SpainAfter all that time in Greece, I needed a vacation!! So I went to London for a few days to see friends and then flew to Barcelona. A co-worker from the Inn, also named Cathy, was on holiday at the same time so she joined me! I do not speak a word of Spanish and neither does she, so it was an adventure. Honestly, it was the first time that I felt unable to communicate in a foreign country. We stayed in a small pension (a cheap hotel with shared toilets) near the major street of La Ramblas. It was always full of people and we enjoyed just wandering up and down the street. We also took every single small lane in the area because the best (and cheapest) restaurants are on side streets. The best kind of meal to eat is tapas - where you order six or seven small dishes between yourselves and share. It's inexpensive and you get a lot more variety that just ordering one thing. We took a day trip to Montserart, which I admit to never having heard of before I got there. A long time ago, some boys found a statue of the Virgin Mary in a cave and now they have a church built around it. The scenery there was wonderful but most of my pictures didn't turn out because it was so misty that day. November is not my recommened month for Spain, it was chilly and clouded over the whole time. I'm sure it's much better in the summer months.
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Gaudi
Ok, so maybe there was one sunny day! Despite my Art degree, I had never heard of the artist Gaudi. His work is randomly scattered all over Barcelona and it is simply amazing. He must've loved mosaics because everything - and I mean everything - is done in tiled mosaics. There is a park called Gaudi park, seen in the picture above. Unless it's actually part of nature it's tiled - from the steps, benches, columns, walls, floors and ceilings to the roofs of the buildings in the park. Amazing. I wonder who actually did all of that work... |
French fries anyone?
This is something I had never seen before and do not expect to see again. A french fry vending machine! It's out on a street and it took me a minute to realize just how strange it was. You have to wait at least a minute for the fresh fries to drop into a paper tray. The topping choices are mayo, salt and vinegar and ketchup. My sister asked me how they tasted but I never even thought to actually buy some! Who in the world thought there was a market for these?? |
Street Music
These two men were out on La Ramblas every day we were there, playing music for money. Can you see the little dog and the baby bunny in the box? Neither animal ever strayed away and the bunny would sometimes crawl up into their laps. You have to pay to take pictures (well, they ask you to) and I decided this one was worth it. Most of the street performers, and there were quite a few, were in costumes and when you put money in, they would move around. I liked these two better because they always played their music anyway, money or no money. The large building that you see in the back is the vegetable market. We had no idea just how large it was until we ventured in one afternoon. It was HUGE! There were hundreds of vendors, selling fruit, vegetables, breads, fresh fish, meat (some of it still alive) and there were a few little restaurants squeezed in too. If we hadn't discovered this so late in our stay (of only six days), we would've gone for breakfast every day.
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