Man,
what a difference one day can make. After the dip in sightseeing
Sunday, Monday was quite the whirlwind, full of Gaudi, taxi rides and
laughs.
Determined
to start off on the different foot, Umayr, Iva, Sarah and I dragged
ourselves out of bed to hit the Sagrada Familia at 10 a.m. (with
tickets this time, mind you). All I can say is...wow. You know, it
might take until 2026 to finish the church, but already you can see
how amazing it is on the inside. It's really weird to think of the
church as “new” in terms of European churches (just go to any
other town and check out their cathedral). I mean, sure it's over
100 years old now, but as Umayr said, it will still look new in 100
years. That said, Gaudi's made quite the masterpiece (which Spain is
trying to finish), but I was surprised at how simple and elegant the
inside was compared to the detailed exterior. It was interesting to
read about how nature weaves into Gaudi's work, a note from my
architecture history course back at Poly. Oh, and Blake (+ all my
other architect friends), I can bet you're a bit jealous right now
hehe :-P
The
rain still was hanging
around, complete with a giant downpour while we were at Sagrada
Famila. Apparently, Gaudi didn't design gutters and drainage
systems, since
the water from the roof poured right down in a flood
on
top of the incoming tourists. Take that all you non-believers!
Next
up, Starbucks of course! It's amazing that
I've
been off coffee since leaving Portland, but Monday required it.
Umayr and I
debated
what to order, since a drip coffee doesn't really exist, an Americano
is sort of like a drip and Iva says don't even bother with the
mochas. A little bit of an ugly American thing, I know, but hey, we
all have our staples that make us comfortable. I'm starting to get
better at my Spanish, which I'm glad to see is coming back quickly
after taking 7 years. I even got to get my name ('Mateo') on my cup.
I have to watch it though, as sometimes I am too good at my Spanish
that people start rapid-firing it back at me that I have to stumble
and say “Hablo Ingles, por favor!” lol.
It
was nice to get out
of
the rain and warm up with some coffee and have a chat while the rain
died down. The four of us grabbed a cab to Park Guell, which was
quite cozy (meaning I was squashed in the middle), but at least it
was clean and cheap. There isn't really a Metro to the park other
than one that drops you off at the bottom of the big hill to the
park, and believe me, when you're walking 10s of miles a day, you
pick your battles my friends. Even the bus from the hostel to the
park would've cost more. A cab with four of us cost €1-2 per
person; can't beat that!
Park
Guell was just...I mean, you just gotta see it. The tiles are
absolutely amazing; you can go macro-crazy with your camera if you
want. We meandered through the park, taking photos like crazy. I
even got to make use of my panorama mode on my phone (which is on my
new camera now too; more on that later). Unfortunately, the rain
hunted us down, but we were underneath the Gaudi columns when the
second downpour of the day started. Even the pigeons ran for cover,
latching on to the slanting stone wall underneath the columns. It
was pretty entertaining watching them try to hold on. The rain was
so sudden, the water flooded out from the top platform and washed
down the famous tile steps past the lizard statue. Now, I don't know
if Gaudi planned to have a muddy waterfall down his masterpiece
when it rained, but seriously man, drainage again
lol.
Fighting
a
slightly
broken umbrella (all of
our
umbrellas were
now in different stages of disrepair), we hailed a taxi down to El
Born for lunch tapas! One thing that's hard to get used to in Spain
is the eat/sleep schedule; lunch at 2 p.m., dinner at 10 p.m. and
clubbing past midnight. Well, at 3 p.m., we were right on rime for
lunch for once. We had a plethora of dishes, from cheese to croquets
to Spanish sausage. And, nobody really spoke English and it had a
crowd, always a good sign. I'm still on the hunt for those free €1
tapas, but I'll wait for Madrid. Tapas are fun to share, it sort of
makes me think of a Spanish dim
sum
when you sit down. Of course, the shouting at a bar with napkins all
over the floor is the ultimate tapa experience, and that's what I'm
hunting down next.
Per
Iva's request, we immediately headed across the street to the Museu
de la Xocolata.
The coolest part was that actual ticket was a candy bar! Heck, it
seemed like almost everything in there was made of chocolate (except
the walls, we checked). That, and the liquid chocolate
(thicker/richer than hot chocolate) was really good. Well, other
than giving Sarah an EXTREME sugar high; shes crazy enough without it
lol (sorry Sarah, you really are).
Right
then and there, my camera shutter jammed AGAIN. Argh! Well, when
traveling, treat everything as an experience, right? That experience
gave us the idea to wander El Born, checking all the cool shops along
the way for cameras and other swag, winding back up on Las
Ramblas. We made it back to La Boqueria and showed the girls the
fish skin Umayr had tried. Sarah even spontaneously jumped on a guys
dolly after he finished moving some boxes (sugar
high lol).
Everybody around us had a good laugh. Next up, El
Corte Inglés,
the biggest department store in Barcelona and my prime target for a
camera. The place on Plaça
de Catalunya
was HUGE; 10 stories of everything you can think of.
I made a beeline for cameras on the 7th
floor, finding a wide array of electronics that even makes Frys seem
tame. After debating models and talking to the salesman (thank God I
know some Spanish), I got a super-compact Panasonic (I missed my old
Panasonic, and I've had no luck with my Sonys). And it was only
about $150 with the SD card; not too shabby for a purchase I was not
expecting.
It's even a cool dark blue color (though the box says violet lol,
oops)
After
doing a little more window shopping, we made it back to the hostel to
crash for a bit. All day on your feet will tire you out, but at
least we accomplished a ton more than Sunday. I immediately started
to charge my new camera, digging through the instructions in every
language but English to set it up. Luckily, the guy behind the
hostel desk was from Brazil, so he translated the Portuguese
instructions we found. Gotta love meeting international friends!
I
guess it really is off-season, as the hostel was now only ¼ full,
which for this small hostel was 10 people. The entire
kitchen/common-area held the entire population of the hostel! We all
sat, ate a Brazilian
meal of rice and beans. Umayr was super proud to have found and
bought €1.95
bottles of wine, which we passed around as well. Gotta love it when
alcohol costs way less than the food haha. And, it was actually
decent stuff.
We
played cards, chatted, laughed, had a good time for a rainy night. I
journaled, planned Madrid and even got all my Barcelona pics edited
and up (enjoy!). Although we were beat, Umayr and I planned to leave
at 6:30am to catch our trains while Sarah figured she'd get a ticket
for my train, since she was also heading to Madrid. We ran upstairs
to pack so we didn't bother Iva too much in the morning since all of
us were heading to...wait for it...
Nasty
Monday. A great name for Barcelona's biggest club party on a Monday
night. We all strolled down a few blocks to the club (Sarah falling
and almost getting a concussion after trying to jump on Mike's back
for a piggyback ride) and our
hostel host
got us in with a free drink. I'll be honest, we were getting up at
6:30 a.m. And we got to the club at 12:30 a.m. So yea...either we
stayed for a bit or stayed up all night. Umayr and I went with the
latter, preferring
at least a little sleep. What made it easier was that the scene was
predominantly rock music, which isn't my dance scene. They had some
EDM (of which Umayr's also a fan), but that floor was kinda dead. So
by 2 a.m., the two of us left, leaving Sarah with Mike and the other
hostellers (who were apparently going after a pack of Swedish girls
lol, have at it guys!) and we headed back.
We
crashed, though not before I had another freezing cold shower (why!).
I tossed and turned, forgetting my earplugs, but I figured I wasn't
getting much sleep anyways. Tuesday
morning,
Umayr and I got up and headed out
just before 7:30 a.m. to
catch our 8:30 a.m. Trains. Unfortunately, Sarah came in later and
wasn't up when we were leaving, though we did leave a bit
earlier...but
she found me in Madrid later so it's cool :-)
I
wrote most of this
sitting on the AVE high speed train, whose 200-300kph blows MAX and
Amtrak totally out of the water lol. Madrid's
been a blur and I'm heading to Toledo in the morning, so time to get
to sleep!
...oh and I forgot a few sections on Barcelona, so those will be in the next one too...
Alrighty, adios!
-
Mateo
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