The next morning we immediately hit it hard in Barcelona. We walked through Plaza Catalunya and walked down La Rambla and saw all kinds of street vendors and street performers. It is a very colorful street full of people and commotion. Flower shops, gelato shops, souvenir shops, street performers wearing amazing yet, odd costumes, solo performers, and of course, pickpocketers' sanctuary.
Trying to be savvy tourists and avoid being pickpocketed or messed with, we never stood around and watched the street performers or paid any attention to the whistling sounds of the Arabs who had various gadgets in their hands to show off.
Side note: One scam pickpocketers will do is have these very small whistles between their lips and tongue and whistle this high pitch noises to distract you. It is so small you can barely see it in their mouths. The Arabs had these while trying to get you to buy something or just plain distract you. Tourists will then look around and ask, "What is that? Where is that noise coming from?" And then before you know it, you are pickpocketed! My girls kept asking, "What's that noise?" and stop in the middle of the walk to look around. I very quickly said, "Nevermind, I'll tell you later, let's keep going!"
With street performers, same thing. There are a group of men usually waiting around to see you get distracted and then get you while you are watching the performance.
Anyways, after taking in all of the scenary of the busy street we continued to walk to Barri Gotic. This was one of Tim's favourite spots. It is exactly how you picture a European country to be like. Cobblestone road, pigeons mingled together all over the plaza, shops within colorful buildings lining the narrow streets...very fun atmosphere.
There we saw the Catedral de Barcelona...
Our tummies were then beginning to grumble so we decided to check out the shops down the narrow roads toward lunch. On the way we bought the girls these darling flamenco dresses. I took these pictures today. Aren't they so cute?!
They love them. Natalie calls it her "red tutu" and is pretty protective of it. (She even insisted on taking a nap with it later on while we were in Andorra.)
For lunch we ate La Boqueria, which is an outdoor market that sells anything from, meat, to seafood, to sweets, to pizza. I love markets. Total eye-candy.
It started to get really warm during lunch so we went back to the apartment to get ready to go to Barceloneta beach.
According to wikipedia, "Barceloneta beach gained status as the best urban beach in the World and total third best beach in the World, according the documentary film 'Worlds Best Beaches' produced by Discovery Channel in 2005."
I didn't take my camera because first, I didn't want it stolen while I tried to bask in the Spanish sun and second, I didn't want sand in it. We took our iphones instead to capture pictures and video, but we all know what happened with those....
If you were to ask Marisa her favourite part about the trip she always cheerfully says, "The beach!" I have always said before that Marisa is 100% beach bum. Doesn't matter how cold the water is she will go in it. The girls loved playing on the sand and it was so fun to seem them so happy on a beach in Spain! I hope they always remember that moment because it was such a great afternoon. So instead of looking fondly at pictures and videos of us on the beach I'm just going to have to keep the images in my mind and in my heart of my two little girls' laughter and pure delight on the sand...
For dinner we headed back to Plaza Catalunya to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. Tim and I are very against eating American chain restaurants when you are visiting another country. I mean, really, that doesn't make sense! But, in Spain, local restaurants don't open until around 9 for dinner! Even the restaurant we had gone to the night before didn't serve certain items while we were there because the meat they serve for the night doesn't arrive until 7 at night. And we were obviously there before 7. 9 o'clock is my girls' bed time while on holiday and there is no way my children can wait until then for dinner after exhausting them the whole day.
Hard Rock doesn't even have good food and it is totally over priced, but I must say, we really enjoyed sitting in a place that was familiar, listening to American music, and giving our mind a break from Spanish and everything Spanish. My children didn't mind at all tasting American food either. They literally devoured, I mean devoured, their mac n' cheese...:)
This past weekend was a perfect weekend. Why? I finally feel like this is home.
London is my home.
I don't know why or what it is about Spain that has caused this sudden huge step in the right direction for me, or if even Spain had anything to do with it at all, but I'm sure glad I can finally see the light that those who have gone before me have talked about.
Saturday morning we needed to do a lot of housekeeping items on the list that never ends and we also needed a break from all the traveling and sightseeing we have been doing since we moved here.
With that, we got to enjoy a nearby town, where our church building is located, where we have always wanted to scope out and enjoy.
This is why it was such a good start to my wonderful weekend...
- I found Tim's father's day gift from this small local shop which I am SO excited about.
- We had a parcel delivered to us while we were gone so we went to the post office to pick it up and it was our modem. Which means, yes, drum-roll please, we FINALLY have permanent internet in our house!!
- We ate pastries outside of a local french cafe. Darling setting and I so wished I had my camera then to capture the moment.
- We found a cute, local small three-story toy store and the people there was SO friendly and nice.
- We took a nice stroll back home as a family.
It was just perfect.
In addition to all the greatness, today Tim and I were discussing how we suddenly don't feel self-conscious about speaking here with our American accent. We are totally comfortable with saying whatever and to whoever without the fear of sounding stupid. I know that seems silly to you that that even has crossed our minds, but I think only those who have lived here before can relate to us.
For me also, this weekend I finally felt super comfortable.
-I know my way around.
-I know my area and nearby towns.
-I know which bus routes go to where and how to get on and off.
-I've met two more British women and their children at the park Friday afternoon and we will be getting together again.
- I met another woman and her three kids on the bus who are American and live across the street!
This whole weekend I just kept saying. "What a great weekend!" I can actually look outside and say with real excitement, "Wow. I live in London."
After two months am I finally getting over the "initial shock" and into the stage where I am going to love it here and not want to leave after the two years are up? Eek! I hope so!
Looking back we could call our first trip to Europe a major trip full of 'Live and Learns'. In fact, after we arrived home Tim and I came up with a long list of things we would have changed and things we learned for our next family trip in this crazy place they call Europe. :) So here begins the tale of 'Live and Learns'...
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The morning of the day we were to travel to Barcelona seemed to take forever. We weren't leaving until kinda late afternoon and I was so anxious to travel the whole day. I was nervous about traveling with two young kids for the first time in Europe, I was nervous and excited for myself because this is the first time I have even traveled in Europe, I was also so excited to visit Spain, a place I have always wanted to go since a young teenager. I was so full of so many emotions that morning.
Luckily, we arrived to the airport with no problems and checked-in with no problems. Whew! We flew on RyanAir out of the Stanstead airport which is not the nearest airport to us, but it is usually where the crazy cheap flights fly out of with RyanAir. You can find flights as cheap as $30 round trip to various countries. Crazy, huh?
One of our first 'Live and Learn' lessons happened in queue while checking our baggage in.
Tim said, "Look around. We are the only ones with big suitcases."
If you were to take a picture of the inside of the airport at that moment and say, "Find the Americans", you would have easily pointed us out.
Our suitcases, I'm not kidding you, were so MASSIVE compared to everyone else. We were the only ones with suitcases that can fit both our children in each one. In fact, I have never seen anyone else in London, Spain, France, or Andorra with suitcases the same size as ours. Mind you, these are normal sized suitcases in America.
Everyone either had carry-on sized suitcases or these small/medium bags just slighty bigger than a carry-on. It was kinda funny because we totally stood out, but I felt kinda stupid too. Lesson learned.
We flew RyanAir, which, like I said, is a cheap airline here. We flew to Zaragoza which is nearby city to Barcelona. It was interesting to find out what these cheap airlines were like. In the states, we all fly with assigned seating so it was to our surprise as we walked up the stairs to enter the plane that seating is on a first come first serve basis!
It was chaotic.
People trying to save seats, people scrambling to put their carry-ons somewhere, people blocking the aisle, people coming from the front and back and all different directions, everyone speaking in all different languages, stewardesses trying to help all sorts of people! Man! Luckily, we all got to sit next to each other on the same row.
Another tidbit, the seats do not recline either on these airlines and the space between you and the seat in front of you is even smaller than the states. No fat person could ever fly these airlines. Seriously. I'm 5'2'' and 98 pounds and I was like, whoa...claustraphobic.
The flight was only 2 hours long. Can you believe it? Only 2 hours and I'm in a different country!
Marisa was so excited to be at customs and show her passport to the man as they stamp her first passport with her second country stamp of Spain!
We arrived late at night so we took a taxi to a nearby hostel that we booked ahead of time. And I guess you can say this is where bad luck started creeping in ever so slowly. That night this small hostel was housing 100 high school french students. The room right next to us held 8 male teenagers. Do you think we got sleep that night?
I had promised myself before hand that I was going to have a positive attitude about things abroad so I didn't let it get to me. I just told Tim absolutely no more hostels from now on. :)
Because it was late the girls immediately crashed despite the very, very thin walls and echoing noise in the hallway until the wee hours of the night. I'm glad they got to sleep well even though Tim and I didn't.
I made Tim get us a private room so no strangers were with us, (that is just so weird and creepy), so we had 4 bunk beds to ourselves in our room. The girls loved sleeping in their own top bunk.
The next morning we woke up and headed straight to the bus station to take us to Barcelona!
The bus was practically empty so it was great for the girls to lay around and have space than having to sit still in one spot like on an airplane.
A taxi drive away from the bus station to our apartment and we finally arrived to Barcelona! A co-worker of Tim told him about this website called holiday-rentals.com where people rent out their apartments for great deals. We thought it would be great to have multiple rooms and space for the kids and we also thought it would be cheaper than one hotel room. (Later on we found out that there are GREAT hotels for cheaper! Even really nice two room hotels for cheaper. Again, 'Live and Learn'.)
Anyways, the place was a 4 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, etc. The girls loved it! In fact, Marisa kept saying it was our new home. The poor girl thought we were moving to Spain. My poor children...
At this point it was later in the afternoon and I had booked a ticket to see flamenco dancing by myself at Palacio del Flamenco that night! That is what I wanted for Mother's Day.
So we just bought groceries for the next few days and I got ready for the evening.
All the while it starts pouring rain and I didn't pack my umbrella or stroller rain cover thinking it was going to be sunny and hot all week! 'Live and Learn', again. We walk out to try to find a restaurant on the way to the flamenco place which was just a few minutes walk.
This is where things begin to get even more interesting I guess you could say. I tell this story because this is how we started our holiday and you all know how our holiday ended. I also tell this story in detail for Tim's family because I can picture their reactions...:)
So, as we try to find a pizza restaurant or the like we stand under a porch for a moment to keep dry. It was actually like a outside reception area of a private apartment building. Hard to explain.
At this point, Marisa fell asleep in the stroller and Natalie was standing by me holding my hand. It was raining pretty hard and we were kinda cold. I had only packed warm clothes for everyone. I felt really bad. ('Live and Learn', again. Never trust European weather.)
Tim and I are now discussing where to go when an old man, who is the doorman of the building, says we can't stand there. We are half way on the public sidewalk and half way on this marble step of this building. I didn't realize what the big deal was for the old man, we weren't blocking anybody, the porch was massive, we weren't even inside the building really, and just a few seconds ago there were a lot of people just standing right where we were. But Tim pretends to not understand and in English says, "Sorry. I don't understand", and keeps looking at his map to figure out where we should head.
A minute later as Tim and I are talking again the old man begins to shoo us out. Tim again in English says, "It's raining, dude. We are trying to find out where to go. We have kids."
All the meanwhile the old man in Spanish is talking over him trying to point us out.
Then suddenly the old man starts to get aggressive because Tim won't move. In English Tim says again, "We have two kids, one is asleep, the other is a year old, you are going to kick us out into the rain? Kick out a 1 year old!"
Tim and the old man go back and forth. One in Spanish the other in English. Neither is refusing to let go.
Tim looks back down at the map again and the old man then starts to push Tim! Holy cow. It got ugly really fast from there.
Tim immediately turned around, looked him in the eye, and in SPANISH firmly says, "NO ME TOQUES."
The old man stops suddenly and is now furious. Why? Because we obviously won't leave and we had totally mocked him thinking we didn't speak Spanish, but we obviously do.
The rest is kind of a rebuttle mess. Both are arguing loudly back and forth, old man threatens to call police, Tims says go ahead, old man "pretends" to call and keeps saying to us, "I'm going to call the police" over and over again, and Tim continues to say, "Go ahead and let me talk to them on the phone!"
Tim was totally calling the old man's bluff. Honestly, call the police and tell them what? Two parents and their sleeping child and baby need to put off the porch?? He obviously wasn't calling them. He was just a grumpy old man for what ever reason who wanted us off this small part of the porch.
At this point I'm holding Natalie's hand trying to yell over both men and telling the old man in Spanish , "Senor, tenemos ninos!!" and pointing to my 1 YEAR OLD!!
He didn't care.
The old man then tried pulling the rug from under Tim! haha This was kinda hilarious because this man is like in his 70-80s trying to pull this heavy rug like an angry child trying to get back at his older brother. And Tim just stands there.
hahaha Ugh...in the end we walk off with Tim almost saying mean things back and the old man cussing us out in Spanish and trying to slam these HUGE doors on us only to have them bounce back at him like an idiot.
Welcome to Spain.
It was hard to enjoy dinner after that because we were all soaked, shocked that an old man would put two children out in the rain like that without a second thought, we were hungry, tired from traveling, and just kind of out of our element. Tim wants me to add to this that during the argument I was the calm one out of the two of us. Which he claims has happened only 5 times in our marriage. I would usually have been the one in that guy's face. :)
I tried to brush it aside as I walked to the theater to watch my flamenco dancing and the old man was quickly forgotten the next day. Like I said, I was bound and determined to have a positive attitude and enjoy Europe, dang it!!
On the other hand, flamenco dancing ... it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
I know flamenco is a Southern Spainish thing, but I don't care. I was in Spain, the country I have always wanted to visit and I was watching flamenco dancing which is something I have always wanted to see since a little kid. (My mom danced flamenco so I was exposed to it as a young child.)
When the show began I was literally fighting back tears for at least 15 minutes. The music, the intense passion of the voices, the beating of the drums, the strumming of the guitars, the sounds of the dancers' shoes, man.....the feeling that over came body as I watched a beautiful dancer throw all her passion into every step, every stomp, every curve of her body, every moment of her arms, every entricate placement of even her fingers, the magical flow of her long dress...It. Was. Beautiful. Beyond words.
Those of you who are dancers can completely relate with me. Those of you who aren't are probably reading this thinking I'm totally weird and crazy. That's ok. My description is for those who do understand my love for dance.
To gain a better understanding and appreciation for what I saw, check this out. You will not believe how fast those feet move and how they move for a very, very long period of time.
I had such a great time sitting off to the side near the front and taking it all in. I was totally in my element. I felt very intimately involved in the show the whole time. There was this one truly magnificent kinda older man dancer who blew a kiss to me from the stage after his shockingly beautiful solo performance. So cool!
Afterwards, I walked back by myself a few blocks to the apartment ready to kiss my hubby thanks for a wonderful gift, tuck my girls into bed, and call it a night in Barcelona...
I must be wearing an invisible sign on my back that says,
"Dear Life,
Kick me."
Why else am I having so much bad luck here abroad??
I woke up this morning at 6:00 am or so from a "nightmare" about my incident in Barcelona and couldn't fall back asleep.
We were robbed.
Yup, robbed just hours before our flight back to London. iphones - gone. all 4 passports - gone. Tim's work computer - gone. Several other items all. gone.
We've had a crazy week and a half and I have so much to share. For now, we are all safe, unharmed, and home. That is all that really matters.
Throughout the next few days I'll write about our first European adventure one day at a time as "Flashbacks". Our robbery happened on the last day, obviously. How is that for a teaser to stay tuned? haha
Anyways, it feels really great to be home.
Last night, Nicole and I met up with Alex, a friend of hers, at Ottolenghi. My mouth literally dropped open when I walked up to the window.
First of all, the taste was just as amazing as it looked. 4 of the pictures above I ate. I can't remember the exact names, but I had the sweet potato dish (above), the eggplant dish (above), the Blackcurrant Meringue (above; I bought a bag of mini blackcurrant meringues to bring home to the fam), and the White Chocolate Cheescake (above). De-lish.
Second, I'm really bugged that the pics came out blurry. It didn't look like it when I checked to make sure it was in focus. So mad about that. Still learning. So sorry.
Third, I have a new British friend! haha Meet Alex!
This picture makes me laugh. I thought the candlestick was really neat while we were eating dinner and so I'm glad the waiter got it in the picture. ;) Apparently, he thought the candlestick was cooler than we were too.
London is great for kids. I love that everywhere we go they have a little something for children to keep them interested at their level. At the Abbey, while Tim and I listened to the tour on headsets, Marisa got a clipboard and pencil with a "Children's Trail" paper to mark off the things she sees inside. She loved that. She sat in the stroller the whole time and would circle things off as we went along. Natalie, on the other hand, preferred to climb past the roped off areas and climb ancient tombs where famous kings and queens are buried. Like Henry VII...
We couldn't take pictures inside obviously, which is too bad because it is amazing inside. We could only take pictures in certain areas which aren't worth taking pictures of actually, except for this...
Britain's oldest door. Probably built somewhere in the 1050s. How random and cool is that?
We were told in the beginning of the tour that the girls would get a chocolate gold coin at the end of the tour for doing the sheet/participating and we thought it would be some small little thing, but we were wrong! They were huge and the girls were so happy.
Next, lunch-time. Because a lot of the tube lines were closed we walked a lot and took a lot of detour routes to get where we wanted. We walked to Victoria Station...
to reach The Borough Market. Let me begin by saying that this place is definitely London's little treasure. This afternoon we were just there and Tim and I are already having serious cravings for everything we saw and actually did eat.
It is a big outdoor market where you can buy local produce and other bits and pieces, but it mainly is a place to try food and eat it. We were told to come hungry. This place is serious eye candy. My pictures don't do it justice, sorry. I was too busy feasting my eyes on everything.
I ordered fish and chips for the girls. First time for all of us actually having the famous British dish. Tim had this wild boar hot dog which looked and smelled delicious. I promise better pictures next time. Because you better believe there will be many next times.
After a delicious lunch we went to Tate Modern. I will sum up our experience there with what Tim said inside.
"I'd rather go to a baby shower."
If you knew Tim well, you would know exactly what that meant.
Ironically during dinner when we asked Marisa what her favourite part of the day was she said the "treasure hunt", which was at Tate Modern.
Level 3 has a children's section for various activities for children under 5.
We chose to do the treasure hunt for the girls where they were given a big felt-board bag and various felt items which corresponded with items in some of the art work. She loved searching for the items in the paintings and sticking them on.
Once the treasure hunt was completed we quickly left and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. We crossed over the Millenium Bridge where we found these tasty treats, again. Just about at the ends of every bridge there are these caramelised peanuts. Way good and way cheap.
We entered St. Paul's near closing time so we are going to have to go back and see the inside another day. So we settled for soaking in the light rays on the cathedral steps, girls giggling while chasing pigeons, and calling it a good day...
