Barcelona Spain!


 We have now made it to Spain . Yes to save money again and to add to our adventure we took this time an all night (9 hours) BUS from Marseille France to Barcelona Spain. Actually it was okay, no locked in the bathroom stories, no smelly train station waiting room but sleeping upright in a bus seat over the very windy roads of the Pyrenees Mountains that separate France with Spain was a bit like a roller coaster ride. Sleep??? What is that, this is vacation and we can not miss a thing so no time to sleep :)

 

Found a great hostel in Barcelona, back to those shared rooms and bathrooms, right near the Barri Gotic area and La Rambla with some of Antoni Gaudi's works right on this street, amazing!

 

I will end with Adeu from Espana and fill you in soon on how many cervesa's Mike consumes here in the Catalonia Region of Spain.


 Wednesday 4/25/12

Mike and I have been in Spain this past week . We arrived early
Monday morning in Barcelona via a very long bus ride, yes another
all night transportation option that we chose in sound mind and
body...I think.

We left Marseille France at 9:30 PM and arrived in Barcelona at 5:30
AM. Sleeping on a moving bus, sitting upright, especially through
the windy roads of the Pyrenees Mountains is a big stretch to even
call it sleep.



 
Hit the ground running though, well after sitting in the bus/train
station for awhile as 5:30 was just a wee bit early to walk into
town center looking for a hostel. So off we went, found an amazing
little place. Did have shared bathrooms, a shared kitchen but we had
our own bed and they were not bunk beds! We were a block off of
Paseo de Gracia with Gaudi's Casa Batllo just two blocks from us and
a few blocks from La Rambla and La Pedrera so the location was
priceless!


Our Hostel Casa Consell
 
Our innkeeper Francisco was a sweetheart and so helpful . He even
washed our clothes for us as we set off one morning to go to a
laundromat. Stopped to buy laundry soap at the market, got to the
laundromat but in some miscommunication we were at a dry cleaners.
So went back to the hostel with a bag of dirty clothes and a big jug
of laundry soap (that we were going to leave with him anyway of
course) and he grabbed it from us and said he would do it....sweet!!!


 

It was Sant Jordi day on Monday so it was crazy! A holiday where
all the men give their woman a red rose and all the woman give their
men a book, yes a book. Sant Jordi was Cataloni's (Barcelona region)
patron saint who slayed dragons......still do not get the connection
between dragons, red roses and books, hmmmmmm?? The streets were
packed with vendors selling said roses and books and thousands of
people were just walking around, oh and buying roses and books.


 

Fun to see the culture though . We visited many of Antoni Gaudi's
amazing works, what an architect he was but he had to be doing some
major drugs to come up with some of his creations. The Sagrada
Familia was amazing, you could just stare at it for hours and still
see something new with each blink of an eye.


 

We also visited Barcelona's amazing parks and the highlight was the
hike to Parc Guell, high above the city so it made for a great hike
and then the view of Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea from there
was amazing. Plus more of Gaudi's works and his former home is also
there. The Cathedral and the Barri Gotic district was stunning! Our
day at the Mercat de La Boqueria was so interesting. This is a huge
indoor market for all types of foods, meats, produce, cheeses,
etc...I took so many pictures of things that there was no way we
would ever eat but you just had to photograph them. Just know that
they display, sell and obviously eat every part of what ever animal
they slaughter, ewwwwwwwwwwww. I just had to keep remembering that
this is their culture.


 

Tuesday night was another highlight. We had run into some locals
earlier in the day when we were walking from the Sagrada Familia and
started talking to them about the big futbol game in a few hours . We
were invited back to their bar that night to watch the championship
futbol (soccer) game between Barcelona and Chelsea. The stadium was
within a couple miles from us but with tickets starting at 250€
($330) if even available, we decided the sports bar atmosphere was
just fine. It was so much fun!! Both Mike and I love soccer so to be with such major passionate fans it was a real experience.


 
Everyone was so nice, Mojito's and cervesa's kept coming, the night
kept going, and it did not end until well after 1 AM! Walking the 1++ mile back to the hostel was....let's just say interesting and then Mike decides he wants was some dessert. So here we are, in a strange city wandering the dark streets at now almost 2AM but of course Spain does not go to sleep at night so we found a yummy dessert place and even indulged in their speciality, Xolocota....hot chocolate so thick your spoon will stand up in it, OMG!

We could stay here a LOT longer! We will be back for sure, love this city!