huimin: Spain

1st Day
Yeah, finally back from Spain and it was an interesting trip, I would say, that I've ever experienced with previous trips before. I was sooo excited about this trip that we finally able to escape this unpredictable weather in Sunderland and looking forward to the hot hot weather in Barcelona. Everything went smoothly at first, and I bet there isnt anyone that can guess the first stop I visited in Barcelona. My first stop was....was...was actually POLICE STATION! For this I have to tell the incident that had occurred on the way to the hotel. I've been told by friends to be careful as Spain is quite a dangerous place where pickpocket mainly target tourists. Ya, I swear I had been very careful with my bag. I was carrying a luggage and was about to board on the subway. I realised a lady kept looking at me but I didnt bother much and she was sort of blocking my way into the subway so I was only able to step on the edge of the subway door. I was actually wondering whether this lady was going into the subway or going out from the subway. But then she suddenly walked out from the subway again. A friend told me his wallet almost got stolen and I checked my bag and it was wide open! But by that time it was too late as the door already closed! GREAT! All my cash gone within seconds. I really didnt know what to do and was very panic of how was I going to continue with this trip without cash. All I could do was just to calm myself down and not to let this destroy the holiday trip. I knew I could do nothing but to accept the truth. And just treat it as a donation to those in needs...

In the police station, really thanks to Karen for waiting with me. And really really paiseh to Karen, Leekim, Gertrude, Oscar that they need to identify the pickpocket with me. Another thing is that those Spainish do not speak English! They had another translator there to talk to me. I had to wait there from 5pm to 9pm just to describe the person and identify them from the police records. For me they looked almost the same. After few hours of waiting, the police finally told me that they would look for that person and send straight to jail. OK, hopefully it was the right person that we identified!

PS: I was brave enough to tell my parents the purse gone but not the money...the money was in my luggage actually...''Yeah right!"

We then went back to the hotel, Centric Point. It was an excellent hotel with reasonable price and strategic location.

The hotel was very clean and offer free internet access! We were staying in 12 dorm room but actually there were 7 double deckers. Overall it was cool. After returning from police station we decided to meet up with another group of friends, we called and found they were actually in the hotel to rest (sleep) awhile. I was like wow I have never been in a trip where we could go back hotel sleep awhile, all the previous trips were quite exhausting that we walked the whole day non-stop. But, actually I'm ok with that since we had quite many days in Barcelona. We went to a seafood restaurant by the sea recommended by the receptionist. I rated the restaurant 5 out of 10. Ya, it was just okok but I liked the location as seen in the pics. Well it's definitely a lovely place for couples !

Let's move on to my favourite topic--> Foods

It was just alright. They have alot of Tapas which are being fried. And served nice with lemon juice by squeezing ourself. The green color ones are fried green pepper and another portion is fried baby squid.

Not that fresh...yaya...very fussy :p

Erm..didnt like the codfish ...it tasted quite fake...but the sauce and the potatoes not bad!

Eating session ended.
And the waiter took a photo of us and he said the pic was perfecto! Let me show you what he meant here...

We were like =="
Speechless. But he did look like he was abit drunk.

The guy with monster appetite. It was never enough for him. By da way, it was Farggi ice cream, worth a try!

Another blur pic...I really duno what happened that every pic is like dat! What Siewching doing behind there?

Who are they? Malaysian samseng in Barcelona? haha....nah....Matt tried quite hard to pose but err... and there goes the big eater again.
We then finally went back to our hotel. When we first went in our room we were kinda surprised we met 4 hongkees friends in our room, Christy, Katie, Tom, Martin. They were very nice persons. And one more thing, they speak quite fluent mandarin. Will upload some pics later.

2nd Day
I couldnt sleep well at all that night as it was freaking cold! I was wondering how the others survived that night and I didnt know where to off the air cond. I heard few alarms rang in the wee hours but then I didnt bother much. I mean I heard it nearly 5 times. Surprisingly though, no one woke up, including those hongkees plus one angmo.

We prepared everything and still chatting in the room with those hongkees and suddenly they asked:'' isnt this the second day u guys in barcelona? it's already 11am now'' Yeah we slumbered quite alot and I said ''I was waiting for them'' and another friend said ''I was waiting for u guys'' haha...it seems like everyone was so lazy and reluctant to step out of the room.

Sagrada Familia was our official first stop. It was still on construction and believed to be completed by year 2026. It was the artwork of Gaudi by the way, a well-known architecture of Spain. Here goes the Sagrada Familia*

View from the top (we decided to come down by lift instead of walking)
I feel it's like the cathedral in York which I took 273 steps to reach the ground...no I will never
do this again!

We then headed to Barcelona FC! Thinking I could make my bro envy again.
It's less than what I expected. Manchester and Chelsea stadium are so much better than that!
The stadium is more like an old building without proper maintenance.

Finally it's dinner time!
We went back to hostel and rest awhile. For our dinner we turned to receptionist again.
Believe me, this restaurant is sooo damn nice! We sat outside the restaurant.