BARCELONA, SPAIN (TochiHut) – A city strategically situated on the northern coast of the Mediterranean, Barcelona has a very storied history, influenced by many cultures, people and the rise and fall of dynasties and revolutions. Given its history, I had expected to find a very old, hot, humid, noisy and busy metropolis, as that was my general impression of much of Spain. As you’ll soon see, Barcelona is nothing like that. In fact, Barcelona was one of the more modern, vibrant cities I visited on this trip. I know I’ve been slacking on photos in the past couple posts, so I plan on making it up here. Now, hop onboard and join Tochi for a quick tour of Barcelona…
Overview
This is downtown Barcelona, taken from Montjüic. Much of Barcelona is very flat, but is rimmed with mountains. Very few skyscrapers dot its skyline. The cathedral you see there is the famous La Sagrada Familia, still under construction after 120 years. I gave this photo a sepia treatment for the aged effect.
Now, this is Passeig de Gràcia, one of the arteries through modern Barcelona. Quite a different view of Barcelona, eh? :)
Antonio Gaudi
Since I mentioned La Sagrada Familia already, I will jump into probably the best thing to have ever happened to the city – Antonio Gaudi. A famed architect with visions well before his time, his works are found throughout the city and form many of the must-visit tourist attractions.
Gaudi’s style is very difficult to describe, many of which are so out-of-this-world and unlike anything I had ever seen. Curves and conics are fundamental to all of Gaudi’s work, which is completely unheard of in the stricter, more mundane (imo) designs of his days. Even ultra-modern curvy “slick” designs of present day are unlike Gaudi’s work. The best way I can put Gaudi’s art is that there is a biological and organic feel, almost a human aspect, to a lot of his work. A lot of the curvatures resemble… people. An example is in order.
This is Casa Milà (aka La Pedrera), located a short walk from our hostel on Passeig de Gràcia. Compared to the other buildings in the area, which have more of a rectangular modernist movement feel, the parallel flow of curves on the front façade definitely makes this building stand out.
The most famous parts of this building are its rooftop chimneys / lampposts. Here’s a close up of one of them. This one reminds me of a giant gnome for some reason. :P
Gaudi other works are even more remarkable. My favourite building is Casa Batlló, another landmark on Passeig de Gràcia. The lower two levels remind of the ghost mask poster face of Scream. The part I love about this building is the little tiles used to decorate the outer wall on the upper levels. The blend of seemingly disjoint and different coloured pieces creates a really powerful mosaic of colours that fits so well with the building. Oh yeah, and this building was about the only time I made use of my 12-24mm wide angle lens on the trip.
Gaudi’s most famous architecture is definitely La Sagrada Familia, a gigantic cathedral just north of downtown Barcelona. Construction for the church started in 1882 and it is still ongoing. I seem to be repeating myself a lot here, but La Sagrada Familia has to be one of the most unique cathedrals I’ve visited, ever.
First of all, I’ve never seen such a fancy cathedral still in the process of being built. A good portion of the stone façade was still whitish, a tell-tale sign of it being a recent addition. It was actually weird to see the marked contrast in the age of different parts of the church, which is expected if construction has spanned over 120 years. Anyway, it made me think what it would have been like to be back in the days when the greatest cathedrals of the world were being built. The feeling must have been like this. La Sagrada Familia will definitely be a hallmark for centuries to come.
The sculptures and pedestals around the cathedral were very cartoonish, for a lack of better term. They reminded me of Zelda Wind Waker type art, which kind of fits such a funky looking church. It was interesting that a lot of the pieces were very planar, unlike the other Gaudi works I’ve seen so far. In fact, it wasn’t just the statues, but this building had a lot more planar aspects incorporated into as well, which I found a bit puzzling. La Sagrada Familia was the last work that Gaudi worked on till his death and his plans and models were destroyed in the Catalan anarchist war. I wonder how much of this is related to the new architects trying to finish the church. It just doesn’t feel as Gaudi to me.
Construction workers were still busy molding and sculpting various pieces that will eventually become part of the cathedral inside. It must be pretty cool to be able to contribute to such an impressive project.
The overall feel of the church was very majestic, almost dominating at times. The exterior façade, in particular, the Nativity (shown on the left) almost screams out at you with a sense of mourning and yearning (not much of the Nativity story, until you see the sculptures up close). From the moment you walk through the doors, with 3D etched letters popping out at you, to the tree-like columns supporting the grand vault, it is hard not to stand in awe. I really hope that this cathedral gets completed in my lifetime, so that I may return one day to take in the finished work.
The most fascinating part of my visit was the engineering school in a little hobbit house, which showcased the mathematics behind some of the geometric shapes in La Sagrada Familia. A lot of them were based on hyperboloids transforming into various other shapes. Made me kind of miss topology.
Gaudi has one more famous attraction in Barcelona, his Parc Güell. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit this garden, as it was a choice between this park or a virtual cache. We picked the virtual cache instead, which turned out to be the right choice. Save this Gaudi garden for my next visit to Barcelona.
Top of Barcelona
For those still reading, you might be wondering how amazing this virtual cache must have been that Tochi will actually prefer to cache (!) over visiting another Gaudi attraction. Well, on our last day in Barcelona, we decided to head up to Tibidabo, a mountain north of the city that offers a spectacular view of Barcelona and the Mediterranean coastline.
A quick aside for a second while I describe the Barcelona Metro system. While a bit old, there is a great network of trains and subways. You can buy a T-10 pass that enables you to take 10 trips for the price of 6. I brought a T-10 on my first day, which I quickly used up. And because I cannot count past 5, I kept on buying single fare bills until I realized I should have gotten a T-10 again. Finally did get another T-10 on the very last day, and ended up using like 3 trips on it. It is still valid for another 6 months, if I happen to be back! The only thing about the subways I did not like was at certain stations, you had to walk quite a distance to get to different platforms. Some of those walks were probably at least 400m, with sections where you go down some stairs only to come up another set moments later. Grr.
Okay, back to Tibidabo. We took a subway, then a train, followed by a missing tram, and finally a funky looking funicular to get up to Tibidabo. BlueOrca saw some space invaders looking signs along the way. At the top, there’s an pretty decent amusement park and a church, Temple de Sagrat Cor. The virtual cache was at the church.
Here’s a view of Barcelona from the Tibidabo amusement park. The Church is actually quite new. When you get up to the upper platform, you’ll see a small little chapel that was the original one built about 100 years ago. Beside it now stands this monolithic church soaring probably 50 times higher than its predecessor. There wasn’t too much special about this church in my opinion. Having been to quite a few during E08, church things are kind of hazy in my mind. I just remembered that we got the answer to the virtual cache from the brochure, only to realize a few days after we submitted the answer, we didn’t read the question properly. Oh well.
Besides Tibidabo, BlueOrca and I also visited another mountain that offers a great view of the city – Montjuïc. As a coastal guardian to the west of the city, a historic fort was raised at the top to “protect” Barcelona. We took the most expensive cable car ever to get to Montjuïc from the beaches area (9 Euros). The ride did offer remarkable views of the city’s waterfront and harbour. Once we got off the cable car, BlueOrca and I cached our way up to the fort. Met C C ya later family from OC, California while doing a multi cache. I’ve never met such an adorable little girl who’s so into geocaching. lol.
Castell de Montjuïc is this 18th century castle that sits on top of Montjuïc. It was almost sunset by the time we got up to the castle, but the gates were still wide open for us to stroll right in. We roamed around the fort a bit, taking in the sights from the surrounding areas. Since it was evening, the setting sun’s rays were coming through over the mountain and bathing its light onto the city. The view was quite pretty.
BlueOrca saw some Tappy cats and birds while in the castle and tried to photograph them. Eventually, the groundskeeper found us and kicked us out. Some white dude dressed in a kung-fu attire tried to hitch a ride with BlueOrca and me down the mountain, the only problem being, neither BlueOrca nor I had a car.
After that, we decided to explore the rest of Montjuïc , which means…
Olympic Park
Barcelona was the site of the 1992 Summer Games of the XXV Olympiad. The main Olympic park is situated on the lower portions of Montjuïc. The 1992 Summer Olympics was the first games that I recall really watching; not that I remember very much. However, the arrow shooting cauldron lighting opening ceremony remains engraved in my memory.
I visited this Olympic Park twice on this trip, once before BlueOrca arrived and again afterwards with BlueOrca. Got to see the main Olympic Stadium, the Swimming tank, Olympic Bell, Olympic Torch, and the very very cool looking Calatrava Tower in the Olympic Circle (Anella Olímpica). Things were quiet in the Olympic Park, probably because we were visiting in the evening.
During the second trip back with BlueOrca, we were in the Olympic Park shooting some photos. A Romanian guy came up to ask for directions to FC Barcelona’s stadium. While I was talking with him, two undercover police officers came up to us, asking for ID. They gave the Romanian guy a terribly hard time and proceeded to check our IDs. I had no idea what the heck was going on. They also asked us to show them our cash, which they rubbed to see if it’s “real”. They told us this is a very dangerous area, with people dealing drugs, etc. They saw on the CCTV the three of us hanging around in the plaza, so came out to check up on us. These Romanian guys are very dangerous.
After the "officers” left, everything was on high alert. I was like, these guys know how much money we have, let’s get the heck out of here before we get mugged. I was totally paranoid for several days afterwards. While looking at stuff online after the trip, I stumbled upon this particular encounter by another tourist. Man, we totally got off lucky.
Reading about some of the other stories on that page, this one caught my eye too:
Outside the Sagrada Familia we were approached by two women who forced a red carnation onto each of us. Mine was pushed down the front of my tee shirt! They indicated that there was to be an exhibition of flamenco and then asked us each for 1 cent. As this was such a small amount of money we both thought this would be a good way of getting rid of them and got out our purses. That was what they wanted. They tried to 'help' us find the appropriate coin by putting their fingers into the coin compartments of our purses. Later, and too late, we realised that whilst doing this, they had milked out the notes from the note compartment. The next day we returned to the same place and watched two other gypsy women pull the same scam."
We both had picked up a carnation outside Casa Batlló earlier during the day. Chills are going down my bones right now. I feel like a newbie and haven’t seen the real, dangerous world out there… I was really “很天真和很傻”.. lol. It is one thing to hear the stories, but it’s another to experience two close encounters in the same day.
Downtown Barcelona
I’ll finish off the tour back in the city – Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is a major pedestrian promenade running through the heart of Barcelona. We started from its northern end near Placa Cataluyna and headed south. The boulevard is quite vibrant, with a lot of tourists meandering about and a lot of artists selling their craft.
BlueOrca needed to cash some of her traveler’s cheques on a Sunday when none of the banks were opened. We were guided to the cash exchanges on Las Ramblas. BlueOrca found two exchanges beside each other and went for the one with the better exchange rate, which happens to be really really good. Too good to be true, as we found out the hard way. The service charge/commission, written in super fine text, was an exuberant 18%. :(
Les Ramblas connects several unique districts, probably the most famous of which is the “China Town” and Red Light district. We came during the day, so not much action there. We decided to take a side journey towards the gothic area of Barcelona.
Old Barcelona is full of tight alleyways and little courtyards. Before coming to Barcelona, I saw some amazing HDR shots of the alleyways on Flickr. Unfortunately, the day was overcast and ruined all my alleyway photos. We did stumble onto a courtyard where a half dozen kids were playing football. Now, this is what I expect from Spain. The scene reminded me of this World Cup commercial by Adidas (Another funny commercial is here).
We made our way to Plaça de Sant Jaume, where we witnessed some live music and dancing performances of the Sardana, the national dance of Catalonia (Thanks to BlueOrca Galleries for this tip). The Sardana is a circular dance whereby people form a ring. While watching it, I would have loved to join in if it hadn’t been only old people dancing. :( I also wanted to stick my camera right in the middle of the circle and take a shot looking up. I found out later at a stone statue of the Sardana dance that even my 12-24mm would not have been wide enough. We watched for a while, before moving on.
The main cathedral in Old Barcelona was Cathedral Cloister. There were 13 geese roaming leisurely in the fenced in courtyard. I didn’t take very many pictures of the Cloister as it was lined with alcoves all around. It totally reminded me of the Abbey in Saltzburg and the Sound of Music. Even though there were not gravestone stuff behind the fences, I was still a bit spooked. Just walked around shooting geese and water fountains while BlueOrca captured the church with her camera.
We also visited a Basilica named Santa Maria del Mar, which was much more traditional than Cathedral Cloister. Yes, this is where I was asked not to use my tripod. Fine, if you do not want Tochi to showcase your church to all of TochiHut’s readers (free advertising), it’s your loss.
We had seen some really fancy column work in postcard photos taken at Palau de la Musica. This music palace is a really really fancy concert hall. Arriving here, we could see the balcony with the famous columns from the street. It was rather lackluster, though I'd imagine it'll look a lot more beautiful if I was actually on the balcony, or if the columns were lit up at night. The interior of the hall was quite dazzling. I loved the open marble staircase with gold railing columns and glass tiles on the ceiling. This time, BlueOrca warned me about no photography before the guy started approaching. I was thinking, I’m blind. I did not see any signs, so please do not tell me about them. I managed to take a few shots of the nice interior decor before I was requested officially to stop shooting. We promptly left afterwards.
Here’s the top of a marble fountain we saw while walking out of Old Barcelona to the waterfront. The strong sunset rays were basking the statue and buildings. For the first time in the day, I was glad to have overcast skies.
Finally, we got to Port Vell, the very modern waterfront district of Barcelona. We might not have discovered this area had it not been DAS BOOT. We took a leisurely stroll along the main pedestrian artery out towards the harbour. It really has a very peaceful, coastal broadwalk feel. We passed by the sub that was “Das Boot” and BlueOrca promptly came up with the missing piece. There was an aquarium, an IMAX theatre, a cool pedestrian bridge and a very modern looking mall that reminded me of the likes of IFC and 奧海城. I needed a restroom break, so I left BlueOrca outside with my tripod, while I hurried into the mall to look for relief. Afterwards, I took a quick stroll through some of the shops as there were many little boutiques. The mall was closing at that time, so I couldn’t shop around too much (and BlueOrca was probably worried sick and wondering why I was taking so long! XD)
While at Port Vell, we had spotted the following statue. Given that the figure was pointing westward and this is Barcelona, I surmised that we were looking at Christopher Columbus. From the map though, it was Placa de la Carbonera. You'd think if it's Christopher Columbus, they'd name the plaza after him too. Anyway, it did turn out to be Christopher.
It was twilight “zone” (lol) while we were at Port Vell, my favourite time for photography. Got a lot of cool colours and night light shots. I love this area - might rank as my favourite place in Barcelona. Kind of wish that Toronto had something similar.
Port Vell is the terminating point for Las Ramblas. I guess one last story of interest is that we found out why all the fountains in the city were.. dry. There was suppose to be a magic fountain that is said to be super spectacular. Apparently, Barcelona has a major drinking water problem for the past couple years. There are discussions of building a 200 mile aqueduct from France to feed this region of Spain. Given the water shortage, the city decided to get rid of the fountains. I guess I should also mention that we brought a fateful postcard at Las Ramblas, which I promptly lost by the next day. Some things just aren’t meant to be.
Food
In terms of food, typically on trips, I like to try local delicacies, not really caring what I eat, as long as it’s something different and not too disgusting. :) BlueOrca had two things to try in Barcelona: Paella and Tapas.
I heard on a Chinese radio show a month before the trip about Paellas – a seafood rice dish native to Spain (but not Barcelona). After I saw a picture of the dish on the menu, I realized I had Paella already at Montserrat. My brain never made the connection until now. Paella wise, I liked the seafood, but I’m more of a solid rice person, so the Paella rice was a bit soft for me. The dish was quite salty too.
The Tapas we ordered weren’t very special, as I might have had too high of an expectation for these Spanish dim-sums. I just remembered the service at this restaurant was rather subpar, so I did not leave with a very good impression.
However, during our second night, we ate at Polo Loco (or something like that), a chicken place that was really good. I was a little uneasy when we were searching for food, as we were walking into the Red Light district area at 10pm. You see weirdos rummaging through garbage cans and what not. However, we got a great waiter guy and good chicken.
The most rewarding aspect of E08 is probably getting to know your friends better. I definitely found out about some peculiar preferences on this trip concerning carnivorous habits and the dissection of everyday fowl. XD
Final Thoughts
Barcelona. 5 out of 5. I need to come back to see the fountains, watch an FC Barcelona match and visit Park Guell. Loved the atmosphere, loved the city. This post is already too long. Hope you enjoyed the tour… and definitely visit Barcelona. Well worth your time. I’d say spend at least 4 days to truly explore the city.
I am sorry to interrupt the regular Barcelona program for a special bulletin. BlueOrca eloquently summarized at her new Cove (shameless plug) about the misfortunes she had to deal with on her flight to Rome. Out of courtesy, I will recount my adventures in trying to get to the airport to greet our honoured guest on her arrival.
Due to class schedules, BlueOrca was arriving a few days later than me, so I had to pick her up at the airport. I was informed of BlueOrca’s flight fiasco in the morning, but knew she got onto her flight to Rome alright. Her flight wasn’t due in Barcelona until early afternoon and given the events of the previous night, my morning schedule was out of whack. I had planned on checking out the FC Barcelona stadium, but ended up just taking a leisurely stroll around Barcelona Sants.
Trains run between Barcelona Sants and the airport every 20-30 minutes. I had time to spare, so I decided to head to the airport early to chill. Since we were staying at a different hostel over the next few days, I had all my worldly belongings with me. The airport train was suppose to arrive at Platform 10. About 5 minutes before the train was due, an announcement came over the PA that the train will be arriving at platform 11. While you can see platform 11 from platform 10, you had to cross the tracks, so a big mass exodus of people crunched together to get up the escalators to head to platform 11.
Now things didn’t seem right, since platform 11 and 12 were reserved for international departures and had a security check point. However, the mob flooded and overwhelmed the checkpoint that people just towed their luggage passed their x-ray machines. As luck would have it, I was singled out by a security guard to place my backpack on the x-ray machine. I was thinking the entire time - “You must be kidding! There’s so many people just walking by and why did you have to pick on me. The train was arriving any minute now. Grr.”
By the time I got to the platform, the train had already arrived. Many people were jamming to get onto the train. However, the train was different than the airport train I took a few days ago; the layout of the airport train was like a subway rather than a long-haul train like this one. But what do I know about trains? I got my way onto the train and took the first seat I could find. I started getting quite puzzled when passengers came into the cabin saying they had certain seats reserved. I grabbed hold of the first person with a seat reservation and asked “Aeroporto?” “No.” “What?!? Not Aeroporto?” After my shocked reply, a couple heads turned and the commotion began. Don’t move the train yet, we need to get off!!
Crap. The train pulled out a few minutes later. There were a bunch of confused passengers on the platform. Three of the passengers in my cabin thanked me profusely for catching our mistake. I’m pretty sure there were folks on the train still, thinking they were heading to the airport. The next train to the airport was coming in 25 minutes later, back at platform 10. Back in the concourse, I could see some very livid passengers complaining to the Sants staff. Imagine if I was still on that wayward train or if I had a flight to catch.. *shudder* Good thing I was early and had time to spare.
I got to the airport and saw from the flight status screens that BlueOrca’s flight had arrived. I had come prepared with a “GBO” sign, in case she could not spot me. BlueOrca came out quicker than I expected, since she had no checked luggage. She did not even take notice of my awesome sign. –.-;
sigh.
The following is the itinerary for E08. We had worked out most of the high level details before the trip. Despite some unexpected situations, we managed to follow the itinerary pretty well.
May 17-20th - Barcelona + Montserrat, Spain
May 20-21st – Carcassonne, France
May 21-22nd – Marseille, France
May 22-26th – Nice + Cannes, France + Monaco
May 26-28th – Milano + Lake Como, Italy
May 28th-June 1st – Venezia + Verona + Trieste, Italy.
We truly picked an awesome set of places to visit, and in many ways, the timing could not have been more perfect. Overall, I’d say we spent pretty much the right number of days in each place. Many thanks to all the awesome input I received from various people, who help tweaked the schedule. In hindsight, the only place I would have loved to stay for a few more days would be the French Rivera region (Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Côte d’Azur). But given the time constraints, I would have stuck to the same schedule again.
A random trivial tidbit that BlueOrca suggested I record. Combined total between BlueOrca and me were 12,316 photos + videos, coming out at 96.8GB. Breakdown by day is as follows: 317,435,761,1021,975,1127,768,878,1269,1073,287,1153,487,798.
I have decided to break up my Barcelona recaps into two posts, since there were really two phases of my visit. This post covers a lot more of the cultural and social aspects of the city that I got to experience, while the second post will cover more of the traditional sightseeing attractions. Given some feedback from BlueOrca, I have decided to tweak my writing style in this post, hopefully for the better.
Barcelona
During the original plans for this trip, Spain was not part of the itinerary. Later on, we considered starting in Madrid followed by Barcelona. After trimming the trip down, Barcelona was left as the sole representative from Spain. Despite having never been there, some people had expressed to me a strong distaste and disinterest in Spain. However, after experiencing Barcelona, I have to say the city was one of the most interesting places I visited on this trip.
As I came out from Barcelona International Airport (BCN), my first thoughts were that this place is so different than Amsterdam. The air is much warmer, more humid. The architecture feels more open and less developed. The people and atmosphere felt so raw. Exactly the characteristics that I would expect from Spain. This reminded me of my trips to Mexico in the past, except now, this is Spain, where it all started. I am really here! :D
Since my flight arrived quite late in the evening, my first order of business was to find my hostel. This is my first time staying at a hostel, so it should be an interesting experience.
Lesson #2: Directions from hostels are crap.
I got out at Barcelona Sants and tried to follow the directions provided by the hostel. General flow was to follow this street, turn left, go down another street then turn left to arrive at the hostel – a 5 minute walk from the train station. I walked around for 10 minutes and could not even find the first street. -.-; Ended up punching the address into my GPSr and following that. I also realized that a 5 minute walk for a Spaniard is a 10 minute walk for Tochi.
Except for location, Alberguinn Youth Hostel takes the cake as the best hostel I stayed at on this trip. Right when you walked in, you will notice a very clean and bright atmosphere. A very helpful and cute lady at the check-in counter gave me all sorts of useful information on the city. The best aspect of my stay, and I will admit first that this is totally luck, was the other folks staying at the hostel.
You might meet all sorts of people at places like these, hippies, druggies (XD) and weird people in general. However, the bunch I met were all quite social and everyone was around my age group. After I got settled in, we all hung out in the common room draining bottles of beer and Cava (Sparkling wine product from Catalonia that I had been meaning to try anyway). I met two other fellow Canadians, one of whom is a girl who also hails from Toronto, but is currently studying in the UK, a couple Czechs, British, French, Americans and a guy from Peru. To make things even more interesting, 2 of the Americans were from NY, with one being a 2007 Cornell ECE graduate! What a small world! One of the British guys, who had been backpacking for 3 months said that this was one of the best hostels he has stayed at so far, because of the people. I could not appreciate his remark at the time, but after staying at more hostels on the trip, in retrospect, I totally agree with his statement.
I learned quite a bit about the cultural and living conditions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia Republic while having breakfast with one of the Czechs the next morning. It is amusing that the Czech was so courteous, repeatedly apologizing for his poor English. Cultural and political history always interested me, especially revolutions and their aftermath. Hearing his first hand recounts of life for him and his family was quite intriguing. Of course, the conversation naturally turned to sports and the upcoming all important Euro Cup. :)
If there is one thing Barcelona is renown for (at least to our age group), it would definitely be its nightlife. As one of the central hubs in Western Europe for tourists, foreigners, students, with a very modern yet distinctly Spanish feel, Barcelona offers a very cool blend of clubs, pubs and bars to accommodate every taste.
A couple of us from the hostel decided to go clubbing that night. Our group consisted of a French Canadian from Gatineau, QC, an Indian guy from Chicago and a Lithuanian. Since two Canadians made things confusing, I was referred to as Hong Kong :P. I have to admit, we were a most peculiar bunch. The guys had everything stocked and planned beforehand, so off we went.
Everyone knows Europeans are much more liberal than North Americans. I have heard stories and I thought I knew. What I discovered was that I had absolutely no idea how liberal things really were. Fortunately, we had the Lithuanian leading the way to showcase what it is like to party like a European.
Nightlife starts really late in Barcelona. I suspect this is partially due to siesta, where everything seems to be pushed back a few hours. We had time to kill before the club was going to open, so we headed towards the beach. We were drinking some strange concoction of vodka and some pale orange gold stuff. We nicknamed it Goldie. This is the first time I have ever drank inside a subway train – I hardly see that in Toronto. However, it appears to be the norm in Barcelona, as a lot of people on the packed subway had drinks in their hands and were all heading out to party.
We each took turns, hmm, trying to chat with any beauties we saw along the way. Made for some quite embarrassing scenes and great laughs. I also picked up a bit of Eastern European vocabulary to reply to people who ignore or reject us. Now, there were things that the Lithuanian did that I could never do. All I have to say was that any ladies travelling alone in Europe needs to be very careful. You might be contacted in some of the most inappropriate places. Surprisingly though, the ladies took it all in stride, no screams or slaps. As North Americans, we just told the Lithuanian that there are some things one can only do in his country, not ours.
Perhaps the most hilarious situation was when we came up to this subway platform. There was a blonde standing alone on the platform. As vultures, we moved closer to our prey. This time, it was Lithuanian’s turn to attack. We started to egg him on and out of the blue, the blonde started laughing out loud (lol irl). We were stunned for a second, before the Lithuanian exclaimed, “SHIT! (pointing at the girl) I can tell you understand English!”. The rest of us doubled over in laughter. She was the only Spanish girl who understood English that we met that night. It was all in great fun though.
Given the amount of liquid that we had taken, once we got out of the subway, the four of us felt the urge. I had not expected this to be the case, but Spain would become the fourth country where I have watered some plants in public. The sad thing is, as I was doing my job, my only thought was that if someone would take a photo of the four of us from behind, it would make an amazing capture. My photography self was still awake.
We roamed around the beach area for a while. All the really expensive nightclubs and restaurants are located here. Cover charges for the clubs go for over 60 Euros. A lot of night time revellers were coming out and we met angels, devils, ballerinas and all sorts of other weird fashions. One interesting encounter was with a group of 10 British ladies, known as the “Red Ladies”, who were all dressed in bathrobes. They wanted to take photos with each of us kissing a silver bull stuffed toy. It was weird but as gentlemen, we just cannot say no to ladies. I bet those photos are on Facebook somewhere.
We grew a bit hungry, so we roamed looking for food. We came upon this lively restaurant serving Greek food and asked for a table outside on the patio. Unfortunately, there were not any free tables, so they offered us a table inside. However, Lithuanian saw a bunch of pictures of elderly customers who had visited the restaurant. “Guys! We cannot go into a Babushka restaurant!!!”. We ended up going to a small bar and got cocktails and some quick snacks. After we had our fillings, American wanted to leave without paying, since there was no one really watching us. He actually stepped out the door, but we told him, “Maybe in America it is different, but in our countries, we do not cheat Babushkas (the bartender lady).” lol. The bill came out surprisingly cheap - 4 euros per person.
We headed towards Razzmatazz, a 5 room club featuring techno, pop, electro, disco and other trashy music. Cover was 15 Euros to get in. We got there at 1am and the place was pretty empty. In Toronto, clubs would be packed by 1am. The main disco room reminded me a bit of Guvernment, with the tall multi-story room, and balconies looking over. The interior decor was not as nice though. The drinks are still as expensive.
People started filling the place at 2am. Now, this clubbing experience was different than normal for me, mostly because I was here with people I did not really know. Back home, half the time I was not allowed to be as free, especially if I did not want to be ignored forever. :P I think the Lithuanian’s personality was rubbing off on me this night. Never realized I could be this at ease. Overall, a great night of dancing with many people. People get a lot more intimate here that what I am used to. One memorable dance sequence was with this brunette, with whom I exchanged kung-fu style manoeuvres. As they say, creativity is everything in dancing. lol.
As it pressed closer to 4am, people started handing out drinks. By 4:30am, the club was starting to make people leave. The message that the party would continue at Espanya Plaza was being passed around. We decided that we had enough for the night, as American had an early flight to catch, while I had to pick up BlueOrca at the airport the next morning.
Got back at 5am and managed to get 2 hours of sleep. My clothes smelled of smoke, so I was forced to do laundry on the second day of my trip!
What a night I had. Barcelona ranks as my favourite foreign nightlife city. As I mentioned, this entire trip has been one of many discoveries, and on this night, it was discovery in more ways than one – an eye-opening experience that I will never forget. It was truly special to have experienced the amazing Barcelona social life.
One thing I have now realized is that I need to blog first before sending out links to my albums. The blog posts (hopefully) give some context to the photos and prevent the same questions from being asked by different people over and over again. >_<
Anyway, I decided to break up my Montserrat photos from the Barcelona set. The Barcelona set was becoming quite daunting and there was some pressure to share some photos ASAP. So, without further ado…
Montserrat.
It all started when I was looking into a day trip away from Barcelona for the spare day I had before BlueOrca joined me in Europe. AR and MM both highly recommended Montserrat. I cannot go wrong.
Montserrat is a 4000ft mountain an hour from Barcelona. A Benedict abbey, the Santa Maria de Montserrat is nestled near its peaks. Montserrat means “jagged”, in reference to the sudden outcrop of rocks that is Montserrat on the plains of Catalonia. The views are said to be spectacular.
Reaching Montserrat is relatively straightforward. Go to Espanya to get on the R5 train to Madresa. From there, you have two options, take the cable car or rack rail. At Espanya, I was expecting to find a real train station. What I found were nondescript subway platforms that turned out to be the train station.
From the train platform of Aeri de Montserrat, where you take the cable car, you can make out the monastery near the top of the mountains. I was super excited. :D
The cable car ride was only 7 minutes in duration, but definitely quite breathtaking. By far, the oldest cable car I have ever been on too.
As you can see from the photo, the weather was not very nice on this day. This will become a recurring theme.
At the top station, it is a short hike up to the abbey. Now, a must-see at Montserrat is the famous boys choir. I have no real interest in boys choir singing holy gospels, but they are the world’s oldest running boys choir, since the 13th century or something like that. I had read they sing just before noon.
Went to the info centre to figure out where to see this choir. “There is no choir today. It is Saturday.” WHAAT? :’( None of the brochures mentioned anything about this. It is suppose to be daily! Oh well, some things were not meant to be.
Photo stops outside and inside the basilica. A mass was in session, so I squeezed into the back and snapped a couple photos. The interior design was one of the more visually appealing cathedrals I visited on E08. Just something different about going into an empty church versus one jammed packed with people praying in unison.
While I was up in the abbey taking photos, giant clouds started to roll into the area. I’ve been in clouds before, but not such fast moving ones. It was almost surreal.
Took the funicular up to the peak. I was wondering the entire time what a funicular was, and the lady I asked could not adequately explain it in her broken English. When I actually saw the train… OH!! The Peak Tram! I know this. :P
Got to the top, and it started to POUR! I was totally planning on hiking the last 50m of elevation to the true Montserrat peak. Man, I could see jack, and I was not going to take TochiCam out in the rain anyway, so the hike was not worth it. Took the next funicular back down, along with everyone else. bummer.
Had lunch at a pretty fancy cafeteria (you can tell Montserrat is quite rich from all the pilgrims and tourists)... ended up having Paella (famous Seafood rice dish) without realizing it. I was soaked and just wanted something warm and filling. Got a fruit salad with it too.
Still quite foggy outside, so I took the opportunity for some more artsy shots.
The rain was letting up, so several hikes were possible for the afternoon. I decided to tackle a 40min one to Santa Cova afterwards. Santa Cova was where they discovered the black Virgin Mary that started this monastery at Montserrat. Would be kind of cool to see. A lot of sculptures along the way. Because of the rain, many of the faces on the sculptures had streams of "tears" flowing down.
The bottom of the valley was clearing up too, so I finally got to view some of the stunning scenery.
Finally reached the Chapel de Santa Cova. The chapel was built in the 1700's on the order of the Pope to protect the black Virgin Mary. Monks were camped permanently there for many years. For me, I found it amusing that a gigantic boulder sticks out in front of the chapel. :)
Not a lot of people do this hike, but I was expecting someone to greet me inside. No one was there. Now that was creepy. I don't visit empty churches alone. Kind of like I don't really visit cemeteries alone. Just not my thing.
Took quick photos of the Virgin Mary (actually, I'm not even sure which part of stone was the Virgin Mary), and quick tour of the chapel before jetting out of there.
Once I got back to the abbey area, I stuck around for some more photos before taking the cable car back down to return to Barcelona.
Final Impressions
Montserrat is a very cool place to visit, and if you have an extra day in Barcelona, I'd highly recommend making the day trip. While my visit was marred by the weather, I got to appreciate the beautiful, serenity and spirit of Montserrat. There is an all inclusive pass that includes transportation to/fro Barcelona, funicular rides and food. Quite a good deal.
The jagged peaks and rock outcrops had me itching to visit 黃山 for some reason! :P
Next stop - Truly Barcelona. :D
Amsterdam was my first stop on E08 - a 5 hour layover in the city. I had initially planned for a short escape to the area around the airport. However, when I got there, I realized there was a 15 minutes train to downtown.
Lesson #1: Bring your PIN for your VISA, M/C, A/E to Europe. It’s the one you received but never used.
I tried to buy a ticket from a kiosk. Inserted my A/E and it asked for my PIN. WTF. Same thing with M/C. How the heck am I gonna get my PIN? Ended up getting my ticket with cash at a ticket counter with a 0.50 cents extra service charge. PIN’s are commonly asked in Europe by automated systems to prevent fraud apparently.
Having never been to Amsterdam, I just know what the city is notoriously famous for – sex and weed. However, as I stepped out of Amsterdam Centraal, first thing I noticed were the bicycles. Lots and lots of them. Quick mental check. I was in Amsterdam, right? Not Copenhagen?
Not to disappoint however, a block from the train station, my sights veered left, and I spotted the first signs of one of its famous trades. I was actually surprised to stumble onto this so quickly. Took a quick stroll through the red light district of Amsterdam. I suspect given its close proximity to downtown that it is more or less a big tourism draw nowadays.
This trade seems to permeate everywhere you go in the city. Saw many related shops, boutiques, theatres, sculptures and artifacts around town. I remember Catnipped’s reaction to certain posters at PAX. I wonder how she will react in Amsterdam. lol.
Amsterdam is known as the Venice of the North. As you step outside the downtown core, you will inevitably run into the many canals that run around the city centre. Unlike Venice, one-way streets mixed with both pedestrian and vehicular traffic clog up the sides of the canals. Many instances, I saw delivery trucks with a train of cars behind them. They’ll just stop, turn on their 4-way flashers to make a delivery. lol. Sucks to be the follower.
I guess I should comment about the other famous trade in Amsterdam. I did go and peer in several cafes to see if people were smoking joints. I was not quite sure what to expect. Perhaps I might see people smoking from bowls like in the Middle East. Anyway, of the couple I visited, I did not see any such activity. A bit disappointed. I was told later that smoking in cafe is a touristy thing now. People just do it at home. lol.
Overall, I had a very amused introduction to Amsterdam. It was everything I expected from the city and so much more. Definitely a place I want to visit again for a few days to truly experience. And last but not least, this adorable little cow…
Next stop – Barcelona.
Returned from a two week sojourn in Mediterranean Europe. Wow, I don't even know where to begin. A lot of fun, a lot of adventures, a lot of jaw dropping sights. A true journey of discovery in many ways.
A rough count shows GBO and I combined for over 10k photos totalling over 100GB. It'll take a while to go through and process. In the meantime, a little teaser.....
View of the Grand Canal in Venezia from the famous Rialto Bridge:
