Advertisement
Published: March 9th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Hallway within Parc Guell
One of the many fascinating architectural structures with the Parc Guell We got sort of a late start on Sunday. We lounged around a bit in the hotel room and then set off for breakfast/lunch. Today, our big trip was to Parc Guell, designed by Antoni Gaudi.
First, we headed over the
Plaza Catalunya. It was 60s and sunny so we wanted to find a cafe outside and in the sun. Well, other people had this idea as well, so we settled for a table in the shade, but still outside. Barcelona is packed! There are so many people here. Everywhere we go it seems there are big crowds of people. Honestly though, after hearing so much about the pickpocketers and theives here, we haven't encountered or seen anything of this nature. I'm sure its out there, but haven't seen it yet (hopefully will not ever). Something interesting we saw was a dog legitametly wearing sunglasses. It was a cool dog. I wasn't able to get a picture, but it was really funny.
At this cafe, we had ham and cheese baguettes, which I was only half happy with.. I want to get as much authentic Spanish food that I can while I'm here. The Coca-cola is better here than
Tapas Galore!
Delicious Patatas Braves, Fried Calamari, Mussels, Fish, Breadballs in the States as they use no high-fructose corn syrup, only real sugar. After the sandwich, we caught the train heading north. We got off and walked about a mile uphill (good workout! much needed). We snapped a lot of neat photography- buildings, streets, people, textiles, trees.
Finally, we arrived at
Parc Guell. It was pretty massive and FREE. It is basically a lot of architecture and design using colorful mosaics. We walked all around and took a lot photos again. This again was another place swarmed with people. Americans are pretty noticable here. Even without seeing them, they are a lot
louder than other people we pass by. Kind of embarassing actually.
When we were atop the park, there are vendors that set up blankets of jewelry, hand-made crafts, and different souveniers. They were fun to browse. This one guy tried selling me this set of earrings that on the back said
Gold. Right, I'm sure you are going to sell me real gold earrings for 2€.
We spent a good hour and a half at least walking around the park. Since I've been traveling through Italy and Spain so far I've been taking 0:30-2 minute
Scenary
Along the way uphill towards Parc Guell sound bits using the recorder app on my iPhone whenever there is live music playing (or just interesting ambient sounds). I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with them, but they are interesting and will probably be fun to listen back to.
After the park, we headed back down the train station, venturing into different shops along the way. It was time to head back to the hotel and let our feet rest!
One place I wanted to try while we are here was Bar Jaica. My collegue Emily told me about the place, bragging of its tapas and authenticity. I shared it with Jake and he was up for the 2 milie journey from our place. One unsettling thing was that it was a Sunday night and were not sure if this place would be open, nor did we know if we would be walking through a safe area. As we went along, we were still seeing big groups of people walking around, families, etc., so we were comfortable. We even passed the club we were at the other night. We saw a lot of shops that were closed but still a fair amount that were open.
Mosaic Bench
Just a sample of the many mosaic details throughout the park. We had to keep our eyes out for the backup restaurant.
We arrived at
Bar Jaica to find it packed with people! This was obviously a hot spot. There was probably only about 8 small round tables in the whole place, seating 2-4 people at each. Instantly our mouths were watering when we saw the tapas being prepared behind the counter and in the kitchen. We didn't really know the standards here, like if we just take a table or put our name in. Other people came in and gave the waiter their name, so we quickly followed and did the same.
We waited for about 20-25 minutes before being seated. It gave us a chance to try another Spanish beer. When we were seated, there were no menus, or at least none that we could see or that were offered to us. We basically just ordered what we could communicate in our Spanglish and explanations with hand motions. We ordered fish, calamari, some kind of fried garlicy breaded ball, patatas braves, and some kind of whipped mussels and cheese fried dish. All were very delicioso. The fish was ok- it was a bunch of these smelt-like fish
Overlooking the City
From Parc Guell top open yard area. with the bones, head and tails. They were salty and tasted great, just hard to pick through the bones.
Jake's
moment was hiking through Parc Guell. I told him this was my
moment, the
food! After dinner, we walked for a bit and then just decided to cab it back to the hotel and call it a day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb