barcelona

Thanksgiving is just not the same when you (a) have to work, (b) aren't with your family, (c) don't get to run a Thanksgiving morning race with your friends, (d) don't go out partying the night before knowing you will regret it when you have to wake up and run 6 miles, and (e) don't stuff your face with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and of course pecan and pumpkin pie!!!

Needless to say, I was a little sad/bitter/hungry all day at work. My fellow American expats commiserated with me (Alayna and Kristin). The only thing that got me to 3pm was knowing that I was going to be able to leave then and meet Candice at the train station and head to the Basel airport to catch our flight to Barcelona!

I'd never been to Spain before so I was really excited! We spent our first night in Barcelona at a nice restaurant with our own Spanish version of a Thanksgiving feast: chorizo croquettes, paella, and sangria!

Friday morning we went and toured the city.

We went on a gondola ride over the bay (which of course Candice freaked out on because of her fear of heights). We walked along the beach a little bit and saw some truly amazing sand castles.

My favorite was the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Church. I think it is the most beautiful church I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of churches during my travels). The church was started in 1882 and is still under construction. It is expected to be completed by 2030. The one side of the church is the passion scene:

Rick Steves told us about all of the symbolism built into the architecture of the church which is really cool.

The other side of the church is the nativity scene:

Barcelona is just so pretty, I couldn't stop taking pictures.

Our next stop was the Picasso museum.

Then we went to Olympic stadium:

We walked Las Ramblas many times during our weekend. I liked it best in the morning (less creeps and pickpockets).

Saturday morning I got a 10 Euro manicure which was amazing. Then we spent the day relaxing on the beach.

Unfortunately, I had to prepare to facilitate training on Monday morning, so my beach time was more work than relaxing...

 

For our last night in Barcelona, we went for some more paella and more sangria (its just to yummy). The restaurant we went to was really lively and they gave us free champagne, so we couldn't complain.

So, not my typical Thanksgiving weekend, but I really can't complain! A tiring, but awesome week and a half travelling with Candice. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends (and ate some turkey and stuffing for me!). I have so much to be thankful for this year.

my first visitor

After Prague, Candi came to visit in Zurich for the week. We of course tried to squeeze as much as possible into the few days she was in town. Sunday night we got sausages at Bellevue. Monday night we walked through Niederdorf and had dinner with Alayna and Luca followed by Movenpick ice cream and a walk along the lake.

Tuesday night we went to Zeughauskeller with Mychele and John, which of course meant we had to get the big flaming beers.

Wednesday night Candi and I both had our first raclette. It was amazing. The best Swiss dish hands down. We did it at my house with the help of my Swiss friends Jelena and Daniela. This was a wonderful pre-Thankgiving feast. We even ate turkey with our raclette, but its not the same on top of a potato covered in cheese.

 Candi ensured me that she enjoyed her time in Switzerland and she was a great trial ("low risk") guest. We were both beat by Thursday (Thanksgiving). More to come on our next adventure later.

prague

I just got back from an amazing weekend in Prague, Czech Republic. I went with a former co-worker and friend Candice Rack. Candice was working in Europe this week so we met in Prague on Friday evening. I got in earlier than she did, so I went to a restaurant near our hotel for dinner. I couldn't resist going for the "large" beer because it was so cheap!!

As I finished up my beer the French guys at the table behind me asked me if I wanted to take a shot with them. Since it was a flaming shot and "take a flaming shot" is one of the items on my bucket list, I went for it (kind of scary, but pretty tasty):

I then went back to the hotel to wait for Candice. I posted on facebook that I was in Prague and Annie Mansfield, a friend from the 1st grade, immediately commented that I should go to Lucerna and "dance until 4am". Candice got there, dropped her things off and we decided to head to a bar. The person at the hotel told us the area nearby that had a lot of fun bars, so we headed in that direction. As we are walking, Candice looks up and says, there is Lucerna, so we just had to go in. It was a blast. It was 80's and 90's music night and sure enough, we danced until 4am!

Candi had to double fist to catch up to me :)

Saturday morning we overslept (big surprise), and then headed out to do our touring of Prague. We took the tram to our first stop, Prague Castle:

We walked around the grounds a little bit and went inside the church and parts of the castle. Next stop was lunch. After lunch, we walked towards the Lennon Wall. On the way, we found this bridge filled with "lovers' locks". Legend has it that when you find your true love you carve your names on a lock and lock it onto the bridge. You then throw the key in to the canal.

 At this point in the day, we started "making up monuments" (the culmination of which I will get to later). I saw some people taking a picture of a wall with a statue on it and said, oh that must be the Lennon Wall! I was not even close, this is the Lennon wall:

The graffiti on the wall was really pretty and we enjoyed reading all the quotes and sayings. Here were some of my favorite:

Life is what happens when you are busy making plans.

Everything happens for a reason.

All you need is Love...

And of course:

Next stop, Eiffel tower:

Did I confuse you? No, we did not go to Paris. Prague has a "mini" Eiffel Tower which they built 2 years after the Eiffel Tower in Paris was completed. The "mini" Eiffel Tower is 1/3 the size of its Parisian brother, but sits at the top of Pettrin hill and is therefore the same "height" as the actual Eiffel Tower. We took the elevator to the top and had great views of the entire city. Candi is afraid of heights so being up there with her was hilarious and reminded of being with my mom on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Here you can see the Pettrin Tower from the bottom o the hill:

Next we walked along Charles Bridge, we watched the caricatures being drawn, looked at the beautiful paintings of Prague, and listened to the many musicians playing and singing.

We then walked through Old Town, went to the Square and saw the Astronomical Clock:

We decided to go up into the clock tower for some more amazing views:

As I mentioned earlier, we continued to misname monuments all day. We usually figured out the right thing, but the best was when we got down from the clock tower and Candi was telling me about the "27 white crosses" (she'd read about it in Rick Steve's Prague book) and how there were 27 white crosses for 27 people that were beheaded. She then walked me over to this statue:

I asked "where are the white crosses?" So we laughed and decided that this probably wasn't the right thing, so then Candi was determined to find these white crosses. We both looked at the map and read Rick's book and decided that based on the map they should be in this fenced in grassy area, but these crosses were nowhere to be seen, so I suggested that maybe the crosses have been taken out since Rick wrote the book because we couldn't see them anywhere....but then we read what Rick wrote about the crosses and he says they are inlaid in the pavement. So we walked around some more and found a series of these white crosses in front of a building. We were so proud of ourselves for finally finding the "real" thing:

As we walked away from the square to head towards New Town with our mission completed, I about lost it when we almost walked right on top of these 27 white crosses which were actually for sure the real thing:

We took one more picture after about 4 tries at making up this landmark:

The last part of Prague we toured was Wencelas Square which is the street that leads up to the Museum.

We perused the shops and were so intrigued by this:

That's right, people pay to put their feet in the fish tank and the fish eat off the dead skin. It looked so gross and I don't know how the people doing it looked relaxed, it would have to tickle so much!

We ended the night with dinner at a traditional Czech restaurant and then some beers. While drinking these Budvars, I said,"Look at us Candi, we come halfway around the world just to be sitting here drinking a couple of Buds like back home!"