This year has absolutely flown by, and as the year wraps up, we knew we wanted to do a friends trip of me, Sammi, Sean and Maria. Lucky for us, my friend Ellie was flying in to Barcelona, so we decided to head there for the long weekend! Luckily, Sammi found an insanely cheap yacht rental in Port Forum right by the metro and the feria, which was an absolute dream. We spent night one on the boat with snacks, drinks and our favorite board games.
We had to start the next day with some tanning while Sean and Maria visited the Sagrada Familia. We met up with them in the center, had lunch beside the Sagrada and decided to walk to the Gothic District, where we stumbled upon the Parc de la Ciutadella. This had beautiful street-lamped walkways with greenery and the Arco de Triunfo, which made for a great photo-op.
After a long day of walking, we passed by the gorgeous Cathedral of Barcelona, with an open-air street market and lots of dancers circling the streets. I even found a chocolate chip cookie, which are oddly scarce in the south of Spain (and yes, it was topped with a Bueno bar). Before long, we headed back to the boat, passed through the feria and ate Indian food before having some drinks under the stars.
Our last full day started with coffee and bocadillos (three days in a row) before our trip to Park Güell. We took the metro and walked a way-too-steep hill to make it to the park, which was well-worth the view. Between the iconic Cheetah Girls steps to the breathtaking vistas from the upper balconies (I feel like Rick Steves), it was a sight to remember. To commemorate, they even got me to try sushi at lunch after, which wasn't as bad as I had imagined...dare I say, I even liked it!
That night, we gathered all our remaining energy and went to the club around 1am, using Barcelona's amazing transit system--it is literally so fast and we bought a 10-trip pass and saved a few euros! Needless to say, a few drinks later you learn to let the metro rock you to sleep, obviously...
There is also a need to mention how small me and Sammi's beds were on the boat, so we took this selfie to document just HOW much it felt like being laid in a coffin or sarcophagus...YES THAT IS TWO BEDS! 2 INCHES AWAY FROM EACHOTHER! All worth it for the memories!
Once we got back to Jerez, on a slightly bumpy ride I might add, it was such a fun week getting to show Ellie all the sights and sounds of Jerez and even Arcos too! We did a wine tour at Tio Pepe, visited a flamenco show, went to my school for a day and lounged on the beaches of Arcos for an afternoon too. And these are Ellie's words, not mine, that the food was amazing--I have to say, the nutella churros are hard to beat! All in all, a great experience of seeing new things and old friends.
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