Andrea and Lance's Journals

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Ola Spain 2006

Barcelona |

Day 1 (Thursday Night)

We arrived at Girona Airport at 10PM and took the airport bus to Barcelona. Once we arrived at Barcelona we needed to taxi to our hotel. One taxi driver quoted 40 Euros to be driven about 4 minutes away! Lucky we could smell a rat. The taxi that did take us used the meter and it only cost about 5 Euros. The taxi driver that quoted 40 Euros kept asking other people around and he finally got some suckers to pay him the 40 that he wanted. We arrived at “The Omni House” hostel, which was nice and clean, although it was a little hard to find even though it is in a brilliant location. We were kept up most of the night by the most annoying room full of giggling girls next door. We can’t really blame the hostel for that one.

Day 2 (Friday 7th April)

After breakfast we took a lovely stroll down Las Ramblas down to the coast. We passed a very bright and colourful market which had stalls full of every type of food. It was amazing. The seafood was so fresh that the crabs and prawns were alive and moving all around this great big table. They also had the hugest tuna that we have ever seen.

It was too cold to swim at the beach, but it was great to see all of the massive boats in the harbour (Very rich owners!).

Lunch was a lovely parma ham roll from one of the many bakery’s around Barca.

The next stop of the day was Gaudi’s Cathedral, La Familia. The cathedral is still in construction and has been getting built for over 100 years. It was absolutely amazing. We climbed all the way to the top where we had a magic view and could see all of the detail put into the roof of the building. We got an audio guide, which was great. We spent around 2 hours in there and saw as much of it as we could.

The long hours of daylight were great, so good that winter is over! We spent the evening walking down the main shopping stretch and began our week of indulgence with great food and drink. We also stopped at some of Gaudi’s other famous and fantastic buildings. Dinner was a selection of tapas at a café and an espresso, even though we really wanted a full coffee (language barrier, even in Barcelona).

Day 3 (Saturday 8th April)

We slept in a bit and took the wonderfully cheap and efficient metro to Park Gaudi, a World Heritage Listed park, with free entry! It featured many of Gaudi’s construction including the house were he spent his final years. Included in the park was a crazy mosaic seating area, the longest bench in the world. Definitely worth a look. We spent hours just strolling around and soaking up the sun shine.

For lunch we took the metro to Montjuic, a hill overlooking the city. There we had another lovely roll and a couple of beers. We then lounged around in the sun and watched the city below. Once we got jolly enough to tackle the walk back, we set off for the small cobbled streets of the gothic area. It was siesta time and many of the shops were closed. The most expensive coffee of the whole trip was outside on the broadwalk of Las Ramblas. It cost $3.60 Euros! The price you pay to sit back and people watch in such a vibrant city.

The bullfight started at 6pm. We were greeted by protestors at the entrance gate, which made us feel really guilty. However we were determined to go and see it so we continued on through the gates. We had seats up the top above a person who we guessed was the president. The little brass band was playing music as we watched all of the very dressed up Spaniards smoke cigars and sharing Chorizo sausage and torn off chunks of bread.

All of the Toreadors came out wearing bright coloured clothes and all looked sensational.
We were surprised that there were horses wearing thick padding were used to tire the bull. The bull is almost hearded towards the horse enabling the rider to pierce the bulls back to weakening the back muscles with a big Lance (the weapon- Lance was placed safely next to me). The horses seemed quiet complacent and unharmed! The competition took place between three famous Matadors. The first was unable to kill the bull quickly. I cried, as it was very difficult for us to watch. He received no white hankie waves from the Spaniards or the president confirming our suspicions that he wasn’t very good. The second matador was obviously superior he was able to kill the bull very quickly thus receiving lots of white hankie waves. Women were also throwing scarves at him and he would kiss them and throw them back. For dinner that evening Lance and I couldn’t stand the sight of meat so we ordered Ensalada.

By 7:00 when we walked back through the gothic area all of the shops were open again and everyone was out and about. We went back to the hostel for a nap so we could party later on that night. When we finally headed out (at 12pm), we got to the pub that we wanted to go to an Andrea’s heel broke on her shoe before we even got in there! We set off back to the hostel, changed her shoes and headed out again. By the time we got back, people were spilling out into the streets because it was so packed. We ended up getting an icecream and strolling around the city for a while before calling it a night.

Sunday
We picked up our very groovy hire car a VW Polo. Lance drove us out of Barcelona picking up left hand drive very quickly. Our destination was Tarragona and palmeras a very cheap caravan park on the beach. Tarragona is known for it’s Roman ruins we particularly wanted to see the large amphitheatre on the Sea. We were also on the hunt to buy a towel and the town was like a ghost town absolutely nothing was open and there were very few people around. It was unusual because every car park was full but there was no people. Finally we stumbled acroos the Las Ramblas area and the main square to find that is obviously where the Spanish go after mass on a Sunday. That evening we drank a bottle of wine on the beach – (don’t worry mum, not straight out of the bottle). For the price of Tesco’s Finest (Tescos is like Action Supermarket) it tasted extremely good. We enjoyed lovely Paella for dinner and retired to the sounds of the waves falling softly on the beach. Much nicer than a train shaking the studio as it rumbles past.

Monday
It was a long drive to Allicante. After receiving an 18 euro fee at the toll road we decided to go the ‘cheaper’ coastal drive. Bad idea as it was extremely slow! Arriving at Allicante we strolled along the marina, walked up to the castle overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. All the streets were blocked off for the Easter Parade featuring people with KK like hoods carrying very heavy and elaborate floats depicting the stations of the cross. They were accompanied by many fine Brass bands and percussion ensembles. We thought we were extremely lucky to catch the parade however we saw very similar parades in every other town/city for the next ten days. The white washed houses In this area were typical of the Costa Blanca coastline.

Tuesday
We put on our bathers to go for a swim, it was the first time in almost six months that our knees had seen daylight. We are definitely beach babes no more and it was way too cold to go in. We didn’t learn our lesson from the day before and went the coastal drive again. What would normally have been a 3 hour drive took us 6. It was the long way to go, we got lost and we didn’t have a map- it was very nice scenery though expecially when driving past the Sierra Nevada. Once In Granada it took us another two hour drivng literally in circles trying to get to our hotel. Lets put us this way – we were glad we had a small car, we found ourselves driving through café areas in between table and chairs and on occasions the wrong way up one way streets. But!! It was worth all the effort and danger, as Granada was stunning and became our favourite Spanish City.

Wednesday
Beep Beep ! Beep Beep! A 6:00 am Early start today we need to get to Alhambra as quickly as we can to get tickets. The ticket office opens at 8:30 so we figure we would get there early enough. Walking up the hill towards the Citadel we saw Taxi after Taxi full of people who were going to beat us. Why didn’t we think of that? We arrived to find 300 people in line already and in about 10 mins the line size had doubled again. At least we knew we weren’t the only ones silly enough not to book. By 8:30 there were thousands of people in the queue, we were however guaranteed a ticket so getting there early was good. By 9:30 (three and half hours later) we got inside the gates to this Islamic and Catholic fortress and it was very impressive. We have provided photos but as usual they don’t do it justice. We did a lot of oohing and aahing as we walked around with our audio guides for about four hours. Absolutely amazing.

Relunctantly we left Granada for Seville. A very different city even though it had the old cobbled streets. There was lots of sand, which made the city seem like it was in a dessert but then also some very green parks. You guessed it we got lost again!!! Seville was very different there was lots of colour and mosaics; admittedly we were a little shattered by this point so we just walked around here and there.


Thursday Ferenguela Costa Del Sol

Ronda
I nervously get in the car as it was my turn to drive. I was often caught wondering where the gear stick had disappeared to and oops I’m on the wrong side of the road. Tollgates were tricky as you had to put the window down, change down gears, make sure you don’t drive into a pile on but get close enough to the window to get the ticket. I actually had to get out of the car as I stopped so far away. Lance let a little yelp as he thought I was going to scratch the right hand side of the car on the barrier. I had the privilege of driving on the very narrow streets of Ronda. So far all the streets were skinny however in Ronda they were anorexic. I took out a bin and scratched the side view mirror. By Lance yelling I thought I had run over a pedestrian.

Ronda is set high up in a mountain and it was beautiful. We hiked to the bottom of the mountain through old ruins to get a good view of the amazing bridge linking to sections of the town together. We sampled some Iberian products in a quaint little tavern overlooking the valley. Our meal looked so good people asked to have what we were having. We were quite proud of ourselves, as it is often a gamble when ordering from a Spanish menu.

We then jumped in the car and headed off for Ferenguela Costa Del Sol. Great hotel, nice weather we strolled along the beach in shorts – I felt naked. We lay in the sun amongst the Spainish who were actually naked. Still too cold to swim, we had nice Tapas and wine and it felt like a good rest before we made our way back up the coast towards home.

Friday Valencia
This was a very big polluted city. We parked our car in security parking that night. We tried to find our way around the city only to get ourselves completely lost again we were so greatful just to find the hotel again.

Saturday Girona
After paying over 50 Euro on toll roads for the trip, we made it back to point A without getting lost. We found a cheap place to stay close to the airport. Girona was surprisingly beautiful and what makes it unique to the other cities is that the town is still with the walls of the castle. The town has a very old cathedral dating back to 1010. We enjoyed a good walk and a Sangria on Las Ramblas. Lance bought me some earrings and we sampled lots of chocolates form the many chocolate shops. I was in heaven. Dinner consisted of a kebeb, the best I have ever tasted although it may have been the Sangria talking.

Sunday
The car hire place didn’t notice the scratch I had made on the car because it had blened in with all the dirt! Phew! We get to the airport and were met with a 6 hour delay. That’s O’K it, meant I could sit back and write all this down sipping beer and enjoying the last rays of warm sun for a while.

Locations Visited: Barcelona


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