Algarve, Portugal

We thought we should give Portugal one last run before moving deeper into Africa this summer. Sadly, we didn't make it past the Algarve this time-the sun and warmth were highly sought after our visit to Belgium.

Our friends Hugo and Miguel at the Good Feeling Hostel had us stay with their neighbor and her lively guard dog who did a lot of spinning tricks and barked at invisible objects.

Not much surf in the southern shores, but a beach is a beach.

Typical village in the region.

The chef's special. Pizza can be had anywhere, but Pizza Pazza in Pedralva, (the middle of nowhere in the vicinity of Vila do Bispo) is worth seeking out when in the neighborhood. 

Ponta da Piedade and the surrounding cliffs in Lagos have stunning views.  

It might be worth investing in a boat trip to have a contrasting view.

Tourist shot.

What are you waiting for, book your ticket.

Another tourist shot.

A little bit of rock

 The pride of Silves is the still intact Moorish Castle. Not quite sure the Moors had it landscaped back in the day, my guess would be they had other pressing issues. 

When we paid our entrance fee we were asked if we wanted to buy a ticket to the museum. Ana politely declined, The ticket lady's response was "ah, you don't like history!"

Ana the history hater.

Another pizza, another location.

If you go to the Algarve, rent a car and take unmarked dirt roads-you won't regret it.

We did hiking to places you can't get to with a car.

Pigs.

Condos coming soon.

Not that you can see, but this area was heavily infested with people who looked liked they split the program, as in they dropped out of society and live in converted moving trucks. Ana called them hippies, but they are slightly more serious than that. Moving from beach to beach isn't a bad existence.

While driving though a village a teen mother with a handmade sign jumped out on front of our car to sell us her homemade baked goods. Ana was adventurous while I remained curious about the bottle of her father's moonshine. Cake and booze are always nice roadside treats.  

Trees and bees. We parked and hiked, it is just a little eerie hiking and hearing hives of bees echoing. I've encountered swarms of bees twice, once while driving-a couple come through the vent.

A pastime with some of the locals is collecting snails. 
From livecooler.com:
"In Algarve tradition tells that snails should be placed in a vessel eight days before being cooked. There, they are fed with wheat flour or bran. Only then should they be cooked, and seasoned with oregano stick."

Poperinge, Belgium

Tourism...there is gambling tourism, hunting tourism, surfing tourism, shopping tourism, sex tourism...but you might often find us riding bikes and sipping some of Belgium's local hop and barley water. Poperinge is Belgium's main hop region with some notable breweries tucked away in this corner of the country. More Belgium postings coming soon...

Often noted as the holy gail of beer; the Westvleteren 12 (dark one) is one of the most sought after beers in the world. It is made by the monks of The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren. Until recently (due to the financial needs of the abbey, there was a limited release in the states) it has been only available one place. It was a 10 km round-trip ride into the wind in 5 degree (celsius) weather. Another item off the bucket list.  

The brew at the abbey was tasty but the salad, cheese, and ham was a hand-to-hand combat fight.  Ana noted that eating had never been so difficult. Go there and try to manage the foods and you'll know what we mean. 

For monks only!

This was the path/road there. 

Ever been stared down by an owl. Another item off my bucket list. 

Hop farm. 

A nice little touch on the sidewalks of Poperinge.

Town center-the very cool and helpful people at the tourist information place helped us with storing our luggage and told us how to bike to beer and WWI firing squad areas. All quiet on the western front. 

Riding backwards!

Tomorrow's breakfast!

Hopelandia...Poperinge boasts a hop museum. Rub hops all over you and have the town drunk follow you home. 

The museum was located in the former hop municipal scales building where hops were weighed, inspected, and stacked (aka city scale).

Scissors and knives, my kind of ride.

Former manure laying cart. I can imagine how the driver must have smelled after work. Most likely single. 

At the end of the hop harvest, the hop man was built and burned. The farmer pored drinks, provided the music and I bet even the manure driver got action that evening!

I dared myself to try the HOPsaKEI, couldn't do it. One sip and I passed it over to the lady at the next table who must have thought she won the lottery. 

Close to where we are staying.

The nun beer...wished I had none. 

Where we are staying. The St Bernardus in Watou brewery/hop field has a guest house, they gave us bike to explore...26 plus km today not too bad. 

At the guest house...in the fridge. 

Stop and make a prayer for a good hop season...I did. 

A short trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

On January 6th at 6 am Ana and I sat on the edge of a bed in Barcelona, Spain doing a Skype interview in our pajamas with the head of a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We chatted for a good hour and when it was over we crawled back under the covers hoping to sneak in a couple more hours of sleep before getting on a plane back to Egypt.

A flight between Barcelona and Cairo is 4 hours...but the time from door to door is more like 12. We had secured a second interview with Addis for the following morning and when that was over and with a virtual handshake it was a done deal-Ana and I accepted jobs. The school was kind of enough to spare us the job fair experience, but asked if we would come to Ethiopia for a professional development workshop headed by educational gurus Thomas Guskey and Lee Ann Jung. note: Invite us anywhere and we'll come! A group of us were suppose to have dinner with Thomas our first evening but he had gone wine tasting during the day and called it an early night. I termed dinner Waiting For Guskey.

During the past week we saw the campus, attended 2 days of workshops, ate excellent food, made new friends, and discovered a new city and country.

A sure sign of a good school: after school wine tasting on campus. Try this at a public school in the States and you're on the way to being the top story on the 6 o'clock news.

Tukul hut on campus

Unlike Egypt, there are more and better beer options. I also tried a Hakim Stout, which was more like a dark ale. At fifty cents-dollar a bottle you really can't go wrong. 

This all your really need to get the party in your tummy going.

A group of us went to the German Beer Garden for dinner and sadly all the brats were sold out. Not only was there a lack of brats but the place was packed and we were moved to the restaurant at the hotel next door. Several teachers in the group claimed that the best toilets in Addis were in this hotel. You can decide.

The school gave us a driver for the day to explore outside the city. We were driven to Menagesha forest and saw baboons and what looked like skunks on meth, which turned out to be colobus monkeys.

The big car has the right-of-way. 

The Menagesha forest has a nice path leading to the campground and waterfalls. Time to buy camping gear.

Tukul huts outside the city. Each time we passed a group of children they waved and yelled "foreigner" at us.

The landscape in the dry season, when we arrive in AUG it will be the raining everyday until Sept.

Neighborhood pets.

A cup on the stick along the dirt road means talla and araki (home brew) is served here. At the end of a long day selling goats at the market will make any person thirsty, stopping off for a cup is the straight path to a sure hangover. Yours truly was a little shy to sample some. 

We stopped at Meta Brewery for lunch and a beverage. The beverages happened to be water and Coke and the meat plate we wanted wasn't served because it was a fasting day-a result of Easter season. The grounds hosts a swimming pool, restaurants, and waterfall that gives the brewery the source of their water. 

Drink up. 

Your first bowl of tibs with injera might give you tibs tummy. 

The goat market below our apt.

Another view from the apt.

Schindler's lift. Go ahead and toss tomatoes our way...it was a bad joke.