We have just hit the 145-day mark in our countdown to repatriation. Every once in a while one of us has a tiny little "freak-out" about the whole thing. It's kind of scary actually. K probably feels like I did when we moved to Europe (not as scared because it's almost like going home). We will just have some major readjusting to do and we have no idea where fate will take us.
The US is an enormous country, but strangely, we have been having a tough time picking a place we would like to live. We would like to try to maintain a "European lifestyle" (public transportation or walking, small neighborhood with good independent shops and restaurants, etc.); have good job opportunities to do something we enjoy; be near family and/or friends; have good transport links to easily see family and friends that don't live near us; not rely on a car; vibrant cultural scene (concerts, movie theatres, festivals); liberal political atmosphere with opportunities for activism of various kinds; good beer brewing; the possibility outdoor fitness activities; and a chance for us to buy a nice, reasonably priced house.
So, we have a list of places. A list that keeps fluctuating. Sometimes there's just one place on it, other times there have been a lot of places on it. This is something that has been going on for well over a year, but now that repatriation is imminent, we are looking at it much more seriously. By this time next year, we will hopefully be firmly ensconced in this new place of our dreams. The plan is to move "there" in January 2009.
Below is the list. It is divided into three sections. THE LIST! is a list of the places we like the most. If you were to say it out loud, you would have to put one or two thumbs up and say it with gusto and a smile. The List is the "batter's box" for places that we like, but don't necessarily tick off enough of our criteria to make it into THE LIST!, though might jump up there at some point. Again, to say it out loud, you say it somewhat flatly, but with a positive inflection in your voice. Finally, the list is for places that we definitely do not want to live in. Pronounce it with a slight hiss and contempt in your voice. Without further ado, in no particular order:
THE LIST!
St. Petersburg (or Tampa area), FL
Portland, OR
San Francisco (area), CA
Austin, TX
Idaho
Seattle, WA
The List
Charleston, SC
Savannah, GA
Arizona
Montana
Washington DC
New Hampshire
Colorado
New Mexico
Hawaii
the list
Everywhere not listed above
---
Hmm... decisions, decisions!
145 Days, 12 Hours, 46 Minutes
Thursday, June 26
Monday, June 23
Cabinet minister: Brits are 'bloody miserable'
Politics.co.uk - Friday, June 20 10:35 am
The junior transport minister has caused a minor political storm by calling his countrymen "bloody miserable".
Writing on his blog, Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow South, said Britain had never had it so good, but that it had not made most Britons any less grumpy.
"There are more two-car homes in Britain today than there are homes without a car at all," he said.
"We live longer, eat healthier (if we choose), have better access to forms of entertainment never imagined a generation ago (satellite TV, DVD, computer games), the majority of us have fast access to the worldwide web, which we use to enable even more spending and for entertainment. Crime is down.
"So why is everyone so bloody miserable?
"What happened to that post-war optimism and commitment to common values?" he continues.
"Are they gone forever and if so, why? If not, how can we bring them back?"
The blog provoked an instant response from the Tories, with shadow treasury chief secretary Philip Hammond saying: "The short answer to Mr Harris's question asking why everyone is so miserable is, 'We've got Gordon Brown as our prime minister'."
Friday, June 20
The "Hoggle Situation" has been handled
On Wednesday, because we hadn't received the keys, I went over to Hoggle's apartment after work. I asked for him to give the keys back. He said no. Then we had a debate for about 10 minutes. It was quite involved and actually kind of funny, but it would be difficult to put it in writing. To sum it up in a few sentences:
- Hoggle did not want to give us the keys because they are not his to give. The landlord gave them to him personally and until he is contacted directly, he will hold onto them. [Fair enough; perfectly reasonable].
- He is offended that we don't trust him with the keys. Lots of other tenants have trusted him.
This evening, he came over with the keys. He asked me to sign a little handwritten receipt, which I complied with. Then he told a story about how when he was little he was wrongly accused of being a thief. After that, I told him sorry about this turning into a big thing. It was never our intention. No, hard feelings? No hard feelings. And we shook on it.
All is well.
- Hoggle did not want to give us the keys because they are not his to give. The landlord gave them to him personally and until he is contacted directly, he will hold onto them. [Fair enough; perfectly reasonable].
- He is offended that we don't trust him with the keys. Lots of other tenants have trusted him.
This evening, he came over with the keys. He asked me to sign a little handwritten receipt, which I complied with. Then he told a story about how when he was little he was wrongly accused of being a thief. After that, I told him sorry about this turning into a big thing. It was never our intention. No, hard feelings? No hard feelings. And we shook on it.
All is well.
Monday, June 16
Result!
We've got Hoggle on the ropes! Though, he doesn't know it yet.
This morning the management company for this flat called me at work to let me know that they had spoken with the management in this building regarding the "regulations" for spare keys. THERE IS NO SUCH THING! Nobody has to give their keys to anyone!
She said they will be sending Hoggle a letter today to notify him that he has to return our keys with immediate effect.
Now let's hope he doesn't make copies of them first!
This morning the management company for this flat called me at work to let me know that they had spoken with the management in this building regarding the "regulations" for spare keys. THERE IS NO SUCH THING! Nobody has to give their keys to anyone!
She said they will be sending Hoggle a letter today to notify him that he has to return our keys with immediate effect.
Now let's hope he doesn't make copies of them first!
Sunday, June 15
Hoggle Wants His Keys Back
We've had another run-in with one of the "locals" here. You know, we're just trying to bide our time here; trying to get along, minding our own business for the rest of our days in England.WHY DO THEY HAVE TO KEEP BOTHERING US?
The neighbor directly across from us on our landing is now on our shit list (and we're probably on his). This kind of came out of the blue. It started about half a year ago when we discovered that, unbeknownst to us, this gentleman had a set of keys to the flat we're renting. At the time, it was fortunate because the lady that we had given a spare set to (at the request of the building "management") was not home and I was locked out. I rang his doorbell on the off-chance that he might have a key. Well, as I said, he did. Hurrah, saved the day. It wasn't until later when I told K -- and her ensuing reaction was one of discomfort -- that I realised that this was indeed a bit strange, but we left it.
Then at some point, when we were away on vacation (I think it was when we were last in Florida) he entered our flat without our permission. We have a bi-weekly delivery of fresh eggs that I had forgotten to cancel before leaving, so our nosy neighbor decided that he needed to go in our flat to put the eggs in our refrigerator. He obviously didn't think of just putting them in his own fridge and then giving them to us when we got back. No, he had to go in. And there was another time when he went in with a package that had been delivered. That wasn't even a time when we were on vacation. It was just during a weekend when we happened to be out for the day. Is it just us or is that just a tiny bit unacceptable?
Cut to several months ago when K had a bit of a "moment" with the tenant below us (I think I mentioned it here, but basically, it was obvious that our actions were being monitored). K got increasingly annoyed and channeled that into reclaiming our keys from the neighbor across the landing in an effort to reclaim a bit more control over our lives in this building.
Cut to yesterday when I was about to go to my martial arts class. This neighbor (who looks a bit like Hoggle from the 80's film Labyrinth, see pic above) was down by the garages and waved for me to stop as I was driving out. He related this story of how we had "borrowed" the keys a while back and asked that we return them to him because "by regulations" someone has to hold a set of keys to the flat in case of emergencies. He added "I only went into your flat that once to put the eggs in your fridge when you were away." Um... yeah... anyway... I explained that we had given a key to the lady below us. Well, he still wanted those keys back I said, "Yeah, OK" and drove off with the intention of "forgetting" to bring them to him.
Well, that didn't put him off because this morning he rang the doorbell. K answered. He basically demanded the keys back and K explained the whole thing again. He said it was in the regulations that he kept a set of keys for our flat and he had been given those keys by the landlord (not true). He persisted. Eventually K let her ire bubble to the surface, "OK, you know what, Tony? You can take the keys back. HERE. But don't you EVER come into our apartment again." He said, "Don't take that tone with me young lady. That's rude." Then he went through the whole thing about the eggs again. K said, "You could have taken them to your flat." Well, he didn't think of that at the time. It kind of devolved from there and eventually he trudged back to his flat and we kind of slammed the door at each other.
So, I immediately sent an email to our rental agent that manages this apartment explaining this whole situation and asking that they contact our landlord to ask who HE would like to hold the spare set of keys. Now we just wait to hear back from them.
Let's see what happens next!
Sunday, June 8
Barcelona/Jafre Trip
We're back from our trip to Spain to celebrate our 4-year Anniversary. Here's how we spent it...
Thursday - June 5th
Our flight out of Bournemouth was at 4.30pm, so it was a relaxed morning. No need to get up at the ass-crack of dawn and make your way, bleary-eyed, to the airport. I even had time for a quick cat-nap right before we left. I didn't mean to; I just fell asleep while reading a magazine on the couch.
The funny thing about this trip is that neither of us had really done much research or preparation other than booking the flight and K finding the B&B. In fact, we weren't even "excited" about the trip and K was actually a bit reluctant to go. Reluctant because of the language barrier, the driving on the right side of the road (which is a bit foreign to me now), and because of the hassle of air travel. That aside, the flight was OK and only took about 2 hours in the air. Our hearts sank a bit when, approaching the Girona (Barcelona) airport, we flew through thick rain clouds (not what we had pictured for Spain). And it was raining a bit, not heavily, but we had to skip over a couple of puddles walking into the terminal. Spain is supposed to be sunny! And the rain is supposed to fall mainly in the plain!
Well, it was around 7.30 when we got there. The airport is small, but nice. Lots of construction at the moment -- probably RyanAir-induced expansion. There was a long line to pick up our rental car, but after that, the trip went quite smoothly. The Las Nenes B&B is in Jafre, about 30 minutes from the Girona airport and about one and a half hours from Barcelona. Luckily, it was still fairly light out when we headed onto the road (reminding myself repeatedly to stay on the right side). Strangely, the country-side surrounding the airport is reminiscent of the area around the Portland, OR airport. Weren't expecting that!
The drive was beautiful, despite the sprinkling rain. Amazing countryside. We did get a bit lost in Jafre, though. It is a tiny little village up the side of a small hill. The roads are narrow and winding. Very old-European looking. It took us a while to find the place and we had to call for directions. Turned out we were about 50 yards from the place at that point.
When we rang the bell, we heard two dogs start barking frantically inside the house. Katy, the proprietor of Las Nenes, opened the greeted us. She had warned that we shouldn't be shocked when we saw her because she had two black eyes, lots of bruising, and some stitches from a bad fall the week earlier. She didn't look as bad as she had described!
The B&B has a lovely little front garden, surrounded by stone walls crawling with jasmine. It smelled amazingly perfumey. When we entered the house, there were some other guests finishing dinner. They were Americans. From Missouri.
Our room was on the 2nd floor with a separate bathroom that we didn't have to share because the other guests shared the en-suite. Queen size bed and a "view" of the front garden. I say "view" because the window was quite small. Still nice. There are A LOT of birds in Jaffre and they are still singing their little hearts out at 9 o'clock at night. It's nice.
While we were getting settled and getting ready to go out for dinner (restaurants don't usually open before 9pm here), the two dogs were released and came running in to say hello. They were some kind Australian Shepherd/Springer Spaniel mixed breeds. Very friendly. And very loud. Ricky and Gretta. They love visitors and announce this by barking continuously while you're trying to pet them.
For dinner, Katy recommended a restaurant in Verges, a neighboring town about 2 miles away. It is called Mas Pi (Pine Farmhouse). The waitress seated us in a cozy little cave-like nook that made it seem like we were completely alone. She gave us English menus, which is quite helpful even though we had a phrase book. After we were seated, they brought us a free glass of house Cava (the Spanish version of champagne), bread, and slices of local sausage. The cava was so good that we just had to order a full bottle. They brought it out in an ice bucket. Since it's a house wine, there's no label on the bottle. Doesn't get more "house" than that! The food was knee-tremblingly scrumptious. As a starter, we had escalivada with brie. Escalivada is a Catalonian specialty: roasted red pepper, eggplant, and onion in olive oil. Very tasty. For the main course, K had seared duck breast with a balsamic-based sauce (it had a Catalonian name, but I forget what it was called). I had Catalan-style lamb shoulder with roast potatoes. The lamb was slow-roasted on a bed of rosemary with garlic and lots of olive oil. Mmm... the meat just fell apart on its own, it was so tender. For dessert, I had Mas Pi -style crema catalana and K had a Xocolat Coulant, molten-centre chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. When we got the bill, instead of giving us mints, the waitress came with two frozen shot glasses and offered us limoncello (a lemon schnappes). Classy!
After this, we were on a food high (and a bit merry). Any reluctance experienced before the trip was long gone. So far, quite impressed with Catalonia!
The funny thing about this trip is that neither of us had really done much research or preparation other than booking the flight and K finding the B&B. In fact, we weren't even "excited" about the trip and K was actually a bit reluctant to go. Reluctant because of the language barrier, the driving on the right side of the road (which is a bit foreign to me now), and because of the hassle of air travel. That aside, the flight was OK and only took about 2 hours in the air. Our hearts sank a bit when, approaching the Girona (Barcelona) airport, we flew through thick rain clouds (not what we had pictured for Spain). And it was raining a bit, not heavily, but we had to skip over a couple of puddles walking into the terminal. Spain is supposed to be sunny! And the rain is supposed to fall mainly in the plain!
Well, it was around 7.30 when we got there. The airport is small, but nice. Lots of construction at the moment -- probably RyanAir-induced expansion. There was a long line to pick up our rental car, but after that, the trip went quite smoothly. The Las Nenes B&B is in Jafre, about 30 minutes from the Girona airport and about one and a half hours from Barcelona. Luckily, it was still fairly light out when we headed onto the road (reminding myself repeatedly to stay on the right side). Strangely, the country-side surrounding the airport is reminiscent of the area around the Portland, OR airport. Weren't expecting that!
The drive was beautiful, despite the sprinkling rain. Amazing countryside. We did get a bit lost in Jafre, though. It is a tiny little village up the side of a small hill. The roads are narrow and winding. Very old-European looking. It took us a while to find the place and we had to call for directions. Turned out we were about 50 yards from the place at that point.
When we rang the bell, we heard two dogs start barking frantically inside the house. Katy, the proprietor of Las Nenes, opened the greeted us. She had warned that we shouldn't be shocked when we saw her because she had two black eyes, lots of bruising, and some stitches from a bad fall the week earlier. She didn't look as bad as she had described!
The B&B has a lovely little front garden, surrounded by stone walls crawling with jasmine. It smelled amazingly perfumey. When we entered the house, there were some other guests finishing dinner. They were Americans. From Missouri.
Our room was on the 2nd floor with a separate bathroom that we didn't have to share because the other guests shared the en-suite. Queen size bed and a "view" of the front garden. I say "view" because the window was quite small. Still nice. There are A LOT of birds in Jaffre and they are still singing their little hearts out at 9 o'clock at night. It's nice.
While we were getting settled and getting ready to go out for dinner (restaurants don't usually open before 9pm here), the two dogs were released and came running in to say hello. They were some kind Australian Shepherd/Springer Spaniel mixed breeds. Very friendly. And very loud. Ricky and Gretta. They love visitors and announce this by barking continuously while you're trying to pet them.
For dinner, Katy recommended a restaurant in Verges, a neighboring town about 2 miles away. It is called Mas Pi (Pine Farmhouse). The waitress seated us in a cozy little cave-like nook that made it seem like we were completely alone. She gave us English menus, which is quite helpful even though we had a phrase book. After we were seated, they brought us a free glass of house Cava (the Spanish version of champagne), bread, and slices of local sausage. The cava was so good that we just had to order a full bottle. They brought it out in an ice bucket. Since it's a house wine, there's no label on the bottle. Doesn't get more "house" than that! The food was knee-tremblingly scrumptious. As a starter, we had escalivada with brie. Escalivada is a Catalonian specialty: roasted red pepper, eggplant, and onion in olive oil. Very tasty. For the main course, K had seared duck breast with a balsamic-based sauce (it had a Catalonian name, but I forget what it was called). I had Catalan-style lamb shoulder with roast potatoes. The lamb was slow-roasted on a bed of rosemary with garlic and lots of olive oil. Mmm... the meat just fell apart on its own, it was so tender. For dessert, I had Mas Pi -style crema catalana and K had a Xocolat Coulant, molten-centre chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. When we got the bill, instead of giving us mints, the waitress came with two frozen shot glasses and offered us limoncello (a lemon schnappes). Classy!
After this, we were on a food high (and a bit merry). Any reluctance experienced before the trip was long gone. So far, quite impressed with Catalonia!
Friday - June 6th
A fairly good night's sleep, though a bit tossy-turny due to the cava and the church bells. The bells in the town's church tower ring every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. They chime the hour, then there is one chime at 15 past, two at 30 past, and three at 45 past. Then four times on the hour before ringing the hour again. At 8.05AM, 1.05PM, and 8.05PM during the weekdays it rings a special ring to tell people to go to work, go for a siesta, and go back home, respectively. It's not insanely loud from the B&B and we were prepared with ear-plugs because we knew about it ahead of time. But we still woke up from time to time. And the birds! They are almost louder than the bells with their morning song. A mellifluous cacophony that starts around 5 in the morning.
Though we weren't sure what we were going to do today, we "slept in" until about 9 o'clock and went down for breakfast about a half hour later. Breakfast is served from 8.30-10.00. Coffee, tea, orange juice, sliced bread, muffins, yogurt, cereal, and fruit. We had a leisurely breakfast and chatted to Katy about our plans for the weekend. Since it was a bit late to head in to Barcelona (a 1.5 hour trip on the train), we decided to use this day to drive around the area a bit and out to the Mediterranean so I could go for a swim -- given the opportunity, I just had to go for a dip in a foreign sea. Then in the evening, we would do our cooking lesson. K had scoped out a sea-side town that wasn't too far away, L'Estartit. Katy said, "No, you don't want to go to L'Estartit. It's icky. Beyond icky." She recommended a town further north called St. Marti de Empuries which is also near another town called L'Escala. Connecting the two is a long coastal pathway that is nice to walk along. Before going there, though, we planned to go to Figueres, north of Jafre. There's a Dali Museum there, designed by Dali himself. So... we had our agenda for the day.
We headed out around 11 o'clock and made it of Figueres in about 30 minutes. It's a nice little city that we didn't investigate fully, but I really liked the feel of it. Took a while to find somewhere to park. Eventually, we found a free spot in a jam-packed lot not too far from the museum. There were a fair number of other tourists going in to the museum right when we got there. Almost enough to make put us off, but we braved it anyway. The building is really funky. Painted pink with plaster bread rolls stuck all over it and egg-shaped turrets and gold statues on top of it. And the interior lay-out is really unique, sort of a oblong circle with a central atrium. Several floors of halls with Dali's artwork displayed, not his most famous stuff (funnily enough, most of that is at the museum in St. Pete, FL). We spent about an hour and a half there before getting completely sick of the crowds.
The weather was fabulous. We had some good ice cream at a park cafe before getting back in the car to drive to St. Marti. It's been a while since we've been somewhere we couldn't really communicate with people. When you order stuff, you have to point at things and use rudimentary phrases in English and, if you can, the local language. The Catalans are fairly nice and OK with speaking a little English. We read somewhere that you shouldn't speak Spanish to them because that they might take offense at since they consider themselves independent from Spain. Not sure how true that is. Probably just a minority.
In St. Marti de Empuries we went for a walk along the coastal pathway along the Mediterranean, at some points crossing down to the shore to walk on the sand. In some areas, you can see the remnants of the ancient city walls. There was a large Greek population that lived there long ago. Also near this are some Greek ruins that you can visit, but we didn't go in because we didn't feel like paying for it and we were really hungry, so tried to get to L'Escala as soon as possible. It took a lot longer to walk down there than we thought it would and the town looked deserted at first because we got there in the middle of siesta (between 1 and 4 usually). Eventually, we reached an area with a few restaurants. We chose one right by the sea and had a late-afternoon "snack" which turned into a pizza each because we were really starving.
Then, in direct violation of every mother's primary rule when at the beach, I went swimming less than half an hour after eating. First, we walked back towards St. Marti to give the sun time to pop back out again (it had gotten a bit cloudy with some rain clouds in the distance). The beaches were almost desolate despite the good weather, so it wasn't difficult to find a good spot to go for a dip. K wasn't as interested in getting in the fairly cold water, so it was just me that went for a swim. Not so bad after I got used to it. After the initial dunk, it was actually kind of nice. But it was really windy so it got a bit chilly when I got out. Chilly and prickly from the sand blasting.
We made it back to the B&B around 6 o'clock. I had a little nap before we started our "La Cuina Catalana" cooking lesson. Katy gave us each a white apron, dish cloth, and a sharp knife. Over the course of the next two hours she showed us how to chop vegetables correctly and how to make the following three course meal:
Though we weren't sure what we were going to do today, we "slept in" until about 9 o'clock and went down for breakfast about a half hour later. Breakfast is served from 8.30-10.00. Coffee, tea, orange juice, sliced bread, muffins, yogurt, cereal, and fruit. We had a leisurely breakfast and chatted to Katy about our plans for the weekend. Since it was a bit late to head in to Barcelona (a 1.5 hour trip on the train), we decided to use this day to drive around the area a bit and out to the Mediterranean so I could go for a swim -- given the opportunity, I just had to go for a dip in a foreign sea. Then in the evening, we would do our cooking lesson. K had scoped out a sea-side town that wasn't too far away, L'Estartit. Katy said, "No, you don't want to go to L'Estartit. It's icky. Beyond icky." She recommended a town further north called St. Marti de Empuries which is also near another town called L'Escala. Connecting the two is a long coastal pathway that is nice to walk along. Before going there, though, we planned to go to Figueres, north of Jafre. There's a Dali Museum there, designed by Dali himself. So... we had our agenda for the day.
We headed out around 11 o'clock and made it of Figueres in about 30 minutes. It's a nice little city that we didn't investigate fully, but I really liked the feel of it. Took a while to find somewhere to park. Eventually, we found a free spot in a jam-packed lot not too far from the museum. There were a fair number of other tourists going in to the museum right when we got there. Almost enough to make put us off, but we braved it anyway. The building is really funky. Painted pink with plaster bread rolls stuck all over it and egg-shaped turrets and gold statues on top of it. And the interior lay-out is really unique, sort of a oblong circle with a central atrium. Several floors of halls with Dali's artwork displayed, not his most famous stuff (funnily enough, most of that is at the museum in St. Pete, FL). We spent about an hour and a half there before getting completely sick of the crowds.
The weather was fabulous. We had some good ice cream at a park cafe before getting back in the car to drive to St. Marti. It's been a while since we've been somewhere we couldn't really communicate with people. When you order stuff, you have to point at things and use rudimentary phrases in English and, if you can, the local language. The Catalans are fairly nice and OK with speaking a little English. We read somewhere that you shouldn't speak Spanish to them because that they might take offense at since they consider themselves independent from Spain. Not sure how true that is. Probably just a minority.
In St. Marti de Empuries we went for a walk along the coastal pathway along the Mediterranean, at some points crossing down to the shore to walk on the sand. In some areas, you can see the remnants of the ancient city walls. There was a large Greek population that lived there long ago. Also near this are some Greek ruins that you can visit, but we didn't go in because we didn't feel like paying for it and we were really hungry, so tried to get to L'Escala as soon as possible. It took a lot longer to walk down there than we thought it would and the town looked deserted at first because we got there in the middle of siesta (between 1 and 4 usually). Eventually, we reached an area with a few restaurants. We chose one right by the sea and had a late-afternoon "snack" which turned into a pizza each because we were really starving.
Then, in direct violation of every mother's primary rule when at the beach, I went swimming less than half an hour after eating. First, we walked back towards St. Marti to give the sun time to pop back out again (it had gotten a bit cloudy with some rain clouds in the distance). The beaches were almost desolate despite the good weather, so it wasn't difficult to find a good spot to go for a dip. K wasn't as interested in getting in the fairly cold water, so it was just me that went for a swim. Not so bad after I got used to it. After the initial dunk, it was actually kind of nice. But it was really windy so it got a bit chilly when I got out. Chilly and prickly from the sand blasting.
We made it back to the B&B around 6 o'clock. I had a little nap before we started our "La Cuina Catalana" cooking lesson. Katy gave us each a white apron, dish cloth, and a sharp knife. Over the course of the next two hours she showed us how to chop vegetables correctly and how to make the following three course meal:
Starter
Pa amb tomaquet (Bread with tomato)
Escalivada
w/ L'Escala anchovies
Main Course
Chicken with Chorizo, potatoes, and sofregit (a tomato sauce base)
Dessert
Summer Pudding of cake, poached pears, and strawberry sauce
Pa amb tomaquet (Bread with tomato)
Escalivada
w/ L'Escala anchovies
Main Course
Chicken with Chorizo, potatoes, and sofregit (a tomato sauce base)
Dessert
Summer Pudding of cake, poached pears, and strawberry sauce
The meal was really tasty and we were, once again, really stuffed. I learned a few good tricks and recipes that I will definitely be putting into my cooking repertoire. We will definitely buy a Spanish cookbook as soon as possible.
Saturday - June 7th
Today was our Barcelona day. The intention was to take the 9.05 train into the city which meant we had to get up fairly early, so we grudgingly got up at 8.00. I really wanted to get some breakfast beforehand, but that wasn't until 8.30. The idea was that I would quickly scarf down a bit and then we would hit the road around 8.40 (the train station was about 15 minutes away). This proved to be poor time management. Though it was absurd to think we would make it in time, I thought we should try. We got in the car and I started having doubts. Should we just stay here? Is it pointless to go if we have to wait for the 10.00 train? I don't know. Eventually, I made up my mind and we drove to the train station, resigned to taking the later train. It took us a little longer than 15 minutes to get to the station and find the parking lot, but even then, we had to wait about 40 minutes for the train.
Katy said we could probably get away with not buying a ticket because more often than not, the conductor never shows up and if he does, you can just buy the ticket on the train. Despite our building paranoia, we decided to take this approach. And we almost got away with it, but with about 10 minutes to go, he came through the train car. Oh well, we then bought two round-trip tickets for 29 Euros (not bad).
We had no real plan for what we wanted to do in the city. The only sites we were concerned with at the time were the Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas. Since the train station was closest to Sagrada Familia, we decided to go there first. It was a really nice 20-minute walk through the remarkably clean Barcelona streets. The architecture is really unique, even discounting the many Gaudi buildings around.
Visiting the Sagrada Familia was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Barcelona. I've been wanting to see these very unique, "organic" cathedral for a long time. Of course, it being June, the area was crammed with other tourists. We took in the site from the two parks on either side of it, but we didn't go in. Not only did it look crowded, but it seemed like certain areas were closed due to construction. This cathedral started being built in 1883 and it is still evolving. Antoni Gaudi died in 1926, but the idea is that the cathedral would continue to be added to. It is probably the most unique cathedral in existence. You can't really put it in any particular architectural style. At the moment, there seems to be quite a bit of construction taking place because there were several cranes and construction fences around it. A bit of a shame because we didn't really get a full sense of it, but I'm still glad we saw it. They're aiming to finish it by the centenary of Gaudi's death in 2026. Maybe we'll go back then!
After milling about there for a while, we started walking towards Las Ramblas, the "bohemian"-style shopping district. But first, a Starbucks. K had ascertained that there were 15 Starbucks in the city. One of them was right next to the Sagrada Familia. We ordered as best we could from the Catalan menu, feeling very American as we walked out the door. Walking down through the middle of Barcelona, we decided that we really like this city. K said it is her favorite city in Europe so far. I'm a Copenhagen man myself, but Barcelona and probably Brussels are tied for second place.
All the guide books and travel sites say that one should be vigilant over their belongings in Las Ramblas because pick-pocketing is a major issue. I was carrying everything in a messenger bag, which I kept slung in front of me when we were in crowded areas. And I always put my wallet in my front pocket. Whether it was our precautions or just luck, we managed to navigate Las Ramblas without losing any possessions. "Bustling" would be one word to describe this area of the city. Filled with tourists and locals, it is very vibrant. Particularly the Mercat de la Boqueria, the most famous central market. Under a huge iron and glass canopy are at least a hundred small stalls selling fresh fruit, meat, seafood, cured meats and sausages, bread, olives and candy. It was overwhelming. And it made us fiercely hungry. It was around two o'clock so we went in search of a good restaurant. We found an interesting one in our guidebook, Los Caracoles, accessed from a narrow, cobble-stone street of the main part of Las Ramblas. When you first enter you are in a bar, then you go further in and have to walk through the middle of the kitchen to get to the restaurant part, which is on three or four split levels. It is a maze of a place and really quaint. Lots of dark wood paneling everywhere and waiters in black vests. K had a tuna salad and I had a seafood and chicken paella. Both were amazing. For dessert, the traditional crema catalana (their version of creme brulee).
By this time, we were pretty worn out so we decided to make our way back to Jafre. We walked back up to the train station, stopping in a supermarket on the way to pick up a jar of L'Escala anchovies and some dried sausages to bring back to England. There was a bit of time to kill before the 5.30pm train so we had a look at Gaudi's Manzana de la Discordia and then sat on a bench to do a bit of people watching. The train ride back was a bit slow. Funnily enough, we were sitting directly across from a British couple who had taken the very same train in to Barcelona that we did. Weird how that happens!
No dinner tonight, just a little snack and then we did some reading in the B&B's lounge with the two dogs and one of the cats. Very relaxing.
Katy said we could probably get away with not buying a ticket because more often than not, the conductor never shows up and if he does, you can just buy the ticket on the train. Despite our building paranoia, we decided to take this approach. And we almost got away with it, but with about 10 minutes to go, he came through the train car. Oh well, we then bought two round-trip tickets for 29 Euros (not bad).
We had no real plan for what we wanted to do in the city. The only sites we were concerned with at the time were the Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas. Since the train station was closest to Sagrada Familia, we decided to go there first. It was a really nice 20-minute walk through the remarkably clean Barcelona streets. The architecture is really unique, even discounting the many Gaudi buildings around.
Visiting the Sagrada Familia was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Barcelona. I've been wanting to see these very unique, "organic" cathedral for a long time. Of course, it being June, the area was crammed with other tourists. We took in the site from the two parks on either side of it, but we didn't go in. Not only did it look crowded, but it seemed like certain areas were closed due to construction. This cathedral started being built in 1883 and it is still evolving. Antoni Gaudi died in 1926, but the idea is that the cathedral would continue to be added to. It is probably the most unique cathedral in existence. You can't really put it in any particular architectural style. At the moment, there seems to be quite a bit of construction taking place because there were several cranes and construction fences around it. A bit of a shame because we didn't really get a full sense of it, but I'm still glad we saw it. They're aiming to finish it by the centenary of Gaudi's death in 2026. Maybe we'll go back then!
After milling about there for a while, we started walking towards Las Ramblas, the "bohemian"-style shopping district. But first, a Starbucks. K had ascertained that there were 15 Starbucks in the city. One of them was right next to the Sagrada Familia. We ordered as best we could from the Catalan menu, feeling very American as we walked out the door. Walking down through the middle of Barcelona, we decided that we really like this city. K said it is her favorite city in Europe so far. I'm a Copenhagen man myself, but Barcelona and probably Brussels are tied for second place.
All the guide books and travel sites say that one should be vigilant over their belongings in Las Ramblas because pick-pocketing is a major issue. I was carrying everything in a messenger bag, which I kept slung in front of me when we were in crowded areas. And I always put my wallet in my front pocket. Whether it was our precautions or just luck, we managed to navigate Las Ramblas without losing any possessions. "Bustling" would be one word to describe this area of the city. Filled with tourists and locals, it is very vibrant. Particularly the Mercat de la Boqueria, the most famous central market. Under a huge iron and glass canopy are at least a hundred small stalls selling fresh fruit, meat, seafood, cured meats and sausages, bread, olives and candy. It was overwhelming. And it made us fiercely hungry. It was around two o'clock so we went in search of a good restaurant. We found an interesting one in our guidebook, Los Caracoles, accessed from a narrow, cobble-stone street of the main part of Las Ramblas. When you first enter you are in a bar, then you go further in and have to walk through the middle of the kitchen to get to the restaurant part, which is on three or four split levels. It is a maze of a place and really quaint. Lots of dark wood paneling everywhere and waiters in black vests. K had a tuna salad and I had a seafood and chicken paella. Both were amazing. For dessert, the traditional crema catalana (their version of creme brulee).
By this time, we were pretty worn out so we decided to make our way back to Jafre. We walked back up to the train station, stopping in a supermarket on the way to pick up a jar of L'Escala anchovies and some dried sausages to bring back to England. There was a bit of time to kill before the 5.30pm train so we had a look at Gaudi's Manzana de la Discordia and then sat on a bench to do a bit of people watching. The train ride back was a bit slow. Funnily enough, we were sitting directly across from a British couple who had taken the very same train in to Barcelona that we did. Weird how that happens!
No dinner tonight, just a little snack and then we did some reading in the B&B's lounge with the two dogs and one of the cats. Very relaxing.
Sunday - June 8th
Today was a day for taking it easy before flying back to Bournemouth. Our flight was at 3.15pm, so we had a bit of time. A leisurely breakfast and a bit of packing. We took the dogs for a walk around the little town. There are a lot of dogs in Spain (Gossos in Catalan) and as we made our way around the town, we provoked a lot of barking from the neighbors. Katy could probably have followed our progress by listening to the direction of the barking. It was very cute.
On the way to the airport, we wanted to stop in a town called La Bisbal d'Emporda. K had been eying some of Katy's ceramic serving bowls. She told us they were from that town, which specializes in this type of pottery. It was kind of on our way to the airport so we packed our bags to allow for some extra space in the carry-ons. We got as much as we could carry and it only cost us about 45 euros in total. A few small serving dishes and two cassolas (the type of crockery that we used to cook the chicken on Friday). The shop was called La Botiga and it is run by two little old ladies. Very friendly. We interacted in a mix of English, Spanish, and Catalan. They meticulously wrapped everything in paper to protect it. A heavy load, but very much worth it. K really wants to go back there to get more before we move back to the US.
The last thing to do before heading to the airport was to fill up the rental car before returning it. I wanted to get as close to the airport as possible before doing this, but then we had some trouble finding a place and had to do a bit of back-tracking and driving around. Eventually we found a place and it only cost us about 21 euros to fill it back up because we had only used half a tank. Our little Nissan Micra got very good gas mileage.
Check-in was a breeze and we had time for a light lunch before boarding the plane. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting among a party of slightly drunk British stag party blokes. Very noisy and smelly. Flying on these low-cost airlines is basically like riding a bus in the sky. Fairly cheap, but not very comfortable. Then again, no flight is comfortable these days unless you can afford the king's ransom for business class.
Very sunny when we arrived in Bournemouth and almost warmer than Spain. It made the re-entry a bit easier to handle than if it had been gray and rainy. We both could have done with staying in Barcelona a bit longer. It was a great trip and we will definitely return some day.
---
Please have a look at the pictures of our trip HERE.
On the way to the airport, we wanted to stop in a town called La Bisbal d'Emporda. K had been eying some of Katy's ceramic serving bowls. She told us they were from that town, which specializes in this type of pottery. It was kind of on our way to the airport so we packed our bags to allow for some extra space in the carry-ons. We got as much as we could carry and it only cost us about 45 euros in total. A few small serving dishes and two cassolas (the type of crockery that we used to cook the chicken on Friday). The shop was called La Botiga and it is run by two little old ladies. Very friendly. We interacted in a mix of English, Spanish, and Catalan. They meticulously wrapped everything in paper to protect it. A heavy load, but very much worth it. K really wants to go back there to get more before we move back to the US.
The last thing to do before heading to the airport was to fill up the rental car before returning it. I wanted to get as close to the airport as possible before doing this, but then we had some trouble finding a place and had to do a bit of back-tracking and driving around. Eventually we found a place and it only cost us about 21 euros to fill it back up because we had only used half a tank. Our little Nissan Micra got very good gas mileage.
Check-in was a breeze and we had time for a light lunch before boarding the plane. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting among a party of slightly drunk British stag party blokes. Very noisy and smelly. Flying on these low-cost airlines is basically like riding a bus in the sky. Fairly cheap, but not very comfortable. Then again, no flight is comfortable these days unless you can afford the king's ransom for business class.
Very sunny when we arrived in Bournemouth and almost warmer than Spain. It made the re-entry a bit easier to handle than if it had been gray and rainy. We both could have done with staying in Barcelona a bit longer. It was a great trip and we will definitely return some day.
---
Please have a look at the pictures of our trip HERE.
Sunday, June 1
Things To Do Before Re-Patriating
Before moving back to the US, there are a few things we would like to accomplish/do. Herewith, a bullet-point list of those things. Some are things we both want to achieve/do and a few are personal. You can probably guess which is which. We've got about 170 days to cross everything off!
- Dentist and health check-up at a free NHS clinic
- Lose 10-15 lbs.
- Visit an English hop farm at or near harvest-time
- Visit a brewery or two
- Go to a pub Quiz Night
- Review, on BeerAdvocate, all the CAMRA-listed local pubs
- Trip to Brussels (maybe)
- Trip to Barcelona
- Trip to Italy? (probably won't be able to squeeze this in)
- Sell the car
- Go to Eden Project
- See Phantom of the Opera - DONE!
- Volunteer at the Great British Beer Festival
- Achieve Level 2 grading in Kali
- Graduate with a Doctoral degree
- Hike to Durdle Door and Studland
- Go to Brownsea Island (and hopefully see the native brown squirrels)
- Trip to Copenhagen and Nordjylland
- Buy England mementos and/or furniture
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