After 4 days on the Catalonia coast it was time to jump on a bus and head two hours south to Barcelona. With breakfast eaten and goodbyes conducted with our hosts we jumped in a taxi to Palafrugell bus station and boarded our transport. We pre-booked our bus seats via the Sarbus company website to make things as smooth as possible. We arrived in Barcelona at 12.15pm.

Our accommodation in Barcelona was through our trusted friend Airbnb who we have now used quite a few times around the world to stay with local people in their homes. This time we were staying with Xavier who is located next door to the Picasso Museum in the alley ways of old Barcelona with a great roof terrace to look over the city from five floors up.

After exploring the roof terrace we walked around the local area and got a feeling of the city. Both of us have visited the city before but it was a few years ago so it was great to soak up the culture and see what makes Barcelona tick. We found high street shopping, back alleys with boutique shops, and plenty hidden squares with restaurants and bars.

Once random walking around the city streets had lost its appeal we decided to jump on the Metro and have a wander around Parc Guell which was designed by Antoni Gaudi (famous for the Sagrada Família) built between 1900 and 1914. A truly amazing and must see park north-west of the city it was filled with tourists enjoying the warmth of the setting Catalonia sun. A climb to the large cross offers a complete view of the city and the bay with many city features clearly visible, entrance is free so this really is worth the visit.

Earlier in the year we attended BCN:MCR in Manchester and met with Borja from Lo Siento Studio who invited us to pop round to their office space for a look around and to get some insider tips on where to visit, eat and drink in Barcelona. It was great to meet up with Borja and the Lo Siento team and to finally see where the design magic is created. A true inspiration and a pleasure to meet up. Thank you.

A tip from Borja was a lovely little tapas restaurant close to our digs called Tantarantana which serves some of the best tapas either Helen or I have eaten. A must if you are in the area.

For our second day in Barcelona a full day in the city beckoned and first on the agenda was the Picasso Museum, next door! The museum is a great space to showcase art, as you would expect, however both Helen and I were disappointed by the limited collection of art on show. Expecting to see some classics the exhibition had a smaller than expected collection which left us wanting more. There were no more floors or exhibition space and that was that.

More exploring of our local area ensured as well as the Church of Santa Maria del Mar. For lunch we visited another of Borja’s tips the tapas bar Quimet & Quimet, a tiny standing room only bar which had an amazing array of drinks and tapas to choose from. Another definite must if you fancy a spot of lunch. We had a selection of fish, cheese and bread plates washed down with a local beer. What’s not to like!

For our final evening in Barcelona we decided to spend some time on the beach before heading home to the below seasonal spring temperatures followed by another trip to Tantarantana to indulge in yet more tapas for our evening meal. Muchas gracias.

(Nikon 50mm f1.4, processed in Lightroom 3)

Our stay in Singapore was more of a two night stop over than anything else. We hadn’t quite anticipated how tired we would be after our 3.30am start the morning of our flight and so by the time we’d reached Singapore, enjoyed a chai and a little breakfast at Starbucks, plus the time taken to actually navigate and exit from the airport terminal, we were almost ready for lunch!

Thankfully for us and to Barbara (Dave’s mum) we had booked ourselves a lovely place to stay through the wonderful world of Airbnb. Our hosts Sam, Linda and Phillipe all from the creative sector certainly offer a great alternative to staying in hotels and hostels in Singapore. They’re base just off Club Street is easy to find and only a short walk from the Chinatown metro stop. Staying in their homely apartment didn’t really give us much reason to leave, but we knew we would have to venture out at some stage. On our first day though we were very low key and enjoyed the comforts of our room, called home and ate at an excellent local sushi restaurant. Club Street itself is full of charm and seems to attract the ex-pat crowds, it’s perhaps a little over-rated in terms of eateries, restaurants and bars but the night life is pretty strong there.

We enjoyed exploring the local area which is rich in multi-cultural temples including Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese temples scattered throughout China town. The Hindu one was perhaps the most interesting to us; bold, colourful statues and decor with a daily ceremony taking place to traditional Indian instruments. Quite atmospheric.

We also stumbled upon a very nice independent bookstore called Woods In The Books. Primarily a visual bookstore it sells mainly illustrated books most of which are aimed at children, but it’s a lovely place to explore and absorb. We were more than happy to idle away time going through their collection and noticed some of their own illustrated publications were dotted around too. It’s a lovely concept indeed and we bought ourselves a few items as well.

On day two of Singapore we had a little more motivation to do some sight-seeing and so took off in search of a few famous places. Our first stop was at SAM; Singapore Art Museum, which was a pretty excellent stop for us. They were hosting some really interesting exhibitions and installations. It’s a bold, white colonial building with a melting Superman standing outside the front! Just around the corner at 8Q SAM’s sister gallery we found a contemporary exhibition showcasing young artists work from Singapore.

Moving on from our art-experience we ventured down the street to Raffles, perhaps the other extreme of sight-seeing as this is what most people try to get to when they have only 2 days in Singapore. Raffles is probably the most famous building in Singapore aside from some of the architecture on the harbor front, mainly because of it’s history and it’s infamous Singapore Sling cocktail. We couldn’t really push the boat out to afford a cocktail each but we did find the Leica store and we were also enticed into the little Chinese cake shop on the 2nd floor. Phillipe had told us about it and so we wanted to find it ourselves to experience.

It’s a lovely space with interesting art, old bikes and an all round great concept for a place to come and enjoy tea. The best past is you don’t even need to buy anything, the tea and one piece of their complimentary pineapple cake is free and so we sat there and enjoyed the space. Sunny Hills are solely a cake and tea shop and only sell the one type of cake, they are very successful and provide a unique experience. If you like the cake of course you can buy little boxes of them and they are very beautifully packaged.

So after our tea break we walked onwards to the water-front, a place again where nearly every tourist will visit during their time in Singapore. It is home to the crazy looking Marina Bay Sands resort with a boat on top as well as what seems like hundreds of sky-scrapers! Not to mention the Merlion statue! We simply wandered around, took a few photos and people watched as the rain came down and stopped everyone in their tracks.

When we’d had enough we were already nearly back at our accommodation and so we opted for another low key night. We ate on Club Street at one of the Italian restaurants as we were both a little tender from something we ate on our last day in Bali. A few more calls home and then we were ready for another flight onwards.

Our next flight was taking us to Kathmandu for the next stage of our travels.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

Travel Insurance

We have found a few little gems recently whilst sorting out last minute bits for our trip. After the nightmare we’ve experienced with STA Travel and their very unwillingness to help us with our insurance claim we decided to go a little more budget on the travel insurance side of things. This time round we have a joint policy that we can amend and update as we travel. There are small administration fees for these changes but Backpacker Travel Insuarance offer a comprehensive cover within their Premier Cover policy, and we have paid over 50% less than what we did with STA and bumped up our Sports grade to level 2 within this price. Okay so nothing has gone wrong so far, but after our previous experience we asked ourselves a series of questions ensuring we knew what we wanted from our travel insurance. So far Backpackers is ticking all our boxes!

We figured most people in China must climb the cliff!

Airbnb!

Something else that has got us a little excited is the wonder of Airbnb! We have booked through Airbnb for our travels in LA and Seattle meaning we have been able to source so far 3 different types of accommodation for our stay in the USA. This was pretty important for Venice Beach as Helen’s yoga course is daily and we didn’t want to be faced with big travel times and steep accommodation costs (a dorm room is cheaper but we’re in the area for 11 days so we don’t want to be sharing ourselves that much!!). We’re staying very close to the beach and even have our own bathroom as well as a host who is a superfoods expert!

Airbnb means we can stay with the locals, in a local area and avoid the high costs even hostels have in these busy places. We also want to live like a local does! It’s a little like couch-surfing but you pay to stay in someone’s spare room. Payment is through Airbnb and the person whose room we could be renting wont get paid until we check in. We’re looking forward to this alternative experience and for finding out about things going on away from the tourist trap. We think we’ll book through when accommodation is pricey in the western countries and we fancy a nosy at someone’s home! ha ha!