Wine Tasting

 

1. Thanks Tay and Tar for the Chicago winery tour tickets

2. They get all there grapes from either Cali or New York

3. Some wine is made in the steel vats. Others are made in French oak barrels

4. The barrels cost $2,000 a piece. And you can only use a couple times. They can sell them after for $200, like bourbon people or something

5.  

Barcelona - Day 3

1. 8hr schedule guided tour
2. after breakfast, we got picked up around the block
3. after the bus door was unstuck on the curb, headed to Mountjuic. Check pronunciation
4. Our guide Tatiana (from Cuba) was full of energy and driver Laura navigated the busy streets without a worry. joined with Gary and Marie from Purth
5. drove by an arena that used to be a bull fighting arena, but it’s been banned in Catalina since 2011
6. also drove by Cassa Baylor, designed by Gaudi and it looks dope. Stone house with curved shapes and dragon scaled roof
7. apperantly Saint George from back in the day killed a dragon that was going to eat the princess so he slayed it queen. And red roses come out of the dragon. The dragon was eating farmers animals and so they started feeding it virgins (Karl would have been the first to go) until the princess was up. They celebrate with red roses on some day of the year.
8. top of mountjuic has a great look out over the city and museum on Catolian history
9. we had a view of some towers that were built for a world exhibition… or something like that
10. then got dropped off at the gothic quarter by our hotel and Tatiana showed the group around and pointed out some spots we missed on our first few days
11. we saw a small cute bridge above an alley that had a skull under it. The guy who designed it has grumpy he only was allowed to design the bridge
12. saw the Spanish flag, but the Catalonia flag. And an independence flag which has the blue triangle and star like Puerto Rico. They want indépendance from Spain but Tatiana says they’ll never get it
13. pooping man
14. drove near Sagra familia for lunch
15. veronica broke up with her boyfriend
16. best gelato ever appeared tly
17. sagrada familia. Wow
18. park guell
19. Then drop off time, we went to a market recommended by the guide earlier and got some JAMON and fruit for apero later
20. siesta by the pool
21. tapas at a cool fancy resto. Kinder Bueno foi gras, sangria, third installation of patatas bravas, brie

Barcelona - Day 2

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   Got up before breakfast closed, hotel spread smacked with a fresh orange juice machine and some yummy sausages
2. grabbed the beach stuff, got a couple croissant sandwiches to go, and grabbed a train to El Masnou for a beach day
3. nice chill beach that wasn't too busy and seemed like more of a local spot
4. tops optional there
5. Weather was very hot, most people had an umbrella but M and I had to resort to reapply sunscreen 4 times and jumping in the Mediterranean to stay cool and not burnt
6. Headed back to Barcelona mid afternoon and hung around the pool for a a siesta and tik toks
7. Went to a recommended place for Tapas, it was amaze balls
8. got sardines, some local tomato bread spread thing, sangria, croquettes with JAMON!
9. as left in a narrow walk way, Maura did the left right dance with an oncoming person and ended up going left, then the guy said “it will be the British Way”
10. Spain also translated inside out 2. In France it was via-versa 

Barcelona - Day 1

•  Easy drive from Aix-en-Provence to Marseilles at 6 in the morning, no one is up
• Returned the car and hoped on the train to Barcelona
• train made a dozen or so stops, one of which was Aix-en-Provence, know we know for next time
• Some dude on the train try to hide in the bathroom but police officers were waiting for him at one of the stops
• Made it to Barcelona and hopped on a train to the hotel
• Hotel was on a bustling street with a ton of shops in the gothic quarter
• Hotel was nice af and the room Maura got was upgraded for some reason
• We got a free glass a Cava, a local sparkling wine drink native to the region
• Spent the rest of the afternoon grabbing a bite to eat (first installation of patatas bravas), strolling through a market, checking out the Barcelona Cathedral around the corner from the hotel, and hanging by the pool
• Got some snacks for the next day and found Maple Joe, Trader Joe's cousin?
• Went out for a dinner to a paella joint and it was amazing

Venue Visit

•  Left Paris early to catch a TGV to Marseilles
• TGV was pretty cool, zoomed through the country
• Rented a car from Marseilles, they didn't have the manual fiat 500 I wanted, but they had an automatic small car for the same price
• Drove up to the venue, first time driving in France. Probably pissed off the locals by driving slow
• Venue was siiiiicccckkk. Good combo of rustic and brought up to date
• Met with Annemarie and her daughter, usually the husband does the tours apparently but he was out of town. He was in the Olympics in LA for the Indian sailing team, apparently he was feeling nostalgic with the Olympics in France.
• Annemarie is from Belgium, she used to be a French teacher for foreign students who would come to Provence for weeks at a time to learn
• After the tour we went to the central area of Moustiers for lunch. Very cute town built on a mountain with a stream running through it.
• Very hilly parallel parking, Maura had to help me, took a few tries, gave the locals a show
• Most places didn't serve food since it was 4pm but ended up finding a cute sandwich place and then got ice cream.
• After that we drove to Aix-en-Provence to check into out hotel
• Hotel had parking but wouldn't have been able to let us early enough the next day, luckily there was a parking garage next door that was 24/7
• Went out for dinner. Got a salad Nicoise, it was yummers but others prob thought it was rank
• got snacks for the next day and hit the hay.

Paris Olympics

Olympics were dope

Saturday - Arrival

• Met up with my parents at an RER B station to get the keys before they left for their volleyball match
• Luckily Alexendre lent us the apartment for the stay. Apartment was very trendy
• Maura & I went to a resto and I got steak tartar
• Went to Montpelier for crepes for dinner. Apparently lots of crepe shops there because of the train station coming from Normandie

Sunday - Rowing

• Over an hour commute to Vaires-sur-Marne
• Beautiful hot and sunny day
• saw qualifying rounds for a couple dozen events
• the Irish Donovan and McCarthy won their race
• front row bleacher seats at the 1750 meter mark (2000 meter long races)
• Met up with the parents and my godmother afterwards in the city and got a drink and dinner
• Strolled a cool new neighborhood with a bunch of modern apartment buildings centered around Parc Clichy-Batignolles - Martin Luther King

Monday - Volleyball

• Women's pool match. Brazil vs. Kenya
• Arena Sud, just a 20 min walk from Alexandres apartment we were staying at
• Game was awesome, the hype people made it fun and the game was great
• Brazil were the favorites and swept the sets
• Still pretty close though
• Then strolled towards the city, saw the Eiffel tower, and met with the others for drink
• Maura posted a Insta story and got a ton of likes
• Maura and I went to the bar Anne and Didier met at and got sangria

Tuesday - Water Polo

• Before our game, got some snacks and sandwich from the boulagerie and had lunch at Luxembourg garden
• games were at the recently built aquatic center next to the stade de France
• scorching hot day, we had a bit of walk from the train to the pool
• we saw two games and they were amazing
• both pool games, France vs Japan and US vs Romania
• France’s game was close but they pulled through in the end
• the French crowd was mad fun the whole time
• US beat Romania by a large margin
• US had a decent show up to the game along with a group of guys in captain America outfits
• After the game we strolled through Jardin des Plantes