Lisboa is for Lovers

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Sorry for the delay in posting...we lost a little momentum, but we're back with a new batch of photos!

We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday night. Our AirBnB is a ground floor apartment in Old Town (Madragoa), about a mile from the city center. We were pretty exhausted but managed to walk over to Bairro Aalto for some food. The food here is legit. We had the absolute best octopus we've ever eaten and the cheeses are out of this world. 

The people in Lisbon are definitely more brusk and European. They aren't quite as friendly as the Poles we'd become accustomed to. Lisbon is HUGE! 





The city is super hilly as well with lots of winding streets, stairs, and alleyways. The sidewalks are so narrow, you frequently have to walk in the street and then jump out of the way when cars come. 

Did you know that Lisbon is older than London, Paris, and Rome! It's been occupied by the Celts, Greeks, Romans, Moors, Crusaders, and finally the Portuguese. A little bit of history has been left by each as evidenced by the pagan ritual sites, buried necropolis', and moorish castles. The distinct cultures have left their mark as well, in fact Lisbon's nickname is the 'City of Tolerance.' 

On Sunday we spent the day doing pretty Western, uneventful things. Namely shopping and seeing Star Wars. The clothes here are really cheap and they have a lot of brands that Jillian likes. Star Wars was awesome! Has everyone seen it already? We loved it...even though it basically follows the exact same plot as A New Hope. 


When we were looking for a place to eat dinner, another American couple (from LA) noticed us and asked if they could tag along. We ended up having a nice meal with them. They are in Portugal for two weeks and heading to the Azores tomorrow. Jillian remembers her dad saying that airport was very scary to land in. 

Yesterday we took the train to Sintra. Sintra is a small town about an hour outside the city along the coast. It's basically one of the most lovely places on earth. 



The forests and hills around Sintra have five or six distinct castles. Including:

A Moorish castle built in the 8th century: 









The castle has so many winding passageways and stairs and outlooks. It was a big hike to make it all the way up there. 


After that we went to the Palacio da Pena, which is the traditional home of the Portuguese King. It's also pretty spectacular. 




It's very colorful and has a lot of Islamic influences because Portugal was inhabited at various times by Moors. However it was so crowded - just swarms of people. This dampened our enjoyment a little bit. 




There are a few other palaces at Sintra, but we decided to save them, mostly because we were hungry and tired from hiking up two huge hills. 

Jillian has come down with a pretty nasty cold so we spent the evening relaxing and had wine and cheese for dinner. Today we will probably hit a museum and then see Fado in the evening. 


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12 Reasons Why You Should Visit Poland Immediately!

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We are so happy we chose to visit Poland. A lot of people thought our choice was a bit weird. Especially because Jillian has never been to Europe.  "Why not London, Paris, Italy?" people asked. 

We're so happy we decided to visit this awesome country! Here are are favorite things about Poland:

1) The people are so nice! From bringing us homemade dinner to asking us to join their Christmas celebrations to helpful airport ladies - everyone has been very kind and helpful to us.

2) It's beautiful. Walking in the mountains you might as well be in Switzerland. The old town of Kraków is like a Disney princess set. The rolling hills with quaint houses are so beautiful. 

3) It's clean. There is no trash, anywhere . 

4) The food is awesome. Pierogis are so good. Borscht is so good. Fried potato pancakes are so good. Their pastries and sweets are so yummy, and not too sugary. Their hot chocolate is to die for. If Jillian could have mushroom soup intravenously injected, she probably would. Everything is so hearty and delicious. One meal will keep you full all day.

5) People are very fashionable and attractive. Everybody wears cute boots and hip coats with fur collars. The people are very good looking.

6) Aesthetics. This one is a bit weird to explain, but they are really good at making things look nice. Businesses have beautifully designed logos. Billboards all look really professionally done (no cheesy, low budget car dealership ads). The restaurants all have cool artwork and handmade decorations that add to the ambiance. 

7) Vodka is just better here. We've never been able to drink that much vodka without a mixer and with no hangover in the morning. They also have a lot of delicious flavored vodkas. 

8) Interesting History. From tribes and kings of the 10th century to the horrors of WWII, Poland is very rich in diverse history. This country has had so many bad things happen to them, and has been invaded dozens of times over the last millennia. Given that, it's amazing at how bright and tech savvy the people are. They seem to be on the rise. 

9) Dragons! For real, they've slayed dragons. There is a dragon cave right below the castle in Kraków. 

10) Everyone speaks some level of English. Most at a high level. 

11) It's not touristy. Although in Kraków (and to a lesser extent in Zakopane) many of the menus had English translations, there weren't all that many tourists. Outside of the tours we did to Auschwitz and the Salt Mine we rarely encountered other Americans. Everywhere we ate, drank and visited was filled almost exclusively by Poles. This made it feel like we were getting more insight into the culture than we would in other places with a higher proportion of visitors. 

12) It's extremely affordable. A 3-course dinner with wine was around $65. An hour long massage was about $30. A pair of boots could be as low as $20. 

There are also some interesting/weird things we noticed about Poland:

1) so many pigeons. And people feed them! (Jillian wrote this, Josh says this is quite normal, either way it's disgusting)

2) It's very casual. Bus drivers, tour guides at Auschwitz, waitresses - all wear jeans. We rarely (once, maybe) saw anyone wearing a suit or heels. Maybe once downtown. 

3) Women don't seem to age very well. They are either smokin hot babes or old ladies. America definitely has the MILF market cornered. 

4) They love John Paul II. There are statues and photos of him everywhere. 

5) There are also a lot of nuns. 

6) No one drinks their coffee on the go, they all sit and relax at the coffee shop. The only to go coffee cups we saw were from McDonalds. 

7) Actually, very few people were drinking coffee, everyone had tea. Which might explain why their coffee was so watered down.

8) Polish people love Christmas. Like really love it. They scream out 'Christmas Time!!' while taking their selfies. Also they play so many American Christmas songs we've never heard before. Clearly they listen to the whole Mariah and John Legend Christmas albums and not just the singles like we Americans do.

9) The only American city Polish people know is Chicago. Blank stares for Louisiana/New Orleans. 

It was a great trip.  

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Majestic Mountains

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Our last day in Zakopane we decided to spend in the woods! Tatra National Park is on the border between Poland and Slovakia. 


The big mountain ridge is the border between the countries. We'd done a little scouting at the trailhead the day before, and were planning to do a 4-hour round trip hike. 

Unfortunately NOTHING in town was open! literally nothing! There was nowhere to get water for our hike. We didn't want to climb too far up the mountain with only the small water bottles we had already. So we picked a much shorter loop.

This hike was crazy. We were not mentally prepared for how strenuous it would be. Apparently the Polish don't believe in switchbacks because it was basically 30 minutes of climbing a steep rock staircase straight up the mountain. 

Then we got to a point where the entire trail was coated in ice. We had to tramp through the mud and hold on to tree branches to make our way up. It was also quite windy and at one point we thought one of the tall pines was going to break and fall on us. There were many fallen trees on the trail. 


It was very nice and peaceful. We really miss hiking. We are thinking we may train to do a 3-4 day hike sometime in the fall. Jillian wants to climb Denali one day, which is a 21-day trek. Not exactly something we can train for in super-flat Louisiana. 






We had planned to spend the afternoon shopping but again nothing was open - except the spa. Josh took a beer bath, which is literally sitting in a hot tub filled with beer...while drinking beer. 

Today is another travel day. Our flight from Kraków to Warsaw is on a a prop plane which Jillian is freaked out about.  If you're reading this post it means we survived!

Also, they didn't have our reservation for our flight to Lisbon when we got to the airport. LOT airlines was pretty chill about it, but we have to go deal with the Portuguese airlines (TAP) when we land. We definitely have not had the greatest luck with our air travel this trip, but it's been worth it! 

Now on to Part II of our adventure: Portugal! 

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Merry Christmas

10:40 AM , , , 0 Comments

Merry Christmas everyone! 



We can't believe it's Christmas 2015!

As we mentioned last night, we had a 5pm reservation at a nearby restaurant for a traditional Polish Christmas dinner. Apparently on Christmas you have to eat 12 dishes without meat and then you will have luck...or something. 

We walked in and they sat us at this drafty table facing a heater. There was a spread of weird, unfamiliar foods.

5 different kinds of coleslaw...Jillian's favorite. 

This was by far the most expensive meal we'd paid for in Poland and we were thinking "what the heck did we pay for?!" 

This is salmon and herbs in a cold, meat jello. Not super appetizing. 

The table next to us started standing up to do some traditional Polish group communion thing and invited us to participate. When they found out we were American and visiting Poland (which they were incredulous about) they invited us to join their table. A 6,8" Polish guy (Piodr) who is a dead ringer for Ben Rothlisberger, his Belarusian wife Viktoria, and two Polish ladies who spoke no English. 



Piodr ordered 3 bottles of vodka over the next several hours. He is a head chef in London, so he kept insulting the food, but the later courses like mushroom soup and pierogi a were quite good! 

Neither of us can remember the last time we drank so much vodka! After dinner we went to a nightclub, but we were pretty drunk and tired. Viktoria was not, though...she wanted us all to drive to Kraków to go to a nightclub there. We Americans definitely cannot keep up with the European ways of partying all night.


We thought we were going to be too hungover today, but actually felt alright...maybe because the vodka we drank was so high quality. We were a little slow to get started, but spent the day walking around the town and out in the woods around Zakopane. 


Our hotel is definitely not as fancy as this one. 



It is really beautiful here. You'd think you were in Switzerland with the beautiful mountains and forests. According to Viktoria, the town has been built up a lot in the last 5 years. It has everything - H&M, Adidas, Northface stores, carnival rides, wax museum, nightclubs. Josh says it reminds him of Breckenridge or the larger ski towns in Colorado. 





Josh was especially surprised how nice it has been in Poland. He said he was expecting it to be "the Ohio of Europe" (no offense, granny), but it's almost like the Czech Republic and Russia had a baby. 




Are you tired of babbling brook photos yet?!

Unfortunately the night time photos of the twinkling lights and Christmas trees just aren't turning out, but the city center is very festive and warm. 


Many places are closed for Christmas. We are so lucky that we got in to our dinner last night! So many tourists kept popping in to the restaurant and were turned away. Poland really, really shuts down everything for Christmas. 

We did manage to get some tasty baked good which we're going to eat while watching movies in our attic room at the lodge. 

Tomorrow we are going hiking in the morning and then shopping in the afternoon. There are so many things to do here, you could easily spend a week in Zakopane, even without skiing. 

Hoping everyone has a great holiday! 



xoxo

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Hello Zakopane!

7:20 AM , , 0 Comments


So today we said goodbye to the lovely Krakow. We had such a great time exploring the city. Last night we went to see a Chamber Orchestra perform in the oldest church in Krakow, which was built in the 1200's. Then we had a lovely dinner at a very nice restaurant in the Jewish District. One of the best things about Krakow is how affordable it is - for a three-course, delicious dinner, with a bottle of wine and special treats from the kitchen we paid about $65. 

After dinner we had a couple of drinks in a basement bar. It was about 9PM, but the bar was empty. Europeans don't go out until around midnight apparently. We are just not cool enough for their hip, night owl ways. 



This morning we took the bus to Zakopane. It's a 2-hour bus up into the mountains. Again, super affordable. It was about $4 each for the bus. 



The drive was very beautiful. The countryside has lots of little villages. Our trip to Zakopane was initially planned to be two days of skiing, but its been so warm there is no snow. Our host at the inn says there is typically about 2 meters of snow at this time of year. 


It was a bit of a walk from the bus station to our Inn, but it is so warm and beautiful out. It seems like all of Poland is here. There are many, many families and groups of people walking around. Zakopane reminds us a bit of Telluride or Ouray or Carmel - a posh little mountain town. 







Apparently Christmas Eve is the most important night in Polish holiday celebrations. Everyone meets with their family and has big, traditional meals together. As we were entering town every restaurant and shop seemed to be closing up so their staff could go to their holiday celebrations. Our host at the inn was very, very concerned that there would be nowhere for us to eat tonight as all the restaurants will be either closed or booked. They called a nearby restaurant and asked if they could squeeze us in. So we are going to a traditional, 20-course Polish Christmas dinner. It begins at 5 and is expected to last until 11!

We took a nice long walk around town to get hungry for our big feast. The city is so quaint and beautiful. The air smells like firewood and there is lots of moss and little babbling brooks running through town.

Our host here is very sweet. She just knocked on our door with a big plate of food from her family's Christmas dinner downstairs - all sorts of homemade things like bread and fish and pierogis. Even thought we're eating in less than an hour she just assumed we must be hungry. Polish people are so nice!

We hope everyone has a great Christmas!

xoxo

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