RTW Adventures of J&M

I have received word that the postcards I sent out from Barcelona have started to arrive at various US destinations. Actually, they were just regular photo prints.

For those of you who did not get one from Barcelona it's not too late to put yourself on the mailing list for Paris and our subsequent destinations!

Today's Weather
Barcelona: 64F, sunny
Paris: 41F, heavy rain

Actually, it started snowing when we arrived in Paris

Current Location: Paris, France

 

Atic Arago
Arago, 116
Barcelona, Spain

Convenient location in Eixample district

• 3 blocks away from the metro station (Urgell)
• Lots of mom & pop restaurants around with 8-10 EUR menu del dia for lunch.
• 1 block from the supermarket (Consum)
• A few blocks away from Mercat del Ninot (produce/meat market)
• Close to a lot of buses, including one that runs through La Rambla to Barceloneta

Modern-looking top floor studio with good amentities

• Small kitchen: 2 gas burners, microwave
• Main space divided into a living area and sleeping area
• Double bed on futon frame
• Very small bathroom
• Ikea furniture
• Leather loveseat
• LCD TV with no English channels.
• Washing machine, outdoor dining furniture and refrigerator in covered sunroom
• Expansive outdoor deck sporting a clothesline (no drying machine)
• Internet (also see Shortfalls)

It has some shortfalls

• Sunroom gets too warm and bright during the day and had a permanent mildew smell
• Washing machine is difficult to operate
• Very little counterspace in the kitchen (just enough to put down a cutting board)
• Pots and pans were unusable (boiled some water in them and it tasted like teflon)
• Poor internet connection: the connection is not permanent; it ended up being a USB key that you plug into your computer to access the internet over the cell phone network; limited data plan (1 GB); it took three days for the property management company to get it to us after checking-in
• The shower stall was ridiculously small

It's not cheap

• 1500 EUR for 21 nights (~95 USD per night)
• Originally found on www.vrbo.com, but is managed through a property management company (www.aparteasy.com)
• We were frustrated with the management company with not having the internet set up on the day we arrived. Their answer to everything was "manana" (tomorrow).

1. Length of the studio apartment - from bed to sunroom.
2. J working in the sunroom. You can also see the outdoor deck beyond the sunroom
3. A view of the National Museum of Art from the deck
4. The kitchen
5. The bathroom
6. The extremely small shower.

One of the benefits of staying in a city for a longer period of time is that we don't feel the pressure to eat the best local cuisine everyday. Imagine if you were visiting Seattle for a week and ate Salty's, Daniel's, Purple, Coastal Kitchen, Portage Cafe and The Herbfarm on 6 consecutive days (*cough* Jon & Jane *cough*). Here's a recap of the non-Spanish dining establishments we've visited in Barcelona.

McDonalds. The golden arches are universal. Fast, tasty and cheap. McDonalds didn't even cross my mind until I came across a 2-for-1 Big Mac coupon in the Bus Touristic Coupon Book. After that, I had to have one even though I distinctly remembered not particularly liking Big Macs because of the 1000 island dressing. Now I know - I LOVE the Big Macs in Spain! The 1000 island dressing is replaced with a tastier, less creamy orange/pink sauce and the meat is saltier. They offer regular fries, but you can also opt for "patatas deluxe" which are more like potato wedges. I didn't even mind the taste of the Coca-Cola fountain drink. And, although I did not take advantage, you can get beer instead of soda with your value meal. =)

Burger King. The obsession with Burger King  started when J picked up a coupon off the ground on the busy street of La Rambla. 2 whoppers and a drink for 5,99 Euros. I actually walked by it first and was tempted to pick it up, but I figured J, being the germ-a-phob that he is, would just yell at me for picking up something that dirty. When we finally made it to a Burger King we ended up not using the coupon because it was only valid at the La Rambla store. Instead, we got their special promotion to share as a snack since it would only 12 PM, still 2 hours away from peak lunchtime - 1 double BBQ cheeseburger with small fries and drink for 2,99 Euros. The burger and fries tasted pretty much as they would in the US, but let me tell you... the Coca-Cola was SOOOO BAD that it didn't even taste like Coca-Cola anymore. I don't care what kind of sugar or alternate formula they used. The taste was altered so much that it should be classified as another type of beverage.

Yamadori. This was our adventure into Japanese food in Barcelona. If you look for top-rated restaurants for Barcelona on Tripadivsor you will see that about 30% of the restaurants on Page 1 is Japanese, including the #1 most recommended restaurant. Surprised? We were. Does that mean Barcelona has some pretty darn good Japanese restaurants? Well, we had to find out. So I went online and picked out Yamadori, supposedly one of the oldest Japanese restaurant in Barcelona with a mostly Japanese clientele. While we were waiting to be shown our seats we overheard the sushi chef speaking fluent Japanese to two people, who we later found out were Japanese tourists. Good sign. The menu came and it had "nato" (or Japanese fermented soybeans). Another good sign. The green tea came and it tasted rich and roasty. We had high hopes at this point. Then the food came. Not as good. The elements of J's Katsudon were there, but the flavor was a little bland. The kimchi in my yaki-udon was just weird. However, I will admit it was the first time I had yaki-udon. Overall, it was an OK experience. The two Japanese tourists sitting next to us seemed to enjoy their meal. Perhaps we just ordered the wrong things.

Shanghai 1930. My parents would be proud. This was our adventure into authentic Chinese food in Barcelona. I'll stress it again - authentic, as in not the sweet and sour chicken variety. Again, I based this decision on internet reviews. We didn't make a point to search it out, but I did remember the relative location of the restaurant in case we were in the vicinity. I'll say one thing - it was a strange experience. Let me recap. We walk in and ask for a seat for two in Mandarin. The host leaves us a stack of menus, two of which are only in Chinese! BINGO! A lady comes to pour us a small cup of very tasty tea, which we later found out was limited to only one cup. You don't get to keep the pot and they don't refill it for you. J is tempted by the Chinese-only dim sum menu and orders turnip cake and rice noodle. The waiter kind of hesitates, but writes down our orders without question. We next ask him for a recommendation and he recommends "sui(2) zhu(3) niu(2)" which means "water cook beef." I don't like beef much and isn't this a Shanghai restaurant? (The beef dish screams Schezuanese) So, we tried to order "mei(2) cai(4) kou (4) rou(4)" which means "preserved vegetables with really fatty pork." He does this little chuckle and tells us not to order pork and just order the beef. I've never had a waiter who openly told me not to order something, so I appreciate his honesty. 3 minutes later the same waiter comes back and tells us they don't have turnip cake so we order fish cake on his recommendation. The fish cake comes - very tasty, but not so Chinese. In fact, the protein of fish paste shaped into a cake is very Chinese but the seasoning is very Spanish (olive oil, garlic, parsley and salt). Next, the beef comes. Now we're talking. It's a soup of oil and spice with napa vegetables and baking soda tenderized beef. It was very tasty and pretty authentic in my opinion. The rice noodle comes and it's literally a roll of rice noodle pan-fried on both sides, a far cry from the shrimps wrapped with rice noodle drenched in a soy-based marinade served in all dim sum restaurants in the US. Overall, it was a good experience. If we had skipped the dim sum and just stuck to main dishes only, it would've been a more authentic meal. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to my parents if they visit Barcelona one day, but I'd definitely tell them to stick to the Chinese-only menu or speak to the waiter in Mandarin to get a recommendation. I'd also tell them to stay away from the price-tempting menu del dia which offered ravioli with tomato sauce as a first course. No joke.

I am going to attempt to print out some custom-made postcards today. I went into a Ritz Camera equivalent near Placa Catalunya a few days ago to see if they printed post cards. It was a gigantic store and they seemed to print everything else - mugs, calendars, coasters and even high quality hardcover books to name a few. However, when I asked a girl whether or not they printed postcards she said 'no.' I'm just hoping there was a mis-translation and she thought I was asking if they sell postcards. If all else fails, I'll just try mailing regular prints.

If you'd like a postcard with an authentic postmark, please email me at my regular Gmail account or J at whatever email address you have for him. Please do not leave your addresses as a comment on this blog post for everyone to see, unless you want stalkers. =)

Current Location: Barcelona, Spain

Even though J and I would love to be able to bring home souvenirs for our friends and family, we have succumbed to the realization that it would be impossible. After navigating our way to Barcelona with 4 checked luggage pieces, we decided to shed at least 33% of our stuff in Boston while we're at my parents' home for Christmas. Possible items include half of our wardrobe (mostly winter things since we will be in summer/spring weather for the remainder of the trip), a tripod and my dying laptop. The list grows daily. Adding souvenirs at every stop would defeat the purpose.

However, we'd still like everyone to have a bit of something. My solution: souvenir blog posts. These entries will probably come towards the end of our stay at each destination. It will consist of images or videos with each item dedicated to an individual or group. These items are for you because we were either thinking of you when we took the image/video, or we thought you would appreciate the subject matter of the image/video the most.

With that said, here comes the first batch of souvenirs for our friends and family.

1. To Edmund
2. To Irene
3. To Minhua
4. To the Seattle Dim Sum Crew (former and current)
5. To Kelly
6. To the Tibbitts
7. To Jerry