Let the Barcelona Bargains Begin

Dearest Europe, old friend, we finally meet again.  It's been much too long!

Eurotrip 2019 is 2 vacations in 1.  A week in Barcelona and southern France and a week hiking (trekking) Mont Blanc in the alps.  It's taken us so many years to get back here, going to make it worth our while.  

The trip from Sudbury to Barcelona was rather uneventful, and that's always a good thing with plane travel.  The only hiccup was really finding a table in Terminal 1-E at Pearson that had a tablet that worked.  Whodathunk, finding a spot to have a toast to our trip would be so challenging?  Apparently 4th times' a charm.  But then again, if that's the biggest complaint of the trip... Then it was a good one.  The Rouge flight wasn't bad at all.  Red eye and they served dinner, closed the lights for most of the trip and woke us up for a quick snack for breakfast.  Of course the seatbelt sign was on while the flight attendant was doing her drink run and so no coffee for us!  Ugh... I really needed a coffee!

Getting through the airport, on the transit bus and to the hotel was mostly a breeze.  Nothing a wrong turn or 2 couldn't fix.  Obviously the street we needed to go down (or so I thought) was under construction, forcing us to go down the next one and eventually winding back.  Room wasn't ready anyways, but at least we could drop off our stuff and go exploring. YIPPEE!!!

We had pre purchased a hop on hop off bus ticket and made our way through a few famous parts of Barcelona to get the first stop.  La Rambla and Placa Catalunya.  Tired, hungry and caffeine deprived, we searched the Placa for the bus stop and did the full round with no luck.  City Sightseeing, where are you?  The voucher says you should be here... Sue finally asks another tour operator and he points us in the right direction - only it's not CIty Sightseeing, it's Bus Touristic and it's BLUE. City Sightseeing is RED.  What the Hell?  Sure enough as we stand in line waiting to get on a bus, in fine print on the bottom of the Bus Touristic flyer, it says "City Sightseeing".  How that heck is anyone supposed to see that?  No where on the voucher does it say anything about Bus Touristic.  The branding is completely different.  BUT it was the right bus.  So off we go.  Not realizing this would be a nearly 2-hour bus ride on the double-decker in the full Sun.  Needless to say, I'm a bit crispy.  I knew I should have grabbed my hat and sunscreen.  It was long, it was hot and by the end we couldn't wait to get off.  I was getting hangry and still no caffeine, plus the Sun and mother of all headaches.  Tour was helpful in getting an idea of the sights we want to go back to and we have access for another full day.

Post bus it was time for serious food. But why is it when you're surrounded by food, and you're starving, you can never seem to find somewhere to eat?  Another dick move for Murphy and his laws.  We did however eventually settle on a place outside about a block from our hotel.  Nothing better than eating Al Fresco.  Is that supposed to be capitalized?  No? Well it should, because it's awesome!  Anyways, server comes and takes our order, Sue orders a wine and server leaves never asking what I want to drink.  That was odd.  A few minutes later he comes back with 2 glasses, opens a brand new bottle, pours us each a bit, leaves the bottle and walks away.  A wee bit of concern sets in, why did he leave the bottle?  We didn't order a bottle...  We don't want to get slammed with a huge bill on day 1 afterall.  I mean I was going to order the same wine anyways so that's good.  Then Sue remembers there was only 1 price on the menu for each wine.  Could it be that you order by the bottle here?  No... The wine was only 9.50Euro.  Sue also noticed that other tables all had bottles on them... HOLY SHIT! It must be!  Well happy day for us tired and thirsty ladies.  9.50Euro for a bottle of wine in a restaurant. INSANE!  And it was REALLY GOOD.  The rest of the meal was also delicious and reasonable.  I forgot how much I missed this culture of dining out and socializing basically as a daily event here.

Our hotel is pretty sweet.  Quaint but very clean room, the bathroom is huge!  Almost as big as the room itself.  Yet, no plug in the bathroom, how are we to do our hair?  Oh Europe, you make me laugh.  The hotel also has a rooftop bar/pool and lounging area with amazing views over the city.  We will be making use of it at some point no doubt.

Day 1s are always hard because they are sooooo long!  You need to force yourself to keep going until a decent hour so you can get yourself accustomed to the new time zone.  So we went back out around 7 to explore nearby La Rambla.  We walked through part of it earlier, but it's close so we went back in that direction knowing we shouldn't get too lost.  We noticed people walking around with alcohol and this was interesting, is that allowed here?  We then came up to this section that was swarming with people eating and drinking and hanging out.  These big booth type setups where people were lined up getting all different kinds of food, drinks, desserts, fresh as fresh can be.  What is going on?  Nobody is paying... It can't possibly be free.  It's huge, there's tons of these booths.  

Tast a la Rambla.  It's like a giant cash bar for food, and drinks.  You buy tokens, 1 Euro each and pay for your treats with tokens.  Wine is 3 or 4, beer is 2, most of the food is 4 and so on.  So you get your tokens, you walk around, find something you want to try and get it.  Made there on the spot while you wait.  It's the coolest idea ever.  Live music and so many goodies it's nuts!  Each item is made by a different vendor/restauranteur so they get to promote a dish from their place and it's such a simple and cool way to socialize and enjoy an evening.  Tourists and locals alike.

We walked around some more, working our way towards the waterfront and explored.  It's your typical harbour.  Lots of boats and fresh air and stuff going on.  We didn't stray too far.  Tired and getting dark we definitely didn't want to get lost.  So just went back to the Tapas party and tried a doughnut.  A Dulce de Leche with toasted almonds doughnut!  Mom would have died!  Sooooo good!

And thanks to the random tapas party thing, we managed to stay out until 10 and get back, exhausted, showered and out like a log.  No jet lag for us!