Argentina

Last weekend Sandra and I spent 4 days in Warsaw, Poland. Poland has had one of the toughest histories of any country due to its central position in Europe with difficult to defend land borders. From the 17th to 19th centuries, Poland was invaded by Sweden, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Russia & Prussia (this time together). Finally in 1919 they get their independence only to be invaded by Nazi Germany in 1939. Finally, in 1944 Poland is liberated! Hooray! Wait, who liberated them? Oh, the Soviet Union. Goodbye Hitler, Hello Stalin. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, the Polish economy collapses by 40%. Everything seemed to go okay after that until 2010 when a Polish plane crashed in Russia killing all 96 people on board, including the president and former president, the chief of the Polish General Staff, the president of the Bank of Poland, Poland's deputy foreign minister, 15 members of parliament and senior members of ...

As mentioned in my previous post, Sandra's family has three restaurants: La Casa de las Pulgas, El Real, and La Marina. El Real and La Marina are in the Plaza Mayor (Main Square) of Salamanca, which is ground zero for tourism. Think the Union Square of San Francisco or Pike's Place of Seattle, except that it's a huge public square where everyone comes to eat, and it's the number one attraction. Having a restaurant on the Plaza Mayor is a big deal as there are only about 10 restaurants. Having 2 is an even bigger deal. Here's a briefing on the three restaurants. La Casa de las Pulgas: The first restaurant they had. It serves mostly locals and has very traditional Spanish food. I've come to learn that the Spanish palette is very traditional and most people don't like new exotic foods. Sandra's dad has never tried Chinese food for example. This restaurant easily has the best food of the three but is a little bit removed from the Plaza Mayor. For this r...