The weather today was absolutely dreary. The skies were gloomy and the rain was pouring- which is exactly how UK weather is like zzz. Our mood for the remaining time we had in Madrid was certainly dampened (literally).
After getting some breakfast at a cafe down the street, we walked to Gran Vía to do some last minute shopping. Adreena got a bomber jacket from Stradivarius while Ailin and I both got tops from Primark. For some reason, we were all really low on energy, so we decided to get ourselves some llao llao at Sol. I swear, we were the only crazy people eating llao llao on such a cold and rainy day HAHA. 
Since we had to catch the train to Barcelona in the afternoon, we headed to La Mallorquina to dabao some pastries for lunch. It was touted to be the best pastry shop in the whole of Madrid, and it certainly did not disappoint!
The rest of the afternoon was a mad rush, because we had to go back to our apartment, pack our bags then take a 30minute walk to Madrid Atocha Railway Station. The walk there was pretty interesting, as we had not explored that part of Madrid before. The ony downside was how stressful it was navigating around the train station, partly because we weren’t sure if the building we were looking at was actually the train station, coupled with the fact that the language barrier made it difficult for us to read the signs. (Thank god for Corinne 💕) 
Thankfully, we managed to make it to our seats on time and the 2.5hour train ride gave us plenty of time to rest before we embarked on the next leg of our journey.
When we first reached Barcelona, I got confused between the Metro and the Urban Rail so we wasted €2.15 each (I’M SO SORRY GUYS 😩). But anyway we managed to get to our hostel successfully so all is well. The only thing is that we thought Barcelona would be much warmer, but as it turns out, it feels about the same as Madrid, probably because of the rain and all. Ohwell, hopefully we’ll be able to do away with our sweaters tomorrow. The neighbourhood around our hostel seems pretty nice though. When we first went out, people of all walks of life were milling around the park nearby- there were people cycling, playing games or simply taking evening walks.
There was quite a distance between our hostel and our first planned destination in Barcelona, so we took our time walking around, taking in the street views of the city. Honestly, Barcelona looks so much better than Madrid and the overall vibes are much better as well.
We were going to have dinner, but there was literally a gelato store on every street so Adreena and I couldn’t resist getting a cone each hehe. 
For dinner, we went to try this place called Lonja de Tapas and the food tasted so good. It was a very satisfying meal. 
Finally the highlight of the night- Las Ramblas. This street essentially comprised a whole range of Spanish restaurants, Gelato shops, artists doing sketches as well as the illegal street vendors that we saw in Madrid. The night life was pretty active and it was fun taking in all the sights around us while walking down the street. It was so funny when some waiters tried to get us to dine at their restaurants by greeting us in Chinese- or at least their attempt at it HAHA. I think they were trying to say 你好 but it all came out sounding like “meow”- I wanted to laugh so bad omg. Just thinking about them meowing at us cracks me up. 
On the 2 sides of Las Ramblas are actually rows and rows of shops, bars, restaurants and nightclubs. At one end, there was a gigantic H&M store. However, with only 30 minutes to closing, we could only take a cursory glance at the products. But this was sufficient in enticing all of us to come back tomorrow to buy their clothes because it looked so much better than what Madrid had to offer. And this is only H&M, I can’t imagine how the other clothing stores are going to be like.
On the way back, we felt fine walking back since there were still people walking around and we did stick to the main roads. But at the park near our hostel, this guy came up to Corinne and I and started speaking to us in Spanish. We were all super freaked out because we thought he was some pervert that wanted to chat us up. But as it turned out, he was just telling me that my metro card was sticking out of my back pocket 😅. I feel so bad mistaking him as a bad guy when he was so helpful.
Anyway, this wraps up our first night in Barcelona. It seems really great thus far, so we just need the weather to be nice and sunny over the next few days for us to make the most of what this charming city has to offer.
adventuresofxmm 