TRAVEL | searching for sun in barcelona

When everyone warned me of dreariness of Berlin winters--how it can easily lead to low moods or depression due to the lack of sun. As someone who's not that keen on hot sweaty summers (but has only lived in places that has hot sweaty summers) I was interested in how I'd fare in the cold. Right now I'd have to say "so far so good", I haven't lost my sanity yet, and it's already February. Only a few more months until spring!

With that said, it's also not a bad idea to leave the doom and gloom for a bit, which is why we flew off to Barcelona for a quick getaway. It's funny that I never even got to posting my photos from 2015, when I was a much different person at a very different stage of my life. I instead of bumbling around alone in the city, I got to explore it with my favourite human--show him one or two of my favourite sights in Barcelona.

Roman is really big on sports, so every time we go travel he insists on us bringing along some
running gear. Though I still haven't grown to love running as much as he does, I do feel I'm
improving! On this particular sunny morning Roman planned for us to run along the beach. Our loop
was 8km long, which is actually the longest distance I've ever run. And all this before breakfast too!

Luckily we found an amazing bakery a short two-minute walk from our apartment. We ordered our
first-of-many jamón sandwich, and some sort of danish topped with sticky-sweet berries. The
sandwich was probably one of the best I've ever had, but I might be biased because also I was also so
hungry at the time. You can see Roman here taking a sneaky bite of the sandwich from my backpack
because we were at another cafe for our morning coffee.

For lunch we went to little restaurant nearby (lucky us!) for seafood. We had tried to get a table here
the night before but when we arrived the line was outside the door, a testament to the quality of their
food. This was why I insisted on us arriving right when they opened their doors for lunch. I know I
probably sounded like some crazy foodie but 1. I barely got to eat any seafood on my last trip
because I was tight on money and 2. it's a good thing we arrived so early because 30 minutes later
this place was packed to the brim.

Prior to our arrival, I texted my friend Carmen for her recommendations for Spanish specialities and
she (bless her *praying hands emoji*) got back to me within the next 30 minutes with a huge list of
many foods I've never tried. Amongst her list was pan con tomate (tomatos on bread), which is what
we ordered here alongside grilled sardines, baby calamari (surprisingly good considering I am not a
fan of fried food), and grilled cuttlefish.

We cycled so much around Barcelona on the third day it was nice to take a break and hang out at the beach on our last afternoon. The trip was short but sweet, and I did end up crossing some things off my to-do list that I didn't get to last time such as Camp Nou and Mount Montjuïc among other things.

My Gaudi related post is coming up next as I felt they deserved a space of their own.

TRAVEL | grinzens day 2 + 3

Saturday was ski-day! I think the last time I was on ski's was when I was 10, or younger, I don't really remember anymore. I definitely took more than a few tumbles on my way down the slopes. Romans friend managed to get one particularly spectacular fall on camera.

Roman and Karsten, on the other hand, are excellent skiers and helped a out a lot that day. Especially when I would fall so bad the skis would snap off my boot the one of them would have to chase the ski down and then come back help me stand up.

On the third day I was completely out of commission due to skiing the day before. Everything hurt--my arms from using the ski poles to scoot myself through the snow, my buns because I bruised them from falling, my shins because the ski boots dug into my leg. I was done, dead. All I wanted to do was it sit in the flat and take a hot bath (did I mention our apartment also had a sauna? Wild.) Anyways I did drag myself outside to get some fresh air for an hour to two so and explored the little village we were staying in. Really cute!

TRAVEL | innsbruck day 1

First post of the new year, of the first trip of the new year!

Few weeks ago Roman planned a spontaneous ski trip to Austria for the weekend. Some people are capable of making plans on the fly but I am definitely not. We confirmed the trip on the tuesday, booked an (amazing) accommodation that same tuesday, packed our stuff and was in the car heading down south by thursday evening!

After a quick pit-stop thursday night in Nürmberg, we woke up bright and early Friday morning
and drove to Innsbruck, an Austrian university town near the Austrian/German border. Even though
we were taking a 4 day trip, I had only planned to ski one day, maybe two tops. So Friday and
Monday were technically working days for me. Therefore I just found a cafe that has wifi via google
maps, the boys dropped me off, and I had the whole day in Innsbruck to myself.

I've always thought Austria was among the most beautiful countries I've visited. I clearly remember
remarking how "everything is so green" out loud on a bus when I was traveling around Europe in 2013,
which resulted in a few weird glances my way as I'm sure people were wondering whether or not I've ever
seen trees in my life.

This is Grinzens. These photos didn't do the scenery justice at all. Snowy mountains are not
 something I'm used to seeing at all. Just image, these people living in this village gets views
like this every day. 

We cooked dinner on the first night. I made a salad with roasted vegetables while the guys cooked
spaghetti. Unfortunately the stove broke down halfway through cooking so we didn't get any pasta
and had a healthy veggie dinner instead. I did feel bad for the boys though, because I'm usually
starving after doing sports.

Last two images were the views from outside our apartment at 8am. I literally hopped out of bed to
see what the mountains looked like in the morning. The camera couldn't quite capture the subtle pink
glow of the morning sun hitting the mountain caps but I assure you, they were there and so beautiful.

TRAVEL | christmas markets and medieval towns

I survived my very first Christmas in Germany!

Ever since I had mentioned moving to Germany, many Hong Kong friends have warned me time and time again of how absolutely brutal the winters are in Europe. What they failed to mention though, is how amazing Germany's Christmas markets are--some almost good enough to make you forget about your frozen fingers and toes!

Though I have explored a handful of markets in Berlin, this year I mostly looked forward to visiting the Christkindlmarkt in Nürnberg, Romans hometown. I've been told that it is one of the most famous around Germany and I was excited to take in the sights (and to order a round of glühwein)

Since we visited on the last opening day (December 24th), the market was packed with tourists.
This was also the only market I visited during the day time so I have to admit it did lose a bit of
it's Christmas magic. However, a large class of mulled wine spiked with lots of rum really helped
with putting me in a good mood!

Our holiday was a bit slow and sleepy, so Roman and I decided to break the routine of napping and chilling all day to visit Rothenberg ob der Tauber, a small medieval down an hour west of Nürnberg. When we arrived, the city was cleaning up after their Christmas festivities so the whole town square looked a little depressing.

But despite the dead fir trees, the city was really gorgeous and well preserved. And I still can't get enough of Germany's timber buildings--so much so, we even bought a small ceramic house (see pic 2 & 4) from the markets for our apartment. Maybe I'll have a little collection going on in a few years!