Madrid

I could show you the few scenic pictures I took while in Madrid. But then I thought, let's just skip the formalities because really that was just filler time in between the next meal.

Let me show you what Madrid was all about. Tapas. Bar. Crawl. Fooooood!!!

Churros and Chocolate Sauce

(actually wasn't that great in my opinion)

My favourite spot in Madrid was the San Miguel market. They had tons of food you could buy in small portions for maximum variety!

1st tapas: smoked salmon

Some kind of cheese with apple on bread

Croquetas!!!! (cod, cheese, and spinach)

SUSHI!! This actually was my favourite of everything I ate in Madrid. I checked behind the counter and the chef was actually Japanese. I was dreaming about this the rest of the day, and I made Michael go back the next day (picture to follow).

Spanish wine

(wouldn't recommend)

Beer and cod croquetas at Tetuan 12 (would recommend!)

Sushi round 2 :)

"world famous" tortilla de patata (Spanish omelette) and mozzarella on toast at Juana La Loca

Quesadillas at Juana La Loca

"best mojitos in Madrid" at Delic cafe

We were pretty much sick of croquetas by the end of the weekend. I think we probably had a dozen each!

That pretty much sums up our trip to Madrid! Plus a visit to the Prado and palace. ;)

The Big Feastival

Last weekend I went to the Glee concert here at the O2. It's a huge venue....hopefully you can tell from this dark picture just how far away we were with our £53 tickets!

Unfortunately I don't have any amazing pictures to share from this concert. This is one of my many failed attempts at photographing the cast. I blame it on the purely awesome show effects. Pictures wouldn't do it justice anyway.
The Glee cast was highly entertaining, and they sang very well in person!

I've also been doing a lot of eating lately...
This weekend I also enjoyed more music and food at the Jamie Oliver Feastival! There were tickets on sale through Living Social (just like groupon here) for £18. I think the original price was £35.

However, we managed to spend quite a bit of money despite our discounted entry fee. First, we started with the super fresh bar. Michael had Pimms (classic English fruit punch drink like sangria), and I had some kind of fizzy drink (pictured right). It was really strong and not as tasty as it looks in this picture.
Then we proceeded to the FOOD. I am hitting myself now for not photographing all of the food we ate. This was one of my favourites...pork tacos from Wahaca mmmmMMMMmmmm.
We also had:

• Pit Smoked Barbecue Pulled Pork Shoulder and Slaw from Barbecoa (one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants)
• Okonomi-yaki (Japanese savoury pancake) with Organic Chicken, Organic Cheese, English Asparagus and Konnyaku from Abeno
• Porchetta Mufuletta -The apprentices homemade foccacia with slow roasted Dalgarnock pork ‘Italian style’, crisp fennel and leaf salad at Fifteen (another Jamie Oliver restaurant where he took 15 people without jobs and taught them how to cook...it's expensive though!)

And for dessert, this triple chocolate brownie with marscapone cream.

And, prosecco :)

Later on Jamie spoke, all of the ticket sales went to charity!

And then concerts....!
The headliner Athlete was really good!

This was a very fun London thing to do. I hope you guys have a wonderful 4th of July!! I'll be at work :(

Do as the English Do

This post is all about cricket!!!!!

Just kidding. But, I did go to my first (perhaps last) cricket match the other week. It felt like going to a baseball game except I really didn't know what was going on or who was playing! Well, I guess that may be just like baseball to me!
Nonetheless it was an enjoyable and relaxing way to spend an evening. Too bad they don't have dollar hot dog nights here!

I have been doing lots of English things lately. I also recently went to the Lake District, which is pretty far north...almost to Scotland! Twelve of us foreigners went away to this quaint English countryside and stayed in this posh pad.

With a posh lawn. They never use the word backyard here...it's always lawn or garden.

The modern interior of our antique digs.

Oh, and this small English town really had it going on. Look at this beer selection at their local grocery store. This is better than anything I'd find in London!

This is the whole group during our one day of walking/wandering all over. We consist of Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Canadian, Italian, and of course Americans. And the less interesting fact is that we are all accountants.

Cute English countryside with cows and lots of sheep!

We finally made it to the top of an English mountain...meaning it wasn't very high at all.

Lake Windemere- England's longest lake (looks like a better version of the Thames).

View from the peak we climbed. Pretty gorgeous!

And the dance party we had that night to celebrate Swedish mid summer....which is apparently just as big as Christmas there and involves lots of drinking songs with illegally strong shots....and pickled herring (which should also be illegal).

The end.

Holiday

So... I would apologise again for my lack of posting, but since my absences have become more regular than out of the ordinary, I stopped myself in fear of further ruining my credibility. Instead, I set several of you guys up on automatic email updates for the rare occasion that I do update my blog. I have a few more spots left on the list, so let me know if you want me to add you. I do hope to be able to post more regularly now.

There has been so much that has happened since my last post, I don't even know where to begin! I will catch you guys up in one big post, and then we can all move forward in the future together :)

It's summer time here now. The Brits have the strangest summer.... First, it's light ALL the time. The sun starts rising at 4am and doesn't set until 10pm. I took this picture below in a state of grogginess one morning around 5am because it's THIS bright by 5am. Ridiculous!

It's so disorienting! On top of that, I'm wearing a jacket every day because it is still freezing some nights and chilly during the day. Good thing there aren't any pools around here or I'd really be sad!

I have also explored more of Europe and England since my last trip. I took a big trip in April to Dubrovnik, Croatia, and Vienna, Halstatt, and Salzburg, Austria.

Dubrovnik is an amazing city....it's an extremely well preserved medieval town. The old town is all in the original medieval walls.

(a not so good picture of Dubrovnik's old town from afar)

The streets of Dubrovnik's old town at night. We stayed within the city walls!

We saw some of the neighbouring Elaphite islands.

Dubrovnik pier.

We also climbed the city walls and walked around the whole old town. Amazing views! I have to say that Croatia has a ton of national parks and amazing islands and waterfalls that you need to see. We didn't get to see anything beyond Dubrovnik, but if you plan a trip you really must see more of this country!

We then jetted off to Vienna....to see what that was all about. Apparently they had a huge empire, lots of palaces, and chocolate. That's how they roll.

Outside the Habsburgs royalty's palace in the city centre.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that they drink lots of beer and eat schnitzel.

The Schonbrunn Palace, the Habsburgs "country palace" ...but as you can see it's not too far from Vienna.

Then we were off to Salzburg, my favourite Austrian town.

The birthplace of Mozart, and where I paid a ridiculous price to walk through his first home to look at musical instruments....They also specialise in Mozart Balls....a marzipan chocolate ball treat of the region (I was not a fan).

And finally, we went off to the Austrian Lake District, to the oldest town in the region, Hallstatt. This was an old salt mining town, and it has been around since like caveman times or something ridiculous.
It really was an old (person's) town....we couldn't find anywhere that would serve lunch at 1pm. And there were no bars.

A week after my big trip, my mom came to visit me.

And we went to Bath! Beautiful city in England!

All the buildings in Bath are made in this Bath stone that is kind of yellow, but really pretty. Bath used to be the fashion capital of England hundreds of years ago.

Ah, the English countryside....

We also went to Windsor, which is only 30 min from London and the Queen's official residence.

Oh, and I should mention since my last post that of course Prince William and Kate got married. I missed the wedding since I was in Hallstatt at the time, but the city was so hyped over it for weeks before and after. They are still obsessed with photographing the newly weds.

One of many flags that were all around various London shops with a picture of the royal couple.

And lots of memorabilia for the wedding so that you can always remember this joyous occasion. I think all of my friends should start making plates for their weddings like this. Then I can collect them all and invite all of the couples over to a dinner party with my set of wedding plates! Okay, I am starting to sound a little creepy, but do you see the point I'm trying to make?!

I must not forget the Will and Kate banner I also saw in China Town.

Next post (which I promise to timely submit!) will be about my trip to the English Lake District where I celebrated Swedish mid summer. I also have trips planned to Madrid, Rome, Iceland, and Oktoberfest coming up!

Queso Lovers

I have the greatest friends! For example, meet the Tsukaharas!

They sent me a very special package this week

I wonder what it is...

....ah hah!!

Classic Tex Mex necessities for the upcoming Cinco de Mayo celebration!!

MmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmm cheesy American goodness!!

I'm so excited about my arsenal of queso supplies. The Europeans here love it so I will definitely have to host lots of Texan themed parties.

THANK YOU so much Danny and Mitzi for going through all the trouble of sending me these sticky treasures! (P.S. I saw how much it cost you guys to mail these....I am so touched that you went through all of that trouble...I am definitely buying you a NICE meal when you come to London!)

Right, I'm off on holiday to Croatia and Austria. We'll be going to Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Salzburg, Vienna, and Hallstatt. Fun blog posts await!!