Anyway, so now that I've had two weeks to sit around and avoid doing anything productive (I haven't even written in my journal, in nearly three weeks!) I've decided that it's about time I updated this thing with an account of my last 10 or so days in Europe. If anything, I owe it to myself, since there's absolutely no way I would ever be able to write it all down in my journal, by hand. It's easy this way, but I need to do it sooner rather than later.
So. I left off writing about the night before heading off to Barcelona. I was in Barcelona from Friday, June 25th until Monday, June 28th. I met Nik at the airport, since he was flying in from L.A. that same day in the morning. We ended up not having enough time to get all the way back down to Embajadores to my apartment so that he could drop off his suitcase, and we actually didn't even have time to leave the airport to go get something to eat in Madrid proper. So we ended up sitting in Barajas for a little while, got something to eat, and finally got on the p
lane. It was pretty funny, because while we were waiting to take off, they had music playing in the cabin, and out of everything they could've possibly provided for our listening pleasure, it was American Christmas music. Like, Rudolph and Jingle Bells and that sort of thing. Silliness.
In Barcelona, after some confusion at the airport in the process of picking up Nik's suitcase, we got ourselves by bus to Plaza Catalunya and met up with my cousin Alfredo, who lives in Barcelona and with whom we would be staying. We were ready to get some food by the time we got to Alfredo's (I felt bad for poor Nik, since he was already exhausted from traveling from L.A. and still had to lug his suitcase around on the way to Alfredo's), so we went down the street to a restaurant where they were watching the Spain v. Chile game. The food was delicious, and the other people in the restaurant were totally into the game, so it was pretty fun. After dinner, we relaxed for a little while in Alfredo's apartment before heading out to walk around in Las Ramblas, one of the most touristy parts of Barcelona, since it has a good night life. We stopped at the water fountain whose claim to fame is that drinking its water ensures that someday you will return to Barca. I didn't actually drink the water, but by Jingo, I thought about it. We ended up just hanging out for a while in this cool bar called
El Bosque de les Fades (which, in Catalán, means The Forest of the Fairies), which was decorated like an enchanted forest on the inside. It reminded me of a cafe I really like in L.A. I had a glass of delicious/strong sangria while we chatted amidst the "trees." Once we all finished our drinks, we were ready to go home, since we were all crazy tired, and because Nik and I were theoretically going to get up early the next day and start seeing more of the city.
On Saturday, I think we got going at around 11:30 or noon, after showering and having breakfast with Alfredo. We decided that the first part of our day would consist of seeing Gaudí buildings, so we started out with the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which towers over the rest of Barcelona--you can easily find it if you're looking at the city from above. It looks like some sort of cave formation, projecting into the sky. We spent a few minutes at the Sagrada Familia, trying to stay in the shade (it was very, very hot that weekend), and then started walking across towards the Paseo de Gracia, which is one of the main streets in Barcelona, full of expensive shops and restaurants. It's also where several of the most famous Gaudí buildings are located. I think my favorite was the Pedrera
(also called the Casa Mila), which looked like some sort of cave formation too. The architecture is pretty cool, considering that at the turn of the century, when this was all be
ing made, everyone was so obsessed with machines and mechanization and metals, etc. The Gaudí buildings that we managed to see were all beautiful.
When we got to Plaza Catalunya, walking down Paseo de Gracia, we headed over to Barcelona's Arch of Triumph, which was awesome, a brick structure when I was expecting a Roman-style triumphal arch. We took some pictures there and then met up with Alfredo for lunch, which was UBER delicious. I tried a couple of typical Barcelona dishes, like a bacalao salad (even though I usually don't like fish), the butifarra (which is a really, really tasty sausage thing), and a traditional dessert called the crema de Catalunya. We ate soo much, because all of it was so delicious, and we ended up spending like an hour and a half lunching. Awesome. After lunch, Alfredo went home while Nik and I went to a park, the Parc de la Ciutadella, to walk around and look at this huge, elaborate fountain near one end of the park. It was pret
ty cool, albeit excessive and crazy. I liked sitting in the shade watching the water fall and people-watching. It was really hot, like I said, so it was tempting to just stay in the shade and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. We were starting to feel really tired, but wanted to make sure we went out that night, so we decided to go back to Alfredo's, take a nap, and then head out to dinner. We ended up watching the game at a Guiness Pub near Plaza Catalunya. We got there pretty late, actually, because we had such a long nap, but right when we walked in, the US was awarded a penalty kick (which is the one that Donovan took, which was the goal the US scored during the first 90 minutes, before Ghana beat them in overtime). It was hilarious in there: so many large American boys chanting and swinging giant cups of beer around and bouncing, the perfect kind of atmosphere in which to watch the game. We actually left at the end of the 90 minutes, because we thought it was just going to end in a tie, so we didn't find out that the US had lost until much later, when we met back up with Alfredo. But it was good that we left, because we got to see Barcelona's famous fountain in Plaza de Espanya, the Font de Montjuic. It changes colors and shoots water up all over the place, so it was fun to watch. What was even more ente
rtaining was that there was some giant party going on in the walk between the Plaza and the fountain. There was a stage with lights and men in tiny tight shorts dancing, and a huge crowd in front of the stage getting showered by the foam shot out from in front of the stage, and booths selling beer behind the crowd, closest to the Plaza. We actually went into the crowd, trudging through the foam, just for kicks. It was pretty funny. There were so many people drenched in foam and dancing around to the loud techno music. The funniest part was tha
t the following night, when we went back to the Font de Montjuic, the party was happening again, and the music playing was pretty much identical. What is there to say, beyond the fact that people in Spain know how to have fun. Relentlessly.
The rest of the night was spent in a couple of different bars with a bar-hopping group, ending with a club called City Hall, where I had a couple of very delicious mojitos. We were out till like 3:45, and then we just felt way too tired to go on, so we went home. And slept till like noon the next day. Hahaha. But Alfredo did too, because he went out salsa dancing, so it was just generally accepted that our Sunday wasn't going to get started until like 3 p.m., after we had some breakfastlunch (kebabs...everywhere in Spain!)
When we fi
nally went out on Sunday, we went straight to the Parc Güell, one of the most famous parts of Barcelona. Gaudí designed this complex for a guy with a lot of property back in the day, and now it's a public park which EVERYONE goes to, to see the awesome Gaudí creations. It's difficult to describe it all: you really just have to see it to get a good sense of how gorgeous the process of making these buildings was. Seeing all the pieces of broken tile, or glass bottles, or even cups and saucers brought together to make these beautiful mosaics...we could've been there all day, looking at each individua
l little mosaic. It felt fantastical, almost Disneyland-esque, to be there, especially because there were so many people, and because it was so cool to look at that it didn't get old. I kind of wish we could've spent more time there, especially because there a bunch of pathways flanked by columns of stone or more cave-like forms, but I think we saw the most important parts of the park. Besides, it was already nearly 6 p.m. when we finally decided to leave, and we were still going to try to go up to see the Castillo de Montjuic AND head over to the beach after that to catch the last bit of sun and meet up with some of Alfredo's Colombian friends.
We ended up just heading straight to the beach, because we were tired from walking around in the sun, and because if we waited any longer, we wouldn't actually get to see the beach in the daylight.
It was a pretty good decision, because we just got to sit out on the beach for like an hour and a half. The water was WAY too cold for swimming, totally unlike Valencia. But nevertheless, it was the Mediterranean, so we spent some time standing with our feet in the water, looking out at the ocean or down the beach at the tons of people lounging around. It was definitely not a nice beach, by any means, because it's sort of like Santa Monica beach: tons of people, all the time, so it ends up being kind of littered and the water isn't as clean as it could be. Also, a
t least that particular beach in Barcelona had way more rocks than sand, so it was actually kind of painful to get up and walk around. Regardless, being at the beach is always nice if you can just sit back and relax and watch the light change, which is exactly what we did.
When the sun was pretty low, we decided to go and find a place to eat, and since we were near the ocean, we opted for a seafood restaurant. I don't really like seafood, but I do enjoy shrimp and calamari, and I knew everyone else was in the mood for some seafood paella, so I promised I would be fine with some fried calamari. We got two menus del día to share, which was perfect, because there's always so much food that comprises a menu del día. All the food was delicious; I actually tried the seafood paella (no mussels and prawns for me, though) and liked it just fine. The best part, though, was the head waiter, who came over and gave us a couple of squares of tarta de Santiago, extra dessert on the house (after we'd already had our menu del día dessert). And then he came by with shot glasses and asked if anyone wanted chupitos, and even after we said we were okay without shots, he insisted and said it was on the house and that the alcohol was some sort of concoction made right a the restaurant, and he was so nice about it that we finally took him up on it. And it was just about the strongest alcohol EVER, it was hilarious; I don't think I even finished half my shot glass (they were admittedly on the large side, but still, it was crazy strong). We had fun, and the head waiter was all pleased to see us leave in such a good mood.
After dinner, we stopped by the Montjuic fountain again, for more pictures, and then called it a night because we were still generally tired from the day before. Moreover, I wanted to get up at like 8 a.m. the next day to say good-bye to Alfredo before he went to work, and to see as much more of Barca as possible before our flight at 3:45. The plan was to go to see the Castillo de Montjuic and to stop by the Picasso Museum.
We took the teleferic (cable cars) up the mountain (the Montjuic Castle is at the very top of the mountain) and got an awesome view of Barcelona during the ride (although we didn't want to spend much more time in that cable car, not because of a fear of heights or anything, but because it was so ridiculously hot in there. At like 10 a.m. Crazy). When we got up to the top, we walked around the castle for a little while, finding different vantage points from which to look out at the ocean. It was soo gorgeous, to be so high up and just looking out onto the ocean. While we were walking around, I kept glancing at my watch, which bothered me, because I hate being ultra conscious of time constraints
. Then it occurred to me that the Picasso Museum might be closed, because museums are often closed on Mondays. I called an information center and asked, and sure enough, closed on Mondays. I was bummed that we weren't going to be able to see the museum (especially because I wanted to see Picasso's variations on Las Meninas), but at the same time, I was hugely relieved, because it gave us wayyy more time to hang out on that mountain, and it allowed me to stop worrying about the time.
After walking for a while around the castle, we took the teleferic back down to where the Metro station was, right next door to the cable cars building, but instead of getting back on the Metro, we decided to walk our way down the rest of the mountain, towards the Plaza de Espanya, because there were some cool things to see on the way down. We spent a few minutes in and around the Olympic stadium (Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992, I believe). We saw the concert hall next door to the stadium, and eventually arrived at the huge museum of Catalonian art, which is a very beautiful building that you can see towering up behind the Montjuic fountain. There was also an awesome staircase with tiled fountains along its side that we stopped to look at for a little while.
It was a pretty long walk, but because we got to take our time (for the most part), it wasn't bad at all. We ended up having lunch at the first place we spotted in Plaza de Espanya when we finally got down there, because we didn't have too much extra time, since we still had to go back to Alfredo's to pick up our stuff and get on a bus to the airport. But our lunch was really good, and relatively cheap, and super filling, so we were all set to go get our stuff and head over to the airport. Our timing ended up being perfect, because we got to the airport at like 2:30 and it took us basically no time to check in, so we actually even got some time to sit around drinking water and waiting to board the plane.
Back in Madrid on Monday night, we had dinner at a Cañas y Tapas in Sol (<333). onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAX887FcOIIG9svdNGLtnm-EElJCFVd2oNIOEmJ1KjskywDju-PGLLh28v5aFKm7g5IvKtTyo8jmutczcMd0Rsg1uszDlI0jKIY9Ge5mt2oSBTjYMGaPgJKUvrSjXANYRv7pWSkd-ZBUnP/s1600/DSC04023.JPG">
We spent some time walking around Sol (it was pretty much the first place I wanted Nik to see, and since his hostel was near the Ronda de Atocha, it actually wasn't a long walk, so we didn't feel the effects of the Metro strike too much) and then the Palacio Real, which is really cool to see at night. At around 12:30 a.m. or so, we went to a bar on Calle de San Jerónimo, near Sol, and had delicious, cheap mojitos while sitting in the dim light next to a table of French girls smoking like chimneys. It was the most typical European bar experience I had during my time in Spain, I loved it. And I also loved the walk back to Atocha, because we walked down Paseo del Prado and it was like 2:30 a.m. but totally safe, and it was really nice out because it wasn't as hot as it is during the day, of course, but it wasn't at all chilly. And I also just really enjoyed it because it made me realize how easy it is to get around Madrid even on foot, and that in some way I was missing out by relying so completely on the Metro. So the Metro strike during the subsequent week had us walking around a LOT, but I didn't mind simply because it meant I got to see as much as possible of Madrid during those last precious couple of days.
OKAY. I'm done writing for today. Tomorrow (I hope), a possibly shorter account of my last few days in Madrid. Ohhhh, Madrid, I miss you!
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