Barcelona, AKA my first train ride

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This weekend I got to visit Barcelona. I was pretty excited because this is the first time I had gotten to use my rail pass and travel outside of France. It was a real adventure, as I have never taken a train anywhere before. One tip about trains: you have to watch those train ticket salesman . . . they are kind of like airline people, and will sell you a more expensive ticket than you need. They told me it would cost like 60 euros each way for an overnight train from Paris to Barcelona (on top of the mega bucks I paid for the pass). I figured out that I really only had to pay 20 euros for a slower and (not direct) train. Once I got that taken care of, it went much smoother. My overnight train left Paris at about 9 pm on Friday night bound for the station at Port Bou (Espagne) just across the border into Spain. Once there I had to change for a several hour trip to Barcelona. I arrived in Barcelona around noon and had to work on finding a room as I hadn’t thought it that important to do in advance. . . It all turned out okay, but I would’ve felt much better if I had known where I was going to drop off my bags when I arrived. I saw several interesting people on the way, including a couple of older American ladies (at least in their 60s but perhaps in their 70s) that appeared to be traveling on their own. They were pretty cute with their rolling luggage and maps and everything; I was very impressed and can only hope I have that kind of energy, spirit, and courage when I’m their age.

Back to me now; it took me a couple of tries, but I finally found a hostel/hotel that had a room. The room (which you can see pictures of on this page) cost me 22 euros and I was pretty pleased to be able to rent it as the old man running the place spoke neither English or French. My Spanish is not so hot, so it was amazing that everything worked out okay. My room was about half a block down an alleyway-type street that intersects Les Rambles. Les Rambles is a boulevard that runs from the city center all the way down to the waterfront. It is a very interesting street lined with street performers, florists, newsstands, cafes, and bird sellers. At night the place is just packed with crowds of people.

At the end of Les Rambles is a monument to Columbus, built in 1888 and marking the spot where Queen Isabelle and King Ferdinand welcomed Columbus back from his first trip to America. I took the elevator to the top of the monument where you can look out from the base of the statue for a great panoramic view of the city.

I slept really well that night, even with it being kind of loud in the hotel. The next morning I went to the Picasso Museum (sorry, but no pictures from there). The Picasso museum was started after Picasso’s personal secretary gave his collection of Picasso’s work to the city for a museum. Barcelona is one of the places that Picasso lived when he was young, before going to Madrid and Paris. Picasso donated some of his own work to the museum; after his death his widow donated more objects. Unfortunately, Picasso never got to visit the museum, as he swore never to return as long as Franco was in power. The collection is arranged chronologically, this means you really get a feel for how Picasso developed as an artist (how different factors affected the different periods of his art). It was a great museum, supposedly one of the best collections of his work anywhere (especially his early works). There is a well-known quote attributed to Picasso, “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.” I never really understood this until this museum (and I’m not totally sure I’m right about it now). There are a couple of rooms in the museum dedicated to interpretations of paintings by Velázquez (who is considered one of the greatest painters ever). It was really interesting to see a picture of the Velázquez realist work and then Picasso’s modernist/cubist/etc. version. They show exactly the same subjects, but it is amazing how each artist interprets them differently.

After the Picasso Museum, I went to La Sagrada Familia, the Antoni Gaudi modernist/art nouveau/etc. masterpiece. It is still under construction today, though being started in 1880s, and is expected to be finished in 20-50 more years (construction depends totally on private donations, so the speed of construction can depend on if they have the money or not). Upon its completion, it will be the tallest church in the world. It was really amazing to get to go up in the towers (2 euros for an elevator ride, on top of the 5 or so euros I paid to get in). Also interestingly enough, waiting in line behind me was some older people from Dallas. They had been on a Mediterranean cruise and it had just ended. One of the gentlemen had his luggage lost by Iberian Air (the Spanish national carrier?) and they have not gotten it too him two weeks later. Also they had to change planes two or three times to get to Spain, when I only had to change once to get to Paris (from Oklahoma City no less, not like DFW where they were from).

After La Sagrada Familia, I hiked around to see two residences designed by Gaudi, the Casa Batlló (built for a single family I believe) and Casa Milà - La Pedrera (which was built to be an apartment building. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go inside either of these buildings or up to Parc Güell. (A park that was designed by Gaudi to be a housing development but only has one house. It has some amazing stairways and other features.)

I also got to visit Montjuïc, the hill that was the site of a World’s Fair in 1929 and the center of the 1992 Olympic Games. The stadium there was built in the 1920s or 1930s and is beautiful (you can see in my pictures the equestrian statues that grace the top of the façade of the stadium). I also got to see the Olympic cauldron. This was a special visit for me, as it was the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona and the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France (this was the last year both summer and winter were held in the same year) that were the first games I remember watching. It was these games that made me fall in love with the Olympic movement. I remember the opening ceremonies of the Barcelona Games when they had an archer afflicted with polio light the cauldron by shooting a flaming arrow over it . . . very dramatic.

I didn’t have any more time to do anything else in Barcelona (there was several more things I would’ve like to have done), because I had to catch a train around 5 or 6 pm back to the French side of the French/Spanish border to catch my sleeper train back to Paris. I have to tell you I was SO happy to be back in French speaking territory. I liked Barcelona a lot, but it was huge relief to be back to what is familiar to me. I could speak with confidence again (notice I said with confidence and not necessarily correctly, I’m not that good yet . . . lol). There is a picture of my couchette at the end of all the pictures. Basically it is a compartment with six bunks, three stacked on either side the small door and ladder. It is not great sleep, but it is worth it to not have to be awake for the train rides. If you pay to sleep on the train then you don’t have to pay to sleep at your destination then (like you would if you fly). There was this interesting guy in my compartment that was from somewhere in Africa. We had a nice conversation totally in French. It was rough, but I was able to explain where I was from, that I was a student, where I lived in Paris, what I had done in Barcelona, and also understand what he was doing (he was on vacation). I arrived back in Paris at around 7 or 8 AM, happy to have survived my first great train adventure. I was extremely happy to be back home, though the trip brought back all kinds of memories about how it was when I first arrived in Paris, not really speaking any of the language or really knowing what I was doing. Next weekend I get to go to London to see my cousin Elizabeth (who is studying in Scotland) and her sister/my cousin Mindy who is coming to visit her. I’m really excited! Love you all and miss you. Hope you're all enjoying all of the pictures I'm taking (I am addicted to taking picutres with the blue sky and clouds in the background . . . lol).

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