Barcelona

Hola from Barca! It is very hot in the city, you have to buy your water bottled, so watch that you drink lots of it. Arrived in Barcelona yesterday at 10.15pm, the train running late at Narbonne by about 1hour 15min. I took a short ride in the taxi to Las Ramblas (usually I would take public transport, but this late at night and on recommendation from the apartments that there was no direct route)... and arrived at Las Ramblas Apartments. I was pretty lucky to happen upon Las Ramblas Apartments on a hostel/hotel search site, and managed to book a single room in an apartment on the main street where everything happens. Usually my guidebook says you have to book months in advance for summer.

Tiff, I think this is definitely a city you will enjoy! Beautiful beaches, great night life, shopping, food and art! I´d love to come back here with some friends in tow.

Outside my window is where everything is going on. It´s the street where everyone starts their bar crawl and tapas tasting nights. I haven't been (Barcelona is really better with company!) but it lasts all night and into the small hours of the morning. The cost of living in Barca is generally cheaper than the other places I've been in Europe, which is great! I went to Mercat Boqueria today, the closest market to where I live, and bought a bunch of 4 bananas and a kilo of Spanish cherries for 2.30 Euro. I did have to stand my ground at the fruit stall though - if you don´t you simply never get served as the locals call over your head and get served.

The ability to speak Spanish here is only somewhat helpful as people here speak a mix of Catalan as well. So far today, after taking my fruit back to the apartment, I went on a big long walk to acquaint myself with some Gaudi and Modernist buildings. I walked the length of Las Ramblas and down Catalunya e Ramblas to Avenue Diagonal, then up St Joan and along Carrer Provencal to La Sagrada Familia, perhaps the most famous (and unfinished) works by Gaudi. It really does look like a giant poured wet sand onto the site! Only 8 of its 18 spires are finished and it is supposed to be finished by the year 2026. I didn´t go inside, knowing that the Sagrada doesn´t actually have an interior yet and I confess having a bit of ´beautiful church fatigue´.


Went back up Ave Diagonal (the name reminds me of Harry Potter) and down Pg. de Gracias and saw Casa Batlo, Lleo i Morera, and Amatller. Simply stunning! Many of these buildings are in everyday use, so with most of them it´s not possible to see the interiors. Casa Batlo offers tours, but only on certain days in English.

To get out of the heat and also to eat some simpler food (I think I have a mild cold since taking a plunge in the Meditteranean), I went to Corte de Ingles which is a big department shop in Pl de Catalunya. The supermarket was something else for me - I´ve never seen so many, nor so many varieties of edible snail! Other things that made even me balk were the preserved whole legs of animals strung up all around the meat section (whole walls), and the halved sheep´s skulls with brains and teeth and all (!) in the refrigerator shelves. Vegetarians and foreigners look away!

Snails snails snails...

I wanted to buy noodles, but they were expensive and an unfamiliar brand. So instead, I bought a whole roast chicken with potatoes, gnocchi, lamb´s lettuce, pasta sauce, melon jelly, more water, juice, eggs and milk for my 4 days here.
Oh, and I have gotten over my fear of the scary looking French cheese called Cendre St Maure. It turned out to be in my chicken salad at the Montpellier train station, and was actually very yummy.

Bakery in Las Ramblas - normal food!

I filmed a small section of my train journey from Nice, but found that it used up too much of my memory card, so had to delete it. Will definitely have to find out where to burn photos to CD. I think there is a scary amount of photos on it (numberig more than 600, hmmm).

Definitely on the way back to London on Wednesday, staying at a hostel until I find somewhere a bit more permanent. I have really loved my travels, but starting to long for somewhere to settle for a while and get a job, take it easy with friends instead of learning how to ´read´ a city each day (sometimes it feels a bit like the Amazing Race! I reckon I could hack it). Might not be able to sign on until back in London as the apartment does not have internet, so hugs and kisses for now...