Zaragoza

Visiting Zaragoza is always emotional for me. It is the city where I was born but I didn't grew up in. My parents moved to Mallorca when I was two years old, so i grew there in a pretty idyllic set up. But my heart has always loved Zaragoza and I treasured every yearly visit to the city to see my uncle, aunt, grandma and cousins. 

Nowadays I try as much as possible to at least go once a year, but last year I couldn't due to work commitments. 

So this trip was long time coming, and even more emotional as one member of my family is ill, but also my cousin Aitor and his wife Susana have got a new addition to the family, a beautiful little girl. There is another new addition to my Zaragoza family and is the reason of this big smile bellow on my cousin, young love!

I am incredibly close to my beautiful inside and out cousin Angela (above). She is a doctor, a pediatrician actually, quite handy for her new niece! Angela is eight years younger than me though we always have been very close and I count her among my closest friends. 

We went out only one night, but it was great. we had some of the best tapas around, which the old part of town is well re-known for. It was cold, very cold, but even the cold, wind and rain cant stop Zaragoza people to go out and have fun.

On the Saturday we went to Creativa Zaragoza. Creativa is the company that is organising craft retail shows all around Spain. I was working at the Madrid one back in October. This edition in Zaragoza was smaller but equally busy.

As soon as we got to show I spotted my Sizzix Everyday dies for sale. Seeing craft products that i designed in my hometown? Crazy!
This probably will be one of the highlights of my professional paper craft life.

Also, at the Pepa Paper, Elena was there teaching a workshop all day long. She is such a lovely girl and very talented too. Definitely check out her blog.

Also at the show were Innspiro, the Spanish distributors of Sizzix products among many others. they are a lovely bunch of people.

And Quim Diaz was there teaching a great project using the Big Shot and Basic Grey papers. Another lovely and talented crafter. Its seems that there is no lack of them in Spain, something that makes me extremely happy and proud!

Sunday was a busy fun day. We had paella cooked by my uncle which was delicious. In the late afternoon we went to El Pilar, which is a cathedral that houses the pillar where the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint James the Apostle in the 1st century AD. You can still kiss the Pillar and I always try to make a visit when I am in Zaragoza. It is a very special place.

The square is massive. So massive that it has not only one but two cathedrals (the second one being the tower on the left photo). After the visit, we went wondering off. But it was Sunday and it was cold, so what do you do?

We went to have some chocolate con churros! Amazing. After which we went to see Silver Linnings Playbook, which we enjoyed though I cant stand anymore dubbed movies, so that was challenging.

And finally we watched the Oscars Red Carpet. Neither of us was incredibly impress by the stars gowns with one or two exceptions.

The next day I was flying to Mallorca to see my parents, my sister, her husband and yet another new addition to the family.