Barcelona Part Deux

Hey Everyone! I want to apologize for neglecting my story telling these past weeks. Life's been pretty hectic, and I haven't had the time really required to sit down and collect my thoughts about the trips I've had. Anyway, I'll try to do better now. Weekly things should start slowing down now, thankfully, and I have just about a month left in Spain, so now's the time for me to really experience things.

Anyway, a few weeks ago (I think it was 2?) I traveled to Barcelona again to visit with my friend Hunter, who is currently studying in Florence, Italy. This was actually the first trip to Barcelona I had planned, and it was Hunter's Fall Break (lucky bastard), so we were both pretty excited about it.

So I decided to try taking the train to Barca this trip, figuring it would be cheaper than a plane, seeing as how neglected to book a flight or my hostel until the week of. Oops! Also, I figured that a train, like the AVE high speed train that runs through Spain, wouldn't be as expensive/book as quickly as an airplane. I was wrong on both counts. So on a Friday afternoon, about an hour before my train was scheduled to depart, I waltzed into the Santa Justa train station without a care, believing that a cheap ticket would be easy to come by. I was sadly mistaken, as I discovered that the only seats left on my train were in the Club section (for those of you traveling along with me at home, this is the AVE's version of First Class). That ticket cost considerably more than I expected (much more than a late booked airline ticket)...but hey, I got to Barcelona when I said I would and spent the 6 hour ride in style. Thanks Mom and Dad! (Sorry! I swear I didn't know that it would be full...:( )

I arrived in Barcelona about 11 o'clock in the PM, and then had a little difficulty finding my hostel. It was supposedly near the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, but of course being in the Barcelona train station, I had no idea what direction that was. It didn't help that the directions the hostel had given to HostelWorld.com weren't particularly precise (in fact, they were downright wrong!) so I had to fudge my way through the Metro to the stop they mentioned. I got very lucky at that point and headed down the right street in the right direction, and found the hostel in 2 blocks. It was a nice enough place, though the staff at Check-in were slightly rude (Pardon me for not hearing correctly...I find that we Americans can be nearly as pompous as the French). I found my room without too much difficulty, found someone else on the bed I was assigned, so I just threw my stuff on the top bunk. I immediately turned right back around to go meet up with Hunter.

I had to jump back on the Metro, but fortunately I purchased a 10-trip ticket so I was pretty much set for the weekend. We met up, and he told me about some Boston U. kids he'd met who were planning on going to a Halloween Party, so we decided to hitch along with them. They were a very nice group, and we all headed to this bar called the Stock Market Bar..or maybe the Wall Street Bar? Regardless of the name, the idea of the bar was that, for the given hour, prices would rise with each purchase of whatever beverage and the market would crash at the end of every hour (of course, it never crashed for us). It was a cozy little place filled with a lot of costumed creepies (I mean a lot! There were a bunch of large men dressed in drag who were particularly sketchy). We chilled and danced at the bar for a few hours, but around 2 or 3 AM it cleared out, so we did too. We ended up walking around the neighborhood searching for another place to party at (can't waste any part of the night of Halloween after all) but without success. So we ended up chilling on the steps of some bank chatting til very late/early. When we finally got tired, we started our search for a Metro station, but that was also without success. We ended up walking for over an hour and we wound up at the Barcelona main train station...a very long walk. All in all, didn't get in until 6 AM, but had a fairly good time.

The next day, our only full day in Barcelona, started off blissfully late. We both slept until noon, then met up for some breakfast. Hunter had pizza, and I had...something, I can't remember. Our plans for the day would take us all over the city, so I was very glad I had purchased the 10-trip pass. We started off by checking out Montjuic, since that was quite close to us. We took the funicular (such a great word XD <-- turn your head to understand this) but weren't really lucky enough to take good pictures. Montjuic definitely isn't as high as Mount Tibidabao (also, great name!) but it definitely is elevated above the rest of the city. It's also where the Olympic Soccer Stadium in Barcelona is located. While up there, Hunter really wanted to check out the Joan Miro museum. He was this Catalan abstract artist...really really abstract. Granted, half the pieces looked similar and were titled "Woman with birds (and star(s)/moon/sun)" but still, you'd never guess in your wildest imagination that's what you were looking at. Hunter and I had played a game of trying to guess the title of each piece, and we came up with some pretty ridiculous ideas, all of which were wrong. I can't say I was a big fan of Miro's works, but they were certainly interesting. There was one piece in the museum that I was drawn to: Mercury Fountain. Now, not Mercury's Fountain, but Mercury Fountain. A fountain that used quicksilver instead of water. It was fascinating to watch the mercury bead up coming through the bends in the sculpture. I was riveted to the fountain for a solid 5 minutes before Hunter coughed suggestively. Despite its probable poison level, that would be really cool to have in your house.

We spent a fair amount of time in the museum, then decided to head further up the hill, coming to the Olympic Stadium. Hunter took some pictures, and we picked up some snacks (GUMMI BEARS!). From there, we took the metro back toward the waterfront, hopping off near the Monument to Cristobal Colon (Chris Columbus, everybody). We walked down to the really sweet-looking boardwalk. It was designed to look like the entire architecture was wavelike, very Gaudi-esque, I felt. It was really neat! There was also this great big shopping mall there that we ducked into. Hunter had checked it out the day before, and it was fun to stroll through. Picked up a cool tunic-like sweater for fairly cheap. We were essentially passing time before Rick Steves (the tour guide) told us to check out the Picasso museum, and it was a beautiful place to do it.

After the boardwalk, we started our way over to the Picasso museum. We got lost once or twice, were forced to resort to reading the map, but found it without too much mishap (don't even think about chortling at that pun...yes, I know you are now.) The Picasso Museum is located on this very small road, almost an alley, in this awesome building. We walked in it, and it felt like we were entering through the catacombs of a castle. I still need to find out why it was designed like that. Anyways, we got our entradas (tickets) and made our way into the museum.

One word: Genius. That's what Picasso was. Before he was 10 he was a better artist than anyone I've ever known. Looking at his early pieces was just ridiculous, that someone so young could have such talent. Hunter and I spent probably about 2 hours examining each room, reading every information plaque, gazing upon each painting. I found myself drawn more to his Blue Period (Epoca Azul) works than anything else, though he had some ceramics that were so colorful and varied that also caught my eye. Picasso did it all. He wasn't just a painter. He didn't simply dabble in other art forms, he mastered them as well. Ceramics, sculpture, some other form that refuses to come to mind. Any combination of four great artists would be hard-pressed to match the greatness created by the hands of Picasso (but I wasn't impressed or anything).

We got dinner at this Italian restaurant near the museum, and the food was actually quite tasty. Hunter, being the resident know-it-all concerning Italian cuisine, chose the wine that would fit our meal (it was a white, don't ask me specifics). It was quite tasty. I had gnocchi in pesto sauce (scrumptious!) and I can't remember what he had. We finished the meal with some tiramisu and cappuccino (for which I reaffirmed my distaste). We walked to the metro, and parted ways.

It was very nice to see my old friend from Cobb 3rd Floor, and I look forward to chilling with him again once we all return to Carolina.