The Spain trip - what we did, where we stayed and how we commuted (3)

Barcelona ... You beauty!

1st May is when we woke up refreshed in our final destination within Spain. That day we decided to check out Sagrada Familia, Park Guelle and La Rambla. The reason we wanted to fit everything into one day is because Nandhini needed to leave the next day (a day before the rest of us). This meant I needed to fly alone back to Bangalore :'(

Our hostel was on the road parallel to this one :)

Anyway, we got ready by 9AM that day. Hipstel Hostel had a gujju lady at the front desk - who had been there for a year and had forgotten Hindi !! The hostel was meh - nothing great. Wish it had been cleaner. There were no common bathrooms within the rooms unlike the hostel at Seville (The Oasis  Hostel); we did not bother going to the cafeteria - somehow... didn't like the feel of the place. It was clean - I'm not saying otherwise, but it was not as great at The Oasis one. We were unable to book Oasis in Barcelona as we did everything last minute and there were no rooms left. However this hostel has an amazing location ! We booked 4 beds in a 6 room dorm and surprisingly, there were just us 4 in the room for all 3 days that we were there :) *Score*

We walked to Sarada Familia; yes our hostel was that close. It took us around 20 min to get there; and what do you know. The place was booked out and there were no slots available for the tour. Like, what the hell... The only slots that were available were for the next day at 5PM - which meant that NanGan would not be able to join us. This was ok, tbh, 'coz she had been there before and had seen the stuff already. So right then and there Madhuri (using her awesome T Mobile internet) booked off 3 tickets for us for the next day. We checked online if Park Guell had slots, and nope - that also was sold out. 

Life Pro Tip : for any tourist spot you want to visit, check beforehand if tickets are needed and book them off.

Having nothing else to do, we decided to do tourist-y stuff and take the Bus Touristica across the city and see everything that Barcelona had to offer. This bus allows one to get on and get off anywhere in its routes - and it covers the entire city. Booked tickets from across the road (there is a stall), and then got on the next bus that came along :) You get ear phones and discount coupons that you can use across the city for the rest of the year along with the bus pass (which you must keep safely as that is what you show to enter the bus). All along the bus ride, there is an information guide that plays along giving you gyaan about the city and what special monument you are passing - and it is available in around 20 languages :)

We got off at Mt. Tibidabo stop - YES, the one from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. :) :)

Tibidabo is an awesome place. You need to take a tram to get to the top, and on top of it there is a ferris wheel, games for kids to play, a cathedral and some things to see.

RBF mode demanded brain numb-ers

After seeing everything and eating some food, we decided to go back down and proceed with the tour. What do you know, the tram ONLY accepts cash and we had run out of money. We assumed that Spain being a part of Europe will accept card everywhere; but sadly that was not the case. So we wasted time on the top of the mountain eating/drinking - until my patience wore off :| RBF mode was on.

Life Pro Tip : carry cash on you at all times. Do not swipe your card at all - use it only to withdraw money.

Luckily the girls got the hint and we took a cab and went back to the bus stop and headed to the beach.

Man, it was freezing ! thankfully it was not raining, but it was so damn cold !! I didn't want to eat any food and wanted to explore the beach. So I went - jacket, sweater, shoes, muffler, socks, jeans and a top; while there were women running in skimpy bikinis ...

After eating, we got back on the bus and went back to the hostel. En route we noticed where La Rambla street was and decided to head there tomorrow morning. The plan for that evening was to get NanGan sloshed given it was her last day with us on her bachelorette *evil smile*

Nothing of that sort happened. Like good girls we went to 4 different restaurants, ate and drank a bit in each before heading back to the hostel :D

Crashed peacefully and next day, along with NanGan's luggage we headed to Park Guelle. Frankly, there is nothing much to see. Brindavan gardens in Mysore is nicer. It's unnecessarily hyped up because a famous architect Gaudi designed it. Nothing great. After we finished seeing some bits of his garden, we headed to La Rambla - by this time Nandhini had left for the airport.

La Rambla is one place you definitely have to visit. There are all types of stores, all kinds of cuisines, all sorts of places to eat ... wow. Within La Rambla there is La Bouqueria - a market of sorts where you can buy all kinds of food and ingredients. It is a food lover's paradise. All raw material is priced at a max of 3 euros, and the for is prepared live in front of you.

Life Pro Tip : Keep cash on hand while going to this place as you will need it.

The morning side of SF

After we got done with this place, we headed back to the hostel to dump our shopping as we needed to go to Sarada Familia for the tour! I was super excited having heard so much about it during the bus tour and from Nandhini who had been there before.

The evening side of SF

Be prepared to be disappointed. I'm not saying it is ugly or not grand, but it is not worth the hype. yes, the building is beautiful, but so are others (Which are not so hyped).Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful - with coloured glass and columns built to look like trees ... But ... :|

The roof of SF

Here again we head head phones and need to go to different points within the structure where we get to know what Gaudi was thinking / feeling / imagining while designing the place.
The tourism part of the tour blew me away. The way they make tourists feel for the structure and give money to help with its construction is brilliant. Yes, you read me right. The money tourists give is what is used to continue with the construction of this place.

After we finished with the tour, we took a cab to La Rambla where we had dinner. Headed back to the hostel afterwards and I started getting a panic attack as I had a flight in 6 hours and was flying alone back to India....

Flights were fine - I ate a couple of pills Mad gave me for a fever (which would make me sleepy); and the flight passed by reasonably well :)

Did some shopping at Frankfurt sad-duty-free-terminal C and then got on the flight back to Bangalore.

Barcelona is a beautiful city. I feel that in order to cover it and do justice you need a max of 4 days.

Life Pro Tip : Carry cash with you because every time you swipe, you get charged that extra international handling fee, but later on a bomb is dropped into your bank statement
LPT2 : La Rambla has FCB and RM stores where you can buy original merchandise. In case you are planning, be prepared to shell out at least 100 euros for the jersey
LPT3 : take a lot of pics and be prepared to see people eating loads of weird stuff (like live lobsters)
LPT4 : carry some medicines on you just in case you get a cold. Meds there are super expensive
LPT5 : Have a small sling back that has a zip. A backpack makes no sense coz you have no control over it when it is hung on your back
LPT6 : Keep your belongings close to you. We managed the entire trip without an incident, but I have heard stories from friends who have been robbed in broad daylight

The Spain trip - what we did, where we stayed and how we commuted (2)

On 28th, we left Seville and began our road trip "across" Spain. We had not pre-booked anything and decided to go with the flow and rent a large car from the cheapest place available. Guess what car we rented.. AN AUDI ! :D *evil laughter*

We started from Seville around 9AM and drove down to Cadiz.

Cadiz is a beautiful place - there is nothing much to do apart from take pics at a fort sort of thing facing the waterfront. Now, because it was not raining, we made it a point to take pics without our jackets (mind you, it was still cold). And it so happened that all of us were in shades of black or white :D

We had food at a very sad restaurant in Cadiz. We basically walked along the promenade and did not find any place that we liked. We started walking back to where we had parked the car and went through a street which had these small cafes - and as we were famished and needed caffeine, we decided to plonk ourselves there.

Life Pro Tip : If you do not like potatoes and are a vegetarian; my deepest sympathies are with you, my friend.

After recharging ourselves, we started to drive towards Gibraltar (that was the route we had planned. Seville - Cadiz - Gibraltar - Granada).

Goofing' around in Cadiz. They form a signal :P

Gibraltar - funny story I tell you. Nandhini Ganesan told us that she has been to Gibraltar in the past and that we definitely need to see the place. So we packed our bags and started to drive down there. En route, we noticed that one side of the road had a LONG LONG LONG queue of cars waiting (on the right side lane) - and they were on the way to Gibraltar. Having no clue why they were waiting like that, we took the middle lane and continued driving. What fools, right ? There is an empty lane to go.

Little did we know that we were on the "no customs declaration" lane. We saw it a little further ahead and wondered - what customs rubbish ? We are within Schengen territory, absolutely no issues at all. Then Madhuri's T Mobile internet told us that we are crossing borders. Wait, what ??? Crossing borders ??? We then saw a notice board telling us that we are entering British Overseas Territory and need to have a valid visa. OMG OMG OMG ! We didn't have any visa for London; we could not take any u-turn because there was no place to take one. Accepting our fate we proceeded. I mean, what is the worst that could happen ? we would be asked to leave and exit the country. Sheesh !!

Life Pro Tip : Make sure you check routes before you decide to take them.

LPT2 : In the future, DO NOT trust a friend who claims to have been to Gibraltar but does not remember that you need a bloody visa to the place.

Thankfully, we were able to enter thanks to our Schengen. We got our passports stamped with an entry into Gibraltar which was valid for a day. Cool right ? Got to visit 2 countries while in Spain :|

Anyhoo, we roamed about at the lighthouse at the tip of Europe, and then proceeded to drive to Granada. We managed to book a house over there to stay, as our flight to Barcelona was from there the next day. It was a quaint little place, kind of in the heart of the city, near this college - due to which the eateries were mindblowingly yummy. We decided to grab dinner at this place closely; where I had the most delicious drink of my life. I had Mead - a sweet version and .. oh. my. God. It tasted exactly like juice and was sooooooooo tasty ! The food was also quite good - a Lebanese sort of place. Had a felafel wrap, while the others tried different stuff.

We almost passed out at the house after we returned. The lady was very nice, and the funniest bit is that she spoke 0 English, while we spoke 0 Spanish (Even though Nandhini went for Spanish classes and passed some exam - so she claims). We actually used Google translate on her phone to communicate :D
The next day, we had some time to kill. We checked out of the house, paid some 250 odd Euros to the lady and proceeded to explore Granada. The place is gorgeous ... We went to this place called Alhambra - it's an old structure that exists within city limits and has some beautiful architecture. This place took us around 2 hours, post which we went to the city, had lunch and then proceeded to go to the airport where we needed to return the car. While going back we noticed those orange trees! And decided that we were going to pluck an orange - each of us :)
We did so, but then some men started shouting at us and I freaked out thinking we did something illegal. Turns out they were telling us not to eat those oranges as they are bad ... Guess that explains why the trees were full of them and no one was plucking and eating/selling them.

The Veuling flight to Barcelona was uneventful, and peaceful (thank God for that). I sat with Madhuri (those hands I held every now and then during slight turbulence).

Life Pro Tip : Do your web check in before reaching the airport. This gives you time to do some window shopping, chill, have a drink and relax before boarding.

We landed in Barcelona around 830PM - and it was still quite bright :)
We had booked a hostel called The Hipstel. It cost us around 19 bucks per head and is in the main road of Barcelona - Passage De Garcia.

Life Pro Tip : While booking hostels, you will need to make a choice between high rating - location - good pics.

Updated skin care regime

Bangalore summer was bad, and the so-called rainy season is kind of non-existent. It has been fluctuating between being super dry and moist.

Basically I have extreme combination skin; an oily T-zone, oily cheeks. While my forehead and lips-chin areas are super dry (to the point that they flake). When I went to Spain, I went to this Kiehl's store, where the lady checked my facial moisture content. It was some 25% when the optimum is 50 odd. However, in Bangalore, my skin gets pimples in some areas as the weather is sometimes humid. I don't know - trying to find one product to suit my skin type is almost next to impossible. Hence I started reading up about Asian skin care. They have this concept of layering the skin with products. They do not follow a simple 3 step cleanse-tone-moisturise routine. They have layers of products that they apply one after the other - and all these layers help your skin. I mean, it's got to work right ? Those guys have flawless skin...

So, I've been following a skin care routine for the last 6 months and I think it is working for me. I'll detail the products below, from where I got them and why I am using them.

AM routine

1. Face wash : Shiseido White lucent. The reason I started using this is because I got a sample of this from Sephora in a kutti box. That tiny bottle lasted me 2 weeks ! And I loved the feeling of my skin after I used it. It was not squeaky clean, but it felt as though all the dirt had been removed without stripping excess moisture. The full size costs 2.8k - but trust me. I got mine some time in December, and the tube is around 3/5ths empty as of today.

2. Toner : Clinique No.2. This toner is from the range that is for combination-oily skin. So far it has suited me well. I use it on cotton balls - which held wipe off any dead skin that might be flaking off.

3. Pre-Serum : Shiseido Ultime Serum. This is my go-to product. I have fallen in love with this after trying not he samples that I got from the sample set I blogged about previously; and I am hooked. The serum glides on my skin and I am on my second bottle in 6 months. The 50ml bottle costs 6.55k and lasts around 6 months. Yes, it is a pricey product but I like the effect it has had on my skin (or so I would like to believe). The product is said to improve your skin's immunity and make products you apply afterwards work better. You have to apply something afterwards so that the serum does not evaporate off your skin - thus rendering its effects useless.

4. Serum : I decided to not go with what I was considering as per my previous post, and instead got the Vit C serum from OST (now called C-source). I read multiple good reviews about it online and I decided that I might as well try it out. It cost me some 700 bucks including shipping from Korea from this website called roseroseshop.com. The website recommends using it at night and that's what I am going to start doing (this will fall under PM routine :)). Until now I have been using it in the morning after the above 3 steps, but the website recommends using it at night as it is more effective (guess while you are sleeping you won't move around and touch your face much - hence product will stay longer).
Now you are supposed to leave this product on your skin for 15 odd minutes before you apply the next step of skin care. So usually after applying this, I iron my clothes, apply moisturiser on my body etc. That takes around 15 min :). Now given that I am going to move this step to the night, not sure how to kill time...Hmmm

5. Face moisturiser : Clinique dramatically different moisturising gel. Now, I am not sure if this is moist enough for my skin - coz I start flaking on my forehead and around my nose and mouth after 5-6 hours. I double moisturise - I use the Loreal Hydrafresh deep boost serum as well. I mix this with my SPF. I somehow still feel as though my skin gets dry towards the end of the day - so I have asked a friend of mine to send me the Clinique Dramatically different moisturising lotion. Let's see how that goes.

6. Sun Block : I have a couple that I keep switching between. Lotus SPF 50 for combination skin; and Shiseido SPF 50 water proof sun block. I like both of them a lot. The Lotus one is not water proof, so I use it to work; while the Shiseido one I use when it is humid / rainy / am in the beach :)

PM Routine

1. Cleanser : Sephora oil base cleanser. I was on the lookout for a make up remover cleanser that gently ensures every single thing from my eye make up is removed easily. Rubbing too much on your eyes with cotton / cleanser is not good - the skin below is extremely fine and prone to wrinkles. This cleanser is super awesome and removes everything very easily.
 

2. Face wash : I either use my all-time favourite Lakme Strawberry face wash, or The Body Shop's Tea Tree face wash. The Lakme one has small granules that are extremely gentle on the skin. Granules are for exfoliation, but too much of it can cause you to break out. In all my years of using this product I have never broken out - which means it is a gentle product to use :)

The TBS product is also nice; it has a slightly tingly sensation when you use it, and my face always feels so clean and fresh after I am done.

3. Toner : Clinique No2.

4. Face cream : I apply the Kiehl's Ultra Facial cream at night - it is super hydrating and my skin feels very soft and moist post application. It is extremely thick - so use it only if you have dry skin and the season is dry. I got this in Spain - where it was identified that I have super dry skin and the weather was not helping.

Additional things I do when I am in the mood, or feel like pampering myself :) :-

Sometimes at night I apply a face mask from The Face Shop (which is available on Nykaa). Read good reviews about the products, so I was like - lemme try. The sheet masks are goooood :) Too much fun in applying onto your face and chilling for 15 min while it works its magic.

a snapshot of my skincare cupboard :)

Another thing that I apply is a Shiseido Ibuki Beauty Sleeping Mask. It has some granules which melt due to our body heat and it smells heavenly :) I apply either one of these maybe once a week - when I feel like pampering myself :)

Well, that's it guys. Hope you found something useful in this post. Let me know if you have found any miracle workers that you swear by (a girl can never have too many skin care products ;) ).

The Spain trip - what we did, where we stayed and how we commuted (1)

Things that we as a group got done before meeting in Spain :
1. Cancel hotel booking
2. Make real hostel bookings
3. Figure out car rentals and take a call on how we were going to get a car
4. Finalise itinerary

So, around a week before flying out to Spain (obviously I got my visa, else I would not have been writing this post :)), I cancelled my hotel booking. The girls coming from US had made arrangements for stay in Spain - as we were going to be driving across the country.

I booked a hostel for Nandhini and myself for the night of 26th in Barcelona. I purposely booked something close to Camp Nou (hee hee); and also because it was close to the train station (from where we were to catch our train to Seville the next morning).

Our flight from Bangalore was at 3AM, and we landed in Frankfurt around 11AM their time. We had a layover of around 5 hours.. On getting out of the plane, my jaw dropped. The size of the airport, the number of flights, the number of terminals and gates - womygawd ... You can imagine what I wanted to do apart from oggling at the planes - DUTY FREE SHOPPING !!! Oh. My. God. The Duty free stores at Frankfurt Terminal A are mind-blowing. The place is massive! You will find every single brand under the sun at that place. I strongly recommend people travelling to EU via Frankfurt HAVE to shop at duty free at Terminal A. I was like, I'll shop on the way back - but I had to go to Terminal C and the duty free shop there sucked (YES, note the singular).

During out 5.5 hr layover, NanGan decided to beautify herself

Life Pro Tip : Shop now itself as most probably while returning to India, you will go through terminal C (if you are flying Lufthansa).

We landed in BCN around 5PM in the evening and took a bus to the train station. This bus is free. It connects one terminal to the other. Bought tickets to BCN Sants (a 4 euro ticket) and from the station, our hostel was around a kilometre walk. Got to the place, unpacked, showered, locked our stuff in the cute lockers provided in the rooms and then headed out for a walk and for dinner.

I forgot to carry a converter pin plug point and needed to borrow from some random girl in the hostel room in order to be able to charge my phone. Early next morning we took a cab to the station (it ended up costing us 4 bucks only!) and got on the train. I had booked the train tickets in India itself from the Renfe website.

Outside Barcelona Sants Railway Station. It was wet and cold :)

Life Pro Tip : Make sure the hostel booking covers breakfast. Luckily the booking I made covered breakfast; and it is expected of you to wash the vessels you use :)

I was super psyched as I heard that the train reaches speeds of 330kmph and that there is a display that shows the speed we are going at !!! In my excitement, I tore the train ticket !! And I did not have a working internet connection to be able to download the ticket again :(
Praying feverishly, I hoped that the guard would not stop us while we needed to check-in to the train... The guard couldn't control his laughter on seeing the train ticket :D
And about the display - guess what - THERE WAS SUCH A DISPLAY ! WOOHOO :D

The 2 of us got to Seville where we were meeting the girl flying down from USA. And what do you know; we were unable to find a good internet connection in order to be able to reach out to them. Somehow we managed to get a feeble net connection from where we told them to come to the Seville train station. The plan was to meet and then figure out stay. The weather was absolutely wonderful - bright, sunny and had a cool breeze blowing.

Madhuri somehow had free international data roaming on her T-Mobile connection and that is what saved us during our entire trip. We figured out a decently rated hostel called The Oasis Hostel and managed to get beds for the 4 of us. Checked into the place and changed quickly. Come on, we were in Spain - needed to dress up and go paint the town red :)

But guess what, it started raining the minute we got into our room. We changed, put on our jackets (covered ourselves head to toe basically), did NOT wear sports shoes (as they would stink on getting and staying wet) and headed out. Walked a whole lot in the city (the hostel location is kinda in the heart - which is a great thing). Got totally drenched while searching for a place to eat, and we were cold and cranky by the end of the day. We went to some 5-6 places until we found one that was serving food that all of us felt like eating :)

Life Pro Tip : check weather.com or the Weather Channel (there is an app in the iPhone. And trust me, go by what it says. It is messed up in India's forecast, but is quite accurate for Europe).

After this, we got back to the hostel and headed to the terrace lounge where we again got something to eat and drink.

By this time, I realised that I needed to buy some pants and a sweater - the place was freezing and I had packed tiny clothes - given that the plan was to go along the cost of Spain and beach hop :|

The next morning, we sat in the hostel and checked the weather across the places we were to drive to and realised that it was raining EVERYWHERE. So we decided to stay back at Seville and check out the city in detail, and leave the next day instead; when the weather seemed to improve.

We had time to kill and spend in the city. So that night we decided that we wanted to go watch a Flamenco show. Boy, I am so glad we went :) Googled and went to the top rated recommended place, and man ... the guy dancer was SMOKIN' HOT ! and the way he danced... My God. The place was freezing and it was cold and wet outside; and inspite of that by the end of his performance, he was drenched in sweat !

We decided to ensure that we try different cuisines throughout our trip, so that night we ate at a Japanese restaurant.

we got 5 min respite from the rain

The next day we visited Alcazar and a famous cathedral in Seville calle Cathedral De Seville. Alcazar is where Game Of Thrones shooting for Dorne scenes is done. OMG OMG OMG !!! :) We were actually going to see Dorne. The cobble stoned streets were lined with orange trees and that's when I realised that Seville is known for its orange trees.

Life Pro Tip : Buy umbrellas, if like geniuses you do not listen to weather forecasts. 

LPT2 : Take as many pics as you can when the rain stops, albeit for 5 minutes.

LPT3 : Carry chappals with you so that you have something to wear apart from shoes

LPT4 : We had one charger among the 4 of us - Madhuri's. She was the only one with a converter pin which is what saved us. Carry a converter where ever you go. If not, carry a portable charger.

Will continue about the drive and what all we did (prior to heading back to BCN) in the next post :)