Party Time

September 26 - October 2, 2016

The work week was pretty uneventful both in the office and out other than a trip to the US Embassy for lunch with a colleague and a quick tour of their vendor day buying some souvenirs for me and gifts for friends and family. The highlight of the week came late Friday afternoon when the Canada Club hosted a Welcome BBQ (for new Embassy staff).  

After a dreary rainy week, Friday afternoon was cool and the sun made an appearance while Galena had three BBQs fired up and was cooking pork, chicken and lamb shaslik to be served with lovely salads she had made early and fabulous cookies and squares made by Melissa. The Embassy staff (Russians and Canadians) came out for the celebration in full force and the wine and conversation flowed late into the evening. I really like my new colleagues!

Saturday morning and I am finishing up the packing for my flight to Barcelona to meet Linda Quarin for a Mediterranean Cruise. The airport is only 50 km or so from my apartment but Moscow traffic never fails to disappoint and it takes us almost 2.5 hours to get to the airport (with four accidents en route) barely in time for my flight. 

That seemed to be the theme for the day as I needed a "fast pass" to make the connection in Brussels. Miraculously, both my luggage and I arrived in Barcelona more or less on time. A quick cab ride to the hotel to meet Linda who had been in town for a day and a half exploring and had identified a great place to have tapas for dinner.

Linda set our course through the winding course to a small and very busy tapas bar; Re-Pla. This lively, hip restaurant serves delicious Spanish and Catalan style tapas in a rustic setting in the Born. Our 10:30 reservation scores us a table around 11:00 pm (the Spanish really do love eating late!). 

We had a lovely bottle of Galician wine served by the vintner to wash down our tapas. My favourite dish was a mushroom carpaccio served with a wasabi vinaigrette and a few pieces of manchego cheese. Who knew thinly sliced mushrooms could be so tasty! The tomato bread (Spain's rendition of bruschetta) was also very fine.

Sunday morning, after a quick light breakfast (our last small meal for a while), we hailed a cab and headed to the cruise port to board the Epic for Linda's first cruise and my inaugural cruise on the Mediterranean. After securing Beach Club passes, we headed up to Posh for a cocktail and sail away before changing for dinner in my favourite specialty restaurant - Le Bistro.

After a lovely dinner, we headed to the casino so I could make my nightly donation and ran into Ewe and Silvia at the UTH table (my home away from home for the week!). Tomorrow is a sea day so nothing planned except a day lounging in Posh.  Can't wait!

Posh Beach Club