Lemonade
So it goes that when life gives you a lemon make lemonade! Right! So I took to making my lemonade, and well it looks nice, smells, nice, tastes like ass and my tongue is frozen making my portuguese slur a bunch. Basically a forced stay is never enjoyable, but a forced stay in a "hotel" that makes winter camping look like a belizean beachside event, makes it worse. To conserve money I took the nearest and cheapest place I could find. A place where the water in my room ran for 15 minutes before it became warm. A room where my breath didn't fade off into the distance but frozen and fell with a thud to the floor! AAAARGH! Oh well, after 3 days without shower, you see the place I stayed in Porto, while hospitalble and more than I could ever hope for, does not have the best shower arragnemnet, I finally decided to splurge. This morning I packed and headed to the nearest place where I couldn't see my breath in the front entry. A nice old lady then showed me to aroom with a TV( I hate tv, but I need to space a bit with some english cnn) a heater, and a cozy shower. I moved from 10e a night to 25e, and it's worth everypenny, just to prove that I was in a better place I took a nice long HOT shower, and then laid down in my boxers on the bed to watch Larry King on CNN. No matter how dumb or uniteresting, sometimes you just need to get a little of your own language in.
Speaking of language, I really like this semi-fluent feeling, people are so surprised when I can actually function at more than a 1st grade level when it comes to ordering food, finding a store, or making sleeping arrangements. I hope that this brief(though not brief enough) pass with semi-fluency translates to a better path on my road to learning Spanish.
Oh a quick random note, considering I am in a city that contains a walled city, castle, and the like a thought popped in my head today as I wandered said city. Do you think when a night back in the old old days was off fighting in a foriegn land, and after the battle met a nice local girl, that the conversation might have gone something like this:
Knight, "Hey there, wanna stop by my place sometime?"
Damsel," Sure where to do you live"
Knight, " Oh I'm the 3rd walled city to the south and the first tower on the left, just light a pyre as you approach and I'll make sure the gate is open."
Just a thought. Anyways, off to see the small river and then maybe a nap, before heading out to find a cheap dinner to compensate for the room. Or maybe I can find a good chinese take out place and just camp out in warmth! Yeah right, oh yeah another quick thought. Last night after dinner I decided to walk about a bit, and after a nice meal it felt good to walk it off. But I thought I would try to see if the movie theater was showing anything worth viewing, so I walked adn I walked. Missing it the first time I walked a lot to find it. And thanks to my good fortune this trip I did, CLOSED FOR REPAIRS, COME BACK SOON, oh well. I did find a soccer game in a cafe though and had an Irish Whiskey...Things began to feel better...love to all...till soon Ryan
posted by ryan @ 2/26/2005 07:38:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hi you guys, BB here. Just catching up on your posts this week. I was in Tampa this week on business and didn't get a chance to be current. First off, Tami and I are so sorry to hear about Gab's unfortunate incident in the Metro. It absolutely sucks. I just hope that the inconvenience will not last too long and you'll get all your documentation sorted out quickly as well.
It is Sunday morning here, so I hope Ryan is on the bus home, or already there. I haven't checked out WINO yet today. Ryan, did you describe the '86 Port? It must have been an experience, for sure. Did you have it alone, or does custom call for a specific accompaniment?
I was serious when I made the comment about you editing your posts and coming up with a book. Do you know what your storage limitations are on this blog site? It might be good to know just in case.
The last time I was in Tampa, we had the privilege of eating at Berns Steak House, which is a Tampa institution, and, as you may already know, houses the most impressive wine cellar in the world at over 1,000,000 bottles. To give you an idea of the depth and breadth, I asked for a '90 Bordeaux in the $50 range (this was 2 years ago). One would be hard-pressed to find a retail bottle at that price, but they have one, a fine Medoc cru bourgeoisie whose name escapes me. Anyway, this time couldn't talk anyone into going because it's $$$$$. So we ended up at an old Italian restaurant in Ybor City. It was really disappointing. The tagliatelle bolognese was in a very light tomato sauce. I think they added too much cream. To offset that, they added hot pepper to get a bite. The "pasta" was not house made. We had a better meal the night before at Macaroni Grill! The only consolation was the 2001 Barbaresco we had. It was surprisingly soft for such a young wine. Maybe reminiscent of the 2000 Bordeaux for their approachability in youth? Aside here: I just looked up Barbaresco on the other pc and it says "Barbaresco is one of the great wines of Piedmont and should be drunk with all due respect". The origin of Barbaresco as we know it today started in 1894. The founder, Prof. Domizio Cavazza, comparing it to the greatest French wines, described it as "fine, soft and generous". I certainly found that to be true. Unfortunately, I can't tell you who the producer was. It was a dimly lit room and I was without cheaters.
One a positive note, we went to Bacio in Ridgehaven last night and had a great meal. House made pasta (using durum wheat flour, not the 00 semolina you prefer). The highlight was a scallion-rosemary crusted, grill salmon with chevre infused mashed potatoes. Something for me to work on at home.
When I come over in April I do hope we will be able to get together. Checking the train schedule out, I see it is a pretty long ride to Angouleme from Madrid. At this time, it looks like I will be on vacation starting on April 9 through the following weekend. Is your e-mail account still active? If so, we can take this discussion "off-line" so to speak.
Well, I need to wrap-up. I hope you don't become too good at making lemonade.
Stay well you two.
Bill
Hi you guys, BB here. Just catching up on your posts this week. I was in Tampa this week on business and didn't get a chance to be current. First off, Tami and I are so sorry to hear about Gab's unfortunate incident in the Metro. It absolutely sucks. I just hope that the inconvenience will not last too long and you'll get all your documentation sorted out quickly as well.
It is Sunday morning here, so I hope Ryan is on the bus home, or already there. I haven't checked out WINO yet today. Ryan, did you describe the '86 Port? It must have been an experience, for sure. Did you have it alone, or does custom call for a specific accompaniment?
I was serious when I made the comment about you editing your posts and coming up with a book. Do you know what your storage limitations are on this blog site? It might be good to know just in case.
The last time I was in Tampa, we had the privilege of eating at Berns Steak House, which is a Tampa institution, and, as you may already know, houses the most impressive wine cellar in the world at over 1,000,000 bottles. To give you an idea of the depth and breadth, I asked for a '90 Bordeaux in the $50 range (this was 2 years ago). One would be hard-pressed to find a retail bottle at that price, but they have one, a fine Medoc cru bourgeoisie whose name escapes me. Anyway, this time couldn't talk anyone into going because it's $$$$$. So we ended up at an old Italian restaurant in Ybor City. It was really disappointing. The tagliatelle bolognese was in a very light tomato sauce. I think they added too much cream. To offset that, they added hot pepper to get a bite. The "pasta" was not house made. We had a better meal the night before at Macaroni Grill! The only consolation was the 2001 Barbaresco we had. It was surprisingly soft for such a young wine. Maybe reminiscent of the 2000 Bordeaux for their approachability in youth? Aside here: I just looked up Barbaresco on the other pc and it says "Barbaresco is one of the great wines of Piedmont and should be drunk with all due respect". The origin of Barbaresco as we know it today started in 1894. The founder, Prof. Domizio Cavazza, comparing it to the greatest French wines, described it as "fine, soft and generous". I certainly found that to be true. Unfortunately, I can't tell you who the producer was. It was a dimly lit room and I was without cheaters.
One a positive note, we went to Bacio in Ridgehaven last night and had a great meal. House made pasta (using durum wheat flour, not the 00 semolina you prefer). The highlight was a scallion-rosemary crusted, grill salmon with chevre infused mashed potatoes. Something for me to work on at home.
When I come over in April I do hope we will be able to get together. Checking the train schedule out, I see it is a pretty long ride to Angouleme from Madrid. At this time, it looks like I will be on vacation starting on April 9 through the following weekend. Is your e-mail account still active? If so, we can take this discussion "off-line" so to speak.
Well, I need to wrap-up. I hope you don't become too good at making lemonade.
Stay well you two.
Bill
Hi you guys, BB here. Just catching up on your posts this week. I was in Tampa this week on business and didn't get a chance to be current. First off, Tami and I are so sorry to hear about Gab's unfortunate incident in the Metro. It absolutely sucks. I just hope that the inconvenience will not last too long and you'll get all your documentation sorted out quickly as well.
It is Sunday morning here, so I hope Ryan is on the bus home, or already there. I haven't checked out WINO yet today. Ryan, did you describe the '86 Port? It must have been an experience, for sure. Did you have it alone, or does custom call for a specific accompaniment?
I was serious when I made the comment about you editing your posts and coming up with a book. Do you know what your storage limitations are on this blog site? It might be good to know just in case.
The last time I was in Tampa, we had the privilege of eating at Berns Steak House, which is a Tampa institution, and, as you may already know, houses the most impressive wine cellar in the world at over 1,000,000 bottles. To give you an idea of the depth and breadth, I asked for a '90 Bordeaux in the $50 range (this was 2 years ago). One would be hard-pressed to find a retail bottle at that price, but they have one, a fine Medoc cru bourgeoisie whose name escapes me. Anyway, this time couldn't talk anyone into going because it's $$$$$. So we ended up at an old Italian restaurant in Ybor City. It was really disappointing. The tagliatelle bolognese was in a very light tomato sauce. I think they added too much cream. To offset that, they added hot pepper to get a bite. The "pasta" was not house made. We had a better meal the night before at Macaroni Grill! The only consolation was the 2001 Barbaresco we had. It was surprisingly soft for such a young wine. Maybe reminiscent of the 2000 Bordeaux for their approachability in youth? Aside here: I just looked up Barbaresco on the other pc and it says "Barbaresco is one of the great wines of Piedmont and should be drunk with all due respect". The origin of Barbaresco as we know it today started in 1894. The founder, Prof. Domizio Cavazza, comparing it to the greatest French wines, described it as "fine, soft and generous". I certainly found that to be true. Unfortunately, I can't tell you who the producer was. It was a dimly lit room and I was without cheaters.
One a positive note, we went to Bacio in Ridgehaven last night and had a great meal. House made pasta (using durum wheat flour, not the 00 semolina you prefer). The highlight was a scallion-rosemary crusted, grill salmon with chevre infused mashed potatoes. Something for me to work on at home.
When I come over in April I do hope we will be able to get together. Checking the train schedule out, I see it is a pretty long ride to Angouleme from Madrid. At this time, it looks like I will be on vacation starting on April 9 through the following weekend. Is your e-mail account still active? If so, we can take this discussion "off-line" so to speak.
Well, I need to wrap-up. I hope you don't become too good at making lemonade.
Stay well you two.
Bill
Hello! Elly and I are both sending you this message. (I thought that I posted another message earlier, but it didn't get through, so we're double checking this time.) I'm really enjoying reading about your adventures! It reminds me of my Peace Corps days and visiting Elly in Italy. Keep writing, and enjoy the hot showers!
Susan and Elly
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