Day 28 - Free Tours & Funny Times

We'd decided that a good way to see the sights of Barcelona was to do a free walking tour of the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. The tour included seeing on of Gaudi's first commissioned pieces, two candelabras (lampposts) placed in the Plaça Reial, a building with gun holes chipped out of it thanks to it once being an execution wall, the impressive La Seu cathedral and the area in which the Jews were built into in order to "keep them from spreading the Plague" despite them being cleaner than a lot of the Spaniards who would only wash twice in their lifetime, at baptism and when they died so that people could identify who they were by washing the grime from their faces! The tour was very valuable in learning some interesting facts about the city and we were more than happy to tip our guide at the end of it, which he then returned the favour by buying everyone in our group a round of drinks. While enjoying our beers we noticed that they had €2 dinner that night at the bar so we made a mental note to return there since our wallets were getting a bit light having neared the end of our trip.

We bypassed the markets on our way back to the hostel so we could get some usual lunch goodies and once we'd eaten Nico and Kelly went into a bit of a food coma but I wasn't having any of this lazing about business so I went on my own mission up to the top of a hill near our hostel which had nice gardens and a good view out across the city. I was a little dodged out by some of the characters lurking about around the place though so didn't spend too long wandering the paths, but I did make a stop off at a skate park on my way back so I could take some snaps of some awesome graffiti art decorating the concrete jungle. I'm slightly obsessed with graffiti art it seems.

After my walk it was about time to head to back to the pub for our €2 dinner. The place absolutely heaving with backpackers, unsurprisingly when a cheap dinner is on offer. We managed to find ourselves a spot at the bar to enjoy the buzzing atmosphere of the place while downing a few jugs of sangria. The dinner wasn't anything amazing but it was an interesting evening spent watching the dynamics of the bar staff and backpackers that filled the place.

Kelly was starting to feel a bit wobbly on her stool so we headed back to the hostel all ready to call it a night but then before I knew it I was being invited out with some Spanish guys from our dorm room which I was quite pleased about as those jugs of sangria's were making me want to keep going, not get ready for bed. So off I went with the boys and had a very funny night trying to converse with them in broken Spanish and English. I even got bought red roses by one of the guys and then somehow we ended up climbing on top of a bronze cat and having a bit of a photo shoot. It was certainly the kind of nights out I'd imagine I'd have in Spain but hadn't really experienced until then, so I was pleased to have found myself some crazy Spanish friends and we made plans to go out for an even bigger fiesta the following night.