It seems like the nights at the hostel got progressively worse – last night involved a bunch of Aussies coming in at 2.30am to discuss whether they should set up a drinking party in the room and a whole bunch of drunken guys with loud music serenading us outside our window at 5am. As such, little sleep was had and Julie and I felt less than stellar getting up just before 7am to catch our next flight.
The metro to the airport was uneventful and we arrived just before check in opened. A little more waiting in line and we were soon waiting in line for security – dumb blonde moment here, I’d accidentally packed my sunscreen, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner in my hand luggage (despite knowing I can’t take liquids on the plane). Oh well, the man was friendly about it… but bin time for all of those items.
Our time in Paris has been interesting – again, marred by rain. I like the city very much however and there is so much more that I haven’t seen yet… all the more reason to come back one day! A part of me feels like I haven’t had a very authentic French experience but then I’m not sure what I was expecting in a big city like this. It makes me want to go the French country side a lot. That being said, I think we had our fair share of baguettes and pastries and I am looking forward to something a little different in Spain for a while.
The gate was pleasant enough to wait in and then on to our flight! Again, this was uneventful, mostly filled with sleeping. Soon we were on the train to central Barcelona, with hyped up vigilance against the dreaded pick pockets here. We found our hostel with no difficulty – the location of this place is great, right on the central shopping strip and close to the metro. The common rooms here have a lots of character although our 6 bed dorm is rather small and squishy (with two powerpoints and one shower to share between all of us).
By now it was around 2pm and we decided to head to Park Guell, a Gaudi designed park overlooking the city (there is a looot of Gaudi architecture here). The new environment took a bit of getting used to – after three weeks in Central Europe an hour and a half flight suddenly takes us to this place full of palm trees, sun, the ocean, sand, new architecture… we love it here already. We strolled around the park (hopping between shady spots, oh how the tides turned) and eventually settled down at a cafe with a litre of cold Sangria and a view of the whole city. What had defined our time here so far has been a distinct lack of rushing around – we sat here for a least an hour just enjoying the surroundings and chatting.
After that we headed down to La Ramblas – a really long street covered in trees, artists, icecream bars and the inevitable souvenir shops. During our walk down the street there was a quick stop over to restock all the liquids the airport had taken from me, and then down to the waterfront. We strolled along here for a bit (lots of strolling today) and then walked around the ‘local’ area to find somewhere for dinner. We settled for a tapas bar in a small square – dinner consisted of salted asparagus, sizzling chorizos braised in cider (so good!), chicken kebabs and over roasted lamb. For dessert I ordered a traditional Catalan crispy pancake, which was basically a pappadam type thing covered in sugar and a licorice tasting liquer. And of course there was Spanish wine.
There was only one way we could spend the night after this… Spain was playing Portugal in the semifinals of the Euro Cup (which we have been following on various TV screens in various cities over the past few weeks) so of course we had to watch the game. We found what we thought was a local bar, ordered another bottle of Spanish wine and settled in for the match. Turns out we were surrounded by Canadians, French people and Germans but there were enough locals to keep the Spanish spirit high! The game itself was rather uneventful (0-0) which meant penalty shoot outs which were very intense! Spain ended up winning, which means that I will be in the country when they play in the Grand Final on Sunday night. Fun times!
After that back to the hostel to creep back in the room without lights – after a long day bed was amazing!
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