Trouble in Paradise

Hey everyone! Rough news from the road to Nice. A number of close calls over the last few days. We will begin with our arrival in Barcelona at our lovely prison cell. We have had outstanding luck with our hotels until this point but unfortunately the well has run dry. As we walked to our room we passed walls that were falling apart, likely associated with the gut wrenching scent of sewage that was worse than any shady Mexican toilet we can imagine. When we opened the door we found six nice little twin beds with unwashed sheets covered in stains and smudges waiting for us! So many to choose from! After a quick confrontation with the front desk man, we were notified that we shouldn’t worry, the room was all ours. Also, the solution provided to us for the smell was to turn the heat on (to heat up rotting sewage?), or open the windows (cell bars?). 

Our "window" looking out into the beautiful hallway

Which one should I choose?!

The other side was even worse

Fortunately the rest of Barcelona was not as frightening as our six bed penthouse. We found it to be a lot like Madrid, just more expensive, touristy, and dirty. However, it is a coastal town with better weather and more natural beauty. There were the same crowded and old alley ways pouring into open squares. 

Typical square

Baby squid tapa - for Kristi

Tapa time

Our explorations in Barcelona took us to La Sagrada Familia which is an enormous church that has been under construction for hundreds of years and won’t be completed for hundreds more. 

Photos don't do it justice

We went to at typical Spanish restaurant for dinner where Hallie ordered beef stew with white rice and I ordered paella (a classic Spanish dish including rice, vegetables and sea creatures). 

Paella and stew with rice

We are classy

After the New Year celebration at midnight (and a few too many cervezas) we found ourselves retiring to our jail cells and contemplating sleeping on the floors. We settled on sleeping on top of the sheets with our coats on. 

We tried to sleep like this at first - didn't work

Luckily the bags were packed and ready to go as we missed our alarm for a train we had to catch at 8:15, so when we woke up and began panicking at 7:35 it was an easy out. We literally ran to the subway station with no idea how to get to the train station, and no idea how to get tickets for the subway. Also, we met a nice man after he grabbed one of my bags (including camera, lenses, computer and everything else valuable with me) and had to chase him down and scream at him (Thanks Hallie!) to get it back. ¡Buenas Dias Barcelona! We made the train with a few minutes to spare. 

As soon as we boarded and took our seats we let out a sigh of relief. That was until we realized we were sitting next to a lady who loves listening to really loud static (a.k.a. French radio) on her phone. For an hour. When she got bored with that, she decided it would be a nice time to start playing the most obnoxious beeps and noises she could find in her phone accompanied with maniacal laughter. Of course, not being able to recover and get any sleep, I joined in her in this fun little game and played every alarm sound my phone can make until Hallie forced me to stop. The next train ride featured a nice little fat French boy screaming as loud as he could with his parents grinning with every chug of the train’s engine. 

Besides some interesting companions, the train rides all day have been scenic through the coast of southern France. Fortunately, we got kicked off one train we weren’t supposed to be on in Montpellier, France. Our next train we needed to take was three hours later so we grabbed lunch and explored. The town seemed quite quaint and very high scale yet it retained the old world charm it was clearly built on. The majority of cafes and shops were closed due to the weather - as it is mainly a local vacation favorite in the summer. 

C’est magnifique! 

Suzy Kohler

Everything is closed :(

We are now on our final train of the day to Nice, France. We have made a new creepy train friend with some French man who continues to speak with us in French. He knows we don’t speak French. As we’ve been occupied writing this current blog post, he has been mumbling and grumbling to himself, in French (Hallie doesn’t recognize any of it). He also just bought a beer from the cart, downed it as if he has been stranded in the desert for weeks, then smashed the can on his forehead. Can’t make this stuff up. 

Plans for tonight/tomorrow include exploring Nice and stopping off for dinner in Monaco on our way to Genoa. Next update will probably be from Italy! Ciao and Happy New Year!

¡SKOL VIKINGS!

It is 2 am here in Madrid but we (I) can't sleep after that thrilling Vikings victory that had me screaming in my hotel room over a choppy stream. So what better time for a blog post! Madrid is crazy. To begin to explain how crazy, we will match my photo on the London Bridge with one of Hallie outside some enormous palace. 

Remind you of a certain sweater, Kristi? 

The days have been filled with wandering and wine and tapas. And repeat. The city was mild and tame in the day time, but as the sun set the Spaniards emerged. The entire city was literally jammed full of people from sidewalk to sidewalk. Every little packed alley way opened to squares full of markets, people with odd noise makers, Disney characters galore, and far too many neon colored wigs (big thing in España?). 

A less crowded street where I could actually get a snap

Streets by day

There was an old and famous street filled with tapas restaurantes where we began on our tapas crawl. Stop numero uno spoiled the rest. We kept seeing “jamon iberico” on every single tapa menu and decided the first place to get it. Another thing that can’t be described. They have preserved pig legs sitting out in restaurants and shave off slices and put it with everything. There are even “jamon” Ruffles for sale in the convenience shops. 

You can buy these. 100€ each. 

Mouth watering meats :p

Today we pretty much did the same thing with the tapas crawl, focusing on a little less wine (sleepy today) and more sangria, paella, croquetas, montecados, and churros con chocolat. 

Salmon bites

Traditional Spanish treat

When we checked into our hotel today we asked the front desk man if there was some special occasion the night before but he said it was a typical Saturday night. However, he informed us there was a warm up celebration for New Year’s Eve for everyone who couldn’t make it to the traditional “12 grapes” New Year’s Eve event. 

A nap before the New Year’s Eve Eve celebration was in order due to the massive amount of feasting and yesterday’s late night vino tinto. Afterwards we explored the rooftop terrace our hotel has which has a 360 degree view of the city. Amazing. Hallie was frightened we were going to fall off. :( We then had our first full on EuroSaver experience at the McDonald’s below our hotel. Hallie was parched and only a Coca Cola Light would do the trick. MCD’s had the most elegant decor of any restaurant we’ve been in to this point. 

The celebration at the local town square for the NYEE 2013 was insane, and this was the night before. We felt like we were in Times Square but with a completely different atmosphere. Everyone was wasted as there is no open container law, yet there were families and toddlers roaming around. Champagne covered thousands of people, including us, at midnight. Can’t imagine what tomorrow night will be like in Barthelona. 

An early train ride and Vikings/Packers game had us back to the hotel shortly after midnight. Should be getting to bed soon! SKOL VIKINGS

¡Hola Amigos!

It has been a busy past few days for us. After finding out that wine (really, really good wine) was about  €3 for a bottle our first night in Paris, we couldn't resist and ended up sleeping a little later than expected! First thing we did when we woke up was snatch ourselves up some fresh croissants and other related chocolate flavored pastries. About ten minutes later we decided to find some coffee and eat a crepe, however this ended in our first major miscommunication of the trip.  Hallie ordered us some "lattes" which the server understood as "au lait chaud" which is simply hot milk. Our crepe was ordered with... nothing. It was just a warm, unsweetened pancake. So after our hot milk and cooked flour we were on our way! 

We're getting fatter and fatter after every single meal

Strolling around Paris was beautiful. All the buildings keep within a certain old charm style and architecture that is simply stunning everywhere you look. Every window is stocked with flower boxes (for Angie) over ornate railings.

Typical Paris building

After wandering around for a few hours we went back to the tower where it was a completely different atmosphere in the day time. We were two of ten thousand people taking ridiculous silly snaps (available upon request). The dreary day and winter landscapes made the tower seem less beautiful and somewhat ominous.

Creepy...

 Before our massive 16 hour trek to Madrid we stopped at one of hundreds of sidewalk cafes and sat down to an amazing yet typical French lunch. People love wine in France. Even when we were walking around at 10am everyone was drinking wine. We did not complain.

Bifstek frites and l'ongion soupe 

 After our lunch we headed to the train station for our 15 hour train ride to Madrid. We booked separate sleeper beds due to the gender difference and thus had two separate and extremely cramped four person rooms in separate cars. We made the most of our time together in the bar car where we met a pleasant woman from San Diego (first American spotting all trip!) until they kicked us out around 12am.

As soon as I was soundly asleep in my car, one of my fantastic roommates thought it would be the perfect time to turn on the lights, sit in his underwear on his bed, blast Spanish music and sing along all while clipping his toe nails. Hallie had a less intrusive experience, only two Spanish women talking to her the entire time, in Spanish, knowing she didn't understand anything. It was an enduring 15 hours to say the least, but we survived!

Paris subway train

 When we got into the Madrid station, a bag that was carrying some wine we purchased split open and one of our bottles smashed open on the train station floor. We went to "look for help" and found our way into the heart of Madrid to our hotel. Neither of us have any words for how beautiful or amazing Madrid is. The streets are mainly pedestrian with alley ways bursting out into open squares everywhere you look. Every cafe has drinks, wine (even cheaper than Paris at €2/bottle!!), and a vast amount of food. Every tree has hundreds of bunches of grapes, explaining the copious amount of wine.

View from our balcony at Room Mate Mario

We are now off to explore the streets of Madrid and stuff our gullets with tapas and wine! Updates to follow. 

Salud!

Parisian Etiquette: Part Un

Hello! Our first stint in London ended with walking over four miles with our entire packs on to test our endurance. We needed to recover with a few beers and some more fish and chips. 

Killing time in pubs eating fish & chips, mushy peas

As you would assume we made it safely to Paris. It wasn't but two minutes off the train before people were extremely rude to us. Multiple times, as expected in ol' Paris. The charm of the city (and the delicious cheap wines!) more than outweighs the rudeness of the typical Parisian. 

Hotel Beaugrenelle St Charles!

Everything was closed for dinner so we stopped at a local market and grabbed two bottles of wine, a fromage wheel, pack of salamis, a bottle opener and a fresh baguette for $17. Dinner served. We took it to the park and ate with the view of the Eiffel Tower until we became way too cold and Hallie was afraid of getting thrown in foreign prison for sipping on Bordeaux in the park. 

Tour de Eiffel

More adventures from Paris to come tomorrow! 

London Calling

Hey all. Bad news. Apparently the men in red coats and silly hats only appear once every two days for an hour so I'm going to have to break the promise of the photos with them. To compensate, here is a photo of me and some bag pipe playing fellow in front of Big Ben. 

Is he winking or just sad? 

Don't worry, I threw twenty pence (or zero pound twenty) in his bag pipe case for reimbursement of this soon to be facebook profile picture. 

Obligatory self portrait with blurry international landmark in the background

 Other than the disappointment of missing the guards, it was an extremely successful day. After we left the eye area there was a short walk on/across (see droopy eyed bag pipe man photo) the river with plenty of little shops, cafes and the like.

Belgian Waffles in England?

We went over to Big Ben and Parliament buildings where it seemed like every fifteen feet there were people cooking peanuts on the sidewalk. As much as we were tempted, again we maintained our Eurosaver mentality and shuffled along. 

These are some, but not all, of the accomplishments of day:

• Big Ben
• Parliament
• London Eye
• London Tower
• London Bridge
• Red Telephone Booths
• Trafalgar Square
• Buckingham Palace
• Westminster Abbey
• Some crazy London version of Subway where they make burritos called "Chipotle"
• Piccadilly Circus (I was told I needed to include my "Hallie" moment of the day where I asked if a piccadillo was a type of flute...)
• Hyde Park
• Harrod's
• St. James Park
• Winter Wonderland Park
• Local Pubs
• Double Decker Bus Ride

The tele! Wait, the tele is the tube... and the tube is the subway? Ahh!

After all our walking around through palaces, parks, squares and circii (London plural for circus), the signature London rain hit us. Of course Hallie made like a tourist and ran to the nearest souvenir shop to buy an umbrella made out of the local country's flag. 

This was left in a bathroom 15 minutes later

 The rain was getting a little too much after awhile so we hopped into a local pub where we had some beers and almost passed out due to exhaustion from the ambitious day. The subways have luckily been on strike for the last two days so we had a chance to have our first double decker bus ride. This is where we passed out. Fortunately our stop was the last one of the line!

Serious contemplation over Fish and Chips

Plans for the next day include more fish and chips and hopping on a frightening journey underneath the English Channel for 2.5 hours to Paris.  Catch up with you all in France!!

Barclay Biking on the Bridge

Hello to you three following the blog and a very Happy Boxing Day!! This morning we got up, had a nice workout, and went out to ride some bikes around the city. We almost died a few times as there was increased confusion if we should be on the sidewalk or not, as well as riding on the wrong side (damn Brits) of the street.

The bike ride took us through some quaint London neighborhoods, over the London Tower/Bridge and eventually to the London Eye. Of course we are too broke to consider riding it ($30/each person) so we will be skipping that attraction. The cycle hire ride was a bit nippy so we found refuge in a local cafe where each coffee drink we were served included a shot glass of M&M's for some reason (?). 

Notice the reflection? 

This will remain a brief posting as we have a date with the Queen just across the river at Buckingham Palace for tea and crumpets in the next hour or so. And yes, we will post some photos with the red clothed guards with silly hats this evening. Cheers!!

The Eagles Have Landed

Here we are! After learning that London airports don't have actual "gates" where you can wait for other people at, we finally found each other at my baggage claim, where Hallie was spinning around on a baggage carousel for five consecutive hours.

After a slight verbal quarrel with the driver about some "rubbish" about me being late (my flight was delayed) and other UK mumbly jumbly we couldn't understand, we were safely on our way out of LHR. 

Once we popped in the car, Hallie was a little shocked at the placement of the driver. On our 45 minute drive to the hotel, we were pleased by a personalized message from Buckingham Palace, from the Queen herself on this fine Christmas Day! Once she came on, the driver shushed us and blasted her sweet voice over the car speakers. Hallie snickered at the thought, which was sneered at by our occasionally pleasant driver. 

Driving through the entire city, everything had a distinctly British feel. Telephone booths galore as you would imagine. Plenty of steep roofs to jammed backed buildings and roads far too narrow for any normal person to drive on. Once we pulled through several shady alley ways and the driver pointing out a place not too far from where we were staying where he was stabbed in the neck, we were finally home! 

As it was 7:00 am and 9:00 am for our bodies, we figured it was time for a little nap as we got about three hours combined sleep for the day. That 1.5 hour nap turned into a 4 hour nap.

After waking up in a daze and realizing that neither of us had eaten in about 24 hours, we figured it was time to explore a little bit although we were warned nothing would be open on Christmas Day. Getting ready involved basically getting out of bed with the clothes we have had on for about 36 hours now and having a little eye opener. 

So as we stumbled out we realized we had no hope. That was until we found some of our Pakistani comrades who don't celebrate Christmas that were willing to take us in as their own. It was the only restaurant open within 3 km of streets we walked!

As much as we enjoyed our interesting Pakistani Christmas dinner, nothing else was open and we were both extremely jet lagged, so back to the hotel we went. 

Plans for tomorrow include renting bicycles that are right outside our hotel and traveling down to the more touristy areas and getting around as much as possible. Apparently tomorrow, which is Boxing Day, is like Black Friday and Super Bowl Sunday combined. There will be ice skating around a giant Christmas Tree, going shopping at some famous department store neither of us can afford, and hitting up local pubs for brews and fish and chips.

Hope everyone has had a great Christmas!