Matt and Lisa's Adventures

29 December 2022

Up early this morning and off to the airport for the flight to Barcelona. Dubai airport was busy, even with the early hour of the morning. The flight was good and I watched Django Unchained and Midway – both of which were really good. It took an age for our bags to arrive and Lisa got very frustrated. First impressions of Barcelona was just how different it was to Dubai. There were no super tall buildings and the city felt much more natural and alive compared to the artificialness and soullessness of Dubai. 

After checking into the hotel we went for a walk in the local area. We are in a great location, close to the main city centre. We wandered to the Placa de Catalunya, which was setting up for Christmas / New Years celebrations. There were some Christmas markets but they were very much local products and not like other Christmas markets we had seen. There was an area with lots of pigeon – Lisa did not enjoy that! We went to McDonald’s for a drink and ended up with alcohol free beer – there was the option of full alcohol beer but we didn’t need that in our tired state. It is amazing the alcohol laws here and just the general contrast with New Zealand’s draconian laws.

We then walked along La Ramble, the main tourist road. It was very busy and had lots to look at. We went into a large market, selling all sorts of food and other products. 

For dinner we went to Konica, a German restaurant, which was ok.  Afterwards we wandered around, and were amazed by how many people were out and about. It is far busier at night here than it is during the day. We checked out the Apple Store, which was, as expected, absolutely pumping. Finally, being very tired and jet lagged we headed back for a well earned sleep. 

30 December 2022

I had a really good sleep which I suspect was because I was so tired after Dubai and the flight. We left the hotel about nine am which was much later than I had expected. We caught the metro to Placa d’Espanya. We had driven through there on the airport bus and it had cool things to see but first we needed drinks. We found a cafe and Lisa tentatively ordered a latte and I had my first Spanish hot chocolate. It was good but nothing to rave about. Lisa almost walked out without paying – getting used to the cafe style here might take some time… 

The Placa is next to arena Barcelona, which looked interesting but we didn’t have time to check it out. There are some amazing buildings including two massive brick towers, but it was unclear as to why they were built. A walking tour in this area would have been very interesting. There were lots of children as there was a children’s festival on at the exhibition centre, I imagined that they would have lots of cool things to play with. However, it looked like it was a pre-requisite to take a child to the exhibition and while we contemplated borrowing one in order to get entry we decided to remain focussed. 

We headed up the hill toward the art museum. We passed the magic fountain but that wasn’t operating as they were preparing the area for New Years celebrations. There were great views of the city from the top of the hill. We the headed into the museum. We only had a had an hour there which wasn’t anywhere enough time. I mostly spent my time in the medieval art section, most of it was religious paintings, but really interesting. 

On our way back to the metro, we grabbed a chocolate croissant, then off to the Cathedral of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia). Coming out of the subway, people were turning and stoping on the stairs once they spotted the cathedral, such is the effect that it has on people. We were on the nativity side and it looks a bit like it is melting. It is a very unique and interesting building and so unlike any other church we had ever seen. We met our guide and headed in for the tour. Our guide was Jean Miguel (most Spanish name ever) and he was very good but over used the word “beautiful”  and while the cathedral is amazing I don’t think it was really beautiful. 

Interesting things to note:

• The cathedral was started in 1882 and is still not finished. It was scheduled to finish in 2026 for the hundred year anniversary of Gaudi’s death but Covid has things behind schedule. While that sounds like a long time for the construction of a building, many cathedrals have taken hundreds of years, although those were generally started a lot earlier than the 19th century.
• The cathedral was largely designed by Anthony Gaudi and he spent most of his life working on it. He made many models to illustrate his vision and these were able to be used to continue construction after his death. Gaudi died in 1926 when he was hit by a city tram and he wasn’t recognised so he was taken to a public hospital where he died amongst the poor of the city. Dying amongst the poor was apparently what he had wanted, but I suspect he didn’t want to go out having been him by a tram. 
• The first side of the cathedral had the story of the nativity in the facade. Most of it was destroyed during the Spanish civil war, but has since been rebuilt. The sculptures are amazing and were created by a Japanese sculptor who moved to Barcelona and converted to Christianity. There are a million little details in the facade, doors, pillars etc. 
• The inside of the cathedral is absolutely massive. The roof is held up by massive pillars designed to resemble trees. There are amazing stained glass windows with different colours for the different sides. It wasn’t very sunny the day we were there but these would have been amazing on a sunny day. 
• The cathedral was built as a way for citizens to donate and have their sins absolved. The church is still paid for today from donations, although most of it comes from the tickets sold for people to enter the church. This means that my donation has absolved my sins – I agreed with Lisa that I am allowed to create some new sins now
• The facade on the other side showed the passion of Christ. The sculptures are done in cubism style which while very different made for an interesting contrast to the traditional sculptures on the nativity side. 
• The main facade will be the glory facade featuring the ascension. That is still under construction. 
• There are eight towers – four on each of the lateral sides. Four more towers will be added for the glory side and then four towers for the Bible writers (three of these are complete). Then there will be three final towers for Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The Jesus tower is to be massive with a huge cross on the top. People will be able to go to the top of this and it will be the highest stone structure in the world. It seems unbelievable that Gaudi could have designed all of this and that the foundations could have been built so long ago to support all that weight!

After the tour we grabbed a quick lunch of Foccaica bread and wandered the local neighbourhood. Then it was off to our walking tour in the old town. Our guide was a Greek man called Theo. Interesting points:

• We started by the Barcelona cathedral (this is the cathedral of the city centre and is completely different from the Sagrada Familia). It is being renovated and has Samsung coverings, which cheapened the look. 
• The cathedral was built in the 13th century and was originally very cheap. In the late 1800s they added a better facade which improved the look substantially but to save money they only did this for the parts which were visible to visitors!
• There was a large Picasso picture on a building which had a lot of symbolic meaning for the Catalan area. 
• There are cool art installations in the area, including one made up of lots of photos that when viewed from a distance look like lips kissing. 
• The original Roman town was in this area and there are still some Roman walls remaining.
• There is a shop that sells figurines of people shitting. This is apparently lucky for the local farmers as it fertilises their fields. 
• There some hideous buildings where people wanted to out do others and so hired the best architects to design very over the top buildings. We would describe the buildings as very gaudy (but not an appropriate term to use in Barcelona).
• Some amazing squares to see, many of which were used in movies. One was bombed during the Spanish civil war and killed lot of school children. The damage has been left as a reminder of what happened there. 

Lisa broke out in hives during the tour, so after the tour we headed back for her to have a cold shower which seemed to improve things. For dinner we went to a local restaurant and had sandwiches, Lisa had an omelette sandwich which seemed like a very weird choice. We then walked to La Rambla for some churros with chocolate. They were good but not amazing. It was a very touristy area from which may not have been the wisest choice for getting the best quality food. 

31 December 2022

Woke early this morning, Lisa wasn’t too annoying (had to include this update based on Zoe’s travel diaries). After the walking tour yesterday we were keen to head back and explore some of the sights in the El Born suburb. I got a Swiss hot chocolate along the way which was very nice, but about 75% cream. The waitress told me off for ordering at the counter, I’m still struggling to get the hang of the cafe rules over here. On the tour Theo had pointed out Hofmann, an award winning pastry shop that is famous for its croissants. We shared a mascarpone croissant and it was fantastic! 

We walked through the local market, it had lots of weird meats which freaked Lisa out and lots of fish that she hates. We went to a museum over an archeological excavation site. The site dates back to 1700 prior to the Spanish war of succession. The old king of Spain had died and there were arguments over who should succeed him as king. At this time, Catalonia had a lot of freedom and they wanted a different monarch from the choice of the rest of Spain. This led to war with France on the side of Spain and the British, Dutch and Austria on the side of Catalonia. Ultimately the Catalonians lost their allies and tried to carry on fighting but they weren’t strong enough by themselves. There was a siege of Barcelona in 1714 and ultimately Barcelona fell. This led to the loss of a lot of independence and a large chunk of the city was destroyed to build a new military citadel. This is still a major source of anger in the Catalan region and fuels the separatist movement in the area today. The excavation site was over some of the buildings that were destroyed as part of the clearing to build the citadel. The building used to be a market but was going to be turned into a library when the ruins were discovered. Rather than continue, the market building was kept and instead turned into the museum. 

Lisa also went back to the shop that sells the shitting people. She got a present for her dad from here. We wandered back and grabbed ependadas for lunch along the way. 

Then it was off onto the football! For Christmas my parents had given us tickets to Barcelona vs Espanyol at the Nou Camp, which was the first Barcelona game after the World Cup. The metro train slowly filled up with fans as we made our way out to the stadium. It was slow progress getting into the ground but we made it to our seats about five minutes before kick off. We were under cover which was good for keeping us out of the sun but meant we didn’t get a full view of the stadium. The view of the field though was fantastic and it was a great vantage point for seeing all of the available space and the tactics of both teams. Barcelona dominated the game and scored early with a header in the 7th minute directly in front of us. Unfortunately, they couldn’t convert their possession into more goals and Espanyol equalised with a penalty in the 73rd minute. It was a pretty dodgy penalty call. There had already been a lot of yellow cards but in the last 20 minutes it got worse and ended up with a red card per team. Barcelona pushed hard but weren’t able to get the winner and so it ended a 1-1 draw. There was chanting throughout which we joined in with when we could. The crowd was passionate but not angry. Lots of children at the game and a lot nicer feel overall than going to a rugby game in New Zealand. It was very tense at the end and overall a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. 

Lisa wasn’t feeling well so we headed back to the hotel and had some quiet time. We decided to eat in rather than going out and so I headed off to find some takeaways. This should have been a simple job…. However, it appears that New Years is a big thing in Barcelona and so pretty much everything had shut early. Two McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks and a Burger King were all shut. In the end I found a Five Guys burger place that was open. They were crazy busy but had obviously expected this and so had a lot of staff on. The food was surprisingly good. No new years celebration for us, we had a single beer each and went to bed. 

1 January 2023

Slow start for us, but Lisa was feeling much better which is a relief. Not sure what caused her to feel unwell and could have just been over tiredness but still very weird. We packed up and dropped our luggage at reception. 

First attraction of the day was Park Guell.  This is up in the hills of Barcelona and was designed by Gaudi as a park to be shared with the public. Originally it was meant to be a model suburb with lots of open space but only two of the sixty sites were ever sold and so this was a massive commercial failure. The metro got us close, but it was a steep walk up the hill to the park. Thankfully there were escalators to help with part of the journey. Once in the park we meandered our way around. It was very Gaudi but also just wasn’t that compelling or interesting compared to the La Sagrida Familia cathedral. The aqueducts were cool and there were amazing views over the city. It really emphasised how few tall modern buildings there are in Barcelona. And also just how huge the cathedral is and how incredibly massive it will be after the completion of the Jesus tower. As we couldn’t find any cafes open along the way we went to the park cafe which was a huge mistake. The hot chocolate I had was gross and Lisa’s mocha (which used the same chocolate) was also disgusting. We ended up leaving the drinks and just eating our muffins. It was also incredibly expensive – it just goes to show what happens with a monopoly and customers who won’t ever come back! Lisa had another run in with pigeons, which made me laugh!

On the metro ride to Park Guell we had a group of five young Spanish men who boarded the metro after us. They had obviously had a big night for New Years and we believe they had been partying right up til they caught the metro at ten am. They looked decidedly worse for wear and a couple of them were literally falling asleep on the train!

After the park we headed to the Arc de Triumph which we had spotted on a map. The Arc was impressive but interestingly it didn’t appear to celebrate any triumph and instead was built for Barcelona’s World Expo in 1888. It seems that a lot of the city was smartened up for that event and we are still reaping the benefits 130 years later! There was an interesting park flowing on from the arc so we wandered along there and then down a side street to find some lunch. We went to a nice cafe and Lisa had toast (very basic) and I had nachos and a beer. We could see a large park next door and so we decided to take a look. It had some impressive monuments and a lake with people rowing. There was also a couple of areas with music and people dancing  and so we joined in on dancing at the top of the monument which was a fun, but very random experience. Big thanks again to Angel and Cairan for teaching us some dance moves!

We continued our wander around the park encountering monuments that we didn’t understand. We ended the walk close to the seaside suburb of Barceloneta so we continued on that way. We wandered past some very restaurants and bars which were doing a roaring trade along to some markets. I purchased churros and chocolate. The ten churros we got was overkill but they were much better than the ones we had previously from La Rambla. The chocolate wasn’t great though and the churros were better without it. A local band was playing nearby and we stopped for a quick listen. There were lots of massive pleasure boats along the wharf including one from New Zealand, but we couldn’t see anyone on board to make friends with. 

We continued on and came to the beach proper. There were a surprising number of people there including a few brave souls who were swimming! We found another band playing on the beach and stopped for a listen. All along the beach there were hawkers selling massive beach blankets, they looked really cool but we never would have been able to get it back home. There were also people creating sand sculptures. We were very impressed with the dragon with fire coming from its mouth, until we discovered there were about six of these as we went further along the beach. 

We then headed back to the hotel to collect bags and caught the bus to the airport. We had quite a while to wait so we grabbed a beer and some dinner before our short flight to Marseille. This flight was the fastest so far for getting our baggage and we then caught the airport bus into the main train station. From here it was a quick walk to our hotel and after some terror when there was nobody on the desk to check us in initially we were soon up to our room. It was definitely a step down in quality from our Barcelona accomodation but tolerable for one night. 

Overall, we really enjoyed Barcelona. It was a very easy city to get around with a fantastic metro system. It took some time getting used to the lack of English but people are friendly and understand enough English to be able to help. We could guess a few things in Spanish when written down (or so we liked to think) but a lot harder when people are speaking. The city felt very well designed and a very lived in city compared to Dubai. The lack of space and apartment living would be tough but there were as surprising number of pets that we saw and people would take their dogs all over the place (metro, stores, bars etc). I would love to come back (and explore other Spanish cities) and Barcelona would be a cool place to live for a while. The alcohol situation is very different to NZ, it can be purchased nearly everywhere and no one seems concerned about it. Lisa enjoyed her experiences with the Spanish police, declaring that all of the males were very attractive, probably helped that most of them had beards. My beard has been growing since Melbourne, it is still scraggy and messy in my opinion but Lisa is a big fan. 

We have seen a lot of gay and lesbian couples in Barcelona, certainly a lot more noticeable than at home or in other places on our travels. It’s unclear if this is because of there being more of these couples here or if they feel freer to express their emotions here or if just in general Spanish people are more expressive of their relationships in public. I enjoyed the few hot lesbians I have seen, particularly the couple having a pash on New Year’s Eve. 

We didn’t do well with the food in Barcelona. We weren’t helped by Lisa being sick which meant we missed a dinner out. We didn’t really understand tapas, but probably would have been helped if there was someone who could have guided us in that. It just felt like we ate a lot of sandwiches and hamburgers, not bad but not particularly exciting either.