ByeBye Barcelona

And so came the last day for our year (or almost year) in Barcelona. I have actually been looking forward to this day. It feels like I have done everything I wanted here, and I am ready for a new chapter in life. But even though, it feels a bit sad leaving. Especially all "lasts". For example today was the last day I babysat Gabriel, last time I went by the metro, last time I looked over a sunny Barcelona from our balcony..

Of course there will be things I'm going to miss about Barcelona and Spain. One obvious thing is the sun and weather, moving up north again means colder climate and more rain. But to be honest, right now I'm looking forward to Scandinavian summer weather, in which you actually can do things and be outside without melting (but I bet in 3 weeks I will be whining and wanting to go back.. ;)) Here some things I will miss:

- Living 1min from the beach and everything that comes along with it (chiringuitos, bars, restaurants…)

- But at the same time living in a metropolitan city that really has everything; sports, culture, gastronomy, 1,5h to ski-resorts, nightlife, fashion and shopping..

On the other hand, there are things that I won't miss and that I'm looking forward to in Sweden:

- Swedish food!

- Elementary things not taking forever, like getting Internet installed (or canceled; I will tell you about it later), getting registrated in Spain etc.

- Not being seen as a tourist

- Commodities like having a dishwasher, living in a building with elevator ;)

But what I'm looking forward the most to start a new school, meet new people, living in Sweden and a new city. It will be exciting to see how I will cope with life in a "little" town now. I grew up in Stockholm, then lived in Copenhagen for 3 years (both around 2million inhabitants) and Barcelona (4million) for one year. Now I'm moving to Helsingborg in Sweden, a town on the west coast with about 130.000! But that will be an experience and I'll have Copenhagen 1 hour away in train.

The apartment got filled up with moving boxes

I must finish of by saying VIVA ESPAÑA, en domingo VAMOOOS! Our last night, we spent on a beach bar watching the semifinal of the World Cup between Germany and Spain (and for you who didn't see the match, Spain won and are now going to play the final on Sunday against Holland).

Last night in Barcelona, before the game

Spain is happy to be in the final

Well, good bye Barcelona, at least for this time. We will probably be back for a short visit in November when Kasper is graduating, but until then; take care and I will miss you!

An olive twig from Gabriel and his mom & dad, which means good luck and as a little reminder of Spain and Barcelona.

Wordless Wednesday

As promised, here are some more pictures (link) from our roadtrip to Andorra, Cadaques and Girona last week! Because Blogger use Picasa and I still haven't found a way to upload more then 5 pictures at a time, I link to my Facebook-album instead.

Enjoy :)

Home again, or?

Well I mean, Barcelona is where my home is right now, but I also feel like Denmark is my home and off course Sweden, where I'm from, is my home too. So I don't know if I'm homeless or privileged to have three? But it's nice in sports to have three countries to chear for :)

Anyway, we are now back from our roadtrip! We came back on Wednesday evening, but I have been working the last two days and done some other stuff. But here comes the trip in short:

We took off in our rented car Saturday morning and 3 hours later we arrived in Andorra La Vella (which is the capital of Andorra). The first day we walked around the city and then we drove up to a small lake, but it was quite cold in the mountains and the first day we did have some clouds, so it was a short walk.

The second day we went north, to Ordino where we hiked up along a waterfall. We didn't walk to the top, but we did see a fox! Charlie the dog was really excited (Jack Russell Terriers are used in fox hunting). In the afternoon we did a small trail in Massana, on out way back to Andorra La Vella.

The "fox-trail". The trail in Massana

The last day in Andorra, we went east to Canillo, where we wanted to hike up to a lake. But halfway up the mountain, we started to see snow.. At first it was only laying under trees where the sun hadn't come yet. But later it was also on the trail and then there were only snow, so we couldn't see the the markings for the trail, so we went down again. But we did see an eagle/hawk, a falcon and deers!

Later that day we also went for a scenic route in the mountains by car, and before dinner we didsome shopping.

The start of the "snow-trail". From the scenic route by car

Here some fast facts about Andorra:

* It is the only country where Catalan is the official language (eventhough it is the language of Catalonia (where Barcelona is)).

* It is the sixts smallest country in Europe, 2.5 times smaller than Paris

* The life expectency is the second highest in the world (82 years)

We then went back to Spain, to spend a night in Cadaques. On our way to the coast, we stopped in Figueres, where the painter Salvador Dalí was borned and we saw his museum.

In Cadaques we visited the house Dalí used to spend his summers in, and we did some nice walkes by the sea (Charlie bathed).

The Dalí museum with eggs on the roof. Cadaques bay

On our way home the next day, we went to Cap de Creus, which is Spains most eastern point. We thought of having a picnic there, but it was too windy :(

We also did a short visit in Girona, which actually suprised us and was really beautiful with old buildings and churches.

Cap de Creus. Girona

I will upload more pictures soon!

How to make Españoles laugh

Well it is not that hard, the Spanish are quite a happy people. But if you want them to really laugh, like falling-of-the-bench-laugh, here is what you will have to do:

Go out and find some young people, preferable young men in a gruop. Then take a guy from Scandinavia, preferable Danish, like Kasper. And then (and this is the tricky part) take out your roller-skis. Put the Dane on the skis, and volá your Spaniards will die of laugh!

At least that's what happened yesterday. After Kasper had come home, after 2 days on the rails, he wanted to try out his new roller skis. So we went down to the beach. At first Charlie was a bit suspicious, but after some minutes he liked running next to Kasper.

Kasper has namely decided to do the Vasaloppet, which is a 90km cross-country ski-race in Sweden, held every year the first week of March. Kasper's only problem is that he has never been on cross-country skis before. So to be able to train before the race, he is now starting to go on roller skis.

For you who don't know what Vasaloppet is, here is a short history lesson (oh come on, don't stop reading just because I wrote history lesson, it's fun!):

In 1520 Gustav Vasa was escaping the Danish king Christian II on skis. He skied from Mora to Sälen (to Swedish town/villages) and therefore the race is between those cities, (although the race today is from Sälen to Mora). Some years later, Gustav Vasa became the Swedish king after having defeated Denmark and Christian II, and ever since, Sweden has been independet! Read more

So if you spot a guy in roller skis in Barcelona, it's probably Kasper. He will be the only one. At least it was the first time the guys next to us yesterday saw one.

Pan Integral vs. Rugbrød

Now that Jesus has gone to heaven, we can all go back to our everyday-life. Like commenting on the differences between Spain and Scandinavia. For example, take a look at the difference between pan integral in Spain ("whole grain" bread, to the left) and the Scandinavian cousin rugbrød from Denmark (to the right):

Quite cute that they call the left one for "integral".. Not that I eat the Danish rugbrød that much (too sour), but in Sweden we have some breads in the middle, like Lingongrova which is a whole grain bread, but with lingonberries to make it a bit sweet. Lovely lovely Sweden, I miss your bread.

Btw, I should have a webcam installed, because the weather changed 4 times yesterday! When we woke up it was rainy (as you saw on my Bcn Today-pic), but then we had sun and blue sky between 13-18, perfectly for a lunch at the balcony. Then all of a sudden the sky turned black and we had a thunderstorm for about an hour. In time for dinner, we got the blue sky again and a beautiful sunset. Crazy weather-god. Today it looks a bit more stable, but u never know..

OH, and I also found out (or she contacted me) who my visitor from Georgia is! Her name is Diana and she was just blogsurfing when she found my blog :) I do that alot (blogsurfing), you know you find a blog and then just click on a link on that blog etc etc. But quite amazing that she came back and read the post about herself! You can see her blog here.

And I'm sorry Stockholm that I wrote about your weather yesterday (they apperently got snow again today..), I won't mention it again! (Kasper has a theory that if you talk about the good weather, it will change to the worse).

Swedish weekend in Barcelona

The Long Friday turned into a Good Friday! For lunch yesterday, we went to the newly opened Swedish restaurant called Pappa Sven, where we got some gravad lax (salmon) and then I had köttbullar (swedish meatballs) and Kasper chicken with potatisgratäng (creamed potatoes). So that made it feel a bit more like Easter. Not that we eat meatballs during Easter.. but salmon!

We then headed into Barrio Gotico to see the processions. We caught the one going from Macarena church, and saw it both at the start and at La Rambla. There were the people who look like KKK, the ladies who sang "lamination-songs" and the men who carried the superheavy floats.

As you can see, today we have no clouds, sun and around 18-20deg! This morning we went to IKEA to see if they got some easter decorations. They didn't. But at least now we got pillows to the chairs at the balcony, a tray with birds on and some other necessaries. We also got some sill (swedish fish), candy, chocolate, chips and räkost (hm, like cream cheese with shrimps). Now we just had lunch, see the eggs (and the bird-tray):

So the weekend turned out quite well after all :) Both Swedish restaurant, food and store, mixed with some Spanish traditions and weather; me like!

Now I am going to the beach to meet my dear friend Manasa!

Loooong Friday

Yepp, that's what Good Friday is called in Swedish and Danish. Antes, (before in spanish, trying to expand your spanish vocabolary) on Long Friday, you weren't supposed to do anything fun, lively and i.e. the radio only played psalms, and the restaurants and shops were closed. This because Jesus' friday was long and hard, and so should ours be. There, you just got a little lesson in religon.

Well it looks like my friday is going to be quite long. Kasper is writing his master thesis, almost everyone has gone home during the Easterbreak and everything is closed. I did some window-shopping at hm.com, but they don't deliver to Spain (lucky my wallet). At least it's good weather!

We went to the beach this morning (yes morning, as in 9 o'clock) with Charlie and watched the sun. That was hyggeligt as we say in Denmark.

This afternoon we are probably going to Barrio Gotico to see the procesiones, they aren't like the ones in Andalucia, but they might give some easterfeeling. Yeah because that's the thing; it doesn't feel like easter.. We don't have any easter-decorations, no easter candy, no family-events to go to - we don't even have eggs at home! Boring easter.

This is what came off Charlie,

when I brushed him yesterday

I don't get it...

What is it about old spanish men and clipping their nails in public!??

Last week Kasper and I saw an old man sitting on a bench outside and clipping his fingernails, ok I can see the point; you don't have to collect the nails again, or worry that you will drop the clipper in the toilet or that the sink will be plugged... But then some days later, we saw another old man clipping his nails in a shoppingcenter!! Just walking around and clipping, like it was the most natural thing to do.. Ih I really don't get it..

Now I will do some loundry for the trip and go out and enjoy the sun.

Write to you later

Love

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Vad är det med gamla spanska män och att klippa naglarna offentligt!?!

Förra veckan såg Kasper och jag en gammal man sitta på en bänk och klippa sina fingernaglar.. Ok jag kan se pointen; du behöver inte samla upp naglarna efter dig, eller oroa dig för att du ska tappa klipparen i toaletten eller att det blir stopp i handfatet.. Men några dagar senare såg vi en annan gammal man som klippte sina naglar i ett shoppingcenter!! Han gick omkring och klippte som om det var helt normalt.. Ih jag förstår det inte...

Nu ska jag tvätta lite inför resan och gå ut och njuta av solen.

Skriver till er senare

Love