Thu, 23 Oct 2003

author Liz	location Paris, France
posted 19:00 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Olympic Site, Crazy Café ( 44 photos )
When we woke up on Thursday morning, we had breakfast at the hostel, and then Penny and Jonno checked out and went off to find a place to stay that was closer to the bus station as they had to catch an early bus the next morning to take them to the airport. Tim and I stayed in the hostel we were in, as it was nice and central and was one of the few hostels in Barcelona that had a kitchen. So we spent our morning checking emails and organising a way to get from Barcelona to Paris.
This ended up being a bus to Paris, all the way from Barcelona, 15 hours in total. We booked it for Saturday night, and although it was the cheapest transport option by far, neither of us was too excited about such a long time on a bus.
We met up again with Penny and Jonno at Midday and decided to walk from the main bus terminal where we were to the 1992 Barcelona Olympic site, across the city.
The walk took a long time, but the weather was really nice (our first perfect sunny day in Barcelona), and it gave us a great chance to look around the city.
We stopped at a busy but nice place for lunch, and sat at the bar eating our food and watching all the drinks and food being prepared.
A bit more walking, and then we came to Plaça d'Espanya, a huge and busy square that lead us up a long wide road, complete with a fountain along it's length (although it wasn't turned on). At the end of this road, we could see the huge and grand Palau Nacional, that contains the Catalunya National art museum. The building looked very impressive up on the hill, and the view out over the city as we climbed up the hill was also very impressive.
Much further up the hill, we walked through a small park, and then came to the Olympic pool. Further up the road was the Olympic Stadium, where we wandered around it's outside for a bit, before going and having a look inside the stadium. It was suprisingly smaller than Stadium Australia, but it was good to see it.
Back outside the stadium, and around the other side, we started going back downhill. There were lots of beautiful views of the city, especially when we came to the Olympic diving pool, with the spectator seats all lined up on one side of the pool, and all looking out across Barcelona and the diving pool. It would have been brilliant to sit there and watch Olympic diving as well as getting to enjoy such a nice view of Barcelona!
On our way down the hill, and guy called out to Penny and Jonno, and it turned out he was an Austrian whom they had met on their travels through Spain. The five of us decided to go for a coffee, so we made our way all the way back down to town and found a small bar/café to have a hot drink. The drinks were good, but the barman was a bit mad. He got all excited that we spoke English and spent half an hour explaining an American movie plot to us (in Spanish) and getting us to teach him some of the words from the story-line in English. At least that was what we think he was doing! In the end we had had enough of him, and wandered on a bit further.
We said goodbye to Jonno and Penny's friend, and went to a supermarket where Jonno and Penny bought some supplies. From there we caught a Metro to La Sagrada Familia.
Tim and I went back to La Sagrada Familia the next day for a good look around, so I will say a bit about it in a minute, but to see it that first time was amazing. The spires of Gaudi's uncompleted church towered above us as we came up from the Metro, and we just stood and stared at it for quite a while. Anyway, more about it later, but it was spectacular by night, so we couldn't wait to see it the next day.
The four of us found a small bar and sat playing cards for a while before meeting up with Marty and his girlfriend Katherine. Then all six of us went out for a drink and then dinner.
Dinner was nice, with Tim trying a Spanish speciality - pig's cheek. We all spent many hours talking, drinking and eating.
After saying goodbye to Marty and Katherine, Tim, Penny, Jonno and I caught a taxi back to the Gothic quarter, and there we said goodbye to each other, as Penny and Jonno were leaving for London early the next morning.
Back at our hostel, Tim and I flopped into our beds.

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