Land o' Luck

Final destination on K+L's European Tour: Dublin, Ireland.

Turns out chilly, windy Dublin ended up being our favorite spot...guess we really did save the best for last! Everything from the food (boxty!) to the music (musical pub crawl!) to the green countryside (boyne valley!) was simply delightful.

^Those little white ballz are wooly jumpers! (aka SHEEP)

We HAD to tour the Guiness factory...obvi, we citygurlz were dying to learn how beer is made.

Fur realz, we are sitting in Arthur Guiness's chair! xx

FYI: I am officially a certified Guinness pint pourer and have signed documentation to prove it. Don't mess with me.

Don't mess with this grown up leprechaun either. He has one meannn Irish jig going on.

And now for a song, courtesy of Citypopz, Frank.

This old man's a friend of mine,
He looks just like Frankenstein.
When he does the Irish jig,
He looks just like Porky Pig.

Kiss me, I'm [not] Irish. Xo.

KT

HERE WE GO!

OLE OLE OLE!
(Ricky Martin is really contributing to these Spanish posts...xo)

So guess what I did (no judging!)...
I went to a Bull Fight!

Here are some quick facts for you:
1. I went for the cultural experience...
2. Bull fights are really sad, loud, and drawn out.
3. Bull fights will be outlawed in Barcelona by 2012.
4. Protestors stand outside the arena covered in red paint.
5. The matadors wear pink socks and prance around like Fred Flinstone.
6. The Mariachi plays when the bull enters the ring and whenever the fight gets real intense.
7. Armored horses participate in the fight. (Actually, a bunch of other men are involved too...)
8. The crowed really does yell OLE! when the bull charges the matador.
9. The crowd really does yell BOOOOO! when the matador fails to kill the bull on the first few tries.
10. The matadors are practically celebz in Spain and after the fight, gurlz (not bulls) start charging the men!

SWITCH GEARZ.

And this is me eating Paella and drinking Sangria because I like to pretend I'm a local wherever I go.

^And these are churros and Catalan cream...because we LUV sweetz.
^And this is ferret...aka Cityfurriez.

And with that said...we're off to Dublin to do an Irish Jig.

Buenos Noches. xo.

Kat

Best of Barcelona!

AY YI YI! Lo siento for the delayz...Sure, we may be back in the States but no worries, the blog carriez on!

Let me pick up where we left off...from Rome to Barcelonaaaa! Que bonita! And what an upgrade...We are talking "Junior Suite" status: bathrobez, slippers, bidet, flatscreen TV, lightz on the headboard, mini-fridge, coffee maker, sitting area...ok, it may not sound that impressive but compared to everywhere else we stayed, this place was MUY RICO.
Naturally, Lauren (God bless her!) managed to squeeze another strenuous activity into our intinerary! Despite the heat, the Fat Tire Bike Tour of the city was spectacular!
Take it from this Citygurl, bike tourz are really a FAB way to see any city...well, any FLAT city. You learn all the quirky deetz and stories which otherwise would go totally unnoticed by tourists.

Take this monument, for example. The Barcelona version of the Arc de Triomphe was erected as a pretty decoration to welcome peepz into "New Barcelona" on the other side- it was between putting up this arc or putting up some other tower idea brought forth by some other guy-Stephen EIFFEL!
And these 3 Arc gurlz come as a package deal. (Excuse my poor photography, it was an action shot from the cycle!) They are Justin Beiber's biggest Spanish fans and they sing his tunez...all day, errday.

Continuing our Barcelona tour, we saw the fantasticly beautiful work of Antoni Gaudi- the famous Spanish Catalan architect. Here is the Sagrada Familia. Notice how different the front and back designs are...this Cityboi is uhhhhh-mazing.

Gaudi devoted his last years to this project (still unfinished) and lived in a small hut in the back of the church. When the Vatican denied him funding for the project, he went ahead and started building anyway. Until the Sagrada Familia was consecrated by the Pope in 2010, the church was established as a non-religious site.
Gaudi has a collection of houses scattered all over the city. You really can't miss his designs. Local Catalans still love him for it.

During our bike tour, we met new Pedal Palz! Citygurl Jenna and Cityboi George are the Newlywedz from Chicago! After our sangria pit-stop on the beach, we went to Las Ramblas for a night on the town.

Lauren iz livin' La Vida Loca!

And what better way to recover from a long nite of salsa-ing than to catch some rayz on the Barcelona beach...
Yes, my beach days were SOLO because at this stage in the game, Lauren's burnt skin was beginning to bubble. OLE!


Adios Amigos. xo.

La Catrina

When in Rome...

Do as the Romans do!

Ohhhhh, and you know we did JUST that.

Most Romans walk around with neon birds in their bunz. Duh.


From the Foro Romano (Roman Forum) to Il Colosseo (The Colossuem) to La Fontona di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) to Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), to the Pantheon and beyond...we hit up every HOT spot today (literally, we are sweating our bunz off over here in Rome)!

Roman Forum
Roman Forum
Julius Caesar's body was burned here.
Courtyard of the Vestal Virgins (Girls took a vow of chasity in order to keep the eternal flame of Rome burning...at the end of their 30 year service, they received a dowry and could wed UNLESS they were found to be unpure- in that case, they were given a piece of bread and buried alive.)
Obvi, this is the Column of Phocas...I interpretted that as "Column of Focus"...
Kolesseum Kitten
Colesseum
Duking it out...as cuzins should.
Colesseum
Tossing shiny USA pennies into the Trevi Fountain for good luck.
Spanish Stepz
Lauren's Latin Luva. I swear- it was like watching the scene straight from Titanic...well, almost.
Pantheon
This is a giant whole in the cieling (aka an occulus)- locals gather inside the church when it rains for a fun groove sesh!

And last but not least...

The glamour shot...because THIS is something Roman gurlz really do do. Hey, I'm just keepin it real...

Tomorrow's Agenda: Vatican City.

Yo Pope, here we come!

BACI! xo.

Katerino Mario