June

June means the official beginning of summer, and despite the fact that the days are already getting shorter, my energy levels are only increasing at the prospect of 2.5 official more months of summer. Summer wakes me up in a way that only summer knows how to do. And June started out perfectly with Alex and Lauren's visit. All four of us had so much fun on our adventure, and it will surely be a trip we will always remember. Our trip took us from Barcelona to Asturias to Cornwall to London, and it was a whirlwind 10 days. We took virtually every form of transportation (plane, train, subway, bus, car, foot, bicycle) and saw an incredible amount. 

To start off the journey, Alex and Lauren arrived into Barcelona at 11:30pm on a Friday, and yet they still had the energy to stay up and chat with Dave over pizza before heading off to bed. The next morning everyone woke up energized, despite the jet lag, for a long day out and about. Dave and I took Alex and Lauren on a lengthy walking tour of the city and they were such good sports about the distance. We saw Rambla de Catalunya, La Rambla (and La Boqueria), then wandered around the old town (Barrio Gotico y el Born), and then out for a lovely meal at the veggie restaurant Dave took me to for my birthday. Then it was time for meandering home and chilling out before our evening out at the Magic Fountain and Parallel for tapas. 

Day two entailed more of the same, long walks, picnics in La Ciutadella park, and visits to the beach at Barceloneta for some good people watching. And then in the evening we had the lovely send off dinner back at home that I briefly mentioned in my last post. Getting to show Alex and Lauren around was a perfect way to wrap up my time in Barcelona. Day three was spent entirely driving to Dave's house in Asturias, but the drive is absolutely gorgeous, and was filled with lots of naps, music, and chats about everything and nothing. When we finally arrived in Cerezaléu, we had enough energy to make a bit of food and sit around chatting by candlelight and music. 

Maqsum is constantly making new friends, especially ones who appreciate all black, all of the time as much as he does.

Wandering through el Barrio Gotico.

Dave tells me all of his secrets.

Polar opposites when placed in the sun :-)

Just taking the obligatory selfie outside of la Sagrada Familia.

Naps on the way to Asturias.

Back to basics.

Day 4 was spent admiring the countryside of Asturias. Alex went out trying to make friends with the cows, and I made some breakfast/lunch. Then we set off to explore the nearby town of Lastres, where you can get impeccable views of the sea. After our galavanting around the beach, we drove on back home to make a taco dinner. We had a lovely evening dining out in the garden and then having a bonfire. Day 5 was a tad similar to day 3, largely spent driving to Santander, but we drove through the Picos de Europa instead of taking the highway, to ensure a far more scenic view. We made a stop in Covadonga to admire the scenic cathedral and to stretch our legs, and one somewhere near Comillas for the obligatory patatas bravas experience that everyone must have while in Spain. Once we reached Santander it was quite a bit of waiting around since our ferry left a tad tardy, but then finally around 11pm we set off to Plymouth!

Who knew that Alex's future lied in being a shepherd?

Beautiful Lastres

Playing on the beach.

Self timed taco dinner!

When the bonfire gets boring, simply add a piece of furniture and the flame will surely take off.

We had a blaze of a time.

Despite how it looks, we never got rained on. This is the cathedral in Covadonga.

Arriving in Plymouth, Dave shows our chick that we've finally made it.

While Day 6 was largely spent on the ferry, the never-ending ferry, we did finally arrive in Plymouth some time around 7pm, where Dave's dad graciously picked us up and drove us back to Woolley. When we arrived to Woolley, we shared a lovely meal with Dave's parents, and before we knew it everyone was exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep. We woke up on Day 7, ready to see Cornwall, but first and foremost came a pasty tour! Dave was really eager to hear Alex and Lauren's thoughts about how the true Cornish pasty stood up against the infamous pastys of Tempe. After trying 3 different types of pastys, the verdict was in, and the Cornish pastys of Tempe are equally as delicious, but the end decision was that everything always tastes better in its proper home, especially when the meal is had by the sea with a big basket of 'chips' (i.e. french fries). Post the Tour de Pasty, we checked out the graveyard in Kilkhampton before going out for a walk in Clovelly, the village I mentioned last summer that you can't get down to by car, but you rather must walk. This was because another theme of the trip was checking out cool, old graveyards. Post Clovelly we spent an evening at home and Dave's sisters and kids came around.

Walk up the cliffs at Duckpool before heading to Bude on the pasty quest.

Happy face for pastys and chips at the beach.

The graveyard at Kilkhampton.

Day 8 began with a gorgeous walk along the cliffs and down in the valley winding up at a tea room for cream teas. Pete, Mary, Barry, Rae and Connor joined in on this adventure, but sadly Alex, Lauren and I were riddled with runny noses and sneezing because of the absurdly high pollen count. Nonetheless, the walk was beautiful, and we all powered through and enjoyed our cream teas. We came back for a rest post sneeze fest, and then had a nice meal before going out for the tour de local pubs. There are two cool pubs nearby and we needed to check out both on our last night. We were also excited because the neighbor is in a folk band that plays around the local pubs, and they were playing this particular evening, so that rounded out our trip to Cornwall nicely. Despite the early morning to come, we had a nice night out with Dave's family. 

Pete, Mary, Rae and myself checking out the views from Hawker's hut.

Dave and his uncanny ability to take gorgeous photos.

I offered to give Rae a piggy back ride because the grass was so tall.

We did it! Despite our red eyes from hay fever ;-)

Connor and I are excited for our cream teas, clearly.

Day 9 began with an early drive to Exeter to catch a bus to London. We were all sleepy, but that's okay, because we had an extra long bus ride to nap on because of road blocks around London for some kind of event. At any rate, once we got to London we checked into our hotel, and then made our way to Brick Lane for Indian Food. London has a notoriously good Indian food scene, and simultaneously Brick Lane has both Indian food and superb people watching. We had a really nice meal in a restaurant where Alex managed to finagle getting us 20% off our bill and a free round of drinks. After our meal we headed towards Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. After taking in those sights we naturally had to see Buckingham Palace, and then followed that with Piccadilly Circus. By the time we saw all of those things everyone was exhausted and ready for bed. We got back to the hotel and crashed.

We awoke on the final morning with heavy hearts at the prospect of having to say goodbye, but we didn't let that deter the few hours we had together in the morning. We wandered through Hyde Park, and after getting to the other side we said our goodbyes and before I knew it, the long anticipated trip had come and went. Dave and I spent the remainder of the day checking out Camden Town, a really alternative part of the city where there is all kinds of delicious street food. And then we headed to his buddy from home's house for the night. We spent the evening with Anthony, his wife Emily, and their daughter. It was nice to finally meet Dave's other good friend from home since we never managed to connect last summer. The following morning we leisurely walked to Waterloo Station to catch our train back to Exeter.

We found the London Eye.

Hyde Park hangouts.

He climbs.

Camden Street shenanigans.

Sunny views of the Palace of Westminster.

Since getting back from London, June seemed to fly by shockingly fast. Dave's buddy Bart arrived on the evening of Father's Day, and we spent 2.5 days enjoying his company before he was off to collect his tandem bike in Liverpool. We have also had some nice evenings with Dave's other good friend from home, Gareth, and Gareth was even so kind to let me try his motorbike out around the block. Other happenings have included evenings at the pub, sunsets, trips to the beach, an afternoon in Calstock to visit Dave's uncle Jonny who was over from Spain, a Dolly Parton party (watching her live performance at Glastonbury), and lots of evenings by the fire.

Beach bonfire with Bart, Dave, and Gareth.

Sunsets over the Atlantic.

Dave teaches Ned and Olive how to skimboard.

Gareth teaches me how to ride a motorbike...

Walks by the aqueduct in Calstock.

Dolly Parton brought lots of laughter.

Stopping to pet the horses on the way to Marsland.

The rest of my time spent during June was divided between writing the second draft of my thesis (which will hopefully be my last), feigning interest in World Cup matches (but alas no more since the U.S. is out), and working in the neighbor's garden. I have graciously been given another grant from the University of Helsinki to do an internship, and I've worked down at the neighbor's in their vegetable garden; I will have to upload a few pictures next time. But that more or less sums up the month of June for me, and July is already off to a good start. I hope summer is treating everyone equally as well in their respective parts of the world!

Mayo

May was, by far, the best month of living in Barcelona. But sadly May also meant that my time there was coming to a close, but only for my next adventure. I am still in awe that I was able to live in Barcelona for those 4 lovely months, and in typical fashion, May proved to be the best month of the year. May consisted of a lot of walks, bike rides, music, museums, sunsets and good food. Dave and I mostly just soaked up the good vibe that Barcelona constantly evokes, and we couldn't have had a better time. 

We got really into cooking good meals due to the abundance of cheap fruit and veggies. Dave even graciously started me off with a recipe book as part of my birthday present where we are now writing down any recipes that we aspire to recreate. Along the same lines, Dave made a tapas evening for me, Valeria, Emi, Jeanne and Fausto as a sort of birthday dinner/going away party. But that was only after having a birthday breakfast of pancakes and mimosas on our lovely balcony. 

Pancake birthday breakfast!

Tapas birthday celebration, what more could one want?!

Falafel was one of our biggest cooking achievements during the month, and we clearly give a thumbs up to eating this on the regular. So do feel free to send us your favorite, tried and true recipes because we are adamant on expanding our cooking horizons.

Falafel Friday should be a requirement.

We also got quite into picnics seeing as how it seemed a shame to always eat inside when the weather was absolutely perfect. 

Post picnic cycle through Palau Reial.

Other birthday things included seeing the lovely Grand Budapest Hotel at the cinema! And having menu at the all vegetarian restaurant. Followed by a visit to the Magic Fountain, but this time with our own soundtrack. 27 started off quite swell, and I am really thankful for all of the birthday love I received this year, it always means a lot. 

Thumbs up to the Magic Fountain!

Going on walks always translated into stumbling upon some happening in the city that you could have never planned on. One of my favorite things about Barcelona is the fact that the city really does live and flourish out in the streets with one another. For example, I was so pleased to stumble upon the dancing of the 'gigantes,' or giants, because this is something I vividly remembered from living in Barcelona previously, and was really keen to show Dave. There isn't really much to say about the gigantes, other than that they dance around the streets to music, and Catalunya is really into it.

Aves gigantes.

Cave men gigantes

Another really cool thing we got into were free museum days. We became scavengers of free events in the city, because there was always something going on that didn't cost a cent. One day we checked out a really interesting exhibition titled "Metamorphosis" in the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) regarding the history of animated films. Said exhibition even gave you a buy one get one free coupon to the Moritz factory, subsequently we spent an afternoon checking out the factory.

Shadows and films.

Magical mysteries.

We also checked out the Museu Blau, the museum of Natural Sciences. That was a really interesting museum, mostly because of the exhibit on the world's most poisonous animals. This was a particularly lovely day, because it included a long bicycle ride over to the museum, and Dave and Emi decided to try out their natural born abilities of bicycle flying... As mentioned.. bicycle riding did become a big part of our lives in Barcelona...

Self explanatory.

Pure talent.

Dave's roommate from Sweden was also in town for 2 nights, and it was really nice to see Jae. Jae has been traveling since leaving Abisko, making his way ultimately over to Portugal after seeing us. As I write this Jae is traveling back to South Korea, but will then be moving to Japan to be with his girlfriend and Dave and I are excited to visit him there some day. We enjoyed a lovely sunset and sangria from atop the 'bunker' with Jae.

Jae, Dave, and Dave's hair.

I accidentally didn't cooperate.

And then before I knew it, May was rapidly coming to a close. Alex and Lauren arrived on the second to last day of the month, and we had 2 full days of exploring Barcelona. Although we weren't able to make it to the Primavera Sound Festival in the end, Dave and I were at least able to enjoy the promotional activities happening in the city prior to the festival weekend. Apparently Primavera has a sponsorship from Heinken, and this equated to tons of free gigs happening around the city that were not only free admission, but also included your first beer for free. We took advantage of checking out the local talent, and the not so local beer. 

Primavera Sound Festival looked like this for us.

And then on the last night we spent in Barcelona, we had one last impromptu going away dinner/do. Emi made an entire pot of sangria, Dave made pizzas (a classic), and Lauren made fried plantains (platanos machos), mmmm! We spent the evening enjoying the balcony one last time. It was hard to say goodbye to Barcelona the following morning, but alas all good things must come to an end. The morning we left we were greeted with a gorgeous sunset over the calm sea, and then off we went to Asturias for the next third of Alex and Lauren's visit. Those pictures will come in my June update! :) 

Sangria master.

Sunrise over Barcelona.

And a double rainbow over the city on the day Alex and Lauren arrived.

Lastly, some pictures that Dave took during the month. He has quite a knack for snapping good photos, and I had to steal some and share them as well. Maqsum (the cat) was frequently the subject that we both incessantly were snapping away at (maybe me more than Dave). I was never a big cat person prior to Maqsum, but my heart has been swayed now, and I am quite eager to have my own handsome (chubby) black cat some day, they're just so much fun, and if you get the right one, quite snuggly.

Lounge kitten.

But then sometimes it all becomes a bit too much..

The full moon was brilliantly illuminating the sea.

Lazy days.

I usually couldn't get enough of the balcony, especially when the skies were clear.

I spy with my little eye, a cat named Maqsum.

Well May equaled a new year, and more fun than is really fair. It was surely the kick off to what will truly be a remarkable year. I was sad to say goodbye to Barcelona yet again, but overall I just feel remarkably lucky to have had the opportunity to live there once more. My Spanish is a tad better and I have tons of memories that I will cherish. Thankfully I had Alex and Lauren's visit to help me transition away from Barcelona; my heart was a tad less heavy than it otherwise would have been. Adios Barcelona, nos vemos pronto.

Abril

There were no April showers to rain on my parade that was the beginning of a beautiful spring! April began with a bit of hard work between Casey leaving and my parents arriving. But between hard work, Valeria and I managed to score a gig for a night as extras on a German tv show. This 'job' entailed hanging out at a bar for about 6 hours while some Germans filmed 3 scenes for an episode for an (what appears to be) obnoxious German 'reality' television program. It was pretty fun hanging around watching how something like this is filmed, but after about hour 3 I started getting a bit bored, but all the same, silly ways to make money like this are always welcome, and not to mention, they did feed us dinner. So stay tuned for my big debut...

Fancy schmancy bar I made a few euros at..

And the day before my parents arrival was another field trip with school, I really enjoy all of these free field trips! My environmental restoration course went on a trip to a nearby national park, Parque del Garraf, to see how the land has been restored since a major fire occurred there a few decades ago. The sky was kind of hazy on this day, so no real good photos, but it was still good to get out of the city for a day.

Parque del Garraf

Then my parents and Sally arrived for a nice weekend before they left on their cruise. We spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the classic Barcelona sights and eating lots of good food. And on the Sunday before their trip, it was Palm Sunday, so the streets were bustling with people and it was interesting to see the palms adorning every corner. And Sunday night was even complete with a beautiful flamenco performance at the Palau de la Música. I was really excited to have the opportunity to explore this famous Barcelona music hall, and wow was it indeed gorgeous! Then Monday morning I bid them adieu as they left for their trip.

Me, mom, and Sally taking in the sites.

Saints for Palm Sunday.

Mis padres y yo con la catedral de Barcelona on Palm Sunday.

Checking out the view from the old bull ring!

Wandering around the old town.

And then once the crew left for their adventure at sea, I cracked down very intensely on my thesis, BUT with plenty of breaks in between, duh! Because friends from Finland arrived for 4 days. And at the same time as Hanna and Fede were here, so were Valeria's sister, niece, and her niece's boyfriend, so it was quite a big gang and it was good fun to spend some evenings with them. Good food, good drinks, and good conversation by night kept me motivated during the day while staring at my computer screen for hours on end. The best was spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon at a lovely paella restaurant in Barceloneta, complete with un poco de rumba during the lunch.

Waiting for our paella lunch mmmmm!!

Enjoying said paella lunch!

Zhanna, Valeria, Emi, Hanna, Fede, Dimitri, Anastasiya

And then mom, dad, and Sally returned from their cruise for another beautiful day in Barcelona. And then to follow was Dave's arrival!! The last two days of mom, dad, and Sally's trip were spent getting to know Dave and vice versa, all while enjoying the beautiful scenery. A day was spent at Montserrat, going on a lovely hike on the mountain path. And the last day was spent meandering through parks, the beach and the Montjuic castle. It was so good to see my parents and Sally, and Dave and I are very much looking forward to our visit to the states this fall to spend more time with everyone.

No more photos, please :)

Montserrat never ceases to impress!

And then the very next day after mom, dad, and Sally left, Steve arrived! Steve is one of my classmates from my Masters program. Steve has stayed in Finland to wisely finish his thesis without the distractions of Barcelona, but was also wise enough to get away for a bit for a visit to sunny Spain. The days passed slowly and carelessly with plenty of good conversation and time spent outside in the truly perfect weather. I don't know if I can say enough about how conducive my balcony is for a good hang out. Steve was in town for 6 days, and it was really great to see him. Now Dave and I have to pencil in a visit to Ottawa to visit Steve if/when he moves back home! :)

Fausto (my other roommate) and Dave enjoying a sunny Saturday spent on the balcony.

No visit is complete without a visit to Parc Guell, and wine is always a given accompaniment.

Pretty sure there are quite a few photos of us in existence by now where we are both sporting plaid...

Friends!

And what's Barcelona without an afternoon spent at the beach with a couple of cervezas?

Slow walks to a tapas bar through the narrow streets of Barceloneta.

Obviously we are a really cute couple.

Steve said he wanted a picture of him and Dave in front of the Christopher Columbus statue... I failed miserably at this simple task.

The classic staring into the distance photo.. 'Wow that's a massive shipyard.'

And that was what April looked like for me. And although it was sad to have the last visitor depart, it was probably good for my health to sleep for a couple of days at the beginning of May. I can't believe what a great time I have been having, and am still having here! I still feel so lucky to have had this opportunity. And as I write this, it is nearly the middle of May, and I am getting sad at the thought of having to leave soon, but other great adventures are on the horizon! May updates will be given at some point in June and I can't wait to write all about what will surely be an amazing trip that Alex, Lauren, Dave and I will have traipsing around Spain and England! 2.5 weeks til the Lati arrive, yayayay! I'll end with 3 random photos from April.. ciao!

Eye see youuuuuuu!!

Torre Agbar, quite possibly the world's most phallic building I've ever seen!

Lastly, the day Dave arrived was Sant Jordí, essentially the Valentine's Day of Catalonia. And Dave got off easy because while the tradition is for men to give the women a rose, and the women give men a book, my dad greeted me with a rose. In the end, Dave gave Emi this pitiful rose he found in the bin... I see where his loyalties lie!