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Ms. Worldwide 2k19 Non-stop travel: Start!

After spending the day cleaning, donating stuff, and throwing bags of leftovers and garbage away, I headed to O’Hare for a 9pm flight to London. However, it was already delayed until 10pm, and after we boarded we sat for another hour to fix a mechanical error.  Also, Norwegian subbed our flight out to another smaller company, so we were on an older plane with small seats and literally zero entertainment for 8 hours.  Ah well, I took some Dramamine and tried to sleep most of the flight anyway.  After arriving 3 hours late in London, I took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station which was super easy and convenient, and checked into my B&B.  After settling in and taking a quick shower, I met up with a friend from high school times past that I haven’t’ seen in nearly two decades.  It was great walking around Hyde Park and eating at Hard Rock Café with him and just catching up after being apart for so long.  Then we walked back to my B&B and I basically passed out for the night.

Thanks to jet lag I was up early the next day and at the coach station at 7:45am for an all-day bus tour with Premium Tours.  Our tour guide was friendly and engaging and the bus was comfy enough.  Our first stop was Windsor Castle, where I wandered the grounds, toured the interior of the castle, visited the gorgeous church, and watched the changing of the guards.  I had to get back to the bus so I left right after the guard band started playing “It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones, which was hilarious.  Our next stop was Stonehenge.  Y’all, look, if you like ancient history, mystery, and really big COOL rocks then Stonehenge is a must!!  If you’re the type of person that goes…they’re rocks, who cares? Then you can probably skip it.  I’m the former, and loved loved LOVED it.  I was really disappointed that we only had a half hour to walk around, I could have used another hour at least for walking around the entire area, reading the signs, and listening to the audio tour.  That being said, there was a nasty thunderstorm approaching so even if we had longer we would have been stuck inside.  I definitely need to go back there, perhaps next June 21st when they have their huge summer solstice celebration!  After Stonehenge we headed to Bath and got an hour to wander and shop.  Bath is a cool city, but I’m not sure I need to go back.  If I did, it would mainly be to stay the night at the hotel that lets you use the hot spring water…that sounds unique.  After Bath we drove around the Cotswolds area and went to Lacock where we stopped at The George, a really old traditional country pub, for a local made hard cider and fish and chips.  Delicious!  This is also where some houses were used for Harry Potter so we saw the Slughorn and Potter houses.  Next to the Potter house is an old church, which although is indeed very old is actually a functioning modern community church.  It’s not particularly big, but it’s cute, and most importantly there’s this black cat that hangs around and tries to sneak inside so often they actually have a sign posted telling visitors NOT to let the cat in!  Oh, that cat kept trying so hard to charm us and sneak in though, I took advantage and made friends.  Afterwards, we all returned to the coach for the long 3 hour ride back to London.  We didn’t end up getting back until after 9pm, so I walked back to the B&B and ended up in a conversation with the caretaker Simon about travel and food and life in general before heading up for bed.  Lynton Hotel isn’t fancy or modern, and kinda tight to be honest, but the owners are super friendly and the breakfast smelled delicious.

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Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona Day 1 – Arrived safely and checked in to the hotel. Got changed and walked to Sagrada Familia then got some paella at a local restaurant. Then wandered over to Palau Macya, Placa de Tetuan, Arco de Triunfo, Placa de Catalunya (watch out for pigeon poop!!), and then to Hardrock Cafe to get my traditional local pin 🤩 I decided to brave the metro and went to Placa Alfons el Savi where they had this really cool tree and parakeets everywhere. By that point I was beat. I went back to the hotel, took a lukewarm bath, and went to bed 😴

Things learned: Skittles are apparently here and is a big deal at every supermercado that has them. No one has on/off manners everyone pushes through. Thank goodness for learning public transportation in Japan and having it reinforced in Chicago, public transportation here is easy to navigate. Garbage management is great, trash cans at every corner.

Barcelona Day 2 – Woke up early and grabbed a basic breakfast and coffee at the hotel (why is Spanish coffee so much better??) then grabbed a cab to my tour meetup point. The taxi driver took me to the wrong place, and when I gave him a 20 for a 10 tab he didn’t have change. It was kind of a cluster, but he was apologetic and eventually got me there 🤣 Hopped on a private small group tour bus to Montserrat. It. Was. Amazing. We got there early when the morning mountain mist was still hovering, and it had cleared up by noon. Our tour guide for We Barcelona group, Mayka, was superb and took us to all the sweet spots, the best photo op areas, and knew a lot of the local history. We took a tram waaay up, then did a hike down around the mountains. Afterwards we went inside the main big monastery, and Mayka recommended a tasty local treat…a kind of creamy cheese you mix with honey. Then we took the cable cars down to the base of the mountains and headed back to Barcelona. After we got back, I was feeling peckish, and of course my hotel is in an area with a bunch of Japanese restaurants. So I got miso ramen from a ramenya, then went back to the hotel to rest my feet a little. Went back out to Plaza Espana and saw the Placa d’Espanya, Torres Venicianes, Font Magica (but it was turned off, allll of them around there were off 😭), and then the Pavello Mies van der Rohe. The pavilion was super cool, the motto “less is more” really applied, and everywhere you looked was a new angle formed by the walls, floors, ceiling and statue. I sat around and people watched for a bit while eating some sort of chocolate wafer things I got at a convenience store (European chocolate is SO much better) then headed back to the hotel for a shower and bed.

Things learned: The 90s never really left here and the clothing on some of the women shows it and I’m all there for it. There must be a high Japanese population here, lots of Japanese restaurants, manga book stores, figurine/collectible shops everywhere.

Barcelona Day 3 – Slept in a bit then headed out for the best cup of chocolate cappuccino I’ve ever had (cappuccino nero) at a local cafe. Seriously why does chocolate in America suck compared to here?? Then I made my way to the We Barcelona eBike tour. Our guide, Arnau, was great. It was a relaxed ride and I appreciated giving my feet a rest from walking. We went through the Gothic Quarter and saw a gorgeous 14th century church called Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi, passed thru La Rambla, met a gigantic fat cat called El Gat de Botero, went down to the water and saw the Columbus statue, then went to the fountains by Arc de Triomf where there was also a mammoth statue for some reason, plus a bunch of other places. Then we went to Sagrada Familia which included going inside. Y’all, it was so amazingly beautiful and rainbow colorful and the stain glass and the design and all the nature and animal integrations and ahhhhhh! It was so pretty! I even managed to be there when they played the organs and it just echoed everywhere, definitely go inside it’s worth it! On our way back we stopped at Casa Batllo and that area. Afterwards I went to the hotel to shower and change then headed to Park Guell and climbed up for the great city view. Gaudi was kind of a crazy guy, I like him. That whole area was cool, but honestly you don’t need to pay to go inside. The park outside the paid area was cooler, imo. I took the Guell bus which drops off at Line 4 of the subway and took it straight to the beach, where I put my feet in the sand and Mediterranean water and found some cool rocks. I stuck around until dark then took a bus to the hotel, then grabbed a burger to finish off the day.

Things learned: Graffiti is a real problem here, which sucks because they paint historical features and stone. I think people between 16-29 only come here for Instagram photos; that being said, if you want a good photo look for the obvious Instaboyfriend and ask. Everyone here hates bicyclists, same as in America 😂 Store hours are weird, things open and close seemingly at random so check in advance.

Barcelona Day 4 – I only had the morning to do anything, so I put on a dress and walked to Sagrada Familia to grab some postcards and exchange a bit more money for a cab to the airport. Then I wandered over to a local dog park/playground and did some people watching and laughed at the dogs having a blast in the water. It was pretty lowkey, but to be honest I was tired today 😂 I caught a cab to the airport a bit early because I wanted to wander the shops. The problem is, you can’t seem get to the shops once you get through security to Gates D/E. I mean, supposedly you can but the elevators and stairs I found only went to level 2 and not level 1, and they don’t tell you either way and nothing is marked and there’s no one to ask. Your only food options are an overcrowded and horribly laid out Burger King and a panini place. The only way to get water is through a vending machine or standing in the 30 minute line for either fast food place. Telephone signals are spotty at best, and air conditioning is nonexistent even on a 90 degree day. I gave up on getting downstairs after walking the length of Gates D/E twice and resigned myself to Burger King. BCN is a terrible airport if you’re using Gates D/E, not as bad as Newark, but still awful. It can’t be avoided though, so grab a $2 bottle of water, a book, and a fan if you have one. Also, after being in a completely enclosed, stuffy, boiling airport for hours the boarding process was a total mess, no one told you anything. Apparently I needed to get a “security sticker” on my passport, then we went all the way down to a bus that drove us out to our airplane. It was quite the adventure 🤣 I’m back home safe now.

Things Learned: You can buy beer anywhere, vending machines, cafes, even at Burger King and it’s available at all hours. Censoring isn’t really as big a deal here, they play music with all of the swear words and will show animals being straight up killed with blood and everything on TV. The locals seriously have no concept of personal space and will smash right into you. I don’t think they’re doing it to be rude, they really just don’t seem to pay much attention to anything around them…even worse than Americans. When a toddler is throwing a tantrum here everyone basically ignores them and keeps walking and I think that’s great. They don’t coddle or try to bribe the kids to stop, and they don’t lose their temper and yell at the kids either. They just keep walking and talking to the kid as if it’s not happening at all, everyone does. The kid quickly realizes they aren’t getting what they want and stop. I didn’t see a tantrum last more than a minute or two with the local kids.

Overall, I give Barcelona a 8/10 and honestly could have used another full day. I didn’t get to see the Picasso Museum or ride the cable car from the beach to the mountain church. That leaves something for next time I guess!

More photos are on my Facebook Page: Miss Chrystine