Mishthefish

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Wisconsin!

This past weekend was my younger brother's graduation from the University of Madison in Wisconsin. I had visited Jonney twice before, but every time I go to Wisco I like it a little more. Madison is a cute, small, college town filled with bars, restaurants, and people ready to have a good time. With it being graduation, the city was packed with people ready to celebrate the graduates! The whole weekend was great. We celebrated all weekend long with the family, going to nice dinners, going out to the bars, sitting in the sun at the lake, having a graduation celebration with all Jonney's close friends, and on Sunday we watched Jonney walk in his cap and gown to recieve his diploma. The weekend was filled with amazing food, lots of sun and humid heat, and spotted cow beer. All of this made me nostalgic of my college days (I graduated just two years ago) and brought back good memories. We also went to the farmers market on Sunday at the Capitol of Madison, where we bought the famous spicy cheese bread--delicious. The food was incredible (good beer and cheese, who can complain right?). I'm so glad events like these bring everyone back together...such a great time.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Valencia para Las Fallas

One of the many great things about Spain is their fiestas. I have been lucky enough to get to experience some of these famous traditional celebrations that occur every year like Carnaval, San Juan, Sant Jordi, San Fermin, etc. This year I went to Valencia to experience one day and night of Las Fallas.

Las fallas is a festival that creates more than 500 huge displays (also called fallas) for the public. The fallas contain cartoon looking images called ninots, which are huge dolls made of cork and cardboard. They represent well-known people in a sarcastic tone (usually politicians). The city works very hard to make these all year. Once Las fallas begin there is a juror who chooses the best fallas and announce the winners during the week, before la crema (where all the fallas are burned) at the end. During the week there are various firework shows like "las mascletás" y "la pólvora". Throughout the streets there are food stands and restaurants, with the authentic paella (side note: The original paella comes from Valencia), tapas, churros, etc. It is a big party throughout the whole city with fireworks constantly going off in the streets. It was such an incredible fiesta, I loved seeing the fallas and picking my favorites, seeing pretty firework shows, as well as getting to eat paella and churros. Valencia was great to visit too. I had been there before, but this time I liked it a lot more. The weather was sunny and the city looked beautiful. We walked around the center most of the day and went to La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias.

La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Galicia Galicia

The north of Spain is very different from other parts of Spain...both special in their own way. They sometimes seem like they are different small countries because many regions have their own language, different food, customs, etc. I visited plenty of the south when I was studying abroad and love it, but the north highly interested me because I had only visited el País Vasco last year and wanted to see more.

Galicia suprised me in the fact that it went way beyond my expectations, the food was incredible- the variety of delicious seafood, great cheese, and wines; the weather was perfect- around 75 degrees all weekend long for a city that is known for cloudy and rainy weather; and the people were very friendly and helpful, and it was inexpensive in comparison to Barcelona.

Our base was Santiago de Compostela-- every night we stayed there but we did day trips to other parts of Galicia as well. Santiago de Compostela is one of the most visited places in Spain...it is highly religious and people participate in the Camino de Santiago and walk days/weeks/months to reach the city and go to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. The cathedral is very big and beautiful in a large plaza with other buildings as well (the ayudamiento and a nice 5 star hotel). The main things we did in Santiago de Compostela were sit in the plazas admiring the churches or other monuments, visit parks, and eat tons of delicious food. The highlight for me was octopus a la plancha and the famous tetilla cheese, I was in love. The white gallegan wine there (our favorite was Ribeiro) went so well with the various seafood we tried. The food honestly was to die for...(especially for someone like me who loves fish, cheese, and good wine).

Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Trying Octopus (a la plancha)

We decided to visit Ourense mainly because they were know for their aguas thermales or thermal baths. I had never been to one and was very interested in trying these out, especially since the weather was so nice. Boy did we make the right choice. I quickly became fascinated with the fact that these aguas thermales were free to the public and anyone could go at any hour of the day. We stayed for probably 3 hours, either enjoying the hot sun in our bathing suits (in early march!!) or trying out the different waters. There were four small jacuzzi type pools with different water temperatures...I could have stayed all day and been overly satisfied..but we also wanted to explore the city. I met a really sweet lady in the thermal baths who lived in Ourense. She offered to show us the city and a great restaurant to have lunch. She showed us the cute little city which has another thermal bath right in the center of town- I died just a little bit thinking how cool it would be to live there and be able to use these baths whenever one wanted to. Then we went to eat at a really good place and got a menu (2 course meal with a drink and dessert, so worth it) and once again walked around and went to the biggest park in Ourense. At night we went back to Santiago by train after our dear friend walked us to the train station. We had a lovely dinner of tapas of seafood and then went to a wine bar that quickly became a favorite.

Ourense-- Aguas Thermales

Ourense

The next day we wanted to see some of the coast, so we decided to go to Pontevedra since we didn't have enough time to go farther up the coast. Pontevedra was okay, it was a small city with few things to see, but we did eat a good meal there (of course the food does not disappoint here)...but luckily we read about a small town called Combarro which was about 20 minutes away. I loved Combarro, it was a cute little romantic city on the water. It was famous for the hórreos which was a type of storage which were used to dry out certain foods and placed near the water on stilts (pictures below). The few hours we were there, we walked through the whole little city, sat staring at the water, and then got a glass of wine and some tapas as we admired the pretty view. It was perfect. It was time to go back to Santiago de Compostela for our last night in town. We once again ate a fabulous dinner, seafood risotto, a plate of cheese, dessert, a nice wine and then went to our favorite wine bar spot. Incredible. We were so sad to leave behind the very well priced and tasty food.

Pontevedra

Combarro

Combarro- Hierro

Combarro

All in all, it was a great place to visit and experience. I loved the food, the people, the different cities within Galicia and how different they were from one another.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Switzerland!

Two words. Breathtaking and surreal. I quickly became very fond of Switzerland's beauty. The views were incredible and literally had my jaw dropping. I went to visit my cousin who lived in a town called Crans-Montana, about two hours from Geneva and way up in the mountains. I flew into Geneva and toured the city for the day. Then I took a train to meet my cousin. It was probably the prettiest train ride I have ever taken, seeing the Swiss Alps with white snow on the mountain tops residing over the bright blue water of the lake, I had never seen anything like this before.

Geneva

Geneva

Crans-Montana

Fondue!

My cousin picked me up from the train station and we drove up the mountain. My first Swiss meal was eating some delicious fondue (a cheese one and a tomato one). We went with some of his friends and then went out to the town's bars/clubs. Since Crans-Montana is so small everyone knows each other and there are only about 3 main bars in the town.

My cousin being as awesome as he is, said it would be a good idea to roadtrip Switzerland with his car so I could see as much of the country as possible. It was such a great idea and a perfect way for me to see the French and German parts.

Day 1: French part: Lausanne-Vevey-Montreux
First we went to Lausanne and it was very beautiful. It was a cute little town that had great views of the mountain on the lake. We had lunch at Holy Cow which specializes in making gourmet burgers and since I rarely eat burgers in Spain it was so satisfying. Then we drove through Vevey just to see the city and see the Nestle headquarters as we were on our way to Montreux. Montreux was my favorite place I saw. It not only had one of the most amazing views I have ever seen (again the mountains on the water and houses on the lake too), but also the Château de Chillon (or Castle of Chillon) which sits on the lake as well. It was where Jimmy Hendrix became famous as well. I loved this place, it was also so small and cute to walk through. I could sit at the castle for hours and not get tired of starting at the view and the bright blue water.

Lausanne


Lausanne The drive Vevey Montreux Montreux Montreux Montreux Montreux Montreux: Château de Chillon

Day 2: German part: Bern- Zurich- Lucerne
Now it was time to see the German part of Switzerland which I was really excited about. We went from hearing French at breakfast to German at lunch in Zurich and back to hearing French back at my cousin's town for dinner- it was quite the day. We started off at Bern, right when we arrived I saw the differences between the French towns, the buildings were gothic style and I felt like I was back in Germany. It was beautiful in its own way. Bern is more to look at the city and of course see the bears!! In Bern there are bears that live outside and people come to look at them, they were adorable. We also saw the Zytglogge, or clock tower, which was impressive. Then we made our way to Zurich. Zurich was amazing, it was my favorite part of German-Switzerland. We had lunch there and then walked around the city. Walked around the lake and saw the different clock towers. It was so pretty. Then we drove off to see Lucerne. The main attraction there (besides the view of course) was the Lion monument, which was very impressive. It was a huge statue of a lion that looks like it is sleeping but really is lion that is dying. It is a memorial for the Swiss soldiers who gave their lives to defend Switzerland. The views once again were incredible of the various houses on top of the mountains and over the lake.

Bern

Zurich

Lucerne

Unlike most places you visit, Switzerland was different in the sense that the main thing to do is see and enjoy the gorgeous views, instead of a traditional trip where one visits historic sites, museums, etc. (there are some museums here too of course). But I loved that about Switzerland, seeing pretty sights all weekend long was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone!