Barcelona - 30/5 - 4/6 2010

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So my first holiday within my holiday was to Barcelona - after a hectic few weeks at school it was nice to get away to what was to be another hectic week but a hell of a lot of fun!!!!
we flew into Girona on Sunday and caught a bus to the city, about an hour away. after getting the biggest scenic tour from a taxi driver (a 10 euro cab ride turned into 25....) we dumped our stuff at the hotel (was really nice!) and set out for a walk to La Ramblas. we stopped along the way at some bars for beers and tapas... YUM YUM!!! i was so in awe of the architecture... but couldn't help but notice how smelly the city is.. haha
that night we caught up with alex who used to work with ben and tiss - he's been travelling around spain and teaching english for a couple of years, so he became our tour guide/communicator haha he took us to this fountain that lights up and plays some pretty funny pop/rock tunes, but it was right on dusk so pretty spectacular!! we had some more tapas in a local neighbourhood and had quite an early night after being up since about 5.
the next morning we went to parc guell, with all the gaudi archictecture. loved it!!! it reminds me of gingerbread houses and something that was out of fairy tales, and up the top it had such a fantastic view of the city!!! the mosaic tiles were awesome too, was cool! After that we went to the market and the fresh fruit and meats were all delicious, i could have eaten there forever haha
that night we checked out some more tapas bars and had more beer and pinchos, yum yum yum!!! one bar we went to had these old men playing some form of dominos and getting so animate and angry about it! was pretty cute to watch, another 2 men had cards out and were drinking/smoking/playing away... we also went to this gorgeous little bar called el barn, which was so cute and cool and i was beside myself when lisa mitchell was played, was quite surreal but so so very cool. alex taught us some swear words in spanish and it was heaps of fun. we went to a few more bars and got quite drunk by this stage haha we missed the last train home that night... thank goodness for taxi drivers?? haha
more market wandering, beer drinking, tapas devouring and random bars were had the following day/night. we made friends with some american people for a bit in an irish themed bar in spain... hmmm sounds like the beginnings of a joke?? haah the rums were ludicrously priced... we quickly figured out the more closer you are to La Ramblas the more expensive drinks are!!
a hilarious cab ride home, with ben talking soccer with barely english speaking taxi drivers, and ending up being dropped off at a 24 hour supermarket when we were looking for a bar... for a city that is meant to wake up at night time, i think we some how must have been in the wrong places...
the next day with a stonking hangover we hauled ass out of bed, and went down to the marina. it was lovely down there, even tho the weather was more overcast that it had been the first couple of days. what was hilarious was the people who try and sell their fake goods on large blankets attached with rope, as soon as the cops come along, the pull their haul up onto their shoulder and move on.. we saw them a couple of times and it was so funny to watch when they panic and clear off... hehe
we went and saw la sagrada familiar which was another gaudi building that is not yet finished, still 30 years off.. it was gorgeous and i loved it! The line was too long and we were too tired so we gazed up around every side then headed back through the market.
my last night was a huge feast of sangria and paella, i was so determined to get paella! i got lobster and paid an arm and a leg and it was pretty good but to be honest it was so hard to get into the lobster that the novelty wore off pretty quickly... poor ben ordered the same and they didn't bring it out til after i'd finished so we headed off to another pinchos bar, had a few more beers and called it a night.
i left really early the next morning as i was meeting lou back in london on the thursday, but my goodness i had a wonderful time, and am already itching to be back.. i could quite easily find myself in a the spanish culture being all european and stuff hehe
maybe after this london bit i could find myself teaching english in barcelona?? who knows... :D

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