So I took a long hiatus from writing anything on this blog, and I'm sorry about that. In retrospect it's my own loss. A lot of fantastic things happened since visiting the land of Cork. But then again, after Cork things can only really go upwards, unless of course there is no God. In this post I'll be reminiscing on my experiences in Spain. Since it's been a few weeks since that adventure, let's see how good my memory is. In any case, here we go.
I, along with four others (Evan Johnson, Devon Quinn, Kassey Matoin and Ryan Holm), visited four cities in Spain, all of them quite different from the other. Our plane arrived first in Barcelona. After an easy train ride we got to our hostel called the Kabul Backpackers Hostel in Reial Square. The hostel also serves as a nightclub for its guests. It is filled with young people like ourselves with a bar that is open late and free dinner which always includes some form of low grade meat I couldn't eat.
While at the airport, the TSA agent informed me that I had to throw out my contact solution, even though the liquid content was under 100 mL. I complied but then had a mission to go find some more solution in the Spanish speaking world. After putting our bags down in our 22 person hostel room, Evan came with me to undergo this task. We told the others that we'd be back in 10 minutes, we just had to go to the pharmacy. Walking out of the hostel, four French people roughly our age were standing in front of us with big smiles, asking about the hostel. After talking for about ten minutes and learning sexy french words such as "je t'aime," we went with the french people to a nearby chupitos bar (chupito means shots, like vodka) that sold drinks for 1 euro a piece. After cheersing many times to our first night in Spain, Evan and I arrived back at the hostel a half hour later drunk and without any contact solution. But spirits were high. We met up with Ryan and Kassey on de Rambla, the street bordering Reial square, where they were sitting down to a fancy Chinese dinner. We thought it was slightly humorous that we were at a Chinese restaurant our first night in Spain, then ordered cheese pizzas at the Chinese restaurant and thought that was funny as well. Then we got the bill for the meal, which wasn't funny at all.
Later that night everyone decided to buy into one of the club promoters on the street and take up a 10 euro for 3 clubs deal. I showed up a little late and refused to go along with the sponsor, so I ended up walking around the town for a little bit alone (my mistake, I admit). I walked out of Reial Square and onto de Rambla. Almost immediately I was solicited to buy marijuana from a more than a few men on the street, and immediately following that was solicited by aggressive, vulgar-talking hookers . This walk ended when a random woman linked her arm in mine and tried to talk me into a deal, then had five of her associates trail us from behind, had me refuse her over and over again, then slapping me on the behind and consequently the crew behind us burst out laughing. These encounters made me somewhat depressed and I thought it best to call it a night. I came back to the hostel and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and was told mid-scrub by a smiling girl that I was in the ladies bathroom. Strike out. Barcelona 1, Brett 0. By that time it was 2 am anyway, though the people in Barcelona don't go to sleep until around 7.
We woke up the next day and took the subway to our first tourist spot, La Sagrada Familia. Before coming to Spain I had never heard of the architect Antoni Gaudi, but now I am sufficiently enamored by the visionary talent of this man. This cathedral was among the most unusual and impressive buildings I've ever seen. It is still in the building process after over 100 years of construction. Taking mathematical patterns Gaudi observed in nature, he designed his church in such a way that feels very modern to today's standards while also preserving the traditional constructions of a cathedral. Instead of gargoyles on the exterior, Gaudi placed crocodiles, turtles, beavers and other mildly intimidating animals to ward off evil spirits. If you, dear Reader, ever come to Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia is a must see.
The day's adventures continued. After the cathedral we got back on the subway and headed to Parc Guell, a big park designed by Gaudi in commemoration of his friend...Guell. On the way there, Devon had to ask someone for directions. We found an old, sweet looking man standing at the top of the subway steps. Devon approached him and asked for help in Spanish. The man grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him while also pointing out where we should head. We said gracias and walked in that direction. A few minutes later Devon realized that her wallet wasn't in her purse. Keeping calm, we walked back to the subway entrance and the old man was gone. So Devon had to spend a good part of the afternoon canceling all her credit cards. She was upset but Evan made it slightly better by suggestively waving his sandwich in front of his pants and everyone laughed. Nice job. But to this day she still hates that man. Barcelona 2, Group 0.
After arriving at the park we went to the topmost point, upon which sits a big stone cross. At this height we could see the entirety of the massive city of Barcelona. It was a breathtaking view that rivaled the view of Arthur's Seat in Scotland. As an added bonus a man dressed in leopard print was up there screaming at people on his electric guitar.
After that we explored the rest of the park, which has mosaics and landscapes designed by Gaudi. It was very clear that this man was way ahead of his time. That night we went on a bar crawl with a hostel and then to a club. On the way back Evan and I went for a walk along the pier and finally went to sleep at 7am.
We woke up less than 3 hours later and went to the Barcelona market where they sold everything from meat to spices to knicknacks and paddywacks. It looked just like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. The meat section was a little shocking, more so when one of the crabs on the display was still crawling along the ice. We decided to go check out the Picasso museum after that, and spent the next two hours trying to find the place. The museum is definitely worth seeing. They have paintings from his early years when he painted conventional portraits and proves that he really does know how to paint beautiful, standard portraits, and then show how the portraits slowly transform into the paintings we recognize as Picasso's in popular culture. My favorite was his version of Velazquez's Las Meninas, which is the museum's proudest possession. But at this point in the day we were deliriously tired so we found a quaint plot of grass we deemed a park in the middle of a bustling intersection and took a power nap. I couldn't really sleep so I just sat there with an iPod, but it was very relaxing.
We then made our way toward the beach. On the way there we stopped and watched two street performers do an interpretive dance routine using a PVC-pipe shaped into a hoop. It was actually quite interesting to watch. Then we made our way to the beach. The beach is awesome, and very chill. After getting there we bought a six pack and ruffles and sat out on the sand. When we first arrived, we couldn't help but laugh at the single nude man walking slowly along the beach, looking around among all the clothed people until he disappeared in the distance. Either he was a man at peace, or there just isn't an explanation. We spent about an hour at the beach, just chilling, trying to ignore the couples to the left and right of us making out.
That night I tried taking a nap, but in a 22 person room at 10 pm that's almost impossible. Evan got me after an hour and a half by shining a light on my face, then on his with a goofy grin, and presenting a bottle of wine with a cup over it. I got out of bed and to my right was a Muslim man I had met previously from Iran praying over his rug. It was quite moving to watch, though I didn't lurk too long. This was our last night in Barcelona, and we ended up spending the entire night in the hostel and in Reial Square with the other guests, though I had bought my ticket to the well-known club El Capital. It was a lot of fun. We met these European guys in their room who told us it was their job to go around Europe taking pictures with people like us. Of course we took many pictures with them and laughed a lot about it. Earlier that day we purchased a bottle of Absinthe, which is without a doubt the most painful thing I've ever inflicted upon my throat. We took many swigs of it anyway, and were back in bed by 2 that morning, having missed our chance to go out somewhere for our last night in the city.
Devon woke me up two hours later and we made our way to the airport to catch our flight to Seville.
At this point I am cutting the post off here. Stay tuned for Part II, which will be posted shortly. Thanks for reading.
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