Barcelona and sweet sangria

With only a couple days left before mine and William's flights were to depart from Barcelona there was no time to go to Madrid, so we decided to go straight to Barcelona. Unfortunately William got a last minute call from a friend in another town and had to go take care of some business with him and couldn't leave with me, so I got on a train by myself instead. It was an easy ride going north along the coast, and the train was really nice too, a bit more plush than the ones in Italy. I have been wanting to see Barcelona for a long time and I was excited to be going there. When I arrived I took the undergound from the train station and surfaced on the Ramblas, a famous boulevard with a street on either side of a wide lane for walking, shops, eateries and other random things. Strangely, there were many outdoor pet shops selling mostly birds of all varieties, from parots to chickens. It was a little strange to see so many birds in cages on the street, but I guess if you really needed a parakeet then this was your place. After rambling for a bit I found the hostel where I would stay. It was o.k, but the rooms were a little different. Instead of an open room with beds, the bunk beds were set side by side and had built-in metal walls between. There was a curtain you could close at the end that would make it as if you had your own little room, with a small bed and a locker for your things. It was cozy I guess, but that was not what I was here for.

I was very interested in seeing Barcelona's most famous site, the Sagrada Famiglia cathedral by Antonio Gaudi. I have seen pictures and it looked unreal, so I was excited to finally see it. I had to walk a bit, and by the time I found it it was dark and there wasn't much to see. I waited a while and then the lights came on it. Hmm, I wasn't too impressed, but I couldn't see everything and it was still dark, so I decided to reserve judgement until the next day, so I walked back to the hostel then went for some food, ending up at an Italian restaurant. It had been a while since I had some pizza so I needed my fix. The pizza was fine, but by the time I was ready to leave it had started to rain pretty hard outside. I had no choice but to make a run for it back to the hostel and I got pretty soaked by the time I got back, so it felt good to get nestled into my little cubicle and go to sleep.

The next day I set out to see the church again. Gaudi lived in Barcelona and he is world famous for his very unusual style, if you can call it that. When you see something really strange and say "that looks gawdy", he's the guy you're refering too. With that in mind you can appreciate the following pictures.

The Sagrada Famiglia was started in the 1700s and Gaudi died before it was finished. I think he was struck by a trollie here in Barcelona. In reality, he would have had to live a really long time to see it finished anyway, because it's still not done. There are people working on it right now, with cranes and scaffolding all over, and you can see the difference in color between the new and old parts. It really looks like a giant sand castle and it's amazing it even stands up. I payed 9 euro for the privilage of walking inside, and once in all you can do is walk around the sides of the main space since it's all blocked off because of the construction. I really don't think it will ever be finished and I have no idea how they even know what they are doing. After finally seeing it I have to say I was a little dissapointed. To me it just looks a bit of a mess, and it's not really appealing. It is impressive, but it just aint pretty.

The rest of the day I spent walking around the city, which was tough because the place is huge. They have these self-service bicycle rental stands all over where you can take a bike and return it to any other stand in the city. It seems like a nice idea and I saw a lot of people riding them, but I couldn't figure out how to pay and get one, so I had to hoof it all day. The city was nice, but it didn't really seem to light a spark for me like I thought it would.

I was hoping maybe I'd meet somebody to hang out with at the hostel, but there were just a bunch of young kids on some sort of group trip for school or something, so no such luck this time. I walked around the Ramblas that evening and realized that at night when the pet shops are gone, yes gone, they actually take everything away each day, then the real freaks come out. There were many strange looking people on the streets, and I'm sure many of them were selling drugs and other things. There were beer guys again, but they just walked around with 6-packs in their hands. No ice, no buy. Despite the wierdos I never felt unsafe, it was just a lively atmosphere all around and was actually o.k. However I was a little bored by myself, so I didn't do too much.

The next day was more of the same, but fortunately Willy finally made it to town that evening. We went out for dinner and afterwards decided to see if we could find some good sangria, which is a red wine mixed with fruit and very popular in Spain. We had a glass at a couple different places until I remembered a place I had seen the night before that had a sign in the window that said "la mejor sangria", or something like that. It took a while but we found the place. It was a restaraunt and they were close to closing, so we sat down at the counter and ordered up a pitcher of "the best sangria". Willy told them we had been trying it at other places so they made sure it would be good, and it was excellent, definitely the best.

With all the wine we were drinking we decided to order some tapas, which are basically appetizer sized plates of random dishes, also very popular here, but a little expenisve unless you are with other people. I forget what we ate but I remember it was really good. After that they brought us a dessert, which was a peach soaked in more red wine with some sugar on top. Bueno. We spent some time there and had fun talking with the guys working. Well, Willy talked, I just listened and laughed when he told me what they had said. I'm sure glad I went to Spain with somebody that knew Spanish otherwise I would have missed a lot of things. After finishing the peach and the pitcher and closing down the place with the employees we had to leave. One if the guys there came with us and he showed us around a bit, and before we knew it it was almost 4am and time for Willy to catch a cab to the airport. He had an early flight to catch to go to Paris to see a rugby tournament so there would be no sleep for him tonight. Willy's a good guy and we get along really good. I had a great time with him and I'm glad we got to hang out in Spain together. Hopefully we'll get to do it again sometime. As for me, I had to get some sleep as I had my own flight to catch that day, back to Bella Italia.

Hey everybody rides lions in Spain...after a pitcher of sangria.