Ayre Hotel Gran Via (Fiesta) Barcelona

... Starbucks fans! We just appreciated more than thimble sized coffee! ha!ha!<br><br>Our check in at the Princess Cruise terminal was 3pm so we had a couple extra hours to do a little shopping. We made a visit to the El Corte Ingles, Spain's largest department store chain, adjacent to the Placa de Catalunya. Exiting the El Corte, we crossed the street onto Av Portal de l'Angel, also known as "Barcelona Walks" which ...

... great adventure. We took the metro and realized that it was in a very lively area of town. There were lots of hostels, and some shady people, but we found it. It didn't open until 7 through, so we found a little bar and sat down for a few "tubos" (large cups) of beer. I learned how to ask for draft beers by actually making the gesture of pulling a draft and saying, "psht!" very funny. Then ...

... it but we got a photo out of it... Instead of taking a taxi to Mount Juic, we decided to take the subway to Casa Botllo to see 'the house of bones' designed by Gaudi. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Batl lo ). The tour of Casa Batllo was expensive (16.5E) but it contains some of the most expressive designs of Gaudi. The rooftop of his houses are always the most interesting... It was siesta time and we got ready ...

... froide. Le temps n'est pas très chaud mais, en bon québécois que nous sommes, nous ne trouvons pas ça si terrible. Les journées sont très ensoleillées alors c'est comme de fraîches journées d'octobre. Nous n'irons pas à la mer ni à la plage. On gardera ça pour une autre fois. En tout cas, on fait un vrai beau voyage et on s'amuse comme des enfants. C'est le ...

... the rental prices are very high here. And love it or hate it, Las Ramblas is interesting. This pedestrian avenue is filled with street performers, flower shops and pop up pet stores. I figure it is probably one of the best and worst things about Barcelona all at once. We also checked out the Barceloneta area, which is famous for being this cool little neighbourhood by the sea. The beach is pretty long and I imagine it will be packed ...

... distance. We reallllllly had to wash clothes our first night though, so we spent the night doing laundry. We met some guys from France/England that were here playing squash though and they were cool. So even laundry wasn't that dull. and it was nice to have clothes that didn't smell bad!! Day 2, we woke up and decided to go exploring.. We really SHOULD have brought our bathing suites, because once we hit the beach it was hot, hot, hot but we were too far away to walk ...

... back to layer up for the game so ¨we¨decided to skip it and go back another day. I knew I would need hours to tour through the art collections, so I made a promise to myself to make it back another day. The view of the museum from the bottom is magnificent. It was actually built as a temporary exhibit back in 1926, I think, and it was supposed to be torn down but was left, thankfully! It ...

... was amazing. I was in complete awe. The intricate and elaborate decoration is amazing. It is still being built, and shouldnt be finished for another 40 years, pretty cool. Gaudi's stuff is all over the city, we also went to this park designed by him, it was really quant and had loads of wierd and wonderful statues and buildings in it.Perhaps the best part of the bus trip was the tour guides. Their english accents were so hard not to laugh at, hehe, think Borat from Ali G and you are ...

Being a fan of the Roman empire (and beaches) I stayed the night in a small city called Tarragona on the way to Barcelona. I stayed in a little pension in the crappier part of town - near the port and train station - but it was also near the main street and beach. While i'd come to the city to mainly see Roman ruins - a Forum and Ampetheatre, I ended up enjoying just the laid back life and the beach better. The fact it was a sunday/monday and all the ruins were shut probably ...

... others backs. It was so tiring though we had to walk like what felt like 10 km, after giving us Tequila and beer and sangria and other concoctions over 7 hours. Then last night Jaqui and I went to the Irish pub across the street from the hostel, had an even better time, didn´t meet any Irish as everyone within was British. Met a Brit there who insisted on taking a picture of me with his camera and gave me his number to call him in London, now I wouldn´t ...