Amanda Nespor – Page 2 – Wandering Watsons

Bangkok Quick Stop #1

Hello from Thailand! We made it to Southeast Asia! We landed in Bangkok and had the whole day to explore before getting on a night bus to Southern Thailand. We will be back in Bangkok a few times because most of our buses and flights go via Bangkok, but here is what we did our first day in Thailand!…

We arrived and started walking from the train station at the edge of town to city center. Along the way we came across a mini party in front of a police station. We wandered into the courtyard to see several food stalls, a guy on a stage performing Thai children’s songs, and a bunch of kids and parents dancing! One of the local police officers came up to us and welcomed us with open arms! He was SO excited to see us there! They gave us free food and told us it was a Children’s Day festival. We also had a few older Thai ladies come up to us, welcome us to Thailand, and give us some travel tips. Plus, several people wanted to take pictures with us for some reason haha :) It was a really cool experience and everyone was incredibly nice.

After that, we headed more to the center of town via a tuktuk!

We then got some Thai iced tea and coffee at a little cafe, then explored! We wandered around and went to see the Grand Palace (although we didn’t pay to go inside because it was packed! And because they didn’t allow yoga pants, which I was wearing, oops!), the Reclined Buddha in Wat Pho, and of course have some more delicious street food!

After that we took a nap in a park because we didn’t sleep at all on our red-eye flight the night before, then grabbed a quick dinner and headed to our overnight bus – off to Southern Thailand and the island of Koh Tao!

Budapest – Land of the Trendy Grunge

Next up, we went to Budapest, Hungary which we both really enjoyed!! Our AirBnb was in an awesome location, which was the old jewish ghetto during WWII, and is now surrounded by hip bars and restaurants. Although still cold (23 – 30 degrees) we were able to brave the weather a bit more and explored our neighborhood, the big park nearby, a main square and old castle! We grabbed drinks at a local brewery, and explored one of the traditional ruin pubs. Budapest has many “ruin pubs” which are really old, kind of falling apart buildings that are full of chic, funky decor. They started popping up in the early 2000s when entrepreneurs took over abandoned buildings from their communist era (they were communist until 1989). The ruin pub we went to was Szimpla Kert – it was huge! Inside there were two floors and about 20 different rooms and themes bars plus a cafe, restaurant, coffee area, patisserie, and a big outdoor patio!!

IMG_20160104_210710 — Szimpla Kert Ruin Pub

We also went to a few places to grab a bite to eat that were trendy but in a little bit of a grungy way- think like the mission district in SF! We LOVED this soup place – Bors – and highly recommend it if you ever travel to Budapest. It was a tiny soup cafe, full of funny decor and happy guys who loved working there. After every order taken they chanted something in Hungarian and clapped or high fived. All of the soups we tried (we went there twice :)) were so delicious with a big punch of unique flavor. Yum!

Budapest is full of absolutely beautiful buildings! Everywhere you look, there are stunning old buildings. Castles, government buildings, Turkish baths (read more below!), churches, synagogues, and more! Even most of the ordinary offices and stores had epic old structure. “Wow look at that building! Oh ha, it’s just a pharmacy.” :)

One day we spent several hours at a Turkish bath, a traditional Hungarian past-time. We went to the Széchenyi Baths, the largest bath, & it was huge! There were about 20 different indoor hottubs and pools of various warm/hot temperatures, about 15 different saunas and steam rooms (some with aromas – like the chamomile steam room), and a few plunge pools for a quick cold dip after sweating in the saunas. There was also a gym, message area and nail salon. Plus, there are 4 outdoor heated pools, one of them with a huge whirlpool (so fun). We spent about half a day at the baths and it was a great experience!

Budapest was our last destination in Europe, goodbye Europe! We spent an evening talking about all our favorites, best and worsts of the trip. It was a fun way to wrap up being in there. Asking each other what the best meal was? Nicest people? Most “wow” moment? City that didn’t meet your expectations? City that exceeded your expectations? Worst travel experience? Best apartment? Etc.

Europe you were amazing! Next up… Asia!

Austria – Snowy and Cold!

After spending New Years in Prague, we headed to Vienna, Austria. Unfortunately we don’t have too much to report back because Austria was SO COLD!!! 17 degrees! We did not have the right gear, so even though we wore layers and layers of clothes, we could still only last a few blocks outside. One day we attempted to walk around and just popped into a store about every block or two to pretend to shop, haha. Another day we decided to “cafe hop” from small coffee shop to small coffee shop. I’ve heard Vienna is a beautiful place, but in the snow and biting cold wind we didn’t see much of it, oh well!

We decided while quickly walking from warm place to warm place that we aren’t cut out for living in cold weather. So, while in Vienna, we more or less cut Colorado from our list of places we’d enjoy living… great hot chocolate though :)

IMG_20160102_164605 — Yummy hot cocoa from a cafe in Vienna

Christmas & New Years with the Nespors!

We were fortunate enough to have Amanda’s family meet us in Europe for the holidays! It was so great to see them! Colleen, Jeff, Chris and Jack all flew out and met us in Frankfurt. Then, after 3 days there, we all took a train into the Czech Republic and spent 7 days in Prague. Prague was amazing! Here are some pictures from Christmas, New Years, and our time with family!

IMG_20151224_211324 — They arrived in Frankfurt on Christmas eve, Eric and I had a delicious traditional German meal waiting for them: schnitzel and spatzle! Then we all decorated some homemade Christmas sugar cookies – yumm!

IMG_20151225_143609 — Christmas day family pic in old town Frankfurt!

After Christmas in Frankfurt, we took a nice train ride to Prague. Prague is beautiful! We had a great time walking around and exploring the city. Plus, one day we rented a car and drive to the small Czech town of Osík – which is where the Nespor name originated way back in the mid-1600s!! My grandpa has done a ton of research and has a huge, 8 generation family tree mapped out. He has also found out the town and the house our ancestors lived in! About 2 hours outside of Prague we found Osík, a TINY town, which was along a beautiful river. It was really neat being in the same town, on the same paths, looking at the same house, as my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents and their families. What a neat experience!

DSC_0035 copy — In front of Osík 8 – our ancestors house!

But my favorite part of Prague was New Years! We started the evening at Lokal, a long beer hall. Perfect for a few tasty beers to start the night. Then we made our way to a pub called The Beer Museum, where we played a lot of card games and dice. We taught our parents how to play the dice game Three Man! From there we made our way to the main square of Old Town Prague (aka Prague 1). The square was packed, there was live music, a huge Christmas tree and several gorgeous, lit up buildings. The best part though? It was snowing!! We got to ring in the new year dancing in the snow surrounded by castle-like towers and fireworks. Amazing!!

Thanks again to the Nespors for visiting us in Europe, we had a great time with you!! :)

Small Travel Mishap

Hello! I’m writing this from Frankfurt – we made it! We’ve been here two days, but had a little mishap getting here. Our plane from Lisbon, Portugal to Frankfurt was at first delayed, then cancelled! They rescheduled it for the next day. Luckily they put us up in a hotel and took care of all the transportation to and from the airport. Phew! It was quite a day, full of waiting, many lines, and trying to figure out what was going on, when all the announcements were in Portugese haha. But, the important thing is that we made it! We even were able to go to the Christmas market in Frankfurt (which was huge and amazing!!) later that evening.

Now Christmas with the Nespor family, yay! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

Happy and in Frankfurt at the Christmas Market! :)

Lagos, Portugal

Olá from Portugal! Eric and I have spent the last week in Lagos, a quite beach town on the Southern end of Portugal. It has been so relaxing here! Lagos has an absolutely stunning coastline – so it’s hard not to want to be outside in the nature all day. We explored by day (hike, run, walk, mountain bike etc.) and most nights just cooked dinner together, sat by the fireplace and enjoyed each others company. Plus, we finally had an oven! So I did some baking :) yum!

We stayed on a little “Quinta” or ranch during our time in Lagos, which was a neat experience! We awoke to a rooster every morning, had fresh eggs from the chickens running around the property and could say hello to many goats and dogs each day. As a town, Lagos was pretty sleepy – I think it’s a major summer tourist town, so many things were closed. But the nature, views, and outdoor activities couldn’t be beat! Next up… Lisbon!

Run/Hike to watch the sunrise on our last day in Lagos

Pictures of Nerja!

I wandered around the town the other day and took some photos – check ’em out! :)

Locals living on the beach – Playa de Salón

Local fisherman boats at La Playa de Salón

Homemade Cioppino!

A night in our Nerja apartment making Cioppino! We bought fresh muscles, clams, shrimp, and swordfish from the market and made this delicious dinner! Served with some fresh whole-grain bread (“pan integral” en español) from the bakery around the corner – yum!

PS: Did you know that Cioppino originated in San Francisco?? I had no clue, would have guessed somewhere in Italy! You learn something new every day ;)

Rio Chillar, Nerja!

We have now been in Nerja, Spain for just over a week! Nerja is a beautiful beach town on the coast of Southern Spain. We decided to rent an apartment and stay here for just over a month. We are one week in and loving it!

Saturday we went for a hike up the Rio Chillar – it was SO COOL! Eric and I agreed that it was one of the coolest hikes we’ve ever been on. You hike up the river! It starts as a really wide river-bed with just a stream of water. The river gets narrower and the water flow increases until you are hiking completely upstream, climbing up small waterfalls and wading in the water. After about 6 miles up the Chillar, we hiked up a pretty hidden trail that leads to an aqueduct. Then you hike on the aqueduct for about 5 miles before a 1 mile steep decent back to the river. Including the walk to the trailhead – we traveled about 15 miles! (Thus the all you can eat Brazilian restaurant for dinner haha :) 6 sides and 10 different types of meat that they bring to your table on skewers!)

Here are some pictures from our amazing time on the Rio Chillar!

IMG_20151107_120655 — Eric climbed into the bottom cave and up into the top one

IMG_20151107_124222 — Towards the beginning of the hike – the first of many waterfalls we found

IMG_20151107_123151 — Hiking up the river!

Little waterfall into a swimming hole, which we may or may not have skinny dipped into…

IMG_20151107_155041 — This was pretty much the turn-around point – look how far we’ve come!

IMG_20151107_153323 — Almost the whole hike back to the trailhead was ON an aqueduct! Either on the walls of it, or on top!

IMG_20151107_164458 — Eric found a frog!

IMG_20151107_155951 — Along the aqueduct!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Bilbao & San Sebastian, Spain

The Basque region! The northeast part of Spain is known as Basque country. It’s a beautiful region know for it’s “amazing” food (more on that below), dramatic coastline, and they have their own language! Everybody also speaks Spanish, but it was quite confusing looking at signs, menus etc. when they were written in Basque but we thought we were looking at Spanish haha.

First we went to Bilbao (picture above) – it was a cool city! Bigger than we expected and surrounded by green hills. After 2 days there, we ventured via bus to San Sebastian: a cute beach town!

Both places are famous for their pintxos. Going out for Pintxos – like tapas – is a fun experience where you hop from bar to bar and pick small things to eat. The interesting thing is although the concept and experience is super fun – the food, in general, is not good – I mean worse than microwaved bagel bites. There are exceptions! We did find two places that were great! They were recommended to us by our airbnb host. I definitely think you need to get recomendations in order to try the world renowned and highly saught after pintxos. These good spots were fantastic! You have to make it to La Cepa and La Cuchara de San Telmo. Because if you don’t, the rest are just cold, fried foods, all stacked on a piece of bread. We were both so confused… these are the talked about pintxos?? Haha :) I guess we are more the german brats and pretzels type rather than the squid ink croquette and french fry and mayonnaise sandwich type.

Regardless of the interesting food experience we had a great time in both of these cities! We did some swimming and hiking in San Sebastian, explored the awesome cobblestone old town areas, and had our fair share of “vino tinto” (red wine). Here are some pics!