Penpals aren’t just for kids. Take advantage of social networking and try to make at least one new relationship in the world that is not geographically close to you.
In January of 2022, I had the pleasure of being connected to a penpal in Poland through a Youtube channel we both followed (Daily Connoisseur). While it typically takes about a month for letters to be delivered, it has been so fun to compare notes and see how her life has unfolded. Now that we are back from Spain, we can send my brother and sister in law letters too, although letter writing is a bit of a lost art, so we don't expect the dynamic to be as equal of an exchange.
Plan an overseas vacation (don’t worry, you don’t have to actually go to earn your badge). Map out where you’d stay, what you’d like to see, how you’d get there. Research options like hostels, camping options, monasteries, Airbnbs, home swaps, etc.
Itinerary: Barcelona, Spain, Jan 28, 2026-Feb 7, 2026
Objectives: see brother + sister in law's house in Sitges suburb, celebrate FIL 80th bday (and other BIL's bday) in big masia farmhouse rental, then spend 4 days exploring downtown Barcelona.
Lodging:
Masia in Santa Oliva Jan 29-Feb 2. Share of cost TBD. Objectives-- adjust to jetlag, see BIL's house, celebrate FIL's 80th birthday. Try spring onions (Calçotades) and jamon. FIL picked this location and it is his big day. The logistical challenges it presents are that it is 1 hour by car or train from downtown Barcelona which makes exploration with 7 year old attention and energy ebbs and flows less accessible. It also sounds like quite a few celebrants from FIL's second wife's family will be in attendance so even if the space is large, it may not offer much solitude.
Casa Gracia hostel in Eixample Feb 2- Feb 7. $1,143 Euro. Objectives -- explore the city. We chose this location because it is close to metro hubs and within walking distance of modernist architecture we would like to see (Casa Batlló and the block of discord). It also has the advantage of being on the grided part of the city which is more straight-forward to navigate and BIL claims it will have slightly less noisy nightlife than other parts of downtown. We don't typically consider hostels as a family but were finding that when we said our party was 3, many options required us to reserve 2 separate rooms. The hostel included private rooms with up to 6 beds and a private bath. Because they don't claim 5 star status, this proved to be pretty affordable.
Transportation: Flights arranged through Delta with a connection in NYC. Jens has secured an international driver's license from AAA which we will use while staying at the Masia. We plan to walk/uber/experiment with mass transit while in downtown Barcelona.
Preparation:
Flights settled by Chris
Barcelona lodging booked by Chris
AAA international driver's license and rental car reservation secured by Jens
Phone service and data plans updated to international by Jens
House/pet sitting secured by Chris
Euro cash ordered by Jens
Barcelona history/research by Chris (favorites)
- Barcelona (Robert Hughes) - Extensive history of the region and culture up to the 1992 Olympic Games hosting
- Mission Barcelona: A Scavenger Hunt Adventure - worth packing as to gamify the sightseeing for Fallon.
How it actually went:
1/28: Uber driver "Ulises" picked us up. This seemed an auspicious way to start. He cost only slightly more than 1 day of parking at LAX, so uber to airports is clearly the way to go. I discover Starbucks has protein shot lattes (they aren't delicious, but drinkable). A lady in the Starbucks line quips "I know you're not going to New York!" "... I am, but just the airport" "Those sandals! It is freezing out." For the rest of the trip I am cognizant that I am the only person around wearing sandals, even in the land of espadrilles (none spotted). But will still stick with these being a great "travel light" all purpose footwear option. I also bought copies of 3 news magazines to see if any were clearly preferable and warranted an ongoing subscription. Concluded New Yorker had the most interesting articles, but too much irrelevant "about the town" coverage for someone on the other coast, the Atlantic is still in stages of grief about the Trump administration, and the Economist still has a bit too much faith in the superiority of free markets... Yet they don't use bylines, which seems a bit orthogonal to the objectives of the free agents in their employ. I found myself wishing I had instead packed the Quaker magazines that I have been inundated with since sending them an honorarium.
1/29: Very jet lagged and we discovered in the 2.5 hour customs line that we have left Fallon's hoodie on the plane. Feeling very grateful I packed the snow jacket which seemed like overkill because she will live on it for the rest of the trip. We play a lot of "what time is it, Ms. Fox?" and I realize we need to expand our repertoire of games that can be played while in the confines of slowly moving lines (minimal gross motor, minimal noise, minimal fussy pieces to spill every time we inch forward). The line does give us time to straighten out our phone plan to provide service in Spain. My phone takes about an hour to switch over (making for a very dodgy exit from the auto rental with only a saved map to brother in law's house). Jens's takes even longer-- maybe a couple days? We deliver the case + of scout cookies and extra large box of cheez-its. In later exploration of downtown bodegas, we see Cheez-its, they are available in Spain! But no matter, we now have ample suitcase space for books and chocolate souvenirs. We see some of brother in law's house-- mostly his sitting room-- because we are all sorts of jet lagged. His dog is warier around rambunctious, squeaky kids than we had hoped. We make it to the masia. Fallon and I are the only ones that can stand upright in the low-ceilinged kitchen/galley. But it is an impressive compound. We think it was built in 1200ish and that it used to house visiting royalty. We are mostly grateful for wifi with the sketchiness of our phones. We try to find a late lunch but nothing in the town is open except a minimart. Fallon chooses spaghetti and canned peas. Excellent.
1/30: Sleeping is hard. I discover a wealth of library books available for download on kindle and my backlog. Work through most of 150 Strong. Wake at 11:30. Whole group goes to a beach town for late lunch (Casinet in San Salvador). Grand-Dude and I go halfsies on a blessed paella which comes with a bottomless carafe of holy water (sangria?) I share with the table. Moving on to kindle reading Milk + Honey poetry during the insomnia phase.
1/31: Another lazy jetlag day at the masia. I am thrilled to experiment with a real bidet. Someone does a grocery run and I have a cold cuts flight. It seems like it is all jamon and OK, but not worth jumping 9 time zones for. Jens teaches me how to open email links in browser so that I can approve a girl scout cookie order, life changing! Mostly he and Fallon are hanging out with unlimited screen time playing video games... Not exactly the ideal situation for skipping school.
2/1: Grand Dude's 80th birthday. I finish Tribes Homecoming and start Henrietta Lacks. I take a crack at running a load of laundry with some machine operating help from chatGPT and line drying it. Jens is in charge of charring leeks for a calcotada sampler. The grill vents right up to the second story balcony where the laundry lines are and everything smells like BBQ for the rest of the trip, but it could be worse. The steaks he grilled were so good.
2/2: Yes! on the road again, seeing stuff, screening less. The less than cordial dynamic with Fallon's fur cousin took some of the edge off being the first part of the contingent to decamp from the masia. We stop at a little theme park, Catalunya in Miniature and get a preview of a lot of the architectural landmarks we will see next. Fallon likes to push the buttons and get the trains to run. I was impressed one button even starts a flare up that fire fighters rush in and douse with little water pistols. We're able to return the rental car in the parking structure immediately under our Hostel which is great because driving in Barcelona is stressful. They do have wide side lane affordances for buses, taxis, and bikers that I admire though. I also like that they chop the corner edges off busier blocks which leaves more space for cars to turn and pedestrians feel less exposed. Our hostel has 6 bunk beds! Not exactly what I pictured based on the website, but Fallon and I love our top bunks. We have dinner at Oassis, a restaurant right next door.
2/3: We breakfast at Boldu which is like a Dunkin Donuts but their guys are shaped like little men and so packed with thick cream. I admire the hexagonal pavers on Gracia which were designed by Gaudi to go in Casa Batllo, but with production delays ended up in Casa Mila and along the walkway (also that Barcelona gives pedestrians such wide sidewalks). Mema has heard you can buy a few souvenir pavers if you beg construction crews who are working on the street with a couple Euros. Did not attempt this, but the Gracia design is very cool. We pass Pedrera and admire its exterior. We do the tour of Casa Batllo which was really well-done. I loved that the audio tour was keyed toward waypoints within the house. I also loved the study which felt like being inside a kintsugi broken pot repaired with gold at the seams. I also loved the gill-shaped vents opening into a central courtyard to manage the temperature in different parts of the house. Then we hopped a cab cross-town to meet up with the masia crew who were in Sagrada Familia. We made good time, so Fallon pit-stopped at a McDonald's and was delighted to find they also offered packaged pineapple with the happy meals. Sagrada Familia was also pretty impressive-- how they had used bluer tones in the stained glass on the northern side while awesome reds and oranges streamed in through the south side windows. Fallon liked the "sudoku" grids of numbers that added to 33 no matter which row or column you added and we bought her a souvenir necklace of it. When we had enough, we walked back toward our hostel and stopped at a chinese place with an "empanandilla" special which turned out to be dumplings. Yum. Barcelona doesn't really have kids menus or the typical picky eater standards (chicken nuggets/tenders, mac n cheese, pizza). We did a lot of contingent ordering and plate swapping when it turned out what she ordered wasn't what she expected but she liked something from our entrees. That happened in the evening when what we thought would be an approximation of fettuccini alfredo came redolent in the truffle oil we asked them not to use. Turns out she likes spinach ravioli. In the downtime between church and dinner, I hiked over to Amatller chocolate which was listed as a supplier on the fancy Utah-based chocolate mail order supplier I have been shopping. I got a bunch of promising stuff to keep my cacao nightcap going-- hazelnut truffles, cava truffles, leaves of 4 different types, and a couple bars of single origin to compare to my other Ecuadors and to each other. I also managed to ask for and purchase 2 umbrellas from a news seller on the Gracia sidewalk, which came in handy later, in this drizzly season.
2/4: We trekked to La Nena for churros and chocolate and a packed in game of travel checkers. We had initially set our heading for an acai place, but were disappointed it was closed. Nena was a bit over-rated on variety and quality of churros and Fallon didn't like the churro at all, but I loved that they had play kitchen gear and board games. I guess it makes sense (nena = grandma). Plus the service was friendlier than reviewers led me to expect. Since we were in Barcelona in off-season, it seemed just less of a maddening crush. No long waits for restaurants, or tours of landmarks. I'm not sure I could tolerate the city with tourist season in full swing. There was a churroria down the street from our hostel that had a line wrapping around the block even in the offseason, so for a foodie, that was probably the ticket for really good churros. Maybe next time. After fueling up at Granny's, we continued on to the "Hibernian" (Irishman) not to be confused with the "Iberian" (Spanishman). They specialized in used books, a favorite souvenir of mine. I found one on Gulf of Mexico sunken treasure for Jens, 2 truly ancient ones (Kipling and Trollope) for me, and Fallon wanted Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour Work Week and a book about puppies. We found an open and friendly acai stop (Tizana) on the way back to fill any gaps the rejected churro left in her stomach. I finished Pollan's Food Rules during siesta time and we had underwhelming dinner at the hostel's restaurant. The decisive point was when they asked if we wanted cheese on our nachos, and we, imagining processed cheese was something Europeans would reject at the border, were dismayed to see the nachos come back smothered in it and tasting like something terrible you would buy at a stadium.
2/5: We stopped in Forno coffee shop/ patisserie behind Casa Batllo for breakfast and visited the White Rabbit museum that shared a block with Casa Batllo. Fallon was attracted to it because of the oversized Caganer (pooper) statue at its entrance. This was a fun stop. We got to see VR videos of castellers building multi-story human towers and Saint Jordi defeating the dragon, posed in giant paper machie cappagrossos heads, and saw eggs balanced perfectly on fountain jets. We continued on our quest to see Las Ramblas. This was a bit of a hike for a 7 year old, so it required a break at a Lego store and then a chance to play in a massive square filled with pigeons. One landed on my shoulder. The rambla itself was a big disappointment-- completely ripped up on both sides for renovation with lots of construction noise and no statuesque buskers. I did manage to pick up some calcots leek seeds to see how they'll grow in our own Mediterranean climate. The Boquerria market was as amazing as the guides described, but Jens felt there was no fish there that would have tempted him. We stopped in the Maritime Museum off Columbus Plaza to use the restroom, but didn't tour it. We had spotted the cable car that cruised over the port to Mount Juic and wanted to ride it. We took such a circuitous route to get to it though that we needed to stop and fortify ourselves with some mall food. When we had ridden the cable car out and back, we caught a cab back to our hostel and saw bits of the old city through its windows. We had dinner at an amazing sushi spot (Nomo Gracia) close to the hostel and I loved the novelty of a nigiri that was brie and walnut topped. Then we retired to insomnia at the hostel and I finished Henrietta Lacks.
2/6: Today's project was postcards. We let Jens sleep in and made our way to the umbrella seller who also had wracks of postcards. We got a good start on filling them out of pancakes and cafe con leche at Mixto cafe. Fallon liked to pen in cranes on the ones of Sagrada Familia that had edited them out. Then it was off to the post office to explain I am learning Spanish and have a very patient clerk help me buy 12 international stamps and 2 more for the cards going to Poland and Australia. We celebrated completing our quest at yet another acai stop (with marginal coffee) a bit further west of the intersection of Gracia and Diagonal which we had come to think of as home base. We let Jens pick lunch and he took us far east along Diagonal to a taco shop that was pretty good and right across the street from a rival hostel. Then after a screen time siesta interlude, we made our way back out for dinner at an Indian restaurant that managed to squeeze us in just before they got packed. Maybe this is the difference between weeknight and Friday night crowds. Or maybe it was that good. Fallon ate her weight in naan and they achieved a sinus-clearing spice level that Jens approved of.
2/7: Travel day. We intercepted sis in law and her hubby who had muled Grand Dude's guitar purchase through customs but didn't think they would be able to find bin space for it in the back of the plane. I hadn't slept well the night before and was in very rough shape in terms of migraine when we almost landed but then pulled up for a second try at JFK. I had pulled a plastic grocery bag I keep in my purse out to use for air sickness, but thankfully it didn't come to that. We had to go through customs and collect then recheck our bags and go through TSA again. This took almost all of the layover we had allotted so we were back on a plane to California without ever figuring out if the in-laws had made their connection. I refused food and slept on this leg and was settled enough to not be entirely dreading the uber ride when we landed.
So yeah, this was a fun trip. It worked out well to have a couple days of bottomless cups of coffee and no firm travel plans at the beginning. That said, I would have been disappointed if we had spent the whole time out in the exurbs, not getting to appreciate the architecture and food of the downtown area.
No comments:
Post a Comment