Me and Mummy in Barcelona

First of all, we had to go through this security control, where mummy had to remove me out of the BabyBjörn and carry me through the security systems, and then she put me on this table when she put the BabyBjörn back on. The staff at the airport thought I was adorable and took pictures of me.

I was wearing my cool jeans and mummy made me try a chair on my own. I personally thought it was slightly too large, as I'm still a bit small. But it was good practice for the future.

This is the guy that sat next to us. His name is Pablo and he is from Tenerife. He is a lawyer and he comes to Ibiza a lot for holidays. He was my in-flight entertainment. But then he asked for mummy's phone number and she said....OK.... and then he sent her many many WhatsApp's but she just didn't answer them so he stopped. Personally I wondered why she didn't just say "No thank you" to begin with. Adults are just so complicated with this word called No. 

So we found our Airbnb place in Born, very close to Jaume I, and just off Calle Princessa, and the first place we went to was Bun Bo Vietnamese Restaurant which mummy LOVES. I was practicing eating with sticks, and then I tore like 15 napkins apart, and then I swooshed a plate with fresh herbs and chilli onto the floor, and then the soup spilled over all of the table because I was full of energy... and then we left. Mummy smiled apologetically to the waiter and said goodbye without finishing the rest of the soup.

Mummy says she really looooves Flamenco. So she wanted to take me to a Flamenco show. Initially she was thinking to go to the nice one in Carrer Robadors, in Bar Robadors 23, but then she decided that it's probably very late and smoky and dark there and maybe not to se great when you're almost six months old. So we went to Placa Real, a very very busy square. We had to wait in line for a long time before getting in, and we talked to an overweight American lady who was overseas for the first time in her life. Once inside, we met a little guy who could have been my brother. It was funny. We had fun. Another guy really liked me and I was sitting in his lap most of the show. I liked it, it banged and clicked a lot, and I felt surprised every time the people clapped their hands- it was so sudden and loud, like. But mummy sat completely still and stared at the dancers. She was full of feelings. Later she told me she feels like her soul is so deeply connected to flamenco. Like a previous life connection, she said. I wonder what that means. I'll ask her again when I'm a bit older. 

This is in the toilet in the flamenco place. Mummy and me, on adventures in Barcelona. We really had a lot of fun. I especially liked all the lights and all the colours, and all the nice people that stopped and talked to me on the street. The Pakistani beer-sellers were by far the sweetest and friendliest. They all treated me like a person that they really really liked. Also many old Catalan ladies stopped and talked to me. They said I look like a doll. But my favourite thing was inside the metro, where I could really connect with the people sitting opposite from us and on our sides. It seemed like they had nothing better to do than to look at me, and I love it when people look at me.

This is our street in Born, our door is just here on the right. Banys Vells and Barra de Ferro or something like that, four floors up, mummy lost one kilo walking up and down these steps and was very happy about that. She thinks she's a bit fat from the pregnancy. I wouldn't know, I didn't know her before. I think she looks just fine and by the way she's the only mummy I have and I wouldn't change her for anyone else, skinny or not skinny. 

We had a balcony facing another balcony, and a room with two single beds that mommy couldn't really figure out how to arrange our sleeping time with. In the end we really only slept good one night, the other nights were weird. Too much noise from the street and too narrow was the bed. But I had great naps in the daytime when mummy did yoga or talked to her friends or walked in the city. I sleep everywhere, not like mummy, who needs to sleep in a bed.

Here we are in this nice shop called System Action, where the music was funny and the lights shiny, and the girls working there really flirty. I loved it! I was lying on the floor when mummy was trying clothes and the girls came to talk and smile all the time. The song was playing and mummy and the flirty girls all sang "she's up all night to this soooong... she's up all night to get lucky" and mummy danced and we looked at me in the mirror. But after we went to H&M and I had enough. In the changing room there was no music and funny girls and lights, so I decided it was enough for that day. I screamed very loud, and mummy said that she understood, and she dumped all the stuff, and we went home.

This little bar was super cool. La cala del Vermut. Great tapas! I was a bit restless but I behaved OK because mummy really liked it a lot. The little red peppers are filled with cream cheese and the sundried tomato are in a beautiful olive oil and the clara in Barcelona is just a great clara. Said mummy anyway. I don't know.

Aha, OK, I did mention this before- the narrow street and the balcony-view. It was a bit rainy and cool in the mornings and we really liked it after such a long and hot summer in Ibiza.

We came here for a Menu del Día one day, La Lonja de Tapas, and the waiter asked mummy if she wanted a "trona" for me and she said no, he doesn't sit yet. But he insisted because he's a daddy and his little baby sits on a trona and thank you waiter for insisting, it was so great and so much fun to sit in a high chair!! He was from Pakistan and his wife was 8 months pregnant with a little brother or sister. He was so sweet and funny and talked to me a lot. When I threw mummy's bread on the floor he insisted she got a new piece. The people on the table next to us also had a small baby, a girl, 3 months, called Maria. They were Catalan and spoke to mummy in Catalan but she answered in Castellano. My mum understands Catalan but doesn't speak it. The baby wasn't that friendly, neither was the mother or the grandparents.

Mummy had two hands to eat her fabulous lunch and I could sit here and tear napkins and throw forks as much as I wished! Her menu del día was €9.90 and it was so good. She had a green salad, full of healthy things and good parmesan and great balsamico, and then a fish with lemon and megagood potatoes, then a crema catalana to die for. That's a great crema catalana, she told me.

We wandered the streets, we met with mummy's friends and their babies, we had coffee and sweets, we had nice moments in the room of rest and yoga. And then we went to the Picasso museum, but I honestly found it so weird that room after room was full of adults staring at the walls, and no one even looked at me. So I decided to do an experiment. I shouted happily as soon as we entered a room to wake them up a bit. And minimum one person looked back at me and smiled. But the rest of them didn't. Quite boring. Mummy said she didn't like the early works of Picasso at all, they were too classic and boring. And she said she thought the Pigeon-series was just weird and strange. But she does like his later works and the story of his life and stuff like that. In one room I saw the greatest piece of art though. It was a mirror, and the person in the mirror was me. I felt so happy that I laughed-out-loud. Mummy laughed too and said it was the narcissistic phase of life. That it's normal. I don't know what she's talking about.

My mummy is a very restless mummy and she needs to use up a lot of energy every day. It was perfect. We walked and walked, up the stairs, doing different things all the time. For me it was so much fun, and perfect with the breaks to sleep in between. I saw Barceloneta, Raval, Gracia, Poble Nou, Born and a lot of Metro.

Here we are in the single IKEA-bed in our room in Born. Mummy took like 18 photos of me here. She thought I was so so sooo so cute. She kissed me many many times. It was my 6 month birthday-day.

Here we are in a gallery in Poble Nou after we went to visit Mia's workshop before we went to visit Maja and Mio and then after Tine and Jan.

Mummy showed me this cool mirror. She said she was in this gallery before, when she used to live in Barcelona, in the opening of some exhibition. It was packed with trendy people and everyone drank a lot of wine and beer. Mummy even took a similar picture that time- but her life was more alone then. She didn't have me with her all the time, like she does now. She said to me that she's a trillion times happier now. Although she did like her friend Kim a lot. That night, they went to the Chinese bar next door and drank something called Estrella and she said she was almost in love. Whatever that means. 

These are our friends Christine (Tine) and Jan. Mummy knew Tine from before she was a mummy. They used to hang out a lot. Now we met with them three times. It was very nice. One night we went to eat pinxtos and see a different flamenco show from the first one. This one was in a more beautiful place but the other show in Plaza Real was better. More intense and passionate (mummy said those words)

Then we went to see Andrea and Elad. In two months my new friend will be born. I can't wait to meet him. 2013 is a good year! Here we are in Elad's pasta restaurant in Gracia. The food was awesome, mummy said. Elad offered me beer, took a picture, and sent it to daddy. Ha ha.

And then on one early morning we got up, mummy showered and packed while singing to me, and we took a quick cortado and almond croissant before flagging a taxi. The ride to the airport took 17 minutes. Perfect. Mummy daddy and me together again. Happy.

  Especially me. I love my daddy. He is so funny.