Exploring Barcelona - Las Ramblas, La Boqeuría & Park Güell

Hola!

So I never made it to Las Ramblas on Tuesday like I expected. Instead, I siesta'd. But Wednesday after class, Shannon and I did go explore Las Ramblas y la boquería. We were a little overwhelmed, but soon we managed to figure out where everything was. We did a quick walk through of la boquería, which is a huge market that sells fresh fruits & vegetables and various types of meat and dairy, then needed a little pick me up. So we went across the street and enjoyed two very large glasses of sangria. Sangria is one of the best drinks ever created. Once we finished our sangria, we bought a few things for our apartments and then headed home. That night we went out to a local bar and watched the futból match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Barca won 2-1!!

Brittany and I at Park Güell

Thursday was a relatively quiet day. None of my roommates or I had enough energy to make it out that night. We did make it out for dinner. We originally planned to eat at Xampanyet, a local favorite in Barcelona, but the line was unbearable and we were starving. Instead, we ended up eating at a restaurant near it called Princesa 23. At the end of the meal our waiter brought us our check and we asked if he could split it 6 way. Worst decision ever. At lunch earlier in the week a waiter was able to split the check so we just assumed it would work out. WRONG. The waiter didn't really understand us (damn language barrier) so we had to spend a little time fixing this one.

Waking up Friday morning, not hungover with no class, was possibly the best feeling ever. I finally made it to the beach for my first run of the semester! It was amazing. The run on the boardwalk made me feel at home because it reminded me of the boardwalk in Newport. After the run, Brittany and I headed to Las Ramblas to try and meet up with the other roommates. That was a fail. Both of us are out of minutes on our go-phones and had no way to contact any of the girls. We wandered around la boquería. We bought some fresh & dried fruit, nuts, and even some garbanzo beans and lentils, since I'm a vegetarian and need all the protein I can get! After we walked down the street where all the shopping was. We hit up Sephora, Zara, H&M and Top Shop. We didn't buy anything, but I know I'll be back soon!

Today we headed to Park Güell, the park that Antoni Gaudí designed. I'm not really a huge artsy fartsy kind of girl, but I went along for the ride. I know being in Barcelona I should really sight see as much as possible. So we did that today. It was really pretty. We got a lot of great pictures, but now we're all exhausted. I don't think any of us realized how much walking was actually involved. For lunch we stopped at a café near the park. We ordered our first paella of the trip...but we don't think this place had very good paella. We are still searching for some authentic Catalonian paella.

We're headed out tonight to either Catwalk or Elephant Club! Either way...more stories soon to come!

Hasta luego!