Stu's time in "El Pais Vasco"

Well aside from our wonderful time traveling, we had some time in and around Bilbao. We spent some time exploring this beautiful city, but we also made our way to a couple of the smaller towns too.

We had a beautiful day for our day trip to San Sebastian. The bus takes about an hour and it's absolutely worth it. We had some of the best pintxos on the planet, followed by a pretty incredible walk around town. While walking around the old town, we saw a couple impressive churches, dozens of little bars (where the pintxos seem endless), and a group of Basque men playing music, marching down the street, and occasionally stopping to dance.

As much charm as the old town holds, it doesn't really compare to S S's main attraction: The Beach. This little city has an amazing crescent-shaped beach. It is protected by a mountain at either end, and a little turtle-shaped island between them. The wind surfers and sailboats were out in force and the waves attracted a good number of surfers and body-boarders too. We walked down the promenade, by some impressive real estate, and made our way to the funicular. This little contraption pulls a rail car up the side of the mountain. The one in San Sebastian happens to be the oldest in Spain.

Once at the top, we were treated to some gorgeous views and a surprisingly large variety of rides (pony rides too). It would seem that the top of this mountain was quite the tourist attraction. I insisted we take the log ride. It was a little anticlimactic, but an entertaining experience none the less. We got a good look out into the bay of Biscay, and down along the coast. After that, it was pretty much time to head back to the bus, so that's what we did.

Not too long after our trip to San Sebastian, I made my way out to the university to meet Kathlene for lunch. We took the afternoon to go explore Getxo and Potugalete. These towns are right across the river from each other and function as the gate between river and sea. Portugalete was old, but aside from the unique way to get there, didn't hold much character. There was however a very large marina, in which we saw a beautiful little house boat. The crazy thing about this house boat is that it's a duck-house boat. The uniqueness I mentioned has to do with crossing the river. The bridge between Getxo and Portugalete is kind of an anomaly. It's designed not to obstruct river traffic. This produced a bridge which acts as a crane, suspending a car, which is moved back and forth across the river. The picture might make it a little more clear.

Getxo is a beautiful town, with some amazing houses. The beach is quite nice, but my favorite element is the elevator. Since the land rises so quickly away from the water, it can be very tasking to get up to the town. The people of Getxo have built an elevator in the middle of nowhere, to facilitate that trip. It's seriously just on the side of a hill.

After a metro ride home, Ibai prepared a traditional Basque meal. An interesting take on an omelette, with a side of cheese-stuffed sausage and delicious bread. We ate it up and were happy to do so. It was delicious. The dessert may have been the best part. It was a blend of lemon ice cream and champagne. Possibly my new favorite.

With all of that done, I had only one more day in Europe. I did some packing and spent as much time with Kathlene as I could. I left the next morning (up at 4:30) and traveled for what seemed like an eternity. Now I can't wait to go again. If you get the chance, I suggest you go too.

Hasta la proxíma vez,

Stu

Stu's time in "El Pais Vasco"

Berlin

After weeks of travel and many stops, we arrived at our last destination, Berlin. This last city was like nothing else on our trip. It was even more international and diverse than Amsterdam and had something original around every corner. They say that Berlin is bigger than Paris, stays up later than New York, and is wilder than Amsterdam and we certainly wouldn't disagree with that statement.

We took the train from Amsterdam to Berlin which was quite the pleasant train ride aside from the snag we hit in our transfer in Amersfoort. We misunderstood our tickets and thought that the departure time on them was from Amsterdam, however, it was the departure time from Amersfoort and we missed the train we had bought tickets for. Nonetheless, we were able to get on the next train and travel through the countryside to Berlin. Once in Berline, we stayed in an amazing hostel called East Seven in East Berlin. It was in a great neighborhood, close to a metro, walking distance from sights, and may have been our favorite accommodations. We give it the Stu and Kathlene seal of approval.

Our first full day in Berlin was cold and wet. The precipitation went from rain to ice to snow. We went and wandered the area south of the Tiergarten enjoying the hollow tooth, the Berlin Zoo, some shopping, a christmas-theme festival and the Sony Center. The 'hollow tooth' is an old church that was damaged during the war and left standing as a reminder of the damage the city suffered. The Berlin Zoo is one of the world's largest and oldest zoos and was a lot of fun to see. They had quite the impressive aquarium with sharks, manta-rays, all sorts of tropical fish, starfish, coral, sea-horses, and puffer fish. The best exhibits were the lions, tigers, polar bears, and the panda! The panda was so very cute and named Bao Bao. When we arrived to his enclusore it was feeding time and he was munching away on his bamboo putting on a show. I don't think I had ever seen one before and may have gotten a little picture happy. Did I mention how cute he was?

The shopping around the zoo was quite impressive with giant department stores like the famous Ka De Wa. In our shopping wanderings, we also came across a christmas theme festival selling traditional ornaments and all sorts of beverages and confections beside a snow covered hill for tobogganing. It felt a bit like home and we thoroughly enjoyed getting a quick supper there and wandering through christmas. We ended the day by seeing Inglorious Bastards at the Sony Center where we were able to buy beer and popcorn and sit in the most comfortable movie-theatre seats to enjoy some fictional German history. It seemed fitting.

The next day we wandered down Unter den Linden to see most of the main sites. We crossed paths with the famous TV Tower of Berlin, the grandiose presbyterian church called the Berliner Dom, the University, the Brandenberger Tor, and the Reichstag. Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy the Brandenberger Tor or the Tiergarten as much as we hoped we would because U2 was playing there to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The U2 concert actually turned out to be a bit ironic. The concert was meant to be free, but they only gave out 10,000 free tickets and then put up a 2m wall all around the Brandenberger Tor. There was a lot of criticism for erecting a wall around a free concert commemorating the destruction of a wall.

Nonetheless, we learned quite a bit of history about the wall by visitting Checkpoint Charlie, an old checkpoint between east and west berlin where one of the only portions still stands. All around the checkpoint they had boards filled with information and photos of Kennedy, Truman, and Stalin, and the many other political figures who came to play in almost 30 years of cold war. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Berliners during the time of the wall, seperated from part of their country, their family, and loved ones. Berlin is quite a different European capital because of this piece of their history and it shows everywhere.

On our last night in Berlin, we chose to join a pubcrawl to get a taste of some of that infamous Berlin nightlife. The pubcrawl we went on explored East Berlin and started at a small soviet pub with red soviet flags and propaganda on the walls and ceiling. What made the pubcrawl really interesting was that it was oriented around Oranienburger Strasse, behind the Hackescher Markt which is an area that really must be experienced to believe. At first it appears to be an ordinary, quieter neighborhood, but then at a second glance you notice oddities and amazing pieces of architecture like the Jewish Centre, formerly the biggest Synagogue in Berlin. The oddity of the area appears once you notice your in the city's red light district and there are corset-clad ladies of the night on many corners. The entire area is filled with bars, pubs, and neat restaurants. But, the coolest thing on Oranienburger Strasse (and our pubcrawl) was the artist's squat. What the hell is an artist's squat? I hear you cry. Well, this one is a six story building quite like a block of warehouse style apartments. Every wall, every door on the stairwell, and through the corridors, is covered in grafitti art. Absolutely covered! In this graffiti-covered complex we discovered heavy metal concerts with fire-breathing dragons, a mellow bar, a clothing shop filled with goths, and a art gallery housing some very impressive modern art and a drum circle. It was really like nothing we'd ever experienced before and like nothing anywhere else in the world.

Berlin was a surreal and excellent way to end our adventure.

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu

Berlin, Part 1

Berlin, Part 2

Amsterdam

After Barcelona we jetted our way to Amsterdam. We arrived the evening of Halloween and the streets of Amsterdam were packed. Our hostel (correction, our horrible hostel) was in the old town not too far from the red light district. After getting settled, we went out for some supper and to explore. Every inch of the old town was packed and it was shocking. Around every corner were new surprises including large groups of leather-clad men, coffee shops, sex shops a plenty, and the girls in the windows under the neon-red lights either chewing gum or talking on their cellphones. The most hilarious sight was a grand presbyterian church completely encompassed by sin. On all sides its surrounded by brothels, bars, and coffee shops. But, what truly made it overwhelming was the sheer number of people on the streets for All Hallow's Eve. Half the people were costumed up and almost all had drinks in their hands as they made there way through the streets. No matter where you turned you would encounter hordes of people.

The next day we made our way through the old town again and it was a completely different experience. Everything was still neon, but it was calm and much easier to handle. We walked along the canals until we found De Waag which is the oldest building in Amsterdam and incidentally a great place to have lunch. We enjoyed some amazing eggs benedict 'In De Waag'. Next to De Waag, we found a very cute market and spent some time wandering through some Dutch antiques and other items. Unfortunately, it started to pour rain and it didn't let up for the rest of the afternoon. So, we opted to experience some of the what Amsterdam had to offer indoors. We made our way to the Heineken Experience located in their old brewery and it was quite the experience indeed. We learned some history, saw how they make that delectable beer (even explored some of the chemical engineering aspects!), became beer for a 4-D theme-park type experience, and of course enjoyed some wonderful beer.

After the beer, we went exploring for Amsterdam's finest munchies and came across nothing but deliciousness. They had everything from wok boxes, to crazy flavored chips (for example, bolognese and, my favorite, cool american. Those gnarly American's did taste good), to hot dogs topped like pizzas, to waffles topped like extravegant cakes. I have to say, I do miss those waffles. They were delicious and always came with a little plastic knork (that's right, knork. The half knife half fork concoction that every other place in the world would think is too dangerous to eat with). We also made our way to the sex museum which was simply ridiculous, but fairly tasteful. Just another one of those experiences.

The next day we got some fairly good weather (even though we thought it was quite cold after wearing shorts through Spain for a couple weeks) so we rented some city bikes. I truly want a city bike now, but I don't think Stu does... he managed to fall off of his within 5 minutes of renting it. He claims a pedestrian cut him off, but I didn't see said pedestrian :)

On our bikes we went to a famous pancake house where we enjoyed the best pancakes of all time. These weren't your standard pancakes, they were entire meals filled with anything you could think of. I had a pancake with bacon in it and Stu tried the bacon and apple. The syrup wasn't your standard syrup either, they had an incredibly thick, dark syrup that was a bit more molasses-y and still delicious.

We also saw the Anne Frank Haus which was an despressing but great experience. Reading and learning about doesn't compare to actually walking around the house/attic where they lived. Seeing the pictures Anne had posted on the wall and watching a video of her dad speak about publishing her diary after the war puts you in the situation. It makes you think when such monstrosities can occur in a peaceful country like Holland which isn't that different from Canada. At least there are places like the Anne Frank Haus, to keep history from repeating itself.

We spent the rest of the day biking the canals and discovering all sorts of wonders around Amsterdam which were so quaint and different from the red light district. Leidseplein and Leidsestraat were must sees, with beautiful buildings and great shopping. Leidseplein is the main square with restaurants galore and Leidsestraat is a large pedestrian street to wander and shop. (I love the concept of the pedestrian street. That's something I'll truly miss about Europe.) However, the best things we found were in random and quiet places along the canals. We found great cheese shops, cute shopping centers, a giant chess set in Maxeuweplein, and ducks in Vondelpark. The skinny buildings stacked on top of each other all along the many canals give the city such a charm. It amazes me that the houses are so skinny. The staircases inside are ridiculous. You know the stairs in old houses that go down the the small basements in those houses? The stairs in the houses in Amsterdam are steeper and less wide! It was not pleasant to have to hall our luggage up 3 flights of those stairs which spiraled in our hostel to our tiny room. Stu's theory is that the stairs in Holland are directly responsible for how tall those inhabitants who climb those stairs are. They are a workout!

Neat fact: The reason the houses are so skinny is the government enforced a law that stated that houses could only be 3m wide, otherwise they were largely taxed. I guess it makes sense when there is a limited amount of space on a city built on tiny islands.

All and all, outside of the tourist-swarms in the red-light district, Amsterdam truly is a beautiful city. It has such charm.

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene

Amsterdam

Barcelona

Barcelona definitely makes the top of our list of places we saw. It would be impossible to turn down an opportunity to see it all over again. It's a magical city where every single building and neighborhood is beautiful. It also served as the parting point between us and our new friend Ralph. Shortly after arriving at our cute hotel, we had to return our little VW. It was a little sad, but Stu seemed pretty relieved.

It didn't take us long to get out into the city and start seeing its sights. We made our way down to La Rambla, which is a popular street, full of shops, restaurants, hotels, and landmarks. The plaza at the top of the street is capped with gorgeous twin fountains (although only one was operational during our visit). Side streets along La Rambla open up into quaint little plazas, or show impressive or unique buildings. One of these streets was home to a wax museum, which was protected by Superman and C-3PO.

We waited until morning to continue our adventure, and we started exactly where we left off. La Rambla is an entirely different sight during the day. The boulevard is filled with kiosks. Some sell flowers, some sell books. They have souvenirs and pets (birds and rabbits and other such things). The local talent come out to make a living. There is an abundance of buskers and living statues (and the occasional drug dealer, who is surprisingly forward). Also, La Boqueria (the market in the middle of La Rambla) is packed with people picking up groceries, or just a snack.

We headed out of La Rambla into the old town, originally referred to as Barcelo. The cathedral was first on the list. It was not the most impressive we've seen, but it still held an awe-inspiring quality. Mostly, I think, in the attention to detail. We strolled around the old town, seeing the government building (of the Catalan), which was scarred from shell blasts of the civil war. We climbed to the highest point in Barcelo, Mont Taber, not more than 17m above sea level. Of course, Barcelona has many higher points inside the new city limits.

We made our way out to the Palace of Music, which was an amazingly colorful theatre. It's used mainly for a theatre, but it has an addition which serves as an educational institute for the performing arts. From there we walked over to the "Arc de Triomf" which was quite impressive with it's gorgeous surrounding promenade. The next stop before the beach was the chocolate museum. It was an informative and delicious look at the history of chocolate. There were some amazing chocolate sculptures as well. But, nothing was as amazing as how wonderful that museum smelt. It was a good thing the entry tickets were made of chocolate, otherwise the sculptures would have gone missing.

Off to the beach, where, on the boardwalk, Stu tried authentic Spanish Sangria for the first time. We drank a jug of it, then walked along the beach. The sand was soft and white and the beach was surprisingly busy for late october. Understandable though, since it was 24 C. Our original plan was to take the cable car up to Montjuic and see the view of the city as well as see the olympic stadium and wander around. Unfortunately, we were just a few moments late to take the cable car, we didn't know it held such ridiculously short hours closing before 6pm! So we took a cab over to Plaza de Espana. We enjoyed some drinks, watched the fountains for a while and admired the view before making our way home.

The next day was filled with the works of Gaudi. He was a visionary architect who made his home in Barcelona. He's responsible for what are known as the "modernist" styles seen all over this beautiful city. His works are unique and inspired, and I would recommend visiting them if you get the chance. We saw Casa Mila, which is hard to describe, but definitely unique. The defining quality that stuck with me was it's rooftop and how the chimneys resembled ice cream. Next on the Gaudi tour was the infamous unfinished church, La Sagrada Familia. It was Gaudi's last work and is expected to be finished by 2026. It's an amazing sight, and in our opinion one of the most interesting buildings in the world. It's truly an intricate and insane design with an incredible attention to detail. We can't wait to see it when it's complete. (It will be a good excuse to get back to Barcelona!)

Our last stop before jetting off to Amsterdam for the evening of Halloween was Gaudi's Park Guell. It was originally designed to be an enclosed living community, but was an idea before its time and flopped as a living community. However, Gaudi built his pink house there and it became an awe-inspiring park. There was tile and rock structures galore including a glamourous main entrance with tiled walls, small houses and towers, a grand staircase and cute dragon fountain. At the top of the grand staircase there was a hall of columns with amazing tile patterns on the roof. In the summer, this is generally where a large market could be found. Also at the top, there was a large meandering wall that functioned as an ergonomic bench covered from top to bottom in all sorts of tile. All over the park were musicians, awesome rock structures, and plants of all varieties. It was well worth the adventure up the LARGE hill to get there.

All and all, Barcelona is one amazing place!

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu

Barcelona 1

Barcelona 2

Granada and Alicante

The next stop along our wonderous journey was Granada. It was yet again a very different side of Spain, as it was once the home of the Moorish empire when the Moors had conquered Spain. This can be seen all over the city with it's tile covered buildings, key-shaped doorways, and at its best in the Alhambra.

The Alhambra was our first stop. We chose to see this Moorish palace (the only one left in Spain; it's existence today is remarkable since the catholic monarchy reclaimed Granada in their attempt to spread Catholicism and destroy everything non-catholic in the process) in the evening. It made the palace more majestic to see it at night, but also made our pictures less majestic. The intricacies of the moorish designs are apparent at every turn. Every doorway, ceiling and wall are adorned with molded/sculpted plaster or tiles in amazing geometric patterns or beautiful paint (although after many hundreds of years, the paint is pretty faded). One of many impressive attributes about the palace was the courtyard at the center of the palace, referred to as the "Court of Lions". The fountain at the center of the court is encircled by twelve lions (hence the name). It is said that the lions would once have operated as a clock with each lion spurting water for each hour. However, the christians disassembled the fountain after their conquering and the fountain never functioned again. Damn christians...

Inside the walls of the Alhambra (the name given to the entire structure which encloses the Moorish palace), there is another palace. The palace of Charles the 5th, last ruler of the Spanish Christian royalty to rule from Granada (the moorish palace wasn't good enough, apparently). What was truly neat about his palace was it's perfectly circular courtyard. When standing at the center, the acoustics were astounding, a simple whisper would be heard from the upper balconies.

We spent the next day wandering around the city of Granada enjoying the large promenades filled with shopping, the tributes to Christopher Columbus (Granada was the site of his proposal to Queen Isabel to finance his journey to discover 'India'), and the old moorish quarter referred to as the Albaicin. In the Albaicin, we enjoyed old and impressive architecture, a beautiful view of the entire city and surrounding mountains, and some interesting food. We found a small restaurant near a fountain in the Albaicin and ordered 'la barca' (the boat) which consisted of fried fish. However, this was not your typical fried fish, this 'boat' basically consisted of a bit of every fish or crustacean they could find. Stu was very skeptical to try octopus for the first time.

After Granada, we drove our awesome VW Polo (Ralph) to Alicante along the beautiful Mediterranean highway. Alicante is a smaller and more modern city than any that we had seen and boasted nothing but the finest paella (Alicante is in the province of Valencia, which is the home of paella) and beautiful beaches which was perfect for our small stop along the way to Barcelona. We found a nice hotel right on the beach with a restaurant that specialized in paella and did nothing but enjoy the hotel, wine, paella, and beach. All of which were fantastic!

The beach was especially fantastic, and it will forever hold a special place in our memories. After our wonderful paella dinner, we made our way out onto the beach. We felt like taking in some fresh ocean air and going for a bit of a stroll. Not too far down the beach, we found a nice little outcropping, which looked ideal for a place to sit and dangle our legs above the Mediterranean. So we headed out onto the rock. I was trying to decide where to sit, so I turned to ask Stu what he thought, and to my surprise he was on a knee and holding a ring. He proposed then and there in the most romantic way. I said yes (of course), and we are now engaged!

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu

Granada and Alicante

Tarifa and Nerja

After our wild day in Morocco, it was off to Granada, but not without experiencing the town we stayed in. Tarifa was a cute little town right on the southern tip of Spain. It had beautiful beaches and plenty of wind (probably a necessity for the wind/kite surfing capital of the world). The old town was white washed and had a cozy feel. The newer parts of town had streets lined with surf shops. All in all the town had a relaxed feel and I would gladly spend some lazy days there.

On our way to Granada, we stopped off in a little resort city called Nerja. The Canadians we met in Morocco spend a lot of time in the south of Spain. They suggested that we stop by Nerja on way through the Costa del Sol. We're quite glad that we did. Nerja is home to the Balcony of Europe, a peninsula that is surrounded by beaches and beautiful, blue water.

We checked out the Balcony and spent some time on one of the beaches. We managed to find a little beach, which we got all to ourselves. Our own little private beach. The beach was pebbly and very warm. The water was a little cool and very salty. Stu actually managed to float (which apparently has never really happened before). It was 28 degrees on the 27th of October, so we spent some time just basking in the sun. When we started to lose our heat, we headed on out.

Our last stop before Granada was the Nerja caves. These caves house the largest stalactite-stalagmite column in the world. It has a couple of gigantic underground caverns. Seriously, these caverns could be compared to stadiums. In point of fact, one of the caverns is used as a venue for concerts and flamenco shows. For the second time this trip, we proved our worth (at least to ourselves) as spelunkers.

After the caves, we drove off to Granada, with a beautiful sunset to keep us company.

Hasta la proxíma vez,

Kathlene y Stu

Tarifa and Nerja

Crossing the Gibraltar Strait to go to Tangier, Morocco, Africa

So we were set on seeing Morocco. We wanted to be able to set foot on another continent and add to our "worldliness". That was an interesting decision. Morocco doesn't really fit in with its surrounding territories. It is definitely not European. It is however, just as far from being African. The city of Tangier is the richest in Africa, yet every single person we know is exponentially wealthier than so many of the people there. Just to set the mood, consider you earned $2/hr. That's more than most of the people we saw in and around the old town of Tangier.

We headed over on the ferry around 11:00 AM. After about 40 minutes we pulled into the dock at Tangier. We had the good fortune to run into a couple of Canadians at the security checkpoint. They were kind enough to help us through the first slough of "guides." Many of these men are in fact guides who know much of the city's history and will provide you with a good mix of information and navigation. They also help keep away the other guys. Many other people can and will approach, offering help with direction or even just to keep others like themselves at bay. People of this sort will harass you for the first km or so (I guess the police have been required on a number of occasions to put an end to the harassment). Once you're into the town, it's not so bad. The first ten minutes we spent in Morocco was surprisingly overwhelming and I'm not sure how we would've made out had we not met that couple.

We made it into the town fairly easily, and no sooner than we had, did we realize we were not anywhere like home. Children everywhere, except for in school. Markets were teeming with people buying fresh fruit, vegetables, breads, and goat heads (skinned or not). The markets were filled with shops hanging chickens to show that they were killed properly (according to Islam, the hal lal requires that the chicken be facing Mecca with it's throat slit to drain it's blood). We saw a metal working shop with a blacksmith. Firing the metal and pounding it with a hammer on an anvil. So many things seemed so unusual that I'm sure we stood out based entirely on our facial expressions (if the clothes and skin color hadn't already given it away).

We made our way up the hill toward the Kasbah. So many of the roads that wind between the tightly packed houses come to a dead end, so we ended up backtracking a few times. After a couple of failed attempts, we picked up a "guide". Not by choice. He followed us and then lead us, then followed again if we chose another path. Repeatedly. This can prove to be fairly upsetting. We finally managed to lose the creepy guy with the help of a boy. He showed us the way (without the creepy talking and name calling) and we tipped him quite gladly. Once we reached the Kasbah, we spent the €1 each to tour the museum and gawked at thousands of years of history. The building itself is over 1000 years old. Many of the artifacts within it are older still. It seems as though there is much work to be done to complete (renovate) the museum. I'm not sure how soon that will happen when they charge less than a coke to view one of the oldest standing structures on the face of this earth.

After our trying times in the old town, we made our way down to the beach, to enjoy some much needed relaxation. The beach was almost as shocking as the old town. Children begged us for money for food. That was a little upsetting. There were camels on the beach. A man riding a horse and a woman walking her monkey. To top it all off, they post signs that indicate "No Dogs."

So as it turns out, we're both quite glad to have visited Morocco, but on that same note, we're quite glad to be back.

Hasta la proxíma vez,

Kathlene and Stu

Crossing the Gibraltar to go to Tangier, Morocco, Africa