Meet The Newest Guest Gypsy Writer!

Fellow gypsies and pilgrims, meet my roommate, writer, hotelier and travelphile, Emily Oestreicher.  We will both be setting off on our own Camino-esque adventures late March.  Myself, on my Italian Campervan honeymoon with my Camino love/husband and Emily, on a southwestern US road trip.  April 6th, however, we will join forces in Rome for the ultimate Roman holiday filled with pistachio gelato, sun speckled bicycle rides, spaghetti in every shape, taste and size, espresso shots on the hour, rambling cobblestone walks, limoncello at sunset, bustling farmers markets and lots of speaking with our hands.  

This will be the second time I get to explore Italy with one of my all-time favorite travel partners.  But what makes this trip special is that, while I'm writing you from the back of a van traipsing through the Tuscan countryside, she'll be writing to you in cozy cafes or on the plush linens of the hippest boutique hotels the southwest has to offer.  We're calling this segment....wait for it.... "Two Gypsies, Two Journeys, One Destination".  Excited yet?  I am.
  
So to give you a taste of what you're in for, Emily has offered up a pint-sized biography (fitting for a pint-sized adventuress) and past travel highlights in the hopes that you'll want to come along for the ride.  So without further adieu, may I present Gypsy EO!

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Born in a conservative valley town in California, I was raised by two liberal parents in a large, 70’s style house in the country. As much as I didn’t mind being surrounded by cows and brown shag carpeting, my Mother despised almost everything about it, so I was fortunate enough to travel a lot in my childhood. From Peru to Whales, many of my fondest memories were of the hotels. While most kids would write about their pet hamster or new Nintendo game in their school journals, I was discussing how lovely the Embassy Suites in Hawaii had been because they offered free Shirley temples and popcorn at sunset.

Come high school, I had taken on some of the same sentiments as mom with regards to my little town, so I headed to the Spanish Basque country for a semester. Not only was this was an amazing opportunity to learn a new language and culture; it was also a great way to be able to stay up all night and drink peach liquor with my host-sister. I noticed while living there, however, that when people found I was American, they immediately associated me with George Bush. When I then told them I was from California, suddenly talk turned to Baywatch. What was going on here?

When I later graduated from UC Santa Cruz with an American History degree, my time is Spain had left me curious about what it meant to be American. With all the travelling I’d done, I really hadn’t explored my own country, and it absolutely fascinated me. Yet, that curiosity would be put on the back burner, as I celebrated my American History major with a month-long trip to Europe. I travelled around with my dad and younger brother Alex and then met up with your very own gypsy writer, Tess, for a spell, eating pumpkin ravioli and attempting to sunbathe on the rock-infested French coastline.

Post college, I moved back to my hometown to open up a solar powered café with my dad. After two years of valley living and untold hours of sandwich making, I sold the business and moved to San Francisco to pursue a career in hospitality (cut back to love of hotels). I am now a Sales Manager for the Hotel Abri, and I adore it! One of the great things about being in the hospitality business is that they recognize the importance of a good vacation. Because of this, I am able to take 20 days off to embark on a little adventure, which I believe has been a lifetime in the making. Leaving from San Francisco with my camera, prescription sunglasses and music mix in tow, I’m headed to Los Angeles and then over to Tucson and Phoenix to check out the Great Southwest. From there, I’ll be catching up with Tess and Hannes in Italy. I guess I just can’t stay away from Europe! Then, it’s back to Arizona and a route home to San Francisco through Utah and their amazing National Parks. I’ll also be searching out a variety of hotels and surfing a few couches along the way.

Don’t get me wrong, I long to sit in an outdoor cafe in Rome with Tess and Hannes drinking vino rosso and eating up an Italian storm, but mostly what I hope to gain from this trip is a better understanding of my own country. Like a lot of us, I began working right out of college and haven’t had more than 10 days of vacation in a row since. I have always wanted to see more of the United States, but the time and opportunity has never presented itself until now. I can’t wait to see with my own eyes this section of the country, and I look forward to expressing my thoughts, emotions, and the ups and downs of the journey as best as I can on this inspirational Gypsy blog.

Hope to take you all along with me!

-Gypsy E.O.