Last Day in Barcelona...

... so I had a lot planned. Shopping, museums, eating, walking, beach. Never did make it to the beach today though.

The morning started with a trip to the Boqueria where I got wine to take home (mmmm), almonds to eat (mmm), and a Spanish omelette for dinner and tomorrow's snack. Took my haul back to the hotel, then off to the Museu Textil at Palau Real.

There are actually three museums in Palau Real - textiles, ceramics, and design, all with one entry fee. The woman said something to me in Spanish about reduced rate and I pointed to the sign - no, not a student, not unemployed, not a senior citizen. She shook her head at me and said the same thing, and I realized I was trying to pay more... and stopped!!!

The design museum was fairly cool - it was mostly household items, with some graphics towards the end. The textile museum was GREAT: it discussed clothing as achieving one or more of four functions (e.g. hiding, emphasizing, etc.) and then took eras from medieval times to the present, and analyzed what the styles strove to achieve and how they accomplished it. For example, emphasizing silhouette with wide panniered skirts. It gave a great basis of comparison from era to era and was quite fascinating.

The ceramic museum was less so - little English signage, and lots of tiles.

Sadly, the gift store was 99% books and nothing of interest to buy. I would have bought anything from the textile museum, but they had nothing at all related.

A quick stop in El Raval at a little bar for lunch - patatas bravas, anchovies, and manchego. Yum. Did I say quick? - becuase I meant, of course, 2 hours!

A little shopping in the area, which was fruitless, then back to Boqueria for bread and a sampler of olives (1 Euro) - yum yum yum. Back to the hotel to drop stuff off and shower, then off to Montjuic.

I was lazy and took the funicular up Montjuic, and I have to say, Lisbon's funiculars are MUCH cooler. I strolled to the Fundacion Miro, and went in to see the collection. Umm, apparently Miro's main body of work is comprised of the kind of art I don't get. I was through the place in record time, and off for a walk through the Montjuic gardens and back down to the Barri Gothic area.

Some more - you guessed it - SHOPPING! - then back to the hotel for light dinner and packing... except one of the other guests was talking to the owner when I came in, then she and I got to talking, and eventually we sat down on the couch and yakked for a couple hours. It was a lot of fun chatting; she's a year younger than me and from Australia. We exchanged emails and offers of housing if I go to Perth or she comes to Chicago.

So now - late late late. I ate some bread and cheese, I am going to have a TON of Spanish omelette to eat tomorrow... and now, off to pack.

Museum-less Monday

Most of the museums in Barcelona are closed on Mondays, so I decided to take the day to explore, shop and relax. The first thing I did was head to the flea market, Encants Vell, which I was hoping would have something cool but in reality looked like Maxwell Street market at home. Oh well.

I did a switcheroo to the guesthouse annex after that - just a few blocks form the main one, and just as cute. After throwing my things into the new room, I was back out the door, this time shopping with a purpose. I hit the Mango outlet store, then went down to Barri Gothic to pick up a couple things. Somehow I frittered several hours away...! So I decided to head toward the hotel for lunch.

El Nobu something-or-other was recommended by my guidebooks, especially for the menu del dia at lunch which is cheaper than going for dinner. Sounds good to me! I had beans & ham for a starter -YUM! - then monkfish for the entree. By this point I was full but hey, "Postres" (dessert) comes with it, so yes I'll have a crema catalan. Mmmm. Not a bad meal at all.

Being totally stuffed, I decided to collapse on the beach for a while, so gathered my things and headed to the waterfront. Note to males - there are tons and tons of topless chicks on the Barcelona beach! And I mean 20-somethings, not old hags like me! (Well some of those too). Definitely not in the U.S. anymore.

The beach has a ton of Middle Eastern guys walking up and down chanting "Cerveza fanta coca cola cold beer" and the chant sounds like the call to mosque - they use the same range of notes. Kinda funny. There are also women offering massages; I was skeptical at first and passed on the first woman to approach me, but the second one gave me a little demo and wow. Yes. I got a lovely massage, on a beach, for about $20 US. Ahh.

After a couple hours at the beach I showered, dressed and headed out to see Barri Gothic at night (again). I did a little shopping, then realized I was hungry so started looking for a place to eat.I kept following the old streets, until I had no idea where I was, but there were restaurants... I picked one that looked good and ordered a couple tapas. The corizo was awesome!

Meanwhile, the manager of the restaurant - who, I'm not kidding, was about 5' tall - was hitting on me. At the end of the meal, he gave me a little shot of a digestive. The 2 guys at the next table eyed it for a bit and finally asked how it was, and we all ended up chatting. They were from Australia and on week 3 of their travels in Europe. We had a lot of fun talking, and the manager would occasionally interrupt us, making us all crack up each time. Eventually - after about 2.5 hours - the place closed and the manager asked me for a drink and to see his favorite video at the heavy metal bar. I suck at saying no, so of course I went and we watched G'n'R November Rain - too funny. After one beer I made excuses and left.

Got to the metro and it was closed - wtf??? I checked my watch and wow, 12:30 am - my latest night here.

Free Stuff, Expensive Stuff

FYI, I won't be posting any personal pictures to the blog for the duration of the trip - I dropped my camera last night (no I was not drunk) and it is inoperable now. So I am taking pictures on this thing called a disposable camera (?) that uses some stuff called film(?!). Weird.

Slower start this morning, I wasn't out the door until almost 9:30 am. Headed to the Picasso Museum asap - it opened at 10 am and today is the one day a month with no admission. Got there around 10:30 (oh, I got lost on accident and on purpose on the way...) and the line looked long. But it went quickly and I was soon in. There is a temporary exhibition on Kees Van Dongen that was really well done and fascinating (and no, I never heard of the guy before). The Picasso section was intermittently interesting, but not as good as the museum in Paris, I thought.

Stopped in Placa Catalunya to see if the big stores were open, which I knew they weren't but maybe something weird happened and they were. No. Checked the disposable camera price at the newsstand; $22 - no way! Then I went into the information center on a whim and yes, they had disposable cameras for much less. Whew.

I decided to have lunch in Barceloneta, the neighborhood that used to be fishermen & families but is now getting trendy. I chose a well-reviewed restaurant in the Frommer's guide and when I managed to find it, almost choked at the prices on the menu. Thank goodness I'm used to Chicago prices! It was an excellent meal - delicious gazpacho, and fiduella Can Costa - a noodle dish with sauce and seafood, that you also stir in a side sauce that's like a spicy mayonaise. And yes, I said seafood is in it - apparently I like shrimp, as long as it's expensive and Spanish! It was very tasty shrimp and I even spooned the last piece out of the pan before giving up on the entree. There were also mussels and things that I think were squid but pretended not to recognize. I finished it all off with a crema Catalan, which is like a creme brulee. But Catalan.

Having wayyyyyyy overspent for the day at one meal, I decided to do something free again and headed to Park Guell. Now a park, it was supposed to be essentially a housing development until Gaudi went a little crazy and the investor stopped plowing money into it. Now it's a wonderfully overly orante park, and I spent a couple of peaceful hours walking or sitting and listening to the various buskers throughout the park.

I left the park and thought I'd walk around a bit before heading back to the hotel. The old town is very pretty at night. But, being Sunday, everything was closed so I got bored and came back here to blog and plot my next two days. Lots of places are closed on Mondays, so it looks like the beach tomorrow and a busy Tuesday!

Yum, Food!

Today started with the Gourmet Walking Tour. This was a 2 hour tour that explained Catalan food, told us about some very traditional dishes, took us to the Boqueria Market and some establishments that sell traditional foods, and ended with a drink and 2 tapas. It was very interesting, and best of all they gave us a little map of the walk so we can find our way back to all the tasty looking food!

After the tour ended, it was lunch time. I headed to the Taller de Tapas location we'd passed, where I had a glass of wine, a glass (yes, a glass!) of gazpacho, and sardines. I'd had sardines in Lisbon and these were done the same way, and were just as tasty.

After lunch I headed for the espadrille store, but it was closed so I wandered the old town until it opened. I got a pair of cute espadrilles once they did! Then, to the cheese store owned by theScottish woman. She was very hospitable and gave me tastes of several cheeses, then we chatted politics for about 30 minutes! Too fun.

Having bought cheese, I headed back to the Boqueria to collect the rest of tonight's dinner: Iberico ham. The bread place was closed so I stopped in a little bread place on the way to the cathedral, and got a mini loaf and some kind of yummy chocolate filled thing that I immediately devoured.

Next stop: the cathedral. I'd done the tour earlier in the day; nowI was here for the Sardana, a traditional Catalan dance that, like everything Catalan, was banned under the Franco regime. I am such a dork - watching the groups dancing, I got all choked up by the beauty of their persistence in preserving their culture, and the joy in being able to openly share it.

After watching the dance, I ran back to the hotel to have my dinner and change before heading to a Spanish guitar concert at Palau Musica Catalunya. This was a double bonus: a famous guitar master, Manuel Gonzalez, in an architechtural gem. It was a beautful experience, visually and aurally. And a great end to another busy day.

A Busy Day!

I started the day with a delightful breakfast on the terrace of the hotel. Once I'd downed enough coffee to face the day, I headed out to run errands before the 11 am bike tour I wanted to catch.

Sadly I had no luck finding a SIM card before the bike tour. I ran in to Placa Jaume just before 11 am and approached one bike group, only to be told they were full. Fine, back to Plan A: Fat Tire Bike Tours. I'd only gone to plan A because Fat Tire takes an hour longer than the other, so I wasn't too bummed out to go back to Plan A.

Turned out to be a good choice. Our guide was personable and witty, and the group was nice. Lots of Americans - some from NY and Baltimore, one from New Orleans, and of course me. We rode from site to site, and got a quick overview of each one. For some - Sagrada Familia, for example - that was enough for me; others I want to try to get back to. We ended with drinks and lunch on the beach, a nice way to conclude. Oh - the big fish is a Frank Gehry design, which I thought was interesting as he did the theater in Millenium Park.

I wandered the Barri Gothic neighborhood for a bit afterward, then headed back to the hotel for a snooze, research, and a change of clothes. While in the room (my 2nd here so far, BTW!) it started raining, so I ended up spending more time in the hotel than planned.

Back out again to 1) buy a SIM card, 2) find the ch

eese place, and 3) find the espadrille place. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad! I got caught up in the shopping and wandering on the way and ran out of time for the cheese and espadrille places. I ditched the cheese place, guessing I'll go there on tomorrow's Gourmet Walk. I wandered some more, and found a church that I haven't been able to identify; when I looked at the notices on the bulleting board, I was stunned to see two in Polish! How very odd.

Some more random wandering, then dinner at Opote, recommended by my Rough Guide. Of

course the waitress spoke no English, and the menu was all in Spanish! Fortunately, I recognized bacalhau in the starters, and asked her for a "pescado" entree, and we were very pleased that we got my meal ordered! - even though I had no idea what, specifically, I was getting! It all was excellent - the starter was a salad of tomato, onion, pimento, olives and salt cod. The entree was monkfish with some kind of tasty sauce; clams (which I had to ask the waitress for the name of in Spanish, come back and look it up, to realize what they were. I never saw a clam unfried before!); mussels; and shrimp. I did not eat the shrimp and ignored it as much as possible. But I ate everything else, yum! For dessert I managed to order "pina" (aka pineapple) which was the perfect sweet/tart flavor to end on.

After all that food, I decided to walk back to the hotel - the night is warm, and it was so pretty to poke along the streets and window shop. I popped into the corner store near the hotel and found they have Fresca Zero, yay! so I bought some, and a bottle of water; it's very dehydrating here.

Tomorrow's plan is ambitious: the Gourmet Walk, watching dancing at the cathedral, and hopefully a concert. And of course food - I hope there are enough meals to get in all the food I want to taste...!

Getting There

Arrived at O'Hare 30 minutes early on Wednesday only to be told that the flight is an hour late. So now, I have 3.5 - not 2 - hours to kill in the crappy international terminal. There is NOTHING once you go through security; all food, shopping etc. is on the outside. Sigh. Read 2 magazines and was able to lighten my load by throwing them out!

The flight finally boarded around 10:30 pm and we were off by 11 pm. Nice flight, got some decent sleep for a few hours. The transfer from T5 to T3 at Heathrow was super easy & quick; I'm dreading the reverse on the way back, which in my experience to date is a bit of a pain. Had a nice little chicken & mushroom pie for lunch while waiting for the flight to Barcelona. Left Heathrow about 30 minutes late, but otherwise the flight was fine - I slept through most of it!

Very easy to take the Aerobus from the Barcelona airport to the city center. It drops you at the square where the tourist information is, so I stopped in & bought a ticket for thr gourmet walk on Saturday. Then I hopped on the metro to the hotel's stop.

As I walked by the hotel, a gentleman asked me, "Ana's"? and I said yes. He turned out to be Ana's (the hotel owner) husband. Good thing I bumped into him, as there's no clear marking on he building! The guesthouse is adorable, several guestrooms in what used to be an apartment, I guess. Ana is sweet and very helpful.

After checking in and unpacking, I took Ana's suggestion for a walk to and down Passeig Gracia, a huge shopping street. I found the "Block of Discord," where the architecture of the individual buildings clash; the Gaudi building, Casa Battlo, reminded me of Vienna.

I was hungry! I started looking for something to eat, and ended up in a smalll restaurant near the hotel. I had a risotto with mushroom and "crunchy" ham that was delicious! I took their card in case I need to find it again; I could see they had tapas at the bar.

My tummy full, I realized I was exhausted. o I headed back to the hotel and went straight to bed. Need my rest for tomorrow's exploring!

Oh My - Time Flies!

Having been home from Greece for all of six weeks, it's almost time to leave for Barcelona! About a week ago, I realized how quickly this trip is approaching and buckled down to do some reading and research. I now know that I will buy espadrilles; eat cheese, ham & tapas; go on a Fat Tire bicycle tour to orient myself; and see some cool architecture. I am working on my few words of Catalan, becuase 1) my Castillian Spanish sucks anyways and 2) apparently Barcelonians (?) like when you at least try to speak Catalan.

What I don't know is what I'll pack... the weather is currently 83 during the day and low 70s at night, but the weekend is supposed to be up to the high 80s and warmer at night.

That reminds me - I may have to hit the beach, too....!

My hotel has wireless internet, so hopefuly I can keep this blog up to date while in Barcelona.

Adieu!