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Published: September 19th 2005
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La Sagrada Familia
A view of the tower-- oh yeah-- we climbed as high as we could. Of course, my nerves were on edge at the end of it and so my legs were shaking ... making it hard to walk DOWN the towers ... So we returned from Barcelona- alive!
Our hostal turned out to be in the best possible location ever! Good job, B! It was right on Las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona, which starts at Placa de Catalunya (center of town and shopping) and goes all the way to the Meditteranean. Also, our hostal was right between two Metro stops which was very helpful since we opted to make our way around the city to all the tourist places on our own using the train as opposed to paying 42 Euros total for touristy bus passes. We ended up spending only 12.40 Euros on travel—not to mention the 3 Euros we had to spend for cab fare Saturday night after the trains stopped running.
So first, we stayed in Barcelona for two days …
Touristy places we visited:
Sagrada Familia—Modern Cathedral which started being built in 1892?
Mercat La Boqueria—huge outdoor market not to far from our hostel. We went there for a few meals and for some fresh fruit.
Park Guell—Park designed buy Gaudi. It was quite a hike getting there but we got some amazing shots of the city.
Pre-Columbian Museum of Art (1.50 euros)—we
La Sagrada Familia (front)
This is the front- main entrance- it is way cooler in person. chose this more rare museum over seeing Picasso (10 euros). They were right across from each other.
Chocolate Museum—mmmm.
Museum of Contemporary Art—double mmmm. I really wanted to go back here—they had a new exhibit— Stanley Brouwn.
The Ramblas— the main street in Barcelona.
Arco de Triunfo
Santa Maria del mar Church—it was in La Ribera district. We stumbled across it while trying to find a tapas restaurant, El Xampanyet, which is known for its awesome tapas and champagne called. We found it- it was closed.
Districts we visited/passed through:
Las Ramblas
Gothic Quarter (where our hostel was)
La Ribera
Raval Distric
Placa Catalunya
The Meditteranean Sea (near the ports)
(if you would like to hear more details about something- let me know- I just thought I'd make this slightly shorter this time. Plus, most of you have already heard about my first trip to Barcelona this past summer.)
Then, on Saturday morning we left Barcelona and headed to Sitges (pronounced SeaTchase), which is a suburb or “barrio” of Barcelona. It is a very touristy place mostly known for its beautiful beaches and queer crowd. When we arrived … it was pouring and the streets were
view
a view of barcelona from a tower flooded. So, yeah, our day at the beautiful beach town turned into wading with huge backpacks in flooded streets.
Story time: Upon our arrival, we wandered around Sitges because we weren’t prepared and didn’t have the address to our new hostal, and of course, we had to walk through flooded streets. I’m serious—like streets that turned into rivers for a few hours. Anyway, we were crossing the street with our huge travel bags, walking on narrow sidewalks, w/o umbrellas when it was storming, and all of a sudden behind me I hear “My shoe!” Yeah so, Bridget’s shoe was stolen by the flood. Oh, we chased it for a good solid block as best we could. It was going really fast. The whole time Bridget was yelling “Mi zapato! Mi zapato!” This one woman ahead of us even tried to stop it with her umbrella. So, the bridge had to roam the streets of Sitges with one shoe until we found our hostel.
It stopped raining around dusk and the streets were free of flooding. After we were settled in we roamed the streets once more to shop for new “floppies” (what a British woman called Bridget’s shoes)
fish
a huge metal statue of a fish. directly behind me is the sea. and various other things. We ended up having dinner at this place that appeared to be but turned out to have no-so-nice-food. We wanted something ‘hardy’ since we felt like we hadn’t eaten much that was substantial in the few days before. So, we ordered different types of spaghetti. Yeah, ok- it was gross. Neither of us could finish it- we can’t explain why. She had some cheesy one and I had pesto but it all tasted funny. At that point we were both grumpy and frustrated from the day so far so we just paid the cheap bill and left, after the waiter questioned us way too much about why we didn’t eat.
We had a good brunch Sunday morning once we returned to Barcelona for a bit to kill time before our 16:30 flight. We had tapas at Tapa Tapa. And Bridget got to eat something other than Croissants and Potatoes … and I got to have a little bit of seafood (no, I forgot to pull the _My Girl_ “seafood” joke).
When I returned there was a new person living in my apartment here. Anna is another international student from Sweden who is staying with
ceiling
the ceiling of santa maria del mar Mercedes and me for 2 months to learn Spanish. Anna doesn’t know Spanish at all and of course Mercedes was firing questions at her in Spanish so Anna and I had a little English break so I could explain things to her after she heard them in Spanish. Anna speaks English, Swedish, French, and I think she knows a little German. Oh, and she watches the OC—which basically means that according to American culture she is way cooler than I am.
Time for grammar homework! yes!
Besos y abrazos,
a.m.o
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