I tried not to make a very long post, but this is what I got :-| If you manage to read it all, I'll promise you a good picture O:-)
My complaint about the hotel:
Even though they said so in their webpage, THERE WAS NO INTERNET!!!
Me: Can we access the internet?
Employee: You'll need a computer...
Me: I have one on my back :-)
Employee: Then you can.
Me: What do I have to? Is it the plug between the beds?
Employee: No, you just unplug the telephone and connect there.
Me [not fully understanding what he had said]: Do I have to pay for it?
Employee: Well... that depends on the server you connect to...
And at this point... Of course I have Internet on the hotel bedroom... all I need is a modem! Duh! Following the same logic, I also have access to cable TV, radio and air condicioned working properly... I simply have to bring it all with me!!!!!
Argh...
Ok, now that I explained why I didn't blog all these days, here goes nothing :-)
The city:
Lots and lots of turists! In fact, I don't really believe there are any other Spanish living in Barcelona apart from the ones working in the shops and the restaurants.
There's less people in the streets than in São Paulo, but the floor is a little bit dirtier...
Food is much more expensive than in Portugal... as most things are. It's hard to have a meal by less then 10 euros. Down the Rambla (see below) we paid over 9 euros for an orange juice!!! Ok, it was almost a litre of it, but it really wasn't anything great :-)
Language:
If you think these guys speak the same Spanish all over the country, you're absolutely wrong :-)
Near the northern border of Portugal, they speak Galaic, which is Spanish with a mixture of Portuguese (actually, their writting is closer to Portuguese than to Spanish).
Near the border with France, they speak Catalan, which, IMHO, is Spanish with a mixture of French and also a little bit of Italian :-)
I already knew this, but I didn't think it would be so hard to express myself or even understand them, from times to times. It was very rare for me to fool anybody and be taken for a native speaker :-) (which isn't all that dificult near the Portuguese border) They kept confusing me for English, French or Italian :-)
We went down the Rambla, one of the most famous streets of Barcelona. There were guys playing music (and this even included a great pianist of whom I couldn't take a picture :-( ), cartooners, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of human statues, lots of animals to be sold and some other street artists :-) Really impressing :-) I didn't even took pictures of half of them :-) Not even a third!! :-)
Oh, if you want to take pictures to every single artist you see and don't want to give a coin to every single one of them, please take the pictures while they're distracted!! This guy practicaly gave us a binary 4 with his fingers O:-)
Other places to visit:
There's lots and lots to see in Barcelona. We went to the Sagrada FamÃÂlia and to the Wax Museum (and each of them would deserve it's own entry), but there's still a lot more :-)
The whole set of pictures here.
And here's the picture I promised :-)
I have not stayed in a Motel 6 for quite a while even though the prices are reasonable and reason is a simple one: false advertising.
They advertised "high speed internet" in every room. When I got into my room, I found a phone jack only so I asked. I basically got the same response you did and promptly checked out with a full refund of my money. I see now that they have changed the wording to call it "data ports" instead of "high speed internet". I guess some people do learn.
Re:Happens in the US too
cog on 2004-07-24T21:50:48
Yeah... it was really shameful... we chose that hotel precisely because it *had* internet access!
Unfortunately, we only decided to check on that on our last day there:-( (after realizing there was no access at the conference either!!! :-| )
