I have arrived in Spain

   Lunes 29/ 04/ 13....
 I am here in Cari & Rodoś apartment (built about 1939). Having come through a delightfully UNeventful airport to city transition & even using the metro ....(no pick pocketers & not even a single 'dodgy' soul in sight).

 One quickly learns not to wriggle on the loos in the airports . . . . like not even pick up a piece of tissue paper from the floor whilst sitting on the seat . . .  or suddenly you get the Bidet experience!!! They are All automatic flushers! I swear  . . . everyone must just get used to it because I don't think I managed a single loo visit without getting a BE,  some are more sensitive than others, I was VERY still on the one in Dubai . . . yet it caught me 3 times!!  Unless my loo's sensor was rigged up to a different loo?!
Cari & I found each other fairly easily. Barcelona initially looks a LOT like Auckland complete with rain, puddles uneven road surface, & those typical large blue & white signs hanging over the 5 - 6 lanes. I even saw people wearing Gumboots in the city center!! Adults not kids, not the perth type with grunt but the ones like Frances' gumboots the smoother sort .... & yes plain black too. (not city yuppy with bright colours)
One main difference I note from Barcelona to Auckland city is most of the shops have no over hang so there is no shelter from the rain & almost everyone has an umbrella. (a very dark skinned umbrella salesman met me as I stepped off the bus....though I noted he wasn't using one either)
Cyclists don't wear helmets here.
 I am dizzy & tired . . . & cold too, the floor here (3 stories up with no lift) is all tiled. Though it was certainly a pleasure to get some physical movement in after the 3 hours Auckland to Sydney, then 16 hours Sydney to Dubai & 6 & 1/2 hours from Dubai to Barcelona.
I loved reading all the signs  while I was sitting in the front seat of the bus 'tween the airport & Plaça de Cataluña. Partly cos I could understand most of them  . . . but partly to shake myself into the realization that this is NOT Auckland!!! :)
 The specific Catalan dialect is . . . certainly different, for common Spanish honey is Miel, but in Catalan it is Mel, & my first Spanish food here was at Carinaś table, it was "Pa anb Tomaquet" (there are NO spelling mistakes in that) . . . but common Spanish would have said "Pan con Tomate"  being bread with tomato cut in half & literally rubbed onto the bread then drizzled with olive oil & sprinkled with salt.
Just now I tried Yerba Mate!!(Which is an Argentinian traditional drink, Cari & Rodo are from Argentina)  It's a leaf dried & crushed with some of the sticks too . . . & then mixed to a thickish paste with cold or hot water in a small gourd or clay cup & sucked through a silver straw with a sieve type end on it.! Wow . . . what a strong flavor, not like anything Iǘe tried before. sorry about the spelling mistakes... partly Iḿ tired & partly the keys are in odd places on this key board & some of the normal ones do strange things :)
Sorry no photos as yet . . .  I am not  using my device yet & am yet to master photo exchange.

Loving you all