Welcome to Our Blog

As many of you know we will be travelling around the world for a year while JJ is applying to medical school. The purpose of our blog is to document what we have been up to and keep our family and friends informed. We hope you enjoy. Please e-mail us to let us know what you have been up to or with advice or people you may know that we can visit along the way!!!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Home Sweet Home

It has been a long time since we have blogged, but we are back on it again, gearing up for the next leg of our year of travels! We will be heading to Quito, Ecuador on December 25th with plans to work our way down to the edge of the South American Continent. In anticipation of traveling to South America for at least the next two months, here is a brief summary of what we have been up to since we arrived in Los Angeles on Sept. 30th, 2010.

October 2010

We literally got off the plane from Spain and packed up the car to drive to Tucson, Arizona for JJ’s first Med School Interview at the University of Arizona. We took our bikes and went hiking and biking around town, caught up with some friends and then made our way back to LA. JJ took off next to New Orleans for his interview at Tulane and I made my way back to Los Angeles. After the first week in October, we settled in at JJ’s Dad’s house and began to find our stuff, our taste for Trader Joe’s, and dealt with our desires to just be “taken care of”. We are lucky to have family and friends that did just that. JJ continued his interviews at Vermont and one here at UCLA/Drew. Meanwhile, we hiked, surfed, biked, and relaxed. Who wouldn’t love this? We packed up the car once more to head back to Tucson at the end of the month for our friend’s Andy and Wig’s Wedding and to tour the National Parks of Utah for the next 2 weeks in a giant loop. On our way to Tucson, we stopped at Joshua Tree National Park for a day of hiking and car camping. We went all out since we were not backpacking and had the XXL tent, air mattress, camping chairs, marshmallow skewers, 2 stoves, huge cooler, etc. ensemble. We had a great time. The wedding in Tucson was amazing! It was so great to see all of our college friends in one place! Everyone seemed awesome and it was truly a beautiful day in so many ways. We spent Halloween dressed up as Superman and Superwoman, playing in an alumni Frisbee game alongside other superheroes, rockers, and Julia Childs.

November 2010

We made our way from Tucson to the Grand Canyon and spent two nights camping there, checking out other parts of the park we had not seen. We swiftly avoided hitting an ELK head on and enjoyed getting breakfast at the El Tovar Lodge. Next, we drove Northeast to Canyonlands National Park. We did not really know what to expect at this park and were incredibly surprised with the awesome hikes we did, the beauty, and our fantastic campsite. We will definitely be back to Canyonlands for a backpack. We then did the same two day car camping and hiking at Arches NP where the highlight was walking over the rock fins, viewing huge arches, and our makeshift outdoor shower. JJ said Delicate Arch was one of the coolest things he has ever seen, which made me really happy. Next up was Capital Reef NP, where we took an awesome scenic drive, hiked through unbelievable rock formations with every shade or rock color you could imagine, and avoided a crazy storm. After Capital Reef, where we only stayed one night because we did not love the campsite, it was really cold, and a fox tried to harass us, we made our way to Bryce NP. To get to Bryce we drove through a few snowstorms and decided not to camp. We slept in a cozy motel and JJ cooked our dinner in the bathroom on our stove! We enjoyed hiking through Bryce the next two days, battling the cold, and happily made our way to Zion NP where we planned to camp again. After the gorgeous drive, we were craving a hike, so we quickly set up our tent and literally ran up Angels Landing. We were the last ones to get up to the top and enjoy all the views of Zion Canyon. We hiked back with our headlamps on. The next day, we hiked some other parts of the Canyon and reminisced about the backpacking trip we did there a few years ago. All of the hikes we did were really spectacular and we just had a really great time, even though we braved the cold and woke up with frost on our tent a few times! It was a great time to see the National Parks.

After driving back to LA, we made our appearance at Justin’s Mustache Party and then flew to Texas for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We rented a car and drove to Shreveport, Louisiana to be with Julie’s Grandmother, where we enjoyed good food (discovered creole mustard), scrabble, and had a very nice visit. Thanksgiving was a Julie’s Aunt’s house and we had a good time visiting with her cousins, aunts, and uncles. After Thanksgiving dinner and visiting with her second cousins, everyone went out for drinks and dancing. In Houston, we spent the remainder of our time visiting with family and friends, running Memorial Park, and relaxing. Thank you Mom and Dad for making time in Texas wonderful. Jamie, Jessica, Clay, and Nick it was awesome to see ya’ll, cant wait until next time. And – if we didn’t see you this time, lets make a plan for next time we are in Texas!

December 2010

We got back into LA the first week of December and have been enjoying our time. We had several very nice family Chanukah parties, made our way over to our local dive bar (the Barrell), and have spent some time with our friends. We are almost done hiking all 70 miles of the Backbone Trail through the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles (which we began on a crazy idea almost 2 and a half years ago). Right now, we are sitting at the kitchen table on Milaca Place trying to plan out the next two months in South America. We leave on Christmas Day (less than 2 weeks!) and need to get a few more things done, but are happy to have our batteries recharged, and to have been hugged by our family and friends. More updates from Quito in a few weeks!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Barcelona, Spain

We arrived at the apartment were staying at sometime in the mid afternoon, starving! We met Laura, one of our hosts, and headed down the street for some quick sandwiches. After a light nap, we headed out with Laura and her brother, Diego, to a city-wide celebration for the final day of the annual La Merce (patron saint) festival. Now, JJ and I really had a chance to take in the fact that Barcelona was virtually spotless and had traffic lights that people obeyed! There were major boulevards and sidewalks where we could safely act like pedestrians. Egypt really seemed a million miles away. We arrived at a major plaza just in time for fireworks! What a great finale in our last country to visit – the show was very long and spectacular, also complete with the accompanying American music hits that everyone could sing along to. We made our way over to a bar where Diego and Laura’s other roommate, Lucas, worked and learned more about all of these Argentinos living in Barcelona!

The next day, we slept in and then took a long run in the area where we stayed (along Ave. Roma and Ave. Diagnal). We were really impressed with all of the bike lanes and pedestrian friendly boulevards in the middle of the streets. We ran through a park and then made our way back to get cleaned up for lunch and then head out to Gaudi’s famous church, La Sagra Familia. For lunch, the biggest meal of the day in Spain, we ate at a delicious restaurant, called Favorite! We each had wine, first course, second course, and desert! From there, we walked over to the church and learned that construction began at the church in the late 1800s and is planning to continue well past 2020. The church is gigantic and an eyeful. I can honestly say that Gaudi paid attention to all concepts of details in his design and my favorite part were all of the church spires with mosaic fruit and vegetable offerings on top. After circling the church , we made our way down La Rambla and walked all the way to the ocean! We admired the great diversity of the street and made our way through the Gothic area of the city until wandering over to Servidios Catalan Tapas Bar. The restaurant was jam packed at 10pm! We waited about an hour for the table, but kept ourselves busy admiring all of the tapas varieties and deciding what we would order. The decisions were still tough in the end, but the food was delicious! It was only our second time to ever eat tapas, and we were really impressed!

The next day, we went running back along La Rambla and then headed along the Mediterranean until we got to the Marina. The weather was perfect and so were the hoards of old men playing dominoes on card tables with their shirts off. On the Way back towards La Rambla, we made a pit stop to buy a Quechua Tent that pops up in 2 seconds flat. When we were camping through Europe, we saw many Europeans with this tent and decided that if we found it, we had to get one! Next, we boarded the metro and went back to the apartment. We cleaned up and then headed over to the famous Gaudi designed, Park Guell. This enormous park is full of impressive Gaudi buildings and accents. There were fountains, interesting birds, and amazing architecture that seemed like you were walking through a maze of mosaic tiles. Next stop on the metro was the Picasso Museum, although not very large, the museum displays an extensive array of Picasso’s masterpieces. My favorite part was viewing some of his earliest paintings, from the age of 14, when you can really tell he was receiving classical training. The evolution of his paintings and what he was experiencing in his life was very clear from the museum’s layout. JJ and I admired his blue series of paintings and the pottery he painted before his most influential cubist phase in the 1950s. By the end of the museum, Picasso’s sense of abstract reality was so mind warping that we had headaches and decided to call it a night!

The next day there was a massive strike all over Europe. Many of the public workers in Barcelona were striking as well and so JJ and I decided to spend the day walking all over the city, especially exploring the site of the Olympics in 1988. We made it over the Olympic complex, which is also the location of the Parliament house in Barcelona. The hike was up hill, since the whole complex was on a mountainside. We wandered past the huge track and field stadium, and then made our way up the hill to the Barcelona Botanical Gardens. We continued to wander through the gardens, exploring plants from the landscapes of South Africa, Australia, Chile, and other places with a similar Mediterranean climate to Barcelona. After the gardens, we continued walking down the hillside and walked by an enormous set of fountains, a radio tower, and the swimming pool complex before stopping for another full Spanish lunch at a local café. We ate very well and I was thrilled with the amount of fresh fish I could have at every meal (of course JJ enjoyed grubbing down on some meat!). We walked back over to the apartment, making our way through some lovely gardens. After hearing all about the strikes on the news, we opted to have dinner with our hosts. I got to help Lucas prepare a lovely dinner of pasta, homemade mashed potatoes, sautéed veggies, and some nice red wine! Adios y muchas Gracias!

Egypt

After a full day of traveling on buses and negotiating our way from Tel Aviv, we made it to our hostel in Cairo late at night. The next morning we woke up to a true call of prayer from a nearby mosque. The sound booming from the nearby minarets competed with the chaotic symphony of car horns down below. We were immediately met by Zach’s friend (now our friend too J) Nesrine, who whisked us off for a “true Egyptian Breakfast.” Around the corner from our hostel, we went to a typical Egyptian restaurant where we at the best falafel I have had so far, a few different types of egg and cheese dishes, ful ( a refried fava bean paste/stew that is like fuel for your stomach), and lots of great pita. After our huge breakfast, we walked over to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, which meant crossing a few major streets Cairo.

A quick note about crossing the streets in Crazy, Cramped, Congested, You are also Congested, CAIRO! Imagine the advanced level of Frogger or Pacman, except you are actually in the game. There are no lights, no traffic rules, and no police. There are cars everywhere, going in every direction, honking their horns with a passion and vengeance like their life depends on it, paying no attention to the fact that there are cars coming in every direction on a 2 way street that has become 4 or more lanes of traffic. This is actually an understatement of how crazy it really is, but as far as pedestrian crossing rules go, there are none! When you cross the street in Cairo, the best mentality to have is that of a gazelle crossing the River Nile in Sub-Saharan Africa (as I have observed on IMAX films at the science museum and not in person). If you want to survive, you have to cross towards the center of the pack and stay right on the heels of the person in front of you, so that you literally don’t allow any room for problems to occur in front of you. Next, you want to have one hand out arched to your side as a pretend shield/first line of impact/a comfort. As crazy as it was to cross, I was laughing the whole time at the disorder, it was a nervous laugh, but I was laughing.

The Egyptian Museum was just as Zach had originally described, like being in Indiana Jones. There are relics everywhere, in every corner. It is truly amazing and overwhelming. This museum is so big and has so much stuff that if you spent one minute in every exhibit it would take you 9 months to see it all! The stuff we are looking at is between 5000 and 3000 years old (at least). We learned so much background information about Upper and Lower Egypt, the joining on the through areas throughout the dynasties of the kings, the crowns they wore, etc. etc. That was just the first level! On the second level, the museum is concentrated on the artifacts found in the untouched tomb of King Tut. I always knew that Howard Carter found his tomb untouched, and sort of by accident, but I really did not know the importance of the find. Apparently, King Tut was not a very significant king (he only ruled for 10 years and was 19 when he died), but the riches he was buried with seemed to state otherwise. Everything considered one of his personal processions in his life was buried with him in one of his 4 burial chambers. Beds, jewelry, toys, dinnerware, servants (statues of them), etc. etc. were buried in his chambers to accompany him in the afterlife, so just imagine what a really significant Pharaoh’s tomb must have held! Many of the tombs were raided or destroyed so finding one intact was a very special thing. The 3 covers of King Tut’s sarcophagus were exquisite because they were solid gold, covered in jewels and stones. Also, his mummy was contained in about 10 different containers of gold, covered in hieroglyphics. Seeing those side by side was amazing. JJ and I also ventured into the royal mummy room, where we were actually able to see about 10 original mummified bodies of some of the greatest Egyptian Pharaohs in history (Ramses 2, Hashpetut). It was really creepy and awesome at the same time. Seeing the body (with skin pretty intact, though dried out, of someone who was alive 4000 years ago is truly remarkable. After the museum we stopped for some refreshments nearby at a really cool restaurant where the chandeliers were made of green beer bottles. Nesrine ordered some delicious stuffed grape leaves and this Egyptian desert called Oh Mah that she accompanied with a story about its name from Ancient Egypt!

After saying our goodbyes to Nesrine for the evening, we headed back over to the hostel to book the rest of our adventures in Egypt and then for a quick bite. We took a taxi over to Khan al Khalili market. Khan Khalili is chaos in general. The place consists of one mostly pedestrian street with numerous alley ways branching off of it. You will find any souvenir from Egypt that you could even dream up there. No prices are marked and it is understood amongst all people there that bargaining tooth and nail is the only way to do business. JJ and I walked through taking in the sights and sounds, then tried our hand at haggling in Arabic.

The next day, we took a taxi over to Nesrine’s house where she served us an excellent Egyptian breakfast) before we headed over to the pyramids in Giza. Nesrine gave us great advice, had us taste more incredible food, gave us some Turkish coffee, and sent us on our way. We took another taxi over to Giza and on the way some man actually jumped in front of the car, as it was moving at 20 miles/hr. Yes, this really happened. He somehow did not get run over/hit by our driver because they are very fast at breaking in Egypt, he quickly ran around to the driver’s side and spoke some quick Arabic, then jumped into the passenger seat of the taxi to speak with us. Now, immediately JJ and I figured something shady was happening, so we switched to speaking Spanish! The guy was trying to sell JJ and I some weird sounding camel/donkey ride to the pyramids insisting that he would save us money. However, he quickly realized that he would not be able to communicate as well with us in Spanish, so he eventually got out of the car. JJ and I were in shock with the hoards of men we then noticed carrying out this scam on the way to the pyramids. Although, for almost as long as the pyramids have been standing, tourists have been coming to Egypt to see them, probably presented with a variety of the same tourist scams were trying to avoid.

Seeing the first glimpse of the pyramids as we drove up in the taxi was breathtaking. I had to pinch myself to realize I was actually in front of the Great Pyramids. We bought our tickets to go walking around the Giza Plateau and to walk into (crawl into) the tomb inside the largest pyramid, built by/for the Pharaoh Khufu (from the first dynasty of Kings). We spent about an hour walking all around the Giza Plateau, getting close to the Pyramids and then backing away, trying to take in their size. The blocks of limestone they are made up of are really huge, it is almost difficult to imagine how much labor it would have taken to build them. How many slaves it must have taken? How many people must have been involved and lost their lives, just to build tombs? Crazy. We then took turns walking up through the pyramid in the small tunnel that led up to the tomb. I really had a mental battle with my claustrophobia to be able to do this, but JJ convinced me, and once inside the tomb, I observed an extremely hot yoga meditation session happening and got out as fast as possible. I did it and it was definitely worth the once in a life time chance of walking up through the Great Pyramid! The Sphinx was on the edge of the complex and we enjoyed walking up to that as well. My favorite part was its paws, just massive. Before we left the complex, we visited the Solar Boat museum that housed the Pharaoh Khufu’s boat from almost 5000 years ago! Although it was never actually sailed, it was buried next to the pyramid so that the King would be able to use it in the afterlife. I really enjoyed the museum partly because it was air conditioned and partly because the boat was just incredible! It is the oldest assembled boat in the world and it was truly massive. Nesrine said that the ancient Egyptians used to make these boats for the Pharaohs as easy as IKEA furniture to assemble, so the Pharaoh’s would have no problem with putting them together in the afterlife. After gazing and gawking at the Pyramids for the better part of the day, we went back to Nesrine’s “hood” to meet her for dinner. She took us to a local Kosherie restaurant. Kosherie could be considered the national Egyptian dish and is surprisingly made of a combination of sautéed noodles and rices, covered with lentils, a tomato sauce, and topped with thin fried onions, garbanzo beans, and a garlic sauce……mmmmmmmmm!

After dinner, we headed back to our hostel to get ready for our Night Train all the way to Aswan, Egypt. We boarded the train and tried to act like contortionists for the better part of the night. I think a video of us trying to sleep on the train would have been actually funny enough to make some sales. In the morning we started talking to a really nice couple across from us. We compared travel stories and had some good laughs about our adventures and what we were expecting in the less traveled parts of Egypt. When we arrived in Aswan (14 hours later!), we consumed our second portion of Kosherie and were whisked away to board a motor boat to explore Philae Temple. This temple was originally on a different island in the Nile River, but after dams were built, it was covered in water until people petitioned to have all 57,000 pieces carried over to a nearby island and reconstructed! We learned the Ancient Egyptian legend of the temple and admired all of the hieroglyphics. Since this was our first temple visit in upper Egypt we were awestruck that the detail was complete from floor to ceiling.

Later that evening, we boarded a Felucca with plans to spend the night sailing on the Nile. We were soon joined by some Austrian brothers. The felucca was something of a spectacle complete with a pirate captain and crew, Bob Marley/Che Guevara Flags, and dirtiness (even for us!). We had a pleasant sail across the river and back until our “captian” decided to post up for the evening behind the exhaust of some cruise boat so that he could make a beer run. Needless to say, we were not pleased, but thankful for the place to lie down and passed out. We woke up the next morning covered in mosquito bites, but well rested compared to our train ride the night before. From the side of the river where the Felucca had parked, we took a mini bus on our way to Luxor to Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples. Both of these temples were interesting for different reasons, but we did not have a guide for these sites, so we just wandered around and tried to understand what purpose the structures served to the ancient Egyptians. Kom Mombo was the sacred temple of crocodiles and Edfu was a temple of dedication to the Egyptian God Horus. My favorite thing at both of these temples was places where the ancient people wrote down their recipes and charted time. I found their detail really interesting and important for daily functions in ancient times.

Once we arrived in Luxor, we were granted a private guide to see Karnak Temples and Luxor Temple due to the sketchiness of the felucca arrangement. We were very happy with this and our guide for the rest of the afternoon, Peter, was very interested in telling us the history of the East Nile sites, the significance of the hieroglyphics, and answering my many questions. The Karnak Temples compromised a HUGE area in Luxor and were by far the most impressive sight we visited! The columns, detail, and history of this place were enough to make my head spin. By this point, I could really tell the significant difference in writing style, architecture, and story line from the first dynasty of Ancient Egypt up to the third dynasty. One interesting thing at Karnak Temples was the mark of Ramses the 2nd. He was known for stealing monuments that other pharaohs had erected and putting his name on them. A prime example here was a statue of King Tut with Ramses 2nd’s name on it (he had scratched out the original inscription). JJ and I also liked the sacred scarab statue across from the Sacred Late. Legend has it that is you make a wish and walk around the scarab 7 times, your wish will be granted. We had fun racing around the statue until it was time to head to Luxor Temple.

At Luxor, we witnessed more impressive feats of the Ancient Egyptians in the third dynasty. We saw tremendous statues of the Egyptian gods and admired the fact that every year in ancient times a two week festival would be held at Luxor Temple. In the hieroglyphics we could see lots of scenes of the party, from the belly dancers to the food sacrifices. My favorite part of Luxor temple was the innermost shrine, erected by Alexander the Great. The Romans were very wise in their conquest of the Egyptian people and depicted themselves just as the Pharaohs did, as the sons and daughters of the Gods (with the apparent and divine right to rule the people and collect their taxes). So in this area of Luxor Temple, Alexander the Great depicted himself as a pharaoh with the right to have power of over the people from the Gods themselves, earning his place in the hearts of the Egyptian people.

After finding a nearby Kosherie, we went to sleep and woke up again the next morning for our tour of the last four major sights we would see of the West Bank in Luxor. We began at the ruins of Colossi of Memnon, all that remains of the enormous temple is two gigantic statues. Next, we visited the Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir al Bahri). Hatshepsut is the most famous Egyptian queen because she ruled the people with the power of a Pharaoh and also depicted herself like one in hieroglyphics. She sent her step-son off to military school so that she could be in power, and when he returned, he tried to erase her from ever having ruled the people of Egypt. In her own temple, there are many images where she has actually been deleted from the stone with a chisel. Although her own step-son attempted to destroy the temple she built, it was still in fantastic condition and much of the alabaster hieroglyphics still held their original colors (fantastic!). From here, we visited the Valley of the Kings. Instead of building huge pyramids as tombs, the Pharaohs of the third dynasty wised up and had themselves buried in the sides of mountains that resembled pyramids in order to keep their treasures and bodies hidden (this way, they believed their bodies and all of their stuff would make it safely to the afterlife. We entered several of the uncovered Pharaoh’s tombs. Archeologists are constantly excavating this area and finding more and more tombs here. The hieroglyphics and colors of paint were the best preserved in there tombs out of all the sites we visited in Egypt. Words can’t describe the detail of these tombs and what they must have contained before they were sealed. The last sight of the day was Valley of the Queens, which was a little disappointing after the grandeur of the tombs in Valley of the Kings, although the area is less geologically stable.

We headed back to Cairo on another night train and arrived at about 5:30 in the morning. JJ somehow miraculously guided us to the hostel where we slept for a few hours before heading out again. We made our way via metro to Coptic Cairo where we visited the Hanging Church. This church received its name because it was build literally right on top of an ancient Roman fortress, simply over some wood beams. Since this area has recently been heavily excavated, you are now able to see that you are actually on top of a gigantic fortress from inside the church. Next stop was the Ben Ezra synagogue. It was very small, but incredibly well preserved and just sitting inside of it made me feel an overwhelming sense of history. We enjoyed listening to a tour guide nearby and from there, made our way to two historic mosques in Muslim Cairo. The first mosque was erected around 500 AD and JJ and I were just in time to observe the noontime call to prayer. The next mosque, Ibn Tulun, was even older, but had been recently restored. From this mosque we walked past others, many many minarets, and made our way through the backstreets of Muslim Cairo to the Khan al Khalili Market again. For dinner, we made our way over to Nesrine’s home with the only flowers we could find in downtown. Nesrine ordered a feast of seafood and invited over her family who Zach and Jennifer had also met while they were in Cairo a year and a half before. The food was delicious and the company was fantastic. We really enjoyed ourselves in Egypt and we were so thankful for having Nesrine there for suggestions and to show us around.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Israel part deux

After figuring out all almost all of the public transportation available in Tel Aviv, we made our way back from Petra to Michael and Juan’s apartment. We could not believe that we were at Petra in Jordan earlier that day, swam in the Red Sea while passing through Eilat, and then made it to Tel Aviv! When we got back, we met Juan’s older brother, Ale (Alejandro), who immediately nicknamed me Lulu and JJ, Joe Joe. Awesome!

The next day we woke up early and got back on a bus, but this time to Jerusalem. After only one hour, we were at the Old City Gates. We were taken by a nice American guy who rode the bus with us and offered to walk us all the way to the Western Wall (the Kotel). I had been waiting since I was in Israel (my first time) 6 years ago to be at this place with JJ. The best part was being there together. The most difficult part was when we had to go on our separate sides (for men and women). After writing my long note of prayers, squirming my way into the front of the wall, and jamming it into a crack it had already been a half hour and it was time to go meet JJ’s cousin Gavi at the Jewish square. Gavi, JJ, and I began to wander around the Jewish Quarter and then made it out towards Ben Yehuda Street and the Shouk (market in Jerusalem). We wanted to get some Israeli beer so after wandering around, JJ and Gavi made the executive decision to get beers at a mini market and black plastic bags to go over them while we wandered the street (Istrin style!) HA! After a really nice visit, we said our goodbyes. JJ and I walked all the way back through the streets to the Kotel in order to see it lit up at night. What a scene! Since it was so close to Yom Kippur (the holiest day of the year), a ton of people were there! It was like a big party. On the men’s side, many Yeshiva groups in the whole black hat outfits were out and began to form circles to dance and sing. I wish that this would have happened on the women’s side too. The wall looked really beautiful at night and I am very happy we were there together. After a quick dinner we made our way back to Tel Aviv.

The next day we woke up and went on an hour long run along the water. The beaches were gorgeous and the pathway was nice and wide open. We had a great lunch prepared by Michael and then went out as fast as possible to get groceries for dinner before everything shut down for Erev Yom Kippur. We zoomed down the streets of old Yafo, just to find out everything was still open! Yes!!! So, we bought all that we could and began to cook a huge feast. We had a challah we bought in Jerusalem and we made Israeli couscous, roasted veggies, Greek salad, shrimp (the best traife in the world). For dessert, cut up watermelon and cookies! MMMMM!

The day of Yom Kippur, we took it very easy and spent our time reading and reflecting. We went to the beach in the afternoon and took a very long nap. For dinner the 6 of us (me – Lulu, JJ – Joe Joe, Juan, Michael, Ale, and GAGA) went out for a lovely break the fast dinner and got delicious ice cream after! For dinner I had incredible parmesan and garlic gnocchi and for dessert, lemon and mint ice cream! Tomorrow we are heading to Egypt and keeping our fingers crossed that crossing the border is a smooth process. We are so thankful for our gracious hosts and we hope we can return their amazing hospitality! Everyone should come visit their 10 star resort! Until they start to charge hahah!

Jordan

We took a few buses to get to Jordan from Tel Aviv, crossing the Israeli border in Eilat. We made our way via taxi in Jordan from Aquaba to Wadi Rum, to a national preserved area about 100km away. When we reached the village of Wadi Rum, we had many cups of tea with the Bedouin owner and were finally taken by jeep to the Bedouin tents. After crossing beautiful coral colored sands, we arrived just after sunset when the whole place seemed to take on the most intense oranges and pinks I have seen in nature so far, incredible. We were in the middle of nowhere, which happened to be one of the most beautiful places we have visited all trip. After taking about a thousand pictures of the amazing sand dunes and rock formations, we were taken to our own Bedouin tent to put on some warmer clothes. We sat down to more tea and watched the sky turn darker and darker. Eventually, only stars filled the sky and there was absolutely no light pollution, so you were able to see the dusty outline of our own Milky Way Galaxy. While listening to some of the Bedouins at the camp play a lute and sing in Arabic, we both saw our own shooting stars and drank more of the warm, super sweet tea. After a traditional dinner, we spent more time staring at the stars and headed off to sleep. We woke up at 5 in the morning the next day to watch the sun’s rays fill up the sky and turn the landscape lighter and lighter oranges and pinks. We walked along the dunes and observed some camels and animal tracks everywhere! We took the jeep back to the village of Wadi Rum and then hired a taxi to Petra. On the drive, we saw interesting rock landscapes while I got to practice basic greetings and numbers in Arabic.

We arrived in Wadi Musa (the village outside of Petra) at around 11am and quickly made our way to Petra. We bought tickets for the next 2 days and began a 2 hour guided tour through the most significant sights in Petra. From the very beginning, I was mystified by seeing the accomplishments of people 2,500 years ago. The labor that must have been involved in the sandstone and limestone carvings of the ancient Nabataeans is unfathomable. I was so interested in the combination of styles that influenced these people along the trade routes they controlled through the Middle East (like Egyptian Obelisks). We saw hundreds of elaborate tombs that were decorated with symbols from the past. Roman influence was also evident from their takeover, until the trade routes changed and Petra was abandoned. The tour guide had us close our eyes as he led us to The Treasury, which is one of the most famous ruins of Petra. It is actually a gigantic tomb cut and carved into the rock. It was breathtaking to see something cut into rock at such a grand scale. At the end of the tour, we hiked up to the tomb known as The Monastery. The sun was at a perfect angle and really lit the place up. Also, because it was later in the day, there were very few people around. We hiked down and back to our hotel. For dinner, we got some very good falafel, hummus, pita, and cucumber yogurt and of course, more tea. The next morning, we headed back to the Treasury and waited until the sun hit the tomb at the perfect moment to take pictures. Afterwards, we did the hike up to “The Sacred High Ritual Place” and enjoyed the view overlooking Petra. In all directions we saw the ancient tombs and homes carved out of the rock. I tried to imagine what this place would have looked like full of people. On the way down, we hiked past many more interesting tombs and ritual places of the Ancient Nabataeans and even saw some excavations happening. At the very end of the hike we walked past a room that had the most intense rock colors of all. There were dark shades of red, swirled with gray, white, orange, and pink rock. We made it back to the hotel and got some lunch before our taxi ride back to the border with Israel.

Israel part 1

We arrived in Tel Aviv about 1 week ago into the open arms of JJ’s cousin, Michael and his fiancé, Juan. We were so happy to be there, especially because we were supposed to have arrived the day before! Yep, we majorly screwed up and missed our original flight to Israel because of a silly little thing, called a 24 hour clock. In the rest of the world, there is no AM and PM. Only hours listed as 11, 12, 13, 14, etc. So JJ and I looked at the time of our flight at 2:15 and automatically assumed that it was in the afternoon. Well, it wasn’t. Oops! Yes, 2:15 in the morning. Strange time for flying? Apparently not to Israel. So after that blunder and getting many people worried about us, we finally made it!

We made it back to Michael and Juan’s home in Old Yafo, the South part of Tel Aviv, just to be in bed by dawn. But before getting any rest, we met their adorable new puppy, GaGa. She is so cute and sweet and teething! We slept most of the day, until it was time to eat dinner at Michael’s friend, Adi’s home for Erev Rosh Hashanah. We got as squeaky clean as possible and arrived at her mother’s home. There were amazing paintings and sculptures everywhere, all created by our hostess (Adi’s mom), Sarit. We sat down to a beautiful meal, with great conversations, an education about some new traditions, and incredible food! We had many sweet foods for the New Year including fresh dates, sweet salads, and the most delicious honey cake. JJ and I had such a nice time visiting with everyone and getting to know our new friends.

The next day we woke up and went to the beach, which is so close to Michael and Juan’s home! You can see the ocean from their windows and it is really gorgeous! Combined with their amazing hospitality, I am pretty sure this is better than any five star resort. At the beach, we jumped in the refreshing water and took a nice walk. We decided to get some lunch at a seafood restaurant overlooking the beach and had a wonderful meal. My favorite part was all of the Israeli salads that were brought out before the main course. I did not mean to fill up on them, but there were all so different and fantastic! For dinner that night (Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year), we were invited to the home of Michael’s friend Aliza’s sister. This was a huge family feast and after dinner JJ, Juan, Michael, and I joined in with the family children for a new and exciting card game! The game involved calling out words that fell into various random categories as quickly as possible. Because some people playing were faster in Hebrew than English, there were an unidentifiable number of words from 2 languages being yelled out at any moment! We had a blast and the game is really fun and I am definitely going to have to play again soon.

The next day was Shabbat and we had an extremely relaxing day of playing with the puppy and sitting by the pool. That evening, we visited more friends of Michael and Juan and attended 2 very nice parties at amazing apartments in Tel Aviv. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and being able to visit with Michael and Juan even more. The next day, JJ and I ventured out on a long walk to explore Old Yafo. We walked along the sea for a while, admiring this amazing beach path that stretched for miles along the coast of Tel Aviv with its beautiful beaches on the Mediterranean Sea. We stopped to have some falafel and shwarma sandwiches, then to buy groceries for the Cajun Creole dinner we were making that evening.

The next day, JJ and I woke up and headed to Jordan for a quick trip of sightseeing in Petra and a national preserve.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Greece

We flew to the Greek Isle of Santorini late last Wednesday night. We decided to take the long journey to the Cyclade Islands of Greece after many positive recommendations from friends and family. Santorini seemed especially interesting to me because it is a gigantic volcanic caldera. The main capital city, Fira (Thira) sits on the side of the Caldera and the white buildings look like powdered sugar on the top of the caldera cliffs. Waking up the next morning, we found a beautiful ocean view, a gorgeous pink bougainvillea above our tent, and hardly any people! Tourist high season was officially over. We walked into town and got breakfast, consisting of fresh fruit and amazing Greek yogurt! Next, we rented an ATV for four days we had on the island in order to cruise around the different beaches and sunset spots on Santorini at our leisure. We rented our Blue 80 cc ATV and I named it Cookie Monster because of the color and the never-ending grumble it made (just like the cookie monster on Sesame Street). We packed up our beach bag and headed to Perissa/Perivolos Beach at the Southern edge of the island. We arrived to gorgeous blue water, pretty rock outcroppings in the distance, and an endless line up of people laying under umbrellas and lounging on the black sand. We rode past most of the busier places and found and area of the beach we could have our own table, umbrella, and chairs for free with the purchase of a giant beer for 3 euros. SOLD! We spent the rest of the day lounging around the beach, going swimming in the salty, perfect temperature Aegean Sea, and just enjoying paradise. Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the campground and went on a jog by the cable car and on the pathway that leads to the village of Oia (ee-ah) in order to watch the sunset. It was uphill and there were lots of people, but running along the Caldera was breathtaking and the sunset was incredible! We had dinner that night at a place near the edge of town with the fastest waiters I have ever seen. We literally got ushered into the place before we even knew what was going on and the host immediately reached up above his head, pulled down the nearest bougainvillea flowers and said” these flowers are only in Santorini – this is why they are so beautiful”, and handed them to me. I refrained from telling him that the same flowers are in front of almost every residence in Los Angeles because he thought he was so charming and JJ was laughing his head off. We had a nice Greek dinner and enjoyed the running waiters. I ordered the “small fry” off the seafood portion of the menu and was actually very surprised when I received a plate of small fried sardines. Yep, they are a little bigger than anchovies. At first I was surprised, but then I thought – well I ordered this anyways so may as well give it a go. So I can check that one off the list of foods I have tried. We walked around the touristy part of town the rest of the evening and eventually found an amazing Gelato place. I got the flavor called “Italian Cookie” and it was out of the world! We walked back to the campground after dinner and literally passed out with smiles on our faces. So far Greece was everything I hoped it was going to be, except better!

The next day, we decided to get on a schedule for the rest of our time on Santorini. The whole island experience actually reminded me a lot of the week every summer I would get to spend with my grandparents in Florida. We were on a schedule of meals, beach activities, nap times, etc. JJ and I began our day with a home-made greek yogurt parfait that we concocted, then we went on another run on a different part of the Caldera edge. We got back, put on our beach wear and then headed off on “Cookie” to a different beach. The beach we visited on the second day was the very untouristy, Vlyxada (Vlihada) Beach. We arrived on our ATV after stopping at an amazing market where we each got a pair of goggles, a paddle ball set, and a bag of olives for only 4 Euros! We found a great spot with umbrella and chairs right on the beach. This beach had even prettier rock formations from the day before, and less people trying to sell us massages and DVDs than the day before. We had a great day of swimming, playing paddle ball, eating figs, napping, and just enjoying each other. On the way back to Fira, we rode on a gorgeous road of grape vines and pretty hills. Then, Cookie suddenly died. Although, it started right back up. I asked JJ is we should pretend that it didn’t happen, and he thought that was a good idea. The only problem was, it kept happening until about 8 miles from Fira, it would not start up again. We really had nothing to worry about though, there was still an hour left of light and the island is small, everyone has cell phones, and there are no stop lights. We started pushing Cookie up a hill to the nearest gas station. Almost immediately some very nice French people stopped and tried to help us, then a Greek guy about our age, named Costa came out of his house in front of where we stopped and spent a half hour trying to help us. He did not have a phone and we were not getting any luck, so I walked to the market up the road and made a call to the rental place. The rental man could not understand me, so some nice Greek people talked to him on the phone for me, and in 5 minutes he came to pick me up and took me back to JJ. He was able to quickly determine the spark plug needed to be replaced, from Costa’s assessment and we were good to go in about 5 minutes. We were thankful and relieved! At that point, it was getting dark and we were tired, so we went to the store and got all the ingredients to make a delicious Greek salad. We also bought a 6pack of beer for our new friend, Costa and delivered it to him as a thank you for helping us out. He could not believe we came back and at first, he thought Cookie had broken down again. We got back to the campground and made an incredibly large portion of Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, fresh feta, olives, green bell pepper, and tzatziki sauce, tortillas (we could not find pita bread), and said the Shabbat blessings.

The next day, we rode out towards the village of Oia on the North end of Santorini and went on a run after breakfast. Afterwards, we rode out towards the beach, Kamari. JJ and I agree that this was the prettiest beach we visited on Santorini. The water sparkled crystal blue and there were cute little boats bobbing in front of a huge rock out cropping in the distance. The water was the perfect temperature and excellent for swimming around. We made another great day at the beach eating lunch, napping, swimming, and playing paddle ball. We got back in the afternoon and then went to go watch the sunset over the edge of the Caldera. We decided to try the most popular pita/wrap place for dinner and filled ourselves to the brink of exhaustion.

Our last day in Santorini, we packed up the tent and went to the store to buy a different kind of Greek yogurt made from sheep’s milk! We took the bus back to Kamari Beach and spent another perfect day on the beach in almost the exact same spot as the day before. JJ and I took turns taking long swims along the beach and napping before our intensive last games of paddle ball on the island. For dinner, we walked along the Caldera Path to a traditional Greek restaurant on the cliffs called Sparos (the name for one of the ancient parts of Santorini that was separated from the main land when the volcano erupted). JJ had mousaka and I had swordfish. Having wine and watching the sunset was romantic and a great memory I will always have. We cleaned up and said goodbye to Santorini, boarded a ferry boat to Piraus (the city port of Athens) and slept on a fortress of chairs until we arrived in there this morning at the crack of dawn!

We got to our hotel in Athens and then headed straight to Acropolis, only stopping along the way to get Spanokopita and more Greek Yogurt. We walked up the south wall of Acropolis and along the ancient roads, finally summiting the top of the area and arriving at the Parthenon! It was so massive and incredible. The columns were so tall and wide. Each Greek ruin and the history behind all of these places amazed me. JJ and I sat and talked for a long time at the Theatre of Dionysius and I daydreamed about what it would have been like to see a Greek Drama in that spot. We walked on to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, where one of the original massive columns from over three thousand years ago had toppled on its side and you could really see how massive they are! We walked through the National Gardens and through more of the ruins in the Acropolis area, finally arriving at Ancient Agora. We strolled around the ruins, got great views of Acropolis in the late afternoon sun and walked through a museum of ancient relics. My favorite ancient relics where the child’s commode (apparently potty training was also popular in ancient times), the beads and jewelry, the clay pots used for voting, and the gigantic vessels. Last, we stumbled upon the temple of Hephaistus, which turned out to be my favorite of all the Greek ruins. It was almost 5000 years old and in really great condition. The sunlight and the clouds hitting the temple was just so picturesque. We came back to our hotel and had dinner in the neighborhood. There were Greek kids from the neighborhood playing all around the outdoor area by the restaurant, which gave it a really nice ambiance. Our delicious Greek food was a perfect ending to our time here.

Tomorrow we head to Tel Aviv and will be in Israel for about 2 weeks. Love to you all and we hope you had a nice Labor Day!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Austria

Salzburg and Vienna (Wein)

After a brief stint in Adar, the most typical Eastern Europe city I could have ever dreamed of, and many, many trains, we arrived mid-day and went straight to the family run Nord-Sam campground. The change between Eastern Europe and Austria was tremendous, both aesthetically and operationally. We decided to go for a run after setting up our tent. We found a nearby bike bath that led to a park. It has become one of our habits to check out the cool stuff at the children’s playgrounds if there are no children nearby to fight off, so we headed into the park and found this zip-line type swing that was awesome to play around on! We kept running all the way to the Salzach River and almost the city center. The run was beautiful and helped us get acquainted with the city. We passed by many ducks on the way back and played on the zip-line one more time. Later in the afternoon, we took public transportation in to the city center and walked through the main parts of town from the train station. First stop was the Shloss Maribell gardens (scenes from in were in the Sound of Music, in addition to many other places in Salzburg). The sun was at a perfect angle and all of the flowers and sculptures look amazing! The groundskeepers at these gardens were definitely busy and all the elaborate designs of flowers were very well manicured. Next stop was over the Salzach River to “old Salzburg”, where the biggest fortress/castle “Festung Hohensalzburg” in Europe sits on top of a hill. We wandered around this side of town and started to get hungry, so we took a long walk back over to the “new Salzburg” and were rewarded with very good Indian food and lots of Naan bread! On our way back, we noticed that it was very cold outside and put on all of our warm gear that we had with us. This included me wearing gloves and my warm wool hat. However, the temperature did not stop us from getting a cone of gelato for one euro! At first the lady who served us thought I was kidding when I reached out for my ice cream cone with my glove on! We made it back to the tent just before a very hard rain began.

The next day, we rented bikes and spent the entire day exploring more of the city and the surroundings. First we headed out for about a 40 minute ride to the Hellbrun Castle. This is the famous castle with the trick fountains that spray water from weird places sporadically and get people wet. Apparently, the place was built not as a residence, but just as a fun house for the archbishop at the time to get a laugh from. Pretty big place to just get a laugh out of! We biked all around the grounds and the gardens and the size of the place was just very impressive. All over Salzburg, there were huge tracts and parks of public land, although all of the land in this area actually was part of the castle grounds. There was even a zoo there. Next stop, we biked over the famous lake called Leopold where many scenes from the Sound of Music were filled. As soon as we arrived at the lake, a bunch of ducks swam quickly over to us. I guess they were used to people feeding them, but we did not have anything for them. JJ pretended to throw bread and they seemed pretty happy about that until some little kids showed up with some real bread. We followed a path around the lake and over to a very large estate. This estate was also in the Sound of Music and had an interesting history. It was restored by a Jewish man, who fixed up the house and made it a very nice place for people to visit, until right before World War II it was taken from him by the Austrian Government because of his faith. We kept biking back to the city center and around the Residence Platz, the fortress, the famous St. Peter’s cemetery and cathedral, and Motzart Square. Motzart was born in Salzburg and the city is very proud of this fact. There was a huge statue with many bean bags around so that you would be able to sit around, drink some wine, and admire the great Motzart. We had some time before dinner and we were not really hungry yet, so we decided to explore more bike paths. We took one bike path along the Salzach River and rode for a half an hour out of Salzburg with no sign of the train ending! The bike paths in many of the European cities we have visited have been incredible and we were really happy we got to enjoy this one. Also, we were very pleased to have our rain jackets and waterproof pants since it had been raining on and off all day. For dinner, I was really excited because we found a Vietnamese Pho restaurant, and I wanted hot soup! Although, after we ordered I realized that I actually hadn’t ordered soup, but some sort of cold rice noodle dish with veggies. I was bummed for all of about five minutes, because what I ordered was actually really good! The fresh ginger tea to finish off the meal was a nice touch. After we cycled back to the campground and put away the bikes, a torrential downpour began.

Vienna (Wein)

We woke up the next morning and operation try to stay dry, pack up the wet tent, do some laundry, eat some food, and get on the train to Vienna. We made it successfully onto to the train and arrived in a windy, torrential downpour. We somehow able to navigate to the Strawberry Hostel and unpacked our very wet tent, but very dry laundry. We then set up our entire camping situation in the room in order to let everything air out. You just have to laugh at the thought of that. Did the weather stop us from exploring the city? Of course not! So off we went down a main street into the heart of Vienna with our “space people” rain suits, wool caps, and smiles on. Through the rain, 45-50 degree weather and high winds, we prevailed, stopping often to eat ridiculous food that we would have never otherwise had except for the conditions. For example, after passing many impressive government buildings and statues, we wondered past a huge open-air cinema festival in the Residenceplatz. There were food stalls everywhere (and no people) and JJ went straight for the crepe stand. Warm, delicious, and filled with nutella is all I can say. Even though the weather was terrible and we had a very short stay in Vienna, all of the buildings were majestic and the city was immaculate (from what we could see). The main cathedral was amazing, even in the rain! I hope that one day we will be able to visit Vienna again in nice weather. One of my favorite spots in the city was a huge archeological site in the middle of one of the main roundabout areas in the city! We walked and walked and then walked back, eating really good Asian stir fry for dinner. When we arrived back to the hostel, we noticed that the ridiculous arrangement we created worked out and everything was dry! Hallelujah!

This morning we flew to Athens and we are now waiting in the Athen’s airport to catch our connecting flight to Santorini! We will be in Greece for 6 days and then we will go to Israel. I am sure we will have some way of working off all the calories we consumed in Vienna trying to stay warm. Apparently the city of Fira, where we are staying in Santorini is on the top part of the ancient Caldera edge. I sense some intensive stair climbing about to occur. Here we go!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

We are sitting in the Airport in Vienna, waiting for our flight to Greece and I posted the pictures from Budapest and Romania. To view the pictures click on the picture on the right hand side of the blog. Hope everyone is well and you enjoy the pictures, we miss all of you.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Biking in Romania

After visiting so many amazing cities, we decided to go to the mountains of Romania. After doing some research and realizing that there was more to Romania than Dracula, we found a small independent travel company, called Green Mountain Tours. They offered self-guided Mountain Bike tours in the Western Alpusini Mountains of Romania, home stays, etc. So we booked a trip!

Heading from Budapest, we arrived at the Romanian town of Huedin last Sunday. We were whisked away to a neighboring town of Sancraiu, where we went over all of the details of our week long mountain bike trip. It was a lot of information, but very thorough. We were given maps, directions, a list of phrases to use, etc. Then, we were fed a huge and amazing home cooked Romanian meal by the lady of the house. We realized then that the amount of food we were expected to eat would often be ridiculous and we would have to politely decline the wishes of our host to eat everything they gave us. This lady also told us that there was a festival in the town to celebrate St. Stephen that evening because most of the town was of Hungarian origin and fireworks would be on display that night! We lucked out again with the fireworks! So after watching the locals go around on lofts of hay in horse pulled wagons (literally) at around 10pm, we took seats on the balcony of our room and watched a very nice firework display before going to sleep before our big adventure.

The next day, we headed out on the mountain bikes on a journey of about 40 km to the village of Risca. Because we were on mountain bikes, we often took the road less traveled. We began by heading over some farm fields, through a few small villages, and then up over a set of hills and around some farms. We ate lunch, got lost (a pattern that would repeat almost every day) and then made our way around a farm and over a ridge where we could hear the sheep dogs barking and coming for us. We kept going without trouble and finally made our way over some cow pastures. We stopped for another lunch break (we had made many, many sandwiches with the excessive amount of food we were fed) and took time to really enjoy the scenery. Gorgeous! The hills were rolling and green, with farms and haystacks in all directions. Romanian farms in this area of the country are still very traditional. We did not see any plows or tractors and all of the hay is cut with a reaper by hand and then stacked up. The scenery resembled the area of Solvang and San Luis Obispo (Central California) we have loved biking in over the years. We got lost in another town and then finally made it to the place we were supposed to stay with great surprise! From the road in front of a very large and cozy looking farm house, we heard a very loud “Bye, Bye”. We slowed down and took a closer look, seeing a smiling girl about our age and a cute old grandmother piling hay. In the next breath she said something along the lines of “you stay here!” This was getting very funny and only after we realized she was serious, we headed into the farm and did in fact make the connection that Ramona had been expecting us and was surprised because we were coming from the wrong direction. She introduced herself, gave us water, and helped us settle in. After we cleaned up, she and her sister served us an incredible meal! There was everything you could think of and all from their farm! The salad was grown in the garden, the soup was made from their vegetables, the meat JJ was eating was from, well I think you can figure it out by now! Amazing! They made this special blend of vegetables and spices for me also. After visiting with a group of Dutch people who were also staying there, we learned there was a birthday, and offered to sing “Happy Birthday” in Hebrew in exchange for some cake! Great idea, best cake I have had all trip, with fresh whipped cream made from the cow’s milk. After chatting with Ramona more, I asked her if JJ would be able to go assist the grandma to milk the cow after dinner! Of course! Only if we helped bring them into the barn, toured her garden, sampled the apples off the tree, and herded the chickens into their pen. Ramona’s garden was amazing and she was very proud that most of my dinner had been collected from it. Next, JJ was ushered to milk the cow. He thinks that he could have used more practice, because he was afraid of hurting the cow. The scene was hilarious; the grandma was shouting instructions to him in Romanian and I am snapping pictures, while Ramona is laughing her head off! After watching some music videos with Ramona, showing her the blog (she had wifi installed for her “tourists”!), and going over directions for the next day, we went to sleep. In the morning, her mother prepared us the largest breakfast I have ever seen for two people. There were fresh peaches, some sort of sweet corn meal mush, eggs, fried cheese, fresh cheese, meat, etc. etc. We said goodbye to everyone and the grandma said a nice blessing for us to have safe travels. We had a great time in Risca and we hope to go back there one day, especially if we are hungry!

Throughout the day, we traveled down a mountain on an awesome dirt road, and then up and up hill! We biked over a mountain ridge, got accompanied by some boys on bikes, and biked through a forest! The scenery was amazing, even though the biking was very challenging for me. I loved the last stretch when we were on a paved road and I could see a lake peering at me through the pine trees as we coasted downhill. We arrived to the village of Poina Horea and then a little further to the town of Podina, where we met our next hosts, Charles (Carol) and Monica. We learned that they had hosted over 500 tourists over the past five years, but we were their first Americans! They were very happy about this and so were we! We had a great meal that consisted of risotto and amazing wild yellow mushrooms in a paprika sauce (called paprikosh). The next day, we opted to do a hike instead of riding our bikes around. Charles and Monica had gone out and marked their own 5 hour (12 km) hiking trail around the neighboring mountains by their house in the protected forested area (which is still illegally forested). In the forest we found blueberries and raspberries along the way. We hiked up through the forest and onto a meadow where we had 360 degree view of the entire mountain area. The view was amazing and we were really happy we did the hike. A friendly old lady talked to us and we noticed that her hands were stained blue from picking blueberries and she had a gigantic bucket with her! She also had a special tool with wires that allowed her to collect the blueberries more easily as she scooped it across the bushes. We noticed a lot of people also collecting blueberries with the same tool on the way down and found out that they sell them (and the mushrooms they collect) to Italian companies. We had another nice dinner and watermelon for desert! Then, Charles invited us into their home to see the rest of the house, hear stories of how he acquired the land, and to see videos about other parts of Romania we would have to visit some other time. Charles was quite a good videographer, and we enjoyed watching his videos about the Nature Reserve area of Padis in Romania we hope to check out someday, which is famous for gorges, waterfalls, and ice caves. Monica and Charles also had a dog named, Bush, after our former president. He told us when his neighbors heard about this, they named their dog, Bin Laden. Awesome!

The next day, we got water from the fresh bubbling spring by their home and set out for Scrind. The road was gravel and paved most of the way and it was a nice transition back into mountain biking from our break the day before. We saw some very beautiful scenery including meadows, lakes, and valleys. After a very long downhill, we set out on a side trip to see a waterfall, known as the Wedding veil. It was up the road about 6km and was a very nice sight. We headed back to the main road, got some ice cream before arriving at our pension in Scrind, which was more like a hotel than a home stay. We read and relaxed the rest of the day and called it an early night.

On the last day of biking, we were headed back to Sancraui to complete our loop in the Alpusini mountains. We began by following a river upstream and then continuing to climb up a gigantic mountain, although we had no idea until we reached the top and received the great views! We some how got off the main road and ended up walking our biked up the side of an alpine meadow near the top of the mountain. The views were the best all trip and although it was very challenging, the scenery made it worth every second! We finally arrived at the town of Cabana Valdassa and it was downhill from there because we were at the top right by the ski lifts! Before we left, we verified our directions with a nice guy around our age who spoke perfect English (lucky us!) and had a wonderful picnic under a tree. We headed down on the bumpiest, rocky road of all time, only stopping from time to time to pick raspberries and for JJ to change his flat tire in record time. We finally arrived at the bottom and raced through a few of the neighboring towns (in order to avoid the Gypsies who we were warned about by multiple people, but we did not see them because it was probably too hot). The last stretch of the road was very beautiful. We arrived safely back at the guesthouse and were informed that we were smelly, dirty, and needed a shower, which we happily agreed to. After a great dinner and chatting with a very nice Italian couple that were staying there also, we headed to bed.

Now we are on our way to the Romanian city of Arad to catch the night train to Vienna, Austria. From there we will head to Salzberg, Austria! Will write more soon! Hope you are all fantastic! Lots of Love.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Budapest

After getting off the train a few mornings ago and putting our stuff down at a hostel, we walked through what I had thought would have been a very typical Eastern European city. Everything was shutdown; there were very, very few people on the street. There was no clear indication of daily human life. We decided to do a bike tour of Budapest, based solely on the fact that we might actually meet some other “living” people by doing it. Well by this point we realized potentially everyone in Budapest had evaporated, was on vacation, or was somewhere that we should definitely be! After meeting our bike tour guide, Ana, we quickly learned where the coffee was and that it was Hungarian National Day! We could not believe our luck! We have hit so many European national days and now that we knew there were living, breathing people in Budapest! We began our “private” biking tour of Budapest (only private because no one else showed up for the biking tour!) by riding to Heroes square, where we learned the history of the city of Budapest; originally settled by 7 nomadic tribes 1100 years ago, becoming 3 separate cities, and then only in the last 100 years becoming the united city of Buda and Pest (Budapest!). While Ana was explaining Hungarian history, military planes were flying overhead, military music was being played, and there was a processional. Heroes’ square was a giant area in front of the city park, with monuments to all of the most famous heroes, saints, and military leaders in Hungary. We also saw one of the most famous Turkish bathhouses in Budapest with a beautiful exterior building, although due to the gorgeous weather it was packed. After dodging people in the crowded streets, we rode to the opera house and St. Stephen’s Church, the most grand in Hungary. St. Stephen was the first king in Hungary, so the national holiday is to also celebrate him and the city was preparing for the largest mass of the year. From there, we went over to the Danube River and learned some history about the first cable bridge that crossed the river, joining the towns of Buda and Pest. We also heard about the Communist occupancy in Budapest and saw a giant communist sculpture on a hillside above the town, next to the Citadel. We learned the Scottish architect of the bridge claimed that he built the entire thing perfectly and if anyone could prove him otherwise he would jump off it into the river. Apparently, he did have to jump in the river because someone noticed the giant stone lions guarding the bridge on all sides did not have tongues. There were two very clear things we noticed on our Bike tour. First, there was a ton of stuff actually going on for the National Holiday. Second, Budapest is huge and not concentrated in a main city center like many of the other European cities we have been to. There is a large variety of architecture due to the Austrian occupancy for a long time and the strong Russian influence. After putting up the bikes, we decided to go back over the river area and see more of the festivities on foot. The streets were packed with people and there was live music and interesting food everywhere! We first tried some sort of Hungarian sweets that we are still unsure about, but they seemed like chocolate covered pan forte (mix of mashed up dried fruit, nuts, and spices). Delicious! Next, we observed that many people were lined up in front of a truck. This was not just any truck, it was a milk truck! People were lined up around the corner to drink and fill their bottle with fresh milk! I could not believe the people having huge glasses of milk, standing next to people with huge glasses of beer! We decided on some sort of paprika veggie dish for dinner and a corn on the cob. We walked back to our dorm (called a hostel, but really a dorm) and relaxed until fireworks came on later in the night and we walked outside to watch them with the locals from the street around the corner.

The next day, we took the metro into town and headed back to the festivities. But first, we purchased a compass for our upcoming biking trip in Romania! We had a fun time trying to explain what a compass was to the ladies at the outdoors store. We also tried some delicious sandwich type snacks on the way to the folk festival. I had a cucumber-yogurt based spread and JJ had a paprika delight with meat, I think that is what he named it at least. On the way, we made a detour to go look at the Budapest synagogue with Moorish architecture. It was after Shabbat services on Saturday, so it was all closed up, but the size of the structure, the colors, the incredible stonework, iron work, and history behind the synagogue were really impressive. There was a life-size Willow tree of life in one of the courtyards made of steel that was really unique and eye catching. On every leaf of the tree was the name of a Holocaust victim from the Jewish community of Hungary. Also, there were many gravestones in the center courtyard because prior to WWII the area was turned into a Ghetto and the area was used for a cemetery. We were really glad we walked over to the synagogue. When we got to the festival, we were very happy with how many less people there were compared to the day before. We bought tickets to go through the folk festival, which turned out to definitely be the largest folk festival I have ever been to. It took us about four hours to walk through the entire festival. We saw all sorts of crafts, but the majority were: basket weaving, gingerbread painting, the usage of seed beads for necklaces, handmade clothing, leather work, woodworking, iron work, pottery, hand-made toys and my favorite, felt work from local wool. There was so much to see and do, it was literally exhausting! So, doing what we do best, when we were tired we sampled food! The first dish was some sort of Paprika soup with veggies (letcka), next was a green bean casserole type of thing, JJ tried the Hungarian pizza, a slab paprika of chicken, then we tried this dish called Dodolle, which was tiny little potato pancakes with vinegar cabbage coleslaw, beets, and sour cream on top! Are you full yet? We also walked out of the castle a little ways to see a picturesque church on the Buda side of town, called the fisherman’s church because they defended it from destruction at some point. We spent the rest of the evening listening to Polish and Hungarian folk music, eclectic world music that sounded like death metal mixed with Klezmer, and traditional gypsy music. We walked back and fell fast asleep after our long, full day!

We are now on the train to Huedin, Romania, which is on the western side of the Carpathian Mountains. We will be biking for 5 days on the farm roads and through the mountains, watching out for bears, wolves, gypsies, Dracula, and each other! It should be beautiful and we are really excited to stay in the farm houses and spend time in the country side! My hope is that JJ will be able to milk either a cow or goat for the first time in his life! I guess he did not grow up in the South where I received these important life skills! HA! I will write more about the biking trip pronto! Hope you are all doing excellent and we send our love!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Prague

After checking in to the fact that we were in Eastern Europe by the looks and sounds of the trains we rode on to get there, we decided to check into our hotel and get some dinner. The pizza place around the corner was highly recommended and so we ventured out to find the most interesting themed pizza place possible. Oh yes – the theme of the Czech pizza place was… “Native Americans.” All of the pictures on the wall were of chiefs and the pizza’s were named “Big Bear Sunrise, Thundercloud Desert Dream”, etc. I was speechless as I took it all in. We tried to explain to the waitress that we had never been to a pizza place like this and she was actually really surprised by that! I can’t describe to you what a surprise this place was – and the food was pretty good too! We were staying at a hotel called Merlin, and the only “magical” thing about it was that they had a very filling breakfast buffet of cheese, bread, deli meat, and a different random fruit every day. So the next morning, we filled up and head out on another Free Walking Tour. We met in the center of Prague, right next to St. Nicholas Church and the old astronomical clock. We started the tour by learning about the main features of the square and then received a very thorough explanation of the 600 year old clock. Apparently most tourists who come to Prague are very disappointed when they see the clock do its thing every hour from 9am-9pm. Pretty much it has 4 mechanical figures that move their jaws and hands around for about 30 seconds before a rooster at the top yelps out. Well, we did eventually see that show – but the first time we saw the clock we were amazed by it! First of all, it is about 600 years old! It has a separate dial for the phases of the moon, the bohemian numbers, Roman numerals, Saints Days, and just about everything else a clock should have besides a heart monitor. From there, we walked to the Opera house where Mozart actually had an opera performed while he was alive. We headed to get a view of the famous, Wensclas square and then to the Powder Tower, where guns and ammo were once held. We learned about the Jewish quarter of Prague, the Communist Regime, and decided to investigate more history the next day. At the end of the tour, we walked across the river to Prague Castle. It was huge! In the middle is a gothic church with beautiful stained glass windows. We toured the entire castle and enjoyed throwing the Frisbee in some of the Royal gardens. Then on the way down, we sampled a special Czech pastry called Tredlnik. It is a pastry dough heated from the inside out and covered in cinnamon sugar while it is baked on a rotating steel rolling pin above a fire. Amazing! The result is a pastry with a hollow center that tastes unbelievable! We ended up walking past some outdoor stores on our walk back to the center of town from Charles Bridge. They actually had a great selection, although the gear was super expensive. We opted to get out before we began to “need” some fancy gear and we ate dinner at a Prague Brewery known as U Medvidku. JJ had a very traditional Czech dish of meat dumplings and cabbage and I had a strange concoction of Kashka and veggies in a cast iron skillet. While we were finishing up, 3 Czech guys sat down next to us. We had a really nice time talking with them, comparing our cultures, and hearing about what it was like to live in Prague in the present day.

The next day, we walked to a very untouristy part of the city, where there is a giant park and some bars we wanted to try. We walked up to a giant gymnasium sort of building that just screamed “communism”. It was very dilapidated, but seemed strong and mighty, especially compared to the field of weeds growing around it. The Czech people are very focused on ridding themselves of their Communist past and I was surprised this building was even there. We threw the Frisbee in the park and within an hour, someone with an Alaska Ultimate sweatshirt engaged us in conversation. Bryn, had played at Carleton College but was originally from the Los Angeles area and had been living in Prague the last 10 years. We enjoyed chatting with him and meeting his Toy Chihuahua, Maxi. We headed over the bar, U Sadi, only after noticing a giant and pretty ugly Communist era (I hope) radio tower with sculptures of dark colored giant babies crawling on it. Definitely one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. For dinner, I decided to try the Czech potato pancakes, which were actually potato dumplings filled with cheese and fried. Yum! JJ tried the absinth liquor drink after dinner. Green Fairies and a thorough cleansing of our senses is all I have to say about that.

The next day, we packed our bags to take the night train and stored our stuff at the train station. We headed over the Jewish museum of Prague and made a day of seeing the sights. First, we entered a synagogue that was changed into a memorial for all for all of the Czech Jews who perished in the Holocaust (over 75% of the Czech Jewish population). Almost every corner of synagogue was filled with a name. There were so many names and it was so powerful, emotional, and truly upsetting. It was like a slap in a face to see all of those names. Seeing over 100,000 names is a lot more intense than actually saying the number, let me tell you. Next, we saw heart-breaking pictures drawn by children of the Terezin ghetto. Although faced by the evils and horrors of the Nazi’s, the Jews at this ghetto/camp developed a secret curriculum of Jewish studies for the children there. As a part of the curriculum, students were able to draw their feelings. The children drew pictures of everything from a really happy scene with rainbows and arrows pointing to Palestine to really upsetting stuff dealing with death. Most of these children did not survive. Although over four thousand drawings were carefully hidden into suitcases and discovered after the war. I definitely recommend seeing these if you ever come to Prague. From there, we walked through the Jewish cemetery of the Prague Ghetto, used from the mid 15th century to the late 1800s. The tombstones are mostly written in Hebrew, have shifted in position over time, and are very slowly deteriorating. The cemetery is a very special place and as eerie as it was walking through, you can just feel the sense of history and purpose these people had. We entered a few more museums with well preserved Jewish artifacts from Prague and Czech Jews. In one of the synagogues (converted to a museum), there were some of the most detailed and descriptive information charts and artifacts of Jews I have ever seen. The Jewish artifacts were actually placed into a museum in Prague during the early 1900s and then almost left untouched by the Nazi’s because Hitler wanted to keep the Museum to show people what the exterminated race of Jews was like. We all know that did not happen! Not only was I am impressed by the museum, but the vast amount of people who were there to see it from all backgrounds and cultures! There were so many people there and that made me feel very satisfied in a way. Last, JJ and I walked through the Spanish synagogue of Moorish architecture. This is supposed to be the most beautiful synagogue in Europe, although JJ and I think the one in Florence I wrote about is a little more impressive. However, it was absolutely breathtaking, especially all of the geometric patterns incorporating gold paint, Stars of David, and stained glass. Really something I will never forget! So all in all, I am really glad we spent a lot of time exploring the Jewish history of Prague together. It is unbelievable to me that so many atrocities have happened throughout history to the Jews. Although, I am very pleased there is a museum that visually describes these events. JJ and I are so fortunate to live in this time and come from a country where we have Freedom of Religion. We are so thankful for our family members who made sacrifices so that we would have the life that we do.

After throwing the Frisbee around and grabbing some dinner, we boarded to sleeper train to Budapest!