Barcelona, Spain. I'm going to make this horribly indepth because of my lack of blogging lately. I have put up all my pictures I took (which were a lot) on my new picture site but it's not quite up and running yet so for now I have included some for all your viewing pleasures.
We headed out Saturday morning to begin our very well needed holiday (both Karen and I were going a little crazy here in Edinburgh). The trip itself was pretty uneventful, except for a lovely train ride through the Scottish countryside. It was actually a nice day and the sun was shining and we saw lots of sheeps. And on the flight I saw the first mountains of my life. They were wonderful and so pretty peeking up above the clouds.
After 2 trains, one flight, and a bus (with some very smelly Brits) we arrived in Barcelona. On our way to the first hostel, we walked down La Rambla, which is the long promenade that stretches from the waterfront to the heart of the city. They have vendors on the middle walkway, and every few blocks has a different sort of merchandise for sale. My favourite two areas were the Rambla dels Flors, which was full of flowers and plants (and smelled very nice), and the Bird market where they sold animals. That's right. It was like an outdoor pet market. Birds and fish and turtles and chickens. It was really quite a sight and very noisy.
Our first night we stayed in the Youth Hostel Mar, which was actually a very nice and clean place. There were cute little cubby holes where your beds were. That night we didn't do anything too exciting - went out for some Spanish food and drank some wine and had a relaxing night because we were pretty tired from traveling. They fed us a pretty sweet breakfast in the morning and we had some strange conversations with some Irish guys that were still drunk from the night before. The one looked exactly like Martin Wheelhouse (like exactly) and the other one sang me a song he called 'Emily'.
Our first full day we started out walking to the Sagrada Familia, the church that Gaudi designed but never actually completed. It was absolutely amazing. Nothing like I've ever seen (which was a main theme on this trip). We walked around it for hours and even saw Gaudi's tomb in the crypt of the church. I'm beginning to see why people this Gaudi was such a genius. His architecture is so unique and mathematical. Afterwards we walked through a cute little street market and then relaxed at a pretty park where old Spanish ladies were playing Bocha ball. Since we were trying to save money we hit up a bakery and ate a wonderful lunch of bagette, sardines, spicy olives, and cheese. In the afternoon we went to the Cathedral (which like the Sagrada Familia was also under construction and had scaffolding everywhere). Another really beautiful place, the ceilings were massive and it was so peaceful and quiet. Whilst wandering around that evening we saw the biggest arcade I had even so of course we had to go in. Karen proceeded to kick my ass at foosball and air hockey. It was good fun and I managed to hit 2 different people with my air hockey puck. Go me! We also saw quite a few street performers that were very talented. The one group had an upright piano out right there in the street! That night we booked into the Kabul Youth Hostel (which is apparently the place to be when you're staying in Barcelona) and they had a bar right in the hostel so you know how that turned out. It was a really fun night though and we met a ton of really nice people, along with a stereotypical American that I got in an argument with and who later said I looked like Violet from the Incredibles and then insisted it was a compliment. Once Karen and I had become sufficiently 'sociable' we went out in search of food and ended up in a Spanish falafel place where we made friends with the guys that worked there and they gave us free beer.
Monday morning I was feeling it so we took the morning off. Ha ha. In the afternoon we walked down La Rambla towards the waterfront and the marina. On the way you pass the Columbus monument, which according to one of my guidebooks, is actually pointing in the wrong direction. The marina was nothing to write home about, it was nice to be by the water and to see the boats though. On the dock we randomly ran into someone we lived with in the hostel in Edinburgh. It was pretty funny and we scared him near to death. We walked down the waterfront looking for the Olympic Stadium for a while (only to reach the Port Olympic - which is not in fact what we were looking for and then giving up). I was so excited to go onto the beach though and to put my feet in the Balearic sea (I thought before I went that it was the Mediterranean but alas I was wrong). It was really really cold. We picked up pretty rocks and had a nice time playing on the beach. There was also this giant rope climbing apparatus that was a blast but way too dangerous for the children aged 5-12 as it was suggested. We wanted to go out for seafood that night and had picked a nice looking place from my guidebook but alas it was closed for winter. Ended up eating some really good fish soup though.
Tuesday was our day trip about an hour and half out of the city to a place called Monserrat. For years it had been tradition to make a pilgrimage up the mountains and most Catalans did it in their lifetime. It's a monastery in the mountains were 80 monks live along with a world famous boys choir school. The mountains are very unique pillars of limestone that have been worn away over the years. We took the funicular up part of the mountain, where the basilica was located, and then there were a serious of paths you could follow if you wanted to make it up the rest of the mountain. The basilica up there I found even more beautiful than the one in Barcelona. We were lucky enough to hear the boys choir perform in the church and it just gave me the goosebumps. I was sitting there listening to this lovely music, in the most beautiful church I had ever been in, and it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. We had a nice picnic lunch again (that involved my feeding some kittycats - they're everywhere in this city - just walking around - it's my kind of place). In the afternoon we hit the hills to do some hiking. It was so great to be outside in the clean mountain air (I never understood that phrase before). We hiked for hours and then decided that we wanted to reach the point of one of these limestone pillars. So bushwhacking we went. It felt kind of strange to be pushing through plants on 'holy ground' but all went well. We got to the top and the view was superb. Then we looked down and realized we were really high up and scared out of our minds to get down. Ha ha. All ended well and we spent the rest of the day walking around and looking at various statues and monuments they had around the monastery. We had decided that evening that we'd go out for a traditional Spanish meal and splurge. No one there eats supper until after 8 or 9 at night, because they all eat a giant meal in the afternoon at about 3. We had tapas (mini-portions of snacks that are on display behind glass at the bars of restaurants), paella (fish or meat with sauce over a bed of rice and vegetables), and of course Sangria. After that we went to a really neat Jazz bar and had one drink (that turned out to be 16 euro for 2 drinks!) before both of us falling asleep whilst in the bar and deciding our day had been long enough.
Our last day we got up bright and early and headed out for the Park Guell. Guell bought the land on this site and commissioned Gaudi to design something like 60 houses with gardens but only 2 were built. It was funny because after our mountain climb we were both so sore and we walked around the corner to head to the park and there was a giant hill to walk up. We groaned and looked closer to discover that there was an escalator right in the street. Outside. Ha ha. The park was out of a storybook. Some of the houses looked like the house the crazy old witch lady has in Hansel & Gretel or gingerbread houses. Colourful tiles on the ceilings everywhere and of course the famous Gaudi tile lizard. Not sure why it's famous but I know that I'd seen it before. At the top there is the wave bench that is a continuous stone bench covered in colourful tiles. It was another amazing place to see. They even had budgies or some type of tropical birds in the trees. The rest of the day until we caught the bus back we just walked around (very slowly) and did some shopping. Regardless of what you look like, or where you are in Barcelona, guys just randomly yell at you in Spanish (or sometimes a 'hey baby') in the streets. Karen just kept laughing every time it happened and that just encouraged them. I know it's part of how Spanish men act but it's still a pain in the ass.
So that's basically our trip. We did so much walking in the 5 days that I feel now as if my legs have turned to mush. Very sore mush. It was nice to be back in the backpacking mode, and Karen and I had a hard time convincing ourselves we really had to come home.
More hill climbing to the Stirling Castle. This is the view from uptop. You can see the Wallace monument off to the right. Stirling Castle was also nice to see but again even more expensive to get into. We tried to walk right in and got yelled at by a security guard. Jesse and Rob then proceeded to try and determine how to climb in up the back of the castle. I told them that if hundreds of enemies of Scotland in the past couldn't get infiltrate - they probably wouldn't be able to figure it out. Turns out I was right.
