Otherwise known as Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino which admittedly is a bit of a mouthful. On trip number eighteen to Barcelona there are still places to see, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to explore the Roman remains. First though, I hit the Barri Gotic or 'Gothic Quarter' again, but today my intention was to also explore the area more thoroughly before finding Roman Barcelona. Circumstances initially conspired against me as the old Cathedral (14th and 15 century) in the Placa de la Seu was closed to visitors but one of the narrow streets lead behind this to the Placa del Rei, the former courtyard of the Palau Reial Major, or the palace of the Counts of Barcelona and monarchs of Aragon.

This area is rich in interest and contains 15th century buildings including what is now the City History Museum full of Roman, Visigothic and later Muslim remains. Other Roman remains are nearby and for the first timer, the other areas of the Barri Gotic are also worth a wander. The streets to the north tend to be peppered with chic little shops, while those to the south become darker and seedier.

After this I headed to the harbour area to get a cable car across the harbour to the Olympic city on the hills of Montjuic which overlook the city. Wind conditions prevented the cable car from operating and I was thus thwarted. Maybe next time...

This trip was actually a weekend break plus a 'reunion' of old chums from my university days. I don't actually catch up with them that often but when we do, on the last two occasions it has been away somewhere. Last time it was Cheltenham Spa and most of us didn't turn up until 4pm (about 4 hours late) for a one night stay.

This trip almost turned into a repeat of when I came here with Gavin back in December 2004. This time there were even more prostitutes hanging around. Not the usual sort however but a lot more transsexuals; faces of varying manliness and heavily made up. Some with fake breasts and others going for the 'flat' look, presumably saving up for a pair. There were also the glamorous grannies that I witnessed last time around who were there to fill the specialist section. Wayne Rooney would have been in his element.

The second night was much more subdued as sore heads were nursed through the day. That second night I would have much preferred a night in playing a computer game! I also lost my mobile phone which was a downer.

Edit 5th December 2021: Losing a mobile phone today would be an unmitigated disaster as now we run our lives on this piece of tech. Also note, I think I might be supposed to use the term 'women without cervix' for what I saw, or some other term that many would call out as being nonsense.

What's to report? Buy what sells, rinse and repeat. Past visits; 2 Nov 2005, 15 Dec 2005, 25 Feb 2006, 16 Mar 2006, 22 July 2006, 18 Aug 2006 (that was hot), and 20 Sept 2006 have become more difficult as Ryanair the airline that people love to hate has put on more arbitrary costs to their tickets and charge for stowed baggage. Anyway, its an irritation for now but not a blocker yet, though surely the price for stowed baggage will steadily increase. I thought I'd put a bunch of photos in just one blog rather than spread over several with nothing much to write. You can imagine that by now, I'm running out of sites to see in Barcelona. Here's a few, some I've seen before but not taken photos of, and others such as the sheep parts on sale that were new to me.

After having previously written about the colourful stalls selling fruits and vegetables, seafood, and the 'magnificent' cuts of meat at the Mercat de la Boqueria, I thought I would actually get some photos this time. I have never seen the likes of it on sale in the UK - without any great surprise. Why would a shopper overlook the best cuts of meat in order to opt for some head and lung?

No antics. No getting chased. Some more trading, wandering the streets, and gastronomic indulgence. It might be repetitive but people watching and wandering the streets of Barcelona, which is effectively costing me nothing, while locked in my own thoughts is an enjoyable day out.

I was in Barcelona again last week but there was nothing to note on that, my fifth trip to the city. This trip however with my house mate Gavin included an overnight stay which is unusual as other than my first visit, my visits tends to be day trips. After leaving work early on Friday we made a mad dash to Stanstead airport and eventually got into Barcelona and into our first bar by about 9pm. Late by UK standards perhaps but early by Spanish ones.

What a great night out it was too! We visited a number of bars, some in the old town and others in the harbour area. The Ramblas offers a variety of entertainment and the further you go down to the harbour the more seedier it gets. Towards the bottom are peep shows and prostitutes of all ages and genders, but the most stand out were the heavily made up, almost clown like, pensioners. Clearly there's a market for this kind of thing. It's actually quite unbelievable what is allowed to happen on the street, in full view of everyone, and anyone who might want to pass from respectable areas of one part of the city to the respectable areas around the harbour has to pass the gamut of human desperation.

The number of drinks consumed soon increased as did the number of bars visited and then headed to the port which after you have passed the hookers, becomes respectable again. Drinks are expensive but large and we had a few more before getting bored by the respectability and heading back up the Ramblas towards the old town - the Barri Gotic. In some parts there are a few shady 'characters' and where we went we were followed with plenty of 'psssts' and 'you want coke, you want hash?' This got beyond a joke - at least for Gavin. What we worked out is that when I walked ahead on my own I did not attract any unsavoury attention so it was obviously a certain look that Gavin gave off that attracted the underworld.

A few bars and clubs later we went back to the Ramblas and got attracted by the neon lights of a strip club. Attractive and mainly underfed Romanians were on stage going through their routine but after showing all their wares worked the crowd to try and get some punters to buy them a drink or to go for a 'private' dance which was nothing of the sort. The so called private dance was a corner of the club on a sofa in full view of everyone.

The dancers worked the floor to try and pull members of the audience on to the stage who although copping a free feel also got stripped by the naked stripper. Most of the chaps on stage were not on parade but one eager fella looked like a regular and was responding enthusiastically. If it is live shows and audience participation you are after though, apparently Club Baghdad is the place to go. Not that we did, but if we had stumbled across it I'm sure that we would have entered.

Barcelona offers plenty of innocent and seedy entertainment and the end of the night (6AM) saw us running up the Ramblas to evade a couple of Ghanian hookers who we engaged in conversation. As we had spoken to them like prospective punters they got annoyed and aggressive and accused us of wasting their time and demanded we pay them for talking to them! In fact one grabbed my glasses and said she would smash them if we didn't pay. At this point I showed a certain aggression back and said 'I want to f*** you, but at our hotel, let's get a taxi'. How romantic. This got my glasses back without damage and while they tried to hail a cab, I initiated a quiet countdown....3...2...1...GO! Off we went, out of the blocks and zig zagging around the other revelers still on the Ramblas. They didn't follow us and after a 100m or so we collapsed in laughter and got our breath back. Back to our hotel we went and got about four hours sleep before checking out.

It was a long and eventful night but a laugh a minute! What made this trip so good was the fact that it was completely unscripted and we had no idea of where to go or what to do. Everything was new and unexpected and the hours just flew by. As has been famously said in words to this effect, and I will probably repeat this elsewhere on these pages, life is not about the destination, it's about the journey.

Yet another Barcelona trip and the chance for some November sun. This time I took a look around the market on the Ramblas which is huge, colourful and well stocked with many varieties of food.

Another day trip, this one to Barcelona. Despite being here before, the city is so large that one day isn't enough but with air fares being so low, and exchange rates so favourable, I know that I will be taking other trips here in the future.

Barcelona is a large city with lots to see and do and with flights from the UK being stupendously cheap, a good place to engage in some international trading combined with touring and tapas. This was a non hurried trip with no particular agenda other than to read a good guide book and pound the streets, stopping to sample the cuisine or just observe the locals at work and play. Here are a few pictures of what caught my attention.

An era is about to end! I am leaving my company Eastern Electricity / Eastern Energy / TXU / Powergen after 7 years service which is quite an exciting yet emotionally moving time as I have been working for them since leaving university. I have experienced plenty of organisational change, good times and great outside of work experiences. The reason for leaving is because of some poorly judged deals that our leadership made which bankrupted the company almost exactly a year ago. Never mind, they left with a very good pay off - a reward for failure and incompetence, ending a company that was fantastic to work for, and a major employer in Ipswich.

Anyway, a large number of voluntary redundancies have been made so I accepted; after all, the terms are excellent and we were given almost a year to look for a new job. It's been a fantastic year in fact despite the loss of a great company to work for.

In that one year long good bye we were given support to find a new role outside of the company or to stay on in some capacity for our new owner, Powergen. We could spend our days self training in between keeping things ticking over, with daily two hour lunch breaks or more which I used at Fitness First - all on full pay! What days they have been. Now at the end of this period I can look forward to 10 months of tax free salary as a redundancy pay off. So with that coming to me, I'm now off on holiday and will walk into another similar paying role!

I'm not even that sure what I'll be doing exactly but money talks. I'll work there for a year and perhaps go travelling after. Who knows.