Sitges & beaches, but no peaches

We spent a beautiful Saturday in Sitges, a small beach town about 1 hour away from Barcelona by train. The town itself is adorable, the streets are lined with little boutiques and restaurants and the architecture is very quaint.

This is a beautiful church at the end of the island. It was like a little castle, it has a sort of regal-looking staircase leading up to it, it was really romantic.


There are some small pathways around the side and back of the church




Sand sculptors at the beach!


This picture is my day in a snapshot: beach, sun, sand, beer, magnum ice cream bar. Basically a day spent rotating between laying out in the hot sun and taking dips in the ice cold water to cool off. The water was UNBELIEVABLY refreshing, as was my Estrella Damm.


Most of the beach looks like this. It's really crowded and packed...


But if you walk a little farther down you can find a slightly less-crowded spot...


Then we headed home, caught the US/Ghana game, then went out to Catwalk around 2am. Got back at 6am, woke up at 2pm, hung out in bars and watched the games all day. All in all a nice relaxing weekend. Tomorrow...back to work!

Hugs and sand,
Angela <3

L'eixample

After work on Friday I spent an hour wandering around L'eixample, the neighborhood around Somnio. The architecture in this neighborhood is just positively breathtaking, I immediately fell in love. I hope you believe me when I say the pictures don't do it justice, it's truly beautiful.




Also, there's this great place called La Reserva Ibérica, which is a ham shop with several varieties of ham, and they just have the legs of ham sitting out in a row to be carved fresh. The woman at the counter let me sample a piece and it was positively delicious!

After wandering about, I met my bosses, Lee & Lauren, co-worker, Paulina, and two ex-employees, Alfonso & Ariel, for dinner at Omeia. (side note- there is an absurd amount of Lebanese/Greek/Syrian food here. I think I've eaten more falafels here than in my whole life combined...not even exaggerating). The food was really great. I especially enjoyed the babbaganoosh (which I derived to be roughly a mint-peppers-cous cous salsa) and my Kebbeh was also quite good (chick pea & hummus croquettes).


Hugs and hummus,
Angela <3

Fiesta de Sant Joan: Happy Summer Solstice!

Unlike Texas, the rest of the world has REAL seasons...I was so surprised to find that the next few days after Sant Joan, it actually started getting hotter! What a bizarre concept...

So in honor of the shortest night and the longest day, in Barcelona we celebrate Sant Joan! (aka. San Juan or St. John the baptist). In a nutshell: bonfires, revelling in the streets, concerts, fireworks at the beach, dancing in the plazas, hellooo summer! :)



Petardos en la playa!


Look at all the people, all the way along the beach, all night long!


Our little cluster on the beach...


Inside Shoko...


Then we went home around 6 and ate pasta before we went to bed...

Hugs and SUMMERTIME,
Angela <3

12345...

I've spent exactly 123.45 euros on food since arriving here.

Hugs and consecutive numbers,
Angela <3

If chufas and agua got busy...this weekend in Valencia!

This past weekend we took the Renfe train down to Valencia, a coastal town about 3 hours down the coast. It was a nice little town, a little quieter and a lot greener than Barcelona, there were flowers everywhere! It was lovely.


Orxata is sooo good. It's a rice-y tasting drink which originated in Valencia. It's made with rice in Mexico, but in Valencia it's made from chufas... chufas are an underground nut that grows at the end of a bunch of grass. Here, just read about it on wikipedia.


This aquarium complex was the most visually catching series of buildings I've ever seen! It was craaazy, and the aquarium grounds are huge.



Dolphin show!


Dinner was quite delish. I had pork prepared with Iberica sauce, with pureéd potatoes on the side. It was so tender and amazing.


After going to a bar for 1EUR shots and a game of cheers to the governor, we went to Animas, which was a GIGANTIC club. This photo does not do it justice...


The next morning we got up bright and early (9am) to hit the beach. Me and the chicas:


We had paella for lunch, it wasn't very life changing, but I don't think this was very legit paella. I'm a little sad that I didn't have real paella while I was there, especially since everyone was raving about the paella in Valencia...but oh well.


Hugs and horchata (alternate spelling),
Angela <3

Cielito Lindo

Mexico won the world cup match against France today! In celebration...we EAT. Ay ay ay ay! Canta y no llores! Porque cantando se alegra cielito lindo los corazones!

There's a real ice bar in barcelona (very clearly and unoriginally named icebarcelona)! And it's on the beach! We watched the game in the outside bar/terrace. I had an amaretto sour. It was delicious and depressingly overpriced at 9 euros :/




Then we celebrated the win at La Coronela with: Delicious nachos (frijolessss!). Delicious guacamole. Delicious mangos & cucumbers covered in shredded carrots and chili powder (forgot what it's called).


Hugs, chills, and chiles,
Angela

TAPASSSSS

A couple days ago we went to the best tapas restaurant that I've eaten at so far--Bilbao Berria. It was delish! It was basically a la carte/buffet style. They had platters of all different sorts of tapas so you just took which ever ones you wanted. There's a skewer in each one and you keep your skewers and then they count the number of skewers you had and then charge you 1.5 euros for each one. There were 5 of us and our total bill came out to be 51 euros, including the pitcher of sangria that we ordered, aka. 10 euros each, not bad at all!

Starting on the left going counter clockwise: shrimp on mashed potatoes, tuna salad with a few strips of raw tuna, salmon topped with some sort of delicious cream sauce and cheese


In the back is a slice of some sort of sausage topped with cheese, asparagus, and a runny quail egg. In the front is an oyster shell filled with a cheesy/oystery blend and possibly baked with bread crumbs on top.


A couple days later we hit up another tapas restaurant of the same concept...

It tasted amazing, but I couldn't identify half the ingredients...but, to the best of my ability, starting left and moving clockwise: Some sort of cheese/terrine topped with a sweet sauce and pine nuts, crab salad in a croissant with carmelized orange peels on top, & a sort of sweet and savory rice-and-or-meat patty topped with a peach slice and ham. I think I actually enjoyed these more, but the place was so crowded it was hard to have a really nice time...



Yummmmm.

Hugs and tapas,
Angela <3

Somnio

I'm sooo exhausted from my first day of work. I can work the 9-5 no problem, but 9-7 is somewhat tiring. It was also a little boring, but hopefully it'll get better.

In other news, Spain lost :(

I need a DRINK :)

Hugs and hostels,
Angela <3

Siestaaaaa

I was seriously falling asleep when 2:30 rolled around today, so I took a nap! It was amaaazing.

Anyway, here are some pictures from lunch & our walking tour yesterday!

We at at a place called ATN. The food was okay, the fact that we couldn't read the menu made it really interesting...note for the future: coco=coconut, not chocolate


I forgot what these were called but it was a pastry filled with spinach and salmon, sooo delish!


This is Gonzalo our walking tour guide! He's super knowledgeable...and has a fantastic voice. British English with a Spanish accent!

Barcelona's oldest shops are actually tracked and certified! The company has to be in operation for 50+ years under the same name. This chocolate shop has been around since 1840!


A cute little atrium inside a house/palace


The one and only Picasso:


My camera died about here, so I missed out on pictures of 4Cats which was a little cafe where Picasso did some early work creating ads and doing marketing to pay for his house account. The name 4Cats is derived from a Spanish/Italian saying describing parties and gatherings that lack attendance. "How was your party last night?" "Oh it was only me and four cats." I think I remembered it wrong, but it was something like that! haha

I convinced my camera to turn on just long enough to catch this strip of modernist architecture, known collectively as "La Manzana de la Discordia". Gaudí's Casa Batlló is on the far right behind the trees. Far left is Casa Lleó Morera and the zig zag roof is Casa Amatller, whose design is supposed to represent chocolate because Mr. Amatller owned a chocolate factory! (there are chocolate laborers in the moldings inside, too). Love these so much! I'll have to go back to get better photos..


That's all! First day of work tomorrow and I'm way too nervous!

Hugs and cobblestones,
Angela <3

Gooood morning!

Apartment 2A Song of the Morning: Paula Cole, "I Don't Wanna Wait"

"So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I
You know that if we are to stay alive
And see the peace in every eye."

:)

ooopsy :)

Rambling down La Rambla

El Sábado

After a long 24 hours of travel, departing 1pm in Dallas and arriving 2:45 in Barcelona, I finally made it! It cost us 40 Euro to take a cab to home sweet home, Calle Pérez Galdos, 32 in ell barrio de Gracia.



We grabbed some late dinner at Tapas de la Villa. Some sausages that begin with an X (not chorizo) and patates braves (delicious)


Sophie & Sarah:


After dinner we wandered around a bit, then headed to La Oveja Negra, in a hidden little street. 2 Liters of sangria for 12 Euros and 2 Liters of beer for 10 Euros, por favor! It was a fun rowdy spot, a good place to make friends with other tourists and some locals...



After taking a detour to a nightclub that we decided to pass on, we started heading home and grabbed a couple six packs of the super cheap beer (1 Euro a piece) they sell in the street at night. They also sell roses...what a strange combination of late-night retail...


Let's just say we went to bed at 5:30am and leave it at that :)

El Domingo:

We wandered around for a bit today, finally got to see Casa Milá by Gaudí! I've wanted to see this place ever since I learned about it in 9th grade, CAN'T wait to actually go in to see the museum.


More wandering and wandering, down la Rambla, which goes all the way down the the beach, and down little streets past tiny little hidden enclaves and plazas. Then we moseyed over to the gothic district. Lots of gorgeous buildings that I can't remember the names of. I'll have to go back again after I've done my homework...



Then we were starving, so we stopped for drinks and appetizers at Princesa23! Maybe we were just really hungry, but these are the most delicious nachos ever. This place had a very eclectic menu...

That's pretty much it! Orientation's tomorrow, woohoo!

Hugs, Beers, and Roses,
Angela <3