We only had one day in Barcelona, but I actually feel like we ticked all of Spain's boxes - Sangria, Spanish guitar playing buskers, tapas, paella (so much better than the microwaved attempts at home), a flamenco show (complete with scary, intense dancer lady who informed us we weren't clapping or Ole-ing properly), a quick tour of the cathedrals and main architecture of the city and a visit to the Salvidor Dali art exhibiton. P.S. this guy is my new favourite artist (yes I am a Europen student now and therefore have "Favourite artists" :P). His stuff is crazy - like he's sneezed his imagination onto the canvas and then wiped it with a tissue! There should be some photos up soon enough of some of the works that most stood out for me.
While there I really did notice the language barrier - with all of my eight words in Spanish. I did however manage to have a hilarious "conversation" with a taxi driver which consisted of - Me: "Habla englais?" Him: "No. Habla Espanol?" Me: "No" Both: shrug. A little later I managed to tell him the Tom Jones song on his radio was "muy bueno" (which made him chortle) and finally as we passed a cemetery he noted "meurtos" to which I somberly nodded. It was deep.
Observations: There are traffic lights in the middle of enormous roundabouts here. Pre-teens are allowed into clubs - resulting in me dancing next to a 16 and 15 year old german boy and girl getting jiggy with it at one club. There's graffitti everywhere - except on the ancient buildings. The spray can weilders go for the doors and roller shutters but respect the centuries old stone... Finally, in the spirit of the blog name, I was aghast to find there are no peanuts on vanilla cornettos here!
Mistakes: Ordering a San Miguel beer in a bar only to be told by the waiter it was "Crap" and be given a different beer instead. Consider me educated!
Mini victories: managing (with the help of a Spanish speaking fellow Contikier) to get some Spanish drugs to fix my cold. They still allow pseudoephadrine(?) over the counter here, YES! Not getting my tube of vegemite out for breakfast sooner! It was SO good to have my first taste of Australia in a tube in about two weeks. (After giving a taste test to a couple of Canadians the best non-Aussie description I've heard for it is "tastes like condensed soy sauce"!)
