Remaining story of Barcelona

DAY 13
Shopping in Barcelona
After Nuno’s departure, I realized that I had only three more days to spend my time in Barcelona. Yet I had so many things to do. Barcelona is the city that you probably wish to visit again and you would still find something new and interesting. It is said Catalan people are creative and are accustomed to adapt something from outside world in their culture. You can observe these characteristics in the buildings and arts. I am sure you will be never disappointed with visiting this city.
In addition, I found people on the streets of Barcelona are more fashionable than people in Madrid and in the rest of Spain. One of the reasons why I chose Barcelona is to enjoy shopping. In recent years, Spanish fashion business is becoming strong. I am sure you have heard Bota and Zara.
The label that I introduce here is called Tous.




Glasses and sunglasses (Tous, Grand Optical) Website: www.grandoptical.com


I went into a Zara shop to buy jeans and asked if I have their length adjusted. A shop assistant said that I could only collect them after weekend. I wanted buy them just because they are cheap. So, I gave it up and went out to look for another item, a pair of glasses. At Grand Optical, a optician shop, you can make your own glasses in a few hours (including eye examination). I always wanted to replace my old glasses and suffered from irritated eyes by putting contact lens for long hours. I found their service is quite professional. While you are waiting, you are served a glass of water and some chocolate. I was bit excited about testing my Spanish. Not all opticians speak English



Price: 320 Euros in total



Here are some other items that I bought in Barcelona.

Agenda and backpack (Piquadro, Pas Gracia 11 )



Price: Agenda (74 Euro), backpack (74 Euro)
Website: www.piquadro.com

I first came across this brand when I was staying Bologna in Italy three years ago. It was not so popular even in Italy and they probably did not have their own outlets. Now here they are in Barcelona, expanding their business to the Iberian peninsula. Shop assistants were Italians. English spoken



Day 14: Last class
It is my last day in Spanish class today. This class is unique. In fact, I always find very exciting and fun to learn a language in a multinational class. In Japan I was fed up with being criticized to be talkative and original. Here I can be myself and my classmates are generous.
Gaspar was flipping a pencap into his coke can and a teacher scolded him
“Eres como un ninho! ( You are like a child)!”
Our teacher is a strong Barcelonista, supporting her football club. All in class almost agreed that FC Barcelona is currently showing the best and most exciting football.
One of the girl in the class love Deco and all of them confirmed Ronaldlho is fantastic in football but muy feo (ugly).
“How cruel girls are!.” I thought. I remembered almost all the girls support Italy over Brasil in the last World Cup. One of girls in the class fancy Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, after David Beckham and his media campaigns, football is becoming a hot topic to girls in general.

I took some pictures of our class in the end of the lesson and gave a brief comment and said our classmate good luck with their study and left the room.

Day 15
At five o’clock in the morning, I woke up with a sharp noise of the alarm clock. I dragged myself out of bed before falling asleep again, headed for the bathroom to wash my face. I made a cup of espresso to revitalize my body system (Actually, I can hardly be myself without it).
I made the last check of my personal belongings before heading for the door and I heard somebody entering our apartment. It was Stephanie and Isabel, my flat mates
“You are leaving?” they asked me.
I answered yes and they started to ask about what happened last night. They went to discos.
“Stephanie finished a bottle of vodka and she is drunk! She never stopped laughing on the way home. She is crazy .” Isabel said.
Her face is red. “No no, you are crazy ” Stephanie protested. It was a fanny moment.
I said to them it was time for me to leave. We hugged each other and said good luck. And then they returned to the bedroom.
I took subway and a shuttle bus to the airport. On the way to the airport, I enjoyed the last view of Barcelona.
“I’ll come back here again and I have a lot of things left to see here.” I said to myself.



My vacation lasted only two weeks. It was too short to experience a life in Spain. When I got used to a Spanish life, it was almost time to leave. Time flies. There are a lot more to see. This will probably motivate me to visit this country again. I hope that my travel diary may be of some tips for you to visit Spain.