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Published: August 6th 2007
Whaa?
Barcelona metro got QUITE confusing...Hey all!
Soooo we're in FLORENCE ITALY now!
woot! our hostel doesn't open up to our rooms till 2:30pm, and i have massive cramps (darn girl problems.), so we've decided to take it easy, and just use the internet!
oh yea, guys, remember to subscribe to this blog if u wanna get e-mails everytime i updated! just scroll down and look to the right and press subscribe!
So i'll tell ya'all about Barcelona!
We're definitely very sad to be gone, but excited for Italy!
Oh yea, so I'm warning you guys, this is gonna be a doozy of a blog, jus cuz, i'm writing down everything!! so really, no pressure to read all this! cuz this way doubles as a update tool and a personal journal for me and ruby to remember this trip!
so if u guys aren't in for the reading, just lookit the pretty pictures! =D
OKAY:
JUNE 4th:
So where i left offf.....oh yea, So we went to Mambo Tango, our hostel, which has an extremely homey feel! it's amazing how much it feels like a home! It's run by Mariana (a young girl of not even 30 from Argentina) and her boyfriend, and her
mom is there as the cook and the cleaner! They have two very hyper active pittbull looking dogs, and yea, it's just an awesome atmosphere. it's tiny, but it's extremely clean! and they always have spanish music blasting, which really adds to the atmosphere!
what's funny though, was that just outside the hostel is a KFC and a pizza hut. ahhahaha, and of course, i attacked the KFC rite away! mm..barcelona and in KFC. i'm really living it up Spanish styles!
So, we share a room with 4 other people, but in our ceiling there's a hole, adn the two owners basically climb up through that hole through our room to sleep in the beds there at night! haha, so it's like sharing a room with 6 ppl!
We went to the Gothic Quarter on that day. Which are series of narrow street and open squares closed off to the traffic. Most of the buildings are from Medieval times, so they have a dark ancient feel to it! We went to see the major Cathedral there, but it was all under construction, so we sadly just left without taking pics. (sigh).
We got really hungry, so i went
to get a sandwich from a sandwich shop, but when i went to ask for the price, the lady started speaking to me in quick Spanish, and i have no idea how to speak in Spanish! Ruby and I both looked at each other really confused, and stuttering out that we didn't know how to speak Spanish, but she just kept yelling at us in louder spanish, and pointing at the sandwich, and making REALLY big hand gestures. We then got scared, and ran away.
OH YEA. side note: Barcelona has a lot of palm trees. We got excited. and took pictures of palm trees.
Back to story: After leaving, I turned around to look at the store, and i saw a girl stealing the same sandwich that i wanted when the store owner's head was turned. haha, it was really funny. Cuz the sandwich was under a glass counter, and the girl very slowly, and suspiciously, reached over hte counter, under the glass, and took it. Man. she didn't even wait until she was out of the store's sight to start eating it. She slowly walked off eating it! ..man. i wanted that sandwich!
We then saw
"Les Ramblas". Which is a long street with lots of shops and all that. it's supposed to be a huge attraction, with tons of tourists going to it each year. but meh. i found it to be a bit ovverrated. it was a street. with stores. It was cool in the fact that there were stores on either side of the road, but ontop of that there was a large middle walkway filled with food stalls, jewelery booths, flowers shops, souvenir stores, and just a lot of random stuff! There were also many buskers, and man, Barcelona is filled with those buskers that act like statues! there was one after another on that street! They all had amazingly creative ideas too. And when they froze, it was amazing. There were a few, that when we walked by, we had to double back, and stare at them, just cuz they were painted bronze and actually looked like statues. no movement at all!! one didn't' even blink! insane.
So one thing ruby and i noticed about Barcelona was that any place that sells magazine will have porno magazines right in the open. Nude girls on the cover of these magazines, and
they were placed next to regular magazines!! ruby and i were shocked, but everyone else were just so indifferent to it! Curious indeed. These Spanish are obviously not embarrassed about sex!
We then went exploring and saw Casa Batllo, which was AMAZING. It's completely unique, colourful and fun. I've never seen a building like it before! It looks like a gingerbread house. Or a building straight out of Disneyworld! Funny thing is, it's actually known to Barcelona ppl as the "House of Bones". And i guess i can see how some parts of it may look like a skeleton!
Brief history: A lot of the iconic buildings in Barcelona was built by a man named Antoni Gaudi, who is a brilliant brilliant architect! He has such creative ideas that he is able to turn into reality! And all his works are scattered across Barcelona!
So after a long photo-op there, we went toooooo.............
............Starbucks.
We craved it. nuff said. We chatted for a long while outside Starbucks (because outside every cafe *and there's a cafe seriously, every 5 shops*, there's a huge sitting area outside on the sidewalks (which are massive), where ppl can jus chill outside! And the sitting areas are always filled with ppl just having a coffee, or a beer and chatting! (adds to barcelona's "chill" atmosphere!)
We then ventuered farther on the street and went to La Pedera. Which was another building by Gaudi. Which can be described as waves of sanddunes or lava (thank you wikipedia for that.) We paid to go up to the top, where we saw a stunning view of the city center of Barcelona. Inside in the lobby, i was actually floored. I just stood there for ages just staring at the painted walls with my mouth open. And since the lobby opens up to the sky, the sunlight that shines in illuminates the paintings, and it's just, ...wow. haha, i took some pics of it, so hopefully it looks as great to you guys as it did to me!
So when we were on the roof of the building, we found in the distance, Mount Tibidabo. Now i dunno how many of u watch Friends, but for those who do, remember when joey taught Ross that pickup line? the one that rachel used on ross later in the video?? 'I was backpacking across Barcelona, and was on the foothills of Mount Tibidabo...'. Remember that!?
well yea, ruby and i did, and we got all excited and stuff.
So we attempted to walk to Mt. tibidabo, but realized it was too far, so we just hung out in a area that wasn't frequented by tourists, which was a nice change in pace. We noticed that everywehre in barcelona, has tons of greenery! flowers, grass, trees, everywehre! even in the downtown areas! also, bikes and motorbikes are insanely popular here! i saw a well-dressed business woman in a business suit riding a motorbike!,which was really funny!
We went to buy cherries and croissants for dinner (i know. not healthy. but still...i got fruit!).
Then we went to see the Gaudi buildings as night! When casa Batllo lit up, i was floored again!
We then headed back to the hostel where, like i said before, our roomate was snoring. It kept me up for half the nite, but Ruby said that it was the best sleep she has ever had, and.."what snoring?". i silently cursed her.
JUNE 5th:
wow. only second day. this is gonna be a doozy of a blog. you guys mite wanna take a break around Mount Tibidabo
We tried pointing to it...guess that didn't really work out too well. here if u guys are still reading!
So, we wake up, and get served our free breakfast. they had DELICIOUS coffee. mmm...
Then ruby and i went to Parc Guell. Which is another Gaudi attraction.
It's this HUGE park that was originally built apparently for a specific family at first, but is now a major tourist attraction. you guys are gonna hafta look at my pics for this, cuz i can't even describe it. even wikipedia can't help me out with this!
once again, i'm just gonna rave about Gaudi. he is just such a talented guy! man. i wanna be like him.
We then walked to the Sagarda Familia. This is a cathedral that Gaudi started, but died before he could finish it. so they continue building it from his original plans! it's still under construction, but there's still enough to see to make it stunning! It's a huge cathedral! We paid to get in, and we were able to see all the details of the cathedral up close! what's pretty cool about the cathedral is that there are actual sculptures built into the walls of the building's exterior. many many MANY sculptures depicting Christ, and other More of the lobby of Le Pedrara
This was a completely spontaneous shot! And Ruby just happened to be in it by accident looking up in awe! i'm a great photographer! =D catholic characters. Ruby was the one who was floored this time, i was slightly indifferent though. not gonna lie! it was cool, but i guess the construction took away some of the awe. and i appreciated his other works much more than this one! So i let ruby go off into her picture taking happy mode! haha where she happily spent hours just snapping photos!
We went into the museum located inside the area, and got extremely bored, extremely quickly. We then began to wonder if maybe we're just not cultured enough, or intellectual enough to appreciate all the history behind these works. Our self esteem subsequently lowers 3 notches.
Afterwards, we went for dinner at a restaurant near the beach. The place had an asian waitress tryign to get us to go in (whcih, by the way, all the restuarants in barcelona seems to employ a person, to stand outside on the sidewalk, persuading ppl to go in. some of the ppl are surprisingly extremely persuasive), and so, becasue of teh asian waitress, i felt some type fo connection or sumthing (becuase i have had zero interaction with any orientals sicne the trip started - so i started Classic Barcelona
Palm trees and motorbikes, two things we saw the most of! to miss them.), and so we went in.
We ordered a Paella, which is a traditional Spanish dish, which seemed like Spanish rice baked with cheese (in a cheesy-tomato sauce), with veggies (cuz darn ruby is vegetarian! grr..). it was pretty good. not too mcuh special else to say! we then had Sangria (which is a drink that originates from Spain, and is wine + fruit juice)
Ruby had the bulk of it, adn got slightly tipsy. We then realized that the whole resutaurant was run by....INDIAN ppl! (oh yea. besides here, the only other Indian ppl we saw were the ones selling souvenirs. which is pretty funny.) So our middle-aged Indian waiter starts speaking to Ruby, asking her her name, and where she's from. He then tells her, to my amusement, "you are very beautiful. there are many girls ehre, but none as pretty as you!". (not verbatim. but pretty damn close). THis sobers up Ruby pretty quickly, and she demands to leave right after. I laugh my ass off.
So we hang out at the beach for a while, and so since Barcelona is off the Mediterranean coast, there is a huge strip of beaches in Barcelona.
We get ice cream, and Ruby realizes that the spoons we are given say "Florida" on it. She finds this extremely entertaining, and insists on taking a pic of it. But she does this while we are walking across a street, and unfortunately, she tripped and fell, and hurts her ankle. What's more is that her $3 Loblaws flip flops are cutting into the sides of her foot, making them unbearable to walk in. So we end up needing to hurriedly hobble back to the hostel.
And yea, since i cockily think that i am a natural at directions, and am a pro at reading maps, i find a short cut to get to our hostel. it was through an area that our hostel ppl told us was really sketchy and avoid going through, BUT, i figure, since it was still daylight, sketchy was better than Ruby injuring her foot even more. (at the time - i thought i was some good reasoning...)
SO, those of you who have had the pleasure of getting directions from me, are probably scoffing rite now, and wincing in disgust at the idea of me leading the way and giving directions...well....read on.
So, we Water plus Park Guell.
We bought SOOOO much water ever since we've been here! because water fountains seem to be non-existent in Europe, and we're alllways walking and dehydrated! we're gonna be poor just cuz of all the water purchases! get through a few streets, and i'm thinking we'll be there after one or two more streets, but, oh man. i'e never been so wrong! cuz, once you enter a small residential street in Barcelona and you don't exactly know the way....yea. it's pretty much like walking into a labyrinth! the streets are extremely narrow, they turn, they meet up, they branch out. MAZE!
we wander around for a little while, and of course, i'm still acting like i knew where we were going, telling ruby (as she hobbles), that we're almost there (of course, i was panicking inside cuz i didn't have a single clue where the hell we were - but i wasn't gonna tell ruby that!). So, we keep going deeper into the maze, and enter even sketchier residential streets (which, in Mississauga or Toronto would be equivalent to dark alleyways in the ghetto areas).
So then we start freaking out. cuz they're poorly lit, graffiti filled, smelled like garbage and poo, and were extremely narrow. What blew our minds though, and eased our hearts a little, was that in these "alleyways", we would constantly find really high class, rich looking restaurants situated all in the middle
of these alleyways. It was extremely bizarre.
We wander for a good 20 minutes, and then i manage to ditch Ruby in a fairly safe shop, to go ask for directions. Luckily, i find an American family with their Spanish tour guide, who were nice enough to point me in the right direction and sternly warned us that we were in pickpocket central! After chatting with the Americans for a bit (who apparently LOVE Canada!), i find Ruby, and with our arms and hands tightly grasped onto our bags, we hobble on our way. We then enter a street that looked like the sketchiest of all. We enter...and..lo and behold. We somehow, after all our walking and getting lost and exploring, seem to have managed to make our way to INDIA! indians, EVERYWHERE! indian shops, restaurants, kids, men, and WOMEN! (we haven't seen one of those in ages!). After that night, i swear, for the rest of the barcelona stay, i just kept seeing indians everywhere! funny thing though was that in the daytime i would see the indians working in the stores and restaurants, but at night, i would see them just casually walking around, hanging in the parks together and chatting. It's as if in the sunlight they're too scared to emerge (spanish ppl scare them?), but at night, well, night is their time! and they come out in hordes and in full force! the sketchy indian street then ended in a sketchier but quite amusingly named strip club, called Baghdad.
We get back to the hostel well and alive, with all our things present (i am convinced that the only reason we're still safe after that indian street was cuz they saw ruby, and decided that they couldn't rob their own kind, and of course, naturally, i'm brown by association).
When we're back at the hostel, we meet a bunch of other backpackers just hanging out, so we start chatting with them. And end up going to a restaurant with all of them.
there were 3 pairs of americans, 1 single american traveller, and us, a pair of canadains. It was really fun because even though we all came from different places, we still had a great time meeting each other and chatting! we all shared a pitcher of Sangria and then headed to an Irish pub, where we chatted some more there!
They have Turtles!!
aren't they SO cute?! no sours in barcelona, so no whiskey sours for me =(, but i ended up sharing a tequila sunrise with one of the americans, and it was reaaally good =).
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so here's teh part u guys mite wanna skip over, if u guys haven't been skimming already! it's jus a description of the ppl we met. not very interesting, but jus for me and rubes to remember in the future! i'm keeping track of it!
2 Americans: Blake and Amanda, friends, same age as Rubes and i, travelling before the start of their 7 week art history class in Corona, Italy. Amanda is gonna be a high school teacher like me, so we had tons to chat about!
2 Americans: Don and Jason. 27 years old. Both so fun and wacky! Don an engineer, Jason (cute, and mixed in 8 diff ways!) getting his PHd/MD, and planning to work in international health organization. Tells everyone, whenever he travels, that he's Canadian. and apparently gets better treatment because of it! Paints, is a photographer, can rap, does sports, man. multi-talented. i got jealous.
2 americans: Lisa and Elena. Cousins. both asian. one just graduated, the other in med, boo..
Even with a limp Ruby walks up stairs faster than me! 28 but looks 22!
American-egyptian: Art teacher, on a no boys thing too! so was quite happy to talk to her!
-----------------------------------------
So, what was crazy was that i've never been to a bar where the girls wanted to meet guys! i mean, anytime i've been to one, it's just a bunch of friends having fun with each other! but these girls i was with, wanted to meet other guys! so it was interesting to see how girls work their magic on the the bar customers there! one even kissed one of the bouncers on the cheek as we left! they were so forward! and i just watched on in wonder!
We walked back at around 2:30, and as we passed through La Ramblas, we were amused to see ppl selling 6 packs of beer (most of which actually only contained 4 or 5 our of the 6), for extremely cheap prices! ruby and i noticed with amusement that most of these guys selling the beers, were...of course, indian. man. those brown ppl are just natural enterpreneurs!
As we passed a pub, we saw a guy who was laughing, singing and was hugging 4 spanish girls!
they seemed to be having a great time hugging, but as the girls helped him back into the pub, and went their own ways, one of the more experienced backpackers i was with told us, "yea. that guy just got robbed." apparently it's common for girls to mob drunk men, act all friendly and seductive, then rob them!
We headed through the sketchy area again, ruby got oogled at by more brown men. so to date, on our eurotrip, # of stares and compliments: Ruby 11, Leslie 0. HA. dry.
Back at the hostel. the snoring persists. i silently curse my eardrums.
---------------- TAKE A BREAK:
Ruby is now showering. and i am continuing on this blog. i'm determined to finish!
June 6th:
Ruby wakes up to find her ankle swollen to twice it's normal size. Luckily, we have met two doctors to be, so they help Ruby wrap up her ankle. We then all make our way (with the ppl we met the nite before) to Montjuic, which is an area on a mountain. We all walk half way up (really steep - so ruby struggled a bit) and took a cable car the rest of the way up! Gorgeous view! we saw the whole city! once there we all go into the castle expecting good things, to our dismay, it ends up being a military museum. The girls groan, the boy giggle in excitement like little kids.
While they entered the museum, we just walked around enjoying the view. Barcelona is HUGE. a lot larger than i originally thought!
After the castle, Ruby and some others went back down by cable car, while the rest of us walked back. We passed a few other buildings, they all looked cool, but nothing extrmeely special. We then joined up with ruby's gang at the hostel, and headed for the beach.
We then split up into two groups again, Ruby's gang headed to the beach by metro, while i walked with some others. Unfortunately, we couldn't find each other, so we ended up having to spend our beach time separately, but just as fun for both of us!
Interesting thing about the beach is that, topless women are EVERYWHERE! it was a normal beach (not nudist specifically or anything), but even so, it was like walking through the changing room at the Y! breasts everywhere! Beach with Backpackers!
Two of the Americans, Don and Jason young, old, fat, skinny! it was insane!
the guys i was with, well, their eyes were darting around everywhere! to quote one of them "it's like a kid at a candy store!".
So after seeing this, i'm not surprised why magazines with naked girls on the front are displayed so freely. because, they're all indifferent about breasts now!
I also had the great opportunity of seeing a stark naked boy running around, and the butt of an old man. apparently, some of the other backpackers saw a man walking down the boardwalk naked with his, erm...area, painted as an elephant. So...the elephant's trunk would be the man's.......u get the point.
We all headed in for a swim, BUT, it was freezing cold. and so we quickly got out. but before i managed that, i got pushed in fully, and, man oh man, it was the saltiest water i've ever tasted! the water is so salty that even after getting out, when i licked my lips, i could still taste all the salt! gross.
we spent the rest of the day hanging out at the beach and just chatting and tanning! my body may finally be all the same shade Shield this pic from young eyes.
You MAY see topless women here...
i swear i'm not a creeper! i just pointed and shot this pic without looking! now!
when it was time to leave the hostel, everyone was sad! they all kept telling us to stay longer, and to accidentally miss our flight, and even change our plans to travel with them!
unfortunately, we had to leave, and so after our goodbyes, sharing of facebook profiles, and lots of hugs, we went on our way.
We left Mambo Tango with fond memories.
We ended up running well behind schedule due to all the hugging, and so of course, we panicked! we needed to take the metro to a bus station, then climb on a bus to get to the airport to take the plane to Pisa, Italy. and we only had 25 minutes before the bus left!
so we had to really run! So in a journey that would SO belong on Amazing Race, we hauled ass! It was completely Amazing Race-esq! Us running around the stations with our large backpacks, frantically reading maps on the run, screaming directions at each other, pushing old Spanish men out of the way (yea..my bad.), and yelling "hurry!! let's go! let's go! let's go!". When we finally got to the bus stop, we were dripping with sweat, panting, and ready to collapse. I then realized that i was screaming at Ruby to move faster and had completely forgotten about her injured ankle. man. i'm insensitive.
What was massively stupid though was that we waited at the platform for a good 15-20 minutes before we started up and left the stations...grrr..Europeans.
As we left the city, i found myself thinking about what we saw, and the ppl we met. We met all these great ppl that we all got along with fabulously, that it sort of makes you realize how large this world is! and how there are so many different ppl who you get along with so well, who you can meet, and so many that you will never meet!
It's sorta funny when you think about it!
Barcelona was a great trip! but now we're off to explore Italy and have just a great a time!
....i just her thunder. great.
I'm off to shower now! i haven't showered since yesterday morning, and since then, grease, sweat, and sea water has been plastered onto my skin and hair. ew.
Sorry for the long blog! u reeeaally don't hafta read it all guys!!
Bye Bye... Bye Bye...
Jason's pouty face cuz he's sad to see us go!
sorry for any spelling mistakes or things that don't make sense! i haven't read over any of this!
hope u guys are all doing well!
cheers!!
luv less
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Firenze!
Sei a Firenze allora ti scrivo un messaggio in italiano! (Il mio italiano non è molto buono allora mi susa per gli errori) Firenze è una molto bella città! La mia professoressa parla molto di questa città e degli bar e caffè! hmmm... La cucina italiana... haha, non questo è giusto! Spero che hai un bel tempo. Penso a te molto. Approfittate del viaggio pienamente!!! Vengo a London le nove agosto al quattordici. Fate attenzione a voi. Arrivederci! PS. La parola per scoiattolo è divertente a dire! and in case you're too lazy to figure out my poorly written italien... haha, you'll have to figure it out :P have a great time over there! and dont make Ruby run too much! Feet are necessary for many things. it's true! You better be taking lots and lots and lots of pictures!! hehe, ill be expecting tons! (and... yes.. i DID read through all that... ...wow... hahaha, all i have to say is wow.) BYE!!