Last Days in Andorra

We are back in Barcelona now and I have been so busy learning to knit, researching how to make a dress and err… Reading Anna Keranina, that I haven’t got around to writing about our last days in Andorra. Not to mention the latest update on WordPress has messed it up :/ so if there are any random letters or signs at the end of the post thats why.

Popping Back into Spain for the Day: Seu d’Urgell and the Mountains

Seu d’Urgell holds a great little market on a tuesday and is also the seat of the Bishop Urgell, one of Andorra’s co-princes (you can totally tell where my priorities lie!). The town is just outside of Andorra, about half an hour from Andorra La Vella. We got the bus, so it took a little longer.

Learning to Ski

Robert got us into the most amazing ski resort Grandvalira which was hosting the finals of the european downhill championships, the first downhill in the history of Andorra. Ever. The speed at which those guys ski is crazy, 2,9km in 1 min 37 secs! Thats an average of about 107km/h. And that is on a difficult slope…

La Calçotada

La Calçotada is an event at the end of winter celebrating the end of the snow and the harvest of calçots.
Calçots are somewhere between a spring onion and a leek. They are grilled on an open flame until the outside is black and the inside is caramelised deliciousness. As of thats not good enough already, they are served with a delicious sauce called romesco, bread, botifarra (a kind a sausage) and wine.

Welcome to Andorra

Andorra is a tiny country in the Pyrenees between France and Spain where David’s older brothers live. It’s also where we had our first holiday together some 4 years ago.
It’s a beautiful little country best known for duty free shopping and skiing.

Afternoon Tea at Abuela Flora’s House and other Specialities

David’s grandma invited us round for tea. She is like a grandma from stories (my grandmas are super cool modern grannies haha) who bumbles around magically cleaning any stain from anything – including an electronic coffee machine which apparently looked like new but unfortunately never recovered from the bath. A playstation was also recovered just in time ;)

La Boqueria and the Backstreets of Barcelona

The other day Yoli (David’s aunty) and Manolo (her boyfriend) took is to the market just off the main Rambla. Ramblas are kind of like avenues where the pedestrians have priority on a big paved area with roads either side, like the opposite of a normal road with pavements.
This is the most touristic Rambla in Barcelona so its always packed with people, stalls and cafes.

Welcome to Barcelona

It is so nice to be in a warm country again. I had forgotten what its like to wake up and see blue sky everyday. To feel sunshine that actually holds heat. For the first time in years I am the crazy person in a t-shirt when everyone else is wrapped up.

Two Days in Paris: Our Last Day

We began our second day with a trip to the bakery. Needless to say we could have eaten everything in the place. It looked and smelt so good!

We settled on croissants, tart tatin for me and a lemon tart for David which we took outside to sit in the sun.
The croissants weren’t anything special which was a bit of a let down but the tarts were delicious.

After breakfast we headed to the Louvre. Like the day before we headed in the general direction of the river and landed up right outside the gates to the garden!
Those cars were for rent, at 89€ an hour! I mean, what would you do with a Ferrari in the middle of a city this big?!

I imagine the gardens must be spectacular in spring, but in winter there wasn’t much to see, except tourists. We got to the Louvre with the decision of going inside price dependent.

And then we saw the queues.

I think we really changed our minds when we realised it went all the way around the pyramid…

So we continued our journey through Paris using nothing but metro and bus maps. Note the iconic metro entrance ;)

Until we reached the sacre coeur.
Another stunning building!

Which was totally worth climbing up here for.

We sat in the sun admiring it before heading back down all the steps in search of the Moulin Rouge.
We went a bit off track and found this church instead. I don’t know what religion it is from (or for, I guess) but I have never seen such a colourful one and really liked it.

Shortly after we found the Moulin Rouge. I must say, it was considerably less impressive without the giant elephant!
We wandered into the foyer and the pictures of the shows look amazing. And I guess the whole thing is much more impressive at night…

Afterwards we headed home to have something to eat and pack our bags. I went out again and tried to do some drawings of the parisian buildings but they didn’t work out at all.
In the evening an old friend of David’s came round for a drink with her boyfriend. They are both portuguese and moved to Paris to have a better life, which they have financially but lack a social life. We got some take-away pizza and wine and stayed up way too late chatting away.
Its a shame they haven’t managed to find any friends there though. All his colleagues are portuguese and she works alone as a cleaner. I can imagine its difficult making relationships without a stable starting point such as I had with college when I moved to England. But it cant be impossible. I hope they work it out…

And so our brief stay in Paris came to an end the next morning when we got our bus to an airport in the arse end of nowhere (thanks ryanair!).

I can’t say it blew me away, to be honest I don’t really see what all the fuss with Paris is about. Very, very good marketing? The city of love, the city of light. I have never seen so many homeless and so many dodgy street vendors. Everywhere you go there is some guy trying to sell you a mini Eiffel Towers or bracelets. I don’t criticise these people because I know they wouldn’t be doing it if they had a choice. Some can be quite aggressive, we saw one guy literally grabbing onto a girls arm rattling Eiffel Towers at her.

There are whole families living in public parks. What kind of future are those kids going to have? Growing up on the streets. Used as pickpockets because the law can’t do anything with them. We all criticise these people and look down on them. But how can they do any better in a society that doesn’t let them?
Davids friend said that you see so many homeless people with pets because they can’t be taken to the homes with animals so they are left alone. They don’t want to be taken to the homes because there they are robbed and abused.
Can you imagine that being your world?

Two Days in Paris: the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame

So we woke up on our first day and couldn’t get out of the building. A great start to the day! We got out of the flat fine – thats normal. Climbed down the stairs:

Through the courtyard and into the foyer. Where there is a huge door between us and the world, with a little door inside it. Which we couldn’t open. We tried all sorts and eventually accidentally discovered a button (that looks exactly like the lightswitch) which opens it.

Out in the open we where greeted by the first of many space invaders :) spot some more throughout the post…

Paris is pretty. But it does look mostly the same. Its very elaborate, very yellow and tall. Huge buildings tower all around you unless your by the river. Obviously nothing compared to skyscrapers but I still found it a bit claustrophobic at times.

The traffic is crazy! There are so many motorbikes and mopeds. And they seem to drive on pavements too!! Just a bit scary.

Before we left our apartment we had looked for the nearest tourist info thingy to get a map. We managed to get to the square where it should have been, but never found one. Seeing as we had got that far without a map we figured we could make it to some top attractions and definitely find one there.
We would begin by heading to the river because David had an idea which direction that was in.

We made it to Pont Alexandre III! From which we could see the Eiffel Tower – our next destination!

We decided to keep to the river to avoid getting lost. As we where walking along I saw a ring on the floor at the same time as another guy, he picked it up and asked if it was ours as we passed, we said it wasn’t and where about to keep on going when he appeared to offer it to me. It was a horrid ring. But I didn’t want to be rude and accepted with a bad ‘merci’ and a smile. He nodded and turned away. Then came back and asked for money for “coca-cola” I faltered but David stood his ground. They guy asked for the ring back and walked away, only to make a U turn and join a girl who had been waiting up the road. It wasn’t a big deal, I hardly wanted the ring. I guess it was just disappointing to see what appeared to be a random act of kindness turn into a money scheme so quickly.

We made it to the Eiffel Tower which was under construction. Nothing major though so it hardly made much difference. At first I thought it was part of it! I had never never noticed all the swirly parts on the arc before.

We wanted to see the Notre Dame next, which is quite far away from the Eiffel Tower so we decided to walk through the city a bit, instead of sticking to the safety of the river.
On our way we found the building Napolean is tomb is in!

David and a tank from the 1st world war.

We came out by the river again and wandered by a public street game area. Nobody seemed to be using it but still a cool idea :)

A fancy gallery.

The Louvre which frankly kicked its butt.

A beautiful bridge.

Which turned out to be normal but covered in padlocks.

And we arrived at the Île de la Cité (the island in the middle of Paris) where the Notre Dame is.

Somewhere in between we popped into a nice little restaurant for lunch…

Anyway, we found the Notre Dame. God knows why the Eiffel Tower is the Parisian icon. It is amazing!

The amount of work that has gone into this building is insane. It took 200 years to build. Imagine that 200 years! You could just stare and stare at it, there is so much to see.

All of the gargoyles are different, maybe they where all carved by different people…

And if you thought it was all about the facade… Check out the back! I dont know which side I like the most.

Its free to go inside! We couldn’t believe it! My camera is so terrible without flash but you get the idea…

Bellow the Notre Dame is an archeological crypt which we also visited. It was great, it gave us an idea of why Paris is where it is and how it has changed over the centuraries.

There is an excellent interactive screen showing creation of the Notre Dame. Look at the dates!

To finish off our day we went to a Hannah’s house for dinner. A friend of mine who is studying in Paris. It was brilliant to catch up and see a familiar face!