Gap Filler

Here we are in sundrowning Rome and cannot get a grasp on how to enjoy it. We are captivated by the history, amazed by the grandness, and exhausted by the limitless amount of walking needed to see this whole city. It is Hot!

Well, where have we been? Our loved ones all circle our thoughts while we adventure through this foreign land and try to figure out how to relay our love as frequent as possible but it is difficult to power through city after city and land hostels/hotels/couchsurfing hosts, plan our sightseeing tours, and figure out how to fit in computer time. Here we are calling folks on skype and blogging simultaneously, trying to make the most of our SUPER EXPENSIVE Euros (we know we know, you all told us so).

We miss you.

Last night it hit me (Nathaniel), I miss the food back home. I know you all probably have a bone to pick with that statement, but it is true and probably not in the sense that you think. I miss KNOWING where the food is. Calina agrees with me. It is one thing to know that you are in a place that invented Margherita, Caprese, and Roma tomatoes for goodness asake, but to not know where to find the best Bolognese, Canalloni (last night's sucked!), or the regional wine that will knock our socks off for a reasonable price. I mean where is the knowledge that bring's you to Felipe's in LA for the best french dip in the world, The Habit for a double bacon BBQ burger right before that Tuesday shift, or Shogun for the biggest sushi pieces you have ever seen. We miss that.

We are tourists. Plain and simple, the fact has hit us... no, it has smacked us with the cray Roman traffic buses with a freakin Portuguese driver on the autobahn. The food is elusive sometimes, but at other times we are totally fortunate to stay with someone in Alba, Italy that has his mother prepare homemade raviolis for him to eat later and then share with us in an incredible meal at his house. Do yourself a favor and find Tuma formaggio and eat it with marmalade all over the top of it, we mean cover it and devour it. Peach marmalade if available.

So, where have we been? We first left you with an idea of Spain, then took you through our window view of Portugal. But did you see the running of the bulls in Pamplona? No. We hardly did either. It was so fast and we were running for our lives whether in front or behind the bulls, which means Calina met a friend, Tony, and they ran behind the bulls together with hundreds of others while Nathaniel ran in front of them with the hundreds of idiots. We both still had fun.

We then went to one of our favorite spots so far, Bordeaux, France. We drank wine, ate cheese, and missed our trains, a couple times. It was great. But the best part was the chocolate consumption and the Dune Pyla. We stayed with a wonderful French girl, Manue and her flatmates and met her sweet friends. We picnicked on La Garonne, went to the beach and played frisebee on a huge sand dune, and saw some beautiful Cathedrals and stuff. We loved it.

Following the wine and picnic adventures, we took in a castle and fireworks with some heavy partying on Bastille day. We stayed in Carcassonne, France. Look it up! It is awesome. They have this giant castle that has been restored over time and every Bastille Day they have the most impressive firework display we have seen yet. They even reenact the burning of the castle back in old times, we forget the dates, sorry.

Wow, it is really difficult to recall this massive adventure so far.

It was back to Spain, but just for an exhale. We made it to Barcelona (Barthalona for those who speak catalan) for a day or two and even took in the beach at Matarò. The sites were unbelieveable, and the tapas were at their best at the tascas. Jose and Esther were our hosts in Matarò and they were probably the funkiest peeps we met on the trip so far. They had a unique style all their own and felt like they were movie stars. Oh, and it was hot!

From Barcelona, we headed to Alba, italy, but little did we know how big a task this would be. We traveled nearly 26 hours straight through France and the Northwest of Italy to get to Alba. We love our eurail pass, but sometimes it just takes a little more creativity and patience to really take advantage of it. We found ourselves swept through some of the more beautiful parts of the Alps and found some places we definitely want to return to. We skipped over some big cities just to get to this small city in the heart of the Piemonte region. But, alas it was well worth it and met one of the more eccentric hosts on the EuroTrip '08 so far. He was a spur of the moment host recommended by someone else and was so crazy and funny all at the same time creating a very memorable experience in Alba. Come on, he was a professional clown! (that one goes out to you Karla).

We ventured on to Verona (the home of Romeo and Juliet), and an REM concert we took in, saw their houses and tomb and the nearby lake. We called it an unplanned joy and got back on track. Oh, but first we must mention that the REM concert was in a Roman Arena. What up?! Yeah, you wish you were there. It was sweet, because we were the only ones standing for the first 10 songs, until the band (Michael Stype) pointed out that all the Italians were sitting and they had every right to enjoy themselves and stand up while they played. Damn right!Some guy asked us to sit down 2 minutes before, so we said Vanncculo! and made our way to the top of the stands to dance our heart out or stand in peace, whatever pleased us.

Is there more?

Oh yes! The Cinque Terre. This deserves a post of its own, it was definitely our destination of choice. For now we will say it was divine. 5 towns built on the mountainside coast in the Italian Riviera. We will divulge later.

Calina says ''Good, the end for tonight.'' More to come with pictures soon. In the next week. We promise. but don't hold us to it. But, we promise.

Love, love.

One Month In

So it has been one month since we first left Sunny California for the European Continent. I had to write something. There was not gonna be any way that I would let this noteworthy timestamp go unnoticed.

It has also been a little longer than I had hoped for our blog to go untouched. This trip is filled with new and wonderful experiences every day. We wake up to a sunrise unlike any other, find ourselves in a flurry of train hopping and bus catching, and then indulge in local drink and fare. It is an endless amount of vacation fun and folly.

Just the other day we missed a train for the second consecutive day, eliminating wine tasting dreams and Medieval Castle touring hopes. But not to worry, this whole stinking place is filled with all of that 100 times over. We will see numerous castles from plenty of time periods, taste a great many wines (like the Penedes today), and miss many more trains that would have led to a great number of side excursions. Oh, will this EURail pass do us wonders and carry us through the most untouched and tread upon paths of Europe.

We are just about to leave Mataro, Spain. It is a town just about 30 minutes north of Barcelona along the coast. The beaches are nothing remarkable, but the warm air and smaller city feel give us plenty to smile about. We feel that this has been our relaxation after the past couple weeks of intensity. Everything from quick daytrips into Granada, Fiesta de San Fermin, French Follied Bordeaux and even the Bastille Day celebration in Carcassonne. Seagrass, don't worry we partied like it was our day off too!

So we will leave you with what our travels have left us... some great photos and more to look forward to.

Photos from Granada to Bordeaux

The Trip so Far

So in Jolly June 2008, we boarded a plane with Europe in its sights. We set out on our 5 month adventure through all the countries we could possibly get to.

Our first destination was Madrid, Spain. Shortly before we left, we found a couple to stay with on couchsurfing.com. (If you haven't already, check it out. Look us up under "Nathaniel Calina") Ranpal & Wil were awesome hosts and we had a fun time checking out Madrid. We had our first experience with Sangria and Tapas and checked out the Museums. We also realized that Spain was gonna be HOT!

Out of Madrid, we day tripped to Toledo. We took a quick half hour train and were in a medieval city. Our calves got quite an exercise due to those brilliant medieval minds that put their cities on top of hills. However, it was beautiful, fun getting lost in the small winding streets, and it was hot.

We enjoyed the rest of our stay with Ranpal & Wil chilling in their lovely home in the hills of Valdemorillo. We BBQ'd and swam in their refreshing pool. Then we said goodbye to the beautiful sunsets and company and headed to Bilbao.

In Bilbao, it was not hot!! In fact it was cold and cloudy, what the hell! We thought we were headed to the beautiful beaches of the north, we were mislead. But our last day there we did find a beach and it got sunny. In order to get there though it took a 1 hour metro, a half hour walk, and some sore sandaled feet. We were happy to bask in the Basque Country. In the days before, we visited the Guggenheim, drank wine from our travel wine glasses (thanks Kerry!!), and fought our way to our room on the fourth floor in a pension with no lift everyday. And the Spanish are clever in not counting the ground floor as the first floor, so it was actually five flights of stairs. We got our exercise!

Then it was off to Santiago de Compostela to meet the peregrinos, or pilgrims. From Bilbao we thought it would be a good idea to spend our 11 hours traveling by bus at night. We left at 1:45am to arrive in Santiago at 1:00pm. Whoa, that was intense! But what made it even better was when Nathaniel's suitcase decided to die in Bilbao. It was tired of traveling. While we were "dragging" our suitcases to the bus stop, we discovered this thing called a taxi.

In Santiago de Compostela the Cathedral is large and beautiful, the peregrinos are plenty, and the nightlife is exciting. It happens to be a university town and has a familiarly named USC, the University of Santiago de Compostela. Our host Marcos took us out for a night of raciones y cocteles, but we can't show you any photos of him because we forgot our camera the first night and we never saw him again the rest of our stay in his home. Bizarre, we know. (Above is a photo of the creek we could see from the window of Marcos' house)

Oh, and Nathaniel did get a new suitcase, the wheels are great. We dumped the other one, and he cried.

We also caught the Fiesta Barrio de San Pedro which was a lot like a hippie punk concert with cheap beer.


We were ready to leave Santiago de Compostela we took a bus south to Porto, Portugal, yes where they make port wine! We stayed with this lovely young man named Diogo. He took it upon himself to be a true tour guide and show us the city, some art galleries, and great seaside restaurants. He also took us port tasting. We went on a tour of the cellar at Croft and got some free glasses of port.

The art scene was awesome! We went to a Contemporary Art Museum and saw a lot of pieces we did not understand and some really cool garden exhibits as well. The small galleries were our favorite part with a ton of random work that was quite impressive. Diogo even used his local skills to get us into this private viewing of a few sculpture pieces in a posh sushi restaurant. Oh and we also had this really awesome dinner at this restaurant, Boa Nova Tea House and Restaurant, that sat on the cliffs. The food was wonderful, especially our Parrillada de Mariscos which was big enough for 4. We had some white Douro wine and the view was very impressive. All in all, Porto was pleasantly wonderful.



After Porto we were really getting antsy for the beach. We had only been to one beach so far and it is summer. From Porto we skipped over Lisbon and enjoyed the view of the Portuguese countryside all the way to Portimao. Here in southern Portugal is where tourism booms in the summer.
The beaches are incredible and the food is not half bad. We spent our 4 days chilling at the beach and soaking up the sun. The beaches were incredible and Calina was finally happy, especially because she was able to whip out the new bikini she bought in Bilbao.

It is all sparkly and gold and stuff. Our host Ruben took us and his other guest Anna from Poland to eat grilled sardines, their specialty. They tasted delicious, but their little bones were a pain in the ass.

We even compared the beaches to those in Lagos on our daytrip there. The wind was furious but the beaches were just as nice as Portimao. We both agreed that Portimao should get more tourism. However, we did find our own private beach in Lagos--->. Nathaniel also got a chance to jump off some rad rocks into the water. It was pretty sweet.

Then came sunny and sensual Seville. We were so tired and hot when we finally arrived that the first thing we did was go down to the local bar and have a cerveza. This city is full of passion and beauty. It is probably the most well kept and decorated city that we have visited thus far. We stayed just a few nights and were being hosted by Anna (not the same Anna from Poland) and her family. Nathaniel felt like cooking for them the first night we stayed. Calina helped put together this pizza with figs, gorgonzola, pears and prosciutto. Yummy!
Anna and her husband Juan told us about their free city bike system which we took full advantage of and saw the beautiful sights Seville had to offer. We saw the Alcazar, the Plaza de Espana (which we think should be a Las Vegas themed Hotel), and Flamenco within the Santa Cruz district. We also had a great dinner of tapas and the best Sangria we ever had! Thanks Sheri and Adam!

The last day we stayed in Seville we actually day tripped out to Granada. This made for a long long long day. The bus trip was 3 hours there and 3 hours back. We went to see The Alhambra. Wow, what a palace! After seeing this beautiful Muslim built palace on a hill we were palaced out. It was huge! So we took a break from the heat and found some shade, and yes, even in a national monument Spain sells beer! We then took in as much more of the palace as we could and we had just enough time to squeeze in a caipirinha and a mojito in the city before getting on our return bus to Seville.













So Seville and Granada were wonderful. We had a great time traveling Spain and Portugal since we left Madrid, but we were scheduled to go right back through it on our way to Pamplona. We had purchased two bilhettes for Madrid from Seville at 10:00am. It would be about a 6 hour trip and would arrive around 4:00pm. The bus was the best bus we had been on and actually one of the cheapest. There was tons of room, it was brand new, and it wasn't crowded. Of course, two hours into our journey the bus had pulled over and we thought it was for a possible driver change, but it was in fact a bus breakdown. Fortunately there was a restaurant across the road which we made good use of. We arrived in Madrid at 9:00pm. What a crazy day, but in Spain the sun doesn't set until 10:30 so there was plenty of light yet.

Next, it is on to Pamplona where the bulls will be running, Bordeaux where the wine will be flowing, and the Mediterranean beaches where Calina will be tanning. For now we'll say Adios, Adieu, Ciao, and we will keep you posted...

Welcome to Our Blog!

As we move through our trip we have decided that blogging might be the best format. It was recommended to us from a few people, but we were unsure how, so we found this friendly spot and are trying it out. Feel free to leave comments as much as you like, we would love to hear from all of you. See you in the next country...