On our way to the metro, we stopped by the biggest market in Barcelona in the Las Ramblas area. OMG, this market was AMAZING. The FRESHEST of EVERYTHING was here. Meat, sausage, goat heads, hearts, cow stomachs, papayas, all kinds of exotic fruits, veggies, candy, seafood, cheese, mini-bakeries, you name it! I have a shitload of pictures, but here are just a few interesting shots.
Silver colored chocolate!
Goat heads, rabbits, etc etc!
THE BEST FUCKING GELATO!!! Doesn't get any fresher and tastier than this.
It was amazing to see how organized and CLEAN everything was despite the chaos in the market. They stacked their fruits and veggies almost all the way right side up; I don’t get how they avoid avalanches of fresh produce. They even had this little food bar where they served fresh seafood and coffee. Ah, it was so great, I would have loved to have the chance to buy fresh food here and cook a dinner. On our way out, I purchased fresh papaya and mango juice.
Just another day at El Mercado.
We then made our way to the metro, took green L3, then hopped on the purple L5 to make our way to Sagrada Familia. This is a HUGE church designed by Gaudi in 1882 that is STILL in construction. This church is AMAZING! I would describe Gaudi's style as a mix of gothic traditional on top of modern design. It's pretty interesting as the buildings he designed can be seen throughout Barcelona; the big giveaway is that they look like they are melting.
HUGE!
Looking up:
Look at these cool stairs. I want these in my future loft!
Working hard! One of the many artists working on the unfinished church.
We were able to take these circular stone stairs up (where Raf got super nervous since he has a fear of heights, but he did it! I'm proud of you, Pouty Brat!). It was really interesting to see the amount of work put into this stone church and also to witness people still creating it. Check out this link for more info.
Scary stairway for Raf.
After this, we went to the metro to go back "home." Turned out there was something wrong with the metro so they kicked everyone off. Now our other option was the bus. We decided to say fuck it, and walk back. What a good idea this was! We were able to see where all the major stores were located. We also got see a lot of cool buildings/architecture around the main shopping area.
Can't you tell this is by Gaudi? His buildings can be seen sporadically throughout the city.
We decided to make a turn on this random alley/street and it turned into this HUGE shopping maze. Did you know they put screens on the sides of the buildings to catch dead pigeons? Anyway, I was able to finally check out Mango, a store they have yet to bring to the states. I got a cool jacket and jeans for 74 EUR. I found a cute top here and in Zara, but alas they were both the last ones left and were missing a button. Oh well.
During our walk around town, we stopped by this bakery to grab a snack. We simply ordered a baguette with melted cheese and parsley, and a ham sammich with melted cheese on top. Simple as this sounds, the taste was really amazing. Like I stated before, the baguettes here are sooo good (I can’t imagine what they taste like in Paris, ah, will find out soon!). The cheese tasted like it was flavored with onions, but not the powder, like real onions. I need to try this at home! The ham sammich was also really good! I don’t even like ham sammiches. It must be the cheese here too. Ummmm, YUMMY!
All in all, we probably ended up walking around three to four miles on main streets and on the maze like small streets which were filled abundantly with antique stores, cafes, bakeries, restaurants, and clothing stores. It’s so nice here! I’m lucky that Raf can speak decent Spanish so we have been able to get by pretty well. I can understand some Spanish, but when one of the Mango girls came up to me, I was like staring at her like a deer in headlights because she spoke so fast. Ah, I feel so stupid not being able to speak!
McDonald's anyone? They even have cafe settings for American fast food!
Now onto tonight’s dinner plans. We ended up walking around to discover "La Plaça Reial." It is a big square lined with restaurants with outdoor seating. One restaurant in particular seriously had a line with 60 people waiting. It was nuts! Then we waited at another nice dinner but we didn’t want to sit next to people that were smoking. After 20 minutes, we said screw it and started walking back to eat at a restaurant right next to our hostel. It was delicious!
La Plaça Reial
We ordered sangria, a simple salad with romaine and frisee, tomatoes, olives, peas and corn, adorned with balsamic vinaigrette and dried thyme. YUMMMMM, I don’t know what it is, but the simple dishes here are really good. Must be the fresh produce and ingredients.
Probably the best vegetarian salad I've had (I usually always pile my salads with tons of red meat)
Next, we had the mixt paella with mussels, clams, scallops, chicken, peas, shrimp, and Spanish rice. Umm, Raf says it’s what real paella should taste like. Now I have something to compare it with back home.
Bitches, better recognize!
OoOOoooo and for dessert, we ordered this layered yogurt and mango puree, with chocolate crisps and syrup on top. There was a small scoop of a really sweet mango sorbet on the bottom. ¡DELICIOSO!
WOOT WOOT!
This meal was only 38,51 EUR. The quality of food here has yet to disappoint me. Oh, btw, we ate dinner at 10:30pm and left at midnight, and it was still open! Oh and also, the sangria I make tastes like the one we had tonight (except Spanish Sangria has more rum and less fruit) so I am really proud! ¡Huzzah!
Ah, we just realized how Barcelona is so clean. There are four guys outside washing the streets down. Tres cool! Oops, I mean, ¡Muy cool! Ok, we are going to bed now. We hit the beach tomorrow. Good night!
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1 comment:
OMG! Spain sounds like so much fun! ...Minus the part about the goat heads, though.
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