Barcelona -- best city ever!

Spain
August 18 - Barcelona, Spain
We arrived in the late afternoon at Girona airport. It was a beautiful and modern airport. We got into the city and settled in our hostel. It was a very nice and modern one! We shared it with 2 other girls from South America. The pictures shown are of the hallway to our hostel and the outside of the hostel (the tall building that looks like rectangular tiles of different shades of grey).

After we were all settled and had dinner, it was already getting late. We decided to take it easy and see only one sight by night. We walked over to the Sagrada Familia -- the church started by Architect Antonio Gaudi. Apparently he spent 40 years of his life working on this project. It has since been under the lead of various architects. It is scheduled to be finished in 2026, while portions of it will be open to the public for worship and tours by September 2010. It is one of the weirdest buildings I have ever seen. In the dark, it looked very gloomy and pretty creepy. By daylight, you could stand there for hours admiring the intricacies of his work. It is just so unique from all of the other churches I had seen in Europe so far. I'd love to go back to Barcelona to see the finished product. After walking back to the hostel, we used some internet and went to bed. The next morning, there were some errands to take care of. I was out of cash! I needed to go to the bank to switch the Swiss Francs I had. After a wild goose chase around different banks with different rates of exchange, services etc., I found Caixa Catalunya. It was here that I had one of the most unforgettable realizations. The man at the bank greeted me and I spoke in Spanish, explaining what I wanted. He proceeded to ask a few routine questions and then asked for my ID. I offered my passport to him. He gathered all of the information that he had and was confused: Chinese girl by visual inspection, surrendering a Canadian passport, who speaks Spanish fluently, requiring Swiss Francs to be switched to Euros. I laughed as I realized that this was who I am, or who I hoped to be -- the traveler. We had a conversation about my roots and how I came to be at his bank switching Swiss Francs to Euros. The bank offered a good enough exchange rate. After all was said and done, I was about to leave when he called me by name and stopped me in my tracks. He waved me back to give me a pen with the bank logo. Needless to say, that pen has sentimental value now.

Since I had gone to the bank alone (and was gone for awhile because of the wild goose chase), Joey got angry at me because he was worried. =S We cooked our lunch of pasta and whatever ingredients we had left over from the previous night.

Finally we were able to start our sightseeing for the day. We headed off to see the Sagrada by daylight, as well as the Hospital de la Santa Creu. The hospital is quite a unique site and still fully functioning today. It was built in the early 1900s.
The picture doesn't do it justice, but I don't have the skills to do a panorama from the center of the courtyard. It felt kind of weird to be at a hospital, so we didn't stay long. We walked out again, looking for a pharmacy so that I could buy some contact solution and Joey could buy fresh wraps for his ankle. Contact solution was ridiculously expensive in the pharmacies. Small travel size bottles are $2 in Canada -- in the Spanish pharmacies, they were 6 Euros! (Later, I found an optic shop that sold a travel size for 3 Euros and bought that instead.) After Joey changed his wraps, we hopped onto the metro to visit the Parc Guell. We found something that we've never seen in Canada -- outdoor escalators!
The climb to the park was pretty long, but well worth it! It was absolutely stunning at the top. You could see the whole city from there! I love coastal cities because I love water! Anyway, we walked around the park, completely designed by Gaudi. I love his work -- it's so unique! Here are some pictures of the park:

One of the highest peaks in the park, where we enjoyed a panoramic view of the city.

A view of the city: Sagrada Familia to the left, las Ramblas in the center, and the beach in the far distance!
World's longest bench!
Close up of the details in the bench -- also designed by Gaudi.

The two buildings at the entrance of the park.

That's just a few of the highlights. I loved this park! (Well, I loved Barcelona in general! =P) After the adventure in the park, we were quite tired, so we made our way back to the hostel. We went to the Carrefour mall and supermarket to pick up groceries for our picnic at the beach the next day.

August 19 - Barcelona cont'd
The next morning we hopped on a RENFE train to Costa Brava. We just asked some random girls who looked like they were going to the beach to recommend a nice strip of beach. They just told us to get off when they did. So we did, and it was quite nice. It wasn't as out of the city as we thought it'd be -- maybe a 20 min train ride? We got off at Mongota Nord station, and simply picked our spot. It wasn't very busy yet, as it was early in the morning. There were tons of beach chairs, but we later learned we had to pay to rent them. =[ So I pulled out my handy-dandy beachwear cloth-thing to sit on.

A view of the city in the far off distance from the beach.

After our picnic lunch, a few dips in the ocean, and some tanning, we headed back to the hostel to get cleaned up. We also decided to check out Carrefour Mall to find a salon. Joey really wanted a haircut. We made an appointment, went to the supermarket to buy more stuff, then waited for Joey to get his haircut. His stylist was pretty cool and tried to talk to Joey through it all through his broken English as I was told afterward. I later learned he was from Zaragoza and was telling us about some cool festival going on there. Too bad we already had tickets to Madrid! People from Barcelona had really cool hair -- especially the girls. This hairstyle where the top was short (up to the chin-ish), but the bottom layers were longer (past the shoulders). It was pretty cool! After Joey was satisfied with his haircut, we went back on the Metro to go to the other Gaudi-designed buildings: La Pedrera and La manzana de discordia (Casa Batllo). Simply amazing. We continued walking down this street, where all of the expensive boutiques were (LV, Chanel etc.) and reached Las Ramblas. It was a unique experience, with tons of buskers on the street performing for money. There were some awesome shows (magic, fire-play, sword-swallowing etc.) and amazing costumes. We made it down to the Olympic port and decided to have an Italian dinner. Joey tried some Spanish beer and I had some flan. Mmm! The Olympic port seemed to contain a couple of night clubs as well. However, we were not in club attire, nor in the mood for clubbing so we tried to find our way back to the hostel. It was quite frustrating with the night buses, but we finally found one that took us home. We also discovered that on a ramp nearby the hostel, was a prostitutes' pick-up area.

August 20 - Barcelona cont'd
The next morning, we decided to head back to Las Ramblas because we hadn't had enough. We found the market (St. Joseph -- La Boqueria). So many sights and smells and yummy snacks! Since we already ate and weren't hungry, we tried some fresh fruit juice and left.
We then continued on to the statue of Colombus and the Olympic port. I wanted to see a gallery, but it was closed. So we later found ourselves sitting on the docks for awhile, admiring the fish that were swimming beneath our feet. Since we had already seen what we wanted to see, we decided to go to the Aquarium. The ISIC card got me half off ;) I paid for our tickets, and we went into the aquarium. I was in a bad mood, but let's not get into that. I was still nonetheless amazed by some of the sights I saw. The most memorable experience was standing on the conveyor belt, going under the tunnel where sting rays, sharks and crazy fish swim around me.
After that, we got back to the hostel to gather our stuff and head off to the bus station. We embarked on a 9 hour night journey to Madrid! Wow, that was a long post, but well worth it. Barcelona is one of my favourite cities in all of Europe!

Super belated trip posts.. better late than never?

I decided I would complete my blog if anything for myself. I have a terrible memory and the last thing I want to do is forget my experiences last summer! I'm sure no one else will read this until the next time I travel but since I'm not doing much traveling this summer, I should make an effort to finish up the blog before I forget everything!

With my journal of places visited and my photos, I will attempt to re-tell stories accurately..

August 12th - Venice, Italy

Train ride to Venice wasn't too bad. Very hot though! You could feel the Venetian heat as soon as you get off the train. When you leave the train station, you already see the main canal. The view is surreal -- right out of a storybook!

We booked our next train ticket to Florence (Firenze) and took public transportation to our hostel. The main mode of public transportation was via boat. The boat ride gave a pretty good overview of what the city was like. It's weird seeing doorways that lead to water and instead of a sidewalk or a garden. Basically, in place of streets, there were canals. Many residents had their own motor boats, and there were always water buses. Of course in the downtown area there were many gondolas. Surprisingly, out of the many gondolas I saw, few of them were in use. Gondolas were very expensive (about $150 CDN for a ride), but I suppose that is why there weren't always many gondolas out at once. Instead of consistently doing work all the time for small amounts of money, they wait until someone is willing to pay them big money for their services. Since we arrived in the late afternoon, we grabbed some lunch: pizza. Not once was there bad pizza in Italy from all of our experiences! Then we wandered around the streets of Venice and hung around the main plaza. We decided to go up the belltower to get a view of the whole city. It looks so weird! It just looks like a floating city!

Left: A picture of what I mean by a floating city. This is an island with a church and a few other buildings on it I believe. It's across from the main square (Piazza di San Marco).

After the sunset, we had some coffee in the main square then got some gelato and chilled by the shore of the water. The water was warm to my surprise!

The next morning, we decided to go the Lido island beach to eat lunch. We brought some cold cuts, cheeses, bread and some wine to hang out on the beach. The waves were pretty crazy there so many people were body-boarding. Too bad I didn't have a board! After we came back, we took the water bus around the outskirts of Venice and then finally headed out for a train ride to Florence. All in all, a beautiful city. It's astounding how everything can be built over the water. A great place to visit, but I don't think I could live here!

August 13 - Florence, Italy
Since we got in late, we didn't want to do too much once we settled into the hostel. We just took a stroll in the downtown area and saw the Duomo (main church) by night light, grabbed some late night pizza and called it a night.

The next morning, I woke up and one of my eyes barely opened! I thought, "what's going on?!", and later discovered that a mosquito had bit me in the eyelid during the night! My entire left eye was swollen and barely open! I ended up wearing sunglasses for the whole day, and the swelling went away (thank goodness!). We walked around in the morning and saw the Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Florence) and climbed the stairs to the hill where the replica statue of David stood. Since I wanted to visit as many places as I could, I convinced Joey to go with me to Siena.















Left: The Ponte Vecchio and the view from up top of the Piazza di Michelangelo.

August 14 - Siena, Italy
So we took an afternoon train into Siena. Boy was it different from the other Italian cities that we had visited! All of the different cities were so different from each other in fact! Anyway, Siena had many medieval elements, because it has apparently maintained its medieval style from that period.
















Left: Random Asians we encountered sitting on the steps of a random place in an alley. Gosh those Asians will sit anywhere in order to get their dose of internet access! The second photo is of a race-horse. Unfortunately we had just missed the race (because we didn't know about it). The horses have fans originating from different family histories. Different families will cheer for their horses as tradition goes. Afterward, they bring their horse back to its home and all of the families celebrate. I think this was a winner as everyone was singing and chanting with an air of excitement and happiness.

The next morning we walked around the street market, bought some food and headed to the train station. Our strategy was to avoid the heat of the day by riding in the air conditioned trains.

August 15 - Rome, Italy
We took the train in from Florence and discovered that our hostel was farther than expected. Our hostel ended up being on some campgrounds about 45min away from the city centre. However, to our surprise, we had our own cute little cabin to ourselves, with a clean washroom and our own air conditioner!

Since we got in in the evening, we grabbed dinner at the hostel, then headed out to check out Rome for what was left of the day. The trains were very cool and awesome, but varied from brand new to completely graffiti-ed on the outside (which I actually found cool). The first stop we made was to the Colisseum. I walked out of the station expecting to need to walk a few blocks from the train station. However, as soon as I stepped out of the station, it was there, right in front of us! It was definitely colossal! ;) Normally sites are less than I expect them to be because people/media put so much hope into me that I am disappointed when it is not as magical to me as it was described. Even through all the hubbub about the Colisseum, I was taken aback when I actually saw it. We loved it so much we came back the next day during the day. I had seen so many pictures of it before, heard of so many references, but to be able to stand right in front of it, to touch it, made me feel so weird! We walked around for awhile and enjoyed the eclipsing moon. Then we walked by some of the ruins, towards a huge monument for Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia, first king of Italy. The structure was unbelievably large and beautiful. We then wandered to the tourist-infested Trevi Fountain. Of course I tossed a coin into the fountain! We'll see what comes of it! Maybe I will be back in Rome ;)

The next day, we got up bright and early to lign up for the Vatican City. It was a good choice, as the line wrapped almost around half of the Vatican City when we came out. We only waited for about 1.5 hr, and that was because we arrived about an hour before the Vatican City opened. I was flabbergasted by the Sistine Chapel. It is so beautiful! We sat there for over an hour admiring his work. Pictures and replicas just don't do it justice! The rest of the Vatican City museum was nice, but I just wasn't too into religious art. It was really funny while we were in the Sistine Chapel. There'd be these security guards that just shout "Shh, quiet, no photos" in random intervals and a funny italian accent. It made the experience comical. Then we mailed home post cards from the Vatican City as they have their own postal service independent of Italy! I suppose it's the privilige of the Catholic church! Then we went to check out the San Pietro church -- the Pope's church. There was actually a funny story here (elaboration to come later). We went back to the Colisseum first, grabbed gelato on the way and since Joey's leg was acting up, I went to Vittorio's monument on my own. It was also because I wanted to see the ruins by daylight. Then we went back to San Pietro Basilica. I had to pee SO badly but there were no washrooms nearby. I didn't think there'd be a washroom in the church (hey, don't laugh), but I had to try asking anyway. I ended up trying to ask an employee of the church. He was Asian, but only spoke Italian. I actually used Mandarin to find out where it was! Yes, I feel accomplished. Shush. There were washrooms, and that saved me from missing out checking out the tombs of the Popes. There were people mourning and literally crying for Pope John Paul II. After dinner, we hit the Pantheon and tried some fried rice balls. Then we headed back to the hostel. The next morning, we decided not to strain ourselves too much and chilled at the hostel instead. Went for a dip in the pool, and took a bus to the Ciampino airport in anticipation for our flight to Barcelona. And so ended our Roman trek. It is a beautiful city with so much character and history. I would definitely come again!

Well, I think I'm going to post this before somehow I lose everything accidentally. I will start Spain and the rest of my European travels for later posts. I will hopefully complete this summer project by the end of summer 2009!