Well my fall break took place from Nov. 1-5, and boy was it a trip. It included five flights in 8 days! My ecological footprint is not looking so good now...
We (Me, Katie, and friend Paige) arrived in beautiful Barcelona the night of the 30th and settled into our hostel. It was not as easy as I make it sound however! We arrived in Girona, took a bus for an hour to Barcelona, then hopped onto a train that we thought was the subway, which nearly took us all the way out of town again. I'm pretty sure all three of us even said, "wow, the subway cars here are nice! And big!" Once we realized we had been riding for quite a while without stopping, we get off to find ourselves in a far-out suburb, greeted by news that there would be no more trains going the other direction. We had some much needed luck though, as it turned out we were as far away as you could be while staying WITHIN the subway system! So after navigating that and dropping off our bags, we felt we deserved a pitcher of sangria and some spanish tortillas (bomb egg and potato sandwiches that I have since recreated).
As Pa suggested, the next day (Halloween) we bought tickets for one of those hop-on hop-off buses. It was actually a really great way to see the city, while learning a thing or two. Barcelona quickly became one of the greatest cities I've ever been to... So nice to be around Spanish (and Catalan, which is crazy and weird), the sun and the beach while looking at an endless number of cool buildings. I could get used to drinking sangria and eating tapas everyday! So we hopped on and we hopped off wherever we wanted, seeing all kinds of great places, including the beach and the Gaudi basilica something familia (wish we could have gone up in it, but lines were too long).
Basilica:
By far my favorite part was when we went to the Gaudi park (Park Gruell) at the end of the day. People had mentioned it to me, but I had no idea it was that amazing! Maybe I'm a sucker for a good view, but nobody told me that it was up on the hill! Anyway, all the crazy Gaudi architecture and benches and everything were amazing. I loved how you could walk around and explore all the crazy things in the park as well (also this gets you away from the MASSIVE crowd that hangs out down lower). Of course my camera ran out of batteries after I took just one picture... Everyone will just have to go see for themselves!
Halloween night went pretty well... We (the girls) got suckered into this bar crawl that turned out to be not too bad. We were told we'd get a free shot and a free beer at their bar, so I worked out this system where I told a new worker each time that I wanted my free beer or shot. My system was working to perfection, and even better, the bar owner continued with his strong interest in Katie, meaning that I, as her friend, got one of his Halloween masks too. As you probably predicted, the next hour or so consisted of Katie and I sneaking up on people and spooking them with our masks on. Oh, and also while hiding to scare some people, I leaned up against what I could have sworn was a glass window but was really just a display of menus, plants, signs etc. in front of a restaurant. It being an open-air display, of course I fall through, knocking everything over (mask on and all), and get up to see tables of people frozen looking at me while the restaurant man comes over to pick up. Happy I have the mask on, I say, "lo siento, senor" and offer to help pick up, but am refused... That was the end of the scaring people.
The next day was spent wandering, which was fun, stumbling upon funny things while doing some people watching... We walked around La Rambla and into this huge food market that had all kinds of everything. It was nice to take it easy after a long night.
La Rambla A crazy act we stumbled upon
Dancing gnome parade thing. Market.
eating a pomegranate.
Off to the airport and on to Madrid the next day! I liked Madrid, but not quite as much as Barcelona. No Gaudi or beach! Luckily our hostel was in a nice central area with plenty going on. The night we got there we heard about this concert (the crystal castles, a group I had been listening to a lot since I got to Brussels) that we decided to go to spur of the moment! Best decision ever... It was such a fun show, and really made Madrid great for me... We also went on a free walking tour of Madrid which was nice. I would have liked to go to the Prado museum, but we just didn't have time unfortunately. Next time...
Wowee. I've written too much. Lisbon later...
I'm really glad you've been able to see so much! I love Barcelona so much, glad you liked it too. The pictures are really great.
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