Photography

We knew it was going to cost us a bit to eat here so we decided to take matters into our own hands. There’s a huge El Corte Inglés across the street from the hotel and they have a grocery store in the basement.

After we got up from our siesta, we walked over there and laid in a supply of bottled water and non-perishable food stuffs for about 20 euro which will feed us for a few days. That is a huge weight off our shoulders. Rather than pay 15 euro each for breakfast in the hotel we have a package of muffins and some granola bars we can take to the nearby Starbucks and have a continental breakfast for just a few euros.

We’ll still eat out, but we have some sustaining snacks to get us through in a pinch.

After we dropped the supplies back in the hotel we went out again to see The Mercat de la Boqueria, or simply La Boqueria which is an open air market featuring fruits, vegetables, meats and fish all displayed quite nicely.

We plan on doing a bit of shopping at the bocaria during our visit. I’ll leave you with a few pictures of what will be dancing through my head after I hit the hay here in a bit…

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After checking into our hotel we went exploring a bit. The hotel is located right at the top of the legenday La Rambla.

Birds and flowers for sale every few feet and more street performers than you can shake a stick at. We’ve been constantly warned to protect our valuables as pick-pockets abound on this crowded avenue.

We walked to the end to see the Columbus Monument

The details in this thing are impressive

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From there we walked down to the waterfront at Port Vell and enjoyed just sitting in the sun and watching the cable cars go overhead

From there we wandered back to the hotel and decided to take a nap for an hour. That was much needed and put us in the right frame of mind. I was reeling a bit from the change. Barcelona is a large city, like New York or Rome. Coming from the quaint small town charm of Seville and Granada it was a bit daunting.

It’s also very expensive here, just like the aforementioned large cities.

Granada was an interesting place in terms of people.

The first thing we noticed was the abundance of middle-eastern style shops/boutiques selling hookah pipes and silk scarves and gypsy style clothing. The people running the shops and many of the local “street” people all had a hippie vibe going. The smell of the incense and the abundance of dreadlocks completed the scene. And it was not uncommon to see one walking down the street with djembe on his back, probably just in case a drum circle broke out.

I’m not sure what it is about Granada that seems to be haven for this bohemian group of travellers. It was like the gateway to Toon Town for those who know the Texas Renaissance Festival “rennie” scene at all.

Speaking of the renfest, there was a whole ren-fair scene going on around the cathedral. Shops set up like little renfest booths with cheesy costumes and the typical schlocky wares for sale. This guy was selling swords and shields!

And this booth was decorated like a little castle and selling Donner Kebap

All it needed was to be on a stick and it would have been renfair-riffic!

Also in abundance were the gypsies. The “shtick” these women have is that they approach you and hold out a sprig of rosemary and say “un regalo!” which means “a gift.”

Your best bet is to wave them off and keep moving. If you make the mistake of stopping and taking the sprig (we didn’t, we were forewarned) you get a fortune told and then they expect money. The quickly explain that if you don’t pay you will be cursed and they take no coins as they are bad luck so the unlucky sap ends up handing over 5 euros to satisfy the gypsy.

The most interesting character by far was this old man

When we first encountered him he was sitting on his bicycle in front of a group of people waiting on a bus and ranting (in Spanish) about the end of the world. He was really going to town.

When the bus came and collected his audience he started peddling away on his bike which started to play a very ice-cream truck style version of Jingle Bells. Oddly enough, he sort of looks like Santa Claus.

On our last day walking we encountered this fellow

I envied his medium for a moment. As a painter, he is able to illustrate only the beauty. He can leave out the tourists and the modern-ish TV aerials on the rooftops and even paint the sky as it looked the evening before.

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