Tis the season

Some  old Roman tombs 

Sweet roof!

Tryna get me in there...

Aside from all this Christmas business, I'm in on holiday finally! Not really finally, as this year I've had more holidays than probably the rest of my adult life put together, but it's gooood anyhow. The day after I finished work I took my excellent pressie from Alisha over to E&C for a bit of a spin. I realised I'd never actually played Scrabble before...I'm definitely going to need more practice, but it was FUN! And hilarious.

Then the next night I caught up with some Aussie ladies on a Eurotrip and went out for a yum dins, and thennnnnnnn the next day! Off! To! Funtown! Barcelona! Hurrah! I made sure I was super early after mine and Sam's disastrous attempt 1 at getting to France, but then I had 2 hours to kill at the airport...enough time for some last minute googling of places and addresses and words I'll probably never try say...

So I get off the plane thinking I know what I'm up to, and there's no sign for the train...don't worry just wander around a bit, found it. Right. Buy train ticket. The ticket machine rejects my hard earned Euros at least 3 times before I pick another machine, which won't even take the note at all. Why must all my trips start off with a tad of hassle? A lady comes to help me, gràcies. Over to the machine to get me on the train aaaaand it eats my 10 trip. Oh jees. Trust me to pick it! It must do it often as the lady walks over and lifts the top off it and pulls out my ticket. 


I get on the walk to my hotel after the very full train ride, ooooo exciting! Down La Rambla! Peeps all over the show! When I get into my wee single bed room I get this kinda giddy-oo-how-exciting-I'm-in-Spain feeling and do a little fist shake.

WALK TIME! It's kinda late and I'm kinda tired so I just go for a stroll round a few blocks, but even then I'm like WHOA IT'S ALL SO PRETTY! There's this church behind where I'm staying, you can see a pic of it in the other post down there somewhere, and it's crumbly and half blocked off, but they must still use it cos the bell tower lights are on all the time. Anwyay, it's in the middle of this square kinda courtyard and all the buildings around it are all painted lovely and have little balconies and over flowing plants etc, and it's all so....what you'd expect. And that's great. I feel like some lady with throw her dirty dish water out the window up there and then some guys will ride up on horses.

In the morning I don't get out till after 11, for the love of being able to sleep in past 6.30 for a change still hasn't worn off, and go to a market that's just across La Rambla called The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, or easier, La Boqueria Market. Straight away it reminds me of Thailand, all that fish and crazy fruit and the old fruit smell. I get a fruit medley and go on my way. First stop? Every second building cos they're all so good lookin. But then I'm off on the Lonely Planets Barri Gòtic walking tour (thanks Guy for the lend). 


While on this walking tour I keep thinking I'm going the wrong way or skipping things, cos I can't help being side tracked all the time by all the amazing looking buildings and passageways and churches and bits of an old wall even, but when I sat down to have lunch - after a kinda awkward language barrier type thing - I realised that I'd been fumbling my way along the sights the book suggested...I see why they put it like that, they all kind of lead to each other if you kinda go slowly round each one, or through the most interesting looking alleyway that's near, hah. I spent maybe double the time the book says it'll take, but it was well worth taking my sweet time. And I sat in a big closed in courtyard with a pretty fountain in the middle to do some people watching and eating. 


After a quick Skyping break, I was back out to go on another of the walking tours, the Modernisme walk in L'Eixample, which was quite a bit longer than the first one, and lots more spread out. It was to see all the crazy looking buildings from the photos up there...I skipped the last 3, but the 7 I did get to were preeeetty amazing. My favourite being the >Casa Batlló< which I guess is one of them obvious choices, but hey, it was exceptionally awesome looking. I didn't get inside it tho, there was a long line of people an dit was 19 euro, so I kept on my journey instead. 


Then back to my room via the supermarket to get some Christmas Day treats, and out for dinner! I stopped at one of the places that has tables and chairs on the Ramblas, got a table beside a heater, ordered a rather large beer and pulled out my book. Well, Sophie's book, which is a GOOD READ! It's called the Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and is set in Barcelona in the 50's-ish. I got a  pizza and some tapas for tea, and sat there reading and eating and drinking and people watching for a good few hours. It's not so cold as London so I did get to sit outside and not freeze which was nice. 


Back to the hotel, AGAIN, and that was me for the day. Skype some NZers, as it was Christmas day for y'all, then watch Lost in Translation and read some more. Oh the life of a loner in the holidays. 


Till later! X