Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Didn’t sleep well last night or the night before. Jet lag, or maybe just sleeping in a new place? It stinks. I’m exhausted. But the trip goes on. We boarded our bus this morning before the sun was even up, but that was about 8:15. We drove to Avila, another super old city. It was much colder there, because we were in the mountains. Lots of snow on the ground. Okay, not lots. Some.

Avila was interesting, because there were lots of very modern shops in these thousand-year-old buildings. The main part of the city is walled, you know, to keep out the intruders, like Wal-Mart. But of course I kid. We wandered around the streets, and because of a lack of time, we decided not to visit St. Teresa’s cathedral or the museum. Upon someone’s recommendation, we did purchase yemas, a candy made with egg yolk and sugar. Must say, I’m not a fan of yemas.

We purchased tickets that got us up on top of the walls. This was awesome. We had such a fantastic view, and it was cool to think about who once stood up there and protected this little town from intruders, hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

Then back on the bus. Don’t think I’m going to like spending so much time on the bus. Andrew and I both felt sort of ill while on the bus. For me, it was the motion. For Andrew, it was last night’s wine. Definitely no drinking tonight.

From Avila, we headed to Salamanca. We both felt pretty shitty, so we didn’t want to do much. For some reason, we’re always hungry here. Not sure why. Maybe it’s just that we’re eating breakfast so early and lunch is so late? Maybe it’s because we haven’t figured out how to order normal meals? Anyway, we ate these tiny little sandwiches for lunch, but after wandering around Salamanca’s university grounds, we were still hungry, so we used the rest of our free time there to get more food. We went into this little wood-paneled place and ordered pizza margherita and agua minerale. Really hit the spot, but it took awhile, and we barely had time to make it back to the bus. So much for sight-seeing in Salamanca. We felt much better afterward, though. Thank god for that, because we still had a three-hour drive to Coimbra, Portugal. I’m for sure going to be more prepared tomorrow, with my PsiBands and Dramamine ready to go.

On the bus, our driver, Abdel, started playing bizarre Spanish music. Loudly. I found it irritating, because I wanted to sleep. Fortunately, I did doze a bit, but I hope this music thing isn’t going to be on every day. When I wasn’t sleeping, I watched the countryside go by. It’s beautiful. We were on a plateau, then headed into an area that had lots of hills and lots of limestone rocks. It got warmer as we headed west—no more snow. We saw a lot of wind turbines atop the hills in Portugal. Very cool. Also saw lots of smoke, lots of small fires burning. Trash, maybe? Also, there are tons of sheep in Portugal. We stopped at a rest area in Nowhere, Portugal, and I had the most delicious chocolate muffin and café con leche (but in Portuguese). The bathrooms are freezing here. A lot of things are cold—they’re not big on using a lot of heat, it seems. After awhile, Abdel switched the music to old American stuff, like “What a Feeling,” the ’80s classic, among other things. Andrew secretly hoped we’d hear “Bohemian Rhapsody” and that everyone would sing along.

It was dark by the time we got to Coimbra. We had a buffet dinner in our hotel. I thought everything was pretty good. We were sitting at a table with this British family of three that was part of our tour. People seem to think Americans are rude, but we were embarrassed to be at the same table with them because of how rude they were to the servers. They complained about everything. Crazy.

Our hotel room was absolutely freezing. We couldn’t even get our heat to turn on. Thankfully there was an extra blanket in the closet, so we snuggled up, got warm, and were finally able to get some good sleep.

Monday, December 15, 2008

We started the day with an optional trip to Toledo, which is about a 30-minute drive from Madrid. It was incredible. Very old—medieval, I think. We visited a cathedral that was just gorgeous. It was huge, with ornate details in carved wood and stone, lots of gold everywhere, lots of stained glass. It had three enormous organs. We wished we could have heard them play.

Our guide led us through the town, down really narrow, winding streets—not even wide enough for a single car. The city was on a big hill, too, so it was all pretty steep. Beautiful buildings, with some of the original doors. We saw El Greco’s famous painting of the ascent of a spirit to heaven. It was a cool painting, but we spent at least 30 minutes standing there listening to the guide talk about it. Could’ve been fully discussed in 15 minutes, if you ask me.

We also visited a Damascene workshop in Toledo. I bought a beautiful pendant there, all gold and black with a bird on it. Just lovely.

We took the bus back to Madrid and found lunch at a little place down the street from the hotel. The sign said fumar was prohibido, but there was indeed fumar (smoking) there. Plenty of smokers in Spain, actually. Seems like pretty much everyone smokes. Anyway, lunch wasn’t great, but that could’ve been our fault. (We aren’t sure how to order sometimes, because we don’t know the language well enough. By which I mean we don’t know the language at all.) Also, it’s strange how they just throw trash on the floor here. All around the bar area, the floor is littered with wadded up napkins and cigarette butts.

This afternoon we took a bus tour of Madrid. It was kind of lame, because we saw a bunch of the same stuff yesterday, like the Royal Palace and the Prado. We did stop at a bullfighting arena, but couldn’t go in. Also stopped at a statue of Don Quixote. We heard a lot about him on the way to Toledo. I get the feeling this won’t be the last we hear of Don Quixote while in Spain. When the tour was over, we went with Mark and Natalie to this cool indoor botanical garden and got coffee, then went across the street to the Reina Sophia museum. We saw lots of Picasso and Dali there. Saw Picasso’s Guernica.

We ate tapas and pizza with Mark and Natalie at a charming little place with stone walls and servers who tried to understand us and we tried to understand them. Again, drank lots of wine—four bottles among the four of us. Pretty sure I drank far less than my equal share, and for that I’m grateful. We decided to take a bus back to the hotel since we were tired, even though it was probably only a 20-minute walk. We missed our stop, though, and after a really long time on the bus, we ended up getting off at a random subway stop and taking that back toward the hotel—six stops away. Fortunately, Natalie and Mark knew which stop the hotel was closest to, because we didn’t have a map. When we eventually got back, we drank even more wine before heading to bed at around 12:30. Which was too late for still-jet-lagged me, especially considering our wake-up call tomorrow is at 6:45am.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

When we got to the airport, I noticed two things right away: 1) It smelled like cigarettes in the airport. They had a smoking area, but it was wide open to the rest of the room. So different than back home. 2) The toilets were a different shape. More square. Weird.

Took a taxi to our hotel, since we had no idea where we were going. When we got to our room, “Don’t You Want Me” by Human League was playing—loudly—on our arrival. Also the TV welcomed us by name. Awesome.

My first thoughts on being in another country: I’m surprised how many signs are in English. Overall, the cars are much smaller than in the U.S., and they’re all different styles. Wonder why we don’t have these cars. They’re cute. No one seems to stay in the lanes on the streets. It’s like the lanes are more of a suggestion than the rule. I’m feeling very American and lacking in cultural awareness and language skills. It’s hard to be somewhere where you don’t know what things say or what people are saying.

Andrew and I wandered around Madrid all afternoon, since we didn’t meet up with our tour group until 7:00. We took the bus to El Rastro, an outdoor market that sold clothes, hats, scarves, bags—all kinds of stuff. I’m pretty proud of us for figuring out the bus—how to pay, how much to pay, where to get off. I can do subways, no problem, but I find buses much more complicated.

Yes, he is playing the water glasses. Awesome.

We were starving, so we stopped in a little place for café con leche and ham and cheese sandwich and tortilla espanola. Next we walked to the Plaza Mayor, which was very cool. We saw some musicians on the street playing the Pachelbel Canon. Basically we wandered in a big circle. Came upon the royal palace, but couldn’t go in because it was closing soon. The guard suggested we go to the Prado museum because it was free from 5:00 to 8:00 (but it was only 2:00). We took the subway to the museum. So glad we learned the New York subway system.

We paid 6€ each for the Prado, which is not free. It was okay. Liked "The Garden of Earthly Delights." At the museum cafeteria, we got more café con leche. So tasty.

Did someone say jet lag?

Next we walked over to the big park that was right by the Prado. It reminded us of Central Park, because it was just so huge, with lots of walking paths. I thought it would’ve been pretty in the summer. It actually started to snow while we were there, though just flurries. It was quite cold. We saw a monument to Alphonso, whoever that is. There was a lake with lots of koi and lots of people in rowboats, in spite of the cold weather.

We walked back to the Plaza Mayor and El Rastro, not because we wanted to see them again, but because that was where we knew we could catch the bus back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped at a little outdoor market area and bought some pastry that was similar to Boston cream pie. Funny that we’ve come all this way and got something like that. Don’t regret it though—it was delicious. We got off the bus too early, though, and had to walk about five blocks anyway. Did tons of walking today. Maybe five or six miles? Not sure.

We were glad we were wearing our fleeces and coats. Wished I’d gotten out my gloves, though.

We met up with our tour group at 7:00pm. There are only 17 people in our group. We’re the only Americans. I think one other woman has a U.S. passport, but I don’t think she’s been in the U.S. very long. She’s got a very strong accent, not sure where she’s from.

We met a couple from Australia. They’re awesome and very close to our age. Natalie and Mark. We ate dinner with them and really hit it off. We laughed and joked, like we’ve known them forever. They’re very funny and very smart. Mark’s studying medicine (I love how they talk—we’re meeting them for brekky in the morning) and Natalie does logistics for the navy.

Dinner was included with the tour, and we were each allotted one bottle of wine per table. The four of us sat together, and drank our wine pretty quickly. Another table from our group gave us the remaining 1/3 of their bottle of wine, then Mark sweet-talked the waiter into giving us another bottle, then Natalie stole another table’s remaining 2/3 bottle when they left. Plenty of wine was drunk. Fun times. Feel like this is going to be a great trip.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Today was departure day. Nothing too interesting to report. We flew from Kansas City to Newark, then from Newark to Madrid. The flights were fine. Only about 20 minutes delayed, which is practically early in airport land.

Our flight to Madrid was an overnight flight, but I only got about two hours of sleep, despite the sleeping pill I took. Lame.

Did you miss me?

Though I’m sure you were all busy with holiday things, I assume that when your families drove you crazy, you may have turned to the internet for entertainment and blog updates. And you may have noticed my blogging absence. I have been gone for quite some time, but you can stop worrying now. I’m back.

Andrew and I just returned from an amazing European/African adventure. Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Paris . . . And I’m going to tell you all about it. But not today. Today’s post is meant to build suspense over the upcoming vacation posts. Also, I have not yet removed the red eye from the gazillion photos we took.

We were gone for three weeks, so over the next three weeks, I’m going to post once a day. One post for each day of the trip, as if I were still on the trip. Won’t that be fun? It’ll be like you’re traveling with me, except we won’t have to share the bathroom.

How were all of your holidays? To all my friends who were in KC while we were gone: I’m so sorry to have missed you. Christmas just wasn’t the same when we weren’t trying to juggle hanging out with 14 different people all at once. Maybe next year.

A Holiday Hiatus. Starting now. Literally. I really mean it.

Noteworthy Thursday #6

Today is my 27th birthday. And in honor of that, I thought I’d try to find a note for Noteworthy Thursday that was received on my birthday. But because I forgot to get this written and scanned last night, I must hurry through it this morning.

The Birthday Goddesses must be smiling on me, because the first note I saw mentioned my birthday. No, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but the hilarious content of this note makes it worth the change in plans. The best part of this one? It actually only embarrasses me, because I wrote it. Yes, this one is from a shared notebook that “Judy” and I had. We’d write a note, pass it to the other, she’d write, pass it back. You get the idea. We thought we were being all sneaky, you know, so the teachers wouldn’t find out that we were passing notes. I’m sure the stickers and doodles all over the cover and the crazy folded pages inside didn’t give it away.

So about this note. I was apparently working up the nerve to sit by a boy. (A boy who later was my boyfriend for three entire days, I might add.) And I used his real name, too. Ryan, if you’re out there—sorry about that. But a few lines later I express love for another boy. No real name printed here. And I’m not telling. Finally, we get to the part that is the reason I chose this note. I lamely offer some trivia about birthdays. Ta da!

(Was that not the big finish you were hoping for?) (click below for the larger, easier-to-read, in-your-face edition of the note.)

I know what I shall name my firstborn.

My car’s heater has a setting called MAX HOT. Andrew and I find this inexplicably hilarious. That’s all.

"C" is for Cookie

Last weekend I was invited to a Christmas cookie exchange party. I was instructed to bring twelve dozen cookies. Yes, that is 144 cookies. Which, for the mathematically declined, is a LOT of cookies. Since I am such a do-gooder, I decided to document my baking, semi-a la the Pioneer Woman (minus the excellent photography, among other things), to help all of you out there in case you are ever invited to a cookie exchange party.

Because I’m not much of a “baker” and don’t really know anything about “cooking” or “preparing food” or “turning the oven on,” I needed a super simple recipe. A super simple recipe that could be quadrupled (oh, okay fine—doubled). After hours (oh, okay fine—minutes) of searching, I found the perfect (easy) Christmasy cookie: gingersnaps. Everyone on allrecipes.com just seemed to drool over it.

Here are the ingredients. I tried to be a little healthnutty with the garbanzo bean flour and millet flour. And the rapadura. But what you don’t see in this photo are the three other sticks of butter I used. Now that we know what’s in these cookies, let’s get to it.


Soften the butter. This will involve either turning up the damn thermostat already or a quick pop in the microwave.


Add the sugar. See that brown stuff in the bowl? This is not, in fact brown sugar. It’s the rapadura. Tastes like refined, overly processed white sugar, but much better for your body. Or that’s what my mother-in-law will tell you. Except she is much more eloquent about it.


Cream the butter and sugar. And admire one of the lovely bowls my sister-in-law gave us last year.


Add the eggs. Except, add them one at a time and beat after each one. I may have forgotten to add them separately. But who could say for sure? I don’t see any proof. Ahem.


Time for the gooey molasses to go in. Continue with the beating. NOTE: this is the part where the dough will look like real cookie dough, so you may be tempted to stick your finger in and taste a little bit. I don’t recommend attempting this. So not worth it.


Now, in a different bowl, combine your dry ingredients. It looks so pretty before all that fluffy flour goes in there, doesn’t it?

Of course, I forgot to photograph the bowl with the flour in it. But you can take my word for it, it wasn’t nearly as pretty.


Next, slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar/butter/egg/molasses mixture and beat. The photo for this step is kind of hard to see. But keep looking. It’s like those 3D pictures where you sort of have to cross your eyes to see them. For real. And just try to add all the flour without spilling any on the counter. Go on. I dare you.


Now, put the whole thing into the fridge and let it chill for an hour. Or five.


When the dough is done chillin’ like a villain, it’s time to get busy rolling it into little balls. Place them on the cookie sheets—but seriously, place them farther apart than shown here. For the love of god, people, give them some room.

Then, if you are as lucky as me, your cookies will all go flat on the baking sheets, then they’ll get stuck together when you spatula them off. And you’ll end up with one big mass of tasty-yet-unpresentable cookie product. And you may cry a little bit because OMG the cookie exchange party is TOMORROW and you DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS.


Place the mass of cookies on the cooling racks, though why even bother you certainly cannot ever never no way take THESE cookies to the party and you’re going to have the WORST cookies there and why do you always FAIL at these kinds of things and why is your eye twitching like that?


And thirty minutes later, you may be hiding the evidence in the garbage. Trust me, no one at the party will ever know the difference.

Noteworthy Thursday #5

Hello, again, Noteworthy Thursday. I missed you last week. Did you enjoy your turkey?

This might be my favorite note yet. I love how “Ginger” forgot to use my code name at first, and then just sort of half-heartedly scribbled it out. Eh, eff that, she said. Good thing this note did not fall into the wrong hands or the jig would’ve been up. Whew!

Also, interesting spelling of “we.” Classic.