I guess I'll start with spring break, which was was absolutely amazing! I would never had imagined that I would go to Spain before traveling abroad and I'm so glad I jumped on the opportunity to go! This blog is going to be kind of novel like because I have sooo much to write about.
Ok our first destination of the week was Palma De Mallorca, which is the Island off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean sea. The trip started off on Saturday March 26. Rachel, Emily, Ryan and I shoved our lives into our backpacks and grabbed a train to Edinburgh at 11 pm. From the train station we hoped on a bus to the airport where we hung out till about 7 am when our plane started to board. The flight to Palma went very smoothly and we landed at around 11 am. The weather was a beautiful 70 and sunny, exactly what we were hoping for! From the airport we took buses to get into downtown Palma, which were rather confusing, but Rachel spoke a little Spanish so we figured it out fine, but ended up taking a cab to our hotel in the end because it was easier to just ask the cab driver where our hotel was. Our hotel was AMAZING! Since it was off season for tourists we got a pretty good deal on the price for three nights. We each had our own bed, we could see the ocean from our deck, and the bathroom was awesome. We decompressed for a while then decided to do some exploring and grab some food. We walked down the street from our hotel and ended up at a beach, which was BEAUTIFUL!! We were all running around giggling in disbelief and high on life. Being jet lagged and so happy made Emily and I starving and whiny so we had to grab some food. We decided on a cute little cafe/pub type place where we got Spanish omelets which consisted of eggs, potatoes, onions and cheese with frys and a side salad, our first Spanish meal. For dinner we went downtown Palma to a little Italian restaurant, it was so picturesque and cute. The food was AMAZING! Kind of pricey but totally worth it. We ordered 2 different tappas and split a pizza. Ryan and I had an asparagus, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and thin ham tappas which was beyond delicious. After dinner we took a bus back to our hotel and crashed.
our view from our hotel room
happy to be in SPAIN!
Spanish omelet
BEACH!!
Hotel
fountain in front of cathedral
cathedral
absolute magnificence
Rachel and I
sunset in Palma :D
Monday morning we woke up showered, and decided to spend the majority of the day on the beach where we proceeded to get sun burnt haha. Later that night we went into town and indulged on some fabulous ice cream. Tuesday we decided to explore more of Palma since it was our last full day in the city. We took a bus into town and explored the giant beautiful ancient cathedral. The stain glass and artwork inside were incredible! I was more interested in the architecture and art work than the actual religiousness of it all. After exploring the cathedral we took a stroll around downtown. Lots of palm trees, dogs not on leashes and gorgeous Spanish men on boats :P
Wednesday we packed up and headed to our flight to Barcelona. The flight went very smoothly and we landed around 6ish. We stayed with Rachel's friend Bret at his apartment downtown. It was quit the experience sleeping on a couch/mattress in an apartment of dudes. hahaha, needless to say I was ready to get back into a hostel! Wednesday night was fun, we went out to a bar and then to a real Spanish club, which was insane! This place was HUGE and only one floor out of SEVEN was open! The music was great and the vibe was super fun, we danced the night away (literally clubs stay open till about 7 in the morning in Spain).
The next day we decided to go into town and go to Park Guell. The park was super cool, with funky sculptures and mosaics everywhere! A very unique experience for sure! After the park we grabbed some lunch at a little paella place down the street, it was probably one of the worst pizzas I have ever had, but I was STARVING so I really didn't care. By then it was close to 4 and we were drained so we headed back to the apartment to take a siesta. That night Rachel went to meet up with a friend of hers coming to visit and stay with us and Emily and I went to a pub with the dudes. We met Rachel and Kelly at this super ritzy club. The music was good and generally I had a good time, but I felt kind of out of place, too many glitzy expensive looking people hahaha just another experience to cross of the list!
Friday we packed up and headed to our hostel on the beach!! The hostel itself was actually really nice! We shared a room with two other dudes and a chick, really cool people. We distressed and decided to go grab some authentic Spanish food. We decided on seafood paella. It was probably one of the most unique food experiences I've ever encountered, and by unique I really mean disgusting haha. It literally looked like they took some crayfish and shrimp RIGHT out of the tank and stuck them in boiling water, they still had their eyes, antennae and everything! I was the guinea pig and had to rip off the heads to get at the actual meat.The rice was even worse; it was more fishy than the fish haha. At the time we were all disgusted, but looking back at it now it is pretty hilarious! After kind of eating we headed to the Olympic park. After exploring the park we ended up watching this wicked fountain show! It was perfect timing, we literally walked down this hill and there were a ton of people crowded around a giant fountain that was not on, we asked what was going on, and a few minutes later the song Circle of Life from Lion King blasted and the fountain exploded and continued to do some crazy tricks to other Disney music in Spanish. Probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen!
Saturday we went downtown to explore more of the city. We went to Sagrada Familia, which is a GIANT cathedral in downtown Barcelona. The church is still in construction so there are parts that we could not see, but what was done, was absolutely breathtaking! There was so much detail and insane creativity put into the church, so overwhelming! We then went to these buildings downtown which were designed by the same guy who made Park Guell and worked on Sagrada Familia; Antoni GaudÃ. He must have been on some crazy drugs or something, because his work is absolutely out of this world cool. Emily and I were exhausted so we
headed back to the hostel, where we went to the beach to do some people watching (very entertaining).
Sunday our flight left in the evening so we decided to just lay out on the beach all day and get some rest, it was very relaxing and entertaining. The beach culture in Barcelona is very interesting; there are these Asian women trying to sell you a message and Indian trying to sell you beer. They were everywhere and would come up to us literally every 2 minutes or so. It was hilarious because I guess it is illegal for these women to give messages, probably because they don't have licenses or something, but when they actually did get a client they were always on alert for the police. By the end of the day I was so sick of hearing 'la mesaje?' or 'cervesa, cold beer, cervesa' I wanted to make a sign that just said NO! That night we jumped on our plane back to Scotland. I was sad to leave the passionate country of Spain but we were SO ready to get back to Stirling and have our own beds and showers again. After that experience I will never complain about the tiny shower in my flat ever again! haha
One trip down, two more to blog about!
peace and love
Litzy
Wednesday we packed up and headed to our flight to Barcelona. The flight went very smoothly and we landed around 6ish. We stayed with Rachel's friend Bret at his apartment downtown. It was quit the experience sleeping on a couch/mattress in an apartment of dudes. hahaha, needless to say I was ready to get back into a hostel! Wednesday night was fun, we went out to a bar and then to a real Spanish club, which was insane! This place was HUGE and only one floor out of SEVEN was open! The music was great and the vibe was super fun, we danced the night away (literally clubs stay open till about 7 in the morning in Spain).
The next day we decided to go into town and go to Park Guell. The park was super cool, with funky sculptures and mosaics everywhere! A very unique experience for sure! After the park we grabbed some lunch at a little paella place down the street, it was probably one of the worst pizzas I have ever had, but I was STARVING so I really didn't care. By then it was close to 4 and we were drained so we headed back to the apartment to take a siesta. That night Rachel went to meet up with a friend of hers coming to visit and stay with us and Emily and I went to a pub with the dudes. We met Rachel and Kelly at this super ritzy club. The music was good and generally I had a good time, but I felt kind of out of place, too many glitzy expensive looking people hahaha just another experience to cross of the list!
Friday we packed up and headed to our hostel on the beach!! The hostel itself was actually really nice! We shared a room with two other dudes and a chick, really cool people. We distressed and decided to go grab some authentic Spanish food. We decided on seafood paella. It was probably one of the most unique food experiences I've ever encountered, and by unique I really mean disgusting haha. It literally looked like they took some crayfish and shrimp RIGHT out of the tank and stuck them in boiling water, they still had their eyes, antennae and everything! I was the guinea pig and had to rip off the heads to get at the actual meat.The rice was even worse; it was more fishy than the fish haha. At the time we were all disgusted, but looking back at it now it is pretty hilarious! After kind of eating we headed to the Olympic park. After exploring the park we ended up watching this wicked fountain show! It was perfect timing, we literally walked down this hill and there were a ton of people crowded around a giant fountain that was not on, we asked what was going on, and a few minutes later the song Circle of Life from Lion King blasted and the fountain exploded and continued to do some crazy tricks to other Disney music in Spanish. Probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen!
Saturday we went downtown to explore more of the city. We went to Sagrada Familia, which is a GIANT cathedral in downtown Barcelona. The church is still in construction so there are parts that we could not see, but what was done, was absolutely breathtaking! There was so much detail and insane creativity put into the church, so overwhelming! We then went to these buildings downtown which were designed by the same guy who made Park Guell and worked on Sagrada Familia; Antoni GaudÃ. He must have been on some crazy drugs or something, because his work is absolutely out of this world cool. Emily and I were exhausted so we
headed back to the hostel, where we went to the beach to do some people watching (very entertaining).
Park Guell
Emily, me and Rachel
Kelly and Rachel
Seafood Paella
real deal
Emily, me and Rachel in front of art museum
Olympic park
CRAZY fountain show!
our view from the hostel
La Sagrada Familia
Arche de Triumph
Sunday our flight left in the evening so we decided to just lay out on the beach all day and get some rest, it was very relaxing and entertaining. The beach culture in Barcelona is very interesting; there are these Asian women trying to sell you a message and Indian trying to sell you beer. They were everywhere and would come up to us literally every 2 minutes or so. It was hilarious because I guess it is illegal for these women to give messages, probably because they don't have licenses or something, but when they actually did get a client they were always on alert for the police. By the end of the day I was so sick of hearing 'la mesaje?' or 'cervesa, cold beer, cervesa' I wanted to make a sign that just said NO! That night we jumped on our plane back to Scotland. I was sad to leave the passionate country of Spain but we were SO ready to get back to Stirling and have our own beds and showers again. After that experience I will never complain about the tiny shower in my flat ever again! haha
One trip down, two more to blog about!
peace and love
Litzy
