Barcelona, Spain, Fri 10 Oct 08

In the morning we went to Parc Guell, a park up on a hill on the opposite side of Barcelona from the beach, designed by Gaudi. To get there we had to make our way up a very steep street. It was so steep they had escalators in the toughest parts. An escalator in the middle of a street is a weird site.

Once up in the park we found a lookout post. It was a stone mound with crosses on the top. It had fantastic views over Barcelona. Nick and I sat up there for ages. Walking down into the main entrance of the park (we'd come from the side) we saw the famous ginger bread houses that flanked the main gate. They looked crazy with their white mallowpuff roof and lollipop chimney.

We wondered around the front terrace which had incredibly beautiful mosaic detailing and huge columns. At the front stairs there was a mosaic lizard which is one of Barcelona's famous symbols, trying to navigate the people taking photos was the interesting part.

The architecture in the park is like nothing you've seen before. In fact it's like no park I've ever seen. Nick thinks Gaudi was a little nuts, I'm inclined to agree, either way he had one incredible imagination. The park had so many different areas to explore we could have spent hours there but we were getting hungry so we headed out in source of sustenance.

We found a little cafe and sat down to a fantastic spanish meal. Nick had paella for the first time and thought it was tasty! We were stoked to find such a good place for lunch. After our feed, we took the Metro down to the waterfront and walked down to the beach. Being such a beautiful day it was the perfect afternoon to spend lying in the sun.

The sand was pretty gritty/dusty but not bad for a city beach, if you can get past the hawkers selling massages and sunglasses. We walked the length of the beach and found the other end a lot quieter so chilled there for the rest of the afternoon. I loved being at the beach again. On our way back we stopped at a beach side cafe for coffee (I told you I'm addicted to Spanish coffee) and some more paella before heading back to the hostel.

We spent the rest of the night on the hostel terrace chatting to random people and enjoying the cheap hostel drinks. You could buy a very large Sangria or Beer for about 3 euros. Unfortunately the Sangria was rather potent which made for an interesting night!