3 BARCELONA

We begin this week in Tossa de Mar, a Spanish town on the Costa Brava. We had camped in a carpark with no facilities and with two weak bladders, our first point of call was to find some public toilets. Thankfully there were some on the seafront, which was convenient as I had planned on going for a snorkel around the bay to start my day. This I did and although the general scenery under water was underwhelming, the abundance of sealife surprised me. There were a variety of fish including Parrot fish and a few crabs hanging around in the sand.

I then relaxed on the beach whilst my mum nosed around the town once more. We then drove to a town called Calella having been recommended the beach by one of my Mum’s students. However, I’m not certain we visited the right part, because it reminded me of what I imagine Benidorm would look like (I’ve not had the pleasure of going yet) – but a little quieter and with fewer people suffering from alcohol poisoning. We sat on the beach for around twenty minutes before the lifeguard was called out to help two men waving their arms and shouting by a buoy around 200m off shore. They did appear to be in danger. Our queue to leave the town was when we found out that the two men were in fact trying to get the attention of their friend on the beach to take a picture of their swimming achievement. There was a lot of shaking heads and frowns coming from the lifeguard team.

Moving on, we drove 40 minutes north of Barcelona to a campsite that I had booked for the next 9 nights! There were several reasons for this decision. Firstly, Barcelona has strict emissions zones that were a little complicated for my little brain to comprehend and therefore any opportunity to avoid getting a substantial fine for a penalty-prone person was a necessary step. Secondly, I wanted to keep Bert somewhere safe and secure as I was intending on spending long days out in Barcelona itself. Thirdly, I find being in big cities like Barcelona quite intense and being able to escape the chaos really appealed to me. Fourthly, it had a big pool and I just love a pool.

Having arrived at the campsite, we chilled and went to sit by the pool for a couple of hours. We then made dinner and had an early night. All this being outside and sitting in the sun is quite exhausting!

In the morning, we got on the shuttle bus from the campsite into the centre of Barcelona. We hadn’t really made a plan of what we were going to do, but we somehow started our Barcelona tour in Uniqlo and Zara looking for a white sweatshirt for my mum (anger scale level 5). Following those top Barcelona attractions, we went to Casa Batlló. As it was €43pp (!!) to enter, we decided that just staring at its beauty from the outside was enough Gaudi for our liking.

Following that thrilling attraction, we visited La Sagrada Familia. My initial reaction was slight disappointment. I think I had had so many people telling me it was one of the most beautiful buildings they had ever seen, that when I saw it for myself, in its construction site setting, with about five cranes clustered amongst the various steeples as well as ugly fencing surrounding the base, I was underwhelmed. Of course, I was aware that it was mid-construction, but I had assumed it would be more subtle. The situation was not improved by the fact we were unable to visit that day because it was sold-out. So, we booked for the next day.

Swiftly moving on from La Sagrada Familia, we went to the Mercado de La Boqueria – the biggest food market I had ever come across. Everything was on display, from freshly made juices to pig’s trotters. For lunch, I decided to have a curry empanada and a deep-fried chorizo and ratatouille thing – both of which were a little tasteless unfortunately. My mum also had the empanada (copying me as per) as well as a bouquet of salami and cheeses. For dessert, I had an entire punnet of fresh strawberries which were some of the most flavourous I had ever had.

Now full, we explored the gothic quarter and headed towards the Arc Triomf which were both very pretty and you could easily get lost in the streets for hours. I then said goodbye to my mum for a few hours and met up with Gemma, my friend from the surf society in Liverpool who has been doing her year-abroad in Barcelona. It was actually Gemma’s birthday (!), so I visited her in her accommodation which just happened to have a rooftop pool – as you do. We chatted and I met her friends whilst I drank my tiny cartons of wine (which cost all of 2 euro) and then headed out to a bar called Antic Teatre where I had a very nice mojito before catching the train back to the campsite.

In the morning I was a little worse for wear. I hadn’t really drank more than a couple of drinks in a while and therefore the wine hit harder than I had anticipated. Regardless, I powered through and my mum and I caught the bus into the city centre once again. After devouring an enormous tomato, pesto and mozzarella sandwich, we caught the metro towards the Park Güell. Here, not only did we get an amazing panoramic view of Barcelona, we saw yet more of Gaudi’s work (yay). We explored the park using the world’s worse map provided by the staff upon entry and queued for pictures as half of Barcelona seemed to be up there. Fortunately this did not spoil the visit.

We then caught the metro to a restaurant called Miku Maku to have paella. My mum had wanted to have some before leaving, so we treated ourselves to a vegetable and chicken paella - neither of us liked the seafood available on the other paellas which probably defies the point of having paella but we didn’t want to feel left out. It was delicious and undoubtedly worth the money. It was then a matter of killing time before finally visiting the Sagrada Familiar. We strolled about, went for a quick drink, and headed towards the not-so-ivory-towers. Once security checked, we entered and all I’ll say is I’m glad we went inside. It was nothing like the construction site outside. It was finished for starters. It really was one of the most impressive interiors I had ever seen and regardless of the tourists, it felt very special. Having finished saying waw and ooo, we left and headed straight back to the campsite to chill after a very busy two days.

In the morning, we drove to Gerona airport and I said goodbye to my mum. It was actually a lot more emotional than I had imagined and although I made a lot of critical jokes about my mum on the blog, we had a lot of laughs and I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

I then returned to the campsite and relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day. I made dinner, cleaned the van, and watched a documentary on Nina Simone with a GNT. The following day, I also spent relaxing by the pool, reading my book and listening to old Dylan Moran sketches. It’s a hard life.

At around 5pm, I caught the metro into Barcelona. My good friend Dan - also from the surf society - who has been doing his year abroad in Aix-en-Provence had caught the bus to Barcelona and was staying with me for a few days. We met up at a bar, and Gemma soon joined. Dan is one of those people that I can go months without talking to but when we meet up again, it’s like no time passed at all. A few martini tonics and potato bravas’ later, we went to another bar which was small and quirky and full of very loud Irish people. Dan and I then caught the final train back to the campsite which was crowded with 16-year-olds on their first night out. We agreed that in ten years, they’ll probably regret the things that they were doing but it was our responsibility as wise old souls to allow it to happen, teaching them about making mistakes as have had to do.

After a solid night’s sleep, we ventured back into Barcelona to do yet more touristy things. We rented cheap bikes – and found out why they were cheap after discovering they didn’t have gears and the breaks were very dodgy – which was super fun and I would highly recommend (just make sure you rent from small bike shops rather than the ones provided by the city i.e., Volt as they massively overcharge). First, we stopped off at Camp Nou as I was DESPERATE to see Barcelona FC’s stadium! We then moved on to the Museu Nacional de Catalunya, but as neither of us were too keen on paying for it, we walked up all the stairs just to stare at the pretty building. However, what the viewpoint did offer was a perfect panorama of the enormous storm cloud that appeared to be heading our way. So, to avoid getting struck by lightning, we quickly cycled to the Mercado de La Boqueria and I spent another lunch time trying more food from the market.

We then went to an Irish bar (so cultural) where I dropped off Dan to watch the Man City – Man United game. I was told that it was an unmissable game. In an attempt to avoid the Irish bar, I walked around the Gothic Quarter, got an ice-cream and went to a bar recommended to me by my uncle Tuds. By the time the game had finished and Dan had stopped crying over his loss, we left the bar. Hilariously, we were so caught up in our emotions that we walked for a few minutes before realising that we had forgotten about the rented bikes locked up outside the Irish bar. After running back, we returned the bikes to the rental shop and went for another drink to help Dan deal with the bad news. Due to our growing hunger and the waiter’s sluggishness with bringing the bill that we had waited over twenty minutes for, we did a runner and went to a bar that served sandwiches called Muchacho around the corner. I then proceeded to have possibly the best sandwich I had ever had. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really tell you what was in it for certain – I think it was chicken, a lot of Dijon mustard, garlic, and an amazing coleslaw but then again, it looked a bit like scrambled egg so who knows. We then caught the train back to the campsite, which was once again full of drama as a man had pulled the emergency trigger because he was having some kind of attack. Regardless, we made it back to the campsite shortly after and chilled.

We decided to have more of a relaxed day on God’s Day of rest, by heading north to a beach called platja de Treumal. Unfortunately, as I was joking to Dan about Bert not starting whilst turning the key in the ignition, Bert didn’t start. I assumed the battery had died (because what else could it possibly be), so I went down to reception and politely asked in my best Spanish (English) to borrow jump leads. I then walked around the campsite, assessing people to see who would willingly drive their car/camper to ours to help jump start it. I finally built up the courage and went to an old German couple who very kindly drove their car up to Bert. The gentleman who helped us was certainly a man of few words, only pointing at stuff as instructions. Dan was surprisingly more knowledgeable than me about cars and between him and the German stranger, Bert was up-and-running asap. We then went to the beach, which was very pretty and the sea was the perfect temperature to cool us down.

After hours of lounging and swimming, we returned to the campsite to have a very important diving competition in the pool. Of course, I would argue that I won despite Dan’s objections. We then made a very nice pasta dish for dinner, and went to the campsite bar to play pool which again, I exceeded at, before heading to bed.

Summary

It was sad seeing my Mum leave. We had made so many fun memories and I’m really glad we were able to spend that time together. Having Dan here has been lovely and we’ve giggled and laughed a lot. Join me next week when Cam finally (!) arrives and we head up towards the Cote d’Azur. Thanks for reading, especially if you made it this far!