The Adventures of Mista Lai

Day 5: Barcelona (May 26)

Breakfast here is horrible. I hate it, but because it’s free, I have to eat it. Because it’s a buffet, I have to eat a lot of it. :( They have weird deli meats, orange juice that is super concentrated, and cereal with warm milk. Cereal with warm milk.

Anywho, on the way to our first destination (with Jen Ng and Nancy Nguyen who we’re meeting up with in Barcelona), to La Catedral, Karen and I were entertained by a dude playing clarinet on the metro. Jen and Nancy walked to the cathedral since they didn’t have train tickets, so we gave them a 45-minute head start. They were 15 minutes late, but then Karen and I were even later. Oops. Once we got to the cathedral, Jen and Nancy couldn’t even get in since they were dressed too inappropriately (they were wearing tank tops and the cathedral has a strict covered shoulders policy).

…So we went to La Rambla a market) to shop. We heard about famous juice around the area, so I stumbled into a bar and got a smoothie for 3.5 Euros. Turns out I was a sucker because actually at a huge marketplace by La Rambla, they had super fresh fruit juice for just 1.5 Euro. I didn’t get a second juice unfortunately. The marketplace was cool except it was a bit too exotic for my liking. I think they had skinned whole squirrel and they even had what looked like the skinned face of a dog… (no pictures) Even if it weren’t a dog, it was still pretty disturbing. Unfortunately somewhere along the way, Jen got pickpocketed as someone stole her water bottle. We think it happened sometime around our venture to La Rambla anyway.

For lunch, Karen and I finally had tapas. I don’t like tapas. Turns out it’s all mostly fried food that’s pretty whatever. It was an experience though… Also an experience was getting sangria in Spain. I’m not a huge fan of sangria either, but I got it with Nancy just cuz it was obvious she really wanted to get her drank on in Europe.

Karen and I then split up from Jen and Nancy cuz we wanted to go to the (nude?) beach they already went to yesterday. On the way, we stopped by gelato shop after gelato shop. For those of y’all planning to visit Barcelona, you must learn the word “probar”. It means to sample. We sampled so many places but none of them could live up to the amazingness of the day before. Hopefully, Italy won’t let us down.

Before we headed to the beach, we also went back to La Catedral. It was pretty awesome. The architecture was epic as expected. At the beach, we saw lots of clothed people. We heard it was going to be a nude beach. We were disappointed, hahaha.

We met back up with Jen and Nancy to take a cable car to go see the Magic Fountain. Unfortunately, the cable car was closed by the time we met up. Granted, Karen and I were late again… but even if we were on time, it would have been too late anyway.Karen ate a waffle for dinner…

The Magic Fountain was amazing. It’s basically a huge fountain that’s lit up. It’s cooler than it sounds (if it doesn’t sound cool to you).

Back at the hostel was another adventure. Jen and Nancy found out the hostel was fully booked, so they crashed for the night in the lobby and saved themselves thirty-something Euros. We almost suffered the same fate though since the hostel checked us out a day early, which I found out when the key to our room wouldn’t work (it was an electronic key which I thought was pretty impressive for a hostel) and also when I ended up finding someone sleeping in my bed. Anywho, the hostel apologized and moved a makeshift bed into the compact room so I got the privilege of sleeping in the middle of the room. Also, some dude used the shower as a toilet… He went into the shower, took care of his business, and then turned on the water to flush… I’ll stop talking now.

Cool, eh?

If only I hadn’t been suckered, I could have enjoyed this colorful amazingness.

Barcelona’s a pretty city.

Classy.

Probably my most disliked meal in Spain… and Europe.

Pretty cathedral.

Our nude feet at the non-nude beach.

Yes, I ate McDonald’s. Look how big my bag was though!

One of my favorite destinations in Europe. Thanks Patrick Chen for the recommendation!

Day 4: Barcelona (May 25)

Check in went smoothly at the hostel, which was fortunate because it took us a long time to get there. We had no map, so we were wandering (I feel like I’ve been using the word wander a lot) the streets of Barcelona at like 3 AM. We saw some hooligans following us but they didn’t give us any trouble.

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We woke up with like four hours of sleep but we powered through the day like champs. Our first stop was Parc Guell. We climbed a mountain of stairs to get there but it was worth it. We got an awesome view of Barcelona and we got to just see a lot of Spain-esque kind of things. Karen bought a pair of turquoise earrings from an umbrella for a sole Euro. Turns out Parc Guell was designed by some architect named Gaudi whose work is ALL over Barcelona. After wandering around nature, we hunted for paella (a popular Spanish dish recommended to us by Marta, the Spanish hostel-mate we had in London). We ordered the seafood version of the dish which seemed like the most popular according to all the pictures (though it seemed like every single restaurant had the exact same pictures of paella). Next up was Calle Verdi… Calle Verdi is what John Terada calls it. Everyone else in Spain calls it Carrer de Verdi which caused us some confusion. We spent hours looking for it due to John’s sneaky trickery. We finally found it after I used my awesome Spanish skills to get directions. We found a popular bakery… AND the best gelato ever! We were worried we would be screwed by the nationwide siesta because everything else around us was shutting down. It was a ghost town. Fortunately, Gelateria Italiana was still open. Seriously, the best gelato ever. Next up were Casa Batllo and La Pedrera (famous buildings designed by Gaudi). They both charged admission, so we just went to the gift shop to look at pictures of his work. I don’t feel like we missed out to be honest. We DID end up actually paying to see some Gaudi though in the form of La Sagrada Familia (a church that wasn’t even finished being built yet). It was worth it though. Stained glass windows are awesome. Next up was some more wandering where we found THREE H&Ms all within a five minute walk from one another. You could literally stand at the entrance of one and see the other.

There were so many stairs to get to Parc Guel that Spain decided there needed to be escalators near the top to help people finish the trek.

We really wanted to take a picture with her but didn’t want to pay… so we didn’t.

Seafood Paella. It was OK.

GELATO. (The first of many, many on this Eurotrip)

Funkiest looking church ever with all its jagged edges, but whatever, it’s cool.

Huge vending machine…

Days 2 and 3: London (May 23/24)

Woke up at 6 AM today… alive. I was a bit worried since one of our roommates (who I never met) had a book with the word ‘murder’ in the title…

Three hours later, we left for Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. What did that entail? I don’t know. I didn’t know what to expect. I also still don’t know because a tall dude with curly hair blocked my view. Despite the less than exciting event, Buckingham Palace was still might impressive. I hope it’s used as more than just housing. It just seems like too much house for one family. After our lack of a chance encounter with anyone royal, we headed over to Harrod’s which was massive and oh so classy. If I lived in London, I would go there all the time. We lost track of time and we ended up eating lunch at 2. We wandered around and stumbled into an Indian restaurant which was awesome. We heard Indian food in London was legit and it was. We shared naan and tikka masala. The chicken was tender, the naan was soft, and nothing was spicy. It was perfect.

Next up was the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge. I don’t get why there’s a song written about the latter because London Bridge was pretty lame. It was definitely short of magnificence.

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Next morning, Karen fell down the stairs. After she healed up, we headed straight to Big Ben. It was awesome. Just as awesome as the UT clock tower which I never really appreciated. We grabbed breakfast at a random cafe. Feeling cultural, I ordered an “English Breakfast” which sadly did not consist of an English muffin but instead included eggs, bacon (Canadian bacon I believe), sausages, beans, and toast. We also checked out the Parliament and St. Paul’s Cathedral. As I mentioned in the previous post, turns out St. Paul’s Cathedral is NOT the same as the dinky little St. Paul’s Church we found the other day. Everything about the cathedral was incredibly intricate. We went back to the Apple store too which was more exciting the second time around now that we knew it was the world’s largest.

Next up was our flight to Barcelona. Karen and I made it to the airport in true Amazing Race style. Gates closed at 6:20 PM. At 6:10 PM, we were still on the train getting to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, we cut everyone in line and ran through security (sorry all!) We then made an epic run through the entire length of the airport because, naturally, Gate 1 was at the extreme end of the airport. I ran ahead and left Karen behind. I feel like I ran a mile. It was far. Anywho, we both made it and we found ourselves in an exit row with extra legroom.

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(We’re in Spain now) So tired… it’s past midnight because we didn’t know what the f to do when we landed. Turns out we missed the bus to central Barcelona and were stranded at the airport for two hours waiting for the next bus into the sity. Anywho, we’re on the bus now (or at least a bus… hopefully, it’s the right now! Karen saw a crowd of people cramming to get onto this bus, so we followed suit.)

Come on out William and Kate!

One of my favorite meals in Europe!

This tower does not play “Friday”. Sorry Eric.

So much Apple-y goodness!

Day 1: London (May 21/22)

So here begins my journaling experience for Europe. I still can’t believe I’m actually here. Prior to touching down in London, I stocked up on some good ole cheap(ish) American food in the form of Taco Bell, Jamba Juice, and McDonald’s. I feel like I need to maintain a state of non-hungriness so I won’t ever feel impulsive and buy something crazily expensive to eat that’s not going to be worth it. On the airplane, I forced myself to eat everything (even the roll, and if you know me, you know I hate bread). Fortunately, Karen let me have her butter which helped the bread go down a bit easier.

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In London now sitting on our first train at Heathrow Airport! It cost us 18 GBP (GBP haha). Unfortunately, we overpaid because we were clueless tourists, but we made it to Central London and I guess that’s what counts. The weather when we touched down was cloudy/foggy/rainy (what you would expect from London I suppose) but mid-day, it turned into beautiful sun. London looks awesome. It’s so much brighter than what the Harry Potter films would lead you to believe.

Our first successful outing was to Platform 9 3/4. The station was actually under construction, so the platform was moved outdoors instead of being located three-quarters into Platform 9 and Platform 10. Speaking of outdoors, there was some weird outbreak of floating flora which made us decide that we were less than impressed with London. It’s hard to love a city where every five seconds you’re rubbing your eyes or coughing.

Lunch was fish and chips (11.45 GBP for a large that Karen and I split). They’re OK… 

After lunch, we ventured to St. Paul’s Church which was closed. (Turns out there’s a difference between St. Paul’s Church and Cathedral but more on that later) Instead, Karen and I made our way over to the world’s largest Apple store. We didn’t know it at the time that there were actually three stories. We just wanted to go inside and satisfy our Facebook and email addictions.

Next up was the National Gallery, a free museum (we love free) that housed some paintings. I thought I was tough and could handle a full 6AM-10PM day of adventure after hours of flight, but nope. We peaced out from the museum after I almost PTFO in the lobby and took a 3-hour nap at the hostel. The nap was wonderful.

Peace out Mudbloods!

Mum and Dad, I made it to London! I’m calling you from a red telephone booth. Sorry if I sound funny, but I’m holding my breath because this phone booth smells like piss. Turns out people urinate in these.

At Trafalgar Square. I don’t know the significance of this place, but I remembered reading about it in Harry Potter, so it was somewhere we had to go. Check out the London 2012 Olympics countdown in the background though!

Fish and chips… Not all that they’re cracked out to be. It sure LOOKS delicious though!