Radler for me
Thursday, October 31, 2013
After Dinner Drinks with a View
A Guessing Game
One of us is shopping and one of us is drinking a kafe con Baileys. Who could be who.....
Museum of Art
We didn't go in, but a super cool building. We went to the Miro museum. So cultured....
Whirlwind Tour of Barcelona
Sine we thought we only had one day in Barcelona, and didn't actually leave the apartment until 4 pm, we high tailed it around the city.
I jogged up Montjuic to blow off steam and get a birds eye view of the city. Then we walked the gothic quarter, saw the cathedral, Walked up to the Gaudi house, over to the Sangra Familia, and back to the Picasso museum. Shannon bought a purse from Mango, and we met Amanda Yankow for dinner. Had some good wine and tried octopus. Actually pretty good. What an exhausting day.
House of Cards
That's what I call our condo. Every time you try to fix something, you have to worry about 6 other things breaking. Much like a house of cards, where if you remove one card, you have to worry about the whole thing falling
We've been having some plumbing problems before we left, so I became concerned abut a water leak while we were gone. I read it's a good idea to turn off the main water supply to your house while on vacation to prevent some kind of leak while you are away. Made sense to me. Of course, we don't have an individual water supply. We have one big one for the building.
I did the next best thing, turned off the valves to each sink. Due to our recent dishwasher and ice maker issues, we have new valves under the kitchen sink.
The bathroom valves are older. I turned off the toilet and sink and immediately worried that touching the valve would end up breaking it because of my house of cards theory.
I was paranoid the first few days of vacation about a water leak. I didn't hear anything, so I thought we were ok. Not so much. Yesterday Shannon got an email from our downstairs neighbors saying there was water coming through our ceiling.
We are of course in Barcelona and couldn't do much about it. We woke Julie up at 4 am to see if she could go check on it. Of course, she didn't have keys to our unit. We borrowed them from her and never gave them back. Ek did have our keys, we gave him the spare set once, and forgot to get them back.
Julie got with the property management company and got into our condo. Saw the valve for the bathroom sink was dripping and clearly had been for some time. House of cards in action. Our property manager got a plumber lined up. We thought that would be Thursday because you have to shut off water to the whole building to do any plumbing work. Ek went over at lunch to survey the water damage and try to dry things out. Julie and Ek also alternated emptying the pan underneath the valve that was catching the leak.
Somehow the property manager got the plumber over last night and he could fix the leak without turning off the main water supply. So the source is contained.
We are not sure how bad the water damage is. Hopefully the vanity took most of the damage and we can replace that. Obviously some water leaked to our neighbors below. No idea how bad that is.
We spent most of yesterday freaking out trying to figure out how to manage the situation from across the ocean. We are so lucky for the help from Julie, Ek, and Liz from the property management company. Ron will be there tomorrow to survey the damage. We will be there....I don't know. Not today. Maybe Sunday, as scheduled, maybe early. We owe a lot of people big time. We are lucky to have good friends.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Wine and popcorn
Three euro bottle of Spanish red vino and Spanish popcorn that is worthy of crack status. I might not come back.
Maybe They're not so Prim and Proper
The older English couple in front if me on the train is totally getting hammered.
My Thoughts on Sevilla
Not sure what else to say: it was great. A much needed change of pace from Madrid. People there live the good life. Slow paced, charming city, east to get around by foot or by bike, good food, good drink, and good friends.
People here don't seem to be in a hurry. Seem to spend most if their time sitting in plazas with friends enjoying a drink and a tapa while their children play. It seemed like everyone in town was sitting in a plaza on a lovely Sunday afternoon.
The town is walkable. Bike paths criss cross the city. There are parks and river paths for jogging. The weather was amazing during our stay, 80 degree and sunny. Far more affordable than Madrid. We regularly had a tapa and two small beers for less than 5€.
People seem relaxed. No running around from errand to errand. They let their kids run and play without hovering around them constantly. The parents are conversing, the kids know to behave. Children are built into your life, your life doran revolve around the children. Community seemed to be important.
We saw a 10 year old girl at a flamenco show on a Sunday night. We saw parents load the kids onto a bike and pedal them home. University students crowded into 100 Montaditos for 50 cent sandwich night. We saw 4 generations of family enjoy and afternoon stroll.
And the food. My goodness the food. I never want to eat a full meal again. Small plates is the way to go. Taste lots of different things, share with friends. Be stuffed but never full. Enjoy a glass of wine with lunch. Why not? Stay in control, but relaxed.
I'm sure we only saw a snap shot of life in Sevilla. Just line anywhere else I'm sure there are ups and downs. People still have jobs and bills to pay. But from what we saw, I was amazed. I couldn't figure out how they did it. How can you sit in a plaza all afternoon? When do you go to Target? The lawn isn't going to mow itself!
I'm sure I'll never go back, but if I was ever looking for a week away from the Chicago winter, I think I would enjoy Sevilla more than an all inclusive in the Caribbean.
The Old British Man....
In front of me on the train does not understand how head phones work. He's listening to music on his iPad and then shouts something to his wife. She gets embarrassed and says "don't shout, darling". So prim and proper. No wonder we are so uptight. We came from the Brits. Too bad the Spanish didn't colonize the north east US. They're all "let's go to the plaza and get drunk and eat tapas all day", while the Brits are like "don't shout darling".
The way they drink, I can't believe the Spanish were ambitious enough to explore and colinize the New World at all. It's almost like broad generalizations about cultures aren't right....
It was funny when we were doing shots with our motley crew in Madrid. The Brits and Americans slammed their shots while the Spanish couple sipped theirs. They said "this is why you are going to die." Guess this is why they can drink all evening and well into the night and function the next day. Pacing. We drink to get drunk and pass out, feel terrible the next day.
In other news, this train is cruising along at 300 km/h. Muy rapido! And it totally makes my ears pop when we go thru tunnels.
Twilight
They are shown gone of the Twilight movies on the train. I'm not listening to the sound, but even with only visual and subtitles, it looks every bit as terrible as I imagined it to be.
Wild Stallions
Forgot to mention that there are these horse drawn carriages all over town. Our first day here we saw one take a corner to fast and rip the front bumper off a parked car. The horse freaked out and the driver could barely settle it down. The carriage kept going. I don't know if he didn't know what he did or didn't care. The owner of the car was no where in site. So he was in for a ride awaking when he got back to his car. Really had no idea what to do. Not like the horse and carriage had a license plate.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Tapa Crawl: Round 6
We had no appetite, but it was 50 cent montadito night, and Shannon had yet to try a dessert montadito. She got one with Oreos, served warm. It did not disappoint.
I had a potato tortilla with brava sauce because, well, it's good and I'm tubby. We both have serious heartburn now. Old!
Flamenco, again
Back to the same place. Different night, different time, different dancer/singer/guitarist. Still fun. Different style for all three performers. I mostly remember the annoying crowd, constantly shusshing each other, then talking. And seriously, put your phone away and watch the show. I'm such a cranky old man. And a hypocrite, here's the photo i took with my phone!
Tapa Crawl: Round 5
There was about a 3 hour gap between the last round and this one. Walked 2 miles back to the hotel, got cleaned up, walked a mile back to the next plaza. Needed to clear room for more food.
We wanted the French fries with a fried egg from a place we walked by last night, but didn't see them on the menu. We asked the waiter, and thought we ordered it, but basically ended up with a chicken schnitzel and French fries. A little disappointing, but it was good. We let the waiter upsize us from a tapa to a platter, so got way more food than we expected or wanted. Again, we are it all. We kinda suck a tapa crawling. We are entree crawling. On the bright side, Shannon discovered vino de verano - wine of summer - which is red wine and lemonade.
Tapa Crawl: Round 3
Chorizo and Brie tosta.
We expected toast, like one piece of bread, and got this. More than we expected, but we managed to eat it all. :)
Cathedral - Nope
We were going to go in it, but it closes early on Monday. And costs 8€. Seemed like a lot. So we opted for a tapa crawl.
Museo de Indies
Story of Spanish exploration of the Pacific. Full of actual letters written between explorers and Spanish royalty. Free admission. Spent an hour there. It was pretty interesting. And air conditioned, which was nice after the rowing 
Rowing
Rented a row boat in Maria Louisa park. Pretty cool. The Andalusian sun was a little warm for a pasty fat kid from the Midwest. Shannon LOVED her turn.
Cordoba - Not Going to Happen
We weren't up for getting up early to catch a train this morning. Have to do that tomorrow for Barcelona. Plus, we are really enjoying Sevilla. Not sure exactly what we are going to do with our day, but we will find something. Possible we each had a mimosa with breakfast at the hotel buffet.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
More Tapas
Had a couple beers and tapas after flamenco.
Potatoes with ali oli at one place, tuna montadito at a second. Everything was 1€ today, the sandwich, my big beer , and Shannon's small beer.
Didn't get as crazy tonight, but had fun. Festival of Nations was over by the time we got back towards our hotel.
Gazpacho
Lost my photo somehow. Cold tomato soup, served in a plastic cup. It was good. I'm glad I had it, not sure I need to have it again.
Flamenco
Saw flamenco tonight. Tried to find a local spot, not a tourist trap. It was a little of both, but it was free.
I didn't know what to expect. They say "the passion of the flamenco will move you", but I'm basically dead inside, so I doubted it. I wouldn't say it stirred my soul, but it was more than I expected. It was pretty amazing. I really enjoyed it, glad we went, might go back tomorrow.
The picture doesn't do it justice. It would be better with video. Several people were filming with their phones, but I'm reminded of John Oliver, who both times we've seen him uses the following joke about filming live shows with their phones "I really want to enjoy this, but noes not good for me". I wanted to enjoy the show.
Self Walking Tour
We basically wandered around for 6 hours today, occasionally stopping for a drink or food. It was a very sevilla thing to do. We stayed away from the main tourist areas. It was fun. We saw parks, plazas, and old city walls.
Saturday Night in Sevilla
Got a little silly. We kinda let the night get away from us. Too much cervesa. Good times had by all. Shannon dumped two drinks. I had our hotel card but no idea which room we were in. Somehow we ended up at The Festival of the World watching Mexican man with jericurls grinding on stage. He invited the members of the crowd to join him. There were 10 year old girls dancing in ways that would not be considered appropriate in the states. However, here, things aren't so uptight. There was no harm. Just fun for the people
Montadito
Mini bocadillos. They cost 1 euro and come in all kinda of varieties. One place had more than 80. They are tiny so you can try a lot.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Train to Sevilla
Lunch on the train, potato torta for me, chicken sandwich for Shannon. And some Spanish ruffles. They tasted like American ruffles. We for for to buy wine.
#poorplanning
We got 1st class tickets for this trip. Cost maybe $20 more. Totally with it. Very roomy, quiet, and comfortable. If only they had wifi. Shannon is napping.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)