Epilogue

A frantic run through Frankfurt airport to catch our connecting flight to SFO is nothing short of exciting and stressful. But we made it, and we're glad to be home. By my account, I've taken over 500 pictures and over 150 minutes of video footage. I'm going to give it a try on this video compliation thing, so we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, hope you enjoyed reading our blog this trip, and we always like comments!

In case you were wondering, here are my ranks for the different countries/cities we've visited in the past year.

1) Paris - What can I say? There's so much to do here, the pastries are awesome, steak tartare is awesome, and I just feel like home here.

2) Switzerland - Nothing beats the countryside. No traffic congestion, just cows and grassy farmland to ease the senses. Be at peace, young grasshopper.

3) Japan - A teenage boy's dream. Toys, games, anime to your heart's content.

4) Barcelona - Europe's best food, party atmosphere, and the night that never ends. Europe's version of California.

5) Florence - Rustic, tuscan town is quaint and cozy. Food is eh, but you're here to relive the Renaissance period.

6) London - 2 days to visit is about enough here. Fish and chips are great, but that's about it. Rainy weather reminds me of Seattle, which is depressing.

7) Rome - Food sucks, surprisingly. Tons of traffic and people make for cramped spaces. Other than the Colisseum or running on Circus Maximus, I don't think I need to visit again.

8) Venice - Other than the cool city itself, the food sucked, and difficult to travel around when the only mode of transportation are the overcrowded ferries. That said, you should go here once in your life before it sinks.

Final Day 14: Mount Doom

Gaudi, Gaudi, Gaudi. That's all I hear about on our tour bus audio. Honestly, I don't know who he was, but I know that he apparently is the God of Barcelona architecture. So we decide we should spend our last day remarking on his great masterpieces here, while we can.

First off, the Sagrada Familia...or what I call "Mount Doom" (the evil fortress in Lord of the Rings). This place is massive. And sort of evil looking. It is definitely where the evil sorceror would call his home. Ironically, it's a church, or at least it will be one eventually. The backstory to this building is that it is Gaudi's life-long dream to build a church that is gi-normous beyond all belief. It was started in the late 1860's, and was being worked on until he died in 1927. But, the kicker is that it is STILL not finished and continues to be built today! Hence, the cranes and construction workers, working on it 24/7. The completion date is not even known either. Crazy.

And when I say it is massive, it is literally an understatement. Being inside is nothing compared to the outside facade, and pictures here can't even illustrate the enormity of it all. You really have to be there to get it. We paid about 24 Euros to see it for like 20 min since it was closing, and it was well worth the dough.




The other Gaudi landmark we visit today is known as Casa Mila, a weirdly curvy apartment building in the middle of town. Weirdly curvy, as in it looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie. Obviously, Gaudi is seen as a genius today, but back in the day, his designs were a little off-the-wall. It's a shame that he passed away in the most anticlimatic fashion: getting hit by a tram.


With our last day on this Europe trip behind us, we head home and pack our belongings. It's actually a bit sad to go now, since we've finally settled into this city. The amazing food, great atmosphere, numerous places to visit, and neverending nightlife (not that we actually went out), I think Barcelona is one of the better places to visit in Europe.

Day 13: Break from a Vacation

There comes a point in any long-haul trip that the body just gets wiped out and exhausted...probably from the constant, everyday activities: walking, sight-seeing, and eating. These past 12 days seem like an eternity has passed...heck, even our London trip with Peter is sorta vague and cloudy. I guess that's a good sign that we've had a pretty good vacation so far, since 2 weeks at home goes by quickly. The bad part is that Les is getting a bit under the weather.

Today, we keep it pretty quiet. With our tour bus pass, we venture throughout the city on the double-decker, quickly whisking us by every large monument or landmark the city has to offer. A 4-hour bus ride isn't that long because there is so much to see, necessarily, but traffic congestion here is horrendous. I mean, worse than SF, Rome, and London. Tons of cars and large boulevards that end up in round-abouts with lines that mean very little to the drivers. Impressively, however, that even with all of the chaos on the streets, all the drivers were very keen and aware and avoided accidents pretty well. American drivers would not last very long here.





We also end up visiting the Picasso Museum, which happens to be near our apartment. Nothing too remarkable about the exhibits, other than the relevation that Picasso really was a copycat; taking a lot of his drawings from this guy named Degas. Only near the end of his philandering life did he start doing the crazy abstract stuff we recognize today.

One more day of our vacation tomorrow. I've been having dreams about work and home again. I kinda miss my PS3. Homesick much?

Day 12: Bam! Let's Kick It Up a Notch

Ah, traditional Spanish cuisine...tapas and paella. If you didn't know (which I didn't), tapas are just small servings of food served for late dinners in Spain. Apparently, Spanish folk love to start the day late, eat a big late lunch (around 2pm), take an hour siesta break or nap, go back to work until 7, drink and eat at around 9-10, then party it up until 1 or 2am. On Mondays. And Tuesdays. And so on. In fact, the bar downstairs has been playing house music until 3am every night so far. Where's my broom handle when I need it?

Anyways, today we learned the fine art of preparing some Spanish dishes: seafood paella, catalan cream (like creme brulee), tomato bread, and spanish omelette. But first, we take a tour of the famed Boqueria Market, the largest food market in Europe, where you can buy 10+ different kinds of eggs, 100+ kinds of fish, fruit, vegetable, peppers, and even freshly caught rabbit. It's been around for some 100 odd years, and reminds me a lot of Tsujki Market in Japan.

I didn't know Emu eggs were black.



Today's class was pretty large (about 13 of us), so we all took turns working on some part of the menu. Les worked on preparing the fish broth, which consisted of dicing vegetables and monkfish head. I don't think she was very comfortable with the head part, but she seemed a bit too happy when she got it to cut apart.

I worked on the paella part, and it was simple enough to make. Chop squid, cook in oil, put in rice, add fish broth, let cook until water is gone. Done. Don't stir at all, that's the key. It costs a lot at tapas restaurants because it just has to take a lot of time to cook off the broth, but other than that, it's pretty simple.

Since the cooking class took the majority of the day, we decide to take it easy for the night and take a stroll on La Ramblas, the huge shopping area. Lots of street performers and tourists, so it's usually a place for a lot of con artists and pick pockets. Apparently, we didn't run into any because I had a 50 Euro bill hanging out of my pocket for a while and no one took the bait.

A nice late tapas dinner later, and we head home. Tomorrow, we have a trip on the tour bus to take us around the city, so we need to get some sleep. And it looks like the party is getting started downstairs again. *shakes fist*

Mid-Blog Commentary: Say What?

It's amazing how much a one-hour flight can take you from one distinct culture to another...at least, depending if you are in Europe or in the US. Let me explain...in our travels in Europe so far, we've been immersed in not 2, or 3, but 4 very different lands, languages, cultures, and lifestyles...and all 4 places all within one hour's flight to each other.

Now, compare that to the US, or at least California, and a one hour flight will take you closer to the Golden Gate Bridge or Disneyland. Here's a comparison of words that we've used so far:

Hello
Bonjour
Guttentag
Hola

Cheers
Merci
Danke
Gracias

Compare to CA:

Hey
Sup

Really
Hella

So in conclusion, Europe is full of vastly diverse cultures and people fit into a relatively small region of land, while Californians are apparently like Matthew McConaughey.

Day 11: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well, the day didn't start off too well. On the way to the train station in Interlaken, one of my gloves fell out of my pocket and scrambled for a tense 15 minutes searching for it, but to no avail. Oh well, chalk one up for the sacrifices on this trip. It's ok, though, we're leaving for warmer climate anyways. If you are in dire need of a left hand glove, let me know.

Not much to say for today, other than it was the longest traveling day so far. 12 hours. By train, plane, and bus. Ouch. it didn't help that we were also stuck on the plane for an extra hour and delayed for another.

Anyways, we made it to our apartment safe and sound, in an area called El Born. Not really touristy, but filled with small tapas restaurants, bars, and cafes. After a late night dinner, which actually is common here, we called it a night. But here are some things about Barcelona.

- Barcelona reminds me of San Francisco...La Ramblas (big ol shopping area) is just like Union Square; there's a wharf/aquarium, lots of traffic, nice moderate weather, and tons of people.

- Did I mention there are a lot of people here? Barcelona downtown is made for walking with wide sidewalks and huge avenues for shopping. Coupled with good weather, and you'll have people coming out from everywhere.

- The food is AMAZING. So far, the food we had tonight was better than London, Paris, and Italy.

- Barcelona is named the #1 destination in Europe, according to some US Travel Survey. We shall see.

In the meantime, here are some food pictures.

Day 10: Winter Wonderland

I just realized that the mountain that our room is facing is known as the Eiger, North Face. I think it's the same North Face on the clothing. I'll have to look it up on Wikipedia, but I think that's right. Cool.

Anyways, today, we woke up to a nice surprise...it was snowing outside! I guess the weather front moved down the hillside during the night from where we were hiking. I wonder where the cows all went. On a good note, we managed to see the majority of the Swiss Alps area around us before it got snowed out.

Today, we head off to do a scavenger hunt in Interlaken for a hostel to find a message from her sister Laura who had left it a message in the ladies bathroom about 20 years ago. I doubt they haven't painted over it in 2 decades, but who knows. Mental note: Balmer's Hostel looks like a super-fun place to stay...outdoor beer garden, underground bar/club, giant pub, pool hall, etc. I think it would be a perfect place to stay during the summer when all the college grads hang out for summer break. Oh wait, I'm not 20 anymore?

Turns out, we find the hostel, but no message. That Would have been pretty cool though. On a side note, I didn't know Switzerland had a lot of Thai people, but we ate at a Thai restaurant nearby, which had a whole bevy of Thai folks working inside. Funny. The Pad Siew is still better at home though.

We spend the next few hours doing some souvenir shopping and tasting of the local chocolates. We even attend a chocolate show at Schuh, the most famous Swiss chocolatier shop in all of, well, Switzerland (according to our teacher). Les gets to make some truffles, I paint some cow mold, and taste a tequila truffle. It tastes like tequila. Not so good. They also have a chili-flavored chocolate bar. Interesting.

Welp, our Swiss adventure is at an end today, for tomorrow we hop on a train to Zurich, then off on a flight to Barcelona, our last stop of Euro Trip 2010. I think after this last segment, we'll be ready to come home to the good ol US of A.

Day 9: The Cow Goes Moo

Whew! Now we finally feel like we're on vacation. No set plans for the day, no alarm clock, no timetables, no rushing. Just a leisurely wake, and see what we feel like doing. I suppose if you're not in a big city and in a countryside town, there's not much of a line to do anything really. Actually, this area reminds me of Hakone (Japan) when we were in the boonies. Turns out, today is probably the best day for a relaxed day, since it is raining.

We decide to spend the afternoon in an area called First, which during the summer is a nice place for mountain biking, hiking, zip lining, and camping. During the winter, it's like Squaw Valley. Since we're in between seasons, it's neither, so its open for exploration. We make the 30-min gondola ride to the top, where it is snowing! Since no one is there, we essentially have the whole mountain to ourselves. Fresh powder, no one around = snowman, snow angels, yellow snow? It's actually really cool with such serenity and white all around.


On the way down, we decide to get off about halfway down and hike down the hill and through the grassy fields and farms. Suffice to say, this was Les' best part of vacation so far. It really is like a scene out of the Sound of Music. The cows all have giant bells around their necks, and the constant bell ringing sounds like the skit from SNL. More cow bell! The town makes their cheese right from these farms. It must be real natural cheese, because we've eaten tons of cheese these past few days, and we haven't gotten the "problems" as back home.


Word of caution: don't touch the fences around the cow fields...they are electrified. Ask me how I know.

Day 8: I'm on Top of the World!

Well, not really top of the world, but top of Europe. Called Jungfraujoch, it's said to be the highest tourist spot in all of Europe at around 2 miles above sea level. It's also cold as freak up there, at around -7 C. To get there, we need to
take a few trains up the mountain which takes about 2 hours total. Mind you, at this altitude, the air gets pretty thin, so it's easy to get light headed and short of breath. I guess when we see whole train loads of tourists coming down from the mountain all passed out in their seats, it's not a good sign.

At the top of the station, you can take an elevator to the top lookout point, where you have a 360 deg view of the entire valley and mountain range. But it's so cold, you need to go in every 3-4 minutes or so before freezing your tail off.

There is also a part of the complex called the Ice Palace, where everything is carved from ice, sort of like that hotel in that James Bond movie, Die Another Day...but without the terrible acting.

After about 2 hours of oxygen deprivation, we head back down the mountain, gratified to breathe normal air again. This time, we take the train to the other side of the valley to an area called Lauterbrunnen. I won't say much about this place, but the view is simply amazing.


We make it down to Interlaken, sort of base camp in the valley, and stop by a knife store to look at Swiss Army knives (I've never owned one, and I've heard they don't sell non-red ones outside of Switzerland). Look what Santa brought!

Day 7: The Land of Army Knives, Cheese, Chocolate, Watches, and Toblerone

The big problem with train travel is that it pretty much takes away your whole day. That aside, it offers some of the most spectacular views you won't see on an airplane.

Switzerland, which I did my 4th grade country report on, is most famous for its Swiss chocolates and cheeses (ie. fondue). I guess that is made possible because it's mostly farmland and cows. Also, it is the most expensive place in Europe (more than Tokyo, NY, and SF). A meal at Burger King cost me a hefty $15! yeesh.

We're staying in a countryside area called Grindelwald, up near the Swiss Alps, and our suite has an awesome view of the mountain. Can't beat this view in the morning! Oddly enough, the town shuts down from Oct-Dec, until ski season starts up, so most hotels and restaurants are closed up. Also, this place is filled with Japanese and Indian tourists. Who woulda thought?

Day 6: Smile for the Camera!

When I read online that the Photo Tour was the best way to learn about my Fisher Price camera, I figured I could optimize my basic knowledge of the technical and artistic stuff: ISO, shutter speed, aperture, composition, lighting, etc. But the photo tour was exactly that...a tour. Hmm, not exactly what I paid the $$$ for, but at least I became the teacher's pet once our guide commented on my nice pictures. Could be a ruse to boost her paying customer, but here are some of the shots I took:




A few tips from my lesson:

- Framing: Try to get the top or bottom of the subject, to show completeness

- Symmetry: People like to look at visually interesting stuff (avoid complete randomness)

- Balance: Not too much of your bf/gf...kills the photo

- Avoid boring same ol stuff: Take a picture through a reflection on a mirror or window, looks cool if done right.

With the last Paris activity out of the way, we decide to visit Versailles (about 40 min outside of Paris). With about 2-hrs left before it closes, we decide to make a mad dash and see at least some of it before we leave tomorrow.

Arriving at 5:30, we edge our way in as literally the last visitors of the day. Even though we have only 30-min left before close, we do a quick run through the chateaux to catch the cool rooms of the palace. To be honest, the only place I knew of beforehand was the famed Hall of Mirrors...but in person, it's no sadly, thing too special. Although the great thing about being the last people there is that there is no one else there! Makes for great photos and lots of elbow room. Enjoy!

The Versailles Gardens is a massive park, and the more impressive part of the place. It's like Central Park and Filoli Gardens put together. But it's HUGE. It's also open to public if you want to jog through there.

Done with the day, we head over to the Latin Quarter for dinner and dine across Notre Dame for some sole muniere (deep fried fish in butter). I think it was my first meal that wasn't steak tartare...including last year. Wow.

Tomorrow, we leave Paris (so sad) and head to Switzerland. Hopefully, the strikes won't affect our trip!