¡Viva España!

Last weekend Craig and I spent three days in Barcelona, it was one of the best experiences we've had since moving here.  It was a reunion of sorts with two of Craig's friends from high school who were foreign exchange students during Craig's senior year, Eduard from Barcelona and Philip from Verona, Italy.  Here are the three amigos, thirteen years later:

We stayed with Eduard and his wife Lydia who I have to say were the best host and hostess I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.  They introduced us to the great local foods, wine, and sites.  One of the most fun things we did was barbecue on Sunday with neighbors and friends and had a traditional dish with calcots, a type of onion native to the Cataluña region in Spain.  Eduard, the master barbecuer, showed us how its done: first you blacken the calcots over the flames, then wrap them in newspaper to keep the heat in which makes them tender on the inside.

After a little while they are ready to eat and are unwrapped.  You take one and pull out the tender white portion from the blackened outer part.

Then you dip them in a really yummy sauce made with red peppers, similar to romesco sauce.  Seriously, this stuff is so good, I would have bathed in it had I been left alone with a large enough quantity! 

Then you get to eat it!

 We feasted on the calcots outside on the terrace then Eduard barbecued sausages, chorizo, pork, and chicken.  Later that night we moved the furniture out of the way and had a good old-fashioned dance party in the living room.  Craig was a wall flower as usual...

The last day of our trip Eduard and Lydia took us to see the Sagrada Familia.  Its a basilica designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi, its construction started in 1882 and its still going on today, its projected to be finished around 2022.  It's extremely intricate and elaborate and enormous. Almostevery part of it symbolizes or depicts parts of Jesus' life.  For example, when its complete it will have 18 spires representing in ascending order of height the twelve apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, the tallest, Jesus Christ.

It was a cloudy day out but you can see its still flooded with natural light inside, part of the genius of the way it was built.

It was amazing trip and made us feel so fortunate to be able to do these types of things while we are living over here.  The best part about it was being with friends again as that is what we have missed most since our move.