So, we have departed the cruise and are safely back on dry land.
First things first - we needed to celebrate my birthday. We managed to find a tapas restaurant in Barcelona that was 'created' by the same chef that brought the world El Bulli. We had no idea what to order, and thankfully our waiter came to our rescue, asked us how hungry we were, and told us he would just 'bring things'. The first course was very reminiscent of El Bulli. They looked live olives, but both the texture and the flavour were something altogether different.
After this the food just kept on coming. We ended up with something like 17 different dishes. That included the best smoked salmon I have ever eaten...
The worlds cutest calamari hot dog...
Smoked fish...
And the worlds tastiest tomatoes (with a side of ham croquet)...
We ended up leaving with very full bellies and very light wallets a few hours later.
Saturday morning we were armed with reservations to check out some of the Gaudi sites we missed last weekend. We finally made it into the cathedral.
This church is nuts. So far they have been building it for 130 years. They estimate in modern terms they have spent about $1.1 billion dollars. One woman has spent the last 20 years doing nothing but the stained glass windows. If you ever aspired to be an evil genius or a cult leader I suspect Gaudi is someone to study. How he managed to convince so many people in Barcelona to actually invest such vast amounts of money into his crazy schemes is to be admired.
One idea of his that didn't quite get the same level of enthusiasm was Park Guell.
Whilst the centerpiece was built, it never quite became the housing estate he envisaged, with only the display home ever being completed. Of course the 'dragon' is what everyone comes to see.
For dinner that night we decided to hit up the Japanese/Brazilian fusion restaurant near the hotel. One of the best dishes we got we decided to call zombie sushi, because the salmon looks an awful lot like a brain...
On Sunday Riin was off to see something artsy (I mad a micro sleep somewhere around the word gallery) so I decided to hit up the aquarium and zoo.
Turns out the fish of the Mediterranean are very grey and brown. Hence the hoards of European tourists around the one teeny tiny coral reef tank. The place featured some awesome octopuses.
And you could jump on a moving walkway through a massive shark tank which had a lot of tiger sharks.
There were also some great exhibits of fish eggs (little fishy babies on a clothesline).
After the aquarium I went to hit up the zoo. The animals at the zoo seemed very bored with the tourists.
Those that did not look bored were sleeping.
Or hiding. I couldn't find any of the lions, tigers, cheetahs or Jaguars supposedly in the enclosures. It was almost the great Snow Leopard incident of 2000 all over again...
Despite it being Sunday one of the elephants was still able to get an appointment with a podiatrist.
If you grew tired of walking you could hire a car to drive around.
Among the animals the birds were the most interested in showing off.
There was even the incredibly rare Chilean flamingo....which only has 2 legs...
The turtles were the other end of the spectrum. I'd go as far as calling them exhibitionists. Had to laugh whilst one poor parent tried to explain what was going on in the enclosure.
I think I spied a candidate for parent of the year at the zoo. Toddler was screaming and crying and wanting Mum's ice cream. Mum didn't want to share, so they placated the kid by giving her Dad's beer. Stopped the tears at least.
I was a little worried about the welfare of some of the animals. Are bears supposed to form at the mouth? (Can't find an answer on Google...).
There were so many different coloured birds.
My new fav bird though is the vulture. I don't think I'd ever quite appreciated how big they were.
And I think I found the smartest statue in Europe. Finally, the solution to the bird poo problem.
Vienna tomorrow!
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