The Best For Last

Here we are, ready to leave for the airport in 6 hours. We had a great time! 

Today was the perfect day. The wether was spectacular. We ate lunch outside at the shops on the pier. Check out the selfie I took using the reflection from the overhang of the building as we sat on the patio underneath. 

We also visited Park Guell which was such a unique place to see! Some really interesting sculptures and architecture...and breathtaking views of the city.

Then at night we visited a Tapas bar. It was a tiny little place with room for no more than maybe 25 people at a time. But it was hands down the best meal we've had during the trip. It was also the first "traditional" tapas bar versus the others that were mostly just restaurants serving small portions the way we get tapas in the US. Apparently the *real* way is that it's literally a bar (like a sushi bar) and there's no menu, you just point to what you want - everything is on plates on the bar. Everything we tried there was amazing including the sangria!

And then we came back to the hotel, finished packing up, got Naina to sleep, and Amit & I sat down for a final drink before we wake up in a few hours. A perfect day to end a wonderful trip. 

Back to Barcelona

We're back in Barcelona and winding down as trip nears an end... Tomorrow is our last day here :(

We're planning to have a shopping filled day - can't wait!

Today was mostly about traveling back here (btw we finally got our laundry back this morning!). Once we got here and dropped our luggage off in the hotel, we headed out for some strolling, shopping and dinner. 

Our hotel this time is even nicer than Le Meridien! We got a couple of glasses of champagne at check-in, the room is fancy and the hotel bar is über nice. We wound down the evening with a couple of cocktails there tonight after we got back from an evening around town.

"Happy"

Rum & Cokes (this time Pepsi) are mostly rum here. All this for usually about 5-6 Euros which is about maybe $7-9 I think. At this moment it's the happiest 2:02pm of my life ;-)

Road trip!

My sixth sense has failed me. I thought for sure that Grenada was going to be perfect. I had pictured us smiling for pictures and gazing pensively at the architecture during a visit to the Alhambra. Wrong.

First - you're supposed to buy Alhambra tickets in advance online. Several people told us that there are a fixed number of tickets also available for same day purchase - you show up there and it's first come first serve. We knew many people who got tickets this way especially around this time of year. 

We weren't sure which day we'd be in Granada since we were hell bent on being "flexible" about every days' plans, so we decided this was the game we wanted to play too. 

Two days ago we had planned this day trip, but it's 2.5 hrs from Sevilla and we needed to leave by about 8am which meant a 6:30 wakeup. Well - of course that is the one night when jetlag decided to rear its ugly head and we both laid wide awake in bed till...you won't believe it...5am!! So we quickly ditched the Grenada trip and rescheduled it for today.

Today had its problems too. For starters, the laundry place where we dropped our clothes yesterday didn't actually get around to doing the laundry. And they don't speak a lick of English. So we lost some time before we even left and headed out on the trip. (Tomorrow's update will let you know the fate of our laundry - we are all completely out of umm...important garments...so things are getting really interesting now!) :-@

Finally we hit the road. It was an eventful ride and we enjoyed seeing the countryside. Not much between here and Grenada so we just zipped right along and got there by about noon. Headed straight to the Alhambra to get our tickets so we'd know our assigned entry time.

We stood in the not-too-long but incredibly slow line. About 20 minutes and 5 steps later they announced that the day visit tickets were sold out and only night visit (after 8pm) and gardens were available. So we thought OK, we're here, let's at least see the gardens even though it's the dead of winter. 15 minutes and 3 steps later, the announcement notified us that the gardens were sold out, reminded us that tickets are only sold for same day visits so tomorrow was apparently not an option. We were super disappointed to not make it into Alhambra!

We ended up spending the rest of the day shopping in Grenada's Centro (old town downtown) and got back to Seville around 9pm. It was such a cute area and streets and streets of stores. We mostly window shopped, bought a couple of things, and had a pretty enjoyable afternoon.

Our treat for the day - chocolate cake in bed at the end of a long but what turned out to be fun day!

I heart Seville

So the weather cleared up and wow - what an amazing city! We are feeling very European right now (except our inability to communicate with 90% of the people around us). The architecture is breathtaking - especially all lit up with Christmas lights. 

Naina was super excited to see a Flamenco show and Sevilla is known for it so - we went to one. Let's be real and call it a glorified tap dance. But ok, the show wasn't bad and N was mesmerized. 

We did some "lite" shopping today and Amit has promised that I can really focus on it after tomorrow's day trip to Granada. :-) 

The really amazing thing here is how kid friendly everything is. It's almost too much so. At every random turn, there's some kids' land mine - a jumpy house, a pop-up carnival, a balloon selling dude, some fake rideable "ponies" that double as strollers, a ferris wheel...the list goes on. We're having our fun so we let N have a little fun of her own today too.

Naina's having a ball - and not just because of the rides :-) We're trying not to drag her into museums and instead sticking with more interesting (for her) places. She's intrigued by the gardens, castles and fortresses that we've seen, and even seems to be enjoying some of the amazing architecture and the general vibe in these cities. And she's asking every day when we'll get to go shoe shopping. So am I.... :-)

Rainy Seville

Remind me not to compliment the weather. As soon as I mentioned the "great weather" in my last post, the next morning greeted us with cold winds and rain that followed us all the way to Seville.

The drive to Seville was short - 90 mins. We checked in to the hotel which didn't quite meet expectations so this morning's first task was to check out 3 nights early and check in someplace nicer. So...Hello Novotel. 

Once we were settled in at the new hotel, we didn't let the weather stop our exploration of the city, but it did result in adding some new cold weather accessories to Naina's closet.

Tomorrow we are heading out on a day trip to Granada where I am on a mission to buy shoes...just cuz. And we are planning to visit Alhambra. It's a 3 hr drive so we've set our alarms for 6:30 am (wish us luck with that wake up!). For anyone who's wondering we stayed true to form for this trip and again woke up at 10:30 this morning. Getting back to reality when we get home is going to be a rude awakening...literally :)

Top of the morning?

We seem to have some sort of vendetta against the mornings here. We again woke up past 11 this morning and missed visiting the stadium. All we had time for was showers, packing up, a quick bite and it was time to catch our train to Cordoba. Not to worry - there's a day and a half more in Barcelona at the end of the trip so still plenty of time for the rest of sights on our agenda!

Naina's favorite part of the train trip to Cordoba was that there are no rules like there are on planes - she got to keep her tray table open all the time, no seatbelts, and she should walk around as she pleased. 

The hotel in AC Palacio Hotel in Cordoba is super nice and perfectly located immediately across from "the wall". We wandered around the old town (aka other side of the wall), had a wonderful dinner, and took a late night photo-opp walk to the Mosque Cathedral (is it a Mosque or is it a Cathedral you ask? Well it's both! The cathedral is IN the mosque.) and the Roman Bridge.

Tomorrow we are planning to wake up in time for breakfast !!

Then we'll check out the highlights around town, rent a car, and drive to Sevilla.

The weather has been great btw. A nip in the air at night but that just adds to the holiday ambiance that's all over town. Three cheers for the "off season" so far!

Paella, Sangria, and Cold Meds...yum!

Thanks to the immediate onset of jetlag last night, we all woke up at nearly 11 this morning! By the time we showered and left the hotel it was getting close to 1pm. We wandered around some small lanes in the Gothic Quarter and ate at a small cafe en route to the Cathedral. 

We walked a lot today - but I still didn't manage to cross 13,000 on my FitBit. Maybe if we can wake up a tad bit earlier tomorrow...

Tonight's first dinner was around 5pm and was a delicious paella which we washed down with a lot of sangria (but we probably could have had more). Second dinner was tapas around 10pm and this time a lot more sangria. Aahhh, this is what a vacation feels like!

Unfortunately Naina's cold is pretty bad, and mine is improving albeit slowly...so we've become familiar with the local pharmacy already. But still having fun (with our pockets full of tissues).

Tomorrow's plans include seeing the soccer stadium and taking the train down to Cordoba. 

Day 0.25 in Barcelona

We learned something today. Four and a half year olds don't particularly enjoy 10 hour flights. About an hour in, Naina was not a happy camper. Add to it her congestion and clogged ears, and jeez were we ever so happy to land in Barcelona! She (and therefore I) didn't sleep more than maybe an hour on the entire flight. Amit was awake for maybe an hour during the entire flight :-). 

Finally in Barca and Le Meridien as always doesn't disappoint. It's right on La Rambla which is buzzing with activity and lit up beautifully for the holidays.

We were exhausted from the travel (I'm sporting a cold too) so we showered, stepped out for tapas & wine, and headed back to sleep after a short exploratory walk on La Rambla.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow...

What's this? Another year gone by?

Well, here we are - December 2013. It seems I only blog in the first half of each year anymore...
So much has happened in the 18 months since my last post, but I'll fast forward to the fun stuff that will surely keep you coming back to read more... We are headed off to Spain in just over 2 weeks.  The plan is a couple of days in Barcelona, and then take a train down south, then spend the rest of the time driving around from city to city. 

So...stay tuned...exciting trip updates will start on December 21 when we land in Barcelona!
 

Happy Fathers Day!

I'm back from China and we're down in Avila Beach for Father's Day weekend! Beautiful weather and we're just enjoying the beach time. For a California beach, the water is surprisingly not freezing and N is enjoying wading and splashing.

Colorful city

We went to the Vue bar at the top of the Hyatt last night. 100cny per person cover charge which included 2 of their "drink of the day" per person. The drink of yesterday was a caipirinha so no complaints from me.

Anyway, on to the main point - the view was incredible!! This was an open-air rooftop patio that was right on the rivers' edge. Breathtaking view despite the smog :)

The bar was super swanky and even had a jacuzzi in the middle of it! And yes, there were people in it. We felt like we were on the set of The Hangover - it was unexpected but somehow fit the vibe of the place. Very cool!

We followed it up with the most incredible dinner we've had all week. Sans the "exotic" dishes, everything else was so good that we ordered a second round of almost everything.

Food wise, my tummy has been happy this week - including the Papa Johns pizza they ordered in for lunch yesterday :)

There's a team dinner and karaoke tonight with the local team. Should be a fun evening!

Oh and it's still unbearably hot :-/

Reality sets in!

It's crazy hot here! Two or more showers per day kind of hot. It's so humid that an envelope which I am using to save receipts sealed itself, and the receipts inside it are damp. My hair has gotten big - very big.

On Sunday, five of us decided to take a Hop On Hop Off tour to see some of the city. Stop 1 was a block from our hotel - convenient. Stops 2-4 appeared to be different sides of the same park so we planned to Hop Off at the Bund - Stop 5.

The guide recommended walking along the Bund to Stop 6 so we set off on foot, humidity sucking us further and further into sweaty delirium with every step. We walked and walked and walked and Stop 6 was nowhere to be found! This was a fine moment to realize that the map we had only had *some* street names marked while others were just mystery roads.

So we bravely decided to just walk on over to Old Shanghai behind Yu Garden. There was a dumpling place that the hotel concierge recommended for lunch and we were starving! Old Shangai was super confusing - there turned out to be 4 dumpling places so we just picked one. I don't handle that kind of humidity too well and it totally zapped my appetite so my lunch was a TsingTao and a spring roll!

Stop 7 was supposed to be just across from Old Shanghai we thought we'd reconnect with our tour and carry on to a couple of temples. We asked the waiter which way the main entrance to the area was since we had come in from what we think was the side. Confident that we had good directions and re-energized after an air conditioned break, we were off.

When we reached what we thought was the bus stop, there was no Point 7 to be seen anywhere. We asked 3 people including a cop. All 3 looked puzzled, stopped someone else to confer with them, debated something back and forth with the person and then gave us directions confidently. They were wrong. They were ALL wrong. Each person had sent us off in 3 different directions. When none of those worked we tried the 4th direction and arrived in front of the landmark that the map showed as the Point 7 pickup. But...no point 7. It was getting late and we missed the window for going to the temple. Hot and frustrated, we gave up and took a cab back to the hotel. The tour ended up being nothing more than a $44/person transport from our hotel to the Bund. :(

On the plus side, that evening we found what we are calling Santana Row. It's an area full of upscale, nice restaurants and bars. It's familiar and comfortable and we all breathed a sigh of familiar relief when we saw it. We've now been there for dinner 2 nights in a row and I'm sure we'll be back there tonight!

Oh and we had lunch with our local team here yesterday and I got cornered into trying some foods that I would rather not have even seen, let alone tasted.

It's sensory overload here - hot, humid, polluted, maniacal taxi drivers!, and crowded. "Santana Row" and our hotel are nice sanctuaries though.

Let's see how the rest of the week goes but I haven't started loving Shanghai yet.

Adventures in Shangai

Here I am in Shanghai for the next week+. I've been kind of wary of this trip (food, language, humidity that has already made my hair big, and being away from my family for so long) but so far I'm doing A-OK.

The flight was great - I watched:
Agneepath (and sobbed like a baby)
21 Jump Street (super funny)
Love Aaj Kal (funniest and most ignorant line yet from a Bollywood movie "she's from Singapore. 100% Chinese." Uuhhh...ok my geography isn't perfect but I'm pretty sure that line offended the Singaporean lady sitting across from me who also watched that movie!
The Descendants - only 20 mins of it before I realized that I wanted to wait and see it with Amit.

So...with all that plus a few cocktails and I was having a pleasant flight.

Now here I am at Le Meridian - great location - seems to be in the middle of everything.

For those who are dying to know about the cuisine, I chose NOT to order the grilled silkworm or the baked pig skin for dinner last night but instead opted for some good old shrimp in chili sauce. It was super good.

Up at 5am today thanks to either jet lag or being accustomed to getting no more than 6 hrs of sleep at a time, I was in the gym by 6, and now ready for a day of sightseeing.

Oh and I'm excited to report that I found a loophole - FB is blocked on the web but the app works! Data plan is outrageous so I'll keep check-ins to a min. Interestingly enough, blogger is blocked too so I'm using the app right now.

Sometimes you hear a song that you've heard countless times before but, for some reason that you can't quite explain, this time you suddenly connect with it in a way that you hadn't before. And then you can't stop listening to it.

Here's what's been on Repeat for me lately - love this song.


LANDSLIDE
written by Stevie Nicks (the Dixie Chicks/Sheryl Crow Remix Cover is the song version I like)

I took my love, I took it down

Climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
Till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Mmm, mmm, mmm

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older and I'm getting older too

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older and I'm getting older too
Oh, I'm getting older too

Awh, take my love, take it down
Awh, climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down

And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
Oh, the landslide bring it down

Every night is a surprise

February 17...Mommy got a good night's sleep

February 26...Mommy got sent to the couch

Wish me luck for tonight!

Words of Wisdom (?) by Naina

My good friend suggested a while ago that blogging N's fun phrases as a good way to remember them when time flies as it does. So here they are!


At 18-months:

No way!

Uh oh, my bad

Oh Maaaaan!

Ummm...

When I told her it was bedtime, she held up 2 fingers, looked at me and said "2 minutes"

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday

Baa Baa Shit (Baa Baa Black Sheep!)

I'm thinking (when Amit asked her a question)

A couple of weeks before her 2nd birthday:

Mamma: Naina, when's your birthday?

Naina: July

Mamma: July what?

Naina: Seven. It's MY birthday. No touch my birthday. (then turns to Amit) No touch my birthday, Daddy!

At about 2-yrs:

How are you today, guys? (to Amit & me)


What you guys talking about? or What you guys saying?


Mommy, your hair is so long. My hair is long too. That's super super cute.


N: What you doing Mamma?
Me: I'm putting on pants, Naina.
N: No that's Jeans. You need shirt too.


N: Are we going home? (on the way home from school)
Me: Yeah
N: Don't say yeah, say YEAH!
Me: Okay, yeah
N: Not yeah, YEAH!
(this went back and forth a few times until finally...)
Me: YEAH!
N: Don't scream at me Mommy!
Me: I didn't
N: Yeah, you did.
Me: No I didn't.
N: Yeah you screamed. That's not ok. We have to be nice to each other.


Mary had a yidda yam, yidda yam, yidda yam. Mary had a yidda yam, who something and said no.


Me: Do I look nice, Naina?
N: You need makeup, Mommy
I've also been told You need to brush your hair, Mommy and You need to change your shirt, Mommy.


N: Mommy and Daddy, my brother has a sister.
Us: Who's your brother Naina
N: Minin's my brother. And Pachi is my sister.

Pretty much every time she lists friends who will be at a party:
Rishon and Oranj (Arin!) and Rishon and Akhil and Rishon and Minin and Rishon and Vedu and Rishon...
-----------

Aah, yes. Our little chatterbox keeps us happily entertained every single day!

Spring Break 2011

Spring Break!!! Well, not quite the same as I remember it from college... doing shots till 3am has now turned into sipping a glass of wine till 11pm. Which I think is perfect, by the way :)

While we were hoping for a Hawaii or Mexico trip, I found out that I had to be in Las Vegas for work on

Wed & Thursday. Since it was right in the middle of the week, our Spring Break options were limited. We decided to fly in and out of Vegas, and do a road trip to Sedona (only ~4 hrs away) Friday-Tuesday.

Here are some trip highlights:

-Got stuck in a very scary snowstorm on I-40 in Arizona and took 11 hours instead of 4 to reach Sedona. Drove from 11pm to 10am, through the night and stuck in our car for 1-2 hrs at a time when the roads were blocked by trucks sliding backwards down the hill ahead.

-Took naps in the middle of the freeway when we were stuck in the snowstorm and stuck

-I lost my camera. It's either in the rental car, at Szechuan Grill, or at the Hilton Sedona Resort room 10624.

-Naina petted a snake! and loved it

-Swimming!! Yes, the day after the blizzard, it was sunny and 70, so we hit the pool

-Back in Vegas, we stayed at Bellagio. WOW!!! Really.

-Drunk Columbian guy and his Russian wife at my work dinner who ordered 5 bottles of Pinot.

What a trip it was - N's first Spring Break trip!

Rekindling my favorite activity...

...watching Hindi movies!! Lots and lots of them. That was my new year's resolution.

I hardly recognize myself anymore. The Anjali I knew watched hindi movies all the time. Yes, that's right, I'm not ashamed to embrace it - I LOVE hindi movies. The cheesier the better.

Some of my all time favorites are the ones with all the sappy, cheesy songs that the rest of you folks probably fast forward. If it has Shah Rukh Khan - awesome. If it has SRK *and* another Khan (Salman, Aamir, Saif) - even better!

So this year, I'm back. Recently I watched Dil To Pagal Hai & K3G for the gazillionth time. Then I watched Wake Up Sid and dusted off my collection of hindi songs DVDs to fill every moment that Amit's not the in room with me. Six weeks into the year and I'm making pretty good progress so far - 3 movies and a few repeated watches of my favorite song compilations. Let's see how I continue to fare over the next few weeks. I'm off to update my Netflix queue...

A New Year

Based on the date of my last post, it's safe to assume that I pretty much gave up on the rest of 2010.

What a year! To say I'm glad it's over would be an understatement. We went through lots of changes - Amit & I both changed jobs, moved twice, dealt with some health hurdles, and just generally went through the year always feeling 10 steps behind. It was overwhelming, frustrating, and infuriating at times, too. But as 2011 neared, we both fell into a resolve to start with a clean slate.

Bring on 2011! We're settling in at work, settling in at home, Naina continues to thrill us and remind us what life is really all about. She's loving toddler life - picking up words and skills just about every day.

For those who don't mind being bored listening to me proudly talk about her, here's some of the progress we've seen on the words front. The milestones seem to come in phases -

Phase I words:

mum-mum

outside

all done

naina

(much to our amusement, all hopes of mama and dada being her first words were shattered)

In Phase II, she added on:

turtle

nah

ya

diaper

pay-pay (aka pee pee)

dada

aba

Recent additions to the vocabulary include:

yogurt

mama

dada turned into daddy

dudhu

chicken

fish

doggy

oh no

wow

whee (everytime we make a u-turn in the car or grocery store shopping cart!)

ya turned into yes

nah turning into no

aji

yucky

oooh baby (Amit's trying to make her into a pop singer) :-)

She makes us laugh every single day. Having Naina around is the one part of 2010 that I wouldn't have traded for the world. Thanks to the hurdles this past year, I've really come to appreciate all blessings in my life. Here's to 2011 - wishing all our dear friends and family good things in the year ahead!