Barcelona

Wow, I've certainly fallen behind.  That seems to be the way of things in Spain also.  This is one hell of a laid-back country, where time seems to mean absolutely nothing.  Definitely taking some getting used to.  Being from the USA, and the East Coast in general has bred me to be concerned with punctuality, timeliness, and efficiency, but I've had that all thrown out the window in Spain.  I consider myself a pretty mellow person myself, who (as many of you know) often runs late and doesn't feel that it's a huge deal, but Spain is slow enough to even make me antsy.

Anyway!  We arrived in Barcelona via the night train from Bern, Switzerland, a city in a country that we will all remember fondly, and one that I will definitely add to my list of vacation spots in the future.  The accomodations were rather lacking, as we couldn't spend the trip in a compartment to ourselves, rather, we travelled in a car full of reclining seats.  They were more comfortable than the standard train seat, much more like a normal first class coach, but still not enough to catch a good night's sleep on.

We got into the station at about 9:00am, to be met then and there by Matt, a friend of Michael's and Marc's.  He's been living in Barcelona for the past year teaching English as a second language, and is wrapping up his stay here to return home to the USA in a matter of weeks.  The four of us went out to breakfast since our hostel's check-in didn't start until noon, and afterward had our first trip to a public market in what felt like forever!  It seemed a little like Lexington Market in Baltimore, and I managed to use Spanish to my advantage to obtain the price of a half kilo of dried apricots, which have been a staple in my diet here throughout the trip.  By that time it was past noon, so we said our goodbyes to Matt and checked into the hostel.  In our room were residing two nice girls from Michigan and a Canadian guy- good luck considering the rest of the occupants of the hostel seemed quiet, unfriendly, or just downright weird.  We bummed around chatting with them for a while until we headed out to explore and shop a bit.  I regretted not bringing shorts, so we stopped in an H&M where I clothes shopped for a while, eventually settling on some capri-type Bermuda shorts, which seem to be in the fashion in Europe.  We wandered a bit more through the warm, sunny, tree-lined city until we arrived at a harbor and sat for a while in the sea breezes.  Then we came back to the hostel to clean up before we met Matt for dinner.

We had a cheap, delicious dinner at a tiny hole-in-the-wall place where the owner was also the cook was also a conspiracy-theorist author was also an amateur painter who painted still lifes with dead birds.

Day two was also fun.  We wandered the city a little longer before again, arriving at the Barcelona Olympic area, wandering about, and just getting familiar with the city before meeting Matt for his 24th birthday party on the beach.  It was to be something of a potluck on the beach, so we hastily assembled some gourmet finger sandwiches from the food we had on hand in the hostel, and what we could find in tiny a Pakistani-run grocery store.  We wound up concocting pesto/tomato/mozzarella, garlic/butter/brie, and chorizo/mayonnaise sandwiches.  They were all lovely.  Our beach party wound up being about 10 people, and lasted past midnight.  Great fun, and a great way to get acquainted with the Mediterranean.

     

     

Today was another lazy day.  Marc and I had found ourselves without Michael the night before, and thus set out on our own until we heard back from him.  We wandered rather aimlessly before meeting at the Barcelonian Arc de Triomfe for lunch and siesta.  Lunch was from a nice gourmet deli-type place where I got a great well-appointed burger, pasta salad, and a coke.  We napped in the sun for a while and then headed to the chocolate museum, where the ticket was a bar of chocolate.  Small museum, but well worth the 3.50 EUR admission price!  Some amazing sculptures made from chocolate!

     

Then Matt took us to a great little place for a dinner where we had teriffic sandwiches, cheese, and a beer for about 9 EUR each.  What will tonight hold?

I'm definitely enjoying Spain so far.  Barcelona feels very much like a southern Paris.  It's not spotless, and it doesn't smell great, but it's a nice place, and a fun time to practice Spanish.  Barcelona is in the region of Catalonia, and thus speak Catalan, which is apparently a point of great pride from them.  Catalan seems to be an odd combination of Spanish, French, and Italian.  Luckily, everybody falls back to Spanish (and from what I've heard they appreciate foreigners at least dealing with them in Spanish over pointing and grunting in English), so I've been able to get some great Spanish practice while ordering, conversing, reading, and so forth.  I could spend more time in Spain as well, possibly heading to Madrid or another city to practice Spanish even more.  The climate is also lovely, and the location of Barcelona right on the water keeps a comfortable breeze blowing nicely at almost all times.

Finally, I've begun to realize about Europe:  If it smells like pee, it's probably pee.