Paella - special Bercelona cuisine, if Malaysian version, it is called 'Nasi Goreng Seafood'
La Rocca Village
Day 2
terasa mcm marakech, morocco
Rambla de Mar
Barcelona trip was somehow like chipsmore…now you see it, now you don’t. I conclude it as ‘macam jadi tapi tak jadi tapi jadi jugak’...
Plan A: M’s car. M couldn’t join us due to some personal reason.
Plan B: N’s car.
The moment N informed Jimi that he was yet to renew his recipecee (sort of an ID for those stay in France), I was still positive that we could still make it to Barcelona since the recipecee can be renewed immediately. But when N told us that he was stuck with class all day and didn’t have the opportunity to renew it, the chance was so slim.
Then Plan C emerged…
Plan C: Rent a car for €63 (2 days). Place to stay yet to be searched for when we reach Barcelona.
So we opt for Plan C, since that’s the only option anyway. The 3-hour journey with a brand new Yaris (not bad actually for the price that we paid) led us to Barcelona, the most well-planned city I’ve seen so far and the first stop was La Rocca, a shopping heaven for those crazy for branded merchandise – from MNG, LV, Chanel, Gucci to Timberland, Puma, Nike, Polo and a lot more including those famous brands that I never knew, heard and not even seen in my entire life (and maybe you should read as: how naïve/foolish I was for not knowing it hehehe). This is similar outlet in its range in Paris – La Valle Village mentioned in my Paris Trip.
The first objective the moment we reach the city was looking for a place to stay that night. If I remember it correctly, we were on foot for almost 3 hours looking for a hotel somewhere near Rambla and outskirt of the city and still none was available. It was then made known to us that the week itself was a busy week in Barcelona mainly because of Halloween and few international conferences and symposiums held over that weekend. With no other option seemed to be available in such situation, we decided to have a sleep in the car!
Don’t mention about sleeping in the car…you know how it feels – I don’t mind having to sleep without pillow and all, but with the autumn and the nearing winter, huh, sejuk sampai ke tulang hitam! I had experienced sleeping on the top of few mountains not long time ago, but this is truly different.
But it is all worth the moment we saw the most universal artworks of the architect Gaudi at Park Güell; famous for its unfinished so-called church – La Sagrada Familia; Casa Batlló – the first artwork plainly guanidine; World Trade Centre – which locating Rambla de Mar and few others.
Since we were out very early that morning, yeah what else could you do if you slept in the car, we managed to get a free parking spot at Park Güell. Alhamdulillah the metro was quite reliable…it’s a nightmare to explore Barcelona by car for its traffic congestion owing to the town-planner for the ‘hundreds’ of traffic lights all over the place, if my calculation is correct, at every 1km.
While me busy choosing few souvenirs, 2 Malaysian approached us and asked Jimi whether we are Malaysian. They were in great trouble looking for Malaysian Embassy as one of them lost his passport, wallet and air ticket…in short he lost everything! I got the number in my hp (thanks to Maxis for the extra added services by providing Malaysian embassy’s number for each country their customer visited) but unfortunately I could not switch it on as the battery was out. Leenda being sort of the savior of the day although she only handed the embassy personnel’s number in Paris, the most we could do and hopefully they manage to get some help.
Plan A: M’s car. M couldn’t join us due to some personal reason.
Plan B: N’s car.
The moment N informed Jimi that he was yet to renew his recipecee (sort of an ID for those stay in France), I was still positive that we could still make it to Barcelona since the recipecee can be renewed immediately. But when N told us that he was stuck with class all day and didn’t have the opportunity to renew it, the chance was so slim.
Then Plan C emerged…
Plan C: Rent a car for €63 (2 days). Place to stay yet to be searched for when we reach Barcelona.
So we opt for Plan C, since that’s the only option anyway. The 3-hour journey with a brand new Yaris (not bad actually for the price that we paid) led us to Barcelona, the most well-planned city I’ve seen so far and the first stop was La Rocca, a shopping heaven for those crazy for branded merchandise – from MNG, LV, Chanel, Gucci to Timberland, Puma, Nike, Polo and a lot more including those famous brands that I never knew, heard and not even seen in my entire life (and maybe you should read as: how naïve/foolish I was for not knowing it hehehe). This is similar outlet in its range in Paris – La Valle Village mentioned in my Paris Trip.
The first objective the moment we reach the city was looking for a place to stay that night. If I remember it correctly, we were on foot for almost 3 hours looking for a hotel somewhere near Rambla and outskirt of the city and still none was available. It was then made known to us that the week itself was a busy week in Barcelona mainly because of Halloween and few international conferences and symposiums held over that weekend. With no other option seemed to be available in such situation, we decided to have a sleep in the car!
Don’t mention about sleeping in the car…you know how it feels – I don’t mind having to sleep without pillow and all, but with the autumn and the nearing winter, huh, sejuk sampai ke tulang hitam! I had experienced sleeping on the top of few mountains not long time ago, but this is truly different.
But it is all worth the moment we saw the most universal artworks of the architect Gaudi at Park Güell; famous for its unfinished so-called church – La Sagrada Familia; Casa Batlló – the first artwork plainly guanidine; World Trade Centre – which locating Rambla de Mar and few others.
Since we were out very early that morning, yeah what else could you do if you slept in the car, we managed to get a free parking spot at Park Güell. Alhamdulillah the metro was quite reliable…it’s a nightmare to explore Barcelona by car for its traffic congestion owing to the town-planner for the ‘hundreds’ of traffic lights all over the place, if my calculation is correct, at every 1km.
While me busy choosing few souvenirs, 2 Malaysian approached us and asked Jimi whether we are Malaysian. They were in great trouble looking for Malaysian Embassy as one of them lost his passport, wallet and air ticket…in short he lost everything! I got the number in my hp (thanks to Maxis for the extra added services by providing Malaysian embassy’s number for each country their customer visited) but unfortunately I could not switch it on as the battery was out. Leenda being sort of the savior of the day although she only handed the embassy personnel’s number in Paris, the most we could do and hopefully they manage to get some help.
Off to Toulouse at about 5 pm…
