DAY 219: Barcelona

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!

DAY 155: Valencia

So after deciding to go on a very spontaneous holiday to Valencia for the weekend, we booked a car, booked a hostel and I faked tanned til my skin was orange - bring on the sun! I met Andrew and his flatmate, Margarida, along with two Greek people I didn't know and we headed to the car rental place, carrying bags of clothes, food and alcohol. On our way there we came across a traffic jam literally caused by a couple who had decided to stop in the middle of the road, put on their hazard lights and make out passionately in the front of the car, not even joking...they must be some seriously horny people.

As we started on our journey, Andrew wapped out this massive tank of mojito he had made along with plastic coffee cups with lids (sensible so that they don't spill in the car) and straws - perfection. We had probably passed about 15 minutes before I was on my third, much to the Greeks disbelief. You could see their faces wondering who these drunken Scottish people were. The car journey took a few hours, with me being the "dj" plugging in my ipod to the car, much to everyone's satisfaction I'm sure. Andrew and I got progressively more pissed as the others stayed sober and kept asking to stop the car so that we could both pee and smoke, such great people to travel with! We eventually arrived in Valencia at about 2am, where we had now missed check in and had to wait outside for someone to come and open up. Andrew and I were so desperate to go out at this point that we considered just changing and sleeping in the car, but then the fitty hostel man (who we couldn't work out how he was fit - he was bald) arrived and all was dandy. The Greeks and Magarida weren't too keen on going out, so Andrew and I abandoned them and hailed a cab of the main road. We just asked him to take us to a good and popular club and he was very wise with his selection as it was freaking awesome. 

Part of the club was open air and then inside was all white with fit girls in sequined swimsuits dancing on podiums. We danced away, picking up masks as we went (it's the weekend of the Brazilian festival Carnaval) and drank more and more until the early hours, with perhaps a tactical chunder in between. Leaving the club at 6.30am, we unsuccessfully tried to google map our hostel and ended up walking for a good hour (although I must admit that part of that journey I was actually getting Andrew to push in me a shopping trolley we had found on the street). We got home at 8am, when it was already daylight, and crashed until about 12pm, trying not to wake the others up.

So of course the next morning (or afternoon, whatever) Andrew and I were in desperate need of food, so after watching the Carnaval fireworks in the main square, all of us went for a big lunch of paella and just a splash of beer. It was pretty evident to Andrew and me though that the Greeks were more interested in doing the cultural stuff, whilst Andrew and I just wanted to die. So we went our separate ways for a few hours, doing a bit of walking, a bit of mask shopping and ending up of course in an Irish pub. The beer there was rancid, but determined to get drunk again, we forced ourselves with a couple of pints, before finding ourselves sleepy and needing to go back to the hostel for a siesta. I didn't actually sleep, which was a bit shitty as later in the night I just could not hack anything. My belly was bloated and we were literally walking round the bars in Valencia with masks on and what I felt like a pregnant stomach. We did meet up with the Greeks and Margarida at this point, but it was clear by now that our conversations just didn't "flow". As we all arrived back at the hostel the Greeks were going on about this ancient Roman town they wanted to see as we left Valencia. Obviously, being the uncultural messes we are, Andrew and I were not pleased with this, so we suggested they got up at about 9 and went and did it and then we would all go the beach at lunchtime before our long journey back to Madrid. They agreed to this...

Well....the next morning we woke up at 10am and everyone was still in bed. Check out was at 11am and the Greeks (like they had been all weekend) were so slow at getting themselves out. As we eventually got into the car, Theo, the guy, said he would google map the beach, we didn't have time now to go to the Roman town - thank God. Well, the sly little fucker that he was gooogle mapped the Roman town instead of the beach and so took us the wrong way. How cheeky. We were passing a sign at a roundabout for the beach when Margarida said "Theo are sure it's not that way?" At this point Theo said, "See I would quite like to go to the Roman town so thats where I've been giving directions to." I was not impressed. I could feel my inner bitch coming out. "We agreed we would all go to the beach though because of the time" I said, and you could see Theo's face just bubbling with anger. I would not back down though, I was being a right dick to him and I didn't even care - it was sunny, I was tired and hangover and I never get to go to the beach. "But is there something special at the beach?" Antonia, the Greek girl asked and I was just like, err don't get all cultural and intelligent with me missy...(I didn't actually say that.) ANYWAY, what happened was we split up, the Greeks went to the Roman thing and the three of us went to the beach and it was sooo much fun and so nice and hot. We then pied out on tapas and ice cream, chilled in the sunshine and then headed back to meet them (and they were late - of course).

The journey home was dull, and after just 15 minutes of my music (even though I refrained from playing One Direction and Cheryl Cole) Theo abruptly asked if we could switch to his ipod. Eurgh. Now judging on appearances I was pretty sure we would be listening to some sort of heavy rock, Theo is long haired and pierced, he then proceeded to play song after song of Greek Eurovision songs! Wtf. Come on, a bit of Miley Cyrus and Will.i.am is better than that shit, no? He was bopping away and so was Antonia, so Andrew and I bitchyly put in our headphones. The journey ended with Margarida's music.

Anyway all in all it was a fantastic weekend. I now feel dead and disgusting and have some how hurt my leg and I think I have broken my toe. Oops!