Get your gherk on

Barcelona has a giant erection. Towering amongst Barcelona´s skyscrapers and old buildings is La Torre Agbar, a cucumber or gherkin shaped tower. It piqued Dave´s interest, so off we went in search of this interesting architectural work. The building, designed by Jean Nouvel, is now home to water company headquarters. Finding the metro route to the place was difficult. We didn´t know what it was called. After much frustration, Dave put his drawing skills to the test. Drawing a bunch of buildings with the gherkin structure amongst them resulted in laughs but understanding from the information people at the station. We arrived in the evening at the metro stop Glories before dark. From afar and close up we to took lots of great snaps. We headed to a nearby shopping complex for dinner. Dave also came out with a suave hat and dress shirt. When we emerged the place was lit up with brilliant reds, greens and blues. We got honks and laughs from passerbys as Dave and I went mad with silly snaps.

´My dad has a big one´ began one of the french guys. I mentioned we are rooming with some young french lads in the last post. This double entendre, which was really referring to his father´s high-tech camera, resulted in laughs and a discussion about double entendres.

Turns out, the French don´t ´really use the term double entendre´anymore. Dave got talking to the French boys and we ended up joining them for a cheap eat they´d read about in the Lonely Planet. They are really cool and suprisingly proficient English speakers. One of the boys, Guillame, has a mother who teaches English. He lives in Paris, and has offered us accommodation if we ever visit his gorgeous city. Tempting offer indeed!

Where to next?, you ask. We arrived in Girona yesterday and will be staying until the end of our trip. This fortified city is stunning, and not half as smelly as Barcelona. We fly back to Australia on August 22nd. My trip is shorter due to reasons too long to ennumerate here. On the plus side, I´m looking forward to home sweet home and catching up with you all. Yayness!

Bustle of Barcelona

Dave and I have been going to market, to market. The Mercat de St Josef on Las Ramblas is a fresh produce market. If you can abide the crowds and smells, it is worth a visit. We discovered a fresh pasta place within the market, Pazzta to Go, which makes its own pasta and fresh meals. You just select a pasta, say almond and ricotta, sausage or spinach, and a sauce like pesto or tomato and they´ll make you a bowl of piping hot pasta. Yummmo! There are heaps of restaurants with the same reheated drudge in Barcelona, so this place is a fresh bite. For one euro, I down a fresh Banana and Strawberry juice from the market and I´m laughing.

Barcelona is pretty overwhelming. Today, our first quite rainy day this trip, we went out to the fantastical imaginative brainchild Park Guell, designed by Gaudi. It features lots of greenery, stone religious monuments and darkly fun mosaic monuments. Dave was impressed with the Hansel and Gretel houses which look like picture book gingerbread abodes, but wasn´t phased on the whole. Perhaps it was the altitude change as the park is high up, but we felt exhausted after this venture out. We had gotten up late this morning, at 11.15, but yet we were still lacklustre. Barcelona is a party girl, and the place is crazy busy all the time. Thus, we´ve decided to spend tomorrow chilling out in order to revive our spirits and sanity.

Yesterday, we learnt of a festival which was occuring in a nearby streets near Le Catedral. We listened to an excellent accordion player with a limited repertoire until his equipment failed and he began to fiddle and exclaim ´Scheitzer!´. Luckily, we found our way around the corner to an uber talented opera singer who entranced us with her sopranic notes.

Meandering back to the hostel, we were almost scammed by two kids claiming to be from the deaf foundation. They thrust a sheet in front of us, and in response to our inquiry as to the cause, pointed simply to something stating a need for a National Deaf foundation. Just sign here, they demanded. We did this, following along the other boxes like postcode etc until we got to donation. They weren´t impressed by a 5euro donation insisting on 20. We walked away, realising that their melodramatic kisses and exclamation of ´Gracias, Gracias´were a well'designed trap.

You can shop till ya drop in Barcelona. Well-behaved we´ve been, with the exception of some small slippages. I got a pretty purple and white checked dress, with a purple tafetta bottom. Dave got a suave black hat, and a long-sleeved black dress shirt from H & M.

Our new hostel, Center Ramblas on Hospital St, is pretty dodge. Ridiculous prices have forced us to leave double rooms behind, and this is our first shared experience. The place is pretty filthy as they don´t seem to regularly clean rooms or change sheets. I am the only girl in a six-bed dorm. We are sharing with a bunch of lovely French boys who are spending time in Barcelona as part of their ´ínternational journey of the holidays.´¨ I slept through all the comings and goings last night, so for me sleep has been pretty good. Dave is shattered though, so as I type, he´s having a nap in the top bunk down the road.

B.b.b.barcelona!

We were sad to leave behind Dave´s extended family and cute Maisie who, it turns out, wouldn´t fit in our packs. Luckily, Barcelona, Spain is happening enough to make up for it. The city is full of architectual eye candy, from the gothic Barri area, Gaudi´s gorgeous buildings, to inventive landscape gardening which has produced many scenic parks.

The busy square, Plaça Catalunya

Barcelona is abuzz with activity, boasting an effervescent street culture and a string of sexy sights. For our first few nights, we stayed in a shoebox room at the Hostal Las Ramblas which is just off the main street. It was a good access point to the craziness that is Las Ramblas, which hosts buskers, dancers, skilful folk. And yes this street 'with all its human stains' as one artist describes harbours and a few odd people with half-baked money making schemes.

Buskers include a lady dressed as a fruit stand, a green man pictured next to Dave the grim reaper, a teenage mutant ninja turtle and much more. Las Ramblas also has a fresh produce market, many a restaurant and artists who have turned to caricatures and portrait painting to make a dime.

Initially we were at a loss of how to map the city, mentally and physically. So, we jumped on a bus service called Bus Turista. For 22euro for two days, you can catch a few different routes around the city which pass the main attractions. These double decker buses make for gorgeous sightseeing and snapping from the top view. Dave was tickled when we glanced across to spot a man streaking along on his bicycle, a la naturel. Yes you read right, he was starkers, nuddy, exposed, utterly nude. How rude!

Speaking of rude things, Dave and I got down and dirty at the Erotic Museum on the main street of Barcelona, Las Ramblas. Interesting pieces include artwork blending photography of pink bits, the S & M room and a pleasure seat with inbuilt dildos and a pleasure (?) control to be operated by someone other than the user. The ancient Greek erotica was pretty cool. For those who find the place abit too overwhelming or dare I say it, naughty, there is a outdoor chillax area with bamboo sun chairs.

Shocked at the erotic museum!

We are cerebral creatures too, so we were ecstatic to learn of a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition on at the maritime museum. ´Knowledge is the daughter of experience´ was a mantra of da Vinci, and this philosophy was tested in the various inventions which were showcased in the exhibition. These technical-scientific studies only showed a glint of Da Vinci´s genius as his abilities spread across many disciplines. Frenetic, a word from a plaque at the exhibition, captures the frenzy of activity that produced these inventions. The music, intense and fast classical tunes, highlighted the prodigious productive capacity of da Vinci.

I´m going to section off these posts into little Barcelonic portions, because the city is really a feast of architectural and cultural delights that can´t be dealt with easily.