The Adventures of John & Hill

Jolly Ole England

2012-01-30T05:57:00.000+07:00

In October, I attended a two-day conference in London. We added on the weekend and Hillary came along. We stayed at the apartment of a friend over the weekend and enjoyed the city, which we both decided is among our favorite in the world.

We found the best falafel ever at Spitalfields Market at a place called Pilpel. If ever in London, go there.

We rented bikes and rode around the city, checking out Tower Bridge and the Tower of London along the way.

We visited a few museums, including the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone and I fist bumped a giant hand.

Hillary had tea while I was stuck in a conference.

We had a great time and realized that we would love to live in London. Better get working on that.

Chris and Leighanne - World Travelers

2011-12-01T18:52:00.000+07:00

We were never really confident they would come. I had to remind Chris, the best man from our wedding, numerous times that he really needed a passport. But then he and Leighanne bought tickets, and we thought, "wow, they're really coming." We had a moment of doubt when we got to the airport and couldn't find them, but it was quickly resolved when it turned out they were at a different airport cafe.

They wanted to explore the country and see places off the beaten path, so after a couple days in Lisbon, we went north. Along the way, we stopped in Guimarães, the birthplace of Portugal and home to its first king, Afonso Henriques, who was responsible for the reconquest from the Moors in the 12th century.

We kept moving north, almost to the border with Spain, to a small town called Arcos de Valdevez. We stayed in an olive oil press mill from the 1880s, which had been converted into a small hotel. The city was only a couple miles from Portugal's only national park, Peneda-Gerês, a mountainous area of inhospitable granite. The park is sparsely populated with small villages where life has not changed much in several hundred years. We packed a lunch and drove into the park, expecting to find clearly marked trails. After talking to a local woman, she pointed us in the direction of a trail that visitors sometimes hike. She looked at us like we were a little crazy though for wanting to walk up the mountain for fun.

As we hiked, we crossed stone walls used for grazing cattle. It was interesting to see how high up the mountain they would take their cattle to graze.

The brown dot near the summit is a cow grazing.

Although we didn't make it all the way to the top, we decided this was close enough for a group photo.

We kept encountering the same cow. The first time, I came around a corner and almost ran into it.

I'm not sure who was more surprised, us to see a cow on the side of the mountain or it to see people up there.

On our way out of the park, we saw some people hiking to a pool with a waterfall, so we decided to follow. We didn't have as stylish hiking boots as this girl, however.

The water was cool, but it was a warm day, so we decided to go for a swim..

We made our way to a few other cities of the north, including Ponte de Lima, Viana do Castelo and Braga.

Hillary and I had to get back to work, so we left Chris and Leighanne in a small town with advice on how to get back to Lisbon. They spent a couple days exploring Porto and Coimbra and made it back to Lisbon on their own with little trouble. The day they got back, we went to a UEFA Cup soccer game between local team Sporting Club of Lisbon and Lazio from Rome. Sporting won 2-1 in an exciting game in front of a packed stadium.

Their trip ended with one last crazy night on the town with our friends to celebrate my birthday.

It was really great to have them visit and share with them a country we've come to love.

The Amalfi Coast

2011-11-10T02:39:00.000+07:00

I'd always heard good things about the Amalfi coast, so I was happy that we were headed there for 3 nights at the end of our trip. We were staying in Positano, and got there a bit late because of Pompeii, but it was nice once we arrived and saw tons of people eating dinner really late. The town is really pretty at night, so we walked around for a bit afterward.

Walking back to our hotel, we met this cat. He was a strange one for sure, and stared down at us from the roof, without ever moving his head or even blinking. I guess keeping a watchful eye out for his owners?

It was great having a balcony to relax on, and wake up to all the boats in the harbor:

One thing that was on our agenda was renting a scooter for the time we were there. It's almost essential if you are staying in any of the small towns in that area. There are five main towns, and we spent the days going between them, eating and finding beautiful beaches where we could swim. Here was our cute scooter:

Lots of scenery along the way:

We also stopped randomly to go on a boat ride tour of a famous blue grotto. It was actually pretty cool to see, even if it did feel a bit like a Disney ride with an (unintentionally) hilarious Italian guide.

Not only was the water amazingly clear, but it was also warm! While we have great beaches here in Lisbon, the water is never warm.

Here are a few more pics of Positano - all in all, it was a great trip to Italy. I like that we felt like we got to see a lot of different parts of the country. It would have been difficult to choose between countryside, busy cities and gorgeous coastline!

Pizza and Pompeii

2011-10-25T20:33:00.000+07:00

Our goal on the day we left Tuscany was to make it to Naples in time to eat lunch at Da Michele, the place reputed to have the best pizza. (Yes, this is the same place where the woman in Eat, Pray, Love goes to eat, but she chose Da Michele for a reason!)

We made it to Naples in pretty good time - then came the hard part. Driving and parking in the center of Naples. We had heard and read that you just don't want to do it. But how else were we going to get to the pizza place? We reminded ourselves that we'd both gotten used to driving in Jakarta, so how bad could it be? We were right, it ended up being easy. Of course there was a wait at the pizza place, so we walked around the city for a bit. This is how most of it looked - hardly any space between all the buildings and laundry everywhere!

Here are some pictures from our pizza experience:

They only sell two kinds of pizza there - marinara and margherita. We had to try both, but decided to order another margherita after devouring the first two - just to be sure we were completely stuffed with the delicious pizza, which was pretty amazing.

Before we planned this trip, I hadn't realized how close Pompeii is to Naples. In fact, it was on our way to the Amalfi Coast, so it was easy to check it out. It was truly amazing how well-preserved the city is, after being covered in ash almost 2,000 years ago. We also happened to get there late in the afternoon on a weekday, which meant there were few other visitors. It definitely added to the creepy, abandoned feel of the city. Here are some pictures:

This dog was just cooling off, although he looked dead in the corner!

The detail which remains is incredible, like the paintings on the wall

Reputed to be the world's first "Beware of Dog" sign. (Cave Canem)

One of the more interesting parts of the city was the brothel. You could clearly see the "bedrooms" with the stone beds, which they covered with mattresses. Above each room were erotic frescoes.

Mount Vesuvius in the background:

Street view with modern-day apartments in the background:

Coliseum:

Our friend the dog was waiting to say goodbye to us as we left Pompeii - we were the very last people out!

Tuscany

2011-10-16T18:05:00.000+07:00

We rented a car in Rome and headed up into Tuscany. We were staying at Fattoria di Rignana, which is an old farm converted into a B&B. On the way up, we stopped at Orvieto, a cute hilltop town.

Striped church in Orvieto

The place we were staying was in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards.

View from our B&B

We caught the villa's cat making a funny face

The infinity pool was amazing, and we made sure to take some time to relax there.

We wanted to check out San Gimignano and Siena, and the drive to these towns was picturesque as well. We'd come around a corner and see this, for example:

Here are a few pics from San Gimignano:

Siena had a beautiful public square with a giant clock tower, and more striped churches!

Even though this trip was less about seeing museums and monuments, we decided we might as well go to Florence since we were only staying about 45 minutes south of the city. We'd already done the must-see things while we were backpacking back in college, so we spent our time walking around the city, checking out the Duomo, and eating, of course.

The Pointe Vecchio

I took these shots of the river's reflection of the buildings

I love that this one looks like a watercolor

We had some amazing food in Tuscany. Our villa had a great rustic restaurant on the property, which was so good we ended up eating there two different nights.

This is where we had the best dish of our entire trip - in fact, we decided it was the best pasta dish we've ever had. It was called "Sedanini alla Norcina" - sedanini pasta with Tuscan sausage, onions, cream and black truffle shavings. We remembered towards the end of our meal to snap a picture:

We also had steak with fresh rosemary on top, which I'd never seen before. That was delicious as well.

Not to mention all the great Italian wine which accompanied most meals. :)

I'll be back with the last part of our trip soon.

Italy

2011-10-08T01:30:00.001+07:00

This is a bit delayed, but I wanted to post some pictures from our trip to Italy. We had a great time. We landed in Rome, spent a couple days there, explored Tuscany, and then headed down to the Amalfi coast, with stops in Naples and Pompeii along the way.

First - Rome. Enjoy the pictures!

"Bridge of Locks" - We stayed at a friend's apartment right near this bridge. Couples sign their names in permanent markers on a lock, and then lock it onto this bridge for eternity, throwing the key into the river. But what happens when they break up?

John taking a break on the Spanish Steps

The Pantheon at night is gorgeous

Same with the Trevi Fountain

Awesome pizza in the cute Trastavere neighborhood - the place is called Dar Poeta

We couldn't believe that the Michael Jackson impersonators drew a huge crowd right next to the Coliseum... until I realized we were watching them ourselves and even took a photo......

The top of the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II just might have the best view in Rome

Another bridge right near where we stayed, which is called Ponte Milvio. It was nice staying in a true Roman neighborhood without tourists. Plus, it's a hotspot for people our age, so there were plenty of fun bars and restaurants to choose from.

Our hostess recommended this restaurant near Piazza Navona, even though it's where Julia Roberts eats (in the garden restaurant scene) in "Eat, Pray, Love." Though we normally look for places off the beaten path, we were glad we went, as the outdoor garden seating area was beautiful, and the black truffle pasta was wonderful.

Next stop? Tuscany!

Portuguese Bullfighting

2011-09-05T18:28:00.000+07:00

Portuguese bullfights are different in many ways from the Spanish version. The greatest difference is that the bull is not killed in the arena. Another major difference is that the cavaleiros (horsemen) are the main figures of the fight rather than the matadors. The cavaleiros are dressed in traditional 18th century clothes and their goal is to place small javelins in the center of the bull's back. They ride Portuguese Lusitanos, which are specially trained to run sideways and dodge bulls. Here are a few photos.

A fight ends with the pega (the grab), in which eight men try to subdue the bull by grabbing its head. One unlucky guy pulls on a green stocking cap originally worn by bull herders in the area northeast of Lisbon. His job is to make the bull charge, grab its head and hang on until the other guys can grab on to the bull and calm it down. They all let go of the bull in unison, but one man continues to hold on to the bull's tail. He then tries to the make the bull spin around until it's subdued so that he can calmly walk away. Watch the video to see the pega.

We recently saw a fight in Campo Pequeno (photo below), Lisbon's historic bullfighting arena, which was celebrating its 119th anniversary that night by featuring some Portuguese "legends" of bullfighting. The arena has amazing architecture and there's not a bad seat. Here's a few photos of our group at the bullfight and one photo of a random group of our neighbors (it looks like an ad doesn't it?).

Super Bock Super Rock

2011-08-31T23:55:00.000+07:00

Portugal is home to tons of concert festivals every summer. It's a little amazing how many famous bands come here and we're even more amazed by how many Portuguese can afford to go to expensive concert festivals every weekend of the summer.

We went to Super Bock Super Rock, one of the big festivals near Lisbon. Our friends had gone the previous year and said it was a lot of fun to camp and go to the concert. The festival was near the coast 45 minutes south of Lisbon. Unfortunately, it was down a tiny road and the traffic was terrible. Hillary, one friend and I went on Thursday after work to catch the first night of the show and set up tents. It took us three hours to get there, but we finally made it. We struggled to find space for our tents in the mass of humanity crowded in the area!

We saw some good bands and eventually kind of got to sleep at 2 a.m. (No one warned us that club music blasts until 6 a.m.) I had a meeting on Friday and had to go to work. Hillary had originally planned to go back too, but the three hour car ride changed her mind. The festival venue was near a beach, but too far to walk. Hillary and our friend waited an hour to board the bus and then waited on the bus an hour to go the three miles to the overcrowded beach.

After work, three more friends and I made the drive back to the concert venue, this time with no traffic. Here are some photo highlights.

Our campsite

The garbage pile grew bigger and bigger

At least the beer delivery guy was never too far away

Random photo dress up booth

We brought surgical masks because we heard the dust was bad. It was worse than we even expected.

We had fun with our friends and saw some good performances. We won't be around for the next one, but we probably wouldn't be going back if we were. It was definitely memorable though.

Hillary's Birthday Getaway

2011-08-22T04:13:00.000+07:00

Hillary can no longer say she's in her 30. To celebrate her birthday, we decided to get out of town and explore the Alentejo coast. We have visited the interior Alentejo region several times, but this was our first time to drive down the 100 miles or so of coast south of Lisbon.

We started by going to our new favorite beach, Comporta, an hour and a half from Lisbon. It had beautiful turquoise water and soft sand. Although there were many people taking advantage of the great day and Monday holiday, the beach was so long that we walked a little further and had plenty of space.

Because we're going to Italy next weekend, we were trying to do this on the cheap. We borrowed a tent from friends and planned to find a campsite. We stopped at the first campground south of Comporta, but it was completely full. We called a another one an hour further south and although the tent sites were full, they had an available "teepee" that we could rent for the night. It was more triangle-shaped shed than teepee, but it did the trick.

The next day, the teepee wasn't available, but we were able to pitch our tent. The campground was really interesting because lots of Portuguese go there and spend weeks. They set up elaborate sites with TVs, refrigerators, floors and potted plants. Our campsite wasn't so elaborate.

After spending our day at another beautiful beach, Zambujeira do Mar (photo above), we went back to Milfontes where we had camped and relied on our local food review book to pick one of the best restaurants we've been to in the region to celebrate Hillary's birthday. We had a great meal and Hillary's sister, Brooke, reached us by cell phone to say happy birthday right before we sat down. The next day, we made our way back to Lisbon via another stop at Comporta beach. It wasn't the fanciest birthday vacation, but it was great.

Jakarta friends reunion

2011-07-27T04:28:00.000+07:00

I might be a little behind on our blog - but that's only because we've been so busy. In June, we had three different friends that we worked with in Jakarta come visit us in Lisbon. Hunter is now in Helsinki, Finland; Kira is in Islamabad, Pakistan; and Joel is in Washington, DC. (DC doesn't sound quite as exotic as the other two, huh?) I thought it was amazing that the three of them could get their work schedules, vacation time and flights to sync so they could come visit together. They were here for about nine days, and we had so much fun! I think the best part is that while they did a lot of sightseeing and day trips, they still had time to relax and enjoy their vacation - something that's not always easy to do in a European capital. Plus they got to hang out with our group of friends here a few times and that was fun for everyone. The above picture is from the requisite visit to St. George's Castle, overlooking Lisbon. I never get tired of the view from that place!

Here are some more pictures...

Group shot on the castle walls of Obidos. We drove about an hour north of Lisbon to visit this picturesque walled city. We had gone last year for the annual "Chocolate Festival", but this trip was nice because the city wasn't nearly as crowded.

Obidos is home to "ginginja", a cherry liqueur that was first made in the small town. One of the ways it is served is in a chocolate tasting cup, which you eat after you've tasted the liquor - sort of like a chocolate-covered cherry. Our friend Joel thought it was the best thing in the world. John got a nice shot of the drinks being poured into the chocolate cups...

Here we are enjoying a home-cooked meal that Hunter made us

You may remember our post from a year ago here: We were excited for another St. Anthony's festival, and we were hoping that it would live up to last year's. It was nice that our friends were visiting during the festival, especially given the fact that we got a four-day weekend due to the Portuguese holidays surrounding it! During St. Anthony's, everyone pulls tables out into the streets to eat. While some may be the tables from people's kitchens, there are plenty of restaurants which have tables out in the streets as well. We had to wait a bit to nab a table big enough for all of us, but we did succeed!

At one point our group (of about 15 people!) stopped to take a photo. We were supposed to be imitating the mural on the wall behind us - although some people did a better job than others. :)

By far the most crowded area was the street along which runs a funicular called the "Bica Elevador". Thankfully it wasn't running that night, because I can't imagine the funicular would even have been able to move a few inches much less the 245 meters to the top through the crazy crowd of people. Even though it was slow-going, they were selling beers in every other doorway, so no one seemed too worried about moving very fast!

At one point the crowd parted to allow this band to get through - I love that!

The best group shot of the night

Thanks for visiting guys, and come back any time!

To the beach!

2011-07-05T04:53:00.000+07:00

Portugal has more than 1,114 miles of coastline. Needless to say, but I'll write it regardless - Portugal has a fair number of beaches. Luckily, some of those beaches are within a 20 minute drive of our apartment. We visited amazing beaches in Southeast Asia, but we have never lived in a city with a strong beach culture. When the weather is warm, Lisbon goes to the beach.

One of our most favorite beaches is not the most accessible. It's about 45 minutes from Lisbon near the westernmost point of continental Europe and down a steep trail that drops more than 500 feet from the "parking lot." But it's beautiful.

Hiking back up

Fortunately, there are beaches that are a lot easier to get to all around Lisbon. We often go to the beaches just up the coast from Lisbon, which are always crowded on the weekend and make for great people watching. We also like the beaches on the other side of the Tagus river, which seem to have never-ending stretches of sand.

The beaches that Portugal is most known for are in Portugal's southernmost region, the Algarve. We've made several trips there already and will be going back at least once more with Hillary's family in a couple weeks.

But one of the best things about the beach is having a cold beer in one of the many restaurants to take a break from the sun.

Beaches have become such a part of our life here that it's hard to imagine not having them nearby. We'll be looking for our next post in the coming months, and I certainly hope there are some options with good beaches.

Mom and Dad - What are you doing in Portugal?

2011-06-09T04:40:00.000+07:00

My mom and dad recenly visited us in Portugal and found it easier to manage than Indonesia. They spent a few days in Lisbon adjusting to the time change and seeing some of the sights here before we took them on the road.

We started our journey north in a tiny village half an hour south of Coimbra called Cotas. We spent two nights at Villa Pedra, a beatiful place set on a hillside. The owner is the architect of the few houses to rent, and he also sourced every furnishing and decoration in them. It was a truly unique place.

We spent an afternoon wandering the medieval streets of Coimbra, home to one of Europe's oldest universities founded in 1290. We also took a tour of the nearby ruins of Conimbriga, which date as far back as the 9th century BC. The city was one of the largest Roman cities in Portugal from 139 BC until its fall to the invading Germanic Suebi in 468 or 469. It is a very interesting archaelogical site because you are allowed to wander amongst the ruins.

The ruins are made even more interesting and unique because the city was dissected by a giant wall thrown up in haste in the 3rd century, which left many of the city's largest homes unprotected from invaders.

From Conimbriga, we drove north and saw some great views along the way.

After arriving in the heart of Portugal's most famous wine country, the Douro River Valley, we spent two nights at Quinta do Vallado, an old wine estate that was recently converted into a small hotel. It was set on one of the Douro's steep hillsides amongst Quinta do Vallado's vineyard. We had read about the place in a New York Times article recommending travel to northern Portugal. We certainly would echo their recommendation. It's a beautiful part of the country with great food and fantastic wine.

Aqueduct

2011-05-16T03:57:00.015+07:00

We recently got to go on a tour of Lisbon's historic aqueduct. This aqueduct was built in the 1700's to bring in water from a neighboring town. Lisbon doesn't get a lot of rain, and because the Tagus river joins the sea, the city used to suffer a lack of drinking water. Part of the aqueduct spans a valley, and forms an impressive series of arches and was an amazing feat of engineering when it was finished. Here is a picture showing the high arches.

Normally this part of the aqueduct is closed to the public, but we got to go on a special tour and walk along the outside edge.

There was a serial killer in the 1800's who killed more than 60 people by grabbing unsuspecting pedestrians and throwing them over the edge of the aqueduct, far down into the valley below! I know I wouldn't want to walk across there at night...

Another view with some clouds rolling in

Here is a view inside the tunnel where the water used to flow

A nice view of the bridge. You can also see the statue of Jesus way in the background

Looking back to see where we started

The tour ended in the huge reservoir where they used to store the water. It holds 5500 cubic meters of water, even though the water is no longer used by residents

We also go to go up on the roof of the reservoir, where we had more great views of the city. This is one of my favorites we took; to me it looks like a postcard. Lisbon really is an absolutely beautiful city.

Good advertising

2011-05-10T05:14:00.002+07:00

Happy Portuguese Freedom Day

2011-04-26T05:13:00.000+07:00

On April 25, 1974, a left-leaning group of military officers began the Carnation Revolution, which led to the downfall of Portugal's dictatorship. We celebrated the holiday by going to the beach.

2011-04-20T03:45:00.025+07:00

We recently went on a trip out to the Alentejo, which is the wine country east of Lisbon - probably our favorite area of Portugal. We had bought a Groupon, which was good for 2 nights at a hotel, breakfast both days, and a dinner at the hotel's restaurant. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the hotel (Solar Das Mascarenhas) was, and the location was great. It was in Vila Viçosa, which is a cute town home to a Ducal Palace and of course, a cool old castle.

We did an improptu photo shoot outside the palace and got a few decent shots:

The castle was neat to see; here is a photo we took while walking on top of the rampart walls.

View from the castle:

The huge moat surrounding the castle warranted a picture:

John on the drawbridge:

One more picture we got - this one looks out from inside the castle over the town at night

We've mentioned before how much we love the food in the Alentejo. We weren't expecting too much out of the dinner that was included, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We got to order whatever we wanted from the menu, and everything we had was great. Check out the picture of the filet mignon I had - you can barely see it under all the cream sauce!

One of the things we wanted to do while we were there was go on a long bike ride. We brought our gear with us and on Saturday morning we set off. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we had fun getting lost between picturesque towns as we rode through the countryside.

Here is what some of the roads looked like - it was as if we had our own private biking trails

Said hi to these guys:

And their friends:

That area of the Alentejo is known for its marble, and we passed quite a few quarries on our bike ride. The towns there use a ton of marble on their streets, doorsteps, everywhere. Here is the town fountain, in which a couple of dogs were playing around.

We took the slow roads on the way back to Lisbon, which made for a beautiful drive. I'm sure we'll do another bike trip soon!

Football Road Trip (Part 2)

2011-04-08T01:55:00.000+07:00

We also traveled to Porto recently for a game against the Lumberjacks of Paredes, the only other undefeated team in the Potuguese League of American Football.

Our friends Michele and Gabriel came along for the trip this time. Gabriel is from northern Portugal, so he was happy to be back home where he could eat some of the local food that we also love, including the francesinha (little French girl) - a sandwich stuffed full of meet covered in beer sauce.

We also wandered around the city and of course toured a few port wine cellars.

The game turned out to be the toughest game we've had all season. The Lumberjacks really wanted to win. They scored first after I let their star receiver fall forward into the endzone after catching the ball on the two yard line. We answered with a touchdown, but their star receiver made us pay again. We went into the fourth quarter losing 12-7. But the fourth quarter was all the Navigators. We ended the game by winning 30-12. Here are some game photos:

Being taunted by Jesus (his name). How wrong is that?

Football Road Trip (Part 1)

2011-04-03T21:29:00.024+07:00

We've taken a couple trips recently for John's football games. About a month ago, we drove with a few friends all the way up to the part of Spain that is north of Portugal. This area is known as Galicia. We stayed in an old monastery in the town of Santiago de Compostela, which was very cool. Here are our friends Rebecca and Michele leaning out of the window of their room next to ours:

That night we checked out the town, which includes a huge gothic cathedral.

This area of Spain has a celtic (Gaelic) influence, which is where the name of Galicia comes from. Walking around town we spotted this guy:

Checked out a few tapas places

The next day they won their game. So far this season, they are undefeated, which is how the Lisbon Navigators finished last season. Here are a few pics:

The team warming up

Some play or another

The coach

The adoring fans

Azulejos

2011-03-17T01:30:00.000+07:00

When you arrive in Portugal, you'll soon realize that there are two things you'll see a lot of - cobble stone sidewalks and azulejos, which are traditional painted tiles. They cover everything from palaces to bathrooms. The tradition of the azulejos is more than 500 years old in Portugal. The name comes from the Arabic words for painted stones, al zulayj, which the Moors introduced to Portugal and southern Spain during their occupation of parts of the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492. Seville was originally the center of the tile-making industry, but it eventually spread to Portugal in the early 1500s.

The earliest tiles followed the Islamic patterns that were inherited from the Moors even though they had been completely driven from Portugal by 1249. They were geometric patterns, which could be repeated to decorate an entire wall or room. We recently went to Portugal's National Azulejo Museum, which had many beautiful sets on display.

As the tradition developed, Portuguese artists transitioned to painting entire scenes with blue paint on white tiles. These can be seen all over Portugal depicting moments in history.

Inside Sintra's Pena National Palace

A building in Porto.

A scene from the National Azulejo Museum.

And the most famous azulejo scene:

Rock the Kasbah

2011-03-10T02:40:00.000+07:00

Marrakech is a cool city, but we decided to explore the surrounding area a little more. We hired a driver to take us to Toubkal National Park, home to Morocco's tallest peak at 13,671 feet. It's around 2 hours from Marrakech, but we took the scenic route to see the countryside along the way.

Ibrahim was our driver.

We stopped at a reservoir, which provides water to Marrakech and all the surrounding farmland.

Of course we saw camels.

As we approached the mountains, Berber children stopped us to sell flowers.

As you get into the mountains, donkeys replace camels.

We had lunch at a place called Kasbah Toubkal, a hotel catering to tourists located on the slopes of Toubkal mountain. Because we sat on the roof, we got to wear these awesome hats.

It had amazing views of the mountains.

On our way back, we stopped at a women's cooperative where they made argan oil by shelling and grinding the seeds by hand.

After returning to Marrakech, we celebrated a successful day trip with kebabs in the Djemma el Fna.

Morocco can be overwhelming for some people. We heard more people disparage it than praise it as we were planning our trip, but we had a great time and would recommend it to any adventurous travelers.

More Marrakech

2011-03-02T06:18:00.000+07:00

Marrakech, founded more than a thousand years ago, was one of the country's many cities used as the capital. Many believe that the name Morocco was derived from the city's name. It has the largest market in Morocco and is the most popular destination for tourists who want to get a feel for Morocco.

Because the city was built so long ago, the streets inside the Medina (the old city) are medieval, narrow and winding. As a result, taxis drop visitors off away from the central parts of the old city. We had decided to stay at a riad, a traditional Moroccan house with an interior courtyard, which had been converted into a guesthouse. A teenage boy guided us down a long alley to find the door.

After wandering through the markets and stopping for lunch, we made our way to Jemaa el Fna, the main square of Marrakech, and one of the largest city squares in all of Africa. Vendors sold fresh orange juice from carts. It was cold and delicious.

Our friend really wanted to buy a carpet as a souvenir, so we found a reputable looking shop deep in the souks. They pulled out dozens of carpets and asked her if she liked them. She would hold a few to consider and the rest would be tossed to the side. When she found the one she liked, the bargaining began. The merchant gave her a "special price" because she was young. She bought it for less than 1/3 of his first offer. We learned later that all the questions he asked when we first walked in were to evaluate his starting price.

This is a photo of the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque, which was finished in 1199. Marrakech was our first time to hear the 4:30 a.m. call to prayer since leaving Jakarta - we hadn't missed it.

At dusk, restaurateurs set up food stalls in the middle of the main square. It's packed with tourists and some locals. We had really good food at one of the stalls on our last night.

But on our first night, we opted for a restaurant with candle and belly dancers.

In the Jemaa el Fna, you see all sorts of crazy things going on - snake charmers, story tellers, monkeys, and this guy. He had set up two plastic bowling pins just far enough apart so that a perfectly kicked soccer ball could knock them both down from about two yards away. Hillary convinced me it was worth 15 cents to give it a try.

After watching for about five minutes, we had seen all but one local fail, so I was not confident as I stepped up and took aim.

But I nailed it. First try. And I walked away about 50 cents richer.

To celebrate, we watched more belly dancers and had wine. These two types of decadence can only be found in the ritzy places that most locals generally can't afford.

We also visited El Badi Palace, built in the 1500s.

Because Marrakech was the royal seat for hundreds of years, it is also home to Bahia Palace, built in the 1800s.

We'll save the rest for later.

The Federal Budget

2011-02-27T22:18:00.000+07:00

The U.S. Congress is in the process of making difficult decisions to reduce government spending. When President Obama announced that all federal employees would not receive a cost of living increase for the next two years, I supported his decision.

Unfortunately, Rep. Tom Reid (R-NY) set his sights on diplomats, assuming that we do not deserve fair compensation for the sacrifices we make by serving our government overseas. I also want to note that other federal employees serving overseas have always received Washington locality pay and are not included in Rep. Reid's proposed cuts.

If you agree that we deserve to be fairly compensated for the sacrifices we make when serving overseas, I included a letter explaining the situation that you can send to your Congressional representatives. I also included a link to a blog article that gives a good description of what life is sometimes like for us.
http://emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com/2011/02/current-events-or-why-we-deserve-this.html?spref=fb

Dear Senator/Representative XXXX,

I support efforts to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending across all our federal agencies as part of the effort to reduce our national deficit. However, I am concerned by current legislative proposals that call for reversing a carefully considered bi-partisan plan to modernize the pay system of the Foreign Service that is in the process of being implemented.

The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 was adopted as a way to reduce the government-wide disparity between the public and private sectors and is a basic component of salary for all civilian Federal employees, based on annual survey data collected by the Department of Labor. As a result of this law, every federal government employee working in the United States received “locality pay” as part of their salary. Until 2009, the only United States government civilian employees who did not receive this part of their salary were Foreign Service personnel serving their country overseas.

Locality pay for Foreign Service personnel and other federal employees serving in Washington, D.C. is now approximately 25%. Under the law prior to 2009, Foreign Service personnel serving abroad sacrificed this part of their salaries and took large pay cuts to their base salaries. As a result, because retirement packages are based upon base pay (including “locality pay”), Foreign Service officers representing their country abroad received smaller retirement packages than their colleagues who stayed in Washington. This was not sustainable and in 2009 a bi-partisan solution was found to correct this policy problem. Closing the pay gap is not a pay raise -- it is a correction of a 17- year-old unintended inequity in the worldwide Foreign Service pay schedule—an inequity that grew every year.

Today thousands of Foreign Service employees serve in hardship assignments around the globe, which now constitute nearly 60% of all posts. The number of unaccompanied posts has increased more than fivefold in the last decade. Assignments overseas are increasingly challenging, difficult and in many instances, dangerous. There has been strong bipartisan recognition that it is time to invest in diplomacy and development. Penalizing Foreign Service employees whose mission is to serve overseas to advance and protect our national interests by cutting their base pay undervalues the importance of their work, widens the gap between those serving in the United States and those facing hardships and sacrifices overseas and creates real disincentives to serving on the front lines of American diplomacy and development.

I hope that you will support the Foreign Service and help ensure that its members are not penalized for service overseas.

Sincerely,

Morocco via Madrid

2011-02-15T22:20:00.013+07:00

Since we had to fly through Madrid to get to Marrakesh, we decided to spend two nights, seeing as we really enjoyed Madrid when we went last spring. We made sure to see the Prado museum last time, so this time we decided to check out the Reina Sofia museum. The most well-known painting in this museum is Pablo Picasso's Guernica. I didn't realize quite how big it would be: 11 feet tall and almost 26 feet wide! Picasso created it as an anti-war symbol after the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica, and the painting depicts the suffering during war among other things.

Here was another interesting painting, made even more so after listening to the description through the museum headphones.

We also got to see some cool Salvador Dali paintings. I realized I enjoy his paintings a lot more now than I did while studying them in college. (Maybe my mind has become sufficiently warped enough to "get" his crazy paintings now?) Here is the one I really liked, although I feel it just doesn't come across the same at all as it did in person. It is called The Endless Enigma.

We had some tapas at a German beer hall, in which we discovered tables with beer taps in the middle of them!

We had to go back to the place that had the best olives I've ever had. I was afraid they would be serving a different kind of olive, but I was lucky. They were exactly the same!

And of course, what other way to end an evening in Madrid but with churros con chocolate!

Marrakesh, Morocco

2011-02-14T21:50:00.018+07:00

We just got back a few days ago from a great trip to Morocco. Our friend Rebecca came with us, and it was the first time any of us had been on the African continent. We had a very fun time, and getting to experience the city of Marrakesh and the Moroccan people was so interesting. I will do a couple updates on the trip to share what we did. For now - here are some of the shots we got wandering around the souks in the medina......

Lisbon from Jesus' point of view

2011-02-02T03:35:00.014+07:00

Do you recognize this statue?

It is the Cristo Rei monument in Lisbon. Here is another shot from far away:

If it looks familiar, it was inspired by the "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here is a picture of that statue and the awesome view that comes with it in Rio:

Cristo Rei is a Catholic monument and shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. It stands on the bank of the Tejo river, across from the city of Lisbon. We've been wanting to check out the view for a long time now, and it was a nice day, so we decided to make the journey. (Luckily there is an elevator to take you to the top!)

We recently got a new camera - a digital SLR. It was the perfect occasion to play around with it and get some good shots at the same time. Enjoy the pictures!

Bitter Chocolate

2011-01-27T00:55:00.000+07:00

Someone just posted this video of Dario "Chocolat" taking out a few of the opposition. It's nice having him on my team except for when I have to try and tackle him in practice.

Game Day

2011-01-24T06:48:00.000+07:00

In a throwback to eighth and ninth grades, I've joined an American football team. The league is in its second season, but football is starting to gain popularity. I've learned that there are leagues all over Europe now and Germany even has several divisions.

I play for the Lisboa Navigators, a team that began four years ago when it joined the Spanish league. I'm one of two Americans on the team, plus we have one Turkish guy. Everyone else is Portuguese. It's been really fun playing again and getting to know a lot of Portuguese guys (plus it's good to practice speaking and hearing Portuguese in a non-work setting).

The league is a little different. It's 9 vs. 9 and the field is a little narrower and shorter. There are no kick-offs, but oher than that, all the regular rules apply. I play safety.

The first game was today. We won 57-12.

Texas, Texas, Yee-Haw

2011-01-14T06:05:00.000+07:00

We just returned from three weeks in Texas. It was great to be home for the holidays and to see family and friends (and eat lots of Tex-Mex).

We spent the first part of our trip in the Dallas area.

We were excited to see our niece, Kathryn, who turns seven next month.

Hillary's wearing the earrings Kathryn gave her for Christmas.

We also spent a few days in Kingwood, just north of Houston, where Hillary's family lives.

Plus we got to go to Chuy's with two of my best friends!

We went to Austin to ring in the New Year.

The night before New Year's Eve, we went to a great new bar in Austin where I won an autographed bottle of our favorite vodka (Tito's) in a skee ball competition!

We finished off the trip by stopping by for some good ol' Texas barbeque in Fort Worth before hopping on the plane home (cattle in photos not actually eaten).

Fall or Winter?

2010-12-15T02:14:00.011+07:00

So far, the weather here in Lisbon hasn't been too bad. We were a little worried seeing as we caught the tail end (last February and March) of the worst winter that Lisbon has had in a long time.

There has been a good amount of rain lately, but we've also had plenty of sunny days. I can definitely handle a winter where you don't need to have your fingers, neck and ears covered all the time. Here is a chart which shows the average temps and rainfall for Lisbon.

In the spirit of our fall-like weather here, enjoy some pictures we took recently in a park. I will warn you that these are pretty cheesy pictures. However, we did NOT both wear stripes on purpose!

I told John to try kicking the leaves as I took a picture. It was hilarious, because he completely fell backwards onto the ground after he kicked them. I couldn't stop laughing.

Obama Comes to Town

2010-12-10T02:24:00.008+07:00

You may have seen on TV recently that President Obama came to Portugal to meet with the leaders of countries that are members of NATO and with the heads of the European Union. That meant lots of work for us. I got the glorious job of staffing the operations room that we set up in the hotel where Obama and all the White House staff stayed, as well as Hillary Clinton. During the four days leading up to his arrival and the two days he was here, I worked 78 hours.

John had an important job, too. He was in charge of making sure that the meeting between President Obama and the Portuguese Prime Minister went off without a hitch. Because John's also responsible for knowing about and promoting energy at the embassy, he arranged for GM to send two of its prototype electric cars to Lisbon so that the Portuguese delegation and the President of the European Commission could use them to drive to the NATO Summit. Obama had to use his own car for security reasons, but he did stop by to take a look at one of the cars.

But what made all the hard work worthwhile was getting to meet Obama. He came and spoke to all the embassy employees who weren't busy at other locations (like John). He told us that "your President is proud of you," which was pretty cool. And then I got to shake his hand!

See how close we were?

After he left, my friend Rebecca and I were able to sneak up to the podium and take a quick picture.

Happy Birthday Marines

2010-12-01T01:54:00.009+07:00

United States Marines around the world celebrate November 10 as their "birthday" to commemorate the founding of the USMC in 1775. We recently celebrated the birthday of the Marines by attending our fourth Marine Corps Birthday Ball, which was hosted by the Marine Security Guard Detachment stationed in Lisbon. It's a great event where the Marines get to show off and commemorate their history. The embassy community tries to support the event, so we've made it a point to attend them so far. Plus they're a lot of fun. Enjoy some photos.

All dressed up

Hillary with our friends, Rebecca and Sgt. Ochoa

Hillary, Rebecca and Abby

Nine years ago, we went to our first Marine Corps Ball in Athens

100 Maneiras

2010-11-16T05:22:00.011+07:00

The title of this post is a restaurant we recently tried, and it was so great I wanted to do a post about it.

Last month we had some friends come visit us in Lisbon, traveling here from London, Baghdad, and Warsaw. It was a nice reunion, and they also got to do a little sightseeing while they were here.

We had heard wonderful things about a restaurant here that does a 10 course meal. I thought it would be fun for us to try while they were visiting. There is no menu, and you can't order anything a la carte. However, the total price for this decadent, 10 course meal? Only 35 euros!

The first course was so cute and inventive - bacalhau (dried cod) crackers hung from mini clothespins!

The second course was a foie gras made with chocolate, served with a mango something or other.

After that, I was enjoying everything so much I didn't bother to take any more pictures.

Oh, except I had to take a photo of the wonderful wine we had so we would remember the name. It was one of the best wines I've had since we moved here.

The last 2 courses were dessert. Every single thing served was wonderful, and managed to be delicious and unique at the same time. Here is a group shot of us at the end of our almost 3 hour meal (!)

If you live in Lisbon or visit, definitely make a reservation here!

Prague, Czech Republic

2010-11-06T18:06:00.025+07:00

Recently we went to Prague for a conference John attended, and I got to tag along! We were able to go for four days, and John's conference was only for two days, so it was a nice trip. I had been to Prague ten years ago while backpacking, but only for two days. One of the days we took a day trip to Terezin, a former concentration camp about 45 minutes outside of Prague. It was one of the most interesting places I visited while backpacking. But essentially I had only seen a day's worth of the city, so I was excited to go back. Prague has become much more touristy in the past 5-10 years - I definitely noticed that. If it was that crowded at the beginning of October, I'd be afraid to go during the summer! We spent most of our time walking all over the city, and trying out the Czech food and beer - both of which were great. Enjoy the pics.

We got to stay in a really nice hotel called the Alchymist, which was right across the street from the American Embassy there, and near his conference. Although the first night we stayed in a cute attic room of a hotel. The only drawback was no elevator. Here is John after carrying our luggage up four flights!

We stayed very close to the Charles Bridge, which connects the old part of the city to the new. It is lined with licensed vendors and musicians, and is always packed with tourists.

See all those people?

View of the Prague Castle. It is the largest castle complex in the world!

Famous astronomical clock

This was a popular Czech appetizer called beer cheese, which you put on fried toast. Needless to say, it was delicious.

Night view of the river and castle

Apparently Prague has freaky black squirrels with pointy ears and glowing eyes!

Beer

And more beer

A really cool underground cave-like restaurant

Look at all that candle wax!

Awesome steak with potato-stuffed onion!

Bridge with thousands of locks

Here is the famous "Lennon Wall". Since the 1980s, this wall has been graffitied over and over with Beatles-inspired images and lyrics.

I decided to climb to the top of this mini Eiffel tower to see the great view. Yes, Prague has a mini Eiffel tower, too!

While walking around, I found a reflexology place! Since I hadn't had a professional foot massage since Jakarta, I was pretty much in heaven.

The funniest part was the guy outside. If it weren't for him yelling out "massage", I would have walked right by the place. Check him out, you'll see why I definitely noticed him!

Our fancy hotel had a complimentary cheese and wine-tasting hour every evening.

One of the neat things to do in Prague is to see a classical concert in a stunning concert hall or church. These guys were great

I'm sure it would be a great city to see covered in snow. But we were happy that it wasn't too cold and we didn't get rained on during our time there! One last shot - the beautiful Tyn church taken from the top of the Eiffel tower:

Indonesia

2010-10-29T00:21:00.008+07:00

We always knew that Indonesia was prone to natural disasters, but recently it has been particularly bad. As you probably heard, earlier this week, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, and then a few hours later, Mount Merapi, the huge volcano in Central Java erupted.

Of course having lived in Indonesia, we were shocked by the news. We experienced a couple earthquakes and floods in Jakarta, but to have events this big so close together really stretches Indonesia's limited resources to respond. I'm confident that the U.S. government and charitable organizations will help with the recovery, but more help is always needed. Hill and I hope everyone will think about how they're helping the less fortunate. I'll leave you with a few photos from our trips near these recent disasters.

Mount Merapi is the tall peak on the right side of the photo.

The area around the volcano is densely populated because the land is so fertile, especially along its slopes.

Padang is one of Indonesia's largest cities, located around 150 miles from the tsunami. It's popular with tourists, especially surfers who use it as a jumping off point for the Mentawai islands, the sparsely inhabited islands struck by the recent tsunami. Last October, Padang experienced an earthquake, which killed more than 1,000 people.

On a happier note, a couple weeks ago we were invited to a reception to honor Indonesian independence day, so I wore my batik shirt and we even spoke a little Indonesian. We really enjoyed the food and getting to taste some of the flavors we have missed.

France - Part Deux

2010-10-22T01:09:00.043+07:00

After a couple days in Lyon, we rented a car and headed south into the Provencal countryside. It turned out to be a really fun trip, and by driving everywhere we were able to appreciate the beauty of the region. We were headed to a tiny village outside of a small town called Uzes.

Along the way we passed many cute towns like this one

We stopped for steak frites in a small town, and realized they were just finishing up their Saturday morning market. We made it just in time to sample and buy some cheese and sausage.

The sausage was covered with some sort of herbs, and it was delicious. I also really liked the Brebis cheese they had. Here I am sampling our purchase.

The place where we stayed was wonderful. It's called "Les Sardines Aux Yeux Bleus", or the blue-eyed sardines. :) It's run by a really sweet couple. A Swedish model falls in love with a Parisian photographer, and they decide to leave the big city behind and open a cute French guest house in the countryside. You know, your average story.

Here are some pictures of the place:

Our room:

After relaxing in their peaceful garden, we decided to head out and see what we could find. Our first stop was the historic town of Uzes. I love the light in this photo of the city:

Cute balcony in the town square:

Sunset

The next morning we hit the yard sale in the next town over. We didn't manage to find anything we couldn't live without, but it was fun looking.

One thing we really wanted to see was an ancient aqueduct called the Pont du Gard. It was built in the first century AD! In its heyday it carried about 44 million gallons of water per day to the citizens of Nimes. It survived during the Middle Ages by being used as a toll road, which helped support its upkeep. Today it is one of France's most popular tourist attractions. Here are some pictures.

We drove on to Nimes, and after parking we found the main street to be roped off due to a bike race for young kids. Maybe we witnessed a future Tour de France winner in training?

Lunch in the town square consisted of croque monsieurs and beer, naturally

Palace and elephant statue in Nimes

Then we were off to Les Baux de Provence, which is a really, really, really old town (I don't know how else to describe it) that dates from 6000 BC. It is built way up high on top of a rocky outcrop, and was unlike anything we'd seen before. Here is a picture I found online - an aerial view.

Yup, there is an actual town built up there!

What we found funny is that walking around, it felt like you were at a Renaissance festival. Except that you weren't. You were in a really, really, really old town. Built on top of a mountain.

On to the city of Arles, where we checked out the town's coliseum. What's neat is they have restored the ruined parts and made it whole again. Even neater is the town actually still uses the coliseum for concerts and other performances.

The old

And the new

On one part of our trip we found the road closed with a small sign, which you could easily have driven around.

We took a detour high up in the mountains, and realized there had been a huge landslide which had completely covered the road. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the road behind the collapsed mountain. Glad we weren't on the road at that time!

Everything was just so pretty in that region of France

We enjoyed all of the meals we had while we were there. I love French food, and I really realized how much I missed a lot of aspects of French life. They truly enjoy living, eating, drinking, talking, laughing. There is a reason they have the phrase "joie de vivre", or joy of living. I was happy that John enjoyed France as much as I do. I need him to want to visit again soon, which I'm sure we will!

France - Part 1

2010-10-14T04:25:00.011+07:00

We started off our time in Lyon with a meal at a typical bouchon.

The picture above is of one of the streets just lined with restaurants and outdoor seating. One thing I love about the food in Lyon is most of the restaurants offer a few set menus for you to choose from. Any meal always include bread and water. The set menus include an appetizer, entree, and cheese or dessert (sometimes both!). The prices are usually between 10 and 20 euros, depending on the place you choose. While studying there, I fell in love with warm goat cheese salads, gratin dauphinois, and quenelles. Needless to say, I had my fair share of those dishes while we were there...

See that pretty blue bottle in the photo above? It's a very simple concept. Every single restaurant keeps bottles full of water in their fridge. When people sit down at a table, the waiter brings out bread and the chilled bottle of water. Why oh why can't Portugal do the same? France gets points in our book for this. And don't the tables and bottles just look so cute and, well, French?

More streetside dining

We found my old kebab place! Might even be the same guy working there....

What else but more cheese?

Pretty bakery

Fleur-de-lys cakes!

Cute little cafe in my friend Ellen's old neighborhood

One thing I love about France is people really do carry baguettes around!

Checking out the Roman amphitheater ruins.

Lyon has a bunch of passageways which lead under and betwen buildings and courtyards. They were built to allow the silk factory workers to transport textiles between buildings while staying sheltered from the rain

Long, steep staircase

Crepe stand, which almost looks fake because it's so cute!

We went to a bar that I used to hang out at when I was living there, called the Smoking Dog. It's a British pub, which was always half crowded with expats and the other half local French. They used to show The Simpsons and Friends on Sunday nights, and we usually made it to their pub quiz they had once a week. It was great to check it out and see that it hadn't changed one bit.

See the sign above me?

Enjoying a Guinness

A shot of me, Ellen, and our friend Lauren hanging out at the Dog in 2001. You might say we frequented the place. :)

I'll be back with some pictures of the trip we took to Provence -it was beautiful.

Lyon!

2010-10-08T01:52:00.013+07:00

We had a really great time in France. I had not been back to Lyon in close to 10 years, so I was very much looking forward to seeing the city again. In some ways it felt like forever since I had been there.

The city itself is very pretty and built at the confluence of 2 major rivers. There are a bunch of bridges which cross over the rivers, including pedestrian-only bridges which I like. Lyon is the second or third largest city after Paris (depending on how you count the population). It feels like a large city, but it has a much more close-knit feel to it than Paris. You can easily walk around most of the city within a day. They have a great bike rental system where you can rent and return a bike through a machine 24 hours a day. We really wanted to use them but they required a credit card which has a chip in it, and our credit card from the States does not.

I will put up some more pictures soon and let you know what we did during our time in France. For now, enjoy some photos of the city.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous church on the hill. Lyon has its own little Eiffel Tower. The first picture on this post is the view from the square at the church.

Lyon is known for its buildings' painted walls. There are more than 200 in the city. Here are a couple examples we took pictures of.

Night view

It's the end of the world as we know it

2010-09-28T23:05:00.013+07:00

At the southwestern point of Europe is an area that was known by the Romans as Promontorium Sacrum - the end of the world. It kept its name for centuries until the Portuguese decided to venture out into the ocean where legend said that the water boiled, causing the white foam sailors could see in the distance. It was from the town of Sagres that Prince Henry the Navigator sent forth expeditions to discover and map the world. During our recent Algarve trip, we were in the area, so we went to check it out.

The site features a fifteenth century fortress that many claim housed a navigation school.

Aerial view of the peninsula stolen from the internet.

Whether or not there was actually a school may be open for debate, but they did have a giant compass.

Sagres is definitely not a calm harbor though. The fort sat at the top of windblown cliffs hundreds of feet tall. We were able to walk right to the edge.

Not heeding the warning.

When you're so close to the end of the world, I guess you have to go see it.

Summer's not gone yet!

2010-09-19T16:45:00.003+07:00

We decided one more trip to the Algarve before the summer was over was in order. Our friend Rebecca had two friends visiting her in Lisbon, so the five of us went down to the southern coast of Portugal for a beach weekend over Labor Day. We rented a three bedroom apartment at a great price, which also had a pool and hot tub. It was only about a 10 minute walk to get to the beaches, but we felt like we were in the country with the fields and horses next to the apartment!

The first day we went to a small beach town near where we were staying. You can see just how small the town is here

We enjoyed a nice lunch on the beach. Can't beat the view. Our go-to Portuguese beer, Superbock, made an appearance as well

The next morning we went to get breakfast in our town, and here is what I came across on our way. It is very typical to see a few old men sitting outside shops or cafes, but I don't think I'd ever seen that many sitting in a row! I asked their permission and snapped this pic

I like this shot of the boats pulled out of the harbor

While we were getting our coffee and pastries (at 10:45 in the morning) I noticed the three British guys behind us were drinking huge beers. I took this picture just to get a shot of their morning beverages. :)

That day we checked out another beach that we'd heard was in a beautiful setting. The dramatic cliffs and rocks were indeed a great spot to swim and play bocce ball

Oh, and we made a friend at the beach

We checked out an abandoned fortress at the top of some of the cliffs. It was a little spooky but the views were awesome

Can you see the two guys perched on the VERY edge of the cliff fishing? They were so high up - and standing right on the edge - it was unbelievable

Had to get some grilled fish at some point.....

Our last day there we decided to try out the beach right in the tiny town where we were staying. The water was perfect; clear and calm enough for us to just float and talk.

We finally understand why the Algarve is such a popular destination. I know we'll be back next summer for sure.

Moving Day

2010-09-11T01:26:00.007+07:00

We came home yesterday to find a crane parked in front of our apartment. It turns out our top floor neighbors were moving in. I guess this is how you do it in Europe.

Madeira

2010-09-08T01:57:00.016+07:00

To celebrate Hillary's 30th birthday, we went to Madeira, the small Portuguese archipelago 300 miles west of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean. Portuguese sailors sent out by Prince Henry the Navigator in 1418 discovered the islands after being blown off course during a storm. Portuguese colonization began only a couple years later.

Madeira today is a major vacation destination for Europeans. It has a great climate year-round and beautiful landscapes. We stayed on the main island in the capital, Funchal. We went for five days and stayed at an amazing hotel called The Vine.

Funchal feels like Lisbon set in the tropics.

We had hoped to rent a car, but because it was peak tourist time, there were none available. We made the best of our time, regardless, by visiting local beaches, touring the town, scuba diving, and eating great food. One great meal was in a restaurant called Armazem do Sal. As the name suggests if you plug it into Google Translate, the restaurant is set in an old salt warehouse. The food and ambience were great. The wine was even better.

We ate plenty of other great food during the trip, including espetada - grilled meat cooked on a laurel skewer over a fire. It was delicious.

Our hotel had a French restaurant, so we ate there to celebrate Hillary's birthday. Also very good.

But back to the island. Madeira has been home to a few famous people. Christopher Columbus lived there, but more recently, it's most famous local boy is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Real Madrid star.

It's also home to this crazy fruit hybrid that was delicious - pineapple-banana.

One afternoon during our stay, we went to Monte, a city up the mountainside from Funchal. The island's early governors used to go there to find cooler temperatures.

But since they wanted to get back to the city quickly, the locals built box cars that would slide back down the steep cobblestone streets. The only brakes were the shoes of the two drivers.

Ernest Hemingway said that the ride was the "most exhilirating experience" of his life. The ride is now just for tourists, but we took advantage. The cars have slowed down since the cobble stone streets were converted to asphalt, but it was still a fun ride. Enjoy the video.

Wrapping up our trip in the Alentejo

2010-08-25T00:27:00.027+07:00

The last part of our trip was spent in the region of Portugal called the Alentejo. You can see this region covers a large portion of the country. It is very picturesque; after all, it produces a lot of the country's citrus, olives and wine. This region is also the world's most important area for growing cork. That's right, the cork that came out of the last bottle of wine you opened most likely originated in Portugal. Pretty convenient that an area known for great wine also has tons of cork trees.... The cork is stripped from the trees' trunks every nine years, with an average tree living about 200 years. It's also the only tree that isn't harmed by stripping its bark.

The place we stayed there was absolutely beautiful. It was out in the countryside, hidden from the roads, and again surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. It has to be the most peaceful place I've ever stayed. The only sound you heard besides the birds was the distant mooing of a cow. (Really.) Here are some pictures of the place.

The pool was so nice, and again we had it to ourselves!

We toured a winery and got some pictures with all the barrels and huge vats of wine. And of course, did some tasting.

We bought some wine at the tasting to go with our picnic dinner that night.

We had a fabulous dinner the second night at a restaurant that was inside an old prison next to the castle at the top of a pretty town called Estremoz. It may sound a bit strange, and you might think that it would be gloomy to eat inside what used to be a prison. But it was a very cute restaurant with a great atmosphere and amazing food.

See, it's not scary at all! I like how they echoed the prison bars in the backs of the chairs.

We were told that it was the best restaurant to eat at in the vicinity, but were warned that the food takes awhile to come out. Little did they know that we like to enjoy a long meal! Our meal included black pork, which is a specialty of the Alentejo region. The Portuguese really know how to do pork right. Since we've been living here, we have definitely experienced the best-tasting pork we've ever had. I don't have any pictures of our food, although it was worthy of photos.

How cool is it that to leave the city, we had to drive over a working drawbridge?

On our way back to Lisbon, we stopped in Evora, which has a beautiful Roman temple, built in the 1st century AD

My mom and sister had a chance to buy some cork souvenirs before we headed for Lisbon. They make some pretty cool stuff out of cork!

They had one more day to enjoy Lisbon before they headed back to the States. It was such a great trip, I'm thinking they need to come back next summer, and we'll do a similar trip through the northern half of Portugal. There's still so much left to see!

2010-08-23T01:37:00.021+07:00

We had a wonderful drive continuing on to the area of Portugal where we would be staying. If you ever drive through Portugal, one thing you'll notice is that most of the (really) old towns you see have a couple things in common. They are built up on a high hill and there is usually a castle at the very top. While it might only take us a half hour to drive between two towns, back then they would be too far apart to see one from the other. You can understand the need for a lookout and protection for each town.

Here is just one pretty example

We were advised to visit one of these towns in particular, called Monsaraz. It is a white-washed town perched on the very top of the highest hill in the area, and the town dates to pre-historic times. We used our trusty "Boa Cama, Boa Mesa" guide to find a restaurant, and the one it suggested was wonderful. It had views of the countryside all the way to Spain, complete with an old Portuguese woman cooking up our delicious lunch.

Our table

Our view from the restaurant

One of the neat parts about the restaurant is how hidden it was. We never would have known it was there. See the tiny brick entrance on the left side of the photo?

Here you can see the town. Quite a bit in Portugal reminds me of Greece.

I just love that you can stop in a random town and it feels like a destination in and of itself. Monsaraz is known for their pottery, so my mom was able to buy quite a few souvenirs for friends. Here are a few more pictures.

On our drive we also stopped at a family vineyard. The woman showed us all of the machines and explained the processes the wine goes through. Because they do everything on site, they have their own bottling and labeling machines as well. It's neat to see on such a small scale. We bought a couple bottles to take with us.

I'll be back soon to wrap up our trip in Portugal's wine country.

The churro incident

2010-08-11T03:54:00.009+07:00

So on our way from Seville back to Portugal, we were driving through the Spanish countryside(which is gorgeous). We were driving through a tiny town when I saw a sign for churros. I immediately pulled a U-turn. I was so excited that we had a chance to eat churros for breakfast, especially because we never had them while we were in Seville. I wanted to make sure my mom and sister had the chance to get fresh ones and dip them in melted chocolate in the traditional Spanish way.

There wasn't any place to park by this tiny stand so, in true European fashion, I pulled up onto the sidewalk to park there. About 10 seconds (literally) after I turned off the car and we were getting out of the vehicle, out of nowhere the local cops pull up! They told me I couldn't park on the sidewalk and... that I was facing the wrong way on a one-way street. In my churro excitement it seems I blatantly ignored the rules of the road!

But it was just hilarious, because we were in this teeny town in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of the town, near a small churro stand.....and they show up in 10 seconds! Needless to say, once I found a better spot to park and we walked back to the churros, we got quite a few stares. Well, the story gets better....

We decided to get 2 orders of churros, seeing as there were four of us. John waited in line and I joined my mom and sister at one of the plastic tables around the side of the stand. A few minutes later, John emerges with an ARMFUL of churros. It was absolutely ridiculous how many he was carrying; I think we counted around 20. We could not stop laughing, and we got even more stares after that. Here are some pictures of our score.

Part 3 - Seville

2010-08-08T17:20:00.028+07:00

I've always heard that Seville (southwestern corner of Spain) is a very cool city. That it's the heart and soul, the artsy center of Spain. Hold on, let me wiki it. Okay, it's the "artistic, cultural, and financial capital of Spain". It was an easy drive from the Algarve to Seville, although once we got into the heart of the city, it was tough to navigate. Our Honda Fit is pretty small, but it was still a very tight squeeze for a lot of the streets. As our GPS navigated us closer to our hotel, we realized the streets were getting narrower and narrower. All of a sudden, they turned into pedestrian alleyways only about 5 feet wide! It seemed we shouldn't have been driving on them anymore at that point.... So we dropped off our luggage at the hotel and then found a parking garage.

Our first order of business? Tapas and sangria, of course.

After lunch, we wandered through the Barrio Santa Cruz, which is where we were staying. The buildings are so close to one another that the lanes are called "kissing lanes", because the balconies are so close that you could easily lean out and kiss your neighbor!

We stumbled upon very unique entryways and courtyards of homes, like the one below.

Seville's huge, gothic cathedral is gorgeous. We also got to go up in the bell tower, which was quite a hike. At first we wondered why it was ramps you had to walk up inside the bell tower, as opposed to stairs. Our guidebook let us know that it was because the Muslims originally built it that way, so that someone could easily ride a horse all the way up to the top five times a day to do the call to prayer. I'd say that was a good idea, because I would have preferred a horse do the work of getting me to the top! Here we are checking out the pretty views of the city.

One of the must-see sights is the Alcazar, which is the royal palace, converted from a moorish fort. The upper levels of the palace are still used to house the royal family. It's beautiful, with tiled walls everywhere you look.

The gardens of the Alcazar are almost as impressive as the building itself, with fountains, all sorts of flowers and trees, even garden mazes! Here is Brooke trying not to get lost in the maze, and a group shot of us.

For dinner that night we did the usual tapas crawl. It's so fun to go from place to place and get a few tapas and a drink; especially when it only works out to few bucks per person at each place. One thing I really enjoyed was cold gazpacho soup served in a glass with an ice cube. Very efficient to eat! (Or drink?)

We had to see a flamenco show, which has its roots in the same region (Andalucia) as Seville. We had a great time and saw some fantastic dancers. I was also very impressed with the flamenco guitarists, as their fingers just fly over the strings. Here is the stage from up above before they started. I love how the wood is worn away where they dance.

They allowed us to take pictures at the end, when they all came out and danced together. Their outfits are so colorful! Here are some pictures and a video I took.

Adios, Seville!

Touro! Touro!

2010-08-05T04:52:00.006+07:00

While in the Algarve, we saw a poster for a bullfighting spectacle not too far from our hotel. We decided to check it out even though we knew it would not have the same formality of a bullfight in the national bull ring in Lisbon. Portuguese bullfighting is very different from the Spanish variety, but we'll talk about that in a future post. The event we went to was in a temporary ring that had been erected in a field just outside of the town near where we were staying. We noticed immediately that it was much smaller than a normal ring. It looked interesting and they had a beer stand, so we decided to join the fun. The first act consisted of four "bullfighters" who would jump over a charging bull. Athletically, it was pretty impressive. Check out the video.

The second part was a guy on a four-wheeler, driving around in circles and trying to get the bull to charge him. That was just sad.

And the third part was just stupid. It was called the "table of terror." They asked for volunteers from the audience. I had to put my foot down and tell Hillary that she couldn't volunteer, even though I didn't know how ridiculous it would be. We later learned after all of the volunteers were seated at tables in the middle of the ring that the winner of the competition would be the last person seated. They then let a bull loose in the ring who would charge and flip the seated people. Check out the video.

From there it progressed to amateur hour, with people hopping the fence to test their bravery against the bull. All in all, it was a pretty entertaining spectacle.

Part 2 - Down to the Algarve!

2010-08-01T21:52:00.019+07:00

The Algarve is the southern region of mainland Portugal. Its name actually comes from the Arabic word "al gharb", meaning "the west". This region is the most popular tourist destination in Portugal, almost entirely because of its beautiful beaches and warmer Mediterranean seas. This map shows the region in red.

Because some of the towns in this region can get very crowded in the height of summer, we chose to stay in a town called Tavira. It's supposed to be one of the more untouched areas along the coast; this is due to its beaches being protected by a lagoon, as well as being inside a natural park where development is not allowed. Here is an aerial view.

We stopped for lunch at a place that had been recommended. We sat on the rooftop and this was our view while we ate.

The place we were staying was difficult to find, which we'd been warned about. Luckily our trusty GPS was able to help until we simply follwed the tiny signs to get there. Here is what awaited us off tiny country roads, surounded by olive groves and orange trees.

The pool was gorgeous, and we had it to ourselves both days we were there!

View from the balcony, and John enjoying the view.

Beach day! We recently acquired bocce ball and ladder ball, if you know what that game is. They are fun to play on the beach, and we definitely attracted quite a few onlookers!

We had to make sure to take them to an all-you-can eat churrascaria, which they loved. Here is a view of the town of Tavira at night

We wanted to go somewhere to watch the final game in the World Cup. We ended up at a British pub, which was a great choice. It was exciting to watch the Spanish win knowing we were only 20 kilometers from Spain and that we were heading there the next day!

Part 1 - Lisbon

2010-07-30T01:36:00.017+07:00

The very first night they were here, we took my mom and sister to our favorite Indian restaurant. They loved it! They had tried Indian food in the past, but I think they are converts now. John and I got addicted to it in Jakarta because it was so good, and cheap as well there.

What else did they do?

We had to take them up to the castle.

We decided to try one of the fancier fado singing restaurants, and it was great. The singers were so serious and had great voices. Here we are enjoying our meal between singers.

View of the castle from the Bairro Alto, where we got a beer and walked around after fado.

In the summer many restaurants put their tables outside in the streets. It's outdoor dining with great people-watching. These restaurants close up before midnight, if only to accommodate the throngs of people throughout all the old streets chatting and bar-hopping.

Me and sis

Random guy trying to sell my mom a hat

Ready to hit the town

We even took them up to the Embassy to see where we work, and they met quite a few of our colleagues and friends as well. They spent 3 nights in Lisbon before we got on the road to head to the south coast of Portugal. Stay tuned....

Road Trip

2010-07-27T04:08:00.005+07:00

We had a fabulous time while my mom and sister were here. They thoroughly enjoyed Lisbon, as we knew they would. But I have to say our road trip vacation was one for the books. We had so much fun and saw a lot, but we also relaxed some of the time, which made for a perfect trip. The map above shows the route we took. It's really so easy to drive throughout Portugal; we were never on the road for more than a couple hours at a time.

I will definitely post some updates about their visit - it just might take awhile! Come back soon!

Parking the car

2010-07-07T04:48:00.012+07:00

We knew things in Europe would be a little tighter (we bought a small car for this reason), but we didn't know quite how difficult parking at home would be.

Step by step guide to parking in our garage.

Step 1: Open outer gate.

Step 2: Pull into driveway.

Step 3: Mind the tight fit.

Step 4: Enter garage.

Step 5: Back into elevator.

Step 6: Close elevator doors and descend one floor.

Step 7: Arrive at basement.

Step 8: Park in assigned space.

Step 9: Hope you don't need to repeat this process anytime soon.

World Cup fever

2010-06-30T01:27:00.004+07:00

It has been fun watching most of the World Cup games here in Portugal. Europe takes their soccer very seriously, which definitely makes it more engaging. Every little coffee shop, restaurant and bakery has a TV in it, and you can bet they are showing each game when it's on.

It was sad watching the U.S. lose, but I am happy they made it as far as they did. The other frustrating thing is watching most of the players fake falls so often. I understand if everyone's doing it, they feel they should, too. But it really makes the game that much less enjoyable, in my opinion.

Well, the Portugal/Spain game starts in two minutes, so we'll see if Portugal can pull it off. Boa sorte, Portugal!

Wait a second...you two will be working together?

2010-06-21T22:09:00.015+07:00

Guess what? I finally got a job! In all fairness, we knew coming to Lisbon that it might be a while before I found a job. But I guess I just hoped and somewhat assumed that it would happen sooner rather than later. And while five months of unemployment is not an eternity, it seemed like a long time. I also think it was harder to adjust to a new place with no job. But now that we have settled in, made friends, and are really enjoying Lisbon it has been a lot easier to deal with having no job. So wouldn't you know, just as I finally accept the fact that I don't have a job, one opens up for me! But this is just the way the world usually works, right?

I will be the Office Management Specialist (fancy way of saying secretary) in the same section where John works. Even though we’ll be working together, my role will be to support everyone in the section, but most importantly John's boss. In fact, I imagine I will have less interaction with John in our day-to-day duties than when we both worked in Jakarta.

It's funny, because most people who have thought it strange that we would be working in the same section are either not that familiar with this career or they are newbies. Because sometimes, that's just the way it goes. If a spouse wants to work, they can't always choose exactly which type of job they'd like. And in smaller places, there aren't even always enough jobs for all the spouses who'd like to work. I am pretty happy, because I would have preferred to have this job over any others that may have opened up soon.

Having said that, I'll leave you with some random pics I found online......

P.S. We just might eat lunch together most days as well. (The horror!)

Saint Anthony's Festival

2010-06-18T04:01:00.013+07:00

Last weekend we experienced the biggest festival/party in Portugal, called the Festival of Santo Antonio. In a word, it was crazy! Just about every street in the downtown Lisbon area was filled with tables of people eating and drinking. At times it was tough to even walk down a street because it was so full.

We started off at our friends' place, seeing as they live right in the middle of a neighborhood which goes all out for the festival. From there our group made our way to the Bairro Alto, which was even more hopping than it usually is. We would turn down a random narrow alleyway, and waiting at the other end would be a huge block party complete with a band and dancing.

One of the symbols of this festival is a pot of baby basil. They were selling these pots all over the place.

It took us a while to realize that the green wigs everyone was wearing were honoring the pots of basil. It was an exciting moment when a couple Portuguese guys threw brand new wigs to all of us so we could join in the fun.

Grilling sardines on the street

Shrine to Saint Anthony

We turned a corner and ran into these guys

So, what time was it that the parade finally ended? 3:30 in the morning!

This girl was THE very last person in the parade. She was on her cell phone the whole time...

First a casino, then the Virgin Mary?

2010-06-13T20:09:00.015+07:00

The last part of the trip was traveling to Figueira da Foz, a town on the coast of Portugal. The Embassy was awarding seven Portuguese students a trip to the US for their achievements in science. We attended the Science Gala that night and Abby had to get up on stage to make a brief presentation of what the awards were for and call each of the students' names.

The awards dinner was held at the casino, and they had dancers as entertainment. We couldn't really figure out what they were dressed up as, but they had elaborate masks and costumes and chanted while they danced around everyone's tables.

Here is the view from our hotel room. Figueira da Foz has one of the widest beaches I've seen. That is a lot of sand!

A nice surprise waiting for us in our hotel room

The town itself didn't have too much to see, so the next day we decided to head back to Lisbon and get lunch along the way. However, Abby's GPS stoppped working, and while we thought we were staying close to the coast, we ended up taking a different route. Because of our error we got to visit one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in Europe - Fatima. In 1917, three children claimed to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary, who revealed to them three secrets. The Catholic Church declared the spot a holy site in 1930, and the Pope had just visited a week earlier to perform mass in front of a couple hundred thousand of the faithful to celebrate the anniversary of the apparitions. So pretty good timing on our part seeing as we weren't even planning on visiting Fatima.

The three children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared

The shrine today, called the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary

Abby has a book that lists the best restaurants and places to stay in Portugal; this book is also where she found our cute hotel in Seia. It's named "Boa Cama Boa Mesa" or "Good Bed Good Table". We really want our own copy, but there are none to be found in Lisbon. It seems they produced a very limited number of copies and they were all snatched up immediately. One of the restaurants that won Portugal's "Golden Fork" award just happened to be in Fatima, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was a tiny place outside of town that you wouldn't even spot from the road. I love those types of places. And the meal was fantastic. We just might have to steal Abby's copy of the book.....

Seia adventures

2010-06-09T04:57:00.031+07:00

I can't say enough about the hotel we stayed at in Seia. You can click on this link to see the hotel if you are so inclined. (It is one of the better websites I've found for unique places to stay.) The town is located within the national park called Serra da Estrela, which is also the name of the mountain range. This picture shows the location of Serra da Estrela in Portugal.

One of the best parts of staying there was our dinners both nights. We had no idea what was in store for us when we told them we would indeed be dining at the hotel after we arrived around 9:00 pm. Nuno and his wife Maria run the hotel; Nuno grew up in Seia and they decided to build the small hotel in 2005. Maria creates all of the dishes herself, using locally grown ingredients - many of which are grown on the mountainside right next to the hotel. Each dinner started off with sparkling wine and an inventive appetizer, then a soup, some red wine, and then the main course. The second night we were offered red sparkling wine, which I had never had before, and it was wonderful. Only after asking more about the wine did we find out that it is from Nuno's family's vineyards. A nice touch, indeed.

On our last day there we opted to take a hike of the surrounding hills in the national park. We didn't realize it would be the owner himself who took the three of us on the hike. Since he was born there, he knows every trail like the back of his hand. We ended up being gone four and a half hours! We stopped at the largest grotto on the Iberian Peninsula, and even got to venture some into it. It was a bit scary, because as soon as you got through the opening and down inside, it was completely pitch-black. I am not the type to be claustrophobic, but I have to say I was a bit nervous!

Entrance to the grotto

Besides being famous for cheese, the region of Serra da Estrela also holds a lot of history, which is the case just about everywhere in Portugal. We hiked up to areas where the Visigoths had created villages to be able to keep a lookout in every direction. Not to bore you with too much history..... I'm not sure about you but the word "Visigoths" is stored somewhere far back in my brain along with other facts I've forgotten. So what better way for me to relearn some history than where it actually happened, right?

Abby and I are looking quite stylish here

We stopped halfway through for a snack that Nuno had packed for us. On the way back, we followed a stream for quite awhile and were even able to refill our bottles from a small waterfall. It's not very often you can feel confident about drinking the water from a stream. By the time we finally made it back to our hotel we threw on our suits and jumped in the (pretty darn cold) swimming pool. Maria made us sandwiches, and we were thinking how unfortunate it was that we couldn't stay there longer. We had to continue on to another town before we came back to Lisbon. Here are some pictures of our hike:

Posing in front of the waterfall

Tiny church mountain-style

Gotta love the signs

A rewarding view of the village

Our hotel's pool looked very inviting as we finished our hike coming down the mountainside.

I'll be back with one more post to finish our trip!

Work or vacation? How about both...

2010-06-04T22:36:00.020+07:00

John and I recently went on a work trip/vacation. One of our friends here, Abby, works in the Public Affairs section of the Embassy. Recently they received a request from a school located up in a mountain town in the north of Portugal. Two young girls, sisters, recently moved there after being raised in the US. (Their mother is originally from this town, called Seia.) Apparently, the girls were having a bit of trouble adjusting to living in a brand new country. So the school asked the Embassy if they'd be willing to do a presentation about the US and cultural diversity. Abby and John were both available to go, and of course I went along seeing as it was work combined with a vacation! We ended up having a fabulous trip... The hotel we stayed at was wonderful. We had no idea what to expect, but it was just the cutest, most unique place, located in an even tinier village above the tiny mountain town we were traveling to. We arrived at sunset, and had to take a few pics of our room, which included a walk-in closet and bathtub with jets. We were booked in the "apartment", and Abby had her own room but we shared a living room and kitchen.

The next day John and Abby did two presentations. The morning one was for a group ranging from 8-11 years old, and the afternoon session was for eighth-graders. The older group really blew us away at how good their English was and how much they knew about the US. It was a really satisfying experience. And even though I didn't present, at the very end John introduced me as his wife to the eighth-graders, and they all oohed and ahhed and whistled. Then they started chanting 'Kiss, kiss!" in Portuguese! They wouldn't stop until we finally gave each other a brief peck. It was hilarious, and that never would have happened in the US!

The teachers took all three of us out to lunch in between the presentations, which was very nice. It was great to interact with Portuguese people outside of Lisbon. It was especially nice for me, because I don't have a ton of interaction besides my day-to-day activities around where we live. And I love getting to talk to children; it was always fun when we got the chance to do so in Indonesia.

There was more "work" to do in another town, but we got to spend most of Saturday relaxing. Actually, I'll have to do another post regarding that. Here are a few more pictures of the boutique hotel:

Laundry Day

2010-06-01T03:56:00.002+07:00

Trip to the Algarve and soccer tournament

2010-05-25T23:48:00.024+07:00

It was nice to finally get down to the south coast of Portugal. We had an excuse, as the Embassy soccer team was playing in a tournament. It was organized by having different countries' teams play against each other in 30-minute games on Saturday and Sunday. John's team ended up doing really well, going all the way into the final match against Brazil. However, no surprise, Brazil won.

The picture above is the resort where we stayed. It wasn't on the beach, but had nice views of the countryside. Here are some more pics:

Outside of the Brazilian-style churrascaria restaurant we ate at, which serves all-you-can-eat meat. These types of restaurants are pretty popular in Portugal, given the Brazilian influence.

Orange grove on the way to the beach

We forgot to take pictures of the beach, but here we are on the promenade

John playing his best

There was a random performance by this group who were dressed in a very old style. Apparently they were from some tiny mountain town in Portugal, where they still celebrate their heritage by doing dances. We couldn't really figure out why they were performing at the soccer tournament.

During one of their "dances" they stopped, embraced each other, and started miming an act you wouldn't normally do in public! It was hilarious, and I was trying not to laugh too loudly as I took some photos.

Here is John and his team winning their second-place medals.

And here are the Brazilians. Can you tell they are very enthusiastic in their celebrating?

First Houseguests in Lisbon

2010-05-20T16:41:00.017+07:00

We had a fun time showing Elise and Heather around Lisbon. The two of them took a very relaxed approach about seeing the city and its sights, which was fine by us!

The night we got in was Saturday night, so we took them down to the Bairro Alto, which is Lisbon's hopping bar scene. It doesn't get going until after midnight, and by 2 am the streets are filled with people talking, walking around with their beers, just hanging out. We stopped by a Cuban place that is always good for dancing, and then on to a place we'd been before that always has live Brazilian music.

Check out the guy walking around with his own personal jug of wine!

The next day started with Lisbon's best pizza

On to Lisbon's beautiful castle up on the hill overlooking the city. Here is a view from up there.

After seeing the sights in Belem (the area of Lisbon associated with the Portuguese Age of Discovery), we stopped to have the world's best pasteis de natas, or custard tarts. They may not look like much, but they are absolutely delicious. It's a must for anyone visiting Lisbon to try them.

We had dinner and listened to traditional Portuguese singing, called Fado, that night. There were quite a few different singers performing, and it sounded more beautiful than I had expected it to. The best part was the main singer had a huge crush on Heather and was singing to her throughout most of the performance!

The next day was a beach day.

Wine, bread, cheese, fruit and......Texas Hold 'Em!

Oh yeah, the Pope decided to come visit Lisbon at the same time as our guests! Here is the stage they built him right on the water in Lisbon's old town.

It was fun to have our first visitors. Who's next??? My mom and sister in July!

Ah, Paris

2010-05-18T22:29:00.022+07:00

The nicest thing about our trip to Paris was that we didn't have any specific plans, and no tourist attractions were on the agenda. Well, besides shopping and eating, of course. It made for a very relaxing time, just enjoying Paris for what it is. It was supposed to rain the whole time, and in fact, we never got a drop until we were boarding the plane to Lisbon! Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

This is how we started off every morning. Yum.

Heather and her family lived in Paris for a few years after she finished college. We went to her neighborhood, and visited the places she used to frequent. The first stop was the local bistro, where one of the waiters Heather knows well gave us free kirs and served us a wonderful lunch. (Warm goat cheese salad and steak frites was had, so in my opinion a pretty perfect meal...)

We stopped in the local chocolatier beneath her family's old apartment. The guy there remembered her and her family and gave us a tour of the kitchen and chocolate-making facilities. And yes, we received plenty of free samples!

Then we stopped by the local bakery, fromagerie and wine shop to buy our dinner. I love buying everything from the individual local shops. At the wine store, we showed them our cheese and they selected two different wines that would complement them.

Cutest cheese shop ever!

Dinner of cheese, baguettes, fruit and wine

Shopping!

General street cuteness

Buddha Bar - chic but expensive

A break at Cafe Angelina for their world-famous hot chocolate and desserts

I had visited Paris a few times before this trip, but it wasn't until this trip that I felt that cheesy, from-the-movies, "Paris is the best city in the world" sort of feeling. I think it's because we just enjoyed it the way a local might. And the crepes didn't hurt. Or the croque monsieurs, or the salted butter caramels. Or the falafel, the croissants, the cheese, the baguettes, the wine, the......

À bientôt, Paris!

Pictures from Paris

2010-05-14T22:07:00.018+07:00

I don't have time to write much about Paris, because John and I are leaving in an hour to head down to the Algarve, on the Mediterranean coast of Portugal. He is playing a few games in a soccer tournament tomorrow night, so we are making a weekend vacation of it. We haven't been to that area yet, and the weather should be perfect. I don't think the ocean will be warm enough yet, but there's always the hotel pool....

I had such a wonderful time with Elise and Heather while they were visiting. I'll leave you for now with some pictures we took (and we took a ton of pictures - quite a few of them silly). Our hotel was right by the Eiffel Tower, so we played around there on our walks. And really, what's a trip to Paris without a baguette war and jumping pics? :)

Paris!

2010-05-05T00:37:00.007+07:00

I leave tomorrow morning to meet two of my friends, Elise and Heather, in Paris!

The two of them actually met in Paris while they were both studying there. (And I met Elise in Jakarta.) They both speak French better than I do and know the city better as well. So, who better to visit the city of light with? John gets to stay home and work. I guess one benefit of STILL not having a job is that I can up and go to France on short notice.

I haven't been to France since I studied in Lyon back in 2001. Here is a random picture of me doing dishes in the apartment I lived in. (The kitchen looks pretty bare because the table was in the hallway for a dinner party. The apartment had no living area or dining area.)

We'll spend four days in Paris and then Elise and Heather and I will all get on the same flight back to Lisbon, so they can get to see Portugal! Updates to come soon.

Westernmost Point of Mainland Europe!!!

2010-05-03T01:48:00.013+07:00

Do you know what is so amazing about the westernmost point in mainland Europe? Well, nothing, really. But it's so close to Lisbon, we had to check it out.

There's a lighthouse at the point, as well as a monument with a cross on top to mark the bluff. You can walk along the cliff overlooking the ocean, and take the obligatory photo. Oh, and there's the gift shop which sells one of our favorite wines here for 14 euros as opposed to the 3 euros it costs us at the grocery store!

The scenic drive

The lighthouse

Obligatory photo with the sign

Dutch National Day

2010-04-30T05:44:00.003+07:00

Getting ready to go the Netherlands' Queen's Day reception

Tour Bus As Seen From Our Apartment

2010-04-29T05:20:00.003+07:00

Lisbon Bus Strike as Seen from our Apartment

2010-04-28T03:05:00.001+07:00

The Beer Post!

2010-04-26T04:54:00.013+07:00

Let's face it: Beer is important. (Sorry, Eric. You can skip this post.)

As most countries have a national beer or two, so does Portugal. While Portugal produces several, the two most popular are Sagres and Super Bock. So let's compare these two, shall we?

Sagres is your basic light beer. It's simple, it's good, and it should do just fine for any beer drinker.

Super Bock, well, let's just face it - it has an awesome name! But, more importantly, it has a great taste. While similar to Sagres, it is just a bit darker. I definitely prefer it between the two.

However, each beer has some other redeeming qualities. Sagres sells 5 liter mini kegs which you can keep in your fridge, and don't require a special dispenser, unlike some sold in the US. It has its own tap built right in. Here is a picture of John demonstrating how to pour yourself a nice draft beer from your own refrigerator.

On a final note, every movie we've seen in the theater here has a Super Bock ad that comes on before the previews. We really like the ad and the song that goes along with it, which is by a British alt/rock band named "Air Traffic". Watch the minute and a half clip here if you'd like.

So, for anyone who'd like to compare the two and give us your vote, just come visit. We'll even provide the beer!

Toledo

2010-04-19T03:12:00.014+07:00

And not the one in Ohio. Although, while in Toledo, the medieval capital of the Spanish kingdom of Castille, we did pass Toledo Ohio Street. Apparently they're sister cities. But so are Toledo and Corpus Christi according to Wikipedia. I digress.

Toledo is 20 minutes from Madrid, so during our recent trip, we took the high speed train to Spain's most famous walled city. It's a beautiful place, set on a tall hilltop, overlooking the vast plains of central Spain. It had been the chief city of the Iberian peninsula for millennia, passing from Roman rule to the Visigoths, then to the Moors before finally returning to Spanish rule around a thousand years ago.

We arrived just before noon, so our first order of business after walking the mile or so from the train station up into the city was finding lunch. Our guide book mentioned a place that was popular with blue collar workers on their lunch breaks, so we decided to check it out. We made a good decision because for eight euros each, we got wine, bread, an appetizer, a main entree and a dessert. It was also fun to eat lunch in a place where we were the only tourists and no one spoke English. Luckily, our use of Portanhol (Spanishified Portuguese) was enough to get by.

After lunch, we did a walking tour of the city. It was fun to wind our way through tiny medieval streets. Toledo is known for having Muslim, Jewish and Christian influences, which was evident in the architecture. The old mosque was converted to a church after the Spanish reconquest and the synagogues are nothing more than museums, but it still maintains some of its charm. Toledo was also the home of Miguel Cervantes, who wrote Don Quixote. We pose with him here.

Spring in Madrid

2010-04-12T04:46:00.014+07:00

We just returned from a 5 day trip to Madrid. The flight was $65 round trip, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. We did our fair share of sightseeing, but of course, food was the most important part of this trip. A friend joined us for the first few days and fortunately, she had similar priorities.

I had always thought tapas were a little overrated, but I've seen the light. Madrid has the most bars and restaurants per capita of any city in the world, so it was a really nice place to spend a few days. We spent a few evenings in the La Latina neighborhood, which is just filled with tapas bars. We hopped between bars, getting a glass of wine or sangria and a small snack at each place.
Enjoy some of the photo highlights.

After a day of touring Madrid's royal palace, we went to Casa Mingo, a restaurant off the tourist trail that's famous with locals for good cider and great grilled chicken.

Sharing paella and enjoying the sunshine near Plaza Mayor. It was a little touristy, but the food was good and the sunshine was great.

Conspiradores in La Latina now holds a special place in our hearts for its cheap sangria and awesome spicy chorizo.

Madrid's most famous statue is this bear and tree. I don't really get it, but we took the obligatory photos.

Pretty impressive building. Especially when you realize it's just the post office.

Tapas crawl #2 meant more good wine, chorizo and manchego cheese.

We asked this guy to take our picture and afterwards we started chatting. It turns out he lives in Bali, so we reminisced about the best restaurants and places to hang out.

And we ended a night of tapas hopping with churros dipped in chocolate sauce at 1 a.m. Apparently, they do their best business a couple hours later.