Barcelona

Where is my usual pun or wise-cracking in the title? It's been stolen by a head cold, which hit me full force when we arrived in Barcelona. Great timing, right? Fortunately, Nikita, my traveling companion, was much more with it this weekend than I was, which allowed me to coast along and act responsible only a couple of times. Although the forecast called for showers this weekend, the weather gods smiled upon us and delivered sunny skies and perfect temperatures for a lovely time in Spain (pictures, as always, on facebook).

We flew Ryan Air to Barcelona, which means we actually flew from Bratislava to Girona. Girona is about an hour bus ride away from Barcelona, and from there we traveled another 20 minutes to the nearest stop to our hostel, then walked another 15 minutes up some pretty steep hills to our final destination. Let's just say it was a long day when we finally got our heads on our pillows at 1:45am. We were in an 8-person room, sleeping on bunk beds. I took the top bunk and quickly discovered that every movement either of us made not only sent vibrations through the bed but actually caused it to sway. After the first 30 minutes that first evening of intense dizziness and serious consideration of putting my mattress on the floor, I was accustomed to it and tried to think of it as a sturdier version of a hammock.

Our first day in Barcelona was one of great sight seeing! We did a tour of Gaudi architecture, and what a creative man he was. My favorite building was Casa Batlló - what a gorgeous, creative, and playful structure! I wish Gaudi could design my dream house... Unfortunately, each building had an entrance fee of at least 10 euro and long lines, and we are cheap and impatient, so we were not so inclined to spend that money. It's a shame since Gaudi completely designed the interiors in addition to the exteriors, right down to the furniture. We did go inside Sagrada Família, which was utterly stunning. Gaudi knew he would not finish the church in his lifetime, so he left plans for others to carry on his work. The Spaniards think they'll get it done by 2030...but that's kind of optimistic.

We stopped for a delicious lunch and then headed over toward Las Ramblas. On the way, we ran into a group of people protesting the oppression in Syria. They caught up to us again later along Las Ramblas as they chanted in Spanish and held signs in Arabic and English. While we walked along Las Ramblas, I made sure to get a Nata ice cream, and then we found the famous market on that street. I love the markets here in Europe - fresh meat, fresh fruit, and all sorts of prepared foods are readily available. Like many touristy locations, Las Ramblas had various human statues, although these were some of the more creative ones I've seen. You can see in the pictures I took a winged gargoyle-like creature - he playfully scared a woman who posed with him for a picture, making everyone laugh as the poor lady screamed in terror.

We then headed to Fontana to meet some of Nikita's friends. This gave us a chance to walk around a Spanish neighborhood, away from a lot of the touristy stuff of Barcelona. We had some sangria as we sat at a square and watched some kids play football. Afterward, we went to Parc Güell to walk around and see the sun set over Barcelona. Then we went to Nikita's friends' apartment to chill for a bit, have some dinner, and then head out to a party in the downtown area at another friend's apartment. When we arrived at this small apartment that had practically no furniture in the living room and hallway but instead had a full DJ set-up, there were ten other people there. 20 minutes later, approximately 35 additional people showed up, and we were practically jammed shoulder to shoulder. Most people there were Spanish, but there happened to be 4 Irish men in attendance as well. We talked for quite a while, as they were relieved I could understand their accents (many Spanish-speakers can't) and indignantly recalled times English-speaking Spaniards tried to correct their pronunciation of English words. Nikita and I left "early" at a little after midnight because we were exhausted and all of the shouting to be heard had left me quite hoarse.

We slept in the next day and it was glorious. After a lovely tapas brunch, we headed to Las Ramblas and the market again. This time, there was a small band performing. I had another ice cream and we both had fruit drinks, and then we headed off in search of the beach. Instead, we found the marina...but were determined to find the beach, and after much aimless wandering, managed to find it. People were kite surfing, wind surfing, and surfing, all in wet suits. Of course, two Russian men on the beach first of all changed right there on the beach, and then proceeded to go into the water in speedos. Way to live up to the stereotype fellas.

Then we headed over to the old bull fighting arena, which is now a shopping mall and Rock 'n Roll museum. We had some surprisingly good tapas at the Rock 'n Roll museum's restaurant and headed over to the Magic Fountain to see its light, water, and music show. As we were waiting, Nikita had picked out a girl in the crowd, wearing a white dress, who had seemed lost. We kind of just kept tabs on her as we waited around for the show to start, and boy, we weren't disappointed. During the show, this gal did an interpretive dance around the fountain - I kid you not. The crowd thought it was hilarious - we laughed, clapped, and hooted. I made eye contact with the older ladies sitting next to me and shared a laugh with them. Some younger fellas began trying to copy the girl's moves. It was great. Afterward, we walked around the grounds of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, listened to a guy playing guitar at the top of the steps, and decided to head back to the hostel.

The next day, we headed back to Vienna. This part of the trip was mostly uneventful, except for the weird bus ride back from Bratislava...the driver and passengers were all kind of yelling at each other in German as we were trying to board, the driver turned away half of the people who tried to buy a ticket to get on, and then our journey to Vienna was a roundabout way that went through small Austrian towns instead of just taking the highway. Not really sure what happened there. In any case, Nikita was a fabulous travel companion and unfailingly patient with not just my head-cold-induced flightiness, but also my often ignorant questions about Russia. His access to an iphone with GPS made our trip much easier, to the point where it actually felt like cheating to me. Is it really a trip to a foreign country if you actually know where you are most of the time and aren't flailing around and serendipitously arriving at your intended destinations?