Howdy!
So yeah I just spent 4 days in Barcelona and I'm officially knackered! Touristy stuff, eating lots of yummy paella and drinking into the wee hours has left me pretty wrecked, yet content, and oddly enough cured of my pimples for the time being (although for the love of god I can't figure out how.....). So there was 17 of us in a cool appartment right in the middle of town and so so closed to the main hub, La Rumbla where you can buy all sorts from all the stores and street sellers- including chickens and blue roses! And I have never seen so many shoe shops in one place!
So here are a few pics and stuff from one mad cool holiday:
Friday 16th Feb:
So I crashed at Cests place (and she cooked a very yummy dinner) with her mate Megan and we were up at a rather early 4.30am to catch a cab to Luton, got on a plane and headed for a balmy Barcelona (15 degrees or so) were we met Rich and his mates Dave and Noreen who were flying in from Dublin and Kelly who had flown in from Heathrow. Best line went to the Easyjet chick who asked me when I checked in if I 'know of anything that might have been put in my luggage without my knowledge?' To which I replied well I wouldn't know anyway, which she didn't find funny. I didn't think it was a bad joke for 5.30am.......
We caught a cab from Barcelona City Airport to our appartment, during which I thought I was going to die. The mad mulletous cab driver at one stage was driving at 140kmph steering with his knees whilst reading a map. Arghhhh! Then he didn't even drop us off near the appartment and we had to walk to get there. Oh and of course there was some seriously dodgy weaving in and out of traffic, and dodgy dance music. But we made it in one piece and checked out the appartment and headed down la rumbla and had a bit of a rekkie and bought a two day tourist bus pass and had a nosy around, checking out the famous architect Gaudi's very odd buildings, and hopped off at the Olympic village and some museum for a looksy.
We got back the appartment, and by that time a few other people, including good old Timmy and his mate Matt, so the beers were cracked out and we were quite merry by the time we headed out for a meal and more drinkies. At that point the night gets a bit mad, courtesy of the owner of the Restaurant who cracked out this lemon liquer stuff free of charge and got everyone drunk. But I did get to try my first Paella, and its gorgeous. Huge hunks of meat and seafood and just the best shit I've tasted and a highlight of the holiday.
Quite a few people (namely the Irish) were hammered and therefore it took a wee while to get home, with the help of a few, but after putting to bed the drunkard, I headed out for another drink with Liam and Linzi -Cest's mates who I went to Oktoberfest with and we eventually stumbled in around 2am which wasn't a bad effort. Incidentally the pub we were at was showing English rugby league of all things!
Carly and Noreen and yummy Paella!
Saturday 17th:
Hungover, and head out with Rich and Noreen for a nice greasy breakfast of tea, juice, crossiant, eggs and bacon (and charged a ridiculous amount too grrrrrr!). The three of us go on a mission to catch the tourist bus, but seeing as it was Saturday the queues were hideous so we walked up in the drizzle and headed up to check out Gaudis fantastic creations- (refer to my photos on Flickr from the link on the sidebar). After a coffee and a muffin we finally managed to hop on the bus and headed a wee bit out to say 'hi' to Ronaldinho, Messi and Eto'o to visit the highly recommended Camp Nou, Barcelonas home ground, and the third largest stadium in the world (100,000 capacity!), and clearly not designed for tall people as Rich found out! That took up a good part of the day and by the time we got back to the apartment for a siesta I was tired, but then couldn’t sleep. So it only seemed logical to head to the pub with Dave and Rich to watch the Man U vs Reading game at the pub…… so there it began again… another drunkard night ending up at a pub in the square not too far from the apartment, with the guys serving there wearing a bumble bee outfit, a shark hat (and was extremely rude and grumpy) and an old-skool aviator outfit. Not sure if that was a tacky tourist gimmick but we were taking the piss out of the grumpy shark hat guy. Hehehe. Encountered a dodgy scouser who bought a street sellers whole stock of roses and gave them all to our party! By that stage Cest and her gang had caught up with us, so naturally the night ended with rose petals being thrown in people’s faces and put in beer….
On the massage bench at Camp Nou
Sunday 18th:
Hungover. Figure that Paella would be a good cure so head out to find a place for something to eat with Dave, and Noreen and Rich. Order Paella, eat three quarters of Paella and discover cockroach in Paella. Stay in a state of shock and figure maybe my stomach won’t settle for a wee while yet… they didn’t charge us for the Paella and the guy reckoned that I must have been in the rice (I think we should have clicked when he cracked out the dirty table cloths…). Anyway went for a big wander for ages and went to the Picasso museum, after a long queue with entertainment from a terrible street guitarist. It didn’t have any of Picasso’s famous paintings, but covered more of the history and the different periods of his work, which was interesting enough. Came out with the conclusion that the guy was obsessed with clowns, horses and boobies, which can’t be very healthy! Walked for ages and ended up to the beach where I felt loads better after eating a baguette with cheese and anchovies. Head back to the apartment for a siesta, and once again can’t sleep, which is so surprising considering how little I’ve had but ah well. End up at a restaurant at by the waterfront and order a small tapas (peppers and prawns- yum yum) and try my first Sangria- yum yum yum!
Well that perked me up, and back to the funny bar with Cest and her housemates, later joined by the Irish and Tim and Matt (this time the staff were wearing normal clothes) and discovered that their measures of rum are VERY generous. A few of those plus some good Belgium beer under the instruction of Tim and I was feeling on top of the world. Stumbled home again, and tired the very dodgy kebab place opposite our apartment (falafels only please!). It’s so funny because the guy that works there always shouts out ‘Good morning’ which is hilarious when its in the evening!
Cest and I with Sangria!
Monday 19th:Hungover, not very coherent. Said goodbye to the contingent who were leaving in the morning, and ended up going on a mammoth 4 hour walk up to the Olympic Village (note LOTS of hills!!) but it was worth doing for sure. Ended up walking through this massive cemetery where all the casks are in these ‘cells’- was so amazing I’d never seen so many in my life. Walked some more headed down, and it was a quick tidy up of the apartment, a bite to eat and back in a cab to the airport (this time the driver was much better). Unfortunately my flight went to Gatwick so by the time I made my way home I was shattered, and slept most of the way home.
It was such and awesome holiday anway. Can’t be arsed writing anymore , except its time for a big DETOX!!!
Me outside the Olypmic Village
