Day Thirteen/Trieze/Trece - All day tour, Tapas

Ola!

I can't believe Robert! I will never allow him to write another blog entry ever again (well I had to force him, I wanted him to make some kind of contribution), all he did was just bag me out and mock the blog!!!!!! After all I have done for the blog!!! What a tosser!

Today we were booked into an all day bus tour of Barcelona! It commenced at 9.30am from Placa Catalunya (where we are staying) then to visit The Cathederal. It also houses the oldest fountain in Barcelona! There was geese in there too having a right old paddle!

We then toured the Gothic Quarter, which had a few cool things including the Christopher Colombus monument. We then cruised up to Montjuic Mountain, which has the Olympic complex!

Next up we visited an old Spanish village. We were able to taste Cava Catalan, a famous sparkling wine. We then had lunch at a restaurant, which consisted of fine Spanish food! We then visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. It held works by Picasso and Salvador Dali. Robert's favourite piece of art was the fire extinguisher on the wall.

Then back on the bus and we were merged with another group. Which had this whingy American couple! This pissed us off so badly!!!!!! They were hilarious! They just complained as soon as they sat down. "oh this is the most poorly organised tour I have ever done......blah blah blah.... whinge whinge whinge" We thought the tour was great so we weren't sure what the hell they were complaining about, but they then cared to elaborate of course, because they couldn't shut there faces! They were ticked off because they didn't read! The poor fools, were sitting in their 5 star hotel this morning tapping their feet and twiddling their thumbs because they believed that the tour bus would pick them up from their hotel!!!!! ummmm no! So they were soooo pissed off that they were forced to catch a taxi in a foreign country with people that don't understand them!!!! ohh poor them!!!! that must have been devastating to actually go out and experience the place you are suppose to be visiting!! Then they had to meet up with the tour because they had missed the first place that it visited!!!.... oh and they paid to see it and they didn't see it, so they want some compensation because they couldn't be bothered reading their tour voucher which states you meet at the tour terminal!!!

Then the guy goes on to say! "We paid a lot of money for personal service and it just isn't happening! and we are very upset. We don't speak the language and nor should we have to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" is he f**ken serious????? ......"all I want is to get on the plane and then get back on the plane home!!"
They don't want to visit the place at all! They just do tours with English speaking people, that offer transportation and food so that they aren't exposed to the real culture of the place they are visiting!
and they were saying all this just as the new tour guide jumped on the bus! The poor woman was just trying to conduct this tour and her and every one else on the bus was listening to this couple blow their steam!! She handled it very well though!

There was sooo much more hilarious stuff as well just too much to mention in this blog. They just continued to bicker the whole way! The woman had the shits that the tour guide said the info in English then.... oh god I don't believe it....... Spanish as well!!!!! I mean why should that white American older female have to listen to that filth of a language on her 5 star holiday??????
The last thing was that they were pissed off that they weren't going to be dropped off to their hotel! They insisted that the bus take them our a taxi was arranged for them and that the tour guide spoke to the driver to make sure nothing bad happened!!!
Here's her ugly mug!


like why can't you stupid lazy dumb shits, pull out a map and walk!!! oh wait!!! You can't get your prisitine white reeboks get dirty!!! You got on the plane with white joggers you want to get back on the plane home with white joggers!!!! LOSERS!!!!! Thats dumb yanks for ya!

We cruised down Passeig de Gracia, which is the designer shopping strip, Chanel, Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton etc! It also had some famous buildings, Casa Batllo and Casa Mila, by architect Gaudi! We then went to Park Guell, also by Gaudi! Then we went to Sagrada Familia cathederal! Then past the Picasso Musuem, we had the offer to stay in the area and visit the museum of stay and be dropped off back at the terminal. We decided not to go to the Picasso musuem, because it would make it tough to get home and besides, I don't really like Picasso's work! So we stayed on and went to Santa Maria del Mar church!
Here are some pictures:















Once we got back to the terminal we asked our tour guide where was a good local place to have Tapas and she directed us to a place.

We went to the hotel and freshened up, went to a department store, had a look around and then went to a Tapas Bar! It was already on a wait list by 8.00pm and it was a big place consisting of 2 levels and outside dining! So we knew it must be a good spot! We ordered some Tapas and they were brought out super fast! ....... and they were yummy!

Then home to bed!

Day Twelve/Douze/Doce - Walk Around Barcelona

Apparently this is another special edition blog because Robert is writing it but Laura just became lazy and is a day behind so while she finishes yesterdays blog I am writing today's, what a bludger.
She also stuffed all the dates of the blog posts, they were all in Australian time so one day ahead of our actual time.

We had a little sleep in this morning so buggered from yesterday's haul of our luggage around Paris and Orly Airport!

Once we woke up and had a long shower we had the full buffet breakfast. They had everything, cereals, savoury (bacon, sausage, eggs, selection of cured meats like prosciutto and cabanossi) and sweets (croissants, cakes, muffins).

During breakfast one of the waitresses gave Laura a Red Rose, as it was Saint George (St. Jordi in Catalan) Day (he is the patron saint of Catalonia, On this day men give a single red rose to the significant women in their lives (mother, girlfriend, sister, and so on), and women give a book in return (although, in the interest of gender equality, many men now give women a book). Thanks George saved me the trouble of getting the rose although I didn't get a book from Laura what a snob. It is a big day here (public holiday) and all the streets in Barcelona are lively as they are selling roses and books in stalls lining the streets. Today also happens to be the Champions League Semi Final Barca vs Man Utd, unfortunately I was unable to get any tickets and I suspect it got no easier with today being a public holiday.

As we were going back to our room we checked out the chillout room which has a tv and internet access, its got a funky design like the rest of the hotel:








We went back to the hotel room and plotted our walk around Barcelona with the maps that were provided by the hotel, below is a map of our walk:


View Larger Map

We went down the famous La Rambla which takes you to the water. We went to the aquarium and then had an ice cream, the weather was great!! Next we walked to the Parc de la Ciutadella which is a park with some monuments, buildings and a pond in the middle. Continued on till we reached the Arc de Triomf (which is basically cut down version of the one in Paris). We were on the home stretch now back to the hotel where we sat around for bit to relax our legs.
Here are some pictures of our day walking around Barca:
















After lounging around for a bit I went through the available channels to check if the Barc vs Man Utd game was going to be shown, to my dismay it wasn't! I looked outside our window into the square and there were still heaps of people, it looked as though the game was being televised on a big screen. Laura and I trekked into the square only to find it was the tv station that had been there all day. We trekked back to the Hard Rock Cafe which is next to our hotel and started watching the game in the gift shop (they had 3 LCDs all around the room) as the bar was full of people, the bar also had about 20 LCDs placed everywhere along with one big screen.

There was some loser American going through the store buying every possible Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona shirt and he was already wearing a Hard Rock Cafe Paris shirt. The guy walked out of the store having spent 429 EUROs (about 720 Aussie bucks!) on crap which was mostly just Hard Rock Cafe Tshirts. Most of the people walking around the shop were from the USA so they were oblivious to the importance of the match currently going on. 2 Leso's walked in, both had there hair black as black and wearing more black clothes.

Unfortunately Barcelona could not score a freaken goal and the game ended 0-0 even though Barca had 69% possession and many chances. I would say Lionel Messi was man of the match as he pulled some good moves. For full match details read this UEFA Match Details.

Day Eleven/Onze/Once - Flight to Barcelona

What a morning we had!!!!! Today we are catching a plane from Paris D'Orly to Barcelona! We were up and checked out before 9.00am so that we had an abundance of time to make it to the airport! We decided that we would catch the train to the airport - what a hassle that was!!!!!!! From our local metro stop, Opera, we were directed to catch the train line A and then change for train line B. Normally getting from A to B can be a task on its own, however, we were having difficulty just getting to A! The metro and underground rail systems have been pretty breezy to navigate and have been good to us!

So we set out to get to point A, we saw a sign with an arrow, then another sign directing us left, down some stairs, down some more stairs, a sign right, a sign left, some escalators, another left hand turn, down a few steps, then a left, then up a flight of stairs, then hung a right, then a left, more stairs down, left, more stairs down, right hand turn. We thought we were going around in circles sheesh!!! We must be getting there soon! Nope.... another sign left, then right, more stairs down, then a right, then a staircase up, then down, the some more escalators, All while I had 10 kilos on my back, 20 kilos in a cumbersome suitcase, Roberts suitcase, Roberts laptop bag and a paper bag with more stuff in it! And we were just lugging all our shit up and down flights of stairs and tunnels to nowhere following this arrow!!

We nearly walked to Barcelona; we didn't need an airport or a plane to get there. Seriously I don't know how far we walked through the underground tunnels of Paris but it was a bloody long way, consisting of a hell of a lot of steps, just following this ARROW!!! We thought we were starting to hallucinate the arrow!

Just as our spirits were rock bottom we were greeted by a young male offering his assistance, we asked him where line A was and he replied, "yeh, it just round that corner and down some stairs and you should be on the platform" And true he was!

We weren't relieved just as yet. There was a tonne of people and then train was packed out, whilst attempting to get on to the train, there were quite a few selfish people that refused to move into the carriage and just stare at you. Like this one mole! I said to Robert, what I thought was quietly "If this bitch would move we would be alright!" But she heard me!! Whooooops!
Although she did move!!!! So I am glad she heard me!

We then had to change trains 3 more times!!! People would just stand in your way and watch you struggle. I suppose that is just society, we are all a bunch of selfish, voyeurs thriving on other people’s weakness and seldom rendering any indirect assistance (like moving out of the bloody way!!!!!!) or direct assistance (helping me pull my suitcase on or off the train) Not that’s what I expect from people! But we are just all screwed, seriously! Why can’t we just be harmonious, with rainbows in the sky and we all skipped hand in hand down our perfect little world?

Our next dilemma was which terminal where we at? We never made note of it. It was either SUD (south) or OUEST (west) however, Robert did recall SUD for some reason and so we took a gamble and alighted at SUD. Our luck had changed!!! He was right! All in all the train was such a hassle, we thought we would save a few euros and do the train thing, but next time we are just going to offload our luggage to a cabbie for him (or her) to place in the boot and drive us to the airport!

At the airport we checked in and made it through customs. Robert then remembered that we had some duty free to claim and we had to walk back out of the scanners! That was another donkey chase!!!!!!!! And another hassle as well!!! Duty free is bullshit!!!!! So much running around and paperwork! Just to get some dollars back. You bloody work for your money! It’s not worth it in my opinion, so long story short, because I can’t be bothered getting in to that debacle! We couldn’t claim just yet, you do it in the last country you are visiting, so that will make it the UK. I am dreading that, because it will be Heathrow and we walk all over that shitty airport!

Anyway, back through the scanners and into the boarding area! And in true easy jet form, the plane was delayed by 40 minutes! But that was okay, we wanted to take a breather and rest our feet!

The plane came and we boarded, it took off, it flew through the air then it landed! You know how it goes! On the way down we saw a few cool things! We saw the Formula One racetrack, lots of swimming pools, the marina with my yacht!!! Ahahhaha I wish! The world trade centre and the port!

Once we collected our baggage (a bit tattered from pulling it up and down quite possibly a zillion steps!!) We caught the Aerobus which went straight to Place Catalunya, which is where our hotel is located.

We got off the bus and looked behind us and there was our hotel! Pretty lucky again!
We checked in and nothing sounds better to the ears then “FREE UPGRADE” Oh hell yes!!!!! We are pretty impressed with the hotel!

Here are some pictures of our room!







We then went out for a walk to realise that most shops were still open at 8.30pm, which was cool! And it wasn’t late trading night either! Then back to the hotel room to watch champions league – Chelsea versus Liverpool! Then bed!

Day Ten/Dix/Diez - Eiffel Tower, Dinner Cruise

Special Edition Blog!

To commemorate our last night in Paris, here is a special edition blog. Including all your faves and some new additions!!!!

Bonsoir! We come to you drunk and half asleep, just having stepped off a fabulous dinner cruise on the river Seine. So, s'il vous plait ignore the typos and the grammatical errors merci!

This morning we caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower the catch the lift to the top! We arrived semi early only to be greeted with super long queues! We finally purchased 2 tickets to the top!

Whilst waiting in line we had this young couple behind us! It was quite a chilly morning in Paris and we had pulled on a warm jackets and brought along an umbrella, whilst waiting I was playing with the umbrella by shooting it out! The dumb people behind us thought they would feel good about themselves by making fun of us, because they were under the impression we couldn't understand them because we speak English! They were saying dribble to the effect of how they thought it was funny that we had an umbrella and that I had a coat with a hood on it and just making general comments about us! Well the reason we (Robert) could understand was because they were speaking either Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian!!!! Stupid drongos!!!!!!

So the queue progressed a bit and guess what happened??? It started to pour!!!! and that silly bitch was cold!!!! I could see!!!

She was staring at our umbrella with such envy and was so jealous of my warm hood that also blocked out the near gale force winds (well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration! but close)

She was also the ugliest dog ever! Her and her boyfriend must have obviously been bred in a rat lab! She had that hair where she tried to dye it blonde but it just went orange! And he had those evil pointy, arrow shaped eyebrows and that disgusting goatee like facial hair and they were both puffing away on their cigarettes like good lab rats do! She was also wearing this cheap metallic gold jacket that didn't keep her warm because she was visibly cold! She obviously chose style over practicality!! Oh wait...... she didn't chose either!!!! ugly biatch!!! more fool you!

Any way enough about her!

So, we took the lift to the 1st floor and enjoyed the views from there! It was bloody freezing up there and my tooties were like little ice cubes on the end on my foot!!
Here is some pictures of the view.

Then up another lift to the 'somit' TOP!!!!!!!!!!! It was as windy as being in a hurricane!
More piccies.

Distances to other countries, namely.....

Sacre Couer

Arc de Triomphe

After the Eiffel Tower we needed to do some shopping, because silly little Robert didn't think when he was packing for Paris "oh yeh! I won't need to bring some trousers or some going out shoes, ill just bring jeans and joggers!!!!!" Well the dinner cruise obviously had a dress code and I was fuming at him!!! "Did you think you were going to take me out some where nice?? What the hell were you thinking???"

Never mind. We hit the shops and Robert picked up a pair of shoes and a new pair of pants! Well in justification, he did need them! and because to claim duty free we needed to make a threshold, and I picked my self up a top and a blazer! So, it was happy days for the two of us!

Back to the hotel room to spruce up! Then we headed back out on to the metro to where the boats are moored. For 3 hours we cruised down and up the River Seine and noshed on some fine French food and downed some Rose, Chardonnay and Red Wine. We were positively drunk by the end of it and in good spirits! We witnessed the 11.00pm light show that the Eiffel Tower puts on! We were stumbling over ourselves (okay, we weren't that bad), glancing upwards with a mouths ajar, just oohing and ahhing at the spectacle!!

Here is some pictures!

Light Up!!

Twas another beautiful day in Paris! I'll miss it and regrettable didn't get to do everything we set out to do, Oh well we will just have to come back...... what a shame!

Observations

• French driving – no lanes, just go where ever you want

• French parking - heel, toe doosey doe! Bumper to bumper

• Lack of skyscrapers

• French people talking to themselves on the metro

• Most people have commented on the amount of black people there is in Paris but I would have to say there was more at my high school. So I would have to agree but it was less then I expected.

• How much they love their nutella!!!! You can get nutella crepes everywhere!!! They are so delish!!! so goooey and yummy!! damn I want one now!!!
  

Things we gained from Paris

• Beautiful memories we will have for the rest of our lives
• Witnessing and living in a truly picturesque and scenic city
• Enjoying and appreciating its vast history
  

Things we scammed from Paris

• A free postcard - the guy only counted 7 when I actually had 8!!

• A free 750mL Evian water. Whilst Robert was paying I took the water and the food to try and find somewhere to sit. Robert knew I took the food but didn't realise that I had the water to so he asked for his water and the assistant couldn't see me so he gave Robert another one!!!
• 7 mcnuggets in my value meal!!!! This is the first time in my life this has happened to me!!!!! It happened to me once at Hungry Jacks where I got 8 instead of 7 but never in Maccas!! It made me feel on top of the world!
  

I know they are minor!!!! But gosh, they make you feel good!! Make you feel like you are one up!!!

Ok well night night. It is now 1.30am and I have to pack for Barcelona!!!

Bonne nuit!