We get in to Girona at around 9am, greeted by SUN and almost instantaneous sweat! WOO! A welcome contrast to the frost we heard Östersund would be getting later in the week.. hehe :) An hour bus ride from Girona took us right into the center of the beautiful and diverse Barcelona, one of the most accommodating cities I've ever been to. Any of the weariness we should have been feeling from our travels dissipated right as we stepped off the bus. Our hostel was located smack DAB on the shore, so driven by adrenaline, we take to the pavement with our oversized backpacks and immediately start exploring the city en route to the coast. That initial soak-up of the city was so refreshing. So. We finally get to the hostel and it ends up being spectacular. Ideal location on the beach, huge free breakfast, coffee shop in the lobby, Internet (which I avoided for the most part), the works. After getting situated, around late afternoon we go catch up with the hop-on-hop-off bus tour that we bought tickets for in advanced. The hop-on-hop-off concept is bittersweet, I've decided. It can be so tedious to wait around every five minutes for people to make up their minds, but yet it's so accommodating and educational. So what it lacks in efficiency it makes up for in flexibility and in giving purpose to what we're seeing. Overall, a great concept. So yep right away that first day we get there we use the bus tour as a sampler of what we would decide to actually visit during our time in Barcelona. Once we'd seen enough, at around 7pm we headed back to the hostel. For those of you who have not had the good fortune of being able to feel the water in the Mediterranean Sea, you have to know that I mean it when I say it's practically like bath water. The Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the day in the middle of the summer is not NEARLY as warm as the Mediterranean Sea was that night at 7:30! It was amazing!! But, much more salty than the ocean I must say. Kevin had never been in an ocean or any big body of water before, so it was really fun teaching him how to ride the waves and whatnot. SO. We swim, we freshen up, then we set off for our first tapas and sangria experience of the trip, which would become the common practice for every night. :) Over dinner we also decide that there is just too much for us to do in Barcelona for three days, so adding a day to Barcelona and taking one from Sevilla becomes the new plan. (Ended up being the perfect alteration!!) After attempting and failing to teach the bar tender at the deserted bar how to make a Long Island Iced Tea, we decide to call it a night. Barcelona was calling our name for some great adventures the next day!
DAY THREE:
Up at 8:00 to get breakfast and get to the bus tour stop by 9:00. We didn't want to have to wait in line too long at the talk of the town sight, La Sagrada Familia. This church-in-progress, designed by Gaudi, has been under construction since 1882 and still probably has another 50 years or so until it'll be completed. People call it the Dr. Seuss church because it's just the funkiest looking church you'll ever see. I'll try to put up pictures. Gaudi never set a completion date because, he claimed, his contractor, aka God, has all the time in the world. True, but I think he just wanted to make sure generations of Catalonian construction workers would never be out of the job. :) Whatever the motive behind the massive and elaborate plan, seeing it all being played out and being able to catch part of the action was unbelievable. We had the priceless opportunity to venture up into one of the giant 100-meter towers to get a look at the city, and it was breathtaking. To me. Much different for Daniel and a little bit Stacey, though. Is there a word for being the exact opposite of scared of heights? Because whereas Daniel and Stacey definitely struggle with them, I would venture to say I embrace them. I loved it. Either way, sweet tower.
Next, a sweet little perfect lunch on a sweet little perfect Barcelona street corner, then it was off to Gaudi's own personal park, Park Guell. It rocked and I could have spent way more time there than we did. There were mosaics, intermixed with arches, which framed neat plants and paths all over the place. And it was all on the side of the mountain so the top of the park gave another great view of the city. It was great, too, to see that way more than just simply tourists seem to love the park. It's free to get in, so it didn't surprise me to find couples just lounging around in the park, students reading, kids playing, what have you. If Iowa had a place like that I'd be there every day!
Following the park there were a couple other places we visited: the Palace (not sure the real name at the moment...?), which has exactly 249 stairs leading up to its victorious front doors; and Mont Juic, which we had to get to by a cable-gondola and gave us the highest view of the city yet. I need more words than breathtaking. :)
By that point I was suffering from Katie Time withdrawal so we parted ways and I walked around by the old Olympic Stadium and then to this little museum village called Poble Espana. Everything in Spain was so so much cheaper than Sweden, where a typical beer costs the equivalent of $6. So needless to say I picked up quite a few Christmas presents in my time in Spain, just saying. :)
So let's see...when I met up again with the group back at the hostel, they had made friends with Krista from California. Krista had already been here for four days, so knew of some great places to go for tapas and other cultural activities...hehe. So the five of us set out for the Gothic Quarter in the city center for a night out! A few baby octopi, calimari (sp?), some clams, three pitchers of sangria, a bartender who could make Long Island Iced Teas, a dance club with all 90s music, a making of six new friends in a random park, and one awkward encounter with an old man in the street which ended in the three of us girls literally sprinting away laughing our butts off later, we hit the hay at around 6am, very content with our cultural experience.
DAY FOUR
Sleep like a rock, undisturbed, until 10:47am, and then snap awake and am laying out on the beach by 11:00. (Our beach day was carefully placed in the agenda...:)) LUKE VIERTEL!!! greets me, since he and his crew are rock stars and made their way to the beach by our hostel by 10:00 or so. It was so random how all of our plans worked out because we hadn't even kept each other in mind when we were putting together our own individual mini vacations, so it made the coincidence so very sweet! He came equipped with an Emily, a Mark, and a Russ, who all turned out to be quite the bunch. The nine of us literally spent all day on the beach. Krista and I got ambitious at one point, so with determination we swam about two football fields' lengths (sorry I can't measure better than that Anna!! You must be so ashamed... :)) out to the Jagged Rocks of Doom
that had been placed out in the water to break the waves. We tentatively approached the rocks, saw the crystal clear sign depicting a person in a red circle with a line through it, and promptly climbed on up. We felt brave and accomplished. :)
So after that excitement wore off, the girls broke off so we could savor the real Barcelona beach culture, then met up with everyone again about an hour later to make plans for the night and go our separate ways to freshen up. A dinner for nine, six pitchers of Sangria, and another visit to Long Island Iced Tea bar later, Krista finally unveiled to us the glory that is Espito Chupitos. Picture a wall about the size of a chalkboard covered in hundreds of random shot names varying from The Tetris to The Harry Potter to The Bin Laden (spicy, firey, by far the most disgusting shot they have!). Throw in a little fire to about 90% of all the shots, some blacklights, and a marshmallow roasting or two, and you've got yourself one heck of a unique place!! It was a sweet atmosphere. We ended the night with a few of us just sitting on the beach and drinking in the beautiful Barcelona air, because the next night we were off to Sevilla!
Okay! So. The third and final chapter of Katie's Trip to Spain will be given soon. Stay tuned!
kt
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