Barcelona

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We all loved Barcelona. The shopping, the architecture and the culture! We decided to visit as a mini break from our four week stay in St Genies, as it was only a four hour train trip away. We booked an apartment right on La Rambla for three nights. Great location and atmosphere, but unfortunately that atmosphere and noise never switched off giving us very little sleep. We made sure we had somewhere with Wifi so we could catch up on some internet usage and skyping. We certainly hang out for contact with everyone at home after being away for so long.

We started our visit with the ultra touristy open topped bus circuit. The commentary was very lacking but it was good to get a feel for the main areas and see a relatively big area over two hours. We covered the hill where the Olympic stadium was, some of Gaudis buildings, the beaches and port, and heaps of Barcelonas funky modern sculptures and architecture. As we were walking up to the starting point of the bus and to buy our tickets we got caught up in a big crowd marching in protest (at unemployment - according to the cleaner at our apartment). The crowd wasn’t to daunting but then when we reached the square where our bus was leaving from, people were jammed in everywhere with more crowds marching towards it from every contributing street. There must have been thousands if not tens of thousands there. We obviously couldn’t catch a bus there so had to walk up to the next stop – through the crowds. The bus circuit was altered quite a bit with various roads closing due to the crowds, and we had to go through some motorway tunnels which was very unpleasant sitting up top breathing in all the fumes.

We visited Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church which is absolutely amazing. It looks like a giant sand castle made from dripping wet sand, and the detail is spectacular even compared to the highly decorative churches elsewhere. There was an abundance of fruit in the decorative detail, along with trees, birds along with the usual symbols and saints. All of Gaudi’s architecture seems quite modern and is surprising its 100 years old.

The shopping felt like it was going to be good, with some cheaper Spanish brands, and good cheap shoes, but it turned out to be much the same as other major French cities with all the same brands, (and of course the same euro prices). The surprising thing here was the number of shops the same in such close proximity to each other. Standing in one place we could see three separate shops of the same brand. It was handy if we liked something but didn’t have the right size – just walk 100m along to the next shop the same. The cost of food and clothes in Spain is not as cheap as it used to be pre Euro.

We had dinner at one of the beach front restaurants one night which was interesting for people watching. There were all sorts from ladies stumbling along in stilettos, red rose and hat sellers, to people wearing bikinis and speedos, that really shouldn’t be. There were a lot of beach volleyball games going on and a group doing tightrope tricks on a band strung between two trees. Here as well as around town there were a lot of sunburnt people.

The tapas is a nice change for meals. A good way of ordering only what we eat (instead of the girls leaving half their meals). A lot of them also have the food or photos displayed which cuts out the surprise element of what we’re getting.

La Rambla – Barcelonas main street is unique display of tourists and attractions for them. From the artists at one end to the flowers and pets at the other and street performers and hawkers selling handbags sunglasses and annoying squeaky voice things. It was nice looking down on all the action from our apartment. Also just off La Rambla (and only 200m from our apartment) was an amazing food market. It was so colourful and well displayed, and selling practically anything edible (pigs trotters still aren’t in my book but I guess others do). I noticed the kiwifruit had little NZ stickers on them, so it’s not only local produce.

The day we travelled to Barcelona felt as though nothing was going our way. It’s proof of how well everything has gone for us so far, when a day with a string of minor inconveniences feels so disastrous. It started with not having a reservation for the train. We were entitled to be on it with our Eurail but everyone else had tickets with seat numbers so we had an anxious time at each stop to see if we had to shift seats (with very few seats available). To avoid the same hassle on the return trip we though we’d best reserve our tickets before leaving the train station. We got our ticket number from the machine and was horrified to find there were one hundred people in the queue ahead of us, and only two ticket windows operating. Two and a half hours later we made our reservations. The entertainment was in watching others get their ticket then see their expressions once they realise how many numbers are ahead of them. By the time we left it was two hundred numbers apart. We had a fun taxi ride though, with a very enthusiastic driver who couldn’t speak a word of English but was keen to point all the sights out to us, at the expense of keeping in his lane – until a policeman pulled alongside and told him off!

Arriving at our booked apartment was the next disappointment. It turned out to be a privately owned apartment rather than a managed hotel apartments as I’d thought. There was no reception, no welcome, and even no indication we were at the right address – just a locked door with buzzers to a dozen unnamed apartments. Randomly pressing a few didn’t get us anywhere either. I was about ready to abandon at that stage but the threat of losing the cost of the whole booking made us ring the phone number on the booking. That led us to be let in by the cleaning lady who was still cleaning up from the ‘dirty horrible’ previous guests who’d only been there to party and hadn’t left on time. It was lucky we were delayed a few hours at the train station otherwise we would have met them.

The final straw of the day was when I went to put my NZ sim card in my phone and found the phone is not recognising it any more (it must be damaged). So take note if anyone is sending me texts – I won’t be getting them until I return to NZ and get a new sim card. I’ve got a French one here and am getting my emails through to my phone, so best to email us – or txt Gerard.

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