Closing remarks

Now that I’ve been home for two weeks, it is time to sit down and reflect upon my experience.

Firstly, I am forever grateful for this semester. I never really used the word “blessed” until I became a domer, and I do owe a lot to ND for creating this environment and experience in which I got to live and eat with reckless abandon for a whole semester. Truly truly blessed. My parents are much more to thank for it all; they really pushed me to do as much travelling as possible, but also to do so in a way that would teach me more about the world.

Secondly, I have two regrets, neither of which could have been realistically fulfilled but nevertheless I wish they could have been. One is this round trip flight to Cagliari, Italy, that was really cheap that I didn’t just book then and there. I was nervous about travelling alone but it was also right after my Oktoberfest weekend and I would’ve been dead tired doing a trip by myself after three weekends straight of travel. The other regret is not visiting Portugal. Mostly for its proximity and its cheapness, but I wasn’t dying to go anyway since I liked focusing my to do list by gastronomical significance.

Thirdly, America is still the best country on the face of this planet, in my opinion. Of course this is highly influenced by the fact that I am used to America, but in addition, Spain is kind of a depressing place. Their economy is in the toilet and the behavior of men was so unfavorable. Plus the food was not as amazing as I would’ve hoped. It wasn’t spicy at all, ever, so I missed that flavor a LOT while I was away. Also, and this applies to all of Europe, pickpockets are so much more a thing and it made me uncomfortable. I was never pickpocketed because I knew better than to not stay alert, but I was always on my guard and sometimes it made my experiences harder to focus on and enjoy. I had an amazing experience but I would be lying if I said I wanted to stay in Spain longer. I’m happy to be back in the old US of A.

Thank you all for reading! One more post to follow: tips for future study abroad students. I am FULL of wisdom.

Barca

This was the last trip I got to take this semester, and it was a great end for sure. I only wish I could’ve stayed longer! The thing about Barcelona is that it feels like an actual city. So is Madrid, but you can certainly tell the difference in economic development. Barcelona is soooo much nicer and everything is in in Catalan and you’re right next to France. It was a bit more expensive but for most intents and purposes I didn’t notice. My darling travel buddies and I were all on our last bout of cash so we were as thrifty as could be. Pictorial guide here.

We stayed the night before with an ND alumna in Madrid who said if we ever needed a place she could help us out. It was so nice to not have to leave Toledo during the wee hours, and it was nice to get to know another Domer. Things at Madrid-Barajas were as seamless as usual and once we got to the city center we were pretty much enamored. You’d think that seeing that European charm over and over would be enough, but it is strikingly cute every time. We had a full day so we got some lunch close to our friend’s apartment where we stayed for the weekend. We then saw the Casa Batllo, inside and out, and it was absolutely incredible. I thought I didn’t like Gaudi because it has an almost cartoon quality to it, but seeing it in person i really appreciated the architectural feat. The audioguide included in the extremely expensive entrance fee said that there were like 2 straight lines total in the house, which is so cool. I think about how hard it is to draft anything with straight lines in a precise way; Gaudi made the whole place out of curvy lines, for which the math could not be easy. I loved the colors and the lines and the whimsical nature of it all. There was an awesome view from the roof, and the souvenirs were really cool too. Didn’t end up buying anything though, oh well. We walked to the Casa Mira, another Gaudi construct but we just looked at the outside.

Dinner was at this sandwich place called Bo de B, which was super yummy and super delicious. After all this we went to a bar called Chupitos where they have the largest menu of any kind I’ve ever seen. I think they had hundreds of different kinds of shots. We each sampled a few. We were a lot more interested in the flavor combos than the drinking bit. Some of them were really corny and kitschy, but some of them actually had interesting flavors. A fan favorite is the Boy Scout in which you roast a marshmallow and dunk it in the shot, and then take the shot and eat the marshmallow. I took one called “Buscando a Nemo” which means Finding Nemo, and it had whipped cream and a Marlin m&m and a Nemo m&m. Clever. My favorite shot was the one with Tabasco sauce. FIGURES.

First stop the next day was the Sagrada Familia which is so much more incredible in person than I had ever imagined. This was also expensive admission, but that makes sense since they’re still building it. Project completion is in 2026-2030. I’ll have to see it once it’s done but what’s there is beyond incredible. Like I was absolutely in awe because it is like no other church. How audacious to make a church in such a non-traditional way. Religion was really important to Gaudi though so it wasn’t meant to be whimsical in a mocking way. The thing about Gaudi’s architecture is that even though it is marvelous in the most literal sense of the word, there is a lot of practicality hidden in the whimsy as well. The parabolic structures seem loopy but Gaudi was way smart and he knew all about the acoustics and the lighting that the structures would provide. I was absolutely, absolutely in awe. Definitely one of the best attractions I’ve seen in my tourist activities this semester. Next was Parc Guell, which has even more Gaudi stuff and also his residence. We climbed to the tippy top and had a view of the city, but it was pretty foggy so we could see some structures but we didn’t see the ocean.

For lunch, we walked around the Boqueria, which is a classic open-air market. There was produce, meat, fish, chocolatiers, the works. We basically just walked around and bought things here and there as we saw fit. I bought clementines, mussels, and a little empanada pocket type thing. I loved the fish vendors; seafood is a passion of mine. Morgan and I decided to try dragonfruit because there was a lot of it at most of the produce vendors, but the moment I put a bite of it into my mouth my tongue started tingling. Turns out I’m allergic. The list of allergies is never ending. We walked to the beach next so I could get my feet wet with the Mediterranean. I have always been drawn to water. My mom said even when I was a baby I never wanted to come out of the pool. Point is, I really wanted to get to the Sea, so I did, even though it was freezing. I would have LOVED Barca in the summertime. Afterwards we took a decent siesta and cooked a pasta dinner before we headed out to sample the Barcelona nightlife. I’ve figured out that I like dancing, but I really don’t need to be in heels and surrounded by creepy Spanish men to do it. In fact, I prefer to have neither of those circumstances. It’s all part of being young though so I was not gonna not.

Saturday morning, we got brunch with some old friends and new. My awesome friends from high school Becky and Ada and one of their friends and then a friend we went to Oktoberfest with and her friend and the three of us all went to Brunch and Cake, where we ate brunch, and cake. It was SCRUMPTIOUS and I was so glad to reminisce with the old friends about the glory days of high school. I don’t really miss it but Tenafly High School occupies a piece of my heart. Still have most of our Alma Mater memorized.

SUCH a good trip. Wish I could’ve stayed longer but all the better reason to go back. I think I’ve said that about half the places I visited this semester. Oh well, not gonna not.

You got your passion, you got your pride: Wien, Day 2

First item on the day’s itinerary was Schönbrunn, a Hapsburg summer palace in the Rococo style, which is my favorite because it’s got a lot going on at once. It had wonderful tassels!!! I love tassels. No, I am not a cat. The audio guide tour was pretty bad but the palace itself was really really nice and at least the audio guide was free. We walked around the gardens before taking the tour of the palace and much like Versailles it had a lot of different garden areas with different designs, but as it is not spring or summer, it was mostly green. The Gloriette at the top of the hill overlooking the palace and the city was a wonderful sight. There was a restaurant in it but that was definitely out of our price range. There was a Christmas market outside so we grabbed some lunch and we tried the punsch. I did not like it. Cooked, warm alcohol is so weird.

I ran around trying to find it and much to my disappointment the labyrinth at Schonbrunn was CLOSED. Here’s me showing how disappointed I was.

We had to rush back to the hostel to get changed because we were next headed to the Vienna Philharmonic! While Morgan and I were doing research we came across the Philharmonic and standing room tickets only being €5, we thought we’d try being cultured and stuff. So we got dressed in a flash and ran to the ticket office off the metro, picked up our tickets, ran to Musikverein, got to standing room with only a few minutes to spare. We were not gonna have a good view, but it’s an orchestra and we most importantly were able to hear it. We weren’t the only ones who had to take a seat on the carpeted floor during the performance. Once the intermission came up we got much better spots as they cleared out, which was awesome because I actually knew the last piece they played. Zarathustra! The venue was great and of course the music was world-renowned good.

#culture

We had hoped to get to the Imperial Treasury but it was dark by the time we got out of the orchestra performance so we had to skip that and headed to the Hotel Sacher where they invented the original sacher torte. I tried some hot chocolate with Austrian rum. One more go at warm alcohol. No thanks again. The sacher torte was good, but it’s a simple cake. I’m not saying it’s boring I’m just saying there are only so many ways you can make a chocolate cake with apricot filling taste different than the last chocolate cake with apricot filling, unless you change the recipe.

We went to the Museum Quartier next, which was currently hosting a trade or craft fair where everything was expensive. I learned what precisely up cycling was though so that was good. A little further across the street was another Christmas market, so not gonna not. Looked around some more, then headed to the penultimate cathedral I will see in Europe, St. Stephen. Would you know it, there was another Christmas market. More browsing! We also stopped by a bakery and I learned it was just too early to be buying a sacher torte to bring home. A couple more days and my dad would’ve been scarfing down sacher torte. So sorry, papi!

We headed to a place that Morgan found on Lonely Planet for dinner, a restaurant with its own brews. Dinner was so so yummy. We split ribs and a “farmer’s plate,” which had a variety of classic Austrian things, including but not limited to sausages. The beers were really good too. German speaking countries officially create my favorite beers.

Next morning we just headed to the airport and had a long day of travel. Vienna was one of the top places on my list so even though this trip wasn’t easy for travel or my wallet it was entirely worth it. Definitely on my list of places to see again! If only for some sausage and sacher torte.

Slow down, you crazy child: Wien, Day 1

As I always say, my life is a series of mild disappointments, Paris included. It was only mildly disappointing because I didn’t have the best time but dammit, it’s PARIS. It has also just dawned on me that I’ve never seen Passport to Paris or if I have I don’t remember it at all, and that’s disappointing, kinda. The Olsen twins were RECKLESS and they called their chaperone a foamhead. I’m gonna use that now. And I also just took fifteen minutes from writing this post by watching the movie. Joder, such talent!

But the thing is Vienna was not at all a mild disappointment!!! It was actually a wonderful trip, just me and Morgan, and it was a great follow-up to Paris. We had to sleep in the airport because of our early connecting flight to Munich but coincidentally two other students from ND were headed to Munich on the same flight so somehow it made it better. Our first flight was good, I slept and there was breakfast. One thing I’ve learned about myself on these trips is that I have become uncannily good at waking up the very moment the food cart comes by. After the first time I missed one, my subconscious considered it a call to attention, apparently. I also learned that I will not die eating in flight food. This has been a HUGE step for me. It might also just be that European airlines have better food? Whatever, I’m trying.

Wow, nothing has been said yet about Vienna. Second flight didn’t have food, joder. I slept on that one too though so I was actually not too tired from my total lack of sleep the night before at the airport. Once we took the shuttle from the airport (which has got to be the nicest airport I have EVER been in, and I’m a level 5 jetsetter on Foursquare) to Vienna proper, we had a bit of trouble finding our hostel but it’s fine because we stopped by a bakery and picked up our first slice of Sacher Torte of the trip. It is not the last. We finally found our hostel, which was run by a very nice Austrian woman whom we did not understand. She gave us some very useful maps though.

We headed off to find the Vienna Boys Choir. We knew where they’d be performing but there was no way for us to buy tickets online. We showed up and were just about ready to go in when we found out the tickets were just way too much for us. It would’ve been cool, but Youtube is free! So that was mild disappointment number one.

Outside the church where the Vienna Boys Choir was about to perform. This is me displaying my mild disappointment.

 

We saw a cool cafe nearby the church that they were performing at, and after a little bit of deliberating as to whether or not the place was a tourist trap, we took the bait and went in. Our meal was fantastic, and it turns out it was mildly a tourist trap, but Freud ate their once so that’s cool with me! The highlight was definitely dessert, which was these fluffed pancakes with a stewed plum sauce on the side. ABSOLUTELY delicious. And there was live piano music starting up so I was immensely glad we dropped in.

There were three poufs of (not so great) smoked trout mousse. I was mildly disappointed Caroline wasn’t with us to eat the third, although neither Morgan nor I ate ours.

Next step was the Christmas market. Well, not THE Christmas market, but A Christmas market. This one we went to first was in front of City Hall and the Rathausplatz. The stands were all very vibrant and everyone was drinking punsch from mugs, but we were too tired to try that just yet. We didn’t buy much because the best part of the market was the ornament stands. They were all glass, unfortunately, so we couldn’t buy those. It was so great just walking around and soaking it in. We then headed over to the Naschmarkt, which was apparently only a day market, but it was right near Cafe Drechsler, which is also quite famous, and was recommended by a friend. We tried Viennese wine and had some chilikasewurst and that was dinner. Austrian food is heavy on the sausage, if you didn’t already know. I think I ate about half a serving of fruits or vegetables all weekend. That’s the stuff of life. We had a long day ahead of us and we were pretty tired from the adventure so off to bed. More on this adventure in the next post.

Just LOOK at those Christmas market pastries. Mildly disappointed in myself for not buying one.

L’Agrume

So I really really wanted to eat a cool fancy meal in Paris because I adore French food and so does Morgan so we put our heads together and mustered all that we had and went to Google. Google always knows the way. We found a few prix-fixe joints and after whittling down the list by price and reservation availability for our group, we landed on L’Agrume, for a €45 5-course tasting menu. I had a friend studying abroad in Paris call the restaurant for us and put us down for the party of 5 on the Friday of our trip. This is the only post I will make that’s explicitly foodie-like. Sorry not sorry. I don’t even know much about cuisine anyway; I’m just in it for the eating bit. This is the menu as I recalled it the next day and wrote it down. We had a good white to go with it all. I would’ve liked red but there was a lot of fish. Oh, how seafood gets in the way of things always! It was a French wine OBVS.

1st course: Dorade tartare with lemon and green apple
A little mound of tartare topped with julienned green apple with an oil spruced with lemon at the bottom. The apple was a nice crunchy texture to counter the slickness of the fish in the tartare, which was also a good salty to go with the sourness of the lemon and green apple. Since the fish was pretty smooth, the portion size felt small but it was a good sized portion.

2nd course: Smoked eel and cauliflower soup
Don’t poo-poo it because it has eel and/or cauliflower. The presentation was nice. First came the bowl with the cauliflower and the eel and a few other bits of food I can’t recall, and then the server came back with the soup. The soup was a nice density, not too heavy because this is just a tasting menu, and it was delicately flavored and a perfect amuse bouche. I adore soups as amuse bouche’s. They literally warm up your palate and stomach for the following courses. Yum-o! The cauliflower and eel were smooth and matched well with the soup.

3rd course: John Dory with asparagus in a chicken jus
I’ve never had John Dory before so I don’t know if the amount of salt was right, if the skin could’ve been left on or not, how big the piece of fish should be, but it tasted fine to me and I liked the way it was cook with a nice crisp, no skin. Skin is always risky business. I would have liked more, but that’s because I’m always hungry. Damn tasting menus. The asparagus was cool, and the chicken jus was appropriately salty. This course was nothing spectacular. Plus its fish. Where’s the red meat? ME NEED MEAT.

4th course: Chicken filet with carrot mousse and grapes
This was another course that actually wasn’t too exciting. The mousse worried me because at first I thought it was meant to be a puree, but the menu read mousse so I guess it was okay but I really felt a puree would go better. But I’m always used to having mashed potatoes and the like alongside all my proteins. The mousse was not bad at all but a chicken is a lighter protein so you might as well go heavy with SOMETHING. I don’t think I like savory mousses in general though. I had one in Vienna and it did not go over well. The cooked grapes on the mousse were a nice sweetness along with the carrots against the savoriness of the chicken.

Dessert course: Vanilla whipped cream on a cherry syrup with a tuile crisp and pineapples
The whipped cream was more like a mousse which was great because it wasn’t a savory one! Cherry syrup at the bottom was mega good and the crisp was nice and bittersweet. The sour of the pineapples and cherry, the bitter of the crisp, the fluffy texture of the cream, all made for a wonderful dessert.

Ugh, this whole post was so pretentious. How relieved I am to be done. And hungry. I’m gonna go eat now.

Paris holds the key

Paris is a wonderful city but I can’t say this was anywhere near my favorite trip. I’ll just leave it at having really high expectations and being very disappointed with my experience. I wish I could say all of it was amazing, but at the very least I have all the more reason to go back. And I WILL go back because I must practice my french, which I learned is absolutely dreadful after being in Spain for 3 months. To spare you the low’s, here are the high’s of my weekend in Paris, because even when you can’t, you’ll find you’ll can-can. Oh, Paris.

I spent Thursday in Madrid with friends from high school also studying in Spain. It’s pretty much a cliche to study in Spain for us Tenafly students. Lunch was casual, and then to kill time I went to the Reina Sofía museum. Oh dear god, I loathe modern art. Got to see Guernica though so I guess that was cool. I also took a nap until a security guard rudely woke me up and said I couldn’t do that.

I had dinner with the same friend as last Saturday and then I headed to the airport to spend the night. It was cold and uncomfortable so I hardly slept three hours. Airport living is so hard! The flight was just fine and I slept for a bit of that. Pro tip: sleep every moment you can because you will have to deprive yourself at moments like this.

We got to Paris from Charles de Gaulle just fine, but our hostel was having an issue where they couldn’t keep us and sent us to a different hostel. This one was absolutely disgusting so I actually spent late Friday night before bed trying to arrange somewhere else. I did most all of this in English. You will get away with a lot of English in Europe.

First order of business after checking in to our hostel was to get lunch. We found this cute like gourmet deli type thing, we each got a plat and ate a third of each. SO GOOD. We stopped at a pastry shop and got a few things. The displays are so tantalizing. We headed to Galeries Lafayette for a fashion show we had reservations for. It wasn’t any good at all but we did get in a lot of browsing. No purchasing because my Lord was it expensive. Might as well go to Bloomingdales. Which I will. TWO WEEKS TIL IM HOME, BABY.

Next was the Arc de Triomphe where I think is probably the best view of Paris because it includes the Eiffel Tower. Climbing to the top was, like most physical activity for me, a chore. But well worth it. We walked down the Champs-Elysées and did a lot of browsing and picked up a gift or two. After all the fancy shops was the Christmas market so we browsed and shopped some more before rushing over to our dinner reservation. We met up with the rest of our group then and enjoyed a pleasant meal.

We spent an hour and a half looking for a river tour but it was way late. Our search did send us to the Eiffel Tower though so we got to see if as it sparkled. We got back to the hostel, I dealt with the arrangements and we were to be moved for the following night, much too tired to do anything that night. It did make for a late start the next day but the new hostel was much much better.

But we had all the daylight for our trip to Versailles. It was an absolutely incredible sight and museum and the gardens were really cool. Since it wasn’t spring, though, the gardens weren’t more than grass and hedges so without flowers to see, we didn’t spend too much time outside in the cold. I did pick up some vin chaud while we were walking and I didn’t really like it because it tasted like a candle, or like walking into a craft store.

We made the obligatory stop at Notre Dame once we got back to Paris and it was a pretty quick go. We scrambled next to find some dinner but we ended up getting pastries instead because we were early. Our metro passes worked for the whole day so we were free to run around the city. We stopped by a chocolatier before dinner as well. ALL THE SWEETS.

Dinner was at a casual restaurant down a cool looking alley and we all enjoyed our meal. The wine was good and we had a cheese plate, how very French of us. After we headed to the Seine to finally get our boat tour, and we took in some great views of the city. Ah, Paris.

Next day we hit up the Christmas market for some last minute gifts, the Louvre but just to see the pyramids, we did not have the time to do a proper museum outing, and although we didn’t make it to Chipotle, we had to get to the airport for our flight home. Security confiscated my face wash and lotion, even though it has gotten through security everywhere else. Sigh.

Can’t wait to go back to Paris one day! Hopefully without a budget. I could’ve eaten a lot more.