Nos encanta Barcelona

The first thing you might notice is that this section of our trip was not broken up by days. That is for two reasons: first, we were having a blast and didn’t take the time, and second, we were so tired from all the walking that we just kinda passed out when we were in the hotel room.

Cindy and I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday and were immediately pleased to find that Hotel Villa Emilia was a 4 star hotel that I had managed to nail at an amazing price. After our small hotel in Paris it was a huge relief. Also, the staff was very helpful, and as you will see in the pictures, the hotel had a very cool modern look.

Our first night I showed Cindy around an El Corte Inglés, and the hanging legs of jamón serrano. She told me that while it was definitely more shocking than US supermarkets, the Spanish didn’t have anything on the Chinese what with their hacking up livestock (the key being the live part) on the spot. I had to give her that one.

Later on we walked along the Rambla and found some great jackets for awesome prices at Zara. We then finished our evening with Tapas at 7Sins, which had a live burlesque show/poetry reading. After attending quite a few of my Mom’s poetry readings at Casa Romantica, I wasn’t too impressed by the poetry, but the band and atmosphere were good.

Our second day in Barcelona, we spent seeing the architecture of Gaudi. I took Cindy to Parc Güell, which required a long walk up a hill. I had conveniently forgotten that walk, or maybe we didn’t even do it, because last time I was in Barcelona I’m pretty sure we had a car. The view and park were well worth the climb, and we enjoyed it. Next, we headed to La Sagrada Familia. I noticed that in the 15 years since I had last seen it, they actually had completed a significant amount of the cathedral. They were also charging visitors a significant amount more than they used to, but supposedly these funds were going towards the construction of the cathedral, so I could justify that by feeling like my money was going towards making history. It looks even more impressive now than before, and they’re making progress on the tower of the Virgen. Supposedly they will finish enough of the cathedral to start mass services by 2010, though I wouldn’t place any bets on that date of completion.

After seeing Gaudi’s other works like Casa Batlló, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. In the evening, we decided to salsa dance Barcelona at La Antilla; it was a good club that got packed around midnight. We could only hold on for so long as we had walked so much all day and our feet were raw, but it was fun. After having gone to many salsa clubs in LA, I would give it a good on the fun meter; it’s not the best club I’ve been do but it was good.

Saturday, the third day, we headed to the Gothic district. We ate at this amazing restaurant called Montiel, which was highly recommended on tripadvisor. We had catalan toasted bread with tomato and garlic, a tasty tuna tomato salad, followed by tuna tartar garnished with caviar, a tender cochinillo which was the epitome of culinary art, and a French style flan and crema catalana to finish us off with desert. If you ever make it to Barcelona in your travels, we highly recommend Montiel.

The rest of the day we wandered around the Gothic district, in and out of tiny shops. Although we didn’t buy anything, it was fun to window shop and see the area. We also saw a small Dali exhibition, with some pieces we had never seen before. But the best part, was wandering the Gothic quarter itself. You just got yourself lost and wandered around twisting streets that had been there for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Now we’re at the train station off to Madrid to continue our adventures in Spain. More tomorrow.

Paris Day 5 - Le Marais

Cindy and I had heard from a couple at the Bistro Deux Theatres that the place to go for shopping in Paris was Le Marais, and that if we asked for "Le Marais" after getting out of the Metro at St. Paul, we should find it. So, we set out in that general direction, and actually ended up in completely the wrong district of town.

This ended up being fortuitous, as Cindy ran into a designer store where she found some amazing necklaces, and it turned out the designer was just around the corner. After leaving with lighter wallets and a few necklaces, we headed in the right direction towards the Marais. Although we didn't find that much that interested us, Cindy did find a couple of things. And, the area was just a lot of fun to walk around.

Our last night there, we also enjoyed Petel restaurant per Jean-Francois, and the cuisine was most excellent! We had tasty sea bass and lamb ribs, and the raspberry dessert was exquisite. It was a great small and authentic restaurant, nearby our hotel. From here, it's on from Paris to Barcelona!

Paris Day 4 - Versailles

Joe and I woke up early to make our trek to Versaille. Thanks to Joe's great planning, we got tickets to the palace before arriving to the palatial grounds. To our chagrin, the line to get into the palace was massive! Thanks to planning on my part, we used our umbrella as a makeshift parasol as we waited through the line. Once inside the main castle, we were blown away by the opulence. Everything was gilded and or embellished in rich jewel tones. Once we finished the main castle tour, we began our exploration of the main grounds. It was vast, to say the least. My feet will never recover. I suspect a blister is beginning to form on my big right toe.

Luckily, we took a lunch at Le Florentine on the castle grounds and had a moment to recharge. After our makeshift break, we made our way over to Marie Antoinette's domain. It turned out to be everything that we had expected and more. I personally loved the colors and designed that went into her furnishings. Our internet is about to run out in Paris - so there will be a more detailed update when we reach Barcelona. Until then, please enjoy the pictures.

Paris Day 3 – Opera

Cindy and I woke up late, which was probably a mixture of being really tired from the previous days’ walking and pent up jet lag we just hadn’t gotten over. We headed to Opera Garnier and checked it out, though unfortunately we weren’t able to see the main amphitheatre as it was closed for a performance. So, we headed to the two largest and most prestigious fashion stores in Paris, Au Printemps and Galeries Lafayette.

Cindy and I walked around and found that most of the stuff we liked was well beyond our price range. However, Cindy did nail a very nice “boyfriend blazer” from a European brand called Diabless. All in all though, Cindy felt like it just wasn’t as amazing as the shopping was let on to be. Largely, she suspects this is because all the major labels have pursued an internationalization strategy which means that almost all of their collections are available at home in Beverly Hills or South Coast Plaza. Hope does yet remain, and we are headed to “la marais” or a series of boutique shops at St. Paul’s metro stop in search of unique pieces.

In the evening, I prevailed on Cindy to walk to the restaurant “Deux Theatres” and the food was exceptional. Between the both of us, we copied the dinner of a French gentleman who was sitting next to us – who knew exactly what to order. His name is Mr. Fabrice Moretti, an internationally famous saxophonist, and we chatted with him a bit. Later on in the evening, we also chatted with the couple on our left, who hailed from London. Overall, we’ve found people to be friendly and talkative, as long as you make an effort to speak French.

Paris Day 2 – Musee du Louvre

Today we went to one of the best museums in the entire world, Musee du Louvre. We started at a nice café right in front of the Louvre, and took the advice to enter at the Carousel du Louvre to skip the long lines. Sitting in the café at the plaza, we understood how one could let hours waste away with a good book and cup of coffee. As much as the café had a nice ambience, it was also the city of Paris surrounding you, that made the scene so you could sit back and think.

At the Louvre, we saw most of the Denon and Sully wings, including the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, as well as sculptures of Augustus Caesar and Marcus Aurelius. They’ve improved the audio guides substantially since Joe was last in Europe. No longer do you have to continue linearly, but you can click on whatever interests you most and here about that.

For lunch we went to Notre Dame first, and sat in on Mass. After mass, we took pictures of the cathedral, and then headed for lunch right behind the Cathedral. We took Jean-Francois’ advice yet again and enjoyed Berthillon ice cream after Notre Dame – which he promised us was a very French thing to do. And from what we could see it was. There were also a bunch of really cool shops in that neighborhood and we window-shopped.

We were exhausted from the previous day of traveling and getting on Europe time so we went back to our hotel to nap. Thanks to Courtney’s suggestion, we ended up making dinner reservations at Hotel du Nord. The restaurant in Hotel du Nord turned out to be a hip hang out for young Parisians. The food was amazing. We were a bit worried about communicating with our server. As luck was in our favor, he happened to speak Spanis and was able to recommend some wonderful entrée choices for us – which included a yummy Chinese chicken salad, a tuna salad, black angus steak, and a warm chocolate dessert.

Paris Day 1 - Arrival

Paris Day 1 – Arrival

Cindy and I arrived to Paris via Air France’s city bus to Montparnasse. Jean-Francois, Joe’s friend, gave us a great list of suggestions, of which taking the bus was one. Once we got to our hotel, which is much smaller than we are used to (though it has a nice and spacious sale de bain), we set out on a city walk to keep ourselves awake. We passed by a lot of the major sights on the left bank, including the Eiffel tower, Ecole Militaire, Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe.

Joe has been checking out the European autos. While passing the Ecole Militaire, Joe found an old Mini and had to snap a few pics. Also, there were some interesting auto company stores/exhibitions on the Champs Elysees, and Joe got to check out the new Toyota iQ at the Toyota store. It’s very small, but at the same time quite wide, so that it would probably be quite comfortable as a two seater. Also, it’s a got a kind of futuristic feeling inside. Check out the pics to see more of what I’m talking about.

Paris has not been without its weird, strange moments. While walking to the Eiffel tower, we were shocked to find a screaming man in a giant plastic penis suit, who came in for a nice close hug to embarrass women as they strolled by. Yes, you did just read that, and if you check the pictures, you can see one poor woman cringing.

As Joe had been to Paris before, we waited quite some time at the Arc de Triomphe for the sky to dim and the lights of Paris to show. So we wandered the Champs Elysees and Cindy got some excellent new pink lipstick, that she loves and is very feminine. Cindy is saving her big shopping splurge for the stores around l’Opera. We finished the day on top of the Arc de Triomphe, tired after our long walk and the 284 steps it takes to get to the top, but victorious.

MBA Graduation Photo Slideshow

Hello everyone:

We've had a few requests for photos from Joe's MBA Graduation. You can check out the link to see the pictures at a higher resolution, or feel free to enjoy the slideshow below!

Mar Vista Farmer's Market

A place on Sunday that has grown on us is the Mar Vista Farmer's Market. I wouldn't call it the best Farmer's Market in Los Angeles by any means, but it's in our neighborhood. And in a city that is so spread out like Los Angeles, it's good to have something that brings the people in your neighborhood together. There's something primal about getting together in a place with music, little stalls, and buying food. You start to feel like you belong.

It was also a great excuse to take some pictures with our new camera, which you can see below.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Joe is officially an MBA! He graduated at the top 15% of his class this weekend! We're all so proud of him!

The graduation was held outside in Wilson Plaza at UCLA. I think the graduates and their family and friends were thankful for the temperate June gloom weather. It was great to be with our families to celebrate this milestone.

In other news, Joe and I will be heading to Europe in 4 days. For the last couple of months, we've been deliberating on which digital SLR camera to purchase. Now with Europe right around the corner, we finally capitulated and bought the Canon EOS Rebel XSI. I'm really excited about the images that we will be able to capture. We'll definitely share some pictures when we get back in two weeks.