Good Morning Barcelona!

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So the next several entries are a little late in coming, due to lack of time and internet access during my spring two week vacation...

April 6

The start of the journey began with April and I meeting at the library in Nantes in order to return our overdue books and then grab a bite on our way to the train station. Our backpacks neatly packed for the one and only time on this trip, we took our big smiles and excitement on a train towards Beauvais, France. Along the train ride, we picked up our friend Dan who lives in Angers, France, he was our final installment to the group. We connected through Paris, where I was completely ripped off by a candy vendor in the north station, and then took a less than chic train up to Beauvais.

In Beauvais we met up with another assistant, Jane, who housed us for the night so that we could catch our flight the next morning from the Beauvais airport. We got our flight just as planned and flew southwest towards Barcelona, Spain.

April 7

To our disappoinment, we were greeted in Spain with gray skies, misty rain, and a chilly wind. After an hour bus ride and a good walk through the downtown of Barcelona, we found our ten euro a night hostel: The Graffiti. We were greeted by a staff of dudes who were all friends that owned the hostel together and the Argentinian of the group showed us to our room: a large tile room with 20 bunk beds, however surprisingly comfortable.

That night we ended up going to a grocery store to pick up some things, including one euro sangria in a box, and watching the hostel's entire movie collection: The Red Dragon (which I told Leo, from Brazil that it was "muoy shitty", that got a little chuckle), The Other Bolyn Girl, and The Terminal. During our movie watching, we met two girls from the northwest United States who were studying in another town in Spain, Brianna and Jennifer. About a fourth of the way through the Terminal I decided to hit the hay and call it a night. However, my night was interrupted by an earthquake, ie the tooth missing Belgian that had apparent trouble for about 20 minutes getting settled on the top bunk and then who woke up at 6 am and decided to unpack and repack his entire camping backpack while on the top bunk, it also woke up Dan and April.

April 8

We woke up to better weather conditions, similar, but better and headed out on our first Spanish adventure. We started at the Gaudi masterpiece in progress, the Sagrada Familia cathedral. Apparently this church has been in progress for over a century and that's part of it's fame, that it is never finished. It's an extrordinary blend of classical and modern style with long and thin towers, cubist depictions of the Bible, bright and immaculate stained glass windows, and a big construction zone all around and inside it. I was a little annoyed with the 11 euro ticket that would allow me to walk through it and through Gaudi's house, but it was worth it anyhow. Let's just hope that when it IS finished, they won't charge for entry.

After the Sagrada Familia, I believe we headed towards the downtown area on the famous Las Ramblas streets. I remember really loving the streets of Barcelona and how green the trees that lined it were and how wide they were with plenty of room for pedestrians on both sides and in the middle. I loved walking along Las Ramblas and looking at the different costumed street artists which included a gargoyle and a future Globetrotter doing all kinds of tricks with a basketball and of course the swarms of Munich soccer fans that had arrived for the big Munich-Barcelona game. (It was then that I learned of the tradition to wear a scarf of your team....Americans..we paint our stomachs) Off of Las Ramblas we entered the huge covered market, the Boquiera, that was filled with mounds of fresh fruit that one could make into a freshly squeezed juice, (hello smoothie tradition!) I believe I had a passion fruit raspberry mix? Delicious and fresh either way. After going through the market we walked around dowtown some more, stopping at a Starbucks of course, and then hiked up the long trail to the Gaudi park/property that looks over the city; not a bad view. The park is by far one of my favorite things from the entire trip. From what I understood, he was commisioned by someone to build these unique fairy tale/cubist buildings and structures, as well as this long winding bench made up of colorful mosaic tiles. His bright pink house is also there. (The inside was very simple with a some furniture he left behind, but that's about it) You get this sense that you are walking through the Candyland board game mixed with the Wizard of Oz screen set. It brings a feeling of childhood and fun and it is almost impossible to be grumpy while being there. The cool thing about the area with the bench is that you have people from literally all over the world sitting together on this long piece of art, some drinking a beer, others taking as many pictures as their fingers will allow, some sleeping, and some like myself, just looking out at the city. Unfortunately, the weather was getting a bit icky. We wandered around the park for a while a little longer before heading back to the hostel where we had plans to meet up with the other American girls to go out and find a bar to watch the soccer, oh wait I mean football, match. (I, no doubt, was the most enthusiastic one about this, you know me and my love of sports....)

We first decided to find a bar that April and I were really excited about, it's name is something about a forest, but we read that it's reminiscent of the shire from the Lord of the Rings books. (Ok that I WAS really excited about) It was so cool tucked away in a little alley and inside it's a very nice lounge bar full of trees and vines and fountains. The best part however, were the wax figures set up in the room next to it and they looked so real, it kinda creeped me out! I assume the bar is associated with the wax museum located right next door. Sadly, the bar didn't have a tv so we had to leave to find a pub or something. We walked around forever trying to find a pub that wasn't packed full to watch the game until we FINALLY came across a nicer place with a big screen to watch the end of the game and have a glass of wine. It wasn't exactly my ideal first night out in Spain, but hey, if you can't beat em, join em! Olé!

April 9

I was determined to wake up to the good weather that I had heard was coming, yet I first woke up to the bag packing Belgian, again. Yet the second time was to the nice weather. I put on my swimsuit, my long sun dress that I would end up wearing only the one time, and the three of us headed down to the Meditteranean. We walked along the ports with all the boats and crossed this enormous bridge that takes you to an island with a shopping center and an IMAX theatre (that we considered going to for about 30 seconds) and an aquarium that was too expensive, but gave us an amusing photo opportunity, you'll see. We walked on past a really cool band that had a jazz/Spanish floutist that was really fun to hear and then finally we made it to the beach. Well correction, we bought some Sangria and cups first, don't worry this time it was only 2 euros for the bottle 😊 . We got down to the beach, and sat on the beach chairs that we were later kicked off of due to the 5 euro fee to sit on them, so we found a place right in the sand to make camp up. And boy don't you know you can't go anywhere in Europe without the incessant vendor types. Here, it's Vietnamese women offering massages. I swear I told them no thank you every 5 minutes!
Laying out on the beach was so relaxing. It had been several years since the last time I had seen a beach and to just sit and take in the sights and sounds around me was such a release. We ended up sitting there for around four hours, it was incredible. After about an hour and a half, a California surfer dude that had carved a tattoo into his arm approached us, looking for fun folks to drink with and chat with. He was cool for about 15 minutes, then he talked about using women and the differences between his experiences in the U.S. versus Spain. That's when he lost me. I just kinda ignored his presence and soaked in the sun until about forty minutes later he got up and said, "Well, I'm going. Don't be lame" and that as it. Meh, no issue for me. Later on I had Dan and April make my legs into sand mermaid fins, as it was a tradition so to speak with my family the few times we ever made it to a beach, a good photo op no doubt. We hung out a little after that, I dipped in the cold ocean water to wash off the sand, and then we walked through a different area back to the hostel. A the hostel I was pretrified at a sight, my reflection. I WAS BURNT. REALLY BURNT! Oopsie, shoulda coulda woulda used that sunscreen April had! During my staring contest with my reflection right next to the registration desk, I met an young Australian mate who had just arrived at the hostel. He immediately commented on my bright red skin and I then introduced him to April and Dan. That night the four of us ate some more pasta because thats all you can afford, had some beers, and joined the staff and members of the hostel at a dance club called Moog. Everyone made sure to comment on my sunburn before going out, so it was definitely there all night. We went across town on the metro to find ourselves first at a bar with cheap Mojitos where I was given a rose for free by those vendors that come into restaurants all over Europe. He wanted me to do the European kiss cheek thing but I said, that I was an American with a boyfriend so I had to give a high five. I think he was disappointed. After the bar, we arrived at a really small nightclub that played the type of music that every European can't live without, techo electric house whatever. (I hear there's a difference between them all, but really any group of songs with the same beat thats at least 10 minutes long is the same to me). We had a good time hanging out with our hostel crowd and dancing, but around 3 am I was exhausted and rounded up my people. We walked for what seemed like forever back to the hostel while I giggled at the fact that April and 18 year old Aussie were holding hands.... 😊 Finally we made it back around 4 am.

April 10
Luckily I didn't wake up to Belgian shake and bake above me. However, when I went into the common area of the hostel for a cup a coffee, I found one of the staff guys up and dancing to music, exclaiming "Good morning Barcelona!" as if the night had never ended. And for him it hadn't. It was 9 am. I couldn't believe how he had the energy to even keep his eyes open, let alone dancing. Those Spaniards, I tell you, they can party. This guy was absoutely influenced by God knows what and histarical. He told me that he needed to go get more alcohol and I said, "really? it's after 9 in the morning!" and he replied, "Oh. Of course." And there you have it, that's basically how my time in Barcelona ended, at least I had a going away party guest. 😊 We said our goodbyes to everyone and headed out to catch a bus back to the airport.

At the airport we met a group of three Canadians and an Italian waiting in line in front of us. We got to chatting and found out that they were a punk rock band called This is a Stand Off and were in the middle of their European tour. Then I used my crafty ways of asking about their music and they gave me a free CD. Hmm... too bad I didn't really like it, but hey they could be famous one day!

So that was that, adios Barcelona, capitol of Catalanya. On to Madrid. 😊

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Photos

Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe
I swear every city has one.