Barcelona here I come

I am so super excited, tomorrow at this time I will be in Barcelona enjoying the good food, the great weather and most importantly cheaper shopping at Zara. Seriously, since I booked my flight I tried to avoid going there and I have to say I was really successful, but now the abstinence need to come to an end. 

Here are a few things that I am looking forward to find... 

Pastéis de Nata

The best thing about travelling is the chance to discover new dishes, new tastes and sweets. While I was planning our trip to Lisbon I read some restaurant recommendations and the need to try the Pastéis de Nata. To be honest I never heard about them before and I seriously had no idea how yummy those little filled puff pastries are. For me the best place to get them is the Pastelaria Casa Brasileira in Lisbon. I know everybody is crazy about the Pastéis de Belém, but for me it was a bit disappointing, still good but not as good as the first place. That's my opinion of course, so go ahead and try them both.

Casa Brasileira 

Rua Augusta 267 

1100 Lisbon

Pastéis de Belém

Rua Belém 84

1300 Lisbon

Captured City: Paris en noir et blanc

Impressions: Paris

Krabi & Phuket

To make things short Ko Phi Phi wasn't our next stop after Koh Phangan, we also visited Krabi and Phuket. Those two places are good if you are planing to book some guided tours, otherwise I wouldn't recommend them way to crowded, touristic and not really pretty. 

We only joined one tour where we visited Ko Panyi, a village totally built on stilts by nomadic malay fisherman, Ko Tapu the famous rock from the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" and some very nice islands. If you are staying in Krabi, don't miss the Railay beach.

Soupe à l'oignon

Wintertime is soup time and my favorite soup is the original french "Soupe à l'oignon", not only because it reminds me of my time in Paris - No, it's also easy to cook it at home.  

Ingredients

4 - 5 large onion, sliced thin

clarified butter

trice of sugar 

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp. flour 

300 ml white wine

1,2 l beef stock

1 bay leaf

300 gr. Gruyere

1 Baguette, sliced

Use a large pot and melt the clarified butter than add the onions, the sugar and the garlic and cook until the onions are slightly brown and caramelized, takes about 20 minutes over medium heat. Now add the flour and the white wine, bring that to boil and then reduce the heat. Let it cook for a few minutes before you add the beef stock, fresh black pepper and the bay leaf. Now it's almost done, let the soupe cook for 30 minutes. During that time preheat the oven and put the slices of bread inside till they are golden-brown. Now ladle the soup into the bowls (makes about 4-5 bowls) top them with three slices of bread and the Gruyere cheese. Put the bowls inside the oven and let the cheese gratinate under the upper heat (3-5 minutes).

Voilà, enjoy your Soupe à l'oignon.

Island Hopping: Ko Phi Phi

When we arrived on Ko Phi Phi everything was super busy and hectic, I don't even remember how we found the little boat which took us to the hotel. But the moment we arrived there and that nice english guy guided us to our hut, we totally calmed down. We loved our place, I mean how can we not... we had a terrace with a nice view, a hammock and a little white sandy beach right in front of us.
On our last day (we only stayed three nights) we joined the Viking Boat Tour organized by the Resort. We visited a few islands including Bamboo Island, Monkey Beach and the legendary Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh (good book, crappy movie). The only bad thing about the tour was the weather, it was raining that day and it was cold, of course I was totally sick afterwards. However this island is beautiful, a true paradise and worth a visit. 

होली - Holi Festival of Colours

While I was writing the post about Koh Phangan and the Half Moon Party, I thought about the partys I have been to and since I am not a huge party animal the Holi Festival in Berlin immediately crossed my mind. This event was incredible. I know a lot of people tried to criticize it and called it commercialized... probably true and the meaning behind this indian festival, that all people are equal for one day, wasn't ubiquitous all the time. But still I have to say, this experience was worth every penny and the atmosphere was amazing. It seemed like everyone was having the party of their life's. The only bad thing was, that none of our friends got tickets for the Holi, that was really sad and frustrating for us. But like I said before, the mood was so full of joy that everyone was partying with each other. I definitely look forward for next year's Holi and for now I will leave you with some impressions.