Advertisement
Published: September 29th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Barcelona, baby
As we departed our RyanAir flight in the somewhat out of the way Girona airport roughly located about an hour away from the city (Barcelona) centre, we were greeted with a sense of jubliation in the knowledge that we'd arrived in a town where the late september evenings are hotter than any day we'd encountered thus far in the shambolic season we like to think is called summer. This pleasurable blanket of warmth was further intensified by the thick acrid smell of manure that swilled in the nostrils and mouth like a mushroom broth.
After the Coach transfer from airport to the bus station just by the Arc De Triumph, and a short tube journey we immersed from Barcelona's extensive underground train next work just at the mid point of La Rambla, which in most respects is Barcelona's shopping and entertainment heart, and as we arrived it was currently pumping to "get your rocks off" by Primal scream. Fortunalty unbeknown to us, we had arrived right at the beginning of La Merce a three day music festival put on by the Barcelona council every year. With Dozens of stages doted all around the city in various Plaza's and streets
the Fat boy and the guy below
There is tea leaf prime suspect number one. we were truly spoilt for choice, and had no excuses to be bored. This was further affirmed at the arrival of our Hostel where we were greeted by a rowdy mob of merily drunk traveler sorts communing in the busy hostel bar and common room which overlooked one of the many stages. After check in we swifly moved to ovoid further drunken conversations with reception loiterers, and began the quest for our room. fortunately this was quick and painless which was surprising due to the size of the place. Our room was the cheapest (naturally) with the three of us sharing with 21 other people, however this was a none entity as the room had three balconies each commanding stunning views of Plaza Real, with its artisan Coffee shops and cafes circulating its perimeters. The main stage in the centre of the Plaza Real would usually start playing bands at around 6PM and usually wouldn't finish till well beyond 2AM which depending on what your reasons for begin in barcelona were, could either be heaven or hell, ours was the former.
The first night was mainly exploration of La Rambla which spans just over a mile long and it covered
in verious market stalls selling everything from turtels and exotic birds to postcards and papers. the streets are also lined with street performers most experiteeing in still statues of various quality, the invisible man encapsulating my attention the most. when late evening transcends into early morning the performers along with cliental turn a shader blue, with the statues replaced by hookers and tourist with drunken punters.
The next day we were woke up with sun shinning and a free breakfast. We then headed towards the beach walking down the impeccably clean streets of old town barcelona to the sea front and the new promenade where you can find "nelsons column" and the fantastic aquarium, as well as the harbor with boats ranging from old sail boats to modern super yachts. We followed the harbor wall all the way to the beach, which was dotted with sunbathers of various shapes, sizes and ages. the beaches themselves recieved a massive renovation along with the entire city when the olympics took place in 1992, and thankfully this appears to have been maintained. After a further stroll down La Rambla and taking in some of the Gothic quarter with some traditional spanish music playing
Sagrada familia
The local work force; no wonder its taken so long to complete. in an old manor court yard we headed off for a burger in Hard Rock Cafe. Which to say were simply large would be an understatement, needless to say we all wolfed it down in preparation for the 2 for 1 happy hour at Hostel Kabul.
Ah Yes, the glorious 2 litres of beer for €3, how could you possibly go wrong with that? The answers would come to us in the morning, with vague descriptions of our action, of which neither i nor Jon had recollection. Seems we were having a pub games olympics Starting off with Chess (too cool) moving onto pool then finishing off with table football all the time taking advantage of aforementioned deal, of course i was winning, well winning would be a soft way of putting it, and of course Jon was getting emotional. According to the unofficial chinese whisper brigade a hardcore martial arts fight took place, with moves Bruce Lee would have gained a chubby over. Anyway like i said neither of us can remember this and it "was terribly embarrassing", and to add insult to injury i left my wallet out and promptly had over €100 stolen. Seems we peaked too
early, this we pledged wouldn't happen again.
Gaudi
On the Sunday the final day of La Merce music festival we figured we would try and soak up some of the cultural heritage Barcelona has to offer, and the founding farther of this is indisputably Gaudi. As his presence cannot be missed, with shops offering gaudi cups, gaudi pens, gaudi thimbles gaudi bloody everything. As the Sagrad Familia is undeniably his greatest work, we figured it'd be the best place to start. We paid our €10 entrance fee and soon realised why its taken over a decade to build and still has another 50 years to go, the place is huge. massive stone column shooting out at impossible angles all inspired by nature and based on the growth of plants and crystalisation. A truly inspiring piece of architecture, art even. the next stop would be the Gaudi park and house, which probably gives one of the finest views of barcelona and at its highest point you can easily see all the cities boundaries. In the evening we decided to take things a bit mellower, well for the first half hour at least. We met a nice american guy who was also
Gaudi park view
the view from the cross at the top. in our room, of course conversation turned to politics and if he owned a gun or not, turns out he was an ex marine training to be a paramedic. Later on being the social magnets that we are we met with an australian girl from melbourne (ever met one traveling that isn't?) and we all decided to go out to a free indoor gig a few blocks down from the hostel, of course we needed to capitalise on the happy hour so Jon and i had a quick 3 liters each. So much for taking it easy. We got to the venue just in time as the band started their set ten minutes later, they were an elctro outfit from Manchester called the whip and started off the night perfectly. strangly we were the only ones dancing, and dance we did, the spaniards unsure as what to do. However I'm sure they were impressed, at least i hope they were, some amazing moves went down. We swiflty exited when the band finished and made our way to the sea front to find the next bar, it being a sunday we should have found it difficult, but it being Barcelona we
Me and jon
At the Top of Gaudi Park didn't. We soon stumbled upon a travel Bar, which thanks to the promo girl out front added to the night with a few rounds of free shots. The juice had turned sour for Jon and he was in a mood for some unknown reason. A particularly fond memory of the night i remember is when he whispered something to an american and a group of four got up and left, shame he can't remember what was said. This is when we met the Italian girl and the Brazilian guy. Who then bought us a few rounds of Absinth and another few beers (neither of us can remember this). The next morning i learnt a few Italian words and woke up in a strange hotel with a nylon duvet cover with different shades of brown patchwork. i walked her back, packed and we all headed for Morocco. 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0775s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb