Barcelona to Perpignan — Sunday Escapades

I had gone to bed already since it was about midnight but Lew had had a conversation with our Airbnb hosts about check out the next day. Our plans were to leave early and head up to Montjuïc leaving our bags behind in the apartment until we picked up the car around midday, since that was their check out time. But we were told that we would have to be gone by 1130am since the host needs to have the room cleaned for the next guests coming around the same time as she was going to work for 12pm. Wow how annoying to not tell us that we had an exact time period we needed to be gone by and they wanted us to be packed up earlier (9.30am) so they could clean the room. It didn't change our plans too much other than the fact that you don't enjoy stuff quite as much when you need to be back at a certain time! We left the place having moved our stuff into the living room out of the way. We wanted to use the bikes that are placed all over the city to get around and we download the app to do this. It was all in Spanish/Catalan and didn't have an English version plus it wanted a Spainish bank card which we didn't have. Feeling frustrated we walked instead to the funicular which takes you up back the hill to Montjuïc. The best thing was that it was the same ticket for the metro which meant I could go right back to the accomodation whilst Lew continued on the same metro line to get the car. Once we arrive up the top we didn't have long until we had to get back down but we managed to check out the Olympic Village from the 1992 Olympics that was certainly looking a bit worse for wear but would have been beautiful at the time with the castle close by and overlooking the city. Once we walked back it was 1045am and we caught the funicular back down and then caught two different trains and I got off at Barcelonetta so I could get our stuff out of the accomodation in time. Lew carried on and went to pick up the car just outside of town and drove it back to where I was waiting in the the foyer. Loading our bags all back up we headed out of Barcelona feeling pleased to be leaving a big city and for not having any issues with pick pockets.

From speaking to people at home and Julien our Airbnb host in Paris we had been given some places on the coast to visit on our way up instead of just taking the autoroute. It took us 3 hours to drive to a place called Cadaques and on the way we found this wee gem of a supermarket with super cheap food and since we were running low on snacks we topped up. Whilst driving we munched on bananas, chips and a fresh baguette making a terrible mess in the car of course! The winding hill finally let us have a view of the pure white buildings of Cadaques with the vibrant blue sea surrounding it. Since I had just google mapped it we ended up getting stuck in some tight streets in the center of town instead of gliding down the waterfront streets. Of course they funnelled you into paid parking as you arrived in the city so we continued driving until we could park up and look back at it from afar. We didn't want to get to Perpignan too late so we decided to just come back some day for a vacation instead of walking back into town. 18 minutes later we were in another cute fishing village with more white houses called El Port de la Selva. It was much quieter and seemed like it had shut down for the season already. Parking was free along the waterfront so we were able to finally find some time to make a sandwich instead of eating plain bread! It was super windy which meant we had a good view of some wind surfers making the most of the waves.

Since it was my decision to come to these places it was almost like my punishment to have to drive the incredibly windy roads between each small township but in the end it was Lew who felt car sick. The roads wound around the coast taking us through more picturesque towns on the waterfront or propped up in the cliffside. Between the towns of Portbou (Spain) and Cerebere (France) we crossed what used to be border control and is now just graffitied building. We saw what the Catalan policeman meant the day we thought we illegally gained access to Spain through a back road and asked if it was an issue that we hadn't shown our passports to anyone! Seems like such a joke now when we see what it is actually like to cross a border. Cerbere and Banyuls-sur-Mer are other places we would love to come back to as driving though the city they had a lovely laid back feel and were right on the seaside. The beach in Banyuls-sur-Mer didn't look overly swimmable but I'm sure you could drive to nearby Spain to check out what they had to offer or Cerebere had a nice sheltered swimming area in front of the town. I did notice that once we got to the French side the roads certainly weren't as spacious and well looked after as Spains and I had to concentrate a bit harder on what side of the road I was on especially with the large tour buses on the road also. Once we got onto the motorway it was a short drive into Perpignan where we were staying at another Airbnb with a lady called Cecilia. We dropped our stuff off and it reminded me of what it would be like if my parents had an Airbnb themselves - a large family house with a bedroom and ensuite just for guests. It felt a tad awkward having to walk through their kitchen and living room as the entire family were home and in there preparing to go out for dinner themselves. They were nice enough though giving us a place to walk to for dinner. We headed down to the main street which wasn't exactly amazing and I do wonder what draws people to some of these cities when there is so many amazing places in Europe. I know thats a tad unfair since we have literally just driven into the city and I would be very disapointed in Auckland also if I only saw Queen Street so I should give it a chance. The place they recommended was called Ben Aqui and was a Tapas bar. It didn't start off very well as we were pointed to seats at the bar and we asked whether we could have a table instead, they said something in French and we said we speak English. We got a short "NO" to our request. I know this was probably only because they didn't have the correct words to explain it further in English for us but it certainly came off as rude. The menu as always was a struggle and we sat there with out google translate app over the menu trying to work out what to get. We decided and then got a short NO again to the Fish n Chips we wanted. That meant we had to go back and search for something else. We decide on this chicken and thyme skewers and some beef ones which were actually lovely but there wasn't much of them! We saw some bread with tomatoes on them coming out of the kitchen and worked out they would only cost €2 ($3.3NZD) which was cheap and would fill us up! All together it cost €25 ($45 NZD) and we weren't exactly full, we were missing home cooked meals (mine and our mums!), our French Chief Richards meals and the burgers we got last night! Oh well they also didn't have Uber so we had to walk home in the dark which we certainly wouldn't have done when we first got to France as everyone looks dodgy but now we are a bit more relaxed. Night night, up to the French Riveria tomorrow :D