Sunday, June 05, 2005

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain

Hola!

I'm in Spain now, finally out of French ground! And ooh boy, it has been a fantastic 3 days so far here in Barcelona. Maybe it's just me, glad to be out of travel misery, so everything in this new place just thrills me to the core. :)

The thing about Barcelona is that there is wayyyy too much to see and do here. I haven't been in a city as happening as this before. The people are very very friendly and helpful (ahem ahem, unlike ... ..., whom shall remain unmentioned for fear of offending certain people. Discreet, as you can see, is not my middle name haha) The city never sleeps! People have dinner at 11, and so many eateries and bars are packed with people even at 2am. The clubs start to fill up really late, and the principle of party-till-dawn is no doubt, Spanish-owned.

We went to the home stadium of FC Barcelona, Camp Nou. Which, of course, was a must-go for us because of a certain Mr Oh Weiming. We went to see the pitch and the stadium seating capacity was 100000! I silently thanked my lucky stars we were there only when the Spanish League season was over, because I certainly wouldn´t want to be squashed up amongst so many football crazy people. And I know that if we were there, the same afore-mentioned Mr Oh would insist on going for a match.

So anyway, we got to see the stadium from the grandstand, from the commentators' seats, from the polticians' places, and from the high boxes you have to pay a hand and foot to buy a ticket to sit in. It was pretty nice, except for the fact that Mr Oh seemed to only be content with 10 shots of the SAME patch of grass and stadium background. Ok I'm exaggerating. A little. :P Went to the FAB museum after that, and they had everything from memorabilia, to signed documents dating back to 1902 when FCB was founded. I found out that Camp Nou not only houses the soccer team. It is a sports club that includes handball, basketball and hockey too. All their trophies and past wins were all put on display. I found out that Salvatore Dali was a very important associate of the club and he did a fair bit of painting and artwork on FCB and soccer in general. There were a lot of photos om display. Needless to say, Mr Oh was starry-eyed. For me, I only noted that the evolution of hairstyles from the 1960s to the current style today is something they should all be thankful for. And the only face I recognized from FCB was Ronaldinho. And he isn't even Spanish, hoho! So much for sharing your boyfriend's interests. :)

I've got a lot of shopping done here too! Portal d lÁngel is this fantastic long stretch of affordable shops with so much choice to offer. Every street we turned, there was a Zara or a Mango. Zara here is fantastic, they have so many things we don't in Singapore. I bought a short green skirt and a white camisole. And something from Mango for my Lulu! I'm still looking out for stuff for the rest! United Colours of Benetton is really nice here, but I already got my UCB-Zurich top, so I bit my lip and refused to open my wallet there. :( Paseo Gracia is the expensive shopping stretch that shouts names like Hermes, Cartier, Ferragamo, Lacoste (insanely priced here). Needless to say, no shopping done there at all. We walk through Las Ramblas very often. It is a long stretch filled with street stalls selling jewellery, knick knacks, flowers (I counted 9 florists in a row), accessories, funny weird stuff and food. There are a lot of street baskers here too, and they have the zaniest craft to display. THe best so far would have to be this man who was controlling a frog puppet while standing up, and the puppet was playing on a piano. The puppet managed to play songs out! It was really good. And there are a lot of street artists as well, doing paintings, portraits, caricatures, and photography.

We went to the cathedral as well. It is the epitome of Gothic culture. Nothing like the lavishly decorated ones I have visited so far. No sign of high stained glass panels and murals anywhere. There was a service going on today when we went in the morning. In the late afternoon, we visited Park Guell. It was an extremely uphill climb that we had to endure. But I think it was alright, thanks to the training all of us have had in Europe. There are hills and upslopes everywhere. I felt like I was climbing mountains everyday in Lausanne. So anyway, there was a very nice view of the entire city of Barcelona from the park. It is very packed, very densely constructed. But there aren't as many tall buildings like in Singapore. At the highest point of the park there were 3 crosses, one big and two small. Very symbolic, it was almost like they constructed Calvary on the peak of the hill. I'm not surprised because Antonio Gaudi was asked to construct this garden town amidst the bustle of the city at the turn of the 20th century. Gaudi is a very famous name in Spain. So many of his architectural works and creations are evident even today. Gaudi mosaics are printed on t-shirts and sold as Barcelona tourist shirts.

Oh yes, I must talk about the food here. In a notoriously pricey continent like Europe, cheap food is a godsend. Spain is by far, the cheapest place I have been to here. Switzerland, of course is in a league of her own when it comes to pricing. Being there for a month has made me appreciate cheap food so much. And Barcelona is sensational when it comes to food. There is so much food here, of every kind on every street. Chinese and Japanese food is normally very expensive and weird-tasting in other places, but over here, it is really good! I've tried so much food, and not the normal bread and sandwiches which have become my staple diet here. Yesterday night we went for an all-you-can-eat buffet. Was stuffed above my head! Russian salad, nicoise salad, greek feta salad, cheeses, free booze and drinks, potato salad, create-your-own salads, soups, pasta, paella and rice dishes, hot crusty pizza with cheese dripping off the plates, ice-cream, fruit.. I still remember in Switzerland, the term ´buffet´doesn´t mean all-you-can eat. It just means that the food is laid out, and they charge you like CHF2.50 for a measly 100grams. Pearl mistook the meaning of buffet and ended up paying CHF14 for vegetables and cheese, which is nearly SGD20. It was insane. Barcelona couldn´t be more different! And I tried real Spanish paella for the first time! It´s very different from the ones I had in Singapore. The real version here is wetter and filled with more gravy. Yummy yummy yummmy!

I'm just so happy to be in Spain! Muchos Gracias!


Laid bare at 10:21 pm
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