Tag Archives: Barcelona

Bye, Barcelona

Posted by on May 17, 2010 2 comments

And again, I have to point out that time flies when you’re happy and when you’re having a good time… Because I had a good time this weekend and it went by so damn fast! On Saturday, Mark and me went to the beach and enjoyed the sun. In fact, there were clouds coming up and hiding the sun the very moment we arrived at the beach so almost everybody else packed their belongings and left. Hence the beach was ours! 😎 We basically ignored the wannabe-bad weather and that the sun wasn’t shining. It came out again, eventually, and we even ditched into the ocean for a short while. Right there on the beach there was a cool hut selling drinks and food and they also played finest electronic tunes – to Mark’s and my pleasure 🙂

When after a while the clouds were closing in again (and we were getting hungry) we decided to have “lunch” there and that decision was rewarded with the best bocadillos ever. The very moment we started devouring those, rain started pouring down. Well, we did what we can best and just ignored the bad weather while we were enjoying the bocadillos under the hut’s roof. Just as we finished our awesome meal, the sun was back :mrgreen:

In the evening we returned home for the big birthday party. It was big fun (and we had tons of great food) and I wanna thank Ela for hosting and having us there! Unfortunately, we all forgot to take more pictures…

Not having had a big load of sleep, we were all kinda lazy in the “morning” on Sunday. And because Mark had to leave for the airport anyways, we decided to just stay at Ela’s place, clean up the typical after-party-mess and relax a little. The weather was unbelievably beautiful, by the way, so Mark and me barely left the balcony where we tried to absorb as much sunshine as possible. But all good things have come to an end, eventually, and so Mark had to leave in the afternoon 🙁 Ela and me left the house with him, but instead of going to the airport, we went to the beach and met with a group of her colleagues and played beach volleyball for the rest of the day. 😎 Side note: I’m the world’s worst beach volleyball player, seriously. And I did my best to defend that title 😀

In the evening, we gathered a group and had dinner at a great pizza place in Barceloneta. And after that, we decided to retreat to Ela’s place and have the birthday party 2.0 … Unfortunately, I had to get up at 5:30 today in order to get my flight back to Munich. Too bad the volcano ash cloud wasn’t there when I needed it most 😉

Thanks again to Ela for hosting and to all the funny people I met in Barcelona! I’ll be back, promised!

Mark Roland Barcelona

Posted by on May 15, 2010 4 comments

Woke up at 11. Scrambled eggs, Mousse and Nespresso. Relaxed at Ela’s place while rain was pouring down outside. Went out at 2 when the sun came out, eventually. Strolled down the Passeig de Gràcia. Bought my first Ray Ban. Bought a new Kukuxumusu shirt in the store next to the Santa Maria del Mar church. Took the metro to Ela’s workplace and said ‘hi’ to the beach. Took a long walk to and up the Rambla de Santa Monica. Had a little rest after returning home. Had extremely delicious Tapas at the Nou Candanchú. Had extremely delicious ice cream in the heart of Gràcia. Had a drink in the Raïm Bar… Now this is what I call a nice day!

… It’s so good to be back in town. I LOVE BARCELONA.

Barcelona day 3 – still without enough sleep

Posted by on September 8, 2009 1 comment

Having had two nights with just a little sleep, I woke up with the firm conviction not to go out so long again in my head. So Ela, Xavier and me started the day with a good long breakfast after which we went to the town center and did the tourist thing. Of course this included a visit to the hilarious Kukuxumus shop and eating great food.

Happy pills? A common thing to see in Barcelona Near the city center
The cathedral - of course with a construction crane and white doves Tourists all over the place!

After lunch – which was a blast because it was so good by the way – , we took a long walk down the beach where I also finally could jump into the sea 🙂 The beach is quite clean and the weather was just perfect with lots of sunshine and blue skies. Oh and I love that comic-style keep the beach clean campaign!

Beachclimbing? Very cool "Kepp the beach clean" campaign

Well, well. So far, so good. The plan I mentioned in the beginning seemed to work. In the evening, we went to a Japanese restaurant / sushi bar where we had very delicious food at a decent price compared to some restaurants in Munich where the quality’s usually lower… Before going home, I once again had the absolutely awesome cinnamon and dark choccolate ice cream mix – mmh that’s so delicious 😀

Just as we arrived at Ela’s place, I received a call from Beatriz who was getting the party started with some friends – well, of course I tagged along and so it happened that I was out all night including a short trip to the Tibidabo mountain from where one can see Barcelona at night. Okay, we haven’t been at the peak but rather at a very cheesy bar/club thing that I’d usually never entered if not for the great view from the terrace 😎

Nightly view from the Tibidabo On the last morning after those three long and funny nights in Barcelona

Barcelona day 2

Posted by on September 5, 2009 1 comment

Day two of my stay in Barcelona was rather non-tourist-style. Having returned home quite late (ahem…), I’ve been really lazy in the morning and took some time to relax, recreate and sleep. At lunchtime I rode the train to Ela’s workplace where I had a very tranquilo lunch break with her and some colleagues of her where we enjoyed great crepes and the nice sea breeze. After that, I tried to return to the city center but the train line somehow temporarily stopped working… 🙁 So I had to walk a few blocks (what was quite nice and interesting, actually) until I got to the Urquinaona station where I could change to another line in order to meet with Beatriz for the afternoon.

Looking up from Placa d'Espanya View from the stairs in front of the National Arts Muesum of Catalonia

Starting at the Placa d’Espanya and taking a looooong tranquilo break in front of the Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunya, we finally took a walk through the whole Parc de Montjuic including the olympic stadium, the palace of St. Jordi, the very very spacy telecommunication tower, a pseudo-greek-looking stonehenge and even a baseball court.

Spaceship-tower! Spaceship-tower and the huge palace-like olympic area Spaceship-tower and parts of stonehenge

Eventually, I returned to Ela’s place again to take a shower and meet up with Ela and Xavier and also Philip and Sandra (friends of Andrea and Patrick) and their kids to go out for dinner. The tapas place we wanted to go was closed, however, so we ended up in a Lebanese restaurant 😉 After having had dinner and extremely delicious dark-chocolate ice cream, we walked the kids plus their parents to the train station and started our nice walk home. However, we stopped at a bar to have some cocktails and just as we were about to call it a day, I got a call from Beatriz… And again, I did not get very much sleep last night 😀

Late at night at a bar somewhere in Gracia

Barcelona day 1

Posted by on September 4, 2009 2 comments

Whew! I landed in the afternoon and thanks to the detailed description of my sister, I could easily find her workplace. At the airport, I found nice oddities like a long tunnel that’s above ground and that features two typical airport-style conveyors – just without the conveyors… Everything’s there: the handrail, the two seperate gangways with converyor handrails, the special road in between them which the cool airport dudes with the electric cars might take now and then but just no conveyor itself! The trains in Barcelona are quite nice and as far as I’ve experienced so far almost always on time. Due to the fact that Barcelona is a big city when it comes to population but not to covering a large area, you always get from A to B in less than 30 minutes. Oh, and the penalty for smoking inside the train is somehow odd… What the heck are those 5 cents for?

Handrail that suggests the presence of a conveyor where there is none IMGP2312

After I met Ela and got the keys to her appartment, I buzzed off to find said appartment – and thanks to Streetview I did 🙂 There, I finally could take a rest from the trip, take a shower and relax a little. Meanwhile, I also managed to contact Flo and arranged to meet him and Beatriz in the evening. I could take a look at his ridiculously huge appartment before we went downtown to get some tapas – mmmhhh, tapas! 😀

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After stuffed our stomachs with delicious tapas of all kinds, Beatriz, Flo and me walked through the sometimes shiny, sometimes shabby but nevertheless cool downtown until we arrived at our destination behind the amazing Sagrada familia: The Michael Collins irish pub 🙂 Ela was already waiting for us inside (it took us longer than expected to walk ehehee…). We had a few drinks and lots of fun. The guy playing live music was shitty at first but gradually got better and better so in the end at roughly 2:30, we all lurched home after a very funny night out.

Sagrada familia 1 Sagrada familia 2 Flo and me posing in front of the Sagrada familia
At the irish pub Dr. Flo Evil - but MiniMe has grown ... and has a beard, too! Siblings, indeed!

Oh and by the way: They have Aquarius here! Yaaay!