Barcelona

On Monday I took the air-bridge over to Barcelona, with only an hour wait in the plane in Madrid when they broke the door trying to close it. Barcelona was a bit cooler at only 30 degrees, so I dropped my bags at HelloBCN and then went had a wonder around the city centre, along the harbour side to buy some new shoes and through the olympic village now turned into a shopping centre. Cooked up a big chicken korma only for the remaining half to be eaten from the fridge the next morning.

On Tuesday I headed out to what must be the most famous attraction in Spain, Gaudi's masterpeice the Sagrada Familiar. A big church that they have been building for the last 140 years and have only just made it past half way. It was full of over-the-top sculptures, columns, and bits and peices sticking out everywhere. Maybe when they finish the building in another 150 years it will look better, but now I think they would do better knocking the monstrocity down. Afterwards walked down past the Placa de Toros, the brightly coloured Torre Agbar and back the the hotel. In the evening I visited the castle overlooking the city at Montjuic, just behind the hotel.

Wednesday was spent on the closest beach with the million other people that had the same idea. In the night we headed down to the harbour front for a few drinks with the danish and swedish guys and the french girls.

On Thursday I checked out a few more of Gaudi's eyesores along with the gothic quarter which was full of ancient buildings and tiny roads only big enough for some tourists and a motorbike. The cathedral was also visited but was being renovated.

Friday was a day to lay on the beach and enjoy the sun with the Swedish cheerleaders, along with a couple of good local vinos in the beach side cafes. The evening was spent playing some weird card games with my previous pomy room-mates.

Saturday I decided to be active again and see some of the sights around town. I took the metro out to Park Guell which was a park designed by Gaudi. It had a big plaza with weird pilons but I thought as little of it as all the other works of Gaudi. Fortunately there were some good panoramas over the city. Next stop was Placa Espanya where the monstrosity of an art museum towered down. Behind here was the 1992 olympic site, with the old torch still standing over the stadium. After a good salami bacquet back at the hostel I headed to the Park Retiro where they had built a rather impressive fountain and everyone was paddling around the lake in their row boats. I returned back home through the gothic quarter down some winding little pathways.

Toledo

On Saturday it was time to get out of the city. The two girls at the hostel from Uruguay (Helena and Christina) where feeling the same for their last day in Europe so we caught the bus down to Toledo only an hour away. Toledo was an old village set up on the top of a big hill. It was surrounded by a huge wall, with an impressive front gate. The city is famous for its cathedral so we checked that out and wandered the tiny streets past the souvenir shops selling medievil armour and swords. Visited some synagogue and plenty of old chuches and museums. It was stinking hot with 40 degrees recorded for most of the day, so by 5pm we were pretty tired and headed home to Madrid.

On Sunday I visisted the Prada museum with its exhibition of Partini and plenty of Goya´s works on display. In the evening 4 of us, including a fellow canberran, headed out to the Plaza de Torros for the bull fighting. This was serious stuff with 3 fighters competing on the night, each getting 2 bulls to overcome. First there were several guys out with their red cloths getting the bull to run around the field, then it was time for a guy on a horse. The bull would inevitably start ramming the horse, and sometimes evening lifting it up with its horns, and the rider had a big spear that he would stab into the bulls neck and back. Next the bullfighter had to stick 2 spears into the bulls neck while it was charging him. All the running around and blood loss started to tire out the bull, so the action became more intimate between the fighter and bull. The fighter would use his red cloth the make the bull charge until it was too tired to lift its head. At this point the fighter would get a sword and stab it into the bulls back. If it was a good hit, the bull would fall over instantly dead, otherwise he would have to retreive the sword and try again.

Madrid

After an uncomfortable overnight flight without reclining seats on Iberia, I arrived to Madrid. First stop out of th Arrivals Gate was the ATM to stock up on some euros. Just as the money was coming out a pregnant lady came up asking for money. I shooed her off and then got my receipt from the ATM but no cash. After 5 months in Sth America this girl just picked on the wrong bloke. She was still in sight, so grabbed her, found my wad of cash in her had and then proceeded to drag her kicking and screaming past the queues of people at the check in counter to the cop shop. After only 10 minutes in Europe I experience more crime than in 5 months in Sth America. Once the paper work was done, I metroed into town to my hostel. It was a nice change to have an extra 5 hours of sunlight in the evening, and so I walked around the Plaza Mayor, past the King´s Palace, some parks. All the streets and plazas were filled with outdoor cafes and restaurants with tourists from all over Europe enjoying tapas and beer for their summer holidays.
We headed out to party with everyone from the hostel, which turned out to be a group of 15 of us. All the bar owners were keen to get this big group of people on their dancefloor, so it was free shots all round, then we would hang around for 30 minutes before heading onto some more free drinks at the next disco.
On Friday I went into the King´s Palace where they had gone all out on the interior designing. Plenty of fancy treasures to check out too. In the afternoon I wandered through the huge Retiro park with some fancy monuments of old kings and down Gran Via, the main strip in town.
We headed back out to party with our big group of people, but someone made the mistake of giving the navigation task to a French girl and we ended up walking around a big circle of the city all night. One lesson learnt!