Blogs from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe
May 24th 2012
We were about the last to be dragged kicking and screaming off the ship after a lengthy two hour breakfast on the back deck. It is quite frightening going out into the real world where there is no one to cater for your every whim. I feel as if we have been away for months, and am completely institutionalised. The weather is beautiful as we set off for the beach after checking into our hotel which has the most beautiful view over the whole of Barcelona from our terrace. The beach was quite deserted when we paid 18 euros for our sunbeds and umbrella at 10.00 am, but within an hour the whole of Barcelona had joined us. For every person on the beach we were then joined by an equal number of Thai massage girls ... read more
May 16th 2012
A paisagem a caminho de Barcelona eh bastante seca, nao tem muitas arvores nas montanhas, achei bem parecido com o Marrocos. Foi uma viagem longa, mais de 600 km, mas foi divertida. Na metade do caminho paramos em Zaragoza para comermos e visitamos o Castelo do Parlamento, e seguimos viagem a Barcelona. Estavamos usando o mapa no iPhone da Carla, pois compramos um chip da Vodafone da Espanha. Para a nossa “alegria”, chegando em Barcelona, a bateria do celular acabou, e para melhorar a situacao, nao tinhamos um mapa da cidade. Sabiamos que o hostel era perto da Plaza del Mar, e que ficava perto da agua, pois tinha visto a localizacao do hostel na hora da reserva. A Carla teve a ideia de seguirmos as placas para o porto, o que foi perfeito. Chegando na ... read more
May 12th 2012
Up early and out for a cappuccino of Las Ramblas - no breakfast because we are saving ourselves for the ship, and then a quick checkout before hailing down a taxi to be amongst the first on the ship! A bit of a palava getting through the check in and then its like stepping back in time. Everything is as it was two years ago and we keep on expecting to see Bill and Susie around every corner. Very sad. We had a lovely brunch sitting out on the back deck in our old favourite spot (why does anyone eat inside?), and now were getting ready for the Lifeboat drill before setting off for Naples at 5.00. I think we will have one or two G & T's on the Sunset deck tonight before going into ... read more
May 11th 2012
Day 4 Big excitement - we head to the home of the greatest soccer team in the world according to Cooper, who has become the number on fan of Lionel Messi. Caught a taxi into town, the bus queue was huge. Then jumped on the good old hoho bus (hop on hop off) and toured Barcelona - got off at Camp Nou - home of Barcelona FC. Looked around and spent ages shopping. Coop left a very happy boy - they even have Barca FC chips - which Kasey promptly ate. Then headed to see the work of Gaudi - in it's varous forms - we were all totally blown away by Sargda Famillia - maybe i spelt that wrong. Spent ages there looking around. Can't beleive it still has another 20 yrs to go and ... read more
May 10th 2012
We were a little late setting off due to my suitcase being 3k overweight and there was nothing I could take out. Eventually I put some stuff in Neil's case and off we went. Everything went amazingly like clockwork despite nearly missing the plane and very soon we were in Barcelona. I don't know why I don't come here more often - its just down the road. There's a strange yellow thing in the sky which is an unusual brilliant blue colour. Our hotel The Royal Ramblas is right on Las Ramblas which must be one of Europe's most vibrant streets. We checked in then went off for a long walk, stopping for a beer in a lovely spot on the harbour. Neil began to start thinking about food so we went off without delay in ... read more
May 8th 2012
Apparently I was wrong with my timing, so any times listed in my previous post add an hour. The time here is 7 hours ahead, not 6. We went inside the Sagrada Família church this morning. It was neat but the experience lasted far too long for my taste, I think some of the churches I went into on my last Eurotrip were more interesting than this one. The Picasso museum and tour was painfully boring and apparently I'm the only one that feels that way, it lasted for about 3 hours - 178 minutes too long. I cannot remember a time where I have been in such painfully boring misery before today. I care not about art and now I officially hate Picasso simply for being the topic of such boredom. The only interesting part ... read more
May 7th 2012
We started our journey at 7AM(US, central), connecting from OKC to Chicago to Philly and finally to Barcelona. I slept 20 or so minutes on the flight to Chicago, most of the flight to Philly, and the entire flight to Barcelona minus the time we ate and movie. Apparently I'm the only one that got much sleep so every one else was dog tired and I was pretty much well-rested. The airplane was awesome, it was equipped with several movies (for the longest time you just had to watch what was planned), full-legnth CDs, 12+ TV shows (MASH, Frasier, Sex in the City etc), and radio stations to stop and watch when you wanted. It also had games, some of which you could play against the other folks on the plane!! Of course the first picture ... read more
Barcelona And Santa Susanna Dom's 30th Birthday :o)
Published: May 6th 2012Europe » Spain » Catalonia » Barcelona » Barcelona
May 5th 2012
Day 1 Dave took us to the train station. Got the train and shuttle to the airport Flight at 18.50 arriving at 21.50 local time then Shuttle from Barcelona to Santa susanna, costing £20pp each, return - coach journey took just over an hour, but seemed to take forever, we also had to wait for people who hadn't made it to the bus in time. Arrived at the hotel (Santa Susanna Resort) at midnight, just missed the all inclusive last orders, hotel was rammed with drunken Brits!! Wheeeey!! Got the keys to our room and got our head down. Day 2 Got up early, weather looked a bit dull, but by the time we had finished breakfast (fry up) it had all cleared up. Plenty of choice at breakfast, continental as well as British classics ... read more
May 3rd 2012
First time in Spain and I can’t even completely use my Spanish since we are in Catalonia and the language of choice for most people is Catalan. That being said, most people also speak Spanish and Catalan is kind of a combination of French and Spanish so we got by just fine. My Spanish, however, is the definition of rusty. 4 months in Switzerland definitely improved my French, but it did the opposite for my Spanish. Hopefully it will make a quick recovery… I traveled to Barcelona with Kavya, a girl from my program. We were there for four days and we literally walked our legs off. By the end we were both ready to just sit down and not move, but we saw all the main things in the city and some of the smaller ... read more
Semana Catorce- Mis Cosas Favoritas
Published: May 1st 2012Europe » Spain » Catalonia » Barcelona » Barcelona
April 30th 2012
Hola familia y amigos! Trip and adventure-less this weekend (very relaxing!!) I have been walking the city and decided to write about a few of my favorite things about Barcelona, Spain, and Europe in general! There are so many aspects of the life here that I love and admire and can't wait to take back with me, the ones that I can at least. I can't put them in order and some have pictures along with them, but others wont, and of course most pictures truly do not give the places and things I love enough credit. Graffiti- Here, especially so in Barcelona, graffiti is it's own art. Every shop-gate door, delivery truck and even the ground itself has messages artistically designed in spraypaint. English, Spanish Catalan and just pictures tells stories of the thoughts behind ... read more
