Barcelona Tourist Maladies
I’m going through my stuff and having a bit of a spring clean… and I found a notebook I was using when I went to Barcelona. I had a nasty time in Barcelona on account of
a) Barcelonians (so surly!)
b) my mother having severe diarrhoea the whole time we were there (not fun)
c) hideous jetlag.
In the notebook I started writing notes about the maladies I was starting to suffer… as yet not fully documented in the scientific literature. They include:
- Map Anger Disorder (MAD) – Barcelona’s tourist maps were a crock of shit and you needed about three tablecloth-sized maps to successfully navigate anywhere. I suffered severe cartographic rage as a result. (As an aside, Hong Kong’s tourist maps are not much better. They show you where the station exits are but not which station those exits correspond to. Useful.)
- Sagrada Familia Neck – caused by way too much craning up to look at Gaudi’s ridiculously beautiful cathedral
- Miro Over-Analysis Neurosis (MOAN) – because sometimes, black blobs really are just black blobs.
- Tapas Over-Eating Syndrome (TOES)- The whole Barcelona tapas thing is over-rated – mainly because Barcelona’s surly tourist-haters aren’t likely to direct you to anywhere vaguely decent.
- Subway Over-Use Legs (SOUL) – who would have thought using the train would involve so much walking?
ha! this post made me giggle a lot. i remember suffering similar maladies in milan last year. i think in future i will convert my tourist rage into amusing quasi-scientific maladies from now on
Hi Richard,
Do you remember me from Ormond College (Allen House). I’m the one who put the spider on your door. Anyway hope all is well with you. Are you back playing the piano. I am a solicitor now. Went and stayed in Croatia with Ivi, Irena, Ivana, Luka and Marin. They are well.
Cheers
Nicole