Barcelona... Country #4

We arrived in the early evening to a fairly decent campground... Seaside with beach, but it seems to be on a flight path and the bathroom facilities nearest to us are out of service.

After a dinner of fajitas and Spanish doughnuts ("cheers", not sure on the spelling), a group went to the on-site discotheque to watch the Champions League final match between Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid. Real Madrid (heavily favoured) won, but it took over 120 minutes of playing time, plus a shootout. Regardless, it was pretty great to watch two Spanish teams battle for the championship, while I was actually in Spain!

Full day ahead tomorrow... City tour by coach, walking tour, plus tapas dinner, flamenco show, and some night life afterwards!

Early Sunday morning we made our way into Barcelona on the coach; although Australian Tom didn't make it in time, so he made his way in a bit later on a city bus. A city tour kicked things off with all kinds of beautiful historical buildings, Barcelona's Arc de Trying (it's red brick), cathedrals, Montjuic (tallest point in Barcelona), and the port. Then Contiki Rene took us on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter; showed us some neat touristy spots (like where Christopher Columbus asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to finance his exploration for the new world), lunch options, and wrapped it up at La Rambla (a street with loads of shops and vendors selling everything from fresh fruit to touristy trinkets).

The rest of the day was free, so ten of us grouped up (similar crew to Paris) to explore the city... We started from La Rambla and walked along the boardwalk area, explored some beautiful green spaces, and decided it was time for lunch... Amelio (Gold Coast, Aus) took us to a part of town that he lived in last year and we ate tapas at Fanny's (off the beaten track and great food). Next we took the metro to my #1 in Barcelona - Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for about 200 years. The cathedral is based on plans by Antoni Guadi (hit by a tram in Barcelona in his 30s and wasn't able to finalize things) - it's enormous and will have over 160 spires when completed, but none will be taller than Montjuic. It would have been interesting to go inside, but the wait was 4.5 hours and the cost was over €30.

We took the metro back to La Rambla and a few of us decided to check it out - fresh fruit juice (pineapple kiwi) and fresh strawberries, then on the walk back to meet everyone, Cover, Little Tom, and I stopped at a shop to try some authentic Spanish paella (rice dish made with saffron and cooked/served in a cast iron skillet with veggies and likely seafood, chicken, or beef).

The coach was to pick us up at 5pm at Placa de Catalunya, but traffic was dreadful and it didn't make it until after 5:30. The challenge was that we needed to get changed/freshened and arrive for our tapas dinner and flamenco show any 6:15... We each had our change of clothes on the coach from the start of the day, but time would still be tight. When we arrived with only 10 minutes until the reservation, so the girls changed on the coach and the guys changed behind the coach. We made it a few minutes early, but weren't seated until 6:30 anyway - there would have been no rush if we'd remembered we needed to be on Spanish time!

I'm glad I stopped for paella because the tapas sharing situation would have left me pretty hungry, even though the group at my table included a girl with a dairy allergy that was served separately. They also served countless carafes of sangria, which quite a few people definitely capitalized on because they never stopped coming. When we sat down, each place had two glasses - a large stemmed glass (typically seen as a water glass) and a smaller stemmed glass. It was interesting that almost everyone used the large glass for sangria, as you can guess, I was the opposite - priorities.

The flamenco show was definitely entertaining - the performers that were dancing look very intense the entire time they're on stage, never smiling (perhaps that's part of the requirement). The crew playing guitar or singing weren't covered under the same rules because they were grinning the entire time!

Contiki Rene and Contiki Angus took everyone that was interested out to experience some Barcelona night life. We went to a place called JaggerBomb (also their signature drink). I had a great time - great music and dancing! The drinks were quite cheap, which meant that people try their best to capitalize on the value by stepping up consumption. Unfortunately, my tent mate was in very rough shape fairly early and used a few hours on the club's patio to compose himself. I did not fall victim to the "value" trap and, as a result, felt fine in the morning, aside from not having a long enough sleep. Again, tents needed to be ready to load on the coach at 6:50... Ouch! I predict it will be rather quiet on the coach today, at least in the morning.

In summary... Barcelona 1 Contiki Big Chillers 0Read more