But let me back up to cover more of the day. It hasn't been all bad and maybe I shouldn't be so negative. I don't want to be! We woke up and left Ile de Re around 10 am, got to Bordeaux around noon and had lunch, and then were ready to board our flight with more than an hour to spare. The Bordeaux airport was not what I was expecting. It was very quiet and pretty empty. Comfy benches to sit on though. I was getting excited because it seemed like there were only going to be 12 people on our flight, but when the plane got there we realized that many people on board would be staying on for the plane's next journey as well. Still, it was an airplane that only seated about 50 people (pretty sure that number includes pilots and staff because I counted less than 40 passenger seats). I liked that it was such a small plane. And the flight was so short it didn't even matter how big it was. We'd barely been offered a drink and snack before we were told to prepare for landing.
Then we arrived in Barcelona. And the weather is great and I love the palm trees, of course. I have a small obsession with palm trees, so just seeing them perks me up. We took a cab from the airport, which was reasonably priced especially compared to London. It was up to me to get the cab using my Spanish, which I must say I have severely forgotten since high school! I don't know how people can easily switch from one language to another. I asked how much a taxi was in Spanish, and after getting an answer I responded with "Merci!" And then looked quite silly I'm sure! Hopefully more Spanish will come back to me. I slowly remember a bit more the longer we are around it. Our hotel is nice, very trendy and has all the amenities we need for one night. After settling in, we all got cleaned up and rested a bit before heading out for the evening. I guess that's when our opinion of the city started to decline a bit.
We were told that the Port Olympic area would be best for dinner and then going out after for dancing at the discotecs, so we hopped in another taxi and for less than 7 euro made it to that area. It looks very pretty, but the people were extremely annoying! Maybe we just were too naive or something, but we were very taken aback when EVERY restaurant we walked past had more than one person out front trying to convince us to eat at their place. Then an annoying man selling flowers started putting them in our face and would not take "no" for an answer. We finally picked a restaurant, and again were a tad disappointed. Except Keegan! He enjoyed all his seafood and said it was worth the money. I ordered Lasagne and was given Spaghetti, which to begin with was not cool. I don't remember ever ordering spaghetti in a restaurant, and I can assure anyone reading this that the spaghetti I make on pasta nights is MUCH better :). Taylor had spaghetti with a different sauce and said it tasted exactly like Spaghettios lol. We did enjoy the dessert though. But were very just taken aback again by the atmosphere and the people. It was a much less friendly place than we experienced in both London and France. However, I have decided that I definitely want to try some paella. It looks delicious and I think it's something you must try while in Spain. And how can you go wrong with rice?! haha :) That's on my agenda for Palamos I think.
After dinner, we took a nice little walk by the port. But then we started getting very annoyed (again) by all the men trying to sell us random things - ugly hats, tickets to discotecs, water, beer, etc. It got old fast. Overall, it was just a disappointing evening. We had high hopes for Barcelona nightlife, and it was ruined by the street selling people and our worries that people would try to pickpocket us. Maybe we were just too tired, too.
So, we are sleeping earlier than planned in hopes that tomorrow our opinion of Barcelona changes. I really want to enjoy our time here because I've heard such good things. The area is lovely, it's just shame that these few things have to make the atmosphere so unappealing. I also think we are all anxious to just get to the beach tomorrow evening and relax for a few days. Cities are exhausting. Again, we've definitely been spoiled by our previous hosts and locations, so that makes it tough for Barcelona to keep up I suppose :). Still happy we came here and feel lucky to be in this city. I think a good night's rest will do us all well. We'll try to tackle this big city again tomorrow. Buenas Noches!
-Kait
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