36 Hours in Marseille

HELLO WORLD WE ARE BACK!!!
Almost a month later back to blogging and sharing our experiences and food adventures! What a crazy month we have done so much and seen so much where to begin.

Well France was a struggle and before arriving I think Abby and I absolutely hated the country just because booking was so complicated and difficult, but that is a whole other story. In France we went to Marseille, Nice, and Monaco (Technically not France). Needless to say it is worth stopping by the South of France. Marseille is a small city (36 hours I think was more than enough). First night we just walked around to get a feeling of the city and after climbing a huge MOUNTAIN we made it to   Notre Damn of Marseille as well as had some delicious Kebabs...not really French but so worth it. After a long day of travelling something fast and comforting was well deserved.

The next morning was an early one because that night our hostel suggested going to the national park it was a semi hard hike but on the other side of this mountain we reaped the benefits of a spectacular view and an awesome day cliff jumping, eating Pain au chocolate, and wine. Cause WINE NOT!!

 When we showed up it was empty with the exception of a Belgian girl and her cousin. We also met a wonderful Brazilian girl on the bus who ended staying in the same hostel and room as us. It was just one of those crazy coincidences.

Overall Marseille was worth the 36 hours we got to meet a ton of people and swim in the Mediterranean, who can complain?!

So here are our recommendations: 

Hostels: 

Vertigo Vieux-Port, Marseille, France 

Hellomarseille Marseille

National park: 

Calenque  De Sugiton 

Our Spanish food experience.

We have died and gone to heaven.
The food in Spain has been so amazing. We have made it almost mandatory to eat jamon (Spanish cured ham) with every single meal. It is everywhere here: shops, markets, restaurants just hanging from the ceiling. We have decided to bring it back to the states as a new decorating trend.

Here are a few of our favorite food that we have tried during our first 12 days of our euro trip!

TAPAS!!!

We have had an awesome time stumbling into little tapas restaurants all over Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona.

Patatas bravas: crispy potatoes with spicy tomato sauce


The bikini: the best grilled cheese in the world. Truffles, jamon, and buffalo mozzarella from Tapas 24

The bomb: a meatball wrapped in mashed potatoes, coated and fried served with chipotle sauce and tons of garlic aoli

Croquettes: thick bechamel with jamon formed and the fried

Pan con tomates: grilled bread with tomato

Pixtos: the "tapas" native to Barcelona in the Catalan region of Spain

PAN COM TOMATE AND BIKINI

JAMON IBERICO

PATATAS BRAVAS

PAELLA

FIDEAU

SWEETS!!!

Fartons and horchata: a valencian specialty that are like extra crispy croissant cigars. They go perfectly with the horchata that is made from chufas (tigernuts) instead of rice like we have had back in Mexico.

Churros: crispy pate choux that you dip into hot chocolate sauce

Xiuxo: a traditional pastry from Barcelona. Custard is wrapped in doughnut dough, deep fried and rolled in sugar... It was amazing.

MADRID:
First city is done done we have survived our stay in Madrid. After a long flight waiting for our backpacks and finding our way to the hostel, which we extremely recommend (Ok Hostel). This place is more than just OK its fantastic the atmosphere, the staff, the location a few blocks away from Plaza Mayor. First day in the city we did the walking tour the hostel provided which gave us an over view of where everything was located. But the best part of it was a Churro place that the guide recommended Chocolateria San Gines.

  (http://chocolateriasangines.com).

What can we say it was amazing the chocolate was perfectly tempered not overly sweet and covered this crunchy crispy churro so perfect unlike anything we had ever tasted. After taking this little break we continued walking and exploring the city and besides all the gorgeous architecture and monuments of the city we began to notice these Museos de Jamon (Ham Museums). This place is a meat lovers heaven!!!! Jamon Serrano, Jamon Iberico, Chorizo hanging from the ceiling, what a beauty. Abby and I could not just go in without buying anything, so we ended up buying some Jamon Iberico. Just by looking at how the man carved the Jamon we new it was going to delicious. 

Stick around more about Madrid will be shared. Below we have shared links to places we recommend as well as our Instagram with day to day pictures of our adventures.

Links:

Chocolateria San Gines

Instagram: Around_the_world_on_a_plate

Ok Hostel

Day 1: Let the adventures begin!

Day 1: Travel... lots and lots of travel.
Currently sitting in the Copenhagen airport on an 8 hour layover waiting for Marla's flight from LA to land!

I still cant believe that our trip is finally beginning!
Here is our general itinerary so yall can follow, map, meet up with us, or suggest places or people to see!

August
20-24: Madrid, Spain
25-27: Valencia, Spain for the Tomato Festival
28-31: Barcelona, Spain
September
1-3: San Sebastian, Spain
3-5: Toulouse, France
5-6: Nice, France
7-28: Arrive at our first WWOOF location in San Miniato, Italy
         A beautiful organic vineyard set it Tuscany
        http://www.cosimomariamasini.it/en/

29- Oct 4: Traveling in southern Italy
October
5- 28: WWOOF location #2 in Parma, Italy
30: Arrive in Croatia
November
6-9: Budapest, Hungary
10-19: travel through Germany (Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf)
20-24: Amsterdam, Netherlands
25-28: Brussels, Belgium
28-Dec 5: London, England
December
5-9: Dublin, Ireland
Leaving Europe: Marla back to LA for a month then down to AUSTRALIA
                           Abby down to Sydney, Australia

If you have any suggestions for travel please message us!

We are going to miss everyone so much! But we promise to keep everyone updated!

Where it all started

Marla and I met at the CIA on our very first day at the New York campus. We lived across the hall from each other in Hudson, the Freshman Dorm that always had a faint smell of stale beer and feet. 

By the luck of the draw we were put into the same Culinary Fundamentals class (fate) and had the exact same schedule every day. Throughout the semester we grew closer over burnt braises and broken hollandaise. 

After our externships we caught the travel bug and began joking about how we wanted to backpack across Europe, but never thought it could actually work... little did we know. 

Fate struck again and we were roommates in the Townhouses during the first two semesters of the Bachelors program. Last summer we had many adventures to New York City, Brooklyn, Boston, Connecticut, Mexico, San Diego, and numerous road trips with friends when ever we had time away from school and work.

We continued to joke about going to Europe and Australia as our graduation date creeped up on us, it was idea we couldn't get out of our heads. In December we finally pulled the trigger and bought one way tickets to Madrid, Spain starting August 19, only one month after graduation but just in time for the Valencia Tomato Festival. 

We have each spent the last semester away from the New York Campus studying Farm to Table cuisine in the Napa Valley (Me) and in Texas studying Latin Cuisine (Marla) and planning the trip through Email and BuzzFeed lists like 'Top ten best hostels in Europe'. Before we begin our last semester at the Culinary Inst. of America we are going on a 2 week Trip to China through school to studying Food, wine, and agriculture.

We hope that through this blog we will be able to share our experiences, food, and travels with all of our loved ones from where ever the next year or two takes us! 

Wǎn'ān (thats good night in Chinese, only 9 more days to learn)

Abby