Barcelona

The SO and I stayed a week in Barcelona, and overall it helped me realize that one, I really do want to return and two, we're going to do it right next time.

1. Stay at the Mandarin Oriental if you know what's good for you. Especially if you're american and you expect, well, larger than pint sized rooms. The Majestic is cheaper and has a better location for shopping (it's right above Chanel, and it's pretty much the block that the high end stuff really starts on.), but the rooms are tiny. Ridiculously tiny. I kept figuring out ways to keep us out of the hotel until we were too tired. This became a problem later on.

2. Bad oysters = horrible food poisoning. I've never gotten sick off of oysters before, and it was a restaurant that the concierge had recommended, and I love oysters, so I had to order them! Yay to us being sick to our stomachs and wasting 2 days of our vacation in the hotel room that we hated. We then found out that, to our dismay the Mandarin was pretty much fully booked because of a conference going on at the time. The restaurant that got us sick was Neyras. Their salt crusted sea bass is an amazing presentation, though.

3. Go to Via Veneto and order their "mosaic" appetizer--it's asparagus, black truffles and foie gras. It's amazing. The whole duck is an amazing presentation as well and the veggies they use for garnish are amazing. As someone who hates veggies (wanted to toss the entire "into the vegetable garden course at Manresa" outside for bunnies to eat), I was caught stealing some off the SO's plate. The French Laundry's garden has nothing on them. And the oranges, the 17 euro orange supremes. The most overpriced oranges ever, surely, but also the most delicious.

4. Eat at Tapas 24 for breakfast and lunch. At breakfast, order churros and scrambled eggs with foie gras and for lunch, I really loved their steak tartare, mcfoie burger (order several), lamb skewers (not spicy at all, ignore what the menu said), and croquettes.

5. All the boutiques are tiny. The stock is pretty crappy, but you can save a bit of money on buying european brands over there as you get VAT back (if you're not from the EU). I found that Burberry would be around the same, not worth the hassle--just buy when you're in the US and you don't have to worry about packing boxes and such.

6. Spain's banking crisis means that the demand for luxury goods has fallen. Couple that with the fact that Panerai isn't as popular over there, and you get an amazing array of hard to find watches with a discount. The SO picked up a PAM 029, but they also had a PAM 315 and 341.