Hey everyone!
I know I am behind, so I need to quickly catch everyone up. Day 3 was a lot of fun. My mom, her friend, and I took the AVE (bullet train) to Barcelona for the day. We decided to leave around 10 am to catch the 10:30 train. Little did we know our "10 min" walk was taking longer than we thought so I hailed us a cab and we hopped in to the train station, Atocha. We were too busy rushing to the ticket counter to really take in the sights but there is a huge oasis in the middle of the station with lush palms and pretty plants to relax the soul. We were the opposite of relaxed though, rushing to the ticket counter, rushing to the little security check point, then rushing down the platform to the train. We made it with like 3 mins to spare. We learned from our mistake...be early for the train, especially if you don't already have the ticket!
I took some pics from the train that you can see on my FB. There were fields that looked dry and dusty, fields that had ruins of medieval farms/communities, little castles that decorated almost every town. There were fields of beautiful sun flowers and gigantic wind turbines, that I bet Don Quixote would of had a harder time trying to beat. Our only stop was Zaragoza Delicias (Zaragoza), and then we were off again. There was a movie on the train but it was the Tooth Fairy, with the Rock, and sadly I can add that to the list of movies I have seen lol. After switching to Mean Girls, and remembering the day when Lindsay Lohan was borderline in control of her life, we were arriving at Sants Estacio in Barcelona.
From Sants, we took the metro to Vallcarca (which is actually I think the stop we were near last time I was in Spain with Erica and some people from my high school). Parc Güell was right around the corner, so I couldn't believe we missed that last time. I just told the ladies to follow me, even though I had never been there before, and as soon as we turned a left corner up from the metro station, I really saw what we were in for. There were some escalators going up the street, and at first I thought that was very convenient, but then after 3 sets, I looked up and there was quite a way to go. I think it took like 10-15 mins just getting up the hill to the beginning of the park.
We finally got to the top although my mom and her friend were struggling a bit with the size of that hill, and we started walking around. I wanted to get high enough to see the city and also find the special panoramic seats. We walked further up the mountain and finally at the top was this mini stone structure with a cross on top and people standing around it. It was slightly dangerous but my mom and I got to the top. Then we went downhill which was easier but still super hot and made it to the area where the cool and funky seats are that just say Barcelona. I was a larger area than I thought and there were lots of people. There was a Greek band playing some music and I almost started to dance, Greek style (I went on a cruise in Greece where they taught us to dance like that, snapping the fingers and all). We took pics of the city and of this weird chameleon thing and my mom got scared by one of those people pretending to be a statue, in this case an imitation of that chameleon haha.
After the park, we quickly stopped at the gorgeous La Sagrada Familia and I really don't think they'll be done by 2021, but we'll see. They might want to add another facade (each side represents a part of Christ's life, his birth, his death and now they are building his resurrection). Then we went to Las Ramblas and the Port Vell area for lunch. We had paella and yummy dessert, although my mom tried asking for olive oil but really said olives, which the waiter brought out and which we found out needed to be paid for lol. After lunch, we went to the port to the monument to my grandfather and other naval men who died in an accident in January 1977, in that very harbor. My mom was so happy to finally see it and took lots of pictures and some video. It was a very special moment that she wants to share with his sisters back home in Kentucky.
We decided to take a trek to the beach, and a trek it was. I forgot that last time I was there we can gone further down Barceloneta (the shopping/residential area of the port)and then went through some buildings. I just went straight in but realized we were getting to more apartment buildings than water. So my mom used Bing to locate us and I wasn't too far off. If we had kept going we would have hit water but since the shoreline curves in a weird way, all we need to do was head right. We made it to the water, put out feet in the Mediterranean and my mom and her friend were shocked at the number of topless women (of all ages) on the beach. I told her, that's the way it is over here. I came to that shocking conclusion 2 years ago, because I had forgotten while in Palma de Mallorca (one of the islands), that Spanish/European women like going topless.
This time we were a bit early for the train after a quick taxi ride and made it back to Madrid around 10pm. It was a long day but it was a great day.
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