Spain and Portugal: Highlight Reel

As will be standard from now on, I've found myself with very little time to write as I'm barely in Amstelveen anymore and when I am there are ridiculous things like "laundry" and "law school" and "feeding myself" to contend with. So this blog will be

a) a direction to my FLICKR PAGE of my trip to Spain and Portugal, and

b) a quick summary of some of the best parts about each city I visited.

Stop #1: Valencia

• Sunshine

• Arriving in Valencia to 25 degree sunshine was an amazing experience, having come from freezing, windy, sleet-y Holland. I spent literally my entire day there walking around in the sun and attracting glares for my sundress and sandals from all the Valencians walking around in sweaters, boots, and scarves. I'm sorry, I'm from Canada, I'm going to have bare legs and wear sandals when it gets above 20. Deal with it. At least I wasn't wearing flip-flops.

• Agua de Valencia. This is a traditional drink that the people of Valencia like to hand out coupons for to tourists. I met some girls who were studying in Barcelona and in for the weekend and we sampled the Agua at numerous places. No-one, not even the bartenders making the drinks and handing them to us could say precisely what was in them. The consensus seemed to be champagne and orange juice, with additions ranging from vodka to rum to kalhua to red wine to brandy. All I know it was delicious and tasted just like Sunny-D, only with more alcohol. Wikipedia describes the cocktail as including "cava or champagne (wine), orange juice, vodka and gin". It was also made for the first time in 1959, so there goes my theory of it being traditional. Oh well, it's an A+ drink and a recipe for a disastrous hangover.

• Radio City. Don't let the ridiculous WEBSITE throw you, this is one of the most fun clubbing experiences I've had in Europe. Granted, my other experiences have been in Holland where their idea of a fun night is to sway gently and listen politely to the music while sipping a single Heineken and scolding individuals who try to dance. But this place had a great atmosphere, cool Spanish people and music that was mostly a mix of 1920s big-band and dirty house beats. It made me exceptionally happy, though my clothes smelled like smoke for the rest of the trip and continue to do so after being washed. Worth it.

Stop # 2 - Madrid

• Museo Nacional de Prado. I think this was the most impressive art gallery I've ever been to, or at the very least contained the most moving collections of art I've seen. If any of you are EVER in Madrid, definitely check it out. I was considering giving it a pass, wanting my trip to be fairly lineup and admission-price free, but the Prado is free after 6pm on weeknights and well worth the lineup. One my my favourite paintings, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch is housed there:

As well as all of Goya's "black paintings" which he painted on the walls of his home in the later years of his life and were extracted and moved to the Prado. The most famous of these is "Saturn Devouring His Son":

My favourite was "The Dog":

but the room itself was so impressive and haunting I felt like I could have stayed in there for hours. Just not alone, or after dark.

• Telekinesis.

• Telekinesis is a band from Seattle that I love but not a ton of people know, including the four friends I was travelling with who were absolute troopers for agreeing to trek out to a random jazz bar and pay 15 Euro for a band they'd never heard of. The show was really good, though super weird. Telekinesis is a rock band. Not hard rock or anything, but definitely not jazz musicians. The venue was super tiny, there were maybe 30 people in the audience and you could tell the band was slightly uncomfortable with the setup. The lead singer kept saying how he felt like he was playing on a cruise ship or something and had no idea if anyone in the audience was enjoying themselves as they couldn't really see or hear anything. They played a great show regardless and came out when the tiny audience demanded an encore and generally seemed to have a good time.

• The Best Indoor Food Market of All of Life

• I don't know the name of the food market where we went for hangover smoothies (or oysters, if you're Josh and you're crazy) our second morning and for dinner our second evening, but it might be my favourite place in the world. It's a giant market filled with gourmet food and wine stands and for about 1 - 3 Euro per item you can sample some amazing seafood, cheese, meats, pastries... anything you can think of really. Everyone there was classy and cool and just walked around sipping delicious wine and eating delicious things and it's basically what I think heaven should be like. The caviar and octopus crostini were winners in my book.

Final Stop - Lisbon

• Yes! Hostel Lisbon

• Before this semester I had never stayed at a hostel. Now, after Yes!, I don't think I can ever stay at another hostel again. Yes! is exactly what a hostel should be in my mind. It was in a great location, right by the ocean and a main square, the rooms were clean and secure and ours had a balcony, the staff were super friendly and helpful and there was a giant common room with tons of places to sit and hang out, a giant projector TV and a selection of DVDs, games, etc. More importantly, there was a bar with drink prices ranging from 1 - 2 Euro and free shots every night. Best of all, for 8 Euro a night you could opt-in to the hostel's 3-course dinner. The dinner was phenomenal. Cooked by the most adorable and lovely chef you could ever imagine, we got fresh bread, soup, a tasty main course and a desert, all hand-made, all different every night. The 8 Euro also included 3 drink vouchers that could be used for wine, beer or sangria to go with the meal. Amazing deal. We opted out only one of the nights we were there and I think we all slightly regretted it.

• Natas!

• A.k.a.: pasteis de nata, a.ka.: mooncakes, a.k.a.: the best tasting thing in the world. These little tarts are sweet, custardy goodness, and there's no describing how delicious they are until they're tasted. Like what god would taste like if he were a delicious Portuguese pastry. We made a pilgrimage out to Belem to try the "original" natas, which were warm and fresh but really when you're comparing perfection to perfection there's no real way of knowing if they were better than the ones we ate most days from our Sao Nicolao bakery. I will miss these desperately.

• General Beauty.

• There was a lot of it. Lisbon rules.

Next stop is Utrecht for a 4-day music festival! I've officially given up pretending I'm going to school while I'm here, this extended vacation has been amazing and while I still have about 6 assignments to hand in I'm not going to let those stand in the way of the real reason I'm here, which is food, apparently.