Monthly Archives: September 2016

Barcelona

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After two short visits to Seville and Madrid, we booked five days in Barcelona. The city has always received rave reviews from friends and family, so we wanted to give ourselves time to explore.

We booked an Airbnb in Vila de Gracia, the main core of Old Town. More narrow, cobbled streets with tiny sidewalks and itty bitty local shops. The apartment was fifty shades of beige and full of tired Ikea furniture, but had good wifi, air conditioning, and a washing machine (our three top amenities of choice) so we were pleased.

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We took a quick spin around the neighborhood to get our bearings, had some tapas at a little sidewalk cafe, did a grocery shop (I giddily picked out fresh cherries and donut peaches while Patrick laughed at the local cereals), and returned to our apartment to relax for a quiet evening in.

Around 6pm we heard a small bang, then another, and another, and another. They sounded like little explosions, like a small car backfiring. We poked our heads outside and saw a group of boys, roughly 8-10 years old, lighting off pocket-sized fireworks and throwing them at each other. Nearby, a bench was filled with uninterested, chain-smoking parents. Huh. This delightful dodge-the-fireworks game continued for the next three hours. And then again, every night we were there.

One of Barcelona’s many attractions is the famous architectural works of Antoni Gaudí. If you’re unfamiliar please spend a minute or two reading about him – his inventions, style, and body of work are incredible. As you’ll see, photos of his buildings are kind of incomprehensible. They need to be seen in person to be understood. So my first stop on my self-guided Gaudí tour was his magnum opus – the Sagrada Família. This massive, towering Gothic/Art Noveau church is one of the most incredible architectural undertakings in the history of the world. I don’t know enough about church design to describe how insane this building is, so you’ll just have to go to Barcelona and see it. And it’s not even finished! They broke ground in 1882, and 134 years later are still working on it. They hope to have it completed in 2026 – 100 years after Gaudí’s ridiculous death (he was hit by a tram, no one knew who he was so he didn’t receive immediate medical attention, and when someone finally identified him, it was too late).

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I felt excited, uneasy, and anxious as I walked towards the church. It is just so massive and complex it’s very existence seems to defy reality.  As I walked through the doors I felt like I needed to be quiet, like I was walking into the Cave of Wonders, and at any moment the lion’s mouth could close and trap me inside forever.

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The building felt alive, like it was growing and breathing, a sleeping giant made of stone and glass. I was in love, I was in shock, I was in awe.

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I circled the ground floor multiple times, trying to take in all the details. I took an elevator up the tower on the Nativity Facade and took in the sights of the city from above.

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Then I began the slow climb down the endless, narrow spiraling stairs to the ground floor.

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There isn’t an inside wall or handrail to keep you from falling down the center spiral of the stairs, so it’s quite a stomach-lurching experience. One of the coolest experiences of the trip by far.

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After my religious experience I met up with Patrick at Restaurante Gut. A tiny lunch spot specializing in organic/vegetarian/vegan food. The place was filled with locals (which felt awesome) and our food was delicious and cheap. Win win.

After our healthy lunch we indulged in some delicious cinnamon rolls from Sil’s Cakes – an American-style bakery specializing in ridiculous American-themed cakes (ie. Oreo cheesecake), and iced coffees from Syra Coffee. The coffee at Syra was so good we went back at least once every single day.

Still riding my high from the Sagrada Familia I needed another hit of Gaudí. I visited La Pedrera, and then Casa Batlló – two of Gaudí’s famous apartment buildings. Seeing how this genius’ building style translated between the Sagrada Familia and residential buildings was incredible.

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The spaces were etherial and strange, but everything just made sense. The attic of La Pedrera has been transformed into a Gaudí museum, explaining his process, showing his architectural models, and sources of inspiration. I was in heaven. I was so high I bought an architecture textbook.

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I met back up with Patrick at Cal Boter, a no-nonsense traditional Catalonian restaurant down the street from our apartment. We had gazpacho, grilled corn, roasted artichokes, black Catalan sausage, and a bottle of rioja. The staff laughed along with our bad Spanish, and everything was delicious. I was even able to contribute a leftover Moroccan dirham note to their wall of foreign money. Awesome evening.

The next two days were filled by casually wandering the streets and exploring the city. A few of our highlights were:

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Passeig de Gràcia – The main shopping street in Barcelona. It’s super wide with trees and fountains down the center, and every high0end retail store you could ever need. One afternoon a vandal tagged the fronts of a number of stores which caused quite a stir.

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Barcelona Cathedral – Open since 1420. As Patrick pointed out, ” That’s 350 years older than your country!”.  The gothic exterior is really impressive.

Waterfront – Walking along the waterfront was a nice break from the crowded streets. We saw the Ulysses, Graeme Hart’s (richest man in New Zealand) 351-ft super yacht. It made all the other yachts in the harbor look like row boats. [Just learned he put it up for sale in July for $195m to make way for his new 380-ft yacht?!]

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Arc de Triomf – Hey did you guys know there’s an Arc de Triomf in Barcelona? Neither did we! We were walking through the park and saw it and had one of those all too common which-city-are-we-in moments.

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Qu Qu – The Passeig de Gràcia has tons of sidewalks cafes where you can spend the afternoon munching on tapas and drinking goblets of sangria. We settled in at Qu Qu and spent a few hours people-watching. Super fun.

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Picasso Museum – We went on free-admission day which was great because we saved $25 on tickets, but the place was PACKED with a rowdy crowd. Museum etiquitte went out the window as people were talking loudly, bumping into other patrons, and taking tons of selfies in front of the art. Seeing all 58 pieces of his Las Meninas series next to each other was super cool.

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Toto – Totally gorgeous restaurant with totally underwhelming food. Skip dinner and just grab a drink at the bar so you can enjoy the ambiance.

Lo Pinyol -We loved this very hip, teeny tiny, restaurant. We sat on little stools around a small table, crammed in with a bunch of other people sitting around small tables, enjoying wave after wave of tapas. Patatas bravas, stuffed olives, empanadillas, salted cod with tomatoes, padrón peppers, tortilla española, and more delicious rioja. I highly recommend this place

Kibuka Sushi– Wanting a little break from tapas we went to this great, authentic Japanese restaurant. Everything was delicious, it was packed with locals, and the ambiance was super chill and relaxed. Loved this place.

We really liked Barcelona but it wasn’t one of our favorite cities. Seville and Madrid seemed to have much stronger cultural identities. Barcelona felt a little too westernized – a little too generic. Definitely fun to visit, but I’d return to Seville before Barcelona.

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Madrid

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After a criminally short stay in Seville we hopped the train to Madrid – a quick 2.5hr ride. Our Airbnb was a small, brightly colored loft on a busy street downtown. The neighborhood felt urban and metropolitan – like downtown San Francisco. Our very friendly host gave us a quick explanation of the city’s highlights, we threw a load of laundry in the machine, and headed out to explore.

Madrid is a very walkable city. It felt really clean and regal, like Madrid was proud to be Madrid. We saw flamenco dancers performing in the street, a ton of super cute dogs, and happy people everywhere.

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Our first stop was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which was enormous and gorgeous. Housed in a beautiful 18th-century hospital with an $103M expansion added in 2005, the building is a cool mix of old and new. The museum features mostly 20th-century Spanish art with huge Dalí and Picasso collections. We spent a long time ogling Picasso’s Guernica which is fucking incredible. At 11′ tall and 26′ wide, the thing is MASSIVE. It’s beautifully presented in it’s own room, and just really, really impressive.  

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We had dinner one night at Bosco de Lobos, a gorgeous modern restaurant tucked inside a garden hidden in the center of the city. We didn’t read about it online or anything, we were just walking down a side street, saw a cute garden, and poked our heads in. I love stumbling upon cool places like that – feels more special somehow. Our evening was so lovely I completely forgot to take pictures.

Jessie recommended we check out El Corte Ingles – an impressively thorough department store. This place has everything. It’s like Macy’s when Macy’s still gave a fuck. Floors upon floors of clothes, home goods, furniture, food, and everything in between. The top floor is a giant fancy food court filled with culinary options from around the world. We had some dim sum and took in the views from the roof terrace. After lunch we took the escalators down, stoping on every floor to marvel the endless shelves of goods. We picked up a UV filter for my camera, and a Space Pen for Patrick. Pretty successful afternoon stop.

On one of our explore-the-city-strolls we passed a really gorgeous hotel and thought “Ooo, is this some cool independent Spanish hotel?”. It was The Ritz. Of course. We decided to stop in to enjoy some afternoon tea in the garden. The garden was really fancy. Like, fancy fancy. Like, we shouldn’t have been allowed in. All the other guests were older, dignified vacationers, or very lucrative lifestyle bloggers photographing €27 Cobb salads. We enjoyed our €14 pot of tea (oops) and left to rejoin the real world. 

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Retiro Park, or as the locals call it, Parque del Buen Retiro (which literally means “Park of the Pleasant Retreat”) is a goddamn delight. It’s about half the size of Manhattan’s Central Park but nearly three times as beautiful. Endless manicured lawns, fountains, sculptures, a man-made lake, amazing flowers and trees, galleries, and even a palace. I wanted to spend the whole afternoon exploring but my allergies were like “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE THIS POLLEN WILL KILL YOU” so we regrettably had to leave. 

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On our way out we swung by the Crystal Palace. It’s unbelievably stunning – truly straight out of a fairy tale. Unfortunately there was a modern art exhibit inside, which sounds cool but I wish it had been empty. While most probably appreciated the juxtaposition of the heavy modern assemblages contrasted against the effervescent palace walls, I found it intrusive. The building is art, it doesn’t need more art on top of it. Anyway, bla bla bla, whine whine whine, it was gorgeous. 

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Here’s a fun fact: A “Maja” was a term for women in the lower classes of Spanish society, especially in Madrid, who distinguished themselves by their elaborate outfits and cheeky behavior. Sound like anyone you know? These “Majas” inspired Goya’s famous painting, “The Naked Maja”, which he painted in 1800 as a commission for Manuel Godoy, the young corrupt Prime Minister of Spain to add to his private collection of nudie paintings. What a creep. Now the painting hangs in the Prado Museum next to “The Clothed Maja”, an identical painting in every way, just with the addition of clothes.

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So, naturally, we went to go check them out. The Prado Museum is GIANT (reminded me of the Met), slightly difficult to navigate, and houses a shocking number of classical masterpieces. We found the Majas after getting lost a few times, and they were pretty great. I snapped a really horrible iPhone pic and then got yelled at by the guards, so this is the only one I have. Tragic, I know.

We went for tapas at Casa Patas, a famous restaurant/flamenco club. We were planning on having dinner and then seeng the flamenco show, but my allergies were so bad we had to leave. No one likes a sneezy audience member. 

So, all in all, our time in Madrid was five stars, two thumbs up. It didn’t feel super touristy, and the parks were incredible. We’ll definitely be back.

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Seville

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We happily waved goodbye to Morocco and hopped onto our first Ryan Air flight. After hearing stories about how bare bones the airline was, I was pleasantly surprised – it was great. The plane was stripped down to the bare essentials and every square inch of wall space was plastered with advertising, but it was very clean, the service was great, and the flight was on time. We also paid $15 extra to sit in the second row of the plane (first on, first off, guaranteed spot for our carry-on’s, etc) so that may have influenced my opinion.

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We landed in Seville and stood outside the airport just breathing in the cool air. After the stale heat of Morocco, the air in Seville was deliciously refreshing.

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Seville was a pretty extreme but very welcome culture shock after Morocco. Most notably, women – suddenly they were everywhere. Beautiful, fashionable Spanish women, with long hair, juicy silhouettes, tight clothing, and endless confidence. This was in stark contrast to Morocco, where women kind of disappear from the picture. Hidden behind burkas, tucked away inside their homes, and in the very few advertisements featuring a woman wearing western style clothing, fully covered.

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Our Airbnb was SUPER COOL. An architect’s live/work studio, complete with architectural models and a reference library. The vast collection of vintage Spanish architectural magazines were so fun to flip through.

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In addition to being cool, the apartment was located in the old part of Seville which was perfect for us. We spent most of our time strolling through the tiny, winding, orange tree lined streets, sitting at outdoor cafes drinking rioja. Oh man, the rioja. After not drinking alcohol for weeks in Morocco, wine never tasted so good.

A few of our favorite places:

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La Azotea – One of the best dinners we’ve had on the trip so far. Delicious food, served in an untraditional way. Beautifully plated. We had a bunch of tapas and delicious wine. We had a wonderful evening. The people watching was spectacular.

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Maquila – Hip little brewery/bar with fantastic tapas. We slid in for an afternoon “snack” and four giant tapas and four glasses of beer later, we stumbled out happy and full. Great vibe, awesome staff, bright breezy interior. Great place to spend an afternoon and/or evening.

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Seville Cathedral – Enormous gothic church containing the biggest altarpiece in the world and Christopher Columbus’ bones. As one of the largest Christian churches in the world, it’s pretty impressive.

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Torch Coffee Roasters– Super cute coffee shop run by two sisters. After drinking exclusively mint tea for three weeks I wanted to make out with the perfect almond milk cortado they made me. Oddly, their only other location is in Raleigh, NC. Go figure.

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Torre del Oro – Dodecagonal military watchtower built in 1220 (yeah, that’s not a typo) to control access via the river. Very cool little museum inside full of naval artifacts, and after a narrow, spiraling climb up the tower, you’re rewarded with spectacular views from the top.

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We found Seville to be delightful, relaxing, beautiful, and charming. If you’re going to Spain, definitely take the time to visit.