Much Walking (Barcelona Day One)

I am sitting in one of the most comfortable chairs ever at the hostel in Valencia. Pero Barcelona primera ¿no?

I arrived safely in Barcelona with a decent amount of passable sleep. Thank you for your prayers and thank God for seeing fit to keep me safe and everything. I can't say it was the most comfortable sleep, but I can say that I found several new creative sleeping positions! After walking all over the airport (with my luggage) trying to figure out transportation, finally taking a taxi, and going into the wrong hotel, I finally made it to my hotel, El Hotel Via Augusta, and after wandering around for a bit while they got my room ready, I settled into my room which was TINY but cute and just enough. I don’t have any pictures of this worth sharing except perhaps the picture of the lovely staircase I got to climb.

(Eighth floor aw yeah! Which is like the ninth floor in Spain because the first floor is floor zero. When I did choose to climb it instead of taking the elevator, I was definitely breathing hard by the time I got to my room.) Being able to lock the door of the room and just be—not be trying to understand Spanish, figure out where I was going, or watch out for my stuff, was sooooo nice—until I started getting majorly homesick. No kidding—it was most homesick/lonely I’ve ever been. So I knew I had to get out of the room and doing something.

I decided on Las Ramblas, kind of like the touristy main street of Barcelona I guess? I’ll tell you more about it as I go. Before I got to Las Ramblas, I wandered around in the neighbourhood (mostly in circles) trying to find somewhere to eat and stumbled through buying a phone and an electrical adapter in Spanish. I had felt bad because my Spanish is stumbling. . .but now that I think about it, I’d been there less than 12 hours and I was able to communicate well enough to buy a phone. (I did buy 20 Euros of saldo (or minutes) instead of 20 minutes of saldo like I thought. Oh well :) 

Barcelona, except that it’s flat and hot, reminds me of San Francisco. The busy streets that run at odd angles to each other and split in the middle and change their name (I spent probably about half an hour looking for my hotel coming back because the street split and I was on the wrong side of it), the tall and interesting old buildings, the crowded metro. . .I kept finding it hard to believe that I was really in Spain or Europe, the people are the same. . .they just speak Spanish, or Catalán. I guess it’s a good reminder that people are people everywhere.

Apparently I really like balconies. I felt compelled to take pictures of them!

Catalán Flag -- ¡Viva Catalunya!

And Vespas. Vespas everywhere!

Anwyway, Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is one long avenue that begins at the water at El Monumento Colón and continues to Plaça Catalunya, which is the main metro stop at least. . .maybe the center of downtown too? The actual street goes on either side of a wide promenade (it’s like a huge median in the middle of the street) and there are different sections. (Here come the good pictures :)

So here’s El Monumento Colón—more for reference and to say “I’ve been there” than anything else. I mean it’s really tall, but it’s not particularly beautiful or anything. (Sorry I know it has historical significance and stuff. But so do other things that are much more exciting)

Actually first I went on La Rambla del Mar, which is basically a pier going out over the water. 

Then I started up Las Ramblas. The first section is La Rambla de Santa Monica and features street performers and artists, especially living statues. When I came back the next day, there were some even more impressive statues, but this was the one I caught on my digital film. 
  
There were also caricature artists –I didn’t want to take pictures of their work a lot because I felt it would be kind of stealing, but I did take a picture of this guy—if you can’t tell, he’s using a BRUSH. A BRUSH, guys! 
 
The next section is restaurants, which usually have storefronts on the street, but set up their patios on the sidewalk of Las Ramblas. It’s called La Rambla Dels Caputxins. (I had to look most of these up. I just remember Santa Mónica because it’s the first) After that, which is really long, is the Rambla de Sant Josep, which is a bunch of flower shops. Also there is La Boquería, a huge indoor/outdoor food market with all kinds of interesting stuff!

 

Your typical produce (grapes, avocadoes, peaches), tropical and exotic fruit (passionfruit, lychee fruit), candies in a huge assortment of shapes and colors, meat (including other meats like tripe, tongue, and sheep head.) Fascinating!

¡Jamón!

Pretty Colors!

(Fried egg candy anyone?)

Next is La Rambla dels Estudis, which is lined with people selling birds and hamsters and fish—all kinds of pets. Finally is La Rambla de les Canaletes which is supposed to lead to a fountain, which it did, but really just to Plaça Catalunya where I sat and thought a while. Finally I bought un gofre (a waffle) for dinner/dessert. I was really happy with this transaction because I actually felt like it went fairly smoothly. I even asked the woman behind the counter what the best one was! (Chocolate with condensed milk apparently. Although she said another one was also good, but I didn’t quite catch it :)  My sightseeing did its job, and as I went back to the Metro, I wasn’t nearly so homesick, looking forward to a Skype date with my family and more wandering the next day.