Hello everyone. Alicia and I aplogize for not keeping the blog up to date, the Internet in Spain is terrible. I think the person who manages the Internet signal that we were ¨borrowing¨finally blocked our computers. We will try to make the posts from a smoky, overpriced, crowded internet cafe from an IBM PC Jr. or I can try to steal time from my school´s computer lab.
Off to Portugal!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Raccio pernil ibéric
Phrase of the week: Raccio pernil ibéric = very expensive ham
Observation of the week: Don’t order 2 of something if you don’t know the price. This weekend, we decided to check out the cava region and visit a few vineyards. (“Cava” is the name given to Spanish sparkling wine after the French mandated in the 1970’s that the only “champagne” that could be called “champagne” had to come from the Champagne region in France . . .). So on Saturday, off we go to Vilafranca del Penedés as per the guidebook to find the tourist office and get a list of the area vineyards to visit that day. Lovely little market town, known for the Human Towers they build during one of the 1000 festivals Spain has (the tallest one in this town is 10 people, a little boy is always the last one to climb on top for obvious reasons.) Anyway, back to the ham. In typical Spanish fashion, the tourism office was closed when we arrived. Of course it was, it was 1:30 and they needed a lunch break until 4:00. We went to have lunch and take advantage of the “menu del dia and vino casa tinto” (please see previous blog post), or in this instance, “cava de casa” and discuss our options for the day. We ordered a variety of tapas, and loved, loved, loved the ham. We ordered another round of jamon, queso y pan. It was too good, and really, how much could it be? We were in a little town eating ham, bread and cheese. Surprise, surprise, I guess the waitress really liked us because she gave us the best jamon de casa. $100 later ($50 of it was for the 10 slices of ham), we realized that everything was closed for the day and that we would have to come back. More on that later.
A few other observations about the food in Spain: it’s much better than its reputation; pig legs with the hooves still on them are considered a delicacy and are EVERYWHERE; the local markets have some of the best produce and cured meats we’ve ever had; ditto with the restaurants that specialize in seafood (yes, Tim had a full seafood dinner at one of the best restaurants outside of town and never complained, even when the lobster was trying to escape from the glass case); the burgers are fantastic and are typically served with a fried egg on top (Ariana swears that it’s the Aussie influence); tapas are a bit much, but we might be spoiled by the restaurant we went to our first night here. Every region in Spain is known for a different style of cuisine, so we’ll keep you posted as we continue our travels.
For anyone who is planning to visit Barcelona on a modest budget, here are our favorite restaurants so far: Cerveseria Catalunya (tapas in Eixample), Bo! (tapas in Gracia, see burger picture above), Moon (food is so so, but it’s 2 blocks away, they play great American music, and show VH1 and CNN in the background), O’Vall d’Ouro (lunch spot in Eixample where we discovered vino casa tinto), Mosquito (Asian in El Borne), Los Choqueros (a seafood restaurant outside of town where we took Oliver, the distant relative of Nic who helped us find our apt, see seafood pics above) and last but not least, lentils in cocina de Alicia . . .
On to our activities of the week – it will be short and sweet. Alicia loves yoga, Spanish class is a bit of a chore, and she and Ariana decided to skip Friday’s class after an in-depth discussion over tapas and sangria at Cerveseria Cataluyna. Work is going well, but the internet is still proving to be a problem. If only we knew the password to the bank’s connection across the street, things would be much easier. Tim’s early morning class is finally over, so he’s able to sleep until 2 (ok 1). Finally experienced the Barcelona club scene at Catwalk near the port. We think the area bars are better, but again, when in Spain. Because everything is closed on Sundays, we decided to visit another park (Sagrada Familia was on the way – we’re waiting to go inside until Alicia’s mom comes to visit) – Parc de la Ciutadella – completely different than Parc Guell, but reminded us of a mini Central Park in NYC, and we loved it.
To continue from our cava story from above, we returned to the town on Sunday with another friend of Tim’s from school (Myles, Duke MBA who just happened to be a the 1998 Rolling Stones concert in Prague that Alicia and her friends Dawn and Heather were at – random). We visited two places, Torres vineyards and Cordineu caves. Torres was a bit like Epcot center at Disney World, but fantastic. Cordineu was a more traditional tour, and our guide was the most enthusiastic guide we’ve ever experienced. Plus, for 2 euros, you could get a 1.5 hour tour and drink all the cava at the end that you wanted (they produce more cava in a year than they can sell I guess). Fun fact! Freixenet, another cava producer in the region (the one in the black bottle that sells for about $3 in the US), sells more cava each year than the French sell Champagne.
We’re going to Bilbao, San Sebastian and the La Rioja region later this week/weekend, so our next post will be a little late. Happy early MLK day.
Observation of the week: Don’t order 2 of something if you don’t know the price. This weekend, we decided to check out the cava region and visit a few vineyards. (“Cava” is the name given to Spanish sparkling wine after the French mandated in the 1970’s that the only “champagne” that could be called “champagne” had to come from the Champagne region in France . . .). So on Saturday, off we go to Vilafranca del Penedés as per the guidebook to find the tourist office and get a list of the area vineyards to visit that day. Lovely little market town, known for the Human Towers they build during one of the 1000 festivals Spain has (the tallest one in this town is 10 people, a little boy is always the last one to climb on top for obvious reasons.) Anyway, back to the ham. In typical Spanish fashion, the tourism office was closed when we arrived. Of course it was, it was 1:30 and they needed a lunch break until 4:00. We went to have lunch and take advantage of the “menu del dia and vino casa tinto” (please see previous blog post), or in this instance, “cava de casa” and discuss our options for the day. We ordered a variety of tapas, and loved, loved, loved the ham. We ordered another round of jamon, queso y pan. It was too good, and really, how much could it be? We were in a little town eating ham, bread and cheese. Surprise, surprise, I guess the waitress really liked us because she gave us the best jamon de casa. $100 later ($50 of it was for the 10 slices of ham), we realized that everything was closed for the day and that we would have to come back. More on that later.
A few other observations about the food in Spain: it’s much better than its reputation; pig legs with the hooves still on them are considered a delicacy and are EVERYWHERE; the local markets have some of the best produce and cured meats we’ve ever had; ditto with the restaurants that specialize in seafood (yes, Tim had a full seafood dinner at one of the best restaurants outside of town and never complained, even when the lobster was trying to escape from the glass case); the burgers are fantastic and are typically served with a fried egg on top (Ariana swears that it’s the Aussie influence); tapas are a bit much, but we might be spoiled by the restaurant we went to our first night here. Every region in Spain is known for a different style of cuisine, so we’ll keep you posted as we continue our travels.
For anyone who is planning to visit Barcelona on a modest budget, here are our favorite restaurants so far: Cerveseria Catalunya (tapas in Eixample), Bo! (tapas in Gracia, see burger picture above), Moon (food is so so, but it’s 2 blocks away, they play great American music, and show VH1 and CNN in the background), O’Vall d’Ouro (lunch spot in Eixample where we discovered vino casa tinto), Mosquito (Asian in El Borne), Los Choqueros (a seafood restaurant outside of town where we took Oliver, the distant relative of Nic who helped us find our apt, see seafood pics above) and last but not least, lentils in cocina de Alicia . . .
On to our activities of the week – it will be short and sweet. Alicia loves yoga, Spanish class is a bit of a chore, and she and Ariana decided to skip Friday’s class after an in-depth discussion over tapas and sangria at Cerveseria Cataluyna. Work is going well, but the internet is still proving to be a problem. If only we knew the password to the bank’s connection across the street, things would be much easier. Tim’s early morning class is finally over, so he’s able to sleep until 2 (ok 1). Finally experienced the Barcelona club scene at Catwalk near the port. We think the area bars are better, but again, when in Spain. Because everything is closed on Sundays, we decided to visit another park (Sagrada Familia was on the way – we’re waiting to go inside until Alicia’s mom comes to visit) – Parc de la Ciutadella – completely different than Parc Guell, but reminded us of a mini Central Park in NYC, and we loved it.
To continue from our cava story from above, we returned to the town on Sunday with another friend of Tim’s from school (Myles, Duke MBA who just happened to be a the 1998 Rolling Stones concert in Prague that Alicia and her friends Dawn and Heather were at – random). We visited two places, Torres vineyards and Cordineu caves. Torres was a bit like Epcot center at Disney World, but fantastic. Cordineu was a more traditional tour, and our guide was the most enthusiastic guide we’ve ever experienced. Plus, for 2 euros, you could get a 1.5 hour tour and drink all the cava at the end that you wanted (they produce more cava in a year than they can sell I guess). Fun fact! Freixenet, another cava producer in the region (the one in the black bottle that sells for about $3 in the US), sells more cava each year than the French sell Champagne.
We’re going to Bilbao, San Sebastian and the La Rioja region later this week/weekend, so our next post will be a little late. Happy early MLK day.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Vino Casa Tinto
Phrase of the week: Vino Casa Tinto = house red wineObservation of the week: Spaniards love their red wine. On our third day here, we went to a little restaurant around the corner from our apartment that offered an enticing set price menu (lunch typically starts around 2 p.m.). We noticed that 75% of the people in the restaurant were having a bottle of red wine with their lunch, so of course we decided to partake – when in Spain! We later learned that one of the only positive things the scary Spanish dictator Franco did for his country was to reinforce the lunchtime habits of the people by enshrining in law the “Menu del Dia”. So the working class could get a good priced lunch without having to go all the way home, bars and restaurants were forced to offer an all-inclusive (i.e. with wine) cheap set menu. The tradition still continues today, so we will of course take full advantage! A side note – you can still order bottles of Vino casa tinto for about 3 euros . . .
We arrived in Barcelona on January 1 and have spent the last few weeks getting settled. Our apartment is in the perfect location in Eixample near the Passeig de Gracia where all of the Modernista buildings are (Gaudi, Gambus, Cadafalch). Our roommates Nic and Ariana are fantastic and lots of fun – I think we’ve gone out every night since they’ve arrived . . . Nic is South African, Ariana is Australian/Croatian. January 5 was the Three Kings Festival, “Cavalcada deis Reis”, which is similar to Christmas Eve. We went to Placa de Catalunya at the end of La Rambla to watch the parade that went through the city – packed! After the parade, the children are supposed to run home to put their shoes filled with hay on their balcony for the three kings (literally every building here has balconies) – if they were good, the three kings will leave them presents, if not, coal . . . Sunday everything was closed, so we went to Parc Guell – favorite day so far! It was first designed by Gaudi to be an upscale residential development in the early 1900’s, but funding and interest fell through, so it’s now one of the most unique and impressive public parks in the world. What did we do – more vino casa tinto in the square of course!
January 7 – back to reality. Tim started class, Alicia started work again. Here are Tim's initial comments on his classes:
- Creative Problem Solving: We are split up in teams and we have to use some creative problem solving techniques to help solve a problem of our choice. We came up with trying to figure out how to reduce teen drug/alcohol addiction. After meeting at 9:00 a.m. every day for a week, luckily this class is over on 1/15.
- Sports Marketing: Our professor used to work for the futbol club FC Barcelona. I think this is going to be one of my favorite classes even though I will use nothing that I will be learning about.
- Consumer Behavior: The first class was like an introduction to marketing. I think that I can skip all of the classes, show up for the final, and get an A.
- Management of Cultural and Creative Industries: This is another team-based class and our topic is advertising. After the first 3-hour class, I still don’t know what we are supposed to be learning or what we are supposed to hand in by the end of the semester!
- The Impact of Culture on Business: Doesn’t start until next week, but given the content of my other classes, I am not expecting much.
The lack of internet access is proving to pose problems for Alicia’s work schedule, so she and Ariana signed up for yoga classes (in Spanish, muy tranquilo . . .) and a 4-week intensive Spanish class.
Feel free to leave comments/questions. We miss everyone and will try to update this once a week!
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