We have arrived, first stop Barcelona!

June 25th

In front of the Mercat Boqueria entrance

Wow, the last couple of days have been a whirlwind! Arrived in Barcelona yesterday after 15 hours of travel. We attempted to have an intruiging convo en espanol, but the taxi driver was having none of it (we need to brushen up on our Spanish speaking skills ASAP, cerveza por favor just isn't cutting it !!). We arrived at our hostel 'casa gracia' and it is off the hook. The staff is really nice, the rooms are great, and after catching some Z's we  had tapas and sangria in the bistro (We took full advantage of the bottomless sangria, and have named the back patio the bistro, as it's up in the ranks with the renazzle dazzle cribazzle).

We woke up bright and early for a delightful continental breakfast. We decided to frolick the streets despite the rain and walked down La Rambla, one of the main avenues. We came across the Mercat boqueria, a market full of fruits, veggies, breads, nuts and our favourite, pig stomach. 

Catedral de Barcelona

We covered alot of ground, here are just a few places we hit..

• La Rambla de mar - ocean boulevard 
• Platja de sant miquell - the beautiful beach 
• Makamaka - restaurant patio lunch
• Barri gotic - the gothic district, full of beautiful architecture 
• Catedral de Barcelona - cathedral with live jazz music outside 
• Arc de triomf -  Paris has one, Barcelona has one, when is Canada getting ours? 
• Parc de la ciutadella - park near the Barcelona zoo with a beautiful fountain and greenery all around (the only trouble, was fighting off a man trying to peddle coconut chunks)

Parc de la Ciutadella

We then headed back to the hostel for an casual afternoon snooze. 

We went for dinner at tapas tapas, and ended our night buying aloe vera at the local farmacia to soothe our unexpected burns from the 26+ weather (the rain cleared up as soon as we left, and our rain jackets became trendy stomach belts.. We find ourselves starting to set some trends around here).

Stay tuned, we are planning to visit sagrada familia, a cathedral that is still being built after being started 85-100 years ago, as well we are in search of some viking FCB soccer players at the Camp Nou stadium. 

Bye for now,

Stay classy Canada, especially you, Campbell River!

Renee and Sarah 

Selfie at Arc de Triomf