Barcelona: Sights & Thoughts

I apologize to my readers for the lack of pictures, but it looks like I won't be able to upload any pictures to this blog until after I leave Barcelona. Our internet situation is impossible and J's work has priority. For now, I'll share with you some sights and thoughts of Barcelona that I've encountered these past few days.

- Spanish dishes are quite simple. Lots of olive oil, salt and pepper
- Locals frequently dilute their wine with water.
- If you visit Barcelona, do not arrive on a Sunday
- Coca-Cola tastes NASTY here.
- Do you remember a Friends episode called "The One with the Videotape" where Joey reveals the story he uses get girls to sleep with him?

I was just outside Barcelona hiking in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo. I was at the end of this path and I came to a clearing and there was a lake, very secluded. And there were tall trees all around. It was dead silent. Gorgeous. And across the lake I saw…a beautiful woman…bathing herself…but she was crying…

Well it's actually a REAL place. We didn't see a lake, but we did go to the top of Tibidabo for a panoramic view of Barcelona!
- The day after the elections I frequently found J humming "Proud to be an American."
- We have yet to be able to eat dinner at 10 PM. How do you digest before bed??
- Alcohol is cheap! Cheapest bottle of 750 ml red wine I saw was 0,69 Euros (1 EURO = 1.3 USD).
- CosmoCaixa, the museum of science in Barcelona, has some really cool exhibits
- Beef is not common whereas veal is everywhere.

7 responses

The reason coke tastes "nasty" is because it's made from real sugar, not the High Frucous Corn Syrup that is used in the States.

Dana had the same problem when we went to Australia, she kept complaining her Sprite tasted weird.

— Mike Roberts

Hmmm.. that could be it. Now that you mention it, it did taste like a mouthful of brown cane sugar. I think I'm going to stay away from the Cola for now. There are lots of interesting juices around. We're currently trying pina y uva (or, pineapple and grape).

— J & M

real sugar is the reason mexican coke is so awesome!!

why not a sunday, M?

— Stephanie Lim

We arrived last sunday and left the airport around 5:30 PM. As the taxi drove through the city on its way to our apartment, all we saw were closed shops with their metal gates down. No gate was spared from graffiti. No pedestrians. It just looked deserted. It also didn't help that the Sunday we arrived was one of the very few days that actually rained really hard in Barcelona. After we dropped off our stuff we walked towards Placa de Catalunya, the center of town (10 min away) and the whole time I'm thinking "OMG, how am I possibly going to explore this city by myself?! It looks so ghetto!" However, as we got closer to our destination we found more people (tourists mostly). On the way home around 8PM, there seemed to be more people on the streets. This is why I said in an earlier post that Barcelona seems safer at night than during the afternoon. Now that I've experienced Mon-Sat, I think these are much friendlier days to arrive with all the shops, restaurants and markets open and with a load of people walking around.

Interesting, I guess the spanish still really value their sundays!

Coke formulation is different for some countries. Come visit JJ in Atlanta and explore the coke factory. You can sample different coke formulations around the world there (or taste the different cokes on your rtw trip!)

— Claudia

1 visitor upvoted this post.