xkerryw: Barcelona and Gava

Monday 27th May

For the past week we've been staying in a town called Gava, Spain which is just outside of Barcelona. When we were in Le Boulou an older Belgian couple in a motorhome parked next to us and the woman started walking her very expensive cat on a lead around the van. It sparked up a conversation and they ended up recommending a great campsite to us when we said we were headed to Barcelona. It's in Gava right on the beach and a cheap bus goes from outside which takes about 20 minutes to get to Barcelona. We stayed here last Monday and today and inbetween we've been staying on the road right next to it and popping in to use the showers occasionally! Pretty cheeky but the campsite opens up right onto the beach and you can just stroll in. It's quite expensive as it's got loads of good facilities.

Last wednesday we took the bus into Barcelona and planned to spend the day there. We wondered round a bit before finding a bar where Adam knew there was a meeting point for a free walking tour. A blonde Finnish lady called Hanna introduced herself as the tour leader saying she first came on holiday to Barcelona 6 years ago, moved here 2 years ago and she now walks around telling people interesting things about the city and how much she loves it. The tour was around the Gothic Quarter of the city and about 3 hours long. I now know where Picasso supposedly lost his virginity, why and who the patron saint of Barcelona is and that the only cathedral in Barcelona (not the Segrada Familia, apparently that's not a cathedral), used to just be a big, blank rectangular brick wall with a door in the middle on the front but then about 100 years ago decided it needed to look more impressive like a proper cathedral and built a big sort of gothic front on the blank wall. She also told us that the people of Barcelona and Catalunia have a favourite sport other than football which is called Human Towers. Where they literally build a tower out of people by having a big base of muscley men and then a little 8 year old kid in a helmet about 9 people high swaying on the top. I'm not sure if the game is to have two teams competing to build the highest tower or if they just see how long they can stand in a tower form before toppling over. Catalunian people also don't believe in Santa Claus. Instead they believe in a little wooden log that they buy and give it a little hat and put a blanket over its 'bum', then feed it cookies and yummy things until Christmas where they hit the log with sticks and sing songs until it poops out their presents! Straaange. I also thought it was cool that every other couple or group on the tour was from a different country. Apart from two separate couples from Israel there were people from the Philippines, Iran, America, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland.

After the tour we booked for next Thursday to go on a Spanish cooking experience which is also hosted at the bar where you go to the really old famous market the Boqueria and buy some food with the chef, go learn how to cook paella and get fed some tapas and sangria.

The rest of the week we've been chilling on the beach in Gava and this weekend spent recovering from a night out in Barcelona where we went to a few bars and then a big club called Razzmatazz on Friday. Adam had been there before when he went on a lads piss up holiday and wanted to show me what it was like. We were there from about 2 til 6 in the morning and it was aaamazing. We had an hours walk back to the bus stop through the city when we left and we went past the 'Arc de Triomf' which was built in 1888 as a main access gate for a Universal Exhibition of Barcelona.

We'll probably stay in Gava for the rest of the week as we'll be going back into Barcelona on Thursday for the cooking and on the first Sunday of the month all the museums are free and we may take a look at some Gaudí buildings.