Few days stop in Spain will be cold and cloudy as we gather from the sky all over Europe. Further chill comes from security officers at Frankfurt airport (connecting flight to Barcelona from here) who confiscated our two bottles of premium Mexican booze - one Tequila Reposado and one Mescala with coconut flavour. They claimed dangerous items cannot be carried on board despite both bottles had original seals from the shop. Very very unhappy! We give both bottles to girl in a coffee shop instead throwing it into dispose bin. I bet the security guy would fish it out of the bin later. Why people take stuff from us? Really upset. Landing in Barcelona after dark we follow instructions on how to get to the hostel in historical part of town. First bus, then metro and ten minutes walking through narrow gothic streets we knock on a spooky-grafity covered door which nobody would ever guess is the hostel entrance. We learn later the most backpackers hostels are disguised like that. A drink or two would be nice before sleep so we put on warm jumper and beanie to keep our body temperature above freezing and scroll out to nearby bar. Morning is sunny but still very chilly. I can hardly hold coffee cup still, my hands are shaking with cold. We are certainly not used to these low tepms being spoiled by warm tropical clima of Central America. With a map in hand we keep walking around town, partly for reason to see few landmarks and partly just to keep warm. First impressions from La Rambla are very nice and soon we get absorbed by architecture and landscape. Number one on our sightseeing walk are buildings designed by famous architect Antonio Gaudi (never heard of this name before), everything in Barcelona seems to have some Gaudi flavour and to be honest his creations and designs are quite interesting and definitely unusual. Although all architectonic gems are scattered around central Barcelona at the end of day we are really tired after whole day walking. We deserve some good nutritious dinner and recommendation is Paella and Piadina. "What is it?", I ask. Ok, we need to try to know so today Paella and tomorrow Piadina. Both are surprisingly tasty especially with glass of Sangria or local bear. Next day we again walk many miles visiting Park Guell (guess who designed this park? - Antonio Gaudi), and today is very sunny with at least 15oC. After dinner we take metro to famous musical fountain Montjuic at Placa d'espanya but to our dissapointment the fountain is closed for winter maintenance. In fact many attractions are closed and January might not be the best time to visit any european city. From Barcelona an overnight bus to Madrid so by 9pm we pick up our bags from the hostel and head off to the bus terminal. Having two hours to the departure we either play games or observe buzz around. Suspiciously looking guy sits next to Iva and in some premunition I ask her to get her day pack closer to her body. She already suspects something is not right here and stares at the guy. Shortly he moves to another seat next to group of young Asian tourists and I just notice he tries to grab one of their bags. I jumped up and loudly screamed at him, and he ran away. Few minutes later one of the asian boys realised his daypack was replaced with a boggy one but it was too late to catch the guy. Poor guy lost his laptop with all holiday pictures and no surprise he is close to the tears. I check all our bags are still connected together with carabinas and from now I leave my eyes wide openned. About one hour later two spanish guys take seat next to our bags and one tries unlock carabinas. This is just too much for me! I yell at him so load that all people look at what is going on. I keep pushing him away as my adrenalin shot up high until he runs away. Security officer just happened to be somewhere else so these crooks have free hands. We have been travelling through Latin America for six months and have not experienced anything even close to this. Quite surprising!
Glimpses of snow on the way to Madrid are leftovers from cold snap which swept recently accross Europe and morning arrival is even colder then yesterday. Brr!!! A street thermometer shows whole 4C! But wait, there is a compensation. Freshly baked pastries Churoz dipped in hot creamy chocolate elevates our mood on this freezing and foggy morning. Finding pre-booked hostel is easy, the central heating inside is very cosy. Put on everything warm we have and off to Sunday morning market as this one is highly talked about. Main Madrid attraction however is Prado Museum with exhibits from Goya, Velazguez, Rubens and Raphael, and we'd love to see them. Free entry after 5pm saves few euros and half an hour queue is small sacrifice to put up with. Museum closes at 8pm giving us enough time to enjoy these masterpieces. Tomorrow afternoon Jan 19 we leave Spain for Bangkok by Swiss Air via Zurich. Wandering if they serve some of yammy Swiss chocolate on board?
We trully enjoyed five days stopover in Spain despite constant shivering from cold. Barcelona is purly magic. Walking through web of narrow streets in the Gothic part of town feels like being lost in a maize but never too far from a cosy and warm cafe shop or bar. Strong european feel makes us nostalgic and reminiscent of young years back in Prague or Brno where we are from. Only next time we would come in late spring.
