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Published: April 11th 2008
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Okay so Barcelona was totally not where i went after Newcastle, but I managed to write this entry first so I'm going to publish it out of order.
Alright I´m going to try to write this entry while in Barcelona so everything is fresh in my mind.
First I would like to say that I´ve been really nervous about the Barcelona stretch of my trip. I´ve heard that Barcelona is really cool, but I´ve also heard that its the worst place for pickpockets in all Europe. When making my spring break plans I wanted to cut Barcelona out completely, but I basically had to make a stop here bc it takes a whole day by train to get just from Nice to Barcelona and on to Malaga is a whole other day. So I girded my loins and made reservations. i also made myself a thief-proof pocket on the inside of a pair of pants and a skirt. i cut the top off of an old pair of knee-high socks, and sewed them into two pockets just big enough to hold a debit card and some money. i then sewed these pockets to the inside of the pockets of
the aforementioned pants and skirt. ain´t nobody getting in there.
In case you don´t know much about Barcelona, it is a coastal city on the eastern coast of Spain. It is part of Catalonia, so the official language is Catalan (a strange mix of Spanish, French, and random influences I don´t understand--their word for chocolate starts with an 'X´). I think Barcelona is most famous for its modernist architecture, especially stuff by this guy called Gaudi. More on him later.
So far I have been very pleasantly surprised. I arrived at my hostel last night around 10, where I was greeted by a very helpful and friendly staff member. I would like to recommend this hostel (Backpackers BCN). All the staff I´ve encountered are super nice and willing to help me with my less than spectacular spanish, its quiet and has free internet and breakfast, and the location is good.
This morning the first order of business was making reservations for my journey to Malaga this Friday. I was really proud of myself bc I was able to say in Spanish to the guy behind the ticket counter "Hello, I have a railpass, and I need reservations
three crosses thingy
i went up on this and there was no railing and i was creeped out for a train to Malaga this Friday." and then he talked to me in English, but at least i tried. AND! last night in the taxi I was able to say "Hello, We need to go to two destinations" (I shared a cab with some Canadian girls I met on the train). This is the first time I´ve been in a foreign country where I can converse in the local language, and its really fun even if i´m not very good at it!
After the reservation was reserved, I headed over to Parc Guell, an urban park that Gaudi designed. Its got excellent views of the city, lots of mosaics (one of Gaudi´s trademarks, i guess), and wavy structures (another one of Gaudi´s trademarks--you´ll see what I mean when you look at the pictures.) The entrance of the park is faaaantastic! At the end of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, James is suppose to grow up to live in the peach pit, and the peach pit makes a really neat-o house, as you can imagine. Well, when I saw the little houses at the front of the park, I thought they must be of a similar
level of coolness as James´ peach pit house. The landscaping isn´t the most amazing that I´ve seen (as far as urban parks go, I think the flora and fauna in Stanley Park in Vancouver are just outstanding), but I´m certain there´s not another park in the whole world like Parc Guell.
After leaving Parc Guell I made my way towards La Sagrada Familia, a church that Gaudi designed. This is the main attraction of Barcelona, even though it has been under construction for about 100 years now. Like Parc Guell, it was definitely unique. I´m no architect, but I was impressed by how it seemed to have several different styles incorporated into its design. i walked around the outside but didn´t go in bc I´m tired of paying for stuff. HOWEVER, before i circumambulated the premises, i had a seat in a park in front of the church. After a few minutes, some guy comes and sits down beside me even though there were plenty of empty benches around. and of course, he starts talking to me. his name was aziz. he was from morocco. he asked me my name and where i was from. and then he told
me he studied astology and tried to grab my hand so he could read my palm. i refused and got creeped out and went away. hmm.
next i walked down la paseig de gracia (i think thats what its called), this street that has a bunch of gaudi buildings along it. they were neat. you will see in the pictures.
speaking of pictures, i have been kinda bad about taking pictures of barcelona. i think its much harder to take interesting pictures in cities than in more rural locations, and when i´m alone i feel less motivated to take pictures b-c i get tired of taking pictures. sometimes i just want to look at things without having to worrying about documenting them properly, you know? you should just go to barcelona for yourself, bc it is really a very pretty and nice city. i´ve been here for 48 hours now, and no one has stolen anything from me, so i think the pickpocket thing isn´t that bad after all.
another good thing about barcelona is that it is GREAT for souvenirs. souvenirs are cheesy i guess, but we all want them, and its really lame when you
can´t find anything interesting. barcelona has lots of neat tshirts, neat glassware stuff, postcards, etc., etc. and there are street vendors selling cheap jewelry. i love that.
today i didn´t do much. i headed out towards the beach, but it was cloudy and kinda cold, so instead i just walked up and down las ramblas (the main road) and bought some of those souvenirs i was talking about. and i sat around and read bc thats what i do. there are lots of good museums in barcelona, but like i said before, i am tired of paying for attractions.
i had been forewarned about the lacklusterness of spanish cusine, and it seems that this warning was true. for dinner tonight i got a tortilla (omelette) and potato sandwhich and it was the blandest thing i have eaten in a long time.
on the whole, barcelona was a very nice and manageable city, even for a lone female traveller.
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Michelle Lucy
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Jealous!
I would love to go to Barcelona. It looks so unique and beautiful!