Sorry about this, guys, but we've got a LOT of catching up to do! A lot has happened since our adventure in Nice.
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| Look, Mom! I made it back to Montpelier Dr. |
19th (Wednesday)
So, we tried to get to Barcelona, which should be pretty easy. We got to the train station nice and early to find out which trains had MANDATORY reservations. Stoil waited in line FOREVER, and the lady at the desk was NOT helpful at all. She made us pay 35 stinking euros for two reservations.... we didn't even need one of them (it later turned out). We were so angry! And our train was 30 minutes late and completely dirty and disgusting inside. yuck! But we made it to Montpelier and got on our next train which went very smoothly. However, when we arrived in our last train station where we were to switch to get to Barcelona... We didn't have the MANDATORY reservations. We were SOOOO angry at that really unhelpful lady in Nice!!
So, we had to go out of the station, and stand in the slowest moving line EVER to pay MORE money for ANOTHER reservation! The only plus side to all of this mess was that we met some really cool fellow travelers who had had something recent happen to them, and they were all standing in line with us. We all ended up booking reservations together, riding the train together, and navigating the tube system to our individual hostels together. Two girls were from some small islands owned by Denmark. Another guy was from Germany, and one was from Canada. It was really fun to talk to them and swap traveler stories and information from our homelands.
It felt so great to finally be settled in our hostel, though. We each get our OWN rooms here! It's SO wonderful! No snoring ANYWHERE in my room! No roommates!
We are also incredibly lucky because our hostel is right by the Sagrada Familia! It greeted us as soon as we got out of the hostel!
20th (Thursday)
We had our own wandering around adventure on Thursday. Not much to tell. Lots of pictures, though...
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| Awesome breakfast even though we broke the rules and had tapas for breakfast. Not Spanish at all, but so worth it. |
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| Sagrada Familia |
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| Casa Milà |
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| Casa Batlló |
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| Arc de Triumph |
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| Saw this interesting gem in the park |
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| Awesome fountain |
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So, we took it pretty easy that day since we were still kind of tired.
21st (Friday)
Yesterday was incredibly fun! We actually did planned activities!
We went to a travel bar to do a free walking tour, which was actually really interesting. I learned three words in Catalan, how to do a Flaminco Dance movement, and a lot of cool things about the history of Spain and Barcelona.
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| Travel Bar |
After our tour, we took a COOKING CLASS! though the same bar! They called it the Spanish Cooking Experience and we paid about the same price as a nice dinner, but we got to learn all kinds of cool stuff. We learned to make different Tapas, cook paella, and even make Sangria. First, the chef gave us a tour of La Boqeria, which was really fun and interesting.
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| Our class got a discount on this delicious fruit juice of a billion different flavors! |
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| This was pretty gross. The ones at the bottom... bull testicles. Yum? ew. And then... sheep heads. Yum. |
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| The tapas we prepare. |
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| Some of the cool people in our class that shared a table with us. There were 8 of us at the table. Everyone else was either from England or Australia. They were a fun bunch, though! |
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| Chef showing us how to cook it! |
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| MMMM! Seafood paella! It was soooo delicious! AH! |
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| Learning how to make Sangria. |
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| SUCCESS!!! Be prepared for me to make you some at home, mom and dad. LOL. Aren't you proud? |
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| Churros con Chocolate! MMMM! |
A perfect way to end the day!
Today!
We had another "self tour" day today. We bought a metro pass and just zipped around the city! It was quite fun. We went down the to Las Ramblas and into La Boqueria to get some fruit and fruit juice for breakfast. MMM! Delicioso!
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| I'm green! Kiwi, Kiwi fruit juice, green shirt, and even the water in the fountain is green! I'm green aba-dee-daba-die... |
We also bought some saffron so we can potentially make paella at home! :D
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| We took this tram (super steep uphill) to a park, then a cable car to a fortress outside Barcelona. So pretty! |
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| The view from the cable car was amazing! |
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| We also took the tube to Camp Nou! FC Barcelona! |
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| Me and Messi :) ;) |
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| Then, we went around over to Parc Guell. So beautiful! :D It was quite a steep climb, though! Phew! We got soooo tired! |
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| Interesting architecture. Looks like the spine of a dragon! |
We had such a blast today, but we got SOOO so tired! Tomorrow is our last day in Barcelona! :( Our plane leaves at 11:55 pm and arrives around 3am or so in Bulgaria. Ugh. But it will be nice to not have to take ANY MORE TRAINS! And to not have to wonder where we will get our next meal. I look forward to seeing Stoil's family again :). Fun people!
Adeo! (That's Catalan, yo!)
