Loved it there!

There are certainly ups and downs to being the wife of a scientist, but I recently had the opportunity to enjoy one of the awesome perks of my husband's job- international travel. Conferences in the research world tend to take place fairly regularly and tend to take place internationally (much to my excitement at this revelation), and last week Steve was fortunate enough to attend the Metastasis Genes and Function Conference (one of these days I'll have a post attempting to explain what is it "I think" my husband does...) in Barcelona, Spain. Now, obviously I won't always be able to take advantage of this luxury, but with our 5 year anniversary fast approaching, and Steve's portion of the trip covered, we couldn't pass up the chance to bring me out there for an early celebration. We arrived last Friday morning, returning this past Thursday afternoon, so with his conference only taking up the equivalent of about two days, it turned out to be a great vacation.

The story of our trip can be told in pictures found here:

Pics with us

Pics without us

Therefore, I'll limit this post to some things we noticed and particularly liked about Barcelona (or in some cases, even more broadly, European) living. Next week, I'll share some thoughts on some things we noticed and particularly like about US of A, and sometimes, particularly, NYC living. Neither posts are intended to bash either city or country in any way- they're just some interesting observations we made. So... here is a small sampling of some random reasons why we loved it there:

* Greener transportation!!! Case in point- our car ride to the Newark airport (~30 miles away) took almost two hours!!! Why? Because of all the cars, and all the big cars, with hardly any carpoolers!!! We noticed that Spain was full of scooters, bikes, and small cars, and loved that!

* Greener toilets- ha! Yes, such a thing can exist! Toilets literally had a double-flush. That's right, two different types of flushes - one if just a little flush is needed and one if... well... you get the drift. Water saving at its best- brilliant!

* Greener lights! Ok, this was just our first hotel (yes, we stayed at two hotels- one that we had to cover, and one the conference covered, but hey, we're certainly not complaining!), but the idea was too cool; the lights are set so that you can't leave the room without the lights turning off- once the key is taken out of the slot that it is placed in upon entering the room, the lights go out. Awesome.

* Siestas- enough said.

* Incredible architecture, feel, and views. There's something about a place that has the beauty and charm of old Europe, the vibe of a big city, and the scenery and landscaping of the Mediterranean. Gorgeous!

* Paellas, and Tapas, and Wine- oh my! All good Spanish yumminess. Mmm. Yes, I did mention Spanish wine (and more specifically Catalan wine, as we learned Barcelona was considered to be), and it can give France a run for its' money.

Ok, that'll do for now. It's pretty evident from our MANY pictures the various reasons why we loved it there, so I'll keep it at that. We had a wonderful trip and early anniversary celebration and we feel incredibly blessed to have had the experience.

Nosaltres amor Barcelona!!!