My friend, Julie, is moving back to the ol' US of A in a few months and I have begun to panic for her. Using Julie as an excuse, I've beefed up my travel plans to help her (see? That was SUPER selfless of me!) see more of Europe in her remaining months. This past weekend was Barcelona.
Just to make things more fun, we also brought along another friend. And her five month old baby. Which prompted this big life lesson: Babies really do change everything. I long held a "I'm never having a baby" mentality and there are certain days (or evenings when I've had several glasses of wine) when I think "I really shouldn't be in charge of another living person just yet." Amelia (mother of said child) actually kept track of things like when her son had eaten last. I can hardly keep track of when I've eaten last! I mean, that's commitment. To life, really. For a lifetime. But her son is also SUPER cute. Then (after I've had several glasses of wine) I see this darling little baby wearing a sweater with bear ears which is apparently a new thing, and whine to Tom "We should have a baby!!! Look at how cute he is. We could make cute kids. I'm sure of it." This is what we call a "trick baby" - an incredibly cute, well behaved kid that makes your childless friends think "we could totally do that and be good at it." Go on a trip with a kid. Just for good practice and to make sure that your evening spent with said kid wasn't a fluke. This baby is totally darling and well behaved and again, totally darling. But the idea that I'm not responsible enough to handle another life still supersedes cute baby-ness.
Traveling with a baby in Europe, especially the Catholic dominant countries (of which Spain and Italy are two big ones), is like getting the golden ticket from Willie Wonka - it literally opens doors to the impossible.
On our return journey Julie went up to the "Last Minute" check in counter at the airport (despite the fact that I openly rolled my eyes like an indignant 13 year old (read above, not ready for children) and said "They'll NEVER let you skip this line just because we have a baby. Don't waste your time." But you know what? They totally let us. And THEN they let us skip the security line and go through the handicap security check. And THEN when her kid was screaming on the plane (for like one second - read earlier "trick baby" comment) like 10 flight attendants came over to sooth him. In America, 1) everyone on the plane would glare at you 2) the flight attendants would passive aggressively remind you that you should have stayed home with your child who is obviously not ready to travel.
But before I got getting way off track with tales of babies, let's turn this around and get back to Barcelona. The food there is like an explosion of flavor. In everything. As I've said before, Italian food, and especially our food here, is amazing in the simplicity and pure nature of presentation. You want tomatoes? We'll give you the best tomatoes and they will taste like the best tomatoes. But just tomatoes. Nothing else. You want fish? Here's a piece of fish. And one lemon. It will now taste like fish with lemon.
Spain has this funny idea that food can taste like more than just the sum of its parts. We went on this amazing tapas and wine tour through Taste Barcelona. Paul, a lanky Aussie, and Marta, his Spanish wife, took us on a whirlwind 5 hour tour of the food culture of Barcelona. We did something similar in Prague and I felt like I learned so much about the city through the evolution of their meals. Marta made lighthearted jokes about how the Catalans, the indigenous people of the region, are known for being incredibly cheap. From scraping tomatoes on day old bread to the traditional toast about good health and wealth in your pocket, it was endearing to watch this young couple from two very different parts of the world make light of their different cultures. Needless to say, this was my favorite part of our trip. And then Paul noting on his follow up email that my emails come from my alias of "Lynnie Lou." I can only hope that one day my prospective employers will get something similar and think "This girl is a solid pick."
Aside from eating (a LOT) we also strolled our way through this lovely city. Gaudi's architecture seems more like gospel than just a good idea. Having studied Sagrada Familia in college, I found it to be so much more interesting and surreal in person than in my text books. But the whole time, I could hear my mom in my head say "I just don't get it. It's so weird." I think Tom and I will try to head to Barcelona again and explore it a bit more. It seems like a town that I could find myself in on more than one occasion.
Until then, I remain faithfully yours!
Lynne
Just to make things more fun, we also brought along another friend. And her five month old baby. Which prompted this big life lesson: Babies really do change everything. I long held a "I'm never having a baby" mentality and there are certain days (or evenings when I've had several glasses of wine) when I think "I really shouldn't be in charge of another living person just yet." Amelia (mother of said child) actually kept track of things like when her son had eaten last. I can hardly keep track of when I've eaten last! I mean, that's commitment. To life, really. For a lifetime. But her son is also SUPER cute. Then (after I've had several glasses of wine) I see this darling little baby wearing a sweater with bear ears which is apparently a new thing, and whine to Tom "We should have a baby!!! Look at how cute he is. We could make cute kids. I'm sure of it." This is what we call a "trick baby" - an incredibly cute, well behaved kid that makes your childless friends think "we could totally do that and be good at it." Go on a trip with a kid. Just for good practice and to make sure that your evening spent with said kid wasn't a fluke. This baby is totally darling and well behaved and again, totally darling. But the idea that I'm not responsible enough to handle another life still supersedes cute baby-ness.
Traveling with a baby in Europe, especially the Catholic dominant countries (of which Spain and Italy are two big ones), is like getting the golden ticket from Willie Wonka - it literally opens doors to the impossible.
On our return journey Julie went up to the "Last Minute" check in counter at the airport (despite the fact that I openly rolled my eyes like an indignant 13 year old (read above, not ready for children) and said "They'll NEVER let you skip this line just because we have a baby. Don't waste your time." But you know what? They totally let us. And THEN they let us skip the security line and go through the handicap security check. And THEN when her kid was screaming on the plane (for like one second - read earlier "trick baby" comment) like 10 flight attendants came over to sooth him. In America, 1) everyone on the plane would glare at you 2) the flight attendants would passive aggressively remind you that you should have stayed home with your child who is obviously not ready to travel.
But before I got getting way off track with tales of babies, let's turn this around and get back to Barcelona. The food there is like an explosion of flavor. In everything. As I've said before, Italian food, and especially our food here, is amazing in the simplicity and pure nature of presentation. You want tomatoes? We'll give you the best tomatoes and they will taste like the best tomatoes. But just tomatoes. Nothing else. You want fish? Here's a piece of fish. And one lemon. It will now taste like fish with lemon.
Spain has this funny idea that food can taste like more than just the sum of its parts. We went on this amazing tapas and wine tour through Taste Barcelona. Paul, a lanky Aussie, and Marta, his Spanish wife, took us on a whirlwind 5 hour tour of the food culture of Barcelona. We did something similar in Prague and I felt like I learned so much about the city through the evolution of their meals. Marta made lighthearted jokes about how the Catalans, the indigenous people of the region, are known for being incredibly cheap. From scraping tomatoes on day old bread to the traditional toast about good health and wealth in your pocket, it was endearing to watch this young couple from two very different parts of the world make light of their different cultures. Needless to say, this was my favorite part of our trip. And then Paul noting on his follow up email that my emails come from my alias of "Lynnie Lou." I can only hope that one day my prospective employers will get something similar and think "This girl is a solid pick."
Aside from eating (a LOT) we also strolled our way through this lovely city. Gaudi's architecture seems more like gospel than just a good idea. Having studied Sagrada Familia in college, I found it to be so much more interesting and surreal in person than in my text books. But the whole time, I could hear my mom in my head say "I just don't get it. It's so weird." I think Tom and I will try to head to Barcelona again and explore it a bit more. It seems like a town that I could find myself in on more than one occasion.
Until then, I remain faithfully yours!
Lynne
No comments:
Post a Comment