A: Amber and Hanah's adventure in Southern Europe!
Yes, yes, one of my best friends and certainly my oldest friend, Miss Hanah Ho, ventured across the ocean to visit me during Semana Santa. We've known each other since we were awkward (proof below) 11 year olds and have been through quite a lot together. We had middle school adventures (trips to Panera and weekends spent making soap) and dealt with high school drama (first jobs, boyfriends, and the traumatic experience - WARNING: #firstworldproblems - when one year my mom didn’t buy me a birthday outfit). We said difficult goodbyes when we headed off to college and then realized that our friendship was too rare (“But why are you guys even friends?” - Sam Grigsby, circa 2003) to replace. Luckily, Hanah spent her summers in NYC and moved there after graduation, a convenient and entertaining location to visit from Chocolatetown, USA. Then, when I moved to Spain, it was her turn to come visit me in my neck of the woods, or as she would say, “to see you in your natural habitat!”
I'm pretty sure this was at a sweet sixteen party... if we were this awkward at 16, I can't imagine what we were like at 11.
High school selfies, before selfies were cool.
Thus, the idea for Semana Santa with my oldest friend began. We finally cashed in our college dreams of a graduation trip to Greece with a week long trip in Spain and southern France. What a life.
Hanah’s first day in Madrid, we had a picnic in Retiro Park, where she could leisurely overcome her jet lag with the help of some jamón bellota, queso manchego, pan con cebolla, olives, red wine, and a torrija.
Hanah made a lovely flower necklace for our bottle of wine
After our picnic, we headed over to El Prado, where Hanah could get a nice review of the Spanish classics… Goya, Velazquez, and the fat 6 year old that they insisted on painting naked. We didn't mean to find the last one, but we stumbled upon it and were rather shocked! Here is the painting of the poor little girl with her dress on; it's got fewer child pedophile tones to it.
We ended our busy first day with dinner with Carmen, my closest Spanish friend, and then hit the hay early so we would be prepared for our adventure to Barcelona the next day.
When we got to Barcelona on Sunday afternoon, we...
Immediately ate pulpo (octopus)... Hanah's favorite!
Sat at a cafe by the beach
(Take note of my extremely photogenic friend... You'll notice that in all pictures that I have of her she is covering her face or she doesn't know that I'm taking them.)
Walked around the Sagrada Familia
Then for dinner we wandered around for 30 minutes trying to find a restaurant that one of Hanah's co-workers recommended to her. We never found it, but instead lucked out in eating at an Italian restaurant (Pappa e Citti) that we found thanks to my TripAdvisor app. The meal was so delicious that I am actually happy I didn't take a picture of it; posting a picture of it or trying to describe it would only do it an injustice. Sooooooooo good.
On Monday morning, we woke up to explore Barcelona a bit more before catching our afternoon flight to Nice. We ate breakfast and headed right over to Gaudi's La Pedrera.
Just your typical chimneys
Such a boring foyer...
I wouldn't mind having this for my door!
Then, to Hanah's delight, we ate more delicious Spanish food...
MORE PULPO
I found the first Spanish cake that I loved. I have no recollection of what was inside of it but it was absolutely delicious. We looked so happy that everyone around us started ordering it as well.
Our 24 hours in Barcelona wasn't nearly enough to see all of the sights, but it was delightful. Hanah got a taste of the city and I got to see some new sights in a city that I hadn't been to in over 3 years. And then we caught an EasyJet flight ("That was the easiest jet I have ever taken!" - Hanah) to Nice, France.
Bathroom sink proof that we were in Nice
Nice was absolutely picturesque. Every little street that we walked down in the old town had at least one hole-in-the-wall specialty food store or sweet shop. The market by the sea had some of the most delicious almond cookies I have had in my entire life and the windows of every building seemed picture-worthy. And the sea, my favorite part of God's creation, was the most incredible blue I have ever seen.
Incredible.
Seaside apartments and shops
My mouth is watering just thinking about having eaten these cookies
Walking down the streets in Nice made me want to buy an apartment just so I could open up the shutters
Since Hanah and I are both self-proclaimed foodies, we enjoyed trying out the local cuisine. Nothing blew us away as much as the almond cookies, but we had a good time experimenting with unknown dishes.
Salad Niçoise: Quite tasty but most of its points were received for presentation. This was take out!
Tourte aux blettes: Swiss chard, raisin, and pine nut tart. I'm glad I tried it and I'm glad it's not part of my regular diet.
Hanah's "americano"
The americano story definitively deserves to be relived. My dear friend Hanah's stomach is sensitive to milk, so she opted for an americano (espresso with water) instead of a café con leche in Spain or a café au lait in France. On our first morning in France, we had our morning coffee by the open-air market, a spot that was, admittedly, a little touristy. But since coffee doesn't change that much in price and quality from street to street, we didn't think anything of it. The waiter came to our table and we ordered:
Amber: Café au lait.
Waiter: Bon.
Hanah: Americano.
Waiter: Americano? (Confused look) American coffee?
Hanah: No (thinking he was going to serve her a drip coffee)... americano.
Waiter: Americano? Okayyy...
A few minuets later, the waiter returned with my café au lait and Hanah's americano, an iced drink with lemon and orange slices. We tossed each other confused glances, each trying to guess what was in the glass. Iced coffee? Iced tea? Iced...
Amber sees the 12€ bill and it dawns on her.
Hanah: (As the waiter is turning to go) Ummm, excuse me?
Waiter: Yes?
Hanah: What is this?
Waiter: Well, it's your americano....
Hanah: Okay... and what is in it?
Waiter: Well (looking uncomfortable), it's alcohol.
Hanah: Uh, WHAT?
Waiter: Yes. This is what we call americano. I asked you if you wanted American coffee and you said no. You said americano. So this is what I brought. I thought it was not normal but it's what you said you wanted and you are on vacation so I figured....
Hanah: Okay, alright. (Waiter turns to leave once again...) Wait, but can I get a coffee?10 AM struggle bus. The americano was still sitting there when we left.
After we finished our breakfast, we took a walk through the market and then rented bikes so we could ride along the water.
Biking by the sea
Climbing around in one of the coves
The perfect place to be for Semana Santa
That evening we went to dinner at a restaurant our Airbnb host had recommended to us. He called ahead of time and, in his broken French, made us a reservation. It was a very nice gesture, but also completely unnecessary. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the restaurant to find an old French woman with an empty restaurant. We gave our name and she lead us to a table near the kitchen, where we sat and ate and people watched (other tables filled up later on) and chatted and dog watched. Wait, dog watched?! Yep, there was definitely a little black dog running around the tables, greeting customers and adding a bit of entertainment to our dinner.
The next morning, we woke up early and stocked up on French goodies for lunch: goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, bread, olives, strawberries, almond cookies, and chocolate caramel covered almonds. Then we packed up and hopped on a train that took us along the gorgeous blue French Riviera to Marseille.
Picnic in Marseille with all our food goodies
Once we got checked into our new Airbnb, we wandered through the city of Marseille, taking in the sights and stopping for a drink along the way.
A glass of wine in a plaza
Then we ventured off for dinner, deciding to eat at a tiny hole-in-the-wall wine bar. Recently I have taken to eating at wine bars when I'm traveling because I've found that places that care so much about what they are drinking definitely care about what they are eating. You sacrifice having a wide variety of options, but it's worth it because what they serve is delicious.
In this particular instance we also sacrificed the ability to communicate with the staff because they only spoke French. It makes sense, (we were in France after all...) but we had hopes of someone speaking English. The fact that we didn't speak French also made it very difficult to explain why, after sitting down for 5 minutes, Hanah got up and ran out of the restaurant.
Why, you ask? Well it must be something about having an iPhone and being in the fourth city of a trip because much like the Rogers girls' adventure in Dresden, an iPhone went missing. After checking every pocket of her backpack and rethinking our walk around the city, I sent Hanah off with a map tracking our walk back to the plaza where we had been sitting. While she ran back and tried to speak to the waiter in charades, I sat and smiled awkwardly at the waitress while she walked past our table again and again, wondering where my friend had gone. Thankfully, within 10 minutes, Hanah was back in front of me, both of us with smiles on our faces as she told me about how she caught the waiter just as he was closing the cafe. And he had the phone! Phewwwwww.
Once the phone issue was resolved, we were faced once again with a French-only menu and waiters who spoke no English. Luckily, neither Hanah nor I are picky eaters so we ordered two dishes off the menu by randomly pointing at words that looked intriguing and scoping out our neighbors' dishes. When we got our dishes, they set down a giant blood sausage down in front of us and Hanah's face was covered with a look of dread. Fortunately for her, I had been living in Spain for over a year and a half and was quite used to blood sausage. She ate the other dish and I ate every last bit of one of the best blood sausages (boudin noir for future reference) I've ever had.
Our next day we woke up and walked over to an outdoor market where we weaved through tons of people buying fruit, meat, vegetables as well as the typical costume jewelry, shoes, and underwear of outdoor stands. Then we hiked up through the neighborhood to check out Notre-Dame de la Garde. This church is built at the highest point of the city and had a spectacular view of the city, the port, and the sea.
Looking out over the water
Outside the church, listening to a college choir as their voices wafted out over the sea
Since the church looks over the port, it is a very important place for sailors. Many mosaics depict sailors throughout the church and a number of boats hang as adornments.
Inside the cathedral
Having enjoyed the sights both inside and outside, Hanah and I headed back down the hill where we sought our lunch. I indulged in duck with a butter sauce that I definitely over-consumed and we topped it off with a nutella crepe and coffee for desert. Then we wandered around the shopping street and towards L’abbaye Saint-Victor, the site of one of the monasteries that was founded in 415 in Marseille.
As much as I like to look at old buildings though, the real reason I directed Hanah and I towards the church was because it was right across the street from Four des Navettes. This is the oldest bakery in Marseille and was founded in 1781. They make four des navettes, orange-blossom flavored tea cookies, in a special oven that was built for said sweets and is only ever used to make them.
The oven inside the bakery
The secret-recipe tea cookies!
I can't say I am dying to get the recipe, but it was fun to try such an iconic cookie from Marseille!
That evening we headed home early to pack up and get a few hours of sleep before waking up at 3:45 to catch the 4:30 AM bus to the airport. Well, I woke up Hanah enough to guide her along in her sleep-walking state to the train station, onto the bus, to the airport, and onto the plane, where she slept until we arrived in Madrid and I directed her onto the metro and to my house. We hit a road bump when we got stuck in the train station because all of the glass doors leading out to the bus were locked, but we made it home and into my cave-like room to go back to sleep without a problem. So, in the end it was a win.
When we woke up rested and ready to attack Madrid again, we wandered around the city with the relaxed, lived-in feel that I approach the city with on a regular basis. We checked out the breathtaking Museo Sorolla, went for a lazy lunch that featured an unforgettable gazpacho with goat cheese ice cream, meandered over for coffee and dessert at Mamá Framboise, and then sat in the park for hours reading.
The next morning was a bittersweet day because it was my last full day with Hanah, but also my first day with Justin and Christy. In the morning I let Hanah sleep while I went to pick up Justin and Christy at the airport. Then we began another marathon don't-fall-asleep-on-your-first-day experience: breakfast at my local bar, another visit to the Museo Sorolla, a stop at my market for picnic supplies, check-in at Justin and Christy's AirBNB, a walk from Gran Vía to Plaza Mayor to Sol to Retiro Park, a picnic in the park, a visit through the ENTIRE Reina Sofía, a delightful dinner at Entrevinos, and churros con chocolate at San Ginés.
What a wonderful week. I am so thankful to have had such a fantastic friend for the majority of my life and I am so blessed that we got to have such a fantastic week together in Europe. Next stop, Hanah: China! You're going to visit me there too, right?! ;)
Much love,
Amber
When we woke up rested and ready to attack Madrid again, we wandered around the city with the relaxed, lived-in feel that I approach the city with on a regular basis. We checked out the breathtaking Museo Sorolla, went for a lazy lunch that featured an unforgettable gazpacho with goat cheese ice cream, meandered over for coffee and dessert at Mamá Framboise, and then sat in the park for hours reading.
The next morning was a bittersweet day because it was my last full day with Hanah, but also my first day with Justin and Christy. In the morning I let Hanah sleep while I went to pick up Justin and Christy at the airport. Then we began another marathon don't-fall-asleep-on-your-first-day experience: breakfast at my local bar, another visit to the Museo Sorolla, a stop at my market for picnic supplies, check-in at Justin and Christy's AirBNB, a walk from Gran Vía to Plaza Mayor to Sol to Retiro Park, a picnic in the park, a visit through the ENTIRE Reina Sofía, a delightful dinner at Entrevinos, and churros con chocolate at San Ginés.
What a wonderful week. I am so thankful to have had such a fantastic friend for the majority of my life and I am so blessed that we got to have such a fantastic week together in Europe. Next stop, Hanah: China! You're going to visit me there too, right?! ;)
Much love,
Amber
