Day 398: Top Ten Vacation Highlights from Europe

view of Pena Palace from the surrounding gardens

We recently took a luxurious break from our PC service to travel in southern Portugal and Spain with the immediate Skolnik family. It was fantastic to catch up with everyone: Steve, Lola, Ramon, Shayna, Kevin and Sabina. Kev came all the way from Mozambique where he, too, is a PC volunteer (check out the link for his blog on the right-hand column of this page). We celebrated the end of our first year of service together, chatting at length about the similarities and differences of our experiences - contrasting Latin America and Africa...wow, and somehow Europe was an easy midway point. Sabina is a blast and speaking spanish like a Sevillana, where she currently resides. My family is spread across the globe, but we are still close as can be.

Top ten tasty tidbits:

10 - Delicious Olives

9 - Cork oak trees (don't buy wine without real cork; it helps sustain a unique agricultural, ecological landscape which supports many birds and animals)

8 - Portuguese bread and any and all cheeses

7 - Hackisack sessions any and everywhere (with integration)

6 - Seville's gazpacho (and Ramon's homemade)

5 - Columpios (swings) with niece Sabina

4 - Views from atop Castle walls that contain cute whitewashed towns atop hills

3 - Random, inventive music sessions with my bro

2 - Morning jogs in the Alentejo countryside

1 - Family meals (yes, food was a main theme of the vaca)!