Bike ride along the Costa del Sol: Malaga - Part 2

We had perfect weather on our last day in Malaga- Sunny, clear skies and 80 degrees. Malaga has a beachfront path that is around 12 miles, so Brett and I rented bikes and spent the day trolling up the beach, stopping every so often to refresh with a cold beer and a few tapas.

 

 We stopped to relax on a secluded beach towards the end of the path, and sat underneath a palm tree to get out of the sun for a bit. My Irish skin does not lend nicely to direct sun for prolonged periods of time.

 

For lunch, we stopped at this great spot just towards the end of the path, El Tintero. This restaurant is in many tourist books, but there are still a lot of locals here, as it is a bit of a hike from the Malaga port where all the tourists stay. We ate everything from grilled octopus, to paella, fried fish of some type. The restaurant is kind of like Chinese dim sum, in that waiters circle the restaurant carrying various dishes, and you get can choose from anything they are coming around with.  Unfortunately no pictures of this place, but I thought I would mention it anyway.  

 

Then on the way back down the coast, we stopped to eat some of the traditional grilled sardines.

Sorry for the awkwardness of this picture, we had quite a few people staring at us, trying to eat these guys.

 

And since this is my last post on Malaga, here are some of my favourite pictures we took while in Malaga:

 

And no trip to Spain would be complete without churros...

 

xoxo- Mary

Rainy day activities: Malaga, Spain

After spending three days in Seville, we took a short train ride to Malaga, which is on the Southern tip of Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea.

Although Malaga is one of the oldest cities in the world, (evidence dating back to the eighth century BC) it only recently has become tourist destination. The implementation of the high speed train connecting Madrid to Malaga in the 1960's put Malaga and the rest of the Costa del Sol on the map.

Being that we were on the "Coast of the Sun", Brett and I were expecting to soak up the rays and enjoy the rare opportunity to do nothing!

But ironically enough, it was rainy and cold the first two days we were on the "Coast of the Sun". And it wasn't just sprinkling. We get that type of rain every day in London. It was pouring! Which made it difficult to just toughen it out.

So what did we do when it rained on vacation?

Wine Tour

I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a rainy day on vacation, than drinking and eating Spanish tapas all day on beautiful vineyards! 

We hired a semi private tour guide/ car hire to drive us the 60 minutes from Malaga up the winding mountain to the Rhonda region. Only one other couple joined us on our tour, so the tour was still very intimate.

We went to three vineyards:

•Bodegas Garcia Hidalgo:

Our favourite of the three vineyards, this winery is 100% owned and operated by as a family business. We were greeted for a private tour by the owner and winemaker himself (apologies, but I forget his name). The winery produces a very small amount of wine each year, and it is evident as all of their barrels and current stock fit in a storage room no bigger than a household basement. The owner does everything from trim the vines, to making the wine, bottling and labelling. The only time of year he requires assistance is during harvest.

While the four of us and the owner split three bottles of different varieties, the owner's wife, Isabel, continuously brought out homemade tapas: Iberico Chorizo and Manchego, tortilla (potato omelette), Mini Chorizo sliders (probably called something more romantic in Spanish). Guys, this was the best food I have even eaten in my life! Well that might be a stretch, but the atmosphere, the people and the wine all made the food taste even better.


We bought three bottles of wine to take with us back to London- all under 10 euro, which is remarkably cheap if you compare that to a bottle from a vineyard in Napa.

We bought two bottles of the Zabel, a full bodied red wine similar to that of a Zinfandel or a Cabernet. In his broken English he explain that he named the bottle after his wife, Isabel (pictured above), as a romantic gesture for his love for her (queue the awes and tears). Break my heart!


Here are the other two vineyards that we went to that we also very nice, small and quaint. However on a 10 hour boozing wine tour, the last vineyard is never going to be your favourite. By the last vineyard I was probably 2 bottles in for the day, so my memory isn't very good and the wine was going down like water.

•Joaquin Fernandez Bodega

•Chinchilla

Arab Bath House/ Massage 
On the second day it rained in Malaga, we tried to toughen it out and make it around the touristy spots, however, our 3 euro ponchos, mixed with torrential downpour and cold weather made the efforts not worth it.

So we cut our losses and decided to spend the day "at the spa", which we quickly learned was not like any spa we had been to in the States.

A Bath House, whether it be Roman, Arab ect., is similar to a sauna or steam room at the gym, where the room or rooms are super humid, and you just bake for an hour at a time. Contrary to what I thought... there is no pool or Jacuzzi, to which I was severely let down to find out.

So we signed up for an hour in the bath house and then an hour couples massage. What was quite different than our spa experiences in the States was that, although there are plenty of signs that tell you to keep your towel on, this practice is not always applied. Considering that the baths were coed, Brett and I got quite the "show", as we were the only ones who kept their towels on.  There are a few images I will never be able to erase from my brain (shivers). 

But overall it was a really fun way to spend a rainy day in Malaga, and I am glad we have that experience to add to our European travels list. 

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Although we would have preferred an all sunny time in Malaga, our rainy day activities actually were some of my favorite/ most interesting parts of our vakay.

Also the world cup starts today, and England is super pumped about it. And Wimbledon is coming up as well! Exciting stuff on the horizons for London Summer!

Mary

Semana Santa- Seville, Spain

Semana Santa is the religious celebration leading up to Easter. The celebrations are carried out over the month leading up to Easter and they occur all throughout Spain. Holy week in Seville, however, is the largest, most well know of the celebrations.

(Tip- watch the processions from the Dona Maria Hotel rooftop bar. Access to the bar is free, and it apparently wasn't very well know, as we got a seat right up against the edge.)

The core events are the processions of the brotherhoods, through the streets of Seville, from their home church or chapel to the Cathedral and back.



A procession can be made up from a few hundred to near 3,000 Nazarenos and last anywhere from 4 to 14 hours, depending how far the home church is from the Cathedral. The largest processions can take over an hour and a half to cross one particular spot.

Each procession includes two ornate floats which are the main attractions. The first one being of Jesus in a scene from the Passion, and the second float is typically of Mary. Each float can weight over a metric ton, and are physically carried by 12-15 strong men. This is why the processions take so long, because even if their church is only ¼ mile from the cathedral, the men have to take frequent breaks due to the weight of each float.

Why don’t they just put the floats on wheels?I asked the same question! Carrying the float symbolises the pain and suffering Jesus incurred while carrying his cross. Carrying the float is considered a small sacrifice to what Jesus endured.

Strictly speaking this is a religious festival, but for most of the week it is a major party- however not a party like freshman year of college, more like a family reunion. Entire families of Sevillanos, including grandparents and small children, will hang out at the bars all day long and into the early mornings, 3:00 or 4:00am. Brett and I were walking back to our hotel one night at 12:30 and walked by many older women 80+ years still hanging out at the bars.

What is with their crazy outfits?!

As most of my followers are American, I am sure that these pictures are quite shocking to see, as it reminds us of a very negative part of our history. Seeing a white hood and a white cloak spawns similar feelings as the swastika.

However this tradition of the hood and cloak has existed in Spain for hundreds of years. So we know that it carries a completely different meaning in Spain than it does in America.

The cone shaped hood is supposed to symbolise a rising toward the heavens and therefore bring their presence closer to the heavens. Additionally, their covered faces symbolise a united mankind.

Seville was amazing and I highly recommend going during Semana Santa as you really got to see Spanish culture at its finest. For the most part, the spectators were all Spanish, which proves that this is a very proud festival for Spaniards.
                                            

Have you ever visited Seville? What was your favorite part?

Thanks for reading guys! 

Cheers- Mary

Chelsea Football Game

Back to my awesome weekend with my brother in town...

Saturday evening, we went to a Chelsea Football game! Tickets to these games typically sell for 2-3x the face value of the tickets. Thankfully, my friend from the butcher shop, Andrew, is a die-hard Chelsea fan, and offered to find us tickets at face value. The seats were amazing, almost center field and about 20 rows up.

We watched Chelsea vs. Stoke City, and Chelsea won 3-0. It was a pretty exciting game which lead to Brett and I closely following Chelsea throughout the champions league playoffs, which they unfortunately ended up losing to Madrid in the quarterfinals.

THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT FOOTBALL BEFORE THIS GAME:

1. Don't EVER call it soccer in front of a Chelsea fan... Allen learned this really quick after he accidentally said soccer, he was interrupted by our friend Andrew with a few choice words.

(Squint much?)

2. No drinking inside the arena. Due to the intense rivalry in football (soccer), stadiums only sell alcohol to fans, 10 minutes before the game and at intermission, in an attempt to keep the crowd at bay. And you can't buy 2 beers to drink throughout each half, no drinks are allowed inside the arena, therefore you have to finish them before you go in. They really limit your ability to get wasted at the game, which was a huge disappointment for me, as the main reason I attend sporting events in the States is so that I can drink outside. Baseball is so slow, I would fall asleep without a beer and some nachos to keep myself entertained.

3. Due to #1, everyone drinks at a bar beforehand, to pre-game. Now this is not unusual to any sporting event in the States, but what was interesting was that in another attempt to keep fighting at a minimal, a lot of bars will only allow Chelsea fans to enter. Additionally, the bar we went to only allowed people who knew the owner to come in. But thankfully our trusted companion, Andrew, came through for us again and we were allowed in this particular bar.

In order to better capture the intense rivalries between these football teams, let me tell you one encounter Andrew has had while being a Chelsea fan. He said that one time he was leaving a Chelsea football game, and someone had made a shiv out of the metal end of an umbrella and stabbed him in the shoulder over an argument after the game. 

4. They had some crazy chants like the one below:

Video of a goal being scored:

 

Hope everyone had a lovely day! In two weeks Brett's parent's will be here!

 

Cheers! Mary



Bro weekend- St. Paul's

My older brother, Allen, recently visited us in London. He stayed with us in London for 10 days, which fell over two weekends. This way we were able to still spend a lot of time with him on the weekends and during the evenings, however didn't have to take off work!

Friday Night:
On the first Friday he was in town, we headed to a local pub in Clapham for some delicious cask ales and the traditional fish & chips. The local pub we visited was The Sun, in Clapham Old Town.

Saturday:
Apparently our favourite things about London include the food, because on Saturday morning we enjoyed a proper English breakfast while sitting outside in Clapham. The proper English breakfast includes fried eggs, rashers (English bacon), sausage, roasted tomatoes, baked beans and toast. Pretty much a guaranteed hangover cure. Clapham has lots of great breakfast options, however one place that is the best bang for our buck (quid) is Fantasia Cafe in Old Town.

After breakfast we headed to one of the more popular markets, Borough Market to enjoy lots of delicious free samples and a few pints of proper cider. After Borough Market we decided to go to St. Paul's and climb to the 350-some meters to the top of the dome, to the whispering gallery. From Borough market, walk down the South side of the river, which takes you by the William Shakespeare Globe Theater and the Tate Modern Museum. Then cross the pedestrian bridge across the Thames, and St. Paul's will be right there. It is a very lovely walk and one that I recommend our visitors to do.

It costs £16.50 to enter St. Paul's, which included access the whispering gallery, the top of the dome and the crypt. The exterior of the dome allows for a 360 degree view of the city, perfect for a photo opportunity.

The walk to the top is not for the faint of heights, nor is it for clumsy people... Mom- you are not allowed to the top.  Brett is deathly afraid of heights, and even the walk up the metal stairs scared him. . Like for example, when we were in Florence, he didn't make it to the top of the Duomo, he turned around halfway and left me to fend for myself. Therefore, St. Paul's was very reminiscent of our Italy experience.  See below how he is practically reaching for the wall.


Tomorrow I'll post on the Chelsea football game we attended. Sorry for the lack of posts! I'll try to make them shorter and more frequent going forward. Especially with all our travel coming up, it's going to be hard to keep up!

Cheers! Mary

Spring in London

Spring is in full bloom here in London. As I type this blog post, Brett and I are enjoying a crisp refreshing glass of white wine while enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.

Coming from a city where spring is lucky to show up at the first of May, it has been so refreshing to have a winter that ends in February and where the coldest it ever got during the day was 30 degrees. I always wondered if I would miss the snow, but this winter has proved that I don’t actually like snow unless I am on a mountain. My poor friends in Chicago have suffered through a terrible winter and I’m not even sure if a day like London is having right now is in the near future for them. 

As most of you know, just before Christmas I started working at a butcher shop in Clapham. I worked as the delicatessen, making gourmet sandwiches and handling the deli and cheese counters. There wasn’t too much about working in a butcher shop that phased me, for example seeing headless animals or watching one of the guys blow into the esophagus of a rabbit to make the lungs fill up, but I was quite scared of the huge refrigerator that held all the meat. Something about seeing meat hanging from a meat hook reminds me of some horror movie and the thought of being locked in that refrigerator scared me on a daily basis. 

Although the refrigerator was equivalent to the basement furnace in Home Alone, the butcher shop has been such a positive experience for me. It relieved a lot of the stress and pressure I felt around not having a job. We are approaching our six month anniversary of moving to London and I would have to say that trying to find a job has been the hardest part of our move. Having a temporary job really relived a lot of stress and pressure that I felt about sitting at home all day. When you don’t have a job and no children to keep you busy, you definitely build up a lot of guilt regarding not doing anything all day long. Brett would get home from work and say "How was your day? What did you do?", like most loving husbands do. But something about watching 6 hours straight of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" made me feel guilty. I always thought I would be an awesome Housewife, but at the end of the day, I need a lot on my plate to stay productive. So working at the butcher shop for 6 hours a day helped break up my binge TV sessions, and forced me to be productive outside of those hours. 

But after almost six months of unemployment I have finally found a job! And it's a great job and an international company to which I will most likely be able to transfer back to the state with. The picture below is a view from our offices. 

 I started last week, and some of my initial thoughts are 1. That I miss wearing yoga pants to work 2. The Northern line between 8:15-8:45 is pretty similar to the picture below, no one is physically pushing you, but at times I think I could touch the next person with my tongue. You can only let so many trains pass you before you just force yourself on the train. 

That's it for now... We have our second visitor coming this week... my brother is coming to visit for 10 days!! Woot woot!

Cheers, Mary

Guided Food Walk through Brixton- A review of Fox & Squirrel

A few weeks ago, I was invited to be a part of a guided food tour hosted by the very innovative and unique tour guide company Fox & Squirrel. The tour I participated in was called "Eating your way through Brixton", a guided food walk into one of the most culturally significant neighbourhoods in London.  As you might remember, I have previously posted about Brixton in my London Markets post. Brett and I frequent Brixton quite often to shop for our weekly groceries on the Electric Avenue, therefore, when I was approached by Fox & Squirrel to participate in this tour, I was very excited to find out more about the market and neighbourhood.

Fox & Squirrel are an independent tour guide company, with just five expert guides that focus on creating a unique and innovative view to expose the lesser known aspects of London. The guides are experts in their fields, providing a well researched knowledge of the cultural impact behind each tour, whether it be on food, photography or architecture.

The Brixton food walk includes a 7 course taster menu on some of the best street food in London. Our expert guide for the walking tour was the founder of the company, Penelope Sacorafos. In order to not give away the whole tour, I will highlight 3 of the 7 courses we experienced.

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony:
Elsa, owner of the Ethiopian restaurant Shawl's Café, showed us the traditional way to prepare coffee. Coffee originated in Ethiopia and traditionally was prepared by the women of the tribe who wore traditional garments during each ceremony. Elsa was definitely my favourite part of this tour, watching her prepare the coffee with such grace, her beautiful poise immolated through the experience. She started with raw coffee beans which before roasting are green in colour. She used a ladle to roast the coffee beans over an open flame until they were a dark chocolate colour. The whole ceremony the smell of frankincense permeated the tent we sat in, as it is traditional to burn frankincense during these ceremonies (to me, it reminded me of church).  Once the coffee was ground and steeped in hot water, she used a makeshift filter of what looked like crumbled up seaweed to pour the coffee.

The most interesting part of this experience was that the coffee was served with a spoonful of ground ginger and popcorn on the side. And the coffee itself was the purest, smoothest coffee I have ever had. Often times, the "Ethiopia" coffee served at Starbucks is bitter and very offensive on the pallet. This is mainly due to over-roasting. Coffee when done properly should remind you of a quality piece of dark chocolate, a smooth, rich flavour without the chalky aftertaste that most supermarket coffee leaves you with.

Ethiopian Mixed Platter:
After our coffee, we headed inside to Elsa's restaurant, the Shawl's Café, for my first experience with Ethiopian cuisine. We were served the mixed platter which consisted of many varieties of vegetable and spicy meat "wats" or stews served atop "injera", a large sourdough flatbread. Utensils were not served as a part of this meal, therefore the six of us were forced to get close, quickly, as we all competed for "a piece of the pie" if you will. We used the injera as the base to scoop everything up, and the objective was to keep one hand clean and wait until the end to clean off your other hand.

 

Columbian Restaurant: Las Americas
The last part of the tour that I wanted to highlight was the Columbian restaurant/ butcher shop/ money transfer/ travel agency that we went to. This shop had all of those things combined into one. The shop is very narrow and on Saturdays the place is packed, mainly with people of Columbian decent, gathering at this shop to get a piece of their heritage. We were lucky enough to speak with one of the chefs, Danny. His parents own the restaurant and moved to London a few decades ago. We dined on Lechona (Columbian style pork belly), Empanadas, and the most amazing salsa I have ever had! We asked Danny how he made the salsa, but after he said tomatoes, onion and chillies, I lost him on all the ingredients. There must have been over 30 ingredients in this salsa. We were able to take home a few samples and Brett and I used the salsa on scrambled eggs the following week- a must try if you have never done it!

What I loved so much about this tour was the knowledge Penelope had on the restaurants and shop owners in Brixton. While developing this tour, she interviewed many shop owners throughout the Brixton area to identify the most culturally significant chefs, owners and restaurants in the Brixton area to highlight on her tour. The places we visited were not trendy. They did not have a rustic chic ambiance with mason jars as wine glasses to draw you in from the outside. These restaurants were modest in appearance, but with the most profound cultural influence and delicious food. 

After visiting these restaurants, I couldn't help but think what a shame it is that most people these days would choose a restaurant with the perfect ambiance- exposed brick, chalkboards and low lighting, without any knowledge of the chef's background, over a restaurant with a modest appearance but with a chef who is an expert in their cuisine. These restaurants are using the recipes passed down from generation to generation, traditional restaurants that are lost on the foodie population looking for items like kale or lamb shank to identify the hot restaurant of the moment.

The last food for thought that I will leave with you today is that physiologist say that you will get more satisfaction out of an experience, such a tour, concert or play, than you would any tangible item, like a hat or a new outfit. One of the people on the tour told us that in regards to why they were on the tour, indicating that this was their Christmas gift to each other, and that sharing this experience together would be more enjoyable and memorable than any one particular tangible item. I hope to use this piece of advice in the future, as I definitely believe that is true.

-Mary