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Rainy Barcelona
Looking out over the city from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya at the top of a huge hill. Would have been gorgeous if it was sunny...Ok, I think I've figured it out: Everytime we go somewhere, it's a long weekend, and everytime we get there the weather is unseasonable. That's the only way to explain why it rained in Barcelona while we were there.
And if it hadn't been for our reservations in Barcelona, I would have gotten off the train at the second seaside town we stopped in. And it's not that there was anything wrong with the first town, but I was just in shock at how amazing it looked and don't think I would have resolved to get off the train before it left the station. Someday...
And our Spanish train was the equivalent of a 135 year old man. I'm pretty sure it's days are numbered. Neil says he could write a Stephen King style book about the train that new it was it's last trip and started killing people off... Sounds like it needs some refinement before he pitches the idea to a publisher...
We arrived in a dark and rainy Barcelona at about 10pm and headed over to our private room that we had booked in what we thought was a budget hotel. Well, when we got
The view from our pad
That's the sweet market across the street. there, we found out that it was much cooler than that. It was more or less a few studio apartments... with kitchens, TV's, and balconies! And it was not expensive in the least. Check out Welcome Guesthouse Studios, or one of the other properties run by the same people for some very nice bidget accomodations in Barcelona. It was super nice, and run by Canadians! They gave us all kinds of advice.
So we pretty much collapsed in our beds from exhaustion, and slept well into the next morning. I got up first and went across the street to the market to buy us some food for dinner. I couldn't really remember the last time I'd eaten a vegetable since most of our sandwiches are bread, meat and cheese, so I made sure to get as much as I could. I ended up only spending 10€ on fruits and vegetables, but somehow came away with a shopping bag bursting with food. The woman at the stand was very nice. She didn't speak English, and I only knew seven words in Spannish (for of them are for ordering a drink) but we got it done with the help of some
Woah! It's the Sun!
On our last day in Barcelona, in the evening, the sun finally broke through. Jerk. pointing. It was a neat experience.
The only thing we did that day was go to the art museum. It was the only thing we could think to do in the rain. And it poured. We got soaked walking to and from the metro. The museum was decent, and focused on Catalonian art. Catolonia is a part of Spain, but they don't speak Spannish. The speak Catalan, which is a mixture of Spannish, Italian, and French. They don't consider themselves to be a part of Spain, and want to be independent. In fact, they don't even follow the world cup, because they don't want to cheer for Spain.
We feasted on pasta and salad at our sweet studio apartment, and drank Spannish wine. One bottle that we bought for 1€25 was delicious! You just can't get that kind of value back home.
The next morning, I set out early in search of football (aka soccer) tickets for the game that was happening that night. We were tipped off about it by our Canadian host. She said that since this game was just a friendly, and the team had been dissapointing this year, we'd probably have a good
Our Album Cover
I guess we'll have to start a band now. shot at getting tickets. I got there early, about half an hour before the gates opened, and waited with a few other non-locals interested in doing the same thing. Then I lined up at the ticket windows and waited for them to open, which didn't happen for another 45 minutes. Then they told us that they wouldn't sell us football tickets for another 15 minutes.... So basically the ticket windows were open for no reason, and I can't figure that out. Then they todl us that they wouldn't sell us tickets at those windows at all, and sent us to another gate. Finally when tickets did go on sale (after I dodged scalpers for about 15 minutes... if you say no, they count backwards in English, and slowly lower the price. I was warned that they could be counterfeit tickets, so I ignored them) I was able to get three seats in the cheapest/worst seats possible, for a mere 50€.... Totally worth it for a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I should also mention that the weather was better. It didn't rain, and there was some sun, but it wasn't beach weather.
While I waited in the apartment
Top Row
Well, fourth from the top. Still, great seats! There probably isn't a bad place to sit in the whole building. for Neil and Amy to return from their morning at Las Ramblas (cool street with markets and street performers) I caught some Baywatch on TV... dubbed in Spannish. I think it's terrible in any language. They followed up Baywatch with Walker Texas Ranger. I turned it off before Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked anyone in the face, but you could tell it was going to happen, and happen a lot...
When Neil and Amy did return, they said Las Ramblas was dead, but we decided to quickly eat some lunch and walk back to see it again. It was apparently much busier in the afternoon.... which I guess kind of makes sense.
We went to Las Familias, which is pretty neat. It's a large church that they've been building since 1882 using only old world masonry techniques. The architecture is spectucular. We didn't bother pqying to go inside... I've seen construction sites before... and it was a Sunday, so nothing was happening anyway. It's expected it'll be done in about 20 years.
Neil and I decided it would be the worst project to be involved in as an Engineer: You'd work on it your whole life, you'd die
La Sagrada Familia
This cathedral has been under construction since 1882 and is being built using old-world masonry techniques, all by hand. It was originally supposed to take 100 years to build, but is now not expected to be completed until 2026. Typical... before it was done, there's constantly new technologies that you didn't plan for 130 years ago (such as the big tower cranes that now help to hoist the masonry pieces), all of the architects who designed it are dead so you can't ask them about the drawings, caclulators weren't around until the 1970's so hopefully the Math is right, and you're running 40 years behind schedule thanks to a couple of world wars and some political instability. No thank you.
We had some time to kill before we went to the football game, so we went back to the apartment. Amy napped, Neil read a book, and I watched Spannish roller hockey on TV.... it was weird. First of all, they don't wear roller blades. Instead they opted for the classic four wheeled models. I don't know why. They also use field hockey sticks instead of proper hockey sticks, the goalies have a terrible playing stle, and I think they play by field hockey rules. Canada could teach them a lot about the game... Barcelona won, if anyone cares. And I know you all do.
After another homemade dinner, we drank wine on the balcony for about an
Crazy Architecture
The detail is really overwhelming hour. It was pretty awesome. The ambulances in Barcelona sound like travelling techno parites.
The football game was really cool. Unfortunately Barcelona lost 3-2 in the dying seconds of penalty time. It took us a while to figure out that when Barcelona fans are unhappy, they wave white paper, or towels. It looks mysteriously like cheering.... It was a pretty typical game. Lot's of chanting, lot's of diving, and they brought the stretcher out onto the field twice for people who I'm sure were not vey hurt at all.
The stadium was really cool. We were third row from the top, and it's the largest stadium in Europe, but our view of the field was great! It's very well designed. It was only a quarter full, and people were pretty spread out, but a quarter of almost 100,000 seats still works out to a lot of people! We still got to enjoy the atmosphere. A good portion of the crowd in our section spent the bulk of the game trying to get paper airplanes to land on the field with mixed results. Good times had by all.
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