Adventures of ProtEkta: I'm in Barca, b*#%h!

Hola!!!

Greetings from Sevilla! Yup, I know, I'm a few cities behind on the blogging. My bad! That's honestly because I'm just too busy getting every last ounce of goodness in my belly. Completely justified.

Time to fill you in on the excitement of my first Spanish stop....Barcelona! Spain has been at the top of my "must-visit" list for a while so I was trying real hard not to get my panties in a bunch with excitement!
Oh and not to mention I was going to reunite with my crazy Aussie, Lauren from my Amalfi tour for a few days so that was a nice little bonus.

Let's start with my train ride in. Pretty smooth sailing for the most part; sat with some nice folks from South Dakota, chit chatted, napped, yada yada yada. Then we entered Spain. Okay, cool. I had read that often officials come on the train to check your passport so when 2 officers came to do so, no surprises there. Sidenote - never had passports checked anywhere else. Anyways, got all that done and then, not 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 (k, you get my drift) but 12 officers swarmed our cabin and looked like they were on some kind of a mission. Obvious looks of confusion from the passengers and I'll be honest, I kind of wanted to see a take down on the train but it didn't happen. Womp womp. Who knows why so many officers got onto our cabin. They just positioned themselves in the aisle and stared everyone down and then just like that, hopped off at the next stop. And yes, many of them were eye candy ;)

Okay back to relevant stuff.

My apartment was a 5 minute walk from La Rambla which is a massive street lined with everything from shops, bars, restos, vendors, etc and is jam packed with both tourists and locals. Figured that was a good place to start my Barca adventures and get my bearings. When people say this road is packed, they mean it, luckily for me, I've mastered the art if manoeuvring around people. Ain't nobody got time for Sunday Strollers!

Okay, confession. My first meal in Barca did not consist of any churros or sangria or paella for that matter. I had fast food Asian, like a true tourist. There's this spot called "Wok to Walk" that a friend of mine had told me about should I ever get tired of tapas, etc. Now, although there was no possible way I was at my max with Spanish food (I was 2 hours fresh on Spanish soil), I was starving and to my defence, it was that awkward time between lunch and dinner where most kitchens are closed so yeah, I did what I had to do and had my first Barca meal, complete with Asian veggies, noodles and teriyaki sauce. Sue me.

Fuelled up and ready to go, I wandered down to the end of La Rambla to the pier. Gorrrrrrgeous!!!! But where's the sand?? I was expecting to set my eyes on the sandy beaches of Barca but nope. Didn't matter though because there was tons to see around the pier....not to mention €3 mojitos. Did I mention I love Barca already?!

A few more snaps from that walk....

Gaudi's Casa Batlló

People dancing in the streets! My kinda town!

Anyways, on my walk back up, I came across what would be my home away from home for the next few days... St. Josep Boqueria. The Most. Amazing. Market. Ever. This place was food heaven! I'm talking endless stalls selling everything from fresh produce, juices, chocolates, candies, empanadas, seafood, meat, nuts...all those goodies and more! Beauty about these markets is you can have a feast while grabbing items from different stalls and it'll cost you close to nothing. That's a good deal! (Russell Peters voice). Prepare to salivate....

Okay, that's enough torture for now.

That night was the Netherlands vs Costa Rica match which I mentioned in my last post. I had definitely walked off my 'Wok to Walk' (har har) so ordered a plate of nachos at the bar. Tell me if you guys know something I don't... Do Spaniards not eat salsa??? My nachos had everything BUT that and when I asked the server for some, she looked at me like a deer in the headlights. Come on??? My options were tabasco sauce or ketchup.... Ummm tough choice but I'll stick with neither. Ugh. Anyways, I made it through regulalation but once the game went to extra time, I booted it out of there. It was way past this grandma's bedtime.

The next day was to be a proper tourist day. The main attraction on my hitlist for Barcelona was Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia. Construction began in 1882 and still continues today. If you plan on visiting it, make sure you order your tickets online ahead of time. You have to pick a specific entry time for church and towers as they only let in so many at once, definitely works better so you can fully take in the Bascilica without the distraction of mobs of people. No amount of photos, videos or words can capture what this mamoth of a building is like. It's design is a mix of Gothic, Modernism and other Catalan styles, heavily influenced by nature and is as mind blowing as possible without causing bodily harm. I could write about it for hours but I'm on half cell battery and have a flamenco show to catch soon so here are some photos to TRY to share the experience:

Shots from the Nativity Tower of the Bascilica:

It doesn't even look like a church inside! It was like walking into Disney World or some heavy drug induced dream. Stunning.

That evening, I had plans with Soner, one of the other airbnb guests renting a room in the apartment I was in. He's from Turkey but lives in London and was in town for a design conference. A little info on Soner: a very humble product designer who just so happened to have one of his prototypes of a LED prayer mat that lit up when facing Mecca featured at MoMa. No big deal, right? www.soneroznec.com & www.razorlab.co.uk if you're interested. Anyways, he and a few conference mates planned on hitting up Tapas 24 which apparently is a top spot in Barca but sadly when getting there, realized it was closed but went to the resto next door thinking it probably compares.....??? Uh. No. I mean, I hadn't had tapas yet but I definitely wasn't blown away and neither were the others but luckily with good company and good convo, dinner wasn't a total bust.

Two of the other guys were also from Turkey and one Torontonian, Christina. Christina founded the company The Makers Nation (www.themakersnation.com), which is a community bringing together creative minds in art, tech and design. Do check it out! Anyways, after dinner we wandered off to a few rooftop lounges. All gorge with stunning views of Barca but for the first time on my entire trip, humidity kicked in full force and it became one of the most physically uncomfortable nights! The hair went haywire, the skin was sticky and it was all just a big bag of grossness; it felt like Florida all over again! Yikes. I stuck it out though and wound up staying out til like 2am. Whoa whoa whoa, party animal on the loose! This by far, was the only "night out" I'd had on my entire trip! Don't get too excited...it wasn't a wild party night but at least I wasn't in bed by 10pm.

That humidity didn't just smack us in the ass for nothing. The next day was a wet, wild one but that's what a hair tie and umbrella are for, right?

Finally, Lauren and I would be reunited! If you don't know who Lauren is, then you're clearly not reading my blog. She was part of my Amalfi tour and we bonded over our constant inappropriateness. She's also one of the girls who was in Rome and makes cameos in some of the pix. Keep up people!!!

First mission of the day: meet for breakfast at the market. Gotta love Spanish time because breakfast is more like our lunch time in North America. Only in Spain is this considered a perfectly acceptable breakfast:

Yup, tacos, smothered with cheese, sauce and rice. This was a fab little vegetarian stall at the market and was nothing short of taste bud overload. The girls and I parted ways for a bit and made plans to meet back up for dinner. In the meantime, I had two days til I was arriving in Madrid and I hadn't booked accommodations or my train ticket yet. So while the rain decided to grace us with it's unwelcomed presence again, I sat in my apartment trying to get everything sorted out. I'll be honest, my proscrastinating was a little stressful this time because Spanish high speed trains can't be booked online if you have a Eurail pass. So there I was, annoyed as eff with nothing left to do but go to the train station and book in person. Shouldn't be such a hassle, right?

Two hours later, it was finally my turn at the ticket counter. Two hours!!!! I took full advantage and booked all my remaining trains so that was one big stress off my shoulders. Now I could focus on the main task at hand... Eating.

On my way to dinner, I had a cab driver who pretended not to speak English very well, forcing me to use whatever Spanish was left in my brain from studying it in the past. Miraculously, we were able to carry on a full conversation, albeit at snails pace but hey, at least I managed! Then of course he surprises me with his fairly decent English but I gotta give him props for pushing me out of my comfort zone. That's one thing I didn't do in Paris. Obviously, as a Canadian, I studied French most of my younger years and at one point I was friggin bomb with French, but it was the whole "use it or lose it" thing and after picking up Spanish, most of my French was wiped out. I never felt comfortable to even try to get by with my broken French in Paris but for some reason, haven't really had that issue in Spain. Anyways, major side track. I met up with Lauren, her sister Alyssa and some friends of theirs for thai food. Yup. Thai. What? I know what you're thinking. So what?! I'm allowed! And it was dang good too! So ha!

My final day in Barca took me to Park Güell which is another one of Gaudi's pieces of work. The park was originally meant to be a luxury housing site but that didn't quite work out. It too, along with all of Gaudi's work, was incredible. Again, felt like Disney World. The views of Barca did not disappoint either. Entrance to the park is free but there is a charge to enter the monumental area which is what is mainly worth checking out. Best option is to order it online as well because they only let in 400 people every 30 minutes and I saw tonnnnns of people getting told they had to wait 3 hours for the next available open time slot. Also, don't be late for your time. Soner was and they would not budge one bit in letting him in, even after asking to speak with management. Tight ship these people run!!!

Oh yeah, and it's a trek to get up to the park. They've got escalators but also stairs and guess who took stairs the entire way up??? Oh yeahhhhh! Seriously though, when did I start enjoying stairs so much?? Legs. Of. Steel.

It was this climb x3. Bring your walking shoes.

I had every intent to hit the beach this day but the park took up more time than I thought so I guess I'll have to hit the beach next time. Probably a blessing in disguise though because I'm a legit 100 shades darker than I started this trip at. Wanna see my fabulous tan lines? Well you don't have a choice:

I can't even make this shit up.

Sigh.

One final dinner with Lauren and co. and the pick was La Cerverseria Catalan, apparently a hot spot serving some of the best tapas in town. Considering my last experience, I had no issues waiting 1.5 hours for a table, even at 9:30pm. So we did what any normal people would do and found a less busy bar to have the first round of tapas and drinks at before heading back to Catalan. The food at both places was heavenly!!! We feasted like royalty til we were about to explode, well either that or fall asleep since it was now past midnight. Spanish time I tell ya!