Barcelona Baby!

I thought I'd share some photos of our recent trip to Barcelona, Spain. I never got around to it in May, but it's better late than never right? Of course I already posted these to Facebook, but I feel that's not telling the entire experience. So, here it goes!

After about a 2 1/2 hour flight from cold and cloudy Dublin, Paul and I landed in the beautiful and warm city of Barcelona. It took us a while to find the place to get our car we hired as the directions on our confirmation were somewhat lost in translation. But that was fine with us as we were soaking in the warmth and practicing what very little Spanish we knew. Once we found the pick up point, we were driven to the car place, then we collected our car and headed into the city. It was around 10:30pm but we still wanted explore. Our first stop? Las Ramblas!

For some delicious.......Italian gelato! 

I know I know, we're in Spain and yet we get Italian food! But hey, it was really warm and the selection looked amazing! This is something I haven't seen in a long time as the Irish aren't big on ice cream. I can't blame them, it's just not the weather for ice cream in Ireland! Paul loved the pistachio gelato and I loved the cinnamon. It's heavenly! We're really looking forward to our trip to Italy to get some again!

Anyway, we walked around for a bit and found tons of tapas bars. These originally were meant as a means of slowing down the intoxication process while drinking alcohol socially. Back in the day in Spain, when you'd order another drink, they'd give you a little bit of bread or some meat with your alcohol to hold you over. It must have caught on because there's tapas bars all over the world now!

One of many tapas bars

We eventually did try some tapas later on in the trip, as well as Paella and Sangria (not the first time we've had these but the first time in Spain). Here are some delicious pictures of what we ate throughout our trip:

Marinated artichokes, mussels, and cubes of Spanish cheese

Potato croquettes, deep fried squid, and fish with fresh garlic aioli

Meatballs, slow roasted pork, marinated mushrooms and chicken wings. I was quite fond of the slow roasted pork :)

This Sangria cost us €16!!!! There were no prices on the menu so there's no way to argue. It was directly on Las Ramblas so it's bound to be expensive I guess!

Very delicious seafood paella, but we had it twice and it looked and tasted the same at both places. Still worth trying though!

Not wanting to get to sleep too late, we headed out to our hotel an hour away from Barcelona City. I'm actually really glad we didn't stay in the city, as convenient as that may have been, because the drive along the Balearic coast was definitely worth it. Especially at night! The rest of our trip was amazing, I'm so glad we went. I just love exotic cities, so this was another great experience just like the rest. Here's some photos of the rest of our trip:

Barcelona City during the day

Our trip to the beach:

The Balearic Sea

I have never had a Spanish tortilla (omelet) so addictive in my life! And the chorizo was unforgettable!

I found the same kind of fish that was in our tapas!

We first did this in Crete in 2010 and is now a photo tradition we've started at beaches we visit :D

Our visit to the Dali Museum in Figueres, about 1 1/2 hours drive away from Barcelona City:

A cute little side street

Paul in a tourist shop I dragged him into :D

Outside the entrance to the museum, kind of reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas!

He was a mad genius. His work is insanely captivating. If you ever have the chance, go see it in person!

Outside the museum on the main street

Gaudi highlights in Barcelona City

La Familia de Sagrada...I regret not going inside but we just didn't have the time!

Casa Mila from the outside. Crazy to think this was once an embarrassment to Spanish architecture!

From the inside of Casa Mila

At the top, stunning!

These reminded me of ice cream cones :)

The apartments had an opening in the middle where you could see the sky. Couldn't believe people still live in these yet there's millions of tourists that come each year to look at it! I don't think I could live inside a tourist attraction!

 And here's the castle we found by our hotel. We saw it glowing on the mountain top with artificial lights and like little mosquitoes, we had to explore:

Las Ramblas

Street performer 'statue'

This woman attracted a huge crowd around her! She painted these trippy pictures in pure silence!

Barcelona is a magical and romantic city indeed!

This is the famous fountain with supposed magical powers. It's said if you drink from it, it will magically bring you back to Barcelona one day...I guess this guy didn't want to come back since he was spitting it back out...

Barcelona Port

La Boqueria, a foodie's dream come true!

All in all, alovely city. Would I go back? For sure!

Hello Holland! Our Trip To Amsterdam

Holland or The Netherlands, whatever you want to call it, is such a charming country....From what we've seen of it! We spent 3 days here in March, for our 2 year wedding anniversary and I can confirm, it wasn't enough time!

Can you see how they appear to be tipping over?

The first day, we just explored the city center and tried to get familiar with our new surroundings. I noticed right away that everyone cycled! Also, there were canals everywhere and almost all of the buildings were slanted.

Another beautiful canal

It was almost as if I was in a dream like state walking around the heart of Amsterdam. The artictecture was so....Peculiar! From what I read, this is because most of the buildings are over 400 years old and over time, have settled into the marshy grounds they were built on. Did you know that more than 2/5 of Holland was once covered in sea water? So to increase the land, the Dutch built dykes and pumped the water out. This type of land is referred to as Polder. Interesting!

On our second day, we went on a half day tour to Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken. It was so relaxing and I really enjoyed the scenic drive through the Dutch countryside. It was nice to get away from the busy city for a while and see how the Dutch really live.

Dutch cheese farm

 Our first stop was a Dutch cheese farm in Zaanse Schans. We ate loads of Edam cheese! They had so many different flavors, even pesto! We loved it! Edam cheese is made in rounds and pressed to seperate the curds and whey. It's aged 2 months for a mild taste or longer for a more mature flavored cheese.

At the same cheese farm, there were these beautiful windmills I had to capture. Don't they look like something you'd only see on a postcard or calendar?

Clogs being made in a workshop

Next, we learned how clogs are made. Back in the day when they were made by hand, it could take days to finish a pair of shoes. Now, it takes only a few minutes on a clog machine which is very similar to a key copying machine. They are still worn by the Dutch, mainly farmers and gardeners, as it protects their feet and it's easier to walk through the marshy grounds.

 Finally, we visited an old fishing village in Volendam...

A lonely dog tied to a giant sausage sign, it made me laugh so hard!

The beautiful harbor. There were tons of restaurants and stands selling fresh seafood for a very reasonable price!

Walking through the tourist part of Volendam.

Such an adorable and typical little house that really reflects the Dutch style.

As we were leaving, I noticed this message on the roof of an old farm house. It made us laugh because it pretty much summed up our tour! Gotta love the Dutch sense of humor!

On our last day, we walked around the city a bit more and came across a few crazy things:

A club right outside our hotel, we found the name of it quite funny!

These guys were laughing, drinking pints, dressed in old fashioned clothes and peddling around the city. Team work baby!

Some stray cat in the window of a restaurant. No one was bothered a bit, in fact everyone was casually petting it and eating their food!

I'm used to seeing cops on horses in Ireland, but we were right outside a coffee shop where people smoke and buy marijuana legally. We could smell it in the air with the cop right there, it was crazy!

We came across a big door in the middle of the city which lead to a secret garden...

...It turned out to be to an old nuns' monastery.

 It was so peaceful and quiet, which was somewhat eerie knowing the loud and bustling city was just on the other side of a stone wall!

Later we visited The Heineken Brewery. It took us about an hour and a half to finish the entire tour. We downed 1 1/2 fresh pints of Heineken each, which were included in the entrance fee and we even got to pull our own pints! We actually left with a fun little certificate to that says we are now certified to pull a pint of Heineken!

All of the Heineken staff were terribly nice and made us feel very welcome. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam and I definitely think it was worth the €15 entrance fee!

Paul pulling a pint

Vintage Heineken ad in the brewery that caught my eye, I thought it was cool looking!

Now lets talk about the food! Eating out was affordable and delicious, but I wish we tasted more authentic Dutch food, such as Dutch Pea Soup (erwtensoep) or Dutch Apple Cake. Anywho, here's what we did have:

Apple pancakes with powdered sugar and molasses, yum!

My gorgeous goat cheese salad, all this for only €7,50!

Paul's delicious and huge burger with more mayo!

Fries (frites) were sold everywhere in Amsterdam! Always served in a cone made of paper with a huge plop of sweet and creamy mayo. The Dutch seriously love their mayo!

We did attempt to try some not so healthy food from the famous FEBO, a cheap place where hot food is served from a vending machine. We went back a couple times but my stomach regretted it after we got back to Dublin!

Overall, we had a really good time. The Dutch are very friendly, chilled out and interesting people and the weather was quite mild for March. Not too cold and a good amount of sun. It only rained once when we were there but we found shelter in a coffee shop. We didn't have time to go inside Anne Frank's house as we showed up too late and the line was around the building!

We can't wait to go back and see it again one day!