Erin Explores Travel

Barcelona Day 1: Park Güell and Flamenco

The first day, we woke up and met at Plaza Catalunya. Luckily everyone was there this time! We then headed to Park Güell.

Park Güell

This is an architecture park with the works of Gaudi! I love this artist… he is so unique! The park was amazing and great for beautiful photo opportunities!

La Sagrada Familia

After spending a couple hours there in the park, we headed towards the cathedral.

Finding Lunch in the City

After snapping a few photos there, we decided to look for a place for lunch. We were looking for Paella again, or some type of Spanish food, but weren’t having any luck and were starving. We decided to go to this little home cooked place. They had a special for an appetizer, a main dish, a drink and a dessert, and coffee for only 9 Euros! The food was delicious! I had melon with ham (more like bacon) for my appetizer. The grilled pork fillets with the most delicious fries! they were made fresh right then… not the frozen kind! Then for dessert I had a bread pudding thing with a caramel sauce drizzled on it! it was so good, and so much food for that great low price! 

Casa Batlló and Casa Milà

After our lunch, we jumped on the metro go find these two houses also designed by Gaudi. They were so cool! Then we did a little shopping before Nasha and I headed back to the house to rest and freshen up before going out. On our way, we found a huge market. She bought some fresh pineapple and I bought a thing of raspberries, each for only 1 Euro! They were delicious! When we got back to the house, we checked our Facebooks and emails and next thing you know about 50 minutes had passed! We rushed to get ready and messaged our friends that we would meet an hour later for the Flamenco show. We ran to the Vodafone shop because I really needed minutes and the guy told me that he couldn’t do it because it was an international number; I would have to go to the larger shop and he gave me directions, but it closed in 10 minutes so we wouldn’t have had time to make it, so we just went back to the house to let Pauli know that she wouldn’t be able to get ahold of me, so she said she would just meet us at the bar after the show. 

Flamenco Show

We met at Placa Reial because that is where the bar was for the show. Again, Phyllis was missing! I even told her that the show started 15 minutes before it really did because I didn’t want her to be late! Finally we decided to go in without her because we wanted to make sure to get seats and the show was going to start in about 10 minutes! Once inside, we sat there talking for a bit and then someone was like we should go check for Phyllis and no one was moving. So I got up and started to walk outside when I heard her voice, I get to the door and she is walking away! I yelled at her and she turned around and then the guys at the door was like “oh!” He had told her that we came, but we had left! 

Finally we were all inside and we took some pictures and then the show began. The music was quite interesting and I was surprised it was completely live! I figured it was going to be a recording they were dancing to, but no! They had a guitar player, a drummer, and singers! It was great and very moving even though I didn’t understand the words! Then the dancers came out. The first half of the show was 2 girls together. It was interesting because I had like heard of Flamenco but wasn’t really sure exactly what it was. I didn’t realize that they do sort of a tap dancing type thing! Those girls were moving their legs so fast it was crazy! And the extensions… wow! The second dance was just the one girl and it was amazing! I am so glad I got to see this show and that it was only 8 Euros! 

Doner Dinner

After the show, Pauli met us there at the bar and we went to grab some Doner for dinner real quick because Nasha and I didn’t have time to eat before we went to the show. The guy was like you want everything and I was like everything except the chili sauce and he was like you’re a strong girl, you can handle it… and then he put a giant scoop of it on there and handed it to me! I walked away shocked! Nasha was like I would have handed it back to him and made him make you a new one. Luckily it was towards the side so a lot of it dripped off, and it wasn’t that bad because I like spicy stuff, I just wasn’t really i n the mood for it then.

 Barcelona Bar Crawl

Then Pauli took us around to several of the bars she usually goes to. We bought the specials and then we ended up at the bar she used to work at. We got a discount on our drinks because she was friends with the bartender! Then we headed back to the house to get some sleep.