Estación Liceu

Chattin' with Barcelona

After I was shot down in a blaze of glory while trying to speak French to our Paris hotel receptionist, I had to call our hotel in Barcelona. It is so hard to speak a foreign language on the phone so I was nervous again even though my Spanish fluency blows my French away. On Sunday morning, however, I saw the hotel that we wanted featured in the NY Times, eek! I knew I had to act fast so I called the Hotel Banys Orientals and got to work. I stumbled over my greeting of "buenos días" quickly compensating for the time change with "buenas tardes" but after that, it went really well. The hotel guy was really nice and asked where I was from, where I learned Spanish, said I have a Mexican/Miami accent (?), etc. Also, it was Sant Jordi day when I called which is a popular celebration in Barcelona when you buy books for men and roses for women. I told the hotel guy that I was a modern woman and wanted a rose and a book and we had a nice little laugh.

Anyway, it was a success but I still haven't received the email confirmation. I called again this morning and the receptionist said she would send it right away. Two hours later, it still isn't here (but two American hours are different than Spanish hours, ha ha). I am going to call at lunch today and see what's up. At least they seemed to actually have me down for a reservation!

And, as a tiny side note, we also got our reservations confirmed for our cooking class in Barcelona, how awesome is that? We are going to be learning about gazpacho, paella, tomato bread (a type of bread rubbed with tomato and garlic), and crema catalana (flan/custard).

Things are coming together, at least for the honeymoon, which is great because the wedding is 38 days away and the honeymoon is 39, wow!

posted by Kelly @ 8:20 a. m.