Our 2nd day in Barcelona we attempted to head straight to the Sagrada Famillia but when we arrived the line was literally wrapped around the block. It easily would have taken us 2+ hours to wait there. So we decided to postpone our tour there and head to a couple museums instead. The first was the Picasso Museum. We loved it. It was the first museum we have seen that takes you from start to finish of an artist's life. It was really interesting to see the progression in his work from standard, renaissance art and the evolvement into his more famous cubism style. Our next stop was the History of Barcelona Museum. This was built over ruins of the original Roman city. After viewing some artifacts we went to the basement to walk among the ruins. Our audio guide explained to us everything from where people slept to the location of the winery, which interestingly enough the Roman Spaniards drank upwards of over a liter of wine per person per day. I knew there'd was a reason I loved Spain! The museum was very educational but after seeing so many ruins we we ready to get back into the daylight with today's civilization. We meandered thru the small twisting streets in the Gothic quarter until we found ourselves back at the apartment. After showering we headed out for a night on the town Barcelonan style!
As we soon found out, the "like to party" description in our hosts Caesar and Yuniel's airbnb profile was very true. The two told about their typical night which involved having a few drinks at home, heading to dinner around ten, hitting up a bar until three then heading to a club until six. We decided one night that we would give their itinerary a shot. If our forty year old host could handle it three nights a week we could manage for one night we thought.
We made dinner reservations at a restaurant run by a friend of our hosts for 9:30. The place was on the first floor of an old home near barcenoleta, a popular area near the water. The place was tucked away from the touristy spots along the water which we were excited about. The restaurant was quiet that night despite it being a Saturday with only two other parties. The waiter/owner spoke very little English but was able to make some recommendations. In the end we decided on a traditional Spanish dish made up of rice, prawns, mussels, and squid all cooked together in a tomato sauce in a big cast iron skillet. We paired it with a bottle of white wine and it turned out to be one of our best meals yet. At the end of dinner, the waiter brought out a bottle of milky looking liquer that had a nice coffee taste.
After dinner we started to seek out an area with some small bars we had passed earlier. After wandering for half hour or so we decided to just stop at a place with a picture of the jackson five in the window. A very efficient employee was shuffling people in and found us a seat right away. We had a couple of beers then snuck out to a mojito bar. Although mojitos are not really Spanish drinks as we were reminded they were made very well here. We sat and chatted among many locals until the place closed down around two.
Until this point we weren't sure if we would make it to a club but we caught our second wind with the mojitos and decided to give it a shot. We walked quite a ways, and passed some prostitutes in action, to a beach with some of the cities biggest discos and got in line at Opium, the place our hosts recommended. We got to the front of the line only to find out that it was a 25 euro cover charge per person. We chose to walk over to Cat Walk instead where Brit negotiated from 15 to 12 with a drink included.
The place was crawling with the 18-25 year old crowd but we felt at home when the upstairs dj started playing all the bar songs from 2002 for some reason. The guy downstairs played some weird slow techno but he had a bubble machine at his disposal which was nice. We stayed at the club until around 5am and were back at the apartment around 6, taking advantage of the 24 hour metro on Saturday nights.
Overall it was a memorable night and we were glad that we were able to party like barcelonans. We decided that we would complete the experience by waking up the next morning and heading to the beach. Most people from Barcelona head back to the beaches of barcenoleta to continue the party but we decided to take a train to a more quiet beach for a day of naps.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Day 5 - Barcelona
Day 5 - Barcelona
We were a bit nervous about our stay in Barcelona because it was our first experience using AirBnB.com for accommodation. Basically people rent out rooms in their apartments or entire apartments. In this case we rented a room in the apartment where the hosts lived. Luckily the place existed and better yet the hosts were great! Cesar and his boyfriend, Yulien, were very gracious and gave us wonderful recommendations and advice on exploring the city. Their French bull dog, Pierre, was icing on the cake for me aside from his fetish with shoes and sunglasses. Haha. The hosts are from Cuba and lived in America for some time before moving to Barcelona. They both don't have any plans of returning to their former home in South Beach or America in general but according to Yulien if they ever did move to the states he would want to live with the white people in Minnesota. An interesting choice!
Our first day of exploring was great. The apartment located within walking distance to most of everything we wanted to see. We headed straight to the Cathedral on the edge of the Gothic quarter (Barri Gotic). It was beautiful and it didn't cost us any money which was have found to be rare. In the center it had a beautiful courtyard of citrus trees with a small pond with geese. Next we headed to the start of La Rambla, Placa de Catalunya. It was swarmed with ore pigeons than San Marco Piazza in Venice! I have learned in my old age not only do I really dislike pigeons I'm a little afraid of them as well. After some near collisions with these flying daredevils we headed down La Rambla. This is a mob scene filled with an insane amount of tourists and I assume many pickpockets as the pickings of unassuming American, German, and Asian tourists were plenty. The street is lined with shops, street vendors selling every souvenir imaginable and toys that made an annoying sound and street performers. I have to admit that the statue ones were the best I've ever seen. if Brian didn't hold me back I would have joined the throngs of 10 year olds and paid an obscene amount of Euros for a picture with them. I sort of still wish I did :).
From the tone I am sure you gathered this wasn't exactly our scene so we headed straight for the winding, narrowing streets of the the Gothic quarter. We proceeded to get lost in the beauty and awe inspiring fairytale esque of this neighborhood. And I guess we did our fair share of just being lost too. Some how we managed to get ourselves down to our goal destination of the harbor and checked our the Mirdor de Colon. It's a statue honoring Columbus and his discovery of America, however, the funny thing is he is pointing not toward America but across the Mediterranean sea toward Italy and France! They got a little confused. After a long day of site seeing we were ready for a glass of wine and a couch! We ended up chatting with Cesar, Yulien and of course Pierre all night so we had to ditch dinner plans and opted for a kebab instead which come to find out were almost as ubiquitous as tapas restaurants!
We called it a might after the surprise other guests arrived. They were some kids from CA and ended up being pleasant enough but the apartment was very tiny so it ended being a bit cramped.
We were a bit nervous about our stay in Barcelona because it was our first experience using AirBnB.com for accommodation. Basically people rent out rooms in their apartments or entire apartments. In this case we rented a room in the apartment where the hosts lived. Luckily the place existed and better yet the hosts were great! Cesar and his boyfriend, Yulien, were very gracious and gave us wonderful recommendations and advice on exploring the city. Their French bull dog, Pierre, was icing on the cake for me aside from his fetish with shoes and sunglasses. Haha. The hosts are from Cuba and lived in America for some time before moving to Barcelona. They both don't have any plans of returning to their former home in South Beach or America in general but according to Yulien if they ever did move to the states he would want to live with the white people in Minnesota. An interesting choice!
Our first day of exploring was great. The apartment located within walking distance to most of everything we wanted to see. We headed straight to the Cathedral on the edge of the Gothic quarter (Barri Gotic). It was beautiful and it didn't cost us any money which was have found to be rare. In the center it had a beautiful courtyard of citrus trees with a small pond with geese. Next we headed to the start of La Rambla, Placa de Catalunya. It was swarmed with ore pigeons than San Marco Piazza in Venice! I have learned in my old age not only do I really dislike pigeons I'm a little afraid of them as well. After some near collisions with these flying daredevils we headed down La Rambla. This is a mob scene filled with an insane amount of tourists and I assume many pickpockets as the pickings of unassuming American, German, and Asian tourists were plenty. The street is lined with shops, street vendors selling every souvenir imaginable and toys that made an annoying sound and street performers. I have to admit that the statue ones were the best I've ever seen. if Brian didn't hold me back I would have joined the throngs of 10 year olds and paid an obscene amount of Euros for a picture with them. I sort of still wish I did :).
From the tone I am sure you gathered this wasn't exactly our scene so we headed straight for the winding, narrowing streets of the the Gothic quarter. We proceeded to get lost in the beauty and awe inspiring fairytale esque of this neighborhood. And I guess we did our fair share of just being lost too. Some how we managed to get ourselves down to our goal destination of the harbor and checked our the Mirdor de Colon. It's a statue honoring Columbus and his discovery of America, however, the funny thing is he is pointing not toward America but across the Mediterranean sea toward Italy and France! They got a little confused. After a long day of site seeing we were ready for a glass of wine and a couch! We ended up chatting with Cesar, Yulien and of course Pierre all night so we had to ditch dinner plans and opted for a kebab instead which come to find out were almost as ubiquitous as tapas restaurants!
We called it a might after the surprise other guests arrived. They were some kids from CA and ended up being pleasant enough but the apartment was very tiny so it ended being a bit cramped.
Day 4 - Cordoba, Spain
Day 4 - Cordoba
Well this day started out awful! We thought it was a brilliant idea to forego another night in the hostel by taking an overnight bus to Seville to catch a bus to Cordoba. Keep in mind this is the only way to get to Cordoba from Lisbon (well at least the most direct but there is a morning bus if preferred). The bus literally stopped in no less than 6 small, cobblestone covered towns so needless to say we got very little sleep in our 7 hour trip. Upon arriving to Seville and finally getting registering where we were I had the terrible realization that I left our BOSE headphones on the bus! It was 530 am and no offices were even open to try to figure anything out. I was on the verge of a meltdown when Brian reassured me that it was OK that I lost his Christmas gift to me. No problem. Fast forward a few days and the amazingly ethical bus driver found the headphones, put them on a bus to Seville then realizing we had already made it to Barcelona at at point sent them to Madrid an downward to Barcelona! Even as Brian sits next to me now I still can't believe we got them back. They saw more of Spain than we did!
Anyhow, thanks to Brian's reassurances we were able to still enjoy the day in Cordoba partly due to e fact that we had a hotel room complete with a full sized bed and our own bathroom! We were feeling like kings!
We headed straight to the Cathedral once we checked into the hotel around 12 pm. The Cathedral has an interesting history. It started as a mosque for 5000 people then when the Christians conquered the area they built a cathedral inside the mosque only to be returned to a mosque later on with an extension that would now allow 9000 people to worship there. Today, it is an active Catholic Cathedral within the walls of the mosque. It truly is one of the most unique churches I have ever visited and was well worth the crazy travel experience to get there. After our visit, we wondered around the town and admired the beautifully preserved old town. We stumbled upon the only italian restaurant in town and at the time i was relunctant to go considering we had 10 days in Italy ahead of us but now in hindsight i think it was the best pizza we have had on our trip and trust me....we ate a lot in Italy. If you find yourself in Cordoba check out Di Raffaello Trattoria Pizzeria.
After our first real nap on the trip we ventured out to find this little square an Australian told us about. We got there a bit early by Spain's standards so not too many people were around but we enjoyed our drinks at Taverna la Corredera nonetheless. Then we headed out to seek an authentic looking tapas restaurant. We landed at Casa de la Tapa Cordobesa. Since we didn't really know what was what on the menu we opted for the preset tapas menu of 6 items for us to share. The first course consisted of some chorizo sausage, an odd cold cheesy(?) thing with bacon and some spinach with chickpeas. Te sausage was the star. The next ham and cheese croquettes were the highlight. The second course proved to be more in line with expectations and we really enjoyed the ham and cheese croquettes. The other two dishes were pork throat with fried egg and little pieces of fried chicken in an eggplant sauce. Yummy!
All in all it was a good day despite our loss of the headphones. If you visit the cathedral be sure to get the Audio guide. It was very helpful in understanding the complicated history.
Well this day started out awful! We thought it was a brilliant idea to forego another night in the hostel by taking an overnight bus to Seville to catch a bus to Cordoba. Keep in mind this is the only way to get to Cordoba from Lisbon (well at least the most direct but there is a morning bus if preferred). The bus literally stopped in no less than 6 small, cobblestone covered towns so needless to say we got very little sleep in our 7 hour trip. Upon arriving to Seville and finally getting registering where we were I had the terrible realization that I left our BOSE headphones on the bus! It was 530 am and no offices were even open to try to figure anything out. I was on the verge of a meltdown when Brian reassured me that it was OK that I lost his Christmas gift to me. No problem. Fast forward a few days and the amazingly ethical bus driver found the headphones, put them on a bus to Seville then realizing we had already made it to Barcelona at at point sent them to Madrid an downward to Barcelona! Even as Brian sits next to me now I still can't believe we got them back. They saw more of Spain than we did!
Anyhow, thanks to Brian's reassurances we were able to still enjoy the day in Cordoba partly due to e fact that we had a hotel room complete with a full sized bed and our own bathroom! We were feeling like kings!
We headed straight to the Cathedral once we checked into the hotel around 12 pm. The Cathedral has an interesting history. It started as a mosque for 5000 people then when the Christians conquered the area they built a cathedral inside the mosque only to be returned to a mosque later on with an extension that would now allow 9000 people to worship there. Today, it is an active Catholic Cathedral within the walls of the mosque. It truly is one of the most unique churches I have ever visited and was well worth the crazy travel experience to get there. After our visit, we wondered around the town and admired the beautifully preserved old town. We stumbled upon the only italian restaurant in town and at the time i was relunctant to go considering we had 10 days in Italy ahead of us but now in hindsight i think it was the best pizza we have had on our trip and trust me....we ate a lot in Italy. If you find yourself in Cordoba check out Di Raffaello Trattoria Pizzeria.
After our first real nap on the trip we ventured out to find this little square an Australian told us about. We got there a bit early by Spain's standards so not too many people were around but we enjoyed our drinks at Taverna la Corredera nonetheless. Then we headed out to seek an authentic looking tapas restaurant. We landed at Casa de la Tapa Cordobesa. Since we didn't really know what was what on the menu we opted for the preset tapas menu of 6 items for us to share. The first course consisted of some chorizo sausage, an odd cold cheesy(?) thing with bacon and some spinach with chickpeas. Te sausage was the star. The next ham and cheese croquettes were the highlight. The second course proved to be more in line with expectations and we really enjoyed the ham and cheese croquettes. The other two dishes were pork throat with fried egg and little pieces of fried chicken in an eggplant sauce. Yummy!
All in all it was a good day despite our loss of the headphones. If you visit the cathedral be sure to get the Audio guide. It was very helpful in understanding the complicated history.
Day 3 - Cas Cais (Portugal)
Day 3 - Cas Cais
Finally our beach day had arrived! We settled our Eurail pass in the morning then headed out to Cas Cais. It is this compilation of small sea side towns with beautiful beaches about one hour by train from Lisbon. The first half df the day we napped on the larger of the beaches but when we awoke we were literally buried in sand and had sand pouring from our ears and mouth. Ha. Once we cleaned up and treated ourselves with some ice cream (speaking of - how do Europeans stay trim eating all of this ice cream?!) we walked the sea wall and discovered a little cove which was protected from the insane winds. It was an idyllic afternoon finished with some perusing of the town, French fries, beers and interesting live music. The last performer sounded like a laughable imitation of an injured animal while singing "Brown Eyed Girl". Unfortunately the day had to end and we returned to our hostel...which Brian said will be our last time ever stepping into a hostel. Haha. We're too old for hostels now I think. Now it's off to Spain!
Finally our beach day had arrived! We settled our Eurail pass in the morning then headed out to Cas Cais. It is this compilation of small sea side towns with beautiful beaches about one hour by train from Lisbon. The first half df the day we napped on the larger of the beaches but when we awoke we were literally buried in sand and had sand pouring from our ears and mouth. Ha. Once we cleaned up and treated ourselves with some ice cream (speaking of - how do Europeans stay trim eating all of this ice cream?!) we walked the sea wall and discovered a little cove which was protected from the insane winds. It was an idyllic afternoon finished with some perusing of the town, French fries, beers and interesting live music. The last performer sounded like a laughable imitation of an injured animal while singing "Brown Eyed Girl". Unfortunately the day had to end and we returned to our hostel...which Brian said will be our last time ever stepping into a hostel. Haha. We're too old for hostels now I think. Now it's off to Spain!
Day 2 - Sintra
Day 2 - Sintra
On our second day we ventured out to Sintra which is just an hour from Lisbon and was the home of royals. Our first stop was a 12th century Moorish castle. The walls were so well preserved you felt as if we were on the "lookout" as we walked the castle walls and thru the turrets.
Another cool site here was the Pena Palace. The architecture is a combination of Arabic and renaissance design. The palace was beautiful and one of the most unique places we've seen on our trip.
When returning to Lisbon we enjoyed dinner at No Chiado, a restaurant our friend Josh suggested. I got a delicious traditional egg dish with salted white fish. The best part was the sumer concert of local singers which was performed in the square next to the restaurant. Brian had an interesting local specialty drink of beer and Snappy (their version of Sprite). It was pretty good especially for a warm summer evening. We wanted to head out on the town after this to see what all the fuss was about regarding the Barrio Alto. It's basically a set of streets where everyone gets their drinks but ventures out into the streets and socializes. Given it was a Tuesday night it was still fairly lively.
On our second day we ventured out to Sintra which is just an hour from Lisbon and was the home of royals. Our first stop was a 12th century Moorish castle. The walls were so well preserved you felt as if we were on the "lookout" as we walked the castle walls and thru the turrets.
Another cool site here was the Pena Palace. The architecture is a combination of Arabic and renaissance design. The palace was beautiful and one of the most unique places we've seen on our trip.
When returning to Lisbon we enjoyed dinner at No Chiado, a restaurant our friend Josh suggested. I got a delicious traditional egg dish with salted white fish. The best part was the sumer concert of local singers which was performed in the square next to the restaurant. Brian had an interesting local specialty drink of beer and Snappy (their version of Sprite). It was pretty good especially for a warm summer evening. We wanted to head out on the town after this to see what all the fuss was about regarding the Barrio Alto. It's basically a set of streets where everyone gets their drinks but ventures out into the streets and socializes. Given it was a Tuesday night it was still fairly lively.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Day 1 - Lisbon, Portugal
Day 1 - Monday July 18th
We've landed in Lisbon a bit tired and disoriented not only from the Transatlantic flight but also from lack of sleep over the past 8 or so fun filled days including christenings, visitors from across the pond and of course Cat and Ian's nuptials last night (or was that the night before?). I failed to print or for that matter look up directions to our hostel before take off so we are forced to go with a map and directions from the tourism desk at the airport. Thus begins our never-ending plight to figure out where the hell we are in Lisbon. I consider myself to have a good sense of direction and I could not for the life of me figure out which way was up, down, left, or right in this old world city. Now combine that with a 35 lb pack and hills likened to those in San Francisco and little sleep that first hour was interesting. I've never been so happy to arrive to a hostel before.
The Chill Out hostel didn't have our rooms ready as we figured since we were early so they offered to take us on a city tour. So after a quick teeth brush we ventured out in our day old, slept in clothes to take in the sights. Our guide, a soft spoken Dutch girl, took us on a whirlwind tour of the city from the Castelo Di St. George in the old city, Alfama, with sweeping vistas of the city and the sea all the way to Belem to see the Tower of Belem and the Monument of Discoveries. And of course eat a Patis Di Belem. It's a delicious custard pastry which is served warm with a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon.
While the tour showed us a lot I wish we had the time that day to enter some of the places we saw. Or at least had a guide that had toured them herself. She wasn't a wealth of info but gave a decent overview. If we could have done the day over I think we may have done a hop on/hop off bus. But you live and learn. Lisbon is a beautiful old world city and it was pleasantly void of throngs of tourists.
This night we did the only logical thing an adult American couple would do their first night in Europe...we set off for the nearest English cinema and watched Harry Potter! Amazing! Unfortunately our dinner was less amazing. We asked our hostel staff for a good recommendation on the way to the movies and what we later (a bit too late) discovered was he had sent us to a mall food court! Haha. No bourbon chicken here though. We did manage to find a tapas bar that was ok but we soon realized we shouldn't take advice from someone who sleeps on the couch overnight in the hostel every night!
We ended up having to share our room this night with two English girls and it went fine. The showers at the hostel were the biggest pain as they were getting renovated and no one seemed to think a curtain on the showers was necessary. It became wet mess every time someone took a shower.
We've landed in Lisbon a bit tired and disoriented not only from the Transatlantic flight but also from lack of sleep over the past 8 or so fun filled days including christenings, visitors from across the pond and of course Cat and Ian's nuptials last night (or was that the night before?). I failed to print or for that matter look up directions to our hostel before take off so we are forced to go with a map and directions from the tourism desk at the airport. Thus begins our never-ending plight to figure out where the hell we are in Lisbon. I consider myself to have a good sense of direction and I could not for the life of me figure out which way was up, down, left, or right in this old world city. Now combine that with a 35 lb pack and hills likened to those in San Francisco and little sleep that first hour was interesting. I've never been so happy to arrive to a hostel before.
The Chill Out hostel didn't have our rooms ready as we figured since we were early so they offered to take us on a city tour. So after a quick teeth brush we ventured out in our day old, slept in clothes to take in the sights. Our guide, a soft spoken Dutch girl, took us on a whirlwind tour of the city from the Castelo Di St. George in the old city, Alfama, with sweeping vistas of the city and the sea all the way to Belem to see the Tower of Belem and the Monument of Discoveries. And of course eat a Patis Di Belem. It's a delicious custard pastry which is served warm with a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon.
While the tour showed us a lot I wish we had the time that day to enter some of the places we saw. Or at least had a guide that had toured them herself. She wasn't a wealth of info but gave a decent overview. If we could have done the day over I think we may have done a hop on/hop off bus. But you live and learn. Lisbon is a beautiful old world city and it was pleasantly void of throngs of tourists.
This night we did the only logical thing an adult American couple would do their first night in Europe...we set off for the nearest English cinema and watched Harry Potter! Amazing! Unfortunately our dinner was less amazing. We asked our hostel staff for a good recommendation on the way to the movies and what we later (a bit too late) discovered was he had sent us to a mall food court! Haha. No bourbon chicken here though. We did manage to find a tapas bar that was ok but we soon realized we shouldn't take advice from someone who sleeps on the couch overnight in the hostel every night!
We ended up having to share our room this night with two English girls and it went fine. The showers at the hostel were the biggest pain as they were getting renovated and no one seemed to think a curtain on the showers was necessary. It became wet mess every time someone took a shower.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)