Barcelona

After a wonderful time in Provence, we sadly had to say goodbye to our amazing host Barbra and fly down to Madrid. I was very tempted to stay in France and simply skip the rest of our trip. I fell in love with the beauty of this country. I didn't think anything could match Italy in beauty and kindness of the people-I was wrong. But in the end, we boarded our flight to Barcelona from Marseille. 

Our first thought after getting off the plane was that it was so nice and warm. I might even use the word "hot." While París was blistering cold and windy, Provence had been warm in the day but very cold at night. Barcelona however, almost felt like home. We arrived in the afternoon and we were ravishingly hungry. I mean, I could have devoured two American sized meals alone-that hungry. Our flight had been delayed by 3 hours and the terminal we were in had minimal food options. Every restaurant or street vendor we passed smelled delicious but we thought it best to find our hostel, check-in and drop off our luggage.   

When we arrived to Barcelona Gardens, we were greeted by three staff members. They were all very excited to welcome us to the hostel and they ushered us over to a sitting area and said "let's do the check in process sitting down together." So we sat. 

Turns out the check-in process was a lengthy 30-40 minute discussion. It went above and beyond the usual payment collection and passport verification. This check-in also included a 25 minute history lesson and overview of the city and another 15 minutes to talk about food. The kind staff went through the top major attractions of Barcelona and this included showing photos from a huge binder of tourist info, pointing things out on a map, telling us the hours of operation and tickets prices to each attraction. After going through this process (did I mention it was long? And that I'm hungry?) they pulled out another binder and said they had some great options and recommendations for local food which included popular tapa places. At this point in the conversation, my hunger is starting to possess my body and I have to force my mouth not to say anything that isn't nice. That was hard. When the lovely lady said "This is your first time in Spain yes? Well, let me tell you what a tapa is...." I'm not lying when I say I almost lost it. My stomach almost turned me into a ravaging hungry monster. Luckily, my good manners are too much a part of me and they were able to keep the hunger beast in check while we finished the check-in process. Once we were in our rooms we threw down our bags and raced to get food. Super Nel said we should go to a place called Tapas 24. It supposedly had amazing reviews on Yelp (he said he was doing food research during the everlasting check in process) and was nearby. 

There was some construction going on of the building where Tapas 24 was located so it was hard to find because the sign was hidden. Once inside the restaurant, we sat down at a table for 4 and eagerly looked over the menu. 

One thing that made Spain different from the other countries, is that most of us understand the language-more or less. Our ability to speak fluent Spanish came in very handy in Spain. It's true that the languages are not the same, but we are able to communicate with the people of this country much easier than other countries. 

As we're sitting at the restaurant, and trying to decide what to order, Super Nel is unable to find any items that match what is recommended by the reviewers on Yelp. That's when we discover that we are NOT at Tapas 24 but in fact at the restaurant next door-Trotamundos. Opps! 

We didn't let that stop us from ordering way too much food and drink. I had been looking forward to drinking sangria almost the entire trip so I ordered a pitcher (called a liter in Spain). I also ordered the lobster paella. 

Super Nel, Dana and Bree had ordered a variety of tapas including patatas bravas (potatoes with special hot sauce), bomba (potato and meat ball with hot sauce), spanish omlet (made of egg, potato and veggies). All the tapas were delicious (maybe because we were so hungry?). And then the sangria came....and you know what? I think the world came to a standstill in the moment that drink touched my lips. 

It was delicious and tasted very different than what we're used to back home. It had a little more citrus flavor and something bubbly? Just know that we loved it so much we spent our next week in Spain trying to find a sangria that came close to the one at Trotamundo. 

I personally didn't think anything could get better than the sangria (which was evident by the 4 pitchers we drank-baby pitchers since it's only a liter). But then our fantastic waiter brought out my lobster paella. 

The flavor, oh the flavor in this dish-there was so much of it! It wasn't too rich, which meant you didn't feel full after one or two bites (which was a good thing because my belly already had lots of sangria and a few tapas inside). There was just enough briny flavor mixed In that I was pretty sure the lobster had been plucked from the ocean an hour before making the dish. Oh so good. 

We literally devoured everything on our table including dessert. It was now early evening and with all that sangria Super Nel and I were feeling pleasantly sleepy so we chose to be lazy and get a good nights rest before spending another full day exploring the city. Dana and Bree went out for a few hours on foot to see some of Barcelon'a nightlife. 

Read about the spiritual experience at the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in the next blog post-one like I've never experienced.