Spring in the City

As a child growing up in Miami, I could never understand the reason for the big fuss about spring. My dad, who was born and raised in Tehran, would wax nostalgic about the flowers blooming and the trees slowly growing leaves again and I would just sit there listening to him and feeling very meh about the whole thing. Looking back, I realize that my reaction was totally predictable for someone who lived in a climate where the arrival of spring meant nothing more than that summer, that sticky, humid, rainy mess that is a Miami summer, was just around the corner. My lack of enthusiasm probably also stemmed from the fact that there aren’t many good holidays to look forward to in the spring (I think every child grows out of Easter at the age of 5, am I right?) and also because I have a strong dislike of pastel colors and as we all know, spring has not arrived until you walk into a CVS and see row upon row of baby blue, custard yellow, and Pepto Bismol pink.  

But now that I live somewhere where we actually experience seasons, I’ve been converted into a full-on spring enthusiast. I love walking around the city and seeing the first signs of spring everywhere: from the green leaves peeking timidly out of the tree branches to the tulips and ranunculus sitting prettily in their buckets at the flower market and of course, the long awaited debut at the supermarket of strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and asparagus! (P.S. Am I the only person who’s ever put an exclamation mark after the word asparagus? Probably). It makes me so giddy that I almost want to walk around town singing ‘Spring,spring, spring’ from that old movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. But I don’t because I don’t want people to think that I’m crazy. Both for singing out loud and for liking that movie.

Here are some pictures of spring in the city. 

Hope you're having a lovely, sunny day!

Xo

The Palo Alto Market

Last Sunday we did something we've never done before. We went way out of our way to a neighborhood we barely know and stood in line for 45 minutes. We weren't there for the opening of a hip club (us? ha!), a trendy new restaurant or a concert. Nope. We were there to check out a new market that opened in December in the up and coming neighborhood of Poblenou. If you've never been there, Poblenou has a very industrial, almost gritty feel to it (I can best summarize my first impression of the neighborhood by saying that I somehow felt very aware of concrete) but it's recently become the home of many youngsters and hipsters, artists and innovators (watch this video if you want to learn more). Thus, it probably comes as no surprise that it's also the birthplace of the Palo Alto Market.

The Palo Alto Market seeks to create a different kind of open air market in the city, one that highlights local businesses and focuses on art, vintage fashion and home décor and handcrafted goods. But they also want the market goers to have fun as they're exposed to these new vendors so there is live music, workshops for adults and kids, gourmet food trucks and a general ambiance not unlike attending a garden party with 1,000 other people.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

At last the food truck craze has made it to Barcelona--and with such panache too. Isn't this truck adorable? You'd expect it to serve cotton candy or strawberry shortcake, but indeed it serves piadina (Italian flatbread sandwiches). 

I think that, in fact, most people came here to eat. That was certainly a major factor in our visit (plus a 45 minute wait in line certainly works up one's appetite), so I sampled the goods from this vendor (yummy) and then had dessert at the Çukor stand where they sold a wonderful dessert, kurtos, which taste very much like the cinnamon toast I used to make as a child. 

A picture of my lunch. Calamari on a bun with a spicy, Japanese mayonnaise. Not too shabby. 

You can see now why I said it's like a large garden party right? The foliage, the strings of lights, the pebbles crunching under your feet. A very beautiful setting for a market.   

These guys weren't the live entertainment I was talking about but they had some wonderful music and it contributed to the beauty of the surroundings. 

This market had many vendors that sold antique furniture and vintage pieces and we saw a lot of incredible pieces. This particular vendor had so much great stuff that I actually got really angry that my place is already furnished. 

I actually debated buying one of these enormous letter R's for Roman's room but the idea of carrying it on the metro stopped me. And how cool/terrifying is that big clown head? 

If you'd like to visit, the Palo Alto Market is located on Carrer dels Pellaires, 30. They are open on the first weekend of every month. Entrance is 2 Euro a person, children enter free.

Go, explore, eat, shop, and have fun! And let me know what you think!

Around here lately...

Sorry things have been so quiet on the blog recently! I actually have so many things to share with you guys but I fell victim to the debilitating disease known as procrastination. For me, procrastination feels a bit like how I imagine it would feel if someone performed a Confundus charm on you, you know? You have so many things to do, you're about to dive in, but suddenly, for no apparent reason that you can think of, you decide to drop all of the productive things you were about to do and start rearranging your books by color or picking the lint off your socks. So anyway, sorry little blog for my neglect.

To catch you up, three weeks ago we arrived back in Barcelona after a month long trip to Miami for the holidays. Miami was great: we spent time with family, saw friends, ate too much, shopped too much, watched too much tv, and generally had a wonderful time. I won't share any pictures of our trip though since they're mostly just Roman hugging (or refusing to hug) various family members. It'd be a bit boring of a recap, so I'll spare you. But! I do have some pictures to share from our recent trip to Palma de Mallorca so that will be up in a few days.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some pictures of what we've been up to lately around here, so here goes!

This is a shot of the trees just outside my living room window. They're actually more like the skeletons of trees, and I for one, find them beautiful. The branches and twigs jutting out in different directions and the way they intersect and intertwine in a great big tangle reminds me a bit of a bird's nest. And to think that just two months ago, these same trees looked... 

...like this! One thing I love about living in Barcelona as opposed to Miami, is that we get to experience seasons! I now get to bitch about the winter just like everyone else! 

No matter the weather, kids still want to play outside. Roman especially, has always been mysteriously impervious to cold. The kid will kick off a blanket, pull of his socks, and run around buck naked if we'd let him (but don't worry, we don't!). Notice that we're the only nutters at the park though. Everyone else, sensibly, stayed inside that day. 

When we first got back to Barcelona from Miami, the extreme change in weather from balmy and tropical to wet and chilly meant that we all came down with a cold. First me, then the little one, then the Professor, just like dominoes. Our house was unkempt and wads of used Kleenex littered the nightstands and bookshelves (eww, I know). I decided that flowers would be the best way of injecting a little health and beauty into the place. Even though I still have a runny nose and can't breathe properly at night unless propped up, I think my pretty tulips do help put me in a better frame of mind. 

On the days where it's too cold or rainy to go the park, we wander the neighborhood looking for a warm place to camp out for a few hours with some tea and coffee and a chocolate milk for the little one. On Saturday, we discovered this newly opened family friendly cafe which is located right next to Parque de la España Industrial on Calle Muntadas. It has cute high chairs, a little coloring corner, and Legos which kept Roman entertained for an hour or two while the Professor and I chatted and flipped through magazines. 

Winter days can mean you're cooped up in the house for long hours, probably just loafing around and watching TV. You can break the cycle of boredom by busting out the board games. Here is the Professor kicking my butt for the third time in a row at Connect 4. I wish I could say that I lost because I was distracted and trying to keep Roman from licking a garbage can (which has happened), but in truth, I just suck at this game. 

Finally, over the weekend we changed Roman's crib into a toddler bed. We thought it was about time because while we were in Miami, he figured out how to climb out of his crib and he'd been doing it every chance he got. Sometimes he stacked his stuffed animals on top of each other and climbed over them and sometimes he just catapulted himself out with us having no idea how he managed it. One minute he'd be in there and the next minute he'd be coming to find us, doing his pouty cry and clutching his stuffed tiger. What an escape artist, that kid. I can picture him in there, like Steve McQueen, bouncing a baseball off the opposite wall and plotting. The transition to a toddler bed is only half completed though because we decided to push his bed against ours so that he's semi-trapped in there and so he feels that he's close to us without actually being in our bed. We figure eventually we can push his bed back against the wall where it normally is. I'll keep you all posted.

So that's what's new over here. How have you guys been?

When the lights go on

Something magical happened last weekend in Barcelona. Christmas lights went up all around the city a few weeks ago and just last Friday, they were finally turned on! It seems the holiday season is already upon us and I, for one, am so excited. It's so enchanting to walk underneath the lights and see twinkling and a bit of sparkle everywhere you turn. I'm sure it can charm even the biggest curmudgeon.

A good friend of ours took these lovely pictures of the lights around town and kindly permitted me to share them with you guys here. I hope you enjoy!

P.S. A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers. I hope your hearts and bellies are full. 

A magical place and a special day

Today I'd like to share a magical place with you guys called  Pudding Cafe in l'eixample dreta. I discovered this place by accident a year ago after visiting the LAIE bookstore which is directly across the street. Through the window, I caught a glimpse of a crazy white and red striped ceiling and was immediately intrigued by the circus-like décor. When you step inside, you feel at once as though you've entered into Alice's Wonderland with the enormous mushrooms that make you feel dwarfed in comparison. There are comfy chairs and enormous tables, cozy sofas in the corners for secret chats with friends, books piled high on every surface and all the drinks are served in dainty, flowery, cups.

 

Last week, in order to celebrate my birthday, I invited my friends here for cake and tea--my two passions in life! I picked this place for a few reasons 1) the lovely decor 2) it was big enough to fit everyone (that makes it sound like I have a lot of friends, but there were only like 9 people there) 3) the food is delicious and 4) it's a perfect spot for kids. Below is a picture I took of some of my birthday cakes. My idea was that since the portion sizes are enormous, we would order a few different things and share. It was like tapas but with cake, which is even better! We took dainty bites and savored them like sommeliers carefully trying to detect subtle flavors. Then, we voted on our favorites. I have a spot in my heart for carrot cake but the cheesecake got the most votes. (P.S. I have an inner girly girl that doesn't like pink, princesses, unicorns or anything sparkly but cannot get enough of adorable, whimsical, heart shaped plates. That girl's weird). 

As I mentioned, Pudding is a wonderful place for toddlers and little kids. There are plenty of children's books, board games, crayons and paper, some Legos,and other random things lying around to keep the little ones busy while the parents enjoy themselves. Roman probably had as much fun as I did, but that might have been partly because his galpal Amelia showed up.

Just look at these cuties! But don't be fooled by their innocent expressions--these two are doubtlessly up to some shenanigans.


This place is a wonderful little gem in the middle of the city--only blocks away from touristy Plaça Catalunya and yet very few tourists will ever find this place. Even Barcelona natives that I invited had never been here. It's a great place to come and indulge your sweet tooth (dessert makes up 90% of their menu) and chill out with your friends. If you're ever in town, I invite you to visit what has become one of my favorite places in the city.


(Photos: top two from Charhadas, third photo from Milanesa)

Surviving the summer in the city (sans A/C)

When we first moved here a few years ago and began our apartment hunt, it never occurred to us to ask the agent showing us our apartment whether it had air conditioning or not.  This was for several reasons, 1) it was around 35 degrees Fahrenheit outside so A/C was the last thing on our minds 2) we had no idea how hot and humid Barcelona gets in the summer and 3) the Professor and I are from Miami where air conditioning is as prolific as palm trees and flip flops. 

Fast forward three summers and here we are, sitting around the house in our unmentionables with a fan on high pointed right at us. And I'm telling you, it's still not enough. The Professor and I have practically turned complaining about the heat into a hobby--we do it all the time! ¨Ugh, my shirt is sticking to my back¨, ¨My hair is so frizzy!¨ ¨Is that the highest the fan goes?¨ 

You might think our behavior and complaining is a little extravagant since Barcelona is hardly any hotter than Miami. It's just that as native Miamians, we've never been exposed to the heat before. This sounds so strange to people from here and probably it will to you too. People here are always amused and bewildered by our whining, ¨But isn't Miami hot year round?¨ they ask.  Yes, it is. And that's why every single place you go has central air conditioning and it's on all the time. Also we don't have to walk anywhere in Miami. We go from our air conditioned house, to our air conditioned car, to our air conditioned destination. As a matter of fact, in the summer months, when it's especially hot and humid outside, many places turn the air conditioning so low you need to bring a sweater with you. So even though the Professor and I have been living in a tropically hot place almost our whole lives, we have been accustomed to living in Scandinavian temperatures. 

That's why we were thrown for a loop when we discovered that in Spain, it's not that common to have air conditioning and what's more, people don't really mind. It's been explained to us that most apartments are too old to have central air-conditioning and since it only gets hot for three months of the year (during one of which everyone's gone for vacation anyway), it's not really that necessary. Also, it's expensive. I remember a few years ago when we stayed at a hotel in Valencia, the hotel management informed me that they don't turn on the air conditioning in the rooms until July. When I complained that it was already tremendously hot even in late April, they advised me to open the windows. 

We've also discovered that apart from these practical considerations, there's another, unspoken reason why people don't have A/C: they're suspicious of it. Many Spaniards, indeed many Europeans we've encountered, think that A/C is bad for you; it'll make you sick. I remember that when Roman was born, smack in the middle of a scorching hot summer, anytime we went to a restaurant they would seat us as far from the air conditioning as possible, fearing that the cold air would be too much for a wee baby. But since then, we've also seen adults, who assuredly have heartier immune systems, trying to avoid sitting or standing in front of any cold air source. 

But there's something else too. People here accept the heat, sometimes even embrace it, because it's fleeting. In a few months, the leaves will turn brown and the temperatures will dip down. In Miami, we don't embrace the heat because we always have it. We take it for granted. We live in the summer exactly as we do in the winter--wearing socks, sleeping under blankets and with the A/C blasting. It's not only wasteful from a conservation standpoint, it's also a rejection of nature. As my friend said, ¨It's summer. It's supposed to be hot.¨

Since I've realized this (and it took me some time to accept it), I've made more of an effort to enjoy the season while it's still here. We eat lots of cold salads for lunch, keep our windows open all day trying to tempt in a breeze, and make daily trips to the ice cream vendor on our street. We also try to spend as much time outside as we can where it's actually cooler than upstairs in our apartment. But we still bought a portable air conditioning unit. It's big and bulky and only cools the area immediately around it, but we love it dearly. 

(Photo: The Sartorialist) 

Scenes from the Festa Major de Sants

It's widely acknowledged here in Barcelona that the summer festival in Gracia that I wrote about last time, is the one for the big crowds and the tourists. But the summer festival that's for the locals is the one in my own neighborhood of Sants. When we moved to this neighborhood, we had no idea that it had a certain reputation and we knew nothing of its history. We later learned that this was a former industrial hub in the city and that families who live here have lived here for generations meaning that there's a strong community spirit here. Today, our neighborhood has also gotten a reputation for being home to many young hippies, plenty hipsters (artisanal beers at Homo Sibaris anyone?) and fervent political activists (yep, this was the neighborhood where the rioting took place a few months ago over the demolition of an occupied city building). All of this is very interesting to know of course (or it is for me anyway), but let's move on to the festival and the street decorations, shall we?

Here are some scenes from the Fiesta de Sants:

First up, a medieval themed street in Carrer Alcolea de d'alt complete with swords and shields, darts, and a castle. These made up flags with dragons made me feel like I was in Game of Thrones or something. 

A tribute to Barcelona's beloved architect, Antoni Gaudí, with a mini version of Parc Guëll on Carrer Vallespir.  You can't see it very well, but that's actually water coming out of the iguana's mouth. Clever, eh?

I told you our neighborhood was political. So why not a satirically themed Communist North Korea street on Carrer Alcolea baix? It was funny and mildly disturbing at the same time. 

More from the communist street. There was a tank, this fighter plane, a checkpoint and fake propaganda pinned up here and there 

In our day and age, the designers of the themed streets fully expect people to post to social networking sites so they created a 'selfie' backdrop here. I hate that that word's been adopted into the Spanish language. The English one too actually. 

Carrer Roses was decorated with a comic book theme. Specifically, the long running Spanish comic 13, Rue del Percebe. It was so well done! I instantly went home and looked this comic up because, not being from here originally, I'd never heard of it. Here's a close up of one  of the boxes:

 I loved finding the mini details like the picture hung on the wall, the sconce, and the flowers on the balcony. 

There's so much more to the festivities than the street decorations. There are concerts, dancing, water balloon fights, paint fights, puppet shows, face painting, balloon animals, and more. It's a lively but noisy time to be in the city. Sometimes the festivities go on until the wee hours and the Professor and I complain to each other about the noise of the crowds and the loud, dated music (the YMCA AGAIN?! What year is this?!) But really it's a lot of fun. 

 

 And it's also a great opportunity to buy yummy fried foods and food on a stick. 

And dance around with your squealing, happy baby to disco music under strings of lights.

So that's what we've been up to lately. Here's what we did last week in case you missed it. 

Scenes from the Festa Major de Gracia

As I've written before, summers in Barcelona can be a bit of a bummer. But the hot and boring days are interrupted every August with the arrival of the neighborhood festivals known as the festes majors. These are enormous block parties organized and carried out by several districts in Barcelona. The festivals distinguish themselves from the average street fair by having elaborate, sometimes totally over the top decorations always within a certain theme. So one neighborhood can be decked out in Super Mario Brothers decorations and another can feature African safari or something. When I say decorations, I don't just mean paper streamers and balloons like at a child's birthday party. I'm talking about enormous structures, made of plastic, wood, often paper maché, and tons of recycled products. These are decorations that the various committees of every neighborhood spend all year working on from one festa major to another. These decorations bring people from all over the city to a specific neighborhood to marvel at the ingenuity of the creators while listening to live music, drinking some beer, and hanging out with their families and friends. Last week, we headed over to the neighborhood of Gracia, which many locals think has the best festa major, to check out this year´s decorations. The themes ranged from Willy Wonka to zombies.

Here are some more we liked: 

This was the Bollywood themed street. Looks fun, right? I loved the vibrant colors. In addition to the lanterns and the jewel toned sashes everywhere, there was a Taj Mahal-like entrance and pictures of famous Bollywood stars (I'm assuming they're famous anyway, I'm not an authority on the subject) and ....

this paper maché elephant! He was set up on the other end of the Bollywood street bidding you farewell. It was huge! The decorators really went all out here, I'd say. There's a contest for best decorated street and this one came in second place.

This Amazon themed street won first prize in the contest. It was decorated with birds, a crocodile which you can see on the right side and tons of fake foliage made of recycled plastic products like water bottles. The best part was that as you exited, water misted down at you which most kids got a huge kick out of-except for Roman who got freaked out. 

These origami cranes were from another street decorated entirely in a Japanese theme. There were paper lanterns, geisha, and samurai swords. The Professor joked that if it only had a sushi station, it would have won his vote. 

When the Professor and I walked into this street, which was called, simply, 'W', we were a bit bewildered as to what the 'W' referred to. There were odd, fantastical decorations all around. We were thinking, Dr. Who for a bit before we saw this chocolate fountain. Then we had a joint a-ha moment- Willly Wonka!

This picture cracks me up a bit. Roman obviously doesn't know how to do a carnival cutout so he was shrieking and squirming as the Professor tried to hold him up and stick his face more or less in the hole. The whole time, I'm calling to him to look at the camera and smile as a line forms behind me. Parents can be pretty crazy, I reflected later. 

So that was our weekend at the Gracia festival. Stay tuned this week for pictures from the Festa Major de Sants, my neighborhood!

Preparing for the summer exodus

When the little one was born in July two years ago, I was so grateful that the Professor had the month of August off so that he could stay home with the baby and I. I was even more grateful when I found out that my in-laws would be coming to visit for the entire summer. But when August rolled around, we realized the big downside to having a summer baby in Barcelona. Basically, the city shuts down for an entire month (and sometimes the first two weeks of September) as everyone takes their summer vacations all at the same time. So if you're here in August, you're stuck in the hot and humid city with a bunch of tourists and many of your favorite shops and restaurants and cafes are closed for a few weeks. (Note: this doesn't apply to all businesses of course, just the small ones like bakeries, butchers, clothing boutiques, small bookstores, and the like). 

As if that weren't inconvenient enough, schools are also closed from mid-July to mid-September so you can imagine how parents feel about summer vacation. There are of course day camps you can put your kids in but most of those end on July 31st. After that point, you're on your own. The Professor and I were still working through July so for a few weeks, it was a revolving door of childcare around here as the Professor would stay home while I worked and I would stay home while he worked.  Because there's no school, Spanish parents don't have much of a choice except to take the month off work and take a vacation with their families. After two years here, I still kind of marvel at this. For Americans, the idea of such a long vacation is a little overwhelming. You're almost thinking, but what will we do? Just go to the beach every single day? To be totally honest, the Professor and I were a little panicky as summer approached imagining Roman cooped up in the house watching TV all day and playing all by himself (he has no family here and all his friends are on vacation). But we're doing our best to make sure that he has an enjoyable summer. During the day, we try to keep him busy with trips to the park, pool, library, mall and other places around town. Sometimes we just hop on the metro or a local bus and get off at any stop we want just to indulge Roman's love of all modes of transportation. Hopefully he'll remember this summer as a time where he learned how to color on the sidewalk, chase bubbles, squash water balloons and build sandcastles.

We are going to be taking a mini-vacation to France this week (only five days. But still!) and then we'll get back to exploring our adopted city with our little summer boy.  

Stay tuned!

Scenes from our weekend

Summer is officially upon us! Over the weekend in Catalonia, we celebrated the summer solstice and then the day of Sant Joan on Monday evening by stuffing our faces with coca which I first wrote about here. Apart from these festivities, we found other ways to celebrate summer by attending the Music for Families Day at Parc de Pedralbes. Every summer, the park hosts a series of concerts by a bunch of notable artists (this year's performers include Kool and the Gang, Tom Jones, Blondie, Carla Bruni, among others), and this year's Family Day had concerts for little ones as well and a bunch of other fun activities. 

Here are some scenes from our weekend:

For some reason, summer is synonymous with bubbles -- at least it is for children. When we arrived at the park, it was tremendously hot and sunny so playing by the fountain with the bubbles seemed like a good idea. It's really amazing how much little ones love bubbles, isn't it? It's just soap and water and yet they can be entertained for hours. While I don't find it as fun as the kids do, I still think it's so lovely to see the bubbles floating lazily around like spirits of summer.  

When we got tired of the bubbles, we made our way to the shade to discover that some giraffes had come out to play! Not real ones of course. These are people walking on stitlts wearing giraffe costumes. I felt so bad for them because it was a real scorcher but the kids were utterly captivated. 

Here's a closeup of the giraffe man with a smiling little one. We really do have to give them credit for this idea, it was a winner!

Since this was a music day, they had various stations set up throughout the park where kids could engage with music in different ways. They had some swing dancers dancing with the kids, some music activities set up on iPads in the tech section, a craft station to make your own instruments and finally, this area, for the smaller littles where there were a bunch of instruments like maracas, triangles, and drums where the kids could basically practice making a racket. Roman was so excited but he was a bit confused at first, 'So you're saying to pick up this stick and just mercilessly bang on this round thing? Okay!' 

Lately, Roman loves, I mean LOVES, balloons. It's so funny because he inverts the 'a' and 'oo' sound so instead of saying balloon he says boola and always with great excitement, as in 'Boola, Boola!'. He loves them so much that over the long weekend, we showed him the classic French movie, The Red Balloon and, predictably, he was enchanted. My little one is a cinephile. I'm so proud of him! 

 I never got to discover what this was about because it was blocked off while we were there, but I loved the Alice and Wonderland tribute. 

I think this was my favorite moment of the day-story hour in the bamboo forest. It was a nice opportunity to sit and rest in the shade especially since by that time we were all pretty beat. We headed home soon after but we thoroughly enjoyed our day in the park. 

So that's what we've been up to lately. What about you guys?

P.S. Here's what we did last weekend in case you missed it.