Still in Barcelona

We catch the 'hop on, hop off' bus on our first day in Barcelona. The buildings are amazing and full of history...

We get a 2 day bus pass and on the second day head to the beach. It is wide, open and sunny; such a contrast to the small narrow streets of the Ramblas.

We stop for lunch at a place recommended by one of the tour guides on the bus. On seeing it I am in heaven. All tables full, all action. I ask if we can wait for a table, 'we wait'. The Maitre D, 'name?' 'Frank', I say (so much simpler than our surname) He writes down, 'Frain'. I say smiling, 'it's Frankkkk' He replies, 'Oh Frainnn' I nodd, giving up, 'Yeah Frain'. The wait is so worth it. As a seafood lover it is my best meal yet. As for the guys - pizza, pasta they're happy!

Sam and I head to the toilets and pass the real heart of the restaurant, open kitchen, an old man playing the acordian...it is like being on a movie set(which one I haven't figured out) Walking along the beach we spotted a sign for an Ice Bar. I say, 'I've always wanted to try one of those. It's like a nightclub, igloo place...'. Frank is not really impressed. We've had our first real sun in weeks, on the beach, and I am proposing an igloo. So after getting big jackets, gloves, etc on -we enter.

Frank says, 'It is minus 13 degrees! Our first sun in weeks and we pay 45 Euro to go in a cool room?' I shrug, 'it includes a drink...let's get out of here'. We can have our drink at the top so Rocco and I head out first and I ask if we can have our cokes there. Before she can respond I am hit with it - the wall of smoke; cigars, cigarettes, marajuana - the only things that aren't smoking are the plants. It is overwhelming. I see Frank coming out of the lift and say, 'go back, go back, don't come out, we have to go back in, frostbite is better than lung cancer'.

Go back in we do...our drinks don't get time to freeze, we leave the frostbite and the fumer and head back into the sun... We have now been in Barcelona nearly 2 weeks and have settled into a routine. Each morning I head out to a little cafe across the street and get two coffees (cafe con leche) and a baguette from the bakery to bring back to the apartment for breakfast. By this time it is usually after 10am. Everyone seems to sleep late here. The boys like watching Spanish cartoons, especially 'Shinchan', a Japanese cartoon dubbed in Spanish. Shinchan is a little boy and he is always messing up the house and getting in trouble. His mother gets really angry and grabs the boys ears and twists them till they go red and then bashes up his teddy bear, among other tortures. This mother has a serious anger management problem but is quite fun to watch. I'll be in the bathroom and the boys call out, 'Quick mum, she's got a frying pan'. After breakfast we go out exploring and then settle at a cafe to watch the boys play soccer in the playground.

Around 2 or 3pm we are ready for lunch and hunt for an interesting place we haven't been before. If I am lucky they have Sangria de Cava (you can get red wine Sangria almost everywhere but the one made with champagne is harder to find). If the boys are lucky they will have pizza or spaghetti bolognaise. After lunch we explore a bit more and head back to the apartment when we are tired. For dinner we either cook up something from the markets or go out.

Yesterday we had a bit of drama. Sam was sick during the night (he's much better now) and then we noticed a leak in our ceiling (having just moved to a different apartment). This leak was way more than a little trickle and the ceiling was all discoloured from the water and starting to crack. It looked like the upstairs apartment had let their bath overflow or something. Frank went upstairs and the apartment above us is being renovated; the maintenance guy had left a tap on. Turning off the tap didn't make a difference - the ceiling cracked in several places. So we have moved back to the previous apartment. We have loved our time here but it is time to move. The boys start school soon so we will start heading home, via a couple of places in Italy.