Americans on the Loose: Arriving in Argentina

After a crazy semester of premed life, I finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel: Argentina with my main girl. Josh booked me in first class, which it turns out is really the only way to fly. Mel and I landed in Buenos Aires and the communication struggles immediately commenced. No, not with each other -- that's been on par with martial level comm. But neither of us speak Spanish and apparently few people here speak English. We finally get from the airport to the bus station to the hostel we booked and schlep our luggage up several massive marble staircases, only to discover that the hostel is fully booked and without our reservation. The guy was very nice about it and recommended another hostel a few blocks away. So, we get our luggage back down the stairs and out the door and to the new hostel, which is where we discovered the writing on the wall. That is, the Hebrew writing. We unknowingly entered little Israel. The new hostel is swarming with post army Israelis.

After settling our accommodations, we set out to change money. The black market rate is much better than the official exchange rate so we searched for the recommended sketchy guy in the back of a perfectly unsketchy business. We had a hard time finding the street so we showed the address to a policeman and asked for his help finding the street. Apparently, "Florida street" is where all the sketchy money changing happens so the policeman knew exactly what we were up to... Oops. 

After finally changing money in the back of an ice cream parlor and in desperate need of nourishment, we stopped at the only other place open on New Years for ice cream. Obviously, I needed to taste flavors so I looked up the word for "taste" on my  handy Bing Translator app and requested foreign words that indicated flavors. The shall-we-say charming man behind the counter insisted on feeding me the little spoon of ice cream! When I requested a second flavor to taste, the strangest thing happened --- he took back my little tasting spoon and DOUBLE DIPPED IT INTO THE ICE CREAM! Oh, and then insisted on feeding it to me again. 

We hopped on the bus to the Ricoletta neighborhood. Proud of ourselves for finally accomplishing something smoothly, we went to pay the driver, only to discover that we needed to pre-purchase a bus card and we had no idea how to get one. The driver finally took pity on the pathetic Americans and let us on the bus anyway. We sat down in the back and started chatting. The kind driver suddenly shouted back to us that we should to get off when we reached our intended stop. 

We explored the neighborhood and the famous cemetery and finally collapsed in exhaustion on an ugly little pidgin-covered plot of grass, too tired to figure out how to get back to the hostel. After some stares, and many averted gazes, we finally made our way to a bus stop and asked a couple how to acquire the mysterious bus card. Barely able to communicate with each other, the 2 led us several blocks away to find a store to purchase the card. The store was closed and after much unsuccessful trekking, the bus arrived and they swiped us in and helped us find our stop. They were so kind to us and we're determined to pay it forward. Everyone we have met so far has been incredibly sweet and helpful. I'm looking forward to many more absurd adventures over the next 2 weeks. Stay tuned for pictures... 

The Start of Markovic Adventures: Honeymoon to Portugal, Part Algarve

We returned to Lisbon, rented a car at the airport and hit the road for a trip down to the Algarve. We stopped around midnight at the Montado Golf to spend the night. In the morning, we continued down to Cape Sagres, the Southwest tip of Europe. The highways are really empty because Portuguese can’t afford the extremely expensive tolls. We were advised to take the “motorways” despite the cost because they are much safer since the other roads are swarmed with aggressive drivers.

Sagres

In Cape Sagres, we walked around and enjoyed some wonderful views. We attempted to have lunch at a cafe that sounded perfect for us with loads of salads and vegetarian options but found that it was closed. We then proceeded onto the attractions on our itinerary to find they were also closed because the workers are on strike. One disgruntled tourist wondered if the fortress workers went on strike when the place was still actively guarding the coast.

Walking along the beach in Selema

We headed east and stopped at the town of Selema. We stopped at a convenience store to buy water and the cashier noticed our Rick Steves booked and pointed to a picture of him with Rick Steves on the wall. Apparently Selema is a favorite stop of Rick’s. There are supposedly dinosaur prints on the rocks at the base of the cliff on the beach. Unfortunately for us though, the high tide prevented us from finding them. Not from trying though – We climbed on the rocks to try to one-up the tide to no avail.

We continued on to the Belavista da Luz Hotel, our home for the duration of our stay in Portugal. They told us they upgraded us to a “sea view” room since it is our honeymoon (apparently sea-view and pool-view are interchangeable here but we appreciated the gesture). The room also had a bottle of champagne with a congratulatory note. The staff there was incredibly helpful and friendly! At breakfast, they told us to just ask if we want fried eggs or something so I ordered an egg-white omelet, which totally flabbergasted the guy. He could not understand the concept of removing part of the egg. After going back and forth of me trying to describe the process, telling him to forget it and a whole egg is fine, trying to explain it, telling him its not so unusual in NY… for about 10 minutes, the guy finally left and returned with a fried egg-white but would only give it to me if I told him what I do with the yellow parts of my eggs. I told him I give the yellows to my dog (which is only true of hard-boiled eggs) or I make Pasteis de Nata (similar to Pasteis de Belem – see Lisbon post). He handed me my eggs but proceeded to tell everyone else who walked into breakfast that the way people eat their eggs in NY is by giving the yellow parts to their dogs.

"Sea" View 

Honeymoon Champagne

For dinner, I typed into trusty TripAdvisor restaurants Near Me and sorted by “vegetarian.” We drove to Lagos for the top result and were in for a delectable surprise. We drove up to an incredible resort called Cascades, which housed the wonderful Senses Restaurant. Sitting pretty high up a cliff, Cascades has a beautiful hotel and an amazing porch, pool, and cabanas overlooking the Atlantic. The restaurant had a special vegetarian menu and prepared the food in a special kitchen downstairs. The main kitchen is open and inviting for guests to come watch their food being prepared. The service was attentive and professional. When the food came out, we were in heaven. The chef, it turns out, is a chocolatier trained by a culinary institute in Brugge, so we had to get the “chocolate experience” dessert – it wasn’t as good as we expected – IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER!

View from Senses Restaurant, Cascade

Senses - Open Kitchen

Praia da Luz

The next day we walked to the beach in Luz to go tubing. There was a bit of a wait so they offered us to take a kayak out for free. We paddled out and looked back at the small city and took in the beautiful scene. When we returned to shore, we hopped on our “sofa” tube and were attached to a motor boat and off we went, speeding though and bouncing around the ocean, squealing and laughing like children and holding on for dear life.

Riding Through the Mountains

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the supermarket to buy our Shabbat food. We headed back to Lagos to the sister restaurant of Senses, called the Marandus, located in the Vivenda Mirdana Romantik Hotel. We enjoyed a nice lunch with beautiful views. After refueling, we went for a private horseback ride through the mountains (at Tiffany’s riding center) – Josh’s first time on a horse!

Vivenda Miranda

View from Marandus Restaurant

Pre-Shabbat Pic!

Finally, we returned to the hotel for our first Shabbat dinner alone as husband and wife. We sang ourselves shalom Aleichem and eshet chayil, made Kiddush and motzei and felt like grown ups. After dinner, we hung out at the bar and made friends with lots of Brits and Germans and of course, the bartender, Danny.

On Shabbat, we woke up late (I guess we’ve been lacking sleep) and headed to the beach. We got a bit too much sun and Josh’s back turned quite red L. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on our “sea-view” porch.  In the afternoon, we wanted to hike over to Lagos and end up eventually for a final dinner at our beloved Sense restaurant. We anticipated a flat hike – more of a walk really over to the next town. We ended up climbing up over a cliff from Luz to Lagos on a Squaw Peak-type trail (for you Arizonans) except totally unmarked and lacking people. That we were nervous that we would end up stranded on a cliff without phones or a way to get to either town and that the sun would continue to set and the snakes would come out only added to the adventure. We eventually did end up in Lagos and found our way back to the wonderful resort with 30 minutes to relax in a cabana before dinner. (It's too bad there are no pictures from Shabbat because it was some of our most beautiful scenes the trip.)

As one final testament to how accommodating our hotel was, we asked them for breakfast before we left for the airport at 7am. Expecting a boxed breakfast, we were quite impressed when the receptionist asked us what time we wanted breakfast (6:30am) and what hot drinks we’d like (coffee). She then apologized that the hot breakfast wouldn’t be available at 6:30am but that someone would set up the cold breakfast and coffee for us. We headed off to the airport with full stomachs and amazing memories of our honeymoon to Portugal. Now back to reality.

The Start of Markovic Adventures: Honeymoon to Portugal, Part Madeira

Josh and I woke up at 4:15 AM Monday morning to go to the airport for our trip to Madeira. To support my assertion in my first post about cabs being cheap, I'll share with you the cost of our taxi-ride to the airport – 11 Euro after the luggage surcharge. After a spending a leisurely 2 hours eating our boxed breakfast and killing time before our flight – Josh likes to leave us a lot of time, we boarded our flight to Madeira. I should note that at the point at which I am writing this, we have been personally called 3 times this trip – before our NY to Lisbon flight, before the Sea Born boat ride (I’ll get to that) and before our Madeira to Lisbon flight. Sense a trend? Oops?

Enjoying The View From Our Room

We arrived in Funchal, the major city in Madeira (also sometimes called “little Lisbon” according to my guidebooks) and checked into our hotel, The Madeira Regency Cliff. After trying to upsell us on a suite and us declining, they decided to upgrade us for free on the occasion of our honeymoon. We had a porch with a beautiful ocean view and slept with the doors open so we could fall asleep to the splashing waves.

Funchal was very touristy and a bit disappointing. Madeira is super hilly so there were many beautiful views of the sea, mountainous terrain, and infrastructure. We started by sitting at a tea shop for tea and cake at a beautiful square. We stopped at Bordal, a recommended embroidery shop to find ourselves a tablecloth for our new apartment. Turns out embroidery here, while quite fine, is also quite pricey so we didn’t buy anything.

Monte Palace Gardens

We took a cable car up to Monte and then explored the Monte Palace Botanical Gardens (which they reminded us on every other telephone post that it is one of the top 13 or 14 botanical gardens in the world, depending on which sign).

Strolling through the gardens was relaxing and serene. After waking up at the crack of dawn, the slow pace of the garden was the perfect start to Madeira. We decided to skip the Toboggan ride back down to Funchal since it seemed overpriced and very short but immediately regretted our decision once we were far enough down the hill to make it not worth walking back up. The way down was STEEP and 6 km long. After 2 km, we decided to cab down the rest of the way.

Monte Palace Gardens

Next stop – the Farmers market. Pretty touristy as well but we had the chance to taste Poncha, a traditional Madeiran drink, which we hated, and 6 different types of passion fruits that grow in Madeira, which we LOVED.

For dinner, we tried a Turkish restaurant called “Istanbul Restaurante” (they’re quite creative with names – the Indian restaurant next door was called Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant). We loved the food and service and ended up returning our second night as well!

Levada Trail

The next morning, we joined a tour to walk along a Levada, or water channel for irrigation, called Valley of Paradise. The tour guide was very funny and the walk was easy but lovely. The guide pointed out some of the flora and fauna and made friends with a local dog.

The afternoon plan was to rent a car but there were no automatic cars available on the island and neither of us can drive a shift so we rearranged our plans and took a boat tour instead. The Sea Born boat ride, which waited for us incidentally, was incredible! The weather was gorgeous and the water, clear blue. I got a new perspective of the island by sea as I sat back with Josh and sipped a refreshing local beer (Coral) while the wind whipped through my hair.  [Note: I’m not a big beer drinker but it’s good stuff.]

Josh with our little SmartCar

Ponto Moniz

Our 3^rd and final day of Madeira, we finally rented our car and drove around the whole island. Turns out we got a SmartCar which was a tight fit with our luggage but I pulled a Ronnie and repacked everything in our suitcases so that it all worked out. We started with a view point from a neighboring town called Cabo Girao. Unfortunately, the sky was pretty cloudy so we turned around partway up the mountain since visibility wasn’t great. We continued on to Sao Vincete and admired the quaint town before setting off to wander through volcanic caves formed by lava. The caves were very cool and we learned a lot from the exhibition on volcanoes afterwards.

We then drove westward to Porto Moniz for the local natural lava pools. I wrongly assumed they were warm in temperature but the name is deceiving because it just means the pools are sitting on old lava but they were freezing! We went swimming and befriended a pair of British brothers on holiday. They gave us a tip for a great lookout so after air-drying in the harsh wind (we didn’t have towels), we drove up for a look.

Traditional House in Santana

Our final stop before heading to the airport was Santana, a town that still has the original type of Madeiran houses – small, A-shaped houses, painted red, white and blue, with thatched roofs. They were cool to see but there are only a few left and its very touristy so it wasn’t our favorite stop.

View from the Drive

View Along the Drive

Overall, the driving experience was slightly terrifying – many of the roads are incredibly narrow and winding, at the edge of cliffs, and intended for 2-way traffic. Josh did an excellent job behind the wheel. The views were INCREDIBLE though. The island is so lush and green and surrounded by perfectly blue water. The air was so fresh. We were so dazzled by the scenery that we didn’t even mind that we never figured out how to work the radio.

We finally ended up at the airport and my phone ran out of data and voice minutes – it really held out quite nicely since the car GSP failed us and Google Maps came to the rescue. Anyway, we made the flight just as they were pulling away the staircase for the back entrance to the plane. Just in time.

This is the U-Turn we had to make when the GSP failed us...

The Start of Markovic Adventures: Honeymoon to Portugal, Part Lisbon 2

Lisbon

When planning our trip, we were advised by several reliable sources to do a Jewish tour of Lisbon with Paulo Scheffer. Josh and I were skeptical because we weren't interested in spending alot of money to tour a city we can see on our own. Well, the tour was INCREDIBLE. It was worth every penny and is truly a must-do for anyone remotely interested in Jewish history planning to visit Lisbon.

The tour was 3.5 hours and gave us a great understanding of Lisbon history, which is both fascinating and somewhat tragic - its golden age was the age of discovery in the 15th century and today many buildings in central Lisbon are abandoned and written off as victims of the next earthquake, expected approximately every 250 years... which happens to be any day now. One of the coolest things we learned is that the main shopping area in central Lisbon still uses the original sewer system from Roman times. It survived the earthquakes and still works!! The Jewish history is probably more fascinating and definitely more tragic. The Inquisition lasted longer and was more cruel and fanatic than other inquisitions, including Spain's. Paolo was a tremendous story teller and had us clinging on to every word he spoke. After the tour, Josh and I agreed that if someone took a picture of us during the tour, we would probably be caught wide-eyed with gaping mouths. Paolo himself comes from Jewish and crypto-Jewish decent and has an interesting story of his own life to tell.

Lisbon

After the tour, we went to a a restaurant in the Chiado neighborhood called Fabulas, which served the best sparkling Sangria I've ever had. It was passion fruit flavored! The food was okay but the atmosphere and company were delightful.

Afterwards, we took a train to Sintra, a truly majestic town 45 minutes outside of Lisbon. We explored the grand Pena Palace and were FLOORED. It was truly the most spectacular building I have ever seen. Each room was more grand than the next. The details on the furniture and wall and ceiling decorations were marvelous. And when we stepped outside, the view was breathtaking. The palace sits on top of a mountain surrounded by luscious greenery and other beautiful structures in the distance. We were advised to take the transfer tram up the hill for 2 euro and did so because we were short on time. The climb looked do-able but certainly challenging.

Entering Pena Palace

Pena Palace

Quinto de Regalia

We then hustled over to the Quinto de Regalia, a very impressive structure from the outside but the inside doesn't hold a candle next to Pena Palace. However, we loved wandering through the gorgeous grounds. The paths were so green and serene and the waterfalls and beautiful structures kept it unique and interesting. We especially enjoyed walking through the underground caves. We felt like we were running through secret passages.

We returned to Lisbon exhausted and starving and enjoyed another all-you-can-eat buffet at a vegetarian restaurant called Terra. We arrived back at the hotel to an incredibly thoughtful and kind gift from the Jewish community - a care package of Kosher food for the rest of our travels! They sent us crackers, challah rolls, meat, candy, Pringles, chips and Tradition soups. After learning how difficult meat and some of the other Kosher items are to come by in Lisbon, we felt especially touched by their gesture.

What a wonderful way to end our visit to Lisbon. Better get to bed - we have a 4:15 AM wake up call coming our way to head to Madeira!

The Start of Markovic Adventures: Honeymoon to Portugal, Part Lisbon

I started this blog a year and a half ago at the start of my European adventures called "study abroad." It's hard to imagine that only 18 months later, I am on my next European adventure with my new husband and most alarmingly - AS A MARKOVIC!

But as they say (or I say)... You can take a girl out of the Schlussel but you can't take the Schlussel out of a girl. Josh and my Schlussel adventures continue under the guise "Markovic." And here begins our honeymoon.

We arrived in Lisbon early Friday morning. It turns out that the reason it was almost impossible to get a hotel here (thank goodness for Hotwire) is partly because of a Rotary conference with 20,000 attendees. Our hotel, the Parque Real Hotel is a bit far from the center of things but walkable and completely clean and decent. They upgraded us to the top floor with a gorgeous view of Lisbon when we told them we're on our honeymoon so we have no complaints.

Pastais de Belem

Friday morning we dropped our luggage at the hotel and hit the ground running (classic Schlussel style - see the Extreme Travel blog posts from Greece and Turkey). We started in Belem and since we hadn't eaten since dinner shortly after takeoff (it was actually very edible plane food), we decided to begin with a famous pastry shop - Pastéis de Belém. We tried their signature pastry and it did not disappoint. It met the hype and then some. While topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar, the taste explosion upon first bite came mostly from the oozy custard filling. A local on-line behind us advised us not to think we'd eat one but that you need at least 3 each. So we ordered a box of 6 and a coffee and luckily found a seat in the crowded cafe.

A boy who loves his maps

After fueling up, we visited the Jeronimos Monastery and admired the grand architecture from the outside. We then went to the Marine museum, which besides giving us ideas for Purim costumes (first married Purim!), we found it a waste of time. Outside the museum, a man tried to sell Josh much-needed sunglasses but after negotiating and then changing his mind, Josh was chased down the street by the determined salesman who had called Josh in a thick accent "a man of da business."

We then walked along the water to the Belem Tower and climbed up the fortress. There was an interesting traffic system in the old building where an electric arrow would tell you if you could climb up or down the narrow staircase.

At the Belem Tower

A Man of Da Business

Next, we took the tram to the old part of the city and wandered through the narrow cobblestone streets, climbing up and up until we reached Sao Jorge Castle. There, we enjoyed stunning birds-eye views of the city and chatted with helicopter pilots who are lieutenants in the US Navy and finishing up a one-year deployment. On our way down, we stopped at the Se Cathedral and enjoyed its beautiful architecture.

We got back to the hotel with time for a quick power-nap before getting ready for Shabbat. We attended the Shaare Tikva Synagogue. [Note: if you go, email a copy of your passport to security in advance.] There, Josh was greeted by an American visitor from Englewood, NJ who told Josh he went to Frisch for high school. Upon learning this, Josh exclaimed: "My wife went to Frisch!" Such a married comment!! Anyway shout out to the Moed family visiting Lisbon to see an exhibition Eric spent the last few months working on - a pop up exhibition in the home of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese consul in France, who against orders issued over 1500 visas to refugees fleeing the Holocaust.

We ate meals at the home of a middle-aged ultra Orthodox couple whom we were put in touch with by good 'ole Chabad. They were an interesting couple who both were born and raised in Germany, converted to Judaism as adults, married, and moved to Lisbon for the wife's job at the EU as an IT person in drug regulation. They told us about the challenges of living in such a small community. Also at the meal was the husband's non-Jewish father, and an Israeli man studying in Lisbon.

Mojitos at Clube de Fado

Shabbat afternoon we explored the city, observing a number of street artists, and some free but mediocre museums. After Shabbat, we went to town for dinner at an all-you-can-eat-buffet Vegan restaurant at Jardim das Cerejas and then experienced traditional Fado music and very strong mojitos at Clube de Fado in Alfama, the oldest section of Lisbon.

While it lacks the deep history of Rome and bustle of Berlin, my major take-aways from Lisbon so far are that
1. The people are extremely nice
2. Cobblestone hurts your feet
3. Cabs are very cheap
4. The hilly city with red rooftops, surrounded by water makes for stunning views around just about every corner

Extreme Travel Part VI: Santorini

Of course, we watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on the flight from Athens as a pump up for our Santorini visit.  We arrived in Santorini late in the afternoon and checked into our lovely hotel.  The owner was very confused by us.  She didn’t get that we like hiking and physical activities or the vegetarian thing and she made her skepticism clear as day. 

We went out to a beach side restaurant for dinner and asked the waiter to heat up Katie’s Kosher meal because she “has severe allergies” and needs to bring her own food. They were extremely nice and accommodating and agreed to the strange request.  The waiter felt really bad for her and kept trying to help her find things on the menu that she could eat.  Then, he brought us complementary drinks with dessert and commented that should isn’t allergic to alcohol.  Unfortunately the drink had grenadine in it and Katie explained that its one of her “allergies.”   I took one for the team.

The next day, we woke early and went to Fira, the main city in Santorini, for a boat tour to a volcano.  We got lost on our way and were escorted across the city by a Greek man who showed us a short cut and then told us where he would be if we needed his help later.  We were given the directions to the cable car that would take us down to the port but as Schlussel women, we decided to hike down instead.  We climbed the still-active volcano and felt the heat from in the rocks. 

After descending, the boat took us to natural hot springs and we swam around and rubbed mineral mud all over our bodies.  They say its good for you and we’d like to believe them. 

The boat returned us to the Fira port and we rode donkeys back up to the city.  Our donkeys must have sensed our sibling relationship because they had some sort of rivalry and fought to get ahead of each other.  Scary, but fun! 

Next on the itinerary was visiting the black and red beaches that Santorini is famous for.  Unfortunately, the public transportation on these Greek islands isn’t great and we were talked into renting a car for the day. Let’s just say it was scarier than riding fighting donkeys! We drove up, down, and around cliffs and at times, we were sure that our little red car that started rolling backwards wouldn’t make it up.  But despite our pessimism, our little red car could.   The good news? The beaches were beautiful and we made it back in one piece (or 2 if you count us as separate people despite the fact that we have started speaking in unison). 

We made it back in time for Shabbas with minutes to spare to Skype some important people.  The Kosher food we schlepped from Chabad Athens made the journey successfully and we enjoyed a very pleasant Shabbat dinner in our hotel room kitchenette.  Unfortunately, we forgot to turn the refrigerator on before putting the rest of it away and Shabbat lunch was less successful. 

On Shabbat, we relaxed by the pool and on the black beach down the block. As Ronnie and Marc’s daughters we were compelled to take a hike when the sun went down so we climbed a steep mountain for panoramic views of Santorini.  Katie is somewhat like a mountain goat in several ways and one of which required me to scramble of the mountain at top speed to keep up.

Our time in Santorini came to an end so we squeezed in our last hours on the black rocky beach before our ferry to Mykonos.  Once on the ferry, we found a place that we considered more appropriate for us in first class and were slick enough not to get caught.  We disturbed those foolish enough to pay for the special seats by watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and losing ourselves to uncontrollable laughter despite having seen the movie many times.  I guess we aren’t as slick as we think.  And fun fact: Tula’s family in the movie is from Mykonos! A perfect introduction to our next stop.