Meagan's World: Spain

Matt and I are in Spain. Woo hoo! Vacation! The sun, the beach, the sangria! Well, actually, it is overcast and chilly in comparison to Hong Kong. And, we haven´t been to the beach yet since the weather isn´t great. We have an amazing time so far -- our flight on Swiss Air was nice and we slept the whole time so it went by really quickly. We were checked into our hotel by 11 and went for some yummy pastries and cappucinos. They have the most glorious pastries here. The look beautiful, and best of all, they taste beautiful too. We cruised around the Gothic Quarter and Las Ramblas for a while before we met up with Kelly and Raul for the Tapas Dinner they were holding to welcome their wedding guests to Spain.

The dinner was held in a little restaurant called La Tinaja on Carrer de Esparteria. Kelly´s family and friends were super nice and welcoming. The food was amazing...lots of good cheeses and bread and different kinds of sausages and meats. It was delicious. And of course, we had lots of sangria. I hadn´t seen Kelly for 3 months, but she has lost a lot of weight in that time! She was already tiny, but I think the wedding must be stressing her. I can see why, it is a four day, over the top extravaganza held in Barcelona but that she organized while living in Hong Kong! After dinner we all got on a bus that Kelly and Raul had hired and headed out to a club. It was pretty empty but since we had the whole wedding with us we filled the place up.

The next day we went to Parc Guell, which was designed by Gaudi. Matt and I have both been to Barcelona before but had been there. It was really cool, but VERY crowded. After that we headed to the rehearsal dinner for Kelly and Raul´s wedding. They decided to invite all of their guests, not just the wedding party, because everyone had come so far to celebrate their wedding. It was held at a place called CDLC, right on the beach in Barcoloneta. It was very hip and it turned into a club afterwards. We were served a 4 course meal, with the main course being a huge steak. I can´t imagine how much this wedding must have cost them! After dinner we went inside to club part of the restaurant, where the wedding planner had booked us four of the beds that lined the perimeter of the room. It was pretty fantastic. After CDLC closed we went to another club. Matt and I made the mistake of staying till the club closed, and when we left the building with all of the other people, it turned into a huge mob of people struggling over taxis. The taxis would ask where you were going and if they didn´t want to take you there, they would move on to the next person. We ended up walking home and didn´t get back till 7. It was a huge mistake considering we had the wedding to go to the next day.

Barcelona is so different from Hong Kong! We would have never had the taxi problem in Hong Kong...In Hong Kong people que up in a very orderly fashion and there are a kajillion taxis. Also, people in Hong Kong are much more conservative. The women here in Barcelona dress so revealingly, no matter what size they are! It is sort of inspiring in a way, in terms of accepting your own body.