Food and Fashion Frenzy in France

Q: WHY DID WE GO TO PARIS?

Christine: Fashion, Fashion, Fashion, Fashion

Most people don't know that Christine writes a really succesful fashion blog. She even gets sponsored by some companies to advertise and give free gift giveaways through her site. No wonder Paris is her favorite city in the whole entire world! Here's a link to her fashion blog

Aivi: Art museums

Aivi is the most creative one in my immediate family. Lam and I are complete idiots when it comes to art but homegirl has an eye for it. She used to take lots of college art classes when she was only in highschool! Too bad she's doing the asian thing and getting into the math and sciences...j/k.

Me: Food and wine...and maybe a picture here or there with some special buildings...

Looking back, I realized that I spent most of my money in Europe on food. I did the occasional shopping but a lot of my money was spent in restaurants. Isn't it the law to have 3-4 hour dinners with a bottle of wine in Paris?? No wonder everyone in Paris thinks America is too fast paced.

Chris: Sight-see like a military sergeant and experience France in the most American way

This was the first time Chris was in Paris and he did what every good tourist did- he saw almost every major monuement in France. When everyone got too lazy to walk into the Notre Dame, he stood in the looonng line to take a 5 minute walk through Quaisimodo's crib.

It's not Gawdy, it's Gaudi.

The city of Barcelona is Antoni Gaudi's master piece. From an interpretation of Hansel and Gretel's candy house in Park Guell to the Sagrada Familia , his approach to architecture and usage of color led me to take over 200 pictures in one day. Let me also add that the man lived in a pink house!

Antoni Gaudi was a Catalan architect who died in 1926. The top most picture is a snapshot of the Hansel and Gretel house that is at the entrance of Park Guell. The picture below is of the impressive Sagrada Familia, a catholic church. Gaudi worked on the Sagrada Familia for over 40 years and it remained incomplete after he died. The city is trying to finish his work and hoping that they can have it completed by 2026, a hundred years after his death.

When I saw the church in person, I was like "Whaaa? How is that a church? It looks like the total opposite of a church..." Like I said, Gaudi had his own individual style.

More Gaudi architecture:

The colonnade, "La Ola" in the park

Gaudi's usage of tile mosaics in the ceiling and the wrap around bench. Do you see snoopy's face in this picture below?

Gaudi's pink house

View of Barcelona from the park bench

Christine and I were really lucky to have our wonderful friend, Roser, give us a tour of her home city. She has so much Catalan spirit! I think I learned Catalan History 101 in just one day with her. For those of you who don't know much about the history of the Spain, Spain is split into Autonomous communities- Catalonia is one of them and the capital of Catalonia is Barcelona.

Did you know that Barcelona's official language is Catalan, not Spanish?

More pictures from Barcelona

Here's a list of Gaudi's other works in Barcelona

FOB: Fresh Off the Beach...From Cádiz

While Eva sunburned and Christine read, I was busy people watching. I should also add that I was wearing my reflective sunglasses and hat so no one really knew who or what I was looking at-that's the right way to people watch. People watching at the Cádiz beach taught me a little bit about beach fashion. You see, it's easy to differentiate between European and American men. European men wear speedos or tiny, tight shorts to the beach; the U.S. men wear big board shorts.

Let's play I SPY with this picture! I spy...With my little eye...A medium build man in a blue speedo. Hmm, where do you think he is from?

As for the women, let's just say that there was no fashion...Most beaches in Spain are topless. Sorry, no I SPY games for women.

Cádiz has perfect weather, gorgeous people, hoppin' beaches and great food- sounds like California! The only difference is that Cádiz is a really old city, like ~1100 B.C. old. It's no surprise that Cádiz is the oldest city in ALL OF SPAIN. The city is relatively small, thus, we were able to go sight seeing within 2 hours before the beach. We hit up the cathedral, famous theater, a few monuments, and even did some tourist shopping.

Cádiz Cathedral

Christine in her new dress she bought minutes before this picture was taken

Plaza San Antonio

Almost tanorexic at the beach

After the heatwave experience in Seville, heading to Cádiz via train was a perfect way to end our stay in southern Spain. Let me also warn you that most restaurants next to the beach close at 5PM and then open up again at 8PM for dinner service. Just remember to prepare yourself for super late dinners!

Celebrating July 4th in Seville, Spain

July 4th Schedule Spanish Style:

2PM-7PM Siesta

11PM-7AM Fiesta

Seville, the capital of Andalucia, made me appreciate the concept of having a siesta in the middle of the day. I just thought that people were so relaxed that siesta-ing would give them something to do. In actuality, it's because it's SO HOT IN SEVILLE, NO ONE WANTED TO LEAVE THE HOUSE IN THE AFTERNOON UNTIL IT WAS DARK. I'm talking about Las Vegas desert weather in the middle of July multiplied by 10. According to ExploreSeville.com, Seville holds the record for being the hottest city in ALL of Europe.

During the four days with Eva, our awesome Spanish friend (tour guide and translator!), we acted like vampires. Most of our activities revolved around the setting of the sun. We would do bits and pieces of tourist attractions before peak sun-hours (most of them being indoors), escape into the house for lunch, and siesta until the sun dissapeared. Our night life was great, however. The weather was perfect when there was no sun, especially on July 4th. Instead of BBQs and beer, we had tapas and tinto, a spanish drink consisting of 1 part red wine and 2 parts orange Fanta. I thought we were going to have a relatively chill night celebrating the fourth at a posh outdoor bar/club but one thing led to another and we ended up dancing until 7AM! We also celebrated the fourth with other locals and fellow U.S. students who were studying abroad. Viva America!

Eva, Christine, and me

I will do no justice to Seville if I only talk about the night life. Therefore, I will carry on with my favorite things about the city, starting with food. Seville is famous for their tapas, a spanish appetizer. When Eva took us to her favorite tapas bar called Caberna Colonailes, I was floored when I saw and tasted the fried quail eggs over slices of chorizo (a smoked pork sausage). It was definitely my favorite tapas dish.

Besides tasty tapas, Eva also took us to see the major tourist sites. I really liked the Plaza de España and the gothic Cathedral of Seville. We went to visit the Plaza de España during the sunset. It was so beautiful and colorful, no wonder the movie, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones used the Plaza to film Naboo scenes!

As for the cathedral, it used to a mosque but was then rebuilt into a church. The cathedral also serves as the official burial site for Christopher Columbus! I can't believe I stood next to his dead body to snap a tourist picture...

Once again, I gotta say muchas gracias to Eva for taking us around Seville!

Out of Spain, into Paris

Bonjour Paris!

We are here at last! Fashion capital of the world and our last city! Our hostel is located in a very great neighborhood right in the center of Paris. It's called Absolute Paris. We are super close to everything and our room has a great view of the Eiffel tower...Okay, it's not a full blown view of the tower but we can still see half of the top (especially at night when they turn on the glittery lights and have that weird spot light shining back and forth).

I am currently sitting on some rugged hostel steps, hoping not to get tetnus from the nails that are sticking out. This place says it has wireless but it only extends to the second floor. We are on the 5th floor...in the attic. I guess you gotta sacrfice some comfort when you're on a student budget. Nevertheless, our room is quite interesting. It reminds me of the room from Ratatouille, the movie with the cooking rat. Kinda ghetto, kinda cute, but it works and we do love it!

We met up with Chris and Aivi and did some sight seeing and shopping. We ended the night with a leisurely dinner at the OLDEST restaurant in Paris called Le Procope (opened since 1686). The restaurant was recommended by one of Christine's friends who used to live in Paris with her mother. I loved it! My favorite dish was les escargots. Tres bien!


Demain, nous allons visiter le Louvre. Au revoir!

Lanny, Christine, Barcelona

We are currently in Spain! So much has happened since our plan landed this afternoon! First, Christine was hit on by a gorgeous model from Spain (who had perfect bone structure but had a lot of chest hair...Which is forgivable since he is so handsome), I was almost a victim of a pick pocketer while using the train (but the Ugly American in me went crazy and scared her away), our hostel is absolutely fabulous (I don't even think I should call it a hostel, it's like a hotel with no room service), and the people here are so relaxed. They honestly don't start eating until after 9PM. We finished our delicious tapas and sangria dinner at 12AM!

Note: Next time you're in Spain and on a shoestring budget, stay at Urbany Hostel.

View of the Agbar Tower from our room

Day 1 in Barcelona has been specatular even though I don't know a lick of Spanish. We will be in Spain for about 7 days so hopefully I can pick up a few phrases by then. Adios!