Barcelona

So that was Ibiz, now onto Barca…The city I’ve been supporting in football this year. What a wicked city, it puts most other cities I’ve seen to shame, especially the antipodean one’s that should have planed a bit better… I’m looking at you Auckland.

We were going to do a pub crawl the first night but after several plates of tapas & a couple of jugs of sangria we decided to settle in for some good old fashioned people watching on La Rambla. Now I’ve got a question, when there is an obvious third wheel sitting with a couple, why do those night time rose flogging monkeys think I want a rose?…Do they think I’m suddenly going to become scum and cut my mate’s grass or do single guys in Spain go out with a rose in their belt ready for  the first guapa senorita they meet? (I’ve asked my Spanish mates…They do not)… And don’t even get me started on the dude trying to sell sunglasses that have flashing  LEDs stuck all over them.

The next day we hit the tour bus, checking out Plaça  de Catalunya & Gaudí’s Casa Batlló before getting to the mac daddy that is his Sagrada Família. Darn that place is cool & I’m happy that I’ve seen it under construction so I can check it out again when it’s completed but come on lads you’ve been building it for nearly 100 years hire some Polish labour already and get it finished!

From there we moved onto the Park Güell which has to be the coolest park I’ve ever been to, with Gaudi’s work blending into the landscape perfectly, amazing views over the city and the random musicians scattered about helping out as well, then onto the Placa d’Espanya, the Olympic village, the Cable car & back to the harbour. Trust me I’m missing out heaps!

After a FULL day sightseeing we stopped for a drink, cleaned up... & went back out for a drink or 4 waiting to meet up with David & Matha who had just got back to Barcelona after an epic road trip around  Europe. David was bought up in central Barca so was able to show us the REAL town, not the overpriced tourist traps we had been frequenting. To give you an idea our ‘Favorite’  bar on La Rambla was selling a bowl of olives for around €4.50 with a beer costing around €6-7, at 1 of the bars Dave & Matha took us to we had 4 bottles of wine & about 7 plates o f tapas for €22. Plus the tapas was something else…you may have been  able to get a bowl of olives but that was not what we were going for, rather whole little fish flashed fried, Pig snout (Like Pork Crackling…Come to think about it exactly the same but moister) but my personal favourite ‘Pulpo a Feira’ (Octopus Galican style or octopus slices with paprika). By this point we were so full I couldn’t even think about more food (notice my belly in the photo of David & I)so we moved off to David’s uncles bar where X and I proceeded to teach the Spaniards pool - kiwi style (Played the same as normal pool but you are allowed to put the opposition off in any way you want just no physical contact) I’m not sure if it’s going to catch on in Catalonia, but I love it.

The next day we were not quite as fresh & bubbly, in fact for the first time X&H were up and had had breakfast before me. We sauntered in the general direction of Bogatell beach stopping off at several Sunday morning markets. I wasn’t up for chilling on the beach for too long so jumped back on the tourist bus to check out the rest of Barcelona leaving the couple soaking up UV. Not much to say about the rest of the tour apart from Barcelona is beautiful. Near the end of the tour I decided to have a look through ‘Cementiri del Poblenou’ Barcelona’s old cemetery – morbid I know but I’ve always had a soft spot for cemeteries. The funky thing about this one was instead of popping the removed in the ground they were slid head first into a wall like in a morgue…up to 7 high so the top potential  zombie was over 5m off the ground, not quite sure how you pay your respects in that situation.

Then I meet up with the crew for a last meal (How crap was that!) & off to the airport & home to wet Ireland.

Side note: This trip marked 10 years since Xavier & I met. Neither of us remember exactly when it was just that it was after my 20^th (He didn’t come to my party) and before my 21^st (He bought one of the best presents I got). Here’s to heaps more trips bro in the same messy vain!