We are what we Eat

פלחי תפוחי אדמה בתנור - מתכון של אלי לנדאו.

2011-05-10T13:29:00.002+03:00

סוף הוף הצלחנו להכין תפוחי אדמה/וודג'ס בתנור כמו שצריך. התבססנו על המתכון הזה של אלי לנדאו, אבל במקום הרוזמרין והמרווה (שלא היו לנו) שמנו פפריקה. בתכלס, גנבנו את הרעיון של לבשל במים רותחים עם שמן וקמח למשך 4 דקות, ואחר כך לצפות בפירורי לחם ותבלניים ולשים בתבנית בתנור.

לפני התנור

אז כן. זה נשמע טעים, וזה יצא טעים. הבעיה היחידה הייתה להחליט אם לאכול את זה עם החזרת הטובה מאבא שלי, או עם קטשופ, או מיונז, או תערובת מיונז וקטשופ. ואולי היום גם ננסה עם רוטב צ'ילי מתוק כזה.

זה גם הלך טוב עם פשטידת הכרובית שהכנתי אתמול. אז אפשר לאמר שיצאנו מהארוחה שבעים ומרוצים.

ועל הצלחת

והיום בבוהוריים אכלנו פאנקייקס עם שבבי תפוח עץ. לא נרשמו תלונות מהקהל.

נאגלה אחרונה ודי

ומשום מה גם בדקתי איך זה הולך עם חזרת.

מסקנה - היה בסדר. בעיקר בזכות העובדה שהפאנקייקס עצמם לא היו מאוד מתוקים, והחזרת טעימה לאללה. את השאר אכלתי עם מייפל ועם ריבת פטל.

עוגת יומולדת

2011-03-18T17:08:00.000+02:00

העוגה הזאת מבוססת על עוגה כושית סטנדרטית, ממיליון ואחד מתכונים שמסתובבים להם פה ושם בכל מיני עיתונים וספרים.

לאחר הציפוי הראשוני

את העוגה שיצאה מהתנור אורנה חתכה לריבוע יפה וישר, ואז הוסיפה ציפוי משוקולד מריר בשביל שלא תתפורר, ומעליו שכבה של אינסטנט פודינג וניל ותותים. לדעתי זה נראה הכל די טוב ביחד. קשה לי לחכות עד הערב בשביל שנוכל לאכול ממנה.

עם הפודינג, עדיין לא מושלם

והתותים מלמעלה. נראה יאמי

משאריות העוגה שנשארו ציפינו עוד שתי חתיכות קטנות בריבה, ומעלה בפודינג -

אבל לצערי גם זה לא לשימוש אישי ומיידי, אז אני אאלץ להזדיין בסבלנות.

New blogger app for android

2011-02-03T21:21:00.002+02:00

Just trying this new android app while watching a Dexter episode.

We are still eating

2010-09-10T10:17:00.001+03:00

I know you've been all wondering, but yes. We are still around.
So here is a small compilation of stuff we have recently made and ate:

We have had a sugarless month just now - avoiding eating anything that contains sugar or any other artificial sweeteners (honey as well). We did eat tons of fruits (grapes rock!), but no ice-cream, pizzas (mostly contains some sugar in the dough), eating outside, pita bread, and many other comforting and tasty things.

This was an attempt to make a pizza with no sugar. The dough is very strange indeed - it contains cream cheese. And yeah, it tastes like it contains cream cheese... Also kinda looks like it.

This is a cake we have made for Rosh Hashana. Looks a bit like bread, but it was very airy inside, and delicious.

This was after the sugar thingie, so no worries - it was sweet. We didn't make the frosting, though.

And here are some cookies for Rosh Hashana as well. Made from sweat potatoes. And surprisingly it works.

And of course, our flagship cookies, without the oreo-like white stuff. These are the best.

back to basics- food

2009-11-18T21:26:00.003+02:00

of course noam keeps updating posts about our trip, and I myself am working on a hostel review post, but in the meantime... food

he's a god in Japan

2009-11-18T21:26:00.002+02:00

our new obssesion which helps numb the pain of reality and everyday life
Red Band.
first thing, respect to the guys who created the whole concept The Puppet Folk Revival
and a little clip to demonstrate our point:

now if only the suits in HOT would realize there is nothing on in the rest of the 999 channels and move the show out of the VOD everybody would be happy

useless ranting

2009-11-18T21:26:00.000+02:00

Well, let's first start with some complaining:

(DESCLAIMER: I am going to complain about the last week of the trip, mostly about our travel agency. you can skip to the last bit if you are not interested in reading this)

Well, at the beginning we bought two tickets for 4 months. May 1st -> August 31st. We never actually planned to stay in Europe for that long. We just wanted to have some future date for our flight back, which we could easily change when we finally decide it's time to get back home. We were told that we would just have to pay a $100 fine each for changing the dates.

After about a week on the camino, we have made this decision, and tried arranging our flight back to Israel for the end of July. We wanted to continue walking until we get to Leon, then head down for a couple of days in Madrid, visit Bilbao maybe, and have a few more days in Barcelona to wrap things up easily.

We emailed Tata from Guliver (Our travel agency) and asked her what we should do about it, and she said we should just contact Swiss in Barcelona, and have them change our flight date.

We first tried contacting Swiss from Burgos, at the 18th. Well, I screwed up by not taking the tickets with us to the trail, and only having scanned pdf file of them. And we didn't have Acrobat Reader in Burgos to see the scans. The agent at Swiss asked for the "Fare Basis", and we had to sms back home for someone to look at the tickets and find it for us. We only got it the following day. At the morning of the 19th we called with the much needed "Fare Basis", and now the agent told us he needed something called the "Ticket Number". We tried getting it straight away, but the tickets had no "Ticket Number" printed on them, So we asked Tata about it, and left Burgos for a nice 30Km day.

In Hontanas, on that night, we tried calling Swiss again. This time we had the magic "PNR" number, which should have made everything possible. The agent was not impressed, and said he still needs the "Ticket Number", and can't do anything with our tickets without it. All along each agent kept insisting that it was not our job trying to change the ticket dates, and we should have the travel agency do it for us. Tata was supposed to also try and contact Swiss/Lufthansa.

Several days passed, and still no magic ticket appeared at our horizon. Tata said that if she kept on trying getting us the ticket, it will do more harm than good. I still don't know what that means. Harm to her, probably. We were still stuck in Spain.

From Carrión de los Condes we talked to Swiss again, and offered to send them the scan of the tickets, so they can see all the details for themselves. The agent said we can send it in, but that she doesn't see how it may help. We sent it. No answer followed.

After getting to Terradillos de los Templarios we decided we will not keep on walking into Leon (3 more days of walking), but instead just catch a bus there from Sahagún (on the following day), and try talking to Swiss again. We were already depressed from all this mess, and gave up on the trail.

In Leon we finally had the bright idea to ask Guy if he can have a look at the ticket, and try to help us as well. We also tried talking to Swiss once again, after Guy gave us the famous "Ticket Number" which just appears at the top of the ticket (Without any label stating that this is, in fact, the ticket number) and so we got the definitive answer from Swiss that they can't do anything about it, and we should talk to Lufthansa. The annoying agent from Lufthansa was a complete bitch, and told us that they have no contract with us, don't owe us anything, and can't do anything to help us. Die, bitch, die. I called Guliver, and their agent insisted that it was very unusual for both airlines to not offer us any help, that it is quite normal for people to change flight dates by themselves, and that it is no problem at all, and Guliver will finally change our flight dates first thing on the next morning. All the other agents we have talked to (From Swiss and Lufthansa) kept telling us that our travel agency should contact them, and not us directly.

Guy also tried talking to both Swiss and Lufthansa (Thank you very much for all the international calls you made for us that evening), and reached the conclusion that our flight tickets are worth nothing, and can never be changed (The also say "Not changable" on the tickets themselves, but I thought all along that it means we can change it after paying the fine). He advised us to try and have our fare basis upgraded, and pay for the difference.

On that day we decided we will head back to Barcelona, and just go to the Swiss counter at the airport. It was a lot of fun being on a bus ride for 10:30 hours (Overnight from Leon), get to the hostel where we couldn't get into a room to shower (Check in is only after 14:00), and then go to the airport after 40+ hours of no shower, 30+ hours of no real sleep, and also a short walk of 13Km (Which was quite easy, admittedly).

The guy at the Swiss counter was very very nice, but he told us that this is a Lufthansa ticket and he can't do anything with it. He agreed to talk to Tata on the phone, and told her that she should try talking to Lufthansa directly. He told us that by the way she reacted, she was quite sure it was very possible and easy to change our flight date. Any decent travel agent would have seen the "Not Changable" print on the tickets, and undestood that this is not the case.

She told us to wait while she calls Lufthansa, and we sat at the airport for another hour and a half, and finally called her back. She was just on the phone with Lufthansa, and after several minutes she told us that yes - finally - the tickets are not changable at all. They worth totally nothing to us, dated for the 31st of August, and she will see what she can do so we won't be stuck in Barcelona for 5 more weeks.

We waited for another hour or so, and called her back. She had the nerve to offer us a ticket with Czech Airlines for $500+ each. That's over $1,000 for us to pay, for Guliver mistake in selling us a non changable ticket! I told her I don't care about the price, and that I will not pay anything for their mistakes. They can buy us any ticket they want in order to get us to Israel as soon as possible. She let me talk to her supervisor, Nitzan, who straight away promised me Guliver will not pay anything for us to come back home, and it was strictly our own problem that we bought non changable tickets. He just ignored the simple fact that what we ordered from Guliver were clearly changable tickets, as can also be seen from their own surprise at the fact that they were non changable after all. The idiots have made a mistake, and now we were to pay for it! I promised him back that I will not buy tickets from them back to Israel, and that he will hear from us when we are back home.

We then made a survey at all the counters, and found that Swiss has the cheapest flight to Israel that same evening. 380 euro per person. We bought those tickets, and were already on the train back to the city (For a quick shower and then running back to catch our flight), when we got a call from Guliver, and Einat told us she has two tickets for us for the following day, at $150, with Arkia. This was only $50 more over the supposed fine for changing the dates, and our nerves were quite ruined, as was the ending of our vacation, so we thought it was not the worst deal possible. The trouble was the fact we had just now bought two tickets for 760 euros at the Swiss counter. She told us that electronic tickets bought at the counter are completely refundable on the same day, and we were very sceptic about it. Apparently she was right - after a short phone call to Swiss, we managed to complete void the transaction as if it never happaned, and then we finished off by buying the Arkia tickets.

Phew, what a terrible story.

We ended up enjoying our final day and a half in Barcelona, relaxing a bit, and not being at a complete nervous breakdown. That is also something.

Very nice effort

2009-11-03T16:19:00.001+02:00

Starts slowly with the basics, but I'll have to read chapters 6-8 again when I have more time.

in reference to: http://completewaveguide.com/guide/The_Complete_Guide_to_Google_Wave (view on Google Sidewiki)

Just need to vent

2009-10-28T10:35:00.000+02:00

Had a most annoying day with the stupid cat today.
Because I recently quit my job, I currently pass my projects to other team members. Today, though, everyone at the office went to this big conference (Leaving the GIS business, I had nothing to do there), and I had nothing to do at the office.
The big plan was to use the time to capture the cat inside the cage, so I can bring him to the vet for castration. It involved putting food inside the cage (where he is currently used to eat), and closing the door on him using a string. He didn't cooperate with it, and ran out as soon as I tried it on him. Time for plan B.
Luckily, I had a friend over to help me with the job. We closed all the doors in the (not so big) house, and tried chasing him around, hoping to corner him, so he will jump inside the cage. We only succeeded in making him panic even more, and scare the shit out of us, until finally he settled behind the TV.
We called the vet, hoping for some advice, and they agreed lending us a trap cage, that will close when he enters it. After carrying it back home, and setting it up with more food inside (It's scary putting the food so far down the cage. Really had to stretch my arms), he was still parked behind the TV.
After about5 hours of not moving from there, he got up, and then it was business as usual with him. He just pranced about, walking around the living room, sometimes under the sofa. At one point he did go inside the trap, and managed to eat WITHOUT setting it off. Annoying.
Now he has no food, and sometimes he whines around here, probably hungry. Before we go to sleep I'll put some food back inside the trap, and I hope at the morning he will be inside, waiting for me to pick him up, and cutting off his balls (at the vet, don't worry!) Though what will probably happen, is that we will wake up to a terrible noise of the trap being sprung, and he won't stop whining all night. I hate him so much right now.

Well, have a good night, people.

UPDATE:
The not so bright cat has stepped into the trap last night, while there was NO FOOD inside. I don't know what makes him tick... He's been on and off whining all night, but generally from around midnight to 5am we managed to sleep.
This morning we took him to the vet, and today after work (and Yoga), I'll go pick him up. I was kinda hoping to be around when he is all drugged up, so I can finally pet him. I guess now it will never happen.

Don't worry - we are still eating

2009-05-22T10:31:00.003+03:00

So, here's the first sample - the making of a chocolate pie from the paper. This little picture here shows the bottom biscuit layer getting ready to have hot chocolate poured over it.

And here it is with the chocolate on, after being baked.

This is with the marshmallow topping - doesn't look that good, and, quite frankly, tastes allright+. The topping was liquid coming out of the pot, but it cooled down to marshmallow stickiness in seconds, and it was hard to get it right over the pie. Don't worry, the rest of the pie was awesome++, so we didn't complain.

And this is just a picture of some frozen strawberries. I think they look nice.
They taste nice in the shakes we are making every now and then.

Typemock new ASP.Net bundle

2009-05-19T07:05:00.006+03:00

Unit Testing ASP.NET? ASP.NET unit testing has never been this easy.

Typemock is launching a new product for ASP.NET developers – the ASP.NET Bundle - and for the launch will be giving out FREE licenses to bloggers and their readers.

The ASP.NET Bundle is the ultimate ASP.NET unit testing solution, and offers both Typemock Isolator, a unit test tool and Ivonna, the Isolator add-on for ASP.NET unit testing, for a bargain price.

Typemock Isolator is a leading .NET unit testing tool (C# and VB.NET) for many ‘hard to test’ technologies such as SharePoint, ASP.NET, MVC, WCF, WPF, Silverlight and more. Note that for unit testing Silverlight there is an open source Isolator add-on called SilverUnit.

The first 60 bloggers who will blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Free Isolator ASP.NET Bundle license (Typemock Isolator + Ivonna). If you post this in an ASP.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 60 submit) during the first week of this announcement.

Also 8 bloggers will get an additional 2 licenses (each) to give away to their readers / friends.

Go ahead, click the following link for more information on how to get your free license.

Europeans getting married

2008-12-03T15:21:00.015+02:00

it looks quite different from wedding shots back home, like in the train station or in Weizmann Institute's grass. lets call it an upgrade. here are a few of the happy couples we saw on our trip:

in the vatican. they might be catholic

a little place called Fontana di Trevi.it was good enough for Fellini, although she isn't quite Anita Ekberg...

Prague, infront of some neo-classical buildings, or something of the sort.

Finally - pictures from the camino

2008-09-02T15:22:00.002+03:00

I have finally finished geo-tagging the camino pictures, and here they are, for your viewing pleasure.
I know no body reads the blog, but you don't have to rub it in!

My alcohol stove

2008-09-02T14:20:00.006+03:00

So, I've been fighting with beer cans to make my very own alcohol stove.
I think I am pretty much done now, and I've decided to share my knowledge with the rest of you. I have not invented anything new, and have just followed the foot steps of giants before me (More precisely - read their instructions on web pages), but I have some small Israel-only takes on the matter.

First off, I tried making the Cobra's Stove - it is fairly easy, both the upper and lower half of the stove are the same size, and all it takes is a swiss army knife. No glue, or any other special tool.
I made 16 little holes around the edge of one of the cans, and one in the middle. The hardest bit is to get the 16 holes small enough - pushing a bit too hard with the pin bit of the swiss army knife causes a much bigger hole, which will create a giant flame and waste the alcohol too soon.
For the middle hole it is easier to really make a small one, and later just force a screw inside while making it a bit bigger.
I made the score mark at the side of the can using my swiss army knife on top a 3 cd stack. I then cleanly cut the can using the method described by this Cobra dude - it is quite easy. The cans didn't fit too good together, but since they are not too short (around 3cm tall), I was able to bend one of them a bit so I can start squeezing it into the top half. That was it.

The stove works fine, but I wanted something more accurate and efficient.
I then bumped into the Zen Stoves site, which is quite amazing - it lists tons of different stove types, gives templates to cut the stove to the right size, with or without inner walls, and for the location of the burner holes, and has some more good advice about the actual construction of the stoves.
I built the Pressurized Jet Stove from there, both with 24 and 36 jet holes (Going to check which is better soon). This time the top bit is 3cm tall, and the bottom is only 2.

I used a caliber to measure it exactly, and I actually scored the cans with the caliber.

I then used a dremel with 0.7mm drill to create the jet holes, according to the templates. This is not that accurate, but I do know I have my holes fairly evenly spaced. I made the middle hole just like before.
The trick with this design is to get both cans fit together, and I had a hard time doing that. After a lot of messing around, and a lot of torn up cans, I finally came up with something which might just do the trick -
For the top can I used a Schloss Krone Pilsener, and for the bottom can I used a Goldstar can. Apparently the Goldstar is just a bit stronger, and I used a dilator tool to make it a hair wider. After that, they just fit together, and I just reopened them and added the RTV.
Later today I will test both stoves, and see which one works best.

you probabely know by now...

2008-07-29T11:28:00.005+03:00

we are back, it happened really quickly and we are a bit in shock.
and for now, just two pics from our last days in spain.

infront of the cathedral in Leon (north of spain)

an overview of barcelona

my point of view

2008-07-15T22:16:00.002+03:00

noam is very strict about the order of the days so lets mess with his head a bit...
today we finished our 7th day of hiking. the weather was nice and we had 5 villages on our way, so it was nice.
the Albergue , hostel, is pleasent and i have the earplugs prepared for the snoring we will have tonight.

we go to sleep at around nine thrirty, its pretty funny, and there is lights out at around ten and everyone must be in bed. usually by 6 and a half in the morning everyone is out walking already

ok
times up for me
be good and write to us won't you

orna

Finally, good weather (Logrono -> Ventosa, 20Km)

2008-07-13T22:00:00.001+03:00

The day started nice enough with a walk heading out of Logrono. We managed to glimpse Demian just when we got back to the trail, from our pension. He just went past us and we didn't see him for the rest of the day. After a short walk in the city itself, the camino entered a nice park, where many locals were walking and jogging up and down the trail. The weather turned out much better than the last few days (No rain, thankfully, and not too hot). We came upon a nice little lake, and had a short snack in the snack bar in there.
The trail was easy enough going to Navarete, and we made a stop there and had a good Tortilla Patata sendwich. I even managed to get some tomatoes in it for an extra 30 cents! We were sitting there relaxing at the bar when Martin finally cought up with us. As we figured, he stopped in Vianna when the rain started. The smart thing to do, surely ("I can promise you that!"). He was heading out to Najera, though, which is too far for us (And he has already done 10Km more than us so far...) We headed out hoping he'd catch up with us further on down the trail, but we managed to get lost for a short bit, and he must have went past during this time.
After a while the camino just went along a highway (As it does occasionally), so it was quite boring. There was a sign every 100 meters, so I measured 125 steps between two signs for me. 0.8m per step.
The guide book was not too helpful, saying we should take some detour in order to enter Ventosa, and the trail markings were even worse, with some signs pointing one way, and some the other. After a short discussion with other pilgrims, we decided to try the detour, only to discover it merges with the main trail 200 meters down the road. The real detour was about 10 minutes later, with a proper sign towards Ventosa, and finally we got there, and got two beds.

The albergue here is very nice and clean. It is being run by one Austrain volunteer, and one English. The English recognized our Hebrew accent, and said Yonatan was there the night before. Maybe we will catch up to him some day.
The only shop in the village was inside the albergue, but it had a good range of stuff, and not too expensive. We bought plenty of fruits and some museli and yogurt, and made a very tasty fruit salad with everything. And also the usual tortellini with tomato sauce. We also made laundry, and sat outside talking with the other pilgrims around. We didn't know most of them - one older guy from Melbourne was staying there for the second night, and was still having trouble walking (Maybe the camino is not for him), and two Italian women (One of them has a good friend from Israel, so she knew some words in Hebrew), and Swiss, and one from Slovekia.
Tomorrow we wanted to go to Cirinuela, but apperently the albergue over there is still not functioning. We will have to either do a really short day to Azofra (17Km), or a really long one to Santo Domingo de la Calzada (30Km).

Checking our rain gear (Los Arcos -> Logrono, 29Km)

2008-07-12T22:00:00.002+03:00

The day started our nice enough. After two terribly hot days, we had some clouds blocking the sun, and we made good time. People still kept on passing us by, but we didn't mind.
After stopping a few Kms before Viana, Martin caught up with us again, and we kept on walking with him to town.
In Viana we just went to the albergue, and got some food from the local Spar (supermarket). Had a nice salad inside, and then Orna and I headed out. Martin said he will go out later. We had only 10 more Kms until Logroño, and it was only 14:30. Just when we were leaving town, the dribble started. We got out rain gear out in time (My new Marmot rain jacket... First test run), and kept on walking hoping it will stop raining soon. We had no luck, and we kept on walking through constant rain and mud all the way to Logroño. Luckily about halfway there, the trail got on a bike trail which was paved, so a bit less mud there, but we were soaking wet by then, and our feet hurt more being all wet inside the shoes. Damian and his two other friends of the Rat Pack past us quite early, but we managed to meet them all at the albergue (Along with the famous dutch girls), where we were told there is no room for the night, and we can wait for 45 more minutes and sleep on the floor of a giant gym. Only Damian went to the gym.
We all went instead to some hostal in town, which was also full (still limping in the rain), and then to a second one, which finally had room. We were 6 peregrinos, and the lady over there said she has two triple rooms, or two double rooms (which were obviously not enough), so when we went for the two triple rooms, the American guy got stuck with us, while his "friend" got stuck with the two dutch girls and the biggest grin ever. We saw our "triple" room had four beds, and we happily got back and told them the good news - they can be in the same room for themselves, and we will just take a double room for us. The grin from the other guy (From England, I think) disapperead quickly.
I went out scavanging for food, and got back with some falafel and juice for tomorrow morning. The falafel was good at least.
Our room was quite nice, and we got to see some Spanish TV and have a nice shower. Put all our clothes to dry, and went to sleep at probably 20:30 or so.

Day 3 (Estella -> Los Arcos, 21Km)

2008-07-11T22:00:00.001+03:00

The hospitaler at the albergue this morning just put on Bob Marley on repeat as we got our packs together for the day. It was annoying the way "Free Love" kept playing in my mind the whole day...
We got out almost last from the albergue, and started walking the streets of Estella. After about an hour we got to the famous wine fountain at Irache, where we tried getting people to look at us live on the cam. I think only my sister managed it. Better luck next time.

We kept on walking along and up to Villamayor de Monjardin, where we had some sandwiches after almost losing each other in the village, and another 12Kms to Los Arcos, where we came limping and tired, to find ourselves an albergue.

In the albergue we cooked another dinner with Martin. This time tortellini and tomato sauce. It was quite good, even though the lady at the shop sold us a rotten onion (And we also heard she sold a rotten one to another group) - in thouse shops you can't touch the fruits and vegetables yourself, and have to ask for the shopkeepr for each one. This way they can make sure they give the rotten crap to the peregrinos, which they will never see again.

Going to Estella (Puente la Reing -> Estella, 22Km)

2008-07-10T22:00:00.005+03:00

We left the albergue at 7:40, and headed out towards Estella (pronounced Esteya). It was another hot day, and we walked along some of it with Martin.
The views are quite nice, rolling hills and fields of wheat. The occasional village with its church. The walking itself is not hard, no major climbs or anything, but the heat is a killer, and the feet ache after the first 20Km.
In the third village we walked in, we suddenly heard some cats mieowing (?), and a quick look inside a cardboard box on a window ledge made our day -

Later that day we ran into another nice dog inside a cage, and a nice stray cat we enjoyed the attention it was getting. Not so bad.

We made a short stop at the albergue in Lorca, and had some sandwich and lemonade.
In Estella we went to grab the special Peregrino Menu (Bolognse pasta and fillet for me) they have, and even Orna managed to get macaroni with tomato sauce thanks to Martin's Spanish. It did take them a long while to get us the bill though, so we got back to the albergue at 21:50 or something, and the guy working there was mad at Martin for being outside hanging his stuff to dry when it was almost lights out.
Going to sleep that early is still strange, with the light outside, but we are tired enough after the long walk.

Lorca

2008-07-10T14:42:00.003+03:00

Just a quick note from the albergue (Pilgrim hostel + bar) in Lorca.
The days are really hot, but apart from that it is not too hard. We walked for a day and a half. 9 more Kms today until we get to Estella.
Got to get off the internet.

First day (Pamplona -> Puente la Reina, 24Km)

2008-07-09T22:00:00.005+03:00

So, like every normal hiker does, we decided to start it slow, and just walk 16Km from Pamplona to the Albergue in Uterga.

The trail wasn´t too hard, just a bit of a climb out of Pamplona. Loads of Pilgrims on it, people keep on passing us and some are on bikes. In the first half there were clouds, so it wasn´t that hot.

It got hotter later, and we climed up to Alto del Perdon for a quick break. There were blood drops all around the picnic area, and then we saw Damian with his hand all wrapped up in bandages - he managed to open a tuna can together with two of his fingers, and his shirt was quite bloody from it.

Wgot to Uterga quite early, and decided to press on to Puente la Reina, which made our day to be 24Km. Quite a first day. It was not hard at all, physically, but the heat at the end was way bit too much. Damian found the local farmacia, and got his hand bandaged better. Hope it will last.
In Puenta La Reina we had dinner with Martin (He cooked us some nice rice and beans thingie), and later just crashed to sleep at the lights out. It is quite strange, to have lights out at 22:00, while outside the lights are very clearly still on.
We also met an Israeli couple at Uterga, Limor and Ben, and later in Puenta La Reina, though they stayed at the other Albergue.

Ben's blog - Camino de santiago: San Fermin

Pamplona

2008-07-08T22:00:00.006+03:00

this morning we finally got on a bus form Barcelona to Pamplona, which took 6 hours. Most of the people on it (Or probably everyone else but us), just came to Pamplona for the San Fermin festival (The bull running thingie), and the city was quite full. The information at the bus station did know about the Camino de Santiago trail, and told us where we should ask about getting a Pilgrimage Certificate (You need one so you can sleep at the Albergues along the way), and a guy who over heard my question told us where the Albergue in Pamplona was, and that we can get this certificate there.
After some wondering around the streets of Pamplona with all the partying crowds we got to the Albergue, which is run by two German volunteers, got the certificates and a cheap bad for the night, and headed back to town to get something to eat. We also met a pilgrim who kept on walking to the next Albergue (5 more Km), Damian from Belgium.

After getting back we bumped into Guy, from Israel. He biked the Camino backwards (He rode his bicycle the normal way, just started in the west, and headed east), and two friends of his (Jewish as well) from Canada.They were enjoying the festival and then heading towards Barcelona, and later France. We went to eat the Peregrino Menu (a special price for a 3 course meal, for pilgrims) at a nearby place with another girl from South Africa and her mom who joined in later, both Jews as well, and found another guy eating there, Martin from Miami, who was starting his Camino in Pamplona the next day like us, and was also Jewish. Later another Canadian Jew joined his friends and us. I only want to emphasize the fact that our first meal on this most Christian trail was with 7 other Jews, 1 of which was also a Israeli. That was quite funny.

The Albergue has a lights out at 22:30, which is apparently the norm on the trail, so that people can get their nights sleep.

Starting the trail

2008-07-07T22:00:00.003+03:00

After a lot of messing around trying to find a place for our stuff, and some tense moments, we have finally decided to leave the stuff at the hostel we are staying in, hoping they will wait for us until we get back. Tomorrow morning we are getting on a bus to Pamplona, where we will probably see a bit of the famous bull run festival, and hopefully get what we need for the trail and leave the next morning (chased by wild bulls).
I don´t expect to run into many internet places along the trail, so we will have to stop updating this blog oh so frequently like you are oh so used to. We plan on hiking for 2-3 weeks, but it might get a lot shorter if we feel like it, or a little bit longer. Wish us luck.

I AMsterdam

2008-07-02T21:23:00.004+03:00

an oldie from ireland (it wasn't always this sunny)

hello all, our few and select readers
we haven't updated in a while. we are in amsterdam, relaxing, and sitting in the sun after 8 rainy days in ireland.

so far amsterdam has been great. we were on a cat boat. volunteers pick up stray cats and bring them to the boat, then visitors can come over and pet them. although, most of them were not friendly.
last night we managed to score tickets to the sold out Raconteurs show. it was GREAT, one of the mutzdakot. we got to the venue early and two very nice guys sold us the tickets for the real price, so that was cool, later we were standing with these guys upfront, real upfront!

today we went to the van gogh museum, we saw all the american backpackers walk around with the museum's poster packaging and we wanted in too. the museum was nice but i am not crazy about van gogh, so we didn't buy a poster, only the poster package.

from amsterdam we continue to barcelona for a couple of days. we need to regroup, then we start our pilgrimage and hope to repent all of our sins.
wish us luck
orna