Spain,more than Football.

The moment we land in Barcelona one night, we weren't sure if we liked the city. It was boisterous, with people banging fists on the table, at the edge of their seats watching football in pubs. Best of all, we couldn't understand a word of Spanish!

As soon as day broke, light shone on a city so vibrant I've never seen before.

The below images are taken from Tarragona, outskirts of the Barcelona city. It's my favourite place!

Located next to the Mediterranean sea (sounds exotic, but my European friends say diving isn't fantastic), it's a nice day trip out of the bustling city.

What i like about this neighborhood is you can see some remain ants of Rome which you don't see in the city, it's like killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

Anfiteatro Romano de Tarragona.
Use a little imagination and think of the gladiators below!
This is the fighting arena.

Every architecture in Spain is an artwork. I am not a big fan of things that don't move but i pretend that i am interested and intellectual.

Other than buildings, their cakes are marveling elaborate pieces of art too.

Everything edible, SGD 180.

Buying ham is a must-do in Spain. Although it's difficult to buy ham when you're not a connoisseur. As Asians, the ham we know are the square pieces in the supermarket and my favourite is honey baked whilst my mum always buys the healthier choice, chicken ham.

In Spain, you'll find many shops hanging an entire severed pig's thigh. They look waxy and fake, but they're not.

You can either buy the whole leg for more than 100 euros or blocks like below. Most of Spain don't speak English, especially on the outskirts so unless you're a connoisseur, you can go to a local supermarket and buy ham from the butcher 20% cheaper than the tourist areas.

We chanced upon a market in an alley near La Rambla in Barcelona city. The market was packed with tourists, it was a money making mine although i didn't think things were overly priced. You can get fresh fruits to munch on for 1 Euro a cup, buy pretty chocolates or sample ham before buying (you can't sample in supermarkets).

Here, the sellers all can speak English so you can get some explanations about ham. I must sound like a bimbo asking silly questions like "why is this ham more expensive than that ham?" or "does the ham needs to be refrigerated? Singapore is hot! Have you been to Singapore?" or "which part of the ham is this?" or "why does this taste different than that one? (ok, let me take another one & taste some more. Nom nom nom)"

So i learnt, the 16 euro ham is the most expensive around because its blood pork. Blood pork?? Immediately i think of blood cake, solidified pig's blood in cubes you find in Asia. I'm not sure if i heard correctly amidst the yelling of tourists and hawkers, but blood pork is the purest and elite of pigs because it is black in color, lives in the forrest and eats acorns.

Wait a minute, maybe he meant black pork! Not blood pork.

SGD 25 for very very thin and little strips of ham that melts on your tongue.

I think i was cheated on the above though, i don't think it should have cost that much.
The below seemed to be a better buy as a souvenir. It's a thick block of ham, heavy enough to cause hurt to the head. You can slice it thinly or in cubes as you please. Eat it on its own or with bread or melon! The shoulder of the pig is the best part to eat, i was told.

My food experience in Spain wasn't a terrific one. Friends told me they ate to-die-for tapas but my tapas experience was bad through and through. We gave up trying tapas after a second time of bad choice.

It really was a hit-and-miss as we walked in randomly. Try not to only find food when you're really hungry because you tend to just walk into ANY.

It was also being adventurous as we couldn't read Spanish on the menu.

This was a hit! Raw octopus with sea salt and olive oil as a starter.

This was a miss. The escargots were too salty, sandy.
It was a pain finishing up because there were 40 of them!
It wasn't appetizer sized as i thought it would be.

Look! That's how a full snail looks without a shell.

You see Gaudi influences all over Spain. From his art, i think he's a little eccentric with fantasies. Reminds me of the Crazy House in Dalat but of course not, Gaudi is a much acclaimed artist of modern history.

Monsterrat is the prettiest church i've seen in Europe. It is an hour drive away from Barcelona city and could be a half day trip. It is free to enter and roam around, 10 euros for the train up. Unforuntately when i arrived, it was raining so it was so gloomy i took no pictures.

The flamenco shows were overrated. Go into a flamenco bar on your own (without booking a tour) if you want to watch. It's must cheaper like this. It's complicating navigating around in Barcelona as its not easy understanding addresses. There's a huge square somewhere and flamenco bars are aplenty.

I gate crashed a school trip's photo.
I pretended to be Japanese so they wouldn't think badly of Chinese. Haha!

Something very amusing were the shows on Spanish TV. Nothing was in English. At 10pm, the dramas came on, it's not porn but the actresses are SUPER hot, baring cleavages and asses in micro minis. And ALL actresses will have a scene bending over a table, cleavage bearing talking to the male characters in a very serious tone.

His eyes drawn to her boobs.

WTF, holiday's over?!

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A Tour of the Future

One of my favourite experiences in Barcelona was the Museum of Ideas and Inventions.

Filled with quirky things, ideas and innovative (but sometimes useless) items, it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

One must weigh herself after 2 weeks of pigging.

A relief to know i'm Kate Moss's weight! There's also the weight of Yoda and Frodo.

Silly inventions can be bought at the gift shop too, i was tempted but knew it is actually quite useless! They had a bubble wrap calender for 17 Euros, where you can pop a bubble a day, hard for the bubble wrap maniac!

You need to experience winter to know almost everyone tucks their hands in their pockets to keep warm if they aren't wearing gloves.

So here comes the invention...

Not for sale are also inventions like a TV remote control that is shaped like a wand! It looks like magic as you channel surf with a flick of the wrist.

 I think the best ideas and inventions are created to serve a need.

Ingenious!

Imagined by Pep Torres who wrote (i adapted his copy) and created every item (not photographed here) by hand, the relatively small museum featured a resident exhibition that shows normal day-to-day life over the next 300 years through a series of inventions that stimulate reflection about our present.

The below are some of my favourites but not the entire exhibition.

A Tour of the Future by Pep Torres

With both men and women being more promiscuous, relationships are short lived. Instead of feeling the the empty spot where she/he used to occupy, by 2158 onwards, nobody who had any sense would buy a double mattress that could not be split into two. Therefore, Puzzle Bed would be the future. The bed can be split into two to become singles so no worries if your jilted lover decides to scoot with her/his half.

As if driven by the force of gravity, fashion, which had progressively lowered trouser waists during the 21st century, uncovering navels and underwear reached its height of expression with the Japanese-born Barcelona designer, Nokito Mas (i love how Pep's fictional character is a Japanese particularly for this fashion trend of the future).

21st century's fashion, low waist jeans with no visible panty line.

Pep imagined the future fashion concept will be called Tube Fashion, where that cloth is removed from the crotch area leaving just two legs and giving a total view of the wearer's underwear.

Pep must have not seen the below image already circulating over the Internet 5 years ago.
Not surprisingly, the photo source claimed its the fashion trend in Japan.

However, wittingly, Pep predicts that by 2095, the legs will join up to the waist again and fashion came back to the traditional high waisted trousers.

If he wasn't an inventor, i'd say he can be a fashion designer!

At the end of 2150, the growing number of people living alone will spring up fried eggs pre-packaged and ready to eat. With houses ridiculously expensive and the hectic pace of life, everyone will eat precooked dishes to save time and the extra space needed for a kitchen can be dispensed with.

As society evolves to one that is only concerned about themselves, Pep imagined Plant 'O' Metic, an ingenious flowerpot that is able to move around by itself in search of the precious sun rays whenever the owner goes on holiday.

In 2230, data storage capacity had reached its limit on all the materials tried to date. The growing demand for memory and processing power for the new holographic and material transmission devices marked a turning point in technology which enabled a series of advances to be made for which the existing storage media were insufficient.

Brain tissue would be kept stable so that it provided the almost unlimited memory and processing power. Even though existing memory was carefully erased from the tissue (provided by anonymous donors), cases arose in which the tissue attained a certain degree of self-awareness and asked itself not 'who am i' but 'what am i'. This will trigger an ethical debate.

This was my favourite "imagination of Pep" and the only photograph i took of the entire Future exhibition.

With the terrible eating habits of millions of people, there'll be the Happy Mirror as a way of increasing self-acceptance and self-esteem before leaving home. The invention consisted of a slightly convex mirror that stylised the reflected image to the desired degree, using a control that adjusted the mirror's curvature.

No one will buy mirrors that can't be manipulated in the future. Already in the 21st century, men are putting on make-up, girls can't do without make-up and there's a new addiction. Photoshop.

And because of the Happy Mirror becoming a standard item that was present in all homes, the difference became even starker between those who devoted their lives to staying extremely thin and those who were simply a little plumper.

In 2278, there'll be the Weight Ticket system for public transport where people paid by their weight since the amount of energy required to carry 50 kg was not the same as that required to carry 100 kg.

From then on, the people who used public transport bought 1000kg tickets. Before inserting the ticket in the machine, a platform weighed the passenger and subtracted the weight from the card. The less you weighed, the more trips you had for your ticket.

During this period, it is common for politicians to promise reductions in the price per person kilogramme during election campaigns.

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