Travel: A day and a half in Barcelona

Barcelona is a gorgeous city.  Having lived in London before for 2 years and having been living in London for a month and a half already for my second go-round - I can say that Barcelona is a lot more chill, warmer, and friendlier feeling than London is.   The last time I was here was about 6 years ago it was at the tail end of my long European trip - so all I really did was lay on the beach, tan, eat tapas and drink sangria.  It was the epitome of laziness.

So this time when I had the chance to go to Barcelona for a few days, I forced myself to not over plan (which if you know me, is very difficult for me).  The high level plan was to relax, see some major sites, have some sangria and paella, visit the beach, and go out one night. We didn't hit ALL of these, unfortunately, which I'll get into a bit later.  

Day 1 - We missed the entire day as we missed our flight (tip: All EasyJet flights close about 30 min before the flight leaves...so don't dawdle and have a leisurely breakfast and try to get on the flight 15 min before it takes off because it will already be gone) WHOOPS!  Thankfully, we got a flight leaving at 5:10pm which put us at the Hostel around 9:30pm.  Just enough time to grab some food and sleep but we lost the entire day. 

For dinner we went to Apolo Diner which is located next to one of the best clubs in the city (did we make it at all? no...) http://www.apolodiner.com/en/home/  The menu has typical American diner food like hamburgers, nachos, etc., which is now big in Europe.  However they also have traditional Spanish Tapas.  I can attest that all the food was delicious and I definitely recommend it especially for lining your stomach before you go clubbing at the Apolo Theatre club. 

Day 2 - The itinerary for the day included Sagrada Familia and Paella - both of which were achieved!  The Basilica de Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church that was originally started by the architect and artist Gaudi in 1882/1883.  Unfortunately, only a quarter of the church was finished by the time of his accidental death in 1926.  At present, there is still construction being done on the church.  By the time the church is done, there will be 18 towers.  You can see the influences of nature and Gaudi's style all throughout the church.  It is truly breathtaking inside.  (pics and day 3 below the cut)

Location: Sagrada Famila Metro Stop (L2)

Eat: London - Borough Market - (aka Eat all the Things)

One of my favorite Saturday morning events is to go to the gym early to earn my breakfast because Saturdays is the BEST day to go to Borough Market in London.

The old food market is probably one of my favorite food and veggie markets in London just because it is massive, has all kinds of fruit and veggies as well as: (examples)

- milky hot chai (from Scratch)

- Best Coffee Ever: Monmouth Coffee

- Fresh oysters that are shucked for you and that you can eat at the stall

- Garlic Prawn wraps

- Pork roasts

- Thai food

- Beautiful veggies and fruits

- German Food

- exotic burgers (ostrich, buffalo, wild boar, venison, etc.)

- Spanish chorizo sandwiches

- Butchers

- Farm Fresh eggs

- Vegetarian Food

- Best Cheese Raclette sandwich 

- 100s of varieties of cheese

- 100s of varieties of chocolate and pastries

- British meat pies

My favorites are the garlic prawn wraps, the chorizo sandwiches, and the pork roast sandwich with cracklin.  The raclette sandwich is so good - but so rich that you can really only have it twice a year. 

I could go on - but I mean, if you are in London you just HAVE to go to Borough Market.  A lot of the stalls take credit cards as well as cash, but it's better to have cash on hand just in case.  You can get really great deals on fruit and veggies there if you know where to look.  Once you are done eating and shopping, you can take a stroll towards the river as Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and the Shakespeare Globe theatre are all close by.  Also - the Bombay Sapphire room at Vinopolis http://brilliant-london.com/tag/bombay-sapphire/ is pretty amazing if you like gin and a great event space. 

I'll leave you with some pictures - 

Back in London - My heart goes pitter-patter

Since moving back to the US in 2010 after living in London for 2 years, life has been a heck of a roller coaster ride.  I have experienced shock, hurt, euphoria, heartbreak, extreme stress, gut-wrenching pain, depression, happiness, adrenaline highs, sloppy drunken lows, lust, numbness and pretty much everything on the emotional spectrum not to mention 2 moves.

What I have learned is, you live, you learn, you love, you smile through pain, you laugh at the sheer joy of being able to feel the sun, rain, or snow on your face and you move on.  There is no place in my life for bile, hatred, and jealousy - life is too short to curse the world for things that don't happen or bad things that happen to you. Bad things can happen to good people and good things can happen to bad people and vice versa.  Did you know that the average life expectancy of an average person is around 65/66 years? There are about 526,176 minutes in a year - that is 34,790,757 minutes in an average lifetime.  I would prefer to spend 98% of those minutes focusing on positive things and helping other people.  The other 2%...well I have my moments, obviously.  I am human after all. *shakes fist

Since moving  back to the US, I haven't done too much traveling with the exception of visiting a few cities Ohio for work and some holidays, San Francisco to see some friends and their adorable baby, Singapore/Malaysia for a wedding, and Amsterdam and Madrid for another wedding.  Okay, okay, so that may seem a lot to most people and there is a lot of the world's smallest violin playing going on, but trust me, when you have lived in Europe before, traveling about 4 times in 2 years is really nothing...

It brings me back to this exciting announcement!  I have moved back to London for the forseeable future!  I don't like using terms like forever and never because those get me into trouble when my mind is made up (I am stubborn - what?) But I plan on being here until I don't want to anymore.  That is probably the most accurate and most truthful way I can put things down on paper.

I flew into Heathrow airport yesterday, 18th September, 2012 and landed around 10am.  It only hit me about 10 minutes ago that I am actually moved here rather than here for another visit with my friends like I did back in late April.  It felt like a ball of charge electricity - excited, happy, sad, and scared at the same time!  I think it'll take a while for the feelings to sort themselves out.

London really is the city of my heart. There is just something so warm and satisfying about being here that I struggle to describe.  Being here is like a warm bowl of soup and a delicious grilled cheese sandwich on a cold cold day - but for my soul.  There is just so much to do, eat, travel to, and explore.  I really cannot describe it without getting all teary.  What I do wish was that there was some sort of teleportation device so that I could get my loved ones in the States here in an instant whenever they or I want them to be here.  Alas...maybe one day.

I have a fully furnished corporate flat until I move into the house share this weekend or early next week with my awesome housemates. But boy, is this place gorgeous!  I keep trying to pace myself and the speed at which I see and do things around London because I will pretty much have all the time in the world to do, eat, and explore.

As I am back - I have started to look for trips to Greece, Budapest, Malta, etc etc., so I am sure I will be a lot more active on this blog than before.  Plus - I will also add restaurant reviews (London has so much good stuff!!!) and possibly some random video blogs if I can be convinced to show my face.

I will leave you with some pictures of the flat, the views around Canary Wharf where I am staying during the day and night, and some pics from wandering around earlier today (Camden and Chinatown)

Going through changes

I haven't touched this blog in a while for a couple of reasons. The first one is that I moved from Chicago to Washington, DC.  Transition time always mean adjustments.  Secondly, I got engaged, moved for the guy and un-engaged within 8 months.  Something about heartbreak just doesn't scream "BLOG ABOUT ALL THE FOOD AND TRAVEL!!!"  I have been depressed and getting myself back to okay has been a bit of a struggle. 

I have not been single in a long time.  I never thought I would be single at this point in my life.  Although I am one year from being there, the 30s were supposed to be about being where you want already, settled and happy in what you are doing, and all that jazz.  Then suddenly, I find myself without my family around, without a lot of friends around, and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I really did think that David was the love of my life and it really irks me that it didn't work out but this isn't about dwelling...it's about acceptance and moving onwards. 

I formed a group called "Eating around the World" in DC/VA/MD and invited some people I knew to go.  It has gone really well and I met a lot of cool people through it as well.  Luckily, I have made some great friends here and moved to a new area of DC and starting to find my place.  But the big announcement is that I am actually moving to London in 2.5 months.  Yep..London.  The city that my last post yearned for.   Long story short - my coworkers in London found out about the breakup and banded together to get me back to London.  I accepted my job offer in May.  I am so so so thrilled.  Even though I will miss my new DC/VA/MD friends to a million pieces along with my family and friends in Chicago, I cannot complain about the direction my life is taking.  Even though I was willing on giving up that life in London to be with David, I guess this is life's little way of telling me to return to go and start over again.  Finish whatever it was that kept me drawn to London and have fun doing it.  I am looking forward to seeing my friends there and having a slightly better work/life balance than I did here.  It's just very exciting - although very bittersweet. 

In terms of travel - I have already decided that I am going to visit the following places this year if not early next year (as when I start in London it will be September):
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Iceland
- Greece
- Turkey

We will see though!  I hope to post some amazing pictures from the travels and get this blog up and running a lot more.  I have this problem called not knowing how to wind down.  I am either on the go constantly or passed out because I am exhausted.  One of these days I will learn a better balance.

Until then - hopefully see you guys on the other side of the pond - unless I blog about my NYC Bloggher trip in August. :)