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Here are some of my favourite memories of Barcelona.
1. Eating in Barcelona
There are so many delightful food places, especially in Gracia and El Raval, and I had an amazing time eating. What I would have loved to do is eat at the following places:
- The food markets combine my love for architecture and eating. It’s wonderful being snap happy and then stopping for something delicious when I get tired (which I didn’t end up doing). My favourite ones are in La Llibertat in Gracia and La Boqueria on the Ramblas.
- Escribá: so famous they have their own plaque on the floor of Las Ramblas. It will be chock full of tourists but don’t let it discourage you from pushing your way in and getting something yummy.
- Bar Central: I walked past it a couple of times before finding out it was one of Barcelona’s iconic bars. If you end up coming here, have a tapas and beer for me.
2. Sleeping on the beach, Sitges.
We had so much fun eating that all we wanted to do was lie in the sand on the beach in Sitges. The beach was nice and quiet, the sand was warm, and the breeze was cool. Be warned that Sitges becomes a very crowded and annoying place once summer hits. Probably not recommended in the summer months!
3. Wandering thorugh El Raval
El Raval is a very interesting neighbourhood to walk through: the large immigrant section population there gives it great character (and some of the best food), and the closer you get to MACBA (the Modern Art Museum of Barcelona), the more arty and funky it becomes, with young skateboarders and artists hanging out on the streets and the hip bars and cafes.
Frommers has a walking tour for El Raval that takes in most of the cool sights I saw. It is a great neighbourhood to get lost in and I had a fabulous day out when I was there in April 2009, sans tourists.
4. Wandering thorugh L´eixample
I loved the Lonely Planet Modernista walking tour, but try this one from Frommers of Modernista Léixample. The lonely planet one is much longer and more complete, though. So if you have a LP guidebook, use it.
My favourite place on the tour is the:
- Palau de Musica Catalana. One of the coolest Modernista buildings from the outside. There are organised tours of the complex in various languages for 10€ (adult). They can be obtained from the box office but were sold out the day I went, so try and book ahead. You cannot take photos during a tour, which sucks big time if you’re a photog. My photos of the outside did not do it justice, so I decided to skip the tour and buy a souvenir book for about 4€ instead. I would love to attend a concert in the gorgeous concert hall, preferably while they are playing the pipe organ!
5. Shopping
- Lefties: You might not have heard of Grupo Inditex, but you would have heard of their stable of iconic brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti and Pull and Bear. Well, this is where all their retired clothes come to rest. (!!!) On my recent visit, baby jumpsuits were 10€ for a set of 5. I bought 2 gorgeous tops for about 15€ each. This translated link of a forum has more information. The 2 most accessible Lefties outlets in Barcelona are:
- At the end of Calle Pelai 2-4, corner of Placa Universitat, minutes from the Paseo de Gracia metro and very close to Plaza Catalunya.
- At Maremagnum, the mall at the south end of Las Ramblas (map). Ground floor, Shop 44. Open Mon – Sun from 10h to 22h.
- Markets: If your aim is to shop at (rather than take photos of) Barcelona’s many markets, this article should be useful.
Have a great time in Barcelona, and I hope this list has helped take you off the beaten track!
I’ve been having a ball staying with S, who has been waiting on me hand and foot, in his plush and very stylish bachelor pad. Here’s some of the stuff we got up to on Saturday. On Sunday I hung out with P, who was a thoughtful host, and P’s parents who are visiting London at the same time I am.
I had too much fun on the weekend. As a result, baby and I are worn out and spent all day today lounging around doing nothing much. Tomorrow I fly out to Barcelona, and I’m really looking forward to hanging out with C & M again
I arrived in London and am staying with darling S, who has been excellent company. Catching up with friends and family I haven’t seen for ages is one of the best things about traveling.
Jet lag is killing me though. Over the past 2 mornings, my body has been betraying me by waking up at 4.30am, even though I am sleeping in a very comfy sofa bed. It took me about twice as long to recover from the humidity and time change when I flew from Melbourne to Singapore, so I’m not surprised it’s taking me a while to acclimatise. But I am raring to go and wishing my body would just get on with feeling great, rather than sluggish! My feet haven’t swelled, and I’m energetic for shorter periods during the day, but tomorrow will be a pretty full day of sightseeing, so it remains to be seen how well I cope!
I am currently in my second trimester, and since I’ve been feeling so well so far, my iron levels and other results were all normal and my immunisations are up to date, all I really have to be is more careful. I’ve had lots of plane flights, so the days when I’m flying I put on my flight stockings and try to move my feet lots to prevent DVT, and wear the stockings to sleep that evening when I reach my destination. I’m also taking vitamins regularly and eating as well as I can: trying to get as much fruit and veg into my body as possible. And I’m taking it easy, even though I’m a bit impatient with my body I know it takes energy to grow a baby and I’m not jeopardising that for anything!
Even though I’m travelling alone, I am staying with friends and family throughout the trip aside from a week in the south of Spain. I am fluent in the native languages of all the countries I’m visiting, so that if I need to communicate with staff or good samaritans I can confidently do so. And I also know when not to panic, and when to call an ambulance.
Anyway, even though I didn’t really need to refer to any websites for more information, here are some links I found useful:
- Smart Traveller health information – common sense general health advice.
- Travel Doctor.au and Journeywoman have some simple tips.
- CDC (USA) – a technical and detailed article with a huge heap of medical jargon. Great for a medical reference, but only if you have some medical background.
Thanks to A’s frequent flier miles, I was booked on a flight to Hong Kong on Singapore Airlines, Business Class.
A good friend J has commented that our little baby is living the high life: jet setting through Asia and Europe; tasting the best food from Singapore, Hong Kong and Spain; flying in business class before its birth. We might end up having a sophisticated child with expensive taste. But what the heck, a kid who eats everything (like raw fish, eggplant and asparagus) is probably a good thing.
According to this article in Discovery Health:
Sense of Taste in the Womb
By 13 to 15 weeks a fetus’s taste buds already look like a mature adult’s, and the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus can smell strongly of curry, cumin, garlic, onion, or other strong tastes from a mother’s diet. Studies show that a fetus’s swallowing increases when surrounded by sweet tastes and decreases with bitter and sour tastes.During the last trimester, the fetus is swallowing up to a liter a day of amniotic fluid, which may serve as a “flavor bridge” to breast milk, which also carries food flavors from the mother’s diet.
By birth, babies have a strong sense of taste.
Anyway, here are some photos of what baby and I had to enjoy on the way here. If only I could con more miles out of A and fly business class to London and back on the A380, traveling (and my pregnancy) would be bliss!
I got persuaded by P and some friends that going up to Mt Buller was a good idea. I don’t know why I said yes because:
- We had to be up at 4.30AM. Yes. In the morning. And I did it. Really. I was very proud of myself. Especially since it was freezing.
- I hate the cold.
So up the mountain we go, with me whingeing all the way..
“No, I didn’t want to go skiing.”
“Yes, I think toboggans are for little kids and I’m not going to be caught dead in one.” etc.
Anyhow I surprised myself by having fun. Thanks to P, Linc & Jay for getting me up to the mountain! You guys are great! I’m even thinking about doing it again!
Here are some photos.
This is a continuation of our NZ trip in December 2007. For previous posts about the trip check out the December archive.
I swam with dolphins in New Zealand!! Yayyy.
I had booked a dolphin swim with Dolphin Encounter. It cost $150NZ BUT if you are lazy or disorganised like me and book LESS than a week ahead, you will have to swim at the ungodly hour of 5.30 am!! Thankfully, it’s also the best time for dolphin spotting: there’s less wind + the water is calmer = less seasickness & more dolphins. And believe me, you wake up very fast when you hit the cold water!
I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’d heard complaints of seasickness and very little time on the water, it wasn’t worth the price, etc. from other travellers, but for me, it was a dream come true and I just had to pray for a calm, beautiful day. I was so excited I only got about 2 hours sleep, and I kept waking up because I was so worried I would sleep through my alarm.
There was a large bus-load of people swimming, and we all had to queue up for our gear: they supply a thick full-length wetsuit, a head cover thing, fins, mask & snorkel. The company was very well-equipped and made sure everyone’s stuff fit well and was comfortable. Then it was off to a state-of the art auditorium for a safety video before we hopped onto a bus. It was a short drive to another part of the bay where 3 boats awaited to take us out. A smooth, half hour ride later, they spotted the dolphins!
We were in luck!
There was a large pod of about 300 dolphins frolicking, flipping and fornicating (YES!!) right in front of me. It was 50mins of pure mammal bliss! These gorgeous, graceful creatures were a joy to hang out with.
I drained both my rechargable batteries trying to capture their exuberance but I didn’t do it justice. Hey, at least I tried!
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| Kaikoura dolphins photo album |
The rest of our trip went too fast, including a trip to KL, meeting more people and eating more food. I wish we’d had more time to meet more people (there are only 3 meals a day, and not enough time in between). If we’d made arrangements but never ended up meeting, I’m sorry, we’ll have to catch up on my next trip home (or you can fly here for a visit).
Here are some highlights.
More food (of course!) This time it’s P’s favourite food, murtabak.
This is what it looks like close up:
It’s a fried Indian pancake/bread filled with yummy marinated mutton or chicken, served with a small dish of spicy curry. Traditionally it’s breakfast food. This sounds awful to the uninitiated, but honestly, it tastes fabulous. Just don’t eat it every morning, you might get a heart attack. We reckon since we only get to eat it about once a year, we can overindulge.
We also had a very very cool time dragonboating with S (and a rowdy bunch of Aussie expats). I was dragged into it whining loudly, because S & P said “it would be FUN!!”, but ended up having a great time. I was sore for days, but I can’t wait to do it again. I’m still kicking myself because we have a waterproof camera I didn’t take a single photo. My excuse is that I was too busy paddling, and I had to pull my own weight on the boat or risk getting thrown overboard. Oh well, we’ll just have to do it again.
That same evening we had a huge meal at T’s with some of my friends from secondary /high school. Thank goodness because after the workout I was starving hungry. I stuffed my face (of course).
I’m proud to say I’ve been friends with these guys for more than 15 years!
Then we were taken by A. to Samy’s Curry Restaurant (review) where we had Fish Head Curry (recipe).
Trust me, it tastes so much better than it looks. Just be thankful I didn’t take a photo like this one.
Of course, I spent lots of time with my little niece. Mum looks after her on weekdays so I got to see her quite a bit. Here are some of her antics.
They’re all a bit blurry because babies don’t understand the idea of “keep still” and I didn’t want to startle her with the flash of the camera.
And of course, here’s a photo from her birthday.
We also met up with a colleague from Mexico, who absolutely loved the food (of course) at People’s Park, in Chinatown, which is getting more and more touristy by the minute. Fortunately it still has some of the best places to eat in Singapore.
If you’re visiting (or living in) Singapore, check out this fantastic article on local food.
I also spent a fun evening with my ex-boss eating yet more hawker food, and walking by the river.
We flew home from Changi Airport’s new Terminal 3, after a yummy breakky at the staff canteen in T1. If you really want to go there, drag your luggage down the stairs behind the Burger King (map) and you should see it. Or ask anyone who works there.
The departure area of T3 has more shopping than I can handle (remarkable, really). And the women’s toilets are divine (and free)! It’s not one of the best airports in the world for nothing.
And here’s me in the powder room.
We were also lucky enough to fly back to Melbourne on a brand new plane. Look at the giant (for economy class) screen!
You can edit Word documents (very painfully) with the keyboard.
Goodbye Singapore, hello Melbourne!
We arrived after a mediocre SQ flight, and got right into things as it was the weekend.
We met a good friend for dinner at Maxwell hawker centre where we shared some food. The best photo ended up being of the carrot cake, so here it is:
Then we visited the Buddha tooth temple, which we found a beautiful but extremely commercial enterprise. It certainly wasn’t subtle asking for donations, something we didn’t expect from a respected religion.
However, as you can see, all that money must have been put to good use.
I also managed to spend time with my little niece, whom I’d never met. Here she is sitting on my lap.
The next day, we met A and ate to our heart’s content again, this time at VivoCity. We started with Japanese at Shin Kushiya, then celebrated Chinese New Year with yu sheng at Crystal Jade.
We had fun taking this photo, making more noise than any of the well-behaved kids in the restaurant:
We ended with dessert at Ben & Jerry’s. Yes!! There’s a Ben & Jerry’s in Singapore.. when are they opening one in Oz? (actually, that might not be such a good idea..)
Don’t worry, the brownie was shared.
On Monday, I was dragged to Sim Lim Square by my lovely husband, who was hoping to spend more than 30 mins in each and every store! Even though I like tech stuff, I cannot spend that long looking at hardware! I can understand how he feels when I go shopping now.. perhaps it’s revenge for all the shopping I drag him through?
On our walk back to the train station, Peter was asking: what are these?? We ended up eating a few. I used to love them when I was a kid: they’re crispy pancakes filled with chopped peanuts. Yum!
And the culinary adventure continues…
Sorry about the lack of personal posts recently. In the past weeks, I’ve been up to my ears in travellers: hanging out with them, showing them around, giving them a hand. I love doing it, so rewarding and fun, and it’s a great excuse to procrastinate (as if I needed one in the first place!).
The best thing about having visitors is:
- You see your neighbourhood in a new light every time.
- Instead of sitting on your arse at home:
- You get to do fun stuff like sit on the beach eating fish & chips.
- You get to visit your favourite places with new people.
- You now have a place to stay in Timbuktu (or wherever).
- You learn new stuff: language, skill, etc
- You get cool travel ideas and recommendations.
- The house stays clean because you have visitors.
In general, life is more pleasant and interesting. I highly recommend it.
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| Friends & CouchSurfers, Australia Day |
On of my popular posts is Defense Against Gropers, about my lovely interesting experiences riding the buses and trains in Mexico City. Everyone who has asked me what it’s like to live there has heard my horror stories, so it was no surprise when I got emailed this:
Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city’s packed public transportation system.
