Barcelona Sunset

Our last night in Barcelona, a few of us took the subway to a church that was on top of the hill behind town. We ate cotton candy and climbed up to the top tower of the church, right under a huge statue of Jesus, and watched the sun set over Barcelona.

Where the Hell Am I?

A few times on this trip I have woken up from a nap and not known where I was. Spain marked the first time that I was awake and conscious and lost track of where I was. Coming out of the subway on our third day, I couldn’t remember what country I was in. I didn’t remember where I was going or where I had come from. It was really weird to walk up onto the street, and for ten seconds, not know where I was. After traveling for so long, my mind just stopped trying to track where I was and accepted that any given hour I was at some place new and different. This happened to me a second time in the subway and once upon waking at the hostel. You know it has been a long trip when you start forgetting what country you are in!

...And We Get Robbed

Towards the end of our stay, Ashley and I fell victim to these people. It was about an hour before sunrise, and we had just left a small jazz club. We bought a bottle of wine and were wondering around the streets. We ran into Steve and Michelle for a bit, and then took a seat in one of the alleys. We were drinking our wine, talking, and enjoying the peace and quite, when a really scary looking black dude comes running around the corner right at us. “Coca!” he yells, “You want coca!” Ashley told him to get away and then he grabbed at her legs. I shoved him off and he took off running down the street. We didn’t realize until we left that had snatched her camera from between her legs. I also found that my camera was missing, picked from a Spanish guy that had put his arm around me a few hours back. It gave me a pretty sick feeling.

Most everybody that I know that has been to Barcelona has gotten something stolen. Things disappear so fast around here it is ridiculous. You have to keep your stuff close and tight and never let your guard down. Better yet, just don’t carry anything but a few euros with you.

Creepers

Now I’ve heard from plenty of mothers that nobody you meet after twelve has good intentions, and there are certainly a lot of undesirables out at night in Barcelona. After the soccer game, Evan and I were walking around, and we ran into four Brazilians and started talking to them about the game. One of the girls was getting high off of a rag that smelled like paint thinner. She kept huffing it, and then she tried to kiss me. She may have been trying to pickpocket me, but it grossed me out. They then tried to sell us some cocaine, and we parted ways.

There are a huge number of pickpockets on the streets. They are not subtle at all. They walk up to you and grab at your belongings with no shame. There are also hookers all over the place, and they also are not subtle either. I had one come up and ask if I wanted something I can’t repeat here, and then grabbed my junk in front of all my friends.

A lot of the sketchy people come across from Morocco. I was told by somebody that Morocco is safer than Spain now because all the riff-raff is in Barcelona.

Nights in Barcelona

Most of what we did in Barcelona happened at night. At all times of the night people are out and about. The first night we got there, Chad, Ashley and I went drinking with our Australian roommates and some Canadians. After a while, one of the Australians busted out his camera and showed us a video he had secretly taken during some hanky-panky with the French chick in the bunk next to mine. He was quite proud! As we were walking back around 3 am, there were people that were just going out for the night. Most nights we stayed out until the sun came up. Late afternoon siestas were a must. This is definitely not a sustainable lifestyle for me, but it was great fun for the week we were there.

One night I was alone buying a falafel, when all the sudden two guys tackled me in the middle of the busy street and started punching me. It turned out to be Tyler and Taylor, who had flown into Barcelona, after some time in Madrid, and randomly ran into me on the street. We celebrated this coincidence by buying a six pack from a guy in the street and making it quickly disappear, shotgun style, on the sidewalk. Nobody cared.

We didn’t have any plans at night. We would usually start out at a bar, and then wander out eventually. We would split up, run into each other throughout various parts of the night, and wander around the back alleys. The streets in Barcelona are perfect for exploring. The way the stone streets and buildings glow at night makes it feel like a dream.

We would buy bottles of red wine for 1 euro each, and drink them as we walked. One night Even, Tyler, Ryan and I happened upon an acoustic guitarist playing in an alley. His Spanish guitar echoed brilliantly off the walls. We just sat and soaked it all in for about two hours, drinking wine, talking with him, and enjoying the moment.

The streets were addicting. We didn’t want to leave, so we didn’t. We left our watches at the room, and just went with the flow. I didn’t have a care in the world except for what was around the next corner.

Freakshow

Street performers lined Las Ramblas up and down both sides of the street. There were some pretty creative characters. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Gondola

Nathan, Megan, Ashley, Dustin, Chad, Steve, and I wandered down to the beach mid-day. After loitering around for a bit, we all piled into a new cable car that stretched across the harbor to get a good view of the city. It scared the living crap out of me. But the view was very nice.

Graffiti

The maze of dark alleys crisscrossing the blocks behind Las Ramblas is covered with bright graffiti. This is not the crap gang tagging we have back in LA. This is really good art work. The contrast of the bright paint on the grey stone streets and walls makes it even better to look at.

Jazz

There was a month long jazz festival going on while we were in Barcelona. Ashley, Chad, Steve and Dustin and I went to watch a performance in a club on the other side of town. Tyler, one of my best friends on this trip, is an awesome saxophone player and has given me a better appreciation for music. I was even doing the little high frequency head shake thing that jazz listeners do.

Espanol

Communicating in Spain was easier that I could have imagined. I was pretty amazed that those high school Spanish lessons I took five years ago in high school where still back there in my brain somewhere. It just took a bit of alcohol, and I was talking Spanish like nobody’s business. I even had a convo with a cab driver about Turkey’s entry into the EU. Crazy stuff. And then I would sober up and I couldn’t speak Spanish anymore. Moral of the story? Drink lots of beer.

More Architecture

I started following my map to various sites, but quickly ended up putting it away. A map is not necessary in this city. There is amazing art all over the place. I would look around, see something fascinating that caught my eye, and before I could ride the two blocks to get there, I would see something else and get derailed. Everywhere from parks to buildings to overpasses to benches there is amazing design work to be discovered. Riding a bike through Barcelona is a non-stop three hour eyegasm. I felt like a little kid in a Dr. Seuss book.

La Sagrada Familia

If you are into art and architecture, you need to go to Barcelona! The city was basically one big canvas for the architect Gaudi, whose work is fascinating. In our third day in Barcelona, I rented a bike and set out to explore all it had to offer.

The first and most obvious stop is the Sagrada Familia, a huge church that started being constructed in 1882, and isn’t going to be finished for another 30 years. The detail on this building is unbelievable. Not a single inch of this huge structure has gone untouched. Some parts look as though the building is alive, much of it appears to be melting, and other parts seem skeletal in nature. It seems dark and nightmarish, and beautifully dreamlike at the same time. I can’t even imagine what was going on inside Gaudi’s head, and how he could think up this stuff. And then to communicate it on paper for others to build, seems almost impossible to me. I was completely blown away by this building, as well as by much of Gaudi’s other work.

Futbol

This whole voyage, the one constant that people in every country have wanted to talk about was soccer. I have never been a fan, but being in Barcelona we had the opportunity to see FC Barcelona play Vila Real. These are two Spanish teams playing in the Spanish league.

The night we arrived in Barcelona, we got to see the cops break up a small scale riot caused by local soccer fans in a post game celebration. People are crazy about soccer, and this got us pretty excited. We all bought some Barcelona apparel and headed for the stadium.

I’ve never watched much soccer, but seeing it in person was a completely different thing. These guys are incredibly conditioned athletes, and I couldn’t believe how hard they could sprint over and over, all game long. The stadium was packed and the fans were awesome. The old man behind me kept yelling “Burro, Burro, Hijo de puta!” whenever the other team would make a move. At the end of the match we were treated to an amazing goal scored by Ronaldinho, who I recognized from a poster on the wall when Jeff and I were drinking with those old dudes in Kurdistan a few weeks back. He was passed the ball from across the field, bounced it off his chest and then turned, flipped, and bicycle kicked it perfectly into the corner of the goal. Bravo!

Kabul

Our hostel was right off Las Ramblas, right in the heart of town, advertised as the #1 hostel in Barcelona. I’m not sure how they settled on the name “Kabul,” which is the capital of Afghanistan, but the place ended up being pretty decent. $18 a night seemed a little steep, but we are now back in the West and it is a bit more spendy.

We all stayed in the same room, which had about 10 bunk beds. Every morning the room was completely sweat-boxed, with the windows fogged over and water running down the walls. It smelled pretty awful in there after a week. We shared the room with two guys from Australia, two guys from Romania, a girl from France, and two middle aged French men. These older guys were hair-dressers in Nice, and one of them struck me as very creepy.

My suspicions were proven true one day when one of the Romanians was taking a nap and the French guy decided to take a little peek under his sheets and check out the family jewels. The Romanian woke up while he was being violated and of course he flipped out. When I heard of this I inquired at the front desk. The guy working the desk confirmed the story, but assured me that the French guy would be kicked out after one more night. One more night, wonderful, that makes a lot of sense. I slept that night with my pants on and my belt cinched tightly.

The hostel had a cool lounge that served happy hour 4 pints of Heineken for 3 euro. Every evening we gathered and drank our beverages there before going out. There were two girls working at the bar from UCSB taking a semester in Spain. They had purchased a rabbit which they named Juan Carlos, who they took back to the states and is happily living in Isla Vista right now.