On The Go

8am. Barcelona airport. Tiredness pulls at my body. My feet ache. The last two days have taken their toll. Trying to see a whole city in two days is like trying to squeeze the ocean into one little water bottle.

The tables fill up around us. A whole group of noisy families, all off on holiday together, all squawking across the tables, loud, fast and in Spanish. They take up every available space, overwhelming, like a tsunami about to hit.

I can barely keep my eyes open.

Colours of the City

Being in Barcelona has brought out a whole new side of me. The rhythm and speed and energy in this city has completely captured my heart, and makes me want to see more, eat more and do more.

Last night we made our way out to dinner at around 9pm. I couldn't resist dressing to match the city.

Dress by the ever incredible Joel Janse van Vuuren.

By The Night

Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona!

Guess we where are?

Yip, you guessed right. We’re right in the heart of it all, in a incy-wincy tiny apartment, which is just delightful. From here, we’ve walked and walked and walked (and only been here a couple of hours). Up and down through many little alleyways, packed with the sweetest little shops, overflowing with tapas restaurants, and brimming with tourists.

Life is good.

We’re back at the apartment to drop off some groceries, and to look up a restaurant for dinner. Peeps eat late here. And I mean late. Dinner is easily at 11pm. Luckily we grabbed a take-away mojito and a packet of chips.

Our list is already growing of places to visit in the next few days – I’ve past a couple of churches which are dying to be explored, we’ve already put a couple of shops on our list, and Husband is currently loading a whole list of spots to visit on Trip Advisor.

Are there any places that you could recommend?

A Sunday Surprise

Last weekend, I blogged about a perfectly blissful Sunday, and in it I mentioned the surprise fireworks display that we stumbled upon late in the evening. Well, a few days ago I was going through the pics on my little camera, and was surprised again - I'd managed to capture the few crazy minutes in which it all happened. So I thought I'd share the pics with you now.

It was pure fluke really - Ant Cristina mentioned after dinner that she thought heading into town for an ice-cream would be a good idea. Which of course it was. So we rallied the troops, loaded into two cars, and hit the road. After getting split up as we tried to find parking, we agreed to meet at Louis XIV's house (as you do). Pure coincidence meant we all wandered into the piazza at the same time, where despite the throngs of people we all found each other, and joined the crowd to watch the show.

The best part was when Husband suddenly appeared through all the people (I had wondered where he'd gotten to), grabbed my hand, and pulled me all the way to the front! The fireworks were coming from a person with a giant bull frame on top of him. Children ran around and around and around in circles, and we were so close we could taste the gunpowder as more and more fireworks exploded. There was confetti everywhere, and you couldn't help but be swept away in all the excitement.

I think we needed the ice-cream more than anything after all that. 

Churches and Dead People

My parents used to drag us into endless churches, cathedrals and cemeteries whenever we were on holiday exploring an old city. I used to think it was the dullest thing ever. Obviously, as a kid, places where you have to be very quiet, or look at dead people, are pretty boring.

But something seems to have rubbed off on me, because now I quite seem to like it. Now I'm the one dragging Husband into these places. I don't find them quite as fascinating as my parents did, because I don't need to spend endless hours in them, but there's definitely a kind of majesty to these buildings. They are grand and ornate. They fit into my love of all things old and time-consuming. Things that were built with love and care.

Last week in St Jean de Luz, we were lucky enough to walk past this church, and find it open to visitors. In 1660 this beautiful building hosted the wedding of King Louis XIV to Maria Teresa, the Infanta of Spain (thanks Wikipedia!). Built in the 15th century in the Basque style, I loved the ornate patterns and carvings. This church had so much color and texture in it, which surprised me.

My favourite part about the couple of churches we saw in this area was the model ships hanging from the ceiling, about mid-way along the aisle. The interweb tells me that this is actually common practice in fishing towns in western Europe - meant to bring luck to fishermen. They were beautifully constructed little boats, and definitely a feature in the churches that we visited.

Lost?

Wanna know what you've been missing?

Start at the beginning with when we left on a jet plane, or jump back to when all the craziness began five weeks before we left. You can also see our first day of adventures here.

I've also just been playing around with the search bar - you can find it in the right hand panel. It's a great way to check out my regular features, like Tuesday {Past Explorations}, Fashion {Fridays}, and coming soon Blog, What? and Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Another favourite is the link to Husband's twitter feed, where you can get up-to-the-minute updates about where we are in the world. Sometimes cranky, sometimes quirky, always entertaining.

Wanna know where we're going? You can't. It's a surprise! Enter your email address in the right hand panel to get updates sent to your inbox.

And now? Keep on scrolling.

{Fashion} Fridays

Last Saturday we headed out for a night on the town - at the very exclusive members-only Shoreditch House in London. As it is a playground for actors, industry people and media types we weren't allowed to take any photos inside just in case there were celebrities there. Which there weren't. But we snapped some pics inside anyway.

And Husband snapped these ones before we even got there. I was proudly sporting a dress by my cousin Joel Janse van Vuuren, and felt like I was floating all evening.

A Little Glimpse...

 ...of our view...

...in Portugal.

Hot Husband

Look how hot Husband is in Portugal.

On The Go

In the train, bunk beds! Oh my gosh this was fun. We were apprehensive to start with – we thought the train might be ‘kak’, and Ant Cristina warned us about possible thievery aboard the train, making us a bit para. But all was well. Our cute little cabin was definitely cute, and besides from having to climb over our own bags quite a lot (which took up the more space than we did – especially Husband’s, hehe), we were asleep within an hour of our 10pm boarding time. All that rocking definitely lends itself to sleeping. (It also lends itself to needing to pee – but that’s another story for another day).

Morning came – we could tell by the loud voices in the corridor. And, by the very definite need to pee. Curtains open – we’d traveled through the whole of Spain and were now looking out at Portugal!

I was surprised by the landscape – hilly, mountainous, sparse, brown grass with dotted green trees. It looked…dare I say…a lot like the South African countryside? How surprising. The most surprising difference was in population – we passed endless miles and miles completely uninhabited.  Even when we did pass buildings, farms and houses they appeared abandoned, run-down or left behind. It was quite ominous. And the mist that started to appear as we dressed for breakfast seemed just as ominous. It was as if we were hurtling into a horror movie, mist rolling in, uninhabited lands stretching for miles…just us, and the loonies aboard the train.

We breakfasted in the dining car - a simple basket of pastries, a small tub of yoghurt, lots of coffee, and a quick lesson in Portuguese from our waiter – who we kept speaking to in a muddled combination of French and Spanish. It’s mighty confusing leaving one country, falling asleep in another, and waking up in a third.

The mist was beginning to seem more and more apt.

Finally we reached Lisbon, Portugal. After navigating the baggage lockers, we set off to explore the city for a couple of hours before our train transfer. Unfortunately, we’d ended up in the ‘business district’ of Lisbon. The streets were wide, modern and deserted. The buildings were all super chic, and felt very unlike the old, quaint streets we’d spent days wandering around in France and Spain.

It was like sampling the delicacies of Cape Town, to suddenly find one self in the dullness of PE.

Luckily we managed a light healthy lunch at the shopping centre across from the station, and boarded the next train before we had to deal with any more of the industrial dullness that was Lisbon. (I must add – this is a very one-sided view of Lisbon – apparently it is amazing, and well worth the visit – we just found ourselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Shame.)

Three or so hours later and we were in Faro (having experienced all manner of interesting fellow passengers aboard this particular train), and embraced the summer sunshine.

And now? Here we are in a small fishing village, not a tourist in sight. In a villa, on a hill, overlooking a beautiful bay, a few boats glittering before us. We’re surrounded by more wonderful family, two girls brighter than the sun, and a few more days of bliss.

If you don’t hear from me for a while you know why.