[Before I get in to the actual body of my ridiculousness, I want to let everyone know that everything I write in here is strictly safe for work, shall we say. My mother does read this, after all, so I try to keep it PG. no worries :-)]
I would say something in Spanish here, but I don't want to embarrass you lot with my excellent command of the Spanish language. so I will just say: Barca is my bff. There is no part of me that ever wants to live away from the water, and I loooove the heat, so vis-a-vis concordantly, Barcelona wins. (Oh, direct quote from my sister, mother of two: "Have fun in Barcelona, are you going to go all vicky cristina barcelona and have a relationship with penelope cruz? cause that would be AWESOME." thank you Katy. and no, I unfortunately couldn't fit Penelope into my schedule, maybe next time)
So, Tuesday morning, I leave bright and early with Jenny... and when I say bright and early, I of course mean 4am. Lovely. and COSY! (yet another anecdote from crazy drunk Brit in a pub... there is just too much happiness). We make our way slowly to the airport, and sit bleary-eyed before boarding the quick two-hour flight to Spain. Seriously, I love that I'm only two hours away from southern Spain. After an hour-long bus ride, in which we had the pleasure of sitting next to Phlegm Phlegmerson, the happy Frenchman, we arrive in HOT SUNNY BARCELONA!
(oh dear, I sense this is going to be quite dull, as I'm mostly just reporting things that we went to, and not so much funny things that happened... I'll try to insert them in, I suppose).
Our hostel, Pension Mari-Luz, was in an amazing part of town - old town-y, narrow streets, vespas zipping by, balconies with plants spilling over the edges... it was such a great place to stay! Mostly because we had a double bed so I got some snuggle time in. mmmm itchy sheets.
With the intentions of keeping this short and sweet, I will say we hit up all the must-see tourist spots (or at least I hope so): the BEACH, of course, the Picasso Museum (hey, he drew a picture of a naked female and a fish below her... it's quite anatomically correct and very disturbing.. I'm just saying he's kind of crahazy), Las Ramblas (yaaay for tourist drags... aka people who speak English! Apparently my Spanish skills weren't up to par? who would have thought?!). After paella, sangria, ice cream (MUST... why oh why does England not sell ice cream as copiously as Spain? I mean yes it is a frigid climate but still, I enjoy ice cream when it is freezing outside, because since you're already frozen you can't really feel it. Hey is it true that con-e sells cupcakes now? I'M SO EXCITED! I hope they are delicioussss). Anyway, after dinner and wandering around, we hit the sack, pretty exhausted after our day of travel, time warp, insanity, and of course, the amount of times that Spanish gentlemen whistled and/or hollered at us eating the ice cream was just EXHAUSTING.
The next day (really our last day there... it was a short trip, unfortunately), was another action-packed day of kicking butt and taking names. And a TON of walking... I'm going to become a slip of a woman soon, I believe! jaykays. I'm too Swedish for that. Beautiful, awe-inspiring sights, incredible architecture, Gaudi's park was absolutely insane and colorful and gorgeous, hitting up the sights, and a lot of watching the world go by. We ended the night, after tapas and pizza (and yes we DID eat the tapas, to all of the disbelievers), by spending a lovely amount of time at the "Betty Ford Bar..." can we discuss how amazing that is? If only because of how inappropriate a name that is for a BAR?! sigh, true loooove.
and now, for our failures of the trip. we actually weren't too ridiculous!
#1. yes, we went into McDonald's. yes, we were intending to eat there. BUT, it is okay for two reasons. One, it was for breakfast, and we had already eaten strawberries from a street market and were still a little peckish, and no one opens anything in Barca until about one in the afternoon (bigger fans of sleeping in than I am), so we were FORCED. And two, we didn't actually eat there! ...only because the breakfast menu wasn't up, I wasn't sure if they had sausage biscuits, and when I asked, they thought I said salsa biscuits. so we literally ran away, afraid of looking like idiots even more.
#2. Lunch the first day... we picked a little place that was cute and stuff, but sadly no one spoke English... we didn't really speak Spanish/Catalan well enough (strangely) and there was just quite a bit of miscommunication. But we ate eventually, so I count this as a WIN!
speaking of fails, you MUST go on youtube and look at "911 fail." too. excellent.
And so, that is my quick round-up of Barcelona... as for my last impressions, I found it to be an amazing place. Besides the weather, which as I have mentioned was gorgeous, it just had a very nice buzz to it that I enjoyed... very unique from anything I have ever experienced. and I adore places that have those narrow, cobblestoned streets I mentioned, so clearly I am in love.
This weekend, I will be taking a tour of Wales, which should be pretty fascinating... the only thing I know about Wales I am basing entirely on Jasper Fforde's novels, so we'll see what it is actually like! (and how my butt feels after horse-back riding through the countryside ...!)
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