Well, I left you all when I was telling about Dad and my road trip around the north of Spain; now we will pick up on the day back to Lisbon to pick up the rest of the family.
Wednesday we were up at a decent hour and back on the road from Braganza to get to Lisbon. We stopped in Guarda for lunch, and it was UNBELIEVABLE! Dad and I had Fejuada (a bean and meat dish), half a liter of wine, desert, coffee, and aguardiente for a grand total of 13 Euros! Jajaja, now that is what I call ridiculous! Once arriving back in Lisbon, dad and I checked into the hotel we would be staying at for the next few nights and met up with John. It was great to see him finally after so long. He seemed excited to have graduated and is stoked for the summer. Later that night we went to the airport and picked up mom and Andrew. After 10 short months the whole family was reunited! Andrew has grown quite a bit since I last saw him, and is really starting to grow up. It was great to see him and mom again. We all went to dinner and then called it an early night.
Thursday we went as a family to go see Felicia at the house that she is staying at. She still seems to be doing really well, and I know mom was really excited to see her after this last stressful winter with Felicia's health. Later in the afternoon we went with Tia Pepa to lunch and met up with Tia Bia for an ice cream later in the afternoon. Thursday night was Maria's 10th Birthday party so Andrew, David, John and I all went over after ice cream to help Tia Nicha get ready for a house full of little kids. The party was a lot of fun, it was a Hawaiian themed party and we helped the kids play a bunch of different games around the back yard. John and I grilled up a bunch of chicken drumsticks and the kids had a blast. The big surprise of the whole party was when I came out dressed in just a hoolah skirt and a lay and out on a show for all of the little kids. they were all gathered around and we all danced some made up hoolah! That was first and possibly the last time I will ever dance hoolah seeing as I had to make it all up! Later in the evening John and I met up with a couple of his friends from high school when he studied in Lisbon. We went up to Bairro Alto for a couple of drinks and for them to catch up. It was cool to get to meet a couple of the guys and hang out.
Friday John and I slept in late, then met up with mom and dad to go run a few errands with Avo. We all had lunch at Avo's house and then ended up going over to Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's to watch Portugal in the world cup. Well, I guess it is a little bit sad, but I am not sure what we did that night, actually I think we met up with Domingo's, Francisco and Pedro and went to hang out.
Saturday went to visit with Felicia and then made our way out of town towards Porto. We stopped along the way to eat a Portuguese delicacy called Leitao, which is a baby pig that only eats milk. It was a nice meal and then we continued north until we reached Caminha which is a town right on the boarder of Spain and Portugal. Mom has a first cousin Joao who lives there with his wife, Lola. The piece of property they live on is really nice, and they were great hosts. The first night we had a really tasty shrimp rice for dinner that Lola made and talked for hours as we had never met them before.
Sunday Mom, Dad, and John went into town with joao to see Caminha and Andrew and I slept in until lunch time! Lola made a Cozido for lunch that was OUT OF THIS WORLD! Cozido, is a Portuguese dish made up of smoked meats and sausages boiled together with all sorts of vegetables and served with rice. In the North of Portugal they are known for their Smoked meats and sausages and the meal was crazy good. Sunday evening we continued up into Galicia Spain and went to Santiago de Compostela. In Santiago de Compostela John, Andrew and I watched some world cup soccer and Mom and Dad toured the town. For the night we ended up staying in some little village about 45 min to the north outside of town.
Monday morning we headed further north towards A Coruna and had lunch right on the boarder of Galicia and Asturias. We had a fabulous lunch of Octopus and other sorts of fresh fish. After lunch it was up into the Picos de Europa national park for the next day or two. We stayed at this little rural hotel in the mountains and had a great time relaxing.
Tuesday we went all the way up into one of the canyons to a cable car that took you to the top of the mountains. It was the longest free running cable in Europe, meaning that there were no supports or poles holding the cable up, it dangled from the bottom station all the way to the top. It was quite the view from the top and we even saw some mountain goats! After the cable car ride we went to this bar called Los Llanos for a Spanish Cozido, made with garbanzo beans, meats and sausages, it was recommended to us by the guy at the hotel and was really tasty. After lunch we began to make our way down to Madrid. We passed through Burgos and continued to a small village outside of town for the night. We watched the Portugal vs. Spain, and there was some tension because I was the only one in the family rooting for Spain who won 1-0.
Well, another week in the books, still a bit more to catch up on seeing as it is already July 21st!
Much Love Always,
Phil
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
June 16th - June 22nd
Well it has been quite a while since I last wrote but it is time that I get down to business and tell you all how the last week or so has been. In one word, AMAZING! Ok, so not all of it was amazing, but the second half definitely was off the charts.
On Tuesday I hung around Marc’s house for the majority of the morning before heading into Madrid with Marc, Pitu, and Ian (Marc’s brother). We were meeting up with a few of my Portuguese friends for a going away party/dinner for me. We met up at Metro Lavapies and enjoyed a wonderful meal at Marc and my favorite little Indian restaurant. In total we were 7: Marc, Pitu, Ian, Rita, Carlos, Mimi and I. It was a great little get together, and I was close to all of them throughout the year. Dinner carried on until the wee hours of the morning with laughter and stories, and then it was off to the house to get an hour or two of studying in before my Corporate Finance exam the next day.
Wednesday I woke up at a relatively good hour, around 8 and was on campus by 9:30 for my exam at 12:00. The exam went well. It was just about what I was expecting and the material that I covered was the stuff that was on the exam; I know this might sound a bit ridiculous, but you have to take into account that in Spain they only give one final at the end of the semester that your whole grade rides, so you do not know what to expect from the teacher seeing as you have not taken any mid-terms to gage off of. After the exam I ran as quickly as I could to the train station to catch the train to Pozuelo, where I was meeting Pitu, to go watch Spain play against Switzerland. We went to a bar near his house and watched the game with a few of his friends from his university. It was a good game, where Spain controlled possession for the majority of the game, but still lost to Switzerland 1-0 because of a defensive break down on the one scoring chance that Switzerland had. It was quite the game to watch with all the Spanish jumping up and down with every scoring chance, and a pity that they did not put in a few of the opportunities and win. After the game I got a bit of studying in and it was off to bed to rest up for the last exam.
Thursday morning I made to campus at a good hour and tried to get a few hours of studying in before it was time to get down to business. The studying did not go too well because I was burnt out form the other three but you got to do what you got to do. The exam did not go as well as I wish it had, but that is life sometimes. It was good to be done with all my exams and it was finally time for SUMMER BREAK! Thursday night we had a low key night and then met up with Joaquin and Pitu for a coffee and to hang out. It was a good way to end the semester.
Friday morning I packed up my bags and Pitu picked me up to give me a ride to the airport. My flight arrived on time and before no time it was back to the airport to pick up DAD in Tia Nicha’s car! It was completely awesome to see dad after 10 months. It ended up being 10 months and 1 day on the ball! After picking him up we went to Avo’s house to give her a kiss and say hi, and then it was off to see Felicia at the old people’s home run by the local church that she is staying at for the summer. She seems to be doing really well and is the sharpest one in there by a good margin. It gives her people to chat with during the day and the gals that take care of the ladies are really sweet. When we were near Avo’s house I asked dad if he was hungry for a snack and he said no, but sure enough 30 minutes afterwards, after we saw Felicia, it was all he could think about. We stopped at a bar near the house and had some peal and eat shrimp, icy cold beers, and olives…a true Portuguese summer time snack! We then made our way to Tia Nicha’s house again and had a dinner with: Tia Nicha, David, Teresa, Maria, Francisco, Domingos, and Francicso (Teresa’s boyfriend). It was great to have all of us together and then as quickly as we had dinner, dad was off to bed!
Saturday morning was an early one. Dad and I were up around 8 a.m. and it was off to pick up the rental car for the next 20 days. We managed to grab some croissants with ham and cheese at Careca (the coffee shop near Tia Nicha’s house) before we left, but still were there by 9a.m. It took a while to get it all taken care of but that’s always how it is at the airport. A little later Dad and I picked up Avo for lunch, and met Tia Nicha, Maria, and David near the river for some grilled fish. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, and then it was off to go visit Felicia, and drop off Avo before blasting out of town for a little road trip. I say road trip, but it probably will sound more like some sort of gastronomical adventure at the rate we were stopping for snacks and meals! I mean you wouldn’t want to run out of energy. After driving off the beaten path for hours and hours, eating pastries in a little town with a plaza overlooking the church (like most all European cities), and exploring the various terrains of mountains and hills in Portugal, we ended up staying in a city called Oliviera de Azemeis. We were beaten down looking for a place to stay when we asked a gentlemen and he sent us to the hotel that he worked at in town, and told us exactly which room special to ask for…I think the lady at the counter was a little bit surprised when we came in looking for this smoking deal, but it was her colleague that sent us in, and I had to end up describing him and his dog that he was walking before she finally realized we were not full of it! After eating all say we decided to grab something light so we had soup and salad at the restaurant at the top of the hotel. Let me tell you, this was a weird experience. About fifteen minutes into the meal Dad looks at me and says something along the lines of “do you know where we came in from?”…thinking it was ridiculous that he was asking such a simple question when he has a good sense of direction, I turned over my shoulder and was about to say “right there” when I realized that it was not and that I was completely turned around and confused now too. Sure enough, the room had been spinning in a slow circle since the time that we walked in and Dad thought that he was jet lagged and I had not even began to notice! Of course after discovering this I started to realize that the bar was creeping up on up, the Dj Stand, the balcony that was behind me when I sat down was now the view I was looking out on…it was a very strange feeling for the rest of the meal. I felt, I am not sure how to explain it, almost sea sick or dizzy from just thinking about it the whole rest of the time.
Sunday Morning we had a slow start and then made our way north through Porto and into Galicia, Spain (the most north western province). First stop in Galicia was Vago for lunch. Vigo was a cool little costal town where we found a tiny little bar full of locals, near the shipping docks to have a bite to eat. We started out with some squid and pimientos de padrón with the house white wine and then moved onto some cozido (Meat and vegetable stew). It was a fine meal. After lunch we made our way to Santiago de Compostela. A town a little farther north that is the ending point of a bunch of pilgrimage trails throughout Spain. It was a nice old city with a pretty cathedral and old town area, but we did not spend much time touring the monuments, instead we jumped back in the car and continued north through the lightly used country highways until we reached A Coruña. A Coruña is one of the northern most cities in Spain, if not the most northern city. We got out briefly and walked along the water but it was a bit cold and there was not anything in particular that jumped out at us to go and see. We made a loop around the coastal areas and then, again, it was back on the road. We ended up in Lugo, an ancient city that is surrounded by the “Best Preserved Roman Walls”. I am not sure how true that claim is, but I can tell you this, they were really quite spectacular. We found a little hostel just outside the old city walls where we ended up staying for the night. It was just about this hour, around 9:30p.m. that I realized that it was Fathers day! Ok, so that is a little bit of a lie, I think I remembered at lunch, but it was later than it should have been, but we had a hell of a day. To finish off the day we had a fabulous little meal in the downtown area. We had some steaks, salad and homemade french-fries. What more could you want right? Oh wait, that is right, we also had a fine bottle of red wine from Galicia, and some cheese and marmalade for desert with an Aguardiente (liquor) from the region. It was a mighty fine father’s day if I could say so myself.
Monday morning we got up and found the right looking pastry shop to charge the batteries at before walking the mile and a third all the way around the old city walls. After the breezy walk around the walls we jumped right back in the car and headed off to Asturias. We were planning to go to Oviedo, but did not end up making it all the way there. We drove through tiny mountain passes where we ran into very few other cars and took our time to make our way towards Oviedo. We stopped for lunch in some little town called Grandas de Salime, and had a great meal overlooking a beautiful view of the valley below us. We ended up arriving in this little one horse town call San Roman in the early evening, and checking into a rural hotel. The whole town was not much longer than 100m long in total with two bars, one of which was open, and one restaurant, which was closed. We kicked back for a little bit and then went to the bar to have some Sidra, and watch Spain’s second match. Asturias is famous for their Sidra (Cider) but it the bottle that we tried at the bar was kind of funky so we switched over to Cañas. Finally the Spanish squad got their act together and won the game. After the game we ended up calling it a night.
Tuesday we headed into Grado to find a decent looking pastry shop for breakfast. We enjoyed some barras con tomate and café con leche before heading down towards Leon. We worked our way through a natural park called Parque Natural de Somiedo. It was quite an incredible park, and a completely different than the part of Spain you see near Madrid, or in the south. The park was lush with trees, full of running water, and blooming with wild flowers; the peaks were rugged and the terrain was steep. We got about half way through the park and stopped at a local tavern that some road workers had recommended to us for lunch. We ate the Menu del Día (daily special) and enjoyed a nice cup of espresso near the creek that ran right by the restaurant. The fellow that worked there was really nice and was explaining to us all of the different types of animals and fish that are hunted and caught in the area, the different types of ways that they prepare and dry the meats, how the families depend on the hunt. It was really interesting to hear all about the area and the people’s ways. After lunch we continued up and over the pass to get us out of the park and on our way to Castílla y Leon (the province). Before leaving the park we ran in to a bit of farming land with some beautiful cows on it, yes that is right, good looking cows. Let me tell you HAPPY COWS COME FROM ASTURIAS! Please see the image below. It was almost sad to come out of the coastal mountains of Asturias and into the dry plateau of Castilla y Leon, but it is pretty in its own way. When we got to Leon we tried to go find a good looking bar in their bar and tapas district to have a snack and a cold refreshment, but were more than disappointed to find the whole place looking like a ghost town. I am not sure what it was but it was nearly impossible to find a place to have a drink and a sandwich with any sort of life or ambiance. While walking through the Plaza Mayor, dad and I saw one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Let me paint this picture for you. Lying on the steps in the shade on one end of the plaza was a transient man, clearly napping from having a few too many drinks. This might not seem abnormal or funny at first glance, until you realized that he had his trousers undone and a hand supporting himself. It was quite the sight, and dad and I got quite the kick out f it. After leaving Leon we made our way south west until we reached the north eastern part of Portugal, a town called Braganza. We ended up staying the night in Braganza. We stopped for dinner at the bar that was most crowded and ended up having a fine meal. Alright, the food was nothing to particularly write home about but we had a nice bottle of wine and then the owner started pouring us all sorts of kinds of homemade aguardientes. The first one was made from crushed grapes, similar maybe to a Grapa in Italy; and the second one was the same stuff flavored with fig leaves. It was very different than anything that I had had before back home. After dinner, the owner recommended a hotel to us down the road so we went and got a room. I would say I feel bad about torturing the lady working at the desk, but I would be lying! We checked in, and the lobby smelled strongly of paint; after we made it up to our room we learned that there was no internet so we immediately called down to complain. Because we were joking with her when we arrived, the first thing to come out of her mouth when I called down and told her the paint was giving Dad a headache was “are you kidding, or being serious?”. Without skipping a beat I told her that I was very serious…she replied that there was free internet in the lounge, so I told her that his headache was worse in the lounge because the smell was stronger. When she told me that she would have to send her director up to check I knew that she was done for, I told “oh please do, it is really bad, he is not doing too well!” Within about a minute she called our room back and gave us the key to get into the wireless internet…poor girl! We had a heck of a time and were rolling around on the floor laughing, Uncle Ralph would have been proud of us!
Well, that was quite a bit in one shot. I hope you all were not bored by it, and the other half of these last two weeks will be back up soon.
Much Love Always,
Phil
On Tuesday I hung around Marc’s house for the majority of the morning before heading into Madrid with Marc, Pitu, and Ian (Marc’s brother). We were meeting up with a few of my Portuguese friends for a going away party/dinner for me. We met up at Metro Lavapies and enjoyed a wonderful meal at Marc and my favorite little Indian restaurant. In total we were 7: Marc, Pitu, Ian, Rita, Carlos, Mimi and I. It was a great little get together, and I was close to all of them throughout the year. Dinner carried on until the wee hours of the morning with laughter and stories, and then it was off to the house to get an hour or two of studying in before my Corporate Finance exam the next day.
Wednesday I woke up at a relatively good hour, around 8 and was on campus by 9:30 for my exam at 12:00. The exam went well. It was just about what I was expecting and the material that I covered was the stuff that was on the exam; I know this might sound a bit ridiculous, but you have to take into account that in Spain they only give one final at the end of the semester that your whole grade rides, so you do not know what to expect from the teacher seeing as you have not taken any mid-terms to gage off of. After the exam I ran as quickly as I could to the train station to catch the train to Pozuelo, where I was meeting Pitu, to go watch Spain play against Switzerland. We went to a bar near his house and watched the game with a few of his friends from his university. It was a good game, where Spain controlled possession for the majority of the game, but still lost to Switzerland 1-0 because of a defensive break down on the one scoring chance that Switzerland had. It was quite the game to watch with all the Spanish jumping up and down with every scoring chance, and a pity that they did not put in a few of the opportunities and win. After the game I got a bit of studying in and it was off to bed to rest up for the last exam.
Thursday morning I made to campus at a good hour and tried to get a few hours of studying in before it was time to get down to business. The studying did not go too well because I was burnt out form the other three but you got to do what you got to do. The exam did not go as well as I wish it had, but that is life sometimes. It was good to be done with all my exams and it was finally time for SUMMER BREAK! Thursday night we had a low key night and then met up with Joaquin and Pitu for a coffee and to hang out. It was a good way to end the semester.
Friday morning I packed up my bags and Pitu picked me up to give me a ride to the airport. My flight arrived on time and before no time it was back to the airport to pick up DAD in Tia Nicha’s car! It was completely awesome to see dad after 10 months. It ended up being 10 months and 1 day on the ball! After picking him up we went to Avo’s house to give her a kiss and say hi, and then it was off to see Felicia at the old people’s home run by the local church that she is staying at for the summer. She seems to be doing really well and is the sharpest one in there by a good margin. It gives her people to chat with during the day and the gals that take care of the ladies are really sweet. When we were near Avo’s house I asked dad if he was hungry for a snack and he said no, but sure enough 30 minutes afterwards, after we saw Felicia, it was all he could think about. We stopped at a bar near the house and had some peal and eat shrimp, icy cold beers, and olives…a true Portuguese summer time snack! We then made our way to Tia Nicha’s house again and had a dinner with: Tia Nicha, David, Teresa, Maria, Francisco, Domingos, and Francicso (Teresa’s boyfriend). It was great to have all of us together and then as quickly as we had dinner, dad was off to bed!
Saturday morning was an early one. Dad and I were up around 8 a.m. and it was off to pick up the rental car for the next 20 days. We managed to grab some croissants with ham and cheese at Careca (the coffee shop near Tia Nicha’s house) before we left, but still were there by 9a.m. It took a while to get it all taken care of but that’s always how it is at the airport. A little later Dad and I picked up Avo for lunch, and met Tia Nicha, Maria, and David near the river for some grilled fish. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, and then it was off to go visit Felicia, and drop off Avo before blasting out of town for a little road trip. I say road trip, but it probably will sound more like some sort of gastronomical adventure at the rate we were stopping for snacks and meals! I mean you wouldn’t want to run out of energy. After driving off the beaten path for hours and hours, eating pastries in a little town with a plaza overlooking the church (like most all European cities), and exploring the various terrains of mountains and hills in Portugal, we ended up staying in a city called Oliviera de Azemeis. We were beaten down looking for a place to stay when we asked a gentlemen and he sent us to the hotel that he worked at in town, and told us exactly which room special to ask for…I think the lady at the counter was a little bit surprised when we came in looking for this smoking deal, but it was her colleague that sent us in, and I had to end up describing him and his dog that he was walking before she finally realized we were not full of it! After eating all say we decided to grab something light so we had soup and salad at the restaurant at the top of the hotel. Let me tell you, this was a weird experience. About fifteen minutes into the meal Dad looks at me and says something along the lines of “do you know where we came in from?”…thinking it was ridiculous that he was asking such a simple question when he has a good sense of direction, I turned over my shoulder and was about to say “right there” when I realized that it was not and that I was completely turned around and confused now too. Sure enough, the room had been spinning in a slow circle since the time that we walked in and Dad thought that he was jet lagged and I had not even began to notice! Of course after discovering this I started to realize that the bar was creeping up on up, the Dj Stand, the balcony that was behind me when I sat down was now the view I was looking out on…it was a very strange feeling for the rest of the meal. I felt, I am not sure how to explain it, almost sea sick or dizzy from just thinking about it the whole rest of the time.
Sunday Morning we had a slow start and then made our way north through Porto and into Galicia, Spain (the most north western province). First stop in Galicia was Vago for lunch. Vigo was a cool little costal town where we found a tiny little bar full of locals, near the shipping docks to have a bite to eat. We started out with some squid and pimientos de padrón with the house white wine and then moved onto some cozido (Meat and vegetable stew). It was a fine meal. After lunch we made our way to Santiago de Compostela. A town a little farther north that is the ending point of a bunch of pilgrimage trails throughout Spain. It was a nice old city with a pretty cathedral and old town area, but we did not spend much time touring the monuments, instead we jumped back in the car and continued north through the lightly used country highways until we reached A Coruña. A Coruña is one of the northern most cities in Spain, if not the most northern city. We got out briefly and walked along the water but it was a bit cold and there was not anything in particular that jumped out at us to go and see. We made a loop around the coastal areas and then, again, it was back on the road. We ended up in Lugo, an ancient city that is surrounded by the “Best Preserved Roman Walls”. I am not sure how true that claim is, but I can tell you this, they were really quite spectacular. We found a little hostel just outside the old city walls where we ended up staying for the night. It was just about this hour, around 9:30p.m. that I realized that it was Fathers day! Ok, so that is a little bit of a lie, I think I remembered at lunch, but it was later than it should have been, but we had a hell of a day. To finish off the day we had a fabulous little meal in the downtown area. We had some steaks, salad and homemade french-fries. What more could you want right? Oh wait, that is right, we also had a fine bottle of red wine from Galicia, and some cheese and marmalade for desert with an Aguardiente (liquor) from the region. It was a mighty fine father’s day if I could say so myself.
Monday morning we got up and found the right looking pastry shop to charge the batteries at before walking the mile and a third all the way around the old city walls. After the breezy walk around the walls we jumped right back in the car and headed off to Asturias. We were planning to go to Oviedo, but did not end up making it all the way there. We drove through tiny mountain passes where we ran into very few other cars and took our time to make our way towards Oviedo. We stopped for lunch in some little town called Grandas de Salime, and had a great meal overlooking a beautiful view of the valley below us. We ended up arriving in this little one horse town call San Roman in the early evening, and checking into a rural hotel. The whole town was not much longer than 100m long in total with two bars, one of which was open, and one restaurant, which was closed. We kicked back for a little bit and then went to the bar to have some Sidra, and watch Spain’s second match. Asturias is famous for their Sidra (Cider) but it the bottle that we tried at the bar was kind of funky so we switched over to Cañas. Finally the Spanish squad got their act together and won the game. After the game we ended up calling it a night.
Tuesday we headed into Grado to find a decent looking pastry shop for breakfast. We enjoyed some barras con tomate and café con leche before heading down towards Leon. We worked our way through a natural park called Parque Natural de Somiedo. It was quite an incredible park, and a completely different than the part of Spain you see near Madrid, or in the south. The park was lush with trees, full of running water, and blooming with wild flowers; the peaks were rugged and the terrain was steep. We got about half way through the park and stopped at a local tavern that some road workers had recommended to us for lunch. We ate the Menu del Día (daily special) and enjoyed a nice cup of espresso near the creek that ran right by the restaurant. The fellow that worked there was really nice and was explaining to us all of the different types of animals and fish that are hunted and caught in the area, the different types of ways that they prepare and dry the meats, how the families depend on the hunt. It was really interesting to hear all about the area and the people’s ways. After lunch we continued up and over the pass to get us out of the park and on our way to Castílla y Leon (the province). Before leaving the park we ran in to a bit of farming land with some beautiful cows on it, yes that is right, good looking cows. Let me tell you HAPPY COWS COME FROM ASTURIAS! Please see the image below. It was almost sad to come out of the coastal mountains of Asturias and into the dry plateau of Castilla y Leon, but it is pretty in its own way. When we got to Leon we tried to go find a good looking bar in their bar and tapas district to have a snack and a cold refreshment, but were more than disappointed to find the whole place looking like a ghost town. I am not sure what it was but it was nearly impossible to find a place to have a drink and a sandwich with any sort of life or ambiance. While walking through the Plaza Mayor, dad and I saw one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Let me paint this picture for you. Lying on the steps in the shade on one end of the plaza was a transient man, clearly napping from having a few too many drinks. This might not seem abnormal or funny at first glance, until you realized that he had his trousers undone and a hand supporting himself. It was quite the sight, and dad and I got quite the kick out f it. After leaving Leon we made our way south west until we reached the north eastern part of Portugal, a town called Braganza. We ended up staying the night in Braganza. We stopped for dinner at the bar that was most crowded and ended up having a fine meal. Alright, the food was nothing to particularly write home about but we had a nice bottle of wine and then the owner started pouring us all sorts of kinds of homemade aguardientes. The first one was made from crushed grapes, similar maybe to a Grapa in Italy; and the second one was the same stuff flavored with fig leaves. It was very different than anything that I had had before back home. After dinner, the owner recommended a hotel to us down the road so we went and got a room. I would say I feel bad about torturing the lady working at the desk, but I would be lying! We checked in, and the lobby smelled strongly of paint; after we made it up to our room we learned that there was no internet so we immediately called down to complain. Because we were joking with her when we arrived, the first thing to come out of her mouth when I called down and told her the paint was giving Dad a headache was “are you kidding, or being serious?”. Without skipping a beat I told her that I was very serious…she replied that there was free internet in the lounge, so I told her that his headache was worse in the lounge because the smell was stronger. When she told me that she would have to send her director up to check I knew that she was done for, I told “oh please do, it is really bad, he is not doing too well!” Within about a minute she called our room back and gave us the key to get into the wireless internet…poor girl! We had a heck of a time and were rolling around on the floor laughing, Uncle Ralph would have been proud of us!
Well, that was quite a bit in one shot. I hope you all were not bored by it, and the other half of these last two weeks will be back up soon.
Much Love Always,
Phil
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
June 8th - June 15th
Another week has blown on bye, and before nothing the family will be here for the summer. On Tuesday last week, it was another morning of studying. I had been waking up at 7a.m. when David was getting up to go to school and studying for a few hours in the morning before Maria was up to get ready and the day got rolling. It seemed to be the most efficient way to get some reading done and I was actually pretty productive. We did not end up doing to much on Tuesday as the weather was bad. It shouldn't be raining this time of year but sure enough it was. I was going to meet up with Domingos and Francisco for a drink but we were all busy studying so we put it off for another night.
Wednesday was another early morning study session before packing all of my stuff up to head back to Madrid. Before leaving I stopped by Avo's house to say bye to her and Felicia. They both seem to be doing well. The flight went really smoothly and I was in Madrid by the early afternoon. Stopped by Rita's house to pick up the rest of my deposit from my apartment and then headed home to Marc's house.
Thursday afternoon I met up with Bruno from my Financial Systems class to have a study session before the exam on Friday. It went pretty well, we went over all of the material and ended up being done quite a bit earlier than expected. I ended up heading home and hanging out with Ian, Javier and gina for a while because Marc was still at work and then meeting up with friends in Madrid for dinner. I was going to go out with them, but decided that maybe it would be a good idea to sleep and study a little bit before my exam!
Friday's exam was not until the late afternoon, 5:00p.m. I arrived at the university early and ended up running into a couple of friends from last semester that had been studying abroad in Canada. I had a coffee with Ángela, Claudia, Laura, and friends and then buckled down for a little bit of prep before going into the exam. The exam went pretty well, as in I am 95% sure I passed it. At one point the Spanish was not flowing for me so I asked my teacher, Marta, if I could respond in Spanglish and she said that that would be fine! She was a great teacher and really helpful to me this semester. After the exam I talked with Andrew for a little bit before he headed off to John's Graduation weekend with Mom and Dad; and then went into Madrid for another review session with my buddy Jon from World Economics. We got a couple hours of studying in and then I caught up with Ian and Marc who were watching a movie downtown and we all headed home together.
After a few more hours of cramming, it was a quick nap until 6:00a.m. and then it was off to the test. I had to leave the house by 6:45 to catch the right trains in order to make it to my university with a little bit of time to spare for the 9:00a.m. exam. Right before the test I was going over some last minute questions with a couple of guys from my class, and sure enough the material I was catching up on showed up on the exam! I did pretty well on this exam, and found out yesterday, Monday that I passed with a 6.5. I am really excited about that because it was the class I was most nervous about passing. I got home around 12:00 Saturday and took a nap for a few hours until lunch was ready! Javier made us a mean pasta casserole for lunch. Marc and I hung out around the house for most the afternoon and then that night we met up with Ismael, Alvaro and Joaquin for dinner. It was good to see the guys because they have all been stuck in their rooms studying for the last month and they finally snuck out for a bite to eat. After dinner Marc and I were debating weather to stay in or go out for a beer in Madrid with Ángela and Claudia. We finally decided to go out for a couple of hours, and sure enough it turned into the whole night! We all went to Joy and danced the night away with the girls and also Laura, and a couple others that I met for the first time that night. It ended up being a heck of a good time for a night when we almost didn't go out! Whoops, almost forgot...John graduated on Saturday and I got to talk to him briefly during his graduation party. It sounded like he was having a good time and it was hard to have had to have missed it, but man am I proud of him!
Sunday was a slow day to catch up on sleep and rest the brain. As a matter of fact I am having a hard time remembering what we did. That is right, we did not do anything until the early evening when we went to Pitu's house to watch Germany play Australia in the World cup; which reminds me on Saturday I watched the U.S. tie with England for their opening match. The Germany vs. Australia game was not nearly as interesting but it was fun to hang with Marc and Pitu. For dinner we went to a local bar and grabbed some bocadillos and then called it a night.
Monday was supposed to be another day to study for my exams on Wednesday and Thursday but I ended up resting and talking to the family on Skype.It was really cool because lots of people were at the house and I got to see them all: Uncle Bill, Aunty Sheryl, Aunt Margie, Uncle Petar, Elizabeth, Leslie (who also graduated, Congrats), Grandpops, Iris, and maybe one or two more of Leslie's family friends from Santa Cruz that I am forgetting. Other than that I hung out with Marc and Ian which is always a mellow and good time.
Well, that brings us to today Tuesday and it is time to buckle down and study a bit before the exam tomorrow. Tonight I am meeting up with Rita, Carlos, Mimi, Ana, Marc, Ian, and maybe a few other friends to go have Indian food, and then it is two more exams before I am back in Lisbon to pick Dad up from the airport! It has been a long 10 months and I am dying to see the family!
Well, I hope this finds everyone doing well back home, and I hope that you are beginning to enjoy your summers.
Much Love Always,
Phil
Wednesday was another early morning study session before packing all of my stuff up to head back to Madrid. Before leaving I stopped by Avo's house to say bye to her and Felicia. They both seem to be doing well. The flight went really smoothly and I was in Madrid by the early afternoon. Stopped by Rita's house to pick up the rest of my deposit from my apartment and then headed home to Marc's house.
Thursday afternoon I met up with Bruno from my Financial Systems class to have a study session before the exam on Friday. It went pretty well, we went over all of the material and ended up being done quite a bit earlier than expected. I ended up heading home and hanging out with Ian, Javier and gina for a while because Marc was still at work and then meeting up with friends in Madrid for dinner. I was going to go out with them, but decided that maybe it would be a good idea to sleep and study a little bit before my exam!
Friday's exam was not until the late afternoon, 5:00p.m. I arrived at the university early and ended up running into a couple of friends from last semester that had been studying abroad in Canada. I had a coffee with Ángela, Claudia, Laura, and friends and then buckled down for a little bit of prep before going into the exam. The exam went pretty well, as in I am 95% sure I passed it. At one point the Spanish was not flowing for me so I asked my teacher, Marta, if I could respond in Spanglish and she said that that would be fine! She was a great teacher and really helpful to me this semester. After the exam I talked with Andrew for a little bit before he headed off to John's Graduation weekend with Mom and Dad; and then went into Madrid for another review session with my buddy Jon from World Economics. We got a couple hours of studying in and then I caught up with Ian and Marc who were watching a movie downtown and we all headed home together.
After a few more hours of cramming, it was a quick nap until 6:00a.m. and then it was off to the test. I had to leave the house by 6:45 to catch the right trains in order to make it to my university with a little bit of time to spare for the 9:00a.m. exam. Right before the test I was going over some last minute questions with a couple of guys from my class, and sure enough the material I was catching up on showed up on the exam! I did pretty well on this exam, and found out yesterday, Monday that I passed with a 6.5. I am really excited about that because it was the class I was most nervous about passing. I got home around 12:00 Saturday and took a nap for a few hours until lunch was ready! Javier made us a mean pasta casserole for lunch. Marc and I hung out around the house for most the afternoon and then that night we met up with Ismael, Alvaro and Joaquin for dinner. It was good to see the guys because they have all been stuck in their rooms studying for the last month and they finally snuck out for a bite to eat. After dinner Marc and I were debating weather to stay in or go out for a beer in Madrid with Ángela and Claudia. We finally decided to go out for a couple of hours, and sure enough it turned into the whole night! We all went to Joy and danced the night away with the girls and also Laura, and a couple others that I met for the first time that night. It ended up being a heck of a good time for a night when we almost didn't go out! Whoops, almost forgot...John graduated on Saturday and I got to talk to him briefly during his graduation party. It sounded like he was having a good time and it was hard to have had to have missed it, but man am I proud of him!
Sunday was a slow day to catch up on sleep and rest the brain. As a matter of fact I am having a hard time remembering what we did. That is right, we did not do anything until the early evening when we went to Pitu's house to watch Germany play Australia in the World cup; which reminds me on Saturday I watched the U.S. tie with England for their opening match. The Germany vs. Australia game was not nearly as interesting but it was fun to hang with Marc and Pitu. For dinner we went to a local bar and grabbed some bocadillos and then called it a night.
Monday was supposed to be another day to study for my exams on Wednesday and Thursday but I ended up resting and talking to the family on Skype.It was really cool because lots of people were at the house and I got to see them all: Uncle Bill, Aunty Sheryl, Aunt Margie, Uncle Petar, Elizabeth, Leslie (who also graduated, Congrats), Grandpops, Iris, and maybe one or two more of Leslie's family friends from Santa Cruz that I am forgetting. Other than that I hung out with Marc and Ian which is always a mellow and good time.
Well, that brings us to today Tuesday and it is time to buckle down and study a bit before the exam tomorrow. Tonight I am meeting up with Rita, Carlos, Mimi, Ana, Marc, Ian, and maybe a few other friends to go have Indian food, and then it is two more exams before I am back in Lisbon to pick Dad up from the airport! It has been a long 10 months and I am dying to see the family!
Well, I hope this finds everyone doing well back home, and I hope that you are beginning to enjoy your summers.
Much Love Always,
Phil
Monday, June 7, 2010
May 31st – June 7th
Monday was a sad day, it was my absolute last day at 62 Andres Mellado 5D. I woke up and started packing things and getting the house back in order since we changed some things around to our liking. Around 1:30 or so Joaquin came over because he was in the area (his university is about 10 minutes from the house) and he knew I did not have anything going on. Around 3:00 Joaquin and I went and met up with Rita the neighbor for lunch, and to say good bye to her. After lunch, Joaquin and I ran some errands that he had to get done in Madrid, then he went to the gym and I went home to pack everything into my bags. It took me about an hour to throw all the garbage out of the house, clean the floors, and pack all of my stuff up. As hard as it is to believe, my whole life here in Madrid over the course of the last year fits into about 2 bags and a backpack. Thankfully Joaquin offered to come and help me take all of my bags to the bus station after he was done with working out, because Marc was not off work, and was not able to swing by the house to pick up all my stuff. Joaquin and I lugged the bags down to the bus station in 35C weather (around 90F I think). We ended up going to his house to hang for a while since he lives near Marc’s house. It was a blast hanging at Joaquin’s house because he has a little brother Julian that reminds me a lot of Andrew, way smarter than he should be and quick with his jokes! I treated Joaquin and Marc to dinner for helping me out, and we enjoyed ourselves on the back porch now that the weather is nicer and it stays light until around 10:15. We finally made it to Marc’s house (my second home in Madrid) around 10:45 and let me tell you it felt nice to be home!
Tuesday was a slow day. I was feeling a bit under the weather so I slept for most the day and was able to catch up with the family and friends on Skype. We had dinner at the house with the whole family (Javier, Gina, Ian and Marc…well and me, their adopted son!). Javier always cooks mean meals for us. We had some pasta casserole with red sauce that was really tasty. Later that night we met up with Alvaro, Isaac, Javier (our friend, not Marc’s dad), to go to Pitu’s graduation party. Apparently one of Pitu’s colleagues at the university’s father owns one of the discos that we go to quite often, so they threw a huge party for all the graduates and friends! We showed up for a little bit to tell Pitu congratulations, but called it an early night because I was still not feeling great and Marc had to be at work in the morning.
Wednesday was off to Lisbon! Finally, I have been looking forward to getting back to the family. Although I am mostly there to find some quite time to recharge the batteries and study, it is always a good time! Wednesday I arrived on time, for once, Tia Nicha and David were there to pick me up and we went straight to Avo’s house to say hi to her and Felicia. Felicia seems to be doing much better now that she is home. She is gaining some strength and seems to be doing well. After stopping by the house, Tia Nicha, David and I were off to pick up Maria. We picked her up from school and she was thrilled as usual. A bit later Tia Nicha and I went to Careca, the coffee shop down the street to have a coffee with Tia Po, and that evening we hung out around the house and had dinner with the family.
Thursday was Corpus Christi day, a holiday, in Lisbon so we had the whole day together as a family. Tia Nicha got together a bunch of friends and we rented a couple of zodiac boats to do a tour up the Tejo River. It was a ton of fun, we had about 11 kids in one of the boats and we sent the 8 adults to another one. The guide in our boat was doing donuts and making sure that everyone had a blast and got a little bit wet! We rode up the Tejo for about 45 minutes to Rat Island (this is the direct translation). We got off the boats there and cruised around the beach and went swimming. All of us kids were doing flips off of the bow of the zodiac and just taking in the sun and fun. After we made it back to the harbor, the whole group went up to a restaurant above the dock and enjoyed a nice grilled fish. There is not much better than a grilled piece of fish in Lisbon, now that is living! Later that evening we met up with Tia Po, Tio Ita, Domingos, Francisco, and Pedro for dinner at a pizzeria. It was good to see them all. This time of year is always rough to see the cousins because they are studying for exams, like I am, but they tend to lock themselves inside the house and play HERMIT!
Friday morning after getting the kids off to school Tia Nicha and I were off to the farm to fix some irrigation on the vineyard and pick oranges from the orange grove. It was not as hot as I was expecting it to be. We arrived in the morning and got most the work done before the heat really kicked in. Being as smart as I am, I went in trunks and a t-shirt; the whole time we were battling through brush at chest level to pick the oranges and take them back to the car. By the end of the time I was all scraped up, had a mess of thorny things in my shoes, and was ready to hose off. Just as I was finishing up my all natural hose bath in the sun, the lady that takes care of the farm (Angelina) turned the corner and almost caught a show that she would have been all sorts of excited about seeing! Luckily I had dressed myself a mere 30 seconds before. Friday night we laid low at home and called it an early night after a day of picking about 500 pounds of oranges. Needless to say we were tired.
Saturday morning we all went to the beach. As we were arriving I saw Miguel Bruschy and then I looked to his side and there was Tia Po, and Domingos. Without even planning it we all showed up to the same beach, within 20 feet of each other, about 5 minutes apart! We hung at the beach all afternoon and enjoyed a picnic of smoked fish sandwiches. Tio Quim had recently gone to Hamburg and brought back some delicious smoked fish from the fish market there. Later in the afternoon Tia Nicha and I went over to Avo’s to get her out of the house for a coffee or a juice. She has been stuck in the house now that Felicia has been stuck in bed, and it seems to be taking a bit of a tole on her. We took her down the Docas (docks) and had some juice at a little bar. Something funny happened while we were ordering, I asked for a Chamusa (Indian pastry) and the lady told us “sorry, we do not have any more of those”; so I looked for the next appetizing thing and ordered it, and without skipping a beat she says “we don’t have any of those things, we just put them on the menu because they look good and fill up space!”. Never in my life has that happened to me, we were so shocked that we asked the other waitress there and sure enough she gave us the same response. When we took Avo home we stopped up and said hi to Felicia. She still seems to be doing well, I think she is a bit sick of being stuck in bed, but until she regains enough strength and muscle mass that is how it is going to be unfortunately. The good thing is that she is relatively good spirits and is still her same old joking self. Saturday night I played babysitter, or Maria played babysitter. I am not sure which one is correct, but the 9 year old babysitting me is probably most realistic! Tio Quim and Tia Nicha went out to a concert with friends, and Maria and I made pizzas, popcorn and watched movies at home. Domingos even came over and hung out with us for a little bit. We watched Shrek 2 and tried to keep things from getting to wild, she was able to manage!
Sunday Morning we all hung out around the house for the first part of the morning, and then went down to go for a ride on Tio Luis’ boat. There were quite a few of us there: Tio Luis, Tia Ana, Joana, Tio Ita, Tia Po, Tia Nicha, Tio Quim, David and I. We headed out onto the Tejo and went towards Cascais. About half way there, there was a lot of wind and Tia Po in her usual manner got all sorts of nervous and excited so we turned around and headed back up the river. In all fairness, Tia Ana was not too thrilled about all the wind either, but I would have liked to go roaring around a bit! We could not have asked for a better day, the sun was out and the wind was keeping us cool. Everybody had a great time and then we headed home. Tired from a long day in the sun, I was going to shut my eyes for 10 minutes while David took a shower...3 hours later I woke up from my nap! It was not the most productive way to spend the afternoon, but man did it feel good.
This morning I woke up at 7:15 with David. He was off to school, and I was off to study; well that had been the plan all week, but as you can see there are much better options when I am here! I actually got all of the work I had to get done for one class, and have had a pretty productive day. After the morning study session I went with Tia Nicha to Avo’s house to see her and Felicia again. They both seem to be doing well. David came home for lunch, and Tia Nicha made one of my favorite dishes Carne de Porco Alentejana (pork with a dried red bell pepper sauce). Man is it nice to have someone spoiling you every once in a while. This afternoon it has been a little more studying and then off to pick up Maria from school. Well, now that this little rascal is here there probably won’t be much more studying but man is she fun!
Ok well that is all for today folks. This week should be pretty boring because I have exams on Friday afternoon and Saturday but I am sure I will find something fun to do! I hope this finds everyone doing well, and a VERY SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO JOHN FOR GRADUATING!!! I AM REAL PROUD OF YOU!
Much Love Always,
Phil
Tuesday was a slow day. I was feeling a bit under the weather so I slept for most the day and was able to catch up with the family and friends on Skype. We had dinner at the house with the whole family (Javier, Gina, Ian and Marc…well and me, their adopted son!). Javier always cooks mean meals for us. We had some pasta casserole with red sauce that was really tasty. Later that night we met up with Alvaro, Isaac, Javier (our friend, not Marc’s dad), to go to Pitu’s graduation party. Apparently one of Pitu’s colleagues at the university’s father owns one of the discos that we go to quite often, so they threw a huge party for all the graduates and friends! We showed up for a little bit to tell Pitu congratulations, but called it an early night because I was still not feeling great and Marc had to be at work in the morning.
Wednesday was off to Lisbon! Finally, I have been looking forward to getting back to the family. Although I am mostly there to find some quite time to recharge the batteries and study, it is always a good time! Wednesday I arrived on time, for once, Tia Nicha and David were there to pick me up and we went straight to Avo’s house to say hi to her and Felicia. Felicia seems to be doing much better now that she is home. She is gaining some strength and seems to be doing well. After stopping by the house, Tia Nicha, David and I were off to pick up Maria. We picked her up from school and she was thrilled as usual. A bit later Tia Nicha and I went to Careca, the coffee shop down the street to have a coffee with Tia Po, and that evening we hung out around the house and had dinner with the family.
Thursday was Corpus Christi day, a holiday, in Lisbon so we had the whole day together as a family. Tia Nicha got together a bunch of friends and we rented a couple of zodiac boats to do a tour up the Tejo River. It was a ton of fun, we had about 11 kids in one of the boats and we sent the 8 adults to another one. The guide in our boat was doing donuts and making sure that everyone had a blast and got a little bit wet! We rode up the Tejo for about 45 minutes to Rat Island (this is the direct translation). We got off the boats there and cruised around the beach and went swimming. All of us kids were doing flips off of the bow of the zodiac and just taking in the sun and fun. After we made it back to the harbor, the whole group went up to a restaurant above the dock and enjoyed a nice grilled fish. There is not much better than a grilled piece of fish in Lisbon, now that is living! Later that evening we met up with Tia Po, Tio Ita, Domingos, Francisco, and Pedro for dinner at a pizzeria. It was good to see them all. This time of year is always rough to see the cousins because they are studying for exams, like I am, but they tend to lock themselves inside the house and play HERMIT!
Friday morning after getting the kids off to school Tia Nicha and I were off to the farm to fix some irrigation on the vineyard and pick oranges from the orange grove. It was not as hot as I was expecting it to be. We arrived in the morning and got most the work done before the heat really kicked in. Being as smart as I am, I went in trunks and a t-shirt; the whole time we were battling through brush at chest level to pick the oranges and take them back to the car. By the end of the time I was all scraped up, had a mess of thorny things in my shoes, and was ready to hose off. Just as I was finishing up my all natural hose bath in the sun, the lady that takes care of the farm (Angelina) turned the corner and almost caught a show that she would have been all sorts of excited about seeing! Luckily I had dressed myself a mere 30 seconds before. Friday night we laid low at home and called it an early night after a day of picking about 500 pounds of oranges. Needless to say we were tired.
Saturday morning we all went to the beach. As we were arriving I saw Miguel Bruschy and then I looked to his side and there was Tia Po, and Domingos. Without even planning it we all showed up to the same beach, within 20 feet of each other, about 5 minutes apart! We hung at the beach all afternoon and enjoyed a picnic of smoked fish sandwiches. Tio Quim had recently gone to Hamburg and brought back some delicious smoked fish from the fish market there. Later in the afternoon Tia Nicha and I went over to Avo’s to get her out of the house for a coffee or a juice. She has been stuck in the house now that Felicia has been stuck in bed, and it seems to be taking a bit of a tole on her. We took her down the Docas (docks) and had some juice at a little bar. Something funny happened while we were ordering, I asked for a Chamusa (Indian pastry) and the lady told us “sorry, we do not have any more of those”; so I looked for the next appetizing thing and ordered it, and without skipping a beat she says “we don’t have any of those things, we just put them on the menu because they look good and fill up space!”. Never in my life has that happened to me, we were so shocked that we asked the other waitress there and sure enough she gave us the same response. When we took Avo home we stopped up and said hi to Felicia. She still seems to be doing well, I think she is a bit sick of being stuck in bed, but until she regains enough strength and muscle mass that is how it is going to be unfortunately. The good thing is that she is relatively good spirits and is still her same old joking self. Saturday night I played babysitter, or Maria played babysitter. I am not sure which one is correct, but the 9 year old babysitting me is probably most realistic! Tio Quim and Tia Nicha went out to a concert with friends, and Maria and I made pizzas, popcorn and watched movies at home. Domingos even came over and hung out with us for a little bit. We watched Shrek 2 and tried to keep things from getting to wild, she was able to manage!
Sunday Morning we all hung out around the house for the first part of the morning, and then went down to go for a ride on Tio Luis’ boat. There were quite a few of us there: Tio Luis, Tia Ana, Joana, Tio Ita, Tia Po, Tia Nicha, Tio Quim, David and I. We headed out onto the Tejo and went towards Cascais. About half way there, there was a lot of wind and Tia Po in her usual manner got all sorts of nervous and excited so we turned around and headed back up the river. In all fairness, Tia Ana was not too thrilled about all the wind either, but I would have liked to go roaring around a bit! We could not have asked for a better day, the sun was out and the wind was keeping us cool. Everybody had a great time and then we headed home. Tired from a long day in the sun, I was going to shut my eyes for 10 minutes while David took a shower...3 hours later I woke up from my nap! It was not the most productive way to spend the afternoon, but man did it feel good.
This morning I woke up at 7:15 with David. He was off to school, and I was off to study; well that had been the plan all week, but as you can see there are much better options when I am here! I actually got all of the work I had to get done for one class, and have had a pretty productive day. After the morning study session I went with Tia Nicha to Avo’s house to see her and Felicia again. They both seem to be doing well. David came home for lunch, and Tia Nicha made one of my favorite dishes Carne de Porco Alentejana (pork with a dried red bell pepper sauce). Man is it nice to have someone spoiling you every once in a while. This afternoon it has been a little more studying and then off to pick up Maria from school. Well, now that this little rascal is here there probably won’t be much more studying but man is she fun!
Ok well that is all for today folks. This week should be pretty boring because I have exams on Friday afternoon and Saturday but I am sure I will find something fun to do! I hope this finds everyone doing well, and a VERY SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO JOHN FOR GRADUATING!!! I AM REAL PROUD OF YOU!
Much Love Always,
Phil
Monday, May 31, 2010
May 24th - May 30th
Fair warning to all of those that do not have a lot of time to read, this will be a LONG, LONG post..but this was an AMAZING TRIP THROUGH AND THROUGH!
It all started Monday morning. We arrived at the airport just about 2 hours before our flight, and when I went to go get my boarding pass printed it spit me out a stand-by boarding pass. Marc had printed his the night before, but for some reason with my international credit card they don’t let me do that sometimes. We went to the gate to learn that Iberia had overbooked the flight and that I would have to wait to get on another flight, and that we would make it to Istanbul later that night, so I said by to Marc and went to battle with Iberia over compensation for overbooking the flight. I was given the choice to switch carriers to Turkish Airlines and leave at 5 pm, or stay with Iberia and make it out at 6pm. I had enough of dealing with them and because I had not checked a bag I decided to go ahead and switch to the flight on Turkish Airlines. Iberia gave all of the displaced passengers a monetary compensation of 400 Euros, and on top of that I got them to pitch for lunch at the airport while I waited which wasn’t all bad!!! Basically they paid for me to go to Istanbul for the week! When I went to the gate for the Turkish Airlines flight I ended up running into a couple of the other displaced passengers who were Turkish and ended up chatting with them for a while. Apparently not everyone knew that they compensated for things like that, because these two fellows were not compensated at all…WHOOPS, but I told them to go to the Iberia desk in Istanbul and hopefully they were taken care of. I ended up sitting right next to them on the flight and chatting with them about places to go and sights to see while in Istanbul. The fellows name was Ibo, and he hooked me up with all the info, including spots and dishes to eat. On top of that he gave me his cell phone number and stressed the fact that if I had any troubles AT ALL, no matter what time of the day or night to PLEASE give him a call and he would help me out! Once again, I seem to be running into awesome people everywhere. He was a really good guy, and I was teaching him some Spanish while he taught me the key phrases in Turkish! We ended up arriving about an hour later than expected and Ibo helped me catch a Taxi to the Youth Hostel so I would not get taken advantage of on the fair. Of course when I was paying the guy I asked him to give me 15 in change and he only handed me back 12.5…don’t think it was a mistake seeing as they have 10 and 5 Lira bills! But hey, I was there a little late but safely, just to find Marc on the roof top terrace (with views of the Asian side of Istanbul and the all famous Blue Mosque) enjoying some beers with a couple of Argentinean girls. Now that is what I call a good friend! The girls, Gisela and Natalia, were really nice and a bit later a Scottish guy named Gary met up with us and we all enjoyed a few beers before calling it a night. Gary was stopping through Istanbul back on his way to Dubai for work, and the girls were in the middle of their Euro-Trip. We all planned on meeting at breakfast and then it was off to hit the town. Oh wait, how could I forget about the two bar tenders and the desk guy at the Bauhaus Youth Hostel: Volcano, Turkish Delight, Tony…how could you go wrong with those three working the place!
Tuesday morning we all met up at the breakfast hall at 9:15 and it was off to hit the town and see the sights. The first place that we went to see was the Aya-Sofia which was once a Catholic Church that has since been converted into a Mosque and now into a museum, I might have switched it around but I am 90% sure that is correct. We toured the museum and saw the different symbols and aspects of both religions, and all rubbed the sweat column for good luck. The sweat column was really strange, it was one column of the church that had condensation seeping through a brass plate or something to that effect…I just hope it brings good luck! The Aya-Sofia is directly across a plaza from the Blue Mosque (which is many hundreds of years younger) so after touring the Aya-Sofia and the gardens around it we headed on over to the Blue Mosque. We took our shoes off like good Muslims and went in to take in the building; it is spectacular from the outside and the mosaic tiles work on the inside is equally breathe taking. It was interesting to see a few people in praying and the completely segregated section that they had for the women to use pray. After the Blue Mosque we all went to a park, because like true Argentineans Gisela and Natalia brought Mate tea with them! We sat in a park that used to be used in Roman times as a Chariot racing arena and enjoyed some Mate in the sun. It was the first time that I have had this drink that they are so enthusiastic about and I found it to taste a bit like hay for horses! It was interesting but good. After some Mate we went to a typical cantina for some lunch. It was a restaurant were you walked in and there was a big steam table or heated table with a bunch of different stews and meats sitting in heating dishes. I had the eggplant stuffed with lamb and rice. I think Marc had a stew with potatoes and lamb also, and the others had a Lamb with béchamel sauce. It was a nice meal. After lunch we headed across town and to the top of a hill to find a Mosque called the…well it started with an S and I am not sure what the name of it is! It is the Largest Mosque in Istanbul, but it is currently closed for restoration so we could only take it in from the outside. We sat around enjoyed some Cherries from a local cart vendor and then headed to the only open section of the Mosque to see the tombs of the many Sultans of Istanbul. After heading back down towards the center of town we went to go check out the Basilica Cisterns, and Greg headed off to the airport to catch his flight to Dubai. The Basilica Cisterns were incredible. They are an underground water storage system that date back to the roman times. The lighting was not great in them but there are a couple of cool little pictures that you can see of the columns, and also a couple of heads that are thought to have been brought from another roman monument at some point and placed at the Cisterns. One of the heads was upside down and the other on the side; it is wild for me to think of how all of these things were constructed so long ago without many of the tools (such as levels and machining tools) that are so counted on today. These heads would have been a massive project to transport and place. In the late afternoon we enjoyed another round of Mate, and then headed out for a walk along the water front with the girls before going to dinner. We found a nice spot to take in the sun setting beyond Istanbul and watch the local’s fish and drive their boats around the Bosporus. I was playing on the rocks like the kid I am and then went over to check out some of the fishermen’s catch when he looked at me and offered me his rod to give it a shot! Yes, I know, might as well be Turkish, fishing with the locals and being accepted immediately! We then wandered around a while to find a restaurant and ended up at one right near the hostel. We all enjoyed some Kebab and a bottle of wine and then the traditional Turkish water pipe with flavored tobacco afterwards. When in Turkey, do as the Turks right! To finish off the night we hung at the Hostel and had a few beers with Volcano, Turkish Delight and the other guests from around the world.
First off, Wednesday is one of the 5 best days of the year…ANDREW’S Birthday!!! Sorry that I was not able to talk to you man, I had a really hard time getting internet, it was down at the Hostel, and by the time I got it I think you were asleep. Wednesday was an early morning, as before, we met up for breakfast at 9:15 or so and then it was off again to see the sights. First we went to the Sultans palace that was a short walk from our Hostel. The palace was quite breath taking with the wonderful views of the Bosporus and the rest of the city from the different sides. Inside the palace there were: pieces of furniture, pottery, relics, and clothing form the different eras and rulers. Being the ruling force came with great wealth, and it showed with the few pieces that were on display when we visited. After touring the immense grounds for 3 or 4 hours we headed out into one of the gardens and again enjoyed some Mate. While we were sitting their minding our own business enjoying the Mate, a group of kids on a field trip comes up to me and asks me where I was from, and since we were all speaking in Spanish I told him Spain…next thing you know he asks to take a picture with me, then his buddy, then the girls they were with, then next thing you know Marc, Natalia, Gisela and I are taking pictures with a mess of school kids that were totally excited for some reason! It was the first time that I had it happen to me, and it was really funny, again look at the pictures on the Picasa albums and you will see a picture of Marc, me and some of the kids! We had some Kebab for lunch on the main drag at a street stand, and then we headed back to the Hostel for a short little break before heading off to the Grand Bazaar to haggle with all of the vendors. I bought a few little things, but really behaved myself at the Grand Bazaar. There was nothing that really caught my eye, but there were fantastic textiles of all sorts, carpets of course, and class and tiles also. The whole place is a labyrinth and you feel half lost at all times, but we made it out alive and then we went back to the terrace to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset. We ended up meeting a fellow from England, George, that apparently had been staying at the hostel for about 10 days now but we had not crossed paths with yet. The whole group: Marc, George, Natalia, Gisela and I all went out for a bite of dinner and chatted up a storm about the travels of everyone…George’s time in Nepal, the girls Euro-trip, and Marc and my travels this year. It is so much fun to meet all of these extremely interesting people from all over while in the hostels, and the people are always ready to have a good time. After dinner it was back to the terrace and chatting with some new guys from Australia, Will, and a few others that I can not quite remember the names of. It was a really cool group and the Argentineans girls were loads of fun to hang out with and speak in Spanish with because it is so different.
Thursday morning we all hung out for breakfast and then George, Marc and I went to the street corner vendor that sold Turkish shirts to make a deal on a bulk quantity. First we picked out all the shirts that we wanted in the colors, and then started bargaining…after not coming down to the price that we wanted we went back to the Hostel for a while to let him think about the big bunch of shirts he could have sold, then went back at him after about an hour and came out successful! After doing a small walk around the Blue Mosque and Aya-Sofia George and the girls left to head back home and continue their travels to Budapest, respectively. After our travel buddies left us so rudely it was back at doing the tourist thing. Marc and I were picked up at the Hostel and we were off for a tour on the Bosporus for a few hours. The Bosporus connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black sea and every year has over 150,000 ships travel through the channel. Of course right when we got on board we made friends with a couple of ladies from Uruguay which4 was awesome because I was able to speak in Spanish for the majority of our trip. It was a lot of fun to get a different view of the city and head up the Bosporus towards the Black Sea. Along the way we saw several different Mosques, another palace where Ataturk, the first president of the republic lived and died, the two bridges that cross from Europe to Asia, and many lovely houses right on the shore. After about an hour and a half of cruising up the Bosporus we crossed the channel to ASIA to have a 15 minute break and coffee. That is right, since being abroad I have had my first steps in Africa and now Asia! We headed back to the city center along the Asian shore and visited a light house at the head of the Bosporus with a beautiful view of the European side before heading back. Once we arrived back at the docks, it was off for the next culinary experience. At the harbor there are 4 little floating restaurants that serve fish sandwiches that are grilled on a griddle and then slapped between a fresh bun with lettuce and onions; the whole process of ordering, paying and getting your sandwich took a total of about 1 minute, talk about a good process. The best part of the whole thing is that the boats are done up really modernly with neon lights and they guys are wearing funny costumes which would make you think that it was a touristy spot, which it was, but the places were filled with locals also. After enjoying the fish sandwich we went and checked out the New Mosque (that is the name, it is just newer than the others, but still old). We did not go inside the New Mosque because it was at one of the prayer times during the day, but we took it in from the court yard and watched the practicing Muslims clean themselves before and after at the fountains outside. It was a really cool experience to watch. Later we headed to the spice bazaar to see what kind of strange things they had. It was not as crazy as I expected, but we did find Leeches, as in the blood sucking animal, not the fruit. It was interesting to see all the different sweets and died spices and fruits that they had. We called it a day after the spice Bazaar and headed back to kick back at the hostel. There were some people there, Germans and Belgium’s in particular that were really excited to watch the Eurovision competition Semi-Final. The Hostel had a viewing party and we all hung out and watched this show that was like a group American Idle type of deal. That night at the Hostel we met a couple of English Brothers, a couple 3 Aussies, a Canadian guy, Russian Girl, Serbian guy (Andre), Bosnian girl, well and a few others that I am sure I am forgetting. It was a great group. For dinner Marc and I headed out the Kebab guy on the corner near the Hostel with the unrefrigerated lamb kebabs… and man were they good. It was actually Durum, which is Kebab meat rolled in flat bread with veggies and spices. We picked up our Kebabs, and walked up to take a look at the Mosques at night and let me tell you it is quite the sight to see.
!!!FIRST STEP IN ASIA!!!
!!!AYA-SOFIA!!!
Friday morning was a slow one because we all stayed up hanging out and having a ball until the sun snuck up on us and was rising! We still managed to make it out of the Hostel before 10:30 and took full advantage of our last day in Istanbul. We walked up to the Tram line and caught it to the Sultan’s other palace on the European side of Istanbul which later was the palace that Ataturk lived in. We caught a view of the palace on the Bosporus cruise because it backs up right on to the Bosporus, but it was even more breathe taking from up close. The palace was stunning with: rare stones, gold ceilings, grand rooms covered in Italian and French paintings, wonderful living quarters and studies, crystal stair cases, and the largest chandeliers in Europe (4.5 tons). I am not sure why, but the tour guide was very adamant about telling us about the English made crystal chandeliers. After visiting the part where the Sultan’s lived, we went and went to the wives section, correct plural. The Sultan’s would have many wives, and living between the Sultans quarters and the wives quarters was the Sultans Mother’s quarters, the one who decided who visited who when, or that was the thinking I suspect. The whole grounds were spectacular and the views to the other parts of the city from the Bosporus front gates were breathe taking. Marc and I were then off to a funicular to head up the hill to Taxim Square. Taxim Square is a big pedestrian street that has a mess of shops, restaurants, and clubs. We never made it out to the clubs, but the ambiance on the roof top terrace at the hostel was a blast! We found some lunch at a little stall near the square and enjoyed the best Kebab that we had over the course of the whole trip. We then wandered around main drag taking in all the people and smells and feelings of the city before making it to the Galata Tower. The Galata tower was a big tower that was used as a lookout tower back in the roman era. We didn’t end up going up into the tour, but we checked it out and then made our way down to the river to catch the trolley back to the Hostel. On the way we walked by a cart vendor making fresh squeezed orange juice and the sweet smell of the oranges was just too hard to resist, so we splurged $0.50 each on a glass! Mmm Mmm Good! We made it on to the tram…well, barely because the thing was so packed and headed back to the hostel to hangout for a little bit and relax. The last big even was going back over to the Asian side to watch the sunset over all the Mosques and sights on the European side. It was quite a nice time and we took the ferry across to watch it. We found a little coffee place, had Turkish coffee and Turkish tea, and romantically watched the sun set and make a silhouette of the city. On the way back we took a car carrying ferry which was different than the normal one that we took there, but it was kind of cool to see that they take their cars across by ferry because of the Bosporus.
That night we decided to stay up all night because our flight was at 6:50a.m. and we had to take a 30 minute cab ride at 4:30a.m. to get there on time. We made it on time, but were both drifting hard in and out of sleep until they let us board the plane. Needless to say, I don’t even remember taking off, but we got to Madrid around 11:00a.m. and Javier, Marc’s dad was waiting there for us already to take us home. We promptly got to the house and took about a 3 hour siesta and woke up to a mean barbecue spread that Javier made: different grilled sausages, asparagus, potatoes, and big steaks. There has not been a single time that I have not eaten well at their house. I made it back to my house at about 6 in the afternoon, just missing Rosarinho and her family that was here to help her move out. I unpacked grabbed a quick shower and was off and racing again to go pick up a friend Sam, from ASU, at the airport. Sam is studying for a month in El Escorial so I offered to hel show her how to get there and give her a tour of Madrid. We got home from the airport around 10:00p.m. and started walking to go look at the sights, we went for about 30 hour and then ducked into one of my favorite Tapas bars, El Tigre, for some Caña’s and tapas. After enjoying a refreshing beer, we continued our tour for another 45 minutes or so before finding ourselves at another one of my favorite restaurants in town, Lateral, for some more Tapas and wine while taking in the beautiful Plaza Santa Ana. We enjoyed: Goat cheese with caramelized red bell peppers, smoked salmon with Brie, and a spinach salad with chicken, apple, walnuts, carrots and a vinaigrette dressing. While enjoying our meal I ran into a friend of mine from Carlos III, David, who is from Boston. He was in line for a terrace bar in Plaza Santa Ana, The Penthouse (very Spanish right!) with a couple of his friends so we joined them for a drink before going home. Going home to get ready for a night out on the town that is!!! The kid is back! We headed to Kapital, a 7 floor club near Atocha and danced the night away, well, until they closed, I am sure we would have stayed dancing longer!
Sunday afternoon, we were out of the house around 1:00p.m. to go check out some more of the city, we made it down to Plaza Mayor and Mercado de San Miguel before the no breakfast thing caught up to us so we ducked into a local bar for a calamari sandwich and a Chorizo sandwich. After the recharge we went and looked at the Royal Palace, Plaza de España and then home to pack up Sam’s stuff and go to El Escorial before her evening orientation. I had never been there, so it was cool to go and check it out, but I will have to go back to do a better visit because the place is very very beautiful. It is about a 45 minute bus ride from Madrid to the North-West, situated up in the foothills of the mountains with beautiful rivers, trees, and meadows. It is your typical small Spanish town. The main attraction in El Escorial is the old summer palace of the Spanish Royal family. We didn’t have time to check it out today, but it is on my list. Well, things are wrapping down here in Madrid. I got home around 8:30 this evening and have spent it cleaning up the apartment and getting ready to pack all of my stuff up tomorrow and move to Marc’s! It is a strange feeling that I have tonight, I am sad to be leaving this place after so many good memories, but excited to go to Marc’s for a couple of days before heading to Lisbon for a week of studying. Well, studying and seeing the family (which means fun with Tia Nicha and family as ALWAYS!)
I guess that is it for now, check out the pictures of the trip…there should be two albums, one of my pictures and one of Marc’s. I hope you enjoyed this entry and everyone is doing very well.
Much Love,
Phil
P.S. Big shout out and Congratulations to John for getting a Job after he graduates here in a few weeks; mart move of delaying your start date so we can travel!!! So proud of you man! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANDREW AGAIN, I Love you. Little guy?!?!?!
It all started Monday morning. We arrived at the airport just about 2 hours before our flight, and when I went to go get my boarding pass printed it spit me out a stand-by boarding pass. Marc had printed his the night before, but for some reason with my international credit card they don’t let me do that sometimes. We went to the gate to learn that Iberia had overbooked the flight and that I would have to wait to get on another flight, and that we would make it to Istanbul later that night, so I said by to Marc and went to battle with Iberia over compensation for overbooking the flight. I was given the choice to switch carriers to Turkish Airlines and leave at 5 pm, or stay with Iberia and make it out at 6pm. I had enough of dealing with them and because I had not checked a bag I decided to go ahead and switch to the flight on Turkish Airlines. Iberia gave all of the displaced passengers a monetary compensation of 400 Euros, and on top of that I got them to pitch for lunch at the airport while I waited which wasn’t all bad!!! Basically they paid for me to go to Istanbul for the week! When I went to the gate for the Turkish Airlines flight I ended up running into a couple of the other displaced passengers who were Turkish and ended up chatting with them for a while. Apparently not everyone knew that they compensated for things like that, because these two fellows were not compensated at all…WHOOPS, but I told them to go to the Iberia desk in Istanbul and hopefully they were taken care of. I ended up sitting right next to them on the flight and chatting with them about places to go and sights to see while in Istanbul. The fellows name was Ibo, and he hooked me up with all the info, including spots and dishes to eat. On top of that he gave me his cell phone number and stressed the fact that if I had any troubles AT ALL, no matter what time of the day or night to PLEASE give him a call and he would help me out! Once again, I seem to be running into awesome people everywhere. He was a really good guy, and I was teaching him some Spanish while he taught me the key phrases in Turkish! We ended up arriving about an hour later than expected and Ibo helped me catch a Taxi to the Youth Hostel so I would not get taken advantage of on the fair. Of course when I was paying the guy I asked him to give me 15 in change and he only handed me back 12.5…don’t think it was a mistake seeing as they have 10 and 5 Lira bills! But hey, I was there a little late but safely, just to find Marc on the roof top terrace (with views of the Asian side of Istanbul and the all famous Blue Mosque) enjoying some beers with a couple of Argentinean girls. Now that is what I call a good friend! The girls, Gisela and Natalia, were really nice and a bit later a Scottish guy named Gary met up with us and we all enjoyed a few beers before calling it a night. Gary was stopping through Istanbul back on his way to Dubai for work, and the girls were in the middle of their Euro-Trip. We all planned on meeting at breakfast and then it was off to hit the town. Oh wait, how could I forget about the two bar tenders and the desk guy at the Bauhaus Youth Hostel: Volcano, Turkish Delight, Tony…how could you go wrong with those three working the place!
Tuesday morning we all met up at the breakfast hall at 9:15 and it was off to hit the town and see the sights. The first place that we went to see was the Aya-Sofia which was once a Catholic Church that has since been converted into a Mosque and now into a museum, I might have switched it around but I am 90% sure that is correct. We toured the museum and saw the different symbols and aspects of both religions, and all rubbed the sweat column for good luck. The sweat column was really strange, it was one column of the church that had condensation seeping through a brass plate or something to that effect…I just hope it brings good luck! The Aya-Sofia is directly across a plaza from the Blue Mosque (which is many hundreds of years younger) so after touring the Aya-Sofia and the gardens around it we headed on over to the Blue Mosque. We took our shoes off like good Muslims and went in to take in the building; it is spectacular from the outside and the mosaic tiles work on the inside is equally breathe taking. It was interesting to see a few people in praying and the completely segregated section that they had for the women to use pray. After the Blue Mosque we all went to a park, because like true Argentineans Gisela and Natalia brought Mate tea with them! We sat in a park that used to be used in Roman times as a Chariot racing arena and enjoyed some Mate in the sun. It was the first time that I have had this drink that they are so enthusiastic about and I found it to taste a bit like hay for horses! It was interesting but good. After some Mate we went to a typical cantina for some lunch. It was a restaurant were you walked in and there was a big steam table or heated table with a bunch of different stews and meats sitting in heating dishes. I had the eggplant stuffed with lamb and rice. I think Marc had a stew with potatoes and lamb also, and the others had a Lamb with béchamel sauce. It was a nice meal. After lunch we headed across town and to the top of a hill to find a Mosque called the…well it started with an S and I am not sure what the name of it is! It is the Largest Mosque in Istanbul, but it is currently closed for restoration so we could only take it in from the outside. We sat around enjoyed some Cherries from a local cart vendor and then headed to the only open section of the Mosque to see the tombs of the many Sultans of Istanbul. After heading back down towards the center of town we went to go check out the Basilica Cisterns, and Greg headed off to the airport to catch his flight to Dubai. The Basilica Cisterns were incredible. They are an underground water storage system that date back to the roman times. The lighting was not great in them but there are a couple of cool little pictures that you can see of the columns, and also a couple of heads that are thought to have been brought from another roman monument at some point and placed at the Cisterns. One of the heads was upside down and the other on the side; it is wild for me to think of how all of these things were constructed so long ago without many of the tools (such as levels and machining tools) that are so counted on today. These heads would have been a massive project to transport and place. In the late afternoon we enjoyed another round of Mate, and then headed out for a walk along the water front with the girls before going to dinner. We found a nice spot to take in the sun setting beyond Istanbul and watch the local’s fish and drive their boats around the Bosporus. I was playing on the rocks like the kid I am and then went over to check out some of the fishermen’s catch when he looked at me and offered me his rod to give it a shot! Yes, I know, might as well be Turkish, fishing with the locals and being accepted immediately! We then wandered around a while to find a restaurant and ended up at one right near the hostel. We all enjoyed some Kebab and a bottle of wine and then the traditional Turkish water pipe with flavored tobacco afterwards. When in Turkey, do as the Turks right! To finish off the night we hung at the Hostel and had a few beers with Volcano, Turkish Delight and the other guests from around the world.
First off, Wednesday is one of the 5 best days of the year…ANDREW’S Birthday!!! Sorry that I was not able to talk to you man, I had a really hard time getting internet, it was down at the Hostel, and by the time I got it I think you were asleep. Wednesday was an early morning, as before, we met up for breakfast at 9:15 or so and then it was off again to see the sights. First we went to the Sultans palace that was a short walk from our Hostel. The palace was quite breath taking with the wonderful views of the Bosporus and the rest of the city from the different sides. Inside the palace there were: pieces of furniture, pottery, relics, and clothing form the different eras and rulers. Being the ruling force came with great wealth, and it showed with the few pieces that were on display when we visited. After touring the immense grounds for 3 or 4 hours we headed out into one of the gardens and again enjoyed some Mate. While we were sitting their minding our own business enjoying the Mate, a group of kids on a field trip comes up to me and asks me where I was from, and since we were all speaking in Spanish I told him Spain…next thing you know he asks to take a picture with me, then his buddy, then the girls they were with, then next thing you know Marc, Natalia, Gisela and I are taking pictures with a mess of school kids that were totally excited for some reason! It was the first time that I had it happen to me, and it was really funny, again look at the pictures on the Picasa albums and you will see a picture of Marc, me and some of the kids! We had some Kebab for lunch on the main drag at a street stand, and then we headed back to the Hostel for a short little break before heading off to the Grand Bazaar to haggle with all of the vendors. I bought a few little things, but really behaved myself at the Grand Bazaar. There was nothing that really caught my eye, but there were fantastic textiles of all sorts, carpets of course, and class and tiles also. The whole place is a labyrinth and you feel half lost at all times, but we made it out alive and then we went back to the terrace to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset. We ended up meeting a fellow from England, George, that apparently had been staying at the hostel for about 10 days now but we had not crossed paths with yet. The whole group: Marc, George, Natalia, Gisela and I all went out for a bite of dinner and chatted up a storm about the travels of everyone…George’s time in Nepal, the girls Euro-trip, and Marc and my travels this year. It is so much fun to meet all of these extremely interesting people from all over while in the hostels, and the people are always ready to have a good time. After dinner it was back to the terrace and chatting with some new guys from Australia, Will, and a few others that I can not quite remember the names of. It was a really cool group and the Argentineans girls were loads of fun to hang out with and speak in Spanish with because it is so different.
Thursday morning we all hung out for breakfast and then George, Marc and I went to the street corner vendor that sold Turkish shirts to make a deal on a bulk quantity. First we picked out all the shirts that we wanted in the colors, and then started bargaining…after not coming down to the price that we wanted we went back to the Hostel for a while to let him think about the big bunch of shirts he could have sold, then went back at him after about an hour and came out successful! After doing a small walk around the Blue Mosque and Aya-Sofia George and the girls left to head back home and continue their travels to Budapest, respectively. After our travel buddies left us so rudely it was back at doing the tourist thing. Marc and I were picked up at the Hostel and we were off for a tour on the Bosporus for a few hours. The Bosporus connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black sea and every year has over 150,000 ships travel through the channel. Of course right when we got on board we made friends with a couple of ladies from Uruguay which4 was awesome because I was able to speak in Spanish for the majority of our trip. It was a lot of fun to get a different view of the city and head up the Bosporus towards the Black Sea. Along the way we saw several different Mosques, another palace where Ataturk, the first president of the republic lived and died, the two bridges that cross from Europe to Asia, and many lovely houses right on the shore. After about an hour and a half of cruising up the Bosporus we crossed the channel to ASIA to have a 15 minute break and coffee. That is right, since being abroad I have had my first steps in Africa and now Asia! We headed back to the city center along the Asian shore and visited a light house at the head of the Bosporus with a beautiful view of the European side before heading back. Once we arrived back at the docks, it was off for the next culinary experience. At the harbor there are 4 little floating restaurants that serve fish sandwiches that are grilled on a griddle and then slapped between a fresh bun with lettuce and onions; the whole process of ordering, paying and getting your sandwich took a total of about 1 minute, talk about a good process. The best part of the whole thing is that the boats are done up really modernly with neon lights and they guys are wearing funny costumes which would make you think that it was a touristy spot, which it was, but the places were filled with locals also. After enjoying the fish sandwich we went and checked out the New Mosque (that is the name, it is just newer than the others, but still old). We did not go inside the New Mosque because it was at one of the prayer times during the day, but we took it in from the court yard and watched the practicing Muslims clean themselves before and after at the fountains outside. It was a really cool experience to watch. Later we headed to the spice bazaar to see what kind of strange things they had. It was not as crazy as I expected, but we did find Leeches, as in the blood sucking animal, not the fruit. It was interesting to see all the different sweets and died spices and fruits that they had. We called it a day after the spice Bazaar and headed back to kick back at the hostel. There were some people there, Germans and Belgium’s in particular that were really excited to watch the Eurovision competition Semi-Final. The Hostel had a viewing party and we all hung out and watched this show that was like a group American Idle type of deal. That night at the Hostel we met a couple of English Brothers, a couple 3 Aussies, a Canadian guy, Russian Girl, Serbian guy (Andre), Bosnian girl, well and a few others that I am sure I am forgetting. It was a great group. For dinner Marc and I headed out the Kebab guy on the corner near the Hostel with the unrefrigerated lamb kebabs… and man were they good. It was actually Durum, which is Kebab meat rolled in flat bread with veggies and spices. We picked up our Kebabs, and walked up to take a look at the Mosques at night and let me tell you it is quite the sight to see.
!!!FIRST STEP IN ASIA!!!
!!!AYA-SOFIA!!!
Friday morning was a slow one because we all stayed up hanging out and having a ball until the sun snuck up on us and was rising! We still managed to make it out of the Hostel before 10:30 and took full advantage of our last day in Istanbul. We walked up to the Tram line and caught it to the Sultan’s other palace on the European side of Istanbul which later was the palace that Ataturk lived in. We caught a view of the palace on the Bosporus cruise because it backs up right on to the Bosporus, but it was even more breathe taking from up close. The palace was stunning with: rare stones, gold ceilings, grand rooms covered in Italian and French paintings, wonderful living quarters and studies, crystal stair cases, and the largest chandeliers in Europe (4.5 tons). I am not sure why, but the tour guide was very adamant about telling us about the English made crystal chandeliers. After visiting the part where the Sultan’s lived, we went and went to the wives section, correct plural. The Sultan’s would have many wives, and living between the Sultans quarters and the wives quarters was the Sultans Mother’s quarters, the one who decided who visited who when, or that was the thinking I suspect. The whole grounds were spectacular and the views to the other parts of the city from the Bosporus front gates were breathe taking. Marc and I were then off to a funicular to head up the hill to Taxim Square. Taxim Square is a big pedestrian street that has a mess of shops, restaurants, and clubs. We never made it out to the clubs, but the ambiance on the roof top terrace at the hostel was a blast! We found some lunch at a little stall near the square and enjoyed the best Kebab that we had over the course of the whole trip. We then wandered around main drag taking in all the people and smells and feelings of the city before making it to the Galata Tower. The Galata tower was a big tower that was used as a lookout tower back in the roman era. We didn’t end up going up into the tour, but we checked it out and then made our way down to the river to catch the trolley back to the Hostel. On the way we walked by a cart vendor making fresh squeezed orange juice and the sweet smell of the oranges was just too hard to resist, so we splurged $0.50 each on a glass! Mmm Mmm Good! We made it on to the tram…well, barely because the thing was so packed and headed back to the hostel to hangout for a little bit and relax. The last big even was going back over to the Asian side to watch the sunset over all the Mosques and sights on the European side. It was quite a nice time and we took the ferry across to watch it. We found a little coffee place, had Turkish coffee and Turkish tea, and romantically watched the sun set and make a silhouette of the city. On the way back we took a car carrying ferry which was different than the normal one that we took there, but it was kind of cool to see that they take their cars across by ferry because of the Bosporus.
That night we decided to stay up all night because our flight was at 6:50a.m. and we had to take a 30 minute cab ride at 4:30a.m. to get there on time. We made it on time, but were both drifting hard in and out of sleep until they let us board the plane. Needless to say, I don’t even remember taking off, but we got to Madrid around 11:00a.m. and Javier, Marc’s dad was waiting there for us already to take us home. We promptly got to the house and took about a 3 hour siesta and woke up to a mean barbecue spread that Javier made: different grilled sausages, asparagus, potatoes, and big steaks. There has not been a single time that I have not eaten well at their house. I made it back to my house at about 6 in the afternoon, just missing Rosarinho and her family that was here to help her move out. I unpacked grabbed a quick shower and was off and racing again to go pick up a friend Sam, from ASU, at the airport. Sam is studying for a month in El Escorial so I offered to hel show her how to get there and give her a tour of Madrid. We got home from the airport around 10:00p.m. and started walking to go look at the sights, we went for about 30 hour and then ducked into one of my favorite Tapas bars, El Tigre, for some Caña’s and tapas. After enjoying a refreshing beer, we continued our tour for another 45 minutes or so before finding ourselves at another one of my favorite restaurants in town, Lateral, for some more Tapas and wine while taking in the beautiful Plaza Santa Ana. We enjoyed: Goat cheese with caramelized red bell peppers, smoked salmon with Brie, and a spinach salad with chicken, apple, walnuts, carrots and a vinaigrette dressing. While enjoying our meal I ran into a friend of mine from Carlos III, David, who is from Boston. He was in line for a terrace bar in Plaza Santa Ana, The Penthouse (very Spanish right!) with a couple of his friends so we joined them for a drink before going home. Going home to get ready for a night out on the town that is!!! The kid is back! We headed to Kapital, a 7 floor club near Atocha and danced the night away, well, until they closed, I am sure we would have stayed dancing longer!
Sunday afternoon, we were out of the house around 1:00p.m. to go check out some more of the city, we made it down to Plaza Mayor and Mercado de San Miguel before the no breakfast thing caught up to us so we ducked into a local bar for a calamari sandwich and a Chorizo sandwich. After the recharge we went and looked at the Royal Palace, Plaza de España and then home to pack up Sam’s stuff and go to El Escorial before her evening orientation. I had never been there, so it was cool to go and check it out, but I will have to go back to do a better visit because the place is very very beautiful. It is about a 45 minute bus ride from Madrid to the North-West, situated up in the foothills of the mountains with beautiful rivers, trees, and meadows. It is your typical small Spanish town. The main attraction in El Escorial is the old summer palace of the Spanish Royal family. We didn’t have time to check it out today, but it is on my list. Well, things are wrapping down here in Madrid. I got home around 8:30 this evening and have spent it cleaning up the apartment and getting ready to pack all of my stuff up tomorrow and move to Marc’s! It is a strange feeling that I have tonight, I am sad to be leaving this place after so many good memories, but excited to go to Marc’s for a couple of days before heading to Lisbon for a week of studying. Well, studying and seeing the family (which means fun with Tia Nicha and family as ALWAYS!)
I guess that is it for now, check out the pictures of the trip…there should be two albums, one of my pictures and one of Marc’s. I hope you enjoyed this entry and everyone is doing very well.
Much Love,
Phil
P.S. Big shout out and Congratulations to John for getting a Job after he graduates here in a few weeks; mart move of delaying your start date so we can travel!!! So proud of you man! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANDREW AGAIN, I Love you. Little guy?!?!?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
