More more more!!

Tuesday – Better again! No rain this time. Still pretty cold. Headed back out to town and went to Zoologica Barcelona – that's right, the Zoo!! Pretty awesome holiday so far, with circuses and zoos.. Anyways! The zoo is on this massive piece of land that used to be a massive Citadel, but was demolished as it was a sign of oppression. The Parc de la Ciutadella is now a big green expanse and the zoo is 13 hectares of awesomeness. We saw monkeys and zebras and lions and panthers and birds (even a pukeko we think) and gorillas, an elephant, hippos, all manner of creatures. Best of all was this awesome crazy lady in a fur coat and hat who wandered around waving her arms at the simians ranting at them. "Hola Gorilla! Como estas blah blah blah *hand waving and gesturing*" (that's her behind Joe)


Spent several hours there, and then headed back to town. We were pretty tired after that and had planned to visit the City Museum (closing too soon) so ended up just wandering the streets for a while and then heading for some dinner. Went to a place called Taller de Tapas and had quite a good meal, about 6 tapas shared and some delicious mojitos and capirinas. After that we called it a night, it was pretty late.

Wednesday we went to Montjuic. Went for a big walk – up the hill to where the big national art museum was, then round for a walk around to the Olympic Stadium which was pretty cool. Went inside and had a look around, found no less than 10 cats either sunbathing in the stands or hanging out by the cafe tables in order to get scraps, cuuute!! Barcelona seems to have lots of cats and dogs, cats mostly hanging out in the suburbs and the dogs always being walked through town, all kinds of dogs...

We rode a cable car up to the top of the hill next, lots of good views across the city and the top featured a military museum. We didn't go in, just wandered around, grabbed a quick lunch and admired the view. Then wandered part of the way down the hill along a bushy path and to another cable car, one that goes right across the harbour over to Barcelonetta, a harbour area of town. Wandered around the streets (such loiterers!) and then found a nice place to have tapas and sangria; they also offered flamenco shows but sadly not until the 10^th of January by which time we were back in little old Bedford.

After dinner we headed back to Las Ramblas, which were getting more and more packed in preparation for New Years. We found a fruit market down a side street and bought a bunch of grapes so we could take part in the traditional eat-12-grapes-before-clock-finishes-gonging at midnight. Since it was still early we headed back home and had a week nap (it is damn tiring walking around all day!) and then back on the Metro to town.

We got off the tube at the top of Las Rablas and if it was packed before, it was INSANE now. Hordes of people all over the streets, cars not going anywhere cos of the people, random fireworks exploding – we assumed they were fireworks but we didn't actually see any sparklies, just heard loud bangs! A terrorist attack would barely have been noticed for all the attention the people around us paid the explosions. Bit scary.

We found a place to hover in Placa de la Catalunya where we had a good view of the big clock tower, and counted out our grapes. Lots of people around us were doing the same, some had grapes in a can which apparently marketed only for New Years – I wish I'd had some of those cos when we got to the countdown it turned out I suck at eating fresh grapes quickly, mostly because they had pips and were a bit sticky. Joe gulped his down but I took at least two minutes :) He got impatient waiting for his midnight kiss! Lots of people around us called Feliz Anos and hugged, a cute family nearby popped champagne bottles that were actually just confetti cannons, and then it was over. Knowing it'd be extremely foolish to attempt the Metro again, we walked back home which was lovely – dry night, lots of happy people out, and christmas and holiday lights still up on most of the streets. A small boy called out Feliz Anos to us on our way and we called back, which made his day and caused the rest of his family to appear at their window all yelling and dancing :)

Next day being New Years day, nothing much was open, so we headed up to Park Guell, a big Gaudi designed park on the hill to the north of town. Escalators up the hill made things a tad easier but still a big walk! It was a lovely thing to walk around, lot of trees and nature of course and neat stone work and mosaics around the place. Stayed there for the morning then headed down the park out another entrance and walked through the Gracia area back to town. Found a place for lunch that served lovely open sandwiches – waiter was a bit keen, when we went to order drinks we weren't sure what to have (booze? Water); he offered sangria and we said oo yes, next we heard 'Una sangria GRANDE' called back to the kitchen, which raised our eyebrows. Back comes a massive jug – oh well, who needs a sober afternoon anyways? Delicious none the less :)

We staggered out of there around 4ish and then headed to La Sagrada Familia, another bit of Gaudi arcitecture all about Jesus and the apostles. Twas closed sadly but we stood at the bottom (wavering a bit on our feet) and took some pictures. Would have been nice to go up but oh well!

After such a huge lunch we waited a long time for dinner, and ended up just going to a wee place down the road from our hostel which appeared to be run entirely by slightly crazy old men. Very sweet, and I had rabbit which was pretty much just like chicken but still very nice.

Friday we flew out, but before hand we headed back to town for a last minute wander around the sites. Back around Barra Gotic and Las Ramblas, and then back to the hostel for our bags and off to the airport. Almost got on the wrong train back but happily I asked someone and we managed to get off the train and onto the right one just in time! That would have been exciting huh :)

All in all a good trip, would have liked better weather but it apparently didn't stop my photography, as I took over 1000 pictures! Most of which are on the travel album so check it out if you haven't already. Coming next, a shortened summary of Amsterdam and an update on our current situation plus itinerary for the travels home...

Barcelona - let the music play

So. Barcelona. At last we meet. We've been looking forward to this trip since our last one ended (Amsterdam – totally forgot to write that one up, will do!) and here it is.

First off, flight was late. Apparently airline trouble turns me into a horrible person, along with all other passengers except Joe. I was angry at everyone for queueing wrong, for being too foreign, too loud, inconsiderate etc. Joe made sure I didn't voice my concerns too loudly. He's pretty good. Anyways, got the flight going eventually, flew to Barcelona, arrived at our hostel (Hotel Transit) at about 10:30ish after picking up our dinner (McDonald's – it was easy and quick) and into our room.

It's a twin, with an ash tray. We booked double, non smoking! Neato. Decided we were too tired to worry and went to bed. Sadly our neighbours did not. German or Russian girls, singing and yelling and screaaaaaming their heads off til well past 12am. There was banging and shouting and echoing until finally the concierge came up and yelled at them. I cannot fathom how people can get this far in life and still not consider that maybe when one is in a hotel with other visitors, that screaming to all hours of the night, let alone Sunday night, is not a kickin rad thing to do. Eventually we got to sleep around 1am, thus ending our first night in Barcelona.

Happily Monday in Espana went better. It was raining ever so slightly, which wasn't so bad but caused very wet feet (manageable) and we wandered up from our hostel towards town. Saw a lovely park with a big sculpture by Joan Miro and palm trees. Then along a very long and busy street with lovely big trees and lots of market stalls selling all sorts. Hit the Placa de Catalunya and wandered down Las Ramblas. These were pretty much just super busy. They're a big long series of pedestrian roads, but they have car lanes down each side so you can't just wander into the shops, you still have to cross traffic. Stopped in a place called Cafe de l'Opera and had super chocolatey drinks with churros, deep fried donut-like things that you dip into the delicious chocolate.

My two years of learning Spanish have vaguely paid off, in that I can ask for a table and get general understandings of what waiters say to us. But I'm wishing I could remember more of it so I could actually hold conversations with people! Oh well.

After delicious chocolate, we wandered through Barri Gotic which is pretty much the oldest part of town, and it's awesome. The streets are big enough for a single vehicle, and cars hardly ever come through so it's mostly just people and cute shops and houses above with balconies, the streets sometimes leading to big squares with churches and restaurants around the edges. Headed down to Place Reial and had the menu del dia (set priced lunch with 2-3 courses) at Taxidermista (I know, what the heck does this mean in Spanish?) . It was really good, was about 10 euros each and we got bread, a drink, and three courses – I had salad, tuna stew, and strawberry ice cream, yum yum! While Joe had mushroom pasta, veal steak and .. a banana. Yes it seems that 'Fruit' on the menu meant a single piece. We laughed and just mixed it into the ice cream and shared.

Wandered around Barri Gotic some more, then headed down to the waterfront and wandered again for a while. Discovered a circus near the port and I managed to book us tickets, which was my first real test with Spanish, as I was able to confirm the different ticket prices and what they entailed, and what time the show started with the ticket operator speaking no English :D Yay me! We had some time before it started so we found a gelato place and pretended to read magazines – mostly we were just guessing and trying to work out what the pictures corresponded to. I think I was reading an article about homosexual military uniforms in Che's Argentina (w t f indeed).

Headed back to the circus and it mostly appeared to be attended by families with oodles of children, which was great. They were very cute, all running around with their strange languaging. We had B tickets, which were the second cheapest and got quite decent seats. The performers were pretty great, Spanish speaking of course but there was a lot of physical humour with the clowns and most of the gags and the like were quite easy to understand. We saw ballerinas doing rope dances (those ones when you hang in the air and spin etc), girls walking up ramps on big red balls, awesome unicycling, jugglers, clowns, one of those bikers on a big floating stage thing (there's a pic somewhere if that's not clear) and some crazy acrobats that appeared to be a middle aged husband and wife, very cute! What made it most appealing though was that the stunts almost all had someone spotting or looking out for the performers, like they had only just got the stunts working and were still unsure. One of the unicyclist's tricks failed and she fell, but we all cheered her and then cheered her even more when she got it right the second time. I don't know, it was nice knowing they had limitations but were trying to do it anyway :)

After the circus, which was great, we wandered back up Las Ramblas, and stopped in a place called Mickeys for a late night dinner/snack. Bad idea – total tourist trap with high priced and low quality tapas. We only got 3 and a drink each and it totalled over 30 euros! Ick. Oh well it was an experience, plus I spotted a neat Spanish singer on the music TV that I want to hear more of, Maria Mena, so there's a silver lining. Headed up to the metro and caught a train back to Tarragona, the station closest to our hostel. Got into our better hostel room and had a good nights sleep...