What does a girl do?

Barcelona, Thursday 22 October

Over half an hour of thunder and lightning woke me this morning, the clouds that have been gathering since Monday popped and made a good old fashioned storm. My first thought was about whether all the metal surrounding the hotel would attract the lightning or not but I buried my head under my pillow and went back to sleep so I have no idea.

It was still raining when I headed out and my options were a little stymied so I braced myself and kept with option A - found my way back to the Gothic quarter, and hit the shops. What else does a girl do in Barcelona when it is pouring with rain? Three successful hours later the boutiques were closing for siesta so I headed back to the hotel and a late lunch. Between the time I looked out the window and the next time the skies had cleared and we were bathed in sunshine again.

Making the most of the sun I spent my last afternoon in Barcelona down on the waterfront and finding my way back. I had intended to go to the Plaza Espana where there is good people watching to be had but time got the better of me. Barcelona deserves a good couple of weeks, there really is so much to do here and it is so much nicer in the sunshine, but isn’t anywhere. I made it to Port Vell easily enough, and found another Gaudi structure, Casa Mila, on the way. At the waterfront I admired the zillions of boats, took some snaps and then headed back up into the Gothic area to come home. I was distracted by the HQ of Correos, the post here, and attempted to mail some postcards. The yellow post boxes are quite different than ours and I spent at least 20 seconds trying to shove my letters into a stamp dispenser! An elderly man was watching me and trying not to so in the end I asked him what I should do, in mime of course. At last I found the aperture, at around 60cms off the ground it indeed reinforces that some post boxes are not made for antipods. My faith in kiwi ingenuity and our ability to have apertures at approximately arm height demonstrates just why New Zealand Post is considered to be so innovative internationally (no feedback on all the reasons it is not please…Margot…thank you).

That done I thought I had a reasonable sense of where I was… but I didn’t. I wandered about thinking I would come to some point I was familiar with and I did, but it all looked different form a different angle. I went completely the wrong way and ended up heading back to the ocean. I knew best of course and re-configured my route, in the end it took me a good hour and asking directions to get back on track. My afternoon walk took me three and half hours.

Heading home in the dark, I picked up a cheap dinner at La Bouqueria and came home to iron and pack. I have consistently done hand washing while I have been here (my clothes have that horrible travel smell and Morocco is everywhere); the washing is pretty easy but the drying more challenging so I have become very inventive. This is because I am resisting paying E14 for my tops, E3 for each pair of socks and E16 to clean my jeans (in any case my last experience with European hotel cleaners was in Brussels where they completely wrecked a very very expensive Armani suit, my favourite until then, so I don’t trust them either!). Everything is now clean for a bit except my jeans and crazily I am going to attempt hand washing them in Lisbon!

Pic is La Bouqueria (the meat market) which has been in the same place since the mid 1800's. It sells fruit, vege, fromage, nuts, chocolates and probably other things as well as dried and fresh meats. There are dozens of stands one after another and it is quite a visual sensation.