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Published: September 26th 2006
Arc de Triomf
Barcelona's version of Paris' ArcI loved Spain as soon as we went through the mountain from Cerbere to Portbou, it's so different from the rest of Europe, you really feel like you're in a different world.
We got to Spain early morning and were all pretty tired after not sleeping on the overnight train and were pretty disorientated, once we had got our bearings we headed off to La Rambla, the huge main road running down the centre of Barcelona to the docks. I don't think there's any road in the world quite like this one, the centre is pedestrianised, and is always packed full of people, market stalls and street performers by day. And by night it's a den of scum and villainy, filled with drug dealers, prostitutes and beer vendors, which are actually pretty cool, the beer vendors I mean, they wander around the streets of barcelona with an ice-cold six pack of beer which they're willing to part with at $1 a beer. You could be sitting on the beach at midnight and you'll get cheap beer service.
Once we had found our hostel and dumped our bags, we wandered around the city, saw the huge food market just off
View from the Hostel
The narrow little streets of Barcelona La Rambla, where you'll find some things you'd rather not know existed. Another cool thing about Barcelona is that you're never in want of an ice cream since every 3rd shop sells it.
During the time we were in Barcelona, it had a huge influx of young French students on holiday, apparently it's a really cheap place to come on holiday for them. It's been the only time so far on my travels where english speaking travellers were so greatly outnumbered.
On the second day we went outside of the city because we were told that the beaches just outside Barcelona are in fact much much better, it turned out to be a waste of time as we ended up going to a pretty awful beach right next to the industrial sector. So we had a huge disgusting factory right next to us. It was good to be in the Mediterranean for the first time though. Also bought my FC Barca soccer ball so we played around with it on the beach.
The 2 Minnesotan guys had to catch a ferry to Rome the next day so I went along with them to the docks to book
The Terraces
Awesome fountain in Barcelona's park the ticket, unfortunately the ferries were all fully booked so we went all the way to the main station and they bought train tickets to Rome and we said our goodbyes and went back to the centre of Barcelona.
That night, I went out to find a nice place to have a drink, feeling kinda lonely after losing my new Minnesotan friends, when lo and behold, I see them walking back down the street with their backpacks, not particularly in the best of spirits either. They had missed their train, apparently they were given the wrong train time by the woman at the station, sometimes the language barrier causes these kinds of misunderstandings. Anyway, the guys had no place to stay and it was like 11PM, so I helped them out. There were no more rooms at the place we were at originally, but I had met a British dude who found a place for his friend that night, so we went to his hostel and they got sorted out.
Afterwards I told them we should try and surprise the Melbourne girl who had gone on an organised pub crawl (we had all said goodbye to the Minnesotans
Sagrada Familia
Guadi's crazy church, under construction for over a hundred years at the station earlier) I remembered that one of the stops was "Ryan's Irish Pub" obviously I couldn't forget that one. So went there and had a few beers and fortunately the pub crawl was still on its way. So we had a good night, although they refused to give me a free drink even though I owned the damn bar.
The next day I went on a bicycle tour of the city which was really good, this helped me to come to the realisation that cycling around truly is the best way to see these cities. The guide was very knowledgeable and most amusing. Got to see all the Barcelona sights and got a basic idea of the historical significance of it all.
Afterwards I met back up with the British dudes and we hung out for a while, and I decided to continue my coastal tour with them to Valencia.
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Melanie
non-member comment
Hola Ryan!
Como estas? We loved Barcelona...so jealous that you are there! All well in London, planning to go to France to visit some friends before the weather turns even worse. Is you Dad still planning to hit the UK? Keep well Mel x