Today Reuben and I dragged ourselves out of bed at around 11:00am. It might be the biggest understatement of the year to say that we were exhausted. After getting home from La Rambla last night we both reflected on the fact that we have no idea when we’ll return to this incredible city that we’ve both fallen completely in love with. Haha some how that turned into not wanting to sleep away any of our time here even if it was just spend in the apartment. We chatted and opened the floor to ceiling windows in our room to just let the city in. I know, how completely pretentious of me! But it really is a beautiful city and I’m sad that in a few weeks if I’m feeling antsy again there’s no jetting off to Spain for the weekend. Oh well, back to the normality of living in Chapel Hill, NC. Don’t get me wrong. I love North Carolina but it’s nice to live in Europe and have so many places accessible and affordable.
Anyway we headed to an internet café to check out a list of restaurants, bars, and cool places that Reuben’s friend Chesleigh, who studied abroad here last semester, sent us. We settled on going to La Champagneria, a champagne bar near Barceloneta Beach. I expected a dive-ish bar from Chesleigh’s comments but I figured it would be pretty dead during the day. We thought we’d go grab a plate of tapas and relax. Nope not at all; it was packed out! I could barley fit my pinky toe in the door. We finally stepped inside, read all the signs and decided to go have a real lunch and regroup!
We went to La Cala for lunch, it was near the harbor just off Carrer Reina Cristina. I don’t recommend it. The wait staff was not very friendly and the food wasn’t great (which for some reason didn’t stop us from eating most of it anyway)but oh well you win some you loose some. We headed back to La Champagneria and had a game plan. This isn’t a get fucked up and throw up kind of place, there were a ton of tourists there with families and lots of college kids just grabbing a bite to eat. The rules are: they don’t sell full bottles after 5:00pm and if you buy a full bottle you have to buy at least two sandwiches or tapas plates to eat. I think it’s a great idea, especially since the most expensive bottle of champagne they had was 5 euro! We got a bottle of their classic champagne and two chicken sandwiches. It was a really cool experience other than the fact that the only place available to stand was right by the entrance so people entering and exiting were constantly pushing us. But who’s complaining, when Reuben went to pay at the counter they only charged us 5.50 euro!
After that we decided that the best and most efficient way to see as much of the city as possible in the only day that we had left (we’re on a 11:00am flight tomorrow) was the hop on hop off city tour. So we bought tickets for the Barcelona Turista Route. The price was a little steep, 23 euro per person, but it included an audio guide and we definitely made the most of it. I wish that we had bought tickets yesterday because then we definitely would have made sure to ride all of the three routes. I mean we walked most of the green line because it’s around the area where we are staying but I really like to hear the history and descriptions of what I’m seeing.
We rode most of the Red line and all of the Blue line which took us to the Sagrada Familia, Parc Güel, FC Barcelona Stadium and lots of other beautiful Gaudi houses. I had never even heard of Gaudi architecture before this semester but I’m really into it now. It’s so cool it reminds me of like a child’s mind. I felt like I was looking at houses and buildings out of Alice in Wonderland or something. It was really beautiful and I’m so glad I got to see it. We rode all up and down the 5th avenue of Barcelona, saw the Gothic neighborhood again by bus and pretty much rode around the entire city other than the Olympic Complex. I wanted to see it but getting there and then getting back to the city center on the red line would have taken almost an hour and we weren’t up to it. Today the weather was definitely not as good as yesterday, it was overcast all day and the clouds were definitely getting to us.
So we hopped off the bus and walked from Plaça Catalunya to Jaume I where the Gothic quarter is. We stopped at one bar to have 3.5 margaritas and mohitos and some nachos con queso but the drinks weren’t that great and once we found what we were really looking for it was annoying that we had already spent money. So I had read online about these tapas bars where they lay out trays and trays of tapas that are all on these massive toothpicks and at the end of your time there they charge you per toothpick. Well we saw a couple places that had food on toothpicks but they were different prices and more like a menu that you pick from. So of course Reuben started to doubt that these places exist, when low and behold we found Bilbao Beria! A small bar tucked inside the street across from the Jaume metro stop where we had dinner last night. They had wine for 1.80 euro a glass and a huge bar filled with tapas for 1.65 a toothpick! I wish I was more hungry so I could have tried more foods but unfortunately all (haha all, I got a good amount down, running will be necessary when I get back to Istanbul!) I could eat was: a mini crossaint with crab and shrimp salad, two Chinese chicken samosas (good but weird and a tad too oily), and a salmon pie thing, it was salmon, cheese, a tartar like sauce, and a small amount of greens in a small pie crust the size of two quarters. Needless to say it was delicious and exactly what we were looking for even though I could barely breathe I was so full!
After that we were both exhausted and we headed back to the apartment to rest and shower, I mean it was 9:00pm. Jesus the days in Spain last so long, I finally understand why an afternoon siesta is necessary. So here we are resting and trying to decide whether to head to University Plaza to find the 2 euro shot bar or to head back to the beach (as long as it doesn’t rain) for 9 euro drinks to chill with. Either way is fine with me! This has been such a great vacation I can really say that we did everything I wanted to do in Barcelona, though I wish we could stay longer in this incredible city I feel good about cramming my crazy list of things to do in two full days! Side note: being here has made me realize that my Spanish is still pretty ok, I enrolled in Conversational Spanish for next semester. It will be interesting since I haven’t actually taken Spanish since freshman year and I’ll be taking Turkish at the same time but what the hell! I only have one year left in college and if being abroad has taught me anything it’s that you need to take advantage of every opportunity you have to learn and experience new things, so here I go!
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