Our agenda today was to shop for things made in Spain (clothes, shoes, food, etc). Check out the owl on the wall! It's made out of tanzans!
Almost anything and everything weird can be seen around the little streets of Barca - exhibit A, this Buddha! Haha
Before we started our happy shopping day, we wanted to have an authentic Spanish breakfast. Last night, we were researching where it's best to eat churros con chocolate. According to one source, there are two things we needed to do:
First, we needed to go to Xurreria to buy our churros.
Second, from there we should bring our churros from Xurreria to La Granja to order chocolate.
And so we did those steps!
Both Xurreria and La Granja are located in Banys Nous. The map that was given to us at the airport didn't really have all the little streets of Barca so we had a hard time looking for this particular street. So this is my tip for anyone out there who are thinking of traveling around Europe. If and if you don't see the name of the street in the map that you're holding, look for a nearest hostel or hotel to ask for directions. This is exactly what Kwi and I did just so we can find Banys Nous. To my surprise, this street is just beside the street we were planning to go to that day (D' Avinyo).
Xurreria is a local shop that sells really cheap and hella good stuff. Imagine 7 pieces of churros for 1EUR! How can you go wrong with that?? :)
Feeling like the luckiest women in the planet, we were happily carrying out churros to La Granja.
Just a little trivia, La Granja has been around since 1872! So many locals pass by this place for breakfast :)
So we both ordered xocolat to pair it up with our churros. Aside from this, we wanted to order melindros (we heard that it's really good in this place as well) but then since we were there at around lunch time already, the melindros was all gone :( The waitress suggested that we try croissant nata instead. It's this croissant with homemade cream inside.
Yes, and this is our very first authentic Spanish breakfast/brunch. I swear, it was the highlight of my morning! Aside from the meal being cheap (compared to French standards), it was definitely my cup of tea. It just takes like home. It was the best churros con chocolate I've ever tried!!
After brunch, we headed to the street adjacent to it - D' Avinyo.
Years ago, I always had this notion that Spanish people love to wear espadrilles wherever they go! Also, I thought that Spain would be filled with truck loads of espadrilles all over. But when I went to that street, I realized that not all shops had them.
La Manuel Alpargatera is the most famous espadrille shop in town! Of course, an espadrille fanatic would know right? ;)
I couldn't believe it when I was looking at the displays. Before I just saw pictures from the net. Now, I'm actually going to enter the store!
Ahhh, the famous shot all over the internet! I finally took my very own shot of it! :D :D :D
I was in espadrille heaven! :) I just bought a pair since I wanted to space luggage space for my siblings as well. (Flying Easyjet really compromised my bag space that I had to really think carefully if things could fit inside my luggage).
D' Avinyo not only had the espadrille store I have been dying to go inside. They also had the shop I've always wanted to buy stuff from but never will be able to cause of the extortion the store is doing to its customers :(
Oh and I saw a store that had a cow as its design! I just had to pose funny beside it! Hahahaha
There are two things striking about Spain (that I don't think other countries have it):
(1) They have so many placas/plazas
(2) Spanish people really have siesta time, for real! For real! I think the plaza is one of the places where they get to sleep and relax during siesta.
Oh and another thing I failed to write about - there are so many people in the streets who have jobs that require them to be mascots! They're often seen in the popular touristic spots such as La Rambla.
For late lunch, we decided to go to La Bouqueria Market to check out the famous Pinotxo Bar. It was mentioned in the source that I was reading that their tapas in this place is amazing! The catch of this restaurant is that you eat in a bar hence everyone is dining in stools!
Pinotxo is most famous for its owner (uh sorry, I don't know the name of the guy). When we went there, he was actually part of the people serving the customers.
Kwi and I didn't know what we were doing. All we knew was that we had to eat there. Here's another trick: if you don't know what to order in a restaurant just look to your left and to your right and check out the dishes the other customers are ordering. By the time it's your turn to order, just point out the dish to the waiter!
Yes, I explained exactly what we did. We saw that a lot of people were ordering this weird looking dish..
We then found out that this was squid with beans! I know, a weird weird combination but it was soooo goooood! :) If only it were cheaper, I would have wanted to order another one!
The other tapas we ordered was gambas. We just ordered half because of the price. Haha. When the waiter gave us our dish, we were shocked because it only had three pieces! We thought we were jipped! BUTTTTT, can I just share these shrimps were the sweetest shrimps I've ever tasted! It's just simply sauteed in olive oil and salt but it remained to be sweet and fresh <3
Since we weren't full from our lunch (yes, that place wasn't that
This potable water system is all over Barcelona, I guess all over Spain too :)
We wanted to go inside Casa Batllo but the entrace fee was just too expensive for us! Haha
Casa Calvet was just beside it. But I don't think there was a lot to see in that casa.
Oh side note, here's what Spanish people call their moules and frites! Haha
It was just a relaxing night but just not for this - tantantan! Check out our hostel's fridge - all of the customers have to stuff in their grocery since the big fridge is broken! Haha
xx
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