Travelling can be tiring. We arrived in Barcelona this morning with just over an hour of sleep under our belt. It wasn't long before I started to crave for a siesta.

First impression of Barcelona is that it is unlike that Woody Allen movie. It is also unlike Paris, where the streets are quaint and dotted with little patisseries for us to hop in and satisfy small cravings. We are staying just off Las Ramblas, where it is loud; full of tourists during the day and pickpockets at night. Basically just full of people, shops, buskers and pigeons. Stupid pigeons everywhere.

We were starving by the time we took to the streets of Barcelona. Given it was Sunday, most cafes off the main streets were closed. We had to make do with this place called QuQu (for some reason, €15 for all you can eat tapas elsewhere sounded too good to be true). This was definitely NOT the best place fo tapas - for €16, we got four tapas that were deep fried to oblivion, one pintxo and a very cranky waitress. B's satisfaction came when he cleared the tray of change that the cranky waitress had waited for as tips. 

Next we headed to the famed and most visited site in all of Spain - the Sagarda Familia, a basilica that Antoni Gaudi had started building in 1883 and still yet to be completed. There are cranes sitting alongside the basilica's lofty spires. Here and there, bits of coloured mosaic (which seems to be THE Gaudi thing) adorn the spires - 18 in all; 12 for the apostles, four for the Evangelists, the other two for the Virgin Mary and Jesus. We joked that if the basilica had been built in China, it would have not taken over 100 years. One year at most. Or six months in Dubai.