Post From Europe

Yes, I missed out on a Honkers post, but I'll post up my diary entry for Sunday 12 Aug.

"Barcelona definitely lives up to the party capital moniker. We were out till 1:30am last night and it felt like Sydney on New Year's Eve! There were so many people out and about...of course there were the usual drunken louts, but nothing threatening.

We found some new age tapas restaurant last night (Bubo's) that didn't quite hit the spot, but they did have some of the best looking desserts I have seen, and the taste wasn't too bad. We did find a more decent tapas afterwards and ordered a jug of sangria. The combination of thirstiness and easy-to-drinkness of sangria meant we downed it very quickly, and boy was I shattered afterwards! Straight to bed :)

Today was all about the sights in Barcelona, but with the holiday season, we had to queue to get into places. Checked out the majority of the Gaudi exhibits, and am very impressed with his mix of functionality, asthetics and design. He was definitely ahead of his time.
Would recommend to people the Casa Batllo, even if it was a bit expensive. The audio guide was very good, and the place is very cool. Still very livable to this day.

Noticed that there weren't many cars of the roads, perhaps because the Metro is so efficient? Maybe they have one of those congestion charge things like in London.

We also went to the Museu Picasso. Am becoming more of a fan, as he was skilled in all types of art. Liked his initial cubism work, but the latter stuff was a bit too abstract / strange for me. What stood out was that he was mind-blowingly good even at the early age of 15! Maybe in those days people died younger, and hence they needed to be all over it in their teens as opposed to now when teens still have no idea what they want!"