Visitors Galore!

Well Suzanne left early yesterday morning, and we had a really fantastic week together, taking some day trips and of course enjoying some eating out! Here are a few photos of the week. I took her to the usual Barcelona sights, but also we went to Tarragona (this time I remembered my camera!) and saw the Roman Aquaduct called Pont Del Diable, which has a legend about the devil building the bridge in one night, in exchange for the soul of the first one to cross - turns out the first one to cross was a sheep! The bridge is now a Unesco heritage site, but you can walk along the top of it which is pretty cool :) We also found a really awesome ruins of an old house or something that we scrambled around in for a while which I didn't see last time I was there, so that was fun!

We also went to Sant Pol de Mar, one of my favorite beaches on the Costa Brava, with lots of really nice little coves and bluffs. I've put some pictures of it before as well. Anyhow! It's been busy and now Julien will be here from France in just a few hours! Time to do it all again! I'll write again soon!

 Pont del Diable Tarragona

 Park Guell

 Ruins in the park where the Aquaduct is

 Roman ampitheatre in Tarragona

Lausanne, Switzerland

Well, I got back yesterday from my mini-vacation to Lausanne. It's quite a beautiful place! We flew into Geneva early on Wednesday and took the train about 45 minutes around Lake Geneva to arrive at Lausanne. The ride was really nice because the houses are all really quaint and look like they came straight out of a fairy tale! They are also surrounded by tons of what I can only assume are grape fields which are not really started growing yet. The forecast was calling for rain all day but luckily it wasn't too bad! I got a bit of blue sky and had a few hours of free time on the first day to wander around and see some of the sights. The hotel we stayed at was right on the Lake so it had a great view of the harbour and was also really close to the Olympic museum. The architecture there is very different from the other places in Europe I have seen, and everything is quite expensive but it was interesting nonetheless. So I walked around, of course bought a bit of chocolate (so good!!!) and then headed back to the hotel before dinner.

The next day was a full day of work, and it rained quite a bit so it wasn't the end of the world. The facility that we had for the event was amazing! A very good business school with great facilities and the food was absolutely fantastic! I ate soooooo much! The people at the event were also fairly interesting and quite nice so that made my job even easier!

The next morning I just had a few hours to run around and take a few more pictures before breakfast and then heading back to the airport. It was a whirlwind trip but gave me a good taste of it and at some point it would be really nice to go back and maybe even do some snowboarding up in the mountains! The alps are lovely but they still don't compare to the Rocky Mountains! Alright, here are the photos!

Alright that's it for now, thanks for the emails everyone sorry for the slow replies!

PS- I've decided that Magnolia trees are the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. Lausanne was full of them and they are so amazingly beautiful! The picture below just doesn't even do it justice.

Spring Adventures and the Easter Bunny

Well! Happy Easter 2012 everyone! The Easter Bunny doesn't exist here in Spain - apparently because they would eat it (or so I'm told ;) ) which is probably true! However there were a few chocolate Easter eggs in the house this morning so that wasn't too bad! I spent most the day just cleaning, going to the gym (surprised it was open!) and had a coffee at a patio just behind my block to take in a bit of the sun. Quite productive!

I've been on a lot of adventures lately, some I've told you about already so I want to post a few pictures of hiking with Nima at the edge of the city last weekend and then some from this weekend as well!

Friday I went to a medieval village which is about 2 hours outside of Barcelona called Rupit. You exit off the highway and you take this crazy rediculous winding road through pastures full of sheep and cattle, all very cute and new little spring babies at the moment and very green from all the rain! You twist and turn up and around through the hills until you arrive at this village which was first started in the 900's, more construction through the 1600's and it was built on layers and layers of sedimentary rock. It's amazing when you see it because you have to wonder what the heck posessed them to build on this giant rock like that and how they managed to do it - so well in fact that it has now survived more than 1000 years! It's very small but quite charming and not that touristy because it's not that well known. But there is a lot of hiking in the area and despite the rain of the week we decided to go to the waterfall there through the trails of mud! The landscape is gorgeous, even though the trees out there haven't quite sprouted leaves yet like they have here in the city, but the elevation is quite high and it's a ways back from the sea. So here are some photos of that as well :)

I hope everyone is having a great day today and the Easter Bunny spoiled all my favorite little kidlets!

XOX

1 Year Ago

Well, one year ago yesterday I arrived in Barcelona. I can't believe it when I say it even. How did it all go by so fast? It's been a truly incredible year with so much happening, all the time! The last 4 months especially, since I moved to this house have gone fast. The happier you are I think the faster time goes.

Last weekend was crazy! Nima's girlfriend went back to Madrid for a few months to finish her school so I wanted to make sure he wasn't too depressed. What does this mean? Keeping up with the most energetic person in the world! It's like a 3 year old boy. Crazy! Friday night consisted of dinner and drinks. Saturday morning yoga and gym, brunch, beach, dinner and a movie, Sunday was a hike waaaaay out at the edge of the city in Santa Coloma. It's a good sized hill that leads up to the archeological site at the top. Quite interesting but we climbed straight up for 30 minutes straight. I also forgot what it was to have allergies! But up there it was Spring! So I had a small allergy attack where I couldn't open one eye and my nose was running like crazy. I made it though! At the top we had a rotisserie chicken picnic that we picked up at the bottem and then we headed back down to the city. Monday? Nima was here for dinner and a movie. So! As you can see, it's been go go go go go! Lots of fun though and the weather was so amazing I even got a bit burnt at the beach. Good thing we made the most of it, because now it is raining all this week. Tuesday night was the loudest thunderstorm ever! It was shaking all the windows and just sounded like bombs being dropped outside! Should clear up by Sunday they are saying.

Well, I am still renewing my NIE. It's a frustrating system as I've told you. But now I have submitted everything hopefully as they want it and then in 3 weeks I can go put in the application for the card. 3 weeks after I should have the silly thing. I've been to the office now 3 times.

What else? Well remember that little company I was doing some stuff for? They have invited me to Switzerland to help with an event there! How great! It's just 3 short days but it's all paid for and I think I'll get a chance this time to do a bit of sight seeing :) Also, it's nice to make a bit of money along the way.

Well. Easter is coming. They have some different traditions here. No Easter Bunny (unfortunately for the kids!!) but still lots of cake and chocolate so they aren't too deprived. The godfathers all buy the kids these elaborate eggs and cakes which usually have some famous characters on them and I think it is called a monno? Something like this. They are rediculously expensive in the shops! 28E for one chocolate egg! It's a 4 day weekend so I'll try to get out of the city and do some more exploring!

In about 12 days my friend Suzanne will be here and after that Julien and after that Jackie! So it seems I have a lot of planning to do as well :)

Hope everyone has a great Easter!