Barthelona

I know this is a little late, but yesterday's sun reminded me of Barcelona so I thought I would post about Zach and my trip to Spain.  Despite the unfortunate injury that occurred to Zach's knee, the rest of the trip was amazing.
THE BEACH
The beach was awesome.  It wasn't quite as nice as the one in Nice, but there were a lot more people which made the whole thing seem more full of life.  There was also Sangria everywhere and little asian ladies giving 15 minute massages for 5 euros.  Of course I had both.  Here's a pic of the main beach of Barcelona by the port.

Sunset at the beach

THE HOSTEL

View of Plaza Real from the hostel window

The hostel in Barcelona was by far the best hostel I have stayed at while in Europe.  It was called the Hostel Kabul.  It was in this awesome little plaza that was full of restaurants, little stores, and acrobats and other entertainers.  The hostel also had 2 beers for 2.50 Euro and got us into the clubs for free which was a major money saver in Barcelona since the covers are typically at least 15 euros and the drinks are around 10 a drink.  The hostel also had free breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the wifi was even decent.


THE FOOD

Our friend Josh admiring the sushi 

Tapas, paella, and sangria everywhere.  You could not walk 50 feet down Las Ramblas (the famous main street in Barcelona) without running into a tapas restaurant or a Sangria vendor.  We had no complaints though because both were amazing.  Paella is definitely going to make it into my repertoire for back home.  Its basically rice with special spices along with chicken and seafood.  It's simple but delicious.  Also while in Barcelona, our friend Josh convinced us to go to an all you can eat sushi place.  It took us 45 minutes to walk to it (Google maps tricked us multiple times) but man was it worth it.  We literally sat at a table by a conveyor belt that just constantly brought different types of sushi and Chinese food past us.  It was actually good to which was surprising.  College Station definitely needs one of those.



THE FUN

View of the Port from the top of the hill

While in Barcelona we mainly just relaxed.  We went to the beach a lot, and we even went on a cruise around the port in a catamaran.   The piece de resistance of Barcelona, however, was the moped day.  The second to last day we were there, we rented mopeds and took them everywhere around Barcelona.  We went up to the top of a giant hill that looked out on the port and even found a castle up there to explore.  We also used them to find the Segrada Familia (Barcelona's giant cathedral).  Mainly though, the best part of the mopeds was just being able to drive around and see real Barcelona.  It was exhilarating to go on the highways and to get off on the small back roads that few tourists get to see.  We rode the mopeds for like 6 hours but it never got boring.  The moped thing is definitely something I will try to do in other cities when my sister and I travel after school gets out.  

Open ocean as seen from the catamaran

La Segrada Familia