Barcelona

I've just printed loads of pictures from 2009 thus far, so now I've got loads of pictures to blog about. Getting to be quite boring around here, heheh......starting a new job soon and will not have a lot going on besides 'real' work.

before i forget about this Barcelona trip, I'd better blog about it. This will be a really condensed run through of the trip.

Head out to the city on the metro (subway). Really nice modern trains, very informative when it comes to getting on and off your stops, quite easy to understand subway map. BUT can get VERY STRESSFUL when it's packed like sardines coz you'd be worrying about your bag getting pickpocket-ed!! Everyone holds on tightly to their handbags on the trains. Pickpockets are like part of the tourist experience when in Barcelona....

train not so packed, so can afford to be a bit lax and drink coffee

Tourist attraction time!! This is La Sagarda Familia. Basically it's a church designed by Gaudi back in the very late 1800's and construction is still on going till today. It's expected to be complete by 2040. It's truly an amazing sight when you see it. Really love Gaudi's work.

the construction site

the spiral staircase in one of the towers

Barcelona has lots of quaint small back lanes. So while trying hard to locate food, we get lost in these back lanes, but they are quite nice, so that's quite alright with us. Get to explore the local areas.

Then we went off to the beach. A really long stretch of beach. We started at one end and walked to the other end. And there's different 'areas' on the beach. There was a kids area, an 'adults only' area (you know where not wearing clothes are ok), there's a 'boys only' area, there's even a casino by the beach (in a grand building of course), and loads and loads of bars. So nice the beach, you can buy beer & sangria, enjoy the chill music and just chill by the beach. And the sun sets at 9pm, so at 8pm, you can still hang out at the beach.....nice!

sangia and estrella on the beach

Gaudi was like really popular. It's because of his unique designs, you'd never expect buildings to look like this! It's part of the Modernist movement. How often do you see wall that are wavy and bones shape on your grills of the balcony?? Gaudi was very into designing his stuff based on nature, that explains all the curves in his designs. He also designs furniture which are supposedly very ergonomic.

Casa Milla

Casa Batillo

love seat?

mosaic. see the nature influence? it's honeycomb-ed shaped

the door behind us was cool

Parc Guell was an adventure to get to. It's away from the city, takes 2km to get there from the metro station and the roads leading to the park was uphill, just as bad as San Fran's hills!! It was so steep that they decided to build escalators!!

girl chilling in the sun reading a book. we were so grateful for the sun coz we've been in wet & cold London and miss the heat. Now that we're back in KL, we run away from the sun!

told you they have escalators to get you up the hill

yup, it's THAT steep!!

more funky mosaics

Parc Guell, with the 2 funkilly designed houses at the entrance

how cool is that? a dragon design on the hinge

So when in Barcelona, the 3 main Gaudi works that you'd best want to see is:
1. La Sagarda Familia
2. Casa Milla OR Casa Batillo (they're both on the main high class shopping street, Passeig de Gracia so you can see these when you go shopping
3. Parc Guell (the ginormous park which was supposed to be a high class residential area)

Food is also good here. After you have gotten over the currency conversion that is. I didn't print any food pictures, so there'll be no food pictures in this post. But food was good. Tapas, churros AND jamon.....porky pork....yumm....yumm....babi bagus!! I think i'll go look for some babi pictures and post it later la.....yum yum.....

a cafe in the market, got loads of people, so when you unsure of where to eat or where to go, go to where there are crowds, guaranteed to be good!!

Next post will be food pictures in Barcelona!! Woohoo!!

And still got Rome, New York....Boston, Vegas, LA, San Fran......