Barcelona, Spain (Part 2 of 2)

I've got a 10:00 AM ticket for a guided tour of what is called the Monumental Zone of Park Guell

The park is easily walkable from my hostel but I have come to learn that I'm absolutely directionally challenged even when using Google Maps.  Not to mention that it's walking all up hill!  Therefore, I walk up the street 5 blocks and get on the bus which drops me off right in front of the meeting spot for the tour.  Can't get any easier than that.

The Diagonal

Unfortunately it's a fricken hot day today.  It's 32 C. with 78% humidity.  It's already frustratingly too hot for me and I've only just started my day!

I like this tour.  We all get bluetooth-like earpieces which is so much better than holding an old-fashioned walkie-talkie thing around your neck.  There are about 15 of us on the tour and it lasts one hour all the while the tour guide is trying her best to stop  only in shaded areas and she comments that there isn't a cloud in the sky and it'll get a lot hotter as the day goes on.

Park Guell is a public park that is free to visit but if you want to go in to the Monumental Zone then a ticket purchase is required.  It was only about $12 or $14 and I thought worthwhile.  The premise of this interior zone is that it was where, in 1885, Gaudí's patron, the industrialist Eusebi Güell, acquired the terrain on a mountain ridge, with a fantastic view of Barcelona. In 1890 Güell instructed the architect Antoni Gaudí to build a garden city, in which nature and housing would co-exist.  The grand plan was to build a "subdivision" (as we would now refer to it) of 600 homes overlooking Barcelona.  Three homes were built and that is as far as this plan got off the ground.  It seems that it was just too far away from the city back in the days of horse and carriage.

Looking out over Barcelona from Park Guell
 (the ocean is off in the distance but you can't see it for the haze).

This is a pillar holding up the ledge/"balcony" above it. 
See below photo for the overall structure that this pillar is holding up

Due to the extreme heat and humidity I don't spend more than 90 minutes at the park and I don't actually see any of the park at all with the exception of this Monumental Zone.

I decide to walk leisurely back to my hostel (seeing as it's all downhill).  It's Sunday and the streets are very quiet. I pass by a few plazas where people are sitting, drinking and eating, a few shops are open but the vast majority of shops are shuttered.  

Quiet streets of Barcelona on a Sunday afternoon

It's so weird to be in a country that is not focused on consumerism and non-stop shopping 24/7.

I relax a bit in the lounge of my hostel and chat with Daniel from Germany.  He plants the seed in my mind of doing a Hop-on Hop-off tour.  Hmmm... might be a plan for tomorrow.

I'd better do some laundry.  The hostel has a washer and dryer but I've heard mixed reviews.  A wash is 3 Euros and a dry, well my roomie dried her clothes for 6 Euros and they came out damp.  The laundry is a very popular room at the hostel.  There's often 2-3 people waiting for the machines.  One night when I was walking back to my hostel I noticed a "La Wash" kitty-corner to the hostel.  It has only 4 washers and 3 driers and is completely self-serve as no one works in this tiny hole-in-the-wall.    Laundrymat

Laundromat & vicinity

It ends up being a very expensive load of laundry.  4 Euros to wash and 2 Euros for 15 minutes of drying (4 Euros does the job), so for $13.50 Cdn I have clean clothes!  

I go for dinner just down the street to a Mexican burrito place that I had heard chatter about in the hostel.  The great thing about hostels is you can pretty much find out where to eat simply from overhearing conversations or asking others.  

After dinner I go walking (and get super lost) back in the direction of  La Sagrada Familia so I can take some more photos in the evening light. Sunday night walking down what is known as "the Diagonal" (because it's a street that runs diagonally through Barcelona) is interesting.  Lots and lots of family out sitting on benches, kids playing in the little parks scattered on every block.  I get it now.  Because they all live in apartments this is their "backyard" so to speak.  It's where they go to catch up with their neighbors, let their kids play, and just get out of the house.

La Sagrada Familia doesn't disappoint.  Even more beautiful in the evening light than it was in the morning.  So glad I went back.  I get lost trying to find my way back to my hostel.  I circle La Sagrada Familia a few times trying to get my bearings.  Told you I'm a failure at Google Maps.

I have to check out of my room this morning and move to a co-ed room.  That's what happens when I decided to add an extra night to Barcelona months ago but all the female only rooms were already spoken for.  I had been checking daily for cancellations with the hope I can stay in my current room but no such thing.  I pack up my stuff and check it in to the locked room by the reception desk.  I can't check into my new room until 3:00 PM.  

I decide to do a Hop On Hop Off bus tour.  It's my last day in Barcelona and I really don't know what else to do so it's a way to pass the day.  It's possible to purchase tickets directly from the driver at any stop.  30 Euros for a one-day pass that goes on three different routes.  

As it ends up, the weather is decent. Not a scorcher, it's gray and cloudy and it actually spits rain for a bit.  Not enough to make any of us move from the top deck of the uncovered bus.  Here's some sights from the tour.

Montjuic.
All cordoned off for the huge fireworks show tomorrow night.

Montjuic

Fountains and gardens at Montjuic

Subway entrance

Beautiful mosaic benches throughout the city

The tour being over I head back to my hostel, check in to my new room and go to the lounge for a bit of relaxation before dinner.  There is a French family with three young girls I would estimate to be aged 3, 4, and 6.  It's the cutest thing (I would never take a photo of them without permission).  The girls were obviously freshly showered, their hair still wet.  They all had on knee socks, no shoes and were sitting side-by-side on the lounge covered in a pink fuzzy blanket watching a Disney show. Quiet as mice they were.  Sooo cute. 

Lounge of the hostel.

My new roommates  in my new room are two guys from Brazil.  Very nice men.  They are relaxing on their beds and tell me about the Swiss "Pig" (their word), who is in the other bunk.  His stuff was spread all over the place so the woman who just checked out of this room so I could have it - she took all this stuff and threw it in a big pile in the corner.  I kid you not, it was a mountain of stuff.  His suitcase had literally exploded and was opened up with stuff pouring out of it.  Apparently he had a penchant for putting his stuff on her bed and she would put him in his place.

I've heard some talk in the hostel of a really good tapas place just down the street.  As has become my custom here, I always do a Google review before I eat at most places.  This place comes well reviewed Le Pepita

I'm there right at 8:00 PM and it's already lined up to get inside.  It's a small place and jam-packed.  I get a seat at the bar.  I order a glass of wine and some tapas:

Shrimp croquettes and Tuna Pepita.  It was sooo delicious.

The Floridian couple seated to my right were very friendly and chatted me up for a long while.  He was here on a conference and his wife came along for a vacation.  They have been to Spain multiple times and it's a place they keep coming back to over and over again as they are turned off of Mexico (Los Cabos) due to the violence.

Eventually, the two women seated to my left wanted to strike up a conversation when they overheard I am from Vancouver.  I have found that in Europe, moreso than in Asia, that once people know you are from Vancouver they become very friendly.  It makes me proud to come from such a beautiful city that everyone has heard of and either has been there or wants to go there.  As it turns out, one of the women is also a Floridian.  However, her husband has a EU passport and she basically lives in Spain most of the year. Her adult kids are dual-citizens and live in Spain.   She tells me about the neighbourhood and how much she loves Spain, its people and the lifestyle.  She told me of a huge protest that happened just a couple of weeks ago (if you see the Yellow ribbons in some of my photos - that shows support for the protest - it has nothing to do with Cancer).  So she tells me that 10's of thousands of people took to the streets and for 15 minutes straight they were clanging spoons against the railings of their windows and balconies.  She said the sound was really something.  She added that it was so peaceful, no police letting it get to their heads and becoming all authoritarian with the people.  These two ladies finish their meal and leave.

At the end of the bar to my left are two Spanish women.  Obviously they've overheard my conversations as one says to me "Come sit over here with us", and I say "pardon me", she repeats herself and says "you can come out with us".    I reply that it is very nice of them to invite me but I am not going out. She says "You can't go out".  I say "I can go out but I am not going out".  This conversation would NEVER happen in Vancouver.  So cool.

I finish up my wine, pay my bill and go back to the hostel.  I have to be up early in the morning to be on the 8:30 AM train to Cordoba.

My Brazillian roomies have gone out.  The place stinks of aftershave and bodycare products.  Holy fricken toledo!  I'm not impressed.  Can't open the window of the hostel (in the late afternoon they lock them shut for some reason).  It stinks so bad that I have to sleep with my folded towel over my face the entire night.  The smell never does dissipate by the time I get up at 6:45 AM to check out.

Next stop Cordoba, Spain.

Last Day in Thailand

My last day in Thailand was a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of of day in that I had no plan except catching a cab to the airport in the late evening for my midnight flight to Tokyo.

I slept in until 8:00 which was great, ate my usual complimentary breakfast at the guest house, and then spent the next hour in my room sorting and weighing my two pieces of luggage. It was 11:30 by the time I checked out of my hotel. They kindly stored my luggage in a locked room and provided me a chit as confirmation that they were holding my luggage until later in the day.

The Jim Thompson House is a famous tourist destination in Bangkok. Jim Thompson was an American architect. In the early-1940's he volunteered for the US Army which took him overseas. He fell in love with Asia and specifically Thailand. In 1946 when he was discharged from the Army, he returned to Thailand and started The Thai Silk Company which basically, single handedly, revived what was becoming the lost art of weaving Thai silk. Well as luck would have it, the Jim Thompson House was one Soi (street) over from my guesthouse. I went on the guided 45 minute tour and learned all about Thompson, his house which was pallatial (for the era) and filled with antiques from his personal collection, some dating as far back as the 15th century. There is a nice store on the property selling silk scarves, blouses, purses etc., under the Jim Thompson label but it was all very expensive and I didn't buy anything.

Spirit House outside the Jim Thompson House

After the tour, I took a canal boat to the Palladium shopping centre. 
No clue why I went there except that I had read about it on Trip Advisor, because I have found that Thai shopping centres really had nothing much that interested me. Anyways, as it turned out, the trip to the shopping centre was worth it solely for the boat ride. The canal is not all that wide and these boats are wide, long, and fast. I had no clue where to actually catch the boat as it wasn't obvious from my vantage point. Eventually someone came along whom I could ask. I walked about a block to a platform on the river. There was a small easily missed sign indicating the name of the pier. Within a few minutes I could hear a very noisy boat approaching. The sides are covered in tarps from the railing to about 3/4 the way up to the roof of the boat. When the boat got to the ramp, the patrons pulled the tarp down to the railing, hopped over the side of the boat onto the platform. Hmmm... this looked tricky. I watched patrons hop on the boat in the same manner, hold down the tarp and hop on over the side of the boat and find a seat. This change over of departing and boarding passengers was done in less than two minutes. Speediness was a definite requirement. The real shocking thing was that they collected the fare once the boat was in motion: two women collect fares by walking along the ledge on the outside of the boat, holding on to the roof section. The ride between platforms only takes a couple of minutes so my guess is it's hit and miss as to whether they actually collect from every passenger. I get off the boat and have no clue where the shopping centre is as it looks like I'm dropped off in a sketchy sort of area with "shacks" along the river. I hear someone speaking English. She's Thai and is giving directions to some tourists. I ask her for directions too, thinking that the poor woman probably gets stopped so many times on her way to her destination because her English is very good.

Trash in the river.

I come across Starbucks and order a grande iced Americano. Not cheap at about $5.00 Cdn, same price as at home.

The Palladium shopping centre is nothing to write home about. No clue why I came here... I wander around for about an hour, don't buy anything, and then I risk my life trying to cross the road to head back towards the canal. The interesting thing is there are no pedestrian crosswalks in Thailand. You just cross when you think it's safe to do so. Pedestrians have zero rights. Cross at your own risk. My method has always been to wait for the Thais to make a break for it and I cross with them and that's what I did in this instance too. Next thing I know I'm standing in the middle of a 4-lane road, with cars going both directions and vehicles are passing mere inches from my toes. At that moment I'm thinking, "what the hell !" Oh geez, it was an experience to say the least just trying to safely cross the road.

I get back on the canal boat and am happy that I discovered this mode of transportation on my last day in Thailand and that I got to ride the boats.

I head over to the MBK Centre and decide to have a pedicure in a hair salon. The pedicure was advertised for 250 BHT ($7.00), but once I'm in the chair she asks if I want a foot scrub for an additional 200 BHT. Well yah I want a foot scrub which is normally part of a "pedicure" back home. Really, for 250 BHT they are only offering a polish change. Whatever, I go for the whole enchilada. She pulls out this foot scrubber thing and it's obvious it has been used previously. I mutter about the lack of disinfectant and how it doesn't look sterile and she asks me what it is that I had said. I said "nothing, I'm just talking to myself. The santitization looks a bit sketchy" to which the lady next to me nods her head and say "I think so too". Oh well... too late to back out now. The nail file and all the utensils had all been used previously, no autoclave in sight, no disinfectant in sight. Crossing my fingers hoping I don't get a fungus and have to chop my toes off when I return home.

I go to Hanako Tokyo for a facial. The place had intrigued me the first time I saw it. It's in the MBK Centre, an actual glass-walled store wherein the patrons lay on spa beds in full view of the walkers-by. All the patrons had gold masks on their faces. It looks pretty neat as the entire store is wall-to-wall white, the estheticians wear white, the chairs are white, the patrons are dressed in white, but all the faces wear gold masks. It kinda looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. They're offering a deal today... 20% off. Awesome! I presume it's because it's not busy in there unlike every chair being full the first time I saw the place. The facial ends up being 90 minutes of the most amazing facial I have ever received. So many products, a great steam, extractions, excellent finger strokes from the technician and then this very cold gold mask. I really enjoyed this experience.

I decide I don't have quite enough scarves yet so I find a stall and buy another 8-10 scarves.

It's now almost 6:00 PM and I'm panicking slightly as my taxi is coming at 8:30 and I still have to pick up my laundry, eat and change my clothes. I stop in at a small Italian bistro on my Soi. Run by an Italian, he has a brick oven outside and it's fired up baking pizzas. I order a pizza. It was fairly good. I pick up my laundry and get myself ready. My taxi arrives an hour early! I told the hotel receptionist that my flight wasn't going to leave until after midnight and I wasn't going to the airport at 7:30 PM. She said no problem, the taxi driver would wait until 8:30 and he did!

Freshly laundered & neatly packaged.

Uneventful ride to the airport. 350 BHT and I tip him 50 BHT. It's always a relief when I'm checked in with the boarding pass in hand. I get through security and customs and then cash out my Thai Bhat and exchange it for Japanese Yen. 

Next stop, Tokyo!

Goodbye Thailand