Barcelona

BARCELONA

Day 1 - April 12, 2012:

Travel to Barcelona, Meet people in the hostel, Party at Shoko

In the middle of Czech class on Thurday, Jaxson and I left to catch a plane to Barcelona and begin our 6 days trip of the two largest Spanish cities: Barcelona and Madrid. I would have loved to travel to some of the other cities like Seville, Granada, and Cordoba but there wasn´t much time and Jaxson had friends in these two.

The trip itself was fairly uneventful, although Jaxson did make two friends while standing in line at the airport check in (which took forever!). He seems to make friends everywhere! Not only were they standing in front of us in line, but they were either in front or behind us during the whole airport process, and sat a row in front of us. It  turns out that they´re also from America studying in Prague and were going to Barcelona too. What a coincidence. We planned to meet up with them at this club on the beach called Opium (interesting name) but never did (more on that later).

We finally made it to our hostel, Sant Jordi Sagrada Familia (the first of three for me, but I´ll explain why later) at about 6 and were pleased to see that it was clean, young, hip, and very friendly. Not only did the travelers there seem really sociable, but the staff was also very interested in meeting and talking to people.
 The combination of Jaxson´s natural outgoingness and the people at the hostel meant that we met a ton of people. There was the Romanian hostel worker Lucian (more about him later), who showed us card tricks; a kid from Copenhagen with thick eyebrows; Andre, the American living in Germany; Jon the German; and a lot of others.

Upon checking in, we were told that the hostel was planning a trip to a bar and then a club on the beach at 11 so we decided to go to that. To pass the time until then, we sat in these really cool chairs (they were like cut-outs in the wall that were padded), talked to people, and eventually Jaxson even got three French girls who barely spoke English, a Australian, and another American to play Cheers Govna´ with us. The basic premise of the game is that people go around counting until you get to 21, when you shout ¨Cheers Govna!¨ and everyone drinks. The person who said cheers then makes up a rule, for ex, instead of saying 6 you say xis or something. Now whoever gets six has to do that and if they forget,they drink. You keep going and making up rules until it gets really confusing. Anyway, it worked and by the time we left for the bar, everyone was laughing.

At the bar I talked to a German kid named Jon about Germany, its shady Nazi history, and the current and future world powers. I don´t know why, but whenever I drink in Europe it seems I end up having deep political discussions.

Jaxson and I at Shoko

From the bar, we took the metro to a club on the beach called Shoko. On the way, Jaxson met this American guy named Andre who is working for the military and stationed in Germany. He seemed cool and immediately became attached to us, which proved to be a good thing since his height made him easy to spot after I lost him and Jaxson almost immediately after we got to Shoko.
Shoko itself was pretty cool but I didn´t spend much time dancing. Once I found Jaxson and Andre, Jaxson mentioned that Opium, the club we were supposed to meet the two people from the airport at, was right next door and wanted to go there. Unfortunately, the line was extra long and people were all very pushy. Although I was able to get in eventually, Jaxson and Andre weren´t so we met up with Jon the German and his friend and decided to go home.

That, of course, was easier said than done. By that time, the metro had stopped running and we didn´t know which bus to take so we tried to get  cab. Since there were 5 of us, no cab would take us because it´s illegal in Spain. Jaxson and Andre kept going from cab to cab but they all said no. I was beginning to lose hope and just say that we should split up when Jaxson finally found a driver who would take all of us so we piled in and went our way.
We arrived back at the hostel at about 3 but I wasn´t really tired and instead spent a good hour and a half talking to the Romanian about his life. He left Romania to get a better life somewhere else and first tried Peru but he got paid terribly so he decided to either go to London or Barcelona. Since London is so expensive, he picked Spain and has lived there for 6 years. It was all really interesting to hear but I eventually got tired and excused myself to bed.

Day 2 - April 13, 2012

Daddling, Montjuic, & Beach 

Although we meant to wake up at 8 and go sightseeing, Jaxson and I slept in until 9 (well, he slept until 10:30). The hostel we were staying at, Sant Jordi Sagrada Familia, was booked on Friday so we had to check out by 11 and I had to switch to Hostel Urbany while Jaxson went to stay with a friend. As it turned out, Andre was also staying at Hostel Urbany in the same room as me, so the three of us checked out of  Sant Jordi and walked about 10 min to Hostel Urbany. On our way, we stopped for breakfast at this little restaurant. The waitress, a Peruvian who spoke little English, didn´t quite get our orders right (I asked for scrambled eggs with cheese cooked inside and instead got eggs with some cheese squares thrown on the side) but at least it was food.

We dropped our stuff off at the hostel, which wasn´t quite as friendly or clean as the previous one but still pretty good, and then made our way to the Nord Bus Station, where Jaxson and I bought our tickets to Madrid. He decided to buy tickets for a bus that would leave at 7am on Sat and arrive at 3pm while I, wanting another full day to walked around Barcelona, got an overnight bus for Sat night from 11;30pm - 7:30 am.

By the time we finished buying our bus ticket, it was almost 1:30pm and since Jaxson had to meet up with the friend he was staying with at 2, we went all the way back to the hostel to pick up his stuff and then all the way to his friend´s. Well...not straight to his friends. We came to building 430 and were buzzed in but Jaxson couldn´t remember which room his friend was in so he called. After going to three different floors and knocking on several doors, we finally realized something: we weren´t even in the right building! I don´t know who buzzed us in but it was weird. Realizing that, we were able to easily find the right place.

Jaxson´s friend Mikey and Mikey´s friend Matt were both really nice but while Jaxson wanted to just go chill at the beach with them, Andre and I really wanted to actually SEE something in Barcelona so we decided to head off and go to this place called Montjuic. It´s this hill with a bunch of interesting parks and buildings on it, including the Olympic Stadium (although we didn´t go there).  To get to the top, you can either climb or pay 9 euros to take a gondola. Although we weren´t thrilled at the price, we were limited on time and decided to take the gondola. I thought it would be scary because we were basically riding up a giant hill in a box on a wire, but it was really exciting and gave us a great view of the city.

Me and Andre heading up the hill

At the top was Montjuic Castle, which, despite its name is not actually a castle but a 16th/17th century fortress. The castle itself wasn´t really impressive but it was nice to actually see something. It did have a cool medieval vibe and gave us perfect view of the city below.  Andre insisted on getting 500 pictures of himself at each individual spot so it took a ton of time to see the rather simple castle. Oh well, at least he was happy to reciprocate and so I finally have some pics of me at these places.

When we had finally seen enough of the castle, it was about 5:30 and, since Andre had to meet up with a friend at 7, we stopped exploring and took the metro to the beach so I could meet back up with Jaxson. This, of course, proved very difficult. How do you tell someone where you are on the beach? There are no real landmarks, only ocean and sand. Jaxson wasn´t answering his phone so we wandered around for a while.  To his credit, Andre stuck with me to find Jaxson even though he was running late for his meeting. He might have been a bit touristy for my tastes but he was a good guy and definitely a gentleman.
Eventually, I found Jaxson, Mikey, and Matt sitting on the beach near the W Hotel and joined them while Andre went to meet up with his friend. The three of us sat on the beach for a while, just staring at the ocean and the surroundings. Boy was it windy! Not really bathing suit weather, although I did see some guys playing volleyball in what was probably their underwear. Oh Europeans! The beach itself looked similar to what I imagine California beaches look like; a small boardwalk/walkway surrounded by palm trees and covered with people walking along; people playing volleyball or soccer, and dark blue water. It was nice but I got cold from the wind rather quickly so we left and made our way to Mikey´s apartment, stopping to get gelato on the way.

At Mikey´s, we hung out a bit and watched an episode of Hey Arnold (remember that show?) but Mikey decided to take a nap and I, not having eaten since breakfast, was hungry. Jaxson, Matt, and I went out and got the best falafel I´ve ever had. Then I went back to the hostel to get changed and get ready to go out with them that night but ended up getting tired and just staying in. I met two nice guys from America who were studying abroad in France and Denmark at the hostel, as well as a French medical student studying in Romania. When Andre got back from being out with his friend, we got donor kabob at a little shop nearby and then went to bed.

Day 3 - March 14

Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, La Rambla, Gothic Area, Arc de Triomf & Parc De La Ciutadella, Magic Fountain, & Bus

Having done and seen very little the previous two days, I was determined to make the most of my last day in Barcelona. It was a little difficult, of course, to cram everything in one day when the sites in Barcelona are sooo spread out, but Andre and I did our best. After eating breakfast and checking out of the hostel, we made our way to Sagrada Familia, one of the most important sites in Barcelona. It´s this giant, incomplete Catholic church designed by the great Catalan architect, Gaudi. I don´t know that much about Gaudi to be completely honest, but his works are really unique and are very big deals in Barcelona (here are some of his works). His style is unlike anything I´ve ever seen before. Sagrada Familia is not just a normal church but looks like it´s part cave and part Gothic cathedral, with one side that seems to be made of stalactites. It was incredible! I really wanted to see the inside but the line was like 300 people long, wrapping around half the church, so with a heavy heart we left.

Next on our journey was Park Guell, another Gaudi creation, this time in the form of a garden complex on the hill of El Carmel with many buildings and sites. It sounds like Montjuic but it was very different. I really didn´t know what to expect other than that it was a park associated with Gaudi. After having some initial trouble figuring out how to get from the metro to the park (this getting lost thing has kind of become a trend) and after an exhausting trek up the side of the massive hill, we found our way to the edge of the park. From where we entered, we were greeted to views of cacti, palm trees, wildflowers, and dirt trails. It definitely looked very exotic and Spanish. We climbed up this little stone hill with a cross on it and got great views of the city and of Montjuic, then followed path. After the little stone cross, the landscape slowly changed a bit. What first felt a bit like desert became more jungley as we got closer to the main part of the park, with more trees and palms. I felt like an explorer when we finally found ourselves staring at Gaudi´s viaduct and colonnaded pathways, which were made of stone and seemed like natural ruins of an ancient civilization. Yet right next to them was a curving, tile covered terrace which looked one part Dr. Seuss and one part Philadelphia Magic Garden. It was incredible! Probably my favorite thing in Spain (if I had gone into Sagrada Familia this might have taken second place).

After we finished exploring Park Guell, Andre and I decided to walk from the entrance to what appeared to be the closest metro. Unfortunately, we got super lost when we followed the direction of a cab driver who told us to go left instead of right. We ended up spending an hour or so wandering around a neighborhood looking for the metro. It was so confusing! Our map didn´t even have that area on it so we were just walking blind. By the time we had finally found it, I was pretty exhausted and mentally checked out. Still wanting to make the most of the day, though, we headed to La Rambla, a large street filled with tourist shops. It was visually fairly pleasant but also kinda crowded. After an hour and a half, I´d had enough and wanted to venture more towards the Gothic area of downtown to the side of La Rambla. Andre didn´t want to so we split up. While he was really a sweet guy and I did really like him, I was kinda glad to be on my own. I was pretty tired mentally and physically and just wanted to wander by myself.

I imagined that the Gothic area would be Gothic-style buildings that seemed from another century but it was mainly just narrows streets filled with shops. I tried to find the old cathedral that was set in the area or a cute sundress to bring home to Mom and Gabbi but had no luck with either. I think I might have stumbled on the cathedral but it wasn´t that impressive and after about an hour of wandering in the Gothic area, I left. Completely fried, I wanted to go somewhere where I could still feel like I was seeing Barcelona but could recharge my batteries and relax. Having passed the Arc de Triomf on the way to the bus station yesterday and seeing that it was near the Parc de la Ciutadella, I decided to take the metro there.

It turned out to be just what I needed. The park was covered in people lying on the grass and enjoying the sun. There were even some people who were walking on tightropes hung between trees! I also came across the adorable lake where people were renting little rowboats and paddling around. How cute! I REALLY wished that Jaxson or Andre were with me then so we could do it but since no one was, I just watched. I intended to wander around more and see parliament but I it was so nice that I sat down and started reading instead.

I'm not sure if people brought the ropes or if they wre already set up, but they were just walking away. You can sort of see that to the right a guy is juggling. It really was a circus!

How romantic would it be to row around here? (Not sure if you can see the rowboats)

 Two hours later, the sun was setting and it was starting to get chilly. I knew I still had almost three hours to waste before I should head to the train station so I decided to head to the Magic Fountain, which is basically just a really cool fountain that plays music and changes colors and stuff. Not super unique to Barcelona but it would be cool to see and would waste some time so, after wandering around various neighborhoods for an hour  trying (and failing) to find this vegetarian restaurant, I headed to the Magic Fountain. It turned out to be at the base of Montjuic. I walked around and saw people breakdancing as well as the fountain. It really was cool. Oddly enough, most of the music it played was American pop music like ¨Wonderwall¨by Oasis and stuff. American music is everywhere! I stayed for a little bit but it started raining so I ran to the metro station and took it back to my hostel to pick up my stuff. On the way to the hostel, I went to a restaurant nearby and ate vegetable paella, which was basically yellow rice and cut up mushrooms and other veggies. It´s funny because Mom & Dad make a similar dish all the time. Guess they don´t realize how exotic their cooking is!


My camera started getting super blurry to the pics aren't great.

By the time I finished eating and picked up my stuff at the hostel, it was 10:30 so I went to the bus station and eventually got on my first overnight bus. Madrid, here I come!