First let me apologize in this later than normal blog posting, once I meet up with my family and friends in Vienna I have had very little down time. I am currently in Florence with my Mom till Sunday when we leave and travel on to Rome.
And sorry Kayla, we did not have a chance to visit your restaurant
Wednesday (July 13th):
While
on my train to Barcelona, I realized I had mistakenly made a reservation for a
hostel for the following Thursday so when I landed in the train station, I made
a v-line to the nearest McDonalds.
Panicked, I figured out where in Barcelona I was (where the train
station was located) and quickly did a hostelworld search to find a place to
sleep for the night. After 30 minutes, I
had a hostel booked, directions on how to get there written down, and was on my
way via the non-ac ATM (Authortat del Transport metropolitan) when I saw my
first mugging. Just one car next to me,
I saw a girl board the train with a rolling suitcase when a group of 4-5 locals
surrounded her and demanded her phone in order to let her board/get away. Although there was little I could do, it
served as a good reminder and a foreshadow that I was no longer in
Paris/London/Normandy, street crime is a real threat to tourists and believe
me, I look like a tourist.
When I
reached the hostel (only got lost for ~5min), I settled in and skyped with
Steph for an hour or so and posted a blog while enjoying the open courtyard
provided by the hostel.
Thursday (July 12th):
I slept in till 11am, showered, checked out, and was on my way to meet up with French
Tom at 2:00pm in our hostel. I took the
METRO and got caught up writing in my travel journal but ended up losing track
of time and ended up getting out at the “Licet” L3 stop. I knew the general idea of how to get to our
hostel and walked through the “Market La Boqueria” and made my way to our
hostel. Although this seems like a small
adventure, I was 3 weeks into my trip and I would consider this my first
successful solo navigation, with no map, and was quite proud that I was at our
hostel at the correct time even with getting off at the wrong stop and had
never been to the city before.
Anyways, Tom and I unloaded our stuff in the room and made
our way to the pier where he was told the free hostel walking tour would take
place. He must have misunderstood
because we waited for 30 minutes at the spot and not a single tour was taking
place, we decided to walk around the city for a bit and get orientated in the
city instead.
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| View of Barcelona's main beach with the W Hotel in the background |
After our stroll about the city, we stopped by the Market La
Boqueria and picked up baguettes, freshly cut ham, fresh fruit, and a 12-pack
of San Miguel (a Spanish beer). We took
the food and drinks to the hostel rooftop where we ate, drank, and watched the sun
with music provided by the hostel and interact with other travelers (a nightly
ritual we continued all three nights of our stay). While we were up there, we were approached by
the hostel bar tour guide and asked us that if we wanted to participate in a
small game, winner get discounted tickets to the hostel bar crawl.
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| Aggiungi didascalia |
After we were done eating, we took a shower and made our way
to the lobby where Tom, myself, and two other girls played a game of Wii
bowling to compete for the discounts.
Although we split the teams in half so both groups received a discount
regardless of who won, I had the highest score with 158 points (yep, beat that
Tom, I know you’re reading this). But I
also enjoyed our conversation with the hostel bar tour guides as Ola
(pronounced Hola) and Matt who were extremely interested in understanding the
whole American “Fraternity” system that brought Tom and I together.
We started the first of four bars by simply interacting with
the other travelers from the other hostels.
I befriended a group of German girls (one spent most of her life in Boston,
MA) and keept an eye on French Tom who was hitting it off with two Australian
girls. I knew he was interested in one
particular girl and he was doing an awful job keeping her friend engaged in the
conversation so I would jump in and out to “take the grenade” for him and
keeping the friend happy.
Things were going great, and after a few drinks/shots, we
were on our way out to the second bar when a small misunderstanding was
suddenly escalated. Tom and I were
grabbing a shot from the tray (apparently the tray was for a new incoming
group, not our group which had already received ours) and the bar tour guide
hit Tom’s arm which caused him to drop the shot as it hit the floor. After a few moments of quarrelling, we were leaving
the bar when Tom shouted “real good business, I’m for sure coming back here you
asshole” and had one foot out of the front door when all of a sudden, the tour
guide he had just yelled at, grabbed his shoulder from the back (ripping his
Hugo boss shirt in the process) and was in mid swing towards Tom’s face. Tom avoided the punch, and I quickly took Tom
in an arm lock and pulled him out of the bar before things got too crazy. After 10-15 minutes of yelling at the bar
owner, we walked back to the hostel so he could throw away his shirt and put on
a new one. We were wandering the streets
for 15 minutes looking for our hostel bar crawl group and luckily ran into them
as it was heading to the third bar.
At the third bar, I again did my friendly duty to keep the
Australian girl’s friend company while Tom did what Tom does best. We were then off to the fourth and final
destination, The Apollo Disco Club, where we danced for roughly and an hour but
Tom lost his Australian girl once inside and I’m not much of a
disco-kind-of-guy (plus I was lucky to get in scandals, who knew Europeans
would be so strict on that kind of stuff) so we called it a night and walked
back around 3:30am.
Friday (July 13th):
After sleeping in a bit, we found the correct meeting location of the hostel
walking tour and took a tour of the “Gothic District” of Barcelona. We started at the “Placa Reial” and saw the
old Roman wall, Casa de la Cintat (City Hall), Palas de la Generalitat, the
“poor man’s Catheredral” and other sites along the district area. After the tour, we took a break at a grass
square by the beach and pier and walked back to the market to continue our
nightly routine of sandwiches, beer, and rooftop view. I could get use to that.
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| Superior School of Fine Arts in Barcelona (Pablo Picasso studied from age 13-18) |
We then meet up with Tom’s London roommates (“flatmates” in
English English) Hamish and Danica for drinks on the beach and we listened to
his experience about running with the bulls just a few days earlier. Danica also talked about how “dreadful”
Spanish men are and their views of how to treat a lady. I guess their views are different in Spain
than in the “British Empire” to say it nicely hahaha. Then we finished our night at a bar far from
the tourist spots, filled with locals, and served beers for €2, my kind of bar.
Saturday (July 14th):
After another late morning, we went to “La Dolca Herminia” for paella which was
brown in color and fresh, right-from-the-ocean, seafood all for 8 euro. Yes, and check please. We then continued our day by taking the
hostel walking tour of the Gaudi (famous Barcelona architect) buildings. We saw 4 of the 5 major sights and ended at
“Sagrada Familia” where Tom and I went inside and took the “lift” (elevator in
American) to the top for a sight to see of the city. This cathedral is easily the coolest
cathedral I’ve ever been in. Because it
is so new (still in the process of being constructed), the ceilings are 5
stories tall, lots of natural light (didn’t even need lamps), and plenty of
vivid stained glass to provide the nature feel it was intended to have during
its planning phases in the late 18th century. Expect date of completion: 2040.
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| Tom and I at Sagrada Familia |
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| Inside Sagrada Familia |
That night (after our sandwiches/beer/rooftop view), we meet
up with Hamish and Danica one last time where we went to a Spanish music
festival at the National Catalan Museum and listened to Spanish hip-hop, rap,
and rock music till 2:30am.
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| Rooftop of the hostel (dinner time view) |
Sunday (July 15th):
Tom and I checked out of our hostel after being woken up by the two girls also
staying in our hostel room who were searching (unsuccessfully) for their
passports. We rented a storage unit on
the 2nd floor of the hostel, and we took the METRO up to see Gaudi’s
park which lies on the outskirts of town and gave a holistic view of the entire
city. We then returned to our storage
unit, changed into our swimsuits, and spent the afternoon soaking up the rays
while people watching with a pair of sunglasses (good thing I brought them, as
my eyes were darting around the whole time, trying to understand the whole
topless sunbathing thing).
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| View of Barcelona from Gaudi's Park |
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| Famous Gaudi Lizard (or at least thats what people tell me) |
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| Leaving our hostel |
After the beach, we walked back to the Rombla and
listened/watched people sing and dance to Spanish Romba music. Once we were all packed up, I said goodbye to
Tom, and I was off to the train station to catch my 7hr overnight bus to
Aix-en-Provence. While waiting for my
bus, a random Spanish man waved me over and offered a sandwich which I first
refused, but accepted after he insisted.
I returned to my spot when he walked over with a plate with another
sandwich and a bunch of nutella squares.
I stood up, thanked him with a handshake, and reflected from what I’ve
seen.
As soon as I landed in the city, I saw a robbery, and
apparently Tom and I were the only ones not to have our wallets stolen in our
entire hostel. Things are bad for
tourists, but the heart of the people are kind, generous, and willing to help
with no reward asked. Just as I came to
that conclusion, I saw a man try to steal a bag from a 30-year-old lady whose husband had just left to use the
restroom. I heard her shout “Put that
down you mother fucker!” for which he complied and ran away. I went over to her and greeted her, tried to
get her to calm down (as she did get her bag back), introduced myself, and
offered some of the nutella bites I had just received. It turns out, the couple was on their
honeymoon and were from Newton, MA (a suburb of Boston) and the husband worked
at the MIT labs where a friend of Steph’s use to work.
I continued to talk to the couple for an hour and a half,
and after talking on a deeper level, they were very impressed with my
aspirations, personality, and intelligence and recommended me a few books that
I plan on reading when I return to the states (books about soul searching and
discovering one’s self). As much as I
don’t need compliments to feel good about myself, knowing I can make that kind
of an impression (that’s not my mom or dad) at the age 23 within 20-30 minutes
of conversation, I felt a stronger connection to the purpose of my adventure
and has become one of my highlights of the trip.
We parted ways at Aix-en-Provence as I continued to my
hotel, but I recommended them visiting the “Chinese restaurant with a large
90ft street sign” and wished them well on their honeymoon travels. I hope to have more experiences such as this,
and that one day, I will be that couple exploring the countryside of France
with my wife.
Summary: I am happy to be one of the few tourists to leave
the city with my wallet, passport, camera, and iPod. I am glad I saw the city, however I would
classify it as the “west coast” of Europe.
Very fun-loving, slow-moving, party-enjoying people and although it was
good seeing, it doesn’t really match my personality. I guess I’m more of a boring kind of guy, who
enjoys seeing the rich culture and digging deeply into intense conversation.
Au revoir Barcelona
Jay
