Hola Barcelona!

Ten years ago, I lived in Barcelona for a month. It was a most enjoyable experience pretending to be a local, speaking my faulty Spanish where people prefer to converse in Catalan. Fast forward to May 2016 – and I have taken the chance to come back and spend an extended long weekend in this city. Barcelona is unlike any other Spanish city. It is dynamic, cosmopolitan and creative. A gothic and modernist wonder on the Mediterranean sea. Once crowned as the “coolest rendezvous” in this continent – the Catalan capital has some of the most inventive restaurants, bars, shops and hotels – making it one of the most…

Semana Santa

As Christians around the world observe Semana Santa or Holy Week, it brings back memories when I was in Alicante a few years back. Alicante is a port and seaside city located in Spain‘s Mediterranean Costa Blanca. The city holds an elaborate Holy Week procession, which is a tradition that dates back to the medieval times. Lifelike wooden and plaster sculptures are carried through the streets by penitents dressed in robes with caps and hoods, accompanied by elegant female mourners dressed in black with lace veils. Hundreds of people line the narrow streets in the historical centre of Alicante, with the scent of fresh flowers and…