On the first day, we arrived from into the city in the morning by another night train. The night train was awful. Let me tell you. We bought tickets for a sit down night train where we pretty much just sit through the night. It was horrible. Please don't ever go on one. It was significantly cheaper but not worth it. We were stuck in one car with 8 seats, 4 seats on either side of the car and there wasn't much space in the middle for our legs. Along with that, there was a good amount of luggage space but one lady arrived to the train about 5 minutes before departure and couldn't fit her luggage and got pissed. That was a great start to a lovely evening.
Let me describe the dilemma that we had with the luggage. It was quite beautiful... The first person in the car was this little Spanish lady maybe in her late 40s or so. She was really nice. It was me, the lady, then Patrick, and then Lily on one side. Then a Chinese couple came in. They sat in the middle on the other side. They were nice but pretty much just kept to themselves. Then this young girl around my age came in. We were trying to figure out how to fit her luggage up on the shelves but eventually just decided to keep it between her and me. She was nice at first when I suggested that we keep her suitcase between us but after that she just had this ugly glare/sneer on her face. And then the lady who got a little peeved sat across from Lily. She was alright after we decided what to do with her suitcase, leave it outside in the walkway.
The ride was miserable. The seats could be pushed back but that wasn't comfortable at all and like I said, there was enough leg space for that to happen. So pretty much I tried my best to sleep with my back upright. It sucked. We each took Advil PMs. That didn't help much. First, I didn't even fall asleep until around midnight and then after that I kept waking up periodically. It was really annoying and stressful. But we finally reached Barcelona the next morning. Thank God.
When we got in to Barcelona, it was around 7 in the morning, so while walking down la Rambla, it was pretty empty. In the middle of the street there's walking space and vendors all along the sides. We walked by a lot of floral vendors for a while before we reached our hostel's street, la Principe. We made reservations at Centres-Rambles Youth Hostel. It's a nice place, but I wasn't much of a fan of the lighting, horrible florescent lighting. It's great place for people to meet new people.
We left our luggage in the storage that they had and left to grab some breakfast for check-in. We found this place called Cappuccino, sat down for outdoor seating and placed our orders. Lily and I got cafes and Patrick got an espresso. We also ordered plain croissants and Lily got some type of Napolean pastry that's filled with chocolate. That breakfast wasn't great. It's like it was boxed, packaged food. Nothing freshly baked or grounded. My cafe didn't even taste like there was any espresso in it. It wasn't all too great and on top of that, we paid a good amount for it.
Anyways, we still had some to spend before check-in and walked up and down la Rambla. It's any interesting street. One side leads to the beach which we didn't make plans to see, and the other side leads to a lot of high-end shopping, Gucci, Loui Voutton and so on. The vendors on la Rambla are crazy. You've got the typical souvenir shops with the overpriced city maps and books and such and then there's the floral shops I mentioned and then, there are pets being sold as well: pet birds, hamsters, and roosters. So weird.
We walked up the shopping center and unexpectedly came across the building that Guadi designed. So, yeah, we bought tickets to go in and see it and let me tell, that man is amazing. That building was so great to see. People are currently renting spaces out. It's pretty awesome. Everything is so organic and flowy. The rooftop and outside garden area are my favorites.
We also randomly found a fashion exhibit near the Picasso Museum and went in to take a look. 1) it was free 2) it was amazing and fantastic. I'm going to carry out my dream of becoming a fashion designer. It's going to happen. First I'll be an awesome graphic designer and then I'll get my fashion design degree or I'll just be self-taught and awesome. haha
I think for the rest of the day we continued to walk around after check-in and then ate some dinner. We finally ordered paelles (not sure if I spelled it right), but it's a rice dish thats mixed with vegetables with either chicken/beef or seafood. It was pretty good but it would've been better with some spices. With that we got tapas as part of the dinner special. There was bravas, some type of pasta with tuna and then bread with a red spread. The pasta and bread were alright, but the bravas were sooo amazing. They're like french fries but with this amazing paste that's spicy. Lily thinks that it's something like ketchup, mayonnaise, caprica and some other ingredients. It was so good.
The next day we had breakfast at the hostel (I've noticed that all we've been eating is carbs and protein, no fiber) and then went out to find coffee and came across a nice market. We walked through there and bought some great fruit. Delciious. And then headed over in search of a specific bag that Lily's mom really wants. It's the bags made out of billboard material. We found one by Vaho at a store nearby. It was pretty amazing.
After that, get this, we went to the chocolate museum! It was great! What I really liked about it was getting chocolate. We went to buy our tickets, paid for them and were expecting to get a paper ticket, but instead we got chocolate bars as our tickets! So awesome! They had the history on chocolate and chocolate in Spain. Along with that they had so many chocolate sculptures. Pretty large in size and great!
After that, we went shopping up and down the amazing shopping area. It was great to walk into those awesomely expensive stores! Patrick was in search of kick-ass oxfords. The previous day he had seen these great shoes in a store window display and so we went straight to it the next day. First, the lady didn't seem to want to help us at all, then she walked away on the phone and never came back, and then Patrick didn't want them anymore. Sucked, but he found a pair that he really liked at Camper. I'm trying to find another pair of walking shoes and I was hoping that Camper would have a pair but nope. I almost bought some but my right foot is slightly bigger than my left, so those shoes didn't quite work out.
For the rest of the day we chilled as usual. The mix of people in Barcelona is interesting. It's a huge tourist area. Lots of people come for the beach and partying, but I don't think we really got to see the party scene, but I feel like it's because we were there on the wrong days? Sunday and Monday. On Monday night we were in search of a specific champagne bar, La Champagnieria where they sell bottles of awesome champagne for 4 euros but we never found it. We literally walked around for over an hour and still couldn't find it. We found the street and everything, but nope, still couldn't find it. So eventually found our way back and got some ice cream.
We also went to the park designed by Guadi, Park Guell. Very awesome! We had to go up this really long and steep hill where they had to install a hell of a lot of escalators to help people get up there. It was really, really, really high up. I think we went up about 5 escalators before we got to the very top. The park is amazing though. The paths are winding and the structures and everything about it is organic and nice.
We also went to this other park and sat and chilled for a bit. It was great. We ate our daily mid-day snack there. People were tanning, children playing, dogs running, people biking, and and weird kids festival was going on. There was some man wearing a green blazer and hideous red shorts singing in what looked like a bucket on top of a truck. Then there were people walking alongside manmade elephants and horses and then costumes of tall people. It was all weird and interesting, but the greatest costume was of a man with a really huge head and a short body walking around. It was hilarious!
Then, we eventually got onto our night train. But wait. I completely forgot. We ended having to sit at the train station for six hours waiting for our train because the station closed off their luggage storage area. We originally decided to all go to the Picasso Museum, but that never happened. We decided that one person would watch our luggage for 2 hours and then we would trade off. I sat first and Lily and Patrick went off to go to the museum and post office. My sit was nice, but it would have been better if the station had been more happenin. But no. When the two came back, Lily and I went off back to the shopping street just for fun. We went into United Colors of Benetton and tried on some awesome bottoms. Europe seems to love the saggy, long crotch, diaper shorts. So Lily tried on that pair and then I tried on these amazing long pants that billow out around the thighs and taper down at the ankles and are high waisted. I need a pair now. They were great and oh so wonderful.
We came back, grabbed some food (a Spanish omelette and tomato sandwich, delicious) and Patrick and I went to the market for some snacks for the train ride. And then we got onto the train.
So overall, Barcelona was nice. There are a ton of tourists in the area though. I didn't notice it as much in Paris and Madrid but it could have been because of our hostel location. But a lot of people spoke English everywhere so it was kind of like I never left the States in a way. The food is great, the sightseeing is great. Just, I wish we could have gone to the champagne bar.
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