Barcelona, Spain

We made it to Barcelona. When we arrived we first noticed that the area around the train station was actually quite nice (compared to the areas around other train stations).  Let’s be honest, most airports and train stations aren’t in the nicest part of town.  So we decided this was a good sign of things to come.

After walking to our destination – our AirBnb accomodations – we felt slightly uncomfortable.  Some things with the listing felt a bit off, and when our host wasn’t home, we decided to book a last minute reservation with a hostel we trusted.  The hostel in Madrid was so nice that we came to it’s sister in Barcelona. Albeit, not as nice as the hostel in Madrid and in a less convinent location than our first housing, it is a great place and was a good decission.  Our day had been full of little stresses like these that wear you out.  Hungry and tired, we went in search of dinner.  To no avail.  I’m ashamed to say that our best option was McDonalds, and we succomed. But hey, we were weary.

Funny thing about Barcelona – they dont speak Spanish here.  They speak Catalyn which is funny mix of spanish and french, and different to navigate. I mean they do speak spanish, but the signage isn’t in pure Spanish or anything.  Spanish just isn’t the main thing.

Yesterday was our first day actually seeing Barcelona, and it is very nice.  One of my roomates, a new friend from Austraila, joined us for the day. The Arc de Triumf was our first stop.  It almost makes you think that you’re in Paris (there are 2 arcs for those of you wondering or confused)

  
We then walked down some very ordinary and unexciting streets until we reached the cathedral designed by Gaudi.  When he designed it, the technology to build it didn’t yet exist, so it is still under construction. You can see pieces of symoblism all over the structure; it made me wonder about his intentions in the design.

We then wandered in the direction we thought was west, but somehow ended up back at the Arc de Triumf.  Feeling defeated (and a little disspointed by Barcelona at this point) we went in search of something better.  We succeeded!  The gothic district of Barcelona has a lot of character and charm.  We ordered coffee and wandered the streets for a few hours.  As luck would have it, we ended up in an establishment associtaed with another hostel and recieved free Tapas!  It was a blast.  The hostel had ‘speed friending’ which ended in a bunch of people yelling (happily) at each other across a table about where they are from, unable to hear the other person.  After that, we came back and played some games at our own hostel.

Unfortunetly, at some point durng the day I was pickpocketed.  Luckily, I’ve been very careful and crafty with my things, so they only got about 40 Euros and no cards or important things.  But, I will consequently carry less in the city for the remainder of our time in Spain, and will not be able to post more on Barcelona. 

Every traveler I meet loves Prague, so I’m getting getting excited about the next adventure too.  In the meantime, I will enjoy my days here and my last few with Alyssa.