ok. this is long overdue. sorry but this will be the coles notes version of our last weeks in europe:
from lagos we went north to lisbon in about the centre of portugal and it was great. a very old city where old auntie's give you a glare from their 4 foot tall door as you walk down the winding streets of the historical district. this is met by the modern shoreline that was updated for Expo '98. the oceanarium was amazing for us prairie kids and portugese supper cooked by another 'mama' at our hostel was delicious.
next was porto.
porto is where port originated. we went to port houses and had tours of their cellars and delicious tastings. porto is divided by the douro river and rises sharply up each side. there is tons of history but in some areas it was definitely the most seedy place we visited in europe. we would still go back though. portugal is beautiful.
from porto, we flew to london!
london was overwhelming. so huge, so crowded, the flashing lights at picadilly circus - we had 3 nights there and could have used another week! we got to stay with friends of steve so that saved us heaps of cash - everything in london costs a fortune! the underground metro costs $8 Cdn per ride and you need it to get everywhere. best thing ever: when we landed at the airport, this girl approached us and gave us 2 pre-paid underground passes that lasted until we left (she said she couldn't use them)! it was awesome!
in 1 day in london, we ate at one of gordon ramsey's restaurants for lunch and jamie oliver's restaurant for supper! very spoiled day indeed but completely worth it.
all too soon it was time to leave and go back to where we started - frankfurt.
we stayed briefly in frankfurt just to catch our flight to kona, hawaii where we are now.
we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary eating sushi overlooking the ocean beneath us at night in hawaii. beautiful! we've been hanging out with steve's brother mark for the last couple days (he flew out to hang out for awhile) and are now settling in at the YWAM base where we will be volunteering for the next 6 weeks.
can't believe europe is done - it's been crazy!
more updates on hawaii coming soon...
much love and aloha.
stikki.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
sevilla
sevilla continued with the theme "spain=rain". we walked around with our crappy yellow umbrella, its thin, tattered remains clinging pathetically to the misshapen metal rods in the wind. it was here that we finally caved and bought a newer, functional umbrella(spending a lot more than we wanted), and since, it hasn't rained a drop. as for the city itself, sevilla was great. we checked out one of the largest cathedrals in the world, tried sneaking into a moorish castle, and stayed at a pretty great hostel with a swimming pool on the roof. for some reason 12 degree weather didn't warrent a cooling dip in the pool for nik, so we opted to wait for hawaii to go swimming. nothing else worth mentioning happened in sevilla. they do have lots of oranges there though.
after sevilla, lagos was our next destination. it was very different from the rest of our trip, as lagos is more or less a little touristy beach town on the southwestern tip of portugal. the beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world, and the town itself is a quaint little place, with many cheap pubs, cafes, and stray dogs who were quick to assume friendship with tourists such as ourselves. lagos was a place for relaxing. we lazily strolled the cliff-like paths along the beaches, read books, watched movies at our hostel(one night we were the only guests there), and went to the pub from time to time to watch a soccer(futebol) match. the person in charge of our suggestively titled hostel was simply known as "the mama". she woke us up every morning and made us never-ending stacks of delicious crepes, served with homemade lemon tea. the tea was said to have the ability to cure the worst hangover, but in me and nik's case, cured our over-tiredness, probably from watching movies til 10 o'clock, then sleeping for 11 hours. lagos is a must for travelling in portugal, though if we were to go again, it would probably be during the warmer months, when it turns into a more lively, exciting place to be,(and a great place to get a tan).
after sevilla, lagos was our next destination. it was very different from the rest of our trip, as lagos is more or less a little touristy beach town on the southwestern tip of portugal. the beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world, and the town itself is a quaint little place, with many cheap pubs, cafes, and stray dogs who were quick to assume friendship with tourists such as ourselves. lagos was a place for relaxing. we lazily strolled the cliff-like paths along the beaches, read books, watched movies at our hostel(one night we were the only guests there), and went to the pub from time to time to watch a soccer(futebol) match. the person in charge of our suggestively titled hostel was simply known as "the mama". she woke us up every morning and made us never-ending stacks of delicious crepes, served with homemade lemon tea. the tea was said to have the ability to cure the worst hangover, but in me and nik's case, cured our over-tiredness, probably from watching movies til 10 o'clock, then sleeping for 11 hours. lagos is a must for travelling in portugal, though if we were to go again, it would probably be during the warmer months, when it turns into a more lively, exciting place to be,(and a great place to get a tan).
Thursday, February 5, 2009
granada
granada is a city in the southwest of spain. we went there. it wasn't a long stay, but what it lacked in length, it made up for in sheer sheep poop. i mean, there was sheep poop everywhere! it was in my boots, in the cupboard, on the patio furniture, everywhere. one day, we woke up, and nikki was like,"i can't believe all this sheep poop". then i said "i know." then nikki started reading this and said i had to tell the truth.
granada was beautiful. we walked around the Alahmbra - an old moorish castle on a hill. gazed at the snow peaked sierra navada mountains in the distance and enjoyed another evening of tapas hunting. one bar we stopped at gave us flaming tapas! raw sausages were skewered across the firey dish and once the fire went out, they were perfect! the night ended at a Turkish Huka bar with carmel flavoured smoke and thick, sweet Pakistani tea. very nice.
item of note in granada: our first night we arrived late as our train was delayed, banged on the hostel door for 15 minutes until someone woke up and let us in. after we were settled, another late night arrival joined our dorm room who we met the next morning; an interesting, smoky smelling older man. we returned to the hostel later to a somewhat worried receptionist asking us if our stuff had been stolen by the homeless man who slept in our room and left without paying. hm. the homeless man? who got away without paying? you made us pay up front late at night and not him?! interesting. nothing of ours was gone so we had to laugh at the great story it made. still not sure how exactly he tricked his way past the front desk...
next stop: sevillã.
stikki.
granada was beautiful. we walked around the Alahmbra - an old moorish castle on a hill. gazed at the snow peaked sierra navada mountains in the distance and enjoyed another evening of tapas hunting. one bar we stopped at gave us flaming tapas! raw sausages were skewered across the firey dish and once the fire went out, they were perfect! the night ended at a Turkish Huka bar with carmel flavoured smoke and thick, sweet Pakistani tea. very nice.
item of note in granada: our first night we arrived late as our train was delayed, banged on the hostel door for 15 minutes until someone woke up and let us in. after we were settled, another late night arrival joined our dorm room who we met the next morning; an interesting, smoky smelling older man. we returned to the hostel later to a somewhat worried receptionist asking us if our stuff had been stolen by the homeless man who slept in our room and left without paying. hm. the homeless man? who got away without paying? you made us pay up front late at night and not him?! interesting. nothing of ours was gone so we had to laugh at the great story it made. still not sure how exactly he tricked his way past the front desk...
next stop: sevillã.
stikki.
MADrid
madrid made us mad!! just kidding, but one morning we woke up, and it was snowing. actual snow. big, wet, snowflakes, so many i couldn't even count them. we found a great deal on a hotel room (as opposed to our usual stay at a hostel), and when we got there, we found out it was the size of a small apartment. awesome, right? wrong. it smelled like cat pee, and had paper-thin walls, so our hopes of a quiet, peaceful sleep were quickly dashed. besides that, though, we walked around, met up with out canadian friend, adam again, and watched the superbowl at a crowded, smoky pub. running time of the superbowl in madrid: 12:00am to 3:30am. we stayed awake the whole time, unlike adam, who had a late night the day before. we went to some cool restaurants, and one actually gave us the inspiration for a new restarurant concept for back home in the peg. (any possible financial backers should speak up now). we did not see a bullfight or go flamenco dancing. oh! one thing spain is justifiably famous for is tapas. tapas is just a fancy word(probably french or something) that means small portions of cheap food served at bars. one bar in particular, el tigre, charged $1.50 for a beer or glass of wine, and with it, they'd give you a huge, heaping plate of free tapas. and not just with your first drink:with every drink you buy! makes going out for dinner and drinks really, uh...affordable, i guess. anyway, that's all for now, ciao!
stikki
stikki
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Barcelona. (Spain = Rain)
So, we are getting behind here.
We were in Barcelona for 3 days and it was pretty great. The city has heaps of parks and buildings designed by a guy named Gaudi and let´s just say he deserves every praise he has and continues to receive (look up his stuff!).
Steve was pumped that we were finally in cheap kebab land and I must admit they were delicious for only $2.95. It was kinda rainy (shock!) but we still had a good time.
Highlight of Barcelona was going to see an FC Barcelona soccer game with our new Ottawa friend Adam. I think Steve and Adam went into every tourist shop to barter for FC scarves waaaaay below the asking price. Let´s just say their amazing tag-team plan ended in scarfless necks.
Our seats were the nose bleed of nose-bleeds but we still had an awesome view. They don´t serve alcohol at these games at all - apparently the crowd gets rowdy enough on there own - we were tipped off to this fact when we noticed that the streets leading up to the game were lined with every ambulance and police car in the city. Don´t worry, we survived. An interesting note about these games: as if on cue at the half, every man (mostly men around us), unwraps his huge aluminum foil sandwich. Not a few guys. Not many. Most. I had to take a picture as a sea of aluminum foil reflected around the stadium as sandwiches of all sorts (all the same size and bread though) were hauled out and devoured. Remember of course there was no beer refill to get. FC Barcelona won, so we were spared seeing the reason for the lines of ambulances outside. Ole, ole, ole, ole!
Barcelona was great.
And on to Madrid!
It doesn´t rain there, right?!
Stikki.
We were in Barcelona for 3 days and it was pretty great. The city has heaps of parks and buildings designed by a guy named Gaudi and let´s just say he deserves every praise he has and continues to receive (look up his stuff!).
Steve was pumped that we were finally in cheap kebab land and I must admit they were delicious for only $2.95. It was kinda rainy (shock!) but we still had a good time.
Highlight of Barcelona was going to see an FC Barcelona soccer game with our new Ottawa friend Adam. I think Steve and Adam went into every tourist shop to barter for FC scarves waaaaay below the asking price. Let´s just say their amazing tag-team plan ended in scarfless necks.
Our seats were the nose bleed of nose-bleeds but we still had an awesome view. They don´t serve alcohol at these games at all - apparently the crowd gets rowdy enough on there own - we were tipped off to this fact when we noticed that the streets leading up to the game were lined with every ambulance and police car in the city. Don´t worry, we survived. An interesting note about these games: as if on cue at the half, every man (mostly men around us), unwraps his huge aluminum foil sandwich. Not a few guys. Not many. Most. I had to take a picture as a sea of aluminum foil reflected around the stadium as sandwiches of all sorts (all the same size and bread though) were hauled out and devoured. Remember of course there was no beer refill to get. FC Barcelona won, so we were spared seeing the reason for the lines of ambulances outside. Ole, ole, ole, ole!
Barcelona was great.
And on to Madrid!
It doesn´t rain there, right?!
Stikki.
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