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Good people,
Today was our last day in the French capital. How time flies when you are having fun. We got up in the morning and started to pack our suitcases with a little bit of sadness. It felt like only yesterday that we were unpacking them. We checked out of our beautiful hotel mindful of the fact that this will probably be the nicest one we will stay in.
We decided to catch the aerobus to Charles de Gaulle airport to avoid the crowds and stairs of the Paris metro underground.
We were a bit anxious flying out of Paris as we were using EasyJet for the first time and had heard that they can be a bit strict on weight and boarding times so we got there nice and early to avoid the stress.
As it turned out, we were ok for weight and although they don't allocate seats (which is stupid because it made some people get really competitive), we managed to get quite good seats in the 2nd row.
As soon as we got to Barcelona, we immediately felt at home. It was quite vibrant and colorful and we easily made our way to the hotel with the use of the aerobus and some solid sixth sense navigation skills.
Our hotel was really nice considering it's 3 star, perhaps it's the spacious surroundings after being crammed in a shoebox for the past 10 days. It was really clean and relatively modern - such a relief - thanks for the tip Matt and Kyles! Best of all is it's position, it's located on a side street off La Rambla which is the main shopping and eating strips in Barcelona. We were so thrilled with the location that we dropped our bags and almost immediately went for a walk down the rambla strip. Barcelona like London and Paris stays quite bright in the summer until about 10pm. It is really strange but means that you can get plenty out of the day. We started walking through the streets and came across this famous food market - La Boqueria. We wandered through the colorful stalls selling everything from fruit and veges, to deli meats, seafood and freshly baked bread. We stopped at the bakery for a couple of bread rolls with Serrano ham and cheese - a popular snack for the Catalans. We kept wandering past the stalls and
ended up also trying a Tempura fish bites stick and a snack size seafood paella - d-lish. Our adventure continued through the masses of locals and tourists, in and out of the winding medieval streets and along the famous La Rambla strip. We passed many street salesmen trying to sell anything and everything holding onto our wallets tightly to deny the would-be thieves.
Eventually we came across a restaurant called Brasil where we decided to try one of their tapas and main course meals. Ironically, even though the Latin name would suggest that they know something about Spanish food, our meals were quite ordinary. The taste was average, the portions were less than generous (honestly, were we meant to split that single champignon sized chorizo) and the service was forgettable. Luckily the 1L Sangria was good, if not actually close to being a litre.
On our way back to the hotel, we decided to stop in Carrefour (which is like woolies) for some snacks for our room. It was amazing how busy the shop was at 9:30 on a Thursday night! It was to be a baptism of fire into the way Spanish shopping would be - fast, crowded and with crap service. We should have seen it coming when the little old lady behind us started snarling at us and pushing us to the next counter to hurry us up.
After Carrefour, we went back to our room and checked out what was on tv. There was only 2 english channels available (CNN and BBC world news) but there is a limit on how up-to-date on the news you need to be. We flicked on a quick episode of Jersey Shore on the iPad 2 and after plenty of laughs, retired for the evening.
Stay tuned for more updates as they come to hand - xoxo.
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