Barcelona

Ola from Barcelona... or should I say Barthelona... why do the Spanish sound like they talk with a lisp? Anyways, I firstly have to apologise for some of the pictures in the Gaudi columns. Firstly, Antoni Gaudi is a very well known (dead) architect from Barcelona and designed some of the most fantastic buildings I have ever seen. I was so taken with him and so dissappointed in my photos that I kind of stole a couple from other websites to show you why I love him. Apart from those all the photos are mine. I love my little kodak digi!!

Ok, so I arrive in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon courtesy of Easyjet again. I love them too. The return flight was only about $AU100! You have to love that. I stayed at this rather beautiful hotel called the Hotel Zenit Borrell located on Carrer de Comte Borrell in the Eixample part of the city.

Barcelona is the most amazingly designed city. This photo below is courtesy of google and you can see how orderly it is. This is the area known as the Eixample which translates as "the expansion". All the blocks are made up of buildings formed in a type of hexagon with a courtyard in the middle of each set of buildings. It was rather easy to navigate my way around the area where I was staying.
Anyway, I get there on Saturday about 5.30 pm and go for a walk around where I am staying and the area is pretty buzzy and I find a great place to have dinner and have fabulous seafood with a nice dry white wine and then stumble home back to the hotel. In the morning I get up bright and early and head down for breakfast and for the first time since I left Australia I had real bacon for breakfast!! None of this swiss stuff that is more like a pale version of pancetta but real bacon that is in the correct shape and everything! It was fantastic. The weather was also brilliant.

I head out of the hotel about 8.30am and go to the train station and buy myself a 2 day pass which lets me get on and off all public transport for 2 days and it was about the same price as a return to the city from Parramatta! I go to The Diagonal which is a 15 mile long road which cuts right through the middle of Barcelona to catch the hop on and hop off bus. Again I get a 2 day ticket. This is pretty neat and it stops at the main tourist attractions and is a double decker topless bus. So of course I have to sit upstairs. The weather got pretty chilly sitting up there despite the fact that it was brilliantly sunny so after I got off at the Sagrada Familia (more about that later) and bought my entrance ticket, I decided I would quickly get the train back to the hotel to pick up my coat and get the train back and do it again. I figured it would be about a 30 minute interruption to my day and well worth it because I was turning into a barbsicle.

On the way back to the hotel I was approached by 4 cherubic looking young spanish girls about 15 years old who were asking for directions..... do I have to go on?? Can you guess what's coming? Yes they were gypsies and yes they stole my wallet!! I at least got a look at these ones. So my little 30 minute interruption turned into a 3 hour interruption as I headed back to the hotel to cancel the cards arrange for some emergency cash (Thanks Alan!! love to love you baby) and make a report to the police. I realised at the police station that the sort of positive result I got in Switzerland was not going to happen there as they didn't even bother to take down my address. Oh well, c'est la vie! I am too trusting and too naive and I am probably not going to change (and nor do I want to) and they only got money. But a word to those who are going to travel... number 1 travel with a Visa Credit Card. They really do offer a fantastic (and sympathetic) service and number 2 if you are approached for directions, grab your handbag and tell them to fuck off!! So, after all that, I head on back to the Sagrada Familia for which I already had an entrance ticket that I hadn't used. After that building I was left with doing the things that were free since I didn't have any cash until the next morning. This was a bit of a bugger because I knew the galleries were only open on Sunday and closed on Monday so I wasn't able to go to the Picasso Museum which I really really really really wanted to!

So I fall in love with a dead guy called Antoni Gaudi. He is Barcelona's most famous architect and was either a certifiable genius or completely insane! His buildings are the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. You will see come examples in the next blogs.
The above picture is of the Olympic Needle which stands outside the olympic park. You may (or may not if you are one of the young people in this world but better not be cherubic looking 15 year old gypsies!!! (breathe.... in with the good air .. out with the bad air..) where was I?? oh yes Barcelona had the 1992 olympic games and still prides itself on that fact.
Despite the bastard gypsies, I had a great time in Barcelona. It's a beautiful city and I would imagine that it would be magnificent in Summer. Above is the Mediterranean Sea. The temp about this time was hovering near 4 degrees so there was no way I was going to be dipping my toe into that sea! sorry....
Ooo there I am! Hi!!! that's my freezing my proverbials off on the top deck of the bus and behind me is the entrance to the Olympic City. The two pillars were built specifically to mark the occasion and now the New Year Celebrations generally take place there. Hardly surprising because at the end of that plaza lies the Barcelona Palace. Royalty used to live there but donated the building back to the city and it now houses MNAC or the modern art gallery of Catalonia. Speaking of Catalonia... they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona... well some do but the official language is actually Catalan. It got a bit confusing so instead of Buenos Dias you say Bon Dia. Most people did a good job of understanding my butchering of whatever language I was attempting to speak.... but the funny thing is I have been to too many countries in too short a period of time... I find myself saying things like jevoudrais eine kleine kafe e una pasticceria por favor.... which is french, german, italian and spanish!! It's all too hard and I have an even more (if I didn't already have one) greater appreciation for those that can speak more than one language.
The above picture is just something pretty I saw whilst sitting on the bus at a set of traffic lights. The architecture is amazing and in such pretty colours. This picture really doesn't do it justice but there were all these greens and pinks and lavenders inside the roof of the rotunda that lit up beautifully. Doesn't the weather look nice? Did I tell you it was really around 4 degrees!! hehe
Oh ok the above picture is of the Barcelona Palace. It's a spectacular building and is on a hillside that you cant really tell from the picture but the view was outstanding. The building itself comes from the gothic period which is the 1400s and has a vast and varied history.

This is Barcelona Harbour. There are about 2000 yacht berths there... I found one or 17 dinghies I wouldnt have minded sailing home....

I also got rather homesick for Australia when I was in Barcelona... On Sunday night when I had no money (or rather thought I had no money but found about ten euros in the bottom of my bag) I decided I needed a beer and had already noticed a pub called the "Australia II" pub. Now normally when I travel I never go near an Australian sounding pub or an Irish one for that matter but thought I might at least find someone to have a bit of a yarn (and whinge if I'm really honest) with without having to constantly refer to a phrase book! HAHA I love Australians I really do! From my first g'day it was like walking into a welcoming pair of arms. Everyone was very happy that another Australian (and one they didn't know) had walked in and they were all very chatty. When I had my whinge about the gypsies they were all suitably sympathetic (a trait that isn't that common in people back home I realise) and consequently I got rather drunk and didn't even have to dig out the ten euro's I had in my pocket!!