Bonita Barcelona

Finding a high speed train with an electrical outlet is allowing me to write this blog on the train ride back from Barcelona, which takes up an entire day of traveling. The train ride is a lengthy one, moving up the coast of Spain along the Mediterranean, through the region of Provence in southern France, up the country to Lyon. Though it’s more hours on a train I see every weekend, the ride is more than worth it for the treasures of Barcelona. We got really lucky on this trip, as Roy found a great deal on a website for this swanky four star hotel that upon check-in presents you with a ticket for a free glass of champagne. This was also an exciting trip for me since we were meeting up with Uzma (my old college roommate for those of you who have not been introduced) who had just returned from risking her life in Pamplona at the Running of the Bulls. We arrived an hour late around 9:00 pm Friday night. This was fine, though, as this is when life is typically just getting started in Spanish culture. It would be a pretty safe assumption to say that majority of the country hadn’t even eaten dinner yet. Adapting to the Spanish culture was not a challenge for me as laziness often comes naturally to me; I did not object when the entire city shut down in the middle of the day for a siesta that would last into the late afternoon/early evening. We went out for traditional for our first meal in Spain and ordered heaping skillets of paella. This dish isn’t altogether foreign to someone from Louisiana as it is made up by various seafood and rice. Ours had shrimp, mussels, and other sea life that I wasn’t completely sure about. Since Barcelona is on the east coast seafood was a part of many of our meals. With our paella we enjoyed a refreshing pitcher of sangria with fruit in it. The next morning we walked around a good bit of Barcelona, enjoying the curious architecture it is known for because of Gaudi’s artistic designs. We first visited the majestically obnoxious church that he designed before his death called the Segrada Familia. It had multiple tall towers that looked like fingers reaching into the sky, and massive Biblical figures and scenes carved into the front of the church. The main drawback to this church is that it is completely unfinished and was still being worked on as we stood there admiring it. It may have been worth it to pay the money to go inside, but I wasn’t interested in paying 11 Euro to get in and see scaffolding. It is cool to know, though, that Gaudi’s work is still being carried out even after he’s gone. Not having enough of his inspiring designs, we walked a good ways to his Park Guelle, stopping along the way for fresh cherries and half a watermelon (which was sliced up compliments of Uzma’s U-Mass student I.D. for lack of utensils). The park was just as eccentric as his other works, complete with the longest mosaic park bench in Europe that encircled an open terrace of the park. After a long morning of walking, we were ready for our lunch and siesta. We found an amazing hole in the wall restaurant that turned out to be, embarrassingly enough, my favorite meal in Spain, El Restaurante Chino- CHINESE FOOD! I’m not sure how it happened, but four hungry people had soup, entrees, and coffee for a total of 26 Euro! From the cab fare to the Chinese food, one of Spain’s most endearing qualities was how cheap it was compared to France.
After quite a long siesta everyone met up again to go out. We walked along Las Ramblas- the Bourbon Street of Barcelona. The street is overflowing with tourists, bars, restaurants, costumed crazy people poorly resembling statues, and vendors taking advantage of any opportunity to make some change. The latter proved to be the only real annoyance of Barcelona. There are people everywhere trying to nab tourist by forcing cheap items on them such as battery lit up glasses, flowers, or beer (which was actually a facade for cheap hash they were selling in a secret location). Obviously we had no interest in the urgings of these vendors, and got quite annoyed when we couldn’t go five minutes eating tapas in the outdoor restaurants without having flowers shoved in our face.
The next days of our visit were taken up with more art, visiting the Picasso museum and then the Salvador Dali museum in Figures the next day. Though I may not be as art-aware as other members of my family such as David or Mary Louise, I feel even a novice like myself could appreciate the artists of Spain. Dali especially- since it is so modern and out there, making you feel like you’ve entered another realm of reality where shapes take on an eerie form of something they were in a previous life. It’s funny how different people’s minds can work.
The end of our stay Roy and I ventured out to the coast of Spain to enjoy the lovely view of the blue Mediterranean. Excited about finally getting a beach with sand instead of stones, I was a little disappointed in the excursion. After a full day and a siesta, we didn’t get to the beach until around 8pm (which is okay, since the sun doesn’t go down until around 10pm). We figured we were smart and would get there after all the crowds left- wrong! The beach was extremely over-crowded, and we had to walk a little to find a space big enough for two towels. Aside from that, the same pushy street vendors from Las Ramblas also make their presence known every three minutes on the beach. Deciding that the water was better than the land, I ventured out to the water which was surprisingly not as shockingly cold as the Mediterranean bordering France in Nice. This was exciting, up until the point where I’d feel something mysterious swim by me only to be more alarmed that it was trash. Our beach trip ended earlier than expected with mojitos at a beach-side hut.
Barcelona was the perfect place to spend our long weekend. It’s a city of beauty, ingenuity, and unique but exciting adventures. Just be cautious if traveling there; though we had no trouble, I’ve heard countless theft and mugging stories people have experienced. Luckily, we had no problems and left happy and content, and interested in seeing the jubilation that would be taking place in Lyon when we arrived back in France on Bastille Day.