My second week here has been exciting, tiring, and filled with changes. There has been a mixture of different feelings and emotions, but overall I´m still doing good💪 I feel a bit pressured to find a job already because I´m supposed to start working before my bf so that I wouldn´t have to stay home alone and be bored all day long. Also I got an email about my health insurance ending in few months because of graduating from university. And I´m not a real fan of just sitting around and doing nothing all day. So I need to find something suitable, but it´s not easy at all😬 Many offers are actually fine and I could apply, but then there´s written that I have to have proficient level of Spanish to apply. Mine is not bad, but it´s definitely not proficient. I´m going to learn more, but in the autumn when the classes start. I´ll be learning both catalán and castellano.
On Saturday I visited the local hairdresser my bf has been going to since he was a little boy. I´ve been growing out my hair for a few months now since I stopped coloring it and now was the perfect time to make some extreme changes. I knew that the hairdresser was gonna be a professional, but that lady was totally on a next level. She knew exactly what she was doing from the beginning and did a great job. From the minute I entered I knew that I was going to be leaving with a lot shorter hair than I had before, but I never could´ve imagined that my hair was going to be this short🙈 But it was important to get rid of all the burned and dried hair so that new strong and healthy hair could start growing. I was a bit terrified, when she made the first big cut and handed me my hair. I was shocked by the amount that was cut. After that I felt scared and started doubting if I made the right decision. But as the time flew I started to like the new cut more and more. It still felt strange because I have always had really long hair and now I couldn´t even make a ponytail😱😄 Nevertheless the new bob cut is cool and fresh and I´m very happy with the result😆😍
Before and after
The bob is like really short and for now I don´t know exactly how to style my hair because I have never had any experience with hair that short. I liked how the hairdresser curled my hair with the straightener, but as I learned quickly..it´s not so easy to do as it seems at first. Also my flat iron is back at home. I tried something with the curling iron, but that ended up looking very sad😂 Luckily my bf´s mother is happily ready to teach me how to create those beautiful and natural looking flat iron curls👍💪
On Sunday we had a quick session in the gym. This time we went to the one in Gracia because our go-to place is closed on Sundays. DiR Gracia is a lot bigger than DiR Lesseps and there is a swimming pool, but I actually like the smaller one better. Maybe it´s just that I already got used to the Lesseps one...
My favourite thing in Barcelona - palm trees😍😆 I found these on the way back from gym
After the gym we finally went to Mirador d´Horta😆 I´ve been wanting to go there for a few months already when I first saw the place on Instagram. It´s this beautiful mountain with an incredible view of all Barcelona. Mirador d´Horta is about 40-45 minutes walk away from Àlex´s home, but we went a bit differently than we were supposed to go so that I could see different parts of the city. And we decided to see Parc del Laberint d´Horta before the Mirador too because it´s close to the Mirador and also a beautiful place worth seeing.
Street art on our way to Parc del Laberint d´Horta
The road to park was very curvy and went up and down the hill all the time. All the roads in Barcelona are like that, but with the added 30-40 degree heat.. it makes a little 40 minute walk to one of 1.5 hours.
Parc del Laberint d´Horta
"The park is a historical garden in the Horta-Guinardó district in Barcelona and the oldest of its kind in the city of Barcelona. It´s located on the former estate of the Desvalls family, next to the Collserola ridge, the park comprises an 18th-century neoclassical garden and a 19th-century romantic garden." (Wikipedia, 2021) Park is well taken care of and a great destination for tourism if you like walking around and enjoying the nature. There are beautiful old buildings, sculptures, fountains and the garden and a labyrinth.
Laberint d´Horta
The labyrinth is the favourite part for tourists. It seems small, but when you´re actually in it, it takes some time to get out again.
On the second photo I´m at the entrance of the labyrinth
On the first photo I´m standing next to the Egeria´s fountain (which you can´t see😂), and on the second one I´m walking down the stairs to the intermediate terrace which leads straight to the labyrinth.
On our way to Mirador d´Horta
Next stop after the park was Mirador d´Horta. Finally!!!😁😆 To get there we had to walk through some sketchy neigbourhood, but even that was filled with beautiful flowers and bushes. Some houses were old looking and tired, but some were astoundingly beautiful.
At the side of the main road there were some great views
The flowers😍
Arriving at the Mirador🙉🙈
The road leading to the Mirador was awful. Almost all roads in Spain are either uphill or downhill, but manageable. This one was from a different league. It was all dusty, filled with smaller and bigger rocks and very uphill. There was some kind of tramped in road which was followable, but not the greatest. It´s recommendable to wear sneakers or some sporting shoes, because the road is slippery at times and the rise is not the easiest. I climbed up with open toe sandals and it wasn´t the best choice of footwear, but I didn´t know what was I getting myself into😬😄 Also be aware of rolling stones. Somebody was coming down the hill right after me, but a bit further up the hill and I think they slipped because 2 rocks were falling down and I almost got hit by one.
Mirador d´Horta
When we arrived at the top I had to take a minute to breath. The last 20 meters are the worst. I think it´s like 45-50 degree rise or even more and it takes the last bit of energy you have, especially if the sun is going strong the whole day. After resting for a minute I had the joy to look around and just wow.. the view was breathtaking😍 But the main point why I even decided to climb up there was this little swing that´s supposed to be hanging there on the tree (photo down below). Well what wasn´t there was the swing..😬😂 All what was left of it were two ropes hanging in the air. Somebody must´ve broken it, so bye bye to cool photos overlooking the city swinging.
This is the swing what was supposed to be up there
Nevertheless I loved the view, you could see every part of the city and absorb the amount of people living down the hill. It was amazing and frightening at the same time.
The views at Mirador d´Horta are just incredible😍
After the Mirador we climbed back down very slowely. I slipped once and almost fell, but besides that it was an uneventful return to the ground. We took a metro back home and spent the last few hours of the evening chilling on the sofa. My legs were sooo tired and my poor feet hurt really bad. It´s good that I took some patches with me, without those I wouldn´t have managed to walk all 5 hours. It was one day really well spent 😊
My Monday and Tuesday were spent looking at job adverts on LinkedIn and Glassdoor. It´s important for me to find something suitable as soon as possible because that way I can make some use of my knowledge that I gained from uni🎓 There are some good offers actually, but if I want to start with an internship then I should be studying somewhere in a local university. Not all offers have that requirement, but most that I have seen want students. And the other difficult part is the absence of Spanish language certificate. I´ll be getting that hopefully soon when I start my classes in the autumn, but till then I just have to evaluate my skills myself. Not the best option, but can´t trust the tests on the internet either😅
On Wednesday I was supposed to go to gym early in the morning, but I was so tired that I decided to sleep in. Don´t know what was so tiring, but I didn´t have any desire to get up and work out. The whole day I felt a bit off and sad, but don´t really know why😞 On the afternoon Àlex and I decided to visit Park Güell since it´s close to the house, but for our big surprise there was a 10€ entrance fee. We decided not to pay that, so we just walked around the park. I wasn´t too disappointed since I´d already seen the park twice before - once in 2019 and once in 2020 with my friends. But then there was no fee. Everybody could enter when they wanted, you only had to pay extra for the Gaudí house museum.
Just outside of the Park Güell
On Thursday I finally got to go to the beach!!! 🌊 Yaaiiii😆 I was very happy because I absolutely love the color of the sea here and the waves and the sun.. all of it!! 😍 We took a metro to the city center and then a train to Montgat Nord.
The weather was amazing and we wound this perfect little spot between the rocks. Water was cold at first but then I got used to it and it felt amazing.
The beach at Montgat Nord on the left and Vallcarca (home) on the right
After the beach I went to the hair salon once again to get some highlights. I was sat down and then one of the girls came out with the highlight cap. At first I was frightened, because I´d seen some videos online about those caps and those were not the good ones😕 But I decided to give it a try because I fully trusted the hairdresser since she already did such a good job with the cut. I was warned that it´s gonna hurt on top of the head, but I couldn´t imagine how bad was it gonna be. At first when they started to pull strands of hair through the holes it wasn´t bad at all, and I even felt like sleeping. But then when we´d reached the sides of my head.. dios mio😱 It was really bad, especially on the left side up top. On the right side I could manage fine, it was still uncomfortable, but not as bad at all as on the other side. After that they put the color on, washed it off and I ended up with the most natural highlights and blonde hair that I´ve had in years. Job really well done! 😌
Friday started in the gym as usually and after that it was the beach again🌊🌊
The waves and colors are incredible
This time we took some watermelon🍉 and mini sandwiches with us because we were planning to stay maybe 4-5 hours at the beach. In reality we stayed like 3 hours, but with the heath here even that is too much sometimes. Àlex took this cute little blue tent with us so we could rest in the shadows between sunbathing and swimming. Sun was hotter🔥 than the day before and there were no clouds. Perfect for me😁 We were having a lot of fun and enjoying the day when suddenly at one point the waves started growing and before I could understand my towel was soaking wet. We moved the tent a bit further and put the towels to dry on the rocks. After a while the sun felt too much already and we went back home.
On Saturday I got to sleep in and relax before leaving the house for the day😇 We were meeting up with friends of Àlex for some lunch and after that the guys were going to play padel. It´s basically like tennis, but with walls around the court.
Anyway we left Barcelona and drove to another city with Àlex´s friend and his gf. We arrived at one friend´s house and spent some time in the pool, I got to know everybody and practiced my language skills. After that we had lunch and spent some more time talking. I was sitting beside a girl from Brazil and we were talking about the differences and similarities between Estonia, Spain and Brazil. Then it was finally time for me to see padel. We drove to some kind of a school where they had padel courts. The guys started playing and I got to chat with the girls. It was really nice there and I got to try the game too. Throughout the day I felt really welcome and everyone was so nice😊
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