Spain - Travel With A Butterfly

I’ve already covered about Barcelona numerous times already, three times about its food in Barcelona, the City of Gastronomy, Getting Fat and Getting Smart in Barcelona, and What is Living Without Food? The Food in Barcelona. And then another post for Barcelona Architectural Design and More for things to do and visit. In fact, some of the stuff I will cover in this blog post is briefly mentioned in the Architectural Design blog post, such as the La Sagrada Familia and Picasso Museum. But stick around for more photos and more info about these tourist attractions, plus a couple of other cool things like visiting some of Gaudi’s works and Barcelona’s esteemed museums, something I didn’t get to do due to restriction of time from my other Barcelona visits.

And for those of you who have read my previous blog posts, you will know that I am particularly fond of Barcelona. The gradient skies of pink and blue, some surprising and impressive restaurants, and a modern and elegant feel of the environment, it’s one of those cities I love walking around. That said, this time I really got to get a sense of Barcelona as a city, since I came this time not for work but really as a tourist.

Continue reading The Genius of Gaudi – Barcelona’s Architecture and Museums

Spain

What Is Living Without Food? The Food in Barcelona

ByRyan Lee

Seeing that I took a gazillion photos of Barcelona, I decided that I will split the visit to Barcelona into two parts. This post will include all the things I’ve eaten in Barcelona, while the next post will contain everything else such as accommodation, transportation, and things to do.

I have touted Barcelona as one of my favorite cities to eat before, in both my old posts Barcelona, the City of Gastronomy and also Getting Fat and Getting Smart in Barcelona. This time, I will admit I was less impressed and thrilled about the food in general, and I don’t think it is because of Barcelona food fatigue. Who knows, maybe it’s because this time I’m here as a tourist rather than for work and appetites may change depending on the purpose of the visit. In fact, one of the restaurants I went to before ended up being soso this time I visited, when last time I rated it as one of my favourite restaurants I’ve tasted in Barcelona. Continue reading What Is Living Without Food? The Food in Barcelona

Spain

Food in Madrid, with the Oldest Restaurant in the World

ByRyan Lee

In my previous post on Too Much Art and Walking in Madrid, I mentioned that since I felt that post was running a bit too long from my over display of photographs from museum art, I decided to separate the food portion of Madrid into a separate post, so here it is. You can expect a shorter post.

But yes, just like most food in Spain, you can expect food in Madrid to be “saltier” than what you may be accustomed to. For your information, just because a restaurant is packed may not necessarily mean it is fantastic – it may just mean that the décor and theme of the restaurant was intriguing, but you’ll see what I mean in a bit.

I also separately covered DiverXo in xoxo DiverXO – A Restaurant Review, for those looking to find out more about the three star Michelin restaurant. Continue reading Food in Madrid, with the Oldest Restaurant in the World

Spain

Too Much Art and Walking in Madrid

ByRyan Lee

As the title already has implied, this post will contain a lot of pictures from some of the most prominent museums in Madrid, including the Prado Museum, Reina Sofia, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and National Archaeological Museum.

Despite having visited Barcelona two times already prior to this trip, I haven’t had the chance to visit Madrid until this recent trip. After visiting Madrid, you could definitely feel a certain difference between Barcelona and Madrid.

For one, there is way more people in Madrid. The metros and subways are crammed. Then there’s the feeling that it feels more “Spanish” in Madrid, which I don’t know how to explain but it just is, possibly with the colors and the whole vibe. Then, perhaps being influenced by the crammed situation in the metro, there appears to be more people who are more poor as compared to Barcelona. Anyway, Madrid feels more busy.

While I will be posting about the different restaurants I had in Madrid, I specifically created a separate post for the three star Michelin restaurant we had on the first day, DiverXo. (Also, I decided to make a separate blog post about Madrid’s food considering the amount of text and images in this blog already, which you can find in Food in Madrid, with the Oldest Restaurant in the World)
Continue reading Too Much Art and Walking in Madrid

Spain

The Matadors in Seville

ByRyan Lee

When you think of the culture of Spain, one might imagine passion, royalty, and excitement. Seville embodies these traits perfectly, and its passionate heat was felt throughout my time there; it was hot enough to wear t-shirts during the day whereas in Barcelona it was already cold.

Seville is notable for its bullfighting events and its flamenco dancing. I was unable to witness either of them, although I did watch some flamenco dancing that was on the streets.

In a way, Seville reminded me of Nice (you can read my blog about Cote d’Azur here), where everything was spacious, a tram ran through the city center, it was the whole vibe and atmosphere that was very similar… I guess both cities being part of the Southern part of their respective countries lends itself to create such an atmosphere.

Continue reading The Matadors in Seville

Restaurants

xoxo DiverXO – A Restaurant Review

ByRyan Lee

“Welcome to DiverXO! Be prepared to be delighted, entertained, and inspired by what our chefs have prepared for you today!”

I could imagine the pigs saying something along those lines when entering the restaurant.

Yes, these flying pigs right here

The fine dining experience doesn’t even begin at the restaurant… it actually begins at their website. I mean take a look if you haven’t already… https://diverxo.com/ … it’s devilish, it’s daring, and they got a video of bizarre actors being uncontrollably excited by the food, yes that’s why I had to come to this restaurant.

Apparently the founder says that the restaurant doesn’t even make money before, in fact it was losing a bit of money. I think that’s changed now, because the prices are standardised at 250€, whereas before there was an option for much less. Mind you, for pairing option, that’s an additional 150€… and they still can’t break even? I’m sure they do. But they do put a lot into the aesthetics and high quality ingredients.

I have to say, the restaurant décor is truly inspiring. The details are impeccable, and everything has direction and momentum, it’s like there’s action going on everywhere, even when there really is no action. Like this photo below… Continue reading xoxo DiverXO – A Restaurant Review

Spain

A Small Town Called Girona

ByRyan Lee

We have had more than enough time to cover all the major tourist spots in Barcelona, so we decided why not visit some of the nearby towns in Barcelona to get a sense of a different experience?

The first and most obvious choice was Valencia, but not only have I already been there, we only had one day and we had to be back in Barcelona by the evening, so it was too far for a one day trip. There’s of course Figueres, where it is most famous for having Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museum designed by Dalí himself, but we wanted to visit a town rather than just a museum; we’ve seen way too many museums by this time (even though I personally really like Dalí a lot). There was also Sitges, famous for its seafront promenade, but again I have already been there and there wasn’t much to do anyway besides enjoying the bright happy promenade.

So, we settled on Girona. It was a small town located a little more than 30 minutes of train ride from Barcelona Sants, plus it’s most notable for being one of the filming locations for the hit TV show Game Of Thrones, where they filmed Braavos, Oldtown, and King’s Landing for Season 6 (source: barcelonayellow.com) Continue reading A Small Town Called Girona

Spain

Beginning of Las Fallas Festival in Valencia

ByRyan Lee

I love the name Valencia; it’s an incredibly lovely, classy and eloquent name. The name suggests of modern, sleek, and futuristic, but the city has a combination of both. You’d be impressed by Valencia’s Old Town and at the same time its modern City of Arts and Sciences.

When we arrived at Valencia, I guess it was the start of the month for the Las Fallas Festival. The Las Fallas Festival is held to commemorate Saint Joseph in Valencia and burns monuments to celebrate. For a five day event, street parties are held everywhere celebrating the historic, the religious, and the comedic. Anyway, we didn’t arrive exactly on Las Fallas Festival (it is ending today, the date I started first writing this post, March 19, 2018) but we were already there when they started the beginnings of the festival – meaning the explosions and firecrackers.

It was a terrible experience as a tourist not knowing what’s going on… the firecrackers and explosions that were literally everywhere in Old Town sounded like we were at war rather than a celebration. If you want, contact me for a video of the sounds that were going on and you would think planes were dropping bombs!

Continue reading Beginning of Las Fallas Festival in Valencia

Spain

Spanish Coastal Gems – Tarragona, Peniscola, Sitges

ByRyan Lee

Tarragona, Peniscola, and Sitges. Three cities that we stopped by on our driving route from Barcelona to Valencia and back. Three cities within maximum 2.5 hours of each other, yet each of these cities carry unique characteristics about them.

Normally, I would suggest people to take the train from Barcelona directly to Valencia, that is, if you’re going only to Valencia. Instead, what we did was we rented a car. The cost is slightly higher for renting a car, but factoring in gas, insurance, and toll fees, and the costs make it less attractive considering the sights you see on a train are supposedly similar to the ones you see while driving. That said, we ended up renting a car because we wanted to stop by other coastal cities as well. Continue reading Spanish Coastal Gems – Tarragona, Peniscola, Sitges

Spain

Getting Fat and Getting Smart in Barcelona

ByRyan Lee

I was back again at one of my favorite cities in the world, Barcelona! Nom.

This time, much unfortunately and for whatever reason, the weather was much colder than last year’s. In fact, at one of the days during Mobile World Congress (MWC), it was actually snowing! Gone were the pinkish and blue skies this time. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed my time in Barcelona, it’s just a beautiful place to be.

I’ll dive right in since I’ve made some posts about Barcelona already – Barcelona, the City of Gastronomy, Barcelona Architectural Design and More, and Mobile World Congress 2017 – The Next Element.

Continue reading Getting Fat and Getting Smart in Barcelona