Sixth Week in Barcelona + Paris (with family!)

Monday, Feb 24

Today I had the day off of my internships because the school had the day off. Apparently they picked to have today off of school because of Carnaval. Because I had the day to myself, I slept in, worked out and watched YouTube. I had some leftovers for lunch and planned out my assignments for the week. Tomorrow we would venture to Sitges for Carnaval so I was preparing ahead of time.

Our Monday Sunset saga continued as we headed to Terraza La Dolce Vitae, the rooftop of Majestic Hotel. It was a quick walk from our apartment, so Jojo and I made our way there. Lanie met us with one of her roommates. This place was wayyyy fancier than we thought. They had a cigar cabinet (with crazy prices) and the hallway has windows with cologne inside. We just acted like we belonged and made our way to the rooftop where we split a bottle of rosé.

On the way home, Jojo and I grabbed a few groceries for the week and stopped in a flower shop. I ended up buying a succulent (and its pot) for the apartment.

Tuesday, Feb 25

We went to our Mundet campus and learned about architecture. We even went to an old air strike shelter that was on the campus.

The outside of the palace. Vivian, Natalie and I sporting our hard hats.

Some photos inside the air strike shelter. (Luckily, it never had be be used.)

After metroing home, Cece and I went to a shop right around the corner from our apartment and found some things to wear. I bought a mask; Cece got a set of bunny ears. I had some pasta for lunch as I knew I would be thankful for those carbs later. I attempted to siesta but was too excited for the night so I joined Cece in getting ready. The wristband that we bought was through Stoke Travel and included: a one-hour open bar, a bus ride to Sitges, a liter of sangria upon arrival, and a bus back home.

The open bar was at The George Payne, another American-looking pub. Cece and I got there early and met up with the boys. Once the bar was open, we just constantly stayed in line and made our way around the bar. I even ran into one of my friends from home named Nick who was studying in Barcelona! Later on we met up with more people from our program - Lexi, Lucy, Linden, Renae and Judy. We were singing our hearts out and making friends immediately after boarding the bus. The one issue was that there was no bathroom, so the 45 minutes seemed to last twice as long. Upon arriving in Sitges, we were at the iconic sign.

Cece and I. Us with both Jacks. Us four with Judy, Quinn and Linden.

Renae, Lexi, Judy, Lucy, Linden and Cece all in the bottom three photos.

We got off, got our sangria (I somehow copped 2 liters), hit up the bathrooms, and headed to the parade route. It was insanity and Cece got her phone stolen as we made our way down different streets and in different parade route. We made it to the parade barricades and I somehow got lost for about an hour but eventually found the group again. The costumes and dances were truly remarkable. I even had a conversation with a mime in Spanish. It was just as ridiculous as it looks. After the parade, we boarded the bus back home and I was fast asleep. All the walking and dancing had caught up to me. We got back to Barcelona and Cece and I taxied home, eager to get in our beds.

Linden, Renae, Lexi and I on top of the Sitges sign. Lexi and I during the parade.

Wednesday, Feb 26

Today our class started 30 minutes later! (Our teacher must’ve known we were going to Sitges, lol.) However, today she started class by discussing coronavirus and telling us that we shouldn’t be worried, just cautious. She didn’t seem too worried. We continued with our usual class thing and snacked in the common area during our break. After metroing home, I attempted to siesta but failed (again).

I facetimed my mom to tell them what to pack/expect/etc. - my family would be arriving this weekend! They were super paranoid about coronavirus and were packing a ton of masks, hand sanitizer and wipes for when they came. (All the extras would stay with me in Barcelona.) I tired to explain thayt my teacher didn’t seem too concerned earlier, but they kept nagging that they were bringing it all.

Then I made some lunch and watched some YouTube. I also had a call about doing a fellowship after I graduate which sounds super interesting, maybe I’ll do it! I made some dinner and then we watched The Bachelor - Sitges took priority yesterday.

Thursday, Feb 27

At our internship, Lucy and I made friends with Christina, a teaching intern at the school. She was Canadian and German and a few years older than us. We had made plans to hang out tonight. I invited my apartment (but no one could come) and nearly all of Lucy’s apartment was planning on joining us. After a siesta and meeting up with the other apartment, we took the metro to meet Christina. We had quite the group - Christina, Lucy, Lexi, Sarah, Judy and Linden.

We headed to Carrer de Blai, known as ‘tapas street’ where you can just walk and eat, or pop into places to sit for a meal. We stopped at three different places. First, we stopped somewhere for appetizers and drinks. I got nachos and a mojito. Next, we headed to Boca Oreja, a seafood place where I had calamari, patatas bravas and squid. I also tried tuna tartare but didn’t love it. Lastly, we hit up Dino’s, a gelato - shop where I got stracciatella (obviously after asking the worker for his favorite).

Calamari. Tuna tartare. Stracciatella gelato.

Friday, Feb 28

Today was normal at our internship and all my roommates were en route to Lisbon, so I had the apartment to myself. I took full advantage of this by doing my laundry, cleaning and cooking. I also planned my two upcoming papers so that I could finish them in the morning.

Saturday, Feb 29

I finished laundry and cooking while completing my papers this morning. My family arrived around 2pm so I tried to clean up the apartment a bit before they got here. After they arrived, I showed them the apartment and we put their checked bags in my room. Now it was time for lunch so we headed to Firebug where I got a vegan toast and a very berry smoothie to get nutrients before our flight to Paris.

We also walked to Arc de Triomf and Parc de la Ciutadella to get some steps in by exploring. We stumbled upon the cascada (fountain) and took a few pictures. After grabbing our bags and calling a taxi, we were on our way to the airport. We got through security quickly and ate at Pans Co. All of us ended up getting the same sandwich somehow. We also got soma Haagen Daz ice cream (because why not?) before boarding our flight.

Some shots taken at Parc de la Ciutadella.

After landing, we called a cab to our hotel, Hotel Villa Alessandra, and slept.

Sunday, March 1

The rest of my family was pretty jet-lagged but we kept with our plans to go to Versailles. We ate breakfast at the hotel rode on the metro and train to get to Versailles, and there was quite a line when we arrived. It turned out that today was a free day, so we didn’t need to buy tickets! We went through the Apartments, Battle Hall, Hall of Mirrors and of course stopped in the gift shop.

It was raining by the time we left so we found a place, Le Coup D’etat, for lunch. The food tasted great but they ripped us off. We ordered the menu of the day but instead of charging us that price, he charged for each appetizer, main and dessert individually. Lesson: check your bills before giving them the card.

We then made our way back to Paris on the metro and train and regrouped at the hotel. Since it was raining, we bought tickets for the catacombs to try to stay dry. We attempted to metro there, but ended up calling a cab after being unable to locate the stop (such a tourist move). Anyways, we eventually made it there and our tickets were ‘skip the line’ so luckily we didn’t have to wait as long in the rain. They were very different from the Roman catacombs I had seen. Over 6 million bodies had been moved here after bodies starting coming up from the ground. It was a bit eerie seeing all those bones stacked on top of each other, but the history was fascinating.

These images show what was inside. At the end of the (audio) tour, we found a little crawl space that naturally I had to explore.

By the time we left it had stopped raining so we decided to find a place for dinner. We spotted Fourteen Cafe and decided that it was as good as anywhere. We were still cold and wet from the rain earlier in the day. I ordered hot chocolate, french onion soup and a seafood pizza.

We wanted to try to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle, so we took the metro there and made it on the hour. After watching its lights and taking some photos, we stopped at a little place for some Nutella crepes and mulled wine to warm up. We took the metro back, showered and planned the next day.

Monday, March 2

We decided to get breakfast at Le General today and I got the traditional breakfast (basically meaning without eggs or meat) with hot chocolate.

Then we headed to Square Juliette and the Louvre. We had bought our tickets online, but sadly it was closed because of the workers striking due to COVID-19. But we still got some photos before deciding our next move.

We ended up at Avenue des Champs Elysées and did a quick metro stop to the Bastille monument.

It was a just large column but I wanted to stop and see it since my birthday is Bastille Day. (:

After that, we ate lunch at local restaurant. We decided on it because the menu outside looked good, but that ended up being their kid’s menu. There was only one option without meat: an odd concoction of chilled, smoked and blended fish. I stomached most of it, but my family was just as shocked as me when it was brought out to the table. I needed a crepe immediately after that nasty meal and there was a place right across the street selling some. My sister and I split one filled with banana, strawberry and Nutella.

Then we decided to try to see Notre Dame and the love lock bridge that was close to it. My parents wanted to put a lock on the bridge, they bought a lock from a vendor and everything! It ended up pouring rain the entire time that we walked. We all were a bit cold and wet, but it was about to get even better. We couldn’t go into Notre Dame, but I took pictures of its exterior. The damage from the fire is very visible.

As we approached the love lock bridge, we discovered that they had converted it to a plexiglass bridge and cut all of the locks off. Apparently it was getting too heavy. So we settled on where other people had settled - some caging around a tree. However, the lock was too small to fit around that so we just hooked it onto another lock - we had to make do with what we had.

Now it was time for our Eiffel Tower tickets so we made our way over there. Before going in the lift, we went to the bathrooms - they were not very nice or private so that was surprising. We took the lift up to the halfway point and a photographer greeted us to take photos. We ended up barely looking at them because her settings were off and the photos were bad quality. Continuing on, we rode the next lift to the top and took in the insane views.

Making our way back down, we stopped at the counter halfway up and got some warm drinks - I got hot chocolate of course. We then headed to the river as our river boat tour was starting in less than an hour. We had some time to spare so well Katherine and Mom stayed in the boat’s heated gift shop, I made my dad come with me to get some photos with the Eiffel Tower as the sky and lighting were great. We returned to the boat as we could now board. The sun was setting as we headed up the river. Luckily, this boat was covered in glass so we could stay warm while looking at everything. This tour had an audio recording that was pretty, umm… interesting? and a little hard to follow. We passed by the Eiffel Tower on the hour so we got to see it sparkle again.

After the odd river boat tour, we headed in the direction of our hotel as we hd spotted many Asian restaurants earlier. We were pretty chilly, so something hot and spicy sounded great. We selected Thai Siam and it was delicious. I ordered a fish and ginger soup and seafood green curry. I insisted on looking at a dessert menu. Once we saw that they had mango sticky rice, we knew we had to get it.

Tuesday, March 3

Keeping with the tone of eating out, we went to La Placette Paris for breakfast. I got hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant.

We then headed to Sacre Couer as we couldn’t go in Notre Dame yesterday. We climbed the hill up to the church, walked around inside it and went into its crypt.

After that, my dad suggested that we go to the summit. My mom’s feet were hurting, so Katherine and her stayed behind while my dad and I began the climb. The views from the top were incredible and we found a nice man to take a few photos of us.

We then needed to grab lunch before our flight, so we stopped at a chain restaurant and got fish and chips that were not cooked all the way through, so we sent them back and got new ones. Paris really was messing with us just one last time. My sister was also on the hunt for a scarf so we looked in all the shops and got a few touristy trinkets. We then taxied to the airport where we bought some chocolate bark after going through security. While waiting for our flight, I grabbed a beignet and some Orangina from a bakery called Paul.

After landing back in Barcelona, we grabbed all their large suitcases from my apartment and headed to their apartment. After settling in, we walked to Zed for dinner. We got salad and burrata as appetizers and a baked apple and chocolate lava cake for dessert. My entree was a warm salad as I was craving some vegetables. After dinner, my dad walked me home and I would see them after class tomorrow.