I woke up on my top bunk this morning ready to do some yoga! I threw on my gym clothes, looked up the time for a yoga place that I had found one street over from my hostel and headed out! I was lucky to find out there was a class within 20 minutes!
While I was waiting for the yoga place to open, I sat outside the door and a girl from Germany chatted me up who was super nice. Shortly after, the owner came and let us in.
The yoga studio was a cool little place, just a big open room smelling of incense, a table at the front of the room with some candles on it, as well as two small short walls on either side of the entrance creating a small changing area.
I walked in, paid my €3 for the class, grabbed a mat and sat down cross-legged. I was kind of nervous, since I've been feeling so out of shape on this trip and I hadn't done yoga since early April when I did it with my friend Lauren.
The class was an hour long. It actually wasn't that bad. There were a few parts here and there where I thoroughly regretted signing up and prayed for it to end soon, but like any fitness class, it's meant to challenge you and I ended up enjoying it when all was said and done!
I went back to my hostel around the corner and quickly showered and got ready to browse around Barcelona!
I headed out with my destination in mind: the market!
Everyone had told me how fantastic it was! With it only being 3 or 4 blocks away, I headed straight in that direction!
Walking through the entrance, I was amazed by the madness and the hustle-and-bustle of this crazy place! There were people everywhere! I grabbed an amazing banana-orange smoothie right at one of the first booths I came across and meandered up and down the rows. Everything was so beautiful!! So organized! It was like no market I've ever been to before!
Rows upon rows of candy, veggies, fruits, smoothies, nuts, spices, breads.. And theeeeeeen.. I passed a few meat counters.
Neeeeeeeverrrr have I ever been so disgusted. Sitting in the meat coolers were skinned sheep/lamb and pig heads... Skinned rabbits.... Chicken legs... Agghhh it was soooo gross!! I'm pretty sure I became a vegetarian as soon as I saw the skinless rabbit staring back at me. Ughhhh gives me shivers just thinking about it again. Ick!! Needless to say, I moved on pretty quickly!
I grabbed some fruit and some honey-covered almonds and then decided to roam the beautiful streets of Barcelona. (And by roam, I mean take in the sites... and the shoppinggggggg! Woop! Definitely got some cute new summer threads!)
Around 6, I sat down on the patio of a restaurant in Plaça Reial and ordered myself a sangria.
The waiter comes back a few minutes later and places a freakin JUG of sangria infront of me.
"1/2 liter of Sangria" Then walks away...
FO REAL?!! I just wanted a glass!! Hahaha oh boy...
I ordered a small salad and continued to work on my blog about my cruise and had about a glass and a half before I finally said no more! The jug didn't even look like I had put a dent in it! Haha oh well!
Following my Sangria, I walked back over to that great falafel place I found last night and got myself another for supper then headed back to the hostel to chill for a bit and charge my phone.
After hanging out for a while in the lounge of the hostel that was bumping music and buzzing with people, I decided I wanted to go do something!
I googled what some of the top touristy spots to see Gaudí architecture and head off to find the Metro!
The metro, I found, was super confusing! You have to go next to the tracks of certain lines to get to the stairs to other lines and one stop would have two entrances in different places, sometimes down the street from eachother.. It was weird and I didn't get it. Lol Somehow I managed to get it all sorted and made my way to Casa Batlló!
Casa Batlló is a huge apartment building that Gaudí designed. The whole building looks like fish bones. The balconies look like fish heads and the edges of the roof look like vertebrae. It's weird and creepy in a really fascinating way. When I arrived it was dusk and all the spotlights were on - lit up, it looked amazing!
After snapping some pics I was feeling gusty and confident enough to make my way over to La Sagrada Familia on the metro.
About three or so years ago, I had been browsing the National Geographic Traveller photography website when I stumbled upon an exquisite picture of La Bascilia de La Sagrada Familia. My mind was blown by this picture. For whatever reason, this basilica reminded me of a giant sandcastle.. Like those ones you used to make as a kid when you took wet sand and dripped it as high as it could go - that's what the towers of La Sagrada reminded me of. I mentally cataloged this image and stored the actual picture somewhere in the depths of my computer files never to be seen again. BUT I always remembered the name and that it was in Barcelona and one day I would go see it in person.
Well here I was, coming out of the metro excited to see this enormous church I had found out about years ago. I have to say I was shocked by the size of it! It was SO much smaller than I had imagined! I mean it was big, but I had always imagined it sooo much bigger because of all the aerial pictures I had seen previously made it look like it almost towered over the city!
Nonetheless, it was as exquisite as I had imagined. The lights shone up on to the church revealing all the outstanding detail of the grand entrance. It was a sight to be seen! I stood there for a little while, proud and happy (like that deep down, proud-of-yourself, accomplished kind of happy) that I could cross off seeing La Sagrada off my bucket list.
When I was content with myself, I hopped right back on the Metro and headed out to meet a familiar face from San Diego!
I met my friend Wes through another friend, Kurtis, from school. They grew up together in Steamboat, Colorado and now both happen to live in San Diego. I had hung out a few times with him around SD, even more when I had gone out to Steamboat back in January on a snowboarding trip. He was a cool guy. So when we realized that we both were going to be in Barcelona at the same time we had to meet up and grab a few drinks.
I arrived at his apartment and hung out with all his roommates before we all hopped in a cab and set off to Espit Chupito down near the water. This place literally had hundreds of names of shots on the wall! It was crazy! I have no idea what they ordered, but all of a sudden I heard my name get called by one of Wes' roommates and was led over to the bar where there was some sort of flaming shot put in front of me.
Oh dear God... :|
I was told to grab a straw and suck it back as fast as I could or else the straw would melt.
Errr..... When in Barcelona I guess!
So I grab a cute little pink straw and on the count of three, I sluuuuurrrp it back as fast I can!
Let me tell you... shots that are flaming... well, they burn just as much when they hit your insides. UGHHHH. Why I do this to myself, I really wonder sometimes.
-- wait..
YOLO! haha (You only live once)
Anyways... we had our shot there, then went to some little smelly Irish pub around the corner to listen to some awesome live music, dance and have another few drinks. It was a blast!
Around 1:30ish, I decided to head back to my hostel, which luckily was only like 2 blocks down and crash out. Definitely exhausted from another eventful day, might just have to keep it mellow tomorrow!
 |
| Candy at the Market! Mmm.. |
 |
| At the Market on La Ramblas! |
 |
| Casa Batlló |
 |
| La Bascilia de La Sagrada Familia |
No comments:
Post a Comment