So I thought that I would have some themes running throughout my blog so I decided that Thursday starts with the letter T and so does Travel (and I love to travel). I am that annoying person in the office that is so jealous of everyone else going on vacation when I have just returned... It's like a drug, I never can get enough. These are the days (and there are many) when I truly wish I was a trust-fund kid that could travel the world and not work.

So Thursday posts will be about my random travels throughout the world. Amazing places I've seen, fabulous people I have met, and the many stupid things that I have done (mostly in my teenage years/early 20s).

Barcelona & Madrid

A few years ago, I traveled to Spain, first stop Barcelona. Barcelona is a gorgeous city with many offerings: a beautiful beach, marvelous shopping, fantastic food, and an overall big city atmosphere (being a city girl, we all know I appreciate this). I see many parallels between Barcelona and Toronto, most likely why I liked it there so much. If I could speak Spanish, I might even consider living there.

This city is easy to navigate, easy to bicycle in (I never came close to death like my numerous times in Toronto), and generally very friendly people. One of my favourite things that Barcelona has to offer, other than the beaches, is the Picasso Museum. After a visit to my favourite Picasso Museum, I bought a print of one of his paintings… Sadly to say, after hauling it around for another week, I left it on a train, and it never made it back to Toronto. I really hope that whoever found my print firstly, knew who painted it, and secondly, appreciated it as much as I would have.

So, after leaving Barcelona, we made our way to Madrid, where I didn’t feel nearly as at home as I did in Barcelona. From Madrid, we were supposed to hop on a plane to Italy. Because of the volcanic ash, that never happened. Our plane got cancelled and our dreams of eating pasta and drinking cheap wine were crushed within minutes. Needless to say, we decided to make our way to France earlier (I was not protesting!). However, all trains that went to France left from Barcelona. We made our way to the train stop with hours, upon hours to spare… We wondered around... waiting for our train back to Barcelona… about 1 hour before our train was set to leave, I looked at our tickets and discovered we were at the wrong train station (there are 2 in Madrid). I have never had to pack up my stuff, find out where to go and get a cab as quickly as that. You know that scene in the movies where someone is running to the train as it is slowly taking off, and then the person jumps into the train, I lived that! You are probably shaking your head in disbelief, but I am serious. The guys on the train had to yell, "just jump on, anywhere!” Back to Barcelona we went.


This is in the Train Station in Madrid... yes IN the train station (the wrong one, this is when we thought we had hours to kill before our train left).

  Things I learned while being in Barcelona once twice:

1.      Having a large group of foreign men (preferably big men) is helpful ward off local creeps in the clubs (my friend would agree, she got her camera pickpocketed by a local she was dancing with!)

2.      Speaking Spanish would have been very helpful. You think that yelling explaining to the cab driver where to go in English would be easy, well, it’s not.. especially when they take you to the wrong place

3.      Take a card of where you are staying out with you… Wandering the streets in a foreign city where you don’t speak the language did not seem overly safe

4.      If you wonder into the city tour store on La Rambla, you will probably meet the staff who are willing to sell you drugs and take you to parties… (If someone ever goes, let me know how that goes for you, I turned down that offer)

5.      If you don’t like rice that much, you won’t like paella. I have had enough paella (2 times) to last me a lifetime.

If you ever want advice on where to eat, stay, visit while you are in any of the cities I write about, just send me an email: Ashley.mary.hall@gmail.com I would be happy to share my thoughts.

Also, when I run out of places I’ve been to, expect annoying posts about the gorgeous places I want to travel to!