Elizabeth in Barcelona!!!

I went to Barcelona eons ago (November) with my bff Jack<3<3<3 Jack is also a special guest contributor on this post! He provided helpful commentary like, "[this] is a slay blog," "this post is going off," and "the picture content is amazing." Just kidding. Well, he did say all that, but the other quotes included give more insight into our trip. Thanks for your help bestie xoxo.

We had the most amazing time in the world. The reason this post has taken me forever is because I have over 550 pictures from three days because we had so much fun. Shoutout to new Elizabeth in Madrid intern Jack for the majority of the content in this post.

First order of business after I met Jack at the hostel was to go to dinnies.

Then we went back to the hostel, got ready really fast, and left for the Lil Nas X concert. Shoutout to Jason and Carson for giving me their leftover metro passes, we got a lot of trips out of them.

This one is for Claire.

Jack took all these videos and not one of Lost in the Citadel... pain. It's okay though I have it perfectly in my memory.

Anyway the concert was amazing. The production... art. It was also the last concert of the tour, which was really cool.

We saw this hedgehog on the walk back.

We stopped at McDonald's because we were maybe going to go out later, but nowhere was open (it was before midnight) so we had to kill some time. We ended up going back because we couldn't wait that long.

The next day we went to the Sagrada Familia. I remember getting excited on the metro on the way there because I saw an ad for L'Spotify and Jack enthusiastically listened to my TedTalk about why that's phonologically cool, a real one frfr. (Catalan phonology is so cool to me in general.) Also since there's Catalan everywhere we had this running bit about us speaking Catalan together between my Spanish and his French. When we got off at the metro stop I was facing the wrong way and I was like "Well where is it then🤨" And then Jack turned me and I was like "😱"

Anyway, This place is crazy. It was supposed to (finally) be completed in 2026, but that's been pushed back because of the pandemic. You can tell from the color of the building which parts are new and which are older. It's so massive--these pictures cannot capture how huge it is.

I don't understand all the physics of it, but basically these sandbags were used to make an upside down model of the Sagrada Familia to help design it in a structurally sound way with the weight distrubition. Like I said, I don't get it all the way, but very neat. Jack says, "The sand bags work becasue it simulates the weight of gravity and how to create arches so that the weight is easily distributed and it's stronger."

After the Sagrada Familia we walked to Parc Güell. We stopped on the way for drinks and to take this picture of me with this graffiti. Jack says, "The lemon drinks were so yummy but also so lemony and acidic." So true. They were frozen lemonades, and mine ran out of lemonade and was just slush real fast, so we stopped at a colmado and bought a giant bottle of pineapple juice to add to it/drink. It was really good. Thank you chef.

Jack says, "The bathrooms here were in a cave it was cool."

Jack says, "The photo opps by the ledge were so competitive. It was hilarious." So true, we had to wait in line basically to take this selfie and swoop in and sit down so fast.

Jack says, "YESSSS YOU ADDED THE HAIR PICS."

After Parc Güell we just walked around Barcelona more, specifically the Gothic Quarter. (Portal alert.)

We got lunch at 4:30PM. Very Spanish. Also we split a bottle of white wine. Jack suggested that and I was like ??? It sounded way too fancy and grown up. Felt illegal. Also I think I thought bottles of wine were giant. It wasn't. Then we split a bottle of wine at every meal for the rest of the trip<3 Jack says, "One thing about me is I'm going to suggest we split a whole bottle of white wine."

Then we walked around some more, went to the hostel for naptime, and then got dinner at 11PM. So Spanish again + another bottle of white wine. (We had a good laugh because the waiter had Jack try and approve the wine before they gave it to us. As if either of us would know what it's supposed to taste like, or like know anything at all.)

We tried to go out again tonight, lol. We gave it the good college try but then I gave up because we couldn't decide on where to go/get into the few places we tried. Sorry Jack. I was tired, I'm a loser, and we had to get up early the next day because the next day we went to Valencia! Specifically to see the aquarium--it's the largest in Europe. Me and my friends from high school take aquarium road trips all the time back home when we're in town, so this was an obligatory part of the Mermaid Princesses World Tour. The train ride is like three hours, which was kinda wasted, but worth it. We love the aquarium. We almost missed our train there, which would have been devastating, but we made it just in time.

First, a stop at the Starbucks to carb load before the aquarium. Jack says, "Carb loading is so real." So true, Jack will faint if he doesn't carb load pre-aquarium. Jack says, "YES PLEASE MENTION THAT."

Aquarium!!!!!

This is for Liam.

This one is also for Claire.

This one too.

So much content for Claire <3

Liam again.

Message to Mermaid Princesses (and also Liam maybe?)--it's giving Fresca penguin.

Before this trip a bunch of my Madrid friends told me my aura would be orange, which was both offensive and hurtful. They tried to walk it back by saying it'd be a "pretty" orange, which to me is an oxymoron, so I didn't buy it. They were saying it would be like sunset/pastel vibes, not like bright annoying highlight orange, but I just couldn't see it. Then I told Jack about it and expected him to be on my side, but he agreed with my friends. Wasted. But then he said it would be like the pink/orange fish in this tank, and then I made my peace with it. I said Jack's aura fish would be the bright yellow one.

Sparkly aquarium sign.

After the aquarium we got paella before our train back.

Immediately after train naptime.

After the train ride we were hungies. Time for second dinner. (Or maybe paella was late lunch again?)

We needed this🙏

Then it was our final going out attempt. We flopped hard. Jack wanted to go to this club his favorite singer (Arca) always talks about, but it's invite only. We went to a couple bars and the vibes were all bad. We went to our hostel bar, also wasted. Here's us giving up.

Slaying in the hostel bathroom. Jack says, "I'm so obsessed with the hostel bathroom pic it's hilarious." So true. Like I said we took sooo many pictures and so many of them were goofy. It was so much fun to go through them all.

Jack left very early the next morning </3 But my train back wasn't until late at night, so I spent the day just walking around Barca.

Vegan restaurant time.

My train got back super late, so I got Burger King for dinner on the way home.

I just wanted to add this about the Burger King so I could include this photo of Tina staring at me while I ate. She is super old and usually asleep or otherwise laying down, so she usually ignores me, unless I have food.

Anyway we had the best time. It was so much fun. It was definitely the most I've laughed this whole time. Three days of nothing but giggles. Jack I love you so much <3 Jack says, "AWWWW YOUR FINAL SIGN OFF I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ELIZABETH FRRRRRR ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏🙏😭❤️🙏🙏😭😭😘😘🫶🫶😭🙏🙏" Same bestie xoxo.