Barcelona day one! Got up super early (well, around 6:30ish...) to finish packing, and also to dye my hair. Of course. R had already gone to my cousin's for a sleepover (she went away with them for a couple of days, hence only Mum and I went to Barcelona), which made things easier in getting up and going etc.
Left for the airport just after 7:30, and got there at about 8:30ish, which was pretty good going considering it was sort-of rush hour. We didn't have any hold luggage and we'd checked in online, so all we really had to do was go through security!
Once on 'the other side', we had breakfast- fruit and coffee! We then went to get water and snacks for the plane- it was then that
we saw the fabulous Sunetra Sarker (and son!!).
The remainder of the wait for the flight was reasonably uneventful, though we did have a weird experience when getting on the plane- we were on the same flight as someone I know through swimming. The chances of us both being on that exact same flight have got to be pretty slim!
I spent the flight reading Half Of A Yellow Sun- it's been recommended to me and I used a piece by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (the author) for my English coursework style model, but I hadn't yet got round to reading it. I had my notebook and was intending to do some writing as well- but got so absorbed in the book that that didn't happen!
Typical Wing Shot
When we got to Barcelona, we had to catch the train from the airport, then change on to the metro. We worked out which stop we needed to get near to our hostel; however, we didn't actually know where the hostel was. After a lot of walking and not really getting anywhere, we gave up and used the GPS maps on my mum's phone, which was very very useful. When we got to the hostel, we found that it was on the fourth floor of an apartment- I am so grateful that we had only taken a small suitcase, as anything larger would have been impossible!
After checking in and leaving our bags etc., we walked the two minutes to La Rambla, one of the main attractions in Barcelona, a long road filled with stalls, street performers etc. I remembered it from the last (and first, and only) time we'd been to the city, as part of a cruise. Unfortunately, it seems to have changed for the worse since then- though it's just as busy as before, there are far fewer stalls and street performers, which were my favourite things about it.
La Rambla
We found two music shops, which was good- plus I can now say I've been to 'Beethoven's House!'.
Oh yes!
About halfway up, we went into the market, which was also very busy. We had the delight of discovering very cheap fruit/fruit juice- just
€1 for a cup of fruit juice!! As well as fruit juice, we tried a fruit we'd never heard of before, called a mangosteen. It was very sweet, with a texture similar to lychee, but was also quite expensive, especially in comparison to other fruits being sold.
Mangosteen exterior
Mangosteen interior
All the fruit juice!
Marzipan fruit
After a lot of time spent in the market, we went to try and find dinner. As we left, we saw 'Marilyn Monroe' on a balcony; I pointed her out to Mum, and then took a couple of pictures. My mum then noticed what I didn't- that the balcony she was on belonged to the erotic museum...
'Marilyn'
We had dinner at a wok-based place. The food there was really nice, though the portions were very large (or my appetite is just crap at the moment).
Side road
At around 9:30ish we went back to the hostel; I spent some time reading and writing. The other people in the hostel had checked in, and there were some very rowdy boys. We waited until they'd gone before going to sleep as it was too loud, and I was woken up by them at 1am- there was nothing I could do but wait for them to shut up, so I was not impressed!
