Oh Spain <3 You will always have my heart (okay, maybe share it with Scotland in the summer time).
(Source: buddhainteriors, via dwellings)
Nuremburg, Bavaria, Germany
Snow coated roofs and gingerbread galore! We only spent a day in Nuremburg, but couldn’t miss out on their amazing Christmas markets.
Adventures in Nuremburg on ChiGarden
Gegant at Plaça de Sant Jaume, Barcelona, Catalunya
Walking around Barcelona’s old town today, we made a detour towards a plaza where we could hear a band playing. As it turns out it was one of the events for Les Festes de Santa Eulàlia, the feast day for one of the patron saints of Barcelona. We saw gegants (giant paper maché figures) and capgrossos (smaller paper maché heads) dancing in the crowd and in the case of the dragons, shooting fireworks. I’m not completely sure who this guy is, although by his Estelada (Catalan independence) flag I’d guess he played a role in the War of the Spanish Succession. What a fun event to stumble across!
Isn’t nature interesting? We saw several metres of these caterpillars, following each other head-to-tail, near our place in the Barcelona hills. I was tempted to move them off the road but apparently they’re quite poisonous! I found more about them here (yes I’m a nerd…).
![Man have I missed cooking. We have had apartments and ‘aparthotels’ with a basic kitchenette, but between the limited cookware and our short stays it wasn’t really practical to cook much. But with ten days and a reasonable kitchen here in Barcelona, we’ve been able to have a little more fun with home-cooked food. Today’s meals: pancakes with raspberries and honey for breakfast; cold meats and cheese with beers on the rooftop for lunch; fritatta and salad for dinner. Aside from the rooftop, it could almost be a Sunday back home…
Other things we’ve cooked on this trip: many a salad, pan-fried chicken legs, steaks, pork cutlets, chilli con carne, burritos, brinner (ie. breakfast for dinner [usually scrambled eggs + bacon/sausage + mushrooms]), stir-fry, beef stew, pasta, roasted veggies, roast chicken, poached eggs.
Things in my kitchen that I feel are essential but apparently are not standard: electric kettle, rice cooker, toaster, veggie peeler, decently sharp knives, tea, heaps of spices, several different kinds of chilli.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/1d0a9214acf9f9199c0c8d317330554b/tumblr_mi6ktbLIxf1qznp79o1_500.jpg)
Man have I missed cooking. We have had apartments and ‘aparthotels’ with a basic kitchenette, but between the limited cookware and our short stays it wasn’t really practical to cook much. But with ten days and a reasonable kitchen here in Barcelona, we’ve been able to have a little more fun with home-cooked food. Today’s meals: pancakes with raspberries and honey for breakfast; cold meats and cheese with beers on the rooftop for lunch; fritatta and salad for dinner. Aside from the rooftop, it could almost be a Sunday back home…
Other things we’ve cooked on this trip: many a salad, pan-fried chicken legs, steaks, pork cutlets, chilli con carne, burritos, brinner (ie. breakfast for dinner [usually scrambled eggs + bacon/sausage + mushrooms]), stir-fry, beef stew, pasta, roasted veggies, roast chicken, poached eggs.
Things in my kitchen that I feel are essential but apparently are not standard: electric kettle, rice cooker, toaster, veggie peeler, decently sharp knives, tea, heaps of spices, several different kinds of chilli.
Travelling with me
Someone asked me why I said I am difficult to travel with. A large part of it is standard introvert things - needing time alone, time to recharge (something that less understanding travel buddies might call ‘wasting time’ or ‘being boring’), feeling a bit overwhelmed in large crowds, daydreaming whilst dining rather than making small talk. Of course, this is only problematic when travelling with someone with the opposite traits - luckily The Boy is quite similar to me in these things and we can spend a perfectly happy evening sitting next to each other reading books rather than going clubbing.
Apart from that - I get sick/injured easily, walk quite slowly, hate being left behind, stop to take photos a lot, get very upset if I feel like I’m being ripped off and have absolutely no sense of direction. I am slow to wake up in the morning, a light sleeper, not functional on little sleep, very indecisive (even more so on little sleep), sensitive to the cold and susceptible to food envy.
But on the plus side - I love planning trips (this to me is almost as fun as the travelling bit), always take heaps of photos, make a decent cup of tea, will carry my own suitcase up and down stairs and can now order beer/wine in various languages.
What is it like travelling with you? Have you found a travel buddy you can put up with for long periods of time?
Today marks nine years of The Boy and I going on adventures together - both the big travelling kind, and the small day-to-day kind. We’ve been married one and a third years of that time. I know I am not the easiest person to travel with, and I’ve never been more grateful to find someone who puts up with me than the last few months. Also, we saw a soccer match in Barcelona which was awesome!
We are now at the last stop of our journey - Barcelona! After misjudging how easy it would be to get to our apartment (1.4km is a long way when it’s up a huge hill, involves many flights of stairs and carrying your luggage), we were able to relax with this amazing view. I’m feeling a little burnt out to be honest, so besides a little sightseeing I’m looking forward to just lounging about for the next several days.
Zoos are kind of a last resort, can’t-think-of-anything-better-to-do thing for me when travelling. This was the case for Valencia’s Bioparc, although I was pleasantly surprised by how well put together it was. The animals are in large, sometimes shared enclosures with just some small trenches and streams separating them from us humans. The new baby gorilla was taking a siesta whilst we were there, but we did see this adorable baby giraffe. I’d like to do an actual wildlife safari someday - a good excuse to buy a telephoto lens eh?
