Barcelona Baby!

Thursday June 12

We had to talk all of our travel gear to school with us because we were heading directly form the school to the airport.  We knew our destination, but not exactly what bus took us there.  After going to the wrong stop first, we made it on the bus and got off at the last stop--John Lennon Airport.

Once inside and past security, we sat, ate, and decompressed. We didn't sit for too long because then it was time for boarding. They called it over the intercom. Anyone on flight blah blah blah headed to Barcelona, head to the gate immediately. We rushed toward the gate. We saw a long queue. After waiting a few minutes, we realized it was the wrong queue. Got in the right line and boarded quickly. It was nice. 

The flight was long and there were many interesting people on the flight with us.  We finally touched down in sunny Barcelona.  I stepped out of the plane and felt the heat.  I was ready for some hot weather.

We walk up to the taxi line and we were ushered into a taxi immediately. It was late and we decided beforehand that a taxi would be our best bet. The driver hops out and throws our bags in the back. I show him the address of the hostel on my phone. He gives me a confused look and says "well this is why I have GPS" in spotty English. We hop in, he plugs in the address and we were off. We eventually start climbing this mountain with winds and turns. Much like Appalachia. I keep watch on the GPS. There was a fork in the road and our driver took the wrong side. We are probably already 20 minutes into our journey. Then he keeps driving the wrong way! Getting to our hostel is never easy. He asks for the address again, plugs it in, turns around, and continues. Yet again, he doesn't follow the GPS. He zooms past it again. Lindsey and I realize what he is doing. I start saying to him. "I have a phone number. Do you want to call the hostel?" I had to repeat myself multiple times, but eventually he understood. "Sì" he says. I show him the address and he calls. The only things I could make out of his conversation was hola and tres chicas. We were in a mountain, lost, and with someone who speaks poor English, needless to say, we were a little worried.  After the phone call, he seemed to have a better heading. We head back down the mountain only to head up again a different way. When we finally saw signs for our hostel we all wanted to cry tears of joy, including the taxi driver, who was extremely frustrated at this point. On land we head toward reception. 

We knew going into this that the hostel employs adults with varying degrees of special needs, which is one of the reasons we choose to stay here.  The hostel we stayed at was a non-profit organization which runs a school for children with disabilities, and offered training and occupational health.  I kept this in mind when. Approached the desk. Again poor English. It took us another 10 minutes to get our keys and on our way. We were told that the hostel is not all in one building. We had to go back outside to get to our room. 

Two locked doors separated us from our beds. I wasn't complaining. I like that kind of privacy. I was pleasantly surprised our rooms were actually nice for hostel. We had our own bathroom and the beds were lifted high with outlets on each bed. Making charging convienent. 

We really didn't have dinner so we raced to our hostels restaurant. Ice cream was preferable. Then we saw it. The case of ice cream. It was locked so we headed inside to get an employee. While waiting for the ice cream to be unlocked, we heard a noise coming from outside. We looked and saw wild hogs! They were getting good out of the trash can. It was very interesting.

The wild hogs

 Friday June 13

Then it was time for free breakfast. Yes! We walked to the restaurant- no hogs this time. The free breakfast was actually pretty good. We got cereal, toast, donuts, and other things. We ate, asked for directions, and headed out for the day. 

Down the mountain we walked. We actually found the train station no problem. Once at the station-problem! We didn't know what ticket to buy. I flagged down a guy and luckily he helped as.

Once we get through the gate, we didn't know which side of te platform we needed. I flagged down another woman and asked her. She spoke even less English. I asked Sagrata Familia and pointed. She understood and pointed is in the right direction. We got on the train and had a short ride to the metro. We got on the metro and arrived at Segrada Famimia. Literally. I walked out of the station and BAM! Right there was the church-- and the long line that followed. We got in line which wrapped around the building and waited.

Sagrada Familia 

The line was just to buy the tickets. It took an hour to get to the front. We had 30 minutes to kill before our 12:30 time slot. We walked around to some shops. We bought some ice cream. Oreo- yum! Then we headed to the back to enter the Segrada familia. Oh my! This was the prettiest church we had seen so far. Really modern with lots of pretty stained glass. It was amazing! I was mesmerized walking around in the red, blue, and green light that poured in.  It was definitely worth the waiting and money.  After walking around we decided that we should get some food. While waiting in line, we got a brochure for a little backery. We decided to try that. 

Inside Sagrada Familia

Inside Sagrada Familia

Inside Sagrada Familia

We actually found it on our own. It was a  cute little shop. We looked at the menu and couldn't understand anything. Then they handed us menu with English. We all got ham on chibotta. It was delicious! We also got water. I was extremely parched at this point, so I chugged my $2 water. A worker shoved a plate if cupcakes in our face saying free sample. Well don't mind if I do. We asked what flavors. As soon as she said Nutella, Lindsey and I both screatched Nutella! We devoured the sample and then she comes back over and drops a whole Nutella cupcake on my plate. I didn't question it. I just ate it. Yummy!!

Off to the metro to go to la ramble. We got off the metro and started walking-- in the wrong direction. We corrected ourselves and found this street about 7 cars wide with vendors and shops and markets.I had never seen anything like it before. So many things to look at and smell--but I didn't inhale too long because it smelled really bad. We wandered until we found a tourist desk. We asked where the beaches were. She pointed us in the right direction. I was so stinking excited. 

That was the longest walk to the beach I have ever experienced. Probably bout 45 minutes. My feet were throbbing. Then we saw it--water! We all took off our shoes and ran toward the water. There were thousands of people laying out. It made it hard to walk. We eventually made it to the waters edge. The water felt so good! It was so clear, nothing like any of the other bodies of water I had swam in before.

The Mediterranean Sea

We walked along the sand for a long time until we hit rocks and a railing thing. We climbed over the rocks and over the railing to a less popular rocky side. It was beautiful. We sat on rocks and stuck our feet in the sand. It was soooo nice. We cooled off in no time.

We then wanted to walk over to the big rocks a few meters away. I started walking in rocks because it was too deep to walk on the sand part with our purses. I soon realized this path was tearing up my feet. I was stepping on urchins and barnacles. It fricken hurt man! The others didn't follow for long. I painfully turned back. We decided that we should sadly depart from the beach and head back for food.

The sea urchins that hurt me

It takes way less time to get back. We hit the market at la rambla. The market was amazing. So many good things. Fresh fruit, fresh fish, candy, and all the other foods. We got fresh fruit, cod cabob, and 1.5 liter water. Next we had to find some where to sit. We walked all the way back to the fountain we saw when we arrived. Oh my that was a long trek. We sat and ate at the fountain.

All of the wonders of the market

My 1.5 L water that I chugged

After eating we thought we should head toward the fountain light show. We reached the town and saw nothing. There wasn't anything there. So we decide to sit. For 35 minutes. During this time we see people with Miley written on their bodies and RIP Hannah Montana t-shirts. We get to thinking that there is a Miley Cyrus concert in Barcelona because we start hearing loud music. We then get up and start walking because we still had a while until the show started we hit an ATM first. There were two girls at te ATM dressed like they were going to a concert. Lindsey asked if there was a Miley Cyrus concert near by. They then asked s if we were drunk. So I take that as a no. They then tell us they spent 160 euros on a techno concert. We thought that was weird  

Whatever, we walked back to the center and found a tourist station we asked where there was ice cream. They pointed us to a mall. Shaped like a stadium. We headed into the basement. Ice cream was everywhere! I got Nutella ice cream in a large cone. Yummy. Next it was time for the fountain show. 

There were so many people around the fountain. I was ticked so we sat on the steps and waited for it to start. We saw the side fountains turn on, so we ran toward the big fountain. We got front row seats. All of the sudden we hear Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! It was the beginning of the circle of life. Karli's mouth drops to the ground. I thought she was going to cry. She loves Disney so much. The whole first 30 minutes was Disney songs. In Spanish, but we knew all of the words so it didn't matter. We scream sang them to ourselves. For the second time tonight. People thought we were drunk. Pop music came on and then classical. Before we knew it, we had been there 1.5 hours. I the had the thought. When do the trains stop running. That thought was enough to get us running to the metro.

The fountain show

As we approach, we notice many other people so we know we are not late. We get to a crowded platform. We tell eah other to hold on and push through the crowd. That's just what we did. We made it on along with 50 pother bodies. And we got the middle of the metro. Where there is nothing to hold on to. We take a wide stance and brace ourselves.  Knowing how clumsy I am, not holding onto anything on the metro is tricky.

We had to then switch from metro to train. We run and hop on one sitting at the platform. Relieved we sit down. For some strange reason I look back at the board telling where we would be stopping. Our station was not lit up. An old man notices us looking at it and asks where we are going. I show him, but he couldn't read that small print. So I tried my hardest and used my best Spanish trying to get him to understand. Finally, he understands and tells us we need to be a few platforms over. We ran over there ad found seats next to this girl. 

We had had so much sugar by this point and we were slap happy. We were attempting to say all of the Spanish metro stops in the most English way possible. We reaches Muntaner. We started saying it like Montana with a hick accet coming out as montaner. Then I said Hanner Montaner. We side laughing! While this was going on, the lady sitting next to Karli put down her book, took her ear plug out of the ear closers to us, and laughed at us. 

We eventually arrive at our station. Then we had to climb back up the mountain to our hostel. We arrived and immediately sat in the wifi section.

While on wifi, I searched Miley Cyrus tour 2014 and she actually was in Barcelona doing a concert that night.  Ha!  We were right!

Saturday June 14

We slept in until 9, but our noisy neighbors woke us up before that.  We headed up for breakfast. They were out of plates and some food. We still got a decent breakfast. Then we headed off to Parc Guell. 

It took a train, metro, and bus to get there, but we finally made it. We had to pay for tickets. Our time slot wasn't until 12:30 and it was 11:30. We were dead. So tired and hot. We sat in the shade for 30 minutes. Karli fell asleep. Then we decided to follow the music that we were hearing. That took us up a mountain-yay! So tired! We made it to the music and explored a little around there. 

We went back down for our time ticket. We were released into a mosaic wonderland. There were so many things to look.  

We took some pictures in the open area with a mosaic fence/seating area. It was really pretty. Then we went down stairs and found the lizard thing and mosaic houses. We ate in the park and then made our way back to the metro, beach bound.

Parc Guell

The metro was so crowded. Everyone wanted to be on the beach. We stopped off to get some water and one towel. Cold water costs more than warm water and the cold water wasn't even cold! When we arrived, there were so many people we didn't even know where to go. We went to dip our feet in the water for relief from the burning sand. We found a towel spot of space, which was all we had. We left Karli on the towel with our bags and lindsey and I ran for the water. \The water was colder than the day before but it still felt sooooo good. The sand was not little fine pebbles. It was rocks. Some small and some large. I am spoiled with the fine sand I South Carolina. We stay in the crystal clear water for a while. After playing in the water, we went back up and all three sat on one towel.  It was a struggle,, sharing a towel was no problem.  We sat with our backs to the sun for a while and then all laid down on the towel.  We decided that we should probably eat since we had spent a few hours at the beach.

Beach

We didn't want to eat in the market tonight because there wasn't anywhere to sit in the market.  There were several restaurants set up on the strip.  We ate at Mickey's.  It was nice.  There was some good food there.  We all ordered pizza. Again.  But it was good. I ate the whole thing and wanted more.  We then walked looking for souvenirs and ice cream.  We eventually found both.  I got some things and a yummy chips ahoy ice cream.  We walked the whole of la rambla again, so we went into the shopping center.  So much for a shopping center,  there wasn't much there, we couldn't find a way out, and you had to pay to use the bathroom.  As we left the shopping center, it started raining, so we headed for cover in the metro.  We decided to head back to the hostel.  

We walked up the mountain back to our hostel, dropped our things, and headed toward the pool  More water!!

Pool time

We walked to where we thought it was and we found a dead end.  So we took another path that lead us to the restaurant.  We then decided we should ask for help.  We waited in the bar and no one came.  Two americans saw us and asked what we were doing.  They pointed us in the direction of the pool.  We were walking the right way the first time.  We eventually found the pool and I was elated.  I couldn't have been happier.  We sat in the pool and talked until the guy came to close it.

Barcelona was amazing!  I left with great memories and a great sun burn.  I would go back and I would probably stay in the same hostel because it was the best hostel we have stayed in so far.  Ta and Cheers!