Lost in Belgium: Surfing in Oostende

After traipsing around Brugge for a few hours, Nick and I decided on a whim to head up to the coast and dip our toes into the North Sea in a beachside town called Oostende. Immediately when we pulled into the center of town it was clear that this place was a summer tourist beach destination, probably in the order of say the Jersey shore or Rehobeth beach in Delaware. But because it's only the end of May, it was still pretty quiet.

We got down to the shore and my first thought was, 'Why didn't I bring Kyma!' That would be my surfboard, yes, Big Red actually has a name. Anyway, the waves weren't amazing, but they were there and just as I was starting to wonder if anyone surfed in this town, Nick looked over at this van parked along the boardwalk and said to me "Hey, do you think those guys are surfers?" They were pulling on wetsuits, so my bed was yes. And sure enough about 30 minutes later, there was a solid handful of guys out in the water, leaving me on the short to wade up to my ankles and get all windblown. Sad, but honestly if I had known you could surf up there, I'd have probably been making weekend trips there for the last two months. Oh well, next time I suppose. First I have to learn to read the weather charts so I can actually make it worthwhile. Nice to know there's surfable water nearby though.

Oh, and Oostende was actually quite cute, even though it was touristy. After he managed to drag me away from the surfers, we walked down near the harbor and were met with the site of fish stand upon fish stand upon fish stand. Most of them were selling a combination fresh fish, smoked fish and some kind of fish stew usually. I walked away with a lightly pickled raw herring and a smoked herring that I thought might be kind of like the smoked whitefish I love having with my dad at home. (FYI: It turned out to be quite tasty, but also completely whole. I've never had to clean out a smoked fish before but this one, well lets just say that in addition to de-boning it, I also had to clean out the innards)

We ended up having an amazing meal of mussels before we left. I mean, I don't think it's possible to go to Belgium and not has the trifecta of foods it's known for: Mussels, Beer and Waffles. Oh and chocolate. I can't forget chocolate. Because I love chocolate almost as much as I love little critters that live in shells for eating.

Lost in Europe: Eurovision 2008

So last night, I had the joy of experiencing Eurovision 2008. For those American types who like me have no idea what this is, allow me to explain. Eurovision is a multinational talent music contest conducted every year with representatives from a series of countries throughout Europe, Russia and (strangely) Israel. Basically, it's like American Idol for the European continent. However it only takes place on one night. So all these countries hold their preliminary contests locally (although some apparently just pluck a group out of the ether) and the on a single night, they broadcast the performances throughout Europe. Each country is then allowed to vote (but they can't vote for their own country) and a winner is named.

We watched a broadcast of the contest commentated thstrange talent contest commentated by a very funny British newscaster, who filled the gaps between performances with snarky commentary on the trend of Eastern Block countries only voting for each other, thus the ongoing run Eastern European countries coming out tops. In the meantime I was treated to performances featuring strange Pirates of the Caribbean singing, overly plastic surgeried Swedish performers, Retro Frenchmen and a very strange Spanish man who was truly terrible. Most of the songs were in English, but a few groups bucked the trend by singing in their native language. At the end of the performances, the lines are opened up and people from all the participating countries are allowed to vote for 30 minutes before the winner is finally announced.

At the end of it all, the winner is Russian singer Dima Bilan who I believed my lovely commentator referred to as Michael Flatley on rollerskates.

Lost in Portugal: Sights around Lisboa

So, I neglected to actually write more posts while I was in Lisbon, therefore I don't really have a place to put these as my earlier posts were rather random and too specific, but I have to say that I loved Lisbon as a city, it is quite beautiful with some wonderful architecture that really reflects the different cultural groups that have lived in and shaped the city.

Even though most of the weekend was cool, rainy and grey, I adored wandering through the steep, narrow city streets. In fact, the cool, rainy weather combined with the replica Golden Gate Bridge over the harbor and the steep, narrow streets climbing up the hillside just made Lisbon feel that much more like San Francisco. Although San Fran feels more upscale in many ways.

We saw quite a bit of the city and with the less than favorable weather even made it to the Lisboa Oceanario which has a phenomenal saltwater tank as its centerpiece, including perhaps the coolest fish ever, the Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, a gigantic saltwater fish that can grow up to 11ft long and enjoys drifting on its side while the currents carry it through the ocean. Plus a fair number of sharks and barracudas floating around inside.

We hit most of the big sites: St. Jorge's Castle, Belém where we saw the Belém Tower and Jerónimos Monastery (both UNESCO World Heritage sites), the Chiado shopping district (although this time I refrained from tragging Nick through another shopping marathon), the Bairro Alto, and even the Jardim Botanico, which was slightly disappointing after the immensity of Berlin's Tiergarten. That combined with all the walking around the city gave us a pretty good sense of things although I can definitely see coming back for a longer stay. Plus perhaps a bit more time on the coast . . . gotta work on my timing on the waves after all.

Lost in Portugal: Lisboa Graffiti

Saw a load of cool graffiti in Lisbon last weekend. Lots of it was stencil work with some freehand stuff, but the stencil stuff was so prevalent it made me wonder if it might be a single artist.

Lost in Portugal: Pastel de Belém

So one of the things that we were told was an absolute, must try food in Lisbon was the Pastéis de Belém, a small egg cream tart in puff pastry. According to local lore, the recipe for this particular pastry cream is a closely held secret and only three people in Belém know the recipe, passing it down from one generation to the next as each retires. Jamie Oliver apparently tried to recreate the recipe without success, he just wasn't able to replicate the silky texture of the cream.

So with that knowledge in hand, we headed to what is supposedly the birthdplace of this tasty, creamy little tartlet, Antiga Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém. And taste, and taste, and taste we did. Tiny, silky smooth tarts, still warm from the oven. Flaky and tender but still sturdy as you bit into it so that you didn't end up with a lapfull of puff pastry shreds.

We purchased two dozen with the intention of bringing them home for our co-workers, but unfortunately the pastries were left behind as an unintentional gift for our new friends at the Surf Castle. I guess we'll have to return to Lisbon to partake in the joy again.

Lost in Portugal: Sintra Views

Sintra is this beautiful little village in Portugal, a UNESCO World Heritage site in fact (I seem to be racking up quite a few of these lately), that we stopped in before heading out to the coast for my surf experience.

We didn't have nearly as much time as we would have liked to have in the town so we didn't get to see the summer palace, but we did hike up to the Moorish Castle (ruins actually) which took a good hour. The view was completely worth the time and effort (we foolishly hiked along a road instead of the trail from the village, a bit hairy now and then when the locals would come barreling around the tight, steep turns).

The castle wall was supported from below by enormous granite (?) boulders that must have been carried through the landscape by glaciers during the ice age. From the topmost part of the castle wall you could see all the way down the coastline, even to Ericeira an incredibly famous surf spot. Unfortunately I couldn't tell what the waves were like from there, but we didn't go there anyway so it didn't really matter. Next time, when I'm actually better at this crazy sport I've picked up.

Lost in Portugal: Surf Castle

So it's hard to fly all the way to Portugal, which has some of the best surfing in Europe along the coast, and not at least attempt to get in the water for a few sessions. Unfortunately this entire weekend was massively blown-out with super high winds, mostly coming on-shore Saturday and Sunday. But today, today it is better. After a grey start this morning, we headed out from Sintra to Peniche so I could once again tempt fate in the water.

I had heard about this place in Portugal called the Surf Castle from a couple I met in Famara in March. So when I knew I was heading to Lisbon, I looked them up and got in touch to see if I could get a local heads up on the wave conditions and also maybe score a lesson. Still lots to learn after all.

The owner, Joao, was incredibly helpful, besides giving me the insider update on the conditions (which led to me NOT dragging my board along with us this weekend), he also helped me set up a session with an instructor named Pedro. All in all, a pretty sweet afternoon although I was only able to get a single, hour and a half long session in and the water is sooo much colder than it was in Famara. Once you start moving though you don't really notice, besides it's going to be a lot colder in Chicago this winter. Yes, if you look very closely at that little black dot in this picture, that is me, actually surfing. Albeit not as well as I would have liked . . .

The waves were small, but Pedro said it was the glassiest day they had all weekend, and besides I wasn't complaining, it's not like I can afford to be picky after all.Anyway, even a short session is good for me. The more time in the water the better I say! Gotta work on my timing paddling into the waves though. Practice makes perfect!

So a funny bit of the day actually took place over a late afternoon snack that Nick and I had with Pedro and his girlfriend. They asked me how I had found out about the the Surf Castle, as I related my Lanzarote story, talking about this kind of crazy Italian guy and his Irish girlfriend, they said, "You know Allie and Jenny? They're hysterical. They're coming back in September."

Not that I was really that surprised that they remembered those two, but Pedro even commented on Jenny's board, which isn't really her board since Allie rides it ALL the time. But anyway, love the small world connections.

Lost in Portugal: Coffee Days

Much to Nick's delight we have discovered that Lisbon has quite the coffee culture. In fact, I think ordering coffee in Lisbon might almost be a complicated as ordering coffee in Vienna. A fact Nick found highly reassuring. That and the coffee tastes sooo good. Strong, but not burnt, deep roasts that can be served any number of ways if you just know how to ask for it. Not that we managed to figure that out in three days, but it was good nonetheless. Wish I had pictures, but sadly I have none.

Here is my quick Lisboa coffee primer, courtesy of my failed attemps and TimeOut Lisbon:

For Milky Coffee in a glass, ask for um Galao, basically like a latte but if you add the words Maquina, you should get coffee that's fresh from the machine as opposed to coming from the carafe of the stuff that's been sitting around for a while getting burnt

For a Cappucino like drink ask for uma Meia da leite (half milk).

For Espresso, ask for Bica but ask for um cafe or um duplo if you'd like a double shot.

For the really strong stuff, ask for uma Italiana, a tiny cup of sludgy coffee essence.

Granted, they don't take it quite to the levels of the Viennese, but I have no doubt that if you really know the city, one would find that the subtleties are just as extensive when you know your way around.

Lost in Portugal: Capoeira in the Street

We started the morning wandering through the streets down towards the water and the main square. As we walked down that way, pounding drums and chanting started to fill the causeway between the buildings. I always love street musicians so we made our way towards the crowd and the drumming to find the delightful spectacle of a Capoeira school doing a demonstration with the instructors and their students.

We stood and watched while the teachers and their students wove a dance of martial arts and gymnastics. It was great. I've always wanted to learn a martial art, perhaps this should be my next sport . . .

Lost in Portugal: Literally lost

This may be the worst marked subway station ever. It took us asking directions three times before we were able to locate it, and getting to it meant walking over a highway and through a roundabout. Not so convenient. . .

lost in Portugal: Caracois, caracois

OK, we arrived in Lisbon. It was kind of cold and rainy and I was STARVING! Big shock there I'm sure.

So Nick and I went wandering around our hotel to see what we could find to eat. We wandered into this tiny little storefront and ordered a couple of sandwiches. I happened to see two women behind us eating what looked like a plate of teeny, tiny escargot. So when the server came over I said "I'd like a small plate of those, please."

He looked at me, said "Caracois?"

And I said, yes, what those girls are having. With smile he returned about 5 minutes later with a steaming, garlicky pile of tiny little snails, complete with tiny, little, smiling snail heads that had antennae.

Now I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but for just a moment even I paused. But after a stern, internal pep talk, I dug in with my toothpick while Nick looked on rather horrified. Until he tried them. And boy were they tasty. As long as you can get over the little heads, these suckers are really, really good. Nick only made it through four, but I devoured a good plateful almost before I was full.

Although not for the squeamish, I highly recommend them if you happen to be in Portugal and they're available.

Lost in Germany: The Lancia Musa and Me

Ok, so I cannot lie, when traffic moves there is nothing more fun than cruising down the Autobahn going 180km/hr. Even in a Lancia Musa.
What is a Lancia Musa you might ask? Perhaps the crappiest most unaerodynamic vehicle I have ever had the good fortune to hop behind the wheel of. Honestly, this thing uses over 14 liters of gas per 100km when you're going 80. Awful.

But still fun to drive the Autobahn even with a less than spectacular car. I am super tempted to find a really nice car, like say a Porsche or an Audi A8 or (this one's for you Dad) one of the new Maserati coupes to take out for a spin for a day. You know, see what it's really like to drive these roads in an actual car.

Now however I am sitting in a 20km traffic jam only 100km from Frankfurt. Whoever said driving the Autobahn is always a speed adventure has clearly never driven thru Germany on a holiday weekend. Here's hoping we make it home by midnight, which would make a supposedly 4. 5 hour drive into an 8+ hour drive . . .

Lost in Germany: Beautiful Berlin

Well, we managed to see a fair amount of Berlin in what really amounted to a long day and a half in the city.

In no particular order, here's a quick rundown on things I think are 'must sees' in the city:

Reichstag
The Reichstag building is the home of the German Parliament and offers a beautiful view over the city and the government quarter. From here you can actually see the top of Gehry's building in the nearby Pariser Platz and well as take in the expansive green of the Tiergarten that extends through the city.


Checkpoint Charlie
For those who haven't been before, I definitely recommend seeing Checkpoint Charlie. There's nothing real left there now that the Wall has been taken down, but the collection of posters around the sight detailing the history of the wall is fascinating and I definitely would recommend stopping by Cafe Adler which actually is the only original piece left from the pre-Fall days.

Unter den Linden
A lovely boulevard to walk along on your way to the Brandenburger Tor. It was named for the Linden trees that line the pedestrian pathway.

Bebel Platz
Located along Unter den Linden, Bebel Platz is probably most well-known for being the site of the infamous Nazi book burning.

Humboldt Universität
Berlin's oldest university, located along Unter den Linden. It was from Humbolt University's library that the Nazi youth took some 20,000 books and burned them on the Bebel Platz.

Brandenburger Tor and Pariser Platz
Definitely one of the most recognizable symbols of Germany, the Brandenburger Tor was builtin 1791 and modelled on the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. The Tor sustained heavy damage during World War II and was restored in the 1950s. After the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, the Brandenburg Gate was inaccessible to the citizens of both Germanys and was ultimately regarded as the symbol of Cold War divisions.

Pariser Platz sits in front of the Tor and is home to an inordinate number of banks including the Deutsche Bank Frank Gehry Building.

Tiergarten
A fantastic garden spread through the center of the city, the Tiergarten reminds me a bit of Central Park, but it seems much bigger. In one of the meadows is a grouping of 7 large stones, part of an artistic installation called the Global Stone Project.

Schloss Charlottenburg
Schloss Charlottenburg was the summer home of the German ruling family. They have the most spectacular gardens there and even though it's a bit further out of the city, I highly recommend visiting. The palace itself is absolutely beautiful.

Nikolaikirche
Berlin's oldest church is located quite near to the Berliner Dom and also the Museumsinsel. Apparently, there's also quite a nice exhibit inside, but we didn't have time to see it.

Museumsinsel
A UNESCO World Heritage site, a host of museums are housed on this tiny island in the city as well as the Berliner Dom. We didn't bother heading inside of any of the museums, instead we camped out along the river and basked in the sun enjoying prosecco and apfelstrüdel. Very tasty.

Berliner Dom
A really gorgeous Gothic church. After climbing up a significant number of steps, you are rewarded with a wonderful view out over the city of Berlin. Definitely worth the hike to the top. That and there is a great exhibit with the scale models they used for reconstruction purposes while they repaired the damage caused by a firebomb during WWII.

Gendarmenmarkt
Considered one of Europe's most beautiful city squares, you can enjoy the view the Deutscher Dom, the Fransösicher Dom and the Konzerthaus.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Just a very cool looking church in the middle of Breitscheidplatz, also where I had enjoyed a tasty plate of Berlin's contribution to fastfood, Currywurst. Now keep in mind that currywurst is basically, hot dogs covered in warm ketchup and doused with curry powder. Strange but still tasty, check out this "authentic" recipe here.

Lost in Spain: Sights of Barcelona

Had a few photos I just didn't know where to put. So here are a few of the sights I saw while we traipsed across the city over the weekend.