the rain in spain stays mainly in the plains

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these last entries have been typed from the comfort of home sweet home.. a bit of a retrospective really.. to devoted blog fans (thats probably just you o&o!), sorry about the delay ;o)

ok, what to say about barcelona...

Our initial impressions were not so good (to say the least). Firstly, we had been pre-warned about the frequent incidence of daylight robbery by another aussie backpacker in florence - according to her, we were practically guranateed to get robbed!

And secondly, we were less than impressed with the location of our hostel in downtown Paralello, dodgy suburb indeed (moreso our street, but central nonetheless). lets just say you wouldnt want to be dark skinned and wearing anything remotely revealing unless you want to be ogled and annoyed by 100's of REALLY ugly, indian guys! for some reason, they're everywhere in barcelona.. selling beer in red cans at night. poor innocent ush was extremely puzzled and asked the question "why are there so many people selling coke cans, especially at nighttime" (god bless her....)

anyway, ush and decided at the end of our stay that the best thing about barcelona was the shopping. for those of you who dont know, its the home of my fave store - MNG. In hindsight, im glad i actually bought stuff there cos it turned out to be cheaper than in aus. to be truthful, we didnt do all that much sightseeing, most of our time was spent in the air conditioned comfort of various stores.

One of the main attractions in barcelona is the scattered architecture of gaudi.. an architect with very unique style.. we visited the extensive gaudi gardens which was quite lovely. and to add to the atmosphere, there were various live acts in different parts of the garden. of particulat note was a fantastic jazz band with the lead female vocalist singing original music (at that point in time, i never wanted to listen to top 40 crap ever again!).

another highlight of barcelona is the nightlife, everyone seems to rave about the clubs. now, ush and i got all dressed up again, this time with a definate destination in mind... unfortunately the wrong one. it was full of old people (i think i saw a couple in their 50's) trying to dance to hardcore hip-hop. we give up! lesson: dont ever attempt to go out in europe! (well, that applies to ush and i)

apart from that, we spent the rest of time wandering ras ramblas (central strip full of arts, crafts, live acts, and people in weird outfits/positions to take photos of/with), chilling out in 'fnac" (spains version of borders) listening to some world music, and of course shopping shopping shopping!!

oh yes, we did try some vegetarian paella.. verdict: overrated. unfortunately, we didnt get to witness any real flamenco dancing, but we did come across an awesome street act consisting of two guys - one dancing on a wooded board, and the other guy playing home made drums. that was quite awesome.. and for those of you whjo are familiar with that great aussie classic 'scrictly ballroom', it was similar to the paul mecurio paso doble (?spelling) scene

umm, thats about all the main highlights from barcelona..
stay tuned for the next exciting installment from Shanghai!

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long time reader, first time writer!
when is part two of fact file being released? you didn’t mention crazy… sm… ; ) barcelona – that’s like eight hours away – imagine!.... eight hours! i really miss you… Looking forward to catching up! BiU. A...