Barcelona

Well, I'm certainly feeling really pleased that I finally made it to Europe! My poor workmates had to put up with me chanting "I'm going to Barthalona" in my best faux-spanish accent all week. Still, I got good tips from them as to what to see and where to eat - clearly a cunning way to distract me from the chanting...

Barcelona exceeded all my expectations. It was never a city I knew too much about, but I do remember the Barcelona olympics really well, and thinking it looked gorgeous. And it is. I can see why so many people visit and end up staying for good. It's pretty clean, has a beautiful harbour (Kara and I were very excited to see the Mediterranean), has incredible buildings, and has both grand avenues and narrow cobblestone alleyways. Of course, my opinion was greatly enhanced by the bright blue sky and warm sunshine as doing two winters in a row is taking its toll.

The bus from Girona airport takes about 1 1/2 hrs, and fortunately we didn't have far to go from there to our apartment. Our apartment was HUGE, nicely furnished, and in a really convenient location, so Kara and I were feeling rather smug by the time we ventured out to explore. We got the tourist bus from Placa Cataluyna, the main square/train station, which was teeming with people. The bus is one of those hop-on/hop-off deals and goes to most of the attractions. We drove past many of the buildings designed by Gaudi which are amazing. I don't really like surrealism but these buildings are beautiful and just blend in with the rest of the architecture. A lot of the buildings in the old part of town are Gothic in design, so I loved it. There are streets and streets of picture postcard apartment buildings with wrought iron balconies and wooden shutters.

Having such a short time we decided to spend the first day just looking around the city to get a feel for it. We got off the bus at the National Palace which is now home to an art gallery. They had an exhibits on Carravagio which was so tempting, but I admired the vista of the city from the front of the palace instead. We did go up the Columbus Monument at the foot of Las Ramblas. I wanted to go on the funicular, but my enthusiasm for heights is not shared by Kara.

We walked all the way up Las Ramblas, which is the main shopping street, paved in the middle for pedestrians. It's chock full of tourists and street performers, and newsagents(?!) situated 10 feet from each other. It's also where loads of distressed kiwis we deal with at work loose their passports as their bags are slit by pickpocketers while they are watching the street performers. Needless to say I was in a 'Mad-Eye Moody' state of "CONSTANT VIGILANCE", but hey, we both returned home with all our possessions (ok so we had less euros, but that was from shopping...). We stopped in a supermarket - called a supermercat in spanish, which gave me visions of meercats with super powers...anyway it was a highlight. Not only did I get some exquisito chocolat for my workmates, but also some wine that comes in little cartons like just juice as a laugh!

After we completed the bus tour we did as the Spanish do, and had dinner after 9pm. We went to a restaurant recommended by my workmate heather who is a real foodie. El Quatre Cats was a favorite hangout of Picasso. He actually had his first exhibit there and even designed the menu cover which they still use today. The restaurant is really elegant, with live music and waiters that make a huge fuss of you. I definitely recommend it for the atmosphere. By the time we left at 11pm it was completely full. We were too shattered to even attempt to go clubbing, so we settled for watching The Mummy 2 dubbed into spanish and bizarre games shows with men cross-dressing.

On Sunday we went to church briefly to check out the main Cathedral called La Seu. It's fantastically gothic and ornate, but unfortunately most of it was covered in scaffolding as it's getting a revamp. Inside was great - if a little strange. All around the side of the cathedral are little altars/chapels where you can pray to various saints. I'm not sure why some saints were put together and why some got their own chapel, but I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Some of the iconography is so ornate almost to the point of garishness, but mostly it was beautiful. Anyway, I kept thinking of the people who I wished were with me to see it all, like my Mum and Rebecca, as I knew how much they would appreciate it.

We moved on to the history museum which is home to a large unearthing of the original roman foundations of the city. It's very cunning - they've suspended platforms over the ruins, so you can walk over them. It's massive, and you really get a feel for how the city must have been laid out, and just how damn clever those romans were. The precision of the stone masonry alone blows me away...

Huge areas were set side for things like dying materials, preparing fish, and making wine, and you can still see the streets, drainage, and layout of some shops. What I love the most is how you can see the materials they used in the construction - they recycled a great deal, and so bits of wall will have chunks of some ornate masonry left over from something else, or an inscribed tablet of some sort.

I reluctantly dragged myself out of there and we went to the Frederic Mare musuem. Basically he must have been this filthy rich nutter, as he has one of the most incredible collections I have ever seen. Let's just say Frederic falls into the pack-rat side of the hoarder-purger spectrum. He was quite a figure in 19thC Barcelona and collected, well pretty much anything. He was obssessed with sculptures, and made many himself, but he has a simply massive collection of religious icons (rooms and rooms full of crucified Jesus, Mary, Mary and Baby Jesus, John the Baptist, and mary magdalene). When you see them all together like that its overwhelming (most of them are life-sized) but I was so struck by the similarity between each 'type' ie, all the Jesuses looked pretty much the same, except for the one who had about 30 ribs...

There is at least one room each dedicated to:

• keys
• wrought iron
• ladies fans/bags/hair accessories
• cigar and cigarette packets
• shells
• timepieces
• scissors
• ceramics
• puppet theatres
• photographs
• pipes
• toys
• ....

Basically, you name it, old Frederic collected it. It really is amazing to see all these things grouped together, whereas if you just had one or two items of each it would be quite boring. But it provides a good insight into the Spanish 'Victoriana', looking at the cigarette boxes alone is stepping into history as they feature all the leading politicians, actresses, sportsman and gentry of the day.

When we got out, there was some kind of demonstration against violence going on, which involved lots of folk holding hands and dancing around in a circle. Needless to say I joined in, and was given dancing instructions in spanish by this sweet old man. Quite how this stops violence I don't know, but it was great fun.

After the required tapas for lunch we strolled through the Gothic quarter back to the bus station. We stopped in at a park and I was so charmed by the amount of families out doing things together. it's so nice - I think having 7 day a week shopping has robbed us of this sort of thing. Couples were practising swing dancing in the band rotunda, groups of teenage boys were playing games of soccer, frazzled parents were driving their kids around on buggies...there were even a group of people dressed as clowns so I had to have my picture taken with them. Next to a stone woolly mammoth.