Barçamylona

Internal dialogue/replica of dialogue I had with other people before going on this trip:

Questioner: “Excited to see Barcelona?”

Me: “Nope, not really, I’ve heard great things but for someone reason I don’t have much interest in going.” 

Questioner: “Well then why are you going?”

Me: “Because two friends that I haven’t seen in 4 yers are going to be there and I am SO excited to see them!”

And that’s how it started.  Lani and David, two friends from USY who I haven’t seen since they graduated 1 year before I did were going to be in Barcelona, starting a month Eurotrip, and I decided to tag a long. 

Well it ended up that Lani was joined by Shir for the first few days and David ended up coming a few days late, so it was Me, Lani, and Shir for the first two days (me riding the third wheel on the Barça bus), and then David came for the last night I was there, but it was still amazing to see them after so long.  Not much has changed either…except that David just graduated and is starting a super cool job in July and Lani just finished his service in the IDF and is starting college, and I am abroad in Spain, having a great time and learning lots about myself and the big vast world we live in. But other than that, its all the same.

Barcelona, the city: Its huge. So is Madrid, but Barcelona felt a lot more spread out.  The beach is cool, gives a nice breezy ‘tude.  Catalan (Barcelona language, kind of a mix of Spanish and French) is everywhere, but everyone will speak Spanish and is very nice about it (unlike what everyone told me).  Gaudí really did make a lot of buildings, with his weird curvaceous, whimsical, original style.  I didn’t nearly see all of them, but Parc Guell was my favorite.  Often wonder, did the word gaudy come from the name Gaudí?  Also, Barcelona is a city for la vanguardia.  As I was walking around, especially in the Barri Gotic, I could just feel the old writers, poets, and artists, the avant-guard (gosh I feel so pretentious putting that in italics) roaming the same streets, drinking coffee or cava... First impression: the news paper shreds in the airport, which I read in the paper the next day, was part of a strike on part of the airport janitors.  I’m okay with that strike because at least my Iberia flight wasn’t cancelled!

Newspaper at Barcelona airport

Me being a member of the avant-guard

Barcelona, my awesome vacation:  Had a yummy Spanish breakfast my first morning.  Tostada con tomate and café con leche on the terrace of a cute café.  Then we walked around the city, and I lead Shir and Lani on a walking tour of Las Ramblas, the tourist street that goes from the center to the waterfront.  Made a stop in La Boqueria, the really awesome market with yummy juices and stands sellings fruits and veggies, nuts, candy, meat, fish, etc…  

breakfast!

La Boqueria

covered almonds

Miró tile work on Las Ramblas (thanks Rick Steves for the heads up!)

Gaudi's first architecture thing in Barcelona...Helmeted light posts.

 We also went to the monument where Colombus took off for Amurica.  Then we headed to Montjuic (Jew mountain, still don’t know why its called that) and saw the Joan Miró museum, a really great flowing museum and some interesting art.  Then we walked through the Olympic village and ended with a great view of the city.

Cute man buoy

Colombus monument

"Jew Mountain"

Miró sculpture

Vista!

I proceeded to walk home from there, a really really long walk, and went past La Pedrera, one of Gaudi’s buldings, and also La Sagrada Familia.  I actually only saw it from the back and didn’t even go inside.  Maybe one of the only people visiting Barcelona to not give a damn about the Sagrada Familia, but it was hot, I was tired, and there was a lot of construction going on all around and in it. 

Made me think twice before crossing the street during the red man. Did it anyway...but at least I thought about it double hard.

La Pedrera 

La Sagrada Familia and all its construction glory!

 That night, Lani, Shir and I walked through the big park in Barcelona to head down towards the water front.  We had a great dinner at a famous cava bar that one of Lani's friends had suggested.  It was a homey fastfood style cava bar, with cheap glasses of cava and really good greasy sandwiches and tapas. There were some tourist, but mostly locals, and the place was PACKED. I had the house special of jamon, grilled onions, and melted cheese on a soft bun. So good! I also got to try some random guys tapa because I was curious what it was.  Well it was pretty much a chunk of bacon fat.  I shouldn’t have asked and I probably shouldn’t have eaten it…

Lani and Shir

My bocadillo

Rosé cava, the best one (we tried three out of the five)

The next day, David came, but not before Lani and I had a great day exploring the Barri Gotic, or old Gothic neighborhood.  We just spent the day wandering the tiny little narrow streets and checking out the cool shops and stores; a fancy perfume store, vintage clothing shops, a costume/joke shop, fruit juice stand with free samples, jamon store, and a cool vegetarian restaurant where we had lunch.

Barri Gotic

Great lady street guitarist

Budda Belly!

Shoes for Omi

Creepy costume/joke store

Looks like a cava (or champagne if you're French) bottle opening, right? 

Once David came, we went to Parc Güell, walking around the cool cavey-like structures, and watching the sunset (over the mountains and not the ocean, which confuses me everytime) while we shared a bottle of wine at the highest point in the park and listened to a very talented guitar player/beat boxer. 

View from the middle part of Parc Güell

View from the top of Parc Güell

Me and Shir

guitarist/beat boxer man

Then we went out to dinner and had tapas and paella.  I tried black paella.  Its literally black.  Died with octopus ink.  Looks like tar.  Not bad, but maybe not as flavorful, and definitely not as apetising looking.  Also, not the most flattering dish to eat (aka not good for date night), since I definitely had some black lip-liner and black teeth and tongue at one point.  Also, I am still trying to remove some of the blackness from under my nails. 

I really meant that it was black...

Wait, is that tar on my plate?

Some firsts in Barcelona: Had drinks purchased for me at a bar.  We went to a club the first night, me, Lani and Shir.  And I decided I wanted to try my hand and being a bar rat, so I just started talking to the obviously American (and very polite and friendly Texan) boy next to me. And next thing I am up 2 free tequila shots!  Sweeet! I also danced with a half Pakistani half Spanish guy, who literally lifted off my feet and was possible one of the best dancers I have ever danced with.  It was a magical moment.  Until I accidentally head but him in the face (only remember this when I blew my nose the next day and my nose was a little tender).

I also stayed in a true hostel.  A big place full of young people, with organized parties and such.  I didn’t really take part in these activities, except meeting some cool people when I got home one night and chatting with them until 5 am.  Oops.  But I did stay in a 4 person room, and the second night (well morning) I met the most terrible travel duo ever.  These two girls (from California, of course) came back at 10 am, one lost her phone (on the first day of her 2 month stay in Europe).  They ended up sleeping until 6 pm (just as I was waking up from my nap after having been out all day) and were aghast that they missed their opportunity to do something on their only day in Barcelona.  Then they weren't home again when I got back, and came back at maybe 6 am, woke up me by yelling in the room and opening the windows and turning on the lights, when I had to get up early.  Then when their alarm went off, like an hour later, neither one of them moved.  So I went to nudge them.  No movement. Literally I was shaking them both, and neither one moved.  So I called their names.  One woke up, turned off the alarm (or so I thought) and then went back to sleep.  Then it went off 5 minutes later, neither one moving again. I tried to wake them up again, it was futile. So I got up, got ready, hoped they missed whatever flight/train/bus they had to catch that required them to wake up at 7:45 am and got to see more of Barcelona.

All in all, the hostel was a fun stay. An experience.

I walked to Encant, the flea market that had some cool stuff, old cameras, binoculars, books, and the typical flea market stuff.  It also had a lot and lot of junk. I also went back to La Boqueria to buy some figs and have some fresh pitaya juice for breakfast. 

Junk at Encant

Biggest gem at the flea market! Almost bought this for you Stan, they even had some games to go with it!

My breakfast of figs

and pitaya juice

Another fun anecdote.  I was so tired by the time I got to the airport (ostia to the girls in my hostel room!) And so I probably wasn’t looking to happy and definitely not too smiley.  The guy at security told me I couldn’t go through until I smiled.  Well it worked.  Made me smile for sure! Also, the terminal I was in had an outside waiting, well smoking, area.  Great idea.  All airports should have this.

And all in all, it was awesome to get to spend a few days with Lani and David and Shir! It was great to catch up on the last four years, and I just wish we had more time to hang out!