Try Try Again

Our trip in Barcelona can probably best be summed up with this title.  There were at least two destinations where we had to return at least 3 times before it was open.  One of them was the Plaza Espanya, where from the palace at the top of the stairs you can look down to an amazing fountain and from there down to one of the largest round-abouts and avenues of the city.  The view is pretty incredible, especially at night.

However, unfortunately (or I guess it could be fortunately if you liked cars a lot), there was an auto-show while we were there that chose to take place bang smack in the heart of all that was worth seeing in that plaza, and also completely blocking our entry to see the fountain.  We had to return twice before figuring out that they only allowed in tourists at 9pm to see the fountain show.  Luckily for us, our ride up to the mountains of Montserrat also gave us 7 free rides on the metro so we didn't spend a fortune in transporting ourselves from one closed monument to another.  [I will post some photos later]

The second spot is a bar called El Xampanyet.  It is on the same street as the Picasso museum, but for some strange reason, it closes at an ungodly early hour for a bar.  So the first three times that we went there, it was closed because it was a Monday, and then the latter two because we fancied a drink at 11pm.  Good grief.  And when it's closed, it becomes so dark and the entrance is already so small that we always miss it completely and wander around hopelessly looking for the thing that is right under our noses.  And to think that it's rated as one of Europe's best bars!  The reason I was dying to go so much was because it was where I went on my last trip 5 years ago with my friend Marina, who told me that it was one of her best kept secrets and not to leak it to anyone for fear that it would be over-run with tourists.  I guess tourists will sniff out Cava (a.k.a Spanish champagne) for only 1.20 euro even if it is a secret.  Eventually we did make it while it was open, and it was incredibly crowded with tourists - a marked difference from 5 years ago.  However, that glass of Cava remained just as good and refreshing, and only about 20 centimes pricier!

But because of our persistence with going to Xampanyet, we also ended up trying the tapas restaurant across the street that had been recommended to us, which we probably wouldn't have actually sought out on our-own after being so tired with taps.  The place is called Tapeo - and Marco and I found this to be the most delightful Tapas bar in all of Spain! Better than anything we had tried in Sevilla AND Madrid.  The Rabo de Toro (bull-tail) was so tender that it practically fell apart, and the foam of Catalan Creme (like a creme brulee) is the only food foam that Marco likes.  And the service was also impeccable, despite it being very busy.  The waitress actually listened (although I saw the shock in her eyes) when I said that I did not want any olive oil over the food and we did not want anything fried.  We liked it so much that we even went back the next day, and I even ate something fried for once!! Even that was delightful, and I haven't really gone for fried food for years.

So I guess all in all, that old adage does apply in Barcelona -- if you find something closed, do try try again!!

Vegas > Me

Sorry this post is out of sequence.  We have left Vegas for 3 weeks now, but I have to make up for some lost time!!

VEGASSSSS - yeah I'm definitely excited to be back to the Flossy Flossy.  The last trip was way too short - I didn't even get to enjoy the pool.  Well, I'm definitely setting that straight this time around and making sure that I get my tan back on after the 10 days of freezing Chicago weather practically melted all of it off.   It's not going to be difficult with a pool like this!

Some highlights from the trip:

•   Going to see the Jabbawockeez - they were awesome!!!  I've been wanting to go ever since my last trip when I found out that they performed at the Monte Carlo.  If you're in Vegas - make this a stop for sure.  Electric choreography, great infusion of comedy and audience participation, hopping beats, this show has it all.  I also love that they are representing Asians out there on the Big Stage!!  If you think that their masks look creepy, their philosophy about them is bang on - it stops you from picking out a favorite in the crowd and only focusing on one dancer.  Instead, you are compelled to enjoy the whole of the dance.  Very gestalt.  But still, I would still rate Cirque Du Soleil's "Ka" higher - I don't think I've ever seen any set more intricately designed or eye-bogglingly spectacular. 

•   Getting to play beer-pong with Marco's bosses.  VPs and Directors of a fourtune 500 company going at it in their dress shirts and suit pants.  Enough said. 

• The fountain at the Bellagio is just amazing.  I don't think I'll ever get tired of standing out there, enjoying the swell of the music and the breezy droplets that mist the warm desert air.   The best things in life CAN be free!  

• I didn't get to walk around and enjoy many hotels last time at all, so this time we made sure to make up for lost time.  My favorites are the Bellagio and the Aria at the City Center.  Both were incredibly different; the Bellagio is classic and stately, with incredible floral decorations, whereas the Aria is a tour-de-force of futuristic angles, lights and colors. 

• Finally, a note about the gambling.  It all started wonderfully well at the airport, where I actually won money at the Slot-machines, which according to my friend, is "money-vomit."  However, riding on this wave of victory, I saw my demise as the slots at the hotel basically ate up all of my dollar bills, and then, ten dollar, and then twenty dollar bill as well.  Sigh.  So we decided to try out hand at Craps, which usually has the best odds in Vegas.  However, it was $20 a bet and in under 10 minutes, $100 also melted away.  It was only across the street at O'Sheas did we manage to win a respectable amount of our lost money back.  Screw you, Vegas!!! 

  

The Sagrada Familia

Photo credit: funzonecollector.blogspot.com

The last time I was in Barcelona was around 5 years ago.  I visited nearly all the great monuments and touristic sights - the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Plaza Espana, the Picasso museum.  I even took a day trip to Monserrat, which was an hour outside of the city, to see the monastery at the top of that mountain.  I regarded the city as one of the brightest and most beautiful in all of Europe, which was why I was determined for Marco to also experience it before our trip in Europe was over.

However, this time it is even more beautiful than my recollection.  When I was here last, it was in November and during the low season.  That was why many of the monuments were in the midst of repair and I could not enjoy them in their full splendor.  I think early May is perhaps the best time to be here - the high season has just started everything is at its best to welcome guests to the city, but not too many tourists have crowded into the city.  And the weather is just perfect.

We started the trip with visiting... the grocery market.  I'm not kidding!  It was important to get situated, and our apartment is just in a perfect location.  Next door to a convenience store, and within 2 blocks of 3 small supermarkets and a large in-door mercardo which was very similar to that we experienced in Sevilla.  Of course, the fact that we are living in the Barri Gotic, the downtown area of Barcelona, is nothing to be complained about either.

With our kitchen all in order, we set out to explore the city.  First we visited the most famous and celebrated landmark in the entire city, the Sagrada Familia.  It is Gaudi's master work, started towards the end of the 1800s and is not estimated to be fully completed until 40 years from now.  As we approached the massive cathedral, I noticed that huge changes had already occurred since my last visit.  The most remarkable change was that the spiky rooftops were adored with brightly colored, fruit-like ornamentation, totally unique from anything I had ever seen.


The cathedral has 3 main sides; one depicting the birth of Christ, which is swollen and resplendent in details; the second depicts the Passion of Christ and is full of harsh lines and sombre carvings to express the sadness of his passing; and the last is the glory facade, reflecting the coming and the end of mankind, and is yet unfinished.  When I was last here, there was much that was still undone on the Passion facade, and the interior was entirely draped with plastic coverings and piled to the top with scaffolding.

Photo credit: Alamy

No words could describe my amazement at the completeness of the carvings and sculptures on the exterior of the Passion facade, the polish of newness with which everything was finished.  Clearly, everything had a meaning,  from the strange carving of a square box with 9 numbers on one wall, to even the positioning of the facades (birth toward the east, death the west), Gaudi had planned his work down to the very last intricacy.

Photo credit to: Nicola Tomovic

 And when I stepped foot beyond the massive doors, upon which was adorned 40 languages all relaying the same message, I felt chills at the back of my neck.  It was as if I had entered a colossal forest of stone and brilliantly colored glass.  A strange and magical world was before me, almost something straight out of the imagination of Tolkien.







So much was reminiscent of nature, down to the gigantic supporting columns forking like tree branches at the ceiling, and the casing for elevators that curled down like tendrils of vines.

What I loved best were the multi-chromatic stained  glass windows, which were abstract and modern in appearance, and let through streams of warm, colored light that danced on the walls and floor of the church.  Gaudi had painstakingly designed this because he knew the vital importance of light inside the church - it could not be so bright that it blinded, or shroud the place in darkness.

Only through the central sky-light is the bright Mediterranean light allowed to freely shine through.  Tiny pieces of golden mosaic decorate the sky-light, and as they catch the light, the effect illuminates the main crucifix in a soft halo of gold, and the effect is pure magic.

I have always felt much closer to God when I am surrounded by nature than in a church, but this utterly unconventional church is the most perfect merging of the two that I have ever experienced.  

A Strange Flight

Despite somewhat of an odd 14 hours on the flight over to Europe, Barcelona has kicked off with an amazing start. However, before going on to cover the sunny Mediterranean city, I will give some brief account of what took place on that flight.

Most of it was spent flying during the nighttime in European time, so to get adjusted, Marco and I settled to sleep after being served dinner.  As usual, I plugged up my ears, covered my face with an eye-mask and buried under the coverlets and my fleece.  We even took a sleeping tablet each so as to ensure that we'd get a sound night's rest.  But no matter what I tried, I could not stop the flow of annoyingly loud conversation that was taking place in the aisle next to ours, two rows up from our seats.  A tall man stood at the end of the aisle, leaning on the corner, speaking and laughing very loudly to a woman who was seated at the end of that row.  Clearly his seat was not there, and he even had to elevate his voice in order for the sound to carry down to where she was sitting, seeing as she was quite short.

Finally, I could not take it any more and I got his attention.  I gestured and said that we were trying to sleep, and if he would mind speaking a little more quietly.  He stared at me for a little bit before saying in a very bizarre fashion, "I am already quiet."  At first I thought that it was just a turn of speech and that he had accepted the request, but I quickly realized that he did not mean to alter his behavior at all.  That was when Marco spoke up and repeated my words.  The man replied, this time not very happily at all, "The airplane is loud, the bathroom doors make noise, my talking does nothing."  I could hardly believe my ears!  How easy is it to simply lower his voice - was he really going to get into a confrontation with us?

Marco pressed on, and said that the doors and the airplane have no choice where as he does.  The man then argued that no one else around us had any complaint - which was true because they were all up watching movies and had headphones on.  I could just feel my blood boiling.  Finally, when Marco repeated his request for quiet, the man actually had the nerve to say, "No thank you."  I almost leapt out of my seat.  Instead, I did something better; I called the flight attendant over, and explained the ridiculous situation to her.  Amazingly, when she walked over to that hateful man, he actually said "I will not! They are just trying to use their power against me!"  Seriously - he said that.  What are we - in second grade? If I could open the doors to push him out of the plane I would have tried.  Never had I experienced such rudeness and resistance at so small a request.

Finally, he quietened down and eventually left.  The rest of the flight passed without incident until we landed.  But as soon as the flight was moving toward the gate, the flight attendant announced that there was a medical emergency on-board and that we weren't to leave our seats until expressly told to do so.  Marco and I had witnessed another one of these emergencies on a flight in the US, but it was no more than a lady being transported to a wheel-chair, looking a bit tired.  However, this time it was clearly different.

Various flight attendants were sprinting up and down the aisle, carrying all means of medical equipment and even an oxygen tank.  Clearly the matter was serious.  When we finally walked out of the plane, we could only use the passage on the left because they had laid the poor passenger down on the ground in other aisle and Marco and actually saw them performing CPR on her.  A quick question to the attendant clarified the situation - apparently it was alcohol poisoning!  Of all the strange cases to happen.  Apparently the passenger had boarded the plane already a bit inebriated and proceeded to drink herself silly on the flight.  And totally unbeknownst to me, air pressure when a plane is in flight causes alcohol to act much stronger and quicker on the system.   But now... CPR!  We left not knowing if she had made it or not.  But it was a good lesson to be had.

I'm so glad that I did not find out my bar exam results right before our flight!

I'm Baaaack!! With Happy News

Sincere apologies for my long absence - I promise that I have not abandoned this blog.  It was mostly due to my missing the USB cable to upload photos from my camera, and also partly due to an increasing anxiety to the day that my bar exam results came out.  But now, I am happy to report several pieces of good news:

    1.   I PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!   It was perhaps one of the most intensely happy moments in my life, and as these things usually go, it was due to the most intense stress and worry that I have ever experienced.  15 minutes after I found out the news, I was immediately in a bar chugging an Irish car-bomb (a pint of Guiness with a shot of 1/2 Bailey's and 1/2 Whiskey dropped in).  1 hour later, I had some tequila and almost 2 Kamikazees, and was ready to explode with... joy. 

Bearing dowry gifts

   2.  I attended Nan (Marco's brother) and Tam's wedding.  It was beautiful, and a great insight into what a Vietnamese wedding ceremony is like.  It was awesome to see all of Marco's relatives again, and meet lots of new ones - 350 attended that wedding!! And... I CAUGHT THE BOUQUET!!!! It was my first time catching this prize, but definitely not for lack of trying the previous three times.  And although I had to snatch it from a little girl, I cannot say that I was ashamed. 




















   3.  We are now in Barcelona, embarking on the second leg of our trip.  And it is GLORIOUS!  But before I launch into new stories, please see below a few snap-shots of our past few weeks spent in various parts of this country. 

Playing a round of mini-golf in Chicago

Celebrating mother's day with cards and flowers

Grapefruit salad at Xahn, Mountain view

    

Mi Casa Es Un Restaurant

We were finally back home in Chicago with my family for ten days, just in time for Easter.  A much needed break from our vacation!  At this point, I really was just dying for a good home-cooked meal.  And my mom takes the word "home-cooked" very seriously.  As soon as we arrived, my mom, as usual, showed me the elaborate menu that she had planned for our entire stay - roast duck, crab, drunken pork, marinated quail, there was something special every night.

But that was only the tip of the ice-berg.  In the mornings, she would bring out freshly baked warm bread, and at lunch, hand-crafted won-tons, sticky rice and shredded chicken hand-wrapped in lotus leaves, and pork buns with the dough kneaded by hand. Whenever I came down stairs, there was almost always mixing bowls and baking sheets laid out on the counter-top, and my mom elbow deep in the next installment of her plan.  It seemed like there was almost nothing store-bought in the house, everything was made from scratch.

Over the past year or two, it's become my desire to cook for my family and impress them with my newly acquired skills.  After cooking for Marco almost every night over the past year, I have built up somewhat of a fledgling list of go-to dishes that always turn out pretty well.  But no matter how much I tell my family, I still have a feeling that they think I'm eating out of a Chinese take-out box every day.  The year leading up to college was filled with my dad telling me how important it is for me to learn to cook, how food is one of the greatest enjoyments in life, and how my future family will either starve or become addicted to, god forbid, fast-food food otherwise.

However, it's particularly difficult to cook for my family because my mom is such an amazing chef - and although my parents will at least be polite and always ate whatever I made during my past visits, my brother is as straight of a shooter as they make 'em.  He won't even eat an entire shrimp if it's not up to Mom Standard.  But this time, I had a secret recipe up my sleeve - a Korean beef short-rib stew with root vegetables and daikon that is simmered over 6 hours to perfection. I had already made it once for Marco, who ate it morning, lunch and dinner until every bit was gone.  So this time, I made sure to convince mom to let me have dibs over dinner one night that week, and I gathered all the ingredients from the Korean market.

After slaving over chopping board for most of the morning dicing a small mountain of vegetables, pre-boiling, and marinating the meat, I finally set the pot over a small flame and let the simmering do its magic.  By mid afternoon, aromas of the tender beef started wafting around the house.  I have to say though, I was pretty surprised when my dad came downstairs to tell me that he was sure the stew was finished because it smelled toooo aromatic!  And even better yet, at dinner, my brother was actually excited to eat the heaped bowl in front of him!  Usually, he either pokes at the food I cook, and says it give him a stomach-ache.  Even though he's usually by far the last one finished at the table, tonight he trundled fork-full after fork-full into his mouth like a bulldozer and was done and out of his chair in half the usual time.  My mom couldn't even believe how fast he ate.  And more importantly, he said the golden words "Even better than mom's beef stew!"

All I can say is, after the show that my mom's running, the responsibility to carry on the family tradition is no small one but... I think there's some hope for me yet!

A Pleasant Retreat

Aside from the Prado, my other favorite landmarks in Madrid were the Retiro Park and the Botanic Garden.

The Park is really the jewel of the city - the best translation of the name is "A Pleasant Retreat" and that's exactly what it is, a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city.  Once you enter the park, it feels like a completely different world - kids are giggling and running around, couples are picnicking under the shady trees, there's even a beautiful lake where you can rent row boats.  It's very different from other large city parks, many of which are just large patches of lawn.  Retiro park had some really beautiful landscaped trees, a huge glass conservatory, and the best of all, great performers would gather huge crowds of people to see their acts.

This guy was by far the most successful - he was a genius crowd pleaser and really captivated the kids, thus also ensuring that the adults would stay until the hat went around at the end for tips.  Every time he spotted some new people, he would draw attention to them and tease them with both English and Spanish, which was very funny. In this photo, he's in the middle of his final act, balancing precariously on three layers of cans and wooden boards (which can all come apart), while that black cylinder is rolling around at the bottom.  When we got there, the crow was absolutely massive and totally encircled him.  We ended up staying for an hour - an impromptu comedy/acrobatics show!

On our last day, we visited the botanic garden right before our flight.  It took roughly an hour or so to go through the garden, and it was very worth while.  Lots of flowers were in bloom and the garden was lit up with beautiful colors everywhere.  I also liked how the entrance had a sign that very seriously indicated that the park was a museum of beautiful and rare plants, not simply a place to walk your dogs and your small children.


Although to many, Madrid is home to some of the most rare and beautiful artwork, an intricately decorated palace, and a magnificent bull-ring, I will always remember the city by its wonderful parks and lush greenery.