20.07.21 - 23.08.21

Helloooo😊 so it´s been a while since the last post. This month has been fun and exciting. So much has happened during these weeks, but some things remain as they were. I still haven´t found a job which makes me a bit frustrated, but there´s hope that autumn will bring some new opportunities🤞 The most important thing is that I´m finally registred at the town hall🎉 so it should be all with the paper work for some time I think😅

In the end of the July I went to the screening of The Intouchables at Montjuic castle with Àlex, his friends and their girlfriends. There was this maybe month long event where they were showing different movies; reminded me a lot of TARTUFF which we have back at home. It was really nice, there were comfy beach chairs and different sections to make sure everyone keeps their distance. Also an hour before the movie we had a concert with this cool carribean band. The night went by fast, but I really enjoyed it😌

I got to visit the Barcelona Aquarium and to be honest it made me really sad. There were so many fishes put together in such small tanks... Some aquariums were better, but overall it´s just too little space for so many creatures😢 

We payed 21€, but I´d be willing to pay more if they´d to something about the sizes of the tanks. I understand it might not be easy to find a lot more room and buy more equipment, but it´s still sad. There isn´t a possibility to free these animals neither since they´re not used to living in the wild, but they could have a bit better stay if they had more space. There was this tank with sting rays and there were I think 10 rays swimming in a small oval tank, and all they could do all day was to swim around in a circle😢 And the penguins.. I think they had like 15 of them put together and one was desperately trying to get through the glass😭 Not a positive experience.  

On our way to the aquarium we passed by Port Vell. It looked as busy as usually but still beautiful.

After the aquarium we walked around Barceloneta and got some ice cream😋🍦 It was delicious! Mine was with peppermint and Smurf taste, and Àlex had mango with fruit yoghurt.

We finally signed up for Vall Parc gym in the mountains😁😍 It´s this really cool club where they have padel, tennis, table tennis, gym and swimming pool and all this is accompanied by a beautiful view of the city. The first day we went to the gym only, because there was no sun that day. But on the next day we started out with padel, then went to sunbathe and swam in the pool and finished the day at the gym again. It was just marvellous. Since then we´ve spent many days there and showed the club to our friends too. I really like it there and it´s totally worth the walk uphill for 20-30 minutes😄💪💦

One of these days I got to visit the local emergency room🚑 My knees started to hurt after the visit to the trampoline center previous week. At first my knees hurt all the time, but for 2 days only. And then only when I had to push myself up from the rocks when returning from the beach or when I had to get up from chairs which were on a lower level than my knees. After that the pain disappeared for a while, but suddenly came back and it was worse than before. I couldn´t even walk properly😬😭 So Àlex took me to the ER where I had to explain my condition to 3 different doctors, got x-rays taken of my knees and got to spend 5 hours on the most uncomfortable chair just to be told to eat some pain killers.. At least my knees were fine..ish, and it was calming to know that there´s nothing permanently wrong with me😅🙌

In the beginning of August I had my first visitors!!!!😍😆🎉 My two friends from the hotel where I had my internship 2 years ago came and stayed with Àlex and I at the house. We had sooo much fun and I got to spend some time with people who I actually know and have memories with, and I got to speak some English! That was so refreshing. 

One of my friends showed me this tasty😋🍹 cocktail (on the photo down below), which is totally my new favourite!! It´s called 43.

You´re gonna need 4cl of this Spanish liqueur called 43, some ginger ale Schweppes, one lime and ice. It´s very easy to make and perfect for a hot summer day. Just put everything together and stir a bit and you´re good to go. 👌

My friends and I and Àlex visited our hotel in Pineda de Mar where we worked back in 2019. I was so happy to see everyone there😆😌 A lot has changed since I left, but some of it was still same. The animation team where I worked was totally new, but 3 members still worked at the hotel, but in a different areas. The one part that hadn´t changed was the kitchen..almost all the members were there and it got me feeling happy and sad at the same time. I miss that part of my life sometimes, but then I´m glad to have had all the other experiences since then. Anyway we ended up visiting the hotel twice and on the second day we also visited Calella where we met up with some other friends from hotel and I also got to check out the stores😝😁

A house in Calella and me in my new dress..love it😍

On 10th of August my friends and I visited the botanical garden here in Barcelona. The entrance cost 3,50€ for students and others till age 29 and 7€ for 30+ adults. Besides the botanical garden you can also visit Museu de Ciéncies de Naturals de Barcelona with the same ticket and you have a month to do so.

The botanical garden was quite an experience. On the front gate of the garden they had something written like "more than bees" or so and I wasn´t sure what they meant with that, but when I entered the garden and saw the huge black wasps and other bees then I got it😱😂😬

They were freaking frightening!!😬 But the garden itself was fun and interesting - I loved the layout there. Plants were divided into categories depending on the area where you can find them in the world.

So one minute you´re in Australia and next you can walk to North Africa.

When we were about to finish in the garden I got a phone call.. It was a Spanish number so I already knew that it´s probably one of the jobs where I applied to and I was right. They were interested in me and we agreed to have an interview next morning😁 I was excited and really happy that finally someone decided to call me🎉

After the botanical garden we went to Mercado de la Boqueria where we looked around a bit, had some croquetas and a smoothie😋 Everything tasted great and I had a lot of fun looking around and learning about new different products from all over the world.

It was already noon when we left the market so we decided to have lunch at Plaza Real. We ordered some drinks, more croquetas and patatas brava like always. We had to wait for quite some time since the place was filled with tourists, but the food was good and we had some local entertainment beside the lunch.

On 11th of August I had my first job interview 🙉🙊 I wasn´t nervous at first but then everything kicked in  half an hour before  the interview. Nevertheless  it seemed all fine and I was supposed to have another interview with the department manager, but then I got an email next day saying that I don´t have necessary qualities etc 😞 I was a bit  bummed, but still felt accomplished at the same time, because it was finally a step in the right direction and I was closer to finding something. Hopefully...

One evening Àlex and I visited his little nephews and we took them to La Granja Zoo Infantil. They had goats, sheep, chicken, dogs, rabbits and other animals there.

My favourite were the peacocks😍😍 who were walking around everywhere along the visitors.

Kids could feed the animals and after that go up the mountain for joyrides in the attraction park. We had a lot of fun!

Next day my friend and I wanted to go to the beach, but then felt lazy and decided to use the jacuzzi on the balcony instead. We filled it with colorful sea balls and made some pina coladas🍹

It was a lot of fun till a wasp decided to come join us every time when one of us entered the jacuzzi. I don´t know if it liked the sound of water moving or what was it, but the wasp left right after we came out of the jacuzzi and returned when we entered. It was really weird. 

Same day in the evening I went out with Àlex and his friends. We visited some stores, had dinner and got to try this extremely sweet doughnut filled with chocolate from a store called Demasie🍩🍪

The bun/doughnut was good, but after 2 bites it got too sweet for me..and I love sweets😂

On the 15th Àlex and I had lunch with his family and spent the day with his nephews. We went swimming in the pool and watched Moana which was oddly called Vaiana here. As I learned later on it has something to do with a brand with the same name in Europe so they changed the name Moana for Vaiana in all of Europe.

Next day I got up early to hit the town with my friend. When I got back I saw that my TSI (tarjeta sanitária individual/public health card) had finally arrived🎉 and Àlex managed to get me an appointment for the next day for the vaccine. After I got changed I went to Vall Parc with Àlex and his parents. It was really hot that day so I spent most of my time in the pool, but we had to leave at 14.30 since the club had to disinfect the poolside. Àlex stayed at the club and I went back home with his parents and had some sushi together😋😋 In the evening my friend, Àlex and I decided to visit the Fiestas de Gracia. It´s this really cool party/parties in the street in Gracia area. Some streets in that part of the town are decorated by the locals living there and everybody else can come visit and look at their masterpieces.

People who have to decorate the streets might get some financial help from the city as Àlex said since it doesn´t look cheap, but I´m not sure. Only some streets are decorated and they have a map online where you can find the streets. Everybody can visit the streets and the best one is supposed to get a prize. 

There are some streets that are really simple and then others which just blow your mind!😻 My favourite one was the one where they had all months lined up on the same street and you could walk from January to December and see all the important events of each month.💥🐉🎄

You won´t know the exact name of the theme, but you can guess it most of the time.

Some streets are just to be walked through and others have bars and concerts so you can spend some time there. 

Besides the Fiestas de Gracia they had a fair for the children close to the city center. We visited it real quick and got some candies and had to get back after that because of the curfew.

On Thursday Àlex took me to a sushi restaurant called Kyoka🍣 It was a really nice place and I got to dress up a little bit👸

The food was absolutely delicious, the service was fast and prices reasonable. We´re already thinking about returning😆😋 We arrived maybe 20.20 and it was still quiet at the restaurant, maybe 5 tables or so had clients and then in 10-15 minutes it was packing😱 It might be advisable to reserve a table when you wanna eat there in the evening. Would definitely recommend the place!

Next day we spent most of the day helping Àlex´s mother with some shopping and packing and other stuff. And in the evening we visited the streets of Gracia again, but with Àlex´s friends this time. We also went to the fair and decided to take part of the activities and attractions. We all got 2 tickets for the autodrom with colorful electric bumper cars😁 Everybody had to have their own car since we were a bit too big for the cars😄 It was so funny and brought back some great childhood memories of me visiting Vembu-Tembumaa. After that we bought cotton candy and took some pictures with it🍭

Sadly it was so warm outside that by the time we were finished with the pictures there wasn´t much left of the cotton candy😂😳it had just melted and I had it on my hands and skirt and on my shirt as I found out later😬😄The pieces had just flown around and got stuck everywhere. 

We decided to find a bar for some tapas and had fun listening to the concert right beside our restaurant. Later that night I learned that there was no curfew anymore so we had some drinks and met up with more people. It was really fun.

On Sunday the 22nd we had brunch with Àlex´s friends and walked around the city.

We had some more food later at Plaza Real and some ice cream from Rocambolesc. It´s THE place for ice cream when visiting Barcelona (or Girona)!😋😋😋

In the evening when we got back home I had the chance to check out my new UV lamp which I ordered online.

There were 10 different nail polishes and some other useful stuff for nail art. I got to try it and to be honest I´m thrilled with the results😍💅

That´s it for now. Next post will probably be uploaded in the end of September💪  

See you soon😊