spoonman's Journal

[spoonman]

#139 10/14/2015 -- Hot Chocolate Goodness

A few posts ago I mentioned Les Deux Magots--a nice cafe in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris. It's a famous cafe because many historical figures (such as Wilde and Sartre) used to frequent it. Anyway, the place has the best darn hot chocolate this side of the Mississi...er, the Seine river. It's listed on the menu as Chocolat des Deux Magots a l'Ancienne, in other words "old style" hot chocolate. See the image below, the hot chocolate is on the left:



I'm not a big coffee guy so whenever we feel like relaxing at a cafe I order the hot chocolate. After trying this in a few places, I've concluded that Les Deux Magots has the best hot chocolate I've ever had. It's a very dense concoction that lasts a long time. It comes with a hefty price tag of 7.5 euros, which, like everything else on the menu, is 50% pricier than other cafes. So yeah, not the most frugal purchase, but well worth it in my opinion.

The other day we went back to Les Deux Magots and got a table with a view of the 1400 year-old Saint-Germain-des-Prés church. We enjoyed our beverages while contemplating the hundreds of years of church history. A good afternoon indeed.

[cmonkey]

I showed this to the DW and she exclaimed "YES! IT IS AMAZING!" Big fan of chocolate she is and having visited France twice she has tried it.

Thanks for sharing your adventures, I really enjoy the updates.

[spoonman]

@cmonkey: I think the reason that hot chocolate is so good is because it's made from actual melted chocolate, not from a weak powder. I'm thinking of going back to Les Deux Magots at least one more time before we move on.

[spoonman]

#140 10/27/2015 -- Museums Galore, Paris Edition

It’s been a while since I’ve made a journal entry, that’s because all the art museums in Paris have kept us very busy. We visited all the big names, namely the Louvre and Orsay museums, as well as other lesser known institutions. Needless to say, I am overwhelmed with all the incredible art. Each time we go to a museum I say to myself, “alright, this time I’ll write something up”, but then we get home all I want to do is crash, relax, and prevent my brain from exploding.

In a few weeks I’ll put together a comprehensive post with all the highlights. I want to wait because we still have some more museums to visit, especially in the next city we’re going to live (more on that in my next post).

My appreciation of art has been greatly enhanced by all I’ve learned these past couple of months!

[spoonman]

#141 11/03/2015 -- Hola Barcelona!

“Barcelona has everything you would want in a European city, and more.” That’s what a physics friend of mine told me many years ago, oh so very true. We will spend the last weeks of our 90-day Schengen tourist visa here before moving on to our next location.

We are staying in a charming, one-bedroom apartment in the Gothic Quarter of the city. This old area of Barcelona has very narrow streets (I believe the right term is callejuela) and a diverse population. I’ve visited Barcelona before, but I am still somewhat shocked by the awesomeness of the city...it’s the complete opposite of Agrestic Suburbia. If you are tired of suburban life, like I was two years ago, then the Gothic Quarter is the antidote. Barcelona in general is incredibly walkable and has a top-notch subway system, so perfect for us.

I should note that our new apartment is a vast improvement to the one we had in Paris. It feels like a mansion...all 400 sqft of it! I don’t think we are ever going back to tiny studios.

The transition from Paris to Barcelona was very smooth. Our luggage was not too heavy, the flight was short and pleasant, and getting to our apartment from the airport by taxi was cheap and painless.

November will be a high-octane month full of awesome food, great art, and amazing architecture (Gaudi!).

[George the original one]

Oh, goody, Gaudi! Looking forward to pics

[spoonman]

@GTOO: We very much look forward to Gaudi's architecture. That man was easily 100 years ahead of his peers.

[cmonkey]

Awesome! I bet Airbnb makes it so much easier to hop around like this. I looked up a few places in the UK and there were plenty of places to stay, which is the first place I'd go overseas simply due to less culture shock.

[spoonman]

@cmonkey: Yeah, Airbnb takes away a lot of the hassle of booking an apartment abroad.

That's a good idea about the UK. Just don't forget that they drive on the other side of the road!

[Solvent]

I was in Barcelona on the weekend, we probably strolled passed each other in the Barri Gotic. I remember thinking as I walked around "I prefer this to Paris by a long way." Not to try to devalue your experience of the city of lights but I wasn't all that enamored with Paris, besides the fantastic bread and cheese.

My observation on Barcelona (I was only there a weekend): people operate at all hours, make sure wherever it is you stay has reasonably thick walls! Seemed like a fantastic spot though, I would like to go back. I'd love to see the beaches in summer rather than get my face blown off by the wind, as I did on Sunday.

The Sagrada Familia, despite being unfinished, receives my vote for most beautiful church in the world.

[m741]

@spoonman - your approach to travel is exactly what I'm looking to do in ~2 years for a while during retirement. I realized just now that you've been to a lot of places now: Oregon, Montreal, Paris, Barcelona. How do you like the travel style? It's pretty uncommon I think, any counter-intuitive drawbacks or bonuses? Mostly I just want to get to know the "spirit" of a place without the need to rush through all the "can't miss" sights. How long do you think you'll continue to travel this way before you want to settle down?

[spoonman]

@Solvent: Yeah, we probably did come very close. El Barri Gotic is definitely active deep into the night. Our apartment can't filter out all the noise, but manage to get a good night's rest anyway. The Sagrada Familia is on my itinerary, can't wait to see it. I went inside Santa Maria del Mar for free last week, it was another amazing gothic building. There's lots to look forward to still!

@m741: Sorry it took me so long to respond, we've been quite overwhelmed with all the sights and sounds here and I haven't had much time to post. The travel lifestyle is very manageable, but it does come with some drawbacks. You do have to spend some time worrying about the logistics and it feels a little weird living in some many different apartments. It's not someting I want to do forever and ever, but it's something that I look forward to enjoying for a long while, possibly 5 more years. It's possible in the future we might just keep on going and never look back, but I think we'll still have the desire to settle down somewhere. One of the things that continue to surprise us is the way that different cities treat the disposal of garbage. Everywhere we've been to the system is a little different. I prefer the way we do things in the US in that regard. In any case, the experience of travel is incredibly humbling because it truly gives you the scope of history in other societies. The US is so very new compared to most places in Europe.

[spoonman]

#142 11/09/2015 -- October Expense Blurb

For the month of October we received $1885 in income. That amount includes $25 from credit card cash rewards.

We spent a total of $2199, well above our income for the month. We blew the budget because I completely overspent my discretionary allotment, we ate out a wee bit too much, and also had some one-offs in the home supplies category due to replacing a couple electronics. The latter is bound to happen every so often. I don’t regret going too far with my discretionary budget because that money was spent on tickets to world-class museums. Oh, and I don’t regret eating out too much either =). I mean, for goodness sake, we’re talking about Paris here!

In the months ahead we’ll have the chance to catch up with our budget a bit because we might spend time in a low COL country. That may not happen in Barcelona because the food here is so good that it will surely make us bust our budget again.

[cmonkey]

About busting the budget, I have pondered what the effect is of going over budget once in a while once you are living on investments. I think as long as its not a long term, month after month thing its fine. You go under one month and over another month but it evens out. There is a lot of buffer in other words.

As far as eating into capital, I'm not sure its a horrible thing either if done in moderation. In particular, I have wondered what the affect of larger purchases would be (say a nice used car) or some emergency (leaky roof). I can see us purchasing a nice used van down the road in the 15-20K range and would probably take it out of investments. It would eat into cash flow a bit (a couple hundred a month at most), but if you can manage that your income would probably rise again to pre-purchase levels within a year or two. Especially with LC at a 3% rate, I'd be withdrawing less than half of my interest each month.

Setting aside some money each month for such things might be a safer strategy though.

[spoonman]

@cmonkey: Yeah, going over budget once or twice a year is not a big deal, especially if you have a large cash position to absorb the damage in the near term, as our Escape Fund was designed to do. And, as you point out, there can be months when going under budget will compensate.

My hope is to never sell investments. If there is some crazy emergency, then we might not have a choice, but until then they'll have to pry my capital "off my cold dead hands" =).

[spoonman]

#143 11/16/2015 -- Tapas and Paella

Barcelona has many culinary delights. We can both say with confidence that we prefer the cuisine of Spanish restaurants over the French cafes in Paris. The food in Barcelona is both delicious and quite affordable. You can walk into a tapas joint and have several delicious choices, as well as beer, all for less than 13 euros.

Below is a picture of one of the first tapas that we had. It features “bravas” (fried potatoes with a delicious sauce) and tomaquets (bread with a spread of tomatoes and olive oil). We’ve since tried many other types of tapas.



Back home and throughout our travels we have been tempted by many places offering paella, but wisely decided to wait until we arrived to a Spanish city to try it. Below is a picture of some delicious paella with vegetables from a highly recommended restaurant by the beach. We also had a second paella dish with seafood, which is the traditional style in this part of Catalonia. It was quite pricey but well worth it.



Oh, and don’t get me started on all the awesome jamon available here!

[cmonkey]

I think you should rename your journal to 'Spoonmans Worldwide Culinary Adventures'. Looks amazing.

[spoonman]

@cmonkey: Haha, Spoongirl even tells me we need to save those photos for our personal use. But hey, it's all part of retiring!

[thrifty++]

I'm liking that you have moved on to savoury in Spain. Food looks so delicious!
I have always wanted to go to Spain. Is it cheap there at the moment ? Warm and sunny?

[spoonman]

@thrifty: Yes, and yes. The city is way cheaper than other large European cities and also warmer. During the day it's in the mid-60's, so totally agreeable.

You need to come to Barcelona some day. You won't regret it!