cheap dresses and cheap days out

I think everyone needs some cheap, happy dresses in their wardrobe, like this one I bought in Mexico a couple of years ago. The kind that cost $10 or less, and which is comfortable but which you're not nostalgically attached to, that you can flop in the grass in, cook multiple meals in, throw on straight out of the shower and then cycle off to a picnic in. Actually, scratch the cycling; I did just that in this dress and it was scandalously short...

The last couple of weekends I've been enjoying lots of relaxed, summery and inexpensive activities in Barcelona:

Bicycle tours of wine regions:



Actually, this one wasn't so relaxing as it's where I fell off my bike (due to a steep hill and dirt road, rather than the wine). I've been rendered temporarily palm-less and with a bruised chin, but it was picturesque, in Catalonia's wine producing region (the Penedés).

Picnics with friends in the park:



You spend €7 on ingredients, then sit in a sunny park chowing down on a shared feast of pasta, couscous and potato salads, tortilla de patatas, sushi (a couple of my friends used to live in Japan) and homemade chocolate cake. Cue contentment.

Explosive fire and music festivals:

Barceloneta had the festival of the choirs this weekend, which is as described by a friend who lives in the neighbourhood: "On Saturday morning all the bands from all the different streets have a competition. Then they go to the Costa Brava and get drunk. On Monday they come back and do it all again, and at midnight they set off chains of fireworks and dance amid the falling sparks." Strange but true. Such a great night! Honourable mention to people knowing all the words to all the songs, the Pakistani beer sellers working overtime, and grannies standing on their balconies and the bands turning to serenade them directly. Also, the sequined pitchforks, fedoras, and sailor costumes.


Barcelona, t'estimo

a morning in the neighbourhood

Writing that I should wear other blouses besides this one only resulted in my going and digging this one out of the closet. I just love outfits like this on summer mornings: simple, unfussy, retro and playful. I ambled to a café in my Catalan espardenya shoes, which are impossible to walk quickly in, because they base is made of rope and it shifts a bit as you walk. I kind of like that this most Mediterranean of shoes enforces a Mediterranean pace in life... strolling down shady alleyways for a morning cup of coffee. On Saturday morning, anyway.

enough is enough

Back in January, I said my fashion New Years resolution was to buy only one item per month, so I could focus on only buying things I really loved and also not spend all my time thinking about shopping (not that I do, but anyway). I'm officially calling this resolution off now. The thing is, I actually unofficially started it back in August of last year, so it's now been ten months and I'm sick of it, some of my clothes actually need replacing, I'm sick of the rest of them, and also it's summer. Summer is the most tempting season for me, clothes-wise, and well, I'm weak.

Here's a little recap though, with lessons learned and so on.


August: Boutique by Jaeger skirt: not the best purchase, simply because it's a size too big. I think if this skirt fit I'd wear it a lot, but as it is, I'm considering selling it on (I don't think it's practical to have it tailored.
September: H&M jumper: I desperately wanted a corduroy jumper, and this one was there in my price point. The fit is a little awkward though, unfortunately, and I left it in Canada at Christmas.


October: H&M trenchcoat: I desperately needed a jacket for the rainy month, and this one was there in my price point (seeing a pattern)? I really wish I could have afforded a nicer trenchcoat at the time though. This one has served its purpose and I wear it all the time, but the collar curls when it gets wet and it drives me nuts!
November: Kling dress: Such a good buy. I love this dress, it's so completely me in the winter. And I wore it at least twice a week all winter, so it may have been the best purchase of the year.


January: Camper shoes: I needed black shoes, and scored these in the January sales. And yeah... they're awesome. The only heels I've ever had that I can really walk in for long(ish) periods of time.


December: Nadinoo dress: My first "splurge," of the year, and I actually almost never regret splurges. It's a lovely dress. I'm a bit sick of it at the moment, since due to my silly resolution I couldn't actually buy any work clothes and ended up wearing it to work for half the winter, but I'm sure by next fall I'll be all over it again.
February: Zara coat: I didn't want to count this towards the resolution at all, because I bought it to wear to job interviews. But I ended up wearing it all the time in February and March, so I forced myself to count it. ;)


March: vintage dress: This was a nice reminder that I should stop drooling after dresses at the top of my budget all the time (like April's dress, which hasn't been photographed yet) and remember that a lot of my favourite ever dresses were bought on ebay for $10-15. Like this one. Really looking forward to wearing this to summer barbequeues.
May: Mango dress: The day I bought this, I decided to break the silly resolution, but I actually didn't that day, because after going through all the shops in the city centre, trying on a whackload of things and almost buying four of them, I found this dress, and it was just so much better than everything else I was considering combined that I only bought it.

Which I suppose is a good way to conclude: I need/want some new stuff and I'm going to buy it now, but these kind of shopping bans are still a great thing to do: they make you pickier, they make you analyze more what exactly it is that you want. Some of my purchases in the last several months were decided by necessity (trenchcoat, shoes) and some by sheer wantonness (Nadinoo dress, and April's upcoming dress), but all the decisions to click the button or hand over the cash were made after a great deal of deliberation, and I think that's a good thing.

If you're still reading--I'm amazed! Cheers for sticking round!

P.S. judging by the fact I'm wearing the same blouse in three of these pictures, that's maybe what I should put on my list...

help, i'm alive

Sooo... as much as I love this skirt I may be reaching saturation point with it blog-wise. I think it's indicative of my wardrobe depression that I used to wear it on the blog three times a year and now I've worn it something like four times in a six months (obviously, off-blog, I wear all my clothes much more than that). I do actually like this outfit though. Obviously with the sheer top it's more of a night-time thing, but I like the kind of ballet vibe to the silhouette. 90s ballerina, with the shirt over top.

Elsewhere, this has been an extremely trying week so far. My body is unhappy (took a nasty fall on a bike). My professional development is unhappy (I hate the economic crisis). My psyche is unhappy as a result of that. My wardrobe is unhappy. I need a haircut. However, at least I'm getting taken out for dinner by some family friends in an hour, so hopefully this will be the turning point of the week...

Sorry to be depressing, but there are weeks when frankly, it's got to be that way. Pfff.

barcelona by night

In a bar that makes its own "cava" or catalan sparkling wine




feasting on beef ham, artichoke hearts, manchego cheese and of course "pa amb tomquet" or typical tomato-rubbed bread.

Barcelona was the city where I truly learned to love the night. I think "nightlife" as such first hit me when I lived in Glasgow, but in Barcelona staying up all night is really an art. Here, you might meet your friends at 10 or 11 pm, have drinks, and then proceed onwards until all the darkness has consumed itself and the sun is peering at you bemusedly at 7am. It has to do with the balmy, humid summers, when night is really the most pleasant time to be out, and when you don't need so much as a cardigan even at 4am. I'm not so much of a stay-out-all-nighter anymore (I like to do things with my mornings), but I still love the feeling as you walk free and unencumbered down dark streets, laughing with friends over some idiocy, and the city rises and pulses around you, and belongs to you.

That's all still to come as it's currently raining and blowing a gale, but even in the winter "Bar"celona is giddy, happy, and eclectic.


wandering by the monuments at night


a bar in Gràcia has a party-friendly depiction of Picasso's Guernica. I think that's about as appropriate as "Favela Chic," but it was kind of clever...




In the new Moritz Factory (Moritz is the oldest beer in Barcelona), which I'm sure will be getting it's own post one of these days...

Some other posts with snippets of Barcelona by night:
Seeing Stars
Pastis and el Gòtic
Absinthe

barceloneta beach

First, off, thank you all so much for the good back/shoulder wishes, I'm trying to stick to my guns about unnecessary computer use (she types, making a blog post at midnight).

These photos were taken in Barceloneta, the neighbourhood by the beach. Back in the day there was no beach, Barceloneta was a fishing neighbourhood, and the waterfront was a slum. At the time of the 1992 Olympics a beach was artificially created, with imported sand, and completely changed the face of the city. Most Barcelona locals I know wouldn't be caught dead at Barceloneta, singing the praises of the small beachfront towns up and town the coast instead... but I think there's plenty of room for both. Barceloneta can be reached by metro, has a silky, glittery, fine sand (you are guaranteed to find it in your bed for several days afterwards though), and the nearby charm of the vibrant streets of the old neighbourhood, riddled with seafood restaurants and home to such dishes as "The Bomb."

I haven't been swimming yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

''



Photos by Albert

resolutions, resolutions

Today I went to the doctor about an increasingly sore and cracking shoulder, which I was attributing to several years of carrying bags, or maybe to sleeping in strange positions. And those things may well have something to do with it, but while I was chatting to the doctor about possible causes, it hit me like a tonne of bricks what is actually aggravating it: hours upon hours upon hours spent on the computer, and usually hunched in bed or on the sofa. Since I started this blog, my amount of time spent on the computer has sky-rocketed. It's not just the blog; it doesn't help that I'm also writing a book, or that my family and boyfriend live in other countries so I spend a lot of time hovering around on Skype, but whatever the reason, the computer has often in recent months been my lifeline to the world (and yes, I'm a bit ashamed to admit that).

But after today, that realllllly has to stop. Hours of my life in front of a screen is bad enough, but if it's reached a point where a professional, tugging on my shoulder, massaging my arm and cracking my back for over an hour can't even make much of a difference, and I'm still in my twenties, this is a serious problem. I'm not sure why I'm ranting on about this on here... I guess I was just horrified today at how little it took to mess up one part of my body. So.... major computer restrictions going into effect around here! Well, as much as possible, anyway.

There was another resolution I was going to talk about... but I've already written an essay so it can wait.





Many thanks to Ben Evans for the pictures! (He teaches photography, and runs the Barcelona Photo Walk monthly)

sundays

I was looking for quotes about the weekend the other day, as a conversation starter for one of my classes. My favourite was "Only Robinson Crusoe has everything done by Friday." On the subject of Sunday, opinion was split, but I sided with Jean Rhys: "The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still.

I suppose it boils down to whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, or a person who lives in the present or in the future. If you live in the future, it's all about anticipation, in which case Thursday is quite a good day, but Sunday is depressing. Perhaps those who live in the past enjoy Mondays!

In any case, I'm off to beat neurosis by keeping myself busy this Sunday afternoon, but thought I'd share a few extra photos that were taken the day of the Cherry Blossom photos. They perhaps personify a feeling of "melancholy and standing still."





Photos by Albert

what killed the dinosaurs?

In this guy's case, it seems that random vandalism was the cause of extinction... although I'm not sure it's vandalism if the target is graffiti to start with! All I know is that I'm not sure why random ugly tags are left up for months but this harmless little, ahem, 10 foot carnivore got partially dismantled. I'm just glad I made it out with my camera to get what was left of him. Dinosaurs aren't fully extinct yet in Barcelona however, I've definitely seen a blue triceratops or two around...


In other news, Spring has sprung. The weather is amazing around here at the moment!



Waiting for tourists around every corner?


dress via ebay, Camper shoes

a weekend in lyon part 2: the smell of lilacs

If the Saturday I spent in Lyon was a day for tourism, Sunday was a day for food, friends and flowers. Alexa took me up to a charming Sunday market in a part of the city I immediately forgot the name of. In any case, it had stunning views over all of Lyon, with its bridges and cathedrals. We met up with a friend who took us to an idyllic café which had been his "local" in high school (cue Alexa and I sighing over the impossibility of this ever having been our local in Canada). He bought us incredible pains au chocolat from a local bakery, and we had a convoluted conversation--since there was no language that all three of us spoke, he and Alexa spoke French, he and I Spanish, and Alexa and I English, obviously. During the French bits, I embarrassed everyone by taking pictures of nearby tables. The lady in the oyster shot was giving me the skink eye, but I felt it was my duty as a travel blogger to record people having oysters (and drinking wine) for breakfast.







Alexa bought the most beautiful bunch of fresh lilacs, which smelt like heaven and were dragged around all day (and looked pretty much the worse for wear at the end of it). The rest of time in Lyon consisted of:

1. looking at some of the city's many impressive murals... the one above was absolutely enormous and referenced Lyon's silk-weaver past.

2. buying cheese, olives, pastries and fruit at the maket

3. lookng for second-hand books that I might be able to understand at a market along the quay. I bought a copy of The Witches, which was probably a bit optimistic... should've stuck to Tin Tin.

4. Eating the spoils of the market sat on the quay, watching the world go by, and feeling smug that our picnic looked better than everyone else's!