20:00
Barcelona, Spain
Last night we fell asleep in Madrid, and this morning we awoke in Barcelona!
Barcelona has seemed to be way better than Madrid--admittedly, I didn't get to see much of Madrid. Even though we spent two days there, Jessica didn't ever want to do anything, and I was very tired and uncomfortable so I wasn't all that keen on the idea either. I'd like to go for a couple of walks through the city in Madrid and see what's all there, but I could certainly spend more time here in Barcelona. We leave tomorrow at 08:00, but we'll probably come back--we have to be in the general "Madrid" area of Europe anyway for the last two weeks of our trip (our Eurail pass runs out then), and Barcelona isn't *too* far away, so it's possible we can hang out here for most of those last two weeks. Nice beach, seemingly nice people, lots of cool stuff to see. I probably still would've rather spent more time in Italy, but Barcelona is pretty damn cool.
I think a big part of the reason we're enjoying Barcelona more than Madrid is we got a hostel. A beautiful hostel right on the beach called the Sea Point Hostel (special thanks to that guy who messaged me about it on Facebook--we took your advice and are glad we did!) For the bunk for the night it only costs us €21 each per night. And considering the night train from Madrid to Barcelona costs us €18.75 each, and a locker at the train station is €4.5 (that we share, making the individual price €2.25), the price for the night train and the locker is the same as the price of this hostel. And the hostel has a shower. So we may be better off taking day trains, or maybe a night train that's not a sleeper (just snatch what we can in a first-class chair--which is a bit cheaper) and then getting a hostel where we arrive. That way maybe we can do hostels every other night. I don't know exactly, we're going to keep trying different things. But today, the hostel, ESPECIALLY the shower, were amazing. I tell you, I think the best moment of my life up until now was when that shower hit me in the face for the first time. I've spent longer periods of time without a shower, but never with a partner who bitches at you about your smell all the time (I swear, I use tons of deodorant, take sink showers, even use those shower-wipes, but there's only so much stink I can take off without a good ol' fashioned shower), and I feel just gross because of the weather and humidity, and I feel bad for the people around me, because I know I smell. It's not like I'm camping--where I rarely get to take a shower, but I'm out in the open air, not cramped in a train cabin. Urban stink is way worse than rural stink. Believe that. But I digress...
So Barcelona was great. After we arrived at the Barcelona Sants station, we had to take another train to the Barcelona Franca station (which is where we were able to buy our tickets into France for tomorrow) and took a short (maybe 1-2km) walk to the hostel on the beach. Obviously, since we took a sleeper train, we got there early. Check-in wasn't until 13:00, but we were able to make reservations, pay for the beds, and lock our backpacks up in their baggage room--all done by 11:00. So we had two hours to kill. Jessica wanted to sit on the beach and read the Rick Steves guidebook section on Barcelona (which is quite extensive), while I had spent the 22 hours we spent at the Madrid train station yesterday doing just that, so I wanted to go do something. So we made the agreement that I would go for a walk, and she would sit and read the book. We'd meet back at 13:00 to check in, take long-dreamed-of showers, and and then go do something. So I went for a walk.
My plan was to walk down to La Rambla and do the "La Rambla Ramble" as Rick Steves suggests. For those of you that don't know, La Rambla is a main street that starts at one landmark (Mirador de Colon) and ends at another (Pl. Catalunya). Or, depending on your point of view, it starts at the later and ends at the first. Anyway, the walk is a lot like Venice beach, or a flea market, or all of Berkley combined. With a few tourist things (like a wax museum), and a few ancient things (like the Baroque Church). There were lots of street performers--particularly variations on the human statue--several in what seemed to be a local historical style (like Baroque, Gothic, etc.). Then come back.
Anyway, that was my plan. What I ended doing was walk through the Moll d' Espana, past the L'Aquarium, and onto Port Vell. Where I crossed over a newly created wooden bridge the "Rambla de Mar" which dropped me off at the bottom of La Rambla, which I then walked though quickly (didn't stop to see much that I would've liked to), ended at the fountains at the end, and thought I'd take the shorter route back--largely because it passed by the Barcelona Cathedral. I was running late, so I didn't have a chance to go in, but there was some kind of orchestra playing out front with a bunch of people in big circles dancing a weird dance. I took a short video of it that I'll try to upload.
I walked back through various side-streets whose buildings were made of stone and were easily twice the age of my country. I took pictures of the architecture too.
Also on the way back were these street performers, one of which looked like he was playing a didgeridoo.
When I got back (a half hour late--of which Jessica was understandably upset about), we checked in, took the most amazing showers of our lives (well, it was for me, anyway), Then decided to go to the Picasso Museum. We weren't originally going to go because according to the Rick Steves guide it is only free on the first Sunday of every month, but it turns out it's free after 3pm on every Sunday. So we just made it. We met a girl that's staying in our dorm with us who was very nice (and the first normal-type person we've met) and we got to talking with and ended up going with.
The Picasso Museum was amazing. As you would imagine, TONS of works by Picasso. From his early years, arranged chronologically through his life. Showed how his paintings morphed from childish drawings to portoraits and copies of famous works (two of which I had just seen the other day in the Prado), through his blue period, to his rose period, and on to cubisim. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I managed to snap two while the attendants weren't looking.
After we left the Picaso Museum, we started heading back when we ran into the Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombi (pre-Columbian art museum). It too was free Sunday afternoon!
After that museum, we decided we'd like to see the Barcelona Cathedral (the one I just took a breif look at as I walked by), so we walked there and took a quick peek inside. It too was free (I don't know if it always is or not). As we were leaving they were about to start mass, but I couldn't convince Jessica to stay for it.
Then we got some dinner and headed back to the Hostel where I am now! Tomorrow we head to Montpellier, and hopefully catch a connection to Paris or Nice (Hopefully Nice).
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Location:Passeig Escullera,Barcelona,Spain
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