we reached barcelona at 930am. took the subway into the city and the weather was just perfect. the sun was shinning brightly, you could feel the heat on your back and there was a cooling breeze blowing. just the way i like it. found our hotel. very good location and it was rather cheap. BUT of course. too perfect yes. they had problems finding out reservation because their computer system sucks and they thought we were coming in on the 8th instead of the 9th. so we had to wait around for like a hour before we were given rooms. and because of all that inconvenience, they gave us free linens and towels. hahaha. so i can't say that that was a bad deal :) saving money is a good way to go. more money more food :) i like.
left the hostel around 11am and walked around the city. the buildings in barcelona are beautiful. very artistic. well we are talking about gaudi, a talented architect of his time. a mix of old and new. felt a little like london except that people drove on the other side of the road, which until now i have not gotten used to. yes call me an idiot. i know. sooo. we walked along la rambla (the main streets) and chanced upon many stalls selling exotic animals. and i mean EXOTIC.
(whoops. haha what's a city without it's pigeons right?)
so here we go. roosters in the middle of town. being sold for like 10euros i think? i can't remember. then there were reptiles. ECK. disgusting like shit. huge tortoises. poor tortoises. exotic parrots. RATS. yes rats. omg. ahhh. i can feeling that running all over my body right now *shivers*. but the most amazing thing must be the..
so after that traumatic experience. we headed to st joseph market and ate a hell alot. well there was so much food there it was hard not to want to eat everything! look at all those sweet dates and candy! ahhh. i want it all. so we bought bread, olives, cheese, strawberries (1.50 euros for 1kg) and dates. yummm. we went to a nearby park to eat it all. yummy!
after that we headed to a nearby church. it was a pretty church. there was a garden in the middle. so pretty. and then there were tons of geese. okay at first i thought they were ducks. obviously i have trouble distinguishing between animals. hurhur. good job.
so after the church we headed to the park. there were a bunch of guys playing soccer. and this huge ice cream truck came and one of them exclaimed, "holy glory that's the biggest ice cream truck i've ever seen!" sooo funny. hahaaha :)
that night it was flamenco night! the hostel arranged this outing for everyone who stayed at the hostel. we got a buffet of tapas (not enough to feed me though, five only leh) and sangria. YUM. loving sangria. just kept drinking sangria the whole time we were in spain. goes great with the food. :)
the next day, we toured the city. we did the gaudi walk. gaudi is a famous spanish architect who is soooo brilliant. he is inspired by things in nature. and the theme for this building is the sea. waves. seaweed for hand rails. blue tiles. can't raelly see the blue now. but it was a really chio building. the rooms were so spacious and very modern of its time. the centre is empty so the breeze can enter. something to do with physics and shit (none of which i can remember) :)
the view from the top of the building :)
sagrada familia. it was the last of gaudi's designs. it is still in construction. has been for the past 120 years. its amazingly MASSIVE. the guy is such a whiz. you know how you would have to calculate all kinds of shit to ensure that the building is stable and stuff. what he did was use steal chains and hung them upside town. marked out all the tension lines and from there contructed massive dome-like structures from the math he did after observing the steel chains. short-cut man :)
the old hospital which we visited. massive building and beautiful architecture. nothing compared to err. NUH :) hahaha.
the view from the top of park guell. another of gaudi's famous developements (i am lacking in vocabulary here) that's pretty much all of barcelona. you can see the coast!
the wind was blowing hard. i dared not walk around that tiny mount. i'm so freaking scared of heights. it's not even funny.
the famous mosiac tile benches. according to our dear lo, it was in many movies (though i really haven't seen any of which park guell was used as a setting)
we were really tired from all the walking. we walked everywhere. because barcelona is somewhat small. and we are budget travellers. where we can save, so we can eat more, we SAVE. hahaha :) kiasuness is the key to budget travelling. singapore has taught me well :)
by the barcelona coast! :)
pau
