16 April 2009, Barcelona, Milano, Budapest

In the morning I went for a walk in the city, without any particular purpose, just so. I bought about 1.5 kg chocolate, ate 4 grilled squids on the market, drunk some fruit juice, went back to the hostel, took then metro to Catalunya station, and from there I took the Aeropuerto bus to the airport. At the airport I checked in with the Lufthansa automatic checkin machine, which scanned my passport, understood my name, let me choose seat, and printed out two boarding passes. Inside I discovered that they owe me 17.5 euros of tax return. So I went back out, convinced the officials to stamp and sign on the form, took the money at the counter, and went back to the transit. Short connection in Milano, and back to Budapest now.

15 April 2009, Barcelona

After yesterday´s pub it was a complex decision to wake up at 9, but I managed it. At 10 I was already in the Guell Park, the most marvelous park I´ve ever toured. Gaudi´s house is also there, which was designed by himself. Pictures talk more than words.
I also visited today the Museum of Catalonian Art. The permanent and temporary exhibitions include Baroc, collections, Modern Art with some masterpieces of Picasso, and a photo exhibition from the period of the Spanish civil war.
For lunch I went back to the market, where the best food is. I ate seafood, of course; I hardly touch meat, because the seafood is so good and so fresh that it somehow always wins.
In the afternoon hours I visited the Casa Batllo. This building is one of Gaudi´s masterpieces, a legend of art. The guided tour, which costs a fortune (16.50 Euro!), took me over a discovery tour inside the brain of one of the genius architects of all times. See pictures!

14 April 2009, Barcelona

I began my day with the huge church of Sagrada Famila. This impressive architectural creature´s building began in 1884 by Gaudi, and is still far from its end. I was queuing up for about an hour, and then got up with the elevator to one of the towers of the temple. In the basement all the miniatures of the plans are exhibited. Those towers are by the way appx 170 meter high.
Then unfortunately I found the main street of shopping. That terrible mistake cost me a fortune. But money was spent for the best things, believe me! I explained myself that anyway I´d have to buy something for the summer... So I did it here.
In the afternoon I expored the market of La Rambla. Colorful, tasty stuff. Ate some fruits, and some grilled squids.
In the evening I went to España square were I found amazing view on the city by sunset. Tomorrow I´ll have a busy day, it´s my last whole day here. Enjoy some pictures of today, another beautiful, sunny day in Barcelona.

tapas!

sagrada familia



one of Gaudi´s creatures

market!



my squid, just a moment after removing it from the grill

Plaza España

13 April, 2009, Barcelona

In the morning hours...oh...I was sleeping :-)

Around 11 I left the hostel and explored the Gothic quarter of the city. The amazingly narrow streets, lead me to very interesting places. The city was conqered many times during its history. This time by the German tourists. I visited the Placa Reial, the big Catedral - Casa de L´arcadia, and an ancient synagouge. Wonderful plazas are untouchable, and many of them are closed to veichles traffic. I made my way down to the seashore promedare, which is full of excellent fish and seafood restaurants. They are quite expensive. Finally I found a cheaper one. There I ate the best paella. A pan of rice with excellent souce with some fish and seafood baked in it. Real joy for the tounge. Beatuiful, sunny weather today :-). I saw the Arc de Triomf, the Ciutadella, and finally ended up in the Museum of Picasso. This museum is dedicated only to Picasso´s works who lived in Barcelona for some years.
A picture is hanging on the wall over my monitor in the internet cafe, the guy on it has four eyes. I think I´ll move to another computer... But this has nothing to do with Picasso.
Done. Much better.
Now heading for some tapas bar dinner.
Barcelona is great! Just the spellchecker doesn´t work here. I mean it does, for Spanish. 95% of the words in this post are disspelled! hehe. Picures:

La Rambla, next to the hostel



Kind of breakfast

Old city



Next to the seashore



port and restaurants

a typical starter

this is paella

sand-art

12 April, 2009, Madrid, Barcelona

In the morning I checked out from the hostel, and took the metro to Atocha station. I locked my backpack in an automatic locker and went to visit the nearby Museum of Reina Sofia. This museum is dedicated to modern art. They have a remarkable collection of Salvador Dali, and many other artists, most of are not in the understandable category. But that´s art. At 12:30 I took the fast renfe train from Atocha station and after about 3 hours I was in Barcelona Sants. This supersonic :-) train´s speed was always between 280 and 310 km/h. On the way I saw small villages passing by in the constantly changing landscape occasionally interrupted by beautiful castles, and also by footprints of evil industries. In Barcelona I walked down on the La Rambla street to my hostel. My room is actually in an appartment on the 5th floor. There is an elevator in which I didn´t fit in with my backpack. Yeah, good food in spain :-) .
In the afternoon I saw the wax museum, and evening hours I went for a walk in the small streets of the old city, until I saw that a classical spanish guitar concert it about to begin in a nearby church. Without a second of hasitation I payed 15 euros for the ticket, which made the evening one of my best experiences in Spain. Manuel Gonzalez, the famous guitar player played pieces of various Spanish compositors. Fantasia Española, Siutes of Isaac Albeniz, Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Dreams from Alhambra) were just a few of them. That was *really* fantastic.
A nearby tapas bar put the final chord on the day with excellent drink and food, tempered by most meaningful discussions about the financial crisis with some British and American guests. After solving all problems of the World I went back to the hostel.

Inside Atocha Station, Madrid.



Renfe train at the Atocha station


I met some old friends in the Wax Museum of Barcelona


Rain in Barcelona

11 April, 2009, Madrid

Today in the morning hours I've visited the Museo Nacional del Prado. I saw the permanent exhibitions of this huge museum. Well, could not cover all of it, but I did see the most important masterpieces of Bosch, Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens and some of Rembrandt. Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. From the Prado I walked through the Praque del Retiro, a huge park with lakes, modern statues, and tons of squirrels in it. I saw the used-book sellers, I walked via Puerta de Alcala, Banco de Espana and Calle Gran Via. For lunch I entered one of the most famous and authentic tapas bars: the Malaspina. I ate some of those tasty tapas with cheese, meat, anchovies, and other toppings.
In the evening hours I walked all around the small streets of Calle Mayor, and Calle de Segovia. This area is located between the Palacio del Real and Plaza Mayor. Wonderful streets with excellent restaurants. I went back to Plaza del Mayor, one of the amazing places of Madrid. I entered two places tonight. Both of them were authentic pubs where I ate mussels and giant shrimps and drunk beer. Heared football game broadcasted by the radio, standed and sat with all the locals. I also discovered that when I speak French with pronouncing out all the vowels and consonants it simply becomes Spanish and they understand me. Hm. So I ordered in Spanish. Some pictures of today.
book sellers. cheap!

the park

modern art statues in the park

Banco de España

tapas at Malaspina

inside Malaspina

an avarage restaurant on Plaza del Mayor. Yami...

and another one...

10th April, Madrid

After the secretary from the Cameri theater rang me up at 8am asking if I want to make a permanent ticket, and I was unable to answer her question I wake up, and went out to the streets of Madrid. The first attempt to begin my day ended up with my almost immediate return to the hostel to take my umbrella. The second attempt took some more time, after about 10 minutes I returned to take my sweater. The third one was most successfull. I went all the way up from Puerto del Sol and made my way to the direction of the Palacio Real de Madrid. This is the The Royal Palace of Madrid . Queuing 1 hour was worth it, dozens of rooms of the royal family are open to the public. They are richly decorated by many artists such as Goya and Gasparini. I liked very much the room for Sunday breakfasts of Carlos III., the Gala evening room with a huge table with many chairs, the outstanding collection of armour in the Royal Armoury displaying arms and armour that belonged to kings of Spain and other members of the Royal Family, from the 13th century onwards. Then I went to eat something. One of the strange habbits of the spanish is that they eat while standing. Everybody drinks beer, and eat tapas, jamón. Museo Del Jamón is a chain of restaurants. Amazingly crowded, extremely tasty. This is the real taste of the city. Eat what they eat, drink what they drink. So did I. Afternoon I went to the Atocha station and purchased my ticket to Barcelona for the 12th. Went back to the hostel touching wonderful places. All buildings are in excellent condition. In the evening I went to see a flamenco show in a theater. That was fantastic. About 50 minutes of pure beat, music and amazing dance. 4 girls and 2 boys were dancing. 3 musiciants made the music: Guitar, violett, drums, and one singer. It was really fantastic. After the flamenco show I did my traditional restaurant-hunt. It turnes out that in the best restaurants they can have those stupid colorful crazy gambling machines at the entrance. But once you go inside you can get the best salmon fish on the planet Earth. I know people who evaluate a city by its restaurants. I also know others who evaluate restaurants by the salmon they prepare :-) . This chioce was the winner. Some pictures of today.

standing and eating

Her Majesty, Great Salmon The 1st. /aka The Tasty/ (21:50, 10th April, 2009 - 22:05, 10th April, 2009)

Museo Del Jamón

each and every street is marked beside its name with a relevant painting

Plaza de Mayor

Home, sweet home. Palacio Real de Madrid.

Ate some of these...

social workers trying to convince a homeless woman to come with them to a hostel