"Nothing is invented, for it's written in nature first." - Antonio Gaudi

Barcelona, you will be missed. What an incredible and gorgeous city! And I lucked out with perfect weather all weekend long. Sun, sun sun, and of course some sunburn to match.

As usual out of Amsterdam, flights are delayed. Even google will tell you that short flights are often 30 minutes delayed. Luckily, 30 minutes was all, and I still landed by 22.00 in Barcelona (& at the hotel and asleep by 23.00!).

Day 1

I got to see a dear friend of the family who has live in Spain for the last 15+ years. I haven’t seen her in 13 years according to my mother - I can’t even remember that far back! We started out at the Cathedral of Barcelona. Our family friend is a huge history buff, so I learned more about the city spending the day with her than I did on any of my other tours and meanderings through Barcelona. We of course stopped first for some churros and coffee at La Pallaresa Xocolateria Xurreria. It’s a long standing adorable cafe down the street and the churros (like all fried dough rolled in sugar) were delightful.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Always dip your churros in coffee, unless you get them with chocolate, then maybe do both.

We roamed through the Jewish Quarter and stopped to a quick peek into Els Quatre Gats (4 Cats) which Picasso used to frequent . The artistry in the restaurant is unique and a bit abrupt to the eye initially, but it really is a historic place for art and it’s reflected in the interior. I didn’t get to eat here, but it’s on my list of places to try if I get back! From there we went to La Mercat de Santa Caterina. Though not at famous as La Boqueria (visited later) it’s still a great example of a fresh market. Plus, the architecture in its design in unfathomable for the era that it was built (remodeled recently, but designed to mimic the original 1848 construction). The rolling structure of the canopy and roof and substructure beneath is breathtaking (nerd alert). Then we walked over to the Barcelona Arc de Triumf, which seemed completely displaced from the architecture of the city. It seemed like something from South America or even Pacific Asian inspired. It was neat, but surrounded by pavement and grass, it stood out like a sore thumb.

Making our way through the market and narrow streets, we ended up in the Placa de Santa Maria. We took a peek inside the Basilica and on our way out saw a wedding in the works (waiting for the bride to arrive). Apparently, you can only get married in the church if you live in a certain neighborhood surrounding it. Beyond that you have no rights to get married there! Behind the Plaza there is a fancy pastry shop called Bubo. Odd name, but incredible designs and decorations for the desserts. They had mini, full size, macaroons, you name it. Of course, we just had to stop and try one. I picked out a chocolate passion fruit mousse cake thing - I don’t know what else to call it. It. Was. Divine.

Had a delicious lunch in a little courtyard where a group of locals did a little mini performance (in spanish), but basically the gist of the song they sung was about how the women supported the men and the economy during the war and how they’re strong and powerful and should be remembered #feminism. The rest of the day was spent wandering and maybe a bit of shopping followed by crashing back in the hotel for the night.

Day 2

Gaudi all day everyday. A day full of Gaudi and Barcelona architecture. Step 1: Casa Battlo. After being originally built in the late 1800s, Senior Battlo bought the property and hired Gaudi to redesign and rebuild the property. The initial design had the entire building planned to be demolished, but Gaudi designed a way to simply alter the facade construction. And that facade, let me tell you, is magnificent. Known for following the ideals and visuals of nature (see post quote) Gaudi created this incredible facade consisting of almost no harsh lines. Inside the building there are two main stair cases that are next to skylights (from the ground floor to the top floor) where he specifically designed the tiling to grow darker in color the higher you climb. Had I not had the headset tour on, I would never have even though to look. The roof is designed to be dragon-like, which is not something I would have ever expected to see on a roof. Even the courtyard in the back of the building is immaculately designed to feel like nature.

Step 2: Casa Mila (La Pedrera). Yet again, another incredible feat by Gaudi. In 1905 the Mila’s commissioned Gaudi to design and rebuild this large complex. The intent had been for them to live on the first floor and rent out the remainder of the apartments. There are two interior courtyards connected by a bridge that almost represent tree trunks with wings or something like it’s flying through the building. For all those structural nerds out there, the facade is entirely architectural. The stone is connected back to the structure with steel/metal tie backs. The attic is made of brick arches that support the roof design. The roof is crazy intricate between stairways, ventilation, pathways, etc. Once again - not your typical roof.

Step 3: Park Guell. Now I knew nothing about this park before going, and am still quite confused. Because it’s not really a park, it’s more of a sculpture park? If that even makes sense (reference some of the pictures). The park is more of a structural landscape with some really neat features. Really fun to explore for a bit while waiting for dun dun dun….

Step 4: La Sagrada Familia: Okay, this church is beyond incredible. Gaudi was only alive long enough to see one section of the facade of the church completed. Not even a completed facade, interior, no. There was maybe 1/20th complete when he was alive. How insane is that? To think that architects and engineers were able to continue his works after his death is madness. The intent is to have the full construction complete on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death. Sometime in the 2026 (only 7 years away!).

Sunday night I had bought tickets to a Flamenco performance at Palau de La Musica, the UNESCO music hall in Barcelona! The performance was a lot of fun, even though I may have almost fell asleep during because it was such a long day. But the performers were fantastic and damn can they move their feet!

Day 3

BEACH BEACH BEACH BEACH

Can you guess? I went to the beach on Monday. But FIRST I stopped in La Boqueria for some fresh food and finds. The market is great - tons of fresh fruit stands with juices, smoothies, ready to eat chopped fruit. YUM! Of course, there are also Iberico ham, which, well…not for me! But there was also this sweet&salty stand that had these ADORABLE little candies made into fun characters.

After the market, it was time for a relaxing beach day. Luckily, staying in Barcelonata meant I was only 10 minutes from the beach! It was busy, but I was still able to find somewhere to relax. I grabbed a bite to eat outside by the water and just sat for a while, both and the restaurant and on the sand. After the craziness of work (and 2 days of constant touring) a day to myself just to relax and read in beautiful weather was just what I needed! The water was so blue.

So wrapping up the weekend with a beach day was perfect and then the next morning was back to Amsterdam! Had time to do all my errands when I got back to set me up for the week and back to the work grind we went.

All’s well here since the trip! Work, relax, work, relax, work. (and on and on and on)

Until next time! <3

“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book." - Bill Watterson

The weather started to turn warmer! Or so I thought. There are some pros and cons to all weather here in NL. When it’s colder, it’s cold (hellooo) but it seems to rain less. When it’s warmer, it’s tag teamed with what seems like all the rain in the world. Also, hello humidity! I’m starting to understand when I see posts like:

So let’s see. In the last few weeks I made nutella swirled banana bread, went to Rollende Keukens (a food truck festival) with my friend Suzi, sat outside in the park down the street from my apartment and saw these little adorable ducklings with their mama, read a new book, and saw Aladdin in theaters!

Rollende Keukens was a ton of fun. It literally means “Rolling Kitchens” as in food trucks. I think Suzi and I were both in the mind set of finding food trucks like you would in D.C. so we decided to aim for typical American fair. As you probably expected, we didn’t find what we were looking for. We nabbed a quesadilla, but it wasn’t hot and gooey and the cheese was wrong, and then we tried our hands at some fried chicken which was tasty, but not really well done. The only good thing I found was an Asian Peruvian food truck where I got a ceviche that turned out to be delicious. Oh CapMac, how I miss you.

The best thing I accomplished though, was getting to the movies. I love to take myself to the movies, but I was soooo concerned about what the experience would be like I wasn’t willing to go solo for the first time. I went with a coworker, who is also a big Disney fan. Turns out, you just have to look for and be aware of what tickets you’re buying. For instance, most big blockbuster hits will be in English with subtitles in Dutch, but kids movies may come in both English or Dutch because kids may not know English yet! So, I had to buy tickets for “Aladdin - Original Version” which is in English with Dutch subtitles.

As for the rest of the experience, they offer “zoet” or “zout” popcorn, which basically sound the same in Dutch to those of us still learning the SIXTEEN PLUS DIFFERENT SOUNDS THAT CAN BE MADE WITH TWO VOWELS TOGETHER. But I learned, that zoet is sweet and zout is salty. So salty would be the regular popcorn you can get at home (sans butter apparently) and the sweet popcorn I have yet to try. The good news is now I can go see a movie solo without any worries…assuming I am able to make sure the movies are in English.

Heading to Barcelona for a much needed getaway vacation on Friday, so expect a nice long update after the trip!

Tot Later!

“Sometimes, you’ve got to work a little, so you can ball a lot.” Tom Haverford

Sunrise over Amsterdam

So I spent a lovely extended weekend in Atlanta a couple weeks back. It was nice to get a chance to stop home and see family. Got to spend time with my parents, grandfather, and my aunt even drove in from South Carolina for a day to see me! My parents and I, god bless them, spent Saturday going through every single box in our storage unit that was mine leftover from Nevada and made donation piles, take with me piles, and repack piles. In the ultimate Jeffrey Marks efficiency fashion, we were in and out in about 6 hours and turned 40 boxes into 20 (we unpacked every single item to repack). True genius, this man.

Sunday I got to relax, ahem…shop, a bit. Still not quite used to EU styles (or sizes!). Then, the wonderful Brittani came in to the city to see me!! We all, family included, hung out for a while before Mom had to head to the airport and then went out for dinner to what people call a "Diner", but they served pretty fancy food too, so I'm not sure how I feel about that.

My repacking for my return was focused on 3 things: baking, clothes, PS4. All three of those items were able to make it in my suitcase(s) back to Amsterdam! So as you can imagine, after a long week at work, I HAD to bake this last weekend….and of course play some games. Ultimate de-stressors. I made my first EU attempt at our pumpkin bread recipe. I'm starting to just accept that everything I make here, even if it should be identical, is not. I'll have to make some tweaks to the recipe next time I make it to see if I can improve.

Other than that, not much news to share! Just chugging along until this project is complete and I’m onto the next one! So long for now.