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!

Madrid day 1

We are in Madrid, we arrived this morning on an overnight 10 hour train from Lisbon...not very comfortable. We went to our hotel and then spent the day walking around (our feet are very sore.) We visited a really cool, huge Museum with a variety of art called Thyssen-Bornemisza, a private collection ranging from about the 14th century through the late 20th century. They had an exhibition on Modigliani--an early 20th century painter and sculptor.
Foodwise, we went to this place called Museo de jamon, a chain specializing in all types on ham. They had 90.00 euro per kg jamon iberico that is supposed to be the best ham in the world...we couldn´t afford a 9 euro slice of it, but we did try the chorizo. We also ate a snack of bocadillo de calemare (calimari sandwich) as well as some fried sardines at a little restaurant cafe place. So far the food here is pretty good, and tonight I think we are going to get a late dinner at tapas and cava bars. We here you order a glass of cava (spanish sparkling wine) and they give you little snacks. Places don´t even open here for dinner until about 8:30, after siesta, so we have some time to kill until then.
It is nice to be able to communicate here with Spanish because Portuguese is super hard to understand, but in Spain we can talk to people much more easily. Also, sidenote, the weather here is perfect. Nice and warm, but not hot...we couldn´t have gotten better weather so far.
We love receiving your comments, so please keep reading and posting, it keeps us connected to home!
Jenny and Ethan

Lisbon

So far we are in Lisbon. We arrived here Tuesday morning after a long flight through Frankfurt, and are heading to Madrid tonight on a train. This city is beautiful (as you will see) and very green with a lot of nature. If I could sum it up in one word I would say "castles." Yes, we have visited a variety of castles and palaces dating back to Portuguese royals who one occupied them. Today we went to Sintra--a town about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon--and hiked up to some beautiful monuments.
Food wise, this city isn't really anything to brag about. Our first meal was re-hydrated salt cod served with different ingredients, such as chips, olives, onions, etc. It was good, but nothing amazing. They do have some really good pastries here, like custard tarts. We did have some tasty roasted chicken for lunch yesterday (very similar to pollo a la brasa) with fries...juicy and yummy crispy skin.
The neighborhoods here are quite beautiful and remind us of what we've seen of Morocco in movies, a lot of stoney streets and very colorful buildings. We even saw this old Portuguese woman send down a basket attached to a rope from a 2nd story building to receive her mail, which was pretty cool and old fashioned.
Our hostel was awesome--really clean and accommodating with friendly staff and a variety of travelers. It was right in the middle of the city and close to all kinds of transportation.
Ok, so that should be a brief summary, hopefully not too long or boring. We will do our best to add to this blog in each city, depending on the internet situation. We hit Madrid in the morning, followed by Barcelona and then Rome. We miss you guys, but are having a great time so far! Please add comments so we can communicate with you. We will be sending various post cards when we can.
Love, Jenny and Ethan

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