spain // barcelona // MACBA // museum love

La Pedrera Part 2 x Bar Pinotxo Bar at Barcelona Boqueria Market

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Breakfast at Bar Pinotxo

 

 The melt-in-your-mouth stewed veal is a MUST ORDER.

 Baby squid, my stomach loves you very much indeed. Paired with balsamic vinegar and chickpeas, the whole plate was wiped clean in seconds. We also had tea and coffee. Total damage was ard 28 euros. It was indeed not a cheap breakfast but I would love to have another plate of baby squid now. Omnomnoms.

La Pedrera Barcelona

First day was spent visiting the La Pedrera. The building was designed none other than the incredibly talented Gaudi. As the admission fees of Spanish attractions are rather pricey (16 euros for La Pedrera!!!), we only went into La Pedrera, forsaking Museo Batlo and the other Museo (can't remember the name and too lazy to google). 

We arrived at around 4, to find a long queue outside the building. To skip the queue, I suggest to go extra early or to go much later. 

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Some additional pics from Keukenhof Gardens

Keukenhof Garden at Holland, Lisse x Tulips diarrhea

We were initially very worried that we would arrive at a garden of dead tulips because it was already mid May. In Spain, most of the tulips were already withering up.  When we boarded the express bus, the bus driver told us that that day was the best day to go because the flowers were in full bloom due to a late winter. *fist pump*

I admit I am not exactly a flower person (will choose a museum anytime over a garden) but I really love my flowers pictures and hope my friends plus the few random ppl (maybe about.. three) chancing upon this virtual space will like it!

all the random stuff on the glorious trip

I just wanted to pen down all the random stuff / thoughts that happened off the top of my head. No reliance on photos to jolt memories but just depending on my good (okay maybe not that good. Signs of aging fml) old memory. So here it goes:-

- We were at Macs having breakfast while waiting for our domestic flight fro BCN to Madrid.  Beside us were 2 ang moh dudes (around 40s to 50s). One of them went to collect the food and we got a shock when he came back with the tray of food. He came back with 5 burgers, 2 large cokes and fries. At first I thought they had other friends that were coming to join them but no. We watched (while eating our sausage and egg mcmuffin which is one of my fav breakfast food at Macs) the men ate 5 burgers between them. One of them ate 3 and the other ate 2. AND, the scariest thing was, both of them had a Big Mac each. After they finished their burgers, I was still eating my mcmuffin. Maybe I was too engrossed in watching them eat from the corner of my eye that I was eating at the speed of a turtle. We concluded they must be very hungry *serious nod*


- We arrived at the Amsterdam accommodation (it was called a "hotel" which had no proper toilet. We only had a small shower room with the basin in the room. The toilet was at the ground floor) exhausted from our flight to Dusseldorf and then a train ride up to Amsterdam.  All was fine, check-in, and then we were given the keys. And then we were lugging our luggage to the room, (we didnt know we were at which floor, just being told a room number) thinking that it was probably on the ground floor or the most first floor.

We saw the stairs. And I was like how the fuck am I going to carry it up the stairs!!! It was so narrow that it could only accommodate one person. One small Asian person. And it was crazy steep. So I decided that either way I had to lug my luggage up because there was no lift.  I tried and when I went up the second step, I gave up. I remember very clearly telling the gf " I really can't get it up. It is not possible!!!!!" Well anyway, by some kind of miracle, we did manage to lug our luggage up TWO floors (while cussing like a truck driver in my mind, I could have cussed out loud as well but I can't remember but I am very certain all the cuss words I knew were put into good use).  The gf even commented that luckily the hotel didnt give us the third floor.

When we were leaving the hotel, we contemplated just throwing the luggage down and letting it tumble to the ground floor.

- We met a very nice Spanish lady at the Loewe store who could speak perfect Chinese with the Beijing accent. Thank god we didn't bitch anything in Chinese.

- Had super duper yummy food at De Kas at Amsterdam. Hopefully the food pics will be up soon! On a side note, I kind of suck at taking food now :(  no food picture so far met my standard of a good picture. HAI.

- I really really really love still life art. I could spent forever staring at them. 

- I am really really really sick of looking at religious art.  And I admit I don't know how to appreciate them. 

- Dali is truly a genius! Highly recommend everyone to go to the Dali Museum. I love the way he plays around with illusion.

- On the flight back to Singapore, there was an ang moh family sitting beside me.  The mother was sitting beside me and for the entire flight back, she was watching the movie from my screen. Like buay paiseh looking at my screen. And it was TWO movies. When i looked at her, she would look at me blankly before turning her head to look elsewhere. Like WTF?!?! Her screen was turned on to classical music channel and I can't understand why she can't watch off her own screen. At first I was really annoyed but I gave up after a while. Weirdo. And her kid was talking so loudly. Annoying mom, annoying kid.

- I got lost in Amsterdam central. I kept going round in circles although I swear I went different directions! I went pass the same cafe TWICE with a ton of ppl sitting outside. They must be thinking why is this crazy Asian walking by the same place twice. Oh and I went by the same clothing store THRICE. Until it was really close to the meeting time with the gf that I gave up and asked this bald man in a business suit where the heck is the Amsterdam central station. The gf asked why didn't I just use the freaking map. I did, but I just kept getting lost!!!!! Lesson of the day: MUST travel with someone that has excellent navigation skills and map reading skills

- Following from the above, I always get out of the store and start heading in the wrong direction. My sense of orientation is at the level of suck :(  And everytime the gf asks randomly which direction we should head and I will be like " i think it is in that direction" and the correct location is ALWAYS in the opposite direction. No wonder the gf started to ignore me whenever I try to be helpful and pitch in my 2 cents worth.

- My fingers and ears started swelling when we were about to reach the Rijkmuseum. I suspect it is the cold. Do ppl get allergic reaction from being too cold?!!?!? Luckily I didn't balloon into a frog as I was using every ounce of willpower to suppress the swelling. My willpower is awesome. *pats willpower on the back*

- I saw the cutest spanish guy at the Stradivarious store. *swoooon*

- LV store service sucks. Just cause I look like a kid doesn't mean I don't have purchasing power okay! And if it was not to help someone to check a wallet, I wouldn't even bother stepping in. And the wallet in real life was real hideous. PUI!

- Didn't get to see my baby nephew :( But I had an awesome time with the sister! :)

- There was an ostrich named Fatimah at the Ostrich farm.

- Sis and I were laughing hysterically at this deranged looking Spongebob printed on an underwear with arms stretched wide open (waiting to embrace our ass?!?!) at Primark. And there was a sleeping top that had a picture of a cat wearing a cap that says "I love dogs". HAHAAHHAAHAHAHAH. WTF?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

-the end-

And it all comes down to

Today is day 16, thursday. From the moment my lungs were filled with Barcelona air, I stopped keeping track of dates. Everything was reset to Day 1. And when it hit Day 8 or was it 9, I stopped thinking about it because I know Day 19 means the end of everything. The gorgeous skies, the wonderful museums whr I could sink myself into the world of colors and brush strokes performed by geniuses, the mouthwatering food that induces mouthgasm and of course the array of shopping brands that will send any material girl into a credit card swiping frenzy.

Now im sitting in le sis apartment and hoping to see my baby nephew before i leave. If i dont, at least i get to spend my last few days in Europe w the sis. And then it is back to emails and work work work. And no bff for a month. Bleah. Gotta head out now to do some sightseeing. Tatas!