Spain and ...

all the sickness!. In the month of June it was decided that we have my in-laws's 60th celebrations aka sashtiyapthapoorthi in September and not in 2012. Any trip to india is almost always combined with numerous other social/ religious functions and a trip to the consulate. Having decided the 'activities' we started scrambling for the available 'leaves' and came up with close to 3 weeks of vacation. We also decided that this time we are taking a stop-over vacation on our way. The place of course was entirely dependent on the route , flying time & cost. So if it were eithad flying to istanbul or iberia to valencia, if the other two factors worked- that was our destination!. and so we landed in Madrid. oh we also managed to watch ZNMD a few weeks before we left and we were quite happy with our choice rather priceline's choice. The plan was to spend a week in Spain & Portugal get ourselves soaked in everything Gothic and eat tapas.

But...lady luck had a different plan. We had an early morning departure to NY from Austin and the previous night i was literally on the floor clutching my stomach and howling. Till today it remains a mystery - i was fine till the evening & then something happened. I threw up a few times and went to sleep. basically i was giving my husband the fright of his life and we still hadn't packed. He managed to throw a bunch of stuff after my weak instructions and we left to the airport. I knew all the clothes & stuff i intended to carry were definitely not there in those suitcases. Starting from barely making it to the gate to the earthquake in NY everything then on was a hassle. I was still sick and by the time we managed to reach Madrid ,take the train to barcelona (must add :with my level 1 Spanish skills) and check in to our hotel we were in a mess. Enough of misery - now to Barcelona.

Lovely lovely city. There is so much you can do even if you have a few hrs to spare. The first thing that attracted me was you don't *really* need to know espanol. Most of the signboards, trains,buses,menus are in English. if you carry a pocket book it is more than sufficient to converse with shopkeepers and cab drivers. Secondly, I personally love cities that have a good public transportation system. I enjoy reading the subway maps and taking the metro rail everywhere.In Barcelona,all the tourist spots have a metro station outside. Plus, you have the Bus turistica -which is your hop on - hop off ducky tour. You can get upto a week's pass and I would say that is the best way to see the city.

The above pic is the La Sagrada Familia - (kind of the Taj for us).it's one of Antonio Gaudi's famous church still under construction. So Antonio Gaudi is this famous architect guy Spaniards worship.Most of his works are what Barcelona boasts of. One such treat to the eye is Park Guell. If you have go to Barcelona you have to see this massive church.its checklist no 1. very Gothic and again - massive.

The next highlight is Camp Nou aka the Barcelona football stadium. The most amazing 3hrs of my life. I have no words to describe the museum, the jerseys and cups, the history and finally the field itself. what a turf!So they have these audios recorded on a typical match day and when you sit in the stadium they play the audio to give you a feel of the atmosphere . Goosebumps!!

In the meanwhile, i was still sick trying to gather all my strength by eating biscuits and drinking juice. Had to drag myself everywhere and as things got worse my husband decided to cancel Portugal and haul our asses back to Chennai. We decided to spend the rest of the trip in Spain and covered Montjuic and Madrid.

Barcelona has some pretty beaches and a very scenic coastal side. (Costa Brava). Costa Brava is like a day trip and you might need to rent a car although there are trains and buses with minimal service. Montjuic is this mini Ooty kind of hill and there is a cable car that gives you a panaromic view of the city.

Honestly, i don't remember much of Madrid. I was on this bus tour the whole day - saw palaces and royal buildings and oh for the european feel we stayed in a cosy hostel!.

Anyhow, things were back to normal once I was home and now I really wish we had made it to Portugal also :-)

Tips:

1) Carry plenty of change for the metro rail and buses.

2) Have a pocket english-espanol book.

3) Barcelona is the pick pocketing capital of Europe. Yep, be very very wary of your phones,wallets,camera etc. Thankfully we didn't lose much but a cab driver snatched money from my hands and ran away while i was figuring out sienta y seis and counting with my fingers.

4) Do NOT miss the tapas!.

5) Spain is the land of perfumes and saffron. You get perfumes ,the original ones which ar eusually priced 20%lesser than it costs in the US. Saffron - a box of 50- 75gms is 1Euro!. Compare it to 10$ in the US or roughly 200- 250INR. Stock up on your fav scents and spice!.