Ba Ba Ree Ba, Barcelona, Spain
After a good night's rest, it was time to visit Barcelona. The first destination: La Sangrada Familia. A church which involves the work of Gaudi. It was a beautiful structure. Very impressive. It is more beautiful form the outside as the inside is still under construction. The doors to enter La Sangrada Familia were very unique. It had a lot of writing on it. The stain glass that was found inside the church was beautiful. I have always like stained glass in churches. I've admired them since i was young. In La Sangrada Familia, you could take a lift and a walk along a scary narrow spiral staircase to reach the very top. It was incredibly narrow. But it was worth it because what a view it was from the top.
By the time we finished visiting La Sangrada Familia, my feet were starting to kill me. In an attempt to be a stylish tourist, all i had brought with me were gorgeous heels. They lasted about a night and then started to blister my feet. At this point, i was desperate to buy another comfortable shoe. Any shoe would do. To my horror, nothing was open. All stores were closed as it was Easter Monday. So I had to just carry on my journey...
Next destination : Park Guell
Park Guell was another work of Gaudi architecture. Another train ride and we arrived there. I was horrified to find out that Park Guell was a great distance from the train station itself. . . or maybe it seemed that way to me because of my aching, blistered feet. I dragged my feet as we walked there. And suddenly.. there it was... an open Chinese shop selling all sorts of things. I rushed in and was trying to explain "slippers" to them but they seem to speak spanish. wow~!!!
When they understood me, they guided me to the section and lo and behold, there they were "japanese slippers". It wasn't the classic white and blue ones but a slightly more funky one which would do. After getting my slippers, i happily .. practically skipped to Park Guell. It was a very interesting park with quite a bit of structures and delicate work. There was this sandy area which overlooked Barcelona and there was an edge that was made to appear like waves with a lot of seating areas for visitors. I managed to catch a quick cat nap for about 20 minuts because i was so comfortable at the park. Then, i continued walking around taking it all in.
After Park Guell, it was already time for dinner. So, we headed for Port Olympia or Olympic (confusion) for a seafood dinner by the beach. There was an entire row of restaurants there and we had great trouble deciding which one to pick. At each restaurant there was some sort of promoter encouraging us to come to their restaurant to eat and throwing in all sorts of deals. Finally we decided on one. He offered us a set dinner including appetizers, desert, a main course, wine and more. The food was alright but the quantity was great and the atmosphere was pretty nice. A couple of interesting things happened that night. One was that there was this group of people going around collecting money from people at our table for someone from their group to travel back to somewhere. We didn't really understand them but we we gave a little bit of money and we were cheered on when we did. Later the man returned to the table again and tried to explain to us about it. At one point we thought maybe they were collecting money to sponsor our dinner. . . stupid thought. At the end of the dinner, a man who appeared to be tha manager brought over two bottles which were very similar to the bottles i have seen in my secondary school chemistry lab except that this bottles were not even labels. Along with this bottles were shot glasses. Finally after a peculiar conversation with him we figured out that it was some form of alcohol. We were very suspicious of it because we were the only table being offered this free unidentified alcohol. One of the boys at the table was smart. He was Pak Seng. What he did was to offer a shot of the alcohol to the manager himself and see if her drank it. Once he did, the rest at the table started to have their shots of the wierd concoction. After having had the shot, the manager started bring bottles of alcohol to the table. Not the wierd kind but the "sold in stores, labelled, available in bars for a price" types. It was strange. Nothing in life was free. At some point we returned the bottles to him. We were never charged for it. Soon it was pretty late and we headed home to get some rest so that we could have a fresh start the next day.
The next day...
The only thing on my mind that morning was shopping. I love ZARA as all of you know and i was in SPAIN. I'll get to the shopping later. We had to have breakfast first. So we headed to what we were told was a seafood breakfast market. In no time we were at the market "Le Merqat la Boqueria". It was colourful, exciting and full of the hustle and bustle of the local spanish people. After all it was their market. It was the first time in my life i had seen such a clean market. Although as any other market it was full of raw mean and seafood, it did not have any bad smell. There were a couple of stalls where people could have a spanish breakfast. I never every thought i'd be able to eat in a market.
Before sitting down to have breakfast, i walked around for a bit enjoying the sights. The pictures explain it all. I couldn't resist taking a photo with the chillies because of my love of chillies and spicy food. The fruits was so yummy looking and colourful as were the vegetables. There even were rambutans. However, they were indeed the saddest looking rambutans i had seen, they were shrivelled and almost de-rambuted. haha.. I think i even saw a dragonfruit. There was more seafood that meat on display. It was all so fresh. I even think the eggs are larger in size.
Soon, i sat down at a little stall. It was actually a bar in the market and they even served beer for breakfast. I had an expresso. I was determined to try many different coffees there. Having already had the cappucinno, it was time for the expresso. In my coffee madness. ANyway, i had breakfast. It was many little plates of many little prepared food... tapas again i guess but the selection was different it being breakfast and all.
After filling my tummy up, it was time for shopping. There were quite a few ZARA's and MNG's it being Spain and all. We went to Passeig de Gracia, the main shopping street in Barcelona carrying all the great brands. It is a very beautiful street and i would love to live there. I actually saw this apartment complex called 15, Passieg de Gracia. What a thrill it would be to live there. You walk out and it's shopping central. Anyway, back to my shopping, I went to MNG and to the biggest ZARA i could find and many other shops. I also couldn't resist taking a photo outside LOEWE. I first heard of LOEWE in Malaysia and i had started using their perfumes then. Not many people had heard of it. When i came to Manchester, i had great difficulty in purchasing it. When Lena, Esther and Pei Kheng and gang went to London i actually asked them to pick it up from Harrods. Now i have found the one store that carries it in Manchester but yeah, in Spain, i couldn't resist being a tourist and taking a picture outside LOEWE.
shopping in MNG Barcelona in Eurossss~!~!
ZARA
As i was wondering around the shopping street i stumbled upon a tourist attraction site i was meaning to visit. The Casa Milla, another work of Gaudi. It was an apartment complex with an extremely unique design. For the purpose of tourist visits, they had preserved some of the apartment complexes with all the antique decorations and furnitures. It was quite interesting to see that. But the greatest thing was the design of the rooftop area. The structures and the view was simply breathtaking.
beautiful structure of Casa Milla
Next destination : Barcelonata.. a Beach in Barcelona!!!
I was so excited because it has been more than 6 months since in set foot on a beach. When i arrived there, the weather was perfect! It was warm and sunny with a mild crisp cool breeze. I instantly rolled up my jeans and headed for the waters thinking "why didn't i bring my swimming attire??" But as soon as the first waves crashed around my calves, i changed my mind. It was freezing cold. I couldn't believe it. After a while i got used to it and within minutes my entire jeans was wet. I wanted to dry off and lounge at the beach so i had to get some chairs from the guy who was renting them out. I knew i had to get em because a wet jeans and sand on ur bottom combo is a no no. While relaxing, we noticed a bunch of other Malaysians. They went ahead and got themselves some chairs and sat down because the " boss " who was renting chairs wasn't around so they probably didn't know they needed to pay for it. The when the "boss" came back and asked them to pay, they returned the chairs instantaneously. haha. Relax people, enjoy yourself, you've paid so much to come for a holiday. Enjoy urself. ANyway, after drying up i went back to the water. Then, i saw in a distance, the Malaysians had started sitting in our chairs again.. the nerve.. my goodness. When we returned, the reluctantly moved off looking particularly sore. I just don't get some people. All and all the beach was marvellous.
fun fun fun
me in a wool jacket on at the beach.. haha cool breeze
After the beach, once again i was hungry. So we went wondering about the many restaurants along the beach on a quest for food. We settled at this little restaurant which once again i can't remember the name. I had a seafood platter! Must enjoy that seafood in barcelona. It was quite cheap as well... a grilled seafood platter.
my grilled seafood platter
After the beachside afternoon, we headed back to the city centre to Placa de Riyal for dinner and Flamenco dancing. We had dinner in this restaurant that was recommended by the other IMU folk who had been there. The food was pretty good in a very nice surrounding but i was way too full after my platter.. whoopsie.
all of us after dinner
Then we went to watch some Flamenco dancing to complete the experience of spain. It was absolutely AmAzing~!~! The speed the music. It was pretty cramped and dark in the place were with a small crowd in a small place but it was so much fun. The girls are so good at dancing.
flamenco dancing
After that, we called it a night... I was going back to Manchester the next day. i just couldn't resist going to La Merqat De Boqeiria before going to the airport and so i did. I went to have some churros and choclate which was so delicious i'm craving for it this very minute. I was so sleepy though but i forced myself. You can see by the puffiness in my eyes as i dip my churros in my hot hot thick chocolate.
me, my churros and the hot thick chocolate ur supposed to drink once ur done dipping ur churros
Still trying to take more of the food in Barcelona, i went back to the breakfast bar and had some spanish ommeletes and all sorts of other assorted goodies. Then it was time to head back but i took a couple of pictures along the way at Placa de Catalunya.
at the underground rail
Placa de Catalunya
Soon enough, we were back on a plane to Manchester. Barcelona was a great place to visit. However i think 3 days are not enough. 4 or 5 days would have allowed me to cover more places. Before leaving Barcelona i did not forget to get my Barcelona FC shot glasses. It was an awesome trip. I can't wait for my next trip:)
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