Day tres in Barcelona

Was super tired on the night of day 3 so I couldn't blog on that night! 

So on the third day, we heard that it is better to travel on the tourist city bus if we want to see the whole of Barcelona! 

We bought our tickets from our hotel at 33 euros for a 2 day ticket! After taking this service bus for 2 days, I would really recommend for anyone to take this city bus if you want to see the whole of Barcelona, some places covered are places that you would definitely not visit if not for this bus! 

What is great is that you will also be provided with a pair of earphones! Plugging it to the earjack on the bus will allow you to get information about all the places the bus is passing by or stopping! 

I really enjoyed myself especially on the upper deck of the bus! With the cold wind blowing through my air and the sun shinning on me, I can't help but make a mental note of how great this feeling is. How i wish the bus will just drive on and on.... 

I like how I can hop on and off the bus anytime and the frequency of the bus is 5-10min so it's teally convenient! I've seen these buses in many cities even in Singapore but I've never thought that it will be better than taking the public transport until I've tried it myself! 

This city bus goes through 3 different routes... Blue, red and white! I tried covering the blue route on the first day of my city bus tour! 

I didn't get down the sangrada familia stop because it was too crowded and I didn't book my ticket online before hand! But sitting at the top deck allowed me to take selfies with the ever famous churchb 

So the next stop is park güell! I tried booking the ticket online because this will help you avoid the queue but there was some problem with the online booking so I had to go there to get the ticket! 

From the bus stop, it's quite a long and steep slope up to the park which is situated uphill! My advice is to climb slowly and spend sometime looking at the stores lined on both sides of the road!

There are time slots for visiting the park and if you reach there early, take a walk around the humongous park! There are places around the park where you can enter for free!  

One of them is the 3 crosses! It gives you a good vantage point to take a look at the whole of Barcelona from a bird's eye view! 

What I felt was disturbing and a mismatch for the whole atmosphere was that a lot of men were selling souvenirs ( earrings, magnets..) for 1 euro! It was distracting and whenever I wanted to take a photo, I need to make a conscious effort to avoid including them in my picture! Except only in this picture! Haha

Alas! It was 11am and we were able to get into the monument area! There are 3/4 entries around the whole park for you to get in, more information can be found on the brochures given to you when you get your tickets! 

We entered from the entrance closest to what was known as the longest bench in the world! Gaudi was really marvelous in his innovation because he made this chair slanted to the back! His idea being that when it rains, the water will clean the bench and the numerous holes at the back of the bench will allow the water to flow through and the drain behind the bench will transport the water away! 

After which I just walked around the whole area with the map on the brochure! There is quite a lot of walking to do here so be armed with a good pair of walking shoes! 

The famous salamander! It has been said that the water flowing out had been filtered and it's icy cold! I have no idea if it is save for drinking but the water was really icy cold, as if a water cooler was installed inside of the mouth! 

The last stop of the park güell which is a museum was the greatest disappointment! I had to queue for about 30 minutes and when I went in, there was really nothing much to see... There were informative stuff about the history and the rooms were supposedly where the workers used to live when they were building the park! I don't like that all the information boards were very spread out and it was boring for me! 

Remember that I was saying how I had to climb a steep long slope up to the park! Of course I had to climb down to get to the city bus! By afternoon around 2/3pm... The weather was so warm I had to buy a popsicle to accompany my journey down! 

I was attracted at all the colorful popsicles in one of the stores on the side and what was even better was that it's 100% made of fruits (I'm not sure if it is marketing gimmicks but I choose to believe it haha)! I tried the kiwi mango flavoured one if you are wondering and I really enjoyed it!

Nearing the bus stop! I spotted a coin making machine.. Those that you find in Disneyland or universal studios! I have been collecting them since my first trip to Hong Kong Disneyland so of course I had to spend 1.50 euros to make one! I chose the design of the sangrada familia! 

Next stop was the huge shopping mall l'illa which consists of almost all the Spanish trendy brands like zara, bershka, pull and bear, natura and system action!  

One good tip to notes is that most of these shops allow you to combine receipts to get the tax free rebate so don't worry if you can't get everything you want in a store... As long as you buy things from the same brand around spain, you can combine and get a tax refund when you spend more than 91euros! 

For lunch! We went to the basement of the mall for Asian food! It's called udon and it's a bit like a fast food restaurant! 

I highly recommend the match green tea milk shake! It was tongue-lusciously good :)

Fried noodles that tasted like singapore's mee goreng! 

Tempura chicken udon soup! I really enjoyed the crispy chicken but the soup was too salty :(

After a long day of shopping I headed back home and tried jarmon iberico (yes it was thinly sliced from the pig leg as seen in the above pic) for the first time in a shop named Enrique Tomas! I really liked the taste of jarmon iberico because it was adequately salty and it has just a bit of preserved taste to it which was yummy!

This ended my day well but I caught a cold from sitting at the open deck of the city bus so boooooo :(

Feeling cold, 

Kay

Day dos in españa

Good morning! 

I've planned to go to the outlet mall, la roca village today! 

First thing is to get the metro ticket! If you are traveling with many people, you can get the 10 trip ticket! Unlike Paris, their 10 trip ticket doesn't come in 10 individual tix but only 1. However don't panic because it is for multi persons which means you can insert the ticket... Cross the barrier... And pass the ticket to another person! :)

So the most economical way to get to la roca village should be to take a metro to fabra I puig. When got there, you have to get out of the station and walk till you see this building! 

Continue walking straight till you see a open bus station! The bus for la roca village will come at 9am on platform 11! There are many buses that will come and go but be sure to get up the bus only at 9am :)

The trip takes about 50 minutes and it's a public bus so there will be quite a lot of stops where people will alight and board the bus! 

This is where you will get down! 

I have to say that I realized there is 2 more ways to get here! 

1. Take the la roca village bus which picks people up at passeig de gracia! If you are very sure you will buy something expensive from the outlet, it will be worthwhile to take this bus which cost 20 euros because they will give you a 10% voucher (which can be used at many of the outlet stores) 

2. Take the sagales bus (shown in the picture above) that starts from plaza de catalyuna! It costs 12 euros for a round trip! 

*note: the bus I took does not look like that! So if you are traveling my most economical way... Don't get on the wrong bus! 

Nontheless! I'm happy I finally reached and shopping starts! 

From the bus stop, you will have to walk along the road until you arrive at the entrance of the village! The trees along the roads were stunning! 

Inside the outlet...

And before shopping... If you have a smartphone, it will be wise to download the chic outlet shopping app which provides you with the map of all the stores and places to eat in the village! 

Oh and did I mention free wifi everywhere in the village?!? So don't be worried if you want to shop separately because you can always use whatsapp to meet up! 

When you are getting tired and hungry after shopping, I will recommend Starbucks or pans & company for lunch! Not that expensive and they serve nice sandwiches and drinks! 

In pans & company, nicely decorated and very spacious! 

After resting, if you still have some energy left... You can take a 5 minute walk out of the la roca village to two separate building that house nike and mango! Just keep walking straight from the bus stop along these roads until you see two big signs! One each on both side of the road :)

The mango outlet is humongous but it only sells lady clothings! 

I took the 3.10pm bus back to the same bus station i came from and took a metro back! 

Went walking around the city centre in the evening and visited the biggest departmental store here called the el Corte inglés! It reminds me a lot of bhg at bugis junction in Singapore! I am surprised that in such a big mall, there was nothing that caught my eye :( 

After all the shopping plus being indecisive on where to eat dinner... I settled for KFC at 9.30pm! What a late dinner! 

I'm going to rest now! 

Good night my faithful readers!

Loving spain, 

Kay

Day uno in españa!

Hola from spain! I'm currently in my hotel room and I really need to blog about the day so I won't forget what I did in detail! 

It will also be a great guide for you young adults out there who wants to travel free and easy around spain! 

So the trip didn't start out perfect because the luggages for half of the flight got delayed! I was waiting in the Barcelona airport for about an hour after landing... After getting mu luggage, what I did was to first go to the information center in the airport and ask for a free Barcelona plus double check where to take the airport bus to the city center (plaza Catalunya). This is where majority of the hotels and the major shopping belt are. 

You have to go down one floor using the escalator where you will get out of the airport and you will be greeted with this scene!

I was amazed how all the taxis were so neatly lined up! 

Now you will have to cross the zebra crossing, turn to your left and walk straight where you will find the aerobus stand! To get to the city center, take bus A1. It costs 5.90 euros per person and you buy the ticket directly from the driver.

This is the route of the bus for both A1 ( for terminal 1) and A2 (for terminal 2).

After getting down from the bus at the city center we managed to successfully find our hotel and we rested for a while before going out to explore the streets close to our hotel. 

The first stop was to go get food and when you come to spain... TAPAS is definitely what you need to eat! I've read amazing reviews about this tapas restaurant called Cervecería Catalana so I was really excited to try it, plus I was starving! 

Address: Carrer de Mallorca, 236

08008 Barcelona

Spain

The menu

I didn't order it straight from the menu because I wasn't familiar with the Spanish tapas food so instead I went to the bar counter and ordered it straight from there! I think it's easier this way because you get to see the real food and you can ask questions about what it is, how does it taste like etc! 

The first dish that I want to introduce is called the seasonal salad and it was hands down the best seafood salad I have ever eaten! It comes with plentiful of shredded crab meat with some super fresh cold shrimps and mixed with corn! It was satisfying till the very last bite! 

Next, from the bottom left is a very nice and fresh cod fish dish! It's freshness makes you feel like you ate the fish right out from the sea but without any fishy taste to it! 

The one in the center was a little disappointing. To me, it tasted like custard croissant filled with jarmon ( Spanish ham). It gives both savory and sweet taste in a bite but it wasn't that awesome...

On the right is definitely one amazing dish! It's called the grilled shrimps if I am not wrong! I was told by the waiter that this is one of the dish you have to eat to claim that you have eaten in their restaurant! The freshness and how well the shrimps was grilled was perfecto mucho! 

Another dish that is a must try is the veal entrecôte! However, this was a little disappointing because it honestly tasted like normal good meat that I could find in nice meat restaurant in Israel so it wasn't that special to me! 

Lastly, this assorted mixed mushrooms, asparagus, calamari and jarmon was a really nice and refreshing dish but it was a tad too oily. 

Since the serving for tapas food is small because it suppose to be like snacks to go with alcohol, my stomach still had space for dessert! I tried the homemade cake which was really filling and good! It was sort of a butter fruit cake but with custard and caramelized ( the top part tasted something like a creme brûlée but the bottom was more of a softer and airy cake! 

My review of this tapas restaurant is that it is definitely a must visit when you come to Barcelona because the food here will practically leave you wanting more! 

The second stop I planned was to go to passeig de gracia, which is house to most of the luxury and international brands from around the world! Had to check out some of my favourite brands! 

On the way there, I made a small detour to this famous pastry stall called Mauri. When you step into the shop, you will be greeted with a strong cocoa aroma and there are many amazing chocolate displays in the the stall, especially huge Easter eggs since Easter is coming soon!

 I couldn't leave the shop without trying any pastry so I bought a praline pastry to try! The design was nice and it tasted as nice as it looks! The only turn off about mauri is that because it is so famous, the people working there are not friendly at all and I had to wait for a good 10 minutes before someone attended to me. But just for an experience and to satisfy my sweet craving... it was worth the money and the time :)

The card given to you for you to pay at the cashier before collecting your sweets! 

Buena noches everyone,

Kay