Melyssa-with-a-Y

At the end of March, after all of our other adventures, John had a birthday. I figured we should go somewhere nice for dinner, since we were both feeling good, so we went to El Nacional. Jae went there with mom and dad at the end of our trip in 2016, but John and I missed it that time. It's a giant (fancy) warehouse-like building with bars in the corners serving a variety of food. In the back corner there's a seafood restaurant called La Llotja (the fish market). We had a lovely dinner (one of the more expensive meals we've had in town). Tuna tartare and pan con tomate (fresh homemade bread!) and then I had monkfish and John had tuna. Delicious... although we were way too full to try the desserts. Instead, we came home and I made quick little individual chocolate puddle cakes . (thanks, Smittenkitchen...)   We really enjoyed the Royal Film Concert Orchestra 's John Williams/Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone movie-themed nights, so I got us tickets to attend their Video G...

On Valentine's Day, we went for an amazing hike in the hills above Barcelona.  A couple of months ago, I joined a group called " InterNations " that brings together expats from around the world for events and meetups (it's an international organization with chapters everywhere). We took the funicular up to the meeting point, and it turned out that John and I were the only two signed up for this outing, so off we went with our guide to hike the hills. The views were gorgeous , but it was super windy, and being mid-February, it got dark early. John can see these hills from his office, so it was fun to be on the hill and see the BSC building below. In this photo, BSC is the wide white building in the center (to the left of the yellow crane) and Spotify Camp Nou -- the Barcelona futbol stadium -- is up to the right. But walking for 2 1/2 hours was A LOT. Especially in the dark. We took the funicular back down the hill, and the train back into town, and picked up doner ke...

As we recovered from the COLD December vacation in Paris, York, and Dublin, we found new things to do and see around town. And I did a lot of cooking and baking!  (What else do you do when it's cold outside?)  In Catholic tradition, Christmas isn't over until Epiphany (Jan 6), when the three kings come to town. In Barcelona, that means a huge parade! I looked at the parade route through town and found that the spot where the parade turned left was only a few blocks from our house, and was supposed to come by around 7:30pm. We were only half-heartedly thinking of going, since it was still cold out, but my friend Randall was in town and invited us to join him to watch the festivities. What the heck, why not? There was even a web page that tracked the parade's progress in real time, so we could stay warm in the bar on the corner while we waited. Unfortunately, by the time the parade got close to us, there were so many people between us and the floats that we barely saw any of ...

The last part of our holiday adventure involved a short flight (at a ridiculously early hour) from Leeds to Dublin. The Leeds airport is tiny but was amazingly busy for the Saturday after Christmas. We were on a prop plane, so we had a chilly walk out on to the tarmac. BRRR! (see pic below) When we got into town, we were given keys to a cute little apartment I found on Vrbo that was actually attached to the Qualtrics offices in Dublin. Six apartments facing a central (open) patio... when you get off the elevator, the offices are to the left and the flats are to the right. We figured maybe they have those flats available for their executives? Not that week - it was mostly New Years' vacationers like us.  It was cold and gray most of the week. We found the basement supermarket in the Dunne's department store across the street (like Corte Ingles) and picked up coffee, breakfast items, hot cocoa (Cadbury's, of course), and some snacks. As is our tradition on the first night in...

On Sunday Dec 21, we kicked off our winter holiday adventure. First, taking the train to Paris! Sadly, as soon as we were north of Barcelona, we were basically engulfed in rain and fog for most of the trip, but we did get to travel along the Mediterranean coast for a good while.  When we got to Paris, it was already dark (after 4pm) and rainy. We had no trouble getting on the metro to find our hotel in the Marais area of Paris. We were a little soggy when we got to the hotel! I used Chase Rewards points to book the Hotel de JoBo --  the hotel website made it seem like it was much too chic for us, but it's a nice little boutique hotel. We were on the Josephine's roses floor - everything was covered in rose prints from floor to ceiling. There was a cute little box of macarons to welcome us. The room was tiny, but this is Paris... you're supposed to go out and see things.  We bundled up and walked through the Marais, which is full of high-end shops and cafes along narrow li...

Early in November, my cousins Michelle and Don came through Barcelona after doing a cycling tour of Mallorca. We met up with them for dinner and took them to our favorite tapas place, Fragments . It was fun to see them after so many years! (Michelle's dad is my mom's first cousin. She lived with us for a while when I was in high school.) They had friends along who are considering moving to Spain, so we gave them some helpful tips. We also learned (the hard way) that there are some Metro stops that only reach trains going one direction - you have to go back up to street level and find a different entrance to go the other way. And your metro card won't work if you try to do both entries in quick succession. Oops. Then I went off to the States for 10 days for SC25  in St. Louis. It was a crazy conference week that was a little stressful, but a lot fun. I did get to go for a 5K walk on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, right under the Gateway Arch, and had dinner with family ...