Serena Abbott | FindPenguins

Serena and Josh's Travels
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Day 42
Monday, November 7, 2022
⛅ 23 °C
Altitude: 1,642 m
Mexico Sierra Madre de Oaxaca 17, -96.517°0’0” N 96°30’0” W
Oaxaca
November 7, 2022 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Highlights:
- See food and drink section!
- Josh joined the wrong food tour when Serena was ill - supposed to be a cooking class and was instead a street food tour which suited him more!
- Josh met people from his food tour for drinks on a rooftop terrace
- Joined in on some dancing in the square and some ladies helped us with the moves!

Lowlights:
- Serena being ill, likely altitude sickness, and missing the cooking class

Food and drink:
- Tlayudas (a bit like a pizza cooked over charcoal filled with beans, meat and stringy cheese)
- Josh's accidental street food tour:
- grasshoppers
- stewed pork
- hot chocolate
- mezcal
- intestine
- tamales
- ant and squash blossom quesadillas
- memelas
- The tour also included the following food and drink which Serena ate the next day with Josh as the tour guide!
- pozontle (a ceremonial corn and cacao cold drink)
- green juice
- tuna (the cactus flower not the fish!) and passion fruit sorbet
- 4 types of mole with tortilla
- Dinner at La Terraza del Copal (Serena pork coloradito mole, Josh chicken black mole)
- Drinks at a rooftop bar (mezcalita and mezcal mojito - even in a cocktail we're still not keen on mezcal!)Read more
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Day 39
Friday, November 4, 2022
⛅ 23 °C
Altitude: 2,159 m
Mexico El Carmen 19.04372, -98.19814919°2’37” N 98°11’53” W
Puebla
November 4, 2022 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Highlights:
- Stayed at a lovely hostel called Casa Pepe
- Beautiful colourful streets, with lights in the evening
- A walk around the centre, in the cathedral, candy street, frog street (full of antiques shops), Capilla de Rosario (a church full of gold) and the Bibliotheca
- Views from the terrace of Museo Amaro
- Each bought a traditional top from the parian market

Food and drink:
- Had a great breakfast of egg enchiladas covered in mole sauce for Serena and bean sauce for Josh
- Tortilla soup
- Sweets from candy street - some sweet potato sweets, something fudge like and some Santa Clara cookiesRead more
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Day 38
Thursday, November 3, 2022
⛅ 24 °C
Altitude: 2,234 m
Mexico UNAM FAD Academia de San Carlos 19.43263, -99.13317919°25’57” N 99°7’59” W
Mexico city
November 3, 2022 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Highlights:
- Walking tour of the historical town despite the heat
- Chapultepec castle
- Walking through Condesa and Roma neighborhoods
- Day of the Dead community procession
- Teotihuacan day trip
- Day of the Dead celebrations in the centre in the evening
- Botanical gardens
- Archaeological museum - really interesting and absolutely massive - we only covered less than half in 2 hours
- The friendliness of Mexicans - so many people stopped to help us without us asking with things like directions and translation

Lowlights:
- The jetlag lasted a few days - longer than we thought it would!
- An incredibly stressful and busy journey on public transport from our hotel to the bus station

Food and drink:
- Tacos! Fish tacos from La Pescadita were particularly good
- Cakes from Pasteleria Ideal - was insanely busy and you got a tray and tongs and went round picking stuff you wanted which then got wrapped up and you paid. We had no idea what everything was so just copied what other people got - everything delicious except the sweetcorn cake which was a bit too unusual!
- Churros and hot chocolate at El Moro - day of the dead themed (aka black sugar!)
- Tasted the different traditional alcohols - pulque (a fermented, thick drink - not bad!), tequila (tasted better than our university days) and mezcal (not our favourite - too smoky!)
- Pan de Muerto - a sweet bun eaten around day of the dead timeRead more
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Day 30
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
⛅ 30 °C
Altitude: 46 m
France Paris 07 Ancien - Quartier Arcis 48.856697, 2.35146148°51’24” N 2°21’5” E
Paris
October 26, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Highlights:
- Hop on hop off boat down the Seine
- Seeing the Louvre (from outside!)
- Seeing the Eiffel tower from below and from Montparnasse tower at night including the light show
- PSG football match for Josh, rom-com in bed at the hotel for Serena - perfect!
- Luxembourg gardens
- Notre Dame (from the outside for obvious reasons)

Food and drinks:
- Macarons
- Almond croissant and Chocolate and Raspberry croissant
- Lunch at L'Agrume - Trio of starters including lobster soup, each had beef with carrots and mash, then shared strawberries cream and pastry for dessertRead more
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Day 28
Monday, October 24, 2022
⛅ 32 °C
Altitude: 282 m
France Cervon 47.242213, 3.76856447°14’32” N 3°46’7” E
Colmar
October 24, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Highlights:
- Following the Colmar walking trail with plaques about the town and seeing the different buildings
- Having some chill time

Lowlights:
- The food market being closed when we planned to pick up ingredients for dinner

Food and drinks:
- Went for lunch at Fleur de Sel - had tarte flambeé (similar to a thin pizza with cream, cheese, onion and ham) and tarteflette (cheesy bacony potato pot)
- Pain d'epices - yummy and like gingerbread cake
- Mirabelle tartRead more
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Day 26
Saturday, October 22, 2022
⛅ 28 °C
Altitude: 268 m
Switzerland Marktplatz 47.558108, 7.58782647°33’29” N 7°35’16” E
Basel
October 22, 2022 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Highlights:
- Interlaken ferry trip and Giessbach falls walk
- Evening walk around Basel
- A morning wandering around Bern and climbing up a hill to see views of the old town and river
- Making a child's tea of spaghetti in tomato sauce with chopped up hot dog sprinkled with Swiss cheese - delicious!
- Ate a dough man holding a chocolate baton which is a Christmas treat apparently, very good!

Lowlights:
- Basel v Zurich football - terrible match!Read more
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Day 23
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
🌧 24 °C
Altitude: 1,814 m
Switzerland Punt Ota 46.489993, 9.90429746°29’24” N 9°54’15” E
Pontresina
October 19, 2022 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌧 24 °C
Highlights:
- The Glacier Express from Zermatt to Pontresina with gorgeous scenery
- Gondola up to Diavolezza and hike to Mont Pers
- Walk along Lago Bianco to Alp grum Station
- Wander around Poschiavo
- Easy walk to Monteratsch glacier and around the waterfalls
- Short walk into Val Roseg

Food and drinks:
- Breakfast and dinner were included at the Youth Hostel so we had food cooked for us for the first time in Switzerland!Read more
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Day 20
Sunday, October 16, 2022
⛅ 32 °C
Altitude: 1,619 m
Switzerland Zermatt Station 46.024573, 7.74812946°1’28” N 7°44’53” E
Zermatt
October 16, 2022 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Highlights:
- The Airbnb with the views of the Matterhorn from our bedroom!
- The Five Lakes walk - relatively easy walk with amazing views and great weather
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Day 19
Saturday, October 15, 2022
⛅ 32 °C
Altitude: 491 m
Switzerland Lausanne 46.521827, 6.63270346°31’19” N 6°37’58” E
Lausanne
October 15, 2022 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Highlights:
- The Cathedral and the views of the city from outside
- Walking along the lake
- The ice hockey match
- Had a bath!
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Day 17
Thursday, October 13, 2022
☁️ 29 °C
Altitude: 179 m
France Lyon 02 45.757814, 4.83201145°45’28” N 4°49’55” E
Lyon
October 13, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Highlights:
- Seeing wild flamingos out of the window of the train on the way to Lyon
- Food market in the main square - lots of free samples!
- Food tour (and all the food in general)
- Basilica Notre Dame
- Tete D'Or park
- Free zoo where we saw red pandas

Food and drinks:
- Food market and bought some pastries, brioche and sweets
- Had lunch of typical Lyon food at Le Laurencin, including Pike quenelle, onion soup, Lyonnaise salad, and saucisson
- Food tour of Lyon including cheese, wine, dried meat (Jesus and rosette), silk worker's brain (which is actually a cheese dip!), egg and wine soup, chocolate and stout, and praline tart
- Meal at Le Poleon D'Or, again with salad Lyonnaise, as well as chicken supreme and pannacotta - yum!Read more
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Day 14
Monday, October 10, 2022
☁️ 29 °C
Altitude: 76 m
Spain Placa de Hospital 41.979301, 2.81994441°58’45” N 2°49’12” E
Girona
October 10, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Highlights:
- Walking along the city walls
- Seeing the bridges and coloured houses

Food and drinks:
- Ice cream - lemon, dark chocolate, mango and 'malaga'
- Xuixo - a pastry filled with flavoured cream, we bought a selection!Read more
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Day 13
Sunday, October 9, 2022
⛅ 30 °C
Altitude: 28 m
Spain Plaça de l'Ajuntament 39.469707, -0.37633539°28’11” N 0°22’35” W
Valencia
October 9, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Highlights:
- Lots of chill time in the park
- Bike tour
- Views of the city from El Micalet church tower
- Museum of Science
- Valencia Community Day parade and fireworks

Lowlights:
- Not having enough time to go to more museums and the aquarium (which was out of our backpacker budget range!)

Food and drinks:
- Paella, paella and more paella!
- Agua de Valencia (very delicious, very strong cocktail using freshly squeezed orange juice)
- Orange juice
- Horchata and fartonsRead more
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Day 10
Thursday, October 6, 2022
☀️ 32 °C
Altitude: 662 m
Spain Puerta del Sol 40.416705, -3.70358240°25’0” N 3°42’13” W
Madrid
October 6, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Highlights:
- Prado museum (free evening entry)
- Sofia Reina museum (free evening entry)
- The palace (you guessed it... Free evening entry)
- Walking tour
- Real Madrid Champions League match
- Row boat on the lake at Retiro Park
- Toledo for the afternoon
- Manchego cheese and local wine tasting

Food and drinks:
- World's tallest lemon meringue pie at Los Porfiados
- Churros and Porras (like fat churros!) with hot chocolate at San Gines (multiple trips, too good!)Read more
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Day 7
Monday, October 3, 2022
⛅ 30 °C
Altitude: 19 m
Spain Plaza Nueva 37.38863, -5.9953437°23’19” N 5°59’43” W
Sevilla
October 3, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Highlights:
- Visit to Cordoba - wander around and visit to the alcazar and Mercado Victoria
- Sevilla Vs Atletico Madrid football - the crowd and stadium were amazing even if the game was not!
- Morning walking tour
- Cyclotour around Plaza de Espana
- Flamenco show Casa del Flamenco
- The Mushrooms (Setas) of Seville just before midnight

Food and drinks:
- Tapas at Taberna del Arenal (highlights were the sirloin carbonara and orange wine)
- Brownie cheesecake (there seemed to be cheesecake shops everywhere!)
- Tapas at Bar Alfalfa (highlights were Carrillada iberica, Pollo a la alfalfa and Bacaloa a la romano)
- Tapas at Sal Gorda (highlights were Ropa Vieja, 'Bulls' tail and the coconut curry)Read more
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Day 4
Friday, September 30, 2022
⛅ 29 °C
Altitude: 27 m
Spain Plaza de la Constitución 36.721303, -4.42163736°43’17” N 4°25’18” W
Malaga
September 30, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Highlights:
- Evening walking tour of Malaga
- Hike up to the castle, and walk around the alcazar
- Drinks on the rooftop bar at the hostel
- Walk at Camino del Rey

Lowlights:
- Had a minor panic when Josh couldn't transfer his rail pass onto his new phone (luckily customer support sorted this quickly!)

Food and drink:
- Spanish omelette
- Tinto de Verano - red wine, lemonade and fruit - similar to Sangria
- Fartons (a sweet bread covered in icing sugar or glazed)
- Tapas including the best olives we've ever had, albondigas (meatballs), russian salad, tuna, anchovies, croquetas and Andalusian pork stewRead more
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Day 1
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
☀️ 29 °C
Altitude: 27 m
Spain Plaza de la Constitución 36.721303, -4.42163736°43’17” N 4°25’18” W
First day
September 27, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
First stop on our travels, and we arrive after 11pm into a 12 bed hostel and try to unpack without disturbing anyone. We both have the 'oh s**t!' feeling the next day of what have we got ourselves into, and what do we do now that we are actually on the trip that we spent months planning for?! Thankfully we settle in quickly and start thinking what we want to do over the next few days.Read more
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