A Taste Of Venice In Central Park

Finally got around to checking out the The Loeb Boathouse ...

The place in which Carrie meets Big for the first time and then he bumps her into the lake. 

All you Sex In The City peeps know what I'm talking about haha.

Objective: To row a boat on the lake in Central Park ... Specifically having Charles row the boat for me because he's such a strong man and I'm such a weak woman. Or maybe it was because I was trying to see him topless, flexing his titty muscles for me? Hmmm... Who knows but the day we finally made time to go boat rowing with friends, it was 90 degrees outside! And of course Charles pointed out that he was black ... And didn't need to get any blacker. Soooo instead of going the manual route of rowing, we walked into the Boathouse to ask about riding the one and only Gondola available on the lake only to have the waitress tell us that the boat was booked every 30 min. until 8:30pm. Mind you, it was 3:00pm at this point. But she said we could see if the "Gondola Man" could fit us in. So we went in search of the red and white striped shirt gondolier and what do you know.. His 3:30 appointment was running late so he squeezed us in for a quick 10 min. ride for $10! I wish you could've seen us ... Just cruising along on the gondola relaxing all cool as we passed by people sweating and struggling with trying to figure out how to maneuver their vessels which made me even more glad we didn't take the row boat option. It was short and sweet and once the ride was over, we headed for shade to get out of the heat. Boom. Serendipity strikes again :)


Loeb Boathouse
East 72nd Street & Park Drive North
New York, NY



 *Don't forget to Enter to Win a $25 Groupon Giftcard as part of my blogiversary celebration!*

Linking Up With:

Random Wednesday, Whatever + Whenever

One Year Blogiversary & Groupon Giftcard Giveaway!

On this day last year, I wrote my 1st ever blog post!

The first thought that popped into my mind when I realized it had been a year since I started blogging last week was ... WTF!?! Blogging began as a way to provide some kind of artistic outlet when I couldn't dance anymore after tearing my ACL... I never thought it would manifest into such a necessity within my life. Through blogging: I developed a love for taking pictures, met some ah-mazing bloggers through the online community I found (some in real life too!), found a passion for traveling and exploring new places and learned to how articulate what I previously could only express through the physicality of dance into actual word form. With my dance background, I've always been comfortable with expressing myself through my body ... But it never required  me to speak... Like out loud. As such, I've always had a hard time expressing myself verbally in person and through my writing. But since I started blogging I no longer get as much anxiety when I'm asked to speak in public or write a guest post for someone else's blog, constantly worried that people won't understand what I'm trying to communicate. I'm not the best writer on the block but I truly feel like I've improved so much in my writing style since I took the jump into the blog world.

And so without getting too sappy ...
I would like to thank anyone who's ever taken the time to read my blog!

Whether on a consistent basis or through a random google bounce... Just plain THANK YOU!

It's crazy to think of how much my blog has evolved over this past year.
The only way to really get an idea is to go back in time and see where I started...
I've come a long way my friends.

My First Food Post & First Post Ever
My First Dance Post
My First Travel Post
My First Honest Hump Day Post
My First Style Post

----

As part of my birthday celebration, I'm giving away a $25 Groupon Giftcard to one lucky winner!
Because the truth of the matter is that I am slightly obsessed with Groupon.
If you're wondering how I decide on where to eat in NYC ...
It's more than likely through a Groupon deal I found. I'm a sucker for a good deal.
Case in point: I'm going on a Chocolate Tour for 2 people through Chelsea next weekend of which I only paid $20 for - All thanks to Groupon! And so I thought I'd share the Groupon love!

All you gotta do in order to enter is "Like" the Quaintrelle Facebook page!
But from there, the more social media outlets you follow the more chances you have of winning.
Easy, Peasy :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck! And Thank You Again For Simply Being You!

Facebook | Twitter | Bloglovin | Instagram

Linking Up With:
Lately, Anything & Everything

There's A New Blog In Town :)

Attention All:
The Burghal Gurl has retired from the blogging business. 

Don't worry, she's lounging on the beach in front of an all-inclusive retirement resort in the Caribbean 

sippin on margaritas while enjoying the pleasure of having a shirtless 21 year old man massage her feet...
She may have gotten the better end of the deal haha.

Having grown so much this past year, I no longer felt a connection to being a 'gurl' anymore. I was also tired of people finding my blog through the 'burghul' search keyword which I learned the hard way is also the name of a cereal food that's made from wheat... And people, this blog is not about wheat haha. As such, I went looking for a new name that I felt encompassed my approach in life. What do you know... While surfing the web, I found the perfect name! And for those who are wondering, the pronunciation is | quAn-'trel|

Before | After

I want to give a huge shout out to Erin of Two Thirds Hazel for doing an ah-mazing job with redesigning my blog. She took my ideas from the questionnaire I filled out and manifested them into real life! The design is much cleaner while maintaining that urban vibe I'm all about. I love, love the font for the header because it reminds me of a city skyline. Oh and in case you were wondering, Erin works fasssssst. My blog design was done in less than 3 hours! Talk about instant gratification! She's also cool under pressure. We hit a couple snaffus while uploading the design but it wasn't nothing she couldn't handle. Thank You Soooo Much Erin! You're the bomb diggity :)

---

And that's that! Hope you guys like my new blog name and design!

For those who follow me via Bloglovin, my posts should post as scheduled since everything on my old domain should forward on to the new one. I'm working on updating my domain name without having to create a new profile. If you aren't seeing my new posts on bloglovin, please let me know!

In the meantime, make sure to follow me on my social media outlets!

Facebook | Twitter | Bloglovin | Instagram

Linking Up With:

Yolo, Monday Morning Gossip, & Miscellany

As We Stroll Along

I'm soooo soooooo happy I finally got around to checking out The High Line in Chelsea. This old railroad turned into elevated urban park is yet another symbol of what makes New York City cool enough to have it's name repeated twice. A little bit of old mixed with a little bit of new seasoned with a whole lot of hipster chic unique... The High Line is the perfect mix of earthly elements and artistic murals while providing spectacular views of the city depending on where you are along the walk way.

Being able to share this experience with my best boys from DC was the cherry on top. They were in town to perform with Culture Shock DC at World of Dance NYC, the biggest hip-hop dance competition/convention in the world. They asked if they could crash at my place and of course I said yes. And what do you know ... We came across this dope mural as seen above while we were strolling along the High Line. Almost immediately after spotting it, we began looking for a way to get off the the elevated park and back down to street level so we could check out this graffiti up close. Which then progressed to a photo-op that resulted in the above panoramic pic... I swear there isn't a moment when I'm not snapping a picture of something.

If you've been following this blog for a while then you know I love graffiti. I've already been to 5 Pointz but I'm also thinking about taking an actual graffiti tour through NYC to check out all the other hot spots of street art... Hmmmmm, to tour or not to tour? That is the question.


 

The High Line
210 10th Ave
New York, NY 10011

 ---


 xo, Setarra

Linking Up With:
Random, Whatever + Whenever, 

Guess Who's Bizzack!

Hey Everyone! Remember Me?

It's been a super busy couple of weeks!

The time was spent hanging out with friends, volunteering as event staff for a few dance galas, traveling to Virginia Beach for a wedding, crossing items off my summer list of things to do in NYC, working from 8am-6pm and simply chillaxing away from the laptop. I feel uber refreshed from this lil blogging break. Not quite sure where to begin as soooo much has happened but I hope you'll stick around as I begin the process of sharing these captured moments ...  Plus, I have some BIG NEWS to announce later on this month soooo you have to stick around in order to find out what it is :)

Recently, I've become somewhat of a panoramic fanatic (blame it on Rima for influencing me with her panorama posts) and so I thought I would share all the photos I took these past few weeks running around NYC and beyond. Because life looks much better in panorama. And if you think this post is full of pictures ... Just wait. I've got a whole rack of posts coming up filled with pics. My poor lil iPhone has been working it's ass off lately haha. I didn't realize how much I loved to take pictures until I started blogging. As I like to tell my friends whenever we get together ... "I'm such a picture whore."

P.S. I finally bought a domain name butttt it's a completely different name than what the blog is called now ... I've been doing alot of thinking lately about the blog ... With growth, inevitably comes change and that applies to the blog as well. I've finally found a name that I feel is forever ... Sooon my dear friends ... The Burghal Gurl will be no more. Like very soon ... And the icing on the cake is that I was able to snatch up Erin from Two Thirds Hazel to be the designer of my new layout! She finally made the leap into the blog design world and I couldn't be more excited to work with her! Plus, she's a fellow NYC blogger so you know I gotta support the local business. Can't wait for all these wonderful changes to happen!

Feels good to be back in the blogosphere :)

---


xo, Setarra


Linking Up With:
Monday Morning Gossip, Anything + Everything,