Belated Halloween

 

 
Since we have two friends in London with birthdays on the 29th of October we decided to have our Halloween party the weekend after instead - which also happened to be the 5th of November (Guy Fawkes day). They celebrate that here in London by setting off lots of fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes. Totally normal.

The other thing we learned when throwing a Halloween party here is that you have to have a theme. Just saying, "Halloween" won't do. So our theme was ANIMAL. I went as a mounted trophy of a lion's head and Jefferson went as the hunter that shot me. It was a fun but mellow night and next year we need to get the pub crawl part of the night going again. Feast your eyes on these lovely animal pics...

Yummy spread!

Decor

Decorations

Lots of poses with the wall trophy...

 
And probably my favorite pic of the night - it looks like our friend Matt is saying something just amazing and poetic about this dip he's eating - and we're all listening very intently.

Granada, Spain

Last week I traveled to Granada, Spain with our friend Steve while Jefferson traveled to Denmark for work. It was a really fun trip and not just because - but mostly because - when you buy a drink they bring free food to your face ("tapas"). It's an amazing thing to experience. Every drink comes with a small to medium size food at no additional cost.


Some of the foods were really good - cheese, paella, pork, choroizo - and all were served with bread. These people like their carbs. The moment I got into town I met Steve at a Taberna and upon ordering a beer was given a plate of most delicious paella:

First free tapas, NOM

We also did a private tour of the Alhambra - which is a famous palace and fortress complex. We walked around it on our tour for about three hours and learned a lot. For instance, they don't know where the name "Alhambra" came from but they do know it means, "the red one" and the very first Muslim ruler to build up the Alhambra was, in fact, a ginger (red head) by the name of Mohammed. Amazing! So it could have been a reference to him - but much like Stonehenge, they have no idea. Here are just a few of the amazing things found in and around Alhambra - including a beautiful view of the Sierra Nevada mountains (see last pic way below).

 

 
















Steve and I walked all over Granada - to parts most tourists don't go, parts lots of tourists go to, pretty much just picking a direction and going that way for a while then deciding to turn when it suited us. Which is how we found donut shop named Moopies (yes, I ate a donut), a free set of workout equipment in a park, and the strangest shaped eggplant ever.

  

Sierra Nevada mountains behind us!

Meine Schwester Stacey

That means, "my sister" in German.

A few weeks ago Jefferson and I traveled to Berlin to visit our friend Rob. We were at the tail end of bad head colds so we didn't go too crazy but we had a great time. The first night in I got there earlier than Jefferson so Rob took me to an indoor street food market that was DELICIOUS. We had some craft beers, some pork belly bao, shared some raclette (cheese) and then had some ice cream to top it off. On our way to this market we passed a restaurant called, "Rocco and his brother" - see below - ha!

It's starting to become a trend for Jefferson and I to visit botanical garden's when we travel and the one in Berlin is supposed to be one of the top in the world! I don't know who decided that but it was pretty. We also went to visit the East Side Gallery which I liked a lot more than I expected. The "gallery" is a long portion of the Berlin Wall still intact and painted on the front side by artists and the back side by anyone who wants to graffiti it I guess. Here are the two pics of art/graffiti on the wall that I liked best.

From my Sup Gurl chronicles

Cute panda!

      

 After that my sister, Stacey, came to visit for a week and a half and we had a fantastic time! Super relaxed and super fun. I did make her walk a LOT but we saw some cool things and I even got her to play Pokemon Go for a hot second (she was thrilled, I tell you). Pokemon was second only to how much she loved me making her do a Snapchat photo each morning - mua ha ha - check these out:

We visited this Ramen restaurant that gives you hair ties and bibs - which are really quite helpful.

Duck Face!

Terrifying Bunnies

     

Poor Stacey now knows my neighborhood very well but that could be because she had to go to the Dentist with me THREE times while she was here. THREE. Imagine me putting one fist in the air and shaking it with an angry expression and yelling, "SMIIIITTTTTA!" That's what I do a lot now - and that is the name of my dentist. I got a temporary crown just before Stacey got to town and it fell out twice while she was here. Very exciting stuff. I'm on a more permanent but still temporary one and I've kept all my teeth in my mouth for one week as of today. WOO!  Gotta have goals.

It was an awesome trip and right after Stacey headed back to the states, I headed to Spain with our friend Steve and Jefferson went to Denmark for work, per usual. More on Spain in a bit...

Oktoberfest in Hagenbrunn!

   

Lederhosen nutella!

Oktoberfest dress!

Strutting their stuff

  

Backyard BBQ!

Last weekend was Oktoberfest and we spent it in Hagenbrunn (just outside of Vienna) with Rene and Frank. I love love love visiting them and it's not just because they home cook the most beautiful and tasty meals, or because you can walk three minutes down the to Schmidt (a traditional Heuriger where you can eat scumptious pork and drink delicious wines), and NOT because they have a pool and an outdoor BBQ area and .... wait, yes. It IS for all those reasons that I love to visit. Indeed.

Delicious piggies.

Jefferson borrowed some lederhosen and I bought a traditional dirndl so we were dressed in style and it was tons of fun.

There was a cover band and for some reason Rene and I decided that since the only American song they usually play is "Country Roads" then we absolutely must request it - for I am from America (nevermind that I am not from West Virginia - NEVER YOU MIND). So we danced our way to the stage and requested it and they made an announcement that I was from Chicago so everyone turned to me and clapped and then they played that song for me. Hilarious.

We escaped!

You know those escape rooms? Where you have to figure out puzzles and find clues in order to get out of the room? Well we were locked in one for my birthday (thanks to the Wilds!), and we had a zombie in ours. We were led into the room with no zombie in it and about a minute later she burst through one of the closet doors and made everyone squeal like ninnies. Every five minutes the zombie would be let out further on her chain so she could get closer to us. If the zombie touches you - you're out (dead/infected = have to stand against the wall in shame).

We all survived - and we escaped! Sarah Wild wins for best zombie distraction. Ruth, Jefferson and Cat win for taking the lead on figuring out clues. I win for it being my birthday. I was the one to open the door at the end, but only because someone shoved the key at me and screamed OPEN THE DOOR! And yes, at first I tried to open the wrong door - how was I to know? One funny part was that there were two people in there with us (strangers to us) that stayed in the corner furthest from the zombie the whole time because they were scared. They know it's fake, right? I'm not sure they did.

We had zero casualties and escaped in really good time (which I can't remember right now). Woot!

We also had some visitors recently - Fell and Art! We all went on the London Loo tour together - and yes, that is a tour all about toilets. We only went into one toilet together (and it was impressive), but we learned a TON about the history of toilets and plumbing in London. Did you know when they first made public toilets they only made them for men? Because women don't do that stuff. RUDE.

At the Jubil-loo

Underground Ur-RYE-nal that rises up at night!

We also learned that the first sewer system made in London (~1858) was made by taking over part of the Thames - and is still in use today. Which means it was a system built for a lot fewer people - and that is why when it rains too much those same sewers overflow and go straight into the Thames. I told you that water was gross and not to be touched.  I now know where you can go potty in a pinch all over downtown London and for that alone the tour was worth it.

Art cooling off Fell in the black cab

Riding around town.

We are currently in the happiest place on earth: Rene and Frank's outside of Vienna. We had both lunch and dinner at Schmidt yesterday (winery just down the road), went for a dip in the pool, walked around the tiny town and fields of grapes - and this weekend we'll go to Oktoberfest here - woohoo!

Abe Lincoln + Regrets, Scotland and Helsinki

Oh hello there. To start, I found THIS gem sitting near a dumpster in our neighborhood and took a picture thinking, "oh that will be mine on our way back from dinner!" And I would have done it too, but someone already claimed this slightly soiled masterpiece and I regret that I did not hide it when I first found it. REGRETS.
  

Speaking of that dinner - we had my birthday dinner at Bubble Dogs - which is a restaurant that serves hot dogs and champagne. NOM NOM NOM. It was glorious.

Anywho - we've been traveling again! This time we did a whirlwind trip to Scotland with the Shmoo's and Tony and it was awesome. We took the train to Edinburgh to meet up with everyone and then our fabulous driver, Charlie, took us from there to Isle of Skye, Highlander castle, Inverness, and back to Edinburgh by way of scotch and Scottish beer drinking. Charlie was an awesome guide and really warmed up to us - even agreeing to an extra day of taking us around, showing us his wife's knitting (she's really good) and sending Jefferson a text to thank us for the fun trip. What a great guy!

 

Edrador Distillery Tour!

Tony & The Shmoos

We walked up the William Wallace monument in Stirling, Scotland (this was a lot of steps and I didn't like that part one bit), which also happened to be a Pokemon Go "Gym" - for those not familiar it's a place where you can battle your Pokemon against other people's. Jefferson and I took the Gym over and then some little kid at the top of the monument told us that he was going to battle us and NOT take it easy on me. Here's a picture of him being a sore loser in the background and us being victorious (but in the end, he won - darnit).

See that little kid in the corner?

Bernard makes an appearance.

CHEESE! and Charlie

Birthday dranks.

Me + Scottish hairy cows!

The gang outside our Edinburgh hotel.

After Scotland we flew over to Helsinki for the weekend with the Wild's. It was a cool little city but very, very expensive. Stupid expensive. We walked all over the city - saw lots of markets, shops, famous buildings - but one of the coolest parts was visiting the botanical garden. Who knew I was even into that? Well I was this time and the lily pads were awesome looking:

Super cool lily pads.

Per usual we tried some Mexican food whilst in another country and let me tell you that Finland does NOT rank high on the "tastes good/decent" scale. Shudder. Fear not, friends - Jefferson still makes me a vat of beans with all the right spices (brought from the US) - so I am doing just fine. Great even.

Denmark, land of Hansens

Jefferson cut my hair. Is it straight? Absolutely not. To quote Jefferson, it is asymmetrical and edgy. Did he do that on purpose? Absolutely not. I still like it, though.

      

I also took my first trip - woo! I met up with Jefferson in Billund, Denmark and we did a road trip over the weekend to Copenhagen, Odense and then back to Billund. Ever wondered what an open closed pizza was? ME TOO. And now I know. It's a calzone with a cut open down the middle. It did not taste good. Actually, besides breakfast, the food in Denmark isn't so great. We met up with our friend Britta and she showed us around Copenhagen where she lives (in the coolest apartment ever) and she did introduce us to creamy balls - a popular Danish dessert. They are usually chocolate covered (dark chocolate, white or milk), filled with marshmallow and the base is marzipan. They were fun to eat but I bit in wrong and got it all over my face. Jefferson got it on his face in solidarity.

    

The wrong way to eat a cream ball.

Solidarity, sister.

   

    

Much to our surprise, we also found the best Mexican food that we've eaten outside of the Americas. It was a family owned restaurant in Vejle that had great service, tasty beans and the only place we went to that gave us tap water for free. Thumbs up. Plus we tried an assortment of Danish beers and although most were too hoppy for my liking, it's always fun to try the local stuff.

Danish beers

 The best part of Denmark was going to Legoland together. I went three times during this trip - once by myself (fun but kinda boring), once with Jefferson (SO fun) and once with our friend Aya (also really fun and got to see way more of the park with her). It's a much bigger park than I expected and a lot more fun for an adult than I would have thought.

At Legoland replica of Nyhavn...

At the real Nyhavn!

 

Best mirror maze EVER.

 












Lego totally suckered me into buying stuff I really don't need. They have these little mystery bags that you can buy - each one has one dressed up Lego figurine in it but you don't know who you'll get until you open the package. The Disney figures just came out and they had a picture of Maleficent so I had to try to get her. I'm not a huge Disney fan, but Maleficent has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. Jefferson and I got three packs (cheaper to buy in bulk) and didn't get her, but found out from the cashier lady that there are stands of figures at every cash register and each employee has a figure on their nametag - and you are allowed to swap out any figure you have for one you see and they HAVE to give it to you. MUA HA HA. So we did that but still didn't find Maleficent until...I was waiting for Aya at one of the shops and decided to feel out all 40 Disney packages at one of the counters until I felt was probably her - and I was right. Phew - no more need to spend money on silly Legos I don't need. But man they are cute.
    
In Odense we went to Hans Christian Anderson's childhood home and museum and found out a lot more about that guy than I knew before. He led a pretty lonely life but then found fame and friends later in life - so he had a happy ending. I never realized how many classic fairy tales he wrote beyond the Little Mermaid (The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea, etc.).

At Hamlet's castle!

      
For some reason I lost a lot of things in Denmark but got them all back. My first day at Legoland I lost my hat - but got it back from their lost-and-found on my second visit. I left my credit card in their machine when paying for those dang figures, but the lady ran after me and returned it. And then I left my phone at the airline counter but luckily the Billund airport is teeny tiny and the security guard knew it was mine since I was the only person in line. Sometimes I wonder how I function by myself...SQUIRREL.

There was a bug. I swear.

Posing with cute hairy cows!