Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts

After five weeks in Spain (Tenerife is Spain), many attempts at speaking Spanish, liters of Sangria, and hundreds of Tapas later, we are leaving Spain and Barcelona. Our stay in this wonderful city, though brief, was quite magnificent. We managed to make it around to the majority of Barcelona's most famous landmarks, while learning about their history and culture in the process. Barcelona is the only city in the world with the honor of winning the Royal Gold Medal RIBA architectural design award, which is intended only for individual architects. We found it very difficult to find an area of the city without remarkable craftsmanship and famous architectural influence. The Segrada La Familia, arguably Antoni Gaudí‘s most famous creation has been under construction since 1882, and isn't expected to be finished until the year 2026 – the centennial of his death.

We’re fortunate that our Airbnb apartment in the Gràcia neighborhood is near the city center, and has a comforting, homey feel. Our temporary roommate, we don’t know her name but refer to her as “Grandma,” happens to talk and look a lot like Kyle's Oma (word grandmother in Dutch). Kyle has spent a considerable amount of time indulging her conversations, though it's still very difficult for him to understand most of what she is saying. We quickly found out that air conditioners don't really exist here, which is unfortunate for us as the average July temperature hovers just below 90°F / 32°C. Toss in some Mediterranean humidity and you have yourself a recipe for uncomfortable – but compared to the cold, wet summer that London is having, WE'LL TAKE IT! This afternoon we managed to find relief from the heat in the form of the Mediterranean Sea. We finished off the remaining trips on our T-10 passes as we made our way from the Barceloneta station to the beach, lazily meandering past shop venders, and fellow travelers. The beach was packed, especially for a Wednesday! We were hardly able to locate even the smallest plot of sand for our flip-flops and towels. Barcelona's mile long beach is ranked number one in the world by National Geographic, and we certainly can’t argue with them about that!

Tomorrow marks our embarkation from Barcelona's port on a 12-day Norwegian cruise around the northern Mediterranean Sea. The ship will grant us passage to the beautiful cities of Toulon, France – Pisa, Florence, Rome and Naples, Italy -the island of Mykonos, Greece – Istanbul and Izmir Turkey – Athens, Greece and finally docking in Venice. Lucky for us we will be spending two nights in Venice and get to see Yara and Eros before we head back to America. Not a bad way to end three whole months abroad!

Xo,
K&M

Our last week in Tenerife was both physically and mentally exhausting. At the time we managed to slip by on borrowed sleep - but of course we had to make up for this sleep debt sometime. Unfortunately it hit us our first two days in Barcelona and we spent more time lazily watching Discovery Channel movies and having our own "Shark Week," then going out and exploring this beautiful city.

Today was the first day we had managed to collect ourselves enough to meander around and see what Barcelona has to offer. Making use of the fairly priced subways or "Metro" (€9.95 T-10 card, 10 trip pass) we traveled from the nearest station Fontana to Liceu, dropping us right into the heart of La Rambla. We followed the street South to the Mediterranean Sea, Megan stopped at every artist both and souvenir stand, but eventually we made it to the marina. "No gracias" was our words of choice on the marina as every illegal street merchant tried to sell us on "designer" sunglasses, purses and jewelry. As we drifted past the boats, over the bridge and through the Aquarium we came to an awesome street festival that showcased Latin American cuisine, dancing and music.

We wandered back through the "Barrio Gotic," the historic part of Barcelona occupied by the Romans, but unfortunately to us it didn't look very "Gothic." After browsing more shops we settled on Greek food for lunch and met a nice guy from Chicago, Dave, who has been living in Barcelona for six years. He recommended a few really great restaurants and bars - but insisted on us visiting "Cat Bar," a vegan restaurant and microbrewery. After a quick bite we followed La Rambla up through Plaça de Catalunya and on to Casa Batlló, one of the many works of Gaudí. Catching the Metro from Passeig de Gracia Station, we headed back home for more shark movies, a long nap, and dinner.

Xo,
M&K

A photo sizzle reel of what's to come from our week with Barrett...

Traveling days abroad are always "super fun" - you have packing, public transportation, long periods of waiting, followed by even longer lines to stand in, overpriced food, sore shoulders, luck-of-the-draw airline seating, language barriers... you get the idea! Earlier "today" (the 26th) we left Tenerife via the North airport at 21:00h and landed just after 1:15am, now the 27th in Barcelona. We had planned to sleep at the airport and take a bus to our apartment at 13:00 when we were due to "check-in" with our host. It wasn't until we landed that we realized; one, we were starving and two, if we tried to sleep in the terminal we would be away from our checked baggage long enough for it to possibly "walk away." After a long debate about finances we agreed that booking a hotel for the night was a good idea, regardless of the cost - losing a bag and it's contents is more pricey in the long run.

Scouring the terminals we found the only open restaurant at 1:30 in the morning - good ol' McDonald's! We ordered off the €1 menu, broke out the laptop and found out that the Barcelona Airport didn't have free Wi-Fi. Luckily we had purchased an Orange (European cell phone provider) USB stick for 30-days of Internet while in Tenerife, which works in mainland Spain, and we were able to score a €59/night room at a hotel near our apartment for the week. After collecting our checked luggage, which we were SO glad to see still on the baggage claim carousels, we hustled out to the taxi line and set off for the hotel.

With each kilometer we traveled Megan became more and more nervous about having enough Euros left for cab fare. After all our snack sessions we had managed to spend every last bit of coin change and between the two of us only had €36 in cash. Luckily as we pulled up to the hotel the meter read €25.90 - but after the driver added the €10 luggage handling fee we were completely drained of all our money! However we walked away with HUGE grins on our face - we made it to Barcelona safely, penniless, but nonetheless ecstatic that everything had worked out in our favor! However, the poor cabby did not receive a tip.

The best part is that the room is awesome, we have FREE Wi-Fi (how we're writing this at 3:45am), and checkout is 12:00 giving us time to get some much-needed ZzZ's in before we head to our Airbnb apartment in the morning.

From Barcelona
XO,
M&K

Last Tuesday was the Festival of the Embarkation of the Virgen del Carmen, part of the Fiestas de Julio. Here in Puerto Cruz they have a whole month dedicated to celebrating life, and happiness by the sea! If you’ve been following for awhile you may remember Megan mentioning this as one of the major things she wanted to experience...(Why Tenerife) glad to say neither or us were let down!

During the Fiestas de Julio the city gets crazy in the days leading up the Tuesday Embarkation. There are celebrations, parades, and a sardine festival in the town square, all to honor the Virgen del Carmen, the Patron Saint of fishermen and the sea. People stayed up and partying until five in the morning the weekend before Tuesday's Embarkation. It is common to hear fireworks going off all night long – and sometimes, even during the day. Every evening we were treated to multiple firework displays set off near the town square. There was a show every hour from dusk until one or two in the morning. We happily watched from our seventh story balcony, pleased to be having July 7 - 10 fireworks to make up for missing our own tradition of July 4th.

We've both read and heard from the locals that the Embarkation Festival is a day that shouldn’t be missed. Tuesday morning we woke up extra early and went to the local cafe for coffee and Internet access. By 10am the street outside the cafe and neighboring Supermercado were packed with teenagers in their swimsuits! We witnessed kids - who couldn't have been over sixteen years old mixing rum and Coca Cola into emptied six-liter water jugs. People were walking in droves towards the marina, so we quickly changed into our bathing suits and followed in their footsteps.

Walking through the town square to the marina was easier said than done. It is estimated that each year over 35,000 people cram into the areas surrounding the marina to take part in the festival. Everywhere we looked people had on t-shirts with images depicting the Virgen, which we found out were being sold nearby - so we splurged €3 apiece and each bought one! One of the best parts of the festival was the traditional Canarian food and drink that was being sold by the street vendors. For just a few Euros we got fresh fish and shrimp on a skewer, a loaf of crusty bread, potatoes con mojo and a Mocaña (traditional Canarian cocktail made with sugarcane juice).

After we indulged in our lunch we grabbed a seat on the stone wall surrounding the marina. With our legs dangling over the water, we proceeded to watch the "spectacle" take place around us. This included a collection of Zodiac boats floating in the water with drunken Canarios dancing and swimming around, young kids leaping, fully clothed, off the pier and into the water, and drunken teenagers stumbling around and laughing. We heard that the image of the Virgen typically "embarks" to sea around 6pm, and is accompanied by some of the town’s sailors. Unfortunately the ocean breeze was very cold that day, and the Virgen didn't appear until after 8 - but as she did the atmosphere at the marina changed dramatically. The masses of people began singing in unison; imagine 35,000 people crowded around a traditional Canarian boat singing! Many tears were shed as the throne of the Virgen was placed on the boat and led out to sea.

Experiencing a traditional, and very emotional ceremony in another country is enlightening. The festival showcases the Canarian dedication to Spain and their devotion to the Catholic religion. We're both very pleased that we got to witness and in our own way, be a part of such an amazing day.

Xo,
M&K