Barcelona

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Vivri la vida in Barcelona.... Barcelona is a lively city.

Friday morning we woke up at 4:30 am and got a train to Pisa Centrale, then a short bus to the airport (today we discovered you can get a train directly to the airport... whoops) Our flight left at 9:25 am. Ryanair was better than expected... I was expecting a little crappy plane but it was a Boeing 787, crammed... 3 seats across both sides. The flight itself went by super fast... it was around an hour long. I slept most of the way but it was nice to look out the window and see the ocean again or should I say Mediterranean Sea! Once we arrived we had to take a bus that was a hour ride into Barcelona, we flew into Gerona. I found Landi running down the street... it was soooo good to see her! Once we met up with Landi and Hannah's friend Michelle (who's house we stayed at) we went to get food.

Our first metro experience there, Jon caught some guy trying to get into Kelly's backpack. From then on I really watched my backpack... we walked around the city for a couple hours with them which was such a pain but we managed. We ate at this awesome sandwich shop Bo de B down near the beach where we sat our in the grass area. You can make your own sandwich here. I got chicken with peppers, onions, corn, lettuce, guacamole and hot sauce. It was delicious and sitting outside in the sun made it that much better. The first day was the warmest.

We got to Michelle's house around 6 pm. It was a cute little apartment they are subletting from a flight attendant. It had pictures of Audry Hepburn and other famous actors on the wall. Landi, Amanda and I shared the King size bed upstairs. Michelle was so generous. All her roommates had left for the weekend. We hung out then went out to dinner. Our dinner that night was interesting to say the least! It took over 3 hours! I got seafood soup which was great, I did some research and seafood is very big in Spain. Then I decided to be adventurous and try their veal... hated it. It was a like a steak but not... it was ediable but I wish I had got something else... there wasn't that many options on the menu and after seeing Kristin's chicken, I was glad I didn't get that! All the meals came with fries, I tried bravas which are like potato wedges with a mayo olive sauce or hot sauce. No one really spoke English in the restaurant, thank god we had Jon who could speak fluent Spanish! Michelle and Hannah got fondue... the woman brought it to our table then took it and put it down on another table.... Michelle said they didn't want to wait any longer because we were all done with our meals... so the lady took it off the other table after they started to eat it and gave it back to Michelle! She wouldn't take it back! I was shocked! haha After that long meal and leaving dinner at 12 am, no one wanted to go out so we just went to bed.

Saturday late morning we got going and went to Park Guell first. Gaudi did a bunch of mosaic sculptures here. It was my favorite place beside the beach! There was a live band playing music, green parrots, and a beautiful view of the city. No one had breakfast, because we tried finding a bagel place on the way but that was a major fail... Amanda went up to a guy and said donde bagel? We all died in laughter.... she had no idea what she was saying and the guy just stared at her. Our bagel mission was a major fail... so after Park Guell we went to a near by restaurant. Amanda and I split paella which is a traditional Spanish dish with rice and seafood. It was alright... I wasn't too impressed. The sangria was nice! After that we marched our way down the hill to Sagrada Familia which is a huge church. We didn't make it inside but the outside view was enough. We tried getting into an art museum but they closed at 5. We went back to Michelle's house and made sangria that night. We just sat around and talked. It was nice having Kat and Landi there.. I've missed them and it was nice to catch up and compare lives aboard (Kat is at a homestay in Aix, France and Landi is in London). That night we bought pizza from the store across the street and snacks. We snacked and finished the 2 bowls of sangria we made.

The nightlife... let me tell you I couldn't do it every night! I am exhausted! But they don't go to the bar until 11-12ish then to the club at 2 am. So with that said we went to a beer hall first. It was fun, it reminded me of Prague! I met a really cute rugby player from New Zealand! His name was Doug and yes I have a picture, ha. He was really nice and funny... we talked about field hockey and rugby. He actually left his friends and came with us to the club we went to down by the beach! We couldn't get in the first club Michelle wanted to bring us to without paying a 20 euro cover charge so we went to a club called Catwalk... she yelled some promoters name and BAM the 10 of us cut the line and walked right in! They played a good 90s mix in the club with some older rap/hip-hop songs. We left the club around 5 am! Crazy I know... but we tried watched the sunrise on the beach... didn't happen that early. It was nice to put my feet in the sand tho and the beach area lit up by the club lights and was really pretty.

Sunday morning I woke up to a huge slam and Jon yelling at us to GET UP! We wanted to go to the chocolate factory but it was closed on Sunday 😞 We got sandwiches at this place called Sandwiches and Friends! Sad to say but my best meals were the sandwiches! We got nachos to start then I had a baguette with chicken, spinach (yes the done deal with me in anything, I love spinach) prunes and cheese. It was amazinggggggg! We then went down the street Rhombus where there are a lot of shops... I found Starbucks!!!!!!! It was so great to FINALLY have a real American coffee, not a cafe americana! The end of the street has a statue of Christopher Columbus pointing off into the sea. There are mountains and the ocean around this area. It's a really pretty site.. that day it looked like the sky was digitally enhanced it was so blue! We tried going on a tram ride across the city but it was already booked up so we just sat at the beach. We watched the surfers and simply soaked it all in. I could sit and listen to the ocean forever. We then went to the W hotel which is right on the beach... I got a "Coke Light" because drinks were super expensive and I was being a cheapo and didn't want to start drinking that early. We went back to Bo d B for dinner... my sandwich wasn't as good as the first time... slightly disappointing. We then tried seeing the famous magic fountain but to our surprise it wasn't so magical... we got all excited following beams of light only to find that it wasn't lit up or working! Its long.. I guess I would explain it was kind of the mall in Washington DC... there's this big building then the main part of the fountain that has little terraces down the street to smaller ones..

That night we went to a sports bar where there is karoke Sunday night. None of us got to sing unfortunately but it was nice to hang out! We stayed there until they closed then went back got our bags and hailed taxis to the bus station. We caught the 3 am bus and headed to the airport. I got Kinder chocolate which is chocolate with hazelnut and Pringles... sweet and salty? Then before the flight I decided I would get a hamburger from McDonalds which I only ate half of... I fell asleep on the plane then we had to run to catch the 9 am train back to Florence... fell asleep on there too, I was soooo tired. Flying out of Pisa is a bit of a pain, wish flights out of Florence were cheap!

Barcelona summarized: I LOVED the beach, obviously. Guell Park was beautiful too. I could hang out at these two spots all day. The city itself was huge, and not too impressing. Its like walking around any American city. Then every once in awhile we find a beautiful site. I will post pictures soon!

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