Barcelona Day One

Barcelona was a blast! Certainly our best trip yet. Our holiday started off a bit rocky when we were greeted at the airport with a three hour delay and we realized we would miss our scheduled entry at the Sagrada Familia. Whomp, whomp! I'll let you guess how that was received, but things quickly got back in order once we arrived in Barcelona. 

We didn't waste any time settling in at the flat (we used Airbnb and had a wondeful experience), we just introduced ourselves to the owner, freshened up and headed out to Park Guell.

James studied in Spain 11 years ago, so this was all very nostalgic for him. It was nice for him to kinda take the lead on this trip and show me around. Once we were finished exploring Park Guell, we headed over to the La Ramblas to wander around and find some place to relax.

We wandered into the Plaça Reial, which is a huge square filled with lots of restaurants. I was in awe of this plaza. It was just so breathtakingly beautiful. The architecture in Spain is gorgeous!

We settled down on the outside patio of the Ocaña in the Plaça Reial and enjoyed some tapas, a couple drinks and the people-watching. 

After getting off our feet for just a few minutes, we realized that we were exhausted and didn't want to stay out late. Instead of going out at 10:00 PM for a proper dinner, we decided to take it easy, find another tapas restaurant closer to home and call it a night.

Lolita, a tapas restaurant located in Sant Antoni (and directly under our flat), was my favorite restaurant in Barcelona. The staff was super friendly, the tapas were delicious and the drinks inexpensive! Well, hello lover!  We spent a few hours in there just chatting up the staff and leisurely eating and drinking--we were really having a good time. 

Several glasses of wine and 14 million tapas later, the night was coming to an end and I was looking to "cleanse" my palate with something sweet.

Me: Can I have the El Borratxo' del Lolita please por favor. 

El Borratxo' del Lolita is sponge cake with creme brulee and liquor. Our waiter, who had been chatting with us all night (and cringing at my Spanish) attempted to correct my pronunciation and it went a little bit like this:

Waiter: Eees pronounces bor-rah'-cho.

Me: BURRR-A-CHA! BURR-ACHA! (I'm practically growling at him.)

Waiter: No, bor-rah'-cho.

Me: BOR-A-CHO!

Waiter: You're Borratxo.

Me: What??

Waiter: Borratxo is a drunk cake. You're drunk.

ALL: (explodes with laughter.)

Me: YAYY! BER-AACHA! BER-ACHA!

We all had a pretty good laugh at this exchange. Lolita's was the perfect end to a crazy travel day. 

Overall, we had a really, really enjoyable first day. Yes, I was irritated that our flight delay cost us to miss our scheduled visit to the Sagrada Familia, but it was a nice excuse to slow the pace down and really get to enjoy each others company for the evening. 

Barcelona made me really wish I would have paid more attention to those 10+ years of Spanish classes I took back in school. Talk about an epic fail! I did a really poor job of assimilating while down there. As if my translucent skin and yellow hair didn't give it away, the constant dumbfounded look on my face while trying to communicate and the ever-recurring thumbs up did. I mean, it was kinda comical, but it definitely made me shake my head at my absolute lack of effort I put towards a second language throughout highschool and college.

We eventually got back to the flat around midnight and crashed. One of the reasons we picked our flat was because it had an American king size memory foam mattress. TO. DIE. FOR! The bed might have been my favorite part of Barcelona overall! I am DEFINITELY hoping to revisit that bed sometime in the future.

Week Thirty

I went all around Notting Hill with my camera last Thursday. The weather was completely grey, but it doesn't take away from how lovely this area is with it's colorful flats and cute shops and restaurants. I don't come over here very often, because there isn't a super convenient way to get here from our flat, but I think I am going to plan a dinner date in this area soon so James can experience too!

Here are some teaser pictures from my Walkabout Notting Hill!

We stayed in most of the week and ate dinners at home, so Saturday was a splurge day. We watched soccer at the pub and then went over to Ali and Paul's flat for one last hurrah before they move into their own, new flat. Super excited for them! 

Recently (like last week), I've been attempting to "diet." And by diet, I mean making up my own rules as I go and breaking them when I feel it absolutely necessary... Realistically, I've just been trying to cut some carbs out of my diet (bread, fried food, etc., NOT wine), but damn, it is REALLY hard to do in this country. 

I've been eating like I'm on holiday the entire time that I've been in London and now it's time to put a stop to it. Also, going to Spain when you're not feeling thaaaaat great about yourself, where the women are naturally beautiful will also do it to you. I've only gained back about 5 pounds since the wedding, but it's all in my face which is the worst place you can get it. Soooooooo, today I am busting my kickboxing gear out and starting a two month training course. Wish me luck!

Get ready London, Team King arrives on Saturday! I can't believe it's here... We are seriously pumped. So much to do, so little time! AHHH!

In other news, I changed my Instagram name to teamstarnes. I've been watching this bodybuilding couple use the hashtag for over a year now and I wanted to stake claim. If I continue with the blog after this year, it will eventually just be 'Team Starnes' obviously since I don't know if we will be in London anymore, but if I don't keep the blog, I'll just change it back to alexandra_starnes. the end. Oh! Oh! And I'm also looking for a good blog template because I'm over mine. Suggestions please! the real end.

Happy Monday! xx

A Stroll Through Culpeper Community Garden

We live across the street from the Culpeper Community Garden. There are always people in there working on their plots, or business people relaxing and eating their lunch amongst the hum of the bees and the chirping of birds—it's quite a serene place.

I decided to take a stroll through the garden and practice with my camera. My husband has a natural eye for photography, so I let him handle the DSLR while we were in Barcelona because I didn't want to risk ending up with crappy pictures. I kind of regret not taking the reigns since I had such a good time playing around with the camera in Brighton last week, but oh well, ya live, ya learn.

I have so much to learn about shooting with a DSLR camera and right now I am still only using the automatic, flower and landscape settings, but with every time I go out and wander about, I am getting more and more comfortable. 

I am using the Canon EOS 100D, which is the UK version of the Canon Rebel SL1. Does anyone have this camera? Any suggestions or tips? I would love to hear anything that can improve my photography skills!

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