Our neighborhood

We live in Gracia which is one of the popular neighborhoods in Barcelona. It used to be a village outside of the city, but was incorporated long ago. It still has small, windy streets and a cozy, village feel which is probably why we love it so much. Cafes, bars and boutiques abound in the streets of Gracia and the people are happy and friendly. It is always nice to come back to the quaint streets of Gracia after being out and about in the larger streets of the rest of the city.

Gracia is well located with access to many interesting sites! The metro closest to our apartment (Joanic) is a direct shot to the beach which I am sure will be a bonus this summer! Plus, it is an easy walk from our place to Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia. We are glad to call Gracia home for the time being and just wanted to share a bit of our current surroundings with you! Enjoy!

This is our street. Also the background to my blog.

The park at Joanic - India and I frequent this square often!

A building in the 'hood.

The little "ditty" store (as Bucky calls it) up the street from us!

Another park in our neighborhood. It has a enclosed dog park too.

Another street during a stroll.

A restaurant/cafe that caught my eye during a walk. Mopeds are aplenty in Gracia!!

This is a street sign that I walk by often with India and I just had to take a picture. Sure am glad I don't live here because I would NEVER be able to say where I live!

Cadaques

Last weekend, Bucky and I spent a wonderful couple of days in the magical, seaside town of Cadaques. The town is separated from the rest of the world by the sea and a mountainous nature reserve so its setting is unique. We rented a little apartment just steps away from the water and of course took India along for the adventure. After we got settled, we wandered into the town and realized we had been there before. It turns out (and we confirmed on our wallsinfrance blog) that we had lunch in Cadaques with the girls when we spent spring break in Girona in 2010.

I guess because we are at a different stage in our lives, when we got to Cadaques last weekend, it made a more significant impact on us. It was like we had discovered a jewel! Basically, all we did during the weekend was wander around the town and explore the beaches and their rocky shores. We also had the absolute pleasure of visiting Salvador Dali's summer house that is located nearby.

Salvador Dali spent time in Cadaques as a child and ended up transforming his summer house into a masterpiece. Visiting the house and gardens was definitely my favorite museum experience to date! I took more pictures than I needed to, but wanted to capture the place!

Another cool thing about Cadaques is that you walk everywhere! We parked our car on the street when we arrived on Friday afternoon and didn't go back to it until it was time to leave on Sunday! Bucky and I are already talking about the next time we can go to Cadaques. It is a place we are sure to return to time and time again!

The apartment we rented was to the left of the middle building. This was taken near the shore.

 

Bucky admiring Cadaques.

A view from the town.

All of the walls are built with these flat stones that are just placed together. It is cool!

This is the little bay where Dali's house is located. 

Another perspective of the bay by Dali's house.

This is outside of Dali's house. The tree is growing out of the old boat.

A sitting area in Dali's house.

Salvador Dali's library!

One of the items that made Dali's house so cool!

This is a picture of Dali's studio. There were a couple of unfinished paintings there including the one you see here.

Art.

More quirky things in Dali's house. The little box on the wall on the right is where he kept crickets because he liked the noise they made!

This is a mirror he put up so that he could see the sunrise from his bed!

More funky stuff!

Selfie outside in Dali's yard!

More artsy stuff!

 

Bucky relaxing in an interesting chair in Dali's yard.

This is part of the set up around the swimming pool at Dali's summer home. 

Another view of the pool!

And one more pool shot! That's it (finally) for pictures of Dali's house! 

I love these little alleys that lead to the water.

Bucky and India posing in front of an alley!

We walked along the edge of the water and hiked to an island right by the coast.

This is from the island.

Bucky on the island!

Me and India on the island. She was loving life!

View of the town from the island.

Leaving the island.

Another alley! I just love this place! Can you tell??

Cool street!

A final water picture. The water was crystal clear! And we found some sea glass so I have started a new collection!

Cooking class

There is a cooking school across the street from our apartment called Sabores. For Christmas, Bucky gave me a gift certificate for us to take a lesson together. We were originally signed up to take a Catalan cooking class, but once I realized that we would probably be eating what we cooked and that we would probably be cooking lots of meat, we changed to the vegetarian cooking class! We had the class last night and it was lots of fun!

There were ten students total and a very enthusiastic teacher. The class was conducted in (very fast!) Spanish, but I was able to understand the majority of it. The teacher did translate a few things, but Bucky and I enjoyed trying to figure it out on our own! We each had tasks to do to prepare the meal and it was inspiring to learn some new things! After cooking, we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together with wine to boot!

We are cooking! I am working with another gal on a date brownie.

Here I am preparing the crudite. Bucky is in charge of the ratatouille in the front of the picture.

These are vegetarian hamburgers. They looked too much like real hamburgers to me so Bucky ate mine!

Our appetizer: Eggplant hummus with vegetables.

Our first course: Vegetarian meatballs (made with garbanzo beans) and ratatouille. 

Our main course: Vegetarian hamburger with yucca chips. The chips were delicious!

Our dessert: Raw brownie made with dates, cocoa, coffee and nuts. Yum!

Parade shenanigans!

Yesterday morning, we were woken up by the music of a brass band. It sounded like said brass band was tromping through our neighborhood. We jumped up, opened the door to the street and indeed a parade was in progress outside! Apparently, this was a parade where candy is thrown and as you can see in the video, Bucky is PELTED by a blast of hard candy. He was quite surprised. Watch the white-haired woman in hysterics over Bucky's reaction to being showered with candy. It is hilarious!

Note that the parade (which we determined were actual numerous parades) went on throughout the day in our neighborhood. When we ran errands at about 1.30pm, horses were still trotting around the streets, following bands playing inspiring music and people in decorated trucks throwing candy. The streets were littered with candy and we could feel the stickiness of the candy as we walked!

We still aren't sure what they were celebrating, but they sure were having a good time! :)

Encants Barcelona

We love the big flea market in Barcelona! It is an amazing place housed in a three story, open air building covered in mirrors. It is really a spectacular sight and that is even before you get to the floor of the structure where all of the vendors are selling their "treasures." The place is call Encants Barcelona and we can get there easily via metro.

Bucky and I went there yesterday to wander around and see if there was anything we couldn't live without. Of course, we found a few treasures including a wall clock that is just like a clock we bought at a vide grenier many years ago in France. This clock, however, displays the date in Spanish instead of French which is cool. Bucky is thrilled because it works!

The real pleasure to going to the Encants is the overall experience. There is so much stuff, it is overwhelming. Vendors are yelling to get the shoppers' attention. People are haggling over a couple of euros. You would be amazed at the things people are selling AND the things people are buying. It is always an adventure to go to the flea market in Barcelona!

This is a partial view of the floor of the space. This is probably 1/6 of the entire space.

I am not sure how you would even figure out if there was anything you wanted here! Amazing.