Barcelona, Spain

 

Off to another adventure. When a friend asks if you want to go to Spain and Portugal you can’t say no, right? After meeting in Chicago, Lluvia and I made the 8.5 hour flight to Barcelona. As we were landing we flew over the Balearic Sea, with tiny white sailboats dotting its smooth blue surface. Customs are a breeze. Stamped our passports and did not ask a single question. It was 1:30pm and we knew we could not waste a second of our day. We headed for our hostel by bus and were able to check in early and drop off our packs. We walk through ornate arched doorways. Paint is peeling and the wood is worn. Old marble floors make the path to a  marble stairway. Large wooden doors line the halls with ornate brass hardware. Up a few floors, after following the signs for Hostel River we found a small desk with a man that only spoke Spanish. Perfect to have a native Spanish speaker with me! As she spoke with him he told her, “ You speak Spanish and I speak Spanish but I do not understand you.” I guess Spain Spanish is different than Mexico Spanish. We get it figured out pretty easily. We had both noticed that signs and names for fruits etc were different than what Mexico Spanish is. I am surprised how different it is. We walk up more curving stairways and walk to the end of the hall to our room. The architecture speaks of old money but is now old and worn.  This is the oldest part of the city named the Gothic quarter. If these walls could tell a story I would love to hear it. We have a tiny room and bathroom to ourselves. And yes mom, it is perfectly safe. We have a small balcony that is about 1 foot by 4 feet. We can step out and see people hanging there laundry out on there equally small balconies. We drop our packs and head out on an adventure. With no real destination in mind we wonder the narrow brick streets. Beautiful plants hang from the balconies above. Ornate metalwork adorn old wooden doors that are 10-12 foot tall. It reminds me a lot of Italy. The stucco walls and tile roofs. Some of the older buildings are made of old rusty colored stone. That reminds me of the Spanish ruins we seen in New Mexico. It all makes sense now seeing where the Spanish Conquistadors would have been from. First stop was gelato. Delicious  to say the least. We wondered the shops and accidentally bought more than intended. We only have medium sized backpacks for easily traveling and they are already full. We may have to figure something else out at rate we are buying things. We found the cutest vintage thrift stores and a gorgeous handmade leather shoe store with the soles made out of recycled tires. We passed by a cathedral, Basilica de Santa Maria. It was built in the 1300s. Wild. Before America was even discovered. We explored inside and saw the sparkling stained glass windows, huge stones in the floor with names and dates where important Catholics were buried. We happened to be there on the hour and listened to the church bells chime. Spiral stone staircases led us up to an outdoor terrace about 6 stories up. We climbed even higher and got a good view of the city around, just underneath where the bell tower was. Next we continued down to a coffee shop which was delicious. Once again, here matcha and coffee are meant to be drank as they are, not with syrups and sugar added. LLuvia’s coworker had just gotten back from living in Barcelona for a few months so we had this coffee shop recommended along with some other great destinations. Next we went to Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. It was stunning. We looked into buying tickets to go inside but it was booked out over a week. We walked around and waited for the 7pm bells to chime. It was beautiful. It played a song more than the deep bells you usually hear. After we hopped a train back towards our hostel.  We found a yummy place called Terraza Piccola. We sat outside in the beautiful weather and enjoyed Tapas. Rosemary focaccia, prosciutto and cheese tray, and a buffalo mozzarella caprese salad. We may have had a shopcident or two on the way back to our hostel. We were wonderfully tired by now, and fell asleep even though it would have been midday America time. Occasionally people yelled down below in the street or in the nearby hallways but I could not care less. 

Morning found us going to another coffee shop via metro, shoutout to Arturo for the great coffee recommendations.  We found a small table along the street to enjoy our coffee and pastries as this coffee shop did not have seating. We then hopped a metro for Mercat del Encants, a vintage market only open 3 days a week. We only got through about a quarter of it at the most in the hour we were there. Everything from used clothes, to fabric, to vintage watches, paintings, old cameras, and everything you could imagine. We may be carrying a few more bags after that. Next we left for the metro to get to the train station where our train leaves in just over an hour. After getting on the metro and discovering we were not going the right direction we get off at the next station. After talking to several people we figured it out. FYI the people here are absolutely gorgeous. But they do not appreciate tourists and most are quite rude and unfriendly. We got to the right train station and got in line. I was pretty sure we had joined in a line at the end. I had noticed we were beside some ladies. They started motioning and pointing and telling us to go to the back of the line. I was pretty sure we had been, or if we had got in front of people it was only because we had both got there at the same time. She was being so dramatic about it we went to the back of the line. And she wasn’t asking us to go behind her. She was pointing all the way to the back. Where over 20 more people had already gotten in line. Kinda annoying. Because we had been in line before any of them. But rather than make a scene or make a Spanish women angry we went to the back. In the end it all worked out as an agent came to the people in front of us and took us all to a new line where we got waayyyy ahead of those ladies who were stuck back in there line that they thought they owned. I may have smiled a little inside. We caught our train with just a couple minutes to spare. This wasn’t just any train, like one that comes and goes every few minutes. We had non refundable tickets for 11am. And tickets later in the day would have been another $180 and we had already spent way more on these tickets since we had only booked them the day before. Pro tip, book your train tickets early unless you want to pay 3 times the price.  

This train is headed for Madrid. There we will switch trains and head for Seville. As we tootle along at 294 kpm the landscape flashes by. Vineyards and stone houses dot the hillsides. Occasionally a castle is perched on a hill. The landscape gives way to the dry flat barren lands that would give western Kansas competition. It is very dry with the only green is the trees and irrigated fields. The flat land turns into dry hills. 3 hours to Madrid, then 3 hours to Seville.