Chasing tails

Ola! ¿Que tal? Bien gracias!
Hello, how are you? Good thanks!

Once again the most used phrase in spain so far is do you speak English? I find it a polite way to start instead of just oi, yeah I'll have a few of those thanks. My Spanish phrase app has certainly come in handy, and I've remembered certain phrases to get me through, ask for the bill. I'm awake and feeling better, I'm still not 100% but feeling good. We've survived Barcelona and we've seen a fair bit of the city and some really beautiful things along the way. 

It's hard getting used to writing, we instead of I, my and me. But it's not hard to get used to travelling with someone. There are little things to get used to like, informing Liz that I'm crossing the road, is Liz hungry and since I have a backpack and she has a wheeling suitcase, I have to make sure I don't cut across streets and use a ramp so it's easier for her. 

I have to say the ever conscious knowledge of pick pocketing and theft, didn't play on my mind too much. And there are so many stories of people being mugged, beat up and had a heap of things stolen. We were lucky. My friend Gina, wasn't. She also had heaps of stories from other tourists who had bad experiences in Barcelona. One German tourist had his money and passport stolen, and he had a plane to catch in three hours! So unfortunate to have a holiday in such a beautiful place soured by petty theft that is evident! Yesterday morning we hit the streets, and I'm pretty sure I witnessed two guys going through a satchel (man purse) lifting out a passport, flicking through it quickly, and I thought, wow. They are right there, could have been us. I have never locked my small backpack ever until I heard Gina's story. I have been through Rome, Naples, Venice and I just kept my wits about me. I never thought I'd have to lock up my backpack. Liz was even afraid of mentioning it, just in case she jinxed us. I don't believe in that so I said say it, if it happens it happens. You can't control the actions of a desperate person, but you can limit your vulnerability. I know that we were lucky. 

Now the reason why we were chasing tails is that we were planning to catch up with Gina and Kelly whilst on the Barcelona open top tourist buses that go pretty much everywhere. We left late, mostly my fault, its hard to get your hair looking perfect with limited supplies. So I gave up on that and just put my hat on! Straight out of the hotel we hit the ground running, Plaça Catalunya is our destination, where we can catch the buses from. It took about 30-45 mins to walk there. Being my second trip I'm well prepared on how to find places and get to where I need to go. Liz is always surprised how well everything is planned and mapped out whilst still having that freedom. Load a map of the destination beforehand, keep the 3G on your phone and keep an eye on your blue dot. It was another beautiful day in Spain, no rain falling on the plane, just beaming sun and a cool wind off the water. So we get on the bus, forget getting off until we get to the Sagrada Familia, a massive church. Designed by Gaudi, as like a few of the structures and parks around Barcelona. The bus has an audio tour with a heap of different languages, I tried Dutch at one point, yup still didn't understand a word! But the English audio was done by a woman who wanted to end her life. No inspiration what so ever! And Gaudi was killed by a tram in 1929. Another piece of useless information brought to you by the sober traveller. Gina and Kelly arrive at the Sagrada Familia about an hour ahead of us. The walk to Plaça Catalunya took longer than first thought. So we got there, messaged the girls to inform them of our arrival. Took some shots, missed the couple of texts that explained that they were getting on the next bus and heading out to the next location. I can understand them leaving, they had been there over an hour. We missed them, just! So we managed to keep walking around the Sagrada Familia and into the souvenir shops trying to find my holiday flag patch! The church is massive, very impressive and it's awe inspiring. Every photo I have seen of it has always had cranes continuing to grow this mammoth structure. It should be finished in 2026.

Another place on our Barcelona tour was Parc Güell. I had no idea about it, and was going there to just meet up with Gina and Kelly. We didn't find them! But we did see an amazing park, yeah that's right an amazing park! A lot different to the run down uninspiring park that I have ever seen. Apparently it was meant to be a residential area. It certainly has a fantastic view of the city! It was designed by.... You guessed it Mr Gaudi. It's really hard to describe the magnitude of his work. He aims big, not for smooth lines, but something out of the norm that seems to come together. It's an amazing place and a place where we saw some interesting people. Of course with any true tourist area, you get the gypsies, the gipolas, the gip meisters. On our way up to the park (bit of a hill, and a struggle for fatties) we came across a black man, not racist, he was and probably still is a black man. He was from the UK, and had approximately 5-6 dogs with him. And he was going off!! Just walking around swearing, telling people to fuck off! Loved it! Yeah you give it to 'em. And we came across a singer...... I should just stop there, but I won't. This guy had leopard print pants, a guitar, lyrics that weren't even Spanish, just random noises that a baby would make. He had long hair, and had guitar sunglasses, I don't know if anyone had paid him as a dare or if it's his attempt as busking? Though he is following the mantra of dance like no one's watching, and sing like there is no one around! So all in all the park was superb, I highly recommend it!

One more night in Barcelona turned into an early night for us. We hadn't managed to cross paths with our fellow tourists, but that did change briefly the next day. An early start, up and hit the streets, the early night had done us good. We headed to La Rambla, checked out the tourist strip and the markets, then we headed back to our hotel, checked out and off to the train station for a short venture to Girona. 

Now Girona, bit of a shit hole, not too much going on. I dare say most of the people were not on the streets, nor running eatery businesses. The train was late so we missed the bus by 5 mins. In hindsight it gave us a story to take to our grave. We were very hungry and found a little bar/cafe, offering Italian food. And it was run by Chinese, who spoke Spanish and no English what so ever. That's fine, we'll breach the language barrier together. We had a menu with pictures, and one in Spanish. We went with the pictures. We chose our pictures, but she kept going back to the same chicken dish....... Ok I get the hint, no chef, and the thats the only thing you can cook. Bit like fawlty towers and the man wanted a waldorf salad..... I chose a pizza (of course) and Liz decided to go with the chicken she had been pushing! We had half hour left to wait for our bus so I made sure she knew that we had to go (point at specific time and then point to the door, simple). She understood, pizza only then..... Liz can't have gluten..... So out she comes 10mins later with some sampling of chicken for Liz. Fried chicken....(not gluten free) Like KFC said Liz. My pizza was being microwaved at the same time. She came out with more chicken, my pizza and two cold spring rolls. We think that it was her lunch leftovers. So lesson learnt, don't rush lunch from an asian woman who is in Spain and will only cook one dish.

We take the bus to St Feliu De Guixols where our hotel is for my F1 package tour. This is truly a beautiful place. It's a very quiet town with no much to do outside of tourist season. I did a google street view before hand just to find the place where the bus stop is, and came across a hilarious picture of a woman tripping over a child at the pedestrian crossing! So I have to get a shot of me tripping over on the pedestrian crossing before I leave! The hotel.......one word. Baron! It did end up being quite busy over the weekend, but the first day we got in, we explored the premises. The place looks like it gave up many years ago.I'm sure in it's heyday it was a wonderland. The surrounding backdrop is gorgeous, the rooms were clean and tidy, but the place looked like it had stopped caring. Even the escape plan had originally four stars, but now one is covered up. It has so much potential, but it just doesn't get the tourist traffic all year round to maintain the standards (I'm guessing) it originally had. Pool area-run down, gym-cobwebs, outside chairs-smell of mould and dirty, and they even had a pizza bar.........HAD a pizza bar! And there is even a statue who looks like one of the blues brothers........ and he's missing a foot. For me, its a bed, shower and somewhere to keep my stuff. the funny part of it is, for the first two days we felt like we were the only people in the place. And it had looked like it had been abandoned, like there had been an outbreak or something. But there was two people working there, the receptionist and the bar guy, who every time we walked past was cleaning glasses. Go for an explore (hours), he still there cleaning, looking at you as you walk past the bar. Very creepy and the whole place had a Steven King vibe about it! I was tempted to tell him that he forgot a glass, but I was afraid he would coke me with his cleaning cloth! The best part of the town is the restaurant at the bottom of the hill. Amazing pizza, good food, great owner lady, always smiling and delivers the bill in a different receptacle every time. Wooden box one night, pasta tin the next. Very cute and unique thing. The days have been long for both of us, for me it's been F1 all day in the sun taking photos and the hour there hour back bus trip. For Liz she has been out exploring, walking the town, napping on the beach, diving the Mediterranean, sampling the tapas and paellas. I think I'm going to sleep well tonight!! 

I'll write a blog about my F1 on my way to Antibes tomorrow. I have to catch up since as soon as I'm home from the track I'm zonking out straight away! I'm sure not everyone will be super keen on my F1 writing. Hope everyone is well!