Barcelona with Sayani: Xmas.
Jackie helping with the welcome sign.
We decided to arrive the day before Javier’s family. We stayed in this really amazing hotel for next to nothing, and wondered why we didn’t come back sooner to enjoy the luxury. We wanted to make a sign to greet Javier’s family. I was thinking something along the lines of “Bienvenidos la familia de Alvarez/Huen” but Javier had a different idea. Since the arrival of his niece, Sayani, everything is now referred to as belonging to Sayani- i.e.: “I’m on my way to Sayani’s house.” So, it should have been no surprise that the sign ended saying, “Bienvenidos la familia de Sayani” 🙂
We checked-in to the apartment the following day- where we would all be living for the next two weeks.
Welcome sign. awesome!
We wanted to have keys in hand and ready for when the family arrived. We took the train to the airport to wait. When they arrived, we were yelling with our sign and out came Sayani, riding on the luggage like a princess, dressed like an elf. 🙂 It was so nice to see them. Javier was overflowing with happiness, and you could tell, so were his parents. Everyone looked a bit tired, so we decided to take the faster option of a taxi to get us back home.
I finally got to snuggle with my niece.
When we arrived at the apartment, everyone settled in, and some took a quick nap, including Sayani, who absolutely melted tío Javier’s heart when she fell asleep on his chest. In the evening, we walked to a local tapas place for dinner. The tapas were very fancy, and delicious, as was the sangria 🙂
Los padres de Sayani had a rough first night. According to Sayani’s internal clock it was the middle of the day when her parents were trying to get her to go to sleep, and she wasn’t having it. Subsequently, she didn’t get to sleep until around 7am, so her parent’s were quite sleepy when we left the apt to start exploring at around 2pm.
Angela, tapas, and sangria.
We took the metro to Park Güell and had a bit of an adventure. The metro was full. Javier’s brother-in-law, Will, was pushing the stroller and we all crammed into the subway. When we entered, Javier noticed some gypsies on the subway and pointed them out. We spread the word to the family to watch their pockets, purses, etc. When we arrived at our stop, the gypsy girls were blocking the door, so we had to squeeze by to get out. In the squeezing by, one of the girls slipped her hand into Will’s pocket. Javier was watching and started yelling at the same time Will grabbed her arm and pushed her away-out of the subway.
Park Güell
Javier grabs the girl and is yelling at her in both languages- she looked petrified. Now, this is what I love about the Alvarez family…they all have each other’s back without question. No one else really knows what’s going on, but once Javier pushed the girl away and calls her a thief, they all start yelling “thief!” in English, Spanish, and Cusqueñian slang. Ha! The girl and her friends scurry away with their heads down, jump back on the subway as the doors close, turn around and flip us off. And this is just our first day.
Park Güell
At Park Güell, we walked around, took loads of pictures, and enjoyed the view of Barcelona from above. Park Güell was originally created by Gaudi to be part of an elite community. It is quite beautiful, and true to Gaudi style, very colorful and unique- one of the structures looks like a gingerbread house. Once we had taken all the picture we could, we hopped back onto the metro (drama free this time) and made our way to Javier’s cousin’s home to visit his family and auntie Ellie. Victor, Javier’s dad, hadn’t seen his sister, Ellie, in several years, and wanted to spend time with her. Javier hadn’t seen his cousin or his family in several years as well, so it was a great time for everyone to reconnect and visit with one another. It was an emotional meeting.
Con la Familia.
The feelings of love, longing, and joy were palpable. One would be hard pressed to not cry when witnessing auntie Ellie’s reaction to seeing Victor and vice-versa. We spent a wonderful evening there. The young boys, Gio and Alex played with Sayani, while the rest of the family spent time catching up. We took the metro back, and since everyone still had energy, we decided to stay on a few extra stops to see La Sagrada Familia at night. There, we took some more pictures, and since everyone still had some energy, we walked home. On the way home, we stopped by the Arc de Triumph, and found a shabu-shabu place, that at first glance got us excited, but on second glance changed our mind, and earned the new name of Shabby-shabu, as it looked quite questionable.
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Christmas Dinner. Thanks for the picture Will.
The next day was Christmas eve. Again, Sayani had a really difficult time getting to sleep, so again, it was a late start. No worries though, Javier, the parents and I found a Peruvian place for lunch! On our way back to the apt, we picked up dessert to take to Alex’s home, where we would be spending Christmas eve. Alex and his wife, Yema, provided tapas for us to snack on, and we had Peruvian chicken for dinner! I was really missing my family at this point, and even though no one can take the place of your own family, being able to spend Christmas with Javier and his family was definitely the next best thing.
It was Christmas day, and the third night that the padres de Sayani hadn’t slept. They were starting to get into a routine though. For the first couple nights, they fought it. By this time, they decided to just go with it and take turns. So, instead of leaving Sayani in her crib, they let her run around the apartment to tire herself out, while mom and dad took shifts. So, they were able to get a couple hours here and there. Definitely not ideal, but better than nothing, I suppose. But what troopers they were! After only a few hours of sleep, they were up again, and seeing the sights.
Casa Batlló
We decided to visit the Gaudi house (Casa Batlló). Will, Angela, Javier, and I took the audio tour of the house. Victor and Lourdes had already been, so they stayed with Sayani. What a cool house! Gaudi was definitely a genius, or maybe crazy, or maybe both, but everything looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland. At this point, I was already in awe of Gaudi’s work and I hadn’t even seen the Sagrada Familia yet! After this, we walked to the gothic barrio, visited the Cathedral for Christmas prayer and to see the nativity, which was complete, of course, with a hidden caga tió. And for dinner…one guess…that’s right, Peruvian. 🙂
The next morning we were awaken to the sound of Lourdes’ friends talking and laughing. She had invited some of her friends to the apartment, so the morning was spent with the ladies, and Victor, visiting, Javier and I lying low, and Sayani and crew, sleeping. Once everyone was up and ready, Lourdes’ friend, Anna, took us to Barceloneta for some paella.
Ana and friends at the magic fountain of Montjuic.
The walk along Barceloneta was very nice. We stopped at a waterside restaurant and ordered two large orders of paella, and plenty of sangria. Now, Javier and I are not the biggest fans of paella, but hadn’t tried any since arriving in Barcelona. So, of course, we were eager to give it another shot. Well, as it turns out, we’re still not big fans of paella, but everyone else seemed to really enjoy it. In the evening, we went to Plaza de España to watch the lights and listen to the music at the Manjuic fountain show, and ate Peruvian for dinner….again.
Angela is a pro at foosball.
By this point, Javier, his parent’s and I had a routine. We would go for a relaxing breakfast at Granier for coffee and pastries, while we waited for Sayani and company to wake. Once they were all up and ready to go, we would get moving on our day. On todays agenda, Hop-on, hop-off bus, which turned out to be a bit of a flop. It was just too cold on top. Poor Sayani was really squirmy while we were up on top, but as soon as we came down to where it was warmer, she fell right to sleep. We walked the Passeig de Gracia and stopped at 100 montaditos, which stood out in our minds as a great little place in Madrid. However, I think our quality of life increased dramatically with the arrival of Javier’s family, and what seemed decent and even good in Madrid, was all of a sudden…kinda gross. Ha! We went back to visit auntie Ellie, and while Victor and Lourdes visited with her and babysat, Alex took the rest of us to a bar around the corner where we had beer and played foosball. Unbeknownst to me, Angela is ridiculously good at foosball and destroyed everyone.
Selfie!!! lol
The next day we took a trip to Montserrat. We had a bit of a late start, plus it took 2 hours to get there, so when we finally arrived, we were slightly short on time. First things first, even though we were short on time, we had to sit down and have lunch. When we finally got moving, we saw the monestary, walked around the mountain, and lastly, went to the Cathedral and stood in this really long line to walk in front of a statue of Mary and Jesus that is high above the altar. Apparently, we missed the memo as to what we were supposed to do, and we clearly weren’t paying attention, so instead of touching the orb that baby Jesus is holding, we took a selfie.
The following day, we had lunch at the home of one of Lourdes’ friend. The ladies, and Victor visited with one another, while the rest of us hung out and planned the rest of our day.
La Familia Sagrada
We decided to try and head over to La Sagrada Familia to see if we could catch it before it closed. Since Lourdes’ friend lived fairly close, we decided to walk. Once we arrived, there was a really long line, and were informed that once we were inside, we would only have a short amount of time. After much discussion, we decided to all buy tickets for the following day. That evening, everyone went their own way. Javier and I found an amazing vegetarian restaurant, that we subsequently went to the following day as well, and made a last minute decision to listen to “dueling flamenco guitars” at the nearby, Maria del Pi church. We had messaged Lourdes and Victor and asked if they were interested. They were, so we decided to meet at the veg restaurant and walk to the church together. The church was cold inside. There were two small heating lamps on either side of the audience, but they didn’t do a whole lot in the big stone space. Although we were a little on the cold side, the performance was beautiful. There were four guitarists, each amazing. The sounds they made reverberated throughout the old church. It was quite beautiful and such a cool experience.
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JACKIE AND SAYANI VIDEO: