Catching up with Shirley in Barcelona

@ El Xampanyet

The best part of traveling around the world is definitely being able to catch up with friends around the world. The schedule doesn't always work out but when it does, it is great to be able to see friends I haven't seen in ages.

So I was super happy that I could catch up with Shirley. We were both working in Shanghai about 10 years ago... so it has been that long since we saw each other, wow time flies. But it's good that we haven't aged one bit (yes I am very humble).





In that 10 years, we both moved countries (a couple of times for me), got married, got big mortgages, moved up in our career ladders & very cute kids for Shirley.
Great to see friends doing well and being happy.

We met at El Xampanyet - the oldest bar in Barcelona. The bar closes at 4pm (and they were closing the shutter) but Shirley worked her magic and we managed to have some drinks and food. Yay! We had their home-made sparkling wine; Xampanyet and some very delicious artichoke & asparagus.

We then moved onto the next bar - here we tried Chacolí. It is a sparkling wine but only very slightly. It's a very dry white and extremely tasty. It was served a bit like Moroccan tea - from very high up, making lots of bubble. My Chacolí went all over and probably lost half of its content on the bar counter but oh well. It was different and fun to watch!!

Our third stop was a cafe in front of Santa Maria del mar, where we could sit down and talk more! 

Trying to get a perfect shot....and failing. 

The next day, Shirley had invited us to her place for a home cooked paella - it was the biggest and yummiest paella I've ever had!! Thank you Shirley for an amazing time =))))))))))