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So, once again sitting at the airport… for the first time though the flight has been delayed… only for one hour though, if it had of been for two apparently we could have gotten compensation… as I write this though I hope I'm not jinxing things so that we do get stuck here for two hours… that would suck…
Barcelona was (as it was last time) beautiful, hot and amazing. After a VERY early departure from Paris we made it to the hostel and checked in, with 15 minutes of breakfast left. That done we headed to the room where Nick got all his washing together and done before our first trek out in Barcelona. The plan was to hit the beach via the markets on La Rambla. La Rambla was only slightly less insane than last time than I was here (over 3 weeks ago now!!!) which wasn't so surprising as apparently we're out of tourist season now! We walked all through the streets and down to the port looking for the beach. At this point it's probably a good idea to mention that Nick thought it would be an acceptable journey without shoes, so all the locals were looking at us like idiot tourist rednecks… Lunch ended up being a kitkat McFlurry for me, and a pizza in a cone, McFlurry and deep fried octopus skewer for Nick. A long walk, and a bus trip later we made it to the beach, where the sun was beautiful and warm, the water was cool but not freezing, and there were lots of people trying to sell you beer. I had a lovely sleep on the beach (this time lying on my stomach in an attempt to lessen some of the bizarre tan line I have going on at the moment from Valencia!!! Lol) before we headed back to the hostel.
While in London Dan had recommended an tapas place to eat at so Nick and I went there for dinner. The food was absolutely amazing (as described!!!) and we were more than full by the time we'd finished. From there we went on a VERY uneventful walk trying to find an open supermarket (to no avail) before heading back to the hostel. The hostel had two bars - one a roof top bar, and one a bar on the second floor. We headed up to the roof top where there was the most beautiful view of Barcelona at night!! Sitting down sipping on sangria and barcardi breezers (yep, despite my protestations I had another sangria… only one though!!!) and we ended up chatting to some Scottish boys (Colin, Craig and Ewan) as they were playing a bizarre drinking game that we had to find out some more about. It turns out the game was called King's Cup (Niall had also mentioned it to me in Madrid) and involves a drink each, a deck of cards, an empty (to begin with) cup in the centre, and a list of rules for the cards. The rules changed throughout the game as we got more players (Nick recruited two American girls to play with us too) so here's what the finished list looked like:
·Ace: waterfall (this means you all start drinking together and you can only stop after the person to your right has stopped. The person who draws the card has to finish first.) This rule was one of the most dangerous as people decided to try to make the person next to them drink as much as they could
·Two: allocate two drinks (either all to one person, or split up) These rules can be quite dangerous as you make 'enemies' through out the game, or people decide to take revenge for earlier drinks.
·Three: allocate three drinks (either all to one person, or split up)
·Four: allocate four drinks (either all to one person, or split up)
·Five: rock paper scissors (pick someone to play on the table, the loser has to drink). Some people seem to naturally lose at every hand of this…
·Six: categories (pick a category, first person with no answer drinks). This one is quite hard when you have international players - naming towns in Scotland is NOT a fun one…
·Seven: thumbs (the person who gets the card puts their thumb on the table at anytime - the loser is the last person to notice). I am PARTICULARLY terrible at this one… good thing there are only four 7's
·Eight: pick a mate (pick another player on the table and when they have to drink you drink, and vice versa til the end of the game). This can go pearshaped VERY quickly - at one point there were four of us linked, so if one person messed up, four of us were drinking… one bout of this went for 10 mintues…
·Nine: busta rhyme (keep rhyming until someone messes up or repeats a word - then they drink). Poor Ewan was the worst at this, none of his rhymes actually rhymed with anything…
·Ten: make a rule (a rule gets made which if broken results in a penalty drink, lasts til the end of the game). This one gets VERY messy very quickly… the best rules are: no swearing, and don't use the word drink…
·Jack: drink (the person who draws the card drinks)
·Queen: questions (going around clockwise you have to keep asking random questions until someone answers or messes up). This one gets really confusing as people ask BIZARRE questions that make you laugh until your time is up to ask a question
·King: cups! (the first three times a king is drawn you add some of your drink to the empty cup in the centre, the last person to draw a king ends the game and drinks whatever is in the cup in one go). This is the WORST rule of the game, a concoction of beer, sangria and Bacardi is not very nice, and you never know when it's going to be drawn…
·Don't break the ring! The cards are laid out in a circle around the edge of the cup - if you're the first to break the ring (make a gap where cards are no longer touching) then you have to have 4 drinks!
As you can imagine, this is quite a funny game to play with people you've only just met, and some of the rules end up being quite ridiculous. At 2am when the bar closed, we headed down to La Rambla to try to find another bar that was open, but to no avail. We found one place, but they closed half an hour later, so the boys had their cocktails poured into plastic cups to finish on the road! Eventually we made it back to the hostel at 4am, and it was time to crawl into bed. Where once again there were 3 snoring boys… AWESOME
The next morning I got up and headed out to see La Sagrada Familia. Nick decided to stay at the hostel, so I ambled the 12 blocks on my own and stood in the MASSIVE line to get in. Luckily it moved really quickly, and soon I was standing face to face with one of the most ornate buildings I've seen. I was really impressed with the Gaudi I saw last time I was here, but this was something altogether different. The stained glass windows were amazing, as were the depictions at the entrances - one of the birth, and one of the passions of Christ. The third entrance will be the resurrection of Christ when it's complete. They've committed to have the interior complete next year, and the entire thing in 2030. It's quite amazing to think that each year JUST in ticket sales they get 22 million euro to help fund the project, as well as hundreds of millions from sponsors, governments and other sources! While I was there they had the Spanish mass on, so it was quite nice to be able to hear that as I walked through the cathedral. I waited the 90 minutes for the lift to the top and was rewarded with SPECTACULAR views of all of Barcelona. From there you had to walk down one of the most NARROW stair cases I've EVER walked down… I almost felt like I was on the Inca Trail again!! Finally making back down I began the trek back to the hostel, stopping on the way for a churro stuffed with dulce de leche (the sweetest oiliest thing I have eaten… I feel ill just writing about it) and some empanadas (South American I know, but still really tasty!). Getting back to the hostel it was time to do the boring things like book all the rest of our hostels and figure out the next stops for the trip. Thankfully that's all done now, with the exception of Zurich and London. Nick and I decided to try our luck at tapas again, and ended up at a really cute place where we ended up with WAY too much food… two tapas each, bread, a main, dessert and a shot of schnapps… Feeling really exhausted and somewhat ill, I opted for an early night in, and attempted to sleep from 11pm. Now I say attempted as the following things stopped me:
·The Belgium girls in our room came in 5 minutes after I got into bed and turned the light on, then seeing I was trying to sleep asked if they could leave it on for a little while. Which apparently means one and a half hours while we talk really loudly…
·The boys snoring. It was so loud it made it through my ear plugs
·The Belgium girls also very kindly turned off the air conditioning in the room because they were a little chilly, which was fine until 3am when the room was like an oven and I had to get up to turn it back on
·The boys snoring again at 6am
Needless to say I'm still really tired today, and fell asleep on the shuttle to Girona airport! So, we made it to the airport (after leaving late from the hostel as Nick ran on 'Nick-time') and through the various check-ins to wait in line, only to be delayed for an hour… Next stop is Rome which I'm really excited about. The hostel looks fantastic, and it will be great to be in such a historical city - I can't wait!! I loved Barcelona almost as much as last time, and can only hope the fantastic weather lasts and takes us through the rest of our travels. It will be interesting to see if anywhere else is as energy conscious as Spain was with their set timers for lights, water, and everything else non-renewable… let me say now, more than once have I been stuck in a shower half way through washing my hair when the water stops, or in the bathroom when the light turns off… Hahaha.
Thanks once again for the well wishes - can't believe it's two weeks til my birthday!!!! WOOT! :)
XoxoX
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