Sunday, March 25, 2012

Casa Batllo

Gaudi (1853-1926) was an innovative architect who designed many famous landmarks in Barcelona.  I spent Wednesday morning on a tour of one of the homes he designed - Casa Batllo.  It is a 5 story residence in the city of Barcelona.  I loved it.  It was a visual feast!  I could have spent all day drinking in the creative lines and colors...there was much more of Barcelona to explore though, so I held it to just a few hours.  Here are some photos for you to enjoy...

The front of the residence facing the street.

Colorful windows above the doors between rooms to let light in.

A "sitting area" for courting couples.  The right side had a two person bench
for the couple to sit on and the left had a one person bench for the
chaperone to sit on during the courting hours.

The view from the living room out to the street.

The view from the dining room out to the back patio.

The built in mosaic planters on the back wall of the patio.

View of the rear of the residence from the patio.

Looking down the light shaft in the center of the building.

Looking up the light shaft towards the skylights.

Creative chimey toppers

Cross on top of the building. 

A self portrait of me listening to the audio tour.  :)

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Cook & Taste

The highlight of my trip was taking a cooking class at "Cook & Taste"!  I took a cooking class over fall break in Istanbul and found it to be so much fun that I did a little research and found a similar one to take during my spring break in Barcelona.  I went to the class alone, which felt a little scary, but I ended up having a fabulous time making new friends and cooking/tasting new foods! 

Our wonderful chef who taught the class

Steffanie and I became cooking buddies

The chef making tomato bread

Tomato/cod compote, cod skin chips, lightly fried cod squares
and a shot of roasted red pepper soup

Spring onions with romesco sauce

Seafood paella

Chef caramelizing the Catalyan Creme

Steffanie and me toasting cava to the newlyweds in our class

Chef, me, and Dave (my other cooking class buddy)

The incredible tastes of Barcelona

The food in Barcelona was absolutely amazing!  Tapas and sangria were my choice for dinner every night that we were there.  I loved trying all the little appetizer sized menu options for my dinner.  The seafood ones are what the locals love, but I tried more of the less adventrous, but amazingly tasty, options like roasted mushrooms, beans/sprouts, veggie kabobs, etc...   


 Tomato Bread





An incredibly artistic dessert plate
 
 Roasted potates w/spicy sauce


Grilled shrimp
on a skewer
Tomato & mozzarella
w/basil sauce



 Roasted mushrooms
Spanish sangria


beans and sprouts 




Tomato and cheese on bread
Shrimp & veggie skewer 
Stuffed red pepper
       

La Boqueria Market

I spent 4 days of Spring Break in Barcelon, Spain with my friend, Robin.  While there I spent a a fair amount of time exploring the La Boqueria Market - one of the oldest in Europe - it dates back to 1217.  I wished I had unlimited funds and space in my suitcase to take all sorts of edible treasures back to Klaipeda with me!  Instead I opted for taking photos to share with others. 

 
 Olives



 Chocolates
CandySquid


Spices



Nuts


Octopus






Salted Cod       
Cuttlefish

Exoctic local fruits

Tuna steaks


Dried mushrooms of all varieties

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Sunday with Susie

Amanda and I have a tradition from back when we both lived in the states called "Sundays with Susie".  It's our name for a Sunday afternoon of Amanda and Susie fun!  Yesterday we got together and made paninis, watched a movie, and then made smoothies for dessert.  It was a fun and relaxing time together!  I'm so glad she is at LCC with me! 

Amanda and me with our delicious smoothies! 

Another muge

I love it when a muge happens!  A muge is a craft fair.  This weekend we had one in Old Town Klaipeda.  Many of the usual things were there...wooden cutting boards, jewelry, homemade bread, fresh honey, pottery, wool socks, furry hats, etc.  One thing that I thought were especially fun were the dried flower arrangements on sticks.  These are called "verbos" and are usually done in beautiful colors and are very beautiful.  This year one of the crafters had a bunch of fun ones...

little women & men on sticks

bunny rabbits

a swan

and some that were "just" flowers...I bought one of these.