Tokyo

When planning for a short trip in Asia for our 3-week stay in Hong Kong, I always had beach&sun in mind: Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, you name it. But the hubby was determined to go to cold Tokyo. It took us several weeks to reach an agreement, because I had been in Tokyo in January 7 years ago and almost frozen myself to death, and we had plans for a second pregnancy which meant I wouldn't be able to enjoy any of the deliciousness involving raw fish. 

Never ending sushi boxes at the Tsukiji Fish Market

After discussing it for several weeks and not finding any interesting beach resort we REALLY wanted to go to, I started considering the idea of postponing my second pregnancy until after the trip. And when I came to terms with that, it was much easier to accept that it might be cold, because Tokyo is an amazing city and that's no reason to not visit it in this time of the year. And so our mind was set: Tokyo it was!

Truth be told, I couldn't be happier with choice. I have to admit the hubby always has the best ideas. We have enjoyed our trip in every possible way: we ate all we wanted to:

Sushi

Tempura
Donburi
Tsukemen
Zaru Soba
Yakisoba
Shabu-Shabu
Katsudon

Okonomiyaki
A5 Beef Yakiniku

Onigiri
Dorayaki
Mochi

And Totoro Cakes!!! <3  I wasn't expecting them to taste too good but they actually did! We chose the ones filled with custard and accompanied with a yummy matcha latte :) This was at Shiro-Hige's Cream Puff Factory, a super cute cafe specialized in Totoro, which I absolutely loved! I'm looking forward to share my YouTube video with all of you so you can see how cute this place was =D

We visited the main districts:

Shinjuku
Shibuya
Harajuku
Roppongi
Asakusa
Tsukiji Fish Market

J at the Tsukiji Fish Market eating Japanese omelette

Tokyo Tower!

We got to do things I'll never forget:
- Going to a bunny cafe (Ms. Bunny in Roppongi) with bunnies and hedgehogs that you get to cuddle while having a drink!

- Meeting the adorable Grace from Texan in Tokyo, (and her husband Ryosuke!), whose hilarious comics I blogged about some months ago. We had lunch and did some shopping together and it was one of the highlights of the whole trip!

You can check out her amazing comics on her blog www.howibecametexan.com! I'm working on the YouTube videos for my channel where hopefully you get to see more than pictures can tell (that's what I love about videos!), so stay tunned!

- I got to feel more close to the novels of Haruki Murakami, which I'm absolutely hooked to because they are simply perfect, and almost always take place in Tokyo. Recognising all the places I had read about in his novels was a real thrill! I also loved seeing the boys and girls in their uniforms, as I was totally addicted to anime when I was young and it marked part of my youth and teen years.

Sensoji Asakusa Temple

After this trip, I spent a while reflecting on which things of the Japanese culture I think should be imported to Europe, because they're simply genius:
- Heated toilet seats. Toilets in Japan have multiple functions that we've never even heard about in Europe. Besides the toilet seat being warm (which is the most incredible feeling ever, specially when it's cold outside), there's the option of cleaning yourself down there with warm water! I think we could pass without this one, but the heated seat is a must :)
- Removing your shoes at the entrance of home, which is what we already do in our home since it's common practice in Hong Kong as well, and it's way cleaner than not doing so. I know there's probably less than 5% of people in Spain who do this though.
- Removing your shoes before entering the changing rooms in any shop. Changing rooms in Japan have a carpet and trying your clothes there is super comfortable. I mean, how many times have you struggles trying to put on some pants in a shop in Europe after removing your shoes and not wanting to step on the filthy floor? It happens to me more often than not. By removing your shoes BEFORE entering the changing room, the changing room stays forever clean and everyone can step on it carefree instead of staying there disgusted on your tiptoes trying not to step on that floor with your bare feet.
- Politeness. This is the crucial one. I probably should have put it in the first place. Japanese people are so polite it blows my mind away. They will never have a bad face for you, nor will they seem upset. Everyone seems the most attentive, hospitable, educated person in the world. You're always greeted with a smile and I never felt as if I bothered someone, unlike what happens in Europe when you ask for directions or whichever other thing. When you buy something in a shop they will thank you at least 5 times, it may as well be 10.
- Attention to detail. I feel like Japanese shops and public areas (hence I'm guessing homes too?) are always extremely tidy and well organized. Everything is laid beautifully, clean, and paying attention to every single detail.
- Free hot tea with the sushi. I feel like this is a super important one, too! There is nothing better to accompany sushi than hot matcha tea (not matcha latte, just matcha powder with boiling water), and I hate that sushi restaurants in sushi don't offer it. If you ask for a tea (paying, of course) you get a small cup or a tiny tea pot if you're lucky whether in Japan each person has a hot water dispenser in front of them to keep refilling their tea. Because the sushi is cold, hot tea feels like heaven, and I think Japanese people would not understand sushi without it.

These are some of my ramblings from this awesome trip I couldn't be happier about, with the hubby, Liam and the in-laws. Hopefully the video on my YouTube channel can be up soon!

Amsterdam

It's been a month since our trip to Amsterdam with J's parents and sister. I must admit I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about this trip, but it turned out to be much better than my expectations. I had been to Amsterdam once before and thought it was an amazingly pretty city, but without much to do. This time though, maybe because the hubby planned the whole thing so well, the four days we spent there went by faster than expected, and we all had a wonderful time.

We stayed in a lovely appartment overlooking one of the canals, so we bought yummy organic food for breakfast at Noordermarkt on Saturday, our first day in the city. Everything was so fresh and yummy, yet not expensive at all! We had delicious breakfasts every day. 

l was once again surprised by the beauty of the city. With its architecture and the canals, it's like a hybrid between London and Venice.

We went on an amazing canal cruise and may I say, it was my favorite thing! Liam enjoyed it a lot as well, he was all excited with half his body outside the window!

We also went to Zaanse Schans to visit the windmills, another of Amsterdam's landmarks. They were breathtaking indeed! 

When it comes to shopping, I absolutely adored two shops. One is Stach Food, an amazing deli concept for take-away but also for dine-in at the few tables they have. All I had the chance to try, though, were their chocolates, as you may have seen on my Instagram. Terrific! The other shop is Klevering, a nordic style decoration shop that had all of my favorite brands! Design letters, Ferm Living, Herschel, and many others. I highly recommend you visit both! Stach has actually several locations, so bumping into one shouldn't be a hassle!

Thanks hubby, for your great preparation for this trip, it made us all enjoy it oh-so much! 

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?!

Anantara Mui Ne - Vietnam

Today is our last day here in Vietnam. I still don't know how we ended up booking our trip to Mui Ne, a place neither of us had heard of before, but I'm glad we did. In fact, I just wanted another trip to Thailand, just like the one in Hua Hin or the one in Phuket, enjoying the heat in a pool villa while it was winter in Europe. To me, being able to escape the cold winter even if it's just for a few days feels like heaven. These holidays don't make much sense when it's summer in Europe, because by then we have our perfect beachfront house for free! But right now the timing was perfect, we were planning the trip back to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year and I told the hubby we had to go to south-east Asia and relax under the sun with Liam for some days. 

I have only been to Thailand the two times I mentioned, but J has been there around 10, so we decided to go somewhere else. Our first thought was Bali, and we almost had everything booked in an awesome resort in the middle of the jungle before, thank God, we realized it was monsoon season in Bali right now! If you look at the weather for Bali in this moment you'll see how it's been raining for weeks and it doesn't seem it will be stopping anytime soon. You probably don't know this but I never ever plan anything regarding our trips, the hubby does it so well that we could really do so for a living, and so I leave it to him to make all the research and all I have to do is choose between two or three options he gives me. So, it was time for the hubby to start his research all over again! It was November already and you should know that flights around Chinese New Year from Hong Kong get full several months in advance, so we were a bit in a rush! Finally J told me about Mui Ne, in Vietnam, supposedly the best beach in the country. Everything looked good, he showed me the Anantara Mui Ne resort which we finally ended up booking and I thought it was perfect. But he also told me there was somewhat of an inconvenient and that is that Mui Ne is four and a half hours away by car from the airport in Ho Chi Minh city. Oh my! I must say I was about to say no to him and ask him to start his research all over again, but somehow I finally agreed. Liam and I slept during most of the car journey. It was a 14 people car for only the 3 of us, meaning I could lay down in a whole row and sleep like if I were in a bed :D The time I wasn't sleeping, I watched Vietnam go by and It was really interesting: busy Ho Chi Minh city, then the fields, the trees, the poor houses...

We still don't know how this happened because no staff ever mentioned and neither did we, but he had booked a pool villa and to our surprise found ourselves checked in at the beachfront pool villa, the best room in the hotel!!! Yay! It is a perfect villa indeed, with a huge garden overlooking the beach. I just couldn't get used to one thing and that is having no shower indoors. I was pretty scared having a shower outdoors at night while I could see some lizards on the wall and I could feel the wind blowing. Oh yes, the wind is really something in Mui Ne. It is a famous region for kitesurfing, as you can see by the picture below!

Even though the wind season is August to December, it was still pretty windy now, and that's the thing I liked the least about Mui Ne. Maybe I'm just over sensitive to the wind, because the hubby didn't seem to really care. Mui Ne beach is very pretty, it's a really long beach with extremely soft sand. 

I can't say I've found the best restaurant in Mui Ne, because there's just so many you'd have to live here for a month try them all, but I'll tell you which was, by far, my favorite from all the ones we tried. It's restaurant Nam Tho, which has two branches, one at number 33 and another at 43. I personally liked Nam Tho I, the one on number 33, better. So that's the one I recommend :) Even though I like Thai food way better than Vietnamese, we have been having some real nice food here as well, mainly the typical Vietnamese dish, Pho, as well as seafood and curry.

I'm happy all of us have had such an amazing time. Liam really did have a blast. He has been so happy with so many nice activities, and has loved playing with his inflatable plane in the pool, as well as discovering the texture of the sand. I think the timing to travel was perfect, because Liam is not such a baby anymore and can sit by himself and play more, but at the same time he hasn't started on solids yet, meaning that all he eats is my breast milk, which makes it oh-so-convenient!

I'm obviously kind of sad to be leaving already, but the Chinese New Year celebrations in Hong Kong are awaiting us, as are three different afternoon teas I'll be enjoying in this coming days. Hong Kong here we come!