Barcelona Day Four: I'm in a musical.

*** Again I am so sorry that it's been such a long time since I did my last post. I was in a good routine of posting every other day prior to my trip to Barca, now I'm getting swamped with work and just about everything else. Big kick up the bum to get back on track. Okay, back to business***

This morning I came down for breakfast, no surprise, without a sight of my Bristol lads. Considering the rather unimaginable amount of alcohol consumed the night before I wasn't particularly surprised. I can't claim to have felt all that amazing myself. But with it being my penultimate day in Barcelona, I dragged myself out of bed to make the most of it. Also it was a Sunday and I promised myself I would go to church.

I came down to find my lovely American friend Mike at breakfast, my room mate David and one of Mike's friends (this is the problem with writing this so late, I can't remember his name!). We had a good chat about all sorts, including our experiences of Barcelona and the various reactions we had received from everyone we met about where each of us was from. I barely managed to eat properly due to the horrendous hangover, and even tried to drink some tea but that was truly yuck. Sorry Spain, but your tea is totally pants. Lesson learnt, when travelling bring your own teabags.

Mike and I took off on a solo-adventure after breakfast to find some random dancers in a town square. With little more than a tip from a friend of Mike's that there would be dancing at this address, this time and that we would love it, we wondered through the streets with little idea of what we would find. We stumbled across the detailed town square, but there wasn't anything going on. We wondered around the area for a while, but next to everything was closed. It was around 11am to 12 lunchtime, and although we had heard of Siesta's, I was yet to see anything closed for it yet. Granted it was Sunday, but even in England most places tend to be open between 10am-4pm.

Anyway, disappointed from that we went to seek ice cream, as finding Gelato in Barcelona was on my to-do list. Despite having passed literally hundreds of ice cream places in the past 3 days, once actually in search of one it was near impossible to find a bakery or ice cream store anywhere. The only place we could find that was open within a couple of blocks was McDonalds, and even that was like a ghost town. We hung out there for a bit while Mike connected to the wi-fi (or wii fee as pronounced in Spain) to double check the time and address of the dancing, then headed back to check again.

Upon arriving back at the original address, it was a totally different scene. It felt just like walking into a musical, with American jazz music playing loud and everyone swing dancing in time with each other! The experience was surreal and Mike and I couldn't keep the smiles off our faces. Mike talked a young Spanish girl into teaching him a few steps, while I filmed and took many snaps. I restrained from learning, with my lack of rhythm I didn't have enough time left in Barca to learn the steps, but it has certainly inspired me to take up swing dancing back in the UK.

While waiting for Mike's friend to turn up a super terrifying drunk guy from another country (not to be given enough detail to identify here) came up to half threaten, and half befriend us in a very "I want to kill you and eat your insides" kind of scary way. After that, we made a pretty speedy escape. We discussed the Walking Dead some more and our zombie apocalypse plans. Once back at the hostel, I found the lads semi comatose on the bean bags in the hostel, and seeing as they claimed to not want to move for the rest of the day, left them there.

I went back to my room to take a nap and just generally relax for a while before we headed out for church that evening. I didn't end up taking the nap after all, as a lovely new arrival checked in. This is where I met the very sweet Dario from Argentina. We talked for literally three hours about just about everything (even with his TV learnt English and my complete lack of any other language) and I have to say he made a huge impact on my trip even having arrived so late just for being the most adorable person I met on my travels. Later in the afternoon, another newbie arrived from America (I'm really sorry I've forgotten your name!) and she seemed to settle in well too.

I suddenly realised that after spending so much time chatting with Dario, I may have missed the boys boarding for their flight. I rand downstairs, searching frantically for them, and fortunately managed to catch them. I said a brief but very sad goodbye to all my friends, taking comfort in the fact that aren't too far to ever see again! I got changed into something a little warmer as the temperature was now starting to drop, and even with Mike coming to collect me we ended up running late to church.

We power walked pretty much the whole way there, giving us a quick chance to talk more about our faith and how it came about for each of us, and what it actually meant for us as both rather modern Christians. When I got there, I realised I really didn't know much about this church we were going to, other than it was known for it's music. So I was expecting a lot of hymns, which is great for me as I love singing. What I discovered when I went inside was very different. Not only was it all young people, but there was stage with strobe lights and a projector with lyrics to sing along on top of some funky moving backgrounds that were almost rave worthy. This was Hillsong.

The music started and I have to say it was the craziest experience of worship I have ever known. Everyone was dancing with their arms in the air, some of the music was almost dubsteppy, and there were tons of live musicians on the stage. In the quieter, more toned down moments, there was no doubting it was church as the music slowed and everyone held their hands up and whispered prayers. It felt like nothing I had experienced before, a level of passion and belief that was so alive and inspiring that it made my heart feel swelled. Even I could fully believe there, with all the new incredible things I had been allowed to experience on this trip, that I was in the right place at the right time. The performers were truly amazing and the church showed some great talent that night. The preacher was probably the strangest I had ever seen in skinny jeans and a hoodie, but also the most passionate. This man had faith pouring out of his veins, and even though I was listening to a translation, most of which I couldn't even understand anyway, I felt so inspired by his love for God.

From left to right, my room mate David, me, my lovely American Mike and my room mate Andre :)

That night, we returned to find the hostel the emptiest we had seen it yet, with maybe 3 or 4 guests and the staff hanging out. We decided to gather up the last of our food and wine, collect all the bean bags and plug in to Mike's laptop to catch up on the Walking Dead. It took a few trips back and forth to our rooms to collect everything, and a lot of luck with finding somewhere online to watch it, but we got there in the end! It may not have been an exhilarating last night, and I may not have made it out on the town in Barcelona at all, but I wouldn't have traded that cosy evening in with my lovely new friend for the world. We said an emotional goodbye that night, as Mike was leaving very early in the morning, and I went to bed with a smile, especially as even though it was late, Dario was still sat in bed reading when I went back to my room! Cheers bud, you made me smile just after saying goodbye to my friend!

And so, I have only one day left of the most life-changing trip I have yet experienced.

Puddy <3

P.S Found another Barcelona collectable!

Better late than never....

**Running a little late, but I'm going to write these travel blogs day by day as if I am experiencing them now, as so much happened I don't want to cram it all into one post, I want to share it all!! Internet was an issue while travelling, especially as I didn't have a laptop or tablet or anything to take, so it was either shared computer or phone, and neither of those felt like blogging material. Lesson learned, for future travels buy a new laptop. Anyway, more on that later...**

London is an awesome place, but I could never live there. As someone who spends her whole life being late, or in a hurry, or stressed because I have forgotten something, I know how much it sucks to be on the go 24/7. And yet people in London seem to have that times 10. Everything seems to run in a way that makes these little stresses so much more likely to occur. Trains get delayed, there is always traffic, everywhere is busy, people are rude. As a tourist, London is beautiful. But man if I had to live there every day I'd be arrested for assault (at minimum) in no time at all.

So the trip was originally planned as a surprise for my mums birthday, but due to some unforeseen family circumstances it had to be delayed. Better late than never, nearly a whole month after her birthday we made it into London, with a plan to see as much as possible before the main aim of the trip: to take my mummy to see Les Miserables for the first time in ten years. As a little background for you, my mum has been saying how much she would love to get back to see the show for as long as I can remember, but has never been one for spending money on herself. This year with my first sign of financial stability, I decided it was time to set that right.

We started the day pretty chill in our pj's, working out which tube stations we needed for each attraction, whether it was easier to drive or train there, and where we wanted to go. We "popped in" to the local shops to run a few errands for my looming trip to Barcelona because, as per usual with me, I had left everything to the last minute. That ended up taking a lot more time than we originally planned, and we ended up rushing to a local restaurant for a budget lunch before hitting the city. We sped down to the train station in my little yellow bumble bee car and had to run across the bridge to make it for the train, with me puffing on my inhaler the whole way. We made it by minutes, just ordering all our complicated tickets in time, and headed to the main station in our area. We changed over in Reading, and had to run the through the old station, sprint to the nearest guard to ask which platform we needed, then run all the way through the new part of the station, right down to the platform just to miss our train by about 30 seconds.

After watching our train pull away without us, we had some time to stand on the platform and catch our breath (which for me sounds like much like a seal dying, slowly). We did end up getting on a rather swish train in the end though so it worked out for the best. Before we knew it we were in London, and mum was getting her first experience in many years of the tube, with my complete guidance as she followed looking very bemused. She was pretty nervous at the speed and noise of the trains, but I have to say she was way more chill than I was expecting! We beelined straight for the theatre box office and collected our tickets so that we could relax the rest of the day safe in the knowledge that we were ready to attend.

The next stop for us was of course the famous Oxford Street. We wanted to check out the super sized versions of many of our favourite shops, but mainly I'll be honest, we were there for the giant Primark. We swung in a couple of places, including HMV as "This is the End" was finally released (if you haven't seen this already I highly recommend it) and Miss Selfridge where I found the most beautiful dress ever with a hefty price tag of £100. Needless to say, I came home without it. If you're in the area, I would definitely recommend dropping into Miss Selfridge at the moment, as not only do they currently have a great selection  of party dresses, but many have a stunning and detailed vintage design, some 20s Downtown Abbey style, some flapper dresses and some big 50s style, but all uniquely gorgeous (and expensive! Be warned). We also swung into the Disney Store because the Oxford street is awesome and has many photo opportunities. That and I'm a big Disney fangirl, deal with it.

We trekked for hours down this street (literally, we had to stop at John Lewis for some tea and everything) taking in the sights in search of Primark. We even stumbled across Selfridges with it's world famous window designs, and had to get a few snaps of that. However I must say I was way more impressed with John Lewis's creative animal designs and took many a picture of those. Anyway, we finally made it to Primark but were already knackered, it was packed as office hours had finished, and we were running out of time so it was kind of a hurried trip. I still managed to find a few gems though. Maybe in a week or so I will show you some of my recent winter and work wardrobe purchases ;)

We stopped off at John Lewis again for another pot of tea, and to rest our little legs quickly before realising that, you guessed it, we were going to be late for the theatre if we didn't move like now. We again had to run the whole way to the tube station, barely made the train, then had to run from the station to the theatre itself. We made it with minutes to spare and dropped off our huge shopping bags in the cloakroom. Thank god we did. We had front row centre seats in the dress circle (expensive but very worth it, best view in the house and the actors feel within touching distance) and I'm sure we both remembered these seats having more leg room. After a frantic day, we had been looking forward to lying right back in our seats to relax, but it was similar to the leg room on a plane (good practise for me I guess!). If you do book these seats, I advice to travel light or like us drop your shopping in the cloakroom, it's only £1 per item.

The view was spectacular and the show blew us both away, even though it was our 3rd time each. The actors that played Valjean (Daniel Koek) and Fantine (Na-Young Jeon) this season were incredible, I think the best we've ever actually seen. We laughed, we cried and we applaused until our arms hurt. We haven't stopped singing the songs or raving about the show since.

Anyway, I had a fantastic time with my mum. I was a little gutted we ran out of time to go to Camden, as I wanted her to experience the awesomeness that is the Camden food court, and would have loved to shock her with the characters that fill the area haha! I guess there's always next time ;)

Moral of the trip: things may not always go to plan, but sometimes life has a more memorable experience in mind for you.

Puddy <3