Day 2 : Nov 10, 2009

The next morning, we started our day with complimentary breakfast at the hostel lounge. Nothing fancy, just cereal, bread with jams/ nutella, coffee/tea/milk/juices. We had it at the terrace, wearing only a thin cotton shirt with jeans. But boy was it cold and windy, even though the sun was shining in our faces. It has a nice clear view of the Torre Agbar on our right. And again, I thought I would come back to snap the picturesque view we enjoyed while having our breakfast, but I did not.

After clearing our table ourselves, our first itinerary was to go marketing in the famous Mercato La Boqueria.

Above: Various types of mushrooms with seasoning! So tempted to try to cook it. If we weren't leaving the next morning, I would have bought as we have cooking facilities in our hostel.

Above: Look at how nice they line the bottom with leaves. If it were M'sian Chinese, they'll probably sell the leaves as well!

We kept out breakfast in the hostel light, as we had planned to have our second breakfast at El Quim (in the center of the market). There are many other food stalls in the market other than this at the end of the market. So have a walk until the end, passing the meat section, before deciding which you would like to try.

Above: The Zucchini omelette looked like any other omelette, but it sure didn't taste like one. I can't put into words, as to why I thought I was very good. You'd have to try it to know what I mean.

The street outside the market, is Las Ramblas. A busy street with souvenir stalls, street acts, restaurants, tapas bar, etc. But beware of pickpockets. Or so we read from reviews.

Next destination was Catheral de la Barceona and Pla de la Seu. A wide open space outside the church, with restaurants and shops, where we enjoyed our 3EUR pomegranate from the Mercato.

Above: Enjoying all the antioxidants with a view.

Above: Bought this pair of Sketchers in London for only 17GBP, the day before starting our Eurotrip. Nice eh? Even the pigeon is admiring them.

In the evening, we went to the beach, getting off at Ciutadella-Vila Olimpica metro station. The area called, Port Olimpica was an entertainment zone built for the 1992 Olympic.

We had a burger from a local fast food chain (I can’t remember the name) at the docks. The burger has chicken patty along with fries. Bad combo. It wasn’t good. To be honest, we bought the burger because we wanted to use the toilet! But, we were told they were cleaning it, so we waited and had our burger. Half an hour passed, they insisted that they were still cleaning. Some golden plated toilet bowl, I presumed. We left without using the facility. As it turned out, we actually didn’t have to buy something to use the toilet (M’sian style) because we saw a lady just walked in, and then walked out when she found the “Cleaning in progress” board outside the toilet. Lesson learned and practiced- a coffee/ pastry shop near the beach.

For dinner, we went back to Jaume 1 metro station, and to what we thought was a Spanish restaurant. But it turned out, it was run by Pakistanis! Maybe the owner was Spanish, but there was no sign of him/her. But the food was acceptable.

Above: Fideoa (Spanish noodles- comparable to that of paella. Only with noodles, instead of rice)

Tapas that we tried- bread with tomato, deep fried potato.

Drinks: Sangri.

After dinner it was already dark. So we walked to some of the nearby places we went earlier to have a look at the night view. On the way, we saw a pet shop. And naturally, we went in. They have our favourite breed there! Not an easy find back home. It’s none other than, Bull terrier. The puppy was white with a black patch near the right eye. So adorable!

Above: A chess set that we found on display near the pet shop. White sheeps and Black sheeps!

We called it a day after the walk and head back. Back in the hostel, we did our laundry and packed our things for early check out the next day.