El nostre viatge a Barcelona / Nuestro viaje a barcelona

The one place I wish Jamie and I had been able to go to when we were here was the Sagrada Familia. Sadly time didn’t permit so we couldn’t go.

This was the one thing that Jason and I said we would have to do. I got some tickets that included a ride up to the top of the tower and it was totally worth it just for the views.

I haven’t been to church in about 5 years and Jason is a devout atheist so we both thought we might get struck down and burned for being here. Haha. Thankfully we didnt!

If you are ever in Barcelona, you have to visit here. It is well worth it. You will not be disappointed. Even my atheist friend enjoyed the visit and said it was the highlight of the trip. Let that tell you something.

The light was just right inside too. It was so colourful from the stained glass windows. We wandered around on the ground for a bit and then it was our turn to go up the tower. We got the lift up and had a look around. The views were amazing. There was a point where you could look out over a ledge and Jason thought it would be a good idea to try and scare me by asking if he should stand on the ledge. I point blank told him no, but then said it would be a good picture. Thankfully he didn’t. A massive phew for my sanity!

I did get a little bit of a payback for HK thought and I was quite amused with myself for it, When we were coming down the other side, it was a spiral staircase with no handrails on one side and just a hole to fall down. Jason took it nice and easy and I was wanting to get down and wasn’t afraid at all. It was nice to have someone else nervous for a change. I pretended to fall and if looks could kill, I would have been dead on the spot. I found it rather amusing. I may have been called some choice names. Haha.

After we were done here, we went for some Five Guys lunch. I had never been to one before and I must admit I was rather impressed.

Since I can’t really do the Sagrada Familia justice with words, here are some pictures from it.

We couldn’t decide on where to go after we had lunch so I sat looking at my phone for something for us to do.

I managed to find something and told Jason that he had to just follow me and that I had found us something to do. He asked me where and I told him just to follow me. I was hoping he would get wound up (I know, awesome friend right here! LOL) so I could keep saying follow me but, alas, he didn’t.

It did involve a 15 minute walk (he HATES cardio but I don’t mind it) to the metro and a couple of stops on the metro and another 10 minute walk. The whole time I wouldn’t tell him where we were going.

It was one place that I remembered being outside of, but not really visiting. We arrived and I told him that this is what I wanted him to see. I think his face dropped a little when it was another church. Haha. I went to an office that I thought was selling tickets to get into the cathedral but I couldn’t have been more wrong! It turns out it was an exhibition of Gaudi. Yeah, i’m gonna leave the research of him to you as I don’t care that much. Suffice it to say that he is the mastermind behind the Sagrada Familia. The whole time I kept apologising for getting us into that mess of a silly exhibition. Jason took it in his stride. I pride myself on not doing stupid stuff like this and I did it a couple of times this trip :/

Jason did say at the end of it that he did learn something and I retorted with never letting me make a decision again. Haha.

As it turns out – the tickets for the Cathedral were, as you may have guessed, just inside the doors. Go figure. I mean, who would do such a thing. The inside is really ornate and well worth a look. I honestly couldn’t remember ever having gone inside. The whole time we were in there and on the roof, I did say to Jason that it felt really familiar and that I had done it before. I had a quick look at my blog from the trip with Jamie and it turns out we did. Thank goodness for pictures to remind me!

I did let Jason stand on the ledge this time for a picture. He loves it as he is such a showman. I did tell him to put a spin on it and say that he was just showing what he has worked so hard for these last few years. Positive spin and all that! The weather was really nice to us this whole trip and it was nice to be on the roof and just sit there for a few minutes in the sun.

Once we were done here, we headed back to the metro to find some much needed food. I must admit, I have never seen anyone eat as Jason does. I got full just watching what he was having!

As always, pictures from the cathedral below

I decided that we should do the sightseeing bus too as it is a good way to see the sights of a city.

We had an early start and headed out to get breakfast. Once we had breakfast, we got the sightseeing bus and stayed on it for the full route. This one was about 2 hours and we managed to get some good seats on the top deck.

I knew I should bring my hoodie as it would be cold. I still forgot it and thankfully was just a few steps away from the hostel so went and got it. It was very much needed on that top deck. The things you do to get good pictures. Jason, bless him, looked really cold the whole time.

Once we had done the full route, we got off and went to Taco Bell for some much needed lunch and to decide what we would do for the rest of the day. I did say that I wanted to go to Montjuic Castle and Jason was up for it as there is a cable care that takes you there. He knows from Hong Kong how much I dislike them and I am convinced that was his sole reason for doing it. He gets a kick out of seeing me scared – i’m sure of it. Luckily for me and my sanity it was closed for maintenance. Yay!

We took the city bus to go up to the castle. I had a slight panic as I wasn’t sure if our tickets covered the ride up there. We went inside the metro to look at the machine and nothing was forthcoming. I was almost at a point of buying a single ticket – thank goodness I didn’t. We left and went back to the bus stop and found some public transport officials who assured us that our tickets would get us there.

We got off at the castle and walked up to the grounds to have a wander around. Jason, as was the theme of this trip, looked for a wall to stand on just to say that he could. Seriously, this guy likes to test my sanity levels no end and today was no exception! I don’t mind though, it helps keep me young and I often forget he is only 21.

As we were walking around (I’ll leave out the bit about how you couldn’t walk down a step and blamed the step OK), he found a window to climb up – purely for a picture! The grounds of the castle were not too shabby. A nice walk around and a soaking up of the sun – just what the doctor ordered! After we walked around for a bit, we went inside and had a look at the grounds in there. They were quite nice too.

We found some orange trees and Jason took the challenge of jumping and trying to grab an orange off the tree – he succeeded too! Look how pleased he is with himself after he managed it!

Once we were done here, we decided to head back to the hostel for an hour or so before dinner. I managed to convince him that we should walk back to the hostel. I don’t think I told him until we were back that it was a 2 mile walk. It was all downhill too!

I told Jason since it was Valentine’s Day, he had to choose dinner for us. We ended up having pasta and it was really nice. We sat and chatted for a while in there. He was intrigued about life growing up in a church and I told him. I wasn’t rude about it despite not being a fan of it now. I think it blew his mind that people live like that. Whilst I knew he wouldn’t understand, he was respectful of it and not mean about it at all.

A selection of pictures from the day follows (He hates the one of him at dinner, but it is by far my favourite one of him as it isn’t posed and he looks really happy)

Today was our last full day in Barcelona and we decided to do the second of the sightseeing routes. As with yesterday, we got on and stayed on. I wanted to go to Park Guell and to the grounds of the Art Museum also.

After going past Park Guell, I decided against it and said that I just wanted to go to the MNAC instead. We got off the sightseeing bus and went for some more Taco Bell.

We then got back on the sightseeing bus and decided to get it to where we wanted to be. Jason asked if we could stay downstairs and that was fine with me. I got all the pictures I needed. We got off at the bottom of the hill and walked up. As we got closer, we saw there were tons of stairs. There were escalators too. Being the people we are, we decided to climb the stairs. Good for cardio… right.

We walked around and found some sun and sat there for a while until Jason got cold from sitting on the stones. We also made sure we got some good pictures of the views from the top. We wandered around some more and saw more stairs. We decided to walk up them and realised it took us to the Olympic Stadium and we headed for that. We did stop for a much needed ice cream too. It was delicious.

We found a step to sit on and enjoy them. Jason was tempted to take a run up and jump over the water there. I tried to persuade him but he didn’t do it. I wanted a You’ve Been Framed moment which I sadly didn’t get!

Jason lay on the wall for a bit soaking up the rays from the sun and I happily sat there with the sun shining on my face. It was lovely.

We walked around a bit more and found more water features. I told him water mesmerises me and that I could sit there for hours. He managed to find a good spot to lie down and soak up more of the sun. I wandered around and managed to capture a good shot of him just lying there.

There were a couple of points where I encouraged him to be daring and he did try a couple of them, but couldn’t quite climb on the bit I said he should (you will see from the pictures). We spent a good couple of hours up here and it was nice and peaceful. We decided we would walk back down the hill to the metro and head back to the hostel to chill before grabbing some food.

I was sad that the day had come to and end because it meant it was time to go home and get back to reality. I did tell him I was selfish and that I hated that he lived so far away. I still do – purely for my own selfish reasons though. Most of my friends live far away! Booooo!

Here are some pictures from today