Barcelona

In order to get to Barcelona, we took a bus ride that was a little over five hours. During this ride I learned that the French overemphasize the rest part of rest stop. Our bus stopped for about an hour at a stop that is kind of hard to describe but essentially is a restaurant set up like a rest stop. Let me explain.

You stand in line and order your food. Normal. However, very little is actually already prepared so when you order your food the cook it right there for you. This makes it impossible to go wham bam thank you mam and get back on the road. When I google maps told me it should take three and a half hours and the REST stop was a major reasons for our trip taking as long as it did. Sometimes the laidback attitude is refreshing, other times you just want them to hurry up. This was the latter.

Once we got there, I realized I only knew what metro stop Robbie lived off of, but hadn’t had the foresight to get directions for the bus stop to the metro as well as how to get to his apartment once I got off. It is moments like these when I realize the benefits of a travel agent and by travel agent, I mean mom or someone who I can convince to play mom. So far the only mother like figure I have is Mark who wakes me up for class by asking if im going to class that day. The answer always being the same groggy, incoherent, yes.

Turns out the bus station was right next to the train station which had a metro stop in it. Having mastering the DC metro and figuring out the NYC subway all on my own that day this summer when I lost my car key in Manhattan stranding myself there for an extra day and a half, which is quite the story by the way, I figured Barcelona wouldn’t be too much of a struggle. I found my way to Robbie’s apartment and was greeted at the door by his landlady who was playing gatekeeper for the evening. Now I took Spanish for 4 years and on a daily basis in French class my teacher tells me that I speak my French with too much Spanish in it however, after French everyday for almost a month now, I found it taking me a while to think of words in Spanish. Basically my brain is divided into two sections, foreign languages and English. My brain can find the words in other languages (sometimes) but it isn’t always sure which words belong with which language. Basically if I’m not paying attention, I end up speaking in word salad.

Keeping that in mind, I was rather proud of myself that I explained that I was a friend of Robbie Green, that he was one of the American students who lived there, and I was staying for the weekend. I guess I made enough sense cause she actually let me inside. After crossing the threshold beaming with pride at how worldly I’m becoming, I realized that I only had Robbie’s address and not his apartment number. The palace guard aka land lady looked at me with a wary eye when I stood there on my phone and called Rob Job. She probably though I was selling drugs or some other sort of illegal activity. Turns out Robbie was about a block away and on his way there so when I walked outside of the building to wait for him, she was giving me the hairy eyeball.

So we hung out in Robbies for an hour or two and had a very Spanish dinner of frozen pizza. Then we went downstairs to some girls twenty first birthday. Im there for about two minutes and one of my friends from school, Teddy, comes strolling inside. I didn’t think anything of this cause Robbie and Teddy had been chatting all day and just assumed he had been invited. However, in reality, Robbie didn’t invite Teddy cause he didn’t know if he could and Teddy hadn’t invited us for the same reasons. Upon this, the melody to ‘It’s a small world afterall’ played in my head for about the 10th time so far this trip.

The twenty first birthday lasted only about twenty one minutes because the land lady, my good friend from earlier that evening, showed up and threatened to call the cops. Apparently this is the third time she has threatened to call the cops on them and they’ve been there for two weeks or so. But no one was looking to call her bluff.

So we then went to a bar which had close to 100 different shooters. These were very interactive. There was the Harry Potter-flaming shot with sparks, Mouthwash- minty which you swish in your mouth for 10 seconds swallow and then breath in, Finding Nemo- shot with whipped cream on top and an m&m (nemo) hidden somewhere inside.

So after there we went to a club. In Barcelona there are these two competing club promoters, both of them with the same name, keiki. Both of them have groups on facebook where every night they send a message out to all the members and hawk free drinks, free entry, etc for wherever they happen to be promoting that evening. These dudes literally make hand over fist and get to party for free just by sending out facebook message? Are they hiring?

So being cheap and not wanting to pay a cover, we went to one of keiki’s clubs of the day. With dropping his name we were able to by pass the line, get in for free, and use the VIP entrance. Not too shabby.

If France is the major leagues of pastries, then Barcelona is the majors of partying/going out. Seriously. Their daily schedule includes a nap and dinner starting at like 9:30.

Robbie and I got a late start on my second day in Barcelona- we didn’t leave the house until 2 in the afternoon but it was a rather successful day considering we had about four and a half hours of day light.

Since Robbie lives, there, he had already seen some of the major landmarks things, like La Sagrada Familia as well as the other Gaudi designs. I would have liked to see them, but living outside of DC I have had my fair share of playing tour guide so I had no problem seeing things he had not had a chance to visit yet.

We started by walking down “Las Ramblas” which is the main avenue in Barcelona. Its full of street performers, lots of those idiots who paint themselves like statues, and vendor selling all sorts of pets.

Do you want a chicken? What about a duck? Parrots? Hamsters, snakes, or rabbits, take your pick. Seriously, they had all of those. I would love to see who actually buys a chicken off of the side of the road.

Anyways, next to one of these stands turned pet store, was a guy doing that ‘watch me move the balls in the cup really quick’ game, you know, the one they play on the big screen at Nationals games. I wanted to stop and watch but Robbie practically pushed me to keep walking. He said that at all his orientation things they continuously warned them about pickpockets and said there are ones who are in with the guy playing the ‘ball in the cup’ game, so that while you focus on the cups, a guy will come up and steal your wallet. Its good he warned me because in Barcelona I talked to at least four people who all told me about how they had things taken from them, ranging from cameras, to wallets, to purses literally snatched off of their arms.

After Robbie warned me I thought it would be funny to try and pretend to steal his wallet. So I did. He wasn’t happy about it but I busted up laughing. That kid has got quick reaction time.

Las Ramblas ended at the port and a GIANT monument to Christopher Columbus. Id post pictures, but I left my camera at Robbie’s in my mad rush to leave because I though I had lost my bus ticket, but more on that later. We wandered around the port and stumbled upon a guy playing Beatles songs on the guitar. Since the weather was perfect- about 65 and sunny- and we were in no rush I probably sat there for close to half an hour. He was really really good, but we all got the impression that he didn’t necessarily know what he was singing, even though he knew all of the words. Kinda like a parrot just repeating what it hears.

Eventually we made our way over to the beach, where despite it being the middle of January, people were in bathing suits and tanning. It reminded me so much of Colgate in January that I almost couldn’t handle it. So then we wandered to where the Olympic stadium from the ’92 Olympics. That was impressive, but honestly, I though the coolest part was (and I know im gonna sound like a huge nerd) was Montjuic Tower which was used for the communications during the Olympic games. It looked like something from the Jetsons only less cartoonish. The architecht, who’s name I forget, is really well known for both his modern designs and incorporating an unexpected element into his designs.

Fun Fact: the unexpected element for the TV tower is that it doubles as a giant sundial.

I stole this picture from online cause its too hard to describe it well enough.

After waiting around at this palace, now museum, that was right next door for the water show that never happened because something was busted, we decided to get dinner. I was excited to try tapas, which is essentially a meal of appetizers, which are always my favorite part of the meal anyways cause if you don’t like what your eating its not like your committed to a whole meal. You just suck it up, throw it down the hatch, and move on. But if you do like what your eating, you can feast on them.

Basically I was excited to eat nothing but the Spanish version of spinach and artichoke dip, mini egg rolls, mozzarella sticks, and pigs in a blanket for dinner. And don’t front, you know your favorite part of fancy parties is all the dudes walking around with different appetizers on their trays.

Alas, this being Europe, you never know when stores are just not going to open for the day because they don’t feel like it. And to complicate the issue, this was Barcelona and most places don’t open for dinner until 9:30 at night. It was about 8:45, 9 o’clock and I was fiending for food so lets be real. I wasn’t about to wait half an hour outside of a restaurant that may or may not be opening at all for dinner that evening.

So we found another restaurant that looked how a restaurant would look if the same people who make the Apple stores designed it. The last time I had Spanish was 10th grade and unfortunately the menu wasn’t the same as Taco Bell, so I basically ordered blind, only knowing that my dish came with some cheese somewhere in it. I got what I think was pork with various melted cheeses on it. Sounds not too appetizing, but it was pretty good cause they used really good cheese. The portion size was what I considered to be a little more than appetizer size, so we all went back to the apartment and had a second dinner. It was quite similar to the people who were on the documentary ‘I consume 20,000 calories a day’ on TLC I watched at some point this summer. Only no mayonnaise and bacon sandwiches were involved.

So afterwards, we went to the “Dow Jones Bar.” This was actually a really cool concept. There were flat screens throughout the bar with the prices of all the drinks on them. Based on the popularity of the drink, the price would rise or fall. Every half hour or so, there would be a ‘market crash’ and the prices would all reset. They really only fluctuated like 50 cents, so you really weren’t saving all that much unless you were buying copious amounts of the drink. Which I guess, is kinda like the stock market, but lets be real, no one is buying 100 gin and tonics at a time.

So when we get home, I can’t find my bus tickets. Great. So I set my alarm for 9:30 giving me a full hour to get to the station and beg for mercy in a mix of broken Spanish, French, and English.

As im standing in line at the bus station the next morning, rehearsing what Im going to say, I find what I though to be my luggage receipt in my coat. I was hoping that this would work to my advantage as proof that at some time, I actually did have a ticket.

Brian then took this receipt, unfolded it, and showed me that this was in reality my bus ticket.

Better to feel like an idiot and save bus fair, than feel like an idiot because you have to pay the fair twice.

All in all Id say it was a great way to spend 36 hours, and I would definitely go back but with so many other places to see, I doubt I’ll have a chance for repeats.