Vamanos a Portugal!

The week after we came back from spring break our program went on a trip to Lisbon, Portugal. We left Thursday morning and made our way to Extramadura, a region in the west of Spain. We stopped at Trucillo for lunch and then at Marvao to see a castle that resided on the border of Spain and Portugal and to spend the night.

Friday morning we made our way into Portugal and stopped at Sintra, a town an hour outside of Portugal. We did a walking tour of the city before we made our way to Lisbon. Friday night in Lisbon we were free to do as we pleased but it was pouring so we didn't get to explore much of the city.

Sintra, Portugal

Saturday morning we had a tour of the city where we walked the old city and drove to Belem. In Belem we visited a monastery which held the body of Vasco de Gama! Belem is also known for its pastries and the pastry shop, Pasteis de Belem. The pastries are like little cheesecake things in a pastry dish. Its very hard to explain but they are famous for it. I talked to the security guard in there and he told me that they made over 9 million a year! They also have a shop in Queens.

nom, nom, pastries!

paino!!

Saturday afternoon we had free to do as we want and while a lot of people went back to the hotel to take a nap, my friend Rachel and I ventured across the city to the modern part of the city and took a cable car ride along the river. There was also a park that had giant outdoor musical instruments that we had fun playing with while it was pouring out. Unfortunately the whole weekend the weather kind of sucked with all the rain and wind, but we tried to make the best of it.

SUNY Albany Spring 2012

Food Blackout.... I left my heart in San Sebastian

So after our trip to Finland we came back to Madrid for a day before we were off again. This time we were off to Pais Vasco (north of Spain) and San Sebastian with our friend Rachel. We had three days in San Sebastian and might I say this may have been my favorite 3 days of all.


We arrived in San Sebastian late Thursday afternoon and found our quaint little hostel. The weather was kinda bad (rainy and cool) so we figured we would just walk around a little instead of going to the beach. We walked up this mountain where there was a giant Jesus figure (like the one in Brazil). I guess we found Jesus hahaha :) After that we went back to the hostel where we met these 3 boys from the UK, a boy from Florida, and 2 Turkish girls and decided to all get dinner together. San Sebastian is famous for their pintxos. These are small plates (more elaborate than the usual Spanish tapa) that you order at a bar and eat standing up. Luckily for us, the kid from Florida was actually living in San Sebastian and working as a chef so he knew exactly where to take us and what to order. That night we only made it to one bar but we ate plenty there with Sean telling us how each one was made. I'll put up pictures in a moment.

The next day we walked through the city and el paseo de la playa. San Sebastian has 3 beaches right in a row. A popular thing to do is to walk along the beaches from one end to another. At one end they have huge iron structures jutting out into the water which are pretty awesome. They also have a cable car which takes you up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. The weather still sucked that day but we really didn't care at that point because we just absolutely loved the city. The city has a French influence in the architecture and is completely unique in Spain. Just everything about the city was gorgeous. I couldn't get enough of it. I really think it's one of Europe's secret treasures.

 in <3 with San Sebastian

That night we had pintxos again. As well as Saturday. Actually all we did Saturday was walk around and eat. We couldn't get enough of the pintxos. I think that was some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life and I barely spent 20euros a day! I would go back here in a heartbeat especially once the weather gets nicer.


and now for only a sampling of what we ate:
on the left is squid fried in it's own ink and battered
the middle is a kobe burger on a ketchup infused bun (i ate 4 of these in 3 days, they were incredible)
on the far right is rabbit
and the dessert is some caramel chocolate and licorice thing (i don't remember really)

other stuff we had was pig's ear, cow cheek, goat cheese and plum sauce, duck, chicken's hearts, risotto, cod, and more that I can't even remember, we ate so much (food blackout). It was all incredible.

Spring Break and Snow?!

Oh yes it's been a while, I know. My apologizes.

Last time I wrote I was in Helsinki and just leaving for Tallin. Well our trip to Tallin was a success (except me forgetting my camera and Alexis forgetting her camera charger- luckily Rik came fully prepared!). The old medieval town is so cute and for us was really interesting because it's so different that southern Europe which we're used to. We ate some interesting Russian food as well, pickles and honey! It was good! 

We were back in Helsinki for a couple more days. We spent most of the weekend walking around getting to know the city and eating. Eating food we cooked, that Laura cooked, that we bought, we really didn't care. That was the first time we had a kitchen readily available to us and we were really excited. We brought kraft mac and cheese from Madrid and made it there! 

Sunday we went to Porvoo, which is a town outside of Helsinki. Because it was Sunday a lot of stuff was closed but it was still nice to walk around and do a little shopping. On Monday we went to an outdoor museum where they had recreated an old Finnish village. No one was really there because it had just started to snow and the museum is pretty dead in off seasons. But it was still fun to walk around and play in the snow! I made a snow angel and Alexis decided to clean the trees of snow, for some odd reason. 

With the snow the village looked really picturesque. It actually was a perfect time to visit because it was really pretty in the snow.

Even though the weather wasn't the greatest we had a great time in Helsinki. Rik and Laura were amazing hosts and great cooks! We really couldn't have asked for me. It may have been an odd spring break but definitely worth it!