Prague 2 - and a little travel fatigue

 

These past few days in Prague have been interesting. We’ve been enjoying being at home and doing domestic stuff: cooking, washing clothes, sending couch requests for Budapest, battling the new bank fees over the phone for hours… that is, until the washer decided to steal our clothes!! Today was the first warm day in Prague, so we got our clothes in the washer early in the morning, perfect for hanging them to dry before we left for the day. Except, that the washer wouldn’t open!! It’s one of those with the door on the front, so it locks the door so water won’t spill out. So, it finished washing, we waited a while and it would not open!! We fiddled with the buttons, it ended up re-washing the clothes, and finally we left for the day. Came back, and still locked! Our hosts won’t be back for a couple of days, and I was picturing myself traveling to Budapest with a pack full of wet clothes. And finally Alex turned the power off, and after waiting a few minutes, it finally gave up!

That’s one example of what we’re thinking of as foreigner fatigue. Little things get so complicated. The transit system here is excellent. The only problem is where to buy tickets. You don’t buy them on the bus or tram, you have to have them with you when you board. You might be able to get them at the pulperia (corner store) if they’re open. Or, SOME stops have a yellow machine that sells them. Very convenient, except that they don’t take cards OR bills! Only coins! So, today we went to a new stop, and could not find the yellow machine. Alex ended up going all the way down into a metro station, and hunting around for a place to buy tickets while I waited. After he came back we saw the yellow machine INSIDE a building next o the stop! In the meantime, we missed our tram.

Oh, another foreign favorite: since we can’t read the words on the food packages, we have to guess what things are. We’ve been getting used to that. Today at the grocery store, I wanted to buy cream, but the little cup had a drawing that looked like sour cream (natilla). So I put it up by my ear, to shake it and hear if it was liquid. Well, someone had poked a hole in that particular cup, and I ended up covered in cream, including my camera. Fun times.

So, we are getting a lot of practice at exercising our tolerance for frustration. It is definitely good practice at trying to let go of things that are annoying, but after a while it takes its toll. Particularly when it’s the 20^th frustrating thing in a day, your feet hurt, you’re hungry, you haven’t peed because the public bathroom costs money and the groceries are getting heavy.

We’re starting to get a little homesick, thinking of all the things we love doing at home, mostly having you guys visit, and feeding you!! So, we’re thinking about you and hoping you’re having fun.

Other than the frustrating things, yesterday we had a lovely day. We took the whole day to rest, which meant staying at home and doing digital work. In the evening we went to a restaurant we watched on the Anthony Bourdain show. The main course was disappointing, but the side dishes were great, the beer was good, and I got to try a soda that had cardamom flavor! Alex went crazy with the sauerkraut pancakes.

 

Right after that we went to see Don Giovanni!! My mom had been to a marionette show when she was in Prague, and we didn’t want to miss out. It was wonderful. We got to enjoy the music, but the performance was so entertaining! They had a Mozart marionette who conducted the music, and got a little drunk… the way they handled the marionettes was amazing, and the puppeteers even got into the show a little! Sometimes they would let their hands hang down, or their hands would fight with a puppet. They even had rain! Actual water!! Beautiful effects, including blowing bubbles for the bath scene. It was funny, charming, sweet, and technically impressive. We had SUCH a great time. I wished you guys could have been there.

 

 

The day before, we went to Cesky Krumlov, a little town about 3 hours away. One of the newest houses in the town was built in the 17^th century!!

Beautiful, old, winding little streets. Incredibly touristy, though. The town itself is about 6 blocks, so it’s easy to get around.

We walked around the town, looking for a ceramic store that my mom had bought me some beautiful pieces at many years ago. We looked at a lot of different stores, which all seemed to have the same things. My brother had remembered the area where the store was, but we could not find it at all. We did find a store that carried almost only ceramics, and had some beautiful, different stuff. I think that might have been the store they went into, but the particular artist I had loved might not be selling there anymore. Maybe. But we enjoyed looking, and they let me take pictures!

We stopped by the river so Alex could have a mug of warm mead (honey wine), that smelled incredible. It was great even getting to see inside the house! I’m amazed they have a working restaurant in such a tiny awkward space.

The castle is very pretty with a beautiful tower.

They do a neat thing, which is to draw/paint the blocks on the wall. So it looks really impressive, but the blocks are fake!

As we were walking around, we saw an open door into the cellars. Since it was an art exhibit, we paid to get in. we didn’t care about the art, but getting to see the cellars was pretty incredible. Old stones, tiny archways and halls, crazy dungeons that went up and down, and then brought you back where you started! Our favorite part of the castle, by far.

 

The day before that, we had gone to see the very famous Prague castle. What we knew was that it was built in the 9^th century!!! And that it is the largest medieval castle in the world. With that information, we expected something pretty incredible. It turns out, that the only really old part is the cathedral inside the castle, which is pretty amazing, that’s what you see in the pictures. So remember where in the lat post we had found ourselves in front of the castle without realizing it? It’s because it doesn’t look like a castle at all!!! It turns out that it’s just the cathedral, surrounded by some new-looking buildings on all sides!! New compared to the church, they might still be 500 years old, but they just look like all the other buildings around the city, even less pretty!

 

So, we had set aside 2 days to see the castle, and we were out of there within 90 minutes. We walked down the hill, and found some nice gardens that we enjoyed a lot more.

 

Today we went to Vysehrad, the place known for incredible views, except… we couldn’t find them! We kept running into walls and trees, most of the views were totally blocked, and finally, we found a couple of spots where we could see some parts of the city. We did have a lovely picnic and enjoyed the sunshine, but we were disappointed that we didn’t see the panorama we were looking for. Then to a couple more dead ends, and now we prepare for our last days in Prague. Tomorrow we head out to see the church that is decorated with human bones!!

Prague – Part I

Guest post!!  This is Jimena writing instead of Alex

Yet again, we almost missed the flight from Barcelona. There was no actual running this time, but we showed up at the airport with very little time. Maybe next time we’ll be better at figuring out how long it takes to get to the airport.

After getting off the plane, we took a bus, a metro and a streetcar to get to our new hosts. So, almost every kind of transportation!

We finally figured out the bank issues. Before, we were changing cash dollars at the cash exchange places, and it was a huuuuuge pain. In Barcelona, we waited in line at the airport about 40 minutes to change into Euros. Later when we went to a bank to change money, we tried to change $40 into Euros, and they were going to charge a 5Euro commission without telling us!! That would have been like a 25% commission!!

So, finally, we have an ATM card that does not charge a fee, so we walked up to the machine, took out some money in Czech crowns and headed off to the bus!!

This is particularly wonderful because a LOT of tourists get scammed in Prague changing money, they put in a lot of extra fees ad change the rate without telling you.

On another bit of logistics, this is the first country where we don’t speak the language!! It’s quite an experience!

Trying to get “home” from the airport, we couldn’t figure out if we needed the tram going south or north, and we COULD NOT ASK! Very humbling. Thankfully we had the name of the stop written on paper so we walked up to a police officer, pointed at the paper, and made the international face of “I’m dumb, can you help?” He was very sweet and pointed at the right stop. Right there, we figured out that we need to have things written down, because we can’t even pronounce them.

We’ve been having a great time in Prague.

Our hosts, Asia (pronounced like AH-shah, not like AY-zha) and Adam have been great. They are really laid back, and have taken us to a couple of really cool bars. We got to try some great Czech food, meat with a sauce, and bread. Yummmm

It turned out that they could only host us for 2 nights (we’re here for 10), because they are traveling to Portugal this weekend. When they met us, they felt comfortable enough to allow us to stay in their apartment without them!! That is SO incredible!! It is wonderful that we don’t need to look for other hosts, or hostels, but the part that feels the best is that we won’t have to move for 10 whole days!! We’ve been changing “home” almost every 2-3 days, and it’s pretty exhausting to learn a new address, and lose half a day each time packing up all our stuff and carrying the heavy packs to the other side of the city this feels like a great luxury.

On our first full day in town, we went on a great tour of the city. We went to the main touristy plaza, Old Town Square, and met up with the guides that offer tours for tips.

We started out with the English tour, but the guide was pretty obnoxious, so we switched to the Spanish tour! Alex is still getting language practice, but understood most of it.

We had a great time with the guide, he was very knowledgeable, and told some great stories. I don’t usually like guided tours, but this was pretty great. We walked around for about 3.5 hours, and got to hear some great stories about some of the most important sites in old town. Maybe I do like tours after all!!

At the end of the day we came home, and went for a great beer with Adam and Asia.

Yesterday we headed out to walk the outskirts of the castle. We started in a little neighborhood called Mala Strana, and got to see some pretty streets. Most importantly, I found a lot of ceramic shops!! And some of them even let me take pictures!! Lots of new techniques to try out.

The sun came out, and I even got to take my sweater off!

We took a funicular up the hill into a pretty park called Petrin. Walked around, enjoyed the flowers that were being enjoyed by the bees, and walked over to the “miniature Eiffel tower”. Alex went up and enjoyed the view (I was not climbing 299 steps, but he was all gung ho… at least on the way up). Later we went to a cool mirror maze. Even though it was pretty short (you could get out in about 3 minutes) it was pretty neat! It made the room look huuuuuuuuuuuuuge, like a never-ending hall, even though it was small.

We walked down the park, feeling a little lost, and came out at a monastery. We were told that we’d come down the hill behind the castle, having great views of it, but we couldn’t see a thing! Tired, and hungry, we stopped at a store and bought salami and bread with exactly the LAST of our cash. Still walking around, still lost, not finding the things the guidebook promised, after a long while we found a nice park with a bench, and sat to eat our sandwiches. In front of us was a big gate, but really, in Europe, we’re just used to seeing fancy old buildings everywhere. Some fancy carriages riding around with horses, a guy playing one of my favorite tunes on a violin and it was a great travel moment. Then they started doing something at the gate, and it turns out we were staring at the entrance to the castle! And we got to see them changing the guards!!

As soon as we finished eating, the rain started. So, we took a look at the castle entrance, an headed off walking down the hill, on a pretty street. Headed home for some rest and quiet. And picture editing!!

And now, off to have some brunch with Asia, some castle touring, and a beer with another couchsurfer in the evening. Lovely!!

For the full set of photos from Prague – Part I, see here: http://alexjimenartw.shutterfly.com/pictures/569

Barcelona, land of spectacular views, and of Gaudí

 

For us, there’s no other way to put it; Barcelona was FAN-fucking-TASTIC!  So much so, that we didn’t have time to write ANYthing while we were still in the country.  Pictures will come at the end of this post, I promise.  First thing’s first, though;  I must talk a little bit about CouchSurfing.

When you visit a new city using Couchsurfing, your primary goal is to try to make some sort of connection with somebody local.  In most cases, you hope that at least you have a few things in common, and that you get along well, and maybe get to share a few stories, and learn a few tips about the local scene.  Overall, if you search well for a match, you will most likely end up with a positive and unique experience that teaches you more about the city or country than you ever would have doing things on your own.  This has been our exact experience so far.  In London, our hosts, Martin and Ginette, took us to local pubs, showed us where to find good fish and chips, and told us about a neat little Canal Boat Festival that we’d have never known about.  And two out of our three hosts in Barcelona did much the same.  They gave us tips, helped us learn how to use the local transit system, and showed us where to find local shops and restaurants.

But with one of our hosts in Barcelona, a couple named Juan & Miguel Angel, we made such a spectacular connection that we feel like we will be friends for life!  We INSISTED that they come to visit us in Costa Rica at their earliest opportunity.  We think that will be within the next 3 years, as Miguel is finishing up a medical residency.  We enjoyed them and clicked with them so much, and so quickly, that even though we only stayed with them for 3 nights, we ended up meeting up again our last night there, just to hang out and see some sights together.  We finished off our Barcelona adventure together, traipsing through the streets of Barcelona, looking for some late-night tapas to cap off our evening of watching the amazing lights and water show at the Magic Fountain in Placa d’Espanya (we eventually found a place with tables out in the open air, and it was great).   Juan & Miguel Angel were warm, compassionate, inviting, inquisitive and funny.  In short, when one imagines the ideal couchsurfing experience, our visit with these guys pretty well defines it.

Aside from really enjoying the people there, though, we also found the sites, and even the air, to be thoroughly enticing.  First off, the air… especially after leaving London, where it was COLD (COLD, goddammit!) and wet, our bodies just melted and relaxed happily when we got off the plane in Spain (which lies mainly out of the rain) and felt the WARM, dry air.

More than that, though, the feel of the place, once we got into the city, just felt RIGHT.  We stayed at first in an area called Barceloneta, right on the waterfront.  In getting there, we just absorbed the city.  The buildings, the warm colors, the ocean and the cool breeze coming off of it, the architecture… all of these sights combined to give the place a light, summery feel that told us that it was not only time to un-layer, but also time to un-wind a bit.  Barcelona is also decidedly cheaper than London in general.

We spent about 4 or 5 hours each day wandering the city in different areas.  Barcelona is definitely a walking-friendly city, despite the hills.  Our first trip was just to visit a few neighborhoods and see some Art Nouveau buildings from the outside, and decide if we wanted to come back later.  Since Barcelona is the world capital of Art Nouveau (Modernismo), and also the home of Gaudí, there were plenty places to choose from!  Our two favorites this day were Casa Mila and Casa Batllo.  At around 15 Euros each for a tour, even with a student discount, we weren’t going to do both.  We took pictures from the outside, though, and from that alone, the choice was clear.  Casa Batllo it was!

Holy Christ on a Cracker, that building is weird and neat!  Apparently, on that same block, three different modernismo architects were commissioned to design buildings, as a sort of a show-case for the style.  I don’t remember if it was a competition or not, but in any case, Gaudí wins, hands down!  It’s so COMPLETELY, and VASTLY unique, it just blows you away.  The other buildings are well-done, don’t get me wrong.  But they look like they same TYPE of thing you might see in any old city, in the richer neighborhood.  Casa Batllo, on the other hand, looks like an alien vessel.  It’s full of extreme, flowing curves designed to simultaneously evoke thoughts of water and water creatures and at the same time, thoughts of skeletons and dragons, with the roof-line itself evoking the spine of a large dragon, which caps off the building. 

And rather than just being a simple façade, Gaudí took his design ideas even FARTHER inside.  Every door, every wall, staircase, ceiling, and yes, even the furniture, is seamlessly blended into the same over-arching design philosophy.  This idea is apparently known as “Total Art”.   Meaning, nothing escapes the attention of the artist, inside or out.  Gaudí was an unassailed master of this.  Well, unassailed, at least, until he was run over by a truck, and then not helped as the locals passed him by, lying broken in the street, because they didn’t recognize him and, because he was dressed in rags, they thought he was a vagrant. 

http://cathy-beasley.suite101.com/the-final-days-of-antoni-gaudi-a130902

In any case, Casa Batllo is FANTASTIC!  It was WELL-worth the 14.50 Euros we paid to get in (with our student discounts). 

Here is a link to photos we took specifically of just the Gaudí stuff (the main Barcelona photo link will come later): http://alexjimenartw.shutterfly.com/pictures/278

One other really amazing place we saw was Parque Guell.  This was another Gaudí design, though perhaps in collaboration with others.  The park is pretty huge, sits on top of a hill, and in full of AMAZING vistas and intricate Art Nouveau architecture and decorations.   This park is so spectacular, and has so many neat things to see, I dare say this is now my favorite park in the world.  It’s possible I may see others, some day, that I like about as much.  But nothing can ever take away the magic we felt wandering around this unique park.

We spent the better part of 4 hours wandering around Parque Guell, seeing the buildings and passage-ways, sitting on the benches and listening and absorbing, and taking in the spectacular vistas of the city below.   Perhaps my favorite spot was actually our first stop in the park. 

This leads me to an aside though.  If/when you come to Barcelona, and you come to see this park, you have two Metro stop options for getting here, and it very much matters which one you choose.  The primary one, Lesseps, leaves you close(ish) to the front gate.  This is NOT the stop you want.  You see, I mentioned the park sits atop a hill?  Well, the front gate is at the BOTTOM of the park.  And what’s more, you have to climb half the hill on foot from the metro station just to get THAT far, and then you have to climb the rest of the way once you’re inside.  If what you want is a day of stair-master exercise, with a great view as your reward, then by all means, start here.  However, if you’d like a leisurely and EASY stroll through the park, with very few UP stairs, then the stop you want is Vallcarca.  This one puts you near the BACK of the park, with a series of outdoor escalators to take you all the way up.  After seeing the extent of these escalators, you’ll be glad you chose this option (we certainly were)!  We were also glad that we asked a Metro aid about how to get there.  Otherwise, we’d have never known about the other stop! 

OK, so, back to the park… I mentioned I liked our first stop.  Well, by now you know that our first stop was at the TOP of the park.  We walked just a little bit farther up to the very tippy top, where there is a set of 3 crosses. 

I am a sucker for good views.  Both of us are really.  This one spot in the park has one of THE most SPECTACULAR views I’ve ever seen in my life.  We took MANY pictures, and I don’t expect a single one of them will even begin to do justice to what it feels like to be up there.  For me, it was every bit as breath-taking as the Grand Canyon.  I could have spent the whole day there (if I’d had more days to spend), in that one spot.  You can see the city below you, the park around you, and the sea expanding away from you.  I tell you, if you ever decide to take a trip that goes near Europe, it’s worth adding Barcelona to your plans, just to see this park, and this view.

And, while I certainly haven’t told you every little thing we saw, or every little thing we did and ate and enjoyed, I’m going to leave it here for now.  Feel free to ask us more about it, though!

Rather than include just a few in-line photos, I’m including here a link to our full set of photos for Barcelona (thanks to Jime for the amazing editing job (or else you’d be looking at hundreds of photos right now)):  http://alexjimenartw.shutterfly.com/pictures/472

Hope you get a taste from those of all of the amazing sights we found in Barcelona.  It’s going to be very difficult to top that for us.  But you know what?  It’s also going to be a hell of a lot of fun to try!

Cheers,

Alex & Jime

London & Stonehenge

 

This post is a time machine.  Nevermind the fact that London is 8 hours ahead of Portland (and 6 or 7 ahead of Costa Rica).  And nevermind even that the day I’m posting this is actually a couple days after writing it.  The stories that happened today will be for another post.  Those aren’t the point.  The story below contains the journey I’m sending you on now.

05-May-2012

We’re on the bus from London to Stonehenge right now as I’m writing this.   So, as I’m writing and riding, I’m on my way to a monument built 5,000 years ago!  And, since I’m writing this now, while I’m still on my way there, you get to go with me.  Consequently, by the end of this message, you will have actually leapt about 5 hours into my future.  In the words of The Great Keanu, “Whoa.”

It never occurred to us until we were practically here that Stonehenge would even be close by.  Turns out it’s about a 2 hour drive from Victoria Station in Central London (just down the road a bit from Buckingham Palace, and all the lunacy that goes on there.  Holy CRAP, those guards are nutty.  Completely fuckin bonkers).  Right before we landed in London, we looked up the Couchsurfing wiki for the city, and one of the things it mentioned was that Stonehenge was a common day trip.   So, we looked it up when we got here, and Jime found a deal that got us transportation and admission for about 26pounds each.  For comparison, just taking local transportation to get there would have cost more money, and that wouldn’t have even included admission.  For reference, the conversion is about 30 pounds to $50.  England is not a cheap country.

In any case, this is now our 2nd full day here in London, and so far it’s been a fairly mild beginning.  Our hosts, Martin and Ginette, are fabulous!  They’re super friendly, super helpful with helping us figure out how to get around town, and have been great about showing us around even their own neighborhood of Twickenham (Google it if you want).  They have a lovely sofabed for us to sleep on, and oddly, it’s got to be the most comfortable sofa bed I’ve ever seen.  It’s perfect!

(Our awesome accommodations. The bikes in the back are for Ginette’s bike tour business called The Merry Peddler. She must have some Portland in her blood, because options include a bike Pub Crawl!)

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(Martin & Ginette & The Lawn Couch)

Yesterday, we took a walk along the Thames, from Waterloo station up to Tower Bridge and The Tower of London.  We didn’t go into those things because as I mentioned… London is not a cheap city.  The tour for just the bridge was 8 pounds per person.  So, call it close to $30 for the two of us.  We looked.  We snapped photos.  We had a lovely focaccia bread from a street market for lunch.  We left and continued on to SoHo.

(Tower Bridge)

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(3 pounds 50 = about $6.  It was quite tasty though. )

We walked through the streets of SoHo in the rain.  I looked for a place called Lee Ho Fook’s.  I was gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.  Alas, all we found were sex shops.  But hey, at least they were high class sex shops! After that, we were a bit walked-out for the day (it’s still early in our trip, remember, so we haven’t built up our sea legs yet, as it were).

We headed home, and then Ginette took us to get some classic British take-out from a local fish & chips shop.  We got some haddock and some cod.  What was the difference?  Well, you see, one was sort of long and narrow, and the other was a bit more stubby.  I couldn’t tell you which was which, and frankly, anybody who says they can tell the difference is fooling either you or themselves.  Still, it had to be done, and I quite enjoyed both my pieces of fish, completely immaterial of what species they were.  The batter was nice and not too thick, with just a hint of sweet in it to my taste.  The chips were fine, but nothing fancy, and could have done with a bit more salt and vinegar, I think.

(I have fish AND I have chips!)

After dinner though, as soon as Martin got home from work, we popped over to their favorite pub (“The Sussex Arms”, I believe it was).  GREAT selection of local microbrew ales!  And oddly, the prices were pretty fantastic as well, considering the location.  Pints were about 3 pounds 50, and half pints were around 2 pounds.  Since they had more than 10 ales and ciders on tap, we went with half pints so we could hit the best variety.  I won’t bore you with rampant beer geekery, but suffice to say we had 4 rounds each, and my favorite of the evening was a smoked porter that you’ve never heard of.  Great beer!  Would definitely drink again.  In fact, I had two.

(Alex & Martin with two half-gone half-pints)

That brings us back to today.  This morning, after confirming our tour for the day, we headed out to London Victoria, from where the tour bus would leave.  We went in a bit early, because this is also right next to Buckingham Palace. We weren’t originally planning on doing the Palace thing… colonialism not having historically been a pleasant experience for latin america in general, and European royalty stuff not being our general cup of tea anyway.  But fuckit… we were right there anyway, and it is part of the typical London tour itinerary and all.   We got there at 11:30.  Apparently The Changing Of The Guard starts happening around 11:15 so we watched a bit of that, but it was so ridiculously over-crowded that we didn’t stick around for that long.  We walked a bit through St James Park, which was nice, but also very similar to many parks in the US, so nothing over the top there.  On the way back to the tour bus pickup, we happened across the tail-end of the Guard Change variety show… as they returned to their own building.  Same craziness, less crowdiness.  We confirmed… these people are indeed bat shit crazy, and can’t POSSIBLY have any idea how ridiculous they look.  If they did, they would surely shit themselves.  Either that, or they just know that it’s a Vaudeville one-off, and they just roll with it.  It’s a bit amusing under that light.  Caricatures are not required.  They do a fine job of that themselves, thank you very much.

(There’s no way they can see out with those giant poof-balls pulled down past their noses. They remind me of the sheepdog in the Wiley Coyote cartoons)

Tomorrow, and all weekend really, there’s apparently some sort of Canal Boat Regatta in Richmond on Thames, which is very close to where we’re staying.  So, we’re going to check that out and enjoy a local festival, with a bit more local culture and uniqueness than the typical central London phenomena.   Should be a hoot! 

On Sunday, we’re hoping to wake up and have a “Proper English Breakfast”® of Bangers & Mash.  This will pretty much end our London trip, since we fly out to Barcelona that afternoon.  One more interesting little stop we’ll make on our way though, is… we found out that one of the places we can pick up the train to Luton Airport (which is our departure point)… is Kings Cross station, made famous by the Harry Potter movies.  So, we’re going to pop over there and take a couple pictures.  I’ll have already posted this blog update by then, so I’ll include those pics in a photo album somewhere.

And that’s pretty much it for our London trip!  Well, sort of.  You see, I’m still on the bus to Stonehenge, which brings me back to the Time Machine bit.  “Oooooooh!”  So, would you like to try it out?  OK, here’s how it works.  I’m gonna count for you, and by the time I hit three, you will have been “magically” transported 5 hours into the future! 

Ready?  OK!  One….  two…..

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THREE! 

GREAT SCOTT!  It actually WORKED!  And you didn’t even need 1.21 Gigawatts, or have to hit 88mph.  Although, I think I’m doing around 88kmh at the moment, so maybe that counts.  At any rate, here we are,  back on the bus after seeing Stonehenge.

It was neat!  It was also ffffffuckkkkkking ccccccoollllld!   Jesus jumped up Christ on a cracker!  My fingers are numb to the bones.  I’m practically back to hunt and peck with my typing here… not because I don’t know where the keys are, but more because my fingers don’t actually move or bend anymore, so really I’m moving my whole arm, from the elbow down, to type each letter.

So, there’s a road that goes pretty much right up to it.  As you’re driving up, there’s no big exit through massive arches or anything.  It’s just suddenly you’re there, and there it is.  The tour we did had a nice little audio-guide that we got to carry around with us to give us some of the history, and items of note.  For example, we learned that the word “henge” means “a hanging thing”.  So, Stone Henge is the Hanging Stones.  Also, we learned that the rocks balanced on top are called “lintels”, and that they’re attached to the pillar stones with a ball-and-socket type joint, and that they were additionally secured to each other with a tongue-and-groove joint for extra stability.  Also, this is apparently the 3rd “henge” on this site.  The first henge was made of wood about 5,000 years ago (per carbon dating).  The second was also stone, but a bit smaller.  This third one was erected about 3,500 years ago. 

(We may be smiling, because this site was really awesome, but inside we’re frozen solid)

So, that’s it for now, I guess.  We’re nearly back to London, and as soon as we get home we’re off for some lovely Indian food (Edit:  It was, in fact, the best Indian food I’ve ever had).  Thanks for taking this little trip with us.  See you in Barcelona!

Cheers,

Alex

Portland (and other US stops) – Round One

 

Well, we’re on the plane to London right now.  Last I saw the moving map screen, we were somewhere passing by the tip of Greenland (which is icy; and not Iceland, which is quite green, apparently).  This flight is 7 hours, so there’s finally some time to relax and reflect! 

The US trip was quite eventful, even on the flight up.  Since we flew up to Portland on frequent flier miles, we didn’t exactly get the most… direct flight.  We left San Jose in the evening and headed first to Miami.  In Miami, Jime whipped out the results of some mad Google Fu skills.  You see, we were stuck spending the night in Miami.  Something like 8 hours overnight.  And Jime found us a place to sleep.  A private place.  A QUIET place, insulated from both all the people there and most importantly, insulated from the goddam stupid, repetitive fucking airport announcements that go off every 15 minutes like clockwork ALL FUCKING NIGHT, guaranteeing that everybody else trying to sleep in the airport that night would surely go insane before morning.  You see… Jime’s google fu skills had discovered a website called sleepinginairports.com.  This website describes and reviews the sleeping accomodations in various airports around the world.  So, on this website, Jime discovered that Miami international has a 4th floor that almost nobody ever goes to, especially in the middle of the night.  This 4th floor is quiet and segregated from all the hubub below.  But then it gets even better.  On the 4th floor is also where the airport chapel is.  The airport chapel is a quiet room with a locking door, and that nobody needs between 11pm and 5am.   It was perfect.  We must go back and offer our review back on that site, and thank them for sharing.  Yay for Google Fu!

(Our “private” sleeping quarters.  Jime was cold, so she used a heavy trash bag as a blanket)

Not that our brief Miami stay was without it’s share of excitement… We managed to make it through Customs and Immigration with little to no trouble.  And then we accidentally forgot a bag inside, which Jimena (fortunately) remembered about 30 seconds after we (unfortunately) left the secured area.  It wasn’t our fault though.  We blame the IDIOT security guard (or possibly security rules) in Costa Rica, who would not allow us to take our laptop lock into the plane.  Seriously?  A laptop lock?  That’s a new one.  Well, we actually need that thing, so Jime gave up one of her small backbacks, and checked it in as an extra piece of luggage (which, fortunately, did not cost us any money, because I somehow managed to earn a year of being an AAvantage Gold member, which gives us priority boarding, priority security screening lines, and most importantly, an extra check-in bag allowance each).  Fast forward to Miami… and now we’ve got a bag that we didn’t plan on, and didn’t pack, and apparently didn’t remember.  Fortunately, Jime made nice with one of the guards, so she was able to round up an escort to go back in and get it.  I’m just glad she remembered the thing! 

In related news, they apparently had no issue with the pile of Acetaminophen with Codeine we also had.  But nothing to see here, move along!  Actually, we even ended up bringing double what we paid for because the pharmacy accidentally delivered us a full box instead of a half-box. Then they had the balls to write us later and demand we pay the difference.  Sorry buddy.  We already left the country, and we already delivered what you gave us.  This was an encargo, and we asked for a specific dollar amount worth of pills.  It’s not our fault you can’t count.

After we left our 5-star 4th floor accommodations in Miami, we headed out to Dallas… for a 12 hour layover.  And this is where I had a nice thought of my own.  I reached out to the local CouchSurfing community to see if anybody was up for hanging out with us for the day.  I got a response back pretty quick… from a guy, Aji, that we’d just met at our own dinner table in Costa Rica barely a few previous!  Turns out that not only does he live in Dallas, but lives right next to the airport, and was quite amused by the idea of picking us up and driving us around all day.  What a rock star!  So, shortly after we landed he came and scooped us up and took us all around town.  We had a great breakfast at a local mexican joint, visited a free Asian art museum with a Japanese and Ancient Himalayan artifact collection, took us by the new Opera House, where they even let us in to take a look at the theater (their chandelier is SPECTACULAR, and EVERY INDIVIDUAL SEAT has its own air conditioning vent). 

(Tacos for breakfast with Aji & friend)

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(Personal Air Conditioning!)

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(Aji, walking on water outside the new opera house)

For lunch, we popped over to a place I’d found with some Google Fu of my own… a microbrew-friendly pizza joint.  Apparently it’s well-respected locally for a fantastic local beer selection.  Suffice to say I concur completely.  We also visited a few nifty little shops around town.  We finished our day off with a hummus plate and mint tea at a great, quiet little Moroccan place that he likes.  All in all, that little tour he gave us, and the chance to spend the day in such great company, really made our day special.  It turned a 12 hour layover into something that felt like a planned part of our trip.  What a great day!  And that brings us up to Portland.  

Portland still feels too familiar.  It still feels a lot like home to us.  Despite how long we’d been gone, we slipped into Portland like we’d only been gone for the weekend.  It was only strange to us in the degree to which it was NOT strange to us.

While we were there, we stayed with a couple of our best friends, Lyzz & Jonathan (and their 2 kids, Hayden, who is 9; and Violet, who is 2.5).  Lyzz & Jonathan made us a home in their back room, and were not only gracious and welcoming, but treated us immediately and unendingly like family.  In all honesty, they DO feel more like family than just friends to us.  Even after spending a bit more than 2 weeks with them, we felt just like we belonged there, and really treasured the time we got to spend with them (and are very much looking forward to more on the back end of our trip).  They are officially, and will remain indefinitely, our home in the US (both logistically and emotionally).

Other adventures we had while in Portland…

First and foremost: Jime successfully presented and defended her dissertation!  YAY!!!  This was THE primary driver for both the Portland visit this time, and for the timing of this RTW trip as well. Of course, just passing the Defense isn’t the end of the process.  Even after that presentation, there were of course yet more revisions.  However, this time, they were fortunately somewhat minor (compared to previous rounds).  We celebrated this part with beers at East Burn.

(The crowd at East Burn, dutifully drinking in Jime’s honor)

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(I’m camouflaged, and I have beer)

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(Oh my!  I actually caught Jime drinking alcohol!

In any case, with the ceremonial boozing taken care of and thoroughly enjoyed, Jime got back to work on those revisions and knocked them the FUCK-OUT!  BAM!  And you know what?  She got signed off for content by her advisor and all committee members before we left!  Content?  DONE, bitches!  Of course, that still left formatting.  But she sent the formatting people a preview, and they didn’t have any major changes either.  So, she’s already got her first round of formatting fixes done for them.  We won’t know for a few days probably whether or not those are done, but… suffice to say she can SMELL the finish line from here.  My degree of amazement and pride in this… EPIC achievement… knows no bounds.

Alright, so… other fun stuff in Portland.  Sushi @ Saburo’s.  I don’t care what you say, Saburo’s is the best Sushi place EVAR.  Their fish is fresh, their prices are crazy cheap, their portions are MASSIVE, and we swear the rice must be laced with heroin or something.  Nowhere in Costa Rica even comes close.  There will never be a time in our lives where we visit Portland and don’t go there at least once.  On this particular occasion, we went, joined by Lyzz, in celebration of Jime’s successful dissertation defense, and were absolute, unabashed gluttons.  We got nothing but fancy rolls, and even some extra to bring home to Jonathan.

(The Sushi!)

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(The Lyzz!)

I also got to spend a lot of time with Vanessa, another of my best friends up in Portland.  We hung out a few times, but I think my favorite day was having a Pork Belly Cubano at Bunk, and then taking a drive out through the Gorge, and visiting Crown Point and all the waterfalls.  Sure, it rained on us most of the day, but it was still a great day for pictures.  So green!

(I forget which falls these are, but they sure are perty)

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(Pretty fern, unfurling a new branch)

Speaking of green, btw… we’re just now (as I’m writing this) approaching the coast of Ireland!  Hi Ireland!  Lyzz says “Hi” as well.

Other activities in Portland… there was the Earth Day Useful Goods exchange… a SWAP!  Just for Jime!  One of her favorite things in the world.  We found a few nice things there, but the best find was probably the brand new pair of high-end insoles, in her size, that I found for her, and later found out sell for $40 at REI.  Win!  Just in time for, say, a RTW trip. 

We also got our Vietnam and India visas dealt with.  Since Vietnam offers a loose-leaf visa, instead of only a sticker visa, it meant I didn’t have to send them our actual passports, which meant we could do both the India & Vietnam visas at the same time.  On the India side, we probably wouldn’t have had time to get it done on this short of a visit (they can take up to 2 weeks to process, and that leaves no time for mailing back and forth), but my dad was gracious enough to hand-walk them into the office in San Francisco for us, which saved us PILES of time.  Thanks to that, they got turned around overnight.

Speaking of getting shit by mail, we got all SORTS of new travel gear!  One example of which is the little Asus EEE PC I’m writing this blog on right now.  We also got a neat little camera for having with us all the time (including this flight), to go along with our big DSLR, which will only go on outings where we expect extra fancy scenery or something.  Probably my favorite of the new toys is a French Press Coffee Mug, which I will be using in conjunction with an Immersion Water Heater (dual voltage suitable).  Yes, I brought coffee and a personal coffee maker.  I’m that kind of coffee geek.  Hey, at least I didn’t bring a grinder (don’t think I didn’t consider it, though)!

Lastly, thanks to the graciousness of both Jimena and Lord Peters (Lord Peters for hosting the game, and Jime for babysitting so I could go), I even got to play a round of Mondo Croquet!

Well, I guess we’re about ready to start our decent in a few minutes, so I’ll wrap it up.  Next stop… London!

Cheers!