Barcelona

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.  You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.’”

--JRR Tolkien

Barcelona feels like a long time ago.  I keep meaning to sit down and write about it but am either too tired or my computer is out of battery or too busy or too distracted.  Barcelona reminded both Brianna and I of the West Coast a little.  They both have a similar feel in that there is a beach and everything is very chill.  Until, of course, the night comes.  Everything becomes alive at night.

We walked to the beach any number of times in Barcelona, but we never actually went into the water completely.  The one day we were planning on going to the beach for a morning or afternoon, we got distracted by the soccer field or shopping or the Olympic Village.  We didn’t get to the beach until close to 7 or 8.  We spent a couple hours there, but it was so cold that I didn’t even want to think about getting in the water.  We also had no beach towel.  Wearing our swim suits all day seemed a little silly afterwards, but it would have been even worse if we had gone to the beach and wanted to swim.  During our time in Barcelona, we spent a good three hours sitting at the beach and chilling.

I don’t think I mentioned that our train to Venice was delayed.  Somewhere around three hours delayed.  The train to Barcelona?  It was delayed by five.  We got on the train and left Milan at the right time.  But we didn’t arrive in Barelona until 2 pm when we were supposed to arrive at 9 am.  We found out when we left Barcelona that we were able to get a partial refund because the train was so late (hello 25 euro). 

Barcelona involved a lot of walking and wandering.  We would often just start walking until we found something that looked interesting and then would go try to find it.  This method helped us find a little sky tram that showed us Barcelona from the air.  It was beautiful!  There were three towers connected to the sky tram.  Our buggy got to the middle tram, and it slowed down and seemed really shaky.  Approaching the tower wasn’t too bad, but as we left it the buggy descended.  I did not like that part.  It seemed like it would be way too easy to fall.  Either way, the ride was still spectacular.  It was so fun to explore to find where the tram started and how to get on. 

There was a harbor tour of Barcelona, so I took the opportunity to look at Barcelona from the water as well as the air.  We didn’t take the harbor tour until our last day, and the sky tram was on our first, so it was a nice opportunity to reflect on Spain and on Europe in general.  It was also so relaxing to be on the water and to see the city from a different perspective.  There was one building in particular that I noticed from the water and am really curious as to what it is.

We also stumbled upon Las Ramblas, which are avenues that connect and go through a part of Barcelona.  There are five altogether, and they are very different during the day and at night.  During the day, they are filled with stands selling souvenirs and some restaurant tables.  At dinner time, the souvenir stands disappear for more restaurant tables.  After a night of going out, Las Ramblas becomes a little more sketchy.  It is filled with men selling beer from six packs (you can’t buy alcohol after 11 from grocery stores) and just creepy men in general.  I only experienced that once, and I wasn’t alone.  The men seem harmless, just a little creepy. 

We did go to a club in Barcelona for one night, but we were only there for two.  It seemed like something that we were supposed to experience while we were there, although it was very touristy.  I would have enjoyed experiencing more of the Spanish culture as opposed to the tourist culture in Barcelona.  The club and the dancing here was much less sketchy than some of the dancing common in the States.  It was weird not to see everyone grinding all night, but it was very refreshing.  Of course, there were still some strange old men in the club, but it was easy enough to avoid them.

The hostel in Barcelona was interesting.  It was one of the cleanest hostels I had ever been in.  It also seemed a little strict.  They turned the lights out, which was nice unless you got back anytime after 11 pm.  You also weren’t supposed to shower after, which made the bathrooms that much more crowded in the morning.  The receptionists all seemed like interesting characters, but they also seemed like they were full of life.

My first night, I was in a room with five Irish kids.  When I first moved in and met them, they told me a little about the city and the hostel.  It was nice to know what to expect.  That night, when I returned to the hostel, I looked around the room to see if anyone was there.  I thought I was alone and was about to turn on the light when I heard a sniffle.  Apparently, the guy in the bed above me had been there the whole time.  Somehow I started talking with him and ended up talking for a solid few hours.  It was a really strange conversation in the sense that it was very happenstance, but I enjoyed it.  When one of the other Irish kids came home, I went out onto the balcony and called home for a little while before going to bed. 

On our final day in Barcelona, we went to the beach to take in the water for the last time.  The sky had looked a little scary most of the day, but it started to get pretty bad.  We had been planning on going to the market and tapas after the beach all day.  By the time we were actually leaving the beach, it started to rain.  We found ourselves a door stoop to try to wait out a sudden downpour.  The rain slowed down a little, so we chanced moving on and trying to make it to the market.  We made it about a block down before it started to absolutely pour.  This time, we were under the porch of a restaurant.  And we also thought that our bags were still outside in the courtyard of our hostel where we left them, getting drenched.  The restaurant was chaos, with all of the diners taking pictures of the massive downpour that had just started and the waiter trying to gather all of their umbrellas and tables and chairs outside.  One of the waiters came in completely soaked, and all of the waiters were at least a little wet.  I took out my phone and called the hostel to ask them to bring our bags inside (they already had) and then we decided we may as well eat since we were pretty much trapped inside.  That made the waitress very happy.  And we got our tapas.

By the time we were finished with our tapas, the rain had ended.  We began making our way to the market.  The street and sidewalk was so flooded, and trees were down everywhere.  They even had to block off a main street for a tree.  We had walked into the market earlier, but since we were closer to the end of the day, there were so many deals.  I got the most delicious chocolate-coconut-banana smoothie juice drink for less than it had been earlier in the day.  There was plenty of fresh fruit to choose from and everything looked delicious (with the exception of the meat, but that is a matter of personal preference).

Because we had nothing else to do with the time we had left, we returned to the hostel and walked over the train station.  We ended up getting to the train station about an hour and a half before our train was supposed to leave.  Wouldn’t you know that the train to Paris would be delayed?  By two hours.  We ended up making friends with a couple from Canada who worked on a cruise line and were going on vacation to Paris for six days.  We talked to them on and off while we were waiting.  A couple of guys sat down on the bench with us as well, and somehow we all got to talking.  The Scottish boys pulled out some beer and started drinking, so we decided to follow their example.  Bri went to a supermarket and grabbed a bottle of wine, which we proceeded to drink while we waited.  It is still strange that it is legal to drink, but it isn’t like I take advantage of it to excess by any means.

We finished our bottle of wine in the train station, but the Scottish boys decided that we needed more.  One of them ran over to the same supermarket before the train left to buy us another bottle of wine.  We boarded the train and decided that we needed to share the wine with the boys.  We met up in the bar on the train, where we found out that they had booked their train for the wrong month.  So they had all of their bags still with them and were trying to hide from the train conductors.  It turned out that there were two beds that they were allowed to take, so they were safe.  But it was still an interesting night.  With the boys’ help, we finished the second bottle of wine. 

At this point in time, Bri was tired, so she went to bed.  She remembered in the morning that she had promised a friend to leave me in a bar at some point in time in Europe (jokingly), but that she had fulfilled that promise.  Success!  At the end of the night, I had to return a hat to one of the Scottish boys much to the dismay of the other.  He had been trying to help me steal it all night.  And we exchanged names so that facebook stalking can happen.

Europe is always an adventure.  It never seems to lead you where you think it should.