We arrived in Nice at around 6pm, and our first course of action was to do washing! Our hostel unfortunately didn't have a laundry, so we went to a laundromat down the road. It was the first time I have ever used a laundromat, so it was kind of exciting. Whilst I sat with our clothes, Harrison had to run (literally run) to the grocery store to grab dinner before it closed. He made it with a few minutes until closing! Once our clothes were washed and dried we set off back to the hostel to make dinner. However when we got there, the kitchen was chaos. There were so many people trying to cook, there was no space to move. It was about 8pm by this time and we were both tired and hungry, so we put the groceries in the fridge for the next night and went to find something cheap and easy to eat. We found a kebab shop, and got some really crap kebabs. But hey, they were cheap and they did the job of filling us up. After dinner we lay around in our room for a bit then went to bed.
The past 2 weeks I have had a really bad pain in the right side of my chest, just under my ribs. It had started to get quite painful, so we decided I needed to see a doctor. We asked our hostel, and they said that our best bet at finding an English speaking doctor would be to go to the hospital. They marked the hospital on the map and off we went. It wasn't that far a walk, maybe 15 minutes, but when we got there the hospital was deserted. I think maybe they were renovating or something, but all the doors were locked and there were big signs up everywhere. So we walked back to the hostel, and were pointed in the direction of another hospital that was a bit further away. This time we had to take the tram.
We got there and the receptionists didn't really speak English, so not a good start. We didn't have to wait long at all which was really good. However when we got to the nurses to check in, their English was even worse. They checked my pulse and temperature, which showed as normal so they couldn't understand why I needed to be seen by a doctor. After a while I think they just gave up trying to understand and put me through to the doctors waiting room. Again the doctor didn't speak great English, but he spoke enough to understand what I was trying to say. In the end we found out it was nothing serious, I have just strained the muscles in my chest from coughing so much due to the cold/chest infection I had previously. He prescribed an anti inflammatory cream and some pain meds. Luckily this hospital visit didn't cost us anything, we just had to pay for the medication.
We made our way back to the hostel. By this time it was fairly late in the afternoon, so we didn't really do too much. We had a late lunch and hung out in the air conditioning of the hostel. After dinner we went for a walk down the main road and along the beach, which was really pretty to see during the night time. We had a drink at a bar, and then headed back for the night.
The next day was our last day in Nice, so we planned to see as much as we could, as the previous day had kind of been wasted. We had been told about this ice cream shop in Nice that has all sorts of weird and wacky flavours, so we decided to go and check it out. When we got there we were amazed at the variety of ice cream they had! There were so many different flavours! And there truly were some really weird ones; for example there was beer, coke, cactus, avocado, tomato and basil, chewing gum and so many more. Harrison decided to try cactus and rhubarb, and I was somewhat less adventurous and chose Nutella and Irish Coffee; I did try some of Harrison's flavours though.
The cactus was actually pretty good! I didn't really like the rhubarb. And of course my flavours were delicious. Once we were done with our ice cream, we headed into the old town of Nice. It was really cute. Very small cobbled streets, lots of windy alleys and adorable, colourful houses. We wandered around the alleys weaving in and out of odd little shops. We made our way to this big hill that we had been told about, which was funnily enough called Castle Hill! We climbed to the top and explored the gardens for a bit, before making our way to the viewpoint, where we got an amazing view of Nice.
On the hill there is a man made waterfall, so we went and found that too. It was really pretty, and the spray provided a nice relief from the heat!
Once we had made our way down the hill, we explored some more of the old town and then made our way back to the hostel. By this point in our travels, Harrison was in desperate need of a haircut. However being the money wise people we are (cough, stingy) we had not wanted to go to a hairdresser. Harrison had been practically begging me to cut his hair for a long time, but I had been to nervous to do it. However on the way home that evening we passed a shop selling hair scissors and I decided, screw it, I can do this. We purchased the scissors and went back to the hostel. We had a quick dinner, and then turned our rooms bathroom into a hair salon. It was an absolutely terrifying and hilarious experience, with a few mishaps along the way. However by the end Harrison's hair didn't look half bad, and he was delighted to have short hair again.
The next morning we were off to Barcelona! We were both really excited to be entering a new country and new culture. The traffic on the way to Barcelona was really bad, turning the 11 hour bus ride into a 12.5 hour bus ride. We only got into Barcelona around 8:30pm. This wouldn't have been too bad, if our hostel wasn't a 30 minute metro ride away. Not only that, but there was track work so we had to make an unnecessary change which pushed us back even later. We arrived at the hostel at about 9:30pm, and by the time we had checked in and got our stuff into our room it was 10. We had to go out in search of food, as we hadn't eaten dinner yet. The area that we were staying in really wasn't the best, so practically nothing was open. We luckily stumbled across a mini mart that was still open, and purchased some 2 minute noodles. We tucked in to the noodles and flopped, exhausted, into bed.
The hostel we were staying at in Barcelona was not the greatest. Let's just say that it smelt like we had returned to Amsterdam. The kitchen had basically no plates, cups, knives or forks. There was mold all over the ceilings, and it was 30 minutes out of Barcelona. But it was cheap, so we made the best of it. We had a relaxing morning, and then headed into town for a free walking tour. Unfortunately our guide wasn't the best, so I feel like we didn't get as much out of the tour as we could have. However it was a good way to orient ourselves in the city, and we saw some pretty things.
Once the tour was over we wandered through the streets, looking at shops and art. Barcelona is such a colourful city, with such an awesome vibe about it!
It seemed that wherever we went, there was music playing. I really liked it.
We had booked through our bus company to go on a Spanish cooking course that evening, so we started to make our way to the meeting point. There were a few familiar faces from the bus, but also some people who weren't with busabout. Usually, the chef would start the course by taking you on a tour of the food market. However it was unfortunately a public holiday that day, so the markets were closed. Instead he took us to a meat store and told us about this special meat from Spain. We were cut short when it started to rain. We all rushed to the place where the course would be taking place. We started the night with a glass of sangria and some tapas.
We tried the special meat he had told us about (that I can't remember the name of), some awesome cheese and these things called razor clams. The razor clams were horrible. I had to subtlety spit mine into my napkin.
Next we were called into the kitchen, were a huge paella pan awaited. We didn't actually get to cook, which I thought was a little disappointing. The chef explained how to make paella and showed us the steps. He made a huge batch of seafood paella, filled with prawns, clams, mussels, salmon, white fish and squid.
The kitchen smelled absolutely amazing! Once the paella was finished we were all served a large portion and sat down together to eat, there were about 20 people in total, and 6 of us at our table. The paella was really good! I tried all of the seafood, and can now confidently say I don't like most of the seafood in there! I love prawns though, and they were the one thing I didn't get! However one guy at our table heard me say I was upset with my lack of prawns, so he gave me one of his as he had a few, which was really nice. We also learnt how to make sangria, and then were allowed to make our own sangria at the bar.
By the end of the night we were really friendly with all the people at our table, and we had a great time together. We finished the night with mojitos made by the chef.
We made our way back into town fairly late in the afternoon the next day. We got some noodles and ate lunch in a beautiful park. We had planned to go to the Picasso museum, however when we got there the next available tickets were at 6pm! And the line to get those was huge, so we unfortunately had to give the museum a miss. We walked through the streets a bit before heading to Gaudi's cathederal, La Sagrada Familia. While we were in Barcelona I totally fell in love with Gaudi's work. I think he was an incredible artist, and his art is just so amazing! Gaudi's cathedral was absolutely incredible. It has been under construction for over 100 years, and they still aren't even close to finishing it.
However, even half finished it is still something to behold. I was totally blown away by it! It is something I would highly recommend trying to see at some point.
The next place we planned to visit was Park Güell, which Gaudi designed and created a whole bunch of installations in. It was a bit of a trek to get to the park, and once we got there we weren't too sure where to go as we came into the park at the back. There was a big hill where we came in so we decided to walk up it to get a good view of Barcelona, and then look for Gaudi's stuff after that. The walk up wasn't very difficult, and the view was really incredible from the top.
We stayed up there for a bit taking in the view, before making the descent. We decided to take a different and more direct route down, which was also somewhat less pathed. About halfway down, I slipped and landed directly onto a pointy rock, very hard on my butt/tailbone. At first there was shock, and then the pain set in and I had to sit on the ground and cry for a bit. But I was okay. I got up and we made it down the rest of the hill with no further accidents. My butt was really sore though, and still is. I also have a really nasty bruise, that makes sitting on the bus very unfun.
We finally found the part of the park we wanted, we had just gone the wrong way at first. We walked through the free section of the park first, looking at all of Gaudi's artworks. Mainly wacky bridges and more nature inspired works in this area.
We moved on to the paid section. We had to wait a little while, but finally made it in. Here his works were more modern and full of colour!
He has created these buildings that look like ginger bread houses and a whole cave type thing filled with columns.
We had come at a great time, and got to watch the sun setting around the art, which was just incredible. I absolutely loved the park!
We only made it home at 10:30pm that night, and once again were to have a noodle dinner. However when we went to cook, the kitchen was closed! Luckily the guy at reception was kind enough to give us the key and let us make our dinner, as long as we promised to clean up after ourselves. (Which we would have anyway.)
We had to get up super early to get the bus the next day, as we were staying so far away from the pick up point. We were off to Valencia! Fortunately the bus ride there wasn't too long, and we arrived at 1pm. We had to wait until 2 to check in to our hostel, so we just waited around until then. We were greeted at the hostel with free sangria while we waited, so it wasn't too bad! We checked in and straight away headed out to find a grocery store. We hadn't really had the chance to eat a proper breakfast as we had been up so early, and we hadn't eaten lunch yet so we were starving! We got a bunch of groceries and practically ran back to the hostel to make some lunch. We have an awesome kitchen at this hostel, which is always really great. Travelling has really made me appreciate a good kitchen. The weather wasn't very good, it was really windy and it looked like it was going to rain, so we spent the day relaxing at the hostel.
Today we went to check out some of the sights in Valencia. We went to an old cathedral, which was really pretty but not as great as Gaudi's.
Gaudi's cathedral has probably ruined cathedrals for me. Nothing will ever compare. We walked around the town for a while, and headed into the huge indoor food market. It was pretty amazing in there. There were all sorts of different food stalls, some food that I had never seen before.
We tried the local drink called Horchata, which is made out of the milk of tiger nuts. (Sounds bad I know). It was feral. Harrison managed a few mouthfuls, but in the end we had to throw it away. I don't even know how to describe it. It was just so horrible!
We went back to the hostel and had some lunch, and sat down for a bit before heading back out again. Valencia used to have a large river running through it, but one year the river flooded really badly and destroyed a lot of the city, and killed a lot of people. So the people of Valencia decided to divert the river to get it away from the town. This lead to a large dry riverbed running through and around the town. The riverbed has since been turned into a beautiful park!
We walked through the park for a while. We came across 5 cats at one point! They were living in the park, and we watched a man feed them.
They were so cute. There was also a large avery in the park, with lots of beautiful birds. I find it so amazing that we as humans have the ability to do something like divert a river, and turn the riverbed into a beautiful park. It's a truly amazing thing. The weather started to turn, and we made our way back to the hostel.
Tomorrow we leave the quiet town of Valencia, for the bustling Madrid!
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