Barcelona Biking, Eating and Seeing!

Today was the day we left Madrid and headed towards Barcelona by train! So other than the one time I toured the Amish country in PA with the Johnsons, this will be the first “real” train experience for me! We met in the lobby at 6:30am to head to the station. Two of our girls slept through their alarm, so we ran late… fortunately we were able to get to the station with about 30 minutes extra—just enough time for some of the group to get their coffee fix!

on the bus to the train station with my girl Katie Stephenson! 

 In a legit Train Station y'all! 

The train was great! During the ride, I began by taking a good allotment of photos (no, I will not post em all, don’t worry) and then worked on blogging to yall about yesterday while it was still fresh on my mind! By the time I got through with my posts, the swaying back and forth of the train made me uber sleepy, so it was naptime! By now, everyone else is out. Like snoring out. Especially Ken! I did him the favor of not photographing the moment of him, mouth wide, eyes rolled in the back of his head, out cold! (you are welcome!) With the perfect timing, I woke up right as we could see the outskirts of Barcelona!!! I guess you could say I could smell the adventure!

 yeah, its gorgeous right!?!

 did not do this on purpose, but dude, its awesome. you gotta admit!

Once arriving, we jumped on our bus that gave a short tour of the roads on the way to our hotel. We went in, dropped everything off and were back out in the city! Mysti and I ended up as roommates again, so other than the one night in London, where I shared a room with Hannah, we have gotten through the crazy trip together! Ken and Chester had a surprised group lunch planned at El Canorejo Loco, a super fancy smancy restaurant with the most beautiful view out of the glass restaurant! So we were thinking it was going to be a menu kinda deal where we pick something and (fingers crossed) hopefully like it enough to eat, but this was not that kind of deal… instead this was the restraunt where they bring out several, like as in eight, different appitizers so everyone could try em out, followed with the entrée, and ending with a nice desert! We quickly learned that we were out of our element when tray after tray after tray of food continues to arrive from the kitchen! Out of all the appitizers, my favorite was the potatoes with the two sauces on them, followed with the bread thing with a mini sausage on top. My least favorite? Definitely the fish sliced in half. It was extremely salty, soaked in vinegar and had a slimy, fishy taste. Ew. The main course was a noodle substance that was cooked with shrimp and mushrooms and was surprisingly good! It reminded me of the good ole Ninjas back home in Goldsboro, but tasted nothing like Japanese food. 100% authentic Spanish cuisine!

 the yellow things were a quiche thing, while the middle thing was roasted salmon on a really big cruton-like cracker. It was pretty good, but I think the quiche would have been better hot!

 Tomato spread on bread. This was good, but dipping it in the special oils they had there made it all the better!

 This was cod, and I actually liked this. It wasn't fishy tasting, and it was really filling!

 My favs. the potatoes. 

 the bread with the mini sausages was really good too!

 the top one was an anchovy with a pepper and an olive. Gross.
the bottom is tomatoes and mozzarella cheese! yummy (minus the healthy tomatoes, just the balls of cheese, please!)

 heres that cut in half nasty vinegar fish. Ew. I get sick even thinking about this one!

 Mussels! This was my first time ever trying one of these suckers, and it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be!

 my bravery clearly chips in here! 

 Gotta love Chester, our other leader!

 Main dish! 

 Lynde and I with our heart shaped mussels!

 Chelsea Gardner, Ken Johnson, and Ali Rose 

 Brooks Artis enjoying the dinner and scenery! 

 I also got my first Spanish coffee! Just my size! 

 yeah, you are reading that right! That is our bill for that meal.

After we were filled to the rim, we went outside and got some awesome pictures. I mean, I don’t know of anywhere else where the beach is this pretty and clear and smells as wonderful as this side of the Mediterranean with all the food vendors out and about!

 wolfpack gals! 

 Lynde Ring, Katie kimble, Katie Stephenson

 Hannah Jenkins and I roomed together in London overnight between flights! 

 Ali Rose and I! I know, we are precious! 

Here is the entire group, minus Chester, who was busy taking the picture!

Chester quickly rushed us on to meet up with a Bike Rental company that gave us tours around the city! This was the BEST PART OF THE DAY! In Madrid, we were tired and sick of walking within 2 hours, but taking the bikes allowed us to see more in 4 hours than we probably would have seen in all three days here! Our two guides spoke great English and were really helpful in telling us factual and interesting information about all the monumnets and buildings that we went by! Between the history lessons, the hilarious moments of people falling over (Lynde), running into people (Brooks) and having to relearn how to ride a bike (Chelsea) we had a wonderful time seeing the beautiful city!

 Lets just say, riding bikes for four hours KILLS the butt. Like seriously! 

So far, I have really enjoyed Barcelona more than I did Madrid. The people were cheering for us on the bikes (we really must have looked rough) and they were willing to help us with our Spanish if we wanted to talk! Unlike Madrid, Barcelona seems to have a more family-like atmosphere!

After the tour, we stopped by the hotel for some people to change and then headed back to Gaudi’s  Casa Batlló, which was a house that he built for the owner of a rich textile company and his family to live. Gaudi built the house based on an old tale where a dragon lives near a well, and anytime that the people want to get water from this well, they have to sacrifice a sheep to it. Eventually the city feeds all the sheep, and are only left to draw the name of a young girl and feed her to the dragon instead. On one particular day of the drawing, the King’s dauhter’s name is pulled, and the town realizes that there is nothing more they can do—the princess must die. But Saint George comes in and kills the dragon, making it possible for the Princess to live, and for the people to live freely.  This house is also called the House of Bone, becsue the large window looks like its held open by tall structures that resemble bones! Being able to walk inside and experience the ENTIRE home was really amazing. Gaudi was famous for repurposing old tiles by smashing them in hundreds of pieces and then using the pieces to create his decorations. It was absolutely gorgeous and totally worth the 20 euros that Scholars paid for us to do the tour (thanks guys!)

Eventually everyone got hungry for dinner around 8pm so we went out to find a good place to grub! Eventually we find a tiny hole in the wall that was absolutely amazing! We were able to sit together and really enjoy meeting others in our group of 36! (thanks again scholars for paying for that meal as well! Free food all day, we can totally deal with that!!!!) I ordered chicken on the barbeque, but my waiter suggested something different, which was AWESOME. It was chicken stuffed with ham and barbequed with lemons for flavor. Im telling you, this was the best meal yet!!!!!!!

After a long day of sore butts and tired out feet, its time for bed… yeah its 2am here. I need sleep so peace out guys! Talk to ya soon!

Adios,

Katie Kimble