Escriba - An amazing chocolate shop in Barcelona

While walking down La Rambla (yes, I kind of convinced my poor family in Barcelona to brave the touristy areas just so I could go back), we found this terrific, historied chocalatier - Escriba.  This shop has been in operation since 1906, and you could tell by the beautiful details of the shop itself.






I had a really delicious hot chocolate with violet.  Anyone who knows me, knows my affinity for violet flavored confections, and this did not disappoint!


King cakes for the upcoming Three Kinds Day.


A confectionary window display.

Escriba
Carrer de Rambla de las Flors 83
08001 Barelona
Tel: 93.301.60.27

Familia de Barcelona

While Bruno is much bigger now at 9 months old, he was a tiny tiny one at one month!  Bruno was just out of the hospital a few days before we left to come back, and so I had some photographing to catch up on (since we had much more time with his brother Eric).







Can't wait to see Bruno and Eric again in a few weeks...they are just the cutest nephews one could ask for!  Here are a couple of more recent photos of the two of them (courtesy of my mother-in-law):




Just look at those smiles!

Barcelona - Gothic Details

So many great details.  How many faces are looking over you when you walk through the streets of the Gothic part of town?


Long shadows at the end of our long walk.  I love this city!

How do you know when you are behind in blogging?

You know you are behind when you haven't posted photos from a trip to Barcelona that you took 8 months ago, three weeks before your next visit there!  What happened to the time?!  Well, here are a few shots from around Barcelona - the Boqueria (this post), some gothic details of the city (posts to come) and family (posts to come).  Whoa boy do I have some catching up to do!

-Silva








We wish we could find these in NYC...








Say hello to the juiceman!

Summer Night at the UW Memorial Union

Mmm....that's some good beer - Felipe says.

We had a really enjoyable evening last night at the Memorial Union.  Probably my favorite place to sit and hang out on a nice summer evening.  My friends Jen and Laura came as well and we had a terrific fun time catching up and talking about old times.


Mom was with us too, enjoying a brat, a beer and some nice breeze off the lake.    Can't wait for the next time we can go back...

Enjoying Time with Friends

We're lucky to be having another visit with our good friend Laurence while she is in town for business. We had dinner at Ardesia on Sunday night, surprisingly the first time we have been there with her.  We're very fortunate that despite her and Sylvain moving back to Paris from NYC (we miss them tons!) that we get to still see her as often as we do, thanks to her business trips.

Her and I decided to be adventurous and try a special wine cocktail they had on the menu - a Prosecco, Creme de Violette, Yuzu and Lemon drink.  Very nice!  And isn't it just a good looking cocktail?  I'll definitely try to replicate at home...although with a little less ice maybe.

A Moment of Remembrance in Honor of my Ancestors

The Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan - photo by Rita Willaert

A little more of a political post today, but something dear to my family.  Today is the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, recognized by Armenians everywhere on April 24th of each year.  This year marks the 98th anniversary of what is widely recognized as the first day of the genocide in 1915.  My great grandparents fled their home in Sivas Turkey in 1897 (just around the time of the Hamidian Massacres that killed up to 300,000 ethnic Armenians living in Turkey) and 1906.  Not all of the family made it out - although there is very little information about those that got left behind - beyond the story that they left and never heard from their family back home again.


The Kaprelians around the time they left Turkey to escape the violence there.




They travelled on the La Gascogne (pictured above) in August 1906 and you can see here the ship manifest from their processing at Ellis Island.


The SS Obdam.


The ship manifest from the SS Obdam that the Dildarians travelled on in 1897.

There are still people today who deny the fact that a genocide took place.  Who protest the "labeling" of it as genocide.  But the fact is that it happened, and that there are so many families world-wide whose ancestors experienced it.   They estimate that close to seven million people make up the Armenian Disapora world-wide (the United States has the third highest ethnic Armenian population in the world - following only Armenia and Russia).

Take a moment today to remember the suffering that the Armenians experienced at the hands of the Turkish at the time, and also to remember the Armenians in your lives today - those that bring joy and happiness...as well as good food ;)  Armenian culture should be known and celebrated!

Sant Hilari Sacalm - Font Vella Hotel Balneari

On the day after Christmas Felipe and I took a couple hour drive with his parents to go to Sant Hilari Sacalm to the Font Vella Hotel Balneari for a bit of a "mini vacation".  We had talked with his parents about trying to find a place to relax for a few days...I think we all needed a bit of relaxation.  After some online conferencing with each other, and a quick visit to check the joint out on Felipe's parent's part - we decided on Font Vella.

A Balneari is basically a resort or hotel situated at a mineral water spa.  They had a full thermal water circuit (pool, jacuzzi, sauna, "turkish bath"/steam room, ice bath and so forth).  We had a beautiful room, very close to the spa entrance.  The room was huge, and very comfortable, and we spent two days swimming, and relaxing at the spa.  It was pretty quiet the first day we were there because it was a Catalan holiday...so for the first day we almost had the whole place to ourselves.

Overall it was a terrific place, and I would love to go back...maybe next time we should go back during the warm weather...we could spend some time sitting on the chaises outside!

Classic Black and White, it Never Goes Out of Style

A series of black and white portraits I tried out on Christmas day, experimenting with my new 50mm lens.