Barcelona: Part 1

[rebness]

I was going to wait until I had various Spanish pictures *coughjaffacakequeencough* to punctuate my ramblings about the Ramblas, but I'll start my multi-post now.

Unfortunately, the illness would not leave me alone, even for Spain. Hence, Penny and I were standing in Liverpool airport and the voices of the screaming children around us were muffled to me, thank God.

Check-in was delayed blah blah wine and catch-up blah blah gossip blah blah got on the aeroplane.

Now, England has been covered in near-permanent cloud since, like, June, so I wasn't hopeful of seeing much even at the window seat. All of the North was covered in thick cloud below, but it began to clear as we moved South.

At one point, I gazed out of the window to a massive, sprawling city of light beneath. Not Paris, but London. Dude, it was so pretty from above. Pity it's the opposite on the ground.

Across the English channel and over France. We all oohed and ahhed at a frankly massive fire blazing somewhere down in the North of France. "Pen," I screeched, "What if it's Paris?"

"You're nuts." Or near equivalent.

The flight went well, except for when the pilot landed too quickly and my sinuses made me feel like I was being stabbed repeatedly in the nose. The pain was terrible, but half of the passengers seemed to suffer the same thing, so hah.

Anyway, various airport boringness. Pen's umbrella was stolen by someone either in Liverpool or Barcelona. Got to the train desk, and I stammered out "A ticket to Barcelona, please" in pathetic Spanish.

Scary train signs that I couldn't read all that well, brief wondering if we were going to end up in France or something, and then we were on the Ramblas.

The Ramblas, dude: blazing light, a throng of people, hotels, shops, tree-lined streets and general excitement. Hello, I was in love.

But there were more pressing concerns-- such as finding the bloody hotel. Lots of stammered Spanish and shrugged shoulders. Found an Irish Bar (but of course) and got directions to the Theatre Liceu, which I knew to be opposite our digs.

Muy handsome Donnie Darko-esque hotelier. Scary hotel. Cheap, gaol-like, with a shared bathroom. Bah. Penny and I looked for some comedy Spanish television, but found little. Lots of boring newscasters, so we got ready and decided to hit the Ramblas...

Comments

[tsaress.livejournal.com]

I like london

[rebness.livejournal.com]

:p

We'll have to agree to differ. Something about that city just... bleh... weighs me down. I prefer Northern cities, I think.

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Those are some mighty fine Dickensean principles that you've got there.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Hey, Dickens himself preferred Liverpool. Go, Dickens!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Also, my post about OMG Barcelona has turned into an extended coughhackspit London commentary. Woe.

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

It's so William Blake of you. Eww, London, get it away!! Give me the COUNTRY.

It's like Modernism never happened.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Blake is third on my List of Literary (dead) Lovers, don't you know.

Modernism sucks. Well, apart from Eliot. And Woolf. Sort of James Joyce.

Postmodernism is where it's at, baby!

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I know. You can have him all to yourself, as he is definitely not my pick of the Romantics. (Who is? Uh. Don't make me choose.)

Nobody even knows what postmodernism is, really, so be quiet. :P

[rebness.livejournal.com]

WAAAAAH is it even a true movement? Can there be such a thing as Postmodernism, or is it just endless repetition and self-referencing with an over-reliance on sarcasm? WILL POSTMODERNISM EVER DIE?

Thanks, Anna. My most challenging thought prior to this today was, "hmm. Coffee with cream? Coffee without cream?"

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, I did a gazillion land title searches today. Those things are so exciting. Not.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

33.2% of our patients did not attend psychiatric appointments in October, you know.

Mettez une pistolet a mon tete...

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

That is in very poor taste.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

D'oh. That is my catchphrase for when I'm overwhelmed by mind-numbing tedium. >:

These are just DNAs, Spanna. i.e. they were supposed to come for follow-up to check everything is all right after being discharged, but don't bother, because It's Behind Them and stuff. :p

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I dunnae care about the patients, the French was the bit in bad taste. :P 'Cause, really.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I so wish I had a KEEEL icon.

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

The meaning, not the fact that you were speaking French. French is *never* in poor taste!

Pretentious? Moi?!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Jamais! :p

[verastar99.livejournal.com]

*swoons with becky over Blakey*

[rebness.livejournal.com]

He da man, Vera.

[jaffacakequeen.livejournal.com]

okay.. i have your disk.. its here now at work! no kidding :-p needed to pinch a jiffy from work... then need to buy some stamps. so with luck you will get it for christmas ;-D

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! I want my poo log of doom, dammit! ROFL!

[ozfille]

Actually the Spanish news channels were rather odd and very open and unrestricted in comparison to ours. I remember vegging out in my hotel room and avoiding the Princess Di Funeral Extravaganza and in between flicked on to this other News Hour/Magazine Type show. A matador had been gored in the bullring that day. He was gored in a very sensitive region of the male anatomy. All the male reporters were clustered round his bed asking him I assume how he felt. One must have asked could they see the wound and off came the blanket and there he was totally in the buff with a huge great red slash across the right side. This was 6 PM. Obviously the Spanish don't worry so much about scaring the kiddies.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Dear Lord. Well, at least they're open about it. I hate uncensored news.

Though we did see one report that sickened us. It was on very early -- 8am early -- and it was about people killing sharks for their fins. They dragged this shark halfway up the boat, then began cutting off its fins before throwing it back, still alive and in agony, into the water.

Lovely wake-up call. :-/