as perhaps the most frequently visited town by tourists, antigua has no shortage of hotels or places to indulge in meals and accomodations. casa santo domingo is exactly one of those places. as one of the oldest hotels of antigua, it is much more than simply a hotel. the sprawling grounds are immaculate and are […]
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our homes away from home: the europe edition
and as a follow-up to the asia accomodation recap, here is our recap from our european airbnb and hotels: barcelona: cost/night/person (in cad): $45 the thing that rocked: nothing. we couldn’t wait to get out of there. the thing that sucked: i’m not sure what sucked more, the dripping water pressure with a hot water […]
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Sunflower Fields
On our way back from Cordoba to Seville, we noticed there were fields of sunflowers. The girly girl in me squealed in silent delight at the thought of running through a field of sunflowers. But the closest one we were able to get to was separated from us by a giant ditch and we could […]
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Dreaming of Granada
Even before we left, I knew that I want to come back to Granada. It’s such a beautiful city. So much greenery, colourful gardens, nice plazas to hangout. The city is small enough that you can walk everywhere. Within the city, there are many gardens known as carmens. Some are open to the public for […]
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The Alhambra, Granada’s Fortress on the Hill
I knew nothing of the Alhambra before arriving in Granada. Our Airbnb host was very emphatic that we must visit the main attraction of the city. Later I learn that the Alhambra is the most visited attraction in Spain. By the time I looked into getting tickets directly from the Alhambra website, there were none […]
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granada’s graffiti god, el nino de las pinturas
so back when i was hunting for graffiti areas in granada to walk though i came up with lots of suggestions to check out the windy roads of the albaicin, the old moorish quarter. our airbnb host also gave us a map that, shockingly, had points of interest around town with small thumbnails of graffiti […]
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the streets of spain are alive – graffiti love
from our taxi ride departing the barcelona airport into the city, spain has offered up a smorgasboard of street art. over the span of the four cities we visited, i’ve grown fonder and fonder of spain. each of the cities have their own charm and the streets are the best way to see it up […]
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tapas done right in granada
so our first dinner in spain was a must-do in the form of tapas. we ended up at cerveceria catalana and had a great meal with a few wobbly-pops to the tune of 40 euro. not cheap but not breaking the bank either. with the countless restaurant reviews i’ve sifted through since we’ve been in […]
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the hawkers of spain
another culture shock element for us here… the street hawker. in asia, the land of enterprising people, selling fake goods seems like a right of passage. the giant malls (rundown buildings that have been out of maintenance for years) comprised of stalls where you can buy almost anything humanly imaginable from shoes to panties to […]
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the gancho burger – entering flavour country
before leaving vancouver, my longtime friend/boss took me out for one final hurrah and we ended up at the pourhouse to get a burger done ‘just right’. no frills, no toppings, just a medium rare burger on a bun with my favourite mix of beef, bun and blood. with that said, it’s pretty easy to […]
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cerveceria catalana, the start of our tapas diet
we eased into our first of many tapas dinners at cerveceria catalana in barcelona. nadius had a great meal here the last time they were in in town so we placed our trust in them. we got there after 730pm and while most restaurants in town were just starting to bring people in, this place […]
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Many Pieces of Gaudi
We had time to see two other architectural works of Gaudi while in Barcelona. Both were commissioned by Eusebi Guell, a wealthy Spanish industrial tycoon. Guell Palace Mansion located in the El Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona. We walked by and noticed that there was no line up, so we decided to pay the €12 to […]
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museums in madrid – the prado & reina-sofia
since the weather wasn’t on our side, we opted to spend most of another one of our rainy days inside the friendly confines of some museums. there’s a trio of museums in the span of a few blocks and if one was interested in visiting all three of them, there’s an art pass available which […]
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technical difficulties in spain
so over our 12 days in spain, we’ve had to make a few adjustments from life in asia. nothing groundbreaking but these were some of the things we’ve noticed on a daily basis. keep in mind that neither of us have been in europe for almost a year and a half so. i also think […]
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chocolate con churros
we spent a week saying no to churros in korea, of all places, and set foot to try out this local dish so the last time i’ve had a churro was at taco bell about 20 years ago, a far cry from anything legitimately spanish. a lot has changed since then… churros have gone designer […]
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a rainy, down day to catch up in madrid
we had a rough go in barcelona and were beyond overjoyed when we set foot into our madrid digs. everything looked so… soft, we just wanted to settle in and sleep the rain away. we had a lot to catch up on at this point though… blog posts, camera issues, phone issues, laptop storage running […]
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first 24 hours in sevilla
jojo: what do i like? -busy, busy, busy. getting dropped off across our airbnb felt like we were getting plopped in the middle of a shark tank. the city is smaller than madrid but i suppose that since it’s more condensed (ie: not well connected via transit like a subway), all the people are crammed […]
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value lunches – discovering the menu dias in spain
my limited knowledge of spanish culture has lead me to believe that they eat tapas for every meal. idiotic and ignorant but that’s me most of the times. it was a glorious discovery to find out that there are many affordable lunches to be had if you ask for the meal of the day, aka […]
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