Besties in Barcelona: Day 5

Onto our final day! We didn't have to check out of the hotel until 12, so after another late night we got ready and made sure we had everything before checking out, leaving our bags at the hotel and heading out for the day.

We headed to the Museum of Catalonian Art for the day, partly because it had lots to explore, and partly because of the air conditioning! We first explored the Romanesque works, most of which were originally on the walls of churches, and had been painstakingly removed and pasted into the museum. I was fascinated by the process and the conservation work which went into this process!

We had lunch in the museum cafe (sandwiches and French pastries, of all things), and we attempted to go in the art exhibit, which was a giant white bouncy castle! Unfortunately, they had closed it for cleaning so we missed out and we were very disappointed about that!

After eating, we went to check out the modern art. It was more my style, with bits of Gaudi and Picasso thrown in amongst the other names we didn't recognise. We didn't have as much time as we would have liked, because we had to leave to get back to the hotel.

We made it safely to the airport with plenty of time, but unfortunately the flight was delayed and we took off about 40 minutes later than we were supposed to. Once we were in the air we were glad to get home - and now Australians can use the e gates so it was very quick through to the arrivals gate and the train station!

In the end, I got home around 9pm, just in time for dinner and a cuddle before bed. I was hoping for cooler weather in London, but it's having none of it with 39 tomorrow!

Besties in Barcelona: Day 4

For day 4, we had a rather long sleep in, getting up around 10 and getting ready in a leisurely manner. While our aircon had apparently been fixed, I'm not sure it was much better and we haven't been sleeping well in the heat. And with another hot day ahead, we headed up to Park Guell to explore the outdoors.

It was great! We explored more than last time, although slowly, and we still weren't able to see the dragon. It turns out that the main part of the park (that you see in pictures and is actually the main entrance) is ticketed, and not only did we not want to line up to get one they were sold out! So I guess that's still on the list of things to do...

We did, however, go to the Gaudi House Museum, which I didn't do last time. It was really interesting to see the actual house he lived in and how austere his life was, especially compared to the sometimes ostentatious nature of his architecture. They had some of his furniture, and presentations which elaborated on his later life, which I didn't know a huge amount about so far.

By the time we were done, we headed away from the park and back to Las Ramblas. It was time for food! It was approaching 2:30 by this point and we were hungry, so we stopped in a restaurant for a late lunch, where I had a salad because it was so hot. I just couldn't bring myself to eat some hot food...

After lunch we headed over to the Picasso Museum, a totally new Barcelona experience to me. I didn't even know Picasso had lived in Barcelona! It was really interesting, given that what myself (like most people) know about Picasso is about his later more modern art. However, the museum covered his whole life and tracked the evolution of his works through his life, which I found interesting. I also hadn't realised that Picasso had used so many mediums - there were sculptures, photography and film, both by him and of him working, which was so interesting. I guess I hadn't realised quite how recent his life was, and the technologies he had at his disposal.

By the time we had finished there and returned to the hotel, it was 6pm and we were pretty shattered, so after a rest (trying not to melt under the terrible aircon), we decided to head back to Asian Ways for dinner given how yummy it was and how convenient the location was (less than 5 minutes down the road!). This time I had rice paper rolls and tempura prawns, and they were also excellent!

Before bed, we packed a little and I checked to find out that check out was 12pm! So not the rush I thought it would be in the morning.

Besties in Barcelona Day 3

For day 3 of our adventures, we had to get up earlier - well, a bit earlier. We both slept terribly though after a sweltering night in air conditioning that basically didn't work, but we were up and out by just after 9 to make our timed ticket for Sagrada Familia.

Like most of these places, I have been here before, but it never ceases to amaze. I noticed new details and of course, there had been some more work done since I was there just over a year ago. Still, estimated completion for the main building work is 2026 (also the 100th anniversary of the death of Gaudi), and decorative work finishing in 2032. So I'll have to come back again!

The stained glass is what gets me every time. Is so nice and beautifully planned, not to mentioned making the most of the space which they have on the block. And we spent a good several hours here, admiring the architecture and having a lovely time.

We then stopped on the way back to the hotel in order to do my favorite pastime- fabric shopping! I picked up a 3m piece of one lovely viscose for a dress, and another 1m piece for a top for only 3,95 a metre! Very pleased with that and thinking about what I'm going to make already!

We decided we needed a quick lunch, as we had a 3pm tour booked and it was 1:30pm, so we stopped in at a Subway. I even ordered my salad in Spanish and I'm feeling very proud about that indeed.

Then we headed up to Castell Montjuic. We are staying near Paral.lel station which is super convenient, so we got the Funicular up to the park, then the cable car to the top. We had enough time for a quick browse before our tour at 3pm. We saw the prison cells where they had graffiti on the walls, the main features that are open to the public, and even got to climb the watchtower and see the fantastic view!

After the tour, we went to the visitor centre briefly before heading back to the hotel for a rest. For dinner this evening we headed to Barceloneta near the beach. In fact, we found the great tapas place we went to with my family last year, and had dinner there! It was just as awesome as I remembered and I ate all my squids with gusto (and potatas bravas and a Gin Mare g&t!).

We are now enjoying our late evening with snacks from the Supermercat and Mentes Criminales on tv. That would be Criminal Minds in Spanish!

Besties in Barcelona: Day 2

We were able to have a bit of a sleep in this morning, which was much appreciated after the long day yesterday! We got up around 9 and our first stop for the day was Casa Batllo, which is my favourite of the Gaudi houses. It is absolutely gorgeous, inspired by the ocean and filled with warm woods, beautiful stained glass, and a gorgeous internal light well. As always, it's beautifully designed and so clever. I love it!

By the time we finished, it was time for lunch. We found a place along the way which served single sized tapas on slices of bread. I had 2 with calamari, one with salmon tataki, and one with Iberico ham. Delicious, and it was highly air conditioned which also was good. Every day here is around 32 Celsius and very sunny!

We were then on our way to the nearby La Pedrera (or Casa Mila, which is it's real name). It's interesting because it's still got working apartments in it - you can only access a few floors because the rest are actual apartments. It's a little more traditional than Casa Batllo, but still lovely and also has a cool rooftop terrace. Plus, La Pedrera has the best attic!

On our way back to the hotel (we walked both ways), we stopped on La Rambla for icecream to take on the walk home with us. I got delicious passionfruit and blackberry which was great!

We had another siesta in the hotel (very quickly adapting to Spanish customs) for a few hours before deciding that we were too tired to venture far, but that we wanted something other than tapas for dinner. So we went to a nearby noodle bar called Asian Ways. It was amazing! Great gyoza, and chicken teriyaki udon which was lovely as well. A very pleasant surprise and a delicious close by dinner.

Besties in Barcelona: Day 1

To celebrate finding the school year and the stay of the summer, my bestie Jess and I are headed to Barcelona for a few days!

Day 1 started off obscenely early. We were due to fly out of Luton on a 7am flight, so I was up at 2:30am making sure everything was packed and ready to go. Or of the house at 3:15 and onto a night bus to Westminster Tube station... Or not as it turned out. There were 5 of us on the bus when there was a crunching sound, and the bus lurched to a stop. Turns out, our driver had gone up the kerb, hit a bollard, and almost taken out a traffic light! 

Luckily for us, we were only 5 minutes short of Vauxhall station, so I jumped quickly onto the tube and it didn't delay me at all. I caught the tube to Finchley Road then got onto a National Express bus, where Jess was waiting for me (she had gotten on at an earlier stop)! We got to Luton on time, and had no trouble getting onto our flight (of which I have no memory because I was asleep!).

We arrived in Barcelona around 10:30 and headed straight to our hotel to change and drop our bags before heading out to lunch. We stopped on la Rambla (which is very close to our hotel) for rolls and the largest strawberry mojito cocktail, which we split!

After lunch, we headed to our closest Gaudi spot, Palau Guell. Having been before, I really felt like I noticed some different things and learned new details about the house. I have come to the decision, though, that I don't think I'd live in it. It's very dark and medieval and not my style overall.

By the time we finished Palau Guell we could barely keep going, so we went back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. We had talked about something super local, and there was a McDonald's across the road which we thought we might go to, but then we realised how much of a waste that would be and found a good local tapas place instead. I wasn't feeling that well, so just had squid and potatas bravas, but it was delicious!

And then a nice big sleep...

Cultural Experiences: Wimbledon 2019 Day 6

Another year, another trip to Wimbledon for the tennis! It was just Jess and I this year, and we got to the queue around 5:15 to receive what I realised looking back was the worst queue number yet... Oh dear. But it seemed fine at the time. We napped our way through the morning and I spent about an hour total queueing for the bathrooms (kind of mental), and then about 10:30 we really started to move! On the way in I picked up my programme and got a free Wimbledon radio for having an Amex card. We then got in with our Grounds tickets (about 11:15), and headed straight to Court 17 to catch Sam Querrey playing John Millman, an Australian. We queued up for a while with some other Aussies (there were a lot and I talked to a few of them!) for a while, before getting in in time for the third set. It was nice to cheer on an Aussie, but unfortunately that was the final set as he lost shortly afterwards.

By that time it was just after 1pm, so we picked up some lunch and found ourselves a spot on the Hill to watch Ashleigh Barty play on the big screen (she was on Centre Court). I had a delicious sausage roll and Hibiscus ‘drink’ which was like sweet cordial and I loved! Ash dominated against Harriet Dart (from the UK) and beat her in straight sets with some great points. She really is an excellent player and I hope she can win Wimbledon this year!

After that we weren’t super sure which court we wanted to go and see. We wandered around, bought some balls from the second hand store (did that last year as well), went to the gift shop (candles again, I love the grass scent!) and went down to the Southern Village which is where the VIP area was last year (it seems like this year that its across the road instead). Robinsons, the squash/cordial brand, had a stand with their summer special flavour which is Strawberry, Cucumber and Mint. It was so good and we each bought a bottle which came filled with it, fresh strawberries and mint and free refills!

Then we decided to head over to Court 3, where the Bryan brothers were playing in the doubles. We stayed there for most of the match because it was excellent. Towards the end our plan was to leave and head to Court 12, where Ash Barty was due to play in the doubles with Azarenka, but play was suspended in the match two before theirs. It turned out that a spectator had had a medical emergency and even a defibrillator was needed so play got suspended for several ours and they had evacuated the court and the players. So with a match and a part of another before Barty was due to play we decided we weren’t going to be able to catch that one. There was also a mixed doubles which had Andy Murray and Serena Williams playing together, but at 5:30 that still hadn’t been scheduled on a particular court, so we decided to head home. We picked up our strawberries and cream (free with HSBC!) for the walk home along with a refill of squash.

Once we got home I checked the order of play and realised we had made the right call - the Barty/Azarenka match was rescheduled onto Court 2, which had already finished for the day, and the Murray/Williams mixed doubles was put onto Centre Court. With both of those ticketed courts, we wouldn’t have seen them anyway, so instead we watched the Barty/Azarenka match on iPlayer while eating Five Guys burgers for dinner. A lovely day had by all!

Theatre Trip: The Starry Messenger

THE STARRY MESSENGER

Wyndhams Theatre

Date: 4 July (Thursday), 7:30pm

Seats: Grand Circle, Row A 17-18

(Seen with Jess!)

Notes: There were two reasons we booked this show. One was that it has Matthew Broderick in it, who is of course very famous for many things (my favourite of these being The Producers) and the fact that tickets went on sale at £15 on TodayTix! We were up in the Grand Circle, which is higher than we usually sit, but we were front row center up there, so actually the view was pretty good! Certainly no complaints for £15.

This is potentially the longest gap for me between seeing a show and writing my review, and that is simply because I don’t really know how I felt about it. The show is about Mark who teaches astronomy (you find out later that he missed out on having a career in astronomy) and his life. Except that his life isn’t very interesting, at least for most of the show. He is just living his life, with his wife Anne and son Adam, and teaching at a planetarium in New York. He then meets a woman called Angela who comes to the planetarium looking for a class for her young son, and Mark begins an affair with her. However, this doesn’t happen until almost the end of Act 1, which made for a not very engaging first act. In the second there is a catastrophic event which affects Angela, and by extension Mark, and he reassesses his relationships, his behaviour, and his place in the world.

Weirdly enough, my two favourite perfomances from this play didn’t come from either of the ‘names’ in this show. Rosalind Eleazar (Angela) was fantastic, conveying the awkwardness in the situations and feeling really like a full, real character. We saw almost more of her than Mark during the show, and as she worked as a nurse, she looked after Norman (played by Jim Norton) who was funny and cynical and honest in the way that only the critically ill can be. Together especially, they were the highlight for me.

Elizabeth McGovern played Anne, the wife. She is best known for playing Lady Cora in Downton Abbey, and actually, I think her character in this had more agency than Anne did. She was just portrayed as the slightly annoying, but loving wife when they’ve been married for many years. The scenes she did get she was great in, but despite being married to the main character she really didn’t seem like a main character during the play. I would have liked to see more of her.

Matthew Broderick... Having grown up mostly knowing him from The Producers, it was a bit strange to see Matthew being in a romantic relationship (I know that he’s married with kids in real life, but I guess that’s just my bias coming out) and I actually found it quite weird to watch him kissing Angela on stage. In terms of his acting he was great, but he really has a type with such a distinctive voice and boyish face that he really wouldn’t translate to many other plays. I think you’d have to really get the right role, and I’m not 100% sure this was it.

I came out of this show feeling very... confused. I still am a bit, I have to confess. I don’t know what I was supposed to take away from The Starry Messenger, and that worries me. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t think it was amazing either. I wouldn’t recommend it as I think you can get better for your money, but it wasn’t a disappointment. So... I guess it was fine? And unlike a lot of the shows I’ve seen (musicals and plays), it disappeared from my head almost as soon as I got home from the theatre. So yeah. Go and see it, I guess? Maybe it just wasn’t for me.