From Barcelona with LOVE

day 10 (Sept'07). Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho.

We start our day very early - excited. Many place to visit, many things to see, many sites to take capture. Simply loving it!

We took the Touristic Bus which is similar to the popular Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. The first stop we make was at Plaza Espanya located at the foot of Montjuïc. Nothing much of cause, yet we took pics like “beruk dapat torchlight” literally “ monkey received a torchlight” meaning - the monkey so thrilled that he received a torchlight despite not knowing the usage, he will switch it on and use it even though during day time. Us - being excitedly taking pics even the site has no significant value… :P ahhahhaa…… (Hey! it WAS a beautiful “torchlight”). Later we walk over to take a pic of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, as much we wanted to visit the inside of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya - a museum of Catalan visual art; we were press for time. So many places to see, so little time.

We walk to the next stop Caixa Forum (it‘s also the stop for our bus), basically it is the Cultural and Social centre of community projects.

Decided to hop on the bus and stop at Montjuïc. We saw a cable car to go further up the mountain but change our minds as we wanted to take the cable car by the sea instead. Heheehhee…. Drama!

Reach the top most cable car station and that’s when I realise that the next cable car stop is actually on a steel hollow tower *shriek*…. Am scared of heights! Not only that, the cable car look old and the tower look flimsy. By the way, there is no base underneath from the cable car to the tower platform; you have to “hop” to come out. Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hands-down to Andrea, no worries for her, child play…. Oh! By the way, you half to walk down, no lift provided! *what did I get myself into!*

Alas, my feet can feel the land. Sigh…. We walk over to the Rambla de Mar or “Rambla of the Sea” which is a splendid walkway and bridge over the harbour waters, running from Portal de la Pau to the Spain Dock. At the end there’s mall where we stop to purchase some FCB magnets.

We then swap bus line to go for some shopping at Diagonal Mar Mall and stop over at Port Olimpic for some snaps. Shop again for more magnets and of cause Zara!!! Finally.

Done with the shopping, back to the hostel for break fast, but not before stopping over at Barcelona Cathedral correspond to a basilica with three naves which was destroyed in 925. It is said that part of it is of Gothic building, with some of its Romanesque elements remain. With that, we end our day. Perfect!
My next UNESCO site!

Credits : Wikipedia, Barcelona.com, flickr, barcelonayellow, Portvellbcn, BCN.es

Ola! Barcelona!

day NINE (Sept’07). Bye bye Granada.

Nothing much today except that we making our way to BARCELONA!!!!!! YEAY! Alls well time around (there can only be one Tangier incident).

We took a plane as land journey is way too long, Granada airport is PRETTY small I must say, reminded of Langkawi’s airport back in those day or perhaps even smaller.

Reached Barcelona in the afternoon, checked in and went straight to La Rambla Street. We arrange so that we can arrive during this week so that we can catch the Festes de la Merce festival. It is to celebrate the day of the city's patron saint ... the Virgin de la Merce. There were parade of the giants when a processions through the streets is made up of giant wooden figures (gegants) operated by people (yup! Internet again!).We didn’t manage to catch the human pyramid however did catch a colorful mime act. Boy! Were they good! We took loads of pics.

As we were still fasting…. Felt rather jaded. Went back to hostel to rejuvenate and prepare for an exciting day in Barcelona.

Barcelona here we come.

Credits : Spanish-Fiestas, Wikipedia

Granada Awed Me

day EIGHT (Sept'07). Hahahhahaa..... Kewl hah!


We had a good rest in the hostel; have to admit this is one of the best hostel we stayed during this trip. We had such a good rest, The Alcazaba Hostel was perfect, bed being made daily, clean bathroom with tub, hairdryers available (finally I can look good! Phew!), I couldn’t ask for more. Awesome! To make it even better, there’s a sundry shop below that sells Walls ice-cream of which some are not sold in Malaysia, fascinated we are (I sound like Yoda or maybe Yoda, I sound like... hemmm....).

It was a 5-7mins walk from our hostel to the Hop-On Hop-Off stop at Granada Cathedral, and we were early thus decided to take a stroll in the cathedral. Nothing much outside but we did see a mime artist - look armaturist. We were drawn to walk further in by the side of the cathedral, and guess what we found, nice little souvenir shop with pretty tile paintings. I also noticed that they put a lot of effort and emphasis on their balcony. Ahh…….. Very quaint.

We stopped at Garcia Lorca Park, hemm…. Basically nothing much but it’s nice to see other country’s park I feel, diff plant, diff flowers, diff landscape, diff scent…. Everything but everything was diff. Thus making it exciting and nice :D The park is actually surrounding the house of Federico García Lorca - is one of Spain's best-known and most loved writers, poet and dramatist, skilled painter, pianist and composer. Now the house has been converted to a museum.

Continued with our HOHO ride, seeing the little town from HOHO roof top, felt the clean air of Granada’s Sierra Nevada….refreshing! We also noticed a lot of parks in the city, the nice buildings, nice balconies, cycling expedition and Andalusia Mountain.

We are excited with the next stop - Albaycin. It overlooks Granada and also the birth place of Flemenco. Amazingly Albaycin was able to retain the narrow winding streets of its Medieval Moorish past. And was declared a world heritage site in 1984, along with the more famous Alhambra. Aren’t I lucky! To go to Albaycin, we need to take an Alhambra bus which is a smaller but to enable us to get thru the winding narrow street uphill. I have to say, the view up here is SUPER MAGNIFICENT!

Here you will see small houses facing the either Alhambra or Granada, friendly locals, culture retained - authentic in nature. Albaycín to its neighbouring Sacromonte and for many centuries it has been populated by the gypsy community. The mixture of Arabic influences combined with many centuries of gypsy influence eventually created the famous flamenco dance. Am fortunate enough to be able to catch this lovely dance in Barcelona (but not the bull fight though - seasonal apparently, there goes my chance to see a real matador).

The as the sun begin to set, we went for break fast before starting our journey back to hostel. Despite our tiredness, we “don’t” really want to waste our precious moment in Granada, thus we took a night walk nearby the hostel. A perfect way to end our last day in Granada. Overall, TWO THUMBS UP for GRANADA.

Next - Barcelona

Credits : Wikipedia, Whatsonwhen, Specialtravel, The Star, Ladrondeagua