Easter in The Netherlands

Spending holidays away from home is always hard, so the best idea is to spend the time busy and crossing adventures off my Pinterest lists. So what better way to spend Easter than with a Road Trip around The Netherlands. Whoohoo bring on the Tulips!!! We hired a cute little Nissan to get us around.
		First stop was Eftetling, located half way between Brussels and Rotterdam. Efteling is a theme park based on fairy tales. It’s quite cool and is broken up into a few areas: Enchanted Forrest, the rest was in Dutch, and I forget what they translated to, haha. The entire different fairy tales were there; the little mermaid, rumplestiltskin, rupunzel, etc, and then a few I had no idea even existed, guess the Dutch had different stories to us. It was then time for the roller coasters. I have always struggled with rides, being that I get vertigo quite easily. So spinning and upside down ones are out of the question. But I did still managed to lose my belly a few times, on the Pirate ship and a few different other ones.
All in all it was a fun day filled with laughs, rides, reliving my childhood in Dutch and too many candies.
We spent the first night in Rotterdam and stayed at CitizeM, which is an awesome hotel. It has a feel like a hostel, but for adults. The rooms is controlled from a Samsung tablet; the lights, the TV, the music, the blinds, everything. There is even mood lighting in the shower, which also houses the biggest shower head ever.  I could definitely get used to that. The bar of the hotel felt like you were in someone’s home. The book case was lined with soo many different artsy books, a complete penguin collection, different vegetables preserved in glass jars. It was honestly one of the coolest places I’ve ever stayed.
Rotterdam has a cool vibe. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to explore, one night just wasn’t enough. We had dinner a three story Persian restaurant. The food was amazing!! The restaurant had a very cool atmosphere, so much laughing, and good food being enjoyed. It was your typical delicious Persian food; I had a dish called seafood tutti frutti. It was a dish of delicious mixed seafood’s grilled on a skewer with rice, vegetables and mixed dried fruits. Soo much yum in one meal.
		We capped the night off with an amazing cocktail from the bar in the hotel. It was the most perfect way to start the holiday. Day two started off a little rough. After a delicious feast for breakfast, we were then locked in a garage due to a broken ticketing machine. This did result in free parking however, SCRORE!! But set us back a little while. Finally we were off to The Hague.
The Hague is a cute little town on the coast. We decided it was a great idea to park the car a few km’s from where we intended to have lunch (yes, we preplanned where we going to eat, hehe), this was probably not the smartest idea. It was freezing on the boardwalk, honestly the coldest I’ve been in soo long. And the wind, mannn the wind was soo cold it gave me a headache. I was not dressed appropriately for this. However the meal at the end the of the boardwalk was worth enduring that pain.		Fresh seafood by the beach with a glass of white wine, nothing is better.
Next stop was something I’d been dying to do for quite a long time. I had pinned this on pinterest long before I moved to the UK. Keukenhof is a garden filled with Tulips. Tons and tons of them. All different varieties, in all different patterns. It really was more than I could have ever expected. It was truly beautiful. There were visitors of all ages at Keukenhof, it really had something for everybody.
After a few hours my eyes were overdosed on beauty, and my attention span diminished (surprise surprise), it was now time for Amsterdam. Whoohoo!!
We arrived at the hotel, and checked in our bags, and then began the task of goggling places to eat for dinner. My favourite past time :D Amsterdam is packed full of restaurants, however cost per meal, and value for money was more of a priority for us. I stumbled upon an ad for “all you can eat and drink buffet for £20, BARGIN!!!
I immediately made a reservation and we were on our way. When we were walking to the restaurant I was feeling the sense I’d been there before, and sure enough across the road from the restaurant was a restaurant I’d eaten my last group meal at when I went on my Euro trip in 2012. Ohhh the memories.....
So back to the restaurant. The Restaurant View is situated on the water, and you get a really nice view of Amsterdam. Only around 2-3 stories high, so not a full city view, but a nice one nonetheless. The restaurant is set out kinda like sushi train, and you are sat near a moving conveyor belt and on your table is a hot plate. The raw/uncooked food passes along the belt and you pull off whatever takes your fancy and you cook and eat it all on your table. BRILLIANT! There is a bar at the end of the room, which is self managed, yep you pull your own beers. And the salad and condiments are located on a different station. The kitchen is in the middle of where four different belts meet, so it’s super open planned and you feel part of the kitchen crew. I loved this place. Not only cos its all you can eat, and I’m an excellent chef, but because it was fun. It’s such a novelty to cook your own food in a restaurant. I sufficiently stuffed my face, and left with the biggest, fullest belly. Sooo much salmon, tuna, and vegetables were consumed. Mmmmmm.
	What is an Amsterdam trip without a walk through the town, and watching all the tourists get high and ogle at the windows? I’d done most of the touristy things in my past trip, so this time I was happy to sit in a local dingy bar and drink gin and tonics. The perfect night cap....
As we set off for day three, we were rudely interrupted by someone getting Bali belly in Amsterdam, and it wasn’t me!  This was rather annoying but I made sure this didn’t stop me filling my belly with delicious foods. First stop was brunch of course. And on top of my list was Omelegg. This place won me over with their menu of omelettes only, particularly omelette with banana and peanut butter. The restaurant was super cute, and decked out with wooden furniture, with an open plan kitchen. So you could watch the chefs cook your food. Pretty spesh. The omelette was as good as I expected and I’ve told everyone I know to make sure they go there, its honestly one of the best breakfast places I’ve ever been.
After breakfast, Bali belly was still not being too cool. So we walked at snail’s pace, which is really not a speed I know, around the rest of the city. Stopping by the I AM STERDAM sign, walking through the canals, and through the parks. There was another shop I was keen to find and check out, but tempers were flaring at the snail’s pace, and discomfort of the Bali belly, so we decided to leave, and head off to the next town.
	It wasn’t a very far drive to Giethoorn, luckily, and when we got there our moods lifted and the cuteness of the town won us over. Giethoorn is a town built around canals, and for most of the houses the only way to access the homes is via little boats or bridges that connect the land. The place is seriously one of the most beautiful towns ever.
There isn’t a whole lot to do in Geithoorn, other than wander around the canals taking in all the wonderful sights. Being in the middle of nowhere I decided this was definitely the time I should try and drive on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. Sitting in the left hand side of the car to drive, feels so awkward, and let’s not even start on how weird it is to try and change gears with your right hand. So will windscreen wipers going, and blinkers, I set off driving down the left hand side of the road. This was okay, I was doing well, till I had to slow down and try and turn the blinker on to turn the corner. I freaked out and couldn’t tell which side of the road I needed to turn into. Needless to say that 1km drive was hectic, and I won’t be doing that again in a hurry.
	The hotel we stayed in at Geithoorn was like an old school B&B, it was pleasant and cosy. Though the Easter Bunny must have forgotten to come find me on Easter Sunday, however the staff left us a nice little Easter treat with our breakfast.
The final leg of our holiday was to Arnhem. Being Easter Sunday the town was extremely quiet. Nothing much was really open except for a few little pubs and cafes. And again there wasn’t a whole lot to do there. Coffees were had, naps were taken, and all you can eat Tapas was consumed. It was a great end to a fabulous Easter break. The Netherlands is a country I’d definitely travel back to. Peace out for now Bxxx
P.s this is a late post, like super late, but whatevs you guys are used to that from me :D Promise to be better in 2015, hopefully.

Luxembourg; the country of castles, and relaxation

I don’t know about you, but my geography is awful. Like the worst ever. Pretty sure I blanked that entire part of my schooling out. That and history have been filed away into the black hole. So when my friend suggested we go visit Luxembourg, I obviously wanted to go, I’m not one to turn down going somewhere I've never been, but I had assumed it was a city, not a whole country, though in my defence its one of the smallest countries in Europe. You can drive from one side of the country to the other in around an hour.
So looking for a hotel for the night was actually pretty fun. You see Luxembourg is a business country, and the city of Luxembourg (yep its capital has the same name, just to confuse you more) is pretty quite on the weekend. So you have all these 4-5* hotels fully booked during the working week, yet empty on weekends. The hotels then offer super amazing deals on their weekend rates. So one night in a 5* hotel becomes easily affordable. WINNING!!!
	We set off on Saturday morning from Brussels and after a short 2 hour drive we reached Luxembourg! First stop, COFFEE of course!!! We went to a cute little coffee shop called 'Golden Coffee'. They had an amazing variety of coffees, tons of different milks and flavourings. I settled on a soy almond coffee and boy oh boy was it delicious!
Next stop, the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I've never been one for churches until moving to Europe. The churches here are amazing. They are pretty with their stained glass windows, and their huge alters. This one is no exemption to rule. But this one also had a crypt down underneath. You couldn't really see much, but the outside was still a site to see with lion statues guarding the entrance. Now onto LUNCH!!!
	We found a pretty busy restaurant in the main square of Luxembourg City.......... It was crazy overpriced and not really that amazing. I guess it’s what you'd expect to find in the centre of town in most places, tourist traps. After lunch it was time to explore more. We ventured off to look around the ruins of the old tunnels and stone built wall. It’s quite cool that parts of the tunnel are still around, and you can walk around them. You're basically walking around inside the mountain. You can see out of a few windows ever few metres.
As you walk around the village of Luxembourg you are surrounded by statues of elephants, each one painted differently. It was for a project to bring public awareness to the practices of killing elephants in Asian countries. They were all pretty cool, and each had their own little theme.
Exhausted and ready for a rest, it was onto the hotel. And boy oh boy was I looking forward to this. 5 Star heaven, here I come. The hotel was situated out of town a little bit, and was decked out with some awesome artwork. It oozed fancy. When we arrived at the room, I was blown away. My entire house could have fitted in the room. It was HUGE!! The bed was also as big as two double beds; it was like being in a movie. I'd never experienced anything like it before. Once I started to relax into the bed, I knew there was no way I was leaving the hotel for the night, even for food. Luckily the hotel was decked out with an amazing restaurant on premises. So I peeled myself away from the comfy bed, and trekked down for some dinner.
The restaurant didn't have a whole lot of ambiance, but the menu enticed me. We settled on an entree of scallops with raspberries to share, and then a delicious chicken main meal. However the star of the night was the dessert, a delicious serving of sorbet with edible flowers. Although this was probably on the high end of the price range, the meal and the wine was worth it.
	Also to note the hotel had the best breakfast I’d had in a long time. Soo much to choose from. And the best part was actually in the room, where we had our very own coffee maker, SCORE!!! All in all I love 5 star hotels, and boy do I wish it was in my price range every time I travelled.
Once breakfast was done, it was time to discover the local castle. As we drove along, I had no idea what to expect, and I didn't expect it resemble a Disney movie.
The castle was amazing! It was situated on top of a hill, and it was a bit of a climb to get up to it, but it was soo worth it. I felt like I was in a movie, it was more than I'd ever imagined. We don't have anything like this back home, and I have seen quite a few castles now, but they still blow me away every time.	I've put the one in Germany on my bucket list; I must see that one before I leave.... So that was Luxembourg, the city and country of luxury.
Peace out for now.... Bxxxx Note: Yes, yes, yes I am lazy, I will learn one day. This post was started over 8 months ago, eeep, Told you I’m bad at this. So things and comments are things I’d written in the past.

Dublin

Okay, Okay, we all know it. I am lazy when it comes to updating this blog. SORRY!! I will try and be better. I'm on a mission now to try and get all my trips on here before they are a year after actually happening. Can I do it??? Hmmmmm, let's just say I wont be putting money on me.Right, so on to Dublin. There is so much to say about Dublin. Basically I spent 4 days in August 2013 venturing around Dublin, taking in the sights, and filling my plate with delicious foods.

As per usual, the trip was planned around where I was going to eat. This was proving quite difficult, as there seemed to be more places I wanted to eat at, than meal times. But don't you worry, I worked a way around this issue.

SIGHTSEEING

Dublin is quite a cute town with tons of historic buildings, and plenty of cool landmarks to see. There are plenty of cathedrals to see, St Patrick's and Christ Church were the two most notable ones. They were quite picturesque with the gardens surrounding them, and the over cast day, made them even prettier to photograph.

Dublin has some cool stories, and songs that outline the history of Ireland. Molly Malone is one, whether the song is based on the real Molly who lived during the 17th Century, or not. Its still a pretty cool statue to see. As is the Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship, which sailed during the time of Famine. Quite impressively, Jeanie never lost any crew or passengers during her voyages.
Dublin is filled with students, and one of the major tourist sites, is the Trinity College and the Book of Kells. The Trinity College is one of the oldest colleges in Dublin, and is home to the largest library in Ireland, which is home to the book of Kells. I believe even some of Harry Potter was even filmed here, in the long room, which is pretty cool.

What is a trip to Dublin without stopping by the Guinness Storehouse? This place is set up like an amusement park. You basically start in the bottom of the tower, and work your way up through the levels, finding out how, and what goes into making the perfect Guinness. Your ticket even entitles you to either a free Guinness in the bar at the top, or you can learn how to pour the perfect Guinness. Not being a beer drinker I decided to just go to the top of the tower and see the view. And boy is it impressive! You can see most of Dublin.

Now that the sights are out of the way, let's move onto my favourite part......

FOOD

First stop was for burgers and Bobos. These were the most amazing burgers, I've ever had in my life. I still dream of these creations. Being gluten free, burger places that sell gluten free buns are hard to come by. But at Bobos, they serve the burgers gluten free by using lettuce leaves in place of the bun. So I could eat any burger on the menu, winning!!! The meat patties were so deliciously amazing, and all the fillings went together perfectly. It was a burger heaven. We ended up eating there twice during our stay, that's how amazing they were, and I'd definitely go back to Dublin, just for these burgers.

Another favourite food of mine is sushi, and Yamamori Sushi was the perfect place to feed this addiction. The sushi was so fresh and delicious, the salmon and everything we sampled was amazing. I haven't had sushi as good since. Let's put that down as another reason to go back to Dublin.

Vegetarian, vegan and raw food cafe's draw me in for their delicious foods, and organic wines, and amazing desserts. Dublin again was no different. Corncuopia was a cafe which prides itself on their selection of vegetarian dishes. They offer a great selection of organic, sulphate free wines, which were super tasty. I can also recommend their raw food desserts. They were nothing short of delicious. I did come back here for breakfast on our last day, and their coffees with almond milk, were super amazing.

Across from Cornucopia is a cute all natural gelato place. The owners were there the day we went in, and they explained how they made the products. The sorbet was completely dairy free, and made with fresh fruits. I couldn't not try them. Two scoops coming right up.

Lastly, after all the vegetarian foods it was only natural to feast on pure protein. The Brazen Head, was a cute pub, with a cute old man bar tending, with cute chairs and tables, and even chairs made to be like horse riding saddles. The walls are filled with stuffed heads of beasts, not sure if the owner has killed these himself, but it added a nice edge the pub.

The menu was quite simple, and basically offered any type of meats, shredded, slow roasted, and baked. It was a carnivore's dream.

So that was my trip to my home country, food with a side of sightseeing. I never imagined Dublin to have so much to offer. It has been one of the better foodie trips I've been on. I would definitely go back just for those burgers :)

Peace out for now....
Bxxxx

Berlin- better late than never....

Berlin is one of those places where you instantly feel the need to get naked and run through the streets.

Well okay, so maybe not naked, but I feel a sense of freedom in this city. When I visited last time in 2012, I was overjoyed with the feeling of being free, living like a hippy.  Careless and free!!! I just feel so relaxed and at peace in this city, which is rather nice, especially after the dense history of this city and Germany in general.


So this trip I was  excited, not only to see some of the sites I'd missed last time,  but this time I was going to Sauvage for dinner.

HELL FREAKING YEAH!!!!

For those who don’t know, Sauvage is the first restaurant in Europe to serve and only serve food that is Paleo friendly. This means that absolutely EVERYTHING on the menu I can eat!!!! For those who have ever tried to cook for me or eat out at restaurants with me, know this NEVER happens. Being able to order anything I like is pretty much my dream.

Okay, so the trip to Berlin was going to be a long one. We would drive from Brussels, which should have taken us around 7hours. Needless to say roadworks are even worse over here than in Canberra. And I have never seen soo much traffic in my life, four lanes of bumper to bumper cars for kilometres. It was seriously an experience I was not prepared for. We spent over 10 hours in the car driving to Berlin -_-

There is no speed limit on the Autobahn, only a lower limit (which I can’t remember, I think it’s around 110), which is super freaking scary. The was one moment where I got to experience exactly how effective the European cars are at travelling at super fast speeds, needless to say, I never want to go that fast, EVER again!

So after a loooong drive we were finally in Berlin and I was ready for my dinner at Sauvage :D It was everything I'd thought it would be, and more. We went all out and ordered a three course meal, each ordering something different so I could try it all!!! It was one of the most amazing dinners I've ever had. If I lived in Berlin I would eat here every night. Our entrées were served with Paleo breads, and the dessert apple crumble and chocolate pudding were sugar free. The whole experience was amazing!!



Berlin has a ton of fun places to see, some cool museums, and lots of history, but they were really nothing compared to the food I ate, hehe. We practically ate our way through the town, sourcing out any place that served meats, meats and more meats, and let’s not forget the sausages, hehe. The German’s definitely know how to cook their meats. Even the fast food at the local mall was still had one of the most delicious Bratwurst I’ve eaten.

Frozen yogurt is another tasty treat they do well in Berlin. I remember last time I was there I stumbled across an opening of a new yogurt chain that had rows and rows of mix ins, that you were in charge of adding your yogurt, which is quite dangerous as you paid based on weight. So you are in charge of your own deliciousness, winning!

So between all the foods, I actually did some sightseeing, Promise!

The first time I visited  I saw the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and I went on a walking tour that showed places Hitler had been, and where he was eventually killed, and showed us the Hotel Aldon where Michael Jackson famously dangled his kid over the balcony. So I wasn’t too keen to do all that again. This time I wanted to see some of the museums, and the other landmarks.

We headed to Alexanderplatz to start our little tour, starting with the Berlin Television Tower (Fernsehturm) which you can see from practically all over the city. It’s just a huge tower, much like all the other television towers in other cities, it’s worth a look, but I wouldn’t go out of our way to see it.


I forget the route we took to see the rest, so in no order; Charlottenburg Palace, Museum Island, the book burning memorial at Bebelplatz (this is quite a cool sight, you look down into a room under the pavement, which holds around 2,000 books which represents the books the Nazi’s burnt), Church of Mary, Neue Wache Memorial (a memorial for the victims of war), I saw a ton more just walking around the city.

I unfortunately didn't get to experience too much of the nightlife. I went to a few cool bars, and drank a few too many cocktails, but no warehouse parties, or clubs. Maybe next time!

The drive back to Brussels from Berlin was a nightmare. It made the trip down seem like a picnic. Overall we spent over 12hours in the car....... it was the worst. Honestly I thought road works were the worst driving home to my parents in Aus, this was 1,000,000,000 times worse.


Next time for sure flying..

Peace out for now

Bxxxx

P.s. all my reviews of the restaurants I visit are on my yelp page here -> http://rakearl.yelp.co.uk 

One year down....

So here it is, one year since I arrived in the UK. And boy oh boy what a year it’s been. I’m not going to say it has been easy, because that would make me a liar. There have been a ton of struggles, but I’m definitely glad I’ve stuck out the homesickness. Otherwise I would have missed out on some of the most amazing dishes I’ve ever eaten, some of the most amazing sights I’ve seen, and some very amazing people I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

I know I said I’d maybe only move here for a year, but having reached that milestone I now know I’m not ready to come home just yet. There is still a ton more I want to see, and experience and my journey doesn't feel complete.

It’s definitely not easy watching friends get married, have babies and hit milestones in their own lives from afar. I miss everyone every day. But I would be selling my own life short if I moved home now to be around for those events.

There are some scary decisions being made, career wise over the next few months, but I know in my heart that I’m doing the right thing. I am extremely lucky to have such amazing support from both my family and friends and I’m not sure I could have done this without them.

At this stage I have no clue what the future will bring and for the first time in my life, it’s okay to not have a plan.

Peace out for now......

Bxxxx

London Weekender...

I love that in London on any day of the week you can always find some kind of festival on. Last weekend and this weekend I attended two very different festivals.

The first I didn’t actually find out about until Saturday morning on instagram, but decided to buy tickets to the Sunday for an informative day out. Be:Fit has an annual Women’s Health and Fitness expo, and I thought this would be right down my ally, plus Quest Nutrition was going to be there, would I finally get to try my first Quest bar??


So I set off in the Sunday sun. The venue was on the Thames and looked out over Tower Bridge, which was pretty cool. When I entered Be:Fit I was instantly bombarded with “if you drink this once a day you’ll have fabulous skin”, “if you drink this juice in place of two meals, you’ll drop kilos and have amazing skin”, “if you wear this crop top your performance will improve by 80%”.


I was so shocked at what was being marketed to women, and how all these women were purchasing bags and bags of this junk. Instead of empowering women to take control of their lives and make smarter choices about health and fitness, they were pushing crap onto them, which in fact was not even going to make a difference to their weight, cos let’s face it, popcorn is popcorn at the end of the day if you eat it as a 3pm snack, after you’ve had a big Mac for lunch.

It wasn’t all bad, and there were a few jewels among the “healthy” junk food. I met some cool people who grow their own linseeds, and they had made some pretty cool oils. And the vitamix presentation was awesome, when I move home to Aus; I’m totally saving up for that beast.

I did manage to feast on a heap of free samples, and that popcorn did taste amazing, and those “healthy” bars did also tingly my taste buds, but I know better than to buy them as an everyday thing. I however finally find Quest Nutrition, and FINALLY my first quest bar!!! Coconut Cashew, and boy was it delicious, and I’m a sucker I know, I bought a box!! But it’s a treat food I promise, plus it’s full of protein!


With a full belly and a huge amount of brochures I decided to leave. I’m not sure I’d ever go again, for the entry free I didn’t personally gain anything from it that I didn’t already know. But it got me out and about......

This weekend I went to a London Coffee Festival as part of Coffee week. I had been planning this for a few weeks, with some friends who love coffee as much as me, if not more! When we arrived to our 3 hour session the line was about 4 blocks long, I couldn’t believe it! I honestly didn’t think the festival would be that popular. Our session had sold out, but still it never dawned on me that it would be so popular.

The line moved fairly quickly and within 20mins we were finally in heaven!!! Of course my senses took us straight to the chocolate section, free samples, as if I wasn’t going to smell them out. It was the usual suspects, Lindt, Devine, and few other local bakeries with fudges, and peanut butter somosa’s. This was the perfect place to start, as after a few too many chocolates we were ready for some serious COFFEE!

Practically every kind of coffee bean, from every kind of country, pressed in every kind of way was there, and so many samples. Oh the samples. A particular highlight was the Kaluha bar. We tried a delightful mix of coffee, rum, and pineapple over ice. It was super delicious. Although could have used more coffee. We accidentally sat at the table which offered a Kaluha experience. This involved being blind folded and using our taste senses to sample each ingredient that is added to make Kaluha. First one, my favourite; chocolate coated coffee beans, then sugar cane, vanilla and finally rum, it was kinda cool how they explained the process each ingredient went through to become Kaluha.



We then continued through the rest of the exhibitions, sampling tea, coffee and even peanut butter. We met some pretty cool people, who were showcasing some very delicious blends of coffee. It was so hard to find one to buy. I ended up buying 3 bags of tea, hehe, and one bag of coffee.

It was a very successful day out.

Peace out for now....

Bxxxx

Barcelona Baby...

My first attempt at visiting Spain was one to remember. That’s the time I missed my flight and ended up in Zurich, which for the geographically challenged, was quite an adventure. Wait. Where is Zurich???

So this next attempt, I was determined to actually make it there. And guess what? I DID!! YAY!

Barcelona has a ton to offer, and with only two nights and two full days, it was going to be challenging fitting it all in!

La Sagrada Familia, or better known by me as The Sangria Family, hehe. We decided to book this one in advance, and I’m so glad we did. When we arrived at the La Sagrada Familia the line was quite long, and not only for pay on the day tickets, but also for online bookings. There is a tower you can climb, well take the lift to the top to a viewing deck, and this was part of the pre-paid ticket. Unfortunately due to the rain and all round miserable weather, we weren’t allowed to go to the top out of safety. This kinda sucked a lot, as I was really looking forward to it.

Luckily the building itself made up for the slight disappointment of not seeing Barcelona from the top.

The church is AMAZING! So much detail both inside and outside. You could easily spend hours looking at all the carvings. It’s hard to believe the building has been under construction since 1882. You have to wonder what kind of dreams Gaudi had to be able to come up with such a magnificent structure.



In keeping with the Gaudi theme, I visited Parc Guell. This was also breathtakingly beautiful. I didn’t get a chance to really walk around the free part of the garden, even though it looked beautiful. I was more interested in going inside to see the water fountain, the mosaic benches, and the view from atop one of the structures there. The time, effort and detail in this place is incredible.

The hotel I was staying in was in a really nice hip area of Barcelona, so I spent a lot of time on the Sunday walking around with no plan, and just stumbling across interesting things.


The weather was amazing for this, it felt like a winter’s day back home. Cool wind, but warm sun.

As you wind through the narrow streets you stumble across tons of cathedrals and interesting buildings. Being a Sunday, day of prayer, you could hear the church bells ringing, and in some of the cathedrals they had organ players, belting out tunes, which was super cool.


Outside one of the churches in the square, there was a brass band playing tunes, and a heap of people dancing around in a circle, I guess it’s a traditional dance, looked really fun nonetheless.
One of the things I was looking forward to the most was the TAPAS and SANGRIA!! And luckily for me, they were no shortage on that deliciousness.


I had scoped out some markets on the internet prior to going to Barcelona that I wanted to visit. The markets I visited were like Famer’s Markets, there were stalls and stalls full of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, cheeses, breads, and sweets. Here was where I fell in love with Turron :) it’s basically a form of nougat, that has tons of different flavours. Naturally I had to sample them all. I ended up buying two to bring home with me, butttt they totally didn’t even make it out of the airport (yep I ate the lot before I got on my flight, whoops). I can highly recommend the coconut and chocolate flavour.


We also managed to squeeze our way into a seafood bar, where they served fresh seafood tapas style. We had prawns, squid, tuna, salmon, peppers, bravas and the most delicious baked vegetables in the world. It was all fresh and seasoned so simply, with sea salt, and olive oil.


Another one of my favourite restaurants was directly out the front of our hotel. This place was super busy, but we managed to have a seat at the bar, which was actually quite cool. Again we ordered practically everything on the menu which I could eat, and SANGRIA. The sangria came in a glass bottle, and was premade, and this was actually the most refreshing sangria I’d ever had, the perfect mix of red wine and sweetness. Also another highlight of this meal was the tomatoes. The dish was quite simple with 4 different varieties of tomato with tuna and olives, but the flavours were out of this world.


The final meal in Barcelona was at a restaurant that served gluten free breads, WINNING! This was accompanied with 4 different styles of cured meats, and duck, olives, squid, homemade sangria, and finished off with vegetable sorbet! The sorbet wasn’t very sweet and was a weird texture, but still very delicious.


So that was Barcelona...... I could definitely see myself coming back for summer. The beaches looked really nice, and relaxing. And I can finally say I’ve been to Spain.... YAY!!!

Peace out for now....

Bxxxx