Spain - Days 5, 6, 7 & 8 - Barcelona

Weds 18th - Sat 21st of February 2009

Okay, so I do realise that it is now the 12th of March, and I am writing a blog entry from almost a month ago - but I've been soooo soo busy. Well not overly, I just haven't really been bothered. So lets see how much I can actually remember from the trip now!

Wednesday morning we were up early, and had a nice breakfast with the woman who run the B & B. We packed up the stupid little Kia and tried to find our way to Barcelona. We had head out of town to jump on the freeway. We could see the freeway, but we just couldn't find the road that took us onto it. We drove up a little track that was heading in the right direction, but that quickly turned to be nothing more than a dirt path, that took us into a dump. Well it actually looked as though people lived in these big rubbish piles. It smelt bad, and I didn't want to look around too hard in fear that I might have seen a dead body or few dumped somewhere. We eventually found our way back onto the freeway, and had a rather uneventful drive to Barcelona. Dan did such a great job. Parked the car in one of the most difficult to navigate underground car parks and headed for our hotel. We thought we knew where we were going, but streets were shooting off in all directions, and yet again we were lost! After walking around for some time, we eventually found the place that we had booked online. Some brief confusing followed when we tried to check in and the receptionist had no record of our reservation. Oops for once we booked in Dan's name - that's why there was no record of Benita staying for 3 nights. Turned out we weren't even staying at that hotel, we had to stay at another place, owned by the same people. We went through the little secret underground tunnel to get there, and were excited to arrive at our room. It was really nice, and no stupid long pillows. Just 2 regular pillows, and a nice clean bathroom. We unpacked and set out to discover our surroundings and have something to eat.

We walked up the street a little and decided that we both needed to get some cash out before we could buy things. We walked around trying to find an ATM that gave instructions in English. Found a nice little Citibank one sort of inside the bank, doors, but not in the bank. Dan withdrew his cash, and when it was my turn the nasty machine ate my card and wouldn't give it back. After cracking the s***s and trying to figure out what to do a guy appeared inside the closed up bank. He told me to come back in the morning when the bank was open and they MIGHT be able to return my card. We quickly headed back to the hotel so I could call the bank and arrange something. After speaking with the nice English lady she told me that I should call visa and have the card cancelled and reissue a new one for when I get home. Major inconvenience. Instead I decided to not take her advice and used the free internet at the hotel to move all my funds from my visa account to another account. (This in the future turned out to be a dumb idea!) Still feeling grumpy, and now hungry Dan and I headed back up to near the bank for a feed of KFC. We had spent half a week and Spain and this was the first KFC we had seen. I was starting to think that they didn't exist. We ordered our burgers and sat and waited while they cooked them up nice and fresh. They finally arrived, and on the very first bite of my burger the chicken exploded with piping hot oil which splattered all up my face and a bit in my eye. Owwies. My day could not have gotten any worse. I was fed up and I decided that I'd had enough of the day and we headed back to the hotel for an early nights sleep. We also took full advantage of the free wireless internet and downloaded all the TV shows we watch! Plus we were struggling to understand Spanish TV.

We were up bright and early the next morning to make sure that we were at the bank when it opened to reclaim my card. When we arrived the bank was not quite open so we headed into the nextdoor chemist and purchased some much needed lip balm for my poor burnt lips. We stood and waited while the guy opened up the bank and we were quickly in. This bank man spoke virtually no English so I had to do all the actions of the machine eating my card. After much discussion with someone else on the phone in Spanish he handed over my card. Hurrah! I'm still unsure of it I got charged for trying to make that transaction. From here we headed to the bus stop. We had planned to buy a 2 day pass on Barcelona's Bus Touristic. Great big, open topped double decker buses which follow 2 different routes past all the attractions around Barcelona. We took the red route day one which lead us to some awesome places.

First stop was the Sagrada Familiar. An awesome Cathedral which is still in the process of being built. It was started in the late 1800's, but due to lack of funding the process has been rather slow. They predict it will still take another 80 years possibly to finish off. Designed by Barcelona's favourite person, Gaudi, it was really impressive. So much detail on the outside facades: Showing lots of different church scenes and stuff and big bits of fruit on the top of the pole things on the top. We got the audio guide and walked around. Inside was a bit disappointing as it is nowhere near complete, but still very impressive. Back onto the bus and the second stop was to head up a mountain called Tibadabo. We had to catch a local bus which took us up to where we caught the funicular. A rail car that went straight up the side of a mountain. Very slow, but very cool. On the top of the mountain was a theme park over 100 years old. Unfortunately it wasn't open but we were able to walk through and check out all the old rides. There was some spectacular views over Barcelona. It was a little bit cloudy and made it difficult to see too far into the distance though. On the top was another big church which Dan went and explored around the top and back of, while I enjoyed the views. Back down the hill on the Funicular, and to a little café for a yummy lunch. Its such a shame the service was s***. The café was built into the side of the hill, so again really nice views of the city.

Back down the hill and back onto the Bus Touristic. We followed the route around for a while until we found Camp Nou - the home of Barcelona FC, and the biggest football stadium in Europe. We got off here and decided to do a tour of the grounds. I was still coming to terms with the fact that it was actually square more than anything else. We headed in to sit in some seats which were blacked out with plastic sheets and watched an inspirational movie about the 100 years or so of Barca FC. It was mainly just shots of guys kicking goals and then celebrating. Then off to the dressing rooms, then on the walk down to the ground we passed the players chapel, if they wanted to stop off for a quick prayer on the way down. The ground itself was pretty big, but then I think we're spoiled with the MCG, and I didn't find the size completely astounding. It seats just on 100,000. Up and through all the media rooms and the members area, and then into the skyboxes, which do have a pretty cool view. Then it was down to the last part - the museum. I found this part mostly boring, A - because it was all about soccer and B - Because everything was written in Spanish. I did enjoy finding the real life size poster of one of Barcelona's Basketball players "f***a" He was one very tall fellow. I think I made his waist. After leaving the ground Dan wanted to spend some time in the merchandise store. It was HUGE, almost like a small Kmart. He bought himself a top and a hat. Just to confuse himself even more, with all his West Ham gear and the Demons hat!!! I was getting pretty sleepy by this stage (It was only mid afternoon, but this siesta thing was really catching on) and I was extremely cold. Open top buses without a jacket was probably not the best idea, even if it was sunny. So we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap. We decided to take it easy that night, and found a VO cinema, movies that play films "Version Original" So not dubbed into Spanish. We decided to go see Frost Nixon. The start of the film was great, as was the end. I slept through the middle parts though, so maybe Dan would be the better critic. Then we set off on the quest to find some dinner. Walked around the financial district for a while, and of course could find no restaurants, then eventually by the time we'd almost made it back to the hotel we found a fun little pizza café. We were so hungry by this time we settled for it quickly. Back for a very long night of sleep!!!

The next morning we were up relatively early again to get on the Blue route today of the Bus Touristic. This one was going to more of the places I wanted to visit. We went up MontJuic - "Mountain of Jews" in Spanish - there was hundreds of Jews buried on this hill. And we went past all the old Olympic stuff. The stadium was very dated and old, however where they held the diving was pretty spectacular. The pools and stands were built into the side of a mountain, which overlooked the city. Very pretty. Then it was down to the famous "La Ramblas". A very touristy street filled with Paella and Tapas restaurants, street painters and performers and the usual beggars and scammers. We walked up to the Erotica Museum and paid the hefty entrance fee. I was somewhat disappointed when we walked out at the end. If I wanted to just look at pornographic pictures on a wall then I would've found a Uni dorm to stumble into. We found a nice little square just off La Ramblas to have lunch. The sun was out, and I was in Barcelona, why not celebrate a little?? We bought a big jug of Sangria, ordered some Paella and relaxed in the sun. Needless to say that I got again, sleepy and a little tipsy. We knew it was time to leave La Ramblas - we'd be back later again that night. We walked back down to the Christopher Colon (We know him as Columbus - I laughed a few times that his Spanish name is Colon!!!) statue. He was huge, overlooking the port, with his 1.5m long index finger. And the bus toured around the Olympic port and the old athletes village, which are now quite high price apartments. We got off in the Barri Gotic - or the Gothic Quarter. The buildings around this area were fantastic, again though, lots of tourists. I was resisting the urge to take a nap on a cement seat while we admired the buildings. We walked up and down a few of the little streets and saw some churches and other old buildings, and had a look in a few of the shops. My now it was getting to late afternoon, and we decided it was siesta time, again! Back to the hotel to organise our nights activities - Flamenco show & McDonalds.

We had booked into the 8pm show, and elected not to pay the extra for the buffet dinner. We took our first adventure on the Barcelona Metro, very cheap and very easy - I don't know why we didn't exploit this until our last night! When we got back to La Ramblas it was straight up to the 4 story McDonalds - The delicious alternative to the buffet. I enjoyed washing down my value meal with a beer instead of a coke. It was a short stroll across the street to Tablao Cordobes - the Flamenco theatre. We took our seats in the incredibly packed room, side of stage, and received our complimentary sangria. The show was fantastic, lots of dancing from men in high heels and very high wasted pants, and women in fluffy dresses. There was lots of fun guitar and clapping and singing, and the rather drunk Asian guy in the crowd made it even more entertaining. Apparently there was a love story hidden into all the dancing and singing, but we didn't figure it out! On making our way back to the metro station, inspired, Dan danced the whole way. An uneventful train ride back to the hotel for our last sleep in Spain. ☹

We had planned our escape route, and it seemed simple enough. Straight back up the road we came down on, which turned into the freeway to Girona. We didn't realise at the time of booking our flights, but the airport which RyanAir fly from isn't actually in Barcelona - its 100km north, close to the French border. Lucky we had our trusty Kia Piccanto. Dan did a Stella job of navigating through the morning Barcelona traffic and in no time we were on the way. The only time Dan got marginally confused was when the man at the toll pay point greeted him with "Bonjour". He was still trying to figure out what hello was in Spanish, or where Milan was, let alone throwing some French into the mix, We had allowed plenty of extra hours to get there in case we got lost again - we were getting pretty good at doing that now. But we didn't need it - in fact I can't recall making a single wrong turn. Unless you count arriving at the airport and not being sure where to return the hire car to, so we turned into a paddock that had the car companies side on the fence. Apparently it was just advertising the company, not showing where to return the car to. Gerona Airport is very very very small. It would maybe compare to the Albury airport. One food place, but maybe had 40 check in desks. All but two closed. We queued up with the hundreds of other English tourists returning home to check our luggage in, then straight to the terminal for a hour long wait until we could board the plane to come home. We sat, happily watching Underbelly on my laptop. Did I mention that we completely abused the free wireless internet at our hotel??? After a quick little walk out on the tarmac to board the RyanAir flight, we had secured nice seats not far from the front, and the flight wasn't full so we had room to spread out! Dan has decided that he doesn't like the window seat, which is fine by me. I enjoyed the views of the Pyrenees Mountains on the way home!

So the epic that was Barcelona has finally been printed - May I say that it is now the 31st of March - 6 weeks since we arrived home, and a fortnight after my last effort of finishing it. I am definitely slack, but I got there in the end. Now I just need to write another entry letting you know what we've been up to on the weekends. And its off to France on Saturday, so there's more words I'll have to write. Ugh - this is why I'm a maths teacher.