Barcel-o-oh-na!

I can't believe its the 16th of January and I haven't bothered to tell you about my New Year. What a lazy bugger I am.

Sock Monkey & P decided to spend New Year in Barcelona. Leaving the county is my way of diluting the whole miserable affair. I can't be bothered with NYE. Its just depressing. So Espana there we went!

After I had booked the hotel I read some really dire reviews of it so P & I prepared a contingency plan: if its that bad stuff it we'll check into the nearest swanky-de-la-posh hotel. However it was a perfectly nice hotel on La Rambla. And very conveniently positioned two doors up from a Sex Shop/Peep Show. There were some extremely interesting items for sale but sadly we didn't see any of the films. You had your own private cinema and everything! (well little cabin).

We arrived just at lunchtime on the 30th. After checking into our hotel (and breathing a sigh of relief) we took a little wander around. It had been freezing in London and so it was nice to go somewhere which was 15º warmer. We had a little wander around the food market where we saw some dead piglets on a butcher's stall. Under the impression the food would be fantastic we decided to have lunch there. All of the little food bars were packed so we ate at a mini restaurant where I can report that we had extremely disappointing calamari and the patatas bravas were served with what appeared to be 1,000 Island Dressing. The meats and cheeses on the snackette size tapa were lovely though.

Then more of a wander to look at some Gaudi architecture. Like this one on the right:
And this one here below. I think some of his buildings look like caves and others look like they are crying.

In the evening we decided to go for a drink and as if by magic there was a bar next door to the hotel so in we went. Much hilarity followed. I can't remember exactly what bollocks we were talking but we couldn't stop laughing at something or other. Then we decided to have a browse in the sex shop which seemed most interesting after several drinks.

Next day, New Year's Eve, after breakfast we wandered over to the port area for a look around then walked to the Cathedral, museca de palcia, and looked at various Gaudi buildings along the way. I like how they just appear from nowhere.

After lunch and a brief visit to a supermarket for [really nasty] cava and grapes (more later) we decided to have a look at Gaudi's very famous Santa Familia Cathedral which I thought was a bit disappointing. We went inside and it was full of bags of cement and the like. This is because it Still. Isn't. Finished. We didn't go up the tower either because it looked terrifying: it's a fear of heights and claustrophobia combined.

For our NYE dinner we ate at a restaurant on La Rambla. It was buzzing. Absolutely packed and bustling. We sat, eating paella, drinking the strongest sangria in the world and watched everyone becoming more and more excited. There were firecrackers going off left right and centre, whistles loads of noise and atmosphere.

We had brought our grapes with us so we could join in with the Spanish tradition of stuffing one grape in your mouth for every 'bong!' of the clock when it turns midnight. They swig cava too but the stuff we had was horrible lol.

But it hit midnight, someone shouted 'Happy New Year' - well that's what I assume he said as he did shout it in Spanish and then......nothing! No fireworks or anything. And definitely no bongs. Everyone seemed to vanish down a hole or something. The only thing that did happen is a Frenchwoman at the table next to us wished us Bon Annee. We were pissing ourselves laughing. Here we were on one of the busiest streets in the world, on New Year's Eve and nothing happened! We tried to drink our nasty cava and watched Bjorn Again performing from Mallorca on tv. It was actually quite fun!

New Year's Day, decidedly un-hungover we went to Gaudi park. The air in that part of the city is lovely and clear. It was a bit grey and nippy there but everyone there was enjoying the 1st day of 2009. We had a little pit stop for lunch then bimbled back into the city centre. Later on it was more paella for dinner.

Our last day in Barcelona. I had heard about an interesting shop and I really wanted to visit it. Its called
El Ingenio and sells all sorts of costumes, clown shoes! (I almost thought about buying a pair as they may have been handy for kicking people's arses at work), practical jokes, magic tricks and, best of all, papier mache heads used in fiestas. Some of them are absolutely huge and really expensive. They came in all sorts of designs, old women, cats, scray faces, Laurel & Hardy. My favourite, though, was definitely the Cosmonaut Head which you may just about to see in the picture. He's on the 3rd shelf down 4th from the left. I did however bite the bullet and buy the head of a man sporting a large moustache and wearing a fez. And believe it or not he fits in with all the other artefacts I have at home. Here he is on the right. He's only about 7 inches high but P thinks he is creepy. I like to hold him right up to her face and say "I get you Pauline" in an appropriately creepy voice. She doesn't seem to like that very much but it amuses me.

Then it was one quick look around the supermarket for Spanish Delicacies before heading off to el aerporto. But this was an unsuccessful trip because Sterling is so bloody weak against the Euro that you could buy all the hams and stuff cheaper at home!

The 4 or 5 trips I have had to Spain so far have been really enjoyable. I love Spanish food, the wine & sangria, the countryside and the people are just mad but in a good way. I used to think Pedro Almodovar had a really good imagination until I went to Madrid and found that they were all like that. I quite liked Barcelona but on the whole I'd say that I prefer Madrid & Seville.

And I didn't see any Fat Ladies Singing. Well, except this one!