Back to U.S

After about 3 hours of sleep, i was up at 7am, out of the hotel at 7:30, and on my way to the find the rail station to the airport. I took the subway to the stop I got off at when I first arrived, but had a hella bad time finding the line for the airport. Also what was confusing is that the rail line for the airport goes to other parts of Spain!!! Why didn't I anticipate this?!!! Luckily a nice family, or should i say father, from Ohio were also waiting for the same train. My flight boarded at 9:30 and i think I was cutting it a bit close. After a crowded train ride I finally got to the airport. It's a pretty nice airport.



Also the day that I left, apparently tour de France was going to be passing through Montjuic, which they had set up for the night we went there.

The first flight was to Amsterdam, which by the way, is beautiful from the sky. I'd really like to visit soon! We also flew over France, but it was pretty cloudy. It was raining when we arrived. Amsterdam's airport is really nice also, and reminds me of Narita in Japan.










There was absolutely no wait time, and I soon departed back to Dulles. I must admit that my stomach and the dutch cheese in my breakfast on the plane were not agreeing! there was loud arguing (in forms of growling to human ears) that i'm sure contributed to the nausea I felt the entire second flight! This time it was a younger girl from Iran sitting next to me, who slept most of the time and wake up only to reapply her makeup. It was smooth sailing until we were closer to Dulles, when there was a tremendous amount of turbulance and the nausea intensified. I was practically hugging the gag-bag just waiting for the plane food to, uhm, return. The last 15mins were painful, and people Dulles is such a lame airport to fly back into. There are 3 levels of security and it's crowded!!!


Anyway I'm back, I learned alot about myself and what is important to me on this trip. I can't wait until the next one, and i hope to return to Barcelona in the near future!

Day 4

So, I'm back in the states. But I'll update you on my last full day and airplane ride back. Also i corrected a few spelling and name errors in the previous post.

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FINAL FULL DAY:
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My final full day in barcelona was very hectic! i tried to squeeze everything i didnt want to miss into Monday, but unfortunately a bit of souvenir shopping (cough cough you know who you are) lost me a few hours, so i didn't explore Montjuic area.

I started the day early(for once!!!) by visiting the famous market that is back in La Rambla/old town area, called, La Boqueria.
It had so many amazing little stands, with very interesting things to eat. Note the egg stand!!! who knew there were so many types of eggs to eat! and the candy stand. Also there's a photo of the natural juice that was pretty popular and common, which was made from freshly squeezed fruits. I think Melo was my favourite. Sara and I later had Kiwi that day, which although it was the most popular I didnt enjoy it as much.









Although I had no intention to explore the Barri Gothic, I stumbled into it while looking for a store. This area is the oldest part of the city, where ruins date back to the Roman empire. Unfortunately I couldn't see inside of the cathedral- i was wearing a tank top and you can't enter if you have any bare areas of skin showing.

Photos:
walking down the old streets next to the famous cathedral
the roman city wall












I also walked down La Rambla 5 times that day!!! It was crazy and unintentional. I experienced it when no one was there, which was a great opportunity to see the Place de la Boqueira, where a mosaic pavement by Joan Miro was created.
It was also where the famous umbrella shop building was. The building still has original chinese inspired design from when it was an umbrella shop way back. Its now some uninteresting place that i cant remember. But the building was really nice.












I met up with Sara, and we went to the beach at Port Olimpic. The important thing to note was that I went TOPLESS. YES, LIBERATE YOUR BREASTS IN EUROPE WOMEN!!!! along with sagging, aged breasts, and other young a,b, and c cups, I bared my chest. I must admit, i would have felt the liberation better if i ran up and down the beach for a while, but alas it was not recommended since it was an area with high volume of tourists.sad times. I'd like to note that Sara is not as crazy as I am, and sported a really nice bathing suit, both pieces, while we were there.







After the beach, I set back out on my mission to find said gift for said un-named individual, who owes me and better like this gift!!!!, back in La Rambla area :(. It was busy as hell. We spent way to much time running back and forth to find a gift. Finally around 9 when all of the stores were closing I settled on something i thought was appropriate and we wobbled back to the hotel( because our legs were giving out). Mind you we still hadn't eaten dinner! and we only had a kiwi drink for lunch:(.


Batina and Raoul, who I mentioned meeting the night before, offered to pick us up and take us to Tibidabo *** please know that i butchered the hell out of that name, and its more than likely wrong!!!*******, which is this area in the hills above the city. They picked us up in Raoul's car, and off we went. We made a drive through Montjuic, but the Font Magica, a huge famous fountain that has a crazy 30min display of water show at scheduled times, was not on. We continued our drive past many interesting museums and finally at the Olimpic arenas, which were really cool. Montjuic is lovely at night, very tranquil and lots of parks, which was such a relief from the crowded areas of the city.





We proceed to drive across town, and grabbed a bite at Batina and Raoul's local haunt, a kebab/falafel place down the street from their apartment! It was so delicious,and amazingly affordable!!!!






pure, unadulterated, joy!!!

At this time it's about midnight, and we journey on, through eixample, up up up, to our goal in the hills. We enter a bar-- with gorgeous, breath-taking views of Barcelona. The photos I took could not compare to the experience. I was so happy to end my trip in a beautiful place, with beautiful friends and atmosphere. We went downstairs into the dance floor and terrace area of the bar, which opened into an area on the hill with even more beautiful views, lit by small torches and moonlight. Beautiful end.