Y Viva Espana

[rebness]

Huzzah! Am off to Barcelona in December with jaffacakequeen courtesy of Easyjet’s not-too-shabby £6 flight deals to mainland Europe. We’ve got us a funky little hotel right near the Ramblas, with that Gaudi-esque design.

There’s an alarming amount of things to see and do there, from the Sagrada Familia to er…shopping (I know she’ll drag me around the shops…heehee) and I’m determined to bring back some honey rum, which is impossible to find in England.

I can’t bear the idea of going abroad and not being able to speak the language, so jaffacakequeen volunteered me to learn it. The only problem is that Barcelona is, of course, part of Catalonia and I’m uncertain whether I need to learn Catalan or if I could get away with standard Spanish. Hmm.

Have any of your LJ-type people been to this part of Spain? Does anyone know what the weather will be like in winter, or of language. Any recommendations of what to see? Am all excited, like. We’ve been talking about seeing Barcelona since January! Again, I think this warrants a further huzzah.

Huzzah!

Comments

[jaffacakequeen.livejournal.com]

of course the weather! OMG!! jumpers or t-shirts? and as for shopping? well it is christmas :-p

plus "Gaudi-esque design." is that what you call the interiors? LMAO!!

cant wait mate! is it awful to wish away the next 12 weeks?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I know! I'm wondering what the weather will be like. Do we pack t-shirts or sweaters? :-D

Gaudi-esque...heehee.

I was sitting in work daydreaming about it today. Hurry up, December!

Puedes reptir eso?

Ack, never mind... ;-)

[ozfille]

You can get away with poorly spoken Castellano. I did,, though it would be at least polite to learn some of the basic words. My excuse was that I had to attempt to learn some Portuguese as well to make myself understood there and so did not attempt to even learn the politenesses in Catalan. But then I think they are so used to monolingual tourists that you could get away with knowing neither very much. I had some interesting discussions in my mix of very cracked Spanish and English.

Weather, I can't help you with as I was there in October. It was still pleasant and as one of the Aussies you mentioned in a previous posting I do find European weather cooler than you do, so my observations aren't worth much on that point.

If they still have them you should get the pass that they had that covers all of Gaudi's open-to-the public buildings. Saves you a lot of money.I also liked the Parc Güell, a whimsical fairy land of a park Gaudi designed out. It's out of the main part towards Gracia or Horta I think from fading memory. The street life is very lively, there's always something going on. If you're a night owl you'll love it. Unfortunately I'm an early morning person, so I think I probably missed great slabs of the best time of the day and I was travelling by myself so I tend to be a tad more cautious then. There are the usual security risks, especially in the old part of the city. Very narrow alleys and roads. Saw this guy jump out from a side alley grab this woman's bag and disappear in a minute down another alley. Someone tried to chase him but he got away in the warren of alleys. But that sort of thing happens in any big city.

There was the old Olympic sites but they didn't interest me much, and you can get a great view of the city from Tibidabo which is a fair way out as well. Impressive in its own way is the old world expo site and of course the Palau Nacional which is the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Barri Gotic is suitably medieval with it's cathedrals, palaus and a little confusing with all the narrow streets. (I could imagine Armand looking suitably sinister rising from the crypt in some of these churches.) If I remember right Picasso's museum is not far from there either and is worth a visit.

If you're are going to visit the countryside around Barcelona and you're interested in people's social behaviour I'd go to Montserrat. It's a pilgrimage site and I found the religious fervour a tad uncomfortable, as I'm not religious but there are great walks around the mountain, though it was very misty when I went there and in Winter I could imagine it would be even foggier. I actually liked the name of its founder, Count Wilfred the Hairy of Barcelona, always impressed me. If you're not into mountains there is also Girona and it's medieval town centre. Very steep streets, good exercise. Magnificent walk all around the old city on the city walls and there is a museum about the Call, the Jewish quarter where there was an important school of Jewish mysticism, Cabalistas de Girona. There is also an Arab hammam from 13th Century and of course lots of medieval churches and an interesting archaeology museum in the old Monastery of Sant Pere Galligants.

Hope this helped.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

That's a brilliant help.

It's a relief to learn about the language, and we're definitely going to take on board your advice regarding sightseeing. It sounds like you had a great time there -- who knows, if we really like it-- will definitely be going back to explore further afield.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

SIX. POUND. FLIGHTS?! I hate you.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for Europe and our environment-destroying obsession with cheap flights! :-D

[verastar99.livejournal.com]

em...yeah.

did i sleep with your man or something? because a sistah sure aint answering none of my emails!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Ack! Sorry, Veraness... have been terrible for mailage of late (ask Anna, who has threatened to SMASH ME GOOD.)

Will e-mail you when I get back tonight. :p

Erm...hasta...la...uh...something.

(My Spanish sucks.)

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

You words, not mine. :P

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Well, it's so much more Hulk-like than a mere stapler attack, n'est-ce pas?

[josh1975.livejournal.com]

Becky! Sorry about the AIM conversation the other day. One of my coworkers came in my office to talk about work! How dare they! When I got back, you were gone. :(

[rebness.livejournal.com]

De nada!

I got cut off...again. AOHell is fond of that. :p

(Sorry about the icon-- had to use it!)

[avariecaita.livejournal.com]

£6? I'm so moving.