Barcelona - Vicky Cristina

My last morning in Paris was spent wondering along the Seine, drinking a few too many cups of coffee, absorbing the sights, sounds and as much of everything else that was on offer. Unfortunately, once the strike of 12:00pm came around I jumped aboard my mini-bus shuttle and was heading out of Paris to the budget air terminal in Beauvais. Getting out of Paris was surprisingly easy and hitting the countryside even more so, under 30 mins and we were driving through rolling hills and general greenery.

Thanks to Ryan Air I was out of Paris and into Barcelona - Girona airport about 90 mins later. What this meant also was that there was going to be a 100km bus ride into the centre of Barcelona, the duration of which was approximately 20mins less than the entire Paris-Barcelona flight.

Now, some cities have a few 'grand entrances', others have iconic buildings that leave you speechless - Barcelona has the The Torre Agbar (Agbar Tower) which is 144 metres tall and designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. It's certainly an interesting building, an a surprising one considering its immediate surrounds.

The Torre Agbar - aka, the disco dildo

I assume with all the clicking of cameras and the little sniggers in the bus most people were thinking exactly the same thing.

Now driving into Barcelona itself was kind of interesting, immediate impressions were that it was a little ram shackled, edgier and definitely grittier than Madrid....it also has that 'cool' vibe, like the city knows that it's 'alternative', if that's what you'd like to call it. Really, the comparison between Barcelona and Madrid is chalk and cheese, whereas Barcelona is more overtly attractive, Madrid has it interwoven within its make up. Although as I'd come to find out, Barcelona has it's own character and attitude wrapped up within its streets, sights, sounds and people.

Now the hotel I was staying at was the h10 montcada, right on the edge of the Gothic area. As I go into town right on sunset I headed upstairs to the rooftop bar to have a few drinks, watch the sun go down and to take a couple of photos. Have got to say, it was particularly beautiful that afternoon and some of the best shots that I took from my time away came from that little while on the roof of the h10.

After enjoying the sunset I made the huge leap across the road and entered into the Barri Gòtic (Ciutat Vella), which is basically an area filled with hundreds of small winding streets, hidden squares, fountains, etc....and as I discovered, many, many very cool bars. Now here's the problem - some places you're comfortable doing solo, there's enough of a certain type of 'trait' that a town has where you don't really need anyone else to enjoy it. This area however was made more for socialising, winding away the hours with bottles of wine, bits and pieces of an enormous variety of food and accommodating the early hours of the next day with a continuance of the current one. Hangovers in Barcelona are not an option, they're expected, thus coping with them is all part of their ethos - now that's cool. Shame there was nobody else around to help me test a few of these places out !! C'mon, where were you all ???

Streets within the Barri Gotic
I love this shot - one of the bars I stopped in

This last shot makes me laugh. I stopped in at a place for some tapas and had some type of salami with pork cheek and a few glasses of red wine. I was already feeling a little light headed by then ...what you can't see however is the route needed to make it to my table. Just behind me is a set of small, tight wooden stairs that go up one floor to this levelled area indoors. The number of people that struggled, tripped and did themselves some damage on the way down was absolutely hilarious.

After eating and drinking my way into the early hours Barcelona kindly asked whether I should start thinking about heading back for 'home', I kindly obliged, but how I wound my way through the streets and actually stumbled to the front door of my hotel I'll never know. I guess even with an intravenous red wine drip I'm still on my orienteering game !