Back in
Austria now, but I have to title this one from Spain so it comes up on my
‚countries visited‘ list! We left Vienna
on Friday afternoon, and left behind a shitload of snow – at the airport, we
were sitting on the plane and had to wait while they sprayed some sort of foamy
stuff over the wings….we assumed it was to defrost them or something…….so that
was something different! The flight is
about 2 hours 15 mins from Vienna, so about half an hour longer than from
Hobart to Sydney. Friday night was quiet
– we were exhausted by the time we got to the hotel, which was amazing – soooo
nice and stylish….which was a relief because I picked it!
Saturday we
walked down to the harbor and wandered through the Las Ramblas area……there are
main streets but there are a lot of cool tiny little side streets, with small
specialty shops or apartments – they are quiet and the buildings are so old, it
was nice just to walk around and take it all in. We went back to the hotel for a little while
before going out for dinner and some beers – somehow (Josef’s fault) we ended
up at a bar entitled ‘gay friendly’ in our guidebook, and I can’t say the male waiters
were very friendly…people in a group of the same sex seemed to get a lot more
attention! And just as we had gotten off
the subway (which was always our way of getting around) into town for dinner,
we came across some sort of street parade, with people playing instruments and
BIG giant people (I forget how they do it, but the characters look about 4
metres high)….not sure exactly what it was for, but we followed it for a little
while!
Sunday we
went to a basketball game – Barcelona playing another team, they won by around
35 points and were really impressive…..wasn’t sure whether I would like it or
not but I had a great time and their skills were amazing. After that we had quite a walk up sooooo many
steps to one of the castles, and then further up the hill from there we saw the
Olympic stadium from the 1992 Barcelona games, so that was pretty cool. More walking around Barcelona before going
back to the hotel and then out to dinner, where I finally found what would be
my favourite Asian restaurant in Spain – Wok to Walk…..you actually get to see
them throw all the stuff in the wok and add the sauces, etc….it was yummy!
Monday was
another big walking day, we headed to Parc Güell and did a lot of wandering
there, before heading back to town in the afternoon and walking around down
there, going to an art museum (I don’t think I will ever learn to appreciate
art), then back to the hotel and back out again to my wok restaurant where I
found my absolute favourite – rice with veggies mixed together with a really
hot Asian sauce………DELICIOUS! I would
also end up getting that on Tuesday as well, for one last time! Tuesday we mainly spent shopping, walking
around one of the big shopping centres before heading back to Las Ramblas and
wandering the shops on the streets before walking to the beach. We had a bit of a rest at the hotel before
going out – to the Wok place of course, and then to a bar where I had the
yummiest cocktails…….to another bar after that and then to one more after we
took the subway to the stop near the hotel…..both of us were relatively drunk
by the time we got back to the hotel!
In short,
Spain was a really cool place to visit – it was awesome just to wander around
and take in the sights……we walked for hours every day (god, my feet were killing
me!) and after four days, I feel like we pretty much saw most of what Barcelona
had to offer. The weather was cold but
bearable (about 8 degrees, warmer than Austria’s -2!), it would be even better
in the summertime but then again, there would be so many more people around so
I’m not too sure! As far as food and
drinks go, it was quite a bit cheaper than Vienna, which was a nice
surprise! It had a more relaxed vibe
than Vienna but it was dirtier, sometimes just walking in the street you could
suddenly smell a sewage smell from a nearby drain, which wasn’t the most
pleasant thing, and there was quite a bit of graffiti around, which you don’t really
see in Vienna. It was a great trip
though, and it was interesting for me to see another European city while I’m
here and to compare the differences. The
end of our flight back to Vienna was absolutely breathtaking – we were flying
over massive snow covered mountains that
were actually above the clouds…..so you could see the top of the mountains
(against bright blue sky) and then the clouds below….it was unreal.
Photos for this one - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139586&id=742706461&l=b4f1be8850
Miss you guys xx
