Elisa's Daily Scoop
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Tanya's Daily Scoop
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10 Historic Facts About The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria
Hey there!!! It's a chilly Sunday morning here on Long Island and I woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. A true Winter's Day!!
There is no doubt that while my day was fun yesterday, it was no where near the "excitement-filled" one that Tanya experienced. Under normal circumstances, being in Barcelona, Spain would undoubtedly outweigh my average New York day in an instant, but that's not what I'm referring to here. If you read the Daily Scoop yesterday - namely, Tanya's column, you would know that my dear cuz had quite an eventful time upon her Barcelona arrival with the no-show of her luggage. Not having a chance to chat personally with Tanya, since I myself was out and about yesterday since the morning, I caught up with her travel woes after reading her blog yesterday evening. What was even more strange is that Dave's luggage arrived after their connection -filled flight - first in San Francisco and then again in Paris. I was pretty speechless - I mean what could I say - it sucks! I only lost my luggage once, 30 years ago when traveling from LAX to Hong Kong. It somehow wound up in India and did not arrive to my hotel in Hong Kong until nearly 3 weeks later! Thank goodness I was there for nearly a month working. But, I digress. So, the only thing I could think to say was "did you book through Amex - they cover "delayed" baggage." Now, what's key here is that while many airlines will cover lost luggage, the time, expense and inconvenience of having "dalayed" luggage can be just as bad. Thankfully, when you book your trip through American Express, delayed luggage is covered as well. Pop over to Tanya's side to see what happened when she called American Express... 
At Gaudio's in Astoria yesterday. Our server, Max took this picture of us (c) travelincousins.com
As for me, I spent the afternoon in Astoria yesterday having a mighty delicious lunch with the girls and our Aunt Ro.
Yummy Italian food at Gaudio's Pizzeria and Restaurant!! This place started off as a tiny pizzeria in 1958 and it is now a sit-down restaurant. I'm going to let the pics speak for themselves!! 
Spaghetti with Mushroom sauce (my dish - and oh, so good) (c) travelincousins.com
Ravioli in a pink cream sauce (c) travelincousins.com
Spaghetti with Marinara sauce for Gianna (c) travelincousins.com
Pizza with sliced fried chicken cutlet for Kelsey (c) travelincousins.com
We walked around the shops a bit and ducked into an asian store that sold crystals. I purchased a lovely lapis lazuli pendant. I'm going to talk more about our purchases tomorrow and the meaning of all the stones.
Barcelona Talk... With Tanya's visit to "La Boqueria" yesterday, I wanted to tell you about the very famous (and historic!) local Barcelona destination. The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria dates back from 1217, evolving through the centuries.
Often simply referred to as La Boqueria, this large public market in the Ciudad Vieja district of Barcelona, is one of the city's foremost tourist landmarks.
The Entrance to La Boqueria (photo credit: wikipedia.org)
10 HIstoric Facts About La Boqueria
1. Situated in close proximity to the Liceo, Barcelona's opera house, La Boqueria dates back to the 13th Century. According to the market's official website, "First documents confirming the presence of meat stalls on Pla de la Boqueria, as part of a series of street market located on the Rambla. These markets consisted of temporary stalls in the open air, many of them set up by farmers from the villages surrounding Barcelona, who came to sell their wares in the city." 
Anton van den Wyngaerde. View of Barcelona. 1563. Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona (Historic Archives of the City of Barcelona)
2. From December 1470 onwards, a pig market was held at this site; at this time it was known as Mercadi Bornet.
3. Until 1794, it was known simply as Mercat de la Palla, or straw market. In the early years, the market was not enclosed and had no official status, being regarded simply as an extension of the Plaza Nueva market, which extended to the Plaza del Pino. 4. As the years went on, it was decided that a separate market on La Rambla would be built and at the time, it housed mainly fishmongers and butchers. 5. The current name has its roots in the Catalan word "boc" which means goat. So, a boqueria essentially refers to a place where goat meat is sold. 6. In 1826 (finally) the market was legally recognized, and a convention held in 1835 decided to build an official structure. 7. Construction f the new market began on March 19, 1840 and officially opened that same year. It was built under the direction of the architect Mas Vilá. 8. The inauguration of the structure took place in 1853. 9. A new fish market opened in 1911. 10. The metal roof that still exists today was constructed in 1914. European history never ceases to amaze and fascinate me!! See ya back tomorrow and keep ing my fingers crossed that Tanya is reunited with her luggage. For now, check out her gorgeous photos from her day yesterday! -Travelin' Elisa xoxo 
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Tanya has travel woes while in Barcelona - Day 2
GREETINGS once again from the heartbreaker that happens to be Barcelona!
If you read yesterday's Daily Scoop and/or you are already a subscriber to our page, then you know exactly what I am talking about...
January 12, 2019 - 20 Fun Facts about Barcelona and Tanya in Barcelona Day 1 Why is it that there has been some weird travel mishap that happens to me every time I come to Barcelona??? Mis-Adventures in Barcelona - Worse Hotel Experience EVER Dave had asked me if I had to choose - which travel mishap would I have an easier time struggling through: 1) Not having a room. or 2) Not having my luggage. I have to say that not having a room is the lesser of the 2 and "preferred" struggle. Because not having your luggage is bloody AWFUL!! 
So now where did I leave off with you?
I think we left off where I was at the hotel praying that my bag would show up. Well, let me tell you - things got worse before they got any better. I called to check on the status of my lost luggage file and the airlines reassured me that they had no clue where my bag was!!! How exactly does this even happen? How do the airlines not know where your bag is at every given moment? So even though my hopes were high, I was beginning to feel quite low. How could I go on a cruise or go another day without my belongings? I am that anal type of person who takes much time and much care in my packing. I know what I am wearing (as well as what each of my travel mates are wearing) each and every day while I am traveling. EVERYTHING is PLANNED out. I don't all work well without my plans. I need to be mentally prepared. But I tried to go along with the situation and had attempted to go shopping for the necessities - which included something to wear for today. You all know how very much I love shopping. But I'm not the kind of person who can shop under this kind of pressure. I can't just walk into a store and find something that I like that I have to wear almost immediately. And heaven forbid I walk into a store that is crowded, messy and unorganized - oh heck-to-the-no - I will walk straight out of that store. I don't even care if they were giving the clothes away. Now on the other-hand, if I had brought along an empty suitcase with the plan - keyword PLAN - in mind to shop for all the clothes for this trip while on this trip, well that sounds like great fun and I would love to do something like that. But not under these circumstances. I walked in and out of store after store. I was about to throw in the towel and just give up. I would wear the same purple dress everyday or buy all my clothes on the cruise ship or maybe just stay stuck in my room crying because I had nothing to wear. I also had a little break-down. I mean I tried to stay level headed and strong. I tried to not stress out. But when I thought about the rest of the trip and being without my bag, it just brought me to tears. I had to go take a seat. Side note: I don't think Dave knows what to do with me in situations like these. LOL But I suppose this is because he is a guy? Whateves. I had it. I was calling it quits. No more looking for clothes. I didn't even want to go to dinner. I found a windowsill to sit on - since there were no benches and I had to take a time out. After a short bit, I knew that I needed something to where at least for today and so I walked into yet another store. This time it was one that was closing in 5 minutes! OMG do you even know how much I stress out when stores are about to close?! Even since I was a wee little lass I had this terrible fear when the stores begin to turn their lights off and prepare to close shop for the night. So could you imagine??? I needed to take a deep breath and overcome all the BS and just find something that I liked, that I would wear today. The pressure was ON like Donkey Kong. After that I would deal with tomorrow, today. Luckily it was this store 'Cortefie' that I hit the jackpot and found an outfit that I was happy enough with and that I am wearing today - check out the blog tomorrow or our social media pages today to see what I'm wearing!! The story continues below... In the meantime please check out some of the pictures that I snapped while strolling around the Barcelona Cathedral, La Palmas and the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria - 
On our balcony with the Barcelona Cathedral behind us (c)travelincousins.com
Barcelona Cathedral (c)travelincousins.com
Tile-work in the Gothic Quarter (c)travelincousins.com
Taking time out for a selfie (c)travelincousins.com
Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria (c)travelincousins.com
Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria (c)travelincousins.com
Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria (c)travelincousins.com
Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria (c)travelincousins.com
Teatre Del Liceu (c)travelincousins.com
Columbus Monument (c)travelincousins.com
A location I spend may hours at during my 2016 visit to Barcelona - click on the picture (c)travelincousins.com
Now some of the food:
Foods from Teresa Carles and from Cafe Santoni. More details can be found on the instagram pages of Veganfoodgasms and Travelincousins (c)travelincousins.com
The story continues..
After Elisa had got wind that my luggage was missing she sent me a shout out asking if I had reconnected with my luggage yet. We chatted for a bit about how could something like this happen. And then sent this text "There’s nothing I can even say. Did u book with Amex? They cover for delayed baggage" The short answer is yes I did. And all of a sudden there was a light at the end of my tunnel! I immediately called AMEX only to find out that the insurance services are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. But the gentleman had suggested that I contact the Delta Skymiles team and transferred me to them. At this point I was at least told where my luggage was at...It was left behind in San Francisco!! The connection that we originally had 3+ hours for and that our flight ran over an hour late out of. There was at least 4.5 hours for them to put my luggage on the plane! Which apparently did not happen. So then I was even informed that my bag was on flight to Amsterdam and then to Barcelona to be delivered to me!!! This was like music to my ears and I immediately felt oh so much better. Which brings us all up to date and now we will be heading out to tour the Gothic Quarter and check out the La Barceloneta Beach and then off to meet our ship later this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll be floating at sea, which as long as I've got my bag is fine by me. Catch you back here as soon as I can, -Travelin' Tanya 
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