THE HOLIDAYS in EUROPE: Flamenco, Nationalism, Wine, Fondue, Mountians, Street Fests and Waffles

The past two weeks or so have been rather crazy (5 countries lots of culture, sometimes I didn´t even need to leave the country I was in to be in a totally different country. Here is a brief recap of the past two weeks of Holiday birthday/Christmastime:

Bryon (in pic) and Jeff (my new Canadian friends that I met in Granada and ran into in Lagos) cooked dinner for me on my Birthday in Lisbon, which was very sweet of them.

Went to Madrid for a day, stopped in a Dunkin Donuts looking for coffee and a bagel (two things I miss alot, along with 2am Taco Bell), ended up with a mango filled donut (delicious, US Dunkins need to get your act together and get these) and some warm milk flavored with a little coffee (not so much, Spain, get your act together and give me a large cup of joe) Saw some amazing Picasso (including Guernica), Dalí, Miró, and other modernist artists at the usea Reina Sophia... which I would highly recommend if you like modern art.
Got lost on the way to see some cheap Flamenco with some people from the hostel... hailed a cab and he brought us to some expensive but amazing Flamenco.

Then it was off to San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque..or Euskia) Was there for the fiesta de San Tomas. It was great, street food, sausages, cheap hard cider, tons of drunk locals dressed in their traditional Basque outfits dancing polka, drinking sidra, having fun, and blowing up buses. Yes, you heard me right. (below are before and after shots)


Don´t worry, it was more of symbolic thing than actual violence, no one seemed too concerned for their own well being, so I decided not to fear for mine. Besides, most of the Basque people were nice... like the Abrazos Gratis (free hugs) guy:








From there it was on to drinking wine and eating fois gras in the French wine region of Bordeaux.
I stayed on a vineyard, which was awesome! and the frost on the vines in the morning was really spectacular sight also.






I decided to tackle the Swiss Alps for Christmas. Christmas eve found me eating cheese fondue, which is very tasty with bananas (who would have thought)and looking for some nightlife. Did you know there is a Hooters in Interlaken, Switzerland? Well, there is. And I went to it on Christmas eve and ate chicken wings and drank beer with some people from the hostel. (so it was like the only bar open, but it was packed!) The next day I hit the slopes. After a brief forrey into being a snowboarder (about 2 hours before I got sick of falling on my ass) I switched to skis. I´ve decided that the alps are way more fun sitting outside on the top drinking beer and eating brats than to ski down. oh well. I also spent a day in the spa area of a health club, which was fabulous, except for the fact that it was co-ed and most of the old men were not shy about changing and going into the saunas naked... AWKWARD!

Finally, I arrived in Brussels, Belgium the other day. I forgot how much I loved Belgian beer, it is delicious. So many different kinds. The Waffles and frittes from the street vendors were fantastic also.
Here I am with my first waffle of belgium and some hot mülled wine.

By far, the best and most random "street meat" vendor was the Escargots man.
Of course I HAD to get some. They taste a little like clams, but chewier and slimier (but the chewy/sliminess may have been because they were street meat snails and street meat anything is usually not the best quality.



I have been hanging out at the Christmas Street festival in Brugge for the past couple of days, and have eaten nothing but waffles, frittes, warmwine, and beer. The street festival has kept me from actually seeing most of the city, but I don´t care, I love street fests and they are good here around the holidays!