Some things I've learnt about myself in 5 short days. I get really short-tempered when I'm tired and when I'm hungry. Firstly, my bio-rhythms are completely back to front like a newborn baby and they seem to be resisting change and secondly, Barcelona is asleep until 10am, and I'm really struggling with the lack of food in the mornings. Drew is copping the brunt of it. I get snappy and inpatient. Today (day 5) is the first day I am finally feel kind of normal upon wakening. It helps that Drew and I have stocked up on food to get us through the 5am-10am time slot. From 5-7am I have to remain very quiet while Drew gets a few extra hours beauty sleep. My ageing body understands that extra hours of slumber are useless. When Drew finally wakes up at about 7am, we come alive. Social media and TV keep us entertained; chips, chocolate, fruit and bottled water sustain us until we can finally leave the hotel and witness sleepy Barcelona awaken.
The water in Barcelona tastes like pure (shit) chlorine. I'm don't usually have a problem with tap water, and I normally poo-poo anyone who complains about it, but this water is not drinkable. Thankfully, like most of the food, water is super cheap. 1.5L bottles cost *Aus$0.50.
*From now on all $ will can be taken to be Australian dollars
Lunch or dinner for the two of us costs about $30 if we want to eat cheaply. House wine is $4.50/glass. Antipasto is about $6.50-$25 a serve depending on how exotic you want to go, but we are getting by just fine on the cheaper choices. Breakfast has been costing us about total $10 and that is coffee and croissant for both of us.
Today is Sunday and apparently the city shuts down completely on a Sunday except for special holidays. I'm assuming Christmas is one of those special dates. Yesterday the city was completely packed! The streets were so full it looked like a crowd at a rock-concert. There were people in the street all night. Their conversations never stopped five floors down in the street below. The finale was 5 Englishmen standing in a circle swaying as they talked about their night. Everyone, especially the locals talk at the top of their voices. I kind of like that attitude though.
We moved yesterday to new accommodation yesterday. We are still in the Barri Gottic area, but this hotel, Hotel Condal on Carrer de las Boquaria is $20/night cheaper at about Aus$48/night (booking.com). View from the balcony is not the best, but the shower is fantastic. I can only compare it to old-fashioned rose shower heads at home.
I can't really remember where we've been the last two days. We've seen the Picasso Museum. Strictly no photos. We've visited a gothic church - Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, built in the 14th Century, which cost us $7.50 each to get in. We ate tapas and drank champagne at a restaurant which was situated directly in front of the church.
Ran into fawn legs again (beggar with the legs of a fawn) and a short old lady who begs outside the Barcelona Cathedral who seems to be everywhere. She wears a nun-like outfit and (we suspect) smears her bare feet with ash each morning. She moans something in Spanish with a very sad look on her face as she holds out her empty cup. It's hard to go past them without feeling guilty. It's horrible, but I realised I'm more likely to give money to people who busk than people who are poor. I forked over about $10 yesterday to buskers who annoyed the hell out of me by coming around the tables at the restaurant with their cup outstretched as they sang christmas carols. Not going to do that again. Beggars aplenty here.
Dog shit is a tiny bit of a problem. Quite a few dogs running free in the streets of central Barcelona, and the ones that are on leads just squat and take a shit on the pavement due to a lack of grass. Concrete jungle. Basically the only place dogs have to piss and shit is tiny little parks with ground of packed crusher dust. The only grass in the city is in Parc de la Ciutadella which is 70 acres of botanical gardens and city zoo. I've stepped in una dog shit, and managed to manoeuvre around about seis others thanks to Drew's pavement shit eagle eye.
Anyway, we are off to hire some bikes. Just found out that the bike shares speckled throughout the city are for Barcelona residents only. Tourists have to hire bikes from a shop.
We have also downloaded an app which you speak into and it translates into Spanish and then repeats it for you. With renewed enthusiasm, Drew ordered coffee this morning in Spanish, and even managed "I'd like to pay now please," and I asked for $4 in coin change for use in the laundromat. We were pretty chuffed with ourselves. We plan to do an intensive Spanish course when we get to Madrid in the new year.
Some photos from the last few days:
The water in Barcelona tastes like pure (shit) chlorine. I'm don't usually have a problem with tap water, and I normally poo-poo anyone who complains about it, but this water is not drinkable. Thankfully, like most of the food, water is super cheap. 1.5L bottles cost *Aus$0.50.
*From now on all $ will can be taken to be Australian dollars
Lunch or dinner for the two of us costs about $30 if we want to eat cheaply. House wine is $4.50/glass. Antipasto is about $6.50-$25 a serve depending on how exotic you want to go, but we are getting by just fine on the cheaper choices. Breakfast has been costing us about total $10 and that is coffee and croissant for both of us.
Today is Sunday and apparently the city shuts down completely on a Sunday except for special holidays. I'm assuming Christmas is one of those special dates. Yesterday the city was completely packed! The streets were so full it looked like a crowd at a rock-concert. There were people in the street all night. Their conversations never stopped five floors down in the street below. The finale was 5 Englishmen standing in a circle swaying as they talked about their night. Everyone, especially the locals talk at the top of their voices. I kind of like that attitude though.
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| Finally a country that has adopted shopping as a national sport |
We moved yesterday to new accommodation yesterday. We are still in the Barri Gottic area, but this hotel, Hotel Condal on Carrer de las Boquaria is $20/night cheaper at about Aus$48/night (booking.com). View from the balcony is not the best, but the shower is fantastic. I can only compare it to old-fashioned rose shower heads at home.
I can't really remember where we've been the last two days. We've seen the Picasso Museum. Strictly no photos. We've visited a gothic church - Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, built in the 14th Century, which cost us $7.50 each to get in. We ate tapas and drank champagne at a restaurant which was situated directly in front of the church.
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| Jesus being tortured. Always a gruesome sight. |
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| Panorama - doesn't come up too well here |
Dog shit is a tiny bit of a problem. Quite a few dogs running free in the streets of central Barcelona, and the ones that are on leads just squat and take a shit on the pavement due to a lack of grass. Concrete jungle. Basically the only place dogs have to piss and shit is tiny little parks with ground of packed crusher dust. The only grass in the city is in Parc de la Ciutadella which is 70 acres of botanical gardens and city zoo. I've stepped in una dog shit, and managed to manoeuvre around about seis others thanks to Drew's pavement shit eagle eye.
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| The culprit? |
Anyway, we are off to hire some bikes. Just found out that the bike shares speckled throughout the city are for Barcelona residents only. Tourists have to hire bikes from a shop.
We have also downloaded an app which you speak into and it translates into Spanish and then repeats it for you. With renewed enthusiasm, Drew ordered coffee this morning in Spanish, and even managed "I'd like to pay now please," and I asked for $4 in coin change for use in the laundromat. We were pretty chuffed with ourselves. We plan to do an intensive Spanish course when we get to Madrid in the new year.
Some photos from the last few days:
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| Cargo bikes are fairly common here |
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| Coffee and croissant time again - Aus$7.50 total |
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| Coffee time again. People openly smoke marijuana here. Two teenagers behind us were having a merry old time. |
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| Drew wearing her Arc de Triomf Barcelona hat |
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| Fountain in the Parc de la Ciutadella - gaudy enough to have some possible Gaudi influence. |
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| Great bike infrastructure here, despite the fact that biking culture isn't huge |
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| My rather large ass |
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| Sunday night crowd - Christmas in 5 days |
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