Spain - Barcelona to Antequera
After at least three days without Internet, I have finally managed to
find an internet cafe. Thank goodness.
Barcelona: The rest of Barcelona wasn´t that exciting. We tried to
have dinner at two restaurants recommended by Lonely Planet, but one
was closed and we couldn´t find the other one. In general, food in
Barcelona was quite disappointing.
We also tried to go shopping in Barcelona. It has a lot shops but not
a lot to buy.
After Barcelona, we headed to Valencia. We spent about 20 euros in
tolls getting to Valencia but it was worth it. We enjoyed Valencia
much more than Barcelona. Again, we stayed in a really nice hostel.
This one had themed rooms. Ours was the country theme which doesn´t
sound very nice but was actually quite tasteful. Tom took a lot of
pictures but my favourite touch was the spoon towel hooks and the fork
toilet roll holder. Valencia had free internet and breakfast too which
was also very pleasing.
The big thing in Valencia is the Cuidad de las Artes y las Ciencias.
It is a big museum complex which happened to be just across the road
from we were staying. It was designed by a famous architect, Santiago
Calatrava and is quite impressive. We both loved the design of the
science museum - like the bones of a whale - but we weren´t so sure
about the art musuem - sort of like a flower. Tom of course took lots
of pictures.
We spent a whole day at the complex, the morning in the science museum
which was quite fun but half the exhibitions were being set-up,
dismantled or refurbuished. At lunch time (which in Spain is at 2pm
minimum) we thought we would head over to the Oceanographic (the
aquarium) for lunch in their restaurant surrounded by fishes but it
was all booked out for lunch and dinner so we didn´t get to eat there.
Had an ordinary lunch in the other restaurant instead.
The aquarium was also fun. Lots of fishes to look at. They had some
seals, walrus and two belugas too. We watched the dolphin show but it
wasn´t that great.
Our restaurant luck improved in Valencia - despite the aquarium
restaurant being closed) and we had two great and very spanish meals.
In Spain, lunch is at 2 as in generally quite a big meal and dinner is
much later around 9-10pm and a smaller meal. The way the ordering
works is that you order your salad or vegetables first as an entree
and then your meat at your segundo or main course. If you have room
after your gigantic plate of meat then you get some calcium but having
dessert afterwards. It took a while to get used to the timing and the
lack of vegetables but now we are experts at it.
We had better luck with the shops in Valencia too. We managed to
stumble across the shoe part of town and spent a while looking at very
nice shoes.
We decided to spend the first of our two nights between Valencia and
Antequera in Denia. A seaside town about an hour south of Valencia.
Again, stayed in a nice place but this one only had free breakfast, no
internet though...Had dinner at a restaurant run by a German women. It
was a very Australian meal - there were vegetables with our meals. Had
the most delicious pumpkin soup that I have tasted ever.
The night day we had a big drive (about 5 hours which is a long time
in Spain) to Lorca our next destination. We arrived with nowhere to
stay and thought it wouldn´t be too hard to find somewhere. The first
place we tried was full so I used my spanish skills to ask the spanish
man to recommend another hotel. He booked us into a place out of town
and gave us directions in spanish and scrawled the address
incomprehisbily on a business card. I suggested that we walk to the
place first to see if we could find it. Not such a good idea. We
walked for about 20 minutes and gave up and had to walk about 30
minutes back to the car. We got in the car around 5:30 and set off.
Unfortunately, the directions were not very helpful and without the
address I could not use my phone to guide us there. We drove around
town for about an hour before we stopped and I asked for directions.
Turns out it was amazingly simple to get there but we just never took
the turn. We were very exhausted by now so it was baths and then bed.
We set of for Antequera at 8:30 the next morning at which time, Spain
is still asleep - partially because the sun hasn´t come up properly
yet. With spain still asleep the trip was fast and I got to listen to
my favourite spanish radio station - Kiss fm - which plays a bizzare
mix of songs but there is not spanish talking. Stopped in a village
about 40 minutes away from Antequera and had a plate of ham for lunch
which was delicious and also the first real tapas that we had on the
trip.
Got to Antequera about 30 minutes after Cam and Ness but didn´t pick
them up for a while (sorry) as we were sorting out the house that we
are renting for the week. It´s a really nice place one top of the
hill. The hill is a little bit of a problem after a big meal like we
had yesterday but it´s nice to be able to have a little seista after
climbing the hill.
Hope everyone is having back home. Must go and join the others who are
all having cafes next door.
