Micky Walker

巴塞隆納(Barcelona)---高第之都(The City of Gaudi)

Tuesday, Jan 28, 2003 
這趟的巴塞隆納之旅起因於作業拼到麻木不仁，決定自行放短假，好好充電一下。前置作業幾乎是秋萍一手包辦: 訂機位 (easyjet￡31.5 含稅)，買旅遊險 (￡6)，找出最經濟方便到Luton機場的交通工具---Green Line coach (￡8)。有多方便呢？學校街角轉個彎就有個站牌了。最後就是與巴塞隆納相關旅遊資料及西班牙語基本會話。我的工作就是配合秋萍，她尋找Youth Hostel，我則同時尋找Hostel的位置，選出最後三間，兩人進行投票表決，最後選擇一間 Ideal Youth Hostel，有多ideal呢? 有兩人房，有私人衛浴設備，有陽台，含早餐，可免費上網，位於舊城主街上，到港口或廣場只要幾分鐘，一人一晚只要20歐元。我稍微估計一下預算，帶了100歐元就上路了。(全部費用總計￡145，145×55＝ NT$ 7, 975。最後秋萍還剩20歐元未用完，我買了一個盆栽加上買電話卡就所剩無幾了)

由於買的是最便宜的機票，最早班機7:20am ，6:50am前需抵達機場，於是搭5:39am的coach約一小時左右抵達機場。在等車時，遇到一位馬來西亞人，他也是搭easyjet的，他告訴我們我們回來的當天倫敦會下大雪，當時我們一點也不信，因為倫敦的天氣既溫暖又是晴天。到了機場check in之後，沒想到飛機無故delay兩小時，好不容易飛了兩個多小時到達巴塞隆納機場，搭火車到市區轉搭地鐵 (當然這也是秋萍的功勞)，找到hostel，”爬到”我們住的地方已是當地兩點以後的事了! 我們住的地方是某棟在La Rambla 上的公寓的頂樓加蓋，隔成三小間，”陽台”真的很大，頂樓嘛!（房間可自行看照片），上下舖加一個沒門的浴廁。

早餐9:30才供應，一小杯咖啡，一塊小蛋糕，加一小杯柳橙汁，有兩台電腦但只有一台可上網，還得排隊等著用。第一天到巴塞隆納，天氣非常好，先到港口拍照，隨處轉轉，在走過catwalk到mall裡用”午餐” (聽說西班牙人9點用早餐，15點午餐，23點晚餐)，接著在大道上隨便逛逛，一路上有賣花的，賣鳥的，賣書報雜誌的各式攤位，照張像還有老頭主動與我們合照，眞…熱情！說實在，一路人都被行注目禮，這裡好像很少見東方人，他們都挺好奇的!
接著再到Plaza Catalunya (加泰隆尼亞廣場)買Tourist Bus 的兩日票（19歐元），因為觀光路線分南北藍紅兩線，我們決定明天走藍線後天走紅線。在走回hostel途中，順道去了一趟 Boqueria <Market，市場內的蔬菜水果陳列的很美，買了一公斤的草莓才一歐元，真是令人喜出望外！吃過草莓就先去小睡一下，（前晚在倫敦1點睡5點就要起床真不是人過的生活！） 

20:30起床後鼓起勇氣到外頭去轉轉，因為晚上…很冷! 一直晃到22:30，終於耐不住飢餓準備實行Jack教授的指定作業一：在 La Rambla 大道上用晚餐。請看相片，這是典型的西班牙餐，米飯加海鮮或雞肉。點完餐之後，我還可以跑回對面衝上六樓拿相機和秋萍的攝影機，回座後尚未上菜，效率之好可見一般!

                                         Barcelona---The City of Gaudi 
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2003 
We were too tired of doing assignments, so Gloria and I decided to have a couple days off to relax. We chose Barcelona not only because the tickets were so cheap but also the weather there was so fine. Thank Gloria for doing most of the jobs. She booked the tickets (return tickets plus taxes £31.5 per person), bought the travel insurance (£6 per person) and found the most convenient and cheapest way to Luton Airport, Green Line coach (£8 per person) on the internet. How convenient it was-just around the corner of our hall was a bus stop), and finally the travelling information about Barcelona and the basic Spanish conversation. My job was to look for the hostels and find out where there were. We chose the last three hostels and then made the final decision---Ideal Youth Hostel. How "ideal” is the hostel? Twin beds, private toilets, balcony, B&B, and free access to internet, it just cost Euro 20 per person per night. Our spending money was 100 Euro and then we set off. (the sum was ￡145 ) Due to the cheapest tickets, what we booked were the earliest flight and the last one. The flight was 7:20am and we had to take the coach at 5:39 am, which would take us one hour to the airport. We met a guy from Malaysia, who also took easyjet. He told us there would be heavy snow on the day we went back. We didn't believe him because it was warm and sunny in London.   When we got to the airport and learned that the flight delayed without reasons after we checked in. It took us more than two hours to Barcelona. We took the train and then the metro, which also owed to Gloria. When we finally checked in the hostel and "climbed up" to our commendation, it was 2:00pm. Our accommodation was built on the "top" of one of the apartments on La Rambla.  There were three small rooms, "twin beds", private toilets without doors in each room and there was a "broad" balcony. As for the breakfast, a small cup of coffee, a small piece of cake and a small glass of orange juice. That's it. There were two computers in the "lobby" but just only one of them worked. You had to take turns using it. 
 
It was the first day in Barcelona and the weather was really good, warm and sunny. We walked to the port taking pictures and having our late lunch. (It is said that the Spanish have their breakfast at 9 , lunch at 3, dinner at 11！！！ Unbelievable！)  Later on, we took a walk along La Rambla, which is an ample avenue with kiosks selling newspaper, flowers, and domestic animals. The Spanish are quite zealous-- even though we were taking pictures, an old guy automatically came up standing between us and asking taking pictures with us two. We kept walking along La Rambla toward Plaza Catalunya where we bought our two-day tourist bus tickets. Owing to the two routes Blue (south) and Red (north) covering all of the sightseeing spots, we decided to take the Blue route tomorrow and then the Red route the day following.

On our way back to the hostel, we went to Boqueria Market. The fruit there was attractive, cheap, and tidy. Guess what? 1 kilo strawberries cost 1 Euro only! 

After having the strawberries as our light dinner, we took a rest because we didn’t have enough sleep in London We went to bed at 1 am and getting up at 5am. When we woke up at 8:30pm, it was chilly cold outside. We dared not to have dinner until 10:30pm because Professor Jack Lonergan told us the Spanish have late dinner around 11pm. Assignment（1）appointed by Jack: having dinner in the Rambla- done. The dinner was typical Spanish food: rice with seafood or chicken (seeing pictures). Because the restaurant was right opposite our hostel, I could even across the street, climb up to the sixth floor, grab my camera and Gloria’s digital video out and then rush back. Just imagine how quick I was- when I got back to the restaurant, the dinner was not ready yet.