Spain is keen on their bank holidays, or "puentes" as they call them here, so after only being back for four days of work, last week we had 3 days, or in my case, due to being ill one of them, 2. The plan had originally been to go to La Rioja with Liz, but with a lack of funds, Liz unfortunately had to bail and so I was left to decide what to do. Taking my mother´s advice, I spontaneously booked flights to Barcelona for 4 nights, as not only is it a great place to visit but I have a few friends from uni who live there. Unfortunately, about an hour after I had booked it though, I fell ill. I had a fever and a headache, was being sick and generally felt like I couldn´t move, once again, this is just a classic case of dehydration for me, but after then missing work the next morning and sleeping til about 3pm, I was fine to head to Barcelona Wednesday night.
Now I´ve never come across this before, but apparently airlines can overbook their seats?! How, is beyond me, as surely with technology these days stuff like that shouldn´t happen. However, I arrived at the airport in plenty of time, and when I went to check in they told me that my seat was on standby and that I might not be able to get on the plane. What the fuck? I was incredibly angry, and so storming through to the gate, I waited for everyone to board before they told me if I could get on or not. Luckily....I could, with the slight inconvenience of them then checking in my bag and a hefty 45 minute wait to get it back when arrived in Barcelona. However, there was Hannah waiting, all hugs and kisses, and as we hadn´t seen each other in months, there was a lot to catch up on. Once into the centre of town, we then headed to a restaurant, each buying a delicious steak, and of course, being in Spain, we were eating them at midnight!
Thursday was beach day and as my pale-skinned, heat.suffering, Scottish self, I felt I should be prepared, so I lathered on the factor 30 and bought about 4 bottles of water (which wasn´t even enough). Of course though, being me, my back went the colour of a lobster, and whilst everyone panicked and thought this was horrendous, I sadly just had to admit that I was "used to it"...sore skin from sunburn is now something, that especially living in Spain, I have become accostomed to. The beach was packed but very beautiful, and at about 6pm, Hannah and I decided to take ourselves off for a big jug of sangria....it´s a tough life.
Now, if there is one thing that Madrid needs more of, it´s brunch places. There are several in Barcelona and they are so so cute and so so yummy. On Friday "brunch-time", I had a beautiful quinoa salad (my new favourite word as I don´t really know how to pronounce it) and Becky had these amazing pancakes which I´m sure I would have just inhaled if I had ordered them. It was such a cute wee cafe and served everything from donuts to cakes to salads to sandwiches to eggs benedict on waffles. Our next stop was Barcelona´s famous cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, and wow, it is impressive. First of all, it´s huge, and secondly, the sculpturing and artwork of it is just so intricate and beautiful. Every single part of it is so detailed. I didn´t actually go inside, cba with the queue, but it was lovely to see anyhow, of course with a few sneaky tourist snaps. Hannah and Becky then dropped me off at Izzy´s flat, who amazingly lives right next to it, and we chilled on her balcony in the sun with some good old cups of tea.....where of course, I burned even more.
That night, the four of us, plus 3 of Izzy´s friends, went to a really good tapas restaurant called La Tosca. Really good food for a really good price, and on top of that, very very cheap cocktails. I lost my Amaretto Sourz viginity (twice) and also indulged in a very strong caiprinha and some bitter lemon thing. It was fair to say that by the end of the night, we were all feeling a little bit "tipsy"...and then there was Izzy...pissed, with her classic sleepy drunken eyes on, and stripping off in the living room when we got home :P (Sorry Izzy, just thought I would mention that). However, being a morning person, she was up bright and early Saturday morning all dandy and chipper, whilst I reached for the bucket full of water and begged for some ibuprofen.
Saying that, it wasn´t long before I was sipping on the booze again as it was time to meet Vicky and we hadn´t seen each other in a long loooong time. Like our regular nights in Newcastle together, where we went to either Bar Berlise or Bar Ru on our favourite Ozzy Road, we ordered some nachos and potato skins with a mixture of cocktails, of which was mostly persuaded by our very friendly waiter. After that, now verging on obese, we went off to Parc Guell which is a park showing Gaudi´s main pieces of work through mozaics and beautiful buildings. Unfortunately, the wait to get into the actual "Guadi bit" was far too long, so instead we just walked around the open park space, but it was still lovely and the view of Barcelona was beaut. That night, we met up with Izzy to go and see the "magic fountains" and I have to say that this was probably my highlight. It probably sounds corny, but I´ve never seen fountains like it before. They changed colours, changed effects and music was playing alongside the "show". We also got soaked whilst at it, trying to take one of our many selfies with it in the background. Anyhow, it was a really good way to end a great day.
Cultural time for Sarah on Sunday and a trip to Barcelona´s big museum, the MNAC, which I kept accidentally calling the MCAT, causing the others to think that I was now into all that mcat jazz. I don´t think Vicky even noticed when I told her that we are going to the MCAT, it´s an easy mistake to make! It was cool, and definitely very different from the Prado in Madrid, with less portraits and less paintings of Christ. There was also a cool terrace on top of it, which again was great for a few cheeky snaps. Unfortunately that morning, we had also tried to go to this big food market, which from what I´ve seen pictures of is pick n mix heaven (my favourite thing everrrr), but it was closed for the puente darn it. On our way there we also encountered a grotesque old man who stopped in front of me and oggled at my (not even on display) boobs whilst moving his tongue around his mouth and making horrible sounds. Grim. Once again, I HATE Spanish men. We then joined Hannah and Becky for lunch in a sushi restaurant, right beside Barcelona´s Arc de Triomf. Izzy had kept mentioning this arc, and I was getting so confused thinking, I sweaaaar that is meant to be in Paris, but turns out, it´s just another wee one.
I was really sad leaving on Sunday evening because I had had so much fun and Barcelona is just so cool....I might even prefer it to Madrid (!!!) ...did I just say that?! The city has so much character and there was so much to do. I struggled with the heat, of course, but that´s nothing new, and I think also there were a lot more toursits than there are in Madrid. But no, great few days and I´m glad I did it before I leave in a few weeks time!
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