Rumbling down the Ramblas and Gothic Quarter
After a late night (didn't get into our room that wasn't really our room until after 1:30am), we had kind of a late start. But that's typical for Spain. Spanish people have kind of odd days compared to other Western countries. They typically wake up later in the day like 8 or 9 or even 10. Then have a small breakfast with a coffee. They eat lunch (their biggest meal) around 1 or 2 or 3. Then have a siesta or rest until 5 or 6. Then go for a walk later in the evening called a paseo. Dinner happens around 9 or 10 or even later sometimes. Going to bed after midnight can be very normal.
Anyway, Lacey and I assessed our Barcelona hotel options when we woke up. We thought we had two options. Push the "eject" button on this hostel after the awful check-in process and get an actual hotel. Or we could try to tough it out and hope that a different room would be better and a "fresh start". We looked up hotels and knew we could afford to do a different one but we just couldn't pull the trigger. I really, really wish we would have as you'll see.
We begrudgingly packed up our bags. We had to store our bags during the day so they could clean the rooms so we could switch to the actual room we actually signed up for (a double bed). We dropped our bags off at reception and headed out for the day. Then we grabbed our usual pastry (added a little pep in our step).
Barcelona started as a Roman city over 2,000 years ago. It slowly grew into an important harbor city on the Mediterranean Sea. Parts of the city have been standing for almost 1,000 years. We would spend our morning walking through this old section. There are old churches (like Barcelona Cathedral) and almost every little street is a photograph. It's so cool and a good mix of stone and wood and shadows. There were a few tour groups but generally, we didn't have a lot of people around. The perks of the offseason.
We worked up an appetite walking and stopped at a bar for "pintxos". These are small little bites of food that are artfully crafted. Tapas are a name for all kinds of these foods but pintxos are specifically little bits created on small pieces of bread. We went to a bar recommended by Rick Steves (my favorite travel books) that was filled with local bars. It was fun and exciting figuring out how to order (in Spanish) and choosing each little piece of bread and eating them. Each bread piece had a toothpick in it. At the end of snacking/eating, the bar counts your toothpicks and you pay based on that. A lot of the food was a little too high brow for us (goat cheese and weird spreads and stuff like that) but it was a fun worthwhile Spanish experience.
Our next stop was the Ramblas. It's the HUGE, wide road filled with people walking at almost all hours of the day. The Ramblas is a good mile+ long and leads all the way down to the waterfront. This is the area where lots of tourists walk and street performers are located. We walked most of the length of it watching the crowds and just enjoying the nice weather.
We did make a pit stop by La Boqueria Market. Yes, this is another big food market. No, we did not eat any food here (after 2 days of markets, we were done haha). We did stop at a cute little bar and get a lemon beer and a cava (prosecco). This was the highlight of the day for both us. We sat by the window enjoying our drinks and the nice sunshine. Just relaxing and fun being together.
By the waterfront, we walked around the marina. There was a Christmas market there which was kind of funny because it was like 55 degrees and that's just a funny combo. We were getting a little tired and rested a minute with our feet hanging off the side of the harbor. We decided to continue along the water until we got to the Barceloneta Beach. This is the famous big beach in Barcelona.
I love walking along beaches by the ocean. Lacey is more interested in the mountains but she always entertains my love for them. This area was pretty decent but it was a little too chilly to really enjoy it. Plus there were quite a few people around and I was already pretty tired. But it was pretty and I'm glad we went!
We took the bus back to our hostel and got our new room. We were very excited! The new room was actually next door to our old room but was quite a bit bigger and had a bigger bed. Our spirits were feeling high! We decided to sign up for the paella dinner at the hostel. We ate at other hostels we've stayed at before and they were really good.
We had a few hours to kill before dinner so we zoomed on the subway to a different area of town to see a fountain light show. We were very indecisive about doing the hostel dinner (we barely had enough time to do the fountain and the dinner) and to even go to the fountain show (it was across town and was probably going to be super busy). All the indecision all day had been wearing on us. We decided to just go for it all.
The fountain show was... fine? Probably not worth the effort to ride the subway all that way and then rush back to the hostel. The area around the fountain was PACKED and we got there about 5 minutes late. It was cool and was the last show until March (thus the people) but not worth the effort and stress honestly.
We got back to the hostel and the paella was... not ready haha. We waited for another hour or so for it to finish so we rushed around for nothing. It was impressive looking. Lots of seafood and small and big shrimp and sausage pieces and saffron and rice. They also made sangria. We finally got to eat and it tasted pretty good!
I started to feel a little weird when I got ready for bed and I should have known then it was, actually, not going to be good. I woke up many times throughout the night with stomach issues. We forgot to bring the immodium and it was just not a good situation. Also, the bed in the new room we got was made out of some kind of plastic and every time one of us would move even an inch, it would make an insanely loud noise. Just the worst. Barcelona had us snake bit for sure.
Anyway, Lacey and I assessed our Barcelona hotel options when we woke up. We thought we had two options. Push the "eject" button on this hostel after the awful check-in process and get an actual hotel. Or we could try to tough it out and hope that a different room would be better and a "fresh start". We looked up hotels and knew we could afford to do a different one but we just couldn't pull the trigger. I really, really wish we would have as you'll see.
We begrudgingly packed up our bags. We had to store our bags during the day so they could clean the rooms so we could switch to the actual room we actually signed up for (a double bed). We dropped our bags off at reception and headed out for the day. Then we grabbed our usual pastry (added a little pep in our step).
Barcelona started as a Roman city over 2,000 years ago. It slowly grew into an important harbor city on the Mediterranean Sea. Parts of the city have been standing for almost 1,000 years. We would spend our morning walking through this old section. There are old churches (like Barcelona Cathedral) and almost every little street is a photograph. It's so cool and a good mix of stone and wood and shadows. There were a few tour groups but generally, we didn't have a lot of people around. The perks of the offseason.
We worked up an appetite walking and stopped at a bar for "pintxos". These are small little bites of food that are artfully crafted. Tapas are a name for all kinds of these foods but pintxos are specifically little bits created on small pieces of bread. We went to a bar recommended by Rick Steves (my favorite travel books) that was filled with local bars. It was fun and exciting figuring out how to order (in Spanish) and choosing each little piece of bread and eating them. Each bread piece had a toothpick in it. At the end of snacking/eating, the bar counts your toothpicks and you pay based on that. A lot of the food was a little too high brow for us (goat cheese and weird spreads and stuff like that) but it was a fun worthwhile Spanish experience.
Our next stop was the Ramblas. It's the HUGE, wide road filled with people walking at almost all hours of the day. The Ramblas is a good mile+ long and leads all the way down to the waterfront. This is the area where lots of tourists walk and street performers are located. We walked most of the length of it watching the crowds and just enjoying the nice weather.
We did make a pit stop by La Boqueria Market. Yes, this is another big food market. No, we did not eat any food here (after 2 days of markets, we were done haha). We did stop at a cute little bar and get a lemon beer and a cava (prosecco). This was the highlight of the day for both us. We sat by the window enjoying our drinks and the nice sunshine. Just relaxing and fun being together.
By the waterfront, we walked around the marina. There was a Christmas market there which was kind of funny because it was like 55 degrees and that's just a funny combo. We were getting a little tired and rested a minute with our feet hanging off the side of the harbor. We decided to continue along the water until we got to the Barceloneta Beach. This is the famous big beach in Barcelona.
I love walking along beaches by the ocean. Lacey is more interested in the mountains but she always entertains my love for them. This area was pretty decent but it was a little too chilly to really enjoy it. Plus there were quite a few people around and I was already pretty tired. But it was pretty and I'm glad we went!
We took the bus back to our hostel and got our new room. We were very excited! The new room was actually next door to our old room but was quite a bit bigger and had a bigger bed. Our spirits were feeling high! We decided to sign up for the paella dinner at the hostel. We ate at other hostels we've stayed at before and they were really good.
We had a few hours to kill before dinner so we zoomed on the subway to a different area of town to see a fountain light show. We were very indecisive about doing the hostel dinner (we barely had enough time to do the fountain and the dinner) and to even go to the fountain show (it was across town and was probably going to be super busy). All the indecision all day had been wearing on us. We decided to just go for it all.
The fountain show was... fine? Probably not worth the effort to ride the subway all that way and then rush back to the hostel. The area around the fountain was PACKED and we got there about 5 minutes late. It was cool and was the last show until March (thus the people) but not worth the effort and stress honestly.
We got back to the hostel and the paella was... not ready haha. We waited for another hour or so for it to finish so we rushed around for nothing. It was impressive looking. Lots of seafood and small and big shrimp and sausage pieces and saffron and rice. They also made sangria. We finally got to eat and it tasted pretty good!
I started to feel a little weird when I got ready for bed and I should have known then it was, actually, not going to be good. I woke up many times throughout the night with stomach issues. We forgot to bring the immodium and it was just not a good situation. Also, the bed in the new room we got was made out of some kind of plastic and every time one of us would move even an inch, it would make an insanely loud noise. Just the worst. Barcelona had us snake bit for sure.
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