We're Back!

You may have been wondering where we’ve been for the past month. We took a break from school to go help settle the crises in Egypt, Libya and Japan. Too soon? We wish we could save the world right now but we’ve actually been playing tour guides for the past few weeks… not as legit.

Before we had two weeks of non-stop guests, we made a trip over to Oxford to give some guest lectures about the greatest county in the world: America. We were well received by the students and faculty. We both have some old friends that are Oxford students and they showed us around the campus. They were Auburn and Princeton alums so it was good to have some bonding time with fellow Tigers (see how it works for both schools?). In all seriousness, Oxford was absolutely beautiful! We visited places where C.S. Lewis hung out, saw some gorgeous churches and snuck into a couple of the residential colleges. The best way to describe our Oxford weekend is with the word “old.” Old buildings, old friends, and old habits (lots of ice cream and coffee). It was great!

Visitor Number 1: Kyle Greene

Kyle, Steph’s cousin, is an aerospace engineering major at the University of Central Florida. He enjoys reading Harry Potter and playing football (or as you Americans call it: soccer). This made him the perfect London guest.

The trip was a surprise to both him and Steph from his parents so Steph only had about two days to plan a week of London adventures. Good thing we’re locals and know all of the hot spots. We saw Stomp, ate some fish and chips and did all of the touristy things.

Visitor Number 2: Jennifer Palmquist

“Jenn”, Stina’s friend, is an English major at Princeton University. She plays volleyball and loves love (yes, you read that correctly).

Visitor Number 3: Caroline Jo

“CoJo”, Stina’s other friend, is a Woody Woo major (the Princeton school of International Affairs and Public Policy for you non-Princetonians). She enjoys shopping for shoes and saving the environment.

We spent the week taking the girls to all the best spots in London, not Buckingham Palace or Big Ben but the more important spots. We spent quite a lot of time on Oxford street shopping at Primark, Top Shop, Next and H&M. And even more time in the best cafes with lots of coffee and desserts. Don’t worry we showed them the historical, “cultural” things as well. The girls were on their Spring Break so we started every day’s activities at 2 p.m. We pretended like we were on SBXI too.

It was great to have all of these visitors and two weeks of Spring Break (after our own Spring Break-remember Madrid and Lisbon?) Unfortunately in the next two weeks we have some actual work to do, real classes to go to and long papers to write. After being here for so long we have learned the London way of doing things. We decided to make a compilation of some things we love about this city, some things we miss from home and some not so fun parts of living abroad. Use your imagination.

We have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of being in London and intend to make the best of our last few weeks. Sorry for the delay in putting up blog posts (Jack). There will be many more to come in the near future :)

Cheers!

"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!