Day 5

Today was the futbol game day, so we decided to take it relatively easy to rest up for the big match. We went back up to La Rambla and another neighborhood, Raval. It was Sunday, so a lot of shops and galleries were closed, but we found a plaza that was setting up an artist's market, and--needless to say--I was very excited about it. We got a pair of volcanic rock earrings for Trevor's boss, Susan, and I got a shawl-ish/cape-ish jacket (it's adorable, really). There was a huge "gato" in the middle of the plaza, and after I gave it a smooch for this photo, some young Spanish boys asked me (excitedly and in Spanish [Trevor had to tell me what on earth they were asking me to do...] to take a photo with one of them. I felt sort of famous and dorky--it was fun.




We took a siesta, geared up for the game in our Barcelona togs (Trevor in his new Eto'o jersey, me in our new Barcelona scarf and my team socks) and took the Metro up to Camp Nou. We couldn't sit together, but Trevor was just behind me in the next row, so it was all just fine. The weather was perfect: a bit chilly towards the later evening, but clear skies and no wind. Trevor explained to me that whistling is a "boo" instead of a "yahoo!" noise, which I was glad about since I'm an excited whistler. We did a lot of cheering, we held up a colored sheet of paper and tried to sing along with the rest of the stadium while they sang the team song, and we had a wonderful time. Barcelona lost to Real Madrid (boooooooooo!), but it was so exciting to be there, and the game was great.







We did not take this video, but it shows the "mosaic" cheer that we were able to participate in.



And this is a video of the sad yet beautiful goal that won the game for Real Madrid.

Day 4

Day four was our "Barcelona-wandering-and-shopping" day. The weather was just great: about 10 degrees warmer than it had been in Madrid, and it was no longer raining. We returned to the neighborhood we'd gone to for dinner and visited, among other things, the really lovely plaza of a cathedral, the Barcelona Futbol Club's official store (to get gear for the game), and an excellent toy shop, El Ingenio, that had shelves and shelves of these fabulous masks, heads, and puppets.









We stopped for lunch at La Palma, a great place we found on a little side street. We sampled our first glasses of 'cava,' which is Spanish champagne. The food was great, and there were huge kegs of wine that weren't just for show (the waiter opened one up to fill a pitcher for the table next to us).




After lunch we walked up La Rambla, a huge boulevard in a busy part of town. There were "living statues" all over the place, and one of our favorites was a Ronaldinho look-alike. There were also a number of pet stands selling fish, lizards, and birds. These little guys were very excited to pose for Trevor.





We briefly visited the Museum of Chocolate, where everything under the glass cases was made/carved out of chocolate. It was tremendously exciting, and we got to see our second Ronaldinho of the day. This guy was most likely tastier than the first. Needless to say, we were getting very excited about our game!



After the siesta, we met up with Trevor's cousin Vanessa, who's been living in Barcelona for about three months. Unfortunately we didn't take any photos with her (I have no idea why!?), but we had a great time at dinner, and then we took her to the Ginger for a drink. Vanessa works as a location scout for a television commercial production company, which is pretty neat. It was really fun to meet her (she and Trevor hadn't seen each other since they were little) and hang out. She also lives right up the street from Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi cathedral we planned to visit on Christmas Eve.

Day 3

Day three was our travel day. We took the train from Madrid to Barcelona. It was a four hour ride, and quite pleasant, actually. We listened to the 'I am Legend' audiobook (quite interesting), and watched the country go by. It's also highly possible that I fell asleep for a bit.




This is the only picture of both Trevor and I. We're not sure why it's the only one we took.



Once we checked into the hotel in Barcelona, we strolled down to the beach, which was only a few blocks away. Although it was windy, it was really lovely out there, and there was hardly anyone else out there with us. We found a little bar back towards our hotel that seemed close to closing for the afternoon siesta (also a gorgeous tradition we fully embraced). There were three patrons, and only a young woman who spoke any English at all. She understood that Trevor was a "vegetariano" and helped us get some tuna sandwiches. They were perfect, hit the spot, and we heartily thanked everyone when we left.



For dinner, Trevor and I went to a restaurant/bar called Ginger, that our guidebook told us was well known among the "ex-pat" crowd. And it sure was; there was a table of rather loud Brits near us and we giggled to each other as they talked about "Americans" and people with tattoos. Ha! But the food was very good and we ended up liking it a lot.




After dinner we wandered through the neighborhood and stumbled upon a three-piece band playing music in a church plaza for about a hundred or so people. Everyone was dancing around and having a fabulous time, and we actually joined in for one slow dance before we left.

Day 2

Day two in Madrid was one of the most memorable. We woke up early-ish, grabbed a cafe con leche (a now favorite for us) and croissant, then headed to the Sofia museum to get there when they opened the doors. Luckily, once they opened, we were able to hop like Spanish bunnies to the second floor where Picasso's "Guernica" hangs before the mob of field-tripping school children reached it. We got to enjoy it all to ourselves, and it was amazing. It's huge, involved and complicated, and really astounding. There were loads of sketches Picasso did of smaller "scenes" within the painting that were really interesting. After we loaded up on Picasso, we enjoyed lots of Dali, Miro, and other more contemporary artists' works as well.

After a couple of hours, we asked about the Andrew Goldsworthy exhibit that Trevor was interested in seeing, and the information booth lady pointed out the exhibit's location on a Madrid city map; it was closer to the Prado museum in a public park. We decided to head over there, even though by the time we left it was drizzling a bit outside.




After wandering through Madrid's Botanical Gardens (which would have been a lot nicer had we gone on a nicer day--and a day not in December...) and finally finding the public garden where the Goldsworthy exhibit lived, and then wandering through the garden, we eventually came upon the Crystal Palace, a beautiful Victorian-looking glass-panelled building where Goldsworthy had built his art on-site. Even though we were wet, cold, and tired, it was absolutely worth it. The exhibit filled the Crystal Palace and was made up of a large cone made out of logs, and three inter-connected domes made out of logs as well. There were little birds flitting around the domes, and because it was such a rainy day, we were the only guests there, which meant we had the place to ourselves. It was really pleasant--the rain fell and the water slid down the glass panels as we wandered through this log dome. By the time we finally left, there was a group of people coming in.








We left the public garden and made our way towards the Metro station a few blocks away. On our way we came upon a walkway lined with these book stalls--probably thirty of them. Only a handful were open because of the weather, but it's definitely a spot we'll visit when we go back!



Before we left for dinner that night, Trevor took my picture in the fabulous elevator in our hotel. It's nearly identical in look and feel as the elevator in the Grant/Hepburn movie, "Charade," which for me was very exciting. It felt like we could have encountered a ring of espionage at any moment. Or not...



On our way to dinner we walked through the Plaza Mayor, and there were these terrific leaves hanging all throughout the plaza. The stands were in the midst of opening up for the night's business, and the majority were selling what looked to us like Halloween stuff: paper hats, rubber masks, feather boas, etc. We're not sure why that was the theme, but it was fun to look at. We ate dinner that night at a vegetarian restaurant, and on our way home, we stopped again at Matador bar. We squeezed into a table in the back of the bar, got fed munchies again, and had a terrific time. We'd like to take the Matador with us when we leave.

Day 1

Hola!
We're winding down after our first night here in Spain, and it's been lovely so far. We flew through Zurich to Madrid (and the Zurich airport was fabulous---we didn't have too much time for shopping, but I might pop into the Hermes store during our lay-over on the way home...) and have spent the late afternoon/evening wandering around the city. We ate at a tapas restaurant called The Trout, and ate some delicious smoked trout (we couldn't resist, given the name of the spot), and were chatted up by some fellow Americans at the next table. They fooled us b/c they were Mexican and were speaking Spanish until they asked us (after observing us using our Spanish/English dictionary), "Where are you from?" and were very obviously from the states. After a perfect dinner, we meandered up towards our hotel, and stopped for a few cervecas at a teeny tiny local bar called "El Matador." It was a great spot: very small, charming, and there were olives a-plenty for us to munch on! We just now made it back to the hotel, where our mattress is ridiculously firm. Tomorrow we're going to visit the museum that houses Picasso's "Guernica." We'll write more later!
Power en Espana!

We're on our wedding photographer's new website! The link is to the right, she's "Tone Stockenstrom Photography." How fun!

After party...

I captured Trevor on our way home from the dual pre-wedding celebrations of our friends Carrie and Alan, who are getting married on New Year's Eve. The bachelor and bachelorette parties had separate celebrations, then met up around midnight. Soon thereafter, Trevor and I, fearful of turning into gourds, scurried home.

Early morning monkeys

I was on my way to class Thursday morning and was behind this Pabst Blue Ribbon truck and a little monkey hanging on for a ride. I just thought it was silly.

Trevor's in the dog house?

Yes, for a moment he was! We got a new crate and bed for Henry. It's more spacious and will be more comfortable for him, though the crate's mostly fabric, which might lead to Henry's ultimate consumption of it. We'll see. It's a lot nicer than his other one--he'll be able to stand up fully, turn around in as many circles as he likes, and splay out his horse-legs! And Trevor looks pretty comfy in there, too!

Earlier in the week I made a deliciously successful veggie stew. I created a spur-of-the-moment recipe and it was so delicous (I ate the leftovers a moment ago after coming home from my night class and it reminded me of this...) that I wrote it all down and added it to my recipe journal. The whole thing gave me a great feeling of pride. In suuuuch a nerdy way.

I'm going to convince Trevor to submit a video to get on our favorite tattoo t.v. show, Miami Ink. We both have "interesting" ideas for our next tattoos (interesting meaning not flowers, family crests, koi fish, or something else...per the show's request), and although they wouldn't pay the airfare or anything, the work would be done by the best guys in the business AND we could use it as an excuse to visit Rachel and Letty! Yes, I'm getting ahead of myself and planning a long weekend in Miami in my head, but why the heck not? Trevor just has to help me make the video. I'll let you know how it all works out.

Until our t.v. debut! POW-er!