Advertisement
Published: February 15th 2008
Well, my trip has taken a strange turn. Without getting too much into the details, which potentially would bore you to tears, I am both relieved and incredibly sad to say that I am on my way back to the States tomorrow. Since the last entry, before the 'turn,' the plan was to go back to Rome for a day before Keith left to go back to Chicago. I would stay in Rome for another day before flying out to Barcelona and spending the next week working my way back to Rome through France. Suffice it to say that many things have gone wrong since I left Rome (which I am still in love with). Most of it has to do with Keith leaving. It's incredibly hard to have spent 10 days traveling with someone you care very much about and then to go on by yourself for another week. Apparently I'm not handling the adjustment well. This has kind of surprised me; I'm incredibly independent in so many aspects of my life that I thought for sure I'd go on to have a blast wandering around the Mediterranean. Perhaps I'm not ready for that yet. Perhaps I never will be.
Gothic adornment outside of a church
I love the skull he is holding
La Rambla, Barcelona, SpainPerhaps, for me, it has to be all alone, or all together. But hey, live and learn, right?
Bumming around Barcelona
Now that I have my arrangements to get back home I can get out and enjoy Barcelona. And true to form,
I did enjoy it, though probably not as much as I would have if I'd come with friends; Barcelona doesn't seem to be a town that promotes solitude and solo adventures.
That's because Barcelona is a party town. You want to stay out late and have a good time? Barcelona is calling. This is a place where breakfast, not supper, is the last meal of the day for many. The sunrise, not the sunset, marks the end of the waking hours. In the streets, there are more areas for pedestrians to meet and mingle than there are roads for cars to drive on. From various people who I met in the city to the fliers posted in my hostel it was all the same: "come out and join us tonight, we'll be out forever." All I could think was
and I thought college was wild... A thinking bull
Barcelona, Spain Unfortunately I didn't go out to any of the bars, despite the many offers. My 36 hours in Barcelona actually didn't consist of much, especially the first day I was there. I mainly walked La Ramblas and explored only a bit of L'Eixample. I never made it down to the beaches or the Barri Gòtic. I didn't go to Park Güell or Montjuïc. I definitely didn't make a day trip to Montserrat. And to my astonishment looking back on the trip, I never even sampled the local cuisine. Lame, I know...
Part of my problem was my total lack of Catalan or Spanish speaking skills. Yes, I met plenty of English speakers; most notably my ultra-cool, ultra freewheeling hostel roommates who rescued a stray puppy the night I stayed there—he was so cute!; but the main problem I had was finding my way around the city. I didn't know how to pronounce a lot of things in Catalan and when I tried, I failed miserably. It took me all 36 hours I was there to figure out how to mail a postcard. I even left one metro worker so confused with what I was trying to say, she had
the most bewildered look on her face when I just gave up and tried to figure out the system on my own. Which really is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it (and the Barcelona metro system is astonishingly comprehensive, trains come even more frequently than they did in Rome).
Barcelona was different though. For me, at least, especially after spending most of my time here in Europe in a city like Rome (oh, Rome!). It smelled kind of different, too, and for the longest time I couldn't place it (I thought it was just the hostel). The housing units were so crowded together, but in a different way than Rome was. I don't want to say they were tenement-like, for the negative connotation prevails; yet there was a certain chaos to them. Let's just say that I saw a lot of undies hanging out to dry from my hostel porch balcony, and heard a lot of the next-door neighbor's conversations.
And Barcelona is
liberal. I can't tell you how many conversations I overheard about buying drugs or selling drugs or using drugs... et cetera. There was a lot of very overt sexual activity
that I saw too that I will not try to retell (for my own peace of mind... I've worked very hard to get some images out of my head).
There were so many quirks to it, that I was amused despite my sad disposition at first. La Rambla was very active, and although it was pretty touristy, there was no shortage of sights to see. My favorite part were the roosters, birds, and pigeons even for sale about a third of the way down. The streets cutting into La Rambla were little adventures to go explore. The architecture was absolutely stunning. I loved the myriad of influences on the region: Gothic Catholic churches, Islamic art, Gaudi and his modernism... the sights constantly inspired me to keep looking, ever stimulated. It never was boring, to say the least. And I didn't even go into any museums or buildings or houses. Walking around Barcelona is grand enough.
Oddly enough, Barcelona felt more American and/or commercialized than Italy did. There were American banks here. There were Starbucks here. There were SUVs here. There were pharmacies on every corner it seemed, much like Walgreens and CVS. I even saw a Chicago Pizza
Pie Factory and couldn't help but laugh. I was going home... and I felt at home. How perfect was that.
I got to see a lot of major classic sites though. La Sagrada Familia was right down the street from my hostel, and from there I could walk down Passeig de Gràcia to the pigeon gathering known as Plaça Catalunya and veer off every now and then. I found a lot of cool little shops off La Ramblas and stumbled upon an excellent bookstore where I strangely enough purchased books in French. It seemed like very other turn opened up into a square or a plaza flush with vegetation. I love the Mediterranean. Next time, I'll come back and love Barcelona and Spain. 😊 Had to get that in...
Heading Home
A part of me wonders why I didn't stay and stick it out. I could have gone to France, could have used my French and perhaps felt a bit more adjusted. It's a bit depressing, and I feel like I wasted so much opportunity. But, having said that, this whole trip has been spectacular, just simply amazing. Tonight I go back to Rome and then head on back to the US of A. I won't go into Rome, but spend the night in the airport instead. I think it'd be too sad, wandering the streets of Rome, waiting to leave... no, I'll wait to come back to see her again. Because I will come back, soon. I can't not. Frederick Douglass once said "I have observed this in my experience in slavery, that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom." I may not be a slave, but I find this view of life so harmonious of the ways many people feel about seeing the world, myself included. In the last few weeks, I've learned so much about myself, and my passions, and hopefully have helped myself find a bit more direction in my life. I have fueled the fire. I can't wait to do it again.
So from Barcelona, soon to be Rome... que vagi bé, ciao, and see you soon! Enjoy the pictures from BCNeat!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.336s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 22; qc: 112; dbt: 0.2615s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Omega
Luis E. Estrada
Barcelona and Return Home
I am sorry that you had to cut your trip short! In a selfish kind of way, I will miss the great blogs that you would have created if you had kept your original plans... But I am sure that this is just a postponement... The travel bug is forever with you and you will be at it sooner than you might think (and in a way that will make you happier, with no trade-offs as it would have been the case this time). Your great images from Barcelona brought me great memories. Thank you for that! That city is very close to my hearth because it was there where my World wanderings and many other good things started for me... Too bad that you did not try the food!