Claustrophobia Anyone?

---

Today was truly a travel day. The bus ride from Nice to Barcelona was scheduled for 10 hours, and that's under the best of conditions. We didn't encounter the best of conditions. We did get to see a furniture truck reduced to a pile of ash - literally. Apparently, wooden furniture and diesel fuel burn pretty well together.... That kept the highway a nice parking lot for close to 2 hours.

The stopover before that in Avignon was nice, but short. I was surprised to see that Avignon's walls are almost completely intact. I was also surprised to see the size of the pope's palace. I knew it was opulent, but I didn't realize it took up half the town centre! The official story if I remember is that the two resident popes were recalled because they wanted things more centralized in Rome. Given Avignon's history (historically, the town was hardly the charming Provence town that draws tourists today, quite the sleezy opposite in fact) and what the palace looked like just from the outside, I'd hazard a guess that those pope's lifestyle may have had something to do with it.

Anways, it was close to 9pm by the time we got into Barcelona. I think I might develop claustrophobia with a few more of these 13 hour bus rides. I definitely scored with my accomodation though. "Barcelona Best Rooms" is really a pension-type deal. They converted an appartment flat right behind city hall (Placa Sant Juame) into a series of rooms. I was impressed with how spotless the place is, and surprised that my single room had a bunk bed. Maybe I'm missing something, but if I'm the only person in the room, why do I need to be six feet (literally!!!) in the air? The fully equiped kitchen (that I'm not going to use) is a nice touch. The icing on the cake is the washer and drying. Free laundry! Laundry in Europe is incredibly expensive. You can expect to pay 7 euros for wash and dry. I'm fully equipped to do laundry in the sink, but the issue is more finding a sink you're willing to do laundry in. Hence, with free laundry, I figure I'm not really paying much more than my friends who are staying in 12 bed dorms. I'm paying 30 euro net a night, for a place three minutes from La Ramblas, and two minutes from the hostel most of the others are staying at.

The place took a while to find though. It's hitting me pretty fully that while I've at least a smidgeon of background on a lot of other parts of Europe, I'm embarassing ignorant of all things Spain. I only had an inkling of the Franco dictatorship, and was surprised when I was told there are essentially three main languages in Spain. I learned that the hard way: all the street signs in Barcelona are in Catellan. The language had been repressed, so by way of respect, the new governments switched everything. That made finding my place interesting, because Calle (street) Templarios didn't exist on the map. It took a helpful local to translate that into Carrer Templars, which was very much on the map.

---

Photos

Avignon Pope's Palace
I didn't go in, but the place didn't look too shabby, or small for that matter from the outside.

Sur La Pont d'Avignon
Sur, or on the bridge is actually as good as it gets, because you can't actually cross it. There's only half a bridge!