Day 169 - 170 : Flight back to Singapore

I left Stefano's house at 7.45am to catch the 8.07am train to the airport, which later required switching to an airport shuttle from T2 to T1. 

I found myself in a very busy Barcelona T1 Airport at 8.45am, to catch my 10.40am flight. Having booked business class ticket, I had priority access to check in and to go through the baggage screening.

But unfortunately there was no priority queue for the immigration clearance, which had extremely long snaking lines that took a while to clear. 

And thankfully I made it through immigration with no issues because I had overstayed by about 16 days, making me an illegal immigrant 😅😝

I quickly made my way to the business lounge to grab a quick brekkie. While at the lounge, I had a funny incident :

I went into the washroom at the lounge and the cubicles were all occupied.

I washed my hands and as I turned around, I came face to face with a guy which had just came out one of the cubicles.

And then another guy came out from another cubicle.

Turned out I accidentally walked into a men's room 😝 But I probably shocked the guy I came face to face with more, as he had a curious look on his face on whether he had entered the wrong toilet.

Laughters followed soon after as I apologised and quickly made my way out 🤣

It's nice seeing Singapore Airlines again!

Especially after all the drama I had with getting my ticket ticketed!

A little late, but I also got a rose from SIA for St. Jordi's Day. 

Flight is looking empty on the Barcelona - Milan leg, but we picked up a lot more passengers when transiting in Milan.

My original seat was in the centre block, but because the flight from Barcelona to Milan was still empty, I could sit at the window seat for take off.  

We were served a light meal before arriving into Milan. It's typically a sandwich, but I had prebooked and requested for fruits on this short leg. 

Milan stop was about 1.5hrs, and we had to stay on the plane.

As the entertainment system had to be turned off during the waiting period, we watched the cleaning crew come in to clean up the plane and bring in supplies. 

There was also a change of air crew at this stop, and then the rest of the passengers from Milan boarded the flight. 

In my opinion, the flight was about 95% full. One of the air stewardess validated that too - the business class was overbooked (22 seats on aircraft, but 26 seats were sold, so I am super relief I got a seat!), premium economy was completely full and economy had only a handful of empty seats.

I was extremely surprised at the full flight. I suppose travel is starting to become normal again. 

Milan - Singapore leg dining.

Starters : Satay

I always look forward to the satays on SIA, which are only available on business class and above. They are always sooooo good! And having not had them for more than 6 months, this was heavenly! 

The air stewardess highly recommended the champagne - they were serving 2014 Piper-Hiedsieck Brut Vintage, and she said it was one of the nicer ones. 

The champagne was really good! And I kept getting refills by the air stewardess as she walked around with the bottle. I certainly had quite a few 😋

Appetiser : Carpaccio Di Pulpo. This was quite good! 

Main : "Book the Cook" option meal - Grilled Branzino. It was average tasting. 

Dessert : Chocolate Fondant with Berries... Yum! 

Cheese platter with Port.

The air stewardess suggested I take port to accompany the cheese, and in my opinion, their port was better than their cheese selection, as the cheese was on the dry side and hard. 

I didn't sleep on the plane, which I don't usually do anyway even on long flights and so managed to catch a few movies including King Richard, Venom, and Green Knight (which I didn't enjoy). 

I was snacking so much during the 15hr flight (include transit) because the crew kept offering me nachos, chips, muffin, kit kat etc, that by the time I got breakfast I was still full from the snacks! 😂

Their breakfast selection came with fruits, yogurt or overnight oats, pastry items such as croissant and Danish. For the main item I opted for their udon noodles with chicken, which in my opinion isn't their best rendition. 

Service on SIA still one of the best around! 

Arrived back in Singapore at about 8am, clearing immigration by 8.20am.

It's nice to be back! Just in time to enjoy the relaxed measures in Singapore which starts on the next day (26 April 2022)... Time to party Singapore! 😂

Even though measures in Singapore are a lot more relaxed than when I first left the country 6 months ago, we are still behind the curve as Europe has also allowed people to have the option of not having to wear a mask indoors either (with the exception of taking public transport).  

I forgot how hot and humid Singapore can be. And the heat and humidity is REAL! I was already feeling it when I was inside the airport.

I will have to do a fair bit of cleaning up over the next few days.... It's strange how much dust can gather even when the house is mostly closed up while I was away. 

The bad news is that my Neato Robot Vacuum battery can no longer recharge. The model apparently is end of life by manufacturer so there is no local source to get the battery from. I could possibly buy one online from China and be shipped over, but it would take too long. 

With the evolution of technology in this space, the prices of robot vacuum has dropped and even comes with mopping feature, and it would be a lot faster getting a new one delivered to me than to wait for a battery... So time to search for a new robot vacuum! 

This is just part of my mail that had collated while I was away. Took me almost 2 hours to clear this pile!

I have another pile still in the letterbox 😅  

The biggest thing I missed while travelling was Singapore hawker food! Time to binge! 

Day 165 - 168 : Barcelona

My 4th time in Barcelona as I spend my last days of my stay in Europe. 

Having been in Barcelona and done most of the touristy things previously, there is no main intention to do anything touristy this time round, but I still managed to see some old spots and even new ones. 

The Barcelona vibe still feels the same, though maybe with slightly less tourists as compared to pre-pandemic times. 

It was nice to also have friends make time for me for a catch up. Met with Martin Escondido at a tapas place 4 Latas Letamendi and Pau again. 

Pau even made the time to show me around Badalona (neighbouring town to Barcelona) where he stays and I also got to see his cat Harold. I have to say Pau is super neat, maybe a little on the OCD side 😂

He also made the effort to spent time with me on Saturday - it happened to be St. Jordi Day. The legend goes... a princess was captured by a dragon, and St. Jordi killed the dragon and rescued the Princess and so on 23rd April, it's celebrated with the men being gifted books, and the women get flowers as gifts. 

A number of the streets were closed to traffic, and there were lots of vendors on the streets selling books or flowers. This is an annual event and I was told that this is the first year since the pandemic that they are running it in the city again. I suppose that, combined with it being a Saturday, the streets were packed with people. 

There were also a number of government places that had open houses eg. Mirador de Maria Aurèlia Capmany which had amazing views, as well as City Hall. 

The City Hall building has a statue of St. Jordi slaying the dragon at the entrance.

The queue to enter the City Hall was so long that we gave up queuing on the 1st 2 attempts, but finally got in on the 3rd. 

Almost every room walls and ceiling were decorated, and all were different. 

I was surprised we were even allowed into the Mayor's office! 

The room they call "Sala del Plenari Carles Pi I Sunyer". Full City Council meetings are held here.

And this is "Salo de Cent". All the major decisions and events eg. Mayor crowning is held here. 

And yes, there are still more rooms with different themes, and textures to the walls too. 

I really love these 2 intricate display cases, they are super beautiful! 

This wooden piano is also exquisite and even plays!

To mark the day, there are people dressed up in characters walking around the City Hall. Some even provide background about the different rooms in the City Hall, though they are all in Catalan. 

There's also a puppet show to entertain kids. 

This guy was dressed up as St. Jordi, trying to find his princess 😂. Very coincidentally Pau knew him, as they played together when young, though they haven't seen each other for some time. 

I have to say Pau is really knowledgeable, he pointed out to me about this sculpture of Joan Miro, a famous artist in Spain. There's also a painting of Joan Miro in the building which Pau also pointed out to me. 

He then showed me a very old school shop dedicated to music. Just check out all those old scores! 

Strangely, the days I spent with Pau had quite a fair bit of showers, more on the day when we first met which later stopped once we headed over to Badalona. But on St. Jordi Day, though we had only intermittent showers, when it rained it was hail! 

The other sights visited included :

Plaza de Catalunya

Mercado de La Boqueria - lunch

Marina

Cathedral of Barcelona

Casa Padellàs 

Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar

El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria with Roman Ruins 

Casa Batllo, I also got to see them put up roses on façade for the weekend.

Building next to Casa Batllo, Casa Amatller

Similar gothic style, but not designed by Gaudi, but rather by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. I am annoyed with myself for not taking a better picture of the inside. 

And of course Sagrada Familia, a sight I would make a point to visit when I am in Barcelona. The only thing I didn't do this time was to enter the building. 

As it was a super wet day when I visited, the only good thing about the weather is that you get to see the original colours of the Sagrada better in this light than under bright sunlight 

The last time I was here was about 5 years ago, and it doesn't seem that much progress has been made. No idea when they intend to complete this building, and not sure if it will even happen in my lifetime! 

I also walked into a Desigual store and was pleasantly surprised with its indoor slide. 

Random walking around the street also made me came across a few stores selling dick shaped waffle, which I thought was funny! 

I also did couch surfing for half the time I was in Barcelona, moving over to Stefano's house for the last 2 nights. It is very centrally located near Sants Station and a spacious apartment where I got to have my own room and bathroom. 

There was a nice Peruvian restaurant nearby, and since it's been a while since I had Peruvian food, I wanted to check it out. They had a daily menu for €12.90, and even though I was there at 2pm, I was the only one there. A few people started coming in only later!

I chose a Ceviche, Arroz con Marisco and Cheesecake using cheese from Andez. Food was OK, but I suppose since it's a daily menu, I would discount a little for the food quality.

Montjuic was just a 15 mins walk from Stefano's place, which was another place I would make it a point to visit while in Barcelona. A pity I didn't make it for the musical fountain and light show, something I would have to do at some point. 

Cirque du Soleil was in town, and together with Stefano, we went to check out their new production Luzia. The production was based on a Mexican theme and there were times we couldn't follow the storyline, but at the end of the day, it was really fun seeing all those acts. 

My favourite would had to be the spinning hoops, the patterns made using water and the best act in my opinion was the contortionist! The clown never failed to make us laugh too. 

Stefano cooked fried rice on my last day which we had for dinner. We then stayed indoors and watched a movie about the truth behind personality tests and also played a game called "jamming' created by Stefano. 

It was however a nightmare trying to get hold of Singapore Airlines to confirm my ticket, something which I had been trying to do for the last 3 weeks, as there was always one excuse or another, and the agents doesn't seem to be on-the-ball. But I was so glad to had been able to confirm it 2 days before my scheduled flight.

4 days went by pretty quickly in Barcelona, and also marks the tail end of my trip. I am ready to head home.