Barcelona Arrival
Trip Start
Apr 18, 2007
1
49
54
Trip End
Ongoing
Barcelona,
Spain
Sunday, October 28, 2007
I have decided to live in Barcelona because I want to improve my Spanish, live in Spain and dance lindy hop. Barcelona is the only city you can do all three. Not to mention, Barcelona rocks!
On my last day in Granada, I spent the day hiking up in the hills of Sacramonte and climbing la muralla (the wall) to say good by to el ciudad de mi corazon (The city of my heart)
I got here at 10:30AM after a 14-hour, full-moon-lit, nite-bus ride with no leg room because my seat had a wall where your feet are supposed to go. Ouch!
Lamento Boliviano/Lamento Americano (quickly becoming my latest theme song) greeted me as I got of the bus in Barcelona this morning. I sat down with a pastry and a cup of coffee to relax, re-orient and re-organize before heading off to find my hostel.
Many people had warned me about the epidemic pick-pocketing in Barcelona so I was borderline paranoid as soon as I hit Estacion Norde. I put my valuables in my large suitcase and my wallet in the front pocket of my sweatshirt under my buttoned up coat so there wasn't anything for pickpockets to get at. I will have to work on a long term solution to this problem however as I will have to live day to day life under this threat. Bummer huh?
On the way, I happened upon a group performing traditional Catalunian dancing and sat in the sun for a half an hour to watch. Then took two metros then I carried my 100 plus pounds of accumulated luggage up this mountain to the hostel.
The hostel I am staying in is called IN-OUT Alberg. A large hostel run by people with developmental disabilities. Sounds like my kind of gig (not because I have developmental disabilities, though some may beg to differ) but because I have worked both with people with deveopmental disabilities and in a hostels environment before. I'm gonna see if they need any help in exchange for a place to stay or some dinero. It is located on a mountain in a national park on the out-skirts of Barcelona. Its pretty inexpensive, with great facilities: free Internet to work from and located in a huge city park so I don't mind being here, other than the slow drain on my dwindling finances.
I am aching to Lindy Hop again, my swingin' has been sparse since I left Herrang. No dancing today unfortunately, so I will spend the day recuperating and starting to organize my life here. Can't wait to hit the dance floor and meet up the Barcelona swingers! Tomorrow there are two dances though, one in the afternoon in the park and one at a grand ball room with a live band. Looks like there will be dancing almost every day here. Ahhh, just like home.
Calle, as usual, has come to my aide and connected me with a number of his friends in Barcelona. I just wrote to 2 of them today and hope to meet them dancing tomorrow or soon. We'll see if anything comes of it.
Happy to be here and on my way.
