Weekend In Reus

A few weekends ago, we went to a small city about an hour and a half away from Barcelona, the name of this city is Reus. You see, Jannik made this great friend in his marketing classes, Jordi, and Jordi has a girlfriend named Raquel. On top of the English lessons that Jordi and Raquel take from me twice a week, being nice warm people, they are also great friends. So Jordi and Raquel are from Reus, and they invited us to spend a weekend with them in their home town. This is the second city I have visited in Spain, and it is beautiful!

The first night we walked around and explored the city, ate dinner, then had a low key night at Jordi's home. The restaurant we ate at was an old hardware store, or a "ferretería", and the food was great.

Jannik and I sitting outside after dinner.

The next day we went for a drive and visited little suburbs around Reus, saw the ocean at Jordi's beach home, and went to lunch with his parents. Jordi's parents are just as nice and welcoming as he is, and they treated us to a delicious lunch where I had something close to Paella, but instead of a dry rice and mixed seafood it was lobster, rice, and an amazing sauce

At Jordi's beach home 

Jannik and I In the courtyard

The final day we went by car up the mountain, to visit an old town, Siurana. It is said that here there was a large community of Moroccans living, and at some point, the king committed suicide by jumping off the cliff with his horse, why... I do not know. But supposedly, some where in the city, near the edge of one of the cliffs is a horseshoe imprint, however we could not find it.

We made it!

You can see the majority of the city here.

Great view of the church.

The best view ever.

Taking chances!

Our shadows and another great view.

Sitting on the edge!

On our last night, we had a barbecue, and let's just say it was Jannik's and Jordi's first bbq. They managed to do a good job and fed about ten people who came over to have dinner with us at the house. Afterward we played Trivial Pursuit, boys vs. girls, girls won of course! It may have had something to do with the fact that many of the questions were about the U.S. and I was the only American, but hey, a win is a win. When this was over and the boys could no longer take a beating, we all went out to a club. Raquel and I wore our masks and bunny ears to celebrate Halloween, and as they don't really celebrate Halloween in Spain, we were the only two dressed up, but we didn't mind one bit :)

The following day was Monday, and we had to leave for home. We enjoyed a delicious lunch, celebrating the birthday of Jordi's mother at their home, and then took off for Barcelona. It was a great weekend and we said many thanks to Jordi and Raquel for taking such good care of us!

PISO!

So here is our apartment (piso) so far, however, it is still a work in progress, we need more art! Feel free to send any pictures you would like (with yourself in it of course) to add to the decor, picture frames, or other art you deem appropriate :)

So this is the entrance hallway

Act as if you just entered the front door, the door, not the one I'm standing in to take the picture, but the one at the end of our view. Now if you entered that door, you would see a door on your left, this is the kitchen. 

Entering kitchen. To the right, inside the kitchen is a little two seater table where we enjoy lovely little breakfasts hahaha

On this table there used to be a super cute, lime green, table cloth that accented the brightly colored runner you see to the right. 

More kitchen. Outside the frosted door you see, is our washing machine and sink. 

No room for a dryer, plus it's not common in Europe to have a dryer.

This is common, for there to be a sort of courtyard area, where the back of everyones apartments face each other. (but there is no courtyard at the bottom, that is some one's backyard or patio if you will). Here is where everyone hangs their clothes to dry, notice our blue lines for drying. 

Oh, Look Down!!! There is our super cute (NEW) tablecloth in the downstairs neighbors "backyard". It must have fallen after being hung out to dry! Hahahaha greaaaat....

Now act as if you are walking back out of the kitchen, toward the front door. You are now standing in front of the front door, looking through the entrance hallway into the living/dining room.

Dining Table 

I made dinner tonight!

This is the rest of the room.

The TV was left behind courtesy the old woman who used to live here.

The couch pulls out into a full sized bed for guests! Come visit us!!!

We're now looking back from the opposite view. See the door on the right? We're about to go through it!

When you open the hallway door there are three rooms, one to the left (the office), one to the right (the bedroom), and the one directly in front of you is the bathroom.

Next to the toilette is a bidet, which I am not accustomed to using.... So.... seeing as we have limited space in the bathroom, I decided to put a table over it, use a basket for towels, and added some height to the lowness of the toilette by adding the plant. The tablecloth I made myself, FIRST! and Proud :)

Now for the bedroom. 

Our view is awesome

My closets, and across the hallway is the office, where Jannik spends a lot of his time studying and where his built in closets are.

That is it for now! It is very clean and tidy and cozy and we love it. We are looking forward to our next visitors, Jannik's sisters Jill and Sarah <3 

Getting To Know Barca

So many things! Ok, well I left off at my Birthday.... not much happened in the week or so between this and Julians arrival. We call him "The Night Train". For those of you who don't know Julian, he is the best! He knows EVERYONE in Barca, and he picks up strangers like stray dogs, welcoming everyone into his wolf pack hahaha. But by night, beware, if you are going to go out with Julian it's going to be one looooong crazy funfilled misguided night! Even if he tells you, "Oh we're going to take it easy tonight, just have a couple of beers." This is never the truth with the Night Train.

Second day with Julian, it's 4:30 pm, and we're already at Champagneria buying 2.50 euro bottles of cava because we "have to get them before they end at 5 pm."

(Left to Right: Midge, Olivia, Me, and Julian)

Olivia and I outside Champagneria

(Left to Right: Me, Julian, Jannik, Midge, Olivia)

Then Jannik meets us at Travel Bar. Where, an interesting story happened. Before Midge arrived, Olivia, Jannik, Julian and I were  having a casual beer, laughing, no one was drunk, but of the four of us, every single person failed to see the Moroccan guy who passed behind me and stole my purse! The waiter just happened to be outside at the same time and noticed, informing us of what just happened. Immediately Jannik and Julian jumped up from the table and ran down the little alley after the man. Only there were two men, and they didn't know which one he was. Fortunately for me, they picked the right one. They demanded that he give the purse back, and he acted like he had no clue what was going on, well, needless to say, they got it back! Which is awesome cause I was being a dumb newbie and had my cards and passport in my purse.... duh. I'll never do that again! That was the day they were my heroes :)

Next we went to a shot bar, but I forgot the name, you will see why in a second.....

That was round one.

Round two.

Then on to Travel Bar Port, where we played trivia and DOMINATED. Team "Zee Germans Ya?" Won and we got 125 euros to spend on food or drinks at the bar. That bar tab lasts about 2 months, what do you think we did? Ya we spent it all on drinks that very night.

Another night out....

This time with some random guy (forgot his name), Jannik,  Julian, a Cop (aka Guillermo), and Max!

Anyhow, Julian's visit to Barca was amazing, he introduced Jannik and I to new foods, new people, and sides of Barcelona we would have never seen if it weren't for him. He is back in Houston now, and we miss him! Big thanks to Julian for being the coolest new friend :) 

Just so you know, we are seeing the finer things in life, things that should be seen during the day time. For example, Gaudi's Park Guell. Which is beautiful during the day, people are out walking, having lunch, playing music, selling goods, or just sitting and enjoying the view. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Soooo sweet, he always offers to carry my purse for me when it gets too heavy because we packed it full of stuff for the day.

Apparently it is popular to write where you are from or who you love in the sand, so I went down and added my own artistry for the day.

Some of the tile work on the wall.

After Park Guell Jannik and I were very hungry, and of course I wanted Mexican. It just so happened that we stumbled upon a restaurant called "Mexican Cantina". However, it wasn't the mexican food we wanted. Look at what Jannik got when he asked for a "bowl of queso." 

Yea, that's it, on the right! Hahahaha. aaaaand it tasted like that cheap stadium cheese you get at football games. 

Then, one day, when Jannik had class and lunch with his classmates, I decided to do a little exploring  by myself. So I went and visited Sagrada Familia, which is also the work of Gaudi. Here, I encountered a long line that went one block and around the corner, and I was there on a Monday, it's crazy how many people visit the church daily! After waiting in a long line I finally entered, and it is a very beautiful church, almost overwhelming. However, the inside was under construction so there wasn't much to see inside, the majority of what is to be seen, is on the outside. Consequently I took the elevator to the top and took some pictures along the way. Here is what I saw...

The entrance I went in.

The floor upon entering, different from the floor in the very inside of the church.

View of the city, you can see the ocean in the distance!

I made it to one of the peaks and asked another tourist to take a picture for me :)

Inside, all construction.

Two different sides of the Church.

That is the end of this post. I am posting a second today though, with pictures of the apartment because I know everyone has been waiting to see!

Besos! xoxox