Category: Europe

Categories
Europe

Madrid

Madrid is such a great city! Its a perfect place to go solo, its safe, and has so much to offer.

Best aspects of Madrid

  • Public Transportation- Its well designed, easy to understand, well connected, and affordable.
  • Museums- If you love Museums, Madrid is the place to go. Beyond the “Golden Triangle” ( Prado, there are so many special interest museums to pick and choose from.
  • Day Trips- There are lots of small towns with so much to offer, just a short bus ride away. My favorites are El Escorial and Toledo.
  • Food, clubs, shopping

Must Sees in Madrid

  • Museo Prado- One of the most incredible museums I have ever been inside, definitely on the same level as the Louvre. (Bring a student ID, you’ll get in for free!)
  • Plaza Mayor (Make sure you see Fat Spider-man!)
  • Parque Retiro
  • Palacio Real
  • Teleferico – It was closed when I went in 2016, but it has since been reopened and I hear it’s wonderful.
The hardest I’ve ever laughed in my whole life. And I EMPTIED my wallet for him. Worth every penny.

Off the Beaten Path

  • Keep an eye out for “Fat Spider-man” in Plaza Mayor
  • El Rastro Flea Market (Every Sunday at Plaza de Cascorro and Ribera de Curtidores)
  • Metro Garden (Inside Atocha Station there is a HUGE tropical garden. One step through the doors and you’ve left the city.)
  • Faro de Moncloa- You can see all of Madrid from the observation tower.
  • Templo de Debod – An Egyptian Temple plopped down right in the middle of Parque de la Montaña.

Overrated

  • Palacio Cristal – Its a beautiful palace made completely of glass in the middle of Retiro Park. If you are already in Retiro, you should definitely go and see it, but I wouldn’t make a special trip just to go see it during opening hours. It is listed as an art exhibit, but the “art” inside is the fact that it’s silent.
  • Palacio Cibeles – Again, beautiful from the outside and you’ll definitely walk past it, but there isn’t much special inside, especially if you’re on a time crunch. Mostly history of Madrid and how the city is laid out.

What and where to eat

  • Museo de Jamon – I am utterly obsessed with it. 2 Euro’s will get you an incredible sandwich made with Jamon Iberico and a slice of cheese on a flaky, buttery croissant. Truly the love of my life. I can’t tell you how many of those sandwiches I have shoved directly into my face. I wish there was anything like it in the US.
  • There is a great chocolate shop in Sol Plaza called La Mallorquina, definitely stop there for some sweets.
  • Ceviche
  • Paella
  • Gulas (baby eels)
  • Chocolate and churros
  • Tortilla- egg, potato, sometimes onion, always delicious.
  • Orange Juice- The machines they use to juice oranges in Spain (Italy & France too) make it taste so much better than anything you’ll ever get in the states. Go into any cafe and they’ll have it!

Categories
Russia

Making Moscow Home

MOSCOW, RUSSIA SEPTEMBER 28, 2019: A view of the Moscow Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral at night. Marina Lystseva/TASS (Photo by Marina LystsevaTASS via Getty Images)

So I’ve been having some major issues dealing with seasonal affective depression alongside homesickness and I made it significantly worse by visiting my warm, sunny, amazing home over the holidays and then coming back in the middle of JANUARY.

In an effort to be more mindful and thankful for my current living situation (and to help mitigate my depression) I’ve been actively trying to notice the really great things about Moscow.

Honestly there aren’t that many amazing things in Moscow- a few cool attractions, but mostly its just really easy to make it home.

Public transportation is AWESOME. I’m hesitant about busses everywhere I go because they have been terrible everywhere I’ve lived. They take forever, they don’t go where you need, they cost more than it’s worth when you can just walk. But the busses here are incredible, especially in conjunction with the metros which are laid out really nicely and run every 1 or 2 minutes!!! Everything works on a Troika card which you can refill on an app and it’s so cheap. And even when you don’t feel like taking public transportation, taxis are SO affordable. Infinitely better than anywhere in the US or Italy at least. Slightly more expensive than China though.

Grocery stores are EVERYWHERE. From the front door of my building I can get to 3 grocery stores in under a 5 minute walk. And within a 10 minute walk I can get to an Ашан megastore (but I think that was just the luck of the draw because there are only 3 of them in Moscow). And I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, you can find practically ANYTHING you might need/want in a Moscow store.

Heating and hot water are better than you could possibly imagine. When we were in Milan, it was SO COLD, but heating was SO expensive, so we never turned it on, we just wandered around our apartment wrapped in blankets. Its way colder in Moscow, so I was worried about our heating bill, but then I found out that the heat is set by the GOVERNMENT?!?!? (Apparently they set the interior temp based on last year’s temps that day, so sometimes it gets too hot and we have to open a window.) The heater in our house doesn’t even have an option to adjust it. It’s always so nice and toasty warm, and all of our utilities together have never been more than $30 a month. Also you know how in winter you always seem to run out of hot water? Not in Moscow. Unlimited SCALDING hot water- instantly. Seriously, it’s so hot you can burn yourself, and I still forget all the time and turn it all the way to maximum hot.

Drying clothes indoors is MAGIC? Because heaters are always running full blast the air inside is super dry. If you put sopping wet clothes on a drying rack indoors, they’ll be bone dry within 24 hours. For reference if you’ve never lived somewhere without a dryer, out on the balcony in the wind in Milan, it still took 2-4 days, and longer indoors. (Side note, dryers are horrible for the environment and you should try to airdry as much as possible! It makes such a difference and it’s way better for your clothes!) This super dry air makes everything really shocky though- way too much static electricity. I work in a kindergarten and I always forget that its so shocky and I feel horrible when I shock my babies on the face or head.

It’s easy, it’s accesible, its cushy, it’s comfy, it’s cheap. I would probably recommend living in Russia if I was being honest! As long as you don’t mind snow and can pick up a tiny bit of Russian, you’ll settle right in!

Categories
Italy

Livio’s Pizzeria

If you find yourself in Florence, you MUST go here.

You can read the Instagram post, this is just another shameless excuse to plug this incredible place, and these incredible people. I ask only that if you go to this restaurant, please show them my picture. I would give anything to go back. Truly the most genuine, passionate, kind people you’ll ever meet with the best food!

Categories
Russia Uncategorized

Groceries You Can’t Find in Moscow

Grocery stores are absolutely one of my major passions. It’s one of the most fun things about living in another country and its a great way to really “be” more local.

Before you move to or just visit another country, people (I’m sure) will come up to you and offer advice; what to expect, etc. In my experience they are wrong. I don’t know if I’m listening to the wrong people or what, but if someone says I can’t find something, then I always do, and if they say its easy to find it never is! So you can choose whether or not to believe me, but I swear this is the honest-to-God truth (at least it is true in 2019).

Before coming to Russia, I was told that food would be incredibly bland. Absolutely not true. They told me when I tried to cook I wouldn’t be able to find any good spices and that I should bring some taco seasoning/mexican spice blends with me from Arizona to use “when I got tired of eating boiled potatoes.” Wrong on both levels- Russian food is delicious and healthy! Also I found every spice I could want in the grocery stores as well as Mexican seasoning and taco blends. They also have tortillas and salsa!

I had another lady go out of her way to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to make chocolate chip cookies here. I asked in a forum if there were any American Expats in Russia with advice for what I would miss and she said she couldn’t find chocolate chips and vanilla anywhere here. It wasn’t hard. The baking aisle has both. Although I will grant that the chocolate chips are a little bit overpriced compared to how cheap a regular chocolate bar is. Also vanilla is a little bit different here. In the states we sell big bottles of brown imitation or real vanilla. In Moscow, however, they sell it in little droppers of clear liquid that is SUPER strong. It’s different, but it’ll definitely fill your need for vanilla flavoring.

I have been told by Russians here that you can find “anything you could ever want” in Moscow and it might be a little bit harder in St. Petersburg, and definitely harder out in the sticks. And it has mostly been true. Grocery stores in Moscow have been amazing. They have all the best parts of European grocery stores without missing out on any important American imports.

Stores in Moscow have a far better range of products and imports than the rest of Europe I think. They have peanut butter, they have donuts, frozen pizzas and chicken nuggets! They have salad dressings and grape juice (albeit it’s not great). They have ziploc bags when the rest of Europe doesn’t. I even found rootbeer in a regular store here! I’m still looking for ranch dressing and stuffing mix, but I’m sure they’ll turn up.

One thing you would expect them to have but they don’t though, is brown sugar. They technically do, but it’s weird. It’s not packed brown molasses sugar. It’s light brown granulated raw sugar. Not great for baking but not a big deal to live without.

I’ve heard talk of an American import store inside of the American embassy. Apparently you have to make an appointment to go shopping there, it sounds very secretive and fun- I’ll fill you in when I finally go.

*Baking Powder* This is one of those things that’s hit or miss wherever you go, so I usually just play it safe and bring some with me. Italy had something CALLED baking powder, but really it was baking soda. Everywhere has baking soda, and it is definitely possible to substitute, I just don’t like to. You can get baking powder in Moscow though. It comes in little packages and it is called Разрыхлитель теста just know that on a lot of packaging fonts, the T changes to a lowercase m. Couldn’t tell you why. It’s super frustrating when you’re trying to learn.

Image result for разрыхлитель теста
Image result for разрыхлитель теста

There are always a few things I miss from the states, (like American milk) but Russia ticks most of my boxes. So don’t worry about not being able to find the things you want in Moscow grocery stores- they’re likely to have it and lots of other fun things to discover.

When I leave Russia there will definitely be things I will miss too- like the amazing selection of pickled things, the variety of dishes featuring beets, and the delicious prepared котлета which is just ground meat and minced veggies and spices in a giant meatball shape.

Categories
Europe Germany

Berlin

Illuminated Brandenburg Gate in Berlin from the Eastern side at dusk

My travel advice for Berlin is pretty limited, since I had less than 24 hours there. But looking back, I’d still like to share the few things I did, and the things I wished I would have had the time for.

Must do’s in Berlin:

  • Berlin Wall (And Checkpoint Charlie Museum)
  • Brandenburg Gate
  • Reichstag Building
    • From what I can read it’s tricky to get tickets at all, but I remember we showed up pretty early in the morning, talked to like 5 different people and managed to get tickets for like 7:00 pm the same day. I think we were really lucky, but I definitely recommend booking in advance if at all possible. Things should be a whole lot easier now that cell phone data works throughout the EU. It was a lot harder when we were living in the stone age hopping from café wifi to café wifi.
  • Shopping in a flea market/Christmas market
    • Berliners LOVE flea markets and there are lots of them!
  • Eat a currywurst and a doner kebab (they were invented here!)

I didn’t get a chance to see it, but I wish I had:

  • Holocaust Memorial
    • I can’t believe I didn’t get to see it. It was such a whirlwind of a day, I just forgot that it was in Berlin.
  • Berlin Cathedral
    • It looks beautiful, I just didn’t happen upon it, so I didn’t get the chance to go in!
  • Spree park
    • Abandoned amusement parks are such a draw for me, but they’re usually trying their hardest to keep people out, not letting them buy tickets to go look around!
  • Weissensee Abandoned Children’s Hospital
    • Technically you aren’t “supposed” to go here, but if I had known about it when I went, I absolutely would have tried.
  • Museum Island- There are so many museums that Museums Island has been dedicated as a UNESCO world heritage site, but I just didn’t have the time. 😦
    • (As always, when in Europe, make sure to bring your student ID!)

Oddities I loved:

  • DDR Museum
    • This museum is very carefully curated, and they have a lot of cool, modern exhibits, like a little Trabant that you can drive! (I am utterly obsessed with Trabants, so this was a must do for me.) It has tons of easy to digest information about what life was like in East Germany before the wall came down.

On the topic of oddities, Berlin is a city overrun with hipsters, so there are TONS of wacky little things hidden throughout, if you know where to look, and the best resource to find them is Atlas Obscura. Definitely check out the page on Berlin: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/berlin-germany/places?page=1

Categories
Spain

Survival Spanish

I have a post about the phrases you should learn in any language but here are the specifics for Spanish.

  1. Yes & No – Sí & No
  2. Hello & Goodbye – Hola & Adiós
    • Saying good morning/day/afternoon/evening is more common than saying Hola.
    • Buenas días (Morning)
    • Buen día (Day)
    • Buenas tardes (Afternoon)
    • Buenas noches (Evening)
  3. I’m sorry/ Excuse me – Lo siento/ Perdón
  4. I can’t speak Spanish (Well) – Yo no hablo español (muy bien)
  5. Please, Thank you & You’re welcome – Por Favor, Gracias, & De Nada
    • I usually say muchas gracias (thank you very much)
    • To remember “de nada” you should know that it means “of nothing” like no problem.
  6. I would like… (this or that) – Me gustaría esto/eso
    • It’s also important to know that Spanish is gendered. So if the object you want ends with ‘O’ like jugo (juice) it’s masculine and you should use esto/eso, but if it ends in ‘A’ like cerveza (beer) you should use etsa/esa.
    • But if you just assume the masculine you’ll be right most of the time, and people will understand you even if it’s wrong.
  7. This is good – Esto es bueno.
    • The food is good, the table is good, the location is good etc. Surprisingly useful phrase.

Keep in mind also that some vocabulary and pronunciations change between Spain, Central American countries and South American countries. But these should be understood in any of them.

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