Barcelona - a city of vision

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Hoy carumba! Actually, that´s Portuguese but you know what I´m talking about

OK, here´s what´s happened so far. Arrived in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday night and had a reasonably nice hostel downtown. Spent the Friday wandering around the city. Went to see this Hindu Temple at the Batu Caves. Had to walk up 286 steps in 30 degree heat and 100% humidity but pretty amazing views and some impressive limestone caves. Oh yeah, and the obligatory Mr Bigglesworth-looking monkeys who are eyeing up your wallet. (Cheeky monkeys)

You walk through the markets in Chinatown and there´s about 400 guys all trying to sell you fake watches, Jimmy Choo handbags (I´d never heard of Mr Choo until then) and Ray Ban sunglasses. And the good news? They all want to give you a special price! I know - how lucky am I?! Found a building called Low Yat Enterprises with 6 floors of electronic goods. Weird thing is, they´re all flogging off the same electronic goods. Not sure how anyone makes any money but I don´t think Malaysia´s gone broke yet so there must be something in it for them.

Arrived in Barthelona on Saturday morning after about 2 hours´ sleep on the flight from KL. I caught a cold before I left Sydney and my ears hadn´t popped so was in a bit of pain on the flight over as my sinuses were all clogged up. Barthelona is muy incredible. Beautiful old buildings, lots of people on scooters, tapas and sangria everywhere - can´t say a bad word about the place. Ears didn´t finally pop until yesterday

I´m staying at a nice old hostel (see the front entrance in the photos) just off La Ramblas - the main drag. Got a little room to myself and had 2 bad nights with some drunken 17 year old Irish kids keeping me awake but moved rooms now so all OK. Spent the last few days wandering around the place. Had a look at one of Gaudi´s apartment(famous local architect for those people who´ve never heard of him. I only heard about him a month before I left! I know, I´m such a culture vulture). This is supposed to be the off season but it is still school holidays and apparently there is no off season in BCN so queues were still about 45 mins to get in. Checked out this cool park - Park Guell - another one of Gaudi´s fantastic designs and have walked halfway across town wearing out shoe leather and enjoying the views.

People here are really nice and quiet. You can notice the Americans cos you can hear them coming´from 500 metres away! They still smoke in all the bars but apparently that will be changing inthe next year or so. Yet to work out what the next plan of the trip is. I could spend another month in BCN alone as it´s such a neat place to wander around. Might head down to Seville or Granada and check out the action there.

Watch this space

Steve

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Comments

[Wayno]

stuff
Say hello to King Juan Carlos 1st for me!

[Janine]

Awesome travel email
Hi Steve fantastic blog - keep it up. Love the photos. Janine

[Adrienne]

The language that tongue forgot...
Great to get your blog. I didn't know you were going traveling - jealous! Madrid is cool as well - especially the really old Sherry houses. Do you think you'll see a bull fight? Keep sending the links through! Keep cool till after school! AP

[Tom]

Pick up lines
Hi Steve, all sounds good. Thought of a pick up line for you while you are in Barthelona; "I'm Lionel Messi's cousin from Australia over here to catch up with him..." Give it a whirl and let me know the reaction! Cheers Tom PS You haven't missed out much here to date, although this week Lance Spicer has extended his guarantee period... :-)

[Ally]

You little ripper!
Good on you mate! It looks amazing. Stay safe...Ally

[Tina Vella]

Hi
Hi Steve Sounds like you are having a great time so far. Stay safe and have fun Tina

[Steveanaki]

So is this Lionel guy a porn star or a famous chef? I´ll give it a whirl anyway. Cheers for the tip

[Roy]

Ole
Your word pictures make me want to travel. Hope you'll bring back some new tango dance movements and a fiery song to go with them. Ole.