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 | apdelong |  | Europe 10.0 |  | A Walking Tour of Barcelona |
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Sep 11 2010, 12:07 AM
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Barcelona, Spain
This leg of the trip may have saved my sanity. We left Paris on a serious low with travel issues and rain, then arrived in the sunny beach paradise of Barcelona where Alex could speak the language and I could get by. A wave of relief washed over me once we walked out of the airport.
In Barcelona we stayed at the Hostel Sant Jordi, which was on the second floor of what I believe to be an apartment building. It was again, a godsend. Very friendly staff, comfortable living area, right in the middle of the city, and a small but fully functional kitchen. Furthermore each night they arrange going out activities so we go to good places, we are informed on what they will be like before we go, and get to travel in a group.
The first night we went to a cheap bar, €2 for a beer, where Alex and I talked and played games with some Kiwis (New Zealanders if you don't know). Then we went to a club where I unexpectedly ran into three Elon girls studying abroad, Danielle, Christine, and Allie. It was really entertaining how unexpected it was. We talked for a little, but then they got in the VIP. Allie tried to get me in too, but I was declined entry. No big deal actually, the people in the VIP were all just talking and buying expensive drinks while I was on the dance floor. A little after 3 o'clock I noticed Alex needed to go back to the hostel, so I helped him back but I wasn't going to be allowed back in. Que lastima.
On Thursday I got up and mailed the two post cards I had and went to the grocery store to get food. After lunch and lying down for a little I decided I wanted to go to the beach.
Now I knew it was pretty far away so I wanted to take a bus so I could see the city while I was making my way to the beach; however, there were not any buses around me that would go to the beach, and because I wanted to see the city I didn't want to take the metro. So at a few minutes passed 3pm, I decided to walk.
I started heading south and bearing east toward the beach seeing what the city had along the way. When I got to a cool looking side street I took it, and then another, and then another all the while knowing I was headed in the right direction and I would reach the beach. I went around the university, passed the contemporary art museum, and then found my way to a stadium.
This is when I said to myself, "Where the heck am I? This is not the beach, and I cannot find where I am on the crappy map I have." I couldn't find myself on the map because I was looking in the wrong part. I saw Espanya metro station and looked for that. It was in the western part of the city and not much further south than the hostel. The Moors of old Spain built their cities to be confusing to invading enemies, hundreds of years later they still work.
I got my bearings and headed down a main street leading to the beach. My path was unwavering because if I got lost again there is no telling where I would have ended up.
Finally I made it to the beach at 5 o'clock. The sun was still out and the beach was still pretty crowded, but people were gradually starting to leave. I found a spot to lay down and just rested after an arduous journey to find a place to relax.
After laying down, getting my feet wet in the Mediterranean, and sitting down on the pier I decided to head back to the hostel before sunset so I would have some sort of compass as to which direction I was heading.
I didn't want to walk more, but I was also in no hurry to get back to the hostel, make dinner, and sit around for a while. So I figured I had already walked all over the city, why not walk more? Finding and taking one main road was my best coarse of action, which I did and I was able to get back to the hostel in less than an hour and before sundown.
After dinner we made caipirinhas, a Brazilian drink, at the hostel where I hung out with some British boys and an Louisianan girl and a German girl. We then left and took the metro to a club on the beach. The club was fun for a while, but the dj wasn't very good and I stopped drinking because I knew it would not be worth the money. I really wanted to stay late, but it was getting boring so Alex and I left around 3.
When we left Alex decided to take the night bus, but I was so confident that I could get back walking, that I did just that and gave Alex my map. As it turned out I was right by the area of the beach I was at earlier in the day, so I took my same straight shot back on the main road and made it back in half an hour; a few minutes before Alex got back.
For the last day of Barcelona I just wanted to go to the beach. Now that I knew how to get there and back and I had already seen some cool stuff that I didn't expect to see. I also wanted to help Alex ship his stuff back to the US and show him how to get to the correos where I mailed my post cards. It took a while to pack and seal his stuff and then fill out some forms at the correos.
Afterward Alex wanted to see the gotic area and on the map it looked like we would have to pass it anyway to get to the beach, so we went that way and then went through some shopping districts that I must have missed the day before.
We got to the beach a little after 5 again, which was a little disappointing but no big deal. Alex went swimming, but I didn't want to get soaked and then have to walk home wet due to neither of us bringing a towel. I layed out and Alex swam while women and men came around the beach selling massages and beverages, some even trying to sell marijuana. I've learned that the best way to get people away is to respond to them in either a language they probably won't know, or gibberish that sounds like a language. After a while a drenched Alex and a dry Alex walked back to the hostel together.
I didn't really feel like going out this night because I had been doing so well saving money, but the group was going to a hotel bar with a great view, a really big and cheap bar, and then to the largest club in Spain. I got talked into going to the first place because I was told it was close. So when the group left I went with them, but then they headed to the metro and I realized that it wasn't going to be as close as I had hoped.
We got off and went to the hotel bar, which was really nice and had an amazing view of Espanya Circus?. (This is the only picture I took in Barcelona; partly because there seemed to be enough tourists, and partly because I didn't want to ruin it at the beach.) As I said the place was really nice, so I decided to test the price waters and just order a soda. It turned out to be a €5 soda; I wasn't going to test the waters again. Although I didn't want to buy any drinks, one of the Kiwis I was with bought a €10 drink and gave it to me because she didn't like it.
We stayed there way too long, everyone was getting restless because the drinks were expensive and you cannot just look at a street and a fountain for over an hour. So we left and went on a new metro to the next place, and one of the Kiwis bought my metro ticket, yay! When we got off I tried very hard to remember where the metro was so I could stay at the bar until 1:15 and then catch the last metros back to the hostel.
The bar turned out to be enormous. It had the look of a medieval mess hall with wooden tables set up in rows and high ceilings held up by oak pillars. The bar was in the front and in the basement a live band was playing; however, I just stayed on the first floor and hung out with the Kiwis and got a very inexpensive beer.
Sidenote: Before I went out Alex and I both shared the same feelings about not wanting to go out, but also feeling that we didn't want to miss out on an awesome time. When the group left he was in the shower so I left without him not knowing where he was. He caught up with the group at this bar. Later he told me that I walked right by him once on my way to the bathroom, and then I stood in front of him, like several feet away, a second time and just did not notice him at all.
I left around 1:15, after my beer, and headed the way I thought the station was. As was my tendency for the city of Barcelona, I got lost. I frantically tried to retrace my steps, but finally I had to ask a bellhop who showed me the way. I made it to one of the entrances, but the gate was shut. My heart sunk because I did not know where I was and I knew I was far from home and I didn't want to take a bunch of buses or a taxi. Fotunately I saw across the street people exiting from undergraound, ANOTHER METRO ENTRANCE. I ran over and got in and made the two trains I needed then got back ot the hostel and to my bed in one piece.
Leaving Barcelona was just as easy as getting there, we checked out of the hostel, hopped on the metro a few stops, then took the shuttle bus to the airport, our bags we fine, and we got on the plane. Finally we were able to travel easily.
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