Day 31: Busy day in Barcelona!

May 29th, 2012 ---

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

Day 30: To Barcelona, I go!

May 28th, 2012 ---

Check out at the hotel was 10am this morning and though my flight wasn't until 2:30, I decided to head straight to the airport.

I walked over to the train station, hoping on the local line to Fiumicino Airport. The airport was a mad house. People and check in booths everywhere! I was sooo confused! 

If you've ever been to the airport in Rome then you may understand why I suddenly became overwhelmed with confusion of where to go next! The gates to check in were EVERYWHERE!!! Maybe I'm spoiled when in the United States because our airports make it very easy to figure out where your airline check in is because all the stands are in one big line down the terminal, but in Rome you have hundreds of check in booths! I'm standing in the middle of the terminal with the stereotypical confused tourist look on my face, thinking "Uhhhhhhhhhh....."

I see airport security and ask where the information booth is so that maybe I could actually get some information about why the heck this airport has to be so confusing (okay, well no, but I could at least find out where my check in booth was!). The woman at the information desk gave me a number... because apparently it's actually not that hard to figure out where check in is if you notice the numbers on the top corners of each booth and look at the giant board that tells which airline is what number... Duhhhhh... (sigh..) 

I walked over to the check-in and to my surprise (which I haven't ever notice in other airports) there was a giant scale to weigh your bags before you get to the desk.
Oh god.. here we go... please, please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeeeease don't be overweight!!!!

28kg. (61lbs... limit is still 50lbs...)
Son-of-a!!!!

Alright, alright.... So I drag my bag over to a nearby corner and start emptying. My carry-on bag almost ready to rip. (Hey, it was a free-with-purchase Steve Madden bag... they only hold up so well.)
I put my bag back on the scale, "24.1"
....hmm.... my carry-on is about to make me topple to one side, I'm starting to sweat from the lack of AC in this place, and the line up is starting to wrap around the corner..... WELL, time to cross my fingers and hope luck stays on my side for this one!

AN HOUR FREAKIN' LATER...
I finally get through the line, to the check-in counter and I put on my "Let-me-dazzle-you" face.
"Hiiii! How are you? (*insert big smile here*) ...Busy Day? ...Aww.. yeah, that's hard! ...Yes, I am going to Barcelona!" (Please don't look at my bag, please don't look at my bag...) "I know! ...Yeah, they reaaally should turn on the AC in here! ....So sorry to hear that! ...Well, have a great day!!!"

PHEW!
... almost wished I had left more stuff in my bag now! Ha!

Thank goodness I was so early because it took me another 30-40 minutes just to get through security! By the time I got to my gate, the flight was just beginning to board!

I was on an airline called Vueling. I was a little nervous because I had never heard of it before, but it was super cheap so I decided to take a chance! It turned out to be pretty great! I mean it was nothing super special but it was clean, the seats were comfortable and I can't complain about the service.

I was stoked to have an entire exit row to myself.. stretch out.. take a nap... take up as much room on the arm rests as I like.. Maybe sit in the aisle seat.. then have a peak out the window... You know, just enjoy the luxury of having an entire row to myself... that is until this older couple decided to switch seats and sit beside me RIGHT when we got into the air. (D'oh!) I wouldn't have minded it they had at least apologized for constantly bumping into me, trying to move my stuff to make room for their stuff and hogging the arm rests. Sigh... well at least I got lucky with the slightly overweight baggage right?

When we landed in Barcelona, I couldn't believe how beautiful the airport was! It was so modern and clean and open! They had tons of shops and restaurants and even a beautiful courtyard with trees and a grassy area in the courtyard to kick up your feet for a while and read a book, if you will. If only all airport looked like Barcelona's!

After I grabbed my bags, I soon realized my phone had no battery. I searched high and low for a plug and ended up being told the only outlets were in the washrooms.
Really?
Okay Barcelona Airport, you were pretty great until now.

So there I am standing in the bathroom with my phone plugged in and charging while watching women wash their hands, put on lipstick, powder their noses, fix their hair, etc... seeing a few drink from the sink was a little gross but whatever.. Not my cuppa'tea.. I guess when you're thirsty, you're thirsty, huh? Haha

I let my phone get to about 20% before getting out of there, with the directions on my phone, I caught the Aerobus to Plaça Catalunya where I would catch the metro to my hostel.

 The metro was no big deal, got on at one stop, off at the next. Had no idea how close it really was... probably could've walked! Oh well. I walked a couple more blocks down to where it said my hostel was.. in this cute little square called Plaça Reial! The square featured lots of little cafes and restaurants with people sitting and drinking their sangria on the patios and a big round water fountain in the center. Super cute!

I walked through the entrance of Plaça Reial, off La Ramblas, and made a right - my hostel, Kabul, was just a few storefronts down. I was buzzed in and had the fun of lugging my giant suitcase and heavy carry-on up a flight of stairs to the check-in desk. There was music going people having beers at the bar around the corner in the lounge.. it was so lively in there! My excitement perked a little bit having stayed in really mellow accommodations previously.

After checking in, I took the elevator (thank God) up to my room on the third floor and put my stuff in my room. As I was starting to change, two girls walk in - my roommates for the night. "Hi!" They say hi back.. and then I quickly realize, after trying to make a bit of conversation with them, they don't know more than a few words of English. Of course I get stuck with the non-English speaking French chicks. Darn! Was really hoping to maybe make a cool friend today! Maybe later, downstairs I guess!

So I cleaned myself up, putting on a cute little outfit and then headed out the door to explore Barcelona before having to head over to Palau de la Musica Catalana for a Spanish guitar concert by Manuel Gonzalez!

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When I first moved to San Diego, I had lived in an apartment in Mission Valley called Club River Run. It was the same complex that my school, the Art Institute, had their student housing. We thought this was a good plan for meeting people as well as being close to school, and for safety, etc. On one of my first days in the complex, there was a group of younger people (my age) sitting on their second-story walk-up balcony... as my mom and I walked by, all I hear is "Dammmmmmmnnnnnnn!"
Of course I crack up laughing, and then we all start laughing when my mom turns around and says "Oh thanks!" hahaha!

Well, that guy that said that... that was Afram, who later ended up becoming one of my best friends, and after that my roommate when I moved downtown. Afram grew up playing guitar with his dad, specifically that Spanish style. So when we became good friends, we would all sit in my living room doing homework, or on my balcony telling stories with Afram playing his guitar in the background. It got even better when we lived together and I would come home and he would be sitting on my couch or balcony just playing guitar. It was awesome! Him and I always used to talk about how great it would be to go see a real show, whether it be in LA sometime or one day, dare to dream, in Spain. Well Frammie, because of you, I fell in love with the sounds and styles of Spanish guitar and here I am, in Spain, off to see that concert!

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After wandering around for a little while, I arrived at the beeeeeeeaaaauuuutifullll Palau Musica Catalana! Designed by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built in the same Catalan modernista style that most of Gaudi's designs are done. It was amazing! The small details of the pillars, the ceilings, the walls, the windows... everything was so intricate! It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, in person, you can most definitely see why.

As I waited, in awe of the incredible and historical building I was standing in, I grabbed a quick appetizer and drink at the little bar set-up they had. I was absolutely starving from having not eaten in so long. Before I knew it, the lights started blinking and it was time to go find my seat!

I was sitting in the third box to the right of the stage, first row, and super cramped seating. I was relieved to have had a corner seat so I had a liiiiiiitttle bit of room, but still not much. Manuel Gonzalez comes out, everyone claps, and he sits down under the spotlight on a chair and begins to play.

It was so magical. I feel like Spanish guitar always evokes so much emotion when its played; sometimes I think even more than any other style of music. I love it. It was nice to even recognize some of the songs he played! He was fantastic!

After the show, I ended up meeting him, thanking him, and getting an autographed cd! Look at me go! Wahoo! haha Maybe I'll give it to Afram the next time I see him! :)

When I left the Palau, I was still starving and exhausted. That little appetizer did nothing. So I found an amazing little vegetarian place just on the outside Plaça Reial where I had my first falafal! I couldn't tell you what was in it, other than some hummus, I knew that much - but it was GREAT! If only I knew what the whole thing had in it so I could try and find it or make it in San Diego!
Oh well...

Following my first and awesome food experience in Barcelona, I went back to the hostel, exhausted. It was nice to meet my third roommate that night when I got back. She was super nice, chatty and from Vancouver! Sweeeeet! We chatted a little bit while I was laying on my top bunk, her on the bottom before finally passing out...

Nice end to a busy day! :)

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This is Manuel Gonzalez at the Palau back in 2009, but he did play this song as well when I saw him! :)

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Pictures of Palau De La Musica Catalana: