The Terrible Two do Barcelona - a non-Disney TR - DAY 3 ADDED

[BethEJo]

So while I apologise for this not being a Disney TR, I thought that I’d still share it with you all anyways. Besides, it’ll be good practice for when I come to document and report my time at WDW over the summer during the ICP.

Soo....

The Terrible Two:
My friend Tom (Tudor) and I:

(this pic is quite an old one of us, but I love it...)

We met each other around 4 years ago when doing a youth exchange in Poland. Despite living in the same area, we had gone to different schools and alas...we had never bumped into each other. Until on the plane to Poland that is! And the rest as they say, is history – we have been besties ever since

We love going away together, and every so often we try to fit in a cheeky little city break. And so, on one cold night in October, after Tudor had come to Cardiff to visit me for the evening, we decided to go for it again. But it wasn’t your average, lets-think-about-going-away-where-do-fancy-going? sort of decision. Oh no....but I blame the cocktails

That night, we had decided to pitch up at our favourite tapas restaurant, accompanied by 2-for-1 cocktails ALL night. After around 5 hours of sampling the whole cocktail menu and making our way through various dishes, I suddenly declared “I like Spain”. Tom’s reply was: “well let’s go then”. And then me: “Oooooh yes! I have internet on my phone, we can book it all now”. And we did!

The next morning, it hit us what we had actually done !!! But there really were no regrets – we were just lucky enough that we had had enough sense to have booked it at a time when we were both still on the Christmas break from uni – phew!!

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin...

 

[BethEJo]

We had booked the 10:20am Easyjet flight from Bristol to Barcelona. This entailed setting off at 5am to pick up Tom, and find the car parking etc etc. But who cares when you are going on holiday?! The journey to the airport was great – we hadn’t seen each other for a couple of weeks, so it was lovely to catch up, and the drive just flew by.

After checking in, we made our way past security and settled for some breakfast – now why I decided it would be good to have a steak sandwich at 8.30 in the morning for breakfast is beyond me, but it sounded like a great idea at the time . After finishing brekkie we wandered over to the window to see if we could see our plane, and that’s when my heart sank – it had started to blinkin’ SNOW!!!! I couldn’t believe it – the snow had spoilt so many of my plans over Christmas, and now it had seemed to come back, just to finish the job off (a bit dramatic there I know lol – but that’s what I felt like at the time...). It wasn’t too heavy thank goodness, but it did cause some delay, but we were just grateful to still be going!

We eventually boarded the plane (woooo!!), but then were delayed on the runway. Now I’m not the most comfortablest with flying, and so imagine my horror when the captain announced that we would need to stick around for a bit before setting off to wait for the de-icer man to come and de-ice us !!! I was petrified from that moment on, but 2 hours later, we landed safely in Barcelona

We decided to take the train and then the metro to our hostel in the neighbourhood of Les Corts. I wish I could say that this was uneventful, but we decided to get on the wrong metro and headed totally the wrong way. That’s all part of the fun I suppose!

We were going to be staying at the FeetUp Yellow Nest Hostel in a dorm of 4. We decided to do this to save on some dosh, meaning more money for spending, and only paid £60 each for 4 nights . The hostel was lovely; very clean, and very colourful, but check in was a bit fun! I had made the reservation under the name “Bethan John” (seemed sensible seeing that that is my name and all ). However, the lady at the desk thought I had just spelt “Beth and John” incorrectly, and there was no telling her otherwise: “so, you must be Beth, and you must be John (to my friend Tom)” – we just went with it ! As I mentioned – the hostel was very colourful but we had only seen the half of it. We were then placed in the reddest room that i had EVER seen – there was no escaping it haha! All complete with bright orange bedding. It was blinding .

After settling in, we decided to head off and explore. We jumped on the Metro and got off at Placa de Catalunya, the main square at the top of La Rambla. The Christmas Lights in this area were wonderful – really, really pretty! We took some photos on the Placa, and then wandered around some of the shops. I tell you, that place is shopper’s paradise!

We also experienced the many statue performers that set up camp all next to each other on Las Ramblas. While some were good (such as the levitating man which I will show in the next entry), some were a bit “meh” – basically just women who had put on a pretty dress and painted their face gold. They couldn’t even keep still, and just stood there chatting to the next “statue” down. It was very funny to watch .

We grabbed a sandwich for dinner and then settled in a great little Irish pub. We were informed by the barman that that we had arrived just in time for “Monday Club”, and that the drinks were all reduced. Result! I decided to go for my usual pint of lager, and seeing as the pub was irish and that the barman was British, I asked if I could have a dash of lime in it too. I wish I hadn’t as this brought about with it a lot of confusion ! The barman didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, and proceeded to put a shot of lime vodka into my pint of lager!!! No wonder he was looking at me strange, but I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that that wasn’t what I meant... That drink was certainly “different”, but I decided to drink it all the same! After being up since 4am though, meant the pint (and vodka) had gone straight to my head. The same for Tom too, so we called it a night and was back in the hostel by 10.30pm.

And soon as our head hit the pillow....Zzzzzz.....

 

[irongirlof12]

that is one bright room sounds like a very fun trip.

 

[BethEJo]

We were absolutely snackered this morning due to the early start and full day yesterday, but still managed to get up at a reasonable time.

We caught the metro to the top of La Rambla, as our first port of call today was going to be the Museu de l’erotica. I’m sure that I don’t need to translate that for you – not really the time and place It was a great little place to visit, very interesting and very “informative”, although I’m not sure if it would be right to show you some of our photos...

After the museum, we headed across the street to the Mercat de la Boqueria – the main food market on La Rambla. The market was wonderful and unlike anything we had experienced before. The place was packed full of butchers, fruit and veg stalls, sweet stalls, bakeries – too many to list! Everything was so colourful, and I could have easily spent a tonne of money – I’m not sure that customs would have been too happy with me trying to smuggle a massive ham home though, so I decided to keep my money, and just browse instead There were lots of tapas stalls, packed full of locals, and it was just nice to experience the hustle and bustle of it all.

After the market, we walked down La Rambla, all the way to the sea front and Port Vell. On our way, we came across this guy – a levitating statue person thingy!! He was really good, and we just couldn’t work out how he was doing it. Definitely the best one there!

We took some photos around the column monument, and then sat down, watching the children feeding the pigeons and sea gulls. I had no idea why everyone here was feeding the seagulls – they’re just a massive pain in the bumbum aren’t they?! It didn’t take long for them to swarm over, and we decided to move on. I have an uncanny ability to always get pooped on by seagulls and I didn’t want to take any chances. We made our way across the walkway over the marina to the Maremagnum shopping centre. And this is where we came across “the crapper”...

Just imagine how tickled we were to come across this massive model in the middle of the shopping centre...

And yes, it is EXACTLY what you think it is haha! Here’s the explanation behind it....

Strange right?! I’d love to see it on some Christmas cards – might make a good one for the DIS Christmas card exchange next year

After a spot of window shopping, we decided to head back to the hostel to get ready as we were planning to go out and find a nice restaurant this evening. I have no idea what had happened but it seems that we had dropped off for a quick nap – we awoke to find it was around 8:00pm and we had been asleep for 3 hours!!! Nevertheless, we still decided to head out and found a nice restaurant on the seafront. I had my first taste of Spanish food this holiday, and had a lovely paella. All washed down with a massive jug of San Miguel – I was in heaven

We headed back up La Rambla, but got slightly sidetracked by the sight of an Australian bar, and a couple of drinkies later, we finally decided to jump on the metro. Only to be met by a guard shouting in Spanish that it was 2 minutes until the last metro – my friend didn’t have a clue, but thank god I had taken A Level Spanish a couple of years ago My heels came off, and we just legged it – didn’t really fancy paying for a taxi home And we made it with literally no seconds to spare – all good fun!

 

[Claire L]

Great report, lol about the lager and the lime vodka

Fab pics and it looked like you both had a fun time

Claire

 

[Chilly]

Loving your TR

 

[wickesy]

Great stuff so far Beth. That levitating 'statue' is amazing.

EDIT: I've just seen the 'non DIS-friendly photos'

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Love your tour of Barcelona Bethan .. you certainly look as though you both had a great time. You certainly came across some amusing sights! Great photos!

 

[irongirlof12]

well thank goodness for a level spanish , tired or what

 

[BethEJo]

EDIT: I've just seen the 'non DIS-friendly photos'

Shhhhhhhh -

well thank goodness for a level spanish

I'm not just a pretty face

 

[BethEJo]

We were up quite early this morning, and jumped on the Metro to make our way down to the Marina, as it was from here that we were going to jump on a Barcelona Tour Bus. Doing the proper touristy thing on an open top bus – I could not wait!!

We purchased our tickets for 23 euros each – this entitled us to jump on and off the bus as many times as we liked all day. The bus ran two routes throughout Barcelona, so this seemed the easiest and most informative way to tour the city. On boarding the bus, we were given head phones which we just plugged in to the seat in front of us to listen to the commentary. The sun was shining, and we agreed that we had picked the perfect day for doing the bus tours. But as soon as the bus set off, and picked up a bit of speed, OH MY GOODNESS was it windy ! There was no other option – i had to cover up...

We decided to do the first route completely to start – we wanted to “see” everything on this route but didn’t really need to get off at anything. Besides the route was going to take at least 3 hours so we just decided to stay on the bus to keep more time for the next route which had places that we actually wanted to visit.

Our first route took us along the seafront to the Olympic village, and then to the beaches. The Olympic village apartments are built in a fantastic location – right on the front of the Olympic port. After the Barcelona Olympic games, these apartments went on sale to the general public, and apparently, some of them snapped themselves a great deal. The beaches were also lush, but seeing as it was January we decided we’d just observe them from the comfort of the bus (probably would have been less windy on the beach though...). These beaches are “man-made” according to the commentary, and every year Barcelona’s council sets to replacing the sand that gets dragged out by the tides. We then backed up on ourselves and made our way through the Gothic district which looked beautiful. We decided we’d take a walk through here another day.

We soon reached the area of Montjuic. Montjuic is basically a hill, and the drive up was so scenic; all windy (that’s windy as in bends, not windy as in blowy ) and tree-lined! It was home to a couple of museums and some of the city’s best art collections, but according to the guide, Montjuic also has a darker history as one of the buildings here was used as a political prison up until the Franco era. Quite a few of the main Olympic buildings were also located here and we caught a peek inside the main Olympic stadium. And with perfect timing, Freddie Mercury’s “Barcelonaaaaaaaaaa” started playing through the buses stereo . It would have been lovely to have wandered around the museums, gardens and parks in this area but there just wasn’t time...

Say hello to the random upside down elephant...​

The bus headed down the other side of the “hill”, along the port, and before we knew it we were back where we started. After grabbing some lunch we headed to Placa de Catalunya at the top of La Rambla where we were going to jump on the other bus to do the other route.

Continued....

 

[BethEJo]

We only drove for a short while before we jumped back off to take a look at two of some the buildings in Barcelona that Gaudi is most famous for: Casa Batllo and La Pedrera. The buildings were beautiful – could you imagine a whole city designed like this?! We just stood there admiring these buildings for a while and taking some pics. Apparently, Casa Batllo was based on the appearance of dragon skin. Who's a pretty dragon then?

Back on the bus we went, and this time we got off at La Sagrada Familia – the cathedral still under construction after more than 100 years! You just can’t get reliable builders these days can you?! The guide book described La Sagrada as “Gaudi’s last hurrah” , and it’s a real shame that he isn’t going to see it completed. As you approach the entrance from the steps, it really is awe-inspiring! Sooooo tall, and soooo much detail! Here are some pics from our visit.

We also decided to pay to get in the lift (we were on holidays after all )that takes you up inside one of the towers (it was the lift or nothing – the stairs were too unsafe we were told, and we soon found that out!). We presented our ticket to enter the lift, only to see that we were going to be sharing it with around 8 other people. And this lift was tiny – awkward was the word! After cramming inside, the guide then decided to ask for our tickets again – pain in the bumbum! It was so tight in there that I don’t know whose pockets I stuck my hand in to – so sorry for that! It was just too hard not to giggle though, and I was mighty relieved when the lift eventually got to the top. The views from here were stunning, and it was the best place to see some of the construction that was still taking place.

Still haven't finished...​

Now, to get back down.... It was either the lift (uh...no!), or the stairs; those unsafe stairs that nobody is allowed to walk up, but are fine for people to make their way back down. Right.....

All was fine to start – the stairs were very spirally, with no hand rail, and a massive drop in the middle, but we were still getting some light in from outside so it was OK. But then the windows suddenly stopped – oh crumbs ! It was pitch black, but we had no other choice than to keep on going. It was horrible – you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face (and I’ve been down a mine!!! ), and after tripping a couple of times and almost falling to our death, we got the giggles again! Well...it was either that or start to cry !!

We clung to the wall for dear life, and I was half tempted to just go down on my bottom, but after what felt like an eternity we finally made it to the exit. All flustered, worn out and petrified scared1: <- that smiley is pretty much picture perfect)! Now I knew why the queue was so big waiting for the lift to come back down... We exited the church, jumped back on the tour bus, and completed the second route. This took us through some of Barcelona’s more “upmarket” districts and before we knew it, we were back at the top of La Rambla, where we had started.

We were in for another treat tonight, as today, January 5th, was the eve of epiphany. Now epiphany isn’t really celebrated in our country, but in Spain, it is the day when the children receive their Christmas gifts, and signifies the arrival of the three kings to baby Jesus. We hadn’t planned to visit Barcelona for this reason, but we were chuffed to bits when we realised that we were going to be there for the celebration. Each Spanish city celebrates with a big parade on the night of the 5th, and we couldn’t wait. We got a space for the parade which was around 3 people deep when we arrived and we waited there patiently. More and more people arrived and around 30 minutes later I turned around to now see that there were hoards of people behind us too. There was no leaving even if we wanted to!

Finally, the parade started – just after I’d had a little tiff with a really annoying Spanish lady stood behind me. I’m not sure what her game was, but she seemed to be ramming everybody with her pram so that they’d move so she could get one step closer. The kid was nowhere to be seen - I swear she bought the pram for that sole reason! She rammed, and rammed and rammed at the back of my legs , but I was too stubborn to move out of the way (it was also pretty impossible to move in any direction, and if I did, I would have just ended up in her pushchair ). She started to shout and I pretended I couldn’t hear her even though her face was only like 2 inches from my ear. Happy days! Anyway, moving on.... The parade was lovely!

After watching for a while, the pushing and shoving had become too much and we decided to escape. Besides, we were really hungry by now too. But there were people everywhere – how to get out ?! :There was no other way , so to cross the street to to find a restaurant, we had to get the metro. JUST TO CROSS THE ROAD! All of the restaurants were quiet because the masses were still watching the parade, and this meant we could just have a nice relaxing dinner and drink. Boy did we need it! After taking our time to enjoy our meal, we jumped backed on the metro and headed back to the hostel (but with a bit more time to spare this time )

 

[wickesy]

Another great day Beth. Open top buses are definitely the way to see new cities. We went on a couple of 'convertible' buses last year where the driver could put the roof back across if it got to cold or windy.

That woman at the parade sounds like she had been taking lessons from people at the Disney parades.

 

[strawberry blonde]

Sounds like an exhausting day but lots of fun..... getting you in training for Disney

 

[Chilly]

Great day, I love an open top bus tour.

 

[Pinky166]

Fab report Beth!!!! I am taking notes for my trip to Barcelona in September!

Definately no taking the stairsdown from the top of La Sagrada Familia for me! Great photos, love the crapper one!