Sweden is a small, gorgeous kingdom crowed with shimming archipelagos and filled with some of the most beautiful and friendly people in the world. I have always admired this country, but after last night, I am madly, deeply in love with it. On my final night I was treated to a star-studded affair. First, Liza and I went to dinner with Jeff, a friend of mine from Stanford, and then she surprised me with a night brimming with Counts and Countesses, celebrities and society. 

(Here is a side note: If you have spent any time on the Stanford campus, you would know the Wallenberg Hall. It is the massive building in the front of campus. Mr. Wallenberg lives in Stockholm and is a big supporter of Stanford.) So, back to my perfect night in Stockholm…..

We went back to Cuckoos, that fabulous restaurant owned by Nina von Krusenstierna, the Stockholm sweetheart and Russian nobility, (see my past blog). I had a tuna and scallop appetizer and a chicken noodle dish for my main meal. I think it was the first time I have eaten chicken in a while – I have bee eating lots of fish and pasta. After dinner, one of Liza’s close friends joined us and we said “farewell” to Jeff. The rest of the night was reserved for just us girls! Then, Liza swept us away to a private après hunt cocktail party teaming with the who’s who of Sweden. The ironic thing is, I did not really understand how special all these people were. I felt like a bushman walking into a party at Studio 54 – a room filled with gorgeous, glamorous Swedes and I have no idea who they are!

The night was magical, and because I was there 2 weeks before, I had a whole group of new friends greeting me. Liza said, “You are part of the group now.” We drank champagne, chatted about the past 2 weeks and laughed about all the fun we had during my visit.

I am really going to miss Sweden. I have made some wonderful friends here. It is going to be hard to drink champagne without Liza now. We have spent so many incredible nights chatting about life over bubbly.

My Icelandair flight leaves at 2 pm, I have a massage booked at 10 am and then I am fly back home. It is a long flight, but I am sitting in Saga Class, so that makes travel so much easier.

From rock stars to royalty, this trip as been incredible. I am sad to come home, but I look forward to kisses from my husband and cuddling with my kitty. 

P.S. I am home now and the morning I left, Liza met me at my hotel and gave me a stack of Swedish magazines and a block of yummo Swedish chocolate. She told me I can look at the pictures in the magazine and recognize some of the faces from last night. So, that is what I did. And there was a shot of the King of Sweden admiring a framed picture of the torpedo boat I rode on with my new friends. What a fabulous, magical trip!

This latest issue, November issue! With Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the cover in black and white…PAGE 64!!! Teresa’s article starts on page 63. Teresa wrote this amazing article for Marie Claire about a new phrase she coined, "Coutourism," and she interviewed me on the subject of having gorgeous things made the world over. I wrote a little ditty about my Mama, (I’m the Born Coutourist cuz of her), and Mona Brooks took my pitcher and voila, a star is born! Well two stars. Of course this is Teresa’s second time in the magazine, so I’m just a rookie. But tell everyone you know to check out the Tango Divas in Marie Claire this month!! I’m on stands now!!! :)

You might think of it as a "fly-over" state, a place that you fly over to get elsewhere, but Oklahoma has some amazing attractions like the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper, and the capital of the Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah.

Art, culture and cowboys… what more could you want out of a visit? I go to Tulsa at least once a year: my mother and her people are from there and still live there. My friends look at me with pity when I announce these visits, but if they only knew… I guess it’s time to tell ‘em.

The Song promises waving wheat and windy plains (not to mention honey lambs and hawks), but the Oklahoma I know is the hilly and lush little enclave of Tulsa, once home to my grandparents, who have sadly passed. We used to spend holidays visiting with them, watching their programs, and trying to fend off all the food my Bubbie foisted on us.

Our honeylamb status as grandkids used to spread like wildfire, and soon the tumbleweeds that were my grandparents’ 80-year-old friends appeared at our door to pinch our cheeks. This time, with only cousins and aunts and uncles around, I begged my mom to take us out of Tulsa (for once!) and down those freeways that promised exotica like "Broken Arrow." 

She acquiesced, and soon I found myself at the Cowboy Museum. It’s only about an hour and a half from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. We couldn’t stay long because we had to get to the Memorial, so we just peeked in at the tremendous statue, The End of the Trail, by James Earle Fraser, and had to save the turn-of-the-century cattle town replica, the gun gallery and more for another time.

Next on our itinerary was of course the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Can I just say, WOW? I hope that the visionaries behind the 9/11 Memorial can get it as right as the brilliant minds who worked in Oklahoma. The Memorial and museum are tremendous, haunting, with minimal symbols leaving maximum impressions. Chairs sit in on a peaceful, grassy knoll, one for every victim, and those representing children are small chairs (there was a nursery in the Federal Building right where the bomb hit). The museum not only outlines the day but includes the story of the FBI investigation as well as heart-wrenching tales by survivors. It is a marvel and a reverant tribute. Again, wow.

After that, it was a rush to get to Norman (my father was a University of Oklahoma graduate), which took about a half hour, to meet with director Eric M. Lee at the exciting Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University (Go Sooners!). They had recently been bequeathed a startling art collection, and my mother couldn’t wait to check it out. Picture every European and American master and mistress, plus a vital array of Native American art, and you have the essence of what makes this museum so special, not to mention the spectacular redesign by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Truly it is spectacular for any museum, not just a university museum, and not just as an oh-how-cute, they’re-tryin-to-make-culture-in-Oklahoma kind of way either. Experts agree!

One had to feed oneself during all the touring, so one had no choice but to stop for bbq at Van’s Pig Stand in Norman. 75 years and still smokin’ is their motto, and we sure did enjoy our slop.

And that was that. We had to get back to Tulsa for dinner. Oklahoma is a great and easy road trip, see? Think how much we saw in just a day! Other sights we did not have time for but are on our list include:

1. Tahlaquah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation

2. Bartlesville, where Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper lives, the Price Tower Arts Center

3. Branson, Missouri, world class entertainment in the Ozarks and just 3 and a half hours from Tulsa. It’s The Country Live Music Show Capital of the World! 

Tulsa sights include:

1. The Boston Avenue Methodist Church, an art deco wonder! I love this building.

2. Utica Square Shopping Center

3. Museums that are gorgeous: Gilcrease and Philbrook

Thanks for listening, Honey Lambs! 

The hotel I am staying at is charming, but it is so darn noisy. The staff gets in around 7:00 am, they hang out in the courtyard above my room, smoking cigarettes and bickering and laughing in loud Italian. I have spent so much lovely quiet time across Europe that I am struggling with all the noise and smoke so early in the morning.

They do offer free wireless Internet, so that makes up for the morning mêlée. Once I am awake, I can just turn on my computer and see who’s up in California. Because of the 9-hour different, no one is on Skype. I forgot that I ordered my breakfast to be sent to my room, and after working for two hours online, it was such a treat to get a platter of strong coffee, warm bread, apricot jam, and fresh orange juice delivered to my room.

Breakfast eaten, blog uploaded, pictures published, I was ready to tackle the Milanese day. I wrote an article for Marie Claire that is being published in November. It is a about fashion and shopping around the world, and one of the girls I interviewed recommended a shoe shop just a few blocks away, where you can get shos hand made. WOW! I have had suits made – but shoes!  

Let me back up a bit, so you can understand why I did what I did. I know many people are going to think that I am an extravagant consumer, but really, I was just fulfilling a dream…

You see, a few years ago I had a dream that I went to my own party in a pair of comfortable yellow satin heels. I remember the shoes so well in the dream. I looked down, as I was coming into the room where my party was and thought, “Wow, these are gorgeous shoes and they are really comfortable.” The other important part of the dream was that my sister and grandmother were there to meet me at my party. They have both left this earth, so there was something really special about the way I felt in the dream. It was like everything was wonderful – everything was the way it was meant to be.

My aunt is very good at interpreting dreams. I told her about the dream a few days after I had it, she said that was a very profound and fabulous dream. Wonderful things are going to happen and I am going to feel very comfortable in my important roll. My grandmother and sister were there to tell me they are very proud of me and I have great works to do and they admire my hard work. I really liked that interpretation and kept that dream in the back of my head.

Then I founded Tango Diva, I started getting lots of media attention, and now I have a book that is being published next February! So much good stuff – just like the dream! I went to visit my family a few weeks ago and my aunt asked me if I bought my yellow satin heals yet. I smiled and said, “I have not found them.”

Okay, now back to Milan. I walk into Veronik’s couture shoe boutique, thinking nothing of my yellow heels.  Then, as she is showing me her show, I spy a pair of yellow satin stilettos with a 5-inch heel. I try them on, but they are too big and a bit too high. But they are yellow satin, with small purple flowers embroidered on the fabric. The satin is so perfect I want to cry. I try on 40 more pairs of multi-colored shoes that she already has created and none are what I want. I am emotionally exhausted. I really can’t justify getting a pair of very expensive shoe handmade in Italy – I can’t. Plus, I only want them in yellow. So, I feel safe knowing I don’t need to sell my kidney now. Then, she says something that changes the course of history forever. “Teresa, I have an extra piece of that yellow antique satin from Como if you want me to make you a pair of special shoes, and I think I might have enough for a small handbag too.”

I almost faint. Without thinking of the financial consequences, I say, “Yes! These are my shoes and I will wear them at my first media interview and book launch party.” We laid out the piece of yellow satin, figured out how the gorgeous purple flowers will wrap around the front of the shoes. Vernonik whispers in Italian to herself about how she will use the soft purple flower design to create an absolutely perfect handbag to match my shoes. I really hope I have a daughter one day because she is going to inherit a closet full of great shoes and accessories!  

So, there you have the truth. I did it. I bought a pair of shoes in Milan that are being made especially for me. They will be the only pair in the world. I might die when I get the bill, so I’ll have to be buried in them…

Maybe that’s what the dream really meant, I’d be going to see my sister and grandma in a pair of comfy, yellow satin shoes. ☺

Rosella and I got up early, she had to go to a city between Milan and Torino, and I was on my way to Milan. She made of a wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit, cheese, yoghurt, and cereal before we headed to the train station.

I took the slow train to Milano, it was a mere 6,50 Euros and it takes 2 hours. The fast train is just over an hour, cost twice as much, and it did not leave for another ½ hour – so I just jumped on the slow train and saved my Euros for a gelato. The ride was easy. We were in Milano before I could say fettuccini.

The hotel I am stay was recommended to me by Kate Horan, or Italian shopping Diva. It’s called Antica Locanda dei Mercanti – which translates into the ancient of the merchants. It is darling! The location could not be more perfect and my room is very cute. My only complaint is that I have two tiny, itty, bitty beds in my room instead of one double bed. I love sleeping sideways, starfish position, but not in these beds!

Once I check in I check out the town. This is my first time in Milan, so I did not know where to start. So, I started with lunch! I love pasta and I made an agreement with my body and mind that I am allowed to eat all the pasta and drink all the wine I want while in Italy – it’s Italy after all! As they say in Barcelona, “¡La dieta comienza mañana!” - The diet starts tomorrow!

After a lunch of pasta and beans (carbo-loading for all that shopping) I treated myself to a gelato. Phew, I was beat, so back to the hotel for a powernap and shower. I got up at around 4:00 pm, blogged and answered e-mails. I was out the door by 7:30 to go enjoy apertivo at Nobu. By the time I left, I had a few new Italian boyfriends. I walked back to the hotel and on the way, I found an darling restaurant serving dinner outside amongst the cobblestone streets and marble buildings. I could not resist.

The pasta I ordered was the best pasta I’ve eaten in Italy. It was agnolotti (which is a pasta from this region that is stuffed with everything from beef to cheese, the pasta looks like Chinese dumplings). My agnolotti was stuffed with ricotta cheese and herbs and smothered in a walnut cream sauce. Oh my.

After finishing my pasta and sparkling wine, I strolled back to my hotel and fell asleep the second my head it the pillow.

What a fabulous day! Rosella and I woke up at 7:00 am and on the road by 8:00 am. She dropped me off via bus at the most central stop and gave me a great map to explore the city. We planned to meet up at 5:00 pm, along with Giuliana another online friend.

My tour started with a cappuccino and apricot croissant, followed by a brisk walk to Porta Palzzo, where I picked up a great ITALIA sweat suit for a whopping 12 Euros. I then trekked to the citadel where there’s a labyrinth of tunnels underground. After all that work, I needed another cappuccino and a sandwich with parma ham and grilled vegetables. Once fortified, I headed over to the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. What a place! I rode the elevator to the top of the highest building in Torino, the view was specatular. The museum is a must! It is Italy’s version of Hollywood. Think La Dolce Vita and Felini’s 8 ½ alive in a 19th century masterpiece. WOW!

Then, it was time for lunch. I went to Piazza San Carlo, where I dine at Café Torino. Yum oh! I love Italian food. I gobbled up a plate of pasta Bolognese and grilled vegetables in balsamic vinegar. Oh course I enjoyed some wine with my meal.

I then did some window shopping on the way to the river Po. The walk is gorgeous, and I savored the warm weather that I have not felt since I left California. My walk took me past Verria Reale, the crown jewel of Torino. It is the place that the palace of Versailles was copied from.

By then, it was already 4:30 and I had to get back to the train station to meet Rosella. I left my jacket and new sweat suit at the information center in the heart of Torino. It was used mainly for the Olympic, but the city decided to keep it (good choice!). They offer free locker space for the day, so I locked up my clothes that morning and took the key.

I got my clothes and met up with Rosella at 5:00. We then met Giuliana Cupi, who is a fabulous woman who sent me a ton a great ideas about Torino. We went to apertivo (free food for 2 hours as long as you keep buying drinks!)

We then ended up at Rosella’s house drinking limoncello and eating fresh fruit. The day was superb and now I have two new friends in Torino!

My plans got a bit mixed up between Berlin and Torino. I was going to stay with Anna, our Torino Diva, but she got stuck in Milan. Because I did not read her e-mail until the night I was leaving Berlin, I was kinda stuck in a bad situation. I did not research hotels because I just assumed that I was staying with her. So, the drama started – but not for long. I ended up going onto couchsurfing.com – which was started by one of my dear friends Daniel – and found e-mailed a woman that I had been e-mailing for the past few weeks regarding information about Torino. I e-mailed her and asked if I could stay with her for 2 nights, and she said, “Of course!” What a lifesaver!

So, I left Berlin on Monday morning at 9:00 am and got to Torino at 7:00 pm. I flew into Milan with easyJet, then took a 2-hour bus ride to the home of the 2006 winter Olympic.

That night, Rosella showed me around Torino and we went out for a delicious dinner. The weather was so nice, we sat outside and enjoyed our rose and gnocchi.  

Her flat is charming and we a great time talking about books and sharing traveling stories. She is very well traveled and it was such a delight to be in a private home in Torino, speaking English with a wonderful Italia girl. I fell fast asleep at midnight after a yummy dinner and 9 hours of travel.

When I was around 12 years old, I watched a Phil Donahue show where a young neo-Nazi, not even through puberty, came on and spouted hatred about Jews, blacks, Mexicans, and most every person who was not fair skinned. I was absolutely stunned that a young boy, who never set foot outside of his ass-backward town, could have so much hate for people he never met. It was after that powerful show that I knew my purpose on this planet. I was here to show others how we are all the same – humans who all want to live good, prosperous lives. My role was to connect people from different countries and share all the glorious differences between cultures. I wanted to equip people, especially women, with knowledge, so they are not fearful of others with skin or skills different from them.  

After the show I wanted to take that kid to Germany and show him what hatred can do to a society. I wanted him to walk alone on a Nazi concentration camp and feel the heaviness of hatred. I hoped that if he saw the truth about Hitler and the Nazis he would stop with his antics.

Well, I did go to a concentration camp, not with the boy – who would be a man around 40 now, but with New Berlin Tours. The tour is long – it is four hours walking around the camp and 1 hour each way from Berlin. I knew that is was going to be a hard day, but I had now idea how tough it was really going to be.

The camp that I visited was Sachsenhausen. It was the first fully designed camp. The other camps where old buildings and farms that Hitler converted into holding pens. But he felt that these ram-shackled buildings did not serve his goal of “more prisoners with less soldiers”. So, Sachsenhausen became the standard for all the other camps – including the infamous Auschwitz.

Walking up to the gate, which is called Gate A, was frightening. The group was silent and the only sound was the crunching of earth beneath our feet. The sky was metallic grey and the wind whipped at our exposed faces. I thought of all the souls that also walked this path, but never walked back. It is estimated that 250,000 people went through the gate between 1938 and 1945 – the number that died is still unknown. On Gate A’s old clock face is the time of liberation. At 11:07 am on April 22, 1945 the allies freed the 3,600 infirmed men that where left to die by the Nazis. The other 36,000 prisoners were marched out, then abandoned by the Nazis when word got out that Russian forces were approching from the East.

I am pretty sensitive to energy. I can walk into a room and know what is going on just by lingering odors and the weight of the air. So, when I walked through Gate A, it was like the air condensed around me. Breathing was harder and even walking become tougher. It was not just me that felt it, a few people commented on how things got really heavy all of a sudden.

The tour was intense and I was able to keep pretty objective about it all, until we got to Station Z. The Nazis had a sick sense of humor, so the joke was “a camp with everything from A to Z.” Station Z was where the majority of the killings took place. It was also where the ovens for cremating the bodies were. I walked in and I got sick, and I started to cry. Not just a sniffle here and there, I was heaving. I don’t remember the last time I cried like this. It was like my body was overwhelmed with the grief and there was nothing I could do. I had to leave. “What madness, what useless loss, what sorrow.” I could see all the families that were tore apart and all the optimistic dreams that were lost. The thought of my husband, father, or brother being sent here was too much for me to handle.

I am ever more convinced that what I am doing is the right thing. I want to encourage women to explore the world and to understand our past as a global community. Together we can create a network of strong, caring women who promote peace and who stand up and put an end to the madness. Remember, even Hitler had a mother and a wife. Perhaps if Hitler had a mother that loved him and taught him that all nations and people are good, the course of history would be different. I might be idealistic, but I am willing to give peace a chance.

When I arrived into Berlin, I had friends pick me up, that is a treat considering all the schlepping I have been doing the past 10 days. Their son, Frank, a friend of mine in San Francisco just bought his parents a brand spanking new condo in the heart of Berlin, so we went to go see it and grab a bite to eat at a Greek restaurant. At last! Food with exotic spices!

The place I am staying is a women-only hotel on the west side of Berlin. You can easily walk to the main shopping street in a few minutes. It’s called Artemisia because is also as a dynamic art exhibition showcasing local women artist. My room is huge and it’s filled with lives plants and books to read – too bad they are all in German. The curtains that hang on the beautifully high windows are bright orange and yellow, a nice change from the drab weather outside. The bathroom is quite impressive as well, it has a separate bath and shower, and there was an ample supply of feminine hygiene products. Too bad aunt Flow was not visiting, I would be set!

The hotel is located in a quiet, residential part of Berlin in a building that houses offices on the first 3 floors. Check-in and the rooms are located on the 4th floor and the breakfast is served upstairs in the penthouse. Breakfast is included in your room rate, and I must say, it was pretty impressive for such a small hotel! But then again, I am happy to eat anything that does not have pickled herring in it.

It is a bra’s throw away from the underground, which can get you anywhere you want to go in the city. For a good, safe, reasonably-price place to stay in Berlin the Artemisia is a good choice for feminists and single women. But, if you want to experience Berlin nightlife and the social scene, this is not the place to rest your head. You are better off finding a hotel in Mitte, which is central East Berlin.  

When it comes to a price performer, this hotel wins. You are close to public transportation, it is very safe, the rooms are a great size for the price – and you get breakfast included.

Artemisia
FRAUENHOTEL
BERLIN
Brandenburgische Str. 18
D 10707, Berlin
+49 (0) 30 873-8905
www.artemisia-berlin.de

Spend a fruitful day in an original gallery kitchen of the 13th century Villa Pandolfini with hands-on instruction by a professional Italian chef. Menus vary according to the seasonal cuisine and are universally appealing. The goal is to expose you to all of the Good Tastes of Tuscany. Yum Yum! They guarantee an unforgettable experience! Check it out!

Be sure to use Tango Diva’s acct number for best rate quotes! #1173752