Barcelona! The City of Amore and Thieves

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." --Martin Buber

It's taken me what feels like years to start writing this, so I apologize for not being on the ball and missing out on a few weeks of posting! I recently went to Barcelona and I can safely say I have fallen in LOVE with the city. For anyone who knows me this might be surprising. I usually HATE big cities and avoid them at all costs. They are just overpopulated, too busy, and not enough foliage for my liking. I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures... That will be explained later on... :(

Laura and I were ridiculously excited to visit Spain. Luckily she was fluent in Spanish since I could barely say hello. I could've spoken to everyone in French, but I would've seemed pretty insane. We boarded our evening flight and it still hadn't hit me that we were going to one of the countries I had always wanted to visit. We arrived at night and got a great view of the mountains with little lights dotted all along them where people were going about their daily lives. Being in a plane does weird things to your thought processes, at least for me it does. I kept thinking about how no one really paid any attention to the plane flying overhead with a hundred people on board. Everyone was going about their daily lives and we each had our own purpose for going to Spain and we had no idea how we would affect people there or how the experience would change us if at all.

Laura and I stayed outside the city in a place called El Prat de Llobregat. It's a very industrial part of town, but we decided to go exploring. We have never been the type of people who were able to resist exploring anywhere no matter if it seemed like nothing was there. Little did we know we would discover quite possibly the best playground of all time. It had slides, mesh passageways, tubes to climb through, and swings. You never really realize how little you used to be until you get stuck in something like that...     Laura and I really like see saws for some reason and we found the mother of them all. It was attached to a pole sticking up about 10 feet high. The see saw was hooked to the top of it so it could go up and down, spin in a circle, AND rotate side to side... all at the same time. We were prime entertainment for anyone who encountered us that night.

The next morning we got up early and headed into the city. Excited just doesn't do the feeling justice. I had no idea what to expect when I got there, but I was blown away. It was a huge city, but all of the buildings were old or had some unique character like all of the buildings Gaudi designed. We made our way around the Plaza Catalonia down La Rambla, which is a HUGE stretch of road that acts as a market for food, flowers, paintings, jewelry, etc. We also found Gaudi's house of bones. I had only ever seen a picture of this house in passing, but I immediately decided Gaudi was a genius. I can't really do it justice, but here's a picture so you can see what I'm talking about. His designs are just WEIRD, but so innovative and different. That's what really impressed me. It made a lasting statement, which is hard to have on me since most architecture tends to bore me.

We spent the rest of the day laying out trying to will our skin to get tan instead of the paper white sheen we had acquired after living in England for so long. We managed to skip over the gay beach and ended up on a topless beach. We didn't even notice until we ran in the water and were walking back to our towels. It was an.... interesting experience. All I have to say is that some people should not go topless and some people need a MUCH better plastic surgeon since it looked like they have pineapples underneath their skin. I've noticed that the people who look nice tend to steer towards the classier side in Barcelona... while the people you REALLY don't want to see bare it all, do. Yikes.

The next day Laura and I were ridiculously stoked. We have always been addicted to bike riding. It's pretty much a staple of our friendship. We had booked a biking tour of Barcelona with the Travel Bar Group. They are amazing. Use them if you ever go to Barcelona, you won't regret it. 

We spent over 3 hours riding around Barcelona and saw the beaches, Olympic village, Gaudi house of bones, other Gaudi works, La Sagrada Familia, the port, bull ring, park with a ridiculously large and elaborate fountain, and an Arc de Triomph. Needless to say it included everything and more that I wanted to see.




That night we decided to stay in town for dinner at the same place where we did the bike tour since it had a bar and restaurant attached.

Little did I know I would end up having a date! The bartender was by far the most attractive Spanish guy I had seen. He ended up being our waiter and somehow thought Laura was spanish and that I was french. We were just glad we didn't look like Americans. He ended up asking me out for drinks later that night. Laura and I ended up rushing back to our hotel and took ridiculously fast showers and I think I got ready faster than I ever have in my life... and I was still late. I blame the trains that only come once every 30 minutes and we never got a schedule. Oops. We met up after I searched for Plaza Catalonia and asked a very nice Spanish man where the heck the store was that I was supposed to be meeting Javier. I'm just glad my french came in handy.

And here's a picture!

We went around some back alleys to a little known bar and had drinks. I won a drinking competition and some guys about killed themselves laughing that I could out drink a guy 3 times my size. HA. I guess I have England to thank for that. We decided to go meet up with Laura and along the way I was pretty much swept off my feet. He stopped me and told me to stand still and hold my arms out and then just spin. So I did what any girl would want to do, I spun, and ended up in one of those fancy dip things that you always see people doing on tv. We got bored with the bar and decided to take a walk on the beach. Yet again he stopped me to dance and I learned a bachata in the middle of the port in the moonlight. Yep. I was smitten. It was literally like a scene out of a movie. Not sure how I got so lucky. We got to the beach and were talking. The next thing I realize is that my wallet has disappeared. Javier takes off running down the beach and confronts the guy, meanwhile I'm standing halfway down the beach completely helpless trying to be consoled by a girl speaking to me in Spanish... We comb the beach and Javier ends up getting punched and gets into a fight. The rest of us called the police, but by the time they got there the guy had gotten away. Javier managed to get back the wallet and my driver's license, but the jerk had gotten away with my money, both credit cards, and my camera. Of all the things someone could steal it had to be my camera. Pictures are the best way to remember everything and now all of that was gone. Needless to say I was upset, worried, anxious, and scared. 

I started the next day off with a thrilling trip to the police station to give them a statement. I thought it was going to be a bit like the DMV and would take years to even get a number. Turns out I only spent 30 minutes there and spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the restaurant with Javier and socializing with everyone there. Laura met up with me later that day and we spent the afternoon on the beach!

 That night I was supposed to hang out with Javier again, but my phone decided to smite me and didn't receive calls... Just my luck!!




On our last day we spent the morning buying souvenirs then decided to rent bikes again to visit the Sagrada Familia. I usually hate cathedrals and they almost always get boring after 30 minutes, but I think I could've stared at this one for hours. It was designed my Gaudi if that gives you any clues to its quirkiness. The carvings are different on all 4 sides and progresses from the birth of Jesus to his death in a really original way. There are ridiculously huge pillars that are topped with sculptures of local fruit. The pillars are designed after trees and if you turned the cathedral upside down the decorations mirrored the mountain range that surrounded Barcelona. Pollution had darkened the outside significantly so I wasn't prepared for the brilliant white of the stone on the inside. There was also stained glass everywhere in every color imaginable that illuminated different parts of the cathedral in multitudes of color depending on the time of day. Gaudi was an absolute architectural genius.

After that we rode around trying to recreate some of the pictures I lost on Laura's camera. It wasn't exactly the same, but at least we both have pictures thanks to her camera. The afternoon was spent on a beach in El Prat that was still just as beautiful, but tourists never came to that area so it was deserted except for some locals. The water was also SO MUCH warmer. I really didn't want to leave!! Thank goodness we had a night flight. It would've been much more depressing if we had to leave during the day without getting to lay out on the beach one last time.

Even after getting robbed I still love Barcelona. All of the tour guides warned us that once Barcelona gets a hold of you you will never want to leave and that's exactly what happened to them and also to me. I'm going to attempt to find a job there in the film industry or as a scuba divemaster. I just can't imagine myself staying away for too long. Now... to learn Spanish!

Again, sorry for the lack of pictures :( The next trip I take I will make sure my camera isn't stolen!

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way that they have been told to." --Alan Keightley

Road Trip Part 3--A Man Named Wallace, Arthur, and the Zombie Apocalypse

"The Journey, not the Arrival matters"--T.S. Eliot

Annnnd we're back in Edinburgh! There was just so much we felt we needed to see so we explored the city more before heading off to our next destination. Just as we arrived at our parking space it started raining... No big deal right? I'm used to it. Except... my stupid self left my rain jacket back in Leicester and all I had was a very permeable sweatshirt. Sarah and I grit our teeth and spent almost the entire morning outside visiting these lovely places:

That's Scot's Monument on the left and "The Shame of Edinburgh" on the right. It was SUPPOSED to be an exact replica of the Parthenon in Athens...

 NAILED IT. They took almost 8 years to do that and didn't even finish the foundation when money ran out. When they got the money again they decided to just leave it...

And that sums up how we felt all day in the rain.
We decided to go indoors to dry off so we went back to the National Museum. This time we started on the bottom floor like normal people and saw something pretty cool and creepy things.

I'll start with the creepy things. Yes that is a glove and dagger from the 15th century. Yes that is actual blood on it.

I just love full face masks that make people look like serial killers. Don't you? This was the mask of a churchman who was wanted for traveling around Scotland preaching against the religious changes that Charles II was forcing people to accept. He was never caught. Personally how dim do you have to be to not realize that is not actually someone's real face? Slightly sketchy situation in my opinion.

Now for the cooler things.

Sarah became and astronaut. We discovered the Lewis Chessmen who were made of walrus ivory and had the BEST facial expressions.

 We saw the first cloned sheep. I didn't realize she was already dead. Oops.

An AWESOME electric cello was there. I contemplated breaking the glass so I could play it, but I had a feeling I didn't want to end up in a Scottish jail.

I FEEL OLD knowing that this gaming system of amazing childhood dreams is now in a museum...





After playing with all of the objects that were mostly dominated by 8 year olds Sarah and I decided it was time to hit the road and say sayonara to Edinburgh. We were once again on the move and I was trying my best not to take out vehicles, pedestrians, foliage, and curbs as I was driving. We did feel really bad for the car at one point on the way to Stirling. There was some road work and a rather large bump in the road... we had passed it once on the way to Glen Coe and hit it at top speed which made both Sarah and I yell WOAHHHHHHHHHH for 20 seconds straight. As I neared it this is what happened in my brain.

"Emma there's that horrendously large bump. What would a normal person do? Well some people would slow down, but I'm not really in the mood. Oh well"

This is the conversation between Sarah and I right after those thoughts.

Sarah--"Hey Emma... do you remember that huge bump we went over before"

Me--"Yup. We're about to hit it again"    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

The car survived... Not sure about unscathed, but we were never charged anything for damage so I'm just going to assume the poor thing is alright. If anyone ever wants a sturdy car get a Vauxhall. I swear Sarah and I should be the people who test them for any kind of damage possible. This car was prepared for us and that's saying something.

We got to Stirling and managed to find the Wallace Monument without any trouble. We decided to hike all 200+ stairs to the top. I'm not sure what midget population of anorexic people lived in the UK way back when, but it really shows when you climb up a staircase an ant would find cramped, especially when it's a slippery stone and it's raining like crazy. Here's some pictures of Sarah's near death experiences and my near heart attacks after we made it to the top and back down without her slipping and used the stairs as a very bumpy slide.

That sword was taller than I was. That man must have been a goliath.

After we had explored the Wallace Monument we were pretty wiped out and made our way back down into England to Kendall where our bed and breakfast was located. On our way we made a wrong turn and tried to turn around literally 10 times, but the space was so narrow we just couldn't without backing into someone's living room. There was a cat sitting on a car watching our every move. I have never felt more judged by anything on the planet. It followed us with those judging eyes at our pathetic attempts at trying to leave this odd residence we randomly found ourselves in.

Just look at those beady little judgement eyes...





We finally arrived at the right bed and breakfast and Me being an exercisaholic decided to go for a run. It had just finished raining, which meant SLUGS. So many slugs. I felt like a mass murderer. I just gave up trying to avoid them because I'm pretty sure the cop I ran past doing a weird avoidance jump run thing thought I was on some sort of  drugs. He definitely gave me a funny look as I ran past on my way back. Sorry slugs...


We then woke up at the buttcrack of dawn to make the 6 hour drive down to Cornwall. Our first stop was Tintagel, birthplace of King Arthur! They had one heck of a castle. It was a 2 part castle set on 2 different cliffs facing each other and the only way to access either side was a steep, slippery, and rickety staircase. They must have had buns of steel climbing up there frequently.

I'm not sure how Sarah and I managed to do this, but we found a back way to the castle by completely bypassing the tourist paths that were easy. We went through a sheep field around a cliff, down a mini valley, over a cave, and up a path to the tourist building to buy our tickets. We still have no idea how we did that. It was an adventure. Sarah and I bought the world's best present for our friend Laura. Sarah got her a pencil sharpener that was a working catapult and I bought a bow and arrow and the arrows had suction cups on them. I ran around the whole site jumping out behind rocks and pretending to shoot things. I love being 5.

Look how terrifying those steps are. The mini blobs on top that are barely visible is the castle ruins...

We tried to get into Merlin's Cave, but we of course timed it so we came right at high tide when they were flooded. We at least got some great pictures.

After that we climbed up the other side of the ruins and explored the entire area only to find a sign that says "Beware this cliff could collapse at any time. It will eventually all collapse and fall into the sea."
THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me that AFTER I climbed up here and am looking out over the edge. Jerks. The English have a distorted sense of humor sometimes...

Sarah and I completely entered nerd heaven here and ran around exploring the rest of the day. We were kicked out at closing time and went into town to have lunch in a local pub.

We then drove another few hours to our hotel. We woke up the next morning ready to go on an epic fossil hunt. Turns out we have no idea how to find fossils. We spent about 3 hours and all we found are what we are assuming to be fossil poop... Yay poop... Buzz kill.

Our morning was anti-climatic, but our afternoon drive back to Leicester was filled with the beginnings of the zombie apocalypse.

It was a dark, foggy afternoon and looked like something out of a horror film. We were the only cars on the road and had passed under a thick patch of trees so we couldn't see anything but fog. Then suddenly out of NOWHERE a creepy figure of a woman slowly lurches across the street in such a zombie like fashion that the Walking Dead show needs to hire her immediately.

Man, look at that splendid view. Perfect for driving.

The rest of the trip consisted of us discussing:

1. Worst countries to be in during the zombie apocalypse: Any country in Asia... too many people to eat us. Africa... same problem and too many scary animals to eat us.

2. If you could have anyone in history be on your side for the attack who would it be?     Chuck Norris, George Washington, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Batman, Spiderman, The Hulk, Thor, Jason Bourne, Terminator, Houdini, Ivan the Terrible, Abe Lincoln, etc.

3. What skills should you acquire to convince someone they NEED you in your awesome amazing safe house?   Knitting (don't judge you need clothes fixed and made), scuba so you can build a dome of safety underwater, knife throwing skills, sniper, cooking, washing, ninja, ventriloquism (throw voice so zombies think I'm in a different place and then ninja them to death), climb trees, fort building, agriculture, build a batmobile, fire breathing, tank driving/construction/operation, baking, become an electrician, to name a few.

I hope you feel more prepared. Sarah and I do.


"We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment" --Hilaire Belloc