Barcelona: Accommodations

I started my search for affordable accommodations as soon as I decided I wanted to go to Barcelona... Actually, no, I first considered Paris, and started looking for accommodations there. Prices in Paris are pretty steep (for me, anyways), even for February, so after having searched in vain for affordable accommodations in central Paris, I was pleasantly surprised how much of it is available in Barcelona (and I'm talking walking-distance-touristy part of Barcelona).

The options are plenty - hotels, hostels, inns, condos and so on. Of course, something like a condo might cost $400-500 per night; however, it often accommodates 6+ people, so you're looking at playing max $100 per night, if you travel in a group.

I read reviews, consulted various websites for deals, and eventually ended booking though Expedia.ca, which gave me an option to pay at the hotel (and the ability to cancel 24 hours prior). I ended up choosing Hotel Jazz, a slick and modern hotel just steps away from La Rambla, a busy tourist street, and almost everything else that you'd want to see here. Although this hotel is ranked as 3 stars, I personally feel that is a 3.5 :))) (they could probably make it a 4-star hotel, if they spent a bit of money and gave it a facelift). But we found our room to be comfortable and larger than expected! Even the beds were listed as "single" were wider that one would expect. And the hotel's location is just PRIMO!

Barcelona Aquarium (L’Aquàrium de Barcelona)

So... I'm back! I won't bore you with the details of where I've been for the past 3+ months; as usual, I have too many grand plans, but little time.

Last week something happened that is actually worth sharing: I traveled to the beautiful Barcelona, Spain!!!
I spent 7 nights there and that definitely was NOT enough...

Let me share some highlights with you - up first, L’Aquàrium de Barcelona (Barcelona Aquarium). This place is great (this is my third aquarium) - cost: only €20. I say "only" because it's totally worth it given what it offers. First, its Oceanarium is unique in Europe and is its largest aquarium.

Here are its parameters:

Can you imagine - it holds 4,500,000 litres of water!

My sister and I were able to take our time and set our camera for a nice shot

Evening at the ballet

Those of you that have seen my list know that an outing to the ballet has made it on. However, it's been such a long time that I didn't even know where to start, whom to ask for company, etc. partly because we don't have a dedicated Opera & Ballet Theatre here, but mostly because it HAS been too long.

Then my sister told me that she got tickets for my mom and I to go to the ballet while I visited them in Minsk. I was stoked! I've always loved that theatre and going there with my mom, just the two of us, would be nice; that too we haven't done in a long while.

The ballet was called Бахчисарайский фонтан (English: The Fountain of Bakhchisarai) based on a poem by the same name written by A. Pushkin. The stage decorations, the costumes, the dancers - everything looked beautiful and well put together. It wasn't your typical classical "Swan Lake" sort of a ballet, it was full of colours and movement; I enjoyed the costumes being non-traditional, it was refreshing. This made me wanting to get back to seeing ballet more often (gotta check out what we have at NAC). Let me know if you're interested in joining me!

Here are just a few shots of what we enjoyed for 2.5 hours :)
(there is a LOT more to see)

National  Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet of the Republic of Belarus

North Pole, the New York state's edition :)

So to continue with some more of our trip to Lake Placid, NY... On our way to the Whiteface Mountain we passed a sight pointing to "North Pole". I immediately told hubby that will be our next stop after going up & down the mountain. After a bit of reluctance, he agreed.

(click on images to enlarge)

Welcome to the North Pole!
(one of many around the world)

Only a short ride away, we drove up to the parking lot of Santa's Workshop. I gotta admit, it's a bit weird to  be there surrounded by "elves" wearing Christmas hats when it's +20C outside and you're wearing sandals! :) To be honest, I forget how much our admission was, but our under-2 toddler was free-of-charge (which is funny, considering that most of the things inside are focused on entertaining children).

Our trip to Lake Placid, NY - Whiteface Mountain

There are tons of activities at Lake Placid as this is, afterall, a tourist village. The town itself seems fairly small; it feels like it was built specifically to serve the needs of athletes/tourists and be the Olympic village (who knows, maybe it was, I didn't ask). Actually, let me back up a step...

According to Wikipedia, Lake Placid, NY was founded in the early 19th century to help with operations of iron ore mining. A man by the name of Melvil Dewey founded a social & recreation club there (on Mirror Lake) in 1895, which drew rich & famous to the area. The Lake Placid Club was the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee for the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Many of the Olympic facilities are still in operation and offer unforgettable experiences for visitors (of course, some activities are rather $$$). There are also a number of sporting events and other festivals that take place every year.

Some people find it a bit weird that the village is called Lake Placid considering it's mostly on Mirror Lake...

But I digressed... First thing's first!

Our trip to Lake Placid, NY - Our Hotel

As promised, I'm going to tell you a little bit about our trip to Lake Placid, NY that we took over the long weekend of Labour Day!

We started out on the high: things were packed in advance and we actually left on, if not before, the time tha we were planning. The drive was smooth until we merged onto the Hwy 417 and stopped... for an hour and a half!... because some dummy rear-ended an OPP cruiser pulled over on the shoulder. Anyways, apparently there were no fatalities and after a long-ish detour we were back on course to the Canada-US border.

We eventually got to our hotel, tired and hungry, at around 5 pm. Let me tell you, the hotel was beautiful!!!

We stayed at Crowne Plaza Resort & Golf Club on top of the hill. Yes, it's pricier than other places in town (there are TONS of places at Lake Placid) - 2 nights here would've paid for 3 nights somewhere else - but we thought it was worth it!

Let me share some photos of this place:

The Great Room

Mini stay-cation

Last weekend we were camping at Ivy Lea Campground at a Thousand Islands. What a beautiful place it is (not necessarily the campground itself, but rather the area it is in)! On our second day there we decided to be tourists for a day and go on one of those day cruises (well, 5.5 hours actually) and visit the Boldt Castle as well. What I didn’t realize, of course, is that this castle is located in the state of New York! Thankfully, I thought ahead and brought our Canadian passports as everyone getting off the boat at the island is required to go through passport control.

Let me tell you a little bit about our trip…

Progress Report: #10 on my 101 List

So you've read about my dipping my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. That, of course, was part of our week-long visit to the beautiful (and windy) Nova Scotia. It was lovely there!

As usual, I took so many photographs that picking a few favourites was tough...

Here is one :)

Cheers,

Progress Report: #1 on my 101 List

So here we go! Lets get on with my list!!!

Here it is - thing #1 on my list... It was cold and it was awesome!!! But I have to say, I enjoyed it, he-he. Mainly because despite the water temperature, the sun was shining and the sand was warm, so I even walked around the beach barefoot!

Here's proof:

@ Fisherman's Cove in beautiful Nova Scotia

Cheers,

Jamaica - Bob Marley Mausoleum

Alright, moving on to my adventure outside the resort #2... The Bob Marley Mausoleum. To tell you the truth, I'm not a huge fan or anything; I've heard his songs and kind of knew what Bob Marley was about. So why did I go on this excursion, you ask? Well, you know "when is Rome"! :)

Anyways, this was something about local culture, and is a BIG deal for the Jamaican people. I personally liked this one - it costs US$88 and included transportation there and back, the tour itself (local guide, not the one you ride with), and a nice lunch.

WARNING: Die-hard fans might be disappointed in this tour... although you'll learn a bit about Bob, you won't be given his full biography, so the main thing to remember is to go on this excursion with an open mind! :)

Through the hills and valleys, and after about a 2-hour bus ride (air-conditioned, thank God!) we arrived at Nine Mile village in the parish of Saint Ann (post on Jamaican countryside is coming!!!). The people here are welcoming and, as promised by other reviewers of this place, you'll see THE GUY selling THE STUFF... This is what they'll tell you: "You can smoke it there. If you can't smoke it, you can eat it. If you can't eat it, you can drink it. We take care of everybody!"

... that's where they unload the busloads of tourists. I gotta say, some of the people look like they got on the wrong bus! LOL! But then again, you just never know.

This is supposed to be 18+ tour... I don't know, that kid in the corner eating a chocolate cake spiked with weed does not look 18 to me. I hope his dad (who I'm assuming is the guy next to him, also eating) knows what he's doing...

I personally didn't want to spend any money on that, but it's apparent how popular this "vendor" is!

Although you'll be going uphill, it's really not necessary to wear running shoes to this excursion, especially since you'll be taking your shoes off up ahead.

I do recommend going up the stairs while the others are still indulging. You'll be able to take some nice photos and just take in the scenery, it really is beautiful.

Stairs do not have ANY railing, so don't go crazy with all the weed available downstairs!!!

Okay now, I understand that some people get upset/frustrated with the commercialization of this place. Yes, you'll enter through their giftshop (where everything is a very good deal, apparently)... Yes, you'll go up a few more stairs and be faced with T-shirt vendor. You will also be offered a candle for US$1 to light in Bob's crypt. It's not as awful as some people pain it, and all you have to do though is to ignore all of this. Just go ahead of everyone, even a little bit... That's what I did, and I got the opportunity to take photos uncluttered with a crowd and I got to ask our guide a few simple questions one-on-one.

According to our guide, Nine Mile village, like many others in Jamaica, still has no running water in every house. Can you imagine that?! They wait for rain to fall, wait for said water to run down the limestone formation and get collected in the storage tank:

Water collecting "system", with images of the former Emperor of  Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, who is considered to be a Messaih by the Rastafarians

 You'll learn a little bit about Bob Marley in the small museum-like room, with some of his albums and posters hanging on its walls, in addition to his mother's portrait and her old piano.

What is interesting is that the piano says Witamyer, but when searching for this brand online, I only find Wittmayer pianos, hmmmm......

Next, you'll witness a great performance by a local band. And our guide participated too! His name was Benjamin; he's not Captain Crazy that everyone is raving about (and apparently, he's a Youtube celebrity of sorts now). BUT Benji was great - entertaining, funny, nice, and he spoke clearly and sang quite well too!
This is just about 3 minutes of a longer performance:

TIP #8: if you're bringing a video camera, pack a regular (photo) camera also! past this point, they won't let you videotape, but you can snap away in all places except inside the crypts.

Inside the gate and up the hill we went. It's breathtakingly beautiful, the nature, the flowers, the incline (not done up with stone)...

View from the top

For the Rasta people, Bob lives...

Once you're up there, Benji asked us to take off our shoes, as a sign of respect. Believe it or not, there were people that couldn't understand that part and were trying to argue!!! Some people...

All of the guides joke that you'll get your shoes tomorrow, after they've sorted trough the brand-named ones, LOL. But some people just don't have a sense of humor, I guess.

Bob's house an his eternal resting place

Before we entered either building, Benji described some of the things for us. The house you see on the left is really tiny, two rooms with barely any space for more than a single bed. The single bed that Bob slept on is still inside (though it says "no photography", they allowed us to snap a few shots). The mausoleum right next to the house is where Bob and his half-brother Anthony are resting in peace. Bob is the only one "6 feet up" as they say because he's laying in the top "bunk" of the crypt. The place beneath him was reserved for his mother, Cedella Booker, but when his brother got shot, she decided that the brothers should be together. She passed away in 2008 and is resting in a similar mausoleum next door.

Inside Bob's mausoleum is were you got to light a candle, if you purchased one, walk around his crypt and make a wish before blowing it out and leaving the candle there.

What I found to be a really neat thing about this place is that it puts things in context. Bob's "pillow", his single bed, the scenery he was looking at while writing some of his songs... it's al still there, even if the organizers dressed it up a little.

Marley's single bed and his meditation rock, aka Bob's pillow

Benji making a joke while imagining how Bob laying on his "pillow"

Another awesome thing was this - Benji was talking about references in Marley's songs, and he started to sing:
"I want to love you and treat you right,
 I want to love you every day and every night,
 We'll be together with a roof right over our heads,
 We'll share the shelter of my single bed,
 We'll share the same room, yeah! for Jah provide the bread.
 Is this love, is this love, is this love,
 Is this love that I'm feelin'?"...

With him these children started to sing. They popped out of nowhere, beyond the walls of the mausoleum. It was great hearing them sing!

A small point about children from this village - as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I've come across reviews of disappointed fans that really did not like it here and were upset at how commercialized this place has become. Look at these kids! This village, by the looks of it, is holding together BECAUSE of this place, BECAUSE they cater to us tourists rather than shunning people away. These children have an opportunity to go to school, build by Marley's mother and named in her honour. Whatever the money this place makes, I'm sure that Marley and his family would be glad that they are able to continue to provide support for their home community.
 
I encourage you to come to this place and take it all in, you won't be sorry you did!
Oh, and bring some small bills here too, to tip these hard-working people :)
 

... and that's my review of day spent well!

Jamaica - Thinking Outside The Resort

As promised, let me share with you my thought on a few activities you can do while vacationing in the beautiful island that is Jamaica.

I have to admit, I was planning on staying on the resort the whole time we were there. Why? Well I thought since Jamaica is the capital of the crime world that it would be unsafe, period... and it's funny because I don't come from the safest country either if you read Canadian Border Services advisory (Belarus, my country of birth, not Canada). Let me just say - I WAS WRONG!

Now, I'm not saying you should just wonder out of the resort and walk about town, no. But since there's not much to buy (other than some rum if you're thinking of bring it back) I suggest spending the money you bring on some wonderful excursions. According to some reviews I've read, there are a few private/independent companies that offer great tours; but since we didn't take much time to research that we just booked our outside trips with what they had available at our resort (which was just fine).

Here are the tours that people from our group went on (in different combinations): Dunns River Falls (apparently, a must!), Dolphin's Cove, ATV off-road adventure (the boys love this activity), Zip-lining, Bob Marley Mausoleum, Montego Bay Shopping. I don't know if I'm forgetting anything...

Personally, I only ventured out twice: the Montego Bay Shopping & Sightseeing and the Bob Marley Mausoleum.

THE MOBAY SHOPPING & SIGHTSEEING

I think this "tour" was something like US$60, but honestly, there wasn't much sightseeing... Basically, the driver talked a little bit about the things we were passing while driving (like, "oh look, there are banana trees on your right"). So if you choose to take part in this tour, think of it as a group cab ride to the market with the bus driver coming to get you should the locals try to devour you!

TIP #6: don't recommend this trip if you're not into haggling at all.

Anyway, the shopping itseld was alright - you'll likely make 2 stops - one at the store with "good deals" where you'll REALLY have to haggle your way, and the second stop at something that looks like a crafts market.

Stop 1 - before buying anything, take a walk around your resort's gift shop and take note of what you'd like to buy and how much it costs there. You should use that as a benchmark. For example, I bought a shot glass for US$5, which I haggle for - original price was US$10; only later I saw the same shot glass at our gift shop for US$4! The "good deals" store will either have items with prices that are just ridiculous or no prices at all. You'll have to haggle your way down. I was able to get the shop owner from US$196 to US$130 (I bought shot glasses, magnets, postcards, t-shits and a baseball hat).

Stop 2 - the crafts market... This basically looks like a mini village of attached little huts that pretty much have the same things inside each one and a hut owner that begs you to come in and look (because they don't charge for looking!). Unless you are willing to buy something (and there are a few nice things in there, such as jewelry made of natural materials), DO NOT ENTER the hut! :)

TIP #7: Bring lots of small bills (1s and 5s) because you will not get change! What they will try to do is to get you to buy something from their friend's hut.

I gotta say, I'm alright with this sort of thing; from time to time we haggle in our markets in Belarus, but some people that were on the bus with us couldn't handle this and didn't like the experience that much. To each their own, I guess.

Here are some of the photos from that trip outside of the resort:

Now, I know it's hard to see it here, but this is their local REHAB...
also known as the liquer shop and pool hall!

At the crafts market

Some local entertainment spots on Gloucester Avenue

Gloucester Avenue

See that Margaritaville on the corner? There is a free shuttle that will take you there (I think you need a reservation though)

What you'd see standing next to Margaritaville... ahhhhhh...

right across from the crafts market this beautiful tree grows...

Coming up next, I will tell you all about our visit to the Bob Marley Mausoleum!

Jamaica - Beautiful Flowers

Although things like food were subpar at our resort, there were a few things that were wonderful on our trip. Below I would love to share all of the beautiful flowers we were surrounded by:

~ wondrous variety of Hibiscus flowers:

Hibiscus flowers

Hibiscus flowers

~ bushes upon bushes of Alpinia purpurata (often known as Red Ginger or Ginger Lily, though these species were pink)

Pink Ginger Lily (Alpinia purpurata)

~ large bushes of beautiful clusters of Lantana (these are from the Verbena family of flowers)

Lantana flowers

~ all along the paths we walked by lovely bright colours of the Bougainvillea, including pink, magenta, purple, red, and white (apparently, these come in orange and yellow too!)

Bougainvillea bushes

~ Jamaican Wild Orchid

~ flower from the Allamanda variety

~ red layered Hibiscus

~ one of the many varieties of Begonia (this one I found at the Bob Marley Mausoleum!)

~ finally, captivating Ixora flowers

~ the flowers below are also beautiful, and I have found similar flower images online, but I just couldn't figure out their names... are you able to help?
(some images are "fuzzy" because of a nice Jamaican breeze!)