(28). I got up at 3:45am to take a taxi to the airport to catch my flight to Barcelona. I can't believe how cheap taxis are! A 45min ride cost little more than €10! The hostel directions were awful. I bought the wrong train ticket and almost journeyed an hour outside of Barcelona! Luckily I sorted things out, but the train/metro integration system is confusing at first! While buying the correct metro ticket, an an American guy approached me because he saw me push the English option on the machine. Phillip had just come from Granada, was winging it and didn't have a hostel. He accompanied me to mine and checked in. Urbany hostel is super nice. How do I keep finding all these 'homeless' people?! We hung out, went to the beach and walked to Sagrada Familia at night. Breathtaking.
(29). In the morning I went to the local market just down the street. It has hundreds of booths with cheap, borderline crappy clothing and knickknacks. I purchased gladiator sandals and a pair of flats for €8.
I thought the men would be way more forward and assaulting, but they are pretty harmless! I never felt threatened or afraid once. The worst they do is stare or say 'guapa' as you walk by or look you in the eye and say it when you stop at their booths or on the street. Female travelers shouldn't be afraid, just aware. Of course, I walked around and did more sightseeing. I went to a musical fountain show. My hostel organized a bar night so two busloads of us went dancing at a place on the beach!
(30). I was awoken by two friendly faces in the morning! Manuel and Martin (my two Austrians from Scotland) arrived on the night busfrom Biarritz at 8am. While they napped, I went sightseeing and walked through the market again. We went to La Ramblas, the main shopping area close to the beach and went on a free walking tour with Travel Bound. Afterward we stopped at a pub for discounted Sangria and tapas - my first time for both; soooo good!
We decided to join some of the walking tour group for the last night ever of pub crawls in Barcelona. As of July 1st, a €900 fine because they want to discourage binge drinking. It was fun to go out with our little group!
(1) We walked around, saw Sagrada Familia and went to a Spanish Cooking class, where we learned about Paella cooking and ate paella, this one was a mixture of rice, spices and seafood. We also learned how to make sangria. We stayed in the pub and watched the Eurocup final between Espania and Italia. Espania won 4-0! We were told the game wouldn't really be on anywhere because Catalonia does not want to be part of Spain and even cheers against them. However, we went to Las Ramblas after the game and the streets were packed with celebration! Fans wearing all the paraphernalia, screaming, hanging off of everything! I can't imagine what it would have been like in Madrid! Probably x10! Definitely something to be a part of!
(2) Manuel and I went to the FCB Barcelona futbol stadium (the biggest in Europe) to check it out and I wanted pictures in Espania wear! Manuel, Martin and I then went to Gaudi Park. What an artist. His imagination and design are out of this world! I loved all the mosaic designs and funky structures. We had to take like ten outside escalators to get to the park. It overlooked the entire city and you could see Sagrada Familia and the beach in the distance. I can see why it was built there! I love taking pictures of sights/people and the boys love taking picture of peoples' sights...international booties haha. We went for a nice goodbye meal and hit the beach for a couple of hours. We all got conned into henna tattoos. Martin was flying back to Austria the following day - his glasses were stolen in Biarritz and he lost a contact so he was wearing his prescription sunglasses all day everyday. Manuel and I caught the night train to Madrid . We shared a 6 bed compartment with Anni and Johanna from Koln (Cologne, Germany). There was seriously no room to move! A couple came in with year old twins and were going to sleep on the two bottoms bunks. As soon as they came in we were all exchanged looks and were like, 'crapppp...'. The babies were crying and moving around and the stroller wouldn't fit inside the room. By grace, they moved to another room. In the end it was us four. Whew! I slept surprisingly well. I think my living standards have slowly been compromised since becoming a traveller!