Barcelona - 15 - 17 November

Arrived at Victoria Station early Friday morning only to find the Gatwick express train I shelled out £15 was not operational. Forced to take the slow train to Gatwick with commoners. Flight was uneventful, sat in the emergency exit row, that’s always exhilarating. American woman across the aisle had a top 10 Barcelona things to do book, bless.

Arrived 1.5 hours, weather was cool but sunny. Found Olivia almost immediately, purchased a set of 10 tube tickets for 10 euros and hopped on train to Olivia’s apartment. She’s staying 3 blocks from the La Sagrada Familia. The apartment was spotless, well-appointed and modern. Unfortunately we were on the 5^th floor of a building that lacked an elevator so it meant plenty of walking up and down. And maybe some wheezing.

We had lunch at an amazing tapas restaurant several blocks away. Highlights were the Catalan bread ( lightly toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and bits of tomato) and the Catalan mushrooms (baked? And dusted with various spices). At the end of lunch we were given small glasses of a liquor, apparently part of the meal custom here.

After a brief walk through the center of the city – very peaceful and calm on a Friday – we took the metro to Park Guell. Situated on the mountains that rise up over the city, it afforded us amazing panoramic views. We were able to catch the start of a gorgeous Mediterranean sunset.

Wandering back into town we made our way over to the Barcelona Cathedral. Spent a good while admiring the insides while catching up. Outside, we saw a young man hawking toys get hassled out of the area by “la policia”. Made us chuckle.

We spent the remainder of the evening sipping on fine Belgium beer in a small bar near Liv’s apartment. It wasn’t an entirely liquid dinner – we did share fries and calamari. She’d befriended the bar tenders and at the end of the night our bill was much smaller than expected – thanks staff!

The next morning I awoke to thunder and rain. SIGH. Nevertheless I didn’t let the weather interfere with our plans. We got up and were out of the house around noonish. We took the metro to the original Roman part of town. We passed by the Picasso museum – long line of people to get in, many were standing in the downpour. We had another amazing tapas lunch. Bottled water with ever meal, no one asks for tap water here.

Despite the inclement weather, we thought a quick pop over to the beach would be fun. We’re we in for a surprise. We were immediately met with gale force winds and biting rain. Wave after wave crashed onto shore. The beach was empty  save for few intrepid tourists like ourselves, snapping photos. The wind was so strong you could  be supported as you leaned into it.

We eyed a large nearby W Hotel and thought we could seek refuge and while taking in views from top floor. Unfortunately the elevators required access cards, but we did admire the night club like interior of the hotel.

We cooled our heals for a bit and walked back over to Las Ramblas – a large tourists boulevard that cuts through the city. We meandered our way back into town, stopping for trinkets and a picking up food for a light dinner at a small grocery store. Back home we ate and had a small siesta to recharge for the evening.

Our first watering hole was nearby Irish Pub. About as tacky as you could imagine, the only Irish folk there were behind the bar. We knocked back a couple pints and decided to head back to last night’s bar. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with the bartenders in broken Spanglish. All young guys, early 20’s.

The following morning we went a mission for a decent breakfast joint. Nope, vast majority of shops and restaurants were closed. Fortunately we did manage to find an excellent posh chicken place that was open.  

We returned the apartment, I packed, and we shoved off to the airport. My flight was delayed by several hours, and when we finally did take off, we flew right through a thunderstorm. Turbulence is always fun.