We arrived in Barcelona at 11:30pm, and checked into HelloBCN, our wonderful accommodations for the next couple of days. Carolyn and I stayed in a 6 bed mixed dorm that had 4 people the first night, and six from then on out. Only one guy was in the room, and he was with his girlfriend, so it was all Kosher.
Friday, January 25
Carolyn and I awoke bright and early and went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast, which was very, very good. Yummy croissant and bread things and peach nectar juice. Mmm. So, we started our journey with a relatively full stomach, and wonderfully fresh feet. We walked from where we were staying (in west-ish Barcelona) and walked towards the coast. We meandered along the docks and boardwalk and went out on the Rambla del Mer, which is this neat dock that kind of closes off the "parking lot" of boats, and it swivels to let in boats. Neat stuff...
And eventually found the beaches! Carolyn and I both put our feet into the Mediterranean! It was pretty cold. Although not that cold that Saturday afternoon there were people swimming and surfing in it. Those nuts.
We saw the Parlament de Catalunya. A brief word on Catalunya; this might have been our saving grace from not seeming like complete and utter tourists, because -everyone is a tourist- when you don't know Catalan. The part of Spain that Barcelona is in is known as Catalunya, and slowly but surely the Catalan culture and language are both coming back. It's interesting, for sure. From there we entered the Parc de la Ciutadella. This is a beautiful park that is all palm trees and a large lake in the center. There were small green birds in the trees, and large white birds in the lake. And a couple of mallards for fun. We wandered north and saw Barcelona's Arc del Triomf
A word on Arches of Triumph: most major cultures have them. I think the most well known is the Parisian Arc de Triomphe. However any time a civilization, culture, city has some sort of victory, there is an Arch of Triumph. Rome has had many in the past, a few of which are still standing. Whenever a great leader in Rome had a victory, they received their own arch. But they are all real, not copies.
After a rest for some photo opportunities we consulted our map, and decided to walk down Las Ramblas. Apparently this is the most pickpocketed area in Barcelona, short of the beach. But! Being such savvy travelers, Carolyn and I had our wits about us, and nothing has been lost to date. Also of note, my backpack is fantastic (thank you, Grandma!) It has the zipper on the inside that goes against my back. I'd like to see someone just try to swipe stuff from me. Anyway, pictures from Las Ramblas will be later on down the page here... After a bit of walking, we happened to realize it was lunchtime, and, just our luck, a street market was to our right. So we wandered around. It all looked so good. Fresh fruits and vegetables, bright colors, cheeses, meats (eh, this isn't as visually pleasing, but keep in mind, we were a bit hungry). We found a little stand that had sandwiches. But not like in America. These sandwiches are built on a long thing roll. I had salami and cheese. As a condiment, there is this tomato paste, but it's not like sauce, it's just a very small amount. It was delicious. Or maybe we were just really hungry....
After lunch we went back to the hostel, and reserved tickets for a Flamenco show and paella meal in the evening. It was around 2:00, so we needed something to do before then. We decided to walk up the the Universitat Central de Barcelona, which was gorgeous, and then in the Jardin de la Universitat for some reading and hanging around. There were cats in this garden, but not especially friendly. The sun began going down, and it got cooler, so we decided to leave and go find some sun. And we did. On the sidewalk. So we sat, and read on the sidewalk. Interesting Americans, we are. We consulted the map once again, because our chilliness insisted we keep moving. We decided to see Sagrada Familia, which is a pretty infamous monument. We walked past the Placa de Tetuan to see it, and the Plaza Monumental. And took a left and saw
The front and the back of Sagrada Familia. This is an 1800s Roman Catholic church that is still incomplete. Antonio Gaudi got the bid to build it in 1884, spent 40 years of his life working on it, and the last 12 dedicated solely to it's completion. It's a strange piece of work, with detailed and intricate designs carved into it on the front depicting all sorts of biblical and religious events. On the back is a depiction of Jesus' carrying the cross. I can't remember what it's called...
After Sagrada, we decided we should head over to Palacio del Flamenco for our evening plans. We made good time until we got to the area and then promptly got lost. Turns out, we wandered of the map. Oops. But we found it anyway, with plenty of time.
We got a special deal, Sangria, Paella, and Creme Catalan and the show, all for E38.00. The sangria was delicious, and so was the paella. It was the seafood variety, so it was a great combination of rice, peppers, prawns, mussels, cuttlefish and scallop. Mmmm. And the dessert was Creme Catalan, which was also very tastey, although I'm not entirely positive what exactly it was. And then the show began. It was a lot of fun, but not what I anticipated. Although there was a red dress at one point
The show had different costume changes, and -no- castanets, which disappointed me a bit. But it was still fabulous. And how quickly they move their feet! It is a beautiful dance, and most surely a dance of passion. And will go perfectly in my book :)
We left the show to go home. We ended up walking past the Universitat Central de Barcelona again and stumbled upon
It was a social rally. They were espousing the promise of a better world. It was all sort of social rights. One sign was a proponent of gay rights, another about peace in the Middle East - all sorts of things. It was called a social forum. There was one very brief speech (a couple of lines said by an older woman and a young boy) and then lots of fireworks. An unnecessary amount. My mother would not approve. And there was a marching band. Children and adults were dressed as witches and devils, and ran around with fireworks. It was sort of organized, but hardly at all really. It was a lot of fun. And then we went home, read a bit, and went to sleep.
***
Saturday, January 26
We woke early once again and decided to go to the Gothic Quarter and wander, and then spend some time on Montjuic. We walked around the Gothic Quarter, which was very beautiful and found the Catedral, which is considered the center of the Gothic Quarter. Of course, since it is the off season, it was under construction. But we could go inside. There was a "garden" which still had the whole manger deal set up from Christmas, and there was palm trees inside, and a lot of white geese, which was pretty nifty.
The first image is some wonderful stained glass behind... my lack of religious knowledge betrays me... The second image is the spires of the Catedral taken -from the inside of the Catedral-! That's right, plants inside. It was very gorgeous. We then heard music, and, as we learned Friday night, interesting things happen if you follow the music. And we did. We followed it to this rather interesting street dancing group dancing outside of an art museum. Which ended very shortly after we got there.
From here we decided to go down to the beach and get something to eat. I had a tuna sandwich with olives on it, and it had that tomato paste, too. Very delish. We then laid on the beach and read for a while, soaking up the warm sun, even though the day itself was pretty warm.
We then took a cable car over the bay to Montjuic, a fairly high hill in the west of Barcelona. Some views from the cable car:
The first is the beach. Mmm beach. And the second is the Ramble del Mar, that cool dock I was talking about before. Like a drawbridge, but not. At Montjuic there was lots of pretty gardens that are probably extremely more pretty in the spring when things are in bloom. But we walked around for a while and found the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Stadium
Reflecting pool and all. We could sort of make out the stadium inside, but it was tricky... But a pretty neat thing to be near something like that. And the view was, of course, beautiful.
We hung around there until about 6:00 and then decided it was paella time! So we went to Las Ramblas. A whole bunch of street merchants were set up that night, and I would have liked to have bought so many things, but then decided I wanted to save money for future trips. So we got paella, and there was the cutest busker/street act.
Sure, he was just a puppeteer, but it was way more imaginative than the human statues that lined the street. With sore feet, we decided to get back to the hostel, because we had an early morning ahead of us. So we went back to the hostel and read. I started and finished Hemingway's 'Islands in the Stream," which was the last book he wrote before he died. I'm excited to read more Hemingway (because I like to start an author and stick with it for a bit). I like this semester, because we don't have tv really, so I've been reading a lot. Three books so far, and three weeks into the semester. Good past time :)
Sunday, January 27
Awoke at 6:00am to check out of the hostel, and caught a cab back to the airport. This morning yielded a rather exhausted pair of travelers who had a simply wonderful weekend. Image, weekending in a foreign country while studying in a foreign country. As it turns out, I lead a pretty charmed life. The weather was gorgeous (mid-60s) cloud free, no rain, no wind. Gorgeous. Consider Barcelona if you ever want to go to Europe. We loved it so much, the air seemed clean, and coming from Rome it felt so much more relaxed and laid back. It felt like a beach town on the beach, but it also felt like a major city in the center. I would love to go back there some time and take it slower. It was quite the whirlwind tour. And it makes me nervous that I won't have enough time when I go to other countries. We had two full days, and it still felt like not enough (clearly, not enough). But absolutely fabulous.
There are so many more pictures. Pretty much everything I mentioned has some pictures that go along with it. If anyone is interested, I included as much as I could, just e-mail me (borst.wendy@gmail.com) and I can put up some more pictures in a new post.
Now I have to spend this coming week getting ahead (again) so I can go to Tunisia guilt free. My third continent! I can hardly wait for that one. It should be quite an experience.
<3
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