Too early for spain...
Trip Start
Aug 29, 2008
1
20
31
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Barcelona,
Catalonia,
Spain and Canary Islands
Sunday, September 14, 2008
4am! Crazy!!! And pay like €20 for the transfers.... Not sure it was
worth it, but we eventually got to barcelona!
First task was to find a hotel. New orientation in a new city is
alwsys tough but the tourist office was able to set us up with a cheap
room in a hostal (which is not exactly the same thing as a hostel).
We had some troubles checking in (they didn't speak ANY english) but
eventually we were able to start our Spanish adventure.
We were right across from la sagreda familia - the famous cathedral
designed by Gaudi. It really is an amazing work of art. It's not quite like
any other cathedral in the world. Sitting here now I think we were rather
silly to not tour it (€10). Next time, I suppose.
We then went down to the beach. It is actually a rather nice beach and
there were tons of people there of course - the weather was absolutely
gorgeous. And, yes, tops are certainly optional!
After this we attempted to book tickets for the cheap overnight train
to paris, but nobody seems to know it exists, so we ended up paying
€72 for the train!!!
Anyway, at this point I really wanted to see the Picasso museum so Rob
went off on his own for a bit while I went to be artsy. The museum is
in this amazjng old building in the gothic quarter. It was a bit
pricey but I thought it was well forth it. It mostly chronicles his
early years in Spain and barcelona. So much of this work is less
abstract and vague than we are familiar with. They did have dome
interesting pieces from the blue period (which is really blue). And
dome cool paintings of Barcelona. There was also his entire collection
of etchings.
The area around the museum is really funky and cool. There are shops
and restaurants everywhere - mostly selling really nice jewelry or
pottery so I shopped a bit before meeting up with rob again.
We then headed up to placa espagna - from here you can walk to this
big park on the hill. They have the old catalan palace here where they
to the most amazing light show. We are up there just in time for an
absolutely gorgeous sunset - barcelona really is a beautiful city . Of
course it is once again raining... We are early so we check out the
park a bit. This is dhere the old Olympic village was from 1992 -
three Olympic cities in one trip! Anyway, no tower here so we take in
the great view and head back. We are a bit late for a good spot for
the show, however, but it is still rather spectacular! The fountain is
lit up in every color imaginable - I took pictures from all different
angles but they won't do it justice. It puts the bellagio to shame.
Our final stop of the night was to go to the ramblas - the main street
of the old city. This is an always buzzing area with street performers,
shops, restaurants, etc. We ended up walking down some little streets
where they had some awesome looking bars and such. We ended up at a
bit of a dive (it was cheap) and had some tapas - interesting concept,
really. The food I picked was terrible but rob's was pretty good. It
was a fun experience anyway.
Long day so we head back for some much needed rest.
