I absolutely adored Barcelona... it lived up to all my expectations in terms of the food, design & architecture:
1. FOOD
On arrival in the city... the first thing I did was to go & find a fantastic local tapas bar & stuff myself with all the delicacies..
La Tramola became a favorite over the stay with its great service, traditional tapas & delicious paella!
From left to right clockwise: Prawn & salmon with cheese Montadito (smaller than tapas), fried Padron peppers, patatas bravas (fried potatoes with spicy sauce), chorizos, churros with melted chocolate, sauteed mushrooms with garlic & parsley, Spanish omelette (egg with onion & potato), Iberico ham with pepper Montadito... Sigh. I thought i'd died & gone to heaven... I ate a mixture of these EVERYDAY!!!!!!
2. DESIGN
I've always imagined Barcelona as a city where design is alive & I wasn't disappointed. For me, it ranks right up there with Tokyo & Bangkok in creativity.
Everywhere I went, my eyes were treated to a delightful feast of colors & ingenuity. This shoe store uses old-style ice-cream boxes.. so cute!
And a lovely sewing & crafts store recommended by a Spanish blogger...
It was one of the most cosy & pretty stores i'd ever seen.
And Barcelona has no lack of designer boutique hotels, the one I stayed in was modern & the lobby bar served a great gin tonic with Spanish gin & basil leaves.. try it at home... its a refreshing twist on regular gin tonic!
Paintings around the hotel all done with 2 smooth pencil strokes.
Of course, when creativity finds its way to city walls, not everyone is happy..
But I heard this funny story, once the wall is washed clean... the graffiti artist paints something new & writes: Wow thanks for giving me another blank canvas! Here's my new signature! :)
Zahara de la Sierra, one of the white hill towns we drove past along the road. Magnifique! Just like how I imagined rural Spain to be.
We also came across large sunflower fields... it was a beautiful summery sea of yellow & blue & green, all of them were taller than me & their faces almost as big as mine! Seeing is believing >
Andalucia is a region dotted with nice little 'white villages' as most of the houses in these towns are white. The tiny roads are so narrow we had to step into doorways when cars drove past us on the streets & forget about using your side-view mirrors cos they have to stay folded in. We spent the night at Arcos de la Frontera, a pretty little town with amazing views everywhere.
We walked around this town built atop a ridge, & peeped into houses, alleyways while dodging cars & bikes. The 16th century church of San Pedro sits high up above everything else while birds soared in the valley.
Charming arches we meandered thru, but they stand testament to centuries of Christian fighting against the Moors & forcing them slowly down south; Arcos de la Frontera was one such town on the frontline.
In front of the church of San Pedro, a local told me that during the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish used to exorcise Muslims in front of this church & forced them to convert to Christianity. He spoke to me in halting french since he didnt speak english so I hope he exaggerated the story a little. It sounds so cruel!
Two Spanish neighbours chatting in the heat of the afternoon, while we lost our way in the maze of quaint cobblestoned streets & roasted ourselves brownnnnn.
Stopping for a rest & taking in the views. We noticed little dried snails stuck along a wall. Ahh the joys of country living.
We also stayed at Ronda, another of the white towns situated on cliffs with a gorge in between. If someone wanted to jump off one of the balconies, he would surely die a spectacular death.
The Puente Nevo (New bridge) was built in 1751 to link the cliffs. It really is quite a sight to behold. Of course Elmo wanted his picture in front of it too.
Have a great weekend, i'll share some Morocco pictures next week xx
It's always nice to come back from a great adventure & share the memories, but this time, I took so many pictures that I would never have time to put them all up. So I decided to tell a few stories everyday about the pictures that touched me the most.
In the Great Mosque of Cordoba in Andalusia, a Unesco world heritage site & rightfully so.The amazing thing about almost everything in Andalusia is the Moorish influence, apparent in the architecture, crafts & centuries-old ruins. The Moors were darker-skinned people like Muslims, Arabs & Berbers.This region was a Muslim kingdom for nearly 800 years before the Christians took over, & the Islamic influence is still found everywhere. I never knew that before coming to Spain, did you?
Standing in an old monument, I find it hard to believe that it has seen centuries pass, wars fought, peace restored & now curious people trying in vain to understand their history.
This was a Holy week procession in Seville. They started in the afternoon from the main cathedral & continued into the smaller streets until midnight. I never saw anything like that before in my life. The elaborate float of a young Jesus making its way to the parish church, loud solemn band music, & thousands of people. There must have been about 50 men supporting the float, sweating like mad, & stopping every few minutes to let in air & drink water. Then they would hoist the wooden float on their heads in 1 fluid movement & continue on slowly.
We bumped into them again, still going strong in the night along the little winding streets! Pretty amazing sight. Sometimes young Jesus would pass right underneath the balconies.. if u were living there, u could probably reach out & touch him.
And I had one of my favorite travel companions... my mum! She's funny, doesnt ever get car-sick & packs luggage really well.
We were walking along the street in Seville, when this man comes out of a little nondescript chapel tucked away in a corner & shakes his head. Lookin at us, he said, you guys have to go in, muy bonito! Out of curiousity, we stepped in & it was like stepping into a piece of antique art so intricate we just breathed WOW.
No picture could ever do it justice because it seemed like the altar was carved into the wall like a cave of very very intricate baroque figurines & ornaments. Service had just started, and the locals seemed disturbed that tourists like us had chanced upon their little chapel. I have seen so many churches in my life but this is one of the prettiest for sure. If ever you find yourself in Seville one day, this would be a little gem worth seeing to believe.
1130pm & the city comes alive. In the streets after we watched the most amazing, intimate flamenco in a little courtyard. 3 rows of wooden chairs surrounding a small wooden stage, we sat down & were transported to another world. My mum clutched my arm, i had goosebumps & my sis declared it the best travel experience she ever had. No frills & loud music here, just a guitar, passionate singing, & a dance that was feminine yet strong. No photos & videos were allowed, but they did dance around for fun after the performance so I took a little video. Could not take my eyes off her hands.
The Alhambra in Granada, the last of the Moorish palaces from the 14th century. Another Unesco world heritage site we had the pleasure of seeing. We bought tickets for the Nasrid Palace a month in advance as only limited numbers of people can visit it at any one time. The prettiest patio in this palace was the Court of the Myrtles, a vestige of Muslim art which withstood centuries of war & modernization.
No trip to Spain is complete without seeing a bull-ring... and this one is the oldest in Spain. Though i was glad we missed the bull fights. It is a terrible sport & an extremely unfair fight. No bulls means my red friend can visit in peace ;)
more to come while I take a cappuccino break... I leave you with my favorite breakfast in Spain... churros con chocolate.. a kind of Spanish doughnut freshly fried & then dipped into hot thick chocolate... Mmmm!
