jetsettingjennie

Munchen means Munich in German. Get your mind out of the gutter!

 I had the pleasure of visiting Munich one week in late October, just after Oktoberfest technically ended. The fact that the famous German bier festival was “over” meant nothing for Lenovo. We managed to have a very authentic Lenovo-toberfest ourselves, complete with an official keg tapping, German drinking songs and bell ringing, and all the brats and pretzels you could eat. Did I mention the beer? We had a lot of beer… all week long. 

I went to Munich for a week of meetings with Lenovo’s global leadership team.  I arrived early on a Saturday morning and had the pleasure of walking around the city on a 70 degree sunny day with my coworker. We shopped a little bit- I got some gifts for family members at an authentic liederhosen store. They will be so ecstatic! The cool thing is Germans really do wear liederhosen on the reg. Like, hey honey we’re heading into the big city, better put on our Sunday best! But the Sunday best is really the bierhaus best.

This was our Oktoberfest host, he was THE MAN

Munich is very walkable, and has a ton of awesome stores in the district by the hotel where I stayed. There’s also an almost-silent trolley that runs through the city that probably kills hundreds of people a year… there are no signs, and it just zooms through the city without warning on the tracks that are everywhere!  You know those crazy Germans. Efficient, but wild behind the wheel.

The cars there are also fantastic; BMW, Audi, Porsche were the 3 types I saw most often. On our last day in Munich we had the opportunity to go to the BMW Driving Experience school outside the city. Check out my sweet photo with an I8! These are apparently “sick rides” – I know that because I got a LOT of likes on my Instagram photo with this car.

I drove out to the BMW school with two Germans who were with the agency we hired for the event. They were a couple from Berlin who actually had a daughter that’s currently in high school in Newport News, VA in an exchange program. What a small world! They told me all about life in Germany- everyone skis, as much as possible, in the Alps. If you live in Munich you have an hour drive to some of the best skiing in the world. They were very respectful of American culture, and had both lived in the US at some point in their lives. They drove a BMW, and were quick to make jokes about how they’d purchased it for that specific event.

Lenovo is a global company, and the number of different countries that were represented in the week-long meeting was astounding. The multi-lingual, intelligent leaders were inspiring to listen to, and watching them bond together during our different evening activities was pretty hilarious. During our Oktoberfest night the Chinese leaders were really into the drinking competitions… but I will say it was very obvious they don’t have fraternities or similar college parties that Americans are used to attending. I LOLed a lot. 

No matter what country each attendee came from, everyone was in awe of the gala dinner at the Residenz, which was a Summer home to the royal families of Germany. I can’t remember all of the history, but the place was a huge palace, and the room where we had our event was outstanding. There were also “hidden” swaztikas on the ceiling pattern so that was a little intense…. this gala dinner also happened to be the only meal where we were not served sausages! It was so amazing just to have fish and chicken. We then had some weird deconstructed crime brûlée for dessert which I sort of liked. Actually in thinking about it now I didn’t like it. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Munich. I think I’d like to go back and spend 2 or 3 more days there with friends so I could shop a lot more and go to some of the German Klubs (pronounced Kloobs) that I heard so much about. I did spend a lot of my first Sunday there at the Hofbrauhaus, the oldest German beer garden where Hitler used to party. That was a lot of fun, and the pretzels were larger than my body! I almost named this post the daily pretzel, but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it. The weisse beer was also delicious, and I felt very nourished by its contents. 

So- thumbs up to Munich! Check out some of the photos I took while I was there. It was beautiful.

If you haven’t seen Man in the High Castle you should begin watching it and finish the first two seasons, and then you’ll understand what Berlin is all about (at least through the eyes of Amazon’s Original Content creators). I hadn’t seen MITHC before I went to Berlin, but since the trip I watched it and appreciate my time there even more. The show, although fiction, made a lot of the history I got to see really come alive.

Now that my plug is in there I’ll continue with the post…

I went to Berlin for IFA, a huge tech trade show that Lenovo has a presence in every year. It’s always located in Berlin and caters to a global audience, with most major tech companies participating. I had never been to Germany before, and if I’m being completely honest had never had a burning desire to visit. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to go.

As you well know Berlin has a lot of history and, being the famed Davidson historian that I am (legend-ary), I was eager to see all of the places that I had studied and learned about in school. As is with most of the shows and work trips that I go on, I didn’t have a ton of free time to sight see, so I had to make the most of my precious hours here and there to maximize my time.

#LenovoRules

The first 3/4 of my trip was extremely busy with work. I got to enjoy my beautiful hotel, which was on a major shopping street, an event space in a renovated beautiful train station where Lenovo launched our Yoga Book, and the IFA convention space, a LOT. I had a lot of meals in the hotel and inside of my hotel room, and two dinners in a row with coworkers at an Italian place down the street from our hotel. We had another dinner at a French place within 10 minutes walking distance from our hotel as well. The French and Italian food in Berlin was pretty good! I can’t say the German food was that amazing. I had huge breasts of chicken and lots of potatoes for lunches, but probably didn’t order the way I should have, being a non-sausage eater and all.

I went for a few runs in the massive park near our hotel which reminded me of Central Park, only with more naked people! It had a ton of homeless people hanging out inside, as well as some nudist groups. Sadly(?) I didn’t see any of them but my boss Mike was lucky enough to almost run into a gaggle of them! Wish I saw that first hand. The park itself was beautiful, but what really stuck out to me about all of Berlin was the architecture.

The buildings and layout of the city is very stoic, organized, the opposite of artistic or frilly. The spooky aspect I felt while I was there is no doubt because of the presence of the Berlin Wall, which is evident all over the city whether there were pieces or mementos of the actual wall, or just the differences between the East side and the West side. A cab driver I had told me his family was from the East side, and that people are still very cognizant of the difference. When you think about it, the Wall’s “downfall” wasn’t very long ago. The cab driver’s parents and grandparents remember it well.

The major highlight of my trip to Berlin came on my last day there. I was in a bus back to the hotel from IFA with a German co-worker, Christoph, who offered to take me around the city for a few hours and show me all of the sights that I had yet to see. Christoph and I set out in a cab to first see the Berlin Wall. He walked me up to an observation tower first to show me a large part of the Wall that was still in tact for memorial purposes, and explained the various thoughts on the Wall through a German’s eyes, both “east” and “west.” His insight helped history come alive and made me appreciate the reality of the Wall, from it’s confused construction (most people didn’t think it would actually be built, let alone taken seriously) to it’s destruction. We then went to Brandenburg Gate – where Reagan famously said “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!” and eventually helped to end the Cold War. We stopped at the Holocaust Memorial as well. This was truly emotional and I think everyone should visit at least once if possible. The memorial is huge, and private so to allow people to grieve and remember. It’s also very quiet. I was thankful this was one of the places we had time to visit.

Reichstag

We then went to Reichstag, a huge political building that Hitler had built, and the location where he made the terrible decisions that he did during his reign. Germany’s government still meets in Reichstag today. It looks A LOT like the one in Man in the High Castle. Christoph told me that the ceiling in the main meeting space is now glass, to allow media to film and watch and hear what is going on, to allow the German people to feel as though they are now included in these decisions and that there are no more secrets.

Following our whirlwindtour, Christoph and I met up with other co-workers who we happen to run into on the lawn outside of Reichstag. We walked along the pretty river that flows through the city, and had beers sitting outside. Me, a Russian, a German, and a Frenchman just hanging. It was a very worldly, educational day for me and one I will never forget.

Sometimes when historical events happen outside of our lifetime it’s hard to imagine them, it’s more like reading a book and then closing it if you want to stop. Christoph’s real-life experiences made the Berlin history we discussed and visited truly come alive, pleasant or not.

Pre-trip: What first came to mind when I thought about Berlin and Germany? Obviously, I think about Hitler, the Holocaust, sausages, World War II, the Berlin Wall, Oktoberfest, and beer.

Post-trip: I now remember Berlin as a very cosmopolitan, buzzing city that contains hundreds of years of history and progression. (And everything else I mentioned in this post).

But, I went alone. I ventured to Paris for the first time at the end of June to manage a large booth engagement that Lenovo put on at a start-up tech trade show. Months of planning with our team based in Paris has preceded the trip, but I was still very stressed when I arrived. I had never been to Paris before, and wasn’t sure about getting around – checking into my hotel and finding my way to the Porte de Versailles alone, knowing 3 words in French, seemed daunting. The moment I walked out of the airport I was reminded of how I feel when I’m at JFK. This was a good thing, because after living in New York for 5+ years I am very comfortable with traffic, cabs, subways and risky driving. The airport was about 45 minutes to my hotel, which was in the 6^th Arrington, or “circle.” Paris is laid out in an organized way, the different “arringtons” are different districts, similar to how Manhattan has different areas that are very distinct.

Luxembourg Gardens

My hotel was in running distance to the Luxembourg Gardens. I ran exactly once during the 7 days while I was there, to the Gardens and back. It was too early in the morning for the park to be open, though, so I just creepily took photos through the gate.  Because I was so busy at the show, Viva Tech, I only hastily saw several of the sights that I felt I needed to see… Champs d’Elysses – this was taken care of when I saw it on the subway map, so I jumped off, took this photo, and jumped back on; Arc de Triomph – saw this while I was on the Champs d’Elysses, but a different time, when I was actually going to walk to meet my friends at the Louvre for dinner (more on this later); the Eiffel Tower – I went to this romantic place during the day (still haven’t seen it at night) and asked someone take my photo on the super romantic bridge. The whole time I prayed he wouldn’t steal my phone; the Louvre – saw this when I ate dinner at Café Marly, which overlooks the museum. I didn’t actually go inside though.

Ok I admit I didn’t go inside but this was cool to see! Next time..

While I’m on the subject of food… I will say I had a lot of lonely dinners while I was in Paris. I had a lot of amazing food though – pizza (thin crust with a fork, but amazing), fish (possions?! that’s French for fish), omelets (too many to count) and wine. Every time I ordered more than 1 glass of wine the waiters gave me very confused looks, heavy with pity, but I pretended I didn’t notice and drank my glass(es) quickly, paid, never knowing really how much things were or if I should tip or not, and got out of there so I could get to sleep. There was only one time when I ate a meal with someone else – a friend of mine from college was doing a Euro Trip with his girlfriend, and they happened to be in Paris on a night when I was free for dinner (kidding, I was free every night), so I took advantage and went to Cafe Marly at the Louvre with them. It was a beautiful restaurant, and we got a great seat outside on the patio area so we could sit and eat while people-watching.

I’m aware that I only did about 20% of the things that I need to do in Paris while I was there, so a return trip is necessary. A few other things I need to mention in this post, which I’m only now posting in January 2017, so I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things:

The subways were easy to figure out and very, very useful

Uber rocks in foreign countries. #IloveUber

French people aren’t any more rude than New Yorkers.

The croissants in Paris were not as impressive as those in Cannes. Or maybe I just didn’t eat as many? I’ll defer to Khaner Walker. They were still good though.

French people love smoking. I worry about their lungs.

I need to go back.

That’s me in the middle of the road!

I am very behind on this post, but I’ll have to blame it on the long flight home from Beijing zapping my creativity! After the trip to Cannes, I flew over to Beijing for the last of Lenovo’s internal Kickoffs. The flight from France to Beijing was somewhat depressing, because by that time I was ready to come home, but from the moment I checked into my hotel things turned around and the four or five days we were there flew by. We stayed at the Shangri-La BJ, which was pretty nice and had a woman who jammed every evening to 80s and 90s covers. I ordered a Pinot Noir from Oregon each night (US represent!) and got a funny look each time. I had a room sized for a small army, seriously, it could’ve fit 5 king beds in a row! Perks included extra water bottles (for my friends?) and tons of mini shampoos!

Khaner, Zac and I trekked over to Asia together, and while Beijing was a busy blur in terms of work and meetings, we were able to carve out a few hours here and there to see some stuff that had been on our bucket list. The Beijing (BJ) Lenovo Kickoff was held at Capital Indoor Stadium, which is a pretty dated arena in the middle of the city. The China and Asia-Pac teams got together for this large meeting, which was entertaining and informative for the company 😀 we had some cute Lenovo logo costumes on stage that were a huge hit there! But, I’ll tell you about the fun stuff I saw and did, since that’s probably what you’re more interested in (I know I am).

Some experiences we had in BJ:

1. Went to the Great Wall of China. Casual, right? I was pretty excited. It really is great. Zac and I took tons of photos of each other panting up the steep stairs and bought awesome souvenirs for our families there. We had a fabulous tour guide Tony who told us all about how and when it was built, and how finally we could call ourselves “men” since we climbed the wall. (Ok he actually said courageous but I think he was being PC) the views are incredible, and we had a perfectly clear, smog-free and beautiful morning there. Definitely something I won’t forget.
   

   An awesome climb with an amazing view

    

2. Stopped at a jade factory and bought some cute bracelets! We got a tour, got sold HARD and watched a man literally carving tiny details into jade balls that would bring luck to whoever bought them. Did you know China is all about jade? Now I can tell real jade from fake, jadeite, and plastic!
   

   These are all hand-crafted jade pieces

3. Couldn’t get a cab due to our American nature (classic!)
4. Asked a Chinese coworker to purchase cough medicine for one of our executives. Good thing I really trusted Tao Bai, because there was no way we could read the instructions!
5. Ate dinner in a revolving restaurant which overlooked BJ. Think massive buffet, large amounts of seafood, pieces of chicken and frog that “are edible”
6. Ate dinner in a VERY legit Chinese restaurant. We ordered by pointing at photos on the menu… Verrrry interesting experience. The couple next to us were pounding beers! They don’t remove the empty bottles for you, it’s something to be proud of I guess, so they were burping and hollering, banging their table and clinking their glasses each time. LOL to that!
   

   The black thing is a 100-year old egg…

7. Went to the Summer Palace! This was our last day in BJ, we had a few hours before the trip to the airport so Khaner and I walked through the Summer Palace with what felt like millions of kids on field trips! We were out of rmb by then, so had to essentially beg people outside to give us a few rmb, and even then we used our student discount. Luckily, I still look exactly like I did when I was a senior at Davidson! The Summer Palace felt like BJ’s Central Park to me. It’s huge, has a large lake where people would take dragon boats for a spin, lots of different beautiful temples and halls, and a ton of history. Here’s a quick video that sums it up! https://youtu.be/PyNMzFoFaUY
   

   Dragon boats!

   

   Peace out China

   

   Amazing detail in these halls

With the weekend beginning and the heavy work-load part of the trip to Cannes complete, I woke up on Friday morning so excited to check out the city and do some shopping! Since I had to fly to Beijing that Monday anyways, I elected to stay in Cannes and do some sightseeing rather than fly all the way home for a quick 2 days. I started off the weekend with a long run along the beach. I ran in the direction of Grasse, a little village famous for its perfume where I would ultimately go later that day. The beach was perfect. It was still very early, so shops were closed and the streets and the beach were empty, making for some awesome photo opps! After my run I got dressed, enjoyed my daily croissant, and went to meet Khaner and Caroline for a day of exploration in Grasse.

I will say that while I knowingly stayed over for the weekend, I was very bummed that Matt wasn’t able to join me. Thinking about spending the weekend alone in such a beautiful place was sad, I felt like I should share it with someone. I was also nervous I’d be taken, obviously, and while my Dad told me he was fully prepared to go all Liam Neeson on the French and find me, I felt like it would be better if I just wasn’t taken afterall so he wouldn’t have to go through all that trouble. Khaner and Caroline totally saved me. They allowed me to crash their Babymoon, and we ended up having a blast that weekend, exploring new places and trying great food. I was more grateful than ever that Caroline joined the trip – we had a blast shopping together and picking out adorable baby clothes for Charlotte, who is due in late August.

After a tiny bit of stress figuring out which train platform we had to be on, we hopped on a graffiti-covered train to Grasse and enjoyed a quick 20 minute ride to the tiny village. We Google-mapped our way to “centreville” which we assumed was where the perfume factory was that we were looking for. Caroline’s mom was insistent that she go and buy a bunch of French perfume at Fragonard in Grasse, and I am so glad! We got to check out the world’s oldest perfume factory, see where they make perfume, how they bottle it, and learn all about parfum v eau de toilette v all the other types of scents you can buy. Note to all you perfume fans out there… eau de parfum is MOSTLY WATER! That’s why is doesn’t smell delightful after a few hours, it just wears off. Parfum is the real deal, it’s 100% SCENT. Lol. So buy that kind! If they even make it here, maybe they don’t, I haven’t checked my American perfumes for legitimacy yet.

This is Fragonard, the parfum factory where we spent way too many hours and way too many euros, but now we smell amazing!

After spending several hundred euro on perfume and gifts for our moms, who will be delighted and love us even more come Mother’s Day, we explored the little town of Grasse, which is very hilly, and had some delicious French crepes for lunch. We were very close to Italy, so there is a lot of Italian influence in the food in the South of France, so I got an awesome tomato – mozzerella – basil crepe and I am getting hungry just thinking about it. It was awesome! Even though it looks not that great in this photo.

Mozzerella Tomato Basil Crepe = amazing

That afternoon we explored Cannes a bit more, shopping and walking around, and then decided the next day should be the beach day! We laid on the hotel’s private beach almost all day, ordering lunch to our chairs and getting extremely burnt! Well, I got burnt. I didn’t think it was possible in 70 degrees, but the sun was hot and my arms and legs looked like lobster legs after the day was complete. Just how I like it. Just kidding. I regretted it immensely and have been applying serious amounts of sunscreen since then- NC is hot!!! That afternoon we explored Old Town in Cannes, and walked to the very top of Old Town for some amazing photos of the whole city. We ate dinner in one of the small windy streets there, where I ordered escargot in honor of my father since it’s his favorite (French) food, but I have to be honest I did not like it. Luckily Khaner was able to benefit.

The next day we explored Monaco and the palace where Prince Ranier and Grace Kelly lived! We walked through the church where they got married, too, and saw their graves 😦 RIP. Monaco is beautiful. Very high-end, clean, new-looking, and upscale. We walked down from the palace to where the Grand Prixe finishes, and had lunch by the racetrack which was pretty cool. The Grand Prixe runs all through the city, on their regular roads, and it was cool to see them setting up for the upcoming race, which is over Memorial Day weekend. We walked into Montecarlo and saw the casino, Hotel du Paris, and all the other James Bond-y type places that you hear about. The whole city overlooks the beautiful ocean, and the yachts there were huge and unbelievable. But the cars really blew us away. We didn’t see one car that wasn’t extremely high-end. Everyone there must feel like they have to get a Lamborghini or else they can’t live in Montecarlo. Maybe the “working class” just lives in walking distance of everything they need? I don’t know.

View from the Monaco Palace

I concluded the weekend with dinner on my own at a restaurant on the beach. I figured Khaner and Caroline should have one date night, right? I enjoyed some great wine, a very French-ish salad and felt extremely grateful that I had the experience that I did. Although this woman walked in with her dog, sat next to me, and let it jump up onto my lap multiple times. It also jumped onto my table while my food was there, which was nasty. That was my only real French-rude moment.

I definitely want to go back, and this time for a littttttle bit longer and without work involved so I can seriously shop and bring things back!

I arrived in Cote d’Azur on a Tuesday morning, and immediately noticed the relaxed, beachy feel and was struck by the bright, warm sunshine. Driving to our hotel along the Croissette, or the crossing, I stared (in a jet-lagged stupor) at the blue water, the huge yachts, and the pedestrians who all looked like they stepped out of a James Bond film. I stayed right in the heart of Cannes, just across the street from the beach, and my hotel, which I fondly call Hotel Croissant (for obvious reasons), had its own private section of the beach with an amazing restaurant and beach chairs you could rent. This was right across from the historic Carlton, Martinez, and Miramar hotels, which are striking, old-but-refurbished, fantastic hotels where a ton of movies have been filmed. For the record, Cannes is pronounced “Cans,” like, “Nice cans babe!” Get it? Because the beaches are nude.

After checking in and showering I went over to the Hotel Martinez, where Lenovo’s EMEA Kickoff event would be held. This is one of the annual “Kickoffs,” which Lenovo does each year in our major geos. This year we cut down to only three Kickoffs, the first in Raleigh (Americas Group), then Cannes (EMEA), and finally Beijing (China and AP). These Kickoffs are large, live-broadcasted meetings for all of Lenovo to ensure they hear from our leadership team about the state of the company and the vision for the future. I won’t bore all you readers with these details, but if you have work-related questions please ask!

After a long day, I used TripAdvisor (per my friend Alison’s suggestion) to search for a good restaurant for a team dinner. Andy, Khaner, Zac and I ended up going to a place called La Brouette, or My Grandma’s Wheelbarrel [I am making these translations up] in French. It was the best dinner I had while in France. It was prix-fixe, and we got so much amazing food that the waiter chose for us based on what we told him we liked. We also had a phenomenal bottle of red wine from a region in France called Medoc. I am writing that now just so I don’t forget.

The following morning my co-worker Khaner and I went on a great run along the beach. We saw the locations for the Cannes film fesitival, looked at the high-end shops along the water, and marveled at how beautiful everything was – we stopped for photos a good amount because everything there is photo-worthy. The rest of the day was a very busy blur, and then that night we attended the gala dinner which was held at the Palais de Festivals. It was very glam and only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, so we enjoyed walking home together, past the Ninja Warrior set that was actively filming while we were there, which was a gigantic bonus to our trip. Khaner’s wife Caroline also joined us that day, which was so wonderful for me – finally, a girlfriend! And I lucked out since Khaner and Caroline stayed the weekend and let me tag along on their Babymoon adventures in France, which I’ll get to in my next post.

Anyways, the entire reason I started writing this was to explain to you that I ate a croissant every single day, sometimes twice a day, while I was in France! It was insane how good they were. They were flakey, always warm, fresh, and delightful. Plain or chocolate, you could not go wrong. Although I only had two chocolate ones… the plain ones were just too irresistable. Every morning at breakfast I would be all French and get a croissant, water, coffee, fruit, and yogurt. My coworker Zac comments, “Can I just say that you can’t help how flakey they are?” Khaner says, “I just shred every day. Am I really going to start dissecting my diet now?”

Almost 30 days had passed since I downloaded the Duolingo app and began the brazen attempt to brush up on my Spanish in preparation for my trip for Barcelona. I practiced almost every day, to Matt’s extreme annoyance, and finally packed my humongous suitcase and headed off to Europe for a 12 day trip. I was attending Mobile World Congress (MWC) which is a world-famous technology trade show that Lenovo participates in each year. This year I was a part of the planning process, and helped to coordinate Lenovo’s presence at MWC, and promoted new technologies unique to Lenovo that we’re excited about through events planned.

The first three days I was there consisted of meetings with vendors and venues I’d been working with leading up to the events, a good amount of self-tourism (selfie central) sprinkled in between my meetings, hard hat tours of the Lenovo booth during its final construction stages, and a big adjustment to the time, food and my hotel. The tapas, wine, cava, paella, baguettes and croissants were my favorite things to eat while I was there…

I got the chance to catch up with a friend from Davidson, Liz Wall, who actually lives in Barcelona at the moment and teaches English to “little Spanish brats that don’t pay attention.” She loves it! Liz toured me through the famous Gothic district, Borne district, and walked me on Las Ramblas, the touristy street in Barcelona known for pick-pockets and cheap trinkets. We ate dinner at a restaurant in Plaza Real and I was (and continue to be) amazed at how cheap you can purchase great wine there! After our dinner, around 11, Liz situated me on the metro to go back to my hotel and proceeded to go out to some of Barcelona’s famous nightclubs by the water. It became clear to me how old and lame I am getting when the thought of joining her made me react physically.

Monday through Thursday of that week MWC 2016 took over Barcelona. The congress yielded about 100K people, and walking in and out of the Fira Gran Via, the huge conference center which was constructed specifically for this congress, you felt like you were on line for an international flight. No one spoke the same language, they checked your passport, and people everywhere were slightly confused or in a huge rush. The traffic was absolutely terrible, the city’s public transportation systems continued to strike, sometimes buses, sometimes the metro, but the crowds and publicity that MWC brought in its wake were undoubtedly good for the city. Realizing I’m making MWC sound miserable, I should say it was an extremely impressive display for all things technology. The booth construction itself for all the major tech players was outstanding, each one better than the last, and the latest products on display were cool. A few coworkers and I tested out a virtual reality ride that LG displayed, where we put on sleek-looking glasses and went on a roller coaster ride that was completely 4D. I felt very nauseous after.

Throughout the week I had several events off-site, away from the Fira craziness. On Monday night my event was located at the Museu d’el Arte de Catalonia, which is located on a huge mountain face, next to Gaudi’s Parc Guell and the Olympic Stadium. I had fun exploring the beautiful, castle-like museum (cue the selfies).

My favorite part of the trip, when Matt joined me, will be featured in my next post 🙂

Casa Battlo!

The ceiling of the cupula at the Museu

Local Spanish fish

Goat cheese salad, mmm!

Raviolis? The best ever.

Me at MWC 2016!

The oldest wine cellar in the world!

Beautiful view of the city from Miramar Restaurant

Juice at the Boqueria