#EJCtour2013: Part 2, Barcelona

See my previous post: #EJCtour2013: Part 1, London and Rome

Barcelona is love in first sight!
Took a train from rome termini to flumicino airport > then a domestic flight of two hours to Barcelona.

Stayed 3 nights at BWH Ramblas V,
Barcelona Carrer de Sant Pau 8
08001 Barcelona

The apartment is lovely! With balconies, and it’s located just 5 minutes’ walk from Las Ramblas. Its stylish apartments with free Wi-Fi. There is a large living room with a dining area. The kitchenette comes with a microwave, fridge, coffee maker and oven. Best is there’s a washing machine and dryer! Our X number of days’ dirty clothes are in rescues!

There is a range of shops in the streets surrounding the apartments. Best with Carrefour just 5 minutes walk away, minimart just downstairs of the apartment! The apartment itself already made us love the place, bonus with whole streets of shops are on “SUMMER SALES”! Moreover I’m a sucker for ZARA!

We started our evening with shopping! How sinful? Because, it’s unavoidable to the shops with SALES here and there! We are situated at the heart of shopping area! Had a quick bite along the way where we roam, saw this kebab stall just downstairs of our apartment smelling really good. Can’t remember what’s the shop called. :X

Barcelona is Spain's second largest city with their signature Mosaic-speckled facades!

Started our day 2 early, as we anticipated that we will get lost! Wanted to check out the Bus Turístic, but did a small calculation, the number of places we want to go and allows us to go are pretty limited as we don’t have a lot of time to visit so many attraction in a day, it’s convenience but we thought of finding our ways there on our own instead! So looking at the map, and we started off basking through all the shops first!

Arrived Casa Batlló, it is a renowned building located in the heart of Barcelona and is one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces. Casa Batlló is a remodel of a previously built house. One of the strangest residential buildings in Europe, this is Gaudí at his hallucinogenic best. The facade, sprinkled with bits of blue, mauve and green tiles and studded with wave-shaped window frames and balconies, rises to an uneven blue-tiled roof with a solitary tower.
All the curves, colours and nuances of colours! Sad that we didn’t managed to visit inside because the tickets are overly priced, we thought the view from the outside was amazing enough. Incredible architect and I will visit there again one day!

We walked to Barcelona Cathedral thereafter!
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, also known as Barcelona Cathedral, is the Gothic cathedral and seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona, Spain. The Cathedral of Barcelona is comprised of three naves, but just a single apse and ambulatory. The naves have five sections: that closest to the façade is the longest in order to accommodate the dimensions of the cimborio, which is adjacent to the main entrance. There the beautiful gothic cathedral with stained glass windows dating back 500 years.

There’s a small scale of flea market just beside the Cathedral, selling antique stuff like written/yellowish postcards which look really good with all pretty cursive handwriting, watches, displays and many more..

Spending most of our time roaming the street and got amazed by all the architecture in Barcelona. Their architecture are remarkable and impressive! Love anything there.

The times in Europe are light-hearted! Blithe disregard for the rules of the road! We take our own sweet time enjoying the air, the time spent together and taking coffee and tea during the day. How I’m missing it there!

Since Carrefour is just few blocks down the road, we decided to cook our meals together in our cosy apartment~ A budget and simple meal and we are contented! Rice…... yesh! Especially when I’m a rice lover! Haha.

Bought some spices and sauce to marinate our drumsticks, and I fried the eggs to add on!
There, my legend of the eggs: 1 broke, 1 leaked, and 1 perfect. Ah-ha!

Bought some beers for the night, we thought we won’t drink much. But end up we went down to buy more beers. Tried walking to the back of our apartment, though it’s late, but the streets are all lighted up and it’s not scary as we thought it is. There’s a small mini-mart, that sells all kinds of beer! So we tried on those recommended by the shop uncle.
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Looking forward to the Sagrada Familia on the following day. Was so impressed by this church already while I’m reading on the history before coming here.

La Sagrada Família inspires awe by its sheer verticality, and in the manner of the medieval cathedrals it emulates, it’s still under construction after more than 100 years. When completed, the highest tower will be more than half as high again as those that stand today.

Unfinished it may be, but it attracts around 2.8 million visitors a year and is the most visited monument in Spain. The Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions. Construction on this church will continue for at least another decade, but it has already become Barcelona's most important landmark.

The architect Francisco de Paula del Villar designed a neo-Gothic church and led the construction started on 1882. One year later, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí took over as lead architect at the age of 31. From that moment on, Gaudí devoted most of his life to the construction of the church. Instead of sticking to the original plans, Gaudí changed the design drastically. The neo-Gothic style made way for Gaudí's trademark modernist style, which was based on forms found in nature.

It’s so sad when he died on a car accident in 1926, with only one facade (the Nativity Facade), one tower, the apse and the crypt were finished. After Gaudí's death in 1926 construction slowed dramatically due to a lack of funds and the outbreak of the Civil War. Construction pace started to pick up again in the mid 1950s and now two facades and eight towers have been completed. The main nave was roofed in 2000. At that time construction was expected to last for another hundred years, but modern technology has enabled architects to speed up construction so that the Sagrada Família is now slated for completion before 2030.

Alrighty! I'm not listening to music hokay! That's Audioguides for all tourist, they have different number station, you will just need to enter the station code number and it will explain and tell you more information!
Languages available: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese. How cool?

I would really really love to visit this when it’s completed, and I look forward to it!
Spent quite some time inside the church. I don’t think all the photos can ever do it’s justice. Definitely a MUST SEE in Barcelona. The intricate details in every part of the building, it’s just amazing!! Do go when there’s bright lights shining through the stained glass! It’s stunning!!

Save some time and buy your tickets online! We queue for more than an hour to get inside even though we arrived before the operating hours. Crazily packed alright? But it’s a total worthy place to go for sure! That's some camwhore time while queuing!

 

We spent almost half a day here! Just can’t bear to leave the place, and we went to every single corner to examine and study the place! It’s lovely indeed!

Finally to shopping time thereafter again! Saw this mosaic carousel along the street when we returning to our place. It’s really beautiful and I want to bring it back so much! This cost me SGD$80! Contemplated for awhile, and decided to just get it since it has been awhile since I bought a carousel for myself! Another carousel added to my mini-collection! *happy like mad

Went to St Josep La Boqueria market which just few blocks away from our apartment, it is a paradise for the senses. Wake up to the smells and colours of the Boqueria.

 

What a mesmerising sight, we found the Chocolate stall and we bought some goodies back from there. It has everything, brilliantly coloured fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meats. Try the freshly made fruit smoothies or ice-cream! *Yummy

The candies paradise, kids would love this for sure!!

Ended our another day early because we need to catch the plane on the next early morning. Skipped a lot of attractions that we planned to go, but each attraction filled of loads of tourist including us. So basically need to spend a couple of hours at one place. Sigh.. if only we have longer time there!

Oh well, up next to Paris!! Be right back.

#EJCtour2013
Check out this hashtag in instagram if you have.!

#EJCtour2013: Part 1, London and Rome

So many things to pen down, but don’t know where, when and how should I start!

I’m so excited to share about my wedding planning and preparation.
Used almost a year time to plan my kind of so-celine wedding.
BUT.. not going to share it now.!
Because, I have more exciting thing to dot it down here~

My june’s affair with my 2 girlfriends! So sad that Pauline couldn’t make it, but we are looking forward to next year road trip too!!

Finally went for a two weeks Europe’s tour with my 2 BFFs (Elsa and Jasline) in june. It’s an memorable trip before I ends my singlehood. Couldn’t take any longer leaves, thus only crash them on their 2nd week of their holiday.

Their first stop was to Heathrow, London for 2 nights and they went up to Berlin then Prague. There’s a huge rave over Prague city when I arrived, they are so in love with Prague. Most people regarded Prague as one of Europe's most charming and beautiful cities, and has become the most popular travel destination in central Europe as well. It’s the top romantic city to visit, I shall one day!

Next to Venice, this place may not seem huge but it is. Venice is made of different boroughs. The most famous is the area comprising the 118 islands in the main districts that are called "Sestieri" and they are: Cannaregio, Castello, Dorsoduro, San Polo, Santa Croce and San Marco, where the main monuments and sights are located. They say it’s a sinking city.. how true is that? I want to row the boat in Venice, one day too! Ah-ha~

Elsa and Jasline went one week ahead before me. I travelled alone from Singapore to Heathrow then a domestic flight to ROME to meet them! I thought I’m kinda brave, first time travel a super long journey all by myself!!

It’s 4am in the morning, as I still remember. So worried that I couldn’t wake up in time because I packed my last minute luggage till 1am nish the night before.

Our food for the ungodly jet-lag timing! woots~

I smuggled chillies over as well, sadly, my chilli sauce bottle broke in my luggage!!

The smell of chilli was so mouth watering for that 2 weeks in Europe..

*screaming*

Weather are so erratic! It’s summer, but weather forecast stated as high as 27 degree and as low as 11 degree! Were so contradicting on the clothes to bring! Finally, the girls say weather are hot, not to bring too much! Alright, unpacked some winter clothes off my load.

Singapore to Heathrow – I travelled 13 hours, sitting beside an auntie who she doesn’t talk at all. So.. alrighty, I watch 4 set of movies and read almost half of my novels! Didn’t really sleep much though. I thought 13 hours wasn’t really too long, because time just zoom past and I arrived London with a blink of an eye. Well, perhaps I was too excited though!

Waited 3 hours at the airport till my next domestic flight to meet my girls. Travelled another 4 hours to ROME! I realized I almost travelled 1 whole day without speaking much!! *getting annoying*

And yes! When I arrived ROME, I’m beaming with so much joys because my girlfriends standing there with this:

I made it~ and they touched down an hour before me and waited for me till we met!

Okay, it’s madness alright? It’s almost mid-night when I finally meet the girls. Were so excited till we checked in to our apartment, all the way unpacking some clothing and chit chat till we fell asleep!

Ta-dah.. I have got a welcome gift from the girls. How sweet can they be! A friendship bracelet from Venice, one each in different colours.

Stayed in ROME for 4 days.. weather are hawt!! Because it was so hot, we actually skipped some of the attraction. Places are full packed with tourist including us. Okays, maybe due to my jet-laged-ness on the first 2 days. =X

Started to explore early in the morning, and our first stop to Vatican City — St. Peter's Basilica, dome climb, and Vatican Museum!

Climb the stairs, walk down the street. finally get to the first stop - Vatican Museum!

Finally climbed the spiral stairs at Vatican!

Day 1, one stop at the Vatican Museum were pretty tiring! So we decided to end our day with some shopping instead to perk us up a little!!

*excuses, wahahhaa..

my only loots on the first day... bask through the street of temptation, and I only got this home as planned! *pat on my back!

Next day went to Colosseum, passed by Arch of Constantine and Roman Forum!

Set off very early to avoid the long queue. Simply look at the crowd, I mean spot the numbers of tourist at the Colosseum. If you can see.. =X

No joke, it's really crowded, we arrived an hour before the operating hours. We queued about 20 minutes on top of that!

The weather is my enemy! *Roar~

Umbrella came in rescue and has became my best friend.. Alright, all you want to laugh!

Gelatos are everywhere, my face are like this because this ice-cream cost me SGD$18!!

How expensive?

 

A lot more photos but i'm gonna do a selective writing, and selective posting! *Ooops~

Heading off to Barcelona on our next destination..

Barcelona are Love in First Sight!

I'm gonna stop here and continue the Barcelona's loves on the next post.
Oh man, I’m missing that already!!

#EJCtour2013
Check out this hashtag in instagram if you have.!