Some food for thought. What would YOU do if money was no object?
While everyone in our society doesn’t have the opportunity to just do what they’d like without regard to money, it’s still something to ponder and reflect on…If you were to die tomorrow, what regrets would you have?
My 30th birthday [sigh] was earlier this month. Of course, we had to celebrate it in style, over the course of over a week.
First, we ate cake.
Triple layered, filled with hazelnut and fresh strawberry whipped cream.
Then we went with a small group of friends to Giacomo’s in the North End, a highly recommended, always has a line out the door place. Hello butternut squash ravioli. Yum!
David gave me a hand painted picture of a whale, along with a gift cert to go on a whale watch.
Since traveling is just sort of our thing, we headed to Puerto Rico for a long weekend. Packing up our backpacks and heading to the airport made us feel at home – like we were going back to our old lives. It felt comforting to go back to the simplicity of living out of a backpack and not worrying about much except being on the road.
Complete with bananas growing on our patio!
We stayed in a small studio apartment is a residential area of San Juan, Ocean Park (found through AirBnB). The beach was a block away, and it came with bikes. We were both overwhelmingly happy getting up on a Saturday morning, putting on shorts and a tshirt, hopping on bikes, and cruising around looking at the ocean, so much greenness, and exploring our little neighborhood. There really is no better way to experience a place than on the saddle of a bike.
If I were to summarize our short three day trip in three words they would be: beach, food, rainforest, and read. That’s pretty much all we did.
While we loved getting around on bikes, we also cruised around in our “little purple car”. We drove the hour southeast from San Juan to “El Yunque”, the only rainforest on “U.S. soil”. We were slightly underwhelmed (paved hike, no animals) but it was still nice to be in the forest. It was very green – and we saw bromeliads growing out the side of the trees – we have a potted one in our apartment.
We went to a beachside bar to get a pre-dinner drink and appetizer, but due to a miscommunication, ridiculously slow service, and huge appetizers, it turned into dinner. We ended up next to a super friendly (i.e. drunk) guy from Nicaragua (Jorge), and he and David talked for a long time. He was pretty funny, and I think the Nicaraguan tourism council should hire him as an ambassador, as much of the conversation was centered around him telling us how wonderful Nicaragua is.
We ate mofongo relleno (stuffed shrimp mofongo), which is kind of like a cave built out of mashed up plantains filled with shrimp. They were delicious, but we accidentally ordered two, and they cost $19 each!
Things to know about Puerto Rico: It’s a U.S. territory, so you don’t need a passport and you’re still in the U.S. when you go there (but, it has it’s own unique history). They use dollars and are really well developed, though the driving is a little insane. While Spanish is the first language, nearly everyone speaks English. When I spoke to people in Spanish, they just spoke back to me in English. Lastly, the prices of accomodations, food, and drink are pretty much the same as here in MA.
Thanks to my parents for giving birth to me so I could do all these fun things for my birthday!
Thank you for visiting the blog and interacting with us in 2012. We’re looking forward to keeping up the blog – continuing themes of sabbatical taking/lifestyle design, goal setting, cooking, and travel.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.
Click here to see the complete report.
This is a post by Jenny.
I’m a huge slacker in that I have about 4 blog entries bouncing around in my head – about my sabbatical, my new job, our Europe trip, pics, yearly goals, etc - but have yet to leak them onto a keyboard. I’ve gotten swept up in the return to “normal” life. So, those will come someday…
I’ve been indulging my cake making hobby of late! If you’ve been following for a while, you’ll remember the cake I made myself for my 29th birthday.
I made my brother some delicious, though disastrous looking, cupcakes (chocolate with oreo whipped cream filling and butter cream frosting).
For a visual of me making these, picture midnight the day before Thanksgiving and the frosting bag exploding, sending watery frosting all over my mom’s kitchen…
Also made my sister a birthday cake (chocolate with hazelnut whipped cream filling and butter cream frosting), with a lot of help from David’s mom:
At one point while putting the filling into the cake, the “dam” of frosting that holds the filling in broke open and filling started spilling out, with me and David’s mom trying to frantically stop it, with David nearby asking if he should get a straw and suck up the deluge.
Amazingly, it didn’t explode when we cut it open!
For Christmas I got a beginner cake making set, colors, pans, and a book. I want to make a lot of cakes to practice but don’t want to eat them, so I hope family and friends are ready to eat a lot of cake. I will take requests!
Lastly, we just booked a four day trip to Puerto Rico for my 30th birthday next month!!! Wahoo, beach here I come!
This is a post by Jenny
While traveling in Portugal, Italy, and Spain, we noticed some big difference between Europe and the U.S. I would say some are for the better and some for the worse, but I’ll let you decide (with some of my own thoughts interjected in!).
“Chiuso per ferie”
In Italian, that means “closed for holiday”. For David and I, that became our mantra when we went somewhere that turned out to be closed. It is fairly common for businesses (esp restaurants) to close down for a few weeks or a month (usually August) to take a vacation. When we arrived in a small Tuscan hillside town, the first 10 businesses we walked by had “Chiuso per Ferie” signs up (which we quickly looked up in our translator). We were worried we wouldn’t be able to get anything to eat (luckily, the gelataria was open!).
On the one hand, it totally sucked for us and was annoying that things were closed. On the other hand, how awesome is it that closing up and chilling for a month is a cultural norm?! Along with being closed for vacation, businesses were usually closed for a couple of hours in the afternoon and on Sundays. Americans seem to think it’s ridiculous/not economically sound, but how amazing would it be to think of yourself having a whole month off to recharge your batteries? Sundays devoted only to family and rest? Economic-ecoschnompic – I’ll take less money and productivity for more time for the things that matter in life (i.e. enjoying it!).
Supermercado
To save money, we did a fair amount of grocery shopping. You can’t touch the fruit with your hands – you’re supposed to wear a provided plastic glove. A lot of the local people arrived and departed with wheely cart things to transport their groceries, which are only used by old ladies and poor people in the U.S. And, it’s assumed that you will bring your own bags. They don’t put your stuff into bags unless you ask them to, and you pay for each plastic bag you take. How awesome is that? The bags are actually of high quality so you don’t need three of them for every item you buy, it encourages people to bring their own, and overall cuts down on waste!
Fountains
We saw a plethora of public drinking fountains in all 3 countries we went to. They were used by tourists and locals alike – with people drinking out of them like a bubbler, and other people filling water bottles or large jugs (with some water being more coveted than others). Sure is refreshing, convenient, and cheap when you need something to drink!
Don’t mess with me when I’m hot and cranky! (and sunburnt?)
Air Conditioning
In this case, I would say I am a totally spoiled, intolerant American who can’t handle a little heat (and now I understand how the U.S. uses so much more energy than the rest of the world). Barely any places we visited in each country were air conditioned – except our hostels (which we intentionally got). In the US, almost all public places – museums, restaurants, stores, trains, buses, transport stations are air conditioned. You can easily just step in somewhere to cool off. That was not the case in Portugal, Italy, or Spain. And it was so hot, I almost died – and that’s after tolerating 100 degree humid weather in Cambodia. I want to be ok with not having much AC – saving so much energy and pollution – but sometimes, it’s just too hot and I want to eat indoors in a cold place instead of on a sweltering patio.
Showers & Toilets
If you’ve been following the blog, you might think I have an obsession with foreign bathrooms. I swear I don’t. It seems to be normal for the bathroom to have a toilet and a separate bidet. The shower head also is not a mounted to the wall, but rather a hose you can move around or mount in a hook – convenient for cleaning yourself and the shower!
Hello cycletrack for me and my bike!
Lots of bikes in Florence
Transportation
The cars are all really small. Smart cars aren’t a weird spectacle like at home, and people with kids don’t feel the immediate need to have a huge van or SUV. The roads can be narrow and spaces tight, so small cars make sense (not to mention the astronomical price of gas, which I think is currently over $8/gallon). The train and bus systems are (mostly) reliable, efficient, and inexpensive. We were able to travel up and down all of Portugal – the whole country – by bus. I am ridiculously envious of Europes bus and train system – and how completely feasible it is to travel around the continent without a car.
We all know I LOVE BIKES. I love them. And so do Europeans apparently. In Florence, bikes were everywhere. In almost every city we visited in Spain, they had a bike share – San Sebastian, Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilboa. Santander had a bike path leading to the airport! Many cities we visited had bike infrastructure – separated paths exclusively for bikes, bike lanes, etc. People of all different types were on bikes. When we road to the market in Tuscany, the bike rack was full, and the old woman getting off her bike next to us had brought her cane with her! I can’t begin to talk about the envy I feel for the social integration and acceptance that bikes have in European society – anyone can ride, wearing whatever they want, on a bike of any working order – without a helmet. After being hit by a car three years ago and feeling like my helmet saved my life as I know it, I am a bit of a helmet fanatic. But I didn’t wear a helmet in Europe, and it felt ok – they don’t use them and their speeds and road/bike network design bikes minimize the danger of crashes. I’m in love with the idea of instead of wearing a helmet to protect your head for when you get into an accident, instead prevent that accident from happening in the first place…and I digress..
Midnight? Why not have a jazz band in the street?
Date/Time
The date is written with the day first, then the month, then the year. So today, November 14, 2012 is written as 14/11/12. I believe this is actually the norm all over the world except the US. I found myself easily transition into reading and writing the date this way (and found it foreign to write it 11/14/12 when I got home – how fast we adjust to something!).
The same was the case for the time. When spoken, the time is said the same way as in the U.S. – i.e. eight fifteen at night is said that way. However, in writing, they use a 24 hour clock – so instead of 8:15pm, the time is written as 20:15 – eliminating the need for am or pm. I adjusted to this pretty quickly, though I did find myself doing the math or getting confused in the afternoon and evening hours.
Beautiful outdoor cafes
Other
For women, at many of the beaches we visited, wearing a top at the beach is completely optional. There’s nothing weird or gawking about it. For men, bathing suit briefs or square cut shorts were normal as well.
Futbol (soccer) is super, ridiculously huge. And it was fun to watch and cheer on the home towns for the Super Copa when we were in Barcelona and Valencia (but it’s really all about Barca & Real Madrid).
Don’t get me wrong Boston, I love you, but oh Europe, how I miss you!
This is a post by Jenny.
Here is a rundown of our 2 month trip to Portugal, Italy, and Spain.
Green & Blue Lakes in Sao Miguel
Complete Itinerary:
Portugal: Sao Miguel (Azores), Lisboa, Salema, Lagos, Coimbra, Porto
Italy: Pisa, Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena, Tuscan Town (Certaldo)
Spain: Santander, San Sebastian, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao
Duration
Nights spent in Portugal: 24
Nights spent in Italy: 15
Nights spent in Spain: 19
Total trip length: 60 days
Flying
Number of airports: 9
Number of hours spent in airports: 16
Number of flights taken: 7
Number of hours spent on planes: 21
Longest flight: 8 hrs (Frankfurt, Germany to Boston)
Shortest flight: 57 minutes (Valencia to Santander)
Total amount of time dedicated to airplane travel: 37 hours (1.5 days)
Other transit:
Long distance buses: 9
Long distance trains: 4
(Great bus system in Portugal and Spain and train system in Italy!)
Times Clothes Washed in the Sink: Too many to count!
Accommodations:
Number of different places we slept: 18
Number of Shared Dorm rooms: 4
Longest Stay: 9 days at a B&B in Valencia (that didn’t offer bfast)
Shortest Stay: 1 day (Lagos, Pisa, Santander, Bilbao)
Money: Rough cost breakdowns (total for 2 people):
Flights total: $2164
– Flights to/from Europe: $1048 (one flight paid in frequent flyer miles)
– Flights around Europe: $1116
Travel insurance: $308
ATM fees: $0! (thanks to Rockland Trust!)
Cash/credit cards (covers food, gifts, activities, hotels etc): $9306
Total cost for 2 people:$11,778
Total cost per person: $5,889
Total daily cost per person per day: $98
“When it is good, we call it gelato. When it is bad, we call it icecream.” – Cooking Instructor
Random:
Estimated Number of gelato cones eaten: 27
Number of blog entries written: 10
Cooking classes taken: 3
Bikes ridden: 4 + about 50 bikeshare bikes in Valencia
Pizza making in Florence!
Liters of wine drank…
The number of pastries eaten: You don’t want to know, but I will tell you that Portuguese bakeries are KILLER!
This is a post by Jenny.
It’s great to be back in the US, especially after going to a walk-in clinic and getting antibiotics and eye drops to treat the sinus infection and conjunctivitis that have been nagging me for nearly three weeks. It’s fantastic to see and talk to my family and friends. My bed, filled with my favorite stuffed animals, was a welcome sight. At the same time as all of this joy, I feel a bit disoriented and a sense of loss – mourning the end of the life I’ve been living for the last 8 months.
Ruminating on that…
David and I spent 60 days straight together, with only a handful of hours apart while he went for a walk on his own or I went shopping. It feels weird to be alone so much and not even see each other some days (our apartment isn’t ready yet so we’re each living at our parents at the moment). Aren’t you sick of each other? Surprisingly not!
In the countries we were in, the sun didn’t rise until about 7:30a, and didn’t fully set until about 9p. It’s depressing and disorienting that it’s fully dark here by 7:30p. The time zone change also had both of us waking up at 6am for several days.
In Spain, every evening we went for a paseo (walk) around 9ish and ate dinner sometime between 9:30-11p. Yesterday I was completely done with dinner by 6:15p – four hours earlier than what’s become normal. I’ve had a strolling walk most of the days, but it’s just not quite the same in my parents’ suburban neighborhood versus bustling, beautiful Valencia.
My first day back at work was yesterday. Taking the train up from Attleboro, it felt odd popping out in South Station and seeing all the modern skyscrapers – I sort of stared up at them in awe. While waiting for the train and on it, I sheepishly grinned to myself about my excitement of being able to casually talk to strangers and understanding strangers talking to each other after months of working myself up to talk to people in foreign languages.
The endless options are both overwhelming and exciting. 10 pairs of shoes to choose from when I’m used to 2? 20 pairs of earrings when I’ve had access to 4? And a closetful of clothing when all I’ve had is a small backpack with a handful of shirts?! The options are nice, but I also miss the simplicity of having so few choices. The same goes for food – great, yet dangerous, to have a [free] fridge and pantry at my disposal!
Along that same vein in the issue of having a lot of stuff. Luckily, my current frame of mind is to reduce my material possessions after surviving with so little for so long. This is greatly helping me as I go through all of my stuff to try to clean and organize my parents’ basement in anticipation of moving!
I’m generally a bike helmet fanatic (after getting hit by a car a few years ago). Through all our bike riding in Europe, there were no helmets even available. I slowly got used to riding without one. Getting on a bike for the first time yesterday, I felt like my helmet was an unwelcomed, foreign accessory – as opposed to being part of me like it used to be. However, this won’t change – I will always ride with my helmet while stateside. It did give me pause – helmets are to protect you for when your head hits something hard – but they aren’t the answer to bike safety – it should be about preventing what causes your head to hit something in the first place….
Well, being home and back to work, it’s already starting to feel like I never left. The “how was your trip?” questions will start to end and life will be ‘normal’. Have any tips on how to avoid feeling like our great adventures never happened?
P.S. we have several more great entries in the works- including a smattering of photos, details of the tomatina, cooking classes, some differences we observed, and a run down of the trip by the numbers – stay tuned!
Today, we saw the Holy Grail. Yes, that’s right. The Holy GRAIL – as in the cup that Jesus Christ used at the Last Supper. I don’t know why Indiana Jones did all that chasing around looking for it, when it’s right here in Valencia, Spain!
Cathedral de Santa Maria de Valencia
We had heard about this, so we paid our 4 euro each and went in.
Very ceremoniously displayed, behind heavy security
You may be skeptical, saying they don’t know where the Holy Grail is, it’s all a myth, etc. That’s what we thought too. But, if the Holy Grail does exist, the one we saw is it. When we got home, I googled “where is the Holy Grail”. Wikipedia gave me a long, long answer (which I don’t suggest reading) but I pulled out some text from it:
There are cups claimed to be the Grail in several churches, for instance the Saint Mary of Valencia Cathedral, which contains an artifact, the Holy Chalice, supposedly taken by Saint Peter to Rome in the 1st century, and then to Huesca in Spain by Saint Lawrence in the 3rd century. According to legend, the monastery of San Juan de la Peña, located at the south-west of Jaca, in the province of Huesca, Spain, protected the chalice of the Last Supper from the Islamic invaders of the Iberian Peninsula. Archaeologists say the artifact is a 1st century Middle Eastern stone vessel, possibly from Antioch, Syria (now Turkey); its history can be traced to the 11th century, and it now rests atop an ornate stem and base, made in the Medieval era of alabaster, gold, and gemstones. It was the official papal chalice for many popes, and has been used by many others, most recently by Pope Benedict XVI, on July 9, 2006.
You couldn’t get too close up
Another site lists possible locations for the Holy Grail, and Valencia is the top choice, noting that a carbon test dates this Chalice back to somewhere between 300BC-100AD. It’s said to the the official Chalice of the Roman Catholic Church. Another site also talks about it being the one.
Super zoom. See any finger prints?
So, is this really the Holy Grail? Nobody can know for certain, but it’s fun to believe it is!
After over a month of not riding a bike, David and I were itching for the freedom and glory of cruising on a two-wheeler. Upon arrival in Florence, Italy, we noticed there were bike tours available, easy bike rentals, and a flat city with a small amount of traffic. We were interested.
We rented bikes for 24 hours for 15 euro each (about $18 – a steal compared to US bike rentals!). As soon as we got on them, we both had giant grins on our faces, sighing, “man it feels so good to be on a bike”. To quote one of my former bike students, “its like flying on a witches broom!”
We used our bikes to explore Florence – searching out quiet shade and nice overlooks. We spent a good amount of time hunting for a high-rated Gelataria named Il Procopio (my sister’s last name) but couldn’t find it – it was most likely chiuso per ferio – closed for vacation, like many of the businesses in Italy for the month of August. We instead got gelato at this place:
Hunting down gelato – got a delicious grapefruit mix (“macedonia”) at this one!
Florence is full of art, history, and giant churches.
Granite facade in Florence
The Duomo: When it was built, nobody had built a dome of that size and scale in over 1,000 years. It was a sign of hope, progress, and kicked off the Renaissance
We also rode our trusty steeds up to the top of an overlook at sunset, watching the sun set over Florence and enjoying a juice box of red wine.
The sun sets over Florence
In Certaldo, a small Tuscan hill town, our hostel was in the middle of nowhere, so we used bicycles to go to the supermarket, get to the funicular to ride up the nearest hill, and ride to the trail to hike up the hill. Our bicycles provided us with access to some lovely views.
Sunset in the Tuscan Hills
Lastly, in San Sebastian (northern Spain, near France), we cruised around on bikes – beating the heat with a self-made breeze and enjoying San Sebastian’s excellent bike facilities – cycle tracks and bicycle stop lights!
Biking wears David out!
Cycletracks in the middle of the street in San Sebastian – yay!
Viva la bicicleta!!
This is a post by Jenny.
I became a vegetarian in December of 2000, shortly after watching “Meet Your Meat” in high school health class. Shortly thereafter I converted into a pescetarian – a vegetarian who eats fish – but always stuck with the term vegetarian since it’s easier to understand. David became a “flexible vegetarian” in 2005. My reasons for being a vegetarian for the next 12 years included that meat is kind of gross (picture raw, bloody meat), it is often filled with unnatural hormones, the treatment of the animals questionable, and is generally bad for the environment.
However, whenever we travel, we commit to following the local diet because we don’t want to miss out on local cuisine because we won’t eat meat. This winter when we set out for 2 months in Asia, we knew that would be an easy place to maintain our vegetarianism, but still decided we would eat meat/whatever was popular locally. We ate a lot of fish and a good amount of chicken.. During our time in Portugal, Italy, and Spain, it has been a lot harder to skip out on the pork and beef – think chorizo, proscuitto, jamon iberico…Europe seems to be a continent of meat lovers (though perhaps the Italians less so than the Portuguese or Spanish).
While eating with my relatives in Portugal, most of the time we didn’t know what it was, we just knew it was delicious.
Usually I get annoyed when people ask about my vegetarian status – always feeling like they are asking me to defend myself or convert them – so I’m not sure why I’m writing a blog entry for the world to read. I think the point is that for us, it’s important to try not to miss out on anything delicious while we travel – because in case you missed the message, food and eating are the top reasons to travel (and hike)!
Will we become full time meat eaters when we get back to the states? I can’t say for certain, but I doubt it. I’m guessing I’ll never go back to regularly eating beef or pork, but might occasionally have chicken or turkey. All meat will probably have an acceptable place on my plate if it falls into the “ethnic” category – super delicious and made up in some special way that is exotic and rare for me to have. I still regret to this day not eating my Portuguese grandmother’s fish, chorizo, sopa, and various other homecooked meals in the last years of her life due to my insistence on being vegetarian.
What about you – do you change the way you eat while you travel?
