Spain 🇪🇸
Part 1: Lloret de Mar | Part 2: Barcelona
Blood, döner
We had breakfast at the Corgi Café. They serve a mean café orange. Afterwards, we grabbed groceries at the Mercadona.
We found out that that cake was for Saint Joan. We got one to celebrate.
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The titular corgi.
A pistachio donut and the fabled cake.
It was very frustrating changing my bandage because I started bleeding again. I think I included this mostly so I could give this day its stupid name.
We took the subway to Port Vell to visit the aquarium. It felt like a trip to Toronto, but muggier and smokier.
One universal aquarium invariant is, while walking on the tunnel conveyer belt, people will close in to fill any vacant space around you. The only way to ensure a personal bubble is by spreading your legs out.
When I went to the washroom, I appreciated that they were playing ambient water sounds on speakers all throughout the building. It helped me pee.
Dear Diary, Yevgeniya said I could only eat two bites of döner, but I ate the whole thing, because I'm a rebel.
People were doing fireworks all night in celebration of Sant Joan's day tomorrow. It was noisy. Tomorrow will be a crowded day on the streets, I assume.
The "immersive experience" felt like playing Pokemon Snap.
Sardines
After a rapid breakfast and a couple of extraforte Nespressos, we hit the subway to one of Gaudi's houses.
The house felt like a fantastic blend of Willie Wonka and Harry Potter, maybe with more classical material choices and layouts, as explained by the virtual voiceover tour included in our Gold package.
The modern up-and-comers exhibit reminded me of when a sitcom tries to portray an expert. They use just enough terminology to sound convincing to laypeople but everyone else says "well that made no fucking sense." That would be a metaphor for the juxtaposition of what may nowadays be described as "AI slop" alongside Gaudi's art. It's one thing to make the mistake of riding the generative AI, NFT hype train in 2022—thinking that it was the bona fide future, whereas the reality eventually became revealed that it was far from timeless and advancements since then make it look silly today—but just the philosophical difference between mastering one's craft and creating something at the peak of one's ability (Gaudi) versus creating something for a mass audience that's popular and interesting in the moment, requiring far less dedication and artistry...that was disappointing to see.
Of it, I haven't read more than "he's a huge blowhard," but I'm sure this comment from some pompous redditor is lengthier and more accurate than what I could say.
I imagine this corridor would be a lot smellier without these olfactory vapours.
We had some light tasties from the café and enjoyed a large spread back at the flat.
Behold, The St. Joan cake! (bottom-right)
I enjoyed a catnap and then we once again trekked to the subway for La Rambla.
On the way, we ran into a pigeon convention, with bombs. Kids were throwing little explosives on the ground to make noises to scare the pigeons into flying in circles.
La Rambla was a nice walk loaded with pedestrians. There were many shops but we didn't buy anything.
Before heading back, we stopped to eat at the first restaurant with a highchair: Dunne's Irish Pub.
I was pleased that they were still offering their Irish breakfast plate at 7:30 PM. However, we were not pleased by the cockroaches that came to visit us. We paid and scooted out of there quicktime.
The subway was packed on the way back. We thought if we wait for the next train, it would be emptier, but no. We squished on and got home and passed out.
La Rambla.
I wanted to eat these.
More rambling.
You know you're in the French-ass area when you see "Burguer King".
All's Güell that ends Güell
We ate a leisurely breakfast and hurriedly made it to the bus stop. The bus was packed.
We reached our destination, Parc Güell. Not actually a park, we soon learned. The tour guide explained that Count Güell had visited England and been inspired by its parquets? and thus commissioned Parc Güell from a freshly-graduated Gaudí.
She also kept going on about Gaudí's projects that he started but never finished. If I learned something, it's that I can still become famous if I never complete anything.
I wished Gaudí had gotten to the part where he planted the trees. We were standing in a big, open, sandy area. It was a hot day. It was annoying to stand in the sun through the guide's overly-enthusiastic descriptions and explanations that I didn't want to hear in the first place. Let the art speak for itself.
Bonus Gaudi house (We didn't make it into this one—there was a 2-hour wait).
We stopped briefly on the way back to the room at a shoe shop. Yevgeniya haggled a "pequeña discount."
Would you eat here?
Back at our room, we enjoyed a hearty lunch with fruit, meat, cheese and two pizzas, because "why not two pies?" After an extraforte espresso top up, we headed to the bus stop. The bus was packed again, I was informed, because the subway line was closed along our stops. So we had to get off after a couple of stops to board the subway destined for the Picasso Museum.
We arrived; I stepped out of the subway station and we were back...at La Rambla?? Yes, the museum was only a short along the pedestrian passageway. We encountered the forsaken restaurant on the way.
The visit was nice but cut a little short because it was a baby-noise-limited museum, and Teo had surpassed it, per the security guard.
It's called "Dunne ever go here."
La Pedrera
Today was, once again, all about Gaudi. We went to his famous Casa Milà.
While Vova and Anna went inside, we watched Teo. He was very well-behaved.
There were many mentions of Sagrada Familia and its precursors. This felt like episode I to Sagrada Familia's episode II.
We stopped at a nice café.
Didn't eat here. One day though.
I was going to blame the translation, but if you check the Catalan, they're not sure what a rectangle, pentagon or octagon are in that language either.
Is it really true?
We grabbed a couple of churros at the Xurreria. They looked so good in the shop window; we had to stop. Chocolate coated footlong churros, soft and sweet, crunchy and fried, filled with pistachio cream. We also had a plain one filled with dulce de leche; that one was actually even better.
It looks nasty in the pic but in real life they look so good.
The big moment was here. We made our way to Sagrada Familia. It was a brief 10 minute walk at 5:40. I made sure to put on pants beforehand, so as not to disrespect somebody.
The makings of a Sagrada.
A Dark Day
Unfortunately, on this day my phone decided to enter a bootloop. That means I couldn't take notes after some point. Well, I could, by other means, but I chose not to. I took it as a message from the big man above to just relax and enjoy the rest of my time, or maybe I just got so frustrated that I gave up. Who knows!
Fortunately, I was able to restore my phone once I returned home in Canada. Here are my raw notes for this day:
- I tried making my own café orange Presumably by adding OJ to coffee
- Cathedral Well that's just great
- I scanned my printed QR code and was requested to remove my cap.
- Why dkd they hse so much dark stained wood?
The Barcelona Cathedral (Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia).
The very last photo.
We spent a couple more days in Spain, then flew to Mannheim, Germany for a week, where we visited some interesting places, went to the zoo, and consumed schnitzel, pretzels and beer.