There was very heavy fog for a couple of the days we were staying in the South of France.

yes, we’ve had plenty of wine, cheese and baguettes in France. We’ve also made lots of crepes.

Julia’s friend Rob, who is spending the month in a petit chateau in the South of France, invited us to stay with him. We went on long walks during the day and curled up by the fireplace at night. The nearest town with a grocery store (that sold the best yogurt I have had in my entire life) was an hour and a half away by foot. It was a welcome vacation from traveling.

Alison left Paros, Greece in mid-November. At the time, I had a foggy vision of the coming months; Alison would travel a bit in Italy, then perhaps Spain and Amsterdam before heading home, and I, nestled in our quiet Paros valley, would continue working on various permaculture projects with Jim. I knew that I didn’t want to return to New England in the midst of a cold and icy winter. Greece seemed a pleasantly balmier alternative. Then I began toying with the idea of a journey to India, where Jim and Irini have spent many winters. Their stories make the country come alive with smells (not always pleasant), spices, energy. I decided I ought to adventure in India from January through early May. And that is what I shall do.

In late November I emailed Alison, who was in the midst of traveling in Italy, and suggested that I leave Greece and we meet up and travel together for the next few weeks, until it was time for her to return home for Christmas. Our rough plan was to meet up in Barcelona in early December, travel ’round Spain for a couple weeks, and then head to Amsterdam. Alison would fly home before Christmas and I would spend another freezing week in Amsterdam, coatless (having left the U.S. in early September, my backpack mostly contains clothes appropriate for early-autumn Greece), and waiting to catch a late-December flight to India.

Boy has this month unfolded differently, unexpectedly, and so wonderfully:

We received two night tours of Paris; the first was by foot, led by our Vassar friend Claudia, and the second by car with our CouchSurfing host.

In Barcelona, we were fortunate enough to have full access to a kitchen (that of JoAn, our couchsurf host). For dinner one night, we tried our hand at making vegetarian paella and sangria; how very Spanish of us.

Americans in Spain: Vegetarian Paella Recipe

Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 1/4 cup (2 fl. oz) of olive oil
• 5 cloves minced garlic
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 4 cups (32 fl. oz) vegetable broth
• 2 cups (16 oz) uncooked rice
• 4 medium tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
• 3 small bell peppers (red, yellow, and/or green), seeded and cut into thin strips
• 1 cup (4 oz) green peas
• 2 cups (14 oz) artichoke hearts, tough outer leaves removed and quartered
• A few pinches of saffron
• 1 lemon
• Lemon wedges, to garnish

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan and sauté the onion and garlic until the onion is tender and translucent. At the same time, heat the broth in a separate saucepan until simmering.

Pour the rice into the paella pan and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers and tomatoes and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add the simmering vegetable broth and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes or until almost tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the peas.

Sprinkle the artichoke hearts with a few drops of lemon juice and arrange over the rice in an attractive pattern. Continue cooking until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender.

Serve the paella straight from the pan, garnished with lemon wedges.

Americans in Spain: Sangria Recipe

Pour a bottle of red wine into a pitcher. Toss in a whole bunch of chopped and seeded fruit of any variety. If you use canned fruit, add the juice from the can. Let sit for as long as you have the patience. If you’re Alison’s family you’d pour in Sunkist, which ruins any chance of sounding knowledgeable at a college party when you suddenly exclaim, “you don’t make Sangria with Sunkist?!”

We haven’t updated recently due to lack of internet… so in the coming days we’ll play a bit of catching up. But we have lots and lots to share. I’ll start with the Christmas nativity fair we stumbled upon in Barcelona.

Two good ones:

The Shivers: The Road
So gentle.

Cat Power: Silver Stallion
My favorite track from Jukebox (2008), Cat Power’s most recent album.

ok, seriously. we have the best couchsurfing host in all of Barcelona. and look! we have world-class dental hygiene.

How´s the saying go… waste not, want not. So, as you devour that box of clementines, save the peels! And save your grapefruit peels and any other citrus peels you wish to candy. Below is the basic grapefruit peel recipe; experiment with modifications, such as adding some thin slices of fresh ginger.

Ingredients

• 4 grapefruits
• Water, to cover peels
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup sugar, optional

Directions

Using a sharp knife, cut each grapefruit into quarters. Remove the fruit from the peel, leaving the white membrane or pith attached to the peel. Save the fruit for another use. Slice each quarter peel on a diagonal into strips about 1/2-inch wide. If you cut them evenly, they will look nicer when displayed.

Place the sliced grapefruit peels in a pot and add enough water to cover the peels by about 1-inch. Place over high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from the heat and strain. Return only the peels to the saucepan, cover again with fresh water, and repeat the boiling and draining process three more times (only two more times for clementines). It´s important to change the water because it retains the bitterness of the peel.

After the fourth boil, drain the water as before and return the peels to the saucepan. Add the sugar and enough water to cover the peels by 1-inch, and some fresh ginger if you so desire. Place over low heat and let simmer for 2 hours. During this time, the sugar will sweeten and preserve the natural flavor of the peels. After 2 hours, they will be soft and translucent and the syrup will be thick. Let the peels cool in the syrup and keep them stored in the syrup, refrigerated, in an airtight container until you are ready to serve. They will keep this way for up to three weeks.

When ready to use, allow the peels to drain on a wire rack for a few hours to remove the excess syrup. Put the rack over a baking sheet so the syrup does not drip all over the work surface.

Once fully drained, you have three options for serving: First, you can serve them as they are. Second, you can place the peels in a medium-sized bowl filled with granulated sugar. Roll the peels around in the sugar until they are well coated. Third, you can dip the sugared peels into the bittersweet chocolate. Dip two thirds of each sugared peel into the bittersweet chocolate. Gently wipe the excess chocolate from the end of each peel before placing on parchment paper. The chocolate should set in a few minutes if it is tempered and the kitchen is not too hot.

We went to the Mercat de la Boqueria, a market that has been around since before the 1700’s, in Barcelona today. I love the patterns and colors of everything neatly grouped, piled and stacked. I’m glad I waited to have lunch till I got there. Tucked in the far back corner was a funky little booth with delicious prepared food.

Julia and I have reunited in Barcelona! She arrived a day earlier than me and met me at the train station. I had no idea where we were staying since I was without internet before coming here. When Julia told me we had a rental car and driver waiting outside the station ready to take us to a river in the countryside I didn’t even stop to question it. This is just what has happens after traveling with Julia for 3 months.

The driver of this rental car turned out to be quite possibly the best CouchSurfer host in all of Barcelona. He works for an environmental agency and had to visit a river about an hour outside of the city. We came along and wandered around while he met with people who were organizing clean up projects around the river. Then we met up with his friend, the owner of an organic vineyard. We had a yummy Catalan lunch at one of only 3 restaurants in town. Then he took us for our own private tour of his vineyard. The cellar was specially built partially underground to keep a constant cool temperature without any electricity and air conditioning. Soon he is going to set up the processing so that it uses gravity instead of electricity. He also walked us through a proper wine tasting.

Our host went to his parent’s house for the 3 day weekend and, deciding that we were trustworthy people, gave us the keys and let us have the flat to ourselves. Life in Barcelona has been pretty wonderful.

These are some key websites for making it possible to travel the world without spending lots of money.

To find the cheapest European flights: www.skyscanner.net

Great for finding the absolute cheapest flights when your travel dates and/or destination are flexible. You can view flights on either side of intended travel dates or access a graph to determine the cheapest times of the month or year to travel. Also good if you´re not quite sure where you want to go…

For friendship, cultural exchange, and a free place to sleep: www.couchsurfing.com

A world-wide network of travellers and hosts who welcome you into their home and offer their spare bedroom or couch. A wonderful way to get beyond the surface-level tourist experience. From the CS mission statement: ¨CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it’s about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!¨

To volunteer on an organic farm in exchange for room and board: www.wwoof.org

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a network of organic farms across the world that will host you in exchange for your labor. A great opportunity to live and work with a family in another country and culture.

For short-term volunteeering in exchange for room and board: helpx.net

An online listing of host organic farms, non-organic farms, farmstays, homestays, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, backpackers hostels and even sailing boats who invite volunteer helpers to stay with them short-term in exchange for food and accommodation. From the website: ¨Help Exchange is provided primarily as a cultural exchange for working holday makers who would like the opportunity during their travels abroad, to stay with local people and gain practical experience.¨

ahhh.

…in an elevator.

Ane Brun is one of our very favorite musicians and this is one of our very favorite (unofficial) music videos.

Some photos from my 5 hours in Milan between trains…note the giant neon billboard next to the cathedral.

Many people I talked to in hostels mentioned how much they liked Cinque Terre, a series of 5 villages with hiking trails on the north west coast of Italy. I had some time to kill between Rome and Barcelona so I agreed to meet up there with a fellow traveler I met at my hostel in Rome. From the second the train pulled into the station I knew this was going to be my favorite place in Italy. We were only able to hike one trail because of the weather but every view was breathtaking. I also had one of the best sandwiches ever made here. Because it was the off-season and rainy we pretty much had all 5 villages to ourselves.

I visited the Vatican on the same day that the entire population of Canada was touring through. As I walked through the galleries in the Vatican Museum a wave of red jackets with CANADA across the back would suddenly surround me. At first I tried to go ahead of them but I was too slow and found it was better to wait and let them pass. Each wave brought a different province; Ottowa in the tapestries room, Alberta in the Sistine Chapel . It wasn’t until the line for St. Peter’s Basilica that I saw that their tour groups spanned the entire alphabet. Group G made their way through the metal detector while I was sandwiched between X and Y. Through the chaos that the Canadian alphabet brought to the line I was able to skip to the front and enjoy the massive Basilica a bit before it was flooded by the red sea.