ZOE Adventures- Post #1

Hola!

“Who is ZOE and why did someone send me this blog?”, you may be wondering. 

Welcome to the travel blog of Z(imi), O(livia), and E(lisheva)- your one stop shop for following our post-college travels through Spain & Portugal. Feel free to subscribe for updates, whether you’re here for the laughs or just for the photos, or to ignore this and miss out on your greatest source of summer entertainment.

Here goes...

Zimi & Elisheva spent the first few days honeymooning in Barcelona, where we started by wandering through the Jerusalem-esque Old City with a free walking tour. Even though the tour was interesting and the guide was great, we left a little early to make it to a scheduled museum tour; unfortunately our guide did not believe this “excuse” and seemed offended that we ditched. We spent a few hours exploring Gaudi architecture buildings before heading to our hostel for a much needed siesta (we were running on the minimal sleep that we had gotten on the plane). To force ourselves onto a normal(ish) sleep schedule, we went for a walk on Barceloneta beach at night, where we randomly stumbled upon a dress rehearsal for an Aleesha concert (for those of you not familiar, she’s the ‘Rihanna of Spain’). 

The remainder of our time in Barcelona was full of more walking, which included a visit to an ancient synagogue (a room approximately the size of an NYC bus). They told us that the shul used to be bigger but “the women’s section is now part of that restaurant next door”. 
Our Shabbat experience was generally nice, except that we had decided to move over to an Airbnb closer to the Chabad. The 3rd floor walk-up AirBnb (with painfully narrow stairs, made all the more painful with our heavy bags) was listed as “Magnificent Room” but that may have been a slight overstatement, given that the so-called magnificent room was part of a tiny 3-bedroom apartment, shared with another Airbnb couple and the AirBnb hosts (that’s 6 of us, 1 mini kitchen, 1 small couch, 1 even tinier bathroom). The not-so-magnificent room itself had a bed that fit 3/4 of our bodies length-wise and felt like it was made of rocks more than a mattress, but don’t worry, we slept in late nonetheless.

Barcelona Chabad was hopping and the shul itself was pretty upscale for a Chabad. But before we were allowed in, we were grilled El-Al airport security style. Who would think that people with names like Zimrat and Elisheva would need to list every Jewish high school in Manhattan?!

We took 2 nice day trips from Barcelona- first to Girona, formerly home to a pretty large Jewish community, including the Ramban, and then to Montserrat, where we hiked up a mountain (according to our iPhone app, it was 120 flights up, whatever that means) to see the Montserrat Monastery. It was a pretty vertical hike, and while we thought we were going at a normal pace, we were somehow passed multiple times by both families with young children and groups of old adults. Nonetheless, we made it to the top and happily took the cable car on the trip back down.

Now we are in Madrid, Olivia has joined the fold, and we’ve already started engaging in the classic Barcelona vs. Madrid debate. Our visits to Madrid’s many sprawling plazas and the Royal Palace have definitely improved Madrid’s standing, but the heat here makes us miss Barcelona. Stay tuned for more comparisons!

We ended our (self guided) Madrid walking tour today at Shipudey, a kosher restaurant that allowed the meat eaters to try Paella. For anyone who has been to Madrid, you may be wondering, “why didn’t they go to Pinati, the other kosher restaurant?!” Well, you heard it here first: it’s not actually kosher! News broke last week that the owner was buying unkosher sausage and wine and repackaging it, so the community is “completely surprised, totally upset” as the Shipudey owner told us.

We are now off to Toledo for a day trip to continue our adventures. We’re excited to ‘spained some more time together, so if you’re not bored of this post, look forward to more updates to come.

Adios!
Zimi

Olivia

Elisheva