Crazy Digest: 4 Days In Barcelona

Date of Travel: 22-25 Jan 2014

Day 3

"Oh no! My shoes!" It pays to wear waterproof/Goretex shoes in winter

Having seen lots of buildings around Barcelona, we started the day with something not in my original itinerary at all: To see the beach! Yes it's in the middle of winter and we must be crazy going there in our heavy jackets. After eating at our hotel room again, we took the train to Drassenes station and walked to the Christopher Columbus monument. This area is known as Barceloneta, which seems to be the older part of Barcelona. It was a beautiful, beautiful morning by the water, eventhough the water was cold!

Bicycles for hire, but it was not available for tourists

Hi Christopher Columbus!

Such a beautiful sky in the middle of winter

A circus was in town. Quite a big setup too.

That's the W hotel, which reminds me of the Burj Al-Arab

We saw the W hotel from afar, and decided to pay a visit to their loo. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh nice man. Too bad no photos haha. Just next to the W hotel, was the Desigual headquarters. A huge store for shopping again.

It was really cold u'know!

Next up, it was time for lunch. We wanted to try something truly Spanish in our eyes, and that would be a paella. Unfortunately, Barcelona is Catalan cuisine, not Spanish. So there were very few places offering authentic ones. Out of all of them, we picked Kaiku Restaurant which was by the sea. Here's the interesting part. You never ever interrupt a Spaniard during his lunch hour. When is lunch hour? Typically from 1pm - 4pm. Sometimes restaurants only open at 1:30pm. Then when is dinner? Typically from 8pm - 1am. Lunch hour is a very sacred event, you do not ask your employee to return earlier from lunch. We arrived at Kaiku Restaurant at 12:15pm, feeling really cold and tired. All the employees of Kaiku were having their lunch. We decided to sit just outside the restaurant and look like lost puppies, hoping to get inside, away from the cold winds. But no such luck. They didn't bat an eyelid, totally ignored us even when we wrote our names on their booking list. At exactly 1:00pm, someone came to let us in. Was it worth waiting in the freezing cold? Totally!!

The only menu we could look at before Kaiku Restaurant officially opened at 1:00pm

2 soups that looked funky, but superb @ €3.45 each

A fish dish to complement the Paella €14.72

€16.90 per person, this was meant for 2 = €33.80. Wish we had ordered more. Wahhhh yums!

With our tummies filled, it was time to walk again. Barcelona has 2 funiculars. We wanted to ride the cable car to the top of the mountain, and continue on to the funicular. But someone *ahem ahem* got really scared of heights when he saw how tall it was going to be. Luckily it was too expensive for our liking (€11/pax one way), and we detoured to the second funicular to Mt Monjuic instead. This funicular actually starts from the metro underground station, it took us quite awhile to locate it. The view was breathtaking!

Hunting for the funicular to Mt Monjuic, but none in sight. It was actually under the road

This is the station from the top of the mountain

Although there was a lights show on at 7pm at the Magic Fountain of Mount Monjuic, we were too tired to wait it out. Decided to go shopping instead at Catalunya area. We first visited fnac shopping centre, but it was a let-down. Nothing much there at all. Just next door was El Cortes Ingles, and that's where my knee totally gave way. I couldn't walk anymore at that point, and could only sit somewhere inside the mall waiting for them. Because of my knee, we had no choice but to pick the nearest restaurant to El Cortes Ingles, which turned out to be Hard Rock Cafe. Sorry guys for such a disappointing meal that night. My fault. After dinner, I even had to take a taxi back to the hotel, which would otherwise have been a 10-15 minute walk.

Supposedly Salmon

Beef & Chicken Fajitas for €18.95

Mayday songs were playing, inside Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona!

Oh, at our hotel room, WK surprised us with a gift - Iberico Ham! Ta-dah! Unfortunately, it was so darn salty, I was scared my hair would fall out on the spot.