Mixed Bag

Don’t worry, this won’t be a history or statistics lesson.  Just a few random topics related only because I find them interesting.  Think of it as a compilation of short stories.

The way we think about events and experiences has started to change a little.  We have started to categorize events and experiences as “blog worthy” or not.  After deeming something blog worthy, we immediately start thinking about how we are going to write about it.  Often, these events are little things which may not be significant enough for its own post, so we jot them down so at some point, we can make a hodgepodge of a post like this one.  

Snails
We’ve seen a lot more snails in Italy than we see back home.  If you have looked through the pictures, you may have been surprised to see so many photos of them.  That’s because they are novel (to me), they look alien, and they are easy to photograph.  I spotted one one evening as we were sitting outside eating dinner at the farmhouse.  I ran inside and got my camera and took a bunch of pics.  I then set the camera down and continued with dinner (thank you Jesslyn for being understanding of the interruption).  After we had finished eating, the snail had vanished!  I couldn't find it anywhere.  How far could it have gone?  I went to grab the camera to go inside, and there he was on top of the camera.  I guess he liked getting his picture taken.

Getting artistic with the snail photos and the good camera

This is where he was when I couldn't find him

Wine
I like wine.  In fact, I really like wine.  Red, white, pink, bubbly, still, Californian, Italian, French, Australian, Chilean.  I like visiting vineyards and wineries and learning about how the grapes are grown and how the wine is made.  I had a blast at the Boston Wine Expo, going from table to table and hearing all about the producers and trying so many different wines.  But….   I am just not THAT into it.  On a recent wine tour through Montalcino tasting Brunellos, I realized something.  We were sitting with our guide tasting various vintages and he had a 2000-and-something and another 2000-and-something-else, and was smelling and tasting and describing the differences.  To me, I couldn’t tell any difference whatsoever.  Perhaps my palate isn’t as refined as it could be with practice, or perhaps I just don’t have the physical ability, I don’t know.  I have given up on trying or caring.  So, I am OK knowing that I am not able to discern a Sangiovese grape grown on a north facing slope in Montalcino in a dry year from a Barbera grape grown in Alba on a south facing slope in a wet year.  By the way, I am a little skeptical of the whole business because I never see these “experts" do blind tastings.

Food update
It was bound to happen at some point, we had our first inedible dish.  It was some sort of preparation of bacalao and it was awful.  I have had bacalao a couple times before, and I liked some, and not others.  Let me start with the visual; no other word comes to mind other than “slop".  In retrospect, it should have been served in a bowl with a spoon with some bread.  It still would have tasted awful, but at least they could call in stew.  Instead, it was a main course, served with creamy polenta (which wasn’t bad).  And both things were just slopped on a plate.  The gray color didn’t help at all.  It smelled like a fish market at 4pm on a 95 degree day... and the taste was worse.  Jesslyn and I intended to share it, she tried one bite before politely informing me that she wouldn’t be having more and passing it my way.  I took one bite and told her that I was impressed by how calmly she handled that situation (some other time I will tell you about when she spit out the horseradish cheese at a wine tasting and proceeded to wipe her tongue off with a napkin).  I choked down a couple more bites, but I wasn’t up to the challenge.  Luckily the waiter brought us something different for free.  Unfortunately for Jesslyn, that something different was cuttlefish in its own ink.

What does a barrel smell like?
This is actually an old story that I forgot to write about at the time.  In Orkney, Scotland, Lynn, Rob, Jesslyn, and I toured the Highland Park Whiskey distillery.  We were being shown the barrels in which they age the scotch and were offered a chance to smell the inside of a recently used barrel.  After popping off the bung (yes that is the name of the stopper, I will let you guess the name of the hole into which it is inserted), our guide asked us to step up and take a whiff.  Lynn, not being shy, and also apparently not paying attention, stepped right up in front of the whole group and proceeded to smell... the outside of the barrel, no where near the hole.

My favorite thing about Croatia so far?  The size of the beer!

Yes, that's a 2 Liter plastic bottle.

- Jake

Tuscany, Venice and Croatia

Croatia = WOW.  What we’ve seen so far is breathtaking.  I absolutely cannot believe it.  How have I not heard more about how beautiful Croatia is?!  For someone who loves to be on the water (me!)….this is paradise.  Jake reminded me why I haven’t heard about it more:  up until 1991 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia which was a communist country.  Tourism wasn’t a focus.  The Croatian War of Independence ended in 1995 and as the years have passed, the tourism industry has slowing built itself up.  If you’ve read our previous blog posts you know that although we were very interested in checking out Croatia, it wasn’t actually in the plan until we learned about the Schengen and needed to get ourselves out of that region for a few weeks.   I’m pretty psyched about this change of plan!  Yesterday we left on a bus out of Venice, traveled for a few hours through northeast Italy, quickly passed through Slovenia and ended in Rovinj, Croatia.  When we got to the Croatian border, border police came onto the bus and people got their passports out.  We were the only people with US passports and the officer said, “I’ll get you your stamps.”  She took our passports, and no one else’s and returned them with our stamps - we were officially out of the Schengen!  We had no idea if we’d get a stamp entering on a bus so we were happy that that worked out so smoothly.  Today we walked around the Old Town of Rovinj, had coffee at a cafe on the ocean, checked out the St. Euphemia Cathedral which was built in 1736, went grocery shopping and now are taking care of some administrative things (laundry and blog posts :) )!  We are in Rovinj for a total of six nights before we go to the island of Cres.

So Venice and me - love at first sight.  That might not have been the case if we had arrived in the middle of the day.  In the middle of the day it is an absolute zoo.  Disneyland for the 65+?  At least three massive cruise ships were there and it was so crowded.  I stand by my original feelings though - it was awesome and I will go back.  Andrea, I think you personally would absolutely love it.  We took the vaporetti (waterbus) to the Film Festival and saw a screening of Spotlight.  I chose the film because it had actors I like (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton…), tickets were available, and it was playing at a good time of day for us to still have time to do some sightseeing in Venice.  I didn’t take a close look at what the movie was about.  It takes place in Boston.  It was pretty surreal to be watching a movie, in Venice, that takes place in Boston.  It was in English with Italian subtitles.  Most of the people appeared to be in the industry or locals but they show the films in their original languages.  Anyway, the movie was excellent but very, very heavy.  It will make you sick to your stomach.  It’s a true story about the Boston Globe Spotlight team (investigative reporters) and how they revealed the coverup by the Roman Catholic Church of child sex abuse in the Arch Diocese of Boston.  When I walked out of the theater I felt ashamed to be associated with the city and I couldn’t stop crying.  I’m crying right now as I think about what so many young children, mostly boys, went through.  I can’t write anymore.  Go see the movie.  Always keep your eyes open about what is going on around you and do the right thing.  Don’t be afraid, speak up for those who are too scared to speak up for themselves.

Ok, enough of that.  It was really cool to go to a film festival and before our movie started we walked by the red carpet for Black Mass (another Boston movie!).  We didn’t see Johnny Depp but I did see some beautiful women doing their thing on the red carpet and it was pretty cool to see in person!  The last thing we did in Venice was a gondola ride.  It was special and romantic to see Venice from that perspective.

Before Venice we spent a week in a farmhouse in a small town in between Florence and Siena (Poggibonsi).  We picked the place because it was affordable, looked really nice and was central to areas we wanted to explore.  It was the perfect place to settle down for seven nights.  What was incredible was how quickly the week flew by.  We easily could have stayed another week.  I was very sad packing up - almost to the point of being angry.  I didn’t want to lug my suitcases around.  Moving around a lot is getting tiring but obviously the result is that we get to see more.  Now that we are in Croatia, I’m over no longer being in Tuscany!  While we were there we spent a few days doing nothing but planning future phases of the trip and reading by the pool.  That was really nice and I needed it.  One day we went on a guided wine tour and learned all about Brunello di Montalcino.  It is made from 100% Sangiovese grapes, is a highly regulated wine (DOCG), and goes through an extended aging process. 

At home, believe it or not, we’ve never had this wine before as it is typically out of the price range we like to spend.  It was good but then again….we like pretty much every wine we taste.  In between wineries we had a fabulous lunch in the tiny hilltop town of Sant’Angelo in Colle (population ~ 90).  Tuscany is nothing like Napa and Sonoma.  You must have an appointment to visit the vineyard and do a tasting and you don’t see any buses or limos driving hoards of tourists around.  It was really nice, laid-back and private, no one but the two of us and our guide teaching us about the wine and the vineyard.  We explored a few vineyards in the Chianti region on our own and I’d have to say that my favorite was Montecchio which Gabriele Corcos recommended we visit.  If you don’t remember who he is, check out this previous blog.  For 10 Euros each we had a private tour which included going through all of the wine cellars (so cool!) followed by a tasting of 4 different wines (unlike Napa, a “tasting” is basically a full glass of wine).  The wine was paired with bruschetta, salami, finocchiona, and 2 types of pecorino cheese.  It was our first time having finocchiona and it was awesome.  It’s a variation of regular Tuscan salami, but is flavored with fennel seeds and we’ve had it several time since then.  If we can’t find it in the States when we get home, I will have it imported from Italy!  We were unexpectedly given so much food that we canceled our lunch plans and went to pick up dinner. 

In one of the wine cellars at Montecchio

Gabriele had also suggested that we go to a butcher named Dario Cecchini in Panzano, a small town in the Chianti region of Tuscany.  Fabio, the person we rented the farmhouse from also suggested we go.  Fabio described Dario’s butcher shop as a museum as well as a place to buy meat.  I’m not sure what he meant by that but we went and Dario was there, and he sliced the finocchiona and bistecca all Fiorentina that we bought.  Jake grilled up the steak and it was delish.  The rest of the experience was kind of underwhelming but it was cool to go home and watch the clip of Anthony Bourdain visiting the shop a few years ago.  All of a sudden we felt like “Wow - we just talked to that guy!”

Prior to our arrival in Tuscany, I had read about the “Bravio delle Botti” which takes place every year on the last Sunday in August in Montepulciano.  It’s a competition between the eight contrade (districts) of the town which seek to win the “Bravio”, the painted cloth banner depicting the city’s patron saint.  Each contrade chooses 2 strong spingitori (aka pushers) to push a botti (wooden wine barrel) for about a kilometer uphill along the narrow streets of Montepulciano’s historical center.  The origins of this competition go back to the 14th century.  Prior to the race each contrade marches through the streets and you feel like you have been transported back to the Middle Ages.  It was a really unique experience to be a part of.  I’m not sure if we saw any other non-Italians.  It was truly a community event and I’ll always remember being a part of it.  You can see a short video I took of the race here.

Waiting for the race to begin!

Jesslyn

City States

I have really enjoyed learning about European history on this trip.  I don’t think I got much of that in school, and if I had, I probably wouldn’t have been interested.  Learning from books in a classroom can be challenging.  However, being in the place where something actually happened, and seeing the building and relics from the time period help to make it more interesting and memorable.  Traveling through Italy, the concept of “city states” really sinks in.  Relative to its long history, Italy as a unified political state is fairly recent.  Of course, during the Roman heyday, it was under Rome’s control (as was most of Europe), but after the fall of the Roman empire, each city was independent (well more or less, as some had alliances with other cities, and some aligned with the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor).

Each town was built in a strategic location which makes it easy to defend.  This is either on the top of a hill, or in the bend of a river, and often with a wall all the way around it.  Many of the walls have since been taken down to accommodate roads and expansion.  But even in these towns it is evident where the walls once were because the arched entrances to the city remain, and often major roads encircle the city where the wall had once been.

Enjoying the beautiful landscape of Tuscany, the hilltop towns stand out with their earthen colored buildings and towers.  Visiting these towns is like stepping back in time, with many of the medieval structures still standing.  What is amazing is how many of these towns there are.  We have been to Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, Montalcino, Lucca, and Verona.  Within a short drive from where we stayed in the Tuscan countryside, there are even more just minutes away that we just don’t have the time to see such as Monteriggioni, Cortona, and Volterra.

Looking down at San Gimignano from one of its many towers.

One of the more impressive walls was in Lucca.  The city is still completely surrounded by a wall.  It is the 3rd wall to be built around it.  The first was built by the Romans, the second was built to accommodate a much larger city, then finally, the last (and still standing) wall was built to be able to withstand an attack with cannons.  The Luccans realized that the traditional stone walls were easily destroyed by cannons, so they built a new one that is stone and brick on the exterior, but is actually a 20ish foot wide berm of earth.  On top is a road for pedestrians and bicycles, with public parks on the bastions.  The whole thing is still surrounded by open space (so your attackers don’t have any protective cover) and a moat.  The wall was so formidable that no one tried to attack the city after it was built.  It did save the city once by protecting it from a massive flood.

These cities have a fascinating history, and that history has also made its way into modern culture.  Just like in the states, there are bitter sports rivalries between cities.  However, the cheers and taunts from spectators are much much deeper seeded than “Yankees suck”.  Instead, when Florence and Siena play each other, banners made by the Sienese fans make reference to the battle of Montaperti in 1260 when underdog Siena beat the Florentine army.  There is another reference still made to that battle.  The nearby and smaller town of Montalcino was forced to choose sides in the conflict, but they didn’t really want to.  So, what did they do?  The soldiers from Montalcino took their time marching to the battle.  When they arrived, it was just about over and it was clear that Siena would be the victor.  This made it easy to choose sides, but the Sienese were not too happy about the tardiness.  So, they made the soldiers from Montalcino dig the graves for the tens of thousands of dead soldiers.  So, to this day, the people from Montalcino are known derogatively as “becca morti” or “grave diggers”.

Ciao for now.  Stay tuned updates from Venice and Croatia.

Jake

You had me at Buonasera...

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Me and Venice.  Sorry Berlin.  I walked out of the Santa Lucia train station and I saw the Grand Canal...I saw the boats...I didn’t need to see anything else:  I was in love.  

How on earth were we not going to come here?  We had booked a two night stay in Venice for our 5th wedding anniversary, then we heard from so many different people how disappointing Venice was.  They made it sound so underwhelming and not worth going out of our way to visit.  So we canceled.  We canceled!!!  It was the only thing on the trip so far that we have canceled.  Then, when we decided we needed to go to Croatia for our 3 week Schengen-hiatus….it was natural to stop in Venice before we take the bus out of the Italia.

I’ve only been in Venice for a few hours but it has been blog-worthy.  Jake said it best:  you see Venice on TV, you see it in pictures, but not until you are here can you truly believe how incredible it is.  This is a city with no cars.  The roads are canals and the transport are boats. Seriously, it feels like there are no streets, only canals and alleys and I absolutely freaking-love it.

I’m tired and need to get my beauty rest because we are going to the Venice Film Festival tomorrow…so I owe more to this blog topic later!  I was able to get us tickets to see Spotlight…a film that is being released this winter staring Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo.  We aren’t going to the premiere, just a viewing.  Of course I'm secretly hoping that the actors will be there.  That being said…the premiere of Black Mass with Johnny Depp is happening tomorrow night so in the morning I am going to do research on whether or not we can somehow get near the red carpet for that.  

Oh, by the way, I spotted Josh Brolin tonight on a water taxi!  His new film Everest opened the festival last night.  I'm not celebrity crazy but I LOVE celebrity sightings!

Jesslyn

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre (literally “five lands”) is the collective name given to 5 tiny towns along the northwest coast of Italy, not far from Genoa.  Several characteristics make these towns unique.  They are right on the water and surrounded by very steep hills and cliffs, making them feel isolated from the rest of the world.  The steep terraced hills are covered with grape vines as well as plenty of tomatoes, lemon trees and olive trees.  The buildings in each of the towns are colorfully painted making them stand out from the surrounding sea and cliffs.

Manarola, Cinque Terre

We spent our first 2 nights in Monterosso, and being the only one of the 5 towns with a beach, we spent our first full day there.  The water was refreshing, calm, and a clear Mediterranean blue-green.  That night we met up with Jesslyn’s friend from RPI, Mark, and his wife Lauren for dinner.  It was an incredible coincidence that they were in the same tiny little town as us on the same night.  It was great and a bit surreal to catch up with old friends in such a far away and different place.  

We then moved on to a different hotel in the next town, Vernazza, which is built into the cliff.  Our room was up a winding maze of over 100 steps from the street.  We didn’t have any private outdoor space, but there was a common terrace overlooking the ocean about 50 feet above the water.  It was a fantastic area to relax, read, play cards, and drink wine.  A couple of nights, for a cheap dinner, we got a pizza to go and ate it on the terrace while watching the waves lap the rocky shore.  On our third day in on the coast, we hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso and back.  We accidentally took the long way on the way out, going up to the top of the hill and hiking through the woods.  It was nice, but didn’t have a nice view of the ocean, so we took the lower, ocean route back.  The following day we hiked between Corniglia and Manarola, and it was incredible.  If you look at the photos, many are from this hike.  It takes you high above the water, through the vineyards, and gives great views of both towns.  If you ever visit Cinque Terre, you must do this hike.

We wanted to take a ferry between the towns, so we could get a view of them from the water.  However, the ferries were not running because of the rough seas caused by a horrific thunderstorm on our third night night.  For most of that night our room appeared to have a strobe light as it was lit by light from the lightning.  The thunder was not only incredibly loud, but almost constant.  The next day, Jesslyn was chatting with another couple, and the woman said, “Did you think you were going to die last night too?”.  The next morning, a previously dry river was now flowing with a heavy stream of opaque brown, muddy water into the ocean.  You could clearly see the ocean current as the brown water made its way along the coast and out to sea and eventually mixed with the clear aqua sea water.  The rough seas also prevented us swimming at some of the popular places along the rocks.

The local food specialty in Cinque Terre is anchovies.  I like most types of fish, so I try to like anchovies.  I get them on a pizza every once in a while, only to remember why I don’t really like them.  They are always just way too salty.  Not in Cinque Terre.  They serve them in a variety of ways, the most popular is the whole fish lightly breaded and fried.  The fried ones are good and are kind of like eating french fries.  My favorite however, are the filets marinated in wine and vinegar and served in olive oil.  They are delicious on a piece of fresh bread.  Believe it or not, Jesslyn tried every variation of anchovies too.

~Jake 

Verona, Lake Como, and Cribbage

Verona
After leaving Florence, we had 1 night in Verona.  This is the Verona which is the setting for several of Shakespeare's plays, most notably Romeo and Juliet (not the little island named Verona next to Bucksport, ME).  It is a very quaint, old town with a lot of history, which obvious when you see the huge Roman amphitheater next to the main piazza.  It is the third largest in Italy and is still in use for concerts and the opera.  We haven't been to Rome yet, but this was the largest and best preserved Roman artifact we've seen.  It was impressive, and sitting on the marble bleachers, I imagined myself watching gladiators fighting to the death.  We had just one day there and enjoyed strolling through the town, with Jesslyn as the tour guide as she read the Rick Steve's walking tour aloud and I snapped a lot of photos.

Lake Como
After Verona, we stayed in an apartment for 4 nights in a tiny village called Fiumelatte directly on Lake Como, and just outside of a bit larger town called Varenna.  At over 1300 feet deep, Lake Como is the 5th deepest in Europe (the 4 deepest are all in Norway).  The lake is surrounded by mountains and is just minutes away from the Swiss border and Swiss Alps.  The small villages that dot the shore, with their colorful paint and terra cotta roofs make the area very picturesque.  We had a few dips in the lake, although the water was a pleasant temperature, it wasn't exactly crystal clear, and there wasn't a great area to swim.  Our first night we ordered a white fish from the lake called lavarello, which was really good, but a bit too fishy for Jesslyn.  This was the first full apartment that we have stayed in, so we took advantage of the kitchen and our newly found cooking skills.  We bought some fresh pasta from a bakery, and tomatoes and meat to make our own ragu.  It turned out great.  We stuck to the old advice of using just a few really good, fresh ingredients, then not messing it up.  We ate on the balcony most nights with what we imagine will be the best view from our room that we will have in our entire time in Europe.

This wasn't our homemade sauce, but a simple lunch of bresaola, cheese, and focaccia with veggies and local white wine called soave.

Cribbage
No, it is not the name of a town in Italy.  We have played many games of cribbage over the years and wondered what our records were, so, on this trip, we decided to keep track.  If you have been paying attention to the ticker on the sidebar, you will see that we are fairly evenly matched (although if we were playing cut-throat or counting skunks as 2 wins, I think I would have a slight edge).  At one point, Jesslyn was up by 8 games, and I have been up by 5 games on 2 separate occasions.  When one of us gets a lead of more than a few games, I remind myself of how common streaks are in random events.  They happen more often and for longer than we typically would expect.  In a statistics class, one of my professors had the class simulate a series of coin tosses by writing down "H" or "T" in a list on a piece of paper.  This was without the coin, we were just supposed to randomly write Hs and Ts as if we were flipping a random coin in our heads. Then we flipped an actual coin to compare.  We counted the number of times there was a transition from heads to tails or vice versa.  In reality, that transitioned happened much less than compared to what we wrote down.  In real life there were several runs of 5 in a row, while none of us had 5 in a row on our paper.  In real life there were many, many runs of 3 which were uncommon in what we wrote down.  We know logically that the previous result of a coin flip has absolutely no impact on the next, but it still influences our thinking.  It is reassuring to remind myself of this phenomenon when I am behind be a few games.  Some really exciting news:  I recently had the first 28 point hand of my life!

My first ever 28 point cribbage hand.

- Jake

Wrapping up Florence

We just finished our 2 week stint in Florence, or Firenze as they call it in Italian (as far as I can tell the difference is because of how the original Latin name was altered as it made its way into English and into Italian).  This means we also finished our Italian lessons, which didn’t get any easier.  The toughest part is knowing which preposition and article to use.  They don’t translate literally into English the same way we would say something.  For example, you all know the expression “spaghetti al dente”.  Literally translated, this is “spaghetti to (or at) the tooth”, not the same way you would construct it in English.  

Food update:
Remember that post a long time ago from Norway, in which I said we weren’t eating or drinking as much as we used to?  Forget that.  We are in Italy now.  We have been eating pretty well, but we have been eating a lot of the same things; pasta with tomato or pesto, pizza, caprese, prosciutto, bruschetta.  We decided to take a break from Italian food one night.  We we were missing the tastes of home, so we went out for Mexican food.  (pause for either laughter or gasps of disgust)  If you are thinking, “wow, you should know better than to do something like that”, well, you’re right.  It was not good.  We like to learn lessons through experience I guess.

We went back to Mercato Centrale and I had the lampredotto.  If you hadn’t read the previous post about it, it is a sandwich made with tripe of the 4th stomach of the cow, and is a traditional specialty in this region.  I won’t be ordering it again.  Similar to the regular tripe I had before, it had a mild, and slightly gamey flavor.  The spicy oil they put on it helps to mask the flavor a bit.  The gray color wasn’t very appealing, but what I mostly didn’t care for was the consistency.  It was kind of gelatinous, with some chunks of more fatty texture that was difficult to chew.  I am glad to have tried it, but I think tripe is best ground up and mixed with other tidbits and stuffed into a sausage.

Yesterday, we enjoyed a wonderful, full day cooking class.  We made two types of focaccia (rosemary and garlic, as well as basil and tomato), hand rolled spaghetti (called pici) with a tomato sauce, gnocchi with walnut gorgonzola sauce, fried calamari, calamari with beet greens, biscotti, and gelato.  Our instructor, Luciano, was a riot.  Jesslyn and I enjoyed his many off color jokes much more than one of our fellow students, who was there with his teenage daughters.  This was especially true when one of them was rolling the dough for the biscotti, which was looking rather phallic, Luciano said, "touch it gently, like you would your boyfriend”.  We used all fresh, organic ingredients either from the farm on the premises, or from local farmers.  When we needed basil or rosemary, we went outside and picked it off the plant.  Luciano told us about different types of flour and how the gluten content and bleaching of most modern flour causes digestive problems for people.  He uses ancient grain flour which has much less gluten than others.  He showed and explained how to prepare garlic and onions that won’t cause foul smelling burps.  He often talked about how cooking with fresh ingredients is best for your health and gave specific examples.  The food was great and we are no longer so intimidated to attempt making our own pasta and sauce.

Jesslyn preparing the potato for gnocchi

Future plans:
Spending 2 weeks in Florence and being in class in the mornings worked out well, so that we had time to plan more of the trip in the afternoons.  We forgot how time consuming it is to research places, modes of transportation, and accommodations.  We started planning our trip about 6 months before we left, and we only had about the first 6 weeks planned out.  So we were at the point where we needed to book trains and places to stay.  The monkey wrench in our plans was the Schengen visa rules.  I suspect that most of you have never heard of that.  Well, we never had either until we were speaking with another traveler at a hostel in Scotland.  Basically, the rule is that you are allowed to be in the Schengen zone for 90 days out of any consecutive 180 days.  The Schengen zone includes all of Europe, except for the UK, Ireland, and Croatia.  How on earth did this never show up on our radar during our 6 months of planning?  We had read articles and books on traveling the world, but it was never mentioned.  We looked into which countries required visas.  We knew we couldn’t stay in Italy for more than 90 days, but didn’t know it wasn’t just Italy, but that included most of the rest of Europe.

Since we had already made plans to be in Italy in October, it meant that we had to leave the Schengen for at least a week in September and up to 3 weeks since that is the gap we had between plans in Italy.  We have heard good things about Croatia for a while, so it was on the list of potential stops.  After learning about the Schengen rules, it is now firmly on the agenda.  Croatia is part of the former Yugoslavia and is directly east, across the Adriatic sea from Italy.  It has been a popular destination for German and British tourists for a while now, and Americans are just starting to catch on.  So far we have booked accommodations in Rovinj and Cres, and are working on getting down to Dubrovnik and one of the islands in the south.  From the research we have done, we are very excited for this part of the trip.  It looks incredible.

Website:
It has recently come to our attention that some of you didn’t realize we have been sharing photos of our trip.  If you are only reading the blog via email, it is easily missed.  I will update the email template to include a link to the photos.  In the mean time, you can go to the main web page (www.jakeandjesslyn.com) and click on the link for photos.  We don’t love the way the photos are presented because we haven’t been able to put any text with them, so there is little context.  We are working on it.  If you have recommendations for a good way to share photos with text, please let us know.

Also, if you are reading this blog post from email, you may not realize you can leave a comment.  If you go to the blog on the website, you can, and please do!  We love to hear from everyone.  I will also update the email notifications to make that easier as well.  If you leave a comment, it won’t appear on the site until we approve it, so, give it about 24 hours before it is publicly viewable.

Ciao!

 - Jake

Stiamo iniziando a sentirsi a casa in Italia.

Need a translation on the title?  We are starting to feel at home in Italy!

Last night we had what felt like our first truly Tuscan dinner, at Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco.  It was a spectacular night that we’ll talk about for years to come.  Antipasti, primi, secondi, contorni, dolce, vino, limoncello, grappa.  Molte Bene. It was recommended to us by our friend, Gabriele Corcos.  Do you know him?  If not, before I get to comments on the incredible food, let me explain how we ended up at this incredible restaurant, and then set the scene:

I’ve been a subscriber to People Magazine for about a decade.  I love it.  I read it cover to cover.  I think that it has a great mix of celebrity, fashion, real life heros, and food.  Up until we left for this trip, I continued to enjoy reading the old fashioned paper version and when I was done with my issue, I’d put it on our stoop in Brooklyn for someone else to grab and enjoy, hopefully while relaxing in Prospect Park.  In an issue a few years ago, there was a one page spread about Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar and their show on the Cooking Channel, Extra Virgin.  The article caught my eye because I recognized Debi from her role on Entourage and of course I also remembered her from her role in Goodfellas, one of the greatest movies of all time.  Neither Jake nor I had ever been a cooking show or HGTV person, but something about the one page spread in People caught my eye and made me set my DVR to record Extra Virgin.  One episode of EV and we were hooked.  We love the format of their show and their delivery.  Most of all, me personally, I love them as a couple.  I’m starting to sound a bit weird-celebrity stalker-ish so let me explain:  the love that they share (at least what we see on TV)…it reminds me so much of me and Jake.  I don’t know why.  We are so different.  He’s a musician-turned-chef from Tuscany, she’s a famous actress.  Jake and I are two people from NH that work in technology.  But I feel it.  Similar connections that you just can’t beat.  The real deal.

When we lived in Park Slope, Jake and I frequented 12th Street Bar and Grille, it was around the corner from our apartment and on Sunday nights they had open mic.  The jam session was called “The Radigan Roundup" because local musician and 12th St. bartender Terrry Radigan organized it.  We looked forward to going every Sunday night. It is such a small eclectic group of wonderful musicians.  12th St. also happens to have the 2nd best burger in town and maybe the best fries (#1 burger goes to The Double Windsor and they are tied for the best fries). 

One night, we were sitting at home enjoying a prerecorded episode of Extra Virgin (I love the DVR!) when all of a sudden Terry Radigan, the 12th St. bartender was playing the drums alongside Gabriele on EV!!!  We were like “What?!?!?!”….so….next time we were in 12th St. enjoying open mic night we said, “Um, Terry, you know Gabriele?!?!?!”…and she said….”Yeah!  Did you know that they are opening a cafe around the corner?  They are going to be having a pop-up dinner sometime soon!”  Well….no…we did NOT know this.  So of course I immediately signed up for Gabriele’s newsletter, “The Tuscan Gun” and I was alerted when tickets went on sale for the opening night pop-up dinner.  Yes, I bought them from my iPhone while navigating through Manhattan traffic on my way home from a meeting that was in NJ (don’t tell Jake or the police).  We were fortunate enough to get tickets but really didn’t know what to expect.  Would Gabriele be there?  Would Debi be there?  Would it be a huge crowd?  Would we be disappointed?  It was spectacular.  Afterwards, my face hurt from smiling so much.  It was opening night!  Well, actually, the cafe wasn’t even open to the public yet but about 20 of us were allowed inside while Gabriele shared with us some details about his life growing up in Tuscany, about his families recipes, and his hopes for the cafe.  We ate course after course of delicious food:  porchetta sandwich, sugo di porchetta, etc. .  It was awesome and so much fun.  They didn’t have their liquor license yet so we brought two bottles of super Tuscan vino with us and easily went through it while we enjoyed course after course of delicious food.  After such a great experience, I signed up for a cooking class that ended up being even more intimate.  There were only four other “students”, Gabriele, and his staff.  Not only did I have the opportunity to learn how to make great Tuscan sauces, I got to converse with fun people and then sit down and enjoy the sauce I cooked along with Gabriele and the group.  Oh yeah, and more Tuscan wine.

On these two occasions, knowing that Gabriele’s roots were truly Tuscan, we mentioned that we were quitting our jobs and spending three months in Italy.  He was gracious enough to say, “Send me an email I will respond with recommendations!”.  This is an offer you don’t miss out on.  I had a few other interactinos with him (and Debi, and his awesome staff) as his new cafe was right on my running route AND right in our ‘hood'!  Once abroad, I sent him an email and he recommended various restaurants / farms / vineyards / butcher in Tuscany.  So….to start checking off this awesome list……last night…….as previous mentioned…….we dined at Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco.  Incredible!  

Gabriele said, “Tell everybody I am sending you.” so I felt obliged to comply.  We were seated, and it seemed like it was by the owner…..so after we had our menus, and the owner stopped by, I said, “Do you happen to know Gabriele Corcos, he recommended we come here…?”….he replied saying…”oh no, I’m sorry, it's my son who knows everyone…he’s not here tonight…..I’m so sorry, he knows everyone….was it a hotel or apartment that sent you?”….and I said….”no….no….Gabriele…and Debi….from Nuovo York!”…..and he was like, “OHHHHHHHH”…and he told us about the connection between their two families and how he was so happy to have us!  We immediately received two glasses of complimentary Prosecco and throughout the night, in addition to what we ordered, we received extra, extra, extra.  We don’t name drop.   We weren’t looking for free food.  We were purely excited to share the experience of knowing someone who has treated us well and knows good food!  When I had reached out to Gabriele I did so because I respect his opinion and I wanted to go to the best places!  Jake and I like to eat!  So…here’s what we shared (some we ordered, the others were complimentary):

• Antipasti:  antipasto misto della casa (a variety of thinly sliced cured meat, aka salumi, pecorino cheese, crostini toscani, aka pate), burrata con tartufo, bruschetta
• Primi: pappardelle al ragu di cinghiale (wide ribbon noodles with boar sauce)
• Secondi: tagliata con rucola e parmigiano (sliced sirloin with arugula and parmigiano cheese)
• Contorni: insalata caprese di bufala (bufala mozzarella, tomatoes, basil)
• Dolce: tiramisu, panna cotta, limoncello, grappa!!!
• Vino:  vino rosso

We had a great table and phenomenal service.  The antipasti, dinner, dolce, vino and after-dinner drinks were divine.  We were treated like locals, not like tourists.  What I mean by that is that the dishes were brought out slowly and we got to enjoy them as they are meant to be enjoyed.  Not all together in a rush.  Every single thing we ate was spectacular.  If you don’t know what it is….google it!  We agreed on the highlights:  burrata con tartufo, pappardelle al argue di cinghiale, insalata caprese di bufala and finally, the pana cotta.  Everything was so delicious.  We were spoiled and we feel so fortunate.  I asked the owner:  “Come ti chiami?"  Response:  "Chiamo Massimo!”  Thank you Massimo!!!!!!  Thank you Gabriele!  What a night to remember!

Jesslyn (and Jake)

A couple funny things

When we arrived at the home of the family with whom we were staying, Jesslyn went to use the bathroom.  There was a bidet, but no toilet paper, nor even a TP holder.  She asked me what the deal was.  I wasn’t quite sure.  If you use a bidet, do you not need TP?  I have seen bidets before, but honestly have no idea how to use one.  So, we struggled with what to do.  Should she attempt to use the bidet even though she doesn’t know how?  I realized I was going to face the same problem at some point, but was embarrassed that I didn’t know about the bidet.  So, like a good husband, I encouraged Jesslyn to ask our hosts about it.  We pondered just how she should ask.  “How do you use the bidet?”  No, that might be interpreted as “can you demonstrate how to use the bidet?”, and that would just be awkward.  Finally, Jesslyn asked, “we don’t have bidets back home, and I notice there isn’t any toilet paper…”.  She let the beginning of the question linger for a moment in order to judge the reaction.  After a slightly embarrassed giggle, our host said “Oh, sorry, I forgot to give you toilet paper.  I will get some for you right now.”.

As previously mentioned, I like to speak the local language as much as I can when I travel.  However, as those of you who have travelled through Europe know, there are a lot of different languages to learn.  You can easily find yourself immersed in 3 or 4 different languages within a week, which makes it tough to learn more than, “hello”, “please”, and “thank you”.  I never studied Spanish in school, but I have visited a number of Spanish speaking countries and have a lot of Spanish speaking friends.  That must be why whenever I want to translate something from English to another language, the default is Spanish.  It even almost works here in Italy because Italian and Spanish are so similar.  So, every time time someone says “grazie” (“thank you”) here in Italy, the thought in my head is to say “de nada” (“you’re welcome" in Spanish).  German is not similar to Spanish, but when we were in Munich, I was paying a cashier for some food and when she said “danke”, I said “de nada” to her out loud!

I’m not the only one to do this.  A common exchange in Italian is “Come va?” (“how are you”), to which I would reply “bene” (“well”) or “molto bene” (“very well”).  After a week, Jesslyn has finally broken herself from saying “molto bueno”.

 - Jake

Still Adjusting

Ahh Italia.  The European leg of our trip was centered around coming to Italy.  We were SO excited.  It was going to be the highlight of the European stint and possibly the overall highlight of the trip.  Oh what expectations it had to live up to.

The first week in Italy (Florence) was really tough for me.  Throughout the week I constantly told myself to remember how lucky I am to be here and to be on this adventure, but man it was hard to stay positive at times.

        - Hotter than Africa.
        - Expectations not met with living accommodations or with school.
        - Unplanned injury.

I can't remember if Jake's post commented on how hot it has been but it has been in the high 90s/over 100 degrees every day.  I don't do hot.  I hate sweating.  I'd choose throwing on dozens of layers of clothes over sweating anytime.  Ugh.  Jake spoke about our living situation so let me give an update on that:  we moved out of the host family apartment.  When we signed up for the two week conversational Italian class in Florence, we chose to stay with a host family for two weeks.  That means we agreed to pay for that.  However, payment wasn't due until we arrived.  So....on Wednesday (we arrived Sunday night), when we decided to proactively remind the school that we hadn't paid for our living accommodations yet, we told them that we'd stay with the family for the first week but would move out and find our own accommodations for week two.  They said "no" and through many minutes of discussion and negotiation, we came to an agreement that we would in fact move out.  Our reasoning was that #1 it was too hot for any human being #2 we had no space to live in, only to sleep in and #3 that it wasn't what we expected - it wasn't a "host family" - they didn't interact with us at all.  The school staff explained however that it is not in the Italian culture to "catch up" over breakfast.  That is something that is saved for dinner time.  So, Thursday morning rolls around and the husband and wife of the host family are up interacting with us over breakfast.  Very conversational.  Of course when I got to school that day (by the way, yes the bell rings and that is really funny to me...brings me back...anyways...) I asked what conversation with the family had been like.  The school staff told the family that the temperature of the apartment was too much for us so we were moving out.  They also mentioned that we expected to interact with them more. The family felt bad and said that they sleep in in the summer, wanted to give us space etc.  They were up again with us Friday.  Long story short, the overall situation improved but it was still SO HOT and we didn't have any space to do all the planning we need to do for future legs of the trip.  We moved out on Saturday and are in a hostel now.  It is kind of ghetto but the owners are super helpful and we have our own room and our own bathroom with more overall space.  The AC slowly attempts to bring the room down to 19 degrees Celsius and that works for me.

The unplanned injury?  I left this out of previous posts but it is starting to affect the trip so I should probably mention it.  Did you look at the amazing photos of Milos?  It was incredible.  We weren't there 30 minutes before I wiped out.  I wiped out HARD.  I was daintily going into the beautiful Aegean Sea and KAPLAT, totally wiped out.  So hard.  I slipped on a wet rock that must have had an inconspicuous layer of algae on it.  Well, when we were in Milos it hurt but I didn't do much other than ride around on a scooter or lay on the beach.  After a few days walking around Istanbul, and then Florence, I am in so much pain, it is awful.  I may have bruised a bone?  I haven't Googled it yet because I'm afraid to.  I'm trying to rest/elevate/(I have no access to ice) but it is kind of hard to do when you are on a walking tour of Europe.  Ugh.

Outside of all of the above - Florence is pretty awesome.  We already blogged about the food and wine - so good! We have walked around a lot and visited many a piazza but haven't gone into a lot of the sights yet.  If you are following us on Instagram (_no_permanent_address_) you would have seen my post of the Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore) - WOW.  It is truly amazing from the outside and we plan on going in on one of the days to come.  Most days we have gone to class from 9-12:15, gotten some lunch, done our homework and then gone to the library where there is both free wifi and air conditioning.  There we do research/booking for future parts of our trip (Rome, Amalfi, Croatia....still need to plan SE Asia....).  However, we did spend an afternoon at the Accademia where Michelangelo's David is. It is truly, truly, incredible.  What a masterpiece.

While I thought it was incredible and definitely the focal point of the museum, I actually thought that the "Prisoners" were just as amazing.  Now imagine a young Florentine named Michelangelo chipping away at a block of marble like that to create something like David.  Seeing an unfinished block of marble really put into perspective all that goes into creating something so spectacular.  Pictures don't do it justice.

We are on a budget right?  Nerd alert:  we have been downloading the Rick Steve's free podcasts of things like Florence, the Accademia and listening to them (ya know, hitting play at exactly the same time) together.  It's a great free tour guide around the city.  Speaking of free tours, there is a Medici Family free tour that takes place in Florence so I am going to do that that someday this week after class.  You don't have to be in Florence for long to know that the Medici family owned this town back during the days of the Renaissance.  I am familiar with the Medici Family because I (am not afraid to admit) really enjoy watching the show "Reign" on the CW.  Of course its a fictional show based on some real life events.  The Medici family was a rich (non-royal) family that basically ran Florence.  One of the daughters married the heir to the throne of France and became Queen of France.  etc. etc. etc.  I want to learn more.  We have a lot more to do in Florence and little time to accomplish it as we have school to attend, homework to do and laundry that needs to be done!  Tomorrow we are going to go to the Uffizi Gallery which is said to have "the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere"...by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giotto etc.

On Saturday we took a tour to Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa.  Too summarize, each town was so much more quaint than "big" Florence.  I'd love to go back and spend a few more hours in both Siena and Sangi, and we probably will.  For now, I know that you are all dying to see our cheesy Pisa shots, so here you go!

So much to say but this has been long enough!  Buonasera!

Jesslyn

Food Part 1: First Exposure to Tuscan Cuisine

We were both excited to post our first food specific blog from Italy.  So who gets to write it?  We decided that we both do.  Instead of trying to co-author a single, uniform post, we thought it might be fun to decide on some topics, and write them independently.  We didn't collaborate other than to decide the topics.  So here are the same experiences from both Jake and Jesslyn's eyes and palates.

INTRO
Jake:  
We chose to write about (mostly) the positive food experiences.  They haven't been all great.  I had a porchetta sandwich of dry pork on stale bread.  We had some so-so salads and boring panini.  We chalk it up to being in a touristy area.  What follows are the highlights of our culinary experience thus far.

Jesslyn:  
I was drawn to Italy for so many reasons:  the history, the breathtaking cliff-lined coasts, the language (delivered by your entire body, not just your voice)…………..the gelato, the pasta, the tiramusu, the percorino, the coffee….the list goes on.  After almost a full week in Florence, it’s time to reflect on the food thus-far.  The history etc. we can talk about later.  In case you don’t know this already, it’s important to know that each region of Italy has very different cuisine.  For instance, Bologna is known for its lasagne, in the South of Italy, the food is much more Mediterranean-like:  not pasta and heavy parmigiana, its fish and veggies.  So, let’s reflect on what we’ve had so far in Tuscany:

TRIPPA
Jake:  
Our first night in Florence (and in Italy), we ate upstairs at Mercato Centrale.  We don't have many markets like this in the States, but it is a typical market in other parts of the world.  There are stalls selling meat, others selling cheese, some selling fish, spices, wine, vegetables, etc.  Upstairs at the market are a number of places selling food ready to eat.  In the middle is a giant bar and tables to sit and eat and drink. You order at the one of the counters, then take your tray to the table.  It is kind of like a food court at the mall, but with delicious food.

OK, back on track now.  This post is about "trippa".  On our first night at the mercato, the gentleman serving us our wine said that we had to try the "sandwich of the cow's 4th stomach".  Most of you are probably thinking...  "gross, no thank you".  If you are like me, you are thinking, "yes, yes, we must try this".  So, on our second visit to the mercato, I searched out the sandwich.  I knew that a cow's stomach is tripe, and in Italian, it is trippa, so that is what I was looking for.  I found the trippa, but no sandwich.   So, I got a plate of "trippa fiorentina".  It was ladled from a big pot onto a small plate, and served with some spicy oil drizzled on top and some bread.

I don't recall ever eating tripe before in my life.  I am sure there is a good reason for that too.  If it was good, I am sure I would have had it by now. This tripe was...  good.  Not the most delicious thing I have eaten, but not terrible.  I think the sauce that it was cooked and served in was delicious, and it accounted for most of the flavor.  It was a fresh, spicy tomato based sauce.  The tripe itself was fairly mild with a slightly gamey flavor.  Jesslyn took one bite and nearly spit it out.  So, I ate the whole plate!

After a little more research, I figured out what it was that I was actually looking for.  The sandwich is called lampredotto.  It is a special kind of tripe, made specifically from only the 4th stomach.  It is called lampredotto because lamprey eels were common in the nearby Arno river, and the ridges in the tripe looked like the mouth of the eels.  Mmmmm, delicioso!  Anyway, keep an eye out for the next food blog.  I plan to go back and have the lampredotto.

Jesslyn:
Tripe sounds so disgusting to me but it is super tuscan and I put my inhibitions aside and was very excited to try (eat?) this dish.  Mercato Central is a multi-level marketplace in Florence.  During the day, the lower level has several counters that sell meat, fish and cheese that I assume restaurants come to buy as the entire level is closed by 14:00.  There is an upstairs to the market that is open into the evening hours and is self-service.  It’s pretty awesome.  You can buy pasta from one place, meat from another and a bottle of wine from a third.  So, the other evening I sat at a table sipping some vino while Jake went to buy us a tripe (TREE-PAH) sandwich to split.  When he returned, he didn’t have a sandwich but a plate that looked absolutely delicious.  It looked like some sort of a meat sauce with bread.  They were out of the sandwich, but no problem, like I said, this looked delicious.  One bite and I was done.  Gross.  Gamey, gamey, gamey.  I was very disappointed because I full-on wanted to like tripe but I will not be having another bite!

BISTECCA ALLA FIORENTINA
Jake:
Ah, the bistecca alla Fiorentina.  The Florence steak.  It is a 2 inch thick T-bone steak cooked over an open flame.  Do I need to say anything more?  The funny thing is on the menu it says that it is "only served rare.  Don't ask for anything else, we won't do it".  I love it!

Jesslyn:
T-Bone steak - a super tuscan dish.   I LOVE steak and was super excited to order this in Florence.  We stumbled upon a trattoria that looked good and we were super hungry.  We weren’t looking for steak that night - just a good meal.  When we walked in - it was clear that it was a tuscan steak place and we were totally up for it!  When I got the menu and it said that they only serve it RARE I wasn’t afraid.  Bring it on.  The redder the better.  It was good - really good.  But……….I’ve had so many good steaks over the years either with work events or special dinners with Jake that this didn’t top my best steak dinners in the US (Del Frisco’s, Ruth Chris, Keen’s, Peter Luger)…it was an expensive meal but I might have to have it again while we are in Italy to see if it can top my list.

LIMONCELLO
Jake:
We had the bistecca at a fun place called "Tito's".  I was a little skeptical to eat there because of the loud music pouring out onto the sidewalk (damn, I am getting old).  We gave it chance, and it did not disappoint.  The wait staff was a lot of fun and the food was great.  We noticed bottles of yellow liquid on many of the other tables.  After we finished eating, I asked what it was, and the waitress said it as limoncello and will bring some.  She brings an already open, large plastic bottle with no label, about 3/4 full, and 2 shot glasses.  We pour our own, and sip the mostly sweet, and slightly tart lemon liquor.  Delicious.  We wonder how they charge us for it though.  Do they weigh the bottle before and after they serve it?  Do they use the honor system?  We went to pay, and I notice the limoncello is not included, so I mentioned it.  No charge!  My favorite type of drink...  free.  Then, we are not allowed to leave until we do a shot of limoncello with the owners of the restaurant.  This is our kind of place.

Jesslyn:
As we were eating our steak we noticed that other tables had finished their dinners and moved on to limoncello.  We hadn’t planned on drinking anymore but it seemed wrong to not also partake in the limoncello.  So we asked for some and an entire bottle appeared on our table.  Don’t picture the bottle of limoncello you can buy at the liquor store….picture an empty tall water bottle filled with something yellow.  That’s what appeared on our table with two (shot-sized) glasses.  Pour it yourself for as long as you want and pay for what you drink.  We had two glasses each and decided it was time to go “home”.  As we started to leave, a couple entered whose presence excited the staff (who by the way were already super jubilous dancing around the restaurant to Pitbull all night). As we left we were stopped by the waitstaff to do a limoncello shot with about 5 of them and the two owners.  Why us?  Super memorable.  Super fun.  Super tuscan.  Super us.

TRUFFLE PASTA
Jake:
We got a recommendation for the truffle pasta at the mercato centrale, so we made a return trip to try it.  Neither Jesslyn nor I are big fans of truffle.  We typically avoid menu items that include truffle oil.  BUT...  it was amazing (and I don't use that word lightly because it is extremely overused these days).  It was spaghetti in a truffle cream sauce with fresh shaved truffle (tartufo fresco) on top.  It is completely out of our price range at 20 euros per plate, but we are going back to get it again.  It was that good.

Jesslyn:
Before we attempted the tripe dish, we actually split a plate of pasta with truffle cream and shaved truffles.  OMG.  One of the best things I’ve had this week in Florence.  Here’s the thing though:  I don’t like truffle.  “What?” you say?  Either because you don’t understand how I could possibly NOT like truffle OR because I just said it was one of the best things I’ve had.  Let me explain.  In Brooklyn “truffle” was EVERYWHERE:  truffle fries, truffle mac-n-cheese, truffle …cupcakes?  I didn’t have too much of it and have had enough - I just never really liked it.  In Brooklyn, when a waiter raised their eyebrows and was like, “Do you want the truffle fries?” I was like……”No thank you”.  Jake felt the same way.  What the heck is all the rage with truffles?  Well, here in the land of truffles - OMG - I want to eat more.  Absolutely-freaking-delicious.  Going truffle hunting was not on my radar for this trip - but now - maybe - we need to go and then cook a delicious meal ourselves with the truffles found!!!

GELATO
Jake:
It's everywhere in Florence, and it's great.  You are expected to order 2 flavors even for a small.  I suspect Jesslyn will elaborate on this topic quite a bit, so I will let her fill you in.

Jesslyn:
EVERYWHERE. More gelato shops than I could have ever imagined.  It is absolutely delicious.  However, if I’m being truly honest - if I had my choice between gelato or a purple cow with jimmies from The Backroom or Kimballs - I’d go with the purple cow.  Perhaps I haven’t found the right gelato shop yet but in my opinion, ice cream shops back home - you know - the good ones - are better.  For me at least.  However, there is much more to say about the gelato….we are being picky - making sure to go to the places that we know make it themselves.  I’ve read how to know the difference….things like, does the shop window say, “produzione propia” which means that the gelato is made on site…or…can you see the mounds of gelato heaping over the container or does the container have the silver cover on the top?  You want the place that covers its gelato.  That one we learned from a guy we chatted with over lunch one day who was doing a summer abroad from Johnson & Wales.  I should note that very unrelated to food - I’m finally starting to understand what it feels like to be ok being the age that I am.  We’ve interacted with a lot of people that are 19, 20 years old and I’m thankful to be through that stage of my life.  They are great people, I’m just saying that I’ve figured some things out and I’m thankful that I’m on the other side of that awkward figuring out life stage.  As I right that I want to vomit a little bit because at the same time I feel like I have so much to figure out.  Ok, maybe I should just get back to the food…….

VINO
Jake:
It's inexpensive.  I like wine, and I have probably drank more than my share, but I still don't think I have a very refined palate to appreciate fine wines.  In NYC, we typically would only buy bottles under $15.  Here in Florence, you can find good wine (in my opinion) for under $5 a bottle.  The cool thing is that you can buy a bottle of wine or beer from a grocery store or shop, and sit outside in the piazza with your friends and drink it.  It is a lot cheaper than going to a bar.

Jesslyn:
Cheap.  Great.  Tuscan.  Red.  Red. Red.  Jake and I don’t discriminate.  Back in the states, we drink red wine, white wine, pink wine, green wine….any color wine we can find really.  Here in Tuscany, sure they sell all kinds of wine - but people from Firenze - they drink rosso.  It doesn’t matter if it is 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit)…you drink red, red red.  So, when in Florence…..:)  In the grocery store we saw Tuscan wine for 2.20 Euro.  Heaven.  We haven’t had that yet but I am going to assume it's awesome.  Still on our to-do list is buying a bottle (or if I”m in charge two bottles) of vino rosso and sitting in a Piazza with a pizza e vino.  Next week.

BREAKFAST
Jake:
Not much to report here.  It isn't a thing.  For the first week in Florence, we stayed with a family and they provided breakfast.  It was pre-packaged bread-like things with jam or Nutella.  OK, so this wasn’t a highlight, but it is interesting that in a land of great food, they mornings don’t start with it.

Jesslyn:
Lacking.  What I expected.  Italians don’t do breakfast.  Maybe it's different at a cafe or at other accommodations but we’ve been staying with a family and eat what is offered to us:  processed food and instant coffee.  However, there is Nutella on the table. Before we left the States for this trip I had never had Nutella.  Wait - don’t judge!  I don’t like Hazelnut.  Well, I eat it every day now, for breakfast!  Apparently you can like Nutella and not like hazelnuts.  I haven’t figured out how that works yet but am adapting just fine.  I haven’t ordered the Nutella gelato yet but maybe I’ll get there.  Tomorrow we move on to a hostel for eight nights and breakfast is included.  I look forward to seeing what another breakfast environment is like.

SALUMI:
Jake:
In NYC, we called it by its French name, charcuterie.  Basically, a meat (and perhaps cheese) board.  It typically includes thinly sliced prosciutto, salami, capacolla, and mortadella.  We had it for lunch one day, and it was soooo good.  More than we could eat for 13 Euros.

Jesslyn:
In NYC Jake and I ordered many a “char-cuterie”.  On our first day here in Firenze we were looking for a lunch spot.  Imagine us being starving and super hot.  We had just survived our first Italian class and can’t believe how hard it is.  Ok…so we are aimlessly walking around and we walk by something that catches my eye.  We walk another block or two and I say - “Ok - we have to go back to this place I saw”.  Enter awesomeness.  There was one woman frantically working and I told her that we…”wanted what they have”….which was an large plate of many Tuscan sausages and prosciutto and cheeses….and two glasses of wine.  It was so much food and so good and……..we need to go back!!!

ARANCINI
Jake:
Fried rice balls.  We had them at a tiny place where you order from the counter and they hand you a pre-made arancino from behind the glass in a napkin, which you eat with hands.  They have different types: I got the cheese and veggie, and Jesslyn got the eggplant and tomato.  Simple, quick, and delicious (I keep using that word, I need a thesaurus).

Jesslyn:
Amanda told me to be excited about three menu items in Italy:  gelato, coffee (let’s tap it Da!), and arancini.  Yesterday, a gelato place was recommended to us so we went there after lunch.  Turns out that it is an arancini AND gelato spot.  So - we went back today for arancini.  SOOOOOOO good!!!  I had the “Norma” and Jake had the “Verdure”.  This was the kind of place that didn’t have any descriptions in English but I had remembered from previously reading about arancini that I’d like the one called Norma.  I’m all about name-association for remembering things and of course the name “Norma” reminded me of Norman.  I wish I could tell him about our time here because I think he’d be super excited about our tuscan adventures in food.  After taking my first bite I was reminded that the “Norma” contains pomodoro sauce and eggplant.  It was absolutely delicious and we’ll be going back another day for lunch to try other kinds!  I loved that they serve it on a napkin and you just bite into it….Garrrrrr!

I want to give another shout out to Norman here:  when we were in Munich, we went to a museum that had more models of ships and planes that anyone could ever even imagine seeing in their lifetime!  I know that he would have appreciated the work that went into creating those models sooooooo much. Thinking of you Norm!

CROSTINI TOSCANI
Jake:
This was another thing that we read Tuscany was known for.  It is bread topped with some sort of meat / pate.  It is one of the best things I've had here.  It has a slight taste of liver, like pate, yet has a more meaty, chunky texture.  The best of both worlds.

Jesslyn:
After we had been in Florence for a few days, I realized that I didn’t remember which foods were truly Tuscan vs. which were more well known in other parts of Italy.  After refreshing my memory I came across a list which included Crostini Toscani.  When I read about it, I remembered thinking, “Well, I’ll try that but it doesn’t sound that awesome.”  Tonight we had our first menu which included it.  It didn’t have a description - just the name which triggered my memory that we should order it.  So, we did, it arrived and there it was - a crostini with pate.  Now I remembered.  I had a bite and it was kind of gamey.  Then I had another bite and it was pretty delicious.  That overall experience reminded me of the venison we had in Fort Williams (Scotland)…where the first bite was kind of “eh” and then it got better and better.  Weird yes, but an accurate description of eating it.  I’d have it again!

CONCLUSION
We are so excited to be in Italy and specifically in Tuscany.   The food is great.  We’ve had some disappointing meals but more often they have been very good.  We can’t wait to try more Tuscan food and cuisine throughout other regions of Italy.  We are looking forward to a full day of cooking classes next Saturday at a school just outside of Florence.  After that we’ll be spending one night in Verona before moving on to four nights in a small village on Lake Como.  On Lake Como we'll have an apartment where we plan to do some cooking with fresh ingredients from the local market and bakery.  We aren’t sure what to expect for a kitchen there so it may end up being cheese, salami, bread and wine, but that still sounds pretty nice!  Later in August we have rented an apartment for seven nights on an olive farm halfway between Florence and Siena.  We know that we have a pretty legit kitchen there, and look forward to not only cooking…but maybe even having a cooking lesson on site.

- Jake and Jesslyn

Florence: "First chink in the armor, Ted”

Remember that line from “There’s Something About Mary”?  I think of that line whenever something is going so well, then all of a sudden it’s not.  Benvenuti in Italia.

If you read our plan, you know that we are planning on spending the vast majority of our time in Europe in Italy.  So, we thought it would be a good idea to take some Italian lessons so we could communicate in the local language.  The school we enrolled in even set up the accommodations in Florence.

The school offered 3 types of accommodations; a private room in a dorm, a shared room in a dorm, or with a host family.  We thought, “It might be a little awkward to stay in the home of complete strangers, but it would be a great opportunity to practice our new language skills and live with locals that can help us to acclimate to Italy and to the city.”  Arriving in Florence, we were nervous and excited to meet our new family for the next 2 weeks.  

Primo problema:  What we got was a room to sleep in and our own bathroom.  That’s it.  There is a family that also lives here, but they don’t talk to us.  There was no offer to use the living room, or kitchen, or to even use the fridge to keep water in.  So, we are confined to the bedroom.  We don’t really feel welcome.  And to top it off, it is absolutely boiling in our room.  The first night must have been over 90 degrees.  So, we don’t really have a home base where we are comfortable to just hang out and relax when we need downtime.

Secondo problema:  I love picking up language skills when I travel to other countries and attempting to communicate in the local language.  One of my prouder moments was at a restaurant in Portugal, when after I had ordered in Portuguese, Jesslyn and her mom were struggling to communicate something to the waiter, who then looked at me and said in Portuguese, “you speak Portuguese, what are they saying?” (I think you know what happened next).  OK, so we decided to take beginner Italian classes, or as they put it when we first showed up, “absolute beginner”.  Perfect.

On our first day of Italian class, the teacher is rambling away in Italian, and the other students are nodding, and responding in Italian!  This is the kind of class where they only speak Italian in the classroom.  We didn’t have a clue what she was saying.  I said half joking to Jesslyn, but loud enough for the teach to hear me, “I thought this was the beginner class?!”.  I felt like I was in a bad dream in which I was back in Monsieur Boisvert’s freshman French class and I hadn’t done my homework, only there is no back row to hide in.  There are only 12 of us in class and we sit in a horseshoe formation.  It turns out that 4 of the students are native Spanish speakers.  Spanish and Italian are so similar, they really just need to teach them pronunciation.  Another student had been taking online classes for 3 months.  Two others are German who, although it’s not their native language, speak Spanish as well.  Jesslyn and I are use to being at the top of the class, so this is a tough situation for us.

Allora, things are getting better…

On our second night at the home, we asked how we can make the room cooler.  They said to leave the door open (awkward, but I’ll deal with it).  We asked for and received a fan.  It was much better, only 85 degrees.  We also discovered the public library, which has free wifi and air conditioning.  We spent the afternoon there planning and booking more of our trip.  They even have a cafeteria that serves beer and wine!  We didn’t get any, but it’s good to know its there if we need it.  So, we still don’t have the family we wanted, but we wouldn’t have that in a dorm either.

Day 2 of class was better than day 1.  I think it was because we knew what to expect.  The teacher is really nice.  She’s patient, and doesn’t make me feel dumb when I say dumb things (I know, hard to believe, but it happens).  And, we are not the worst in class.  There is a sweet older lady from Japan, Kyoko, who struggles as much as we do.  It must be so much harder for her.  Actually, there are a lot of similar words between French and Italian, so those years of French class are finally paying off.  Merci and grazie M. Boisvert.

- Jake

Istanbul

We had a very quick visit to Istanbul to catch up with Sarp and Tugce.  Thank you guys very much for hosting us!  I think Istanbul is a little off the radar for most Americans, yet it has a history to rival any European city.  While there we got to visit the big tourist attractions; Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and the Basilica Cistern.  We also had the opportunity to stroll along the Bosphorus and eat sea bass with the locals.

We eased into our world tour by first going to places with similar languages and cultures.  After Scotland, Norway, and Germany, Athens felt a bit more foreign.  We no longer looked like we were from there.  It was hot and crowded.  There were stucco buildings with terra cotta roofs.  As foreign as Athens felt, Istanbul felt even more foreign.  The government is secular, but the majority of the population is Muslim.  In some parts of town, many women wear scarves covering their head, and burkas are not uncommon.   The skyline is dotted with the domes and minarets of mosques, and you hear the call to prayer from the loudspeakers 5 times a day.  When Jesslyn mentioned that she felt like she might be offending others by leaving her head uncovered, I reminded her to look around.  We tend to only notice the things that are different from us.  Only about half of the women covered their heads, but it stood out to us, which made it seem very different.

Visiting the Hagia Sophia is a good history lesson of Istanbul.  It was built from 532 to 537 AD by the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Emperor Justantine I as a Christian church.  It has gone through a lot of changes since then.  It started as a Greek Orthodox cathedral, then as Roman Catholic cathedral after the Latin Christians took over the city during the Crusades, and then a Muslim mosque when the Ottomans conquered the city.  Today it serves as a museum.  Some of the mosaics in the walls have been uncovered and restored, so today, you can see both Christian and Muslim art side by side.

Very close by is the Basilica Cistern, which is basically an underground water storage facility.  It is impressive at over 100,000 sq. ft. in area and capable of holding 2.8 million cubic ft. of water.  It is supported by 336 marble columns.  Both of these are engineering marvels for being built 1500 years ago.

If you are interested in European history, you need to check out Istanbul.

Jake

Athens - An Awesome History

I don’t know if I’ll run another marathon, but if i do, I think that it might have to be in Greece:  a new thought inspired by this trip.  Not the will-I-ever-run-another-marathon part...the -it-might-have-to-be-in-Greece part.  Ever since I ran back-to-back NYC marathons in 2004 and 2005, I’ve wondered if I’d do another race at that distance.  Immediately after those I knew that my body needed a break.  In the winter of 2006-2007 I decided to train for a February marathon on Cape Cod.  However,  after completing two 18 mile runs along the Charles River I knew that my heart wasn’t in it and decided to run the half instead.  I didn’t feel like a failure, I actually was proud of realizing that I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone and I just didn’t feel like running any further.  I’d give anything to be in that kind of shape again though.  Anyway, for awhile I thought that if I ran another marathon, it would have to be London because I loved that city after spending the summer there in 2000 and I knew one thing about the marathon:  it’s flat!  As the years have passed and I’ve had the opportunity to visit London a few more times, my marathon thoughts have moved on to the idea of doing the race in a city I’ve never been to before.  It would be at the beginning of a vacation so that after the race was over I could spend the rest of the week exploring.  It would have to be in a cool, fall-like temperature.  You know, the kind of weather where even though you are sweating, you aren’t hot.  If you touched your skin it would be almost cold.  Love that.  

Ok, so now I'm thinking - I have to run this potential marathon in Greece, even though I’ve already been there.  Why, you ask?  Because the marathon was invented there.  I’m embarrassed to say that although I’ve run two marathons, and endured the many months of training that goes into that, I did not know until our visit to Athens the story of the marathon.  I never even wondered about it.  I’m so happy to know the story of this race now.  I think that every person who decides to run a marathon should know it!  

We had one day in Athens and we chose to start it with a free walking tour (we also enjoyed one of these in Edinburgh).  Our tour guide was an archeologist who was killing time being a tour guide while waiting for more funding towards excavations to appear.  Due to the economic climate in Greece, most funding was ceased in 2010 and its been that way ever since.  Really sad for people in that line of work but great for us because we had a super knowledgeable tour guide.  It was odd to see so many archeological sites throughout the city that were fenced in and essentially looked abandoned.  

Ok, so the walking tour:  before seeing the remains of the Temple of Zeus, the Library of Hadrian, and the Acropolis, we learned some Greek history, which included the ancient Greeks fighting the Persians.  In 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece, one of the battles fought - and one by the Greeks - was the Battle of Marathon.  Marathon is a city that is 26.2 miles away from Athens.  As the story goes, word needed to get back to Athens fast that the Greeks had defeated the Persians, but who were now sailing for another place from which to launch an attack.  So, after the fighting the fight of his life for hours, a Greek soldier ran back to the city to spread this news (and promptly died from exhaustion).  The marathon was born.  You non-runners are probably thinking - “yeah - this is why I have no interest in running - the guy died at the end!”  Ha!

Every November, this is, in a sense, reenacted by the Athens Marathon.  It starts on the beach in Marathon, Greece and ends at the Olympic Stadium in the center of Athens (aka The Panathenaic Stadium).  I’m talking about THE Olympic Stadium.  In ancient times, the stadium on this site was used to host the athletic portion of the Panathenaic Games, in honor of the Goddess Athena.  In 329 BC it was rebuilt in marble (having been wood before) and in 140 AD was enlarged and renovated giving it a seating capacity of 50,000.  The remnants of the ancient structure were excavated and refurbished for the revival of the Olympic Games which debuted in this very stadium in 1896.  The first Olympic marathon ended there and now each November, the Athens Marathon does.  I’m sure you feel like a gladiator when you finish.  That would be an awesome feeling.

Whether or I’ll actually set out to do this not this is TBD.  I’m afraid that my body can’t handle running that much anymore.  But being afraid is lame so I might just have to go for it.  I know one thing, if I do it, I won’t be disappointed by the post-race meal - the food in Athens was great!

- Jesslyn

Milos, Greece

Months ago, when we were planning our trip, we realized that we were packing a lot in to the first month, and would likely need a rest.  We thought that sitting on a beach for a few days would do the trick, so we searched for cheap beach destinations in Europe, and decided on the Greek island of Milos.  We had never been to a Greek island or even a beach on the Mediterranean (Milos is actually in the Aegean Sea which is kind of like the eastern part of the Mediterranean), so we didn’t know what to expect.  We booked 4 nights at the Aigialia in the town of Pollonia.  

How was it?  To put it as eloquently as I can:  it was freaking awesome.  The Aigialia has only 8 rooms and is located on a quiet street on the water.  Our room was very nice and had a balcony looking right at the sea.  There is a beach a short walk away, but we liked swimming from the rocks directly in front of our hotel.  The rocks are flat and form sort of a natural dock, dropping off vertically into over 20 feet of water.  For swimming, I like that better than the beach because you don’t get sand everywhere and you dive right in since I have become somewhat of a wuss when it comes to getting in to the water. 

The water was a really nice temperature, just cool enough to be refreshing in the heat.  In the evening when we got back to the hotel, we would take a dip while the sun was setting.  Our hotel was on a little bit of a peninsula, so we could watch both the sunrise and sunset over the water.

We rented a scooter so we could check out a few different beaches.  Each beach was a little different from the others.  There was a large, white sand beach, another beach made up of round pebbles, and another tiny beach surrounded by high cliffs.  My favorite “beach" was called Sarakiniko.  It wasn’t really a beach because there was no sand.  Similar to our hotel, it is just rock.  White rock with gentle slopes, and steep cliffs.  It gets compared to a moon scape, so we just called it “moon beach”.  Part of the appeal to me were the cliffs to jump off.  Jesslyn wasn’t too thrilled about seeing me jump, but I was compelled to.

It was great to relax on the beach for a few days.  We also loved that Milos did not feel touristy.  It is definitely a summer vacation spot, but most of the vacationers were Greek.  The others were Italian, French, and British.  I am not sure why more Americans don’t go.  I highly recommend it.

My post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning costs.  It was cheap, just like we intended.

  Hotel:  $100 per night
  Scooter rental:  $20 per day
  Nice dinner for 2 including appetizers, wine, and tip: $50
  Cheap dinner for 2 (2 take away gyros and 2 cans of beer):  $8
  10 hour sailboat / snorkeling trip including breakfast, lunch, and drinks:  $60 per person
  Beaches:  free
  Parking:  free

Please check back later for the full set of pictures.  They are slow to upload so it takes us a while, and therefore they lag behind the blog posts.

Jake

Munich

When many Americans think of Germany, they think of some stereotypes which come from Bavaria; lederhosen, beer, and sausage.  The first of our 2 stops in German was to Munich, the largest city and capital of the state of Bavaria.  Before the trip, we didn’t know if the stereotype was just something they put on for tourists or if it was more than that.  Spoiler alert:  it’s more than that.

Lederhosen
Lederhosen is reserved for the oompah band during Oktoberfest, right?  Wrong.  We first noticed that all of the waiters at the beer gardens wear lederhosen.  But then we started noticing men and women wearing traditional Bavarian attire around the city.  I thought they must work at a beer garden and were on the way to or from work.  Then I noticed people wearing it at the park, then customers at cafes and restaurants.  There are stores all over the city that sell it.  I asked the bartender at the hotel about it, and he thought it was strange also, and said people must be getting excited for Oktoberfest already.  He also mentioned that people wear lederhosen when a carnival comes around so maybe one of them was in town?  

Beer
Walking distance from where we stayed was the Augustiner Keller beer garden, which can accommodate 5000 people.  We were there on a Monday evening, and it seemed to be about half full.  Some were tourists, but the majority were not.  OK, the beer gardens are not a myth or tourist trap.  At the beer garden, they serve 2 sizes of beer; a liter or half liter (a liter is more than 2 pints and almost equal to 3, 12 oz. bottles).  The liters are served in heavy glass mugs which make the beers look even bigger because they have extra space for the head.  So, big beers are not a myth or a tourist thing either.  After coming from Norway, we were also happy to see that a liter of beer was only about $8.

We learned of the Augustiner brewery for the first time.  It is over 500 years old and has traditionally only sold beer in Munich, but has more recently started shipping to other areas such as Berlin.  You find this beer everywhere in Munich.  According to our tour guide (I wasn’t able to verify this), they spend $0 on advertising and give half their profits to charities in Munich.

Sausage
Yes, there is a lot of delicious sausage of various types.  What is not as traditional is currywurst, which is everywhere.  On paper, it is brilliant: take one delicious thing (sausage) and combine it with another delicious thing (curry).  However, I think the execution is lacking.  It is basically a sausage with “curry” sauce and typically also some type of curry powder.   The first “curry” is in quotes because the sauce we’ve had tasted pretty much like barbecue sauce.  It’s fine, but not my favorite.

After the beer and sausage, the best part of Munich for me was the English Garden.  It is a park in the city with a river running through it.  The river is basically a free water park.  It is fairly shallow and has a decent current.  People swim and let the current take them downstream.  They jump off the low bridges, they sit under waterfalls, and even surf in one area.  Clothes are optional, but the completely nude dudes are expected to stay in a specific section of the park.  Jesslyn and I did a double take when we saw this 50 something guy with beer belly and all just standing there, letting it all hang out.  Jesslyn might have actually done a triple take.

- Jake

If you haven't been to Berlin, book your flight right now.

I’ve received the question more than two dozen times:  “When your trip around the world is over, what are you going to do?”. The real answer is:  I don’t know.  Being a successful software sales professional has provided me with tremendous opportunity.  I met the people that set me up on a blind date with the man that turns out to be the love of my life.  I was enabled to pay off the massive amount of undergraduate loans I had from RPI.  I eat at nice restaurants, I go on nice vacations.  Most recently, I’ve positioned myself to go and see the world.  I’m staying at hostels and eating PB&J, but hey, I’m doing it!

We recently spent a few days in Munich.  There are outdoor beer gardens on every corner.  On our last day there, we were exploring the Viktualienmarkt (outdoor market).  Lots of food and lots of sun.  We decided to treat ourselves to a Mass each (which if you haven’t been to Munich before you might need me to tell you that that means we each ordered a liter of beer - don’t judge - that’s what you do in Bavaria!).  Anyways, in the beer garden we sat down next to a woman I’d guess was in her late 60s.  She liked to talk.  We quickly learned that when its that hot in Munich you can’t sit inside so you go to the beer garden and alternate a beer then water until the sun sets.  Anyway, this woman had lived all around the world doing jobs in finance and marketing and still till this day working on small cargo ships that transport shipping containers all over the Baltic and North Sea.  When she asked me the question, “When your trip around the world is over, what are you going to do?”, and I said I wasn’t quite sure, she said “there was a Chinese philosopher who once said, 'when you’ve become an expert at something that means it is time to stop doing that and become an apprentice at something else'.”  Well, I’m not saying that by any means I’ve become an expert at software sales, but that really, really got me thinking:  wouldn’t it be challenging to do something else and set out to become an expert at that?

Well, after one day in Berlin, I sit here wondering, have I figured out what I’m going to do when this worldwide tour is over?

It only took a few hours for me to fall in love with this city.  I relearned things about Berlin that I probably memorized for a high school history test and then forgot circa 1996.  At that time it wasn’t relevant and it wasn’t made interesting to me by the people telling me to read a textbook. Why didn’t they have me watch footage of Hitler or of the Berlin wall coming down? On a 4 hour walking tour given by one of the most passionate people on earth, I felt what it might have been like being a part of WW2 Germany or part of East or West Germany during the cold war.  I laughed, I gasped, I cried.  I didn’t expect any of this.  I can’t put into words what how I felt about what it would have been like to live during the days of Hitler, or during the days of the Berlin wall, or what it would be like to be like my tour guide - a person who lives in Berlin a few months out of a year, for the past 15 years, to tell the story of a city he loves to travelers like me.

Only people that have known me for a very, very long time would know that I used to be a performer.  Andrea, Lauren, family: thank you, for being awesome people and coming to so many dance recitals, violin concerts, performances of Annie, Wizard of Oz and Oliver. Mom and Dad: thank you for paying for all of those lessons, for buying me so many pairs of shoes, so many costumes and an absolutely beautiful violin.  Seriously, thank you.  When I got voted the “class actress” high school superlative, I wasn’t really proud of it, I was kind of embarrassed.  I was the runner that got injured, got bored and said, “well, I guess I’ll use my voice instead” and tried out for the high school musical.  I wanted to be the star athlete, not the lead in the school play.  But you know what, deep down I equally loved both.

Yesterday I met a Canadian man named Brian who is passionate about Berlin.  He’s also an actor.  He’s been able to pair these two things together to give a traveler like me an experience they’ll never forget.  Every single job I’ve ever been offered I’ve been told that I got it because of the passion I demonstrated during the interview process.  Passion, actress, traveler - maybe I can combine these things to figure out which apprenticeship I can embark on next?  Today I said to Jake, Brian is going to have to retire eventually, and this story of Berlin is so beautiful and tremendous that someone needs to take over and keep on telling it in the way he does.  Maybe that should be me?

Jesslyn

Final Thoughts on Norway

We’ve both posted on Norway already, so here are some final thoughts on things we haven’t discussed.

Driving
Gas here is over $7 per gallon.  That isn’t too surprising when you consider that most things here are expensive.  However, it might be a little surprising when you consider that Norway is the 5th largest oil exporting country in the world, and they have a government surplus of over $900 billion from oil taxes.  With $7 per gallon gas, it is a good thing our rental car got 55 miles per gallon.  It was a VW Up! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name) with a whopping 1 liter, 3 cylinder engine.  I don’t think I have actually had the gas pedal pinned to the floor in a car as much since the Ford Escort I drove in high school.  

Just like Scotland there are some dicey roads which are narrow to the point where only 1 car at a time can pass.  The difference is that here, if you go off the road, you end up in the water at the bottom of a 200 foot cliff.  Luckily, I kept all 4 wheels on the pavement.  Driving through the fjords, there are an incredible number of tunnels.  According to Wikipedia, there are 900 road tunnels in Norway.  From Bergen to Lofthus we probably drove through 25 of them.  And they are long.  Part of the drive was through a 7.7km tunnel, through a roundabout inside the tunnel, directly on to the Hardanger bridge (the longest suspension bridge in Norway), then directly into another tunnel.  See the video we took of that here.  On the way back to Oslo, we drove through the Laerdal tunnel, the longest in the world at 15 miles long.  

Language
One of the things we heard about Norway was that everyone speaks English.  I am a skeptical person, and thought that meant that people in the hospitality industry spoke English, and maybe the young people.  Nope.  Everyone speaks English, and they speak it really well.  Our first day here, we were buying coffee at 7-Eleven (which are everywhere), and said to the cashier, “Sorry, do you speak English?”, in an apologetic tone, feeling awkward that I didn’t have any clue how to speak Norwegian.  The reply was “ha ha, yeah man, of course”, with an almost American sounding accent.  Most people started conversations in Norwegian, then switched to English as soon as they heard us speak.

I was surprised at the similarities between written Norwegian and English.  They are both Germanic languages, so share a common root.  Some examples: “price” is “pris”, “bread” is “brod”, “apple” is “eple”, (you can’t get too cocky though because "orange" is “appelsin”).  Once you understand a couple differences in pronunciation, you get even further.  “K” sounds like “sh” and a “j” like a “y”, so the verb to shop (kyope) doesn’t look similar, but if you say it out loud, you get it.  Beyond that, I am lost on the pronunciation and therefore didn’t understand a bit of the spoken language.

Bolle
Growing up, Grammy made Finnish coffee bread called nisu.  It has the form of a braided loaf and has a distinctive flavor from cardamom (to this day I wouldn’t know what that spice is if it weren’t for nisu).  The Norwegians have something very similar, called bolle, but instead of a loaf, they are individual rolls.  While Grammy’s were obviously much better, they taste very similar.

Now on to Munich and Berlin.

Jake

The Fjords

I've been enjoying each and every moment in the rural fjord-land of Norway, but inside I've been secretly wishing that the sun would come out.  Today I got my wish and it did not disappoint!

After enjoying our time in Oslo, we woke up on Saturday and took a seven hour train to Bergen.  The ride went by quickly and had awesome views of the Norwegian countryside and some fjords.  We had heard that the train ride was spectacular and it was really nice, but that's all I can give it after how spoiled I became of scenery in Scotland, particularly the Isle of Skye.  We enjoyed the quaint seaside town of Bergen which was easy to explore on foot.  We took the funicular up to the top where you had a nice arial view of the city.

Monday we picked up a car and headed inland to explore a few fjords.  I had not thought much about what the experience might be like driving in Norway.  I knew that we'd be driving on the same side of the road as in the States and I was excited about that.  Well, I guess I figured the roads might be super narrow, and they are.  What I had not thought about were the tunnels.  We probably drove through 30 tunnels in our 3 hour trek from Bergen to Lofthus.  The longest one was 7.7km!  That one had a rotary in it (yes....a roundabout if you aren't from New England)!  After arriving in the Lofthus area, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we had a view of the Hardangerfjord from our room in the hostel.  We were also walking distance from the waters edge...

We woke up, checked out and set out to do a hike in the Huse Valley.  We saw four incredible waterfalls.  Incredible.  Like nothing I've ever seen before.  Each one more amazing than the last.  Here's one of them...

After that pretty hike we drove to Balestrand by way of many tunnels and one car ferry.  It's a super tiny town and again we have an incredible view.  This time its of the Sognefjord, the 3rd largest fjord in the world (the other two are in Greenland and Nunavut, Canada).  It spans 127 miles and almost a mile deep.  Today the clouds finally lifted and the sun peaked out and...there just aren't words to describe how spectacular it is here.  We did another hike right from our hostel and it was incredibly picturesque.

Tomorrow we are going to take a 3 hour ferry ride which includes riding along the Nærøyfjord.  We have wanted to do a boat ride on this trip and chose to do it on this arm of the Sognefjord because it has been described to be the most impressive.  Apparently it was used as an inspiration for Arendelle in the movie Frozen.  We'll keep an eye out for Else and Anna but that's not what has drawn us to this fjord for our boat trip.  It is the narrowest and has the most dramatic peaks.  I hope the sun is out tomorrow too!!!

Jesslyn

$20 Burgers and $10 Beers

When we told people that we were going to Norway, the universal first response was something related to how expensive it is.  They were right, mostly.  The three major expenses we have are lodging, getting from place to place, and food.  Lodging is not all that expensive.  The hostel in Oslo was $88 per night for a private room and private bath.  The hotel in Bergen was $108 per night which includes a full breakfast.  Getting around is mixed.  The train from Oslo to Bergen was $87 per person, which isn't bad (compare that to the price of the Acela from Boston to Philidelphia).  Tomorrow we rent a car for 5 days to explore the fjords.  That is pricey at around $100 per day (I don't think we will be renting cars as much in the future).

The shockingly expensive thing here is the food and drink.  Our first clue was at the duty free after landing at the Oslo airport.  It was packed at 1am with people with as much as they could carry.  Things are about double the price you would expect in the US.  Burgers and individual sized pizzas at a pub are $20.  A value meal at McDonalds is $10 to $15.  The "cheap" beer at the pub is $10 for a pint.  That obviously is not going to help us stretch this trip out for a year.  So, we do what we have been doing.  We buy groceries.  We eat peanut butter and crackers for breakfast (I had canned mackerel on a crackers yesterday - it was good!).  We split meals.  We have very light meals.  We don't get a beer with dinner.  The experience has been good for us.  In NYC, we ate out all the time.  We spent so much money on eating and drinking out.  Not only are we saving money, we are losing weight and not drinking as much!

Keep reading below, we both posted a blog today!

- Jake