Bienvenido a Espagne y Ibiza
First off, we would like to apologize for not writing a post for several days. We were limited in our internet access at our hostel in Barcelona due to long waits, and we had packed agendas leaving us little time to really write something worthwhile. However, here we are and here's the recap:
We arrived in Barcelona after a 13 hour train ride from Paris. We had two options when going - a direct train leaving at 9pm on the 3rd and arriving at about 9:30am on the 4th, or to take a slightly slower train with one stop in Port Bou, Spain. Since both options involved a couchette (a train with beds instead of seats), we opted for the least expensive. Despite the fact that we have Eurail passes enabling us to travel free, there is a fee when making reservations for space on trains here. The fee ranges wildly depending on the type of train and which city your going to. A lot of trains require reservations...such as the sleeper train we took to Barcelona. We opted for the cheapter route with one stop at about 24 euros per person (about us much as spending a night in a Hostel) versus the direct train which was a whopping 60 euros. Factoring the exchange rate, it gets quite pricey!
We arrived in Barcelona at about 11am after sleeping the night through on the train. The cabins are very small...they fit about 6 beds on 3 bunks in a small area..but they are certainly more comfortable than regular seats. We found our way using the metro station (subway) to our hostel: Centric Point.
The hostel was awesome. Very spacious, great common room with free internet access (albiet very busy). The hostel was very clean and the staff friendly. We immediately got settled in, took showers, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and went to the beach.
The main street in Barcelona is Las Ramblas. It runs from the Placa del Catalunya (the main plaza) all the way to the Mediterranean sea. There, you can find shopping, bars, restaurants, and the beach. The beach there is nice..a lot of people come out during the daytime and its really nice weather.
We had some great Sangria at the beach - basically a Spanish red wine mixed with fruits and sprite or tonic water. We stayed there all afternoon and ended up getting a little more darker than expected! We stayed there until evening/sunset and went to a beachside restaurant that was recommended to us by a local called El Rey de Gamba. We ate a traditional Spanish dish: Paella. Basically, its rice, seafood, and chicken mixed together and steam cooked with spices and Spanish flavors. Really good stuff! A typical Paella dish cost about 10 euros, and comes with a sizable portion of food.
Afterwards, we went back to the Hostel and got ready to go out. We ended up going to a place called 'Catwalk', a club located right next to the beach. Something interesting here is most clubs in Europe give you 1 free drink with admission, making a cover charge much more worthwhile. The club was absolutely AMAZING. Huge, probably about 2000 people there...with 2 floors with 2 different DJ's spinning beats. Beautiful Spanish women everywhere!! I think I'm gonna have to come back to Spain soon.
We slept late the next morning and went to the Placa del Catalunya after lunch about 1pm. For lunch, we ate Tapas (Spanish for 'appetizers'). Here, tapas are eaten as a meal...you simply pick which appetizers you like and they bring them in small portions for everyone to try. Great stuff! Here, we hopped on a tour bus which took us all around Barcelona in about 3 hours. Barcelona is very proud of their architecture...especially buildings made by a Spanish architect Gaudi. The 'Sangria Familiar' is a cathedral made in the old Spanish style by this guy...quite amazing to see in person. We also visited the F.C. Barcelona football (soccer) stadium, the parlaiment, and the surrounding valley that Barcelona is enclosed in. Overall, for 19 euros the tour was worth it..we finished all of our sightseeing in one big swoop.
Later that evening, we were all tired and tried to sleep more as we had a 6am flight to Ibiza (an island in the Balearic area off the coast of Spain..still considered part of Spain) the next morning. Ibiza is considered by many as the #1 party spot in the world. Famous celebrities frequent the island all year round, especially during the late summer months. We picked a great time to come as it is the beginning of the party season there and we came on a day that had an 'opening party' for the club El Divino. Besides having a great nightlife, Ibiza is known for its great beaches and water sports during the day. We spent the entire day on the beach lounging in the beautiful sunny weather. We ended up napping for about 4 hours!! Great way to be on vacation, no??
Afterwards, we headed to the bar district to grab a few drinks and pick up tickets for the nighttime festivities. We were able to bargain down several vendors to selling us tickets to the club for only 10 euros each (versus 40-50 on a normal basis..quite a savings!!). You can also bargain for drink specials there - great thing about Spain!
The party was awesome. The club was right on the beach so you could walk outside and feel the fresh sea breeze. Tons of people were there and everyone was dancing crazy to trance/techno music...great atmosphere...I can see why they call it the party capital of the world. We ended up staying there the entire night (until about 6am), then caught a flight back to Barcelona that same day. As soon as we got back we were all very tired so we slept.
Our last night in Barcelona we ended up meeting a lot of people staying at our Hostel from all over...US states like Florida, Colorado, DC, etc. as well as people from Holland, Amsterdam, London, Paraguay, and more. Barcelona truly is host to an international crowd of travellers!
On the morning of the 8th, we were supposed to catch an 8:45 train to Nice, France, concluding our stay in Spain. Unfortunately, our cab drivers took us to the wrong station and we ended up missing our reserved trains. After quickly consulting the ticket office, we were able to change our reservations without penalty to an 11:20am train. Unfortunately, this train takes about 4 hours longer than the first one...so we arrived in Nice after switching 3 different trains in France at about 11pm. Too late to do anything...we simply went to the Hostel: Saint Villa de Exiupery and checked in...and here I am writing to you from their free internet access!
Nice is considered the 'capital' of the French Riviera...the Riviera also home to the city of Cannes (heard of the Cannes film festival? It's here..) and Monaco (home of the world famous Monte Cristo casino. This whole area thrives on glitz and ritzyness (our cab to the hostel was a recent model top end Mercedes!). Both areas are within 30 minutes of Nice. We are here for 1 more night...so tommorow we plan on exploring the beaches, castles, chateaux's, casinos, etc. It will be a busy day indeed.
In general, our trip has been amazing already. We've learned that in order to keep costs in line as much as possible (as well as our health), that we should look for grocery stores wherever we are. We've done this several times already and are able to make our own meal of sandwiches, chips, and a bottle of water for around 3 euros each (great deal compared to the standard 6-10 euros for a meal around here). Also, we've gotten used to walking EVERYWHERE. We probably walk about 5 miles a day, if not more depending on the city. I suppose its good for us!
Anyway, It's about 2:30am right now and we're all tired from a full day of travelling....off to bed!
Hope everyone is keeping well!
Cheers,
Eurotravellers
We arrived in Barcelona after a 13 hour train ride from Paris. We had two options when going - a direct train leaving at 9pm on the 3rd and arriving at about 9:30am on the 4th, or to take a slightly slower train with one stop in Port Bou, Spain. Since both options involved a couchette (a train with beds instead of seats), we opted for the least expensive. Despite the fact that we have Eurail passes enabling us to travel free, there is a fee when making reservations for space on trains here. The fee ranges wildly depending on the type of train and which city your going to. A lot of trains require reservations...such as the sleeper train we took to Barcelona. We opted for the cheapter route with one stop at about 24 euros per person (about us much as spending a night in a Hostel) versus the direct train which was a whopping 60 euros. Factoring the exchange rate, it gets quite pricey!
We arrived in Barcelona at about 11am after sleeping the night through on the train. The cabins are very small...they fit about 6 beds on 3 bunks in a small area..but they are certainly more comfortable than regular seats. We found our way using the metro station (subway) to our hostel: Centric Point.
The hostel was awesome. Very spacious, great common room with free internet access (albiet very busy). The hostel was very clean and the staff friendly. We immediately got settled in, took showers, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and went to the beach.
The main street in Barcelona is Las Ramblas. It runs from the Placa del Catalunya (the main plaza) all the way to the Mediterranean sea. There, you can find shopping, bars, restaurants, and the beach. The beach there is nice..a lot of people come out during the daytime and its really nice weather.
We had some great Sangria at the beach - basically a Spanish red wine mixed with fruits and sprite or tonic water. We stayed there all afternoon and ended up getting a little more darker than expected! We stayed there until evening/sunset and went to a beachside restaurant that was recommended to us by a local called El Rey de Gamba. We ate a traditional Spanish dish: Paella. Basically, its rice, seafood, and chicken mixed together and steam cooked with spices and Spanish flavors. Really good stuff! A typical Paella dish cost about 10 euros, and comes with a sizable portion of food.
Afterwards, we went back to the Hostel and got ready to go out. We ended up going to a place called 'Catwalk', a club located right next to the beach. Something interesting here is most clubs in Europe give you 1 free drink with admission, making a cover charge much more worthwhile. The club was absolutely AMAZING. Huge, probably about 2000 people there...with 2 floors with 2 different DJ's spinning beats. Beautiful Spanish women everywhere!! I think I'm gonna have to come back to Spain soon.
We slept late the next morning and went to the Placa del Catalunya after lunch about 1pm. For lunch, we ate Tapas (Spanish for 'appetizers'). Here, tapas are eaten as a meal...you simply pick which appetizers you like and they bring them in small portions for everyone to try. Great stuff! Here, we hopped on a tour bus which took us all around Barcelona in about 3 hours. Barcelona is very proud of their architecture...especially buildings made by a Spanish architect Gaudi. The 'Sangria Familiar' is a cathedral made in the old Spanish style by this guy...quite amazing to see in person. We also visited the F.C. Barcelona football (soccer) stadium, the parlaiment, and the surrounding valley that Barcelona is enclosed in. Overall, for 19 euros the tour was worth it..we finished all of our sightseeing in one big swoop.
Later that evening, we were all tired and tried to sleep more as we had a 6am flight to Ibiza (an island in the Balearic area off the coast of Spain..still considered part of Spain) the next morning. Ibiza is considered by many as the #1 party spot in the world. Famous celebrities frequent the island all year round, especially during the late summer months. We picked a great time to come as it is the beginning of the party season there and we came on a day that had an 'opening party' for the club El Divino. Besides having a great nightlife, Ibiza is known for its great beaches and water sports during the day. We spent the entire day on the beach lounging in the beautiful sunny weather. We ended up napping for about 4 hours!! Great way to be on vacation, no??
Afterwards, we headed to the bar district to grab a few drinks and pick up tickets for the nighttime festivities. We were able to bargain down several vendors to selling us tickets to the club for only 10 euros each (versus 40-50 on a normal basis..quite a savings!!). You can also bargain for drink specials there - great thing about Spain!
The party was awesome. The club was right on the beach so you could walk outside and feel the fresh sea breeze. Tons of people were there and everyone was dancing crazy to trance/techno music...great atmosphere...I can see why they call it the party capital of the world. We ended up staying there the entire night (until about 6am), then caught a flight back to Barcelona that same day. As soon as we got back we were all very tired so we slept.
Our last night in Barcelona we ended up meeting a lot of people staying at our Hostel from all over...US states like Florida, Colorado, DC, etc. as well as people from Holland, Amsterdam, London, Paraguay, and more. Barcelona truly is host to an international crowd of travellers!
On the morning of the 8th, we were supposed to catch an 8:45 train to Nice, France, concluding our stay in Spain. Unfortunately, our cab drivers took us to the wrong station and we ended up missing our reserved trains. After quickly consulting the ticket office, we were able to change our reservations without penalty to an 11:20am train. Unfortunately, this train takes about 4 hours longer than the first one...so we arrived in Nice after switching 3 different trains in France at about 11pm. Too late to do anything...we simply went to the Hostel: Saint Villa de Exiupery and checked in...and here I am writing to you from their free internet access!
Nice is considered the 'capital' of the French Riviera...the Riviera also home to the city of Cannes (heard of the Cannes film festival? It's here..) and Monaco (home of the world famous Monte Cristo casino. This whole area thrives on glitz and ritzyness (our cab to the hostel was a recent model top end Mercedes!). Both areas are within 30 minutes of Nice. We are here for 1 more night...so tommorow we plan on exploring the beaches, castles, chateaux's, casinos, etc. It will be a busy day indeed.
In general, our trip has been amazing already. We've learned that in order to keep costs in line as much as possible (as well as our health), that we should look for grocery stores wherever we are. We've done this several times already and are able to make our own meal of sandwiches, chips, and a bottle of water for around 3 euros each (great deal compared to the standard 6-10 euros for a meal around here). Also, we've gotten used to walking EVERYWHERE. We probably walk about 5 miles a day, if not more depending on the city. I suppose its good for us!
Anyway, It's about 2:30am right now and we're all tired from a full day of travelling....off to bed!
Hope everyone is keeping well!
Cheers,
Eurotravellers
posted by Kinesh at
3:52 AM
