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Road Trip to Barcelona
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Road Trip to Barcelona

Blog

I met "Willo" at Carcassone airport and we set off on our mighty journey. I had forgotten what a complete boy racer Billy boy is. The sun has clearly gone to his head as he leaves old grannys and bemused French onion sellers covered in dust as he blitzes through one French village after another.

He proudly boasts that their don't seem to be many MX5s in France and as a result people tend to stop and stare as he drives past. This can be particularly hazardous for the locals when with bewildered awe, their mouths are filled with finest French ordures de route as "Will Spin" swerves to avoid a tractor or a group of old men playing boules.

I'm a very good driver actually...

Isn't that what Dustin Hoffman always says in Rain Man?

Anyway, we hit the bright lights of Andorra la Vella (capital "city" of Andorra) in the early evening. Not too much to say about the place really except that its duty-free and therefore the perfect place to stop off for booze, fags and petrol.

The next day we hit Barcelona at about 3pm and it is stinking hot. The map of the city is like a mirror as I struggle to work out where we are or where we should go.

After a false start we find the excellent Hotel Acropolis which is owned by an interesting Japanese chappie.

Yes what a nice man. He gave us free beer. It was also a really cool hotel and very reasonably priced.

We hit town and Willo saw an "unbeatable" food offer and the word "vegetales" - a combination he finds hard to resist.

Important tip to any vegetarians going to Spain - "vegetales" is not Spanish for vegetarian. It's some funny leathery meat. The Spanish also think vegetarians eat fish.

After Willo picked the tuna out of his cheese sandwich we caught the metro down to Placa Catalunya and we then walked down La Rambla to the marina.

We then went to the Nou Camp to watch FC Barcelona take of Boca Juniors of Argentina in a pre-season friendly. We got back to the hotel at around 1.30am after the game.

The next day we thought it best to do the tourist thing and so headed straight for Sagrada Familia. After this, we walked up the hill to have a siesta in Park Guell. After some debate we eventually did the open top tourist bus as we were limited for time and wanted to see as much as possible.

Park Guell is not a nice as Retiro park in Madrid. It's quite dusty with very little grass. It's also right on top of a massive hill so we were pretty dead when we got there.

In the evening we went out for a meal at the only vegan restaurant in Barcelona, Juicy Jones. A very helpful waitress suggested a bar to check out afterwards.

We then went to Moog, a great club with 80s cheese upstairs and Techno and electro on the ground floor.

The DJ at Moog was one of the best I have ever seen - and I know
a bit about this kind of thing. He looked like Lenny from Motorhead but was using a laptop running Final Scratch software. He played a five hour set which was relentless!

The next day we set off out of Barcelona to Girona a nice little town further up the coast towards the French border.

We procured room 101 at a local pension and set off. Girona is a beautiful town. We were caught in the worst hale storm I have ever seen with hale stones like golf balls!

The next day we set off for Carcassone where it all began. Due to
a slight miss misshap I spent the night in the medieval city.

Didn't you get the time of your flight wrong?

Oh, I see now you have an opinion do you? Well thanks for that one pal. What was I bleating on about? Oh yes Carcassone! I stayed in a youth hostel for the night and caught the early flight home.

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This concludes the story. I hope Willo didn't bore you too much. If anyone requires me to clarify any issues or more information than contact me in the usual fashion.