International flights are really falling off. We flew Spainair here which was a nice enough airline, the lady at the counter gave us exit row seating and we had a great flight time. But what kind of international flight do you have to buy water on? I just don’t understand! Also all the prices were in Euro, all we had was lira…just a weird experience I guess. Anyway once we landed we exchanged money and hopped on the Aerobus to Plaça Catalunya. I love traveling to European cities. The public transportation is always (usually) so great that you can look at a map and figure out where to go with no help at all. We had the address of the apartment we were looking for so from the bus stop we hopped on the L4 metro, got off at the right stop and then walked to the apartment. Granted we walked in circles for a while, we still got there!
After numerous attempts to find descent hotel either near the city center or near the beach we ended up just getting on www.airbnb.com and renting a room. I know this sounds semi risky but when Mom and Dad came to Istanbul we used the site to rent them an apartment and it worked out lovely. In any case we picked a place that was close to the metro, beach, and had good reviews. But really it was Wednesday morning and we were supposed to leave on Thursday afternoon so we really just needed a place to stay.
When we finally found the apartment both of us were shocked at how lucky we got. Honestly we looked at so many photos and read so many reviews that I had no idea which one we were actually going to. But the apartment in the Poblenou neighborhood of Barcelona, a quieter more residential area with no shortage of great restaurants! The owner of the apartment, Ivan, a nice Colombian man greeted us and gave us recommendations for places to eat and bars to go to. Staying in someone’s apartment turned out to be perfect. We got advice from a local while still having way more than enough privacy. We had our own section of the apartment with a private bathroom and huge room. Ivan and Reuben were fast friends, while I unpacked they shared a glass of Dalwhinne, Reuben’s new best frind from Duty Free!
By the time we finally checked our emails and settled in we looked at our watches and it was already 11:00! Thankfully Spain is really the country that never sleeps. Now we had heard from a few people that the food in Spain isn’t great but I refuse to believe that. The food all over Europe is amazing and I figure, Spanish wine is great, so worst case I live off bread and wine for a few days! But Rohan told us that the paella he had in Barcelona was amazing, so of course our goal for the weekend was to find incredible paella! We went outside to tons of restaurants that were still open and settled on a nice place that had a great daily menu. We got an order of Catalan bread, an appetizer, paella, and a huge glass of Sangria for only 15 euro each! I had garlic shrimp and meat paella and Reuben had a massive bowl of mussles and seafood paella. It was delicious and the perfect meal to start of what I think will be a vacation we never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment