Some images from the Barcelona market

Back in Germany from Spain

After five days in sunny Barcelona, I returned back to chilly D'dorf at 22 last night (Saturday). The purpose of the trip was work, and the days (and nights) were packed with work talk/activities.

Here are some seaside views. The top is the view from the hotel room where I stayed for the work conference. I didn't get much time to enjoy this view.

Here is the beach I went to on the last day. It was gently crowded with Spaniards relaxing. It was warm enough as the sun was so strong that many were laying out in bathing suits. However, the water was frigid, so only the hearty were in the sea.

And currently I'm looking out my window in Germany watching the sleet fall. (Sigh.)

while it was snowing in Germany

While my expat blogger colleagues have been writing about the winter weather, I've been in the sun in Barcelona. En route to Barcelona, I had to switch planes in Palma de Mallorca. As the second plane was 3 hours late in coming from Stuttgart, I had plenty of time to wander around the airport.

So some photos from the Mallorca aipoirt. I took this photo to show the water fountain. While water fountains are all over US airports and many European airports, they are non-existent in the German aiports I travel through (primarily Cologne and D'dorf).

Then a random photo inside the airport because they kept moving the gate during the three hours of delay. So we were supposed to be at gate 91, and they said a 30 minute delay. Then that posting went away as they took over the gate for a different flight. On the TV monitors it said gate 85, but upon going there, there was nothing on the directional sign, so I followed the herd down to the Air Berlin info desk, where they said to go to gate 81. But the TV says 86. It does? One of the Air Berlin workers goes to look, and now it's saying 80. So we traipse down to 80.Finally, after spending two hours gate chasing, we seemed to settle at one gate. Unfortunately, that's when they pushed it back an entire hour. In good news, they sent us to the snack bar where they gave us sandwichs and soda. Where the man is standing is the counter where they gave out the sandwiches. It was very high tech, they looked at your boarding pass and then ripped off a tiny bit of the corner upon giving you a sandwich, I guess to keep you from going for two. OK, it was nice and all for them to feed us, but I wouldn't have wanted two.Finally we took off after three hours. Here is a view of Mallorca from the air. Pretty, no?The work meetings were OK, I met a lot of people whom I have not encountered previously. My long weekend then began at 16.40 on Thursday when arrived back at the airport, catching a ride with some colleagues from some remote site that was an hour away.

I took the bus from the airport into town. It is only 3.75 euros and comes around every 10 minutes, sometimes more or less depending on when in the day you go. I took it to Placa de Catalunya which is a big square. From there I walked to my hotel, which is around 25 minutes by foot. I usually stay at the same hotel because Barcelona is so big and I know where this hotel is, as well as it is a reasonable option price-wise. On Friday I was out and about in the neighborhood, here are some photos:
Finally, I made it to the shoe Mecca, the Camper shoe outlet, or "Re-Camper" as they call it. I bought only one pair of shoes, I'll get a photo of them for a future blog. While I was at the outlet complex, they were photographing an advert. So part of the walkway was roped off and in the center in the bright lights were models on motorcycles. The advert-->it must have been for a cookie because the leather-clad models were posing holding the cookie, about to bite into the cookie.
Later, back in town on Friday evening I took it easy with a coffee at a local cafe. On Saturday it was more of the same, just lazing around the neighborhood, basically. At one point I wandering into a market. It had many stands with fresh meats, cheeses, fish, vegetables, and fruits. I stopped for an espresso and watched the shoppers. Life in Spain moves slow.Later, I went to a neighborhood cafe near the hotel. My Spanish is good enough to please the kind Spanish people, especially as the places I was going were not tourist heavy. At the cafe I ordered a glass of wine and a slice of tortilla. The woman then offered me, 'bread with tomato'. Um, I understand the Spanish words, but not the point. 'Ah carina, I explain.' In Catalunya (the region of Spain that includes Barcelona as its capital, and where they also speak Catalan in addition to Spanish), it is customary to eat bread with tomato as a starter or as a snack. It's bread from a baguette which is smeared with a tomato, so it's a little wet and then it's dabbed with olive oil. You don't actually really get tomato on the bread when you eat it, only the juice and maybe a few of the seeds from the tomato. And she was so sweet, she did not charge me anything for it, although later when I saw some cafe menus I saw it on there for a small amount, 1 euro or under.

Then, I went to a bar where I had previously gone with my travel partner in crime, JF. She and I stopped in this hole in the wall where they serve fabulous wine for 1 euro a glass, in heavy glass jars. We had extremely low expectations and ended up staying there for hours because the wine was so good and the atmosphere was comfortable and relaxed.

This time I was alone, so I got a glass of wine and watched the activities. There were perhaps 8 people around the bar, one of them had a guitar out and was playing. The two bar staff were putting away the tapas. In the background, on TV were the 3 tenors, and a little girl in the bar was enchanted by them. As they started to shut off lights and give signs that the bar was closing (a little surprising at 21.30 for Spain), two older gentlemen, looking at least 70, who had come in for a glass of red wine went to pay and said 'and we invite the chica', so they were paying for me. I said no, it's ok, and they said, no, we do. As I did not want to disrespect their hospitality I let them. So very sweet.

Since it was only 21.30 I stopped at a third cafe. It was open later and some people were there having long dinners, others were having tapas with a bottle of win, others were popping in just for a coffee or a beer at the bar. It was slow as it got a little later in the evening and I was chatting with the bartender so I asked if I could get a photo of the bar, if that was ok. Of course it was ok and then he offered to take a photo of me in the bar, recognizing that I was a goofy tourist. I give you just the photo I took.The next morning (Saturday), I had most of the day as the flight did not leave until 18.00. First stop was to a sidewalk cafe for some fresh squeezed orange juice. The weather was 10 C with blazing sunshine. I sat there for a while watching many people walking all varieties of dogs.
Then I did some final wandering around. Here is one of the bull-fighting rings that is still in use. It is tough to see in this photo, but a motif prevalent in the blue design is the Star of David.

Then, I went to the supermarket to pick up wine and oreos and to the cafe for a coffee. I picked up a salad and fresh tomatos and enjoyed it on a park bench. I went back to the indoor market to buy some fine looking olives. I also bought a slice of tortilla to take with me to eat at the airport later. In speaking with the woman she was asking where I was from, etc. and what did I think of people from Spain? She then also packed with 'as a little gift' one of her home-made empanadillas for me. It was about the size of a pirogi, a deep-fried wonder. Once again, the people of Spain, so very nice.

off to spain with space in the suitcase for shoes

in a mere 12 hours i will be en route and basically offline until sunday.

-->wednesday is getting there and getting some work done, before meeting up with some work people in the evening, whom i do not yet know.

-->thursday is an all day work meeting with pure IT network/infrastructure people. should be fascinating.

-->friday i took a vacation day. will wander around barcelona a bit, and then will be venturing out to the camper shoe outlet. i went there once previously and it's a bit of a hassle to get out there, but the prices are fantastic if you like camper shoes. last time i managed only two pairs and my shopping colleague bought five pairs.

the secret is to go on a monday through friday. and to get the bus to La Roca Village. it's easy to find if you take the metro to the station called Fabra i Puig and then exit the station to the side with all of the bus stops. just look for the tourists standing around with a gleam of hope of good shoes in their eyes, or look at the signposts in each bus stall until you find the one that goes to Granollers Station and then La Roca Village. it tends to be the only bus stop with tourists standing in front, guidebooks in hand, so it's really not difficult to find.

-->saturday, some shopping for nice white wine to bring back and languishing in a cafe with tapas until it's time to leave early evening.

The *rain* in *Spain* stays *mainly* in the *plain*

I am off to Spain for a few days late next week, to work one day and then with one day being my first vacation day of the year, as well as a Saturday to run around and shop. This time, it's to Barcelona, which will be my third time there.

In the great behemoth of a company that I work for we have offices around the world. For the most part, the offices where I get to go are the ugly step-sister of offices that are located in industrial parks, on the outskirts of fine metropolises such as: Zwickau, Wuppertal, Geel, Valencia, Wednesbury, Telford, and one podunk one two hours away from Prague--do you get the idea? Offices that are located where land, buildings, and labor is cheap since the primary purpose of the site is/was manufacturing and now we have an office there too. (In your dreams of becoming an expat in Europe, I doubt the above appears, Gentle Reader.)

Rarely do I get to go to the sexy Cinderella offices like London, Paris, or Barcelona as these tend to be tiny satellite offices that are used mainly for sales and for only a small part of the client facing part of the business since real estate in the big cities is expensive.

However, someone managed to set up a meeting in Barcelona because we must talk about their systems there, in that Barcelona office. Shot, score!

-->Four glorious days in a country where the majority of the people are not permanently frowning.

-->Four days of being able to function linguistically as a 31 year old, rather than a 7 year old.

-->Four days of seeing people actually wearing clothing with color, beyond orange, brown and black.

-->One day in an office where business casual is something other than cargo pants or blue jeans.

-->Three days of sweet, gentle white wine and a few more bottles to carry home.

This year is off to a good start!