All posts filed under: Europe

5 Things You Need to Eat in Northern Spain

  Jamón Jamón, it’s Spain’s equivalent of proscuitto. Except that I think I like Jamón  better. Where the south of Spain has olive trees, the north is blanketed by oak. The fruit of an oak tree of course is an acorn. In a type of if-life-hands-you-lemons-make-lemonade sentiment, acorns are fed to hogs which produce jamon. The degree to which acorn mae up a swine’s diet dicatates the quality of the jamón. Subsisting on pure acorn meal is the difference between 7 euro per kilogram and 100 euro. Charcuterie enthusiasts will delight; jamón is found on most menus and even hotel breakfast buffets. Cabrales Calabres is a strong flavoured blue cheese specific to Asturias. It is aged for 2-5 months in natural limestone caves. Eat with a cracker or baguette, topped with fruit preserve. Tapas Tapas bars are a foodie’s playground and the presentation, a photographer’s muse. Tapas in Santiago de Compostela was heavy on seafood and shellfish. My favourite? Creamy crab salads piled high on toasted baguette topped with slices of dill pickle. Asturian Cider Drop every notion …

48 Hours to France

Destination: Paris I’m hopping the pond back to Europa in two days. I’ll be an unofficial guide for my parents in the City of Lights. At just 9 days, this will be my shortest international trip. I’ve never been to Europe for less than 4 months, and generally speaking, have never travelled internationally for less than 3-1/2 months. So naturally I’m preoccupied with being fashionable.  As I’ve been to Paris twice before, I’m challenging myself to do the things I’ve failed to see thusfar. This includes: Vimy Ridge, a Moulin Rouge show, combing through Porte de Clignancourt (the city’s largest flea market) and Pere Lachaise Cemetery (resting place of Jim Morrison). We happen to be arriving on May 1 (aka May Day) which is a widely observed holiday in Europe. Translation: not a hell of a lot will be open, save the Eiffel Tower. I’m also very much looking forward to seeing some old friends. I’m so lucky to have good ones who will travel to meet up with me! Just like my last trip, …

I Don’t Get It: Hand-Holding Cyclists

On multiple occasions I’ve seen couples (of all ages) cycling next to one another, holding hands. 1. I would never see this in Canada. Then again, people there rarely ride bicycles let alone in Prince George. Could you imagine if one of them went to swerve a pothole? 1.5 A more pressing question is, is this remotely possible in Amsterdam? (Reference my last post.) I can just see it now: ‘Couples Dies in Tragic Death-By-Tram Accident.’ 2. These couples must be head-over-heels, this is hardly a casual act. I’m imagining that classic scene where the a couple sits in a movie theatre and He yawn/stretches and whoops! His arm is around his lady friend. There’s no whoops-I-swerved-in-close-enough-and-caught-your-hand, gotcha! No sir, this is a mutually executed display of affection. 3. Do they get extra points for going further distances? Nonetheless, very sweet I suppose.

My Apologies! I Know I’ve Been AWOL Lately

 I was too exhausted to even try to order food in German and just sat at a table and tried to stay awake long enough for my food to arrive. Best doener of my life. I probably ended up spilling ¼ of it and made a terrible mess, rather fitting for the hot mess I had become. I know, I know, I know!  I’ve been totally AWOL in the last little while.  For about a week and a half I sincerely did not have much to write about or was just lacking inspiration.  Plus, the weather was grey and depressing, sigh. And then things got a little busy and then well…this weekend “happened.”  Quotations are denoting the magnitude of my ‘night’ in HanGover. Good lord. I’ve run into quite the posse of fantastic people in Hanover.  Networking through facebook, ex-patriot social sites, friends of friends, we have created quite the conglomerate of international young adults. Most of us girls are au pairs, with the exception being Lorna, now an ex-au-pair but dating a great German guy and …

I’m an Expat and I can’t Stop Thinking About German Packages

…I mean packaging…portions. Within the first few days of commencing my au pair duties here in Germany, I went grocery shopping with HostdDad. My primary observation was the packaging of foodstuff. Had I eaten a slice of Dutch Space cake that had caused me to grow, and subsequently my environment to shrink? [http://www.amsterdamlogue.com/space-cakes-a-5-hour-mental-party.html] Rice in 500 gram packages…Muesli, 1/4 the size of a generic Canadian box of cereal, milk sold (only) by the litre. Why? Was there literally less shelf space in European grocery stores? Had Ikea placed a quota on the size of refrigerators?  Or is this a relic of a world war- a former strategy for rationing food? With an arsenal of unanswered questions, I was later confronted with some very conflicting observations. A couple days later HostDad served me an Erdinger Weissbier dinner.  What a legitimate beer. “Okay, the rice is sold in 500 gram packages and this bottle of beer is at least twice the size of a Canadian beer. Passing judgement, I can conclude that at least Germans have their …