[00:00:00.000] - Zahiyya

Welcome to the Designers Plants & Coffee podcast, where we discuss how to succeed as a designer while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process, and making money doing what we love. Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast.

[00:00:12.480] - Naima

We took a grand birthday trip this year in January. Went to Europe. I highly recommend going in the offseason, except to Greece, because nothing's open. Tell us what you want to know. We'll talk about our experience.

[00:00:24.950] - Zahiyya

When you got there, what did you do?

[00:00:28.390] - LaTisha

Eat. Oh, mind you, I didn't go. We ate. Yes.

[00:00:29.770] - Naima

I I love Italy. It's my second time in Italy. The shopping in Italy is amazing. I highly recommend Florence over Marlon for shopping because it is the leather and cashmere capital of Italy. This was your first time in Italy. How did you like Italy?

[00:00:45.710] - LaTisha

It was my first time in Italy and in Greece. We went to Rome first because I wanted to be in Rome for my birthday. I will say, first thing, gelato, gelato. Every day is a day for gelato.

[00:00:59.910] - Zahiyya

What is gelato exactly?

[00:01:01.940] - LaTisha

A healthier version of ice cream. When I looked it up to see why, because since I ate it every day, the fat that it's made with is actually less fat than ice cream, so it's actually healthier for you.

[00:01:13.650] - Naima

Very smooth, it's very creamy. I'm a savory girl. I can live without every sweet in the world, but just sit me in front of the pizza oven and I will sit there all day and I will eat everything that comes out of the wood fight. It's different. And we made pizza.

[00:01:26.870] - LaTisha

And pasta for the birthday.

[00:01:29.920] - Naima

Pasta that I found to be actually easier to make because it doesn't have to rise and sit and you just need it a couple of times, stretch it out, cut it to your shape.

[00:01:39.460] - LaTisha

I always wanted to take a pasta making class, so to take it over there on my birthday, I was so excited. I brought back the materials to make pasta. Have you made it? I have not yet. After I got back, I got the flu.

[00:01:53.020] - Naima

Our first day, we did 25,000 steps. Walked, we took train, we got lost, we walked more. Every Every time we got lost, we stopped to eat because... Why not?

[00:02:04.070] - Zahiyya

Where were you guys when you took the picture in the dresses?

[00:02:07.550] - Naima

That was Greece. That was my first time in Greece, and I found Athens to be very urban. If you put the signs in English and change the people, you're in New York. But the Greece that you see in my big fat Greek wedding and all of these movies and stuff, that is Mykonos. It's shiny, it's pretty, except for the cat poop.

[00:02:28.130] - Zahiyya

You said the cat food?

[00:02:30.110] - Naima

Poop. Cat poop. Cats are everywhere. But why was there so much? Because cats are everywhere. And that's the thing. It's the thing. Our waiter told us that they came with the island.

[00:02:38.460] - LaTisha

Cats follow you around. They only eat chicken.

[00:02:41.010] - Naima

They only eat chicken. They're very bougey cats. They only eat grilled chicken.

[00:02:45.710] - LaTisha

Literally, the cat was blocking the door to the restaurant, and it was raining, and we were trying to get the cat out of the way. The cat was like, No, open the door so we can go in. So once we opened the door, the cat went in and would not leave. They When we were leaving. The cat followed us all the way out and literally sat there with us to say bye.

[00:03:05.080] - Naima

The same cat is going to tell.

[00:03:06.410] - LaTisha

The same cat.

[00:03:07.520] - Zahiyya

So Mykonos is to cats like New York is to pigeons.

[00:03:11.080] - Naima

No, Greece is to cats. Oh, please. Greece. Like New York is to pigeons. Okay.

[00:03:15.830] - Zahiyya

People don't have them as pets. It's basically they just roam the place.

[00:03:19.740] - Naima

No, they feed them because the one thing I will say is there were no rodents, there were no flies, since you have to tell them about the octopus.

[00:03:26.480] - LaTisha

Okay, so this is in Mykonos. Now, Mykonos is It's a beautiful island. We were in the restaurant, and the restaurant is right in front of the waterfront. So this man walks over and we're sitting there having lunch or dinner, and we're sitting there so we can see the waterfront. This man walks over, he sticks his hand in the water, and when he brings his hand back out, an octopus is wrapped around it. He's literally standing there fighting the octopus, trying to free his hand. I'm looking at it, and the waiter, he actually steps outside to watch the man. The man was finally able to free his hand and like, rip something out the octopus. Then he went walking down the street. I'm like, Wait, wait a minute. Did he just go over to the water and pull out an octopus? The waiter was like, Yes.

[00:04:12.980] - Naima

He said he's going to have it for dinner.

[00:04:14.370] - LaTisha

He was like, Oh, he does that all the time. I was like, Really? He's like, Yeah, it's right there. Everything is fresh. Of course, the silly women that we are, decided that we are going to walk along the water's edge and see if we can find ourselves an octopus.

[00:04:29.780] - Zahiyya

Oh, no. I'm just not playing. Did you all drink your hand in there?

[00:04:32.290] - Naima

No, we just went out. I just wanted to see it.

[00:04:35.320] - LaTisha

They don't have any crime there. You can literally just go over to the water and grab your food and take it home and eat.

[00:04:40.520] - Zahiyya

They have a homeless problem or a food problem?

[00:04:43.340] - Naima

No homeless. We walked through a meat and produce market, and I had never been in a place with dead animals that didn't smell because it's so fresh. I think our waiter put it best. He said, Almost everything in Greece comes from Greece. They don't import a lot of things.

[00:05:03.200] - LaTisha

Except for beef because they don't have cows.

[00:05:05.220] - Naima

But they grow everything. They make everything. One thing we did notice is every night we went to a restaurant, it was packed. It was fun though. We had a soccer team in our hotel. Professional soccer? Semi-pro because I didn't recognize the jerseys. And how long did you guys stay? Ten days, but it was broken up. So every place we went was a three-day stay. We had an extra night in Athens because that's where we flew from. Really good. And then we were. We had a whole day at the airport in London.

[00:05:33.920] - Zahiyya

In the airport, you didn't go outside of the airport?

[00:05:36.860] - Naima

Well, we wanted to, but when we looked at it, it was like an hour to get through customs, 40 minutes to get to Piccadilly Circus, 40 minutes to get back, another couple of hours to get back through customs. So it just wasn't worth the risk.

[00:05:52.580] - LaTisha

In Greece, we tried these Greek donuts, and they had this honey over it. First one, the honey was clear. That was something I'm like, Wait, it's not yellow?

[00:06:02.170] - Naima

Nothing was super sweet. It was just the right amount of sweet that you get that satisfaction from having dessert, but it's not eating a whole birthday cake.

[00:06:10.820] - LaTisha

Our tour guide, she gave us a lot of great information, especially about how Greece, they don't have wood. It's very expensive to import wood, which is why everything is in marble. I'm like, Oh, okay, that makes sense. Why the streets and the wall, everything is in marble because it's cheaper for them.

[00:06:29.220] - Naima

What was the What's shopping scene like? They all have designer sections of the city. We did go to the Gucci garden in Florence, but we got there late, so we didn't experience it like we really wanted to. For those of us who are of a certain age, United Colors of Bennett still exist in Europe, so we thought that- They don't have it in the States, though. They don't have it in the States anymore, so we were very surprised at that. Shopping, for me, if Florence is street, they have a whole alley, and it's just street vendors. It's like, can't agree from the '90s on crack. Really? I mean, well, anything that you want, you can get from these street vendors. We did have a very interesting debate about people not wanting to go to Milan. We took a cooking class, and it was us. We were the two Americans, three young ladies from Sydney, Australia, one lady from Kuwait, and the co-teacher and her son were a tout. We got into discussion, and the Australian ladies were saying how much they hated Milan. They took the day and they went to Milan, and they were extremely disappointed in it.

[00:07:41.400] - Naima

We were like, Well, why? They said, Well, it's just very commercial. I guess most people who go to Italy want that authenticity, but Florence has my heart.

[00:07:51.310] - LaTisha

I definitely want to go back.

[00:07:53.130] - Naima

The good thing about both Italy and Europe in general is you can take the train everywhere. Every day, I went somewhere different, and I went to Pisa, and Luca, and Florence, and Rome, and I went to all these places on the train. I had a rental car when I went, and I parked that car, and I took the train everywhere. Now, see, when I went, I was speaking broken Italian, but now they do everything in English and Italian, which was cool.

[00:08:17.690] - LaTisha

It was a really good trip.

[00:08:20.180] - Zahiyya

That was their trip to Europe. If you have, what was your favorite place? Just leave it in the comments.