The view of Paris from the sky
The view of Barcelona from the skyWe arrived to a sunny, warm Barcelona, where none of us could speak the language. We asked in super broken Spanish "donde esta el treno?" to get to the train that would take us into the city and to our hostel. Once we found the train, we realized we didn't know how to read the metro map or read the Spanish/Catalan to buy the tickets. Luckily, some Americans living in Amsterdam helped us out as much as they could, and we got on the train with them (young newlyweds--she was transferred to Amsterdam right after they got married less than a year ago). Somehow, we had gotten on a train that went directly to our hostel (I asked "questo treno va a Clot [our metro stop]?" to which I got "si" and lots of other things, and then I said "No hablo espanol?" in question form :). The first thing we saw when we exited the metro station was a churreria- a churro stand. So yes, the first thing we did was buy and eat fresh Spanish churros. They were totally worth the 1.20 euros I paid for them that time and the two other times we went back.
We stopped to eat churros at the churreria right outside of our metro station with all of our luggage
Spanish churros are ten times better than Taco Bell/amusement park churros. They crank dough out of a machine and fry them right there. A traditional way to eat them is to dunk them in thick hot chocolate, but we never found the chocolate.For the first three nights we stayed at a hostel called Urbany, which was about a half hour walk/a few metro stops away from the center of town, but it was such a nice hostel that it ended up being totally worth it. The outside was very modern looking, the rooms were all furnished with new Ikea furniture, and every room had it's own nice bathroom. The beds were really comfortable, and each one had its own reading light and plug set up. We also each had individual electronically-locked lockers. Urbany had access to a gym and a lap pool, it had an adequate free breakfast, and it offered really cheap beer, sangria and wine every night from 8pm to 1am (like 1 euro for 25l of beer). We stayed in a 6-bed room. The first two nights we were there, the other two people were two girls from somewhere like Indiana or something. We didn't interact with them that much because one had thrown up in the bathroom and passed out in the fetal position on her bed before we got home the first night (the nice bathroom was thereafter ruined for us), and the other one hadn't taken care of her friend and had stayed out late partying. Luckily, she didn't throw up. Then they got up really early to go sightseeing (poor hungover throw up girl). The last night we were there, two French guys had their stuff in our room (I know they were French because I looked at their luggage tags), but they didn't come home until 7am, and then only one of them actually stayed in our room. So all in all, we were pretty much alone, which was fine by us. And Urbany did have a maid service, so the throw up was pretty much, though not all the way, cleaned up the next day. Our last night at Urbany they had a "paella party," where they gave you free paella if you bought a drink. So we bought our dollar drinks and got a free mixture of rice and seafood that was fresh out of the oven and that was delicious! It was even more tasty because it was 1 euro :). Even though Urbany was a little out of the way, there was one landmark that was very close, and we could see it from our window: the Torre Agbar, a skyscraper covered in LEDs that very much resembled a bullet, or other more phallic things. We never really figured out its significance, but it was fun to look at and make fun of.
The Torre AgbarOur first evening we went for a walk from our hostel to Passeig de Gracia, which, along with La Rambla (pronounced Las Ramblas), is a main thoroughfare with a lot of upscale shopping and some Gaudi architecture. The Gaudi architecture made me think of mermaids, but in fact the Casa Battló (shown below) was apparently inspired by the human skeleton. I guess I need to warn everyone here that we did not do any historical or tourist research before going to Barcelona--we simply arrived and did almost everything impromtu.
Gaudi's Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia (aka the Mermaid Place)On our way to Passeig de Gracia, we saw what we think was a bullfighting ring (it advertised a bullfight from a few days before), but that confused us since we had been told that there is no bullfighting in Barcelona. We also caught our first glimpse of the Sagrada Famila, Gaudi's famous church that is still being constructed after over 100 years. We had some sangria and then found ourselves a tapas place for dinner.
The next day, Good Friday, we realized that we had been fooled by the sunny weather from the day before. The rain started coming down, and it wouldn't let up until Sunday night. We decided to try to find a Mexican food restaurant that had been recommended to us. We botched that attempt and ended up at a little hole in the wall tapas place that wasn't awesome, but it wasn't too bad. We tried our first Spanish tortillas with potato there. Spanish tortillas are not made of corn or flour but with egg, and whatever else you order in it. It's basically like an omelet, but more like an egg pancake. It was really good! At this meal, we thought we'd go with a tortilla for each, plus four tapas. Waaaaay to much food, considering we ate the bread before (which wasn't free). We learned our lesson, and we were thereafter very conscious of ordering less than thought we should have.
The next day, Good Friday, we realized that we had been fooled by the sunny weather from the day before. The rain started coming down, and it wouldn't let up until Sunday night. We decided to try to find a Mexican food restaurant that had been recommended to us. We botched that attempt and ended up at a little hole in the wall tapas place that wasn't awesome, but it wasn't too bad. We tried our first Spanish tortillas with potato there. Spanish tortillas are not made of corn or flour but with egg, and whatever else you order in it. It's basically like an omelet, but more like an egg pancake. It was really good! At this meal, we thought we'd go with a tortilla for each, plus four tapas. Waaaaay to much food, considering we ate the bread before (which wasn't free). We learned our lesson, and we were thereafter very conscious of ordering less than thought we should have.
My Spanish tortilla with potato, along with our other tapas (of which there were too many): olives, some kind of bean thing, meatballs in some orange sauce, and calamariIt turned out we were fairly close to La Rambla, so we headed that way and started walking down the famous crowded street. We saw all kinds of street performers. Let me tell you, these Barcelonian street performers go all out. We saw a woman dressed as a fruit stand, we saw gold centaurs that neighed, and angels with huge wings. I am pretty sure one of the silver angels we saw was a kid, so it left me wondering about child labor, but he didn't seem too put out. I appreciate all the effort that these people put into it, but at the same time street performers like that scare me a little bit. We saw a brass band dressed in maroon start up, so we followed them to a church, where they went in and the gates were promptly closed after them. I thought they were to attract people to a Good Friday service, so I was a little confused that people weren't invited into the church, but whatever. We wandered through a lot of little streets on the Gotchic Quarter side of La Rambla, and we even saw a dama wearing one of those big comb things with lace over it in her hair! There were also a lot of different stands on La Rambla selling things-- flowers, jewelry, tourist trinkets. The flowers were a little interesting...
I've never thought of cotton as a decorative plant, but then I've never seen blue roses, so what do I know?We walked all the way down La Rambla to the statue on top of a huge pillar of our good friend Chris (topher Colombus, but we called him Chris the whole time), who was pointing the way to the New World. We took turns taking pictures pointing with surprise at the New World, as well as on the huge bronze lions that surrounded his column. We walked to the end of the pier, where there was some mall, and we watched the pier we had just been on split so that a sailboat could pass through. Back over by Chris there was a daily antique fair, where I bought some stuff that certain people will get to see in less than a month.
That evening we took the metro over the the Parc de Montjuic (the Park of the Jewish Mountain) to see the Font Màgica (Magic Fountain) that we had been told about. This was probably my favorite thing in all of Barcelona. Every Friday and Saturday nights at 7, 7:30, 8, and 8:30 (more often after April 31st I think), the fountain has shows. Music is played while the water changes shape ("water acrobatics"). After dark, the fountain lights up and changes colors and shape as the music plays. I was just in awe of it the whole time. We basically sat and watched all of the shows. The daytime music was beautiful and fun-- the Theme from Tara from Gone With the Wind, Tchaikovsky's Waltz from Sleeping Beauty, William Tell Overture, the theme from ET, the theme from Star Wars, etc. The music chosen for the after-dark light show was pretty lame--lots of bad 80s movie themes. I didn't really understand it, because it would have been really good with the ones I've already mentioned or with Disney music like my friend said she got to hear when she was there.
That evening we took the metro over the the Parc de Montjuic (the Park of the Jewish Mountain) to see the Font Màgica (Magic Fountain) that we had been told about. This was probably my favorite thing in all of Barcelona. Every Friday and Saturday nights at 7, 7:30, 8, and 8:30 (more often after April 31st I think), the fountain has shows. Music is played while the water changes shape ("water acrobatics"). After dark, the fountain lights up and changes colors and shape as the music plays. I was just in awe of it the whole time. We basically sat and watched all of the shows. The daytime music was beautiful and fun-- the Theme from Tara from Gone With the Wind, Tchaikovsky's Waltz from Sleeping Beauty, William Tell Overture, the theme from ET, the theme from Star Wars, etc. The music chosen for the after-dark light show was pretty lame--lots of bad 80s movie themes. I didn't really understand it, because it would have been really good with the ones I've already mentioned or with Disney music like my friend said she got to hear when she was there.
The Magic Fountain of Montjuic (infront of the Palau Nacional that houses the National Art Museum of Catalonia)
The after-dark light show
More of the fountain
More of the fountain (and me!)Friday night, we found some place to eat near the fountain and headed back to the hostel to take a nap before going out. Spaniards are the weirdest-- their nights start at 2am at the earliest. Clubs don't even open until at least 1am and they don't get full until around 3. We napped from about midnight until 1:30am, forced ourselves to get back up (we didn't really feel like going out at this point, but this was really the only night we had the opportunity to "go out Spanish-style"), got ready, and started walking over to Razzmatazz, a club that was relatively close to our hostel and that was supposed to have four different clubs in it. After a little while, we started seeing a lot of women by themselves on the street in short shorts and skirts, looking like they were simply waiting. It wasn't long before we figured out they were hookers and hailed a cab (which passed us often), to take us to the club, which wasn't very far at all. We were very weirded out by all of the hookers we saw, because we weren't staying in a particularly bad area, and there was a fair amount of traffic activity in the area but nobody looked twice at these hookers. We later learned that prostitution is perfectly legal in Spain, but that pimping is not. Good for the prostitutes, but we didn't want to get too close to it. Razzmatazz was a 15euro cover charge. I don't go to a lot of clubs, but I have never paid that much to get in to those I've been to, and I hope to never pay that much again. The cover charge did include, however, a copa, which is a mixed drink with the liquor of your choice and the mixer of your choice. That still didn't really make it worth it to me, but I guess the whole clubbing-Spanish-style thing was worth it. There were in fact four clubs in one, although I couldn't really tell you the difference between them, because they were all basically playing some kind of techno or other. We all felt a little out of place because everyone at the club was dressed like they were straight out of the 80s, and we were dressed like, well, Americans. It was fun dancing with Nikki and Devin, but we didn't want to pay to check our coats and we are definitely not on the Spanish sleep cycle, so we gave up around 3:30am, just when the place was starting to fill up. While we failed to really go out Spanish-style, we can still say we gave it a shot.
When we woke up on Saturday, it was a little chilly, but the sun was out. We ate breakfast, put on our bathing suits, bought some churros, and took the metro out to the beach, where the sky was gray. We stopped at a cabana called Princesa 23 (it was the cabana version of a restaurant that our friend loves), where we had nachos, paella, and margaritas. It was so good to have nachos! And the paella (our first time) was delicious--it's a rice and seafood mixture that's just awesome. As soon as our food came, it started to rain, and there was no cover above us. Luckily, we were sitting next to two Americans (from Silicon Valley, and one goes to SMU), who were in the same boat as us, swimsuits and everything, so we laughed our way through the rainfall. We decided it just wasn't the day for the beach and started walking again. The weather wavered between sunny and rainy all day, so we got some nice pictures of us at the harbor.
That night was the paella party at our hostel. We ate that and then went to the 10pm Easter Vigil Mass at Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's Roman Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882 and will continue to be until at least 2026. The church is huge, but most of it was blocked off for construction, so we had mass in a little sectioned off area. The mass was really nice, with around seven scripture readings about the creation of Earth, Abraham, Moses, and others. We were each given candles, and they didn't have anymore English programs (wrong vocabulary, I know, but I forgot the word), so I took a French one. I was surprised at how well I was able to follow the Spanish scripture readings in the French program. Then, since Easter is, for the Catholic Church, a time for family to come together, people from different places went up and read a specific scripture in their native language. The priest pointed out all the different people from different places multiple times, so it was cool that he realized how international the mass was. But I'd say about 98% of the mass was in Spanish.
So normally if I go to mass with a friend, I'll just go up to the front during communion and, not wanting to break any rules, I'll just cross my arms and the priest will bless me. This has worked for me every time I've ever tried it. Not this time. I waited in line like everyone else, and then when my turn came, I crossed my arms. The priest took a wafer and dipped it in the (white) wine and then slowly started bringing it to my (closed) mouth. I realized that there was no stopping this guy-- 1) I didn't know enough Spanish to tell him to stop, 2) I'm scared of Catholic rules in the first place so I probably wouldn't have said anything even if it was all in English, and 3) I really didn't have time to think or do anything. So I opened my mouth and ate the transubstantiated, real body and blood of Christ. I went back to my seat completely weirded out. Nikki and Devin, both Catholic, died laughing when I told them what had just happened. Nikki explained to me that she and her friends used to make fun of the old people in her church who would stubbornly cross their arms and make the priest feed the communion to them. Basically, only super traditional old Catholics still take communion that way in her church. We came to the conclusion that the priest would wake up the next day on Easter morning, smack himself in the head, and say "I gave that heathen, Ellie Nash, communion! Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned!" Who knows if he'll ever get into Catholic heaven. Communion or no communion, the mass was beautiful, and it was a really unique (and free, although that's not why we did it) way to see one of the most touristy sites in Barcelona. After the service, we were given some kind of Easter bread that was flat and had cinnamon and sugar all over it-yum! That evening will definitely stand out in my memory of Barcelona.
When we woke up on Saturday, it was a little chilly, but the sun was out. We ate breakfast, put on our bathing suits, bought some churros, and took the metro out to the beach, where the sky was gray. We stopped at a cabana called Princesa 23 (it was the cabana version of a restaurant that our friend loves), where we had nachos, paella, and margaritas. It was so good to have nachos! And the paella (our first time) was delicious--it's a rice and seafood mixture that's just awesome. As soon as our food came, it started to rain, and there was no cover above us. Luckily, we were sitting next to two Americans (from Silicon Valley, and one goes to SMU), who were in the same boat as us, swimsuits and everything, so we laughed our way through the rainfall. We decided it just wasn't the day for the beach and started walking again. The weather wavered between sunny and rainy all day, so we got some nice pictures of us at the harbor.
That night was the paella party at our hostel. We ate that and then went to the 10pm Easter Vigil Mass at Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's Roman Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882 and will continue to be until at least 2026. The church is huge, but most of it was blocked off for construction, so we had mass in a little sectioned off area. The mass was really nice, with around seven scripture readings about the creation of Earth, Abraham, Moses, and others. We were each given candles, and they didn't have anymore English programs (wrong vocabulary, I know, but I forgot the word), so I took a French one. I was surprised at how well I was able to follow the Spanish scripture readings in the French program. Then, since Easter is, for the Catholic Church, a time for family to come together, people from different places went up and read a specific scripture in their native language. The priest pointed out all the different people from different places multiple times, so it was cool that he realized how international the mass was. But I'd say about 98% of the mass was in Spanish.
So normally if I go to mass with a friend, I'll just go up to the front during communion and, not wanting to break any rules, I'll just cross my arms and the priest will bless me. This has worked for me every time I've ever tried it. Not this time. I waited in line like everyone else, and then when my turn came, I crossed my arms. The priest took a wafer and dipped it in the (white) wine and then slowly started bringing it to my (closed) mouth. I realized that there was no stopping this guy-- 1) I didn't know enough Spanish to tell him to stop, 2) I'm scared of Catholic rules in the first place so I probably wouldn't have said anything even if it was all in English, and 3) I really didn't have time to think or do anything. So I opened my mouth and ate the transubstantiated, real body and blood of Christ. I went back to my seat completely weirded out. Nikki and Devin, both Catholic, died laughing when I told them what had just happened. Nikki explained to me that she and her friends used to make fun of the old people in her church who would stubbornly cross their arms and make the priest feed the communion to them. Basically, only super traditional old Catholics still take communion that way in her church. We came to the conclusion that the priest would wake up the next day on Easter morning, smack himself in the head, and say "I gave that heathen, Ellie Nash, communion! Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned!" Who knows if he'll ever get into Catholic heaven. Communion or no communion, the mass was beautiful, and it was a really unique (and free, although that's not why we did it) way to see one of the most touristy sites in Barcelona. After the service, we were given some kind of Easter bread that was flat and had cinnamon and sugar all over it-yum! That evening will definitely stand out in my memory of Barcelona.
Sagrada Familia at night before the Easter Vigil MassOn Easter Sunday we checked out of Urbany hostel and checked into our new hostel, Sea Point Hostel, which was right on la Playa de la Barceloneta (Barceloneta Beach). It was shabbier that Urbany. You had to rent your top sheet and blanket, there was no heating or ac (not a big deal at this time of year), and you had to buy a lock for the locker, but it did have free wireless, and the shower was bigger than Urbany's (although not as new). Most importantly, it was located on the beach.
We rented bikes for the day and started out towards Sagrada Familia. We bought a student pass for 11euros at Sagrada Familia that allowed us entry into the church as well as the Gaudi House and Museum in Parc Güell. Sagrada Familia is going to be awesome when it's finished, but right now there is so much under construction that it's hard to appreciate its entirety. The basement, which is where we really wanted to go based on a recommendation to see this weight system, was recently closed off, so we didn't get to see that. Also, coming from museum-packed Paris, we weren't really in the mood to listen to the audio guide or read up about the significance of every little detail (apparently there is a lot of significance). I'll do Sagrada Familia the right way the next time I go to Barcelona. Anyway, I felt like I really got a lot out of the Easter Vigil Mass, so I wasn't too disappointed. Don't get me wrong, Sagrada Familia is incredible, but we liked the mass better than the daytime visit.
We rented bikes for the day and started out towards Sagrada Familia. We bought a student pass for 11euros at Sagrada Familia that allowed us entry into the church as well as the Gaudi House and Museum in Parc Güell. Sagrada Familia is going to be awesome when it's finished, but right now there is so much under construction that it's hard to appreciate its entirety. The basement, which is where we really wanted to go based on a recommendation to see this weight system, was recently closed off, so we didn't get to see that. Also, coming from museum-packed Paris, we weren't really in the mood to listen to the audio guide or read up about the significance of every little detail (apparently there is a lot of significance). I'll do Sagrada Familia the right way the next time I go to Barcelona. Anyway, I felt like I really got a lot out of the Easter Vigil Mass, so I wasn't too disappointed. Don't get me wrong, Sagrada Familia is incredible, but we liked the mass better than the daytime visit.
The other facade of Sagrada Familia, during the day
The ceiling of Sagrada Familia (sorry this one is turned, I'll get back to it soon)
A miniature replica of the weight system in the basement that we didn't get to seeAfter Sagrada Familia, we continued our bike adventure to Parc Güell, designed and lived in by Gaudi. Turns out this park is on top of a hill, so it wasn't the best bike ride of our lives, but we did get to see a lot of the city we wouldn't have seen otherwise (wasn't too impressive). I guess we didn't see very much of the park, but that's because the skies opened up on us as soon as we got there. We tried to wait the rain out by grabbing some lunch at a not-so-great tapas place around the corner. The only reason this place was any good was because they had Louisiana Hot Sauce--the first spicy sauce from home I've had in three months! At the park, we saw the famous things, which included the Doric columns under the central terrace, the mosaic serpentine benches on the central terrace, the colonnaded footpath with slanting columns, the mosaic dragon fountain, and Gaudi's house (which was not designed by him). My favorite thing was probably the mosaic serpentine benches.
The colonnaded footpath with slanting columns (America's Next Top Model had a finale runway show here, btw)
The view of the colonnaded footpath from outside the tunnel
Me on the mosaic serpentine benches, with the entrance gate (the thing that looks like a gingerbread house) and the Mediterranean behind me.After the park, we biked with one destination in mind: the sea. We didn't take out any maps, we didn't plan at all, we just headed for the water because the rain was really coming down. Before the rain started that day, I had suggested biking down La Rambla amongst all the people, just to see it from a different viewpoint. At the outset of our return to the hostel, we all agreed that this wasn't a great idea, since it was out of the way. But by the time we got to the point where we had to choose, Nikki and Devin surprised me and asked if we could bike down La Rambla. That was an adventure in itself- weaving through people and cars while trying to take in the beautiful trees and the toursity shops, all in the rain. All in all, I think we biked about 8 miles that day-- two flat, two uphill, and four in the pouring rain. We had a really good time that day, and we were very proud of ourselves.
That night, we met up with a friend of Devin's who is studying in Barcelona for dinner. We tried to go to this one cerveseria (brewery)/tapas restaurant, but it was going to take two hours. So we found another tapas place (called Tapa Tapa) and ate more tapas for dinner on Passeig de Gracia. Although the menu was all in Catalan and he couldn't read it, it was good to have a translator there to talk to the waiters and such. I don't remember what I got, but I remember it was good :)
We woke up the next day to sunshine. Since our hostel was on the beach, we threw on our suits, ate breakfast, and went out to enjoy our last day in Barcelona in the most relaxing way possible on a beautiful beach.
That night, we met up with a friend of Devin's who is studying in Barcelona for dinner. We tried to go to this one cerveseria (brewery)/tapas restaurant, but it was going to take two hours. So we found another tapas place (called Tapa Tapa) and ate more tapas for dinner on Passeig de Gracia. Although the menu was all in Catalan and he couldn't read it, it was good to have a translator there to talk to the waiters and such. I don't remember what I got, but I remember it was good :)
We woke up the next day to sunshine. Since our hostel was on the beach, we threw on our suits, ate breakfast, and went out to enjoy our last day in Barcelona in the most relaxing way possible on a beautiful beach.
La Playa de la Barceloneta at 9:30amLittle did we know that there were about seven little asian women (not sure from where) who would bother us all day long with their constant "Massa-hey?! Massagie?! Fi euro!" It was like they thought massagie was the English way to say massage--bizarre. But seriously we heard this about every minute, all day long; the same women passing us over and over and over. I don't know why they thought we'd suddenly change our minds. The gross thing was, between massaging someone's feet and massaging someone's head, they never washed their hands. We started off nicely saying "No, thank you," but seven hours later we were coming up with all kinds of ways to say no, knowing that they understood none of it. We were also bombarded with offers of beer, water, tattoos, bracelets, sarongs, everything. This was the only bad part about Barceloneta beach. The only thing I gave money to all day was a group of African drummers who got together near us, and it seemed like they were doing it more for their own pleasure than for anything else. The guy that asked us for money asked for anything we had. I said I had 10 cents (because that was really all I had), and he said that was good enough and he sincerely thanked me, so I was content with this donation.
The Asian massagie women beginning their day next to usI ended the day with sunburned shins and insteps, because I had been really careful about putting French sunblock on everything but my shins and feet (they don't usually burn). It was a wonderful (if a little annoying thanks to all of the offers) day.
That night we met up with Devin's friend again to go to the original tapas place we had tried to go the night before. Instead of going at the busy hour of 9:30pm, we went at 7pm, and there was already a 45 minute wait! While waiting, I ordered a four-cheese-on-a-toasted-piece-of-bread tapa at the bar, and while it was only a bite, it was fantastic. It was a mix of French and Spanish cheese for around 1.10euros. I asked the hostess for a drink menu (in Spanish), and she immediately took a liking to me. She hounded the bar tenders for me, and complimented me on my not-so-great Spanish. I think the fact that I had tried in Spanish gave me some real credit, and I think we might have been moved up in the line because of that. Excellent.
This place was by far the best tapas restaurant we we went to. I got a tapa that had something like cod grits (it was mashed up cod or something, but it tasted exactly like grits) with an orange sauce. It sounded a lot better than that on the menu, but I can't remember what it was. It was really good. The other plate I had was simply pan fried peppers with a little high quality salt. I was excited about the possibility of eating hot peppers, but I was pleasantly surprised to taste just really good, flavorful peppers. My friends, who are from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, were a little freaked out at the thought of eating straight peppers, but they really liked them after they tried them. Devin's friend from Barcelona ordered us a plate of this bread that it rubbed with tomatoes and olive oil that sounds really simple but it's delicious. To drink I got Damm Lemon beer, which I think is the Spanish beer, Estrella Damm, with lemonade in it. I got one before dinner and all of us girls really liked it, so we all got them for dinner. For dessert, I had crema catalana, which, as far as I can tell, is crème brûlée, but I'm sure there's some difference.
This place was by far the best tapas restaurant we we went to. I got a tapa that had something like cod grits (it was mashed up cod or something, but it tasted exactly like grits) with an orange sauce. It sounded a lot better than that on the menu, but I can't remember what it was. It was really good. The other plate I had was simply pan fried peppers with a little high quality salt. I was excited about the possibility of eating hot peppers, but I was pleasantly surprised to taste just really good, flavorful peppers. My friends, who are from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, were a little freaked out at the thought of eating straight peppers, but they really liked them after they tried them. Devin's friend from Barcelona ordered us a plate of this bread that it rubbed with tomatoes and olive oil that sounds really simple but it's delicious. To drink I got Damm Lemon beer, which I think is the Spanish beer, Estrella Damm, with lemonade in it. I got one before dinner and all of us girls really liked it, so we all got them for dinner. For dessert, I had crema catalana, which, as far as I can tell, is crème brûlée, but I'm sure there's some difference.
My Damm Lemon, some tomato-olive oil bread, my pepper tapa, and my cod-grits with cheese and sauce tapaAfter that, Devin's friend took us to this cafe called El Bosc de les Fades (The Forest of the Fairies) behind the Museu de Cera (wax museum) on La Rambla. You literally had to walk through the gates of the wax museum and through a front faux-bar filled with wax figures like John Wayne and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler to get to the actual cafe. The cafe was like an intimate fantasy version of the Rain Forest Cafe. It was really cool and relaxed. I had a glass of cava (Spanish sparkling wine) there that was good. As we were flying out of Barcelona around 3:30 the next day, we went back to the hostel and called it a night.
The next morning, I got up around 7:30am to eat breakfast and make it to la Boqueria (the famous food market on La Rambla that had been closed all weekend and Monday for Easter) and to La Manual Alpargatera, the originator of espadrilles. La Boqueria was really cool, even if I was there before a lot of things opened up. There were all kinds of stands that included candy stands, meat stands, fruit stands, dried fruit stands, fruit juice stands, nut stands, olive stands, wine bars, milk stands, and egg stands. That's right, egg stands.
The next morning, I got up around 7:30am to eat breakfast and make it to la Boqueria (the famous food market on La Rambla that had been closed all weekend and Monday for Easter) and to La Manual Alpargatera, the originator of espadrilles. La Boqueria was really cool, even if I was there before a lot of things opened up. There were all kinds of stands that included candy stands, meat stands, fruit stands, dried fruit stands, fruit juice stands, nut stands, olive stands, wine bars, milk stands, and egg stands. That's right, egg stands.
They only sold eggs. So strange.
Fruit juice stand, where I bought something like Strawberry and PineappleI never really knew what espadrilles were, but now I know what the originals are. They are canvas and rope-soled shoes that are incredible comfortable, and really cheap. I got my lilac-colored espadrilles for 8euros. Mine also have a little more to the sole (plastic or rubber or something). The shoes are no longer made at that workshop, but they are still made in Barcelona.
A wall full of espadrilles
I walked back to the hostel, where Devin and Nikki were eating breakfast. We headed to the airport via metro. One final word about the metro: a wonderful, clean system, but it doesn't have the most clear directions to the airport train, and it was not made for people with baggage (or handicapps, for that matter).
I left Barcelona with every intention of returning as soon as I can. The next time I go, I hope to do some research ahead of time. But this time, I got what I wanted out of my trip--relaxation, entertainment, pretty things, and experiencing a new culture. Oh, and I really want to learn Spanish now.
Hasta luego,
Ellie
I left Barcelona with every intention of returning as soon as I can. The next time I go, I hope to do some research ahead of time. But this time, I got what I wanted out of my trip--relaxation, entertainment, pretty things, and experiencing a new culture. Oh, and I really want to learn Spanish now.
Hasta luego,
Ellie
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