Jason's Daily Notes

We woke up too late, again. It was already 10am. I wish that we had had an earlier start to see more of the city. Oh well.

We started with a walk to the water. The sun was too bright, and the beach too far away, so I insisted  that I shop for some sunglasses (gafas del sol?) in the nearby shopping centre (Diagonal Mar). For 11am on a Monday, it was really crowded. Was today a holiday? (Later, I learned that there were lots of big sales going on everywhere for this week only.)

We spent about 20 minutes wandering through the mall without finding anything reasonably affordable (I would only need the sunnys for like 2 days so there was no point in spending more than €5 on them). We then caught the tram into the city (while waiting 12 minutes, I ran back inside the mall and bought 3 empanadas).

Our sightseeing day thus commenced. We got off at Plaça de Catalunya, where we took some pictures and peered into the ice skating rink that was going on. We then walked down La Rambla (I began shopping for a Catalonian flag) and around Barri Gotic. We saw the ancient Roman burial ground (Plaça de la Villa de Madrid) and walked down the narrow medeiveal streets to the Cathedral (La Catedral). It was already 1pm, so they were charging €6 to enter. I balked and continued our walking tour. We ended up at the Plaça de Sant Jaume, home to Barcelona's Ajuntament and the Palau de la Generalitat. I looked up places to eat for lunch, which took some time to decide. We just walked down until my mom spotted a not-touristy and nearly empty bar/cafe that was selling tapas. So we sat and had tapas. I ordered a jug of sangria to wash down our plate of meats and cheeses and bread.



After a satisfying lunch, we wandered back to La Rambla and continued toward the seafront. At the Plaça del Portal de la Pau we admired the Mirador de Colom (Columbus column) and took some pictures at the port.

The afternoon was getting on, and I wanted us to visit Montjuïc (a park/mountain just in the middle of the city with stunning views). We took the metro one stop to Paral-lel and took the Funicular to the park entrance. There was a cable car (that cost like €8 per person or something), but I also noticed that there was a bus that climbed up to the same destination: Castell de Montjuïc. So, obviously , I let us take the cheap route, which was almost as quick as the cable car. Win!

The view from the top was breathtaking. Golden afternoon sunlight once again bathed the city and the sea below us, and we could see everything, from Sagrada Familia to the seaside towers to the peak of Tibidabo. Simply amazing.

We walked around the castle for maybe 45 minutes. My uncle befriended another Filipino who was working at the snack cafe; he told us where a Filipino restaurant was in the city center. We then caught the bus back down. I noticed that the bus passed the Olympic stadium (Estadi Olimpic), so I spontaneously decided that we should get off and see it. Good decision: The stadium itself was alright (you could go inside), but the area near the stadium (Plaça de Menesi Ponsati; Palau Sant Jordi; and the Torre Calatrava) was also spectacular. We took in more wonderful views as the sun set.

By this time we were tired and the air starting to chill, so we grabbed the next bus downhill to Espanya station. We took the metro back to the hotel and rested.

Dinner was at the restaurant (La Fonda del Port?) at Port Olimpic. It was a nice restaurant, very classy, but situatied in a fow of high-volume restaurants on the port that seemed like a very busy and touristy place. Nevertheless, the food was just as good as anywhere else that we had eaten so far. I got the seafood paella. The mussels were stinky (yuck) but the rice was fluffy and amazing! I can't believe I ate so much seafood. There was also a bottle of cava to wash it down with.

We got back home and slept well.