about me
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! :)
….aaand 1.5 years after the first orthopedic intermission, my back decided to remind me once again that it is here, and it has a saying on things. all it took was one mishandled box which i set on the floor without bending my knees, and we’re back to square one.
so this has been a week of laying down and standing up (never sitting), restlessness, impatience and pain with every move. which sucks, but it also makes me appreciate a few things, like the fact that i have a job that can wait a few days, and that can be done while lying down in bed. also, caring friends, and above all, the best boyfriend in the world.
this too shall pass.
– relocating our “office” to sunny barcelona, and escaping this dreary winter for a few days
– finally flying on a hot air balloon
– getting tickets to our favourite comedian‘s only show in town
– bursting with pride at seeing the boy improve his (already pretty awesome) half-marathon time
– … and then coming home to a mailbox overflowing with letters, postcards and presents! :D
this past christmas, i gave the boy an arduino microcontroller and an lcd keypad shield, which he has been programming into a postcard counter for postcrossing.
i love the simplicity behind the arduino concept, and its flexibility… there are so many things you can do with it – it’s like lego for grown-ups!
an italian friend showed us the beautiful documentary about arduino below, which shows not only arduino’s roots and inspiration, but also the little details – like how it took them one year to make the perfect blue for the board. it only made me like it more! :)