Rogers girls' adventures: Part 3 (Prague)

First off, let me say that I love Prague. (Sorry, Josh!). Honestly, it's probably one of my favorite cities that I've visited. I hope to "Czech" out more cities in the Czech Republic in the future! (Corny, yes, I know.)

Our travels from Rome to Prague were nowhere near as complicated or as lengthy as the Madrid to Rome journey. It also took place during slightly more regular hours, thus making us eager and ready to enjoy our first day in Prague.

Upon arrival, we sought out food. (Typical.) We quickly found some street vendors and indulged in some sausage and ham. After days of carbohydrates, we decided that we could stand to have a little protein in our bodies. Then, intrigued by the vendor roasting pastries and topping them with cinnamon sugar, we tried trdelnik.

 

 Trdelnik fun fact: This sweet originates from Translyvania (the country most people think I come from when I say that I'm from when I say I'm from Pennsylvania).

After getting a bit of energy in our bodies, we began to wander the streets without a set agenda. This was the first city that I hadn't already visited and it was fun to be exploring with no idea of what to expect. We ended up in the Jewish ghetto, where we made friends with a young woman who was working in a jewelry store. She taught me to say thank you (děkuji), which is even harder than it looks. The "d" sound is much softer than we have in English... after a few attempts, I realized I was making mistakes I couldn't even identify and would need to do some independent studies if I wanted to actually learn Czech.

For dinner, we ate at Lokál, a restaurant suggested both by the guy who rented our apartment to us and a blogger from Prague. It was delicious, and I had beef tartar for the first time ever! I decided it was the place to try it, since I saw 2 other girls near me eating it and the restaurant prided itself on getting fresh meat from a loyal, local butcher.

Mom and I had our first Czech beers. We each only drank one though, not quite living up to the apparent norm of the restaurant.

 

Beef tartar with fresh garlic bread (aka I rubbed the garlic clove into this butter fried bread)

I also need to give a SHOUT OUT! to Ali for trying the beef tartar! Mom, on the other hand, refused. We tried to convince her to try the tiniest piece, but it was a no go. Ali and I were both pretty surprised to see Mom absolutely refuse to try a new food.

The second day in Prague, Ali and I decided to enjoy Old Town by doing her MWS workout in the center square. Luckily, at 9 AM, there weren’t too many people. Those who were there, however, got a nice show of Ali and I sprinting along, using street signs, poles of buildings, and sidewalk cracks as markers for the different running distances. They probably also thought that I was the slowest runner on the face of this planet as Ali pulled away from me in the span of a 60 meter sprint. I wanted a sign that said, “I’m not slow, it's just that she runs a 6:00 mile!” Oh well, I wasn’t too worried about impressing the old man who tried to high five us and attempted to use his arms as a start gun for us.

Plus, working out made the trip to Bakeshop afterwards even more delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed my spinach feta pastry and my rhubarb, blueberry tart.

 

Rhubarb and blueberry tart... it tasted like pie!  

After breakfast, we wandered around the Jewish quarter and entered a few of the synagogues. Most of the synagogues we entered are now being used for museum purposes and are quite educational about the development of the Jewish culture within the Czech Republic. One of them, however, was used as a memorial and had walls covered with the names of the Jews that had died in the ghettos and the concentration camps during World War II. It was beautiful, though obviously in a somber way.

My favorite part of the tour through the Jewish quarter was one of the exhibits displaying children’s drawings. The exhibit focused on an artist who had given the children art lessons while they were living in the Jewish ghetto. They studied color patterns and whatnot, but the works that they created depicted the view of the ghetto from a child’s perspective. Many showed the disparity of the situation, from the uncensored viewpoint of a child. Other drawings, however, revealed hope for freedom in the future and included flowers and smiling families walking away from the ghetto, towards home. These drawings reminded me of the book Room (by Emma Donoghue), which I highly recommend. It gives extremely interesting insight into how a parent can influence a child and transform his or her understanding of a desperate situation.

We also entered the Jewish cemetery, where there were 12,000 tombstones over 100,000 bodies. As the brochure reads, “Jews were not allowed to be buried outside the ghetto, so the dead had to be buried on top of one another, up to ten layers deep.”

The tombstones seemed to be piled on top of one another

With Hebrew inscriptions

After our tour of the Jewish quarter, we headed to lunch, and stopped by the “Dancing House” along the way. This building is owned by a Dutch insurance company, and was originally given the name "Fred and Ginger", because it looked like two people dancing.

 Walking past the Dancing house

 

Duck with an onion, feta, arugula salad  

After lunch, we went to the Prague Castle complex. "According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m²" (Prague Castle). There, we walked through great halls, entered a small church, and saw the outside of the cathedral. We didn’t get to the inside before it closed, so we just imagined seeing the outside walls from the other side. I’m pretty sure my imagination was pretty accurate.

 

A hall in the Prague castle complex... doesn't it make you think of a gothic style Downton Abbey?

A church

 

The outside of the cathedral

Our feet were pretty tired from walking all over our map, so we headed back towards our apartment to drop off the Christmas ornaments that Mom bought for our first gifts of Christmas. (We'll act surprised.) On our way, we paused to buy a few gifts, check out a church (and accidentally enjoy a brief but pleasant organ concert as someone practiced), and get Mom a Starbucks.

Lastly, we stopped in one of the jewelry stores that sold garnet, which is abundant in Prague. Ali was considering buying a ring as her big souvenir from the trip. One in particular had caught her eye, so we went back (much to the overeager salesman’s delight) to check out the price and consider. (Background knowledge: I had tried on a gold-plated ring with a decent size stone the previous day that was priced at $75.)

Anyway, the conversation went something like this:

Salesman (S): Oh you are back! How wonderful!

Me: Yep, we’re just taking another look…

S: You’ll find something you like. I’ll sell it to you.

Mom: Well, we only buy if you give us a good deal.

S: Oh! I give you a crazy deal. A crazy deal just for you.

Ali and I meander around the store; Ali takes a closer look at the one that she liked.

S: Which one you like? Let me show it to you. Salesman is already pulling out the entire rack of rings.

Ali: Uhmmmm, this one? She points nervously to the ring with a small garnet stone and petite diamonds around the outside, unaware that they are real diamonds set in white gold.

S: Pretty. Very pretty.

Ali: How much is it?

S: Salesman pulls out his calculator and begins punching in numbers. Well, the normal price is this but with the conversion rate and a very special discount, it would be 965 dollars.

Ali: Ali politely and quickly taking off the ring. Okayyyyyy, thank you.

S: So you buy it?

Ali: Nooooo. I’m a broke college student.

S: Where’s your dad? I’ll talk to him.

Me: No no no. He’s not here. I smile, thinking: Nor would he buy a $965 ring from you on a whim!

Mom: She was going to buy it as a souvenir with money from Christmas.

S: Okay, okay. I give it to you for $750. Just for you.

Ali: No, really. I can’t afford it.

S: How much can you afford?

Ali: You don’t want to know.

S: No really, tell me.

Ali: No really, you don’t want to know.

The scene continued on as the salesman started sweating, trying to figure out how much money Ali had (100€), lowering the price to $350, and attempting to sell her one of the more gaudy, cheaper rings. He was unsuccessful, and as we were leaving he said, “Wow, she’s a good bargainer! She won’t tell me how much money she has!” I think he knew when we walked out the door that there was no hope of us returning.

The last big event for our only full day in Prague, was the beer garden. Or lack of beer garden. I had read about the big, open beer gardens online and was eager to check out how the locals relaxed on a Friday night. As the very handy blog that I had read stated, “When the weather is warm (or at least un-cold), Prague’s beer gardens are the place to while away an afternoon, evening, or possibly even both. Beer gardens are casual affairs with long, simple picnic tables, a food stand or two serving greasy sausages, and — most importantly — an endless supply of freshly pulled Czech beer. Relax with locals of all ages, from the stodgy business guy in a suit to grandpa with his dog to the young punk kids."

The tourist center next to our apartment didn’t seem too keen on helping us get there, saying, “You don’t want to go there. That’s where the locals hang out. Its just a couple of stands with beer and picnic tables.” Wrong, lady. I do want to go. Have you ever heard of people watching? I was determined, so I looked it up on Google Maps and led Mom and Ali across the river and up 256 stairs.

And then we found… not what we were looking for.

There were about 60 people between the age of 18 and 26 drinking out of 2 liter coke bottles, skateboarding, and smoking a very sweet smelling drug. Obviously, we fit right in. There was one beer stand, serving a special locally produced beer: Budweiser. (Sarcasm?). But there were no grandpas with dogs or stodgy business guys. So we took a picture, pretending like we had walked up for the view, and wandered around to the other set of steps in hopes that the beer garden was behind the punk rock fest. Negative. Oh well, better luck next country! 

 

Just hanging out with all the Czech hipsters

Our last day in Prague, Ali and I went for a run and then we had breakfast at Bakeshop. It was a slight repeat from the day before, but it worked so why not? Then we checked out of our apartment (aka we left the apartment with our stuff and shut the door without bringing along the keys), and headed over to the train station to store our bags until our 4:30 PM train. At this point I would like to give Mom credit for lugging her suitcase for 20 minutes over the cobblestones of Prague to save money on a taxi (which we still have not used). We could've used a tram but the tram system was a bit complicated because you can only buy tickets in the metro. Thus, we decided the small distance it would save us wasn’t worth it. In the end, we didn’t use any transportation within Prague… we walked from end to end multiple times without thinking twice about it.

The last day was no exception. We walked from the apartment to the train station and then all the way across the city to the other side of the river to check out the Lennon wall. It’s basically a big wall of graffiti, but it was pretty cool!

 

Close-up

 

  

Wonderful travel buddies!

Then we walked back across the city, had some lunch, and played rummy while we awaited our train. Another successful city!

 

The blog recommended the special for lunch at our last restaurant. However, it was in Czech (and the waiter gave me a pretty rough translation) so I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting. But the pig knee, 2 kinds of sauerkraut, bread dumplings, and potato dumplings were a deliciously filling meal for $7! 

Now we’re in our last country, Germany, and we can’t believe the time is going so quickly! The up-side, though, is that I'll be seeing many of you very soon!

Much love,

Amber

Rogers girls' adventures: Part 2 (Rome)

4:00 AM: The alarm goes off. The apartment turns into a 20 minute frenzy of three women brushing their teeth, changing clothes, collecting chargers, and stuffing freshly dried clothes into suitcases.

Then began the journey to Rome, which included: walking to Cibeles (a roundabout in Madrid), taking a bus from Cibeles to the airport, taking a plane to Rome, taking a bus from the airport in Rome to the train station in Rome, taking the metro from the train station to our B&B neighborhood, and walking to our B&B from the metro. When we arrived around 11:00, we felt like we had ran a short marathon. I guess there's no such thing as a short marathon but you know what I mean :)

In Madrid, Mom and Ali got a taste of what it's like to fly Ryanair. They saw the mass chaos of Ryanair opening their desks with barely enough time to get everyone's bags checked, they got their Passport checks done, and they witnessed the mile-long line that forms to get on the plane. Luckily I convinced them that it was pointless to wait in line, so we sat down and watched the line until it got to the end. Thus, we were the last people on the plane. But somehow we all got aisle seats and were in the first group off the plane. I've learned all of your secrets, Ryanair!

Speaking of secrets, (or not so secrets), there is a 20€/kilo fee when your checked bag is overweight. This could cause an extreme damper on one's travels if one's bag was, oh I don't know, 6.5 kilograms overweight. Oh wait, that was us. Thankfully, there was an open scale at the end of the check-in counters and we realized this before we got to the counter to check the bag. So after 15+ trips back and forth with the three suitcases, we managed to rearrange fabric, shoes, shower supplies, etc. until each suitcase read exactly 15.0 kilograms (about 33 pounds). It's possible that our backpacks were bulging and it was no longer comfortable to hold them for long periods of time, but we saved 140€ so we felt pretty dang good about ourselves.

When we got to the B&B, we were quite happy to find a super cozy place to relax for the day. After a busy first few days, we had definitely earned it. We were also delighted to meet our wonderful host (shout out to Campanella 3!), who had her 5 month old daughter with her. When Mom pointed out the little girl's chubby cheeks, our host corrected us, calling them "mozzarella balls" (chubby and pale). How precious!

The kitchen nook in Campanella 3

Mom, Ali, and I delayed our naps until we enjoyed our first pasta lunch. Then, with full bellies, we settled in to catch up on our missed sleep from the night before. That got us rejuvinated to meet up with the Canonacos at Nonna Betta (a restaurant in the Jewish quarter) for dinner. 

 

Postcard day 4: On our bus ride to the Jewish ghetto, we got our first glimpse at the Vatican!

We had a blast, and I'm pretty sure everyone at the restaurant knew it. When at one point we realized we were practically all shouting, we stopped talking and discovered that the restaurant was practically silent... and the majority of the other diners were staring at us. AKA, we were blending right in ;)

And the best part of this whole situation was...

I got to see my bestie!!!

After dinner, Jackie took us for a walk around to have some gelatto, to see the Spanish steps, and to throw a few coins into the Trevi fountain. (Did you know that the coins are used by an Italian charity to fund a supermarket for the poor? It's a good thing to hear that the 3,000€ that are thrown in there each day are being put to good use! Check out the BBC article if you want to know more!)

 

Here's Mom throwing a coin in... looks like she'll be returning to Rome someday!

Rejuvenated from a relaxing Sunday, we hit day 2 full force...

Of course, that means we started off the day with a croissant and a cappuccino.

Then we took a nice long walk from our neighborhood to Campo di Fiori, the large outdoor market in the center of Rome. On our way, we walked across the Ponte Sant'Angelo, which is the bridge from the city center to the Castel Sant'Angelo. The bridge is covered with sculptures designed by Bernini, all holding the instruments of the passion.

Angel with the crown of thorns

Spices galore!

Next we headed to Piazza Navona, where there are a lot of artists selling originals and prints of their work.

Postcard day 5: A view of Piazza Navona!

 

One of the foutnains in Piazza Navona... with pigeons, of course.

The cute painting/drawing that I bought from Marcel in Piazza Navona. He even drew little faces into it to represent Mom, Ali, and I.

Leaving Piazza Navona, we continued on to Via dei Coronari, a quintessential street filled with antique shops and whatnot.

 

 Doorbells on one of the apartment buildings

And it was there, at Gelateria del Teatro, that I had my favorite gelato to date. Mmmmmmm....

Ginger mixed with white peach lavender

To finish off the day, we hit up the Pantheon and the Colosseum.

In Latin, Pantheon means "[temple consecrated] to all gods." It was originally a pagan worship space, but it was converted into a church in the 7th century. It is extremely well preserved; the dome of the Pantheon is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. (Wikipedia)

Inside the pantheon, the oculus lets in a decent amount of natural light.

The Coloseum was the largest amphitheater of the Roman Empire and is the largest amphitheater in the world. It's estimated that it could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators. Back in its day, the site was used for "gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as moch sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology." (Wikipedia)

The Rogers girls in the Colosseum!

 And this is the glass to the gift shop that Mom didn't realize was there. Judging from the other marks on the glass, a few other people made that mistake as well...

Disclaimer: Ali is not picking her nose in this picture.

From the Colosseum, you can get a nice view of the Arco di Costantino (Arch of Constantine). The Senate built it to celebrate Constantine's victory over Maxentius.

Arco di Costantino

Then we: Headed back to the apartment. Ate. Slept. Woke up, ready to start again.

Our next day in Rome, we headed back to the same area, but this time to check out the Roman Forum and Palentine. We had tried to go there the day before, but when we bought our tickets at 5:30 PM, the girl suggested we go to the Colosseum because the Forum would have taken at least 3 hours to walk through and it was going to close at 7:00 PM.

Well, it definitely took more than an hour and a half; however, it did not take 3 hours. In the intense late morning heat without water, there was no way we were going to last more than 2 hours!

You may be thinking, "What is this 3 hour, outdoor monument?" Well, the Roman Forum was the main plaza of the city and now has the remains of multiple important, ancient government buildings. The other part, Palentine Hill, is the centermost hill of the 7 Hills of Rome, which are thought to have been different settlements that made up the city at the very beginning. Also, "according to Roman mythology, the Palatine Hill was the location of the cave, known as the Lupercal, where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive" (Wikipedia).

Overall, it was really cool to imagine these things existing in 8th century BC. However, after a while, it all started to look the same:

Important portico

 

Important columns

Important fragments of walls(?)

To all you intense history buffs out there, please accept my apologies. It really is super interesting to know the details of all these archeological archives. But the summer sun has left my mind a bit empty of any details besides old and important :)

Throughout the forum, there were also a number of modern art pieces. This piece shows Venus (the space was originally a temple to Venus) with a pile of old clothes. I believe the meaning was something about how holiness is achieved not in your ancestry but in your presence. Take that as you like... I'm not sure I entirely get it either.

Venus

After lunch, we continued on to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. This church was gorgeous.  It is the oldest and ranks first among the four Papal Basilicas or major basilicas of Rome because it is the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. (Wikipedia)

 

Postcard day 6: The apse of Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano 

 

Mom and Ali, seated in the pews off to the side of the nave. The angelic light illuminating Ali is a nice touch!

The ceiling

To congratulate ourselves for a day well spent, we headed to Pompi, where I got the best tiramisu in Rome and Mom and Ali got gelato.

SO DELICIOUS.

Then we back tracked to Basilica di San Clemente, which was closed when we first tried to enter. We took in the church from a comfortable seated position, wondering if we had been wearing pedometers, how many steps we would have accumulated over the past few days. We still have no clue, but we decided that it was definitely enough to justify a 4 day diet of pastries, pizza, pasta, and gelato.

We also decided that we had walked enough for the day, so we headed back to the apartment to hang out, nap, upload pictures, read, etc. until dinner (pear and cheese pasta bags in a walnut sauce).

Then we: Headed back to the apartment. Slept. Woke up, ready to start again. (Sound familiar?)

Our last day in Rome, we headed over to the Vatican. Conveniently (though we didn't know it), the Pope was giving mass at the same time we entered the museums. Thus, they were relatively calm.

We enjoyed wandering around the museums and admiring all of the artwork, but it is crazy to me to consider how the Vatican represents the church to so many people. At one point when I was traveling throughout Spain, someone said to me, "You know, I think more people would attend church in the United States if it looked like this." Yes, it's impressive, but I think these things are the very problem that many people have with the church. Spending money on impressive ceilings, expensive statues, and intricate marble floors is the very opposite of what 'the church' should be doing. I most definitely prefer the 10 person weekly gatherings of my house group in a European-size living room; I prefer it when 'the church' spends 3€ on a tortilla española to share and spends their time encouraging each other and sharing life with one another.

Nevertheless, we did see some beautiful works of art...

 Ceiling

Armoires

 Postcard 7: The Sistine chapel ceiling

Standing in the Sistine chapel today, I couldn't help but think about Good Will Hunting. In the movie, Sean challenges Will about how he pretends to know it all, but has never really experienced life or allowed himself to be vulnerable.

Sean says, "So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that...."

I'd just like to comment that the Sistine Chapel doesn't have a very noteworthy or distinct smell.

Anyway, after wandering through the museums, we headed into the center so Mom could find her souvenir from Rome. She decided to buy a scarf from each country that we go to... a nice addition to her wardrobe. As we wandered around, we (not surprisingly) stopped for lunch and gelato.

 Our lunch was a bit filling. In addition to an antipasto of meats and fresh mozzerella cheese and a napoli pizza, we ordered a calzone that ended up being a little larger than we expected. Check out the size comparison with Mom's iPhone....

 

On our last day, we just "happened" to pass by Gelateria del Teatro. Okay, maybe I was leading with a hidden agenda. This time I got tiramisu and coffee.

Throughout the four days, walking the entire way across Rome (Seriously... we have spots marked off from the upper left corner of our map to the bottom right corner of our map.), we got quite thirsty. Thus, we enjoyed finding the water fountains to refill our water bottles and keep us from passing out on the cobblestone streets where a seemingly massive compact car (At one point, Ali pointed to an Audi sedan and said, "That thing is massive!") could run over us.

 

 Outside Gelateria del Teatro

After we had satisfied our stomachs and Mom found a scarf from the artsy-fartsy Roman store, abitart, we headed back over to Vatican city to check out St. Peter's Basilica.

 

In St. Peter's Square

The light coming in from the windows in the cupola

The Vatican guards, rocking those stripes

For our last night, (after a brief rest for postcard writing, etc.) we hit up all the neighborhood joints: the restaurant (Micci) around the corner, the gelateria between the restaurant and our apartment (where the guy tried to teach us Italian and then proceeded to give us double the normal serving), and the fruit stand next to the gelateria. Now we're packing up and using Google Translate to learn a couple of key words (yes, no, please, toilet, thank you, English) in Czech before heading to Prague in the morning. Stay tuned to find out if we say any of the words correctly!

Much love,
Amber

Rogers girls' adventures: Part 1 (Madrid)

MY FIRST VISITORS HAVE ARRIVED.

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

The Rogers girls in Retiro

First off, let me tell you that Mom and Ali are champs. But really.

I picked them up at the airport around 3:00 on Thursday, and didn't even begin to take it easy on them. Rather than suggest a taxi, or the bus that would drop us around the corner, I suggested the cheapest option: the metro. This involved a line switch, a number of escalator rides, and us all squeezing into different doors of the car that was packed and about to leave the platform. Oh, and a nice 10 minute (at a brisk pace) walk from the metro stop to our airbnb. This was just the beginning.

Our first day consisted of: a nice long stroll through El Retiro, a visit to la Reina Sofía (the national contemporary art museum), a drink in Plaza Mayor, and a full-out Spanish dinner (gambas al ajillo, paradilla de verudras, moriclla, queso iberico, and patatas bravas) with 6 of my friends from church/Fulbright. Not too shabby for the first 7 hours in the country!

Postcard day 1: A painting (found in la Reina Sofia) of a popular anis flavored liquor that the farmers used to put in their coffee in the morning. The bottle also served as a musical instrument in parades!

Last but not least, Ali bought an orange digital watch for 5€. This was momentarily the highlight of her trip so far ("I love this country!")... I had hopes that something in the next 13 days would top it.

Friday was just as busy. I'm now quite confident that if someone really wants to (and if they have an excellent guide... cough, cough ME), they can see all of Madrid in 2 and a half days. Here's a summary of what we did on Friday.

First, Ali and I went on a run in Retiro. Yes, 4 years later, here I am training to be a Messiah Women's Soccer player once again. (Bringing things full circle!) We took a leisurely 20 minute run, checked out the peacocks, and then headed back to one of the big empty paths in the park so that we could do the Speed and Agility workout. We got lots of nice looks (First off, girls running? Second of all, sprinting figure eights around small sticks?), especially when I tried to run backwards and fell flat on my butt. Good thing I'm over trying to blend in all the time.

After a shower and some breakfast (where Mom drank Spanish coffee... no Starbucks!!! OMG...), we continued on with our day. Before lunch, we stopped by the Julián López fabric store, walked over to Plaza de España, and then to el Templo de Debod in Parque del Oeste. For those of you that don't know Madrid, that means I walked them pretty much the entire width of the inner city. Good job guys!

After lunch, we checked out the Royal Cathedral and Royal Palace. Both were a hit.

The beautiful ceiling in the Royal Cathedral

 The cupola in the Royal Cathedral

 Guard outside the Royal Palace

Windows outside the Royal Palace

In the Royal Plaza

Obviously, we're the national guards...

 
Postcard day 2: The royal guard's get-up

After a full afternoon, we felt we had earned a bit of rest and relaxation. So we hung out in the apartment before heading over to Mercado San Miguel. Mercado San Miguel is a market that used to sell fruits/vegetables/meat/etc., but now has vendors and restaurants set up so that you can try small portions of a bunch of different things. My favorite morsel that I tried was fresh artisan Mozzarella with salmon.

Our last adventure for Friday night was to go to Casa Patas, so Ali could have her first flamenco experience. Casa Patas is an extremely well known place to go to see for flamenco, mostly because they clearly stick to the improvisation element of flamenco. Throughout the entire show, it was obvious that the musicians and dancers were taking turns following each other, giving each the chance to be in the spotlight. To see art being created on stage was awesome. It was also the most intense flamenco show I had ever seen; the energy level the dancers and musicians maintained throughout the show was impressive!

Here's a video (not of the performers we saw, but other performers at Casa Patas) to give you a taste of the show...

And a few pictures..

He managed to sweat through 3 shirts. He was incredible, but after a while we were were happy we were experiencing it from a few rows back, avoiding the "the splash zone."

Dancing with the mantón de manila

After the show, inside Casa Patas

Not full from our snacks before the show, we decided to stop by 100 Montaditos (The one right in between Sol and Gran Vía... on a Friday night. Oops.) to grab a quick bite to eat. One of Ali's favorites was the tortilla and ali-oli montadito... how Spanish of her!

Saturday, our last day in Madrid, we started off with a morning run at Canal de Isabel (Ali and I got some more inquisitive looks while we did her Messiah workout) and later headed over to my apartment so I could show off my Spanish home. We then spent the better part of the afternoon walking around Salamanca, a pijo (posh) neighborhood in Madrid.

What did we eat? Well, we went to Mama Frambroise (yesssss, it's a French bakery but it's awesome and we aren't going to France so I figured it was okay) for a light brunch. Then we hit up Bazaar, part of the restaurant group that Napala and I fell in love with because it serves Spanish food with a bit of a modern twist. We didn't order the pulpitos (little octopi), but we enjoyed a classy Mediterranean meal before heading home to pack up our stuff to head out!

Postcard day 3: Kilometer 0 (in Sol), the point from which the mileage of all major roads in Spain originate. All street numbers in Madrid also begin at the part of the street closest to Kilometer 0.

Well, my friends, this is the first edition of the Rogers' girls adventures. Stay tuned to hear about our journey to Rome and our experiences in the Eternal City!

Much love,
Amber