I arrived in Barcelona, made it through customs, and to my apartment in record time. Carmen, a friend of the apartment landlord, came and met me, showed me the apartment and how to work everything and then disappeared. It was so nice to be somewhere I knew I would lay my head for more than one night.
I ran out to grab some food from the market because Carmen warned me that on Sunday most things are closed. I found a great neighborhood market where I purchased avocados, peaches, carrots, tomatoes, onions, a bottle of Tempanillo, and two croissants from the bakery across the street. I kept making diced avocado and peaches with a bit of sea salt, so delicious!
The next day my solo mission was to get to an Internet cafe to write about Scotland (which as you can see from my blog posts, I was successful at). It was actually pretty complicated. I researched a few cafes and went to the first one only to find it shuttered. I returned home (for the Internet) and found another one that was about a mile away. When I arrived I realized it was more of a gaming center, but they still said I could use it for the internet... me and forty Asian men. Very similar to how I felt in Shanghai!
Once I got on the computer I realized my email was going ballistic, my yahoo account would send a special code to my gmail (because it didn't recognize the computer), and my gmail account wouldn't open and sent a special code to my yahoo account. The cafe didn't have public WiFi so I had to leave and find free WiFi and then return only to find that my codes had expired. SIGH. It finally worked itself out, but it was quite ridiculous.
After blog posting I walked around my neighborhood for awhile, enjoying the sense of community I felt. Everyone was out walking their dogs, strolling the streets with their children, calling down to one another from balconies, and cheering and booing the futbol game going on in the bars and cafes. The air was warm and smelled like roasted pork and honeysuckle. It was a far cry from the streets of Edinburgh.
The next morning Chelsea showed up, her flight arrived in the late morning and she met me at the apartment. We dropped her stuff and headed out into the city. First stop was to get some service for my phone, which we found at one of the Movistar stores (most popular phone service in Spain). Next we went downtown on the metro to Catalunya which is right in the heart of the city. There we picked up a ticket for the on and off bus and took the southern route around the Olympic Village, the marina, and the Bar Gothic area. We saw amazing views of the city and soaked in the sun that was quite strong midday.
We quickly disembarked at Port Olimpico to grab some sangria and check out the area. It was a little touristy for our taste, so we jumped back on the bus and headed back to our neighborhood. Chelsea was a champ considering the jet lag. That night we found an Italian restaurant in our neighborhood and loaded up on pasta and pizza.
The next day we took a morning walking tour through Runner Bean Tours, all about Gaudi. We went by some of his most famous sites - Palau Guell, Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, and the Sagrada Familia. Our tour guide, Tattie, was also a pilgrim and had walked the Camino before. Wonderful tour, really enjoyed hearing all about the history of the houses and Gaudi´s life. Found out that the mask of Darth Vadar was inspired by some of Gaudi´s statues from La Pedrera.
We stuck around the Sagrada Familia after the tour so we could go inside and see all the artwork. It was packed and we had to wait around a few hours before our tickets were good. We found a good place to sit and relax, eat some paella and drink some wine. Once we did get inside the church our jaws dropped. The arched ceiling and stain glass windows were unlike any I've seen before. The stained glass wasn't depicting famous religious characters, but a rainbow of colors in different shapes. Glass transitioned from red, orange, yellow themes to green, blue, and purple as you walked down the church aisles. A large Jesus on the cross was suspended at one end of the church, but under a sort of umbrella with bunches of grapes and small lanterns, giving an old Paris feel to it. We wandered around the church and then down in the museum.
After the Sagrada Familia we went to a Flamenco show in the Plaza Real. It was only thirty minutes but it blew us away! First dance was with a man and woman, and 4 or 5 musicians playing, clapping, and singing behind them. Then everyone left but one drummer whose hands were moving so fast they blurred. And finally the man performed a solo show that was so sensual, so strong, so incredibly nuts, it garnered a large round of applause that it certainly deserved.
And finally we went to London Bar to hear more live music, although we were more interested in the conversations we were having than the music. We met two Germans, Lena and Thomas, who were on their way home in the morning and needed to stay up - so we helped entertain them. We drank lots of beer... until the bar closed, and then we sat on the street in front of the bar with a group of friends and drank more beer. Beer was bought for 1 euro from a random Barcelonian who walked up and down the streets with a six pack, selling his wares. We had German, French, Lithuanian, Portuguese, and of course us. We sang all the songs and drank all the drinks (including a bottle of Jack Daniel´s that the French people were throwing around), and finally made our way home the next morning.
Next day was rough for obvious reasons. We were supposed to go to a walking tour of the Old City and then to Park Guell. As soon as we got to the walking tour I started feeling very bad and told Chelsea that I would meet her at the end. That bad feeling turned into a full blown panic attack. It was really bad, I´m not going to lie. Being in the middle of thousands of strangers in the middle of a huge city was probably the worst place to actually have a panic attack. I walked for a long time and would find small places to basically hide, found a fitting room at a clothing store that worked quite well for about thirty minutes. I had already made the decision to go home and just do my best at getting in touch with Chelsea, but I physically couldn't get out the door of the clothing store to actually get to Las Ramblas and find a taxi. After many tries I finally made it and collapsed at home, thankful for the peace and quiet it provided.
The next day we decided to spend it relaxing at the beach. We walked down the Barceloneta peninsula to the first beach we came across and rented an umbrella (best decision ever). And then just spent the day swimming when it was hot, chatting, eating Cuban sandwiches, and napping in the warmth of the sun. It was just the ticket, just what we needed before starting the Camino. Polished off the evening with gelato and then tacos from a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood.
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