Babsers in Britain: Béseme, Barcelonaaa!

Wednesday

Thinking it would be a good idea to stay up as last as possible the night before, I went to bed at 1 A.M. and woke up at 3 to leave for the Stansted Airport. That ended up being a bad idea because I woke up terribly tired and with a horrible headache. And to make matters worse the back of the plane seats was an obnoxious bright yellow color, which didn’t help my headache at all. Plus, you know you’re on a European flight when they play Mozart music while you board the plane. Luckily my headache went away once we got into Barcelona though. After figuring out how to get into town on the train we had a while before we could check into our apartment. Obviously I wanted to document this trip so when we were walking around I went to pull out my camera. Bad news. I couldn’t find it. Where the heck was it?! I had packed it the night before and then when I went out to dinner I took it out of my bag and put it in my purse just in case I wanted to used it that night. Well I guess I had forgotten to put it back in my Spain bag. Thank goodness the other girls were kind enough to take plenty of pictures of me with their cameras. Pretty sure I got kind of annoying asking all the time for a picture. Never again am I going to forget my camera.

We stayed in a relatively nice neighborhood that was a five-minute walk from the Sagrada Família, which is a large Roman Catholic Church. We totally lucked out with our lodging arrangements. Mikelle found this little apartment for really cheap so we stayed there for three nights. Since there were only 7 beds and 8 girls I shared beds with Emma and Becca. The three of us fit pretty snug on the two beds except for the big crack that the middle person had to sleep on.

We walked around the Sagrada Família and some cool hospital that was under construction. After dropping our bags off at the apartment we went back to the Sagrada Família and toured inside. Unfortunately the outside was under construction so we couldn’t see it in its entire splendor but it was breathtaking nevertheless. We forgot that everything shuts down in the middle of the day and that the Spanish don’t eat dinner until late. We tried to find a restaurant with some authentic Spanish food but all we could find were Italian restaurants. I swear there were 5 pizza places on every block. Apparently Spain doesn’t know they’re not in Italy. So we ate dinner at an Italian place that had the most delicious pizza I have ever had. One of them was just cheese but then it had an egg yolk on top that was actually pretty good.

Thursday

We walked up to Parc Güelle and wandered around there. From there is a beautiful view of Barcelona. After we walked back down to the Casa Míla and ate lunch on the way. I had the grossest potato omelet thing. I definitely don’t recommend it. After lunch we toured Casa Míla and walked down Passeig de Gràcia, which is the main shopping street. After dinner Mikelle, Lyssa, Becca, Emma, and I grabbed some gelato and walked over to the Arc de Triomf. Don’t get it confused with the Arc de Triomph even though they look similar. It was lit up and we got to watch some roller bladders in front of it. As we headed home we walked passed some old bull-fighting stadium, which was pretty cool, although it was night and hard to see.

Friday

We strolled down La Rambla, and at Brooke’s suggestion went to Boquieria Market just off the side of the market. I’m glad we did because we got the best juice there. When we reached the end of La Rambla we ate paella on the pier and then sauntered down to the beach. It was such a beautiful day. Sunny and blue skies over the Mediterranean Sea, could you ask for much more? We stayed at the beach for a while before making the long walk over to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. I had heard from multiple people that this was a must see show kind of like the Bellagio fountain show in Las Vegas. Well when we got there we saw more construction. After figuring out that there would be no fountain show we stayed and walked around the National Palace of Montjuïc to see the 1992 Olympic stadium. It was getting dark and the park started getting a little sketchy, so disappointed and tired we headed back down and made the trek home.

Saturday

We strolled back down La Rambla and saw some more human statues because Emma had a specific pottery shop her parents wanted her to go to. After the pottery shop we walked through the Gothic quarter to Parc de la Ciutadella where we took a little break because we were all so tired. After enjoying a little breather we headed back through the Gothic quarter trying to find churros with chocolate (no success), but I did find some chucherías. According to the Spanish dictionary this is just junk food. In my families dictionary they are delicious licorice that are filled with some kind of something. After finding the novelty, we finished our Barcelona adventure with making a few stops at stores on Passeig de Gràcia. I got home at 1 A.M. and took a nice shower and hopped into my bed with clean sheets. There are few things better than that!

Final Thoughts

Now that I have traveled completely on my own I’ve realized how hard it is to plan a vacation and how stressful it can be. I have gained a greater appreciation for my parents who have planned all of our family vacations for 6 people. It’s always nice to go places but it’s even better coming home. I had tons of fun in Spain but spending so much time with people it can get a little hard because everyone’s definition of vacation is different. To me vacation is not relaxing. It’s go, go, go from morning until night. It can get a little discouraging because everyone goes at a different pace and you can't exactly tell them to hurry it up or get left. It's fun traveling with friends but I'd much rather travel with my family! Plus I don't feel bad about pestering people to take pictures of me when I don't have a camera. Thinking of that, now I just have to go collect people’s camera cards so I can get those pictures. So stick around and I’ll upload photos soon....