Uncle & Auntie's 25th Wedding Anniversary

Last Sunday we had a lovely family get-together, after not having been all together since Liam's 100 days party! My uncle and my auntie celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and it was really nice. Can you believe I remember their wedding to the detail? I was just 4.5 years old! I was the girl who brought them the wedding rings, and I remember my auntie crying of happiness :) I asked my mom why auntie was crying on such a nice day?! :p

We met to go to church at 12:30 and the Father gave a nice speech commemorating their 25th wedding anniversary. We then headed to the restaurant, El Rubell in Monistrol de Calders, which serves the yummiest catalan cuisine and I highly recommend. The only drawback is the horrible winding road you need to endure to get there! The atmosphere was more wedding-y than I had thought, with presents for the guests and other suprises I really liked! My auntie and other girls surprised my uncle with a FlashMob dance which was so cool!

Liam had a blast playing in the terrace, the weather was amazing and he was oh-so cute with his shorts and elastics! :)

To my dismay, I realized we didn't take any family-of-3 pic, and Jeff was SUPER handsome in his suit. Awwwww :( Anyway, here is a pic with my cousin instead :p

Love,

One Day Getaway from Barcelona: Banyoles + Besalú

The hubby had been asking me to go on a Sunday getaway for the whole winter, but being it so cold, who would want to go out anywhere for the whole day?? So when the weather got all spring-like we knew it was our chance! 

And so we on a 1-day getaway we went! It was the hubby who chose the location this time, and it was Banyoles, a town an hour and a half away from Barcelona. 

The most typical thing in Banyoles is its huge natural lake. Lots of water sports take place in it, and going on a stroll or riding around it is absolutely wonderful. 

We rented a couple bikes, one of which had a cute chair for Liam at the front. Honestly, I had never seen a baby chair like this one. All the ones I had ever seen were at the back, and we loved this one! Liam had a blast being able to see everything and getting a hold of the handlebar! 

During our ride around the lake, I accidentally saw a road sign to Besalú at just 7km away! Besalú is one of my favorite medieval towns ever, it's absolutely gorgeous. 

I didn't know we were that close, and of course after lunch off we went to Besalú! I did a video too and hopefully I can upload it on my YouTube channel soon :)

I would love it if you guys want to leave some 1-day or weekend getaway trip ideas (from Barcelona!) below in the comments! =)

Best Weekend Getaway From Barcelona

When I started planning this trip a mere couple weeks before the trip, little did I know it would end up being the best weekend for the hubby and I since we moved back to Barcelona a year and a half ago. This may sound a bit exaggerated but belive me when I say it's not at all. When I think about it, I find it almost unbealievable that being a Catalan I had never visited any of the places we went to last weekend. Oh well, the hubby, Liam and I got to discover the whole lot together!

I hope my description of this getaway will be detailed enough for you to do it if you feel like it, if you have any question do not hesitate to write a comment or drop me an email! 

Our weekend getaway started on Saturday morning, we left home by car a bit after 8AM and arrived to Figueres before 10AM. We had booked our tickets for the Dalí Theatre-Museum for 11AM, since we heard there were some longs queues to buy tickets during the peak season. The tickets for both the museum and the Jewel Collection were 12€ each {Liam for free}. 

The museum was really something. I always thought by seeing Dalí's mustache that he was very probably a bit crazy, and his museum confirmed it. It is an amazing surrealist work filled with art that challenge once perception of reality.

I want my museum to be a single block, a labyrinth, a great surrealist object. It will be totally theatrical museum. The people who come to see it will leave with the sensation of having had a theatrical dream. - Salvador Dalí

We absolutely loved the museum. We were done with the visit in about an hour and half, and then went over to the Jewel Collection, which was another area dedicated to jewels Salvador Dalí had designed. I personally didn't like this as much as the museum and thought it could be skipped, but I know some people like this even better than the museum, so just buy the 12€ entrance ticket and check out by yourselves :)

Next on our plan was lunch at Restaurant L'Ou D'Or. I had done my research online about restaurants in Figueres and I'm so glad I did, because I couldn't recommend this restaurant enough. The venue may seem uninviting from the outside, but once inside, a glass-covered terrace unfolds and it's just perfect. This is not the reason we went there though, the main reason was superb food and really good price {a Saturday lunch set for 15€!}. We enjoyed a delicious Catalan cuisine meal with entrée, main course, dessert and drinks, and the hubby and I couldn't stop saying how this was an "Olivia's choice". We like to say something is an "Olivia's choice" when it's something I chose and the result has been a very good choice :p

After that we were off to El Port de la Selva, the loveliest coast town ever. When I first starting planning this trip, I actually wanted to sleep in Cadaqués, but everything was full there by the time I checked, so we booked here instead, and I'm so glad we did!

We booked a hostel here basically because it was the only thing available we saw on booking.com. It didn't look that good so our expectations were not high, but the truth is when we got there, we were welcomed by amazing sea views from the terrace of our room! The hostel was Hostal German and we only paid 52€ for our stay, so price-quality wise, we can't complain =D 

Last weekend, during our trip, took place the biggest heat wave northern Catalonia has seen in more than a decade, and guess what, our room didn't hace AC!!! At 2AM, unable to sleep, Jeff said that hostel was not an Olivia's choice after all haha, oh well.

Between the towns of El Port de la Selva and Cadaqués, stands Cap de Creus, the most amazing Natural Park in Catalonia, with perfect beaches, roads for hiking, and just filled with breath-taking beauty. 

We went to Cala Tamariua, the first beach at the beginning of Cap de Creus next to El Port de la Selva, and we absolutely LOVED it. The water was cold and I didn't dare swimming despite the heat, though! The water was deep blue, who knew these dream beaches existed so close from home!

The beach was not only beautiful because of the sea, but also because of Cap de Creus standing right behind it. While laying on the beach, with Cap de Creus at the back, and a clear water sea at the front, I felt like nothing could ever be more beautiful!

That night we had dinner at Racó de Mar. I hadn't done any research for that, so we just went in because the food we saw looked yummy, and yummy it was! They serve simple but delicious tapas, we had another great meal! :)

On Sunday we went to Cadaqués. I had planned to just walk around the city, but the heat was so intense, we ended up at the beach. There's lots of little beaches in the town, and we went to the beach of Hotel Llané Petit, which was good enough to cool down for a bit.

We absolutely loved Cadaqués. It's a gorgeous coast town all in white, Greek style, filled with little alleys and several beaches that we loved getting to explore!

If you've never been to Alt Empordà {that's how this region is called!}, then I can't recommend you this trip enough! No wonder it was our best weekend in such a long time, right?!

Wedding Wednesday: I'm getting married this week!

Hello everyone! I'm back home in Barcelona since last Saturday getting ready for our big day THIS SUNDAY! I can't describe the happiness I feel at this moment with Jeff being here with me {and his family, too!}, and getting to relax for a bit before our wedding. These two weeks we'll be staying in Europe are quite packed with trips as I already told you, and I'm so looking forward to all of them! We're leaving for Madrid today and will be coming back tomorrow night, since I didn't want to travel too much this week. We'll have plenty of that in Paris and London next week as husband and wife. Woohoo! 

This is a picture from Sunday, exactly a week before THE DAY, in our summer house. The weather is amazing here, thank God! We're having fun while sorting up some last minute things... I can't wait for Sunday to be here. I want to enjoy it so much so much so much!!! Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I can't believe I haven't uploaded a single picture to my instagram ever since I got here but everything has been just so intense! 

Happy Sant Jordi!

Today is my favorite day of the year. {At least it is when I'm back home in Barcelona!} Today, April 23, is Saint George, saint patron of Catalonia, and it's one of the most important days of the year for us Catalans. It's something like Valentine's day for us, since it's a tradition to give a present to the loved one; red roses for women and books for men. Nowadays though, men give women both a book and a red rose :)

Barcelona is at its best today, as are many other Catalan cities. If you happen to be visiting Catalonia on April 23, you will be amazed, because the whole city is transformed and filled up with little stands on the street selling books and roses. The streets are crowded, too, specially around the city center. It is a lovely Catalan tradition, and the Catalan flag is everywhere to be seen. On this day, authors spend the whole day signing their books to their readers, how cool is that! I love getting to meet my favorite authors and having a minute to tell them how much I enjoyed their books. 

I can't tell you how much I miss Catalonia on this day. It's my fourth year spending the day in Hong Kong, and I get really home sick :( I've been watching Catalan TV online today for the whole day, because there's a special on Sant Jordi for the whole day, showing the city around and letting everyone know what's going on! J got me a book and a red rose, and I got him a book to learn Catalan. I love to keep this tradition even if I'm so far away from home! You can see the pics of our presents on my instagram!

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A quick tour of our summer house

I've been to our summer house today, which is about an hour away from Barcelona. No matter how busy my schedule is these days, I HAD to come here. I love this seaside house very much, for it is rare to own such an amazing property. It's a two stories house separated from the beach only by its own garden. It's the perfect place for kids to enjoy an unforgettable summer, and for adults to relax away from the city buzz. The weather was perfect today, yet a bit cold. 

I wish I could take you on a more detailed tour but the house was not entirely ready for it today, so it will have to wait until next time. {Like my grandma had been sleeping in my room during the easter holidays and my nice bedsheets were not back in my room after being washed, and I don't want to be showing you my bed without bedsheets because what's the point!}

So I finally only took pictures of our garden and a corner of our living room. But it should be enough for you to realize how awesome this house is and why I'm so crazy about it!!!

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Venue

I'm beyond excited for today's post because I'm finally showing you our wedding venue! We're getting married at La Garriga de Castelladral, in Catalonia, Spain. Castelladral is a tiny town 17 km away from Manresa, the city were I was born and where all my family lives. La Garriga de Castelladral is a house from the 15th century, now completely reworked by the nice family who owns it, and turned into an 8-room hotel and wedding venue. The house overlooks the famous Montserrat mountains, and with these views is how we will get married.

Finding the wedding venue is probably the first thing to do when planning a wedding, so I didn't waste my time and started looking for our wedding venue as soon as I could. Browsing the internet I came across hundreds of wedding venues in Catalonia, but there was just one to meet all our requirements {style, outdoor wedding ceremony, size, location}, and it's the only one we had to visit, because I felt it was the one as soon as we stepped in.

 

Before getting engaged, I had heard stories from brides-to-be saying they felt "something" when visiting their wedding venue for the first time, and just like that, they knew it was the one. I can now assure you this is TRUE, because it happened to me too. In fact, this happened not only with the wedding venue, but also, and way stronger, with J. Back in 2008 when we first saw each other, he took my breath away. Literally. I couldn't breath for a couple of seconds and I didn't know what was going on. Now, looking back, I realise my soul somehow knew he was the one for me, and finally seeing him must have been a shock. These are life changing experiences, that some will not believe. But I don't care, all I know is what I felt and what life finally gave me, and it all makes sense to me.

All these gorgeous images are via the official blog of La Garriga de Castelladral.