Day 2 In Barcelona

I have not been able to stick to my 1 year-ago events.
It was too tiring - putting up posts for the days that I was oncall.
Besides, I had other things that I wanted to blog about as well.

However, I would like to finish what I started - I have about 3 days more of the trip left.
So, here are the pictures we took on the 30th of June 2008.
It was our 2nd day in Barcelona.
As I mentioned previously, Barcelona is all about Gaudi.
On this particular day, we visited 2 other Gaudi creations - Casa Mila and Casa Battlo.

Our first stop - Casa Battlo

I think Gaudi never liked straight lines


That is a fireplace - cute, right?

Have you ever thought of doing up your window in that shape?

The Casa Battlo chimney

One of the rooms that was done up to show what it would have looked like during the period the house was built - compare this picture to this.

Next up - Casa Mila. This is a model of the place.

The many different chimneys - this is what Casa Mila is famous for.
No 2 chimneys are the same.

The windows are positioned in such a way as to receive the maximum amount of sunlight.

A chair designed by Gaudi. We were not allowed to sit on sit, but the curves supposedly 'correspond' to those on a human body, making it extra comfortable.

After that, we went to the Barca stadium.

A visit to the market.
Even now, looking at these sweets make me drool!

Colourful, no?

Me and Puspha then proceeded to go on a bus ride around Barcelona, just to pass time. And guess what, we met Von Yen, Swee Hung, Jan, Beng and Quek!! Such a coincidence! But it was just a short meeting 'cos we were headed in different directions. Still, it was fun to meet them.

And now I miss them.
:(
Just wish to sit and lepak and talk till dawn like we used to.

There are a few quotes that I would like to share with you.
'Thing do not change. We change.'
'If at first you don't succeed, you're running about average.'
'Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.'

p/s - here is a post I wrote on that day from Barcelona.

Beautiful Barcelona

29.06.08

Even before we went for our trip, we decided that in Barcelona, we would take the Hop On Hop Off bus. Everyone who had been to Barcelona told us to do that, and that is exactly what we did.

The bus has 3 routes, we can follow any of it at any time (up to 9pm I think). It stops in all the main attractions. It even had an audio guide which you could listen to when you were sitting in the bus.

The bus was a double decker bus, with an open air top, but then I only managed to sit out top for a few minutes before running downstairs for cover.

I never expected Barcelona to be SO HOT!!
The sun was out.
There were no clouds.
It was like the sun was just burning you up, roasting you.

Anyway, we had fun.
Here are some of the photos we took that day.

The Sagrada Familia - unfinished even after 200 years!
One name you will NOT fail to hear when you are in Barcelona is Gaudi - a famous architect. Most of the attractions we visited are by him.
It is amazing how he could think (and make) of such amazing designs/work of art!

Every single line is a carving, every carving is a story. Gaudi paid attention to every single detail.
(The Sagrada is being built according to Gaudi's original plan)

Park Guell - another Gaudi creation.


It was SO HOT, my parents refused to go out to the clearing at the background.

The famous lizard at Park Guell


Next, we went up Mount Tibidabo. We had to take a tram and a *something* (forgot the name - something like tram also la) to get to the top.
This is not actually an attraction (at least I don't think it is), but then isn't it beautiful?!

The church at the top of Mount Tibidabo

The glass paintings were really remarkable. It was quite hard to get good shots of them, though. This was the best I could manage.

Hmm, not that many pictures, right? I guess we were just too busy enjoying the view (plus I didn't want to put too many pictures of the same place).

Today, I learnt that excitement is infectious.
I never planned to watch Transformers.
But then everyone is talking about it.
And many people have watched it.
Although many say that the first one is better, I am now thinking of watching the movie.
Although I still don't think I will enjoy it that much.
Just for the sake of saying that "hey, I've watched it!"
Maybe sometime this week if we can get the tickets?

Day 1 in Barcelona

Day 5 - there weren't that many pictures taken.
We spent half the day travelling from St. Petersburg to Barcelona and then getting to our hostel.

After settling down in the hostel, we just decided to venture to the nearby area.
When we got out of the hostel, we saw a HUGE parade.

It was the time of the Euro 2008 and Barcelona was in the finals.
We thought that the parade was most probably related to the football game and decided to take a closer look.

This is what we first saw.

Wondering what it is about? Well, we couldn't read it either. But they don't really seem like football fans, right?

Aah..now I see a word I understand. After more analyzing, this was the conclusion we came up to - A Gay and Lesbian Parade.
We had no idea what they were parading about.
But the were guys (?girls) and girls (?guys) topless, and non-topless walking along the street.

Now, my parents, there are not really the 'kampung' kind of people, but then they are still Malaysians and it was their first time getting out like this. They were kind of shocked (I think) to see what they saw. But they stood there, as we watched the parade go by.
We got quite bored after a while, and decided to walk on towards the main street - La Ramblas.

La Ramblas was quite a happening place - lots of souvenir shops (what me and Puspha loved) and lost of people just strolling. There were many people standing like statues (don't know what they are called) trying to make a living. Here is one of me and Puspha with Jack (he even posed with us!).

After that, we passed by a museum - Museu Erotica.
Just for the fun of it, knowing that back home there will never be a chance to go to such a museum, we decided to go in.
Truthfully, it was rather boring.
Nothing much to see.
Just walked around a little , took a couple of 'courtesy' photos since we were already there - nothing worth uploading though.

We left after a while, bought KFC for dinner and decided to sleep early, to prepare for a long day the next day.

This picture was taken from the Museu Erotica - the parade was passing through La Ramblas.
Just look at the crowd!!

Today, I learnt that Malaysian Tourism lacks in certain ways..