Dear All

It has been a while since my last post so here's another long one to catch you all up on my adventures.

My first day in Barcelona was last Friday and I didn't do too much since I was pretty tired from the overnight train. I went for a walk at dinner time down to La Barceloneta, which is the beachy area of the city, and had dinner of Fajitas and Mojito in an open area cafe on the beach, which was very pleasant. I intended on having a nice early night but started talking to some of the people at the hostel and suddenly discovered that it was 1am.

Saturday was a hectic day. I went to see La Sagrada Familia, which is a huuuuge, cathedral designed by Gaudi. Contruction started in 1880 and continues today. It is expected to be completed in 2020. The place is pretty amazing in design and decoration. There's also a lift to the top where there was an amazing view of the city. Because it was a Saturday, there was a pretty big queue for the lift but it was worth it. I then, completed my Gaudi tour of Barcelona by going to the Gaudi House, another of Gaudi's designs and now a museum where you can learn about Gaudi and his projects. Interesting stuff. However, there was also another line, so more time spent standing around. Saturday evening I went to a football match which was fun. The first goal (in the 5th minute) was very exciting. As was the second goal (in the 13th minute). Then it became fairly obvious that it was going to be a one sided match so it got less exciting, but it was fun nonetheless.

I lied - there was more Gaudi on Sunday. I went to visit Park Guell, in the north of Barcelona, which was a housing development designed by Gaudi. Noone wanted to actually live there (except Gaudi himself) so they turned it into a public park. It's on top of a massive hill so there are also very nice views of the city from up the top. I then went in search of paella (because how can you come to Barcelona and not have paella?) which is readily available pretty cheaply back at La Barceloneta. I have a tuna fillet and vegetable paella which was awesomely good. I was a bit disappointed though as while I was eating my paella, the history museum closed so I missed out on seeing that. But the paella was good. So I spent the remainder of the day walking around Las Ramblas, the main shopping strip.

The weather in Barcelona was beautiful, about 29 and sunny every day I was there. This pleased me greatly since I've had crappy weather everywhere I go!

I caught the train to Madrid on Monday and pretty much slept the way there. My hostel in Barcelona used to be a palace so it had a stained glass roof and was all round very pretty. Shame the rooms were tiny! I wasn't feeling very well on Monday night so I had a vending machine dinner from the hostel. Fantastic.

Tuesday was my only full day in Madrid so I had planned to do the free walking tour and, of course, it rained and was cold. And was ridiculously windy! Umbrellas going inside-out all over the place. I, fortunently, had the giggles so found all of this very amusing. By about an hour into the tour, there was only 4 people left so we opted to fast forward to the lunch place and listened to the rest of the tour from the comfort of a cafe. They had really good food, they made little sandwiches in the same buns that we used at my 21st for the hot dogs. Cheap too. All the walking tours know good places to eat. So it wasn't exactly a conventional tour but it was fun and better than being freezing and wet doing the actual tour. I also splashed out and bought a big warm coat in Madrid for 30Euro, which I figured was a bargain even in Australian dollars. Plus I am very grateful for it now that I'm back in London.

I slept in Madrid airport on Tuesday night which I do NOT recommend. I woke up at 3am to find a woman STARING at me. I stared back until I got freaked out and that was pretty much the end of sleep for the night. Madrid security is also insane. I (and everyone else) got patted down going through normal security and then you have to wait in another security line so that someone can check you passport! And once you get on the other side of security ALL THE SHOPS WERE CLOSED. So I had to have a Kit Kat for breakfast. Great.

Anyway, made it back to London in one piece and have been doing not much since then. Got some laundry down which is excellent. I caught up with Diana who I went to high school with on Thursday night and had a Hallowe'en party to go to last night (Friday). I also have dinner with Tim, Di, Jerome and Ally tonight so London is quite the social spot for me.

Hope all is well. Love, hugs, etc.