Travelers have a way of being judgmental about other travelers

During my siesta-time internet browsing, I came across this post: Travelers have a way of being judgmental about other travelers. I had to laugh, because Tatyana and I have actually been having a fair amount of conversations about this exact topic. Generally, we're not being that judgmental about other travelers. Just comparing and contrasting.

This morning, I went on a walking tour of Sevilla that was filled with only Rick Steves american tourists. I call them "Stevies." I like Stevies. I'm a Stevie.

-The women from SoCal with $2K cameras and questions about flamenco who thought I was the guide before our real guide arrived.

-The retired people from Spokane in matching purple shirts and head to toe REI gear.

-The couple who was in Spain for a short time and then going on a 16 day cruise back to Houston. The wife was dragging the husband around on tours. He clearly wanted a mai-tai and a texas hold 'em tournament ASAP.

Then, there was the 22 year-old trustfunder on the bus yesterday who was describing how he was spending $10K, yet spending only 24-36 hours in every major european city. Awesome dude.

I've been traveling in a very different way than I have in the past. During a month of travel, I will have only slept in six different cities and two different countries. Last fall, I traveled for just two weeks, and I slept in 3x as many cities and countries. On this trip, we're trying out airbnb.com. Basically, people rent out rooms in their homes for short or extended stays. It is somewhere between couchsurfing (I'm still apprehensive of this) and a real bed and breakfast. The neat thing is that you really get out of the tourist areas and experience how people live. In Barcelona, we stayed in the same neighborhood for six days and never saw a tourist in any of the restaurants and stores we went in to. Here in Sevilla we're staying for an entire week. We're a 45 minute walk (10-15 minutes by metro) from the city center...there isn't a large camera and a backpack within a mile of us. We were happy to leave Granada yesterday when the town got over-run by local holiday weekenders (All Saints Day is tomorrow).

Is our relaxed, local way better? Maybe, but maybe not. I recognize that I have the luxury of 4 weeks of vacation time. If I was only here for the standard two week trip, would I spend all of it in the residential neighborhoods of Sevilla and Barcelona? No, I would hostel hop major cities every 2-3 days and come home exhausted. Would I enjoy cooking my own food from local grocery stores if I normally cooked for a family of 4 at home? No, I would appreciate the over-priced and mediocre paella and gazpacho from the english-language menu at the city center. If I'm honest with myself, I really want to order Dominos right now. I saw one down the street and they deliver on Vespas. Everything has a time and a place. Maybe those giant tour groups blocking all the paths with their with matching orange lanyards and headphones aren't so bad after all.

Travel Reading

I'm currently loving this book. Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. I picked it because it was one of those books that all the professors in business school recommended, but I never actually read. Nobody (not even over-achievers like myself) ever actually does the "optional reading" in the syllabus. That comes six years later when you go on vacation for a month in Spain. I'm not very far into the book, but so far, it appears to be about guys with big egos running their companies into the ground. Wait...wasn't I supposed to be on vacation?

All of my book-related posts will now be from barnes and noble. Since I own one, I need the Nook to out perfrom the Kindle. Also, I am reading said book from here, where I will be living until Monday:

Safely arrived in Sevilla!

I know I'm bragging. It isn't like you have to read this. It's not Facebook.

Se venden dulces

The highlight of my time in Granada was buying treats from nuns. The Alhambra is lame. Not really...but when was the last time that you bought sweets from an adorable 70-year old nun in a convent?!?!?! The Alhambra has been around for years. Only recently have nuns discovered the commercial merits of selling baked goods to tourists!!

A sign saying "Se Venden Dulces" led me up a whitewashed cobblestone street to the relatively unmarked door of a convent.

I wandered in and was faced with a lazy susan -type turnstile and what appeared to be a list of prices, by the kilo.

Luckily, these nuns had written some instructions in English.
1. Press the buzzer to the left
2. Say "Quiero comprar dulces." (I want to buy sweets.)
3. Wait for the nun.
4. Tell the nun how much you want (e.g. medio kilo).

An old, smiling nun poked her head through the turnstile. I ordered my dulces. She disappeared for a moment, and came back with a box of treats. And so, I ended up with six euros worth of delicious sweets!

Granada

Alhambra behind us!

Saw this kid navigating his way around the alhambra today. Love.

If you stand in the exact middle of this palace and talk in a normal voice, it sounds like you are being broadcast over a microphone. But, nobody else can hear you! Tatyana and I stood in the middle and sang "don't stop believin" but none of the 200 tourists in the place could hear us!

View of our barrio, the albazin, from the Alhambra.

I call this "hombre con pan."

Postcards

I think I bought the wrong postage for my first batch of postcards. So, if you were expecting a postcard and don't get one, I'm sorry!

Common topics of conversation on this trip

Behavioral economics
Facebook etiquette
How traveling makes you see America with more meaning
Liquids vs. Gels
Racism
How I look at my watch but the time doesn't register
How we want our bodies to be disposed of upon death
How I want to be the next Lucy
Organ donation
Recreational accounting
The merits of extended stays vs. city hopping
Catalan-cool or annoying?
How our generation is soft
The genius of Leonardo DiCaprio
The merits of being content
The lack of useful U.S. Credit cards in the marketplace
European hairstyles and why flat irons are stupid
Baguettes and things you put in them
Airbnb.com

Granada

Just arrived safely to our hostel in Granada, despite getting on the wrong bus. Looking forward to exploring tomorrow!

Montserrat

Today was excursion day. I went on a day trip to Montserrat, a Catalan monastery about 1.5 hours outside Barcelona. The basilica sits about 2,500 ft high, wedged in some crazy rock formations. There were a few traveling choirs performing while I was there, as well as the monastery's boy's choir, which is the oldest in europe. The mountain offers some pretty amazing views of the valley north of Barcelona and the Pyrenee mountain range.

According to the Catalans, Luke (as in the gospel of Luke) carved this statue of Mary and hid it in a cave. The Catalan monks found it and have managed to keep it from getting destroyed in various wars over the last 800 years.

Nature walk on Montserrat



View from the bottom



Tonight was our last night in Barcelona, so we went back to our favorite tapas place.

Heading to Granada tomorrow! I'm a little nervous because the Alhambra is sold out for the next couple weeks. I'm not looking forward to getting up at 6am to go wait in line for last minute tickets :(

Postres

Day off

Today is my day off. It is Monday, and most museums are closed anyway. Tatyana will be working for the rest of our trip, so I'll have to start entertaining myself. It is raining and thunderstorming--thunder is literally shaking the building as I write-- so I decided to take the day to relax, organize my pictures, and do some laundry. That is actually good, because the laundry machines in this apartment aren't working too well. I've been "doing laundry" for the last 5.5 hours. I've also been eating nutella by the spoonful, drinking wine, trying to make reservations for the Alhambra next weekend (and failing), and "liking" things on Facebook.

I also slept in until 11am. Tomorrow, I intend to get up early and take a day trip to Montserrat, which is outside Barcelona. The weather is supposed to get better tomorrow--sunny with lots of wind. Tonight, assuming that my laundry dries and we don't get struck by lightening, we're going to Casa Mila, which is another example of Gaudi's architecture (also Sagrada Familia). In the meantime, here are some more fun pics from Barcelona:

getting tapas

at montjuic

I found it disturbing that this wasn't a joke to these people. They were totally serious.

awww....look at my failed attempts at taking artsy pictures.

Yesterday, we stumbled across this place, Casa Ricardo, in the Barcaloneta neighborhood for lunch. We had delicious frutas del mer (fruits of the sea - aka fried seafood), and some fried pimentos. In this photo, you see Ricardo in rare form in the background--without a cigarette.

Hoy, Tatyana tienes que trabajar. :(

Misc. videos from my camera

The beginning of the FC Barcelona Game:

Organ music inside the Catalan church of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona:

For the record, I have attended part of a church service every Sunday on this trip. :

Miguel y FC Barcelona

On Saturday night, we decided to go to a soccer game in Barcelona. FC Barcelona was playing against Sevilla, which was supposed to be a good match up. We bought jerseys and sweatshirts early in the day to wear to the game that night. There weren't any tickets available online, and the tickets at the tourist booths seemed expensive. A random guy at our hostel in Nice had just come from Barcelona, and told me about how he had bought tickets from a scalper the week before. Our Lonely Planet guide book made it sound pretty simple ( I don't think Rick Steves recommended purchasing things from scalpers.) All we had to do was find a club member (i.e. season ticket holder) and negotiate a price--don't pay until they take you in to your seats.

On our way to the stadium, we met these crazy drunk Czech guys in the metro. In other words, they made us be their friends for the train ride. One guy made us write a postcard to his grandmother.

We finally got to the game. At the entrance to the stadium, we made it known to one guy that we were looking for tickets. Within 30 seconds, we were swarmed by shady-looking scalpers trying to sell us tickets. Suddenly, an old man appeared to our left. "You buy from me," he said. We continued stand in circle of scalpers, looking lost and confused. "You buy from me," he said again. "Trienta y cinco euros." We weren't quite sure if this old man was actually a nice old man, or just pretending to be one. However, 35 euros to the nice-looking old man was less of a risk than 65 euros to the guys I wouldn't want to meet on a deserted street.

We made the right choice, and let our new friend, Miguel, lead us into the game. Miguel's extra tickets belonged to his two sons, who were a couple years older than us. One of his sons lived in London. The other was married with a couple kids, one of which had been adopted from Mozambique. Once we got to our seats, Miguel handed us FC Barcelona hats and scarves that looked about 25 years old, and made us put them on.



The game was great! FC Barcelona is supposed to be the best team in the world right now, but I was actually more impressed with Sevilla's defense, which held them to a tie. Like many soccer games, it didn't get that interesting until the last 3 minutes. Messi (hailed as one of the best players in the world) was taking a penalty kick in the 90th minute, and the score was 0-0. One of the Sevilla players strolled over in front of him and gently kicked the ball away from him. This resulted in a fistfight and a red card for the Sevilla player. The girl sitting in front of us, who had smoked at least 5 cigarettes during the game, unleashed a very long string of Catalan (spanish is the second language here) profanities. It was hilarious. I think Sevilla is going to be my second favorite team. Messi missed the penalty kick.



All thanks to our new friend Miguel, we had a great time at the game. He even led us back to our metro stop afterwards. This was much appreciated, since we were in a crowd of about 85,000. During the game, the crowd was surprisingly tame. Everyone was seated, and nobody was drinking (except those Czech guys). There was plenty of chanting and singing, but overall, the crowd was pretty normal -- not what I expected from my first European soccer experience.

Dear Paris crowne plaza, thank you for these frankincense sleep aids. *cue: "we three kings of orient are.."

Water

Today I learned that you shouldn't drink the water in Barcelona. Of course, I learned this after I got sick and tried to cure myself by pounding a fee bottles of tap water.

Sisters! at my cousin's wedding in sept.

Comida!

Hola gato, en mi ventana.

God bless America.

I've always said that Thomas Jefferson was my favorite founding father. But here is G-dub, giving me a reason to change my mind.  

Story from NPR

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/10/22/141589394/drinking-whiskey-in-the-spirit-of-george-washington?sc=17&f=1001

Drinking Whiskey In The Spirit Of George Washington
by Allison Aubrey

- October 22, 2011

Virginians have always enjoyed their liquor. And for much of the 18th century, their preferred drink was rum. But when war and tariffs made imported rum hard to come by, George Washington saw an opportunity. Why not make liquor out of grains he was growing on his farms?

"He was a businessman and he was a very, very successful one," says Dennis Pogue, the director of preservation programs at Mount Vernon.

By 1799 Washington's distillery was the single most profitable part of his plantation. He couldn't make enough whiskey to meet demand, Pogue says. Now the distillery has been restored, and I got a chance to see what Washington's rye whiskey probably tasted like.

Continue Reading

"This is the first bottle we've opened for tasting. So, yes, this is an important day," he says.

Pogue has invited me and a few dozen other guests to the distillery for a preview of the first aged rye whiskey to come out of Mount Vernon since the distillery was rebuilt and reopened.

It's like being in a dark, cavernous barn. And there are the distinctive smells of smoke and fermentation. The distillers are hard at work, and the grain they're using to make whiskey is cooking or steaming in a boiler the size of a bath tub.

"You're essentially cooking the grain, and so you're turning the starch in grain to sugar," Pogue says.

"And so the idea is to take it, put it in the still," he says. "After it's distilled, the alcohol increases considerably and the water is reduced."

When you distill down to 140 proof, or 70 percent alcohol, it doesn't take many sips to start feeling a little woozy. And for a crowd like this one — made up of journalists, whiskey devotees and history buffs — the opportunity to taste whiskey straight from George Washington's distillery, well, you would have thought they were channeling the man himself.

"Standing exactly where he stood ... see old books, ledgers and the stills — as they would have been here the exact same say," says Tim Welly, who's overseeing the creation of a grain-to-glass distillery in the Hudson Valley. "It's beyond something special; it's recreating history."

"[Taste] is a true mark of a distiller," he says. "Two years in the barrel takes off rough edges and showcases how beautiful a product you can make."

But there is some uncomfortable history here. In Washington's day, the hard work of making whiskey fell to six slaves.

It's a fact of history that Pogue says he would never paper over. Washington was a man of his time. And the whiskey we're drinking is made to his exact recipe.

"It's 60 percent rye, 30 percent corn and 5 percent malted barley," he says. "I think he was a neat guy, so I think he's drinking it neat. Straight? Straight!"

If you'd like to try the whiskey, you've got to make a trip to Mount Vernon. There are only 300 bottles available — at a $185 a pop.

Preservationists at Mount Vernon, with the help of the Distilled Sprits Council, have restored George Washington's rye whiskey distillery. Aged rye whiskey made to The Founding Father's specifications is now available — for a price.

Preservationists at Mount Vernon, with the help of the Distilled Sprits Council, have restored George Washington's rye whiskey distillery. Aged rye whiskey made to The Founding Father's specifications is now available — for a price. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]

To learn more about the NPR iPhone app, go to http://iphone.npr.org/recommendnprnews

Barcelona

Inside gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Probably one of the most interesting churches I've been to in Europe. It is still under construction.



At Parc Guell in Barcelona. Gaudi originally designed it as a high-end residential development. It failed when funding ran out. History repeats itself. Today, it is a beautiful public park.



Nuestras comidas. We assembled our dinner tonight from local businesses. The carniceria sold us some delicious jamon serrado. When we asked in broken espanol about how to get oil and tomato spread for our pan, a traditional catalan dish, the proprietors proceeded to give us oil and salt in makeshift containers to take with us, and they sent us to local tienda to get the tomatoes that we needed. We'll definitely be going back!

Sleep!

The universe is conspiring to keep us asleep. We inteded to to to la sagrada familia this morning at 9am, when it opened. The alarm didn't go off, so we didn't get up until 11:15. This seems to be a developing trend.

Barcelona

We had a great day sight-seeing in Barcelona! However, after an overnight bus ride, a lot of walking, and a cold that still hasn't gone away, I'm feeling pretty tired. We are heading to dinner soon--hoping to get some good paella near our neighborhood.

So far, our host's apartment has been one of the cleanest places I've ever stayed in my life. It is great. We're hoping to catch the barcelona-Sevilla soccer match on Saturday night. Tomorrow, we are going to get up relatively early and go some museums!

Barcelona

Just checked into our new home in Barcelona for the next few days! Our host seems awesome so far. We are just a few blocks from sagrada familia, and a 15 minute bus or train ride from the beach.

Our overnight bus was about as enjoyable as you could expect, but it got in 2 hours early.

Travel reading

Just finished reading "something borrowed." as expected, I am now slightly dumber for it. Moving on to some sort of business-ey book now, buy let's be honest. I'm pretty sure I'll read the sequel, "something blue" also.

Evening at the hostel

Crepes

Last day in nice

Enjoying some crepes and beach time before an overnight bus to Barcelona.

Monaco

Headed to Monaco for the afternoon!  Another late start for the day....

Nice is nice

on the boardwalk on our first day in Nice

painting from the Chagall museum

local french people playing their version of bocce ball

senior photo in an olive grove

the people of Nice

Tried anchovies today!

Chagall

Just finished touring the Chagall museum in Nice. Enjoying a glass of rose before heading to the Matisse museum!

Nice

We safely arrived in Nice last night and checked into our hostel. Our train crashed into something on the way. Not sure what, but we were stopped for awhile while they figured it out. I've had a cold since last Tuesday, so that hasn't been super fun, but oh well. Tatyana and I have been doing an excellent job of sleeping in late. Today, we didn't wake up until 10:30, but in our defense, we didn't even check into our room until around 2:30am last night. Today we're going to do some exploring and hopefully plan the next few days of our trip!

Paris

Eiffel Tower



Notre Dame. We were here on Sunday, so we actually ended up wandering in there at the end of mass. It was really cool to see the church in action!



Toyota seems to think this is the future of transportation. I think the future of transportation vaguely resembles a Pterodactyl.



This is what an abercrombie & fitch store looks like in Paris. It isn't even marked. There were approximately 6 preppy guys standing by this ornate gate, controlling a line of roughly 200 people that went halfway down the block. The store was through this gate and garden. You couldn’t even see the store from the street. Very bizzare. We wanted to go in to see exactly what they were doing in there, but then we decided that we weren’t about to wait an hour just to go inside an Abercrombie. Apparently, French people don’t know that in the U.S. Abercrombie is lame unless you’re 13. I don’t even know if it cool for 13 year olds anymore.

Au revoir Paris!

Great day in Paris! Headed to Nice tonight!

Paris

Safely arrived at our hotel in Paris! God bless the priority club! After a nap, we are ready to head out for the evening!

Things I did on the plane:

Things I did on the plane:

Stayed awake.
Read "the art of nonconformity."
Was not disrupted by children!
Watched Bridesmaids.
Watched an episode of modern family and how I met your mother.
Started reading "something borrowed."
Learned that I like rice pudding.
Got up numerous times to let the person next to me out.
Wondered where she disappeared to for the middle 4 hours of the flight.
Wondered why she didn't eat any of the meals.
Decided that she was sneaking into first class.
Smelled cheezits.
Developed a craving for cheezits that I will have to wait a month to satisfy.

Safely arrived at the Paris airport!

The annoyance begins...

Dear air France, if you are going to impose weight restrictions on carry on baggage, I suggest that you also impose weight restrictions on passengers.

One bag, one month, two countries

I didn't really think that I was going to be able to make it happen. Although, if you count my "personal item," I'm actually bringing two bags. The only thing that makes this difficult is the liquids and gels restrictions. Its really the gels. Who carries liquids? Anyway, It is probably time to learn the spanish words for shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste.

Jenni con gato

I guess I really need that vacation

Tonight around 9pm, I discovered that I couldn't find my camera. This happens occasionally, but I'm leaving for vacation in a week. I couldn't really afford to wait a few days for my misplaced camera to show up. I had just used the camera a few days ago inside said house, so it really had to be here.

I spent the next two hours tearing the house apart. I looked in all my coats, all my empty purses, and literally every drawer in the house. I convinced myself that my roommate was responsible for moving it out of sight and considered sending some accusatory text messages. I looked in the couch cushions, the refrigerator, and the bathroom cupboards. I was now considering the possibility that someone had come into the house and stolen the camera off the coffee table, yet left everything else untouched. Maybe it fell out of my purse in the car. I put on my headlamp and headed out into the rainy street to search my car. No camera, but I did find a nalgene that I thought I had left in a national forest. It is now approaching 11pm. I do one last check of my room. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm just going to have to buy a new camera before I go on my trip. I'll go to bed, and just try not to worry about it for now. I add "find camera" to my list of things to do before I leave on my trip, and brush my teeth.

Of course, as I pulled back the covers of the bed that I had actually made for once, I was greeted by my camera, sleeping peacefully in between my sheets.

Two weeks