Beautiful Barcelona

Warning…. this is a long one!

Started the day after an absolute coma because of the travelling, but put on my walking shoes and went to explore Barcelona. Linda walked me down to the station and helped me buy a ticket, then off I went to explore beautiful Barcelona.

It’s sparkling clean buildings and streets enclose a plaza filled with water fountains, thousands of people, statues, cars and ….. pigeons! Yes, I felt as if I was in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie ‘the Birds’! (A movie that traumatised me as a child). I actually SOL (screamed out loud) as they flew directly into me, oblivious to the fact I was there, and I ducked and weaved as they bombarded me in their haste to beat each other to the obnoxious child tossing crumbs in the air. I found refuge in a cafe and sat there collecting my wits until a delicious cafe con leche was plonked onto the table in front of me and I drifted back to consciousness and savoured the much missed Spanish coffee that is a majorly favourite memory for me. (My family will laugh when I say that I wanted to send a contribution to the ‘is this james’ FB page. Hipster James actually had Chelsea with him this time! – this is a family in-joke). It was too public to sneak a photo.

Anyway, as I strolled out and around the edge of the square, sans birds, I noticed it was a city of doppelgängers! I laughed to myself all day as I spied Michael Caine on the park bench and Prince Edward playing soccer. Cher got onto the train and sat next to me and then Michael Buble stood by the door. The best one was the woman in a cafe who looked like a cabbage patch doll!

Enough of that, I rang my Aussie friend Jen who found love on the Camino and moved to Spain to set up a Camino travel business. She was at work and suggested wandering down the street to the Market until she could get away. There, I found a veritable feast for the eyes. My senses went into overload as I took in the scent of jamon and cheeses, fruits and chocolate. The colours blew me away and I forgot that I was being squashed and pushed by the irritable, impatient crowds as I dreamily floated around the place.

The smell of fish was a rude awakening at the end. At the exit, the crowd  spat me out in front of the sex museum and memories of the sex machine museum in Prague came flooding back. Intrigued by the Marilyn Munro in a white dress stand over an air vent, I hesitated and thought twice about entering this one. As Elizabeth Cheung posted the other day-‘ nothing could top the Prague museum’. I walked away.

Jen rang me and we met for a snack and drink, which we had in a rooftop cafe with a view to die for. 360 degree views of the city and its mountainous skirt that surrounds it. The colour of the sky took my breath away. It was beautiful.

I left Jen after a couple of hours and trotted off to the train station to go back home. Linda and Michael produced some local carva, delicious smelly sheeps cheese and seiton. We settled in for a chat and laughed and told stories until about 12.30. Awesome day!