Barcelona bb

No need to do a double take… this is really happening. A new post from your favourite idiot broad abroad! Coming to you from Hackney and regaling you with tales of my latest travels to Barcelona. I look forward to the pouring in of praise and accolades from my biggest fans (my parents).

Enough foreplay, let’s get into it. I am all jazzed up and ready to roll out some serious run-on sentences so I think I will break the post into parts and just cover the first bit of our trip here.

we have entered:

The time was approximately 15:00 when Ashlea and I were swept into the air on our British Airways flight toward Barcelona from Heathrow. For those of you who don’t know (everyone except aforementioned number 1 fans) Ash is my dear Australian friend who resides in London and who is shortly leaving the land of tea and crumpets for warmer climates and relocating to Barc Barc to study her Master’s in Urban Design. Her and I are – how to put this – absolute menaces of society when we get together.

Thus, Barcelona didn’t know what was coming when we touched down for what was – in theory – a flat-hunting trip for Ash, but in practice was more of a two-woman comedy (/horror) act. The majority of the rhetoric involved discussion about how humans are significantly more attractive in Spain than in the UK (or anywhere for that matter)!

After a brief domestic dispute (one of many) regarding transport to our hostel we ended up on the airport express bus – which actually turned out to be very economical. We were surprised that masks were still mandatory on the bus (yeah, Covid is still a thing they think about in Spain I guess).

We stayed in Casa Gracia sandwiched between Diagonal, Eixample and Gracia districts. Very central for our metropolitan selves. Upon our arrival we dumped our stuff, freshened up, bickered over who got which single bed and then left to meet Farah for a drink and tapas in Gracia. I failed to take any photos of this but we ended up at La Rovira and it was delightful. A quaint local hole in the wall for traditional tapas and many different beers on tap. Non-alcoholic beer was Estrella Galicia in a bottle – still quite tasty though!

An evening stroll home through Gracia after our tapas and beer was just what we needed to clear out any remaining plane induced lethargy. We wandered through the countless open public squares where people were still out and about having drinks, eating gelato and chit chatting late into the night – on a Sunday! Ahh, Spanish time. A wonderful characteristic of Spain is the vast areas of public space available for everyone to gather and connect.

Not many photos taken our first night – we were too busy wining and dining Farah. But here is the first of many svelte facades. The main site of interest was the boutique erotic shop that Farah pointed out, unfortunately closed at the late hour we passed. But not to worry – I marked it out in my Google maps and made a point to return with Ash the next day (as I reminded her over and over and over again until we got there).

We tucked ourselves into our single beds side by side and said goodnight. The next day we had a full schedule of flat viewings, coffee consumption and urban wandering!

I will leave it there to whet the reader appetite and post again soon…

a little extra to keep you coming back:

The great news was that we actually did find Ash an apartment with impeccable efficiency despite our haphazard planning. Here is a photo of me paying her new flatmate for coffee and a copy of BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Yes, you read that right. Scroll to understand visually when I am saying.

The new flatmate works at News and Coffee – a cute kiosk with artist curated magazines… I spotted BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! out of the corner of my eye like a squirrel drawn to something shiny. I asked what it was all about and was told it is a magazine full of pictures of boys. Sold. Sold even before I turned it over and saw a photo of Leo Dicaprio in prime 90’s style. Hands down the best purchase of the trip!

DOTD:

Also not the best image I’ve ever captured of a dog, but at least something to excite you until my next post!

It should be a picture of a golden retriever as I think Barcelona has the greatest goldens per capita I have ever encountered on the continent!