Saturday, July 3, 2010

Barthelona - Dick n Tits, Fried Egg n Squid

Yes, you read it right. Barthelona with a "th". No we havent developed a lisp, nor a drinker´s slur.. we´ve just learned that´s actually how you say it! Who would´ve known?

We arrived in Barcelona on Thursday arvo and settled in to our fantastic little apartment in the El Born area. It is in a great location, down a little lane way off a busy square full of bars and restaurants. Immediately we went out for a walk to see the surroundings and try some Sangria and Tapas.
Lauren & Jarrod have accompanied us to Barcelona.. and our first night coincided with Kristy & James´last night here.. so we all met up for some drinks and to swap travelling stories. We went to a cool bar in a boat and a couple of other little places, before heading home about 1am. This was early by Spain standards and the bars were just starting to get busy!

Friday (Day 2) we woke up and headed through the Gothic Area to some markets near Las Ramblas. We found a nice little food stall there (similar to Adelaide Central Markets where you just pull up a stool) which was recommended by Kristy and James. Breakfast was the chef´s recommendation of fried eggs with baby squid. You stir it all up and the yolk mixes through it all - it was delicious!!

We then went and hired bikes which was a really cool way to see the city. We rode through the port and down to the beach where we stopped for drinks in a beachside bar (like nothing you´d see in Oz). Here we encountered our first taste of topless ladies.. and surprisngly also saw several penises on show! Had to be immature and take a couple of pics!

We rode a fair way to see Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia - the church that started being built in 1882- and is still not complete! It was very different architecture to anything we have seen before and was definitely good to see. You can see the areas which look new compared to the really old stone - it´s quite fascinating. We continued on past another couple of Gaudi´s buildings too, before returning the bikes.

When we got back to the apartment we had a snack, and Jess had a nap while the others watched Uruguay defeat Ghana on the tv in our apartment. We ventured back out at about 11pm (doing it the Spanish way this time) to the bars in the square near our house. We had delicious Mojitos which contain the equivalent of maybe 5 shots of rum! They really knock your socks off so its not an expensive night out. The girls had 2, the boys had 3.. and that was enough!

Today (Saturday - Day 3) (i need to keep reminding myself what day it is!) we woke at about lunchtime, went for an authentic Spanish Big Mac meal and did a bit of shopping. Adam managed to feed his shoe fetish with (another) new pair of trainers. Its been a slowér paced day. We´ve just had a snack of bread, cheese and meats in the apartment, watched Germany thrash Argentina and are now here.. reporting on our adventures.
Without instant access to internet, our blog posts are likely to slow down in the next week or so - so like today we´ll be reporting on a few days at a time.

We have one night left in Barcelona. Tomorrow we will be on a bus off to Zaragoza.. before heading onwards to San Sebastian. We both really like Barcelona. Its our first experience of Spain with all of its tiny laneways which are postcard perfect, and the different way of living - including siestas and late nights. I´m sure we´ll experience more of this in the next week.

Hopefully some of you out there are reading our updates. Feel free to comment!
xoxox

2 comments:

  1. Both sound like you are having a really good time and seeing all the sights you should see. The blog is really fantastic and we look forward to each episode. Our baby is doing really well and puts herself in front of the fire immediately she comes inside. She may be getting a little bit spoiled. We look forward to the next blog episode.

    the mum and the dad

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  2. Hey guys - loving the blogs - i can taste that egg'n'squid while staring at the nude people! Paul.

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