Friday 07th July 2006 11:30:00 PM DAY 4: Barcelona -> Madrid Having finally finished my French Bread (yes the same 2-footer for 3 consecutive breakfasts) I think it was time for me to pack up and kiss goodbye to this hostal. As the checkout time was 11:00, I decided to leave my huge rucksack at the reception early so that I could come back later to pick it up before I hit for the flight at 15:00. Well, well, well.... the receptionist said the baggage wouldn't be safe there and kindly rented me a full-size locker for 2 euros... how professional could their service be?! I have only got a couple of hours left in Barcelona before leaving for the airport. So I chose to place my bet on Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi, which LP (Lonely Planet) stated that it has the world's largest rose window. But half-an-hour later, I ended up in the old town (Barri Gotic) inside Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, whose rose windows were definitely not the world's largest. The rest of the final hours in Barcelona was spent in Museu Picasso (only for the toilet part) and in the fresh food market "Mercat de Sant Josep". 
Mercat de Sant Josep was near Las Ramblas and was a dry and wet food market selling stuff like dry jambon (ham hung on the top of the stall), fresh fruits, neatly laid out seafood, very sweet candied fruits etc. The fruit stores at the front made the market looked very colourful and I couldn't resist for a pack of "fresh" fruits myself for 1 euro. 
After this "exciting" detour of the day, I returned back to the hotel to pick up my stuff for the airport. This time I was "cleverer" and took the airport bus in Placa de Catalunya. Though more straight forward this time (you just couldn't get to the wrong airport in an airport shuttle!), the time taken for the journey was awefully long, and was equally crowded too! 
Vueling was a budget airline in Spain. The trip from Barcelona to Madrid was quite cheap compared to travelling by train (if you booked early enough) For my first booking, it only costed EUR 20 for the fare (EUR 36.58 inclusive) and you got the privileges to be served by the not-so-polite and not-so-pretty either flight attendants; or strip-searched by the airport security guards... All these you just wouldn't get to enjoy if you took the train or the national coach. The check-in was smooth once you got to the right queue. (Vicky warned me before of joining the wrong queue!) Like all other budget airlines, boarding was an outdoor activity and was done on foot and involved in climbing the stairs. I also observed that budget airlines had the tendency to have bright sharp colours for their uniforms.... after seeing bright sharp orange for the Easyjet before, this time the Vueling designers had came out with something more shocking: neon-yellow jacket borrowed straight from the road-cleaner/worker at night. (You know, they wore those in case the car drivers didn't see them)... I just hoped these were not designed to let pilots of other planes to know of our plane's presence.... 
Lunch was served with a donation. (At that time it was around 15:30) With a donation of EUR 4.50, you only got a COLD sandwidth and coke. Well, it was so delicious that I almost had to ask to see the chef. Also, earphones for in-flight movie also required a donation too; which I couldn't be bothered as the movie couldn't even finish before the flight landed anyway. (and not to mention the fact that would I donate for more chances to hear more Spanish dialogues?) Arrived Madrid at around 16:15. As it was a national flight, no customs would be bothered to hassle you. This time I took airport shuttle again (yes, ever since the first mess with the airport train in Barcelona, I had learnt not to complicate something that was already too complicated) After changing a couple of metro lines I finaly arrived Hostal Lisboa near Sevilla area. The hotel room was a shock. Well it was spacious but the walls, the carpet gave me a feeling that I was back to the time in the movie "Somewhere in Time", not to mention my room was next to the forever-working elevator. So my only window view was the elevator shaft and my morning call came from the cables and pulleys inside. According to the golden rule of survival laid down by Vicky, the first thing when I arrived in a new place was to find the supermarket. Voila, there was a grocery right next to the hotel, how convenient! To my surprise, the shopkeeper was a Chinese immigrant. She couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Mandarin nor Spanish... so there was not much to talk about except the exchange of goods and money. (She was quite excited to see some Chinese customers around... gosh, she must be bored in the store!) It rhymes! I then made my way to Plaza de Santa Ana. It was around 17:30 and the sun was still high on the sky. There were lots of open-air restaurants there but all the tables were not set up. Waiters were just lazily pulling out the chairs. Kids were playing football when suddenly one of them kicked the ball to a waiter. Instead of scolding the kids the waiter quickly grabbed the ball and showed off how good his kick was! (yes, just like one of the nike worldcup advertisements)... he played for a while (before the manager came out) and resumed with his chairs. [He actually was quite good controlling the ball] 
Someone then approached and asked me for a quick survey... but it was brief: (I: Interviewer, V: Me) I) How long have you been here in Madrid? I) Where do u come from? I) Thanks very much for your time! Have a nice day! Oh! Either they had not heard of what "Hong Kong" was or whether they were panicking since "Hong Kong" was not a model answer... but certainly their target audience did not include Hong Kong people....... which was quite sad as this meant not many tourists came from Hong Kong, well at least not enough to catch their tourism board's attention. Finally arrived at Puerta del Sol without further interruptions. Sol is the centre of Madrid, and they said all the roads network in Madrid radiate from Sol. To me, Sol was just like another Times Square/Picadilly Circus to me, and the famous boutiques and cafes were more imteresting than any of the landmarks here. (Having said that there was an interesting statue of a bronze Spanish Poohbear trying to climb the strawberry tree (obviously for honey, what else?! ^_^)... they said it was a symbol of Madrid) 
Amongst all the shops here I finally found what I wanted - a supermarket. (Remember Vicky's rule #1?)Actually El Corte Ingles was like a nation-wide Spanish Marks and Spencer and it sold all sorts of goodies from raincoats, leather shoes to strawberry jam. Having loaded up 5 Lt of water, a dozen of danish pastries and croissants, a box of seedless grapes and a bottle of OJ, I was prepared to move on to my next destination....... which sadly was to return to the hotel because of the bulkiness and heaviness of the goodies.
So when I was back at Sol again, it was already 21:00 and I really had to hunt for dinner... Hunting for dinner was not easy in Madrid as many restaurants were not tourists-oriented. i.e. no English Menu! I finally wandered into Plaza Mayor where there were tons of open-air restaurants... almost all English menus offered similar things. After seeing a japanese guy sat down at a restaurant after looking at the menu for a long time, I also followed suit and sat down at the same restaurant too.......... ...............Argggggggggggggghhhhhh............... I had the most expensive meal ever in my entire trip! (EUR 20.20 for 2 entree-sized sauteeed mushroom & Tagliatelle Carbonara and 1 half litre bottle of spring water!)
Having said that, dining openly at Plaza Mayor had a different atmosphere than dining in Las Ramblas. In Las Ramblas, you just saw people passing by. In this Plaza people actually came and gathered in this one big square. Some just sat and rested here, some listened to the "concert".. and there were also street performers and hawkers here too.. I even saw a Chinese trying to promote the foot massage service! You would not feel like dining alone! (though it really hurted my wallet *weep*) 
No world cup today! My foot prints: Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, Museu Picasso, Mercat de Sant Josep, Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona Airport, Madrid Airport, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor Stay: Lisboa Hostal Madrid (EUR 39, single room) 
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