Bienvenidos a Barthelona! Part Dos

So, it has been a couple of weeks since my last blog, and I have talked to my parents. Luckily, I am not in trouble! *wahoo!* My dad kind of suspected we had used a system like this, my mom was really shocked - oops guess that means I need to get her a nice present from one of my travels :)

So after my favorite place ever - LA BOQUERIA - we decided to go visit the Sagrada Familia. This is an amazing cathedral designed by the man who basically owned Barcelona (no, he didn't he just designed a lot of things for Barcelona) Gaudi.

Barcelona is the city of Gaudi. He was not your typical architect, nor is La Sagrada Familia your typical cathedral. I mean, look at the top picture. There is a Christmas Tree type-thing on top there, first of all. There are different types of fruits on spires, lizards, snails, snakes, ( among other animals )adorn the sides of the church, etc. It is a very wild looking church. Now the line is usually long - like 2 hours long, so the first time Beth, Courtney and I went, we didn't have enough time to visit it because we were on a bike tour. I was really interested to go inside, because if it looked crazy on the outside I could not wait to see it on the inside! So, Mindy and I got in line and sent Tina around the cathedral to see how long of a line it was. She returned TEN MINUTES later - it was THAT long of a line. So we buckled up for long ride. It actually moved a lot quicker than we thought - as you can see, I started to get really excited while we were in line. An hour and half later we finally got to the entrance! Now, La Sagrada Familia is one of the few churches in Europe you actually have to PAY to enter. I think that is because it is still being constructed. They started working on this cathedral in 1882! 1882!!! So well over one hundred years - and they don't expect it to be done until 2026 - the centennial of Gaudi's birthday. But they have so much work left I honestly think it won't be finished for much longer. I honestly didn't mind paying, especially after...

Finally after paying and standing in line we got to go inside. Words. Cannot. Describe. The inside absolutely blew me away. I knew it was a very big cathedral, but on the outside it does not seem THAT big, but holy cow. It is GINORMOUS! It is very grand and open and just...amazing. I did not expect the interior to look like it did. And the stained glass! I have never seen such vivid and colorful stained glass - and it was so different than typical stained glass. They cast the most amazing rainbows and shadows throughout the entire Cathedral. Absolutely amazing! I am so, so, SO glad we waited to go into this cathedral. It honestly is unlike anything I have ever seen. I have seen a lot of cathedrals in my day, and I am fascinated by them all - despite the fact that most look very similar. I was expecting it too look like other cathedrals that I have seen, and I think this why I do not have the words to describe how I felt when I went inside. Everyone needs to go inside La Sagrada Familia - my pictures do not do justice. It is definitely worth the price to go see LA Sagrada Familia - and just think, your money is helping build this fantastic cathedral! (or so I like to believe.)

After La Sagrada Familia we decided to head back to Las Ramblas, to get some groceries for dinner and we happened to find a Carrefour! Now, Carrefour is a famous French grocery store chain, so clearly we had to go in and buy things from there. It had exactly the same products but with Spanish names instead of French names, it was quite amusing. However, one thing that this Carrefour has that the French ones do not is - SANGRIA! When in Spain you have to have Sangria, so clearly we got a couple bottles. We got back to our awesome hostel and decided to take a quick nap before dinner and before heading out for the night. (We stayed at Equity Point Centric - right by Las Ramblas in an apparently swanky part of town! I would recommend it highly - it is quiet, the staff is wonderful, and there is breakfast!) It took us awhile to get going and we finally trudged downstairs to make dinner, only to realize that the hostel's kitchen actually closed 10 minutes before we came down - oops. The bar/lounge area is attached to the kitchen and the woman bartender was super nice and opened back the kitchen back up for us to cook! So nice of her! We made some pesto pasta, ate some bread, meat, and cheese, and drank our sangria and then finished getting ready for our night out! In Barcelona, unlike anywhere in France, the metro stays open 24 hours on Saturday - which can be kind of dangerous (in a oh-I-can-stay-up-all-night-way!) Last time I was in Barcelona we didn't expect to stay out as late as we did, so if history repeats itself I knew that this night would be no different. It wasn't. We headed down to the beach because we heard there were a bunch of FREE clubs/bars down there. We were all about the free - no cover charge for us! A guy who worked at our hostel said each was different, so if you didn't like one, you would could go to another to find music you liked. We went in to a couple - one playing only English music, another playing only Spanish music, and just taking in everything. It was quite packed and quite the experience. Finally we settled on a Irish Pub - yes, we go to an Irish Pub in Barcelona, that was having a South African band playing that night! Yep. South African Band. Irish Pub. Barcelona. Makes sense right? It was awesome! They were singing classics like Queen and the Stones - it was a great time. Little did we realize it was almost 4am by the time the bar closed and the finished. Oops. So we headed back to the 24hour metro to go home and get some much needed sleep. We were exhausted!

The next day was a low-key day - we slept in (obviously,) walked around for a bit, and hiked up to the Gaudi Park. I literally mean hiked - it is up a very steep hill! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera :( it is one crazy park! We headed back to the hostel to get ready because we had signed up for this Tapas/Flamenco tour that night through our hostel. Besides Sangria, Spain is known for its tapas food, and probably most well known for its Flamenco dancing. I had never seen Flamenco dancing before so I was quite excited. Unfortunately, this little tour did not go so well. They took us to this restaurant - but at least 30 people had signed up for this. Apparently, this doesn't normally happen so when we got to the restaurant they had maybe 25 seats, and even less spots at the tables. There was this group of older French people who knocked everyone down to get seats at the table, and when people asked if they could join them they refused and said "Sorry! Not their fault we were slow" (oh, the French... they later apologized to everyone because they didn't understand what was happening) So needless to say, we were without a table and not happy at all. The leader of the tour then asked us if we would mind sitting standing at the bar to eat our food. So we had to eat our tapas standing up, while everyone else got to sit down. We were at least next to a very nice New Zealand man who chatted us up for a bit and explained the different things we were eating! After dinner, we were herded to outside this club where the Flamenco show was to take place. After waiting in line for what seemed an eternity we finally got into the club - only to discover we had to STAND AGAIN. They over booked the show and everyone got a seat but us. I was seething at this point, as were Mindy and Tina. Some nice guys came and gave us there seats after awhile luckily - but they were barstools so not the most comfortable, but I can't complain. The show was actually really good! The guy dancer was absolutely AMAZING. I have never seen such fast footwork before. So at least that part of the tour lived up to the hype. I would recommend going to the show, for sure, however I would pass on the "tapas + flamenco combination" -they need to work out a few kinks.

On Monday we decided to to a bike tour! Now, if you read my blog last time, I did a bike tour then so i somehow convinced the girls to go on a
bike tour this time. It was a different tour company, but still just as awesome! I have included a picture of proof that I was on a bike - because I honestly think the last time I was on a bike was the LAST tour in Barcelona two years ago. Every time I do the tour I always ask myself why don't I ride bikes more? Beats me! I was a bit wobbly at first, but no crashes - woo! We had a charming and funny British guy give our tour. It was quite interesting because we visited some of the same things as the other tour - but also new things! I had no idea that beaches never existed in Barcelona until almost 20 years ago when they hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics. The city of Barcelona went through a major upheaval, creating the now ever-so-popular-and-known beaches of Barcelona, while stirring up quite a bit of controversy by tearing down and moving a large poorer population of the city to the outside of the city to create this avenue in the city. Apparently it was an area known for its crime, drugs, and prostitution and they basically forced everyone move to a new area because they didn't want this to be seen. Very, very interesting. It was such an enjoyable tour - I love these bike tours and walking tours because you find out so much more about the city than you would have just by seeing the sites. It may be touristy, but I don't care. I am tourist, I will be touristy!

This day just so happened to be Halloween and Tina happened to bring a costume with her whereas Mindy and I didn't really. We decided to go shopping after the tour and happened upon a store that was selling cat ears - so clearly Mindy and I bought some. When in Barcelona...buy cat ears? We went to a few more stores and did some damage to our wallets before heading back to the hostel to get ready! We were not alone - everyone else was getting dressed up for Halloween,
including several cats! It is the go-to costume, but I clearly didn't bring a costume to Spain, or even France for that matter, so it might be cliche but oh well! So Tina was dressed up as Raggedy Ann with her two pet cats - Mindy and myself, and we headed to dinner. During our tour, our awesome guide told us about this restaurant (in the same plaza as the Flamenco tour) that is known for their amazing food and cheap prices, called the Les Quinz Nits, or the 15 Knights. It is entirely run by the top culinary school students, hence why it is really good food for cheap! There is always a long line, but we only had to wait 15 minutes or so and we got to sit outside. They sat us down next to a table of French people (oy more French!) but unlike the night before, they were so nice and hilarious. One older gentlemen kept saying cats! Meow! Meow! to us - and then when he realized we spoke French we had a good ol' time chatting and joking around. It was quite amusing! Our food then came out and it was absolutely delicious! I ordered a portobello ravioli in a cream sauce with big chunks of freshly shaved parmesan. Mmm I still can remember it! I think we all were pleasantly surprised and satisfied with our meals (and sangria!) and we headed off to an Irish pub around the corner. It. Was. Dead. We stayed around for a bit any way and then headed down to another Irish pub. We apparently have a thing for Irish Pubs. I kept telling them about this bar that I went to last time with Courtney and Beth but I couldn't remember the name. luckily, Smartphone and Facebook to the rescue because I looked it up on on my pictures from last time I was in Barcelona - Ryan's bar. I remembered having an awesome time there and I vaguely remembered where it was it. It was off a road Ferran (which we were one) and it was off the square that the Catalan Parliament building and Spanish Parliament building were at - so I got us that far. We started walking towards a street when a guy comes up to us and says! "Hey! Free drink at Ryan's bar!"and gave us a card! It was fate - Ryan's bar came to us...well an employee did, and we got a free drink to boot! So of course we went. They had a DJ
playing hilarious songs, like the Monster Mash, and overall it was pretty fun. We decided not to stay out too late since we were leaving the next morning with our new pal Romain, but first we stopped in the square to take some funny pictures!

The next morning, we packed up our things, said goodbye to our awesome hostel and went to sit at a cafe for a bit while we waited for Romain to come get us. Tina taught us a new card game called Palace, which we are now obsessed with. Overall, it was a wonderful trip back to Barcelona!

This post has FINALLY brought me into November - oy vay! Why am I so bad at this? I will catch up - one day! Until next time, Adios!

Bienvenidos a Barthelona! Part 1

So it is officially February, and I am still writing about October. Oh mon Dieu! Quelle surprise! So just bare with me.

I last left off talking about the start of my Toussaints vacation - otherwise known as All Saint's Vacation. I left you with the thought of eating calf head and creepy dolls - a pleasant image, I know. On Friday the 28th, Mindy, Tina, and I headed to BARTHELONA, ESPANA! Otherwise known as, Barcelona, Spain!

Because all of France is on vacation for the Toussaint holiday, flights leaving the country were extremely outrageous. If we wanted to fly to Barcelona from Lyon, it would have been several hundred Euro - not worth it. So we decided to take the next best thing. Nope, not a train. Nope, not a bus. Ok, I guess the third best thing - a car! We didn't rent a car, because it would have taken us 4 days to get there - 3 Americans, none of us know how to drive stick - it wouldn't have worked out. So what did we do?

**Dear Mom and Dad: If you are reading this, please sit down. Please.

Well, there is this website here called CoVoiturage. It is a website where people in Europe who own cars and want to visit different cities post where they are going and ask if anyone wants to join them to cut down on travel/gas costs. So, Tina scoured the website and found this guy, Romain, who was going to Barcelona from Lyon, and he had 3 spots in his car. Three of us. Three spots, perfect!

Not going to lie, I was extremely nervous. 1.) We were going to be travelling with a random French guy. 2.) How was I going to explain this to my parents (SURPRISE! I love you <3 ) 3. We were going to be travelling with a random French guy.

Everything we had heard about website was great - people loved it, there were never any problems, lots of recommendations, etc. Tina also had been contacting Romain for the past week, and said he seemed really nice and legit. Still Thursday morning came around and my stomach was in knots. He was picking us up at Part Dieu, which is one of the train stations in Lyon - so I knew a lot of people would be around - just in case. Tina and Mindy had beaten me there (Mindy left early to go to the bank) and when I saw Romain, my first initial thought was, oh yeah, I could take him, no problem.

Romain ended up being a super awesome 28 year old French guy, that loved to Salsa dance and talk with us. He was very interested to learn about us and tell us about himself. It was very interesting to listen about his life and his love for McDonald's (yep - he loves MacDo!) It made the 7 hour car ride go very quickly! So, moral of the story is I am still alive, so parents you can breathe easily now! I have a feeling I will be getting a call about this soon... oops.

We arrived in Barcelona around 7:30/8 and Romain dropped us off not too far from our hostel, Equity Point. It was on a really swanky strip in Barcelona, very close to Las Ramblas, and next to a Gaudi house! We were greeted by Marius (this made me so happy that he was named Marius because of Les Mis) and was super nice and helpful and got us situated. We were starving, so he listed some cheap restaurants in the area and we left our things to go grab some Sangria and Spanish food! Now, I don't speak a word (ok, I know a few words) of Spanish, Mindy knows a little, and Tina knows a bit more - so we were kind of struggling at this restaurant. I kept pronouncing things with a French accent and saying merci, instead of gracias. It was quite comical - and then there was a mix-up between myself and the table next to us - I accidentally accepted their fries from the waiter (oops - my meal came with fries too) so they didn't get their fries until they complained, and then we got charged for the fries. They were very nice and took it off our bill after the situation was explained. These things always happen to me, oops. We were all exhausted, so we went back to the hotel to enjoy a free drink (Sangria!) that we got just for staying there, then headed to bed.

The next day we decided to go to Las Ramblas and check out parts of Barcelona. Now, I had told the Spanish teacher at my good school that I was going to Barcelona, and he gave me a very hard time. He comes from southern Spain and has ties to Madrid, so he kept telling me that Barcelona is dirty, ugly, that I will catch diseases, that it is very touristy, etc. He was joking of course about some things, but I instantly saw what he said when we got to Las Ramblas. This was my second time visiting Barcelona, and I think it was like the veil had been lifted this time. I saw some of the dirtiness; I saw some of the ugly; and I reallllllly noticed the tourists. Everywhere I turned I heard French, English, or Italian. The only time I heard Spanish was when we were in restaurants. Our first stop was my all time favorite - La Boqueria! If you read my blog from Paris, then you might know it is the largest outdoor market in Europe! This market amazes me every time I see it. The colors, the smells, the atmosphere. I love it! I just love markets in general! AND I did NOT get pooped on by a pigeon this time - woohoo! I call that an achievement. Believe me, whenever a pigeon did fly by I darted out of the way. I probably looked like a crazy person, but don't judge until you get pooped on. Also, don't judge someone who has gotten pooped on. I wanted to be anything and everything at the market! It amazes me so much! I wish they had markets like this in the states.

Ok, I think this is getting fairly long so I have decided to cut this into 2 parts, so the rest of Barcelona will be in the next blog!

Adios!