Day 15: Barcelona, sims revenge.

We packed up early today and ventured out into the laneways of Venice at 7am, heading for Ospidale. No not the hospital as such, but the ferry terminal near it which takes us to the airport. We walk for 15 minutes before getting lost. It seems we took a wrong bridge turn and headed in the wrong direction completely. This city has me stuck. We panic a bit fearing we will miss the boat and subsequently the plane. We ask a man for the Ospidale ferry, I'm pretty sure from the confused look on his face he thought we wanted the hospital but nonetheless he helps us get to where we are going, just in the nick of time too, as we nearly missed the boat. We are both saturated in sweat from running with our bags and it's not even 8 in the morning.

Farewell Venice, it's been confusing at times but beautiful as well. 

After lugging our bags from the ferry to the airport we eventually catch our morning flight from Venice to Barcelona. Ciao Italy.

You've been lovely. You can take my iphone but you'll never take my freedom!

We arrive in Barcelona around midday - it's a sunny 23 degree day. First thing we negotiate is the metro from the airport to the hotel in town. It's an awesome system. So easy and intuitive to use. A couple of shifts of line and we arrive at Drassane stop on La Rambla. We exit from the subway below and up onto the wide tree lined boulevard which is a hive of activity. I'm liking this place already. 

We check into the Hotel Gaudi, named so as it's across the road from Palau Guell, one of Gaudis bourgeoise palaces he's designed.

 

It's now approaching 3pm and were starving so we stroll up La Rambla and wander the street for food places. Were loving it already. People are out and about, eating in the street, shopping, there's buskers and of course there's a fair share of hawkers selling anything. So far I have seen enough Barcelona Football merch to last a lifetime. It's everywhere.

We unwittingly wander into a market area and it's a buzz with colour, fresh produce and noise. It smells amazing too. After tentatively perusing what was on offer, a man from behind the counter yells "Ola!"

 

He offers us a place to sit around the bar and we pull up a stool. The smell from the grill is amazing and visually, it literally is a feast for your eyes. You can see into the kitchen and all the fresh seafood, meat and vegetable produce (I'm assuming purchased from the surrounding markets) is on display ready to be cooked. We order the grilled vegetables for sim and I order some scallops and a pork sausage. Naturally we ordered some sangria to go with. The food was all amazing. Simple but yum. The vegetables were amazing.,You really tasted the smokey grill flavours and they were very generous with the salt, which I loved. Salt flakes too. Awesome. Filled up, we wander the market a little checking out all the fresh foods, meats and cheeses. We then spot a chocolate and lolly shop. Its awesome. I go to town. The lady offers me the chocolate coated almonds that are a local favourite as well as a plastic bag, gesturing to me to fill it and then weigh it when finished. I oblige and select an array of chocolate coated nut sweets. It ends up costing €9.50 but it's awesome. 

 

 

We leave the La Boqueria market and stroll around the La Rambla some more, heading north to the Plaça Catalunya. We peruse the shopping streets and sim gets very excited by the Mango clothing stores. She gets a little bit of revenge for yesterday's architecture feast. It's interesting so far in Barcelona. It feels a lot more like home than Italy so far. More cosmopolitan and less old world Europe. We wander through the alley like streets and wander into the Plaça Reial. It's a really pretty public square surrounded by a colonnade with many restaurants and tapas bars whose seating spills out into the square. The tall palm trees create needed shade and cool the square. So far that's the big difference we've noted between Italy's Piazzas and Spain's Plaças, trees. And we like it.

 

We then head back to our hotel and head to the rooftop bar and deck. It's a great view from up here. The south east side overlooks the rooftop of Gaudi's Palau Güell with all its decorative chimneys and ornamentation. We settle in for the twilight hours on the south west terrace, making our way through a gin and tonic and a sangria jug. 

Loving Barcelona so far.

 

 

In the evening we wander the La Rambla some more. It's now beautifully lit up with globes of lights on a rope looping between the trees. It's still very crowded and buzzing. Feels like a festival atmosphere. We peruse a few menus looking for vegetarian options on the menus. There's quite a meat and seafood focus here it seems. Many of the bars are crowded with football fans after the Irish game and the Italy Belgium game which has just started. 

We decide on a burger place called La Bacoa. Very organic and fresh produce focused and their music choices inside are awesome. LCD into the beach boys into Tame Impala into the supremes. Good vibe. Burgers and beers tick. 

 

We walk the streets surrounding La Rambla some more before heading home to the hotel. We note that the same guys selling those blue flying contraptions in Italy must have cousins in Spain as there's blue things shooting into the sky here too. 

buenas noches

mat + sim