Yesterday we woke up super early (aka 8:30AM for me) to pack up our things and check out so that we could make it to Park Guell and then lunch before catching our flight in the afternoon. Park Guell wasn't far from our hostel, but it was quite a hike, and left us pretty tired by the time we got there (also took a wrong turn and ended up entering the park from the top haha). The park itself is very big, but the main attractions are all located near the entrance: stone archways, impressive columns, mosaic lizards, etc all designed by Gaudí! It was really awesome, and admission is free!
Near the entrance of the park!
Fruit popsicles!
We stayed around 1.5 hours, and then left to go back to our hostel. On the way, we got fruit popsicles! I got Kiwi-Mango, Steph got Tequila Sunrise (yup it's alcoholic) and Wes got Strawberry! We then tried to go to a place for lunch, but then found out it didn't open until 1PM. >.< (The Spanish eat lunch and dinner really late) So we chilled in the hostel for an hour and then made our way over! Like many restaurants in Spain, they had a "Menu of the Day" deal, where you get a drink, 1 or 2 courses, and dessert for a fixed price (usually 8-10 euros). So we did that, and then ordered a pitcher of sangria. Interestingly, the sangria was actually made of white wine, and it was stronger than we expected :( So we started muddling all the oranges/lemons to try and squeeze more fruit juice into it! The dishes themselves weren't that impressive... Wes and Steph tried to order a dish called "escalopas..." but it ended up being pork! And as always, dining takes a long time in Spain, so our meal took over 1.5 hours. We wanted to get to the airport early just in case, so we ended up leaving for the airport right after we finished.
Sangria de cava
The flight to Nice was relatively smooth (the airport wasn't even crowded), and the flight itself lasted less than an hour! And when we first arrived at the airport, we were all admiring the amazing ocean view! "Nice is NIIICE!" Then, we had to take a bus into the city, and then transfer to a tram to take us to our hostel. There is only one tram that runs in Nice, and no subway system, so the tram was PACKED. But we made it to our hostel w/o any difficulties, and settled into our room. Unfortunately, this hostel wasn't nearly as nice as the one in Barcelona or Lisbon. :( And it was super expensive too! (Because of its location near the beach and old town)
Walking around the town at night, at first I was really disappointed because it didn't seem as quiant/seaside village-like as I expected. There was actually a national music festival going on yesterday night (Fête de la Musique), so there were bands on every other street playing live music (which was cool, but also meant the old town was SUPER crowded). Wesley and Stephanie really wanted seafood, so we ended up eating at Cafe de Turin, a restaurant specializing in fresh seafood. Wes ordered the mixed plate, which came with a heap of oysters, clams, seas snails, and small shrimp. Unfortunately, it was also all chilled, so it was kind of sickening to eat after a while >.< I just ordered shrimp, but those were also chilled. Stephanie's white wine mussels were the only warm dish...
Stephanie is grossed out by her clam =P (In fairness, it was pretty gross looking compared to regular clams)
The port at night.
On our way home, we accidentally walked the wrong way and ended up at the port, but then we were able to walk along the beach, which was super pretty at night. In fact, because of the music festival, there were hundreds of people packed on the beach, just drinking and partying. So crazy!
I was wondering where yesterday's post was!
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