Barcelona, Cadiz, Madrid

Anyone who was at Bayfield in 1992 will know the familiar strains of “Barcelona” (a la Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabelle). It was the theme song of the Olympic Games that year, the year Danyon Loader, in 7th form, won silver at said games.

Well, I knew absolutely nothing about Barcelona except for that theme song (and I really only knew one word of that… “Barcelona”).

It’s a really cool city. Loads of those little windy streets where you think you’ve gone one way, but really, you’ve actually gone the other. I arrived in Barcelona mid-afternoon, just in time to take a free walking tour of the city. Well, I would have had I not got lost in those little windy streets where you think you’ve gone one way, but really, you’ve actually gone the other. So I just kept wandering through the little windy streets, checking out the city.

The main street, La Ramblas has a pedestrian walkway down the middle where there are magazine and newspaper stands, flower stalls, pet stalls (I kid you not, you could buy a hamster or a canary right off the pavement). There were also some great street performers busking. Mostly the ones who turn themselves into statues, but some others just wandering around wearing odd costumes.

Barcelona to Cadiz. Cadiz is in the south of Spain, again with little windy streets where you don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Because it’s in the south it has quite a humid climate. Again, a lovely city – I could have spent more time there – but unfortunately on my second day there it rained. And if I thought the rain in Montpellier was bad, well – I was wrong. It rained so hard the power was cut off in the afternoon (and the internet for a while too). So I did what every self-respecting traveller does – gives up and headed back to the hostel. It’s actually very nice once on a while to just sit down with a good book (“Twilight” – so good!), a cup of peppermint tea and Facebook Chat.

Then, to Madrid. I arrived about half an hour before the free walking tour was due to start, so I chucked down my bags, and raced down to the meeting point. Thankfully, the town planners of Madrid actually took me into account, and I found the meeting point no problem. After the tour, my mission was to find a copy of the second book in the Twilight series in English. Most bookshops here do have English sections, but unfortunately, they either had just Twilight or none of the books in the series. But multiple copies in Spanish. I assumed that the author actually used more than the 4 words I can speak in Spanish, so abandoned my quest and settled for the last Harry Potter book instead.