For me, this day started…48? or so hours ago. In my
eagerness to maximize the amount of time I spend in Europe on this trip, I
somewhat foolishly decided to fly out just a few hours after I got off work on
Tuesday morning. As a result, I was awake for nearly 36 hours before I landed
in Barcelona. Thank goodness my hostel let me check in early and take a nap
when I got here, otherwise today would have been a complete waste.
As it turned out, however, it wasn’t a waste at all, but I’ll
get to that in a minute. First I’ll talk a little bit about the trip here. Put
simply, it was the easiest, least eventful, and most painless trans-Atlantic flight
I’ve ever had. There were no delays, no security hassles, no baggage problems,
nada. I was so grateful for it too, because I was absolutely exhausted. I was
lucky to have friendly and easy going seat neighbors too, which always helps. I
arrived in Barcelona at almost exactly my scheduled arrival time, which seems
like a rarity. The passport check was a non-event, and before long I was out on
Spanish ground. My first order of business was simply to find a bed. I had read
that my hostel might let me check in early, so I proceeded directly there and
hoped that it would. Making the connection to downtown Barcelona was simple and
easy. There was a commuter train that runs from the airport to the city center,
and it shares tickets with the buses and subway, so I just bought a 10-ride
metro pass (very affordable at just 9
euros) and hopped on. 20-30 minutes later I was at the Passeig de Gràcia station
in central Barcelona, and 5-10 minutes after that I was at my hostel.
Checking in was easy and it didn’t take me long to slip into
bed for a nap. Luckily I set an alarm, because I didn’t wake up once before it
went off. I woke up at 5:00 pm and felt rested enough to do some light
exploring around the city, so I consulted my guidebook for a few easy sights
and then set off on foot to check them out. I decided to walk down the Passeig
de Gràcia which, along with Las Ramblas to the south, forms Barcelona’s main
commercial strip. That route brought me to Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona’s huge
central square. Every big city in Europe seems to have one, and Barcelona’s is characteristic,
but nothing particularly special. Things got more interesting as I left Plaça
de Catalunya and began to explore the Barri Gòtic.
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| Barcelona Apple store, which is very much like every other Apple store |
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| Plaça de Catalunya |
Actually, quick aside here about language in Barcelona. You
may notice that these places - Barri Gòtic, Plaça de Catalunya, Passeig de
Gràcia – don’t have very Spanish names. That’s because Spanish is not the
primary language here; rather, it’s Catalan, and this is Catalunya. Catalunya
is officially an “autonomous community” of Spain, kind of like a state or province,
with its own language, culture, and customs which are distinct from those of Spain
proper. You see the Catalan flag all over the place (horizontal stripes of
yellow and red), signs are in Catalan first and then Spanish (and then
sometimes English), and you hear Catalan spoken by most people on the street
(although Spanish is also common and spoken by everyone).
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| Barri Gòtic |
Anyway, back to the Barri Gòtic. Catalan may be distinct
from Spanish, but it does have common roots, and so with some knowledge of
Spanish it’s not hard to figure out that Barri Gòtic means “gothic quarter”. It’s
the oldest part of the city, with some buildings from far back as the first
century AD, when this was part of the Roman Empire. Barri Gòtic feels a little
bit like Rome, although today’s weather, which turned downright nasty while I
was there, put a damper on its vibrancy. The streets are tight and generally
not wide enough for cars, there are little squares here and there, and it is
not difficult to imagine that people walked the very same streets and saw some
of the same buildings more than a thousand years ago.
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| Barri Gòtic |
My walk through the Barri
Gòtic took me past several interesting little sights such as the century-old Restaurant
Els Quatre Gats, where Pablo Picasso himself used to hang out, the Barcelona
Cathedral, and Barcelona’s little Jewish quarter.
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| Architectural college in the Barri Gòtic with frieze designed by Picasso (I assume the giant Ray Ban ad came later) |
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| Barcelona Cathedral |
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| Roman towers circa ~100 AD in the Barri Gòtic |
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| A neat little courtyard in the Barri Gòtic |
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| A Hebrew inscription with Catalan or Spanish translation (I wasn't sure which) in the Jewish quarter |
Those sights were cool and
allowed me to get a few good photos, but then a monsoon the likes of which I
have never seen in Europe struck without warning. Even with a rain jacket it
was seriously like taking a shower. Luckily Barcelona has a good subway system,
so I was able to make about half of the journey back to my hostel under cover,
but the other half was more than enough to get me absolutely soaked. Like, I might
as well have jumped in a pond. By that time it was getting late anyway, and I
was still very tired, so I decided at that point to turn in for the day.
I think that’s about all I have the energy to write today. I
have so much more to write and talk about, such as my impressions from my very
first exposure to a hostel, my impressions about Barcelona’s people and
culture, and much more, but for now I’m going to leave it here and save that
for another post. Tomorrow I intend to do some real sightseeing, so I should
have more of actual interest to share tomorrow. For now I bid you all good
night, and I hope all is well back home.
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