium sedan” but there was a Camaro available within that category (no idea why) so we snatched it right away.

We had tickets for a rodeo at the Cowtown Coliseum, so we checked in at the hotel and headed to the Fort Worth Stockyards. The event was crazy, one of those Bulls, Bands & Barrels shows with cowboy hats, fireworks, and a million american flags. It all felt so alient to us, but we had a really good time.

After that, we just wandered around: checked out the bars and shops, had a truly delicious ice cream, and took a peek at Billy Bob’s Texas (which I had already visited many years ago, and was exactly as I remembered).

On Saturday we drove down to Austin, but only after checking out the Stockyards during the day. The drive itself was pretty uneventful, but we did stop at a massive Buc-ee’s gas station, which was a definite highlight. Our European mind could barely comprehend it.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday in Austin. We stayed at the Austin Motel in SoCo, so we hung out in that area for a bit. We had lunch at Terry Black’s BBQ, ate multiple ice creams, had breakfast at 1886 Café & Bakery, visited the Blanton Museum of Art, browsed Uncommon Objects, watched the bats fly out from under the bridge, and did a handful of other things.

The weather was exhausting (very, very hot) but Austin is a pretty cool city in my book.

Sabbatical, Week 7

This has been a very calm week. We went to Noja, in Cantabria, to have lunch with Montse’s family, and then I drove back to Madrid on Tuesday.

My brother and his family were in town for their summer vacation, so I spent the rest of the week hanging out with them, swimming in the pool, and getting things ready for the upcoming move to NYC next week. Luggage, paperwork, and all that.

Sabbatical, Week 6

We’re almost at the halfway point of my sabbatical. I’m kind of shocked of how quickly the weeks have flown by. I’m afraid I’ll be back at work before I even realize it.

Anyway, I’ve spent this week in Vitoria and around the Basque Country, enjoying the local festivities that take place every August.

We had a lot of pintxos, bokatak (bocadillos in Spanish, our local typical sandwich), and kalimotxos. Really beautiful stuff!

On Friday night, we went to see Gatibu play live… and just like that, the festivities in Vitoria were over.

Luckily, San Sebastian’s Semana Grande kicked off the very next day, so we drove there on Saturday. We visited the aquarium, Santa Catalina island, watched the fireworks and a cycling race, and spent the night at a hotel in the city.

Sunday was still extraordinarily hot, so we spent the day in Zarautz. We swam in the ocean, walked all the way to Getaria, and did some diving from the old port. At the end of the day, we drove back to Vitoria, and with that we closed a really wonderful weekend.

Sabbatical, Week 5

I returned to Madrid, and spent most of the week doing more or less the same as last week: chilling by the pool, preparing the luggage we’re taking to the U.S. in a few weeks, and hanging out with my family.

I did set up my PS5 so I can play remotely from anywhere in the world, my NAS so I can back up everything from anywhere too, and a cheap UPS to keep both online even during micro-blackout (relatively common at my parents’ home — we still don’t know why). I played Gran Turismo 7 again, I’m close to 200 hours in at this point. I also got a cheap new router, since the old one they had downstairs was pretty obsolete.

On Sunday, I borrowed my parents’ old Prius with the intention of driving to Vitoria again to spend the next couple of weeks there. But after about an hour on the road, I had to stop. It was having some issues with the coolant system. We still don’t know exactly what’s causing it, but all the liquid is leaking from the reservoir, possibly due to a head gasket issue that’s increasing pressure in the system and forcing coolant out through the cap valve. Aaaanyway, I had to turn back to Madrid and ended up borrowing my sister’s newer Toyota Auris.

Once I finally made it to Vitoria, we headed straight to the city center and joined the “bajada de Celedón“, the event that kicks off the Virgen Blanca festivities. It was crowded and noisy and sticky, but also very fun!

Sabbatical, Week 4

Yet another slow week: I spent most of it at my parent’s place near Madrid, with Montse and my family. Hung out around the house, organized the downstairs room, prepped some of the things we’ll be taking to the U.S. in a few weeks, and chilled by the pool. We finally bought our flights to New York.

There’s been a pretty excruciating heat wave going on for the past few days.

Some restaurants I’ve been to recently:

• Romero Verde, with my friend David. It’s a solid vegan place — I had a vegan hamburger with a spicy Carolina Reaper-based sauce that I loved. Spicy food in Spain is generally pretty tame because it’s just not part of our culture, but this one was HOT!
• Saona, with my parents. We started with some appetizers — sweet potato with a green sauce, some vegetable gyozas, some cheese-filled bread — and then I had the chicken teriyaki as my main. The food is kind of eclectic (in theory is Mediterranean, but it certainly is not in practice), tasty and well priced.
• Hermanos Vinagre, with Montse. Typical Spanish food with a hipsterish twist. It wasn’t the first time we visited so we went for a couple of gildas, and the spicy tuna. To be honest they’re good but nothing to write home about, and kind of overpriced. But then we ordered the pepito de tenera with green peppers and woah, that was delicious.

On Thursday, a local holiday, I went for a hike with my parents and Jara, our dog. We drove to Puerto de Canencia and walked for a couple of hours through the forest. Given how hot and uncomfortable everything has been these days, it was a great activity to cool down a bit.

I washed the car on Saturday.

Finally, Montse and I drove up to Vitoria on Sunday. We’ve upgraded the storage space we rent there to a bigger one in the same facility (5m2 to 8m2), so we brought up some things from Madrid and spent a couple of hours setting up two shelving units to keep the boxes from getting crushed under each other’s weight.