Carolina's Notes
First I start the posting with a correction and a an apology. I called Zoe an infant in my first posting and within 5 minutes of posting Diana called me to inform me Zoe was a child (not an infant which apparently is a baby). I must have missed the boat on that somewhere along the way. Now back to our travels...Zoe the child did an excellent job on the very long plane fight. She actually did much better than I managed to do myself. I am just not a human who knows how to sleep upright. I kept trying to move to the floor with no avail because Jimi wouldn't let me. Sue kept eyeing the seat in front of her because she wanted to throw her legs up and over. She was also not allowed to follow thru with these plans. We arrived safely, early, and extremely tired.
We arrived at the hotel at about 830 am. Our rooms were not ready until 3. This was a blow to our exhaustion. We walked around and had breakfast. Jimi took us on a 20 block path to a church that was in actuality only 3 blocks from our hotel. We had been to this church in June of this year so we tried to serve as tour guides. We were not very good. All we remembered was that their was a virgin involved in the story of the church; probably a common theme in most Catholic churches. We went back to the hotel and it was 11 am; still no rooms. At this point I was delusional from exhaustion. This is the point in the story where the group splits. Sarah, John G, Zoe, and Sue went on walks and enjoyed the city. John, Jimi, and I indignantly sat (I actually laid down on the lobby couch at this point) and waited for our rooms. Three hours later after various tactics that included stares of death and rearranging of lobby furniture they finally came through.
Naps and showers went along way to regain the will to live. John, Sue, Jimi, and I then went to dinner and a Flamenco show in La Rambla. It was very good and pictures will be posted below. All in all it was a very long day but we all made it safely, no one spilled food on themselves, and no one got robbed. For today, that's a victory in my book.
Susan's Notes
I love Barcelona! The city wakes up at night. During the day the locals shop for fresh food and pastries. Ahhh...the pastry shops are everywhere. Just looking at the window displays cost you 1000 calories. So I walked 4.5 miles so I could enjoy things I may never get again.
We had a wonderful dinner buffet before we went to the flamenco show. I am hooked on Bocaditos. Carolina is going to teach me how to make these at home.
Europeans have the right idea. Smaller spaces to live in, smaller portions of food and smaller elevators (limit 6). The only overweight people I saw were Americans and Australians. Need to do something about that.
Carolina reminded me that I didn't mention the airplane flight. I did this purposefully because bad memories are best forgotten. I met some new friends in the galley where I spent most of the flight. One man and his wife were on a Celebrity cruise, thus was there 2nd one this year. He went to school in Kentucky and was extremely friendly at 3 in the morning our time. The other man and his wife were going to backpack around the Barcelona area for a week. For those of you who know me well, you will appreciate this. The flight attendant made me a fresh pot of coffee at 3 am. My thoughts mimicked Zoe's when she said "get me off of this plane".
After the flamenco show we went back to our hotel. I promptly fell asleep as John was muttering "the bathroom in the Bellagio is bigger than this whole room". More tomorrow!
Sarah's Notes
We all arrived on Saturday, September 18, 2010, well ahead of schedule. The plane landed around 8:00 AM. There was “rain in Spain as we got off the plane” as I heard one passenger say as we were coming off. Yes, it was raining but that didn’t stop us. We had to wait until 3:00 PM to get our rooms anyhow (an boy did we wait). Let me remind you again – SARAH DOES NOT SLEEP. Sarah did not sleep on the plane AT ALL. As a matter of fact Sarah did not sleep until around 8:30 PM last night. I had been up for oh, roughly 42 hours at that point. Anyhow, let me get back on track.
We get to the hotel and check our bags in and decide to venture out to see a Cathedral in which a virgin is buried under the alter and to just walk and take it all in.
We walked and walked as my brother navigated. This just proved Carolina and all women are right. Had we followed her instinct the first time we would have been there without the hour-long street tour. But I don’t mind. I just cannot get over how fabulous the old buildings and architecture is.
We saw the church, which is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen in my entire life, aside for the fact that there is a Virgin buried under the alter. Don’t believe me? Google it. None of us can remember the name of it for the life of us, but there are plenty of pictures.
After that we headed back to the hotel…. to wait…and wait…..and wait. At this point Zoe had fallen asleep and I needed fresh air because I was tired of sitting. Again. So John and I left the family and went out for another walk with our sleeping Moon.
We explored and explored and walked up and down narrow streets. We found a
great indoor market that had restaurants along with fresh pretty much anything you wanted (fish, sausage, deli meat, cheese, pasta, flowers…the list goes on).
John found an airbrush shop, similar to the one he was searching for back in July before the pig party (he’ll explain), and then we ate McDonalds. Coming from a girl who never eats McDonalds (at home) I HAD to try it. A friend of ours swears that European Mickey D’s are better. John ate a CBO or something along those lines and I ate a McBacon. GENIUS! Bacon rocks! The meat and sauces were a little different and the meat (as Chris said) didn’t taste as generic. So yes, it’s a little better, but no I will not be eating it again.
Here are a few on my first observations:
There are 900 million people. At least 800 million of them smoke. (Some of which never sleep too – here I am at 2:37AM or 8:39 PM EST writing a blog because I am listening to drunken smoking Spaniards outside).
No one has the concept of walk left, stay right. As a matter of fact they have no concept of walking in some kind of order at all. The street music is AMAZING! Tips are included in your checks at restaurants. The architecture is AMAZING!
The streets are so small that you wonder how some of the trucks and a car could get through them at the same time. Everyone owns a scooter or motorcycle. The tile floor in the bathroom at the H10 is damn cold when you are sitting on it while your family is sleeping. Everyone wears scarves. Basically, aside from the walking and smoking issue ITS BEEN AMAZING!
It has been great to have Jimi and Carolina with us as they have been here before and well; she is one pretty smart chick. She is getting ready to go on her third passport, the first two even had replacement pages in them!
I suppose I should head back to sleep. Meeting the FAM between 7-8 AM. Although not so sure how easy that will be with the party going on outside on the street.
Ciao!
John's Notes
Instead of boring everyone with lackluster intellect I’ll give my best effort at recapping my first experience in Barcelona, not to mention my first day in Europe. It was a long flight and I’m a big guy, enough said. As we made our way to the city and to our hotel I could almost smell the history here, taking only a second to look at buildings and roads you don’t have to be a historian to notice the age of Barcelona.
I pride myself on being a “South County Boy” and also growing up in living in the “County”, speaking of Calvert. So in saying that I was just a little overwhelmed at the European flavor being thrown at me in every direction. We checked into our hotel and I should have already known that most things in Europe are smaller than we are accustomed to in the U.S. Our room was fabulous but small(ish). But what I learned quickly is that things seem more efficient in Barcelona, I look forward to seeing if that runs true for the rest of our trip.
We had time to visit a historic cathedral in the Gothic District (Carolina correct me if I’m wrong) and it was amazing. The architecture was mind boggling, not to mention thinking of how the tradesman were able to build such a structure. The little we saw of Barcelona was great, I loved the small streets, the fact that most people either walked or biked made so much sense, and I made a promise to myself that I will no longer walk around the corner to pick up the mail or go to a local restaurant.
Now the good part and much to Carolina’s dismay we ate at both McDonalds and the Hard Rock Café, we kept it straight up American. The food was really no different than what we get in the states. We did have breakfast at a small local place and it was good, perhaps the meat and the eggs were a little undercooked but it was filling. I didn’t even think to ask if they had scrapple on the menu, probably not.
All the shops we visited were unique. The street musicians we watched were
great. Zoe got to dance a little and clap her hands to the beat, she loved it. Overall Barcelona was fantastic and the things I was most impressed with in no particular order were:
1. The architecture
2.The amount of dreadlocks and nose piercing I saw
3. Scooters
4. Male dogs with huge testicles, I guess they don’t believe in the spay/neuter policy we use in the States.
5. The Skelly’s/Gee’s and former Felipe got along almost flawless
Finally as I joked about getting a tattoo overseas. If I decide to it will simply say, “There’s place like home…”
Zoe’s Notes:
Without a doubt I liked the ducks at the Cathedral. They were probably the coolest animals I have ever seen other than my dog Brody and my pet rabbit Shadow. Everyone I met told me how beautiful I was and I have now mastered the words hola, gracias, por favor, no mas and ciao. I wish I could have seen more stuff in Barcelona but my lack of beauty rest finally caught up with me and I slept.
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