Amsterdam

The train ride from Paris to Amsterdam was quite beautiful, yet scary as the entire route was covered with either snow, hail or frozen ice on the ground. Especially passing through Brussels, which was to be our next destination, we realized the weather was not looking so good. We got to Amsterdam and it was freezing and snowing, but because the snow was so beautiful we weren't too upset. We spent most of our time there wandering around the gorgeous compact city and admiring the array of mansion on every single street. We decided that there was not one unattractive building in all of Amsterdam and deemed it the prettiest city we had seen yet, with Venice as a close second. Similar to Venice, in fact, the city is sprawled over many canals with loads of foot bridges for the infinite number of pedestrians and bikers.

We got to try some Dutch beer at this really cool bar we found in a nice part of town. We were able to do a beer tasting while playing Scrabble (with the Dutch alphabet, which made it quite challenging to create English words.) This was an awesome environment with delicious unique micro brewery beer, some of them even made coriander, etc.

We didn't really eat much Dutch cuisine besides some yummy aged Gouda cheese which we carried around with us and snacked on from time to time. We did indulge in pancakes, which were pretty good, but we had one incredible meal at a random vegetarian place we encountered on a search for cheeseburgers. It smelled so good and looked so cute, we just couldn't resist, plus is was the healthier option. It inspired us to eat more vegetarian and vegan meals when we return to the states.

Touristy wise, we took a canal tour through the city on which we learned basic information about many of the houses along the canals...wasn't too informative, but it was relaxing and we were able to enjoy our favorite beer, Heineken, while we toured along. We visited the Anne Frank House, which was very interesting, except for the fact that the entire museum were replicas as they were experimenting with climate control and could not allow the real artifacts to be viewed. We assumed it was the real house, of course. We went to the Van Gogh museum, which was really good and featured about 200 of his paintings, as well as some sketches and letters to his brother.

My personal favorite part of the city was the Red Light district where you find prostitutes behind red tinted glass windows wearing nothing but bikinis and waiting for "clients." Some of them I am not sure were even women...classy!

We still have Brussels to write about, and we are now in Berlin and will update the blog when we have more time and energy. We really enjoyed Amsterdam, it was really beautiful small and relaxing.
J and E

Paris

We arrived in Paris last Sunday on a flight from Venice. We were greatly looking forward to our 8 nights there because we were able to rent an apartment for the week in a really cool neighborhood. We were pleasantly surprised to find a really cute and practical apartment with our very own kitchen! It was really nice to feel like we had a quasi home in a foreign big city. We cooked several delicious meals, especially due to the many various fresh food markets around the entire city. We purchased lots of fresh produce, herbs, seafood, meats and yummy cheeses (nice stinky ones.) We got to dine in and hang out and have a really nice time just appreciating life's little simplicities once again.

Don't get us wrong, we definitely saw Paris of course. We visited the Eiffel Tower and climbed up 800 steps in order to reach the second level and saw an incredible city view. We also went to Notre Dame and went inside the church to see one of the most famous ones in the world. (We made friends with the hunchback.) We went to the Monmarte and Sacre Couer, which is a church at the top of a hill in which there used to be a big art colony. It was touristy to the max but was very pretty and nice and highly elevated to allow another captivating Paris view. We visited the Musee d Orsay which had a lot of impressionism and post impressionism artwork, with some really special pieces by Van Gogh and Monet. We went to the Louvre for a hot minute, because apparently if we were to spend 30 seconds on every single art piece in the entire museum we would be there continuously for 6 months. The Mona Lisa was very small, and not really as cool as the Venus de Milo and some other famous sculptures that I forgot the names of. On our last day we jogged (in the freezing Paris weather) to the Arc du Triomph which is a national monument celebrating some kind of historical victory.

We did have one really incredible meal at L'Atlelier d Joel Robuchon, and spent a nice chunck of money on some gourmet French delicacies. This was the kind of place that puts like 3 bites of food on big white plates and charges like 20 euro per plate, but it was absolutely delicious and a really fun experience...and they accidentally gave us our dessert twice, so that was pretty awesome. Besides that and cooking for ourselves we just ate random French fare and got cafe type meals, most of which were pretty good, but our favorite cheap meal was L' as du falafel in the Marais area. It was some of the best falafel we have ever had, and pretty cheap too. We also got tons of pastries and the best baguettes we have ever had. Seriously, the bread in Paris is amazing and smells like whiffs of Heaven coming out of every boulangerie.

All in all, we had a great time exploring Paris, with the sweets, food sites and culture. We also loved living in an apartment to break up the Hostel grind and would definitely stay there again if we went back to visit. The architecture and the upkeep of the city, with its greenery and cleanliness was really excellent and nice to look at. We were sad to leave, but looking forward to the rest of our trip, which is currently commencing in Amsterdam, and we will be sure to post about it as soon as we can.

Venice

Sorry for the long delay in posts. We have been unable to use a computer for an extended period of time and the keyboards in France are just too weird to type on. We owe you two posts. Here goes the first.

We arrived in Venice on the 14th; about 10 days ago. We checked into our BUDGET hotel late that night. The lobby smelled worse than a public restroom, but the rooms weren't that bad. It was the next morning that we realized how thin the walls are, when it the noise of people from outside the room seemed as if they were right next to our beds.

After being well rested from a good night of sleep we went out on a walk through the canals. Man oh man Venice is gorgeous. It is even more beautiful than I had imagined. Small streets and alleys, little bridges, rowed houses... and it is not easy to navigate.

Being in the romance capital of Europe if not the world, we decided to take a gondola ride. To our surprise, the nice gondola man quoted us 80 Euro (120 USD) for a 25 to 30 min ride and upwards from there, OY! Being the Jews we are, we haggled the man down a bit in price and made a deal. The ride was all we had dreamed of and totally worth the hefty fee.

After that we did a lot of the normal touristy stuff like San Marco Square and the Basilica, Doge's Palace... It's all pretty similar to the stuff you see everywhere else, but it was nice. We went into this renowned Carnivale mask makers store. It was so awesome, but we don't have any photos of the masks as we were too embarrassed to ask if we could take pictures.

Later that night we got dinner at Rick Steves recommended Osteria de Nono Risorto. It was delish. Jenny got a mixed salad and I (Ethan and yes this is my first entry) got a 2 course meal. As the starter I got a pasta with red sauce and shellfish and a as an entree, squid cooked in its ink over polenta. I was still a little hungry so I ordered tiramisu for dessert.

The Venetian life style is awesome. When all the tourists go home (at about 6pm), the locals come out from hiding. You can find them in any bar with a drink in their hand. There is a typical Italian apertivo called a Spritz. Its made of Aperol or Campari and soda water. You can order it either dry or sweet. Its really yummy.

In the Venetian style, we started our nights early, and in the Venetian style we were usually out by 22:30 (10:30).

It is now 1:30 in the afternoon in Amsterdam and we are taking some of our precious time to keep you entertained. Paris to come as soon as we get back to the internet.

The Cinque Terra

Everyone told us we had to go to the cinque terra: 5 hill towns connected at the ocean in Northwestern Italy. We spent 2 nights there and really enjoyed ourselves. It was beautiful, peaceful and allowed us to spend a lot of time with nature and just relaxing. We took a 7 mile hike, which took us about 4 hours, through the 5 towns and up and down the surrounding mountains. It was very challenging but really worth it, and because it was along the Mediterranian it was absolutely stunning. We had a couple nice meals of seafood and got to try the best foccacia since it is from that region. There isnt too much to write but we will upload the many wonderful photos as soon as we are able. Please keep leaving comments so we know people are reading what we are writing!

Florence and Sienna

Let me just start by saying that the location of our hostel in Florence is incredible. We can practically see the Duomo and Campanile right outside our window. The oldtown part of the city is much smaller and warmer than Rome, as expected. We arrived here Saturday morning and begun our first day by going into the Duomo--a chapel with a huge dome skyscraper with famous paintings at the top. We climbed up the 400+ steps to a tiny steep inlet in order to get to the very top to see the view. Once we made it, however, the view was miraculous and we were able to see all of Florence.
After our view we walked over to the Accademia Museum and got to see Michaelangelo's David, along with various other artworks and sculptures. David was a gigantic masterpiece and represented Florence's freedom in regards to his fight with the giant Golliath back in the day. It is really exciting to see such famous and significant artworks in Italy that we have learned about in history or art classes back in school.
We had a gelatto break from this place called Grom that is actually supposed to be really famous and popular for its use of organic products and fruit. Then we had dinner in some touristy area at a Pizzeria which was fine and a nice break from walking.
Yesterday we spent the entire day attempting to do things but were unable to just about everything because nothing is open on Sunday. We wanted to go to the Uffizi museum, which is considered the best art collection in all of Italy, but due to the 2.5 hour long line we decided to make a reservation for Tuesday morning before we head out. We weren't able to eat lunch in the place we wanted because it was closed. The big outdoor market was closed, as well as most of the museums and exhibits. We ended up wandering around the city with virtually nothing to do, but still managed to have a good time entertaining ourselves. We thought that maybe this day had been a waste until we had dinner, one of the best eating experiences of our trip.
Rachel recommended we go to Il Latini, a wine bar and restaurant near our hostel. We arrived 10 minutes before it opened to find a huge mass of people crowded outside waiting to get in. We were let in shortly after they opened the doors and were seated with two other couples, with communal water, wine and bread for the table. We knew Tuscany is known for their grilled meats and steaks, so we ordered a veal chop for the main course that was some of the best, if not the best, meat we had ever tasted. It was such a fun experience and terrific food; we were so glad we took the recommendation, and we figured we deserved a nice long meal after our boring day.
We took a day trip to Sienna today on the train and saw another Duomo and Il Campo--their town square. Sienna is such a cute little town, sort of like a miniature version of Florence. We had a good lunch at a cute little place, described as peasant food at peasant prices, and we walked around a lot and went into all the cute little shops. We head to Cinque Terra tomorrow and are really looking forward to how beautiful we have heard it is. After that we go to Venice for a few days and then head off to Paris for a week where we were able to rent an apartment! More to come as soon as we are able.
J and E

Rome

Italy, italy, italy...so far kind of gay, but we have had some pretty cool experiences.
We started in Rome last Wednesday and spent three nights there. Our hostel was a 10 minute walk to the Colliseum, which was the first major thing we saw. It was pretty cool to see such old ruins (even though they have been rebuilt like 3 times) and we learned about how gladiators used to fight each other to the death...as you may know from Russell Crowe. We saw the Pantheon, which was really beautiful on the inside, and we visited the famous Trevi fountain, which was huge and also a very humbling sight. After all the touristy stuff we walked around and found some cute little restaurant for the pasta of the day and our first taste of trippa (TRIPE!) alla romagna and spent the rest of the evening exploring the city, which was packed with tons of people doing exactly the same thing.
We went to the Vatican the following day to explore our Catholic roots, and were able to wait in an hour and a half long line in the rain just to get into the city. We saw the Sistine chapel, and slyly took some illegal photos of Michaelangelo's ceiling. We got to go into St. Peter's Basilica and saw a bunch of Papal statues, our favorite one being the preserved body of some pope (most likely a John), in a glass encased tomb. Pretty awesome. We tried our first Italian gelatto which is delicious, as you can see from the picture of Ethan.
Later that night we returned to the main part of Rome and got to see a night view of the Colliseum which was even cooler looking than during the day. The city has so much old ruins and ancient architecture it was hard to believe that we were in a contemporary place at times. We enjoyed a really awesome authentic Jewish inspired Italian dinner in the Jewish ghetto, actually a really cool neighborhood, that we got a recommendation for. We ordered an amazingly rich fettucini pasta dish with fresh gooey ricotta cheese and a cheese and pepper sauce, which is a Rome regional dish. We also had excellent oxtail that was falling off the bones. The house wine in Italy is pretty good, usually Chianti, and still cheap. We discovered the hip part of Rome to hang out on our last night and wished we had found it earlier because the historical part of the city gets pretty dead after dinner.
We were anxious to get to Tuscany to find a more quaint city, as Rome is very large and full of pushy Italians and loads of tourists. Florence was our next stop and our train was on Saturday morning.

Barcelona

So, we have spent the last 3.5 days in Barcelona, and we have really been enjoying it. Our first day we walked around the city and saw all of the beautiful buildings and architecture. We especially loved the Gaudi buildings and were able to go inside them on tours the following day. The Sagrada Familia was incredible and had such intricate details. We went up to the very top with an awesome view of the city and then made our way back down a narrow spiral staircase to the ground level..it was really cool, kinda scary and fun to experience.

We have been enjoying a lot of tapas here for our dinners, it is always a fun social experience usually with very tasty small plates of food. Our first night we went to this cool place, recommended by Jordan, called Sagardi. It was basque style tapas, which were served in a buffet style on a bar. You stand at the bar, order a drink (we drank this traditional drink called txakoli) and then are able to grab whatever you want on your plate. Everything was served on bread, such as a croquette of ham and cheese held together by a toothpick on a small piece of bread. When you are finished they count your toothpick and you pay per item.

Our second day we had lunch at La Boqueria: a huge outdoor marketplace with a variety of food stands and tapas places. We saw lots of beautiful produce, really yummy looking fresh seafood, and lovely carcasses of cows, chickens, and pig´s feet. Needless to say, I had to close my eyes and hold on to Ethan´s arm in passing of the meat places. We ate some small plates and had a beer at this really cute little stand with bar seats. By the way, people drink at every single meal in Spain, including breakfast, so literally everywhere you go you are able to get a drink, although we usually only have wine with dinner. The rest of the day we spent looking at Gaudi and eventually out for more tapas, including arroz negro (paella style rice with squid ink), which turned out mouths black. Yum.

Yesterday we hiked up to a mountain, where the olympics were held in 1992, and visited yet another castle. We saw a beautiful ocean view and got a good workout. On our way up the mountain we saw these people making giant sized pans of paella, I mean seiously like the size of a small crater. Apparently, we learned later that this was due to the fact that a ton of Scottish people were in town for the football match and in order to keep them in one area, the government decided to make tons of paella to entice them to stay out of the main part of the city. Scots are crazy. They spent the entire day and previous night drinking beer and singing some chant allll over the city. They were super excited for the game, although they knew they had no chance to beat Barcelona, the best team in the world, but their spirits were high and they were drunk. Later we watched the Barcelona-Celtic football (soccer) match, had a couple beers and then headed to a late dinner at an amazingly delicious restaurant. We got to eat razor clams, which we absolutely divine, as well as some incredibly tender calmimari sauteed with white beans in olive oil and other spices.

All in all, we have really enjoyed our time here. This city is extremely touristy, so it´s very clean and caters very well to travellers. We are atteming to spend the rest of our time today in doors, as it is actually cold today for the first time. We may check out the Picasso Museum, though we were able to see Paris´s exhibit already in Madrid. We depart to Rome this evening! Pictures to follow as soon as we can upload them! Love, Ethan and Jenny.

Madrid day 2

We´ve just finished our 2nd day in Madrid and are hanging out at our hotel to prepare for an early morning train to Barcelona. Today we went to the Prado Museum to see a lot of famous Spanish art, our favorite was the Goya works. We had to wait in line for about an hour to get in and the museum was huge, so this took up almost half of our day. The buildings here are very pretty with cute little streets tucked in corners, so we have a couple pictures in this entry of the architecture and scenery.
Then we had a picnic lunch which consisted of the jamon iberico bellota! We ended up just buying some ham cheese and bread and making our own sandwiches, which turned out to be cheaper. Being the best ham in the entire world, it was pretty delicious, and we knew it was good quality because it was hand sliced in front of us right off of a leg of pork, hoof and all. (Ew) The pigs are fed an acorn only diet, which is the reason for their tastiness.
After a siesta, we returned to the city and saw a Picasso exhibition at the Reina Sofia, including Guernica, which was pretty cool to see in person. After the museum we endulged in a doner kebab, which is basically a pita stuffed with meat, lettuce, tomato and creamy sauce...it´s super cheap and really good. After that we decided to try some special Madrid hot chocolate, which is really thick and like nothing we have tried before. We also ordered some churros to dip in the chocolate, which was interesting and rich. (Fyi we are planning on gaining about 20 kgs each this trip.)
We are staying about a 40 minute train ride away from the city so we haven´t really been able to stay out in Madrid past 11pm, so now we are winding down our time here and are looking forward to our next 4 days in Barcelona--where we will go crazy at the discos :). We have been really fortunate with internet access and the ability to upload photos, so we can´t promise this consistent of updates, but we will do our best. Ole!