i find there are few things in life as comforting as home-made meals, and of those, breakfast takes the cake. carefully prepared food, first thing in the morning? it requires love and dedication.

which is why it meant a lot to us that our first english breakfast in british soil was prepared by our hosts! it’s a lot of methodical work: some bits go in the oven, some are warmed in a pan, some are fried in a specific order so that everything is nice and hot before being served… but what a beauty! i especially liked the black pudding, but every bit of it was delicious – one of those meals that makes you want to sigh and lovingly pet your stomach at the end… before leaping out of the table with tons of extra energy for the day’s sightseeing :)

we were in london for the past few days!

no, wait wait, that’s not right… what i meant to say is…

WE WERE IN LONDON FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS!! :D

i had ridiculously high expectations for this trip, which usually spells catastrophe and disappointment – and yet, london went above and beyond them, and was, in the famous words of arthur shappey, brilliant! i loved the fast pace, the mix or architecture, the food, the markets, the river, the crowds, the stationery shops, chinatown, the way they use words which the rest of world seems to have forgotten… (and by the way, how nice to be able to understand everyone in a foreign country!)

i’m still reeling from the experience. i’ll try to share bits and pieces of what we’ve done there, but i must confess i wasn’t very diligent in taking photos… i was busy taking it all in :)

our (almost impromptu) visit to barcelona in february coincided with the la laia festivities, in honour of the city’s 13 year old patron. as the tragic story goes, in the fourth century, young eulalia refused to renounce her christianity, rebeling against the rule of emperor diocletian… which ended up getting her imprisoned, gruesomely tortured and killed. pretty depressing stuff… but she’s remembered as a martyr child who fought for her convictions until the end.

i love discovering the traditions and costumes of the places we visit, so we had to ask… how do they celebrate a young martyr? turns out, the answer is with dances, giants… and dances with giants!

people started gathering in a square one afternoon, chatting, grouping, putting their stuff on the floor… then suddenly, the band started playing and everyone around us was giving hands dancing sardanas! the footwork seemed rather tricky, with sudden twists and jumps but everyone seemed to be in on the secret steps!

after that, the giant laias and other characters walked the streets of the old town, eventually joining the dancers in the square for a little dance too while nearby, some volunteers distributed hot chocolate and buns for the children!

giants dancing, you say? yup! pretty awesome in my book!

there’s plenty of stuff to write about barcelona, but before we get to that, let’s just take a moment to appreciate the delicious simplicity of churros with chocolate:

holy lactose-sugar-gluten combo, batman! but there is something so irresistible about fried dough dipped in hot chocolate… :D guilty pleasure indeed!

so after years dreaming and trying and failing, it finally happened in barcelona: we flew on a hot air balloon! one day, i was randomly browsing gidsy for interesting and local things to do there, and then i saw it: balloon rides! i quickly sent an email to the company, who confirmed that indeed, they flew every weekend and that, weather allowing, that weekend would be no exception. so we booked our tickets right away and, drawing from previous experiences, braced ourselves for disappointment…

as the day dawned, we were quite pessimistic since that saturday turned out to be the only rainy day in our 2-week stint in barcelona, but we needn’t have worried… turns out the ballooning.es team was not afraid of the cloudy skies, and promptly scouted an alternative location to take off. :)

when we got there, things were unloaded, and some of us helped inflate the balloon…

… while ooooh’ing and aaaah’ing at the sheer size of it!

when that was done, we just hopped on the basket and off we went!

i was actually kind of surprised at how smooth it was… not at all like flying on a plane! no bumps or turbulence – or sweaty palms grabbing onto paulo’s hands for dear life.. the balloon just lifted itself gently off the ground and slowly hovered the towns and villages… it was so serene and peaceful!

we even went above the clouds briefly, and saw the pyrenees covered in snow in the distance, but the wind was too fierce up there (not to mention, so cold!), and we had to quickly sink again.

an hour or so after taking off, we landed on a nearby field, and helped pack everything up again.

we received our flight baptism certificate, and returned to barcelona simultaneously exhausted and giddy from all the excitement, with a huge smile on our faces! :D

definitely thumbs up, we couldn’t have asked for a better first flight experience! :)