Guinness, green and Luck o the Irish.

When you are at a bar, drinking with acquaintances/friends, have you ever come up with a plan to meet somewhere a few months down the road?  Well, when an Irish colleague from SD let J and I know that he would be in Ireland in July, we were the the ones that took him seriously and booked our tickets :)

So, with temperatures in the 90's in Barcelona, we heeded everyone's advice, and packed jackets and pants and rain gear.  I cant remember if I have touched on this before, but I'd like to take a second to talk about the low cost airlines.  Three major "low cost airlines" that fly in and out of BCN are RyanAir, Vueling, and EasyJet.  They all have the same basic premise, super low prices for certain flights, if you want to fly with a connection involved, too bad.  If you want to check luggage, you have to pay.  Want to print out your boarding pass at the gate, that'll cost ya.  If your bag is over the specified size, 20 euros at the gate.  If you want a drink, you have to pay for that too.  However, with a little bit of prep work, you can get a good flight to a lot of different places for a good price.  If you want to travel in comfort, it's not the right place for you, but for a relatively short flight, and a relatively short time, it is great.  That is how for ~100 euro each, J and I landed in Dublin, to (surprisingly) sunny weather and (not so surprisingly) cooler temperatures.

I'll also use this space to brag on AirBnB.com.  Thanks to J&B Tiernan (of Oktoberfest glory) turned me on to this site.  Some people know couchsurfers.com, and this is somewhat similar.  However, with this site, people can list entire apartments, private rooms or shared rooms.  In Dublin, we opted to stay with a couple in the heart of town.  They were a really fun couple.  Daragh (I think pronounced Day-re) is a local Irish guy, that likes beer and wine, as well as typical Irish fare.  Miguel, his partner, was actually from near Barcelona, and is not much of a drinker (a glass of wine here or there, but that's it).  They had a beautiful room, but man were they cluttered!  The pantry closet was a mish mash of various snacks, and there were 5 different types of sweeteners, spread across 3 different cupboards.  So, what did J do the morning I decided to go for a run?  She organized the cupboards...  yeah... she really did...

I have to touch on the weather.  Everyone warned us for weeks and weeks that it always rained in Dublin and the weather was going to be gross, even if the city was very cool.  Well, it drizzled on us for about 30 minutes the day we were driving, and that was it.  The rest of the time was sun or a slight overcast. It was quite comfortable, I spent most of the time either in short sleeves, or with my sleeves pulled up a bit.  Even J said it was not very cold.  Now for the sad part... the Dubliners were all raving about how great the weather was, and how this was the best weather they have had all year.  While I quite enjoyed the weather while we were there, I would not want it to be the best weather I see all year!

What does one do in Ireland?  Well, alcohol, meat and potatoes, churches, and green spaces.  Our Irish manager friend told us that the Guinness Store was a must do, even if they did serve the beer too cold.  So, off we went to explore the original Guinness factory.  I must say, I was a bit disappointed.  There was a lot of information there, but after visiting working beer factories in Colorado and San Diego, it is just not the same to hear about it on a video screen, compared to seeing the big vats, and the bottles shuffling along.  Oh well, the nice thing is that you get a free Guinness at the end of the tour, with a pretty cool view of the city.

Aside from just Guinness, I was also able to try other Irish brews, such as Harps, Bulwer's cider (called Magners outside of Ireland).  We also were recommended to a place that had their own microbrewery, so of course, a sampler of all their beers was in order.  I dont know if it is the climate and hops that are grown, or the fact that it is generally colder, but I definitely noticed more stouts and porters, compared to more lagers and ales on the west coast. It was a good change of pace, but overall I think I am more of an ale/lager fan.

Not to be outdone by beer, we also went to the Jameson Distillery.  Coming to Ireland, J thought she hated whiskey.  So, where better to make the ultimate decision than at Jameson.  In case you dont know me, I like trying things... and I love samplers, the ability to directly compare all levels of quality of whiskey?!?!  you betcha.  It was also a good way for J to determine if she hated all whiskey, or just cheap stuff.  Well, we can now definitively say that she was ok with a hot toddy, but not a big fan of any of the whiskeys, dont think that will become a drink of choice for her.

People gave Irish food a kind of boring reputation.  J and I were actually quite pleased with the food there.  There was bangers and mash, Irish stew, Fish and Chips, all very classic and very delicious.  Yep, potatoes in every dish!  Fortunately, I LOVE potatoes, so that was fine by me.  Other food ventures of the trip were more breakfast related.  The Irish are apparently big fans of scones and cakes.  So, based on recommendations of our hosts, we found several different cake places.  Scones with Irish butter and fresh jam were really a big hit of the week.  Another awesome surprise was "Full Irish Breakfast".  Soft boiled egg, pudding (a mixture of oats and meat in a sausage) tomato, bacon, mushrooms, potatoes and bread.  I can only assume that people dont eat that every day, or they have no other meals, because, man... if you ate that every day, then drank as much beer every day... Ireland would have to be more obese than the US, and they are definitely not as big as Americans.

Ireland and England are pretty traditionally protestant, the biggest church is St Patricks Cathedral.  Other notable churches are Christ Church, which is one of the oldest stone buildings in Ireland, and also home to a huge crypt.  And not to be forgotten, Trinity Church and Trinity College.  The churches were very intricate, and very different from other churches that J and I visited in Spain and Rome.  They are dark stone buildings, with stone carvings, and dark wood linings.  Compared to the brilliant colors and ornate paintings in Rome, Irelands churches were much darker and "Earthier".  It was very interesting to wander through the places.  In Christ Church, there is a gigantic crypt, filled with artifacts from through the years.  My favorite part of Christ Church was seeing a mummified cat and mouse that got stuck in the organ for years and years, and was eventually found.  Kinda morbid I know, but they positioned them such that the cat was still chasing the mouse!

The thing I was most excited about was just how green Ireland is.  Within the city, that really means 2 places.  St Stephens Green, and Phoenix park.  I was lucky enough to go to both.  Phoenix park has an interesting horsegrounds, as well as being home to the US Embassy and Irish royalty.  It originally began as a hunting ground for British royalty, with walls around the enclosure to keep the deer in!  St Stephens Green was also pretty cool.  We happened to see the end of the World Street Performers Festival in Dublin.  J and I stopped to watch a sword swallower, who then upped the ante by juggling clubs on top of a 10 foot tall unicycle, blindfolded.  I have no idea how he managed to swallow that sword, but it was still quite impressive.

From there, we rented a car to drive from Dublin to Cork.  We were forewarned that even though it is only ~70 miles away, it can take 4+ hours to get from Dublin to Cork.  Amazingly, they were right.  It was, however, an amazing drive down through a canyon-y area called Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock).  I really wish now that we had spent a little more time there, but alas, I had another adventure earlier in the morning.  As many of you know, they drive on the left in Ireland.  The roads... also not so wide.  So, winding through the old streets, a left turn at a normal angle means a left turn where you scrape the curb.  Did you know that tires dont like scraping the sides of curbs?  And also did you know, that Sundays in Ireland are similar to Sundays in Spain, where most everything is closed?  AirBnB came through again, and our host called some friends that knew a mechanic that was open to come out and change the tyre.  So all was not lost.  Rural Ireland is a really pretty place.

One of the highlights of staying in a small town just outside of Cork was seeing the local newspaper.  64 pages of information on the local high school track and hurling teams, local fishing news, and the coup d'grace, the editorial on this new fangled sandwich chain called Subway.  It is too great to just summarize, so I scanned here in its entirety.... enjoy!

All in all, it was quite a fun trip, I definitely would like o go back to Ireland, and see more of the countryside, from southwest Dingle all the way to Belfast in the northeast.  Next time I will definitely bring an umbrella, because there is no way I can get that lucky again.

There and Back Again, an Ex-pat's Tale...

In May 2012, I set off on a journey around the world.  A brief (or not so brief) itinerary:

Barcelona - NYC layover in JFK

NYC - Wash DC.  Spend one night in DC to see Shaela

Next Day

DC - Minneapolis - 2hr layover

MN - Portland. Portland for 3 days, then 2 hr drive down to Corvallis for a week, back up to Portland for the weekend, then back down to Corvallis for another 3 days, then back up to Portland

Portland - San Jose - 1 hr layover in SJ

San Jose - San Diego.  1 week in SD with J

SD - Salt Lake City - 2 hr layover in SLC

SLC - Denver.  1 week in Denver, still with J

Den - JFK

JFK - Barcelona

Leave May 1st, return June 3rd, 2 weeks of work, 2 weeks of vacation, 5 cities, co-workers, friends and family, yoga, food and beer.

DC was filled with the ancient legends of old, hard willed men turned to stone.  I realize that DC does not have the oldest history in the US, that much of its lore begins around 1800, but I always grew up with the belief that US history was old.  It was quite a shock then, after spending time in Europe, realizing yet again just how truly young the US is.  David K told me a story of over-hearing some British guys talking about a sculpture at a museum in Italy, and they said "oh look, only 300-400 yrs old, so it's still pretty new".  It was interesting to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean memorial and the White House.

The primary reason for going to DC was to be able to see Shaela.  Since I was going to be forced to have a long layover, I took advantage of the opportunity to go visit her.  Though it was only 1 night, it was still fun to  get some sushi and explore the city a little bit.  I could never live there, mostly due to the infestation of politicians there, but I was glad to see that she was doing well in the city, and getting ready to finish Grad School, congrats to her.

Next stop, Portland.  I had several objectives on this trip:  Beer, food (especially Mexican, Thai and brunch), and hiking.  Once I got past that whole "working" thing, Oregon was amazing!  The day I arrived it rained, but every day after that for the 2 weeks I was there was sunny and gorgeous!  Sitting outside on the patio with a cold draft microbrew (oh how much I love restaurants with multiple taps!!!) is a pretty good way to spend an evening.  When I travel, I make a concerted effort to drink local beers, so I tried to drink as much Oregon and Washington beer as possible.  It was deeeeelicious.

Of course, it also meant that I needed to find a way to work out.  I was looking up yoga studios in Portland, and I stumbled across a studio owned by one of J's old teachers in San Diego.  It was cool to be able to go to that studio and practice with him.


Another highlight of Oregon is the hiking.  We have a strategy that has worked really well for hiking around Portland... get up before 10 am.  Weekend 1, Rick and I took his 2 Labradors out to a trail on the Columbia river.  After a very steep trail up, you are rewarded with a panoramic of Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, Mt Ranier, and Mt Hood.

 

After that, of course, after all that work we needed to reward ourselves with wings and beer, seemed reasonable.  Fire on the Mountain provided the goods.  This is the place where I first tried fried pickles (good... thanks Allegra for that discovery) and fried Oreos (not so good, maybe it was the oil, or maybe Oreo's dont need extra fat).

This weekend also saw excellent food events such as breakfast burritos at "The Big Egg" -some delicious cart food, and Cinco de Mayo tacos and Margaritas!  And of course, no trip to Portland is complete without a trip to Pok Pok, the best Thai food I have ever had (which makes me really want to go to Thailand to see how it matches up.


The following weekend we decided to get out early and do the most well known hike in the area, Multnomah  Falls.  Again, the strategy of going early worked wonders.  Thanks to Rick's insider knowledge, we did the trail backwards, which means that you avoid a lot of the crowds until the end of the hike, and you come up on the falls from behind, so it provides this moment of surprise seeing a 600 ft (189m) waterfall coming down at you.  And since we got out early, we literally had the whole trail to ourselves until the very end.  It also had the added advantage that when you get back, you are ready to go to brunch!  Bloody Mary bars and a brunch scramble are not a bad way to finish out the morning.  One highlights of the week include playing softball for the first time since I moved to Spain (there is only 1 baseball and 1 softball field in the ENTIRE city of Barcelona), grilled cheese sandwhiches from a cart, and a final stop at Pine State Biscuits before heading to the airport to catch a flight down to San Diego, where the adventure continues with J.

What is the first thing to do when you get into SD?  Go to the beach of course.  Going for a run down the boardwalk while I waited for J's flight from Spain was a really good way to start the week.  Objectives for this week were to go to our old yoga studio (The Little Yoga Studio- still awesome), go to some of our favorite restaurants and cafes, brunch with the old gang, and to see my parents, who just happened to be in town visiting at the same time.

Our first visit to The Little Yoga Studio we decided to surprise the teachers, and set up in our "normal" spots, but not turn around, to wait for her to come up the front and see us there like it was no big deal.  The gasp of surprise and excitement was classic.  This scene played out several times over the week, each time they were surprised and excited to see us.  I think they were especially glad to see J, she seems to be a favorite student of just about everyone.  She was really moved by how much people missed her, and how much at home she felt in SD, it made here really sad to leave, and want to head back after our European Adventure is over (whenever that may be).  After trying a bunch of studios along the west coast and in Spain, I think that is still one of the best studios I have found, for level of students, atmosphere and fun.

We stayed with the Tiernan bros, and it was awesome to see them again after our trip to Oktoberfest.  Maria N was in charge of brunch, and she did not disappoint, taking us to La Jolla's Brockton Villa.  The french toast and peach mimosa's were pretty amazing.  Thanks to Josh, Jeremy and Sarah, Erica and Jaden, Maria and Sven for a great breakfast catching up with friends.

The parental figures were in town visiting friends at the same time we were, so it was good to be able to catch up with them (and again later in Denver).  Yet another brunch at Hash House, as well as happy hour escargot and bubbly at the French Bleu Boheme were not too shabby.  They were also kind enough to take us to Costco to get granola bars, gum and lactaid (crazy asians, not being able to handle their milk) in American size quantities :)  We were also curious to try the tapas restaurant in SD, to see how we liked it after living here.  The patatas bravas still rated out quite well for us, but the pan con tomate and the pulpo (octopus) didnt rate as well as what we find here.  The sangria is always good though!  I still maintain one of the best burger places I have ever been to is The Neighborhood, in SD, which happened to be the place I took J on our first date, 4 years ago.  It did not disappoint this time either, good local beers, great burgers, excellent fries... just dont expect any ketchup, the chef refuses to serve it!  He will make his own sauces that are quite tasty though.

We also spent a few days going to the HP office, to catch up on email, to avoid taking vacation days, and of course, to visit old friends and colleagues.  J, of course, made some baked goods to bring in, and I went out with the old gang to our usual mexican place for lunch, followed by an early happy hour.  All in all, not a bad day, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone.

I could not go to SD without getting in a dive though, so I left J at Josh's and met Jeremy (the quadruple J could have been more, but Janet cancelled last minute!).  Even though the water is pretty cold and dark by most people's standards, there is still a lot to see at La Jolla Shores, and it is something special that there is so much interesting life and structure available with a swim from the shore.  I cant find any good shore diving in Spain, everything is a boat ride away, so LJ Shores will always have a special spot in my heart.  Highlights include some octopus wandering the walls, Sarcastic Fringehead, several different nudbranchs, a couple relatively large crabs (including one dead one) and a nice warming thermocline on the trip back in.

After a nice week in SD, it was time for J and I to head to Denver, where Hava and Preston were getting married.  Aside from the wedding, other objectives were yoga/circuit training, Illegal Pete's burritos, beer (notice any sort of trend in our objectives for the trip overall?), and visiting old friends/places.

The first 2 days, we stayed with Naomi in Highlands, a cool "hipster" neighborhood near Downtown Denver.    This made it easier to get to Hava's wedding and reception dinner.  Both the dinner and the wedding were very nice, in the DTC district of Denver.  I was really glad we got a chance to see her on this trip, Preston and her are a very good match together, and I am super happy for them.  It was also cool to be able to see Naomi, and explore the Boulder Creek Festival with her.

We found a yoga studio called Breathe that would let us practice for the week we were there, and had a few very interesting classes with some good tips for my tight hips, as well as a kick your butt spin class.  One of the things we always do when J and I visit my parents in Denver is go to "Maria's class", a circuit training class.  You, like me, might be thinking that J and I would find it a breeze to do a class with the retirement community clientèle, but Maria is a really good trainer, and made sure to give us variations to make it hard for us too.  And it WAS!

The biggest race in Colorado, and one of the biggest 10K's of the year is the BolderBoulder on Memorial Day.  Somehow, during my running days in high school and college, I never ran in one.  So when I found out I was going to be in town for this race, I immediately signed up.  It was one of the most fun races I have done.  There were bands and spectators cheering on practically every corner, it was quite the spectacle.  I did not make it on the slip-n-slide, as I thought I might throw up at that point.  It was the first time I really noticed how much altitude hurts.

Beer highlights of the trip include Avery brews, a Lefthand, Breckenridge Brewing, and lots of New Belgium Fat Tires and Sunshine Wheat.  Food highlights were the aforementioned Illegal Petes burritos, as well as Buffalo Wild Wings.  While I think Fire on the Mountain in Portland had better wings, you cant beat the 50 cent happy hour wings and $1 off draft beers at B-Dubs (BWW).  J also made a paella for my parents, and I made a thai curry, 2 gluten free options for the 'rents.


Every time we go back to Boulder, J always wants to stop at the Boulder Book Store, because of the large selection of used cookbooks, and Celestial Seasonings, so we spent a couple of days up in Boulder hanging around all of my old college haunts and going to those places.  It was great weather the entire time we were in Colorado, though much of the Western slope has since burned in wildfires.

After all of that, I was ready to head back.  It had been nearly a month since I slept in my own bed.  The hardest hours of the whole trip were getting back to Barcelona after 18+ hrs of travelling, then having to stay up all day to avoid jetlag.  All in all, it was an excellent trip that made me realize how much I like the cities and the people that I got to catch up with.  Thanks to everyone that made it a great trip!

Bordeaux Bound

In Spain and most of Western Europe, Good Friday and Easter Monday are official holidays.  Many schools close for the entire week for "Semana Santa" (week of saints), basically it is their Spring Break.  We decided to go somewhere for the 4 day weekend.  How did J and I decide where to go?  I hopped on the discount airline site and plugged in the dates, then searched every city from Amsterdam to Zurich.  We ended up with Bordeaux (so much time wasted after B!!), a very famous wine region in the southwest of France, along with St Emilion.  Since the biggest appeal is the wine, we booked a "chateau" in the middle of the vineyards.

Fortunately, I did my homework and saw that the chateau was hard to find, so I used our trusty friend, the GPS, with coordinates.  Even with that, we got lost a few times, but we eventually got there.  Once there, we found out that of the couple that owned the house, only the wife spoke english, and she was away taking care of a sick family member.  It made for quite the game of charades, trying to get a map of the town, and ideas of where to go.

They say French, Italian, and Spanish are all related, but J and I found French very difficult, both written and spoken.  We could guess at Italian, but were bad at French.  The other observation we had was that very few people spoke English, and almost nobody spoke Spanish.  So we did a lot of pointing and guessing, along with chopped speech.  J and I have noticed that no matter what foreign country we are in, our first instinct is to speak Spanish.  I suppose it comes from the idea that if the people dont speak our language, then we switch to "foreign" mode, which = Spanish.

The town of Saint Emilion is a famous wine producer, but it is also a medieval city, built totally of stone on a hillside.  From what we saw, it only contained restaurants and wine shops.  It was still a pretty town, and we were able to find an English speaking shop owner that spent a good amount of time with us.

We were also able to visit 6 chateau vineyards.  Sadly, the vines were just starting to grow branches, so they werent as pretty as they would be later this summer.  I still really enjoyed walking through the vineyards.

The wine of Bordeaux and St Emilion all has about the same composition: 80% merlot, 20% sauvignon franc.  One interesting tidbit about cabernet sauvignon, it takes a few extra weeks before it is ready to harvest, but in that region, those weeks have very unpredictable weather, so the risk of rain is too high to grow a lot of it for the wines.  So if you ever have a Bordeaux wine, that is why there isnt much Cab. Sauv.

What post would be complete without the mention of food!  The highlight was definitely the breakfast.  The chateau had an included breakfast spread.  I dont know where they got the croissants from, but they were delicious!  Also included were homemade breads, and several types of delicious jams.  The owner was incredibly nice, and we definitely understood "te" and "cafe".  

We spent a little bit of time in the city of Bordeaux as well.  The city is an interesting mix of Victorian "cohesion" along the waterfront, with a gothic cathedral that stands above everything.

The city was specially designed to look similar to cities like Venice and Amsterdam from the water,  It was a big port before dams made the river too small upstream, even though it is ~100km to the ocean.  But just off the river, there is a cluster of gothic building and plazas, that were quite enjoyable to walk around.  

 We also had a very nice dinner at a small little restaurant, and were able to enjoy a little bit of champagne.

 And finally, our barometer for any new country we go to... McDonalds.  In Greece there was a Spankopita like dish, in Italy, there were fried, stuffed olives, and prawns, and here in France was the ever famous "Royale with Cheese".

Sorry everyone for the long delay between the trip and the post, I'd like to pretend I will post more often, but history has shown I am not so good at that.

Valencia Fallas

In March, J and I went to Valencia, Spain... land of the oranges. We went for a festival called "Las Fallas". Some background: A "Falla" is a wooden structure, anywhere from 2m -47m (6ft - 150ft) tall. The legend says the festival started when the city's carpenters had some leftover wood from the previous year that they needed to get rid of to clear out space. Rather than throw everything out, they decided to build something. Now each community works to build their own structure, fundraising and building the structures.

Some more background: Valencianos love fireworks. I mean, they really LOVE them! "Petardos" are more like firecrackers, ranging from snappers, to black cats, to cherry bombs and even bigger. There was not even a 10 minute period where there was not some sort o explosion. With this in mind, the community naturally decided that the best way to celebrate the hard work and effort of the carpenters would be to blow everything up, and burn them to embers...

J and I hopped a bus and away we went. We expected the fallas to look a little like an average 4th of July parade float, or maybe the fiesta major de Gracia. In short, we expected them to look a little homemade. In this regard, we were completely blown away.

While we were impressed by the quality, we were a little bummed by the themes. The smaller fallas are "critiques", but mostly they seemed to be depressing depictions of the crisis and the state of the economy. The bigger ones were more optimistic and impressive to visit, so we tried to get to those more. Over the years, it has grown to such a level that there are people that design/build fallas year round, and have already started on next year's structures.

I have fond memories of the 4th of July with friends and family, lighting roman candles, black cats, fountains, etc, but all of those memories start after the sun goes down. For Valencians, anytime, anywhere seems to be the motto. The most shocking thing for J & I was seeing the lack of parental control and safety. Groups of kids playing soccer with the small spinners, and less then 3 ft away from black cats and other explosives. At 1 pm every day, there was a "mascleta", professional companies essentially try to burst as many eardrums as possible. We were warned that it was loud, but even so, we were driven further and further away by just how loud it was! Even from ~1 mile away, it was difficult to carry on a conversation. Every night beginning around 8, larger fireworks shows began for a few hours until 1 am, when the BIG show begins. I must say, it was probably the best fireworks show I have ever seen, lasting ~40 minutes, with non-stop explosions of color & sound, it really is quite something.

Valencia also lays claim to being the home of paella. We had an excellent paella on our way back from Murcia this winter, so we were excited to try another. The beach area is full of restaurants that specialize in paella, and based on the recommendation of a friend, ordered "Arroz a la Banda". It's amazing how quickly the chefs can whip up a huge pan of paella!!

Of course, after going here, J wants a paella pan of her own, I think we will need a bigger kitchen :) We also had fideos, or noodles, prepared somewhat similarly. The food was good, but we found that 1 paella was more than enough for both of us, and what we really wanted at the end of the trip was some vegetables, no more rice or oil. I dont want to put it down though, it really was quite well done.

Some other notes about Valencia. If you ever visit, make sure to take a stroll or jog along the "river". It is a dried up river bed that has been turned into a park. It is quite nice to find green in the middle of the city. The 2nd recommendation is the "Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias"

It's a series of museums placed in some pretty neat modern architecture. I'd also recommend the aquarium, J and I really enjoyed the incredible ocean life there.

It was a fun trip and a nice way to get away for a long weekend. However, the constant explosions (including someone intentionally throwing a cherry bomb in front of J and me, part of which hit me in the face), and the hoards and hoards of people were a bummer. "Las Fallas" was interesting, but if we go back, I think it will be at a more leisurely time of year.

2 weeks 2 Holidays 2 countires

Just 2 short weeks after our Italy trip, it was time for the Christmas holidays. We decided to knock a few places off our travel list. Destiny struck a few months ago when a Groupon for a hotel and a hot springs/spa came out on the same day. So off we went to the country of Andorrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra, a tax haven smushed between Spain and France. Nowadays, people mainly seem to go to ski, buy liquor, tobacco and perfume, but according to some colleagues, butter, sugar and milk also used to be very popular purchases. J and I were hoping to get some skiing in with the spa, but with 60 cm (~20 inches) of base, and no snow for 4 days, it didnt sound like a pleasant first skiing experience for J. So we were left to wander the giant duty free store they call a city, and do some relaxing at the spa.

Caldea Spa has many typical attractions, a large warm pool, smaller hot tubs, saunas, etc. However, what made it different was the principle of the spa that the transition between hot and cold stimulates circulation, so we were also treated to various points of frigid water, including an ice bath for your feet, then back into hot water. It was very interesting, and for the most part, very relaxing, but after our 6 hrs spanning 2 days, I am not sure I need to go back.

We fled Andorra as criminals, "smuggling" more than our allocation of liquor back into Spain, but we just couldn't pass up Baileys at 40% discount, Amarula for less than 10 Euros, plus gins and good tequila for 30% off. I was really tempted to buy the novelty size of Jack Daniels for 32 euros, but I couldn't because J would help me finish all that whiskey (cough cough to whiskey-loving friends that have yet to visit).

By far, the worst part of the country was the shock that it is legal to smoke indoors, and locals certainly take advantage. Every single place we went carried the overwhelming stench of tobacco, including McDonalds, with the little kids in the playpen, and bakeries. J lamented that we could not even stand to be in bakeries more than 30 seconds, a store that relies on smells bringing clients absolutely repulsed both of us. I've never lived in a world where there was not a non-smoking section at a minimum, and it's been many years since there was smoking at all indoors.

2 days after returning, we set off again for Murcia, and the surrounding areas. We chose this region for a few reasons. People told us that Pamplona (the original plan) would be much better at a different time of year, and Murcia was as far south as we could go without having to pay extra for the rental car, so off we went!

I get very excited every time I see one of the many real live castles dotting the landscape, and even moreso after reading "A Song of Fire and Ice" (J consistently touts that she was on board with this fantasy series before it turned mainstream, and she got me hooked. PS, she has not read the most recent book, so no spoilers). J, of course, looked on in shame as I ran around the castle pretending to be a knight at the Castle of Santa Barbara in Alicante.

The other fun thing about Alicante was the hostal we stayed in. I am pretty convinced that the room we stayed in used to be the kitchen, there was a blocked off ventilation hood in our room. It was a very funky, but very cool hostal.

Murcia is surprisingly famous for vegetables. Fish from Cartagena and the Mar Menor (lesser sea) are also well received, supposedly due to the higher salt content of the water. Nothing like a natural sea salt marinade for those fish!! The region also boasts popular Spanish wines, with Jumilla, Yecla, and Bullas. J and I booked a tour of a local winery (bodega- or house of wine), where we got to see the whole wine making production. It is amazing to me how similar making wine is to making inkjet ink.

The best part was the "sala de aromas". A full room just filled with boxes of different smells, from leather and holly, to banana and cherry, to moldy cork and wet horse. Now we can claim to be experts at detecting "soft notes of vanilla and blackberries, with a hint of leather, light on the tounge, and with a clove- like finish".

Our standing arrangement is that I pick the places we are going and the activities, and J deals with the food, since that is her favorite part. I must say, she picked EXCELLENT choices. In Andorra, we had 2 incredible meals, very creative, well cooked meals. In Valencia we had mazing paella, Alicante jamon, and in Murcia, we also managed several delicious meals as well. I am quite impressed with her ability to sort out the good and the bad without ever seeing the restaurant.

Bonjorno Italia

It's been a while since the last post, so I hope you will bear with me for a long one.

December 6th and 8th form a quirky set of holidays in Spain. The 6th is the day the Constitution was ratified after the fall of Franco, and the 8th is the Immaculate conception. 90% of Spaniards take the 7th off to form a "puente" or "bridge" between holidays. When they happen to fall on a Tues and Thurs, like 2011, many people take the whole week off to form an aquaducto. That's how J and I found ourselves deciding to visit Naples and Rome. 130€ later we were set to go on Ryan Air. Side note:we still cant believe that for ~65€ a piece we can get to Rome during a major Catholic holiday...

We were fortunate enough to overlap with my 2nd parents, Mike & Donna Koeppel, in Naples. Unfortunately, David had to go to a training excercise (can you believe the Navy actually wants him to work?!?!), so we only got to see him for a day.

We heard all the warnings about the pickpockets in Naples, even from Spaniards. That seemed odd to us, given that BCN is just as bad (as J can attest to from her first day here!). We were also warned about the traffic, the mob, and the trash problems. The cant miss recommendations of Naples are the pizza, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Amalfi coast, so it's not all gloomy.

Our first impression of Naples is that the city and streets are not our favorite. In an earlier post, I talked about Athens being dirty. The difference between Athens and Naples is that Athens felt like it was decaying, and turning back into dirt, Naples was dirty in a different way. Small piles of trash littered every alley, building corner, etc, while graffiti on top of graffiti on top of more graffiti turned the city into a bit of an eyesore.

Every single thing you hear about driving in Naples is true. J and I were grateful that our hosts have adapted into local maniacs behind the wheel, they both navigated through incredibly convoluted routes, and through traffic that appeared certain to cause imminent death. What you dont hear about is the challenge of being a pedestrian in Naples. People dont stop for you if you are waiting at a crosswalk, and good luck finding a signal. My best strategy? Take a deep breath, cross your fingers, close your eyes, and take that first step. I was never pummeled, and I didnt have to deal with the fear of seeing a car come barreling at me, only to stop at the last second. However, once the locals are out from behind the wheel, they are some of the friendliest and most helpful people we have met. This includes one memorable little old lady who walked us all the way to the train station, even though she didnt speak a word of English, and our Italian was limited to "grazie" and "estacione".

For us, the best parts of the Naples landscape was outside the actual city. 3 specific places we enjoyed were Erculano (also buried by the Vesuvius eruption, smaller, but better preserved), the Amalfi Coast, and J's favorite, the American grocery store on the Naval Base!

The biggest takeaway for J and me at Erculano was that this civilization was not primitive, the people just trying to survive, but people that valued art, decoration, and other luxuries. Many of the residences has art on the walls, fountains in the courtyard, and the floors were incredibly intricate with thousands of small tiles, patterned in various colors, and placed very evenly throughout the whole floor. Someone took the time to collect all the rocks, sift and sort them, and then place them carefully in the floor. It just really struck us how many luxuries the people of the town actually had.

The mudslide that closed the road to the Amalfi Coast ended up being a real blessing. We were undeterred by the police saying something in Italian to the effect of "Not this way pal", not when we had our trusty friend GPS with us. Small, numberless windy roady on the map? Let's do it! Fortunately, this route led through forests and into panoramic views of Mt Vesuvius, the ocean, the neighbouring valley, and of course, the Amalfi coast. In my mind, it was just as stunning as the landscape of Oia in Greece, but it somehow felt a little more real (perhaps the small farms dug into the side of the hills helped). I can understand why nightly rates during peak season have priced the lowly mortals like J and I out.

My new hobby is comparing the experiences of Linhaa in Hong Kong (such as cooking solely with a toaster oven, huge language barriers, but having huge varieties of delicious Asian foods), David and Ali's experience in Naples (95% of restaurants are Italian, trying to get pets calm and happy, and knowing you are leaving in a few years) with ours in Spain. It turns out David and Ali have been cheating in finding American comforts, as they are shipped by the Navy. J's ears instantly perked at the proposal of a guest pass, and the grocery store landed on the agenda. What, you ask, were our high priority items that we just cant get anywhere else? Peanut Butter (naturally), Nature'sValley granola bars, Maraschino cherries (for some reason they are just plain bad here), candy canes!, graham crackers and marshmallows (how can I have s'more if I havent had any yet...), Cherry Coke, and deodorant. $75 later, and a promise by Ali that we could borrow an extra suitcase to fit our unexpected presents later, J was a very happy camper.

Special mention has to go to the food in Naples. The fresh pasta's were delicious, but the wood fired pizza was absolutely fantastic. The crust, the fresh buffalo mozzarella, I dont know how David and Ali stay so skinny! The other local delicacy is sfogliatelle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfogliatelle Layers of awesome filled with deliciousness, it rivaled the pizza as our favorite food of the trip.

Rome makes me sad I am not more religious. The pure grandeur of the cathedrals, and above all the Vatican was overwhelming. I can see why so many people come to this place searching for God. I did not know that I was a fan of Raphael, but both J and I were amazed by his frescoes. The Sistine chapel was every bit as amazing as it seems, covered floor to ceiling in Michelango masterpieces. On the flip side, I am conflicted when I think about how poor many of the peasants and worshippers have been throughout the ages, while the Vatican has spent a large fortune in aesthetic pursuit of art and architecture. I cant deny the success of creating an ethereal house of worship, but I cant help but think they could have used the money to help people better...

Rome truly spans the ages, starting with the Coliseum, and the Empire of Nero. I came away surprisingly disappointed, I guess maybe I expected too much, I wanted to feel the gladiators, but the outside is so much more iconic than anything inside. Then we work our way to the Pantheon, built is ~200 AD, it is the largest non reinforced dome in the world! You could put a sphere 43.2 m in diameter in the building and it would fill up the entire church to within centimetres. It is 1800 years old, and STILL one of the most incredible architectural feats in human history... wow...

Following that, it moves into the middle ages and the rise of the Vatican and church, and all the way to Martini branded skyscrapers and fashionable shopping of today. The other structures that stood out were the fountains. Even though it is a big touristy schtick, Trevi fountain was worth every second of the visit. It was fun to "stumble" across other fountains and plazas, including Villa Borghese.

While we had some good food, Rome was a bit of a letdown compared to Naples. Perhaps we weren't in the right district, or perhaps Naples just set the bar too high. We have developed a benchmark to determine the level of culture... unique things on the McDonalds menu. Italy gave us olives, stuffed with meat, then breaded and fried, fried shrimp, and my fave, pistachio McFlurry. They're the finest delicacies we have seen yet!

Both J and I left Italy with the same concludion, the city of Naples does not pass the "Could I live here?" test (despite the food), but Rome does. All in all, it was a very good week

Costa Brava

I havent updated the blog in a while, mostly because I am lazy, but I suppose a little bit because J and I have been getting out a lot more.

For those unfamiliar with Spanish geography (I know, American geography classes are always top notch, and everyone knows all about Spain), Barcelon

a sits j

ust south of the Costa Brava region. Think winding, rocky coastlines, super blue water and plenty of sun. I´ve now taken 4 separate trips up there...

July 9th: Diving in Llafranc.

There is a Scuba group at HP that organizes a few dives (2 that I have seen this year). Many of the people on this dive had not been out since their open water certifications, but there were also a handful of people that were more experienced. Luckily, I was paired with them, and we got to drop in first. We attached to the mooring ball (a floating ball attached to the bottom, these are better than dropping an anchor that scrapes across the bottom of the sea floor), and after getting in I could see the bottom 50 feet down. Compared to the ~15 foot limit in San Diego, this was quite nice. I should also mention that the water is significantly

warmer, so there's a double bonus. The dive was around an underwater mountain, so we got to continuously spiral around the mountain from the bottom all the way up, seeing several types of fish (including a catfish looking thing), and even a few sea stars and coral. The culture shock of the day was first learning how much weight to carry, since I am new to the Meditteranean salt water. First comes translating my question into Spanish, followed by translating back into words I understand better, only, the answer is in kilograms, soooo translate kilograms to the pounds of weights that are part of my gear. Then I attach my tank, and they ask how much pressure I have. My computer reads in psi, they want the response in Bar (200 Bar = 3000 psi more or less). Ok, got it... except when underwater, they have different signals for things too, so first I have to do the underwater math to figure out how many Bar my gauge is reading, then remember how to tell my buddy that. It all worked out well, but i

t was definitely harder than I thought it would be. Very pretty dive though.

July 30th: Blanes

Deciding I liked the views in Costa Brava, and did not get to spend that much time just at the beach, I decided to hop a train up the coast. For a mere 5 euros each way, you can take the train 70 kms, and see the whole coastline there in 1.5 hrs. It doesnt go all the way up to the prettiest area, but it's cheap, easy, and there are still some nice beaches. I chose Blanes for a few reasons. There was a botanical gardens there (that, unfortunately, I wouldnt recommend unless you are a huge plant enthusiast, mostly mediterranean type low shrubs, or

generic looking plants, not much blooming colors), as well as it being the start of Cami del Ronda, which is a series of trails that fishermen and smugglers used in olden days. So after visiting the gardens and a castle, I set off on a hike. Trail markers in Spain are actually quite good, but you have to know what you are looking for. The symbols are painted on rocks, or lampposts or various things on the side, so you have to be vigilant to see the signs, but also to understand them. My trail was a red and white equal sign, not to be confused with a red and white X. At any rate, I wandered through streets, trails, and even some parking lots along this trail. I discovered many little hidden beaches, that, to my eyes, had no associated towns or commercial spaces.

This is a good time to mention that every beach in Spain appears to be topless optional, and fortunately for all the guys reading, there are quite a few attra

ctive Europeans that are not bashful. What I discovered on this journey however, was that the further up the coast I went, and into the smaller and more secluded beaches, the more people I saw completely nude. It seemed like a relative mix, with up to ~50% tanning au natural. I didnt think my excuse of taking pictures of the "coastline" would work, so no photos to attach, sorry. It was quite enjoyable having a mixture of hiking and beach-going, definitely something I think I want to try again.

August 5th-7th: Begur

August is apparently a month for vacation. Government shuts do

wn, and almost nobody is left in the office, except the few schmucks that stick around to keep things alive. That was J and me... we figure the whole country is on vacation, why would we want to do the same, and go to the same places to be in a packed area. We'll save it and go throughout the year. However, one colleague has a vacation home in Begur, and invited J and I up for the weekend. We caught a 2 hr bus up there, then they picked us up at the station. It is definitely apparent to me that the further north you go, there is more dramatic coastlines, everything just seems a little prettier and little cleaner. The vacation home they have is gorgeous, our room overlooked a small harbor, as well as following the coast all the way north past Islas Medes (where the best diving in Costa Brava is supposed to be) and all the way to the French border. We did the traditional Spanish vacation activities, go to the beach to relax and snorkel, and eat. I really enjoyed snorkeling here. The beaches are not the typical sand beac

hes, they drop off into small reefs and rocky bottoms after just 10-15 feet, full of fish, and coral, and aquatic plants, it is very cool.

We ate jamon and olives, and shrimp, we had a few rice dishes (variations of paella), salads with fresh figs and goat cheese and various grilled meats, to name a few. We also went to a "Medieval Restoration" city, basically, they recreated what the city would have looked like in 1400, and people live there, sometimes for just part of the year, sometimes year round. There are many restaurants and touristy places as well, but I am told that in the winter, all the streets are deserted, and it can be quite beautiful. This is the best, most mediavally picture I was able to get.

August 14th: St Pol de Mar

This post would be much cooler if I had brought my underwater casings. This time we did not take the train as far north, stopping based on a recommendation from a colleague. The beaches further north were more impressive, but the highlight of this trip by far was seeing several barrel jellyfish at a cleaning station, with other little fishes eating the parasites off the bell and tentacles. Here is a stock photo I found that looks very similar to both jelly and environment. Jellyfish are some of my favorites to watch, and these ones slowly meandered away from me, rather than trying to attack of threaten, so I got to sit and watch them for a long time.

Costa Brava has a lot to offer inland as well, we have some trips planned for later this year, but for now, the beaches are not too shabby :D

-J

Greece

J and I were invited to Kira and Greg Jarmer's wedding in Santorini, Greece. This is one of my favorite parts of living abroad, that taking a week to go to Greece is not that big a deal. When we told people at work that we were going to Santorini, everyone gave the same response "ooohhhh, que bonito!".

The plan: Arrive in Athens, spend 1.5 days in Athens, then fly to Santorini. Spend ~4 days on Santorini, then go back to Athens for 3.5 more days.

The flight to Athens was a rather uneventful 2 hrs. There are 2 discount airlines here, RyanAir and Vueling. Think Southwest, but without the customer service or comfort. The seat did not have enough legroom, and if you want any drinks (including coke), you have to pay. However, if you know what you are getting into, it is a good deal. The

first thing we did after getting to our hotel was to look for food, we were starving! What better food to start with than gyros and french fries!!

One thing to note about Spain... The French fries in Barcelona are bad, I mean limp mush bad. Yet somehow people continue to tolerate it. So we were very excited to see that Greeks know how to do fries. They also know how to do gyros!

First impressions about Greece... it is very dirty. There is graffiti everywhere, often times the sidewalks are cracked and grungy. It is hard to explain completely, but both J and I agreed that it felt old and dirty.

The next day we went to the major attraction of Athens, the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It is a very very old set of structures. It is interesting to think about the fact that a few thousand years ago Socrates and Plato and Aristotle wandered some of these same roads and stood in the same spots. But then... you see that the Parthenon i sunder construction, and that the symbolic Caryatids (the first known time that artistic sculpture and support architecture were combined, which was very interesting) are replicas, with the real ones in the museum and under restoration. The beauty for me is in seeing these things and marveling at the fact that they lasted for 2000 years, not that there are fragments of them left, and a plaster replica sitting out there. Sidebar: There was a brit by the name Lord "sticky fingers" Elgin that apparently came in to Athens and stole tons and tons of marble sculptures. Many of these are on display today in London. The Greek government has asked for them back, but the response has always been "There is not an appropriate place to display them, so, for now, we'll just keep them here in London". Well, now the Acropolis museum has blank spaces with nametags ready for them , but I guess London still wont give them back.

Because I am a fool, and the price was better, we booked a 5:30 am flight from Athens. Off we went for the airport at 3 am. We were on the same flight as some of the other people from the wedding, including Sharmeen (or, as I like to call her, Sharmesean Cheese) and her boyfriend, Dan. There was no real plan for the day, until 5 pm, but we arrived on Santorini at 6:15 am... so you see the problem.

The hotel we booked was a little down the road from the main part of town, a little cottage with a nice view of the beach and neighboring island, and the hotel owner was very cool. A slow rhythmic voice matched his demeanor, everything about him screamed "you're in Greece... relax...". No sooner were we getting various recommendations when Dan and Sharmeen pull up on an ATV and convinced us to rent one for the day with them. "It will be 3 euros more than taking a bus to the planned activities" Sharmeen says, so... away we go. On the island of Santorini, it seemed like there were buses, motorcyles, ATVs and a few rental cars, and that's it. AWESOME! It was so much fun driving around the whole island. We went from the northern corner, all the way to the southern corner, seeing beautiful hillsides, the famous caldera, a white sand beach, a red sand beach, and a black sand beach. We drove up to Ancient Thira, and while it was closed, we did decide to do some random yoga poses.

We also went to see a beautiful sunset at a local winery.

The island and the views are very pretty. That is absolute fact. The thing that got to J and I was that there is about 10:1 tourist:locals population. So everything is manufactured for tourism. It feels a bit fake. Fun to do once, nice and relaxing mostly, but not our travel style.

Headed back to Athens:

Here's the part of the trip where I made a grave mistake planning the trip. I thought "Athens, one of the oldest cities in the world, there should be tons of things to see and do there, we'll definitely want more time". Turns out, Athens is good for ~2 days of exploration, then people go to the countryside or the islands. Well, we already had hotel booked, so we stayed in Athens. We still cant figure out why, but everything in Greece was DIFFICULT. We had a hard time with the trains, we had a hard time getting to our hotels, getting around, finding any information online, wireless internet in all 3 of our hotels was a pain, etc.

We mostly spent the time wandering through the city, going to cafes and reading, as well as enjoying a new favorite discovery, natural fruit juices, whole fruit blended with a bit of ice. Not a normal juice, not a smoothie. Quite delicious and refreshing, banana was my favorite, though peach and apple were pretty good too. We found some more good gyros and greek salads, and for the first time maybe ever, really enjoyed baclava, and it's improved counterpart, kataifi (rather than being sheets of phylo it is more like spaghetti sized strips that give it a nice texture).

I also managed to get a day of diving in, about 30 miles south of Athens. The water there is so much clearer than San Diego, and it had really nice underwater canyons and rock walls.

The attached pictures are of some silverfish and a star. The dives were very nice and pleasant, I definitely enjoy the med.

Many of you will notice that I did not mention the protests in Athens. There was violence the day before we left Barcelona, and violence the day after we returned, but everything seemed quite peaceful during the times we were there. Maybe my perspective is skewed from the "indignados" here in Spain, but it seemed very similar. I heard they ratified a new government, but they are still inching closer to default.

On the list of European countries to visit, I am glad we went, saw Athens, ate some gyros, went to the islands, but I dont have a huge desire to go back soon. There are so many other places to see and things to do, a place needs to be pretty spectacular to get me to go back.