Landing in Barcelona
Trip Start
May 13, 2006
1
7
14
Trip End
Jun 04, 2006
Barcelona,
Spain
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
It was quite confusing in the train/metro trip, as we had to change trains/metro a few times. This is the first time in Europe when we asked direction from someone in English & the person couldnt explain to us in English. However, the guy (who was a police man stationed with a herder dog in one of the metro station) explained to us so jovially, with very expressive face & body language, we just didnt stop him talking in spanish for 5 minutes explaining to us the direction! Gracias Senor! (we just figured out the direction by pointing fingers on the map in turn).
Checking in was quite long, we probably waited for 45 minutes, with 2 pairs of people in front of us. But the room was very nice & clean, including the toilet. Meanwhile the city was getting crazy as Barcelona had just won their Champion Cup! and the streets were partying like crazy. We went out at midnight just outside the hostel & people were just hugging each other, singing & parading! It was so alive! We didnt dare to go to far from the hostel since we thought people may just get drunk by too much.
Back to our room of 6 people at 1 am, it was still empty. People were still partying!
We figured out that we had american girls as roommate! The hostel was better than i expected, it was newly renovated, with a wooden parquet floor, the wall paint was still clean, lockers & bed still looked new, & the shower was clean & automatic. The door was opened with cards.
Barcelona Day1:
The next morning, we first took a all u can eat breakfast - unlimited cereal, bread, milk, kiwi & fruit & headed towards the famous Ramblas Street.
Places visited:
1. Las Ramblas - It's like the Champs Elysee of Paris, or Orchard of Sing, or Thamrin of Jkt (well far from Thamrin).
The main lanes are only for people walking, while the minor lanes at the side are for cars. so we could just walk comfortably there.
There are many street performers there, covered in gold paint all over their body. They do some nice things, but be careful some of them just want money!
2. Gothic Quarter - This area has the Museum Picasso, many small boutique shops, residential old apartments. Main colour is brown but it is very charming, you can see clothes being dried out across ropes outside the apt windows, the small alleys just make the area romantic & cosy. And u still feel safe
3. Picasso Museum was free that day (we didnt know) & it housed lots of paintings of him inside, from his beginning era till the end where he was famous for cubism.
4. Restaurants near the Port. We went there to eat authentic spanish cuisine. we had paella, but i was too sick to enjoy it, i had a very bad menstrual cramp that noon, so we had to go back to hostel with taxi so I could rest....
5. After a hot boiled tea & some rest, we took a walk to see Gaudi Stuff just around the hostel block, there were 2 buildings of his, those that i have seen on TVs. we didnt go inside cause it was quite expensive (each is E10) but looking from outside, we can already see his wavy & curly fantasy trademarks.
6. We took a walk until we reach Sagrada Familia, the magnificent church. O you should see this place by yourself & you will just drop your jaw. We went up the spiral stairs until we reached one of the tower top (about 250 stairs I think) & my jaw dropped some more hihihi... thank goodness we had taken a rest earlier, otherwise i wouldnt have the energy to climb it up.
In the basement, there is a small museum on the Sagrada & Gaudi, and from there we found out that many of his created architecture pattern are based on nature, whether it's a flower, leaf, shell, wave.... wow, it's just amazing how creative this guy was & how advanced he was to be able to also think of the structure required to build all his creations! Sagrda is still under construction until now, thank goodness the govt decided to continue it.
Day 2:
7. The next day, we went to Parc Guell, another Gaudi! the wave structure is here & there were some aquaducts which he created during the time, I dont know how he figured out to make the stones stick to each other. See the pictures somewhere! We took a public bus to Parc Guell, which is at the north of the city & high up. Arvi found out that his ticket which got folded in his pants the day before couldnt work anymore. On the way down from the Park, we stopped at a metro station to take care of it. The spanish man & lady in the booth didnt understand english, Arvi tried his best to explain what happened to his ticket with english & broken spanish (maybe he only know 15 spanish words) & the man & lady just smiled knowing that they didnt speak english. They were nice enough to give him a change of ticket.
8. Then we went to Montjuic hill where the Olympic Park is. They also have the Catalunyan Museum & a famous tour created by some modern architect there. cant remember the name. it was very hot up there, & sleeveless was just rite. At the bottom of the hill, we asked for direction to a small tourist info booth & when the guy found out we were from Indo (actually we didnt tell him, he just guessed), he started asking more questions about Indo before we could ask him questions! we just loved the spanish people with their enthusiasm!
9.We walked down the Montjuic hill & we reached the port center & there was a mall in the water, i mean they built some cement & stone on the water so there could be a structure there. Many were sunbathing in the area. I think my brother was too tired of walking at this time, he didnt talk too much.
9. But I wasnt going to leave Barcelona without visiting the maximum number of places... then we went to see the Noucamp Museum, where Barcelona FC is based. Just saw the outside & the souvenir shop there. To go inside it is 10E (again), & we didnt go in. We walked past Barcelona Uni on the way back to catch a straight bus home.
10. Had dinner at "Pans" near hostel, which sold excellent baguette-sandwich
3rd Day
11. We took a 1.5bus ride to Girona Airport & put our bags in the hotel near there. We then took a bus to the city, where it turned out they were having a flower expo. O it was so nice!!!! They were using people's apartment, churches, gardens, shops, restos, old building to make flower arrangement creation... It was just the nicest thing a small city can think of doing. There were many french tourists & they just went "o la la" in awe!
Our impression on Spain is:
1. Barcelona people are so friendly, despite most of them dont speak english! we just love them, they are full of smile, and helpfullness and enthusiasm.
2. Lively youthful city, we loved it !
3. Barcelona is not enough in 3 days! would go there again!
