Rest of Barcelona

Wou it's been ages! Literally!

I'll try to catch up a bit to the most recent travels.. Last text is from summer 2013 and obviously I've travelled quite a bit after that..

Here we goooo!

It's actually a shame that I never finnished this cause now I can't remember anyyy names to places etc.. I could google but I cannot be bothered. :( Too excited to write about the new travels now. ;)

Here it is through pictures!

Yes, we did get lots. 

New style?

Appetizer

We laughed so much on the plane on our way back!!

The last picture tells more than enough why I was super anxious to get back home.. The guy Steve that I had met in Thailand just four weeks before was coming to Finland to visit me on the same day that I was flying back from Barcelona with Mira! I arrived in the morning and went to pick up Steve in the late afternoon.. More to come! 

Partyyyy in Barcelonaaa

Even tho the previous night we didn`t stay up too late we were really tired the next morning. Maybe it was the sun and the hotness that made us so tired all the time. We enjoyed our five star breakfast in bed (no other place to eat it..). This time we had been wise and went for a supermarket to get extra stuff like yogurts for us.

We had dedicated this day to the beach. We went there with our snacks and drinks with us. It was a hot day!! After three hours or so we left for supermarket to buy stuff to cook from. We had decided that there were no way that we could eat twice out a day. Since of course we didn`t wanna eat in cheap places like Mcdonalds etc.. So tuna pasta with couple of eggs it was. Not only once.. Well, at least even I learnt how to make that food now..

Notice the no cooking sign..

After feeling full from the tuna pasta we went back to the beach! Once again I fell asleep on the beach and somehow it was so refressing even tho waking up and being so sweaty wasn't the best feeling. :D

Ice creams on our way back and then it was shower time. We put our make up on and left for the beach`s walking street with our sangria. Hang out in there, talked, watched the people go by. When the time was late enough it was time to start walking for almost 3 km to this club called Razzmatazz in some big warehouse. It was so early that the place was almost empty. And damn was it expensive or what. The athmosphere got better the more people arrived. Me and Mira had fun laughing to this dj. See the footage.

We left around 3 am and got caught in the middle of this MASSIVE rain storm. I`ve experienced something similar in Greece but never have I been outside when it has been raining like that. We were soaking wet. It was unbelivable how strong the wind was and how fast the rain came. We ran almost the whole way back.

Walk tour around Barcelona

On our first morning in Barcelona we woke up early and waited for the breakfast to begin. Well. Basically there were no breakfast. Only a kitchen. With dry biscuits and jam. Which meant that we paid for that breakfast since it was included in our price. Nam. After we enjoyed our healthy and big breakfast we put our running gear on and left for a run along the beach for 50 min! Have I never been that thirsty after a run! We ran straight to a supermarket to buy cold water. :D 

Before the run..

After taking showers it was time to meet Jorge, one of my Spanish friend's who had been in Helsinki as an exchange student. Jorge lives in Barcelona so he had agreed on being our tour guide and show us around. Well that he definitely did. He had planned a whole walking tour around the most famous sights which were walking distance apart from each other. We ended up walking for 4 hours straight! I wonder how many bottles of water we drank.. Of course we could have taken metros in between but we preferred walking, seeing places and buildings etc.

Catedral of Barcelona

From inside.

Can't remember this one.. Nice art thing next to the main street. Maybe Gaudi something? :D 

I have never seen anything so big. That thing was massive and they've build it since 1882...! I have also never seen so many people queing to get in somewhere in roasting sun! If you can only imagine how big the church is.. There were people waiting in lines around it!!!! They must have had to wait at least from one hour forward.. Since the line wasn't even moving anywhere..!

Sagrada familia

Little more pad thai and texting to Steve.. :D

Arc de trionf..

Historical garden Park de la Ciutadella.

Strugglin a bit.. 

When our sight seeing was done Jorge kindly walked us back to our B&B place and showed us some stuff from the map where we should still try to go to. When that was done it was time to hit the beach! We hang out on the beach for two hours until 6 o`clock. I managed to fall asleep since I was exhausted. Nice and soft sand, warming sun, little breeze. What a better place to take a little nap?

That night we  left again for La Rambla but this time to some Pita House to eat. It was nice to wander around in peace and look at the people walking by. We didn`t wanna go back too early so we went to see what happened on the beach street:

Barcelonaaaaaa 2013

Loonngg time since I`ve last posted anything. The rest of the summer went flying and the autumn even more fast. My boyfriend moved after me to Finland in the end of September. Autumn was full of trying to settle down in Finland, getting social security number etc etc etc. The whole talk about the EU and how easy it is to work within the EU, what an absolute BULLSHIT. We had to go through so much stuff with police, tax office, KELA and even the public transportation offices. Unbelievable. Anyway, no we are finally settled down to our own place in Helsinki and looking forward to our travels. First tho, let`s look back into last summer and me and my teammate Mira`s Barcelona trip!

The night before it was time to leave for Barcelona Mira came over to Helsinki and we went to the gym to do a work out. Then it was time to do the last packing and go to bed. Our flight left early in the morning on 15th July at 6.15 am. The flight took around three hours and then we hopped into this Aerobus towards the center. There we found ourselves to the nearest metro but decided to enjoy the sun and walk for at least four metro stations. We met our Bed and Breakfast owner at the metro station of Barceloneta.

Ermmm.. What about the size difference..?

The first impression of Barcelona was that being a big city (and I always compare big cities to Athens) it was really clean! Modern in a way but still old pits in. People who we asked help for directions actually spoke English. The big city also had small things from other big cities around the world like Jamaican style coffee place, or the double decked London buses. 

Our BB place was on a really good place, close to the metro AND most importantly the beach. The owner was nice and he was from Argentina. Our room turned out to be a CLOSET. Once again the power of pictures changing the image came true. Literally we had a bed of 120 cm wide. At the end of the bed there was maybe 20 cm room for our backpacks. Then there was this tiny closet (withing the closet..). Next to the bed there was room for one person to stand. The room door was locked with this tiny lock and from the cap you could see inside the room. Well, not much room to complain, it was one of the cheapest ones. + the location was perfect. And after all we didn`t come there to spent time in the room. 

After dropping of your backpacks and we getting over the shock of the size of the room we got changed into our bikinis and headed to the beach to eat. Rookie mistake. Probably during the whole week that was the most expensive what we paid for a little portions of food. The Barceloneta Beach was massive and there were so many people there. I wish I could live some place like that. The atmosphere is just lovely! We went for a little walk around the beach area and found a nice market place close by to our B&B. 

At the beach we immediately started to work on our tans and that def needed some work... What surprised me, was that the water was freezing!!! I could barely go into the water since it was really really cold. I didn't even swim that many times there since I was freezing in the water. On the beach there were lots of young people working for clubs and bars and trying to sell bracelet with discounts and free entrances to the clubs. By accident this blond girl came to talk to us and she ended up being a Finnish. We bought this bracelet thing from her, can`t really remember what offers we got but apparently something good. Not only the bar and club offers since we are definitely not the two most party girls..

my new car? 

Then it was time to head back to our B&B place. Shower time and  hanging out trying to google things what we would wanna see. Then we left for eating and again we decided to walk to the famous La Rambla. It was only 15-20 minutes walk away and it was so nice to walk there when it was a bit darker and see the nice view of the beach and the big city. La rambla was this busy touristic street near by the water. It took us ages to find a nice place to eat in there. We ended up ordering the Spanish paella with classes of sangria of course. After eating we went exploring the smaller streets and found ourselves in the Stone bar with massive pints of beer. Cheap ones and all. It was a cozy chill out place. On our way back to our place we walked through this nice Marine something place. It was nice during the night with all the lights etc.

Finally the long day come to its end and we could feel it in our legs. We had been walking a lot and exploring Barcelona. Our closet was boiling hot during the night even tho we had a little air fan thing in the room.

Marine something :) 

Back to Bangkok, back to home

 

After leaving Steve and taking a taxi towards the harbour with Emilie I felt like shit! She tried to cheer me up but I just felt so down.. We went to grab something to eat and tried to do some last shopping there. The night ferry was a nice surprise for us. We had thought about the worst of the boat but it had beds!!! I slept so so well that night! We woke up to our alarms at midnight and went outside to the deck to check out the stars. The boat's lights were too bright around it so we couldn't really see too much. There were couple of man outside smoking weed and tried to get us to join them. On the other end of the deck there were maybe 6 people from Laos and they were sat down on the deck and playing drums and singing some songs. They were drinking some homemade alcohol thing... Also they tried to get us to join them and I really wanted to go but Emilie wasn't that eager.. I stood on the deck listened to their music, the ocean and admired the starry sky.

We arrived in the middle of nowhere at five in the morning. The place looked like an industrial area.. There was nothing there! There were lots of backpackers and no one knew where to go. On the other side of the street there was a tiny market to which we all went to sit down. Then we just waited. And waited. Taxis came and left. No one wanted to take us. We had this paper which said that a taxi or bus would give us a ride somewhere to get a bus to bangkok. After like an hour or so a car came by. He was picking us up. The problem was that there were too many people to that one tiny taxi. Some of the guys were standing in the back and I squeeshed inside the car with the driver and one an other girl.

 

Luckily the drive wasn't long at all and we got out in front of this coffee place where they told us to wait for a bus. I was freezing! It was early in the morning and we felt really tired. The bus arrived and our 7,5 hour bus journey back to Bangkok started.. The bus was so full of people! Some people actually had to stand... I was too afraid to put my backpack down so I had it under my legs inside the bus.. Comfortable? No!

 

We stopped to eat at some point and then continued again. Almost the whole time I managed to get some sleep but it still felt to take so long! At Bangkok bus station me, Emilie and this young girl from Hongkong struggled a long time to find a bus to the center of Bangkok. We literally tried to ask everyone at the bus station but no one spoke english. Eventually we took a bus 107 and sit in it like 40 minutes and arrived close to Khao San road and decided to get out and find it. It looked so different during the day than night. Everything you could imagine of buying can be bought from there. Thai massages with happy endings, fake IDs, fake certification, cloths, food etc etc etc.
 

After wandering and wondering Khao San Road we went to this small place with internet to try to fix our plans with Emilie. I was supposed to go to Marie's place but she was so mad at me for not coming back to hang out with here before going to home. I had made a decision to stay a longer time with Steve in Koh Tao..

 

 We said goodbye to the young Chinese girl and set off to see the grand palace outside. It looked really nice on the night time. We hang out for a while in this park close by. Then took river boat to see the famous river by night and then with BTS we headed towards Marie's place. We knew that she wasn't home and would arrive only late but we hoped that we could at last get inside the building. We were really lucky since we got in almost immediatelly when some guy living there opened the door for us. Since we didn't have keys we climbed up to the roof and roof top pool! It was so relaxing! Looking the city down, sitting your legs in the pool and just chatting about life. We hang out there for almost three hours before we went to sit behind Marie's door to wait for them.

 

The night wasn't the most pleasant one's since Marie was reaaallly mad at me.. On a Monday morning 1st of July it was time for me to head back to home. Marie was on a little better mood in the morning so I actually got an opportunity to explain about my situation with Steve to her. I felt a bit better but I knew she was still mad at me for ditching her for a guy. I tried to explain to her that he wasn't just a guy. I got up after 7 am and did my last packing and I was off. It took me one hour to get to the airport and surprisingly I felt okey. I had been messaging with Steve a lot and I just enjoyed my last bits of my travelling alone. The feeling of being able to be free and survive on your own in a city of millions of people. Being confident about where to go and finding your ways. Previously I've posted one article about travelling,  here is an other one I came across this summer:

 

 18 Life Lessons Learned from Traveling

At the airport there were massive queues for the back drop. Good thing that I was really early there since I had to wait almost an hour in the line. The airport itself was massive, probably one of the biggest ones I've ever been in. The first flight was 11 hours and that was just a torture!! I felt like I had fever, I kept sleeping and waking up. Sweating. I watched three movies, read, listened to music. At this point I coulda used some company. The plane change only took an hour and the second flight went really fast. :)

After 20 hours or traveling I was safely back at home. Before my trip so many people kept telling me why on earth am I going to Thailand in the middle of the rain season? Yeah, well, rain season. It didn't rain everyday and when it did it lasted around 10 minutes. It was still around +30 every day.. Why not? Thai people were so friendly and welcoming, I didn't have any stomach problems or I wasn't afraid of being robbed or anything like that. My first trip alone was done and I was proud of myself! Not in any point I felt like I wasn't safe or alone. There was always people to hang out with or just be by myself.  Meeting Steve and still being together after six months was something I coulda never believed would happen to me! So travel people! Traveling teaches you so many life lessons that you won't regred it! TRAVEL! :) 

STAY POSTED to read about my holiday in Barcelona :)

 

Last days in Koh Tao

The next morning me and Steve went to eat breakfast together and after it was time for him to leave for a snorkling trip with his friends. While Emilie was hanging out with the dutch man I was enjoy myself by the pool reading magazines. People who know me can imagine that I wasn't staying still for a long time.. I went to walk around the beach and the walking streets. Just enjoying and taking it all in. I walked all the way to the very end of the beach and I found a lovely swing from there! I sat there a long time with my mango juice admiring the view and enjoy the day.

 

 

 

Then it was time for our snorkling trip through Pooh's diving place. I waited for Emilie and she was really late so we missed the trip. I coulda gone but I already had been snorkling there so I wasnt' that eager to pay again..

 

I tried to sunbathe for a while on the beach but it was so hot day that I could barely lie down for 5 minutes and I had to go to swim. The first time ever was when I felt even more hot in the water than on the beach. The water was boiling hot! So I decided to go back to the cool pool and then to take a nap. I was in the room maybe for 20 minutes or so when I woke up to a knock on the door and Steve was back from his trip! :)

 

In the evening it was Castle party time at this wanna be castle place.. While we were getting ready I was starting to feel a bit sad since Steve was supposed to be leaving early in the morning and I was having a huge crush on him.. I really enjoyed his company and being around him. But Steve surprised me that he and his friends had decided to stay one more day longer in Koh Tao.. I wonder whose idea it was to stay.. ;) So suddenly we gained an extra day to be together.

 

The party was supposed to be THE after party of the full moon party... Well, it wasn't. We took a taxi with punch of other people to there. We were Emilie, Jeroen the dutch guy, me and Steve and also some of his friends were there too. At the party we stared at the stars and Steve showed me the galaxy. :) Not much else to say about the party, that's how good it was :)

 

Then on the Saturday morning after eating breakfast together it was time to start packing... I was leaving at 9 pm, so we still had the whole day but I was feeling really down. Would all this fairytale end now? :(

 

We checked out from the hotel and we left our backs at the reception for the day. We had a nice day together! We hang out on the beach and in the boiling water. I went to say bye to Pooh and then we treated ourselved and went to eat in a restaurant. So far we had always eaten from the street food booths, Pad Thai! :D

 

We had talked a little about what would happen after I'd leave but at the restaurant Steve wanted to look for the tickets to come and visit me in Finland! After eating it was sunset time and we took couple of pictures together.

 

 

 

I was feeling reallllyyy sad when the time got closer and closer to nine o'clock. I suck at saying goodbye so I wasn't looking forward to that.. And I knew I would cry so..

 

Before leaving we were trying to find Steve a place to stay but places were really booked and expensive. We found him a place to sleep in a closed restaurant or small pub... Free and uncomfortable.

 

Kissing someone goodbye really ain't the easiest thing to do.. Especially when you in such a short time feel like I felt for him.. We agreed on dating and keeping in touch.. We had roughly planned a date when he would come and visit me in Finland..  We have been in touch since the day we met. Eventually he came after me to visit me in Finland for two weeks in the summer and I went to England to meet his parents. Now we have lived together for 10 weeks in Finland! And today, we have beem together for 6 months. :) <3