Barcelona, Spain

On the 19th of March my Easter Break began and my Ottoman friend and I set out from London Gatwick for Barcelona, Spain and arrived around 4:30 PM. Unfortunately, we walked right past the baggage claim because we were too busy talking about a "Ben and Jerry's" advertisement. This set us back about 45 minutes because we had to go back through security to get to the baggage claim again, and then we didn't see our bags on the conveyor belt. We searched for aid, but only found one lone assistant who was busy repeating the same sentence to someone on the other end for about a half hour: (in a heavy Catalan accent) "Yes, I call Easyjet Liverpool and leave a message with them. I am very afraid. Yes, my name Jose." After listening to that mind-numbing conversation for a half hour, he walked us to a different conveyor belt than the one we had been waiting at; so we could have had our bags and been on our way much earlier. Oh well, we moved swiftly nonetheless, got some cash, and grabbed the bus to the Plaza Catalunya. We eventually caught the L3 green metro line to the Paral.lel stop and continued on foot. It was a bit difficult to find our hostel so we had to ask around. There was what looked like an information booth with two chubby elderly women sitting in it. I asked them for directions but they just solemnly shook their heads. I really wonder what they were doing in that cramped kiosk. After eventually finding our hostel a few streets down, we set up camp in our room and took a nap. Here's a picture of the outside of the Mambo Tango hostel at night:

After our nap, we were informed by our host, Igor, that Nic Wise had returned from dinner and was waiting downstairs. He moved from the first floor from the night before to our room the night we got there. We decided to get some grub soon after and walked along the street looking for a cafe. After randomly choosing one, since they all looked fairly similar, we went in and got down to business. I got two tapas: Calamari romano and Albondigas (meatballs). They were pretty good. Nic used his Spanish to secure us the best champagne the place had to offer. After a few glasses we began to plan our own Basque separatist movement. I'll toast to that:

We then decided to head to Las Ramblas, the big main street in Barcelona where most of the action is, but got lost along the way. It took us a bit longer than expected, and we couldn't believe when everyone kept telling us to "go straight down this road and you will find it." The road just happened to be a very long road. Once on Ramblas, we looked for a bar that might contain a fun atmosphere. We walked into some Australian themed bar which was alright. After lingering for a bit, we called it a night and went back to the hostel to get some sleep. The next morning we were up at 8:45 to grab the hostel breakfast before heading to Las Ramblas to see what it was all about in the day time. I would definitely say it is a much more interesting place to visit in the morning and day time. There were a few street performers that had some snazzy costumes so we decided to take pictures:

and this guy:

Moving right along, we ate paella at an overpriced restaurant after waiting an absurd amount of time for our food. Once we finished our meal we walked over to the huge outdoor market called La Boqueria. It was quite an impressive operation with tons of different stalls, some devoted to meat, others to fish, and even more to sweets. Things may have been a bit expensive, but they were well worth it. Here's some examples of things to be found in the market:
Candy

Half-skinned ducks:

After the market we made our first of a total of three excursions to La Sagrada Familia, the enormous Cathedral, not started by, but made famous by Francisco Gaudi. Our first visit was simply preliminary since we only got to see the Cathedral from the outside. After scoping out the Cathedral, we walked around Barcelona some more before resting outside of a Bull Fighting stadium. It was a pretty laid back day. We returned to the hostel towards the evening, took the obligatory nap, and then got up for dinner which was an interesting chorizo (sausage) stew that the hostel made for us. The next day at 4 AM Nic sadly had to leave, but the Ottoman and I stayed there for another two days. In those two days, we managed to do a proper tour of La Sagrada Familia which was really fascinating, and then walk around the famous Park Guell. I took many photos of Sagrada Familia which you will be able to view at the bottom of the page, but here is just a taste of its imposing architecture:

Sunday night we got tapas again. We got on the metro and got off at the Jaume stop and strolled for a bit before passing what looked like an upscale restaurant that was charging 2 euro per tapas. I thought this was a bit much so we kept walking. We stumbled across a place that looked a bit shabbier, but still appealing and went inside. Big mistake. The waiter, bartender, and owner were all unpleasant. Not to mention they made us wait forever and the food wasn't even that good, AND it was 3 euro per tapas. I decided not to get that many and saved my appetite for KFC. I got the Boxmaster, I'm not sure if we have it in America. It is chicken, hash brown, lettuce, cheese, and tomato sauce in a tortilla. Luckily good ol' American enterprise did not fail me and I went back to the hostel full... That is after walking around the bay area in the rain. The bay had some very cool modern art and lighting. We also went back to Sagrada Familia thinking that it would be lit up at night, but it was completely dark and no one was there. After booking our night bus to Madrid the next day, we journeyed to the Park Guell and walked around for a few hours. There is definitely a lot to see, most not worth it though. I was a little let down after people in the hostel had built it up to be unmissable and amazing. However, there was a neat hill to climb that had quite a panoramic view of the city at the top, and we spotted a large castle on an opposite mountain:

We walked for the rest of the day before we thought it was time to head back to the hostel to grab our luggage and catch a cab to Nord, the main bus station in Barcelona. Thankfully, we finally made it to Quimet Quimet, a tapas bar located literally right next to our hostel. Apparently it is some of the best tapas in Barcelona. I believe it. The tuna, mayonnaise, bread, honey, and soy sauce combination was scrumptious. That more or less ended a great stay in a great city.