Hola! 🙂

It’s been over a week since we got back from our Mediterranean adventure and life is back to normal. Wahhh wahhh.

I know my blog has evolved into a travelogue over the past few years and I’m not quite sure how that happened! I just don’t obsess over TV or fandom the same way I used to before (I reserve the right to take this back after a few more episodes of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD). I mean, I still watch huge amounts of TV (that won’t ever change) but I don’t really have a connection with the shows I watch anymore. Anyway, I guess my blog has never had a point. LOL. It’s just nice to have a place where I can write about whatever I want. And I enjoy looking back, reading old posts, and either laughing or cringing at myself. 😛 I hope you’ll all continue to stick with me! Especially since writing these blog posts helps to keep me occupied until our next adventure…

So we had an AWESOME Mediterranean vacation — I didn’t want it to end (so cliche)! This was our itinerary —

8/28 Departure flight
8/29 Arrive in Barcelona
8/30 Barcelona
8/31 Cruise embarkation day
9/1 Day at Sea
9/2 Port in Villefranche (Monaco)
9/3 Port in La Spezia (Cinque Terre)
9/4 Port in Civitavecchia (Rome)
9/5 Port in Napes (Amalfi Coast)
9/6 Day at Sea
9/7 Debarkation day + Barcelona
9/8 Flight to Paris
9/9-9/10 Disneyland Paris Resort
9/11 Paris
9/12 Back home

It’s been 7 years since I was in Europe and I hope it won’t be that long until I get back again. I have dreams of visiting Greece and the Baltics. Ahhh, someday!

Thursday, August 29

Our first stop was Barcelona — neither of us have ever been to Spain so we were excited! Unfortunately, on our very first morning, we were targeted for petty theft IN OUR HOTEL, the Le Meridien, and even though everything turned out fine, I HOLD GRUDGES (plus, it was totally my fault). I’m actually still a bit miffed at the whole situation. I had done my research so I knew all the scams and thought I was prepared but unfortunately I was super jet lagged and I let my guard down because we were sitting in a lounge inside our hotel. While Rob was outside, one guy distracted me while another guy took Rob’s backpack from the chair right next to me. ARGH!!! The terrible thing was that I didn’t even notice. Luckily Rob spotted the guy walking out of the hotel with his backpack and got it back without a fight. PHEW. That could have been a disastrous start. After that, all I wanted to do was get into our room and sleep, which is exactly what we did the rest of that first day.

Before that mess, though, we walked along Las Ramblas to La Boqueria, which is a wonderful market filled with fresh meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables… basically anything and everything. It was AMAZING! Take a look…

We had a yummy lunch at one of the many tapas bars in the market and we also picked up juice, fruits and ham & cheese to snack on over the next few days. It was THE BEST.

Friday, August 30

The next morning the jet lag was gone and I was ready to see more of the city (while looking out for pickpockets, of course)! We decided to take the Barcelona Bus Turistic (the hop on hop off bus) to see as much of the city as possible.

We started off walking along Las Ramblas…

over to Plaza Catalunya where we hopped on the bus to head to Sagrada Familia, a still unfinished Catholic church designed by Antoni Gaudi. It’s so beautiful…

This is the side that also acts as the main entrance — the detail is incredible.

We bought tickets to go up the Nativity Tower for a look at the ongoing construction and a great view of Barcelona.

You take an elevator to the top of the tower, look around as long as you like, then have to walk aaaallll the way down a very narrow staircase.

After our visit to the tower, we toured the interior which is so open, airy and bright — so different than other churches I’ve ever seen.

This is the ceiling!

Stunning.

Back on the bus, we also visited the Olympic Stadium…

I’m a huge Olympics junkie so this was so thrilling! It’s on my bucket list to attend an Olympics someday… Tokyo in 2020?!?

Casa Batilo – another Gaudi masterpiece. This one looks so haunting to me.

Later that night we took the subway to see the Magic Fountains of Montjuic, which is a free show featuring a “dancing” water display with lights and music. Ehhh… I was underwhelmed. Mostly because I can see the amazing World of Color anytime at California Adventure so the fountains just couldn’t compare. It didn’t help that it was unbelievably crowded — though I admit that we didn’t arrive early like most people do to a stake out a viewing spot. We arrived just a few minutes before the show started so we had to settle for watching from across the street. It just wasn’t the romantic setting I envisioned. LOL!

Saturday, September 7

We spent another day and a half in Barcelona after our Mediterranean cruise. After debarking the ship early in the morning, we headed over to Park Guell to see more of Gaudi’s work.

We decided to take a taxi since the park is located on a steep hill and neither the bus or subway get close enough. You still have to walk quite a bit uphill using public transportation whereas a taxi drops you off right at the main entrance.

It’s just so visually stunning.

Everywhere you turn there is something to see and explore.

And there are beautiful views of the city as well!

After exploring Park Guell, we went over to Tickets for what would be our favorite meal in Barcelona (though the dinners we had at Carles Abellan’s restaurants Tapas24 and Bravo deserve a mention as well — I’m still dreaming of the patatas bravas). Tickets is a tapas bar owned by the famous Adria brothers, Ferran & Albert, who are known for (or at least associated with) molecular gastronomy. I’m not sure what that means exactly — only that the food is YUMMY!

Our seats gave us a great view of the food prep area and the chef slicing the ham.

The iberico ham and tomato bread were SO GOOD. OMG.

One of the signature dishes are the olives. They’re actually deconstructed olives — the entire inside is liquid that’s held together by a thin gelatin-like skin. It bursts in your mouth and it’s incredibly flavorful and amazing.

These mini airbags are filled with melted manchego cheese — seriously, everything is like a party in your mouth.

Dessert were these wonderfully rich hot and cold chocolate fritters and a refreshing lemon sorbet with yogurt and honey. Seriously, best tapas meal of the trip. I only wish we had more room to order additional dishes!

This time we stayed at the W Barcelona, which is located right on the beach away from the hustle and bustle of the city center and Las Ramblas. We didn’t feel like we needed to be in the center of all the action anymore and we’d done so much sightseeing by this point in the trip that all we wanted was to relax and unwind and it was perfect…

We didn’t spend much time on the beach unfortunately because just after I took this pic, it started pouring!

From our room, we had a great view of the ship we just left — the Disney Magic. It was kinda sad not to be on board any longer.

Sunday, September 8

Our last morning in Barcelona we treated ourselves to massages at the Bliss Spa conveniently located in the hotel. Then we made our way to the airport for our flight to Paris!

Barcelona and I got off to a rocky start but I grew to love it in the end. The next time we visit Spain I’d love to explore Seville, Madrid, Granada… the list goes on and on.

Next up: Monaco

For more pics, check our Flickr —

Barcelona, Day 1
Barcelona, Day 2
Barcelona, Day 3
Barcelona, Day 4