Finally back from vacation in Colombia!

If you watched my Youtube video about my vacation, you may have known that I went away for a couple of weeks to my place of birth, beautiful Medellin, Colombia. I was surprised at the amount of new structures erected in the city. I was last there 2 years ago and much has changed. While it has always been a bustling, modern city, it just keeps expanding and modernizing very quickly. While this little blog is in no way the be-all end-all tour of the city, I will share pieces of my little trip with you guys. Heck I may even throw in a couple of toy related bits. I was there to visit friends and family and of course eat. Which I did lots of. These pictures are not necessarily in chronological order.

This is the view out of the bedroom window I was in. behind those bushes is a soccer field.

This is the Oviedo shopping center. It has a big tree in the center which is nicely lit up at night. All the stores you could want are here.

To kick things off here at the mall, I stopped by Sushi to go where I picked up some sushi rolls. Nothing raw today for me, just some tasty stuff to prep me for dinner later that night.

My wife also got some rolls. One of which had sweet plantains on top.

Waiting to chomp these down with a side of lemonade.

After the sushi, I got myself a cup of coffee. The coffee here is not serve out of an old pot. Each cup is individually made to serve. Check out that foamy head. It is a teeny cup as you can tell by the plastic holder they clip to the side. Each little sip is heaven. Everytime you drink Colombian coffee here in the states, just remember, IT IS NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS WHAT YOU FIND IN COLOMBIA. I'm beginning to think we keep the good stuff for ourselves over there. $2,800COP ($1.20US)

Here is the tree at night overlooking the food court.

Here is the parking lot outside the Oviedo shopping center.

Another view off to the side.

Later on in the week, we head off to my aunt's house. She recommended stopping by not only to visit but to check out the view from here balcony... Awe inspiring.

Off to the right.

Here is my wife sitting off to the side enjoying the breeze and view.

Tired of teeny McD's burgers? How about getting 2 of these combos for the low price of $17,700COP (about $9US) at Presto? The burgers do actually look like the ones in the posters here.

Halloween was in full effect at another mall called Los Molinos (The Windmills). This is another popular trendy shopping center that was full of kids dressed up as their favorite characters. Ben 10 and Captain America were big hits.

This is a view down one of the wings there.

Here's a little McDonalds that serves coffee and ice cream lost in the shuffle.

Here is another mall called the Premium Plaza that was also bustling with kids in their favorite costumes.

One of my favorite ice cream places is Popsy. You absolutely must try there Chocolate Belga (Belgian Chocolate). Relatively pricey compared to other places (2 scoops $4800COP, about $2.50US.

Here is my half eaten cone. Those dark spots? HUGE rock-like chunks of delicious Belgian Chocolate.

Here is proof that Colombian Hot Dogs are huge! No seriously, the hot dogs here are insane. They are called "Perros" (dogs) and they also have a place that serves "Perras" (bitches-as in female dogs) which is just a bunch of bacon covered in six sauces: Barbeque, ketchup, pink sauce, pineapple and others I cant remember. Then there is salad on top, then teeny crispy slivers of potato and 3 teeny eggs (cornish hens?) and served on a cardboard holder. Halfway through one of them I thought I was going to pass out. Unfortunately, my android phone decided to take a crap and lost the pictures I took of the huge sandwich.

OK, I know I'm not supposed to be eating burgers when on vacation outside the US, but these burgers here are wonderful and they look like the ones on posters! This combo was from Don Jediondo. Notice the word Jedi is in the name. However the force was not with them this day as the bread was crumbly and the grilled taste was overpowering. It was DELICIOUS during the first couple of bites and you'll notice grill marks on the bread, but not one of the better burgers. My wife took two bites and left it alone. I however finished it all. I got 2 of these combos for $15,000COP (about $7.75US)

It was a pretty big burger too.

One of our last stops in the trip was to the Pueblito Paisa which is basically a little teeny town that is trapped in time. It houses little shops and has a few rooms where tourists can peek in and see how the typical Paisa live back in the day. Very quaint and cute. Always a must see. Especially up in the viewing area where the entire city can bee seen.

Here is another mall called the Sante Fe. It's one of the newer shopping centers here. They have two springs that shoot up about 5 floors...or is it 4? I forgot how many floors the mall has but it's huge. They also have a high-end toy store which I'll do a new post about.

Check this out, this is MALL FOOD. Try getting this at your local New Jersey mall. Damage about $40,000COP($20US)

Another view for your pleasure...oh and yeah those are sizzling hot metal plates they are served on.

Want to see more mall food? This was taken earlier in the trip at Oviedo. Cost me about $15 for all of it.

My aunt once again recommended visiting here to check out the view at night. So I did. Wow, wow, WOW.

There are so many more pictures that I have yet to sort through and post on here to show you guys. There is definitely more food pictures. Make sure to stop by for more updates of my trip and more stuff that I bought.

Oh and if you know anything about Medellin, you will know that it is known for it's women and nightlife, while I gave that up when I got married, you can get a glimpse of those 2 things here. There are links to pictures that were taken at various clubs and each is dated. So if you ever hit up one of these clubs you can always click on the club and the date you went and check out the girls you were to chicken to talk to that night.