Barcelona and Geneva

So our trip to Barcelona began on Thursday. We flew out in the afternoon with a layover at Stansted. And Claire discovered that she is short enough to fully stand up at her seat on the airplane and she doesn’t touch the ceiling. After landing in Barcelona and finding our hostel, we went to a supermarket and purchased frozen pizza. However, we found that the kitchen at our hostel has everything but an oven. So we cooked our pizza using a mixture of microwaving and stove-topping, and it worked! We then called it an early night so we would have energy for the next day.

Also, at some point Flo began having an allergic reaction and his face swelled up. We called him a chipmunk the rest of the trip. Don’t worry, Flo did not die and he is all fine now.

This trip we did a good job at saving money, compared to when we were in Prague. Friday morning we went to this really cool market and purchased a chocolate croissants, baguette, hummus and guacamole (our first mistake). It was very tasty and easy to walk around and eat, which was important because we then went on a free walking tour. (funny story, I was wearing a tank top this day which was very wrinkly. Luckily, I had seen a bunch of irons downstairs so I went to use those, but after trying 4 different ones out I checked their cords and saw all the cords were cut and that the irons were just decoration…) It was a great tour, we walked all throughout the Gothic quarter and learned about the history of Barcelona and all about the modern day independence movement of Catalonia.  Also note that in these photos I still have my pink hair  😛

After the tour, we grabbed churros with hot chocolate (delicious!).

We then walked through the town, and went and saw all the different houses designed by Gaudi throughout the city. Somewhere within that time, the container of guacamole exploded in my backpack and upon opening the backpack we had discovered that everything was coated in guac… I can tell you that my bag now REEKS

As we walked back from the Gaudi houses, Kate discovered her phone had been pick pocketed. That was not great 🙁

In order to cheer her up we went into the store LUSH. Inside, we played the Odds game. At one point I challenged Kate to eat a face mask, at which point Claire pipped in “Kate is emotionally distraught right now, she should not be eating face masks”. True. Kate’s response was “Claire is the mature one which makes no sense…”, since Claire is 18 and Kate, Flo, and I are all in our twenties… Later on however, Kate lost in Odds and so we sprayed her with EVERY sample perfume we could find–needless to say her scarf was pungent from that moment on… Lastly, while we were in Lush, Claire showed me these cool strips of perfume and told me they were “perfume samples”. So I picked one up and was carrying it around and absentmindedly I began to fold it up and rip it apart. Anyways, after we left we were walking away and i laughed when I found the shred of it in my pocket, at which point Claire informed me that they in fact were NOT samples but instead I had to pay for it. So I ran back inside and profusely apologized and paid for it. However, apparently we looked so sad that the worker felt bad and ended up giving us a free bath bomb to make us feel better.

That night we then went out on a Tapas tour. Tapas are basically small portions of food. It is very good for going out in groups and all sharing. As a part of the 3 hour tour, we went to three different bars, and got to eat six different tapas. We also got to drink Sangria out of a Porron— it almost looks like Aladdin’s lamp but the goal is to see how far away from yourself you can hold it and still pour the sangria into our mouth, which was super fun (see the picture). We ended at a bar where Flo and I did Tequila Suicide Shots. This is when you squirt a lemon in your eye, snort salt up your nose, then take a shot of tequila… not necessarily something I would recommend to others…

Even though we walked all day Friday, that didn’t stop us from walking all day Saturday too. First, we went to the Montjuïc Castle. The castle has a tumultuous history, going from protecting the people of Barcelona to housing oppressive military forces and being the location of many executions. The walk to and from the Castle was gorgeous, and from it, we went to the beach.

From the beach we went to La Sagrada Familia–one, if not the most popular, of Gaudi’s work. It is a massive Basilica, and my favorite part of it was being inside and seeing the sunlight come through all the stained glass windows. 100% if you go to Barcelona you HAVE to go. It does cost money but it is SO worth it.

Finally, we headed to the Gaudi’s Park Güell. By the time we got to the park it was dark, and so we did not get many great photos, but it is gorgeous and decorated with mosaic tiles, so click here to see how awesome it is.

Sunday morning we woke up at 3:30 AM, packed, and were in a taxi on our way to the airport by 4:15 AM. WE had a 6:30 AM flight which had a 8 hr layover in Geneva Switzerland. For those who do not know, initially we had a direct flight from Barcelona to Edinburgh. However, about a month ago, good ol’ fashioned RyanAir informed us that our flight had been moved to three days prior…. which meant that if we kept that flight, then the day we would be flying to Barcelona would be the same day we would fly home. So our only option was to purchase a new flight home, and I KID YOU NOT when I tell you that the best option was this flight with the 8 hr layover.

Fun story: in our process of researching possible other flights for getting us from Barcelona to Edinburgh, I used a search engine called Momodo. Momodo had been recommended to me before, and I put in my information and it searched and showed me the BEST option. What did it find? The best option took 28 hrs, had THREE LAYOVERS and get this. The flight plan was to fly from Barcelona to ATLANTA, then Atlanta to New York, then New York to London, then London to Edinburgh…. Just why

We decided however to use this to our advantage, and instead of hanging out in the airport, we left and explored the city all day. While in Geneva, we walked a lot around their Old Town, saw LOTS of clocks, but my favorite parts were going to the UN and seeing the Geneva Lake. Oh and to top it off, Claire’s 2 day old shoes broke/ripped. Oh and Flo did Odds with me and I lost and almost had to go touch a goose, however, double or nothing saved the day