Ross Alexander 12/21/16 Ross Alexander 12/21/16

Ross & Kara's Catalan Adventure - Days 7, 8 & 9 : Celebrating a Year Together

A somewhat abridged version of what Kara and I got up to during our last few days in Catalonia. We visit an impressive pair of Cathedrals, eat some good food (and some not-so-good) and I recap on our second trip abroad together.

Tuesday 1st November, 2016 - Girona

It's been a hell of a year for Kara and me, with a wedding that was quickly followed by us getting back to work, then Kara's career really coming into its own, followed by my career hitting a major bump in the road, along with the end of the plan to move to the USA. To add to it all, just before we went on holiday. I was able to find a good QA job that paid well and allows me to continue learning new skills, but unfortunately it meant moving away from my home and the woman I love. It's been a tough time so far, but I feel like I may be starting to settle into a routine. With all of these factors at play, it meant that little bit more to wake up in a warm country with Kara next to me. The old adage of absence making the heart grow fonder may be true, as I miss Kara every day, to the point where I feel like I text her as frequently as I used to when we first started dating.

With the setting of our nice comfortable flat, Kara and I spent almost all the daylight hours just lazing around the place for the most part. We got some laundry done, but we mostly relaxed and ate food. While I did step out of the house to get supplies, we didn't properly leave until around 4pm.

Girona's streets were packed (and I mean packed) with trestle tables covered in art, sculptures, hand-crafted good such as wooden spoons and even little whittled characters. We couldn't even get out of our front door quickly, as a sculptor had set up his pottery wheel just beside it. Kara and I wandered the streets, expecting the stalls to eventually end, but the entire district seemed to be given over to this market, where local artists and creators came together to sell their works of art. It was really beautiful, as there was such a variety of work on display, with the crowds stopping to look over work while the artists chatted amongst themselves. I immediately thought of my mum, who is an artist and would likely appreciate to be in an environment where artists can meet and relax in a warm and beautiful urban space, with the chance of selling some art or maybe picking up a commission.

As we wandered, lost in the city's winding narrow streets, made narrower by all of the stalls, we realised that it was getting dark. After a bit of a climb, we came to the courtyard at the bottom of the stairs that lead to Girona's Cathedral. It was quite a beautiful space, and although Kara couldn't find a good way to get a picture of the Cathedral on our old-fashioned polaroid style camera (which is meant to be our anniversary tradition) we did get a few nice shots of it at night. We made a mental note to come back the next day, where we could visit and get some better light.

We Both Loved Girona's Narrow Old Streets

By this point in the trip, I think we both felt a little guilty that we'd come to a new country and eaten burgers & pizza. We decided to go to Girona's premier (possibly Girona's sole) Indian restaurant; Taj. I think we've probably been spoiled by the quality of the Indian food we get in Britain, but Taj was certainly passable. We enjoyed our curries in a pretty quiet atmosphere, across the narrow restaurant from another couple. Kara and I have celebrated previous auspicious dates with Indian or Chinese takeaway before, so it almost seemed appropriate to spend our first anniversary dinner eating Indian food. Afterwards, we had a nice relaxing walk back to the flat, as the stalls were being packed away into vans and taken out of the streets.

As I fell asleep that night, I was once again warmed with the reassuring feeling that I'd married the right girl.

Wednesday 2nd November, 2016 - Girona

We started the next day by making good on our plan to visit the Cathedral. We wandered up the old cobbled streets to the foot of the stairs, where fans of the TV show "Game Of Thrones" may recognise elements from the show in the architecture. Of course, there's a lot of set dressing and CG that goes into making Girona into King's Landing, but it was very cool to be able to spot the landmarks.

An old villa at the opposite end of the courtyard has been converted into a museum, where there was a showcase of the many movies and TV shows that have filmed in and around Girona. It seems to be a bit of a favourite, due to its narrow, old gothic design; with winding streets and faint air of mystery. The courtyard on the bottom floor was displaying numerous canvas depictions of scenes from Game of Thrones that were shot in Girona. They included some pretty hefty spoilers, so I won't post any pictures. It was very cool to wander around a pretty old building, admiring the lengths they'd gone to in making a varied and interesting document of Girona's cinematic contributions over the years. They even had some cool (in a pretty naff way) props and replicas, including a sickly "White Walker" from GoT, which are already supposed to look pretty emaciated.

We ascended the enormous staircase to reach the Cathedral and went inside. While the streets were full of tourists, we had a pretty relaxing and quiet time inside. The building itself is impressive in its own right, with the second widest nave of any Church (22m). Construction originally began in the 11th century, and due to its geographical location, it's swapped hands between Catholics and Muslims over the last thousand years or so. The courtyards tell the stories of genesis through carvings in the stone pillars that mark the boundary of the cloister. There are a range of heraldic seals that are etched into the stone floors, and the whole building has a real feeling of "history", much like one would expect from a church that's so old.

On the way back down into town, we had a little stop-off at the post office to mail our postcards and visited "La Bombonera" in Independence Plaza. We walked slowly back to our side of town, via Pont Ferro; a bridge that was designed by Gustave Eiffel, eating our ice cream and taking in the beautiful old city. We wandered into a record shop called "Moby Disc", where the records are sold alongside an impressive array of nerdy statues, collectibles, clothing & games. It was much the same experience as visiting Forbidden Planet over here in the UK; mostly it made me feel sad and only served to remind me that I needed to start considering christmas presents for others upon my return.

It was our last evening in Girona, so we decided to follow our hearts when it came to dinner. Of course, this led us to a pizzeria on the old town's main street. "L'arcada" made me a great pizza, which I would heartily recommend to anyone. The restaurant was quiet as we visited quite early. I got the feeling that they keep the place open for tourists and the locals don't show up until later on. Suffice it to say, we enjoyed our dinner!

When we got back to the apartment and finished packing up everything we wouldn't need the next day, I had a feeling of melancholy. I had enjoyed Girona immensely, mainly for the rest and relaxation that we got while we were there. We're not "beach" people, and sitting around for too long tends to make me feel really bored, but with the beautiful surroundings and perfect company, I knew that I'd remember Girona fondly.

Thursday 3rd November, 2016 - Girona to Barcelona

Our return to Barcelona was a much more peaceful affair, with the two of us leaving with an hour to catch our train. By the time we wheeled our clicking, rumbling luggage across town, we still had half an hour to wait before we boarded. Kara pinched my 3DS again and I was satisfied with reading my book and glancing out the window at the Catalonian countryside as the train shot towards Barcelona. We arrived into the city and stowed our luggage before grabbing the Metro towards our last proper stop on the holiday: The Sagrada Familia.

It's with the utmost shame that I admit that it was my influence that pushed us to eat at a KFC that sat at one of the corners of the square that the church dominates. I had come to the realisation that due to the region's propensity for making all of their food from beef or pork, I hadn't had chicken in over a week. This meant that I hankered after chicken more than anything else, so we ordered at the busy counter and went to eat up the stairs. My already "hangry" wife didn't account for the weight of the tray that she was carrying and proceeded to soak a massive part of the upstairs restaurant with orange juice. My concerns faded away as I ate and looked out of the window at the imposing cathedral across the road. The only worry I had was the massive throng of people that wandered around the outside.

I don't think I'll ever forget approaching the Sagrada Familia, walking purposefully across the road to join the queue of people waiting to get in, craning my neck to look upwards at the most impressive cathedral facade I've ever laid eyes on. During the trip, I'd become quite enamored with Gaudi's works, with his unique aesthetic vision and the ergonomics that blended seamlessly with it. The other works of his that we'd visited are unique and beautiful in their own way, but the Sagrada Familia is grand in a manner that defied my own expectations of catholic architecture.

In short, I feel like Gaudi has made no compromises in his design and construction. The building itself is a masterpiece of modern architecture and engineering, with choices that seem utterly at odds with the stuffy, sometimes creepy or macabre nature of catholic adornment. While I've always felt that christian places of worship have a tendency to only celebrate the life of their venerated saints; Sagrada Familia seems to me like a celebration of the concept of life. This is despite some very traditional stories that are told through the sculptures that tell the story of "La Sagrada Familia" or "The Sacred Family".

The first thing that the guides tell you about the building is that it's been under construction for over 130 years, and it's still got a few years to go. Estimates place the completion at around 2026, with more towers and adornment to be added to the outside, further symbolising aspects of Jesus and his life. Despite its status as "work in progress", the building is stunning from the base of its heavy metal doors, adorned with leaves and insects, cast in bronze, to the tips of its 170m tall towers. This height is capped by Gaudi's belief that no work of man should exceed the works of God. I think I just internally rolled my eyes at that when I heard it.

Kara was as impressed as I while we took in the impressive sculptures and marveled at the worksmanship on display. The bronze doors were designed by Etsuro Sotoo, and were only added in the last year or so, but they fit so well into the building's aesthetic that they didn't seem out of place at all, despite the anachronistic nature of building a cathedral over 140 years. It wasn't until we stepped inside that Kara became truly enthralled. The audioguide directed us to consider the supporting columns, designed to look like trees in a forest, giving the impression of being amidst nature, and at one with God. It's not my thing, but moreso than any other place I've visited, this seems like a place worthy of pilgrimage.

We arrived at the Sagrada Familia just as the sun was beginning to dip, hanging low in the sky. This caused the most incredible cascade of multi-coloured light to fill the nave of the church, bathing the sandy coloured stone and everyone inside in a kaleidoscope of colours. Kara's pictures are impressive, but I don't know if anything can do it justice. The glass in the windows is sublime, with incredible clarity and definition that is largely due to its age, but the choice and variation of colour leads to the most amazing patterns that make the place seem truly magical. Kara and I just sat at one of the many benches lining the nave and stared up at the windows while the sun traced lazily downwards.

The rest of the tour is a bit of a blur, really. We saw a glimpse of the crypt underneath the main floor of the cathedral, and I personally enjoyed the modern angular designs of the sculptures on the opposite side of the building, but the light show had really been dazzling. I stood there and recalled it while Kara wandered around the gift shop, picking gifts for folks back home. My reverie was broken quite often by pushy tourists and my own inability to find a peaceful place to stand. Kara seemed upset that I didn't buy anything for myself on the trip, so I got myself a nice magnetic bookmark of one of the cool sculptures outside.

We departed Barcelona's city centre with night falling upon us. We got the train out to the airport and after a little bit of a scare and a couple of phone-calls to the hotel, we boarded the shuttle to our hotel for the night. After accidentally wandering into the gourmet restaurant, dressed like typical tourists, we fled to the "cafeteria" and had a somewhat disappointing dinner, tormented by some persistent flies. It was the most stark installation of a class system I'd seen outside of the UK and it added to the melancholy that we were flying out in the morning. Fortunately, we had a nice evening after pushing our two single beds together to watch "Silver Lining's Playbook" on my little tablet and eat snacks in bed.

We flew out early the next morning, so we wandered around the terminal for only a short while, spent the last of our euros on our travel card by buying an industrial sized box of Lindt and Kinder chocolate. It was a satisfying end to the trip, and although it was grey and cold when we touched back down in Edinburgh, the thought of going back to work or not being on holiday any more wasn't the thought weighing most heavily on my heart. I just wanted to spend another week with Kara, as although absence makes the heart grow fonder, I find that spending time with Kara only serves to reinforce how she is the one person I want to spend (almost) all of my time with.

Ross Alexander 11/26/16 Ross Alexander 11/26/16

Ross & Kara's Catalan Adventure - Day 6: Accidental Discoveries

We spend our first day in Girona relaxing, but also going on a long walk without even meaning to.

Tuesday 1st November, 2016 - Girona

Eesh! We have gotten so lazy since we got to Girona. It's been great, sat on the couch in our cozy little flat, playing 3DS and watching Brooklyn 9-9 before going out for tea. It does mean that I am now two days in arrears for the journal, but it's been nice to relax a bit.

The first day we had in Girona started with the usual morning ritual; Kara stayed in bed while I went out hunting for food. I followed the instructions that the local guy gave me the night before. After a bit of an extended outing where I overshot my target and found myself wandering in alleyways, I brought home more bread and chocolate croissants. I also had spent a long time attempting to track down a can on Heinz beans for Kara, fearing that a croissant wasn't going to cut it, but with no joy. I had a nice breakfast with my fresh cheeses and sausage along with the fresh bread I'd bought.

Breakfast of champions! (We split these, I should state for the record.)

Girona is full of quirky little places like this creperie with a van parked inside it.

Once we were ready to go out, it was past noon, so we ventured out into the old city part of Girona. Our first stop was at a church hall on the cobbled streets leading up to the cathedral that has been featured in Game of Thrones. Inside the hall was an exhibition of model soldiers, but the strangest thing was that alongside the brilliantly pained miniatures of Napoleon and Spanish soldiers, there were Star Wars dolls, models of Asterix & Obelix, as well as an entire Warhammer fantasy Skaven army. It was quite surreal to find them in a church hall. It turns out that this exhibition was our first glimpse at the festival that takes place in Girona at this time of year.

It was utterly bizarre to find this collection inside a 12th century church.

As we proceeded through the old town, we found ourselves at the start of the wall that enclosed the medieval town. Without meaning to, we'd set out on quite a long walk, surrounded by other tourists on a very warm afternoon. The view from the wall gave us some spectacular shots of the town and the surrounding area. Girona is way bigger than I thought it was!

Views of Girona from the wall are brilliant!

After a quick descent through the University area, we found some snacks for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out in the flat. While the food we've had in Barcelona was very good, our reluctance to try Tapas has hurt our options in Girona. We've been "playing it safe", sticking to Italian and western cuisine, and Girona has an understandably thin range of decent eateries that cater to our "child's menu" palates. We set out to go to "Marylin's Diner" and when we arrived, I was already getting the feeling that the food wasn't going to be great. It was basically a burger van where you go in and sit down, but at least we didn't have to pay too much.

The night picked up on the way home, as we walked back via and enormous fun fair that was set up for the festival. I had noticed a giant ferris wheel from the wall in the morning, but the trees had covered the rest of the amusements. The fair was set up along boulevards, with a police presence to deal with traffic. Besides the (often copyright infringing) rides, there were weird lottery or bingo stalls that had the tackiest crap for prizes. There were also shooting galleries, pizzarias and churro stands. To make up for a disappointing dinner, we shared a pizza and tried churros for the first time. They taste quite bland, but they have a nice and crispy texture. I think we'll stick to crepes.

As we chilled out in the flat that night, we heard bands nearby, saw drumming processions and just before bed, a horde of cyclists flew past, ringing their bells and singing. It looked like Girona wasn't such a quiet little place to visit after all.

Girona really was the turning point of the holiday, with Kara and I just deciding that we'd still see all the cool things we could in Girona, but the pace could slow, allowing us to relax and not do very much at all, relatively guilt-free. Of course, this meant sleeping in, watching Netflix & generally just lounging around, but on our first day, we really just wanted to "get a feel" for Girona.

It seemed that we were on the right side of the river, as we were close to the "old parts" of town, with the modern shops and things being across the river. Kara was still quite exhausted from the previous day, and I was at the mercy of my stomach, so I went out for quite a long time to explore the narrow, cobbled streets of the eastern side of the river Onyar. It was a nice sensation to be able to wander around, not looking to buy anything but breakfast (and maybe some Heinz beans) and just get to know the area. While Barcelona is a metropolis, the area we were living in was conveniently placed next to some little shopping marts, as well as little bespoke shops, owned by local artists etc. It was nice to walk along a high street that didn't make me think of the homogenised high streets I've seen so much of on my travels. Girona has personality in spades, and that made the act of just randomly wandering seem much more enjoyable. I know I would have spent longer walking around if it wasn't for the language barrier that stopped me looking in book shops, as Girona has some lovely ones!

I had read quite a few tourist guides that had recommended the city walls as a good thing to view while you visit Girona, and with me being a fan of nice walks and historic sites, it seemed like a no-brainer, but Kara was wearing footwear that wasn't cutting it, and by the time we realised we were on a long walk, as opposed to just a recce around the town, it was too late. It's probably just as well as we saw the wall when we did, as the weather was nice, and although it was quite busy with lots of people milling around, it was never that uncomfortable. The pictures above really speak for themselves in how beautiful and well maintained the wall is around the town. We got very close to parts of the cathedral, including the other side of a curious door half way up a wall, which we eventually got to see the other side of when we visited the cathedral itself a few days later.

The evening was a great experience, with us being quite ill-prepared for the festivities that Girona was putting on. We wandered over to the other side of the river to find food, and discovered that the market stalls extended way past the Placa dei Indepencia, with so much foot and road traffic present just outside the immediate centre of the city. We continued walking towards a loud and well-lit area to discover that there was an enormous fun-fair that had set up across a considerable patch of land. It was much the same sort of thing that you'd get at "the shows" in Scotland, with naff teacup rides, dodgems, haunted-houses & quite a large number of air-rifle and darts-based games.

Prizes at the fun-fair were suitably naff.

Despite a rubbish dinner, we enjoyed wandering around the fair. It actually made me think of American teen movies, where the guy and the girl eat at a diner and then go and do something free and cheap. I don't know if it's the weird hormones they pump into whatever animal I'd just had a burger made from, but I recall being profoundly satisfied with things, just wandering round a strange town with its traditions that I didn't know with the woman I love. When the time arose, Kara decided to try churros, and I decided to buy a pizza from what was presumably a band of travelling folk who set up a three-sided booth where you can see them roll out the dough and make the pizza in a wood-fired oven. It was quite a unique sight, so I decided to give it a go, having my second dinner and firmly underlining how much I was eating on this trip. Still, it didn't matter, as long as I was spending time like this with Kara, I was happy.

Ross Alexander 11/22/16 Ross Alexander 11/22/16

Ross & Kara's Catalan Adventure - Day 5: Home Away From Home

A frantic morning and afternoon in Barcelona gives way to a relaxing and peaceful evening in Girona.

Monday 31st October, 2016 - Girona

So I missed a day, but I was so tired last night that there was no way I would be able to stay awake and write. Yesterday was a bit of a mess, all-in-all, so it explains why I was so damn exhausted by the time I made the mistake of lying down on the bed last night.

My back pain woke me up at around 6:30am, and I could tell that my constant turning to relieve it was disturbing Kara's sleep, so I was fully awake in our apartment, with nowhere to comfortably sit and relax as I didn't want to disturb her any further.

With an early start and shower, I headed out into a grey Sunday morning in Barcelona, looking for a bit of breakfast. It was very quiet, and so I had to hunt for a short while before I could find a place that was open, so that I could buy some pastries. So far, I've started every day in Spain with a chocolate pastry, and I'm pretty happy with that. We've done so much walking that I don't feel bad about how well (un-healthily) we've eaten on this trip. While most people on holiday will spoil themselves by drinking beer or wine, I've been enjoying drinking proper Coca Cola without guilt. I'm sure the guilt will kick in once I get home, but for now, it's all good! Kara is still really enjoying the peach iced tea that seems to be popular in mainland Europe.

Because yesterday was our last morning in Barcelona, we took care to pre-pack as much as we could before we left to see the Barri Gotic's sights. Our suitcase and bags were good-to-go by the time we stepped out, and it's just as well this was the case.

On the Cathedral steps, a Catalan folk band.

As we wandered down "Laietana", we noticed that the police had blocked off the whole street. We knew that something important must have been going on, as the street had previously been super-busy. When we entered the plaza that holds the main entryway to the Cathedral, we noticed that a small crowd had gathered around a little band of musicians. They were playing what sounded like traditional Catalonian folk music. After a few minutes of watching them play, we followed the crowd into Barcelona's Cathedral.

Some lovely old fountains in the courtyard.

Just got to fight through the crowd to get in

Ever since visiting Rome in 2014, I've found most churches to be a bit of a let down. The only exception to that rule is the "Sagrada Familia" in Barcelona, but we're hoping to see the building properly on our last afternoon in Barcelona on Thursday. The Cathedral was just finishing mass as we entered, and as it was a Sunday, there seemed to be a large number of the faithful, but the horde of tourists easily outnumbered them. The courtyards around the building were especially lovely, with working water fountains and geese wandering about. One odd thing we spotted was that instead of "lighting" a candle, visitors put money into a machine that would turn on a light in a box of LED candles. While it's more energy efficient than real candles, I found it odd that an institution that relies so much on theatricality would do this.

After a short ramble around the courtyards, we went in search of "Manna Gelats", an ice-cream parlour in the old city that I'd read about for its great flavours and catering to allergy sufferers. We found it and Kara fell in love with their dairy-free chocolate sorbet. I had an ice-cream that tasted like a Kinder Bueno, as well as a scoop of a somewhat disappointing milk chocolate. I love milk chocolate, so I was quite surprised to find myself not enjoying it as much.

Our next stop was the museum of the history of Barcelona. This place was fantastic, with most of the museum being an audio-guide tour through walkways that overlook the remains of the old Roman colony of "Barcino", telling the story of the city's development and evolution from Roman to Visigothic culture and the introduction to Christianity. In traditional Kara style, she told me that her favourite part was a spot where excavators had found a pair of bodies. I was not surprised to hear this.

After our trip to the museum, we visited "Dunne's Irish Pub" so that Kara could get her "fix" of gravy and potatoes. Food service was a bit slow, so we had to sit through quite a lot of an English crowd shouting at the Premiership football on the TV. That showed Kara's devotion to gravy and mash! After lunch, we went to pick up some gifts for family back home. I had read about "Cageners" after hearing the guys on The Comedy Button talk about them. These extremely tacky and poorly made figures are a take on traditional Catalan nativity sculptures that depict a shepherd with his trousers down, taking a dump. The shop we went into had a wide range, from Donald Trump, Lionel Messi and Fernando Alonso to R2-D2, Mario and Darth Vader. We picked some out and I almost had a heart attack at the price. If you ever receive one, count yourself lucky, as they are super expensive for a joke gift.

Between our long wait for lunch and the grumpy guy in the Cagener shop taking ages to serve us, we were running late when we returned to the flat to grab our stuff. Kara's been suffering already after all the walking and daily trips up and down the stairs. I carried a bunch of stuff, as well as our large suitcase as we set out for the train to Girona; the town where we'd be spending our actual anniversary. Between our slight lateness, our slow pace and the labyrinth of "Catalunya" and "Sants" metro stations, we arrived at our platform gate bang-on when we were supposed to depart, only to find an enormous queue of people. I was disgustingly sweaty, having carried our luggage at a marching pace as soon as we got off the metro. As we stepped into the line, our train disappeared from the board, leaving us stressed, standing at the back of a long line of people who didn't speak fluent English, making it hard to listen in to see if they were having the same problem. Despite all the stress, when the guy took our tickets, he just waved us through, allowing us to board a train I'm fairly certain we weren't meant to be on! Despite someone else being sat in the seats that our ticket indicated, we found some seats and nervously glanced around, hoping we'd just get this one as a freebie. Girona was the next stop, so we knew we didn't have to hold on for too long, but I was anxious about being hit with some kind of fee or fine. Fortunately, we made it to Girona without any troubles; in fact I played Zelda OoT almost the entire journey!

After another luggage-laden march through Girona, we met "laura" in front of our apartment in a busy street, teeming with tourists. She led us up a mercifully small number of steps and opened the door to our home away from home for the next week.

What a lovely surprise we got! Arriving just before the sun went down, we found the flat warmly lit, clean and with a gift of a bottle of red wine waiting on us. The bed was soft, with extra pillows and a desk beside it. The place is so tastefully decorated that it feels so wonderfully cosy compared to the functional but bare setting we had in Barcelona. It really feels like the kind of place you want to just settle in and relax, which is the change of pace that we'd been looking for.

After a quick and refreshing shower, we headed into the part of Girona where there's a large number of restaurants; just across the river in the "Placa dei Indepencia". We had a pretty mediocre meal at a place called "Dolce Vita" which was a surprisingly large Italian restaurant. The food was reasonably priced, but not great. Kara's bolognese was mostly tomato, while I made the mistake of trying Roquefort cheese for the first time. The pungent cheese totally overpowered any other flavours, so it was hard to tell if my pizza was any good or not.

On our way home, we walked through a pop-up market, full of stalls selling cheese, meats, breads and jams. I bought a pepper-crusted sausage and some cheeses to enjoy for my breakfast. One cheese is a "Bufala" much like mozzarella, while the other is a goat's cheese. Both are really creamy and mild, but they're both very tasty and distinct.

It was dangerous to have a Creperie across the street. We behaved...mostly.

As we returned to our flat, we stopped off at the creperie across the street; "Crepdeque?" While we waited to be served, we spoke with a local about the local festival and where to get the best food. He recommended some places, one of which I visited this morning and was very pleased with his recommendation. Upon my return home, I ate my nutella and coconut crepe, before collapsing onto the bed, putting it beyond all doubt that I was going to sleep before I even considered opening my journal.

There was definitely no way I was going to stay awake for long after day 5. Between the early start, stressful journey to the train station and time spent hauling a suitcase around, I was so pleased to find that our accommodation was a: only up two flights of stairs and b: cosy and comfortable.

It's weird that we waited until our last day to visit Barcelona's Barri Gotic, but I guess that ties into what I've said about me stressing out about "not seeing enough" while we were there. The Gothic Quarter is full of old buildings, some are beautiful old churches and cathedrals with impressive facades and wonderful artwork inside, while many are simply old residential buildings with the ground floor given over to tacky tourist shops. I can only imagine that living in those buildings must be like to living in the flats at the top of the Royal Mile, with constant streams of noisy tourists coming and going through the day. While I was sad that we only had half a day to see this part of town, I feel like we made the right choice in the end, as we saw just how busy the streets get and how much of the area is just shops selling "hand-made" shawls, hemp bags. beads and earrings. While it wasn't quite as "copy-paste" as Milan was, I was happy to skip right past them to look at some old stuff!

The Museum of the City of Barcelona was more focused on the Roman history of the city than I'd expected it to be, but that was fine. It was very cool to wander around the largely underground complex, with the audioguide telling me about what each room was used for. The brickwork was surprisingly well maintained, and didn't look like it had been tampered with much. Speaking of audioguides, this was the first holiday I've taken where I've spent a lot of time (and a fair whack of cash when you add it all up) on the audioguides for places. Casa Batllo, La Pedrera & Sagrada Familia all use them, and I was happy to be educated as I walked around. As someone who always "reads the plaque", it suited me to just listen to someone tell me the history behind a certain area or object. It can throw off your pacing a little bit, though. I found myself moving faster than I was intending to, then cutting back to look at something again once the voice had stopped telling me about the room.

Once we left the museum, it really was a bit of a stressful afternoon. From a long and football-filled wait for (an admittedly satisfying) lunch to being fleeced by the grumpy Cagener selling guy and sweating like a pig to get to the train (just) on time, it was definitely one of the low moments of the trip. Fortunately, it didn't last long as we got onto the next train and after sitting in what I assumed were someone else's seats, we relaxed once the train set off for Girona. I took advantage of the time to play some Zelda, which Kara had become interested in on the trip. I think the combination of an N64 game (on my 3DS) and having some spare time with few distractions was the perfect set-up for Kara, so I happily let her play for a while.

The sound of our suitcase wheels rolling along cobbled streets and pavement was definitely one of the themes for the holiday, and while at first I was a bit embarrassed to be disturbing so many people with the noise, I was so glad that I didn't have to carry or drag it in the same way I had to in Italy. It was also bright blue and yellow, making it as conspicuous as hell, but it did help both of our AirBnB hosts find us, so I guess that's a positive! Once we'd met Laura and set up in the place, I was so relieved to discover that we had a comfortable place to stay that wasn't just somewhere to sleep and eat. With all its toys and doo-dads tastefully presented around the place, it felt like our home (which is absolutely full of toys and doo-dads. In the end, we did spend a lot of time just chilling out in Girona, which was exactly the change of pace that we needed.

The market in the Placa dei Indepencia was just our first experience of what Girona was going to show us during our time there. It felt like a farmers market, much like we have in Perth or Edinburgh, with local producers coming from nearby farms to sell their cheese, wine, cured meats etc. I spotted that some of them had some from France, which made sense as Girona is quite close to the border with France. I was already feeling guilty that our culinary experience in Spain was limited to "burgers and pizza" which was largely due to us not wanting to spend a bunch of cash on a meal we might not like, so it felt like buying local cheese, sausage and bread was a good way to dip a toe into the local cuisine. Even Kara said she'd try some of the Bufala cheese.

Judging from the line of tourists and locals outside Crepdeque?, it was a sure sign that we'd be visiting them for some after-dinner treats. The art of the crepe seems to be going strong in Girona, with many places offering sweet and savoury pancakes. Our flat had two creperies right outside it, and while I felt sorry for the other one, which was mostly empty, I felt pretty good when we tucked into our pudding. Flakes of coconut and nutella are a great combo!

In the next blog, my timing is a bit all over the place. Kara and I committed to vegging out, which included not keeping a journal as regularly as I did in Barcelona, so it's going to get a little bit all-over-the-place from here, but I will do my best to recap when it comes to it. Suffice to say that we love Girona and want to go back. Read the next blog to find out why!