Barcelona, Spain

This would be my second last post on my Europe trip and the continuation would be PARIS!
Second last post, but Barcelona is definitely one eventful trip! I cant really believe that it actually happened to us within the three days we were there. So, the three of us, Me, Gent, n Zarina took a midnight bus from Nice, France to Barcelona. The journey took around 6-7 hours from Nice to Barcelona Sants.
We reached Barcelona with heavy rain greeted us that morning. One thing I don’t understand is that, what were in our mind, travelling around (supposedly in a backpacking style) for three weeks without  an umbrella in our hand??? NONE brought one. (somehow, I felt so ridiculous thinking of that)
So, from the bus station, based on directions we prepared according to Google maps in hand, we made our way to the subway, stopped 3 stations after from the bus station, and got out from the subway, to find the right bus stop that could take us to the hotel. We walked through the rain, covering ourselves with the shawl/scarves we had. We waited for almost an hour for the bus that can bring us straight to the hotel in cold, and shivering, but to no avail, the bus didn’t come! GRrrrrr. So, we decided to take the taxi, fear that we might wait at the wrong stop or the bus stopped operation or whatnot. When we manage to get a cab, you guessed what? The bus we waited for CAME BY!! pffft.
It took around 20 minutes to get to the hotel by cab, which cost us 20 euro. We reached the hotel soaking wet! >.< Since we arrived before check in time, we have to wait for another half an hour, in wet clothes, messy hair, and miserable face at the lobby. But when we got to the room,… ahhhhhhhh.. heaven! Haha.. mind you, we have been staying at hostels, friend’s place and not so proper hotel along the trip, and we were actually anticipating this hotel room, because it really is nice and cosy! After being wet for almost 2 hours or so I just want to sleep when we got to our room! haha


overlooking the pool, and with HUGE bathroom. haha
So, we laze around, trying to regain our energy, clean ourselves, had some coffee.. Then we opt to go out the nearest shopping mall when the rain stopped raining, to get our tummy filled and check out what stores in Spain got to offer us. The store located around 5 minutes walk from the hotel, and while we were trying to cross the road to the mall, we were stopped by two man clad in suit in a car. The driver showed us his ID, saying that they were police.
so called police : Where are you from?
Us: Malaysia
so called police : People from your country bring pistol. We  need to check. Show me your passport!
We gave him our passport,  and  God knows for what reasons, he sniffed our passport. =.=” then he gave us our passport back.
so called police : Show me your bag!
And, me for being scaredy cat, I showed him my handbag. I thank God, we do still have our sane mind, i kept my one of my purse (i brought two wallet in this trip, my Malaysia’s wallet and Japan’s wallet) and my passport with me. The police took our purse, and searched around purse. He searched mine, and gave me back my purse, then continued on Gent’s and Zarina’s. Took out any notes he found and gave back or purse.  Since we were using cash passport we don't bring around a lot of cash. Instead, we debited our money into that card, and withdraw our money to be used at that place when we reached the destination. (If you are travelling for a long period of time, I definitely recommend you to use this card)  So, back to the story, we don't have a large amount of money in our wallet. And I think the so called police were unsatisfied.
so called police: Where is your money?
Us:  We don't bring a lot of money.
so called police: Show me your money! Why do you have these money? (showing different kind of notes that Gent had in her wallet, because she collects foreign currency notes. He took out the notes, and baffled)
so called police: what is that? show me that! (pointing to Zarina’s camera)
Zarina, opposed, and hid her camera. And at that moment, there was a woman on a bike, stopped next to the car, and was trying to give us signals, and there was also a car stopped at the back of the police car, and honking, because the so called police was blocking the road. Zarina, being so brave, she snatched back the notes that man took, and the man, being panicked I guess, fled off from the scene.
OMG. we were so dumbstrucked, dumbfounded by the incident!! We took off from the scene straight into the mall, in shocked. Zarina almost broke down, and we were in a traumatized condition I must say. We went into the mall, with no spirit of shopping whatsoever at that time. What we want was to sit down and recover. Suddenly, you feel like, we are in alienated place, no one can be trusted kind of situation. >.< So we went to McDonalds and try to get back to reality. Definitely, lost of appetite at that time. Plan to go out and have fun on that day was cancelled, and we decided to just go around the mall, and stay in at the hotel for that day.
PHEWWW~!
So, the next day, we got the courage to go out and finally enjoy Barcelona city. We went back to the central of Barcelona, and being traumatized of walking alone, we settled for a hop on hop off tour, to save money on transport, and time. Among the places we visited was Sigrid de Familiar, Place de Cataluña, World Trade Centre, Port Olympic and Barcelona Football Club.

Another dumb event happened to us was, we wanted to go shopping on that day, at this shopping complex in Poblenou. But the thing is, the green line of the hop on hop off bus was not open when we were visiting. SO, in the spirit of shopping and sale, we made our way to Poblenou by foot! We passed across some of the Barcelona neighbourhood, and it was somewhat scary. with people whistling, and all.. sigh, we never learnt!! >.< And when we got to the destination, we were frustrated because the entire mall was closed!! the only outlet that was opened was food outlet! We just had to peep into the store glass, and see the sale sign all over. After having subway for lunch, we head back to the town, this time by metro.
We continued on out hop on hop off bus tour, and stop at the central of Barcelona, to try our luck in shopping, because we thought, “oh maybe, that’s why they don’t operate the green line, the shops are closed’. BUT, the thing is, it was SUNDAY!!!! Almost all shopping outlet are closed on Sunday! ARGHHHHH~
Lucky thing Hard Rock Cafe was still opened! hihi.. And the sales boy talked to me in Spanish thinking I’m a local.   -kill me for being a narcissist, I don't care! it happened so many times while we were on the trip! haha-


Then we finished our tour with a visit at the Barcelona Club Shop at the metro station and head back to the hotel. Did our packing, for the flight to PARIS! haha
Barcelona really did gave us super duper cool memories and lesson to learn!
till then!

pics credit to zarina