We're off to sunny Spain

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Well with our Contiki tour all finished up it was time to split from the rest of the group (most of who left for Scotland yesterday - which is a bit of a shame really as if we adn't have booked Spain before leaving Australia we would have gone with them). Made our way out to Stansted Airport, my first experience with Ryan Air, and jumped to the back of the very long and very slow moving check in line. Finally we got our extremely technologically advanced handwritten boarding cards and moved through to the departures area. Here is where we got the second part of the Ryan air experience where there are no reserved seats and its get on board and just sit down anywhere.

Finally in the air and in just under 2 hours we had arrived in sunny spain, which was a good change from the wet and cold day we had left behind in England. Didn't get up to anything too exciting this night, just had some dinner and walked around the somewhat less touristy town of Girona. The highlight of the night for me was when we were watching BBC world there was a report on the wine region of Margaret River.

The next morning we headed down to the train station and traveled into Barcelona itself. The train tickets here are actually quite cheap in comparison to the expensive systems in place around the UK. Made it in found the tube station we needed and proceeded to the correct stop. I am really impressed with the underground systems they have around Europe, it makes getting around the cities so easy (even for the likes of myself). Walked out of the tube station right onto the extremely busy Las Ramblas. Dave suggested that we get a cab to take us to the hotel so he didn't have to wheel his suitcase down the busy street but I think we were both glad we didn't as it was only a couple of hundred metres away from were we are. We could have looked quite silly!!

Didn't get up to too much in the afternoon, walked around a bit and had some lunch. While we were at lunch we saw about 20 police officers walk down one of the side streets. Curiosity got the better of us and we followed. Still not too sure what was going on but there were still a lot of police around but not much happening. When we were walking back to the main road an ambulance passed us but we are sill in the dark. Found ourselves a small irish pub that was showing the cricket. While we were in there a somewhat interesting british bloke started talking to us. He claimed to own a Russian TV station and insisted on buying us a beer, which we accepted, although once we had finished it we decided to hit the frog and toad (the road).

Had he best intentions of going out tonight after a quick kip. Unfortunately neither of us woke up again and we slept through until 10 the following morning. The room made sleeping very easy as there was no window, making for a very dark room any time of the day.

So well rested we decided to go on a hop on hop off tour of the city. We got onto the route that takes you near the beach first and at one of the stop got off to do some shopping as Dave needed some new clothes to wear to the horse races when we get back to the UK. Walked around the shopping centre for a while and purchased the necessary items before deciding to get some lunch before hopping back on the bus. Burger King was the easiest option. However this once again highlighted to me how stupid some things in Europe are. When I tried to pay for my 5 euro meal with a 50 euro note I was treated to quite a dirty look. One of the biggest companies in the world can't give 45 euro change?!?!?!? It just doesn't make sense. After about 5 minutes however some more money appeared and I was able to get my whole 45 euros change.

Got onto the more touristy bus route in the afternoon and took in some of the sites. I had been advised to get off at the Olympic Stadium and have a look around (which I'm now convinced was a joke) so we did this. Basically it was like looking around any standard sports stadium in the world. We tried to look in the Olympic Gallery which was due to open at 4 but when it was still closed at 4:15 we decided to give in and leave. Dave is convinced it hasn't been open for a few years and they leave the sign up just to annoy tourists.

Went out to dinner at some restaurant where we just sat for a few hours drinking cheap beer. Midnight came round and we decided that it was time to have a camp (sleep). Tomorrow we have no plans but to sit on the beach and catch some last Spanish rays.

Woke up and it's looking like the beach just isn't going to happen. Extremely overcast and not too warm. So we walked around the shops for a bit and grabbed some lunch before getting on the metro and heading towards the beach. When we got there we felt like an ice cream sunday so headed into one of the cafe. Only for the waiter to tell us that they down sell ice cream. This confused us slightly as there were pictures of ice cream sundays and banana splits on the wall next to the ice cream freezer, but no matter which way we said it he still told us there was no ice cream. We had a quick drink and got the hell out as he was still giving us strange looks... your the one who should be getting the strange looks buddy!!!

In the afternoon we found ourselves an Australian pub and went in to watch a bit more of the cricket. For an Australian pub I was very disappointed, it was full of brits, had a brit working the bar and the most Australian beer they had (both on tap or in stubbies) was Fosters and we all know that Australians would only drink that as a last resort. To make matters worse the cricket wasn't going too well and we were getting a bit of an ear bashing from the poms. Although I gave back as good as I got.

When we walked out of the pub it was raining quite so we bought some high quality umbrellas from a dodgy looking bloke on the street. Went out for dinner and sampled some Sangria which wasn't too bad. Decided to have another early night (quite sad really but after a month of daily punishment I think the live is loving the few days break).

Heading back to the UK today so we needed to catch the train back out to Girona. This is another nice feature that comes with Ryan Air, the airports aren't exactly close to the main cities so you have a bit of travel. Got to the airport and had to wait ages again to check in. Did get some entertainment as some young Italians trying to check into a different flight were made to unpack some of there suitcases so that they weighed less that 15Kgs. Really doesn't made that much sense as they are just going to take it on as hand luggage so the plane isn't going to be any lighter! Anyway after they had re packed the lady made them go all the way to the back of the line, something they were not too keen on doing.

Not too much to say, got suck talking to a bristish guy who was a constant name dropper (although we did have a chuckle when Boonie got dropped). Pretty standard flight back to the UK. All in all a good few days of relaxing.

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