A Tale of Two Cities
I recently succumbed to a nasty bout of food poisoning - the sort every traveller must endure at some point or another.
In other words, dear reader, I didn’t get up to much this week, making for a boring post indeed.
At least, nothing pretty to describe.
And so I lay in bed, tossing and turning, with little to do but listen to my own stream of consciousness. And seeing as I'm here in Barcelona, thousands of miles from home, it was only natural that I would start contemplating the differences in lifestyle - the food, the people, the weather, even such peculiarities as the amount of space granted to each person, purely based on population numbers.
While contemplating such things (and oh, such very important contemplations one should add, on parr with that of Milton or Shakespeare!), I began to notice the comments I've been making here in Barcelona, the sort that would compare rather strangely to those made back in Melbourne!
With this burst of inspiration, I began jotting down the following list:
Melbourne: "Sweet, just made it to the platform - the train's coming in 12 min!"
Barcelona: "Ugh, the train's coming in 1 minute, 58 seconds?? Just my luck."
Melbourne: "Not another Grill'd! If I see another one of those places, I swear I'm gonna ****!!!!"
Barcelona: "Now where are all the fast food places when you want 'em??"
Melbourne: "Ugh, 20 min walk? That’s it, I’m driving there."
Barcelona: "I'm gonna walk 2 hours to the city centre today! May as well stretch my legs."
Melbourne: ''Great news - I'm travelling abroad next month!! It's a 30 hour flight and $2000 return airfares, so it's kind of a big deal!"
Barcelona: "Think I'll just pop to France or Portugal next door..."
Melbourne: "Sunday is the day to shop!!"
Barcelona: "Why does everything have to shut? Just as I was getting started!"
Melbourne: "The train was pretty busy today - just over half of the seats were full."
Barcelona: "Oh my god, we were squished like sardines the whole time!!"
Melbourne: "Australians 'patriotic'? Please, don't make me laugh!"
Barcelona: "What did he just say about the Catalans?? Quickly, after him!!"
Melbourne: "Stuff to do on the weekend: um, maybe visit the aquarium...?
Barcelona: "Well, there's the Sagrada Familia, or Picasso Museum, or a couple of Gaudi exhibits, or the local park with a few ancient statues almost 800 years old... You know, no big deal."
Melbourne: "Coffee, coffee, coffeeeeee... Yes please!"
Barcelona: "God, no, what it this watered down stuff??"
Melbourne: "Dinner's when you pull out the big steak, that's for sure!!"
Barcelona: "Big lunch. Full stop."
Melbourne: "Grr, do I really have to get up at 6am for work...?"
Barcelona: "I'll meet you for breakfast tomorrow - how about 1pm?"
Melbourne: "Oi, drop my burger! I'm definitely not sharing with you!!"
Barcelona: "Let's invite more people to dinner - means we get to share more tapas!!"
Melbourne: "Hmm, not sure if I wanna spend $15 on a glass of wine tonight..."
Barcelona: "$2 euro for a glass?? Drinks on me!"
Melbourne: "Water? Um, I don't really think about it. It's just there..." Barcelona: "Nooo, I ran out of water again!! Have to buy some more from the supermarket down the road..."
Melbourne: "WiFi is so hard to find these days! And $60 for a basic phone plan? Talk about overpriced..."
Barcelona: "Can pretty much find it on any corner. Oh, and data is nice and cheap."
Melbourne: "H&M is alright... it's just another big shop."
Barcelona: "You guys have a fountain in the middle of the store....??"
And on that note, I think I'll conclude my list there!!