Bar"th"elona

BARCELONA, SPAIN

Apes 'n Ju at the Barcelona port

For V-day weekend, Apes 'n Ju, accompanied by Steph, headed to the country of paella, chorizo, and where they pronounce their 's' sounds like 'th'. It wa'th' ab'th'olutely 'th'plendid! Hahaha.

After a few problemos at the airport, we arrived in Barcelona around midnight Friday night. Thinking we'd arrive to a relatively quiet downtown area near our hostel, we were astounded as to how many people were actually in the streets. A handful of these people were trying to sell us cans of beer - thanks, but no thanks! One stop on the metro later and we arrived at our hostel, ready to head to bed (since it's now 1am). Oh wait.. did I forget to mention the manwoman that was staying in our room? Oh yes, yes I did. Anyway... as we are getting ready for bed, a scary-looking individual, whom none of us knew was a man or a woman, came in, chugged some vodka, and left. Disturbed and a bit scared from this encounter, Stephanie decided that perhaps sharing a bunk with said individual would not be a wise choice. She opted to share the bottom bunk with April whilst Julie slept in the top.

Casa Mila a.k.a. La Pedrera - designed by A. Gaudi

Saturday morning! Manwoman is sleeping (phew), but we later learn that when he came in the room after we had fallen asleep, he threw up in the toilet, waking up a German girl. German girl did not enjoy the sounds - in fact, they made her throw up as well. Reminds us of our friend Dana from back home. Bad.

Moving along, our complimentary breakfast consisted of a rock hard toasted baguette, OJ, dirty, filmy hot chocolate, and a slice of muffin. We QUICKLY left the hostel to begin our day. Walking down La Rambla (a main pedestrian strip in the city), we enjoyed watching shopkeepers and performers setting up for a busy Saturday. Walking past the large Christopher Columbus monument, we ventured out to the port where we came across, you guessed it, a Starbucks. Wait, you didn't guess Starbucks? My bad. Too late now.

Enjoying a nice iced beverage (oh I forgot to mention it was warm there), we wandered around trying to figure out what to do. "Hey, who would be opposed to taking a bus tour? No one? Okay, good!" After waiting in line for a decent amount of time, we hopped on a double decker bus (to the top of course) to enjoy a narrated tour of the city. Casa Batilo, La Pedrera, Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and Camp Nou were just a few stops along the route. There were a ton more, but I just named the most known - if you do not know, or wish to know more, click on the link for each one.

La guía turística

That evening, we took in a show at a bar known as Los Tarantos - we were treated to some Spanish music and Flamingo dancing. Did you just say Flamingo dancing? Ya, that's what it is, right? NO!! It's FLAMENCO dancing! Oh! So anyway, treated to some Spanish music and Flamenco dancing. I always say, you can't go to Spain without seeing a flamenco show! After the show, we took in some dinner - tapas, sangria, and paella all around! And after? Bed.

Sunday! We decided to take in the city by foot today and go back to see the sites of which we wanted better photos. Stephanie, the day before, had fallen in love with Gaudi, so his works (gorgeous btw) were our main focus. Hey! Did I mention we got Starbucks again? I didn't? Oh - well we did hahaha.

We took in some lovely Asian cuisine for lunch at a restaurant called "Wok", did a little shopping, enjoyed a nice walk to the beach, and headed up La Rambla to Placa de Catalunya to catch the bus to the airport.

Besides the fact that Vueling Airlines is the worst airline that we've ever traveled with, we had an excellent trip!! Barcelona was beautiful and we would recommend it to anyone who comes to Europe!

Heading out to catch some "big" waves

Up next for Apes: Geneva, Switzerland

Up Next for Apes 'n Ju:
London, England
Prague, Czech Republic
Braga, Portugal
You're not gonna want to miss it!