Hola everyone! It was another amazing race.. We had a train to catch at 6 in the morning and we didn't wake up early enough :| Then from the train station, we had to run all the way to the end of CDG just so we can catch our flight. What a tiring travel!!! But so happy cause we got to Barca at around 9 in the morning :)
We took a long time figuring out how to go to the city center - in Passeig de Gracia.
But we got to the area safely!
We super love the weather cause it was sunny yet the wind was strong :) Perfect combination!
This is one of the casas that Gaudi designed, it's called Casa Batllo.
We saw a girl that was posing in front of a photographer right in front of the casa! She looks like Amanda Seyfried! Haha
Barcelona has such a different feel compared to Paris or Lille. It gives off a sunnier vibe (I guess this is because of the weather and the people! Haha)
We finally found our hostel, Lullaby.
When we entered, this was the first thing I saw at the door! Haha
Carla, one of the receptionists, showed us around. She took us where the common room is.. This giant black board shows the guests all sorts of places to go to in Barca.
This is the lounge area. Pretty neat right? :)
The good thing about our hostel was that breakfast was inclusive.
We even have a lounge area outside!
The thing I'm not so keen about the hostel was that it had insufficient lighting. Haha. Yeah, we had Christmas lights all over the hall ways.
The place where we stayed both had a modern feel (that's the first ceiling in our room) and a traditional Spanish ceiling, which is this one.
Since it was still early, around lunch time, we decided to walk around and figure out which places are located where.
This is the tourist bus - it's about 25EUR that takes you to so many places. Since we here for a week, we didn't need to do this because spacing out our itinerary was definitely our plan. And I think 25EUR is just way too much.
We walked around Plaza Catalunya..
And we finally ended up going to La Rambla. Actually this whole street is known to be a place where so many people get mugged. Word of advice: make sure you're cautious of your things. Nothing happened to me throughout my stay - I guess cause I was really cautious of my belongings.
We passed by Carrefour to buy some food and we saw the Cheetos area. We actually took a long time deciding which Cheetos to get because we didn't want to get the one that was spicy!
We also went inside an Asian supermarket along the way! Oh wow I miss Boy Bawang!
Along La Rambla, the very famous La Bouqueria Market can be found. In this market, all sorts of food are sold - from candies, to fresh fruits and seafood, to even well known restaurants! I really love it in this market because there's just so much to see and buy! :)
These pictures may not be the best pictures to describe the market but these things are not the ones being sold in La Bouqueria.
As I said, truly there's just so much to see here.
But I must admit, my preference will always go to the jamons, chorizos, etc. They have all the possible preserved meats!
But the best part - they all sorts of cheeeeeeeeses! OMG. I died when I saw this! :D
Traveler's tip: anyone who goes to Barca must definitely try Manchego cheese. There are so many kinds of manchego but this cheese is proudly Catalunyan! ;)
I couldn't help it but I just had to buy some cheese! I liked the Cerrato cheese that the lady made me try :)
On the other hand, Kwi liked the Tacos de Jamon. It's preserved meat that's cut up into small pieces!
Check out the pearl-like chocolates! <3
Cod fritters is one of the famous tapas in Spain. When we saw it, we decided to split a stick!!
And of course, one of my favorites! If I could just bring home one whole thing in France, I definitely would!!!!!
Just like our Paris day trip, we just wanted to randomly walk around the city and explore new things. We went to this street and we saw stalls that were selling mosaics and ceramics! So cute and pretty! :)
Seeing these creations has truly inspired me to go back to my artsy side! :) Okay, when I'm back in Manila I'll probably do this again!!!!! :D *Inabina the artsy fartsy person*
We actually wanted to eat out in this place that Carla suggested (she said they serve the best tapas in town) but we really couldn't find it! :( We asked help from these nice policemen but we still couldn't find the place.
We walked so far, that we actually didn't know where we were already. Haha! Yes, we were walking the whole day. We even passed by Casa Batllo again. Being so tired from Paris and the whole traveling to Barcelona, we decided to eat in the nearest restaurant to call it a day.
We found this Tapas Bar called Cafe & Te that seemed pretty okay.
We first wanted to try one of the dishes part of my "Things to Try in Barcelona" list - Patatas Bravas. It's a tapas dish that's just actually fried potatoes served with two kinds of sauce - aoili (garlic) and chili sauce. Surprisingly, this is really good! It looks ordinary but the dish can deceive so many! Oh and before I forget, we had to eat our tapas in the bar because the price came out to be cheaper! Yes, so if ever you're going to eat out make sure you check the price or ask the waiter if it's cheaper to eat tapas at the bar or not.
Their menu for paella was endless! When we saw this, both Kwi and I realized that we haven't eaten rice for almost a month already!! Kwi, most especially, loves rice so when she saw this she requested that we have paella for tonight.
We ordered the Paella Senorita (it's called this way because the shrimps have been already peeled). Dinner was really good. Though I really notice the difference in the paella in Spain and in Manila. The authentic Spanish paella is wet while the one back home is more dry and crispy. To be honest, I find paella back home tastier. Another kind of dish that we weren't able to try is paella fiduea. It's a Barcelonian/Catalunyan version of the paella - instead of rice, noodles is the base of the dish.
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment