Tarragona Spain and Human Towers

July 2 -

Abi and I caught a train from Quiberon, France to Paris and then an overnight train to Barcelona.  One thing I learned in Paris:  It is much cheaper to ask a cab driver " will you take me to here for this much?"  Rather than going by the meter.  We were only in Paris for about 4 hours but in the two rides we took, same distance,  we paid less than half for the second ride than the first.  We both had pasta carbonara for dinner, a spaghetti with a creamy white sauce and an egg on top.  I am still loving the French use of eggs.

July 3 - 

When we arrived in Barcelona, we met up with our cousin Hannah and her

Spanish friend Mireia. Hannah lives in Park City, Utah and plays lacrosse.  While playing lacrosse in Park City she met Mireia, who was introduced to us as Middy, what she went by when living and going to high school in Utah.  It seems like a popular thing to do in her town of Tarragona, Spain to spend a year of high school in an American town.  

Once introduced we caught another train from Barcelona to Tarragona where Middy's dad picked us up.  Their family was so welcoming to us... and not to mention their cooking!  That night for dinner her father made salad, salmon, and "Catalon Toast" (this is the name that comes up for it on google.) This makes sense because the region of Spain Tarragona is in is called Catalonia.  Here they speak Catalon - not Spanish.  I love this toast!  We had it with almost every meal.  You simply take a piece of toast and slice a tomato in half and rub the tomato on the toast leaving tomato juice on the toast and add some olive oil.  I LOVE tomatoes! Shout out to my neighbor Fred who grows delicious tomatoes and strawberries.

Later, we sat outside, took some funny pictures and played with the Chinese yoyo.

Here are some cutes picture of Middy's dogs and cat, just because:

July 4 - 

We slept and slept and slept then woke up, had cereal and slept some more, woke up and watched a movie then had a late lunch with Middy and some of her friends.  The town is small, everybody knows everybody. While we were eating there must have been at least 20 of Middy's friends who ran into us, most sat and talked. We then went to a basketball game and saw again, many of the same friends we had met earlier.  When we got back to Middy's house her dad was cooking up some Seafood Paella - with crawfish,  mussels, clams, and shrimp.  Yum!  I have never tried mussels or clams before - I am so glad I did!  I will defiantly be making this again when I am home.

This night we went out to watch Middy's human towers practice at about 10:30 pm.  I will include some pictures I took of this practice, but please go to google images and look at some professional photos of this cultural sport.  This sport has been around for centuries.  It originated in her town with only two teams.  She is on one of two original teams.  Surrounding areas have now created some others.  She explained to us it is a very emotional sport.  The whole town is packed so closely together creating a beautiful tower - she said during competitions most everybody starts to cry.  Do yourself a favor and watch some youtube videos and look up some images.  It really is incredible.

July 5 - 

Today we slept late, again. When in Spain, do as the spanish do. Sleep late, party late.  Then went to the pool and enjoyed the end of the Argentina and the Netherlands world cup game.  This was our last day in Spain and the next morning Abi and I were starting our journey to Karlovy Vary.

Unfortunately, all of my videos and most of my pictures from our few days in Spain were erased, most of these photos are Hannah's or Abi's.  So no vlog to go along with this post.  Also, I am trying hard to catch up with my blogging to date.

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Thank you!!

Paige

Small French Islands and Small French Cars

June 27 -

We woke up in Lorient had breakfast at the Hostel, typical French style - juice, coffee, yogurt, croissants and jam.  

We then headed to the train station to catch our train to Auray, bus to Quiberon, and ferry to Belle Isle.

We had a picnic on the seawall when we arrived:

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  We found our way to the hostel, which we loved but also think it must be advertised in a hiking France for seniors book somewhere because we were pretty much the only people near our age other than Holly, our new Scottish friend who worked there at the time.  For dinner we utilized the large kitchen and made a shrimp pasta.  We bought some pre-seasoned shrimp, Farfalle pasta, butter, Parmesan cheese, and pepper, mixed it all up and served with a baguette.

June 28 -

We decided to rent a car for the day to get a chance to see the whole island, only about 10.5 by 5.5 miles.  We could have no doubt biked around the island, many people hike it.  (people over the age of 70 I might add) but it was rainy and we were feeling a bit lazy.  We we tried speaking to the car rental people - who you might think would speak English but on an Island this small it was less common to find an English speaker.  A very nice woman helped us find a car to rent because we were not 21, the age the company states you have to be to rent from them.. Nonetheless, she called a couple people and  even for a discount, offered us a car.  A very special car.    It was an old, dented, stickers scratched off the back, creaky, broken door, Twingo.  But we took it!  When we got in the car and realized it was a manual, our plan was to drive smoothly off the lot and figure out how to drive it around the corner, as I have no idea and zero experience with stickshift, and Abi with only a short amount of practice.  No other car was avalible for the 17 year old American girls to rent, so...  After stalling about 4 times the cute french guy, with very twisted ideas of the safety of a New York City subway at night...  tried to teach me how to drive.  Still, not making it out of the lot without stalling the older French man with an earring got in the car and taught me how to drive manual like a pro with zero English other than the words "stop" and "slowly".  YAY!  and we were off!  We thought we were headed out of the city, Le Palais, until somehow we got turned around and ended up right back where we were and stalled.  As we stalled, two cars stopped behind us.  Abi waved them around and the French man with the earring got out of his car and knocked on the window.  Very embarrassing.  Once we assured him we knew how to drive we were off again!

We had such a nice day driving around the island, we stopped in Sauzon for lunch.  We shared what I think is called "Croque"but when I Google it, it comes up looking like the right thing but as a sandwich?  Toasted bread, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, big slices of brie, and some some spices.  yumyumyum. 

 Then we picked up some candy from a small candy shop, then to a bakery for road snacks for the day.  Wayyy to much food.  

We continued to drive around then returned the car after several kind locals helped us reverse the car when we needed.  Once again I must crush the stereotype of the French being rude or stuck up.  Not one bit.  When we got back to the car lot there was another man who spoke some English also returning his rental car (most vacationers who vacation on Belle Isle are French it seemed.)  This man translated for us a little bit with the man who taught us to drive a manual car.  I was very happy to find out he thought we were fun to teach rather than annoying or slow.  We went back to the hostel and sat at the bar and chatted with Holly.

My drink of choice while on Belle Isle:

June 29 -

We went to the beach with Holly and finished the candy from the day before.

Then we walked around town, all three of us got matching Celtic bracelets.  

It was so interesting talking to Holly in the same language and not being able to understand each other sometimes.  There is much slang that is used in the U.S. that is not used in Scotland and much slang used in Scotland that is not used in the U.S.... also the way the Scottish pronounce girl is "gettel" and we pronounce it "gurl".  We LOVED her accent.  Our conversations about Scottish vs. American English reminded me of a U.S.A. dialect quiz my friend Rebecca, who is awesome and from New Jersey shared with me.  It shows how different people from different parts of the U.S. can speak.  check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

June 30 -

We went into town in search for a large breakfast to a heartbreaking discovery, after three restaurants that the largest breakfast you can find in France is Coffee and croissants - I had to explain to a very nice, confused Frenchman, as we walked away from the sad display of the 'breakfast buffet' "We are Americans, we need a big breakfast!".  We ended up having coffee and bread outside at a restaurant on the harbor - my dad's perfect breakfast.  

We then went to the grocery store and picked up some eggs, bread, sausage, potatoes, onions and milk and juice - for a real American breakfast.  

By the time we made it back up the hill to the hostel, made breakfast, and ate breakfast it was almost noon, and at one we were meeting Holly, and the English girl, Makayla, who would be taking her place, and Holly's French friend Chlem who worked at the hostel before Holly did and lived on Belle Isle for

lunch.  Obviously we were stuffed when we got to the restaurant we ordered a pizza to share barley being able to eat anything. Chlem recommended a Brittany (the region of France Belle Isle belonged to) traditional pizza.  Very unfortunatly the name of the pizza I can not remember but It was a different kind of ham I had never seen before and an egg in the middle.

Again we spent the evening in the hostel bar.  Holly was showing Makayla what was what and we played connect four and Chlem played Frozen soundtracks in French - so cute!

Holly left early the next morning back to Scotland then the Spain to teach English to Spanish children (a quick moment to acknowledge how cool Holly is, she can speak English, French, Spanish and German!!!)  

July 1-

Lazy Day - 

For late breakfast/ lunch: Crepes

For dinner: We made my mom's famous egg noodles! (pasta, with butter, parmesan, egg and pepper).

July 2 -

Ferries and buses and trains to Barcelona!

Paige

An American Student in London

June 23 - My sister and I biked along the River Thames through the park to the school she will be attending in the fall.  Richmond, the American University in London.   We picked up some rolls and croissants, and sandwich makings.  We had a picnic in the park and it was beautiful.  Just from our bike ride I can see why she wants to go to school there..  

We biked around the school then headed back to catch our ferry from Portsmouth to St. Malo.

June 24 - When we arrived in St. Malo we sent a large amount of things home - we way over packed.

Next, we caught a train to Pontorson, France where we would then bike to our bed and breakfast near Mont Saint-Michel.  We met two guys who were very interested in our folding bikes...  They were also biking around Europe.  We have found that the bikes are a great conversation starter for us meeting other travelers.  Specifically biking travelers.

June 25 - morning we biked into town and had two crepes for a late breakfast/ early lunch..  We both had an egg, ham, and cheese crepe as well as a Nutella crepe.  They were soooo very delicious, I wish I would have taken a photo.... I will have to look into crepe cookery gear for my apartment when I get back to the States and move to Texas.  I love the way the french plop an egg on the top of some foods, such as pizza and crepes, and serve it nearly uncooked.

We biked to Mont Saint-Michel and glad we had bikes, or it would have been a very long walk.  There were honestly miles of sheep around the mont.  Beautiful.

When we headed back into to town we found an even more beautiful, quiet, and quick, way back into Pontorson, where our train left from.

Our train took us into Lorient, were we stayed for a couple nights.  The first night we missed dinner all together because it gets dark so late here in the summer we did not realize how late it was when we finally left the hotel.  So we ended up picking up some sandwiches from this large/store vending machine.   Pretty cool.

One night, we went out for pizza, and after we shared a pizza ended up ordering three desserts;  passion les glaciers (I am pretty sure interchangeable with gelato.), a banana split and chocolate mousse.  All were great!!

June 26 - We met several very kind people during our time in Lorient.  FOR THE RECORD:  The French are very kind, not to mention beautiful, attractive people.  Our hostel/hotel was right on the harbor, riding our bikes around the area was so fun!!

I'll post again soon!

Vlog from last blog post...

Paige