Lisbon, Portugal...a dream land

The Spanish are champions of four day weekends. They call their holidays "el puente", which means bridge in Spanish. This name exists as the holiday typically is on a Thursday and they "bridge" the holiday over to Saturday and skip Friday for work as well. Just one more thing that makes foreigners shake their heads at this country and their economic crisis. That being said, the second weekend in December is a "puente". I was fortunate enough to spend my holiday traveling to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and is one of the oldest cities in the world and the oldest city in Western Europe. I still believe Portugal is a hidden gem and often overlooked when thinking about where to travel in Europe. You would think that being Spain's neighboring country, Portugal would be effortless to get to. However, the case is quite the opposite. Flying or taking a train is time consuming and expensive, renting a car entails lots of road tolls and its too far to run (hahaha) so the comforts of a bus were the only option.

My friend Abby and I caught the night bus on Wednesday evening. It left at midnight from Sevilla and arrived at the dark and chilly hour of 5:30am in Lisbon. Despite having been oh so comfortable on the bus and having slept for a whopping hour or so, I was surprisingly wired and ready to go. We decided to wait an hour for the metro station to open rather than taking a taxi so we could save a couple of euros for our starbucks treat later that day. :) Well worth the hour wait!

We made it successfully to our metrostop, emerged on the dark/empty street and began our trek for the hostel. We asked a Portuguese lady for help with our directions and continued our ascent up this HILL towards the hostel! Gosh, there are absolutely no hills in Sevilla so it is always a shock to the system when I have to climb a hill. We arrived at the giant door of our hostel and our mouths dropped open once we stepped in. El Independiente Hostel opened about a year ago and is the former home of a ex Swiss ambassador. Let's just say it was beautifully constructed with marble columns, high ceilings and giant rooms. The best part was it was only 8 euros a night including a delicious breakfast and sheets!!! whoa.

With the whole day ahead of us we started it off right with a starbucks where we enjoyed the holiday music and planned out our weekend. Our first stop was to purchase an umbrella which was quite an experience. We went to this little shop where this Indian man was very well versed in his umbrella types. He sold us on the 16-point, double spring, black umbrella for 5euros. He was certain it was much more durable against wind and rain than his 8 point umbrella. Oh, and don't forget that any of his umbrellas make perfect defense mechanisms. I was a little torn at which umbrella and he told me this was an easy decisions as most decisions in life are, it's not my wedding dress right?! Anyway, we were happy about our 16 point, double spring umbrellas throughout the day as they kept us dry from the constant drizzle.

Throughout the day in Lisbon we walked all throughout the city, taste tasted the world renowned vinto porto, explored the mini Christmas shops and eventually hit a delusional state from lack of sleep. I think the pictures below better sum up all the sights we saw. As you can see, Lisbon is an interesting mix of the landscapes of  Prague to San Francisco. The characteristics of the buildings are very Eastern European yet Lisbon is right on the water and they have a bridge almost identical to the Golden Gate Bridge of San Fran. On Sunday we went to a flea market, which had an assortment of unique hand made gift to things I swear people pulled out of the trash.

In addition to exploring Lisbon we took a train 40 mins Northwest to the famous town of Cintra. Cintra is home to the stunning Palacio de Pena (Pena Palace). This Palace is really a castle. The exterior is decorated with yellow, purple and red coloring. Their are impressively decorated walls with tiles. The interior was simple and not goddy like some of the European castles I've seen. I had wanted to travel here since studying abroad in Granada two years ago, and I could not have been more thrilled to finally see it.

Our evenings were spent eating and drinking with the Americans that happened to be sharing our hostel room with us.  These girls also happened to be teaching assistants like myself but they were  stationed in Madrid. It was interesting as they were all about 26 years old and one of the girls was on her FOURTH year. Crazy. Anyway, the first night we went to an ALL YOU CAN EAT sushi bar for 10euros and for 4 more euros you could drink all you want. I wish sushi wasn't so filling cause I could've ate that for days. No sushi isn't authentic Portuguese food, but how could you turn down an all you can eat and drink sushi bar. The second night Abby and I enjoyed a classy salad and pizza meal. Again, clearly authentic Portuguese food. The last night we enjoyed some more local cuisine at the restaurant connected with our hostel. It is well-known in the area and many outsiders come from other parts of town to eat there. We celebrated our last night in Lisbon with a Pub Crawl in the well-known nightlife neighborhood of Barrio Alto. Good times.

As a whole Lisbon is a beautiful city. The Portuguesse people are very friendly and speak excellent English. It is relatively cheap to eat and stay once you pay a bit of money to get there. I would highly recommend visiting this town to anyone.

Welcome to LISBON!!!

Trolley's...reminds me of San Fran

Sweet Plaza that was all yellow

Prague or Lisbon?

 

Pena Palace

More Pena Palace

Cintra, Portugal

GIANT, RED ORNAMENT

Saturday Flea Market

So much like San Fran

A beauty

Ringing in December the right way!!

Hello friends and family...

I was fortunate enough to spend the first weekend of December in a winter wonderland I've never seen before, despite being a home grown PNW girl. My friend, Julie, from my gym invited me to come with her and some Spanish friends to Las Sierras de las Nieves. This is a mountain range literally called the Snow of the Sierras that is located in the Andalusian province of Huelva about 2 and a half hours from Sevilla. I was really excited to go hiking in these mountains and stay in a "rural casa" out in a small, white town village of the mountains. However, I was a little apprehensive about spending it with 6 Spanish adults and only knowing one of them as an acquaintance.

We had 2 drivers to transport all of us, one dog and our food to the village. Lucky for me I got to ride with Miguel, who happened to be a hilarious, "i love life" type guy yet he also happens to have a dog that rode along in the car with us. Most of you know how I feel about dogs in general but the biggest issue was that his car smelled like wet dog and dog breath...so that was fun.

As a group we stopped at the supermarket in Sevilla to buy all our food and drinks for the weekend. I thought I was going to pull my hair out. Spaniards are just too laid back sometimes. We spent 2hrs grocery shopping because we either had a large discussion about whether one or two bottle of coca cola was sufficient, how many bottles of red versus white wine to buy, how many kilos of meat we needed or not to mention the random side conversations along the way. I just bit my tongue and practiced being a patient person. We finally made it out alive and continued our journey. We were about 30mins from our destination when suddenly the road started to get rather curvy and Miguel was just flying around the turns. Julie and I in the back were feeling a little ill from the smell of dog and the curves combined...let's just say that Julie got sick but I don't think I was too far behind.

After what felt like hours of traveling and kinda second guessing my weekend, once we pulled into the driveway of this private rural casa my mind was instantly changed. It was a gorgeous, quaint two-story house that was freezing but had a great fireplace to warm the toes and the soul. The spanish group consisted of Cesar, Julie, Miguel, Auxi, Esther and Estephanie. They weren't close friends but each person had a very different personality which made the group dynamic quite entertaining, and then throw an American in there who has a hard time following the chatter, it makes for quite the weekend. We had a debate as what to make for dinner since it was so late, there's nothing more entertaining than listening to stubborn, opinionated Spaniards discuss such simple things.

We drove out the next morning to the trail head to begin our 10km hike. Right from the get go there was SNNNNOOOOOWWWWWW. I was so excited. Clearly. The further we ascended the more beautiful and snowy it became and the bigger the smile I had on my face. It's amazing how much some fresh mountain air, snow and blue skies can bring an instant warmth to my heart and help subside some home sickness. Along the way we saw some awesome frozen trees and even at one point you could see the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately I couldn't make it up the last part of the climb as I only had tennis shoes which don't provide the best traction on snow and the last thing I wanted was a pulled muscle. On our descent it was very foggy which created this very creepy atmosphere.

Before making it home that night we stopped in the center of town at a local bar for a drink. I tried the local "vino dulce" or sweet wine that tasted like liquid candy. Luckily it distracted me from my numb toes and legs. I learned another important part of the Spanish culture, they are obsessed with bread. We already had a loaf at home but we had to go all the way back to the bar to by more bread. Bread, bread, bread...you always gotta have it.  That night was made a delicious Spanish feast, huddled around the fire, drank wine and I got quite the cultural experience. I was continually amazed and admired how much each one of these single adults were just free spirits. We sat for hours in front of the fire and they smoked and drank more than I thought Spaniards did. We were all entertained by Auxi who spent most of the night enlightening us with traditional Flamenco song and dance from her native spanish village. I hit a limit with the smoking, drinking and singing and went to bed rather early to the rest of them who partied on til 3am.

Sunday fun day quickly arrived. We walked down to the village center and sat and soaked up the sun in one of the most beautiful places you could imagine. I don't really know how to put into words the views and mode of life in these small villages. It amazes me that people live here and probably the highlight of their day is when tall, blonde's come walking through the streets. I get looks like I'm from outer space.

On the car ride home the beautiful views continued with a red horizon as the sun set over this fantastic country. I wish my camera had not died. Oh well. I can't wait to go back.

View from the rural casa

Julie and I

I was trying to be the tree

Stunning...the yellow part in the background is the sun beaming off the Sea

Hello! The moutain behind me was the one I couldn't climb with my tennis shoes

:)

Giving Thanks...

As Thanksgiving Day approached I couldn't help but start to miss home a little bit more. It's strange to know friends and familiy are all gathering together to carry out their Thanksgiving traditions yet be living in a country where all they know of this holiday is the giant, beautiful dinners Hollywood portrays in the movies. I have to admit Thanksgiving and the customs it entails is something I've always taken for granted until living abroad. In Spain, they don't sell turkey (or it's hard to find), there's no stuffing, no cranberry suace...no pumpkin pie...you get the picture. So it made celebrating Thanksgiving a little bit challenging, yet with a group of "teachers" we used our creative juices to put together quite the feast. The table was set for 15 and among those 15 we had a mixture new friends both American and Spainish. It was awesome to be able to share what we are thankful for and to share it with a new culture. The Spaniards were amazed with the flavors of the dishes and at the portion size. The menu consisted of Butternut squash soup, mac n cheese, chicken, a sweet potato and beet dish, salad and green been casserole, all home made. I luckily was in charge of dessert and proudly bought a delicious truffle cake at the supermarket. Don't judge I don't have an oven or much baking skills. But who cares where it came from cause everyone loved it and there wasn't any left to take home. Thank god. Along with our food we had accumulated about 20 bottles of wine as of course it was the easiest thing for people to bring. Don't worry we didn't drink them all.

More importantly than the food and wine, I am thankful for many things this year. This year is the first out of college, and it couldn't really be going any better. While my life in Spain isn't really "real world" quite yet, I am still grateful for this experience and all of those who have supported me to get here and continue to support me while I'm here. I also feel rather grateful to be employed in a country where many are struggling financially or without work. And as much as I hate to say it, I am grateful for all the students that I am exposed to on a daily basis, even though sometimes I just want to scream. I know they are teaching me more than I even realize and will continue to teach me things about life even after I return to the states. Lastly, living and working abroad continually makes me grateful and proud to be a citizen of our country. I think the reason why is obvious and I'm already looking forward to returning to my motherland!

Table set for 15!!!

I wasn't lying about the wine..at least we had this sweet, antique cart to put it all on

Abby preparing the food!

A family away from home...and my cake is in the background...look at that beauty!

The whole entourage...please note the turkey hand hanging from the chandelier!

A trip to El País Vasco (Basque Country), aka Northern Spain...a whole new world!

I remember in my high school Spanish classes my teacher would always talk about Northern Spain or more formally, the Basque Country. Mr. Newell would go on and on about how beautiful it was and how different this region of Spain was from the rest. Seeing how I still remember this over 4 years later, Mr. Newell really must have made an impression on me or maybe it's just my inner world traveler that was intrigued. With that said, I finally made a trip up north this past weekend. Between the comments from Mr. Newell and my Spanish roommate, I had high expectations for this hidden gem. I can gladly say after just 3 nights, my expectations were exceeded and I would not hesitate to go back.

The regions of Spain: The Basque Country is in orange. I visited 2 basque cities, San Sebastian and Bilbao. San Sebastian is on the coast and Bilbao is about an hour drive inland and South of San Sebastian.

My fellow American friend, Taylor and I took a flight from Sevilla to Bilbao and arrived in Northern Spain within 90 minutes. I was once again reminded of how small Spain is as a country relative the our homeland. Flying across country for less than $100 and in less than 2 hours, I only wish that was the case at home. Upon landing at the small airport in Bilbao we took an hour bus to San Sebastian, a very well known basque city on the northern coast. Unfortunately, it was dark for most of the bus ride but from what I could make out I already felt like I was in a different land. White houses with red roofs, rolling green hills, fall leaves changing colors (FINALLY I got to see them!!!), giant cows, sheep...etc. were all part of the natural beauty. Finally the bus arrived, we stepped out into the brisk fall weather and followed the river to our accommodation, Pensión San Juan. November isn't exactly tourist season in San Sebastian so we were the only guests staying at the pension but luckily that just meant we got all the attention of the gracious owner, Mr. Juan himself. I think he was rather excited to have guests. Being always hungry 22 year olds, we set off to try what the Basque Country is known for, their cuisine or los pintxos (pronounced pinchos). Pintxos is basque (the basque speak a different dialect than those from southern Spain) for tapas (the small portions of food they have for dinner in southern Spain). Between recommendations from Mr. Juan and our handy travel book by Rick Steves, we found some SPECTACULAR local, authentic bars with pintxos I could have literally eaten all night (and just might have). All the bars either had a chalkboard with a list of the pintxos and drinks for that night and you just pick one from the menu and it's ready in a flash. Some bars even have all the food out on the counter top so you can see exactly what you're ordering. This is something that is so different than southern Spain and something I really liked, especially when you don't know half the words on the menu. Most of the options included some type of seafood (octopus legs, muscles, fish, shrimp...), mushrooms, bacon, peppers...it was always so hard to choose. Among my favorites was La Carrillera de Ternera, an extremely tender beef with a red wine sauce. It puts any type of red meat I've ever had to shame and pair it was a 1 euro glass of red wine and you're good to go.  Another great thing is the food isn't too expensive, the portions are small (so you can try many and bar hop) and it's polite to throw your dirty napkins on the FLOOR. For three days my taste buds were just in heaven. One of the teachers at Taylors work had told her to go to La Vina, which apparently has the best cheesecake and wine you could ask for. We had been so excited to go and finally when we arrived, THEY WERE CLOSED FOR VACATIONS. No me digas. Such a disappointment. Oh well, now we will just have to go back.

La Carrillera de Ternera..nom nom

Taylor outside our first bar, Bordabarri

Here we have shrimp bruscetta, mushrooms wrapped in bacon, beef on a stick...

Note how the have the options right on the bar!

Thank you Rick Steve's! Best guid book ever. Lead us to this delicious breakfast spot!

So San Sebastian yes we ate lots of food, but did we do anything else?? YES!!! Fortunately we spent our one full day walking through the entire city. Our first stop was the famous, underground market, La Brexta. Here you could get your fresh bread, vegetables, fish, octopus, squid, shrimp, you name it. It had the same smell and feeling of Pike's Pike in Seattle, unfortunately there was no on throwing fish around. San Sebastian is right on the beach. The beach is called Playa de la Concha (or Conch shell Beach) as it has a half moon/rounded shape to it that goes for about 2miles. Along the beach there are beautiful, Eastern European looking buildings, and a backdrop of rolling hills. Just see the pictures below. Its really too much to describe. As we walked along the beach we couldn't help but notice the NUMEROUS older people going out for their morning swim! brrrrrr. It was impressive. Later that night, for sunset, we hiked to the top of Monte Urgill (an old fortress) for a beautiful picturesque view of the entire city. We had been so fortunate to have a full day of sun as it is very common for it to rain most days.

Yum, take your pic..sting ray, flounder or squid.

The meat stand. Those objects hanging are the famous jamon legs (ham legs).

Verduras verduras!!!

Taylor and I on Playa de la Concha!

Panaramoa shot!

 A group of men playing "pelota" against the beach on the wall. Not a bad spot for a game if you ask me. Pelota is bacially like raquetball, its a very popular game in the Basque Country

 

The cathedral of San Sebastian.

The sunset over the entire bay taken from the Monte Urgill. Couldn't get enough of it. I wish I could make this picture bigger for you...

 

 

Just a view on our casual stroll along the Port...awesome

The next morning, after our experience at a Spanish style 1950s diner where we had eggs, bacon, and chocolate and churros (a very traditional Spanish breakfast dish) we made our way back to the bus station as we would spend our last night in the city of Bilbao. A smaller, more inland city in the Basque Country. Bilbao is the cuisine capital of Spain. Go figure. While Bilbao lacked the beach and coastline, there was still something very beautiful about the city. It too had buildings that reminded me from scenes of Prague and small streets that were old yet compact with many people out and about enjoying an afternoon beer and pintxo. Once again, we followed the recommendation of Rick Steve's travel guide and went to an authentic basque restaurant where we gorged on a tender, succulent beef stew and some fresh vegetables. Afterwards we headed to the main (and really only) attraction of the city, the Guggenheim Museum. After talking to locals in San Sebastian about the museum most had said the outside of the building was much more worthwhile than all the modern art exhibits on the inside. I would most definitely agree. I know I'm not an art fan to begin with but I figured I'd only probably be here once in my life. Throughout the three levels of "art" all I kept thinking was, "how is this art?" and "I have friends that could make this". Ok, yes that's being dramatic but there were many structures made out of vinyl that were light switches, food, vacuum...common appliances. Not to mention exhibits of antiques that anyone could have in their own homes. I just didn't get it. But thats ok, at least I supported the struggling Spanish economy. The outside though reminded me very much of the EMP in Seattle, an abstract, silver metal structure that looked like something different from every angle. My other favorite, the giant puppy made out of flowers they had in the entrance way.

Breakfast at the 1950s Santa Lucia Diner

Welcome to Bilbao!!!

walking to the Guggenheim...

Giant spider structure outside the museum...

another POV of the outside of the museum...

Hmmm...what else. Our last night in Bilbao was a little rainy so we spent it hoping from bar to bar, watching various futbol games and observing locals. At one point we met a very excited Spanish women, who couldn't have been more excited to meet some young Americans and to tell us how much so loved our Democratic country and she also might have mentioned, just a few times, that her sister is a chef at restaurant down the street and she had just won some big award. NBD. Back at our hostel we had met some younger British guys from Manchester who just wanted to get out of town for the weekend and picked Bilbao as their destination. Another reminder about how easy it is to country hop over on this side of the world.

Well, that's all for now folks.

P.S. I forgot to mention I was jumping for joy as I finally found a freshly baked, goey CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE!!! All for 1 euro. Hit the spot!

A different type of week...

This week was a strange one. It began with a commute day after day in a torrential downpour. There were changes in my work schedule as the PE teacher at school showed up with a neck brace and is now out for 10 days, then I learned the music teacher is pregnant and hasn't been coming into school due to illness. So now I go to school and have to look busy during the hours when I would normally teach those classes. Election Day came and I swear if I had a penny (or perhaps a Euro) for every time someone said Obama with a big smile on their face, I would be "vacationing" in Greece right now. On Election Day, I had my social studies class in which the teacher, Marcos, displayed an impressive amount of knowledge (and I think more knowledge than some Americans) about our voting system and government. He had certainly captured my attention as I felt like I was getting a review on the nitty gritty details of how everything works but I couldn't quite tell if the 13 year olds were really understanding a word he said. I did learn one thing though, they somehow were all pro-Obama and when I told them I wasn't I was shocked by a response of "boo's". I was offended because I knew their opinions came from the portrayal of Obama on the news. Throughout the day, I was continuously surprised to overhear Spaniards talking about the election and being happy about the results. And also fun fact, coincidentally, gay marriage was approved in Spain within 24hrs of Election Day. The world is changing, that's all I can say.

In other news, I have gotten one step closer to teaching my 6 year olds the alphabet. Victory!!!! We played Alphabet BINGO on Wednesday for almost an hour. If only they could remember "J" from "G" and "B" from "V". We shall see come next time, if they remember what "alphabet" even means.

As for the weekend, well, I went to Badajoz to visit my friend Daron for her birthday. Daron graduated from UPS with me and studied abroad with me and she is teaching (like me) but in a different province of Spain. Badajoz is about 3 hours Northwest from Sevilla and on the border of Portugal in the province of Extremadura. The town is quite small, but is an authentic Spanish town with real tapas, no tourists and beautiful viewpoints. We had walked around the city, ate some tapas and shortly thereafter I found myself with a VERY upset stomach. I believe it was food poisoning and hoping not the stomach flu. I had the chills, couldn't keep anything in my system and slept like a baby. I was so bummed I had missed the rock concert and celebrating Daron's birthday, but at the same time I was grateful to have gotten rather ill where I was in good company. All I had wanted was to be able to call my mom, be in a familiar place and even just go to Walgreens. Luckily the next morning, after successfully eating a piece of toast (ya TOAST!!!!), I decided I would attempt to endure the 3 hr bus ride home. I survived, that's all we need to say about that.

Now, 2.5 days later, I am still recovering. As if this weekend couldn't have been a better weekend to get sick, today also happened to be a big rowing regatta on the river versus two Sevilla teams. I think my love for rowing miraculously got me out of the house and I don't know what else would have. I was really excited to watch the race and to meet some new Spaniards as my rowing club was hosting a party to watch it and mingle. I made it for a few minutes but was not feeling up to socializing. Not to mention I had forgotten that Spaniards dress to impress always no matter what the occasion or day and I, in my "I barely made it out of the house" clothes was feeling a little embarrassed to be seen. I tried to stick around as I was supposed to meet a woman who trains with a triathlon club but I just couldn't do it.  I did manage to see the race go by (all 5 seconds) and it was quite an unexpected sight. There were only 2 teams racing, but between the boats there was about 7 launches (boats with coaches and whoever else) driving between them, creating a chaotic scene in the seemingly narrow river. Then along the bike path there was a crowd of bikers following the race, it was overwhelming and took away from the race so I'm not really sure what was actually happening in terms of the results. Anyway, it was fun to see a an international regatta. After my hour of fun for the day, I slowly meandered back home and figured I could at least blog about this.

 Daron and I in Badajoz!

View of the old Plaza de Toros (bull fighting ring)

 

 The tapas that may have resulted in my food poisoning! But it's just goat cheese and bread!

Daron excited about the concert!

 

If you can see it, the sign reads "Regata, Sevilla-Betis"

Here they come! Note the crowd on the path and on the river!

You can't even see the boats racing! I felt like I was watching some James Bond movie with a high speed chase. And this guy on his Moto clearly thought he could beat them all!

 

 

The flyer for the Regata.