Hearing: Loca - Shakira
To get myself in the mood for this blog I'm listening to Shakira. Her video clip for one of her more recent songs 'Loca' is filmed in Barcelona, especially on Barcelonetta Beach which i mentioned in my
Barcelonetta Beach post back in July.
Day one in Barcelona was quite the introduction. I found my way from the airport to my friends place on Barcelonetta Beach and then lugged my bag up 3 floors via a teeny-tiny staircase, which made me wonder...how did anyone ever manage to get any furniture into their apartment?
It was great seeing Mele again and outside of Sydney, it added a flavour of the surreal. First stop of my introduction to Barcelona was
Port Vell and the
Christopher Columbus column where we would be meeting up with Dans parents, also, it happened to be the bottom of the famous
La Ramblas.
La Ramblas is the famous shopping avenue in Barcelona, it runs from
Placa de Catalunya all the way down to Port Vell which is 1.2km. It is lined with shops and the wide pedestrian avenue that runs down the is filled with all sorts of stalls, from flowers to souvenirs and your street performers. I must say though that the street performers here are amazing! Ive seen a number in the various cities and the ones here kick their butts! May favourite is the Alice in Wonderlands Mad Hatter - awesome costumes and expressions!
Off La Ramblas are many winding streets and alley ways. We wandered through them to the Mercat de Sant Josep (also known as La Boqueria) market which has everything you could ask for food wise, all fresh and extremely good quality, man was it packed though! We drifted through the streets of
Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter), saw some old roman buildings, and more of Barcelona's architecture. By this time i was well and truly lost, and happy to be so. For lunch Dans parents chose a restaurant in a small square. We found a sunny spot outside and i had my first chance to try some Spanish food. I have to say that everything i ate in Barcelona was exceptionally good, it was fresh tasty and cheap! Even something as simple as a baguette cheese sandwich was brilliant.
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| La Boqueria Market |
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| La Boqueria Market |
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| Barri Gotic |
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| Barri Gotic |
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| Barri Gotic |
The walk home was just as interesting, Mele and Dan showed me a very whimsical bar which made me think it had come out of a twisted Peter Pan book before stopping by a great old building that had a beautiful glass ceiling; it was home to the local post office...
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| Weird bar - too much flash used but it was quite dark in there |
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| A fairy sitting by a pool |
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| Loved the floating lady in this room of the bar |
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| Post Office ceiling |
Back at Barcelonetta a while later (by which time i was on my 4th coffee for the day to keep me awake since i had only gotten 2 hrs sleep the night before), we took a walk to the local grocery to buy some supplies.We decided to do dinner at home and we bought lots of fresh yummy stuff that didn't cost the earth as it would have here, and took it home for our feast :)
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| Say what??? Store on our way to the local grocery. |
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| My two lovely hosts, Mele and Dan |
All in all, not a bad start to my first trip to Spain!
VP
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