Santorini, you win

After a grumpy*, rainy takeoff in Milan, two hours later we arrived in Athens, Greece with the bluest skies you could imagine. To get to our hostel for the night, it was said that taking the metro would be the easiest, as it went straight from the airport to our stop. However, finding the right train to take at the airport proved to be a little more complicated. With lack of signage (let alone signs not in the greek alphabet), we decided to ask several times to make sure we were in the right place to catch the metro. In the process, we met two Polish students going the same way and chatted with them as we took the forty-five minute journey to center Athens. As we came up at the Monastiraki stop, we instantly saw people. The square was filled the brim with vendors selling their trade, from leather sandals to tzaziki spices, and as we turned around to get a view behind us, all we could see was the acropolis perched on a hill. We found our way to Ermou street, one of the most popular streets in Athens and where our hostel was located. After walking a little bit, we finally reached the address given for our lodging… except that it was an antiques store. At that moment, we tried not to panic but I have to admit, it was a little bizarre. As I glanced to my left, I noticed out of the corner of my eye “Pella”, which was the name of our hostel. Sure enough, about 50 meters to our left, we found our hostel. 

Once settled in, we went down to the port to pick up our tickets for the ferry to Santorini and had a wonderful dinner with a view of the Acropolis. We decided to get some traditional Greek food: pork gyros with fries and baklava for dessert. This would be the first of many gyros we would have during the week, though this one was more expensive and deconstructed. Either way, delicious! After the meal, the server came by and set two shots of ouzo on our table with a clever smile as he turned his shoulder before we could say anything. Even though neither of us are fans of the Greek liquid courage, we both said “Opa!” and enjoyed our free gift. 

After a night of barely any sleep, we boarded our ferry to Santorini at 7am. It was an eight hour ferry, and although I had been getting used to long journeys to get us from point A to point B, I was incredibly anxious to get to the beautiful crescent shaped island. However, the ferry was so comfortable, eight hours passed with no problems. The views of the blue Aegean sea going by, the little islands specked with crisp white houses… it was hard to not be enthralled with the surroundings. Also, the wifi and freddocino** might have helped. 

And so at 3:00pm, we arrived in the port of Santorini. As we had asked for a transfer to our hostel (which was more like a hotel), we were happy to find a man standing with a sign reading “Dina’s Place” quite easily. However, it soon became increasingly clear that he was doing a number of drop-offs to different hotels, and we would all not fit in his van. Suddenly, he turned to us and said, “You will go with my cousin! He will you off at the hotel he is going to – wait there and I will come get you!” Blindly, we got in the van with his cousin, went up the incredibly windy path from the port, and entered into Fira, one of the main towns on Santorini and where we were staying. Dropping us off on the side of the road next to a convenience store fruit stand, we couldn’t help but wonder what we would do if he didn’t come back for us. Just then, his van pulled up and we were whisked away to our hostel.

Arriving at the hostel, it was clear that this was not a hostel. It was a hotel. George, the receptionist and owner, was extremely nice and told us everything we needed to know about Santorini, including how to avoid tourist traps. I cannot stress how kind of a person he was – when we tried to pay and did not have exact change, he said, “It’s no problem, pay later! In fact, if you don’t want to pay during your stay, that’s fine! Just mail it to us after!” There is something to be said about the easy –going attitude of the Greeks. Our room was wonderful and we stepped outside to a quaint and beautiful pool area. I could not recommend this place enough!

That evening, we took our time exploring Fira, wandering aimlessly down its narrow streets, looking through shops and enjoying the sunset (though because of clouds it was not so nice). We found a place to get gyros (which we frequented many times during our five day stay) and single bite baklavas of all flavors! I had to get a classic but I also got chocolate with walnut, very delicious!

Fira and me

Left: original. Right: chocolate walnut.

Our first full day in Santorini, we woke up to cloudy skies. Seeing the weather, we decided to take a bus to Akrotiri, where there are excavations of ancient civilization. This city had been rebuilt several times due to earthquakes and was destroyed from the eruption of the volcano of Santorini. On the bus, we made a friend: Amanda, a Canadian who is teaching biology in Bulgaria. The three of us spent the next few days together – it was amazing meeting someone who also had the experience living and teaching abroad and also to talk about traveling! After exploring the excavations, we walked to the nearby Red Beach, which was quite a sight to see. The contrast between the red rock and the blue water was dramatic and beautiful. We stuck our feet in the water and enjoyed the calming sound of the waves.

Me, Alie and Amanda at the excavations

That is one red beach

Wanting a change of scenery, we took the next bus to the most picturesque town in Santorini: Oia. It took us a few tries to pronounce this town correctly (“ee-ah”) but the fact that it is regarded as the best place to stay in Santorini couldn’t be more true. With the perfect view of the sunset from its placement on the tip of the crescent, the perfect white stoned buildings, the contrasting blue domes of the churches, Oia is where I would stay when I come back to in Santorini. We spent some time wandering the alleys and found a beautiful overlook onto the town where we sat for a while. While the crowds started forming where we were sitting, we realized that we had the best place to watch the sunset, without even trying! This and an impromptu local play about Agamemnon made our evening nothing short of spectacular.

Oia

I have never seen a sunset that looked like a sun rise...

Hurrying to catch the last bus to Fira, we left fairly early, so we could stop for a tequila sunrise and a bathroom break. After the very scary night bus back to Fira (guys, it was just cliff and ocean past the non-existent guard rail), we went to Mama’s house for dinner, where I had a greek salad, some tzaziki and a Mythos to drink. Although I do not like beer, I had to try the number one Hellenic beer in production. My review? Not for me – I’ll stick to wine anyday.

The following day, we woke to beautiful sunny skies – the weather that I had imagined for Santorini. We decided to take a boat excursion to see the still-active volcano of Santorini and the hot springs on another nearby burnt island. And so, we took yet another cable car down to the Old Port of Santorini, leaving Alie and I to scream and Amanda to laugh at us, and we hopped on board a ship to the black mass that is across from the crescent of Santorini. We hiked up to the peak of this volcano, which might have been the cause of the mythical Atlantis. Smelling the strong sulfur and feeling the heat of the volcano with my bare hands, I couldn’t help but sing to myself “This girl is on fire….”

View of Santorini from the volcano

After, we boarded the boat yet again and headed off to the hot springs. We came prepared with our bathing suits under our clothes, but expected to pull into land and get off the boat, relaxing into these warm bodies of water. Once we pulled up, we were told that the boat can’t reach that small piece of land – that if you wanted to wade in the hot springs, you had to jump out of the boat and swim there. Nothing in the world had sounded more terrifying to me and I considered not doing it. However, I took a deep breath and leaped into the cold, blue water of the Aegean and swam until I reached the orange warmth of the hot springs. I couldn’t help but have the hugest smile on my face the entire time, to see such beauty around me and feel a part of it – it was my favorite thing that I have done during my time abroad this year. As the horn blew for us to come back to the ship, I couldn’t help but be sad that it was such a short time, but it is one that I will remember forever.

The only picture I managed to get of the hot springs. You can see to the left of the white building some orange in the water, that's them!

Once we reached Fira, we relaxed by the pool a bit and then took the next bus to Perissa, which is home to a black sand beach. Santorini has two black sand beaches: one in Perissa and one in Kamari. By the time we reached Perissa, it was quite dead and the sun had already began setting. Still we enjoyed a nice meal on comfy sunbeds and enjoyed the scenery. That night, we enjoyed one last night wandering around Fira together, shopping and eating ice cream. Then, we decided to go for a drink at Two Brothers Bar. Though it seemed like such a small place, the atmosphere inside was twenty times bigger than the locale. We couldn’t help but sing along with the throwback music, laugh at people around us and cringe at people getting a Head Shot.*** After spending two days together, we said our goodbyes to Amanda – it was so nice to have met her during our stay  and to have spent so much time with her!

 

The next day, Alie and I headed out to the other black sand beach, Kamari. I instantly preferred this beach, much more relaxed and much more space to lay. We spent the afternoon lounging and soaking up the sun. I could not get over the relaxing sound of the waves and the crisp blue against the huge rock façade at the beach. After a quick stop in Fira, we went off to Oia one last time to watch the sunset. This was easily the best sunset we saw, and we met a wonderful couple from Arizona while we were there too. It was kind of sad thinking that it was our last time in Oia during our stay, but I know that I will be coming back – it is just too beautiful to not return again!

Once we got back to Fira, we decided to be bold and do something that we had constantly talked about trying: going to a fish bar. There are several of these on Santorini and I know they are also quite popular in Asia. It’s a place where you stick your feet in water and little fish come up and eat all the dead skin off your feet! It might sound kind of gross (because it is) but I didn’t mind it at all! Alie on the other hand was pretty freaked out. With our feet all soft and rejuvenated, we went for a nice seafood dinner at Nikolas, a place recommended by our hotel. We had some shrimp spaghetti, tzaziki and Santo vino (wine made right on the island). Stuffed to the brim, we slept well on our last night in Santorini.

On our final day on the island, we decided to just relax. We went back to Kamari and acted as beach bums, soaking up every last bit of sun possible. We watched our last sunset in Fira, had our last pork gyros (which I am now having withdrawals of) and tried loukoumades, a fried honey donut, with chocolate and ice cream. We also met some nice friends from Canada while waiting until midnight for our bus to our ferry – it never ceases to amaze me the great people you meet while traveling. As we boarded and settled into our cabin to sleep on our way to Athens, I couldn’t help but think that it was the end of something great. Santorini, hands down, you win – I can only hope that I will return very soon.

*Grumpy on my part because I had to pay an extra 35 euro to check my bag…. stupid Easyjet!

**Freddocino is like a frappé… but BETTER! I had totally forgotten about these things, and I was obsessed with trying to find one on the island after consuming an amazing one on the ferry. Alas, I could not find any, and I was left with just the memory of the first one.

***Head Shot: When you take a shot wearing a helmet and the second you’re done, someone bangs your head with a baseball bat.

Mamma Mia, Italia!

Getting up at 7am in Nice, France, we boarded a short regional train to take us across the border to Italy. During the train ride, we met a couple from Tazmania that were going to Cinque Terre as well and without saying so, we all decided to hang together for the rest of the day. Going to Ventimiglia, then Genoa, we were finally on the last train which was taking us to Riomaggiore (the last of the five Cinque Terre villages). We might have been on the train for about ten minutes when an elderly man in a suit came up to Alie and I. Noticing I had my feet on the seat and thinking that he wanted to sit down, I took my feet down and showed with my hands that he could sit there. He shook his head and instead said “tickets”. We hastily showed him our tickets, at which point he began quickly talking in italian, obviously telling us there was something wrong with our tickets. We kept repeating “sorry, we don’t know what you are saying”, until finally in fairly broken English he said that our tickets were not validated. Not knowing we had to validate these tickets, we said we would get off the train at the next stop and put them through the machine. However, he did not wait for the next stop and immediately said “50 euros” – the fine for two unvalidated tickets. 

All at once, the five Italian commuters sitting around us started yelling at him. Neither of us know Italian, but I can pick up a few words here and there because of the similarity to French. What did I pick up? Tourists, English, not fair. These five locals, who did not know us from Adam, were trying to prevent us from paying the fine! The conductor looked ambushed but kept fighting back, while Alie and I wrestled up the euros to give to him. The woman sat beside us turned to us and said, “You didn’t know you had to validate, right? Make sure you get a receipt so he doesn’t pocket the money!” A moment later, he took back our tickets and hand validated them, meaning that the fifty euros we had prepared went back in our wallets.  Because we were traveling with the Tazmanians, we got the same deal for them. I will never forget that moment, when five boisterous Italians stuck their necks out for us. As each of them left the train to their various destinations, we couldn’t help but repeat “grazie” several times with huge smiles of appreciation.

Besides this minor detail, the train ride was absolutely gorgeous – it’s maybe my favorite train journey that I have done in Europe thus far. It follows the coast, so you get to see small coast town after small coast town, with the sunshine shimmering on the Mediterranean the entire way. Once we arrived in Riomaggiore, we found the hostel office and he said to follow him up a few stairs. Few was definitely an understatement. We were staying at nearly the highest point in Riomaggiore, so when we went up one row of stairs, another would appear. Once we got settled and changed, we headed back out to do some hiking. Hiking through the Cinque Terre villages is a well-known tourist attraction, people come from far and wide to hike these magnificent trails that promise stunning views of the coastline and the villages. Since the next day it was supposed to rain, we set off in the late afternoon to make the most out of a beautiful sunny day. We were disappointed to hear that only one hiking trail was open – many were closed due to landslides that have been occurring in the area. Nevertheless, we took the first regional train to Vernazza and headed off onto the trail to Monterosso.

Hiking this trail was easily in my top five things I have done this experience abroad. With the sun shining on the clear blue water contrasting against the bountiful green earth, words and pictures truly do not do it justice. It is something that you have to do yourself to experience its beauty.

Vernazza

When were reaching Monterosso (the end of the trail), we vaguely heard upbeat, Italian music and a woman loudly speaking a mix of English and Spanish. We looked down to find a man who cut a hole in the fence of his vineyard and was selling his freshly made wines, limoncello and lemonade. And the woman? Her name was Joann and she hailed from DC, and she convinced us to buy a lemonade and chat with her awhile. To say that this was a pinnacle moment of our whole whirlwind trip through Europe would be an understatement – we were quoting Joann throughout the remainder of our travels.* Those are the moments you will always remember: the interesting people you meet while you are traveling all over the world. After exchanging e-mails, we continued on our way, reaching Monterosso just as the sun was setting. We ran out into the water, feeling like kids as we joyfully reflected on such an amazing day.

Our pre-Joann view of the vineyard

HAPPY

We took a train back to Riomaggiore and had what is a huge fad in this part of Italy: a fried cone of goodness! We went for fried calamari and fries and topped it off with a necessary gelato for dessert. We slept well and woke up to the sound of rain outside. Not feeling eager to walk through its wetness, we slept in and convinced ourselves to go outside and explore the other villages by train. When we arrived in Monterosso, it had blustering wind and was raining. Needless to say, we hopped the next train to Vernazza. It might have had something to do with the fact that the sun came out, but Vernazza was definitely my favorite out of the five villages - the most picturesque and the most things to do. And it helps that the hiking trail from Vernazza to Monterosso is regarded as the best.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Corniglia and Manarola, both beautiful in their own ways, and then headed back to Riomaggiore. This was already our last day in town, and I was left wishing we had more time and better weather conditions to hike between all the villages. Nevertheless, I had a traditional Italian dinner of spaghetti and tiramisu and got to bed early for a full day of train travel the following day.

View from Manarola

It was May 1^st and we woke up early to catch the first train to Pisa. I knew that this day was a huge holiday in France but I was wondering how it was going to be in Italy. Once arriving in Pisa, we went to ask about the bus that takes you directly to the leaning tower. The woman shook her head and simply said “not running”, it was the holiday. So, we set off on foot and walked through Pisa to find its crowning glory. Walking down the street and seeing the leaning tower at the end was kind of a surreal experience – it was REALLY leaning! I didn’t expect it to be so dramatic! We of course stopped and took all the obligatory photos, had a nice pizza margarhita lunch and then hustled back to the station for our four hour train ride to Milan.

Being a super tourist yet again

Upon arrival in Milan, we took the metro and found our hostel, which was more like a BnB on the seventh floor of an apartment building. Once we paid, we explained we had one night and asked for the best way to get to the Duomo, the number one thing to see in Milano. They explained to us the metro routes but then said that the metros would be closing in 25 minutes because of the holiday. Taking this as our cue, we hustled off to the metro and came up in the bustling center of Milan. The Duomo di Milano was just as amazing as everyone describes, very intricate, with every single detail showing its beauty. Then, we took our last night in Italy to eat all of the things we hadn’t gotten a chance to yet: cannoli, gnocchi.. and of course one last gelato. I mean, when in Italy!

Duomo of Milan

After standing in the taxi line for half an hour, we shared a taxi back to the hostel, which brought back the memories I had of horrible Italian driving. Leaving Italy the following morning was kind of sad. Italy is one of the countries that I feel oddly at home in – I don’t know the language, though I have seen almost every major place in the country. I feel comfortable there. And their food is downright delicious! I know that whenever I want to come back again, Italia will be there with open arms, welcoming me with two big scoops of gelato and a shot of limoncello. Ciao for now!

*Our favorite quote? “Girls, marry with potential. FINANCIAL POTENTIAL.” She had maybe a 

few glasses of wine……

Oh Gaud-I love Barcelona!

The trip to Barcelona began very early Easter morning. As we set off with our luggage and bags of Easter candy in tow*, we took the first bus to Avignon centre. As the gare routière (bus station) in Avignon has been under construction since September, it is kind of confusing to know where these international buses pick up from. After asking at the office beforehand, we waited in a little nook outside of the main road of Avignon, hoping that sometime within the next hour, a Eurolines bus would come to pick us up. As time passed, more and more people started gathering, making us feel much more assured, until finally the bus pulled up. The driver came down and instantly starting yelling directions in Spanish. As neither Alie nor I know any Spanish, we were left using a weird mix of English and French to get our point across. Nevertheless, we boarded the bus to Barcelona…. the nine hour bus. There was ample amount of entertainment though, all stemming from an older Spanish woman chatting up all the young men around her. There was clearly a language barrier between them, but even us outsiders looking in on the conversation couldn’t help but laugh along with them, as their tone of voice and facial expressions were hilarious. 

Finally, we arrived in Barcelona during the evening. We might have gotten a little lost in the process of finding our hostel… an hour later we arrived at the front door of Nikbor hostel, which had a sign attached saying that reception was next door at a different hostel. As we entered the beautiful Casa Gracia hostel and said we were checking in for Nikbor, we were informed that Nikbor was now closed. Inside, I felt an immediate sense of panic until the receptionist continued to say “But we have taken over all their reservations, so you have an upgraded room!” It was a blessing in disguise that this happened, we got a better room at a better hostel for a cheaper price! Casa Gracia is definitely one of the best hostels I have stayed at: spacious rooms and bathrooms, big common area, HUGE free breakfast, reliable wi-fi, friendly staff (minus one receptionist who was not always the nicest), and an amazing general atmosphere. Even the décor had its own unique style, close to a rustic charm. I would recommend this place to anyone visiting Barcelona, definitely worth every penny!

After a nice Easter feast (sangria included of course), we settled in for bed. After waking up early on Monday morning, we set off into the city to try to get to the Sagrada Familia just as it opened, hoping to beat the line for tickets. Walking through the city to Gaudi’s one of a kind cathedral, I was very thrown off. I had heard that Barcelona was a bustling city, some even said it was quite sketchy. Even driving in on the bus on Sunday, you could tell that this city is quite dirty and has some bad parts. As we were walking amongst the spitting rain Monday morning, not a soul was in sight and nearly all shops were closed. This was my first experience with Easter Monday, an extra day after Easter Sunday where many people don’t have to go to work and many businesses are closed. I was aware that France celebrated this but now, Spain is added to the list too. 

As we reached the Sagrada Familia, you could definitely tell that the cathedral was not closed for Easter Monday. With lines wrapping around all sides of the building, we found the end and began what we anticipated to be a long wait. Two minutes after, one of the workers announced that all morning tickets had already been sold out. It was 9:15am, 15 minutes after they opened. It became increasingly clear that if we wanted to go here during our stay, we were going to have to get our tickets online, which is exactly what we did for Tuesday. With a free morning, we decided to explore as much of the city as we could on foot. We walked down the street that our hostel was found on, Passieg de Gracia. This street has a great location within the city and is lined with many expensive shops, including Michael Kors, Prada, and many more. Whenever we walked down it, I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking down the Champs d’Elysées of Barcelona. Also on this street are two of Antoni Gaudi’s amazing casas. The first we came to was Casa Mìla. Unfortunately, there was scaffolding covering the entire façade of the building, and since paying 23 euro to enter was not in our budget, we just left our impression of this casa to be of the poster surrounding the building. The second casa along this street was one of my favorite things I saw in Barcelona: Casa Batllò. With the stone façade of the building almost looking melted and molded into bone like pieces, this was my first real experience seeing Gaudi’s art nouveau architecture and I was nothing short of amazed. I was also struck by the colors, the tiling showing a mixture of iridescent blue, pink, purple and green. Because this was always on our way to the hostel, I was happy that we passed by it at least twice a day during our stay.

This is all we could see of Casa Mila... boo!

As the Passieg de Gracia met up with the famous La Rambla, there was a big square connecting the two, called Placa de Catalunya. A big area, filled with fountains and flowers, and a big area for vendors or people to walk in. However today, as there were not a lot of people around, the pigeons took center stage. They are there every day, as I noticed afterwards, but since it was cold, rainy and Easter Monday that first day, I might have partaken in some pigeon running…. Then we continued down La Rambla, the biggest pedestrian street in Barcelona. Many compare it to the Champs d’Elysées in Paris, but I consider this street to not be the same level of chic that the Champs boasts. Even with the rain and cold, we walked the entire length of La Rambla until we reached the sea, and then turned around and walked it all again. With the awful weather, we were surprised to see how busy this street was – we were having to squeeze through people at times! Back at our hostel with pizza and easter candy, we took a well deserved break indoors for a few hours.

Just chasing some pigeons...

La Rambla

When we left the hostel to walk back to La Rambla, we were happily surprised to see the sun peeking through the clouds and the temperature rising. When we reached the pedestrian street, we were surprised to see it even more packed**. We walked to Placa Reial, where we were meeting for a free walking tour of the Gothic quarter. Since we got there early, we got to soak up the sun while sitting by a fountain.

Our free walking tour of the Gothic quarter was really amazing. We were able to see the Catedral de Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar (what the locals consider the real cathedral of Barcelona) and the Jewish quarter. Our guide was SO knowledgeable and she really made the history come alive, even making some of us act out the events. Needless to say, it was a great way to see a part of the city that we probably wouldn’t have explored by ourselves.

Catedral de Barcelona

That evening, we went back to the hostel to have dinner. Casa Gracia allows you to make your own food using their kitchen or you can sign up for their dinners that they make each night. We decided to sign up for paella night, since we wanted to have some while we were here anyway. Although I had definitely had better paella before, it was a great cheap meal and we got to enjoy it while listening to live Spanish music (with an American classic here or there).

On our second full day in Barcelona, we woke up to cloudy skies and a chance of rain yet again. I was even thinking about naming this post “The rain in Spain does not stay in the plains” but I thought it might sound too negative. Either way, we set off to explore another Gaudi masterpiece: Parc Guell. When you enter Parc Guell from the metro, you have to walk up a steep hill. Several steep hills. Thankfully, they provide escalators for those who are not so physically fit. That’s right: outside escalators. Once you enter the park, you are rewarded for your hard work with a wonderful view of Barcelona. As we wandered through the park, trying to find where the entrance is to Gaudi’s portion, I couldn’t help but notice how massive the site was, and that the sun decided to come out! After paying for a ticket to enter, we were able to marvel at the mosaic tile work that covered the surrounding benches of the park. This type of mosaic work was called trencadìs and was specific to what Gaudi created. I was also amazed by the two houses at the front gates of the park, both looking like gingerbread houses with some type of marshmallow roofs. And who can forget about that impressive mosaic gecko?! I wish that we had more time to explore the park, but instead we rushed through it and got back on the metro towards the Sagrada Familia.

Learning our lesson from the day before, we bought our tickets online a day in advance. We went directly up to the gate showed our screenshot images of our tickets and were in the Cathedral in less than 10 minutes. Its that easy folks – always buy your tickets to the Sagrada Familia online! Anyways, I really don’t think I can describe in words or images how breathtaking this cathedral is. Still unfinished, it literally took my breath away when we went inside. The only thing that I did not like about it was the fact that you could still hear the loud jack-hammering and sawing from the workers still constructing. Even so, we sat for a bit and just stared around us, trying to soak in its beauty. Then we headed up one of the towers. Through the recommendation of a friend, we bought tickets for the towers to get a better view of the city. Now, those who know me know that I don’t like heights, so its not surprising that I was a little weak in the knees. Not to mention that the winding staircases from tower to tower are clearly just a one-way affair, leaving anyone to become incredibly claustrophobic in the process. I am glad I went up in them, but I don’t think I would do it again – got such a better view from Parc Guell!

Pictures don't do it justice.

After having a lunch of a churro con Nutella (couldn’t resist), we were exhausted. So, we headed back to the hostel to partake in another Spanish tradition: an afternoon siesta. One thing that this whole whirlwind travel adventure has taught me is this: traveling, no matter how grandious it may sound, is TIRING. You need to take breaks every once in a while. For dinner that evening, we decided to get some Spanish tapas. Taking a recommendation from our tour guide the day before, we went to Gasterea, a little hole in the wall L-shaped bar, which looked like it could successfully seat about 20 people. Mind you, we arrived at 7pm, VERY early for any Spainard to be eating so the place was quite empty. As we sat down and tried to decipher the menu, I think both of us wondered if this was the right place to go to. Then the friendly waiter came by and explained as much of the menu as he could, letting have some time to think. We ended up ordering MANY different types of tapas, including fried calamari, patatas romescadas and lots of pintxos, which are tapas that toothpicked on top of a piece of bread. What was my favorite? The sweet cheese and blueberry pintxos. I seriously could have had thirty of those  things. We washed our meal down with a few glasses of tinto de verano. To walk off the meal a bit, we took a nice evening stroll down Passeig de Gracia. It was beautiful to see all the stores lit up, and Casa Battlò as well.

Our last day in Barcelona,  we were hoping for good weather so that we would finally be able to spend some time on Barcelona’s famous beaches. When we woke up, we were not disappointed – sunny blue skies outside our window. As we went into the lobby for breakfast we noticed everyone around us with roses. All of a sudden, one of the workers came up to us and gave each one of us a rose and said “Feliz Sant Jordi!” Saint Jordi Day is a tradition in Catalunya, the region of Spain that Barcelona is in. Tradition says on this day, a man must give a woman he loves a rose. As this day is also National book day, tradition also states that a woman must give a man she loves a book. And so, in Catalunya on this day, anyone can sell roses or books anywhere in the city. As you can imagine, it was a busy day to be in Barcelona. Thinking back to Easter Monday, I would NEVER call that day busy anymore. Either way, it was an exciting day to be there, and amazing to see vendors on the street everywhere selling their goods.

We headed down past La Rambla to the port and the beaches of Barcelona. We decided to go to the most popular beach, Barcelonetta. Although it was sunny, the wind made it quite cool, a perfect beach day. However, I will say that this was not a relaxing beach experience. Just as you are about to close your eyes and enjoy the sea breeze and sound of the waves, you hear someone yelling “Masaje, massage!” or “Ice cold mojitos!” The amount of vendors on this beach surprised me and, honestly, really annoyed me. I am glad that we had some time to soak up the sun, but I prefer the calm beaches at home any day!

The rest of our last day was spent souvenir shopping and relaxing at the hostel. As we left our hostel and waited for our overnight bus back to Avignon, I couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved to get back to somewhere familiar. I really enjoyed all of the architecture I saw in Barcelona, everything Gaudi did was amazing to see in person. However, I don’t feel like the city was really for me – I’ll take small town Provence any day!

*Thanks Tammie and Debbie! (Our moms are the best)

**After reflection, this could have been because of two things. 1. The sun came out. Those Spaniards love sunlight! 2. It was 4:30pm. If you live in Barcelona, you basically are nocturnal, since the clubs don’t close until 8am.