We're not responsible

Paris, je t'aime

2009-04-25T18:04:00.003+02:00

Do you know these Ryanair magazines, which you get during the flight? Well once on a flight to somewhere, there was an article about the places to go and when to go. So as one of the destinations in this edition was Paris. It said smth like: You have to vist Paris in spring!

So since September we wanted to go to Paris. To be precise, we wanted to go to Paris in Spring. Finally, we bought tickets for 4th-7th of April.

At the beginning and due to the forecast in Barcelona, we though that we were too naive buying the tickets during those dates, as instead of those idyllic sun-spring-flowers walks we were dreaming, we were going there just to catch a big cold. But as pleasant surprise Paris was not affected by the rain invasion there was in the rest of Europe :)

We arrive on 4th afternoon and went to Antoine's place. Toni is an old friend we know for 3 years already and was so kind to host us in his cute appartment in the 15th district. Just after we arrived, we went to enjoy the last light of the day in a terrace next to his place to wait for him.

When Antoine arrived we went to meet some other old BESTies for dinner; for diferent reasons, it came out we had many friends those days in Paris and so the conversation&wine last till quite late.

Next morning we started with our "guiri" status (guiri=turist) and so we walked till Eiffel Tower, we had lunch on the grass in front of it, made 100 of photos and continued our walk to Champs Elisees. For the coffee break we met again with Alex, who was in Paris for bussiness reasons, and continued together till Louvre, Madeleine, Place Concorde, Place Vedome, and so on. By that time Beta was hungry and wanted a Crepe and Adriana fully supported the idea :D

Crepe&cofee and in our way to Notre Dame we stop on the oldest bridge of Paris to enjoy the view of sparkling Eiffel Tower on the Sena. Finally we reached Notre Dame and met there with Antoine who took us to a Restaurant were we ate fondue and other delicious dishes.

Later we went to a very curious place were just girls were alowed to enter and practicly the only guys there were the waiters. Cocktails there were delicious. And the atmosphere... well some things are not to be written down, but have to be experienced. Lets just say it was a hot place! :)

Next day we started with coffe and croissants and continued visiting Montmatre, we tryed to get lost in the tiny streets of the artists district but we just were 3 more turist in its crowded streets. During the afternoon we walked arround Le Marais area and discover some interesting designers shops, and from there we walked to pompidou, Saint Michelle church and crossed the river to Saint Germain where we met with Toni for dinner and some cocktails.

On Sunday we were already habituals in the cafeteria next to Toni's place. The woman just made it sure: "Trois cafe creme et trois croissant?" "oiu, oiu!"

In the bakery (or boulangerie, sounds fun that name) happened a similar experience than in the cafeteria. And after we walked to Les invalides, and from there a lot more and finished in the afternoon in Luxemburg Gardens where we rested a bit. Adriana and Beta didn't want to leave Paris without the last crepe and Vikachuu in that moment would kill for an icecream, and we found the perfect place for it. During the night we prepared our own french dinner with cheese and wine and it was when Paris started to cry.

Next morning, we used last moments in Paris to have coffee and croissants in our habitual place. Paris was still crying, but we were leaving knowing "We'll always have Paris".

Sant Jordi

2009-04-23T11:44:00.007+02:00

(or the Catalan lover's day)

Hard to understand for those who have never experienced it, Saint Jordi's Day is a popular festive day when book and rose stalls, and, above all, floods of people, take over the streets of all Catalan towns and villages. The celebration could not be simpler: the ritual consists of going for a walk and buying a rose, a book or both to give to loved ones, family members and friends. Although it is not a public holiday, the day and the essential walk fill the streets and squares, making it a unique national festival celebrated on a working day.

The origin of this unusual festival can be found in a mixture of traditions and customs from different periods. The fact that Saint George (Sant Jordi) is the patron saint of Catalunya coincides with another medieval custom of celebrating a Rose Fair or "Lovers' Fair" at the Palau de la Generalitat.

To these more traditional celebrations was added Book Day, established throughout Spain in 1926. The literary celebration ended up mixing with the Catalan traditions to create a special day which has won widespread public support.

The Legend

Once upon a time, a terrible dragon was terrifying the locals in a village in Catalonia called Montblanc. The dragon caused havoc among the population and ate up the village's pasture animals. To assuage the dragon's anger, the villagers decided they would sacrifice someone every day, chosen by lot and offered to the dragon as a gesture of good will.

But one dark day, the person who was going to be sacrificed was the king's daughter. Before the dragon could swallow her, a splendid knight appeared and attacked the cursed beast. This was Sant Jordi (St George). He thrust his lance into the dragon and from the beast's blood a rose bush with bright red roses arose. Ever since then, it has been a custom in Catalonia to present one's beloved with a rose.

Research work: How long is "5 Greek minutes"?

2009-03-28T16:13:00.013+01:00

Just a little clarificacion: The development of this formula is based on an profound research.

This calculation in fact depends on many factors:

GT = T*[1 - T/(HS*60)] + HT*dwf*ff

GT - Greek time[min]

T - Time as the rest of the world understands [min]

HS - Hours of sun [hours/day]

HT - Halara time needed for average Greek native [min/day]

dwf - day of the week corrective factor [0; 1]

Monday = 0,7
Tuesday = 0,6
Wednesday = 0,4
Thursday = 0,78
Friday = 0,9
Saturday = 1
Sunday = 1

ff - food factor

Before lunch/dinner time - 0,1
After lunch/dinner time - 0,2

Example1:

Calculations based on a normal Friday in August after lunch/dinner(ref. solar calendar)

GT = T*[1 - T/(HS*60)] + HT*dwf*ff

GT = 5*[1-5/(12,08*60)] + 240*0,9*0,2

GT = 48,17 min

Example2:

Calculations based on a normal Wednesday August before lunch/dinner(ref. solar calendar)

GT = T*[1 - T/(HS*60)] + HT*dwf*ff

GT = 5*[1-5/(12,08*60)] + 240*0,4*0,1

GT = 14,56 min

El barri de Sant Andreu mola molt!

2009-03-22T10:29:00.015+01:00

In one of the first posts we have already explained what correfoc is. So take a look back to refresh your memory. This topic just poped up because of a pure coincidence.

So we are spending this normal saturday morning/afternoon, when it takes you a lot of time to wake up, get ready, decide what you want to do and so on...

After 17 o'clock when you finally get out of home, you go to eat some lunch in a nice place in the district, our district - barri Sant Andreu. And just when you think that there are no surprises waiting for you this day anymore, so you decide to take metro and look for some exciting things in the center but .... no, Sant Andreu has a surprise for you.

Sudently you hear all this rytmic noise of drums, lough of small children dressed as small devils and louds of people filling the small streets around the main square of the district. All this bustle is because of correfoc and another catalan traditions. It was so amazing that we got carried away with this huge crowd of people, dances, music and fire.

Calçotada season

2009-03-14T18:57:00.021+01:00

Calçotada season starts in February and last till the end of March, beginning of April. It is a gastronomical Catalan tradition where calçots are consumed in exaggerated amounts. For the ones who are wondering what da... is a calçot we will explain: Wikipedia says that a calçot is a variety of scallion known as Blanca Grand Tardana from Lleida. If still you don't have a clue of what is it, we will try it with our words: It is a kind of onion more tender and softer. A calçot looks like this:

Altought this event it's called calçotada, the main actor here are not calçots, but the sauce, mmm.... romesco :) (Again wikipedia translation looks convincing :P)

15th of February we went to Helena's place in la Garriga (a village 40Km from Barcelona) to have our first calçotada from the season, and the first ever for Vikachuu. As you can see she was super excited :D

But she was also a little bit scared watching how they were "burning" what has supposed to be our food, and indeed, calçots are cook with a very strong fire that make them black from outside but very tender from inside.

Manual to eat calçots:

0. Cover your dear clothes with a napkin

1. Peel them, removing the black carbonised skin

2. Hold the calçot from the upper part (the green one) and soak it into the sauce

3. Rise the calçot above you heat and open you mouth

4. Enjoy!

5. Reapeat from 1 to 4, 10 times

6. If still not dead go to 5

7. Now you are ready to continue with the meat :)

Feliz Cumple Años!

2009-03-09T22:57:00.025+01:00

Happy birthday Beta!!!

On your birthday I wish you a lot of happiness and joy; I hope all of your wishes come true. May each hour and minute be filled with delight, and your birthday be perfect for you!

08/03/2009

Vikachuu

7th of March

The day started with a Calçotada (you will read about it next articles) at Cris place. It was a sunny hot pre-spring day and as always, cris special calçot's sauce didn't decive us.

We also have some nice guests durign that weekend and we all could enjoy the perfect weather, the super food and the good company :)

After a siesta, in the evening we meet all again for dinner in Chinese, go for drinks and to club later.

Guapos, thanks for this suepr party, it was really great!

Us estimo molt! Mua!

Beta

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9058107705615784759

2009-03-09T14:46:00.007+01:00

I amsterdam

Here I am. After long, long looooong period of waiting, I got myself together and said “No, it has to stop! I can not leave people without posts in the blog!!!” hahhahahaha

But to be serious, there is a huge part missing of stories from the last post until now, but as I just came back from amazing trip to Amsterdam, want to share it with you while I still have the memories fresh.

So I went to Amsterdam on a university project – IVCF 2009, which means International Virtual Consulting Firm. It is a project for students of Amsterdam and Barcelona. The project is connected with marketing and my case is connected with fashion and design, so I am even more excited.

I have been already 3 times in Amsterdam before and every time I go there I get a new feeling and new emotions from this city. The first time I really didn’t like it, but now I probably look at it quite differently. I met a lot of nice people and made a lot of new friends and also got quite inspired by many things.

Photos above: making a show in the Dam Square.

Further on just wanted to share with you something which I really liked in Amsterdam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrgeIT1cemE&feature=related

Poem: YES I AM

One voice was raised and sounded strange,

just a thought turned an idea, into something familiar,

it was the whisper of freedom, that was starting a revolution,

with this spirit as a weapon and unity as a shield.

Yes I am.

The world was first amazed by the sex, drugs and rock & roll,

these people are crazy,

these people are strange,

they didn’t understand the power of the claim,

impossible is nothing, was in front of their face.

Yes I am.

An empty canvas land,

is a world without a map,

where air can be shared, and invisible is fear, like a dog to a child,

ideas will spin, like flowers grow in the field.

It was the dream of a guy that ate flower bulbs to survive,

same reason brought a woman to work from Surinam.

Yes I am.

Lots of no’s were said but just one yes remains,

where one - seven - four, just means we are more,

it was for sure, that no colors stayed pure.

Yes I am.

Oui je suis.

Si io sono.

Sim eu sou.

Si yo soy.

Ja ich bin.

Ja ik ben.

A leaf left the tree and arrived in Amsterdam,

like many hopes of others,and more and more they will,

inspired by something you can just feel.

Yes I am.

VIKACHUU

VIKACHUU in MADrid

2008-11-18T21:40:00.005+01:00

Hey guys/girls!

We did promise to write more often, but it's as impossible as for me and Beta to come on time for a meeting! :P But I am taking some time off from the parties and studies, to drop a line about my trip to Madrid, which actually was quite some time ago ... :)

So after spending some weeks in Barcelona, I went on my first trip in eSpain, to Madrid. There I felt like if I am living a double ERASMUS life, cause I was spending a lot of time with ERASMUS ppl from Madrid. And of course most of all with my beloved girls from Tallinn - Annika, Milen and some LBG Madrid members. Thanks guys for taking me to the great tapas place, for hosting me, for all the parties we had!!! I had a great time with you and you are more than welcome to visit me and Beta in Barcelona.

The Orange wall

2008-11-02T23:17:00.005+01:00

So, the ones who have visited us in these months, have seen that the flat looks much more different from what it was when we moved in.
After a lot of visits to IKEA and many painting sessions the apartment started to look like HOME. We painted everything in white, bought white furniture, and a striped sofa, which looks like a bar code. But it was toooo white, so we decided to add some colours in our life. As a result which you can see in the pics, we painted the wall in the most juicy orange colour!!! We hope you like it!!!!

We liked the orange colour so much, that we bought also the accessories in this colour.

Besos ;)

Editors corner >>>
We have received some complains about being slow with our blog articles :) And we wanted to apologise, but because of having many visitors and some parties and a lot of stuff besides that, it's difficult to find time. But we promise that we will write more often from now on!

Granada & Sevilla

2008-10-20T23:05:00.000+02:00

The 2nd of October we went for our first trip with Cris and Mercè to Granada!!! Some months ago, we found one of those Ryanair offers which you simply can't refuse :) and we bought them with any idea if we would finally go there or how the trip would look like.

But finally we all managed to solve all the obtacles; the 4 of us going to "the South" :D

We arrived to Granada's ariport in the evening and our first movement were to get to the hostel. After leaving the bags there and check that beds were not so bad, we went for a first exploration looking for a good tapas place to eat. We ate in two diferent places several tapas and although we were very hungry after the trip, we could not finish all the tapas we got.

After tapas, Vikachuu and Beta didn't feel yet in the mood to go to bed, so we continue our exploration in the night clubbing. Seems and easy task at the first moment, as many people gives you many many flayers around the center, but the complicated part was to understand people indications, as sometimes we got the feeling we were talking different languages.

Finally, we danced a little bit in a club were there was an erasmus party and we end up later in a nice English pub having delicious cocktails (easily, it became our favourite bar there).

The day after we woke up early and we went for breakfast (xurros con chocolate) and walk to vist Granada. It is a facinating city with a lot of history and its narrow streets and plazas are very cute, specially under october sun always arround the 26ºC :)

In the afternoon we had entrances for the Alhambra and we walk there for hours, visiting islamic palaces, gardens, fountains and in general, behaving like real "guiris" (including taking ALL the most stupid pictures possible we could perform).

After this exhausting day and a shower we still had energy for some more Granada fiesta.

On Saturday, we had our last walk&breakfast in Granada and we went to get the car we rented to go to Sevilla. They gave us a red Seat Leon and we were very happy with it, specially Cris :)

Some hours later (2h from Granada to Sevilla + 2h trying to find a place to park) we were walking in the lively streets without a hostel yet. But the task to look for it was not half hard it was to leave the car in a secure place. And again, more tapas for dinner and a coffee in a terrace next to Sevilla's cathedral, and still could not believe that on an October night we could feel the warm summer breeze, the night was magic.

We continue with our visits in Sevilla on a happy sunny Sunday till late in the afternoon. And at night we were so exhausted that we decided to spend the night in our hostel's terrace.

Last day we took the car to explore some village next to Sevilla till the time to take our fight back home.

We recommend you to do this trip on a condition if you have such a wonderful company like we did.

Guapas, what is the next destination? :)

Kenny

2008-10-10T02:04:00.011+02:00

Aaaaah... by the way, we forgot to mention that we share our flat with another "chica". The ones who already have visited us, know that she is a little bit strange, not very talkactive, lazy and not very clean, bur we have our reasons to have her in the flat. So here we present you the 3rd of us, our coleague for the good and bad moments and also the most stylish of us. So this is la Kenny

La Mercè

2008-09-25T20:23:00.000+02:00

Every year close to the end of September Barcelona holds its largest street party, the Barcelona La Mercè Festival. La Mercè lasts for around 6 days and is a festival held in honour of Mare de Deu de la Mercè, the Patron Saint of Barcelona. It's full of parties, concerts, shows, fireworks and so on!!!

During the weekend we had some people from Madrid (Dani, Diego, Laura, Victor) visiting us. We had a lot of fun, going out every night and following some of the events of la Mercè. Here you can also see the pictures of one of the most interesting shows of la Mercè, called Correfoc - "Runningfire" - it's a Catalan tradition with dragon, fires and people running under sparks of fire! Well, its hard to explain it in words, but looks really impressive!

When Madrideños left us, we met with Cris and and had a nice morning following another interesting Catalan tradition - castellers. A castell is a human tower traditionally built during festivals in many places in Catalunya. Several colles castelleres (teams) meet and try to build the most impressive towers they can. Its so interesting to see how all the peolpe are holding there breath when one of the castelles seemes to be shaking.

In the end of la Mercè, there is a huge concert with fireworks and colourful fountains in Plaça Espanya. Its a meeting point of thousands of people. The show lasts about an hour and its super beautiful and worth of seeing!

Week 1

2008-09-21T23:07:00.018+02:00

On 24th of August Vikachuu and her young, inocent brother arrived to Barcelona. This is Arthurs, the brother:

Arturs mission in BCN was very clear: To find a simetrical girl, which is quite common quality of girls in Spain. Vikachuu's mission was to make him a slave in fixing the appartment. Both missions clompleted.

But Arturs wasn't alone in the slavering task, we recieved also some nice help from Tassos and Tuuli, thank you guys! :)

After hard week of work, and cold showers (because we still don't have hot water) we decided to spend a wonderful weekend in the beach, so we went to Costa Brava. We found a cool bar in the harbour of Platja d'Aro where they prepared super delicious cocktails and Arturs felt like a king.

When for everybody party was over for us was just the beginning, so we continued in another place. All of a sudden we felt very self confident that we could skip huge entrance cue, the fee and entered like if we were VIP members. We still don't know why but everybody wanted to take picts of us and with us and we felt fabulous so happily agreed. (We still are waiting to receive them :P)

Sunday we were back to BCN and after packing some Beta's clothes we were ready to build Vikachuu's bed and spend our first night in the flat :)

Adios Riga, hola Barcelona!!!

2008-08-06T22:41:00.008+02:00

Heeeyyy!

Right now 18 days left till I (Vikachuu :) leave to Barcelona, but I already had my farewell party. As you can see there was an invitation posted below, and also small remark on the dress code, so don't be surprised for the pink colour.

Some ppl started arriving at ~12.00 , when Sangria was mixed and the preparations begun! Some hours later first cocktails where brought up and quite soon the rest of the ppl started arriving. You can check out some nice pictures here as well, the party details I can tell to you only in person, but I wanted to say:

THANK YOU everybody who came and all who wanted to come! It was so great and wonderful to have you all together and as promised you're welcome to the "Welcome Back" party, whenever I come back to Latvia!!! :D I'm still thinking of the dress code colour for that.

#From left to right in the first line: Kristjan, Seid, Arturs, Evita, Normuns

Second line: Zane (ZZ), Linda, Vikachuu, Helkur, Ponch, Mumu, Birxu, Roberts

Pink Sensation

2008-07-23T14:00:00.004+02:00

Preparing our home

2008-07-23T13:00:00.016+02:00

Vikachuu and Beta have a small, old but with many possibilities apartment :) But before going to live there are many many things to do. These days, the apartment is experiencing many transformations, because when Beta entered there for the first time it looked like this:

As it was full of old furniture, we had to decide what we wanted to keep and what we should take out. So Cris and Beta went to the flat to put a post it on anything we didn't want and we should remove from the flat. At the end everything had a post it, even Cris :)

Finally, with the flat empty, Beta again used (or abused of :P) her friends and put them fast to work to remove the wall paper. These are Mercè and Laia, happy to work on a sunday afternoon :). As you can see some motivation was also provided to work.

Now there's a lot of holes in the walls but hopefully soon they will be ready to be painted :)

Hooollaaaa!

2008-07-01T15:49:00.010+02:00

Some years ago, summer 2006, to be precise, we (Beta and Vikachuu) met in Tallinn for BEST Engineering Competition. It has been so far one of our greatest summers and events I guess!

So after becoming good friends, though event was over, we still wanted to meet...so we traveled more and met in different places in Europe.

But things changed this spring, cause Vikachuu got accepted for ERASMUS in Barcelona. And now we're going to live together in a nice appartment there. And this is actually why we decided to create this blog! :D Here you'll find out how we redecorate our new home, who and when is visiting us :)))) where and when we plan our trips, and much much more. So stay tuned!!! :D