Mom's visit

My mother came with her boyfriend, Glen, to visit me in Spain for a week. I was a bit worried about how these two long-time suburbans would adjust to my tiny, noisy, downtown apartment. These two were full of surprises though!

First, their flight was delayed, so they missed the connecting flight. After they arrived five hours later than expected, they found that though they had made it, their luggage did not. I could imagine how tired these two must have been after such a long trip with such unfortunate events, but they were both in high spirits when I met them. On the walk from the train station to my flat, my mom got a real kick out of her sandal breaking right outside a shoe store we passed! Of course, no one packs extra shoes in their carry on bag.

After traveling so frequently myself, one thing is consistent: when you get to where you're going, you don't want to have to do anything! You want to sit, relax, and probably eat. You don't want to go look for a place to eat, or go anywhere for that matter. I figured some comfort food would be a good way to greet them. I say comfort food because I am in no position to prepare a gourmet meal! I made some bruschetta using this recipe, but altered it, naturally (I added onion, used extra garlic, and used dried bay leaves instead of basil; it turned out wonderfully!). I had a couple bottles of the cheapest table wine I've found in Spain, one red one white, at 93¢ each. Now don't judge me, this is the best wine I've found here yet, believe it or not!


For dinner, I simply boiled some dry spaghetti and served it with a couple jars of bolognese sauce and a tossed salad. I've never seen two people happier about spaghetti. They loved this ten minute dinner so much, we ate it every night we didn't go out for dinner, and they took several boxes of pasta and jars of tomato sauce and bottles of 93¢ wine home with them! Imagine their excitement when they found the same brand of pasta in a Burlington supermarket.

The first morning, I learned that Glen can be a bit restless. He was up early and ventured out to check things out. He came back with three cappuccinos, and we were so happy, it became a morning ritual!

Our first day, we simply walked. I took them around my area, el Born, and the nearby Barri Gotic. They liked the densely packed restaurants and bars of el Born and the medieval streets of Barri Gotic. We went by the cathedral in my "backyard", Santa Maria del Mar,


the Barcelona Cathedral,

and did a tour of the Dalí exhibit.







We found a little market next to a painter's association with a display. We wandered down the Ramblas a bit and returned home.


The whole time, we would stop in a few shops so these two could get necessities that were in their luggage in Milan.

About two days later, my mother received her bag, but Glen's was still in Milan! He didn't receive his until another two days after that. This really wasn't an issue though because all their necessities were purchased within the first two days of their arrival.

Our days pretty much consisted of a morning cappuccino, then a walk somewhere. We would eat lunch at a restaurant, typically having the menú del día, which is an economical way to eat. You are given a list of first courses, second courses, desserts and beverages and you pick one of each. It's a good way to try different things, and this whole menu typically costs the equivalent of one dish! We would continue walking, then come back to my flat to make pasta!

On Thanksgiving Monday, we went out for dinner to Colors, a jazz club on weekends. They had really fancy stuff so we enjoyed a fancy Thanksgiving!


Steph suggested taking the bus tour in Barcelona, saying she really found it to be a great way to see all that the city has to offer. You are able to get off the bus at the sights you choose to see, and the buses come every ten minutes. Mom and Glen liked this idea, so we did it over two days. We didn't get off at many stops, but rather just enjoyed the tour and the information we got about each sight. The first day of the tour, all we really visited was the Parc Ciutadella, which is a short walk from my place.


The second day, all we saw was the Sagrada Familia. It is terribly impressive. The construction of this building commenced in 1882, and still has a long way to go! Gaudi always knew he would never see the completion of the church, but knew the city would be known for his church!




































(Doesn't the ceiling remind you of a canopy of tree leaves? That was Gaudi's inspiration!)




I really enjoyed the museum in the basement that details the progress of the church. The nerd in me shows through yet again when I found my favourite part of the museum to be the displays of the physics involved in such elaborate architecture. Gaudi was inspired by nature, and the museum expressed this very well. What better place to find harmonics in physics? I think this was very clever of Gaudi, a guaranteed place to find the sturdiest structures. Nature is not squared or perfectly aligned, but it is awfully stable, so Gaudi's seemingly unlikely architecture is actually fool proof.

The next few images are interesting. Gaudi would use strings with small weights to see how the string would hang and bend according to weight. He made formulas with his discoveries, and inverted the tension to compression and developed formulas to design arches. You can see the inverted string shapes are arches in the mirror view.





Here you can see how Gaudi imitates nature.


This is a sketch of the completed church.


This is a photo during earlier construction days.


And this is Antoni Gaudi!


We did cook ONE meal that was not spaghetti and sauce. Well, sort of. Having two little burners has made me reach out to many various stir fry dishes. This website has been rather helpful! We tried the mango chicken recipe and served it over spaghetti, of course. We left out the cornstarch and supplemented white sugar for brown. It was very tasty, but it could have used some more "zing". Maybe green onion? Or parsley? Even a hint of cilantro might be okay. I recommend it though. Stir fries are very forgiving and super easy to make :)


Mom and Glen adjusted very well to this down town lifestyle! They slept right through the constant noise, and rather enjoyed looking out the window, a rather European activity. I admit, the view I have is pretty entertaining. Watching people parallel park their not-so-little cars, the church goers and families toddling along, the man teaching soccer to his son on the pedestrianized street, the restaurants lazily opening the patio in the late mornings, the people catching the bus on the other side of the park, the traffic jams at this intersection, BCNeta constantly cleaning the streets and emptying the trash cans, even the bums sleeping the park across the street! Those two always had their heads out the window whenever we were relaxing at home! It was just like bringing farmers to the city for the first time! (Just kidding!)


This little flat held the three of us surprisingly comfortably. Everyone had room to do what they wanted and no one felt crowded.

Our second last night we went to a flamenco show at the club right beside the hostel I first stayed in. It was brief, but wonderful. Hit the spot, so to speak.





Our last night, we went for dinner across the walkway from my place. It's a little Italian place with great prices: three meals and a bottle of wine for under $45 CAD. We had a lot of fun together and I think they had a good vacation and were able to relax.

In other news. I leave bright and early Saturday morning for Ireland! I'm going to the sleepy town of Lisdoonvarna for a night to see some picturesque sights, then I will stay in Dublin for two days. I'm really excited, I've always wanted to see Ireland! A day after I return, Ashley comes for a visit! The day after she leaves, I will be coming home, so beware, my blog may not get updated for a while, but I'll see what I can do!