Lyon- Barcelona

December 12th 2006 lyon->Barcelona well it was a nice sunny day with only a few clouds 10-14 degrees, perfect day for sightseeing, and where'd we spend it.... on a bus!

Bright and early start as we left at 7am.... for our 12 hour depending of traffic trip down to Barcelona... who would have thought it would take that long to get there.they look so close on the map!

had a few rest stops along the way but mostly it was just long boring drives.

stopped at one partiular rest stop in a place that just had walls and walls of nougat, and i'm not kidding... it really was everywhere..no idea what the flavours were as it was all in french! but hey it tasted good, everyone got different types and we had a taste of a whole heap of different ones. one was definitely lavender flavoured... bizarre... but it was extremely soft, nothing like the type we have at home.. it just melted in your mouth.

the next stop we had was meant to be our lunch stop at which our driver and guide had been raving about the food the entire time, it was at the pont de guard, a massive aquiduct, that's still in use today. and it was extremely funny as the restraunt that was normally open with all the lovely food.... only opens in the summer months.... so there was this one lady there selling crepes... and she was not fast... it took her 10 mins per crepe, and she was doing it on purpose!!!

hahahashe even dropped poor dana's one on the floor, and had the hide to ask her if she'd prefer a new one, or if that'd do.... like what the!

hahaha needless to say we ditched that idea and they took us to a maccas around the corner! where we found a supermarket selling cheap fresh sandwiches! so we were happy..

played a mini olympics game, and our side of the bus sucked! in the end though we only lost by 1 point... hahaha i think mainly cause they kept making up questions at the end that only applied to our side! so we had a chance to catch up!

arrived in Barcelona a good 12 hour later at 7pm, dinner was provided at the hotel, a strange macoroni and tuna and tomato sauce... (what's with the french and tuna!) followed by raw chicken (mine was so pink it was almost still alive!) steamed broccoli d half a potato, drowned i butter... not the nicest or most edible of meals we've had... had a plate of fresh fruit for dessert which was quite nice... pineapple, melons, and orange..

also got to experience our first taste of the free pour drinks...pretty much you order a spirit + soft drink, and you get a cup with 3/4 spirit and 1/4 soft drink... generally less than 1/4 soft drink there was one vodka i got that there was no room to put anything else in the glass... needless to say it was a big night helped by the fact that after dinner we decided to hit the night life of Barcelona, and headed into the heart of the spanish nightlife, in Port Olympus,

it was strange, we set out about 10 and we walked past so many empty clubs...

seems no one go out until 1am here, and we were just early.... walked all the way along the line of clubs it was just club after club after club... headed into the one right at the end and all recieved a contiki free shot, before buying our first drink... it was then we realised that..it would be an inexpensive night out... everytime you'd go outside for fresh air, you'd be talked into going into a new club, and you'd grab some people and head in there and they'd give you a free drink...

then you'd do it again and again... as you made your way down the street! it works in their favour as if they have a lot of people in their club, more people are going to come in... where as if it's an empty club... people are going to keep going till they find somewhere that looks inviting... but hey you get free drinks...

no idea what time we ended up geting back to the hotel... can only say i was glad of my smart thinking in grabing one of the hotel cards with the address on it so that when we got into the cab to come home, all i had to do was give them the card and we got back to the hotel!!!!

note to self... always remember to steal a card with the hotel address on it, for occasions such as this!

the funniest thing that happened though was that when we were leaving, there were guys trying to sell stuff on the stairs, and we had david trailing behind usand this guy starts showing him things that he's selling, etc, and getting closer and closer... the rest of us just keep walKing and ignoring him, like we'd been told to do, and then we hear david going absolutely balistic... screaming... lol the guy wasn't that close to him... but quickly walked away muttering freak.... lol not funny but kind of funny...and all david could talk about in the cab was how he'd almost

been attacked! lol

December 13th 2006 free day in barcelona

after not much sleep we were once again awoken by the shrilling sound of the telephone ringing... that if you didn't answer just kept ringing and ringing very hard to sleep through. up and got a selection of cold meats mini rolls, cereal, juice... still weird to have a cold meat selection for breakfast...but hey at least it makes it easy to premake sandwiches for lunch!

Before heading out on the shuttle to explore Barcelona. started with a mini tour of the main sites, drove up to montjuic and visited the site of the barcelona olympic games, but didn't get to stop (would have liked to look around a bit, cause that was the year i really got into the whole olympic games...) saw the pool where keiran perkins won his surprise gold medal from lane 8 in the 1500m freestyle..., and saw the dving pool. OMG i forgot about the view they had... the diving board and pool were located right at the top of the hill,so they overlook the whole of barcelona... and it was a rather spectacular view from up there... i wonder how they were able to concentrateon what they were doing... i would've ahhhhhhhhhing over the view.... (mmmmmmm that's right they're professionals!)

from there we headed out to see the Sagrada familia (so not the correct spelling... ) which is this already massive church which has yet to be finished... they reckon it'll take another 50 years to finish. it was just amazing... how cool would it to come back in 50yrs to see the finished product..

from there we were dropped of just off las ramblas, at placa de catalunya, where we were taken to the token leather and pearl place.... that contiki has done business with for years! admitedly the leather was really soft, and the guy juan doing the mini demonstraion was entertaining... but the prices were really expensive... ie $600 for a leather jacket...after spending about 1hour there we were taken on one of daves speed walking tours of the gothic quarter where we wandered the cool, narrow alleys of the barri gothic, before heading back to las ramblas, and told to watch out for gypsies (or more commonly known as gypos!)

one thing you notice straight away about the building here is that they're all colouRful, i'm talking bright oranges, and yellows, and the occasional bright green painted house. in paris they were all white, but here, each house almost has it's own character... what's going on here i am talking about building... trying really hard not to take pictures of buildings... cause i'm against it...

i'm still under the impression i'm going to look back over my pictures and go what's that... lol i'm really not all that interested in looking at old buildings.... mmmmm guessing this probably isn't the best area to go sightseeing in... maybe i'll learn to appreciate them on this tour... or it'll back fire and be like the waterfalls in canada... where by the end even though the waterfalls were getting better and better... we were like.... snap.... it's another one, can we go now!

Joined up with Gayna, michelle, glen, craig and tracy, and headed down to the port to try some tapas... got a bit of variety, some seafood, bread, chicken, little rolls of something we still have no idea about...

funny thing was when we walked in they took one look at us and before we said anything, they'd handed us this menu in english... hahahah did it show that much!

walked around the shopping complex a bit, lots of really good sales, shame i have no room in my suitcase! and then headed back along La rumbla... now i have to say that this was an interesting street... it was about 1km long, and housed many different stalls... but it was strange in the way it was set out, all the flower shops were together, all the pets were together (they had mini croc's for sail, and hedgehogs... did think about how i could possible keep them as pets...but then remembered my fun with the ducks, and kept walking! ;o)

they had countless street performers all along the streets (obviously if they're street performers they'd be performing on the street!) some were downright freaky... one was all painted up like an army man, armed with machine guns, and if someone took a photo, he'd change his stanceand aim his gun at them if they hadn't put any money in his tin.... and it looked so real!..there was a garden woman too who really looked like a tree... i did actually think she was until she moved! went down a radnom little side alley and ended up in a mini market... they had a smurf flavoured icecream... called smurf! and it was bright blue!

didn't run into any trouble with the gypsies or pick pockets... someone did take delight in scaring the bejeezers out of David... by grabbing at his bag from behind and he almost wet himself.... he was funny, he had about 6 different locks on his bag... and do you think he could find the key to get into his bag.... nope! he had to have them all cut off with bolt cutters... see someone really should have locked him up ages ago..or wrapped him in cottom wool.

caught the bus back to the hotel about 4pm and got ready to head out to see the flamingo dancers. it was an optional excursion, and not all that many people choose to do it... and after going... they probably made a wise choice... most of us were still feeling rather seedy from the night before, and we get to this show, and it's free sangria, and unlimited wine and beer..... mmmmmmmm just the smell of alcohol was enough!HAHAHAHAthe whole show was done by the one family, two sisters their mother and their father and brother, and they were rather good.

we'd been told earlier that the show went on and on and on, and that we leave half way through it... cause it's just repeating over and over again..it was great to have a semi cultural experience and experience some traditional spanish dance... got to the restraunt about 8:30 where we were quickly served a huge salad, and before you could finish it was whisked away to be replaced with a bolonase, which was again taken before you'd finished to be replaced with chicken and palenta (kind of currish in taste) which no one could even get 1/4 of the way through as we were so full then we got icecream cake...so much food in such a little time... then the show started... we got told we'd be leaving at 11pm and i tell you.... we were all falling asleep at the tables...

hahaha might have been better had we got into the spirit and taken full advantage of the free booze... but since we were still recoving no one really had more than a few glasses....11pm couldn't come on fast enough... it was funny, at about 1030, people were getting antsy.... and as soon as dave stood up everyone jumped up ad was out of there in a matter of seconds...

it wasn't half obvious we wanted to go to bed!

it was a good show... though moulin rogue was definitely way better..maybe because i was really looking forward to it...