Hello lovelies,

remember the Interrail trip I did...uhm, two years ago? I finally got to write days 17-19 and there are a lot more cities missing. Oops. I hope to write them soon but Japan is also waiting to be written and I am a bit overwhelmed with everything.

Soooo, the next part of my trip was Spain and it's actually a bit weird but I didn't really like Barcelona as much. I know that a lot of people loved the city, hence why I also wanted to go but the only thing I really enjoyed was the beach and the gothic quarter and that's about it. I can't really put my finger on the reason why I didn't like Barcelona. I think it was just the straight grid pattern because all streets looked the same to me.

Day 17

I started the day by sleeping in. My cough became strong and hard, slowly reaching my lungs and I needed a good night's rest. After getting ready my first goal was buying water as I had none anymore and then straight to the beach. And I wanted to see the beach again desperately. At 11 am I left the hotel and wandered down the roads of Barcelona. I thought I was near the beach but it took me almost an hour to reach it. And before I went down to the sandy goodness, I made a stopover at mcdonald's because I was starving. To my shame I have to admit, that I never had Spanish food in all of my stay. 

 

Afterwards, I went down to the espigo del bogatell and there I sat and stared into the open ocean. I remember it was hot but also a bit windy and I sat underneath my parasol, hoping to not get scorched by the sun. 

 

After an hour I headed back and decided to take the bus to the shop I wanted to go, Madame chocolat. It was a much smaller shop than I had anticipated but they had a lot of cute items. I bought a secondhand bodyline dress, some hair clips and small jewelry as souvenirs. 

I took a stroll at rd. de sant pere which I named asian street as there were so many Asian restaurant, shops and bubble tea stores. I got myself a bubble tea, the first after Amsterdam and enjoyed the cool store as it was really hot in the midday heat. 

I continued after a small rest and came to the inner city of Barcelona. The Cathedrale Barcelona looked breathtaking from the outside but I decided to return the next day and didn't visit it. Instead, I went to the Gothic quarter. The quarter had small streets, high buildings and the sun couldn't reach the floor. There was a diy store I absolutely loved - they had so many items and I wanted to buy everything but on the end I only bought some strawberries and ballet shoes. 

I came to the end of the gothic quarter and saw the ocean again. I decided to go back to the hotel because it looked like a heavy rainstorm was coming up. The temperatures dropped increasingly and I was in a real rush to get back. The wind whipped sand into my face and eyes and the sky was so dark. It started raining when I was around the corner of the hotel and ran the last meters. I heard the storm outside but I was safe and didn't really care about it anymore. I was safe in my hotel room and rested until the next day.

Day 18

My cough was so bad, I couldn't sleep well. I had a huge cookie for breakfast and stood in front of the cathedrale Barcelona at 11am and finally went it. 

The entrance fee was more expensive than I thought but I paid it anyway. I was also happy to always carry a scarf with me as I had to cover my shoulders. The cathedrale had a lot of side-shrines, a treasure room and, my favourite, I small fountain/pond with lots of ducks. The ducks had small fluffballs around their head and just looked super cute. 

 

 

For lunch I went to eat japanese food and got Katsukare Maki and Mochi. And about 1 liter of water. The woes of travelling in summer - getting water and afterwards, a bathroom.

 

The Muba - Museum of Barcelona was next on my list. The first stop was an old Garum factory from the Romans deep underneath the city. I found it fascinating that the city was built on these old walls and that they were still standing. At the next level was an exhibition on food supply in Barcelona, which was super interesting.

Afterwards I went to Augustustemple but didn't enter the musem - because I just didn't see the entrance? It was amazing to see how they incorporated the pillars of the temple into a normal house and stood there in awe for a while.

 

I stumbled over a Turron shop and decided to finally get some goodies for my friends. I think I got them about 15 bars of chocolate, nuts, and other spanish sweets. The heat was too much for me and I actually just wanted to sleep but decided to walk along Rambla and take the next metro to the hotel. I was already at the Columbus statue and didn't find a metro, so I turned back and headed another way and came to paral-lel, and from there I finally made it back to the hotel. 

Day 19

It was finally time for the design museum of Barcelona. I had read that they had a whole floor dedicated to period fashion. And the dresses, suits, corsets etc looked amazing, but I had a real problem with the phrasing and descriptive words used for the corsets. But see for yourself here, I wrote and indepth review of the museum. 

A bit dissatisfied I left the museum and decided to go to the next point of interest, the sagrada familia. I didn't want to enter because the ticket was 30€ which is just too expensive for a half-finished church. But it was stunning from the outside nevertheless, although not quite my taste of architecture. 

Next to the church was the first taco bell I ever saw in real life and I was almost tempted to grab some food but decided against it. Unsure of what to do by myself and I also didn't want to return to the gothic quarter, I went back to the hotel and napped a bit. Afterwards, I went to restuarant el nano bellaterra, a latin restaurant near the hotel. I was not fond of their drink but the food was good, although it was a bit dry....

 

All the best,

Auris Lothol