Barcelona

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We started off our journey by boarding a tube from Leicester Square tube station towards Russell Square station. We boarded a bus there to Luton Airport where our flight, EasyJet took off. It costs us 15 pounds for a fare thru and flow. It took about 45 minutes to reach to the airport.

Our flight delayed for about 40 minutes because there was a small component of the ariplane found missing. In fact, we were prepared to chance to another plane if the component could not be found. Luckily at last, they found the component and voila we took off. We took about 2 hours to reach to Barcelona. Barcelona, or known as Barsa by locals is so beautiful when look from the plane. The city is backed with moutains and facing Mediterranean Sea. The city is so well organized.

Barsa!! We are coming......

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When passing through custom, there is no much problem and the officers seem friendly to the tourists. When we tried to board the bus to the city, we found out that there is a long queue outside the airport to purchase bus ticket through the vending machine. But, almight God, there is only 1 vending machine out there!! And the problem is the machine seems not functioning so well and there is no officer out there to help people to purchase the ticket. The problem is the langusge shown on the machine is in Spanish and i wonder how many tourists out there understand what's the instruction for purchasing the ticket. Having this trouble, we decide to follow abother couple English couples to move straight to the bus instead of queueing for the machine. And guess what? You could purchase the ticket directly from the bus driver! Gosh.....pity for the people out there who queue up for so long and struggle to purchase the ticket. The ticket costs us 3.75 Euro to Pl. Catalunya where our destination is. It took us about 30 minutes to reach our destination.

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We head for our hostel because we were late for check-in time due to the delayed of our flight. We took Metro towards Girona station and the journey is short, which lasted about 5 minutes. From Girona station, we walked about 10 minutes and reached our hostel, Backpackers BCN. It's a realtively small hostel where there have about 5/6 rooms. The receptionist is quite nice and helpful although she is not good in English. The room is clean and it is valued for what we pay for and it costs only Euro 18.50 per person per night, which is relatively inexpensive considering its location is nearby city center (we could reach to Pl. Catalunya which take about 20 - 30 minutes by walking distance). Furthermore, it also supplied with simple breakfast where we got breads, cereals, hot chocolate, coffee or tea.

The toilet sign in the restaurant where we had our dinner. Cool huh the design.
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After unloading all our luggages, we are heading for our dinner. We asked for the receptionist recommendation and she suggested us to one of the famous tapas shop. Tapas are snacks. Since Spanish normally having dinner in between 9 to 11pm, tapas is what they eat in between the time they finish their work and the dinner or as a social activity instead of dining at home. Tapas is similar to chinese dim sum. I forget the name of the restaurant where we had our tapas. Its location is at the corner of the shop lot where at the other end, it is where Casa Batllo and Casa Amatller located (Passeig de Gracia).

Casa Batllo at night.
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After having our dinner, we walked around Passeig de Gracia and took some pictures of Casa Batllo as well as Casa Amatller. We hardly get the clear pictures for both because it's night time and most importantly both buildings are blocked by the trees. Often, people tend to forget Casa Amatller because of the prominent shine that Casa Batllo possesses. But, for me, both of them have their uniqueness and none of them could overtake others shining. The architect for the former is a darling star and legendary Antonio Gaudi who left many masterpieces in the city while the latter is Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

We should take Casa Batllo during day time the second day but we missed becuase of the hectic schdule. We should take day view for our next visit. Wait for us, Barsa......
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After returning to our hostel, we heard there is a lot of noises out the street and finally we found out that it's because Barcelona managed to defeted AC Milan and goes for European Cup Final. The Barsa people are craze aabout soccer and they marched along the street, waving the flags and one of them throw the explosive stuffs into the post box! Luckily, it's just a small explosion and does not cause damage to the box.