spain - Travel With A Butterfly

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

Barcelona Architectural Design and More

ByRyan Lee

While my trip to Barcelona was mainly for work related purposes, I had such a phenomenal time that I had split my trip experience there into three different posts. One of the posts covered was Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile trade show in the world. The food in Barcelona deserves an entire post itself, hence I’ve given the name Barcelona, the City of Gastronomy to give my respects to cuisine in this city. In this post, I will focus on the other aspects of Barcelona, and one thing that sticks out in this city is the beautiful and unique architectural designs notable from block to block.

Some cities in the world are not walking cities; one such city that sticks out in my mind is Dubai. Barcelona has some fantastic cool weather in late February / early March, with beautiful people on the streets and remarkable architecture with many things to see along the way that you would prefer to walk all the time, unless of course you have to go somewhere quite the distance.

I heard that there may be strikes in Barcelona time to time, but lucky for me, there was no such thing when I was there. Usually if I wasn’t walking, I had the option to take the metro, which was easy to understand and takes you near the places you need to be as a tourist. If anything, there’s also the option of taking a taxi as well. Continue reading Barcelona Architectural Design and More