Dear Diary,
JUST KIDDING! -- My Loyal Readers!
It was a pretty mellow end to the week last week. Wednesday and Thursday like usual I did not have class which is nice because the 16 hours Monday and Tuesday are tiring. Ok, you are right, I did not go to all 16 hours last week, doesn't mean it is exhausting though!
On Wednesday I hung around the house for the first bit of the day...First bit of the day being from 2p.m. onwards. I am not sure why but my sleeping schedule has been all sorts of turned around this last week or so. I made lunch, and when the roommates got home we all ate together. Also, Carlos the neighbor came by to join us for lunch. Today was Catarina's graduation day for her Masters program that she is doing. I did not have anything to do so I went with Carlos and sat through the painfully boring ceremony. After the graduation party, Catarina, Carlos, Rita and I all went out to dinner with a few other friends from the girls Masters program. It was a nice day, and I think that Catarina was glad to have some one there to clap for her seeing as none of her family were there.
Thursday, I actually got a bit of homework done! I know it sounds funny coming from this mouth, but I had to get an assignment in on Friday, so I knocked it out Thursday. Apart from the homework I went to dinner with Javier, Marc, and Amy. We went to the usual Indian place in Lavapies, good as always! I was debating whether or not to go out Thursday night, but decided not to because of class Friday.
Friday class, although not my favorite thing, went by relatively quickly. On Fridays I have Financial Management and the practical class teacher is a girl from Taiwan. She is not very patient, and her English is very broken so it makes for a difficult class. I was excited that I found this class in English because it is a major class of mine, but I would guess that if it were in Spanish I would understand better than this ladies broken English. Friday night I decided to have all of my friends that wanted to come over to the house. Rosarinho and Catarina both went home for the weekend so it did not matter how loud we were or how much fun we had! When I say all my friends that wanted to come, it ended up being like 6 of us! Others were busy writing papers for their senior project (Alvaro, and Isaac), some were lost in space because of significant others (Vicky and Pitu), and well I guess that basically wraps up my list of friends here! We had a great time though, we ordered food from La Llama, a great tapas bar, my favorite, and brought it home so we could eat and drink in the comfort of our own house, at our own pace, without a restaurant packed shoulder to shoulder with smokers. Marc had a friend of a friend in town, Joy, because she was running the Madrid Marathon Sunday. It was funny when he introduced her because right away I knew that I recognized her from somewhere. She was the president of a club that I am a member of at ASU, but rarely attend! We had a blast, we ended up staying in for the night due to the marathon runner, but fin was had by all.
Saturday morning we were all a bit slow to get up and at it, but once we did I headed over to Marc's house to have lunch with the family. Javier, Marc's dad, came home with a brand new charcoal barbecue so we lugged it down to the back yard and built it while taking in the beautiful spring day. It was the picture perfect type of grilling day, the neighbors were all out, the kids next door were playing soccer and running around, not a cloud in the sky. It took us a while to get the whole thing built up because it was pretty big, but man was it worth it. Javier grilled up some chicken wings, drumsticks, and a couple different types of sausages. We also had grilled asparagus, and a Caesar salad. MMMMMMM, did that hit the spot. Saturday night I met up with Joy to grab some gels and so on because I told her that I would meet her at the half marathon point and give her them, and cheer her on. Later that night I ended up meeting up with a friend of mine form last semester, Timon. He came to visit over the weekend from Germany and we went out with a friend of his from back home and a mutual friend of ours Kim. It was a fun night and it was good to get to see him, but getting home at 6:00 am is rough when you have to be at the half marathon point by 11:00!
I woke up and made it to the half point about ten minutes before Joy got there. I gave her her gels, and ran along side her for a few kilometers before breaking off and heading directly back home and to sleep! She was doing well, and I know that she finished which was her goal. Later Sunday I had to meet up with my from Financial Management. We were supposed to meet at 6:00 pm but neither of my group members showed up until after 7:00...yes this is normal in Spain. The thing that I am not sure is normal is what happened afterward, we worked on the case study for about an hour...well I should say Marco and I worked on the case study for about an hour while Lara sat and chatted on her computer not paying attention. A couple of times I would ask her random questions about what was going on and she would give some answer that had nothing to do with anything! Not exactly what most would call participating. To add insult to injury, after we were a little over half way she tols us she had to leave because she was meeting up with her boyfriend to see a movie...now let me get this straight, you show up over an hour late and now you want to leave before we are done to go to a movie. I promptly told her no, the project is due Monday and we needed to finish it. We ended up working for another 10 minutes or so before Marco had to get going too. We divide the rest of the work, I was going to do part that night and send it to them, and they were going to meet up the next day to finish it, print it and bring it to class.
Monday was a normal day, my first class was canceled and International Finance went by rather quickly. When I arrived at my Financial Management class, neither Lara or Marco showed up, and when I looked through the stack of projects that were already on his desk, ours was not there. I should have known that they were going to screw this deal up. I talked to the teacher, and asked Lara to send me the final project she turned in because Marco didn't have it. Needless to say, I am still waiting for a response. Well it was not the best way to cap off the Monday but so be it. There was some good that came out of the Monday, I bought a ticket to go to Italy in two weeks for Martin, one of the Italian cousins, graduation party for his Masters. It is going to be some river rafting weekend up in the alps. Should be a blast!
Well, I hope this finds everyone doing just wonderfully.
Much Love from Madrid,
Phil
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Apr 13th - 20th
Another week gone by at school, and another long weekend in Portugal with the family! What more could someone want?
Last week at school went by pretty quickly seeing as I ditched out on my Friday class! Tuesday I had a midterm in my Financial Systems class. The test ran pretty smoothly, but I definitely screwed one question up. It was pone of those choose the answer that is false questions, and one of the answers was something along the lines of, social security is used to help people during jubilation. Well, only in the class after was this word brought up again, and I learned that it meant retirement, not happiness! I thought it was definitely a free be that the teacher was throwing our way! ha ha...I should have known the word, but thought it was the same as in Portuguese which is reformar, or reforming. The rest of the day at school breezed right on bye.
Wednesday I had to get together with my group from my financial management class to do a case study. Not a huge fan of my group, because it is one Spanish girl, Lara, who shoes up twists her finger through her hair and does nothing except say yes that looks fine, when in reality she has no idea and doesn´t care. The other group member is Marco, an Italian guy, he is pretty good, he at least knows more or less what is going on, but I guess I just wish they would show up to class more and it would be more effective group meetings. I got through the case study with them, went home to pack the bags, out to buy Avo a birthday present, grabbed a bite to eat with Amy, and made to the bus station with about 5 minutes to spare! The bus ride there went well, I got some a presentation ready for Monday and read a bit of my book before catching a few hours of sleep. It rained heavily the whole way there, yet we still ended up arriving a bit ahead of schedule which was nice. Tio Joao said he would pick me up but because we were 45 minutes early and it was only 5:45a.m. I decided to grab a taxi. Of course when I got to the door I saw that the lights were on, he was up waiting! WHOOPS!
Avo woke up shortly after I got there, and I was able to wish her a very happy birthday bright and early. I went back to sleep for a few more hours, and woke up in time to go out to lunch to celebrate her birthday. We (Tio Joao, Tio Ita, Tio Ze, Tia Nicha, David, Pedro, Domingos, Francisco, and I) went out for Japanese food for lunch, and we all really enjoyed being together and celebrating. The rest of the afternoon Avo and I hung out around the house while she answered her cell phone, then the house phone, then her cell, then the house....It never seemed to end, every time I would be drifting off to get in a little nap RING RING RING, it was like a bad nightmare! That night Avo was going to make dinner but I thought that it as unreasonable for her to be cooking for herself on her birthday so I took her out to dinner. We went to a local cervejeria, seafood bar / bar / restaurant, and had Betock´s which are not seafood! We ate steaks with a fried egg on top, french fries, rice, and salad. One of Avo´s and my favorite dishes! After dinner I met up with Domingos and Francisco and we went out for a beer in Barro Alto, and met back up with Pedro. It was a mellow night, but cool to just hang with the cousins and take in the young night life scene of Lisbon. Oooops, I forgot to mention that between the phone ringing off the hook and dinner Avo and I found time to go to the hospital to see Felicia and give her dinner. She seems to be doing well, and was in good spirits.
Friday, Avo did not wake we up to go to coffee with her and I ended up waking up around 12:45...I was not too pleased! One of the things I really enjoy about being home with Avo is going out to get coffee with her in the morning, and my lack of discipline in waking up kept me from doing so. The good news is that I woke up just in time for lunch! We had Favas with Chorizo.
AHHHHHHHHHHH Why did it not save after I wrote the whole DAMN post.... I will continue the epic tale tomorrow!
Well, I had the whole post written and done with last night, then I went to post it just to realize the internet was down and it did not save my draft or allow me to post the blog entry, so I will pick back up where I left off.
After lunch Tia Nicha picked me up and it was off to her house to hang out for the day. I ended up going to run a few errands with her, and then we went and picked up Maria from school. It is always fun going to pick her up because she is so excited! After picking her up we hung around the house for the afternoon. That evening Teresa invited me to go with her, her boyfriend (Francisco), and a couple of other friends to a dance class that they are taking. We went and had a class on the Waltz. Not my favorite dance, but I sure to like to get out on the dance floor and cut it up, so it was a great time to do that. I danced most the time with some older lady from Brazil, but also snuck away to get a couple of dances in with Teresa. I got back to Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's house just in time for dinner! MMMM, It seems that food is all I talk about, really I d other things than just eat here! For dinner Tia Nicha made Pork Alentejana, probably butchered the spelling there, it is a pork dish cooked with a dried red bell pepper paste and man is it GOOD! Another one of my favorite dishes. After dinner Tia Nicha, David, Maria, and I watched So You Think You Can Dance, a show that I had never seen back home but was really cool. Sure enough right as it was ending it was off to the next adventure. Domingos and Francisco picked me up and we were off to a little sports club / bar. The place is really funny, it is just a door of an apartment building, you walk up to the second floor, go in to what looks to be an apartment, and then you are n this mellow hang out place. There are a few different rooms, one is like an office, one is a bar, and the other is a big room with card and pool tables. Good luck ever finding the place if you did not know where it is! We met up with Bruschy and a few of his friends there and then we went to Bruschy's house to hang and watch a movie.
Saturday was another long day. Tio Joao, Avo and I went out for our morning coffee at Sul America, a coffee shop around the corner from the house, and then like always it was off to a busy day. Avo had a lunch with her cousins and girl friends in Cascais, and Tio Joao and I headed over to Tia Nicha's and Tio Quim's for lunch. Up to this point it had rained most of the time I was in Lisbon, but we caught a few good hours during lunch so we took advantage and ate outside under their beautiful treacle that was full of pungent purple wisteria. The smell of the wisteria was almost taken over by the cheese that Tio Quim had spread out on the table. Their family was just in Paris, and he had brought home a few different cheeses to try out. Let's just put it this way, after the cheeses were taken out of the air tight wrapping that they were transported in, Tia Nicha made them stay outside because they were so stinky. Now I like cheese, but man one of the three that he brought was some sort of ultra cured, super stinky cheese that was quite BOLD in flavor. I tried all of them, and left that one for last. I got the first bite down, but was not to sure if I could get the second one down. I powered through it though. When I arrived in Spain, I came with a goal of eating everything, or at least trying everything that was put in front of me. So far I have yet to fail! After Lunch Tia Nicha and I took a nice walk down by the river and enjoyed the sun as much as we could. After a bit of a nap it was off to give Felicia dinner because Avo was not sure she would make it back from her lunch in time. When I arrived her niece was there, but it was good to see her as always and I spent a while chatting and enjoying her company. IT would have been nice to call it a night, but that is never the case, sleeping does not seem to be an option when I am in Lisbon! I went home to change, and it was out with the guys. I picked up Domingos, Francisco, and Bruschy, we grabbed a quick bite of dinner, pre-gamed at Bruschy's house a bit, and it was off to the dicso. We went to a club called Lux, one of the more popular spots in Lisbon and we celebrated Domingos' and Francisco's birthdays seeing as they were the Monday before I arrived and the Tuesday after left respectively. It was a good night and I ended up at home around 6:30 or 7:00.
After a breif nap, or what was supposed to be a nights sleep, it was off to grab the morning coffee with Avo and Tio Joao! We took a bit of a walk after our coffee, grabbed some lunch together, and like always I was off an running. I met back up with Domingos and then we went and grabbed a coffee with White Castle. After the coffee, we walked along the river for a while and headed to Tia Nicha's to see them one more time and have snack. We made scones which were Delicious! I think we made about 10 or 11, and David (The man-child) powered down at least 5 of them! I wish I had that kind of gift, eating as much as possible and staying like a twig! After snack we said our goodbyes and headed to give Felicia one more visit before I went back to Madrid. She was in a great mood, she was laughing and cracking jokes, at one point she was laughing so hard she was crying! It was a great time! Domingos and I headed back to Avo's house, hung out for a bit, grabbed a quick bite of dinner and then he and Tio Joao dropped me off at the bus terminal. Thank goodness I was not flying, because the Lisbon airport was full of tourists from northern Europe that could not get home because of the Volcano in Iceland!
The trip home went real smoothly. I slept for the majority of the time, but still squeezed in a couple hours when I got home at 8:00. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bead! The day at school went pretty well. I had a presentation in my International Finance class, in Spanish, about the financial crisis in the U.S. Right after my presentation I checked my email luckily, and found out that my group members in my Financial Management class were not going to go to class, and of course Lara was the one that was supposed to print out our project. I rushed around and got the project printed, and made it to class just in time. I was not too thrilled about the whole situation, but then again there was not too much to do about it. The rest of the day ran smoothly which was nice.
Tuesday was a rough morning, I some how got my sleep schedule all mixed around (I wonder why!?) and ended up sleeping through my first few classes, the good news is that I still made it to my World Economics class, so I did not miss the whole day. Apart from that, not much happened. I watched Barcelona play International Milan, and loose, with the neighbors Rita and Carlos. I guess I should be rooting for the Spanish team, but being a supporter of Real Madrid kept me from rooting for Barcelona!
Well I had this whole post done and ready to go up last night, but I have been having mad computer problems, and it did not save my draft and I lost everything when the computer crashed on me. Maybe I should have saved it more periodically, but lets not be ridiculous here, that is the computers job!
Well, I hope that I have not bored you yet again with one of my posts. If I have, no I do not feel bad! I hope this finds everyone doing very well.
Much Love Always,
Phil
P.S. Big news that I almost forgot. I finally booked my flight home. I will be back the evening of August 5th! I am really excited to hang with the family during the summer here, and then a few weeks with John after they leave! I am also really excited to come back and see all of my friends! Of course good news comes with a little bad, I will have to be back in Arizona August 7th, but hey a day and a half is better than none at home!
Last week at school went by pretty quickly seeing as I ditched out on my Friday class! Tuesday I had a midterm in my Financial Systems class. The test ran pretty smoothly, but I definitely screwed one question up. It was pone of those choose the answer that is false questions, and one of the answers was something along the lines of, social security is used to help people during jubilation. Well, only in the class after was this word brought up again, and I learned that it meant retirement, not happiness! I thought it was definitely a free be that the teacher was throwing our way! ha ha...I should have known the word, but thought it was the same as in Portuguese which is reformar, or reforming. The rest of the day at school breezed right on bye.
Wednesday I had to get together with my group from my financial management class to do a case study. Not a huge fan of my group, because it is one Spanish girl, Lara, who shoes up twists her finger through her hair and does nothing except say yes that looks fine, when in reality she has no idea and doesn´t care. The other group member is Marco, an Italian guy, he is pretty good, he at least knows more or less what is going on, but I guess I just wish they would show up to class more and it would be more effective group meetings. I got through the case study with them, went home to pack the bags, out to buy Avo a birthday present, grabbed a bite to eat with Amy, and made to the bus station with about 5 minutes to spare! The bus ride there went well, I got some a presentation ready for Monday and read a bit of my book before catching a few hours of sleep. It rained heavily the whole way there, yet we still ended up arriving a bit ahead of schedule which was nice. Tio Joao said he would pick me up but because we were 45 minutes early and it was only 5:45a.m. I decided to grab a taxi. Of course when I got to the door I saw that the lights were on, he was up waiting! WHOOPS!
Avo woke up shortly after I got there, and I was able to wish her a very happy birthday bright and early. I went back to sleep for a few more hours, and woke up in time to go out to lunch to celebrate her birthday. We (Tio Joao, Tio Ita, Tio Ze, Tia Nicha, David, Pedro, Domingos, Francisco, and I) went out for Japanese food for lunch, and we all really enjoyed being together and celebrating. The rest of the afternoon Avo and I hung out around the house while she answered her cell phone, then the house phone, then her cell, then the house....It never seemed to end, every time I would be drifting off to get in a little nap RING RING RING, it was like a bad nightmare! That night Avo was going to make dinner but I thought that it as unreasonable for her to be cooking for herself on her birthday so I took her out to dinner. We went to a local cervejeria, seafood bar / bar / restaurant, and had Betock´s which are not seafood! We ate steaks with a fried egg on top, french fries, rice, and salad. One of Avo´s and my favorite dishes! After dinner I met up with Domingos and Francisco and we went out for a beer in Barro Alto, and met back up with Pedro. It was a mellow night, but cool to just hang with the cousins and take in the young night life scene of Lisbon. Oooops, I forgot to mention that between the phone ringing off the hook and dinner Avo and I found time to go to the hospital to see Felicia and give her dinner. She seems to be doing well, and was in good spirits.
Friday, Avo did not wake we up to go to coffee with her and I ended up waking up around 12:45...I was not too pleased! One of the things I really enjoy about being home with Avo is going out to get coffee with her in the morning, and my lack of discipline in waking up kept me from doing so. The good news is that I woke up just in time for lunch! We had Favas with Chorizo.
AHHHHHHHHHHH Why did it not save after I wrote the whole DAMN post.... I will continue the epic tale tomorrow!
Well, I had the whole post written and done with last night, then I went to post it just to realize the internet was down and it did not save my draft or allow me to post the blog entry, so I will pick back up where I left off.
After lunch Tia Nicha picked me up and it was off to her house to hang out for the day. I ended up going to run a few errands with her, and then we went and picked up Maria from school. It is always fun going to pick her up because she is so excited! After picking her up we hung around the house for the afternoon. That evening Teresa invited me to go with her, her boyfriend (Francisco), and a couple of other friends to a dance class that they are taking. We went and had a class on the Waltz. Not my favorite dance, but I sure to like to get out on the dance floor and cut it up, so it was a great time to do that. I danced most the time with some older lady from Brazil, but also snuck away to get a couple of dances in with Teresa. I got back to Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's house just in time for dinner! MMMM, It seems that food is all I talk about, really I d other things than just eat here! For dinner Tia Nicha made Pork Alentejana, probably butchered the spelling there, it is a pork dish cooked with a dried red bell pepper paste and man is it GOOD! Another one of my favorite dishes. After dinner Tia Nicha, David, Maria, and I watched So You Think You Can Dance, a show that I had never seen back home but was really cool. Sure enough right as it was ending it was off to the next adventure. Domingos and Francisco picked me up and we were off to a little sports club / bar. The place is really funny, it is just a door of an apartment building, you walk up to the second floor, go in to what looks to be an apartment, and then you are n this mellow hang out place. There are a few different rooms, one is like an office, one is a bar, and the other is a big room with card and pool tables. Good luck ever finding the place if you did not know where it is! We met up with Bruschy and a few of his friends there and then we went to Bruschy's house to hang and watch a movie.
Saturday was another long day. Tio Joao, Avo and I went out for our morning coffee at Sul America, a coffee shop around the corner from the house, and then like always it was off to a busy day. Avo had a lunch with her cousins and girl friends in Cascais, and Tio Joao and I headed over to Tia Nicha's and Tio Quim's for lunch. Up to this point it had rained most of the time I was in Lisbon, but we caught a few good hours during lunch so we took advantage and ate outside under their beautiful treacle that was full of pungent purple wisteria. The smell of the wisteria was almost taken over by the cheese that Tio Quim had spread out on the table. Their family was just in Paris, and he had brought home a few different cheeses to try out. Let's just put it this way, after the cheeses were taken out of the air tight wrapping that they were transported in, Tia Nicha made them stay outside because they were so stinky. Now I like cheese, but man one of the three that he brought was some sort of ultra cured, super stinky cheese that was quite BOLD in flavor. I tried all of them, and left that one for last. I got the first bite down, but was not to sure if I could get the second one down. I powered through it though. When I arrived in Spain, I came with a goal of eating everything, or at least trying everything that was put in front of me. So far I have yet to fail! After Lunch Tia Nicha and I took a nice walk down by the river and enjoyed the sun as much as we could. After a bit of a nap it was off to give Felicia dinner because Avo was not sure she would make it back from her lunch in time. When I arrived her niece was there, but it was good to see her as always and I spent a while chatting and enjoying her company. IT would have been nice to call it a night, but that is never the case, sleeping does not seem to be an option when I am in Lisbon! I went home to change, and it was out with the guys. I picked up Domingos, Francisco, and Bruschy, we grabbed a quick bite of dinner, pre-gamed at Bruschy's house a bit, and it was off to the dicso. We went to a club called Lux, one of the more popular spots in Lisbon and we celebrated Domingos' and Francisco's birthdays seeing as they were the Monday before I arrived and the Tuesday after left respectively. It was a good night and I ended up at home around 6:30 or 7:00.
After a breif nap, or what was supposed to be a nights sleep, it was off to grab the morning coffee with Avo and Tio Joao! We took a bit of a walk after our coffee, grabbed some lunch together, and like always I was off an running. I met back up with Domingos and then we went and grabbed a coffee with White Castle. After the coffee, we walked along the river for a while and headed to Tia Nicha's to see them one more time and have snack. We made scones which were Delicious! I think we made about 10 or 11, and David (The man-child) powered down at least 5 of them! I wish I had that kind of gift, eating as much as possible and staying like a twig! After snack we said our goodbyes and headed to give Felicia one more visit before I went back to Madrid. She was in a great mood, she was laughing and cracking jokes, at one point she was laughing so hard she was crying! It was a great time! Domingos and I headed back to Avo's house, hung out for a bit, grabbed a quick bite of dinner and then he and Tio Joao dropped me off at the bus terminal. Thank goodness I was not flying, because the Lisbon airport was full of tourists from northern Europe that could not get home because of the Volcano in Iceland!
The trip home went real smoothly. I slept for the majority of the time, but still squeezed in a couple hours when I got home at 8:00. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bead! The day at school went pretty well. I had a presentation in my International Finance class, in Spanish, about the financial crisis in the U.S. Right after my presentation I checked my email luckily, and found out that my group members in my Financial Management class were not going to go to class, and of course Lara was the one that was supposed to print out our project. I rushed around and got the project printed, and made it to class just in time. I was not too thrilled about the whole situation, but then again there was not too much to do about it. The rest of the day ran smoothly which was nice.
Tuesday was a rough morning, I some how got my sleep schedule all mixed around (I wonder why!?) and ended up sleeping through my first few classes, the good news is that I still made it to my World Economics class, so I did not miss the whole day. Apart from that, not much happened. I watched Barcelona play International Milan, and loose, with the neighbors Rita and Carlos. I guess I should be rooting for the Spanish team, but being a supporter of Real Madrid kept me from rooting for Barcelona!
Well I had this whole post done and ready to go up last night, but I have been having mad computer problems, and it did not save my draft and I lost everything when the computer crashed on me. Maybe I should have saved it more periodically, but lets not be ridiculous here, that is the computers job!
Well, I hope that I have not bored you yet again with one of my posts. If I have, no I do not feel bad! I hope this finds everyone doing very well.
Much Love Always,
Phil
P.S. Big news that I almost forgot. I finally booked my flight home. I will be back the evening of August 5th! I am really excited to hang with the family during the summer here, and then a few weeks with John after they leave! I am also really excited to come back and see all of my friends! Of course good news comes with a little bad, I will have to be back in Arizona August 7th, but hey a day and a half is better than none at home!
Monday, April 12, 2010
April 7th - April 12th
Well, it does not seem long ago that I was writing my last post, and I suspect that is because I am trying to get back to posting on Monday's, not Tuesdays after two week of no posts!
The week has gone by quite quickly, but not without any fun and exciting times. Wednesday night Amy invited Marc, Ismael and me out to dinner with her mom who was in town visiting. I was about to tell you this long tail about Mrs. Stabler and how it was the first time I was going to meet her, but then I realized that I am delusional and I really met her last Sunday when we all went to the bull fight together (Tommy and Lorena included). Well, back to the story, we all met up at our favorite little Indian restaurant and Mrs. Stabler invited us to a wonderful meal full of interesting conversation and good company. Now some may wonder why we went to Indian food instead of taking her to a Spanish restaurant, but Indian once a week has become a custom and Jalal (the owner) would be heart broken if Marc and I didn't show up around Wednesday or Thursday! After dinner Isma and Marc went home and the rest of us went back to the hotel room to play cards. We had some wicked games of hearts....hmmm and maybe one other game that I am forgetting now before calling it a night around 2:30a.m. (Welcome to Spain Mrs. Stabler!) because we had a train to catch in the morning for a day trip in Salamanca. I did my best to find a night bus home to Moncloa, and ended up arriving around 4:00 a.m. after hearing some very interesting stories about the U.S. and how most all attacks on national soil (Pearl Harbor, 9-11, etc.) were inside jobs! I guess that is the conversation with the people on the bus at that hour!
Caught a few quick hours of sleep, and then met Amy and Mrs. Stabler at the Charmtin train station to go to Salamanca. We arrived in Salamanca around 11:30 or so in the morning after about 2 hours on the train. During the ride we were back at the cards and taking in the views of the country side. A complete step by step recollection of what we did might be hard but here is my best shot...in number form:
1. Went to breakfast (Tostada de Pan con Tomate) and Cafe con Leche at a bar in Plaza de Espana
2. Walk to the old town area and la calle de los tres cono's ... Hay cono una iglesia, Hay cono una casa con conchas, hay cono que frio! (please do be careful when or if looking up the direct translation...it is the slang equivalent of the slang term "man" in English...like, hey "man")
3. We then walked to the new and the old cathedrals where Amy did the happy dance every time we walked into an interesting room or area! I know you just did the happy dance Mrs. Stabler!
4. Checked out the Oldest University in the world, which started in the church, but has a campus now, at which we found the Frog on the hat of the statue, or facade.
5. Wandered aimlessly around the town around siesta time trying to find a place to have lunch at, ended up finding a nice little Spanish restaurant and enjoyed different dishes such as: revuelto con setas, ensalada campera con atun, arroz cubano, pescado a la plancha, and costillas de cerdo a la plancha all followed up with a cafe con leche.
6. After realizing that I had left my back pack with my ipod, book, and our map in it at the first bar where we had breakfast we stopped in to pick it up. Luckily, everything was still there!
7. We then wandered down to the river side to look at the old Roman Bridge and decided that since it was such a beautiful sunny day out and we had seen all the major sights that maybe we should sit by the water, in the grass, and soak up some sun!
8. Stopped in at the local store, armed our selves with two bottles of Cava (Spanish Champagne) and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon bathing in the sun,and taking deep breathes of Spanish air while enjoying the sights of a cathedral across the water
9. Sadly, that was the end to our glorious day in Salamaca. We hoped on the train around 20:30 and it was back to Madrid.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Stabler left Friday morning, so I said my good byes at the train station, but I am sure that we will meet again!
On Friday it was tough to get to school for class, but I managed to make it. Later that evening I met up with Marc and Ismael, and went to a birthday dinner for a friend Helena. It was nice because a bunch of our friends were there: Alvaro, Isaac, Vicky, Ana, Kike, and Eva. After dinner, we went out to a disco, and as usual...DANCED THE NIGHT AWAY!
Saturday, I went to Marc's house, and his dad made us an awesome Chicken Tandoori for lunch. Not much better than going to some where that feels like home almost and having someone cook you a nice meal! We booked out final epic trip before the family gets here...Istanbul, here we come! and promptly watched Troy after wards seeing as that we are planning a day trip there. Saturday night we went to Joaquim's house for a get together/viewing party of the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game...again it was great to get a similar but different group of friends together. Saturday night we were: Joaquim, Kike, Eva, Marc, Mariel, Ismael, Amy and I. The game was very disappointing, and to make matters worse, Madrid lost 2-0. Marc, Ismael, Amy and I grabbed a beer after the game and then called it an early night!
Sunday, well Sunday's are for the Bull Fight's. Sunday morning was lazy, and then in the afternoon Marc, Amy and I went and enjoyed a beautiful day at Las Ventas. the sun was shinning and the crowd was animated. The Torrero's unfortunately were not that good being that they were Noviados (Novices), but all the same we enjoyed our top deck seats for 2.20Euro's, sunflower seeds, and a nice cold beer! After the Fight we went for a nice walk around Retiro park because the weather was so nice, and finished the day off with some Thai food. Not the quality Thai that we find back home, but nice to change it up every once in a while.
And after all of that, here we are back to Monday. Like usual, had class from 13:00-21:00, and came home exhausted. got home to some sort of emergency or something. The third floor of the apartment complex was filled with police and firemen, and before long I had a firemen repelling down past my living room window! I am not sure what happened, but they ended up going into an apartment on the third floor through the window. My guess is an old lady that has not left the house for a few days since there was clothes on the clothe line outside, but I am not sure...hopefully everyone is fine.
Well, that wraps up a much longer post than I was expecting. Until next week, and look for pictures from Salamanca soon!
Much love as Always,
Phil
The week has gone by quite quickly, but not without any fun and exciting times. Wednesday night Amy invited Marc, Ismael and me out to dinner with her mom who was in town visiting. I was about to tell you this long tail about Mrs. Stabler and how it was the first time I was going to meet her, but then I realized that I am delusional and I really met her last Sunday when we all went to the bull fight together (Tommy and Lorena included). Well, back to the story, we all met up at our favorite little Indian restaurant and Mrs. Stabler invited us to a wonderful meal full of interesting conversation and good company. Now some may wonder why we went to Indian food instead of taking her to a Spanish restaurant, but Indian once a week has become a custom and Jalal (the owner) would be heart broken if Marc and I didn't show up around Wednesday or Thursday! After dinner Isma and Marc went home and the rest of us went back to the hotel room to play cards. We had some wicked games of hearts....hmmm and maybe one other game that I am forgetting now before calling it a night around 2:30a.m. (Welcome to Spain Mrs. Stabler!) because we had a train to catch in the morning for a day trip in Salamanca. I did my best to find a night bus home to Moncloa, and ended up arriving around 4:00 a.m. after hearing some very interesting stories about the U.S. and how most all attacks on national soil (Pearl Harbor, 9-11, etc.) were inside jobs! I guess that is the conversation with the people on the bus at that hour!
Caught a few quick hours of sleep, and then met Amy and Mrs. Stabler at the Charmtin train station to go to Salamanca. We arrived in Salamanca around 11:30 or so in the morning after about 2 hours on the train. During the ride we were back at the cards and taking in the views of the country side. A complete step by step recollection of what we did might be hard but here is my best shot...in number form:
1. Went to breakfast (Tostada de Pan con Tomate) and Cafe con Leche at a bar in Plaza de Espana
2. Walk to the old town area and la calle de los tres cono's ... Hay cono una iglesia, Hay cono una casa con conchas, hay cono que frio! (please do be careful when or if looking up the direct translation...it is the slang equivalent of the slang term "man" in English...like, hey "man")
3. We then walked to the new and the old cathedrals where Amy did the happy dance every time we walked into an interesting room or area! I know you just did the happy dance Mrs. Stabler!
4. Checked out the Oldest University in the world, which started in the church, but has a campus now, at which we found the Frog on the hat of the statue, or facade.
5. Wandered aimlessly around the town around siesta time trying to find a place to have lunch at, ended up finding a nice little Spanish restaurant and enjoyed different dishes such as: revuelto con setas, ensalada campera con atun, arroz cubano, pescado a la plancha, and costillas de cerdo a la plancha all followed up with a cafe con leche.
6. After realizing that I had left my back pack with my ipod, book, and our map in it at the first bar where we had breakfast we stopped in to pick it up. Luckily, everything was still there!
7. We then wandered down to the river side to look at the old Roman Bridge and decided that since it was such a beautiful sunny day out and we had seen all the major sights that maybe we should sit by the water, in the grass, and soak up some sun!
8. Stopped in at the local store, armed our selves with two bottles of Cava (Spanish Champagne) and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon bathing in the sun,and taking deep breathes of Spanish air while enjoying the sights of a cathedral across the water
9. Sadly, that was the end to our glorious day in Salamaca. We hoped on the train around 20:30 and it was back to Madrid.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Stabler left Friday morning, so I said my good byes at the train station, but I am sure that we will meet again!
On Friday it was tough to get to school for class, but I managed to make it. Later that evening I met up with Marc and Ismael, and went to a birthday dinner for a friend Helena. It was nice because a bunch of our friends were there: Alvaro, Isaac, Vicky, Ana, Kike, and Eva. After dinner, we went out to a disco, and as usual...DANCED THE NIGHT AWAY!
Saturday, I went to Marc's house, and his dad made us an awesome Chicken Tandoori for lunch. Not much better than going to some where that feels like home almost and having someone cook you a nice meal! We booked out final epic trip before the family gets here...Istanbul, here we come! and promptly watched Troy after wards seeing as that we are planning a day trip there. Saturday night we went to Joaquim's house for a get together/viewing party of the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game...again it was great to get a similar but different group of friends together. Saturday night we were: Joaquim, Kike, Eva, Marc, Mariel, Ismael, Amy and I. The game was very disappointing, and to make matters worse, Madrid lost 2-0. Marc, Ismael, Amy and I grabbed a beer after the game and then called it an early night!
Sunday, well Sunday's are for the Bull Fight's. Sunday morning was lazy, and then in the afternoon Marc, Amy and I went and enjoyed a beautiful day at Las Ventas. the sun was shinning and the crowd was animated. The Torrero's unfortunately were not that good being that they were Noviados (Novices), but all the same we enjoyed our top deck seats for 2.20Euro's, sunflower seeds, and a nice cold beer! After the Fight we went for a nice walk around Retiro park because the weather was so nice, and finished the day off with some Thai food. Not the quality Thai that we find back home, but nice to change it up every once in a while.
And after all of that, here we are back to Monday. Like usual, had class from 13:00-21:00, and came home exhausted. got home to some sort of emergency or something. The third floor of the apartment complex was filled with police and firemen, and before long I had a firemen repelling down past my living room window! I am not sure what happened, but they ended up going into an apartment on the third floor through the window. My guess is an old lady that has not left the house for a few days since there was clothes on the clothe line outside, but I am not sure...hopefully everyone is fine.
Well, that wraps up a much longer post than I was expecting. Until next week, and look for pictures from Salamanca soon!
Much love as Always,
Phil
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Mar 24th - Apr 6th
I want to start this post off by saying sorry to my loyal blog following for missing a week in posting. These last two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye and have been absolutely action packed. I told myself multiple times that I would post last week, and as you clearly can see it never happened...my apologies!
This is going to be a big one!
Well, where to start off. The last week of class before spring break was relatively uneventful, I think I left you off after my financial management midterm, and before my world economics midterm. The first, respectively, did not go to well, it was 12 questions and I answered 9 of them. For every one that you get wrong he takes points away so it is kind of screwed if you have no idea. I was not too confident going in and the test was basically demoralizing. The latter did not go so poorly...well I have not received the grade back but I left the exam feeling confident. Thursday night I think I caught about 2.5 hours of sleep before getting up at the crack of dawn to go pick Tommy up from the airport, he came to visit during our spring break which was awesome. I had been feeling a bit homesick for some reason in the past week, and a good friend is the way to solve this issue apparently!
From the minute Tommy got here until when he left yesterday evening, it has been non-stop action, always doing something. We wen to breakfast when we got to my neighborhood, then dropped off his bags and it was out on the town to see the sights. We must have spent a good two and a half or three hours touring all the sights and seeing Madrid. Needless to say after we went to the store and got home, a nap sounded better than lunch so we both crashed for a little bit. I had to get up after about 30 minutes to get to class in the afternoon, but Tommy caught a good 3 or 4 hour nap that I am sure was much needed. My financial management teacher went on to tell us that we were not supposed to do well on the exam he gave earlier in the week, and that the class average was somewhere between a 3 or 4 out of 10. I guess that 3.33 that I got was in the ball park of the average, non the less, hard to swallow. After getting home from class Tommy and I went to La Llama, probably my favorite restaurant in Madrid for some tapas and Canas (beers). We were home relatively early and kind of kicked back until meeting up with Ismael, Javier, Pitu, Vicky, and a couple others for a night out on the town. Although neither of us had slept much the night before, I had to give Tommy a taste of what a night out at the disco was all about. We cut it up at a discotecha called Paddock, and ended up coming home around 6:30 or so in the morning.
Saturday we got up around 13:00 and it was back out to check out a few more sights: Templo Debod, Palacio Royal, Plaza Mayor and so on. We went to another bar for Calamari sandwiches for lunch, and I think I scared Tommy a little bit, not sure he was to into it, but he was a good sport all the same! As we made our way home we stopped by the store and grabbed a few beers to have on our overnight train to Barcelona! When in Europe...take the train? We caught the train at Chamartin around 23:00 and were on our way to see Lorena (Tommy's sister) in Barcelona. We stayed up playing cards fro quite a while and then dozed in and out of sleep the rest of the way there. I am pretty sure I slept a bit more than Tommy, seeing as I was sound asleep when we rolled into Barcelona Sants, our stop, and he had to shake me to wake me up and rush off the train! We caught the Metro to Plaza de Espana, where Lorena lives, made some breakfast, and once again it was right off to go check out the sights. We walked all over Montjuic and checked out the 1992 Olympic stadium and parks around the area. I had never been to this part of town and was quite impressed with the architecture and green areas. In the afternoon we walked around Las Ramblas and then went home to grab a much needed nap! That night we, well I don't really remember what we did for dinner, but then Lorena took us out for a couple os beers at La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep). It was a really cool little bar, and it was nice to take it easy and enjoy each others company.
Monday was another busy day, we were off in the morning to go to a little bar, restaurant called La Champagneria. The place is known for its sandwiches and Cava (the Spanish equivalent of Champagne). We enjoyed a bottle of Cava and some sandwiches and then armed ourselves with another bottle and went down to the beach to take in a bit of sun and relax. After a quick nap it was off to Park Guell for a picnic later in the day and more sight seeing. Lorena took us to a really cool market called La Boqueria later in the day and we wandered around to see the different things that the vendors were selling, mostly fruits, vegetables, meats...things you would expect to see at the market. We also went to a cafe where Picasso used to hang out to have a coffee and Churros con Chocolate, fun to go to the historical places like that even though it is a bit touristy. That evening we decided to make a Mexican themed dinner at home and one of Lorena's friends, David, joined us. We made tacos which turned out really well, and then went for margaritas, which were less than par a a bar around the corner from her house. Right after dinner, I got a surprising call from Tia Nicha telling me that we were flying to Lisbon on Tuesday morning, and not Wednesday, as I believed and had been telling everybody! I guess it is a good thing that I have made a habit of sending her my itineraries to let her know when we r arriving, and as usual she was looking after me and saved us from missing our plane! I was really bummed out that I had botched the tickets and bought our trip to Lisbon a day early, and felt bad that we were not able to spend more time seeing Barcelona. To end our stay in Barcelona we went back up to the top of Montjuic had a little Botellon (a couple beers in the streets), the views of the city were spectacular from up there, and we just listened to some music and took in the sights.
Tuesday Morning, it was up at the crack of dawn and to the airport....Oh wait, how could I forget, at some point during the day on Monday, we made our way into an H&M store and I picked up a pair of Salmon color pants! Before you pass judgment, please see the pictures in my web albums, they are AWESOME! We arrived in Lisbon at 9:00 in the morning, and Avo was waiting for us at the airport. We dropped our bags off at home and then went to Roca, the coffee shop up the street for some breakfast. This was Tommy and Lorena's first glimpse at Portuguese cuisine, and the pastry is not a bad spot to start, we ordered a few different things, but the hit seemed to be the empada's (mini chicken pot pie type things). Tia Nicha ended up meeting us at Avo's house, we gathered our stuff and were off to stay at her house. After cleaning up we went for a walk along the river to see the Torre de Belem, statue of Christopher Colombus...which I can not think the name of right now (something dos discovermentos) probably butchered that, to Jeronimos monastery, and finally to have some world famous Pasteis de Belem (little custard pastries). After all of that we were pretty worn down, met up with Francisco for a beer, and headed home for dinner. That night we ended up going out to one of the Miradores (overlooks of the city) to have a beer with Francisco, Domingos, and Pedro, and called it an early night.
Wednesday was action packed, well I think it was at least! In the morning, we did not do much but around 13:30 or so we went to Avo's house to pick her up and take her out to lunch. We went to A Bota Velha, one of the restaurants that we frequent in Lisbon, and enjoyed a nice lunch of different typical Portuguese dishes: Fried squid, Acorda de Camaroes (Shrimp bread pudding), Risois de Leitao (suckling pig pastries), I think Tommy a pork chop, and that is all that I remember. Later in the day we went to go do this awesome thing called GoCars, which are little three wheel cars that are converted scooters that give you a tour of the city. You might have seen these in San Francisco or some other place before. It was an awesome way to see the small little streets of Lisbon and the down town area. After that we had croissants from Careca, the coffee shop near Tia Nicha's house, and then went to go visit Felicia with Avo, Tommy, and Lorena. She was doing pretty well, and it is always nice to see her. Wednesday night was another mellow night, we went to Barro Alto, to have a drink with Domingos and Francisco again and ended up running into Pedro also.
Thursday, we were up at a reasonable hour and it was off to Sintra, and town up on a hill 30 minutes or so outside of Lisbon. we got there, parked the car and started walking around. We wandered through some gardens, along the hillside, and back into town. It is a really nice town, with a different pace and just beautiful. We were really lucky in catching a sunny day, and were really able to enjoy our time there. A little old lady feeding some chickens in a park recommended a restaurant to us and it turned out to be a real winner. Maria and I shared Bacalao a Brash (Dried salt cured cod fish wish eggs and potatoes...MMMM), Tommy had Portuguese style pork (cooked with a dried red bell pepper sauce), and Lorna had roasted chicken with the same red pepper sauce...apart from the meal of this wild roasted chicken, that looked more like a turkey, that we had at Tia Nicha's house this was probably the best meal we ate. After a lovely lunch we drive to the very top of the hill to see the castle and Moorish palace before heading back down the other side, and home. Whoops, this was actually the day we went on saw Felicia...so much happened I got mixed up! That night Tio Quim arrived home from the Azores, and David came home from the mission trip he was on, so we were finally all together! We ate dinner and then all the kids went out for a night on the town. We picked up Domingos and Francisco and met up with their other cousins in Barro Alto for a few drinks before going to the Urban Beach (Disco) for the night. The other cousins that were there were: Bruschy, Sebastian, and Martin...always have fun with those guys, and getting us all in a group can be trouble cause so much fun is had. Being I was the designated drive I took it easy, but don't think that kept me from having a blast! We danced the night away, and I ended up running into my roommate and a few other friends from Madrid at the club!
On Friday, our last day in Lisbon, we enjoyed beautiful weather and took advantage of it by going to lunch across the river with Tio Quim, Tia Nicha, Teresa, David, Maria, Tommy, Lorena and I. It was a great time, we took the ferry across the river which I had never done before, and then Tia Nicha and Tio Quim treated us to a fabulous lunch: Clams as an appetizer, Sopa de Piexe (fish soup) for Maria and Teresa, rooster fish for Tia Nicha, Red Mullet for Tio Quim, Octopus for me, Pork chop for Tommy, and Piexe Espada for Lorena and Davis (direct translation is sword fish, but it is not the sword fish we eat in the U.S.). It was actually probably the best meal we had, ok I have to stop saying that, we ate WONDERFULLY the whole time we were in Portugal. Friday afternoon I went with Tia Nicha and Teresa to see Felicia one last time before I left. Friday night after dinner at home, Tommy, Lorena and I hit the bus station and caught the overnight bus back to Madrid.
Saturday was a lazyish day, we got home to rain so we ended up sleeping a few hours before getting up to find everything closed for lunch, we wandered around the city for a while, bought some groceries, bought tickets for the bull fight on Sunday and then headed home. We enjoyed a couple of bottles of Cava, and stayed in for the night watching Cool Runnings, yes you heard me correctly, that Disney movie from the mid 90's! Sunday we got up and made our way towards the Plaza Ventas (the bull arena) for some lunch, we met up with Amy (a friend I met here that is from Arizona) and her mother and enjoyed the sun, pleasant change from the day before, and the bull fight. Unfortunately, the bull fighter did not do a very good job, but it was the first time that any of them had been to a bull fight, so I was the only was who was disappointed I suspect! After the bull fight Tommy, Lorena and I found a bar to watch part of the Atletico de Madrid game that we were going to go too, and then dropped Lorena at the bus station for her trip back to Barcelona.
On the last day Tommy and I caught up on some rest, slept in, and then went out to find some food, get some souvenir shopping taken care of, and soak in the sun and beautiful Monday that it was! We walked all over town again, reminisced on an awesome 11 days, and then got stuff ready for his trip home. He was nice enough to take a suitcase with my winter clothing with him. We made one last trip to the store to get sandwich fixings to make him snacks, cause he is ALWAYS hungry, grabbed a roasted chicken and a loaf of fresh read for the airport and then were on our way. We had an awesome picnic in the terminal, and he was armed with 4 sandwiches and some snacks for his 12 hour lay over in Amsterdam! Just saw the flight tracker and it looks like he got home safely!
Well that is all for now, I do not have any big new from today at school and was able to catch up on some more sleep last night. I am sadly glad more or less to be back at school and to the rhythm of normal, or as normal as you would call it, of being a student here in Madrid. I hope you all enjoyed this MEGA post, and are doing well.
Love as Always from Madrid,
Phil
P.S. please look for photos to be up before tomorrow morning for you all to enjoy, and admire the SALMON pants!!!
This is going to be a big one!
Well, where to start off. The last week of class before spring break was relatively uneventful, I think I left you off after my financial management midterm, and before my world economics midterm. The first, respectively, did not go to well, it was 12 questions and I answered 9 of them. For every one that you get wrong he takes points away so it is kind of screwed if you have no idea. I was not too confident going in and the test was basically demoralizing. The latter did not go so poorly...well I have not received the grade back but I left the exam feeling confident. Thursday night I think I caught about 2.5 hours of sleep before getting up at the crack of dawn to go pick Tommy up from the airport, he came to visit during our spring break which was awesome. I had been feeling a bit homesick for some reason in the past week, and a good friend is the way to solve this issue apparently!
From the minute Tommy got here until when he left yesterday evening, it has been non-stop action, always doing something. We wen to breakfast when we got to my neighborhood, then dropped off his bags and it was out on the town to see the sights. We must have spent a good two and a half or three hours touring all the sights and seeing Madrid. Needless to say after we went to the store and got home, a nap sounded better than lunch so we both crashed for a little bit. I had to get up after about 30 minutes to get to class in the afternoon, but Tommy caught a good 3 or 4 hour nap that I am sure was much needed. My financial management teacher went on to tell us that we were not supposed to do well on the exam he gave earlier in the week, and that the class average was somewhere between a 3 or 4 out of 10. I guess that 3.33 that I got was in the ball park of the average, non the less, hard to swallow. After getting home from class Tommy and I went to La Llama, probably my favorite restaurant in Madrid for some tapas and Canas (beers). We were home relatively early and kind of kicked back until meeting up with Ismael, Javier, Pitu, Vicky, and a couple others for a night out on the town. Although neither of us had slept much the night before, I had to give Tommy a taste of what a night out at the disco was all about. We cut it up at a discotecha called Paddock, and ended up coming home around 6:30 or so in the morning.
Saturday we got up around 13:00 and it was back out to check out a few more sights: Templo Debod, Palacio Royal, Plaza Mayor and so on. We went to another bar for Calamari sandwiches for lunch, and I think I scared Tommy a little bit, not sure he was to into it, but he was a good sport all the same! As we made our way home we stopped by the store and grabbed a few beers to have on our overnight train to Barcelona! When in Europe...take the train? We caught the train at Chamartin around 23:00 and were on our way to see Lorena (Tommy's sister) in Barcelona. We stayed up playing cards fro quite a while and then dozed in and out of sleep the rest of the way there. I am pretty sure I slept a bit more than Tommy, seeing as I was sound asleep when we rolled into Barcelona Sants, our stop, and he had to shake me to wake me up and rush off the train! We caught the Metro to Plaza de Espana, where Lorena lives, made some breakfast, and once again it was right off to go check out the sights. We walked all over Montjuic and checked out the 1992 Olympic stadium and parks around the area. I had never been to this part of town and was quite impressed with the architecture and green areas. In the afternoon we walked around Las Ramblas and then went home to grab a much needed nap! That night we, well I don't really remember what we did for dinner, but then Lorena took us out for a couple os beers at La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep). It was a really cool little bar, and it was nice to take it easy and enjoy each others company.
Monday was another busy day, we were off in the morning to go to a little bar, restaurant called La Champagneria. The place is known for its sandwiches and Cava (the Spanish equivalent of Champagne). We enjoyed a bottle of Cava and some sandwiches and then armed ourselves with another bottle and went down to the beach to take in a bit of sun and relax. After a quick nap it was off to Park Guell for a picnic later in the day and more sight seeing. Lorena took us to a really cool market called La Boqueria later in the day and we wandered around to see the different things that the vendors were selling, mostly fruits, vegetables, meats...things you would expect to see at the market. We also went to a cafe where Picasso used to hang out to have a coffee and Churros con Chocolate, fun to go to the historical places like that even though it is a bit touristy. That evening we decided to make a Mexican themed dinner at home and one of Lorena's friends, David, joined us. We made tacos which turned out really well, and then went for margaritas, which were less than par a a bar around the corner from her house. Right after dinner, I got a surprising call from Tia Nicha telling me that we were flying to Lisbon on Tuesday morning, and not Wednesday, as I believed and had been telling everybody! I guess it is a good thing that I have made a habit of sending her my itineraries to let her know when we r arriving, and as usual she was looking after me and saved us from missing our plane! I was really bummed out that I had botched the tickets and bought our trip to Lisbon a day early, and felt bad that we were not able to spend more time seeing Barcelona. To end our stay in Barcelona we went back up to the top of Montjuic had a little Botellon (a couple beers in the streets), the views of the city were spectacular from up there, and we just listened to some music and took in the sights.
Tuesday Morning, it was up at the crack of dawn and to the airport....Oh wait, how could I forget, at some point during the day on Monday, we made our way into an H&M store and I picked up a pair of Salmon color pants! Before you pass judgment, please see the pictures in my web albums, they are AWESOME! We arrived in Lisbon at 9:00 in the morning, and Avo was waiting for us at the airport. We dropped our bags off at home and then went to Roca, the coffee shop up the street for some breakfast. This was Tommy and Lorena's first glimpse at Portuguese cuisine, and the pastry is not a bad spot to start, we ordered a few different things, but the hit seemed to be the empada's (mini chicken pot pie type things). Tia Nicha ended up meeting us at Avo's house, we gathered our stuff and were off to stay at her house. After cleaning up we went for a walk along the river to see the Torre de Belem, statue of Christopher Colombus...which I can not think the name of right now (something dos discovermentos) probably butchered that, to Jeronimos monastery, and finally to have some world famous Pasteis de Belem (little custard pastries). After all of that we were pretty worn down, met up with Francisco for a beer, and headed home for dinner. That night we ended up going out to one of the Miradores (overlooks of the city) to have a beer with Francisco, Domingos, and Pedro, and called it an early night.
Wednesday was action packed, well I think it was at least! In the morning, we did not do much but around 13:30 or so we went to Avo's house to pick her up and take her out to lunch. We went to A Bota Velha, one of the restaurants that we frequent in Lisbon, and enjoyed a nice lunch of different typical Portuguese dishes: Fried squid, Acorda de Camaroes (Shrimp bread pudding), Risois de Leitao (suckling pig pastries), I think Tommy a pork chop, and that is all that I remember. Later in the day we went to go do this awesome thing called GoCars, which are little three wheel cars that are converted scooters that give you a tour of the city. You might have seen these in San Francisco or some other place before. It was an awesome way to see the small little streets of Lisbon and the down town area. After that we had croissants from Careca, the coffee shop near Tia Nicha's house, and then went to go visit Felicia with Avo, Tommy, and Lorena. She was doing pretty well, and it is always nice to see her. Wednesday night was another mellow night, we went to Barro Alto, to have a drink with Domingos and Francisco again and ended up running into Pedro also.
Thursday, we were up at a reasonable hour and it was off to Sintra, and town up on a hill 30 minutes or so outside of Lisbon. we got there, parked the car and started walking around. We wandered through some gardens, along the hillside, and back into town. It is a really nice town, with a different pace and just beautiful. We were really lucky in catching a sunny day, and were really able to enjoy our time there. A little old lady feeding some chickens in a park recommended a restaurant to us and it turned out to be a real winner. Maria and I shared Bacalao a Brash (Dried salt cured cod fish wish eggs and potatoes...MMMM), Tommy had Portuguese style pork (cooked with a dried red bell pepper sauce), and Lorna had roasted chicken with the same red pepper sauce...apart from the meal of this wild roasted chicken, that looked more like a turkey, that we had at Tia Nicha's house this was probably the best meal we ate. After a lovely lunch we drive to the very top of the hill to see the castle and Moorish palace before heading back down the other side, and home. Whoops, this was actually the day we went on saw Felicia...so much happened I got mixed up! That night Tio Quim arrived home from the Azores, and David came home from the mission trip he was on, so we were finally all together! We ate dinner and then all the kids went out for a night on the town. We picked up Domingos and Francisco and met up with their other cousins in Barro Alto for a few drinks before going to the Urban Beach (Disco) for the night. The other cousins that were there were: Bruschy, Sebastian, and Martin...always have fun with those guys, and getting us all in a group can be trouble cause so much fun is had. Being I was the designated drive I took it easy, but don't think that kept me from having a blast! We danced the night away, and I ended up running into my roommate and a few other friends from Madrid at the club!
On Friday, our last day in Lisbon, we enjoyed beautiful weather and took advantage of it by going to lunch across the river with Tio Quim, Tia Nicha, Teresa, David, Maria, Tommy, Lorena and I. It was a great time, we took the ferry across the river which I had never done before, and then Tia Nicha and Tio Quim treated us to a fabulous lunch: Clams as an appetizer, Sopa de Piexe (fish soup) for Maria and Teresa, rooster fish for Tia Nicha, Red Mullet for Tio Quim, Octopus for me, Pork chop for Tommy, and Piexe Espada for Lorena and Davis (direct translation is sword fish, but it is not the sword fish we eat in the U.S.). It was actually probably the best meal we had, ok I have to stop saying that, we ate WONDERFULLY the whole time we were in Portugal. Friday afternoon I went with Tia Nicha and Teresa to see Felicia one last time before I left. Friday night after dinner at home, Tommy, Lorena and I hit the bus station and caught the overnight bus back to Madrid.
Saturday was a lazyish day, we got home to rain so we ended up sleeping a few hours before getting up to find everything closed for lunch, we wandered around the city for a while, bought some groceries, bought tickets for the bull fight on Sunday and then headed home. We enjoyed a couple of bottles of Cava, and stayed in for the night watching Cool Runnings, yes you heard me correctly, that Disney movie from the mid 90's! Sunday we got up and made our way towards the Plaza Ventas (the bull arena) for some lunch, we met up with Amy (a friend I met here that is from Arizona) and her mother and enjoyed the sun, pleasant change from the day before, and the bull fight. Unfortunately, the bull fighter did not do a very good job, but it was the first time that any of them had been to a bull fight, so I was the only was who was disappointed I suspect! After the bull fight Tommy, Lorena and I found a bar to watch part of the Atletico de Madrid game that we were going to go too, and then dropped Lorena at the bus station for her trip back to Barcelona.
On the last day Tommy and I caught up on some rest, slept in, and then went out to find some food, get some souvenir shopping taken care of, and soak in the sun and beautiful Monday that it was! We walked all over town again, reminisced on an awesome 11 days, and then got stuff ready for his trip home. He was nice enough to take a suitcase with my winter clothing with him. We made one last trip to the store to get sandwich fixings to make him snacks, cause he is ALWAYS hungry, grabbed a roasted chicken and a loaf of fresh read for the airport and then were on our way. We had an awesome picnic in the terminal, and he was armed with 4 sandwiches and some snacks for his 12 hour lay over in Amsterdam! Just saw the flight tracker and it looks like he got home safely!
Well that is all for now, I do not have any big new from today at school and was able to catch up on some more sleep last night. I am sadly glad more or less to be back at school and to the rhythm of normal, or as normal as you would call it, of being a student here in Madrid. I hope you all enjoyed this MEGA post, and are doing well.
Love as Always from Madrid,
Phil
P.S. please look for photos to be up before tomorrow morning for you all to enjoy, and admire the SALMON pants!!!
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