Obrigado!!

Just wanted to drop by and say thanks to everyone!!! Including but not limited to:

• Jason for keeping this blog alive and kicking and for all the memories
  
• Our parents for putting up with this/mustering up untold levels of support
  
• All our hosts as listed by jphan
  
• Hongdae Guesthouse/Mary Wang/Mary's daughter's muffin recipe.
  
• JLC: for all blog consultations, google mapping, trip planning, and for somehow waiting for me for TREKKK!
• Phoebe for teaching me the ropes of Junior Monopoly
• Julian for teaching me to appreciate life through many a 200 km/h near-death countryside driving experience
  
• Buster the Black Lab for providing pillow services in a pinch
• Hostel Brothers for the cake and beer
• Hassan from Sunshine for his infinite wisdom
• Anthony and Ruby for the Beijing tour
• Switzerland ... for nothing
• Germany for your sandwiches and wealth of doner kebab
  
• The Knight Residence for broadcasting TNG
• Congee ... just for being you
• Spain for the quasi-tan
• Portugal for the homecoming

and everybody for reading!!!

Last Blog!!

At the airport on the way back to LA. Its crazy how fast this trip has flown by, and it seems like yesterday when Dan and I were daydreaming away the details of this trip in his Sansom West apartment. Its been an incredible journey...or more appropriately, a whirlwind adventure filled with lots of random and unexpected twists and turns. There have been lots of great memories, and, of course, some easily forgettable ones (and definitely those that we vow to never talk about again). I've had a really great time exploring new places and experiencing new cultures. It was also really fun to meet random cool people and reconnect with old friends.

I've put together a list of some notable points of our trip:

Favorite buildings:
-Dom (Cologne, Germany)
-Blue mosque (Istanbul, Turkey)
-Alhambra (Granada, Spain)

Best scenic views:
-Sagres (Portugal)
-Yueliang shan in Yangshuo (China)

Epic failures:
-The car in Barcelona
-Regensburg/Munich
-Switzerland (yes, the entire country)
-Shanghai

Food:
-Samgyeopsal (Korea)
-Kro's nest (Beijing)
-Shengjian baos (Shanghai)
-Tongyi Lucha (China)
-Doner Kabobs and Kofta (uhh....everywhere)
-Currywursts (Dusseldorf and Berlin)
-Pasties (UK)
-Francesinha (Porto)
-Bifsteaks (Portugal)
-Iskender kabob (only the one in Selcuk, Turkey)
-Lahmacun (Turkey)

Foreign phrases:
-Mitfahrgelegenheit
-Hauptbahnhopf
-Tschussy
-Inshallah
-Otogar
-Quid
-Kuai

Best Hostels:
-Hongdae Guesthouse (Seoul) -- Mary was the best hostel lady/owner ever!!!
-Brother's Hostel (Cairo) --Muhammed, Mustafa and Ahmed were incredibly nice and awesome....they even bought Dan a birthday cake
-Lisbon hostels: traveler's house and lisbon lounge ...they're like the top ten in the world on hostelworld.com...amazing service, ridiculously clean, great location
-Overnight trains... okay, these don't count, but I did have some of my best night's sleep on these

Worst Hostels:
-one of them in Munich (hella drunk teenage kids running around everywhere)
-all of our Barcelona hostels (lots and lots of elementary school kids running up and down the hallways)
-our Aswan and Luxor hostels (not the cleanest, no hot water)

Least heterosexual moments with each other:
-Night date up to Namsan Mountain
-Dinner and river cruise on the nile
-Bamboo raft ride in Yangshuo
-Sharing beds all around the world
-Moonlight walks

Amazing people we either met or met up with (in chronological order):
Seong eun
Park yoon
Justin
Anthony
Ruby
Chi
Calvin
Tim
Emily
Yin
Jens
Alison
Robin
Anton
Claudia
Julian
Sarah
Phoebe
Chi (again)
Jan
Max
Camilla

So, I'm sad to say this, but this is probably the last blog entry for this site. Its been fun and I hope that all of you out there have also enjoyed your time here!

Third one!

Ugh I feel so gross now =(

Just ate another one!

Incredible! This one had an egg sitting on top of it, made it so much better.

Francezinha

My new fav dish. Its a Porto specialty....imagine a grilled cheese sandwich, except stuffed with beef, chicken, and chorizo. Then topped with this tomato-y sauce, and even more melted cheese on top. Oh yeah, surrounded by fries too. Absolutely incredible....and probably a one-way ticket to a clogged artery. =)

Damn we must be lucky charms!

Deja vu!

Dan and I got into Porto today, a nice little city right on a riverbank. So we hear about this game tonight, FC Porto vs Nacional. We go out for a walk and see this random outdoor tv, so we sit on the ground and start to watch the first half....Porto scores and is up by one.

It starts to rain so we relocate to a random Portuguese bar. Porto wins! The place erupts and it empties. As we're walking out, I'm joking with Dan, "haha this'll be funny if there were a riot too..."

We step outside, and..... There's a riot.

Granted, it wasn't as crazy as Barca....no bonfires, flares, and craziness....but apparently with that win, Porto had just won the championships in the Portuguese league!!

We must really be good luck charms, eh?

On the edge of the world!

Picture from Sangra...quite literally on the edge of the world! Look at a map of Portugal, and its on the southwesternmost tip...and by default, the corner of all of Europe. Quite cool.

So we left Spain today! It was a really really beautiful country:

Granada was awesome...the Alhambra (no, not the city in LA) was gorgeous! The Nasrid palace in particular was spectacular, a combination of islamic/moorish styles with Spanish styles, with ornate carvings and mosaics.

Sevilla was my favorite Spanish city. Its got a very quaint downtown with lots of hidden cobblestone alleyways...its really cool to wander in and just get lost and immersed in everything. Plus its got a really cool looking cathedral that towers over the city.

Oh man, as of right now, we have exactly one more week left!!!