I was lucky enough to have the wonderful Beth staying with me last weekend. I was overly excited because, as the title suggests, she was the first to visit me whilst I've been away. Now, I had hoped to look ever so cool to any visitors, showing them all the short-cuts, taking them to a cute little place I know for tapas, occasionally fist-pumping locals and such like but when she visited I was really no less of a tourist than she was.
You can tell my tourist status by how happy I look to be on a beach in March.
It turned out it was a big bonus being tourists together because it meant we got to discover everything together. We didn't have a fixed plan for the weekend but there were a few "cute little places" I'd heard of and was desperate to try. Unsurprisingly, most of these involved food.
First up was Milk. I'd been told by multiple sources that this was the place to go for brunch. And boy were they right. A really gorgeous little place, run by an Irish couple, which serves spectacular looking pancakes, egg variations and even burgers. It has cracking background music as well; eating my "Monte Cristo" whilst listening to Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing was really quite something.
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| Just look at that unbridled enthusiasm for eggs. |
Next stop was the beach. Beth had the lord shining down on her and so the sun shone down on us. It was lovely.
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| Sculpture by Juan Munoz. I'm pretty sure this is what I'll look like when I come home in July. Too many damn good pastries. |
We then hopped on the metro and hopped off at Gaudi's famous Parc Guell. By this time, the weather was simply stunning and we were so lucky to get to see the park and its views in all their glory.
You can make out the Sagrada Familia just off centre, to the left.
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| Apparently this performer is always here. Head to toe in leopard print, playing his guitar. He was summin' else. |
As you do in Barcelona, we managed to bump into essentially every person we knew in the city.
Including these weirdos...
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| They actually look pretty cool. Could be the cover of their new album. I'd call them...Gizbet. |
After enjoying sun and sangria for much longer than we'd planned, we headed back into the centre of town to wander around La Boquería - a food market just off La Rambla. It is full to the brim with gorgeous looking food - exactly like you see in photos everyone seems to take at food markets.
As I have also done...
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| Frutos secos. |
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| Guindillas. |
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| ACTUAL fish and chips. |
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| Chocolate! |
The following day we decided to take advantage of the good weather and headed up to Montjuic, which is a hill at the Southern end of the city. A hill alone sounds rather dull but it actually has a lot going on once you get up there (there were A LOT of steps). We took a leisurely stroll around some pretty gardens...
...stopped off at the 1992 Olympic stadium...
...where we greeted some heroes...
....and some ex-heroes.
...and then I won a gold medal, no biggie.
To satisfy our historical needs we visited the Fort at the very top of the hill. You can walk up to it, but we rode in style, in a cable car, and managed to blast out a fabulous rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" on the way up. Anne Hathaway would've just handed the Oscar over.
Here we are learning about history.
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And then the weekend was over! Time really does fly when you're having fun. Luckily, Beth was staying one more night and so work went really fast on Monday as I was excited to get home and see my wifey waiting for me. Don't worry, she wasn't locked up 'til I returned - during the day Beth went to see the iconic Sagrada Familia and was a little snap happy. She took some really gorgeous photos which I'll pop onto FB - there are just too many to choose from for here.
Instead, here's some precious little bunnys and ducklings.
I couldn't have asked for a better first visitor. We ate, sang and were ever so merry. Thanks Bet, until we meet again in gay Paris!
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