Frankfurt

Frankfurt is to Germany what Milan is to Italy. It is the commerce capital, the only German city with a skyline. We hopped the metro downtown for a couple of hours on the layover en route to Dublin and discovered attractive bridge views, a few wiener stands, unusual highly pruned trees growing regularly out of cement courtyards, and LOTS of shopping. I'm not feeling too desperate to get back to Frankfurt, but I imagine it's a nice city to live in, if not a whirlwind for the two hour visitor. 

Small Precious Things...

A collection of Dublin deritrus

A collection of Barcelona beachiness

Surfing

So I was at the gym tonight, building my massive biceps up just a bit more to help me prepare for super surf stardom in Morocco, when a ridiculously overdramatic American reality show called "Surf camp" showed up on the corner t.v. It was absurd. I loved it. 

In honor of ridiculous reality shows, the gym, and my future in Morocco (which will involve considerably smaller waves than most of the ones in this video), I present this video made in Taghazout (the fishing village where my surf camp is located) by a freelancer who works with Surf Maroc. 

Welcome to Dublin, won't you come in?

Dublin is homey. At least for a couple of travelers who lived in Oxford over the summer and came to embrace British ways. We slept the sweet sleep of the globetrotter at night under our friends' red embroidered duvet, woke up for a morning walk/run along the receding gray of a calm and endless shoreline, rushed through Grafton street in a river of people stopping here and there at a Waterstone's bookstore or an outdoor outfitter. 

We crossed the River Liffey, took photos of Trinity College, and shopped for all those wonderful things that Britain has and that I like - Fry's Peppermint Cream bars, chili powder, blueberry muffins, Marks and Spencer's smoothies. 

Colm and Nieve - Brett's friends from his hike to Machu Pichu in Peru - allowed us to dabble in their record collection and browse their coffee table travel books, showed us around the downtown, and then made a heroic effort to stay up and enjoy Indian food with us, despite their presence at a "real Irish wedding" the night before which gave them only two hours sleep.  

All in all, we had a lovely day in Dublin, and two rather long days of travel on either end. We did manage to see downtown Frankfurt during one of our two five hour layovers in Germany, and I'll post some pictures of the city before long. 

Advice to fellow travelers soon to experience the five hour Frankfurt layover: beware taking the subway immediately before a soccer game, unless you want a few close-up pictures of the riot police.

Advice to fellow travelers soon to experience the five hour Frankfurt layover, secondary: buy a large bag of Haribo gummy bears at duty free. Instant energy. A smile in your pocket.  Who cares about the mini-riot and the not-s0-mini riot police!

Flashback to the Masquerade Festival

Check out this March's issue of The Compass, an online travel magazine, and you will see someone you know!

http://thecompassculture.com/subs/mar09/03.html

Barcelona Tapas Recipes and Great Cooking Blogs

I am on a cooking kick, as you may know, and have recently learned to make couscous salad with chicken and carrots, vegetarian chili, and rosemary sea salt focaccia. After sampling many delicious Spanish items in Barcelona last weekend, I've begun a Spanish section in my "Life Abroad" cookbook (yes, I am making a Life Abroad cookbook, and it is really cool, with business cards from the bakeries and restaurants we have visited all over Europe). 

My quest to reproduce the Spanish tapas we found in Barcelona led me to discover two wonderful cooking websites. Check these out, either to try making your own tapas, or just to search through all the fabulous recipes available, accompanied by fabulous photos...

Recipe Blog #1, for Pan Amb Tomaquet, is Around the World in 80 Recipes: the author of this blog describes meals she has with people from all over the world, and shares their recipes! 

http://80mealsrecipes.blogspot.com/2006/07/catalan-pa-amb-

tomquet_115255098187551033.html

Recipe Blog #2, for Spanish Tortilla, is Smitten Kitchen: all I can say is this blogger wows me with her incredible list of recipes and gorgeous photos. Anyone who likes to cook will enjoy surfing through these recipes (here's looking at you, Brie, Colleen, Judy, and Mom!). 

http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/09/tortilla-de-patatas/

I also must mention that tonight I read on this blog one of my favorite written lines ever. After describing a very late arrival home from an exhausting business trip in a preamble to her homemade oreo cookie recipe, she wrote "Thursday was understandably canceled due to lack of interest." I chuckled with glee here in my office after a rather exhausting Thursday...

(The photos above are from these two blogs). 

On the roof of Gaudi's Casa Mila, Barcelona

La Boqueria

Never has there ever been a better place to prepare for a picnic. La Boqueria spins with color and life - here a rainbow of smoothies, there a sea of chocolates, everywhere a happy crowd. 

My Boqueria shopping list: 

• 1 chirimoya (a Spanish fruit, eaten with  a spoon, comparable to ice cream)
• 1 crunchy golden baguette
• 1 dish of strawberries
• 1 carton of blueberries
• 1 palmera de chocolate (thin pastry layers in the shape of a big hand, dipped in chocolate)
• 2 Crema Catalana chocolates and 1 Florentina 
• 2 giant dates
• A bit of Brett's crumbly Spanish cheese, strong but doable when enveloped in baguette
• 1 coconut-strawberry smoothie, shaken, not stirred (by the vendor)

How many Euros I'd probably spend annually at La Boqueria if we lived in Barcelona: 1,500

Baba Marta - bringing in the spring

Yesterday as we drove back into our neighborhood from the airport, we noticed red and white tassels hanging from the cab driver's mirror. We saw them swinging from William's (our neighborhood guard dog) neck. I saw them in a huge rack at the store, and pinned to the lapels of the people I saw on the way to the store.

Here in Bulgaria, we are celebrating Baba Marta - the old grandmother of spring. Everyone is in red and white - bracelets on wrists, strings hanging from briefcases, little red and white dolls pinned to jackets. Some of my students are even dressed fully in red and white - sweaters, frilly white shirts, long stockings.

Ina, one of my seniors, told me today that she and her friends have annual contests for who can wear the most red and white bracelets. Friends and family members give them to each other, so if they decide to wear them all, they show they are very loved. Ina also told me that traditionally, people cut off the bracelets when they see their first stork of the spring. Of course, we might not see any here in Sofia, so she said we could also cut them off when spring arrives - "in another week or two."

I got the photo above from an article explaining the tradition at the Balkan Traveller's Website. See more photos and read all about it at: http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/413

I love Barcelona

I love 

Barcelona 

because

of ergonomic cement beach chairs

and painted chips of tile mixed with sea glass on the shore.

I love 

Barcelona

because

in one walk eight bakeries leave calling cards in your nostrils,

inviting you in for light and fluffy everything and anything you could want.

I love

Barcelona 

because

of the candles burning faithfully on each dedicated altar inside the cathedral,

carrying prayers to Sant Antoni y Santa Lucia. 

I love

Barcelona

because

the old town has no rhyme or rhythm except it's own beauty,

and I'd rather be lost in its charms than found in the straight grids of modern streets.

I love

Barcelona 

because

of the colors and tastes of La Boqueria

where a freshly squeezed strawberry-coconut smoothie costs a Euro 

and the dates are swollen with Mediterranean sunshine. 

I love

Barcelona

because

the details of Gaudi's Parque Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Mila

tout the power of creativity in the face of slashed art budgets.

Who will the next Gaudi be? 

How will she know what's inside her? 

Will he die as anonymously as the first?

I love

Barcelona 

because 

when I woke up at 3 a.m.,

instead of rolling over and falling back asleep 

I wanted to go outside and be in the Barcelona night. 

I love

Barcelona

because

it gave Brett his first sushi in 9 months 

and 

it gave me new and better memories

of life in Spain.

Parc Guell

We arrived in Barcelona late Saturday night.  On Sunday morning, I had to do an 18-mile run.  Looking at the map of Barcelona, I noticed a nice green patch a couple miles from our house.   "Parc Guell" it said.  This, it turns out, is Gaudi's famous natural landscaping experiment, spread over several acres, joined by paths snaking in and out of masterful stonework.  After about 30 minutes of steep ascent and a wrong turn into another park, I finally stumbled into what I knew must be Gaudi territory.  I ran around (and around and around) for about an hour and a half, before heading back down into the city, only to cross paths with the Barcelona marathon, already in progress.  Perhaps next year.  To be honest, my run probably benefitted more from Gaudi's world than it would have from water stations and cheering crowds.    

Who couldn't help but do a little zig-zag through these columns to break up the monotony of a long run?

Betsy and I returned the next day, where she was just as taken as I was.

This is from a long, sandy terrace surrounded by an undulating ceramic bench.  In the distance you can see another walkway and the house where Gaudi lived while working on the park.

These two "Candy Land" houses now mark the official entrance to the park.

Betsy's surfing dreams were stoked by this tunnel, modeled on the inside of a wave.

Sagrada Familia

It's funny.  Both Betsy and I were remarking before we left for Barcelona how we really felt accustomed to life here in Sofia.  How we really didn't need a break.  How we were forming a home, with its correspondent familiarity and comforts.  Boy, was it hard to come back.  Don't get me wrong, we're feeling good to have our own bed, to see our kitties, to shop at our local fruit stands.  But Barcelona, largely because of Gaudi, was an enthralling experience.  The creativity, the colors, the curves...we were inspired.  

Below you'll see pictures of Sagrada Familia, a church which Gaudi worked on for the last forty years of his life, until he was tragically killed by a tram car.  He eventually even lived there while it was under construction.  It still is, with a projected finish date of sometime within the next fifty years (depending on whom you ask).  Though there are massive cranes rising all around it, it is the centerpiece of the city, and only a few blocks from our Bed and Breakfast. Unfortunately, many of Gaudi's plans for the structure were lost in the Spanish Civil War, so others have tried to fill in the blanks.  There is debate as to how well they've succeeded.  Either way, it stands as a testament to a deeply religious man who invested all his energy in this final project. 

The church entrance.

And the other side.  Gaudi spent so much time designing the church, that he grew slovenly and careless in other parts of his life.  When he was hit by the tram, he was actually taken to, and died in, a pauper's hospital because no one recognized him in his unkempt state.  Though friends located him, he asked to remain there.

Betsy is standing on the roof of another Gaudi creation (more pics to come), with Sagrada Familia in the distance.