Hej Hej Sverige

Moving right along in chronological order… we are [were] in Sweden!

Ahh Sweden. I just love it up there. It’s usually cool weather, the air is clean and crisp, and the complementary breakfasts are great! I like most everything about Sweden. I’m very glad that Casey gets to come here for simulator training.

 

Day One

But first, we had to leave Spain, and that was a trip in itself! We took a bus to the train station in Valencia, a high-speed train to Madrid, another bus to the airport in Madrid, and then a plane to Stockholm. It was a long day of traveling, but we had a good time. I guess we didn’t take any pictures on our first bus ride, but it was uneventful in a good way. I don’t know why I thought the buses would be unpleasant in Valencia; in fact, they are very nice. They are modern and as clean as possible. Public transportation is huge here, so I guess that makes sense that they keep the buses looking decent. They are very similar to the buses I used to ride in Chicago.

That bus ride was only about 15 minutes. We got to the train station and printed out our tickets! We decided to take the train instead of flying from Valencia because it was much cheaper. And we thought, “Why not?” We have the time and it would be a fun experience. Which it was.

The train ride was two hours and we got to at least 180 mph! Impressive. (To compare, driving in a car takes about three hours.) There were two additional stops during our route, but it was very quick. The seats were comfy and spacious. Much better than airplane seats! I’d gladly take the train again because you can relax and it’s quick. The bathroom onboard was really cool too. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture, but you press a button to open the door, you press another button to close the door, and then you press another button to lock the door! Everything is automated and it was huge. Casey informed me that I was in the handicap-accessible bathroom, which was the only reason it was so big. Actually, maybe that was why there were so many buttons. Hmm. Either way, I enjoyed my time on the train.

On the way to Madrid, we had a table in front of us, so Casey used his laptop and had plenty of room. At one point, we passed a huge, beautiful water reservoir or lakes or something. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but there were many small bodies of water with a gorgeous blue dark hue. I tried to snap a quick photo which is what you see above. Technically, our seats were next to each other, but no one was sitting in front of us, so Casey moved just for this photo. The rest of the seats are normal and face forward, but they have four seats in front, with a table, which face each other.

There was a small bar area on the train as well where you could buy drinks and snacks. We got the “breakfast special” that came with a coffee, orange juice, and a pastry. We chose a donut.  It was cheap and didn’t taste all that good, but we needed some food. After we arrived in Madrid, I needed to use the bathroom and discovered that they only had pay toilets! Wow! It cost €0.60 ($0.75) to get in. The machine prints out a little voucher that you can spend in the shops in the station. It’s nice that you get your money back, and the voucher is good for a few months I think.

We then took another bus to the Madrid airport. That was a special airport bus so it had more room for luggage and whatnot. That ride was about half an hour or so… super quick and easy. Upon arriving to the airport, we found our check-in area with Norwegian Airlines. They are a fairly new company. As you can see in the photos below, our line did not have any red ropes, but the line next to us did. Casey said, “They must have ran out of money and figured one rope is good enough.” He makes me laugh!

We got Burger King for dinner. I didn’t like any of the Spanish food options, so Casey agreed to have BK. Lucky for him, he enjoys many more Spanish dishes than I do. I mean, I enjoy them for the most part, but they’re not something I want to eat every day. And when I’m traveling, I like good, old-fashioned food that tastes good which means it’s probably unhealthy but at least you’ll eat it and be satisfied. That’s a mouthful.

Now this just cracked me up!! On the back of every seat, there was this red cloth with a message. Other ones were very boring like “We’re a green airline” or “Enjoy our cheap rates,” whatever. But this is unique and clever! How simple and vaguely philosophical. I enjoyed it. Norwegian Air wasn’t bad either. There was a decent amount of seat space. You had to buy food and drinks, but that was the only downside that I can remember. Oh we got stuck with seats that didn’t recline, but that was ok since we didn’t need to sleep. The flight was four hours though! That’s the same distance as Portland, OR to Dallas, TX. Both Casey and I had the misconception that Europe was much closer together, but it’s still quite big and certain countries are still quite far away from each other. In our minds, Spain was much closer to London and London was much closer to Sweden. But no, that’s entirely untrue. Hmm.

So we finally landed at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, Sweden. YAY! Next to Disneyland, it’s the happiest place on Earth! Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it does make me happy to be there nonetheless. This next photo deserved to be large because Casey is so darned cute! We were going up a moving ramp and you know how they have those black bristles at the bottom, like a brush? It’s hard to see in this picture, but the bottom is lined with bristles. I don’t know why. Anyway, Casey exclaimed, “This is nice! I can clean my shoes.” He is so funny sometimes!

We left our apartment in Valencia at 9 AM and arrived in Stockholm at 7 PM. It was a long day, but worth it for the money we saved and for the new experiences. We decided to eat at the airport instead of going to our hotel first, since we’d have to come back to the airport to eat anyway. I ordered beef stroganoff and Casey ordered a ham and pineapple pizza. It was satisfying! We even had leftover pizza which became a decent dinner for the next night.

Casey’s simulator training is with a company called CAE, and they are very close to the airport. Luckily, our hotel is across the street from CAE, so everything is in close proximity. We hopped on a free bus that stops at a couple hotels, the rental car area, and our hotel. It’s such a nice system. Our hotel is called the “Nightstop,” and it’s not like a typical hotel with a front desk and all that. It has the vibe of a college dorm building actually. But it’s quiet and, needless to say, super close to CAE. Perfect.

 

Day Two

I realize now that I took a lot of pictures in Sweden. I’m glad! Casey had ground school on day two. They allot eight hours to complete the lessons (9 AM – 5 PM), but he and his captain were done in two hours. It never takes longer than that unless they’re visiting or something. That meant we had the whole day to ourselves! We decided to go to the market so we’d have food during the week. His simulator spot was in the evening this time from 4:30 PM to 11:30 PM, so we would we able to have lunch together, but then he’d need to take dinner with him and I would have dinner in our room. That seems like a long time for sim, but the beginning and the end consists of a briefing and debriefing with their instructor, so sim itself is only four hours (6-10 PM). Now you know all about sim training!

Back to the morning: we waited at the bus stop near our hotel, and we saw this cute little stick-figure drawing. The description next to it said that the buses come at regular intervals during certain hours, but you are supposed to press that button during the off-hours so the bus drivers will know someone is waiting. It’s a cool system. The buses are also nice and modern, which we’ve come to expect from just about everything in Sweden. Don’t get me wrong; they have a lot of history and old things, but they are a modern country as well.

We got off the bus and walked a short ways to the nearest town called Märsta. At least I think it’s a town. Maybe it’s a township? Anyway, autumn was in the air and the trees were turning colors! Did I mention that Valencia is still really warm (in the upper 80s), so we were loving the cool winter days in Stockholm! It was beautiful. We were happy to wear jeans and long sleeve shirts (me at least), as well as Patagonia down jackets and raincoats. It was quite cloudy and rainy that day.

It was lunchtime by then, so we went to O’Leary’s for a quick bite. It’s a completely Boston-themed restaurant with food and an environment like Applebee’s or Chili’s. Apparently the owners went to Boston and loved it, so they decided to open up a restaurant in honor of it. The walls are covered in sports memorabilia from the Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics. We managed to arrive in time for the lunch special, so Casey ordered salmon with potatoes (a traditional Swedish meal), and I ordered pork loin stuffed with ham and cheese with a red wine demi-glace. Now that was a strange dish, but it was good! Who would have thought to stuff pork with ham. Interesting.

And then we finally made it to the market. They had a lot of photo-worthy displays! This potato dispenser is very rustic and intriguing…

I’ve never seen such small pineapples before! They were soooo cute! I wanted one. They also had tons of exotic fruits like persimmons, star fruit, and maybe cactus fruit. Sadly, I could not read the Swedish signs…

Sweden has the best yogurt in the world! It’s called Risifrutti, and it’s like rice pudding with yogurt. It’s one of my favorite foods! I’ve tried a lot of them and I like strawberry the best. Mmm.

Casey found the huge wall of tubes. The Swedes like putting sauces in tubes for some reason, and they have a plethora of flavors. Maybe they stay fresher in tubes during their long winters. I wish I took an up-close picture, but they have many different shrimp flavors, salmon, cheese, garlic, onion, etc. They spread these sauces on very hard crackers for breakfast. They have lots of different types of mustard in tubes as well.

The next few pictures are what we saw on our walk back from the bus stop to our hotel. It’s just so picturesque, even on our relatively boring one-road street. The rental car lot is at one end, then the Radisson Hotel, then CAE, and then the Nightstop.

There are only two floors at the Nightstop and, I would guess, about 60 rooms in the whole building. There’s a super steep, spiral staircase and then a long hallway. They also have a small lounge area with couches, a water dispenser, a TV, and two microwaves. I just love the Nightstop. It has an odd, old feeling, but it’s comforting at the same time. Casey agrees with me. Maybe it just holds happy memories for me. I don’t know. There is also a very unique scent to the building that I can’t put my finger on.

We packed up our refrigerator and opened a new Risifrutti flavor called Yummyfrutti. This one was “lemon pie” and it came with a pie crust/crumble topping and a mini folding spoon! Too cute!

 

Day Three

We slept in and decided to be good to ourselves by going on a run in the morning! There aren’t many places to run nearby, but Casey knew of a nice road with minimal traffic and lovely trees. It was as pleasant as a run can be. It also cleared up and was just warm enough to be comfortable in the sun. We walked half a mile to get to the road. I ran two miles and Casey ran three and a half miles. Then we walked half a mile back together. We try to plan it so he can run farther but we both end at the same time.

We went to the airport for lunch. The huge food court/restaurant/shopping area is aptly named Sky City. These three men reminded us of movie characters with their gruff exteriors, thick accents, and gear. Oh and the hats. Can’t forget the hats.

We treated ourselves to some ice cream, and I was so proud of myself for being able to read all of the flavors! In case you’re wondering, they are: hazelnut, rum raisin, strawberry, vanilla, chocolate chip, pistachio, blueberry, coffee, coconut, melon, cherry/chocolate/vanilla, and chocolate. Yay! I guess you know you’ve spent enough time in a country when…

More funny Casey pictures! He was reading a manual about his plane, the Q400, and I was watching him :)

Above is the view out our window to the CAE building. It was SUCH a beautiful day that we had to open the window. We were also trying to air out our workout clothes. And then I had cereal for dinner. Of course, I had the option of taking the free bus to the airport for dinner, but I’m not one to eat alone. So I was content having cereal and my favorite yogurt! The night before, we learned about milk the hard way. We had bought Lättfil at the market but discovered that it was like greek yogurt – very thick and bitter. Definitely not something you’d want with cereal. Luckily, we found Mellanmjölk at a convenience store inside the airport and that was regular milk. These are both lactose free as well – hence “laktosfri.”

And then my favorite yogurt. Strawberry. Rice pudding. Yogurt. Why didn’t I take a picture without the top? How silly of me not to. One side had the rice pudding, and then there was a small partition for the strawberry sauce. It’s so good! I wish this was in the US. I already checked and Ikea does not have it. Sigh. Well, in my book, this is reason enough to visit Sweden. Just like Casey will go to Spain for his jámon. Lucky for him though, we can find jámon in the US in specialty meat stores. It’s just pricey. I’d pay good money for this yogurt. But I digress.

 

Day Four

Casey’s last day at sim! Today was rather uneventful actually, at least picture-wise. We had breakfast, relaxed in the room, and then went to Sky City for lunch. Casey found a new Swedish sandwich that he really enjoyed. It’s called “Skagen” and it’s basically shrimp salad. It’s quite an odd choice for him since he doesn’t really care for shrimp, but this salad was good. It was mild in flavor and had a good tartar sauce zing to it. I ordered a chicken and mozzarella cheese panini on focaccia bread and look how much I got! Four pieces and a side salad. Who knew. I saved half for dinner as well. We also picked up a slice of raspberry cheesecake and chocolate cake for dessert that night. Yum.

I should give you an update of what we do all day, in general. During the day, Casey and I would run errands or relax in the room and play games on the computer. Then he would go to sim and I would stay in the room and blog about Spain! That was it. It gave me ample time to finally get some blogging in. We both find it hard to write when the other person is around because we’d rather be doing something with that person. So it was easier for me to blog while he was busy all evening.

 

Day Five

I guess day five/the end of our trip had to come eventually. We had a relaxing morning with breakfast at the Radisson. I should mention that since the Nightstop doesn’t serve breakfast, we get complementary breakfast coupons to use at the Radisson next door. (We’re probably paying for this in our hotel rate too, but alas.) It’s a much nicer hotel, so the food is quite good. We always treat ourselves to Swedish pancakes (thin, crêpe-like pancakes) with unsweetened whipped cream and some type of berry compote. I would guess that it’s lingonberry, which is probably the most popular Swedish berry. Mmm! So good. Then there are eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, bacon, sausage, beans, danish, cookies, fresh fruit, dried fruit, yogurt, granola, and traditional Swedish items like crackers, sauces from tubes, and salmon. And of course fresh-squeezed juices like grapefruit, orange, apple, and pineapple. I love the grapefruit juice!

They had adorable pots with fresh, pink flowers too. Casey was a hand model posing to show you a size reference. Our flight didn’t leave until the late afternoon, so we went by the front desk to ask for a late checkout. Their simple sign reading “Back Soon” made me laugh.

Oddly enough, we JUST noticed this giant potted tree on the way out. How cool is that?! I’d love to have one of those in my house. If my foyer was as big as that building too, of course.  The pot was made of plastic so it was probably very light, and the tree was real. Clever design. It’s just probably very hard to replant.

The day before, I read in a book that there are Viking runes made of stones that are in various places around Sweden. Coincidentally, the book mentioned that one of them sits in the middle of Arlanda airport! On our run, I remembered that we passed by a strange looking stone that looked out of place, so I deduced that that must be the rune! We had a little time to kill before our flight, so we decided to go on a walk back to that road. Casey would have made a good Viking, don’t you think?

That is it! It looks old enough to be a rune, right? The engravings were extremely worn down and hard to read, but you can kind of make out a symbol at the top that looks like the number 4. I surely hope this is a real rune, but it’s still cool either way.

After that, we packed up our things and went to the airport. We found a neat little room with a strange lamp to eat our leftover snacks before going through security. This time, we flew with Iberia. We did not like this particular plane because there was hardly any leg room. Even I was complaining, so you can imagine how uncomfortable Casey was. Airlines just aren’t going for comfort these days. I think they could design planes so much better and still make enough profit. Alas. We both had our Bose headsets, and Casey played some games on his computer to pass the four hour trip. I just watched him.

That is when we landed in Madrid. In one of my other posts, I showed you a picture of the inside of the Madrid airport with yellow columns and explained that the columns gradually change color, like a rainbow. In the photo above, you can see the outside of the building is red, and the inside of that area will be red too. The outside color corresponds to the inside color. In the photo below, our gate was in the green area.

And then baggage claim was back in the yellow area! This design was really unusual with all the lights on the ceiling and the weird things on the baggage carousel. What are those? Big hair dryers or something? Who knows. We got our bags very quickly and then proceeded to the train.

We thought we could take the Metro (a regular train) to Renfe (the high-speed train), but for some reason we didn’t have enough time, so we took a taxi instead. We’re glad we did though because it was super convenient and not too expensive in the long run. We made it to the train in plenty of time and found our seats. You get assigned seats when you book your ticket, so that makes it really nice. We settled in to eat our dinner. Of course, I wasn’t happy with my sandwich, but whatever. Back to Spanish food! Per se. We couldn’t find very much to offer in the train station, so we had to make due.

Casey relaxed again and played games. I guess I didn’t do anything much besides eat and watch him play. It was enjoyable enough, and the two hours went by quickly. We couldn’t see anything out of the windows since it was nighttime already, so it was nice to have seen the view during our first train ride. The countryside is fairly dry in between Madrid and Valencia. There are rolling hills with farmland and some buildings/farms at certain intervals. There aren’t too many huge trees or forests; there are mainly low bushes and whatnot. Some parts look similar to southern California too, like the drive from Barstow to Riverside. 

And that was our trip in a nutshell! I enjoyed reminiscing about it and am glad it’s finally on paper. Now I can continue catching up and hopefully write about present-day activities pretty soon.

In reference to the title, “Hej Hej” is what the Swedes say as a greeting. It sounds just like “Hey Hey.” And the Swedish name for Sweden is “Sverige.” This post could also be called “A Trip to Sweden with Pictures of Casey.” I would read it.

Until next time!

¡Hola España! Part Three

Or “A Day in La Cañada.” This is the name of the town where Abel’s mom lives. Her name is Marisa, and she is who we’re renting the apartment from. This town is about twenty minutes northwest of Valencia, and we’ve visited her a few times already. She made us lunch which we thoroughly enjoyed. The dishes were all very simple but extremely flavorful. I’d love to make some of the recipes sometime! Below we have three appetizers, then came the main course, then fruit salad, then bizcocho (the sponge cake), and Abel split an ice cream sandwich with me. Not to mention the addition of bread and drinks.  I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in my life! I didn’t mean to over-eat, but I didn’t know how much food there was (since it came in waves); I just ate accordingly and wanted to try everything. Needless to say, we didn’t need to have dinner that night. Casey and I laughed because she gave us new plates for every course. Fancy! And Martina was extremely excited when she learned how to cut more cake for herself.

Just before lunch, we walked behind Marisa’s house to look at the community pool. Casey actually swam in this pool three years ago. It looked very inviting today too, but he resisted. I took a picture of the pink hibiscus flowers which you saw at the beginning of this post. After lunch, we walked to the nearby park to play!

Martina pushed me down the slide, but all you can see is my hair.

We tried to teach Martina how to swing by herself, with me demonstrating. Legs up! Legs down! She finally got the hang of it.

After playing, everyone wanted horchata and fartons!! I don’t know how they could eat something so soon! Maybe I was the only one who ate so much. “Gracias por su visita” means “Thank you for your visit.” I think it summed up our snack. I’ve noticed that many restaurants have these napkins as well.

Well I guess I wasn’t completely honest about not eating more food that night. Casey and I did have a late-night snack of one of my favorite desserts that is no longer available in the US! Viennetta! The best fancy ice cream…thing! What would you call it? A bar? I’ve only found it in Sweden and Spain so far, so we treated ourselves!

The elevator in our building has a little TV that shows which floor you’re going to, as well as random information and facts. We thought it was interesting that they showed Nigeria’s independence day: October 1, 1960. Casey was in the elevator by himself one day and took the picture of the cat for me. It’s so cute! It also says, “Did you know that… cats have 32 muscles in each ear.” Funny little facts.

We ordered Chinese food for delivery one night and it was decent. It probably is more like authentic Chinese food because it doesn’t taste quite like the Americanized versions we’re used to. Casey got his usual lemon chicken and I got kung pao. The Chinese food is similar in Lagos too. I would guess it’s the same everywhere except in the US. I snapped a quick photo of Casey chilling behind the couch. He was monitoring the AC unit because it leaks every now and then since the water pump is fickle.

We’ve had our Brompton bikes for five months now, so it was about time to clean the chains. We probably should have done it earlier, but alas. Our original plan was to go to the park and clean them on the grass, but it started to rain, so we improvised. Luckily, the bikes fit adequately in the shower! And they were easier to clean than I expected. (I’ll talk more about the bikes in a later post.) The ducky loofah below took us forever to find too since they don’t seem to be popular in Spain.

One night, we decided to check out a mall called El Corte Inglés and we were thoroughly impressed. It is eight stories tall! It is one huge department store with clothes, shoes, electronics, furniture, appliances, a grocery store, pharmacy, food court, cafeteria, and a restaurant… pretty much everything you can imagine. We did a little shopping and wandering, and then had dinner in the cafeteria. We bring our bikes in everywhere, so they sat next to us and admired the view out the window. Afterwards, we went out on the patio to look around and listen to music. There was a live band playing songs in English and Spanish.

A week after we arrived, Abel left to go back to work in Lagos. It was different not having him there to organize our days and just talk to him, but we managed and found plenty to do, as you’ve seen. On the weekends, Maria takes Martina to visit her grandma, Marisa, so we joined them for another day in La Cañada. Martina was especially cheerful that day, and she had so much fun “cutting” Casey’s hair. She cut away for a long time and, as you can see below, she did not want to let him go! She also brushed my hair and attempted to tie it. I think she was impressed to see all of my long hair. It’s sweet to see her slowly get used to us. She didn’t like us touching her the first few days, but now she lets me tie her hair or even help her down from the car seat.

Marisa made us lunch and dinner again. She’s so generous and thoughtful! She is also learning English, so we can help each other out with the languages. We had a quiche for dinner filled with jamón and cheese. Maria made a little heart on top! For lunch, we had a very simple but surprisingly tasty salad. It consisted of spinach, tomatoes, red bell pepper, corn, guacamole, and imitation eels. Now that sounds strange, and I was a bit wary at first, but the “eels” are made of the same stuff as imitation crab, so they really didn’t taste like much of anything. I don’t know if I would have eaten the salad if they were real eels though. Guacamole was the only dressing, but it was quite good! And I’m not even a big fan of guacamole. Casey really enjoyed this salad, which is why I took a picture of it to remember it. In between lunch and dinner, we walked to town and I spotted an amusing drawing on a wall. I think it’s funny, even though the message is a strong one.

On another day (and all the days now blend together), Martina enjoyed pushing her doll in the stroller. She looked so chic in her pink sunglasses. Afterwards, we all looked online for the best Spanish language books. You can see Maria’s dad, Mariano, in one of the photos below. Casey and I ended up buying an e-book on our tablets to study Spanish together. We’ve been reading and doing the exercises together, and we intend to keep this up while he’s at work. Which reminds me, he’ll be going back to Lagos next week, and I am going to stay in Spain. It’s a safe city so that’s not a problem. I will just have to keep myself busy…

I made an uber delicious meatloaf one night! (Why are all my posts about food?) It was so good and super moist. I’ll send you the recipe if you want it. Casey is not a big carnivore by any means, but he really enjoys this meatloaf!

Now we’re finally catching up to the present time! Last Monday, Casey and I went on a long bike ride through the park that is near our apartment. In the map below, the red circle is our apartment and the blue circle is Abel’s apartment. The whole green area in between the green lines that I made is the park! We call it “The Rio” which means “the river” because it used to be a river that they damned up a long time ago. I want to say it’s about 4 miles long from end to end. We rode from our apartment to the north end and then back. On the way, we stopped at a cute arbor and then continued on to a lake. We picked up a pizza from Domino’s as well to treat ourselves! You might recall that Domino’s is also in Lagos. I think it’s one of the more international food chains.

It was a beautiful lake that somehow became part of another waterway. I’m not exactly sure of the specifics. There were two white ducks nearby who seemed to know each other. A black one came along though and even Casey and I could feel the tension in the air. The larger white duck and the black one slowly got closer and closer until they attacked each other! It was crazy to see! After lunch, we rode our bikes along the waterway and saw a huge school of fish. They looked like giant goldfish or maybe koi, but that would be a lot of expensive fish!

On the way back to our apartment, we turned into an alley and happened across the most adorable café called “Antique Café.” It had books on the shelves, British flags on the tablecloth, paper from books on the ceiling, and just a cute atmosphere. They had brownies, “American cupcakes,” and cake. We got a coffee, frozen lemonade, and a slice of red velvet cake. It was yummy! I think they soaked the cake in some liquid so it was more moist and spongy then I would make, but it was still a nice dessert. We were pleased! Casey described it as, “When you’re in the US and you think about going to Europe, this is what you picture yourself doing: riding aimlessly through the city and then spontaneously coming across a quaint café for coffee and dessert.” So true.

That night, we brought dinner to Maria and Martina for a change. I had a lot of leftover meatloaf so we brought that, roasted potatoes, and bread. Maria hadn’t had it before but she loved it. Casey looked cute all loaded up with the food and the bread sticking out of our bike bag. It’s a great delivery setup.

I made another mini apple pie as well because I wanted to try making my own pie crust without appliances. I have FINALLY perfected a pie crust using the food processor, but of course I didn’t bring mine with me. So I tried it in a regular bowl and it almost worked. It is extremely light and flaky, but it’s dry and not buttery. It’s kind of like shortbread but flakier. I’m not sure what changed in the chemistry, but at least it tasted better than the store-bought crust. I made a quick caramel sauce and Casey was happy! That’s all that matters.

Well, you’ll be glad to know that that’s the end of the Spain section! The next part will deal with our short trip to Sweden. We are going back to Spain tomorrow night (October 12th), so I will have to write about Sweden later. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our first couple weeks in España. I’ll try to post more regularly instead of in big clumps like this. Once Casey goes back to work though, I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, so who knows what I will have to write about. You and I will find out together.

¡Hola España! Part Two

Let’s continue. There is so much I could write! But I should keep it fairly brief and load you up with pictures rather than words. Right?

There is a bar/restaurant near our apartment called “Portland,” and it even has a smaller version of a sign that is found in Portland, OR! Pretty funny actually. Abel and Maria told us that this bar is a hangout for locals who want to speak English. Apparently the bartender speaks English and the patrons try to as well. We want to go there sometime and see what the vibe is like. Perhaps I can make some friends! Also, there was a sign on the door saying they needed waitresses. Too bad I can’t work in Spain. This could be the place.

Above is a really good picture of Casey and Abel. Below, the guys are drinking horchata and eating fartons. Horchata is made from tiger nuts, has a milky consistency, and has a slightly autumn-spice-like flavor, in my opinion. You can get four different types: liquid, slushy, a combo of liquid and slush, and ice cream. A farton is a cross between puff pastry, a donut, and bread. It usually has a sweet glaze on top, like a donut, but the texture is different. Anyway, you’re supposed to dunk the farton in the horchata and enjoy. Casey loves it! I prefer to eat them separately, but it’s still quite good. This is unique to Valencia and is one of the top things to eat if you visit.

Back at Abel’s house, Martina wanted to spin me around in her egg chair. Can you see my legs? I got really dizzy, but she had a blast. And then she played with Casey and laughed until she fell on the floor! Sometimes when we’re eating or relaxing, she’ll just stop and stare at Casey. It’s so cute. I’d like to know what she’s thinking.

Abel took us to the beach one day! We rode our bikes about 15 miles round trip. We rode outside of Valencia, reached the shipping port, and then continued along the coast. Technically Valencia is located on the Mediterranean Sea, not the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to be even more technical though, it’s the Balearic Sea, which is somehow a part of the Mediterranean Sea, even though there is no obvious dividing line. Very interesting. 

Casey took a dip in the water to cool off. He said it was very warm. The waves were very tiny too, like a lake, but I just researched and found out that they can be quite huge too. Abel skipped some stones. I took pictures. Then we ended up in a town called El Saler, and we bought crème puffs as a snack. They had been frozen, so the cream was more like ice cream, and they were delicious! I’ll have to try freezing them if I make them. Mmm!

Quite randomly, Casey got a flat tire, so we stopped to fix it. Then we had to head back to pick up Martina from the school bus. She was not as shy as on the first day, and we had another great lunch at Las Lunas. Her shirt made me laugh since it said “I love The Rolling Stones.” Abel says that people in Europe like to wear shirts with English writing because they look different and are more unique. It fascinates me that most restaurants and stores in Spain actually play American music. Casey says it’s because American entertainment is so huge and worldwide, but it still doesn’t make complete sense to me. Wouldn’t countries want to watch their own movies and listen to their own music? I don’t know. Yeah, the US has a handful of foreign films that become popular, but we don’t play foreign music in restaurants unless it’s an ethic restaurant. Who knows. I don’t.

Maria made us a traditional Spanish sponge cake called bizcocho. It was really good! It tasted like vanilla pound cake with extra sponginess. They have been so good to us by giving us an apartment, taking us places, and making us food or paying for our meals. They both speak English so we can easily talk to them, but we’re trying to speak in Spanish. And they’re both so helpful with teaching us Spanish and answering our many, many questions about the language and the city. We couldn’t ask for better friends!

Maria’s dad took us on a walking tour around Valencia and told us some history of the city. It was raining a little bit so we didn’t take too many pictures. Here I am standing with my arms spread open in front of the narrowest building in Valencia! Apparently people still live there, and I think the building gets a little bit wider once you go inside. Fascinating!

We saw a guy selling licorice roots and picked up a few to chew on. It probably has some medicinal value, or it just tastes good. Casey and I enjoyed trying it but wouldn’t get it again. And then we saw a shirt bearing the words “Yo soy tu padre” meaning “I am your father.” A Star War’s reference, of course, but it was amusing because R2D2 is the Android’s father. Casey is an android buff so it was a funny technological joke.

So when we were here three years ago, I saw a Tony Roma’s restaurant a few blocks away from Abel’s apartment, but we never got to try it. Now we finally had the chance! It is the same chain as in the US, and it is just as delicious! Ohhhh I was soooo excited! It was even more exciting because the restaurant closed in Las Vegas (my hometown and where my parents live) and it’s not near Camas, so it’s been awhile since I’ve eaten there. Yummy!!

We decided it was about time we treated Abel and Maria to a home-cooked American meal, so Casey and I went to the market for groceries. Of course we rode our new bikes (Bromptons are folding bikes, by the way), and we brought them into the market. Mine is in the cart and Casey pushed his. In the photo, I am at the counter getting my produce priced. Here in Spain, you put fruit or veggies in a bag and then take it to a counter where they weigh it and put a price tag on it. Interesting huh! We packed up the groceries in our Brompton T-bag and a backpacking backpack. Casey was kind enough to carry both.

I found an apron in the kitchen and started making chicken pot pie! Casey was very helpful and removed the chicken from the bones. I tried to be fancy and spelled “¡Hola!” on top. I also made some mini apple pies which were almost perfect…! I decided to buy premade crust because I didn’t have enough time to make my own, but the crust wasn’t perfect. Everyone still enjoyed them, but I knew it could have been better… sigh. Maria made mojitos which were actually very good! Casey and I had never tried them before, and I always just figured that I wouldn’t like them, but they were refreshing!

Here are a couple pictures that didn’t fit in anywhere. We’ve noticed that there are vending machines around town with cold and hot food! This particular one is right next to our apartment. They sell various types of sandwiches from grilled cheese to jamón bocadillos to chicken and beef burgers. You select the item you want and it drops into a microwave, basically, and it heats it up for you. Yet another fascinating thing! Casey tried the jamón bocadillo and said it was decent. I got a chicken burger with cheese but never ate it because we went to Tony Roma’s instead. I also got to hold Martina one night because she was asleep. It was a cute moment that she won’t remember, but we will.

That feels like a good ending for today actually. This is a very long post, and I don’t want to wear you out before I’m done. Because there is a lot more coming your way! Be prepared!

¡Hola España! Part One

Where do I start? I haven’t blogged for almost a year and a half so, needless to say, I have a lot of updates.

As everyone should be aware, we have moved back to the USA from Nigeria. We’ve settled in Camas, Washington near Casey’s parents. I meant to write a separate post about house-hunting and whatnot, but that will have to be done later, as well as many other needed posts. We did buy a house in fact, but now we’re abroad again for an indefinite amount of time!

Preface: We visited Valencia, Spain three years ago for a friend’s wedding and had a wonderful time. Since then, Casey has been [more or less] avidly teaching himself Spanish. I, on the other hand, had been learning Italian, so we’ve had many a debate over which language is best. Spanish won out in the end, and so we decided that a trip to Spain was needed. We’ve wanted to go back many times in the past three years, but never made the time for it. You can always think of excuses not to go on a trip, like a lack of time or money or something else taking precedence, but we decided to just go for it and make it work this year! Casey was in Nigeria at the time, so I was left in Camas to lock up the house. We decided to fly separately and meet in Spain, and that’s right where this journey begins.

We both left our respective countries on September 21st and traveled the whole day. I went from Portland to Dallas to Madrid, and Casey went from Lagos to London. Coincidentally, we both took a picture of our luggage before departure. After traveling so much, we’ve developed a fondness for our bags, and we think they look quite cute, like they’re lining up and smiling for the photo. 

Casey had much more luggage than me because we brought bikes to Spain. That’s another discussion for another post, but suffice it to say that we both have Brompton bikes and they each take up one suitcase. Below is a cool photo I took on my way to Dallas. The clouds looked just like popcorn! They were all over the sky. Really impressive.

All of my flights went well, and I decided to take a picture of my dinner on board from Dallas to Madrid because it looked pretty good. Usually you’ll have two options for dinner; I chose chicken with mashed potatoes. It looks small at first, but they really give you quite a bit with all of the sides added up. The “BBQ” sauce on the chicken was quite weird, but everything else was decent. You always get some kind of bread, and then either a green salad or a pasta salad, etc. The desserts are always the best. This time it was a snickerdoodle cookie, but I’ve also had brownies or small pieces of cake. Of course the meal depends on which airline you fly and which country you are in, but I’ve been satisfied about 90% of the time. Dinners are better than the breakfasts, in my opinion, so I try to eat up the “night” before.

Finally, the next day arrived, and we landed in Spain. Through a series of fortunate events, Casey was able to fly from London and meet me in Madrid! He got there about 20 minutes before me and was able to wait near the gates so we could go through customs together. It was such a pleasant sight to see him! We got a classic Spanish sandwich to eat for lunch. It’s called a bocadillo with Spanish jamón (thin dry-cured ham), tomato slices, and cheese on a baguette. Casey absolutely loves jamón, so he was thrilled! I like bread, so I was happy too.

We were in terminal 4, and the design is really cool. It’s basically one, huge rectangle and the ceiling and columns change color gradually. All you can see here is the yellow section, but it changes color like a rainbow. Very pretty. I snapped a photo of the elevator because the translation made me laugh. Salida means “Exit,” but here they translated it to “Way Out.”

The next flight to Valencia was very short at about 45 minutes. Our friend, Abel, was eagerly awaiting our arrival! He works with Casey in Nigeria, but he flies the 737. I’ve gotten to know him really well throughout our stay in Lagos, so it was great to see him again! Thankfully, he had a big enough car to fit all of our luggage. We packed it up and were on our way.

Abel took us to our apartment so we could drop off our bags. His mom owns an extra apartment in the city, so we are renting this place from her. It’s only a few blocks away from Abel’s apartment, so the location is great. We freshened up a little and then proceeded to have lunch at a lovely restaurant called Las Lunas – “the moons.” They have a new lunch menu every week and the selections are really tasty. We’ve gone back a few times already. You get an appetizer, a main course, dessert, and a drink for a great price! The first two pictures are appetizers (salmon with leeks and toast with fried tofu), then our main courses (spinach ravioli and the most tender pork you’ve ever eaten in your life), and then dessert (spiced cheesecake and chocolate mousse tart). Yum.

Right before dessert, Abel left to go pick up his 3 year old daughter, Martina. She takes a really nice charter bus to and from preschool, so he walked a few blocks and got her. We never met her before, so she was quite shy at first and didn’t want us to look at her. (Finally, here is a photo of Abel too!) We finished lunch and went back to our apartment to rest. Abel and Martina came by a couple hours later to get us, and she warmed up to us after we played with her. She took an immediate liking to Casey! She even wanted to hold his hand, aww.

We went back to his house to visit with his wife, Maria. We’ve only hung out with her during the week of their wedding, but she’s so sweet and friendly too. For dinner, we met up with two of their friends, whom we met at the wedding as well. We had Spanish hamburgers! The only real difference is that they use fancy sauces and toppings that aren’t typical in the US. They were very tasty.

One of my favorite things is Martina’s bed! It’s an adorable house! With tiny pictures on the wall and a little door! And flowers under the window! I just love it!! I want one!

And so… that was our first day in Spain; however, we are actually in Sweden right now for Casey’s recurrent simulator training! I wasn’t able to write as much today because his class was much shorter than usual. The first day is ground school and the second two days are in the simulator, so all he did today was practice tests on a computer. They allot eight hours for this ground school, but it never takes that long and he was done in two hours, so I didn’t have much time at all. That being said… I intended to write a much longer post but decided to post this one to give you something to read and tease you into reading more! Per se. I will write more tomorrow!