Living in Cloud Castle

Saturday, May 31, 2008

HOLA! HOLA HOLA HOLA! Barcelona.... 21/05/08 - 29/05/08

Alvin sayss.... Welcome to the warmth of blazing heat Spain….

Not really as hot as I thought it would be here… maybe because of the good timing that we are here in spring.. early summer ba….

Moving on from a place to another… I already lost count of how many cities I have went to.. how many days I have been away… seem like yesterday that I jus left Singapore lol…. I think its more like close to 2 months…. Never been away for so long before I guess… not counting army of cos… lets not talk about that… so lets do a re-cap

London (2 weeks) => Berlin (1 week plus)=> Munich (1 week) => Paris (2 Weeks) => Lyon (1 week) => Barcelona (1 week plus)….

Half way mark lol… happy that we went so far already… but sad that it also means that slowly the bigger part of the journey is over…

Anyway… Barcelona… Spain… Spanish food… Tapas.. Yum… loving it… The food… the ppl… the weather… the way how the place look… the small alley… the old old building… the Mediterranean sea and beach…

Food Food Food... so far we have been great fans of their local markets... though we dun really get alot of chance to buy things from them.. but its really fun to go have a look at it... seeing what they sell is like seeing how the ppl there lives... what they eat... seafood here is really fresh... vege and fruits looks great... and they are really proud of their cured meat... i loved Spanish food

Day 1 – las ramblas.. very interesting buskers(very smart outfits but didnt manage to take enough pics of them, make those singapore ones look boring)… drinking the local taps (from craze of Meteor Garden)… pet stores selling interesting pets (Chickens, lizards, wessels, ducks, all sorts of mice)... oh yeah got a lot of pigeons… pigeon paradise cos you dun see a single hk restaurant in sight lol…

Day 2 – Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi - Crazy Genius of the achitecture world..

Day 3 – Gaudi Cathedral (Not finish but still worth a look), Mediterranean sea (this time we only get to look at it, when will i get to chance to go sailing through it, "more plans of future trips bubbling up lol), Eating Paelle by the beach (with fresh cut and squid and salad, one of the most ex meal we had so far since the trip)… and sea breeze

Day 4 – A black and white day… today feel like having a day without colours... hoping to see the place in a view that seem like the past... weird huh... anyway i am weird to begin with anyway lol...but dun u think it looks great... bringing out the feel of the streets…

Day 5 – Rainy day but great tapas tapas tapas… yum… its kinda like sakae in sg... (joint venture)

Day 6 – Barcelona 92... we are here.... jus 16 years late... but better late then never isnt it...

Day 7 – Day of slacking and chores… finally staying in a place with a kitchen again... miss having kitchens... the small wok can only do that much... but see... the wonders of having a kitchen... great looking food without paying a great deal of money... kindly make advance appointment... booking starts now... menu will be on whats fresh on that day lol

Day 8 – Bye Barcelona…. Mwah

coming over from a smaller place... the feeling of coming to a Bigger city is diff... its some what easier to stay in i guess... but barcelona dun lack the beauty and chillout layback feeling that small town have... together with the convenients of big cities... a great choice start of the wonderful spain...

How... more of more places and choices that pulls you to stay longer and not wanna go back... how... how .... how.... Loving Europe more and more

Ciao Bella

Labels: Barcelona

spoke at : 1:03 AM

Friday, May 30, 2008

HOLA! Barcelona...

Jen says:

Germany.. France and now Spain..!! Barcelona is the city I was looking forward to after the craze of Meteor Garden II many years back. I was sharing a few episodes from youtube with Alvin before writing this blog. If anyone watched it before, you must remember the scene where she drank the water from a tap and said that if you drink the water from it you will come back to Barcelona. Yes we found it and was telling Alvin to drink and both of us went eekkss. It looked dirty and the locals were washing their hands. Only the tourists were drinking from it.

Scene 2: Where he bought a balloon and said "I pass my happiness to you" and the balloon flew away. It is at Park Guell. A park with curvy mosaic sitting area, columns supporting this area with mosaic ceiling and interesting looking houses designed by a great architect, Gaudi.

We have seen alot of his work in Barcelona. A reknown architect who has designed many great buildings which were declared by UNESCO as World Heritage sites. Many of his works were inspired by geometry of nature, shapes and colours, a complete art form. His creativity was extended to each and every element of his work, from door knobs to chimmeys.

Temple de la Sagrada Familia is his last project. The construction began in 1882 and he was working on this over 40 years until his death in 1926. To this date when we visited, the architects are still working on it so areas on the site are sectioned off and that explained the cranes in the photos.

Las Rambla is THE place in Barcelona and our apartment is just on one of the many streets. Carrefour is just at the corner and once you walked out this is what greeted your eyes:- Tourists, souvenier shops, buskers in costumes & acts, pet shops, flower shops & cafes selling paella, tapas and sangria (wine punch = red wine, fresh, seasonal fruit and a bit of bubbly water or citrus flavored soda).

Our apartment is superb, the kind of accomodation we are looking for the trip. We always wanted a kitchen for the convenient to cook and store fresh food in the fridge. However, it is either hostel or apartments for 4 or too expensive. We manage to find one here at our budget. Surprisingly!

Barcelona was more of a food galore with the stove and oven. No more canned food of corned beef, mackerel and french beans for a while. Happy to make corn flakes for breakfast and these for lunches and dinners. Haven't had fresh beef since London. The prices of meats differ for different countries. In Paris, it is super expensive more than €10.

We are open for booking. You can book us to be your companion for any overseas trip. Alvin: Humorous, great navigation & culinary skills! Jen: Your friend. Booking fee: 2 way air tickets and accomodation for 2. Reservations are subject to availability. Email to tinky_pebble@hotmail.com.

Welcome to the olympic port by the beach. Ordered a seafood paella for 2, squid in batter, salad and fresh cuts. Delicious and greedy in the end brought home half of the paella. It is not suppose to be in the foil, this was the take away portion. We started eating and again forgot to snap before.

Tapas at less than €2 each. We ordered 11 for lunch. Serving the size of sushi only but Yummy! Tough to select from the 50 over variety.

Finally had a chance to be at the laundromat. Usually hand wash but there wasn't a place to hang to drip-dry. Half an hr wash and half an hr for spin dry. 7 days worth of dirty clothes! No softener though hmpf.

[In one piece for 56 days]

Labels: Barcelona

spoke at : 9:42 PM