At the end of October we have finally moved to Barcelona,
having talked about it for years. This first month has
been taken up searching for an apartment and then furnishing
it. We didn't realise how much work furnishing an apartment
can be. The biggest problem is that when you buy IKEA
furniture, it is cheap but the pieces never seem to
fit together. Below I (Paul) am enjoying the view of
sunset on Barcelona beach and, on the right, the view
from our apartment, in the area of Sagrada Familia.
All
photos by Valeria Lo Iacono & Paul Symonds - 2006
In the first few weeks of living here, we ate out
quite a lot and in one Chinese restaurant we saw
the most unusual menu. Take a look at the English
translations from the photo I took of the menu.
If you have ever eaten "The chicken of delicious
food of iron plate", I'd love to know what
it tastes like.
In the pictures below, Valeria and myself finally
settled in our Barcelona apartment. After waiting
one week for the electricity to be turned on, we
finally moved into our new apartment. A big thank
you here as well to our friends Richard and Andrea
who put us up for the first three weeks.
In the centre
of Barcelona, near Las Ramblas, there is a beautiful
market (photos below) where they sell everything,
from fish to meat, dozens of different types of
mushrooms and perfectly stacked fruits and vegetables.
Valeria did not know
where to look and wanted to buy everything. She
IS in the photo below (right). Can you spot her?
Below,
Valeria with our friend Andrea, as they try and construct
an IKEA wardrobe. The IKEA experience really is something
we will not forget easily. The first time we went there
we had to buy a lot of things and were not aware of
how things worked in an IKEA store. Nobody had warned
us. You have to choose the furniture upstairs where
it is on display (taking note of the item numbers) and
then you have to go downstairs and look for everything
in the storeroom and collect it yourself. You have to
collect even the heaviest of items and push them around
on a trolley, if the trolley will still move under the
weight, which mine wouldn't. A guy who explained to
us how the system worked even said to Valeria, after
looking at our list of items: “Wow, it is going
to take you two hours to find all that stuff! Good luck!”
(Valeria mercifully translated this part to me only
later, when we got home). Building the IKEA furniture
when you get home is another story altogether. The other
photo below, shows the famous Sagrada Familia church,
which was built by Gaudi. It is literally 30 metres
from our apartment. They started building it in 1909
and it is still under construction; they reckon it will
take 30 more years before it is completed.
Last but
not least, Valeria’s favourite part of the market,
the fresh fish section.
If you are heading to Barcelona make sure to consider our friends at Barcelona wine tasting tours in Spain. Also our friends at Barcelona hotel travels in Sagrada Familia.
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