A dying traveller in Barcelona

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Heading into Barcelona in Spain and I was so sick. Partied way too hard at the Chateau and my body is finally punishing me for the last 5 days of abuse. This is not just a hangover; every part of my body is giving up on me. My throat is so sore I can’t swallow, my head is cloudy and clogged, nose is running, and well I was just an all round wreck.
The first night in Barca was the first night alcohol free, and although my attempt at a good night’s sleep failed due to waking up every hour (literally), it was still good to get to bed before 10. Unfortunately I wasn’t cured though, and my first priority the next day was drugs, strong ones. Found a pharmacist early and started on the strepsils, vitamins, cough medicine, the lot. I will beat this!

The real highlight of the day was La Sagrada Família. Construction began on this masterpiece of Gaudí’s in 1882, with completion not expected until 2026, so it’s essentially still under construction. Nevertheless it’s probably the most incredible display of architecture in all of Europe. It’s incredible to think that with todays technology, this masterpiece is still going to take over 100 years to build. Incredible! The detail is amazing, you really have to see it up close to appreciate it. La Ramblas was a bit of fun with all the markets and street performers, but just watch the matchbox hustlers ;-). It’s the age old game of which box is the marble under, and well long story short, Adds through he could beat them and lost $50, then after watching Adds get scammed, Tom goes in and loses $80 ha ha idiots, but the hustlers are clever.

That night saw the Flamenco dance show which was ok .......... ok let’s be honest, it was kinda crap, if I thought the Cabaret was a little ‘Contiki Cheesy’, this was a triple cheese pizza with stuffed crust. I mean we had people on stage doing hip thrusts and singing ‘the roof is on fire’ .... umm ...... authentic Spanish???? I mean yeah we had some sangria and it was a little bit of fun but definitely not an authentic experience. What made the show worth going to was the fact that our tour manager, Alex, was smashing sangria and was tanked by the end of it. When he got on the bus, out came the stories, including his quest to drop the rring of power into Mount Vesuvius, ha ha ha it was absolute gold :-)
Everyone went out that night, but I was very much under the weather and didn’t have a hope; even though it was set to be one of the best nights of the tour. I mean it’s Barthelona :-D.
So I woke up the next morning to stories of girls getting mugged when getting out of cabs, who strategically dropped them way out of the way, pretty scarily really, but oh there were some sore heads that morning, including Alex, who was late for his own bus ha ha. Sounded like an awesome night but I’m feeling heaps better so it was definitely worth missing.

And unfortunately, that was all I saw of Spain. Definitely have to return at some stage, maybe come back for Pamplona.

One story that wasn’t mine but I’m gunna share anyway was by one of the lads on tour who will remain nameless. So he picks up this Spanish girl at the clubs and they go for a walk down the beach. In a secluded little spot they lay down in the sand and started ... umm .... getting down to business. Suddenly this guy opens his eyes and looks out to the beach, and like something out of the ring, this crazy old guy just crawled out of the ocean and up the beach. Then he goes for my friends wallet, needless to say my friend responded, grabbed his wallet and started yelling at this guy. “Me just want a cigarette” were his only words as he crawled slowly backwards and back into the ocean. Mind you, my friend doesn’t smoke. It was the funniest story how he told it, definitely something out of the twilight zone ha ha so random.

Ok so keywords for Barcelona:
“He crawled out of the water and came for my wallet!”
“I have to take this ring of power to Mount Vesuvius”
“It’s so easy, how come they’re not getting it?” – Street hustlers

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