I just got back from a week in Madrid with the kids. I had a wedding to go in the city so we decided to go and visit my mom and family. If any of you have ever been to Madrid in August you know what to expect.. Everyone in Madrid takes off for vacation the same month.. August.. I never quite understood that, I mean who is left? who takes care of business????? Let’s just say there are several mom and pop stores that just simply put up a sign that stated “Vacation, will be back in September” as simple as that….hahaha.. Pretty funny..

Anyway, one nice thing about August  in Madrid is that you get to go to all the museums and sightseeing places with no lines or people hovering over you.. bad part… it is very hot.. But we had a great time, the kids loved playing in the Retiro park which is right across the street from my moms house and got to play with their cousins and hang out.

I also had a great time seeing old friends and taking advantage of some of the night life there.. I do love Madrid and the city feel, since it is my natal city, I always feel right at home there.. The wedding was beautiful you can see some pictures HERE I still have to upload the rest which are in my dad’s camera.

Overall it was a great trip full of surprises….

And you can see more trip pics HERE, again I’m waiting for some more from dad..

I must say ever since I joined Facebook I have found many old friends.. I currently have 134 friends... (all friends, I don’t accept anyone I don’t know), although I get many requests to accept many people but if I don’t know you I’m not going to accept.. For me the point of facebook is to be able to stay in touch with old friends and see what they are up to.. To others facebook is a way to make new friends, which is great but I have enough right now with my 134 friends and counting..

I have found Junior High and High School friends, whom other wise I probably would have never heard from again.. I even found my “first kiss”… I’m not addicted but do love to check it out once a day and leave a comment or two on friends walls and take a peak at what everyone is up to..

To me it is one of the most positive sides to the Internet, specially for me living in Spain now and being so far away from many friends and family.. What do you think about Facebook???

Those of you who have known me for a while know that while I lived in Los Angeles I did a lot of extra work, commercials, modeling and some acting.. (we are talking about 20 years ago)..I loved that part of my life and sometimes miss how free and exciting that type of work is (as well as very hard work)…

Well, the other day I got a call to be an extra in a new movie being shot here in Ciudad de la Luz Movie Studios called El Diario de Carlota. It was a night shoot and since my mom is here visiting from Madrid and could stay with the kids I said what the hell.

We were only 6 extras and were to be in one of the night shoots inside a bus.  One by one they started to tell all of us where to sit inside the bus except for me.. I was told to just sit outside and wait.. Everyone was just starring at me, I think sort of feeling sorry for me.. probably thinking “poor girl she wasn’t chosen for the shot”.. I sat on a bench and just kept telling myself.. Well, I guess I’m just too glamorous to be on a bus… hahahaha.. trying to make myself feel better.. All kind of thoughts entered my brain.. but after a few minutes I could hear someone yelling “Where is the girl?, where is the girl?” and one of the movie assistance came running up to me and said please come with me right away….

I was told to go inside the bus and sit down where they indicated.. I did just that and as I sat down all the way in the back of the bus, I could see everyone starring at me.. They had sat me down directly behind the two main young actors of the scene... Long story short.. I think if not cut I will probably come out for at least a couple of seconds in the movie.. In the end the other 6 were told to get off the bus and were only in one shot, while I sat there for about 6 hours…

It brought back great memories and kind of lifted my moral a little which at this point in my life I needed….

This Marco & Bella Adventure blog is inscribed in the “Premios 20Blog” in the “Version Original” (original Version). Voting has just begun and will continue until September 17th. If you feel adventous and think you might be able to manage to read in Spanish and that this blog is worthy I welcome you to vote.

It is very easy.. All you need to do is register with 20 minutos and then click on this link to vote:

http://lablogoteca.20minutos.es/marco-bella-adventures-3349/0/

You will need to click where it states “Vota a este Blog” then once again when the blog pops up..

Thank you to all!

We have come to the end of this wonderful trip. With the U2 concert behind us, the tour of the city and the visit to Girona and Figueres now in the past we had one last day in Barcelona.. (well really one last morning).

We decided to wake up early and go to the Picasso Museum in the gothic part of town.. We didn’t have much time because we had to catch a train back to Alicante. We did a sort of  “Chevy Chase” moment inside but it was well worth it..Barcelona is a beautiful city with a lot to offer, I highly recomended to everyone..

The train ride home was long but unforgettable..Thanks AnaMarie for a wonderful trip, I’m sure we will do it again soon..

You can view all the pics HERE.

And so we are on to part III of my awesome Barcelona trip. In part one I talked about the U2 concert which was awesome and part two explains our tour of the city of Barcelona.. so on to this part and the tale of Girona and Figueres.

Girona is a beautiful city north of Barcelona which is really enchanting.  It is a small town but full of history.. We took a tour bus from Barcelona and in a couple of hours we were there. We had a guided walking tour of the city and its sites. the Cathedral, Arab baths, the Wall, Jewish town… I feel in love with this city and would love to go back.. It was extremely hot and had to do a lot of walking must uphill.. but it was worth every minute and every site..

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From there we jumped on the bus and headed to Figueres Dali’s home town.  Another very quaint town that offers the wonderful Dali museum with its very strange architecture and very interesting sites…. One of my favorite was the exhibition of Dali’s jewlelry.. awesome..

On the way back to Barcelona just leaving Figueres a motorcycle that decided to pass us hit head on an incoming car and we witnessed everything.. A young man and a woman were splattered on the cement while we watched how the paramedics tried to save their lives….We watched in horror as they finally placed a white sheet over the girl..It was very sad and made us realize how fragile life is..

The bus finally was allowed to continue but 10 kilometers from Barcelona we got a flat tire!! (we think it might have been from the debree left over from the motorcycle accident). We had to wait over an hour for another bus to come and pick us up..Overall, it was a very interesting experience..

You can view all the pics HERE.

to be continued…..

As I told you in Part One of this series of posts I spent 3 days in Barcelona with my friend Ana Marie. On our second day there we decided to go take the tour bus and visit the city.. There is so much to see in Barcelona that it is important to plan ahead (something we didn’t do). That is why the double decker tour bus is the best option.

You buy a ticket for one or two days and you can hop on and off at any stop you like. We decided to first do the entire tour and see what we liked to see and then started stopping at all the great sites.. We stoped by the Museum of Catalunia,then  took the cable cars up to the Castle Montjuïc then off to the port and the Ice Bar... very very cool.. and very very cold….

Once we had completed the tour we decided to get changed and go out to the gothic part of Barcelona for a nice dinner and drinks.. We went to a great tapas restaurant and had a great meal, then off to a couple local bars in which we found they make great mojitos!! then off to sleep because the next morning we were off to see the Dali museum…

To be continued…….

You can view all the pics HERE.

My very great friend Ana Marie otherwise known to some as “Muffy” flew from Miami to visit me in Alicante and invited me to the U2 concert in Barcelona... We decided to stay a couple of days in the city of Barcelona since neither of us had ever been. We left by train on the morning of June 30th and arrived to our hotel to find out that there was a problem with our rooms and had to be transfered to another hotel room..

Once settled in we got ready for the concert and our adventure began on the metro full of thousands of fans who also headed to the Camp Nou stadium. Once there the excitement was obious and there were more people than you would think would fit in this stadium.. We finally got in and sat down with beer in hand to watch the concert.

The last time I had seen U2 in concert was about 20 years ago in Madrid when it was my brother who was supposed to go with my cousin but got sick at the last minute and gave me his ticket..And let me tell you they rocked this time as much as back then. They played a lot of their new songs and many of their oldies..

The stadium was completely sold out and there were people everywhere. On the way out we had to find our way to the metro with a million people trying to get in.. a great adventure I will never forget.. Thanks Ana Marie!!!!

You can view all the pics HERE. 

To be continued………..

Ok so the tittle sounds a little funny. Yes I do yoga on a nudist beach and NO we don’t do it NAKED.. hahhahaa.. Ok, so I do yoga at the beach 4 times a week and on Saturdays we happend to do it on a beautiful rocky beach near el Cabo de Huertas, in Playa San Juan, Alicante where we live and that part of the beach, which is absoluteley beautiful happens to be a nudist beach…

I’m not sure if my yoga teacher knew that when she picked the spot but most of us sure as hell didn’t! hahaha.. We meet at 8:30 am so when we first get there, we might see one or two old men (yes nude) but as the day progresses more and more come until we are surrounded and we feel like the odd man out!!

At first we could not concentrate and would just laugh our heads off, and when someone new joins our class and has the shock of the first day, we laugh more at that than the other..but I must say after a while it just becomes natural and part of the scenery and you don’t think twice about it .. After class we dive in the beautiful sea (with our swimsuits on!!) and watch as all the nudist stare at us as if we were the strange ones..

I guess after a while of going I will have to give the whole nudist thing a try or NOT!!! What do you think??

photo dockfire

Like every year since we moved to Spain we have celebrated the Night of San Juan, right here on the beach of our very own Playa San Juan in Alicante. It is a century old tradition that lives strong in this part of the world.

It consists of getting together with your friends and family, going to the beach with lots of food and drinks, you build a bonfire and burn all the old to bring in the new. At midnight you wet your feet on the Mediterranean Sea and jump backwards 3 times, making a wish..(and many other traditions).

My yoga class along with my neighbors all gathered together this year and we had one of the best “Noche de San Juan” ever. We had every type of food, drinks, candles, incense, lots of rituals and lots of fun..

You can see all the pics HERE…..