"Reading" Week

Hola e Oi!

This week we had Reading Week, a time to catch up on school and start writing end-of-term papers. Naturally, we decided to take a 4 day adventure instead of reading and staring at a computer screen.

For those of you who like shorter blog entries, here’s a summary of our week in Spain and Portugal: 4 days, 16 hours of total sleep, 3 flights and 2 Hostels. Madrid: Adam, paella, tapas, churros con chocolate, café con leche, bread, tortillas, wine, historic tour, royal palace and salsa dancing. Lisbon: steak, sun, ocean, monastery, bakery, shopping, gelato, more salsa dancing, more wine, more bread and more coffee.

To express our love for these 2 cities we would have to write a never-ending blog, but for those of you who like our longer stories, keep reading for a recap.

We woke up at 4 a.m. (why do all the cheap flights leave so early??) ready to “backpack” through the Iberian Peninsula. Our first stop was Madrid and when we emerged from the train station, we saw our long lost and very missed friend, El Sol. It was a great reunion! After walking around the central plaza, we made our way to the hostel.

We’re going to digress for a moment to tell you a little about the hostel in Madrid and why we’re never staying in hostels again. The room they assigned us slept 7 people and unfortunately we were traveling in a group of 5. This left room for 2 other hostel guests who we’ve affectionately named “Smells McGells” and “Homegirl.” Smells was a 20-something year old girl from the States who had been backpacking for a year and half, and clearly hadn’t showered during that entire time. Her clothes, body, luggage, and bed all smelled of dead cat mixed with dirty feet. Her scent was almost as creepy as Homegirl’s personality. Homegirl was an overweight 60-year-old lady who had taken up permanent residence in the hostel. She stayed up 24 hours a day holding beads and staring into the distance. Stina woke up during the night at 3 a.m. to find her staring at the wall. To add to our hostel experience, the other guests made sure the bathrooms and showers were muy sucio. To avoid spending too much time with Smells and Homegirl, we spent as much time as possible outside running around Madrid.

Besides the hostel, our 2 days in Spain were fantástico! On our first day we ate some paella with sangria, did a little shopping and visited some museums. We found the cutest, local place to eat dinner. Our feast included wine, bread, more paella, jamón and tostada, tortillas españolas, fried goat cheese, chorizo, and two amazing desserts. Cristina may have flirted with our waiter to get some free food, which totally worked as he gave us the bill and only charged us €10 each for everything! He also asked her to dance at the salsa club we went to afterwards! Steph decided she wanted an experience at the club as well, so she went on stage when the live band requested some female dancers. Her Miami roots were a crowd pleaser!

The second day in Madrid started off with an incredible 3 hour walking tour. We learned why the Spaniards eat so much meat, what happened during the Inquisition, and all about the current King, Juan Carlos (who we love for single handedly turning Spain into a democracy and ending fascism). After the tour we enjoyed one more authentic Spanish meal and then hit the sack.

We woke up at the crack of dawn (3:45 a.m….those darn cheap flights again!) to go to Lisbon. As we landed, O Sol greeted us once again, but this time it was even warmer, 70 degrees to be exact. Despite our exhaustion we managed to stay up for the next 24 hours. Our hostel in Lisbon was SO much better. A nice Portuguese woman even made us pancakes in the morning! We spent the day shopping and exploring the city. Apparently after the Portuguese set up some colonies and did some exploring in the 15th century, they decided to take it easy for the next 500 years. The city looks as if nothing has changed, but that makes it absolutely beautiful! We ate some delicious gelato and enjoyed the tourist spots. We then ventured to a local restaurant to eat the best steak and drink the best wine we’ve ever had!

Afterwards we went to Bairro Alto, a cobblestone street where all the cool kids go to hang out. We got to salsa dance again at the Cuban bar and met some new Portuguese friends who we’re now officially friends with on facebook. After much dancing, the lack of sleep started to get to us. We went back to the hostel and slept a few hours.

Our last day in Lisbon was spent in Belem at a beautiful monastery where Vasco de Gama is buried. Belem is also home to a gorgeous park and the most delicious pastry shop in Portugal. The line was incredibly long but the desserts tasted like what we imagine heaven in the form of sugar tastes like. We took our pastries to the park and soaked up some rays.

The trip exceeded all of our expectations. The food, wine, dancing, sites, and sun were all excelente! Lessons learned: drink Spanish and Portuguese red wine, go salsa dancing every chance you get, flirt with waiters, sleep isn’t necessary and hostels are gross.

Adios y Adeus!

Alight Here for the Markets

We've decided our favorite thing to do in London is go to the markets. Now these aren't your typical Montgomery flea-markets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vao-IfsMROA). They're full of international vendors selling their exotic foods, hand-made crafts, and some really cute clothes!

Usually we take the tube to the markets, but we decided that since it was 50 degrees and sunny (a London rarity) we needed to get our workout on. We speed-walked three and half miles to Borough Market to enjoy the culinary delights we have previously raved about in our blog. To ensure we were receiving maximum health benefits from this speed-walk, we decided to do arm exercises and high knees at every red light. The Londoners appreciated our go get 'em attitude; one man rolled down his window to yell "You got this girls!" It definitely pumped us up.

(We love our school colors! And yes, we are wearing North Faces tied around our waists.)

We had everything from bratwurst to rhubarb cake. Don't know what those are? We didn't either, but life is about adventure, right? It was great that we had to walk three and half miles back home because we each ate enough to feed a family of four, or maybe six.

The next day we went to Notting Hill and enjoyed Portabello Market. This market went for miles and was full of antique shops and old books. We'll have to visit again because we only made it a quarter-mile as our legs were sore from the rigorous workout to Borough Market.

Our latest market experience was in Camden. We assumed it would always be 50 and sunny on days we went to markets, so naturally we didn't wear warm clothes. Whoops, it was 30-something degrees today. We made the best of it though, Cristina even made some new friends.

Steph, on the other hand, made an enemy. As we entered the market, several men with tall, spiky hair (not the cool kind) and combat boots caught our attention. Words can't do these men justice, so here's a photo of someone who looks similar to them.

Anyway, Steph and her sly self pulled out a camera to snap a photo of one of these characters. He didn't like that one bit. He briskly walked toward Steph and semi-shouted "Let me see that picture!" The scary, emo, spiky-haired, combat boot wearing man demanded she delete the photo. She yelled "No way Jose, I do what I want when I want!" After kicking him in the baby-maker she ran away screaming "Victory is mine!"

Okay maybe it didn't go down like that. Steph, with very shaky hands, fumbled around with the camera trying to remember how to turn it on and delete a photo. She quickly deleted the picture and squeaked "I'm so sorry!" and ran away like a little girl. Maybe next time.

On a lighter note, we went to go see "Wicked" tonight. We may or may not have decided to quit school and pursue a career in musical theater. It was so moving we even found ourselves tearing up in a comedy about two witches.

We don't know what your plans are this week, but if anyone wants to head over to Madrid or Lisbon, we'll be there! We know this is late notice so on the off chance you can't make it, don't worry, we'll be putting up some good pics and stories when we get back.

Cheers!

Hi, do you need directions? We're locals

After living here for a month we are starting to consider ourselves locals. Steph's taken such a liking to the local dialect that she has unintentionally given a "'Ello" or "Cheers mate" to British passerbys. It can be awkward, but Stina gets a good laugh. This week we had a special guest which gave us the opportunity to show off our London expertise.

THE Adam Joseph Gaschott touched down in London-town! For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting "AJ", he is one of our best friends who we have known since elementary school. We're going to give a recap of the weekend's activities. Having a male around let us walk around during the late night hours, it was nice.

Friday:

The day started with a lunchtime piano concert in a cathedral. The pianist was a 4-foot-tall Chinese woman who looked 12, but played like Beethoven. We then walked along the Thames River to see St. Pauls Cathedral and the Tate Modern Museum.

The Tate is full of modern art that we may or may not have understood. The picture below is an example of one we did not understand. Please make sure you read the description and let us know if it moves you in some way. Apparently it evokes some sort of emotion because we seemed to be the only ones who didn't stand in awe of the "masterpiece."

We ended the day with tea and crumpets because that's what us locals do in England. (Its actually coffee and we didn't eat crumpets but just humor us.)

(Our local friend, Dave, shown in some pictures above, helped us show Adam around. He has been a local for a bit longer since he was actually born in England.)

Saturday:

Adam (our manly man protector)'s one request was to visit Buckingham Palace and see the Queen. (See why we felt so safe with him at night? Just kidding, he's a total juicer!) We unfortunately had to cancel our tea time with the Queen (we call her Lizzie) but we've rescheduled with her for next week. That Elizabeth, she's a hoot!

You may think that is William and Kate, our future King and Queen, in the photo above standing in front of Wesminster Abbey. That is actually Adam and Stina. They fooled crowds of people. The resemblance is uncanny.

Later we went to Borough Market. The food was incredible. There were vendors from all over Europe selling their homemade products; the combination of scents was a bit overwhelming. We all picked our dessert of choice after contemplating hundreds of options. How do you pick between apple turnovers, caramel cheesecake, tiramisu, and carrot cake? Our mouths and stomachs were so content and thankful after the afternoon trip to the market.

We then walked to the Imperial War Museum. We made it there an hour and a half before it closed and thought that would be enough time to fully experience the museum, but we were very wrong. We all split up and ended up only seeing one section each. Adam went to the World War I section, Stina to the World War II one, and Steph to the Holocaust Memorial. We could have spent hours there, we think we're going back next week, and every week after that. Apparently we have a weird obsession with war. Is that bad?

On the tube map, Elephant and Castle (the tube stop where the museum is) and New Cross Gate (where we live) are about an inch apart, so naturally we thought we could easily walk from one stop to the next. False. After a lot of walking and a long day of exploring we reached our flat feeling as if we had walked miles. Oh wait, we did...SEVEN miles!

We were all exhausted and decided to have a relaxing night by going to the local cinema. We saw The King's Speech which takes place in London and features our good friend Lizzie as a child. It was a great film and although we may have enjoyed it being here, it is definitely still a 'must-see' for anyone in America too!

Sunday- longest day ever:

After taking Adam to our church, we went to one of our favorite parts of town, Brick Lane. We visited Spitalfields Market and saw all the interesting, local fare. We even tried on some new London trends.

Brick lane is known for their Indian food. The dining in Brick Lane can be compared to shopping for a fake Gucci purse in Chinatown. You walk along the street and men from the restaurant haggle with you to get you to pick their restaurant. We picked one with a great deal and nice employees, plus they apparently won some award for being the oldest restaurant on Brick Lane. We learned about our waiter's whole family and background (he's Bangladeshi!) without asking a single question. He was a little too excited to talk to some Americans, but we didn't mind because we were busy stuffing our faces with curry, naan, and other Indian goodies. Steph was skeptical about eating Indian food, but Stina insisted that it was good when made by actual Indians. After the meal, Steph agreed that those Bangladeshis know how to work the kitchen.

Now for all you true, football-lovin' Americans, you know the Superbowl was Sunday night in the States. That means it was in the middle of the night here. We, being locals but still acknowledging our American roots, would not miss this important game for anything. As we walked into the bar to watch it an English man approached Steph harassing her with a million questions about American football including, but not limited to: "Who are the teams?", "What about the Saints, aren't they the reigning champs?" and "Who is going to win?" (I don't know sir, it hasn't even started yet!)

After the Packers won it was 4am in London. We were tired, needless to say. A long bus ride left us back at our flat at about 5am, perfect timing to send Adam off to go back to Madrid (where he is studying for the semester). As we said, it was a LONG day. We had a blast and loved having Adam here. We had some good times on the tube too, maybe too much fun. People probably thought we weren't locals...

To ease our mothers' anxieties about what we're eating, we wanted to share some of the meals we've cooked. We have been making dinner a couple of nights a week in our flat and have become quite the little chefs. We decided tonight that we are going to start taking pictures of our favorite meals to share with you. (This is mostly for Mory and Shannon but everyone else can enjoy our domesticated selves too.) It's whole-wheat pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes, green beans, and fresh Mozzarella cheese. Yum!

Cheers!