Travel Day: Off to Barcelona!

November 07, 2011

Tuesday was another travel day! We were off to Barcelona. Although I was sad to leave Sevilla, I was excited to see a new part of Spain. I was also particularly pleased that we would be flying to Barcelona. No horrible bus ride.

Before we left town, David and I and Kym and Kyle decided to head over to Mailboxes, Etc. and ship some things home so we wouldn't have to lug olive oil and stuff all over Spain. We had done this on our honeymoon as well and it worked out great. Well! All I will say is...shipping anything from Spain - very expensive. Note to self: in future buy light weight gifts.

After that little adventure, we stopped at a pastry shop for some sweet treats. I wish we had more shops like this in the Twin Cities. Sure - there's Woullet and Cupcake and Sweets Bakeshop, but nothing like the bakeries and pastry shops I saw in Spain. I miss them so. If anyone knows of a good one in the Twin Cities, let me know.

Fortified by pastry, we finished packing up and headed across town to the bus stop where we would then catch a ride to the airport. Oh, how I wanted to take a cab! I felt like I was going to fall over backwards with my pack on, and I needed a second person to help me even lift it to my back. My plan to get everything in there so I didn't have to carry a pack on my back and pack in front (see Ireland) was a bad plan. The pack on front helped with the balance.

Much sweatier, we arrived at the airport. Check in was a breeze. Security was a breeze. Yes - you heard that right. It was easy. Our flight in Vueling Airlines was quite nice. Overall, a very good travel experience.

Much to my delight, when we arrived in Barcelona, Kelly decided she was going to take a taxi to the apartment and Lea was going with her. Oh joy! I happily agreed to forgo the hour of public transportation and contribute my euro to the taxi ride.

A short cab ride later, and we arrived at our lovely, lovely apartment. Completely furnished in Ikea. Six bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a kitchen the size of a bread box.

First order of business was food. And wine. Well, first order of business is really wine. Since we had some time before the rest of the gang would arrive, we started to wander. Smart women we are, we wandered in the right direction and found this lovely market.

Multiple stands of fruit, meat, seafood. It was so fun!

We had actually passed this in the cab and it appeared from the outside just to be a flower market. I was wrong! I had my first experience pointing and buying and did pretty well, although I bought a single banana instead of a bunch. I was too embarrassed to ask for more.Then we headed across the street to the supermarket and stocked up on wine and beer. Next stop was this amazing bakery with fresh baked bread and some equally amazing looking pastries. The woman working was so so friendly and we got little mini-croissants for free.

We came back home with bread, cheese, a little pizza, strawberries, grapes, bananas, and some other peach/apricot thing I didn't recognize. We had a nice little spread. Oh, tomatoes too because Kym made an amazing bruschetta which is not pictured.

The people at the market were so friendly as well. Catalan is the first language in Barcelona and I speak none of that, but we managed just fine.

Kym and I headed back to the market later to get some food to make dinner, as well as some breakfast items. Cornflakes. I believe dinner was pasta with pesto. We had gotten into a comfortable routine of eating in on travel days.