So many changes in the past 24 hours - and so many to come! Let's start where I left you, I guess?
So we got the early train to Barcelona arriving about 2pm, hostel by 3pm and out the door again shortly after. We thought we'd check out La Sagrada Familia but the queue was around the block so we walked to Park Guell, Gaudi's model community attempt. It's like a Dr Seuss fun house park - so crazy but so cool. Spent a couple hours there before heading back to the hostel and grabbing dinner (microwave paella - very authentic). We went out for mojitos that night and just soaked up a never sleeping city. It was lovely. We found a bar where Hemingway and Miro used to drink (maybe not together...?) but it was choca so we got crepes instead. Good alternative plan, I say.
Sunday we had an amazing day! Started with the rugby, NZ vs Australia, for the semi-finals. We watched the heart-wrenching, seat-tipping amazing game, surrounded by Kiwis at "Flaherty's" off La Rambla. We had a lot of fun. We cheered when NZ got the ball at one point and a drunk Aussie behind us said "Don't clap yet girls" and then we scored and I was like "Can we clap now???"
Then we accidentally ran into a parade! There were big puppets and music and those climbing groups you see pictures of, where they make big human pyramids? So much fun! It was some kind of cultural party thing and we followed it for about four blocks until it stopped in a square. It's the kind of unplanned magic that really makes your trip extra special.
Then the big shit of the day - I dropped and broke my camera. I'm planning to buy a new one here in London because I already feel ghost-limby without my camera. Have lodged an insurance claim so we'll see how that goes, but mostly I'll just pay for a new one and hope I ever see something from insurance.
It was Peggy and my last night together :( So I took us out for a Visa-inspired tapas meal, which was STUPENDOUS. We checked out a few menus as we walked around today and saw a place we liked the look of, with reasonable prices, which turned out to be a mission to find again but so worth it. It was called Xaloc and was in the middle of the Jewish quarter of the Gothic area.
We got six tapas - an olive selection, gazpacho, roast red pepper, onions and eggplant, chorizo and potato meatballs, fish fritters and a warm apple and goat's cheese salad. Plus fries. The gazpacho was a miss and the roast veges were unexpectedly cold but even that was fun because that's tapas - whatever you get is it! Everything else was delicious and we had it with sangria :) The meatballs, or "bombas" were crispy on the outside and squishy yummy a little spicy inside - with aioli on top. Goat's cheese is so magical, I saved that for last. The home fries were just roughly chopped potato deep fried and the "fritters" were just chunks of fish deep fried - so good!
It took us about an hour to work our way through that. It's always surprising how filling tapas is. We waited a bit and ordered dessert. We basically ordered the two things that confused us on the assumption that if they were bad we would get waffles on our way home. They weren't bad :) We got chocolate fritters and "cinnamon and milk fried bread". The first was basically chunks of dark dark chocolate in donut batter, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. O.M.G. It was a magical experience. I would buy a deep fryer purely in the hope of repeating that experience. The bread was unusual, but yummy. It seemed to be a chunky piece of milk-soaked bread, covered in cinnamon and somehow fried so that outer layer was crispy. Came with hazelnut ice cream and was heaven.
Enough about food? Probably :) Basically Sunday was amazing, minus a little incident of breaking vital, expensive equipment.
Monday we got up early to get to La Sagrada Familia before it opened. I saw it in 2008 and was very excited because now the central part is open. It is so overwhelming, and really interesting to see as an example of a modern cathedral. Words don't do it justice but the sculptures are moving, the inspiration from nature is clear and the scale is worthy of comparison to any great cathedral around the world.
After that the flea market (I got a bag) and then some camera browsing... then just back to the hostel to head to the airport for me. It was a sad goodbye at the train station because Peggy and I have had so much fun and now we won't see each other for months but it's nice to be in London catching up with people I haven't seen for years.
Not sure when I'll next update, I'm in an internet cafe now and won't be able to charge my laptop in Reykjavik so we'll see what ends up being convenient.
So we got the early train to Barcelona arriving about 2pm, hostel by 3pm and out the door again shortly after. We thought we'd check out La Sagrada Familia but the queue was around the block so we walked to Park Guell, Gaudi's model community attempt. It's like a Dr Seuss fun house park - so crazy but so cool. Spent a couple hours there before heading back to the hostel and grabbing dinner (microwave paella - very authentic). We went out for mojitos that night and just soaked up a never sleeping city. It was lovely. We found a bar where Hemingway and Miro used to drink (maybe not together...?) but it was choca so we got crepes instead. Good alternative plan, I say.
Sunday we had an amazing day! Started with the rugby, NZ vs Australia, for the semi-finals. We watched the heart-wrenching, seat-tipping amazing game, surrounded by Kiwis at "Flaherty's" off La Rambla. We had a lot of fun. We cheered when NZ got the ball at one point and a drunk Aussie behind us said "Don't clap yet girls" and then we scored and I was like "Can we clap now???"
Then we accidentally ran into a parade! There were big puppets and music and those climbing groups you see pictures of, where they make big human pyramids? So much fun! It was some kind of cultural party thing and we followed it for about four blocks until it stopped in a square. It's the kind of unplanned magic that really makes your trip extra special.
Then the big shit of the day - I dropped and broke my camera. I'm planning to buy a new one here in London because I already feel ghost-limby without my camera. Have lodged an insurance claim so we'll see how that goes, but mostly I'll just pay for a new one and hope I ever see something from insurance.
It was Peggy and my last night together :( So I took us out for a Visa-inspired tapas meal, which was STUPENDOUS. We checked out a few menus as we walked around today and saw a place we liked the look of, with reasonable prices, which turned out to be a mission to find again but so worth it. It was called Xaloc and was in the middle of the Jewish quarter of the Gothic area.
We got six tapas - an olive selection, gazpacho, roast red pepper, onions and eggplant, chorizo and potato meatballs, fish fritters and a warm apple and goat's cheese salad. Plus fries. The gazpacho was a miss and the roast veges were unexpectedly cold but even that was fun because that's tapas - whatever you get is it! Everything else was delicious and we had it with sangria :) The meatballs, or "bombas" were crispy on the outside and squishy yummy a little spicy inside - with aioli on top. Goat's cheese is so magical, I saved that for last. The home fries were just roughly chopped potato deep fried and the "fritters" were just chunks of fish deep fried - so good!
It took us about an hour to work our way through that. It's always surprising how filling tapas is. We waited a bit and ordered dessert. We basically ordered the two things that confused us on the assumption that if they were bad we would get waffles on our way home. They weren't bad :) We got chocolate fritters and "cinnamon and milk fried bread". The first was basically chunks of dark dark chocolate in donut batter, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. O.M.G. It was a magical experience. I would buy a deep fryer purely in the hope of repeating that experience. The bread was unusual, but yummy. It seemed to be a chunky piece of milk-soaked bread, covered in cinnamon and somehow fried so that outer layer was crispy. Came with hazelnut ice cream and was heaven.
Enough about food? Probably :) Basically Sunday was amazing, minus a little incident of breaking vital, expensive equipment.
Monday we got up early to get to La Sagrada Familia before it opened. I saw it in 2008 and was very excited because now the central part is open. It is so overwhelming, and really interesting to see as an example of a modern cathedral. Words don't do it justice but the sculptures are moving, the inspiration from nature is clear and the scale is worthy of comparison to any great cathedral around the world.
After that the flea market (I got a bag) and then some camera browsing... then just back to the hostel to head to the airport for me. It was a sad goodbye at the train station because Peggy and I have had so much fun and now we won't see each other for months but it's nice to be in London catching up with people I haven't seen for years.
Not sure when I'll next update, I'm in an internet cafe now and won't be able to charge my laptop in Reykjavik so we'll see what ends up being convenient.
1 comment:
But I already knew all of that. What about the beyond part?
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