Goodbye Europe, Hello Thailand

We ended our Europe trip with a nice dinner in Budapest near our Apartment. It was a bittersweet moment, saying goodbye to our European Adventure and hello to our new adventure, Southeast Asia.

We went out for one last dinner in Budapest to end our European Adventure.

I got Goose Liver soup, it was great!

Pork Knuckle for my entree...cold pork knuckles are NO good.

We landed in Bangkok at 3:30 AM, set for our hotel in China town (yes, there is a China Town in Bangkok oddly enough).

Our flight from Budapest to Kiev, Ukraine was on this! Sarah was not happy, I was even a little sketched out.

We had a brilliant view from our room on the 6th floor...Ahhh, Bangkok.

We slept in the next day tired, but excited to meet up with my childhood friend Matt Budd-Thanos. We hopped in a tuk tuk and managed to find Matty's Hotel, even though the driver didn't speak a word of English.

Back of a Tuk Tuk trying to navigate how to get to BT's hotel.

We were happy to see a friendly face from home after nearly 2 months on the road. We then went to the infamous Khao San Road, the main backpacker street in Southeast Asia. All backpackers find themselves on this road at sometime in their trip. We went to a rooftop bar where we had nice views of Khao San.

Khao San Road

That night we spent listening to music, dancing, and meeting some new Thai friends.

The following morning was by far one of the most painful of the trip. Jetlagged, tired, and a little "sick", we were up at 6 am to catch a train to Surat Thani, where we would change to a bus and ferry that would take us to Koh Samui. The trains were actually pretty nice, we were in an air conditioned 2nd class cabin, and the seats reclined sufficiently so that we could rest. The bathrooms, on the other hand, were not up to par. Lets just say a hole in the ground, where you can see the train tracks going by under you is not normal for us. Needless to say, we tried to drink as little water as possible on that train ride.

We spent the night in Surat Thani, before heading out on a bus the next morning and a ferry to Koh Samui. We landed in Koh Samui, hopped in the back of a truck, and were on our way to our hotel to meet up with Matt and our other two friends, Brett and Brooke. That night was amazing. We went to Arkbar for dinner, a sit down beach restaurant, total cost, $8. We even sent off our own Lantern!

It's good luck to light one of these and send it off

From there we proceeded to the main strip of bars and clubs on Samui, ending at Green Mango, the biggest club on the island. It was a night filled with dancing and meeting people from all walks of life. The only proper way to end the night was a late night swim session in the ocean at 3 AM. The water as warm as a hot tub, and you can walk literally a hundred yards out and still only be knee deep, its amazing.

Koh Samui main strip, typical Thailand

The next day was a slow one, spent by the hotel pool, and the beach...until we decided to go to Soccer Golf that night. Yes, soccer golf. What is it? Essentially an 18 hole golf course, where instead of using clubs, you use a soccer ball. Great time, and Matt BT shattered the American Record and got his name on the board!

With Brett, Brooke, Matt BT, and our new friends from SF

Of course BT destroys the current American record of 75 and puts up a 58.

After that we stumbled onto a night market where they were serving all kinds of street food. Matt BT and Brett Reeves braved the Pig Heart Stir Fry, while Sarah and I had the Chicken Stir Fry. I know what you think, but this Chicken Stir fry was the spiciest thing I have eaten here, and it burned. The best thing I ate where these little pancake things that came with marsh mellow and a coconut shaving topping. They were ridiculously good.

Best dessert I have had in Asia...I ate the whole thing

The next day we packed up and headed to Koh Phanang, an island just north of Samui. The resort we booked is absolutely gorgeous. Situated right on the beach, with a pool overlooking the ocean, 2 bars and a restaurant, we could not be happier. We are staying in little bungalows in the jungle, and spend the days playing beach volleyball, ping pong, swimming, and reading. For 29 bucks a night, it includes breakfast, and the food is fantastic. This is exactly what I imagined when I thought of Thailand.

Our Bungalows in the Jungle.

Pool

My new "office"...where I blogged this post.

Tonight we are headed to one of Phanang's infamous parties, the Half Moon Party. Then in a few days we will head to the island of Kho Tao, and then soon off to Bali, Indonesia. Take care, we miss you all!

Doner Love

This is by far my favorite food across Europe. It is of Turkish origin and is essentially lamb with veggies and yogurt/spicy sauce in pita bread. You can get these at home but they just dont compare to here. At 3 bucks, this can't be beat. They make them differently in every country, but here is a standard picture of what one should look like.

Yum

BUDA-PESHT

Szia (pronounced See ya, means hello) from Budapest, Hungary!

We arrived in Budapest on Tuesday by train from Prague that took about 7 hours. I forgot how nice it was to train ride through Europe. The big cabins make it easy to play cards, listen to music, and chat. The 7 hour train ride was easier than some 2 hour flights that we have taken. Our "host" met us at the train station and took us to our apartment rental. This is what 35 bucks a night gets you in Hungary.

View from our bedroom, Parliament district

Kitchen

Living Room looking into the Bedroom

On Wednesday we did a general free walking tour of the city, and then went wine tasting at a 12th century wine cellar at the Kings Palace that was used by the king back in the day. It was an amazing trip back in time, tasting in the room where the king used to store his wine.

WW2 memorial. Jews were taken here, bound together with 2 other people, shot (to save ammunition costs) and then dumped into the river. Shoes represent where they stood. Many of the last people in the line-up lived and untied themselves to tell the story. They found about 20 skeletons in the Danube in 2009 when they were renovating a bridge, all Jews that were killed like this.

The Kings Cellar

Wine tasting in the 12th century cellar

After, we went to an American pub in our neighborhood called "Cheers" where, oddly, we befriended a group of Hungarians and ended up spending the night out with them. They introduced us to the national Hungarian spirit called Palinka, which can only be made with Hungarian fruit and has to LEGALLY be 37.5% alcohol or more (many range into the 70% range). This stuff burns, but was a great Hungarian tradition and what better way to do it than with the locals!

Palinka Shots!

The next day we went to the largest open air market in Budapest and tried some authentic Hungarian food. I got a traditional Hungarian street food called langos, which is a deep fried dough topped with sour cream, garlic, and cheese (I added ham to mine as well). I was not impressed with it by any means, a little dissapointed in fact. It was very basic on the palate.

Sarah in the market, she looks gorgeous

Pigs feet and heads for sale

First bite of the Langos

Langos

Sarah got beef goulash served on top of pasta, also super basic and still unimpressed.

Finally, we decided to give it one more shot and we hit the jackpot. We split a stuffed paprika pepper, stuffed with meat, rice, and some sort of cous cous type product. It was smothered in a tomato based sauce and was fantastic.

The next day we ventured to the Hungarian baths, which was a very restful day spent by the pools, in the saunas, and in the mineral baths. The baths are fed by natural water springs from underground. We tried everything from mineral springs, to acid baths, and I even braved the ice bath for a total of 3 minutes. Amazing how your body goes numb after a little bit.

Szechenyi Bath

I'm floating!

That night we went to the "ruin" bars, which are bars placed in old abandoned houses, schools, and buildings in the Jewish Quarter. The ruin bars are all decorated with interesting abstract artwork, for instance there was a bathtub that was cut out and turned into a couch.

Later, the Hungarians that we met at the Cheers bar had invited us to a karaoke party that night, so we went there and sang some karaoke with them and met some more Hungarian friends, all who spoke English very well.

Underground Hungarian Karaoke Bar

Our Hungarian friends

On the way out of the bar we left them with a nice performance of "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen and they loved it (we contemplated "Born in the USA" but decided that was way too aggressive). Awesome night!

The next day we went on the Communist walking tour. For those of you who dont know, Hungary is a very young democracy, about 20 years old. Still, there are a lot of communist traditions and customs which they are eager to let go of, but it takes generations to weed out. Very interesting description of communist Budapest compared to today, told by a tour guide who lived through it! These are pictures of buildings built post WW2, compared to the rest of Budapest they are very basic and built with small kitches to discourage home cooked dinner parties. Why? Because when people get together to eat at home and drink wine, they begin talking about the way things are, and how to make them better, and the communists needed everyone to think there system was the best. This is why they were allowed to travel East to other Communist countries, but not West to capitalist countries. This made me very grateful to have been born in the states.

Communist building in the middle of St Stephen Basilica square. It's very basic compared to the beautiful architectural surroundings.

Today we are taking it easy, blogging from a cafe square in the middle of Budapest, getting prepped for our next journey, South East Asia. We leave on Weds for Bangkok, then to the islands to meet some dear friends of ours, Brett Reeves, Brooke Latham, and my longtime friend Matt Budd Thanos. Very excited to see some familiar faces after being on the road for 7 weeks. Next update will be from Thailand in a week or so!

Prague

We arrived in Prague on Saturday evening, totally beat up from our experience at Pueblo Ingles, but still, we hit the ground running.  Upon arriving to our hostel, we quickly discovered what was another spider infestation all over the building.  I was not too pleased. but we had already paid for the hostel, so what to do!?

More of my enemies  

Within 10 minutes of setting our bags down, we were eating a free Beef Goulash meal cooked by the hostel, and on our way to a pub crawl.  We heard that the Prague pub crawl is one the best in the world and it WAS a Satruday night, so we deccided to suck it up and go.  Best decision ever.  We went with a group from our hostel (4 girls from Ireland, 1 from Canada, and a guy from, of all places, Oakland).  The meeting point was at a bar that is specifically for the pub crawl only, closed to the rest of the public.  For 25 dollars (or 450 Crowns), we got an hour of all you can drink beer, vokda shooters, absinthe, and wine, and entry to all of the pubs and clubs we would go to.  Not a bad deal.  From the first bar we headed to two other bars where we got shots upon entry and discounted drinks, before ending up at a 5 story club in Prague that is one of the biggest in Europe.  It was unlike anything I have ever seen before in my life.  

Vodka Shots at the first bar

Us with a new buddy from Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ben...enough said

5 Floor European Club

It was a great night, of course, topped off with a doner kebab in the wee hours of the morning.  

The next day we went to go on the free walking tour of Prague put on by neweuropetours, but the guide spoke so quickly with such a thick accent that we left the tour after 30 minutes because we couldn't understand what he was saying (thank god it was free, or Ben surely would have made us stay even though we couldn't understand).  We detoured to the river and ended up at a little cafe having pickled cheese and pickled sausage listening to a live performance from an American expat.  

Expat singing classic rock tunes 

Pickled sausage in front of Ben, pickled cheese in front of me...actually delicious! 

Later that night, we went with a group from our hostel on a night tour of the Prague castle, which is absolutely stunning at night with breathtaking views.  Here are some shots of the city at night.

Prague Castle

St. Vitus Cathedral

On Monday, we decided to give another shot at the free walking tour, but it was raining, and we figured that we saw the majority of the sites on the previous nights walk, so instead we decided to stay in our hostel with others, playing cards and hanging out.  Then we went to a dinner with other hostelers at an authentic Czech restaurant.  I got Sirloin with dumplings, and Ben got pork neck with dumplings!  Ben said it was one of his favorite meals so far (although I hear him saying that a lot!).

Ben's "favorite meal" so far in Europe

Off to Budapest, will update towards the end of our week as we approach SouthEast Asia!

Pueblo Ingles - More than English Part 1

Our experience at Pueblo Ingles was very interesting, to say the least. I think Sarah would agree with me that in the 8 days in La Alberca, we exerienced a wide range of emotions; happy, sad, frustrated, excited, nervous, emotional...the ups and downs were volatile. It was tough sometimes, being as tired as we were, to push on. Were there times that we wanted to leave? Yes. Were there times when we were overwhelmed with joy from the program? Yes. Overall, looking back days later, I have to say that Pueblo Ingles has been the most tiring and rewarding volunteer experience I have ever done, and here's why.

It is amazing how well you can get to know a group of complete strangers when you are with them, conversing 8 days straight, for up to 18 hours a day. We came into this program with open minds, knowing that we were getting on a bus bound for a small town in the mountains 4 hours outside of Madrid. Once we were on that bus, there was no turning back.

If you read the previous post, you know how intense the days were, with little to no personal time, and very little sleep. The lack of sleep was the biggest issue for us. I can confidently say that I have never been so exhausted in my life. That being said, for those that know me know that I require a lot of sleep in order to operate, and the Spaniards are the exact opposite. The mornings were generally tough, hard to get up and get moving, which made it hard for Sarah and I to enjoy the first half of the day because we were so tired. Once lunch rolled around we were usually fairly awake, and we would then have wine with lunch and nap at siesta. The nights were amazing, filled with group activities, one to ones, and theatre performances. Dinner was late, at 9 PM, and wouldn't end until 10:30. At this point, most people had drank some wine, and the bar was open for group activity (a party, trivia, taboo, different games). By the time we went to bed we would be lucky to get 6 hours of sleep.

Despite the lack of sleep, the program was a complete success in many ways. On Monday night we had "party night'". Everyone dressed up and they turned the bar into a party atmosphere. Here is my favorite shot from that night.

That is one happy Spaniard

The next day, Tuesday, we walked into La Alberca town, a very old traditional Spanish town. Here we got to sample some of the best cured ham in Spain. This region is known for its pork, and I have never tasted ham and chorizo as good as this. They also taught us how to drink from a traditional Spaniard "boot", this got the day started off with a bang to say the least!

Jamon Iberico, Chorizo, and Wine

La Alberca is in the Pork Region of Spain

Sarah drinking from the boot. 25 seconds, she beat me by 15 seconds!

Pueblo Ingles - More than English Part 2

Sarah's birthday was a very interesting day as well, especially for me. Not only did I have something planned for Sarah, but I was pulled aside to participate in theater. My group decided to do a parody on Romeo and Juliet. I played the "American" Romeo, and decided that I needed to knee slide at some point in the play. This is a great shot of me knee sliding.

American Knee Slide

Even better is this video Sarah got of me. Take a look at my facial expression, its priceless.

After theater we had dinner, and this is where I was most nervous. Wine could not even curb the nerves for me on this one! Sarah was in a fairly poor mood all day, tired, hungover, a little homesick, and feeling like this would be a birthday where she gets nothing special. I had to prove her wrong on this one, so I had prepared a little song to sing to her during dinner. Take note that I have zero background in vocals, and had never performed in front of a group before. That being said I was very nervous. Luckily, at the program, was a music teacher who speicalized in custom birthday songs. We decided to surprise her with 2 songs, one nice song and one that was a semi birthday roast. For the romantic song I chose Frankie Vallie, "Can't take my eyes off you", and for the roast we chose the Beatles "She loves you" with our own created lyrics. Here's what we came up with (we were even able to reference John's famous no pants parties!) :

Chorus:

We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah

We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah

We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

You thought that we'd forget that it's your birthday today

and so we wrote this song to show you that we care

Because we love you, and you know that can't be bad

Because we love you, and you know you should be glad

Chorus

Remember Bay to Breakers race when you rolled your ankle round

and still you haven't learned, vodka shots make you fall down

At Shrader Shredders, where we partied with no pants

You're a lwayer and your clients don't stand a chance

Chorus

Written for you by Mat Jones (wonkypiano.com), Ben Shapero, and Ruth Dawson

Here is a video of the songs. Look at Sarah's face, she was absolutely shocked!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TizFCgzVUVg&feature=channel_video_title

To add to the problem of the lack of sleep, on the night of Sarahs birthday, she was woken by the bite of a spider, followed by another spider crawling down her arm. We had previously seen spiders in our room, but on Wednesday, the weather went from sunny to rainy, and all of a sudden we had a major infestation. Not just any spiders, some of these guys were the size of a half dollar, with bodies the size of a nickel. Once Sarah was bitten, she thought her leg was tingly, so we immediatley went to the directors room at 5 AM. We had gone to bed around 2 AM, so you can imagine how tired and delirious we were. The director told us the spiders were not poisonous, but upon returning to our room we found another 8 and decided to bomb the room anyways. We sat in the living room of our chalet while we bombed the room with chemicals at 6 AM. Here you can see sarah lying on the cofee table trying to stay away from anything that the spiders could be crawling on. The next day was the hardest by far because we were so tired. Sarah thus was given the nickname "Spider Woman" as we we were the only Chalet with this problem.

6 AM, waiting to get back into our room. Sarah on the coffee table too scared to sit in the chairs. Bug spray at the ready.

One of our enemies

The last day of Pueblo Ingles was emotional for a lot of people, especially the Spaniards. They had worked so hard all week, trying to speak only in English, and it required a huge amount of effort for them to do so. They had improved their English significantly, but just as important, they had made lasting relationships with each other, and with us, the Anglos. We had learned their customs (how to make Paella and spanish omeletes (we are still waiting on the recipes Piedad and Resu!), running with the bulls, issues with their country), and they had learned about us (BBQ'ing, Christmas traditions, and the issues with our country as well). We had been together for 8 days, on this tiring journey together, helping each other. As much as we taught them English, they taught us invaluable lessons about life and friendships. They were some of the nicest, most welcoming, and warm people I have ever met in my life, and I will always remember the Spanish as this. They have great traditions, wonderful values, and can operate on 2 hours of sleep after partying all night! I have never seen anything like it before in my life. To the Spaniards reading this, you have thanked us many times for volunteering, but I must thank you. I feel enriched with the experiences we shared, ones which I would have never had in my own travels. We hope to see you soon, and please reach out if you are ever in San Francisco.

Pueblo Ingles 616...Always the same, Always different.

Pueblo Ingles

We are back in Madrid, and this post is about what we did this past week deep in the mountains of Spain, about 45 miles from the Portugese/Spanish boarder.  We will post later about our experiences at Pueblo Ingles, the friendships that we made, the struggles we endured, and the spiders we battled!  For the last week, we were with 25 "Anglos" and 25 "Spaniards" in a resort hotel in the town of La Alberca.  The program was called Pueblo English, an English immersion program for Spaniards trying to improve their English.  We, of course, volunteered to help teach English to these Spaniards.

Last Thursday we had a welcome lunch in Madrid with our new friends.  It was typical Spanish food, Paella and everything and was really good.

Below is a picture of Jerry, the Anglo Coordinator.  Born in South Africa, Jerry recently purchased a nice piece of land there to build his dream home on from an ancient African tribal headsmen.  What do you pay an African tribal headsmen for an acre of land in South Africa?  Well, Jerry paid 2 chickens, a bottle of brandy, a 6 pack, and the equivalent of 6 euros.  This was crazy.  But still, Jerry had more to tell.  When I asked him why he chose Madrid, he told me that his wife was from Holland and when Holland played Madrid in the world cup they made a bet that whichever team won is where they would move.  Interesting guy!

Ben and Jerry (no pun intended).  We all had Sangria in a plaza after the lunch until late, lots of fun!

Antonio from Australia playing with my hair

Last Friday, they bused us all out to La Alberca, about a 4 hour drive from Madrid. Once we arrived, we received our rooms in these small little Chalets in the mountains.  The setting was absolutely beautiful, and there was a luxury pool that overlooked the rolling hills.

Picture of the landscape of our hotel grounds

These are the villas we stayed in

Pool and bar area with the mountain landscape in the background

Every lunch and dinner was a three course meal (app, main course, and dessert) and came with all you can drink wine.  And the Spainiards sure do like to drink at lunch.  A table of 4 would typically go through 3-4 bottles of wine at lunch and the same at dinner.  However, after lunch, they give you a 1.5 hour siesta (free time), which typically used to nap.

Table before lunch

Dining Room during lunch 

A day in the life at Pueblo English went something like this :

8:15 - Alarm goes off
9-10 - Breakfast, 2 Anglos and 2 Spaniards to each table
10-11 - One to One : We are paired up with a Spaniard and we speak with them about any topic we want for an hour
11-12 - One to One
12-1 - One to One
1-2 - Two to Two (same as one to one, but more of a group conversation)
2- 3:30 - Lunch
3:30 - 5 - Siesta (nap time for us)
5 - 6 - Group Activity (today we learned to Salsa dance....not my forte at all as I discovered)
6 - 7 - One to One
7 - 8 - One to One
8 -9 - Entertainment (theater, performances, or voluntary presentations by people about various topics)
9 - 10:30 - Dinner
10:30-1 or 2 or 3 AM - Different party activities

As you can tell the days were long and although it was a ton of fun, it was absolutely exhausting.  Sleep doesn't really exist in La Alberca and we are definitely feeling the after-effects!  Off to Prague in the morning, and then on to Budapest! Hope that everyone is doing well and we will speak to you soon!