Barcelona*

Barcelona* was an awesome trip filled with culture and history. We arrived Friday night and after getting to the city centre we wandered around a street called La Rambla til we decided that we should find our hostel so we don't get pick pocketed. After finding our hostel (which was a cute little place a few blocks from La Rambla) we put our stuff in our lockers and headed out into the night to enjoy the sights and sounds of the busy Catalonian city. We passed quite a few restaurants that were hopping at 2300 which was strange to us. There was awesome music coming from one of the dance clubs we passed, playing Latin dance music.

The way was so narrow that I could almost touch!

After getting a good nights sleep (as good as you can get in a busy hostel room) we planned out our day over breakfast. There was a free walking tour around the Gothic quarter of Barcelona* that we had planned and then...we would see where the wind took us. While packing for the weekend we looked at the weather and were really excited to see weather above 10 degrees C but Saturday was a very rainy day and the walking tour plans did not include staying indoors. Either way the tour through the Gothic Barrio was very interesting and our guide (who was apparently Swedish) did well to inform us of our surroundings and what historic happenings went on here. At the end of the tour we ended at a bar where we could get 1euro sangria's. Needless to say we could not pass that opportunity up to have a cultural drink!

The market we found

On our tour we met a couple in their 60s from the States, but had been living in Germany for the past couple of years. We bonded with them and so after the tour we decided to get lunch together! The restaurant we decided to go to was nice inside and it served tapas. Our guide told us a trick with tapas bars (go in order the patatas bravas and if they are good order more, if not move on) so this is what we did as well. The patatas bravas were delicious but instead of ordering more we decided to get the check and head over to the hopping pizza place right around the corner. Food in Barcelona* is all good and I wish I could go back to just eat more food! Once lunch was done we decided to walk around the little shops and a market we found off of La Rambla that had some cool nick-knacks and food before we had to be back to the bar for our cooking class!

Our cooking instructor

Our cooking class was so much fun we had a delicious range of tapas and then the cook of the bar came out and showed us how to make seafood paella. Our teacher was from Argentina and spoke really fast so what I did was just watch what he was doing, I got a lot more out of it then listening to what he said. While the paella was simmering and the rice was finishing cooking we got another lesson. We learned how to make Sangria's (a little bit of this, a little bit of that) which consisted of brandy, red wine, half a cup of sugar, fresh cut fruit, Fanta Lemon, and some orange juice. It was delicious.

 

View of Barcelona* from Park Guell

Sunday after checking out of our hostel we got a day pass on the metro and went to lots of different places including Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and the Mediterranean Sea! Even though it was cold and windy and people on the beach were bundled up in coats and scarfs Em and I still went in to the sea just so we could say we had been! Park Guell was designed by the architect that also designed Sagrada Familia. There was a great view from the top of the park and delightful walking trails. All in all a wonderful weekend away from the windy, cold city of Edinburgh.
*Please add an exaggerated 'kissing hand explosion" hand gesture.