Plaça d'Espanya by day, from where we took the train
It was a beautiful day with wonderful company. I couldn't have asked for more!
From the train station, we took a teleferic (cable car) up to Montserrat, getting awestruck by the stunning scenery as the teleferic climbed.
The moment the cable-car stopped, it was almost 1 pm, so we ran, Amazing Race style, to locate the Basilica Santa Maria de Montserrat, in which one of Europe's oldest choir boys would be performing for 10 minutes at 1 pm every weekday. When we entered the Basilica, they hadn't begun singing yet but it was already filled with (no not worshippers but) tourists. There was hardly standing room!
The choir was excellent, as expected, which reminds me of the French film, Les Choristes, one of my all time favourite movies. Anyway, the Basilica was adorned with lots of gold, and this coupled with the soothing voices of the choir and the warm orange glow emanating from the lights, made it look absolutely majestic. After the performance, almost everyone vacated the Basilica even though there was a on-going service. Oh man, tourism.
We chose a sunny spot with a view of the Montserrat mountains to have our picnic spread of Nachos and sandwiches, completed with Sangria, the famous mix of fruit punch and red wine. Just heavenly.
trying out jumping shots again =D The mountain formations in the backdrop look like soldiers going to war huh. Amazing, nature is.
Jem, Letch and I tryin to pose for a synchronised jumping shot in front of the stairway to enlightenment but to no avail. =D Each step represents a different stage in the pursuit of enlightenment. From the bottom, there's: pedra, flama, planta, besta, home, cel, angel and déu at the top rung.
it's definitely easier with two people! ahha.
After our bouts of clowning around, we realised we only had less than 2 hours before we were due to take the teleferic down to Montserrat Aeri station to go back. So we chose the shortest walking trail recommended by the tourism office which took us into a rather normal nature trail, à la Macritchie. On hindsight, it would have been better if we had given ourselves more time to take the longer trails which would provide more in terms of eye-candy. But still, it was pretty!
Further into the trail, we found this old, creeky little gate fronting a small path that led to goodness knows where. It was kinda creepy, such that it looked like one of the sets of horror films. So the 4 of us decided to act out a little 'Blair Witch Project' of our own, with themes of mystery, terror and a little sleaziness (hahaha it was hilarious).
For dinner, I had Paella de Mariscos (Seafood) for 9€ which was a mile apart from the Arroz Negros from the other day. Yumyum!
Guess the secret to choosing a restaurant that serves authentic local cuisine is to locate those that have menus only in the local language. The tourist traps, of course, are those that have huge menus displayed outside the restaurant with colourful pictures and names of each dish in English. It might be a risk trying a dish without knowing what it is but it's all in the name of discovery and new experiences. If anything, there's always the trusty traveller's phrasebook! =D
No comments:
Post a Comment