I am here! FINALLY!!!

It was a long 12 hours flight from San Francisco to Barcelona. I made it even worse by went to the airport earlier because I thought the Iberia ticket counter would be open so I could dropped off my luggage. WRONG! They are not open until 4:50 pm. So if you are flying out of San Francisco with Iberia, make a note that they don’t open their ticket counter until that time.

The flight was long. Iberia was operated by Level and I just found out that they are an international budget airline. I feel it’s similar to Spirit Airlines in USA. They charge you for everything, from drinks, snacks, food, blanket, headphone, and I am surprised they don’t charge us to use the restroom. During the whole flight, no one offered me water. Also for meals, you will need to pre purchase because they didn’t ask me if I wanted to purchase any meal. What’s interesting, I didn’t see that option when I was on their site checking on status of my flight. The good thing was no one next to me during the whole flight. So I could stretch a little bit. It was still uncomfortable but tolerable.

When we arrived in Barcelona, they had to transported us from the plane to the airport by buses. That took another 15 minutes. Custom was easy breezy, however getting our luggage was taking forever. After I got my luggage, I went to the area where my prepaid pickup airport transfer picked me up. Then waited another 15 minutes for him to drove the car to where I was waiting at. Overall, by the time I go to Hotel Colon it was 7 pm. It took two hours.

By the time I got to the hotel, I was exhausted, sticky and hungry. I haven’t eaten for 16 hours by that time. I took a shower, changed my clothes, and went out to find food. The time difference was very interesting to me. I pretty much lost half a day. I had some salmon tartare with bread with tomatoes at the hotel restaurant. They were delicious and I was pretty famished.

The hotel room was nice. Bed was firm but comfortable. I preferred firmer mattress anyway. They have this amazing shower head with great pressure. The rate of this hotel is about $190 euro per night. I booked two nights for free! Thanks to my Chase Preferred Credit card. They had a great sign up bonus when I signed up for the card. When I spent $3000 in three months (I charged everything on the card and pay them right away), I received 60,000 bonus miles. I used those miles for my flight ticket to Barcelona & two nights at Hotel Colon (still there’s leftover miles in my account). If you want to get your free trip to anywhere in the world, click this link to sign up https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6c/5R7V1XX5IG

I slept for about 5 hours that night. The next day I decided to go to Mercado de la Boqueria which is the most famous market in Barcelona. It was about 9 minutes walk from the hotel through the Gothic quarter.

They have so many yummy things at that market. You can find everything from fresh fruits, fish, meat, jamon,warm food, juices, spices, and even gummy candy. The market was pretty bustling and all patrons need to wear face masks. If you didn’t wear your face masks, a cop would stop you and told you to put them on. It’s a surprise to me that people complied, not like in USA where some people would screaming about their freedom rights are being violated.

The market was fun but it was a bit overwhelming as well with so many choices there. Some vendors sold the same things and competing in prices. If you want to make purchases, I recommend for you to take a walk a couple loops to see all the options and prices.

After I went to the market, I explore more of Gothic quarter which is my favorite area in Barcelona so far. I will make a separate post of that area! So far, I am still adjusting to everything. It’s a bit culture shock mostly language barrier (thank you Google translate), feeling overwhelmed, and also yesterday I felt a little homesick. I am trying to just live in the moment and not to be so anxious about everything (damn anxiety!). I am definitely grateful with this opportunity and the privilege that I have.