Wed, 22 Oct 2003

author Liz	location Paris, France
posted 18:00 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Back to Barcelona ( 21 photos )
On Wednesday morning I woke up feeling sick, so I didn't eat much of the breakfast that was supplied by the hostel, but Tim, Penny and Jonno seemed to enjoy their breakfast's.
We had decided to find somewhere to stay that was in the middle of town, as although it would cost a little more for the accommodation, we would save on transport costs and perhaps have a kitchen to cook some meals in too. Tim called a few places and found a hostel in the Gothic quarter, about five minutes walk from La Rambla, and they said they would hold beds for the four of us for an hour.
We caught a bus into the city, with me feeling quite sick along the way, and very happy to get off the bus at the end.
After a bit of walking through the Barri Gótic, we found the hostel, Alberg Palau, and claimed our beds in the dorm room with a small balcony overlooking one of the Gothic quarter streets Carrer Palau.
Jonno and Penny went out for a while to collect a package from the post office, while Tim and I went to an internet café on La Rambla and then came back to the hostel.
The weather was bad again - lots of cloud and rain, so the four of us sat inside the hostel for a couple of hours, eating lunch and playing cards.
At 3pm, the clouds broke a little and the sun shone through, so we went out for a walk.
From our hostel, we walked through lots of the Gothic streets and up to Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, a large and beautiful church, with some gorgeous stained glass windows inside.
We kept walking and made it to Parc de la Ciutadella, a huge park, complete with duck ponds, a very pretty cascade, lots of green trees and a concrete Mammoth! It was very nice to wander around the park and get some fresh air and a bit of sunshine after being cooped up inside for a lot of the day.
It started getting cool, so we headed back to the hostel, stopping for a coffee in a small café along the way, and exploring yet more of the Barri Gótic streets.
For our dinner we cooked at the hostel which had a kitchen, and made a big stew with chicken, beans and vegetables, all topped off with some wine and our own version of Sangria. It was all delicious, and it was great to have a kitchen to cook in after not being able to cook for quite a while.
After dinner, we sat around playing cards, chatting and drinking hot chocolate until quite late, and then we all went to bed.

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