Since it was our last weekend all together in Andorra, Alexandra and I saw things pretty clearly - we needed to escape. After bringing up our seemingly impossible dream of driving around the very south of France to our friend Pere at dinner the other night, plans for just such a weekend quickly manifested. And so it was decided - Saturday morning Alex and I picked up some chocolate napolitanas and got on the bus to La Seu d'Urgell where Pere would pick us up in his car. Our destination - The Pyrénées-Orientales Department of Southern France, part of the larger Languedoc-Roussillon region. Sometimes referred to as Northern Catalonia, this region just north of the Spanish border and on the Mediterranean was until the late 17th century part of Catalonia and thus historically Catalan-speaking. Catalan flags ... read more

Our fifth day began with our first taste of something nutritious on this vacation, bananas! Once freshened up it was time to get to business and visit two cities in the central region of the island, Es Mercadal. We would have to again depend on the bus system, 3 of them this time, which of course only led to failure after failure and countless hours of waiting. We caught our first bus outside the hotel with little difficulty and arrived in Ciutadella before 10. We then managed to miss our bus to Es Mercadal and so had to walk around a bit doing nothing. Once arriving in Es Mercadal (the name of both the region and city) we found out that the bus schedule was a lie and that we’d have about two hours to kill ... read more

Our third day of freedom began at a reasonable hour, leaving our hotel by 10 for Cala en Blanes, the cove only about a 20 minute walk from where our hotel is. We had to again walk past the British invasion but soon enough we arrived at an absolutely gorgeous inlet of turqouise-blue water and an non-overwhelming number of British people. There we remained for some three or so hours taking-in the sun and basking in Menorcan glory. Salt and Vinegar Lay’s kept us alive until finally returning to our hotel. Back at Los Lentiscos we showered and refreshed ourselves with some pomades (Traditional Xoriguer Menorcan gin with bitter lemon, in this case with lemon Kass soft drink) which certainly hit both our spots. Then it was time for Ciutadella, Menorca’s second largest city and west-coast ... read more

Only 3 days after my return from a lovely American weekend it was once again time for a vacation. Thank God. Though our flight to Menorca wasn’t until Sunday, Alex and I decided it best to part earlier and spend a day in Barcelona. Up at 5am we finished packing up our bags, showering, etc. before heading to the bus station for our 6:15 bus to Barcelona. Some three hours later we were on the metro and heading toward the city center to drop the bags off at our hostel. After devouring our ham and cheese croissants we had brought from Andorra, our first priority was coffee. Given the wonderful temperature outside, something iced was definitely calling our names. Silly me had forgotten that Europeans still don’t quite understand cold beverages (hence why once can rarely ... read more

Thanks to European daylight savings' time I started my day an hour later than anticipated, but by no means late around 9:30. I had yet to have a "typical Vienna breakfast" and resultantly set out to accomplish that. Apparently it is the Viennese mindset that one should enjoy breakfast not at home but in a coffee house. I had a number of famous cafés to choose from and eventually settled on the Café Ladtmann. Founded in 1873, it was supposedly the preferred café of Victor Freud and one of the city's most elegant. It was a bit too chilly to eat outside to I went inside to a table near the windows. The breakfast included a soft-boiled egg, freshly-baked roll with sunflower seeds, butter and strawberry jam, and a café latte (I could have had espresso ... read more