steve-wilson.net

Ok. So, right now I can say that Barcelona is pretty cool. Very unique. And, so far, I have had an absolute BLAST.

I think it has to do with two things - it is very touristy. More tourists = more English speakers = more communication = more connection = more fun.

And …

The Metro underground subway system is utterly amazing. It is the best one I have been on - by far - in Europe. Inexpensive, easy to understand (even though it is in Spanish!), quick and on-time.

Communication and transportation are important.

Accommodation, of course, is to. The Edelweiss Youth hostel is nice. It’s very new, facilities are excellent. Free, unlimited internet. They have wifi, but it’s wep protected and the woman who works at night doesn’t speak good English and therefore doesn’t have any idea what I’m talking about when I ask her if she knows what the wep password is. It’s fast to connect via wired ethernet, anyway.

Aside from the minor technicalities of what makes Barcelona enjoyable … I left the hostel with a vague idea of what I wanted to do today. See a little of the city, test out the Metro system (as I’ll need to use it to leave this place) and maybe take a bike tour.

The hostel also has maps of the city, and an easy, highlighted map of the immediate area showing the bus and metro stops and where the closest restaurants are. I took a stroll down Passeig de Maragall and found a great paneteria and coffee shop. I had a cafe con leche, a chocolate croissant, a sandwich with cheese and bacon and a glass of agua. Whoops, what happened to the vegetarian? Bacon sounded good, so kill me already. After my satisfying and fun meal (the servers humoured me with my horrid Spanish) I set out onto the Metro. I got on at the Maragall stop and took the L5 line to the Sagrada Familia stop, just five stops away. I got out and strolled around and viewed the crazy, insane, hugely creative work Gaudi has created. I can’t call it pretty, but I can’t call it ugly. As an undertaking, it is simply awesome. I think most christians don’t know what the fuck to think of it. I think it’s cool, but I could give a crap about all the religious symbolism. The only thing I like is how much he integrated nature into his architecture. If I have time someday, I will learn more about the dude and his work.

After the big church, I wandered around a bit aimlessly. I stupidly relied on the Metro map to guide my travels. I thought the Arc de Triumf was closer to the Plaza Catalunya than it really is. No biggy, as I had a day-pass for the Metro so I could ride anywhere I needed to whether it was a mistake or not. By this time it was two o’clock or something and I finally decided that I would indeed take the Fat Tire Bicycle tour that I hear the girl in the hostel talking way to loudly about.

It was a great decision. The tour was excellent. The guide was from Virginia and had a good sense of humor. Almost half the group was from the US, which was unexpected. I got to talk to most of the people, and the rest were just not friendly or open enough to converse. There was more than a handful of people from Holland as well and they were friendly enough to talk to for a bit too.

The tour took us around all the main sights in the city. There was more to see, for sure. But, I would definitely say that if you have one day in Barcelona, I would not hesitate to take the bike tour. The guide, Chris, gave us way more information than any of us could ever ingest.

I met two cool people from the US on the tour. George from Atlanta, who just finished Med school. And, stunning and beautiful Anita from North Dakota who is a nurse and I think works in Virginia. I thought they were a couple at first, but as the night progress and we drank more, I think I figured out they were just friends traveling together. If I got it wrong, it’s my fault. Anita and Chris will hopefully correct me. They were both very fun to be with, we all drank (in my opinion) way too much (but it wasn’t entirely our fault) and if I hadn’t been so tired I may have kissed Anita on the lips instead of the cheek. Alas, I may never get the chance again, so I’ll just have to see. I hope they both have an excellent time on their very short trip in Europe.

We had a beer and then went to a 6 euro flamenco show. It was decent. It wasn’t near long enough for what we paid, but the flamenco was good. We set out to the recommended bar for mojitos (as seen in the pic above) and had a couple each. After those we decided we were hungry, and could have banned ourselves from further consumption and been all the more merrier for it. It was their only night in Barcelona, and I had no plans for tomorrow, so we decided on tapas and sangria.

Unfortunately we decided on a bastard mother f#cker of a place to eat. We were prime targets for this place. The menus had no prices on them. We ordered a single pitcher of sangria and got three huge pitcher sized mugs. The tapas were decent but too expensive. Then the server tried to swindle us out of a tip after he screwed us on our order (by giving us way more than we wanted). The sangria was 13 euros! At first the jackass server told us it was 33 euros a piece. Times three is 99 euros. Anita asked for the itemized check. The total there was 86 euros, before the server added what he said was a 10% tip. He was trying to milk us again. His 10% tip was 5 euros too rich. So we said we’d pay the bill and tip him what we thought would be fair. He agreed, reluctantly.

We stiffed the asshole.

I almost couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy. I’m glad we weren’t too drunk to fall for it, as 86 euros is way to expensive for what we had in the first place. In Granada or any place else I’d been, the meal with sangria would have been less than half as much. Barcelona is expensive! And touristy! which goes hand-in-hand.

Anyhow … the bike tour was well worth it. And if I do nothing else in Barcelona besides sleep, I’ll be satisfied.

The Metro doesn’t run all night, I found out. I ended up parting ways with Anita and George, thinking I was getting on the Metro, going home. Nope. I was going the wrong way! And, the Metro was closing. So, I had to get off in a totally unknown part of town and walk amoung the rest of the drunks. Being drunk, I felt totally safe. The fear I think I would have had otherwise was nonexistant, and I got home just fine (with my wallet even lighter after another expensive cab ride.

And now I’m really, really friggin tired and want these damn pictures to upload so I can go to bed. I think the majority of alcohol is out of my system and I can sleep. Take a look at the photos! I’m going to bed!