Eat & Repeat: Barcelona Edition

That's pretty much all we did in Spain, really. Eat. Tapas, paella, sangria... anything Spanish. But before I get into more detail about that, I'll start from the beginning of our trip.

We actually found this in Madrid but I find it a fitting title for my Barcelona post

Our weekend trip to Spain this time consisted of stopping at Barcelona and then Madrid. Our flight from Paris to Barcelona was at 6:40am, and in true procrastinator fashion, I did not end up sleeping until 3am. Was I a zombie the entire time again? Yes. 

To start off the trip, the taxi we ordered did not show up. By this time it was 5am so we were freaking out. We had to call another cab and we ended up getting to the airport fine. We then went through security, where as luck would have it, I get chosen to do a body search. JOY. Of all days, really? We then go to pick up our stuff from the bins that go through the security check, where of course our bin gets stopped to get searched. Turns out Allan had put his >100ml bottle of lotion in his carry on. Clearly all modes of transportation hate us. But in the end, we end up getting on the plane fine and land in Barcelona. 

We had already known prior to flying over that Barcelona would be rainy for the day. We just didn't expect how crazy the rain would actually be. We went to our hotel, dropped off our bags as check-in was at 2pm but we arrived at 9am. On our way to find the nearest metro station, we stopped by Barceloneta Beach, one of Barcelona's top 10 beaches. It was gloomy and rainy so it was completely dead except for a few surfers here and there.

Our original plan had been to start at Parc Guell, then make our way over to Sagrada Familia, then explore the Gothic Quarter (or Barri Gotic), and then go to Las Ramblas at night. Due to the rain, we decided to postpone Parc Guell and start at Sagrada Familia instead. By the time we got off the metro, it was POURING. Our shoes were soaked within the first 15 minutes of being out in the rain, and it did not help that we realized after 20 minutes that we were standing in the wrong line to purchase tickets. We finally got into the church, and the inside was gorgeous. Gaudi's work is spectacular! We soon finished looking around the cathedral and went to go look through the museum and gift shop, just to avoid the rain for a bit longer. After, we headed outside to attempt to take a few photos of the church's exterior. That was a mission in itself! We couldn't look up without our faces/cameras getting wet, so we got like 3 photos, which were all pretty terrible.

We then miserably made our way to grab lunch, and then took the metro to the Gothic Quarter. There, we saw the Barcelona Cathedral (also difficult to photograph in the rain), and decided to find a cafe to sit in for a while to wait out the rain. We spent 2 hours at Crema & Caffe sipping on tea & cappucinos, while trying to dry off. It was inevitable that we had to head back to our hostel at some point in time so we headed back, checked in, and chilled in our room for a bit.

Barcelona Cathedral

Mint tea, green tea, cappucino

Bedcelona Gracia Hostel

After, we decided to go for tapas at Celler de Tapas. For those who don't know what tapas are, they are small plates of various Spanish appetizers which are deeelicious! We ordered a few different dishes and a pitcher of sangria, and met a lovely couple from Halifax who had noticed we were either from Canada or the US and started talking to us. I highly recommend this tapas restaurant, the prices are reasonable and the food is amazing.

The grilled squid with garlic and parsley dressing (bottom middle) was to die for

After tapas, we made our way to Las Ramblas, where we did some shopping. Now since it was raining outside, everyone was told to leave their umbrellas by the door. By the time we were finished at H&M, my umbrella had been stolen. I was so sad. We then made our way to a few other shops before going for dinner at Taller de Tapas. They have the best paella there, definitely worth trying! After dinner, we realized that Karen's umbrella had also been stolen from the umbrella bin at the front of the restaurant. Clearly today was not our day. All we had left was Allan's very broken umbrella which was just bent beyond repair. We went back to the hostel and called it a night.

H&M in Barcelona

Paella

Broken umbrella

Side note: I am never staying in a hostel ever again. Call me high maintenance, but I just couldn't deal with it. The beds themselves were okay, but the fact that we had to share a washroom and there was only 1 for 12 people was not ideal.

Prior to my flight to Barcelona, I had not known that flying when you were sick was a bad idea. I had a cough and runny nose, so by the end of the flight, my ear was hurting because it would not pop back from the air pressure, and my head was also killing me. Being sick, with my head hurting and ear messed up, while walking in the rain all day was not fun.

Overall we had a pretty crappy experience in Barcelona, minus the food. I really really wish we got to go to Parc Guell, it seems like such an amazing place with interesting architecture. It was just a shame that we didn't have better weather or else I'm sure I would've loved Barcelona!

IBIZA

We spent the next 2 days in sunny Ibiza, Spain to finish off our week-long trip. As soon as we got off the plane, we went to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and got ready to head to the beach. The weather was absolutely perfect. The beach, the atmosphere, the people were simply amazing. We first trekked across the beach to a day club to begin our trip off right. After, we headed to dinner, and then to Space at night. Over the course of the trip, we met a lot of people from the UK which was cool. Some we met at our hotel, others on the beach.

The next day, we just went to the beach to relax before our flight back to Paris. I did not want to leave! By the time we arrived back to Paris, I still had sand on my legs from the beach in Ibiza. A little souvenir, perhaps?  I definitely wish we stayed a few more days in Ibiza; it was the best time! 

Les Calanques avec Jean-Marc

Day 5: Marseille

To begin our 2nd day in Marseille, we woke up bright and early to go on our 3 hour hike in the Calanques. We grabbed some breakfast (croissants and baguettes again), then took the metro over and met our guide, Jean-Marc, where we then drove to the mountains. It was cold and windy, and we did not bring warm enough clothes on our trip, so we ended up layering 5 different shirts/cardigans over another to keep warm. We started off slow and began climbing some serious rocks to get to the top of the Calanques. The views at the top were breathtaking! I brought my baguette with me on the hike just in case I got hungry, but it just ended up getting hard and difficult to eat because of the strong winds. During our hike, Jean-Marc told us about the history of Marseille and the Calanques and about various islands near the mountains. There was even a story about Antoine de Saint-Exupery (author of The Little Prince) and how his plane crashed near them. Jean-Marc was very knowledgeable about everything, and really has a passion for what he does. I would definitely recommend choosing him if you plan to take a hike through Les Calanques! He can be found through the Marseille Tourism website.

Cameras cannot capture the beauty of it all!

Casually holding onto my baguette

Don't judge our outfits...

After we conquered the mountains, we got back into the car and drove to a small village in the Calanques, named Morgiou. There we met a fisherman, and learned that his son had a guest who was from Canada as well. We were going to go meet him but it turned out that he wasn't home at the time. Jean-Marc then suggested that we try a restaurant with really good pizza, where they squirt octopus ink onto the pizza. As cool as that sounded, we kindly passed. Octopus ink? Gross!

The dog that greeted us at the end of the road and followed us in

Marjiou

After we finished with Les Calanques, we said goodbye to Jean-Marc, grabbed lunch at a restaurant, and then took a bus to go see Notre Dame de la Garde, the cathedral at the highest point of Marseille. Since it was so high up, it was even more windy, and we were literally being blown off our feet. Our hair was crazy and got all tangled but we had the best time with it.

Side view of Notre Dame de la Garde

Inside the cathedral

View from the top

We also wanted to see le Château d'If, the fortress/prison that Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte-Cristo was based off of, but it was too windy for any ferries to head out so we couldn't go. In the end, we decided to do some shopping and also stopped for a while in a bookstore to watch The Avengers (in French) for a good hour. 

Le Vieux Port & Bouillabaisse

Day 4: Marseille

In the morning, we packed up all our stuff, grabbed some croissants/baguettes and our 1.5L bottles of water and left for the train station to our next stop: Marseille.

We arrived at the train station only to find that our train had been delayed so we had to wait over an hour for the next train. It took us 2 hours to train all the way to Marseille, and when we arrived, we found our hotel, settled down for a bit by watching Friends With Benefits (in French, bien sûr), and then walked over to the Vieux Port to grab some dinner. The weather wasn't too amazing in Marseille, it was cold, gloomy and rained for a short while earlier in the day. One of our main goals in Marseille was to try the infamous "bouillabaisse", which is a soup with many different types of fish, and usually goes for around 30-45€. I learned about the soup in my 2nd year French class back at school, so I was excited to actually give it a try despite my dislike for fish/seafood. Much to my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I really liked the soup base, and it was delicious when soaked in baguette. However, I didn't really touch the fish... I had a few mussels but that was about as far as I was willing to go. We didn't end up finishing the dish, and I'm pretty sure the waiter probably thought we were crazy for ordering it if we didn't even plan on eating the fish, and especially since we also ordered pasta to go with the soup.

A cathedral near our hotel

Bouillabaisse, gnocchi, & carbonara

Bouillabaisse

After dinner, we just went back to the hotel and it was very dark and cold, much different than Nice and Monaco were. We didn't really do much for the rest of the night except watch some more French TV.

Cannes you get more boring?

Day 3: Nice/Cannes

Before making the trip to Cannes, we headed over to the Marché de Fleurs, a farmer's market in Nice, to pick up some breakfast and browse the rows and rows of different produce/meats/bread/flowers. We waited an hour in line to try a peppery egg crepe-like dish called "socca". In the end, although the crepe did have a unique and interesting flavour, I would say it did not live up to the hype. I then decided to pick up a pain au chocolate (best things ever) and baguette for the road.

Fresh produce at le Marché de Fleurs

Socca

We had a few hours before our train, so we decided to chill along the beach at the Promenade des Anglais and soak up some rays. It was so relaxing to just do absolutely nothing. After an hour or two, we headed over to the train station to make our way to Cannes. However, continuing with the trend of transportation hating us, our train was cancelled, and we had to get off the train and wait another hour for the next train.

 Trying to get rid of my horrible sandal tan!

When we finally got to Cannes, we discovered that there was really nothing special about it... We picked up some macarons from Jean Luc Pelé, and started walking to the beach just in time to see the sunset and snap some gorgeous pictures,  then went to see the Film Festival Centre, and after that had dinner at a cafe. Other than that, there really was nothing to do. We wandered the streets for a bit after dinner but ultimately headed back to our hotel quite early. We then ended up watching Vampire Diaries (quel surprise!) in French because it happened to be on TV.

60% cocoa & fine champagne macarons

Sunset

The currently not-so-glamorous looking Film Festival Centre

Best salmon!

Hello Grimaldis!

Day 2: Monaco

We woke up nice and early to make a day trip to Monaco. We took a bus through the mountains into Monaco, so it provided us with a "free" scenic tour of more of Southern France. Once we got off the bus, we headed to Monaco-Ville. We first passed by the Musée Océanographique de Monaco, which had a large statue of a baby in front of it... It was quite amusing. We then headed over to see la Cathédral de Monaco, and later explore the streets of Monaco-Ville.

Tiny streets in Monaco

Metro station. Artsy.

Musée Océanographique's big baby

Cathédral de Monaco

Along the way we got to see breathtaking views over Monaco -- the buildings, the port, and the mountains (I loove mountains!). We ended up at le Palais Princier de Monaco, the current home of the Prince of Monaco. We got to visit parts of the palace and were given audiophones which explained the history of all the pieces in each room. I have learned that I find the history of royal families very interesting so getting to learn all about the Princes' Palace was very enriching!

Port Hercules

In front of the Princes' Palace

After a quick late lunch break, we headed over to Monte Carlo. We went to see the Hotel de Paris, and then went to the Casino de Monte Carlo where we spent a good few hours. We didn't gamble, but we watched other people's games. There was an old man there who just dropped 500€ bills like it was no big deal. It was very fun to watch! After the casino, we headed to Le Cafe de Paris for dinner where we ordered salads and a small bottle of wine.

Monte Carlo casino, complete with luxury vehicles lining the front

Hotel de Paris in the evening

Salade Parisienne at Cafe de Paris

After dinner, we started to make our way home by looking for the bus. Now this is where it gets a little crazy. It turns out we missed the last bus, so we decided to take the train back to Nice instead. Upon arrival to the train station, we discovered the last train got cancelled. At this point we were freaking out a little but we met a young English couple and a German family who were also in the same boat so we just worked together to figure out what to do. They eventually ended up sending a bus to take the place of the cancelled train. However, since it was the last bus back to Nice for the night, it was absolute nightmare to board the bus. People were literally pushing and shoving to get onto the bus, and once on the bus, people were cramming multiple people into one seat in order to try to fit as many people on the bus as possible. There was yelling and crying and the exchange of multiple languages at once... it was chaotic, to say the least. After waiting 2 hours, the bus finally leaves and heads back to Nice. A nice man ends up helping us find our way back to our street, and during the walk, he and I had a very broken French conversation. He understood/spoke very little English, so I once again, used my amateur French skills and hand motions to try to keep a conversation. Eventually we found our way back to our hotel and passed out for the night.