We didn't waste any time settling in at the flat (we used Airbnb and had a wondeful experience), we just introduced ourselves to the owner, freshened up and headed out to Park Guell.
James studied in Spain 11 years ago, so this was all very nostalgic for him. It was nice for him to kinda take the lead on this trip and show me around. Once we were finished exploring Park Guell, we headed over to the La Ramblas to wander around and find some place to relax.
.JPG)
We wandered into the Plaça Reial, which is a huge square filled with lots of restaurants. I was in awe of this plaza. It was just so breathtakingly beautiful. The architecture in Spain is gorgeous!
We settled down on the outside patio of the Ocaña in the Plaça Reial and enjoyed some tapas, a couple drinks and the people-watching.
We settled down on the outside patio of the Ocaña in the Plaça Reial and enjoyed some tapas, a couple drinks and the people-watching.
After getting off our feet for just a few minutes, we realized that we were exhausted and didn't want to stay out late. Instead of going out at 10:00 PM for a proper dinner, we decided to take it easy, find another tapas restaurant closer to home and call it a night.
Lolita, a tapas restaurant located in Sant Antoni (and directly under our flat), was my favorite restaurant in Barcelona. The staff was super friendly, the tapas were delicious and the drinks inexpensive! Well, hello lover! We spent a few hours in there just chatting up the staff and leisurely eating and drinking--we were really having a good time.
Several glasses of wine and 14 million tapas later, the night was coming to an end and I was looking to "cleanse" my palate with something sweet.
Me: Can I have the El Borratxo' del Lolita please por favor.
El Borratxo' del Lolita is sponge cake with creme brulee and liquor. Our waiter, who had been chatting with us all night (and cringing at my Spanish) attempted to correct my pronunciation and it went a little bit like this:
Waiter: Eees pronounces bor-rah'-cho.
Me: BURRR-A-CHA! BURR-ACHA! (I'm practically growling at him.)
Waiter: No, bor-rah'-cho.
Me: BOR-A-CHO!
Waiter: You're Borratxo.
Me: What??
Waiter: Borratxo is a drunk cake. You're drunk.
ALL: (explodes with laughter.)
Me: YAYY! BER-AACHA! BER-ACHA!
We all had a pretty good laugh at this exchange. Lolita's was the perfect end to a crazy travel day.
Overall, we had a really, really enjoyable first day. Yes, I was irritated that our flight delay cost us to miss our scheduled visit to the Sagrada Familia, but it was a nice excuse to slow the pace down and really get to enjoy each others company for the evening.
Barcelona made me really wish I would have paid more attention to those 10+ years of Spanish classes I took back in school. Talk about an epic fail! I did a really poor job of assimilating while down there. As if my translucent skin and yellow hair didn't give it away, the constant dumbfounded look on my face while trying to communicate and the ever-recurring thumbs up did. I mean, it was kinda comical, but it definitely made me shake my head at my absolute lack of effort I put towards a second language throughout highschool and college.
We eventually got back to the flat around midnight and crashed. One of the reasons we picked our flat was because it had an American king size memory foam mattress. TO. DIE. FOR! The bed might have been my favorite part of Barcelona overall! I am DEFINITELY hoping to revisit that bed sometime in the future.
