A Very White New Year's Eve!

Happy 2010! We just returned from Stockholm yesterday (around 1:30 am), after a wonderful 4-night stay with our friends, Ingrid and David. Brandina and Ingrid met three years ago, at a hostel in San Sebastian, Spain, and have kept in touch since (ironically, Ingrid is also from Northern California...in fact, we discovered on this trip that Bryan knows some of Ingrid's friends from high school! Such a small world.). We instantly reconnected upon our arrival in Stockholm, and spent a fun-filled week of walking through the city, taking photos, playing cards, eating new foods (banana curry pizza?!...delicious), and celebrating New Year's Eve. We can't thank them enough for their hospitality, generosity, and wonderful company!

Though Stockholm is only a 2-hour flight from London, the travel time from our flat in London to their apartment in Stockholm is about 10 hours - it requires a tube/city bus ride to the nearest large station, a one-hour bus ride to the airport outside London (all of London's airports are a bit of a distance from the city center), the standard waiting and what not at the airport including the hurry up and wait queues that Londoners love, in addition to the always fun customs routine, a 2-hour flight, another bout with customs in Stockholm, a 90-minute bus ride from the Stockholm Skavsta airport to the city's central station (T-Centralen), and then another subway/city bus ride to their apartment....and of course, the same route on the way home. Fortunately, the public transportation for this adventure was all quite easy to navigate, and thanks to all of you who kept your fingers crossed for the weather, we were lucky to have very nice weather throughout the week, on both traveling days as well.

We learned a great deal about the city of Stockholm from both Ingrid and David. Being that David is Swedish, and both have lived in the city together for some time, we were able to tour around and learn about the city from a more local perspective, which was quite different than our other city trips, which typically involve the classic "tourist with a map image" and trying to ask for directions in another language! The city of Stockholm actually consists of 14 different islands, connected with bridges, each island with its own personality. Stockholm is definitely much colder than London (which we had prepared for and subsequently had to pay for in extra luggage weight), and only has about 6 hours of daylight at this time of year (similar to Alaska). That being said, the city is absolutely gorgeous with all of its snow, and oftentimes felt like a winter resort destination, with crisp air and stunning views.

As usual, we took A LOT of photos...so we've included just a selection for the blog. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

VASA MUSEUM, Island of Djurgarden
The Vasa Museum, home to the 17-th century Swedish warship, the Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in the harbor. After over 300 years of remaining at the bottom of the harbor, being preserved by the polluted water (which has this effect because of the lack of oxygen), the ship was raised in the 1960's and fully restored. Ironically, now that the ship is out of the water, it is decaying much faster, exposed to oxygen and light; scientists around the world are working to figure out ways to preserve the ship. The Vasa itself is literally breathtaking, unlike any other museum artifact we've ever seen:

GAMLA STAN (OLD TOWN), Island of Stadsholmen
Vasterlanggatan, Main Shopping Street:

Stortorget, Main Square of Gamla Stan
Oldest Square of Stockholm, site of the Stockholm Massacre in 1520. In the second photo below, you can see a canon ball still embedded in the corner of a building in the square:

View of National Museum:

Near the Royal Palace:


Walking from Gamla Stan to T-Centralen, on Drottninggatan:

ISLAND OF KUNGSHOLMEN,
where David & Ingrid live
Photos taken at dusk, depicting a true Winter Wonderland:

Photos taken during a walk along the water, depicting a gorgeous contrast between the wintery white surroundings, and the colors of the city (note: these photos were taken with a completely normal camera setting, despite looking like black and white backgrounds!):

NEW YEAR'S EVE
We spent New Year's Eve at David's friend's house, where we had a traditional three-course Swedish dinner, danced, and played cards, ultimately walking back to Kungsholmen to view the city's firework displays! Quite a picturesque New Year's Eve, especially with the snowflakes and fireworks caught on camera:

Cheers to a wonderful start to 2010! Sending you all best wishes for the new year!

-Brandina & Bryan

"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." - T.S. Eliot

Snow Showers

Hello all!

It's been snowing in London over the past week, and it's been absolutely gorgeous! The snow isn't really sticking much, except on grass or car roofs...but it has been chilly and crisp outside, and nothing could be better on the holidays than a few light snow showers! The weather reports here in the newspaper have used words such "raw" and "bitterly cold." :). Fortunately, the actual city of London hasn't seen the debilitating snow that other cities in the UK have been receiving. Bryan and I worked out in Kensington Gardens last week, when a snow shower happened to roll in (literally roll in...went from sunny to snowing in a matter of minutes, and then returned to sunny). I was taken by this overwhelming sense of peace and happiness, so much so that I actually teared up during my workout! The snowy air felt so refreshing (I know I know...I really am a Northern California girl), the snow was absolutely gorgeous, the park is so pristine and lovely, and I just couldn't stop smiling (despite the fact that I could not feel my fingers or toes!).

For those of you who follow the blog, and recall the entry last month about life and its lemons...we've since moved from our leaky flat. It only took one heavy rain fall, after the roofers allegedly replaced the roof above our flat, for the leaks to return! The timing to move unfortunately coincided with Bryan and his brother's trip to Amsterdam, so while they were out of town, I moved us into the new flat. Our new place is in the same neighborhood, about one block away from the previous flat...thus, I made about seven trips between the two locations, carrying our belongings. In case you were wondering, our new flat is also on the top floor (technically the 5th level). Which means...with approximately 90 steps up to each flat, I climbed over 1,000 stairs on moving day (with pounds and pounds of stuff in my hands and strapped around my shoulders)! That being said, we are very happy with our new place! Compared to the leaky flat....our new place is quite a bit warmer, no leaks, has a separate toilet/shower room, has better internet, has a full size couch, a bigger tv (Bryan measured), is on a quieter street, and is located in a slightly nicer building overall. Our next door neighbor even sings and plays the guitar...free entertainment anyone (think VERY thin walls)? Everything happens for a reason, right? See video below, for a tour of our new flat, along with some recent snowfall:





A few fun things...

-Our three-year dating anniversary was on December 8th...we celebrated by visiting Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, an enormous festival that runs for the entire month of December. Think county fair meets Christmas market - amazing food, craft stalls, German pubs, holiday lights, and ice skating!

Ice Skating Rink

Festive Candies

German Meat! (AWESOME chicken sausages)

This one is for you Rosie :).

-Despite only having a microwave/convectional oven, I have figured out how to make my brownies (with Cadbury chocolate instead of Hershey's of course)! We've become friends with the handyman in our building, and after leaving here last week with his plateful of brownies for the holidays, he sent Bryan the following text message: "Holy crap, you weren't lying. These are amazing!" Note that we received the text message about 30 seconds after he left our flat...he confessed later that he was already on his second brownie before he reached the ground floor! :)

-We've begun making some friends here, which is wonderful. Through friends of friends and other random connections, we have been meeting other people our age, and starting to feel more settled in that regard. We miss all of our friends from the U.S. dearly...so thanks to all of you who have been so fabulous about keeping in touch, emailing, sending holiday cards, and late-night skyping!

-Thanks to the expert advice of Jen, our friend in London (who is the niece of Brandina's parents' neighbor in Hawaii), we have finally found some legitimate Mexican food! The restaurant, Chilango, is a very close rival to Chipotle, with excellent guacamole and awesome burritos. And, when we say awesome...we mean that we have been twice in the past week. Keep in mind that it is about a 30-minute commute, door to door, with the tube. But SO worth the trip! So...while it is no San Diego Mexican food...it definitely satisfies the craving, and debunks yet another myth about London - excellent Mexican food does indeed exist in this city!

-Despite the relative ease and convenience of the tube, Brandina has become a HUGE proponent of the city's bus system. After initially being rather overwhelmed by the extensive bus system and rather intricate maps (over 8,000 city buses in total), the bus system has turned out to be well worth the extra effort. In general, the buses tend to be less crowded, less hot and stuffy, and overall, quite a pleasant trip, enabling you to actually see how neighborhoods and areas in the city are connected. The bus system does usually take extra time though, especially during rush-hour traffic and when traveling down particularly busy streets. This picture below is just a sample of the bus routes in our immediate vicinity...imagine what one of these maps looks like with bus routes for the entire city!

(numbers indicate buses, brackets indicate start and termination points for each route, station colors indicate fare zones, width of the road indicates frequency of the buses on that road...)

-We are still applying to jobs at full speed...have had a couple of interviews, but nothing has worked out yet. We're hoping this means that the right jobs are around the corner...perhaps after the holidays?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of our friends and family! We hope that all of you are enjoying the holidays in your respective worldly locations. We will be spending Christmas here in London, with Brandina's friend Kelli (friend from college, who is in town for work), by cooking a HUGE dinner and watching movies. Then off to Sweden on the 28th for a four-night jaunt, to spend New Year's with Brandina's friend Ingrid, and her husband David, who live in Stockholm! We are definitely stocking up on thick socks, leg warmers, and scarves. Good thing ear muffs are back in style! Keep your fingers crossed for us that the airport closures just outside London, due to snow, let up just a bit for our flights next week!

Love to you all! Happy Holidays!

-Brandina & Bryan

P.S....Ellen, we went to our first quiz night on Sunday! Came in 6th place out of 10 teams...not too bad huh?

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again. ~Bill Morgan, Jr.

Broers

Some of you may know that my brother, Michael, is studying abroad in Tel Aviv right now. And we all know, studying abroad is a great excuse to travel as much as you can. So before we even started planning where we'd meet up while both overseas, he chose Amsterdam. Fitting since he was turning 21, even though that birthday isn't quite as glamorous as it in the U.S. Michael first came to visit us in London for about a week during Thanksgiving, but thanks to our generous cousins, he only had to sleep on our wood floor for three nights.

Before I go on, just a few thoughts on Turkey Day here. We didn't see many ads for Thanksgiving leading up to the holiday, besides a butcher selling turkeys, with a poster telling the story of the pilgrims in the window. This also means that they don't need to wait for Thanksgiving to end, to start the holiday festivity preparations, marketing, and sales (though it seems like the U.S. doesn't wait much anymore either). And sorry ladies, there is no black friday here---the UK's big sales are after New Years. It does feel a bit ironic celebrating a day, that was essentially the beginning of the end of the British rule of us Yankees, but we managed to gorge ourselves none-the-less. Fourteen of us had a huge feast at our cousins, then we forced ourselves to grab a few drinks at one of the local pubs.

On to Amsterdam! Brandina decided to sit this one out to let my brother and I have some bonding time together. Besides--we'll go back another time for a more romantic Amsterdam trip, more along the lines of frolicking in the tulips...seriously. Amsterdam loves their museums---we saw the Van Gogh Musuem, Anne Frank's House, the Torture Museum, the Hash Museum, etc. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in the museums, so most of my pics are of the city itself, which lends itself to some great photos though. I never realized how aesthetic of a city Amsterdam is---a city of canals with classic architecture of a historic facade. It really is a picturesque city. Some highlights through photos...

One of the many "coffee" shops....

Apparently marijuana is not legal in Amsterdam, but merely "tolerated." While they would like to make it "legal," political pressure from other countries have forced them to use this terminology. That said, each coffee shop sells their own brands and plenty of treats too, along with tea and of course, coffee. It's a very regulated environment though---no alcohol is allowed in coffee shops, but at the same time it's very laid back, as you'd imagine. It's a fun place to escape the cold for some tea, cards, etc.

Our tour of the Heineken Brewery or as they say, "The Heineken Experience." The tour included a full game room, so we couldn't resist a classic game of foosball, where I proceeded to show Michael that I haven't lost my touch. While you'd probably guess that they serve Heineken in all of their bars, you may not know that it's often the ONLY beer they serve...but you can't beat the price--€2.50 a pint!

Dam Square (left) is one of the central areas of Amsterdam. The more we walked around, the smaller the city felt, and we generally used Dam Square as our point of reference. The infamous Red Light District is just around the corner. Leidsplein (right) is another central area and is where we stayed. They have plenty of bars, clubs, coffee shops, and restaurants, not to mention a few fresh waffle stands for those late nights back to the hotel room.

Known as "Venice of the North," Amsterdam has more then 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) of canals, with about 90 Islands and 1500 bridges. We were literally walking near a canal on every block. I felt like we should have been getting around by row boat, instead of foot.

One day we decided to follow the Amstel River (left) throughout the city. We probably chose the wrong day, as the temperature was in the low 30's and our hands became painfully cold every time we took them out of our pockets to take a picture. None-the-less, it was a fun walk and a great way to explore Amsterdam. Besides canals, coffee shops, and the Red Light District, Amsterdam is well known for their tulips. During the spring you can tour their vast fields of blooming tulips, but during the winter, the floating flower market will have to suffice. We stumbled upon the market on our walk. I was experimenting with my camera settings for the picture above (right)

Even though Michael has been drinking since high scho...I mean Tel Aviv, where the drinking age is 18, I made sure his 21st was a special one. We decided to do a little pub crawl, stopping in all of the bars we saw on our way to Leidsplein. The picture on the left is the 1st bar and the one on the right is the 5th bar, as he so eloquently shows us. We actually only made it to 6 bars, (1) because we stayed at one that had €1.60 pints for quite a while, and (2) because Michael barely made it to midnight. To his credit the night started around 7pm, but I wasn't going to let him get this far, and then miss his own 21st! He did push through though, barely--as the clock struck 12, we were eating some pizza on our way back to the room, then he promptly hit the pillow, mid-swallow I think. Happy 21st Birthday Michael!

The picture on the left is an example of Amsterdam's picturesque architecture, and that is just the train station--Central Station--where we arrived and left from. We learned that bikes are a huge part of Amsterdam. This was just one of four pictures of this massive "bicycle garage" by Central Station. While I totally appreciate the idea of less cars on the road, we couldn't quite figure out how bikes became so popular in a very cold and wet city, that not only has a decent public transportation system, but also didn't appear to have very much traffic. We quickly learned though to watch out for cyclists more than cars...Brad, you would love it....

Below are some of my other favorite pics from the trip.

It was great being able to meet up with Michael in another country, then traveling together. I can't believe he's 21 already. It seems like just yesterday when he'd run up to me as a pesky little 8 year old, to try and hit me---then I'd proceed to show him who's older by wrestling him to the ground. These days Michael is a smart, funny, young man, adept at discussing politics, religion, sports, or his passion for film. He's also now the taller one (though I could still take him to the ground if need be), but I remind him who's older by consistently beating him in foosball, cards, or whatever else he throws my way. Some things never change I guess.....

-Bryan

"It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea." ~Dylan Thomas

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." ~Marc Brown

"The Chunnel Chat"

While "The Chunnel Chat" didn't quite make the cut as our blog name, it is fitting for tonight's new entry. Today, we stuck the first official pin in our European wall map (well, aside from the London pin of course)...PARIS! We just returned, via train (through the Chunnel) from a lovely, jam-packed, 3-day jaunt to the City of Lights.

First and foremost, THANK YOU CLAIRE for your wonderful suggestions. Brandina's friend, Claire, studied abroad in Paris for a year in college, and was kind enough to share some wonderful insider tips about the city. We are not exaggerating when we say that we literally carried around her email as our guidebook :). Who needs Rick Steves anyway!

A few of our highlights in photos:

At the base of Sacre Couer in Montmartre, with an expansive view of Paris behind us.


A street performer at Sacre Coeur - yes, that is a pencil in his mouth, and the soccer ball on top is spinning. And yes, he climbed that pole with the pencil and ball in action. Just one of his many, very impressive soccer tricks. Bryan was mesmerized :).


At the Louvre, to see the classics - Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Hammurabi's Code...our favorite exhibit was the Napoleon Apartments, where we each took several photos of regal chandeliers, tapestry, furniture, etc.


Fudge - and lots of it! On the 3-mile walk from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe (Claire's favorite walk in the city), along the Champs de Elysees, we encountered a fabulous holiday street market, with vendors selling everything imaginable - scarves, mulled wine, candy, jewelery, Santa hats, and of course...fudge :).

The Eiffel Tower at night.

View of the Seine River, from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (we were not able to go to the top, as it was closed due to extreme wind conditions). Turns out the 2nd floor was plenty high for our liking anyway! Definitely the City of Lights.


Our favorite photo from the trip. Timeless and classy on the Eiffel Tower.


A Swiss dinner, at Le Brasier des Ternes, one of Claire's excellent recommendations. The meal consists of thinly sliced steak, ham slices, and cheese, which you cook over the tiny black grill, built into the table at the end. Dishes of basil and other seasonings are available as well, so each piece of meat can be seasoned to your own taste. The dish comes with a baked potato and fresh sliced bread, to make every combination you can imagine - mini cheese-steak sandwiches, baked potato with ham and cheese, bread slices with dripping hot cheese...etc. It was absolutely delicious, and satisfied Bryan's grilling withdrawals! Considering that we walked miles and miles each day, hearty and filling meals were key.

Outside Notre Dame.


Inside Notre Dame - a photographer's dream.


Pont Neuf, with a view of the Eiffel Tower in the background. Likely to become part of our "Bridge Series" of framed photography...someday. We are beginning to brainstorm all the series of photos we hope to have printed and framed in the future - bridges, cafes, meals, etc.

French pastries - EVERYWHERE! We did indulge in delicious Nutella-filled crepes.


A student protest, in the Latin Quarter. One of three student protests that we encountered in about two hours! We asked a nearby store owner what they were protesting about and he simply rolled his eyes and said, "ahh, manifestacion..."


Dinner in the Bastille area, with Bryan's college friend Mike, and his wife Morgan, who were visiting family in Paris for Thanksgiving. We had wine and cheese at their flat, took a long stroll throughout the city, and had a late Lebanese dinner. There is definitely something uniquely special about being with close friends in a new country. Mike & Morgan - thanks for inspiring our Paris jaunt!

-Brandina & Bryan

"An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris." - Friedrich Nietzsche