The trip part 8

So, having our main suitcase back meant at least we could change into some clean-ish clothes, and head out to do some touristy things whilst the hotel changed our room. We headed for Placa Catalunya around the corner and the plan was to catch the tourist bus around, see everything, then the next day stop off at what we wanted to spend more time at. Best laid plans of course. The main tourist bus, the government run Bus Turistic, has a ticket booth queue stretching to Madrid, so we opted for the 'other' tourist shuttle bus. Now, I don't mean to sound harsh here, but the running commentary by this bus company was sparse at best. Miss R kept turning to me and asking, "Did you understand that?/what does she mean?/I can't hear what she's saying," etc etc. Yes, not the best as you can well imagine. I think if you are going to offer an English option, at least get a native English speaker to speak it. Heck, I would've done it if they had asked me. It was quite a warm sunny day, we were sitting on the open top deck, but it was likely soon we'd get sunburnt, so we went down stairs. As it was getting near lunch time, Miss R and I decided to get off the bus at some random stop near the main palace. After walking around for a little bit we stumbled upon a 'medieval' market. Despite how tacky you might think that sounds, it was actually very good and the Spanish do know how to make good assorted bakery products. My Spanish was rubbish, I should've brushed up on a bit before we landed. One of the main words I should've learned was for 'meat' (which is 'carne' by the way...DER!) as Miss R is a vegetarian. So trying to ask a Spanish stall holder which dishes were vegetarian was quite futile. I don't think there is such a term in Spanish for vegetarian, as from what I could gather, their diet is strictly carnivore. Miss R's attempts at communication was to sound like a mentally challenged person putting on a bad Italian accent and asking "No meat no meat??", nup, still non comprende. Anyway, it was a nice little market, we picked up some ridiculously fat laden chocolate pastry thing that dripped all over my hands. Why aren't Spanish people fat...oh yeah, that's right, most of them wouldn't have been able to afford the hideously overpriced food we encountered. After a day out doing a big lap in the tourist bus, we made it back to the hotel and at last, a shower that drains away!! YAY! After three days stinking like a dog, it would have to have been one of the best showers I have ever had in the history of me. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant around the corner from the hotel. The staff were really very very nice and accommodating for our lack on language skills. I had looked up a few phrases courtesy of babel-fish before heading out, so at least we knew that we could ask ¿Esto tiene carne?