The Royal Wedding!

Yesterday was the day of the royal wedding in Sweden between Crown Princess Victoria and her Daniel, and of course we had to see it. Because of the wedding, going with the Stockholm metro was free, so after a ride together with the rest of the city, we came to Gustavs Adolfs torg (a square). There they had put a big screen TV so that the people could see the from inside the church.

Half way trough the wedding, my mom and I tried to elbow us through the crowd, so that we would get a glimpse of the cortege. Because after the wedding, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel would go in a horse drawn carriage trough Stockholm, ending with a boat ride to the castle. We came quite far and we then had small chairs to stand on. But even with (dirty) tricks, we didn't see the bridal couple because the carriage was very low and all I got on the photos was other cameras and flags.. But then we could advance, standing almost next to the barricades, so when they opened up the bridge in front of the castle, we came in the front row, right after the polices! So when Victoria and Daniel came out an hour later to say hi to the people and wave, we had front row places ;)

I think I have about 180 photos and videos, most of them are pics of the big screen, but the last ones are "real". Can't post all of them but here are some (click to enlarge):

On our way to the metro. The royal palace.

Mom and I waiting for the wedding to begin.

(following pictures from the big screen TV)

Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway.

Queen Sonja and King Harald of Norway.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Prince Henry

Queen Sofia of Spain and Queen Beatrix of Belgium.

Princess Madeleine and Queen Silvia of Sweden.

Daniel's parents.

Daniel Westling (the Prince to be) and Prince Carl-Philip of Sweden

The bride arrives.

Crown Princess Victoria and King Carl Gustav XVI of Sweden

Her dress(!!)

The King hands over Victoria to Daniel

Exchanging rings. Me and mom on our chairs.

The cortege (only the guys on horses, when the wedding couple went by, all I could see was cameras and flags...). The couple (pic from the big screen TV).

Waving. The police lineup before they opened the barricades for the bridge. (now "real" pictures)

Mom and I in the front! Excited :D

The people (behind us) waiting for the Princess and new Prince to come to the castle.

Two blondes with big sunglasses sitting on our chairs, waiting.

The Princess and Prince! The Castle.

The people is cheering and waving.

The couple with the Queen and King of Sweden to the right.

Waving.

I then have about 50 more pictures from the balcony, but I'll spare you those ;) I also have some videos, but Blogger is not cooperating right now, so you will get them later.

So what did you think of her wedding dress? I think it was amazing and she looked so beautiful! The hair, the crown, the accessories, everything :) Actually everyone looked good, no ugly or weird dress this time. Victoria and Daniel just looked so much in love and I wish them the best!

Have a great week everyone and remember love!

I love my job!

As you might know, I'm working some as a babysitter here in Barcelona for Swedish and Danish children. So this afternoon I went to Dina, 4 years old. We first played, swam and had a lot of fun in their swimming pool. We then ate Swedish (home made!) meatballs and watched Disney's Aristocats. I mean, how great isn't my job! Can you think of a better one? :)

Adorable Dina in her cool Hello Kitty towel/robe

On my way over there, I saw this ad from an airline (I think it was Spanair) in the metro. They are showing all their destinations on a fictive map, and every city has gotten a little picture. Paris has the Eiffel tower, Copenhagen the little mermaid. And what did they give Stockholm? A snowman. SNOWMAN! Like there is nothing else to see in Stockholm but snow?! It's not even like we have snow all year around (ok, this year was extreme, but normally from December/January to March).. Well well, it wasn't as chocking as the time when I was asked if we had polar bears on the streets..!

And here a pic of Charlie's new collar I wrote about last time:

Monday Manicure and shopping

Here comes a quick Monday Manicure. I bought three new nail polish the other day when shopping with the girls (yep they are still 1,9€!!); one bright pink almost neon, one turquoise and a white for French tips.

I then tried the pink one:

And put a white rose on top of it:

I also got a pink lip-pencil from Kiko, a corall lace top, a black jumpsuit, a long dress for the silver wedding and today I came home with a necklace and rosettes for the hair :) Oh, and Charlie the dog got a new collar!

The jumpsuit and top, both from Primark, 5€ and 3€!

Visit from Estocolmo!

This week my three best friends from Stockholm came and visited me here in Barcelona. As I wrote before, they were all going to stay with us in our 40sq/m apartment, so my boyfriend had to live with four girls and a dog ;) But it went fine and we didn't spend too much time in the apartment anyway. We went beaching, shopping, saw SATC2, went clubbing, had cocktails, went to a theatre, made a hair-salong-visit, did the top turist attractions and off course had a lot of gossip and delicious dinners!

We went to our favourite places El Rovell for tapas, Recasens for delicacies, Rosa Negra for raspberry mojitos and Mexican food, and to the sushi buffet. We also squeezed in a visit to the bar with Barcelonas best burgers and some café-visits.

On our way to sushi buffet. The girls in front of La Sagrada Familia

On the beach on our way home from Opium. Drinks last night at Foc.

I had a great time and I miss you already girls! It's good that we'll meet again next week when we fly up to Sweden :) You can see more pictures from the week here.

About the apartment hunt, we have now found an apartment that we like and Kasper's dad has been to see it. It is completely renovated but the rent is quite high.. If we get it I will post pictures!

Hope everyone had as good a weekend as I had!

Life status report

As some of you know, our living here in Barcelona was just temporary. We moved to Spain last September because my boyfriend Kasper was going to take his master degree in marketing here and I was going to improve my Spanish and find out what I wanted to do next (this) year.

Well, Kasper is now writing his last pages on his master thesis and I am finished with my Spanish-studies. I have applyed for the Service Management-programme at the University of Lund, Campus Helsingborg in Sweden and Kasper has got a spot at Arla Foods' F15 Graduate Programme.

Since we are flying up to Stockholm (where I'm from) to visit my parents for Midsummer, going back down again after 10 days and then were suposed to fly up again but to Copenhagen some week later for Kasper's parents silver wedding, we decided that it was easiest just to stay in Scandinavia after the wedding. We also wanted to start looking for an apartment in Helsingborg quite early so we don't have to do it at the same time as everybody else is doing it.

So our things will get transported already on the 6th of July and we are flying up "for good" on the 8th. Suddenly it feels like we have no time left here in Barca..!

Since Kasper is going to rotate 3 times in his two years at Arla, we decided it was best if we got a place where I was going to study. At first we thought of buying an apartment because they are not that expencive and the monthly cost would be about the same as for renting. But we then heard that the market is going down in 2-3 years, and that would be about the same time that we are going to sell again. So we are now looking for rental apartments.

It's quite hard to look at apartments when you are 2000km away and most of the website don't even have pictures of the places.. So in that aspect, it is going to be great to come home early. But we are definetly going to miss living next to the sea, the sun and our friends down here!

This is not going to be my good-bye Barcelona post (yes I will have one) and I will keep blogging after moving, but just thought a status update would be nice for everyone :)

It's good to have the moving-part in place, now we "only" have these little problems and wonderings left:

- Will we get some money back from this apartment for moving early or do we have to pay dobble rent some months?

- Will our landlord buy our furniture or are we going to have to put everything on the Internet?

- Where will Kasper start working?

- Will I get enrolled?

- Will it be hard to find a place?

etc..

Well enough about the problems, now some fun stuff! Tomorrow 3 of my best friends are arriving from Stockholm :D Poor (or?) Kasper; 4 girls in an 40sq/m apartment.. You will get an update on how that goes!

And as an ending, I will give you my Monday Manicure ;)

First, this is how my last weeks nails ended up looking:

And this is what I made yesterday:

A nice French using Kiko nr 219 as a base, H&M white tip and pink base coat, and finishing with a pink flower using H&M "Check me out" and Konad plate m20.

Have a nice week!

Montjuïc

Last Thursday was the last day with the moto we had rented, so when I finished babysitting, we went on a small trip to Montjuïc. Montjuïc is a 173m high mountain/hill in Barcelona with small gardens, the olympic area and an old fort, Castell de Montjuïc, overlooking Barcelona on the north side, the harbour and the ocean on the east side and the industrial area and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat on the south and west. On the north foot of the mountain are the MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya) and the magic fountain (which I have pictures of here).

I have been on Montjuïc before, but never seen the castell, so with Charlie the dog between us, we drove up the hill. It was beautiful weather and we found a nice little walking-trail around the fort, so everyone was enjoying the trip. We had brought some lunch that we had, overlooking the ocean. We ended the trip with ice-cream in the shade, before going home again.

(click to enlarge)

Charlie checking out the cannon. Beautiful gardens

Lunch with sea view. The MNAC seen from Montjuïc

Food for Friends

I know it's only about a week since I made a food-post, but I think that this one can be good for the weekend brunch and the post ends with a cute video for a Friday smile :)

Banana pancakes! You guys over in the US probably know how to make them, but it's not something every European has tasted.

And what fits better than this song with Jack Johnson:

So, get in the kitchen, turn up the volume and start making some:

American banana pancakes

~ 8pc big using 1dl dough

2 tbsp melted butter

1 egg

2,5 dl flour

2,5 dl milk

1 tbs vanilla powder

2 tbs baking powder

2 ripe bananas

1 tbsp sugar

Whisk the egg into the melted butter to a smooth mixture.

Mix the dry ingridients in an other bowl.

Alternate between flour-mixture and milk into the egg-mixture.

Mash the bananas and fold into the dough.

Take 1dl dough and fry with some butter on middle temperature and flip when you see bubbles. (The smaller ones are cuter, but takes long time to make..)

We gave one to Charlie the dog but he didn't really get what to do with it... Strange texture! It ended with me, tearing small pieces of and feeding him, but then he couldn't get enough :)