Guiri Things in a Guiri City

Definition: Guiri (wordreference.com)

The term Guiri to describe the stereotypical tourist from Northern Europe and the Anglo-Saxon sphere was prominent from the 1970s to the 1990s, when coaches and cars used to flood to the Spanish beaches every year. This red-faced tourist who drinks beer in the hot sun, is now described as a "Langosta" (Lobster) which replaced the term guiri in the early part of 2000. This was also due to the term guiri being understood by regular tourists and the need for another term which was unfamiliar and could be used to talk about the tourists in secret by those working the restaurants and bars of the coast (Costa) of Spain.

Guiris are normally guilty for: (collection of internet searches and my own insight)
1) Socks in Sandals
2 Speaking unnecessarily loud in public (and in English)
3) Eating and Going out at non-spanish times.
4) Holding large maps at street corners, blocking pedestrian traffic
5) Sunburnt skin
6) Backpacks worn in the front of your body
7) Eating while walking/ on the metro
8) Public drunkenness

After some intense research of about 5 minutes, I've concluded that I myself, a pale skinned, tall blonde from Long Island, am not a guiri; however, sometimes I can be caught doing "guiri" things, or as I prefer to call them "typical espanish" things.


This past week, was a super guiri week. My parents came to visit, so of course we did all things "typical espanish" so I could show them some typical spanish life, and some guiri life.


We were not wearing socks and sandals, we ate at normal spanish hours, we were never caught with maps or backpacks, we avoided eating on the metro and while walking, and no one got a sunburn. But ok fine, maybe we spoke English loudly.

some giggles, celebrating a GOL at estadio Bernabeu, Fan Park

Taking pictures of our food: gazpacho and Rabo de Toro next to  the Plaza de Toros (with Sangria, Claro)

Family photos during a Comida

Photos in Plaza de España with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Photo op at Parque de Oeste

A trip on the teleferico

Photos with the oso in Sol

Segovia Aquaduct

Eating Cochinillo in Jose Maria

A morning in the Rastro

Flamenco Show

Templo de Debod- Madrids Egyptian Temple

Alcazar in Segovia

Other Guiri things that we did that I dont have photographic evidence of:

1) A visit to Mercado de San Miguel
2) A large Paella
3) A stroll through Retiro
4) Wining and Dining with good Spanish company
5) A trip to Leroy Merlin for souvenirs... ok a little less guiri a little more pijo ;)

Anyway, as much as I enjoyed my parents short stay, being  Guiri is TIRING! I hope next time they can come for more time so we can do things more casually with less prisa!

More Prague/Budapest

My whole trip was not a nightmare. The trip was actually excellent, and all my travel dreams came true (except for the flurries in Prague)

Eastern Europe was so fun, so different, like a breath of fresh air... with smoke in it. You can still smoke in bars there! It was so strange yet annoying to smell smoke while eating. This is my official thank you to all the officials in Spain, and New York, and anywhere else, for banning smoking in public places. Now if it were banned in the rastro, you could possibly catch me there more than once a year!

Back to my trip and highlights. I got to eat a bagel! It was like a dream come true... and Esteban discovered he's even MORE american because he fell in love with a bagel with peanut butter and jelly!

We visited the largest castle in Europe. Well, half of it. But we aren't one for museums anyway

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We prefer to spend our time checking out the sites, taking in the feeling of the city, and drinking wine.

Cities are just breathtakingly beautiful at night

Im a fan of bridges

Admiring the John Lennon wall- too bad i forgot my pen!

To get to Budapest, we opted for a train. It should have been a 6 hour train ride, but typical eastern europe, it lasted 7 or 7.5 hours. Not too shabby. It was a nice break from walking around all day. And I was ELATED to arrive in Budapest, I had only heard amazing things about the city!  It was very eastern european, to get onto the metro, you had to show the actual guard your ticket, and the metro had funny circus like music that made me kind of happy and want to do a jig.

The hand of St Steven.. an interesting relic

 We never really had a problem with the languge (except at the pharmacy) English, thankfully, was widely accepted, so long as it was a young-ish person you were talking to. The second language of the older generation was German, so no luck with that

Church of San Matias, very beautiful!

Admiring the view from the Fishermans Bastion

Again at night, so gorgeous, I'll never forget it

We went a few times between Buda (very tranquil and calm) and Pest (the hustle and bustle and main part of Budapest) At night in Buda it was like a Ghost town, and Pest was like NY, never asleep filled with people and cars.

We also went to the very typical Thermal Baths. It looks like a palace but it was one of the most confusing experiences of my life, mainly because all signs were in Hungarian, once we finally paid and entered the locker room, we couldnt figure out how to enter the pool! Thank goodness for the young english speaking employee who helped us every 3 minutes with our questions and confusion.

Inside there were heated pools at varied temperatures and saunas. Outside there was a GIGANTIC heated pool with jets and fountains. I'm not a pool person but that was quite enjoyable!

I didn't get a picture because its a pool and I dont like the idea of cameras near water, so here is a picture I borrowed from google images:

Moral of the story: GO TO BUDAPEST

Semana Santa: or The trip that cured my travel bug

Last year, Semana Santa was a pain in the keister. We were 8 or 9 girls all traveling more or less in the same direction, throughout too many cities. I myself flew Valencia to Sevilla, bus day trip to Cordoba, then bus to Granada, took a bus to Malaga to take a flight to Amsterdam, bus to Antwerp then train to Brussels and a flight back to home sweet home Valencia. I was never so happy to arrive in Valencia!

Anyway, for this year, I swore up and down side to side back and forth, that I would not repeat that travel hell.

Well, some parts well hellish, but in the end, it was a fantabulous trip to Eastern Europe. I got to go to two cities I've been ITCHING to go to: Prague and Budapest

Although I had some minor setbacks: pink eye in the right eye, pink eye in the left eye, having to ask for your everyday relief medicine in another strange language, and the loss of my camera... )

Ok let me go back a minute. Although this is slightly embarrassing, it happens to the best of us, and im sure everyone here has a similar story... well maybe thats just wishful thinking... heres my embarrassing travel story:

In the hotel in Budapest, my bowels start to act up a bit after 5 or 6 days of drinking foreign water and eating heavy eastern food filled with sauces and meat. We're getting ready for our last dinner, at a restaurant suggested by the oh so faithful tripadvisor. Dammit... way to ruin a good time.

Well I chug some water and hope for the best. To no avail. Its haunting me. Non stop... I hope you get my drift. Anyway... I didn't want to tell Esteban what was going on, its embarrassing enough to myself alone, and we hadn't gotten that comfortable in our relationshop where I could admit my bathroom troubles to him. So as we pass reception I sneak over to the person at the desk and ask for a pharmacy. 

Now, its 9 pm, pharmacies are not so readily available, and unfortunately Pepto is not sold in your nearest corner store or chino. 

Anyway, I go to the pharmacy and ring the door bell as instructed, and here comes 80 year old Ludmilla to the drive through counter like I'm at a freaking taco bell at 4 am.

I say the dreaded "d" word to this hungarian woman, and she looked at me with that "another freaking tourist" look

Finally, the time had come. I had to admit to Esteban what my problem was, mainly because at this point I was telling off all of the european union and their non 7-elevens nor CVSs 

So he said "no problem" like he always does. Found some wifi, and googled "laxative" oh no honey, that is NOT my problem.... "oh..." he replied and continued to google translate on his phone... we strolled back to the pharmacy, rang the taco bell window, and here came Ludmilla... I took the cell phone, and held it up to her.... her response?

"imodium?' 

Oh, it was that freaking easy, wasn't it.

Anyway, that combined with pink eye and losing my camera made me never want to travel again... its mid june and im still going strong.

When will I break?

Prague Old Town Square

Old Town square Easter market

traditional handmade easter eggs

Golden Lane at Prague Castle, the largest in Europe

Castle by night

Budapest 

enjoying the warm weather

parlament 

wine tasting in the center of the earth it was so deep underground there were no bathrooms! or credit card machines!

Budapest by night, breathtaking

Logroño- Spain's Wine Country

As one of the best birthday gifts ever, I was treated to a weekend in Wine Country, in the city Logroño in La Rioja.

Driving through La Rioja was just "preciosa" I could say. But really, I think its better to visit in late summer/early fall when the grapes are harvesting. In february when we went, you could see how important wine is to the region, but the grape vines were bare. But it seemed that there was probably 20,000 grape vines per inhabitant of La Rioja, or probably more. I could not believe how many grapes this place is capable of growing!

We went out quickly, with ganas of tasting some beautiful wines, which we did, and for very little money. At one bar, this is a conversation between Esteban and a bartender:
Est-"Can we please have the bill?"
Bartender- "Sure, thats 1.60 euros"
Est- "No, but we ordered TWO wines"
Bartender- "Yes, I know"
Est- "1.60 for two wines? um, ok!"

The next day we woke up early, for my big surprise. All I was told was I had to wear something "semi casual" (and this sentence deserves its own blog post...)

Anyway we got into the car and drove about 30 minutes away through what reminded me of Oz and the poppies but was Logroño and the grape vines. We arrived at our destination:

Marques de Riscal Bodega and Vineyards! What a masterpiece sitting in the middle of a bunch of grape vines! It was designed by the same man who designed Bilbao's oh so famous Guggenheim museum. The colors represent the wine. The purple represent the red wines, the silver the white wines, and the other color (i forget what color it is) is the bottle. So poetic. 

We got a wonderful tour of the enormous bodega which also has the most expensive hotel I've ever heard of.  And got some wine tasting in. Then we ran off for our lunch reservation at the 1 star Michelin Restaurant above the hotel.

enjoying a glass of fine white wine

I think they called this the "catedral" or something religious, where they store one bottle of every wine ever made. There are special lights and no flash is allowed. The oldest bottle goes back to the 1800s.

As for lunch, the it consisted of about 7 of the most richest, decadent plates of food I have ever eaten. It was so fancy my purse even got its own chair! But it did make me realize I should probably study fancy restarurantism so I know which fork/knife to use. I was so afraid to make a wrong move! I was also afraid to go to the bathroom since they escort you there. So I sat right where I was.

After lunch, we went up to the terrace for a coffee and to relax and see the beautiful landscape.  Perfection.

I will never forget this trip for as long as I shall live, and I sure have some big shoes to fill next time a birthday rolls around! Suggestions anyone?

Short and Sweet Segovia

So yes, I took quite a long hiatus from blogging. But now Im back and I have a little more to catch up on. 

I've kind of lost my knack for photo taking, especially since I lost my camera in Budapest. And anyway, the photos never turn out as well as the memories inside.

One cold weekend in January, Est swept me up and we made our way to Segovia for a few short hours. After finally getting out of bed and showered and packed, we arrived in Segovia at 4pm. Coffee's were first on our list of things to do. Next, was sampling the wine and tapas.  We quickly marveled at the Aqueduct (don't have a recent pic, as I said, Im a horrible traveler now a days) then we took a stroll through the old center, gazing at the architecture and cuddling as close as possible for warmth as I tried to use him as a barrier from the wind.

We spent the night sampling wine and tapas, and ran back to our hotel before the stroke of midnight 

Sound like a Cindarella story? Close- at least we were at the right castle! It's said that the Alcazar was the inspiration to Cindarellas castle!