Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Hola Barcelona!!!



I'm currently in French Riviera. =) Lagging behind on my updates again and my photos are piling up. =.= So far the Europe tour has been great...lotsa time to walk around and explore Paris on our own pace.

Anyway, here's an update of my trip to Barcelona from Sept 26-28 (Sun-Tues). Btw…we were contemplating of cancelling this Spain trip because another group of Tarc guys who finished their course a week earlier were robbed at knife point in Barcelona…and we were just 2 girls travelling ourselves so was a lil’ paranoid about this. :p Well obviously we didn’t cancel our trip and luckily we both came back safe and sound. =)

Sept 26 (Sun): Continuing from the last post, we took a night bus down from Edinburgh to London...another 9 hours of traveling but this time the seat was better so at least got to sleep some along the journey.  


Arrived London early in the morning then took another bus to Stansted airport which was about 1.5 hours away from the city. Compared to LCCT...Stansted is definitely a much nicer airport...lol!!


Finally arrived Girona (Barcelona) airport at 1.30pm after flying for 2 hours. It’s good that we’re not from EU or UK…skipped the long queue at the immigration. ;p

Girona airport is about 1.5 hours away from Barcelona city so it was already 4pm when we reached Mediterranean Youth Hostel. Plus, it was a Sunday so all shops were closed. For safety sake, we juz stayed in and rested for the rest of the day. There were 3 Italian guys, a China guy, a Korean girl, a couple dunno from where and both of us in our 10-bed mixed dorm.

Sept 27 (Mon): Coincidentally met another 3 guys from Tarc staying in the same hostel and they told us about the strike on the 29th...so we went to the bus station early to get our bus tickets to Valencia before starting our sightseeing for the day.

Passed by this Arc de Triomphe as we were walking to Plaza Catalunya. This is different from the one in Paris. :p





Mom wanted me to take a ground tour in Barca for safety but it was all very pricey so we decided to take the hop-on-hop-off bus to go around the city. We bought a 2-day pass for £29...spent a lil’ more but at least it was a safer by walking lesser. :p  




Spent our first day visiting most of Gaudi’s masterpieces. First stop…Casa Battlo.

Next stop…La Pedrera (Casa Mila)…another weird-shaped building. :p

Remember this from Meteor Garden? The famous Sagrada Familia!! There were so many visitors queuing to enter the church! This church is still under construction after so many years…and the progress will depend on the donation/funding received.  

Another Gaudi’s masterpiece that appeared in Meteor Garden…Park Guell. This park was huge…we spent bout 2 hours walking around the entire park under scorching hot sun. =)







Hopped back on the bus and continued our sightseeing.



Our next stop…La Ramblas. This street is constantly filled with tourists and pick-pockets. We were extremely alert while walking along this street. Saw this 'Kuala Lumpur' shop along La Ramblas.

 This is the famous La Boqueria market…lotsa fruit stalls inside. 

Had Paella at La Ramblas…too bad this wasn’t nice…a lil’ salty. Food was quite expensive and both of us brought too little cash along…very cham…haha!! :p

Walked all the way to the end of La Ramblas street and we reached Port Vell. 

Nice port with lotsa boats!! =)

Camwhore time! :p Good timing that we arrived in the evening coz the sunset was pretty. 

Hopped back on the bus to head back to the hostel…passed by Port Olympic and back to Plaza Catalunya.


Sept 28 (Tues): Second day of our sightseeing…this time we went on the other route.


The National Palace (Palau Nacional)

Caixa Forum

Port Olympic…beautiful day!!! Love the sunshine!! =) 

Now u know where I got my tan…lol!!

Beachhhhh!!!

We were just chilling and overlooking the beach…and guess what I spotted???
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I’ve censored this…yes she was topless…lol!!  :p

Gothic Quarter

1992 Olympic Stadium

One last round on the bus

Stupid strike that caused me to change our plans.

That's all for Barcelona...next...Valencia.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I went there last week to barcelona & use the barcelona hop on hop off tour package.That was the amazing experience.

rhea said...

one of my dream when i visit spain is to visit sagrada familia and park guell as ive seen it in meteor garden when i was young...

was just wondering if u could tell me if we took the barcelona hop on hop off bus...are we given enough time to go around??? as its a very beautiful place we'd want to spend lots of time there :)

rhea said...
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khaishing.com said...

Hi Rhea,

The hop on hop off bus is worth it if you plan to see several places within a day. I know that there's always long queue at sagrada familia so it may take you quite some time waiting to get in. It's possible for you to go to both sagrada and park guell in one day...but if you're planning to visit only these 2 attractions...then mayb you wanna consider other options instead of the hop on hop off bus. :p

rhea said...

that's cool :P yep we want to visit lots of places! :D its just that i don't really know where to visit as im only aware those two places XD haha :))

how long did u stay in barcelona? im planning to check in to the Mediterranean youth hostel too... was the accommodation good?

rhea said...

can u tell me where u bought the ticket for hop on hop off bus?? sorry for asking too many questions i hope u dont mind...

Khai Shing said...

I was in Barca for only 3days2nights I think. Mediterranean youth hostel was quite okay for the price we paid. I bought the tickets at Plaça de Catalunya. You can also buy the tickets online: http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/web/guest/home

Unknown said...
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