Barcelona

So, recently I went on my second and final 10 day break and I did a little jaunt around Europe with Ashley. The first place we went was Barcelona for 3 days. On our way out of Rome, it was pouring rain so we decided to take a taxi to the airport. It was a different airport than the one we usually fly out of, so we didn't know where we were going or what to expect. Looking back it was definitely a good thing that we took the taxi, otherwise we would have missed our plane. We were flying Ryanair which is a very well known carrier in Europe, known mostly for its cheap fares and very stringent baggage rules. Ashley and I walked into the airport with trepidation because we had already broken the rules (you're only allowed one carry on including your purse and it costs 20 euros for each checked bag... we had purses). However, we made it through check in quite easily and proceeded to security. There, the security guy made Ashley take her bike lock out of her bag and told her that she would not be able to take it on board (a bike lock?). Bear in mind that this is all while she is carrying a purse with metal straps that would have been much more effective if she decided to strangle someone. So we trudged away, sans one bike lock and had to wait for a while to get onto our plane but we made it into Barcelona rather uneventfully.

Once we got there, we decided that we would go to sleep in our hostel for a bit and then go out later. Well, after waking up to our alarms at 1 am, we decided that our energy would best be saved for the next day and we decided to keep on sleeping. The next morning we woke up and headed out to greet the day. The very wet day. It was pouring rain yet again, but we did not let that stop us from sight seeing around Barcelona. Ashley had a map and a plan and so we metro/hiked our way up to the Parc Guell de Gaudi to see the super special Gaudi landscaping and architecture decorating this particular park. Here's a picture of me in front of some Gaudi buildings.

The park was interesting in the rain and Ashley and I both got our boots really dirty but I got this picture in front of a cool tree so it was totally worth it.

Next we wandered over to this hospital that was designed in a Gaudi-esque style and it was actually pretty ridiculously cool for a hospital but the pictures I have don't really do it any justice.

Then we went and saw the Sacrada Familia. I took a few pictures but you should probably look it up on google or something because they were doing construction while I was there and it was pretty much an eyesore.

Then we went back towards our hostel and ate some bocadillos (spanish sandwiches) along the way and took a nap. It was Halloween so our hostel was having a pretty substantial party with contests and cheap beer and all of that fun stuff so we ended up staying there for the night and just hanging out. We met some guys from Quebec and Ashley won a dance contest.

The next day we decided to have a festival of food. We had tapas for lunch which were alright but they weren't that great and pretty much not worth the money. But we had yummy churros for dessert so that made up for the somewhat disappointing tapas. Then we decided to wander around the city a bit more and ended up walking to the harbor and looking at all the boats and watching some really great street musicians. There were two guys and a girl and the girl was playing the flute and she was soooo good. I almost died. I'm really mad at myself for not taking a video or at least a picture but I guess I was mesmerized.

Then we went and saw the Christopher Columbus statue and took pictures on one of the lions surrounding the statue. Ashley decided that she needed to properly ride the lion and she had a bit of trouble getting on.

I took the easy way out.

That night we had paella for dinner among other things. It was good but it was on the expensive side. The food in Barcelona didn't impress me overly. But the city was definitely beautiful and I would certainly go back. I guess I'm just getting spoiled by all of the other ridiculously good food I've been eating.

That night Ashley and I went to the "Magical Fountains". They might have been called the majestic fountains, I don't really know. But they were really beautiful. Here's a picture of me as I was walking toward the fountains.

Here's a picture of the fountains up close.

And here's a video (thankfully I remembered to record this).

That night we went home and napped for an hour before we went out to a club called Razzmatazz. It was a gigantic club, the biggest I've ever been to. There were like 10 dance floors and 5 levels and all of them were playing different music and the first floor had a live band. Ashley and I tried to find hip hop but none of the floors were really playing music that we liked so we watched the band and danced on top of speakers and basically spent the whole night getting harassed. Some German guy kept hitting me and pulling my hair so we left around 6 am because he was really freaking me out.

We slept in and then checked out of our hostel the next day and just spent the day exploring and window shopping and then we had to get to the airport so we ran to catch our bus to the airport and then hopped on our plane to Scotland!