I'm back... Sort of.

I've been in Lisbon for the past few days, and now I'm at the airport, waiting for my plane to Madrid. This past week was a whirlwind, and it's looking like my next 10 days will be too. I move to Paris on September 26. Eek!

For now, let's talk about LISBON. It was amazing. It's a city of contrasts - amazing, massive buildings that are perfectly manicured next to abandoned and decrepit ones. There are winding, narrow streets, plenty of hilly areas with tiled staircases, and hints of ocean views in between the arches between buildings. Everything is covered in colorful tiles and graffiti, and the sounds of reggaeton music can be heard streaming from funky shops and restaurants.

I'll post pictures soon. My Flickr account is acting up at the moment.

I decided to base my warddrobe for Lisbon around the color of the blue nail polish that I've been wearing... it's been my inspiration. The Pea gave it to me right before she moved, so I'm a little attached to it right now. I packed tops with funky, bright prints and/or animals on them. I was going for a somewhat silly look for my last hurrah to summer 2008 in Europe:


I brought printed scarves to tie around my bag or to wear as headwraps:


For the bottoms, I wore my Topshop distressed skirt and black leggings. Outfit pics to come...

Hints of blue in Lisbon:

Couleurs

I love black and I can always appreciate a dark palette, but there's something so nice about bright, funky summer colors. I'm experiencing a last-minute obsession with COLOR.
I think that this has been heightened by the fact that... big news coming... I'M MOVING TO PARIS. OMG OMG OMG. I'M MOVING TO PARIS. My mom is shipping me my dark winter wardrobe. I can't wait!
I'm planning on working colors into my wardrobe ad nausea until my move!

On that note, I painted my nails blue and decorated my phone with ridiculous stickers:


Colorful modes of transportation:



"The beauty is your head":

Date night

The Pea is leaving, and I can't really bare to think about her departure... We've shared a lot of great memories here, and an affinity for dates and chocolate (Milka for her, Ritter Sport for me). On a late night hunt for chocolate, we stumbled upon a precious treasure: a massive box of Tunisian dates:


We decided so save the dates for... DATE NIGHT. On the beach, with headscarves and sunglasses. Even the suddenly cool fall evening breezes couldn't keep us from our gyspy rendezvous.

The Pea:

'N Me:


I wear a Zara top, Topshop shorts, a Plein Sud sweater, and vintage bangles, headscarf, sunglasses and necklace.

Maté on the beach

We're getting our first fall breezes in Barcelona... FINALLY. I love fall. Everything is in motion and is imbued with energy and movement - wind blowing, leaves falling. You can just feel CHANGE in the air. My doors were blown open by a big gust of wind, and I just had to take a picture of the city, in that moment. Then I looked to my right and realized that I can see directly into my neighbor's salon:



I met up with an Argentine friend who ended up bringing me along to lunch at his friend, Pitxi's house. Pitxi is a 60 guy from Buenos Aires. He made us chicken stew and served us 7 Up to drink. We all went to another Argentine's house, added 2 more Argentine's to the mix, and headed to the beach. Pitxi made us maté, and we all sat on the beach, drinking maté in the traditional style, from a silver straw in a wooden cup.

A photo of today's sunset over the city:


And some love from the streets of Barcelona...

My purest reality

Yesterday was a good day. I made an attempted trip to an out-of-town beach. It was an "attempted" trip because I got on the wrong train, reached the last stop (unknowingly), stared out at some small industrial city with no beach, sat on the train wondering where on earth I was, then felt the train go BACKWARDS, as in BACK to Barcelona.
It wasn't a total bust, though. I was able to journal in my new gold lamé moleskin and flip through a French Vogue. Anyway, I'm absolutely loving travel by train - it's retro and romantic... I'm still waiting for a Before Sunrise moment.

French trainz:



So after my train trip to a barren wasteland, I decided to just head down to the Barcelona beach, and it was GREAT. Seriously, this was the most entertaining beach experience. One of my beach highlights was a group of homeless people drunkenly playing instruments and attempting to put on a little flamenco show. There was dancing, clapping, yelling, jumping...


And there was a fabulous group of old British ladies (about 8 of them) eating Chupa Chups and gummy worms. I want to be the woman on the right when I'm older - great swimsuit, cute hair cut. Loves it.


On the way home, I passed this great bust, covered in plastic wrap with shells for shoulder pads. Notice the ham leg accents.


To top it off, all of these experiences were set to the tunes of the new CSS album "Donkey". It's been my "it" album for the past few days. It is sooooo good. So good.

Collector of curious goods

Sometimes I think that I should be a bohemian gypsy woman who travels with her cart of random wares. I'm always collecting little accessories and knick-knacks. I would LOVE to travel around in a cart with pretty things dangling over my head. It started when I was 4 and collected beads. At 7 it was Lisa Frank stickers. By 12 I was collecting nailpolish (my favorite was some hideous mustard yellow shade that my mom said gave me "smoker's nails"). I've been through some other various collector phases - Chinese tea cups, belts, ironic/cheesy greeting cards, vintage photographs, pinky rings (?!).
Anyway, lately I've been stocking up on accessories - belts, scarves, pendants, head wraps, jewelry with feathers, hair accessories. Oh, and socks. I figured that when you have to stuff all of your wardrobe into 2 suitcases and that wardrobe needs to last an indefinite amount of time, ACCESSORIES are the key to keeping things fresh and interesting. The first thing one of my Austrian friends said when she entered my room was, "You have so many belties!" And yeah, I guess I do have a lot of "belties". They're coming in handy, though. I'll have to dedicate a post to the belts that I brought over and have collected here.
Some pics of my favorite accessories. Some were found here and others come from home.


Hair accessories:



A finished look:


p.s. Sometimes while browsing through pics to upload, I stumble upon a shot of a family member or friend and get a little homesick. My little bro... OMG I miss that face.

Neon in the streets

From local festivals to funky vintage shops, Barcelona is rockin' neon accentz at the moment. I, of course, love it! I've decided that this is the summer of neon. And my trashy cut-off shorts.
Some city pics...

A mural on the wall of Holala in the Raval:


Grácia festivals: each street was decorated by the residents of the street. There is a competition for the street with the best decorations. A few of my favorites: