Sunday, May 16, 2010

tipsy tuesday (may 4)
















































































hi everyone! continuing with our hectic day at the airport, we finally arrive in madrid at the time (9am) we should’ve already been in barcelona but no worries, at least we made it to spain! we were supposed to wait to be on a 9pm flight to barcelona (12 hour layover) but we got impatient and started asking around how we can get there faster. aa said they couldn’t do anything for us and directed us to iberia, iberia said they couldn’t do anything since all the flights were booked so they sent us back to aa assuring us that aa would help. of course, they said no and sent us back to the waiting area. i remembered hearing about an airline that flies back and forth from barcelona to madrid pretty frequently so we thought it might be a good idea to ask them. we got a great person to help us and we were on a plane from madrid to barcelona by 1120 am!! pedro and i took an aerobus (public airport shuttle) to our hotel and walked around the catalunya plaza. we asked some locals for directions and finally arrived at our hotel. we were very surprised at how beautiful it was! our room was on the top floor of the hotel facing the main street of gran via with awesome views of the city! we settled in and started our adventure of getting around the city.

the first stop we made was of course a tapas place on the main street called gran via. tapas is a very traditional way of eating in spain. unlike the u.s., people in spain do not eat on the go and instead eat a variety of small appetizer type plates. we sat down with a huge jar of the best sangria we’ve ever had and the tapas feast began. we ordered a massive plate of “jamon iberico”, manchego cheese, mini burgers with sweet onion, chorizo, authentic crema catalana (to die for) and little bread toasts with olive oil and tomatoes (not slices but rather the actual juice that comes from the tomato). the sangria was especially good that while we were sitting, we didn’t feel the effect but by the end of the feast, pedro was talking rather sluggish and laughing at everything lol.

after our feast, we walked around the city looking for the “off the beaten path” areas. we went into tiny streets that you can tell only the locals knew where they were since we got weird looks from them. we then decided to go into the gothic quarter of the city and get lost some more. we found tiny mom and pop shops that sold vegetables, fruits, “jamon” and cheese. the highlight of the exploration was finding a tiny vet office that sold the cutest dog tags so we bought one for tinki. so do you think tinki will get this tag? maybe not. the reason why is because we forgot to write down where the heck we bought it lol. when we get back to barcelona after the cruise, we are going to try retrace our steps and attempt to find them. oh well, poor tinki!

later after our exploration of the city (in very light rain), we worked up quite an appetite. pedro and i thought it would be fun to dine with the locals and ended up at a very busy tapas place called tapa tapa. we had some amazing food like: patatas bravas and al aioli, more jamon and manchego cheese, lamb kabobs and enough food to feed about 6 people but boy were we happy! it was quite late when we finished so we walked back to our hotel to try and rest for the awesome segway tour we had lined up for the next day! here are some random pictures from our day – enjoy!

love, pedro and nat

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