In our earlier submit Backtesting index rebalancing arbitrage with Amazon EMR and Apache Iceberg, we confirmed use Apache Iceberg within the context of technique backtesting. On this submit, we concentrate on knowledge administration implementation choices resembling accessing knowledge instantly in Amazon Easy Storage Service (Amazon S3), utilizing widespread knowledge codecs like Parquet, or utilizing open desk codecs like Iceberg. Our experiments are primarily based on real-world historic full order e book knowledge, supplied by our associate CryptoStruct, and evaluate the trade-offs between these decisions, specializing in efficiency, price, and quant developer productiveness.
Knowledge administration is the inspiration of quantitative analysis. Quant researchers spend roughly 80% of their time on mandatory however not impactful knowledge administration duties resembling knowledge ingestion, validation, correction, and reformatting. Conventional knowledge administration decisions embrace relational, SQL, NoSQL, and specialised time sequence databases. Lately, advances in parallel computing within the cloud have made object shops like Amazon S3 and columnar file codecs like Parquet a most popular selection.
This submit explores how Iceberg can improve quant analysis platforms by bettering question efficiency, decreasing prices, and growing productiveness, in the end enabling quicker and extra environment friendly technique improvement in quantitative finance. Our evaluation exhibits that Iceberg can speed up question efficiency by as much as 52%, cut back operational prices, and considerably enhance knowledge administration at scale.
Having chosen Amazon S3 as our storage layer, a key determination is whether or not to entry Parquet information instantly or use an open desk format like Iceberg. Iceberg provides distinct benefits by means of its metadata layer over Parquet, resembling improved knowledge administration, efficiency optimization, and integration with varied question engines.
On this submit, we use the time period vanilla Parquet to confer with Parquet information saved instantly in Amazon S3 and accessed by means of normal question engines like Apache Spark, with out the extra options supplied by desk codecs resembling Iceberg.
Quant developer and researcher productiveness
On this part, we concentrate on the productiveness options provided by Iceberg and the way it compares to instantly studying information in Amazon S3. As talked about earlier, 80% of quantitative analysis work is attributed to knowledge administration duties. Enterprise influence closely depends on high quality knowledge (“rubbish in, rubbish out”). Quants and platform groups need to ingest knowledge from a number of sources with completely different velocities and replace frequencies, after which validate and proper the info. These actions translate into the flexibility to run append, insert, replace, and delete operations. For easy append operations, each Parquet on Amazon S3 and Iceberg supply comparable comfort and productiveness. Nonetheless, real-world knowledge isn’t excellent and must be corrected. Gaps filling (inserts), error corrections and restatements (updates), and eradicating duplicates (deletes) are the obvious examples. When writing knowledge within the Parquet format on to Amazon S3 with out utilizing an open desk format like Iceberg, it’s a must to write code to establish the affected partition, appropriate errors, and rewrite the partition. Furthermore, if the write job fails or a downstream learn job happens throughout this write operation, all downstream jobs have the potential of studying inconsistent knowledge. Nonetheless, Iceberg has built-in insert, replace, and delete options with ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Sturdiness) properties, and the framework itself manages the Amazon S3 mechanics in your behalf.
Guarding towards lookahead bias is a necessary functionality of any quant analysis platform—what backtests as a worthwhile buying and selling technique can render itself ineffective and unprofitable in actual time. Iceberg supplies time journey and snapshotting capabilities out of the field to handle lookahead bias that might be embedded within the knowledge (resembling delayed knowledge supply).
Simplified knowledge corrections and updates
Iceberg enhances knowledge administration for quants in capital markets by means of its sturdy insert, delete, and replace capabilities. These options permit environment friendly knowledge corrections, gap-filling in time sequence, and historic knowledge updates with out disrupting ongoing analyses or compromising knowledge integrity.
Not like direct Amazon S3 entry, Iceberg helps these operations on petabyte-scale knowledge lakes with out requiring complicated customized code. This simplifies knowledge modification processes, which is essential for ingesting and updating massive volumes of market and commerce knowledge, rapidly iterating on backtesting and reprocessing workflows, and sustaining detailed audit trails for danger and compliance necessities.
Iceberg’s desk format separates knowledge information from metadata information, enabling environment friendly knowledge modifications with out full dataset rewrites. This strategy additionally reduces costly ListObjects API calls usually wanted when instantly accessing Parquet information in Amazon S3.
Moreover, Iceberg provides merge on learn (MoR) and replica on write (CoW) approaches, offering flexibility for various quant analysis wants. MoR permits quicker writes, appropriate for regularly up to date datasets, and CoW supplies quicker reads, useful for read-heavy workflows like backtesting.
For instance, when a brand new knowledge supply or attribute is added, quant researchers can seamlessly incorporate it into their Iceberg tables after which reprocess historic knowledge, assured they’re utilizing appropriate, time-appropriate data. This functionality is especially helpful in sustaining the integrity of backtests and the reliability of buying and selling methods.
In eventualities involving large-scale knowledge corrections or updates, resembling adjusting for inventory splits or dividend funds throughout historic knowledge, Iceberg’s environment friendly replace mechanisms considerably cut back processing time and useful resource utilization in comparison with conventional strategies.
These options collectively enhance productiveness and knowledge administration effectivity in quant analysis environments, permitting researchers to focus extra on technique improvement and fewer on knowledge dealing with complexities.
Historic knowledge entry for backtesting and validation
Iceberg’s time journey characteristic can allow quant builders and researchers to entry and analyze historic snapshots of their knowledge. This functionality will be helpful whereas performing duties like backtesting, mannequin validation, and understanding knowledge lineage.
Iceberg simplifies time journey workflows on Amazon S3 by introducing a metadata layer that tracks the historical past of adjustments made to the desk. You possibly can confer with this metadata layer to create a psychological mannequin of how Iceberg’s time journey functionality works.
Iceberg’s time journey functionality is pushed by an idea referred to as snapshots, that are recorded in metadata information. These metadata information act as a central repository that shops desk metadata, together with the historical past of snapshots. Moreover, Iceberg makes use of manifest information to supply a illustration of knowledge information, their partitions, and any related deleted information. These manifest information are referenced within the metadata snapshots, permitting Iceberg to establish the related knowledge for a particular time limit.
When a consumer requests a time journey question, the standard workflow entails querying a particular snapshot. Iceberg makes use of the snapshot identifier to find the corresponding metadata snapshot within the metadata information. The time journey functionality is invaluable to quants, enabling them to backtest and validate methods towards historic knowledge, reproduce and debug points, carry out what-if evaluation, adjust to rules by sustaining audit trails and reproducing previous states, and roll again and get better from knowledge corruption or errors. Quants may also acquire deeper insights into present market tendencies and correlate them with historic patterns. Additionally, the time journey characteristic can additional mitigate any dangers of lookahead bias. Researchers can entry the precise knowledge snapshots that have been current prior to now, after which run their fashions and methods towards this historic knowledge, with out the danger of inadvertently incorporating future data.
Seamless integration with acquainted instruments
Iceberg supplies a wide range of interfaces that allow seamless integration with the open supply instruments and AWS companies that quant builders and researchers are accustomed to.
Iceberg supplies a complete SQL interface that permits quant groups to work together with their knowledge utilizing acquainted SQL syntax. This SQL interface is appropriate with widespread question engines and knowledge processing frameworks, resembling Spark, Trino, Amazon Athena, and Hive. Quant builders and researchers can use their current SQL data and instruments to question, filter, combination, and analyze their knowledge saved in Iceberg tables.
Along with the first interface of SQL, Iceberg additionally supplies the DataFrame API, which permits quant groups to programmatically work together with their knowledge with widespread distributed knowledge processing frameworks like Spark and Flink in addition to skinny shoppers like PyIceberg. Quants can additional use this API to construct extra programmatic approaches to entry and manipulate knowledge, permitting for the implementation of customized logic and integration of Iceberg with different AWS ecosystems like Amazon EMR.
Though accessing knowledge from Amazon S3 is a viable possibility, Iceberg supplies a number of benefits like metadata administration, efficiency optimization utilizing partition pruning, knowledge manipulation, and a wealthy AWS ecosystem integration together with companies like Athena and Amazon EMR with extra seamless and feature-rich knowledge processing expertise.
Undifferentiated heavy lifting
Knowledge partitioning is considered one of main contributing elements to optimizing combination throughput to and from Amazon S3, contributing to general Excessive Efficiency Computing (HPC) surroundings price-performance.
Quant researchers usually face efficiency bottlenecks and complicated knowledge administration challenges when coping with large-scale datasets in Amazon S3. As mentioned in Finest practices design patterns: optimizing Amazon S3 efficiency, single prefix efficiency is restricted to three,500 PUT/COPY/POST/DELETE or 5,500 GET/HEAD requests per second per partitioned Amazon S3 prefix. Iceberg’s metadata layer and clever partitioning methods routinely optimize knowledge entry patterns, decreasing the chance of I/O throttling and minimizing the necessity for guide efficiency tuning. This automation permits quant groups to concentrate on creating and refining buying and selling methods somewhat than troubleshooting knowledge entry points or optimizing storage layouts.
On this part, we talk about conditions we found whereas operating our experiments at scale and options supplied by Iceberg vs. vanilla Parquet when accessing knowledge in Amazon S3.
As we talked about within the introduction, the character of quant analysis is “fail quick”—new concepts need to be rapidly evaluated after which both prioritized for a deep dive or dismissed. This makes it inconceivable to give you common partitioning that works on a regular basis and for all analysis kinds.
When accessing knowledge instantly as Parquet information in Amazon S3, with out utilizing an open desk format like Iceberg, partitioning and throttling points can come up. Partitioning on this case is decided by the bodily structure of information in Amazon S3, and a mismatch between the meant partitioning and the precise file structure can result in I/O throttling exceptions. Moreover, itemizing directories in Amazon S3 may also end in throttling exceptions as a result of excessive variety of API calls required.
In distinction, Iceberg supplies a metadata layer that abstracts away the bodily file structure in Amazon S3. Partitioning is outlined on the desk stage, and Iceberg handles the mapping between logical partitions and the underlying file construction. This abstraction helps mitigate partitioning points and reduces the chance of I/O throttling exceptions. Moreover, Iceberg’s metadata caching mechanism minimizes the variety of Checklist API calls required, addressing the listing itemizing throttling difficulty.
Though each approaches contain direct entry to Amazon S3, Iceberg is an open desk format that introduces a metadata layer, offering higher partitioning administration and decreasing the danger of throttling exceptions. It doesn’t act as a database itself, however somewhat as a knowledge format and processing engine on prime of the underlying storage (on this case, Amazon S3).
One of the vital efficient methods to deal with Amazon S3 API quota limits is salting (random hash prefixes)—a way that provides random partition IDs to Amazon S3 paths. This will increase the chance of prefixes residing on completely different bodily partitions, serving to distribute API requests extra evenly. Iceberg helps this performance out of the field for each knowledge ingestion and studying.
Implementing salting instantly in Amazon S3 requires complicated customized code to create and use partitioning schemes with random keys within the naming hierarchy. This strategy necessitates a customized knowledge catalog and metadata system to map bodily paths to logical paths, permitting direct partition entry with out counting on Amazon S3 Checklist API calls. With out such a system, purposes danger exceeding Amazon S3 API quotas when accessing particular partitions.
At petabyte scale, Iceberg’s benefits develop into clear. It effectively manages knowledge by means of the next options:
- Listing caching
- Configurable partitioning methods (vary, bucket)
- Knowledge administration performance (compaction)
- Catalog, metadata, and statistics use for optimum execution plans
These built-in options eradicate the necessity for customized options to handle Amazon S3 API quotas and knowledge group at scale, decreasing improvement time and upkeep prices whereas bettering question efficiency and reliability.
Efficiency
We highlighted a whole lot of the performance of Iceberg that eliminates undifferentiated heavy lifting and improves developer and quant productiveness. What about efficiency?
This part evaluates whether or not Iceberg’s metadata layer introduces overhead or delivers optimization for quantitative analysis use instances, evaluating it with vanilla Parquet entry on Amazon S3. We look at how these approaches influence widespread quant analysis queries and workflows.
The important thing query is whether or not Iceberg’s metadata layer, designed to optimize vanilla Parquet entry on Amazon S3, introduces overhead or delivers the meant optimization for quantitative analysis use instances. Then we talk about overlapping optimization methods, resembling knowledge distribution and sorting. We additionally talk about that there isn’t a magic partitioning and all sorting scheme the place one dimension suits all within the context of quant analysis. Our benchmarks present that Iceberg performs comparably to direct Amazon S3 entry, with further optimizations from its metadata and statistics utilization, just like database indexing.
Vanilla Parquet vs Iceberg: Amazon S3 learn efficiency
We created 4 completely different datasets: two utilizing Iceberg and two with direct Amazon S3 Parquet entry, every with each sorted and unsorted write distributions. The aim of this train was to check the efficiency of direct Amazon S3 Parquet entry vs. the Iceberg open desk format, bearing in mind the influence of write distribution patterns when operating varied queries generally utilized in quantitative buying and selling analysis.
Question 1
We first run a easy rely question to get the overall variety of information within the desk. This question helps perceive the baseline efficiency for a simple operation. For instance, if the desk incorporates tick-level market knowledge for varied monetary devices, the rely may give an concept of the overall variety of knowledge factors obtainable for evaluation.
The next is the code for vanilla Parquet:
Question 2
Our second question is a grouping and counting question to search out the variety of information for every mixture of exchange_code and instrument. This question is usually utilized in quantitative buying and selling analysis to research market liquidity and buying and selling exercise throughout completely different devices and exchanges.
The next is the code for vanilla Parquet:
The next is the code for Iceberg:
Question 3
Subsequent, we run a definite question to retrieve the distinct combos of yr, month, and day from the adapterTimestamp_ts_utc column. In quantitative buying and selling analysis, this question will be useful for understanding the time vary lined by the dataset. Researchers can use this data to establish durations of curiosity for his or her evaluation, resembling particular market occasions, financial cycles, or seasonal patterns.
The next is the code for vanilla Parquet:
The next is the code for Iceberg:
Question 4
Lastly, we run a grouping and counting question with a date vary filter on the adapterTimestamp_ts_utc column. This question is just like Question 2 however focuses on a particular time interval. You would use this question to research market exercise or liquidity throughout particular time durations, resembling durations of excessive volatility, market crashes, or financial occasions. Researchers can use this data to establish potential buying and selling alternatives or examine the influence of those occasions on market dynamics.
The next is the code for vanilla Parquet:
The next is the code for Iceberg. As a result of Iceberg has a metadata layer, the row rely will be fetched from metadata:
Check outcomes
To guage the efficiency and value advantages of utilizing Iceberg for our quant analysis knowledge lake, we created 4 completely different datasets: two with Iceberg tables and two with direct Amazon S3 Parquet entry, every utilizing each sorted and unsorted write distributions. We first ran AWS Glue write jobs to create the Iceberg tables after which mirrored the identical write processes for the Amazon S3 Parquet datasets. For the unsorted datasets, we partitioned the info by alternate and instrument, and for the sorted datasets, we added a form key on the time column.
Subsequent, we ran a sequence of queries generally utilized in quantitative buying and selling analysis, together with easy rely queries, grouping and counting, distinct worth queries, and queries with date vary filters. Our benchmarking course of concerned studying knowledge from Amazon S3, performing varied transformations and joins, and writing the processed knowledge again to Amazon S3 as Parquet information.
By evaluating runtimes and prices throughout completely different knowledge codecs and write distributions, we quantified the advantages of Iceberg’s optimized knowledge group, metadata administration, and environment friendly Amazon S3 knowledge dealing with. The outcomes confirmed that Iceberg not solely enhanced question efficiency with out introducing vital overhead, but additionally lowered the chance of job failures, reruns, and throttling points, resulting in extra secure and predictable job execution, notably with massive datasets saved in Amazon S3.
AWS Glue write jobs
Within the following desk, we evaluate the efficiency and the fee implications of utilizing Iceberg vs. vanilla Parquet entry on Amazon S3, bearing in mind the next use instances:
- Iceberg desk (unsorted) – We created an Iceberg desk partitioned by
exchange_codeandinstrumentWhich means that the info was bodily partitioned in Amazon S3 primarily based on the distinctive combos ofexchange_codeandinstrumentvalues. Partitioning the info on this means can enhance question efficiency, as a result of Iceberg can prune out partitions that aren’t related to a specific question, decreasing the quantity of knowledge that must be scanned. The info was not sorted on any column on this case, which is the default conduct. - Vanilla Parquet (unsorted) – For this use case, we wrote the info instantly as Parquet information to Amazon S3, with out utilizing Iceberg. We repartitioned the info by
exchange_codeandinstrumentcolumns utilizing normal hash partitioning earlier than writing it out. Repartitioning was essential to keep away from potential throttling points when studying the info later, as a result of accessing knowledge instantly from Amazon S3 with out clever partitioning can result in too many requests hitting the identical S3 prefix. Just like the Iceberg desk, the info was not sorted on any column on this case. To make comparability truthful, we used the precise repartition rely that Iceberg makes use of. - Iceberg desk (sorted) – We created one other Iceberg desk, this time partitioned by
exchange_codeandinstrumentMoreover, we sorted the info on this desk on theadapterTimestamp_ts_utccolumn. Sorting the info can enhance question efficiency for sure kinds of queries, resembling those who contain vary filters or ordered outputs. Iceberg routinely handles the sorting and partitioning of the info transparently to the consumer. - Vanilla Parquet (sorted) – For this use case, we once more wrote the info instantly as Parquet information to Amazon S3, with out utilizing Iceberg. We repartitioned the info by vary on the
exchange_code,instrument, andadapterTimestamp_ts_utccolumns earlier than writing it out utilizing normal vary partitioning with 1996 partition rely, as a result of this was what Iceberg was utilizing primarily based on SparkUI. Repartitioning on the time column (adapterTimestamp_ts_utc) was mandatory to attain a sorted write distribution, as a result of Parquet information are sorted inside every partition. This sorted write distribution can enhance question efficiency for sure kinds of queries, just like the sorted Iceberg desk.
| Write Distribution Sample | Iceberg Desk (Unsorted) | Vanilla Parquet (Unsorted) | Iceberg Desk (Sorted) | Vanilla Parquet (Sorted) |
| DPU Hours | 899.46639 | 915.70222 | 1402 | 1365 |
| Variety of S3 Objects | 7444 | 7288 | 9283 | 9283 |
| Measurement of S3 Parquet Objects | 567.7 GB | 629.8 GB | 525.6 GB | 627.1 GB |
| Runtime | 1h 51m 40s | 1h 53m 29s | 2h 52m 7s | 2h 47m 36s |
AWS Glue learn jobs
For the AWS Glue learn jobs, we ran a sequence of queries generally utilized in quantitative buying and selling analysis, resembling easy counts, grouping and counting, distinct worth queries, and queries with date vary filters. We in contrast the efficiency of those queries between the Iceberg tables and the vanilla Parquet information learn in Amazon S3. Within the following desk, you possibly can see two AWS Glue jobs that present the efficiency and value implications of entry patterns described earlier.
| Learn Queries / Runtime in Seconds | Iceberg Desk | Vanilla Parquet |
| COUNT(1) on unsorted | 35.76s | 74.62s |
| GROUP BY and ORDER BY on unsorted | 34.29s | 67.99s |
| DISTINCT and SELECT on unsorted | 51.40s | 82.95s |
| FILTER and GROUP BY and ORDER BY on unsorted | 25.84s | 49.05s |
| COUNT(1) on sorted | 15.29s | 24.25s |
| GROUP BY and ORDER BY on sorted | 15.88s | 28.73s |
| DISTINCT and SELECT on sorted | 30.85s | 42.06s |
| FILTER and GROUP BY and ORDER BY on sorted | 15.51s | 31.51s |
| AWS Glue DPU hours | 45.98 | 67.97 |
Check outcomes insights
These check outcomes provided the next insights:
- Accelerated question efficiency – Iceberg improved learn operations by as much as 52% for unsorted knowledge and 51% for sorted knowledge. This pace enhance permits quant researchers to research bigger datasets and check buying and selling methods extra quickly. In quantitative finance, the place pace is essential, this efficiency acquire permits groups to uncover market insights quicker, probably gaining a aggressive edge.
- Decreased operational prices – For read-intensive workloads, Iceberg lowered DPU hours by 32.4% and achieved a ten–16% discount in Amazon S3 storage. These effectivity positive aspects translate to price financial savings in data-intensive quant operations. With Iceberg, corporations can run extra complete analyses throughout the similar funds or reallocate assets to different high-value actions, optimizing their analysis capabilities.
- Enhanced knowledge administration and scalability – Iceberg confirmed comparable write efficiency for unsorted knowledge (899.47 DPU hours vs. 915.70 for vanilla Parquet) and maintained constant object counts throughout sorted and unsorted eventualities (7,444 and 9,283, respectively). This consistency results in extra dependable and predictable job execution. For quant groups coping with large-scale datasets, this reduces time spent on troubleshooting knowledge infrastructure points and will increase concentrate on creating buying and selling methods.
- Improved productiveness – Iceberg outperformed vanilla Parquet entry throughout varied question sorts. Easy counts have been 52.1% quicker, grouping and ordering operations improved by 49.6%, and filtered queries have been 47.3% quicker for unsorted knowledge. This efficiency enhancement boosts productiveness in quant analysis workflows. It reduces question completion occasions, permitting quant builders and researchers to spend extra time on mannequin improvement and market evaluation, resulting in quicker iteration on buying and selling methods.
Conclusion
Quant analysis platforms usually keep away from adopting new knowledge administration options like Iceberg, fearing efficiency penalties and elevated prices. Our evaluation disproves these considerations, demonstrating that Iceberg not solely matches or enhances efficiency in comparison with direct Amazon S3 entry, but additionally supplies substantial further advantages.
Our assessments reveal that Iceberg considerably accelerates question efficiency, with enhancements of as much as 52% for unsorted knowledge and 51% for sorted knowledge. This pace enhance permits quant researchers to research bigger datasets and check buying and selling methods extra quickly, probably uncovering helpful market insights quicker.
Iceberg streamlines knowledge administration duties, permitting researchers to concentrate on technique improvement. Its sturdy insert, replace, and delete capabilities, mixed with time journey options, allow easy administration of complicated datasets, bettering backtest accuracy and facilitating fast technique iteration.
The platform’s clever dealing with of partitioning and Amazon S3 API quota points eliminates undifferentiated heavy lifting, liberating quant groups from low-level knowledge engineering duties. This automation redirects efforts to high-value actions resembling mannequin improvement and market evaluation. Furthermore, our assessments present that for read-intensive workloads, Iceberg lowered DPU hours by 32.4% and achieved a ten–16% discount in Amazon S3 storage, resulting in vital price financial savings.
Flexibility is a key benefit of Iceberg. Its varied interfaces, together with SQL, DataFrames, and programmatic APIs, combine seamlessly with current quant analysis workflows, accommodating various evaluation wants and coding preferences.
By adopting Iceberg, quant analysis groups acquire each efficiency enhancements and highly effective knowledge administration instruments. This mixture creates an surroundings the place researchers can push analytical boundaries, preserve excessive knowledge integrity requirements, and concentrate on producing helpful insights. The improved productiveness and lowered operational prices allow quant groups to allocate assets extra successfully, in the end resulting in a extra aggressive edge in quantitative finance.
In regards to the Authors
Man Bachar is a Senior Options Architect at AWS primarily based in New York. He focuses on aiding capital markets clients with their cloud transformation journeys. His experience encompasses identification administration, safety, and unified communication.
Sercan Karaoglu is Senior Options Architect, specialised in capital markets. He’s a former knowledge engineer and keen about quantitative funding analysis.
Boris Litvin is a Principal Options Architect at AWS. His job is in monetary companies trade innovation. Boris joined AWS from the trade, most just lately Goldman Sachs, the place he held a wide range of quantitative roles throughout fairness, FX, and rates of interest, and was CEO and Founding father of a quantitative buying and selling FinTech startup.
Salim Tutuncu is a Senior Accomplice Options Architect Specialist on Knowledge & AI, primarily based in Dubai with a concentrate on the EMEA. With a background within the know-how sector that spans roles as a knowledge engineer, knowledge scientist, and machine studying engineer, Salim has constructed a formidable experience in navigating the complicated panorama of knowledge and synthetic intelligence. His present function entails working carefully with companions to develop long-term, worthwhile companies utilizing the AWS platform, notably in knowledge and AI use instances.
Alex Tarasov is a Senior Options Architect working with Fintech startup clients, serving to them to design and run their knowledge workloads on AWS. He’s a former knowledge engineer and is keen about all issues knowledge and machine studying.
Jiwan Panjiker is a Options Architect at Amazon Internet Providers, primarily based within the Higher New York Metropolis space. He works with AWS enterprise clients, serving to them of their cloud journey to resolve complicated enterprise issues by making efficient use of AWS companies. Exterior of labor, he likes spending time together with his family and friends, going for lengthy drives, and exploring native delicacies.
