Viva España!!!

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This blog will cover the first week of our time in Spain, in Barcelona and Benicarlo.
We arrived in Barcelona after managing somehow to wake up at 3.30. As we arrived so early in the day we had a whole day to do things. First we walked up Las Ramblas (the main pedestrian street) and bought smoothies and empanadas in La Boqueria, it is one of my favourite places in Barcelona, it´s just a big market but they all make the food look really good. Then we spent the afternoon on the beach, the sand is quite dirty and you have to be very careful about thieves, but it's nice to have a beach so close to a city. That evening we had a stroll around and an ice cream in the port.
The next day we went to Nou Camp, the stadium for Barcelona's football team. I've been to Barcelona before on a school trip but Ally hasn't so I got to see everything again, which I don't mind as it's probably my favourite city I've been to. Then we went to Parc Guell which is a park designed by Gaudi, I really love his architectural style, the famous lizard fountain is there and I think the world's longest bench, but don't quote me on that. In the evening we went to watch the magic fountain of montjuic. Every night these fountains put on a show with lights, music and lots of people getting soaked if they stand too close. It's really pretty and a must see if you're in Barcelona.
We spent our last day walking up Las Ramblas to the main square then along the road which has more of Gaudi's buildings. Until we reached La Sagrada Familia, the massive cathedral that is still being built. We didn't go in as I've been before and the queue was huge, we spent the afternoon on the beach. There are so many people selling things such as beer, mojitos and massages. But as soon as the police arrive they disappear pretty quickly so there is nice peace and quiet.
We nearly missed our train to Benicarlo, Ally set the alarm but slept through it I woke up and stayed awake but as she wasnt getting up I assumed she had set the wrong time. When I looked at my watch a bit later I realised we were 45 minutes late. We rushed to the train station with 10 minutes until the train left, only to be told that we were in the wrong train station (it was mis-printed on the ticket) and had to change on the metro twice to get to it. We got to the next station 5 minutes after the train had left, I was about to buy us new tickets when the man suddenly pointed to the tracks and was like 'go go go!' but in spanish. The original train was late but the information board didn't say it, after a lot of panicking we managed to get on the right train.
I can't wait to go back to Barcelona, if only they didn't speak Catalan so much I would love to spend my year abroad at uni here.

So we arrived in Benicarlo and had to walk in the heat down a very long road to our accomodation. It was probably the weirdest one, it was a couple from Belgium and The Netherland's house. They had 7 dogs and we were the only guests. It did feel like something out of a horror movie as we were so remote and they both have crazy teeth and hair, but we survived! We spent the days at the beach as we didn't want to spend too much time at their house. We also had a chinese buffet one night, as we had been craving it for some time. We got a lift to the train station with the Dutch man, he started slowing and going into a little alley way, I thought for sure we were goners. I have realised I have a bit of an over active imagination on this trip, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Only one more week to blog about now 😞 I'm actually home in 2 days time but I've fallen behind writing these. It will probably be written on Wednesday, and the photos will follow. I've taken 1300 but don't worry I won't put them all on.

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