Month: December 2016

Other Countries / Tourism

Wieners Out

There was a very specific thing that drew us to Austria at Christmastime, which we will get to in the next post, but it is also wonderful to have friends all over the world and Vienna is no exception. Thus, this trip took on a dual purpose. My friend Phil – who I had met up with only one other time in Chicago when we were both in our teens – was a great host, showing us all Vienna had to offer. He certainly gave me the grand culinary tour. As we have found, it is great to know locals

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Food / Other Countries / Travel Stories

Swiss Efficiency

…and on to our trip to Austria! But not before a 12-hour layover in Zürich, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Needless to say, we were impressed with that Swiss efficiency from the moment we boarded the plane. When the pilot on Swiss International Airlines tells you it will be one minute until takeoff or ten minutes until landing, you can literally set your watch to it. I tried many different times and they were never wrong. Ten minutes on the dot from announcement to wheels on the ground, each and every time. This still fascinates me. When we told our

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Tourism / Valencia

Bioparc Valencia

We spent a weekend in Valencia with our rental car, taking in things we couldn’t get to by train, without having to worry about when the last train was. Besides the requisite tiki bar, we decided on our last day there to explore what you Yanks might call an open-air zoo. The Bioparc lives up to the promise: none of the animals are behind bars at all, and the environments seem pretty natural. Me? I enjoyed brushing up on my Spanish vocabulary, learning names of animals I probably would not know otherwise. I mean, doesn’t suricata just sound like it belongs in the middle of

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Strolling / Tourism / Valencia

Weekend in Valencia

Rental car in hand, a few weeks ago we decided to finally bite the bullet and spend a weekend in Valencia without worrying about train schedules and such. The big city is so close, yet so far away when dealing with public transit (just 1 hour from us). This time, we got a hotel for a couple of nights so we could really explore. One of the sights we’d been trying to see for a while now was La Lonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange), a mercantile exchange built between 1482 and 1548. The Gothic architecture is pretty stunning. According to Wikipedia (we

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Burriana / Holidays

Thanksgiving in Spain

Thanksgiving – that most American of holidays – is not celebrated in Spain. Working remotely for an American company, I got to enjoy the day off while Dreamer had to work on Thursday. Finally, retribution for all those Spanish holidays she rubbed in my face! We had decided earlier on, though – like, practically when we arrived here – that we wanted to show our new Spanish friends a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. And thus, our plans for celebrating Día de Acción de Gracias were launched. To comply with the Spanish work schedule, we had our feast at 4pm on the Saturday afternoon following

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Burriana / Las Fallas / Spotted Abroad / Strolling

What’s with all the parades, fancy dresses, and fireworks?

Ever since we moved to the small Spanish city of Burriana, we have been stumbling upon longstanding cultural traditions almost every time we leave our building. Our first week here coincided with an annual festival which includes bulls running through the streets; and while I had promised myself I would never watch any bull spectacles, that resolve quickly disappeared when we needed to go to the city hall, and found bulls running in front of said hall. It was an intense week – even when we stayed home, we could hear cannons, fireworks, music, and general merrymaking from our abode.

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