Day 71: Vicky Chelsea Barcelona

We started our morning off with a stop at Dunkin' Coffee (that's right - Dunkin' Donuts is called Dunkin' Coffee in Spain. Idk. Weird.) - despite how American it was of us, I tried to remain a little authentic to the Spanish and got a doughnut filled with dulce de leche and a horchata to drink. Hee hee!!

My ankle still wasn't feeling great, so we decided to do a bus tour of the city so that we could still see all the sights but I wouldn't have to walk too much. Below is a picture I took while we waited in line for our tour bus tickets; the Desigual bike was AMAZING so I had to snap a pic, and managed to get our double-decker tour bus in the background! Success!

Sam and I were a little kooky. It was morning time (for us - in fact I think it was about 1pm)... it was really hot... we were standing in a line... the resultant picture:

A few minutes later and we were on the second level of the bus, work'n on our tans and seeing the sights without hurting my ankle!! YAY! We saw a ton of stuff - lots of Gaudi buildings, royal palaces, etc.

When we'd completed the Red Bus route, we took a lunch break at Hard Rock Cafe - YUMMMY!!! In case you're ever near a Hard Rock, please listen carefully: GO INSIDE, SIT DOWN, ORDER A BROWNIE SUNDAE. OMG - it was bliss in a glass. For. Serious. Damn!! After lunch I went in to visit my bears (I collect Hard Rock bears from around the world), but had to leave without one, as I literally have only American money at this point (and not much of that - damn). And so I had to decide that while I shall continue my Hard Rock bear collection, I only need one bear per country so that I don't go completely broke. ;)

Next it was on to the Blue Bus, which took us by the Sagrada Familia. The bus was going along, doing its thing... announcing sites here and there... and then it turned the corner and there it was...

Oh.

My.

God.

There are no words for the sheer awe I felt upon seeing the structure. It was SO big and SO intricate and SO gorgeous and SO amazing. Both G and I gasped and G proclaimed it to be "One of the most Amazing sites I've ever seen." It's just... so... DAMN. I was dazed (as you can see below).

The Sagrada Familia was begun by Gaudi in the early 20th century and is still under construction thanks to private donors. According to Gaudi and his plans for the structure, it will take up to SEVEN generations to complete - HA! When asked if this didn't seem like a long time, Gaudi replied something along the lines of, "God will still be around then." Hee hee. (Little did he know, perhaps, that the idea of "God" might possibly quite out of vogue in 5 more generations - lol.)

After our amazing glance at the Sagrada Familia, everything else the Blue Bus had to offer on the tour was a little lackluster. Haha. So when we circled 'round to our stop, we headed to Starbucks for a pick-me-up. Seeing a Starbucks menu in Catalan was the shit. <-- HOW COOL to have it in such a random language (well, random seeming to me, anyway!) They spell "ch" with an "x" - I mean, come on. SWEET. I kept wondering if Chocolate is spelled something like xocolata... then would Chelsea be spelled like Xelsi? Damn, that's neat. Maybe I should move to Barcelona just to be able to spell my name like that. I tried to test it out by giving the barista my name, but she misheard me and just wrote, "Jesi." Darnit.

Next it was off to a stroll down Las Ramblas. I found an awesome Desigual facade and found an awesome CUPCAKE poster advertising an 80's dance party ...

 ... took a blurry pic with Custo Barcelona IN Barcelona (omg cool) and found an "automatic ordering" set of kiosks at McDonald's (omg weird) ...

But the best part of Las Ramblas by far was the crazy Dali-inspired street statue guy!! Sam practically cried and ran away when we suggested taking a pic with the guy (who HAD to be gay - I mean he had two inch purple feathers for eye lashes), but we finally got him to oblige. Hee hee!!

After Las Ramblas, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our journey back HOME (Madrid - <3) tomorrow morning/afternoon. On our way we stopped for drinks for our room and I found a tiny pyanda byear! OMG - LOVE!! <3

I spent my night catching up on the week's blog posts that were all somewhat incomplete and am now seriously pooped. But I'm almost too excited to go to sleep 'cause I get to go HOME to MADRID tomorrow!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! My Mediterranean adventure has been a hoot, but I miss my life in Madrid soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. I can't wait to be on MY metro and spend plenty of time bothering L and going out with my Familia and seeing Ernesto and traveling a shit ton. YAY! ^_^ Time to go back to where I belong! <3

XOXO
Jet-set Cupcake