spain part seven - last evening in barcelona

Still on the go! All our trip was about never stop - go and go and go... We even forgot to eat sometimes, haha.


View from our hostel - beautiful! Here's a link to their website, also you can find it on booking.com - it is lovely, I do recommend it! But I have to say it wasn't easy to find the building because they don't have a normal sign on the door...


Barcelona University.


We continued to explore the city. Our first stop was park Guell - not an easy thing to visit! You have to climb A LOT. My legs hurt a week more after that. The place was beautiful, but too crowded. Sadly, this implies to all touristic places in Barcelona.









Next stop: Tibidado hill. It has a church on it's top - I've never seen enything like this before. The basement is one church and the top is another, wow! And Barcelona view is amazing.






Then we went shopping at Maremagnum shopping center which is by the sea. The view is amazing but we actually found nothing and returned to try our luck at Passeig de Gracia, found almost nothing either, frustrating. I'll show what I bought later.

Early next morning we returned to Madrid by train and caught our flight to Prague - next post will be about five hours we've spent there :)

spain part four - visiting salt lakes

Torrevieja is a special city in some way because it is located between sea and two salt lakes (don't ask me about their names, it is too complicated). They are closed for publicity - there are factories producing salt which you can buy in every store, but there is a way to visit one of them. So once we did it and, of course, chose the most hot part of the day... This fortunately was worth the efforts and we found our way safely.


Mountains of salt.




Water has incredible light-pink color there. Bottom is covered with salt crystals so it is hard to stand barefeet, water is as dense as oil and when you take your hand out salt crystallises immediately on it.


The lake may be probably compared to Dead Sea in Israel but with less salt density.



Btw, we got into the local newspaper! When we were at the lake some journalists came to make a report and took pictures of us. Unfortunately, they didn't speak English so a name of a newspaper is a mystery... :)


Also, this lake has theraupetic mud. People cover themselves with it and go to the lake. Skin really feels incredibly soft afterwards, but you have to carry fresh water to wash because it is not safe to leave salty water on your skin.


We were very tired and on our way found amazing restaurant with the nicest host ever. And fig tree growing in the yard. I've even saved it's card to come back once.

spain part three - sun & fun in torrevieja

Warning! (and spoiler) This post is going to be real summer-summery, so if you're surviving poop autumn like I do here in Moscow...than sorry! :)

Okay, last time we stopped on our way to our exact destination - Torrevieja, which is a small city on the coast (Costa Blanca to be precise). These two weeks were incredible - sun, sea and good company. Gosh I miss just five-minute way to the beach! Next summer we'll do the same, no doubt.
Tourist center of the city - little shops, food, amusement park and all that stuff.


Oh yeah, when you're with me you'll have to try all the scariest rollercoasters presented (this one was almost the scariest, haha).



On the pier by night when it is so dark that you can't see a border between sea and sky - seems like the end of the world.



Who tried this one? A bunch of ten-year-olds with parents and us... Don't exactly understand my feelings about that :)


Mediterranean it is.







One way - to the sea!


THIS. WAS. AT. OUR. YARD. Can you believe people can have a pool just like this? I am as jealous as hell for that!


Home.

spain part two - more about madrid

Yep, this is the second post about Madrid!


Just at one of the exits from Jardin del Buen Retiro we found this beautiful garden. I've never seen trees trimmed like this and it looks so cute!


These ones look even better!



Hey, me!



Madrid Atocha railway station - here we came after Barcelona to catch our flight back.


Plaza Mayor. Actually, we were surprised that "major" square is so small. But afterwards the forgotten guidebook told us that we haven't seen the really main plaza which is also called center of Spain if I remember right. Walking without map and guidebook is playing dice.



We've tried some shops but were too tired to really evaluate things, which was so wrong! We had our hopes on Barcelona but found almost nothing, shame. I were also quite surprised with how Desigual shops are popular in Spain. It's really not everyone's cup of tea. Personally I like the clothes, but they're too bright for me to wear and quite expensive and I can't consider buying an expensive thing when I'm not even sure I'll be brave enough to wear it. Do you like Desigual or not? Really want to know how do other people feel about it.


Some good jamon, obviously. I think we ate not less than 2 kilos in two weeks, haha.






Shopping street. There I found a really nice bag but decided that I were too tired to take a close look so postponed all shopping till Barcelona. Stupid me...




Underground.

Afterwards we finally took a bus to Torrevieja which took us all night to reach. Quite a tiring way to travel, but still amazing!