Day 4 - Barcelona: New-New Hotel, ...

Last night I booked my BCN hotel for my final three nights here, so today I was again on the move. Decided once & for all that while renting an apt (such as through AirBnB) definifitely has its appeal, as a solo traveler in big/unexplored cities that I prefer the conveniences of a hotel.  Funny that this will be hotel #3 here -- definitely a bit of an inconvenience. Although, I am getting some good last-minute rates on hotels. I also went ahead and booked my Porto, Portugal accommodations.

So today is also Day 1 of quite a few rainy days ahead. Funny that I had been musing over the lack of rain back in SB over this past winter -- I like the reason/excuse to hole in at home and vegetate/hibernate here and there. I will certainly get what I had been missing here. Rain Monday, not Tuesday, and then rain indefinitely in Porto beginning on Wednesday. I realized this morning as I was packing up that I indeed forgot an umbrella. However those 6 or so pairs of shorts stare me in the face as wasted luggage space, haha.

More Catalunyan fast food was consumed for lunch -- this time I tried Patatas Bravas. Not a fan. Potato wedges with some type of mild cinnamon sauce and whipped cream. I bravely ate most of them.

Checked into hotel #3 a half hour before official checkin time y it was no problema. The third time is def the charm for my hotel saga -- this room was a little less $$ than hotel #2, but it's much better. Larger room still, with a small balcony off it. Nicer furnishings, more comfy bed. Also a free coupon for cava at the lobby bar, woot.

Got things put away and headed out to see the famed Sagrada Familia. Hopped on the subway and it dropped me off right across the street.  Too bad that after circling the entire Basilica de La Sagrada Familia once and then hitting the ticket booth for my entrance + audio tour -- they were just closing for the day.  Apparently Mass was going to happen and they couldn't admit any more peeps (I was like 3rd back from the cut-off).  Oh well, will try again manana.  I focused on studying the involved (and heavily under renovation/construction) exterior:

 

Decided to foot it over and down Passeig de Sant Joan and see Barcelona's Arc of Triumph, then circle back through the Gothic Quarter and eventually make my way back to the hotel.  All of that happened. 

The light mist here and there was actually nice.  However by the time I made it back to the room 'twas totally beat -- ended up napping until like after 8pm.  Debated on ordering room service, then decided to suck it up and throw on some warm clothes and go hit up the casual looking foccaceria I had spotted two blocks away.  Lawd, was I glad I did!

I also felt proud that this goodness (food y Estrella Damm beer) was less than 7 Euros -- I had Rachel Ray in my head applauding my successful efforts to stay under $30 a day but still get some goodness.  All I needed was a videographer and some long over-annunciated "MMMmmmmm"s.  Haha.  And with the free wifi (pronounced "wee-fee" here) that the guy made sure (unprompted) to give me the access code to when he was giving me my order (was it my UCSB sweatshirt that gave me away as a wifi-craving tourist, LOL) -- best meal yet.  Ha.  I think tomorrow I will finally bite the rice-bullet and have some paella...
 

Day 3 - Barcelona: Parq de Monjuic, MNAC

Got a late start today -- didn't even leave the hotel until after noon. AND I stayed out until after 6pm. Spaniard FAIL on my part.  Oh well, all was good and I got some final outdoor Barcelona tourism in before the rain comes (it's supposed to rain Sunday and Monday, so I was strategic about my outdoor sightseeing.  My legs and feet are not happy with me for all this excessive walking, though).

Left my hotel with the plan of catching the subway to the Paral-lel stop (yes, not Parallel, but Paral-lel) and taking the funicular on up to Parc de Monjuic.  I wanted to see that sweet looking castle and the funicular is supposed to afford sweet panoramic views of the city.  Ran into a bit of a snafu at the subway stop as I attempted to buy a package of Chips Ahoy from a vending machine (lol why?! -- I never eat crap like this...) -- I put in my 1,20 Euros and the bag of cookies got stuck!  Started pounding on the machine and security rolls up on me telling me that the little bistro place across the way owns the máquina and that I need to go there for help (i.e. stop effing up the machine lol).  So I go into bistro place and try to take the situation seriously as the manager walks with me back to the machine where she inserts another 1,20 Euros to purchase a second bag of Chips Ahoy -- lo' and behold, both pre-purchased and newly-purchased bags pop out.  She was friendly though -- and I continue to be surprised with the extent to which I can carry a conversation en español.  Or perhaps it's the Catalunyan humoring of my poor verb conjugations and sometimes stumbling for the words missing from my current vocabulary.

With breakfast in hand, I board the metro -- and realize after the train leaves that I am headed in the wrong direccion.  But of course.  Easy fix though, I get off at next stop and cross over to the other side to go the right way.  I get off at the Paral-lel stop and purposely don't take the direct walkway connection to the Funicular, but rather come up to street level to check out the climate.  The day's weather, while dry, called for windy conditions, and I wasn't too keen on an extra-bouncy cable ride in an 8-person deathtrap up the hillside to the Parc.  Decided to foot it to the top, and was glad I did. Got to see some gardens...

A few different sites from the 1992 Summer World Olympics (had "lunch" in the little "cafe" at this stadium)...

And the best part: knew that I wanted to see the cool looking castle at the top of the hill -- turned out it houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya -- and admission was free on Saturdays after 3pm! Checked my watch and the time was 2:52... So I spent the next 10 minutes or so zoning out on an awesome view of the city.

Spent about 1.5 hours in the Museu. Bought some souvenirs. Trekked down to the Plaça de Espanya (circular area in the photo above), y caught the metro back to my hotel 'hood. Got back to the room and was out cold again for like 2 hours. Got up, got out for a late night stroll and some 4th meal eats (albeit only 2nd meal for me). Ay, the panging to live in a big city...

Day 2 - Barcelona: New Hotel, New Sights

Another fitful night of sleep (with the "fits" being the instances of sleep) was had, although the final period of rest leading up to my 930am alarm was restful. Got up and got ready to get myself out of my hotel room by 11am checkout.

Checked out after paying my final .78 Euros in city hotel taxes, and headed on down la calle for more familiarity: Starbucks. Why can't I even think to do a fake name when I'm in another country?!

After spending maybe an hour total at Starbucks, I then left with my luggage to do some daytime wandering around BCN and kill time until around new hotel check-in time (Note: part of previous night's insomnia was spent looking up hotels and/or apartments for rest of BCN stay... decided to do a better hotel for 2 more nights and then decide if maybe I want an apartment for fnl 3 days, a side BD excursion, or just another hotel).

I found that people like to feed the pigeons in Spain: Plaça de Catalunya

Why did I have that song "No Pigeons" in my head afterwards? Haha.

Since I love doing mundane regular shiz in faraway places (and to pretend to be a local -- even when it's clear I am not), I was excited to stumble upon a post office branch a few blocks away from this Plaça. Took a number y waited my turn like a local. Flexed my skills in castellaño some more and got postage for ten intl postcard mailings to the US -- they were out of the single .99 Euro stamps, so guy sold me all the .495 sellos they had (and re-reminded me otra vez que "tiene que poner DOTH thellos en CADA tarjeta, ok?" Lol. My vow to not lisp my Castillian Spanish is still intact. For now. This lisp is already starting to sound normal to me. Uh oh.

Checked into hotel #2 and found it a great improvement over hotel #1. Room is twice the size, has a king bed instead of a twin, a decent view of the calle instead of a view of some back patios of residences. Paying twice the price usually gets you these kinds of things I guess. Haha. No bidet in this one though -- I'll miss pretending the bidet is a urinal HAHA. #TMImode

Within 20 minutes of getting into the room I was out cold for a solid 2 hours. Maybe I might get used to this siesta thing after all. Otra vez, vamos a ver.

Woke up and decided I needed to get myself down to La Barceloneta and see the Mediterranean Sea for the first time before it got dark. Hoofed it down there through the maze-like Gothic Quarter and eventually found what I was after.

 

Spent a good amount of time walking the length of the waterfront and back, then back up La Barceloneta (which juts out from the general shoreline as a peninsula).

Took the subway for the first time next, back up to the Passeig de Gràcia stop -- it was easy peasy. (The cab driver yesterday recommended I get the ten trip pass -- I may vey well put it to full use.)

Headed back towards Las Ramblas to buy some postcards, grab some food, and check out La Boqueria (a huge open market next to part of Las Ramblas). Turns out most of the shops in La Boqueria close a little early apparently (for Barcelona, at least). Ended up grabbing some cheap fast food -- this time catalunyan style!

 

Day 1 - Munich Airport, Barcelona

The first official day of my vacation started somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, as I got fitful sleep during the 10 hour, 50 minute flight from LAX to Munich, Germany (or München, as it apparently is in German). Lufthansa served a full breakfast and the arrival in Germany (around 1pm local time) was without incident.

Was kind of tripping out on all the German speaking -- I couldn't understand a word of what people were saying. Ended up with a surprise first European country passport stamp when I had to switch gates for my connecting flight to Barcelona

Connected to my BCN-destined plane and an hour y 45 minutes later I had arrived. Ended up doing a taxi from airport to the 1-night hotel, and ended up w/ a whole earful of all things de Catalunya and the general political climate of Spain (all in Spanish) by way of Javier the taxi driver. He meant well and if anything, both him and the front desk guy at the hotel reconfirmed I have a fully functional understanding of Spanish (yes!). Even got complimented on how good my Spanish is!

Got into my room and de-#ratchet-ed myself from all that travel. Ended up walking all the way down Las Ramblas and back, and stopped a Mickey D's on the way back haha. I have to agree with the taxi cab guy -- Barcelona has more than a bit of a Manhattan feel. At least the parts I was walking through, at night. SO many people out, so much going on. And so much commerce, late into the night. People were truly out shopping at 9:45 at night like you never see in the US outside of... Well, NYC. I admit feeling a little homesick off the bat here... Mickey D's was an on-purpose choice for something familiar. Had something called a "CBO". However, I don't ever plan to have a CBO again. At least the fries were the same.

Anyway then the day fully, finally caught up with me and I was dead exhausted. Back to the room to try and get a clean full night's sleep. 

View of the 1st night's hotel (hotel is the lit up portion of building).

Day 0 - Final Work Day/First Travel Day

And so it goes. The day started at about 5:20 this morning. I finished up laundry, finished up preparations for termite fumigation (which is to take place while I am away), and finished up packing. Sadly, the planned checked bag weighed in on the bathroom scale 12 lbs over weight limit, so some time was spent ditching expendable things like a jacket, jeans, and shoes. Haha.

Got a ride in to work and stopped by the Starbucks in DTSB for some cafeina.  Then about maybe 3 hours of final wrap-up for work items, and my boss dropped me off at the SB Airbus for transport to LAX right around 11:45am.  The final chat with my boss and the finality of the drop-off finally got the reality of the trip to fully set in. Am still feeling highly ill-prepared for this trip, although that was the intent by design.

Managed to doze a little over the 2 hour airbus ride to LAX, as well as (finally) create this blog.  Planning to write my entries during the afternoon siesta each day -- have been told that only tourists are out and about during siesta in the Iberian Peninsula and are prime targets for pickpocketing... and since napping is not my specialty (today being the exception), I am thinking the siesta blog approach should work well. Vamos a ver...

Arrived at airport a full 4 hours early.  After getting checked in & through customs no problem, the first (and only) airport beer of the afternoon was a Sam Adams draft over a Truffle Burger from Umami Burger. Then my tiredness kicked in -- and since I wanted to save that slumber for the plane, I switched to caffeine and got started on a book.

Got through the first chapter before the eyes started glazing over & the head whips ensued. Gave up on the book and made some final goodbye State-side communications and boarded my Lufthansa flight. Lotsa noisy babies :/ Was glad I brought ear plugs AND noise-canceling headphones. Thankfully the babies settled down and the free alcohol started flowing, ha. 

Went first with their German Pilsner biznazz, then switched to red wine. Cabernet Sauvignon ("from South Africa", I was told) -- that works. Watched the movie Last Vegas. Got a refill on the Cab, watched the movie The Wolverine, and finally fell asleep somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.