sup friends.
BASICALLY when we left you a couple of days ago (we are now so up to date with this blog its insane) we were about to make the trek from angouleme down to barcelona, which was made infinitely easier for us by manon's lovely auntie who just happened to be driving to a place called sitges (about 30 mins south of barca) at exactly the time we wanted to go. fate (and a very long sentence) is what i would call that. the 9 hour car trip was definitely better than training it, and was also the cause of some hilarity from the moment we entered spain, as cecile's (manon's aunt) driving got exponentially worse the further we got from the french-spanish border... but we made it in the end, and after lugging our bags for about a kilometre inside the station (i have no idea why european train stations feel the need to be quite so enormous) we arrived at the hostel and were pleased to note an absence of the insufferably weird in our dorm.
the next day we hit up Park Guell to see the work of arguably one of the most famous architects ever, Gaudi. Everything there was incredible, and even though neither of us knows anything about architecture we both really really loved it. for those of you who dont really know much about Gaudi, the buildings look like they're straight out of a story book and everything is covered in these amazing mosaics which would make even normal buildings look cool... Also, the park was at the top of this enormous hill which meant we got to see the whole city, which made a nice change from the obscene number of terrible mullets we kept seeing, on both men and women.
that afternoon was also super exciting because lucy and franny arrived! it was really really good to see them and i seem to remember some excited screaming which may or may not have annoyed the other people at the hostel. oh well. we had a really nice couple of days and nights (both in the hostel and out on the town) with them after that, culminating in the addition of a tattoo to iona's lower back.
we basically spent the whole time talking and rampaging around the city (something we do best) attempting to get to places like 'J9 on the map' with one of the massive-est maps i have ever had to use, which didnt even have all the street names, but LUCKILY had all the McDonalds marked. phew. safe to say it was pretty difficult, but we did get to most of the places in the end...
we really enjoyed seeing la sagrada familia too (although lucy wasn't feeling well so it was just us 2 and franny), but we felt kind of stupid after complaining for several minutes about it being covered in scaffolding when we later found out that one of the church's interesting points is that it's been under construction since it first started being built back in the 1800s. well done us.
the four of us also had a really nice picnic beside a fountain, if one could count sandwiches and sangria as dinner, except it was slightly marred by the fact that dodgy men kept coming up and offering to sell us beer out of plastic bags (it's illegal for shops to sell alcohol after 11 in spain), and when we refused offered to sell us various types of drugs in hushed tones. such cool people.
essentially we had a really great time in barca and a really really great time with lucy and franny, which meant it was really hard to say goodbye but the promised fun that was la tomatina drew us away eventually...
much much love,
vivienne (and iona)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
ps. worry not iona's family, iona's tattoo is actually very nice. tasteful unlike some tramp stamps... and also it came out of a chip packet.
