2018 has been a year of great change for the Clinger family. As you all know, we moved from Europe to America and then across America in a rental truck. Braden started a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature at Boston University and Abby found an entry level job in the Cambridge Library system and is super excited to be working in a field that she loves. We enjoyed making our “Best of 2017” list so much that we have decided to make a best of 2018. Please enjoy all of the superlatives!
Worst / Best Snack - Caracoles (Snails)
In the spring snail stands pop-up on the streets of Córdoba’s various neighborhoods and the whole city argues over which one is the best. For us, it was the best of snacks; it was the worst of snacks. I love caracoles. As you will find in the video below, Abby has other feelings about them.
Favorite New Food (German Edition) - Currywurst
Simple and elegant, this german street staple had us wanting more and more. Thinking of its mix of tangy curry ketchup and meaty sausage is making my mouth water as I write this.
Favorite New Food (Polish Edition) - Pierogi
Sweet or savory, these buttery dumplings fill a place in our hearts. [Not pictured because we ate them too fast -- on three different occasions].
Favorite New Food (Czech Edition) - Trdlnik
What this cone of delicious dough lacks in vowels, it makes up for in tastiness. Abby and I couldn’t eat just one. I like them cream filled, and she likes them with cinnamon-sugar apples. It just barely beat out pig knuckle with cabbage for the top spot in this category.
Favorite New Food (Chinatown Edition) - Dim Sum
We feel right at home in a Dim Sum restaurant. Maybe it is because the years we spent in Spain gave us a taste for reasonably priced small plates. Maybe it is because Abby spent 5 ½ months in China and knows what to order. Whatever the reason, we are so thankful to live in a city with a beautiful Chinatown!
New Favorite Food (Fast Food Edition) - Runza
I crave doughy-meaty-cabbagey-spiced-goodness all the time. I guess it isn’t technically fast food if I have to go to Nebraska to get it though.
Best Parallel Parking Job - Abby Clinger in the Allston/Brighton Moving Day Hellscape
Almost every lease in our part of Boston turns over on September 1st, and so that day the whole place is swarming with moving vans. Despite our best efforts to avoid it, we had to move in that day. Braden had little faith that we would ever find a place to put our truck while we moved our things in, but Abby parallel parked our 10 foot moving van into a perfect spot directly across the street from our building. A man pulled up next to her, rolled down his window and, in the thickest Bostonian accent I have ever heard, said You did a f***ing good job! It was the best welcome to the city we could have asked for.
Best Allston Christmas Find - Bookshelves!
Speaking of the Allston/Brighton Moving Day Hellscape, a funny thing happens where perfectly good furniture (okay, honestly it is perfectly not terrible - but usually functional furniture) gets left on the side of the road. They call this Allston Christmas and if you did it right you could furnish an apartment just walking down Comm. Ave. We got this beautiful Ikea bookshelf!
Campground most like a M. Night Shyamalan Movie - Country View RV Park, Ogallala Nebraska
674 miles from Pocatello, Idaho, this classic Midwestern RV Park is filled with cicadas and surrounded by corn fields. And possibly aliens? Cleo was very confused by the all of the corn.
Scariest Hike - Sierra Morena
This hike started off like any other; I walked Cleo to the base of the Cuesta del Reventón (a hiking and recreation area south of Córdoba that literally translates to steep, difficult to climb incline) and let her off the leash to enjoy the climb. I decided that it was finally time to visit the hermitage that is perched at the top of the mountain. When we got to the top of the Cuesta del Reventón, I saw that the trail went east to start switching back up the mountain toward the hermitage. I also saw that the hermitage was directly up the mountain to my south. So Cleo and I threw caution to the wind and headed straight up the mountain to the hermitage. The terrain was too steep, the brambles too brambly and when I reached the hermitage I realized that there was a wall between me and my goal. Then I realized that there was not going to be an easy way down. Luckily Cleo was there to guide me past the little cliffs and down to safety. No kidding, Cleo saved my life.
Coolest Hike - El Caminito del Rey
The Caminito del Rey used to be fare for only the most courageous of adventurers: a deteriorating pathway attached to the face of a cliff. However, now that it has been updated with a fancy wood walkway and safety railings we felt like we could do it. We had to do some sketchy dealing with a “scalper” to get tickets, but we got them at face value and they were real! So all's well that ends with a beautiful 9 kilometer hike that acutely reminds you of your fragile mortality.
Saddest Goodbye - Maren
In January Abby’s little sister Maren left for a mission for the LDS Church in Florida and Alabama. When we went back to Spain from our Christmas break in the states, we were saying goodbye to most of our family for a few months, but we were saying goodbye to Maren for much longer. It’s never fun to check in for a flight with tears on your face, but what can you do? A couple of weeks later, as the rest of the family dropped her off at the Missionary Training Center we were patched in via Facetime. The goodbye seemed to be over before it even began!
Saddest Goodbye (First Runner Up) - Max the Fly
The kid that Abby nannied had a pet fly named Max for a few days. Max was a fighter. Max couldn’t fly. He was more of a “walk” than a “fly”. Then, tragically, Max died in a freak box-closing accident. We had a lovely funeral service, where his tiny corpse was laid under a rock and we said a few loving words. May Max the walking fly forever rest in peace.
Best Friends - Cleo, Theo, and Snitch
Abby’s parents have a dog named Theo. We have a dog named Cleo. Abby’s sister has a dog named Snitch. And guess what. . . They are friends! Or they have to be friends because they are family. Theo is getting up there in age, but he can definitely hold his own with the puppies… especially when the roller blades come out!
Best Friends (First Runner Up) - Us and Berlin’s Ampelmännchen
How could you not be best friends with this helpful little man?
Best Bum - 6-way tie
Abby took pictures (or had me take pictures) of all of these bums! But she could never decide which one was the best. Let us know which you think is best in the comment section.
Longest Night - Berlin Bus Station
During our Holy Week vacation we visited Berlin, Prague and Krakow. To save some time and money we decided to take the Flix night bus from Berlin to Prague. The bus left either really late at night or at an ungodly early time in the morning, depending on your point of view. We hung out in the bus station, brushed our teeth in the bus station, read in the bus station, and tried to sleep in the bus station. Then we got on a bus and tried to sleep on a bus. Then we groggily wandered Prague until we could check into our hotel.
Coolest Bone - Wawel Dragon Bone
According to legend, Krakow’s Wawel Hill was once home to a dragon who required cattle offerings or else it would rampage and eat humans and kidnap maidens. In some versions, the dragon was killed by Krakus II, in others a humble cobbler name Skubę saved the day. In any case the fact that actual bones, purporting to be the dragons’, hang next to the entry into Wawel Cathedral makes my heart sing.
Most Beautiful Place of Worship - St. Mary’s Basilica, Krakow
Situated on the western corner of Krakow’s historic market square, this colorful church may be the most beautiful place of worship we have ever visited. I am almost sad we didn’t pay the extra couple of zloty to take interior photos. Then again, could a photo do it justice? No. Photographs are not jurists.
Newest UNESCO World Heritage Site - Medina Azahara
We went before it was a World Heritage Site. That makes us influencers, right?
Best Game of Thrones Location - Castillo de Almodóvar
These days it is hard to visit old stuff in Europe (which is why Americans go there, right?) without running into something you’ve already seen on GoT. Luckily we don’t watch GoT, so the only way we know that a place was in the show is the signs that say “This site was featured on Game of Thrones.” Frankly, Castillo de Almodóvar is a tourist trap, but a very picturesque tourist trap.
Best Happy Accident - Flower Parade
We were not expecting to see old ladies on brightly decorated parade floats singing and chucking flowers at onlookers when we left church the first Sunday of May, but that is what we found. It was, in a word, surreal. We both got carnations thrown at us at surprising speeds and we walked the rest of the way home very happily.
Best Month - May in Córdoba
Córdoba in May is a non-stop, well-oiled party machine consisting of the following festivals: The Flower Parade (mentioned above); Las Cruces, a festival where each neighborhood sets up a flower cross in their square and drink and party; The Patio Festival, where neighbors collaborate to decorate their shared patios with flowers and antiques for thousands of guests to see; and La Fería, food and dance and rides and bingo in the most dusty colorful cacophony you will ever experience!
Best Dressage - Abby at Ronda
The video says everything you need to know.
Cleo’s Favorite Park (Spain Edition) - Asomadilla
Not far from our home in Córdoba was a hillside park with running paths, olive trees and pomegranate trees, and an incredible view of the city. On cool days and breezy evenings, Cleo could run and run forever there.
Cleo’s Favorite Park (United States Edition) - Chestnut Hill Reservoir
There are pros and cons to living only 5 minutes away from a beautiful reservoir surrounded by trees and a well-maintained walking path. It is a great way to experience nature in the city, the fall foliage is breathtaking, and there are always plenty of sticks for fetching and squirrels for chasing. But every time Cleo goes outside, there is only one place she wants to be, and no other walking route could ever measure up to her new favorite place. So I guess the con is that it’s too great?
Best Train Ride - Heber Creeper
Awesome Party Weekend always lives up to its name, and this year did not disappoint! One of the activities this year was riding on the Heber Valley Railroad. We saw beautiful sights, were threatened (and serenaded) by real-life* outlaws, and listened to some great cowboy poetry!
*Thinking back on the experience, they may not have been real outlaws.
Best Tent - This Little Guy
This was our home for a week as we drove across America! The air mattress leaked and we were eaten alive by mosquitoes, but we got to sleep under the stars and it was totally worth it!
Strangest Play - Mr. Burn’s: A Post-Electric Play
This summer, as we drove across the country, Abby and I listened to an interview about the play and were convinced that we needed to see it. As luck would have it, one of the Harvard theater organizations performed it this fall! The play uses an episode of The Simpsons to follow the evolution of pop cultural memory after an apocalyptic event and broaches such important questions as loss and violence, the role of art and the artist, originality and tradition, and where all the Diet Coke ended up.
Strangest Park - Gilgal Gardens, SLC, Utah
An almost painfully sincere expression of Mormon folk practice, the peaceful Gilgal Gardens are one of Salt Lake City’s best hidden gems. Created by Thomas Battersby Child, Jr. in the 1950s and 60s, this is the best (and only) place where you can finally answer the question, “What would Joseph Smith have looked like as a sphinx?”
Most Wonderful Birthday Present - Wandering the MFA
One of the best part about being married to Abby is that we love museums. So when she asked what I wanted to do for my birthday, it was an easy answer: take me to see some art!
Here's hoping for a fantastic 2019!
