New Thing #94 - Wanderlust (Paris & Barcelona Day 4)

Month 6 - Wanderlust

December 3, 2018 - Paris to Barcelona: Day 4

We were up bright and early this morning to make our flight to Barcelona. Not gonna lie to you....not overly upset about having to leave Paris. I know that people will tell me to give it another chance, but the same sort of thing happened when I went to Vienna. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. With so many other great places in the world to see, I'll be hard pressed to pay to return to Paris. Not that I don't want to see other part of France – because I do – but I'd prefer to spend my travel monies elsewhere.

Not to mention I was ready to get the hell away from the surly overnight desk clerk at our hotel. What a jackwad.

Paris has two airports, and luckily the one we needed for this short trip was only a 15 minute drive away. We pre-booked our transfer yesterday and were the only ones in the van. Our driver was quite pleasant and traffic heading out of the city was pretty clear for 6:30am. We made it to Orly Airport by 7am, even beating the check-in agents.

I'm not mad though because that gave me the opportunity to grab a bite to eat at a little café – Paul – before we left. I had a delicious yogurt (which came in the cutest damn ceramic crock – which I totally brought home with me) and more quiche. I feel like quiche is underrated. It's baked ham and eggs....I mean, you can't go wrong!

Full gaming station in the airport!

France is classing things up a bit with the baby Grand!

Despite the fact that at least a half dozen people around us WERE IN THE WRONG SEATS AND THE WRONG ROWS, we left mostly on time. Sort of. Seriously though, I realize not everyone speaks French or understands Arabic numerals, but it's not difficult to match the seat number on your ticket to the letters/numbers on the seats. It's not rocket science!

Once we arrived, the girl next to me tried to elbow her way around me to get off the plane first. Um, sorry, missy, where I come from you respect other people and pay attention to the rules of deplaning. So, no, I'm not letting you shove your way in front of me AND the people in the rows in front of us. And I don't care how huffy you get. This is isn't my first rodeo.

Once I calmed down after a quick panic attack (someone moved my carry on from one side of the plane to another, so I was afraid someone took my backpack), we quickly deplaned, picked up our bags and headed to the exit for our airport transfer. (I did have a minor brain fart and forgot that we were still in the EU, so we didn't have to go through customs. Total bummer, because I really wanted a Spain stamp in my passport!)

Our driver was very nice and not as chatty as our Paris driver, though we were definitely not as jet lagged this time around. From the moment we left the airport, we felt immediately better. The sun was shining, the temps were in the 60s, and Barcelona looked cleaner and fresher than Paris had.

We arrived quickly to our hotel only to realize that we were at the wrong one. Barcelona has multiple "Sunotel" hotels, and even though I confirmed the correct one upon pickup – Sunotel Club Central – he dropped us off at Sunotel Central. I guess I can't really blame him, Sunotel probably should have differentiated the names a wee bit more. Luckily, it was a short 10-15 minute walk away and the weather was perfect.

This hotel experience was a complete 180 from Paris. The clerk was friendly and helpful, upgrading us to a bigger room, and allowing us to check in as soon as we arrived. After a 30 minute rest to unload our bags, we hit the ground running and pretty much didn't stop until we left 3 days later. I'm not kidding. We cleared nearly 25,000 steps every day. That's over 10 miles of walking!!

Our Barcelona room. We had big windows with a partial view of the city.

Since it was lunch time, and I'm always hungry, we found a place somewhat close to our hotel. Sadly, the food was pretty subpar, but at least it's the only bad food we had on this leg of the trip. We continued down to Plaza España for some sightseeing before heading back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner. We were supposed to be meeting a former coworker for dinner/drinks. Josh moved to Barcelona to get an advanced architecture degree, but I hadn't heard back on a confirmed time/place.

The weather was PERFECT!

#fancypharmacy

I love European architecture, especially when it's funky and modern like this!

Love!

Mushroom risotto and chicken croquettes....only okay. Would not recommend this place.

Went into a former bullfighting ring, which is now a shopping mall and they were decked out for Christmas!

Plaza España

National Art Museum of Catalonia

 Not to be confused with the columns at Mizzou. ;-)

Um, so we love Barcelona. Yes, we've been here for 2 hours. Sorry not sorry.

This place is closed on Mondays. And we came on Monday. Guess I'll just take lots of photos outside!

Escalator to the top!

Loving the views of the city from up here! AND the few amount of tourists!

Arenas de Barcelona - former bullfighting ring turned shopping mall.

Love Love Love the architectural details!!

While these particular figurines depict American personalities, the "caganer" is a traditional pooping figurine added to nativity scenes in Catalonia and other areas of Spain. It's an 18th century tradition that usually depicted a peasant, but has now grown to celebrities and popular personalities. Check out wikipedia for more info on this bizarre Christmas custom.

I can't get enough of this architecture!

Had to get a Spanish door!

This is literally a triangle shaped area of land called "El Triangle".

We are assuming these guys are selling their wares illegally, because they all folded up their sheets and ran to the metro station to avoid police.

Scatter!

Plaza Catalunya

Everywhere we go – riot police!

Sky rats!!

While we waited to find out where Josh wanted to meet, we headed back out to see the city at night. I couldn't believe the amount of people in full parkas, scarfs, boots, etc. It was bad during the day, but at night, you'd think it was below freezing out. It was only the lower 60s/upper 50s, and Sandi and I were in heaven! Especially coming from the cold/wet Parisian streets.

More Christmas decorations!

We happened upon YET ANOTHER PROTEST! This one was quite peaceful and ended not soon after it began. I heard later that people were protesting for the release of some political prisoners. Thankfully, this wasn't violent nor did it cause any major traffic jams/delays.

These word play signs were everywhere. I particularly loved Ding Dong Dang.

It was getting super late, and I hadn't heard from Josh, so we decided to just go grab some dinner. We found a cute little tapas restaurant with a super sweet waiter. I also misunderstood Sandi that she wasn't going to eat anything, so I ordered way too many tapas just for myself. But, hey, I walked 10 miles today, I earned it!

La Tramoia - DELICIOUS food!

Cute inside too!

Chicken croquettes on the left (WAY better than the ones for lunch) and tomato rubbed olive oil bread on the right. Mmmm...carbs!

I love a good mushroom, but these weren't very warm and super oily. That was super weird to me. Not a fan.

OMG...this salad! So. Damn. Good. Not sure if it was the giant piece of seared goat cheese on top or the honey based dressing, but this was my jam!

Um, yeah, I ate nearly all of this. Except for those mushrooms. Couldn't eat all of them.

We still hadn't hear from Josh, so we made it back to the hotel after 11. We have an early day tomorrow! (We did hear from him shortly after and he was stuck in his classes until after 10:30pm, so we made plans for tomorrow night instead.)

Love this photo of us with the Christmas tree. :)