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Day 4- transit to Barcelona
It was a sad morning to say goodbye to Alex and Ness, but Carl and I are definitely
looking forward to seeing them for their wedding in September, and can't wait to
hear where they decide to set up home after their wedding.
The £44 drive to Luton airport was long and uneventful, though we did see some of
England's greenery along the way.
It is absolutely ridiculous how long it takes to get through check-in and security
in London! Although we arrived with more than 2 hours to spare, we still had to run
for our flight, which we nearly missed, and even so they made us stuff my handbag in
our carry on. The highlight was Carl announcing "it fits!" as he tried to punch his
carry on into the tight fitting baggage sizing tester. Alas, they would not let us
on the plane until we rearranged everything, quite a frustrating ordeal on our empty
stomachs. In flight we wanted to purchase our meals however literally ALL of our
cards got rejected! Luckily I remembered we had changed €20 in China and I paid with
that.
Once in Barcelona, after wasting an hour waiting for an ATM that clearly didnt work,
we caught the train to Sant Station and a short cab ride later we were in our simple
but clean hotel "Arc La Rambla" on La Rambla, a bustling and colorful street full of
local artists, souvenir shops and of course, tourists. Our cab driver was right on
the money when he exclaimed "aqui, no esta siesta!"
We spent some time exploring the local network of tiny, winding alleyways dotted
with restaurants and boutiques, which unexpectedly opened into sun-soaked "plaças".
We went back to the hotel for a little siesta and awoke for dinner at a restaurant
that we had decided on during our little walk, however due to the disorganised mish
mash of alleyways, it took us a good half hour to accidentally stumble across it.
After dinner we headed home for a much needed sleep (what is it about being on
holidays and wanting to sleep all the time?)
Day 5- Barcelona
After scouring our Lonely Planet guide, we mapped out a walk totaling approximately
3km which passed as many sights as possible. We started at the Mercat de la
Boqueria, the best fresh food market I have ever seen, with juicy ripe fruit stacked
in multicolour piles, fresh veg, buckets and buckets of nuts, fish and lollies! I
wish I could shop there every day, but having already eaten fruit for breakfast, we
bought Carl a fresh squeezed juice and continued on our way. Our next stop was the
Museo Picasso which had a few originals of prints I recognised from my childhood
home. Here I bought a postcard and later sent that to mum and Greg along with the
one I bought for Marmar at St Paul's.
We traipsed through Barri Gótic, the gothic area to the Catedral where, on our
ascent of the stairs we were shooed away by a disapproving security guard for our
lack of appropriate clothing. Unabashed, we headed through the Parc de la
Ciutadella, past the Arc de Triomf and enjoyed the gorgeous water feature in the
middle of the park. I loved the walk as the streets and architecture are nothing
like home. Some of the older buildings are patterned with colourful tiles, domes and
turrets. It is not unusual for a square to open and display a large bullfighting
arena. We stopped for lunch before continuing to La Sagrada Familia, which Carl and
I decided looked much like a melting candle. It was spectacular! We couldn't find an
entry and the heat was quite unbearable by this stage, so we jumped on the quick
metro ride home, where we were entertained by gypsies playing Spanish songs on the
accordion. Yes, we did have a little shimmy!
Exhausted, we had a little rest in our hotel before separating for some light
shopping- of course I got lost and couldn't find the shops that I wanted to buy
things! When Carl and I met back at the hotel, we went for a walk to the
waterfront where we ate an uninspiring dinner then waited for the sun to go down at
the beach.
We caught a cab back to the backstreets near La Rambla and, not knowing where we
were, stumbled across a cosy Mexican
Restaurant with €4 mohitos and overstuffed couches with huge, soft cushions. Here we
had a drink or two and discussed life before falling, exhausted, into bed.
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