Barcelona (5) - Architectures

I made the decision to bring only one lens on the trip ie 24-105mm F4 and I regret it now! I past by so many beautiful buildings and only the ultra-wide angle can do justice to them. I thought I will not have the time for photography, having made up my mind that shopping will take the priority.
 

Here are some of the photos which did not make the mark. There is no way the 24-105mm lens can capture the whole building. Not even if I lie down flat on the ground. Just NO WAY. Some photos were taken with  DSLR while others were taken with the compact camera. (See! I did not even want to lug along the heavy and bulky DSLR).

This city is famous for architectures by Antoni Gaudi.

Barcelona (4) - Food

Our second (corporate) dinner at Barcelona. I missed the first one as we already bought tickets for OperaYFlamenco and we missed the third (last) dinner as it was our last night and we wanted to get some shopping done.

During this work trip, I had Spanish food for the first time and boy! "Salty" is an understatement. We wondered why the food were so salty; is it because Barcelona is geographically situated besides the sea?

The restaurants in Barcelona are only open at 9pm for dinners. By then we were starving. We only had some tiny sandwiches for lunch!

The starters - I lost track of the slices of bread I ate. They just kept serving it to us which is good as we were all so hungry.

They are famous for this seafood rice thing. This is also the most saltish food I have ever eaten. I could barely finish a third of it.

The second main course was the steak. I don't take beef so I asked the waiter to take it away. In fact, at the table where I seated, 6 of us do not take beef (2 colleagues from India, 1 from Thailand, 1 from Malaysia and myself - due to religion reasons and the colleague from Japan - I think he was just not in the mood for beef that night and the colleague from Turkey - she prefers vegetables.)

The desserts - Sweet!

By then I was feeling very full from all the bread that I have gobbled.

Enough to go around a few tables

Thanks to the Head Office for organising this dinner. We had the third floor all to ourselves. It is a great restaurant!

Some snapshots of the scenery

Barcelona (3) - Hotel Diagonal Zero

Hotel Diagonal Zero is located in the financial district, in front of the Centro de Convenciones Internacional (CCIB) convention centre. It is a ten minutes walk to El Maresme Forum metro station (yellow line). There is also a shopping mall just across the road. This is a very new hotel and part of it is still under construction.

I did not quite like the room decor. I mean, what's with the bright pink and yellow walls? And as usual, there is this transparent bathroom wall but it is well covered with a screen. And I was quite surprised to find a mircowave oven in the room but no kettle (duh).

Hotel Diagonal Zero

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Barcelona (2) - Hotel Silken Diagonal

As Hotel Zero was overbooked, some of us had to stay at Hotel Silken Diagonal on the first day.

My two cents worth

The decor is modern and the room is clean.

It has a great location, next to the Torres Agbar landmark 5 minutes walk from the Glories Metro Station (red line). There is also a shopping mall just opposite the hotel - they have Zara, H&M, Mango, Dunkin Donuts, Macdonalds..... and a huge Carrefour supermarket.

There is free WiFi and the speed is reasonable.

I noticed one common thing about hotels nowadays - the bathroom door and walls are transparent. Is that the trend now? I get to have a room all to myself as this is a business trip. However, I will not choose this hotel if I am going on a trip with my friends. One side of the transparent bathroom wall is covered with a screen that is translucent. And there is nothing to cover the transparent door and the other wall (refer pictures).

The only complaint that I have - the bathroom is not very well designed. There is no shower curtains and after each shower, it practically floods. I tried using the towels to dry it but it did not work. I loathe having to step onto the wet floor! 

Hotel Silken Diagonal

Barcelona (1) - Operayflamenco!

IMG_2393, originally uploaded by Technical Tango.

It was on a Sunday night. I was feeling slightly jet lag and tired due to the 6 hours time difference but I enjoyed the show very much. Kudos to my China colleague for getting the tickets. I will recommend this show to friends who are visiting Barcelona.

Hola! Estoy de vuelta!

means, "Hello! I am back"

I will be back to blog the photos.

The best part of the trip - I watched Mary and Max on my way to Barcelona! I had watched this show 1.5 years ago on one of the flights but I never got to finish it because the plane landed! I want to know the ending of this show! When I saw this show on the program, I was overjoyed! Luckily I watched the show because it was not screening on my return flight.

Mary and Max is a claymated, black comedy-drama film. It premiered on the opening night of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, won the Annecy Cristal in June 2009 and Best Animinated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in November 2009. It is a tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York. Spoiler : Refer link for story plot!

Busy bee is in town

June is a busy month!!
4 days of seminar in TOWN *shreks*
 If I can find some time, I will drop by my previous company at City Hall and give my ex colleagues a shock surprise. Hur Hur...
1 day of leave
5 days of work trip = 1.5 days of 'me' time + 2 days of meeting + 1.5 days of flight time.
Flight time is 14 hours (one way) and there is a time difference of 6 hours. Looks like I can do another movie marathon.

This week
There are my cousin's wedding dinner, lunch date with gf and dinner gathering with my old classmates. And I want to watch X-men this week!!!! Find me time please!

Travel plans
Barcelona in June

air ticket - issued

hotel - taken care of by HQ

I will have a day to do some sightseeing and shopping (if I am not too tired). I need to start planning my itinerary. The colleague from China will be arriving on Saturday night and she is getting the tickets for the opera on Sunday. Cool!!

Beijing in September

air ticket and hotel - taken care of by Fen. She has already bought the air tickets! Her brother has offered to help us plan our itinerary. Nice! *grins*

 

Bikinis in Barcelona

Source from Yahoo news

The Catalan capital has introduced regulations making it illegal to expose too much skin in public, as part of an attempt to clean up the city's image.

Under the new law, anyone caught wearing a bikini or swimming trunks in the streets of Barcelona faces fines of between €120 ($213) and €300 ($533). People caught nude will have to pay between €300 ($533) and €500 ($888).

The local police force will be allowed to give fines on the spot to those unwilling to cover up. Wearing beachwear is, however, still allowed on the beach itself, its promenade and nearby streets.

The new rules follow a campaign from local residents who disapprove of tourists baring flesh on the streets of the city.

The new measure follows another recent ban on the city's streets; it is now forbidden to drink from bottles or cans on the streets of the Catalan capital.

HUH? I can understand that bikinis are more suited for the beaches than for the streets. But why ban drinking from bottles/cans on the streets?