Well we hadn’t even spent five days in London yet here we were jumping on board a plane again – crazy? Yes. Dumb? No. Back in March we had arranged a weekend in Barcelona (again) for our friend’s 30th Birthday and before we had time to say Hola, July had rolled around.
All in all there was a crew of 16 of us, with the majority on the same flights flying out Friday night and back in Sunday. We all had the same thing on our minds – sun, swimming and sangria, with the very slightest touch of sight-seeing involved.
We got to our hostel in fine form, threw on some clean clothes and hit the streets in search for a place to have our first glass of sangria. All fun and games except Brad and I were feeling far from fine after an exhausting week spent sick as dogs after picking up a bug in Turkey. We made a far go of it though and managed the walk, before deciding to call it quits and head back to the hostel, alongside our friend Sara.
The next morning, after a glorious sleep in, we hit the road for a quick squiz around the sights before heading to the beach for the afternoon. When I say quick, this should be taken with a grain of salt really as we soon learnt that you can only go so quickly with a group of 16 trailing behind at different walking speeds. Nevertheless, we managed to get to the Sagrada Familia, as well as Gaudi’s house, before stopping for a quick drink along Las Ramblas. Not bad at all for a morning’s walk.
Brad and I split off from the group for a quick detour to visit Brad’s favourite shop from last time – a knock off sunglasses store selling everything for five euros. We brought a few pairs, popped into the markets, then were on our merry way again in no time. Brad had brought over matching glasses for everyone from his work, which went down a treat, but a girl can never have too many pairs!
We soon got to the beach, where we spent a glorious afternoon sunbathing, drinking beer on the beach and giggling away. Spain has a ridiculously high unemployment rate right now with the Euro crisis, so everywhere you look people are selling things, whether that’s beer, a mojito, or hair-braiding! We brought a few beers off one local, before we learned that you could get the same beer for under half price from the shop just metres away. That was us for the afternoon – slurping back copious amounts of ice-blocks, drinking beer and just soaking up the sun. Glorious by all standards.
At about 7pm we decided to pack up and head back to the hostel, stopping off at a cheap and nasty restaurant for dinner, made absolutely fine by the great company. As you all know, our lovely experiences in Spain have had nothing to do with food before, so we weren’t disappointed at all.
That night we took off on the pub crawl the hostel was offering and all had many laughs. The bars weren’t the best, but at one of them the DJ gave me a water pistol filled with alcohol to go around squirting in patrons’ mouths so I had great fun! The power did go to my head a little admittedly, and I did end up having the gun wrestled off me towards the end after squirting all and sundry!
The next morning, a little slower than the previous day, we ventured out towards the beach. We split up as half of the team wanted to go up to the castle, while the rest of us just wanted to make the most of the last sun we would see in a while. We had another lovely day lying on the beach, before wandering reluctantly back to the airport at 6pm. We met up with the other group on the plane, as they only just made it in time! While we were all at the airport, they were still drinking in the sun at the top of a cliff in Barcelona – Spain will do that to you!
All in all, this was a great trip and made me love Barcelona well and truly. People often comment on how it’s one of their favourite cities and while I enjoyed it last time, I didn’t quite get what the fuss was about. This time though I can claim to be one of its biggest fans – the sun, the beach, the culture… It really would be the best place in Europe to live.
Adios Amigos!
x
All in all there was a crew of 16 of us, with the majority on the same flights flying out Friday night and back in Sunday. We all had the same thing on our minds – sun, swimming and sangria, with the very slightest touch of sight-seeing involved.
We got to our hostel in fine form, threw on some clean clothes and hit the streets in search for a place to have our first glass of sangria. All fun and games except Brad and I were feeling far from fine after an exhausting week spent sick as dogs after picking up a bug in Turkey. We made a far go of it though and managed the walk, before deciding to call it quits and head back to the hostel, alongside our friend Sara.
The next morning, after a glorious sleep in, we hit the road for a quick squiz around the sights before heading to the beach for the afternoon. When I say quick, this should be taken with a grain of salt really as we soon learnt that you can only go so quickly with a group of 16 trailing behind at different walking speeds. Nevertheless, we managed to get to the Sagrada Familia, as well as Gaudi’s house, before stopping for a quick drink along Las Ramblas. Not bad at all for a morning’s walk.
Brad and I split off from the group for a quick detour to visit Brad’s favourite shop from last time – a knock off sunglasses store selling everything for five euros. We brought a few pairs, popped into the markets, then were on our merry way again in no time. Brad had brought over matching glasses for everyone from his work, which went down a treat, but a girl can never have too many pairs!
We soon got to the beach, where we spent a glorious afternoon sunbathing, drinking beer on the beach and giggling away. Spain has a ridiculously high unemployment rate right now with the Euro crisis, so everywhere you look people are selling things, whether that’s beer, a mojito, or hair-braiding! We brought a few beers off one local, before we learned that you could get the same beer for under half price from the shop just metres away. That was us for the afternoon – slurping back copious amounts of ice-blocks, drinking beer and just soaking up the sun. Glorious by all standards.
At about 7pm we decided to pack up and head back to the hostel, stopping off at a cheap and nasty restaurant for dinner, made absolutely fine by the great company. As you all know, our lovely experiences in Spain have had nothing to do with food before, so we weren’t disappointed at all.
That night we took off on the pub crawl the hostel was offering and all had many laughs. The bars weren’t the best, but at one of them the DJ gave me a water pistol filled with alcohol to go around squirting in patrons’ mouths so I had great fun! The power did go to my head a little admittedly, and I did end up having the gun wrestled off me towards the end after squirting all and sundry!
The next morning, a little slower than the previous day, we ventured out towards the beach. We split up as half of the team wanted to go up to the castle, while the rest of us just wanted to make the most of the last sun we would see in a while. We had another lovely day lying on the beach, before wandering reluctantly back to the airport at 6pm. We met up with the other group on the plane, as they only just made it in time! While we were all at the airport, they were still drinking in the sun at the top of a cliff in Barcelona – Spain will do that to you!
All in all, this was a great trip and made me love Barcelona well and truly. People often comment on how it’s one of their favourite cities and while I enjoyed it last time, I didn’t quite get what the fuss was about. This time though I can claim to be one of its biggest fans – the sun, the beach, the culture… It really would be the best place in Europe to live.
Adios Amigos!
x
