February | 2016 | jetsettingjennie

Mateo esta conmigo en Espana!

Posted on February 27, 2016 by jennifercrawford4

Our view from Miramar, a restaurant on Montjuic

Matt joined me on Thursday after I was finishing a long week of work. That Thursday morning, I woke up feeling a little weird. I was nauseous, but showered and went to the Fira for the last day of MWC 2016 regardless, figuring it would pass. I got the chance to check out some of the other booths at MWC, even tested out a virtual reality machine by LG, during which I “rode a roller coaster,” which obviously didn’t help my growing nausea. Around 2pm that day I walked out of the Fira to get in a car that would take me to the hotel, since Matt was arriving around 3pm. I suddenly saw stars, stumbled back in, and passed out! After some puking and a visit to the medic tent, it turns out I had a stomach virus and was suffering from exhaustion! The doctor in the medic area gave me “pills for the vomits,” pricked my finger, and sent me on my way. Matt arrived to our hotel room to find me shivering with a fever. I’m sure at that moment he was extremely excited for our first adventure in Europe together!

I felt better the next morning, the fever had broken, and we were lucky enough to have a driver for the day, who brought us to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s famous church that remains unfinished to this day! It was beautiful, and walking up to it is extremely striking. Inside we were able to walk throughout the main floor and down to the basement, where Pee Wee Herman’s bike is buried! Just kidding, it was Gaudi. sagrada famlia

Then we went to Parc Guell, and walked around Gaudi’s huge, sustainable park that has cool architecture, built-in benches, beautiful views overlooking the whole city and running trails. I wished we had brought our sneakers. jen and matt great view We loved it. We then zipped through Olympic Park (which is still a concert venue for the most part now), mastered the art of the “pano,” and headed off for some lunch.

Our awesome driver Pablo took all these couples pics for us!

Pablo suggested we eat at the top of Montjuic, a scenic mountain that overlooked the city and the beach. We ate at Miramar, a restaurant near, but apparently not affliated with, Hotel Miramar which was just up the road..?

It was a delightful meal, me, Matt and Pablo enjoyed lovely conversation and the scenery from the windows that wrapped around the restaurant. Pablo then dropped us off back at our hotel, H10 Barcelona, where they gave us a bottle of cava and some delightful chocolate macarons. We ate dinner that night in the Born district, which is a little barrio right next to the Cathedral Barcelona. The food was amazing, and the restaurant was in a really old building with original flooring – dirt!

The next morning unfortunately Matt woke up with The Sickness that I had given him, so he was down for the count all day on Saturday, so I had to fill my time shopping up and down Placa Gracia. I got him some adorable euro sweatpants, which he wore all day long as he fought his fever 🙂 I say this in jest, but I did feel horrible for getting him so sick. Sunday was our last big day in Barcelona, and we took full advantage. We checked out all of Las Ramblas, the Cathedral, the Gothic District and the beach. We even went to the aquarium which is right down by the water, next to all the sailboats.

What a great fiancé – awesome seats!

We had tapas that evening, and went to the FC Barcelona game. They played Sevilla and won! The FC Barcelona game was nothing like any other sporting event I’d ever been to. Every single person there was staring at the field, watching every move the players made. At Giants, Rangers and Knicks games in the US I am used to seeing everyone on their phone, talking, getting up to use the bathroom, or snap-chatting. Matt attempted to tell me he was just like the Europeans when he was at Devils and Giants games, but we all know he likes a good snap chat. Anyways, I digress.

Matt loves his jersey!

All in all Spain was an awesome experience. I feel so lucky that I was able to go for such a long time, which allowed me to really get a sense of the culture, eat plenty of tapas and baguettes, and get my bearings in the city. Barcelona is beautiful, and I will definitely be back!

Yum, Churros!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by jennifercrawford4

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 🙂