D2: Barcelona
I awoke from a dead slumber with my alarm at 5:40 am. Woof. I needed to be at the airport around 9:30 and public transportation, while cheap, takes some time to do. The bus stop was a 10 minute walk away from the hostel and lucky me, it was pouring rain…. at least I didn’t have to take a shower.
My flight touched down shortly before noon after a bit of a drag of a travel day. I awoke from a dead slumber, checked out of the hostel, and then walked in a downpour to my bus heading to the airport all before 6 am.
The airport in France is just like the airport in the USA. Shocker, I know, but it makes traveling a piece of cake. The bus ride into Barce was easy as hell, and I beat my friends to the Airbnb we’d be sharing for the next four days. The next few days would be spent with 2 friends from the states, Kylee and Alex, and one of their mutual friends, Allie, who I met in Barcelona.
I showered first thing, feeling the desperate need to rinse off the hangover mixed with a night of sleep-sweating since the hostel last night was so damn hot.
Refreshed, we leave to go to a European fútbol (soccer) match, which I only realize on the way it is THE Barcelona team. This excites me even more since going to a game like this has been on my bucket list since traveling to Europe in high school. It lived up to the hype.
The food today was special. I can count on this crew picking out incredible local, fresh food and today was no exception. Lunch was at Flax & Seed, a vegan restaurant, where I had vegan Pad Thai. For dinner, we enjoyed tapas with the highlight being a huge portion of mussels that were an absolute delight (especially when mixed with wine!)
Overall, a wonderful first day in the city. It is good to be back exploring.
Oh and almost forgot! We went to a roof top bar for drinks where I had my first Aperol Spritz, the infamous European cocktail, and it was delicious. It reminds a bit of orange crush Fanta, and brings back all kinds of childhood memories when, if my brother and I were good, my dad would take us to the grocery store to pick out a Fanta pop.
