On June 28, ate Lia, Jason, Bri and I found ourselves flying from Paris [READ: Four Days in Paris] to the city of Barcelona. Barcelona was the meet up point with the rest of Brian’s family: their parents, and their eldest sister Jill with her husband Choy and their little girl Martina. There, we had two days to spend in the city before embarking for our 12-day Mediterranean cruise.
The first day in Barcelona was spent for some sight seeing with the family. Fresh from our flight from Paris and after having dropped off our luggages at our Air BNB, we headed straight for La Sagrada Familia and the famous Mercado de la Bouqeria. 
La Sagrada Familia truly is a beautiful sight to behold! 
As it was my first time in a Spanish market, you can imagine how I got so excited with seeing so many stores selling jamon in practically every corner of Mercado de la Bouqeria. A cone of jamon serrano are sold for up to 3 euros each and some stores even add chorizo and sliced cheese in the bundle.
This was also where we had our first paella for the trip. At the time, I was amazed at how good it was. Until we kept discovering more restaurants that served better paella. I am writing this entry on our second day in Madrid, and so far each paella we’ve had just kept outranking the previous one!
The main purpose for this entry is the second day which was for Bri’s most awaited visit to Girona for our one-year-in-the-making lunch reservation in El Celler de Can Roca, ranked number two among the world’s best restaurants for 2018 [SEE: The World’s Best 50 2018]. Bri had made the reservation almost more than a year ago and we almost didn’t make it after initially being put under waiting list. Eventually, and much to our surprise, we received an e-mail from them confirming that our reservation had pushed through!
So, on May 29, Bri and I went to Hertz/Dollar to pick up a rental car since we planned on doing the one-hour drive from Barcelona to Girona. It must have been a lucky day for us since we were upgraded to a luxury car without any additional cost. They must have appreciated Brian’s sports jacket and tie, not to mention his Spanish speaking skills, to have granted us that upgrade! 😉
Exhibit A of Bri’s outfit.
The drive to Girona was very pleasant. Bri and I were in good spirits the whole trip with our bellies almost unable to contain our excitement for the upcoming El Celler de can Roca experience.
1) CATHEDRAL OF GIRONA 
As we didn’t get into any traffic at all, Bri and I arrived Girona 2 hours earlier than our reservation. We then decided to visit the main town and we started with the Cathedral of Girona, which was one of the shooting sites for Game of Thrones! Remember that scene where Maergery Tyrell *almost* did the walk of shame? The steps of this cathedral was where they shot it!
I loved the pebble stone walk ways that surrounded the Cathedral.
2) RIVER ONYAR (GIRONA) 
A 5 minute walk from the Cathedral took us to River Onyar and its red bridge. It was beautiful seeing the winding river being surrounded by these colorful houses.
P.S. Exhibit B of Bri’s outfit
3) EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA
Finally, at 11:00 am, we started making our way to El Celler de Can Roca. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by their friendly staff who seated us at the patio (as the restaurant was still preparing our table), and we were given complimentary beverage of one glass of champagne each. 
The dining area was an open plan layout enclosed by floor-to-ceiling windows, which allowed light come in. 
Everything about the dining room looked crisp and had an air of meticulous attention to detail.
Our attendant seated us at a table for two, we were presented with a wine list by one of their sommeliers. Bri got us a Riesling, and from there we were off to our 24-course lunch.
As I work in the food & beverage industry but not a chef, I will limit my descriptions on the food to the actual dish names in the menu and what I thought about some of my favorite items. Below are our favorites from the meal. 😉
The World: appetisers representing Mexico, Singapore, Egypt, Turquia, Peru — we had to guess which appetiser represents which country/place!
My favorite from The World Chili crab to represent Singapore.
Memories of a bar in the suburbs of Girona: squid, kidneys of Sherry, gentian and orange bonbon, Montse’s meat cannelloni, Cod brandade. 
Green olive ice cream and black olive tempura.
Green olive ice cream! I loved how the green olive ice cream was cold and solid at first, and how it bursted in my mouth. 
St. George’s mushroom brioche
At this point, after a series of appetisers and non-soup and non-salad courses (I added “non” because none of them resembled the normal types of soup and salad), I already felt just a little dizzy with being full. Hah!
Mackarel “ajoblanco”
Steamed fresh-caught whole fish market, stuffed with seaweeds and sea anemones 
Prawn marinated with rice vinegar (head juice, crispy prawn legs, and seaweed veloute)
Langoustine with sobrassada sauce, langoustine veloute, parsley jelly
Veal Pastrami with puree of celeriac, marrow and pickled vegetables
Bri’s face when we finally got a meat main course. Ha ha!
White Flower (Ederberry, acacia, orange blossom soursop, lychee and green apple). This dessert starts out as a pearl-like ball on your plate. Then you tap it open with your dessert spoon, breaking it and releasing these beautiful and edible ingredients! Floral, sweet, light, everything I want in a dessert on one plate!
If you have time to watch Chef’s Table season 3 which highlights on desserts, watch the one for El Celler de Can Roca. They were right to feature Jordi Roca as his desserts were one of a kind!
THE PROPOSAL
After the last dessert which was the White Flower, Bri randomly told me that there was one more course coming up. I believed him because our attendant had almost forgotten to serve us the White Flower, so at that time it was possible to have another mix up on another course. He pulled out a box from his pocket, opened it and placed it on the table.
My heart started racing when I saw the box, moreso when I saw the ring that was propped in it! He then took the ring from box, walked over to my side of the table and knelt.
At that moment, everything became still. I couldn’t hear the clanking and scraping of the forks and knives, nor the chit chat from other tables. At that very moment, there was just Bri and I that existed.
The emotions that ran through me were inexplicable. I was filled with excitement that came with just the right amount of fear, and love, so much love for this man kneeling in front of me. After 16 years and everything we had gone through together and apart, now we are here.
He told me he wanted to have more of these moments and adventures with me, and asked if I wanted the same thing. He asked if I would marry him. Without any hesitations and with tear filled eyes, I said yes!
The photo above is a photo taken by one of the guests at the restaurant, a table across us. He was sweet enough to take this photo for us, congratulate us, and ask for Bri’s phone details to send it to us. The ladies from the same table had teary eyes and congratulated us. While our attendant gave us another serving of this time celebratory champagne. 
Bri and I left Girona with our tummies filled to the brim and with both of our hearts full. When we got back to our Air BNB in Barcelona, we had a debriefing with Bri’s sisters, which went pleasantly (as I would have done the same to my siblings). Ate Lia walked to me and said “I’m sorry, Aix” then went to Bri, and to him she said “Congratulations!” Ha ha!
I am grateful to know that Bri had asked my parents’ permission the weekend before our flight. This was very important to me and I’m glad Bri made time to sit with them for it. As of writing this entry, Bri and I are in the Charles de Gaulle airport, awaiting the boarding for our flight back to Manila. I cannot wait to see my family and for us to celebrate our engagement!
Looking back to the many places we had been on this trip, there is only one place that stands out the most: Girona.
Chasing Fran 
Great post 🙂
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