the city is a sorceress you know daniel... it gets under your skin and steals your soul without you knowing it...

i approached this barcelona trip in a very out of character, haphazard fashion. i had only booked one night accommodation, i hadn't prepared a little homemade euro/pound/dollar currency conversion sheet, i hadn't planned my route from the airport to the hostel door on my little map and i didn't even have a list of what to pack written down when i started packing at 10pm the night before my flight! here is a list of what i forgot to bring:

• sunglasses
• toothbrush/toothpaste/facewash
• adaptor for my phone charger
• addresses for postcards
• my common sense (lack of which led to me getting vomit drunk on sangria on my first night in a strange country. luckily i'd befriended some responsible types who walked me home)

but after the hangover wore off (and i'd impressed myself with my firm grasp of spanish when i had to ask for paracetamol in a pharmacy - yup, forgot that too..) i got exploring and totally fell in love with barcelona. what an excellent city. it is a perfect balance of old school charm, imposing gothicness and sleek modernity all with a wicked appreciation for the bizarre (i composed that sentence onto a napkin while sitting at a bar drinking vino tinto and eating olives. what a wanker! audrey, i wish you were there..)

old school charm:
imposing gothicness:
sleek modernity:
wicked appreciation for the bizarre:
i did have a thoroughly excellent 6 days though, i met some kindred spirits and followed my usual travel routine of sleeping late, eating lots, trying to fit in at least one 'cultural' activity a day and just wandering the streets. barcelona is an excellent city for just wandering, especially around the gothic quarter where the streets are so close together that only chinks of light filter in from between the high buildings and you can feel like you are in the middle of a medieval maze.

highlights include:

• reading for hours on a beautiful sunshiney day in gaudi's park güell benches (i think the man is a genius)
• watching the 'vigilante de seguridad' dramatically halt the metro and run the full length of the carriages to evict a fare evader (i thought it was something much more serious given the determined looks on the faces of the vigilantes but was with a spanish speaker who assured me it was only a tussle over the fare)
• the hot chocolates. all of them. and there were many.
• feeling like a super-traveller woman because i wasn't robbed at some point like at least 40% of the people staying at my hostel.
• the miro museum. i didn't know much about him at all before but i'm impressed!
• being mistaken for a native speaker in a restaurant until i forgot my jacket and the waiter had to run after me and i stared at him blankly as he talked at me and then realised i had been bluffing the entire time (my rule of thumb was to keep saying 'yes' in restaurants and bars, the more food/drink that arrives on the table the better!)
• dipping my feet into the mediterranean for the first time..
  
• lining up for an hour to eat this: it is an octopus terrine and it was DELICIOUS.

• stumbling out of an alleyway into the middle of an insane parade full of grotesquely costumed men. apparently it was something to do with a festival for children? whack.
• hanging out in the hundreds of impossibly cool bars that are everywhere and full of impossibly cool and good looking people... i liked the dark, art deco ones the best..

put it on your lists people!