Barcelona and Madrid
My surprise Spanish adventure took me to Barcelona and Madrid. Just to be contrary I'm going to tell you all about it in chronological order.
The whole reason for choosing Spain for a random adventure was that 1) I was kinda getting a bit sick of Eastern Europe (Really, Germany is East and not central now, Ben?) and 2) I found myself uttering the odd Spanish phrase in my general wanderings. Usually this phrase was "lo siento" (I'm sorry) when I bumped into people. Obviously deep within me was a burning need to apologise to the Spanish. Thus the adventure began.
Barcelona! The choice of young tourists the world over! Given my rather late decision to get to Barcelona over the weekend, my hostel opportunities were somewhat limited. I ended up in a hostel a little way out of the city hosted by a man who was literally stoned morning to night. He forgot to tell me many things and told me some things three times. He was not particularly helpful and the whole place kinda sucked. The people there was all kinda young - and I mean that in a mental capacity. Oh well.
Sometimes cities have deceptive sizes, and Barcelona is just such a city. It's bigger than you think and it makes it a bit more difficult to walk. However, I did my best. As per my usual plan, I spent my first evening wandering about. It's generally about picking a landmark and just walking towards it and hopefully finding some interesting stuff along the way. Now if you were into Formula 1 racing, that would have been the weekend for you. There was a car show on (much like we get back home, really) to coincide, and the fountain was lit with colourful lights that I think were supposed to be somewhat in time with Disney music. (Aladdin and The Lion King fyi.) It was quite explosive. For those of us in the cheap seats outside the car show it was a little less cool though.
Barcelona loves Gaudy, loves him with a passion that transcends taste. If they had the money (which they don't) I know that they would cover every rooftop with rows of colourful tiles and make all their buildings appear to melt. May they ever remain poor! There's one church that everyone must see because it is a monstrosity. It is by far the ugliest building I have ever seen. I'm told that it's much nicer on the inside, but it was 12.50 euro to get in. My regiluosity just wasn't great enough to take that risk.
The gothic quarter of Barcelona is not like any other city I've been to. I say that only because everything in it is so much smaller than every other city I went to. Landmarks are often walls with doors in them because the Spanish ran out of money and couldn't make facades. I kept on saying to myself "Is that it?" as I passed such landmarks.
Pot appears to be incredibly easy to come by. I reckon it was about 50% of what I smelled on the streets. Also, there was a fair number of cigar smokers, probably trying to indicate that they were rich. But oddly there were noticeably fewer smokers than in the other parts of Europe.
Regrets? I have a few. Maybe I should have spent that 12.50 to get into the church. Maybe I should have got to the beach where there was topless bathing aplenty. (For shame, Ben. A missed opportunity!) It would have been good to have walked up to the rundown amusement park. Alas! Let's move on so I can talk more about regrets...
Madrid! Regrets? I have a few. My biggest regret is that I don't have more time to spend here. I have enjoyed Madrid far, far more than I did Barcelona. It's a bit more laid back and the people are nicer. The area I've been staying in is really nice, even if the beds in the hostel are kinda crappy and it's so hot that I've been unable to sleep. (I am so looking forward to the Hotel du Commerce in Paris.) There are several things I really wish I'd had a chance to get to and failed to due to either lack of time or incompetence. (The latter refers to my attempts to get to flamenco dancing last night, and the former refers to the bull fights.)
I have tried and failed to work out when certain shops open and close. I understand that there's a siesta in the middle of the day - an event that I totally understand given that it's been in the low 30's every day, but so often things just seem to be closed at odd times. I've seen a lot of roller doors with graffiti on them and not a lot of services. But those shops must open at some point... right?
Never mind, the bars are really chill. Again, I haven't exactly worked out when things really get happening (and also I often forget what day it is, which might explain it partially), but we've walked into bars that would have and should have been absolutely packed and just sat ourselves down on couches, took our shoes off and ordered Mojitos. Another place I'm sure gave us double shots of whiskey and the owner very patiently explained everything to us in broken, simple Spanish/English. Our favourite evening starter place gives you a free plate of tapas with every beer you order. Basically, while nowhere near as cheap as Eastern Eurpoean cities, it was good service.
As you might have seen on the news, the entirety of the city square has been turned into a sort of hippy commune. It's tent city in there, and there are paper flyers with various anti-government, anti-monarchy slogans stuck up everywhere. It's not at all threatening, but I guess after more than a week everyone has kind of settled down. I walked through it several times, as did plenty of other tourists with their cameras. There's some media covering the protests too, with much more professional video equipment. There's always someone with a megaphone to yell out something, and people shake their hands in the air in agreement with what I presume has been said many times before. Otherwise they all sit around chatting, with Gypsies wandering around selling beers for a euro.
And so ends my Spanish adventure. See you all in Paris, the last stop on my European adventure.
Barcelona piccies: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150258517198475.370519.535023474&l=fb1a0ab72d
Madrid piccies: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150261187103475.371259.535023474&l=198c3eed45
The whole reason for choosing Spain for a random adventure was that 1) I was kinda getting a bit sick of Eastern Europe (Really, Germany is East and not central now, Ben?) and 2) I found myself uttering the odd Spanish phrase in my general wanderings. Usually this phrase was "lo siento" (I'm sorry) when I bumped into people. Obviously deep within me was a burning need to apologise to the Spanish. Thus the adventure began.
Barcelona! The choice of young tourists the world over! Given my rather late decision to get to Barcelona over the weekend, my hostel opportunities were somewhat limited. I ended up in a hostel a little way out of the city hosted by a man who was literally stoned morning to night. He forgot to tell me many things and told me some things three times. He was not particularly helpful and the whole place kinda sucked. The people there was all kinda young - and I mean that in a mental capacity. Oh well.
Sometimes cities have deceptive sizes, and Barcelona is just such a city. It's bigger than you think and it makes it a bit more difficult to walk. However, I did my best. As per my usual plan, I spent my first evening wandering about. It's generally about picking a landmark and just walking towards it and hopefully finding some interesting stuff along the way. Now if you were into Formula 1 racing, that would have been the weekend for you. There was a car show on (much like we get back home, really) to coincide, and the fountain was lit with colourful lights that I think were supposed to be somewhat in time with Disney music. (Aladdin and The Lion King fyi.) It was quite explosive. For those of us in the cheap seats outside the car show it was a little less cool though.
Barcelona loves Gaudy, loves him with a passion that transcends taste. If they had the money (which they don't) I know that they would cover every rooftop with rows of colourful tiles and make all their buildings appear to melt. May they ever remain poor! There's one church that everyone must see because it is a monstrosity. It is by far the ugliest building I have ever seen. I'm told that it's much nicer on the inside, but it was 12.50 euro to get in. My regiluosity just wasn't great enough to take that risk.
The gothic quarter of Barcelona is not like any other city I've been to. I say that only because everything in it is so much smaller than every other city I went to. Landmarks are often walls with doors in them because the Spanish ran out of money and couldn't make facades. I kept on saying to myself "Is that it?" as I passed such landmarks.
Pot appears to be incredibly easy to come by. I reckon it was about 50% of what I smelled on the streets. Also, there was a fair number of cigar smokers, probably trying to indicate that they were rich. But oddly there were noticeably fewer smokers than in the other parts of Europe.
Regrets? I have a few. Maybe I should have spent that 12.50 to get into the church. Maybe I should have got to the beach where there was topless bathing aplenty. (For shame, Ben. A missed opportunity!) It would have been good to have walked up to the rundown amusement park. Alas! Let's move on so I can talk more about regrets...
Madrid! Regrets? I have a few. My biggest regret is that I don't have more time to spend here. I have enjoyed Madrid far, far more than I did Barcelona. It's a bit more laid back and the people are nicer. The area I've been staying in is really nice, even if the beds in the hostel are kinda crappy and it's so hot that I've been unable to sleep. (I am so looking forward to the Hotel du Commerce in Paris.) There are several things I really wish I'd had a chance to get to and failed to due to either lack of time or incompetence. (The latter refers to my attempts to get to flamenco dancing last night, and the former refers to the bull fights.)
I have tried and failed to work out when certain shops open and close. I understand that there's a siesta in the middle of the day - an event that I totally understand given that it's been in the low 30's every day, but so often things just seem to be closed at odd times. I've seen a lot of roller doors with graffiti on them and not a lot of services. But those shops must open at some point... right?
Never mind, the bars are really chill. Again, I haven't exactly worked out when things really get happening (and also I often forget what day it is, which might explain it partially), but we've walked into bars that would have and should have been absolutely packed and just sat ourselves down on couches, took our shoes off and ordered Mojitos. Another place I'm sure gave us double shots of whiskey and the owner very patiently explained everything to us in broken, simple Spanish/English. Our favourite evening starter place gives you a free plate of tapas with every beer you order. Basically, while nowhere near as cheap as Eastern Eurpoean cities, it was good service.
As you might have seen on the news, the entirety of the city square has been turned into a sort of hippy commune. It's tent city in there, and there are paper flyers with various anti-government, anti-monarchy slogans stuck up everywhere. It's not at all threatening, but I guess after more than a week everyone has kind of settled down. I walked through it several times, as did plenty of other tourists with their cameras. There's some media covering the protests too, with much more professional video equipment. There's always someone with a megaphone to yell out something, and people shake their hands in the air in agreement with what I presume has been said many times before. Otherwise they all sit around chatting, with Gypsies wandering around selling beers for a euro.
And so ends my Spanish adventure. See you all in Paris, the last stop on my European adventure.
Barcelona piccies: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150258517198475.370519.535023474&l=fb1a0ab72d
Madrid piccies: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150261187103475.371259.535023474&l=198c3eed45