We made it safely and soundly here to Barcelona on Tuesday morning after an eventful and interesting train ride from Milan into Spain. We left Milan after killing our 6 hours of downtime reading, playing video games, updating our journals, and making random phone calls to places in the States to people whose phone numbers we had. The train we were on was a hotel train, so we each had our own beds even though we were in separate cabins since they separate men and women (obviously) so that it makes it more comfortable and secure. I had 2 people staying with me in my cabin; a Spanish girl who didn’t speak any English, and an Italian girl with Koolaid red hair who was traveling with her balding boyfriend.
The ride itself went by pretty quickly. I read my book, wrote in my journal some more, went to the drink car with Thomas and had a Carlsburg and some Doritos (yes, I was pretty happy about that). Bedtime was a lot more interesting though. Sure, the bed was fine for what it was: a board with a mattress on it and very uncomfortable blankets. The Spaniard, however, was the loudest female snorer I have ever met in my entire life. The wax earplugs my mom gave me have come in handy with Thomas, but they literally saved my life on that damn train.
We got into Barcelona around 9 in the morning and headed towards the subway station to get to our hostel here. Getting around Barcelona, turns out, is pretty easy. They have a very extensive Metro system so you can get everywhere and anywhere just by hopping on and off. Our hostel was off of the green line, Les Corts. The hostel, the Sant Jordi Hostel, is the best one we’ve stayed in yet. The rooms are fine, but the kitchen is what puts it over the top. We’ve finally been able to have some normal food, eggs for breakfast and toast to go with it. I think we’re going to make some normal food for dinner since we haven’t had ‘normal’ food since we left the States. The people here are absolutely awesome. We’ve had a good time with Jo and Leah, two Aussies from Melbourne who are backpacking around all of Europe separately but have met up a few times in random places, obviously one of them being Barcelona.
Spain definitely has a different feel to it than Italy does. Obviously being in California and being so close to Mexico has its perks when trying to understand Spanish. There are words that I know: please, thank you, what is your name, etc. Spanish in Spain, though, is a little different than Spanish they speak in Mexico. They pronouce the ‘c’ sound a lot differently, so it sounds like they have a lisp instead of pronouncing the sound. You have to hear it- it’s pretty funny. The food is a lot scarier than Italian food. Thomas and I aren’t the most adventurous eaters in the world, so all of the seafood on the food here is a little frightening. Spanish cuisine is all about the tapas, which are little snack foods that come with all different kinds of things on them, some scary like with octopus and some with normal things. I’m not brave enough to try any of them but we saw sardines on pizza the other day. Umm… gross.
Our first day in Barcelona on Tuesday was spent figuring out the Metro and going to the Picasso Museum near the Ramblas, which is the party central street here in Barcelona. During the day, the richies go there to shop at Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and at night the young crowd comes out to play going to bar after bar until 8 in the morning. The Picasso Museum is a pretty amazing museum featuring works from all across Picasso’s art career, beginning with his early portrait work and ending with his more experimental stuff, cubism and everything that came with it. It’s pretty amazing to see the progression of how he got from one style to the next, who influenced him and why things look the way that they do. I guess Picasso would donate works to the museum throughout his career, but never lived to see it in person as he vowed he would never set foot in Spain while it was under a Facist rule.
Yesterday was a much busier day. In the morning we made it over to the Gaudi cathedral, which is a Gothic cathedral Gaudi started building in the late 1800’s and is still being worked on today, 80 years after his death. I guess they believe it won’t be finished for another 50 years, so going to see it under construction still is absolutely amazing. It takes you by surprise, the location and everything. One minute you’re in awe they have KFC in Barcelona, and the next you’re looking at this absolutely amazing cathedral in the middle of the city.
We had quite the excursion last night wandering around the streets of Barcelona. It was one of the Kiwi’s birthdays, so we went out to celebrate. The first bar we went to, Travel Bar, was a bit of a shack of a bar, very very hot and sweaty with a lot of loud Irish and American travelers screaming while watching the replays of the England v. Czech Republic friendly earlier in the night. The beer was good, but most of the beer that doesn’t come from America tends to be pretty good so I have a lot of faith in the Europeans and their beer making abilities.
The Apollo, our next and turns out last stop on the journey, was the creepiest bar I have ever seen in my life. Hilarious, but creepy. We showed up because the Australians we were hanging out with said they heard it was a good place to go, but after paying ten euros just to get in, we were literally the only people in the place. 20 minutes later, the place was packed. Weird. After many many drinks and a couple of hours of listening to bad reggae music mixed in with Spanish hip hop, Thomas was drunk enough to be ‘dancing’, which if you know Thomas… he doesn’t dance. At all. Quite funny. Our whole group was having a good time, listening to bad music and trying to do Spanish dancing without much success. One of the girls who came with us was from Argentina, so she (with the English that she did know) was trying to show us all the different dance steps. Tried, failed. I’ll get over it someday.
Walking back, needing to use a bathroom at 4 in the morning after drinking a lot of beer and taking bad shots… not fun. 40 minutes of walking through the sleepy streets of Barcelona, we finally made it back to the hostel and fell asleep with our clothes on in our bunk beds, waking up today around 2 in the afternoon. Thomas, still half drunk this morning, got up to use the bathroom after snoring insanely loudly through half of the night. Quite the night, folks… quite the night.
We leave tomorrow for Paris after an awesome time here in Spain. It has definitely been the funnest part of our trip, going out with people and having a good time. Barcelona is a fun party town with too much to do and see in the amount of time we were here.
Hopefully I can make it back with some of the Scots while I’m at school out here.
I’ll update more when we get into France…
Adios
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