Hello again from Spain to all our lovely readers. 

Things have been great as usual for the past few days. We have now made our way to Alicante from the town of Polop and our stay with Anna. 

It really was such a lovely time to get to just relax and enjoy our time in Spain a bit without having to worry about where to go next. 

Anna's house was just so calming and nice to kick back in. It helped that we rented a car so that we could get around, and after a bit on the road I felt right at home. 

The weather cooperated as well which allowed us to get some quality sun time by the pool as well as to go to Aqualandia for a day of fun and sun at the water slides!  We definitely had a blast at the water park, but our bodies are paying for it today! Every muscle is so sore! But it was great, and we managed NOT to get burned which is more than I can say for the whole of England which happened to be at the park that day too ;)

We even managed to make paella from scratch, but that was quite the story!  The day we set out to make it the next door neighbours were having a birthday party for one of the little boys, and a nice man named Olaf was cooking beside us. After starting our paella on the bbq to have an even heat, the heat just wasn't strong enough. We were stressing a bit and Olaf leaned over and asked if we wanted any advice on making paella as he had made it several times before getting it right! Long story short, he helped us make the paella but we had to transfer it to his bbq because he had a lot more heat! Needless to say, it took over 2 hours to make, but it was delicious and we got to meet a very funny German living in Spain.  Thanks Olaf!

Last night, Anna took us out for just an awesome dinner at a place called simply "Wok", and it was delicious! We hadn't had Chinese food for a while and this place delivered to the max.  We all stuffed ourselves and ended up vegging on the couch for the rest of the night!  

Our stay in Polop was so wonderful and the best way to almost end off a great trip!!

But like all good things our time in Polop ended when we drove to the Airport this morning to drop off our car and head into Alicante for the last stop in our trip (well, aside for going back to London for one night :) Fortunately enough though Anna will be heading to Vancouver in a few weeks time so we won't have a chance to miss her too too much.

What an amazing stay she had made for us though.. I can totally see where Matt gets his amazing flare for hosting. Those Sheps I tell ya, gotta love em!!!

So now that we're in Alicante we took some time to view the streets and by some miracle of a chance I (vlad) found a whole swath of cool clothes, and  so begrudgingly I decided to dip into the funds to grab a buncha new threads. ( i got great deals though so :P) Alicante seems like a nice town with enough to do and cool places to eat. We'll be heading to the beach tomorrow since its giving a high of 31c on the forecast.  We should definitely take the last opportunity to get in some last minute tanning before we head off to overcast Vancouver!! Hopefully we can bring some beautiful Mediterranean weather with us home which is SO soon! 

Hope everyone is doing great, cant wait to catch up with you all!

Vlad hasn't really taken much in the way of photos for the last week, so we dont have much to post :(  Hopefully the words will suffice

xo

Mia & Vlad

Hello loyal readers!

A small update since not much exciting has happened in the last couple of days. 
We left lovely Barcelona and found our way to Valencia via train. We shacked up in a very cozy and modern aparthotel with another kitchenette and lovely amenties. The bed was a bit small for a 6'3 Croatian man but other than that it was just awesome!

Really though, after seeing Barcelona and doing it up and seeing the majority of the city Valencia didn't have all that much to offer truth be told. It was a nice city definitely, but nowhere near as grandiose and clean as Barcelona was. 
Add onto that that Mia and I were super tuckered after our days in Barcelona that it made us quite lazy. We only ended up spending a short amount of time in the city but we got to see a bit of it since we rented bikes once more. Definitely no Amsterdam though!

And so we left Valencia this morning and I am now happy to report that we've met up Anna after making the treck down to Alicante (well, not all the way down)
We got to the Benidorm bus station at 5:30 sharp and Anna was there within a few minutes to meet us. How happy were we to see a face we recognized after this long a trip!! We've been all smiles since then as we drove up to the small town of Polop and up to Anna's beautiful home. 
Its in a lovely little neighborhood on the hill which overlooks the Polop town as well as the rolling country side. What a lovely view and nice quiet and serene area. 
We got settled and before we knew it we were sitting down for a wonderful dinner. Anna made us an immensely delicious Chicken Moussaka with salad and a champagney type drink called Cava (like Champagne, but nice and sweet) which was just divine. The only thing better than the food was the conversation and the company and as I type Anna is showing Maria photos of her time in South Africa. 

Needless to say this is just what the doctor ordered for us after such a long haul. We're contemplating renting a scooter of some sort but haven't decided yet. We'll probably just play it by ear since at this point we're pretty happy just relaxing away the rest of the trip until we fly out from Alicante on the 3rd.


Only 9 days left until we return!! Its hard to believe that the time is upon us but when Mia and I talk now we can't believe just how far we've come.. all the way from Manchester through England, flew to Amsterdam, went through the Netherlands, travelled through Belgium, travelled through France, and now through Spain. Whew!




Anyway, you're now up to date with us.. Big hugs and kisses from Anna Mia and Myself in Polop Spain! 


XOX
 

Hello again everyone


Its time for another update before we sadly have to move on once again. 
The days seem to be flying away before our eyes and its like as soon as we get even the slightest bit comfortable with our surroundings its time for us to move on and go get lost all over again. ... how fun!


So I'll let you all guess what kinda time Maria and I had here in Barcelona. Think: complete opposite of crappy... 


The food was intriguing and delicious, the weather was completely perfect, and the architecture immaculate and breathtaking. 
I couldn't say enough good things about this place if I tried. 
We'll have been here 4 days and we still feel like we could have stayed another couple nights, but oh well.. just means we'll have to come back and pick up where we leave off tomorrow. 


We'll now on route to Valencia tomorrow and we're getting ever closer to our final week abroad. This trip has been so amazing thus far, and though part of me is excited to get home and get back to my real life, there is just something that is constantly pulling at me to keep going, no matter how much I miss home or how much my feet ache. 
We're definitely overjoyed to be here in Spain though and it really is the perfect place to finish up our western european swing. The weather is proving to be just what we needed as will be the time spent on the beach in Alicante. 


And with that here are just a few shots (and I mean a few.. I must have taken over 300 photos here in Barcelona alone) 


Will be back once we have more to report, most likely in Alicante. 


Love you all :)
Mia & Vlads


so, top to bottom




1) Placa Reial

2) Mia and I in front of the Arc de Tromphe (yes there is one in Spain too!)

3) Shot of the front facade of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona's most prominent cathedral

4) taken in a makeshift town called Poble Esanyol

Hello blog fans, its time for another post :) 

What's been up you ask? Well I'm happy to report that my lovely wife and I have made it to Barcelona Spain! Woohoo!!!!

As mentioned in our last post, we hung out in Aix en Provence for a couple days and it was quite lovely, aside from the random deluge of rain (which actually caused some very real and damaging flooding in Avignon). 

The first day we spent walking around town and seeing the sights, which were all really beautiful, and then on the second day we saw... well, nothing. We ended up spending the entire day, aside for a short quest for a baguette for supper, in our room just killing time and lazying it up. Moms, you'd have been so proud. 

And so this morning we packed it up again and took a bus out to the Marseille Airport where we got on our flight and flew into Barcelona. 

We made it great and found our way into the city where we grabbed a train in the metro and found way to our hotel. We are going to be staying four nights here and the hotel I managed to get us is simply outstanding. Decent price for a very posh and modern place in a nice quiet but easily accessible location. This is gonna be an awesome four nights! 

Without wasting any time Mia and I checked in, lounged for a bit and then found our way into the city for dinner. 

Not knowing what to expect, Mia took us to a "cerveseria" for some tapas, and oh my goodness what a meal. 

On the menu was a wonderful assortment of stuff.. four cheese melted on crusty bread, veil tenderloin, peanut crusted camembert cheese with raspberry jam, fresh calamari, grilled garlic mushrooms and asparagus, and mini baguettes with cheese and fried pork tenderloin.. washed down with a nice cold pitcher of beautiful vibrant sangria..

oh   my   god    

it    was   sensationalllllllllll

As far as first impressions go, the food was the kind of start we were hoping for. Pricey though it was, the food was some of the best we've had yet.

If that wasn't enough to make our spirits soar, the beauty and energy of the city really has us in its grips. 

Mia has been asking me all along what place has so far been my favorite, and up until yesterday I could not answer as I didn't have any favorites,,well after only having been in this city 6 hours I can say its my favorite, and I've not even seen barely any of it! 

All I will say is I'm so thrilled to be here right now and just can't wait to see more. I'll let the photos say the rest. 

Now here's Mia!

............................................

WOW... I had no idea what Barcelona was going to be like, but it has definitely blown our minds away!  This city is so full of beauty, vibrancy, character and life. It feels like it breathes, if that makes any sense. It is gorgeous, and I'm so glad that we're here :)

Tomorrow will be filled with lots of sightseeing, and we have lots on the agenda for the next 3 days. Aside from wandering the streets and being immersed with all of the beautiful architecture, (which is so breathtaking, especially all of the Gaudi buildings which are remarkable beyond words) we are going to be visiting all the cool things we possibly can, eating as much as we can and on the last day doing some shopping and sending it home straight away since our bags are full to the brim already!  

Enjoy the photos everyone. Molt amor de Barthalona! (means lots of love from Barcelona with the accent of course in Catalan, the other language besides Spanish that most people speak here:)

Mia and Vlad

PS: watching England playing Algeria at the moment, and huh? Algeria took them to a scoreless game in stoppage time? yikes..

1) Shot in a special park in Aix.. loverly day for my camera and I :)

2) Our Barcelona Hotel, yknow, to prove I wasn't making things up.

3) Tower on  a random building downtown Barcelona

4) the topmost part of the Casa Batllo, one of the fascinating works by Gaudi

5) and another of Gauid's works, this one has been turned into more of a museum.

Evening everyone! (daytime for you all naturally)

Glad to be back and posting once again after a couple days off..
quite literally in fact. It was almost like Mia and I took a couple days off! No camera taking photos, no travelling back and forth between places, no cooking or doing dishes in an apart hotel, no grocery shopping and no sight seeing..
Just two days of sun, pool, food and birds chirping!

We  initially thought that we would leave Nice and find our way to St Tropez, but what ended up happening is that the hotel we had booked was in Ste. Maxime, which is actually across the bay from St Tropez.. little did we know that Ste. Maxime was a shorter distance which meant less travel time  to and from there and yet was just a beautiful.
Our only real issue was that the hotel we were staying at, though lovely, was a bit out of the way.. in that we needed to walk a good 10-15 minutes to get to the town. This wouldn't necessarily had been an issue, but because of the complete lack of public transit, taxis, or even other places to eat around  our hotel, we were pretty much obligated to make that walk just to go and get food! This doesn't sit all that well when hunger interrupts your relaxation plans, but with some clever planning we ended up making it work somehow.

What a beautiful little area it was though. Lush green hills sloping right down to the sandy beaches and ocean. The weather was decent for the two days we spent there, and because our hotel had a very nice pool, we totally took advantage and grabbed some rays poolside.
We did manage as well to find some really nice meals within the small town which definitely made the  stay that much better.

What totally made us upset though is just how crap/pathetic/inefficient/worthless/crap the overall bus and rail connectivity is in this country. I mean we left this morning at 9am to be at the bust stop by 9:30. The bus arrives 35 minutes late ( by then we thought we were hooped for real) and takes us over an hour to get to the St  Raphael train station (had  to go back since there are no connections from Maxime or Tropez).
Finally we reach the train terminal, and oops, no trains going to Aix en Provence for 2 hours. Great.
So we wait some more. Finally the train comes and we hop on and then at Marseille we need to transfer again! No direct trains so then we wait another 35 minutes for THAT train.
Point being that we left at 9am this morning and had arrived at our destination, maybe some-odd 150km away only, at around 4pm. Yes, I kid you not. A whole day of travel just to barely go any distance at all.

Eeeeh.. anyway, we're now in Aix en Provence which is a smaller town about 35km outside of Marseille. Initially we wanted to stay in Marseille for a couple nights but after much looking there was absolutely NO decent accomodation anywhere to be had within the primary city limits, and so rather than spend our last days in France there with all the other tourists, we'd take some more time out off the beaten path. Which is fine by us as it would seem that this cute little place has more than enough to keep us busy for a couple more days.
Hopefully the weather will get better though as today was just pouring all day. Luckily enough we arrived at our Hotel no later today because a half hour after we checked in there was a downpour outside that would have soaked us through and through. Somebody up there is definitely lookin out for us I tell ya

So for our final days here in France (kinda good riddance) we're going to try and fit in a bit of everything..culture, relaxation and some good home cooking. Its SO nice to be able to cook in your room.. I love that Mia and I can grab some groceries and have breakfasts and dinner together.. its just so fun!

I have to admit though the reality of our upcoming time in Spain is exciting indeed. Of course, believe it or not, but the idea  of coming home to Vancouver is getting us kinda excited as well! Its always nice to come home after a long hiatus after all right?

So as I mentioned  there was not much in the way of photos taken in  the last couple days, but I will leave you all with a couple while we were still in Nice/Monaco. I promised Zsa a couple photos from Monaco and so I have to deliver!

Much love to all the readers.. we love to read  your comments and feel very  special  that you guys take the time to let us know you're out  there, even when you're all so busy.

Love Mia and Vlad

(as always, clicky for larger)
1st) the city of Monaco in all its glory :) Taken from the prince's castle.
2nd) The Monte Carlo Casino! We would have gone in, but its strictly black tie only. Shoot, forgot to pack my suit :(
3rd) Another shot of the city with our lovely model Maria
4th) Shot taken while at the Monaco aquarium which was fantastic..
5) Shot of me standing at "Le Chateau" which was one of the older sites in Nice (quite a walk up, but oh so worth it)
6th) Shot of the Beaches in Nice outstretched from Le Chateau

Well we've made it to the Cote D'Azure, and today is a very windy day in Nice.  Still beautiful though! We managed to get up to the rooftop pool and squeeze in a few hours of sunbathing already!  We did have to anchor down everything because it would have blown away. I would have blown away if I was only a few pounds lighter :)

Before we got here though we were first in Epernay.  It is a small city that houses some of the largest names in champagne, like Moet & Chandon which makes Dom Perignon, and we went down into the caves for a tour and a tasting. It was really incredible. I  had no idea how champagne was even made. Originally, I thought there was some special bacteria that grew only in the caves of the Champagne region but that is not the case. They actually select some of the best wines, and age them with sugar and yeast for at least 4 years, and up to 25 years!  We got to see the house that Napolean Bonparte stayed at every year to drink the champagnes produced.  They even have his hat! (we didn't get to see it) You can visit www.moet.com to understand and learn more. It was pretty cool.  The amount of champagne they house in those caves is incredible!  Millions upon millions of Euro's worth.  They even have the barrel of port wine that was given to Moet from Napolean from the 12th century!  That was pretty amazing. Unfortunately we kind of messed up because I assumed we could get to Lyon from Epernay, but in fact we ended up having to transfer BACK at Paris so that was definitely not fun.

But we ended up safe and easily enough in Lyon.  Lyon itself was really really lovely.The old town is listed as a UNESCO Old Town, and it was easy to see why. Cobblestoned roads, random alleyways that led into beautiful courtyards, it was GREAT! Unfortunately it had rained for the first part of our day in the city,but we took refuge in the neatest little miniature museum. Matt, you would have LOVED it! It had recreations of every situation you could imagine! They even had within that museum, an exhibit of film, where they had props used in classic Hollywood movies like "V for Vendetta" (they had V's mask) and the gun from "The Bourne Identity". Very cool museum.  To have a peek of your own mini world check out their website. http://www.mimlyon.com/# .

Later in the afternoon, the clouds parted and we had great weather to go and view the amazing ( and I mean amazing) Roman cathedral that sat on top of the Old Town. It was such a glorious display of beauty.  Every little detail was taken into account. The mosaics speckled with gold, the ceiling foiled in gold everywhere, the marble carvings, it was magnificent and took our breath away!

So we have moved on here to Nice.  Cute enough town, but very typical touristy coastal town, which is exactly what we are looking for!  Just a chance to relax by the water. Tomorrow we are going to Monaco (YES Zsa Zsa, Monaco!)  for the day, and we are both very excited about it.  I think I may do my makeup, I don't want to look like too much of a hobo for all the wealthy people who live there! :D

Hope everyone on the wet - ahem, I mean West Coast is doing okay. (I'm sorry for your poopy weather, hopefully when we come back we will bring the brilliant Mediterranean weather with us!)

PS. French people are annoying, and Italian people are the most annoying.  Just for reference :) But Vlad is the least annoying out of everyone in Europe.  And no, we haven't killed each other yet!

Love Mia and Vlad


EDIT:  I have a quick question for you all..

Imagine that you are sitting outside eating a Haagen Daas sundae.. an expensive Haagen Daas sundae, errr lets say in Nice, and a bird happens to drop number 2 right into it from a height of what would appear to be 40 -60 feet up with a heavy wind presence and a sundae diameter of no more than 2 inches. With this information would there be any way to figure out the odds of this happening? ?

Just curious... carry on.

(yes, this seriously happened)

Hey hey!

Hello again for another update. Its been a while and we've been keeping plenty busy but still doing alright.

We ended up spending the last week in the grande city of Paris.. 5 nights in total and to tell the outright truth it was a mixed bag for us. There were many great things and some not so great things about the city.. I'm actually quite surprised by it all. Maybe it was that we had a preconcieved and "romantic" assumption of how it would be? Who knows?

Not to say that the city isn't romantic.. there are many things that make it so. the monuments are nothing short of breathtaking.. all just amazing in their own right and really aweinspiring. The history of the city and all that is wonderful and interesting. I imagine that if you were to stay in a nice 4-5 star hotel, take tours of the city on your own private boat and had your own personal chef whip up meals for you by candlelight it would be the most romantic city ever and could indeed live up to all the  hype .. unfortunately for people like us who are backpacking, who don't know the language all that well, who can't afford a nice hotel to stay in, and who require the use of the metro or our feet to get around, its a far cry from being "romantic".

In fact its just the opposite in some cases! I was shocked at several things, particularily the smells you get walking down some streets.. smells of garbage, sewage, general gross odors, and this continues from time to time walking through the metro and rer stations.. not the nicest and certainly not romantic.
Also, when half the people you meet, servants, shop keepers, clerks etc, are outright snobby and rude, it too makes it a less than romantic experience.

Add to this the absolute joke that the prices are and it quickly makes your experience here as memorable as a bland carbonara with a 15 euro price tag. Oh, and did you know that it cheaper to buy a coffee than it is for just a bottle of water? Not by much though.. getting any drink, soft drink, water, or coffee in any cafe here is no less than 3 euro on average. Pretty dismal when you can get a half a pint of any kind of beer in London for a pound and a half to 2 pound.

Fortunately for our time in Paris we stayed in a room in the home of a lovely older French Madame. The room wasn't anything special but we were fed fresh french pastries each morning for breakfast and she definitely helped us with our French speaking . I can't beleive how much I forgot since French 12!

The weather has held out for us as well and yesterday was the hottest day yet hitting a solid 28c. We ended up spending it in the park and taking it all in which was nice.

In all we ended up seeing all of the big names like the tour eiffel, louvre, notre dame and arch de triomphe. We also were able to go check out the catacombes which were crazy and creepy as well as walk down the crowded and busy champs-elysse.

So to sum it all up, Paris was good, but in no way great. If only people were nicer in general, the food was better and there was more variety, and the city wasn't extortionate with its prices I think it would have made our stay far more pleasant. So now we have made our way to Epernay which is in Champagne country.. a little out of the way but now we had noticed that we need to take the train all the way back to Paris to get down to Lyon which is our next destination.. so thats a bit of a bummer. Though while here we did get to do and see the home of Moet & Chandon and even did a tour of their wine cellars which were amazing! We got to see thounsands of handstacked bottles aging and some had been there for years. Very very cool indeed!

But most importantly we're getting closer and closer to the south coast which we are getting ready for. Its time for some fun in the sun for these road warriors!

And so with that I will love you and leave you.. but not without some cool new photos :)

XOXO from France!

Love Mia and Vlad


So in no particular order:

1) A stainglass window in the Notre Dame Cathedral
2) A shot of some of the statues housed in the Louvre
3) Another shot of the Louvre.. this room is called the Apollo Room
4) A long distance shot of the main building of Parliament in Paris
5) Yours truly on a beautiful Paris night just admiring the tour eiffel